Saturday, 9 August 2014

Neville tips United for glory

14:43

By: TBMU Admin On: 14:43   In:   No comments

Neville tips United for glory

Neville tips United for glory

Posted: 08 Aug 2014 05:13 PM PDT

Neville, who confirmed midweek he would not be working at Old Trafford in 2014-15, was on David Moyes coaching staff as United finished seventh in the standings - 22 points adrift of champions and arch-rivals Manchester City. Moyes paid the ultimate price for Uniteds failure - sacked in May - but Neville said the Scot was not the only man at fault for the clubs poor performances. I was involved last year and last year was an absolute disaster, Neville said. It was an absolute disaster from start to finish we must all take responsibility, not just DavidMoyes. I take responsibility and so does everyone involved. Louis van Gaal has since taken charge, guiding the club to five consecutive pre-season wins on their tour of the United States. The Dutchmans attacking mindset and use of a three-man defence has won over fans and pundits ahead of Uniteds Premier League opener against Swansea City on August 16. Neville - now a pundit for BBC Sport - is one of those impressed by Van Gaals tactics, claiming the former Netherlands boss can win the league in his first season at the helm. I think were going to win the league. Im sure thats what Louis van Gaal will be saying to the players because second isnt any good atManchester United, he said. For United, its finishing top, as Premier League champions. Its about regrouping and all the lads have come back for pre-season and they looklike theyre ready to win the league again. Weve got a great chance this year because theres no Europeanfootball so we can concentrate solely on the league. And from what I sawin pre-season and the support we had, the club keeps getting bigger andbigger, and I think were on the right road again.

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Fiorentina open to Cuadrado departure

Posted: 08 Aug 2014 10:55 AM PDT

Colombia wingerCuadrado has been heavily linked with a move away from the Serie A club. Barcelona and Manchester United are among the teams to have been credited with an interest in the 26-year-old, who scored once in five games for Colombia at this year's World Cup in Brazil. Fiorentina are understandably keen to hold on to a player that netted 15 times for the Florence club last season. However, Della Valleis pessimistic of keeping the former Udinese man at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. "Should it happen that an important offer arrives, we would have to allow Cuadrado to leave," Della Vallesaid. "So with that I am not so optimistic about a positive final situation as I think an offer will arrive in the next few days, but he will only leave for certain amounts. "But you need to understand if an important offer does arrive, it is like a loose train and I can't hang on. "I told the player and underlined things that there is a serious project here and he could remain for one more season, in a winning side. "He is honest and serious with us, and I told him if an offer should arrive we would free him. "But the deadline is about a week to ten days away - around August 15 and if there is no adequate period in this period, he will remain."

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Homophobia and racism still prevail in Russia – but they need more time

