Tottenham forward Rafael van der Vaart says he is keen to stay with the club next season.The former Ajax, Hamburg and Real Madrid star has already scored 13 goals for Spurs in the Premier League this campaign, but reports have linked the 28-year-old to clubs that will play in the Champions League next season.
Tottenham have not qualified for the Champions League, with van der Vaart’s club requiring a victory at home against Birmingham on Sunday to finish in fifth place and obtain a Europa League place.
But van der Vaart is not deterred by the lack of Champions League football at White Hart Lane next season.
“We always want to play in Europe. It is good to have the experience from the Europa League and it would be a nice title to win,” he told The Sun.
“I like to be playing every two or three days. Of course I want to be playing in the Champions League.”
“But I have only been here one year. I have enjoyed my year and we will see what next season will bring.”
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“It’s really important to be in Europe. You saw this season that being in the Champions League has helped us.”
“It is so important for players and that’s why we want to win our final game against Birmingham.”
QPR manager Mark Hughes has stated that he is confident that his side will avoid being relegated despite their difficult remainder of the season.
The Loftus Road club are currently in 18th place in the Premier League standings, and are embroiled in a five-team scrap to stay in the English top flight.
With a tricky game against Liverpool on Wednesday, Hughes admits his side are up against it.
“It’s not easy — we make no bones about that. It’s a difficult run-in,” he told The Sun.
“Maybe, going into those games, the pressure is off somewhat, bizarrely.
“We’re the underdogs and we’re not expected to win. We can use that as a positive and hopefully gain from that. There are going to be twists and turns.
“We know each game is going to be crucial, irrespective of the opposition we’re going up against.
“It’s really key we perform at our maximum. If we do that then, certainly in our home games, we can take on anybody.
“It’s been frustrating. We haven’t helped ourselves on some occasions and, on other occasions, circumstances have gone against us.
“But we’re still very, very confident that we have enough ability to make sure that we’re still in the Premier League next year.
“It’s going to take hard work — we realise that — and we’re not going to stick our heads in the sand and think otherwise.
“But we’ve got enough quality to score enough goals and defend our goal as well. That gives me confidence that, in the next games that we have, we’ll get points on the board.
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“We just need a fair crack of the whip.
“If we perform as we know we can, at our maximum, and we get that element of luck that you have to have to be successful then we’ll be fine. But it needs to start quickly and it needs to start on Wednesday,” he stated.
Bolton boss Owen Coyle looks set to fine striker Ivan Klasnic, after the forward was given a straight red card for an altercation with Marc Tierney in The Trotters 2-1 defeat against Norwich.
The Croatia international was given his marching orders in the first half on Saturday, whilst his team were 2-0 down, and Coyle is not happy with his player.
“The skipper [Kevin Davies] and Tuncay both had to be sacrificed because of Ivan’s folly in getting himself sent off. Will I fine him? He certainly knows my feelings on the subject,” the Scot told The Telegraph.
“Sometimes, you can understand it when a young boy gets caught up in the heat of the moment, but he is an experienced player. He is a seasoned international who has played at the very highest level all his career.
“That is when you have to use your experience, because going down to 10 men when you are already 2-0 behind is not exactly ideal,” he stated.
Coyle has revealed that Klasnic is repentant after the sending off, but this may not be enough to avoid the 31-year-old getting a fine.
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“He is full of remorse, but the bottom line is, you’ve got to keep your full personnel on the pitch. It is tough enough in this league as it is,” he concluded.
When Didier Drogba arrived in the Premier League it was with a hefty reputation and an even weightier price-tag. The rampaging savagery he displayed against English teams in Marseille’s European exploits the previous season had put clubs on red alert, and the fact that the new billionaires managed to snare him was of little surprise. Despite helping Chelsea to their first league title in fifty years, the hulking Ivorian struggled to convince even his own fans at the beginning. That is no longer the case.
Despite being a beast of man, there was far too much theatrics. There seemed to be plenty of charging about, until contact with defenders was made, in which resulted in flung arms, and screams of agony: perhaps deemed acceptable in Ligue 1, the Premiership wasn’t buying it.
16 goals (in all competitions) in each of his first two seasons was by no means a disaster, particularly as Chelsea had won the league in both seasons, but it still didn’t quite justify the £24m that Abramovich had shelled out.
