Sports Category
Sports news, commentary and scores with wit and added value. We compare and contrast the best and worst sports reporting in the mainstream press, blogs, TV and online. We love the English Premier League (Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Manchester United and Manchester City) and all things football but we cover cricket, rugby, the Olympics, tennis, golf, F1 and highlights of the sporting year.
Transfer Balls: Manchester United’s 25m bid for Spurs Lloris in euros and pounds
Transfer Balls: how much will Manchester Untied need to pay Spurs to sign Hugo Lloris?
Daily Mirror: “Manchester United transfers: Hugo Lloris given ‘verbal agreement’ on sale if Tottenham received £18m bid”
The Metro: “Manchester United ‘to make £25million transfer bid for Hugo Lloris very soon’
Such are the facts when the Metro can’t work out the difference between euros and pounds.
The story is rooted in L’Equipe, which reports that Lloris has an agreement that Spurs will sell him if a bid for €25m (£17.8m) arrives.
Watch Arsene Wenger welcome Petr Cech to Arsenal from Chelsea in fantastic style
Are Arsenal fans happy their club is likely to buy Petr Cech from Chelsea? Yes. Very. The Bleacher Report (via Pies) have produced this brilliant vine to illustrate Arsene Wenger’s anointing of Cech as his new number one.
Posted: 23rd, June 2015 | In: Arsenal, Chelsea, Sports | Comment
Transfer Balls: Chelsea’s Petr Cech needs Christophe Lollichon Arsenal if he’s to thrive
Chelsea’s John Terry says Petr Cech can win Arsenal the Premier League title. Arsenal want to buy Cech for £10 million. His first competitive match for the Gunners could be the Community Shield agsint Chelsea on August 2.
Says Terry:
“If they do get him, that will strengthen them for sure. He will save them 12 to 15 points a season. I am sure if he does leave — which nobody wants to see, but we understand he wants to play football — he is going to be sorely missed. He will improve whatever side he goes to.”
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Posted: 23rd, June 2015 | In: Arsenal, Chelsea, Sports | Comment
Transfer Balls: Sergio Ramos uses ‘weak’ Manchester United to get a new deal at Real Madrid
Are Manchester United really going to sign Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos? The media is full of speculation linking the Spanish defender to Old Trafford
Ramos’ contract at Madrid runs until 2017. He wants to stay at the club. And he will if he gets a new contract and more money.
Manchester United are keen to take Ramos as part of a deal that sees their goalkeeper David De Gea head to Real Madrid. United have already tested the water with swap deals involving Madrid’s Karim Benzema and Raphaël Varane. Both times Real refused. Now United are looking at Ramos.
United assume that Real are desperate to sign De Gea and will release one of their own stars to make it happen. But De Gea has only one year left on his United deal and wants to join Madrid.
United’s position is weak.
As for Ramos, yesterday’s La Razón newspaper led with a photo of the player and the message “Respect the badge”. The Spanish organ, which has close ties to Florentino Pérez, the Real president, says playing for Manchester United is a step down:
Louis Van Gaal has been unable to compete with Chelsea for the Premier League this season and will play the qualifying round to enter the Champions League. Di Maria went there a year ago and is aware that his football took a step backwards.
But in the Sun, readers are told:
The player himself is convinced he is on his way and has said his goodbyes to team-mates.
Says who? How do we know that?
The Sun says United ‘Won’t play Sergio’s games’. But they already are. The whole story is of media briefings from Ramos’ agent and Real.
And then there is the small detail of Ramos’ current contract. It contains a €180 million buyout clause.
So. Will Manchester United sign Sergio Ramos? No. They won’t.
Posted: 23rd, June 2015 | In: manchester united, Sports | Comment
Transfer Balls: Wilshere gets to Arsenal deal as Manchester City scramble for Pogba
Transfer Balls: The Sun says Manchester City will try to buy Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere if they fail with a bid to sign Paul Pogba from Juventus.
City are desperate to land the French star but Juventus want a whopping £71million while Barcelona and Real Madrid are also interested.
Pogba to City seems a longshot. The Sun adds:
Arsenal midfielder Wilshere is on a list of possible alternatives drawn up by City director of football Txiki Begiristain if they cannot get Pogba, 22.
But they won’t get Wilshere.
Pellegrini is a huge fan of Wilshere, 23, and the fact he is English is another major plus. But City fear the Gunners will want at least £40m. The England star is aware of their interest and ideally wants to stay at Arsenal — but only if he is playing regularly.
