isport

Jose Mourinho has asked Juan Mata to remain at the club in a shock move, according to reports making the rounds. The Portuguese tactician blocked any move that will allow the player be the play maker at Everton FC this summer. Everton were gearing to make the Spaniard the creative one in the team they are rebuilding one and off the pitch.

The move was similar to the one made by Pep Guardiola at Manchester City as he asked that the widely speculated move of Yaya Toure to Inter Milan be cancelled. Mourinho also asked that Mata remain at the club despite being the one that sold him to the Red Devils two years ago when he was at the helms at Chelsea.

When asked if there was space for the player at the club, he said: “Yes, there is a space here for Juan. It is a strange question because I don’t understand why he doesn’t have a future.

“First of all, I think maybe all of you misunderstood what happened in our previous club because I never told Mata to leave. I never pressed the club to sell him.”

He continued saying that it was his decision to leave and he didn’t like the idea of players wanting to leave. He said he isn’t one to hold back any player when they want to leave so he allowed the deal to go through. He said Mata wasn’t happy as he was not his first choice and he wanted to be playing every game, so when the good offer from Man United came they decided to sell and not hold back because they were selling to a direct competitor.

He said not selling to another club because of direct competition was old fashioned. On an endnote, he said he wants the player to keep fighting for his shirt and that there is space for everyone as there are many games all through the season.

Everton took a massive step towards qualifying for the Champions League next season after they finished as 3-0 winners over Arsenal in the latest Premier league match between the two teams.

Everton had their destiny in their own hands due to matches against the likes of Arsenal at home. Their four points behind the gunners prior to this match, but have now closed the gap to just one point.

Further, they have a game in hand, which could potentially see them move into the top four ahead of Arsenal.

Everton have finished in the top four only once in the last decade and it came under David Moyes in 2005. However, this team constructed by Martinez is seen as a much better outfit than that team since they are playing a much better brand of football. Even though much of the team is based on loan signings like Romelu Lukaku and Gareth Barry, there is a real confidence within Everton that they can build on from this campaign. Chairman Bill Kenwright, who has had to go through several financial troubles in providing Everton with funds, says that it is a dream to have a manager like Martinez.

The Spaniard has come through after impressing at his previous jobs like Swansea and Wigan.

“It is difficult to put into words how good that was. I have seen some comprehensive victories for Everton but that was so consummate I thought ‘if you’re going to take me, take me now’. It was a great afternoon. An afternoon better than we would thought it would be. But that is Roberto Martinez – he gives you a dream and then goes one more. We have got difficult games coming up but qualifying for the Champions League is in our hands now,” said Kenwright.
Everton’s next match is against relegation threatened Sunderland.

Everton went into last weekend’s FA Cup match with Arsenal looking to progress to the semifinals of the competition, but they are left humiliated after a 4-1 thrashing by the gunners.

Even though they had drawn the previous league meeting at the Emirates stadium 1-1, this match was over as a contest long before the final whistle. Olivier Giroud scored two goals, while Romelu Lukaku provided the only consolation for Everton. On the positive side, this defeat means that the club can return to focus on the league, where they have not been doing well in recent months.

Everton has slipped to nine points behind the top four places with only 11 matches left in the season. Finishing in a European place remains the ultimate motto for the team and Martinez says that the club will return to this mode with the weekend’s match against Cardiff. After struggling for form since the arrival of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the club managed to get its first win in a long time last weekend. Hence, they will be confident coming to Goodison Park, but Martinez is hoping to get the better of the relegation threatened team.

He says that it is imperative that the team enjoys its football in the remainder of the campaign.

“There’s massive competition for places in the dressing room and we all know we’ve got six demanding games at Goodison. That’s something we really enjoy, playing in front of our fans and making sure everyone is proud of what we do at Everton. We’ve got 33 points to fight for and it’s an essential moment of the season. We need to get back to enjoying our football at Goodison and being together, as we always are,” said Martinez.

Everton have had just two wins in the last five league matches.

Everton brought in Aiden McGeady from Spartak Moscow during the January transfer window, but the 27-year-old has only started featuring for the team. Roberto Martinez has revealed that the winger has suffered from a serious loss of fitness after being frozen out of the first-team reckoning at Russian club.

He says that McGeady will be one of the best players in the Premier league once his form and fitness returns. He expects the player to be ready for 90 minutes in the next few weeks, as he has been preparing with extremely hard in training.

Martinez says that the player has immense technical ability to be able to change the style of play at Everton. After being defensively strong under David Moyes, the club has become one of the best passing teams in the division after the arrival of Martinez. They have been praised for the way they approach matches. Martinez says that McGeady has settled extremely well after a difficult time in Russia.

The Spaniard will be hoping that McGeady’s arrival coincides with an improvement in form for Everton, who have been slowly slipping down the table in recent weeks.
They have just one win in the last five matches and it has seen them slip to seventh in the table.

“Aiden has been putting in extra work, working really hard. It’s about him setting certain levels to make sure he’s fully fit soon. I think when he is he’ll take us to a different level in terms of our forward play. With Aiden we had to start from scratch in terms of building up the fitness levels that he needed and we can already see he’s a phenomenal player. He has great technical ability and it’s important to get him feeling sharp so he can show that,” said Martinez.

The manager of Everton, Roberto Martinez, has said that his team might not get the services of Ross Barkley for the next one and half months.

The 20 years old central midfielder from England had injured himself while playing for the Toffees in the FA Cup match against Queens Park Rangers a few days back. He didn’t feature in Everton’s match against Norwich City last weekend and Martinez reckons that the player might have suffered a fracture.

Barkley has been a key player for Everton this season. He has put up several match winning performances and losing him is certainly a big blow for the Merseyside club especially at a time when they have to play quite a few tough matches away from home.

