Category Archives: Transfer Gossip

Lucas Ocampos: Monaco’s Argentine speed merchant in line to replace Sterling at Liverpool

  By O-Posts Team | June 24, 2024 - 15:24 | , , , , , , , ,
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If the seasonal rumour mill is to be believed Liverpool may well find themselves robbed of the services of talented youngster Raheem Sterling and despite the bulging bank account that will result, Brendan Rodgers and company will face the difficult task of finding an adequate replacement.

One name that is being linked with a move to Anfield in such circumstances is Monaco’s very own 20-year-old forward – Lucas Ocampos.

 

Who is Lucas Ocampos?

Ocampos began his football career as a centre-forward with his hometown club, Quilmes, just south of Buenos Aires but after impressing in their youth sides and with the Argentina under-15s, he was swiftly snapped up by River Plate and it was here that he was shifted out onto the left of an attacking trident in the much vaunted Millionarios academy team.

In 2011, at perhaps the lowest point in River’s illustrious history with the Buenos Aires behemoths relegated to the Nacional B for the first time, the 17-year-old Ocampos seized his opportunity and sparkled on his senior debut against Chacarita Juniors. This led to the youngster starting the second game of the season in the Estadio Monumental against Indepediente Rivadavia and he immediately repaid the faith of coach Matias Almeyda with a towering header to cancel out the visitors early lead. River gained immediate promotion but it was Ocampos who caught the eye of admirers in Europe, finishing the season with seven goals and five assists.

It was inevitable then that an offer would come in and River were in no position to turn down the €13 million that the cash-laden, and then Ligue 2 side, Monaco put on the table. The 18-year-old lit up the Monumental for a little over a season but headed to the south of France for another promotion campaign.

It did not take long for Ocampos to live up to his hype when in only his second game for Monaco he scored a spectacular bicycle kick in the Coupe de la Ligue against Valenciennes, which was voted by the Monaco supporters as the goal of the season for 2012-13.

Ocampos showed plenty of early promise and under Claudio Ranieri playing time was easy to comeby as Monaco returned to Ligue 1 but as Russian billionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev continued to splash the cash and the likes of James Rodriguez, Radamel Falcao and Joao Moutinho arrived, Ocampos gradually became more of a fringe player.

Desperate for more playing time, Ocampos sought a loan move away from Monaco in the January transfer window of last season, he moved along the Mediterranean coast to Marseille and linked up with legendary Argentine manager, Marcelo Bielsa.

A fruitful loan spell full of the usual pace and trickery ended with two goals and two assists from his fourteen appearances with Les Olympiens as they finished fourth in Ligue 1. However, with money not so abundant in Marseille, the club have decided not to take up their option to buy the 20-year-old and Ocampos finds himself back in Monaco for the start of the forthcoming season.

 

So what next? Could Liverpool swoop?

The newspaper suggest that Ocampos is on Brendan Rodgers list of possible replacements in the event that Raheem Sterling exits Anfield and although there is nothing concrete in this, it is understood that scouts from several sides kept an eye on his performances over the second half of last season.

Monaco appear open to a deal with a transfer fee of around €15 million mentioned in the French media which would be substantially cheaper than a lot of other options and certainly less than the touted £50 million that Liverpool desire for Sterling. They are however not alone. Italian side, Fiorentina appear prepared to offer that sum of money and West Ham’s new regime under Slaven Bilic are also interested.

Ocampos is under contract with Monaco until 2017 and the only noises coming from the player are that he would welcome a return to the Stade Velodrome to continue under Bielsa. This is a distinct possibility if Monaco do not receive an acceptable bid to buy the forward outright.

At present, Liverpool’s interest would appear to be nothing more than paper-talk but if the Premier League do find themselves £50 million better off towards the end of the transfer window, Lucas Ocampos may well fit the bill to inject some pace into their attack.

 

What will Ocampos offer Liverpool in their system?

The short answer to that question would be pace on the flanks, particularly in the event of Sterling leaving, but perhaps even if the fellow 20-year-old remains at the club. However, there are clear distinctions between the two.

Like the archetypal South American, Ocampos exhibits supreme technique and has a wonderful first touch and superb dribbling ability with both feet. His balance in this regard makes him a very elusive player given that he feints to go either way and can pop up on either flank.

His acceleration and pace make him a dangerous wide player and his passing is perhaps underrated given that he has developed into much more of a creator than a goal scorer since his youth football. This is an aspect that he can certainly improve as his eye for goal and finishing could be described as inconsistent and certainly a player of his talents should find the net more regularly.

As a wide player Ocampos is always looking to come inside rather than a traditional winger that drives to the by-line on the outside of the full-back and so he would suit playing on either side of a 4-3-3 as Brendan Rodgers often looks to utilize.

One area where Ocampos certainly differs to someone like Raheem Sterling is physically. At six foot two inches (187 cm) the former centre-forward provides an aeriel presence in the box and has shown this throughout his career with his heading ability and threat when attacking crosses from the opposite wing. His strength and physicality also make him a more robust wide player and the 20-year-old is unafraid to track back and tackle.

At 20 years of age there is plenty of time and room for improvement and at the correct club and in the correct system, Ocampos could develop into a world class forward.

