“We have to play more games away from home to see if this Arsenal side is ready," said the 25-year-old.
"Within the team we can feel the atmosphere is great – and the feeling is that we are there and we can make it happen this year.
“But the truth is that it’s now five years since we have won anything. So there is no point talking about it because it has only been a few games.
“We know we can beat anybody at the Emirates but it is our form away that is going to be the key.”
“We know we have the players to do it.
“The quality is there.”
However, the Gunners are going into Tuesday's match on the back of yesterday's 3-1 defeat at home to West Brom.
domingo, 26 de setembro de 2010
sábado, 18 de setembro de 2010
Bebe: I'm going to be brilliant
United new boy Bebe has insisted: “I will be brilliant!”
The striker, who Sir Alex Ferguson shocked the world to sign in a £7.4m swoop this summer, is ready to step into Cristiano Ronaldo’s shoes and become an Old Trafford legend.
Bebe hit back at critics, who were quick to label him a flop after his move from Vitoria de Guimaraes, claiming he will prove to be another Fergie gem.
The 20-year-old made his first appearance for United’s reserves on Thursday – but told fans he will soon live up to his price tag.
“After a couple more games I will be better,” he said. “I have to be fitter because it’s a different type of football in England.
“I am going to be a brilliant player for Manchester United.” Bebe has made a meteoric rise from his humble upbringing to the bright lights of Old Trafford.
"Having represented Portugal in the homeless World Cup, he spent his entire career at third division Estrela Amadora before his move to Guimaraes this summer.
"Ferguson admitted he had never seen him play before signing him, but sanctioned the move on the recommendation of former assistant Carlos Queiroz.
Bebe was left out of United’s first three reserve games of the season, but was included in the 25-man Champions League squad despite mistaken reports he had been omitted.
He added: “I don’t know when I will be ready for the first team. I need to work hard and a lot.
“I don’t know when I will be ready for the first team. I need to work hard and a lot depends on the boss whether he calls me into the team or not.
“Sir Alex has told me he is very happy with me and he wants me to train more and get into the first team.”
Bebe admitted United’s interest – which came just weeks after he had moved to Guimaraes from Estrela da Amadora – and come as a surprise even to him, but said United’s Portuguese and Brazilian contingent had already helped him settle in to life in England.
“I am very happy to be at Old Trafford but the big thing is to work hard so I can play,” said Bebe.
“I have settled in very well with the team but I need to work hard to move up to the first team.
“I can play on both sides, on the left and the right. It doesn’t make any difference which side.
“It was a big surprise for me and for everyone when Manchester United signed me.
“It helps a lot having other players that speak Portuguese – Rafael, Fabio, Nani and Anderson are all my friends. Nani and Anderson help me the most.
“They help me because they speak Portuguese and they have come from abroad and they can help me to help the team.”
The striker, who Sir Alex Ferguson shocked the world to sign in a £7.4m swoop this summer, is ready to step into Cristiano Ronaldo’s shoes and become an Old Trafford legend.
Bebe hit back at critics, who were quick to label him a flop after his move from Vitoria de Guimaraes, claiming he will prove to be another Fergie gem.
The 20-year-old made his first appearance for United’s reserves on Thursday – but told fans he will soon live up to his price tag.
“After a couple more games I will be better,” he said. “I have to be fitter because it’s a different type of football in England.
“I am going to be a brilliant player for Manchester United.” Bebe has made a meteoric rise from his humble upbringing to the bright lights of Old Trafford.
"Having represented Portugal in the homeless World Cup, he spent his entire career at third division Estrela Amadora before his move to Guimaraes this summer.
"Ferguson admitted he had never seen him play before signing him, but sanctioned the move on the recommendation of former assistant Carlos Queiroz.
Bebe was left out of United’s first three reserve games of the season, but was included in the 25-man Champions League squad despite mistaken reports he had been omitted.
He added: “I don’t know when I will be ready for the first team. I need to work hard and a lot.
“I don’t know when I will be ready for the first team. I need to work hard and a lot depends on the boss whether he calls me into the team or not.
“Sir Alex has told me he is very happy with me and he wants me to train more and get into the first team.”
Bebe admitted United’s interest – which came just weeks after he had moved to Guimaraes from Estrela da Amadora – and come as a surprise even to him, but said United’s Portuguese and Brazilian contingent had already helped him settle in to life in England.
