Month: November 2022

Former Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas has refused to be combined that his former teammate, Lionel Messi, is struggling woefully at his current club, Paris Saint-Germain. The Argentina international attacker has not been in his best form since he signed for the French Ligue 1 heavyweights last summer and he has since attracted a lot of criticism for his poor and unexpected performances. After joining the French Principality club, Messi was expected to go and carry on with the remarkable reputation and career he has built for himself as one of the greatest football players of all time. But with his struggle to regain his form still a real challenge for him, he has not reached that height yet.

Since signing for PSG before the commencement of the present season, Messi is still yet to score more than two goals in the French Ligue 1, even though he has a better record for his team in the UEFA Champions League. His poor league goalscoring record can, however, be backed by the fact that he has provided as many as six assists in the league so far, although that figure is still somewhat very low when compared to the numbers he was making in the previous seasons.

Fabregas has now leapt to the defence of his former teammate, citing that Messi is not a player to get a lot of criticism for just one season, especially judging by how remarkable he has been in the other seasons. According to former Chelsea star Fabregas, Messi has what it takes to change a game around and that alone should earn him some credits despite his current firm.

Messi will be hoping to hit top form for the second half of the season as he looks to help Paris Saint-Germain to win the UEFA Champions League title for the first time

There is plenty to be getting on with at Stoke City at the moment, what with another five fixtures to squeeze in before the Championship breaks up for the World Cup next month. But always in football there is an eye on the next transfer window and the chance to make improvements. In truth, Stoke might find it more difficult to find new players who are better than ones who are returning from the treatment room: Nick Powell, Josh Tymon and Harry Souttar have made four starts between them so far this season and, if they can stay fit, should make a huge difference in the second half of this term.

Neil’s transfer record at Norwich

Neil reflected that he should have been more active following relegation, putting too much faith in players who had gone up a couple of years previously. He left Carrow Road in March 2017. In his time in charge, Norwich also sold Nathan Redmond to Southampton for £10m, Bradley Johnson to Derby for £7m and Lewis Grabban to Bournemouth for £8m.

2014/15

In – Tony Andreu (midfielder, undisclosed, from Hamilton Academical); Graham Dorrans (midfielder, loan, from West Bromwich Albion)

2015/16

In – Graham Dorrans (midfielder, £3m, from West Brom), Youssouf Mulumbu (midfielder, free, from West Brom), Robbie Brady (winger, £7m, from Hull), Jake Kean (goalkeeper, free, from Blackburn), Matt Jarvis (winger, £2.5m, from West Ham), Ivo Pinto (right-back, undisclosed, from Dinamo Zagreb), Ben Godfrey (centre-back, undisclosed, from York), James Maddison (midfielder, £2.5m, from Coventry), Timm Klose (centre-back, undisclosed, from Wolfsburg), Steven Naismith (forward, undisclosed, from Everton), Andre Wisdom (right-back, loan, from Liverpool), Dieumerci Mbokani (forward, loan, from Dinamo Kyiv), Patrick Bamford (striker, loan, from Chelsea).

2016/17

In – SergiCanos (winger, £2.5m, from Liverpool), Michael McGovern (goalkeeper, free, from Hamilton), Paul Jones (goalkeeper, free, from Portsmouth), Alex Pritchard (midfielder, £8m, from Spurs), Nelson Oliveira (forward, undisclosed, from Benfica).