Santa Cruz Expects Tevez Stay

Roque Santa Cruz believes Carlos Tevez will "stick it out" at Manchester City despite his desire to return to Argentina.

Tevez, who signed a five-year contract with City in 2009, has spoken repeatedly of his dissatisfaction with life as a footballer in recent times due to the fact his daughters live in his homeland.

Santa Cruz, though, expects Tevez, 26, to see out his deal at Eastlands before returning home.

"His heart is with his family," Santa Cruz told the Cadena Ser radio station. "He wants to be with his people and they are in Argentina. His brothers and also his daughters are there.

"When one feels that his homeland is calling he may do anything to go back, but I think he will stick it out and complete his contract with City before going back home."

Santa Cruz, meanwhile, is desperate to secure a move to Spain when the transfer window reopens as he has made just one appearance for City this season.

"I am now 29 and I hope to complete my dream of playing in Spain," he said. "That is the main dream of most South American players, so we shall see. I hope it can happen.

"My aim is to leave City in the upcoming winter transfer window and I hope to be able to go to the Spanish league.

"Unfortunately, I am not playing as much as I would like. The club has spent a lot and the competition is huge and so you just have to work every day to try and convince the manager, but even then I am not called upon.

"The situation is very complicated and I want to stay positive, but I have not been given the minutes to convince anyone and my priority is to leave in the next winter transfer window.

"The manager has put his faith in certain players and, besides, he has chosen a system which only uses one striker, which means I have even less options."

Meanwhile, City technical director Mike Rigg has confirmed the club's interest in Sporting defender Daniel Carrico.

"We are always looking at players and I can't deny Carrico is an interesting player, but we haven't decided on this subject and we are respectful as a club towards other clubs and contacts," he said in the Daily Mirror.

Carrico, 22, is a Portugal Under-21 international and his contract runs until 2013.

Source: Soccernet

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The Comments Coach Allegri And His Players

At the end of Milan’s match against Real Madrid coach Allegri and his players were disappointed with the result and acknowledged to have played with the wrong mentality.

Below are the comments coach Allegri and his players made at the of Milan’s 2-0 loss to Real Madrid:

COACH ALLEGRI: "This evening went wrong for us. We didn’t play with the right mentality, especially in the first fifteen minutes. It can happen that a team has an off evening. At least it has taught us that we need to play with the right mentality if we want to be competitive at international level.
This evening we didn’t play well.”

MARCO AMELIA: "It’s a shame we lost, as we really wanted to do well here at the Bernabeu Stadium. We wanted to repeat last year’s feat, but this time Real Madrid did well to close down spaces and their early goals paralyzed us. If we want to find positive notes, maybe it could have gone worse, seeing that the match could have turned into the Blancos’ goal-fest, but we tried to cut the deficit and didn’t concede any more goals.
The first goal? The defensive wall split, allowing the ball to pass.
Now we have to concentrate on our next match, the return leg against Real Madrid can wait.
I foreboded I would play today, when yesterday evening Christian left training prematurely due to his adductor injury. At the end of the training session the boss told me to be ready.
As for me, I’m always ready, because you could get called into action at any moment during a game. Obviously, it was exciting to make my debut in Real Madrid-Milan, the derby of Europe.
We’ll also play against Ajax at home and then visit Auxerre. These will be difficult games, but we can win them both. If we play up to our potential, we are second to none.”

DANIELE BONERA: ”Unfortunately, we had a slow start to the game and conceded two evitable goals in the opening fifteen minutes.
Then we managed to create some opportunities, but at the same time the team became a bit exposed at the back. We had the chance to score through Seedorf and Pirlo in the first half, but we couldn't take these opportunities.
We’ll play our next match against Napoli on Monday. It will be a difficult game, we’ll have to prepare well. After the encounter in Naples we can start thinking about the return leg against Real Madrid.”

IBRAHIMOVIC: "This evening we didn’t take to the field with right mentality. Fortunately, the return leg is still to be played and we have enough time to analyze tonight’s loss and try to understand where we went wrong. What has changed at Real Madrid with Mourinho’s arrival? He has made them compact, now the Blancos are more dominant on the field. Real Madrid were strong already before Mourinho’s arrival, now with him they are even better.
I talked to him after the game. I’m grateful for what had said about me in his press conference yesterday, as he talked really well about me. I’m sure he’ll do well in Madrid. Now I have to think of my team, because this evening we didn’t do as well as supposed. Real Madrid were superior to us. We have to play faster and make more movements. And of course, we missed Thiago Silva in defence.”

