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During the history of the Premier League, there have been many famous moments where managers have lost the plot when under severe pressure, and have hit out at rival players and managers. There was of course Kevin Keegan’s “I would love it…” interview, and more recently, Rafa Benitez was at pains to point out some “FACTS” about Manchester United.

However, this week’s feud started by Manchester City boss, Roberto Mancini, with the white half of North London is one of the strangest episodes in recent times.

Mancini’s claim is that without Gareth Bale, Tottenham would be half the side they currently are – a strange statement to say the least. Whilst Bale has put in several high-class performances in a Tottenham shirt over the last twelve months, the main reason for Spurs’ continued success is their ability to rotate their squad, with quality replacements in every position.

The Welshman has excelled this season, however his displays have mainly been in European fixtures – the consistent week in, week out Premier League performances have come from other players – particularly earlier on in the campaign. Rafael Van der Vaart has been a revelation, and the creativity of Luka Modric has been a joy to behold. The scary thing for Mancini is, that could Bale find a greater level of consistency in his league performances, the Lilywhites could be even stronger domestically.

Were Mancini to locate a realistic weak point, he may have looked at the obsession with bringing a 35 year old David Beckham to White Hart Lane, or the poor fitness record of the Tottenham back line, but his attack on Tottenham’s squad depth is laughable, particularly looking at the resources available at Chelsea and Liverpool.

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Mancini’s comments are sure to rile Tottenham fans all over the country, but why do it? Bearing in mind it was this exact Spurs side that forced Manchester City out of the Champions League spots at the end of last season, the Italian tactician is making a rod for his own back should his team slip up in the coming months.

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A bigger concern for the former Inter Milan boss is that his own players have caused enough difficulty over the last few weeks. From Carlos Tevez’s insistence that he would never play for the club again, to training ground bust-ups amongst his expensively assembled squad, you would have thought the Italian would have used the time away from the spotlight to quietly strengthen his hand rather than get involved in a needless squabble.

Throughout the course of a season there are inevitable verbal jousts between rival managers, particularly as we move towards the business end of the campaign. Mancini’s comments may be simply washed over in the coming weeks as the battle for Champions League qualification takes its most significant turn, however if his remarks result in a dramatic backlash when the two sides meet in a couple of months time he will only have himself to blame.

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Patience is not a virtue that is typically respected by all in the world of football. When results a lackin then a manager could last only a short few months in a job. With the impressive Brendan Rodgers announced as the new man to lead Liverpool, Fenway Sports Group (FSG) must exercise extreme diligence and equanimity under their new man’s reign if the potential success of the appointment is to come to fruition.

The club had been linked with a host of big names including Fabio Capello, Frank De Boer, Andre Villas-Boas and Roberto Martinez, who reportedly turned down the job because of the increased management structure the club wished to put in place. Rodgers had similar concerns, but after the Wigan manager rebuffed their approach FSG dropped the idea which included employing Louis van Gaal as a director of football. They then turned back to their leading candidate who was willing to accept the move from Swansea with complete control of the team being offered.

The Northern Irishman has received much acclaim for the way in which he has set his teams out to play. Regardless of the quality of players, Rodgers insists on a possession-based passing game. Coupling control of the ball with crisp interplay and movement, the goal is to outmanoeuvre and tire their opponents. This is clearly borne out in the fact that Swansea defeated Manchester City and Arsenal on route to an 11th placed Premier League finish in their debut season.

Swansea also ended the season with the fourth best pass completion rate in Europe’s top five leagues, with only City bettering them in England. It is this attractive style of football that has won Rodgers so many admirers in England, but he remains a relatively inexperienced manager at the top level. The decision evokes some concerns as it represents a gamble for FSG so they must offer their ultimate backing to their new man. He will need time to instil his philosophy among the players and get the team working as a unit if he is truly to benefit the club.

Liverpool have a reputation as one of the biggest clubs in the country but they have failed to participate in Champions League football since the 2009/10 season. Rodgers now becomes Liverpool’s fourth manager in just two years but he must not be expected to challenge for an immediate return to Europe’s top competition. The club have not only bought into the man, but also his philosophy. They must therefore employ a greater degree of patience than under Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish, even if results are not instantaneous.

The hiring is a risk, and it offers Rodgers the greatest challenge of his managerial career. But lest we forget, the 39-year-old worked under Jose Mourinho as reserve team manager at Chelsea and gained the admiration of the Portuguese. It is a proven route to success. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer left his post as Manchester United reserves manager and went on to win the Norweigan championship with Molde and is now attracting interest in the Premier League. Pep Guardiola also went straight from managing Barcelona B to the first team and ended up as the club’s most successful ever manager with an insurmountable 14 trophies. Whilst Marcelo Bielsa at Athletic Bilbao and Jorge Sampaoli at Universidad de Chile have proved that with the right philosophy, glory could soon be in tow.

