Owen Hargreaves has revealed his happiness at signing for Manchester City, and is looking to reignite his career at Eastlands after a torrid time at rivals United.
Roberto Mancini’s outfit captured the former England international on a free transfer on deadline day, and he is looking forward rather than back at an injury plagued time at Old Trafford.
“It’s difficult for people from the outside looking in. You would think ‘ there’s something gone wrong there, the guy’s made out of glass’. But anybody who knows me and knows the way I play, I take it very seriously and very professional,” he told City TV.
“So obviously I don’t think everybody had all the facts and a lot of things (injuries) happened that basically I wish wouldn’t of and it’s just a huge learning curve for myself and I would have never have anticipated I would ever find myself in that position.
“So I’m just happy that that chapter is behind me and I’m looking forward to just playing football and having fun, having a good time, joining in with the lads and competing again,” he continued.
Hargreaves has spent a long summer training to show his fitness to potential suitors, and feels the hard work has paid off.
“I basically spent all summer just training, proving to myself that I can work hard, that I can train and sustain the load that is demanded of a professional football player. I hadn’t made my mind up this summer, I just wanted to train hard and then see how it felt and I didn’t use an agent.
“It just kind of happened – I think in life you can’t chase things, you’ve just got to let things happen and that’s what it was and, you know, I’m looking forward to the future,” he concluded.
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Despite the signing, The Daily Mail indicate that Hargreaves will not be included in City’s European squad of 25, which is set to be named on Friday.
Tottenham’s efforts to sign Brazilian Striker Leandro Damiao could be foiled by Serie A giants Inter Milan according to talkSPORT.
Spurs were in talks with the player’s club Internacional during the summer but they failed to agree the reported £15m fee with officials. Damiao subsequently signed a new five year deal with the Brazilian club.
However, Spurs believe this was merely a ploy to drive up the price of any eventual deal for the player. Leandro Damiao was in London earlier this month as he bagged his first international goal for Brazil against Ghana in a friendly at Craven Cottage.
Now Inter have sounded out their interest in the Brazilian as they prepare to back new manager Claudio Ranieri in the January Transfer Window. Directors are thought to be very keen in bringing the 22-year-old to the San Siro.
In order to bring the forward to White Hart Lane, Harry Redknapp could be forced to sell Russian striker Roman Pavlyuchenko. Moscow rivals Lokomotiv and Spartak are said to be interested.
Redknapp is a long term admirer of Damiao. He’ll be hoping the club’s good relationship with Internacional following the transfer of Sandro last year will stand them in good stead.
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Still the lure of Inter Milan might prove too much for the Brazilian in the end.
Yet again this weekend the spotlight fell on the officials because of the decisions they made, especially involving red cards. It speaks volumes that in the modern game we are not surprised to be debating each weekend more than one contentious decision by a referee, usually in multiple games.
The number of red cards has dramatically risen in the last couple of years, going from an average of 45 per season since the Premier League began to in the last 5 years roughly 62 per season. The question of why this has happened must be considered – is it that players are now more reckless or indeed better at simulation to con the referee into handing out red cards like they are sweets, or is it that the officials have become increasingly happy in the last few seasons?
It seems to be a combination of both, with the influx of foreign players into the Premier League having a massive effect on the amount of simulation we see – it is now not a surprise to see players waving an imaginary card at the referee during the course of a game – and players will actively attempt to gain an advantage by getting opposition players sent off.
It is not just the Premier League in which this happens – European Champions Barcelona can certainly be accused of simulation, play acting and ‘persuading’ the referee to send players off – all Arsenal fans will remember the sending off of Van Persie which cost them the tie, and Real fans can offer a list as explosive as Balotelli let loose in a bathroom of players who received contentious red cards in Classicos.
This season in the Premier League however, has been unprecedented, with certainly more than a couple of dubious decisions made by referees. The sad fact is that during a big game where sides are closely matched, a sending off can ruin the game and heavily influence the outcome of the match – think back to Jack Rodwell’s red card in the Merseyside derby – clearly not a sending off, and despite being overturned on appeal, the damage was already done and arguably cost Everton at least a point out of the game.
