Atletico chief reveals he rejected big-money bids

Atletico Madrid have claimed that they rejected big-money bids for Sergio Aguero and Diego Forlan from Chelsea and Real Madrid, respectively, last summer.

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Sergio Aguero: The star for Atletico.

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Atletico chief Miguel Angel Gil Marin has revealed the club chose to keep their star names, but the move has backfired as they have suffered a poor start to the Liga season and are now unable to strengthen their squad depth.
"There were two bids in the summer," Gil Marin told Marca. "Chelsea wanted Aguero and Real Madrid wanted Diego Forlan. Chelsea offered €45 million plus €5 million in bonuses for Aguero and Real Madrid offered €36 million for Forlan.
"Madrid's president [Florentino Perez] told us he would not meet Forlan's buy-out clause because he did not want a public confrontation between the club. They hoped we would accept their first offer and in a deal that would have included us having the pick of a number of players, one of whom was Alvaro Negredo."
Gil Marin was asked if Atletico do not sell in the winter transfer window, then would they be forced to listen to offers in the summer if they were not in the Champions League again.
"It will not be a must, but it is obvious that there are cycles with teams and with players," he replied. "If any player wants to look for a new challenge then Atletico would evaluate it.
"The problem in the summer was that we chose not to sell five players; Aguero, Forlan, Simao, Paulo Assuncao and Tomas Ujfalusi. We then told the sporting director that he could buy players that we needed with money raised from the sale of other players, but the market was at a standstill and we could not sell."

City's Robinho reasserts desire to join Barcelona

Robinho believes his ambition to be the best player in the world would be better served playing for Barcelona than Manchester City, although he insists he is not trying to force a move away from the Premier League side.

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Man City's Robinho is sidelined at present

Robinho, who only joined City just over a year ago for a British record £32.5 million from Real Madrid, has been closely linked with a move back to Spain over the last few months with Barca confirmed admirers.
The Brazil international has already admitted he would relish the chance to play for Pep Guardiola's all-conquering side, and, in his latest comments, he also feels that by representing Barca he will have a better chance of achieving his long-held goal of being the best player on the planet.
Robinho told Brazilian radio station Radio Bandeirantes: ''I'm very happy about the interest that Barcelona have in me, playing in the Nou Camp it is much easier to be the best player in the world than at City.''
However, Robinho, who is currently sidelined with an ankle injury, insists he is not trying to manufacture a move away from City or that he has a problem with manager Mark Hughes.
''I'm not forcing a hypothetical exit from England and neither do I have problems with my coach,'' he added.

Rafael Benitez: I feel safe in my job

Rafael Benitez has shrugged off the growing pressure on his position at Liverpool and revealed the depths of the soul searching that has dominated his troubled squad.

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Benitez: Under pressure at Anfield

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With a crunch home clash with champions Manchester United to contend with on Sunday, it is not ideal for Liverpool to find themselves in such desperate circumstances. But Benitez and his injury-ravaged side know they must produce something to lift the gathering gloom at Anfield.
A protest march is being planned and American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett will be the subject of increased security. It is not the atmosphere Benitez would want as he tries to end a run of four straight defeats, their worst spell for 22 years.
''I am relaxed in terms of my position,'' the Spaniard insisted. ''I know how we are working every day, the players know too. In the past we have been very good and the situation and players has not changed too much. It is about confidence and winning that first game. If we want to change things we must focus on football and not what is going on off the pitch here.
''We have done extra training sessions, the attitude of the players has been good and you could see how focused and positive they are. They know the situation. They know what they must do and they will try to do everything we are asking of them.
''I have had great support from Steven (Gerrard). He is a leader, he wanted to prove something in the week against Lyon, he wanted to play despite the injury problem. That shows the right mentality and what we expect from any player at Liverpool.
''The team is not as bad as people think. We have beaten United without Gerrard and Torres and we know that we can beat anyone. We have total confidence in that. I have been working on how to change things, how to improve. Everyone talks about pressure, pressure, pressure but we have confidence in ourselves.
''You do not see players happy when they are not winning games but you must see the responsibility in their faces. I have talked with them, the most important players, and I have been impressed with their positive attitude.
''When you are not winning, you cannot be too negative with players. When I push the players it is when I know that we can improve and they are already doing well. When we are not doing well we have to analyse carefully and not to push too hard.''
If Liverpool lose on Sunday it will be their worst run since the club was relegated from the old First Division in 1953. But Benitez maintains a change of fortune is only a win away.
''As a manager you know that sometimes there will be good moments and bad moments, and at this time we know that we have to improve,'' he added. ''But it is only a matter of time. If we win a game then everything changes. This game against Manchester United is just the right opportunity. It is a massive game, the fans will be right behind us from the first minute to the last.
''When people (John Terry) talk about our squad not being strong enough, I maintain that we are better than people think. If we have half a dozen players who are injured, then things will be difficult.
''If you take five players out of United, Chelsea or Arsenal, it will be very difficult for them to win games. The best way to regain confidence and to improve our situation is to beat Manchester United.''

