Premier League champions Leicester City met today with the agents of Ludogorets right-winger and Lazio and Lyon target Jonathan Cafu, according to RMC.
Cafu’s name is on a five-man shortlist that Ligue 1 outfit Lyon currently have as they seek to bring in an attacking talent this month.
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Manchester United central midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin is the subject of interest from Ligue 1 side Marseille, according to La Provence.
Schneiderlin has been informed that he may quit the club this month by the Red Devils, despite Mourinho’s flip-flopping on the matter in press conferences, even if an offer worth €15m from West Brom was recently rejected by the Manchester club.
Schneiderlin incidentally shares the same agent as Marseille manager Rudi Garcia.
It could be a platform for Schneiderlin to bounce back, but talks of a serious nature have yet to take place for the French defensive midfielder in this regard.
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Montpellier President Louis Nicollin has confirmed that Morgan Sanson’s move to Marseille “is on the right track,” and that a deal is close in an interview with Midi Libre.
“He is a good guy, clever and I cannot refuse him the possibility of going to a big club where he will likely triple his salary. Because Marseille is a big club. He will have a career like Deschamps did. Or Desailly. After two or three years, he will go abroad. Financially, we will find an agreement with Marseille. I want €15m, even if it is Laurent, my son, who is doing the deal, he will leave. It will allow us to sign four new players as well as the young lad from Laval (Mukiele) who has already arrived. It will be a defender, two midfielders and an attacker who will certainly be Ikoné.”
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French centre forward Mbaye Niang has chosen to make a move to Premier League side Watford, according to Sky Italia.
The deal includes a €0.5m initial loan fee with an €18.5m option to buy, taking a deal to €19m.
The 22 year old joined AC Milan in August 2012 from SM Caen for just €3m.
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PSG have won the race for versatile attacking talent Gonçalo Guedes, according to the ultra-reliable BeIN Sports.
Their reporting states that the 20 year old Benfica man is very close to joining Les Parisiens and would become their second signing of the window after Julian Draxler.
Director of Football Patrick Kluivert sees Guedes as a player who can provide cover for Edinson Cavani, with PSG apparently beating Manchester United and AS Monaco to the Portuguese international.
More undoubtedly to follow.
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French central defender and Liverpool exile Mamadou Sakho spoke to Canal Football Club this evening about the possibility of returning to PSG.
“Since I started this incredible adventure abroad, in terms of football but also in terms of my family, because when I see my children speaking English I think it is a glorious thing that I have been able to give them. I think I have a few more wonderful years to experience abroad first. And PSG, why not, but afterwards.”
He was also asked if he would join Marseille’s new project:
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“I think Marseille have a very good team. Bafé (Gomis) and Pat (Evra) are friends of mine. But my answer to this might remind certain people about a song. When there is PSG, Sakho is with them.”
“We could have never had the same project as PSG. Here, it is nice, but too small.” Whether Vadim Vasilyev, AS Monaco vice-president, was being entirely honest about Les Monegasques’ ambitions is open to debate. Nevertheless, their on-field expectations were very much aligned with their rivals’ in Sunday night’s showdown in Paris. Since the steely Vasilyev made those comments to Canal + in 2014, Monaco have evolved from nouveau-riche, cash-splashing outfit to freewheeling gunslinger through footballing pragmatism, philosophical overhaul and a bitter divorce to become French football’s premier captivation.
Their professional and confident display in the well-deserved draw with champions PSG at the Parc des Princes exemplified Monaco’s exponential progress this season and the shift in power that has characterised this Ligue 1 campaign. A vehement press and willingness to push forward had Leandro Jardim’s charges in the ascendancy for much of the cagey encounter.
An undeserved PSG second-half lead, courtesy of an Edinson Cavani penalty, was crucially erased by the superb Bernardo Silva in injury time to keep Monaco atop of Ligue 1 as they emerge as one of the European game’s most enthralling attractions. Although it may have been a while coming, they are only just getting started.
Christmas 2011; AS Monaco, Champions’ League finalists just seven years earlier, are bottom of Ligue 2. A shock final day relegation from Ligue 1 and a solitary win from their first 18 games in the second tier had left the seven time French champions staring at the gaping trapdoor to the semi-pro National. However, with the festive period came salvation.
