There Is Only One Sinnacle

Juve’s Nedved to retire at end of season

After twice backtracking on previous statements of intent, Pavel Nedved has announced his intention to retire from football at the end of the current season in order to make way for a younger generation of players.

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Pavel Nedved Will Not Retire – Juventus Director Alessio Secco

Although Nedved has made a decision, the chief doesn’t believe it will come to fruition…

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Will Nedved retire or won’t he? Who knows by these conflicting reports. Aside from always being a class player, my impression of Nedved is how he walked into a tough situation replacing Zidane yet no one at Juventus ever felt that Nedved was any less of a player than the great Zinedine Zidane.

Florent Malouda: I Want Juventus To Sign Me From Chelsea

Malouda is open to the idea of a summer more to Turin after struggling to make an impact with the Blues in recent months…
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Malouda was never able to replace Arjen Robben in the Chelsea midfield and a new team looks likely heading into next season.

Fred leaves Lyon as contract is terminated

Fred has severed ties with French champions Lyon.

Les Gones confirmed in a statement the striker, whose contract was set to expire at the end of the season, should now join a club back in his native Brazil.

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Fred is a talented player who has wasted the last two years of his football career. Maybe a change of countries will do Fred some good but most likely a change of attitude is what’s needed most.

Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho is being considered as a replacement for Rafael Benitez in case the Liverpool manager walked out of Anfield. (Various)

Mourinho would never go to Liverpool in these conditions. I could see why people dislike Mourinho but the man is no fool. When he replaced Robert Mancini, Inter fans grew impatience with him not being able to advance them in the Champions League. Liverpool fans don’t blame Benitez for their failure in England. They blame ownership for that so replacing him with Mourinho who they disliked while he was at Chelsea wouldn’t be the ideal next destination for the current Inter coach.

Guus Huddink is moving closer to becoming permanent boss at Chelsea with Blues owner Roman Abramovich looking to install Dick Advocaat as the new Russia manager. (Daily Mail)

They were ready to hand Scolari the keys to the city after two games as well.

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp is keen to be a future England boss. He said: “I would love to be England manager one day. I am 61 and once my job is done (at Spurs) I would have time left to be England manager.” (Daily Express)

Sadly for Redknapp it’s never going to happen. Even if Capello wasn’t around, having Tottenham in the bottom half of the table doesn’t help Redknapp hopes.

Chelsea and Ivory Coast striker Saloman Kalou has revealed he dreams of playing for Arsenal. After the Blues’ 1-0 win over Juventus in midweek, Kalou said: “I know every single player in the world dreams of playing for Arsene Wenger.” (Various)

What a moron Kalou is, who along with John Obi Mikel are vastly over rated. After coming up with a good performance against Juventus by setting up Drogba’s goal to then say such a thing isn’t the right way to win over a new coach.

Everton are lining up a move for Sporting Lisbon midfielder Joao Moutino in a £10m summer move. (Daily Mirror)

They offered £10m last summer which didn’t cause Sporting to blink then and wouldn’t now.

Fulham boss Roy Hodgson is doing all he can to keep hold of his skipper Danny Murphy, whose contract expires at the end of the season. (The Sun)

Whatever Danny Murphy decides to do this summer, Fulham fans should always have a soft for Murphy as his goal against Portsmouth on the last day of the season kept Fulham up.

Don’t know how this slipped my mind yesterday when writing the Champions League review. What in the world was Gabriel Heinze doing fouling Dirk Kuyt on a jump ball 25 feet away from goal. Surely common sense can be applied at some point that grabbing someone on their shoulders and throwing them to the ground when the ball isn’t in a danger score doesn’t make a lot of sense. Heinze got exposed in the 2006 Copa American final when Brazil ran right through him the entire game and two years on it seems his game is still hit and miss. Just a stupid foul which ended up costing Real Madrid the game against Liverpool.