 

Written by Peter Coates

Follow Peter on Twitter @golazoargentino

You can check out more of his excellent work on Argentinian football through his website, Golazo Argentino

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Ahmed Hassan Koka: Rio Ave’s Egyptian goal-getter primed to hit the big time

  By O-Posts Team | May 15, 2024 - 23:01 | , , , , ,
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Only close followers of Portuguese football are acquainted with him for now, but Egyptian striker Ahmed Hassan Mahgoub, known in Portugal by his middle name, has a decent shot at becoming a household name in the game in the coming years.

The tall Rio Ave marksman showed goal-scoring ability from the moment he was thrust into the first team when still a teenager, and has steadily improved over three seasons. Hassan’s goals go some way to explaining how one of Portugal’s more modest top-flight clubs has over-achieved throughout that period.

A wonderfully polished finisher, the Cairo-born centre-forward is a throwback to another era in that he is a striker who confines his whole game to the space in and around the attacking penalty area.

Hassan is neither fast nor particularly mobile, but his adeptness at losing his marker, ghosting into scoring positions and applying the lethal touch when the opportunity presents itself are qualities that will almost certainly lead to his signing for one of Portugal’s major clubs this summer.

 

Highly sought-after

Sporting have long been attempting to lure him to the Alvalade, but according to reports it is Lisbon rivals Benfica who have made the decisive move and Hassan is expected to check in for pre-season training ahead of 2015/16 as a Benfica player.

Asked to comment on a prospective move to the Estádio da Luz, veteran coach Manuel José, who managed Hassan as a youth player when in charge of Al Ahly, has few doubts he can make a big impact at the Portuguese champions elect.

“His characteristics as a player are much better suited to a big team that play near the opposition box than a smaller team. He’s improved greatly. He’s not the fastest but in the area he knows how to position himself very well and he’s a clinical finisher. He doesn’t just take a swing at the ball, he looks to use his technique to apply the finish,” said José.

“I’m convinced he has the scoring qualities to make it at Benfica. He played under me when he was just 18 in some friendly games in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and what impressed me most was the ease and calmness with which he aimed to score. Whether it was with his head or his foot he wouldn’t just whack the ball, he’d look to place it skilfully into the net. He recognises that in the box what you need is intelligence and technique - not force.”

One of Hassan’s most famous goals was an angled rocket shot angled into the top corner against Sporting this season (see below at 2:50), but the spectacular strike was the exception that proves the rule.

As Manuel José pointed out, Hassan’s ability to almost caress the ball into the net is evident in the following compilation of some of his best moments at Rio Ave:

 

‘Big club’ player

Every year the Big Three in the Primeira Liga (Benfica, Porto and Sporting) pluck the outstanding performers from Portugal’s smaller clubs. Most of them struggle to make an impact. José believes Hassan will buck that particular trend and make a smooth transition.

“Some players are big players for a small club, but when they go to a big club they turn into a small player. Hassan won’t have this problem. I don’t think he’ll wilt under the pressure of playing for Benfica. He played for a huge club in Egypt, Al Ahly, who have 60 million supporters – curiously it’s another team that plays in red and has an Eagle as its crest.

“He’s used to the pressure that goes with playing for a massive club. Compare that to [Benfica striker] Derley this season. Derley came from a small 2nd division club in Brazil, he was a beast for Marítimo, but at Benfica he completely vanished.”

Hassan’s build and style have been compared to Benfica legend Oscar Cardozo, the club’s all-time highest foreign scorer. Hassan will be hoping he can soar to similar heights with the Eagle on his chest.

 

Written by Tom Kundert

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Robin van Persie: The Flying Dutchman on the verge of an exit should he fail to convince Van Gaal

  By O-Posts Team | May 14, 2024 - 17:35 | , , , ,
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Since his acrimonious £23 million move from Arsenal, Robin Van Persie has scored 3 times for Manchester United in the five games he has played against his former club.

This Sunday afternoon, in what will be a significant game for both clubs in the bid to avoid an August play-off for the Champions League, he will be especially motivated to produce his best form against the club he served for 8 seasons not only for pride in face of the vitriol he will inevitably draw from visiting supporters still bitter over his exit, but also because he finds himself standing nervously on the precipice at Old Trafford.

A campaign in which he has netted just 10 goals from 28 appearances has culminated with reports that his manager Louis Van Gaal may be willing to sell the striker in the summer. Only 2 of those goals have come in 2015 and his strike rate has elevated to 208.5 minutes per goal from 120.1 when he fired to United to the league title in 2012/13 and the 132 he was running at during his season under David Moyes. The amount of chances he has created for others has also declined rapidly, from the 72 opportunities he carved out during his title-winning campaign, he has made just 27 this term.

The comparisons are of course skewed by the 38 games he managed 2 seasons ago when he won that title, hitting 26 goals in the process, but the Van Persie of now is a shadow of the one unleashed in Sir Alex Ferguson’s final season. Injuries have begun to take hold, restricting him to only 18 starts under Moyes’s doomed reign and while Van Gaal has been able to utilise him more, the Dutchman has failed to get him firing regularly again.

