Newcastle has a set a price tag of £25 million for Yohan Cabaye

Newcastle United have placed a £25 million price tag on the head of their star playmaker Yohan Cabaye after rumours started doing the rounds of interest in the French international from top clubs across the continent.

Cabaye had a very frustrating last season with the Magpies in which he scored just 6 goals and assisted only two others in the 32 matches he started. Yet, Newcastle know the quality of the player they have in their ranks and are willing to do whatever it takes to hang on to him.

The Daily Star reports that the Magpies fear a transfer request from Cabaye when he returns for pre-season training. The highly rated French international had become a target for many clubs since his arrival in the Premier League from Lille for just £4.5 million two years ago. The clubs who have been interested for him in the recent past are Manchester United, Monaco and PSG.

Laurent Blanc who took over from Carlo Ancelotti as the Paris Saint Germain manager recently, was also the manager of France when the 27 year old made his debut for the national team and thus his interest in the midfielder is obvious.

Newcastle though are evidently prepared to lose their midfield general at the aforementioned price and are already planning as to how they will reinvest the funds with moves being touted for St-Etienne striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and France Under-20s defender Kurt Zouma.

David de Gea set for bumper pay rise
An outstanding season in between the posts for Manchester United’s 22 year old shot stopper David de Gea, which ended with the youngster claiming his first Premier League title, is set to get even more rewarding with the player poised to become a whole lot richer.

De Gea was brought to Old Trafford from Atletico Madrid two years ago on a five year contract. He was handed rather attractive wages of £55,000 a week, and is set for a bumper pay rise according to the Sun with his weekly wage set to rise to £75,000. While a £20,000 a week pay rise might not sound like much, it does mean the youngster will be a million pounds richer at the end of the year!

Rumor has it the pay rise is accompanied by a 2 year contract extension, aimed to tie down De Gea to Man United till 2018 and see off interest in the youngster from FC Barcelona, who continue to scour the market looking for a long term replacement for their veteran star Victor Valdes.

The 22 year old was reportedly being targeted by Barcelona as one of the possible replacements for Valdes, and United will no doubt hope that the improved wages on offer will convince the youngster to stay on at Old Trafford rather than seek an early return to Spain.

De Gea’s contract extension could compel Barcelona to look at alternate options, including quite possibly Liverpool’s Pepe Reina.

The Manchester United shot stopper was bought from Atletico Madrid for an elevated price of £17.8million. The Spanish U-21 keeper had a mediocre first season with the new Premier League champions before an incredible second season where he kept 11 clean sheets in 28 matches and also won the European U-21 Championships with Spain.

Jamie Carragher: Luis Suarez is expected to stay

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has thrown his weight behind unsettled striker Luis Suarez, giving fans reason to believe that the 26 year old Uruguayan international will not quit Anfield this summer.

Carragher, who retired from Liverpool this summer and is on course to becoming a media pundit, shared in an interview with the Metro, “Suarez is very important for the team and you want to be keeping your best players, which is what he is.”

Luis Suarez had asked Liverpool to allow him to leave the club last month. The Uruguayan blamed the media for making his life in Liverpool difficult and declared that he wanted to test himself at the highest level of the game by moving to Spanish giants Real Madrid.

Just a week after the 26 year old made his intentions clear about not wanting to continue with the Reds, Real Madrid were allegedly ready to place a £45 million bid for the striker. Should such a bid arrive, Liverpool will find it very hard to reject the offer.

Carragher though continues to maintain that he thinks that Suarez will stay. He also shared that he knew that a lot of big clubs are interested in the Uruguay and Liverpool striker, something that one would expect from any top player.

Suarez would be a tough player to replace but like always Liverpool have a backup plan in place and they would target Barcelona striker David Villa, who is Spain’s all time leading goal scorer, but hasn’t been given enough opportunities to showcase his ability at the Catalan giants. With Neymar coming into the picture it will be harder for him at Barcelona, and a move to Liverpool will probably help his chances of breaking back into the Spain starting eleven for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Brazil defeated Uruguay (2-1): Brazil march to the Finals

Brazil beat Uruguay 2-1 at the Belo Horizonte in an ill tempered and rather feisty all-South-American clash to advance to the Final of the 2013 Confederations Cup. The match was not much of a spectacle as it lacked the quality that one would usually associate with the beautiful game, and was instead littered with fouls and rarely featured good flowing football.

Much like Brazil’s final group game against Italy there was little to talk about in the first 40 odd minutes barring a David Luiz foul on the Uruguayan captain Diego Lugano in the penalty area which was spotted by the referee. Diego Forlan stepped up to take the penalty but was thwarted by Julio Cesar much to the delight of the partisan fans.

Brazil looked threatening in the attacking third, but quality chances were hard to come by. Yet there were some positives for Felipe Scolari to take away with Hulk and Neymar seeming to gel together for the first time in the tournament.

Right at the end of the first half Paulinho brilliantly picked out Neymar with a long ball over the top. The Barcelona bound youngster controlled the ball exceptionally and beat his marker for pace before attempting to chip the onrushing Muslera in goal. The shot was well saved by Muslera, but fell right into the center of the penalty area where Mr. Right Place at the Right Time, Fred, was on hand to slice the ball into the bottom corner.

Much to the delight of the home fans, Brazil went into the break a goal to the good.

Three minutes into the second half, Brazil was caught out at the back. David Luiz’s clearance pinballed around the box off Luis Suarez, before Thiago Silva’s rushed effort was stolen away by Edinson Cavani, who was deployed on the right wing. The highly rated Uruguayan striker made no mistake, finally getting off the mark in the tournament, by lashing home a left footed drive that gave Julio Cesar no chance.

