The transfer window may be shut, but some clubs are already planning their assault on the next one in January.
Here's the best stories from today's papers: Transfer stories from today's Daily Mirror: Megabucks Russians want Van Persie EXCLUSIVE: Liverpool line up Swiss starlet Arsenal target Hazard's agent hints at move Corinthians eye new Tevez bid Cleverley signs new contract at Man United Today's transfer stories from other papers and websites: Javier Hernandez is a shock £30million target for Real Madrid. The Spanish giants have put the Manchester United striker top of their wanted list. (The Sun) Chelsea face a desperate battle to hang on to Ashley Cole . Russian mega-spenders Anzhi Makhachkala are ready to offer the 30-year-old £200,000 a week. (The Sun)
Toulouse winger Aymen Abdennour, 22, is a target for Arsenal . The £3.5million-rated Tunisia star said: "I'll be happy to play in England." (The Sun) Tottenham and Newcastle target Junior Hoilett is stalling on signing a new Blackburn deal. his current contract expires next summer. (Daily Mail) Arsenal are on the brink of completing a deal for Spanish wonderkid Jose Rodriguez after agreeing a deal with Real Madrid. (Daily Mail) Arsenal are set to offer Robin van Persie a bumper new contract in order to ward off Manchester City, who are thought to be keen on signing the Dutchman. (Daily Mail) Chelsea will make a £14million move for Bolton defender Gary Cahill in January. (Daily Express)
Contract talks between Didier Drogba and Chelsea have been put on hold, which could mean the striker will be allowed to leave on a free transfer at the end of the season. (The Times)
Liverpool defender Danny Wilson is wanted on loan by Blackpool boss Ian Holloway.
The Seasiders chief took midfielder Jonjo Shelvey from Anfield in a similar deal before the international break. Now he is returning with an offer for 19-year-old Scotland *international Wilson.
Blackpool have excellent relations with Liverpool having helped smooth through a deal for Charlie Adam to switch to Anfield in the summer.
Holloway also hopes to tie up a deal for free agent striker Lomana LuaLua before Saturday's trip to West Ham.
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Crystal Palace boss Dougie Freedman is ready to splash out on Huddersfield's Scotland under-21 hit man Jordan Rhodes.
Freedman dashed to his homeland to see striker Rhodes score twice for his adopted country's 'emerging' side against Austria - making it a staggering five goals in two games.
Rhodes has been a Palace target for months but now Freedman is ready to make an offer and try to take the young forward on loan with a view to a full-time move.
Huddersfield are looking for a huge fee for Rhodes, but Freedman hopes to agree a sensible price - possibly as high as £750,000 for the Oldham-born starlet.
Rhodes has been prolific for the Terriers since Lee Clark signed him but he has been in and out of their side in recent times as Huddersfield try out different systems.
The chance to play in the Championship may appeal to Rhodes if Palace can thrash out terms at all levels.
[h=1]Wednesday's gossip column - transfers and rumours[/h]
TRANSFER GOSSIP Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal are interested in Plymouth's 16-year-old winger Matt Lecointe, who is rated as "the next Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain".
Full story: Daily Mirror
Manchester City are targeting Marek Hamsik and Ezequiel Lavezzi, both of Napoli - who are in the same Champions League group as the Eastlands club.
Full story: Daily Mirror Everton are being rivalled by Bayern Munich in the bid to sign Valencia midfielder Ever Banega.
Full story: talkSPORT
Stoke City defender Robert Huth is attracting interest from Wolfsburg as the German looks to catch the eyes of national team selectors.
Full story: FootyOnline Manchester United have joined Arsenal in the chase for Fiorentina playmaker Riccardo Montolivo.
Full story: InsideFutbol
Villarreal's tough-tackling midfielder Bruno Soriano is wanted by Manchester United, who will have to pay more than €10m (£8.7m) for the Spaniard.
Full story: Inside Futbol Tottenham and Liverpool are battling each other for £12m-rated Lille striker Moussa Sow.
Full story: CaughtOffside
Spurs are also planning a £15m January raid for Chelsea pair Didier Drogba and Alex.
Full story: CaughtOffside Arsenal are facing competition for Lille midfielder Eden Hazard from Real Madrid, according to the Belgian's agent.
Full story: FootyOnline
The Gunners are also looking to sign Porto striker Hulk, but his agent says that the north London club will have to pay more than £23m.
Full story: talkSPORT Newcastle United are keeping an eye on European pair Eren Derdiyok of Bayer Leverkusen and Luuk de Jong of FC Twente.
Full story: FootyBunker
Arsenal are watching Tunisian defender Aymen Abdennour, who plays for Toulouse, according to the player himself.
Full story: FootyOnline Fulham manager Martin Jol is planning to raid his former club Ajax with a bid for Mounir El Hamdaoui, a player that he has signed and managed twice before.
Full story: FootyLatest
OTHER GOSSIP Liverpool were "on the brink" and could have gone bust under former owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, according to the club's managing director Ian Ayre. Full story: Daily Mirror
Leeds chairman Ken Bates is backing Chelsea fans who are opposing the club's ground move.
Read more: Daily Mirror Chelsea defender Jose Bosingwa could be rewarded for his early season form with a new contract before the end of the year. Full story: FootyBunker
AND FINALLY Chelsea keeper Petr Cech has decided to take up the sticks instead of standing in-between them after making his live performance debut as a drummer for Czech band Eddie Stoilow.
Full story: Metro
Rival clubs have refused to back Liverpool proposal over the sale of TV rights. Photograph: Paul Thomas/Action Images
Manchester United and Chelsea are among several clubs who have moved to distance themselves from Liverpool's proposal to break from the Premier League's model of collecting television rights revenue.
It is understood that Manchester United, who claim to have 333m fans globally and have targeted overseas sponsorship revenue as a route to increase income, will oppose any moves to challenge the status quo under which the Premier League sells television rights overseas on behalf of all 20 elite clubs.
A spokesman for Chelsea said: "We are supportive of the Premier League on this and want to continue with the way they sell [TV rights] collectively."
United insiders pointed out that their chief executive, David Gill, had repeatedly underlined the support of the club's owners, the Glazer family, for the collective model. Appearing before a parliamentary inquiry earlier this year, Gill said: "The collective selling of the television rights has clearly been a success and it has made things more competitive."
It is understood that Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur will continue to back the existing arrangement that last season paid each club £17.9m, while Wigan chairman Dave Whelan reacted with outrage.
Whelan told goal.com: "I have just read his [Ayre's] comments and I find them diabolical - I just can't believe what he has been saying. They are thinking 'how can we get more money?' You won't get more money by killing the heart and soul of the Premier League and killing the heart and soul of football in England.
"We invented the game and we have still got the finest league in the whole world and some of the finest supporters in the whole world and they want to rip the whole thing up."
The public stance of other big clubs will come as a disappointment to Liverpool, who were understood to believe that others would support them. Liverpool's managing director, Ian Ayre, said that clubs in other countries, notably Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, have a growing financial advantage over English clubs because they secure TV deals individually.
Without the support of those who stand to benefit most the idea would be dead in the water, because none of the League's smaller clubs would vote for something that would hugely disadvantage them.
Overseas revenues could outstrip the domestic deal, currently worth £2.1bn over three years, for the first time when the Premier League launches its tender process next year.