Posted: 08 Aug 2014 10:00 AM PDT

"Black players are forced down our throat. Gay players are unworthy of our great city." There appears to be no grey area about this statement. When Zenit fan group Landscrona caused outrage in western media with their open letter two years ago, did they really believe that anyone could defend them? Nailing their colours to the mast, they reinforced the stereotype of the Russian fan as racist and bigoted. But is this the full story? It isn't hard to see why Yann M'Vila reportedly turned down a move to Zenit, and went to Kazan instead. Until the arrival of Hulk and Axel Witsel last summer, there had been no black players in the club's history. For a city styled on the grand, sweeping boulevards and palaces of Europe, the ethnic spectrum is relatively narrow. St Petersburg's 'Paris of the North' nickname is accurate about its architecture and artistic atmosphere; in a historical sense it mirrors the French capital, but in a modern sense it certainly does not. When Peter the Great declared some boggy marshland on the banks of the Neva river would become a window to Europe, he was ahead of his time in his vision for Russia's relationship with the rest of the world. His experiences spent disguised as a layman in the dockyards of the East India Company in Amsterdam and London reinforced his appreciation of the attitudes and heritage of other nations. This outlook survives in pockets of western Russia, but it was never likely to supplant the defensive instincts in the motherland's mindset. A nation of suspicion Few foreigners fully realise how deeply ingrained is Russia's partially understandabledistrust of outsiders. There are two main factors that contribute towards this: size and history. Even the eagle on the Russian crest is two-headed, so that it can warily watchboth east and west. The sheer globe-straddling scale of this vast nation is a fundamental factor in its national psyche. Russia's modern borders stretch from Eastern Europe to Alaska, from the Arctic Ocean to Kazakhstan; over the last 1,000 years, countless foreigners from Genghis Khan to Adolf Hitler have invaded and attempted to impose their rule upon the collections of tribes and ethnic groups. It's one thing to defend a territory the size of England, which you can traverse in a few hours; defending a territory the size of Russia, where you may only reach the next town in a few hours, is quite another. It's clear that comparing national characters is highly complex, but there are links to other examples of siege mentalities in football. The classic case is that of mind-games master Alex Ferguson. He quickly realised that for an institution the size of Manchester United, it was necessary to engender a rock-solid bond between his team, and to turn their collective backs on the rest. Did it endear him to neutral supporters and the media? No. Did he care? Probably not. Could he have managed with his unprecedented success and longevity without this approach? Absolutely not. For Manchester United, read Russia. What went unreported in some areas of the British media was the full context of the Landscrona letter. The following day, in an attempt to mitigate their stance, they claimed that "the absence of black players [in the Zenit team] is just an important tradition that underlines the team's identity and nothing more." The Guardianran an article explaining that, while the language used was undoubtedly racist, the basis behind the whole letter was not an unfamiliar one to fans all over the world, regardless of creed or colour. Who would you cheer more: the foreign import, classy as he may be, or the local lad who represents your home town? As global as the game has become, the sense of identity of some clubs has become muddied –Manchester United famously claimed to have 659 million fans worldwide, only 0.1% of whom are from Manchester, for example. The relevance of the nationality of managers, and indeed of players adopting the nationality of their country of residence, is still very much alive. When the FA appointed Sven-Goran Eriksson as the first foreign manager of the England side, questions were asked as to why a more suitable English candidate could not have been found. The answer was quite simple: there weren't any. Was it racist to desire an Englishman to receive preference for the role purely on the grounds of his nationality? It became apparent that Manchester United's wonderkid Adnan Januzaj had a possible choice of nations to represent - Belgium by birth, Albania and Kosovo through parentage and Turkey through the grandparent rule. (England was never an option, due to a FIFA-ratified mutual agreement between the Home Nations that any player must have been schooled for five consecutive years in that country before the age of 18.) As people waded in to offer their expert opinion as to whether it was right to allow him to pull on their country's colours, you wouldn't have begrudged the poor boy if he felt overwhelmed. Was it racist to want to deny him a legal right to represent one of those countries? Britain's own struggle It's not just Russia's size that has fostered its insular mindset. As the ideological struggle between communism and capitalism dominated the majority of the 20th century, the Soviet Union rigidly restricted the exchange of education, culture and expression that the western world takes for granted nowadays. This writer's father-in-law, Vladimir, has told of how bootlegged copies of Led Zeppelin cassettes were shared between friends at great risk and expense. Without the same free flow of understanding and movement of people for more than 70 years, it is natural that attitudes are behind what they are in the UK or the USA. So let's move the goalposts and make this a fair game. In 1961, it was still only a dream of Martin Luther King's that his children would grow up in a country where they would be judged not by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character. It's a mere 36 years since Viv Anderson became the first black player to represent England in a full international. Ron Atkinson's attacking trio of Laurie Cunningham, Cyrille Regis and Brendon Batson, 'The Three Degrees', mesmerised defences up and down the country in the 1970s, but still attracted vitriolic abuse from the stands. In the late 1980s, John Barnes was just one of many who had to endure monkey chants and bananas thrown onto the pitch. Today, thankfully, anyone attempting the same kind of racist abuse in a Premier League ground would be thrown out and banned for life. People no longer stand for it. Why is this? Why have attitudes changed? Campaigns like Kick It Out have raised awareness, and the proportion of black and ethnic-minority professional players has risen to an estimated 25% in the English top flight. When the England kit was launched by Umbro five years ago, the advertising campaign centred on the fact someone from every country in the world resided in London, demonstrating the modern fabric of English society is a tapestry woven from a broad range of cultures. Not many would argue that the British are inherently racist people. What has happened is simple: people have had time to learn, be educated, and develop. While there are fewer black people in Russia than in England, it is a gross misconception that Russia is made up of a limited shallow pool of ethnic groups. There are groups descended from Slavic nations, from Baltic nations, and no fewer than 22 republics within the federation. You couldn't begin to unravel the complexities of the ethnic makeup of this nation: suffice to say it is as intricate as anywhere in the world. Trouble at the top Landscrona's sentiments about gay players are deplorable. What sexual orientation has to do with the identity of a city is hard to fathom, but there may be a clue to explaining where this attitude comes from. Elena Mizulina, head of the Russian State Duma's Committee for Family, Women and Children, and co-author of the controversial law regarding the spread of information about homosexuality to minors, attempted to defend "traditional family values". "The law prohibits the spreading of information aimed at forming non-traditional sexual attitudes among children, attractiveness of non-traditional sexual relations, or a distorted perception of social equality between traditional and non-traditional sexual relations," she explained. "Secondly, it prohibits the imposition of information about non-traditional sexual relations that may cause interest in them among children." Tradition: that old chestnut again. It's clear that for the Russian people it is a core value, however out of tune with modern western sensibilities it may be. A resident of Tyumen, who has asked to remain anonymous, mirrored this attitude towards gay people. "I don't agree with homosexuality," he said. "It is not normal for us, so we are not used to the idea. I just don't like it; maybe the people are fine, but the idea is wrong." Football's acceptance of homosexuality lags far behind its much-improved multiculturality. Former Leeds United winger Robbie Rogers had to retire at the age of 25 before he could reveal his homosexuality, although he did later come back to play for LA Galaxy. Thomas Hitzlsberger came out earlier this year, but also after he had finished his playing career. Last year, England Ladies captain Casey Stoney became the first active female professional to come out. These examples are both positive and negative: it is major progress that players are breaking the taboo of talking about their homosexuality, but it is telling that this has still not been done by an active male player since Justin Fashanu 24 years ago. Hopefully that will change soon, but as the language of the Landscrona letter suggests, it is unlikely that any former or current professionals in Russia will be revealing their homosexuality any time soon. However, to paraphrase Boy George, just give Russia time.

