owner Tony Fernandes has assured that Mark Hughes’ job is safe.
The Loftus Road club are sitting on the bottom of the Premier League table currently, having not won a fixture to date and picking up only two points from their first seven games.
The Welsh trainer’s position is under jeopardy in the press given the amount of money that Rangers parted with in the recent transfer window.
However, Fernandes has stated that he has confidence in Hughes’ abilities as manager and will not be sacking the coach.
“If the team was playing badly, if the dressing room was dispirited then you would have to say something’s not right, but the team is playing well,” Fernandes told Sky Sports.
“We have given away goals and we have critical injuries in critical places.
“Unfortunately or fortunately we are a higher profile club, we are five points away from being in the middle and you don’t see the other clubs getting the kind of pressure we’re getting but that comes with the territory.
“So no panic. Mark’s done it in Fulham, he’s done it in Blackburn and I have got to say even at Man City the core championship side were players Mark brought in.
“So he has my full confidence and I hope I am proven right in a big way that I can answer all these critics and armchair critics,” he concluded.
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QPR lost their last game 3-2 to West Brom, but have the chance to get their first victory of the campaign when they host Everton at Loftus Road on Sunday.
Dropping a shot into the path of Luciano Becchio and conceding 4 goals in your first competitive game is not the best of ways to make a first impression at your new club.
Performances like that are certainly hard to forget however a good player always learns from their mistakes and Chris Weale has been the revelation of the season so far for Shrewsbury Town. His performance against Walsall on Sunday was his crowning moment of the season so far. Who say’s first impressions are that important?
Coming into the Walsall game Shrewsbury Town had failed to score a goal in their last three competitive league games and had just been knocked out of the Johnstone Paint Trophy to League one competitors Crewe on home soil. Things were not looking good for Graham Turner’s men.
The Saddlers started as they meant to go on, forcing Weale into two fine saves in the opening fifteen minutes and taking complete control of the game, Their continued pressure along with some leaky defending meant a goal was almost certainly on the cards, but not if Chris Weale had anything to do with it. The keeper constantly denying the Walsall front men and causing frustration amongst the travelling fans.
Then on 25 minutes Paul Parry hit the ball into an empty Walsall net following a strike from Asa Hall which came back off the bar. The goal coming against the run of play inspired Walsall and made them continue their onslaught on the Shrewsbury goal however Sunday was to be Chris Weale’s day and despite their best efforts the game ended 1-0 and Shrewsbury were lifted out of the relegation zone after only 24 hours of being in there.
Weale’s performance was one of the very few positives to be taken from Sunday’s game however as Shrewsbury’s Jekyl and Hyde performances appear to be continuing. Three points is always a positive, especially in a local derby but things need to start improving as we can not continue to rely on Chris Weale to save the day for us.
Shrewsbury travel to Fratton Park to take on an inform Portsmouth side this Saturday. Graham Turner’s men have yet to pick up a win away from home so far this campaign and Saturday is going to be a very tough game if they want to change this. Former Shrewsbury striker Luke Rodgers will be out to break his old team mates hearts and will certainly be a big problem for our defence.
On the plus side Darren Jones, Terry Gornell and Sam Winnall all look to be fit for Saturdays encounter and this should at least give Turner some options that we didn’t have last Sunday.
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Remedying United’s current defensive pitfalls is proving incredibly problematic for Sir Alex Ferguson as he approaches, what is being billed as, the seasons early title decider. Last week’s victory against the Potters at Old Trafford once again highlighted the Red Devils’ frailties at the back as did the narrow Champions League win in midweek. Annoyingly for Ferguson there isn’t much he can do treat the situation with Rio Ferdinand and Johnny Evans, both of whom have endured mixed campaigns, his only two fit centre backs. And the last thing he would want is to come up against a free scoring Blues side, who could to start pull away at the top should they win having already built up a four point advantage over United. Ferguson knows it is still early days in the title race but is also aware of the negative effect a defeat against one of their main rivals could have on his players as they struggle to find their form.
This week on FFC should United think about the financial benefits of selling Nani and could Ferguson be about to raid Germany for a second time?
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Best of FFC
Wag Weekly – Shinji Kagawa’s Mrs.
Wayne Rooney’s performance tells us all we need to know
Should Manchester United really consider cashing in?
How many times can Manchester United do this?
Time for Fergie to remedy this transfer mistake?
