Martinez: Barkley will become England's best ever player

The youngster has established himself as a regular for both club and country in recent months and his manager has no doubts about his ability to become a legend

Roberto Martinez believes 20-year-old Ross Barkley can become England’s best ever player.

The Everton midfielder has earned nine caps for the Three Lions since his debut against Moldova in 2013, and played in every match of the country’s 2014 World Cup campaign in Brazil.

And having firmly established himself as a regular at both club and international level Barkley has now been tipped by the Toffees boss to join the pantheon of England greats in the coming years.

"There is no doubt in my mind he will be the best player England has ever had," Martinez told reporters.

"Ross has everything. Normally a player has the pace and power to get around the pitch, or they have the vision to pick a pass.

"Ross can do both of those things. He is two-footed, he’s intelligent and he is also in love with the game.

"All he wants to do is play football. When we played in our first Europa League game this season he was gutted to be injured, because he was desperate to play."

Chelsea and Manchester City have both been linked with big-money moves for Barkley, but Martinez insists the club have no need to sell the midfielder, who he has labelled the "biggest asset Everton have ever had."

“The truth – and the key to his situation – is that we don’t have to sell," he added. "We don’t have to sell players to balance the books at Everton."

Jamal Shah takes a swipe at filmmaking

The film centralises the areas of Swat, Malakand, Peshawar and a few places in Islamabad. PHOTOS: PUBLICITY

ISLAMABAD: 

“I broke my sword in my brother’s heart, When the enemy came, I had nothing in my hands, When I was a green, shadowy tree, they invited flames,

When I burnt down to ashes, they called upon winds.” Penned by the famous Pashto poet Darvesh Durrani, these verses symbolise the mayhem that swept Swat about four decades ago. They are now part of the theme song of the upcoming Pakistani feature film Revenge of the Worthless, which is slated to release by March next year. Written, directed and produced by veteran artiste Jamal Shah, the film pays homage to the vibrant culture of Swat.

“It is of extreme relevance, keeping in mind both national and international audiences,” Shah tells The Express Tribune about the film, which is his first-ever attempt at filmmaking. “The film is about the prevailing intolerance in Pakistan and the way our cultural narrative has been brutalised and defaced. It defends our cultural narrative,” he shares. He explains that the film is loosely based on a few true events of the recent past and characters, but comprises the element of fiction.

Shot entirely on location in red epic digital format, the film centralises the areas of Swat, Malakand, Peshawar and a few places in Islamabad. Speaking about filming in tough terrains, Shah says he wanted to choose authentic locations, such as Piyochar, something he hopes will pivot international audiences’ attention towards the panoramic beauty of Pakistan. “Apart from cultural, sociological and political relevance, the film will also promote tourism in a way because it is also about the beauty of Swat and its culture, people and their struggle,” he comments.

Shah’s training in and flair for art will be evident in the way the film has been shot. “The art department [of the film] has done a great job. There is a 200-year-old mosque in Piyochar, which a brick wall was built around a few years ago,” he shares. “Our department transformed its walls using textures and colours to create the desired effect. I think that will look good on the screen.”

“I had seen Swat so many times but when I saw it this time, I really fell in love with it. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world,” states Shah, adding that the film also highlights the Gandhara heritage and its archaeological sites. Swat, he says, is different from the rest of the Pashtun belt, as its people are more inclined towards arts and crafts, writing and other mediums of artistic expression.

Shah shares that the film’s protagonists are unsung commoners, who have sacrificed in the name of safeguarding their homeland. “It’s about them and their struggle of safeguarding their culture and in the larger context, Pakistan,” he comments. Sharing the research that went into making the film, Shah says that because of his interest in the political economy of the area, he had been exploring various aspects of its culture. Besides that, he also made a few visits with the purpose of location scouting and interacting with locals for first-hand accounts.

“We shot the film in areas that used to be the stronghold of militants. Let’s say Piyochar was [their] den… the main headquarters. We filmed in beautiful places and recorded history,” states Shah, who along with his team shot in stupas and actual hujras. Interestingly, they have also shot scenes in the hujra of the Pashtun legend Adam Khan Durkhanai in his village, which is still intact. Currently in its post-production phase, the film’s cast includes students from Shah’s Hunerkada College of Visual and Performing Arts

Uncertain: Google Glass future clouded

SAN FRANCISCO: After two years of popping up at high-profile events sporting Google Glass, the gadget that transforms eyeglasses into spy-movie worthy technology, Google co-founder Sergey Brin sauntered bare-faced into a Silicon Valley red-carpet event on Sunday.

He had left his pair in the car, Brin told a reporter. The Googler, who heads up the top-secret lab which developed Glass, has hardly given up on the product – he recently wore his pair to the beach.

But Brin’s timing is not propitious, coming as many developers and early Glass users are losing interest in the much-hyped, $1,500 test version of the product: a camera, processor and stamp-sized computer screen mounted to the edge of eyeglass frames. Google Inc itself has pushed back the Glass roll out to the mass market.

