NOW CITY UP EVANS BID TO £22M
The football world has gone mad... OFFICIAL!
MANCHESTER CITY are ready to offer £22million for West Brom skipper Jonny Evans.
City had an £18m bid for the ex-Manchester United centre-back (right) rejected, but will return with an improved fee.
Boss Pep Guardiola is determined to land the 29-year-old on a £120,000-a-week contract because he needs to add a home-grown or ‘locally-trained’ player to comply with Premier League and UEFA rules on the composition of his 25-man squad.
He must first offload £42m flop Eliaquim Mangala, who is
MATT RITCHIE has insisted that Newcastle will not be relegation strugglers this season.
The Scotland winger says there is no panic from Rafa Benitez despite a first weekend defeat, injuries and suspensions.
Boss Benitez threw St James’ Park open to fans yesterday, putting on a training session and free fun day.
Around 5,000 Geordies turned up so see their heroes close-up in a boost for the squad.
Jonjo Shelvey and Aleksandar Mitrovic did the crossbar challenge with fans, and Under20s World Cup winner Freddy Woodman saved penalty kicks from kids.
Smiles and sunshine have been lacking in a summer of discontent behind the scenes at Tyneside, but they were evident yesterday.
Perhaps it was because of the rumours that Toon were trying a long-shot to land Stevan Jovetic on loan from Inter Milan.
Benitez has been unimpressed with transfer progress so far, and wants more.
At the weekend, owner Mike Ashley weighed in by saying he didn’t have £200million to compete – when a fraction of
that, spent sensibly, is what Benitez is after.
The pair were at St James’ Park for the opening day defeat but didn’t meet, however there seemed to be good cheer on show yesterday as Benitez and his stars were in their element playing to the crowd.
Newcastle face fellow promoted side Huddersfield on Sunday in need of their first goal and early points following their 2-0 defeat to Tottenham. The players all admitted yesterday that staying in the top flight is their first aim. Ritchie (left) said: “There is no panic. The manager wants us to stay focused – and one of the manager’s biggest strengths is that he never panics. “That spreads throughout the group, the group are very calm and we go focused to Huddersfield. I don’t think we’re going to struggle. I think every game is going to be tough, don’t get me wrong, but we’ve got positivity throughout the group.
“Hopefully we can continue to work as we did on Sunday, especially first-half when we sort of had control of the game.
“The manager stresses to keep on an even keel whether you’ve won or lost.
“We’ve got a young group and it’s important for us not to get ahead of ourselves if we get good results, and not to worry too much if we don’t pick up the results we want.
“We lost our first two games last season and there was no panic. I’m not saying that’s going to happen again but whatever happens there’ll be no panic.”
Toon lost to Spurs with Jonjo Shelvey sent off and suspended for three games, although Newcastle beat Huddersfield last season on the way to becoming Championship champions. However, Huddersfield are on a high after winning their opener against Crystal Palace 3-0. Ritchie said: “That can work both ways. They can be very confident and underestimate us, although I’m sure they won’t. “They’re a hungry group of lads and a very good team – we’re very wary of them and we’ve looked at their strengths and weaknesses and will look to do our job and put in a good performance. “We can’t afford to think of Huddersfield as struggling this season. Last season they were a very good side and this season as well they’ve strengthened. “At this level, they’re all massive games every week. They’re fighting to stay in the Premier League, as are many teams, and that’s our challenge this year – to make sure we maintain our status. “It’s nice to be back in the Premier League, the big difference of course is the speed on the ball and the quality you’re facing. “You might get away with a mistake or two in the Championship, but here they get punished.”