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Cesare Prandelli has demanded calm ahead of Italy’s make-or-break Group C encounter with the Republic of Ireland on Monday night with a place in the last eight of Euro 2012 on the line.

Draws with Spain and Croatia in their first two games has left the Azzurri needing a win in their deciding match against the already eliminated Irish if they are to stand a chance of making it to the quarter finals.

The 54-year-old believes a a considered approach will bear the desired result for the Italians and was keen to emphasise that his players need to keep their minds focused on the task in hand.

“It’s very difficult to say,” he said in his pre-match press conference. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we are just thinking about tomorrow’s game.

“We want to win the game, that’s it. Just let us play, let’s get on with it, come on. We always want everything before it comes, we want everything now.

“We are always getting ahead of ourselves, us Italians, but I always say that if you get ahead of yourself, you fall over.”

Ireland were knocked out after being thrashed 4-0 by Spain on Thursday evening with head coach Giovani Trapattoni has charged his players with giving the fans something to cheer before they head home.

It’s been a disappointing tournament for Trapattoni who held hope that qualification would still be achievable going into the last game against his home nation and believes the scars of Italy’s elimination in Euro 2004 could play into his sides favour.

He said: “When things like this go on, we are all ready to think that we Italians are masters at making these agreements.

“We are famous – in fact, infamous – for it. Everything is the same in other countries. These things have happened all over the place. Great scars were left by this.

“We need to play our own game and ask for commitment from players for the people who pay our wages and our supporters.

“We have worked well. We will not change our approach because we lost two games. It would undermine our honour.”

Team News

Mario Balotelli be rested after limping out of training on Saturday with a knee injury although he was present for the session on Sunday. Defender Andrea Barzagli is also expected to play after returning from a calf problem that kept him out of the first two matches.

Damien Duff will captain Ireland on his 100th appearance and will be joined in the starting XI by Kevin Doyle who comes back into the side at the expense of Simon Cox.

Key Players

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Antonio Cassano

Goals have been in short supply for the Milan striker as he seeks to break his Euro 2012 duck after failing to score in Italy’s first two group games. Cassano’s performances haven’t exactly been bad and finally getting off the mark against Ireland and leading the Azzurri into the last eight.

Richard Dunne

It’s been a tough tournament for the Aston Villa defender who’s played every minute so far and seen his back four breached seven times in total during their first two games. Dunne’s experience will be key to keeping Italy’s strike force at bay and giving Ireland a platform to leave the Euro’s on a high with a win.

Prediction: 3-1

Arsenal have given Barcelona 10 days to sign captain Cesc Fabregas and end one of the longest running transfer sagas in history or risk missing out on the midfielder, reports The Guardian.

It seems that Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has grown tired and wants the deal done quickly so he has time to replace his midfield lynchpin before the transfer window slams shut on 31st August.

The Frenchman is hopeful he can hang onto Fabregas for at least one more season and insists he’ll be staying at the Emirates if the Spanish giants can’t conclude a deal soon.

He told the Guardian “We know that this story for Barcelona goes on for years now and we have to close that and for ourselves to focus on the season, hopefully with Cesc Fábregas.”

Barcelona head coach Pep Guardiola stated the club will ‘fight to the end’ to bring their former player home although admitted that signing Fabregas wasn’t his number one priority.

A move for Udinese winger Alexis Sanchez is the Spaniards current focus and a move for Fabregas will have to wait until the that deal is tied up.

Guardiola said: “This year Arsenal has agreed to negotiate and we are working on [it]. Barcelona has made an offer [of £26m], Arsenal another [between £35-40m], and we have time until 31 August and we’ll try to reach an agreement.

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“There is a sum of money in the strong box set aside for this signing but if it doesn’t work out it will be kept in the box for something else. We will fight to the end to try to get Cesc because we believe he will improve the team and the squad.”

Freddie Sears, a player who had only ever scored one goal for West Ham, on his debut in March 2008, a player who had had relatively unsuccessful loan spells at Crystal Palace, Coventry and Scunthorpe in the past couple of seasons, reignites West Ham’s flagging season in three games. It’s an unlikely tale, but since being recalled by the Hammers on December 21st, Sears has been in scintillating form, and grabbed a deserved goal in the vital 2-0 win over relegation rivals Wolves at Upton Park on New Year’s Day.

