Football Insight

MIKE ASHLEY has put Newcastle on the market – and wants to sell the club by Christmas.   It is the second time the sports magnate has put Newcastle up for sale during his controversial decade in charge – and this time Ashley is so desperate to sever his ties that he is willing to let a buyer pay in instalments. He remains deeply unpopular with the Toon Army and his relationship with manager Rafa Benitez is strained following a botched transfer window this summer. But with Newcastle back in the top flight and looking on course to stay there under Benitez, Ashley believes he can now sell from a position of strength. It has been an open secret for several months that Ashley wants out, with managing director Lee Charnley meeting interested parties in China during the summer and the chairman himself admitting in a TV interview that he was ready to listen to offers. Despite being a billionaire, Ashley claims he does not have the wealth to compete with the elite. But wi

ZINEDINE ZIDANE has refused to back Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo in the race for the Ballon d’Or award. Despite a slow start to the campaign, Cristiano Ronaldo is widely expected to lift the coveted prize when the winner is announced on December 6. Having lifted the La Liga and Champions League last term, the Portuguese is expected to clinch the accolade for the fifth time. Barcelona star Lionel Messi will be in the running once again after he was nominated for the award. But when he was put on the spot, rather than endorse Ronaldo for the award, he gave an awkward response. “I'm not going to put anyone on the podium," Zidane said. "The Ballon d'Or is something else, people vote." However, Zidane was happy to sing the praises of Isco, as he said: “I will only tell you that I like Isco a huge amount because he's always creative, he always tries. "For me, the player that always tries ends up with success." Real take on To

HUGO LLORIS insists the lesson of Lyon in 2010 can help Tottenham stop “the machine” that is Cristiano Ronaldo. Lyon won the home leg 1-0 and when Ronaldo put the Galaticos ahead in the sixth minute at the Bernabeu, the Spanish giants looked set to march on. But a Miralem Pjanic equaliser saw Lyon pull of a huge shock, going into the semi-finals where they were knocked out by Bayern Munich. “We play in the Champions League to play against the best teams,” said Lloris. “It’s a massive opportunity for us. They know how to increase the levels because they have the experience in this competition to help them. “For us, we have to try to be solid and believe in ourselves, in our football. It is a collective sport and it is possible to make great achievements. “The target is to be competitive and enjoy our football, to make a great team performance and to show the face of Tottenham. To play with our concepts, to keep possession, to be aggressive and try to be dominant.

A player with the innate ability of Ronaldinho and the discipline of Cristiano Ronaldo would have been the perfect footballer. Hard work and talent have always been considered to be the fundamentals of a successful career in any field, but even more so in sports. However, this by no means implies that a person who possesses innate ability does not need to work hard, as basketball star Kevin Durant once famously noted: “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.” And if anyone from the footballing world ever wanted to see an example of what Durant was referring to, they needn’t any further than the respective careers of Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo. On the face of it, both Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo are undoubtedly two of the greatest players to ever grace a football field. But a closer look at their respective careers’ shows you why one has managed to outlive the other. In Ronaldinho’s case, the Brazilian was easily one of the most natur

A brief analysis of why Arsenal fans can be confident about their team's chances of winning the Premier League.   For the first time in a very long while, Arsene Wenger and his Arsenal side are not being seen as title challengers. Given the huge amounts of money spent by rivals (Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City) and the fact that the others (Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur) have been able to keep their star players, the Gunners were not tipped for the title at all. An underwhelming transfer campaign saw the arrival of Alexander Lacazette from Lyon as the only high-value acquisition. Sead Kolasinac was brought in on a free from Schalke while the rumours about the situations of Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Özil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (who eventually moved to Liverpool) dominated the headlines. The poor start where the team lost two of its three opening games certainly contributed to the doom and gloom scenario but a run of no losses and 3 wins in the la

How these players made the 30-man Ballon d'Or shortlist will remain a mystery! The 30 man Ballon d'Or shortlist is out and it's not gone down well with the fans. Here's the full list if you don't know yet: Gianluigi Buffon, David De Gea, Jan Obla, Leonardo Bonucci, Mats Hummels, Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Philippe Coutinho, Kevin De Bruyne, N'Golo Kanté, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Karim Benzema, Edinson Cavani, Paulo Dybala, Edin Dzeko, Falcao, Antonie Griezmann, Eden Hazard, Isco, Harry Kane, Robert Lewandowski, Sadio Mané, Kylian Mbappé, Diers Mertens, Lionel Messi, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez. While most of them were brilliant this year, some of them are just on the list based on the clubs they play for or the trophies won by their team. Here are 5 players who should NOT be on this shortlist: #5 - Mats Hummels Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga, just like they did the year before, and the year befo