Iker Casillas has left the door open to a return to Real Madrid, revealing he would like nothing more than to ‘come home’ to the Bernabeu.
Casillas rose through the youth ranks in Madrid and established himself as one of the best goalkeepers on the planet. He won five league titles and three Champions Leagues in his 16 years between the sticks before leaving for Porto in 2015.
He has since watched his former teammate Zinedine Zidane take charge, and will be well aware of the club’s tendency to keep their most famous figures working from within. Raul, Xabi Alonso and Guti Hernandez are among the former players to have held coaching roles at the club.
Casillas and some friends | Denis Doyle/Getty Images
Casillas says he would be open to a similar return, revealing that he has already moved back to Madrid in the months since his retirement.
“Back to Madrid?” he told AS. “We have returned to Madrid, I will relocate and see in time…but Real Madrid is my home, if it happens it will be nice to come back.”
Like any Real Madrid fan at present, Casillas is finding it hard to watch the club, who are in serious trouble on all fronts. They are already seven points off the pace in the La Liga title race after a stuttering start to the season, while defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk during the week leaves them at serious risk of elimination at the Champions League group stage.
Zidane has come under serious pressure as a result, but Casillas has thrown his support behind his former teammate.
“We’re starting to get going,” Casillas told Diario AS. “Madrid depends on the Champions League, and La Liga is quite even at the moment. It’s a very different year.
“Zizou is a magnificent coach.
“He’s a good friend and will do everything possibility to lift Madrid as high up as possible. You cannot live in the past but he’s earned the right for us to trust in him.”
Manchester United will begin trialling ‘safe standing’ at Old Trafford once fans can return to games in larger numbers, and will install the necessary rail seating early next year.
All-seater stadiums have been a compulsory requirement for all Premier League clubs since 1994 in the wake of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster and the subsequent Taylor Report, which investigated a number of aspects of stadium safety following the tragedy.
Premier League stadiums have been all-seater since the mid-1990s | Alex Livesey/Getty Images
United have been working towards creating a ‘safe standing’ section for some time, which relies on rails being fitted in front of each row of seats that supporters can lean on, eliminating the risk of toppling. Each fan also still has an assigned seat to prevent overcrowding in certain areas.
United were granted permission from the local council to trial safe standing for 1,500 fans in the north east quadrant of Old Trafford. That was in April of this year, following several years’ worth of consultations with Manchester United Supporters’ Trust and the Fans’ Forum.
However, that was just a month into the first coronavirus lockdown and fans are still to return to Old Trafford because of its tier three status in the latest set of government restrictions.
Yet the move to safe standing is now another step closer to reality, with the Daily Mail reporting that the special seating will be installed early in 2021. The area of Old Trafford where they will be installed has had issues with persistent standing and it is seen as the best way of addressing safety.
Old Trafford will undergo changes in 2021 | David Goddard/Getty Images
“Our belief is that the introduction of barrier seats will enhance spectator safety in areas of the stadium where – as with other clubs – we have seen examples of persistent standing,” managing director Richard Arnold said when permission was initially granted.
“It also allows us to future-proof the stadium in the event of any changes to the current all-seater stadium policy. If the trial is successful, we may consider further implementation of barrier seating in other parts of the stadium.”
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Arsene Wenger recently rejected a lucrative offer from the Serbian FA to move into international management, according to a report in Serbia.
The 71-year-old hasn’t managed since stepping down from Arsenal in 2018 and is in no hurry to return. He currently serves as FIFA’s Chief of Global Development, and keeps himself in the public eye with various typically charming media appearances.
Serbia, however, are thought to be on the lookout for a new coach after David Marshall’s big left hand put paid to their hopes of reaching Euro 2020. Ljubisa Tumbakovic’s job looks tenuous, and according to Informer, the FSS (Serbian FA) have already begun the process of replacing him.
Slavisa Kokeza, president of the FSS, is said to have personally approached an intermediary of Wenger about taking the job, and told them that money is ‘no problem’. Wenger, however, turned it down without too much thought.
The legendary Frenchman does want to return to management at some stage but has been laid back about waiting for the right opportunity. Speaking on his appearance on Desert Island Discs, he joked that he enjoys spending his downtime ‘watching other managers suffer’ and said that watching football from afar has helped him find a new appreciation of the game.
“I relax by watching other managers suffer and think ‘It’s your turn my friend’,” he said. “But by watching football as well, you know, I love it so much. And it’s easier for me when I watch other games to take a distance.
“Beatles are like a good football player. They make simple was [is] very complicated.” – Arsene Wenger pic.twitter.com/fpAT9XX1LS
— The Teatles (@Teatlemania) November 27, 2020
“Why does this player make this decision? What are the major mistakes they make? And I enjoy it because football is always unpredictable.
“It’s not like theatre – you go every night to the theatre – it starts the same and finishes the same. Go every night to a football game – it’s always different.”
Emmanuel Riviere. Yoshinori Muto. Joselu. Aleksander Mitrovic. Joelinton.
These are the names of just a few (expensive) players brought in to lead the Newcastle United front line in recent years. All have failed quite spectacularly.
