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Dos Santos regrets contract signing with Hotspur

Giovani Dos Santos regrets his decision of signing for Tottenham Hotspur instead of Chelsea FC in 2008.

Dos Santos stayed at Tottenham for 4 years and during that period; he got only 15 matches to play.

According to the Mexican playmaker, at the time of signing, the Spurs had promised him that he would not lack playing time at the club and that’s the reason, he opted for that move, but, there were changes made in the management there at White Hart Lane soon and the new manager, who came in, did not give him confidence at all.

In an interview the day before yesterday, Dos Santos said, “I got a call from Juande Ramos and he told me that I would be playing on a regular basis and that prompted me take his offer.”

“I could have gone to Chelsea as well which, now I think, I should have done because at Tottenham, things turned out to be pretty different than what I had thought. Juande departed and it was Harry who took over and for some reason, he kept me out continuously.”

“I, sometimes, felt very frustrated to be in that situation. I would train as hard as anyone else and then, on the game days, I would be sitting out. However, one thing that I liked about Tottenham is their fans. The passion that they would bring to the ground, it was wonderful and I had that desire to win games for them, but, unfortunately, I did not have enough opportunities.”

Dos Santos was finally sold by Tottenham to the Spanish club Mallorca in 2012. He played for Mallorca for just one season before leaving for Villarreal.

Presently, the 25-year old appears to be quite settled at Villarreal.

Messi career under Speculation

The future of Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has been intentionally speculated in the last few weeks with reports suggesting that the Argentine may finally look to conclude his career with the Catalan club. Teams like Paris St Germain, Manchester City, and Chelsea are thought to be monitoring the situation. The 27-year-old has been at Barcelona throughout his career and he is on the verge of breaking numerous more records. Messi appears to have fallen from the incredible heights that he hit a few years ago. After scoring close to 100 goals in a calendar year, the Argentine finds himself with only 15 goals from 22 games.

This may seem as an incredible statistics for every other player, but when put against the competition that includes Cristiano Ronaldo, it is rather low. Messi has been signing new contracts with Barcelona almost every season. The Catalan club have been keen to not allow him to leave under any condition, although it is believed that he has a £ 200 million release clause in his contract. Due to the FFP regulations from UEFA, it is highly unlikely that any club will be interested in paying this amount of money for one player. Manager Luis Enrique said ahead of the match with Sevilla that he has not spoken with Messi.

“When I’ve listened to Messi he says he is happy at Barça, I don’t want to talk about speculation, I know that he is very happy here, he’s very proud to defend the Barça and shirt that’s the only thing I care about. I didn’t speak with Leo about his statement, I don’t talk with my players about what they say, I didn’t speak with him about it.For me there’s no Leo Messi case, the fans will congratulate the team as they have done during the season,” said Enrique.

Chelsea Expected To Challenge For Title

After finishing third in the league table last season, Chelsea will be expected to challenge for the Premier league title in the upcoming season. Many have made Manchester City as the favourites to win the title, but Chelsea will be strengthening substantially during the transfer window. As a result, the blues are expected to fight all the way in the coming season. Manager Jose Mourinho, though, reckons that it will be a very tough title race once again. Chelsea lost the title last season primarily because of not getting points against teams at the bottom of the table.

Defeats against the likes of Crystal Palace and Sunderland proved too hard to take for the men from West London. After having already brought in Cesc Fabregas at a cost of £ 28 million from Barcelona, Chelsea are expected to take their spending further by signing Diego Costa. Once again, there is expectation that several names will depart Stamford Bridge in the off-season. Mourinho maintained throughout last campaign that Chelsea were not going to be contenders, but he expected the blues to challenge from the start in this campaign.

However, he appears to have backtracked on those comments, as he suggested that other rivals will also be improving and it will once again be difficult to win the title. “Next season will be very, very difficult, even more so than last. I know Chelsea will be better, but maybe the other teams will be better too, so it will again be the kind of league where you don’t know if you’re going to finish first or finish sixth. In this moment I have to think and feel and say we want to finish first,” said Mourinho.

The Chelsea boss also stressed the need for rebuilding after almost 10 years of constant success with one single team.