Torres has a smile on his face after scoring his 4th goal of the season

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Fernando Torres likely woke up in a good mood this week after scoring his fourth goal of the season while playing in the Chelsea and Wolves match. The final score of the match came out at 6-0, but it turns out that this may not have been enough for his club.

While he may be floating high, it appears that Chelsea is not yet sure about him as they are getting ready to place a very hefty £45m bid on Radamel Falcao. The news that the team is looking for another strong striker is likely not the news that Torres would have wanted.

Chelsea of course knows that Falcao would be a heck of a striker as the 26 year old really showed off his skills during the Super Cup final of last month. He was able to score a 4-1 victory over Madrid putting in a show worth paying top dollar for.

In addition, while playing in Atletico he was able to score a total of 36 goals in only 49 different appearances last season. After this grand season Chelsea has their eye on the Colombian with goals to transfer him over by the close of January.

The Terry case brings other issues to the fore

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The FA’s role as a selector of the national side, and a governing body at the same time, has been relieved by the Terry case with the captain of Chelsea claiming that conflict made it impossible for him to be selected to play for England. Many would argue that the situation is actually reversed, but since it is hard to narrow down the Wembley separation of powers this is an issue that is causing a lot of problems for the FA.

Disciplinary measures have always caused discontent among players, and therefore it is not very surprising that the Premier League has always been happy to leave these types of matters up to the FA to handle. However, over the last few years since Lord Burns first brought the topic up since 2005, there have been calls for the FA to create an independent disciplinary chapter so that there are no claims of bias.

The FA has firmly resisted this idea and it is likely that it will resist again in the Terry case although Terry will likely believe that all of the charges against him are the result of a FA agenda. David Bernstein, the Chairman, has not yet made a public comment regarding the Terry case because he does not want it to appear that he is interfering with the disciplinary hearings.

Darren Bailey, the head of governance for the FA, ultimately is the person that decided to bring charges against Terry as he was not connected to the Club England set-up.

Work to start on new Man City academy within weeks

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Manchester City has said that within the next few weeks work will start on their new football academy. The development is to include the construction of 16 training pitches and a 7,000- seater stadium solely for youth matches.

They are also to build community facilities and a sixth form college on the 80 acre site which is next to the Etihad Stadium. The club has chosen as its construction partner BAM Construction, with work expected to be finished in time for the 2014/15 season. Local people will get most of the jobs created.

Ferran Soriano, the Chief Executive, believes this is important for the future of the football club. The club has a central strategy develop young and home-grown players as a way of creating a winning team as well as a sustainable football club. This ambition was outlined in September 2008 by Sheikh Mansour when he bought the club. The club believes that after four years when they have been researching and planning they are in a position to execute the plan. They are pleased to be joining with BAM who will play a large part in the strategy.

Patrick Viera, football development executive for Manchester City, has said how vital it is to invest in the players of the future. He believes it is very important to have a project to develop young players for five or ten years’ time.

A bridge will link Etihad stadium to the academy which will feature facilities for the first team, including an injury and rehab centre, changing rooms, gym and refectory. There is also to be accommodation available on site for both junior and senior players.

 

Steven Gerrard tries to rally the fans for the 2014 World Cup

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Despite a poor showing in recent international tournaments, Steven Gerrard is still convinced that England can lift the 2014 World Cup. The Liverpool and England stalwart has appealed to the football nation to keep faith, and has said that miracles do happen, and you should never stop believing in football.

The next step in Roy Hodgson’s road to Brazil is a stop off in Chisinau to play Moldova in the Group H qualifier. A team from Europe has never won any of the 7 World Cup finals that have been held in North, South or Central America, but Gerrard believes this will inspire England and not deter them.

He said in an interview that he is realistic and honest when he speaks and while England are not one of the current favourites for 2014, that shouldn’t mean that they stop believing or working hard to improve themselves and learn from the mistakes they have made in previous tournaments. He added that the team had time to improve and grow over the next 2 years, with a combination of experienced and new players.

The team have been training at the Zimbru Stadium, where the earlier fears regarding the playing surface unfortunately proved to be founded. The ground, that has a 10,500 capacity, has an uneven pitch with rather longer grass than is suitable for football, even though the local federation had claimed it would be cut. Hodgson also has to deal with losing 3 players he had selected for both this game and the home qualifier against the Ukraine on Tuesday.

The last manager of England who lost the first qualifying game of a World Cup campaign was back in 2000, when Kevin Keegan saw his side go down to old adversaries Germany. Hodgson has spoken out about his reluctance to jettison the likes of Gerrard and Lampard simply because of the public wanting a change, and he said it is very possible that they will both be in the starting line up.

Fabio Capello impresses the Russians as he takes over the national side

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One of the first things that Fabio Capello did when he took over as the England manager was to ban tomato ketchup. He obviously felt this was a winning move as he has done exactly the same since he stepped in as the manager of Russia, except it is not ketchup he has banned, but shisha pipes. The decision has proved popular with Russian fans who blame the smoking of shisha pipes on their team failing to reach the World Cup in 2010.

Capello could be surprised to find himself once more within a footballing culture that is driven by trivia. His new job starts in earnest this week with a match in Moscow against Northern Ireland, and it seems to have some stark similarities to his last one.

Following on from failure, making the transition from old guard to new, responding to pressure over his captain and being called an overpaid import, the only difference is that it’s in a different language. Never one to back away from criticism, Capello has started his tenure in Russia with the same vigorous imposition of rules as he did in England, and Samedov, the winger from Lokomotiv Moscow has said he is very big on discipline.

While the Russian players may not be very impressed with the new regime, the public certainly do. There is a nationwide frustration bubbling over from the Russian teams failure to qualify for Euro 2012 from what only can be described as gift group, and they are embracing Capello with his tough, hardline approach, and already consider him as the man to restore pride to Russian football.

The old guard, who did so well in Euro 2008 but looked tired and jaded this year, and demands have been made from the top that changes are made, and soon. Capello doesn’t select on reputation, as Beckham knows only too well, and with his huge pay packet come even bigger expectations, and how this pans out only time will tell.