Of course Wilshere is aware of the interest – the story is being played out in the media. And the bit about him staying at Arsenal if he gets more games is straight out of his agent’s Press Briefings Handbook.
So he will seek assurances he will get the game time he craves before committing to a new deal at the Emirates.
No. He will seek more money – in football terms, the pay packet dictates the hierachy in the changing room. Indeed, the Independent says Arsenal cheerleader Wilshere will get “a new five-year contract that doubles his current wage” to £100,000-a-week.
Which leaves City scrambling for top English talent.
Transfer Balls: tabloids’ Geoffrey Kondogbia to Arsenal story a masterclass of bilge
Transfer Balls salutes the Daily Star, which tells Arsenal fans:
Arsenal Transfer News: Kondogbia DONE DEAL
That sounds a lot like Monaco’s Kondogbia has singed for the Gunners, right? Wrong.
Geoffrey Kondogbia has signed a deal to join Inter Milan, snubbing a move to Arsenal.
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Transfer Balls: Jackson Martinez heading to Arsenal for £5m less then they paid for him in February
Transfer Balls: FC Porto striker Jackson Martinez, 28, is waiting for Arsenal to comer and get him, says the Daily Express. The paper declares:
Jackson Martinez heading to Arsenal for £25m
Back in February 2015, the Express told readers:
Porto AGREE to sell Jackson Martinez to Arsenal for £30m
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The Sun hates Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish – Prince Harry but with talent
The Sun continues its assault on Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish (previously: hippy crack and larks), whose in Marbella’s Sisu Boutique Hotel with a 6-litre Ciroc Vodka:
FOOTIE ace Jack Grealish lies beside a half-empty SIX-LITRE bottle of vodka costing £1,000 at a boozy pool party.
When we first see Jack in his baseball cap, lounging in the sun surronded by smiling, bikini-clad lovelies, we thought it was Prince Harry. But it’s not. It’s likeable Jack Grealish, what Prince Harry could be if he had talent.
One holidaymaker said: “He looked drunk…”
Days later he flew to Tenerife and angered Villa by being snapped lying in the street, apparently drunk and unconscious, during a bender there. That followed a warning by the club in April after The Sun ran photos of him inhaling hippy crack.
When did Jack Grealish become a spokesman for Abstinence UK or the Public Health England? Check the smallprint on that Aston Villa contract, Jack, and pay attention to the part about you being a ‘role model’.
It’s utter drivel. The elite like using footballers to teach fine morals to the working class.
You can read what a young David Cameron and his Bullgindon boys allegedly used to get up to on other people’ money here.
Transfer Balls: news of Manchester United’s mad £45m bid for Sergio Ramos
Transfer Balls: The Daily Mail says Manchester United are “close to signing Sergio Ramos from Real Madrid”. Ramos has a contract keeping him at Real until 2017. He’s 29. How close are United? Well, the Daily Star says talks between Real and United will begin this week.
Reports the Mail:
Manchester United are close to signing Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos in a dramatic twist to the David de Gea saga. Ramos is upset that Madrid have allowed his contract to run down into its final two years and has told advisers he wants out of the club with Old Trafford his preferred destination.
If United can make the deal happen their goalkeeper De Gea will effectively swap places with his Spain team-mate Ramos, in the biggest piece of business between the two clubs since Real signed Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009.
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Posted: 21st, June 2015 | In: manchester united, Sports | Comment
Liverpool’s Kolo Toure and ‘Flora’ Ntonya’s post-Yaya al fresco election night sex
In “Stingy Kolo gave me a £10 tip… my window cleaner clients pay more”, the Sun hears more from Sandra Ntonya, the woman who claims to have met Manchester City’s married Yaya Toure in a Sainsbury’s and shagged him for cash.
Sandra Ntonya now says she’s also had sex with Yaya’s brother, Liverpool’s Kolo Toure in his spare bedroom, garden and dining room. We peek through the clean windows at chez Toure:
THE £140-an-hour hooker linked to Premier League ace Yaya Toure has told how she romped with his footie brother Kolo. Sandra Ntonya, 34, enjoyed a string of sex sessions at the married Liverpool defender’s home and in his Mercedes. But she blasted the £60,000-a-week star as “stingy”, saying: “He only gave me a £10 tip. I have clients who are window cleaners who pay better.”
