FA Cup - Matchpack: Manchester City v Wigan Athletic

Team news, manager quotes and match facts ahead of the FA Cup final between Manchester City and Wigan at Wembley.

 

 

TEAM NEWS

Manchester City have close to a full squad available. Midfielder Yaya Toure is fit after recent concerns about fatigue and playmaker David Silva is in contention to start for first time since suffering a hamstring injury at Manchester United a month ago. Back-up goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon, who has played in all the previous rounds, is expected to be selected ahead of England number one Joe Hart.

Roberto Martinez must decide whether to stick with his wobbly defence for Wigan's first FA Cup final appearance. Antolin Alcaraz (hamstring) is rated no more than a 50-50 chance, while captain Gary Caldwell is most at risk following his mistake against Swansea on Tuesday and Roger Espinoza looked ill at ease in the left wing-back role. Ali Al Habsi is expected to return at the expense of on-loan Joel Robles in goal, as he did for the semi-final win over Millwall.

MANAGER QUOTES

Roberto Mancini on the retirement of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson: "It was a great honour to beat him at Old Trafford and I wish him good luck for his future. I don't think there'll be another manager like him. To win every trophy for 27 years is incredible situation. In Europe, there are other good managers. I don't know if you can say Sir Alex is the best ever but he is the best in the last 27 years. A top club, a big club like United, you can change the manager. Sir Alex built this team but it is a big club with a big history and I don't think it will change something."

Roberto Martinez: “You don’t get many opportunities to enjoy what the FA Cup brings. It’s a historic moment, a moment to be proud of. It’s such an easy game to manage from a mental point of view because it will get over a billion audience, and you’re playing at Wembley so it’s an incredible moment. You don’t need any motivation for that. I know what it means to the fans and to the rest of the footballing world to have our name alongside an FA Cup final playing the champions of England. I think in the last few games [against City] they’ve been games that could have gone either way. We left it for that big occasion to be able to compete against a phenomenal side.”

MATCH FACTS

The two teams have only met twice before in the FA Cup, with City winning both games 1-0 at home, in 1971 in the third round and in 2006 when City won a Fourth Round clash.

Wigan have failed to scored a single goal in each of their last seven meetings with the Citizens (all in the league), losing each of those games.

Carlos Tevez has netted seven goals in 12 appearances against the Latics (all in the Premier League).

City have won 10 of their last 11 FA Cup matches, keeping clean sheets in nine of those games and losing just one.

The Manchester giants have scored in each of their last 18 FA Cup games. Only Chelsea, who City beat in the semi-finals, are currently on a longer scoring run in the competition (30 games).

Roberto Martinez’s charges have only conceded one goal in their last five FA Cup games and only two overall in this campaign.

However, City have shipped just one goal in this season’s FA Cup campaign, a joint-low figure.

Only beaten semi-finalists Chelsea (17) can better City’s haul of 15 goals in the FA Cup this season.

The Latics have enjoyed just two wins in their last six FA Cup clashes with top-tier teams, losing three and drawing one.

This will be Wigan’s first FA Cup final appearance. The last team to win the cup in their first final was Wimbledon back in 1988.

This will be City’s 10th FA Cup final, with the Citizens winning five of their nine finals so far.

The last five FA Cup finals involving two top tier sides have produced a total of just nine goals (three 1-0s and two 2-1s)

13 of the last 17 exclusively top-tier finals have seen one or both sides failed to find the back of the net at all.

David Silva has been involved in four goals (scoring one, assisting three) in his last two FA Cup appearances for the Citizens.

Carlos Tevez has been involved in seven FA Cup goals this season, scoring five and assisting two more (five appearances).

In five FA Cup appearances this season, Costel Pantilimon has kept four clean sheets, conceding just one goal in total.

Jordi Gomez has scored three and assisted three goals in the FA Cup this season.

Wigan Athletic have never lost a FA Cup match when Roman Golobart has played (W4 D1).

Callum McManaman has scored in three successive FA Cup appearances.

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Paper Round: Pellegrini to become next Manchester City boss ‘done deal’

Malaga manager Manuel Pellegrini will take over from Roberto Mancini at Manchester City next season, according to a report in Spain.