Just six months after QSI’s acquisition of PSG, Russian businessman, Dmitry Rybolovlev, listed (at the time) as 93rd on Forbes’ billionaire list, bought two thirds of the principality club and promised a return to both national and continental glory. By the end of the season, Monaco sat eighth; a year later, under the guidance of Claudio Ranieri, they were Ligue 2 champions and back where they belonged.
Promotion back to the top-flight initiated a summer spending spree of more than £140 million. Radamel Falcao, James Rodriguez, João Moutinho, Anthony Martial, Éric Abidal and Jérémy Toulalan all joined the Ranieri-Rybolovlev revolution on the French Riviera for an assault on Ligue 1’s finest.
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However, despite a brace of draws with champions PSG, a superb 80-point haul and a second place finish, the following summer brought uncertainty. The revolution faltered. James Rodriguez’s glittering World Cup saw him swept up, inevitably, by Real Madrid. Falcao, his infamous ACL injury limiting him to just 17 league outings, also wanted out, while the club’s hierarchy decided Ranieri had taken the team as far as he could.
Almost overnight the philosophy of the club dramatically altered tact. The seemingly modest off-season additions of Aymen Abdennour, Tiemoué Bakayoko and a loan move for Bernardo Silva provided stark contrast to the James/Falcao whirlwind of the previous year. Rybolovlev knew he could no longer afford such an aggressive transfer policy due to what was billed as “the most expensive divorce in history”. As far back as 2008, Rybolovlev and former wife Elena had been embroiled in a bitter legal battle to settle their separation, which endured into May 2014 before a settlement was reached in 2015, concluding in Rybolovlev losing vast swathes of his estimated $8 billion fortune.
Monaco’s backing was no longer without limits. La Provence reported last year that their 2016-17 budget would drop to €145 million, compared to €500 million for PSG and €235 million for Lyon. With the ‘Monaco project’ now at a crossroads and Vasilyev, installed as vice-president and CEO, he told L’Equipe in September 2014: “There were two possible roads to go down. The first was to spend big, that’s what we did at the beginning.
The second, now, is to build a project for the long haul. Yes, it takes longer, it is less glorious, we will be talked about less in the press, people will be worried, there are no longer stars and there is less glamour… but we believe in it.” Vasilyev’s spin aside, Monaco had little choice but to overhaul their philosophy, morphing from the ultimate buying club into the ultimate selling club.
Now under the stewardship of former Sporting Club coach Leonardo Jardim, young prospects with high sell-on potential define Les Monegasques’ model. A summer 2015 exodus saw Layvin Kurzawa, Aymen Abdennour, Anthony Martial, Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco and Geoffrey Kondogbia vacate the principality for a combined fee of more than €150 million. Vasilyev even overtly played down the club’s size and standing in the continental arena: “Look where our players left to: Real and Manchester United. We should be proud that our players are going there. I believe in our project but we are not at the level that those clubs are at.”
This is true. Monaco are often derided for sparse crowds at the Stade Louis II, their average attendance is the lowest in Ligue 1 at around 8,500, but given that Monaco itself is a state of just 37,000, this is hardly surprising. The club’s inherent footballing infrastructure fails to lend itself to a “super-club” identity. Monaco, in European terms, are simply not a ‘big’ club and likely never could be.
Fallout from the Rybolovlev divorce was followed by UEFA’s attempt to introduce Financial Fair Play, further restricting the club’s ability to move freely within the transfer market. Rybolovlev himself reaffirmed the shift in model to Le Parisien last October that “for two seasons, the club is self-financing and retains high performances. I am pleased to see that the strategy is working and that AS Monaco has positive accounts.”
Financial pragmatism bred footballing expediency. A mediocre third place finish in 2014-15 came virtue of the meanest defence in Ligue 1 and in spite of a goal tally of just 51. A poor start to the following campaign had Jardim under pressure and the availability of Nice’s Claude Puel was then allegedly sounded out by club officials over dinner. Vasilyev, however, repeatedly reiterated that Jardim was the right man for the job. Vasilyev’s faith would turn out to be well placed.
The failure to reach the Champions’ League group stages last season severely limited the club’s scope in the rapidly closing summer window, the loses of Kurzawa, Martial and others being direct consequences. Anthony Martial’s sale to Manchester United proved to be a particularly sore point for Jardim, leaving him frustrated and with no time to arrange an adequate replacement, no small factor in the side’s sluggish start.
