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Saturday, November 30, 2013
Chelsea tops Premier League agent payments as spending hits record high
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English Premier League clubs pay out $160m in agent fees
(Reuters) - English Premier League clubs spent almost 100 million pounds on agents fees for brokering player transfers in the past 12 months, an increase of almost 20 million pounds on the previous year. The total spent by the 20 Premier League clubs was 96.67 million pounds in the year from October 1, 2012 until September 30 2013. London club Chelsea, who signed several new players including Demba Ba, Willian and Samuel Eto'o and brought in manager Jose Mourinho, paid 13.7 million pounds in agents' fees, almost double what they spent in 2012.
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Premier League clubs spent record £96m on agents fees in last year
• Clubs spent £19m more on agents than in previous year
• Chelsea top list after outlay more than doubles to £13.7m
England's top clubs paid a record £96m in fees to agents in the last year, with Chelsea's outlay more than doubling to £13.7m. The figures released by the Premier League show clubs spent a combined £19m more on agents than in the previous 12 months.
Manchester City had topped the spending charts for the previous two years but dropped to second in the new list, paying £11.2m.
Tottenham, who spent heavily to reshape their squad after losing Gareth Bale, are ranked third with an outlay of £9.7m, with Liverpool fourth on £9.4m. Manchester United, who struggled to add to their ranks in the summer, spent a comparatively modest £4.3m.
Crystal Palace were the lowest spenders with an outlay of £869, 531, making them the only club to spend less than £1m.
The Premier League agreed in June 2008 that every club would publish the total amount paid to agents once a year. The figures also include any payments made by clubs to agents on behalf of their players.
Spending on agents Oct 2012-Sep 2013
Chelsea £13,721,721
Manchester City £11,179,817
Tottenham £9,787,676
Liverpool £9,400,973
Newcastle £7,294,018
Arsenal £5,485,961
Sunderland £4,640,227
Manchester United £4,317,690
West Ham £4,169,134
Fulham £3,790,115
Aston Villa £3,358,628
Everton £3,225,159
Stoke £3,191,808
Norwich £2,308,987
Cardiff £2,225,582
West Brom £2,211,054
Southampton £2,184,412
Hull £1,825,718
Swansea £1,484,878
Crystal Palace £869,531
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Premier League clubs spent record £96m on agents fees in last year
• Clubs spent £19m more on agents than in previous year
• Chelsea top list after outlay more than doubles to £13.7m
England's top clubs paid a record £96m in fees to agents in the last year, with Chelsea's outlay more than doubling to £13.7m. The figures released by the Premier League show clubs spent a combined £19m more on agents than in the previous 12 months.
Manchester City had topped the spending charts for the previous two years but dropped to second in the new list, paying £11.2m.
Tottenham, who spent heavily to reshape their squad after losing Gareth Bale, are ranked third with an outlay of £9.7m, with Liverpool fourth on £9.4m. Manchester United, who struggled to add to their ranks in the summer, spent a comparatively modest £4.3m.
Crystal Palace were the lowest spenders with an outlay of £869, 531, making them the only club to spend less than £1m.
The Premier League agreed in June 2008 that every club would publish the total amount paid to agents once a year. The figures also include any payments made by clubs to agents on behalf of their players.
Spending on agents Oct 2012-Sep 2013
Chelsea £13,721,721
Manchester City £11,179,817
Tottenham £9,787,676
Liverpool £9,400,973
Newcastle £7,294,018
Arsenal £5,485,961
Sunderland £4,640,227
Manchester United £4,317,690
West Ham £4,169,134
Fulham £3,790,115
Aston Villa £3,358,628
Everton £3,225,159
Stoke £3,191,808
Norwich £2,308,987
Cardiff £2,225,582
West Brom £2,211,054
Southampton £2,184,412
Hull £1,825,718
Swansea £1,484,878
Crystal Palace £869,531
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Reuters Sports Schedule at 0001 GMT on Sunday, Dec 1
Reuters sports schedule at 0001 GMT on Sunday: - - - - SOCCER Premier League Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United (1200) Hull City v Liverpool (1405) Chelsea v Southampton (1610) Manchester City v Swansea City (1610) Chasing pack aim to cut seven-point gap to leaders Arsenal LONDON - Liverpool, Chelsea, and the Manchester clubs are all in action and desperate for wins to narrow the gap on Premier league pacesetters Arsenal with United facing a tricky trip to ambitious but faltering Tottenham Hotspur. ...
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Chelsea boss stays cool
Jose Mourinho says winning the Premier League this season would be a greater achievement than winning Chelsea's first title in 50 years in 2004/05.
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Chelsea boss stays cool
Jose Mourinho says winning the Premier League this season would be a greater achievement than winning Chelsea's first title in 50 years in 2004/05.
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Dejan Lovren puts traumas behind him to enjoy Southampton high life
The Croatian centre-back is loving life in England – and is hoping to show Chelsea that he was right to reject them
This time Dejan Lovren wants first impressions to last. It has not always been the case. The 24-year-old has had to overcome early ridicule in his professional and personal life to become what he is now: the linchpin of the Premier League's meanest defence and one of the signings of the season.
Lovren is loving life in England. Previous adaptations have been more traumatic, the worst coming in his childhood. His was one of millions of families affected by the war in the former Yugoslavia. When he was three, Lovren and his Croatian parents had to flee his Bosnian birthplace.
They found refuge in Munich and for the next seven years the young Lovren was "a happy boy, I spoke German perfectly, I went to school, I played for a little club." But the family were never granted permanent residency and when the German government deemed Croatia safe, the Lovrens were ordered to return home. It was a home that the 10-year-old Lovren hardly knew.