 

 

The piece, published in Spanish daily AS, is emphatic – and has been picked up by the likes of the Guardian and the Daily Mirror this morning ahead of the FA Cup final.

Meantime, the odds on Pellegrini become the next manager at Eastlands have been slashed dramatically, falling as low as 10-1 with some bookmakers.

“Pellegrini will coach City next season”, AS proclaims, saying that the move became concrete on Friday.

City director Txiki Begiristain had been spotted meeting Pellegrini at the end of April, and has subsequently been given the go-ahead to complete the deal by the club’s owner Sheikh Mansour.

Both Mancini and his perpective Chilean replacement are contracted to their current clubs – for four more and two more years respectively – but Pellegrini is believed to have a €4m (£3.4m) release clause that would be no deterrent given City’s riches.

Mancini, speaking in his press conference on Friday ahead of the Wembley final against Wigan, had been phlegmatic when asked about his future.

"I won seven trophies at Inter in four years and they sacked me after four years," said the 48-year-old. "This is football. I know football enough to understand this situation."

AS’s report also says that Pellegrini’s arrival could also herald the signing of Isco, the talented playmaker who has a release clause of just under £30m.

Elsewhere in transfer land, Mancini might not be the only high-profile name heading out of the Premier League – John Terry is being lined up for an extraordinary move to Turkey.

Galatasaray are the interested party, and with a wage package over three years worth a total of £30m, they believe that they can make it worth the former England captain’s while.

The Turkish giants have already splashed out on Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder in recent times, and are looking for European experience to boost their Champions League campaigns, but may be thwarted on Terry.

The Chelsea player is expected to see whether he has a future under the new manager, whoever that turns out to be, before making a decision about any move.

But Wayne Rooney’s options of leaving the country look limited as the Mail claims that there is no interest from Bayern Munich in signing the striker.

The clubs who can feasibly afford the player’s transfer fee and wages are limited, and Bayern were thought to be among Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea as the only teams in the running. But with 'senior Bayern sources’ telling the paper they were not keen, the choices are dwindling.

Retirements are all the rage at Manchester United this week – the Daily Mirror report that Paul Scholes is likely to follow in the footsteps his manager Sir Alex Ferguson at the end of the season. Scholes will still be around Old Trafford though, and may take up a coaching position under theDavid Moyes regime.

Another transfer target has emerged for Moyes – Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema. Before the Frenchman left Lyon for the Bernabeu he was heavily-linked with a move to Manchester United, but The Sun says Moyes is keen to renew that interest.

£30m will be needed to prise Benzema away from Spain, but the Red Devils will be in the market for a forward should Rooney depart.

And whether they’re dealing with Jose Mourinho over the transfer or not remains to be seen – the same paper adds that there is an impasse in discussions over the Portuguese leaving Real Madrid to rejoin Chelsea.

Roman Abramovich is unwilling to pay the £17m buy-out in Mourinho’s contract to bring him back to Stamford Bridge.

That means that Mourinho must convince club president Florentino Perez to release him without charge – no easy task with that sort of money on the line. But Real Madrid are already planning for life without their manager, and the thought of Mourinho seeing out the remaining three years of his contract is almost unimaginable.

 

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Chelsea hand back FA Cup requiring 80 hours of restoration work

The FA Cup trophy is ready to be lifted by the victors in Saturday’s final – but only after some remarkable restoration work.

The trophy needed 80 hours of attention from silversmiths Thomas Lyte, led by Kevin Williams, before it looked as it once did.

After a year in Chelsea’s possession, the trophy was returned twice as damaged as the company had come to expect, and the restoration cost around £3,000.

"It was pretty well damaged - so many people wanted a piece of it," Williams said.

"This year it took probably 70 to 80 hours of restoration and polishing, where you would normally allow more like 38 hours to make sure everything's all right.

"The FA, to their credit, let the [winning] club keep the Cup, so it gets a year of going round, being celebrated so it’s therefore going to get knocked and dropped and dented and it’s my job to take those out.

"This year there was a reasonable amount of damage, some big creases, and we managed to get it back to the condition that everybody knows it as The FA Cup.