While Glass may find some specialised, even lucrative, uses in the workplace, its prospects of becoming a consumer hit in the near future are slim, many developers say.

Plenty of larger developers remain with Glass. The nearly 100 apps on the official website include Facebook and OpenTable, although one major player recently defected: Twitter.

“If there was 200 million Google Glasses sold, it would be a different perspective. There’s no market at this point,” said Tom Frencel, the Chief Executive of Little Guy Games, which put development of a Glass game on hold this year and is looking at other platforms, including the Facebook Inc-owned virtual-reality goggles Oculus Rift.

Google insists it is committed to Glass, with hundreds of engineers and executives working on it.

Glass was the first project to emerge from Google’s X division, the secretive group tasked with developing “moonshot” products such as self-driving cars. Glass and wearable devices overall amount to a new technology, as smartphones once were, that will likely take time to evolve into a product that clicks with consumers.

Meanwhile, after an initial burst of enthusiasm, signs that consumers are giving up on Glass have been building.

Google dubbed the first set of several thousand Glass users as “Explorers.” But as the Explorers hit the streets, they drew stares and jokes. Some people viewed the device, capable of surreptitious video recording, as an obnoxious privacy intrusion, deriding the once-proud Explorers as “Glassholes.”

“It looks super nerdy,” said Shvetank Shah, a Washington, DC-based consultant, whose Google Glass now gathers dust in a drawer. “I’m a card carrying nerd, but this was one card too many.”

Glass now sells on eBay for as little as half list price.

Some developers recently have felt unsupported by investors and, at times, Google itself.

Microsoft introduces app-less Skype

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft on Friday released a test version of Skype that lets people make Internet calls from web browsers, eliminating the need to install special applications.

“It’s perfect if you prefer using the web rather than an app: perhaps you’re sitting at a computer that doesn’t already have Skype downloaded,” said Microsoft in a blog post.

“Or maybe you’re on the go and using an Internet cafe or hotel computer whilst on vacation where you can’t download Skype at all.”

Skype for Web will be available to a small number of existing users at first and will be rolled out globally in the coming months, according to Microsoft.

Skype is used every day for more than two billion minutes of voice and video calling on the Internet, said the US technology titan.

Skype was launched in August 2003 by two Scandinavian technology entrepreneurs, Niklas Zennstroem of Sweden and Janus Friis of Denmark, who expanded on existing peer-to-peer networking technologies.

Skype, which allows its online users to make high-quality calls to each other anywhere in the world for free, quickly took off, bringing the world closer together in an age when globalisation and intercontinental travel pulled more families apart than at perhaps any other time in history.

Skype was made available through free applications tailored for computers, smartphones, tablets and smart televisions. US software maker Microsoft bought Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion and built the service into Xbox One video game consoles.

Maersk Ready To Invest In Oil Fields

Chief Executive Nils Smedegaard Andersen made the following comments in a conference call with Danish media:

ABOUT OVERALL DEVELOPMENT:

“We are very pleased with the results. It is better than what we have hoped for and cash flow is so strong we feel further confirmed that we are very well prepared for future competition.”

ABOUT FALLING OIL PRICES:

“In general, in times with tougher competition and pressure on competitors’ earnings, opportunities to buy assets may arise. This could for instance be an oil field. We think it is cheaper to buy oil fields than to undertake exploration. That’s why we have reduced oil exploration. In addition other options could come up such as investment opportunities in ports as we are always looking for.”

Image for Representation Purpose only; Credits: maerskdrilling.com

“Some oil projects are more challenged than others. Challenged means that we need to talk to government partners and work very closely with suppliers. There is for example the deepwater Chissonga project in Angola. It’s just a fact that there are relatively high production costs and projects like this is challenged by oil price of $80.”

“We only want to go on with the projects if we feel comfortable in having a limited risk and if we are likely to get a reasonable return from investment.”

“We have for some time expected the oil price to go down to $80 to $90 dollar per barrel and it is also a level that we see as reasonable – both for the oil industry and the transportation industry.”

ABOUT MAERSK LINE:

“Our strong earnings in Maersk Line means that we are among those who can continue with a high level of investment – even in difficult times. It means that we can continue to modernise our fleet, invest in more fuel-efficient ships, focus on customer service and focus on the long-term.”

(Reporting by Ole Mikkelsen; editing by Sabina Zawadzki)

Revealed: Cristiano Ronaldo's obscene nickname for Lionel Messi in the Real Madrid dressing room

For as long as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are in competition their relationship will be marked by their battle for the same space, that small, distant space in which the truly greats live. But how do they get on? What do they say to each other when they meet? And when they are not in the spotlight?

