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Posts Tagged ‘Cardiff City’

• Chelsea manager says left-back will be fit for South Africa
• Wayne Bridge set to be in England squad alongside John Terry

Carlo Ancelotti has offered his compatriot Fabio Capello timely encouragement by suggesting Ashley Cole should have recovered from a fractured ankle in time to prove his fitness ahead of the World Cup.

The Chelsea and England left-back underwent surgery today on the bone broken in a challenge with Everton’s Landon Donovan at Goodison Park on Wednesday night and his left ankle is expected to be in plaster for up to a month.

Should his rehabilitation progress as expected, however, he could yet feature for Chelsea before the end of the current campaign and, all being well, would be available for England’s pre-tournament friendlies against Mexico on 24 May and against Japan in Austria ahead of the squad’s departure for South Africa.

“I hope he recovers quickly and comes back before the end of the season,” Ancelotti said. “That’s a realistic possibility. He will have surgery today and we hope to recuperate him quickly. In three months he will be ready to play, so for England he can play in the World Cup.”

The Chelsea manager added: “When a player has an injury, it’s normal that he’s depressed. I had a lot of injuries in my career and was down. But, after the depression, you have to look forward. You have to rest, to recover and to work. Ashley has a fantastic spirit to do this. I’m sure he will be back before the time the doctor said. I know him. He will put in the spirit to recover well.”

While Chelsea have sufficient cover at left-back in Russia’s Yuri Zhirkov and the Portugal defender Paulo Ferreira, England’s options are arguably less clear-cut. The chances of Wayne Bridge being included in the squad for next month’s home friendly against Egypt, to play alongside John Terry, have risen. Relations between the pair remain strained, with the Chelsea captain alleged to have had an affair with Bridge’s former partner Vanessa Perroncel, though Manchester City expect their full-back to be available for the Wembley game on 3 March.

“Wayne never told me that he doesn’t want to play with Terry,” Roberto Mancini, the City manager, said. “Is he committed to playing for England? Absolutely. Playing in the World Cup is important for all players. Wayne is a good man and all that is important is that he recovers to play for City and the national team. Wayne was injured for a month with a knee injury and that is a big problem for a player. He is getting fitter, but he needs to play and after five or six games. Then he will be 100%.”

Capello, who replaced Terry as captain this month, has conceded that coaching the England side has already proved something of an eye-opener. “It is a psychological job to be the manager of a national team, especially the England team,” he said.

He, like Chelsea, will hope that Terry returns from Dubai – where he is spending time with his estranged wife, Toni Poole, and the couple’s three-year-old twins – in a better state of mind after a below-par display at Everton. Terry is not due back at Chelsea’s Cobham training ground until next week to prepare for the trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers next Saturday.

While Ancelotti suggested he would have granted his captain time off regardless of the furore whipped up around him in recent weeks – he has also rested Nicolas Anelka for the FA Cup fifth round tie against Cardiff City – he did warn his players that he would have no qualms in excluding them from his team if matters in their private life affected their form.

Ancelotti was not afraid to omit Ronaldinho at Milan last season when he felt the player was not focused sufficiently on his football. “When I see that a player’s personal life is affecting their performances, I will act. For sure,” the Italian said.

“I want to judge my players on their professional behaviour, their ­professional lives. I’m not interested in their private lives. My players, when they finish here [at Cobham], are normal people. I’m not interested. If a player comes back to the training ground and he’s not focused or doesn’t work hard, then I can go a ­different way. But if they come here and are ­professional – and I have fantastically ­professional players – then I’m not involved in other things.

“I could have given John Terry two or three days of recovery time anyway. He’s played every game this season. Nicolas has a few days off as well – they have time off and they can do what they want with it. Some of my players are tired. They need to have some days to recover to prepare for the next [Premier League] game.”

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• Millennium Stadium may be shunned in favour of smaller venue
• Toshack predicts nations will struggle to agree fixture dates

The Wales manager, John Toshack, will consult his players before deciding whether to play their home Euro 2012 qualifier with England in the Millennium Stadium or a smaller and more intimidating ground.

Wales are in the same group as Fabio Capello’s side in addition to Switzerland, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Holding the match at the Millennium Stadium, with its capacity of nearly 75,000, would mean more revenue and less headaches in terms of security.