Liverpool would need to persuade 13 of their fellow Premier League clubs of the merit of the plan in order to force through the change since any significant change to the Premier League rulebook requires a two thirds majority.
Ayre became the first representative of a leading Premier League club since Peter Kenyon at Manchester United in 2003 to challenge the collective sale of overseas TV rights, which brought in £1.4bn over the three years to 2012-13.
Ayre said: "Is it right that the international rights are shared equally between all the clubs? Some people will say: 'Well you've got to all be in it to make it happen.' But isn't it really about where the revenue is coming from, which is the broadcaster, and isn't it really about who people want to watch on that channel? We know it is us. And others.
"At some point we feel there has to be some rebalance on that, because what we are actually doing is disadvantaging ourselves against other big European clubs."
Is David Beckham really on his way back to Manchester United? Photograph: James Devaney/WireImage
Yipes readers! The Mill has just had its telomeres measured by top Spanish boffins and it turns out it's got fewer than 33 minutes to live, so it's going to make the most of that time by bringing you the best transfer rumours of all time ever. A bit like Jason Statham in Crank but without the fighting, Chinese mafia and that rude bit in the street. And with more rumours.
When the Mill came into this world, the papers were filled with useless flim-flam about David Beckham maybe doing something sometime. It looks like those stories are still about as the Mill prepares to well and truly shuffle its mortal coil. The Sun reports that Beckham will become Manchester United sporting director one day, meaning he will have to sit in an executive box looking a bit worried for the TV cameras whenever United concede a goal. "I'd love to [take up an advisory role]," said Beckham. "The best memory of my career came in 1999, no doubt, when Manchester United won the treble." United won the treble in 1999?! Why has Clive Tyldesley never informed us of this important fact!
If the Daily Mail is to be believed, United have firmed up their interest in Sporting Lisbon striker and lupine appendage Ricky van Wolfswinkel. United assistant manager Mike Phelan said: "We've known Van Wolfswinkel for a long time. He's a young striker, very talented, who has developed well in the last few seasons." The striker will cost £11m, £4m of which will be stumped up by lazy journalists salivating at the thoughts of the gags they can put his name to. United won't stop there, though. According to the Mirror, they're in a three-way battle with Liverpool and Arsenal over Plymouth's 16-year-old winger, Matt Lecointe. You can also make a gag out of his surname but it's too rude for family newspapers so journalists are only willing to stump up £9 of his £2m transfer fee.
This is the bit where Harry Redknapp turns up with plans to sign a few random players. No doubt you've read it all before so feel free to skip to the next paragraph. He'll make a double swoop for Chelsea's Didier Drogba and Alex in the January transfer window, according to caughtoffside.com. Eden Hazard would quite like a move this January. The Mill knows this because his agent, John Bico – who you may know from such columns as yesterday's Rumour Mill – is determined to get his name in every tabloid known to man by the end of the week. Today it's the Sun. "Arsène Wenger wanted Hazard but Lille said no to the sale last summer," said Bico. "Real Madrid have been watching too." Manchester City want to sign Napoli's Marek Hamsik and Ezequiel Lavezzi. "Manchester City are watching Napoli very carefully," City's first-team coach, Fausto Salsano, told a Naples radio station. "I can confirm [Roberto] Mancini's interest in Hamsik because I have been to watch the Slovak."
John Bico would like you to know that quite a few clubs are interested in Eden Hazard.
More Man City news: Corinthians are in for Carlos Tevez again. "We made an offer in the window, he is a player who interests us, but only in January will we see if we have a chance," said the Corinthians president, Andrés Sánchez, in today's Mail. "He is not worth £40m – we will make an offer well below it … I have a value in mind but I won't say what it is," added Sánchez, getting £2.73 out of his pocket.
And with only a few seconds of its life left the Mill can finally reveal that the Premier League players involved in a sordid affair with each other and a parrot are
[h=1]Tearing up the pooled TV deal is a recipe for the rich to get richer[/h] Since the establishment of the Premier League clubs have divided TV revenue between them, but this is under threat
Liverpool's managing director, Ian Ayre, right, has questioned the Premier League's TV deal a year after the club installed new US owners. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty
So, in relaxed, celebratory mood a year on from the court battle which ousted Tom Hicks and George Gillett from Liverpool and installed new Americans, Fenway Sports Group, as the club's owners, the managing director, Ian Ayre, mused out loud about breaking up the Premier League TV deal. That is the one element of clubs' income which they share; everything else, the tickets (prices raised to £45 this season to sit on the Kop), replica shirts at £40, advertising and sponsorship, the clubs all keep to themselves.
The Premier League, of course, was itself formed as a breakaway in 1992, by Liverpool and the other First Division clubs, from having to share the forthcoming satellite TV millions with the clubs in the other three divisions of the Football League. In its 20th season, the Premier League has managed to keep its own TV‑sharing formula intact, the one mechanism which operates to at least give the Boltons a chance of not embarrassing themselves at Old Trafford, even if all clubs outside four, at most, have no chance of expecting to challenge for the title.
The domestic TV deal – the £2.1bn from 2010‑13 which Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB and ESPN pay for the live pay-TV stranglehold, and the BBC for bite-sized highlights – is shared 50% equally, 25% according to where a club finishes in the table, and 25% to clubs every time they are on live. It favours the big clubs, but not mountainously; Manchester United were paid £42.4m last season, while Blackpool, who received the lowest, made exactly half that, £21.2m.
Overseas rights have always been shared equally, and while in 1992 they were almost nonexistent, the current deal, reflecting the game's global popularity, especially in the Middle and Far East, is worth £1.4bn over the next three years. So last season Blackpool received the same as United: £17.9m.
It was only a matter of time before the big clubs would start to challenge this last vestige of sharing, as they did in the 1980s, removing, with the threat of the breakaway they ultimately did anyway, the sharing of gate receipts which had been core to the Football League's competition since it was founded in 1888.
It is a bitter pill, but not that surprising, that the club which has articulated this appetite is one of the four major clubs owned by American buyers. All of them own sports franchises in the US, where their sports operate very strict systems of sharing money, including ticket money, merchandising, TV rights, in fact all revenues. In Major League Baseball, in which Fenway owns the Boston Red Sox, gross revenues are taxed and shared quite equally – although the details are not publicly disclosed – and there is a draft system, specifically designed to ensure that the Red Sox, New York Yankees and other major teams do not relentlessly dominate and the competitions become predictable.
The American buyers for Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United in particular have been attracted into a sport which, unlike their own, now has a global following on television and the internet, from which they believe they can ultimately make a great deal of money. The Premier League also allows them to keep so much more of the money they make than US sports do, as financial dominance here does concentrate sporting success in the trophy cabinets of fewer clubs.
In 19 years only Blackburn Rovers, once, through its momentarily greater spending power, Arsenal three times, and Chelsea via an oligarch's fortune, have interrupted the dominance of United, the highest-earning club throughout, despite the debts loaded on by the Glazer takeover. A football story like Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest miracle, winning the league in their first season promoted in 1978 then the European Cup twice, is now impossible, because financial inequality buys too great a sporting inequality. Manchester City's move from ninth in the Premier League in 2008 to third last season was achieved after the spending of £600m by Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi – it takes one of the world's richest men, not an inspirational football manager alone, to break into English football's elite.
