So now we know. Or at least think we know. Chelsea’s players are fed up with José Mourinho scapegoating them when things go wrong, while reports suggest Arsenal’s were accused of “lacking passion and desire” during a bad-tempered training ground debrief into their defeat at the hands of Olympiakos. Elsewhere, the BT Sport pundit Paul Scholes, a man who enjoyed a successful 19-year playing career with Manchester United without uttering a single word, has been further unburdening himself by pointing out that the reason some English clubs are struggling in Europe is because all the best footballers, with the notable exception of Sergio Agüero, play for Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG and Juventus. “I really don’t think it’s any surprise,” he said. “When you think about the quality of players we have, do you think any of the players at our top clubs now would get in the Barcelona team?”
The man has a point although it’s difficult to imagine too many of Olympiakos’s players getting in the Arsenal team and that didn’t stop them putting the hurt on the Gooners at the Emirates on the night Scholes made his comments.
Aston Villa’s team probably doesn’t take a great deal of getting into these days, what with them having won just one of their seven Premier League matches so far this season. A Turkish website the Rumour Mill has never heard of before say that the Besiktas winger Gokhan Tore is inching his way across the Villa radar. Villa dispatched a crack team of scouts to watch the player and his team-mates win last weekend’s Istanbul derby by the odd goal of five against Fenerbahce. A former Chelsea youth team player, Tore made headlines last year when he was one of six people wounded in a Turkish nightclub when some random stranger produced a gun and opened fire to illustrate a point he was making while having a domestic with his girlfriend. Tore took one slug in the shoulder but was discharged the following day with a great story to tell all the lads at training.
In less ballistic news pertaining to Villa, Joe Cole is unhappy at being frozen out of first-team affairs at Villa Park. The 33-year-old hasn’t started a match under Tim Sherwood and would like to go on loan to a Championship club if he can find one willing to stump up his £20,000-a-week wages. Elsewhere in the Midlands, the Express & Star reports that West Bromwich Albion fancy taking the 19-year-old winger Demarai Gray from Birmingham City in January, but may struggle to turn the teenager’s head because Liverpool and Arsenal are both interested.
The number of Belgian footballers currently plying their trade at Tottenham Hotspur could increase by one if they can convince the Borussia Mönchengladbach midfielder Thorgan Hazard to join their ranks. Formerly on Chelsea’s books, the 22-year-old says one of his reasons for leaving England was the tedium of constantly being referred to as the younger brother of Chelsea’s Eden Hazard, a state of affairs that probably wasn’t helped by the fact that he is the younger brother of Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and kept going on about it.
In good news for Liverpool fans, Roy Hodgson is expected to leave Daniel Sturridge out of his next England squad because he’s only just returned from long-term injury and something might break or get strained or torn. In other good news for Liverpool fans – or at least those Liverpool fans intent on hounding Brendan Rodgers out of Anfield – Jürgen Klopp has rejected the opportunity to succeed the equally excitable and temperamental Miguel Herrera as manager of the Mexico national team. Klopp has been linked with the Liverpool job, although some say the club’s owners might not be entirely comfortable having a man with such forthright opinions on the payroll.
