Author: Stuart Campbell

Bournemouth busy in the transfer market

Stuart Campbell

One of the major success stories of the Premier League last season, aside from Leicester City winning the title, was the performance of newly promoted Bournemouth. The Cherries comfortably retained their top flight status by finishing in 16th place, whilst achieving some remarkable results in order to do so. For instance Eddie Howe’s side recorded back-to-back victories against Chelsea and Manchester United in December, whilst at the start of March they won three consecutive games to climb to 13th in the table and 13 points clear of the relegation zone.…

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Euro 2016 hosts close to emulating French stars of the year 2000

Stuart Campbell

When there is a great deal of expectancy for a team to achieve success, they can often wilt in the face of that. As hosts and one of the favourites to win Euro 2016, France have been under intense pressure since the start of the tournament to perform to the very best of their ability. Steadily improving throughout Euro 2016 Despite not doing so during the group phase, when they laboured to victories over Romania and Albania respectively, before playing out an uninspiring goalless draw with Switzerland, Les Bleus have…

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Middlesbrough preparing for return to Premier League after seven year absence

Stuart Campbell

Middlesbrough secured a return to the Premier League, following a seven year absence from the division, by finishing second in the Championship last season. Promotion winning season After drawing their last game of the season 1-1 with Brighton at the Riverside, Aitor Karanka’s side were automatically promoted ahead of their final day opponents on goal difference. The margin by which they were could scarcely have been finer, with Middlesbrough’s goal difference being just two superior to Brighton’s. Nevertheless, after occupying one of the top two spots throughout the season, Middlesbrough thoroughly…

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Mourinho’s Manchester United taking shape

Stuart Campbell

Manchester United have completed the signing of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, as Jose Mourinho continues working to reshape the club’s squad ahead of the new season, according to the club’s website. Trio of new signings with a fourth to potentially follow Following the arrivals of defender Eric Bailly from Villarreal & striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was a free agent after his departure from PSG, Mkhitaryan becomes Mourinho’s third new recruit, with the Portuguese manager enthusiastic about adding a fourth. “We decided four targets. From those four, we have three and whilst we…

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Galvanised Griezmann showing resolve to star at Euro 2016

Stuart Campbell

By virtue two excellent performances during the knock-out stages, Antoine Griezmann has established himself as one of the stars of Euro 2016. Nevertheless in order to do so, the Atletico Madrid forward has resolutely overcome a number of challenges. Greizmann’s indifferent group stage form Specifically less than a fortnight before Euro 2016, Griezmann missed a penalty in Atletico’s Champions League Final defeat to Real Madrid, before being dropped to the bench for France’s second game of the tournament against Albania, following a muted display in Les Bleus opening game against Romania. Despite…

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Continuity in selection underlies Iceland’s Euro 2016 journey

Stuart Campbell

For a county with a population of just 330,000 people, Iceland’s performance in reaching the quarter-finals of Euro 2016 before being beaten 5-2 by France was absolutely remarkable. Masterminding that were the team’s joint managers Heimer Hallgrimsson and Lars Lagerback, who named the same starting XI in all five of Iceland’s games at the finals. Remarkable continuity Of those XI players, seven were named among the starting XI for each of Iceland’s 10 qualification campaign games. Those players were Kari Arnason, Ragnar Sigurdsson, Birkir Bjarnason, Gyfli Sigurdsson, Aron Gunnarsson, Johann…

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Low’s Germany one step closer to emulating Euro 1996 heroes

Stuart Campbell

Germany advanced to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 after an enthralling 6-5 penalty shoot-out win over Italy. In an evenly contested game Joachim Low’s side took the lead midway through the second half, as Mesut Ozil’s scored with a deft near post finish following some excellent build-up play between Mario Gomez and Jonas Hector. At that stage Germany were in the ascendancy, with Italy struggling to construct any meaningful attacks. Nevertheless the Azzuri did equalise in the 78th minute through Leonardo Bonucci’s calmly converted penalty, which was awarded after Jerome…

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Wales emergence from the nightmare Novi Sad scene to a Euro 2016 dream

Stuart Campbell

Wales reached the semi-finals of a major tournament for the first time as they recovered from a goal down to beat Belgium 3-1 at Euro 2016. After falling behind to Radja Nainggolan’s superb 25-yard strike, Welsh captain Ashley Williams powerfully headed in from a corner to equalise during an exhilarating first half. The game continued to swing from end-to-end in the second half, ten minutes into which Wales took the lead through Hal Robson-Kanu’s sublime finish after an exquisitely executed Cryuff turn. Following that Belgium intensively tried to engineer an equaliser. However…