Sunday alone saw the dismissal of Jonny Evans, Boswinga and Didier Drogba, and although Evans and Drogba can have little to complain about, Boswinga certainly has a case for unfair dismissal with Chelsea arguing that JT was in fact the last man, not Boswinga and it was not even a goal scoring opportunity but as Ray Wilkins put it ‘a race that was evenly matched’. Chelsea fans could certainly be forgiven for thinking that Chris Foy has a personal vendetta against them, with only Cech and Juan Mata spared from a booking during the game, and having once sent Robben off for celebrating a goal and now sending off four Chelsea players so far this season – Alex, Torres, Drogba and Boswinga.
Dubious decisions by officials is not a new phenomenon, we can all recall Roy Carroll scooping the ball out the back of the net when Spurs had clearly scored, yet no goal was given, or Garcia’s ‘ghost goal’ denying Chelsea a place in the Champions League final. Likewise red cards that should never have been – Rodwell springs to mind here, not to mention Villa’s Chris Herd, sent off this weekend in the midlands derby with Villa set to appeal, saying ‘it was clear he did nothing wrong.’ There have also been penalty decisions that were just downright wrong – all of which can heavily affect the outcome of matches, and cost teams places in finals and trophies they otherwise may have been able to win.
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The question over if it is time to introduce some sort of video technology will remain, and it seems that goal line technology is a must, yet video replays are more of a controversial suggestion. It is natural for human error to occur, and therefore surely technology may be able to help? Whilst fans and players can eventually accept a genuine mistake, they are less willing to accept referees who make mistakes time after time and border on incompetence – the issue of a declining standard of officiating is one that must be addressed, not just in England but throughout the game, and it does beg the question of if we should introduce technology into the game in some capacity to help officials in what is an increasingly hard game to referee.
Way back in April 2009 I asked the question…Are Spurs on the brink of a golden age? This was driven in the main by the Tottenham Under-16’s winning the Legnago Tournament in Italy in 2008. Beating Barcelona in the semi’s and Sporting Lisbon in the final, who probably have two of the best academies in Europe.
Now nobody expects the whole side from 2008 to be pulling up trees in the Tottenham first-team come 2011. Indeed, in an age where owners demand and managers need results. It would be foolhardy to expect Spurs to do this. Especially given the quality, that is flowing throughout the first-team squad at White Hart Lane this season. However, the Europa League has given Harry Redknapp the chance to have a look at some of the youngsters at his disposal. With one in particular standing head and shoulders above the others and that is Tom Carroll; the catalyst of Spurs’ triumph back in 2008.
One way to describe Carroll, would be, built like Luka Modric, plays like Luka Modric. Hefty praise maybe for someone, who has just played a handful of games for Tottenham? But I, like former Everton player Pat Nevin, believe young Tom has a real future in the game. Blessed with fantastic vision and great technical ability, Carroll has already developed an almost telepathic understanding with another youngster at the club in striker Harry Kane. The time the pair both spent on loan at Leyton Orient coinciding, with the League One club’s upturn in form towards the back end of last season, which almost saw Orient make the play-offs.
That said, Carroll is just one player as good as he may turn out to be. With Tottenham not really having any tradition of churning out good youngsters on a conveyer belt – Ledley King the only real quality player to come through the ranks in the past ten years or so and really establish himself at Spurs. Jake Livermore and Andros Townsend, who are currently putting a good case forward for regular first-team football, could be two more to make their mark at White Hart Lane.
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But what of the future beyond the likes of Carroll, Kane, Livermore and Townsend…….is there anyone else on the books, who could become a star? Perhaps? 18-year-old first-year professional Jesse Waller-Lassen looks a good prospect. An attacking-midfielder, who chips in with goals and has that ability to boss a game. Something he did on one of my jaunts to Spurs Lodge last December in a Premier League Academy game against Birmingham.
Three more to look out for are Australian central-midfielder Massimo Luongo aged 19, who joined the Academy last January and has already impressed enough to earn a pro contract and make his senior debut for Tottenham in the Carling Cup. Unfortunately missing the penalty, which saw Stoke go through. 16-year-old striker Souleymane Coulibaly from the Ivory Coast, could be a world beater. Arriving from Siena in the summer following his Golden Boot winning performance in the Under-17 World Cup. Nine goals in four matches, with four of those coming against Brazil. The diminutive forward has had no trouble finding the net in his debut for the Tottenham XI against Brighton in pre-season and in the NextGen youth Tournament against Inter Milan and PSV Eindhoven.
