British transfer records, unreasonably high wage bills and levels of frivolity that could only be perpetrated by Russian oligarchs – it doesn’t sound like a recipe for a football club looking to comply with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations. But then again, you never know. When he arrived at Chelsea in 2003, Peter Kenyon claimed it was his aim to turn Chelsea in to a profitable club. A somewhat outlandish statement you might think, but, even after everything that has happened in the last two years, it is more than just a pipe dream. Chelsea can adhere to the FFP rules, but it will be a struggle.

Aims of FFP

As agreed upon in 2009, UEFA have a set of core objectives, which they hope FFP will help them achieve within European football. These aims are: to reduce the inflationary nature of wages and transfer fees, to introduce more discipline and responsibility in club finances, to ensure that clubs compete within their financial means, to encourage long-term investment in clubs’ individual youth programmes and infrastructure, and to ensure the economic future of European football as a whole.

Some of these measures have already been taken into account and acted upon at Chelsea, others have not.

The goal for UEFA is that by 2018/19 all clubs will be spending no more than their revenue each year. Before that point some leeway is allowed.

In theory, the first season in which a club could fail in their application to take part in a European competition due to FFP is 2013/14. However it is unlikely that such actions will be taken at this stage

The rules stipulate that a club wishing to enter into a European competition for 2013/14 must have lost no more than €45m for the previous two seasons.

For the 2014/15 season that figure of debt allowed remains at €45m but is calculated over three seasons instead of two. For the 2015/16 season the maximum shortfall is €30m over the three years. This format continues until 2018/19 when there are no more allowances made.

Whilst these figures for the near future may seem unattainable, allowances can be made if the excess shortfall (i.e. debt exceeding €45m within this period) is a result of player contracts signed before 1st June 2010. However, this will only be accepted as an excuse if the club can prove that there has been, and will continue to be, an upturn in the financial health of the club.

Chelsea’s efforts

Contrary to popular belief, Chelsea have been making considerable efforts for some time now in order to prepare for FFP. For example, they have a clear long term transfer policy, as demonstrated by the signings of Romelu Lukaku, Lucas Piazon, Kevin De Bruyne and Marko Marin. Despite being ‘in charge’ at the time, Andre Villas-Boas admitted to having no involvement in the signing of De Bruyne and made it perfectly clear that signing Lukaku had not bee his idea either.

Whilst signing players without asking your manager might not appear a constructive action, providing they were all thoroughly scouted, buying young and reasonably priced players is a sensible move for the future. Buying Fernando Torres for £50m during the January transfer window reeked of short termism inspired by desperation to hold on to the title. Chelsea have learned from their mistakes. There is a plan to avoid having to make such signings again. Whether Abramovich will stick to it is another matter.

The decision to initially only offer Roberto di Matteo a one year contract (and then a two year contract) was another big step for Abramovich. However mean it may have seemed and whatever Abramovich’s motives for doing so were, it is a serious issue. If Roman wishes to continue dispensing with his managers quite so regularly then he needs to refrain from handing them long, costly contracts. Redundancy packages to former managers are a major issue at Chelsea, one that appears to have been recognised.

New stadium

Having the Chelsea Pitch Owners turn down Abramovich’s approach to redevelop the stadium was a blow for the club with regards to FFP. Yes they would have had to take on a certain amount of debt to build the stadium, but it needn’t have been that costly. Providing they did it this year it might have been possible to raise the money through a combined effort from the council, sponsorship deals for naming rights and a nominal donation from Abramovich. Arsenal may have built their stadium the hard way but Tottenham and Chelsea can look to buy a new stadium whilst incurring minimal costs themselves.

Moreover, the money Chelsea could have received from a larger stadium would have gone far, far further than the modest returns currently provided by Stamford Bridge. It’s worth pointing out that since the Champions League’s creation in 1993 Chelsea have the smallest stadium out of all the clubs who have ever won it. This shows just how much Abramovich has had to stump up in order to get Chelsea where they are today, and how far they have to go before they can realistically support themselves at this level. Obviously there are other sources of income but it is an issue that the club need to address.

