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• Why Internazionale's new owner was happy to invest outside Indonesia
• Pochettino will not spend in January
• Liverpool fear Daniel Sturridge's England exertions could prove costly
• Everton's and Liverpool's next phases owe much to Swansea
• 'We are lucky Özil chose Arsenal'
• Croatia's Josip Simunic fined by prosecutors for pro-Nazi chant
• 263. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, PSG
• WBA to open talks with Clarke
• European parliament condemns abuse of Qatar workers
• Poyet demands final say on transfers
• Swansea's Michael Laudrup looks ahead to Fulham fixture - video
• Newcastle manager Alan Pardew confident ahead of Norwich meeting – video
• Iker Casillas talks 'feud' with José Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo winning Ballon O'dor - video
• The best charity shops for finding celebrity castoffs
• British firm plans 'humane' housing for Qatar World Cup migrant labourers
• Southampton's Mauricio Pochettino talks up Arsenal's Premier League title bid – video
• Newcastle put skids under slide plans
• Work begins on turning Olympic Stadium into West Ham United's new home – video
• Football Weekly Extra: stylish Cristiano Ronaldo steers Portugal to Brazil
• The Fiver | Unrealistic public expectation | Barry Glendenning
• West Ham's Sam Allardyce talks injuries ahead of Premier League game with Chelsea – video
• Arsenal dressed by Lanvin - stylewatch
• Edgar Davids draws strength from English passion on Barnet's hard road
• Newcastle United: Club for sale, in need of repairs, big potential, £267m ono | Louise Taylor
• The Private Life: Why We Remain in the Dark by Josh Cohen – review