Both the teams did have a fair number of chances in a considerably more entertaining second half with Brazil spared the blushes when Silva’s header from an Uruguay corner sneaked over his own crossbar, while Fred’s ambitious volley from substitute Bernard’s cross, sailed into the stands.

The match had extra time written all over it, but 4 minutes from the end Brazil scored the winning goal from a corner which was headed in at the back post from Real Madrid target Paulinho.

Brazil advanced to the Confederations Cup Final for the third consecutive time, and they will face off against the winner of Italy - Spain contest in Rio on Sunday.

Teams:

Brazil – Julio Cesar, Dani Alves, Thiago Silva, David Luiz, Marcelo, Neymar (92` Dante), Paulinho, Luiz Gustavo, Oscar (73` Hernanes), Hulk (64` Bernard) and Fred

Substitutes- Jefferson, Dante, Hernanes, Bernard, Lucas

Uruguay- Muslera, Lugano, Godin, Maxi Pereira, Caceres, Christian Rodriguez, Arevalo Rios, Alvaro Gonzales (83`Gargano), Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani and Diego Forlan

Substitutes- Castillo, Gargano, Alvaro Pereira, Ramirez, Abel Hernandez

Final Score: Brazil 2-1 Uruguay ( 41` Fred, 48` Cavani, 86` Paulinho)

Juventus agree a £10 million deal for Carlos Tevez with Manchester City
Carlos Tevez is set to end his unsettled stay in both England and Manchester after Manchester City and Juventus came to terms for Tevez for £10 million. The 29 year old is set to sign a three year contract in Turin when he is done with his medical on Wednesday.

An initial fee of £7.6 million will rise to £10 million if the Italians qualify for the Champions League in each of the next three seasons which is a very likely occurrence. City will also receive up to £2.5 million if Juventus win a trophy in these three years.

The Citizens’ chiefs are believed to be delighted at having sold the former Manchester United and West Ham striker a year before he became a free agent so that they can recover some of their initial investment.

Both Milan and Juve were keen on buying the Argentinian international for a while now but Milan’s chances dimmed after they failed to raise funds through their attempted sale of flopped signing Robinho, incidentally also a former Manchester City player.

Tevez was one of the most controversial players in the whole of England. The striker, who was amazing during his time at Old Trafford, left the club for their arch-rivals Manchester City. His drama didn't end here; he also put in a transfer request just one and half years later, which was rejected. This led to him refusing to take the pitch as a substitute in a Champions League game against Bayern Munich and ended with a prolonged sabbatical after a fall out with then Manager Roberto Mancini.

Even with all of this going around off the pitch, he was the most consistent striker for Manchester City with 17 goals in the 39 appearances last season, doing better than fellow strikers Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko.

Tevez leaves England having scored 114 goals in 267 games for West Ham, Manchester United and Manchester City and having collected multiple honours, including three Premier League titles, one FA Cup, one Champions League, two Community shields and one FIFA Club World Cup

Real Madrid boss Ancelotti wants want-away Rooney

Carlo Ancelotti who is set to be confirmed as the new Real Madrid manager will be a giving a transfer wish list which will include Wayne Rooney, Gareth Bale, Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani according to the Daily Mail. Madrid’s new Italian manager Ancelotti will want to make a move for the want-away Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney if he doesn’t patch things up with his current club.

According to Sportsmail Rooney’s preference would be to join Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea rather than move abroad but if he does move abroad his clear cut choice would be the Los Blancos. Unlike Arsenal, both Chelsea and Real Madrid have more than enough funds to pay him £30 million and match his £250,000 weekly wage.

Rooney has two years left on his contract and he will talk to his new boss David Moyes after both of them return from their holidays but it doesn’t seem that the 27 year old England international will be able to cover up his differences with the new Manchester United boss after Moyes had sued him in 2007 and if he does clear everything he would want to be played up ahead with Van persie rather than being played behind him.

Madrid would want the super striker just in case their star striker Higuain leaves which is highly probable while Chelsea have been after him for quite some while but were disappointed every time. Thus the next few days could be very important in deciding where the England international’s future lays.

Why I am looking forward to the  Barclays Premier League opening day matches
Arsenal v Aston Villa- Arsenal who will be trying to win their first silverware in 9 years will start things off against relegation probable Aston Villa

Chelsea v Hull City- Jose Mourinho‘s first match in his second term for Chelsea will be against new boys Hull City

Crystal Palace v Tottenham Hotspur- the Championship play- off winners Crystal Palace will host Tottenham in an all London derby

Liverpool v Stoke- Liverpool will try to finish in the top 4 so that they qualify and for that they will need to beat Stoke to get off to a good start

Manchester City v Newcastle United- Last year’s strugglers Newcastle United will face off against probable champions Manchester City in their opening match

Norwich City v Everton- Everton who had an amazing last season but this time they have a new manager will travel to Norwich for their first match.

Sunderland v Fulham- Sunderland who just beat relegation last season will host Fulham who had an ordinary season.

Swansea City v Manchester United- David Moyes’ first task as a Manchester United manager will be against Swansea who had a good last season.

West Bromwich Albion v Southampton- Last year’s surprise package West Brom will take on Southampton who had a dreadful last season.

West Ham United v Cardiff City- Championship Champions Cardiff will face off against West Ham who had a last season which was not good or bad