Wayne Bridge Fan

Former Chelsea defender Wayne Bridge says that Jose Mourinho should be retained as the Chelsea manager at all costs. He feels that it is difficult to get a top manager like Mourinho.

The Portuguese has won numerous titles in his decade-long managerial career. However, many feel that this ideas have become stale in recent months. Chelsea have been flirting with relegation trouble, which not many would have expected given their status as the reigning league champions, throughout the season. Even though the club has voiced support to the manager a few weeks ago, results have not improved since then.

This is likely to lead to Mourinho’s sacking since owner Roman Abramovich is unlikely to take any risks with regard to failing to reach the top four. Even if Mourinho leaves the job, it will leave his replacement with a major task on his hands to qualify for the Champions League. Clubs like Tottenham and Manchester United have opened up more than 10 points over Chelsea already. Meanwhile, Bridge also reckons that Leicester City are showing the kind of form that can result in an unlikely league title. Even as the season approaches midway, Leicester are leading the table over the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal.

Such a strong run of form from relegation favourites is highly surprising according to Bridge. “They are winning week after after and it’s something you now come to expect. They are not feeling the pressure like a top team would, so you certainly can’t write them off.But winning the title is a difficult ask, even though they are a strong team and scoring goals with ease at the moment. I still fancy Manchester City because they haven’t hit top gear yet and still have Sergio Aguero to come back firing,” said the former Chelsea left back.

The agent of John Obi Mikel has said that the midfielder does not want to be the deputy of the current Nigeria skipper Ahmed Musa and he is instead quite happy featuring for the team just as a player.

In Nigeria’s recent game versus Congo, when Musa was being taken off by the manager in the second half, he tried to give the armband that he had been wearing to Mikel, but, the veteran refused to accept it.

Since, it happened right there at the ground, it was seen by all and the questions started being raised over the relationship between Mikel and the Nigeria team management.

But, speaking on behalf of Mikel, his agent cleared the air saying that there’re no grudges in the heart of the player and it’s just that he is not willing to take the vice captaincy.

In the words of the agent, “Musa has already been named the skipper and the manager was looking for John to serve as his deputy.”

“The reason for John not to be handed the captaincy was that he was not available to go versus Tanzania, but, recently, his form in the last couple of games has been good and that seems to have impressed the manager.”

“But, the thing is that John is not too keen on vice captaincy at the moment. However, he will be quite happy to be there as a player whenever he is called up.”

John Obi Mikel has got more experience at the international level than any other player in the current Nigerian set up.

The 28-year old wore the Nigeria jersey for the first time in 2005 and ever since, he has had the opportunity to represent his country 64 times in which he has scored 4 goals.

Ronald Koeman is of the view that there is no need to get Jay Rodriguez hurried back into the national set up.

The Black Cats head coach reckons Rodriguez, who has just made a solitary appearance for England so far, should not be recalled by Roy Hodgson for the Euro qualifying matches. The 26-year old should be given a bit more time as it would benefit him in the long term.

Talking to the press, Koeman said, “Jay is somebody who is always going to be in the frame for England with the capability that he is blessed with, but, I am not sure getting picked at this point of the time would be the best thing for him.”

“As far as I am concerned, I would say he is not ready and he shouldn’t be rushed.”

The at his disposal that are in form and that’s why, there is the possibility that he might decide to include Rodriguez in the squad.
If Rooney or even Kane had been in good rhythm, the England boss would be quite happy leaving Rodriguez out for a bit more time.

The Rooney-Kane duo does not even feature in the list of the Premier League goal scorers this season so far.

Rooney showed signs of returning to form with three goals for United in the European Cup game versus Brugge the other day, but, Kane is really a worry, not only for England, but, for his club Tottenham Hotspur as well.

Apart from these two, there is Jamie Vardy whose form has been reasonable for the Foxes and Hodgson can perhaps bank on him.
England has to play the matches on Saturday and Tuesday respectively.

Jack Wilshere has made it clear he would continue playing the game the same way he has been playing so far in spite of getting injured on a regular basis.

A few people are of the view that the consistent injury issues that Wilshere has had of late are the result of him being over aggressive and he should probably try and adopt a little conventional technique while going for the tackles.

But, according to Wilshere, it’s not possible for him to do that as he is an aggressive player by nature.

In one of his latest talks to the media, the playmaker was quoted as speaking, “I actually paid attention to what the experts had to say on how I should approach the game and at that time, it seemed to me that they’re right. But, when I stepped on to the pitch on my comeback, I realized that I just could not make a change to my playing style.”
“I agree my game needs some improvements especially in terms of dribbling and I am trying to learn watching some of the other great players. But, my style will always remain the same.”