Why Internazionale's new owner was happy to invest outside Indonesia Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:00 PM PST Erick Thohir's first love is basketball but he owns a football club in Indonesia and the media magnate also sees his Serie A purchase as a business venture pure and simple Internazionale's new owner, Erick Thohir, had an interesting weekend with his club, bouncing on the pitch as supporters sang "If you don't jump you are an AC Milan fan", joking with reporters about signing Lionel Messi and then watching as a Nerazzurri XI lost a friendly 1-0 to a second division Swiss team. There was a little surprise in Thohir's native Indonesia, where the billionaire is much more of a court-side than pitch-side presence. His investment company has shares in one of the country's leading football clubs, Persib Bandung, but he is a much more visible supporter of the all-conquering Satria Muda team he owns. Basketball, it is generally agreed, is the media magnate's love; football is business pure and simple. There is nothing pure and simple about football in Indonesia. Since the Soviet Union built the Gelora Bung Karno stadium in 1962 people have tended to take, not give. The Jakarta arena has, when full, the best atmosphere in Asia, rivalled only by Tehran's Azadi. While this face of Indonesian football can take one's breath away, so can what happens out of view. In the bowels of the stadium are the brown windowless offices of the country's football association, PSSI, linked by quiet windowless corridors where footsteps echo on the shiny wooden floor. From here over the years the stench of corruption and more besides has pumped out to all corners of this vast archipelago. There are no guarantees that even with the best governance Indonesia would not have lost 1-0 in China on Friday but the Merah Putih (red and whites) would have had a better chance. It is also less likely that they would have all but crashed out of qualification for the 2015 Asian Cup with a third of the group games still to play – one point from four games, albeit in a tough group, says it all. The 2012 Asian Cup – a regional tournament that Indonesia has never won, unlike tiny Singapore with its four titles – ended at the group stage. Much is written about how China struggles in football but the Middle Kingdom is far ahead of Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation in the world. Recent Chinese success at club level has come as investment followed a clean-up of the league. Indonesian fans are not holding their breath. A senior official at PSSI admitted in May that there were major issues after it was fined $15,000 by the Asian Football Confederation for the latest in a series of crowd disturbances at international games. "Football management in Indonesia is in such a mess at the moment. We aren't able to do anything about things like this," said the spokesman Rudolf Yesayas. "We have much bigger problems." Those include deadlier levels of violence that can be evidenced in the domestic leagues – during the big game between Persija Jakarta and Persib Bandung in May 2012 three fans were killed – but there is plenty more besides as the country is still trying to recover from years of infighting, incompetence, corruption and cronyism. The low point came in 2005. The reputation of Nurdin Halid, the PSSI president, was not high even before he was sent down for the first of two prison sentences on charges of corruption. Fifa seemed to care little about enforcing its own rules about criminals or politicians (he was also a member of a major national party) running national associations and Nurdin continued to hold office while in his cell. Though the 'Jakarta Joker' was finally deposed in 2011, his legacy lives on. Eventually the opposition took power of PSSI and, while the de-Nurdin-ification started (though an increasing number of the old boy's supporters are back in positions of influence), the politics did not stop. The national team coach Alfred Riedl was popular with players and public – during his time in charge of Vietnam more than 80 fans came forward in 2007 offering to donate a kidney on hearing that the Austrian needed a transplant – but in the first act of the new regime he was fired. By this time there were two federations with two different leagues. Players who left clubs in the official competition to join the rebels were banned by Fifa. A 10–0 thrashing in 2012 at the hands of Bahrain in a qualifier for the Brazil World Cup prompted accusations of match-fixing. Whether foul play was involved or not, this was a demotivated D-team even if the humiliation was A-grade. In China foreign players have just helped Guangzhou Evergrande become champions of Asia but in Indonesia many imports play with virtual visas, promised but never forthcoming, and phantom pay packets. So numerous are those agents, players and coaches owed money by Indonesian clubs that there have been discussions as to whether to start a Facebook group. The Indonesia striker Bambang Pamungkas, who stated in March that the country's football was dying, helped to form a players' union in 2012, claiming that 60% of his fellow professionals faced late payment issues – a report in The Times alleged that the total amount owed to players was more than $6m. Bambang has still not been paid almost a year later and, if it can happen to the country's biggest star – Indonesia's golden boy with almost five million Twitter followers – then what chance do the rest have? The tragic story of Diego Mendieta made headlines around the world last December when the Paraguayan died alone in hospital. He was unable to leave or afford medical treatment after his club had stopped paying him. In a decade of lows that was the lowest but there is always hope. The Under-19 team recently defeated South Korea 3-2 in qualification for the 2014 Asian Championship to send a Jakarta crowd of 50,000 and a nation wild with delight. Some of the near 70m people in the country under the age of 14 are crying out for a little of the youth development system that the Koreans, who hardly noticed the defeat, take for granted. That passion means that the politicians will always find the game attractive. For Indonesian fans the major event of 2014 is not the World Cup – the 1938 appearance in the guise of Dutch East Indies, the first ever by an Asian nation, is not looking like being repeated any time in the near future – but the presidential election. As they say, "Control football and you are on your way to controlling Indonesia." There is not much evidence of anyone controlling anything at the moment and, until that happens, such as Thohir cannot really be blamed if they look to spend their money overseas. Indonesia Internazionale Asia Pacific John Duerden theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Pochettino will not spend in January Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:00 PM PST • Saints manager happy to give youth a chance • Arsenal away next up for bullish Southampton Mauricio Pochettino has said Southampton will not need to spend in January in order to maintain their push for European football next season because of the number of young players striving to break into his first team. Saints, whose flourishing youth system has been praised extensively, could go top of the Premier League if they win at Arsenal and Liverpool do not pick up the points at Everton, yet there is a danger that the relative lack of squad depth could see them fall away as the season progresses. Although Southampton are above Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham, they do not appear to have the resources to maintain that and injuries to key players may expose the thinness of their squad. Pochettino, however, shrugged of those concerns, saying that he will simply promote youngsters into the first team. "We don't see that as a problem," the Argentinian said. "We have a lot of young players coming from the academy that are pushing really hard. They are making a case for being in the senior team. Players like Sam Gallagher and Harry Reid – very exciting players. We have a lot of young players that guarantee us a very good future in the immediate future. We are covered." Saints had three men in the last England squad and two with the Under-21s, and Pochettino has not hesitated to give young players a chance. Luke Shaw and James Ward-Prowse, 18 and 19 respectively, are regular starters while Calum Chambers, an 18-year-old right-back, started the first three games of the season. Pochettino accepted that the financial might of the Premier League means it is easy to sign ready-made talent from abroad instead of investing time and patience in academies, but added that his faith in youth is partly what persuaded Southampton's chairman, Nicola Cortese, to appoint him last January. "It all comes down to individual decisions," Pochettino said. "The Premier League is financially the most potent league in the world. Most of the time it is much easier to sign a player who is the finished product, probably from abroad, instead of using younger players and giving them confidence, time and the possibility of coming through the ranks and to be part of the senior side. "It is understandable because managers depend on results of every single game. What's been the case here in Southampton is that two good things have come together – the fact that there's been a very good project in place for a long time, in the sense that we always push players through the academy, and a manager that fully believes in young players. "In that sense Nicola found what he was looking for when he appointed me as manager because of the work I was doing at Espanyol. I had a similar kind of philosophy at Espanyol, where I was fully focused on young players, and that has been transferred to Southampton. People here didn't know me but Nicola did, he was aware of my work for five years at Espanyol." Having won at Liverpool and drawn at Old Trafford already, Southampton are confident that they can beat the leaders at the Emirates, even though Pochettino praised Arsène Wenger's "charm" and said he is in awe of the Arsenal manager. Pochettino was less effusive about Gastón Ramírez, though, after more reports suggesting that the Uruguayan is unhappy about his lack of playing time. "Gastón knows perfectly what I think and I know what he thinks," he said. "That's a private matter between us. He is fully obliged to fulfil his contract. That's all he has to do as a Southampton player." Southampton Transfer window Jacob Steinberg theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Liverpool fear Daniel Sturridge's England exertions could prove costly Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:53 PM PST • Thigh injury may rule striker out of Merseyside derby • Brendan Rodgers denies bid for Derby's Will Hughes Daniel Sturridge's preparations for the Merseyside derby were described as "not ideal" after the Liverpool striker played through the pain barrier for England against Germany. Liverpool's joint leading goalscorer this season is a doubt for Saturday's trip to Everton having played the full 90 minutes of England's defeat on Tuesday with a thigh problem. Sturridge has played for Liverpool with the injury recently but he limped out of England training the day before the international friendly and his manager, Brendan Rodgers, is concerned at the possible repercussions for Liverpool at Goodison Park. He admits it was the £12m striker's decision to face Germany. "He'd not played the previous game [against Chile] so I was not overly surprised he played the full 90 minutes against Germany," Rodgers said. "It's not ideal if you haven't trained. When you see Daniel – and I have worked with him for a number of months, I know when he's at his best – that's when he has been training regularly and playing games. "He's been playing through with a dead leg and went to England with an injury. Sometimes managers are led by players. Sometimes they want to play 90 minutes and that's something we'll take into consideration. We'll assess him. He's back recovering and we'll see where he is over the next few days." Sturridge and Steven Gerrard, who has a hip problem, did not train on Thursday but Rodgers confirmed that was routine after an international break. "He would not have been able to train the second day after a game anyway," the manager said. "Usually first day after is recovery and second is a more active recovery outside, which he's done, but he didn't train with the group." One certain absentee against Everton, and for the next few months, is José Enrique. The left-back has been struggling with a knee problem all season and is to undergo surgery after a period of rest failed to remedy the injury. Rodgers said: "We've tried various ways to get him fit but he needs an operation. I'm not sure how long he'll be out." Liverpool have sacked their highly rated academy director, Frank McParland, and academy technical director, Rodolfo Borrell, as part of an overhaul of the club's youth system. McParland has overseen a major improvement in Liverpool's academy since being recruited to the director's position by the former manager Rafael Benítez in 2009 and his departure represents a major surprise. Borrell was also hired by Benítez in 2009, from Barcelona's famed youth ranks, and his work had led to promotion from under-18s coach to under-21 manager and finally technical director 12 months ago. Seven youth team graduates appeared in Liverpool's first team last season, notably Raheem Sterling. Parland was instrumental in recruiting the England international from Queens Park Rangers and in attracting several coveted youngsters to the Liverpool academy. Rodgers declined to elaborate on the sackings but has taken the unusual step of addressing speculation linking Liverpool with a January move for the Derby County midfielder Will Hughes. The 18-year-old scored for England Under-21s against San Marino this week and was again linked with a switch to Anfield. He said: "I never normally say anything about players but I do really feel for this young guy. It is something which has been ongoing and I don't normally comment on speculation but I will because I have the interest of the player at heart. "This is a kid who, if he picks up the paper every weekend, sees he is linked with coming to Liverpool. This is a very talented young player but either some person or a group of people aren't doing him any favours whatsoever by constantly linking him with coming to Liverpool. "I read we had put in a bid or something had been agreed and there is nothing further from the truth. There is no bid. There has been nothing. "This is a young kid learning the game, he is at an outstanding club at Derby, he has a great manager there and we sent one of our young players [Andre Wisdom] there to develop and learn. I think Will Hughes is a wonderful young talent who just needs to play football and for me he is probably at the best place he could be. We are always looking for talent – young players, senior players, and he along with many other players is probably one we've looked at." Liverpool Everton England Brendan Rodgers Andy Hunter theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Everton's and Liverpool's next phases owe much to Swansea Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:29 PM PST Roberto Martínez and Brendan Rodgers, who both shaped their philosophies in south Wales, meet on Saturday for the first time as Everton and Liverpool manager respectively Roberto Martínez has described it as "a unique derby" and in one respect the hyperbole suits the 221st Merseyside duel between Everton and Liverpool. It is the first one designed in Swansea. Should Goodison Park witness a departure from a fixture renowned for attrition and the most red cards in the Premier League era on Saturday, and it is wise to leave the prospect open at this stage, it will be testament to the vision of the men patrolling the technical areas. In Brendan Rodgers and Martínez, Liverpool and Everton have managers for the purists, whose emphasis on possession football may dilute the naked aggression that has traditionally scarred the derby and often prevented any entertainment with the ball. Their similar philosophies have developed over time, but it was the opportunity provided by Swansea City under the chairmanship of Huw Jenkins that gave both the platform to turn into Merseyside rivals. "We are from the same bottle in terms of asking players to be brave and having the courage to play under pressure," said Rodgers on Thursday, showing a mutual respect that has not always flowed across Stanley Park. The rivals have both benefited from Swansea's faith at a critical juncture in their careers. Martínez had no managerial experience when Jenkins offered the club's former midfielder the chance to replace Kenny Jackett in February 2007. For his part, Rodgers had been out of the game for seven months after a troubled spell at Reading when appointed as Paulo Sousa's replacement in July 2010. Martínez led Swansea to the League One title in his first full season in charge, a respectable eighth on their return to the Championship and then left for the Premier League and former club Wigan Athletic amid accusations of disloyalty. Rodgers led Swansea into the Premier League via the 2011 play-offs, a creditable 11th in their first season back in the top flight and then left for Liverpool amid accusations of disloyalty. But who had the deeper impact on the Swansea revival? "That is not for me to say," said the Everton manager. "That is for the Swansea fans to say. If you are manager of a club and you push it forward, it doesn't matter who did more or less before you – it's just about making sure the football club is moving on positively. "Football clubs are always bigger than any manager or players, I always see it that way. The tradition of families following the same clubs for 100 years is what matters. Brendan did a terrific job at Swansea and the fans will always be the ones who decide who they enjoyed the most. I think it is fair to say that, as managers, we were both positive for the club." Rodgers suggests the answer to the question lies within the boardroom at the Liberty Stadium. "The football club at Swansea is clever enough to have a philosophy in place that it believes in and brings in managers that suit the philosophy." But he denies the "Swansea way" means the passion associated with the Merseyside derby will be reduced. The Liverpool manager explained: "We both want our teams to dominate with the ball rather than without it and play attractive, attacking football. There are various ways to do it but you don't take the intensity out of a game by having the ball. A lot of our game is based on our aggressive nature to press and harry the ball." The Liverpool manager admits "the foundation was in place" when he arrived at Swansea with a mission "to move it on". But his Everton counterpart refuses to accept any responsibility for Rodgers's subsequent success. "It would be very cheap of me to take the credit for his career," laughed Martínez. "The biggest difficulty as a manager is to win football games with what you've got. It would be very cheap and easy of me to say 'because that worked well it is down to the previous manager' or 'because it didn't work out well it is down to the new manager being unable to maintain what we had before'. That's unhealthy in football. "Brendan deserves the credit he has been given and he is a manager who has very good football concepts. That is something he has developed with his experiences over the years and the link we have together is that we were able to work with a group of players who bought into an idea of playing that was very rare. "In 2007, to have a team in the lower leagues believing they could out-possess any team, and go from 150 passes to 650-700 passes was a rare mentality. We shared that philosophy and it is part of our careers, but I wouldn't take it any further than that." The fans' view Alan Lewis, from the Swansea City Supporters' Trust, said of Roberto Martínez and Brendan Rodgers: "There's no doubt both of them had an influence. People ask what did Brendan and Roberto do for Swansea but the question is also what did Swansea do for both of them? Clearly Roberto did plant the style of play and started the influx of Spanish players – he laid some of the foundations. Paulo Sousa, who everyone forgets had a season in between, tightened up the defence. And then I think Brendan added that extra impetus to take us that one step further to the Premier League, which will always be special. It's very difficult to choose between the two. If you had a poll of fans, asking who did the most for Swansea, I suspect Roberto might just about swing it." Everton Liverpool Roberto Martínez Brendan Rodgers Swansea City Andy Hunter theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