“I am very happy to be at Old Trafford but the big thing is to work hard so I can play,” said Bebe.
“I have settled in very well with the team but I need to work hard to move up to the first team.
“I can play on both sides, on the left and the right. It doesn’t make any difference which side.
“It was a big surprise for me and for everyone when Manchester United signed me.
“It helps a lot having other players that speak Portuguese – Rafael, Fabio, Nani and Anderson are all my friends. Nani and Anderson help me the most.
“They help me because they speak Portuguese and they have come from abroad and they can help me to help the team.”
sábado, 11 de setembro de 2010
ENGLAND BOSS FABIO CAPELLO TO QUIT FOOTBALL – IN 2012
FABIO CAPELLO will quit England – and football management – after Euro 2012.
The England manager has made it very clear there is no way on earth he will continue past the next tournament.
His contract runs out at the end of the Euros in Ukraine and Poland in two years.
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And he has no intention of even trying to ask for a new one, even if England were to confound critics and their past performances by winning Euro 2012.
Considering the way Capello, 64, desperately hung on to his job at the end of the disastrous World Cup he might have been expected to try and string his £5m-a-season deal out for as long as possible.
But when asked in the aftermath of beating Switzerland in Basel if he wanted to stay on after the Euros, he said: “My contract is no problem. Absolutely, yes. I want to finish after 2012.
“We have to qualify first. But then after the tournament I will be too old. I want to enjoy my life as a pensioner.”
Capello has no intention of returning to club football after finishing with England. Instead he will try and get a pundit job in the media, probably in his native Italy where he is a regular on television.
There was a possibility that the former AC Milan, Real Madrid and Juventus boss would be sacked in the summer after England were humiliated 4-1 by Germany.
After winning six titles in Spain and Italy with three different clubs Capello is desperate not to end his England career in failure.
And that is why he talked the Club England board into believing that he is still the best man for the job.
But Capello knows that having won 11 out of 12 qualifiers, his time in charge will only be judged by what happens in the tournaments.
The England manager has made it very clear there is no way on earth he will continue past the next tournament.
His contract runs out at the end of the Euros in Ukraine and Poland in two years.
STAR OFFER: CLAIM £15 IN FREE BETS HERE!
And he has no intention of even trying to ask for a new one, even if England were to confound critics and their past performances by winning Euro 2012.
Considering the way Capello, 64, desperately hung on to his job at the end of the disastrous World Cup he might have been expected to try and string his £5m-a-season deal out for as long as possible.
But when asked in the aftermath of beating Switzerland in Basel if he wanted to stay on after the Euros, he said: “My contract is no problem. Absolutely, yes. I want to finish after 2012.
“We have to qualify first. But then after the tournament I will be too old. I want to enjoy my life as a pensioner.”
Capello has no intention of returning to club football after finishing with England. Instead he will try and get a pundit job in the media, probably in his native Italy where he is a regular on television.
There was a possibility that the former AC Milan, Real Madrid and Juventus boss would be sacked in the summer after England were humiliated 4-1 by Germany.
After winning six titles in Spain and Italy with three different clubs Capello is desperate not to end his England career in failure.
And that is why he talked the Club England board into believing that he is still the best man for the job.
But Capello knows that having won 11 out of 12 qualifiers, his time in charge will only be judged by what happens in the tournaments.
sábado, 4 de setembro de 2010
AFGHANISTAN´S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET
Western forces fighting in southern Afghanistan had a problem. Too often, soldiers on patrol passed an older man walking hand-in-hand with a pretty young boy. Their behavior suggested he was not the boy's father. Then, British soldiers found that young Afghan men were actually trying to "touch and fondle them," military investigator AnnaMaria Cardinalli told me. "The soldiers didn't understand."
All of this was so disconcerting that the Defense Department hired Cardinalli, a social scientist, to examine this mystery. Her report, "Pashtun Sexuality," startled not even one Afghan. But Western forces were shocked - and repulsed.
For centuries, Afghan men have taken boys, roughly 9 to 15 years old, as lovers. Some research suggests that half the Pashtun tribal members in Kandahar and other southern towns are bacha baz, the term for an older man with a boy lover. Literally it means "boy player." The men like to boast about it.
