EPL, Premiership, English Premier League

Jo. Let’s extrapolate.  Manchester City has obtained a Brazilian player by name of Joao Alves de Assis Silva (though he goes by Jo). Hes played for the Corinthians and then for CSKA Moscow. He’s scored 44 goals in 77 matches, has won the Russian League and Couple Double in 2006, is left footed, ’s 21 years old and 6 foot 3 inches; he also has some tight celebratory dances. I’ve seen a few clips and he seems pretty good. City paid an undisclosed fee but did say the transfer fee was a ‘club record’ (reportedly over €19 million).

Jo said: “After I spoke to the manager (Hughes) I was very pleased. I was told Manchester City is a club going forward at the moment. We can go places, that is our objective. We thought about it and I decided to come to Manchester City for that reason. The club who showed interest officially was Valencia. I know from the press there were other clubs who showed interest.”

Whether he is good or not is to be seen but he may well bring some really interesting gameplay to City. I am more sure though, that one reason he decided to come to City was the promise that City’s owner (Thaksin Shinawatra) will be spending a lot more in the near future.
Joao Alves de Assis Silva

Portugese International Deco was recently informed by Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola that he was not a part of Barcelona’s plans and he cold leave. Deco is Chelsea’s newest acquisition since they acquired Jose Bosingwa (and Scolari’s first move as the new Chelsea manager). “It is good for me to be here and first of all I am very happy to be here” said Deco.

“I am sure I have come at the right time to do great things and be able to help Chelsea go back to the way it was and come back to being the first one, not only in England but also to win the Champions League that has been their dream for so long.”

Deco left Porto in 2004; but before he did, he helped Porto win domestic league titles, the Champions League, and the UEFA Cup (under Jose Mourinho). With Barcelona he won a Champions League Title against Arsenal in 2006 and won 2 League Championships. Unfortunately, during the 2007/2008 season he was hampered by injuries and made only 14 starting appearances.

While questions could be raised about the signing (since Deco is 31 years old), I believe that with his record and consistency he will play well. The contract is for 2 years but may continued at that point. The signing also raises speculation about Frank Lampard who could leave Chelsea perhaps for Inter Milan.

“The Premier League is a great league and it is getting better and you can see that with the Champions League final, where you had two English teams.I t is great that we have so many great players here at Chelsea and it is great that there is the competition which is healthy for everybody and this just makes the team better. To have great players in any position of the club just enhances the club. I know it is a new challenge but I am looking forward to it.”

Luis Felipe Scolari has been named by Chelsea as the new manager to suceed Avram Grant. “Chelsea Football Club is delighted to confirm that Luiz Felipe Scolari will be the club’s new manager from July 1, 2008. Felipe has great qualities. He is one of the world’s top coaches with a record of success at country and club level, he gets the best out of a talented squad of players and his ambitions and expectations match ours. He was the outstanding choice. Out of respect for his current role as head coach of the Portuguese national team, and to ensure minimum disruption to this work, there will be no further comment from Chelsea FC nor from Felipe about his new role until his employment with us commences.”

Scolari is currently coaching the Portugese national team in the Euro Cup. While Avram Grant was in no way a bad coach I am sure that Scolari is an excellent choice and will bring a new style of play to Chelsea. Grant also appeared to be rather unexciting and unemotional. The Brazilian International coached the Brazilian national team and won the World Cup in 2002. He also guided Portugal to the Euro Cup finals in 2004 and the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup. He also turned down the opportunity to coach England’s National team in 2006 after Sven-Goran Eriksson was fired. He has also won the Copa Libertadores (South American equivalent to the Champions League) with two different club teams. However, the 59 years old has never coached a European club team.

Chelsea’s keeper Peter Czech welcomed the appointment saying, “He is a manager with great charisma, great experience, great results. I look forward to working with him. For the club to progress further, I think it’s a wise appointment.”

Reportedly his contract will be worth €6 million, though no details have been revealed officially yet. The decision came less than a week after Scolari said, “What’s going to happen to me after Euro 2008 - if I am going to stay or leave - concerns (only) me and I am not going to talk about it now. If I decide to leave or stay, I am only going to make a public declaration at the end of Euro 2008.”

