Author: Max

Shinji Kagawa’s decision to make a move away from Manchester United was influenced by the statements made about him by the new Red Devils’ manager Louis Van Gaal.
Kagawa’s teammate at Borussia Dortmund, Sebastian Kehl, disclosed that in an interview of his yesterday.
As per Kehl, United actually never gave a home like feeling to Kagawa, but, he still pursued his career there somehow and was willing to get his contract finished, but, after hearing what the new boss thinks, it was almost impossible for him to prolong his stay there at Old Trafford.
In that interview, Kehl, who is a German play maker, said, “Shinji is certainly relieved to have come to Dortmund. He had been finding it a bit awkward at United of late and also, a few statements were made about him by the manager there. So, there was no choice left for him at the end.”
“He is a bit of a confidence player. He needs backing which he was obviously not getting at United. But, it will be a little different here at Dortmund. He will be backed and given all the confidence here and I am sure he will come up with some smashing performances.”
The Dortmund bosses have secured the Kagawa deal at just 6.3 million Pounds. It’s too low a transfer fee for somebody who is as talented as Kagawa and is also in his mid twenties only and people can’t quite understand how the Red Devils let the Japanese midfielder go at such a small amount.
Kagawa never lived up to the reputation with which he had come to Old Trafford, but, it would also be fair to say that he could have been managed a bit better during his 2-year tenure.

Tottenham Hotspur had been waiting for almost 2 years for the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles to approve the purchase of the Premier League club as they acquired the last piece of land that was needed for them to actually begin working on building the new stadium.
Spur has wanted to increase their stadium as well as offer their supporters something fresh and new for them to experience on every visit to their matches and the plans of the club include making a huge evolution and change with a stadium that is expected to have a capacity of around 56,000 seats.
In order to accomplish this, Tottenham has worked out for the past few years trying to buy up and move around local businesses located around the area where they are trying to implement and build the new infrastructure which will also offer all of the people that travel there a new supermarket, hotel, megastore and other projects that are still being worked out.
Tottenham announced news of their progression in relation to the new stadium through their official website as it said: “The club is pleased to announce that the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has confirmed the Compulsory Purchase Order made by Haringey Council in respect of the remaining land required for the Northumberland Development Project. The club has used the intervening period productively and has refined detailed design of the stadium in order to ensure it is future-proofed and optimized’’
If everything goes according to plan, the stadium will cost around £400m and its expected to be done in 2017.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: “This scheme is supported by the locally determined development plan for the area and has received strong local support.”
With this final chunk of ground that was bought by Tottenham they can start working on building their project as the club had already secured more than 95% of the area that was needed.

Diego Milito fell behind in the pecking order of Inter Milan and this can be seen by his last 2 seasons when performing at the Italian club where he only managed to make 37 league appearances during both seasons.

The Argentinean forward was playing less and less of an important role in Inter Milan which played an important role in the decision of the Italian side Inter Milan in releasing him as well as Milito deciding to continue playing the last few years of his career at a place where his chances of playing are higher, the veteran player ultimately opted to go with his childhood team, Racing Club.

Racing Club is currently going through their pre-season schedule with friendly matches being played between a number of different teams and Diego Milito has already made himself be noticed as he scored the winning goal for his club during the 4th friendly match of Racing Club of their pre-season as they faced off against Belgrano and came out winning with a scoreboard of 2-1.

During the recently concluded 2014 World Cup, there was a result that shocked Diego Milito and it was the match that Germany disputed against Brazil with the Germans claiming their famous and rather surprising 7-1 triumph. Following the victory, Milito stepped up to the media as he was performing as a Team Ambassador for Sony and said:

“It’s a huge margin of defeat and it’s a result that will feature prominently in football history books in future. It will go down as perhaps the most painful defeat of all time.”

At his 35 years of age, Diego Milito will finish the last few years of his professional competitive career playing in the club where he started it all off, in Racing Club and he has already started to show his appreciation for the team on letting him return by scoring goals.