Wilshere has not been able to play that many games for the Gunners over the recent past because of various issues with his fitness.

During the last season, he had to go through an ankle operation which made him sit out of the action for more than half of the season.

Recently, there have been talks that Arsenal might look to get rid of him this summer.

The Englishman, however, has always maintained that he is pretty keen to stay at the Emirates Stadium for another few years.

Wilshere is in England squad that will play against Slovenia this weekend.

The Scottish coach of Reading FC, Steve Clarke has sent a warning to his offensive players as they have to start scoring more goals on a consistent basis or else their future at the Championship League club will be reaching their end.

Reading FC is located in the bottom spots of the English Championship League and have managed to score 44 goals in 43 matches while having conceded 65 goals.

Even though the defensive department of Reading FC seems to be the most alarming section of the squad, Clarke wants to see some of his players scoring more goals.

There are 2 matches remaining in the league and Reading FC is mathematically safe from being relegated but even though they will be continue competing in the English Championship League for another season, Steven Clarke stated that these upcoming are still important and these matches are going to be what he needs in order to decide the future or some of his players.

Steve Clarke said: “Those games certainly have a meaning for us. Everybody has to play for their future.Every time a player goes out on the pitch he’s playing for his next game, he’s playing for his next contract.So this is what we have to get from the players over the last few days. There’s always something to play for. The players are desperate to win a game.’’

GarathMcCleary is a 27 year old forward who has made 23 appearances but not scored a single league goal for Reading in any of those appearances and he will have to step it up in these next few weeks if he wants to stay with the English club for a few more years.

This is the case of a few more offensive players who has struggled to score consistent goals for Reading FC in this season. Simon Cox is another forward which has disappointed after only scoring 8 league goals in 34 appearances.

The future of these players and even their teammates are on the line and will be decided on how well they perform in the approaching weeks.

Chelsea currently has a 6 points advantage over their nearest rivals which is Manchester City and with only 2 months remaining in the top tier English League, the team of Jose Mourinho are favorites on claiming the 23rd edition of the Premier League but Manuel Pellegrini remains optimistic that his team can still catch up to the table toppers.

Manchester City’s Manuel Pellegrini believes that his squad can still catch up to Chelsea and snatch their 2nd successive league title as he said: “I don’t think they are a winning machine all the time. I think you ask me maybe two or three weeks before I am sure from now until the end of the season every team will drop points so it’s important to return to our normal performance and win our games.’’

There is good news for the supporters of Manchester City and for Manuel Pellegrini himself and it’s the fact that Chelsea’s schedule of the remainder of the season includes tough matches against top clubs of the Premier League including: Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool.

Manuel Pellegrini on the other hand has a fairly easier schedule as many of their upcoming opponents are located on the bottom spots of the Premier League and have struggled in the entire season trying to snatch triumphs, some of those clubs are: Queens Park Rangers and Aston Villa.

Chelsea’s top goal-scorer is Diego Costa and the experienced attacker has recently picked up an injury which is expected to make him unable to perform for Spain at the international stage in the upcoming 2016 Euro’s qualifier against Ukraine which is going to take place on March 27.

However, even with the tough fixtures that awaits Jose Mourinho and his squad they still are big favorites on winning the Premier League of this season. It will be a huge surprise if Chelsea lose their pace at the final stages of the league race and allow Manchester City to catch up but the world of football is unpredictable and anything can happen.

Manchester City’s chances of moving into Chelsea and taking the title are slim but it’s in no way impossible.

Petr Cech is presently at the second position in the pecking order of the goalies at Chelsea.

The Czech Republic international is the understudy to Thibaut Courtois who is 10 years younger than him in age.
So, it doesn’t seem to be possible now for Cech to regain his position of the no. 1 shot stopper at Stamford Bridge again.

Cech still has the capability though and he is not the oldest goalie going around either. He can easily be no. 1 at any other club, but, not at Chelsea, certainly not with Courtois around.

There have been rumours that Liverpool is looking to get Cech’s services secured this winter.

The Reds are desperate for a good goalie at the moment. Simon Mignolet whom they had landed from Sunderland the previous season had been making a lot of mistakes of late and finally, Brendan Rodgers had to drop him.

But, Mignolet’s replacement Brad Jones has proved to be even worse. So, buying a goalie would be the first priority for Liverpool in January.

As far as Chelsea is concerned, they would also not mind getting Cech offloaded as the veteran is clearly not of much use for them now. This season, the 32-year old Belgian has played just 2 games.

