With the January transfer window sneaking up on the Premier League sides, it is a chance for unhappy players to earn a move away from their current club to earn some first team football on a regular basis. Whether it be an older player hoping for one last hurrah at a big club or an international player looking to break into their side for the Euro’s next summer players will definitely be on the move after Christmas.
The January transfer window can often be the start of a clubs escape from relegation or push for the European places but it has also come in for some criticism in the past few years. Some players have moved in January in the past for extortionate prices, for example Andy Carroll and Fernando Torres, and not lived up to their hype, so it could be described as a time for panic buying. We are hoping for some more big money signings at the big clubs to bring even more talent to the Premier League and for squad players to get their chance at new clubs ahead of a captivating end to the Premier League season, followed by Euro 2012.
Click on Craig Gordon below to unveil the 10 players likely to move on in January
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Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has admitted that the absence of Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard is a blow for the club, but the team can succeed without the long standing duo.
Gerrard has suffered an injury setback after a seven month lay-off, and will be unavailable for 2-3 weeks due to an ankle injury, whilst Carragher is also on the sidelines at present.
Despite praising the homegrown pair’s influence on the Anfield outfit, the Scottish coach has confidence in the remainder of his squad.
“We would much rather have both of them available, but if they aren’t then we can’t walk about with self-pity. We have to brush ourselves down and get on with it,” Dalglish told Mirror Football.
“The response from the players has been fantastic, and it was a great achievement for the boys to get a result at West Brom last Saturday without them. I think that’s a reflection of how strong the squad is now compared to maybe how it was at the end of last season.
“I don’t think at the end of last season we’d have coped as well without Carra and Stevie as we have now. We won’t be complacent in any way, shape or form. The sooner they are back then the better we will be,” he concluded.
Liverpool host Swansea on Saturday at Anfield, and the Merseyside faithful will be baying for three points to bolster their top four finish ambitions.
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First there was Feed the Goat. Now, in the feeding stakes at least, it is the time of the Yak. The man who goes by the name of Aiyegbeni Yakubuis doing all he can to keep Blackburn afloat. He became the first player in the Premier League to net four in this campaign as Blackburn secured their second win. Having been shipped out to Leicester on loan last season by Everton, some were questioning whether he could still hack it in the Premier League. Ten goals so far says he can.
Goal of the Weekend
Although there were some 29 goals this weekend, there weren’t too many screamers. So for sheer audacity, let’s give Mario Balotelli some recognition. Where most players would head the ball in from a yard, the Italian forward decided to shoulder the ball over line nonchalantly. Only Balotelli…
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Save of the Weekend
Tim Krul managed to earn Newcastle a point last weekend at Old Trafford. He did all he could to save the Toon this weekend but his attempts were ultimately futile as Chelsea ran out 3-0 winners. However, his penalty save from Frank Lampard was sublime. The Dutch ‘keeper tipped the Englishman’s spot kick onto the post and Krul has to be rated as one of the top stoppers in the Premier League at the moment.
Controversy of the Weekend – “Who is the last man?”
The laws of football are open to interpretation as all managers will testify. However, decisions made by Mike Dean and Stuart Attwell will get many talking over the coming days.
At the Sports Direct Arena, David Luiz hauled down Demba Ba and had the forward not been fouled he would have been clean through on goal. However, Dean deemed this to only be worthy of a yellow card. Meanwhile at White Hart Lane, Gary Cahill was sent off after Scott Parker nipped in and stole the ball from him on the halfway line. Despite Zat Knight looking like he could cover, Attwell thought Cahill had committed a professional foul and dismissed him.
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Two undoubtedly questionable decisions but Newcastle had their fair share of fortune with a penalty decision at Old Trafford last weekend – swings and roundabouts some might say. However, this doesn’t justify what was a wrong decision on Saturday yet they lacked the mental strength to overcome Dean’s decision. As for Bolton they had hardly made an awe inspiring start at White Hart Lane. Owen Coyle might want to question why Gary Cahill is attempting to do a Cruyff turn out of trouble.
Nevertheless, there needs to be consistency from referees and currently certain laws of the game are perhaps too open to interpretation. Whilst there is a continued lack of consistency, players won’t know where they stand and managers will continue to criticise referees. It’s time for officials to be helped – laws need to be clarified and video technology must be brought in to assist.
Where do you stand on the matter? Tweet me @arhindtutt or why not comment below.
Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted that he was happy with Manchester United’s 2-0 win over QPR on Sunday, but feels that his team should have scored more goals.