'We are lucky Özil chose Arsenal' Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:00 PM PST As the Gunners prepare to face Southampton the Spaniard is relishing the club's chance of a real tilt at the title "Santi Cazorla smiles" is not exactly news. Team-mates at Villarreal declared him "our Ronaldinho" because of his temperament as much as his talent, friends say his enthusiasm is infectious and, while he chats, his fellow Spaniard, asturiano and Londoner Juan Mata cannot resist approaching to share a joke. As the Arsenal player puts it: "I like to smile. I try to bring happiness on and off the pitch. I don't understand how you can play football without joy." Grinning is pretty much Cazorla's default setting. But even for him this is a big one. "I was," he laughs, "like a little kid." He is talking, of course, about the moment that seemed to change everything, the day that Arsenal signed Mesut Özil. "I was injured, so it was a few more days before I had the chance to train with him," Cazorla says as he settles into a chair in the bar at the Spanish Football Federation's HQ. "And I was getting really excited. A great player's coming and one you know you're going to fit with, enjoy playing with. I was a fan, looking forward to it. "It was strange. I spoke to friends at Real Madrid who told me that Mesut was talking to Arsenal, that he wanted to leave. You hear about it but you still see it as something a long way off. You think, 'How are Madrid going to let Mesut go?' It's puzzling. He's one of the best in the world and you don't really believe it. We were talking about it: 'It's close ... it could happen ... they've agreed ...' Then one day the manager said: 'We've signed Mesut.' And the happiness was immense. "He can seem intermittent but when he has the ball he's different. You get that feeling something's going to happen. It's palpable. He has huge quality and we're lucky he chose us when he had other options. The manager's playing him as media-punta, where he performs best. Our style suits him and with time so will the Premier League." Cesc Fábregas told the Guardian that creative players thrive in the space English football offers and Cazorla agrees: "Cesc describes it perfectly. It's not as tactical in England. The first line of pressure is incredible: everyone comes at you, fast, strong, intense but, if you can play two or three quick passes, it opens up. You get space in that three-quarters position you don't get in Spain. I enjoy it; Mesut will too." The doubt, if there was one, was whether it was Özil Arsenal needed. Cazorla concedes the point. "Above all because we'd been hearing about strikers: Higuaín, Luis Suárez, striker, striker, striker ... Our striker was Giroud and you think: 'What if he gets injured? What do we need?' We expected a No9 but circumstances meant we couldn't get Luis. Liverpool resisted. With Higuaín, Napoli got in ahead [of us] and he chose Italy. "Suárez's incredible. I'd have loved it if he had come; his style would have suited us. Arsenal did all they could and he wouldn't have minded. But Liverpool didn't want to sell, which they're entirely entitled to do, and he's playing incredibly again. It's a pity he's not on our team! [Arsenal] saw some doors shut and, when they saw the chance to get Mesut, it was an opportunity to thump a fist on the desk, to make a statement. He's a superb signing. He's brought ilusión, optimism and hope." Even now? Even after losing to Manchester United? "The sensation was bad. Not because we lost – we know you can lose at United – but because they didn't do anything really to beat us," Cazorla concedes. "You say: 'Last year we lost 2-1 but they rolled over us.' This year's different. Two shots for them, two for us; in corners it's 6-5. Someone brought the paper in with the stats. They had 39% of the ball. What did they do better? Nothing really: we didn't play well but they weren't so brilliant as to beat us. "The conclusion was: 'If they're going to beat us, let it be that they beat us well. Not because on a corner we weren't alert.' We felt like that was three points gone against a team that will be up there. It's a dead ball, Van Persie's unmarked and you lose to something you can avoid." Is that not the point, though? Some said it was classic Arsenal, the soft underbelly revealed again. Old Trafford was the kind of defeat that has hurt Arsenal before, the kind that could send fatalism flooding back. Cazorla counters: "No. I think we're OK. Defeat hurts because we could have opened up a gap. Other results went our way and it was an opportunity lost. But I wouldn't talk about fatalism. It's one game and we've shown we're more consistent this season. Last year we had a lot of good games but we would go to grounds where we should win and didn't. We've changed." It is clear from the Spaniard's words that there is no tangible catch-all explanation. "Experience ... commitment ... more aggression ... better focus. There are examples last season where in 10 minutes we lost concentration and we lost points. Against Fulham we were winning 2-0 and we lost that lead. Why? Sometimes it's relaxation, maybe overconfidence. Maybe in Spain you know that, if Madrid or Barcelona lead, they'll win. In England any corner or free-kick, any moment and everything changes. A momentary slip and you pay for it. "But you can't ever lose a game when you're 2-0 up at home if you want to win something. United was bad, sure, but we're clearer, much more focused in every play. The manager is more concienciado, more concentrated, more conscious." It is an interesting remark and tempting to see the calls for Arsène Wenger's head as bringing about a shift. "He's more demanding," Cazorla says. "It's been a long time without winning anything and he's determined. I learn from him every day and he has the same philosophy to keep the ball, play, but in defence, in terms of not committing mistakes, he's more on top of us. He knows last year we lost too many points. It could be that [the pressure in the summer] might have helped; it might have done the club good. "This is a spectacular club and the fans are incredible. It's hard for us Spaniards to understand how you can go nine years and ..." Cazorla trails off. "Well, it wouldn't happen here in Spain. People want that run to end. They were excited, agitated: they wanted signings, a genuine chance of fighting for the title. And with the signing of Mesut optimism returned. The players got a lift too, the mentality changed. We felt like we had closed the gap." It is not just Özil, Cazorla says. "Flamini does a hidden job. Who gives the assist? Mesut. Who scored the goals? Giroud. And Giroud's playing with more confidence. Last year he never quite became undisputed first choice: the manager tried Walcott, Gervinho, Podolski. This year Giroud started well, scored a lot, won the trust of the manager and the fans, and he's grown. He's fundamental. "People see those details, the goals and assists but players like Flamini are vital: balance, positioning, intelligence. Flamini is like a coach on the pitch, he runs all game, he's intense, well positioned. It's not coincidence. And Aaron Ramsay has been incredible. I really liked him already but now he's so consistent, playing well every single game. You see the confidence: he dares to try everything and it's coming off. We can't load him down with responsibility but he's been superb." Together they have taken Arsenal top of the league and the top of Champions League Group F but neither will be easy. "I was doing the maths here with [Raúl] Albiol and Pepe [Reina, both play for Napoli]. They play Dortmund next and the last game is against us. We could all end up with 12 points: someone might go out on 12 points, which is hard to take." Cazorla has studied the league fixtures just as closely; he has done the calculations there too. The trouble, he says, is that the calculations are often worthless. There are eight teams within six points and surprise results that should no longer surprise. "I was talking to Jesús [Navas] and he says they haven't won at Sunderland for seven years. It seems amazing but that's the greatness of the league: that City can go to Sunderland and lose," he says. "In Spain it's Madrid and Barcelona miles ahead. In England there's Arsenal, Tottenham, United, City, Chelsea. Southampton too. Liverpool are the surprise and I think they're genuine contenders: they've strengthened well, they're compact and they have the advantage of only playing one competition. United was a pity because we could have got away a little. You see yourself up front, you're playing well, you're happy but we've learnt that the second we drop in intensity and concentration we're going to lose points that could decide the league. "If we're leaders, it's because right now we're the best team in England but there's a long way to go and we can't get obsessed. You look at the fixtures but the one that matters is Southampton, the next one. You can say: 'Yes, we're going to win the league' but ..." Cazorla smiles. "And what if you don't win on Saturday? What's the point then?" Arsenal Mesut Ozil Sid Lowe theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Croatia's Josip Simunic fined by prosecutors for pro-Nazi chant Posted: 21 Nov 2013 01:42 PM PST • Defender addressed fans after World Cup qualification • Prosecutors impose £2,600 fine for 'spreading racial hatred' Croatia's public prosecutors have fined Josip Simunic for pro-Nazi chants after the national team's World Cup qualification. Croatia reached the World Cup with a 2-0 win over Iceland on Tuesday. Simunic took up a microphone on the field after the match and shouted to fans: "For the homeland!" The fans responded: "Ready!" The call was used by the Croatian pro-Nazi puppet regime that ruled the state during the second world war. The prosecutor office fined Simunic the equivalent of 3,200 euros (£2,600) on Thursday for "spreading racial hatred". It said the defender was aware this call was used by the wartime regime. Simunic has defended his action, saying he was driven by love for his country. "The thought that anyone could associate me with any form of hatred or violence terrifies me," he said. Fifa said it is considering disciplinary action against Simunic. Croatia Race issues World Cup 2014 qualifiers theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

263. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, PSG Posted: 21 Nov 2013 01:00 PM PST Click to enlarge, and debate the strip below the line. Keith Hackett's verdict appears in Sunday's Observer and here from Monday. Competition: win an official club shirt of your choice For a chance to win a club shirt of your choice from the range at Kitbag.com send us your questions for You are the Ref to you.are.the.ref@observer.co.uk. The best scenario used in the new YATR strip each Sunday wins a shirt to the value of £50 from Kitbag. Terms & conditions apply. For more on the fifty year history of You Are The Ref, click here. Sweden Paris Saint-Germain Laws of football theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

WBA to open talks with Clarke Posted: 21 Nov 2013 12:00 PM PST • Albion head coach 'comfortable' with situation • Clarke's two-year deal expires at the end of season West Bromwich Albion have said they will open contract talks with Steve Clarke in the new year and have attempted to quell any suggestion of unrest by claiming that the head coach is "comfortable" with the club's decision to wait another six weeks before discussing his future. Clarke signed a two-year deal when he was appointed as Roy Hodgson's replacement in the summer of 2012 and made a big impression in his first season with the Midlands club. The Scot, who had previously worked as assistant manager at Chelsea, West Ham and Liverpool, led Albion to eighth place – their highest top-flight finish since 1981. Although Albion made a poor start to the current campaign – they sit 10th in the table after putting together a decent run of results over the last couple of months – including a 2-1 win at Old Trafford in September and a 2-2 draw at Chelsea that would have yielded another famous victory but for a poor refereeing decision by Andre Marriner. There has, however, been a lack of urgency on the club's part when it comes to addressing Clarke's contractual situation, which has fuelled speculation about the head coach's future. Richard Garlick, Albion's sporting and technical director, said that the issue has been raised at board level and insisted that both parties are happy for talks to commence at the start of January. "Steve's contract situation was discussed at last month's board meeting," Garlick said. "We decided that we would open talks with Steve in the new year which, historically, we feel is the appropriate time to address such matters. "We have got an extremely busy period ahead, with important games coming thick and fast. Once the Christmas period is out of the way, we plan to sit down with Steve and discuss his future. Steve is aware of our plans and has told us he is comfortable with the situation." West Bromwich Albion Stuart James theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

European parliament condemns abuse of Qatar workers Posted: 21 Nov 2013 10:45 AM PST Fifa urged to banish 'slavery' from 2022 football World Cup The European parliament has passed an emergency resolution condemning the widespread abuse of migrant workers in Qatar and urging Fifa to "send a clear and strong message to Qatar to avoid the football World Cup 2022 [being] delivered by the assistance of modern slavery". But there was disappointment among those who had proposed the motion, after the Christian Democrat and Conservative voting blocs succeeded in removing a clause calling on Qatar to abolish the kafala sponsorship system that ties migrant workers to their employers. The resolution called on Qatar – under pressure after a Guardian investigation and a series of reports by organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch exposed the scale of the problem – to reform and uphold its labour laws. The resolution reminds Fifa "that its responsibility goes beyond the development of football and the organisation of competitions". Fifa said it welcomed the resolution. Despite previously saying there was "plenty of time" to sort out the issue, Fifa president Sepp Blatter this week said it should be addressed as a matter of urgency, following a meeting with trade union leaders in Zurich. Around 88% of Qatar's 2 million population is made up of migrant workers, the highest ratio in the world. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has warned that 4,000 workers could die before a ball is kicked in 2022, if the government does not urgently reform the system. The resolution registered concern over issues including "long working hours, hazardous working conditions, the workers being unpaid for months, had their passports confiscated, forced to live in overcrowded labour camps, denied the right to form unions, and without access to free drinking water in extreme heat". The Qatari government, which has engaged the law firm DLA Piper to conduct an indepdendent review of abuses in the construction sector, said the resolution was "premature". "Qatar takes the allegations that have been made concerning the construction sector extremely seriously and has therefore already put an independent review into those allegations in place, to be conducted as a matter of the utmost urgency," the Qatar foreign ministry said. "Qatar will deal severely with any abuses on the part of companies operating in its construction sector, particularly relating to its migrant labour force." A new, in-depth Amnesty International report last Sunday revealed wide-scale and endemic mistreatment of workers, many of whom are heavily in debt and tied to their employer through the kafala system. Green MEP Barbara Lochbihler, chair of the European parliament's subcommittee on human rights, said the resolution sent "an important signal both to the Qatari government and international football authorities on the need to take urgent action to address the situation regarding forced and slave labour in Qatar". She added: "While we regret that centre-right MEPs succeeded in removing a core demand, calling for the abolishment of the kafala system, the resolution nonetheless highlights the fundamental flaws of this system, which pushes thousands of migrant workers into a situation of forced labour. We would urge the Qatari government to repeal the kafala system as a matter of urgency and for Fifa to prioritise this in its relations with Qatar in the context of the World Cup." World Cup 2022 Fifa Qatar Middle East and North Africa Slavery European Union Europe Human rights Owen Gibson theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Poyet demands final say on transfers Posted: 21 Nov 2013 10:29 AM PST • Manager holds talks with director of football and chief scout • 'If a player is not right, I'm not going to accept it,' says Poyet Gus Poyet has made it clear there will be problems at Sunderland if he is not given the final say on transfers. While the manager is happy to be working alongside Roberto De Fanti, the club's director of football, and Valentino Angeloni, the chief scout, he established his spheres of autonomy during a meeting with the two Italians in London last week when Sunderland's January transfer-market strategy was planned. "We talked about a position the other day and considered four players," Poyet said. "I picked two. It was simple. One of the other two [selected by De Fanti] was a definite no. If that one is coming, I won't be here. The player has to be the right one for me. If not, I'm not going to accept it." He may have said it with a smile on his face but Poyet was keen to establish his working parameters. "The sporting director exists everywhere in the world," he said. "I know in England it's not very common. The manager is normally in charge of everything but I had it at Zaragoza as a player and my situation is clear. "I met with Roberto and Valentino and said what I think we need. They need to give me the options and I need to pick the ones I like. We need to see if they are available and if they fit into the financial possibilities, then we will move forward. "I'm sure it's going to be done in the right way, in the common-sense way. Everyone has a responsibility and then the player has to be the right one for me." Paolo Di Canio, Poyet's predecessor, complained that none of the 14 signings made by De Fanti during the summer were on his shopping list, with Sunderland's failure to sign Tom Huddlestone from Tottenham Hotspur a particular regret. The current manager is more optimistic about making the new system work. "I've told him [De Fanti] my opinions about everybody here already and I've told him what I think we should be looking for," Poyet said. "Roberto and Valentino will manage it and then I will start checking on them every now and then – I like to go and see players live, if it's possible. The players already here have an opportunity now but there are others I think we need." The former Brighton manager has handed De Fanti a detailed analysis of the existing squad with the column marked "deficiencies" highlighting the need to hit the ground running on 1 January. "The idea is to start moving," said Poyet, whose team have recently beaten Newcastle United and Manchester City in the Premier League, increasing Sunderland's hopes of avoiding relegation following a disastrous start to the season. "The sooner we move, the sooner we get a player, the better for me." He is aiming for quality rather than quantity. "It's not going to be many players in January," he said. "And, so far, everything is working fine [with De Fanti and Angeloni]. The connection and communication have been great." Gus Poyet Sunderland Transfer window Louise Taylor theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Swansea's Michael Laudrup looks ahead to Fulham fixture - video Posted: 21 Nov 2013 10:01 AM PST Michael Laudrup, Swansea City manager, talks about his injury-hit squad and this weekend's game against Fulham

