Renault and Williams became the latest teams to unveil their new Formula One cars yesterday. The Britain-based teams carried out low-key launches at the Algarve Motor Park in southern Portugal, where the first official test of the 2009 season began in wet conditions. Among the other teams putting new cars through their paces at the circuit at Portimão were McLaren Mercedes and Toyota.
While Renault and their lead driver, Fernando Alonso, are aiming to contest the podium positions this year, the Williams team were a little more cautious about predicting a jump from their lowly eighth-place finish last season to the top of the field, despite switching their development effort to the new FW31 car earlier than normal.
“It will be a very interesting year,” Sir Frank Williams, the team principal, said. “The new aerodynamic rules mean a different approach to the cars in a number of areas. However, by the time we get to Melbourne [for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in March], I would expect the usual suspects to still be dominating the top two positions.
“More importantly, I hope Williams will have made a significantly large step forward with the FW31.”
Ferrari have chosen not to attend the test at Portimão and, instead, ran their new F60 car at the Mugello circuit in similarly wet conditions in Tuscany, Italy, with Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, at the wheel. The car completed 54 laps with no technical setbacks.
source:the london times.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Manchester United brush aside Derby to earn Carling Cup final place
There could be no better illustration of Manchester United’s strength in depth than the sight of what was essentially a reserve team reaching the Carling Cup final, but the concern for Sir Alex Ferguson last night, as his dressing-room began to resemble a casualty ward, was that his vast squad will be tested to the limit if they are to continue their quest for success on all fronts over the coming weeks.
It was a night of six goals — three of them coming in the final ten minutes, when Giles Barnes, with a penalty and a free kick, restored a little pride and hope for Derby County — but, alarmingly for Ferguson, there were seven United players who required treatment at the final whistle. Most were trivial cases, with Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Nani and Carlos Tévez all expected to be fit to face Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday, but Anderson, the Brazil midfield player, will have an X-ray on an injured ankle this morning, while Rafael Da Silva and Jonny Evans, the two youngsters who have made such encouraging progress this season, face short layoffs after suffering hamstring and ankle injuries respectively.
It is to be hoped that players such as Rafael and Evans are fit enough to play in the final — where Burnley or, in all probability, Tottenham will provide the opposition — having used this competition as a launch pad for their leap into Ferguson’s first-team plans this season. But the final at Wembley on March 1 falls between the two legs of United’s Champions League first knockout-round tie against Inter Milan, which will give Ferguson cause to be pragmatic over his team selection. Such are the concerns for a manager chasing success on four fronts to add to the Community Shield and the Club World Cup, which have already been sent to the Old Trafford trophy room this season.
A place in the Carling Cup final always seemed likely for United after they had emerged from a torrid first leg with only a one-goal deficit. Ferguson admitted in his programme notes last night that his team “could easily have been beaten by three or four goals” at Pride Park and that they were “just plain lucky to get off so lightly”, but he also expressed confidence that they would punish Derby for their profligacy a fortnight ago.
With three goals in the opening 34 minutes, thanks to Nani, John O’Shea and Tévez, United blew Derby away, but Barnes, with a goal either side of Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty, at least gave Nigel Clough, the Midlands club’s new manager, some cause for hope before a keenly awaited FA Cup fourth-round tie at home to Nottingham Forest on Friday.
For now, Clough wears a slightly bemused expression, but, if the kind of defending he saw in the 2-0 defeat at home to Queens Park Rangers on Saturday and again last night is to be the norm, he is in trouble. The opening goal from Nani, in the seventeenth minute, was stunning in its execution. The Portugal winger cut in from the left and hit a right-foot shot past Roy Carroll and into the top corner, but the resistance he faced was non-existent, with Gary Teale appearing almost to wave him on his way.
The same applied for O’Shea’s goal six minutes later, with the defender inexplicably played onside by Teale as he took his time to score from Danny Welbeck’s perceptive pass. As for Tévez’s thumping header, which made the scoreline 3-0, it goes without saying that the forward was unmarked, this time from a cross by Rafael.
At that stage Derby were facing embarrassment, so much so that Robbie Savage, the former Old Trafford reserve, was brought on at half-time in the interests of damage-limitation. Less easy to fathom was Ferguson’s decision to send on Ronaldo for the final half-hour, given that the tie already seemed to be won. Perhaps it was a treat for the first-time visitors in a remarkably healthy crowd or perhaps it was in the hope of giving him the opportunity to get back on the scoresheet after scoring only once in his previous 13 appearances. Either way, his goal came in the 89th minute after Carroll, the former United goalkeeper, brought down Tévez, leaving Ronaldo to convert the penalty with his customary composure.
