Harry Redknapp will look to bolster his Tottenham squad in January by bringing in Villarreal attacking midfielder Borja Valero, according to reports in The Sun.
Redknapp is not looking to break the bank in order to add strength in depth at White Hart Lane this winter, and the £9million price tag could be extremely tempting for North London club.
The former West Brom midfielder failed to settle in England and only featured 31 times in the league for the Baggies in his time in the midlands. After a successful loan spell; where Valero became a key player at El Madrigal; a permanent move to Spain was declared in the summer but Villarreal are struggling in the bottom half of La Liga and are out of all European competitions already.
With just one cap for Spain, Valero wants to be playing European football to catch the eye of national coach Vicente del Bosque and Tottenham could be the ideal suitors for the 26-year-olds attacking style of football.
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Chelsea are expected to renew their interest in Luka Modric in January and with Spurs vying for three competitions when the new year begins, strength in depth may become a crucial aspect of success or failure.
Wigan manager Roberto Martinez was pleased with the response from his young players in their come-from-behind win over Birmingham.In a crucial English Premier League relegation six-pointer, Martinez’s side recovered from Liam Ridgewell’s early goal to equalise through Tom Cleverley after 25 minutes, before a spell of dominance was ended with Maynor Figueroa’s injury-time winner.The average age of Wigan’s team was under 25, with Martinez preferring to put his faith in youth rather than experienced players to fight the relegation battle.”It was really pleasing to see that maturity of growing into the game in such a young group, it gives you a great sense of pride,” Martinez told Sky Sports.”I’m very proud of the players because we all knew how important the three points were, but what was more important is the way they played the game.””The players slowly gained control of the game and in the second-half it was just chance after chance, looking at the number of corners that we had.”A change of system helped Wigan secure their late winner, with strikers Conor Sammon and Hugo Rodallega thrown on just after the hour mark, leading Martinez to praise the club’s depth.”It was important to change the dynamics a little bit,” he said. “We got into a position where we couldn’t get enough bodies in the box. With the options that we have on the bench now, we have to use it, and I think it was one of those moments when we needed everyone and it’s great to see that everyone is desperate to play a part.””In that respect, it’s a win for the squad and it’s something that we need to carry on now for the next eight games of the season.”Birmingham manager Alex McLeish was not so happy, disappointed his side did not win a penalty when Antolin Alcaraz toppled Curtis Davies only moments before Figueroa’s late strike.”Just before he (Figueroa) scored I felt we should have had a penalty but it would have been unfair on Wigan for us to win,” McLeish said.”But at same time that happens during the season, you steal some points, you get some luck and some bad luck. And we had some bad luck with penalty award, how he (the referee) doesn’t see it’s a penalty, I’m baffled.””I’ve looked at the video, he (Alcaraz) doesn’t look at the ball, just takes the player out. We didn’t get the break, but we’ve had one penalty this season and there’s another six or seven I think we should have had.”The result still keeps Wigan bottom, but they are now within one point of 19th-placed Birmingham City and just three points behind 13th placed Birmingham.
Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson believes new signings must be made ahead of the start of their Europa League campaign later this month.
Hodgson has suggested that none of the players involved in World Cup duty in South Africa will be called upon to play in the third qualifying round tie which begins on July 29.
Macedonian side Rabotnicki or Armenia's Mika must be overcome if the Reds are to make the group stages.
However, with the likes of Spain duo Fernando Torres and Jose Reina, Argentina pair Javier Mascherano and Maxi Rodriguez, Denmark's Daniel Agger, Slovakia's Martin Skrtel and Dirk Kuyt and Ryan Babel of the Netherlands joining England trio Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Glen Johnson on the sidelines, Hodgson is desperate to bolster his squad.
Free agent England midfielder Joe Cole has emerged as a serious transfer target in recent days and Hodgson is looking to tie up some swift deals.
"Possibly none of our World Cup players will play in the early Europa Cup games if we listen to the advice of the sports science people," he told the club's official website.
