Mourinho: Chelsea will not buy a striker in January

The Portuguese says there is no truth in the reports that he recently held a meeting over a move for Jackson Martinez, and also hit out at on-loan forward Romelu Lukaku

Jose Mourinho has dismissed reports linking Chelsea with Porto hitman Jackson Martinez, and insisted the Blues will not buy any striker in January.

Rumours originating in Portugal and picked up in England suggested that Martinez's agent was in London earlier this week to hold talks about a move to Stamford Bridge.

But Mourinho has refuted the notion, and went on to say that there were no plans to improve the club's front line despite recent injuries to Fernando Torres and Samuel Eto'o.

"The Porto striker? What I read a couple of days ago that his agent was meeting me in London is not true," he told the press.

"In the January market we won't buy any striker, we'll go to the end of the season with Fernando, Samuel and Demba Ba."

Mourinho also hit out at Romelu Lukaku, on loan at Everton from Chelsea, after the striker had claimed he has had no contact with Mourinho.

"Romelu likes to speak," he continued. "The only thing he didn't say is why he went to Everton on loan.

"The last thing I said to him was, 'Why do you never say why you are not here [at Chelsea]?' It is something he should think about, why he is not with us."

The manager also confirmed that Eto'o and David Luiz will miss Sunday's match against Southampton at Stamford Bridge.

Sony PS4 wins over Microsoft Xbox One

Though it has not been released yet, but stage has already revealed the winner in attracting the new generation. The PlayStation 4 or PS4!

Microsoft’s Xbox One is already released yet it has comparatively failed to get noticed by the ‘smartphone’ generation.

The Japanese giant Sony is releasing much awaited PS4, could be the biggest release in the gaming industry.

Setting aside all the technical details, the simple objective of this writing is to analyse the communication campaign of both the companies to get big chunk of the youths across the world.

Xbox One – The Living Room Experience to ‘Invitation’

With its multiple functions and features, its a more ‘The Living Room Experience.’ Facial and voice recognition- enabled, Kinect camera, TV adaptation and some other features make it a family-oriented product.

Same thing was adopted in the campaign, resulting in lesser interest from the primary target audience, ‘Gamers.’

The anger from gamers over some Xbox One functions compelled Microsoft to reconsider its strategy.

The revitalization comes in form of ‘Invitation’ to get the attention of young generation and gamers. The series feature is a series of characters from video games taking everyday people from their average lives.

“The ad resonates as a machine that everyone has a right to play, young or old. The same message is given in recent times with brands like Apple and Google,” VoxBurner reports.

‘This Is For The Players’ – PS4 comes with Pure Gaming Experience

PS4 totally comes with pure gaming experience focusing the core gaming community. Even Sony has ignored the introduction of camera with face and voice recognition features.

Vox Burner states: “One of PlayStation 4’s most advertised features is recording video clips of the game being played – sharing the best scores from EA Sports or the best tactics in other games has always been popular. From its announcement, ads have always been about the games. So, what’s Sony’s last message before launch?”

In short, Sony grabs the attention of young gamers and pure gamers. Microsoft grabs attention of ‘all but none.’

- See more at: http://www.thetechnotribe.com/story/4174/sony-ps4-wins-over-microsoft-xbox-one-at-least-in-communication-campaign/#sthash.ZgvD3I0s.dpuf

Beckenbauer: Ribery should win Ballon d’Or but Ronaldo will

Germany legend Franz Beckenbauer has tipped Cristiano Ronaldo to win the upcoming Ballon d'Or, despite believing Franck Ribery is more deserving of the award.

The Frenchman's performances for Bayern Munich, who lifted the treble under Jupp Heynckes last season and have looked in fine form under new coach Pep Guardiola this campaign, has earned him plenty of plaudits and he is a frontrunner ahead of January's gala.

And though Beckenbauer thinks that Ribery should follow in Lionel Messi's footsteps as the Ballon d'Or winner, he says that Real Madrid forward Ronaldo will be a tough competitor to overcome.

'Normally Ribery would have to win this time but nothing is normal in these votes,' Beckenbauer, who won the Ballon d'Or in 1972 and 1976, told Sky Germany.

'Ronaldo has put everything in one basket, he has all the ambition and characteristics to win the Ballon d'Or. Although Ribery has been the best throughout the year, it would not surprise me if in the end Ronaldo wins it.'

The Ballon d'Or award ceremony takes place on January 13.