Strength Training For Kids Soccer - 5 Simple Tips For Developing Youth Soccer Strength

Have you ever wondered if it is at all possible to do strength training for kids soccer to improve performance on the soccer field?

Actually it can be quite simple if you know what you are doing. Face it many soccer coaches like their players to be strong, powerful and fast. This occurs even at the younger ages of eight and nine when most technical training begins. Many coaches like to pick the faster and stronger players because they believe they have a better chance of winning.
It is these players that are strong, powerful and fast that get noticed first regardless if they have good technical skill.
If your child lacks strength in kids soccer he or she can make it up by building strength, power and speed away from the soccer field. The great thing is that a child as young as eight years old can start a properly supervised strength training program.
I want you to know that strength training for soccer kids may be done with or with out weights.
Here are 5 tips and ideas to help you get started with your childs' strength training program for soccer.
1. Start with body weight exercises. Body weight exercises teaches your child to control his/her body.
2. Focus on correct technique. It is important for for young soccer players to learn proper movement patterns at a young age so they can progress to heavier loads as they get older.
3. Pick exercises that closely mimic the movement on the field. Squats and lunges are great examples.
4. Do exercises that require require little or no equipment. Remember there are several household things you can use to create resistance- soup cans, telephone books etc.
5. Have fun! Hopscotch is a great game for strength training for kids soccer. It incorporates one legged strength, balance and coordination naturally.
Avoid machine based exercises in which your child needs to be seated. Sitting takes away from the natural development of the core stomach muscles.

Mike Grafstein is an expert in youth strength, conditioning, injury prevention and treatment with over twenty years working in the youth soccer industry. He has a background as an Athletic Therapist, Massage Therapist and Youth conditioning Specialist. He was the head therapist and conditioning consultant with Ontario Soccer Association and currently holds this position with Bryst International a youth soccer development services company. He is the creator of http://youthsoccer-power.com and author of Youth Soccer Power Unleashed.

Will Michael Owen Make it to the World Cup?

With England's place in the World Cup booked, the burning question on many England fans minds is if Michael Owen will be on the plane to South Africa.
Michael Owen was once one of the most feared strikers in world football, with Pele quoted saying that Owen was his favorite footballer. But his reputation in recent years has taken a beating.
Owen came into prominence as a young striker in Liverpool where he quickly became their star player, scoring at will and ending the 97-98 season as the joint top scorer of the English Premier League. But it was in the 1998 World Cup that he burst onto the international stage with a wonder goal against Argentina. Voted by many as the best goal of the tournament, Owen outran the Argentines, beating seasoned defenders such as Roberto Ayala and Jose Chamot before scoring from just outside the penalty box.
Frustrated with Liverpool's lack of results, it wasn't long before Owen was on his way to join the star studded lineup of Spanish giants Real Madrid. Although he found it difficult to secure a first team place there, he performed admirably whenever he played and even had the highest goals to minutes played ratio in 2004. However it was his subsequent move to Newcastle United that started the rot.
Owen was convinced to move to Newcastle by England strike partner Alan Shearer but with injuries and loss of form and the subsequent relegation of Newcastle, many football fans had written off Owen's prospects of an England place. The future was looking bleak, until Sir Alex Ferguson made him the surprise signing of 2009, even handing him the legendary number 7 shirt at Manchester United. With Owen scoring the miracle last minute winner against Manchester City, would it be long before we see him in an England lineup again?
The chances look slim, with England progressing comfortably to the World Cup and manager Fabio Capello refusing to select him in favor of other strikers such as Wayne Rooney, Jermaine Defoe, Emile Heskey, Peter Crouch and even Carlton Cole. But of the 5 strikers, Rooney seems to be the only automatic choice and the season is long. Who knows, if Owen ends the season in top form the other strikers sustain injuries or loss of form, he might find himself on the plane to South Africa.

Roger Cruz is a big sports fan. Are you having mobility problems? Check out his website and discover how a motorized wheel chair and wheel chair ramp can help you lead the active lifestyle you desire.