"It’s a fragile old thing now. It’s had lots of knocks and bumps and so when we repair it the metal gets thinner, so we’re at a very precarious stage that when you’re working on it, you’ve got to be careful that you don’t get it to the point where it’s beyond repair."

Chelsea are not solely to blame for the condition of the trophy – at one promotional event a member of the band Reverend and the Makers put the lid of the cup on his head, as Carlos Tevez had done in the 2010 final, only for it to fall and sustain a sizeable dent.

The current FA Cup is not as old as you might think – it was first used in 1992, and is an exact replica of the previous edition, replaced after 80 years of wear and tear.

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Trapattoni interested in Napoli job

 

 

Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has said he wouldn’t rule out taking the Napoli job

The 74-year-old Coach won seven Scudetti between Juventus and Inter, plus league titles in Germany, Austria and Portugal before becoming Ireland manager in 2008.

“I always want to win,” he told Il Mattino newspaper. “Even returning to a Serie A side like Napoli – why not?

“Am I putting myself forward for the job? Everyone knows my motto: never say never in football. I also tell club presidents: don’t look at my birth certificate, because that doesn’t reflect my real age.”

Il Trap gave his verdict on Antonio Conte and Walter Mazzarri hesitating over their future unless there are guarantees of improved squads.

"They are bluffing. My young colleagues are simply afraid of not being able to repeat their success. It’s a classic tactic, as in August there isn’t a single club that doesn’t want to do better than the previous season. It’s not easy to achieve that...

"The coaches are only right to want more influence on transfer strategy. Presidents too often work by themselves and when things go wrong they blame the coach.

"I used to get on a plane and personally visit the house of the player I wanted to sign. Now things are different, as there are too many agents and intermediaries. You run the risk of meeting a player for the first time on the day of his presentation to the media.”

Read the original article on Football Italia - The ultimate website for English-speaking fans of Italian football

 

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Allardyce to sign new West Ham contract

 

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce says he will finally sign his new contract at the start of next week.

Questions over Allardyce's future at West Ham have lingered despite the Hammers boss guiding the club to 10th in the Premier League following their promotion. Allardyce insisted in March that he would be penning a new deal "very soon" after productive talks with owners David Gold and David Sullivan, but the contract has yet to be signed.

The 58-year-old says all that will change next week, though, following the Hammers' penultimate game of the season at Everton on Sunday. Allardyce said: "I will be signing my contract very shortly. Early next week will be the right time."

He added: "We are concentrating on Everton. But by early or next midweek I will be looking to put pen to paper."

Paolo Di Canio's departure from Swindon led to speculation that he could replace Allardyce at the end of the season, but Sullivan recently maintained he could never employ the controversial Italian, who has already been snapped up by Sunderland anyway.

The two-month wait for Allardyce to take up West Ham's offer has raised eyebrows, but the former Bolton and Blackburn manager insists the hold-up has been down to wading through vast swathes of legal jargon and the need to secure top-flight survival, rather than because of any problem with the club's owners.

"There were processes we had to go through and put it together in the right way, which it has now," Allardyce said.

"I never thought there would be any problem - and there hasn't.

"There has been some issue with the legal jargon in the contract which I couldn't understand so that has to go to both sides' lawyers to agree and then it gets signed.

"The size of a manager's contract is pretty substantial in terms of responsibilities."

 

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Schalke snub Benitez, Di Matteo and stick with Keller

 

Schalke have confirmed that Jens Keller will remain their coach until 2015.

The 42-year-old was promoted from U17 coach to the top job in December on a six month deal but was expected to be replaced by a bigger name in the summer.

However, he has steadied the ship at the club who are back up to fourth in the Bundesliga table and been rewarded with a two-year deal despite the likes of Stefan Effenberg, Rafael Benitez and Roberto Di Matteo having all been linked with the job.

"Jens took over the team in a very difficult situation last December and despite many people resisting his appointment, he has brought Schalke back on track," said the club's general manager Horst Heldt.

"We are convinced of his abilities because the team has improved in recent months despite some absentees.

"Jens Keller offers a coherent concept, and not just the players, but all decision makers at the club have bought into his work and conviction."

Keller replaced Huub Stevens in the winter and finally led the team up the table despite a bumpy start under his direction.

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