"It was two or three years before I was happy again," he says. "It was horrible at the beginning because the guys at school were laughing at me because I didn't speak Croatian well. I was speaking but they didn't understand anything I said. But after a couple of years it got better. I took the character from Germany and from my family because they were showing me that life is tough."
Once he made his reintegration successful, his football talent flourished. He eventually made it to the first team of Dinamo Zagreb, where he played in central defence alongside his hero, the former Liverpool player Igor Biscan. "He was my idol, I have great memories of playing with him," recalls Lovren in smooth English. But he was not so star-struck that he took his idol's advice when, in 2009, Chelsea tried to buy him. "He told me: 'You have to go to the Premier League, you will love it!" says Lovren, who instead joined Lyon.
"I was thinking maybe it will be much easier for me to play at Lyon than at Chelsea because they had [John] Terry, [Ricardo] Carvalho and so on," he explains. "I wanted to play and improve myself. I think it was the right decision. Maybe if I had signed for Chelsea I'd just have been sitting on the bench and what is the point in that?"
He will seek further vindication of his choice when Southampton take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, though he admits the wisdom of his decision did not always seem apparent when he was in France, where for a while he was more bitterly mocked than the oft-lampooned Biscan ever was at Anfield. "The criticism started directly at the beginning and that was a difficult time for me," says Lovren. "I hadn't even arrived and they were talking bad about me just because of the amount they paid for me – €10m for a 20-year-old. I didn't speak French for one and a half years; I didn't understand anything and they didn't have the time to wait for me."
The French media's condemnation became so acerbic that after one performance – a 4-3 Champions League defeat to Benfica in 2010 during which Lovren played at left-back and scored a goal but was at fault for some of the opposition's – Lyon issued a press release to denounce journalists' "idée fixe" about Lovren and published statistics suggesting his display had not been as dire as reported.
But the perception of him did not really change even as he became a regular at the heart of Lyon's defence. And referees evidently took a dim view of his tackling: seven red cards in three years even led him to doubt himself. "I was thinking: 'Oh my God, what am I doing?'" he says. The answer, he reckons, is that he was not doing anything differently to what he has done at Southampton since the south coast club paid £8.5m in the summer to liberate him from Ligue 1. It is just that in England the referees are different. "I was the same player in France and I think now I'm showing the quality to everybody and proving, even to myself, that I was not so bad in France. I really wasn't."
Until illness led to him missing last week's defeat at Arsenal, Lovren had featured in every minute of Southampton's season, his central defensive partnership with José Fonte being one of the reasons why a once-leaky side is now the tightest in the top flight. Yet Southampton are not a defensive side; rather than sit back, they hunt the ball aggressively all over the pitch. Lovren says the club's statistics show that each player runs an average of 12km per game – that is over 2km more than Lyon said he ran in that Benfica match, where, according to Lyon's figures, he was the third most dynamic player on the pitch. Such vigorous pressing is also practised by Barcelona, whose guideline is that players must retrieve the ball within a maximum of six seconds of losing it. "Here it's two seconds," quips Lovren, who relishes his side's all-action style. "I was playing football in Lyon and Dinamo Zagreb but never like this. We play with risk but it's such a pleasure."
Few outsiders foresaw Southampton challenging for the Champions League places this season but the club's manager, Mauricio Pochettino, has repeatedly insisted there is no limit to the peaks his side can scale. Lovren agrees. "We just have to believe in ourselves and go get the points," he says.
No matter how the domestic campaign concludes, Lovren is confident his season will finish on a high. In the summer he is likely to be part of Croatia's World Cup squad. "For Croatians it means everything to play for the national team," he says. "Because of the past. A lot of people died in the war. It's like a duty for us to give everything." Lovren certainly does that.
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Dejan Lovren puts traumas behind him to enjoy Southampton high life
The Croatian centre-back is loving life in England – and is hoping to show Chelsea that he was right to reject them
This time Dejan Lovren wants first impressions to last. It has not always been the case. The 24-year-old has had to overcome early ridicule in his professional and personal life to become what he is now: the linchpin of the Premier League's meanest defence and one of the signings of the season.
Lovren is loving life in England. Previous adaptations have been more traumatic, the worst coming in his childhood. His was one of millions of families affected by the war in the former Yugoslavia. When he was three, Lovren and his Croatian parents had to flee his Bosnian birthplace.
They found refuge in Munich and for the next seven years the young Lovren was "a happy boy, I spoke German perfectly, I went to school, I played for a little club." But the family were never granted permanent residency and when the German government deemed Croatia safe, the Lovrens were ordered to return home. It was a home that the 10-year-old Lovren hardly knew.
"It was two or three years before I was happy again," he says. "It was horrible at the beginning because the guys at school were laughing at me because I didn't speak Croatian well. I was speaking but they didn't understand anything I said. But after a couple of years it got better. I took the character from Germany and from my family because they were showing me that life is tough."
Once he made his reintegration successful, his football talent flourished. He eventually made it to the first team of Dinamo Zagreb, where he played in central defence alongside his hero, the former Liverpool player Igor Biscan. "He was my idol, I have great memories of playing with him," recalls Lovren in smooth English. But he was not so star-struck that he took his idol's advice when, in 2009, Chelsea tried to buy him. "He told me: 'You have to go to the Premier League, you will love it!" says Lovren, who instead joined Lyon.
"I was thinking maybe it will be much easier for me to play at Lyon than at Chelsea because they had [John] Terry, [Ricardo] Carvalho and so on," he explains. "I wanted to play and improve myself. I think it was the right decision. Maybe if I had signed for Chelsea I'd just have been sitting on the bench and what is the point in that?"