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Posted: 21st, June 2015 | In: Manchester City, Sports | Comment
Transfer Balls: ‘Dirty Schwein’ Bastian Schweinsteiger joins Manchester United (again)
Transfer Balls: The Daily Mirror says Manchester United are “confident” of signing Bayern Munich’s Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Manchester United are nearing a £7.5million deal for Bayern Munich star Bastian Schweinsteiger, writes Steve Bates in the Sunday People. Old Trafford boss Louis van Gaal is confident he can lure his former player away from the Allianz Arena and transfer negotiator Ed Woodward has been tasked with making it happen.
Is Van Gaal more confident of landing Schweinsteiger than he was last summer?
LOUIS VAN GAAL will turn to Bastian Schweinsteiger to kick-start his Manchester United revolution.
June 12 2014, Independent: “Bastian Schweinsteiger: Manchester United aim for Bayern Munich midfielder as their top summer target”
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Posted: 21st, June 2015 | In: manchester united, Sports | Comment
Transfer Balls: Liverpool ‘sources’ imagaine a £50m Manchester Bid for Raheem Sterling
Transfer Balls: a look at rubbish football rpeoting in the mainstream media. Today the Daily Express says Manchester will pay £50m for Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling. Having had a £40m offer rejected, the Express is hardly alone in reasoning is that City will offer more for the talented young English player.
The Express says this is an “exclusive”. And it is one – in much the same way that the contents of you toilet are exclusive to that toilet.
John Richardson writes:
As Sunday Express Sport has revealed Liverpool are prepared to sell the 20-year-old but not for a penny under £50 million.
As all papers, blogs, radio stations and carrier pigeons have also revealed, Sterling wants to leave Liverpool and the Reds wants to get as much as they can for the player.
Sources close to the Merseyside club have indicated that City won’t drop their interest for the sake of another £10 million in a summer in which they are committed to bringing in top English talent.
These sources are unnamed. They are also on the Liverpool side of the deal. The Express‘ scoop about what Manchester City will do contains not a single word from anyone at Manchester City.
Posted: 21st, June 2015 | In: Liverpool, Manchester City, Sports | Comment
Transfer Balls: Spurs find £20m for PSG’s Adrien Rabiot, who already signed for Roma and Arsenal
Transfer Balls: Are Tottenham readying a bid for PSG’s Adrien Rabiot? The Times says they are:
Tottenham Hotspur have expressed further interest in signing Adrien Rabiot, who has played in midfield for France at all youth levels but has asked to leave Paris Saint-Germain.
Rabiot is represented by his mother, Veronique Rabiot, who says her lad fancies a return to the Premier League (he was on Manchester City’s book for a short time):
“Adrien loves PSG and would love to make a career for himself there, but it’s not possible. He needs 35 games per season to continue his progression, and this won’t happen at PSG next season. I’ve asked for a transfer and it is better that he leaves. Adrien is happy when he wears the colours of PSG. If he cannot play for PSG, then his choice is the Premier League.”
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Posted: 20th, June 2015 | In: Reviews, Sports, Spurs | Comment
Transfer Balls: Arsenal bid £28.5m for William Carvalho but Manchester United got him for £37m
Transfer Balls: In an ‘exclusive” The Sun says Arsenal are bidding £28.5m William Carvalho, an Arsenal fan currently playing for Portugal Under-21s
ARSENAL have tabled a fresh £28.5million bid for Sporting Lisbon’s William Carvalho. And the Gunners could get their man if they stump up a further £8.5m in add-ons to trigger the Portugal midfielder’s £37m release clause.
But this is Transfer Balls, a look at rubbish football reporting.
In March 2014, Steve Bates told Sunday People readers that Manchester United had got their man:
TalkSport agreeed. But now the fee was £35m:
The signing of Carvalho, who is set to feature for Portugal in this summer’s World Cup, will be seen as a major coup for under-pressure Red Devils boss Moyes.
That deal never happened.
In April 2015, Jamie Sanderson said Carvalho to Arsenal was a done deal:
Sanderson cited a source:
And amid claims that Sporting have dropped their asking price to £21.5million, the Daily Express says a fee has now been agreed.
In the Express, Anthony Chapman had news:
He writes:
Carvalho was targeted by the Gunners as well as Manchester United and Chelsea in the January transfer window, but the Telegraph claims that Sporting have finally agreed a fee with Arsene Wenger. It is believed that the Primeira Liga outfit were demanding £30m for the 23-year-old, but the two parties have now apparently settled on a more modest £21.5m.