But, the problem is that Chelsea and Liverpool are the arch rivals in the English top division.

Liverpool is probably one of the last clubs that the Blues would want to sell any of their players to.

This season yes, Liverpool is not anywhere near to Chelsea in the points table, but, if seen historically, there has been great rivalry between these two clubs and very rarely have they had business deals with each other.

So, Cech going to Liverpool does not seem to be a realistic prospect.

Barnsley go in search of their fourth consecutive win in all competitions when they take on Chesterfield away from home. One of those victories has come in the FA Cup, but it is quite clear that manager Danny Wilson places a lot of priority on the league. Barnsley have had some excellent FA Cup runs over the years, but the club appeared to be keen on getting promoted to the Championship. They are 11th in the table as a result of the two wins over Sheffield United and Colchester United. Wilson, though, is aware that Chesterfield provide a much bigger threat especially for their winning run.

Barnsley have not managed four wins on the bounce since 2013. They could potentially close the gap on the play-off spot if they win this weekend. Despite having a match in hand, Barnsley are only four points behind Oldham Athletic in the ninth place. They have to make up only one more point before closing on the sixth placed MK Dons, who have 27 points. Even though it is an away match, Barnsley will have a strong representation after the club sold out its 2430 tickets allotted for the match. Wilson is looking forward to a fantastic support from the away end when his players take to the field against the 14th placed team in the division.

“Chesterfield are going very well.They’ll be a real handful for us, especially at home.I’ve been to watch them two or three times now this season – and they’re a very good side.I watched them against Swindon earlier in the season and they were very impressive. We’ll approach the match like any other match we have this season and there is that little bit of added incentive because it is a sort of derby game, if you like,” said Wilson.

Since retiring from playing professional competitive football Wayne Bridge has been spending more time with his wife Frankie Sandford who is currently performing in the British television show called: Strictly Come Dancing and after couple of days the retired is seen as an audience as he witnesses Sandford making impressive choreographed dance move with a partner.

Frankie Sandford and Wayne Bridge got married not too long ago on July 19 of 2014 and when Frankie was asked if his husband was going to be jealous in any way after hearing that she was going to be going through a series of intense training regimes and choreographs with another man, Sandford replied by saying: ‘Wayne’s excited for me because he knows I love it and all of my family love it too. It’s quite a big thing for the Sandfords. We have male dancers all the time in The Saturdays, so he knows it’s just dancing. He’s got nothing to worry about.’
One of the more recent occasions where Wayne Bridge and Frankie Sandford were spotted together was in a series of clothing shops with the former Chelsea player being seen carrying a number of shopping bags.

The career of Wayne Bridge starts off with the defender making his first appearance in a competitive match on August of 1998 as he played for Southampton and entered the pitch in a match against Charlton Athletic with the English left-back coming as a substitute player replacing John Beresford who had sustained a knee injury.

Wayne Bridge later went on to join Chelsea and he was a regular player for Jose Mourinho but his appearances at Stamford Bridge started to be very limited after Ashley Cole arrived to the Premier League club.

The English left-back was signed by Manchester City but spent a few season on a number of loan deals as he performed for West Ham United, Sunderland, Brighton & Hove Albion before joining Reading which was his last club before deciding to retire.

The manager of the England national football team, Roy Hodgson, reckons that the kind of playing style his team adopted in the World Cup in Brazil was pretty similar to that of the eventual Champions Germany, but, luck just didn’t favour his boys and it turned out to be a horrible campaign at the end.

According to Hodgson, he has still not been able to put that debacle completely out of his mind.

In the words of the Three Lions’ boss, “We came second against Italy and that, to me, was a bit of an unfair result as we had not performed badly enough to lose that day. In the following game also, we were going alright, but, then, all of a sudden, we conceded one which I would say was a freakish strike and thereafter, the momentum shifted. We conceded another and it was all over.”

“It’s very hard to get over such horrible time. A lot of fans have lost their faith in us and that’s obvious on their part as we have let them down. Now, it’s up to us to win their faith back.”

When asked what he thinks the German players did differently in order to be so successful in the tournament, Hodgson said, “Frankly speaking, I don’t think there’s that much of a difference between the playing style of theirs and ours. I know people have been talking a lot about that, but, I don’t agree to what’s being said. I think Germany also looked to do things the similar way and fortunately, it clicked for them. For us, it didn’t.”

Germany’s performance has been top class not only in this year’s World Cup, but, in the World Cups of 2006 and 2010 as well.