Football News – Page 8

BALE IS FIT

Carlo Ancelotti has revealed that he has no problem with the fitness of Gareth Bale and insists that the Welshman will be included in the squad that will play against Celta de Vigo. Bale has suffered from numerous injuries since the start of the season, but it has been largely attributed to the lack of pre-season, as he was involved in the protracted transfer to Madrid. Since regaining fitness, he has been one of the best players for Madrid. He has already scored close to double figures after having made just 15 appearances this campaign.

Ancelotti recently stated that he expected more from Bale, whose performances have dipped in recent weeks. However, he is expected to include the most expensive player in the world for the match against Celta de Vigo. Madrid must win all the league matches from here on in order to have a chance of winning the title. They are already five points behind Barcelona, but they also have to contend with the threat from Atletico Madrid, who are also in the mix for the title.

Ancelotti says that Bale has trained for the last week without any problem and he expects the 24-year-old to play against Celta de Vigo. Cristiano Ronaldo, who Bale beat to the tag of being the most expensive player, recently won the FIFA Ballon d’Or award for the second time.

“He will be included in the squad for the match [on Monday], but I have yet to decide if he’s going to play. He has trained this week, he’s fine, he doesn’t have any problems. But we might wait a bit more so as to play him at peak condition,” said Ancelotti.

Ronaldo leads the goalscoring charts for Real Madrid with 20 league goals already and he is closely followed by Diego Costa.

GIVE AVB MORE TIME

Former Tottenham star Gareth Bale has stated that his former club should consider giving manager Andre Villas-Boas more time in order to get results. The Portuguese is under fire after a string of poor results that has left the club close to the bottom half of the table. They have been struggling a lot to score goals this campaign. Even though the defensive record is much better than last season, they are struggling to move up the table as a result of the struggles in front of goal. Summer signing Roberto Soldado was brought to the club for £ 26 million, but he has not been a great goal scorer so far.

Bale contributed much of Tottenham’s goals last season and he has continued where he has left off at Real Madrid as well. He recently scored a hat-trick to help the club to a fine 4-0 win in the league. Bale was made into an attacking left winger by Harry Redknapp, but it was Villas-Boas who transformed him into an attacking midfielder with a free role. This in turn had a huge effect on his career because he scored numerous goals before securing a world record move to Real Madrid for £ 86 million.

“He should be given time as he is a great manager, he showed that last year. They are going through a little bit of a bad patch but I am sure he is a good enough manager to pull everybody through and get out the other side and go on a bit of a good run, and hopefully catch up the rest and have a good season. They have been playing some good stuff but they have been very unlucky in front of goal,” said Bale.

Villas-Boas has been praised by Bale as a great manager.

COLEMAN CALLS UP BALE

Welsh national team manager Chris Coleman surprised everyone by naming Gareth Bale in the squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers. This was despite the fact that the world’s most expensive player has had very little first-team football in the last few months. Bale made the £ 86 million move to Real Madrid in the hope of being the best player in the world, but his first few months at the Spanish club has been curtailed by injury problems. Ancelotti gave him the debut against Villarreal even though he was not fit to play. Since then, he has suffered recuperations and has not played well at all.

He has been ruled out for the next few weeks after suffering a thigh injury in the 1-0 defeat against Atletico Madrid. Despite this, he was included in the Welsh squad for the World Cup qualifiers, but his name was removed a few hours later. Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed that the player will not be travelling to join up with his international teammate. Instead, he will spend the next 15 years at Madrid’s training centre in the hope of recovering from the injury problems. Many have been criticising the club for giving him a debut much sooner than his fitness would have suggested.

“He’ll stay here to train for 15 days. We have to co-ordinate with Wales but I think he’ll stay here. That way he’ll be ready for the match against Malaga after the break,” said Ancelotti. Bale scored on his debut for Madrid, but since then he has featured in occasional appearances. He has not been effective at all and it is largely because of the lack of fitness. Madrid have also had a poor start to the league season. They are already five points behind leaders Barcelona after just eight matches in the season.

The Premier League

Perhaps over recent years the Premier League has been a little too predictable, especially in its higher echelons; however that is likely to change and the 2013-14 Premier League season appears to be heading towards being considerable more competitive and more tightly contested. This has been brought about by a major management shuffle at the top end, and the management structure has changed in all three of last season’s leaders. There has also been some game changing transfers to factor into your calculations.

The biggest change is Manchester United. Currently priced at 5/2 the club is now only the third favourite to win the Premier League. The departure of Sir Alex Fergusson and the forthcoming departure of Wayne Rooney are having a significant impact on the betting odds. The favourite club to win the Premier League is Chelsea and this has been spurred on by the return of Jose Mourinho six years after his original departure. With odds as short as 2/1 this would seem to be a little short to be considered value and you might be better advised to look a little deeper; for instance you can find odds as long as 11/1 fir quality clubs such as Arsenal or even casino style odds such as 40/1 on Tottenham. Continue reading The Premier League

PAULINHO COMES IN

Tottenham recently managed to secure the signing of Brazilian midfielder Paulinho despite interest from Real Madrid and it is a major coup for the club who are also looking to keep Real Madrid from pouncing on their star asset – Gareth Bale. The 23-year-old midfielder has consistently been linked with Real Madrid for around £ 50 million, but Tottenham have so far been able to keep the player at White Hart Lane. New signing Paulinho has said that this determination in order to hold on to Bale is one of the reasons behind him being convinced that a move to Tottenham is the right for a player like him.

The 21-year-old has managed to come to prominence while playing for Brazilian club Corinthians in the last few years. He was one of the best players for Brazil at the Confederations cup which the South American nation managed to win ahead of Spain. Paulinho scored an important goal for Brazil in the semi-final against Uruguay. The midfielder has revealed that Tottenham have given him enough assurances that star man Gareth Bale will not be sold during this transfer window. Bale has been one of the best players in the Premier league.

He is seen as a crucial link between Tottenham finishing in the top four and not finishing in it.

“To play in England for a great team like Tottenham is a dream. They are ambitious. Bale is their best player, but they have made it clear to me that he is not going anywhere,” said the Brazilian. As a result of his arrival, Tottenham can be expected to sell a few players in the midfield in order to create space. Sunderland and QPR have been linked with a move for the midfielder Scott Parker, who is valued close to £ 5 million.

BALE PLEASED WITH FORM

Tottenham midfielder Gareth Bale has said that he is extremely happy with the way this season has been progressing. Bale is currently one of the six players who are nominated for the PFA player of the year award at the end of the season. This is one of the most coveted awards for a player in English football. Bale won the Young player of the year award last season. He is nominated for the category once again along with the likes of Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku. Bale is having one of his best seasons as a professional footballer after managing to score 23 goals in all competitions for Tottenham this season.

He has been widely linked with a £ 45 million move to Real Madrid in the summer, but he has rejected any talk of a transfer by saying that he is concentrating on the football right now. Bale was one of the influential players on the pitch in the recent 3-1 win over Manchester City. He has made his comeback into the first team despite still not recovering fully from the ankle injury he suffered in the Europa league match against FC Basel a few days ago. Bale is aiming to become the fifth player in the history of English football to win the PFA awards twice.

“The PFA nomination is massive. It’s great for your peers to vote for you. Hopefully I will win. To be nominated is fantastic and fingers crossed. The game against City was amazing. We knew it was massive going into it. The lads showed a lot of character. In the end, it was a fantastic turnaround. As soon as we scored the first everyone had that confidence, the fans raised the noise and gave us that belief to go forward and thankfully we were able to score two more,” said Bale.