How to Improve Your Soccer Acceleration

Do you as a coach feel the importance of acceleration in the game of soccer, but due to information-overload out there, you don't know who to listen to or what methods to follow?
I don't blame you. According to research, most of the youth soccer coaches out there today are voluntarily coaching a team, meaning in a lot of cases you are probably a parent to one of the kids in the team. So with this being said, you have a regular job on the side, and you simply don't have time to spend hours reading and researching in order to find new methods.
All you need to do is what athletes back in the days focused primarily (and almost exclusively) on, and it is...SPRINTING.
You don't need to use resistance bands, parachutes or any other fancy stuff, you simply just need to line the athletes up next to each other, and then upon your command, sprint to point B.
When talking about speed and how to improve it, there are certain laws of physics that comes to mind. The probably most important one is to teach the players how to apply more force to the ground. This may sound extremely difficult, and it can be, but just follow the drills here below and I promise you that you'll get the players to apply more force to the ground in their start, which will result in improved acceleration, and most important of all, these drills are fun.
As a matter of fact, you may even have done these before without even thinking about the benefits.
When discussing acceleration for soccer players, I tend to set up a distance of 15-30 meters. A few years back, a long term study performed on English Premier League players showed that the most covered distance in a soccer game is between 10-30 meters, and therefore, your ability to pick it up as fast as possible, decelerate and change a direction, and then accelerate again is probably the most important aspects of soccer speed (in this lesson, where are only going to focus on acceleration, and will leave deceleration and change of direction for another day).
To sum it up, you shouldn't have the players sprint for 50-60 meters, at least not now. Anywhere between 10-30 meters is great (go with 10-15 meters in the beginning).
When talking acceleration vs. top speed, it's important to know that acceleration is about creating an angle, that forward lean. So below you'll find some different variations of starts to use with your players, and these starts will create that forward lean with your players.
Here are the different starting positions:
Staggered
One foot in front, and the other back. The position they are in when ready to run. Standing Track & Field start basically.
Falling Start
Have the players stand tall and keep a straight line through their body. Then tell them to keep that line and fall forward, and just as they feel it's getting scary and they feel like falling to the ground, that's when they'll explode and run out for 10-30 meters.
Pushup Position
Have the players lay in a starting pushup stance (at the top of the motion, straight arms and a straight body). Upon your signal, they'll explode out of there as quickly as possible. Important here is that they shouldn't stand straight up and then run. From the starting position, they should try come forward as quick as possible, and when doing that, they'll create that forward lean that's so important for teaching a player to apply more force and improving their acceleration.
As a last note, speed training is always done right after a proper warm-up consisting of mobility and flexibility, some activation exercises together with some running and skipping drills.
With that being said, speed training is always performed at the beginning of a practice, and make sure that your players have recovered between the starts. Soccer speed training is done in a resting state. If you perform a lot of reps with low rest in between, it's conditioning and will not give maximum speed results, it's that simple.
A good rule of thumb is for every 10 meters the players run, they'll rest 45-60 seconds before repeating. So if they run 30 meters, they should rest 135-180 seconds before next rep. Don't ignore this, it's a very important rule to follow!
Use these tips and you'll see great improvements with your players soccer speed!
Good luck!

If you enjoyed this article and want more tips on how to improve your players soccer specific speed without making it too complicated, then sign up for Jonas Forsberg's speed program over at The Soccer Speed Blog.

How to Make a Nice Income With Soccer

Football Compiler System is brought to you by Daniel Soulsby, an ex bookmaker and it is a great system for increasing your bank balance through soccer.
With this system, you read the manual on how to study form and select the correct teams to follow and bet on. He also offers a weekly email service as part of the package.
Basically we follow the top teams in certain European leagues and look for value at the bookmakers and exchanges.
He will notify you well in advance of the weekly pic(s), which team to put on and who is offering the best odds at the time of publishing.
There are loads of online bookmakers and exchanges, so an important part of the system, is to have accounts with the majority of them, so that when he sends you an email with the best odds, you will already have an account and therefore can place the bet.
When I first came across the system, I thought why back the top teams at short odds, but the truth of the matter is that, the vast majority of the time they win and very rarely draw or lose and therefore great for your bank balance.
There is a points system with this and he also mentions about, how many you should risk with the chosen match and is a great way of protecting your betting bank.
This is a must have product and if you have ever wanted to make some extra money through sports, then I highly recommend that, you get yourself a copy at the earliest opportunity.

For a full review of this great system, please visit - Football Tipster.