As a result, ousting Villarreal to make the last 32 in this campaign could be seen as the most important result of both the Rybolovlev reign and Jardim’s career. Monaco were able to keep their exciting young squad together, rejecting a number of serious offers from the continent’s elite. Youthful exuberance has turned into the bold intensity of a compelling and effective unit that, coming into the game with PSG, sat at Ligue 1’s summit, averaging three goals a game while comfortably topping their Champions’ League group with a game to spare.
If PSG’s stuttering transition under Unai Emery has taught the rest of Ligue 1 anything, it is that the Parisians’ midfield can pressed into mistakes. Montpellier and Guingamp proved as much in comfortable wins before Christmas, following Jardim’s example from Monaco’s 3-1 triumph over Les Parisiens’ at the Stade Louis II back in the autumn.
Sorely missing the in-form Marco Verratti, throughout the first period PSG struggled to play out of their half. Monaco’s striking partnership of Falcao and Valère Germain were able to get close enough to the deep-lying Thiago Motta to cut him off from his centre backs, forcing Thiago Silva in particular to play risky, longer balls. Options were similarly limited for PSG’s full-backs, Thomas Meunier and Kurzawa, much to the delight of the narrow Monaco midfield four who hassled, pressured and pickpocketed their way into some dangerous turnovers.
Unusually for Monaco however, a lack of conviction, saw despite their territorial advantage, few genuine openings created, contributed to by a surprisingly reserved PSG display, who were both unable and uninclined to commit men, most notably Kurzawa and Meunier, in attack. The guile, grace and dogged determination of arguably the league’s best player this season, Bernardo Silva, caused Emery’s side a number of issues. Silva and the mercurial 21-year-old Frenchman, Thomas Lemar, both regularly tuck inside with and without the ball to form a formidable and dynamic foursome alongside the rangy sentinel Bakayoko and the tireless Fabinho.
The latter’s usually pitch-perfect passing game was more than a little off-key on the night which left Germain (14 goals for high-flying Nice last term) and a rejuvenated Falcao (12 in 16 league games this year) with little to feed off. Width would then normally come in the form of the marauding Djibril Sidibé and powerful Benjamin Mendy from full-back areas, but this was largely where Monaco fell short; delivery from crosses ranged somewhere from average to woeful for long stretches, Mendy being the main culprit.
Sidibé’s 80th minute tug on Julian Draxler as he attacked a cross during a rare PSG sortie forward finally broke the cycle of play. Cavani coolly converted from the spot. Having seemingly accepted a point, exchanging Germain for Moutinho to move to 4-4-1-1 just four minutes earlier, Monaco and Jardim were forced to take more chances, throwing on the trickery and pace of Kylian Mbappé in response. Nevertheless, it was the waspish Bernardo Silva who rescued a much deserved point, cutting in from the left after a succession of corners to fire through the crowd and past an unsighted Areola for what was a potentially title-winning equaliser.
Whether or not Vasilyev was right that Monaco will never truly able to follow in PSG’s footsteps is somewhat irrelevant in this special 2016-17 campaign. Monaco’s meandering path, their captivating group of young guns and an all-action style has led them to the top of French football with the Ligue 1 title and Manchester City in their sights. A small club? Perhaps. Potential trophy winners? Absolutely.
A.W.
Marseille central midfielder Lassana Diarra appears to be closing in on a move to Chinese side Shandong Luneng Taishan and will not be involved tonight for the Ligue 1 side against FC Nantes, according to La Provence.
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The Chinese side is currently being managed by former Fulham boss Felix Magath. Diarra has been looking for a move that will enable him to pay off the €10m fine that he owes to Lokomotiv Moscow. The Chinese market closes on the 28th February.
Marseille and Diarra’s camp are in advanced discussions about reaching a mutual termination agreement of his current contract so that he can join Shandong Luneng for free.
Josh Mart takes the chance to preview the second leg of this year’s UEFA Champions League round of 16 between FC Barcelona and Paris Saint Germain at the Camp Nou in Barcelona.
The first leg was nothing short of remarkable. PSG defied all the odds and managed to thrash the Catalonian giants by four goals to nil, a scoreline which was thoroughly deserved and reverberated around the football world. PSG were on to Barcelona straight from the kick off and were utterly relentless. Goals from Edinson Cavani, Julian Draxler and an Angel Di Maria double were the least the Parisians deserved even if Barca didn’t perform at anywhere near their best.
