The Offside Daily: Chelsea Star slams Savage criticism, German offices raided in payment probe and Aston Villa’s Garde gaffe

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1. Chelsea captain John Terry has launched an impassioned defence of manager Jose Mourinho and slammed former Wales midfielder Robbie Savage for, in Terry’s words having ‘dug me out a couple of time’ with criticisms.

2. Louis van Gaal has turned Manchester United into a side of ‘robots’ and is not good enough to succeed at the club, according to the club’s former player Andrei Kanchelskis.

3. The corruption crisis surrounding Germany’s 2006 World Cup has reached new heights after authorities launched raids on the country’s football federation (DFB) and private residences.

4. Pep Guardiola expects Arsenal to come out fighting in their Champions League clash at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday night, with the Catalan expecting the Gunners to utilise Olivier Giroud much more this time out.

5. Former England and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has admitted that he may retire from football next year after LA Galaxy’s campaign ended in disappointment having been knocked out of the playoffs by the Seattle Sounders

6. Everybody’s favourite Teddy is set to make a staggering playing return to professional football (BBC Sport).

7. Let us all hope for Aston Villa’s sake that their new manager gets off to a better start than their media team did in unveiling him to the world on Twitter – a horrible gaffe here from them (The Daily Mirror).

8. Imagine a referee at your local club making this decision – we’ve heard a fair bit about Italian referees in these posts recently but this guy tops the list at the moment for sure (ESPN).

9. Mike Dean got a bit carried away after Spurs scored a very early opener in their clash with Aston Villa last night (Joe.co.uk)

10. It didn’t get much better for Villa as their man, Gabriel Agbonlahor was criticised at half-time by the Sky Sports Monday Night Football panel, with interesting results (SportsJoe).