SOCCER:MICHAEL ESSIEN has suffered a fresh knee injury during Chelsea's pre-season training on Thursday. The midfielder is undergoing tests for the problem in his right leg, and the precise nature and severity of the damage will not become clear until today or tomorrow.
There are bound to be fears at Chelsea that the damage could be similar to knee problems suffered by Essien over the past three years. He sustained an anterior cruciate injury to his left knee in 2008 that ruled him out until the following March and he missed last summer’s World Cup after tearing the medial knee ligaments in the same leg during training for the Africa Cup of Nations in January 2010.
Chelsea refused to confirm or deny claims by the club’s former midfielder Jody Morris on Twitter that Essien had suffered a cruciate injury. A statement said: “Michael Essien suffered an injury to his right knee during training this week. He will undergo tests over the next few days to determine the extent of that injury. Until we have the full results of those tests we will not be commenting further.”
Chelsea’s first pre-season game is next Saturday when they play Portsmouth before leaving for a tour to Asia a few days later. Whether new manager Andre Villas-Boas will be able to include the influential Ghanaian is unclear.
Chelsea have appointed Michael Emenalo as technical director, with the 46-year-old Nigerian taking responsibility for scouting. He said: “I’m going to be supporting the manager and working with him in making sure that things run smoothly. I have the responsibility to direct and manage our scouting structure internationally and domestically, and to keep an eye on and assist the progress of the academy.
“Over the next weeks and months I will be getting the scouts in place, finding the people that will lead the scouts along with me, and integrating the agendas and ideas of the different areas from the first team to the academy. We have been gradually reducing the quantity of our scouts and also trying to improve the efficiency of the system.
“The final decisions about who comes in and who doesn’t will be the manager’s to make but there will be a lot of working together and I would imagine I will be part of that process.”
Branislav Ivanovic has offered an insight into Villas-Boas’s methods. The defender said: “The first impressions are very good. There has been an interesting dynamic to the first couple of training sessions, and we will have time to get to know him and see what he wants us players to show him on the pitch.”
Meanwhile, Manchester City will bank up to €450m under their new sponsorship arrangement with Etihad Airways, making it the largest deal of its kind in sport and reinforcing City’s position as a football club with unprecedented financial power.
The 10-year agreement, which means City’s ground is renamed the Etihad Stadium, will be worth more than twice the previous record, JP Morgan Chase’s $300m (€211m) for the new Madison Square Garden, while simultaneously demonstrating the growing disparity between the top clubs in English football.
To put it into context, the deal Arsenal struck with Emirates in 2004 was valued at €101m over 15 years. Around €54m of that came via shirt sponsorship, with the naming rights worth only €3.1m a year. Chelsea and Tottenham have both scoured the market for a deal in the region of €11-16m a year but found no serious interest.
Etihad’s deal includes a 10-year extension to their shirt sponsorship at City, as well as financial backing for what will be known as the Etihad Campus, a vast area of land around the stadium that already includes the City Square fans’ village, and has other major development planned, including a new training ground and sports science centre.
City must now convince Uefa that the amounts involved do not contravene the incoming financial fair-play regulations and, specifically, the condition that stipulates sponsors with close links to club owners pay a fair price.
Etihad are owned by the Abu Dhabi government and the airline’s association with the City owner, Sheikh Mansour, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, will almost certainly prompt Uefa’s Club Financial Control Panel to investigate.
A Uefa spokesman said: “We are aware of the situation and our experts will make assessments of fair value of any sponsorship deals using benchmarks.” The club have, however, made extensive inquiries of their own, consulting with Uefa in the process, to ensure the Etihad deal fits in with the rules.
Elsewhere, Chris Smalling has signed a new five-year contract with Manchester United.
The improved contract is recognition of the 21-year-old’s outstanding debut season, when he made 34 appearances following a €9m summer move from Fulham.
Villa close to completing signing of Given
ASTON VILLA officials believe they will complete the signing of Shay Given during the early part of next week after making progress on a number of fronts in talks about the move, writes Emmet Malone.
Manchester City are reported to be close to agreeing a fee of around €4 million while it is expected that Given himself will take a 25 per cent cut in wages in order to secure a move that would enable him to play regularly again.
Republic of Ireland international Joey O’Brien is on trial with West Ham having been released by Bolton Wanderers at the end of the season when his contract with the club expired.
Cillian Sheridan, meanwhile, is reported to be training with Hibernian as he looks to return to Scotland after failing to settle in Sofia since joining CSKA last year.
Sligo Rovers have been cleared by Uefa to play the home leg of their forthcoming Europa League tie at the Showgrounds after the club committed itself to spending around €50,000 on improvements to the stadium during the coming weeks.
“We felt we owed it to our supporters to do our utmost to have the game played in the Showgrounds,” said chairman Michael Toolan. Rovers will enter the competition at the third qualifying round stage with the games scheduled for July 28th and August 4th.
