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Posts Tagged ‘president’

• ‘My future is completely linked to Porto,’ says Portuguese
• Interest reported from Chelsea, Liverpool, Juve and Roma

Porto’s coach, André Villas Boas, will stay at the club next season. He denied reports he would move to England or Italy after a successful first season with the Portuguese champions.

“My future, as you know, is completely linked to Porto,” he said.”I do not know of any official interest from other clubs.”

He had been linked with jobs at Chelsea and Liverpool in the Premier League and Juventus and Roma in Serie A.

The 33-year-old led Porto to the Portuguese league title last month and his side are one match away from completing the season undefeated. They face Braga in the Europa League final next week and are also in the Portuguese cup final.

The Porto president, Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, earlier this week urged the coach to stay at the club, saying he would make sure Villas Boas had the resources for continued success.

Keeping the forwards Radamel Falcão and Hulk, who have caught the eye of top European clubs, would seem to be an imperative.

The Colombian Falcão has scored 17 goals in the Europa League, beating the record for goals in a European club tournament previously held by Jürgen Klinsmann, while the Brazilian Hulk is the top scorer in the Portuguese Premier League with 23 goals.

“The president has been clear regarding their release clauses. Porto protects itself very well, so the clauses are high and it will be difficult for a club to meet these clauses. They would have to make a big investment,” Villas Boas said.

Hulk’s release clause is set at €100m(£87m), while Falcão’s is lower at €30m, but with the club reportedly negotiating with the player to increase it.

The Brazilian said he is happy at Porto, but did not rule out a move. “I am not desperate to leave. I am at a great moment in my career, and have three years’ contract left with a great club. As the president said, if someone wants me, they’ll have to pay, so I will leave it in my agent’s hands,” Hulk told reporters.

Falcão said his wish was to stay at Porto, despite the intense speculation. “They [newspapers] have sold us to half the world, but we are still here and I think will continue. At the moment my mind is with Porto, I am happy here and expect to stay many years,” he said.

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Today’s piffle loves the smell of Dulux in the morning

Woo-woo. Dum-chum de-de de-de de. Woo-woo. Please allow The Mill to, er … Dum-chum de-de de-de de. Woo-woo. Something about driving a tank when the bodies stank. Dum-chum de-de de. Woo-woo.

For reasons that aren’t immediately clear, this morning the Mill feels a little different about the biggest story in the history of not-that-big stories painfully overinflated by righteous and self-serving gusts of hot air heated solely by the heart from hot air generated by pure hot air.

Whereas yesterday The Mill felt itself ranged squarely shoulder-to-shoulder, cheek-to-cheek alongside Cheryl, handsome dancer Derek, the dirty-looking blonde one from Girls Aloud and the perfumed-handkerchief-dabbing moral arbiters of the filthy red-tops. Today it has started to feel a slight dilution of its frothing indignation towards the world’s most evil left-back.

The Mill suspects it has something to do with this morning’s Sun. One of these people going about their business in a French medical clinic is behaving really quite strangely. But which one?

“ASHLEY Cole refused to say sorry for betraying Cheryl yesterday after the Sun tracked him down to a swish sports clinic in south-west France. We asked him the question the whole nation wants to ask: “How could you?” But the shaken Chelsea star could only reply: “I just can’t talk about that.”

“Cole, having treatment on his broken ankle at the clinic in Capbreton, a seaside town near Biarritz, tried to hide behind an exercise machine when challenged by our reporter. And wearing a supportive sandal on his injured foot, he hobbled away on crutches after refusing to comment further.”

The Mill asks you. You get the bleeding Eurostar. You blag your way in through the gates. You then accost a weeping man on crutches and distract him from flexing his toes repeatedly while listening to sad power ballads on his chrome-plated iPod. And all you get in return is a polite refusal to discuss the most traumatic few days of his life.

Also, there’s this:

“LOVE rat Ashley Cole has blamed his mother-in-law over his marriage break-up. He told pals that life with Cheryl went downhill when her mum Joan, 50, moved in to keep an eye on her.

“A source close to Ashley was last night reported to have said their sex life dwindled to virtually nothing.
They added: ‘It’s a bit of a passion killer to have your mum in the house.’”