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew confident ahead of Norwich meeting – video Posted: 21 Nov 2013 09:58 AM PST Newcastle manager Alan Pardew says he doesn't want 'to pass an opportunity' against Norwich

Iker Casillas talks 'feud' with José Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo winning Ballon O'dor - video Posted: 21 Nov 2013 09:55 AM PST Real Madrid captain Iker Casillas says on Thursday he believes Cristiano Ronaldo is the worthy recipient of the prestigious award, and would have been surprised if the Portuguese didn't walk away with it

The best charity shops for finding celebrity castoffs Posted: 21 Nov 2013 09:34 AM PST The Beckhams have donated clothes to a charity shop. If you fancy bagging a similarly swish bargain, and doing a little good too, here's our guide to the swankiest charity shops in the country Emine Saner

British firm plans 'humane' housing for Qatar World Cup migrant labourers Posted: 21 Nov 2013 09:25 AM PST Quantex Qatar in joint venture to improve often dire conditions of migrants working on projects for 2022 tournament British experts are to help build a new generation of "humane" homes for more than 50,000 migrant construction workers in Qatar in the wake of a international outrage at dire living conditions for labourers ahead of the 2022 World Cup. Workers' villages featuring health centres, shops, recreational areas and even psychologists' consulting rooms will be built in co-operation with the government of Qatar, according to Quantex Qatar, a building consultancy set up by two British quantity surveyors. It is understood the plan has been accelerated after criticism from Amnesty International and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) after the Guardian exposed inhumane living conditions leading to the deaths of workers. Some existing workers' accommodation requires a dozen people to sleep in one room with insanitary washing and cooking conditions and little cooling equipment. The new housing – to be built in collaboration with US company Global Building Solutions, which has acquired around 1m square metres of land – will be made up of three-bedroom homes with a limit of four to a room. Each bed will be screened off and each home will have a living room, bathroom and dedicated covered outdoor space. Construction companies that lease them for workers will be given an insurance-backed guarantee that the facilities will meet both Qatar Foundation and international inspection standards. "We have formed a joint venture to deliver modern, clean and humane workers' villages for the market in Qatar," said Michael Murphy, chief executive of GBS. "We will build and operate the facilities at our cost, and will simply rent them out on a contract basis." "It is designed with one thing in mind - to improve the lives of the migrant workers who are fundamental to the success of Qatar 2022," Simon Trafford of Quantex Qatar told Building magazine. It is estimated that at least another 500,000 migrant labourers will be needed in the eight years running up to the World Cup to build in excess of £100bn worth of infrastructure and facilities. So far Nepal and India have provided the largest number of migrant workers, who make up over 90% of the Gulf state's population. The ITUC predicted as many as 4,000 migrant workers could die in Qatar during that period unless conditions are improved. In a report released this week, based on two recent investigations in Qatar and scores of interviews, Amnesty found workers living in squalid, overcrowded accommodation exposed to sewage and sometimes without running water. Amnesty's general secretary, Salil Shetty, said some workers were being "ruthlessly exploited, deprived of their pay and left struggling to survive". The new housing will be semi-prefabricated in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and the first units are expected to become available from April next year with thousands of beds a month made available. Qatar Construction industry Middle East and North Africa World Cup 2022 Robert Booth theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Southampton's Mauricio Pochettino talks up Arsenal's Premier League title bid – video Posted: 21 Nov 2013 08:25 AM PST Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino believes Arsenal can win the Premier League if they stay consistent

Newcastle put skids under slide plans Posted: 21 Nov 2013 08:24 AM PST • 'Travel accelerators' intended to bring life to neglected area • Newcastle say land for two slides is 'no longer available' Perhaps it was the connotations associated with the word that made Newcastle United veto anyone being on the slide at St James' Park. Plans to "inject some fun" by installing "travel accelerators" outside the ground have been shelved after the club, which owns the land, said it was "no longer available for use". Company NE1 announced plans in February to build two slides next to stairs beside the stadium's car park. The idea was part of the "pocket park programme" designed to infuse life into areas of the city centre which were "neglected or underused". The slides will not be located elsewhere because they have been designed for the area around the ground, said NE1 which is "moving its attention" to other areas of Newcastle. The club declined to comment. Newcastle are ninth in the Premier League but the season has been overshadowed by some fans' unhappiness. In October, hundreds marched through the city to protest against the way the owner Mike Ashley has been running the club. Newcastle United theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Work begins on turning Olympic Stadium into West Ham United's new home – video Posted: 21 Nov 2013 08:22 AM PST Construction on a new roof for London's Olympic Stadium is under way as it begins its transformation into West Ham United's new home

Football Weekly Extra: stylish Cristiano Ronaldo steers Portugal to Brazil Posted: 21 Nov 2013 07:37 AM PST Today's Football Weekly Extra is fit to bursting, with AC Jimbo joined in the pod by Barry Glendenning, Rafa Honigstein and Paul MacInnes who have international and domestic business to address. We begin by getting up to speed with all those midweek internationals. Julien Laurens relives the magic of France's World Cup volte face as they came back from the dead against Ukraine, and we marvel at Cristiano Ronaldo's hat-trick which meant Portugal qualified for Brazil 2014 at the expense of Sweden. Oh, and England weren't very good against Germany's reserves. Jimbo's paper review will have much, much more on all this - it'll be be up on Friday morning. Then, it's back to the Premier League, which this weekend sees the Merseyside derby, Southampton travelling to Arsenal, and Stoke hosting Sunderland. Rafa will be joining us again on Monday to bring us all the excitement of Bayern v Dortmund in the Bundesliga, and if you pester him enough Sean Ingle might come along too. See you then. James Richardson Ben Green Raphael Honigstein Barry Glendenning Paul MacInnes