He will seek further vindication of his choice when Southampton take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, though he admits the wisdom of his decision did not always seem apparent when he was in France, where for a while he was more bitterly mocked than the oft-lampooned Biscan ever was at Anfield. "The criticism started directly at the beginning and that was a difficult time for me," says Lovren. "I hadn't even arrived and they were talking bad about me just because of the amount they paid for me – €10m for a 20-year-old. I didn't speak French for one and a half years; I didn't understand anything and they didn't have the time to wait for me."
The French media's condemnation became so acerbic that after one performance – a 4-3 Champions League defeat to Benfica in 2010 during which Lovren played at left-back and scored a goal but was at fault for some of the opposition's – Lyon issued a press release to denounce journalists' "idée fixe" about Lovren and published statistics suggesting his display had not been as dire as reported.
But the perception of him did not really change even as he became a regular at the heart of Lyon's defence. And referees evidently took a dim view of his tackling: seven red cards in three years even led him to doubt himself. "I was thinking: 'Oh my God, what am I doing?'" he says. The answer, he reckons, is that he was not doing anything differently to what he has done at Southampton since the south coast club paid £8.5m in the summer to liberate him from Ligue 1. It is just that in England the referees are different. "I was the same player in France and I think now I'm showing the quality to everybody and proving, even to myself, that I was not so bad in France. I really wasn't."
Until illness led to him missing last week's defeat at Arsenal, Lovren had featured in every minute of Southampton's season, his central defensive partnership with José Fonte being one of the reasons why a once-leaky side is now the tightest in the top flight. Yet Southampton are not a defensive side; rather than sit back, they hunt the ball aggressively all over the pitch. Lovren says the club's statistics show that each player runs an average of 12km per game – that is over 2km more than Lyon said he ran in that Benfica match, where, according to Lyon's figures, he was the third most dynamic player on the pitch. Such vigorous pressing is also practised by Barcelona, whose guideline is that players must retrieve the ball within a maximum of six seconds of losing it. "Here it's two seconds," quips Lovren, who relishes his side's all-action style. "I was playing football in Lyon and Dinamo Zagreb but never like this. We play with risk but it's such a pleasure."
Few outsiders foresaw Southampton challenging for the Champions League places this season but the club's manager, Mauricio Pochettino, has repeatedly insisted there is no limit to the peaks his side can scale. Lovren agrees. "We just have to believe in ourselves and go get the points," he says.
No matter how the domestic campaign concludes, Lovren is confident his season will finish on a high. In the summer he is likely to be part of Croatia's World Cup squad. "For Croatians it means everything to play for the national team," he says. "Because of the past. A lot of people died in the war. It's like a duty for us to give everything." Lovren certainly does that.
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Are Arsenal fnot only top but the Barcelona of the Premier League? | Tim Lewis
Arsenal offer an attractive choice for the neutral fan but the numbers say another club is truly playing the beautiful game
A friend of mine, an Arsenal fan, was explaining to me this week how her club's lofty standing in the Premier League was not only a triumph for Arsène Wenger's men but more holistically for football in general. Arsenal, she reasoned, were "England's Barcelona" – an elegant team committed to playing the game in a morally and intellectually superior way; right-brained players who were creative and spontaneous, using speed and stealth to tickle opponents into submission; a fusion of home-reared youngsters with previously unheralded foreigners, all curated without spiralling the club into debt. They were, in short, a team that any neutral could get behind.
I don't support Arsenal but I couldn't disagree with her. Wenger has argued, "Football is an art, like dancing is an art" – and he truly lives (and dies) by that belief. After eight trophy-less years he was allowed to open the wallet this summer. He could have bought a reliable central defender or a proven goal-scorer, as everyone implored him to do, but he opted instead for an attacking midfielder – Mesut Özil for £42m – of which he already had an indulgent surfeit. It seemed insane until it became clear that Wenger was operating on a deeper conviction: if he was going down, he was doing it with the most stylistically pure Arsenal team ever.
You have to admire Wenger and, with his team sitting top of the table and practically assured of qualification for the last 16 of the Champions League, respect him too. After seven major titles between 1998 and 2005 he has now gone half his career in north London without winning one. The website sincearsenallastwonatrophy.co.uk details the time to the second since that 2005 FA Cup victory and links to a list of events that have taken place in the intervening period: these include the invention of Twitter and the iPad, as well as: "Six people have been arrested for kidnapping a llama and taking it on a tour of the New York subway".
So Arsenal are underdogs these days and there is nothing the unaffiliated observer loves more than a team defying the odds. Still there was a problem with my friend's analysis. Hadn't she seen how smug Wenger has become in post-match interviews recently? Arsenal may play the most attractive football in northern Europe but, oh boy, do they know it. To borrow Tony Cascarino's favourite phrase, if Arsenal were an ice cream they'd lick themselves to death.
But the question remains: if not Arsenal's beautiful footballers, who should the neutral fan root for? Surely not Manchester United (too popular) or Manchester City (too spoiled). Liverpool are out (Luis Suárez) and so clearly are Chelsea (John Terry, Ashley Cole, take your pick).
Cursory research suggests Fulham might be an appropriate choice. Craven Cottage is the only stadium in Britain to have a specific "mixed" area called "Little Switzerland" set aside for spectators. It's a sweet concept but the team is a mess this season and, if you are going to have a secret soft spot for a club, then it's perhaps advisable not to pick one that's embroiled in a season-long relegation battle.
