Tag Futebol

Fans of Aston Villa have been reacting to a post on Twitter, in which the club confirmed the appointment of Mile Jedinak as a part of Dean Smith’s backroom staff at Bodymoor Heath.

In a short statement on the Villa website, the club confirmed that Jedinak – who made 80 appearances for the club as a player over a three-year spell at Villa Park, playing an important role in the club’s 2018/19 promotion-winning campaign – will be taking up the role of Loan Player Development Coach at the club.

In addition to confirming Jedinak’s return, Villa also revealed that Adam Henshall has been appointed as the club’s new Head of Emerging Talents & Loans.

And, after Aston Villa relayed news of these appointments on Twitter, fans of the club flocked to have their say on the matter, with many appearing delighted at the prospect of Jedinak being a part of the Villa setup once again.

So, what exactly did these Aston Villa fans have to say in reaction to Mile Jedinak’s appointment?

“Oh yes.”

@avfc_jf

“More key work behind the scenes looking after our future.”

@StephenArnold78

“Fantastic to see Mile still involved in the club.”

@BobBobb70447781

“Wow!!! Planning, that’s a novelty…”

@onmyshoe

“Love to see it.”

@liamhaddon1

“Great news.”

@BoysieBaldock

“Mile omds.”

@jlancaster0

In other news: Loads of Aston Villa fans called for this £42k p/w ace’s summer exit – find out more here!

Speaking to the West Ham Zone, former Irons striker Frank McAvennie has told GSB to seal the signing of Chelsea forward Tammy Abraham – coming after a big ExWHUemployee update that he is now the number one striker target for David Moyes.

The Englishman, who hasn’t enjoyed the same amount of game time as last campaign, starting just 12 Premier League matches, is unlikely to commit his future at Stamford Bridge.

McAvennie urges Abraham swoop

ESPN recently reported that Chelsea have now put Abraham’s new deal talks on hold after he was expected to put pen to paper on a fresh contract last season.

The apparent reason for it’s delay was a dispute over his wage demands, and this has apparently prompted Abraham to enter the West Ham transfer radar.

Previously touted as a target, ExWHUemployee recently revealed in a big update that he is now Moyes’ first choice striking option – and McAvennie has now urged the club to get a deal done.

“I think he would be a great signing. He’s pals with Rice so that would be good,” McAvennie told West Ham Zone.

“I keep thinking they need someone who’s different to Antonio. Antonio’s a big powerhouse but I think they need someone different and Abraham will score goals – that’s for sure.

“He’s a London boy so I would think he would want to stay in London and if they can get him at West Ham, he’s a striker I would take.”

Transfer Tavern take

He has certainly proved himself prolific in the English top flight over these last two seasons, scoring 21 goals in 37 league starts since the beginning of 2019/2020 (WhoScored).

Abraham also stands at an imposing 6 foot 2 and could prove a handful for most defenders, not to mention the fact he is homegrown.

Valued at £36 million by Transfermarkt, these factors and his relatively young age of 23-years-old mark him out as a sure-fire striking candidate and arguably worth the heavy investment.

In other news: West Ham handed Jesse Lingard blow, find out more here.

Eric Dier once again failed Tottenham Hotspur and their supporters with a shocking display as the north London outfit crashed out of the Europa League on Thursday night.Jose Mourinho’s side were embarrassingly beaten by Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb after Mislav Orsic bagged himself a spectacular hat-trick, leading the managerless outfit to a 3-0 win after extra time.In the absence of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg – aÂ’captain without the armband‘ – someone needed to step up and fill his leadership void and, in this case, the Portuguese boss turned to Dier – one of their longest-serving current players, in defence over someone like Toby Alderweireld, who appeared to be rested.This was a decision which ultimately cost them dearly as the 27-year-old dropped a pathetic performance in the heart of Spurs’ backline.Dier’s mistakes against Chelsea, Manchester City and then West Ham in the Premier League had been enough to finally see Mourinho axe the Englishman from his starting XI, so perhaps his inclusion in such a big game should’ve come as a surprise.However, according to the ‘Special One,’ his defenders were well prepared for the threat of Orsic.

The £22.5m-rated centre-back was the epitome of the side’s overall struggles and he continued the recurring theme of individual defensive errors costing the club greatly.

Evening Standard reporter Dan Kilpatrick summed up Dier’s outing pretty perfectly in his post-match ratings column, where he graded the 6 foot 2 colossus as Spurs’ worst player. He wrote: ‘Defensively all over the shop and passing was poor. Gave away silly fouls.’