Last, but not least is Spaniard Cristian Ceballos, who arrived from Barcelona in the summer. An 18-year-old, who plays as an attacking-midfielder or forward, who is not really one of Spurs’ own. If he can get anywhere near emulating, what Cesc Fabregas did at Arsenal, he will make a lot of Tottenham fans very happy.
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It remains to be seen if any of the above make the grade at The Lane, but with a solid chairman in Levy, a great manager in Harry, a first-team squad full of quality throughout and a good bunch of kids starting to knock on the door. Along with a new stadium hopefully on the way. Is the future a bright one at Spurs?
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Wigan’s Paraguayan centre-half Antolin Alcaraz looks set to be handed a richly deserved three-match ban for spitting on Richard Stearman in Wolves 3-1 victory at the DW Stadium on Saturday. Many have correctly decried it as the act of a fool and a coward, but some of the vitriol going Alcaraz’s way has been a little on the, ‘fresh’ side shall we say, which begs the question, is spitting on an opponent really the worst thing you can do to a fellow professional?
This is what Wolves manager Mick McCarthy had to say on the incident, among other things, of course: “Personally, I’d rather have a smack in the mouth than be spat upon. It’s the worst thing that you can do to a fellow professional.”
Wolves skipper Roger Johnson continued the tirade with: “It’s the worst thing a footballer can do to a fellow professional. It’s dirty and he deserves everything he gets. It’s there for everyone to see – he spat on him. He’ll be regretting it now and he’s got to pay the consequences.”
May I first go on record as stating that spitting on another individual is despicable. Whether in a football match, out on a street or in an office, nobody should ever have to go through such a shameful ordeal. However, while not wishing to appear too trivial, spitting, while obviously hugely disrespectful, isn’t as bad as say, a broken leg or damaging your cruciate ligament. I don’t know about you, Mick, but I’d take a bit of phlegm over the excruciating agony of those two injuries any day of the week.
Spitting on someone is usually referred to, rather correctly may I add, as the ultimate form of showing someone disrespect. It indicates that the person is completely worthless, and while it’s far from being innocuous, it’s hardly the earth-shattering life-changing incident that it’s often made out to be.
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There is defintely no place in our game for something as low as spitting, much in the same way as there is no place for something as corrupt and dishonest as diving – I just fail to see the correlation between calling it out in the strongest terms possible and the deed at hand. It’s disproptionate to say the least. This skewed moral code by which the likes of Johnson and McCarthy appear to be adherring to – back ‘when men were men’ – seems a bit outdated.
Spitting on an opponent, if the player is found guilty, is often treated with a hefty fine and a three-game ban or more, whereas the likes of Alan Hutton’s horrendous challenge on West Brom’s Shane Long is still to go unpunished. The context of the matter is that far too often, we are treated to the usual defence of a player with the words ‘he’s not that sort of player’, when all evidence clearly points to the contrary.
How can a tackle such as Hutton’s escape the all-seeing, all-knowing FA, but the relatively meaningless spitting incident involving Alcaraz be dealt with in a turnaround of just three days? As usual, the FA have simply failed to get their priorities in order and remain little more than a governing body that reacts to incidents and stories rather than setting the tone themselves.
The lack of condemnation from Premier League managers about such tackles is quite frankly astonishing, displaying both a lack of decency and professionalism. They defend the indefensible. Yet the very same managers are out in force to denounce such a relatively harmless case of spitting. It’s certainly an upside down world that we live in.
Peter Schmeichel is said to have received therapy for a year after witnessing first hand David Busst’s leg shatter right before his very eyes in a 1996 match between Man Utd and Coventry. Would he have had to do the same thing if Dennis Irwin had spat in Busst’s hair a la Frank Rijkaard did to Rudi Voller at the 1990 World Cup? Doutbful.
Spitting is a terrible thing to do to a fellow professional, that much is clear, but applying the context from a purely physical perspective physical rather than mental one, then it’s nothing more than a case of making a mountain out of a molehill.