At the 2013 Ballon d’Or gala, Ruud Gullit thought he noticed "a strange relationship between Cristiano and Messi; they barely say hello to one another". The relationship, in the presence of others, is cold. It is not bad; it is respectful but distant. They do not hate each other, as some people might believe, say the families of both. Conversation does not usually go beyond "hello, how are you, everything okay?" At public events, Messi is always surrounded by his own crew, or with Xavi and Iniesta, whereas Ronaldo usually shows up on his own, even though mixing with people he does not know intimidates him.

Diego Torres relates an anecdote that confirms the two stars’ diplomacy in his book Prepárense para perder (‘Prepare for Defeat’). It happened at the Ballon d’Or 2012, the day Real Madrid President Florentino Pérez feared for the first time, according to Torres, that Ronaldo could end up at Barcelona.

Andrés Iniesta, Pep Guardiola and Vicente del Bosque were witnesses to the following: "On 7 January 2013, the president found himself in an isolated corner of a hall in the Kongresshaus Zürich, keeping an eye on Messi while he was being interviewed on television. Cristiano suddenly appeared at the other side of the hall. Then, exactly what the president had feared occurred. Messi called him over, Cristiano went, and they hugged just like children. Pérez confessed to his friends that he watched the scene in anguish. He felt danger. He could visualise everything. Cristiano would be free in January 2015 and then any club, Barcelona included, would be able to sign him without negotiating with Real Madrid."

Messi and Ronaldo are not friends but they are polite to one another in public; anything else, those who are close to them insist, is all media-generated.

Messi admires Cristiano’s shooting and heading ability but is tired of comparisons between the two of them. He understands that Ronaldo is not comfortable about it either, and has watched without the slightest pleasure his supposed arch-enemy responding with anger to the public pestering from those who like to see them fighting. Ronaldo, who will take part in a commercial with Leo for the first time to promote the Google Nexus 11 tablet, does not think that they can be compared: "Messi and I are as different as Ferrari and Porsche."

Ronaldo, perhaps as a symptom of the immaturity that marks so many footballers, thinks it necessary to put on a brave face in front of his team-mates, not be scared of Messi and to rise to the challenge. All very macho; all very false.

And that is why, according to some Real Madrid players, CR7 has a nickname for him: ‘motherf----r’; and if he sees someone from the club speaking to Leo, he also ends up being baptised ‘motherf----r’.

^{Ronaldo's outrageous scoring record by numbers}

In that environment, Ronaldo usually compares their relationship with that between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. And the Madrid players, with their less than subtle dressing-room sense of humour, have a long list of jokes that include Messi as Ronaldo’s dog or puppet, or kept in a designer handbag belonging to the Portuguese player. And much worse.

Ronaldo fits the Real Madrid business plan and their search forgalácticos. Messi fits the more romantic image that Barcelona portrays. That is why Barça cannot imagine selling their flagship footballer: if the club behaved like a business, Leo would be sold at his peak, when the highest transfer fee could be obtained. If a romantic idea is followed, Messi will not be allowed to leave until he decides to go to Newell’s, on his last legs
.

Chelsea willing to listen to Ramires offers

EXCLUSIVE: The Blues could be prepared to sell the Brazilian as early as January should a replacement be found, with Real Madrid understood to be among those interested

By Wayne Veysey

Chelsea are willing to listen to offers for Ramires and could be prepared to sell him in January.

Jose Mourinho has told Stamford Bridge chiefs that he would be prepared for the Brazilian to leave if a proven midfield replacement can be found.

Spanish clubs, led by Real Madrid, are understood to be monitoring Ramires' situation closely.

The 27-year-old has struggled with injury and poor form this season, starting just three of the team's 16 matches in all competitions.

He has been overlooked in favour of Premier League ever-presents Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas for the central midfield slots and has had to fight with the likes of Eden Hazard, Oscar, Willian and Andre Schurrle for an attacking midfield position.

• General

  Games Played

  6

  Minutes Played

  279

  Starts

  3

  Interceptions

  1

  Substitution On

  3

  Substitution Off

  2

  Duels Won

  30.4%

  30.4%

  Aerial duels won

  0%

  0%

Ramires's contract expires in 2017 and, if he does not extend next year, Chelsea would regard it as a good time to cash in on a player signed from Benfica in January 2010.

Since returning to Stamford Bridge last season for his second spell at the helm, Mourinho has been ruthless in discarding high-profile players whom he does not regard as automatic starters.

Juan Mata, David Luiz and Romelu Lukaku are among the big names to have been sold on for considerable profit, while the likes of Fernando Torres, Demba Ba, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Kevin De Bruyne have also been shown the exit door.

Speaking about Ramires last week, Mourinho said that he was pleased to have the Brazilian available again.

"Ramires is very important to us," the manager observed. "He is good tactically and can play in multiple positions with the same intensity.

"He's a dangerous guy when attacking and has a good defensive transition. He has a fantastic engine when pressing and that is important to us. The balance between the technical players like Ramires and the athletes is important."