footballspectator

Manchester United are apparently interested in 6 Juventus players: Gianluigi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta, Patrick Vieira, Fabio Cannavaro, Emerson and Lilian Thuram. Alex Ferguson said, “We were waiting to see what the situation with Juventus was. Now we know in which direction to go in terms of inquiries and, possibly, definitive offers for one or two players“.

However, according to AS, Ferguson may be too late for at least three of these. Real Madrid’s Sporting Director Predrag Mijatovic is in Turin to finalise the signings of Cannavaro, Emerson and Zambrotta. He will meet with Juve officials tomorrow to negotiate the final price - Juve are asking for €40 million and Real’s current offer is €30 million for all three. Mijatovic may also pick up Cristiano Zanetti, a favourite of Capello. These players may be joined at Real by Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Kaka.
To add a further twist Zambrotta’s agent says that his client would rather stay in Italy with AC Milan his destination. He may be joined there by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who Carlo Ancelotti believes is the ideal partner for Alberto Gilardino.

Inter have had a €38 million bid for Fernando Torres rejected by Real Madrid. Torres is also wanted by Manchester United to replace the outgoing Van Nistelrooy. But new coach Javier Aguirre has insisted that Torres is not for sale. Marseille chairman Pape Diouf has issued similar statement regarding World Cup star Franck Ribery.

Javier Saviola’s agent has said that his client will either stay at Sevilla or move to Panathinaikos after Arsene Wenger declared yesterday that he was not interested in signing the player. Saviola spent last year on loan in Seville from Barcelona who are keen to offload the Argentine. Other players on the way are Jared Borgetti from Bolton to possibly Racing Santander and Liverpool duo Jan Kromkamp (a PSV target) and Djimi Traore who may go to Bolton or Charlton.

Finally tow players who completed moves today were Holland’s Denny Landzaat who joins Wigan from AZ Alkmaar and Croatian World Cup playmaker Niko Kranjcar who is moving to Celta Vigo from Hajduk Split.

In a frustrating match in Berlin, Sweden edged Paraguay 1-0, thanks to Freddie Ljungberg’s deft header. Sweden were again poor in front of goal with superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic looking slow and unfit and wasting a good chance when he scuffed his shot when clean through. The problem is that Sweden are not Brazil. They not do not have superstars in reserve that they can call on when their first team do not perform. Instead, they have players like Marcus Allback - willing but ultimately useless. His attempt to chip excellent Paraguay goalie Bobadilla was a good example. Allback wheeled away to celebrate but suddenly realised he had not given his shot enough and turned back to try to make amends but it was too late as Caniza cleared off the line. A fit Zlatan would have buried that chance.

The Swedes now play England to decide first place in the group. If both continue to play as they have so far, this could rival France v Switzerland for the title of most boring match of the tournament. Germany and Ecuador should not be worried.

Trininad & Tobago pulled off a remarkable result against Sweden in the afternoon match in Dortmund yesterday. The smallest nation ever to qualify for a World Cup, held the Swedes to a 0-0 draw despite having to play almost the entire second half with 10 men following the dismissal of Avery John for two robust challenges. The Swedes created numerous chances but came up against a wall in the form of goalkeeper Shaka Hislop who pulled off a series of remarkable saves. Hislop was a last minute replacement for Kelivin Jack, T&T’s number one who injured himself in the warm-up. T&T were almost rewarded for Beenhakker’s boldness in sending on an extra attacker following the sending off, when Glen’s vicious shot crashed against the crossbar.

Ultimately it was Sweden’s lack of ideas in midfield which cost them, as they relied too heavily on the trio of Ibrahimovic, Larsson and Ljungberg to create. Linderoth was functional (which is not what was needed) and Sweden would have been better off starting with Kallstrom’s passing and vision. The match against Paraguay is now crucial for the Swedes and the Paraguayans must be confident based on yesterday’s showing. England were ultimately the main beneficiaries of this result.

Following a match against Norway, John Carew commented that Zlatan’s moves were pointless. When told about Carew’s comment, Zlatan responded, “What Carew can do with a football, I can do with an orange”. Zlatan now seems bored with oranges and has moved onto smaller objects…