Tito Vilanova has praised Sergi Roberto in the aftermath of Barcelona s 3-0 win over Alaves on Tuesday evening.
The 20-year-old midfielder is seen as one of the hottest prospects at Barca, and featured for the full 90 minutes in the round-of-32 cup game, impressing his coach.
It s good to know that Barca have a player (Sergi Roberto) for the long term, he told reporters.
He s in a position to play more games with Barca now. He could possibly play more for the first team, but there are very good players in his position.
Roberto made his debut for the club in November 2010, but has played mainly for the Catalans B team so far.
The Spain Under-21 starlet has a contract with the Liga leaders until June 2015.
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Chelsea have loaned defender Patrick van Aanholt to Vitesse Arnhem for the second consecutive season.
The 22-year-old made 31 Eredivisie appearances for Vitesse last term as they finished fourth in the Dutch top flight, securing UEFA Europa League qualification in the process.
Van Aanholt has made just eight senior appearances for Chelsea since signing on junior terms from PSV Eindhoven in 2007 and also spent half of the 2011-12 season at the Gelredome.
The move follows Chelsea s signing of Vitesse midfielder Marco van Ginkel, who signed a five-year deal at Stamford Bridge.
A statement on Vitesse s official website read: Patrick van Aanholt will play again next season at Vitesse.
The 22-year-old defender is hired for a season from Chelsea Football Club. Van…
Valencia striker David Villa, one of the stars of Spain s victorious Euro 2008 squad, has been in touch with Barcelona about a move to the European champions, Spanish media said Thursday.
I only want to go to Barca, Villa told Barcelona s technical director Txiqui Begiristain at a secret meeting, the Catalan sports paper Mundo Deportivo said.
He said that there are only two alternatives: to agree on his transfer to Barca or he is ready to see out his contract with Valencia, the daily Sport reported.
It said the 27-year-old has rejected interest from Chelsea and from Barca s arch-rivals Real Madrid.
Barcelona, which won a unique treble of league, Spanish cup and European Champions League trophies last season, is ready to offer Villa contract of four or f…
Manchester City midfielder Kalvin Phillips is keen on a move to Newcastle United in the January transfer window, according to Rudy Galetti. The Italian journalist has reported on Twitter that Premier League rivals City and Newcastle are confident of getting a deal done over Phillips in the coming days.
Galetti has claimed that Phillips wants to move to Newcastle so that he can play regular first-team football and be a part of the England squad for the Euro 2024 finals. The former Leeds United midfielder is a peripheral figure at City, who won the Premier League, the UEFA Champions League and the FA Cup last season.
🚨📈 Positive feelings about the potential move of to in Jan.‼️ Kalvin is keen to join , especially for the key role he should play, also in the…
According to , Everton are interested in signing Christian Eriksen from Inter Milan in the January transfer window. It has been reported that the Italian clubs are willing to offload the former Tottenham Hotspur attacking midfielder, and that Everton are interested in bringing him back to the Premier League and have already made an enquiry.
Eriksen joined Inter from Tottenham in January 2020 and has struggled to make a huge impact in Serie A. The 28-year-old Denmark international is not guaranteed a place in manager Antonio Conte’s starting lineup, and a departure from Inter does seem likely.
Everton signed James Rodriguez from Real Madrid in the summer of 2020 and do have a good attacking unit. However, Eriksen is a very good and creative player who knows the Premier…
England winger James Milner has ruled out conspiracy theories that Croatia midfielder Luka Modric was deliberately injured ahead of a crucial World Cup qualifier at Wembley next week.
Croatia FA chiefs are frustrated that key midfielder Modric broke a leg in a tackle with Birmingham s Lee Bowyer just 10 days before a match against England that could decide the World Cup fate of both teams.
They already have bitter memories of how key striker Eduardo also suffered a broken leg playing against the same opposition for Arsenal in February 2008 and Croatia FA supremo Vlatko Markovic on Tuesday said: First Eduardo, now Luka Modric. This is horrible. I can only ask myself if it was really an accident.
I m close to thinking it was done to us deliberately before the Eng…
European clubs on Tuesday urged FIFA to accept that only players aged under 21 years can take part in the Olympic Games football tournament instead of 23 years as presently allowed.
After a meeting of the European Club Association (ECA), top executives accused world football s governing body of wavering and changing its mind on the issue.
All 100 ECA member clubs present in Geneva support the under 21 with no over age players solution, Barcelona president and ECA vice-chairman Juan Laporta said.
It s important to have a clear-cut rule, he told journalists.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has indicated that it wants FIFA to stick to the 23-year-old age limit.
That is at odds with the general under-21 format applied by FIFA for young in…
Hull City are on the verge of signing Arsenal striker Chuba Akpom on a season-long loan, .
The 19 year old has enjoyed a successful preseason with the Gunners, even scoring a hat-trick in their 4-0 win over a Singapore Select XI in earlier this month.
He has so far made nine senior appearances for Arsene Wenger’s side, while he had a brief spell with Nottingham Forest last season.
He also spent time with Brentford and Coventry City during the 2013/14 campaign, though he is yet to score his first senior club goal.
Internationally, the nineteen year old has been capped for England at every level from U16s to U20s, and has scored six goals in ten outings for the latter.
Tigers boss Steve Bruce has already drafted in Isaac Hayden from Arsenal …
Calum Chambers has joined Middlesbrough on a season-long loan from Arsenal.
The 21-year-old signed for Arsenal from Southampton in July 2014 and won the FA Cup with the Gunners in 2015.
Chambers has made 58 Premier League appearances and has three England caps to his name but the defender who can play at right-back and in the centre has been deemed surplus to requirements by Arsenal, who appear set to sign Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia.
The focus for Chambers switches to helping Middlesbrough retain their Premier League status following promotion from the Championship last season.
Pleased to sign on loan for . Excited about the season ahead and can t wait to get working
— Calum Chambers (@CalumChambers95)
Middlesbrough head coach Ai…
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Runaway league leaders Liverpool are set to play host to one of the surprises of the season in the form of the newly promoted Sheffield United on Thursday evening at Anfield.
Liverpool
There s very little to be said about the team currently ruling Europe and the rest of the planet that hasn t been said already. They are on a run of extreme ruthlessness in the Premier League, with 18 wins and a draw from the 19 games they ve played so far. Much has been said about the way VAR helped them win their last game, a 1-0 struggle against Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend, but the fact remains that the controversial technology made two right calls, correcting the referee s ruling both when Sadio Mane s goal was initially disallowed for an …