Author: BardsleyFan

Phil Neville has been relieved of his assistant managerial duties at Valencia just days after his brother, Gary Neville, was sacked from the managerial role after poor results since the start of his tenure.

The former Manchester United teammates came to the Mestalla in the hope of doing well in their first managerial job. After having been used to the role as an assistant manager with England and Everton, Phil Neville slotted in just behind his brother Gary at the club. Gary Neville was sacked just before the game against Las Palmas, which the club lost under the new regime.

It is understood that Phil Neville was not invited to be part of this game despite his role as the assistant manager. Now, that role has been taken away from his hands, as it is believed that PakoAyestaran will bring his own coaching staff into the club.Ayestaran will be in charge of the Spanish club at least until the end of the campaign. He claimed that since Valencia already had a large coaching staff, the club had to make a decision on the futures of a few. The club are battling against relegation and have just lost their fourth consecutive match.

Valencia still need at least six points in order to be sure about their la Liga status for the next campaign.“We have realised that we do not need to have such a big staff.We have made mistakes, it’s important to bring together ideas but in this short space of time we have to be very clear about what we want from the players,” said the new Valencia boss. Neville has requested time throughout his tenure at Valencia. He spent only a few months at the club winning only a handful of matches. Most of those victories came in cup competitions.

Phil Neville has been relieved of his assistant managerial duties at Valencia just days after his brother, Gary Neville, was sacked from the managerial role after poor results since the start of his tenure.

The former Manchester United teammates came to the Mestalla in the hope of doing well in their first managerial job. After having been used to the role as an assistant manager with England and Everton, Phil Neville slotted in just behind his brother Gary at the club. Gary Neville was sacked just before the game against Las Palmas, which the club lost under the new regime.

It is understood that Phil Neville was not invited to be part of this game despite his role as the assistant manager. Now, that role has been taken away from his hands, as it is believed that PakoAyestaran will bring his own coaching staff into the club.Ayestaran will be in charge of the Spanish club at least until the end of the campaign. He claimed that since Valencia already had a large coaching staff, the club had to make a decision on the futures of a few. The club are battling against relegation and have just lost their fourth consecutive match.

Valencia still need at least six points in order to be sure about their la Liga status for the next campaign.“We have realised that we do not need to have such a big staff.We have made mistakes, it’s important to bring together ideas but in this short space of time we have to be very clear about what we want from the players,” said the new Valencia boss. Neville has requested time throughout his tenure at Valencia. He spent only a few months at the club winning only a handful of matches. Most of those victories came in cup competitions.

Mario Balotelli is currently playing for Ac.Milan after having signed a season long loan deal with the Italian club but there is a very high probability that he will turn into a permanent signing at the end of the loan deal but this is going to depend on how Balotelli perform in this season.

Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool lost hope in Mario Balotelli after the player only managed to score 1 goal in 16 appearances with the Premier League club and this is why they decided to give him away on a loan deal to Ac.Milan and this season loan deal of Balotelli has kicked off in a positive way as he scored a goal in his debut match.

Ac.Milan played a friendly match against Mantova on August 3 and came out on top with a 3-2 win. The opening goal of the game was scored by Mario Balotelli as he scored at the 3rd minute.
When the match was over, Balotelli voiced his joy in scoring a goal as he said: “I have always been in good shape and put in the maximum effort like everyone.I am happy to have scored a goal and provided an assist. I wanted to win this game, because I don’t like losing.”

The 25 year old player has stated in numerous occasions that he has gone through a big change and that he does not have the same mentality of a few years before. Balotelli is hoping to spark his career back to life, the Italian forward was even willing to take a big pay cut in order to move back to Ac.Milan.

Balotelli admitted in saying that he has spent a lot of his career as a boy and he made mistakes but he wants to leave that behind as he confessed after signing with Ac.Milan and said: “I haven’t forgotten how to play football. I am no longer a kid. I’ve wasted too many chances.I feel like someone who has put the first part of his career to one side. Played and lived like a boy,”
If Balotelli does indeed manage to spark his career to life, Ac.Milan would be willing to sign him on a permanent deal and Liverpool is likely to let Balotelli go but for a price tag.