However, with the shrewd signing of Callum Wilson from Bournemouth this summer, Steve Bruce and his Newcastle side now have an ‘out and out’ Premier League quality striker who knows where the goal is.
Having scored seven goals in nine appearances, Newcastle fans are starting to wonder if they now have a striker capable of reaching the 20-goal mark this season, a feat which hasn’t been achieved since Alan Shearer in 2003/04.
Wilson would be happy to emulate even ‘half of what’ previous strikers have achieved | Stu Forster/Getty Images
Last year attacking shortcomings were all too familiar for Bruce’s Magpies, with strikers Dwight Gayle, Joelinton and Andy Carroll managing just six goals between them all season. Wilson has already surpassed their combined figure with ease, proving to be worth every penny of the £20m paid.
A policy of younger and more risky signings (Joelinton), had previously alienated fans from Mike Ashley’s methods of a centre-forward pursuit, as they were left bewildered at Newcastle’s refusal to pay the £16m demanded by West Brom for Salomón Rondón after a successful loan spell two seasons ago, subsequently leading to Rafa Benitez’s departure.
That episode made Wilson’s signing all the more surprising; Ashley was investing in something of a rare commodity in Newcastle, proven Premier League quality.
Upon his announcement, Wilson told NUFC TV: “I’ve scored goals in the Premier League before.
“I didn’t have the greatest season last year, I’d be the first to admit that. Eight goals is not something I even want to associate myself with.
Wilson admitted that his 8 goal return last season for Bournemouth ‘wasn’t great’ | Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
“Double figures is something I want to achieve short term and obviously after that you want to get to the 20 mark. Then obviously see where you end up at the end of the season”.
He is certainly well on his way to doing that, nearly at double figures already, being outscored by only Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Son Heung-min, Jamie Vardy and Mohamed Salah.
Newcastle haven’t had anyone at the top end of the goalscoring charts since Demba Ba. The Senegalese’s 16 goal tally in 2011/12, helped Newcastle to a fifth-placed finish, highlighting that the team he was playing in was far superior to Wilson’s, who are outsiders to finish in the top half.
The really interesting thing about Wilson so far, is just how clinical he has been. According to BBC Sport, the former Coventry striker has had only 15 shots, with eight on target, resulting in seven goals. Whilst this is likely to be an unsustainable conversion rate, it shows he doesn’t need a lot of chances to score. The calibre of which has not been seen in the iconic black and white shirt since Shearer.
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— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) November 27, 2020
Take the most recent 2-0 win at Crystal Palace. Having barely had a sight of goal all game, he scored his first clear cut chance, and set up Joelinton for the second. In previous years, Toon fans might have been used to seeing Gayle or Riviere fluffing their lines on their one good sight at goal, resulting in two points dropped.
Being in red hot form, it is no surprise that Wilson was disappointed to be left out of the England squad announced by Gareth Southgate in October.
Defending his decision to leave him out, Southgate said: “Callum is a player who has worked with us before, but we didn’t think it was right to leave Tammy [Abraham] out this time.”
Southgate has clearly opted for familiarity within the squad, and not merit as he claimed would be the process by which squads would be picked.
Asked of his international ambitions at his unveiling Wilson was unsurprisingly confident: “For me I know I need to score my goals this year to even have a chance and an opportunity to get into the England squad for the Euros this summer. It’s every boy’s dream.”
He has had a taste of that in 2018, when he scored on his debut against USA, and will be hoping that Southgate will sit up and take notice of his form this season.
Emulate Three Lions legend Shearer with Newcastle’s first 20-goal tally in years and England will surely come calling.
Tottenham Hotspur head coach Jose Mourinho expects Harry Kane to be fit for the north London derby against Arsenal on Sunday, having left the talisman out of Thursday night’s 3-3 Europa League draw with LASK because of a minor injury.
It was the first time this season that Kane has been completely absent from a matchday squad, having at least been on the bench for every game Spurs have played in the Europa League and Carabao Cup.
Kane has been in superb form this season | Pool/Getty Images
But leaving Kane at home for the trip to Austria appears to have been no more than a precaution.
“I believe he is going to be fit,” Mourinho declared in a post-match media briefing as he looked ahead to the hotly anticipated clash against Arsenal.
“I’m not sure. He’s having treatment, but I could be doing some bluff and pretend he’s in trouble. But he’s not and I think he’ll play.”
Spurs go into the derby clash top of the table, compared to an Arsenal side languishing in 14th place. Yet Mourinho will hope to see more from his players than was on show against LASK, suggesting his team took their foot off the pedal.
“I think it’s a question of attitude, which I have experienced before even at Manchester United. I had a similar situation – we lost two matches away in the group phase,” the Spurs boss explained.
“When we get into the knockouts and you get better opponents and more difficulties, the team faces matches in a different way. [I learned] nothing new, really – the fact that the Europa League group phase doesn’t motivate some of the players, I knew it.”
Spurs are second in their Europa League group but can still top the standings and be seeded for the last 32 knockout draw if they win the final game at home against Antwerp next Thursday.
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