Turn debt in to equity

Easily the most effective way for Chelsea to solve their debt problem is to turn the club’s debt, which is owed to Abramovich, in to equity for the owner. Not only is this a good way to decrease the current debt but there are also rules within FFP that state that an owner may lend up to €45m to their club over the course of the three season period as long as they then turn that debt in to equity. If an owner wishes to simply lend money to the club without turning it in to equity then the limit is €5m.

The problem with this is that it is not good value for money for Abramovich. If he never has any intention of selling the club or of recouping his losses then it’s an excellent plan, but if that is not the case then it is an unattractive move for him, especially considering he already did this 2009.

Other options

There are a host of other options available to Chelsea. First, they can go down the route of Arsenal with The Emirates and Man City with Etihad and rename their stadium. Arsenal received £100m in 2006 for the naming rights to their new ground whilst City’s recent shirt and stadium deal gained them £300m. The problem with these long-term deals is that towards the latter stages of the agreement sponsorship deals have normally progressed so fast that the money is no longer competitive.

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This is a problem Arsenal has been suffering from for the last few years and will continue to until 2014 when some of their deals expire.

Chelsea can also raise ticket prices. Fans at some point have to realise that if they want success as a result of massive financial investments they may, at some point, have to contribute to such actions. Man City fans will almost certainly discover this over the next few seasons. The problem for Chelsea is that their tickets are already relatively expensive. Nonetheless, as the current Champions of Europe playing regularly in a relatively small stadium there will never be a lack of competition for tickets. Such is the price elasticity of tickets to see big clubs.

The future

The next few years look undeniably difficult to navigate for Chelsea. The latest financial figures released by the club indicated that their debt was around £91m, their turnover was just over £222m and their wage bill was over £189m. A net loss of £60m on player trading for the year is a shockingly bad return but things are changing.

The club set up a Club Financial Control Panel to ensure that the requirements of FFP are met and if the club’s hierarchy can dissuade Abramovich from rushing out and buying a marquee player every single transfer window then there may be hope for the champions of Europe. UEFA being UEFA it seems certain that FFP will not be a watertight set of rules, but regardless of loop holes Chelsea, given discipline from the owner, can achieve this seemingly impossible goal.

Follow me on Twitter @H_Mackay

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The words “missed and target” have become something all too familiar recently at Ipswich Town, but I’m not talking about the inconsistent shooting on the pitch but more the inability to secure transfer targets.

A few weeks ago Paul Jewell’s number one summer target Joel Ward turned down a move to Portman Road and eventually signed for Crystal Palace.

This week it appears that the same may have happened again as Tomasz Kuszczak signs for Brighton despite being strongly linked with Ipswich.

Personally, I find it hard to understand why a player would want to chose a smaller and less established club like Brighton over Ipswich. The training facilities at Ipswich are surely superior to that of most Championship clubs and we have been in the division long enough to offer stability in that sense.

It can’t be a matter of money either as I am sure Ipswich would be able to offer just as much in terms of wages than most Championship clubs.

However, this is not the only time that Ipswich have missed their first choice transfer targets. Roy Keane openly stated when he was in charge of the team that he could not persuade certain players to join Ipswich because of the clubs geographical location. A lot of the players that Keane brought in were often at least his second or third choice signings which left him with a team very different from what he ideally wanted.

It does look like Jewell is encountering the same problems that Keane did and is struggling to get his first choice.

The current favourite to be playing in goal for Ipswich next season is Scott Loach who lost his place in the Watford team to Kuszczak when he joined them on loan last season. Certainly at Watford they rated Kuszczak over Loach so it does seem that Ipswich would be getting the worse of the two players available.

Every manager has to work with what he has though and right now Jewell has to get around this problem. Plenty of other clubs in poor geographical locations still manage to pull off ambitious signings and make decent teams. The trick is obviously having the right manager to persuade players that Ipswich is a great place to live as well as to play football for. Many doubt whether Jewell is the right man to do this job but he still has a lot of time left this summer to secure signings.

Losing Ward and Kuszczak hopefully won’t be too much of a blow as there are still good players available for a decent price. Ipswich were always going to miss out on a few targets and as long as they can secure a few decent signings then losing Ward and Kuszczak won’t be a huge problem.

As I have said before I think Coventry City’s Richard Keogh would be a great defensive addition to the team and there are still good goalkeepers available. Although he might be a bit of an ambitious signing, Brad Guzan is available on a free transfer and it would encourage other good players to join if he did.