The manager has tried desperately, often moving his captain Wayne Rooney to a deeper midfield role to fit Van Persie in as the lone striker, but to no avail. Vital contributions came in games with Southampton and Liverpool in December but after a poor run of form in which included dropped points at Tottenham Hotspur, Stoke and West Ham, Van Gaal may have viewed the injury his striker picked up against Swansea as a blessing in disguise as he witnessed Van Persie leave the Liberty Stadium on crutches in February.

United strung together 6 straight wins following that defeat in Wales and Rooney, restored to a main striker, played an integral role to the upturn in form, scoring twice. Anaemic attacking displays resulted in Chelsea and Everton breaking that run and Van Persie returned to the line-up for the game with West Bromwich Albion, only to produce a rusty display which saw him miss a penalty as well as produce a series of fine saves from goalkeeper Boaz Myhill. The game followed a theme similar to the loss at Swansea; of United dominating but being let down by strikers failing to take their chances.

“We are creating chances all the time, but we have to improve our finishing” was Van Gaal’s verdict after the loss to West Brom and it seems like Van Persie, as well as Radamel Falcao who is unlikely to have his loan spell from Monaco converted to a permanent one, could be a fall-guy as the manager clears room for a summer revamp.

Exciting 21 year old winger Memphis Depay has already been snapped up for around £25 million from PSV Eindhoven and Van Persie will be hoping he will get the chance to play alongside his international team-mate by earning a one year extension to his current deal that expires in 2016.

It is customary practice at Old Trafford to offer players in their 30s deals of only one year and Van Persie, who is 32 in August, wants to stay, though he is not clear where exactly his future lies. “It is not up to me,” said the striker back in January. “For the moment I am staying here for 18 months. That is it really. I can’t look into the future. I don’t know what is going to happen after that. We shall have to wait and see.”

The Dutchman missed the 1-2 away win at Crystal Palace at the weekend and now only has 2 more games, the meeting with Arsenal as well as a trip to Hull City on the season’s final day, to prove his case to Van Gaal.

Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale and Edinson Cavani of PSG have all been linked to add some bite to United’s attack as Van Gaal prepares to splash his gargantuan cash reserves as the club return to the Champions League while aiming to once again challenge for the Premier League title. Van Gaal may decide there is to be no room for Van Persie and his £220,000-plus wages and relinquish his fellow countryman.

Few would have foreseen Van Persie marginalised by Van Gaal barely 10 months since the pair high-fived each other at the side of the pitch in Salvador as the striker led his manager’s carefully-crafted plan to demolish Spain at the World Cup. The vast majority of onlookers viewed that as the prelude of what was to come in Manchester, the restoration of Van Persie to the beast that drove United to their most recent league title under the manager he once said he would “walk on fire” for.

Driven only by results, Van Persie is unlikely to find the same overriding loyalty forthcoming from Van Gaal. That is if he doesn’t haunt his former club once again.

 

Written by Adam Gray

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Manuel Pellegrini: Guardiola linked to his Man City post, but the Engineer deserves better

  By O-Posts Team | May 13, 2024 - 15:56 | , , ,
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The conclusion to Manchester City’s mauling of Queen’s Park Rangers on Sunday was a parting of two clubs heading into periods of uncertainty, albeit entering in totally different directions. QPR will head to the Championship faced with possible financial meltdown and an impending £58 million Financial Fair Play fine, but City will head to the Champions League bankrolled by the seemingly limitless fortune of their Emirate owners.

Another raft of Sheikh Mansour’s money will be used to fund a squad overhaul designed to restore City to potential title challengers as well as offering them a chance to move past their ceiling of the Champions League last-16.

They will hope fresh impetus will be injected by the likes of Paul Pogba, Ross Barkley and Kevin De Bruyne to a squad that has Yaya Toure, Stevan Jovetic, Samir Nasri, Alexander Kolarov and Eden Dzeko on hand to be offloaded if space needs to be created. It is a reaction to a limp defence of their Premier League title which they have ceded to Chelsea by a gap of 11 points and a run in Europe which was again ended by the brilliance of Barcelona. Drastic change could also extend to the dugout with the manager possibly paying with his job.

Manuel Pellegrini delivered the title in his first season in England but hasn’t managed to avoid a repeat of the same lethargy and weariness that did for Roberto Mancini a season after he delivered the club’s first title for 42 years.

With City’s new-look boardroom containing Ferran Soriano and Txixi Begiristain, who were both part of Barcelona’s board during the era of Joan Laporta, the latter the man who convinced the Catalan giants and Pep Guardiola were right for each other in the summer of 2008, it has fuelled reports linking the now-Bayern Munich coach with a move to the Etihad to succeed the Chilean.

Guardiola has won two Bundesliga titles, a German cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA World Club Cup during his time in Bavaria but the lack of genuine competition in a league that Munich had virtually sewn up by winter has developed cracks in the Spaniard’s reign.

A complacent conclusion to his second season in charge has seen his team lose to Borussia Dortmund in the DFB Pokal, lose successive games in the league and of course suffer a 3-0 first-leg Champions League semi-final beating at the hands of Guardiola’s former club. He still summoned an irresistible performance to demolish Porto 6-1 in the quarter-final second leg, but not before some of Bayern’s impregnability had been ebbed away with a 3-1 defeat in Portugal. It has all echoed the damaging 0-5 aggregate loss to Real Madrid in last year’s semi-final.