For his part, Wigan Chairman Dave Whelan seemed a lot closer to the mark stating:” That sort of behaviour has no place in football. It has no place in society. It is disgusting, a horrible thing to do and I was shocked. I’ll back whatever punishment the manager decides to impose. I cannot tolerate this sort of thing and it saddens me that a Wigan player is alleged to have done it. It is totally unacceptable.” See, no mock moral outrage, no over the top platitudes about how ‘things were better back in my day’, simply a strong condemnation of an intolerable action. No more than that.
If Richard Stearman, Mick McCarthy or Roger Johnson truly think that it’s ‘the worst thing that you can do to a fellow professional’, then they have led a charmed life so far. In the unlikely event that they require any counselling after what they witnessed, I suggest that they dial down the over the top rhetoric, and you know, man-up a bit.
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Before inevitably taking the post as England manager after Fabio Capello slumps more than he has ever slumped before this summer, Harry Redknapp has realistic title hopes to contend with; unless of course Jack Wilshere ’s positiveness acts as a catalyst for Wenger’s warriors to push on to a second half of the season surge. When the returning injured midfielder was asked if Arsenal could win the Premier League he replied with, “Why not?” To add to the credentials of his statement he also said of Wayne Rooney ’s match ban reduction, “his brain is miles ahead of most English players,” in a ringing endorsement to the average IQ of the England football team. In what just seems like a subtle, rivalry-induced, agenda against Tottenham Hotspur, he’s also plumped Wenger as direct competition for Redknapp, not only in the Premier League but for the England job, “[Wenger] and Sir Alex Ferguson are the best managers in the league and, if the boss at Arsenal wanted the job with England, I’d be delighted with that.”
However, if a North London club are to compete with Manchester City , and maybe Manchester United , I’d hedge my bets against Wilshere’s boyhood club and sit on the white side of the divide. Their run of late is admirable: before the weekend they sat in 3rd place with the potential to leapfrog Manchester United with their game in hand and were on a six game winning streak that was unmatched; their only defeaters sat above them. Tottenham fans will be hoping Stoke was a blip, in an otherwise brilliant run of results.
Looking at their January fixtures, you’d forgive Tottenham for thinking they could pick up near-maximum points: they play 4 of their 5 games that month at White Hart Lane and 3 of the teams currently occupy positions in the wrong half of the table. West Brom, Everton and Wolves are their first three games at the Lane and after an easy away day at The Etihad, they return to their home ground to knock five shades of blue and white into bottom-of-the-table Wigan Athletic. If on paper, their fixtures don’t look manageable enough for you, they have won 10 of their last 12 games and have already beaten 3 of the 4 teams they’ve already faced from their January calendar.
If getting knocked out of the European tournament that Harry Redknapp wasn’t fussed about in the first place, aided Tottenham in their quest for the English title they are fussed with, then they’ll be happy to see two of their title rivals drop into the said European tournament having been knocked out of the one Harry Redknapp is aiming for, too.
That would have satisfied old Harry Redknapp enough, seeing two of the Premier League big boys battle the likes of FC Metalist Kharkiv and PAOK Salonika in the quest for the Europa League accolade, but he’s been the beneficiary of a cruel twist of fate for his current closest competition, United, as well.
Losing 2-1 to FC Basel was hard enough for Manchester United fans to take and even harder for the, again, apologetic Sir Alex Ferguson, but losing Nemanja Vidic, who single-handedly makes United’s defence better (when the Serbian doesn’t play opposition’s shots on target increase by 70%) was a blow on an even larger scale. With Rio Ferdinand having a fluctuating season, again plagued by niggles, and United’s defence being a shadow of seasons gone, there’s a real threat that without a stop-gap signing in January, Spurs could be the sunny side of United before too long.
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The problem won’t be solved quickly either, Vidic looks set to see the rest of the season from the sidelines; if not a year.
A saving grace for United, that is more of a curse for Arsenal , Chelsea and Manchester City , is that they won’t be losing any pivotal players to the African Cup of Nations in January. As aforementioned, all of Spurs’ close rivals will do though; Chelsea lose Drogba and Kalou, Manchester City may lose their Toures and Arsenal will lose one of their brightest stars this season, Gervinho, as well as Morocco’s Chamakh. Tottenham don’t lose any of their African trio, with Adebayor retired and his country banned and Cameroon failing to qualify, leaving Assou-Ekotto and Bassong to play their football in the Premier League.