The Fiver | Unrealistic public expectation | Barry Glendenning Posted: 21 Nov 2013 07:29 AM PST Click here to have the Fiver sent to your inbox every weekday at 5pm, or if your usual copy has stopped arriving IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THEN OUR TECHIE SUCCESSFULLY TURNED SOMETHING OFF AND ON AGAIN. IF WE ARE SHOUTING IT IN YOUR LETTERBOX WHILE YOU CALL THE POLICE, THEN HE DID NOT The Fiver knows all about living with the burden of unrealistic public expectation. At the time of writing, our palms are sweaty because technical shortcomings mean your favourite tea-timely football email and its egg-chasing, lager-swilling, cauliflower-eared cousin The Breakdown are having trouble being dispatched to subscribers. Contingency plans are being considered, but as chartering a private jet for a series of global air-drops is apparently too environmentally unfriendly for wishy-washy liberal Big Paper bigwigs, there is a very real chance that we will shortly be hunkered down on your front step, shouting this through your letterbox while you look scared and phone the police. The preferable, albeit impersonal alternative is that some overpaid Monster Munch-eating techie in a Red Dwarf T-shirt will turn something off and turn it on again in a bid to help us avoid letting our unrealistically expectant public down. In what is almost certain to be a doomed bid to avoid letting his unrealistically expectant public down, $tevie Mbe has been busy extrapolating the positives from England's recent friendly defeats against Chile and Germany, pointing out that being outclassed by better teams means there "will be a little bit of realism and perspective out there". By "out there", we can only imagine $tevie is alluding to some mystical Narnia-esque idyll full of ribbons, unicorns and rainbows, rather than a world peopled by the kind of numpties who boo their football team for being outplayed by much better football teams in matches of absolutely no significance. "We're not one of the favourites, we know that," declared $tevie on the subject of England's chances of winning the World Cup in Brazil. "At the same time you've got to go into the tournament with a bit of belief and confidence and give it your best shot. But, of course, there are better teams than us out there. You only need to look at the rankings and where we are." As assessments go, it is eminently sensible and level-headed and will therefore almost certainly lead to several hacks hammering England's captain for his appalling lack of jingoistic bulldog spirit. "You go into a World Cup where people judge you fairly and they're not blowing you up to what you're going to be," continued $tevie, pausing briefly to lean on the handle of his shovel. "There's not too much expectation and pressure on the players, I'm sure that will help us." Coming from a man who plays for a national team that – and this bears repeating – is followed by the kind of numpties who boo their football team for being outplayed by much better football teams in matches of absolutely no significance, his comments are endearingly naive. QUOTE OF THE DAY "I look forward to a cool time in black and yellow" – Borussia Dortmund emergency signing Manuel Friedrich buys into the hipster lingo from the outset. FIVER LETTERS – STILL WITH PRIZES "Understandable as poor old Zlatan's grief is (yesterday's last line), he really should have known it was going to happen as soon as the host country was announced. It's all in the anagram: Brazil? Him vacation" – Barry Etheridge. "Bit harsh on Dan Petrescu's legacy in England there (yesterday's Bits and Bobs). As the scorer of a last-minute winner against England in France '98, his impact on the English game is astronomical. As a result of the loss, England finished second in their World Cup group and faced Argentina in the next round. Without that Petrescu winner, there would have been no Owen wonder goal, no Beckham red card, no burning effigies, no penalty redemption in Japanorea … you get the picture. I'd say we can lay the entire responsibility for the cult of DB7 (and more importantly, 'Michael Owen's Soccer Skills', only £15.99 from Amazon) at Dan's magical feet. Or you could just show this" – Chris Barnfield. "Could I build on Keith Buchanan's Apocalypse Now riff (yesterday's Fiver letters) by suggesting a face-painted Jogi Löw is interrogated by a sombre Mr Roy: 'Are my methods unsound?' … 'I don't see any method at all, sir'" – James Adamson. "Can I be the first of 1,056 flamin' pedants to galah that Josip Simunic (yesterday's Fiver) was born and bred in Canberra, ACT. A manufactured city with an extreme number of roundabouts invented to solve the Melbourne v Sydney debate as to the nation's capital. I can only assume that Josip was attempting to enter the history books as the first ever Canberran to publicly express such hometown pride. As an aside, if I win letter of the day, will Keith and I enter the history books as the first ever Buchanans to win letter of the day on consecutive days? As another aside, I understand that I may have opened up a contentious debate as to how many roundabouts are needed to be classed as extreme" – Tim Buchanan (and one other flamin' pedant). "The Fiver seems to get a constant stream of negative press in this letters section, but credit where it's due, your perseverance is not to be faulted. I have just returned to work at an organisation that I had previously left a year ago, thus being given a new email account but with the same email address, and what would be the first email that I receive? You certainly haven't allowed a year's worth of bounced email messages stop your stumble towards tea-timely domination, so have an extra quart of Tin on me to celebrate" – Robin Burchfield. • Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. And if you've nothing better to do you can also tweet the Fiver. Today's winner of our letter o'the day is: Barry Etheridge, who wins a copy of Football Manager 2014, courtesy of the very kind people at Football Manager Towers. We've got more copies to give away this week, so if you haven't been lucky thus far, keep trying. JOIN GUARDIAN SOULMATES We keep trying to point out the utter futility of advertising an online dating service "for interesting people" in the Fiver to the naive folk who run Guardian Soulmates, but they still aren't having any of it. So here you go – sign up here to view profiles of the kind of erudite, sociable and friendly romantics who would never dream of going out with you. BITS AND BOBS Nasty Leeds goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown has taken a leaf out of Walter White's book and gone into the pharmaceutical industry – only his is a legal supplements business. "When I realised there was a need, I wanted to use the platform I have to try to make people aware of the dangers," he pushed. Manchester United gastronome Anderson has told the Manchester Evening News that he is sick of being on the bench. "I need to play," he parped, in news that will come as a relief to the poor bench. Julian Draxler has not so much issued a come-and-get-me plea to Arsenal as stripped to the waist and started dancing provocatively in the direction of the Emirates. "You never know what happens in the summer, but Arsenal is a very, very nice team," he winked, nudged and purred. Frank McParland has been sacked as the head of Liverpool's Academy, along with technical director Rodolfo Borrell. Newcastle United have reportedly vetoed plans to install F.U.N slides outside St James' Park. Six clubs – Vitoria, Metalurg Donetsk, Skonto, Slask Wroclaw, Pandurii Targu Jiu and Petrolul Ploiesti – are to be investigated by Uefa's fun police for possible breaches of financial fair play regulations. And, in a case that has Fox Mulder's antennae twitching in FBI headquarters, the televised match between Spain and South Africa, attended by 36,000 people, officially didn't happen after it was downgraded to a practice match. A situation that has nothing to do with the fact Spain lost. RECOMMENDED VIEWING Algeria's version of Clive Tyldesley watches the national team book their World Cup place … STILL WANT MORE? DOWNLOAD FOOTBALL WEEKLY EXTRA! DOWNLOAD FOOTBALL WEEKLY EXTRA! etc. Or do it in a bit when it's up. Gianfranco's Zola eclipses feature in this week's YouTube round-up. Fifa's ranking system, tactics guru Michael Cox and brain in a jar Jonathan Wilson come together in an epic nerd-off to rate the 32 World Cup finalists. What do Edgar Davids and Colonel Nathan R Jessup have in common? Neither of them believe you can handle the truth, reports James Riach. For the low, low price of £267m, Newcastle United football club can be yours to take home today. Is Tony 'Crystal' Pulis really the right man for Selhurst, ponders Sachin Nakrani. And Barry Glendenning went to the cinema to watch a film about Manchester United yesterday under the guise of doing some work. Oh, and if it's your thing, you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace. SIGN UP TO THE FIVER Want your very own copy of our free tea-timely(ish) email sent direct to your inbox? Has your regular copy stopped arriving? Click here to sign up. 'IS IT TRUE YOU HAVE AN ASTROTURF LAWN IN A FIGURE OF EIGHT?' Barry Glendenning theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

