Author: Liam

Everton defender Phil Jagielka has claimed that he is not to hopeful about his international career after being demoted to the bench due to a string of poor performances especially at the World Cup 2014. The 32-year-old has been a first choice for England ever since the retirement of Rio Ferdinand and John Terry. He has formed a partnership with Gary Cahill of Chelsea, but England’s defence was heavily criticised during a poor World Cup. It appears that Jagielka is paying the price for this negativity after being on the bench for the recent round of European qualifying matches.

The former Sheffield United player is aware that time is certainly not on his side right now. Roy Hodgson has been looking to favour youth players in order to build for the future. This certainly was the philosophy during the World Cup 2014 squad selection, as a number of experienced players like Michael Carrick were left out. England are not appear to be targeting just the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, but the tournament and beyond. In his absence, United defender Phil Jones has been getting regular run out in the England team. Jagielka says that he cannot much apart from training well and playing with his best ability.

“I am not particularly confident. It is up to the manager and all I can do is play well for Everton. I don’t feel the World Cup has left a mark. It is an obvious assumption to make because it has not been great. It does not feel nice, that is the easiest way of saying it, but the [England] manager has a job to do. If he is looking to build for the future, that can work against me, but if you start looking too deeply at things, it is not going to do me any favours,” said Jagielka.

A few months ago Xavi Hernandez was on the verge of leaving Barcelona and joining a team in the MLS or at least those were the rumors, but the Spanish midfielder eventually decided to remain being a player of Barcelona for 1 more season.

The new coach of Barcelona, Luis Enrique voiced his satisfaction after knowing that the experienced player was going to stick with his squad for an extended period of time.

Enrique said: “Xavi can last one, two, three more years. It’ll depend on his mental strength more than anything else. He has decided to stay here and I’m delighted. Everyone tells me they think Xavi is performing at a high level; I think he always has.”

At his 34 years of age, Xavi Hernandez is not expected to be a consistent first team starter for Barcelona as younger players will take the place of the midfielder but it seems like Xavi is content with that.

Barcelona announced that Xavi Hernandez sustained a calf injury during a training session a few days ago and it still remains unknown as to the period of time the midfielder will be out of action.

A statement from the Barcelona website revealed details concerning the latest injury of Xavi as it said: “Xavi Hernandez suffered a slight calf strain in his left leg during training Monday morning. Club doctors will decide when he can return to training over the next few days.”

It remains unknown if Xavi Hernandez was going to play in the opening match of the season against Elche on August 24 but this is definitely not the way that Xavi Hernandez wanted to kick off his campaign as he only has 1 or 2 seasons left in him before making his way and leaving the club where he has made over 400 appearances.

With clubs around the globe getting ready for the upcoming campaign, managers of different clubs are trying to strengthen their respective squads but even the future of some top players are being put into question which is the case of Manchester City’s Yaya Toure.

According to the agent of Yaya Toure, Dimitry Seluk his client has revealed his desire to leave the Premier League club after some recent incidents that have been occurring surrounding the Ivorian midfielder.

A number of complaints have been made about the player not receiving proper recognition by the club of his birthday as well as not being able to give Yaya Toure time for him to visit his dying brother. All of these are factors that according to Yaya Toure or his agent, Dimitry Seluk have recently affected his desire to stay with Manchester City for another season.

This summer transfer window will be the moment where the future of Yaya Toure gets resolved as there are rumors that are linking the Ivorian midfielder with a move to Real Madrid and PSG but this is going to depend on whether or not the complaints involving Yaya Toure and Manchester City are true or not.

During the previous season of the Premier League, Manchester City claimed the league title and Yaya Toure arguably was one of the most important figures out of the entire squad as he scored 20 goals as a midfielder as well as providing a large number of assists.

Ever since Yaya Toure joined Manchester City on July of 2010, he has been making over 30 league appearances in every season with consistent performances from start till finish. It will be a huge loss for supporters of the club if Toure does leave the Etihad Stadium.