Round up of top sports stories from around the world
Gerardo
Martino insists it is better for Lionel Messi to skip training sessions if it means he can give his all on the
pitch for Barcelona.
Meanwhile
Martino has left Spain playmaker Xavi and Chile forward Alexis Sanchez out of
his squad for Sunday's La Liga match at Valencia.
WARNING: The write up is very lengthy.
Former
Barcelona striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic says that Pep Guardiola "could not
cope with him" during his solitary season at the club.
The Swedish
star completed a hotly-anticipated €70 million move to Camp Nou in 2009 but
left a year later for AC Milan amid rumours of a bust-up with his boss.
Monaco star
Radamel Falcao has moved to dismiss claims that he and Ibrahimovic` are involved in a personal battle to be crowned
Ligue 1's best striker.
The
Colombian made the move to the Stade Louis this summer from Atletico Madrid and
many have tipped him and the Swede to shine this season.
Meanwhile
New Monaco
signing Geoffrey Kondogbia has revealed he rejected a transfer to Real Madrid
this summer after being convinced it would be "too risky" to fight
for first-team football in the Spanish capital.
The
20-year-old midfielder signed a five-year deal with Monaco this week after
being dissuaded from a switch to Carlo Ancelotti's side and he admits he is now
eager to endear himself to the French public.
In a sharp
twist of events
Real Madrid
on Friday night insisted they have persuaded Tottenham to sell Gareth Bale for
£78million pounds — £2m less than the record fee they paid for Cristiano
Ronaldo.
Bale’s move
is expected to be confirmed today by MADRID, who will release the money in a
staggering one-off payment.
Real have secured
bank loans to cover Bale’s fee, ensuring Ronaldo remains the most expensive player
in history.
Still Talking
about bales move
This morning
at about 9:00 am a package addressed to
Gareth Bale arrived at Real Madrid's training facilities in Valde-bebas.
The parcel
was sent from the Adidas factory in Germany and Contain the boots Bale will
wear for his presentation at the Bernabeu Which is expected to take place over
the next few days.
Ander
Herrera has not told Athletic Bilbao that he wants to join Manchester United,
according to the club’s manager Ernesto Valverde.
The Bilbao
coach has also confirmed that Herrera will be part of his squad that will face
Real Madrid on Sunday.
Manchester
United were preparing an improved offer for Athletic Bilbao midfielder Ander
Herrera on Friday night after a £21million bid was rejected.
Bilbao want
United to meet Herrera’s £25.5m buyout clause.
The Premier
League champions are also increasingly hopeful that Everton’s Marouane Fellaini
will join the club before the transfer window closes on Monday. United boss
David Moyes said on Friday: ‘I hope we do a little bit of business before the
window closes.’
Manchester
United left-back Alexander Buttner is close to completing a move to Celtic on
loan for the rest of the season.
The
24-year-old signed for United from Vitesse in 2012 but has failed to trouble
Patrice Evra for a place in the starting eleven.
Buttner was
set to move on loan to Besiktas but that appears to have fallen through after
the Turkish club lost an appeal against a ban from competing in this season's
Europa League following involvement in match fixing.
Chelsea's
Romelu Lukaku may have missed the penalty that saw Bayern Munich lift the Super
Cup but has been praised for his courage by former Stamford Bridge legend
Didier Drogba.
The
20-year-old striker saw his spot-kick saved by Munich keeper Manuel Neuer in
Prague which handed the silverware to Munich.
However,
former Stamford Bridge legend Drogba, offered some words of support for the
Belgium international.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has lamented his side’s 5-4 defeat to Bayern Munich on penalties in the European Super Cup.
Franck
Ribery cancelled out Fernando Torres's opener to take the game to extra time,
before Javi Martinez did the same after Eden Hazard had give then Blues a lead
for the second time and Ramires had been sent off.
Here was Mourinho
said after the match “The best team clearly lost,” we played against the
champions of Europe and we were the best team.
This was
Chelsea's second Super Cup defeat in as many years, having lost 4-1 to Atletico
Madrid a year ago.
