Gossip!

It is Friday which generally means a day without fixtures and often a day without massive news stories - the big stories in football generally come from Saturday onwards as a result of the on-field action. That leaves today's blog a little short of inspiration. I could venture some predictions for the weekend's actions - I'm not as for some reason I've never proved very good at doing so; I could muse on the big stories of the day (according to the BBC at least) - but that would mean little more than talking about Sir Alex hitting back at Manchester City's mind games and Harry Redknapp denying that his links to the England job have affected Tottenham's form (must just be a huge coincidence that they suddenly keep losing, then). So what is the plan? Well, let's have a look at the gossip columns from the papers today, because that is a solid use of time... right?


I can't say I've read the article, because that would involve paying to view the Times' website and I have issues with that which I will save for a different day and time, but they are claiming that the next incumbent of the Chelsea hotseat will be Laurent Blanc. Does anyone buy that? I think Blanc may well end up as a future Manchester United manager: he is an ex-player, highly thought of by Fergie and with a good early record in club football after his success at Bordeaux. What is his link to Chelsea though? Why would you get rid of AVB, a successful young manager at Porto who has flopped at Stamford Bridge, and then replace him with Blanc, a successful young manager at Bordeaux who could just as easily flop at Stamford Bridge. What Chelsea need is a properly established name who can stand up to Roman Abramovich and the Chelsea pensioners and hold his own, someone who can handle a bit of adversity safe in the knowledge that their CV is based around more than one year of triumph. If Carlo Ancelotti cannot last even two seasons, including a league and cup double, then I'm not sure at this stage in his career that Blanc would. Guus Hiddink has seemingly been lost to Anzhi Machachkala (I'm delighted to say I spelled that right first time!) but Abramovich should be doing everything he can to get the highly experienced Dutchman in to the job, especially considering his solid performance as a short term measure previously. Meanwhile, The Sun are claiming Pep Guardiola is the man Abramovich wants, but is even the man with the golden touch at Barcelona going to be able to turn water in to wine that quickly at Chelsea? Can he completely change the style of the Blues quickly enough to be successful, given that success at Chelsea has to come instantly to avoid the sack? AVB was hired at great expense and sacked at great expense almost as quickly; clearly Roman has money to burn so Guardiola would have no more guarantees of time to do his stuff than anyone else.


The Daily Mail talk of an outgoing from Stamford Bridge, linking David Luiz to Barcelona. Maybe we haven't yet seen the best of Luiz defensively in England but that doesn't sound to me like the best idea for Barca. Perhaps with the amount of possession that the Catalans enjoy means they don't feel the need to hire defenders that can defend and instead just want another ball-player in their side; alternatively, maybe they just want to replace Carles Puyol with a like-for-like haircut. Inside Futbol claim PSG captain Mamadou Sakho wants his club to sign Didier Drogba, another possible player to exit Chelsea. I could actually see some movement in the opposite direction, with Sakho taking a trip to West London to play in the Premier League. Then again, maybe Sakho should head to Barcelona in the hope that Barca actually decide to sign a defender that can defend.


The Daily Mail also mention that Alberto Aquilani is set to sign permanently for AC Milan from Liverpool. All I can say is: who cares?


The Express have Alex McLeish claiming that Aston Villa's days of big spending are not necessarily over despite their massive recent losses financially. I don't know why clubs feel that the amount of money spent is the key - to me it is how well the money is spent that matters. This is why Arsenal's moderately high spending has not proved particularly fruitful with money spent on Per Mertesacker, Mikel Arteta and Park Chu Young when Demba Ba, Christopher Samba and Scott Parker have all been available either cheaper or for free this season, much better value all round and with no banks broken. Villa have hardly had value for money from their big money signings of late, with Darren Bent a good striker but not £24m worth, and Charles N'Zogbia grossly overpriced considering his lack of impact. 


The Daily Mirror believe Raheem Sterling wants to leave Liverpool due to a lack of first team activity. Yes, 17-year-old Raheem Sterling. Either the story is a load of rubbish or he is the most impatient person known to man. He has barely had time to settle on Merseyside, let alone grow into an adult, and yet he already wants to move on. Maybe he should have thought about this before he left QPR in the first place as ironically he probably would have been given a chance there considering their struggles this season. Hopefully this may be a lesson for all the young players who have their heads turned by the money offered by big clubs to legions of teenage prospects, most of whom will never see first team action at their destinations. What needs to happen more often is young players staying at their slightly less glamorous clubs of origin and working their way up that way, because far too many players either lack the patience to succeed or get forgotten too quickly.