CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Manchester City – Juan Veron

According to Argentina sports media, Manchester City showed serious interest in Estudiantes de La Plata midfielder Juan Veron. They are offering 11.2 million dollars for his services. The 34-year-old Veron who played in Premier League for Manchester United and Chelsea moved back to Argentina in 2006. Manchester City coach Roberto Mancini initiated this offer, knowing Veron both as a team-mate and the coach. The Argentine club is going through some difficult financial times and this could help them to deal with it.

Everton – Landon Donovan

LA Galaxy midfielder Landon Donovan is in England to start his 10 week loan to Everton. He is hoping this experience will help him in his preparation for this World Cup in South Africa. Hopefully this will go better then last year stint in the German Bundesliga with Bayern Munich. There were expectations to sign a contract with the team but nothing came out of that, despite Donovan’s good performance. His new team-mate and fellow country man goalie Tim Howard will sure try to give Donovan a helping hand. We wish him the best of luck.

Carling Cup – Heavy snow

The matches between Blackburn vs Aston Villa and Manchester City vs city rival Manchester United were postponed due to heavy snowfall. The first leg of Carling Cup semifinals will be played at a later date. England is experiencing one of the coldest winter in a century, with rare heavy snowfall. The teams fields were playable but the access to them and the sub-zero temperature made the officials cancel the matches.

Copa Del Rey – Barcelona

Barcelona’s fans witnessed a 2 – 1 loss tonight, when Barca’s B-team was beaten by Sevilla FC. Diego Capel opened the scoring in the 60th minute, but substitute Zlatan Ibrahimovic equalized 14 minutes later. That didn’t hold long. A minute later Sevilla was awarded a penalty kick and Alvaro Negredo gave his team the winning goal. It was the first leg of the Copa Del Rey round of 16. Barcelona who is the defending champion will travel to Sevilla next week for a return leg.

Manchester United – Nemanja Vidic

There are reports that Vidic and coach Alex Ferguson were in odds over Vidic’s withdraw from FA Cup match against Leeds. Vidic suffered an unexplained injury during the warm-up on which Ferguson declined to comment. Vidic denied any riff between him and Ferguson and insist he is happy at Old Trafford. But according to some media he is talking to his agent Silvano Martina about his future with the club. His contract runs till 2012 but he is seeking a salary raise equaling 48 thousand dollars a month. A hefty sum even for a team like Manchester United.