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Sepp Blatter must have been delighted. For all of FIFA’s bumbling incompetence, even they could not have stretched as far the wretched ineptitude of Hampden Park’s scoreboard operator in displaying the South Korean flag in place of the North Korean. The only consolation for the organisers of the Olympic football was the shocking swathes of empty seats which witnessed the diplomatic cock-up. Worryingly for the future prospects of football at the Games, the feeling lingers that this is only the first in a string of embarrassments at London 2012.

When North Korea qualified for the 2010 World Cup, ethical questions were raised as to their participation and the way FIFA would approach the world’s pariah nation. They took a soft line so as not to upset their dear leader. In line with Blatter’s insistence that football and politics must remain separate, every attempt was made to mollycoddle the North Koreans. An questionable strategy, but one that is significantly more preferable than the one chosen last night. Mistake or not, someone has shaken a volatile hornet’s nest and weakened the credibility of a tournament already struggling to capture a nation’s imagination.

Just one day into the Olympic football tournament, many have questioned the salience and feasibility of the competition which sits in the darker nether regions of the football agenda. Eerily empty stadiums, erroneous diplomacy and a stinging lack of interest: does football have a place in the Olympics?

Gareth Bale certainly seems to think it does not. The Tottenham winger perhaps best highlighted the general mood with regards to the Great Britain Olympic football squad when appearing for over 70 minutes of a pre-season friendly for Spurs after pulling out of the GB squad through injury. Himself and Andre Villas-Boas can concoct as many half-truths and fabricated mitigations as possible; the fact remains that Bale would much rather be in action for his club as opposed to a half-hearted runout for a ‘national team’ he feels little affiliation with. He is not alone in this sentiment. Compare the attendances of Premier League club’s pre-season fixtures with those of Great Britain’s Olympic group games in the coming week or so. The likelihood is that there will be little difference, with club encounters even attracting greater interest in some cases. So is Olympic football apathy a confined British problem?

In football terms, and to an extent, politically, Great Britain is an imagined nation. We all have to put ourselves down as ‘British’ on official documents, yet internally we affiliate ourselves as English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish. Despite all our interconnecting similarities, each nation has its own distinctive cultural appeal which makes collective support for a Great British team hard to accumulate. Different histories, different customs and traditions; diversities which do not cause significant tension yet still prevent us from uniting entirely. Ultimately, the Great Britain football team seems forced. Imposed. It has been created artificially and thrown out into the open, whilst we are expected to embrace it with little to no explanation as to why.

The desperation of the Olympic organisers in trying to flog unsold tickets speaks volumes. Around 30,000 free tickets were distributed for last night’s games at Hampden Park – estimates of the true attendance vary between 10-15,000, though coverage on the matches suggested much lower. The men’s competition is expected to bring in more a crowd, yet still sections of stadiums are being sealed off in a anticipation of a low turnout. It is fairly safe to assume that you could not even pay some people to attend. In a room booked to accommodate over 100, just 7 journalists arrived for Stuart Pearce’s first press conference. We just do not care.

This may be a wider phenomenon, however. When looking at attendance figures for the past five Olympic games, it becomes apparent that European nations are generally disinterested, whilst further afield enthusiasm for Olympic football is notably more fervent, in both the Men’s and Women’s disciplines. Take Barcelona in 1992 and Athens in 2004, for example. Crowds often struggled to reach five figures whilst a select few group games barely stretched to four. In 1992, each of the games in Group C held at Valencia’s vast Mestalla Stadium recorded an attendance of 2,000. Whilst Morocco vs South Korea would understandably have been low on local interest, in comparison with the 2000 games in Sydney and Beijing in 2008, it is a pitiful and damning indicator of Olympic apathy in Europe. In the same fixture in Australia in 2000, the attendance was six times as much. Not a single game in the men’s tournament in 2008 saw a crowd of below 20,000, whilst 2000 saw similar figures. The commitment and and dedication of teams such as Brazil and Argentina to the Olympic cause also suggests a continental trend – a wider European impassivity.