West Ham's Sam Allardyce talks injuries ahead of Premier League game with Chelsea – video Posted: 21 Nov 2013 07:07 AM PST West Ham manager Sam Allardyce admits his team are struggling with injuries before their clash against Chelsea on Saturday

Arsenal dressed by Lanvin - stylewatch Posted: 21 Nov 2013 06:30 AM PST Lanvin's suits for the north London club are, you could say, as slick and modern as the players themselves Footballers in bad suits is a far-too-frequent post-match sight. So the fact that Arsenal have partnered with Lanvin – a "proper" fashion name, and a house only three years younger than the club itself – is something that the sartorially minded MOTD viewer will be very pleased about. The pictures of the squad, plus forever elegant manager Arsène Wenger, show suits that pass fashion muster – even if the image is a bit "class photo". The players are clearly enjoying being smartened up – selfies of Olivier Giroud and Jack Wilshere gave a sneak preview before the Liverpool game a fortnight ago, while both Laurent Koscielny and Lukas Podolski look particularly chuffed with their new look in the official portrait. It's not surprising, really – a suit must make a change from a life in sportswear, and this is a good one. In charcoal grey, fitted but not unforgiving to footballers' thighs, and with only a micro-crest on the lapel, this take on tailoring for sports stars is cool, classy and modern – three adjectives that, right now, could apply to both house and football club. Arsenal Lanvin Lauren Cochrane theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Edgar Davids draws strength from English passion on Barnet's hard road Posted: 21 Nov 2013 05:58 AM PST Dutchman applauds 'the love of the game' in his adopted country while trying to lead the Bees back to the Football League Edgar Davids furrows his brow and locks his eyes directly on yours. It is as if the Dutchman, who talks as straight as he still plays, is making an assessment of character before deciding whether it is worth offering a response to the question. It is fair to say Barnet's player-manager does not mince his words. Described by his goalkeeper Graham Stack as "quite a confrontational man", Davids's mantra appears a simple one – perform to your maximum or face the consequences. "I'm just straightforward," he says. "The truth hurts and not everyone can deal with it. Every player is different but they are all entitled to the truth. It is up to them if they can handle it or not. "It is what it is. That is life, you have to deal with things and it's up to you how you deal with things. That's what makes you mature or not. If you can get the best out of yourself that's all that matters. If you do that nobody is arguing." There is, though, more to the 40-year-old than the "pitbull" caricature with which he is synonymous. It was Louis van Gaal who described Davids in such a way during his rampaging heyday but while he is certainly a formidable presence, behind a brooding exterior there exists a pensive side. A man who has won the European Cup and played at Ajax, Milan, Juventus, Barcelona and Internazionale but works for an English non-league side without pay – albeit sporadically according to some – is clearly an enigma. Davids speaks passionately about Barnet, the club he joined last season following spells with Tottenham and Crystal Palace, even if it may be a marriage of convenience. The club grant Davids time to spend on other commitments, including his fashion line, while he develops his coaching and managerial skills and raises their profile. The fact that he will take his Skrill Conference Premier side to Grimsby on Saturday and Dartford next Tuesday reflects that this is not merely an egotistical exercise. "I'm still looking, learning and developing myself," he says. "I'm learning every day, learning from other coaches until I think I'm ready. "In management everything is different. If you look at successful coaches they always need time to kickstart something. Arrigo Sacchi, when he started the revolution at Milan, he was almost on the brink of being sacked but then he won and people started believing in the system, he had more time to breathe. "There are immediate pressures from chairmen and chief executives but the external pressure from the media and the fans is even worse." Davids was unable to prevent the Bees dropping out of the Football League last season but he appears enthusiastic about the club and their vision for the future. In March he turned around the team bus en route to an away fixture to pick up stranded fans whose vehicle had broken down on the motorway, and it is the English support and culture that he particularly associates with, having recently coached the Sunday league side Brixton United in south London. "I think it is pure passion for some guys. I love it when it comes from the heart – when you see some amateur guys playing on the Saturday then again on the Sunday because they just love to play, I applaud that," he says. "The thing that I like about English football the most is the atmosphere. You don't have it elsewhere in the world where so many leagues are professional. The passion, the love for the game." Davids is not one for discussing his past glories, and there are plenty. Three scudetti with Juventus, three Eredivisie titles with Ajax as well as the Champions League, these achievements are from another time: "I'm proud that I have played for all the clubs that I've played for but I don't reflect, I don't dwell on the past. I'm a product of the past." It is the future that Davids is focused on. He remains a fiercely competitive and arguably controversial individual but he has strong beliefs that have clout when considering his wealth of experience. He is relatively scathing of player development in England, insisting that the Football Association must do more to increase the number of technical youngsters coming through. "There is no street soccer culture. I think that the FA has to do something about it. You guys have a park tradition, but first you have to go and find a park, you have to travel, and you have to have lots of mates. Think about that," he says. "Also the thing here is that when you go to a club they are coaching that [technique] out of you. They have a different mentality and different vision of how they see their ideal player. "The FA maybe need a 10 or 15-year plan to make the talents the best they can be. It's nice to have foreigners but not too many. Foreigners bring a lot to the game but if you have teams that are dominated by foreigners, I don't think that is good for the fans and English football. If you look at the last 10 years the English national team hasn't been significant. "I am glad Gareth Bale has gone to Real Madrid and is doing well because that's a business card for British football. It's very important for a human being to travel and adapt – that is how you grow, when you adapt to a different culture. It means you are a big player. "If you don't have passion then you won't give everything to succeed. It starts with the heart." Barnet Skrill Premier James Riach theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Newcastle United: Club for sale, in need of repairs, big potential, £267m ono | Louise Taylor Posted: 21 Nov 2013 05:05 AM PST With Mike Ashley prepared to sell and St James' Park regularly sold out, it's a mystery why no billionaire is interested in the club Ajman, United Arab Emirates, November 2007. The hotel worker was Tanzanian and he wanted to know which UK airport I had flown from. The word "Newcastle" prefaced a broad smile. "My life's ambition is to go to St James' Park; they are my team," he said. And why not? Freddy Shepherd, Newcastle's former chairman once claimed he was in charge of the eighth most popular side in the world. Even if that is no longer quite true, earlier this year, Newcastle broke back into the global top 20 revenue generating football clubs with the only puzzle being why potential buyers are not beating down Mike Ashley's door and persuading the current owner to sell up. Seemingly Ashley's answer would be yes were any would-be purchaser to come up with around £267m – thereby covering the £134m he paid for Newcastle in 2007 plus more than £150m in interest-free loans he injected to keep everything afloat during the early days of his tenure. Although the club's most recent accounts, released in March this year, showed that commercial revenue had fallen by £12.7m – perhaps reflecting Ashley's failure to exploit fully overseas markets – Newcastle's accounts were in the black. Unlike many Premier League counterparts they even posted a profit – £1.4m after player amortisation. Life is full of mysteries but one of the biggest, most enduring, revolves around why no one has stepped in to relieve Ashley of a most attractive toy he would surely be willing to discard. The billionaire sports retailer once reportedly told one of his former St James' Park managers he had no idea why he bought Newcastle in the first place but, now the international credit crunch has eased, the lack of interest in taking it off his hands appears astounding. Financial types will tell you that wealthy individuals are rarely willing to invest more than 10% of their overall capital in a football club, preferring to borrow the rest. The credit crunch made that tough but now things should be a little less restrictive while the potential rewards of being handed the keys to St James' Park are immense. For a start the stadium – one of the biggest and best in England – regularly sells out to its 52,000 capacity and, unusually, it enjoys a prime city centre location within walking distance from scores of restaurants, hotels and shops. If the fact you can be shopping in Fenwick or John Lewis minutes before attending a match may seem slightly irrelevant, the ground's peerless location boosts the club's value in the corporate function market appreciably. Derek Llambias, Newcastle's former managing director under Ashley, used to suggest that people on Tyneside did not have sufficient money to help maximise such revenue streams but his opinion was perhaps coloured by earlier decades spent working in the high-rolling world of Mayfair casinos. Granted there are areas of deprivation in Newcastle – as in all cities. Yet judging by the amount of brand new expensive cars flying around the area, the invariably packed restaurants, busy shops and some eye-wateringly steep house prices in certain suburbs, Llambias did not grasp the whole picture in what remains a regional capital. Glenn Roeder, sacked as Newcastle's manager shortly before Ashley's arrival, used to say potential buyers dismissed it, ignorantly, as simply too far north and, even though that sounds absurd in such a small country as England, he may well have a point. After all, people who have never been to the north-east do often have rather distorted ideas about the region. It seems Manchester City's current owners did discreetly arrive from Abu Dhabi to explore the possibility of buying Newcastle before heading south and west to Manchester but since then little substantive sales talk has gone on. Everton, a club Bill Kenwright has made clear is up for grabs, may represent a rival interest for anyone looking for a Premier League stake but to truly prosper Everton need to leave Goodison Park and finding a new home has proved an enormous problem. Newcastle, then, should be top of any self-respecting billionaire's shopping list. But if someone really is serious about buying Ashley out the overwhelming likelihood is that – as happened with Manchester City – no media outlet would have an inkling of anything happening until the formal, bombshell, announcement. Clues will not be scattered and advance warnings should not be expected. Maybe that is what will happen at St James'. We will wake one morning to an early club statement and later discover that, unnoticed, a delegation representing the new owner flew into Newcastle airport on a private jet from Russia or the United States. Or perhaps on the daily Emirates service from Dubai, possibly having connected from elsewhere in the Middle East, east Asia or the Indian subcontinent. There was a time, a few years ago when the club was very publicly for sale, that a group of Malaysian – or at least that's where they were supposed to be from – businessmen stepped out of Emirates business class and were whisked the few miles to St James' and then the training ground for a less than private tour. New owners? Of course not, just a bizarre publicity stunt or perhaps a little joke on Ashley's part. No one ever appeared quite sure. One day though it will happen for real. Sooner or later? No one knows … but Newcastle United are a very big prize waiting to be claimed. Newcastle United Mike Ashley Louise Taylor theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

