Saturday 15 January 2011

Messi urges Pep to sign extension

Since Guardiola appointment in 2008,Barca has led to successive league titles and also creep up the Champions League, Copa del Rey, Supercopa de Espana, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup in 2009.

For the FIFA Coach of the Year award,he has been shortlisted despite the team is on top of La Liga.

Pep is currently preferring short term deals as he is out of contract at the end of the season.When agreeing his extension a year ago, he said that "a coach of Barca can't be here for life"

Messi expose that the team is currently struggling to envisage life at the club without Guardiola.

"The truth is, after everything he's created and how he's rallied the team around him, it's difficult to imagine," he said. "A Barcelona without him wouldn't be like it is.

"(I hope) he renews when he can, and stays.

"He's on top of us with all of the details - not only with me but with the whole squad. He's always looking for the best positioning for me near the midfielders so that I can have as much contact with the ball as I can in play."

Sunday 9 January 2011

McManaman: Benzema must step up


Current Merengues striker Karim Benzema has been forced by Former Real Madrid winger Steve McManaman to move up to the plate and insisted that the Frenchman is capable of being a key player at the Bernabeu.

In La Liga with Real Benzema, 23, has endured a profligate season netting just one goal despite playing more regularly since Gonzalo Higuain got injured in November.

In the Champions League,Benzema has shown glimpses of his goalscoring touch with hat-tricks.

Copa del Rey and McManaman, who twice won the European Cup with Real in his four-year stay in Spain, is confident that Benzema has what it takes - and urged him to show it.

"Karim has struggled to settle in," McManaman told ESPNsoccernet. "His language has been a problem and he's quite shy, which can be difficult for him in a dressing-room full of big characters.

"He had problems in pre-season but Mourinho is trying to get the best out of him and we must remember he is still a young lad.

"He has to stand up and be counted now because Higuain is out for a while and Kaka has only just come back. But everyone knows he is a good player and I think Real will rely on Benzema to produce the goods this year."

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Aguero extends Atletico contract


A two-year contract extension to keep him at the Vicente Calderon until the summer of 2014,contract had been signed by Atletico Madrid striker Sergio Aguero.

The talented Argentina had various offers with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City reportedly and he had been tipped to leave Atletico last summer.

But the 22-year-old pledged his future to the club ahead of the current season, and he has now put pen to paper on a new deal at Atletico.