Anzhi Makhachkala, the Russian club with an abundance of wealth behind them, are reportedly
close to signing Fabio Capello as manager. The club, owned by Russian billionaire Suleyman Kerimov,
has made no attempts to hide its wealth and in recent times has made moves for every notable high
profile player available for transfer.
By The Numbers: Who should take over from Fabio Capello? - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
Following Fabio Capello's resignation as England manager, Castrol EDGE Performance
data shows why Harry Redknapp is firm favourite to take over the reins. Since the previous
European Championships in 2008, Redknapp has secured an impressive win ratio of 49% with Portsmouth
and Tottenham, guiding Spurs to their most successful season in the Premier League and securing
European football for the past two seasons.
One of the disadvantages of working a paying job whilst trying to build a readership on your own
blog is that sometimes we get blindsided by events that need immediate reporting such as we saw
today in London as England manager Fabio Capello resigned his position immediately following a
meeting with FA Chairman David Bernstein.
The inaugural UK Football Academy (UKFA) symposium at Emirates Stadium on February 8th has been
renamed The Gary Speed Football Congress by UKFA founder, Raymond Verheijen as a tribute to the
manager alongside whom he worked last year to elevate the Wales football team to new heights.
As a player and a manager, Gary Speed was a model professional who embraced a forward-thinking
approach and modern methods.
Rene with Sir Alex
Dutch coaches are renowned for their specific skills in developing players and talents. Johan
Cruyff, Louis van Gaal, Guus Hiddink, Frank Rijkaard and Huub Stevens are a number of examples but
the Dutch list of coaches finding glory abroad is much longer. From Adrie Koster to John [read
more]
Tomorrow we will know the future of Chelsea FC in the UEFA Champions League and , probably,
the future of Portuguese manager Andres Villas Boas in the bench of the sout-west London club. The
"Blues" has the chance to qualify to the knock out of the most important tournament for European
clubs, as they will play at Stamford Bridge in front of their supporters, but an easy qualification
is not to be taken for granted.
Steve Bruce's tenure at Sunderland has come to an abrupt end.
The Premier League club fired Bruce from his post as manager on Wednesday, cutting his time at
the Stadium of Light short in his third season since joining the club from Wigan Athletic -- the
19th-place club to whom Sunderland lost at home last weekend.
Just why are so many managers in football unemployed and out of work at the moment. Could be that
the financial crisis is effecting managers too? Or is it simply because they are bidding their
time, before going back into the big time job. This article is going to look at all these reasons
and [...
Happy Thanksgiving to you from all of us at Chelsea Offside. As has become tradition around
these parts, we have foregone helpings of thinly sliced turkey in favor of a cooked Guus.
Awkward
We hope that each of you manages to enjoy the holiday festivities with family, friends or
otherwise on this day of many thanks.
In the wake of their widespread criticism in the press following their 2-1 defeat at home to
Liverpool, Chelsea's visit to Germany to take on Bayer Leverkusen tonight has much more attention
than their manager would like, and a result will prove crucial for a boost in morale.
The Blues have not won since their 5-0 smashing of Genk over a month ago, and though they
currently lead second-placed Leverkusen by 2 points, another defeat would give the Bundesliga side
and Valencia (in third spot with 5) hopes of topping the group themselves, and make the rumors
about Guus Hiddink's potential arrival a bit louder.
I think we all agree that the Chelsea job isn't exactly a bed of roses based on the levels of
expectation put on you as manager. You would imagine that only the most confident, determined and
focused managers would even entertain the idea of taking the hot seat here and a task of taking the
club out of the shadows of the Jose Mourinho era at the club.
Guus Hiddink is unemployed. He likes Chelsea, a lot.
So, is a return to London in some capacity other than manager represent good business for the
club and Roman Abramovich? Yes and no.
London calling?
Hiddink resigned his managerial post this week following a turbulent near two-year spell in
charge of the Turkish national team.
NEW COACH ABDULLAH AVCI AND TURKISH FOOTBALL FA PRESIDENT M.ALI AYDINLAR AT THE CEREMONY.