No link. But we found it.
The Telegraph has its own source:
Portugese newspaper O Jogo says negotiations have been continuing, and an agreement is now on the cards, with Sporting ready to sell for £21.5 million.
So there was no agreement at all.
Such are the facts.
Posted: 20th, June 2015 | In: Arsenal, manchester united, Reviews, Sports | Comment
Which wantaway Liverpool striker’s agent calls him ‘a lion in a cage’?
Football agent of the day is Marco De Marchi. He represents Liverpool striker Fabio Borini. Since signing for Liverpool in July 2012, the £10m Italian has scored 10 Premier League goals – seven of which were for Sunderland when he went out on loan.
You could deduce from the stats that Borini has been less than great. But Marco De Marchi tells Corriere dello Sport
“Fabio wants a new experience. We expected more consideration from Liverpool. There are teams from all over Europe interested in him. Top clubs in Europe are keen on him, from the Premier League to the Bundesliga and there also clubs in Italy, but many clubs in Italy have had coaching changes and that has slowed things down. He has no preference, he just wants a team that gives him a clear chance to prove himself. Right now he feels like a lion in a cage.”
Ready to strike just as soon as he can find his teeth…
Chelsea star Kerry Dixon goes to prison
Kerry Dixon, 53, the fromer Chelsea striker, is in prison. He’s serving nine months for punching and kicking 38-year-old Ben Scoble in Dunstable’s Nag’s Head pub.
Judge Barbara Mensah told Luton Crown Court:
“It was quite clear from the CCTV footage we have seen that you were. the aggressor. Out of the blue you knocked him from the stool and continued to pummel him on the ground. It was clear to me where you were hitting him was about the head.”
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Pray for Mo Farah: the doorbell tolls for thee
The Times says Mo Farah, the London 2012 Olympic 5,000 and 10,000 metres gold medal-winner, has hired Freud’s, “one of the world’s biggest PR companies”. It won’t make him run any faster, but it could keep him in delicious, performance enhancing (it says here) Quorn.
Farah’s named is being sullied because Alberto Salazar, his American coach, has been accused of breaking anti-doping rules. Farah and Salazar deny any wrongdoing.
Mo’s innocent. But the story of his innocence is a messy one.
Farah could have faced a ban for avoiding drug testers had UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) not believed his claim that he did not hear the doorbell when they called at his home in Teddington, southwest London, in 2011. The test was the second that Farah had missed in the run-up to the London Olympics, having missed another in 2010. Three missed tests within an 18-month period, at the time, would have resulted in a ban. Farah had claimed that he was in his bedroom and could not hear the doorbell, but had the testers believed that he was deliberately not answering the door, UKAD could have charged him with evading a test, the penalty for which would have been an immediate suspension
But they could not. Is Mo hard of hearing? Was the radio on? The Mail says the testers rang Farah’s door “for an hour”. Did they also call his phone? Poke him on Facebook?
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Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling is my hippy crack role model
Is that Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling inhaling nitrous oxide – always billed in the newspapers as ‘hippy crack’ – on a boat in Ibiza? The Sun’s Chris Pollard says it is:
FOOTBALL star Raheem Sterling has been caught sucking from a balloon — just weeks after The Sun exposed him inhaling laughing gas… on Tuesday he was videoed with the stem of an inflated pink balloon between his lips.
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Posted: 18th, June 2015 | In: Liverpool, Reviews, Sports | Comment
Transfer Balls: Liverpool turn down £40m Raheem Sterling bid
Manchester City’s £40m Raheem Sterling bid will not to be succesful. Liverpool are digging their heels in, demanding £50 million for the English tyro. QPR, Sterling’s old club watch with intersted – 20% of any fee goes to them.
City have offered £35 plus £5m in performance-related payments.
City are desperate for homefrown talent to ensure that they comply with Uefa regulation. And they are the only City to have made any official offer for him.
But Sterling wants to play in London. Which leaves Sterling hoping that Arsenal or Chelsea offer Liverpool that £50m. Good luck waiting for that, Raheem.
Posted: 18th, June 2015 | In: Liverpool, Manchester City, Sports | Comment
Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere fined £8000 per swear word
What do you think of the FA, Jack Wilshere? The Arsenal players has been fined – get this – £40,000 for referring to Tottenham Hotspur as sh** as the Gunners celebrated winning the FA Cup in front of their fans.