Bayern’s former captain Lothar Matthaus and honorary president Franz Beckenbauer have both been recent critics of the Catalan coach who was this weekend reported, by Qatari-owned global sports channel beIN Sports, to have signed an agreement with Manchester City to take charge of the club in the summer. It has all since been sternly denied by the coach who says he is determined to honour the last year of his contract in Germany but from City there has been little response or acknowledgement.

That has in turn allowed a vacuum to fester in which rumour and gossip will thrive. Pellegrini, who had to field questions about the possibility of being replaced by Guardiola just after seeing his team win 6-0, deserves better.

The 61 year old coach will have his performance reviewed by Chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak in the summer and question marks will be rightly asked about the Chilean’s failure to successfully revamp his squad that now has an average age of 28.9 despite the £190 million spent since his arrival. Eliaquim Mangala, Fernando and Jovetic have all been expensive failures, Alvaro Negredo served just 1 year for £20 million and although the jury is still out on the £25 million Wilfried Bony, he is not the standard of signing required to compete once again with Chelsea.

However City’s poor showing this term has been mostly down to the patchy form of Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure and Samir Nasri, all of whom have struggled to repeat their excellent displays of last season for different reasons. A lack of enthusiasm to help out with the defensive effort has undermined City’s chances and the many instances of Nasri, Toure and even David Silva cruising through important defeats to Liverpool and Manchester United have been sad epitomes of the campaign. Kompany’s previously rock-solid position as leader of the team was put into doubt when he was dropped following a dressing room altercation with Fernandinho.

Numerous factors, including consistent injuries to top-scorer Sergio Aguero and the ridiculous saga of Yaya Toure’s birthday that lit the fuse to a sorry, disinterested season from the Ivorian, have all contributed to a limp title defence but it should not constitute the sacking of a manager who has proved he can be successful with Manchester City in England.

The tally of seven league defeats has been disappointing but their 77 goals conceded is a league high while their total of 36 goals conceded has been bettered only by Southampton, Arsenal and Chelsea. The recent revival, following the dejection of successive defeats to Crystal Palace and Manchester United, of four straight wins to put them back in the frame for automatic Champions League qualification is something Pellegrini should receive credit for.

Some may point to the Chilean’s tactical inflexibility that was so brutally exposed on the European stage but no system works in the modern game without the effort of its personnel and City have so often found that absent, just like they did in the season of Mancini’s title-defence.

A squad revamp, bringing with it an influx of younger players hungry for success will go some way to solving that and it should be a truer test of Pellegrini’s qualities if he is allowed to take control of a new-look squad free of those comfortable on lucrative contracts with medals safe on their walls.

Fail once again and City will be right to turn to Guardiola, but Pellegrini deserves the chance to show that the brighter, younger, more decorated manager from Catalonia isn’t the right route to go down just yet.

 

Written by Adam Gray

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Nabil Fekir: Lyon’s in-demand prodigy attracts Arsenal’s overtures, but do they really need him?

  By O-Posts Team | May 10, 2024 - 16:57 | , , , , , , ,
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The promise in Lyon’s Nabil Fekir is so much that many have compared the 21 year old to Karim Benzema, the Les Gones academy graduate who raised the club £32 million for his sale to Real Madrid in 2009. However the Frenchman himself has another comparison in mind, likening the winger to Hatem Ben Arfa, whom Benzema says “I saw do unbelievable things with the ball”.

Ben Arfa is also a fellow product of Lyon’s fertile youth system but who now acts as the warning for how things can go wrong as much as Benzema, a winner of so many trophies in Madrid, is the poster-boy for what can go right. Now 28, after tumultuous spells at Marseille and Newcastle, Ben Arfa has been a free agent since having his contract at Nice terminated in February. Benzema feels that Ben Arfa left Lyon too young, possibly in a veiled attempt to influence any decision that Fekir is about to make.

Fekir has scored 12 goals and made 9 assists in a season where Lyon have emerged unexpectedly to run the financial powerhouse PSG right to the wire in Ligue 1 and although Les Gones are set to miss out on a first title for seven seasons, their return to prominence under Hubert Fournier has arguably been story of the season in France. Alexander Lacazette, Samuel Umtiti, Jordan Ferri, Corentin Tolisso and Anthony Lopes have all starred as Lyon have gone with the kids and, along with the free-scoring Lacazette, Fekir has grabbed the headlines.

Playing as a left-footed central attacking midfielder, nobody has completed more dribbles or crafted more goals in the Lyon squad than the 21 year old Fekir who is second only to his strike-partner Lacazette in terms of attempted shots and chances created. Standing at just 5 ft 8 inches tall, he has the ability to keep the ball in tight areas and weave through defences with both feet.

That style draws similarities to Eden Hazard and Mario Gotze but Lyon’s president Jean-Michel Aulas, no stranger to fits of enthusiasm when it comes to his own players, likes to go a step further. “He is my Messi,” he says. “In a match he is capable, like Lionel Messi, of shaking things up.”

After breaking through into Lyon’s senior team last year but being restricted to 11 appearances, this season has seen him play 32 times in the league. For a debut campaign it has marked an impressive rise and his form certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed. Didier Deschamps was forced to go to extensive effort to personally convince Fekir to choose France over Algeria and has recently rewarded him with 2 caps, but while the latest in the long line of Lyon-created players to represent their country may be yet another source of pride for the club’s academy, concern will grow about the attentions coming from elsewhere.