This echoed the thoughts of Alasdair Gold at football.london, who claimed Dier was ‘all over the place’ when the ball was played into the box, and that merely reinforces the fact that he was particularly error-prone throughout the 120 minutes.

The £85k-per-week star was still among Spurs’ most influential players in the match, as he recorded the second-most number of touches (98). Having someone who has let the club down time and time again on the ball so much is a recipe for disaster.

And indeed it was.

Dier made only three of his nine long balls (33%), lost possession 11 times and committed a game-high four fouls. In fact, that was double the number of any other visiting player on the night, as per SofaScore.

The Spurs defender was hugely wasteful in giving the ball back to Zagreb, both through his misplaced passes and his inability to successfully prevent the opposition from getting through – he also won only eight of his 18 duels (44%).

This was a genuine chance for Spurs to go one step closer towards ending that barren run without silverware. They held a two-goal advantage going into this tie and should have seen this off with ease.

Dier should know all too well how much it means to the Hotspur faithful – after all, he’s been here since 2014 and in that time, the closest he’s ever come to winning a trophy was that Champions League final in 2019 – that competition now seems a distant dream.

Once again, Mourinho was badly let down by several of his key players and Dier has been one of the chief suspects.

AND in other news, Levy could land Mourinho his own Van Dijk in Spurs swoop for £13.5m-rated “role model”…

Former Premier League defender Danny Mills believes that Celtic will not get their hands on Rafael Benitez this summer.

Benitez not convinced?

Neil Lennon recently resigned from his position in the hot seat after his side’s 1-0 defeat to Ross County a fortnight ago, which almost certainly ended their hopes of winning 10-in-a-row.

Benitez, formerly in charge of Liverpool and Chelsea and described as a “great” manager by former Real Madrid star Pepe, recently departed from the Chinese Super League outfit Dalian Professional due to concerns about his health and wellbeing of his family during the pandemic (Sky Sports).

Several big-name figures have been linked to take over Lennon’s role permanently, including Steve Clarke, Roberto Martinez and Eddie Howe.

Speaking to Football Insider, Mills doubts that the attraction of Celtic would be strong enough to convince Benitez to make the switch north of the border, saying: “Celtic should wait until the summer.

“They’re not going to overturn Rangers’ lead, Rangers are a couple of games away from winning it. Just take your time now, look around and get your processes in place. Work out what you need. Work out who you need and why. They’ve now got two or three months to do that.

“In all honesty, Rafa Benitez would be great but I think he might be looking at a big job. No disrespect to Celtic, but is that too low for Rafa Benitez?

“It’s a two or three-year project at least. So you need someone with the energy to do that. I’m not sure Rafa Benitez would look at the Celtic job seriously.

“He’s not desperate to get back into football and he certainly doesn’t need the money – we can comfortably say that. Whereas someone like Eddie Howe is very keen to get back into football as soon as possible.”

Transfer Tavern Verdict

While Mills raises some good points, his comments almost diminish the true size of Celtic as an institution.

Celtic is a huge football club with an illustrious history behind them. The challenge of managing the Hoops is a big job, as much as Mills wants to argue otherwise.

At the same time, he is correct when he says that the team’s rebuild will likely take time and that fans must be patient with whoever comes through the door. With Benitez possessing an impressive CV, the Hoops could appeal to him. Time will tell.

In other news, Celtic-linked manager responds to Parkhead links; Mourinho once dubbed him ‘incredible.’

MatériaMais Notícias

Sem poder contar com Fernando Miguel, Guilherme Mattis, Maicon Silva e Alípio, Marinho, Tiago Real e Willian Farias, lesionados, o técnico Vagner Mancini tem problemas para definir o time do Vitória para o jogo contra o Flamengo de Guanambi, pelas quartas de final do Campeonato Baiano, que será realizado no próximo sábado, no Barradão, em Salvador. O volante Amaral lamentou o grande números de lesões no elenco em um momento importante do Estadual.

– Atrapalha muito. Quando a equipe está pegando a informação, crescendo coletivamente, perde atletas assim… É complicado. Mas as peças de reposição estão à altura para corresponder – disse Amaral, em entrevista coletiva.

Na partida de ida, realizada na semana passada, fora de casa, o Vitória foi derrotado por 1 a 0. Na semana passada, no gol, por exemplo, Mancini teve de escalar o jovem Caíque, que foi bem e ganhou elogios de Amaral.

– No Ba-Vi, Caíque foi muito bem. Ele está fazendo a parte dele. A bola está chegando, e ele está ali para fazer isso. Também tem as qualidades da equipe adversária. Uma hora sempre estoura, e ainda bem que o Caíque está em boa fase, podendo nos ajudar ali – disse o volante.