How long can Sir Alex Ferguson turn a blind eye to it?
Is this United ace a victim of bloated expectation?
Why the rest of the Premier League could learn from Tottenham and Manchester United
The man to get the best out of him at Old Trafford?
Fergie considers £20m raid on Dortmund to bolster options
Madrid set to offer unsettled United ace a route home
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Best of WEB
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Time To Move On At Stamford Bridge – Red Flag Flying High
The Greenhoff Column : Concentrate – 7Cantonas
Five Things We Learned – Manchester United vs. Braga – Red Flag Flying High
Ferguson on the defensive over errors – United Rant
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A Timely Reminder From This United Star – The Busby Way
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Quote of the Week
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“With the players we have I don’t expect to start every game. I am just trying to pick up games wherever I can and influence them like I have done in the past. I haven’t found it difficult. I want to play and I want to be in the team. But I am experienced enough to know that come the business end of the season, the experienced lads will be needed and I will be ready.” Ryan Giggs says he is happy to wait for his chance at Manchester United
Mark Hughes has been sacked as manager of QPR after a winless start to the season has left the club rock bottom of the Premier League.
Hughes, who has been in charge of Rangers for ten months helped the club to Premier League safety last season, but has left the club in an ominous position this season despite spending over £21million on new signings in the summer.
QPR’s last games against fellow strugglers was dubbed ‘El Sackico’ and the 3-1 defeat has proved the fate for the Welshman.
A statement from the club said “Queens Park Rangers as of today have terminated the contract of Mark Hughes with immediate effect.”
“Mark has shown integrity and professionalism during his time at the club, but ultimately the circumstances we find ourselves in have left the board with very little choice but to make a change.”
QPR travel to Hughes’ former club Manchester United tomorrow, with Mark Bowen and Eddie Niedzwiecki will take control of the side.
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Rangers are the only club in all four division to yet win a game this season as they sit five points adrift of safety on just four points from the opening 12 games.
Former Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has been made favourite to take over from the outgoing Hughes.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has ruled out the Red Devils making any big signings in the January transfer window, as reported by Sky Sports.
Ferguson has been linked with a variety of players in the new year including Wesley Sneijder, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski but the United boss has rubbished those reports.
The long term United manger has told supporters that he doesn’t expect to make any significant moves in the upcoming transfer window but that is not the first time fans have been told that.
Ferguson is not a fan of the January transfer window but he does expect clubs to be panic buying once again after seeing their teams underperform in the first half of the season.
Some say that the table toppers will need to acquire some more talent next month but Ferguson disagrees while writing his weekly column for the official United programme.
“Don’t hold your breath waiting for Manchester United to jump through the transfer window when it opens next week,” Ferguson stated in his programme notes.
“It’s been open season to link us with a stack of players, admittedly some very good ones, but it just isn’t going to happen.
“You can never say never in football because you don’t know who might become available but, speaking generally, I am not looking to do any serious transfer business in January. I don’t have to because I am more than satisfied with the players I have in my squad, a group as good as any I have had in my time at Old Trafford.
“We won’t be dashing around in a panic.
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“Of course, as always, we will be on the lookout for young players of potential who we can develop.
“We have always done that and it’s the main reason why we never have to buy out of desperation. We always work for the future as well as trying our best to produce winning teams for the present.”
It has been announced today by Home Secretary Theresa May that a new investigation into the Hillsborough disaster will be launched following the findings of the Hillsborough independent panel, and will be lead by former Chief Constable for Durham Jon Stoddard.
The disaster, which took the lives of 96 Liverpool fans during an FA Cup semi-final at Sheffield Wednesday’s home ground in 1989, will be re-investigated after the independent panel proved that there had been a cover-up that placed the blame onto the victims of the tragedy.
Families of the victims, who have formed a pressure group and are releasing a star-studded charity single for Christmas, have long been asking for further inquiries into the match-day Policing and poorly organised crowd control measures, which will be the focal point of the new investigation, as well as Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, Sheffield City Council and The Football Association.
Theresa May announced to reporters earlier today: “I am determined to see a swift and thorough response to the findings of the Hillsborough panel to deliver justice for the 96 football fans who died and the families who have fought so hard on their behalf.
“The findings of the Hillsborough independent panel were truly shocking, but while the families have now been given the truth, they have not yet received justice,” she added.
