West Ham midfielder Mohamed Diame believes he made the right decision by joining the club and is happy with life at Upton Park.
The Senegal international arrived in London during the summer after finishing his contract with Premier League rivals Wigan.
It’s believed that multiple clubs offered Diame a contract, but he rejected their advances to sign with the Hammers.
The 25-year-old feels he has made the correct decision and is delighted with life at the club:
“People did say ‘Why are you going to West Ham when you can play in the Champions League?’ but they can see why I did now.” he told West Ham TV.
“It is a very big club in England and I am very happy to be here, now I am hoping that our good performances will continue.
“That is why I came here. When I spoke to the club I knew they were trying to build a very good team.
“We are working very hard every day on the training ground and you can see it is paying off.”
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Diame first appeared in the Premier League during 2009, signing for Wigan from La Liga outfit Rayo Vallecano.
He spent three successful years with the Latics, before his contract expired allowing him to move to West Ham on a free transfer.
West Ham United have received some bad press over the past six days, but they have now been praised for their rapid response in tackling the incident at Tottenham last Sunday.
A small group of supporters were heard chanting anti-semetic chants near the end of their defeat at White Hart Lane and the club has already banned an individual, while others were arrested.
The club issued a recent statement claiming they will continue to hunt down the individuals involved and punish them. Meanwhile their actions have been praised by Kick It Out.
Lord Herman Ouseley, Chair of Kick it Out said: “Kick It Out is encouraged by the swift action taken by West Ham United in the wake of Sunday’s fixture.
“Clubs have the power to show leadership and set an example for the vast majority of its supporters to follow in instances like this. Here, they’ve done exactly that.
“Kick It Out has seen first-hand the appetite the club has in embracing anti-discrimination initiatives, with David Gold and James Tomkins both acting as campaign ambassadors in 2012. By doing this they’re helping to send a message as to what is and what isn’t acceptable.
“It is clear they feel abuse of this kind won’t be tolerated and, in a period where the issue is high on the agenda, this approach is something we applaud.”
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As a player, there can be nothing more devastating than the realisation that your stint at the summit of the beautiful game is over. The passion and hunger may still burn bright but as athletes fall the wrong side of 30, their body enters a state of decline and their ‘touch’ and ‘shooting boots’ become more elusive with each passing weekend.
Some players bow out from the sport gracefully while others frantically gather up thier wage packet like an anxious squirrel preparing for winter. The start of the new season has provided evidence that certain players are nearing the light at the end of the tunnel and should perhaps look to step down a division to prolong their already lengthy career.
Click on Rory Delap to reveal the players who are a shadow of their former selves
QPR manager Harry Redknapp celebrated the performance of his side after their 1-0 Premier League win over Chelsea.
Shaun Wright-Phillips came off of the bench to net the only goal of the game against his former club.
The three points move the Super Hoops level with Reading, and to within five points of safety.
Redknapp was happy with his team after the game, saluting their attitude on the pitch:
“They worked their socks off tonight and you get your reward if you work like that – and that’s what we did,” Redknapp told Sky Sports.
“It was a fantastic performance. We restricted Chelsea to very few chances and we deserved it.
“We had good opportunities as well and if the final pass had been better…. we hit some final sloppy passes but then we got that fine goal.
“I’m just really pleased with out first away win for over a year.
“They’ve set the standard tonight and if we’re going to get out of this mess then they have to work as hard as that – not just once but every week.”
Adel Taarabt was deployed in a central forward role for the second-half, a move which Redknapp was delighted with:
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“I pulled him over yesterday and told him I’d play him up front,
“I told him to hold the ball up and wait for us to join him.
“We worked on it for a couple of hours in training. It was a gamble really but the shape was good. I’m not even sure if he’s played up front before.”
I’ve always been the perfect football consumer for those who run our beautiful game. Compliant, faithful, loyal and ripe for exploitation. As ticket prices have risen by up to 1000% in English football over the past couple of decades, I have handed over my money time after time with little more than a quiet grumble along with millions of others, dazzled by the Premier League/Sky “brand”.
But with anything, there is always a tipping point, and that point may be close, if it hasn’t already arrived. When Manchester City recently returned 900 unsold tickets to Arsenal before their match at the Emirates the media took up the story, resulting in widespread debate about the state of the modern game and the treatment of the modern fan. Nothing new had happened at City, there have been boycotts and unsold allocations galore across the nation for as long as I can remember, but at last it appears that fans are beginning to question their blind loyalty.
