The Malaysian Insider :: Sports
The Malaysian Insider :: Sports |
| Chelsea have backup plan if Rooney chase fails Posted: 20 Aug 2013 09:05 AM PDT The Europa League holders have already had two big-money offers for the unsettled England international rejected and Mourinho hinted after Sunday's 2-0 win over Hull City that he would eventually make a third attempt to sign Rooney. "We have Plans B and C," the Portuguese told a news conference on the eve of today's home game against Aston Villa in the Premier League. "Don't ask me names because it's difficult to speak about players from other clubs. We have the conditions to try to improve our team by bringing in one more player and we are going to try that till the end." Chelsea will again be without Brazil defender David Luiz because of a hamstring problem but Spain midfielder Juan Mata is hoping to feature after missing the opening game of the season against Hull. The club's player of the year for the last two seasons has been troubled by a thigh injury but said he was now ready to return. "I didn't train for a few days but I came back, worked with the physios and on Thursday last week I trained with the first team, not at 100 per cent but trying to get to my best," Mata said. "Now I feel better and I am looking forward to playing and starting my season." UNUSED SUB Mata was an unused substitute against Hull and said he was impressed with Chelsea's performance, especially in the first half when they scored twice and missed a penalty. "It was a very good start," the Spaniard added. "The first 30 minutes were amazing. "The team pushed, pressed and recovered the ball very high (up the pitch) and scored two goals. It could have been even more and we played well." Eden Hazard was one of the standout performers in the opening 45 minutes against Hull but Mourinho is demanding more from the talented young Belgium playmaker. "I know what I want from him – I want more responsibility and I want more ambition because when you are a normal player you have to be happy when you perform okay," the Chelsea manager said. "When you have top talent (like Hazard) you cannot waste that talent so I want to give him that ambition to be better and better and to express himself on the pitch match after match, not be up and down." Mourinho's comments evoked memories of his first spell in charge at Stamford Bridge between 2004 and 2007 when he regularly took Joe Cole to task in an attempt to achieve a high level of consistency from the skilful England midfielder. – Reuters, August 21, 2013. |
| United bids for Everton duo are waste of time, says Martinez Posted: 20 Aug 2013 07:21 AM PDT The Spaniard's comments came the day after the club's director of communications Alan Myers branded the bids for Belgium midfielder Marouane Fellaini and England defender Leighton Baines as "derisory and insulting". "It's been well documented what happened with the transfer speculation, that's been dealt with and it was all a little bit of a waste of time – time I don't want the players to waste," Martinez told Everton Television. He questioned whether the transfer window should even still be open when the season was underway, echoing the views of Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew who yesterday was angry about the timing of an approach by Arsenal for midfielder Yohan Cabaye. "I'm not a big believer in having the window open while the games are starting," Martinez said. "I think the start of the season was important for us at Norwich (a 2-2 draw) and I won't come out now and carry on talking about the speculation. "When there is something to tell our fans we will do that – they'll be the first ones to know if there are any players coming in or any players going out. "But I don't believe in getting involved in the transfer window when the games are underway and we are in a very, very important moment of our season," said Martinez. "We're trying to find our feet, we've got a good start under our belts, we've got real competition for places and we've got the visit of West Brom at the weekend." According to media reports United, now managed by former Everton boss David Moyes, offered a total of £28 million for Fellaini and Baines. United, who began their title defence with a 4-1 win at Swansea City on Saturday, are yet to make a significant transfer-window signing with their public pursuit of Barcelona's Cesc Fabregas so far coming to nothing. – Reuters, August 20, 2013. |
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