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GET A REAL JOB Juan Caro's Zidane cock-up may be the fate of his chances of Real job THE SALE of veteran Zinedine Zidane has caused fan unrest at Real Madrid. Protests have began outside the Bernabeu in a quest to stop Juan Lopez Caro becoming permanent manager of the club. It seems another in a long line of problems and wrong moves Caro has made as he desperately tries to impress both fans and bosses alike in order to land the job. With Sven-Goran Eriksson interested in taking over after he leaves England and Sam Allardyce is also linked with the job. Zidane was sold near two weeks ago for a cut-price £7,000,000 to Spanish rivals Valencia. The fans wanted to see Zidane spend the rest of his career there at Real or at least where he wanted to be, in his home city playing for Olympique Marseille. It’s reported that Marseille couldn’t afford the transfer fee therefore the gateway opened for Valencia. ”I understand the fans are angry. Zinedine Zidane is a living football legend and he is totally irreplaceable, but he’s coming to the end of his career now and I feel from a club benefiting perspective this was a good time to cash-in on him. Businesses run on money and apart from sponsorship…Transfers are the best possible way to boost a football club’s financial position. I am very apologetic for not giving him the chance to end his great career with us or with his home city of Marseille, but people just have to understand I did it for the good of the club.” ECS were set to organise a testimonial match for the Frenchman in tribute to his illustrious career. For over a decade he has been one of football’s greats and to honour him this was a fantastic idea, which needs to be re-thought after his departure from Real Madrid. The friendly was set to be a clash between Real Madrid and Marseille with Zidane having the possibility of playing for each side for a half. But now it seems plans have to be re-shuffled since Valencia in no way represent the player having not been associated with them for his entire career until now. Suggestions are going ahead that it should be Valencia to take Real Madrid’s place anyway. The testimonial friendly event is scheduled to take place sometime after the end of the current season. DEFENDERS

SUPER KEV READY TO FILL FREDDIE'S BOOTS REAL MADRID new boy Kevin Nolan has told Sunsport he is prepared to step in for crocked midfielder Fredrik Ljungberg who tore his cruciate knee ligaments in their 2-0 away win against Lyon. Nolan has raised quite a few eyebrows since arriving a the club for £5,000,000 from Premiership side Bolton Wanderers. Many have targeted the midfielder to be a stunt to lure Bolton boss Sam Allardyce to the club to be their next manager at the expense of Juan Lopez Caro, but this has been subsequently denied. Nolan insists he is not there just to make up the numbers or in anyway a stunt to land Allardyce and is convinced he can become a regular and essential part of the first team set-up. After enduring a fabulous season last term with Bolton scoring eleven Premiership goals and even had Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson scouting him on regular occasions. The rumours that his purchase was dodgy emerged after Caro revealed publicly that he had barely any part in the deal while it was in progress and said, “My contribution was limited”. He even admitted he wasn’t interested in signing the player before being persuaded into agreeing. ”Obviously, Freddie’s injury has come as a huge blow to the whole club, but from a selfish point of view I think it could work in my advantage and I could possibly start playing games for the club sooner than I expected, which would be fantastic. As for my life in Madrid, even though I have only been here a week or so, but I feel right at home and cannot wait to play. The presence of players such as William Gallas, Pascal Chimbonda, Jonathan Woodgate, Damien Duff and a few others has done me the world of good because these are all players I’ve played against in the Premiership so they’ve been able to tell me how the game is different here.” Nolan made his name in his early days at Bolton by famously scoring in two separate wins against fierce rivals Manchester United, both at Old Trafford and instantly turned him into a cult hero. Many pundits regarded him good enough to be chosen in England’s World Cup squad especially after performing to a high standard in front of Sven-Goran Eriksson on several occasions. Becoming a Real Madrid player can certainly earn him that chance of being an England international. His debut against PSV was one to forget after Real suffered a 2-1 defeat at home and for Juan Lopez Caro it isn’t the result he’d have liked what with the fans turning on him. The new look midfield he’s assembled has plenty more age on it’s side, which is, according to the man himself, the reason for the sale of such individuals as Zidane, Beckham and soon Ivan Helguera. All three players are over the age of 30, but with new recruits Damien Duff, Tim Borowski, Mahamadou Diarra, Momo Sissoko and of course Freddie Ljungberg, ironically the nearer to the thirty-mark, it's literally a whole new Real Madrid midfield, which has plenty of baggage and depth to be able to cope without the injured Swede and Nolan doesn't expect, but believes he can be the man to step in. DEFENDERS