Yet still, with no gate sharing, which helped level competition as the Football League grew into a storyboard of great clubs, or of other revenues, Ayre says Liverpool want more. The Premier League was born from an impulse of individual greed against the collective – unlike US sports – and that appetite has only grown, not lessened, in the 20th year of the English game's new era, with the last vestiges of sharing under renewed attack.
[h=1]Carlos Tevez faces record fine after Manchester City find him guilty[/h] • Club says player has a breach-of-contract case to answer
• Argentinian indicates he will challenge the allegations
Carlos Tevez has imformed Manchester City that he is sticking to his story that it was a 'misunderstanding. Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Images
Manchester City's dispute with Carlos Tevez is threatening to run until Christmas after the club's initial findings found him guilty of refusing to play against Bayern Munich, only for the player to indicate he would fight the allegation as far as possible and demand an apology from Roberto Mancini.
Tevez has told City he is sticking to his story that it was a "misunderstanding" and that he wants Mancini to retract his allegations and apologise for the damage to his reputation. City have refused point blank and are trying to convene a disciplinary hearing before the weekend on the grounds that Tevez has "a case to answer of alleged breaches of contract".
The striker will be informed at that meeting that not one of the players or coaches who have been interviewed as part of City's internal investigation has substantiated his claims about what happened in the Allianz Arena two weeks ago. On the contrary, every single statement has supported Mancini's case that the striker refused to go on as a second-half substitute, with City losing 2-0.
The club have already contacted the players' union, the Professional Footballers Association, to give it advance notice they want to invoke a punishment of a scale that, under guidelines introduced in 2005, will need the organisation's approval. This is likely to take the form of an additional four-week suspension to add to the fortnight Tevez has already served, plus a fine of six weeks' wages. Tevez's weekly salary of £250,000 would make it the largest a footballer in Britain has ever received. The striker intends to lodge an immediate appeal, to be held internally, and, if the case against him is upheld, he will take the matter to a second appeal via a specially convened panel organised by the Premier League. The potential delays, with legal representatives on both sides, mean it may not be until the end of the year before the process is finished.
In the meantime Tevez has been freed to resume training and will report for duty on Thursday in the belief that he will be allowed to rejoin Mancini's first-team squad. Instead Mancini plans to isolate the Argentinian who lifted the FA Cup in May. Tevez will have to train alone or with the youth-team players. This could potentially create problems should he decide to pursue a case of constructive dismissal but the animosity between player and manager has been exacerbated by Tevez's insistence on his return from Buenos Aires that Mancini owes him an apology. In return Tevez was willing to accept he had refused at one point to warm up and to issue an apology of his own. Mancini refused and will not budge.
The club believe there is irrefutable evidence against Tevez from not just the witness statements but also his TV interview directly after the match, when he admitted not being in the right frame of mind to play.
The disciplinary hearing will be chaired by a senior club official, possibly the football administrator, Brian Marwood, or the acting chief executive, John MacBeath, and will go ahead next week if it cannot be arranged in the next 48 hours.
Tevez will be informed the initial review, conducted by City's HR and legal departments, did not accept his explanation and that it constituted gross misconduct. City have decided cancelling Tevez's contract would be excessive – a ruling the PFA agrees with - but the latest events indicate he has no chance of playing for the club before being made available in the January transfer window.
The Tevez saga comes at a bad time for Mancini, however, with Sergio Agüero almost certainly out of Saturday's game at home to Aston Villa. Agüero is hoping to return from a groin injury against Villarreal on Tuesday, though the diagnosis on Mario Balotelli is better and the back issues that forced him to withdraw from international duty with Italy will not keep him out against Villa.
[h=1]Carlos Tevez and Roberto Mancini hold private clear-the-air talks[/h] • Mancini invited Tevez to his house to talk through issues
• Striker has still refused to apologise to his manager
Carlos Tevez will continue to train apart from the first-team at Manchester City despite his talks with Roberto Mancini. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
Roberto Mancini has taken the extraordinary step of instigating peace talks with Carlos Tevez by inviting him to his house for a clear-the-air meeting that could represent the first move to repair their working relationship at Manchester City.
Mancini, who had previously described Tevez as "finished", rang the striker on his mobile phone on Wednesday night to suggest that both men could benefit from having a face-to-face discussion away from the legal process that has provided the biggest controversy of the football season to date.
Tevez was driving back to Manchester after flying into Heathrow from his holiday in Buenos Aires, but diverted to Mancini's house in Alderley Edge, arriving at 1.30am, and the two men stayed up into the early hours discussing the events that had seemingly fractured their relationship.
The meeting ended with the two men shaking hands but, crucially, Tevez did not accept Mancini's request for him to apologise for what had happened in the Champions League match at Bayern Munich on 27 September.
Mancini had promised that if Tevez said sorry the player would be allowed to return to first-team training, though he stopped short of suggesting he would also bring him back into consideration for a recall to the side.
Tevez said he could not apologise, re-iterating his story that he was guilty of refusing to warm up but had not declined to go on the pitch as a second-half substitute. He argued it was a simple breakdown in communications and aired grievances about losing his place in the team and no longer being the captain. Mancini, in turn, told him that the coaching staff did not think Tevez was fit or focused and blamed him for returning so late from the Copa América and missing almost all of pre-season.
Despite the sensitive and political nature of the talks, the meeting took place with Mancini serving coffee and both men showing a cordiality that represents a remarkable change of direction given the antipathy that had previously existed.
Until now, Mancini had given no indication whatsoever that he was willing even to entertain the idea of a reconciliation. On the contrary, every piece of evidence over the last fortnight has told the story of two men in bitter conflict. But the scene in Alderley Edge was of Mancini asking his former captain about his state of mind and how the last two weeks had affected him, and the conversation even veering into other general football topics and small talk.
Where they go from here remains to be seen but Tevez's decision not to apologise ensured he began his first day back at the club's training ground on Thursday working apart from the rest of the senior players. The former Manchester United striker spent 90 minutes doing one-on-one drills with a fitness coach and that will continue until he is deemed fit enough to start training with the club's youth team players.
In the meantime Tevez is preparing as normal for his disciplinary hearing and the only thing that has changed in terms of that process is confirmation that it will now be next week.
Mancini is no longer directly involved and Tevez will be informed at that meeting that the club's initial findings have found sweeping evidence against him. He faces a possible four-week ban to add to the fortnight he has just served, plus the maximum six-week fine permissible under Professional Footballers' Association guidelines – the equivalent of around £1.5m. Tevez intends to appeal, first through the club, and if the decision is upheld he will take the matter to a second appeal, this time via the Premier League.
There is also still a desire on both sides for a transfer to be arranged in the January transfer window, though the latest developments will inevitably invite speculation that there may yet be a reconciliation between two men known for their pride, ego and stubbornness. That is certainly the hope among the club's owners in Abu Dhabi but it would need a climbdown on Tevez's part and that does not appear to be coming.
Mancini is not known for his forgiving nature and his decision to contact Tevez is remarkable in itself given the way City have been treating their internal inquiry almost like a judicial case and have been desperate not to do anything that could possibly undermine the investigation. That policy will continue at Mancini's weekly press conference on Friday when an announcement will be made beforehand that he will not discuss the matter and that any questions will lead to the event being terminated.
