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Chelsea captain John Terry has given his backing to striker Didier Drogba, who has been leading the attack in the absence of Loic Remy and star striker Diego Costa.

The duo have been injured for the last few matches and Jose Mourinho has been left with no option but to start with the 36-year-old Drogba, who returned to the club for a second spell in the summer. Not many expected him to score goals at the same rate as in his first spell, but the former Ivory Coast international has surprised many by scoring in three games in succession.

His first goal came through a penalty against Maribor while he has since followed up with goals against Manchester United and Shrewsbury Town. This has prompted Terry to shower praise on Drogba. Jose Mourinho has been speaking a lot about Drogba being an ideal mentor for the young players the team. He has proven in the last few weeks that he can be more than just a squad player. The goals and performance are sharp improvement over the first few matches when Drogba struggled to get into the game. He has said that he would have never returned to Chelsea if he thought that he was not good enough.

“We’ve got a big squad; Didier came on and showed what a great player he still is.The players are showing how important the depth of our squad could be this season.As the manager rightly says, everybody’s got a part to play and we’ve seen that in the last few games,” said Terry prior to the Manchester United match. Drogba opened the scoring against United with a header in the second half. Chelsea came very close to getting three points before being pegged back by a late equaliser from Robin van Persie.

Former Chelsea and Arsenal defender William Gallas has praised Jose Mourinho by calling him as the best coach in the world.

The praise comes as a surprise for many given that it is widely perceived that Mourinho and Gallas did not get along well with each other. The Frenchman was allowed to join Arsenal in a swap deal involving Ashley Cole. Even though Gallas was a centre back by trade, Mourinho often used him at left back in order to partner Ricardo Carvalho and John Terry. However, Gallas enjoyed a remarkable spell at Chelsea and won several titles including the Premier League.

Gallas recently retired from football after seeing out his last years in the Australian A-League with Perth Glory. At 37 years of age, the Frenchman can be happy at having represented the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham from a period between 2001 and 2013. He left Chelsea in 2006 just two years after the arrival of Mourinho. Gallas has revealed that he would have liked to have played for two more years under Mourinho. Since departing Chelsea, Gallas failed to win any title with Tottenham or Arsenal. Mourinho has been receiving a lot of plaudits at a time when Chelsea appear running away with the league title due to their six-point advantage over Manchester City.

“He is the number one manager in the world. He allowed me to reach the level I wanted. He’s a perfectionist. I would have liked to stay with him for more than 2 years. When he was manager I enjoyed every training session. The quality of training was incredible,” said Gallas. Apart from winning the two back-to-back league titles in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons, the Frenchman also won titles like the League Cup and the FA Community Shield. At international level, he finished as the World Cup runners-up in 2006.

When Cesc Fabregas was released by Barcelona there were a series of rumors that linked the Spanish midfielder with a return to Arsenal but as the days progressed and no offers were launched by the Premier League club, it came as a surprise to many fans of Arsenal as to why a transfer or deal could never be cemented.

Arsene Wenger has unveiled details on why he opted not to make a move for Fabregas as the French tactician said that it was his own decision and they had already signed Mesut Ozil who was signed with the purpose of filling in the spot that was left when Fabregas left the Emirates Stadium.

“It was his decision to leave Arsenal. When he left we bought Mesut Ozil we did not need to buy attacking players. Everyone respects Cesc here and I want him to get the reception he deserves on Sunday.
“Cesc Fabregas will have a great career because he’s a great player. He knows Arsenal had a positive influence on his career. I have no animosity against Fabregas. He’s a player I love but he made a decision and we have to accept that.” Wenger said.
Cesc Fabregas has a love-hate relationship with the fans of Arsenal as he left the club when the English club needed him. The Spanish midfielder was even named as the captain of Arsenal at the age of 21 which shows just how valuable he was for the club at the Emirates Stadium but he still opted to make a move for the club where he performed in in his childhood, Barcelona.
During one of the opening press conferences of Cesc Fabregas as an official player of Barcelona, the Spanish player said that it was his dream move as he returned to the place where he performed in his youth and got the chance to play along his country teammates, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta and the rest of the team but his time at Camp Nou ended after 3 seasons as he was released by Barcelona and he joined Chelsea.

The head of the football controlling body in France, Mr. Noel le Graet, is hopeful that one of the greatest players of the country Franck Ribery, who has recently retired from the internationals, will have a change of heart and he will return to the scheme of things for the national side.

Ribery is not that old age wise. He is only 31 and that’s why, many other people apart from Graet are also surprised at him making such a move.