I must admit, when I saw Sears’ name on the team sheet against Fulham on Boxing Day, I felt that this was perhaps the final throw of the dice from a desperate man in the shape of Avram Grant. Either the Israeli was very lucky, or very, very astute, because by playing wide right in a very attacking 4-4-2, or what could even be described as 4-2-4, Sears has excelled along with his fellow academy graduate, Junior Stanislas, who has been playing on the opposite flank.

But could it solely be Sears’ influence that has caused the turn around in fortunes at Upton Park? Of course not, but I believe he has played a big part. Through his endeavours on loan, although not particularly successful, Sears has managed to actually play first team football, gaining the experience vital to his footballing progression, and this was evident from the start. His performance against Fulham, just five days after he was recalled from Scunthorpe, was a man-of-the-match worthy outing, and showed his desire.

Having been out of the first team for quite some time, Sears must have been wondering when his chance would come again, and with Avram Grant’s job on the line, he must have envisaged a new manager coming in and another season on loan in the offing. So when Grant gave him the opportunity, he really needed to take it, not just for his own career, but for the club as well. Good performances and good results meant that the status quo would be maintained; with Sears in the starting line-up, and Grant in charge, and so it has proved, as Sears also started the matches against both Everton and Wolves.

Sears’ inclusion may not be the overriding reason for West Ham’s Christmas renaissance (I believe that may lie in a formation and attitude change) but his inclusion has certainly breathed life into a West Ham side that were staring at the Championship through the long months before May.

If you liked this and would like to read mroe, then why not check out my blogs, or follow me on Twitter.

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Football fans are a funny old bunch, particularly from the perspective of a manager. Bring success and they will elevate you to a mythical, legendary status, forever to be enshrined within the club’s history; ruffle their feathers a little and it’s down the job centre the next morning. The popularity levels of football managers can turn in an instant, and above all it is the supporters who best dictate these fluctuations.

Alex McLeish’s dismissal in the past week has seen a flurry of activity on social network sites, with the predominantly positive reaction in Aston Villa quarters to his sacking displaying the pure vehemence and animosity felt towards the man. As a marker of the sheer inanity of the situation, disgruntled fans even sent Glasgow student Alex McLeish, of no relation to the former Villa boss, a barraged mixture of comical and abusive tweets upon hearing the news.

From the very beginning of McLeish’s reign his card was marked. Regardless of the absurdity of pinching your most hated rival’s manager, Villa fans were quite rightly baffled by the appointment of a man who had overseen two relegation campaigns in his time in charge of a Premiership club. Whilst clearly an unpopular and slightly bewildering choice on behalf the Villa hierarchy, those of claret and blue persuasion in the Second City were consistently militant in their slating of McLeish, organising regular protests and emphatically displaying their discontent in the Holte and beyond. All this led to a poisoned and pernicious atmosphere at Villa Park, with dwindling attendances a prominent feature of Villa’s season. The permanent ‘12th Man’ banner affixed upon the middle section of the Holte End often appeared more a twisted joke soaked in irony and planted by Blues fans than a statement of Villa’s vocal intent.

Though Villa fans have a distinct right to be fundamentally appalled at a disastrous season which so nearly ended in the unthinkable, there are a number of queries to be raised as to the detrimental effects of negative supporter influence upon a side’s performances. Villa’s squad this season has mainly been a ragtag collection of experienced pros brought in by previous managers combined with products of Villa’s youth academy in only their first or seconds campaigns as professional footballers. Marquee signings Darren Bent and Charles N’Zogbia have been relative disappointments, the use of Emile Heskey as a right winger was utter chagrin and the awarding of Player of the Season to Stephen Ireland belies the disappointment of Villa’s year; yet through all the blatant shortcomings of the playing and management staff, the fans of Aston Villa must also assume some form of liability.