"Having a boy has become a custom for us," Enayatullah, a 42-year-old in Baghlan province, told a Reuters reporter. "Whoever wants to show off should have a boy."
Baghlan province is in the northeast, but Afghans say pedophilia is most prevalent among Pashtun men in the south. The Pashtun are Afghanistan's most important tribe. For centuries, the nation's leaders have been Pashtun.
President Hamid Karzai is Pashtun, from a village near Kandahar, and he has six brothers. So the natural question arises: Has anyone in the Karzai family been bacha baz? Two Afghans with close connections to the Karzai family told me they know that at least one family member and perhaps two were bacha baz. Afraid of retribution, both declined to be identified and would not be more specific for publication.
As for Karzai, an American who worked in and around his palace in an official capacity for many months told me that homosexual behavior "was rampant" among "soldiers and guys on the security detail. They talked about boys all the time."
He added, "I didn't see Karzai with anyone. He was in his palace most of the time." He, too, declined to be identified.
In Kandahar, population about 500,000, and other towns, dance parties are a popular, often weekly, pastime. Young boys dress up as girls, wearing makeup and bells on their feet, and dance for a dozen or more leering middle-aged men who throw money at them and then take them home. A recent State Department report called "dancing boys" a "widespread, culturally sanctioned form of male rape."
So, why are American and NATO forces fighting and dying to defend tens of thousands of proud pedophiles, certainly more per capita than any other place on Earth? And how did Afghanistan become the pedophilia capital of Asia?
Sociologists and anthropologists say the problem results from perverse interpretation of Islamic law. Women are simply unapproachable. Afghan men cannot talk to an unrelated woman until after proposing marriage. Before then, they can't even look at a woman, except perhaps her feet. Otherwise she is covered, head to ankle.
"How can you fall in love if you can't see her face," 29-year-old Mohammed Daud told reporters. "We can see the boys, so we can tell which are beautiful."
Even after marriage, many men keep their boys, suggesting a loveless life at home. A favored Afghan expression goes: "Women are for children, boys are for pleasure." Fundamentalist imams, exaggerating a biblical passage on menstruation, teach that women are "unclean" and therefore distasteful. One married man even asked Cardinalli's team "how his wife could become pregnant," her report said. When that was explained, he "reacted with disgust" and asked, "How could one feel desire to be with a woman, who God has made unclean?"
That helps explain why women are hidden away - and stoned to death if they are perceived to have misbehaved. Islamic law also forbids homosexuality. But the pedophiles explain that away. It's not homosexuality, they aver, because they aren't in love with their boys.
Addressing the loathsome mistreatment of Afghan women remains a primary goal for coalition governments, as it should be.
But what about the boys, thousands upon thousands of little boys who are victims of serial rape over many years, destroying their lives - and Afghan society.
"There's no issue more horrifying and more deserving of our attention than this," Cardinalli said. "I'm continually haunted by what I saw."
As one boy, in tow of a man he called "my lord," told the Reuters reporter: "Once I grow up, I will be an owner, and I will have my own boys."
© 2010 Joel Brinkley
All of this was so disconcerting that the Defense Department hired Cardinalli, a social scientist, to examine this mystery. Her report, "Pashtun Sexuality," startled not even one Afghan. But Western forces were shocked - and repulsed.
For centuries, Afghan men have taken boys, roughly 9 to 15 years old, as lovers. Some research suggests that half the Pashtun tribal members in Kandahar and other southern towns are bacha baz, the term for an older man with a boy lover. Literally it means "boy player." The men like to boast about it.
"Having a boy has become a custom for us," Enayatullah, a 42-year-old in Baghlan province, told a Reuters reporter. "Whoever wants to show off should have a boy."
Baghlan province is in the northeast, but Afghans say pedophilia is most prevalent among Pashtun men in the south. The Pashtun are Afghanistan's most important tribe. For centuries, the nation's leaders have been Pashtun.
President Hamid Karzai is Pashtun, from a village near Kandahar, and he has six brothers. So the natural question arises: Has anyone in the Karzai family been bacha baz? Two Afghans with close connections to the Karzai family told me they know that at least one family member and perhaps two were bacha baz. Afraid of retribution, both declined to be identified and would not be more specific for publication.
