Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I DESERVED TO BE AXED SAYS STU
STUART MCCALL admitted he deserved the sack at Bradford.
Former Stuttgart head coach Hannes Wolf is front-runner to succeed the Scot, whose second stint as City boss ended yesterday when he was axed after 19 months in charge. Despite leading the Bantams to the League One play-off final last May and guiding them into the top six this season, Mccall (left) has paid the price for a six-game losing streak. The former Rangers midfielder, linked with the vacant Scotland manager’s job, said: “Did I deserve the sack for this last month? Yes. When you’ve lost six on the bounce, it leaves you open to being sacked.” ARSENAL have made moves to tie down Aaron Ramsey to a new deal, but it could cost them more after Mesut Ozil’s mega contract.
Ramsey, 27, is in superb form this season but is into the final 18 months of his current contract and his next will be the most important of his career.
Arsenal have effectively moved the goalposts on pay with their £350,000-a-week three-year agreement for Ozil (below) with Arsene Wenger admitting other players will want to follow suit.
The Gunners broke the bank to keep Ozil with a huge offer to ward off interest from Manchester United and Barcelona and in light of Alexis Sanchez’s departure.
They have also signed Pierreemerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan on big money and their current top players are likely to want parity.
Boss Wenger has made it clear the club want to keep Ramsey, but if he did want to leave then this would be his most obvious chance.
The Wales international has scored six goals this season and is one of Arsenal’s most important to Arsenal’s wage costs if other senior players also demand big pay rises to keep pace with the German. Arsenal’s England striker Danny Welbeck is out of contract in the summer of next year and Wenger has predicted that more players and clubs will in the future go into the final 12 months of their contract.
Welbeck will be desperate to ensure that he gets regular games because he knows that unless he is a fixture in the starting XI he will struggle to get his England place back.
Arsenal defender Hector Bellerin believes the players were given a wake-up call by their horror defeat at Swansea and feels it is not important which defensive system they employ as long as everyone does their job.
They bounced back with a 5-1 thrashing of Everton on Saturday.
“It doesn’t really matter,” he said. “The important thing is we know what to do when we’re on the pitch.
“After a bad performance in the last game everything looked way more solid and everybody was more aware of their defensive duties.
“We know once we have the ball we can create chances. So we were happy with the defensive performance as well.
“I’ve more experience playing as a right-back, so it’s a position I’m comfortable with. But I feel comfortable as a wing back as well. I just need to adjust a few things in my game. But whatever the boss wants I’ll do.”