The Mill was rather surprised to read these words and would like to extend a personal invitation to Joan Tweedy to infiltrate The Mill’s own dank and cobwebbed crawl space in the eaves of fashionable .Co.Uk Integrated Towers in London’s horrible Kings Cross any time she fancies it. Blurry mobile phone photographs of The Mill’s ancient, sodden, mildewed sewn-in smalls are available on request.

Meanwhile in the world of almost non-existent actual concrete flimsy football tittle-tattle the Mirror says Arsène Wenger is “keeping tabs on” the 18 year-old Ajax starlet Christian Eriksen, who has been recommended by Dennis Bergkamp.

Arsenal have also given a trial to the 17 year-old Icelandic whiz-kid Ingolfur Sigurdsson, who plays, sadly, not in goal for, but in midfield for Knattspyrnufelag Reykjavikur. Robin van Persie is going to be fit for the last six games of Arsenal’s “title push” according to Bert van Marwijk, who says: “I spoke to Robin on the phone last week and he is improving all the time and feeling better. You can hear it in his voice that he feels he is improving.” Hopefully this involved him saying at some point “I feel I am improving”.

Wayne Bridge is “in turmoil” over his expected England call-up this weekend. He’s still too cross to kick a ball around next to John Terry, because Terry had sex with his ex-girlfriend, who had previously split up with Wayne Bridge, reportedly in part because of his own “philandering ways”.

Next week: fur singlet-clad Wayne Bridge drags woman through village by her hair because that shirt’s not going to iron itself. Roberto Mancini says his job is completely safe. “I don’t feel under pressure at all,” he said, speaking from beneath a small nest of antique stain occasional tables.

Neil Warnock is being “coy” over whether he’s about to leave Crystal Palace. “Can I deny speculation about going to QPR? No,” he said, before taking to the stage to sing “Happy Birthday Mr President” in a strapless ball gown while making a range of creepily child-like cooing kissy kissy noises.

In the Daily Mail Hull’s Kamil Zayatte says he’s going to leave in the summer. “I see myself at a bigger club than Hull. If I could land a move to Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea it would make all Guineans proud of me,” he said, making all Guineans feel at first amused and slightly protective and then perhaps even a little worried. In an EXCLUSIVE it turns out Bridge will refuse to shake hands with Terry when Man City play Chelsea this weekend.

The Mirror also reports that Rafael Benítez was asked why he’s so fat by Romanian journalists yesterday. One cheeky scamp asked: “Mr Benítez, the last time I saw you was at the 2005 Champions League final, and your, erm, silhouette seems to have changed since then. Why is that?”

Benítez replied: “It is the stress of having to answer so many questions from the press. Thank you and goodnight,” before clearing the soup bowls away, and going into the kitchen to flob in the beef Wellingtons. Jermaine Pennant has been sent home from training by Real Zaragoza after arriving late for the third time in two weeks. And the Portsmouth defender Dusko Tosic is going to leave on a free transfer having never played in a league game, which is probably all for the best.

In the Sun Ryan Babel has “vowed to knuckle down after a heart-to-heart with boss Rafael Benítez”. Babel said: “I have had a good talk with the manager and I know what I have to do.

“That is what I am going to concentrate on. I just have to try to be patient, keep working hard and doing my best.”

Landon Donovan has “hinted” he might like to make a permanent move to Everton. “I think it’s been an incredible experience and away from football, the people have been extremely nice,” he said, implying that English football might contain people who are something other than “incredibly nice”.

And according to Goal.com Kansas City Wizards wizard Luis Gil has been signed by Real Salt Lake.

“Real Salt Lake provides a prime environment for the development of young players,” says the excitable, blazered wise-cracking, golf-playing, sample-carrying, Cadillac-driving, wife-flirting, squirtie-water-flower-wearing overly friendly American man in a suit Garth Lagerwey.

“The dream of venturing on to the Rio Tinto Stadium turf will surely inspire Luis to work hard every day in training. We have a talented, veteran team and we have no expectation that any young player will easily crack our championship line-up, though our hope is that Luis is eventually able to earn minutes in the years ahead,” he added, sounding like a demented alien.

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