Guardiola backs Wenger to silence his detractors
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says it is not too late for Arsene Wenger to save his relationship with Arsenal’s fans and remain in charge at the Emirates Stadium.
“When he goes back to winning the fans will be happy again. I promise you, 100 per cent,” Guardiola said ahead of Sunday’s clash at Arsenal.
“The Premier League is not easy to win but I’m pretty sure the fans respect a lot what Arsene Wenger has done and is doing. People should understand how difficult football is today, all the teams are more prepared.”
Earlier this season Guardiola described Wenger as the ‘commander-in-chief’ and he is confident the Frenchman’s reputation has not dwindled within football. “I think a manager like Arsene, who has had a lot of years in one team, is so important,” he said.
MOURINHO REGRETS BASTIAN TREATMENT
Jose Mourinho has issued a heartfelt apology to Bastian Schweinsteiger for the manner in which he brought about the German star’s departure from Manchester United.
Schweinsteiger finally left Old Trafford this week, signing a deal with the MLS side Chicago Fire after failing to secure regular first team football under Mourinho.
“I do regret it, yeah,” Mourinho said. “What would I do different? I would let him be in the squad. I knew in that moment we had too many players. If you remember we had many players in a doubtful situation.”
HAZARD WON’T BE AFFECTED: CONTE
Antonio Conte insists Eden Hazard will remain loyal to Chelsea despite reports linking Real Madrid with a world record bid for the Belgium star.
Hazard has played a key role in Chelsea’s charge to the top of the EPL and the midfielder is said to be Real’s top transfer target for the close-season.
“The only thing I can say is Eden is a Chelsea player, our player,” Conte told reporters on Friday. “We are happy with him He is happy with us. I don’t see a problem. It’s normal, it’s logical in this part of the season, to start rumours about our player... to try to create difficulty in the mind o the players.”
FIFA FINISHES INTERNAL GRAFT PROBE
FIFA said on Friday that it had sent a 1,300-page inter nal report to Swiss authorities investigating corruption and that Bern will share the findings with US officials also probing graft.
Open criminal investigations in both countries targeting former football executives pre vented FIFA from disclosing details of its investigation, the body said in a statement.
But a source familiar with the FIFA report told AFP it “contains a lot of emails and contracts (and will be helpful to the authorities”
FIFA began its investigation in June 2015, one month after Swiss police acting on a US warrant raided a Zurich hotel and arrested seven football execu tives, triggering the largest cor ruption scandal in the history of the sport. The FIFA report is based on a review of more than 2.5 million documents, interviews with “key witnesses” and is focused on “issues of primary concern to the Swiss and US authorities”, the statement said