There could be a source of instability in the fact that the club have put their higher-tier management structure plans on the back burner. If things do not work out immediately then FSG may well regret their decision to forego their original plans. Any appointment at a later date could create friction, but Rodgers should thrive with the free reign he is set to be given.

It could well prove to be a shrewd appointment with a youthful, modern coach who claims inspiration from the Netherlands and Brazil sides of the 1970s. Yet it is of the utmost important that FSG and the Liverpool fans maintain prudence. As long as the club do not go backwards then the supporters will be happy. They can look forward to attractive football but must remember that Rome was not built in a day.

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Do you think Brendan Rodgers is the right man to take Liverpool forward? Let me know on Twitter.

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Corinthians extended their lead atop the Brazilian Serie A to six points after a 1-0 win over Internacional on Thursday.Playing in front of their home fans at the Estadio Municipal Paulo Machado de Carvalho, Corinthians entered the fixture with seven wins and a draw from their first eight matches of the campaign.

Internacional had also been impressive in the early stages of the season, but headed into the match on the back of a 2-0 defeat to fellow mid-table side Vasco da Gama.

The visitors frustrated Corinthians in the first half and both sides entered the break locked in a goalless stalemate.

And the sides seemed destined to share the spoils until Willian’s strike with just 13 minutes remaining.

It was the Brazilian forward’s fifth goal of the campaign and second consecutive match in which his strike yielded a 1-0 result for the Sao Paulo club.

Internacional’s defeat sees them sitting in sixth, with 15 points from 10 matches.

No change at the top of the table as the top four teams all took maximum points to leave the table as it was. Carlo Ancelotti will be desperate for a home win, this afternoon, to ensure they remain within touching distance at the top of the table.

In the papers this morning there has been a mixed bag of stories including Redknapp hints that Beckham deal is close; Roy Hodgson believes he has total backing of the owners and players, while Ryan Giggs is wanted by the New York Cosmos.

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Newcastle line up bid for PSG’s Stephane Sessegnon – IMScouting

Redknapp hints Beckham deal is close – Guardian

Balotelli committed to City – Sky Sports

Aston Villa prepare second offer for Jean II Makoun – IMScouting

Players and owners back me at Liverpool, insists Hodgson – Guardian

Manchester United veteran Ryan Giggs wanted by New York Cosmos – People

Ferguson: Rooney was out of this world – Daily Telegraph

Liverpool lead the race for Germany star – Mirror

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Fans’ fractured faith could be Houllier’s downfall – Guardian

Ancelotti opts against Video nasty – Daily Telegraph

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Borussia Dortmund are readying a bid for Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner, as the Gunners prepare to slash their wage bill, according to The Daily Mail.

The Denmark international has been on loan at Sunderland this season, but the Black Cats have decided not to make the Scandinavian attacker’s deal permanent and sent him back to the Emirates Stadium.

With Bendtner not part of Arsene Wenger’s plans, the forward will have to look for a new club, with the German champions ready to make a bid for him.

Arsenal want to strip at least £20 million off their wage bill this summer, with the likes of Marouane Chamakh, Denilson, Sebastien Squillaci, Johan Djourou and Carlos Vela also on their way out of the north London club.

Finally, Arsenal are also keen to offload Andrei Arshavin after a poor last year for the Russia international.

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The club’s record signing has spent the last six months on loan at Zenit St Petersburg, and Wenger hopes that the Russian Premier League side will finalise a permanent deal for the eastern European attacker.

By Gareth McKnight

Celtic have made a winning start to their Scottish Premier League campaign with a convincing 2-0 victory over Hibernian on Sunday.Striker Anthony Stokes and midfielder Ki Sung-Yeung struck at the Easter Road Stadium as Neil Lennon’s side collected three points on the opening weekend, something arch rivals Rangers failed to do after drawing 1-1 against Hearts a day earlier.

A howler from Hibernian goalkeeper Graham Stack, who completely missed a free-kick delivered from deep by Kris Commons, allowed Stokes to smash the ball into the net from a tight angle to put Celtic in front after 14 minutes.

The scoreboard would have read 2-0 in favour of the visitors soon after had Mark Wilson’s goal not been ruled out for offside.

Celtic did go two goals to the good on 63 minutes when Hibernian midfielder Lewis Stevenson lost possession, allowing Stokes to feed Ki, who slammed the ball home with his left foot leaving Stack powerless.

Celtic looked likely to find a third goal when full-back Emilio Izaguirre was brought down in the area but Stack denied Gary Hooper, tipping his spot-kick onto the post and scrambling to prevent the rebound.