THE AIM, THE KEY, THE AWAY GOAL Schaaf believes an away goal at the Nou Camp can set up Cup upset DESPITE Werder Bremen's 3-1 defeat to Barcelona in their recent league match Saturday, coach Thomas Schaaf is confident his side can still progress when they meet Barcelona again on Wednesday in the first leg of the ECS Cup quarter final and in the second leg the following week. He hopes to do this by using the ever handy benefits of the dreaded away goal. The first leg will be played at the famous Nou Camp stadium where Schaaf believes they can take that much prized away goal to take into the second leg. He is convinced Torsten Frings' late goal at the same ground on Saturday is an omen for what's about to happen in the Cup quarter final between the two sides as long as his team avoid conceding as many as three goals the next time around. Werder Bremen will certainly be the underdogs against a Barcelona side who've propelled themselves into second place just a point behind leaders Juventus and are on the back of a 5-0 mauling of Celtic, once again thanks to the deadly trio of Ronaldinho, Carlos Tevez and Samuel Eto'o, whom all scored a goal each again during that 3-1 win over Bremen in their latest league encounter. Something the German outfit have to be extremely weary of. "This result means we are more likely to get something in the Cup, so that's good..." Explained the smug Werder Bremen manager. "The away goals rule is something we'll be hoping to take great benefit from when we meet them again Wednesday. We've proved we can score there and as long as we keep the conceding side of things to a minimum this time, I think an away goal can give us a great chance of pulling something off back home the following week. Smaller clubs like ourselves, Stuttgart and Lyon in particular can take advantage of the away goals and in this respect playing away in the first leg can be an advantage. Us smaller clubs can always have a chance of winning silverwear in these sort of competitions and either one of us can win it and there's no doubt the other two will be going for it, just like I want to. Obviously I'd prefer it to be us as the champions, but I'd rather see Lyon or Stuttgart win it than one of the bigger clubs. They're expected to do well and are always favourites to win it, but if one of us lesser sides were to win it this season then it can only be good for the league as a whole. It proves what intense competition there is in the league and proving there is never a definate winner in any game from any week." Strikers Miroslav Klose and Ivan Klasnic will be key elements for Werder Bremen over the two legs, but Klasnic in particular hasn't been as prolific as he was in the first month and a half of the season. He's scored just one goal in his last four league outings, but strike partner Klose has bagged five goals in the four available Cup matches which sees him sitting on top of the scorers leader board in the Cup. At one point Klose and Klasnic were being regarded second in line as the deadliest strike partnership in the Master League behind AC Milan's Fernando Torres and Andriy Shevchenko. But now it seems Samuel Eto'o and Carlos Tevez are quickly over-taking Bremen's frontmen for that status having scored an incredible 13 goals in their last 6 matches together in the league. It comes as a scary statistic for Thomas Schaaf and his men to come to terms with and something to definately take under consideration when they prepare to take on the mighty Catalan giants again after already feeling the wrath of the Argen-roon combination. DEFENDERS

PAUL THE OTHER ONE PORTUGAL'S all-time leading goalscorer Pauleta has spoken of his hope of helping to guide Stuttgart to unexpected Cup success this season. They will be regarded as the remaining minnows of the competition, but the former Paris Saint-German hitman has warned that they shouldn't be underestimated at all costs after progressin through what was described as the Grou of "death" in the second stage. The German outfit had to overcome Arsenal, Deportivo and Inter Milan and did so without losing a match qualifying in second behind group winners Arsenal. Stuttgart face a tough task in their opening quarter final leg tomorrow. They face Real Madrid a the Bernabeu. Suttgart have been in supreme league form over the last month or so and that carried on into the Cup. He has backed manager Armin Veh who's gathered a lot of stick from the press has managed to put that behind him remaining constant focus and concentration on improving his side and has done so immesnley to asnwer his critics. They haven't lost since the 2-1 defeat to Chelsea in the middle of last month. Pauleta said... "I've really enjoyed being a Stuttgart player. In a very short space of time massive improvements and signings were made to turn the club's fortunes around and it's worked. It took one or two games to get together, but we've managed it and since the losses to AC Milan and Chelsea, my first two games, we haven't lost. This also includes the Cup. I think we can progress. Real Madrid haven't been in the best of form in the league with their first team and often refer to the reserve side for the Cup. I'm hoping they keep this tradition tomorrow." Pauleta has been in good goalscoring form, which was highly expected of him when he arrived having already been prolific for his country and at club level with Bordeuax and Paris Saint-Germain. For Stuttgart he has already netted five times in all competitions. Stuttgart's attack minded formation has been working for weeks now and there is no doubt they'll continue to adopt the 3-4-3 setup in both legs of the quarter finals with Real Madrid. Pauleta is, as ever, expected to start up front alongside Jeronimo Cacau and it'll be a fight between on loan Patrick Kluivert and Danish misfit Jon-Dahl Tomasson who is ever linked with moves elsewhere. Pauleta however, is still linked with a shock switch to FC Porto, a club based in his home country, but he ditched the reports and insisted he wants a longer spell with Stuttgart in a bid to accomplish his goals.