With this in mind, the Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF) have launched the Score campaign, or more specifically the push for “twenty’s plenty for away tickets”. A series of events for fans are planned and last night I attended the first one, in a bar in Manchester. Approximately a hundred fans turned up to the event, along with a Sky presenter, cameraman, the odd football365.com writer plus a member of the Farm. An eclectic bunch, with one thing in common. We are all fed up of being ripped off.
The event was led by two FSF representatives, who made a few points before contributions were taken from the crowd. It was pointed out that using just the increase in the next TV deal for the Premier League, clubs could afford clubs to drop every ticket price by £30 and be no worse off. Of course they won’t if not challenged, and this money will go almost exclusively to the players, as it always does. The question was asked why the campaign was only focusing on the away fans, the minority, when the problem affects both sets of fans. The FSF admitted that they are not a huge organisation and cannot try and fix everything, and that this was a starting point, something to focus on for now. Other issues could then follow. Away fans are the focus first because they are the ones that have travelled the length and breadth of the country to be there, have often spent a huge amount to just get to the ground, and are the set of fans that are treated the worst. Promotional ticket offers are not available to away fans, category pricing punishes fans that happen to support a successful team, they often get the worst seats in the ground, yet are vital to the match-day experience, without whom grounds would become little more than libraries a lot of the time.
Judging by the contributions from the floor, the issue is something that the big fan groups have been campaigning against for some time, but the hope from such meetings and the campaign as a whole is that this is not a battle fought along club lines. Getting the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool fans to stand together in the fight for cheaper tickets may well be the biggest battle faced, and such divides were apparent during the meeting, as we heard from the likes of members of the Spirit of Shankly, and what they had already campaigned for over the past few years. But as one Stoke City supporter pointed out, many “smaller” clubs do not have organized fan groups, and this has to be a concerted campaign. After all, as the Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool fans present at the meeting will know all too well, concerted campaigns against owners have been carried out for decades. This campaign is different because it is not about one club, in the same way that Manchester City failing to sell their allocation at Arsenal was not just about Arsenal. The £20 price-cap figure seems rather optimistic, perhaps only picked because it rhymed with plenty, but it is a starting point, and a bargaining tool. If a cap was eventually agreed at £30, then I doubt few would argue.
It seemed most did not believe in the idea of boycotting matches. After all, going to matches under difficult circumstances is often considered a badge of honour for many fans. You will simply never stop some fans going to matches, whatever the price. However, other ideas were put forward instead. The Bundesliga was used as an example whereby German fans refused to make any noise for the first 12 minutes of matches recently to protest at treatment of fans. Also mooted was turning up late to games, or leaving early, an idea I can’t see catching on.
The most popular idea however seemed to be club fans uniting on a demo in London, outside Premier League HQ. The popular sentiment was that the only way to make the Premier League and FA sit up and take notice was to hit them where it hurt – namely in their pockets, or more specifically with agitation against their sponsors. Because if the likes of Barclays are tainted by their association with products they sponsor, then their subsequent threats to cancel such deals would garner action. Sending 900 tickets back to a club that then sells them on to home fans would not.
The meeting ended rather suddenly, with no firm plan of action agreed, which is understandable, as it was more a case of getting the ball rolling. The FSF will update its website and provide on there a focal point for the campaign, a place for rival fans to discuss the issue, and it was great to discuss the matter with such a wide-ranging set of fans last night. We could just sit back and accept our lot, and pay for just the matches we can afford, but football fans are the lifeblood of the biggest “brand” (yuk) in the world, and it’s about time that supporters in this country stood up for ourselves as others have elsewhere. With modern means of communication and the rise of social media, the tools are there for a concerted and successful campaign, when added to the list of contacts the FSF has already built up. It may seem wildly optimistic to make the Premier League (and Football League too for that matter), change their ways when the money continues to roll in, but if fans rebel en masse, they will be forced to take notice.
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My Manchester City: 2011/12 Season Review is available on Amazon:
QPR could be in a worrying financial position after they reported a loss of £23million for the 11/12 season.
When the Hoops got promoted in 2011 they took a huge risk to guarantee they remained in the Premier League, doubling their wage bill from £29.74million to £58.46million and spending £25million on transfer fees in their first season back in the English top flight.
These figures don’t include any of the players that were bought in during the last two big spending transfer windows, outlays that will be added onto next year’s figures.
Tony Fernandes who owns 66 per cent of the club, lent the Loftus Road outfit a further £38.7 million last season with his fellow shareholders, something which has increased their net debt to £90million, according to The Sun.
If QPR get relegated in May they could be in serious financial trouble, with £20.5million from the latest transfer windows being added on to their debts the loss of Premier League money that would inevitably follow the drop. Clubs that are relegated will receive ‘parachute payments’ of £16million for the first two seasons which will shrink to £8million after, but the club will still have a huge wage bill – putting them in real danger of financial disaster.
