ZHIRKOV PLANS TO LEAVE CHELSEA

Yuri Zhirkov has said that he will be leaving Chelsea if he does not get any chances in the future. The Russia midfielder, who joined the Premier League champions from CSKA Moscow for £18m in July 2009 is quoted in the Sun as saying: “My only target at the moment is to get back into the main Chelsea team. If I’m successful with that, all the other issues will resolve themselves.

“But if I fail to achieve that between now and the summer, I will start thinking of other possibilities.”

The 27-year-old has featured in 17 matches for Chelsea this season, most recently as a late substitute in their 2-0 Champions League victory over FC Copenhagen on Tuesday. “My condition has visibly improved,” added Zhirkov.

YURI INJURIED

Chelsea’s Yuri Zhirkov is suffering with his calf injury so he is a doubt to play against Fulham. Luiz, signed from Benfica on transfer deadline day, made his debut as a second-half substitute in last weekend’s defeat to Liverpool, and manager Carlo Ancelotti has now confirmed the Brazil international will be in his starting XI at Craven Cottage.

Jose Bosingwa could be the man to make way for Luiz, with Ancelotti revealing the player is doubtful with an unspecified injury, while Alex (knee) and Yuri Zhirkov (calf) remain sidelined.

And the Italian is expected to stick with the attacking trio of Fernando Torres, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka despite their disappointing showing against Liverpool last time out.

ZHIRKOV FAILS TO RECOVER

Yuri Zhirkov has not recovered from his calf injury yet and will not play against Bolton. Frank Lampard will miss out once again for Chelsea, while skipper John Terry is a doubt ahead of their journey to the North West.

Lampard has been unable to shake off a calf injury, leading to his absence, while Terry is expected to be available despite picking up a back problem.

Ancelotti remains without Alex (knee), Yuri Zhirkov (calf) and Yossi Benayoun (Achilles).

ZHIRKOV CLOSE TO RETURN

Chelsea midfielder Yuri Zhirkov is close to returning from his injury after he trained with his teammates. Mikel has resumed training less than three weeks after he suffered a knee ligament injury in the 3-1 defeat against Arsenal. He was expected to be out for a month but the midfielder could be ready for the trip to Bolton on 24 January.

Yuri Zhirkov, who hasn’t featured since November due to a calf and Achilles problem, is in light training while Alex is back at the club after an operation in Brazil on a knee injury and is on target to return next month.

Fabio Capello’s future as the national team manager

Fabio Capello’s future as the national team manager of pressure is under doubt after a 1-0 defeat against Austria left the fans in extreme displeasure against the manager.

Despite having a world-class coach like Capello in their ranks, Russia have been struggling to live up to the achievements of past successes. Under the regime of Guus Hiddink, the national team reached the semifinals of the Euro 2008. Since then, it has been a downhill path for the national team and the Russian Football Federation. Due to significant a lot of debts, the RFU has been unable to pay Capello for the last eight months.

Yet, the national team boss has not been stepping down from his role and has continued to manage the team. The recent defeat against Austria came despite some extreme attacking potential within the team. Russia even had attacking full-back Yuri Zhirkov running up and down on the flanks. However, they do not create much opportunities and suffered a loss that sees them fall eight points behind Austria in the table. They are third in the group and would have to go through a qualification stage in order to reach the Euro 2016.

“We have already made a certain decision on Capello’s future. But there is the executive committee of the Russian Football Union (RFS). I think in the very near future one of these bodies will look at this question in detail,” said Russian sports minister VitalyMutko.“I don’t have a problem with talking to my employers about this question.However, I have worked for eight months for free. Now they owe me for another two months. This is not a problem for me. If I was only interested in the money then I would have complained to FIFA a long time ago,” said Capello in response.

The verbal battle between Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger continues

There is clash that is going on involving Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho and Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger which has extended for over 10 years as the managers of each club critique the other one and it continues to capture the attention of the media.

One of the latest things that Wenger said is that Chelsea’s defensive style is easier to implement in a match and master in comparison to Arsenal’s but Mourinho responded by saying: “It’s not easy. If it was easy, you wouldn’t lose 3-1 at home to Monaco. If he defends well he draws 0-0 against Monaco and wins in Monte Carlo. It’s not easy to prepare a team to defend.”

Arsenal was knocked out from the Champions League round of 16 after losing against As.Monaco and Mourinho reminded Wenger about that incident which occurred a few weeks ago.

Even though Chelsea is positioned at the top of the Premier League, they have received continuous bashing from their playing style and especially Jose Mourinho who has had to play on a defensive method of play for certain matches in different situations. This style has been labeled as: ‘’Parking the Bus’’ and Arsene Wenger stated that this playing style is easy to master but then Mourinho responded by saying that it wasn’t so easy to do taking into consideration that Arsenal was knocked out of the Champions League after losing against As.Monaco.

The verbal attacks didn’t stop there as the Portuguese coach continued bashing Arsenal and Arsene Wenger after saying that CescFabregas joined Chelsea because he wanted to win titles and winning major pieces of silverware is something that Arsenal has struggled on doing for the past 10 years.

The latest title that Arsenal secured was the FA Cup but some clubs and managers don’t really consider that piece of silverware to be a major one in comparison to the Premier League or the Champions League.

It’s been over 11 years since Arsenal has managed to win the Premier League title and they have never won the Champions League. Chelsea on the other hand are huge favorites on being crowned as the champions of England and this is why Jose Mourinho said those words involving Fabregas making a move to Chelsea because he wanted to win major titles as it wouldn’t happen in Arsenal.