Aulas has had to trim the club’s wage bill by 40% over the past three years and the age of restrained spending is due to continue for the near future as the club continues to pay for the construction of the new stadium they are due to move into in December. Lyon hope to enter their new 58,000-seater home with their best players in tow and with the prospect of Champions League football being used as a bargaining tool, Aulas has been allowed to take a stoic stance on wide-spread interest in top-scorer Lacazette.

Manchester United and Liverpool have been linked to Lacazette while Fekir has seen interest come from Arsenal but the pair, who have 39 goals between them this season, will both remain at Lyon according to the insistent Aulas. Yet the president will be aware, just like he experienced with Benzema, every player has a price and as midfielder Maxime Gonalons, another of the club’s graduates, says, both players can make their own minds up regarding their future.

Fekir’s father has said that Arsenal is the best possible destination for his son rather than moving to sit on the bench at Manchester City and while fees in the region of £15-20 million have been said to be the extent of the Gunner’s willingness to take the playmaker to north London, he is right to seek assurances on the chances of first team football at the Emirates.

He would be moving into a squad that currently houses Alexis Sanchez, Danny Welbeck, Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in advanced midfield spots, as well as Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott as they continue their rehabilitation from injury. Fekir may add versatility and a penetrative aspect to the attacking midfield, one who can chip in with goals consistently enough to complement Olivier Giroud, but he faces a stern contest with Cazorla, Ozil or the fit-again Ramsey for position in support of the main striker.

Manager Arsene Wenger may be better using the funds available to reinforce the spine of his squad as he has once again discovered that the difference between Premier League success and also-rans has been the ability to game-manage and shut-out the opposition when needed, but that will be of little concern to Lyon who will be intent on keeping their star attractions.

Fekir is likely to be told of the dangers of ending up like Ben Arfa and he will be constantly reminded of his potential to be another Benzema, or Messi, or even Zidane like he has also been likened to.

Fekir meanwhile, will be focussed on being himself, regardless of wherever he ends up next.

 

Written by Adam Gray

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Dani Alves: The Brazilian’s impending departure could put Barcelona right back in deep trouble

  By O-Posts Team | April 12, 2024 - 23:01 | , , , , , ,
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It was an emotional return to the Roman Sanchez Pijuan for Dani Alves on Saturday evening, with the Barcelona right-back taking to Instagram after the match with Sevilla to thank fans for giving him a warm welcome back to the club he served for six years. He would leave the home of his former club full of nostalgia as he was reminded of the past, but it is the matter of the future that now concerns the Brazilian as the dispute over his contract situation rumbles on.

Alves has rejected what is said to be Barcelona’s final offer of a contract extension according to his agent Dinorah Santana; a deal that reportedly stretched from one year to three depending on whether he played in 60% of his side’s games each season.

“He would accept three years, but it is not a three-year deal, but a one year,” said Santana, who also announced there was a better deal on offer elsewhere. “Dani has a concrete offer on the table for a three-year deal plus the option for an extra year with a better wage than he has here and a signing on fee.”

It is unclear which club has offered that contract but Alves has been linked with Paris St Germain and Manchester United with both clubs willing to commit to the wages that Barcelona are not. United have reportedly issued an ultimatum for Alves to decide by the end of April whether he fancies a move to Old Trafford, but according to Radio Marca in Spain the 31 year old has already signed the €9 million salary on offer from PSG.

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has refused to give up on his club’s chances of retaining Alves, saying negotiations are being conducted in private. “In Alves’s case, the matter is not closed. If Alves accepts the deal we have offered him, then he will stay at Barca” said Bartomeu, “everyone has their own strategy. Ours is discretion and a final statement announcing a deal.” However Santana is more brisk with her opinion on where talks currently are. “The negotiations are over,” she said.

What makes this saga so curious, as his agent mentions, is the question of why Barcelona have left it so late to open talks with Alves who, with 35 appearances so far this season, remains an integral part of the squad. It is a query that takes on further intrigue when you factor in how the Catalan club, currently under a transfer embargo which bars them from signing players until January 2016, will have to go half of next season before they can sign a replacement.

Even though Alves’s form has dipped somewhat over the course of this campaign, something his outspoken agent attributes to the uncertainty caused by the contract impasse, the Brazilian remains very much first-choice. Alves played the full 90 minutes in the 2-2 draw with Sevilla on Saturday, the latest in a run of games that has seen him play in both legs of the Champions League second round tie with Manchester City, as well as the recent 2-1 El Clasico win over Real Madrid.

“Seeing out his contract in the best possible manner”, typical of Alves, the Brazilian will play in this week’s Champions League quarter final with PSG, his potential new employers, and his importance to Luis Enrique’s team as they aim for a treble clearly hasn’t depreciated with age. He is the paradox of being one of the first names on the team sheet while simultaneously being half way out of the Nou Camp exit door.

The transfer ban has already seen them miss out on Porto’s Danilo, who will head to Real Madrid in the summer after they took advantage of their rival’s forced inactivity to seal a €31.5 million move, and attention has now moved to Torino’s €15 million-rated Matteo Darmian, among a host of others, as the search for a replacement is underway. However Enrique will be aware that if Alves does leave, he will begin the season without a top level right-back to immediately fill the gap.