[h=1]Liverpool may have overpaid for players, suggests John W Henry[/h] • Henry was initially unconvinced about appointing Dalglish
• Fenway spent £301.5m on Red Sox and Liverpool squads • Read David Conn's full story on Fenway Sports Group
John W Henry standing next to a quotation from John Updike painted on the wall at Fenway Park Photograph: Rick Friedman/Polaris
John W Henry, the principal owner of Liverpool, has suggested his Fenway Sports Group has overpaid for players, particularly in Boston and also in Liverpool, since they bought the football club a year ago this Saturday. Kenny Dalglish, appointed Liverpool's manager in January – which Henry described as "a calculated gamble" because he was not initially convinced Dalglish should return to management after an 11-year absence – has since spent £110.5m on players.
Liverpool's outlay includes £35m on Andy Carroll, £20m each for Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing, as well as £22m for Luis Suárez and £6m for José Enrique, the latter two generally felt in football to represent fair value. The Boston Red Sox, the baseball team Fenway owns, took on $300m (£191m) in new payroll commitments on two players, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, before this season, which nevertheless ended in dramatic collapse for the Red Sox.
Asked whether Liverpool achieved value in the transfer market or overpaid for Carroll and the other players signed at Liverpool, Henry suggested they felt they needed to show fans of both clubs they were prepared to make signings for big money: "There was a lot of criticism in Boston that we weren't going to spend money on the Red Sox after we did the LFC transaction. We spent something like $300m in the off-season in Boston, and then there was the fear we wouldn't spend in Liverpool.
"It is really surprising, ironic, to be now accused of overspending. Usually owners are accused of the opposite. Hopefully the fans of both clubs will eventually see what we see clearly – that there is nothing to fear from the existence of the other club and that Fenway Sports Group is much stronger financially because of Boston and Liverpool."
Asked if the signing of Crawford, the left-arm outfielder contracted for $140m in wages over seven years, whose performances were disappointing this season, represented overspending, Henry defended the 30-year-old, saying the player had only "had a bad year". Then he acknowledged: "Choosing players in any sport is an imperfect science. We certainly have been guilty of overspending on some players, and that can be tied to an analytical approach that hasn't worked well enough."
Henry, Fenway and the Red Sox general manager, Theo Epstein, reportedly about to leave for the Chicago Cubs, have previously been famed for using sabermetrics, a data-driven assessment of which players represent good value to buy, to which Damien Comolli, whom they appointed Liverpool's director of football, is said to subscribe. Comolli was hired following a recommendation by Billy Beane, the former general manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, who Henry said was his "initial adviser on the football side of Liverpool".
However, Henry said people have now become fixated on sabermetrics because of Moneyball, the book on baseball statistics by Michael Lewis, and said "football is too dynamic" to base recruitment largely on a statistical approach. Liverpool's signings, he explained, ultimately relied on scouting, not purely statistics. Comolli, he said, impressed with the all-round rigour of his approach rather than purely a reliance on data.
Henry, discussing Dalglish's appointment during three days of exclusive access granted to the Guardian in Boston, said he had not wanted to appoint the fans' idol, who had not managed since a brief stint at Celtic 11 years earlier, and Henry wanted, hoping Roy Hodgson to stay and revive Liverpool.
"Kenny is certainly charismatic and beloved by the fans," Henry said. "I wasn't convinced when we arrived that Kenny should be back managing and I wanted things to work with the manager we inherited. But the fans knew much more than I did. It took me a while to get up to speed. Then Ian Ayre [whom Fenway appointed Liverpool's managing director] was a catalyst. Damien was a gamble. Kenny was a gamble. But they were both calculated gambles. They both have the advantage of being passionate about their work and are both very clever. We didn't feel we had a lot of time to wait, and we hope things turned around."
By DAILY NEWS Reporter, 14th October 2011 @ 12:20, Total Comments: 0, Hits: 129
A YOUNG Tanzania lady footballer, Costancia Maringa is set for an amateur football career in Germany.
Tanzania Football Federation (TFF), Information Officer, Boniface Wambura said on Friday that the 12 years old girl is scheduled to play for Germany's FC 1919 Marnheim.
He said Germany Football Federation (DFB) has written to TFF seeking the International Transfer Certificate (ITC) for the player.
Wambura said the federation was working on DFB Director, Helmut Sandrock request so that the ITC is being issued after all procedures are met.
Meanwhile, the First Division league which will be played on home and away basis is set to kick off today at different venues.
Cite Wambura said 18-teams are taking part in the league. Some of the matches on the menu today will pit are Group A teams Temeke United and Polisi Dar es Salaam at the Mlandizi Stadium, while Mgambo Shooting will lock horns with Transit Camp at the Mkwakwani Stadium in Tanga.
Today's Group B matches will feature Police Iringa against Small Kids at the Samora Machel Memorial Stadium in Iringa and Tanzania Prisons will take on Mbeya City at the Sokoine Memorial Stadium in Mbeya, while Mlale JKT will meet Majimaji of Songea at the Majimaji Stadium in Songea.
Group C fixtures pit AFC Arusha against Manyoni FC at the Sheikh Amri Abeid Memorial Stadium in Arusha, Police Morogoro versus 94 KJ at the Jamhuri Stadium in Morogoro and Police Tabora will meet Rhino at the Ali Hassan Mwinyi Stadium in Tabora.
TFF also announced the entrance fee for tomorrow's Mainland Premier League encounter between Simba SC and African Lyon at the National Stadium.
The highest will be 15,000/- for VIP A and the lowest is 3,000/- for green and blue stand
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Manchester United will be running scared of Luis Suarez at Anfield tomorrow… because they don't have a clue what he will do next.
That's the confident claim of Suarez's Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish, who believes his star striker could have a psychological edge over his side's bitterest rivals, because of what he did to them last time out.
The little Uruguyan produced a stunning exhibition of skills to take United apart on their last visit to Anfield, when the Reds ran out consummately comfortable 3-1 winners in March.
And Dalglish believes it is the maverick unpredictability of the South American which makes him such a mystery to everyone - except Suarez himself.
"I think the problem opponents have with Luis is that they don't know what is coming next, but he does and that's helpful. We just hope he continues to surprise us - but pleasantly!" said Dalglish.
"Whether his performance last time against United will give them a psychological scar, that is up to them. I don't know how they think but I'm sure they will know what he did to them last season.
"They know what he is capable of and that is their problem. He does something different every time you see him. Everyone can see what he has done on the pitch but he is a fantastic personality in and around the place."
Steven Gerrard will be finally be welcomed back to Liverpool's starting line-up, but there is little doubt United's defence will have Suarez's unique talents uppermost in their thoughts when they arrive at Anfield.
Suarez had a hand in all three of the goals Dirk Kuyt scored against the old enemy back in March but, in particular, it was the breath-taking run which took his past four bemused defenders that served notice on his outrageous talent.
Even Dalglish – known for a trick or two in a playing career that made him a Reds legend – admits he doesn't have a clue how the South American produces such audacious skills.
"That run against United, I don't know how he did it – honestly, I've no idea," he conceded.