An early opener from Wayne Rooney was backed up by an excellent individual effort by Michael Carrick, in what turned out to be an easy day in London for the Premier League champions.
Despite the three points, the Scottish coach feels his side should have had the game wrapped up in the first half.
“I thought it was a good performance but I thought we were wasteful with the chances we had in the match,” he told Sky Sports.
“We should have really had the game won by the 30 minute mark but their goalkeeper had two fantastic saves, obviously we missed a couple of really good chances.
“But all in all, it was a very good performance,” he continued.
Carrick’s strike was his first in almost two years, and Ferguson is happy with how the midfielder is playing currently.
“I think (Carrick’s goal) puts the game to bed really and he did fantastically well. He’s been at the top of his game now Michael, I’m really pleased with his performances and he gave us that control in the middle of the pitch with Phil Jones.,” he stated.
Finally Ferguson applauded his team’s response to being eliminated from the Champions League, and feels his players have reacted well to the disappointment.
“We are not immune to losing a game, obviously we don’t want to lose big ones it has to be said. But, in the nature of our club, it’s been put down as another day in the history of Manchester United and we get on with it.
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“We don’t sit and moan about it, we do something about it and I think the players have done that,” he concluded.
Fulham manager Martin Jol has admitted that he is eager to sign at least one player on loan this January, but has stated that it won’t be Catania striker Maxi Lopez.
The Cottagers have been linked with a move for the Argentine forward, who has also been a target for AC Milan in recent times, but the Dutch coach feels a temporary move for the South American is unlikely.
“We said we would like to do something on loan with one or two players,” Jol stated in a press conference, published in Sky Sports.
“Catania were probably not in a situation to put Maxi Lopez, who is a good player and scored some goals for them, on loan.
“I don’t think he will go anywhere else on loan. It is a non-starter,” he admitted.
Jol was also quick to deny claims that his side were over-reliant on Clint Dempsey for goals, despite the fact that the United States international bagged a hat-trick in the club’s last match.
“We have other players that can score. We have got goals in us, with Bryan Ruiz, Moussa Dembele and Bobby Zamora, who was involved in at least three goals the other day,” the trainer stated, this time in The Sun.
“We have got the quality but I can’t deny that Clint is very different for us this year.
“Maybe he was in the past. I think so because he was our top scorer before.
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“You always like your top scorer to be up front but if it’s Clint, it’s Clint. If it is Bobby, it is Bobby. It doesn’t matter to me,” he confirmed.
‘Exiled to Russia’ is the first phrase that comes to mind. At least it was before Anzhi Makhachkala became a force in Russian football and began flexing their financial muscle. Their acquisitions in the recent past have been impressive: prolonging the career of Brazilian legend and club captain Roberto Carlos and making Samuel Eto’o the highest paid player in world football. In a time of economic crisis and Uefa’s clamping down on reckless spending, Anzhi are certainly not shying away from fulfilling their ambitions and sneaking in the backdoor to pick up some of Europe’s top performers. The impeding signing of Christopher Samba definitely came out of left field, and where the player was expected to sign for one of the top clubs in the Premier League this summer, he will now at the very least triple his wages in Russian football. An act of greed, or is the Congolese defender fulfilling an ambition by joining the revolution in Eastern Europe?
A breakdown in relations at Blackburn between the club and their captain Christopher Samba has led to discussions of a promise to allow the player to leave the struggling club at the end of the season. Samba was denied a move to one of London’s ambitious sides in either Tottenham or QPR in January, with the club insisting the player was to remain where he is. But in spite of Samba’s desire to leave Blackburn as soon as possible, is the fringes of European football really the most desirable place, even if the cash does flow like water?
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Anzhi are a side, like most with serious money, who want to make an impression in the Champions League and go on to win the trophy. A realistic vision, or one that will be laughed off in a similar manner which greeted Shakhtar Donetsk and their hopes of a European trophy. There’s no question that the Ukrainian side have helped to raise the profile of football in Eastern Europe through winning the Uefa Cup in 2009, along with teams such as CSKA Moscow who are competing regularly in he Champions League and the Luzhniki Stadium hosting the all English 2008 Champions League final. It just seems a little odd that Samba has chosen a destination so out of the way of the public eye, where a similar big move could have been achieved in England and with perhaps greater chance of success in Europe.
