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Tuesday Kickoff: Chepo keeps his job; Tottenham wants record fee for Bale; and more

JoseManuelDeLaTorreMexico1-GoldCup2013 (Getty)

By DAN KARELL

Chepo’s not going anywhere for the time being.

After deliberations with the Mexican Football Federation, president Justino Compean decided to keep Jose Manuel de la Torre as head coach of the Mexico National Team.

At one time on top of the world, “Chepo” de la Torre has lost support from many of the fans of El Tri, suffering in the 2013 calendar year to win games in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying and the two summer competitions they took part in, the Confederations Cup and the Gold Cup.

El Tri were bounced from the Gold Cup in the semifinals by Panama, keeping them out of the finals for the first time since 2005 and ending their Gold Cup title winning streak at two. In World Cup qualifying, Mexico currently sit in third place in the Hexagonal round, with just one win, away vs. Jamaica, and five draws.

Compean said that he would review de la Torre’s position once more after the qualifiers finish in October.

Here are some more stories to get your Tuesday started:

LEVY WANTS WORLD RECORD FEE FOR BALE

Just like one year ago with former Tottenham player Luka Modric, Chairman Daniel Levy isn’t making it easy for Gareth Bale to make his reported desired move to the Bernabeu.

According to reports in Spain, Levy has issued an ultimatum to Real Madrid, saying that if they want Bale then the Spanish club will have to pay upwards of £125 million ($191 million) for the 24-year-old midfielder. As much as Madrid want to bring in Bale to the club, they are certainly unwilling to spend that much on a player.

Bale is reportedly unhappy with Levy and the Tottenham management for not agreeing to listen to the reported £80 million ($122 million) transfer offer that Real Madrid made late last week.

Speaking during the club’s tour of the United States, Iker Casillas said he believed that Bale is “one of the top three or four best players in Europe and it’s normal that his name is being discussed because he has all the qualities a footballer needs.”

CHELSEA REFUSE TO SELL LUIZ

Chelsea FC’s six Confederations Cup players all returned to first-team training on Monday, and with it, rumors of David Luiz’s departure to Bayern Munich.

According to reports, Bayern are considering making a bid of £34.5 million (approx $53 million) for the Brazilian National Team defender, as manager Pep Guardiola has long had his eye on Luiz. However on Tuesday, Chelsea have come out with their refusal to listen to any offers, large or small, for the 26-year-old.

Luiz has been subjected to rumors of a transfer to Barcelona this summer as well, with transfer speculation intensifying following a Confederations Cup tournament where he proved he was one of Brazil’s top players.

In addition to Luiz, countryman Oscar, Spaniards Juan Mata, Fernando Torres, Cesar Azpilicueta, and Nigerian John Mikel Obi all returned to the club for training.

QUICK KICKS

Serie A released the fixture list for the upcoming season on Monday afternoon, with the first Derby della Capitale to take place in the fourth week of the season. (REPORT)

Cruz Azul forward Teofilo Gutierrez has arrived in Buenos Aires ahead of a move to River Plate. The Colombian will take his medical today and sign a three-year contract with the Argentine giants on Wednesday. (REPORT)

Former Spain National Team forward Dani Güiza has moved to Cerro Porteño in Paraguay. (REPORT)

FC Augsburg in Germany is believed to have the first ever Carbon-Neutral stadium. (REPORT)

Schalke 04 defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos has returned to training from a long-term knee injury suffered last November. (REPORT)

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What do you think of these reports? Surprised to see Chepo keep his job? Do you see Real Madrid coughing up over £100? Do you believe Chelsea would sell David Luiz? Which Serie A fixtures are you looking forward to?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. what happened to Dani Guiza? 5 years ago he was top scorer in La Liga and scored 2 goals at Euro 2008 and had a big move to Turkey and his career flopped

    Reply
    • As a die hard Getafe fan, Guiza was one of my favorite players for some time. He just seemed to become very content with his Turkish contract, and seemed to stop showing any real effort on the pitch. Cant blame him though with him being a late bloomer and all soccer wise

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  2. I really hope Honduras scores first in the Azteca. I want to see the fan reaction and how El Tri reacts. It will be glorious.

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  3. If you read Gab Marcotti’s examination of the deal for Bale, you see that it is not 100 Million Euros Ca$h, It’s 32 Million in hand plus Angel Di Maria and Coentrao, two players they OVERVALUE at 68 million Euros who would tie down Tottenham to long term and fairly lucrative contracts. So who wins? REAL get rid of 2 players they pay too much to warm the bench (but with the return of Marcelo and others, that might be exactly where these two end up) and they get Bale for the cash they just pocketed selling Gonzalo Higuain……When you look at it this way, you see how shrewd and clever Perez is but everyone is just chasing around this number. It’s not as simple as it looks and it definitely doesn’t help Spurs, I think Levy needs to listen to the offer, explain to GAZ that it isn’t in their best interests and ask him for one more season and give him a big ass raise with lots of bonuses tied to CL qualification then thank him for his service and let him leave next summer…

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    • Not only that, but Spurs couldn’t afford the wages of Di Maria and Coentrao, but really, they can’t afford to pay Bale what he is worth. Spurs fans have a top tier mentality while supporting a 2nd tier club.