For young players breaking into the first team, the dimensions of confidence and belief are of vital importance to their performance. Generally, this is significantly shaped by the prevailing atmosphere surrounding the club, the prominent sentiments being eschewed from the corridors of the training ground to the player’s car park after the game. For the likes of Ciaran Clark, Gary Gardner and Nathan Baker the patent toxic mood which characterised Villa’s season can only have been detrimental to their development. Though only rare spatters of Villa fan’s anguish was aimed at the players, the adverse effects of the outward hostility shown towards McLeish this season would have been felt deeply, particularly by those developed and matured by the club from an early age. With Mcleish increasingly reliant on his young charges as the season progressed, the enmity only exacerbated Villa’s problems and this the failure of McLeish’s reign became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The decision to sack McLeish was the correct one. Aston Villa fans deserve better than extensive flirtations with the Championship, and were right to criticise McLeish’s ineptitude. Yet the downright vexation which was all too evident on matchdays at Villa Park and in the virtual sphere only moved to heighten Villa’s turmoil.

In an age where an innocent student is abused for being the simple namesake of a failed football manager, we must ponder: can too much fan power be truly detrimental to a football club?

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Whether you agree or disagree, I’d love to hear your opinions. Tweet me @acherrie1

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The Mirror are reporting that Stoke City are on the verge of bringing Juventus midfielder Momo Sissoko back to the Premier League.

Tony Pulis has identified the former Liverpool enforcer as the man who can add an extra bite to his midfield as prepares to lead the Potters into Europe.

Stoke qualified for the Europa League after reaching the FA Cup final last season and Pulis has set about assembling a squad capable of holding it’s own in the competition.

The Mali international would bring bags of European experience and a tenacious style of play well fitted to the Potters system.

He signed for Juventus for £8 million in 2008 but they are prepared to sell him after he dropped down the pecking order in Turin.

Manager Antonio Conte keen to offload the 26-year-old meaning Stoke could wrap up a deal before the end of the month.

The Potters do have concerns over the player’s physical state after a knee injury in February ruled him out for the rest of the season.

A thorough medical examination would be required to rule out any underlying problems.

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There is still interest in the player from around Europe with Hamburg, Paris Saint Germain, Villarreal and Real Sociedad all chasing his signature.

Stoke will have to move quickly if they want to bring the player to the Britannia Stadium although it seems a move back to England is Sissoko’s preferred choice.

Rory Delap is hoping Stoke City can thrash out terms with Real Zaragoza to turn Jermaine Pennant’s loan spell into a permanent deal.

The Potters long-throw specialist believes the winger would be a great addition to the club in the long-term and can see why City boss Tony Pulis wants to keep him.

Delap told The Sentinel:“Of course I’d love to see him stay, but not just from a selfish point of view. He’s been terrific since he came to the club because he gives us a different dimension.

“He gives us that added bit of pace and attacking flair that we’ve missed on the right. It gives us good balance and hopefully things can be sorted with him.”

However, Stoke have made it clear they won’t be held to ransom by his Spanish club during the negotiation process, but Pulis is quietly optimistic about securing his signature when the transfer window reopens again in January.

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Manchester United are ready to move for Everton defender Leighton Baines, and could bid for the star within the next couple of days, according to Mirror Football.

The left-back has impressed in recent seasons at Goodison Park, with solid defending being backed up by creativity and excellent delivery going forward.

Sir Alex Ferguson is thought to want to sign a left-back this summer as a long-term replacement for Patrice Evra, and to have more strength in depth in the position.

The newspaper indicate that the Premier League champions will offer David Moyes’ men £10 million for the England international, who will surely represent the Three Lions this summer at Euro 2012.

The Merseysiders have well-documented financial constraints, and are believed to be ready to accept the offer in a bid to bring transfer fees into the club.

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By Gareth McKnight

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Edwin van der Sar has backed new Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea to be a success at Old Trafford, and feels the 20-year-old can handle the pressure of becoming the Premier League champions’ number one.

The former Holland international retired at the end of the 2010/11 season, and his Spanish successor faces a battle to win over Reds fans.

“They (United) scouted all over Europe and found a couple of targets and they chose de Gea, Hopefully he’s going to have a great career at Manchester United,” the former Fulham goalkeeper told ESPN Star.

The 40-year-old also revealed that he was impressed with the new man’s career to date and that they had spoken.

“He’s very talented. He’s already won a trophy with Atletico Madrid and the Spain Under 21 team so the prospect of him doing well is there. Everybody has to be his own person but I’ve met him. I’ve spoken to him and it looks to me as though he can handle it,” Van der Sar concluded.