Highbury proving a millstone for Arsenal’s finances

While the football side of the Gunners’ business is in rude health with pre-tax profits up £4.5m to £24.5m thanks to increases in both broadcasting revenues and matchday turnover at the Emirates Stadium, the dip in the UK housing market is impacting on Arsenal’s property business.

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In this day and age I can’t blame anymore for making a profit but most owners bankroll a team for the love of a club/game not for profit. Besides most owners make tons of money on the back end when they sell off their interest in a club for much more than they originally purchased it for.

It’s nice to see Arsenal in good economic health just spare me Arsenal with the we are poor excuses compared to lavish spending by Manchester City and Chelsea over the years when you have banked nearly 50 million in the last six months.

- Yes I am fully aware I’m looking like an idiot right now for picking all four EPL teams not to advance in the Champions League. With all the hype surrounding English dominance in the Champions League I figured clubs from Spain and Italy would take great pride in their place in football history and come up with a performance. Well after 360 minutes of football neither Real Madrid, Roma, Inter Milan, and Juventus even came close to scoring. Needless a say come the second leg big changes will need to be made by the above four teams if they plan on advancing.

- On the weekend I gave credit to Guus Hiddink for guiding Chelsea to a Mourinho era type performance. Forget that, with Nicolas Anelka playing out wide it’s like Hiddink just grabbed a tape of Avram Grant Chelsea teams last year and told them to follow that. Results have been impressive so far to Hiddink’s credit.

- I really wonder if George Gillett and Tom Hicks were all that pleased to see Liverpool come on top against Real Madrid. Considering they would love to gas Rafael Benítez, taking a team without Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres and still beating Real Madrid will only strengthen the fans bond with Benitez.

- Juande Ramos must really hate English football. Considering he has come along way to fix his damaged repetition after his failed Tottenham stint Liverpool comes in and Real Madrid reply with a flat performance. Real Madrid are long shots to catch Barcelona in La Liga and if they can’t over come this defeat in the second leg Ramos is good as gone from Real Madrid come the summer.

- Mentioned yesterday how I couldn’t be prouder of Porto. Fast forward a day I couldn’t be as disappointed in a squad than Sporting Clube de Lisboa. How a team playing their first Champions League knockout contest at home no less lose 5-0 is beyond me. This team simply quit on each other and their fans in the second half. It’s almost sicken if I was a Sporting supporter. Level heads will prevail but coaches have been fired for a lot less.

- Didn’t watch a second of the Villarreal-Panathinaikos match but the Greek side must be happy they have the all important away goal going into the second leg.

Canadian Press

MONTREAL – Eduardo Sebrango scored two goals as the Montreal Impact rode the energy of 55,571 fans at Olympic Stadium to defeat Santos Laguna of Mexico 2-0 in the opening leg of their CONCACAF Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday night.

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This is a great story that flew slightly under the radar. On Tuesday the Houston Dynamo played in front of just 10000 fans in their CONCACAF Champions League semi match against Atlante. Considering Santos has a long history in Mexican football culture and this was Montreal’s first game of the season makes last night’s result all the more impressive.

Jose denies he snubbed Fergie at San Siro

Mourinho was distinctly unimpressed with Cantalejo’s handling of the goalless game, seeing four of his players booked, including substitute goalkeeper Francesco Toldo who was yellow carded for protesting by the touchline.

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The referee in yesterday’s game had a fine game. All the fouls which were called against Inter were deserved as often the Inter players were sticking out their leg to impend any United attack. Just a mind game to deflect against Inter’s performance.

Liverpool await decision on Gerrard fitness

Liverpool will know this morning whether Steven Gerrard will be able to lead them into their toughest Champions League clash of the season when they take on Real Madrid on Wednesday evening.

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The best players find a way to play in the biggest games. If Gerrard is close to 100% and that it appears to be the case look for him to play some part today against Real Madrid.

