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Ancelotti Believes Van Gaal Will Have Difficulty Winning Premier League

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Former Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti has said that winning the Premier League title in the first season will be difficult for Louis van Gaal. The Dutchman was recently appointed as the new manager of Manchester United. The Premier league giants finished in a disappointing seventh last season, but they are expected to challenge for the title under the stewardship of Van Gaal. Ancelotti is one of the few managers who has won the league title in his first season in the Premier League. Jose Mourinho did with Chelsea in 2004 while Manuel Pellegrini achieved it only last season.

Van Gaal comes into the United team with a lot of experience of having managed top clubs across the world. This is unlike David Moyes, who came with a lot of scepticism after having won no major trophies in the last decade. Van Gaal recently showed his expertise at managing a team by taking Netherlands to a third place finish at the World Cup 2014. Ancelotti’s assumption is that the Premier League has gotten harder in recent years, while United also need a major rebuilding job. The 2008 European champions recently brought in just two players for less than £ 60 million.

In contrast, the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea have already spent close to £ 100 million. Arsenal have also spent a lot of money in improving the squad.

“He is a very good and very experienced manager, he has fantastic experience and he will do a fantastic job at United. He is a manager who has nothing to learn. After Ferguson, it was more difficult for United, but they now have to rebuild a team. They have signed good players but building a team is not easy and the Premier League is a very competitive league,” said Ancelotti about Van Gaal’s chances of success in the first season.

POOR FORM FOR SEATTLE

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Seattle Sounders’ poor form at the start of the 2014 season continued after they lost to Columbus Crew in the latest match. This has pushed them to fourth place in the table after having been involved in just four matches.

The club were recently defeated 2-1 by Toronto, but they appeared to recover from this defeat following a 2-0 win over Montreal Impact in the last match. Even against Sunday’s opponents Columbus Crew, Seattle Sounders were comfortable for most of the match. They had several stars like Clint Dempsey and Brad Evans on the pitch. Continue reading “POOR FORM FOR SEATTLE”

MILLER CAN’T WAIT

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Former Celtic striker Kenny Miller has said that he cannot wait for getting off the market since he wants to stay at Vancouver Whitecaps for as long as possible. The 34-year-old is coming to the final few years of his stellar career. He has represented the likes of Celtic and Rangers in a career that started in 1998 with Hibernian. He has also been an important player for the Scottish national team. After helping Vancouver get a 4-1 win over New York Red Bulls, the player stated that he wants to stay with the club for as long as possible.

Miller helped himself to a brace in this match. It was very important for Vancouver that they started the season in brilliant fashion and they have done exactly that by beating title challengers New York Red Bulls in the opening match. Next up will be a match against Chivas USA away from home. Miller is out of contract in a few months time, but he is not worried about his future since he knows where he wants to stay. He has also refused to get carried away following this brilliant performance, as he says that this is just one game at the start of the season. It was important for the club to maintain this level of performance throughout the campaign.

“Listen, it’s one game. As I said before, we don’t get carried away. It’s fantastic, we’re going to go away and enjoy it – but it would be great to be off the market early doors,” said the 34-year-old. “Kenny’s come back, worked his way over the offseason and he’s got fit now. He hasn’t had a full preseason under his belt, but Kenny’s a top player as well, and he makes others around him better,” Robinson said after the match.

KNIGHT WANTED

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Philadelphia Union manager John Hackworth has confirmed that the club are interested in signing Bolton defender Zat Knight before the start of the new season. Knight, though, is not the only transfer target for the club according to Hackworth, as they have other potential names in the mix as well. Knight is an experienced defender, who at 6 foot six will provide a huge physical presence for Philadelphia at the back. The 33-year-old has represented only four clubs during his career. He has been with Bolton since 2009 after making the move from Aston Villa.

However, the club may consider letting him leave since they are one of the favourites to get relegated to the third division of English football. The presence of an England international like Knight will be detrimental to the finances of the club in League One. Knight has featured for the England national team on two occasions. The player will turn 34 years of age in May. Thus, Philadelphia will have the oldest player in their ranks if they signed the defender. Hackworth has revealed that the next few pre-season matches will decide whether they bring in Knight or not.

After finishing seventh in the table last season, Philadelphia will be hoping for a much better campaign in 2014. They begin the new season with a match against Portland Timbers.

“Truthfully, we have been in some conversations [with Knight]. But at the same time, we are looking at a lot of different countries and have vetted out many different center back options. I would think it depends on how these next couple of games go and where we are. He’s certainly one of the guys we’re still considering. We still think we need to add a potential center back to our roster. However, it’s been a good battle with players playing well at center back so far,” Hackworth said.

NOT IDEAL

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The manager of Philadelphia Union, John Hackworth, has said that losing Michael Farfan is obviously not an ideal thing for his team, but, since, the American midfielder himself was excited to make an away move; he had to sell him.

Farfan has recently left Philadelphia to join the Mexican club Cruz Azul. He played for the Zolos for 3 years and didn’t do a bad job for them. He made more than 80 league appearances during his time at PPL Park and scored 4 goals.

He was one of the very few experienced players in the Philadelphia side and there were speculations that he would not be sold, but, much to the surprise of the fans, Hackworth let him go

That decision of the Philadelphia boss has raised the eyebrows of quite a few people. The fans are upset with him and they have every right to do so. There is no point selling one of the key players of the side after a poor season, but, Hackworth has got the explanations for that.

Talking to the reporters yesterday, the 43 years old said, “The relationship between me and Michael is quite good. I am very close to him and I wanted him to stay with us, but, the offer which Cruz came up with was not easy to reject considering what our financial situation is at the moment.”

“The second thing is that the player himself was quite interested in that move and to force him to stay would not have been sensible.”

“He is going to be missed; there is no doubt about that, but, it’s up to us now to find out a player who can take his place.”

Philadelphia had finished the last MLS season at no. 7 in the Eastern Conference Points table.