The club have refused to comment on the latest figures, but when they announced the losses, Fernandes appeared to dodge the obvious strife his club finds itself in.
“When, alongside my business partners, I purchased a majority shareholding … my goal was to turn QPR into an established Premier League club. This remains my focus,” he said.
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Liverpool, West Ham and Aston Villa have also announced substantial losses for last season and they face a battle to sort out their finances before they start to see the consequences on the pitch.
The future of Everton manager David Moyes remains up in the air at least until the end of the season, with initial noises out of Goodison Park arguing that the 49-year-old could be interested in taking on a new challenge if the side don’t break their silverware duck this term, but where would the club even look if he did actually follow through and leave?
Stability is a precious commodity in football and something every club craves, whether as some sort of soundbite after just sacking a manager like Venky’s puppet Shebby Singh used when explaining Michael Appleton’s recent departure or as the ultimate long-term goal behind a period of transition – a state which plenty of teams such as Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea are thought to be going through right now.
However, when the club has been formed solely in one man’s image, like Arsenal and Manchester United have been with Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson, change can be an extremely difficult thing to comprehend. Everything from the balance of the squad which is catered to a particular style of play, youth-system and scouting network is geared around the man in the dugout and their power grows the longer they stay in the role, so after over a decade at the club, the job of inheriting Moyes’ squad and improving upon his legacy while keeping in mind the fiscal discipline required to keep them competitive and it’s a post few would take with relish.
You only have to cast your eyes at the bookmakers to see that nobody really has a clue what will happen should Moyes depart for pastures new – Wigan boss Roberto Martinez is the favourite at the moment across the board, but with the Latics stuck in the relegation zone and with eight games of the campaign left to play, will they really want to appoint a man fresh from taking a club down into the Championship? If they go down, the genial Spaniard’s stock falls rapidly and while he may deserve a crack at a bigger job, playing a passing game without the necessary players to carry it off successfully, often applauded by many neutrals, doesn’t constitute the sort of management that’s keep Everton where they are for the past few years.
Current assistant manager Steve Round is broadly seen as the second favourite, but he may be seen as a decent continuity appointment, ensuring Moyes’ legacy is preserved, and having been number two in the England job, he’s used to the sort of scrutiny that would come with making the step up. Nevertheless, the flip side of that coin is he could be seen as a massive gamble in his first managerial job and history is littered with people that made good coaches but have struggled to bridge that gap, with Carlos Queiroz perhaps the best example.
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You simply can’t imagine an old-fashioned club such as Everton would go abroad for a new manager, particularly keeping in mind that the new man in the job will have to scrap ti make ends meet. While the Premier League has the prestige and the club has the pedigree, in terms of a financial package and operating budget, many may choose to bide their time and wait for something that leaves them a bit more wriggle room.
Of course, both Gus Poyet and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer are carving out decent reputations for themselves at Brighton and Molde and would represent a similar appointment to the one that Kenwright made by bringing Moyes in from Preston in 2002 – an up-and-coming young manager with fresh ideas and they’d command the respect of players due to their playing achievements in the top flight. They are foreign, but they are both household names and familiar with the league and what the club stands for. The last thing the supporters want is a fish out of water type appointment like Tottenham have been guilty of far too many times in the past with Christian Gross, Jacques Santini and Juande Ramos.
Mark Hughes has a history of managing clubs of the rivals he played for, but having turned out for Everton towards the end of his playing career as some sort of horrible holding man, which at the time was bizarrely termed as ‘using his experience’, he could buck that trend at Goodison Park. His stock has never been lower than right now after the disastrous job he did at QPR, but when there’s not much money to spend, like he had at Blackburn and Fulham, he can work wonders, it’s just when he’s given leeway with transfers that he can come to seem like a clueless kid in a sweet shop like at Manchester City and Loftus Road. It doubtless wouldn’t be a popular move, but he has his merits and would jump at the chance to restore his reputation, seemingly destined never to get a crack at a top four job again now.
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Lokomotiv Moscow boss and former Croatia head coach Slaven Bilic can also count on a past affiliation with Merseyside during an injury-hit three-year spell between 1997-2000 after moving from West Ham. He left in controversial circumstances, though, being given a million-pound payoff, representing around half of the balance remaining on his lucrative contract which still had 28 months to run, after being told he could find a new club. This bitter end to a frustrating period towards the end of his career, with the 44-year-old never shy of a word or two and he may be seen as too hard to handle and control for the naturally cautious Kenwright.