Talking to the reporters about Barkley’s injury yesterday, Martinez said, “There might be a fracture in Ross’ toe and in that case, I think he will have to be on the sidelines for some weeks. His condition will be assessed by the medical team.”

“His injury is pretty much like that of Leighton Baines and you are never quite sure about these sorts of injuries. Sometimes, the players get fit pretty soon and start playing, but, sometimes, it can take them a bit of time.”

Barkley had started his senior career for Everton about 3 and half years back, but, before this season, he hadn’t been given that many playing opportunities. In fact in the last season, he hadn’t spent that much time at Goodison Park. He had been playing for other clubs on loan. But, he returned to Everton at the start of the ongoing season and was featuring regularly for them before getting injured.
In total, Barkley has played 32 league matches for the Toffees and has scored 3 goals.

English Premier League club Everton has escalated their interest in Diogo Viana, the Portuguese midfielder. In August, a leading sports website stated that Everton manager Roberto Martinez was closely monitoring the ace.

Since then Viana has continued his magnificent form for the high flying Gil Vicente in Portuguese Primeira Liga. Now, Everton must pay # 4.2 million to snatch him before Swansea City as they are also interested to get his service.

Ironically, Championship Blackburn had a contract teed up for Diogo earlier in August but it was proscribed by boss Gary Bowyer, who did not want more Portuguese footballers as he did not rate players like Diogo Rosado and Fabio Nunes at Ewood Park.

The thirty three year old footballer left Goodison Park in the year 2012 to move throughout the pond to play for New York Red Bull in the Major League Soccer in the United States.

In the meantime, former Everton player Tim Cahill is assessing his options in the English Premier League. More than that he is expecting approaches from some EPL sides.

According too reports, he stated that in the last loan time, 3  4 clubs came in and one was really close to signing him. It was from the English Premier League and it went all the way up to the wire. It was to stay fit. He added that he had to assess his fitness for the next World Cup in Brazil.

Everton manager Roberto Martinez made a significant tactical change at half-time by bringing on hold on Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku in the match against West Ham. The Belgian international made a significant contribution as he created one and scored the other, as Everton managed a 3-2 win.

This is the second consecutive win for Everton after they won 1-0 against Chelsea last weekend. Lukaku, though, appeared to have suffered an injury in the process of scoring his goal. Martinez has now confirmed that the injury is nothing serious and that the player will be available for the forthcoming matches.

Everton are undefeated in the season after drawing the first three matches and winning the last two. This has propelled him into the fifth position after having taken 9 points. They will be playing against Premier league opposition Fulham in the League cup. After missing out on a starting spot against West Ham, Lukaku has sufficiently impressed to the manager to earn himself a starting place in this match. It is also highly likely that the 20-year-old will play against Newcastle on Monday. Leighton Baines scored the two goals for Everton with stunning freekicks, which once again demonstrated his importance in the team.

Baines was subjected to transfer interest from Manchester United.

“Romelu is fine. He was in yesterday and the reaction has been great. Our medical department are very, very happy with him and they have no concerns over Romelu. He wants to play tomorrow. He made an immediate impact on Saturday and when you start a new chapter at a football team, scoring is one of those good feelings. He wants to carry on in the same frame of mind,” said the Blues boss. Martinez, though, will be without midfielder Leon Osman for the League cup match against Fulham.

Everton are with the fear that two of their main players – Leighton Baines and Marouane Fellaini – maybe prized away by other clubs before the end of the transfer window. Both players have been subjected to threats from clubs like Manchester United and Chelsea in the last few months.

United were the first club to make an official approach for Baines a few weeks ago. They made a £ 12 million offer for the 28-year-old England international, which was rejected by Everton immediately. It was hoped that United will be successful with the bid if they offered £ 18 million for the player.

However, Everton manager Roberto Martinez has confirmed that the club is yet to receive any improved offer from United for the left back. He has also said that Belgian star Marouane Fellaini has also not been subjected to any bids in the last few weeks as well. Martinez will be hoping to strengthen the squad before the end of the transfer window partly in the knowledge that he could lose both these players in the final few days. This would be catastrophic for the club, which has one of the thinnest squads in the Premier league.

Martinez, though, has said that he wants his star players to remain at the club.

“I know that’s not what you might want to hear, but everyone here is focused on fighting for spots in the starting line-up and the competitive level in this group is impressive. The last concern I have is what other clubs do. I can say I have been really impressed with the togetherness of this group. I can see that in training every day and it makes me proud. We are in a great position financially and we want to start the season with the best squad we can,” said Martinez.

Everton manager David Moyes, who was recently revealed as the next Manchester United manager, has said that he wants to sign off in style by getting Everton to their highest ever points total in the Premier league.

Everton will be taking on Chelsea in the final game of the season. The best ever points tally achieved by Everton was back in 2007-08 when they managed 65 points. They can overtake that achievement by a single point with a win over Chelsea. Despite the announcement that he would leave the club, Everton managed to put a good show against West Ham last weekend.

They will be coming on the back of the moral boasting 2-0 win over West Ham, but their away from has been extremely poor. The last away victory for the club was back in the month of January. Moyes was given a huge sent off by the Everton fans in their last home match. He is hoping to reward their appreciation by helping the club stay close to the likes of Tottenham and Arsenal. For long periods of the season, Everton were in with a shout of finishing in the top four. However, they have left themselves with too much to do towards the end of the season.

“We want to try to get a record points total if we can. We finished the game off very well last week. That has put us in a league position where we can’t go any further up or any further down. In the year we qualified for the Champions League (2005), the points we have (this season) would have been enough to get us there. But we don’t even make Europa League football this year, which is really tough on us. It was something we really wanted to drive for, to get back to European football,” said Moyes.