“I think it’s a top-class appointment. They have got a top-class manager. When he was manager of Brazil their emphasis was on attacking style - I think he will bring that into Chelsea football club.” said Ron Harris (former Chelsea player and legend).

Chelsea midfielder Ray Wilkins described Scolari as “A manager of top quality. It appears that he’s up for a challenge. He’s a big guy, he’s charismatic. This will be a breath of fresh air.”

Carvalho also supported the new manager saying “We were all shocked by the news. We heard the rumours but didn’t guess he would be going to Chelsea after the Euros,’ said the 30-year-old. He is a great manager and a big personality. He’s the kind of guy that players respond to and I think we can go forward with him.”

Fellow Portugese player Paulo Ferreira said “I think Scolari is a good manager and he can do a good job there and it will be good for the club.”

Nikolai Shpilevski, Hleb’s agent, has stated that the Belarus International is already holding talks with another club. “I can officially confirm that a short time ago Alexander decided that he will leave Arsenal and join another club. Of course, Arsenal and Arsene wanted him to stay but they have accepted the player’s choice”. Hleb has been playing with Arsenal for the past 3 years. He transferred from Stuttgart in 2005 for €11.2 million but has not settled down in London. “I can’t tell you anything about where he will be playing yet. Talks are under way, and I don’t have the right to make them public. I think that the issue of his new club will be clarified in the next few days” said his agent.

Arsenal recently lost defensive midfielder Mathieu Flamini and now they’ve lost attacking midfielder Hleb. Hleb and Flamini have both been part of Arsenal’s midfield for some time and losing both will severely impair with the development of Arsenal’s team. Wenger will have to find new starting midfielders to take their places as well. “Alex has spent three good seasons at Arsenal and he wasn’t sure he could maintain the same level that he has been showing if he stayed. It’s also true that he felt uncomfortable off the field. Alexander wants a change of scene. That’s had a large part to play in his decision.”

By the end of the 2007/2008 season Bolton barely avoided relegation by only one point. After Bolton’s miserable season, it seems like several players feel like they no longer belong with Bolton and have decided to leave. Three of the clubs midfielders including Andranik Teymourian, Stelios Giannakopoulos, and Ivan Campo have left. “Ivan, Stelios and Andranik have all done well for Bolton Wanderers and I’d like to express my gratitude to them. It’s time for them to move on and I wish them all the best.” said the Bolton manager Gary Megson.

Not only that but Jussi Jaaskalanen and Ricardo Gardner’s contracts will be expiring at the end of June; Megson, of course will be trying to stem the tide of fleeing players who sense the danger of relegation. “Jussi and Ricardo have both been excellent servants and are still very much part of my future plans for this football club. Hopefully, we can get them secured on new deals as soon as possible.” said Megson.

Chelsea has agreed to sign Portugese International Jose Bosingwa from FC Porto; however, he still has to agree with the personal terms of the contract. Bosingwa joined FC Porto in 2003 and played under Jose Morinho and has been considered by Chelsea for signing for the past few seasons. “Chelsea can confirm it has reached agreement with FC Porto for the transfer of Jose Bosingwa. The player is now in England to discuss personal terms and undergo a medical.” Bosingwa can play either as a right fullback or less frequently as a winger. He will likely sign a 5 year contract for about €16 million. Chelsea already has several competing defenders for the position including Julian Belletti, Michael Essien, and Paula Ferreira (who recently signed a 5 year deal). United have stated their interest in Bosingwa who would replace Gary Neville as an attack minded defender. 25 year old Bosingwa is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Kinshasa; however, he moved to central Portugal (Seia) when young and played for Boavista in midfield and later played for FC Porto, he will be playing for Portugal in Euro 2008.