Aside from the usual customers (Alan Curbishley is at 33/1 shock of shocks, just like he is for every vacant post), any move Kenwright makes will oversee a radical shift at the club as opposed to the gradual and at times leisurely pace of evolution that’s gripped Goodison Park the past few seasons. My hunch if Moyes should depart would be for either Solskjaer or Martinez, with Poyet a decent outside shout, but the task of replacing the Scot successfully is something the odds simply can’t tell you.
Liverpool have been linked with both Ajax playmaker Christian Eriksen and Shakhtar Donestk forward Henrik Mkhitaryan over the last couple of days, but is this a sign that the club are planning to make a statement or two of ambition in the summer, or a signal that contingency plans are being prepared for the departure of Luis Suarez?
The club recently announced that net debt increased by a third from £65.4m in July 2011 to £87.2m in May 2012, which has seen many concerned that this could have an impact on their ability to compete for the brightest talents in Europe when the campaign finishes in the transfer market.
Manging director Ian Ayre dismissed the £22m rise in debt as a sign that the club were simply getting their house in order behind the scenes: “The accounting period we are talking about followed on from the fact we did a refinancing of our (banking) facilities, which gave us £120m facility over three years. As part of that £120m there was around £40m of stadium debt; debt that has existed on various projects we have worked on to find a solution to improved capacity.” He went on to cite that the club were still making payments on several players including Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson, while they had to fork out £9.5m in the summer for manager Brendan Rodgers and his backroom staff.
With a top four slot slipping away this term, which was to be expected in a period of gradual transition under a new coach trying to implement a new style, despite the club’s wage bill being radically reduced, what is clear is that the longer the club remains out of the Champions League, the more it will impact on their ability to attract top players and keep hold of world-class talents like Suarez. Should the Uruguayan stay next season, he will be doing the Merseyside outfit a massive favour, because he could pretty much name his price to any club in the world after the outstanding year he’s had.
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The future of Suarez looks likely to be one of those tiresome transfer sagas that will dominate the back pages all summer, that is until he inevitably signs a massive bumper pay deal and stays for one more season before swanning off to either Germany or Spain. It’s a predictable situation that will continue to happen as long as Liverpool fail to establish themselves in the top four, while the aforementioned debt rise will play a part.
Rodgers refused to believe that the club’s budget will be compromised too much, though, telling reporters: “If you look where the club was at four years ago and where it is now it is a different place. Of course there is still debt there but I think next year’s results will show further improvement on that. In terms of me building the squad I’ve already got the assurances it won’t affect anything.
“I think you have to give massive credit to the board and FSG because they took on an astronomical amount of debt – almost £400million – so where it is at now in their short period of time here is a huge credit to them while still supporting the investment of the team.
“They have made every promise and every commitment to me that every single penny they have will go into generating the squad and making it better. We won’t be able to do it like some clubs and throw out masses each year but that is something as a club we are looking to standardise here while still growing the club and bringing in quality players and that won’t stop in the summer.”
The club’s heavy business during the January transfer window also has to be considered, with both Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho costing approximately £20.5m and it would be surprising if Rodgers was given anything more than £15-20m to spend on new players before departures. Any deal for Eriksen would likely take up the vast majority of that budget just in the same way that Joe Allen did last summer.
The recruitment of former Manchester City scouting duo Dave Fallows and Barry Hunter in September has already seen a shift in policy from the summer and bodes well for the future and it seems that Liverpool are seriously targeting Eriksen, with Ajax director of football and former Arsenal winger Marc Overmars admitting to De Telegraaf on Friday: “We have the list of the scouts of foreign clubs who have been here recently and Liverpool has been a regular visitor.” Meanwhile, reports have emerged that a two-man delegation was sent to keep tabs on Mkhitaryan.
The main sticking point aside from budgets will be convincing either or both of Eriksen to trade guaranteed Champions League football with Ajax and Shakhtar Donetsk for what at the moment looks at best to be another year in the Europa League. Prestige is the most important currency going in football and Liverpool haven’t got the biggest line of credit around.
The 21-year-old Denmark international would be something of a transfer coup should they convince him to trade the Netherlands for Anfield and he could really excel in that role at the tip of a midfield three which Joe Allen has struggled at times in and Jordan Henderson, who has impressed since the turn of the year, has seemingly failed to earn the full faith of Rodgers. Jonjo Shelvey is still regarded as a raw talent and Steven Gerrard has been moved deeper, while Coutinho has been earmarked for one of the two wide roles, so it certainly fits from a positional perspective and the biggest single move the club can make to convince Suarez to stay is to bring in a better calibre of player.