"They are telling me we would be very foolhardy to use players who have only been training for three or four days on the back of the World Cup that early on because that will affect us further on down the road.
"If we feel we are endangering our chances of doing well in the Premier League by risking players in the early stage of the Europa League, it will be a decision the club will have to take. You have to follow the guidance.
"Their advice is to not use these players. If we have enough players to put a team out without them is another question.
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"Things can happen before the 29th of July, we will not be speculating on that and there is no point in me making predictions of what the team will be like for that game.
"The sports science people are advising me not to use the players from the World Cup.
"Therefore new signings would become important for the Europa Cup."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Take a look at the Arsenal team of 2011 and their record over the last 6 years. Not too bad for an average Premier League club – pretty good in fact, yet for a team who were dubbed the ‘unbeatables’ in their 2004-2005 campaign, failure to win a trophy in the last six seasons is quite simply not good enough.
Whilst Arsenal can point to a lack of funds in comparison with Chelsea, United and now Manchester City, along with a completely different ethos and transfer policy, the time for excuses about being in ‘transition’ have to stop. Wenger, at Arsenals AGM, called for more time, and passionately declared that despite the summer departures, the current team at Arsenal can fulfil their potential, if given the time to do so.
The problem however is that Wenger has been asking for more ‘time’ for several trophyless years now, and it must be asked if that question will soon become too familiar with fans who have ardently believed in Wenger and his team for so long, placing playing attractive football with flair above winning games 1 – 0 and a scrappy result. Obviously this has cost them multiple games in the past and although at times they are memorising to watch, the tag of a poor man’s Barcelona is not an unfair one.
Yes Arsenal can attack and play with style, but they have been lacking in grit and determination – a backbone to their team has been missing and although Fabregas cannot be called anything less than a brilliant player, a captain he is not. A major lack of leadership on the field has been something that has blighted Arsenal for several seasons now and whether Robin Van Persie is the man to fill this void remains to be seen.
Anyone with a footballing brain can make the statement that should Van Persie have been fit for the majority of his time at Arsenal things could have been very different for the Gunners. This season Van Persie has been their talisman and nothing short of world class, rescuing the team on numerous occasions and having a phenomenal goal to game ration of 2.38. However should Arsenal fail to make it into the top four and thus the Champions League this season, they may well have to add the Dutchman to their list of high profile departures.
Another point Arsenal supporters will make when looking back at last season in particular is that if they had beaten Birmingham in the Carling Cup final, their season could have turned out vastly different. Again whilst a valid point, much like pointing to departures, injuries and suspensions, football cannot be a game of what if’s. Arsenal’s main issue is that they have not got a good enough defence and Song does not look to be a massively convincing holding midfielder.
It cannot be ignored that losing Fabregas, Nasri and Clichy was a huge blow, as is the fact Van Persie and Vermaelen struggle to stay fit for an entire season. Players such as Jenkinson who got mauled at Old Trafford do display some quality, but to throw them in at the deep end and expose them so harshly is not what Wenger would ideally like to do.
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Arsenal clearly have quality within the ranks, not just in experienced players like Van Persie but also the young guns such as Ramsey and Wilshire. The supporters are right in sticking by both the manager and the club, with Wenger bringing through some serious talent during his lengthy tenure at the helm, and is right in saying that the team have masses of potential to fulfil.
Yet Arsenal sit third in the goals conceded chart with 18 goals shipped in from 9 games, and for a team that feels they belong in the top four, this is simply not good enough. Yes they have scored 15 goals in the same amount of games, but Arsenal’s problem has never been failure to attack. Wenger needs to stop with the excuses and finally instil some defensive stability into the team – otherwise a top four finish may well be beyond them and ‘in Arsene we trust’ may well not be the case anymore.
Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish says his team is lucky to be going into the Europa League second leg against Sporting Braga only a goal down.A first-half penalty from midfielder Alan gave the Portuguese side an important home win and inflicted Dalglish’s first loss as the English Premier League club’s manager in Europe.Dalglish believes Liverpool are fortunate to be heading into the return leg only 1-0 down.”It was a very poor first-half performance from ourselves,” he told Sky Sports.”We picked it up a little bit in the second half and looked a bit more threatening, especially after Andy (Carroll) came on, and I think we were probably denied a stone-wall penalty ourselves.””To play the way we did in the first half and come away only one goal behind means we were very fortunate.”In his second substitute appearance for the club, Carroll provided the Reds with some much-needed life when he was introduced in the 57th minute.Dalglish was pleased with the striker’s performance and said helping him regain match fitness in his return from injury was a key.”He worried them. We played better once he came on. He’s a good option for us,” Dalglish said.”We’ve got to give him as many minutes as we can to make sure we’re making a contribution to getting him fit.”
Fulham will continue their pursuit of Martin Jol on Wednesday by meeting representatives of the Dutch coach's current club Ajax.
Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh is in Amsterdam to meet with Ajax officials as he attempts to negotiate the release of the former Tottenham manager.
Jol is believed to be keen to return to the Premier League to replace Roy Hodgson in the Craven Cottage hot-seat.
The Cottagers have been without a manager since Hodgson joined Liverpool almost three weeks ago, since when Ray Lewington has been in caretaker charge.
On Tuesday, stories from the Netherlands claimed the 54-year-old had agreed to stay with Ajax in principle after the club agreed to his demands that new players needed to be signed before the start of the 2010-11 campaign.
However, it now appears that Ajax are refusing to negotiate and the two clubs are at an impasse.
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Ivory Coast coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has also been linked with the vacancy at Craven Cottage as have United States coach Bob Bradley and Switzerland's Ottmar Hitzfeld.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Home Secretary Theresa May has stated that she will do everything in her power to release the official papers detailing the true story of what happened at the Hillsborough disaster, as the families of the bereaved get closer to the truth.
96 Liverpool fans lost their lives in the stadium tragedy back in April 1989, and calls have increased for the Government to come clean on the true cause of the disaster.
Claims have indicated that the fans were to blame for the stadium collapse, but the police are expected to come under scrutiny after being cleared of any wrongdoing at the time.
With David Cameron yesterday also admitting the papers would be released to the families in the near future, May has backed up the prime minister.
“As Home Secretary, I will do everything in my power to ensure that the families and the public get the truth,” she stated in the House of Commons.
“No government papers will be withheld from the panel, no attempts to suppress publication will be made, no stone will be left unturned.
“The principle underlying the process is that of maximum possible disclosure and disclosure to the families first and then to the wider public.
“The Government’s position has absolutely nothing to do with attempting to suppress the release of these papers or to somehow hide the truth. And I am sorry that the way the Government responded to the Freedom of Information Act request, causing anxiety among the families and concern on Merseyside and beyond,” she concluded.
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We are at the business end of the Premier League season with only 10 games left to play until we find out who’s stayed up and who’s gone down. This season has been one of the closely competitive Premier League seasons since started in 1992, with no run away League leaders or doomed clubs at the bottom like we’ve seen over the last two decades. Currently, there are only TEN points that separate bottom-of-the-table, Wigan Athletic (27) with 7th placed Bolton Wanderers. Is the fight for Premier League survival wide open? Or are there really only a few contenders for the drop despite how close the gap is?
The Battle of the W’s
The current bottom four clubs who all begin with the letter ‘W’ are the main contenders for the relegation scrap with only 2 points separating 20th placed Wigan and 17th placed West Bromwich Albion (27 and 29 points respectively), whilst West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers lay in between on 28 points. However, only West Brom are in the bottom 5 of the Premier League form table with West Ham 8th and Wolves 12th, whilst Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers have the worst form over the last several League games. Will there be a new bottom three come the end of the season?