The last few games of the season ended with Manchester United obtaining their 10th League Title. United played Wigan who were at home; some wondered if Heskey could once again cause an upset as e did against Chelsea. Ronaldo scored a penalty kick in the 33rd minute (his 31st EPL goal) and Giggs scored in the 80th minute (his 758th appearance for United). United enjoyed 67% of possession. Chelsea needed to win their own game and have United to lose or tie their game; in the end Chelsea was unable to get the win against Bolton, who they tied 1-1. United obtained the League Title by 2 points with 87, Chelsea had 85, Arsenal 83.

Other struggles were underway on the last day of games in the EPL; Tottenham had the opportunity to reach 10th place in the upper half of the League Table. Tottenham had 46 points in 11th place and West Ham had 48 points in 10th place. Both teams were fighting to earn an extra €720,000 in extra merit payment from the League. Tottenham were unable to secure the coveted upper tier table position because they lost to Liverpool 2-1 with Torres scoring his 33rd goal in all competitions. Benitez was proud of Fernando and exclaimed how his prolific scoring justified his approximately €20 million cost. “Always when you sign a player you do not know if he will settle down and how he will do in the Premier League, but Torres is a young player who is hungry and wanted to do well. Sometimes you sign a player for a free transfer and people say he is bad signing. Then other times you can sign a player for a lot of money and he does well and everyone is happy, so lucky for us he is a good signing. He is one of the best strikers in the Premier League and is the best for us. We had spoken about the record. After the last game he said he wanted to play in this one and score here.” West Ham managed to tie Aston Villa (who were fighting for a position in the UEFA Cup, they needed Everton to lose against Newcastle, however Newcastle lost 3-1) 2-2 in an exciting game with multiple great goals by Nolberto Solano, Dean Ashton, and Ashley Young. The extra money will certainly bolster West Ham for the coming season and transfer season.

For Liverpool this season has been a disappointment, despite all of Torres’ goals they were unable to produce any Trophies. “Torres, he was terrific at scoring and 76 points is a good total for us. There are a lot of positive things from this season, but the most important thing is we did not win a trophy. Our idea is to finish as high up as possible and to win trophies was a priority, but we know this season has been very difficult for us. We are working hard to improve the squad. Throughout the whole season we are watching players and trying to sign the players we need. We want to sign the best players as soon as possible and I think we will get investment from the owners, so we can go forward. Some of the players here are under contract and they are our players and we are waiting now to see if clubs are interested in them.” In the meantime we can certainly expect Peter Crouch to leave Liverpool, he wasn’t even on the bench and hasn’t played very many games this season. At least they finished with a win beating the Spurs 2-0.

In the meantime Fulham was fighting to stay in the Premier League. Reading and Fulham were both tied at 33 points (Fulham had them beat with on goal differential by 3). Fulham played Portsmouth, and Reading played Derby. Reading managed to destroy Derby (probably the worst team to ever play in the EPL) 4-0, and they would have stayed in the EPL if Fulham had lost or tied their game. Unfortunately for Reading, Fulham managed to win the game 1-0 with a season winning header by Danny Murphy.

Birmingham succeeded in winning against Blackburn 4-1 while at home; it mattered little because both Fulham and Reading won their games forcing Birmingham into relegation. However, if either Fulham or Reading had lost their games Birmingham could have stayed in the Premier League.

Sven-Goran Eriksson ended his season in humiliation as Manchester City lost a stunning 8-1 against Middlesbrough. “You can use whatever word you want and I would probably agree.” said Eriksson. “It started badly when Benjani was injured after just a couple of minutes. A little bit later penalty and a red card for our captain. I don’t think he (Dunne) tried to foul him. I think they crossed but it is difficult to be the ref in this case. It was a collision and it was the wrong place. I don’t think the ball has gone to the striker, it has gone straight to Isaksson but I think the referee maybe must send him off in a place like that.” Alfonso Alves scored 3 goals, Stewart Downing scored 2 (one off a penalty where Richard Dunne received a red card for a foul in the box in the 15th minute).

English International Peter Crouch has been unsatisfied with the minute role he’s been allowed to play at Liverpool. “When all is said and done, I don’t think I can have another season like this year where I’ve started nine Premier League games. Out of a 38-game league season, nine games is not the amount you want to be playing.”