During Mario Balotelli’s stay in Anfield, he had an awful time and could not build a solid relationship with Brendan Rodgers and the Irish manager is not expected to bring back Balotelli into his team even if the player does improve.

Relegation has been a real threat for Sunderland since the season of 2012-13 when they finished at the 17th spot with 39 points as they were safe from getting relegated by only 3 points. In the next season, Sunderland avoided the relegation zone by 5 points.

In the latest Premier League season, Sunderland was saved from being relegation thanks to 3 points. It seems like in every single season Sunderland just barely manages to scrape above the bottom zone of the top tier English League.

Dick Advocaat was appointed as the head coach of Sunderland on March of the current season and he took charge of the English club for the final 9 matches of the 2014-15 Premier League and with 3 points of cushion, Advocaat was able to push the team into a safe zone but the chairman of Sunderland, Ellis Short has given the Dutch coach with the task of totally avoiding the possibility of getting relegated and to stop getting close to those dreadful zones.

“The president has said to me make sure it is not quite as difficult as it has been for the last couple of years. That will be great if that’s the case and that’s the most important thing.I don’t want to say we want to be this or that.We have to be positive. Hopefully until the end.” Dick Advocaat said as he told the media what Ellis Short wanted him to do in Sunderland as the chairman wants to avoid seeing Sunderland threatened with being relegated.

This will not be an easy task to accomplish as Sunderland for the past few years has been surfacing just slightly above the relegation zone and they struggle trying to make a clean campaign away from those positions.

Stoke City manager Mark Hughes says that a tough run of matches during Christmas is partly to blame for the bad luck that the club has had with injuries the last few weeks.

Hughes has had to contend with a number of key players being unavailable during this period. He says that Stoke were involved in a number of tough matches against tough opposition during Christmas.

The level of intensity needed to get results against teams like Chelsea has taken a lot out of the club according to the former Blackburn Rovers manager. Despite this, results have been good enough to see Stoke climb into the top 10 of the table.

They have managed to do so despite suffering a 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Manchester City in the last league match. Hughes was speaking to the press ahead of the FA Cup match against Blackburn Rovers. Given that the club appear to be safe from any threat of relegation, Hughes is likely to concentrate on doing well in the FA Cup. A victory against the championship outfit will put Stoke in the quarter-finals of the competition. Hughes will also have extra motivation for a victory given that it is his former club.

“We’ve just come through a really tough period for games in terms of the Christmas period and the quality of the opposition we’ve been up against.That extra demand on you as a player in terms of the amount of games and the opposition means we’ve had a little bit of reaction.We’re hoping we’re going to get it back but they all seem to have coincided at the same time of the season. We’ve had a really difficult period but the number of points we’re delighted with, but we have lost a few,” said Hughes.

Stoke City have had a real shortage of victories this season.

The club has managed only five wins throughout this campaign and most of their points have come from the draws against the likes of West Ham United. The potters will be taking on Manchester United at Old Trafford on Tuesday. This match comes just days after the club suffered its second consecutive defeat at the hands of Liverpool. A Glen Johnson goal was enough to earn Liverpool a 1-0 victory, but it was more bad news for Stoke City who had been beaten 2-1 by Burnley only a few days ago.

United are on a resurgent run of form and Mark Hughes will need a full complement of players in order to rotate them and keep them fresh for the trip to Old Trafford. He does not have a great record against United, but the presence of experienced players like Phil Bardsley can help him get a result. The former Sunderland defender remains a doubt for the match, but Hughes confirmed that he expects the 29-year-old to be available. The Scottish defender has been an ever present for Stoke this campaign and his has been featured in 15 matches of all competitions.

“Phil Bardsley trained today and we feel he should be ok for the Manchester United game tomorrow,” said Hughes during the pre-match press conference. Bardsley was unavailable for the defeat against Liverpool in which Stoke played really well but did not get any reward. Their performance against Manchester United at Old Trafford has not been great in recent history. This makes the trip especially more difficult considering that United are on a good run of form. They have been undefeated at Old Trafford since the opening day of the season. This form has seen them move to third place in the table.

