Roberto Mancini has accused the Manchester City hierarchy of acting like Judas in the closing stages of his reign at the Etihad Stadium.
The Italian, who is now in charge of Turkish champions Galatasaray, was sacked last May after a three-and-a-half-year stint in the Premier League.
Mancini led City to their first top-flight title for 44 years in 2011-12, but paid with his job after losing to Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup final a year to the day from that league triumph with Manchester United having taken their crown back three weeks earlier.
The former Inter boss was replaced by Manuel Pellegrini shortly after his dismissal, but he believes that City chief executive Ferran Soriano and director of football Txiki Begiristain had held talks with prospective successors for…
Title rivals Bordeaux and Marseille will set aside their battle for league dominance to contest the first piece of silverware of the season in Saturday s French League Cup final.
The build-up to the match at the Stade de France was overshadowed, however, by a row over fixtures between Bordeaux and Lyon, who face off in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday.
Lyon s league game with Grenoble was initially brought forward to Friday by the Professional Football League (LFP) to give Claude Puel s side more time to prepare for the European match but Bordeaux complained that the move gave Lyon an unfair advantage.
The league s Competitions Commission then decided to push the match back to the Saturday, the same day as Bordeaux s game with Mar…
Icardi scored a hat trick in Inter s impressive 7-1 rout over Atalanta. Image: Getty
escaped after a bit of controversy, Inter continued their dominating performances, and Sampdoria won the Derby della Lanterna in a very exciting week of Italian football.
Handball or no Handball?
Juventus were lucky to keep their streak alive of 30 consecutive home wins in the Serie A, and they emerged victorious due to a 97th minute questionable penalty call. Benatia put the hosts up early before Bacca equalized later on, but it was ultimately Dybala s last gasp penalty that sealed the deal for Juventus. Milan were understandably angry with the call, but they have an easy string of matches up ahead, and they ll need to make the most of their chances if they wish to be in contention fo…
Paul Pogba has added fuel to the fire of his rapidly disintegrating relationship with Jose Mourinho by turning down interviews in the wake of Manchester United s latest defeat with a four-word reply: You want me dead?
A 3-1 loss at West Ham on Saturday means United have taken 10 points from their first seven games of the season, recording their joint worst start to a Premier League season, equalling the beginning of the ill-fated David Moyes era.
Pogba was replaced by Mourinho during the second half at London Stadium to wrap up a week of controversy involving the pair, who were seemingly involved in a training ground confrontation on Wednesday.
That came after Mourinho s men were dumped out of the EFL Cup by Frank Lampard s Derby County at home, and while the Po…
Antonio Conte has told Tottenham fans I m not stupid and I can teach football to many people in a strong defence of his decision to overlook Djed Spence.
Spence has made only one very brief substitute appearance for Spurs following his move from Middlesbrough in July.
Some Tottenham fans called for the right-back to be given his chance after Emerson Royal was sent off for a reckless challenge on Gabriel Martinelli during a 3-1 north London derby defeat to fierce rivals Arsenal on Saturday.
But Conte made it crystal clear he is not impressed with questions being asked about his approach ahead of Tuesday s Champions League clash at Eintracht Frankfurt.
The Spurs head coach said: If we were able to exploit the situation, especially last passes, we would have…
Jens Lehmann has been sacked by Hertha Berlin after a racist message he sent to a television pundit was revealed on social media.
The ex-Arsenal and Germany goalkeeper replaced Jurgen Klinsmann on the Bundesliga club s supervisory board in May 2020.
But Lehmann has left his position with Hertha for comments made regarding fellow former Germany international Dennis Aogo, who works for Sky Sports.
Lehmann appeared to accidentally send a WhatsApp text to Aogo, who posted a screenshot of the image via Instagram and captioned it: Wow, are you serious? This message was probably not meant for me.
Hertha parted company with Lehmann on Wednesday and president Werner Gegenbauer said: Such statements are in no way representative of the values that Hertha stands…
Outgoing coach Ricki Herbert believes he has left New Zealand in good shape, despite their failure to qualify for the FIFA World Cup finals.
Herbert s eight-year tenure ended with a 4-2 defeat in the second leg of their play-off against Mexico in Wellington.
Mexico had all-but sealed their passage to Brazil with a 5-1 victory in the first leg and Oribe Peralta s first-half hat-trick at the Westpac Stadium put them out of sight.
New Zealand showed some fight and after Jeremy Brockie was denied from the penalty spot, Chris James and Rory Fallon pulled goals back before Carlos Alberto Pena had the final say.
Herbert had no complaints after New Zealand were consigned to a 9-3 aggregate defeat to a side ranked 55 places above them in the world rankings.
He said:…
Landon Donovan and Tim Howard were among 14 World Cup players named Wednesday to the 18-man United States roster for next Tuesday s football friendly here against Brazil.
More than 55,000 tickets have already been sold for the Americans meeting with the five-time World Cup champion at the new home of American football s New York Giants and New York Jets.
This game is a great opportunity to showcase many players from the World Cup team who earned the respect and appreciation of fans across the country, US coach Bob Bradley said.
Our goal continues to be to compete and succeed against the best teams in the world. With an extremely talented group of players, Brazil will be another difficult test.
The US lineup, with a dozen players from European-based sq…
Arsenal are keen on re-signing Turkey international Oguzhan Ozyakup, .
The twenty-three year old spent four years with the Gunners before making the switch to Besiktas in the summer of 2012.
He made just to cameo League Cup appearances for Arsene Wenger’s side, coming off the bench in wins over both Bolton Wanderers and Shrewsbury Town.
He was also named as a substitute in the 8-2 Premier League defeat to Manchester United as well as twice in the Champions League but didn’t feature.
Since moving to the Super Lig side, Ozyakup racked up over a hundred appearances in all competitions, scoring thirteen goals as well as making twenty-eight assists.
Internationally, he has been capped twelve times for Turkey and scored his one and only inter…
Lokomotiv Moscow are considering a summer bid for FC Porto midfielder Steven Defour, .
The Russian giants may be forced to sell star player Lassana Diarra at the end of the current campaign, and should that happen they will make a move on the Dragons star.
Steven Defour hasn t quite managed to prove his worth at Estadio do Dragao and he might be interested in a switch to Russia.
The 26-year-old arrived as a big-name signing from Standard Liege back in 2011, but he never quite succeeded in nailing down a regular starting berth.
Defour went on to make 65 league appearances for the Dragons, but only started 39 of those games, scoring 3 goals in the process.
His suitors Lokomotiv Moscow could be crowned Russian Premier League champions if they defeat…