Also
Mourinho has accused referee Jonas Eriksson of "killing the final" when he showed Ramires a second yellow card.
The
Brazilian midfielder was shown red in the 85th minute for a foul on Mario Gotze
and Pep Guardiola’s side promptly came back to force extra time and later
triumph.
"If you
ask me in pure terms, yes, it was a yellow card, but you never do this in every
action of the game in this way."
Still on reactions from the super cup………………….
Gary Cahill believes that referee Jonas Eriksson "would have played all night" to get Bayern Munich an extra-time equaliser after the German giants beat Chelsea on penalties to claim the Super Cup.
The Blues
were seconds away from securing Jose Mourinho's first trophy since his return
to Stamford Bridge but Javi Martinez scored with the last kick to send the
match to penalties.
Chelsea have
signed Ghana winger Christian Atsu for £3.5million from Porto and he is
expected to join Vitesse Arnhem on loan.
Meanwhile Ajax
director of football Marc Overmars has confirmed their bid to sign Marco van
Ginkel on loan has been rejected by Chelsea.
Chelsea boss
Jose Mourinho has said his side does not need strengthening before the end of
this summer's transfer window.
Mourinho,
speaking after his side lost 5-4 on penalties to Bayern Munich in the Super Cup
final after a 2-2 draw, believes the squad is strong enough as it is.
Alvaro
Negredo and Yaya Toure struck in the second half as Manchester City finally saw
off a dogged Hull side at the Etihad Stadium.
A week after
suffering an unexpected loss to promoted Cardiff, the hosts were again troubled
by one of the Barclays Premier League's newcomers in what was an unconvincing
display by Manuel Pellegrini's men.
Manchester
City are on the brink of signing Martin Demichelis in a £4million deal from
Atletico Madrid.
Manuel Pellegrini
is set to be reunited with the Argentine centre-back, who he has previously
managed at both River Plate and Malaga.
City's move
for Demichelis had been delayed while Atletico ensured they recruited a
replacement.
Manchester
City midfielder Gareth Barry hopes to open talks with Everton this weekend
ahead of a season-long loan to Goodison Park. Barry, 32, is ready to take a
drop in salary to make the move happen.
Everton are
also continuing negotiations with Wigan over a deal for James McCarthy but face
competition from Newcastle and Tottenham.
Tottenham
have confirmed the signing of Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen from Ajax.
The
21-year-old is the third player to sign for Spurs on Friday after the club also
announced deals for Erik Lamela and Vlad Chiriches earlier in the day, with
Gareth Bale expected to join Real Madrid before the transfer window shuts next
week.
also
Tottenham
intend to continue their summer spending and hope to complete a deal for Real
Madrid left-back Fabio Coentrao before the transfer window closes on Monday.
The north
London club are also exploring further attacking options, although they have
cooled their interest in Zenit forward Hulk as a result the club's fee demands.
Jan
Vertonghen is convinced that Tottenham have a much better chance of beating
Arsenal to a top-four place in the Barclays Premier League this season despite
the impending departure of Gareth Bale.
After over
two months of negotiation, speculation and controversy, Bale is closing on his
£78million move to Real Madrid.
Arsene
Wenger has upped the ante before Sunday’s north London derby by claiming
Tottenham risk wrecking the balance of their squad by suggesting they will
struggle without Gareth Bale.
He also
implied Spurs are failing the England team by buying foreign players.
.
Arsenal have
held talks with Lille over a move for Salomon Kalou .
Former
Chelsea winger Kalou, 28, has been the subject of interest from West Bromwich
Albion, Liverpool and Cardiff but each had struggled to agree terms.
He can leave
on a £2.6million deal and wages of around £60,000 a week.
Arsene
Wenger has made a desperate last-ditch move to sign German wonderkid Julian
Draxler.
Arsenal
chief executive Ivan Gazidis was at the club’s training ground yesterday trying
to seal a deal which would ease the pressure on manager Wenger before the transfer
window closes at 11pm on Monday.
Wenger
however has major reservations about the
players price.