This is where Tottenham must capitalise; January is crucial, January is their’s to lose and January will be their making. Simply, Spurs must make the most of their peer’s shortcomings, misfortune and losses. Luck may have shone on them so far and therefore Redknapp will want to be in a comfortable position when it stops shining; January provides that. Along with United losing Vidic for the season, Liverpool have lost Lucas for the same duration, have no player of the same elk to plug the gap and will lose their top-scorer, Suarez for the majority of January. Newcastle have lost Steven Taylor for the remainder of the campaign and three other first-teamers are currently out with various injuries. That’s the teams immediately below and the teams immediately above, all being inhibited in some way and some more than others.
Chelsea may well be the least affected in January; they look set to strengthen during January with AVB undergoing his first transition, despite stating, “this is not a period of transition,” and Drogba and Kalou haven’t exactly been the flagship for Chelsea’s football this season – the latter has perked up though. Luckily for Tottenham, Chelsea are three points behind Spurs having played one more game and face Manchester City on Monday night. Manchester City may also brush off Tottenham’s threat during January; Yaya Toure will be missed as a vital part of City’s engine room, but, as City have shown, for Aguero there is Balotelli, for Milner there is Johnson and for Yaya there will be many many choices that can aptly fill the void.
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One team that may not be able to win with the hand they’ve been dealt with, is Manchester United ; Vidic is out, their Champions League exit is costing a rumoured £20m and Sir Alex Ferguson has now had to apologise for two cup exits already this season. In January they play their rivals City in the F.A Cup and an exit from that would leave Manchester United with two hopes; the Europa League and catching City. Without Vidic, fans would be right to fear. Unfortunately for United fans, a signing in January isn’t looking hopeful; since selling Ronaldo to Madrid, their net spend is lower than that of the Championship’s Hull, Blackpool and Burnley.
Ultimately, this is where Tottenham must capitalise; January is crucial, January is their’s to lose and January will be their making.
Article courtesy of Jordan Florit from This is Futbol
North Rhine-Westphalia is one of Germany’s sixteen federal states. When it comes to football, it is so much more than just one of the Bundeslander. Nearly a third of the Bundesliga heralds from the area. What’s more, of late it has produced some of Germany’s brightest attacking talents. Mesut Ozil and Mario Gotze are two who spring to mind.
It wouldn’t be entirely inappropriate to say there is a conveyor belt of talent to be found, considering the area’s industrial heritage. The next player to have emerged from it is Marco Reus.
Like Gotze, Reus started off in the youth ranks at Borussia Dortmund but he failed to make the grade in Dortmund due to his slight physical stature, something which remains to date. It is apt therefore he should eventually be discovered by a side with the nickname Die Fohlen (The Foals) after impressing with Rot Weiss Ahlen, he joined Borussia Monchengladach in 2009.
He hasn’t looked back since arriving in the city twinned with Bradford, one of the more unspectacular elements of his current home. It has only been in the last two seasons when Reus has really found form. He has 34 goals in 80 Bundesliga appearances for Gladbach, an impressive total when taking into consideration that he’s not primarily a striker.
Reus functions best in a role just behind the front man as Lucien Favre has discovered to his credit. Favre arrived at Monchengladbach in February with the club languishing in a relegation battle. In a remarkable turnaround though, the Foals are now challenging for a Champions League place. None of this would have been possible without “Rolls Reus” who has been the creative spark of the team and managed to carve out his own niche amongst other prominent young attacking talents in the Bundesliga.
As Raphael Honigstein put it in his Guardian column, “Marco Reus is no longer routinely compared to or confused with Marko Marin, the similarly mercurial, slight, very badly coiffed dinker he replaced at Borussia Mönchengladbach.”
However despite Gladbach having considerable Bundesliga pedigree having been Deutschermeister (German Champions) on five occasions, it’s looking increasingly likely that the man with the skunk-like hair will leave sooner rather than later. Reports have said Reus is keen to stay in Germany, another feather in the cap of the Bundesliga as it continues to improve as one of Europe’s elite divisions.