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Falcao’s disappointing spell in English football ends

Stuart Campbell

Chelsea have confirmed that Radamel Falcao has left the club and will return to Monaco following the conclusion of his unsuccessful season-long loan spell at Stamford Bridge, according to the BBC. As such, Falcao departs England after two disappointing years in the Premier League since prior to signing for Chelsea, he spent the 2014/2015 campaign on loan at Manchester United. Falcao fails to fire at United As one of the most prolific goal scorers in Europe, Falcao joined the Red Devils from Monaco at the start of September 2014 with…

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Gayle and Townsend trade the colour of their stripes

Stuart Campbell

Newcastle United have completed the signing of Dwight Gayle from Crystal Palace on a five year contract, with the Magpies winger Andros Townsend moving in the opposite direction in a different deal. After joining Palace from Peterborough for £6m in July 2013, Gayle scored 26 goals in 74 games for the South London club. However the 25-year-old endured a frustrating 2015-16 season as he was only used sparingly by manager Alan Pardew, whereby Gayle started only 10 games and made the same number of substitute appearances. Nevertheless he still scored…

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Hulk in record move to Chinese Super League

Stuart Campbell

Brazilian striker Hulk has moved to Chinese Super League team Shangai SIPG from Zenit St.Petersburg for £46.1 million, making him the most expensive signing in the history of Asian football. That title was previously held by Alex Teixiera, who Jaingsu Suning paid Shaktar Donetsk £38.4m for. In signing for Shangai SIPG, whose head coach is Sven Goran Eriksson, Hulk becomes just the sixth non-Chinese player at the club with the others being, fellow Brazilian Elkeson, Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Dario Conca (Argentina), Kim Ju-Young (South Korea) and Jean Evrard Kouassi (Ivory Coast).…

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Relegated trio progress preparations for Championship challenge

Stuart Campbell

Following their relegation from the Premier League last season, Aston Villa, Newcastle United and Norwich City are continuing preparations for a challenging season in the Championship. Whilst both Newcastle and Norwich have previous experience of playing in the division, Aston Villa do not and are set to compete outside the top flight of English football for the first time since 1987. Less lucrative life in the Championship The financial implications of doing so are quite severe due to the Premier League’s new £5 billion TV deal for the 2016-17 season,…

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Antonio Conte’s tactically perfect Euro 2016 Italian job

Stuart Campbell

Full of determination, discipline, energy, intelligence, passion and tactical acumen. Italy’s performance throughout their 2-0 win over Spain in the second round of Euro 2016 represented all of the qualities that the Azzuri’s manager Antonio Conte has gradually instilled in the team since taking charge in August 2014. Prior to the finals Conte was cautiously optimistic and quite reserved about Italy’s prospects of performing well, but subsequently Italy’s campaign is currently evolving as Conte suggested it might, with the manager compensating for the lack of individual talent within his squad…

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Dortmund considering improved Manchester United offer for Mkhitaryan

Stuart Campbell

Manchester United have submitted a £30 million bid to Borussia Dortmund for Henrirkh Mkhitaryan, with the German club’s chief executive Hans – Joachim Watzke confirming that offer is under serious consideration, as reported by The Guardian. Previous indications from Watzke were that Mkhitaryan was not for sale, despite the 27-year-old rejecting the opportunity to extend his current Dortmund contract, which has just 12 months to run. Dortmund officials are understood to have hoped that Mkhitaryan would stay at the club for the remaining year of his contract. However they have…

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Euro 2016 Hazard lies in wait for Wales

Stuart Campbell

Belgium’s golden generation produced an extremely polished performance to beat Hungary 4-0 and breeze into the quarter finals of Euro 2016, where they will play Wales. Inspired by the brilliance of Eden Hazard who set-up one goal and scored another in the space of two second half minutes, Belgium delivered their most impressive display of the tournament, despite being wasteful in front of goal. After Toby Alderweireld headed Belgium ahead from Kevin De Bruyne’s free kick, the game swung from end-to-end and remained evenly poised until the 78th minute when…

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Steadily improving Euro 2016 hosts progress to quarter finals

Stuart Campbell

Hosts France advanced to the quarter finals of Euro 2016 after recovering from the loss of an early goal to beat the Republic of Ireland 2-1 at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Lyon. Inside two minutes Ireland took the lead through Robbie Brady’s penalty, which was awarded after Paul Pogba bundled over Shane Long in the box. Shaken by their inauspicious start, the French struggled to establish a foothold in the game and despite having chances to equalise in the first 45 minutes, could have fallen further behind before half time…

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Mane a main transfer target for Liverpool