As for Karzai, an American who worked in and around his palace in an official capacity for many months told me that homosexual behavior "was rampant" among "soldiers and guys on the security detail. They talked about boys all the time."
He added, "I didn't see Karzai with anyone. He was in his palace most of the time." He, too, declined to be identified.
In Kandahar, population about 500,000, and other towns, dance parties are a popular, often weekly, pastime. Young boys dress up as girls, wearing makeup and bells on their feet, and dance for a dozen or more leering middle-aged men who throw money at them and then take them home. A recent State Department report called "dancing boys" a "widespread, culturally sanctioned form of male rape."
So, why are American and NATO forces fighting and dying to defend tens of thousands of proud pedophiles, certainly more per capita than any other place on Earth? And how did Afghanistan become the pedophilia capital of Asia?
Sociologists and anthropologists say the problem results from perverse interpretation of Islamic law. Women are simply unapproachable. Afghan men cannot talk to an unrelated woman until after proposing marriage. Before then, they can't even look at a woman, except perhaps her feet. Otherwise she is covered, head to ankle.
"How can you fall in love if you can't see her face," 29-year-old Mohammed Daud told reporters. "We can see the boys, so we can tell which are beautiful."
Even after marriage, many men keep their boys, suggesting a loveless life at home. A favored Afghan expression goes: "Women are for children, boys are for pleasure." Fundamentalist imams, exaggerating a biblical passage on menstruation, teach that women are "unclean" and therefore distasteful. One married man even asked Cardinalli's team "how his wife could become pregnant," her report said. When that was explained, he "reacted with disgust" and asked, "How could one feel desire to be with a woman, who God has made unclean?"
That helps explain why women are hidden away - and stoned to death if they are perceived to have misbehaved. Islamic law also forbids homosexuality. But the pedophiles explain that away. It's not homosexuality, they aver, because they aren't in love with their boys.
Addressing the loathsome mistreatment of Afghan women remains a primary goal for coalition governments, as it should be.
But what about the boys, thousands upon thousands of little boys who are victims of serial rape over many years, destroying their lives - and Afghan society.
"There's no issue more horrifying and more deserving of our attention than this," Cardinalli said. "I'm continually haunted by what I saw."
As one boy, in tow of a man he called "my lord," told the Reuters reporter: "Once I grow up, I will be an owner, and I will have my own boys."
© 2010 Joel Brinkley
Joel Brinkley is a professor of journalism at Stanford University and is a former Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the New York Times.
domingo, 29 de agosto de 2010
BARÇA BEAT MILAN AS IBRA TALKS CONTINUE
MADRID - David Villa scored his first goal for Barcelona in a friendly against AC Milan on Wednesday, while behind the scenes the two clubs prepared to continue their negotiations over Barca striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Barcelona won the Nou Camp friendly 3-1 on penalties after the game finished 1-1, with Villa's close-range effort cancelled out by a stunning strike from Filippo Inzaghi.
Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani met Barca president Sandro Rosell and Ibrahimovic's agent earlier in the day and they will reconvene on Thursday for further talks.
"Negotiations will continue tomorrow," Spanish media quoted Galliani as telling the club's television station. "I have an appointment with Barca's president at midday.
"It is very complex, very difficult and very costly... At present, Barca are willing to sell (or loan) the player, he is willing to come to Milan but we are talking about a mountain of money in the middle of a crisis."
Villa, signed from Valencia before his heroics in Spain's World Cup triumph in South Africa, started up front alongside the Swede, despite the doubts about his future. Ibrahimovic had a spectacular goal ruled out for offside in the first half and was substituted at the interval.
"I don't know what the problem is," Ibrahimovic told Italian television after the game.
"The directors have told me they don't want to sell me but I don't know what the coach thinks because he doesn't speak to me. We've only spoken twice in the last six months.
"I'm happy here and I'm not a problem."
Villa flicked in the opener at the near post after good work down the left from his fellow new arrival Adriano Correia.
Inzaghi levelled with a flying volley from distance in the 67th minute, and soon after former Barca favourite Ronaldinho was substituted to a standing ovation from a packed Nou Camp.
Reserve goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto was the Barcelona hero at the end, saving three penalties in the shootout.
The Spanish champions start their title defence away to Racing Santander on Sunday.
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