In the day’s other game, Danny Swanson struck a 70th-minute equaliser to help Dundee United secure a 1-1 draw at home to Kilmarnock.

Rory McKeown had put Kenny Shiels’ side in front a minute into the second half before Swanson ensured United would take a point from the contest.

Arsenal managed to book their spot in the knock-out stages of the Champions League with a 3-1 win over Partizan Belgrade, while Chelsea suffered their first defeat in the competition this season at Marseille.

The Gunners started brightly but were frustrated for the first 30 minutes of the tie by a resolute Partizan side. However, Robin van Persie won a penalty which he calmly dispatched himself to hand Arsenal a 1-0 lead at half-time.

The Serbian side made Arsenal sweat when Cleo levelled matters early in the second-half as his shot took a wicked deflection off Sebastien Squillaci before looping over a stranded Lukasz Fabianski.

Arsenal were always the stronger side and their persistence paid off as second-half substitute Theo Walcott restored their lead, before Samir Nasri put the game to bed to make it 3-1 late on.

Had Braga won on their trip to the Ukraine anything less than a victory for the Gunners would have resulted in Europa League football at the Emirates this season but the Portuguese side were beaten 2-0 by Shakhtar Donetsk.

Chelsea had already guaranteed top-spot in Group F ahead of their visit to the Marseille but boss Carlo Ancelotti chose to start with key man Didier Drogba regardless. With both the French side and the Blues already through to the next round the contest was never going to be the most exciting of affairs but there were talking points in the first half.

Chelsea were awarded an early penalty after Salomon Kalou was brought down in the area but the referee changed his mind, under pressure from the Marseille players, after consulting his assistant.

Drogba was removed from the action in the second-half and received a standing ovation from the Marseille fans, with the French side the club where he made his name.

The bragging rights went to the French side though as Brandao snatched a late winner for the hosts.

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In Group G Real Madrid destroyed French side Auxerre 4-0, with Cristiano Ronaldo amongst the goal scorers. Real had already qualified from Group G and AC Milan will also be involved in the latter stages despite slipping to a 2-0 defeat at the San Siro to Ajax, who will now be competing in the Europa League.

In Group E a 1-1 draw at CFR Cluj-Napoca was good enough for Roma to secure their spot in the next round, the Romanian side's European dream came to an end despite Basle's 3-0 defeat at Bayern Munich.

In Slovakia crowd disruption at the start of the game halted proceedings in the contest between MSK Zilina and Spartak Moscow, the other two side's in Chelsea's Group F. When the action resumed the Russian side managed to secure a 2-1 victory, with Spartak heading into the Europa League after finishing third in the group.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

A Fairy-tale story straight out of Senegal, Demba Ba has become one of the most sought after players in the Premier League this summer, after an illustrious campaign with Newcastle. Unfortunately the ogre in this Fairy-tale is his evil contract, which states that Ba can leave the club for a meagre £7 million. With such a magnificent season under his belt, Derek Llambias refuses to increase Ba’s wages in order to eradicate the release clause, according to reports in the Daily Telegraph. Fans at St. James Park must be scratching their heads as to why they are choosing not to tie down their striker but are instead accommodating for a bombardment of transfer speculation and rumours that will undoubtedly unsettle Ba and his teammates.

The arrival of Papiss Cisse in January changed the entire landscape of Demba Ba and his future with Newcastle. The unexpected form of Newcastle’s new no. 9 left Ba in an unfamiliar position in the team. His ineffectual performances and Cisse’s incredible dominance in front of goal now means that Ba is not the Magpies’ most valuable asset. With this in mind, Chief Exec Llambias announced that no plans had been made to increase Ba’s wages in order to eliminate his ridiculous release clause. With finances on Tyneside running smoother than ever, the club are hesitant to increase one player’s wages on form alone. However, after one of Newcastle’s most successful seasons in recent years, the idea that the club would not accommodate a wage increase for Ba is unbelievable. To disrupt a team in such a sparkling vein of form by removing one of its foundations, could destroy the whole metaphorical building. Ba is pivotal in rebuilding the club as a top 6 team. Not only are his abilities on the pitch vital, his presence off the pitch is just as important. With Papiss Cisse admitting that it would have been tough to settle in the North-East had it not been for his Senegalese teammate, allowing Ba to leave could end the glorious form of the former Freiburg striker.

However, what has not been questioned is Demba Ba and his commitment to Newcastle. Obviously aware of the clause in his contract, the French Born striker could see this summer as an opportunity to advance his career by joining one of Europe’s elite clubs. It is no surprise that Ba has been linked with a never ending list of clubs that see his bargain transfer fee as an opportunity to snatch a player at the top of his game. Chelsea, PSG, Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man United and AC Milan will be laughing if they manage to prize Ba away from St. James Park for so little. For these interested parties, £7 million is pocket fluff. Newcastle’s number 19 is now in a win-win situation. If he stays at Newcastle, chances are his wages will increase considerably, if he leaves, he faces the prospect of joining a club where silverware is not uncommon.

