Sports
Sokratis Papastathopoulous promises to bring back old-school, hard-as-nails defending at Arsenal
Sokratis Papastathopoulous has promised to bring back some old-school, hard-as-nails defending to Arsenal.
Which will be music to the ears of the Gunners fans who have grown frustrated at their side’s flakiness at the back in recent years.
Last season, they shipped 51 goals — 24 more than Premier League champions Manchester City, 12 more than seventh-placed Burnley and four more even than Newcastle, who finished 12th.
In all competitions they conceded a whopping 76 times.
Sokratis knows that has to change if his new side are to stand any chance of a top-four finish this season.
And the former Borussia Dortmund star, who cost £17.6million, hopes the Spartan spirit he’ll bring will help them shore things up.
The 30-year-old, who is also known as Papa to his team-mates, said: “I am here to show I am first a defender and after that comes everything else.
“Of course you have to know how to play with the ball, in the last five or six years football has changed a lot.
“A lot of coaches and a lot of teams now look at only how to play, not how to defend.
“But with the new coach we work also on the situations when we don’t have the ball and this is very important.
“On the first day, the coach worked on this.
“With him, all the players work on tactics, we look a lot at videos, what was wrong, what we have to do better.
“I think and hope this year things at the back will be much better.”
Sokratis cut his teeth at AEK Athens before moving to Genoa then AC Milan.
Paolo Maldini was the defender he most looked up to in his early days in Italy, although he’d left the San Siro by the time Sokratis arrived.
Still, Alessandro Nesta and Thiago Silva were there to teach him well.
Sokratis added: “My first step was in Italy and Maldini was a great player.
“I played with Nesta, that was one big school for me.
“Also with Thiago Silva, great players to learn from — they were defenders who were defenders first.
“I learned a lot and now I am ready to give what I know.”
Arsenal were reluctant to sign or hand new long-term deals to players over 30 during Arsene Wenger’s time at the club but Sokratis insists he is in his prime.
He said: “Thirty is the best age for a defender, so for the next three or four years I would like to give everything for the team.
“With Borussia, with Milan, with Genoa, for 10 years now I have been outside Greece and I have experience.
“I feel very good and I’m working on the pitch and also off the pitch to help all the young guys to be very good with us.”
It was at Dortmund that Sokratis played under Jurgen Klopp and with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
He added: “Klopp was a very good coach.
“Out on the pitch his mentality is to win, off it he was very friendly with the players and I’m very happy I had two years with him.
“Auba and Mikki were very important in me joining Arsenal.
“It is like something more than friends.
“We were together in Borussia and they are both very good players.
“They were a good part of my decision to come here.”
The Chairman of Agbele Sporting, Hon. Ponmile Omidiji, has rejoiced with and extended warm felicitations to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Remo Stars Football Club, Hon. Kunle Soname, on the occasion of his birthday.
This was contained in a statement personally signed by Omidiji and made available to journalists in Ibadan on Sunday.
The statement reads: “It is my greatest pleasure to felicitate with you, the man of the masses and a philanthropist par excellence, on your day of birth.
“You are a morale booster and a great motivator to this generation. You always utilise any position you occupy for the benefit of others. Indubitably, you are a good man and worthy of emulation,” he added.
Omidiji also seized the opportunity to commend Hon. Soname’s contributions and tireless efforts towards the development of football in Nigeria and beyond, noting that such commitment is truly appreciated.
He offered heartfelt prayers for the celebrant, praying that Almighty God would continue to bless and protect him, that God’s grace would abound in his life, and that all his concerns would be firmly in God’s hands. He further wished that the world would always be kind to him.
Christian Chukwu, former captain and head coach of Nigeria’s national football team, the Super Eagles, has died at the age of 74.
The football icon passed away in the early hours of Saturday, though the exact circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear at the time of reporting.
The news of his demise was confirmed by his longtime friend and teammate, Chief Olusegun Odegbami, who spoke to Channels Television. Odegbami, who played alongside Chukwu in Nigeria’s triumphant 1980 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) squad, expressed deep sorrow over the loss.
“I just received the news that between 9:00 and 10:00 this morning, ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu, MFR, my bosom friend and teammate, one of the greatest football players in Nigeria’s history, has passed on,” said Odegbami.
“Babuje, Emmanuel Okala, MON, gave me the sad news a few minutes ago. May ‘Onyim’ find peace with Our Creator in Heaven and console his family,” he added.
Born on 4 January 1951 in Enugu, Chukwu carved a legendary career in Nigerian football, notably captaining Enugu Rangers to numerous domestic triumphs and leading them to continental glory in 1977 with victory in the now-defunct African Cup Winners’ Cup.
He made history in 1980 as the first Nigerian captain to lift the African Nations Cup trophy following a 3–0 win over Algeria in the final held in Lagos.
Chukwu went on to contribute to Nigeria’s football success off the pitch, serving as assistant to Dutch tactician Clemens Westerhof during the Super Eagles’ victorious 1994 AFCON campaign and their debut appearance at the FIFA World Cup the same year.
As head coach, Chukwu led the Super Eagles to a third-place finish at the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia. His tenure as national coach lasted from 2002 to 2005, ending during the qualification phase for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
Nicknamed “Chairman” for his commanding presence on and off the pitch, Chukwu also played a role in Nigeria’s youth football development, working as assistant coach during the 1985 FIFA U-16 World Cup, which Nigeria won in China.
In 2019, he battled prostate cancer, which affected his mobility. A public appeal for support was launched, and Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola stepped in to cover his overseas medical expenses, reportedly donating $50,000 for his treatment.
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim believes Marcus Rashford was unable to see football “the way I see it” before the unwanted England striker was shipped out of Old Trafford.
The 27-year-old Rashford fell dramatically out of favour with the Portuguese boss and spent seven weeks on the sidelines until he was loaned to Premier League rivals Aston Villa during the transfer window.
“I couldn’t put Marcus to see the way you’re supposed to play football and to train the way I see it,” Amorim said on Thursday.
“And sometimes you have one player that is really good with one coach, and the same player with another coach is different.
“I just wish the best to Rashford and to (Aston Villa coach) Unai Emery, and they can connect because he’s a very good player.”
Amorim, whose team face Leicester in the FA Cup fourth round on Friday, said his focus now is on turning around a wretched season.
“Guys, in the summer… like we said before, we are fighting for our jobs until the summer,” he said.
“So, I am just focused on these games. Thankfully about Marcus he is in Birmingham now with Unai, so you can take these questions to another coach. We are just focused on our players at the moment.”
