Derby County came very close to reaching the Premier League last season. Steve McLaren did a decent job with the resources at its disposal. Yet, he ended up leaving the club last season.
Derby County youngster Max Lowe believes that he will get much more first-team opportunities under the regime of Paul Clement.
The former Real Madrid assistant manager was appointed as the replacement for Steve McClaren, who was sacked at the end of last season. Derby looked like returning to the Premier League even via the automatic places for much of the campaign, but a run of just three wins in the final few months of the season saw them miss out even on a play-off place. McLaren has paid for this form with his job and he has since taken over at Newcastle United.
Mark Hughes signed a 4 year long contract with Stoke City and wants his team to finish in the top 10
The 51 year old manager of Stoke City, Mark Hughes extended his contract with the Premier League after penning a new deal which will keep the Welsh manager at the club for 4 more years. In March of the current year Hughes agreed to stay as the head coach of Stoke City at least until the summer of 2019.
Hull City manager Steve Bruce has complained that midfielder Stephen Ireland should have been sent off for his challenge on defender Maynor Figueroa.
The latter suffered an injury in the recent 1-0 defeat against Stoke City. More than the result, Bruce is left contemplating about the fitness of one of its important players because of what he feels is a very harsh challenge from Ireland. The former Aston Villa and Manchester City midfielder has been a regular feature of this Stoke City team, which has been trying to shake off its physical image under Mark Hughes.
The Aston Villa defender Alan Hutton has hailed Roy Keane for the positive influence he had on the club for the small period of time that he was there.
Keane was added to the management team of Villa just before the start of the season, but, he could not hang on to his position even for the whole season and the previous week, he announced that he had parted ways with the club.
The reason that Keane gave to the media and to the Villa fans for his exit was that he wanted to concentrate on his other job i.e. of the assistant manager of the Ireland national team.
The presence of Stephen Ireland was unable to prevent Stoke City from suffering a fourth consecutive loss in the league.
The Irish attacking midfielder of Stoke City, Stephen Ireland has completed his recovery from the rib injury that he sustained at the beginning of the season which forced the player on only being able to make 1 Premier League appearance for Stoke City out of the 6 League matches which have been played so far.
Stephen Ireland made a total of 25 appearances in the last season for his club as he was an important for Stoke City and Mark Hughes is hoping that now that he is recovered, his return to the squad can ignite the season of Stoke.
Stephen Ireland has said that his stint at his previous club Aston Villa was nightmarish.
Ireland left Villa to join Stoke in January this year. He just made 47 top tier appearances for the Lions scoring a solitary goal which came against Chelsea in the 2011-12 Season.
Before signing for Stoke permanently, Ireland had spent a few months there on loan.
Stoke City boss Mark Hughes has revealed that he is still not happy with his squad and wants to sign a couple of players before the end of the transfer window. Stoke have been one of the two clubs so far in this summer transfer window after signing the likes of Steve Sidwell and Phil Bardsley on free transfers. Hughes has been trying to work within the budget. Since players like Sidwell have come on a free transfer, he will be having funds to spend before the end of the summer transfer window.
The manager of the Republic of Ireland football team, Martin O’Neill, has said that if Stephen Ireland wants to bring himself back into consideration for a place in the national squad, he will have to get in touch with him at some point of time next month.
O’Neill is not at all impressed with the fact that Ireland is not responding to the phone calls made to him.