For all we know, Great Britain may well take the Olympic football tournament to their hearts, yet the startling lack of response so far indicates otherwise. A GB victory on home soil would quell questions over the team’s future for perhaps another tournament, but a prolonged involvement in coming games seems unlikely. For all the bluster and vitriol in the promotion of London 2012, the fact that Olympic football is at the very bottom rung of priorities for many seems to have been dismissed. The presumption was that the prestige of the games would bring people swarming to be a part of history; the reality is simply that not enough people care.

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Five quick fire points about the weekend’s Premier League action

1. Spanish Settle Swiftly…

Some have questioned before how players coming over from La Liga can sometimes struggle to bed in quickly. Yet the performances of Michu and Chico Flores for Swansea ate away at that theory. Michu in particular was superb with two goals and two assists at Loftus Road as he showed why he was the top scoring midfielder last season. “Nice to Michu” cracked Alan Shearer on the Match of the Day sofa! Moving on…

2. 2012 – The year of the Bundesliga Attacker

So in January, Pavel Pogrebnyak, Papiss Demba Cissé and Gylfi Sigurdsson (Strictly Sigurdsson’s an attacking midfielder but come come) all arrived in the Premier League from the Bundesliga. Yet did anyone anticipate the level of success the three would have in front of goal. On Saturday, ex-Hamburg striker Mladen Petric continued the trend by netting a double for Fulham and Shinji Kagawa hasn’t even taken to the field yet – it’s going to get better…

3. Promotion Pride

Well done to West Ham, Reading and Southampton – the three promoted sides all turned in showings which suggested they’d taken confidence from the performances of last year’s batch in the Premier League. Southampton especially played with a verve you’d scarcely expect from a promoted side on the first day at the Champions. Now the hard part – continuing it…

4. Parallel Paradise

Sky Sports were loving the amount of parallels with Manchester City’s victory on the final day last season this weekend. There were others to be drawn though. Liverpool were underwhelming and wasteful – just like last season. QPR got thrashed mercilessly on the opening day – just like last season. If we want to go slightly more farfetched, then there’s Fulham. 10 years ago, they beat Bolton 4-1 on the opening day of the season to go top of the Premier League. A decade on and they repeated the feat against Norwich. Won’t last mind…

5. And Finally

How about a bit of irony to finish? There was controversy at Upton Park on Saturday when the assistant referee ruled West Ham’s winner offside. Mike Dean correctly decided that it was indeed onside. So what was the advert on West Ham’s big video screen as the cross for the goal was coming in though?*

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For more Premier League musings on Twitter, Follow @archiert1

Article originally written on Gone With The Rhind

*Image used – screenshot taken from Match of the Day

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Whilst some professional footballers battle their whole career against injuries others spend their playing days met by chants of ‘who ate all the pies’. We pay homage to some of the game’s larger characters.

Wayne Rooney

A world class striker, but the England superstar has battled against the image of being a fat lad from Liverpool.

This week Alex Ferguson again questioned Rooney’s conditioning, admitting that the Manchester United forward’s body type means that he faces an uphill struggle to keep his weight under control.

Whilst both Ronaldo and Diego Maradona looked (enlarged) shadows of their former selves as they piled on the pounds at the twilight of their career. Rooney’s stocky build and sublime skills surely merits him to be crowned as the world’s greatest ever fat footballer.

Andy Reid

Something of a folk hero at Nottingham Forest, the portly midfielder has been mocked for his weight throughout his career.

During his first spell at the City Ground, fans used to chant ‘you fat bastard’ at the Irishman, whose chunky size hasn’t stopped him carving out a solid career for himself.

Whilst at Charlton, manager Les Reed called him one of the fittest players in the squad, and referred to his build as similar to that of Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas .

Since his return to Forest, Reid has trimmed down slightly, but will be mostly fondly remembered for as ‘Fat Andy Reid’.

Mido

Dubbed ‘Supersize Mido’ during a FA Cup game for Middlesbrough against Mansfield in 2008, the Egyptian striker failed to manage his weight after being sidelined for three months with a stress fracture to the pubic bone.

As a series of injuries reduced Mido’s playing time, his waistline increased and the striker was eventually fined by Middlesbrough after missing the first two weeks of pre-season training for the 2008/09 season.