While Drogba managed to win over any Chelsea fans that had their doubts, there was still much scepticism from the average fan. Part of it was probably wrapped up in the anti-Chelsea sentiment that still exists today, but not nearly as much as it did during Jose Mourinho’s title winning years.
Since then Drogba has become more and more reliable, more important to Chelsea’s cause, and more destructive in his performances. The potentially loose first touch has become as soft as silence, the sometime wayward finishing has become clinical, and the theatrics have become (thankfully) a much rarer sight to see. What’s more, there is a far broader passing range, the amount of assists he gets is severely underrated (tenth on the PL history list), and he has shoved Frank Lampard away from free-kick duty because he is actually far more capable of finding the top corner.
Fans have really begun to appreciate how good a player Didier Drogba actually is. Certainly if we’re talking about strikers that can hold the ball up, there is no one better in the world. Right now, maybe only David Villa is the only striker who can realistically lay claim to being on the same level as Drogba. Regardless of the style of play, Drogba is capable of adapting, and if in the mood, it is simply up to him how many goals he scores – just ask any Arsenal defender of the last five years.
I think fans get a genuine sense of awe in watching a player single-handedly beat teams. Cristiano Ronaldo did it, and Thierry Henry before him, now it is Drogba’s turn. There is much to admire in the way he beats teams, as the fulcrum of what has become a potent Chelsea front line. There is also however, as much to appreciate in terms of how he has adapted to the Premier League, and listened to the gripes of his critics. The charity work he does in his native Ivory Coast; building hospitals and donating entire endorsement fees (Pepsi) put him in a sort of demi-god status. And there is the work he does for his first professional club; Le Mans.
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Drogba has become one of those players that you watch, hoping he will turn it on and run a team ragged, unless he is up against your own team, which is when he becomes one of those few players that you actually fear. In his time at Chelsea, as he as increased his own level of performance to unrivalled standards, he has transformed himself from moody, aloof and whining, to destructive, exciting and admirable. The Premier League, and its fans, are now far more pleased that he is theirs to enjoy all year round.
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After winning promotion to the Championship last season Leeds have already been busy recruiting four new players on free transfers, but will it be enough for the upcoming season?
The players Leeds have signed are goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, defenders Federico Bessone and Paul Connolly and striker Billy Paynter. Schmeichel comes after winning promotion from League 2 with Notts County; he was named in the PFA League 2 Team Of The Year and was one of the key reasons County gained promotion. He looked able to hold his own in the Premiership when he was given his debut by Manchester City three years ago aged just 20, but he never got a fair chance at City as goalkeepers Shay Given and Joe Hart overtook him in the pecking order. Schmeichel could turn out to be a good goalkeeper and Leeds have done very well to sign him.
As for the defenders both Bessone and Connolly are experienced Championship defenders, Connolly more so having spent most of his career there. The right back joins from Derby where he has been a solid performer and even had as spell as their team captain. Bessone is an Argentine left back who spent there last two years with a successful spell at Swansea where the club were unlucky to miss out on the play-offs twice. Leeds have had a few problems at left-back with Ben Parker suffering injuries and midfielder Andy Hughes having to deputise there in his absence, so the signing of Bessone was very much needed.
Upfront they have recruited Billy Paynter as the man to replace last season’s top scorer Jermaine Beckford who has left the club for Everton. Paynter scored 29 goals for Swindon last season who reached the play-off final with the help from his goals. However last season has been his most and only prolific season and with him also going up a division it will be interesting to see whether or not he can cope with the weight of expectation.
All the signings have been shrewd and as it stands you feel that Leeds will be good enough to stay in the division and perhaps more. They also have a few players that were too good for League 1 last season like Patrick Kisnorbo, Johnny Howson, Robert Snodgrass and Max Gradel. If they can add a few more players in particular another striker and make one or two clever loan signings then they could be capable of making a push for the play-offs. One player in particular they might want to look at signing is Gary Hooper, the Scunthorpe striker has scored 50 goals in the last two seasons and at just 22-years-old could be one for the future. Bringing in another striker will also take the pressure off Billy Paynter and at the same time give them more options in attack.
No doubt manager Simon Grayson will be looking to add more recruits to his squad so depending on just who he gets in it could have a big say on their season. It’s hard to tell at the moment where Leeds will be challenging next season but the fans can rest assured that the team they have is at least good enough to stay up.