Soccer Practice Ideas

Breaking up the monotony of soccer practice is important for keeping the attention of your players. Run the same boring drills every week, and your players will lose interest. They may even stop showing up, completely. Therefore, having a steady stream of interesting soccer practice ideas will keep your players fascinated by the game.
One of the best ideas for soccer practice is to make the drills into games. Make it a competition and keep score, it will force players to give it their all and pay attention to the task at hand. Don't listen to all the soft people out their telling you that competition is wrong, it is absolutely the best way to prepare your players for what will happen on the field.
Another good idea for soccer practice is to have a theme for each practice. For example, say your team was having trouble shooting in the last game. Run a finishing specific practice that gives players a number of chances to shoot on goal. Keep the topic of practices timely based on what your team needs, and you will continue to push forward with the goal of helping them improve their game.
Combine these two ideas, and you have the perfect practice. Split the team into two teams, run shooting drills and keep score. You will get more out of your players than if nothing was on the line, and your practices will most closely resemble what happens on the field. Be creative, and maintain a steady supply of drill ideas, it will seriously help your players.

Running a quality soccer practice is about keeping it interesting. Get more creative ideas for soccer coaching success

Liverpool V Manchester United - Do Liverpool Have What it Takes to Topple the Champions?

Last time these two colossal sides faced each other it was Liverpool who breezed by winning 4 goals to Manchester United's 1. However remarkable this result, it transpired that it was not enough to claim the Premier League title which ended up going United's way.
Liverpool's run of form so far this season has been one of the worst in their very long history already losing more games this season than they did the whole of last season! Liverpool are also going into the game on the back of a defeat to Lyon in the Champions League, a game that saw Liverpool take the lead late in the first half and then lose it with only minutes left on the clock when Lyon ripped open their defence and struck in a relatively easy goal!
Man Utd will go into the game top of the league before the weekend's fixtures without a loss in the premier league since they lost their away fixture against Burnley on the 19th of August. Relatively injury free Manchester United will be looking forward to this weekend's fixture hoping to take the scalp of their North West counterparts.
Unfortunately because of Liverpool's poor performance to the season and the key injuries of Torres and Gerrard (who had to be withdrawn early on in the first half of the match against Lyon due to an injury) both uncertain of being available for the tie it is looking likely that Liverpool will not have what it takes to topple the champions come Sunday's big encounter.

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Using a Soccer Betting System For Your Sports Betting Strategy

By practicing discipline and increasing your knowledge and self-control, you can definitely win at any type of sports betting such as soccer or horse racing. You must play and place your bets wisely (remember it is your money at stake!), and you will eventually start to win larger amounts of money and even prizes.
To gain a distinct advantage over your rivals, you should spend some of your time studying soccer betting tips and form, all of which are available on the Internet.
Listed below are several ways that can help you increase your chances of winning at your soccer bets. When you become an expert at these techniques, you can increase your chances of winning to around 9 bets out of every ten matches you bet on.
1. Know the line-ups of the teams you are betting on. Identify the good players and their key positions. You must also study their previous playing strategies against their opponents, especially if they have the same managers as any recent matches.
2. Check the injury reports of the team. In this way, you can determine which team has a bigger chance of winning.
3. Do research on the back up system of the teams, small things like this can tip a tie in favor of one team or the other.
4. Review the playing history of the two teams. Typically, you must go for the team who have had more wins compared to the other. To really have a good chance of choosing the best team, you must also consider the current form of the teams against each other and against other recent opponents.
5. Take time to study the teams recent form and which direction it is going in. Find out the causes of why the teams lost games in the recent past, are they affected by the weather? Small things like this can help you make the right bet.
6. Before you start betting, ensure that you know both the teams very well.
7. Always but always. only ever place a bet within your limit. Do not bet an amount that you cannot afford to lose.
8. If you lose, do not linger on your emotions, move on to the next bet and study harder, try and work out what went wrong and use the knowledge next time. Remember bets must be placed with your brain, not your heart.
If you use these tips, you may have a much better chance of winning at soccer betting. However, you should always remember that you must maintain your dedication and study of the teams and form, and never get addicted to betting, always walk away if you have any doubt about a bet.

Jim Osgood is a Soccer nut who runs the website:
http://www.worldcupworld2010.com
His growing website has a World Cup Forum, Blog and Video page for anyone interested in Soccer. Fans can add their own views to the World Cup Forum and predict the winners and losers for 2010.
Jim's World Cup 2010 South Africa soccer book is available for
FREE download at: http://www.worldcupworld2010.com/soccerbook/