It would seemingly leave it down to Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund slugging it out for his signature. Further reports in the German media have suggested Dortmund lead the way meaning a possible return home for Reus. It could be a watershed moment if Bayern Munich were to be overlooked, something which happens rarely in German football.
Reus would be well suited to either club – they both play 4-2-3-1 and he’s capable of playing anywhere in the “3.” He is arguably more likely to be first choice at Borussia Dortmund. Gunter Netzer, a fantastic playmaker for Die Fohlen in the seventies, doubted in Bild last month whether a move to Bayern Munich at the moment would benefit Reus. The one certainty amongst all of this is that Gladbach manager Lucien Favre will be desperate to keep one of Germany’s hottest properties.
The New Year then will probably mean a change of scenery domestically for Reus but the club scene is not the only place he will be looking to make his mark.
With the European Championships in June, he’ll be desperate to make it into Joachim Low’s 23-man squad for Poland and Ukraine. The Gladbach star’s international career to date has been a series of unfortunate events. Called up four times by Jogi Low prior to his debut in October, Reus had to pull out on each occasion due to injury. Having finally made his debut, the attacking midfielder desperately needs to kick on as he faces stiff competition for a starting berth in the German team.
Do not be surprised though if he is causing havoc in Eastern Europe in the summer. Whilst success on the international stage remains to be seen for the 22-year-old in the New Year, his form on the domestic scene will probably give him the platform for an opportunity to crack it. Barring his fragile stature coming back to haunt him with an injury, 2012 is set to be a pivotal year for Marco Reus.
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Our unhealthy and unnatural obsession with the economic value of everything in society does not exclude our obsession with football. I remember when Newcastle broke the transfer record to buy the £15m Alan Shearer in 1996. It was, at the time, especially for a nine year old, an unfathomable amount of money. However in hindsight it, sadly, seems rather meagre in footballing terms. It even seems to be an exceptional bargain when you consider the cretins that have been sold for more in recent times. And that is something important to remember.
The monetary value placed on players rarely depicts their actual value. There are few players who are bought for large transfer fees that truly warrant the sum spent on them; there are also many players who exceed the value put on their heads. Such is the transfer market, and such is the value of a good scouting network. You don’t need to look any further than the Premier League to see examples of this misguided market where the price elasticity of a product depends wholly on the purchaser rather than the product itself as it would in other markets. Some clubs will pay over the odds; some clubs will rarely if ever break the bank. Some clubs have shrewd negotiators; some clubs have wealthy negotiators less concerned with the cost than with the idea of the player.
There are a number of players and teams out performing their more expensive counterparts this year. Take the Chelsea game against Tottenham at Christmas. The entire Tottenham team, including the subs, cost less than Fernando Torres and David Luiz combined. You might say, and rightly so, that the same could be said for most teams in the league. But most teams aren’t third at the moment; Tottenham are. If you were to actually consider how much that Chelsea team cost, don’t forget that the manager cost over £10m, then you would have little hesitation in saying that they are under performing, or perhaps that Spurs are over performing. Either way it proves that money isn’t everything. To say that of a team is apparent without my drawing attention to it. Tactics, management, team spirit and desire all factor in to the performances of a team. However more notable is the outperforming of stars worth £20m+ by players who cost as little as £0. Take Demba Ba for example. He cost Newcastle a grand total of £0. He is now the second top scorer in the league with fourteen goals. Or you could look at Blackburn’s Yakubu who has scored twelve league goals who cost Blackburn a fee rumoured to be as little as £1.5m. In fact if you look at the top five league goal scorers then you have Rooney and Aguero in third and fourth place who cost around £70m between them but van Persie, Ba and Yakubu only cost a combined total of less than £5m.
Now obviously Aguero and Rooney might bring more to the table than just goals but the most expensive ever Englishman Andy Carroll and the British transfer record Fernando Torres who cost a combined £85.5m appear to be bringing far less to the table than most other strikers in the league. Did you know, for example, that Fernando Torres has, at Chelsea, a worse goal to game ratio than Arsenal’s left back Andre Santos?