"But it's not the first time he's done that. Maybe it was in terms of how many he went past, but each of the individual things he used to get past people he had done before.
"He just collated them in the one run past three or four. But he has got other things to his bow apart from that. He did fantastically well for that first goal and obviously the game has got happy memories for Dirk Kuyt as well."
While Liverpool's record in recent years against the side their fans love to hate suggests they can be confident going into the game, Dalglish accepts United still offer the benchmark for his club these days - even if they don't like to admit such things in the corridors of Anfield.
The Kop club have won their last three home league games against Sir Alex Ferguson's side, but Dalglish feels they still have a long way to go before they can even dream of a return to the dominance over United they enjoyed in the 1970s and 1980s.
"There is no point burying your head in the sand, they are a fantastic football club that has been hugely successful and there is no way anyone can or should argue with that," he admitted.
"Fergie has made a massive contribution to their success. Sure, financial factors play a huge role at all clubs, but finance does not guarantee success, it helps.
"Everyone who has been successful has had good financial support, but we want to move forward and upwards and we will see where it takes us.
"Where that is, at this stage, I don't know."
*
PROBABLE TEAMS
Liverpool (4-4-2): Reina; Kelly, Carragher, Skrtel, Enrique; Gerrard, Lucas, Adam, Downing; Suarez, Kuyt.
Manchester United (4-4-1-1): De Gea; Jones, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Young, Fletcher, Anderson, Nani; Rooney; Hernandez Simon Bird's Premier League previews and predictions (Week 8) Fergie asks United fans not to sing Hillsborough songs at Anfield Gerrard in contention for Liverpool but Vidic a doubt for United Adam: Beating United would be a big confidence boost for us No more soft goals against at Anfield demands Ferdinand Dalglish: United have set the standard to follow... and we'll certainly give it a go! Fergie: I'll let Vidic decide if he's ready to face Liverpool Carra can manage Liverpool in the future, says Martin Kelly
Rio Ferdinand believes collective responsibility is required from Manchester United if they are to end their woeful run of results at Anfield.
After not suffering a single defeat on his first six Premier League trips to Liverpool as a United player, Ferdinand travels across to Merseyside tomorrow on the back of three successive reverses.
Even following Fernando Torres' departure, the Reds still found a way to swamp their fierce north-west rivals last term, Dirk Kuyt bagging a hat-trick in a 3-1 win that featured an outstanding display from Luis Suarez.
Manager Sir Alex Ferguson has noted United were outfought on those occasions, and Ferdinand accepts the response to going a goal behind was not one of defiance, as would be expected from Red Devils teams.
However, the 32-year-old is more of the opinion that United's defending has become too fragmented.
And now they need to return to the old attitude.
"Over the past few years, we have given away some soft goals," he said.
"A lot of the victories were have achieved were based around defending well as a team, playing collectively and not as individuals.
"You can't argue with the results. I am not making excuses. We lost the games. They were the better team on the day.
"But if we go back to what we are good at this weekend, I am confident we can get a positive result."
Like Ferguson, Ferdinand has noted an improvement in Liverpool since the arrival of Kenny Dalglish as manager in January.
However, that does not extend to any opinion about where the Merseyside giants will finish, other than "below us".
But Ferdinand does accept the game represents the biggest challenge of United's season thus far.
"We have played a couple of the teams who are normally around us in the league at home, this is away," he said.
"Regardless of what part of the season it is, going to Anfield is always huge for us.
"They are our local rivals. It is a game we look forward to and one I am sure the fans are really excited about."
Ferguson is mulling over whether to recall skipper Nemanja Vidic.
Yet that would come at the expense of Jonny Evans, one of the youngsters who have impressed so far this term.
Normally, a manager would be inclined to be cautious in such circumstances.
But Ferdinand does not feel that is absolutely necessary in these circumstances, even though he may be one of the men losing out.
"It is just another part of their learning curve," he said.
"It is great for these young guys to be able to go to Anfield with Manchester United, to feel the environment and atmosphere that is put in front of you.
"To become top players you have to be able to adapt and apply yourself in different circumstances.
"Anfield is a hostile place, but there is no better place to win at as a Manchester United player."
"Our manager is the best in the business at mixing youth and experience. If he feels we need youth and experience mixed in great. Experience is valuable, so is youth. The mixture will be vital."
[h=1]Sir Alex Ferguson calls for end to chants about Munich and Hillsborough[/h] • Fans should respect rivals' histories, says Ferguson
• 'Liverpool v Manchester United is biggest game of the season'
Sir Alex Ferguson appealed for fans to respect their rivals' histories and not indulge in obscene chanting. Photograph: Matthew Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images
Sir Alex Ferguson has called on Manchester United and Liverpool supporters to put an end to the chanting that has marred previous fixtures as he prepares for a match he maintains is still bigger than the Manchester derby.
United face Manchester City next weekend but Ferguson believes the game at Anfield is still the most significant fixture in English football, and he appealed to the two sets of supporters to show respect by putting an end to the songs that are sporadically heard about the Munich and Hillsborough disasters.
"We are talking about the two most successful clubs in England historically, and a rivalry that goes back to how industry changed when they opened the Manchester Ship Canal," the United manager said.
"That affected the history of both cities and it [the rivalry] has been there since I came to Manchester. Things may change in the next two or three years with Manchester City, but I have always considered Manchester United versus Liverpool to be the game of the season in English football and at the moment it remains that.
"Both clubs need each other and the history should be appreciated by both sets of fans. Sometimes, when I hear silly chants about Munich or Hillsborough, I don't think it does either club any good because without each other it wouldn't be the English league. If it came to a stage when fans were banned from each other's ground it wouldn't be the same game. The respect for both clubs' histories should be adhered to. The intensity and rivalry, great footballers, it is the game of the season."
Ferguson reiterated his point when he was asked to compare it to El Clásico in Spain. "Are you saying it's not as good as Barcelona-Real Madrid?" he asked. "You know the difference? Barcelona is one end of the country, Madrid the other, and the fans don't travel. The only rivalry you could compare the Liverpool game to is Rangers-Celtic."
United, according to Ferguson, have not always dealt well with "the Anfield factor" and he admitted they had been "outfought" in this fixture for the past couple of seasons. "Their [Liverpool's] support has been fantastic, it's got them going and they've fought for every ball, and although we've done well for parts of the game we've made crucial mistakes.
"In my time we have had nine players sent off [at Anfield], which is unusual for Manchester United. That is all down to the atmosphere that can be created at Anfield. Last season, when we were playing really well in the game, we made two really bad errors to give goals away. Two seasons ago, we had a player sent off. These are issues, along with temperament, that we have to deal with."
The player in question was Nemanja Vidic, who is now available again after recovering from the calf injury he suffered on the opening weekend of the season. Ferguson, however, is mindful that Vidic played for Serbia on Tuesday and is weighing up whether to start him on the basis "the Liverpool game is such a tense, stamina-draining occasion that you want everyone to be 100%".
Ferguson would not answer questions about Wayne Rooney's frame of mind – "it was worth a try, but I'm not getting into that" – after his sending-off for England against Montenegro last Friday and the subsequent three-match ban to rule him out of the group stages of next summer's European Championship.
He will warn his players, however, to stay calm despite the crowd's hostilities. "The atmosphere is very difficult for everyone. It's not an easy place but we can handle that."
