In his relatively short time in English football, Claudio Ranieri became pretty universally loved by English fans. He was always well mannered, polite, sporting and pleasant.
Tactically
Tactically he was pretty good too and people tend to forget how far he had taken Chelsea prior to the arrival of Jose Mourinho. Let us not forget that Ranieri took the Blues to a Champions League semi-final which equals anything the ‘Special One’ managed to achieve.
Unfortunately for Ranieri, he earned the nickname ‘the tinker man’ because he was forever fiddling around with formations and players’ positions. He did so to catastrophic effect in the afore-mentioned Champions League semi-final when his �…
Marc Muniesa has signed a four-year contract extension with Stoke City, keeping him at the Britannia Stadium until 2019.
The 23-year-old has chalked up nearly 40 first-team appearances for Mark Hughes s side since arriving on a free transfer from Barcelona in 2013, despite missing a large chunk of last season with a hamstring injury.
Muniesa is expected to start at centre-back for Stoke s first game of the new Premier League campaign, which sees them host Liverpool on Sunday, with captain Ryan Shawcross set to undergo back surgery.
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Market: Both teams to score
Odds:
After months of anticipation, the World Cup finally gets underway on Thursday afternoon will this summers hosts Russia will face off against fellow Group A running mates Saudi Arabia.
For the 2018 World Cup hosts, although many would have tipped Russia to escape a group with Uraguay, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, The Russians have been desperately short of form entering the finals and Stanislav Cherchesov s side must improve things quickly if they want to give the home fans something to cheer about. Coming off the back of a 1-1 draw with Turkey last week, Russia have now failed to win any of their seven preparation matches and have failed to keep a single clean sheet since September 2017.
As for Juan Antonio Pizzi s Saudi Ar…
Avram Grant gets a second chance to help deliver the Premier League trophy to Chelsea on Saturday when Manchester United visit Fratton Park for the Israeli s first match in charge of Portsmouth.
Twenty-four hours before Chelsea have the chance to seriously dent Arsenal s title hopes at the Emirates, Grant is perfectly placed to do his former club a huge favour by inspiring his new charges to take something from their meeting with the defending champions.
Grant, whose first and last matches as manager of Chelsea ended in defeat by United, was installed as Portsmouth s new manager on Thursday with a brief to guide a squad that has secured only seven points from 13 matches this season off the bottom of the table and out of the relegation zone.
It represents a tall …
Costa Rica are the third semi finalists at the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup, following a comfortable 4-1 win over Guadeloupe in the quarter finals.
A great overhead kick from Celso Borges put Costa Rica in the lead after just three minutes and Alvaro Saborio made it 2-0 in minute 16.
And things got worse for Guadeloupe as Andy Herron scored for 3-0 in the 47th minute.
Alphonse got one back for the Caribbeans on 64 minutes but Saborio s second after a long ball from Borges restored the gap seven minutes later. Herrera made it 5-1 with just one minute to go.
In the semi finals, Costa Rica face the winner of the match between Mexico and Haiti.
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Bundesliga hot-shots RB Leipzig are ready to make certain moves during the January transfer moves in order to bolster their ranks and continue the title push in their first-ever season in Germany’s top flight.
Head coach Ralph Hasenhuttl is keen to add at least one defender to his ranks and has identified RB Salzburg’s Dayot Upamecano as the top January target, according to German media outlet .
The French youngster has excelled in Austrian league this season, having so far made 15 starts for his club.
The 18-year-old is a product of the youth team of Valenciennes FC where he attracted plenty of attention from the host of Europe’s top clubs including Manchester United.
Upamecano joined Red Bull Salzburg in July 2015 for a reported fee of €2.2 mil…
Hibernian signed two 20-year-old centre-backs on loan as the winter transfer window entered its final evening with their new relationship with Bournemouth quickly bearing fruit.
Hibs landed Nectarios Triantis from Sunderland and Owen Bevan from Bournemouth until the end of the season.
Australia Under-23 international Triantis was a regular under Hibs head coach Nick Montgomery during Central Coast Mariners’ A-League title-winning season before making three appearances for Sunderland this term.
Wales Under-21 international Bevan has played in the Premier League for the Cherries and spent time on loan with Cheltenham this season. Hibs this week received approval from the Scottish Football Association to progress with an investment in the club from Bournemouth’s…
Real Madrid attacker Cristiano Ronaldo says he has not been pain-free for quite some time as the knee injury that troubled him toward the end of the 2013-14 campaign continues to cause problems.
The 30-year-old has not missed a single minute of action so far this campaign for Madrid, while he hardly missed a game in 2014-15 as well.
However, that does not mean the knee problems that nearly kept him out of the 2013-14 Champions League final and away from the World Cup no longer cause him issues.
There is not a single day without pain. Every player will say the same. It s part of the job and you have to deal with it, the Madrid star told Kicker.
I now realise things [what] I didn t realise when I was younger. I have always tried to improve and you gain mo…
Ben Chilwell believes the competition between himself and Luke Shaw to be England s first choice on the left-hand side of defence can only benefit Gareth Southgate s team.
Southgate named right-back Kieran Tripper at left wing-back earlier this season as Chilwell worked his way back to form following a foot injury.
If that suggested a dearth of options, the pieces now appear to be falling into place ahead of the rescheduled Euro 2020 for the Three Lions.
Chilwell has settled into life at Chelsea and is thriving under Thomas Tuchel, while Shaw has arguably been Manchester United s most consistent performer this term, putting years of injury torment behind him.
At Chelsea you ve got two or three good players in each position and at England you should expe…
Stefan Kiessling insists he is not bothered by being left out of the Germany squad, and he will not be retiring from international duty.
The Bayer Leverkusen forward has been regularly overlooked by national coach Joachim Low, last appearing for his country in the third-place play-off at the FIFA World Cup 2010.
That despite him racking up 50 Bundesliga goals in the three seasons since including two from his first three appearances of the current campaign.
An article in German newspaper Bild claimed that the former Nuremburg striker would refuse to be called up by Low in the future, but he has moved to deny those reports.
I would like to use this post to explain the article which will come up in Bild tomorrow, he wrote on his official Facebook page.
It is n…