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  4. Mexican federation can’t find a reasonable enough replacement. They are risking a lot continuing on with this coach but there’s nobody that will take his job more than likely.

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  5. Unbelievable that Chepo keeps his job. I’m a USMNT fan, but Mexico doing bad really is bad for the whole Concacaf region. Tena is a completely better choice.

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    • They started going back playing their own (ineffective) Mexican style with these coaches. Bring LaVolpe back and play more effieciently.

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      • +1. It will be in Columbus. He loses that game, and the pressure will be too much. He will have to go.

      • Not if he gets a win at Azteca, THAT is where out will be ride or die for Mexico if they can win there it changes things.also the game between Honduras and Panama will be huge.

    • As a US fan we gain from other teams’ slipups so keep on truckin’ Mexico. With a CR and Mexico game coming up every little edge helps.

      From a more objective perspective, I don’t understand keeping him because if they back into the World Cup I can’t imagine them suddenly getting better at the finals themselves. And if you look at their record, they’ve not really excelled in the Hex, Confed, Gold Cup, anything.

      Their current style doesn’t even match the personnel. They now play the ball wide and cross it more than we do and the target is little Chicharito. They are much better playing possession soccer.

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    • Frankly, as a USMNT fan, I’m happy Chepo is sticking around for the remainder of WCQ. Chepo has clearly lost his grip on his team. Why not reap the benefits as the other CONCACAF hegemon?

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    • I think that Tena would be among the top 2 choicesfor Mexico as far as domestic choices go. But for the next World Cup cycle I think that a foreign coach who can really push “El Tri” is what they really need. Someone like Chepo seemed like a too 2 choice when they made the decision almost 3 years ago. Part if me wishes they qualify because you know they’ll do a good job as opposed to say Panama or even Honduras and we need to maintain the slots for CONCACAF. Having 2 teams like last time make the knock out stages would be great for the region. I’m going Costa Rica can do well too but Mexico is more likely to step yip come next summer On other hand having Mexico fail to qualify would be great because we took so much trash talking 2 years ago AND last summer it would be sweet as US fans lol

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    • Levy would have to be crazy to turn down $122 million USD for him right now. You can buy
      2 – 3 world class players for $122 million USD!!! I think he just wants to milk RM out of more money like a few more millions before selling him like Modric. That was good business selling Modric. 🙂

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      • I think the problem is that there are not 2-3 world class players available who would come to Spurs right now. If we had made CL, perhaps.

      • I agree but the question I’d this how good could Spurs be without Bale and something dumb like 90-105 million pounds to buy some players say on defense and wait to acquire 2 really great offensive weapons in the next few transfer windows?

    • Exactly what i was thinking. Yes, I get he’s 24 and not even in his prime, but there MUST be a cap to what one team would pay for even the best player in the world. (Which, Bale is not.) Think of what they could do with 80+ million pounds! They’d probably be better positioned to win the league than with Bale alone.

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    • Then don’t buy him, and Tottenham get what they want. It is a ridiculous amount of money, but Real Madrid are trying to buy something from someone who is not looking to sell.

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      • Exactly, if tottenham can keep bale, which they can afford, they are a much better team. The only thing in the world that could replace him is a rediculus amount of money, which madrid have. Props to Levy for holding the line; either out come would be excelent

      • But the thing is even with Bale they couldn’t make the champions league now that City is battling for the EPL championship. Add to that the return of Mourinho to a team that still made the fourth spot and it doesn’t look great for Spurs to be that coveted last CL team. Will they pass Arsenal? I doubt it…hell even Liverpool looks like they might end up higher than Spurs as long as they win enough games during Suarez’ suspension

      • What have Arsenal or Liverpool done this off-season, while Spurs have signed Paulinho and a decent winger chadli. Also Kaboul is back, there will be more signings for all of these teams, but I think Arsenal and Spurs are both right there for 4th

    • Getting to the Champions league and doing well is worth at least 80MM, thus if Bale is the key, he is worth that much money.

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      • Gab Marcotti’s article at espnFC tells a slightly different story, and one that makes Spurs position more understandable. To quote:

        “Every indication coming out of Spain is that the bid — if it exists — is not exclusively a cash one. It’s Angel Di Maria, Fabio Coentrao and $57 million in exchange for Bale. Implicit in all this is that Di Maria and Coentrao are worth $68 million combined.”

        If this is accurate, I would hesitate too. Not nearly as good a deal as $125mm cash, plus you are still on the hook for Di Maria and Coentrao’s wages.

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