Where does this leave the neutral fan or the person who supports a lower-league team and is looking for some Super Sunday action? Assuming some basic criteria: 1) a team that plays attractive, attacking football; and 2) a team whose figurehead player has not been found guilty of racially abusing an opponent – there are some obvious candidates: Swansea, Southampton and any team that Roberto Martínez manages, because he's clearly a good guy.
I decided to find if there might be objective reasons for favouring one Premier League team over another from Omar Chaudhuri, an analyst for the stats experts Prozone Sports. Data cannot tell us how attractively a team plays, Chaudhuri reminds me, but it can offer us indicators of its philosophy (total numbers of completed passes per game, say) and its aggressive instincts (shots on goal).
Before Saturday's fixtures Arsenal placed third in the rankings of total and successful passes in the Premier League this season, behind both the top club Swansea City (538.9 passes per game) and Manchester City. The overall landscape, however, is heartening for all football fans: so far in 2013 nine teams average more than 400 passes each game – which compares with just one club in 2005-06 (Arsenal) and one in 2007-08 (Arsenal again). This statistic indicates that even the most unsophisticated teams are comfortable knocking the ball around these days. By this reckoning Premier League football has never been so cultured.
Of course, Chaudhuri notes, a team can pass the ball sideways all afternoon, "but, if this doesn't translate into goal-scoring opportunities, you might argue that they aren't exactly 'exciting' for a neutral". In terms of attack Spurs have taken easily the most open-play shots this season (17.5 per game) but sadly the quality of their shooting is close to the bottom of the league, with Andros Townsend being surprisingly profligate. Manchester City overwhelmingly create better chances than Spurs and are more clinical about finishing them, which might explain last Sunday's 6-0 scoreline.
But if you are looking for entertainment – goals at both ends, shots taken, open football – one team stands out and it's not a name you'd expect: Norwich City. Sure, this season has not exactly gone to plan – they were 16th before Saturday's match against Crystal Palace and the manager, Chris Hughton, appears to be staring down the barrel – but Prozone's model suggests they have faced the toughest opposition in the league so far and are due for an upturn. If you're on the fence about football teams, forget the Gunners and sing like a Canary.
Tim Lewis's book on Rwanda's cycling team, Land of Second Chances , is out now
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Chelsea top agents payments
Chelsea have doubled their payments to agents over the last year according to figures released by the Premier League.
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Chelsea top agents payments
Chelsea have doubled their payments to agents over the last year according to figures released by the Premier League.
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Premier League fees to agents hit £96m
Chelsea are the top spending club as Premier League teams pay a record £96m to agents over the past 12 months.
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West Ham United 3-0 Fulham | Premier League match report
Before kick-off this match had been widely styled as a collision of the damned, or at least an elimination heat in the traditional midwinter Premier League manager cull. At half-time it appeared to be meandering towards the mutual assured non-destruction of a featureless 0-0 draw. By the end, though, with Martin Jol and Sam Allardyce in contrasting states of animation as West Ham scored three times without reply in the second half, it felt like a horribly decisive defeat for Fulham's manager. It is perhaps more a case of when not if for Jol now, with Tottenham due at Craven Cottage on Wednesday.
Here Fulham failed to have a shot on target all match, a show of attacking impotence Jol attempted to arrest with 12 minutes left by sending on the 36-year-old defensive midfielder Giorgos Karagounis. This was Fulham's sixth defeat in a row. Going back to last season, they have now lost 16 of their last 24 matches in all competitions. The Fulham owner, Shahid Khan, is known for his patience in the NFL, having retained successive embattled coaches of the Jacksonville Jaguars, but it is a parallel that only goes so far.
For a start there is no relegation in the NFL. Khan bought a Premier League team. Hopefully his attention was sufficiently drawn to the clause about the value of investments going down as well as up.
West Ham have also stalled in recent weeks, with two points and two goals in their past five since the striker-free aberration-victory at Tottenham. Upton Park was a toxic place at times last week during the collapse against Chelsea, but as West Ham kicked off here the atmosphere wasn't so much toxic as oddly sterile during the almost entirely inert early exchanges. West Ham at least had a striker on the pitch in the shape of Modibo Maiga, who was lively – these things are relative – from the start and headed powerfully against the post from six yards from Downing's cross. The Malian looked more confused than disappointed: Sunday is the one-year anniversary of his last goal for anyone in any competition. Still, West Ham were the more purposeful, Fulham's only early concessions towards the notion of attempting to score a goal the occasional doomed gallop from Adel Taarabt and a free kick by Elsad Zverotic, ballooned with painstaking care, Cristiano Ronaldo style, into the upper tier behind the West Ham goal.
For much of the first half this looked like what it was: a meeting of two teams trying to compensate for some obvious absences: Fulham's classy strollers, the team without a heart, against goal-free West Ham, the team without a head. Currently West Ham have the lowest shots on target ratio in the Premier League; Fulham, keeping their end up in the deadlock double-header, have had the fewest attempts. Earlier this week Manuel Pellegrini declared that statistics only occasionally tell the truth about football, but safe to say he wasn't at Upton Park, where half-time after a goal-less and almost shot-less first 45 minutes barely disturbed the prevailing sense of ennui.
West Ham had been the more energetic team, and their goal just after the break was due reward. Mohamed Diamé robbed Steve Sidwell, advanced on goal and hit a low shot that was deflected past Jussi Jaaskelainen by Fernando Amorebieta. West Ham's players celebrated extensively by the touchline, as though remembering dimly how this kind of thing is done. It was their second goal at Upton Park in six weeks.