It’s not that Ribery has slowed down or he isn’t as capable a player as he once was. He is actually at his prime at the moment. He’s been very good for Bayern Munich of late and he was supposed to be one of the guys whom the Les Blues would be dependent on in the European Championships in a couple of years’ time, but, to the shock of everybody, he’s quit.

Speaking about Ribery’s retirement yesterday, Graet said, “The man has huge potential and there’s no reason for him to stop playing international football just yet. I think he has made this call in a rush. He has so much to give to French football in the years to come.”

“It’s up to the manager as well to do something about it because he is the one who is in charge of the team.”

“As far as I am concerned, I think we need Franck at least for the Euro if not more. I would like to request him to sit in peace and give another thought to this decision of his. He is a committed guy and he loves his country. So, I hope he returns in team’s interests.”

Ribery has played 81 matches for the Les Blues scoring 16 goals.

William Gallas is one of those who have been included in the list of the marquee players for the upcoming first edition of the Indian Super League.

Indian Super League has recently been founded by the governing body of football in India. The format of this tournament is much like the Indian Premier League which is a cricket league. There will be franchises owning the teams and the players, other than the marquee ones, will be bought through the draft system.

The foreign players who are getting close to the end of their club career now have shown a lot of interest in joining the Indian Super League.

Apart from Gallas, Adrian Mutu is another one who has got his name included in that marquee players’ list.

Gallas has played in the English top tier for more than 10 years. He has been a part of three different teams there.
Last summer, he made his way to Australia signing for Perth Glory, but, he didn’t get that many matches to play there. He featured only 14 times for the A-League club scoring once.

It’s believed that there are two or three ISL franchises that have set their eyes on Gallas considering his utility in the back line.

The organizing committee of ISL is not identifying every overseas player as a marquee. They keenly see if a certain player is fulfilling the eligibility criteria or not to be in that category. They have rejected quite a few names as well including Robbie Fowler.

A couple of ISL franchises i.e. Atletico De Kolkata and North East United have already named their marquee players.
They are Luis Garcia and Joan Capdevila respectively. But, there have been no announcement regarding that from the other six franchises yet.

The manager of the France national football team, Didier Deschamps, is very happy with the kind of approach his team has shown in the first couple of matches in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, but, he has made it clear that he doesn’t want to get too far ahead of himself and thus, the only thing that is in his head at the moment is the game against Ecuador which would be the last group game for the Les Blues.

France has dominated in both their World Cup matches so far. In their first match against Honduras which was played on 16th of June, they had won easily by 3-0 and they did the same in their second match against Switzerland which took place yesterday. They played even better against the Swiss team and ended up winning by 5-2.

All the big French players including Karim Benzema and Olivier Giroud managed to find the back of the net in that game against Switzerland and that’s a good sign for Deschamps. As a manager, you want all you big guns ready to fire in the knockouts.

Although with these two wins, France has already made it to the knockouts, but, they would not want their intensity and aggression to reduce even one bit in their next game against Ecuador. They would want to pull off a good result in that match as well and then go into the next round with a winning rhythm.

After the match against Switzerland, when Deschamps was asked if his side is the favourite to lift the trophy now, the 45-year old said, “I would not say so at this point of time. These are early days. These two matches have been good, but, there’s a lot remaining in the tournament.”

Tim Sherwood guided Tottenham to the 6th spot of the Premier League and even though he managed on earning a win percentage of 59.1% with the club, he was still sacked and fired from his position.

The English manager has revealed details concerning his former role in Tottenham as he stated that the objectives of the club could never be fulfilled after having sold Gareth Bale.

“At the beginning of the season the aim was to be in the top four and it always is for Tottenham. But when you actually analyze the season, taking out Gareth Bale with 21 goals, Jermain Defoe with 10 Premier League goals, Clint Dempsey with seven and replacing it with a very good goal scorer in Roberto Soldado who has never played in the competition before and six other players who’d never played in the competition before, realistically the expectation of finishing in the top four was far too great’’.

Sherwood continued on even saying that he regrets having picked up the coaching position at White Hart Lane
“It was in a difficult situation, the club. They decided to make a change in manager. The chairman asked me step up with Chris Ramsey and Les Ferdinand. We’ve had 30 years’ service at that football club combined so it’s a club that is close to our hearts and we always knew it was an opportunity to get in the firing line’’.

The managerial position at White Hart Lane still has not been filled and there are a number of names which has been bouncing around as they are being linked with taking up the hot seat. Southampton’s Mauricio Pochettino has made an impressive season while Frank de Boer just recently sealed another title with Ajax and both of them are genuine candidates of succeeding Sherwood at Tottenham.