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When it comes to Mkhitaryan, the Armenian international is possibly the most like-for-like replacement that could be pursued should Suarez leave at the end of the season. He’s comfortable in both a deeper-lying role and as he has shown this year, playing as an out-and-out striker, which will be a versatility that appeals to Rodgers, but the club are unlikely to be able to afford both Eriksen and the Shakhtar man, so it’s a case of either or, but it could just as equally be a contingency plan for Suarez, which is a wise move to ensure they are not caught short.
Liverpool have progressed under Rodgers this season, but when it comes to spending, there is simply not a limitless tap that will be turned on as soon as the transfer window opens again, so the debt and the good business done in January will have a huge say on the budget he is handed.
The club look to be targeting the sort of players capable of playing in the Champions League and bridging that sizeable gap between the top four and the top eight where they currently find themselves stranded in, but a lot rests on the shoulders of Suarez and his future, whether that be in terms of the shape and quality of the side, or the nature of their summer business and the players they are able to sign.
Hull City loanee David Stockdale is keen on making his move to the KC Stadium permanent this summer if Fulham allow him to leave Craven Cottage.
The highly rated stopper has been unable to force his way into the first team under Martin Jol and is set to leave on a permanent basis this summer.
Stockdale has been an unsung hero for the Tigers as they secured a dramatic last day promotion back to the Premier League at the expense of Watford who have to settle for the play-offs.
Hull were a breath of fresh air when they were last in the top flight and without breaking the bank, boss Steve Bruce will add a number of players to his squad with Stockdale looking likely to be first in the door.
“I will be going back to Fulham some time this week. You’ve got to leave the door open,” Stockdale told talkSPORT.
“Unfortunately my chances at Fulham have been a bit limited. Although I love the club maybe it’s time to move if pastures new come.”
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Emmanuel Adebayor has been a failure everywhere he’s been. Not because he’s a terrible footballer, but because the early promise shown at each of his clubs quickly fizzed out into nothing but a fair bit of frustration and plenty of derision.
He doesn’t really care, though, and maybe that’s the problem. Adebayor gets on with his job as a modern day athlete with that mischievous grin on his face – and not in a good way – while his advisors, who do their own job rather poorly, pull the strings on his turbulent career.
Adebayor had all the makings of one of the best strikers in the Premier League, perhaps even in Europe. It’s that hybrid of pace, unmatchable strength and scoring ability from a whole host of angles that so many clubs are looking for. He was close to unstoppable in 2007-08 when Arsenal finished third in the Premier League, dropping out of the title race at the final hurdle.
Following that, the influence of those around him came to the fore, as Adebayor demanded something more for what he had done for only one season – either a new contract or a move to AC Milan. It would set the trend for the rest of his career in the bigger leagues of European football, with that chapter likely coming to a close as Besiktas move in to take him off Tottenham’s hands.
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Though even at Spurs, his first good season spent at White Hart Lane on loan was an act to secure himself a contract for the following season. His second year with the club mirrored that of his “second” year with Arsenal following the 30-goal campaign. He did very, very little, only to later confirm his ability to conjure something brilliant when there were doubts as to whether he still had life left in him: the goal against Villarreal in the Champions League and the performance at Stamford Bridge.
He should have been the next in line to carry on from what Didier Drogba set at Chelsea. Both very similar in terms of build and athleticism, while on his day Adebayor was unplayable, ironically much like Drogba was when playing against Arsenal.
But we shouldn’t be so surprised. The sports world is littered with athletes who could have been so much more but chose an alternate route. It’s a combination of the money in the game and the ease at which players can force moves elsewhere if they’re not happy for one reason or another. In the specific case of Adebayor, it’s the player’s reluctance to learn from previous mistakes. He’s never truly had a club he could call home, as during his spell with Manchester City, he went on loan to Real Madrid for six months – a period in his career that is easily forgettable. Sure, he did ok, but to what end? He got the short-term security he was looking for with Tottenham the following season, and then decided – or was advised – that something a little more concrete was needed for the season after that.
What is slightly amusing, though, is the player’s belief that he still warrants high-end wages, something akin to a star player at a Champions League club. Again, he hasn’t been a Champions League calibre player for many seasons, and it has nothing to do with lack of ability. If Besiktas have the funds to push through on this deal then fine, it’s a good deal for both parties. Incidentally, Adebayor may bemoan the lack of European football next season due to Besiktas’ participation in a match-fixing scandal, but that’s the bed he’s made for himself. Plus I don’t really think he’s too bothered.
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Is Adebayor deserving of his current position in football, having failed to maintain a high level in the game?