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Theoretically teams in the top half of the table should be safe, like Bolton 7th (37 Pts), Sunderland 8th (37 Pts), Newcastle United 9th (36 Pts), these three teams would have to go on a dismal run of form over the next 10 games if they are to be dragged into the mire. However, from 10th place Stoke City (34 Pts) teams will be looking over their shoulders over the next few weeks if the bottom four teams continue to pick up points. If the likes of West Ham and Wolves achieve back-to-back wins in their next two fixtures, it will see them on 34 points which will squeeze the margin between clubs in mid-table and those in the relegation zone.
The Unlikely Lads
Although they are seen as ‘too good to go down’, Aston Villa and Everton will be hoping for a good end to the season which will see them finish in the top half of the table. Both teams are in the top 10 on the form table and their remaining fixtures should see them avoid any potential relegation battles, especially with both teams crashing out of the F.A. Cup in mid-week – there will be more concentration on improving league positions.
So in theory, that leaves 13th place Fulham (32 pts) and below the real relegation contenders for the remaining season with 14th placed Blackburn and 15th placed Blackpool on the same points, leaving Birmingham on 16th and on 30 points in front of the bottom four. With the majority of these teams facing each other over the remaining games, the table could look a lot different after the next five games.
Continue to the NEXT PAGE for my predictions…
Predictions
Unfortunately my crystal ball has been sent away for maintenance but I can’t help make a few suggestions on who will be playing Championship football next season and what teams will be celebrating their Premier League survival.
Unfortunately for Wigan Athletic, I think they are doomed to finish bottom of the pile come the 38th game this season. They have one of the toughest runs out of the other teams involved, in their next 5 fixtures they play three teams involved in the ‘top 4’ whilst the other two fixtures coming against Birmingham and Blackpool, two teams wanting to avoid being dragged into the relegation battle. It’s hard to see where the Latics will get the points to push them out of the relegation zone.
Joining Wigan in relegation will be harder to determine, but Wolves will have to fancy their chances of getting out of the bottom three with their remaining fixtures. Mick McCarthy’s men only play one team in the top 5 with the arrival of Tottenham this weekend, however it will depend whether they are able to turn around their dismal away record this season and pick up points on the road.
Despite the Hammers recording a 3-1 victory over Liverpool last Sunday, the East London club face a tough run-in of fixtures where they meet four teams out of the current top five. However, with three of their remaining league games against teams around them, the Hammers should manage to scrape out of the relegation zone although it’ll be tough. Their fate could depend on the results of teams around them.
Birmingham City have two games in hand over the bottom half of the table and with the confidence and momentum gained from winning the League Cup, I can see the Blues rising to mid-table for Premier League consolidation. Worryingly for Blackpool, their pre-season relegation doomed plight may come true with the Seasiders having to play four teams out of the top 5. But with the character and fight that Ian Holloway’s men has shown, you can’t rule them out for picking up 3 points like earlier in the season. Their games against Blackburn, Fulham and Wigan over the next month will be vital if they are to stay up.
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Roy Hodgson was able to keep Fulham up in similar circumstances that West Brom are facing this season. The Baggies are without a win in their last SIX games but they have recorded 3 draws on the bounce, they face some tough fixtures against Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham – not to mention the visit of Kenny Dalglish’s Liverpool. His old club Fulham should be safe from dropping down the table with the club only losing one game in their last six.
That leaves Blackburn Rovers dropping into the bottom three, with the club 2nd from bottom in the form table and an inexperienced manager in Steve Kean in charge; I dread Rovers will be slowly dragged into the relegation zone whilst the teams around them pick up points.
Relegation Predictions : Wigan Athletic, Blackburn Rovers, West Bromwich Albion
If you disagree with my predictions then let me know on Twitter – @verbal_football
A multitude of theories have been propounded in order to explain England’s dismal showing at this summer’s World Cup. Unsurprisingly, the chief scapegoats have included manager Fabio Capello and the players responsible for the side’s last-sixteen exit. However, England’s display is reflective of a range of problems with the domestic game.
