Page 2 - Monthly Archives: February 2016

By Greg Lea.

It was a rule change that, in hindsight, should really have been introduced sooner. When Uefa decided in 2014 that future winners of the Europa League would automatically qualify for the following season's Champions League, the tournament was given a new dimension and its participants another incentive to take it seriously.

Sevilla were the first club to benefit from the amendment, with their 3-2 triumph over Ukranian outfit Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the final last May allowing them to enter the group stage of Europe's primary club competition this term despite only finishing fifth in La Liga. The Rojiblancos, who have won the tournament in each of the last two years and four times since 2006, are in a similar position this time around, too: ahead of the first leg of their round of 32 tie with Molde on Thursday, Sevilla's best chance of qualifying for the Champions League is by winning the Europa League once again.

In that respect, Unai Emery's

By Karl Matchett.

Zinedine Zidane has had a relatively straight-forward early path in top-tier management with Real Madrid, with five games against bottom-half or mid-table La Liga sides yielding four wins and a draw before his first big test, a 4-2 win over Athletic Club last weekend. 

Now the Frenchman moves into even bigger territory: the UEFA Champions League and a first leg tie against AS Roma. The Wednesday night fixture will give Zidane a spotlight on the front lines of world football such as he has yet to experience; even those nights spent in the competition as an assistant saw him only reflecting the full glare which shone on then-boss Carlo Ancelotti. There was always a shadow for Zizou to stand in-now the focus is all on him.

So far, so good, but so far it has been 12

By Edward Stratmaan.

It took four and a half years for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to finally notch up his first Premier League away goal for Arsenal by scoring against Bournemouth.

He broke the drought in some style, however, with a finish that was well and truly worth the wait. Following a misplaced pass from Steve Cook that went straight to Aaron Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain quickly jetted forward, down the right, to provide a viable option for his Welsh colleague. Ramsey duly acknowledged his run, sliding a neat ball into the path of the Ox. The 22-year-old's accomplished first touch meant he was now in a perfect position to shoot, albeit from a very harsh angle. The finish that followed was sublime, as he rocketed the ball into the bottom left hand corner, past a hapless Artur Boruc, to give Arsenal a vital 2-0 lead. The placement, power and execution were all perfect here. Oxlade-Chamberlain's splendid goal was also his first Premier League goal in 16 months.

While

On February 1^st, the football world got arguably its biggest bombshell of 2016 so far: an announcement that Pep Guardiola would be succeeding Manuel Pellegrini as head coach at Manchester City. The news had been rumored, of course. It was back in December that Guardiola first announced that he would leave Bayern Munich at the end of the 2015/16 season, and speculation about where he would go next has been hot fodder for soccer pundits ever since. The only hint was that Pep wanted to coach in the Premier League, a clue that left Manchester United, Chelsea, and Manchester City as the Spanish manager's most likely destinations.

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Guardiola's Impressive Record

On the surface, the question of whether or not Pep Guardiola will succeed at Manchester City seems like one

Are we witnessing the birth of a new football superpower? Just a few years ago, Chinese league football play was little more than a footnote. With the Premier League, the La Liga, the Bundesliga, the Serie A, and the Ligue 1-not to mention other increasingly competitive divisions like the Dutch Eredivisie-what was there to draw players to China? And without the star players, what did China have to draw international audiences?

In the past few weeks, though, it's become clear that ignoring the Chinese Super League might not be an option for much longer. This week alone, there are numerous high-profile headlines pertaining to Chinese football. There's the Daily Star article about how current Paris Saint Germain star (and major Chelsea target) Ezequiel Lavezzi could make a move to China at the end of the season, instead of moving to the Premier League. There's the Telegraph piece about how Chinese President Xi

Last summer, the headlines were everywhere: the German Bundesliga was falling behind other European soccer leagues in terms of finances. The English Premier League had recently sold domestic television rights for £5.136 billion for a three-season deal. In July, Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge finally vocalized what many people in the German football world had to be feeling: unless the Bundesliga acts soon, the league will fall permanently behind the English top-flight and other European leagues.

A Look at the Premier League's New Broadcasting Deal

Certainly, the numbers favored Rummenigge's prediction. Starting with the 2016/17 season, all 20 teams in the English Premier League will get a cut of the £5+ billion TV deal. According to Goal.com, the new TV contract is a 71% boost over the last television deal the Premier League signed in 2012. Each football club in the Premier League will bag a reported £81

On Thursday, January 28^th, Gianluigi Buffon turned 38. Even by the standards of goalkeepers-who typically have longer careers than other footballers-the Italian legend is reaching the twilight years of his professional career. Not too surprisingly, then, the week of Buffon's birthday also brought the news that the Juventus captain's retirement is imminent-if still a few years away. "If I can push myself up to the 2018 World Cup then I'll go on," Buffon told reporters. After the World Cup, he plans to "close the door and stop playing football."

An Italian Legend

Of course, the 2018 World Cup is still two years away, and there is no guarantee that Buffon-who will be 40 when the event rolls around-will be chosen as part of Italy's squad. With that said, Gianluigi is currently the captain of the Italy team and the most-capped player in national team history. He's recorded 154 appearances for Italy since

You can't blame Manchester City for jumping at the chance to hire Pep Guardiola as their new head coach for the 2015/16 season. The Spaniard is viewed as arguably the greatest football manager alive, and judging by his work at FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich, he is going to do great things in the Premier League.

Still, Man City's current manager, Manuel Pellegrini, deserves a thank you from fans and a commendation from the club for turning the Sky Blues into one of the best squads in English soccer. Since taking over at Etihad Stadium in 2013, Pellegrini has coached the football club to one Premier League title, one runner-up finish in the Premier League, and one League Cup. He's kept his win percentage right around a very respectable 64%, and could deliver yet another top-flight title for Manchester City this season. Under any other circumstances, Man City probably would have adopted the "if it ain't

Aston Villa players may or may not be playing in a different league next season, but they will most definitely be playing in a different kit. Coincidentally, as the club reels toward a potential relegation at the end of this current season, their four-year, £15 million kit manufacturing deal with Macron is coming to a close. And, if rumors are to be believed, the Lions are looking to a new brand for their next kit manufacturing deal: Under Armour.

The End of an Era

Macron has been designing and manufacturing Aston Villa's kits since 2012, and while the football club hasn't always performed well in that period, their jerseys have always been up to snuff. Macron has done a good job of keeping pace with modern soccer shirt trends while also retaining the classic claret-and-blue look that has always been Aston Villa's bread and butter.

Indeed, the Lions' kits tend to do reasonably well on lists ranking

By Karl Matchett.

Leicester City's victory over Manchester City last week seemed to finally convince Premier League watchers that the Foxes were the real deal, this season at least, and could go on to actually win the title-but there are still one or two more challengers to keep at bay.

One of those is Tottenham Hotspur, who themselves have the chance to not just further dent Manuel Pellegrini's team's hopes of reclaiming the league title, but also cast themselves into the same light as Leicester. Spurs visit the Etihad Stadium over the weekend as the first part of a week which could propel them from being top-four probables to being a team capable of winning major honours this season.

Considering Spurs'