Everton could lead the chase for Portsmouth’s want-away Croatian playmaker Niko Kranjcar. (Daily Star)

What chase? As the next transfer window only opens up again in July. This is no more than the press linking a player with a team that could use someone of Kranjcar talents. Despite that a move to Everton wouldn’t be the worst move Kranjcar could make.

Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri, whose side face his old club Chelsea in the Champions League, says he knows he would have been sacked as Blues manager even if he had won the European competition. (The Independent)

From far the biggest fan of Claudio Ranieri but he has always handled the downs in his career as classy as the high points in his coaching career.

Middlesbrough have watched videos of goals they scored earlier in the season in an effort to lift morale as they have gone 14 Premier League games without a win. (Daily Mirror)

That video must of lasted all of a minute or two.

Everton striker Victor Anichebe will be out for at least four weeks after being injured against Newcastle. (Daily Express)

Looking at replays of that tackle from Kevin Nolan, Anichehe is lucky he isn’t out for longer.

Tottenham defender Michael Dawson could be facing Carling Cup heartbreak for the second year running. He missed the 2008 final because of injury and looks likely to be left out for this year’s final. (Daily Express)

Maybe it’s a good omen as Tottenham did just fine without him in last years final against Chelsea.

Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho had a bottle of wine worth 300 Euros delivered to Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s hotel room before Tuesday’s Champions League game. (Daily Mail)

Oh to be a fly on the wall if those two shared a conversation over a glass of wine.

- Inter could thank Júlio César for keeping them in the match yesterday. His save on Ronaldo’s head 5 minutes into the game could of tanked Inter’s chances before the game ever got started.

- Both teams can see positives from this result but it will be Manchester United who were the better team who may end regretting not being able to score the all important away goal.

- Back in 2004 Porto held Manchester United scoreless in the first leg. Will history repeat itself again with Inter finding an away goal.

- With Inter being all but out of it last year after the first leg losing 2-0 to Liverpool it was important that they still control there destiny heading into the second leg.

- Arsenal is another team they may regret not scoring more. Roma sat back the entire first half and only on a penalty decision where Arsenal able to score. They have the win and positives can be had as a result but they can’t be too comfortable going into the Stadio Olimpico in two weeks time.

- Nicklas Bendtner was horrible all night long. Countless times in the first half the ball was played to his feet in the box only for Bendtner’s first touch to lead it back to a Roma defender.

- I couldn’t imagine a worst possible players to be one on one with the goalie than Emmanuel Eboué. He was gifted a clear scoring chance only to fumble around with the ball and the strike it wide.

- Beckham is great but would still have Lyon’s Juninho take a free kick. The Brazilian can strike a ball so many different ways as Barcelona found out yesterday.

- Can’t say enough on how much I was impressed with this Porto side yesterday. Going down a goal early against Atletico Madrid they could of easily hung there heads the rest of the game. Then after leveling the game back at one Porto’s goalie Helton made a Gomes type of mistake actually even worse in gifted Atletico the second goal. Just watching the replay could make one throw up. Despite that when Porto scored to make it 2-2 the entire team gathered around Helton as if they scored just for him. Just a beautiful thing to see in sports how a team lifted themselves up for the sake of their team mate.

Milan deny report on partial sale to Abu Dhabi

AC Milan denied a media report on Tuesday that the Italian club was in discussions about selling a stake to the Abu Dhabi United Group, owners of English Premier League side Manchester City.

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I guess if you can’t buy Kaka might as well buy the team he plays for. This for a catchy headline but Italian football culture is totally different than English football culture. While the English game has sold out to anyone with enough cash there would be a huge backlash if even a part of A.C Milan was controlled by foreign interest.

Inter’s Marco Materazzi And Patrick Vieira Furious With Jose Mourinho Snub

Jose Mourinho has taken the controversial step of dropping Materazzi and Vieira, leaving both players shocked and puzzled by the decision…

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Both players have had great careers but both players are also in their mid 30’s. With neither of them playing much of a role in Inter’s strong form of late it couldn’t be too much of a shock to see them left out against Manchester United.