The entire episode featured five swear words – three of them in the gloriously sweary, ‘My old man said me a Tottenham fan, I said f*** off bollocks you’re a c***”. That works aout at £8,000 a cuss. Sepp Blatter should tell his FA men to stop milking the World Cup and just get a swear box installed in their solid gold sedans.
A single afternoon with Wayne Rooney and Roy Keane and the man from the Albania FA would have enough enough money to top Qatar’s bid.
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Transfer Balls: Liverpool await the inevitable Manchester City £50m bid for Sterling
The less he plays for the Liverpool, the more his value rises. So it is for Raheem Sterling, who is now the subject of a £40m bid from desperate Manchester City.
Liverpool will, of course, reject the offer. City have upped their bid from £30m to £40m in a matter of days. Liverpool know that making City wait for prime, young English talent will only increase his price.
Liverpool want £50 million for Sterling. When that was announced, it looked high. But now it looks reasonable.
City will make the offer. And it looks very much like no-one else will.
Posted: 17th, June 2015 | In: Liverpool, Manchester City, Sports | Comment
Sheffield United rename Jessica Ennis-Hill stand after glorious local estate agency
Sheffield United will not longer have a Jessica Ennis-Hill stand. The stand will instead celebate the Olympian efforts of Redbrik in securing real estate for locals for a percentage the sale or rental price.
Sheffield United managing director Mal Brannigan says:
“The introduction of Redbrik as the new Bramall Lane stand naming rights partner sees the name of the City’s most famous Olympian replaced, three years after the club honoured Jess Ennis-Hill’s achievement at London 2012. We have started discussions with Jess and her team as to how she continues to be recognised by the club going forward befitting of her achievements and our hopes for her in Rio 2016.”
That Olympic legacy is fading fast
Transfer Balls: Chelsea’s Petr Cech wants to set new Arsenal recrod but not for £39m
Transfer Balls: is Petr Cech leaving Chelsea for life at Arsenal? The Sun says the player’s goalkeeping coach has “risked a major rift with Chelsea — after indicating the Blues stopper wants a move to Arsenal.”
Christophe Lollichon has coached Cech at Cheslea since 2007. He told French media:
“His family like England. And a player is happy when his family is happy. He wants to stay in England, but I don’t know if there are discussions. The Premier League is his primary objective. But it will also depend on the conditions. The advantage is that Arsenal is a top club, with a philosophy that pleases him and that is in London. Tottenham? I do not think they have the same ambitions as Arsenal. Petr wants to break the record for the most clean sheets in the Premier League.”
And PSG?
“Much has been said about him at PSG but the problem is that when you have evolved in England, Ligue 1 seems light compared to what Petr has now experienced.”
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Posted: 16th, June 2015 | In: Arsenal, Chelsea, Sports | Comment
Arsenal balls: Damian Martinez and Emiliano Martinez compete for one space
The Sun’s Alan Nixon has the facts about Arsenal football club.
ARSENAL goalkeeper Damian Martinez is set to go on loan to Spanish side Getafe. The 6ft 4in Argentine has had spells at Sheffield Wednesday and Rotherham in the Championship but could now move up a level to La Liga. Martinez, 22, can- not even make the Gunners bench with Wojciech Szczesny, David Ospina and Emiliano Martinez already ahead of him — and a new arrival a possibility. So boss Arsene Wenger would be happy for him to go to Getafe for a year.
Can it be that Arsenal have two goalkeepers named Martinez on the books?
No. It can’t be. There is only one Damián Emiliano Martínez…
Transfer Balls: Arsenal and Liverpool target Alvaro Morata’s ‘staggering’ fee used to be higher
Transfer Balls: Is Juventus striker Alvaro Morata heading to Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester United? The Daily Express’ Joe Short finds the fee staggering:
Back in March 2015, the news was not as staggering – which is odd because back then the Express valued Morata at £60m:
Is Morata heading to Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester United for a ‘Staggering’ £58m or a reasonable £60m? No. He’s not.
Of course, Morata already plays for Arsenal. We read that in the Daily Express and its sister organ, the Daily Star:
Such are the facts.
Posted: 15th, June 2015 | In: Arsenal, Liverpool, manchester united, Sports | Comment