Ferguson has accused the referee, Andre Marriner, of not handling that atmosphere in the past, but he would not return to the subject. "I'm not getting into that. We're not allowed to discuss referees. Martin Jol [the Fulham manager] has got five years in prison apparently for praising the referee."
Sir Alex Ferguson believes Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand are well aware of the threat to their Manchester United places posed by the three young defenders he has introduced to the team this season.
Ferguson has admitted he faces a major selection dilemma ahead of tomorrow's trip to Liverpool, with Vidic now recovered from the calf strain he suffered in the opening Barclays Premier League game at West Brom almost two months ago.
Ferdinand will also be hopeful of a recall after starting the win over Norwich immediately before the international break on the bench.
Yet, what once was an automatic decision about two central components of United's team is now anything but, with Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Jonny Evans all pressing their claims for a starting berth.
"Rio and Nemanja are well aware they are going to have to play well to keep their places," said Ferguson.
"Competition is so fierce now with these young lads coming through."
For Ferdinand, there is the added complication of his place in Fabio Capello's Euro 2012 squad being in doubt.
His failure to oust Jones and Evans from the team that faced Norwich looked to be central to Capello's thinking when he was omitted from the squad to face Montenegro last week.
Ferdinand still wants to represent his country. But Ferguson concedes Capello might well be looking at an alternative strategy now.
"Rio is back to his best form," said the Scot. "He has trained really well and his experience will be vital.
"The England thing is unfortunate because he missed a couple of appearances through injury and maybe Fabio is looking to the future.
"Some managers think that way. There is nothing wrong that."
Ferdinand now has to prove his worth for United and hope for an England recall for next month's friendly clashes against Spain and Sweden.
Vidic has none of those Euro 2012 concerns after Serbia were eliminated in midweek thanks to their shock defeat in Slovenia, when the United skipper missed a penalty.
The 29-year-old has still to decide whether to quit international football such is his disappointment.
However, the match itself might just have given Vidic a chance of being involved at Anfield given the time he has spent on the sidelines.
"I spoke to Nemanja yesterday and it was probably the right type of game to come back in," said Ferguson.
"He had to get a game sometime. He was training very well before that game and has come back feeling fine."
It is an oddity that United have lost on their last three league visits to Anfield, when Darren Fletcher has been missing on each occasion.
That points towards a starting berth for the Scot, although Ferguson feels external factors, namely the Anfield crowd, also play a part.
Certainly United have had six players sent off on their last 13 visits, a large enough percentage to make Ferguson feel uneasy about the prospect of referee Andre Marriner having a bad game, since he was responsible for one of those red cards, for Vidic, in 2009.
Not that Ferguson wished to offer an opinion on that.
He has previously fallen foul of a rule that prevents managers speaking about referees before a game, as Fulham's Martin Jol has done already this week.
"I'm not getting into that," laughed Ferguson. "We are not allowed to discuss referees.
"Apparently, Martin Jol's got five years in prison for praising the referee." Simon Bird's Premier League previews and predictions (Week 8) Suarez has United worried claims Dalglish Fergie asks United fans not to sing Hillsborough songs at Anfield Gerrard in contention for Liverpool but Vidic a doubt for United Rio: No more soft goals at Anfield Dalglish: United have set the standard to follow... and we'll certainly give it a go! Fergie: I'll let Vidic decide if he's ready to face Liverpool Charlie Adam: Beating United would be a big confidence boost for us
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is pushing for his first start since March when defending Barclays Premier League champions Manchester United visit Anfield tomorrow.
The England midfielder has made three substitute appearances since being sidelined by a groin operation in March.
Glen Johnson has been declared fit after a hamstring problem forced him to miss the last three matches while centre-back Daniel Agger has recovered from a broken rib sustained last month.
Provisional squad: Reina, Kelly, Carragher, Skrtel, Enrique, Adam, Lucas, Kuyt, Gerrard, Downing, Suarez, Doni, Agger, Johnson, Coates, Robinson, Spearing, Henderson, Rodriguez, Carroll, Bellamy.
***
Sir Alex Ferguson faces a major selection dilemma over whether to recall skipper Nemanja Vidic for Manchester United's trip to Liverpool.
Vidic made his first appearance since injuring his calf in the opening day win at West Brom in Serbia's shock Euro 2012 exit in Slovakia on Tuesday and Ferguson needs to decide if it is enough to warrant being thrown into the Anfield cauldron.
Tom Cleverley (foot) and Rafael (shoulder) are still out but otherwise Ferguson reports a fully fit squad, with Wayne Rooney expected to play despite the shock of suffering his own European Championship woe at the hands of UEFA's disciplinary panel.
Provisional squad: De Gea, Lindegaard, Amos, Smalling, Jones, Evans, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Fabio, Valencia, Nani, Anderson, Carrick, Fletcher, Park, Giggs, Young, Rooney, Hernandez, Welbeck, Berbatov, Owen.
*** Fergie: I'll let Vidic decide if he's ready to face Liverpool Fergie asks United fans not to sing Hillsborough songs at Anfield
*** Football League blog: Groundhop Week is another reminder there are more important things than Euro bans
[h=2]Liverpool v Manchester United, 12:45pm Saturday 15 October[/h] [h=1]Rio Ferdinand battling age and injury at Manchester United[/h] The most elegant centre-back of his generation is out of the England squad and running out of time
Rio Ferdinand has been reduced to playing just 40% of Manchester United's games. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian
On the face of it, it is exactly the kind of setting – Liverpool versus Manchester United, with the heat of the battle rising dangerously close to intolerable – where Rio Ferdinand can demonstrate there are still days when he can beat the new opponent in his life.
Ferdinand is 33 next month, still a formidable exponent in the art of defending but one whose talents are accompanied by the growing sense that the lights are dimming on his career faster than he would like. It is a point of his life when Ferdinand will understand what Jack Nicklaus was talking about, on his 50th birthday, when it was put to him that age is the one opponent even the greatest champion cannot beat. The older you get, Nicklaus explained, the stronger the wind gets – and suddenly you find it is always in your face.
The most elegant centre-half of his generation plays 40% of United's games these days. He still provides a calm and assurance that is ideal for facing the loathing of an Anfield crowd, but this is now a man whose career has been ambushed by injuries to the point where Fabio Capello left him out of the England squad to face Montenegro and Sir Alex Ferguson has also begun to speak of a player with diminished responsibilities.
Ferguson now uses the past tense when he reflects on Ferdinand's international career, talking of him being "a bit unfortunate" but with no questioning of Capello's decision. "Maybe Fabio is looking more to the future now. Rio is 32 now. Some managers think that way and there is nothing wrong with that, looking to the future."
Ferdinand has long-term issues with his lower back that have led to recurrent problems with his calf and hamstring muscles. He has tried acupuncture and prolotherapy injections. He has experimented with yoga and clocked up thousands of miles seeing specialists. Every so often, he returns and plays a few games. But then the cycle kicks in again: a new injury, another spell of rehab, more frustration. He has not managed four successive games for almost 11 months and the inescapable truth is that he seems to find it impossible to put together a decent run of matches. "It's a fact, and Rio knows it," Ferguson said. "We wish it was better but it's not."