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Martinez praises Moyes for laying foundations

Posted: 08 Aug 2014 09:45 AM PDT

The Catalan coach arrived at Goodison Park a year ago having lifted the FA Cup with unfancied Wigan Athletic, and has quickly made his mark on Merseyside. Playing a brand of football that has seemingly revitalised the club and its supporters following 11 seasons under Moyes' stewardship, the Toffees secured a fifth-place finish and return to European action for the first time in four years. Added to that was the small matter of doing the double over Moyes' Manchester United; the 1-0 victory at Old Trafford their first there in 21 years. The return fixture also proved to be an unwelcome milestone for the Scot, a 2-0 April defeat at Goodison ending his brief spell in charge of the 20-time champions. But Martinez only has good things to say about the man who put in place a continuity that has helped the Spaniard take his managerial career to the next level. Speaking exclusively in the September 2014 issue of FourFourTwo, he says: "There was a real continuity with the previous management team. In 11 years in charge they brought a lot of success in terms of building something strong. "I didn't want to lose that; I wanted to keep it, but also use some of the things from the history of the club. In the 1980s – even before that – we were the ones setting an example to world football. We want to get that mojo back." A man with a vision for the long term future of Everton rather than short-term success, could he foresee himself usurping Moyes' 11 years at the helm? "You never know in football, but I do enjoy building football clubs," says the former Wigan midfielder who spent four years in charge at the DW Stadium. "I believe the way a manager should manage and build a football club is for the long term – you need to manage the football club like you're going to be there forever." Read the full interview with Roberto Martinez in the September 2014 issue of FourFourTwo, which includes a One-on-One chat with Julian Dicks, reveals the truth behind parachute payments, counts down the best, worst, controversial and painful goal celebrations and hears the incredible story of Prisoners of War in Germany finding freedom – some literally – through football. And if that's not enough for you, there's our 116-page Season Preview supplement covering 128 teams in England and across Europe. Available now in print and in a specially-designed-for-iPad version.