If the idea is to promote from within then it is been so far unconvincing. 23 year old La Masia graduate Martin Montoya has made just 6 appearances this season as an alternative to Alves at right-back while Douglas Pereira Dos Santos, signed from Sao Paulo last August for €4 million, was given a torrid time in his La Liga debut against Malaga in September and has only been trusted with 3 Copa Del Rey appearances in the time since. There doesn’t appear to be a stand-out option to inherit the right-back slot from Alves straight-away and if there is, Enrique doesn’t trust them.

It threatens to be a huge act of folly and naivety on Barcelona’s behalf if Alves does leave Catalonia and given the blunt message from his agent, that does seem likely to be the case. Barcelona will lose 16 trophies and 331 appearances if they lose Alves, a level of experience and dressing room influence they will find hard to replace even with vast sums of money.

Furthermore, they will have to wait another 6 months before embarking on that task in one of the more bizarre contract situations.

 

Written by Adam Gray

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Karim Bellarabi: Leverkusen star puts stuttering years behind him to shine for the Bundesliga high-flyers

  By O-Posts Team | April 10, 2024 - 20:03 | , , , , , , , , ,
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Locked in battle with Borussia Monchendgladbach for the Bundesliga’s 3rd automatic Champions League qualification spot, Bayer Leverkusen winger Karim Bellarabi is clear where he wants his team to finish. “Now we are up where we want to still be at the end of the season” he said, after his winner against Schalke in late March had put Leverkusen above Monchengladbach into third place.

That was the 25 year old’s eleventh goal of the season for Leverkusen and such form has attracted Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal to an £11 million release clause in his contract. With Bayer eliminated from the Champions League and the German Cup, a top 3 finish is their sole target for the remainder of the season and manager Roger Schmidt would probably share the same intent as his winger to finish there in order to give his club more leverage as they come to keeping their major stars at the BayArena for next season.

A defence that is only bettered for goals conceded by Bayern Munich and Monchengladbach, and not shipped a single goal for the past 5 games, is certainly effective but it is in his vibrant attacking quadrant where Schmidt finds his main assets.

Midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu has been named the “new Ozil” and has also garnered interest from Arsenal, Korean Heung-Min Son has 10 goals from his station on the left-wing and Stefan Kiessling and Josip Drmic each have 6 goals as they share centre-forward duties. On the right of the four, you find Bellarabi, the pacey wide-man who has 4 assists to go with his 11 goals. With 40 chances created, he his 2nd only to Calhanoglu in the Leverkusen squad on the table of their most creative players.

Ahead of the DFB Pokal quarter final with Bayern, Bellarabi was singled out for praise by Pep Guardiola. “If Bayer Leverkusen wins the ball they are looking for direct contact with the strikers. This is accomplished with players like Julian Brandt or particularly Karim Bellarabi” he said, before he witnessed the winger terrorise his defence in the BayArena only to see him denied by the superb form of Manuel Neuer.

The German stopper saved 3 times from Bellarabi and also denied Kiessling from the winger’s cross, while Rafinha had to make a desperate lunge to prevent Brandt turning in another dangerous ball in from the right. It was an excellent display from Bellarabi but it couldn’t stop Bayer going out on penalties, similarly to their Champions League exit to Atletico Madrid.

Like Guardiola hinted at, Bellarabi is indeed direct and quick, offering a superb balance on the right side of Schmidt’s attacking midfield 3 that has Calhanoglu central and Min Son on the left. He is powerful and tricky with his feet, traits that make him so dangerous cutting inside to get involved in the play and head towards goal.

His total of 251 attempted dribbles is by far in excess of anybody else in the Leverkusen squad, coming at a rate of 5.2 successful dribbles per game, while his tally of 97 shots is also the highest at the club.

Two statistics that translate directly to a simple but effective game of taking on his defender with pace and skill before getting shots away. Such intent to make his way towards goal and an unerring coolness in front of it earned him a goal within 9 seconds in the season’s opening game with Borussia Dortmund, inserting his name in the record books by hitting the Bundesliga’s fastest ever goal.

It was a fitting start to a campaign where the winger has burst into Joachim Low’s national side and made more appearances for Leverkusen than he has over the past 4 years with the club. For a 25 year old, it seems odd that this should be his breakthrough year but a series of injuries, loss of form and managerial changes has meant his Leverkusen career has never really managed to take off before now.

A loan spell at Eintracht Braunschweig, the club that handed him his senior debut back in 2008, saw him get back to full fitness and form despite failing to keep them in the Bundesliga, and it was enough for Leverkusen’s sporting director Rudi Voller to urge Roger Schmidt, who had only just taken over last summer, to include him from the start. “He’s taken our style of play and made it his style of play,” said the manager after he made his blistering introduction against Dortmund. “He’s not just quick on the ball, but off the ball.”

That potency and those attributes saw him called up to the Germany squad last October and Bellarabi, who opted to play for the country of his birth despite Moroccan parentage after spending time in the under-20 and 21 squads, has since registered 5 caps. In a team that has lost some of its vigour since claiming the World Cup last summer, he will certainly be hard to dislodge.

