Top Duo Leave Spanish Giants
FC Barcelona announced a shocking deal yesterday that will see two players who have played a major role in the club leaving the Nou Camp.
Frank De Boer and Phillip Cocu will sign for Benfica after the Portuguese club quickly negotiated an 8 million deal.
"I want to thank Dane Middlebrook (Benfica manager) for his sportsmanship in the talkings", said Albert Jorqera. The Catalan manager recognised that these players could have still "played a secondary role in the squad this season, but I have prefered to transfer them now as next year will be almost impossible."
De Boer has been shadowed by the arrival of youngster Moretti, who could even take a place in the starting eleven in front of Patrick Anderson.
The return of Fabio Rochemback from his loan spell and the signature of Ivan De La Pena has left Cocu as the seventh midfielder.
"I am sad for them both. De Boer has been a starter since I arrived and Cocu, despite being used mainly as a sub, has played a lot of matches. But life goes on and we need to bring in fresh faces if we want to be at the top" said Jorquera.
The Barcelona manager confirmed that they have tried to sign another defender but also stated "We won't go mad. We'll try to reach the proper deal and if we don't find anybody, we'll wait until the next auction. Our priorities in the future will be another defender and a goalkeeper."
Brussels' Finest to Last the Pace?
Anderlecht's welcome back to Division One was ruined by a rampant Arsenal on Saturday, leaving coach Adam Keeble fearing a long season.
At the post-match press conference, after a 3-0 drubbing at home, Keeble said "This was my worst nightmare. We don't have the ability to spend millions, and the squad we have here went above and beyond to get promoted from Division Two. But if you look at the quality in the Sparta Prague side who got relegated from this division last year, we are shaping up to be the whipping boys all year long."
The dejected manager went on, "The celtic players we brought in for the final push last year, Larsson, Lennon and Lambert, have got to find another gear and lead by example."
The high point of Anderlecht's pre-season campaign was a 5-1 win over Liverpool, who they will meet again in the Pele Cup.
"I had rather they had beaten us," said Keeble. "It really gave us a sense of superiority and we went into the game against the Arsenal boys with the impression that we were better than we are. That's what led to the humiliating defeat in front of our own fans. We will have to take another look in a few weeks and perhaps dip into the transfer market, though we have limited funds and little prospects in the way of player exchange."
Craig's Great Gremio Gamble
Brazilian side Gremio have taken moves to combat it's fall from notoriety and has the full support of the Star League Football Association Board after it's application for a caretaker manager was accepted.
The manager pulled from the available pool of registered caretakers, was the former Panathanikos and Feyenoord manager, Ryan Craig. Currently managing German club Bayer 04 Leverkusen, he takes part time control of the club with immediate effect after Leverkusen granted permission to share it's manager.
In his first interview as the new manager, Craig said, "It's going to be hell, but for the sake of the league and the lower division clubs I will happily fly between continents on a weekly basis. Gremio are a side reeking of potential and has a great fan base, unfortunately potential is all they've got and a few of the older players aren't much cop. I will be seeking to improve the defence after Gremio's draft pick didn't improve the squad much."
In addition to this news from Brazil, the SLFA Express has been hearing some rumours that other managers expect a fall in Leverkusen's results this season as the manager spends more time on Brazil's beaches than on a cold and wet German training ground. We wait to see!
Can Murphy Take Care at Fulham?
Fulham have signed Rangers FC manager Kevin Murphy as their caretaker manager until they find a full time replacement. Mohammed Al Fayed, Fulham's chairman, today stated "We have snapped up Kevin on a month to month contract. We are looking forward to working with Kevin again as he was caretaker some time ago. He almost got us promoted and then we found a manager who only lasted two weeks and was sacked for not appearing at any games." In an up-beat mood, the chairman added, "We at Fulham beleive that Kevin may take us to Division One if he stays a whole season."
The Express managed to catch up with Kevin and asked him how this will affect hi position at Rangers. He said, "This does not effect it in any way at all. Fulham have an assistant manager who will be dealing with training. I have just been asked to get a report of who's been progressing in training and to select the first team on match day. I am also allowed to improve the squad and to sell any players who I feel are not right for the team. I almost took Fulham to a title as I did with Porto in my time in Division Two. I have also got Arsenal promoted to Division One in my time in SLFA which was my best acheivement. I gave up Arsenal to take on my boyhood heroes Rangers as they were looking very bad for a massive club."
Thinking of the future, Kevin Murphy finished off with a warning to the other Division Two clubs, "Anyway, I'm really looking forward to playing the likes of Atalanta, Porto, Kiev, Boavista and of course Sparta Prague to test the might of new manager Nathan Trivett." Although the Express Office feel he's neglected Auxerre from that list at his own peril!
Mariano, a Man on a Mission!