The second leg tonight promises to be interesting to say the least as Barcelona look for revenge at Camp Nou. Most online tipsters, unsurprisingly, are backing Barcelona for the win but with outside odds of 21/5 for PSG to cause an upset, some might fancy the away side finally getting one over on the team which has been their proverbial “thorn in the side” for years.
Since the heavy defeat in Paris, Barcelona have been near perfect domestically scoring a mightily impressive 15th goal in their last 4 games. Saturday’s 5-0 thrashing of Celta Vigo was considered by some to be Barcelona’s most complete performance of the season.
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This coincides with Luis Enrique’s decision to switch to a 3-4-3 formation which could be deployed against PSG tonight. Coach Luis Enrique has recently announced that he will be leaving Barcelona at the end of the season, but he and his squad will be desperate to make history and pull of the near impossible at the Camp Nou this evening.
PSG have also been in great form in France, despite a minor European hangover after the Barcelona rout where they drew 0-0 at home to Toulouse. A fabulous 5-1 victory in ‘Les Clasique’ away to Marseille has been followed up by a Coupe de France win over Niort and a routine 1-0 victory over Nancy at the Parc des Princes on Saturday.
Despite their good form, Unai Emery’s men still behind leaders Monaco in the Ligue 1 standings but their spectacular performance against Barcelona has gone some way to silencing Emery’s critics this season.
Team News and Tactics:
Barcelona are without the injured duo of Aleix Vidal and Jeremie Mathieu for this one, but Luis Enrique’s main decision to make is whether to play the 3-4-3 formation which worked so well against Celta at the weekend, or revert to the clubs typical 4-3-3 formation.
I think that Barcelona will line up with the 3-4-3 with Ter Stegen behind a back 3 of Mascherano, Pique and Umtiti. The midfield will be quite narrow to try and gain more control of the ball- something which they lacked terribly at the Parc des Princes. Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta look set to start and will most probably be joined by Ivan Rakitic and one of Jordi Alba, Sergi Roberto or Andre Gomes depending on how much Enrique wants from the midfield. The front 3 of Messi, Suarez and Neymar picks itself, despite a very under par performance from them all 3 weeks ago.
Unai Emery really does have some big selection problems here, as he is missing Thiago Motta and probably Di Maria through injury and there has been speculation about Marco Verratti and Adrien Rabiot missing out too.
With this in mind, I expect Unai Emery to stick with his 4-3-3 formation with Trapp in goals behind a defence of Meunier, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva and Kurzawa. Kimpembe could retain his place but the experience of Thiago Silva may be needed here. If the injury rumours are to be believed it would be very tricky to assume PSG’s midfield trio, but I think at least one of Verratti/Rabiot will play alongside Matuidi in midfield. The other option (if needed) could be filled by Krychowiak or the talented youngster Nkunku. Di Maria’s void is likely to be filled by Lucas Moura, who will play in the front three alongside Julian Draxler and Edinson Cavani.
Danger Men
Lionel Messi (Barcelona) – He had a very unusually poor evening in Paris in the first leg, although he wasn’t alone in that regard. He has been in scintillating form since then and is said to be full of determination and desire to make history and overturn this monumental deficit in this game. If anyone can…
Julian Draxler (PSG) – Julian Draxler’s career promised so much when he broke through and became an integral part of the first team at Schalke but he was criticised heavily (partly justifiably) for what was seen as a sideways move to Wolfsburg. Since moving to Paris though, he has been superb. The talent which has never been in question is now accompanied by a hunger and desire to win which was so evident in the first leg.
Prediction
This is a very strange game to predict because it is not often that there is such a large margin in the aggregate scores at this level of competition. It’s hard not to see Barcelona winning, purely because PSG have no need to try and win the match and because they will know that their pride is at stake here. I think Barcelona will win the game, but PSG will go through thanks to their marvellous first leg performance.
Prediction: Barcelona 3-1 PSG
Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy allegedly insulted Sevilla’s French attacking midfielder Samir Nasri’s family last night, leading to the Manchester City loanee to react in a movement that was interpreted as a head-butt, according to France Football.
Vardy is said to have insulted the player and his family verbally on numerous occasions leading up to the red card for Nasri. The incident proved fatal for Sevilla who failed to overturn the deficit necessary last night in the second half to progress in the Champions’ League or at least take the match to extra time.
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