In the most recent game against Fulham Benitez didn’t even play Crouch though he made 5 changes on the starting lineup making one think that he’s trying to discourage Crouch from staying. “I’ll have to speak to the manager and see what his plans are. I need to see him and sort things out. I have to find out what he wants from me next season and whether or not I can continue with that. In some ways, I want to feel wanted. So I’d like to speak to the manager and the club before I commit to anything and know whether or not I’ll be here next year. It’s always nice to know that if things did go completely wrong for me at Liverpool, I’d have options to go somewhere else and it’s not the end of the world if things don’t work out for me there.”

French International Mathieu Flamini has agreed to sign a contract to stay at AC Milan until 2012. For over 3 seasons Flamini has been drifting in and out of the starting lineup until this season where he started consistently over Gilberto Silva. Arsene Wenger will be disappointed with the loss but isn’t the first manager to be disappointed with Flamini leaving abruptly. Marseille coach Jose Anigo described Flamini as “He’s a traitor - this is a beautiful treason” when Flamini left Marseille for Arsenal despite agreeing to initial terms at Marseille for a contract renewal.

The 24 year old had been playing at Arsenal in midfield with 39 starts this season and 3 goals. The switch is somewhat intriguing since Flamini will have to battle with Kaka, Gattuso, Massimo Ambrosini, and Andrea Pirlo for a midfield position. In the meantime Wenger will have to look for a replacement who can work well with Hleb. Why Flamini would leave now that he has finally beat Gilberto out as a starting player is interesting. If Hleb leaves, which is a possibility, since Inter Milan has reportedly been interested in him then Wenger will really be scrambling. Arsenal is really turning into a new team with the old timers disappearing; Jens Lehman made his last appearance at Arsenal against Everton. “I had one or two tears in my eyes at the end. The club and the supporters will always stay in my heart.”

Eriksson has been informed by Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra that he is “not the right man for the job”. Shinawatra is the former President of Thailand; he was President until 2006 when a military coup ousted him from power. While he is said to have reduced the amount of corruption in Thailand he was still accused of embezzling money and engaging in corruption.

Ever since the turn of the year Manchester City has lost their form; when Eriksson informed his players about the decision the players were outraged. “I think it is crazy that his job is even being talked about as being in danger - he has been good for everyone at City” said City defender Micah Richards. Thai billionaire Shinawatra decided upon the move when City lost to Fulham 3-2 after having a 2 goal lead. After the game Shinawatra told Eriksson who “Reacted calmly, as usual, but he was very surprised and disappointed. He doesn’t want to leave the club and will not resign. He loves working with the players and his work at Manchester City has only just begun.” He will be in charge of the last 2 away games against Liverpool (which they just lost 1-0) and Middlesbrough according to a City spokesman though no comment was made about what would happen during the summer.

Erikson’s assistant Tord Grip said: “We will be here for the two last matches. They probably think that we haven’t done a good enough job. Sven will receive new offers soon I’m sure.” Erickson took over City 5 weeks before the season; in November they held 3rd place; however, since Christmas they have failed to produce results and have fallen to 9th having won only 4 of their past 15 games. “The team has not been playing as well as it should have or getting the right results since Christmas. But overall it has been a good season. Thaksin agreed a five-year plan with Sven in the summer and the target for the first year was to finish in the top 10.”

Thaksin signed 8 new player during the summer for £46m shortly after buying the club. However, he has had little contact with Eriskon. They met several times personally at the start of the season and then nothing. Sven has had a list of players he wants to sign next summer for several weeks, but he hasn’t been able to get the go-ahead to get them. He talks to Alistair Macintosh (City chief executive), but things break down when he then goes to the chairman”. With Eriksson going out the door City will have to get a new manager; as of now, Portugese Luiz Felipe Scolari may in serious consideration. We can expect the new manager to be able to buy a lot of new players with Thaksin determined to have Manchester City playing in the Champions League in the next two years. The Thai billionaire is currently involved in a lawsuit in Thailand with hundreds of millions of pounds currently frozen; however, he expects to be able to use them by the summer.