ROONEY WANTED OUT

Manchester United star Wayne Rooney has revealed that the decision by Sir Alex Ferguson to play him in the midfield was the reason behind his unhappiness at the club a few months ago.

Rooney almost came close to leaving United with the likes of Chelsea and Paris St Germain showing an interest. Chelsea also made two offers for the 27-year-old the summer, but United did not sell him. Even though Rooney did not mention Ferguson by his actual name, he revealed that the reason for his unhappiness was being played out of position. Continue reading →

MORE MATCHES

Chelsea have been consistently playing around 60 matches per season in the last few years. This was especially true in the case of the José Mourinho era. Now that the Portuguese is back at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea can be expected to play a similar amount of games this time around as well. Mourinho is a manager who does not think about having easy and difficult matches. He gives equal importance to all competitions over the course of a campaign. Chelsea have made a couple of signings in this transfer window, which has strengthened their squad.

Mourinho recently revealed that he has two players for every position. Rather than stick with the same group for every match, the Portuguese will now be rotating players in order to keep them fresh over the course of a season. Players like Juan Mata and Eden Hazard played a number of games for Chelsea last season, while Torres made close to 60 appearances. It will not be the case this time around according to Mourinho. He has praised the likes of Victor Moses, who have made a great impression in pre-season.

He has said that the former Wigan star is the kind of player who can change the game coming on from the bench.

“Where can I can fit all the players in? I hope to play 60 matches, so where I maybe won’t use different teams, we will use rotation of players that’s for sure. Victor has been terrific. He is another one who is working very hard. He hasn’t missed a single minute of a training session. I think Victor is a very good option for us. In Victor’s position we have Hazard, De Bruyne, Schürrle – it’s a position where a coach can make a change during a match and give new life and fresh blood to the team,” said Mourinho.

MESSI BACKS JOSE

Argentina star Lionel Messi has backed has former foe José Mourinho to be a success at Stamford Bridge after the Portuguese arrived as a manager for a second spell at the club in the summer. Chelsea were without a manager after they decided not to extend the contract of Rafa Benitez, who was at the club for just over six months. They decided to bring in former manager Mourinho on a four-year contract after he left Real Madrid a few weeks ago.

Messi has come up against Mourinho when he was a Chelsea manager in the past. The 25-year-old has said that he does not expect the Spanish league and Real Madrid to be weaker as a result of losing Mourinho. The Portuguese was replaced by Carlo Ancelotti only a few days ago. Messi has praised Ancelotti by saying that he is an equally good manager, who is capable of making Real Madrid challenge for all the trophies.

Barcelona managed to win the league title last season, but they were unsuccessful in their hopes of winning the Champions League for the third time in the last six years. They were beaten quite heavily by Bayern Munich in the semifinals of the competition. Messi is hoping to be successful this year, and he reckons that Barcelona have a strong squad to do that.

“I think the Spanish league is difficult anyway and will continue being difficult. We’ll be fighting against strong teams with great players like Real Madrid. Mourinho was a great coach but we know that Ancelotti is equally great. I think Mourinho will also succeed back at Chelsea because he’s a great manager. I think we have a great team and great players, as we’ve shown over the years,” said Messi, who also welcomed the arrival of Neymar as well.