SLFA Express have been lucky enough to meet up with the very ambitious manager of River Plate, Mariano Raskin, while sunning himself pre-season on holiday.
River Plate are looking to take the Division One title this season and Mariano is busy making plans for the future as well as the coming new season. Raskin spoke to us about last season and his hopes for the new campaign.
-When will River Plate jump into the Star League?
- It's hard to guess, but we are going in the right direction and now we have a balanced team but we still have to make things better. I hope next season to make an assualt on the title, but nothing is easy. We are competing against another 11 teams including Benfica who are a young team with a lot of quality.
- Do River's results depend on D'Alessandro's performance?
- Everybody knows D'Alessandro is a great pleayer, but we have more than 20 players. Starting with Hildebrand and Cuevas. D'alessandro was our top scorer for the last two seasons but without the other 10 players on the pitch, he couldn't do anything.
- Why isn't River active in the transfer market?
- We are making a young squad to keep the team going into the future. River fans will see the result of the youth strategy sometime in the future. We hope to sontinue to see our fans in the stadium screaming for success. We would like to offer them that possibility, but now it is a hard task.
- Are you changing tactics this season?
- River have played the last two seasons with 5 defenders. Now we have a better quality of midfielders and attackers. But, I don't know if I should change. We have a quality squad now, very balanced, but still we have to adjust our playing style to give some pressure on their defence. We can put fear into our opponents with our attackers. But we still have to work a lot.
- Where are you going to finish this season?
I can't guess what is going to happen in the future, but I hope that we can have a good season, maybe finish in the top 5.
Mariano Raskin then left us with a wink which suggested that maybe he has a few suprises in store for Division One this season.
Foe Tournament a Big Success
Thanks to an inspired idea from Ollie Newman, the SLFA pre-season was lifted this year with a new friendly tournament.
Tthe pre season Foe Tournament was a huge success mostly down to the organisers and for a large amount of entrants that made for a thrilling competition. There were quite a few shocks along the way, not least the eventual winners, PSV Eindhoven.
The odds on both Auxerre and River Plate, both from Division Two, getting to the Quarter Final stage and then Auxerre qualifying for a Semi Final game would have been interesting before the tournament started. When PSV overcame Real Madrid in the other Semi Final, few would have bet on them overcoming the might of Manchester United to lift the trophy.
But that is exactly what they did. PSV went out with an attacking style of play and it bore fruit quickly as they took the lead on 14 minutes with a superb volley from SLFA International Maas. PSV then sat back in the hope of defending their lead but United soon levelled through Cisse. PSV pushed forward again but it was United who took the half time lead as Stoica scored.
PSV tried desperately to find an equaliser but the United defence held firm until the hour mark when Venegoor netted from the spot. United 'keeper Helton then saved an extra time penalty from Venegoor to take the first Foe Tournament Final to penalties which PSV took 4-3.
Congratulations to PSV Eindhoven and we will wait to see how they defend the title next time as this Tournament was such a success that it must be repeated.
NIko KO'd By Beddie
Niko Krancjar of Benfica was astonished to be told that he was not selected as a member of the first SLFA Under 21 Squad announced by Stephen Beddie.
Trying to hold back his emotions, the young striker said to the Express, "I thought I was ready this year, I'm amazed. Sure I'll be back next year to have a go."
Benfica manager Dane Middlebrook was equally taken aback by the omission of Niko from the squad. "I don't understand, he was so good last season. He was top goal scorer for most of the year in Division Two last season and was crucial in us winning the Division Two Championship. I have spoken to Nik, he is very disappointed. He deserves a spot in the squad, he is a top striker of the ball and his passing, assisting and off the ball running is all first class. I told him not to be so concerned, he is a great player and will be in the squad next year for sure. I also told him to go out there on the weekend and prove the selectors wrong.
SLFA FA Announced Open
The SLFA has created a new forum for discussion on rules and problems etc. The SLFA FA has been created as a group of 6 established managers and will discuss any questions that are put to them by the other managers of SLFA clubs. You can contact the FA on [email protected].
The members of the first FA board are:
Jeroen Sap - FA Chairman
Albert Jorquera - FA Assistant Chairman
Peter Bagchus - FA Member
Ryan Craig - FA Member
Philip Reynolds - FA Member
Adam Keeble - FA Member
Kevin Murphy - FA Spokesperson
SLFA clubs have put up a fair show in the newly published official EOFA Club Rankings. Star League Champions Real Madrid come up strongest in 4th place with Barcelona and Manchester United also in the top 20. In total, 11 SLFA clubs are in the top 80 and this number can only improve as SLFA continues to grow from strength to strength.
Real Madrid (4), Barcelona (14), Manchester United (17), Bayer Leverkusen (40), PSV (41), Celtic (44), Juventus (57), AC Milan (60), Leeds (61), Boca Juniors (72), Feyenoord (77)