The Private Life: Why We Remain in the Dark by Josh Cohen – review Posted: 21 Nov 2013 05:00 AM PST Jonathan Derbyshire on the collapse of the distinction between public and private In Henry James's 1893 short story "The Private Life", the narrator makes alarming discoveries about two members of his holiday party while holed up in a village in the Swiss Alps. After an evening spent listening to the table-talk of the London playwright Clarence "Clare" Vawdrey, he steals up to Vawdrey's room where he sees, "bent over the table in the attitude of writing", the man he thought he'd left downstairs in the company of his friends. Vawdrey, it seems, is double: there is his public self, which according to the narrator is burdened by "neither moods nor sensibilities", and his private, writing self, which remains hidden. The effortlessly suave raconteur Lord Mellifont, meanwhile, suffers from the "opposite complaint". He is "all public", the narrator says, he has "no corresponding private life". There's nothing behind the pristine mask of his public self: Mellifont is all performance. Josh Cohen discusses this story in his elegant and suggestive book. For him, James's tale can be read as a premonitory parable of the modern culture of celebrity, at the centre of which is the public's apparently insatiable demand for celebrities to be "no more or less than they appear" – that, like Lord Mellifont, they show us everything. Celebrities themselves collude in this demand and go to considerable lengths, as Cohen puts it, to "disappear seamlessly" into their public persona. They persuade their acolytes that there's nothing left over, no private remainder that, Vawdrey-like, they keep locked away from prying eyes. This, Cohen argues, is the self-defeating logic of the superinjunction. Self-defeating because, as with the gagging order taken out by Ryan Giggs in 2011, it arouses the very fantasy that the celebrity is seeking to suppress (in Giggs's case, that he had had an affair, and was no longer the willowy adolescent first spotted by Alex Ferguson). And there's a further paradox here: by treating his private life as territory over which he had to assert ownership, Giggs encouraged the prurient to see it as a prize to be captured. Cohen argues that both sides in the contemporary war on privacy – celebrities and the tabloid press – take for granted a conception of privacy as property (that's why we routinely use the word "invasion" when someone's private life is pried into). The only difference is that one side, the tabloids, is indifferent to property rights. As the former News of the World journalist Paul McMullen put it in a memorable appearance before the Leveson inquiry: "privacy is for paedos". Cohen calls this the "bourgeois" conception of privacy, since it's all about possession, in this case, of a self. But there's another, darker and more mysterious notion of the private life, he argues – the one bequeathed to us by psychoanalysis (Cohen himself is a practising psychoanalyst, as well as a literary academic). According to this view, "the ego is not master in its own house". We don't own our unconscious selves and psychic health requires us to give up the comforting fantasy of a self that is "integral and complete". We are all Vawdrey, in other words – whether we like it or not (and the demands we make on public figures suggests not). You don't have to accept the entire conceptual apparatus of psychoanalysis to find all this compelling, and in any case, Cohen himself is attractively sceptical about some of the claims that Freud and others have made on its behalf. Cohen's prose has the aphoristic, epigrammatic quality that you find in Adam Phillips's writing about psychoanalysis, and he is less in thrall to his own fluency than Phillips is. The range of references is impressive, too: Cohen is equally at home discussing Katie Price (below) as he is expounding the thoughts of Hannah Arendt. His analysis of the ur-reality show Big Brother is particularly interesting. Cohen suggests that what made the first series of the programme, broadcast in 2000, such compulsive viewing was not that it collapsed the distinction between public and private, but rather that it tantalised us with "the hope of encountering the invisible other, of burrowing into the obscure marrow of their everyday existence", putting the viewer in the position of James's narrator watching Vawdrey's double at his writing desk. Subsequent iterations of the show, Cohen suggests, sacrificed that quality by filling the house with "needy exhibitionists" and "parading the utter extinction of the very difference between the private and the public realm as entertainment". There's a moral to be drawn from this about what Cohen calls the "modern malaise". It's not just about entertainment; it's also about our changing attitudes to our inner lives. What is it that connects the neuroscientists at Berkeley who want to map the neural activity of a dreaming person and put it on YouTube with the compulsive tweeter or the obsessive "lifelogger" who records and broadcasts her life, minute by minute? What is at work is a powerful vision of a world without inwardness, one in which the external record of a life is the same as our experience of it. He quotes something the science writer John Brockman said about the "collective externalised mind" promised by the internet. For Brockman, that's not dystopia, it's utopia. Yet, as Cohen points out, there's another name for it: "totalitarianism" – the slogan of the Khmer Rouge, for example, was "Destroy the garden of the individual". Cohen suggests that cognitive behavioural therapy, which has grown dramatically in popularity in recent years, nourishes a similar fantasy of total liberation from the burden of the inner life. What many people find so threatening about psychoanalysis, by contrast, is its insistence that the self is never whole. It tells us that our best hope, as Cohen writes at the end of this unsettling book, lies in accepting that part of us will forever remain in the dark. Society Health, mind and body Celebrity Katie Price Ryan Giggs Big Brother Jonathan Derbyshire theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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