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De Gea will most likely make his United debut in the Premier League opener against West Brom at the Hawthorns on August 13.

The weekend of the 27th and 28th of November in the Premiership will always be remembered for a record breaking number of goals, with every Premier League team scoring at least once, but there was one stand-out performance. Dimitar Berbatov has put his name alongside that of Andrew Cole, Alan Shearer and Jermain Defoe by scoring five goals in a Premiership fixture. The double hat-trick eluded the Bulgarian striker, but the damage had been done and Manchester United swept away Blackburn to move them to the top of the Premiership League Table and right on track for another Premier League title.

Dimitar Berbatov is often accused of blowing hot and cold but he was definitely red hot on Saturday and showed just why Manchester United shelled out £30 million for him. He was clinical in front of goal, worked hard for the team and the goal that sealed his hat-trick was a thing of beauty. Berbatov started the move in his own half, sprayed the ball out wide and then ambled into the box to smash the ball into the back of the net. By the end of the 90 minutes Blackburn goalkeeper Paul Robinson must have been sick of the sight of Berbatov bearing down on his net.

A top performance was desperately needed by Berbatov as his goals against Blackburn were the first since his hat-trick against Liverpool earlier in the season. The Old Trafford faithful will be hoping that Berbatov can continue where he left off against Blackburn and put in some more top performances that will help take the pressure off Wayne Rooney. This will certainly please his manager Sir Alex Ferguson and help United win back the Premiership title, even if it means that Chicharito has to warm the bench!

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Well what has been hope more than anything else came to fruition last saturday against Hull. After what seems an age the Skyblues are out of the relegation zone all be it only by a point. The confidence and belief though that this will bring to the players along with notching our first away win of the season could be vital as we near the end of the season. The game that is probably going to define ultimately how the season is going to end is that of the BristolCity game. Now that we are ahead of City, the importance has somewhat shifted away from needing a win to making sure we don’t lose.

However this may not be the case come monday as the Peterborough game on Saturday is definitely not a foregone conclusion that we are going to win. Peterborough showed against Leicester that they can be a good side but they seem to be extremely inconsistent so perhaps the omens are good for Saturday in that they rarely get 2 decent results in a row. For Coventry we just have to hope that the players don’t take their foot off the gas and instead keep playing with all the heart and passion they have shown over the course of this season. If they do we should be celebrating another confidence boosting win on Saturday which will set us up perfectly for the Bristol game and beyond.

One player who has been a massive disappointment since his arrival at the club has been Freddy Eastwood. A lot has been said about Freddy since his arrival almost 4 years ago now. He arrived at Coventry from Wolves where again he was a disappointment and management there seemed to have issues with his commitment to the game. The majority of Coventry fans though have always backed him including myself however looking back I really can’t see why. He was brought to the club as a goal scorer and never really delivered. Many backed him because of his work rate when he first arrived but as the years have passed that has declined considerably to the point where Thorn has not been able to play him this season because of his lack of fitness.

Despite publicly stating this many city fans still wanted to see Eastwood brought back into the team but I was completely behind thorn in his decision not to include him in the squad. If a player cannot be bothered to keep fit for what millions of football fans around the world would consider to be a dream job then they don’t deserve to be paid let alone played. His attitude was clearly the issue rather than a lack of ability as it was plain to see that he had quality within him he just didn’t show it on enough occasions. Personally I think he has wasted his talent and Freddy only has one person to blame and that is himself. He now finds himself back at Southend the club where he made a name for himself and despite being a disappointment for Coventry I still find myself wishing him well. At 28 he still has a few years of playing left in him and if he really decides he wants to he could be a real star for Southend again but whether he will be remains to be seen.

Freddy is now a thing of the past for us Coventry fans so let’s hope we can find someone else who can come in and hopefully do a better job than Freddy did. With money being tight we may have to hope that Cody McDonald is that player. He clearly has the potential and could be a big player for us. After his goal at Hull, McDonald could be the key to us staying up. He has had a very quiet season for various reasons including injury and trying to adapt to life in the championship but he really has looked sharp and very lively in the last few games. He looks as if he has an eye for goal and his work rate is second to none. I think we are now starting to see why Andy Thorn brought him to the club and lets hope that he keeps improving and getting us those all important goals to keep us up.

PUSB!!

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