The signing of Samuel Eto’o last summer has been a smart move for the club—who are based in the Republic of Dagestan. His arrival will surely pave the way for many other top names in Europe to follow, and Christopher Samba may even further increase the profile of one of Europe’s richest clubs. In that sense it could be a great coup for the club, who have once again materialised out of nowhere to pick up a player who would have potentially been on a number of top clubs’ radar.
In spite of their location, they are comfortably building a squad and a foundation with which to conquer Russian football and make their mark in Europe. Will Samba’s move open the door even wider for European based players and specifically those from the Premier League? Or is his signing seen as nothing more than an opportunity for a big pay day? Much was said about Eto’o’s move to Anzhi, and the view was that one of the best strikers in Europe still had something to offer the Italian, Spanish or even English leagues.
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It might be unwise to simply dismiss Samba’s move as an act of greed, but at this stage Anzhi are hardly the European superpower that they one day hope to be. The Russian league, while boasting a number of top talents, cannot lay claim to being one of the premier football leagues in Europe. Like Eto’o, Samba still had much to offer a high-profile club competing at the top end of an elite league, and his departure, at least for now, may be seen as premature.
With the doors of the recent winter transfer window firmly slammed shut, Fulham fans can breathe a huge sigh of relief in that they kept hold of their most prized asset, Clint Dempsey. The big Texan has made waves since he arrived to the club beside the river back in 2007 from Major League Soccer. You could say he has been a revelation since his move from the Revolution; of New England of course.
But was there really any real transfer speculation circulating over Deuce’s head during the window of opportunity for many potential suitors? The answer was not really. Clubs seemed far more interested in his injury-plagued strike partner Andy Johnson.
What is more surprising is that when you look closely at Dempsey’s stats, they make for some impressive reading, questioning just why the lack of interest?
Statistics clearly show that Dempsey is the highest scoring American to have played in the Premier League. He currently boasts a tally of 43 goals for the Cottagers. What’s more is that he has struck more goals for the club than any other player in eleven consecutive seasons, and often vacates the left midfield role, failing Martin Jol’s decisions to play him as a centre forward. Still not impressed?
The football public have at times pondered whether an American with such a good pedigree could cut it at a traditional top four club, say an Arsenal or Chelsea. But in five years, no such club has got the cheque book out to acquire his services.
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Let us examine his strengths; beside his innate rapping abilities. Dempsey is immensely versatile and has been used on the flanks for most of his Fulham career, but his tall 6ft1 frame has enabled him to hold the ball up well in a centre-forwards role during Bobby Zamora’s absences. It remains to be confirmed whether Dempsey will fulfil this role until the end of the season, as he did in the recent game at City, or whether Russian new boy Pavel Pogrebnyak will fill the void left by Zamora’s move to W12.
Moreover, Clint is highly experienced, winning 82 caps for Jurgen Klinsmann’s Stars & Stripes since his national team debut in 2004, earning a reputation as a hard-working professional with a never say day attitude. Surely traits such as these could be welcomed into the underachieving ranks of fellow Londoners; Arsenal and Chelsea this season?
Current TalkSport pundit Andy Gray told the Fulham Chronicle
“I never feel cheated when I see Clint play, he does it all and works extremely hard for the team”.
If we look back in Premier League history, few American’s have ‘made it’ as such at traditional top four clubs. Failing, Tim Howard’s move to Manchester United back in 2003 where he made 45 appearances, you are hard pressed to find United States internationals at the top end of English football.
American hero Claudio Reyna had a spell at Manchester City, but City have improved into a more established outfit since the start of the 00’s. Elsewhere, Everton have embraced many talents from across the pond including Joe-Max Moore, Brian McBride and currently Landon Donovan. And up the M62 at Bolton, they currently employ Stuart Holden and Tim Ream.
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But the question still remains whether Dempsey will one day get a move to a club playing at the elite European level. Clint himself may harbour Champions League ambitions but first he will look to help Fulham battle through the mid-reaches of the Premier League and balance the clubs targets between survival and a top ten finish.
Is Clint good enough to move to a top four club or should he remain at the Cottage? Follow me @http://twitter.com/Taylor_Will1989
For the third consecutive home game the Silkmen came from behind to earn a point, this time combining the dramatics of the previous encounters to both come from two down and score in the dying moments of the game.
Despite the pressing need for a win, most Macc fans would have taken a point against Crawley before the game. When the Red Devils went two goals up just after half time they would have positively bitten your hand off (especially as the pies have usually run out well before then). The ability to fight to the end is a quality sure to aid the Silkmen in their struggle against relegation, but in fact on Saturday it had looked like heads were starting to drop.