Mark Hughes, the manager of Stoke City, has admitted that the standard of football played by his boys at the Stadium of Light last weekend was low.
According to Hughes, the opposition i.e. Sunderland played poorly as well, but, his team was even poorer and that’s why, ended up at the second position.
It’s the third loss for Stoke in the ongoing league. The last two losses that they had suffered, both of them had come on their home ground. They had been playing rather well in the away games. They had been undefeated on away venues for a while, but, that great run got over on Saturday eventually.
The Potters did not fell behind the Black Cats possession wise in the previous game. They had actually more of the possession, but, they were just not able to create the opportunities.
Hughes also had the same thoughts. While speaking in his interview later, the 50-year old said, “When you play away, you need to ensure that in the starting period, you just stay in the game. You have to make things difficult for the home side and you can do that only by having a good start. A good start is essential, but, unfortunately, that did not happen to us today. We fell back pretty early, conceding the first goal and then, another one in the first half, it was damaging.”
“I would say this wasn’t the greatest of the matches. Both the sides faltered, but, we faltered more than them and that’s the reason we were on the losing side at the end of it. However, they deserve a bit of credit for taking their opportunities.”
The next game for Stoke is a home game against Swansea City on 19th of October.

Mark Hughes signed Phil Bardsley for Stoke City earlier in July as the 29 year old Scottish defender was a free agent after having reached the end of his contract with his former club Sunderland.

Along with Bardsley, the manager of Stoke City Mark Hughes has fortified his squad by adding into the team Mame Biram Diouf, Steve Sidwell and Bojan Krkic. 1 player for every spot of the team will be arriving to the Britannia Stadium with expectations of not only continuing to compete against the best teams in England in the Premier League but also claim a higher spot.

Mark Hughes finished the previous season in a positive fashion as he guided Stoke City to important triumphs against Newcastle United, Fulham and a narrow victory against West Bromwich Albion on the very last match of the campaign as Stoke City went on securing the 9th spot which was their best finish ever in over 35 years.

With the arrivals of these new players into the team they can aim for even higher spots. Mark Hughes spoke about Phil Bardsley and what it means for the club having him joining the team.
“Phil has been a solid right-back at Premier League level for a long time. He’s a player I’ve been aware of for a while and there’s going to be good competition for places. He will work hard and try to put pressure on people I’m sure. I know he’s very motivated to come to the club and get into the team. That’s good from our point of view and good competition for everyone in the group.”

Stoke City is currently going through a pre-season schedule with matches against German clubs such as: Borussia Mönchengladbach and Schalke 04. These friendly games are the ideal scenario for the new arrivals of Stoke City to get accustomed to their new club.

Sunderland is the last club in the Premier League standings and the threat of being relegated to the Championship League is becoming more realistic as each match-day passes on.

Despite what the final outcome of Sunderland might be as to whether or not they get relegated there are some players that will be leaving the club including Jack Colback and Phil Bardsley.
Both of them have rejected new deals and when their current contracts expire in June they will become free agents. The head coach of club, Gus Poyet knows very well about the situation of some player as he revealed a few details surrounding the club and their current condition.

“Everybody knows we have been in contract talks with a couple of players, but at the moment everything is on standby. Everyone is responsible for their own decisions and I don’t think we are in a position to push people to do things they do not want to do. I’m not stupid; I understand it brings uncertainty to the club for the future. To be honest, it doesn’t matter where we finish. I cannot see them staying at the club.” Poyet said.

West Ham’s Sam Allardyce is aware of Phil Bardsley’s situation and they are interested in signing him once he becomes a free agent in a few months. The English tactician of West Ham, Allardyce is hoping he can secure the services of Bardsley by launching a lucrative contract with signing on fee.
A few weeks ago on April 12, Sunderland faced off against Everton and lost 1-0 but it still was a significant day for Phil Bardsley as he broke the record of most Premier League appearances which was held by Michael Gray who had made 170 appearances for Sunderland at the top tier league in England.