That resilience and desire was forged and honed, says Bellarabi, playing on the streets of Bremen as a youngster. “You had to learn to impose yourself. I don’t mind being described as a street footballer nowadays.”

He is still definitely imposing himself, no longer on the street but on the pitch, where he is showing his quality for both club and country.

 

Written by Adam Gray

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Cédric Soares: Suitors lining up for the Sporting right-back

  By O-Posts Team | April 7, 2024 - 17:29 | , , , , , , , ,
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Cédric Soares is the latest of Sporting Lisbon’s highly promising crop of young players to be linked with a lucrative move, either abroad or domestically.

Contract talks with the Portugal right-back have stalled over several months amid rumours that both FC Porto and Benfica are keen on prising the 23-year-old away from their direct rivals, while Napoli and Bayer Leverkusen are also reported to be keeping close tabs on him. Premier league giants Arsenal have also been linked.

Cédric, as he is known in Portugal, has been a regular in Sporting’s back four over the last two seasons, his sparkling displays helping the club’s resurgence and also earning him his first Portugal caps.

Attacking inclination

The full-back loves to bomb forward, his intelligent combination play and outstanding crossing ability, even when space is at a premium, a potent attacking weapon, as is his long-range shooting.

Born in Germany to Portuguese emigrants, the Soares family returned to Portugal when Cédric was a toddler. His parents were keen to instil what they considered good German habits in their children, and enrolled Cédric and his brother in the Deutschen Schule Lissabon, which was located right next to one of Sporting’s training facilities. At just six years of age Cédric was taken to a kids’ scouting session and that was that.

He officially joined Sporting’s academy set-up when turning seven, and worked his way through the youth system all the way until he started training with the senior squad in 2010/11, making his debut in May 2011.

Glory at Académica

The following year he was loaned to Académica, along with midfielder Adrien, and the move proved hugely beneficial for both players as they matured rapidly.

An automatic starter throughout his time at the Coimbra club, Cédric had his first taste of real success at the end of the season as Académica sensationally won the Portuguese Cup for the first time since 1939, ironically beating Sporting in the final.

The defender duly returned to his parent club, became a regular and has continued to improve year-on-year. So much so that he earned his first Portugal caps under new coach Fernando Santos earlier this season and is fully expected to make the position in the national team his own.

 

Written by Tom Kundert

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Paulo Dybala: Palermo’s destructive weapon

  By O-Posts Team | April 6, 2024 - 19:11 | , , , , , , , , , ,
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Despite making a slow start to the season, newly promoted Palermo have grown in confidence to a huge extent. The horrible defense punished the attack as Palermo had failed to hold on the leads in their opening three games of the season against Sampdoria, Hellas Verona and Inter respectively. Earning a point after going two goals down in the opening 10 minutes of the game against attack-enriched Napoli telecasted the Rosanero’s fighting spirit.

When following Palermo’s campaign, it is easy to spot Paulo Dybala as the Aquile’s significant performer. Dybala’s contributions have alone secured 18 points of the acquired 35 so far for Palermo this season.

Moving to Palermo in 2012 after a highly successful season in the Argentine second division with Instituto, Dybala’s opportunities in his maiden season at Sicily were limited because of the veteran Fabrizio Miccoli. Following the departure of Miccoli in 2013, Dybala’s partnership along with Abel Hernandez and Andrea Belotti upfront has earned the promotion for the Aquile back to Serie A with Palermo emerging as Serie B winners.

Dybala is a natural footballer. The 20-year old has fed up with amazing qualities that cannot be manually taught. Dybala’s finishing qualities, movements on and off the ball and crossing abilities make him a top footballer. The Argentine’s skills while moving forward and tendency to get past the defenders often push journalists to compare him with Sergio Aguero.

Dybala has already scored 13 goals this season and has seven assists under his name.

According to Whoscored.com, Dybala has possessed the passing accuracy of 82.5% in this Serie A campaign and average 1.5 key passes per game. The Argentine has made 2.7 dribbles per game and been fouled 2.6 times per game, with seven in the dangerous areas of increasing the possibility of scoring. He averages 3.6 shots on goal per game.

Speaking to the Argentine newspaper La Manana, Dybala once said: “I always try to keep it simple. One or two touches and then I look for the return ball. And I also run to win the ball back. I would like to handle the set pieces as well, but that’s difficult at the moment.”

In the first three games, coach, Giuseppe Lachini played 3-5-2 with Dybala and Franco Vazquez upfront. But considering the lack of efficiency in moving forward, Vazquez was pulled back to midfield and Andrea Belotti was brought back to the line-up to lead the attack with Dybala for the Napoli game.

Despite conceding two goals within 10 minutes of the game, Belotti’s partnership with Dybala secured a point for Palermo, which was just a symbolic representation to highlight Dybala’s versatility to pair with anyone upfront.

Pairing up with Vazquez, Belotti and the new acquisition, Joao Silva, Dybala’s role is very important for Palermo to finish in the first half of the Serie A table, which will possibly lead him to greener pastures with many of Europe’s top clubs reportedly keeping a watchful eye on the Aquile’s destructive weapon. Watch this space.