After which, the home team continued to press, as Fulham faded further. Darren Bent cleared off the line after a corner, and Downing hit the angle of post and bar with a swirling cross from the right. With 20 minutes remaining Jol briefly roused himself from the bench, waving his arms around a little disconsolately in an attempt to draw some pep from a terribly flat Fulham team. To little avail: West Ham's second came with eight minutes to play, Carlton Cole, cheered on to the pitch like the returning Bobby Moore, scored with his third touch, tapping home from Downing's cross. The third, swept home by Joe Cole, confirmed West Ham's complete superiority by the end.
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Soccer-English premier league results and standings
Nov 30 (Infostrada Sports) - Results and standings from the English premier league matches on Saturday Saturday, November 30Aston Villa 0 Sunderland 0 Cardiff City 0 Arsenal 3 Everton 4 Stoke City 0 Norwich City 1 Crystal Palace 0 West Ham United 3 Fulham 0 Standings P W D L F A Pts 1 Arsenal 13 10 1 2 27 10 31 2 Liverpool 12 7 3 2 24 13 24 3 Chelsea 12 7 3 2 21 10 24 -------------------------4 Everton 13 6 6 1 21 13 24 -------------------------5 Manchester City 12 7 1 4 34 12 22 -------------------------6 Southampton 12 6 4 2 15 7 22 7 Manchester United 12 6 3 3 20 15 21 ...
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Soccer-English premier league top scorers
Nov 30 (Infostrada Sports) - Top scorers of the English premier league on Saturday 10 Sergio Aguero (Manchester City) 9 Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool) Luis Suarez (Liverpool) 8 Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal) Romelu Lukaku (Everton) Loic Remy (Newcastle United) 7 Olivier Giroud (Arsenal) Robin van Persie (Manchester United) 6 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) 5 Oscar (Chelsea) Alvaro Negredo (Manchester City) Yaya Toure (Manchester City) 4 Christian Benteke (Aston Villa) Eden Hazard (Chelsea) Rickie Lambert (Southampton) Wilfried Bony (Swansea City) Roberto Soldado (Tottenham Hotspur)
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Premier League Preview: Chelsea - Southampton
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VIDEO: Football Focus
Dan Walker and guests discuss the week's football news and look ahead to the weekend's matches, which include Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United and Chelsea v Southampton in the Premier League.
via BBC Sport - Football http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19362047
via BBC Sport - Football http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19362047
Willian: Chelsea first choice
Willian was aware of interest from elsewhere over the summer, but claims his 'heart was already at Chelsea'.
via Sky Sports | Football News http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9049650/
via Sky Sports | Football News http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9049650/
Friday, November 29, 2013
Southampton-Chelsea Preview
Chelsea will be looking to respond to midweek disappointment as they welcome Southampton to Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Jose Mourinho's side (7-3-2) had picked up just one point from their two league games prior to the recent international break, but appeared to have regrouped with a 3-0 win over West Ham last weekend. However, the Blues were beaten 1-0 away in Basel in the Champions League on Tuesday - their second loss to the Swiss side in the group stage - and Mourinho promised changes in response to the defeat. ''So when we play now Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday, when we have Southampton, Sunderland and Stoke, that makes 'SSS'.
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Lukaku considering Chelsea exit
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Roberto Martínez on borrowed time with Chelsea's Romelu Lukaku
• Everton manager does not expect extension to loan
• Martínez wants Lukaku to have 'good memories' of Everton
Romelu Lukaku has scored seven goals in eight appearances for Everton, including two that hauled his side back into the Merseyside derby, but though Roberto Martínez is delighted with the start his loan signing has made he does not imagine Chelsea will be as generous again next season.
The Everton manager does not expect to be offered the chance to buy Lukaku, at least not at a price the club can afford, and nor can he envisage such a successful striker's loan being extended for another year.
"Every time I speak to Chelsea they rate Romelu really highly, and I think that's always been the case," Martínez said. "They made a massive investment on a player they always felt was going to take a few years to be ready. They have a goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, who has gone out on loan to Atlético Madrid, and I think Romelu is a similar signing in that respect. We are just happy to have him with us and desperate to see him enjoying his time at Everton. All I want for him is to develop a good memory of his time here, nothing else. A player like Romelu, and Gareth Barry is the same although at a different stage of his career, is not motivated by money. They are players who want to go somewhere they can develop as footballers, and it shows we are successful as a team to engage players like that. We can help such players fulfil their potential."
Martínez is not unduly concerned that Lukaku's eventual departure will weaken the side. "We'll find another goalscorer, don't worry," he said. "Everton didn't have Romelu last season and did well without him. As a manager you have to accept the challenge of players moving on, in the modern game the best performers usually do.
"I think the era of loyalty or stability, of players staying at a club for a long time is gone, but it works both ways. In the summer you had players at Real Madrid who wanted to leave, at Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool. You need to keep your options open, because the best players will always want to play, and if you can offer that you can always find a way. We have a good recruitment department at the club, finding new players doesn't worry me."
Something that did worry Martínez after the Liverpool game was conceding all three goals at set pieces and he is conscious that Saturday's visitors Stoke have a reputation for exploiting such situations.
"I don't think it is a weakness, I just think the derby was a one-off," he said. "It is not normal for us to concede that many chances from set plays, if I am not mistaken we did not concede a set-piece goal in 11 matches going into the derby, so we have actually been very strong. The atmosphere of a derby can affect your concentration levels. We are aware that Stoke are strong in that area but we don't see it as an achilles heel."
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Romelu Lukaku asked Chelsea for transfer before joining Everton
• Lukaku was dismayed at signing of Samuel Eto'o
• 'Tell the country why you left,' says José Mourinho
José Mourinho has urged Romelu Lukaku to "tell the country why you left Chelsea" after it emerged the Belgium international had made a verbal transfer request just before the September deadline to force a move away from Stamford Bridge.