Tottenham’s plans to build a new 56,000 seater stadium have been hit by local businesses protesting against the move. The club are currently waiting for approval from the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles. However, it looks like the approval may not come in the short term since Pickles is thought to be concerned about the prospect of moving the stadium and the station further up the road. Local businesses have submitted protests stating that this move will significantly resulted in loss of business.

White Hart Lane currently has a capacity of just over 35,000, while this new stadium is expected to bring in 20,000 more for every match. Tottenham will have no problems in selling the tickets since they currently have a huge backlog in terms of season tickets. Vice-chairman of the Tottenham Business Group, Patricia Pearcy Saturday that the prospect of moving the station is a non-negotiable aspect of the plan. She expects the plan to go ahead despite the protests. According to Pearcy, the local businesses will have no drop in business since the fans are expected to be channelled straight to the station.

Pearcy it is the priority of Tottenham to retain the businesses. The 56,000 seater stadium will come with several avenues like shopping malls and so on. “The station has been in White Hart Lane for decades and the footfall had never been a problem. The crowd dissipated as it walked along the High Street. Originally they were going to just remodel the station and keep it where it is now. Local people have been saying, ‘yes, of course, remodel it and make it bigger and better, but leave it where it is’. Increased footfall on the High Road is a good thing, but it has to be a good thing for the businesses and the community that is already here,” said Pearcy.

Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins has said that they can compete in the Premier league along with the big boys. And Jenkins believes Brendan Rodgers’ side can compete with the big clubs next season.

“Everybody would be foolish to write us off just for those type of games,” said Jenkins.

“We’ve proved in the Championship, [against] so called bigger clubs heavily spending way over our budget, we competed and competed very well [and] played the best football in the Championship.

Bolton midfielder Gavin McCann has said that he will be retiring from professional football after failing to recover from the injury. McCann, formerly of Everton, Sunderland and Aston Villa, will now take up a coaching role assisting the youth set up at the Bolton academy.

McCann said: “Unfortunately I’ve had to call it a day.

“There are times now when my ankle is sore and aches, and further down the line I will need another operation.”

McCann made a total of 363 appearances at club level and won one one cap for England in a friendly against Spain at Villa Park in 2001.

He last featured for Bolton in the 4-2 defeat by Arsenal at the Emirates on 20 January 2010, and underwent surgery on his injured ankle soon after.

Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick has put pen to paper on a new Three-year contract extension that will keep him at Old Trafford till 2014.

The 29-year-old England international joined United from Tottenham Hotspur in 2006 and has played more than 200 games for the Old Trafford club.

Carrick built his reputation as an excellent passer of the ball but this season he has mainly been deployed in a more defensive midfield holding role.

“I am delighted Michael has signed a new contract,” manager Alex Ferguson said in a statement. “He has been outstanding since joining us. He is a true professional and it’s great he has committed his future to the club.”

Stoke City player Andrew Davies has joined Middlesbrough on loan till the end of the season. The 26-year-old began his career with the Teessiders and made his initial debut for the club in a 3-1 League Cup defeat by Ipswich in November 2002.

Southampton signed the defender in October 2007 for £1m, where he stayed for one season before moving to Stoke on a free transfer in August 2008.

Davies goes straight into the squad for Saturday’s trip to Millwall.

Racing Santander are keen on signing Birmingham striker Nikola Zigic in this transfer window. The 30-year-old, who joined Blues from Valencia in May, has already had two spells with Racing in his career.

Racing have just been taken over by Indian businessman Ahsan Ali Syed and would appear to have funds available.

However, McLeish denied the deal would only be done if he can sign Rubin Kazan striker Obafemi Martins.

Tomasz Kuszczak has said that he is aiming to be the Manchester United number one. The Poland international is currently deputising for Edwin van der Sar, who has missed the last three matches with flu.

United have been linked with several goalkeepers but Kuszczak, 28, believes he should be made number one when Van der Sar, 40, decides to step down.

“I do not want this to sound arrogant but I think I am good enough,” he said.

United have also been linked to the EPL‘s Brad Friedel.