Toshack, however, admits other options to consider are the new Cardiff City Stadium (capacity 27,000) and Swansea’s Liberty complex (22,000) where they host Sweden in a friendly on 3 March.

Toshack said: “Things have changed a bit recently for us. We have got two other stadiums now. We were well pleased with the treatment we got from the Cardiff people when we played Scotland there recently.

“Swansea have a new stadium as well and we have been treated well there and play Sweden there shortly. You have to consider the atmosphere factor as well. It is early days yet. We have a fixture meeting on 15 March when it will be decided what dates we play but you don’t have to announce the venue until 90 days before a fixture.

“I will be interested to get the players’ views on that subject as well so we have got a little bit of time to decide.”

Toshack concedes England will be favourites to qualify but believes the battle for second spot is wide open. “Looking at our group, I think it is the most wide open of all of them. England will be clear favourites but I think the other four nations are all in contention.

“Between the four of us there is not a great deal to choose at all. It is difficult for anyone to predict the positions the teams will finish in. There are no ‘gimme’ fixtures for anyone. England are favourites but none of the teams are superpowers.”

Toshack locked horns with Capello just once when rival managers in Spain during the 1990s, but believes he can lead England to a successful World Cup.

“I sat next to Capello on the plane on the way over for the draw yesterday and we had a good two and a half hour conversation. On the way back he sat at the back, I sat at the front and we never said a word.

“Seriously, I am sure there will be an awful lot of interest in the game and I can see them having a good World Cup as well. Hopefully they will come back with 10 injuries and we can pick them off in September. You never know. For our players, the prospect of playing England at Wembley is a terrific incentive. If our young players get more game time in, and progress as we think they are capable of, it will be great.”

Toshack’s main concern is that Wales have more luck with injuries than in their World Cup qualifying campaign. “When you look at us and England, we have 11 players who play in the Premier League and two of them are goalkeepers. You can see the difficulties we have with four or five injuries. We need a bit of good fortune on the injury front which we never had the last time around.

“If we make mistakes or pick the wrong team, or concede late on, that’s down to us, but we would just hope to have our best players available.”

Toshack believes it will be more difficult for teams to come to an agreement over when to stage fixtures given the new guidelines which allow weekend games to be played on Friday or Saturday and all midweek fixtures on Tuesdays.

“I can see that being difficult this time around for all the groups. I can see a lot of these meetings to decide the fixtures being thrown out and it all going to Uefa to decide. A lot of countries are not accustomed to playing on Friday evening and won’t want Saturday-Tuesday either.

“In this country, our players are accustomed to playing Saturday-Tuesdays so I can see fixture meetings this time around having a lot of problems and not being easy to come to an agreement.”

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• Agbonlahor “deserves another chance”, says Carew
• 22-year-old has not won a cap since February

John Carew has urged Fabio Capello to recall Gabriel Agbonlahor to the England squad following the Aston Villa striker’s impressive start to the new season.

Agbonlahor scored for the fourth successive match against Cardiff City in the Carling Cup on Wednesday night, prompting the Norwegian to claim that his team-mate “deserves another chance” with England after having been overlooked by Capello since winning his second cap against Spain in February.

Agbonlahor failed to make an impression against Spain on a night when England were outplayed by the European champions but it was arguably his poor performances at club level during the second half of the season, when he faced criticism from Villa supporters, that cost him a place in Capello’s squad.

However, since scoring against Fulham at the end of last month, the 22-year-old has rediscovered the form that first brought him to Capello’s attention and on Wednesday helped Villa secure their sixth successive win.

“I saw Gabby in front of goal against Cardiff and he finished with great class with a flick for the goal,” said Carew, who set up the chance that Agbonlahor steered home in the third minute with an adroit touch to secure Villa’s place in the last 16. “That was a sign of his confidence. I think he can get back in the England squad. He deserves another chance and it would surprise me if he doesn’t get one. He is looking really sharp.

“England has some really good strikers now and he is one of those to be fighting for a place in the team.”

Carew believes Agbonlahor has benefited from extra sessions in the gym during the summer. “He is young so he is still developing and his confidence is developing as well. He will get even more consistent every season.

“He is really improving his game all the time. He is getting muscley and stronger and he still hasn’t lost his pace. He is finding the balance there and is on a hot streak.”

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