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Top 10: Shocking tackles

Posted: 08 Aug 2014 05:34 AM PDT

Roy Keane on Alf-Inge Haaland Manchester derby, 2001 The roots of this infamous knee-high tackle were bedded three years previously. A mistimed Keane lunge at Leeds'™ Haaland resulted in a cruciate ligament injury for the United skipper -" an injury to which the incensed Haaland was, unsurprisingly, less than sympathetic. The Norwegian stood over Keane'™s prone figure and denounced him (somewhat vociferously) as a faker. Shockingly, Keane held a slight grudge about these actions, and in the 2001 Manchester derby Keane saw (or, rather, plotted) an opportunity for revenge, ensuring this 50-50 ball had similar odds of now City star Haaland being able to walk again. A red card, five-game suspension and £150,000 fine followed, but hardly seemed a fitting punishment after the level of pre-meditation was revealed in Keane'™s autobiography. Zinedine Zidane on Marco Materazzi Italy vs France, 2006 World Cup Final The world watched, rubbing its eyes. It was going so well -" he had shown unbelievable impudence and class from the penalty spot earlier in the game, and there was a chance that he would have bowed out of football in the most romantic fashion. But Zinedine Zidane'™s Glasgow Kiss to Marco Materazzi saw a legend of the game tarnish the final match of a glorious career with a red card. But it wasn'™t just any match -" it was the World Cup final. The newspapers had a field day, bandying about possible insults that could have pushed Zizou over the edge.The Daily Star, in particular, enjoyed their role in proceedings, "˜exclusively revealing"™ made-up details, about which they would later be forced to apologise. The paper used a front-page photo with a speech bubble from Materazzi's mouth stating: "Your Mum's a Terrorist Wh*re." Their remarkable selection of headlines also included "What Made ZZ Blow His Top" and "Zid's Vicious Over Wh*re Slur on Mum - The Cruel Taunt That Made Legend Lose It." Football hadn'™t seen such column inches in the UK since Goldenballs'™ leg twitch eight years previously.But should Zidane's nutting of the Italian have surprised people so much? The card was Zizou'™s 14th red -" that'™s two more than Vinnie Jones. Mario David on Leonel Sanchez Chile vs Italy, 1962 World Cup There are few matches that contain so many wince-inducing tackles that picking a '˜most shocking'™ proves difficult. Then again, there aren'™t very many matches that are more commonly referred to as '˜The Battle of Santiago'. But the clash between Chile and Italy in World Cup '62 was one such encounter. It was a game that has to be seen to be believed; the British highlights introduced by David Coleman as "the most stupid, appalling, disgusting and disgraceful exhibition of football, possibly in the history of the game." The match was rife with shocking tackles, punches and police intervention. Giorgio Ferrini was ejected after 10 minutes, and Mario David followed half an hour later for kicking Leonel Sanchez in the head in what the commentator calls "one of the most cruel-blooded and lethal tackles I have ever seen." It says something about the '˜Battle of Santiago'™ that the referee, Ken Aston, was actually the man that revolutionised football'™s disciplinary system. Obviously harrowed by the events that took place on the field that day, it was Aston'™s idea to use red and yellow cards, and they have stuck since the 1970 World Cup. Harald Schumacher on Patrick Battiston Germany vs France, 1982 World Cup semi-final The iconic foul. With the score at 1-1 in the 1982 World Cup semi-final, France substitute Patrick Battiston bore down on goal, chasing a long ball that had also alerted German ˜keeper Harald Schumacher. The two raced towards each other at speed, but neither backed out of this football version of chicken.Battiston was focused on the ball, and reached it first, firing past the onrushing custodian.Schumacher -" obviously the smarter of the two -" decided to ignore the ball completely, and concentrated on surviving a crash by leaping and turning his body into his opponent. Schumacher slammed into the Frenchman, catching him full in the face and immediately knocking out three teeth.Battiston was prone on the turf, toothless and with vertebrae damage, but the referee decided no foul had been committed, and resumed play, much to the astonishment of the players, as well as the fans. "I thought he was dead," said Michel Platini, "because he had no pulse and looked pale." Germany eventually won the game on penalties after a 3-3 extra time draw, and when the goalkeeper was informed of the damage he had caused he simply replied: "If that's all that's wrong with him, I'll pay him the crowns." Ben Thatcher on Pedro Mendes Portsmouth vs Manchester City, 2004 The heat makes us all do funny things: we get a bit irritable, a bit snappy.It seems to affect some more than others, however, and Ben Thatcher is a fine example of this. In the late summer heat of 2004 he went mental. During Manchester City'™s pre-season tour of China, his elbow caused Yang Chungang to suffer a collapsed lung, and less than three weeks later he became the most hated man in English football with a horrendous assault on Portsmouth'™s Pedro Mendes. As he and Pedro Mendes ran for a loose ball near the touchline, Thatcher intentionally led with his elbow, sending