Lukaku, signed from Anderlecht in the summer of 2011 for an initial £12m, had asked to leave after being granted only a cameo performance in the Uefa Super Cup defeat to Bayern Munich in Prague on 30 August. The forward ended up missing a penalty in the shootout that night but was already struggling to disguise his dismay that Chelsea had secured Samuel Eto'o 24 hours earlier from Anzhi Makhachkala.
That left him competing with Eto'o, Demba Ba and Fernando Torres for a lone forward role in a season that culminates with the World Cup finals and convinced the 20-year-old that he would struggle to feature regularly. His transfer request was dismissed with Mourinho keen for the player to stay and fight for a place in the side. After further discussions with Lukaku, the club and manager relented and agreed to allow him to go on another season-long loan.
The player came close to rejoining West Bromwich Albion, with whom he spent last season on a similar arrangement, but has since scored seven goals in eight Premier League games for Everton. It is understood Lukaku considers his long-term future to be at Chelsea, with the club hoping he will be the finished article for next season.
Mourinho was asked about Lukaku before Sunday's home game against Southampton after the loanee, who is contracted until 2016 at Stamford Bridge, told the BBC that he had not had any direct contact with the Chelsea manager since moving to Goodison Park. "I keep private my conversations with my players," Mourinho said. "There are things in our lives that we have to keep [quiet] for ethical reasons but, for example, one day recently he scored and said he hoped I was watching, like saying: 'Why did he let me go?' And that's what I'm telling him now: tell the country why you left.
"He has to say. Next time ask him why he left on loan one more season. From my angle, I'm happy he's scoring goals against our direct rivals, and he doesn't score against us because he can't. It's phenomenal that you have a player who, even not playing for you, is scoring goals against your opponents. From a practical point of view, that's very good.
"But he's there and it's good for his evolution. It's good for Chelsea because he belongs to us for a long time and I'm happy with that. I just think that, if you keep quiet all the time, you keep quiet all the time. When you enjoy to speak, speak everything. Don't speak only half of it. It's a simple question: 'Why did you leave Chelsea?' Ask him."
Lukaku had earlier admitted to the BBC that he had instigated the move away from Stamford Bridge: "It wasn't the fact that I wasn't wanted. I think I was wanted but I had to make a decision for myself and analyse what was the best thing for me."
Chelsea's staff and the technical director, Michael Emenalo, have been in regular contact with Everton to monitor Lukaku's progress at Goodison and have been encouraged by his impact. Mourinho does not expect to add another forward to his ranks in the January transfer window but will instead reassess the situation next summer.
"The point is not wanting or not wanting, but that the top strikers are already in their clubs, clubs who are not going to open the door for a crucial player to leave," he said. "And the biggest percentage of them cannot play in the Champions League. The investment for players who cannot play in the Champions League we don't think is the correct one.
"We have a plan. We have a board. We have financial rules that we think we have to obey and we have to follow. And, at the same time, we started the season with this group and, most probably, we're going to end with this group. At the end of the season we will be in better condition to analyse our squad, to analyse the market and, normally, make a couple of changes to improve the team for next season. But this season, we are ready to go to the end with the same people."
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Roberto Martínez on borrowed time with Chelsea's Romelu Lukaku
• Everton manager does not expect extension to loan
• Martínez wants Lukaku to have 'good memories' of Everton
Romelu Lukaku has scored seven goals in eight appearances for Everton, including two that hauled his side back into the Merseyside derby, but though Roberto Martínez is delighted with the start his loan signing has made he does not imagine Chelsea will be as generous again next season.
The Everton manager does not expect to be offered the chance to buy Lukaku, at least not at a price the club can afford, and nor can he envisage such a successful striker's loan being extended for another year.
"Every time I speak to Chelsea they rate Romelu really highly, and I think that's always been the case," Martínez said. "They made a massive investment on a player they always felt was going to take a few years to be ready. They have a goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, who has gone out on loan to Atlético Madrid, and I think Romelu is a similar signing in that respect. We are just happy to have him with us and desperate to see him enjoying his time at Everton. All I want for him is to develop a good memory of his time here, nothing else. A player like Romelu, and Gareth Barry is the same although at a different stage of his career, is not motivated by money. They are players who want to go somewhere they can develop as footballers, and it shows we are successful as a team to engage players like that. We can help such players fulfil their potential."
Martínez is not unduly concerned that Lukaku's eventual departure will weaken the side. "We'll find another goalscorer, don't worry," he said. "Everton didn't have Romelu last season and did well without him. As a manager you have to accept the challenge of players moving on, in the modern game the best performers usually do.
"I think the era of loyalty or stability, of players staying at a club for a long time is gone, but it works both ways. In the summer you had players at Real Madrid who wanted to leave, at Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool. You need to keep your options open, because the best players will always want to play, and if you can offer that you can always find a way. We have a good recruitment department at the club, finding new players doesn't worry me."
Something that did worry Martínez after the Liverpool game was conceding all three goals at set pieces and he is conscious that Saturday's visitors Stoke have a reputation for exploiting such situations.
"I don't think it is a weakness, I just think the derby was a one-off," he said. "It is not normal for us to concede that many chances from set plays, if I am not mistaken we did not concede a set-piece goal in 11 matches going into the derby, so we have actually been very strong. The atmosphere of a derby can affect your concentration levels. We are aware that Stoke are strong in that area but we don't see it as an achilles heel."