Liverpool
are closing on a £25million double deal for defenders Mamadou Sakho of Paris
Saint-Germain and Tiago Ilori of Sporting Lisbon but face competition in their
bid to sign Chelsea's Victor Moses.
Moses is
keen on a move to Anfield but there are understood to be reservations from
Chelsea about allowing the move to go through.
Brendan
Rodgers has challenged Liverpool to throw down an early pointer to their
top-four credentials by delivering a performance against Manchester United that
illustrates their improvement.
Liverpool
will defend their 100 per cent start to the season when they welcome the
Premier League champions to Anfield on Sunday and Rodgers is confident that his
squad is in excellent shape.
Philippe Coutinho admits that he had never heard of David Moyes before joining Liverpool.
The
Brazilian, who is set to face the Premier League champions at Anfield on
Sunday, also insists that he knew nothing of Manchester United's title triumphs
before last season.
Wayne Rooney
has given Manchester United a scare ahead of Sunday's clash with Liverpool.
The England
international suffered a head injury in training this morning and left their Carrington
HQ with a bandage wrapped around his head.
The
27-year-old is now a doubt ahead of the pivotal clash at Anfield but will be
determined to prove his fitness depending on doctors' advice.
Newcastle
boss Alan Pardew said the Yohan Cabaye 'saga' is not over yet, insisting the
Frenchman has trained well all week after naming him on the bench to face
Fulham.
Cabaye has
refused to play for his club since they turned down a £10million offer from
Arsenal in the opening week of the season.
Jose
Callejon has backed Napoli to mount a serious Serie A title charge this season.
The
Partenopei have finished runners-up to Juventus in the previous two campaigns,
but began 2013-14 in fine style with a convincing 3-0 win over Bologna.
Super Eagles
winger, Victor Moses has arrived Liverpool to have his medicals ahead of his
loan move to the Merseyside giants.
The former
Wigan man is expected to complete the loan move to Liverpool from Chelsea in
time to be in the stands at Anfield for the game against Manchester United on
Sunday.
In-form
Super Eagles and CSKA Moscow forward Ahmed Musa was at his best again on Friday
night scoring the winning goal in his team’s 2-1 comeback
victory against Amkar Perm at the Khimki Arena.
The latest
goal for Musa is his 5th of the season as the athletic forward and his CSKA
teammates maintain an unbeaten start to the season in Russia
Inter have
named their squad for Sunday’s difficult trip to Catania, and the Milan side
have ignored Joel Obi, while naming Walter Samuel and Wallace.
The
Nerazzurri will visit the Stadio Massimino on Sunday, and the kickoff of the
game is 7.45pm Nigerian time.
Stephen
Keshi has sent a revised list of 23 players for Nigeria as the Super Eagles
prepare for next week’s 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Malawi in
Calabar.
The list was submitted and accepted by the
Technical Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Rabiu
Ibrahim has expressed satisfaction over his new lease of life at Scottish team
Kilmarnock under new boss Allan Johnston.
The former
Sporting Lisbon player has hailed Allan Johnston as the perfect manager to
reignite his career and even claims he has started stealing the former Scotland
winger's training-ground tricks.
Uche Nwofor
will shine under one-time superstar striker Marco van Basten at Dutch club
Heerenveen, his agent has told sports extra.
The
21-year-old striker sealed a season-long loan move to the top flight club from
relegated VVV Venlo and his agent, Tony Harris, said it is a good move that
will help the player's career.
Abduljaleel
Ajagun could well make his debut for Greek club Panathinaikos on Saturday after
he was named for a home game against Veria.
Panathinaikos
host Veria and will hope to improve on their sixth place on the league table
with a home win.
TENNIS
Rafael
Nadal's irrepressible form continued as he thrashed Brazilian qualifier Rogerio
Dutra Silva to move into round three of the US Open.
The world
number two, who has won nine of his 12 tournaments this year and all 21 hard
court matches, outclassed Dutra Silva 6-2 6-1 6-0 in 92 minutes.
Also Serena
Williams defeated Galina Voskoboeva 6-3 6-0
And Roger
Federer saw off Carlos Berlocq 6-3 6-2 6-1 to progress
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