Para se classificar às semifinais, o Vitória precisa vencer o Flamengo por qualquer placar.

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Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, Carlton Palmer discussed the counter-attacking tool Marcelo Bielsa has been using at Leeds United this season.

When it comes to goals scored on the counter in the Premier League in the current campaign, Leeds rank among the elite, registering an impressive total of six, and Palmer has put that devastation on the break down to recent signing Raphinha.

The £28,000-a-week Brazilian joined from Ligue 1 outfit Rennes last summer and has managed to make an instant impact in attack. He has been directly involved in 10 league goals and currently averages the most successful dribbles per game in Leeds’ squad (1.7, per WhoScored), and it is that ability to carry the ball that is aiding Bielsa’s side on the counter, according to Palmer.

The former England international told FFC:

“The one thing that happens, and especially when you’re playing away from home, you know, if you’re going to play the way Leeds play, which is on the counter, counter-attacking football, the one thing that breaks the team down is somebody who can dribble with a ball at pace. It really does because a team can set up against you, make it very difficult for you to pass through them, be very solid, very organised. 

“But if you set up that way and you’ve got somebody then who can just dribble past two players, that just breaks that defensive system down. There’s no answer to that and he [Raphinha] gives Leeds United that.”

Leeds have also shown that they are a team capable of taking the game to their opponents, rather than just solely relying on counter-attacks and transitions.

Despite only recently being promoted to the Premier League, the Whites rank in the top five for ball possession, recording an average of 57.2%.

Undoubtedly, thanks to additions such as Raphinha and the brilliance of Bielsa, Leeds have been able to make a seamless transition from the Championship to English football’s top flight.

أعلنت شبكة قنوات “سكاي سبورتس” بث جميع مباريات بطولة كأس أمم إفريقيا 2021 والتي ستقام في الكاميرون رغم أنباء إلغائها منذ صباح اليوم الأربعاء.

وتبدأ البطولة الدولية القارية من 9 يناير وتستمر حتى 6 فبراير، ولكن كانت هناك تقارير من إذاعة “مونت كارلو” الفرنسية بأن كاف يفكر في إلغائها بسبب التخوف من انتشار فيروس كورونا المستجد، كوفيد 19.

اقرأ أيضًا.. لاعب أستون فيلا السابق لـ ليفربول: امنحوا محمد صلاح ما يريد

All 52 games of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations tournament will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in January and February. — Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) December 15, 2021

وأكدت الشبكة عبر موقعها الإلكتروني أن البطولة بجميع مبارياتها ستبث على الهواء مباشرة خلال شهر يناير وفبراير خاصة وأنها تضم حوالي 40 لاعبًا من الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز على رأسهم محمد صلاح وساديو ماني من ليفربول.

وقال مدير رياضة كرة القدم في شبكة “سكاي سبورتس، جاري هيوز: “هذه أخبار رائعة لعشاق كرة القدم الذين يحبون مشاهدة أفضل اللاعبين في العالم ومنهم محمد صلاح، ساديو ماني ورياض محرز”.

يأتي ذلك على الرغم من تخوف الأندية الإنجليزية من إصابة أحد لاعبيها في البطولة بفيروس كورونا بالإضافة إلى الإجراءات الاحترازية والحجر الصحي لأيام عند عودتهم إلى إنجلترا.

Sam Allardyce needs crucial additions at West Brom this January if he’s to even stand a chance at upholding the impressive feat of never being relegated from the Premier League, though one target is far from the answer next month…

What’s the word?

According to The Athletic’s Steve Madeley, the 66-year-old has former centre-back Mamadou Sakho high on his shortlist going into the transfer window.

The Frenchman is a player Big Sam signed for Crystal Palace from Liverpool in January 2017 for £26m, despite reported interest from then-Baggies boss Tony Pulis.

It’s claimed that he would command a sizeable loan fee as well as a commitment to pay the majority of his £100k-per-week wages, and there is even a prospect to buying him permanently after the loan should they stay up.

Transfer disaster?

It’s no secret that a new central defender should be among the top priorities for Allardyce in January, but perhaps he should be looking elsewhere to the hardly-seen 30-year-old.

Over the course of the past 18 months, Sakho has only managed to start 14 times for Roy Hodgson – for good reason too, he’s failed to average over 0.8 tackles or even 1.5 aerial duels won per game, via WhoScored.

For someone that is 6 foot 2 and was once a first-choice under Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, that is a shocking return.