Mendes sprawling into the advertising hoardings and knocking him unconscious.Mendes needed oxygen at pitchside and suffered a seizure while being transferred to hospital, where he would spend the night. The tackle was so bad that his own club issued Thatcher with a six-match ban on top the FA'™s eight-game suspension. He was also served with a 15-match ban suspended for two years. Portsmouth'™s Matt Taylor echoed the thoughts of the thousands watching, incensed by the referee'™s decision to only hand Thatcher a yellow card:"How can that not be a sending-off? What do you have to do, kill someone?," he fumed, understandably. Skip to 25 secsBenjamin Massing on Claudio Caniggia Cameroon vs Argentina, 1990 World Cup Argentina'™s flying forward Claudio Caniggia was not to make it through the Italia '™90 clash with Cameroon. At least that's what the Indomitable Lions must have been told in their pre-match brief. This particularly powerful body-check came after Caniggia's impressive 80-yard solo dash refused to be halted by an attempted block on the half-way line and another cynical Cameroonian lunge moments later. Massing'™s effort ensured his team-mates ambitions were fulfilled, however, as his rhino-like charge sent the Argentinian, just regaining his footing from the last attempt on his life, slamming into the turf. Massing then amusingly kicks out at an opponent blocking his route to his boot, lost in the clash, before putting it back on in the vain hope that the ref would allow him to play on. He didn'™t. Graeme Souness on Unlucky Romanian Rangers vs Steaua Bucharest, 1988 Calling Graeme Souness hot-headed is a bit like saying John Terry doesn'™t mind French women. About two minutes into this video of Rangers'™ fine victory over Romania Steaua Bucharest, the Scot ploughs into his opponent'™s thigh with his studs raised and a very deliberate downward thrust. While the offender may not be surprising, the offence is.The unusual thing about this particular incident is that the Sky Sports charisma-vacuum wasn'™t making a tackle. He had the ball at the time. That'™s right, Souness was dribbling, saw someone attempting to nick the ball from his toes and so nicked a chunk out of their leg before they got their tackle in. He then protested long and hard that he was, in fact, the innocent party, rubbing his leg and showing the proof (or lack of it) to the referee.Unfortunately for Souness, the ref had eyes, and promptly sent him off. Rangers went out on aggregate. Skip to 1:55Nigel de Jong on Xabi Alonso Netherlands vs Spain, 2010 There's something about World Cup finals that brings the worst out in players. The Netherlands' hack hapiness was eventually punished by karma in Johannesburg as Spain lifted the trophy, but not before Vicente del Bosque's boys had taken some serious punishment. Referee Howard Webb was forced to dish out a record 14 yellow cards in the final, which eclipsed the previous record of six set in 1986. Johnny Heitinga was sent off, and Mark van Bommel's hatchet job was particularly memorable, but nothing epitomised the dirty Dutch quite like De Jong's studs-up karate kick to the chest of Xabi Alonso. Incredibly the former Manchester City enforcer escaped a red card, with Webb later admitting that his view was restricted. Pepe on Javi Casquero Real Madrid vs Getafe, 2009 There'™s seconds remaining in a clash with your local rivals, and you haul down one of the opposition inside the area. The scoreboard reads 2-2, and you could now be to blame for your side failing to pick up a point. You'™re angry, and look around for something to kick - but all you can see is the opponent you felled, lying prone on the grass like a big blue pinada. So, you boot him several times and stand all over him before giving his mate a little smack in the face -" that's natural, right? Real Madrid'™s Pepe thought so, shown a red card and escorted from the pitch by team-mate Iker Casillas after his somewhat savage release of frustration all over Getafe'™s unlucky Casquero and his buddy Juan Albin. Unfortunately for Pepe, the Spanish FA didn'™t agree and handed him an eight-game ban ruling him out for the rest of the season. And if you thought things couldn'™t get any worse for Pepe'™s plaything, Casquero, his spot-kick was saved by Casillas, before Gonzalo Higuain scored a brilliant winner. Axel Witsel on Marcin Wasilewski Standard Liege vs Anderlecht 2009 Derby matches are always hot-blooded affairs, and the clashes between Standard Liege and Anderlecht are no different. But last August'™s fixture featured one terrible incident that has taken their rivalry to another level. The season before, starlet Axel Witsel was the hero who scored the decisive penalty in Standard'™s play-off win against Anderlecht that brought their second successive title. In this derby, however, he committed one of the most hideous football tackles ever recorded on camera, with a savage lunge on Anderlecht defender Marcin Wasilewski leaving the Pole with a double open-tibia fracture, and the watching world wincing, appalled. An unbelievably lenient €250 fine and a 10-game ban followed -" one that was soon reduced to eight matches, much to the consternation of Belgium and most of the football world. To further endear himself to the Anderlecht faithful, January'™s return derby saw him leap into another terrible challenge (on Roland Juhasz) and see red once again.