PHOTO BY TFF
Abdullah Avci has been appointed new coach of the Turkish national team, replacing Guus
Hiddink.
The Turkish football federation has appointed Abdullah Avci as Turkey coach.
Guus Hiddink is pondering a move back to England after Turkey sacked the Dutchman following
their failure to reach the Euro 2012 Championship Finals, going down 3-0 to Croatia on aggregate in
the play-offs.
Grab your Euro 2012 Kits at Soccer.com
By Eric Beard
Despite everything Soccernomics preaches, Turkey's path to becoming a footballing
superpower has hit yet another bump in the road. The nation failed to qualify for EURO 2012, and
via the transitive property this means Guus Hiddink's time is up as manager.
By Eric Beard
The idea of community, however tangible or intangible, real or imagined, flourishes at the very
core of football. Without fans, football doesn't exist. Similarly, without readers, AFR would have
died a long, long time ago. Conversation is the greatest source of sustenence in the beautiful
game.
By Alan Duffy
While Ireland were thrashing Estonia in Talinn on Friday night, six other teams were battling it
out for a place in Poland Ukraine next summer.
Slaven Bilic's Croatian side are the closest to booking their place in the finals, after
securing an impressive 3-0 win away in Turkey, courtesy of goals from Ivica Olic, Mario Mandzukic
and Tottenham's Vedran Corluka.
Turkey's coach Guus Hiddink watches the game during the first leg of their Euro 2012 play-off
qualifying soccer match with Croatia at Turk Telekom Arena in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Nov. 11,
2011. (AP Photo )
This was disaster and choking by whole Turkish National football team on Friday night in Turk
Telekom Arena in Istanbul, Turkey!
Good draw for England in the Euro 2012 as they have been drawn against Ukraine, France and
Sweden. It is by now way an easy group for England, but considering who England could have been
drawn against, Fabio Capello cannot be too upset.
In every tournament there is a proverbial "Group of Death" and Euro 2012 is no exception.
Jaime Carragher has had a "pop" about Chelsea and our appointment of AVB ahead of up and coming
British managers. When asked about foreign managers here he said:
"Benitez, Houllier, Mourinho – they've all got things about them in terms of having
won the big trophies. Does that mean English managers don't get a chance at the Premier
League?
Claudio Ranieri is the 4th Inter Milan's manager since the leaving of Josè Mourinho, just 16
months ago. The Portouguese manager left Inter Milan after the winning of Uefa Champions League on
May 2010. From that moment the dressing room of the Italian club has welcome Rafa Benitez, Leonardo
De Araujo and Gian Piero Gasperini.
The last gasp of the Gasperini
It took just five matches but Massimo Moratti decided he had had seen enough. Its Rolodex time
once again at the San Siro as Gian Piero Gasperini was given his marching orders after Inter lost
1-3 against newly promoted Novara.
Gasperini after the news of his sacking:
"In the end, the results are the ones that determine everything.
After beating Kazakhstan with a last-minute goal by Arda Turan last Friday , Turkish national
team face another hurdle on the way to secure the second place in the group A.
This time, they will be away in Vienna against Austria....
Turkey with 13 points on second place, six ahead of fourth-place Austria in the group A.
Following on from the crushing defeats to both Manchester teams, Daniel Levy must surely be
considering the position of Harry Redknapp at Tottenham.
United and City will probably be competing for the title this season, but the pathetic manner in
which we capitulated in both fixtures demonstrates the difference in class and also highlights the
lack of improvement over the last season.
OK, here's the official release from U.S. Soccer:
CHICAGO (July 28, 2011) - U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati announced today that Bob Bradley
has been relieved of his duties as the head coach of the U.S. Men's National Team.
"We want to thank Bob Bradley for his service and dedication to U.
Newly appointed Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas has stated that Manchester United should be their
reference point when it comes to challenging for the title this season.
The former Porto coach is looking to emulate Sir Alex Ferguson's side as he prepares for his first
season as Blues boss, and believes his side have what it takes to follow in the footsteps of Jose
Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti by leading the club to the Premier League title.