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Romelu Lukaku asked Chelsea for transfer before joining Everton
• Lukaku was dismayed at signing of Samuel Eto'o
• 'Tell the country why you left,' says José Mourinho
José Mourinho has urged Romelu Lukaku to "tell the country why you left Chelsea" after it emerged the Belgium international had made a verbal transfer request just before the September deadline to force a move away from Stamford Bridge.
Lukaku, signed from Anderlecht in the summer of 2011 for an initial £12m, had asked to leave after being granted only a cameo performance in the Uefa Super Cup defeat to Bayern Munich in Prague on 30 August. The forward ended up missing a penalty in the shootout that night but was already struggling to disguise his dismay that Chelsea had secured Samuel Eto'o 24 hours earlier from Anzhi Makhachkala.
That left him competing with Eto'o, Demba Ba and Fernando Torres for a lone forward role in a season that culminates with the World Cup finals and convinced the 20-year-old that he would struggle to feature regularly. His transfer request was dismissed with Mourinho keen for the player to stay and fight for a place in the side. After further discussions with Lukaku, the club and manager relented and agreed to allow him to go on another season-long loan.
The player came close to rejoining West Bromwich Albion, with whom he spent last season on a similar arrangement, but has since scored seven goals in eight Premier League games for Everton. It is understood Lukaku considers his long-term future to be at Chelsea, with the club hoping he will be the finished article for next season.
Mourinho was asked about Lukaku before Sunday's home game against Southampton after the loanee, who is contracted until 2016 at Stamford Bridge, told the BBC that he had not had any direct contact with the Chelsea manager since moving to Goodison Park. "I keep private my conversations with my players," Mourinho said. "There are things in our lives that we have to keep [quiet] for ethical reasons but, for example, one day recently he scored and said he hoped I was watching, like saying: 'Why did he let me go?' And that's what I'm telling him now: tell the country why you left.
"He has to say. Next time ask him why he left on loan one more season. From my angle, I'm happy he's scoring goals against our direct rivals, and he doesn't score against us because he can't. It's phenomenal that you have a player who, even not playing for you, is scoring goals against your opponents. From a practical point of view, that's very good.
"But he's there and it's good for his evolution. It's good for Chelsea because he belongs to us for a long time and I'm happy with that. I just think that, if you keep quiet all the time, you keep quiet all the time. When you enjoy to speak, speak everything. Don't speak only half of it. It's a simple question: 'Why did you leave Chelsea?' Ask him."
Lukaku had earlier admitted to the BBC that he had instigated the move away from Stamford Bridge: "It wasn't the fact that I wasn't wanted. I think I was wanted but I had to make a decision for myself and analyse what was the best thing for me."
Chelsea's staff and the technical director, Michael Emenalo, have been in regular contact with Everton to monitor Lukaku's progress at Goodison and have been encouraged by his impact. Mourinho does not expect to add another forward to his ranks in the January transfer window but will instead reassess the situation next summer.
"The point is not wanting or not wanting, but that the top strikers are already in their clubs, clubs who are not going to open the door for a crucial player to leave," he said. "And the biggest percentage of them cannot play in the Champions League. The investment for players who cannot play in the Champions League we don't think is the correct one.
"We have a plan. We have a board. We have financial rules that we think we have to obey and we have to follow. And, at the same time, we started the season with this group and, most probably, we're going to end with this group. At the end of the season we will be in better condition to analyse our squad, to analyse the market and, normally, make a couple of changes to improve the team for next season. But this season, we are ready to go to the end with the same people."
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Daniel Sturridge injured in training as Liverpool enter crunch month
• Striker leaves training ground on crutches with ankle injury
• Brendan Rodgers chellenges Jon Flanagan to maintain focus
Liverpool fear Daniel Sturridge is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines after the striker suffered suspected ankle ligament damage in training.
Sturridge had trained "exceptionally well", according to Brendan Rodgers, in response to being dropped to the bench and criticised by the Liverpool manager in the Merseyside derby with Everton last Saturday. Rodgers was unhappy with the 24-year-old playing 90 minutes for England against Germany with a thigh problem before the derby but those injury concerns have multiplied after Sturridge left Melwood on crutches on Friday.
The Liverpool striker was immediately taken for a scan on his left ankle and, though the full extent of damage may become clear only over the weekend, the club are braced for bad news. Sturridge suffered ligament damage in his right ankle playing for England against the Republic of Ireland in May and it took a punishing personal fitness programme for him to recover inside three months.
Losing Sturridge would represent a serious setback for Rodgers in his attempts to maintain Liverpool's impressive form in 2013 and guide the club back into the Champions League. Last weekend's rebuke aside, the £12m signing from Chelsea has flourished at Anfield and his 89th-minute equaliser at Everton was his 11th goal of the season.
Liverpool are not blessed with goalscorers in the potential absence of Sturridge despite the outstanding form of Luis Suárez since his return from suspension. The summer signing Iago Aspas is close to returning from a thigh injury but has struggled to make an impact since his £7.6m arrival from Celta Vigo.
"We had a good chat this week of where he is at fitness-wise and I just felt last weekend he wasn't fit enough to go into a game of that magnitude," Rodgers said of Sturridge. "He came on and got the point for us and he has had a really good week in training, up until now."
Sunday's visit to Hull City is the first of seven fixtures for Liverpool in December, a schedule that includes away games at Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Chelsea. And, despite the worry over Sturridge, Rodgers believes Liverpool's squad can handle the demanding spell.
"Mentally we are strong," the Liverpool manager said. "I compare the mentality of the team for my first game at West Brom and now. The difference is night and day. I would expect us to last the pace. There is no question of that. We have the determination to do that. Look at our record this calendar year. We are hard to beat. If we're not at our best and winning, we're fighting to the death to get a result. That's something that's in the group that maybe wasn't there when I first came in."