Officially the manager of the season, Alan Pardew surely has the sense to refute Llambias’ stance on Demba Ba and the surrounding contract issue. Ba was the key man in seeing the Magpies meteoric rise in the table and to offload him is surely not in the current plans of the former West Ham manager. If Newcastle tie Ba down to a long term contract and he produces another dazzling season, the offers that the club could receive for him this time next year could triple from his release clause value.

Will Ba stay in the North East? Bleat me on Twitter @mattpegg1

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Steven Gerrard has praised Liverpool team-mate Lucas Leiva and stated that the addition of a number of midfielders will not impact upon the South American’s chances of a starting place at the Anfield club.

The Brazilian has had an up and down time in England, winning over fans in 2010/11 after an inconsistent start to his career on Merseyside.

Kenny Dalglish has added Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson to his squad, and Italian international Alberto Aquilani has returned to the outfit following a loan spell at Juventus. Despite this, the England international feels the added competition for starting places will help the 24-year-old improve.

“He has a strong, positive mentality. I’ve seen all the difficulties he’s been through. He has basically rolled his sleeves up, worked hard and improved,” Gerrard told Sky Sports.

“He has got stronger in the gym and has never let his head go down. He’s been prepared to fight to prove a lot of people wrong and was consistently one of our best players last season,” the 31-year-old concluded.

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Leiva joined The Reds from Gremio in 2007, and is currently on international duty at the Copa America.

If you ask a group of football fans what annoys them the most about the modern game, there is a good chance that a many of them will say ‘diving’, or as the FA so harmlessly put it ‘simulation’. It is arguably the scourge of the world game, but what can be done about it?

Let me tell you about an incident from Italy. On the 24th of October this year, Juventus were playing away at Bologna and in the 34th minute of the game Serbian midfielder Milos Krasic won a penalty. Vincenzo Iaquinta missed the spot-kick, but the controversy after the game surrounded the way in which the penalty was won. It was clear from video evidence that Krasic had dived, and two days later the Italian FA gave the player a two week ban for ‘unsporting behaviour’, the sixth such ban issued by the FIGC.

Many who have just read the above story will have breathed a sigh of relief, happy that somebody is trying to tackle this problem. But equally, many will see the problems that this raises. A ‘dive’ is hard to define and where do you draw the line? One man’s dive is another man’s foul and when running at speed it can only a take a small touch to knock you off balance. Has a player dived if he jumps out of the way of a knee high two-footed challenge? The game has evolved so much that it is hard to define exactly what a foul is.

Marouane Chamakh won a penalty for Arsenal against Birmingham last month and his description of the event blurred the lines even further. “There was definitely a contact – the Birmingham defender touched me and then it was all about the ref, to give it or not. If they think it is not a penalty then they can be disappointed but for me I was definitely touched and I fell because I was touched otherwise I wouldn’t have fallen down in the area…But for me it was definitely a penalty”. This quote tells us two things about the mentality of the modern game. Firstly that a ‘touch’ is the same as a foul, and secondly that a referee’s decision can justify the means. So is a dive an incident where there has been no contact at all or where there has been an overreaction to the amount of contact received?

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When UEFA tried to take a stand on cheating players by banning Eduardo for his dive to win a penalty against Celtic it was refreshing to see an instance where a governing body was actively trying to clean up the game. But after all the fuss the ban was over-turned when Arsenal appealed and produced a video of the incident where they could prove that there was ‘contact’. I imagine UEFA would have watched a video of the penalty decision before they handed out the ban, so if they didn’t know what they classed as a dive, so how could anybody else?

If the Premier League were to introduce retrospective bans for diving they would need a crystal clear set of guidelines regarding what they would issue punishments for, otherwise each decision would result in a farcically drawn out appeal process.

The idea of such a ‘Simulation Panel’ wouldn’t be to hand out fines or bans, but to act as a deterrent to players who cheat to gain an advantage. But if a player wins a decisive penalty through deception in the last minute of a game will he be booed by his own fans or criticised by his manager? Of course not. There is too much money involved in football nowadays, if a player ‘does his job’ and helps his team win the game, he knows that he will always have the backing of his club should the FA intervene.

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I consider myself a football traditionalist and seeing players go down easily and feign injury really winds me up, so retrospective bans for diving is a fine concept, but one impossible to enforce. Has a ball gone over the line? It either has or hasn’t, it’s black or white. Whether a player has dived or not is the opinion of an individual and arguments could usually be made for both sides. Diving ruins the integrity of football, but unless players start to take responsibility it appears that little can be done.