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Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed that Owen Hargreaves is unlikely to play again until mid-December.
The England international midfielder lasted less than ten minutes of Saturday's 2-1 victory against Wolves, his first start for more than two years, before limping out of the action with a hamstring problem.
Veteran United boss Ferguson told Key 103:"We were at the stage where we knew Owen's knee was okay.
"His training performances for eight or nine days previously had been terrific. He'd done really well, which is why we took the chance.
"But maybe the tension in the build-up for the lad was too much and he suffered because of it."
Ferguson has also revealed that Ryan Giggs will miss Wednesday's Manchester derby as he is also struggling to overcome a troublesome hamstring injury.
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The United manager added:"Ryan is out and Nani is doubtful. At this stage it doesn't look as if Nani will make it. It isn't a great position for us to be in. We're counting heads at the moment.
"But there's nothing more satisfying than winning a derby game. It doesn't matter what year it is or when it is."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
AC Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso has been handed a four-match suspension for headbutting Tottenham assistant Joe Jordan.Gattuso fronted UEFA’s disciplinary committee with a charge of gross unsporting conduct following the ugly incident, which occurred in the aftermath of Milan’s 1-0 loss at home to Tottenham last Tuesday.The defeat left Milan on the brink of Champions League elimination, with the Serie A leaders set to visit Spurs for the return leg of their last-16 tie next week.Gattuso was already suspended from the trip to White Hart Lane having received his third caution of the competition in the first leg.The ban will apply to four UEFA club competition matches following next week’s return leg, meaning Gattuso will be available for the Champions League final at Wembley should Milan progress that far.A statement on UEFA’s official website said the 33-year-old was found to have ‘assaulted’ Jordan after the match. The Italian later blamed his outburst on racist remarks allegedly made by the Spurs assistant coach, a charge Jordon denied.Gattuso has three days to lodge an appeal.
Chelsea fear that first-choice goalkeeper Petr Cech could miss the start of the season after the Czech Republic international sustained a calf problem during training.
The 28-year-old has had to have a scan on the problem that he suffered while training at Cobham on Tuesday and the club is currently awaiting the results.
The Blues fear that it is a recurrence of the muscle tear that ruled Cech out of action for four weeks in the second half of the 2009-10 season.
He tore the muscle in his calf during the Champions League last-16 first-leg clash against Internazionale in February and was forced to miss his club's next five matches, including the return game against the Serie A outfit.
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In better news for the Blues, Yury Zhirkov was able to take part in training for the first time as he battles back from a knee injury.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
We say our Premier League is great, but why? Perhaps it is the drama and shock in unlikely results. Perhaps it is the uncertainty in both the race for the title and the race for survival in the division. Or maybe it is perhaps because of the few surprises the League has had up its sleeve over the course of an enthralling eight months we have sampled thus far. In March, we are no closer to knowing just which Manchester club will be engaging in an open top bus jaunt around the city or which set of fans is to hold their heads in their hands at the gruelling fate of relegation. It is all still to play for and the overriding notion of uncertainty is what shapes successful contemporary team sport as a whole.
But nothing has been as uncertain as the next set of factors. Whether a player has defied the odds to score at the highest level, whether a team has shocked their own supporters at their good form or simply because an old hero has returned to the club, the Premier League has had as many as twenty identifiable ‘surprises’ in the current campaign and we thought we would remind you just why they captivated the watching nation as open mouthed expressions and scenes of unchartered joy set the tone for the following incidences. Let us begin with yes; some stability and calm up on Tyneside.
Click on Leon Britton to unveil the 20 great surprises from the Premier League season
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It was a successful season for Newcastle on the pitch last year, winning the Championship title and bouncing back to the Premier League at the first attempt. Manager Chris Hughton got the Magpies playing good football, and a team that included Kevin Nolan, Alan Smith and Steve Harper was far too experienced for the other Championship sides. England U21 international Andy Carroll was banging in the goals as well, but off the pitch he was earning a bad reputation for himself. The major incident of the season came when the striker was alleged to have punched Newcastle teammate Steven Taylor and broken the defender’s jaw. Well Taylor is back in pre-season training for the Toon and here he is in Ireland, sharpening his boxing skills with youngster Tamas Kadar for a rematch in the future perhaps?
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