The final word, though, was to go to Barnes, a young player of great promise whose career has been on hold since he suffered a serious knee injury last season. The midfield player had relished the opportunity to reduce Derby’s arrears with a penalty with ten minutes remaining, after Evans, by now a passenger, brought down Kris Commons, and then, after Ronaldo’s penalty had ended the contest, Barnes surfaced again in stoppage time to score with a well placed free kick.
That was the cue for a roar from the 12,000 travelling Derby supporters, who implored their team forward for the goal that would have forced an improbable period of extra time, but, under the circumstances, they will settle for the surge in confidence that Barnes’s late brace brought in advance of that neighbourly spat with Forest.
Manchester United (4-4-2): B Foster — Rafael Da Silva (sub: D Fletcher, 43min), G Neville (sub: J Chester, 67), J Evans, J O’Shea — R Giggs (sub: C Ronaldo, 58), D Gibson, Anderson, Nani — D Welbeck, C Tévez. Substitutes not used: T Kuszczak, P Scholes, R Possebon, Z Tosic. Booked: Rafael, Fletcher.
Derby County (4-4-1-1): R Carroll — P Connolly, M Albrechtsen, A Todd (sub: N Barazite, 62), J Stewart — G Teale, P Green, M Addison, S Davies (sub: R Savage, 46) — K Commons (sub: G Barnes, 68) — R Hulse. Substitutes not used: S Bywater, L Nyatanga, S Hines, E Villa. Booked: Addison, Green, Carroll.
source:the london times
It was a night of six goals — three of them coming in the final ten minutes, when Giles Barnes, with a penalty and a free kick, restored a little pride and hope for Derby County — but, alarmingly for Ferguson, there were seven United players who required treatment at the final whistle. Most were trivial cases, with Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Nani and Carlos Tévez all expected to be fit to face Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday, but Anderson, the Brazil midfield player, will have an X-ray on an injured ankle this morning, while Rafael Da Silva and Jonny Evans, the two youngsters who have made such encouraging progress this season, face short layoffs after suffering hamstring and ankle injuries respectively.
It is to be hoped that players such as Rafael and Evans are fit enough to play in the final — where Burnley or, in all probability, Tottenham will provide the opposition — having used this competition as a launch pad for their leap into Ferguson’s first-team plans this season. But the final at Wembley on March 1 falls between the two legs of United’s Champions League first knockout-round tie against Inter Milan, which will give Ferguson cause to be pragmatic over his team selection. Such are the concerns for a manager chasing success on four fronts to add to the Community Shield and the Club World Cup, which have already been sent to the Old Trafford trophy room this season.
A place in the Carling Cup final always seemed likely for United after they had emerged from a torrid first leg with only a one-goal deficit. Ferguson admitted in his programme notes last night that his team “could easily have been beaten by three or four goals” at Pride Park and that they were “just plain lucky to get off so lightly”, but he also expressed confidence that they would punish Derby for their profligacy a fortnight ago.
With three goals in the opening 34 minutes, thanks to Nani, John O’Shea and Tévez, United blew Derby away, but Barnes, with a goal either side of Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty, at least gave Nigel Clough, the Midlands club’s new manager, some cause for hope before a keenly awaited FA Cup fourth-round tie at home to Nottingham Forest on Friday.
For now, Clough wears a slightly bemused expression, but, if the kind of defending he saw in the 2-0 defeat at home to Queens Park Rangers on Saturday and again last night is to be the norm, he is in trouble. The opening goal from Nani, in the seventeenth minute, was stunning in its execution. The Portugal winger cut in from the left and hit a right-foot shot past Roy Carroll and into the top corner, but the resistance he faced was non-existent, with Gary Teale appearing almost to wave him on his way.
The same applied for O’Shea’s goal six minutes later, with the defender inexplicably played onside by Teale as he took his time to score from Danny Welbeck’s perceptive pass. As for Tévez’s thumping header, which made the scoreline 3-0, it goes without saying that the forward was unmarked, this time from a cross by Rafael.
At that stage Derby were facing embarrassment, so much so that Robbie Savage, the former Old Trafford reserve, was brought on at half-time in the interests of damage-limitation. Less easy to fathom was Ferguson’s decision to send on Ronaldo for the final half-hour, given that the tie already seemed to be won. Perhaps it was a treat for the first-time visitors in a remarkably healthy crowd or perhaps it was in the hope of giving him the opportunity to get back on the scoresheet after scoring only once in his previous 13 appearances. Either way, his goal came in the 89th minute after Carroll, the former United goalkeeper, brought down Tévez, leaving Ronaldo to convert the penalty with his customary composure.