Cruyff: Barcelona haven’t changed their style

Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff believes that the Catalan giants have not changed their style since the arrival of Tata Martino this summer.The Blaugrana have come in for heavy criticism for their direct approach this term, and lost 2-1 to Ajax in the Champions League on Tuesday.However, Cruyff does not think that Barca have changed, and is bemused as to how their old approach is no longer paying dividends.'Barca must wonder why things that worked well before are not doing so now,' he told reporters.'The discussion over their playing style? This is a long debate and here they have not changed anything,

but I will not go into that because these are conversations for the bar.'The 66-year-old also believes the team is suffering without Lionel Messi, among others, but that the defeat to the Dutch champions is nothing to worry about in the grand scheme of things.'Barca were not only missing Messi, but also many other players, and their pace was very slow,' he added.'But Barca do not have to worry about this. When a team play well, dominate and create chances, as Ajax have here, they will usually win

Ronaldo’s the best guy in the world to work with’ Scolari

Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo is the 'best guy in the world' with whom to work, according to Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari.

The 28-year-old has often been criticised by some for his attitude but Felipao, who handed Ronaldo his international debut for Portugal in 2003, says that it is a total misconception.

'Everybody speaks nonsense about Cristiano,' he told reporters. 'They say he is this or that but, for me, he is the best guy in the world to work with.

'He's always ready, always trying his best and is always looking to try something different. He works as hard as anyone.

'People complain because he puts gel in his hair, that he is cute or a womaniser. They say he is vain because he puts cream on his legs after a game. Just leave him alone and let him do what he does best.'

On the topic of vanity, Scolari says that, when you are at such an elite level, such as the Brazil squad, it is always going to play a part.

'There is vanity among players,' the former Chelsea boss continued. 'They know they are one of only 23 players selected out of 10,000 or 20,000 so it's going to happen.'

German jobs market treads water, unemployment edging up in November

The number of jobless Germans rose by about 5,000 people in November, inching up to a total of 2.806 million, according to latest figures released by the German Labor Agency (BA) on Thursday.

In figures adjusted for seasonal variations, unemployment even climbed by 10,000 to 2.98 million, which was the fourth monthly rise in a row, BA said. The jobless rate, however, had remained unchanged at 6.9 percent, it added.

Labor Agency Chief Frank-Jürgen Weise described the latest job market situation as being largely in line with developments over the past few months.

Both nominal and seasonally adjusted unemployment has steadily edged up in Germany in recent months on the back of just meager growth in the economy as a whole. Following near stagnation in the first three months of 2013, German gross domestic product (GDP) made strong gains of 0.7 percent in the second quarter, only to fall back to 0.3 percent between July and September.

On Thursday, the Labor Agency said the jobs market was marked by stagnation, in which new jobs weren't being created, while existing employment was relatively stable.

'For jobless people it's rather difficult to get a job at the moment,' BA Chief Weise said, adding that nine out of ten vacancies registered with the agency required vocational qualifications or a university degree. Jobs for low-skilled workers were virtually non-existent anymore, he said.

According to the BA data, demand for labor in Germany slumped by 20,000 vacancies to a total of 431,000 job offerings. Analysts believe, however, that job prospects in Germany will brighten next year as the economy is expected to climb out of its current weakness. Latest growth forecasts for 2014 see the rate of expansion in Europe's biggest economy to accelerate to about 1.4 percent.

Eurozone economic sentiment up again, but decelerating

November saw another brightening of the economic mood among executives and consumers in the 17-member eurozone, the European Commission's Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) showed Thursday.

The closely watched barometer rose for the eighth consecutive month to 98.5 from 97.7 points in October, and is now standing at its highest level since August 2011.

Despite the continued improvement, the EU executive issued the latest figures with a warning, saying the upward movement had decelerated noticeably over the past two months.

Sluggish growth

Economists also put the latest improvement in perspective. 'We would not see the better mood as a signal of a solid pick-up in the eurozone economy during the final quarter of this year,' Commerzbank analyst Christoph Weil commented.

Among the larger euro area nations, Germany gained 0.8 points in November, while Italy logged a 1.9-point improvement. By contrast, struggling France continued to lag, dropping 0.9 points in the ESI indicator.

The ESI release came after the European Central bank's decision earlier this month to cut interest rates to a historic low of 0.25 percent in an attempt to shore up the bloc's fragile economy, which grew only by a meager 0.1 percent in the third quarter.