Liverpool's managing director, Ian Ayre, has held talks with Barcelona over the possible January signing of the full-back Martín Montoya, while the Chelsea left-back Ryan Bertrand has also been linked with a move to Anfield. But Rodgers is prepared to give Jon Flanagan a run in the side after the 20-year-old's impressive display at left-back in the derby. The Liverpool manager has warned Flanagan, however, that he cannot allow complacency to creep into his game.
Rodgers said: "I think Jon is ready. I have a huge amount of respect for him and that was the reason I put him in. I have seen a boy who got his chance a few years ago and it is very easily done that you can become complacent. You get a new contract and all of a sudden you have a few bad games and you are out of the team. For me he has never really featured and that is the brutal honesty of it. He has played in some cup games but that is about it.
"I told him this week to think about where he was a couple of years ago when he was in the team and then he was out of it. I said to him, 'Don't play like you have cracked it because you have had a great game in the derby and been man of the match. Go out and prove yourself every single week and, if you do that, you will be all right.'"
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Soccer-I joined Everton on loan because I needed to play-Lukaku
Nov 29, (Reuters) - In-form striker Romelu Lukaku said he chose to join Everton on loan for the season from Chelsea because he needed to play regularly and not because he was not wanted at Stamford Bridge. "Imagine I was playing for Chelsea now, I would play maybe five games and score one goal or two, now I am playing for Everton and I have eight games and seven goals," he told the BBC in a television interview to be broadcast on Saturday. I think I was wanted but I had to make a decision for myself and analyse what was the best thing for me." Lukaku, who has scored seven goals in eight Premier League games for Everton so far this term, said the last time he heard anything from Chelsea was "a couple of months ago" but "I think they are watching my performances." Earlier on Friday, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho told a news conference Lukaku should explain why he left Chelsea.
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I joined Everton on loan because I needed to play - Lukaku
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Chelsea Ladies anticipate 'mind-blowing' reception in Japan for IWCC
Chelsea are preparing for the International Women's Club Championship in 'women's football-mad' Japan
On the eve of Chelsea Ladies' trip to Japan to make their debut in the International Women's Club Championship (IWCC), their manager, Emma Hayes, has revealed there are more signings to come, in addition to the England defender Laura Bassett and the striker Rachel Williams, for the side that finished second bottom in the FA Women's Super League last season.
Seeking to strengthen the spine of a team that leaked 27 goals in their last campaign, the former Chicago Red Stars manager said: "There may be more signings to come to us. A couple more."
Bassett, who was linked with the new FAWSL club Manchester City before joining Chelsea, said that the new signings were influential in her decision to join Hayes, as well as the manager's vision for the development of the club. "I think the players that will hopefully be announced shortly will make a massive difference on the results compared to last season," said the 30-year-old, who captained Birmingham to their first ever FA Cup win last year – they beat Chelsea on penalties in the final. "It wasn't an easy decision to leave Birmingham, I was speaking to other clubs as well, but Emma and her staff are so passionate and ambitious, they have a real clear vision of where they want to go and how they're going to get there. I just got caught up in it."
In Japan, where Chelsea will enter at the semi-final stage next Wednesday to take on either the Australian league winners, Sydney, or the Japanese runners-up, NTV Beleza, the central focus will undoubtedly be on the Blues striker Yuki Ogimi – a 2011 World Cup winner with Japan and 2012 Olympic silver medallist, who is currently shortlisted for Fifa's World Player of the Year award.
"They're women's football mad in Japan," said Hayes, who explained that Japan's World Cup win came just three months after the devastating tsunami that hit the country. "Yuki says it just exploded after that. It just filled the hearts and minds of the Japanese public." Japanese media organised a press conference solely to announce that Ogimi would captain Chelsea in the tournament. "You can't go anywhere without 20-30 journalists mobbing you there, it's nutty," said Hayes. "Going over there with an American team last year, we never even saw the [US World Cup winners] 1999 generation get treated like that over in the US. We couldn't believe the adulation, it was mind-blowing. It's fabulous. It's a cult following. Their top club team, INAC Kobe Leonessa, average anywhere between 12-20,000 for a home game."
The IWCC, also known as the Mobcast Cup and organised for the first time last year by the Japan Football Association and Japanese Women's Football League, is being touted to Fifa officials as a women's equivalent to the Fifa Club World Cup. The top sides from around the world will descend on Okayama, Kagoshima and Tokyo for the second edition of the Cup, with Chelsea facing either Japanese Cup and League winners Kobe Leonessa or the South American side Colo-Colo should they progress to the final.
With the Champions League winners Wolfsburg having turned down the opportunity to travel to Japan, Hayes jumped at the chance to participate in a tournament that also ties in with Chelsea's Asia marketing plans. "I think the club are keen for the women to be involved in Japan because we have a female star so to penetrate that market makes it easier if you have a player. It makes sense for us to be invested there."
Hayes views the tournament as a good opportunity for her new signings to bed into the team ahead of pre-season training in the new year, and is unrepentant about poor results in the last campaign. "We've just been concentrating on getting it right behind the scenes," says Hayes, who insists she had to implement a new infrastructure to enable the club to move forward. "For me last season was a massive success off the pitch. We progressed players from our centre of excellence – we finished the season with five centre of excellence players in our line-up, which is a sign of how far we've come. I'm a big fan of player development and developing my own players. Our project is different to City and Liverpool, we're not trying to buy instant success. We want to develop it."
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