Earlier in the current campaign, Sakho came under fire from the Exiled Eagles podcast. One of the pundits dubbed the veteran a “liability,” he said via This is Futbol:

“At the time we signed him, I remember saying that that was not a signing the manager wants, that’s a signing [Steve] Parish made to appease the fans after the loan spell – simple as. He’s a liability, he’s gone downhill – another one – we cannot give him away. Who is going to sign him?”

Sakho is far from your conventional defender, a maverick who is more reckless than not – something backed up by his poor disciplinary record – and that is exactly what the Baggies need to steer clear of if they are to survive this current plight.

If Luke Dowling has any sense, he’ll reject this suggestion at the first point of asking.

AND in other news, West Brom exclusive: Sam Allardyce tipped to sign forgotten PL man in January…

Talk about going down with a fight. After a wretched display before the international break saw Newcastle slip to a dismal 2-1 defeat to Southampton, you would have thought Steve Bruce’s side would be raring to put things right on Saturday afternoon against Chelsea.

Instead, they were timid, far too defensive and void of any creativity. A familiar scene for any Magpies fan this season. Frank Lampard’s side ran out comfortable winners in the end, and barely broke a sweat, with Sean Longstaff’s long-range strike deep in the second half the only real worthy effort of note.

And whilst they were poor going forward – they managed just one shot on target in the entire game – one man let his manager down massively: Federico Fernandez.

The Argentine has arguably been one of the more reliable performers this season at St James’ Park, but he was nowhere near the kind of standards he has set for himself.

The 31-year-old was involved in Chelsea’s first goal, and his attempts at trying to claim a foul from Ben Chilwell was pathetic. The 6 foot 2 central defender was far too weak in defending an incoming corner, and instead of trying to clear his lines, seemed more interested in going down at the slightest of contact from the Blues ace. The end result? He ended up sticking it into his own net.

And his nightmare display wasn’t all about his own goal either. As per Sofascore, he made no tackles or interceptions whatsoever, and competed in just one duel – which he lost.

For a centre-back to go through an entire game without registering a defensive contribution like that is frankly shocking, and he just looked all at sea in trying to deal with the pace and movement of the likes of Timo Werner and Tammy Abraham.

Jamaal Lascelles’ injury probably didn’t help his cause either, but for an experienced professional like him to put in such a nothing display, was just a slap in the face for the supporters and Bruce.

Celtic’s chances of keeping hold of star striker Odsonne Edouard are looking more and more bleak. With just two years left on his current contract, the Hoops must start considering their options or risk losing him for a reduced fee or even on a free transfer.

Time is not on Neil Lennon’s side. Whilst the club will want to tie the Frenchman down on a new long-term contract, it doesn’t seem like this is what the player wants. Hearts defender Andy Halliday recently commented on Edouard’s status at the club and believes he looks “unhappy” at Celtic. If this is the case, it won’t be long before his head starts to be turned by interested clubs.

If and when it does, the Hoops must take to the transfer market and bring in a replacement, which will be much easier said than done. They were linked with a move for Sheffield Wednesday’s Steven Fletcher over the summer, but talks dismantled and the striker eventually moved to Stoke City.

Celtic’s mistake not to scoop up Fletcher

If Edouard is to leave Scotland, Lennon and co need to bring in a forward of similar calibre. The France youth international was on fire for the Bhoys last season, notching an astonishing 21 goals and 12 assists in 27 Premiership appearances (via Transfermarkt).

He has been quieter this season following his spell on the sidelines through self-isolation, but is still making an impact in front of goal. The only player to match his quality this campaign is Mohamed Elyounoussi, who is only with the Scottish outfit on loan. Should the Hoops lose both the Norwegian and Edouard, they will wish they’d made a move for Fletcher when they had the chance.

The 33-year-old veteran signed for the Potters on a free transfer this summer after enjoying four years in Sheffield. His final season for Wednesday saw him net 13 Championship goals and he has already gotten off the mark with four for Stoke so far this term (via Transfermarkt).

Fletcher also represented Sunderland for a large chunk of his career and attracted a lot of praise from his teammates. Eight years ago, Adam Johnson lauded the striker as an “unbelievable” signing for the Black Cats, who kept him for four years before his move to Sheffield Wednesday.

Both he and Edouard are natural goalscoring talents and it should have been a no-brainer to snap up the 33-year-old. Now it’s back to the drawing board for Lennon and Nick Hammond, who will be biting their nails over Edouard’s potentially looming departure.

In other news, Celtic must prioritise permanent transfer for “revelation” striker Mohamed Elyounoussi…