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Van Gaal has Ferguson aura, believes Butt

Posted: 08 Aug 2014 01:38 AM PDT

Butt has been impressed with the way the Dutchman, who guided his countryto third place in the World Cup, has settled in at United and believes the club could challenge for the title this season. The former United midfielder has been retained as part of the backroom staff at Old Trafford, with his focus on developing young players. David Moyes struggled under the pressure of succeeding Alex Ferguson at United last season,but 39-year-old Butt does not expect the new man in charge to have any such problems. "He is obviously a very in-control man," he told the Manchester Evening News."He has an aura about him - when he walks in the building, you know who the boss is, and I think that is very important. "We had that with Sir Alex for all those years and I think we have that now with Van Gaal. He walks into the building and he commands your respect. "All the players look up to him as the leader and that is how it should be. "From afar, when I've looked at him it looks like he takes no messing about and if anyone doesn't toe the line, I'm sure they will be out of the team." United have won every game since the 63-year-old arrived and have one friendly against Valencia remaining before their opening Premier League clash with Swansea City on August 16.

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Man United target Vidal resumes running

Posted: 07 Aug 2014 10:01 PM PDT

Vidal, 27, had knee surgery in May, but still played a huge part for Chile at the World Cup. Louis van Gaal's concerns over the problem are reportedly all that is standing between Vidal and a move to Premier League giants Manchester United. Allegri, whose team are in Australia to face an A-League All Stars team on Sunday, confirmed Vidal was back running. "He is running since yesterday, but we will evaluate day by day his condition and when it is best for him to start playing again," Allegri told a news conference in Sydney on Friday. Sunday's clash at ANZ Stadium will mark the first, and probably last, time Juventus great Alessandro Del Piero takes on his former club. Juve goalkeeper and captain Gianluigi Buffon said it would be "beautiful" to face his former club and Italy team-mate, but hopes he can keep the attacker off the scoresheet. Former Sydney FC star Del Piero, who is without a club, will captain the All Stars. "Of course having a game against Alex is something completely new for me and for Juventus of course," Buffon said. "It will be a beautiful experience to have this game against Del Piero and I hope there will be chances for everybody to entertain the public. "Hopefully one of these chances won't be Alex scoring a goal against Juventus."

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Ramsey expecting six-team title race

Posted: 07 Aug 2014 03:09 PM PDT

Arsene Wenger's men led the way for much of the campaign in a thrilling title race last season, but fell away in the second half of campaign to eventually finish fourth. Ramsey's absence with a thigh injury coincided with Arsenal's drop off in form as Manchester City eventually edged out Liverpool to claim a second Premier League crown in three seasons. The Wales international returned to score an extra-time winner as Arsenal beat Hull City 3-2 to win the FA Cup, and will hope to guide the London club to victory against the English top-flight championsat Wembley in the Community Shield on Sunday. New signings Alexis Sanchez and Mathieu Debuchy are likely to give Arsenal hope of another title challenge this term. However, Ramsey knows they will face stiff competition if they are win the league for the first time since 2004. "I think there's going to be a few teams in it this year. I think maybe about six teams," Ramsey said. "Teams will take points off each other, anything can happen but there's five or six teams that are going to be really strong this year." City have also added to their ranks in the transfer window, signing right-back Bacary Sagna from Arsenal as well as midfielders Fernando and Frank Lampard, who has arrived on loan after joining American affiliate club New York City. And Ramsey is relishing the challenge of taking on Manuel Pellegrini's men. "We're all looking forward to it, me personally as well," he said. "After what went on last year, looking forward to going back there [Wembley] and playing there again. We're all excited and looking forward to it being a successful day for us. "They [City] are always very strong, and it will be no different on the weekend again. They have so many world-class players playing for them. It's going to be difficult but we'll be up for it and hopefully we can get the right result."

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