Former FC Porto coach Andres Villas-Boas has finalized the last remnants of his contract
as he prepares to take over the reins as the new Chelsea boss.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich matched FC Porto's £13.5million release clause sparking Andres
Villas-Boas' resignation after guiding the Portuguese champions to a historic four trophies this
season.
This article was written by Pete South, follow him on Twitter @peterwsouth.
UPDATE: VILLAS-BOAS HAS SIGNED A THREE YEAR CONTRACT WITH CHELSEA
Andre Villas-Boas has resigned from his post as Porto manager amidst widespread speculation he will
be installed as the next Chelsea boss, with a Portuguese news agency claiming the 33-year-old paid
the €15 million release clause in his contract that allows him to leave the club himself.
FC Porto have denied that current boss Andre Villas-Boas is set to join Chelsea amidst
mounting speculation that the highly-rated coach is to be unveiled as the new Blues
boss.
According to reports, Chelsea are set to move for the current FC Porto boss with The
Times in particular reporting that Jose Mourinho's former assistant is ready to leave the
Portuguese champions and follow in the ‘Special One's' footsteps and sign for Chelsea.
On face value, it seems like a match made in heaven. The young, dashing Porto manager that looks
set to be given a chance to harness Chelsea's millionaire's into a trophy-winning unit it all seems
very familiar doesn't it? The Guardian even report that he will earn the exact same salary as
Jose Mourinho did during his time in London.
André Villas-Boas is the stealthy one.
His snow job on the media took him off the short list of candidates which then concentrated on
Guus Hiddink's reported arrival. Everyone believed Villas-Boas would stay on in Porto for at least
another season. There were articles devoted to why he would do so as Boas dampened expectations
citing astronomical release amounts.
Around here, we take the tabloids with a grain of salt. You know this. But sometimes, sometimes
a story is so ridiculous that you just have run with it.
We did it when the Guardian linked us with an £80 million move for Kaka in July 2008.
We did it again when that wretched lot decided to really shake Middle-earth and shove a pair of
Liverpool men down our collective throats.
Now the Guus Hiddink to Chelsea soap opera that appears to be going on at the moment with the "will
he, won't he?" questions constantly being raised on a daily basis took a turn over the weekend.
When Guus Hiddink returned from a trip to South Korea, he was asked once more about rumours of
Chelsea and also of his "reported" recommendation to Roman Abramovich to sign Wesley Sneijder.
2011 Summer Preview: Barnet transfer for Rooney, Tottenham's new sponsors, Chelsea's unsackable
manager and more - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Thanks to Twitter,the green light for the "Silly Season" to start has been well and truly lit.
As we head for the sun, tabloids and social media sites are preparing to fill inches with nonsense,
here are a few of the stories which will have us pulling our hair out.
After my last post on here and the fact that Guus Hiddink's agent has said he will still be in
charge of Turkey for their two Euro 2012 qualifying games in September, I just wonder now if Roman
Abramovich will turn to Mark Hughes or Rafa Benitez?.
I mentioned about Hughes on here the other day and being an ex-Chelsea player and fan favourite, I
wonder if that will hold any sway with the board.
All signs point to Stamford Bridge
The ready answer to Mark Hughes's Fulham departure: He was angling for the Aston Villa job after
it became clear that Gerard Houllier's health would not permit continuing as manager. But for the
clearly ambitious Hughes was this really a step up going from midtable to midtable?
Chelsea captain John Terry has opened the door for former boss Guus Hiddink to take over the
reins at Stamford Bridge. Hiddink previously managed at the club in 2009 as caretaker boss
following Felipe Scolari's sacking, but failed to land the job permanently. Now, Terry says that
Hiddink would be welcomed back with open arms, especially considering the Dutchman's impressive
record of just one loss with the club.
John Terry is quoted today in The Telegraph speaking of speculation regarding our new manager. As
you can imagine, he was asked on his opinions about all the names being linked with the club and in
particular Guus Hiddink and Mark Hughes, especially as Hughes resigned from Fulham yesterday and is
looking to manage a "bigger" club.