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It’s not just up front either that expensive players are shown up by their price tag. It happens in all areas of the team. Take arguably the season’s stand out goalkeeper Michael Vorm of Swansea. He joined the Welsh club late in to pre-season for £1.5m and therefore had as much time to settle in as someone like David De Gea. The difference is, apart from the fact that you could buy thirteen Vorm’s for every De Gea, Vorm has easily outperformed the other goalkeeper who is new to the League; what is more he has done it with a far inferior defence in front of him. Vorm has not only consistently put in excellent performances for Swansea this season; he has also saved over sixty per cent of the penalties he has faced.
We could also look at some of the season’s other standout performances such as that of Newcastle’s £4.5m midfielder Yohan Cabaye. The Frenchman has been crucial to Newcastle’s form so far this season and is a genuine triumph for the Newcastle scouting team. He is a living vindication of Ashley’s plan to reinvest the money from Carroll in scouts rather directly in players. He makes a mockery of Liverpool’s £18m spent on Henderson who is supposed to be a similar creative midfielder. Cabaye is barely even older than Henderson.
You can infer from these examples that perhaps money simply isn’t a guarantor of instant success whilst it still remains indicative of lasting worth. However I would urge you to think back to Liverpool’s signing Robbie Keane, Or Tottenham’s of Darren Bent for £16m, or Arsenal’s record signing Arshavin, or Veron for Chelsea, or Forlan for United. So many owners and chairman now have such important roles in football without, you fear, the proper knowledge of football. It appears by many to be treated as a rather expensive game of Football Manager rather than the running of a business come hobby. Players like Ba, like Yakubu, like Vorm, like Cabaye and like van Persie should be a stark reminder that some of the best players in this league were the cheapest. And some of the most expensive are some of the worst.
For more news and articles follow me on Twitter @H_Mackay
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Thierry Henry was involved in an angry exchange with a couple of Arsenal’s supporters, following the Gunners’ 3-2 defeat at the Liberty Stadium. The Frenchman called on his fellow teammates to acknowledge the travelling support at the end of the game and he took exception to the negative response from supporters who questioned the fight and commitment of some of the players. Henry called upon the fans to get behind the football club, rather than make the situation worse by turning against them.
While Henry was dealing with supporters, his manager revealed that he is tempted to start with Thierry in the coming games given the influence he has on the football pitch.
Elsewhere in the news this morning Jamie Carragher reveals his concern about Liverpool’s ability to make the top four; Florent Malouda is desperate for more action at Chelsea, while Roberto Martinez reveals he won’t be letting Hugo Rodallega leave the DW Stadium in January.
News
Florent Malouda keen for more action
Wigan won’t sell Rodallega
Jamie Carragher expresses his concerns
Parker talks up Tottenham’s chances
Blackburn board letter revealed
QPR admit Samba interest
Wenger reveals his frustration
Newcastle’s discipline spot on
Interest in Berbatov as Arsenal weigh up more for wonderkid
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Transfer Talk
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Liverpool ready to pounce on £10m Defoe as Spurs search for new buys – Daily Mail
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Kean: We’ll hold on to our Samba star – Sun
United and Liverpool warned off Palace star Zaha – Mirror
Inter lodge Tevez bid – Sky Sports
Redknapp suffers blow in striker search as Remy rejects Spurs switch – Daily Mail
It has been quite an astonishing Premier League this season with plenty of goals, bags of controversy and some great games that have all combined to make it one of the most open League table in years as we fast approach the business end of the season. The only certainty is that it will be the Manchester clubs fighting for the title, after the London trio of Chelsea, Arsenal and surprisingly Tottenham have been unable to keep pace with both United and City. It means there will be arguably a three-way fight for the Champions League spots in the Capital and you will be a brave man to put a bet down on who the two out of the three it is going to be.
Down the bottom it has been equally tight with two points just separating the bottom five teams in the country. QPR are the surprise package down there and many neutrals will have been surprised by Rangers’ struggles, compared to the performance of the other promoted teams; Swansea and Norwich City. There is certainly plenty to play for in the final 11 games of the season and no doubt plenty of twists and turns along the way too.
This latest XI I have selected focuses on the players who have ‘surprised’ me this season and who have changed the perception I had of them even before a ball was actually kicked.
Click on Yohan Cabaye to unveil the surprise XI of the season
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FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.