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Archive for December, 2008

Portsmouth has agreed to a $6.4 million fee with Lens to sign Nadir Belhadj.

Nadir Belhadj have 26 years, has made 23 appearances since joining Lens.

Nadir Belhadj will officially sign a 4 1/2-year contract with Portsmouth when the transfer window reopens on Thursday.

“I am delighted to have secured Nadir as a permanent signing,” said manager Tony Adams told the club’s official website. “Nadir is an excellent acquisition for the club and even  Arsene Wenger commented on his ability to spring from defense to attack so quickly.

“He has great pace and energy and is a terrific crosser of the ball too. At the moment he is playing left-back and developing a good relationship with Niko Kranjcar, but he can also play left midfield.

“His enthusiasm is first-class and he’s already a favorite with the Fratton Park fans.”

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley has confirmed the club has been taken off the market and is no longer up for sale.

Ashley looked set to sell up in September this year after coming in for stern criticism following the exit of former manager Kevin Keegan.

Ashley said:“I am happy to end the uncertainty the fans may have had about the future direction of  Newcastle“.

“I have withdrawn Newcastle United from the market and for me 2009 will be the year in which we drive the club forward together.

“Even when I haven’t been at games, I have remained a keen supporter, kicking and heading every ball and cheering the team on TV and being first to congratulate Joe Kinnear whenever there’s a good result”.

“When I took the decision to put the club up for sale in September I made a point of saying two things were very important”.

“Firstly any potential buyer would have to show they had the best interests of Newcastle United at heart and had both the commitment and finance to be worthy custodians of such a fine football club before I would even consider doing a deal”

“And secondly, I gave you my word that as long as I remain owner, this club would continue to be run responsibly at all levels”.

“I hope you will accept that I have stood by that pledge.” said Ashley.

Arsene Wenger has accuses Villa coach of placing undue pressure on the referee, Lee Mason, during an absorbing but tempestuous contest at Villa Park in which Martin O’Neill’s side recovered from two goals down to secure a deserved point after Zat Night scored a superb equaliser in injury-time.

Arsene Wenger, who squared up to O’Neill on the touchline at one point as tensions boiled over, implied that ­Mason’s decision to award the home team a ­second-half penalty had been influenced by an incident at half-time involving one of the Villa staff.

“I know how it works here in England,” said the Arsenal manager.

O’Neill said :  “Arsene Wenger has his own ­opinion. I think the referee must have seen at half‑time himself that the decision he gave when Gabby Agbonlahor was fouled wasn’t the best one. John Robertson, I think, spoke to the referee. His words were that he asked him to ­explain the decision that Gabby didn’t get. He only asked him to explain it and the referee chose not to give an answer.”

“I thought we were absolutely outstanding in the first half,” said O’Neill, who will be without the injued Martin Laursen for four weeks. “We could have been four of five goals in front — that’s no exaggeration. Then we got rocked by the goal and lost our way a little bit. But I thought we were brilliant and came roaring back into it. We got the penalty and definitely deserved the equaliser. I think on our day we are a match for anyone.”

Arsense Wenger said:   “We are disappointed because we were close to the win. I believe the turning point was 2–1 because after we lost a bit of composure and there was plenty of room to keep the ball much better. We got nervous to get over the line and in the end it cost us.”

Arsenal and Liverpool played to a 1-1 draw at the Emirates Stadium.

Robin Van Persie scored the first goal in the 24th minutes and Robbie Keane scored in the 42th minutes.

Samir Nasri lobbed a perfect ball from midfield to Van Persie, who took it down off his chest and fired a shot inside the right post that gave Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina no chance.

In the 62nd minute Adebayor was hit with red card.

The match finish 1-1.

Portsmouth accepted Real Madrid’s bid for midfielder Lassana Diarra, a transfer reported to be around $31 million.

Lassana Diarra have 23 year, joined Portsmouth for $7.7 million switch from Arsenal, and signed and a 3 1/2-year contract.

It was a very good deal for Portsmouth as Diarra bought at 7.7 million dollars,he was injured a time, and now it will sell to Real for 31 million dollars.

Lasanna Diarra switch Portsmouth to Real Madrid hasn’t been finalized, but he will start talks with the Spanish giants about completing the

Carlos Tevez believes he is close to signing a permanent contract with Manchester United.

Carlos Tevez is midway through a two-year loan contract with Manchester United, but believes he will soon make a full-time deal with the Manchester.

“We have been talking about it and everything is very advanced, as a consequence I think it will be sorted soon,” said Carlos Tevez.

“I feel respected by my team-mates and by the technical staff.”

“Each month and at the end of the day, winning league titles makes me feel great.

“And right now I’m not going to change. I’m at the best club in the world and fighting for your position is normal.”

Sam Allardyce took over as manager of Blackburn on Wednesday, setting out to save the Premier League team from relegation.

Blackburn announced the former Bolton and Newcastle manager had agreed to a three-year contract to take over the second-last place team.

“I’m very, very pleased indeed but any more than that I’m not saying at the moment,” said Allardyce.

Sam Allardyce got Bolton promoted to the Premier League and left after four consecutive top-eight finishes.

Sam Allardyce also managed only eight months at Newcastle, however.

Justin Hoyte from Middlesbrough will not return to first-team action until January after being forced to undergo cartilage surgery.

Middlesbrough and Gary O’Neil are currently struggling with hamstring injurie.

“Justin Hoyte had a cartilage op on Friday so he’s out for four weeks,” said Southgate.

“He’s had the problem for a couple of weeks. We thought we might be able ride it out, but he took another bang on it at Hull and we were forced later in the week to operate.”