For Ferdinand, it has been a long and difficult battle. Ferguson talked at length about the player's attributes – "you can't dismiss the kind of experience Rio Ferdinand brings" – and there is the definite sense, despite the occasional tweets about his favourite cartoons and inopportune farting, that the player is now at an age when he appears to have heeded the last line of his 2006 autobiography that "it's time to grow up".
But the Capello camp have been troubled for a while and the alarm bells rang the loudest when Ferdinand was left out of United's team for their last league game, against Norwich City. The previous week, he had found Peter Crouch a difficult opponent in the 1-1 draw with Stoke City. Then Basel came to Old Trafford in the Champions League and scored three times as Capello's assistant, Franco Baldini, watched from the stands. Capello decided there was no point picking Ferdinand and went for Gary Cahill as John Terry's new partner. Capello's explanation was that he picked "the player not the name" – in other words, reputations counted for nothing.
Ferdinand's sympathisers can legitimately point out Cahill plays for a Bolton Wanderers side that are bottom of the Premier League and have the worst defence in the division, with 21 goals conceded in seven games. The truth, however, is that Capello's misgivings can be traced back to another October afternoon on Merseyside two years ago and a United defeat that brought home the seriousness of Ferdinand's injury difficulties.
Until that point Ferdinand had tried to get through the pain he later admitted had left him "hunched over" in the worst moments and "shuffling around like an old man". Anfield, though, was no hiding place. Liverpool, on the back of four straight defeats and their worst run of form for 22 years, won 2-0 and anyone who has followed Ferdinand's career and admired his qualities – the touch, the speed, the anticipation and fierce competitive instincts – will scarcely have recognised the man Fernando Torres eluded for the opening goal. Ferdinand did not play again for three months. He has started 51 of the following 132 games for club and country.
Ferguson now says Ferdinand, even when fit, can no longer be considered a mandatory first-team pick. "The competition is so fierce now with these young lads, [Chris] Smalling, [Phil] Jones and [Jonny] Evans. Evans has been outstanding, Jones has been outstanding, Smalling has been outstanding. They're well aware, Rio and [Nemanja] Vidic, they are going to have to play to keep their places."
None of this is to denigrate an outstanding career, but Ferdinand appears to be assessing a possible future without United. The people who know him best say he is extremely realistic about his injury problems, and aware that if it continues to gnaw at his career it could conceivably be his final season at Old Trafford.
A move abroad appeals, particularly to Spain, where the warmer weather could help his back. The United States is another option and, regardless of the denials, there was something in the recent reports of Chicago Fire inviting him to consider a future in Major League Soccer. Tottenham, too, have made discreet inquiries. "A fit Rio is still as good as anybody," their manager, Harry Redknapp, says. "I wouldn't want to upset Fergie by talking about one of his players, but he's a good player. He's been fantastic for me. I signed him when he was a little kid [at West Ham], so I love Rio."
Ferdinand is more intrigued by the possibility of moving abroad and the hope and expectation among MLS officials is that next summer United would not want a large transfer fee for someone his age and with a year remaining on his contract. Ferdinand also believes this to be the case, making it easier for a financial package to be arranged with one of the big-city American clubs. For now, all that can be said for certain is that Ferdinand is open-minded about the idea, despite the potential wrench of leaving the club where he has spent the majority of his career. By that point, he will have been at Old Trafford for 10 years.
What has also emerged, however, is that he has been frustrated at times by Ferguson's habit of talking publicly about his injury problems and feels it has done him no favours with Capello. Last season, Ferguson said in a March press conference that Ferdinand, with a calf injury, would probably not be involved again for the rest of that campaign. As it turned out, Ferdinand was back within three weeks and played nine more games, including the Champions League final. Then Ferdinand suffered a hamstring strain on the opening weekend of this season at West Bromwich Albion and Ferguson said he would be out for six weeks. Ferdinand was back within three.
His problem for England is that Capello needs someone who will be able to play every three or four days in next summer's European Championship – and Ferdinand is clearly not that man. For United, his ability is not in question. It is just that, at the higher end of football, a thirtysomething with seemingly never-ending injury problems can find the twilight and the no-light of his career merging far too quickly.
[h=1]Capello fears UEFA will increase Rooney ban[/h] Published 22:00 14/10/11 By John Cross & David McDonnell
Fabio Capello is desperate to appeal against Wayne Rooneys three-match Euro 2012 ban but fears doing so could see it increased.
England talisman Rooney is totally devastated by the three-game suspension handed down for his red card in Montenegro last week.
Now, the striker and the FA are waiting to see the precise wording of the report from the disciplinary committee before deciding on their next move.
FA chiefs have been told it could be another week before they get UEFAs full report. Only then will they decide if there are grounds for appeal.
England boss Capello has also made it clear that he will not decide on whether to include the Manchester United striker in his squad regardless of the ban until the end of the season.
UEFA have told the Mirror there is nothing in their rules which could increase Rooneys ban in the wake of a frivolous appeal.
But FA chiefs are still worried it may be a gamble.
They fear there may be a loophole in the regulations that could allow UEFA to make a counter appeal and increase the length of time the Manchester United forward is *sidelined.
It also emerged that £6million-a-year Capello had not warned his players that any suspensions incurred in qualifying would be carried over into the finals - although the FA did tell players that any suspensions would rule them out if England ended up in thwe qualifying play-offs.
If the FA do appeal, they are likely to use the case of Arsenal and Russia forward Andrey Arshavin, who was banned for two games at the start of Euro 2008 for a similar offence, as a key part of their argument.
Rooney was all smiles at training on Friday as United prepared for Saturday's trip to Liverpool and, in the hostile cauldron of Anfield, he will be under orders to ensure his simmering anger at the suspension does not boil over.
Despite the toxic blend of him being a United player with an Everton past, Rooney has always managed to keep a lid on his emotions at Liverpool, despite the vitriol to which he is inevitably subjected.
In 10 visits to Anfield - two with Everton and eight with United - Rooney has been booked just once, although a solitary goal in that same sequence suggests he is perhaps less potent when conscious of the need to rein himself in.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson refused to discuss Rooneys state of mind in his friday press conference.
Rooney, while having accepted he was wrong to have lashed out, is said to have been stunned that an act of petulance was deemed an assault by UEFA, thus earning him a ban which rules him out of the entire group stage at next summers tournament. Brian Reade column: Rooney deserves his three-match ban.. and we're to blame for indulging him
[h=2]Big interview[/h] [h=1]Joe Cole embraces life with Lille to reinvigorate his England hopes[/h] Winger has refound his joie de vivre since moving to France, so much so he has gone back to school to learn the language
'It's about flinging yourself in. The ones who mix settle better,' says Joe Cole of his new career across the Channel with Lille. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian
Early afternoon drinking decaffeinated espresso at a cafe just off Lille's Place du Général de Gaulle, the placarded stragglers from a trade union protest against austerity measures adding to the hustle and bustle on the cobbled street, and the Englishman abroad seems at ease. Content, even. Joe Cole has training scheduled for later in the day before he and his wife, Carly, attend a first classroom French lesson since their schooldays. Life is hectic but, as the drone from the strikers' megaphones recedes, there is time to take it all in.