Mido was then shipped out on a series of loan moves before he finally left Middlesbrough in 2011, joining Egyptian side Zamalek. His return to his homeland was an unhappy one as he struggled again with weight and fitness issues.

In June 2012 Mido joined Barnsley on a free transfer.

Adriano

A real powerhouse in his younger days, the former Inter Milan striker has packed on the pounds as a life of partying got in the way of life as a professional footballer.

The striker was dropped from the Brazil squad in 2006 after the coach Dunga called on Adriano to “change his behaviour”.

In 2007 Roberto Mancini dropped the Brazilian after he failed to turn up to training after a heavy night out on the town. He was eventually let go by Inter at the end of the 2009 season.

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In 2012 he was let go by Corinthians for his lack of interest, and he returned to his first club Flamengo for the third time on a pay-by-play basis.

Jeroen Verhoeven

Although he may be the least well known of the fat footballers on the list, the porky former Ajax reserve team keeper deserves a mention.

He may have only featured three times in three years at the Amsterdam Arena, yet he was warmly received by the home crowd who shouted ‘Pizza’ every time the 16st shot stopper touched the ball in a game against ADO Den Haag during the 2010/11 season.

Currently a free agent Verhoeven is likely to interest any sides hoping to plug a leaky defence.

By Tom Donnelly

Ashley Cole has rubbished suggestions that his unreasonable wage demands were halting progress to a new contract at Chelsea. The Daily Mail reports

The England international confirmed talks had began last month, but denied wanting a colossal £200,000 a week for his services.

The Blues say talks over a new deal are progressing well and the club remains confident at the left-back’s ability to play at the top-level for several years to come, despite traditionally being reluctant to offer lucrative contracts to players in their thirties.

But speculation will still rumble on over Cole’s future, particularly if he still has not signed a new deal by January, as it would allow him to pen a pre-contract with another club.

Real Madrid have reportedly been admirers of Cole for some time, while many of Europe’s other top teams would surely be interested.

At present, Cole is suffering from an ankle injury which will see him miss tonight’s opening World Cup qualifier away at Moldova and he faces a race against the clock to be fit for the visit of Ukraine on Tuesday.

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Considering he’s only 25-years-old, it would seem bizarre that Hatem Ben Arfa’s age would be of any real prominence, when dissecting the Frenchman’s career. Indeed, Newcastle United’s prodigious winger has years left ahead of him, including his peak ones, surely destined to be spent in the top flight and perhaps challenging for top honours, too.

But Ben Arfa’s journey from a raw French wonderkid to an unstoppable Premier League menace, has been an arduous one and in some ways, well overdue. But where as many felt that taking a chance on the former Olympique de Marseille man was a gamble too far, Alan Pardew is now reaping the rewards of his considerable talent.

In this case, perhaps good things do come to those who wait after all. And for all at St. James Park, Hatem Ben Arfa has been most definitely worth that wait.

Match of the Day pundit Alan Shearer was infamously ridiculed in 2010 after uttering the now immortal line, “No one really knows a great deal of him,” upon viewing Ben Arfa’s barnstorming highlight sequence from Newcastle United’s 1-0 win away to Everton. But despite showing remarkable ignorance for a man paid by the taxpayer to display an extensive footballing knowledge, it does in some ways represent quite how much the Hatem Ben Arfa story had stalled at that point.

Because Ben Arfa wasn’t some unknown, mysterious Gaelic talent when he signed for what was at the time, Chris Houghton’s Magpies – initially on loan- in 2010. His Champions League debut in the colours of Lyon serve as a relatively poignant reminder as to quite how long ago it was, when he first burst onto the scene. The scores were evenly matched at 2-2 during Lyon’s tightly contested Group D fixture with Manchester United.  As a young, and rakish Ben Arfa came on to replace Sidney Govou, he found himself playing against a United side that started with both Eric Djemba-Djemba in midfield and one Tim Howard in goal. The date was 15th September 2004. Not far off eight years ago now.

And in some respects, it seems really quite remarkable that it has taken the Clamart-born winger so many years to really start fulfilling his true potential.

Because a look at his contemporaries suggests not all has gone quite as planned in the time that’s passed since that Champions League debut. Ben Arfa was widely recognised as one of the biggest hopes of French football if not the biggest, during the mid-noughties. He was the one touted to reinvigorate Les Bleus and gravitate them back towards international success, even more so than his youth team colleague Karim Benzema. Yet today Benzema, a year younger, currently plays for Real Madrid and beholds 52 caps for his country. Ben Arfa has only 13.