 

Written by Raghuvarman Sampathu

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Raheem Sterling: The unsettled Liverpool star and his agent hold the power and could set a dark precedent of player representation

  By O-Posts Team | April 3, 2024 - 21:41 | , , , , , , , ,
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On April 1st, FIFA marked April fool’s Day by ending their global licensing system for agents, passing regulation over to individual organisations. The deregulation means that anybody with an “impeccable reputation”, a catch-all criteria that includes anybody without a criminal record, can pay £500 to register to become an “intermediary”, who will then be able to represent players.

The fear is that this legislation will allow opportunist “intermediaries” to target talented teenagers in order to make quick money. The English FA have prohibited intermediaries entering into agreements with players until they are 16 while FIFA recommend no 3rd party is allowed to be paid for a deal involving a player under 18. But Mel Stein, chairman of the Association of Football Agents, says this will not deter any new intermediary, saying the practice will be “pushed underground”.

“They’re saying you can’t make a charge for a professional player unless he’s 18”, said Stein, “so that means whoever did Raheem Sterling’s deal could not have charged. What will happen is they won’t charge anything, they’ll go the club and say: ‘You give us a scouting agreement for £1m a year’.

Sterling was signed by Liverpool from QPR as a 15 year old back in 2010 for an initial £500,000 fee and Steve Gallen, the QPR under-21 manager, warns of how agents are now targeting the young via backdoor routes. “When a young star comes along agents are already sitting outside his house” he said, “I’ve known parents who have come to me and said: ‘We’re at breaking point, we’re getting 15 calls a night coming into our house phone.’”

The very same afternoon as FIFA swore in this deregulation, Sterling was warning clubs about the dangers of having to deal with these advisors and agents who are in the business to prioritise profit rather than what is best for their client. The 20 year old has 2 years left on a contract worth £35,000 a week he signed back in 2012, but confirmed on Wednesday talks over a new deal had stymied after he rejected an offer of £100,000 a week and expressed a desire to wait until the summer before he discusses it further.

It was intriguing why Sterling and his party felt the need to organise an unnecessary interview with the BBC without the prior consent of Liverpool and his manager Brendan Rodgers, but if their aim was to drum up interest from other clubs then they have certainly succeeded.

The usual transfer rumour vacuum has been occupied by the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City all being linked, but it is hard to imagine one of Europe’s top clubs, from Bayern Munich to PSG to Real Madrid, not being put on red alert as to the winger’s availability.

Sterling is of course an exceptional talent, one who has become a regular for his country by the age of 20 and one who was part of the irrepressible front 3 that so nearly fired Liverpool to the Premier League title last season. He is 12 appearances away from a century for Liverpool and, with 7 goals and 8 assists coming in a season where he has filled a multitude of positions for Rodgers in a side experiencing a rough transition, he has become indispensable to his manager. It is unsurprising that Rodgers stressed the following day that he would not be sold under any circumstances in the summer.

A £50 million price-tag has been swiftly slapped on Sterling and the Infield hierarchy believe that is enough to price him out of a move away to any club. Liverpool’s owners and chief executive Ian Ayre stood their ground when Arsenal bid over £40 million for Luis Suarez back in 2013 and it is probably with that assurance that Rodgers can speak comfortably in his prediction that he will keep his cherished winger throughout the summer. “Liverpool are one of the superpowers of football and if the owners don’t want to sell, they don’t have to” he said.

However the most significant point in Sterling’s interview was his admission that “all he talks about is trophies” and more curious still, his point that if he was offered a contract this time last year, with Liverpool on the brink of a long-awaited league title, he would have “most definitely have signed straight away, probably for less money than being said now”.

Now Liverpool are languishing in fifth, five points off a Champions League qualification spot. Luis Suarez has been sold and not adequately replaced while the jury remains out on a raft of Rodgers’s summer-signings. With Steven Gerrard heading to America in the summer, it remains to be seen if the club can fill the massive void that will be left by the departure of the long-standing captain.

The claim from Rodgers that “if his ambition is to win trophies that’s aligned with what we do here” looks weak when considered the regression the club have undergone over the past 12 months and it has given Sterling, and his agent Aidy Ward, huge leverage in the negotiating game.

They will be aware that his club and country will still hand him a platform to perform to high-standards on, to continue to demonstrate his electric brand of vibrant attacking play to the world while the years and months on his contract wind down. Eventually Liverpool will have to cash-in on their prized-asset, that is if they fail once again to surmount a viable title challenge. It is a strategic move from Ward and Sterling to signal the player is ready to sit in the window and the agent is ready to do business.

Liverpool and Rodgers have undoubtedly been brilliant to Sterling’s development, working consistently on his upper-body to forge a physique that makes him so difficult to stop when he is running at defenders, but that will mean little to Sterling’s advisors when they are cashing in. It is another instance in modern football where sadly, the agent holds all the aces and now Romelu Lukaku’s new agent Mino Raiola has emerged to say his client should not have joined Everton last summer and will eventually join one of Europe’s biggest clubs.

It does not take a cynic to realise Raiola has his eye on a possible paycheque here, the same with Ward and Sterling. The obscene riches of the modern game has allowed them to do just that, but they are forego to the next batch of money-makers, only these will target the younger, the more impressionable, doing it more clandestine and with more false promises.

As both Merseyside clubs can probably testify, FIFA may have just opened the door to anarchy.

 

Written by Adam Gray

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