"Our feet haven't touched the floor since we arrived but we're slowly getting the most important things sorted out, like the French classes," Cole says. "When I can, I've been doing this: sitting in cafes, flicking through L'Equipe. I've been trying to immerse myself in the culture. I've just stopped short of putting a beret on and a string of onions round my neck. This is a beautiful city. I didn't know what to expect but life is good. There's a saying here: 'When you arrive in the north of France, you cry. But when you leave, you cry even more.' People fall in love with the place and its sense of community. It just feels right."
It is refreshing to find Cole so positive. The 29-year-old's career appeared to have veered off course, the expiry of his contract at Chelsea in the summer of 2010 confirmed as he lingered on the fringes of an England side labouring ignominiously at the World Cup finals in South Africa. A free transfer to Liverpool was supposed to rejuvenate, the move initially appearing a natural fit, only for patchy form, a sending-off, niggling injuries, a managerial change and upheaval in the boardroom to cast him back to the periphery. The real surprise is that it has taken a season-long loan move across the Channel to Ligue 1, a path not trodden by an England international who should be in his pomp since Chris Waddle joined Marseille 22 years ago, to spark Cole back to life.
Some five games into his domestic career at Lille Olympique Sporting Club (Losc) and the midfielder is already adored. A stream of autograph hunters interrupts the conversation over coffee, with most wandering up merely to say "thank you". Presumably for signing in the first place. A shimmy, swerve, dart and assist in his first involvement as a substitute at Saint-Etienne last month set Cole's upbeat tone. A blistering 25-yard goal that burst beyond Lorient's Fabien Audard maintained the grand entrance. Lille are fifth, four points from money-flushed Paris Saint-Germain, and entertain Internazionale, now coached by Cole's former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri, in the Champions League on Tuesday. They are a team prospering in one of the most technically proficient leagues in Europe, and a club who will move to a 55,000-seat stadium next summer. Cole has reason to suppose his luck has turned.
Feeling as if he belongs still requires work. "People think of the Englishman abroad and it's typically about sinking 10 pints of lager and attacking the karaoke but, regardless of the football, this was a chance for me and my family to live in another country," he says. "I'm a lad from Camden Town who never dreamed he'd have the opportunity to live or play football in France. Notoriously, we don't export our players often. But I'd like to hope I could help change that perception. It's about flinging yourself in. I've seen foreigners come to England and the ones who mix, go on the nights out with team-mates and buy into the English mentality, settle better. Those who are a bit tentative or shy struggle. So I'm trying to mix as much as I can.
"The language is part of that. If I'd had a crystal ball I'd have paid more attention back at school in my French lessons but it just didn't interest me. Now I'm starting almost from scratch. We're doing the Michel Thomas audio book French course, and we'll have classroom lessons every week. I can order a coffee, a mineral water, and am picking up silly things. I asked the guys this morning 'à quelle heure' we would be training 'cet après-midi'. Little things like that."
Proper integration takes time. The midfielder departed Losc's training complex Domaine de Luchin clutching a well-thumbed copy of Alexandre Dellal's Le foot en 7 langues. His 19-month-old daughter, Ruby, starts nursery next week and will grow used to the family speaking French around the rented apartment in central Lille. When Cole finally gets round to buying a television they will watch local channels, their intake of the Premier League limited to Canal Plus's Match of ze Day.
"It'll be very difficult to be fluent in nine months but I'd like to be able to get by. I guess you need to put this into context. I grew up with Richard Garcia at West Ham and he'd left Australia at 15 to come to England. That's leaving home. My career had taken me from east to west London before Liverpool, and you can be in London in no time on the Eurostar from here but we don't have a house in England and it's not something I'll do often. You have to broaden your horizons sometimes. Experience different things. Like I had frogs' legs the other day, and they were really nice. Just like oily chicken wings. Beautiful. There's a place in central Lille that does them. You should try them."
That was said with a chuckle but this is a player who is attacking a new life with gusto on and off the pitch. The form he has already displayed for Losc will baffle Liverpudlians frustrated that lingering memories of Cole's first year at the club are more of a dismissal on Premier League debut and only sporadic flashes of his talent thereafter. The club who are supplementing his wages, and could take him back next summer, confront Manchester United on Saturday.
"I just didn't play enough," he says. "I was suspended and then came back into a struggling side and, under Roy [Hodgson], the tactics didn't suit me. I'd never criticise him – he had a tough job at the time – but the team weren't playing well and, when that happens, the first players to be dropped are always the flair players and the youngsters. That's just the way it is.
Under Kenny [Dalglish] I'd had a few injuries and the side was settled. As a youngster, at West Ham and Chelsea, I'd been lucky enough to make an impact when I came on and earned the chance to stay involved. At Liverpool, I felt like a young player again. I always needed to do something special just to earn another chance. And it didn't happen for me. I'm not going to blame anyone else and I like the club and I'm sure they'll get where they need to go. But I had to come here and play again. Traditionally, it takes players time to settle in a new country. It's rare you get one who hits the ground running like Luis Suárez. But I don't have that luxury. I've not signed for four years. I'm here initially for nine months."
His own explosive start suggests he is suited to Ligue 1, where referees offer more protection than in the Premier League and the pace of the game is more precise than helter-skelter. Rudi Garcia's attack-minded Lille side share his philosophy. The only shock has been the reality that he has to clean his own boots – "In England, once you're a pro, you leave all that behind" – with Cole revelling alongside the talented Eden Hazard. "Domestic games are tactically like Champions League matches but everyone in the division we've come up against so far has tried to play football the right way," he says. "European referees allow technical players to flourish, whereas they let more go back in the Premier League.
"The tempo of the game doesn't change in the final third, the urgent part of the pitch where defenders still shut you down. But, sometimes, teams drop off and we get to be a bit more patient in our buildup. You have to be cleverer with your movement. I've been making runs I don't need to make, charging forward to close down a full-back as I would in the Premier League. That's what I've been programmed to do. Back home, you'd have team-mates screaming at you to 'push up on him'. But when I do it over here I look back over my shoulder and my team-mates are, like: 'What are you doing? Conserve your energy.' I'm learning but that's to be expected. Once you stop learning, there's no point playing. You'd have mastered it. And no one's mastered football yet."
Still, should the momentum of his first six weeks be maintained, then Cole could yet have a long-term future in France, perhaps thrusting him up alongside Waddle as a cult figure across the Channel. Certainly, success at the top of the division and in Europe would offer Fabio Capello a reminder that here is a player who would relish adding to his 56 caps, the last of which came in humiliation to Germany in Bloemfontein. "I miss playing for my country," he says. "I was a regular in the squad for 10 years and perhaps took it for granted I would always be there. Now, having not been picked for a year, turning 30 next month and with the young players having come in and done well, you start to wonder: 'Are they still looking at me?'
"I hope I will be noticed. A lot of people in England questioned why I came over here and maybe wrote me off. Perhaps they're now thinking I'm not finished after all. It's not that I want to prove them wrong – that would be the wrong motivation – but I do want to prove to myself that I'm still a top player. This an environment where I can do that. I see John Terry mentioned the other day that he and I had wanted to go swimming with sharks in South Africa. In a cage, of course. We weren't allowed but I'm one for trying different things. Swimming with sharks. Living in France … " This Englishman abroad already feels at home.
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