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Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas could be made to dip into the January transfer market after Emmanuel Adebayor’s Togo about-face, leaving Spurs with one out-and-out striker till mid-February.
Adebayor has decided to fulfil his international duties with Togo and will now attend the African Cup of Nations in South Africa, missing up to six games for the North London club.
The player initially voiced his concerns over team security and unpaid bonuses. His fears for team security during the competition comes after being greatly affected by the team bus attack on 8 January 2010, leaving three dead and nine injured. It was also reported that Adebayor and his teammates had recently seen bonuses, which were owed to them for international duty, unpaid.
Coincidentally, news of Adebayor’s change of heart comes on the anniversary of the gun attack that occurred in the Cabinda Province, Angola.
After speaking with the country’s President – Faure Gnassingbe – the player has changed his mind.
Head of the Togo Football Federation Ameyi Gabriel said that “Of course we’re in the Africa Nations Cup with Adebayor, we will be together in South Africa.”
“It is very important to have him there because he is our player and captain of the team,” continued Gabriel.
Although the player looks set to miss six games, Spurs are counting on his availability for their Premier League game against QPR on Saturday afternoon.
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Meanwhile, Spurs have yet again been linked with a move for Brazil international and Internacional forward Leandro Damiao.
Derek Llambias has revealed that Newcastle United will keep scanning other leagues for future signings, as buying in the Premier League can be “very expensive”.
In statements to Chronicle Live, the Magpies’ managing director admitted that the club does not avoid the local market altogether, although he states price is the main inconvenience when buying British.
“We keep an eye on the UK market too. British players are very expensive, which is a factor for us,” he confessed.
After recently signing five players from Ligue 1, the Newcastle businessman made no secret that the French league is an attractive market for the club. However, they remain open to other leagues in Europe and further afield.
“We have to explore other markets, though, which we do. We are still going to other markets,” he added.
Newcastle brought Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Moussa Sissoko, Yoan Gouffran, Mathieu Debuchy and Massadio Haidara in from France in the January window, but Llambias is revealed that French teams are now becoming aware of the Geordies’ liking for the market, saying: “It’s getting harder for us in France.”
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Nevertheless, he also confirmed that the club’s chief scout, Graham Carr, will continue searching the French leagues with an eye on next summer’s transfer window, while exploring the hotbed of talent that is the Belgian and Dutch top flight.
It’s an age old issue and one that always comes front and centre when the national team inevitably underperforms at a major international tournament, but the subject of youth development in the Premier League is an important topic of debate, and taking a look around the top flight, which clubs are the best at integrating younger players into their first-team set-up and is there any one right way to plot success?
Manchester United currently hold a 15-point lead at the top of the Premier League over rivals Manchester City, and while the side may need tinkering with in certain areas with a number of key players quickly approaching the twilight of their respective careers, the overall balance of the squad seems on the money.
However, all of the fawning talk of ‘Ferguson’s Fledglings’ in clear reference to ‘Busby’s Babes’ is clearly a load of nonsense. Of course, having 22-year-old Longsight born and bred Danny Welbeck and 23-year-old academy product Tom Cleverley ensures that they retain an element of identity and link between the pitch and the local community, but we shouldn’t kid ourselves about the broader picture. David De Gea (22) arrived from Atletico Madrid for £18.9m, Phil Jones (21) was signed from Blackburn for £17m and Chris Smalling (23) moved from Fulham for £10m. As far as transfer policies go, planning for the future like that is a sound one, but it also comes at a cost that most teams in the division can’t match or even get close to.
Where they have struck a balance well, though, as much as the good age range between experienced and seasoned pros, those players approaching their peak and a youthful core of up-and-coming hungry players striving to become first-team regulars is their use of the loan market. Welbeck benefited hugely from his time at Sunderland, while Cleverley thrived at Watford and Wigan and it’s a route that not enough clubs have used successfully in the past few years, which is puzzling because it seems such an obvious and simple way to get players much-needed battle-hardened experience.
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Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has been forced to rely on an entire swathe of younger prospects this season, but as he’s spent more money, slowly but surely the opportunities have dried up for the likes of Suso, Raheem Sterling, Jonjo Shelvey and Andre Wisdom. Kenny Dalglish initially granted youngsters a chance to impress when he first took over from Roy Hodgson, only to then go out and spend £56m the following summer on the likes of Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and Jose Enrique, blocking any path they may have found to the first-team. It will be interesting to see if history repeats itself again this year under new management given the club’s record since Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher broke through has been nothing short of dreadful.