Source: AC Milan.Com

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Casillas: "Besides scoring goals, the team also worked well in defence"

"The match and the victory are important because we did well both in defence and attack"

Iker Casillas was proud about the team's important 2-0 victory against Milan at the Bernabeu.

"The match and the victory are important because we did well both in defence and attack. Besides scoring goals, the team also did well in defence. We shouldn't relax, though, because this is just another step towards being in the final. We have to keep up the fight."

"Higuain did a very good job, just like he did in previous games. On some days you are luckier than on others."

"We break records every day here. We are here to outdo ourselves. We cannot afford to relax and we havr to continue improving. We wanted to take three points to stay in the fight for the title. It was another game. We knew it would be difficult, but we are going to keep up the good work in order to take three points in each game."

Source: Realmadrid.com

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Ancelotti Keen on Rooney Deal

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed the club would be interested in signing Wayne Rooney if he decides to leave Manchester United.

Rooney, 24, has been on the front and back pages of many English newspapers after news emerged that he has broken off contract talks at Old Trafford and, with his current deal due to expire at the end of next season, it is claimed United could be ready to cash in.

Sir Alex Ferguson is to face questioning on the subject at his press conference on Tuesday, having refused to field questions during Monday's conference to promote the relationship between the club and Unicef.

Ancelotti, though, has said that Chelsea would be eager to take advantage of the situation should Rooney decide to depart.

"We have to wait to see if Wayne Rooney really wants to leave Manchester United," he said. "If they really want to sell him and, also, if Rooney is on the market, not just Chelsea would be interested but a lot of other teams as well."

Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona are all reported to be interested, but Ancelotti recognises the fact that Ferguson is unlikely to allow one of his leading stars to leave without a fight.

"Every top team has a fantastic player and they want to keep them," he said. "If someone asks for one of our top players there is no way - they would have to stay here."

Madrid boss Jose Mourinho also said he expected Rooney to remain at United. Madrid had already ruled out a deal for the player in January, and it appears they do not expect to complete a deal in the summer.

"I don't think he will (become available)," Mourinho said on Monday. "I think the big man will persuade him to stay."

Ipswich manager Roy Keane, who left Old Trafford in 2005 after a disagreement with Ferguson, has advised Rooney to put himself first when making any decision on his future.

"Players and managers fall out all the time. It is part of life," he said. "If I was to offer advice to Wayne, who is a good lad, I would tell him to make sure he looks after number one.

"Players are pieces of meat - that's how I look at it. When your time's up, your time's up."

Source: Soccernet

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Rooney Could Quit for £5m Under Webster Ruling

Wayne Rooney could terminate his contract at Manchester United for around £5 million next summer if he chooses to buy out the final year under the 'Webster Ruling'.

Article 17 of FIFA's transfer rules dictate that a player who signed a contract before the age of 28 can buy himself out three years after the deal was signed, if he pays his final year's salary and a small compensation fee.

Rooney last put pen to paper in November 2006, when he agreed a contract extension to keep him at Old Trafford until the summer of 2012, and The Independent has revealed that the striker's ability to use the ruling has been confirmed by the Spain-based law firm Ruiz Huerta y Crespo, who have been involved in every major Article 17 case to date.

Former Scotland international Andy Webster set the precedent when he moved from Hearts to Wigan in 2006, and FIFA's decision has now seen the rule used by Tony Sylva and Jonas Gutierrez since.

The ruling only needs 15 days' notice in writing to come into force and could force Manchester United to sell Rooney in the January transfer window, where they would be able to get something close to his full valuation.

Source: Soccernet

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Henry Defends Reds price

New Liverpool owner John W Henry has denied suggestions he bought the club for a "cheap price" and revealed he feared the takeover may provide "too big a challenge".

Former co-owner Tom Hicks has been outspoken about his belief that the £300 million deal undervalued the club, describing the takeover as an "epic swindle" and "organised conspiracy".

However, Henry feels the problems at the club mean the price the New England Sports Ventures group paid was a significant risk.

"I know some people are saying this was a cheap price for the club but there is no way we look at it like that," he said. "As you do due diligence, if you are really diligent, you are trying to find everything that's wrong - and we found plenty.

"There is a huge amount of work to do here and it will take a long time. There were big financial issues but in the end we decided we really wanted to compete at this level.

"We have to be smart, bold and aggressive because it's a great challenge. There were lots of reasons why we could have decided not to go through with this.

"There were many times we thought it was too big a challenge but this club is worth it - and we are excited by that challenge."

Source: Soccernet

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