Stuart Campbell

Liverpool have intensified their interest in signing Southampton striker Sadio Mane and are willing to pay £30 million for the player, according to the BBC. Neverthless given that Southampton officials previously indicated that they would require to receive £40 million to allow Mane to leave, a significant amount of negotiation will need to take place between the two clubs prior to any deal being finalised. After scoring only three goals in 29 Premier League appearances last season up until mid-March, Mane then found the net eight times in eight games.…

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Southampton streamline managerial shortlist

Stuart Campbell

Southampton’s hierarchy have decided not to appoint Manuel Pellegrini as their new manager and will now consider other candidates to replace the recently departed Ronald Koeman. Despite being a favourite for quite some time to succeed Koeman at St Mary’s, Pellegrini will not do so, since after holding extensive talks with the 62-year-old Chilean, the Saints board have determined that his managerial approach fits in neither with the club’s general ethos nor their youth development strategy, according to the Daily Echo. Also certain not to replace Koeman, who left to…

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Arsenal to pursue other striking options after missing out on Vardy

Stuart Campbell

Jamie Vardy’s decision to remain with Leicester by signing a new four-year contract with the Premier League champions instead of moving to Arsenal has left the Gunners manager Arsene Wenger requiring to turn to alternative new striking options to strengthen his squad ahead of the 2016/2017 season. The shadow of Van Persie By submitting a £22 million offer for Vardy at the start of June, Arsenal triggered the release clause in the striker’s contract with the Foxes. However the 29-year-old former Fleetwood Town player has opted to stay loyal to…

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O’Neill’s Republic of Ireland invoke memories of fairytale in New York with historic win

Stuart Campbell

With just five minutes of normal time to play in their game against Italy at the Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille, the Republic of Ireland were on the verge of being eliminated from Euro 2016. Despite producing a far improved performance, particularly in terms of attacking play, than they did during their first two games of the tournament – when Wes Hoolahan’s goal against Sweden was their only shot on target – the Republic of Ireland were unable to find a route through a stubborn Italian defence. That was however until…

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Euro 2016 players with experience at the UEFA Under-21 European Championships

Stuart Campbell

Whilst the European Championships are staged every four years, taking place every second year is the Under-21 version of the tournament which many of those players among the Euro 2016 squads have experience of being involved in. The under-21 European Championship in it’s current form has existed since 1978, with the earliest appearances in the tournament by Euro 2016 players being made by Bruno Alves and Petr Cech in 2002. Since then, seven more under-21 European Championships have been held with a whole host of Euro 2016 players being called…

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Bale joins elite European Championship goal scoring group

Stuart Campbell

By scoring in Wales’ 3-0 win over Slovakia, Gareth Bale became only the seventh player to score in every group stage game at a European Championship finals. Group stages have not always been a feature of the competition however, with it changing format several times during its 56-year history. Summary of European Championship Format Staged every four years since 1960, and formerly called the European Cup of Nations until 1968 when it changed name, the European Championships is one of the most prestigious tournaments in world football. The first five…

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Ignominious Euro 2016 exit for Russia

Stuart Campbell

After being soundly beaten 3-0 by Wales, a dishevelled Russia became the third team to be eliminated from Euro 2016, joining their eastern neighbours Ukraine and Romania in exiting the competition at the group stage. Devoid of desire, determination and passion, Russia were completely outclassed and out fought by a hugely impressive Welsh side, who deservedly qualified for the last 16. Whilst Wales immediately settled into the game by playing with composure, control and poise, Russia were lethargic and seemingly overawed by the intensity of the occasion. To compound the…

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Spanish squad in a state of serenity

Stuart Campbell

As title defences go, Spain’s effort to retain the World Cup in 2014 was virtually as disastrous as it could have been. After losing their opening game in Brazil 5-1 to the Netherlands, Vicente Del Bosque’s side were the first team to be eliminated from the tournament following a 2-0 defeat by Chile in their second match. Subsequently, Spain’s acrimonious and early exit from the World Cup inspired Del Bosque to begin to make some subtle changes to his team, some of which were enforced. New generation The retirements from…

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A date with destiny for Wales

Stuart Campbell

Rather than dwelling on and becoming dispirited by losing 2-1 to England due to conceding an injury time goal, the Welsh management team and players have chosen instead to focus upon galvanising themselves for their final Group C game against Russia. Anguish, hurt and pain was etched across the face of every Welshman, and woman, inside the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Lens, after Daniel Sturridge scored for England in the 92nd minute to consign Wales to a cruel defeat. Nevertheless since leaving the field in Lens, despite being extremely disappointed by the…

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