Manchester City clearly sense that bringing through a steady stream of academy products is essential to their long-term plan with the building of a new training centre and emphasis on youth-team football. It’s no coincidence that former Barcelona duo Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain are heading that project up, given La Masia’s outstanding success not only in terms of quantity but wonderful world-class quality in the past decade. With Financial Fair Play coming into effect, which aims to reduce the influence of money in the game while simultaneously ensuring the status quo of the current elite is maintained, and the next decade will as much be about the success of youth development as anything else for those seeking to bridge the gap, with their ambitions curbed by Uefa.
Chelsea have followed a similar path to Real Madrid in forsaking instant success and short-term gains over the longer benefits of having a successful system from top to bottom. This has seen Scott Sinclair, Daniel Sturridge, Miroslav Stoch, Fabio Borini, Nemanja Matic, Gokhan Tore and Michael Mancienne find success elsewhere after struggling to break through past the more established household names. The pressure for success at Stamford Bridge is all-consuming to whoever comes through the door and takes charge and that doesn’t look like changing in the near future with only really Ryan Bertrand filtering through in recent years. It’s an embarrassingly poor record considering the talent they’ve had at their disposal and a massive waste of resources.
Arsenal, as you might expect given Arsene Wenger’s principles and ideas about the game, nailed their colours to the mast long ago and they’ve had some huge successes in the last decade, with Cesc Fabregas (poached from Barcelona at 16), Jack Wilshere and Alex Song all serving as great examples. They’re not afraid to move for younger players on big money in a similar way to United either, though, as the Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Aaron Ramsey signings indicate, totalling approximately £26m. Where they have fallen short where United have succeeded, mind, is keeping hold of those younger players once they’ve developed into fully fledged stars, being forced to sell Robin van Persie, Fabregas and Samir Nasri due to a lack of silverware. Glory funnily enough always fosters loyalty.
Tottenham have been punching above their weight in the youth stakes for quite some time now, with Michael Dawson, Tom Huddlestone and Aaron Lennon all purchased on the cheap, with Kyle Walker, Kyle Naughton and Gareth Bale all costing just that little bit more. They’ve really tried to maintain an English core to their squad and a lot is expected of both Steven Caulker and Tom Carroll in the future, even if Jake Livermore and Andros Townsend seem as if their futures may be elsewhere in the summer. By buying British, they’re ensuring an identity is preserved, even if their own academy record hasn’t been all that good of late, but they’re another club to invest heavily off the pitch in rectifying that the past year.
It just goes to show that when it comes to handling youth, so many things can go wrong at that age and players develop at different speeds meaning it’s impossible to say with any real conviction that one model is better than the other. It’s all about striking that balance between drip-feeding local players, buying the best from around England early and the odd big splash for a star in the making.
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In that respect, Ferguson has done an impressive job at United, bolstered by the club’s success which has made the task even easier in the future. It’s a unique environment and situation in which he holds all the power and can do as he please and few clubs get the opportunity to replicate that.
The constant turnover of managers create constant pressure on those in charge to create results. At the moment, investing in youth is essential, but without opportunity, few see the rewards it can bring.
Norwich City chief David McNally insists there’s no escape clause in their £8.5m deal with Sporting for striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel.
The Dutch striker’s agent sparked panic among the Canaries faithful yesterday when he said that the transfer depends on Norwich staying up.
But McNally described the reports as “absolute rubbish”.
It is unlikely that the Norwich board would be as keen to be tied into such a big investment if Chris Hughton’s side do go down, but Sporting are unlikely to have agreed to such a clause as they could lose millions if the deal was scrapped.
The former Utrecht striker won’t be short of suitors, if he does turn his nose up at a spell in the Championship, which could bring a season-long loan deal into the equation.
Agent Louis Laros has made sure his client’s name remains on the lists of some clubs by making the comments to Abola – whether they are based on fact or not.
“There is a special clause in the deal accepted by all parties that stipulates if Norwich leave the Premier League then the future of Ricky van Wolfswinkel will be open again,” he said.
“That is the reality, but we are confident in the ability of the English club to remain in the top division.
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“For now Ricky is only thinking about Sporting and helping them to get results. At the end of the season, he will start to focus on Norwich.”