The final word, though, was to go to Barnes, a young player of great promise whose career has been on hold since he suffered a serious knee injury last season. The midfield player had relished the opportunity to reduce Derby’s arrears with a penalty with ten minutes remaining, after Evans, by now a passenger, brought down Kris Commons, and then, after Ronaldo’s penalty had ended the contest, Barnes surfaced again in stoppage time to score with a well placed free kick.
That was the cue for a roar from the 12,000 travelling Derby supporters, who implored their team forward for the goal that would have forced an improbable period of extra time, but, under the circumstances, they will settle for the surge in confidence that Barnes’s late brace brought in advance of that neighbourly spat with Forest.
Manchester United (4-4-2): B Foster — Rafael Da Silva (sub: D Fletcher, 43min), G Neville (sub: J Chester, 67), J Evans, J O’Shea — R Giggs (sub: C Ronaldo, 58), D Gibson, Anderson, Nani — D Welbeck, C Tévez. Substitutes not used: T Kuszczak, P Scholes, R Possebon, Z Tosic. Booked: Rafael, Fletcher.
Derby County (4-4-1-1): R Carroll — P Connolly, M Albrechtsen, A Todd (sub: N Barazite, 62), J Stewart — G Teale, P Green, M Addison, S Davies (sub: R Savage, 46) — K Commons (sub: G Barnes, 68) — R Hulse. Substitutes not used: S Bywater, L Nyatanga, S Hines, E Villa. Booked: Addison, Green, Carroll.
source:the london times
Wilson Palacios agrees £14m to Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur have agreed terms with Wigan Athletic over the transfer of Wilson Palacios. The move, believed to be worth around £14million, is subject to the Honduras international receiving a work permit.
Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, feels Palacios will bring a new dynamic to his Tottenham squad.
"We need to improve the squad and that is why I was interested in Palacios," Redknapp said. "He will come in here and get after it and play aggressively. He will work and close and run. I feel that we need a bit of that around the place.
"Palacios is a player I have liked since I first saw him, and he has the ability to go on to become a top, top player. I just like the way he plays. He is an all-round modern midfielder - he gets after it, he is box-to-box. I speak to people who have played against him, like Frank Lampard, and no-one has had an easy game against him. He is after you all the time."
Redknapp missed out on West Ham striker Craig Bellamy after the Wales international instead opted to join the Manchester City revolution.
Steve Bruce, helped by a recommendation from Arsene Wenger, has overseen Palacios' progress after taking the player on loan to Birmingham from Deportivo Olimpo before signing him permanently when he moved to the JJB Stadium.
Bruce maintains Wigan did all they could to persuade the Central American to stay.
"The club record transfer fee will be smashed if the deal goes through, but that was never mine or the club's motivation here," Bruce said. "The club is not in the business of trying to make a profit on players. I want to build a winning team here and keep my best players together.
"We did everything we could as a club to keep Wilson. We sat down with him last week and offered him a very good new deal, and tried to convince him his interests were best served by staying here at Wigan Athletic.
"However, I am a big believer in not standing in the way of players' careers, as long as the terms are right for our club, and I wish him all the best. He has served the club well in his short time with us and has been a credit to both himself and the club.
"It is no wonder we have some big clubs enquiring about our players because they have done very well this season."
source:the london times
Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, feels Palacios will bring a new dynamic to his Tottenham squad.
"We need to improve the squad and that is why I was interested in Palacios," Redknapp said. "He will come in here and get after it and play aggressively. He will work and close and run. I feel that we need a bit of that around the place.
"Palacios is a player I have liked since I first saw him, and he has the ability to go on to become a top, top player. I just like the way he plays. He is an all-round modern midfielder - he gets after it, he is box-to-box. I speak to people who have played against him, like Frank Lampard, and no-one has had an easy game against him. He is after you all the time."
Redknapp missed out on West Ham striker Craig Bellamy after the Wales international instead opted to join the Manchester City revolution.
Steve Bruce, helped by a recommendation from Arsene Wenger, has overseen Palacios' progress after taking the player on loan to Birmingham from Deportivo Olimpo before signing him permanently when he moved to the JJB Stadium.
Bruce maintains Wigan did all they could to persuade the Central American to stay.
"The club record transfer fee will be smashed if the deal goes through, but that was never mine or the club's motivation here," Bruce said. "The club is not in the business of trying to make a profit on players. I want to build a winning team here and keep my best players together.
"We did everything we could as a club to keep Wilson. We sat down with him last week and offered him a very good new deal, and tried to convince him his interests were best served by staying here at Wigan Athletic.
"However, I am a big believer in not standing in the way of players' careers, as long as the terms are right for our club, and I wish him all the best. He has served the club well in his short time with us and has been a credit to both himself and the club.
"It is no wonder we have some big clubs enquiring about our players because they have done very well this season."
source:the london times
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