Anzhi Makhachkala to return to Russia in the Premier League

The Russian outfit Anzhi Makhachkala is on their way of returning to the top tier league of Russia in the Premier League which is the league where they used to compete some time ago but after being relegated, making a return to that league has turned into of the main objectives of the club.

Anzhi is positioned in the 1rst spot of the Russian National Football League with 51 points but their nearest rivals is Tosno which are following them closely behind with 49 points as the race for the top spot is being tightly between these 2 teams.

Even though Anzhi Makhachkala is making a genuine run for the top position of the league and are going through an impressive campaign, there was an incident which occurred that has turned things around in a very negative way for the Russian club and it’s supporters

Earlier in January of the ongoing year, the 20 year old midfielder GasanMagomedov was shot dead near his home. According to statements that have been released to the public, the player was driving to his home on a Saturday night when suddenly an unknown man with a shotgun started spraying bullets with a machine gun.

Magomedov used to perform in the youth academy of Anzhi Makhachkala and after the incident occurred, the Russian club expressed their condolences to the family and friends of the player through a statement which read: “We console with Gasan’s family. I hope the law-enforcement bodies will quickly find the killers and they will receive just punishment.”

Dagestan was the region where everything took place and it has recently been experiencing a number of outbreaks involving Islamist activities.

The police still have not been able to find the actual perpetrators of the shooting, investigations are gong underway and a suspected was arrested and it has now been revealed that Magomedov was not the actual target of the shooting but no further news have been announced.

Diego Simeone denies answers on Rumors Joining MC

Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has had to fend off questions about leaving the Spanish club in order to join a top club like Manchester City.

After managing to make the perennial underdogs as the champions of Spain, Simeone has seen in recent weeks that it is looking unlikely that they will be able to retain the title. Atletico have done extremely well since the Argentine came to the club in 2011. However, there is a feeling in Spain that he may have reached his best with the club and that it is time to seek new challenges.

Simeone dispel those rumours by saying that he was not going anywhere. This has hampered preparations ahead of the match with Malaga during the weekend. Simeone has had two weeks to allow the defeat against Real Sociedad sink in. Atletico’s surprise defeat against the relegation threatened outfit means that they are now four points away from the top of the table. Atletico have struggled this campaign after losing a number of first-team regulars like Diego Costa and Filipe Luis over the summer. They still have quality names like Garcia andKoke, but it has not been enough to find a way past the tougher Spanish opposition.

Simeone is aware that anymore dropped points could spell the end of the title.”We have no room for error, we must treat the game like a final.They have been doing well for a while. We can see their results and we also know they stopped Barcelona playing well [in a 0-0 draw in September]. They have a very strong offensive unit, much technical ability and experience on the pitch,” said the Argentine ahead of the match with Malaga, who are just two points behind them in the table. Atletico could realistically go second this weekend if results go their way.

Russian Football may lose Fabio Capello

The Russian football Federation is in danger of losing Fabio Capello as their manager after it was revealed that they do not have the necessary finances to meet the contractual agreement of the Italian. Capello is one of the highest-paid international coaches in the world with an annual salary of around £ 7 million. It is almost similar to the wages that former coach Guus Hiddink was paid. However, the Dutchman was largely paid because of the funding from billionaires like Roman Abramovich. Such funding has evaporated in recent years and it has resulted in Capello not being paid for the last few months.

The Russian FA have admitted that they should have looked at their finances before hiring a coach like Capello. There have been suggestions that the former Real Madrid manager may be forced to sign a new contract that pays him on a performance related basis. Despite his impeccable reputation as a club manager, Capello has been incredibly disappointing in the international scene. He has only managed a handful of victories with both England and Russia at two major tournaments. Russia suffered a disappointing World Cup 2014 after being knocked out of the group stages, but that does not seem to be any threat to the safety of Capello’s job.

“It’s no good when the financial upkeep of the head coach of the Russian team is not being paid. But they should have thought about the sources to finance the contract when they drew it up. And now we need to search for those sources,” said a member of the Russian Football Union executive board. “I’m confident the issue with paying his salary should be solved on 15 November, the day of our match with the Austrian team. It should be solved by those responsible for signing the contract with Capello,” said Russia’s sports minister.

Chelsea looks interested to sign Khedira

The January transfer window is over 2 months away from opening and allowing clubs from making a move for players but even though it is such a fairly long period of time away from actually happening, rumors do not stop from emerging and being spread linking certain clubs with certain players and Chelsea is one of the teams that is rumored to be on the move and interested in signing Real Madrid’s Sami Khedira.

Chelsea is a club that is known to not be afraid on spending huge amounts of cash in order to sign their respective targets and the team of Jose Mourinho has an attacking lineup of players which includes: Cesc Fabregas, Oscar, Eden Hazard, Diego Costa and Andre Schurrle.

All of these players have played a huge role in Chelsea’s superb start of the season as those are some of the main goal-scoring machines for the Premier League club but having so many attackers can also cause a problem if the squad does not have any players that can provide backup in the defence and this is why Sami Khedira is constantly being linked with a move to Chelsea.

Sami Khedira is a veteran defensive midfielder who not only has experience playing at a club level but also in the international stage as he has represented Germany in some of the biggest and toughest tournaments in the world.

The German midfielder is a viable option for Chelsea as Khedira is currently performing for Real Madrid but he has lost his place in the starting lineup of the Spanish club and Jose Mourinho could use this chance to sign Khedira without having to spend huge amounts of cash.