Many have pointed to the influx of foreign talent and its effect upon the domestic game as detrimental to the development and progress of English talent (and its knock-on effect upon the English national side). Whilst the number of Englishmen starting for Premier League clubs is dwindling (figures for 2007/08 showed that 34.1% of all starting players in the Premier League that season were English), the increased prevalence of foreign youngsters within English academies indicates that opportunities for young English players to make top-level breakthroughs are becoming even more scarce, meaning that the pool of players available for the England manager is becoming even smaller.
The spending power of the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United, means that competing at the highest level is tougher than ever. Through prudently scouring the world’s best young talent, Arsene Wenger has managed to buck this trend, with the rise to prominence of Cesc Fabregas vindicating the virtues of Wenger’s approach. Arsenal’s ability to compete on a comparatively small budget has sparked a string of imitators, with Chelsea and Liverpool the most high-profile Premier League clubs to follow suit. Players such as Dani Pacheco, Daniel Ayala and Gael Kakuta have all benefitted from this Premier League transfer policy.
This practice has worried the Football Association’s development director Sir Trevor Brooking. Concerned by its increasing prevalence, Brooking stated: “When we set up the academies, we understood the challenge (posed by clubs) bringing in the best overseas talent in the older age groups. What we didn’t quite understand is that that would start to fill up the academy areas and stifle the growth there. Longer term it is extremely worrying.”
Although the ‘foreigner’ argument is often lambasted for its xenophobic overtones, one cannot deny the correlation between the number of home-grown players within a domestic league and international success. Speaking of this link, Brooking said: “If you look at Italy when they won the last World Cup, I think they had over 70 per cent of their league made up of domestic players. Spain, France, Holland, they’re all up there in the 60 per cents. The more that goes down, and the pool of choice reduces, we must come under pressure.”
The reduced number of Englishmen featuring for England’s top clubs also highlights a worrying trend. A look at the squads of two remaining World Cup teams, Spain and Germany, along with that of England demonstrates how the existence of domestic players within top teams is linked to the strength of the national side. Germany’s World Cup squad includes 12 players who featured for one of the sides that finished within the top three of the Bundesliga last season. Similarly, Spain’s squad features 15 players who featured last season for Barcelona, Real Madrid or Valencia. By comparison, (including the withdrawn Rio Ferdinand) England’s squad included just seven players who had turned out for a top-three Premier League side last season.
The game’s regulations supplement the benefits of signing young, foreign players. The complicated laws concerning football contracts in countries such as Spain and Italy mean that opportunities are rife for English clubs to secure cheap, young foreign talent. Bringing in talent from across the continent means that clubs can circumvent domestic FA regulations which prevent any club from bringing players to their academy who live outside the radius of a 90-minute drive from their home ground. Is it any wonder that clubs resort to such measures?
Although Arsenal failed to provide any players for England’s World Cup squad, the fruits borne by their youth policy have certainly justified Arsene Wenger’s model of development. With clubs looking to secure their own interests, they’re under no obligation to promote and facilitate the success of the national side. The FA must look to incentivising the benefits of spurning young foreign talent if the national side are to have any tangible success in the near and distant future.
Follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/zarifrasul
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Click on image below to see the GERMAN babes at the World Cup
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Everton manager David Moyes has revealed that the club are ‘very close’ to agreeing a new contract for midfielder Marouane Fellaini.
The Belgium international midfielder cost a club record £15 million fee back in 2008, and has become a mainstay in the Merseyside team, impressing this season with excellent performances.
With his current deal expiring in June 2013, Moyes has been keen to extend the versatile player’s deal, and feels this is close to being completed.
“I think it is very close to getting done,” the Scottish coach told the club’s official website.
“The chairman and the chief exec have been working on it for a while and I’ve been waiting on the good news and hopefully it’s not too far away.
“He has been a really good player for us over the last few seasons and if we can keep him it will be really good,” he concluded.
Everton’s financial troubles are well documented, and the Goodison Park outfit were forced to sell star player Mikel Arteta to Arsenal in the last transfer window to balance the books.
Moyes knows that if Fellaini does not sign a new deal soon he may be forced to sell the player amid the risk of losing him on a Bosman, but an extension would be a major boost for the club.
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