Abou Diaby is another of his countrymen who wasn’t of thought to be able to posses quite the levels of talent that Ben Arfa had, yet still has more caps for his country – even with his arguably dire injury record. Yet it is into an old French documentary that ironically featured both Diaby and Ben Arfa as teenagers, in which we get an insight as to quite why the Newcastle winger’s career seems to have taken so long to truly flourish.

In the documentary titled À La Clairefontaine, cameras were allowed into the now famous French footballing hub, where they followed the fortunes of several fleeting young players- including the pair of Diaby and Ben Arfa. And in an excerpt that you can view here, even at a young age, we’re exposed to the volatility that has plagued Ben Arfa’s career.

And unfortunately for both Lyon and French fans, it was seemingly a character trait that Ben Arfa was unable to shed. Clashes with both Benzema and now Arsenal defender Sebastien Squilacci, only weeks after singing a long-term deal at Lyon, put an end to his carer at the Stade de Gerland and signalled the start of a new one at Marseille. But yet again, his career continued to be scorched by an abrasive attitude that has continuously overshadowed his extraordinary talents with a football. Clashes with Modeste Mbami, Djibril Cisse and managers Eric Gerets and Didier Deschamps marred his time at the Stade Velodrome – the latter culminating in Ben Arfa going on strike, resulting in his move to Tyneside. At this point, none of Europe’s top clubs were even thinking about taking a persona like Ben Arfa’s onto the pay reel.

But what was their loss was undeniably Newcastle United’s gain. His first season was of course curtailed almost as soon as it began, after Nigel de Jong’s controversial tackle inflicted a compound fracture of the left leg. But even then, Newcastle had seen enough to turn his loan from Marseille into a permanent move. And since his return to full fitness, he’s not looked back.

Ben Arfa has began to show the sort of form and showcase of ability that made Europe stand up and take notice all those years ago. The Frenchman has a genuine gift and possesses a level of skill that perhaps ranks amongst the highest tier in the league. Alan Pardew has described the winger as having “magic in his feet,” and last season, we finally started to see it appear on a regular basis; he ranked up a highly reputable five goals and seven assists in 26 Premier League games. This season, he already has two goals from four.

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By his own admission, Ben Arfa has taken a long time to mature as much as a person as he has a footballer. Indeed, Armand Garrido, a former youth coach at Lyon, once said that he “always thought Hatem was a couple of years behind in some respects.”

But most importantly, Ben Arfa seems to feel in himself that he’s turned the page. Talking before the European Championships this summer, the Frenchman said:

“I’ve evolved, I grew up.

“I am calmer, quieter. In the field, I feel much better. I’m really much more committed to the collective. I think now more than ever, I’m a competitor.

“With experience, it made me better. I give everything now because I am responsible for my actions.”

And with that change in attitude, the only way is surely forward, for both Ben Arfa and Newcastle United. In a strange way, the pair seem to resemble something of a perfect match. Both club and player have had their fair share of issues in recent years. But at full capacity and with no further distractions, they can both help each other to attain the sort of success that their standings deserve.

How do you feel about Ben Arfa’s future on Tyneside? Still worried about his volatile persona or are you confident the problems of the past are behind him? Tell me what you think on Twitter: follow @samuel_antrobus and bat me all your views. 

Manchester United made amends for their defeat last season at St James’ Park with a thumping victory over Alan Pardew’s side this afternoon. The away side were comfortable for the majority of the game after two early goals.

Jonny Evans powerfully headed Manchester United in front after just eight minutes from a Robin van Persie corner that was poorly defended and almost an identical corner led to the visitors doubling their lead through Patrice Evra’s header.

Tom Cleverley sealed the three points with a curled effort from the wide position that surprised Steve Harper in the Newcastle goal; he did appear to be crossing rather than shooting though.

Papiss Cisse had a header palmed away by David De Gea but it appeared to have crossed the line after Demba Ba hit the crossbar. Howard Webb continued to infuriate the home fans with decisions, but in the end the call seemed to be correct.

Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney were a constant threat and their partnership seems to be flourishing with all three goals coming from their assists.

Manchester United have closed the gap at the top of the table to Chelsea and jumped ahead of rivals Manchester City into second. Newcastle continued their average start to the season and sit 10th going into the international break.

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Newcastle will hope that their performances and results the weekend after a Europa League tie will not continue the way they are.

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Long term Manchester City transfer target Stevan Jovetic has insisted that he is happy at Fiorentina despite being flattered by the English clubs’ interest, according to talkSPORT.

Jovetic has started this season as he finished the last, already netting five times and that has only fuelled rumours that he could be on his way to either Manchester City or Real Madrid when the transfer window reopens in January.

However, Jovetic felt the need to talk to the press and commit his allegiance to the Florence club who have helped the 22-year-old make a name for himself over the past few seasons.

Jovetic is one of the hottest youngsters in Europe at the moment but the level headed Montenegro star is clearly happy where he is, although admitting his head may have been turned.

He told La Nazione: “When a big club considers you, it is always nice. But I’m happy here and I chose Fiorentina – that’s what counts.”

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The League Club has a long and storied history stretching back over 50 years. In that time, the competition has been graced by some of the most significant figures in English football. In this series, we’ll be looking at what’s happened to some of the legends of League Cups past.

You’ve all heard of the Bosman ruling, and a good deal of you are probably aware of the story of Jean-Marc Bosman, the Belgian midfielder who all but forfeited his career to fight for the rights of out-of-contract footballers to move to the team of their choice, regardless of the wishes of their former employers.

You may not, however, have heard of his predecessor, George Eastham.

Bosman paved the way for the likes of Robin van Persie and Cesc Fabregas to force transfers, and for such international stars as Edgar Davids, Esteban Cambiasso and Patrick Kluivert to move between clubs for nothing when their new employers might otherwise have been put off by high transfer fees. The Bosman ruling, though, would not have been possible without George Eastham’s campaign of 1959-63.

On the pitch, Eastham is perhaps best known (besides his involvement in England’s World Cup winning squad of 1966) for scoring the winning goal in Stoke City’s League Cup triumph of 1972, a 2-1 victory over Chelsea. Having formerly played for Arsenal, it must have been a sweet moment for Eastham, who became the oldest player to receive a League Cup winner’s medal at the time at 35 years, 161 days old.

Renowned for his goalscoring while playing largely as a midfielder, Eastham enjoyed successful, if sometimes turbulent, spells at Newcastle and Arsenal before moving to Stoke in 1966 after the World Cup. He would spend the final eight seasons of his career with the Potters as a more deep-lying midfielder, but one of his four goals for Stoke would be that League Cup final winner.

Off the pitch, however, Eastham’s biggest triumph was bringing about the end of the so-called “slavery contract”, the retain-and-transfer system which allowed clubs at the time to hold a player’s FA registration while refusing to pay them if they requested a transfer – meaning that the player could earn neither a wage nor a move. Eastham’s club, Newcastle, were not prepared to let him leave when the inside forward requested a transfer in 1959. Eastham went on strike at the end of the 1959-60, moving away from the north-east in the process.

Eventually, Newcastle bowed to his wishes and sold the forward to Arsenal, but Eastham wouldn’t be stopped that easily. He went on to take the Magpies to court four years later, and the judge ruled that the retain-and-transfer system was an unfair restraint of trade. Eastham’s crusade led not just to radical changes in contractual agreements of the time, but, indirectly, also to the abolition of the maximum wage.

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After hanging up his boots in 1973, Eastham spent a short period of time as a coach at Stoke and succeeded Tony Waddington as manager in 1977. With the team struggling, however, Eastham was unable to prevent them being relegated from the First Division and resigned after less than a year with Stoke struggling in the second tier.

Eastham has since lived in South Africa and most recently in Canada, without the fame his ground-breaking court case would afford him were it held today. What cannot be ignored, however, is the impact that George Eastham has left on modern football. And along the way, he helped Stoke City win the 1972 League Cup, their last major trophy for twenty years.

It remains to be seen whether there will be an unlikely hero in this year’s Capital One Cup but the competition certainly has form when it comes to taking a player out of obscurity and thrusting them into the limelight.