With the fight seemingly deserting the players, the first goal came from nowhere, sparking the Silkmen back into life once more and driving them onto an excellent result. However the brief signs of defeatism leave some lingering concern. Whatever the misfortunes our squad has faced this season, feeling sorry for ourselves will do no good when battling for survival.
On the tactics front Simmo did seem to have heeded calls for a change. Starting with a front two, or three with Marshall when in possession, was a more attacking outlook than seen in previous weeks. It was initially fairly effective, perhaps catching the opposition by surprise, but as the game wore on it was Crawley who took control. Obviously their vast resources meant they would always be favourites, but the game served to highlight the fact that a lack of central midfield options is at the heart of our problems.
Without Draper and Chalmers we cannot seem to keep control or possession in this area – both are edging towards a return but time is running out. We may have to pray that a recent injection will bring a swift solution to Mattis’s ankle trouble and allow the captain of last year’s champions play a role in the run-in.
At the sharp end of the pitch on Saturday was Vinny Mukendi – handed a start following his second half performance last week. He continues to be something of an enigma, often looking too lightweight and unable to take advantage of his height. Having fluffed more than one chance he did atone by being on hand to make the crucial breakthrough. Obviously he is doing something right in training,Gary rates him and he’s been linked (admittedly by the ever reliable lower league rumours of Sky Sports) to top flight teams.
It is easy to forget he has just left his teens, perhaps he just needs some confidence before he can translate his talents into competitive action. The question is whether he will find any in a dogfight at the bottom of League Two. Fans are already on edge and frustrated, leaving little tolerance for weak performances. In an ideal world Mukendi would have seen out the season on loan with Southport, but these plans have become just another victim of the injury crisis.
And so to the forthcoming weekend. The game against Dagenham on Saturday is the latest in a series of crunch games, and as the league gets tighter at the bottom it becomes increasingly important to grab three points. We are still fifteen points short of what is usually considered the benchmark for safety in the league. There are ten games to go and if we extrapolate the form which has seen one win in our last twenty-one there is only one way this season is going to end. We have had many “must-win” games against sides at the bottom in the last few weeks – failure to make this one count will raise significant doubts over our survival bid.
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Arsenal playmaker Tomas Rosicky has admitted that his side must respect Wigan, despite going into Monday night’s clash as favourites.
The north London club can open up an eight-point advantage in third with a win at the Emirates Stadium, but the Czech Republic international is wary of the relegation-threatened Latics.
“We have a great chance to stay in third position but now we have to make sure of it,” the midfielder told The Guardian.
“That starts against Wigan – and make no mistake, it’s a very big game for us. People might not usually regard a match against Wigan as such a big one but they are still battling relegation, so there is a lot at stake for both of us.
“We saw what can happen against a team fighting for its life when we played away at QPR and we expect the same kind of performance from Wigan on Monday. We have to give 100 per cent to get the result.
“We saw Wigan beat Manchester United last Wednesday, so that’s an indication that it will be a tough test for us. We’ll have to be on top of our game to win, no doubt about it.
“Wigan have some very good players and a good young manager, so this will be a very tough match for us,” he confirmed.
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Transfer debacles didn’t come more epic than the Luka Modric fiasco that shrouded White Hart Lane in uncertainty last summer. With Daniel Levy remaining steadfast in his rejections as Chelsea’s bids amplified, the Croatian stumbled back and forth in his commitment to Spurs. Most fans at Tottenham were elated when the transfer window slammed shut and their midfield maestro remained at the club. However, after an indifferent season and his stated desire to move to Chelsea (that must now be even more prevalent after European football has failed to return to White Hart Lane), should the club cash in on Modric? Would £40 million be a good return on a player whose form is constantly fluctuating?
There is no doubt in my mind that Luka Modric is a world class player. When on form, the Croatian looks unstoppable, toying with the opposition as if they weren’t there. His playmaking skills far exceed that of any player in Tottenham’s team when he is at his best. The other side to Modric’s game is his inconsistency. His aforementioned talents on one day will be wiped out by their unexplainable disappearance on another. It also seems that his affection for the club has waned since last summer’s transfer merry-go-round. Maybe his heart is not at the Lane anymore. After his unnecessary public outburst last year stating that he wanted to sign for Chelsea, surely his relationship with Spurs will always be tainted. Commitment to a club gets you a long way with the fans, especially when Tottenham gave Luka Modric the platform to show his abilities on a European stage.
If Chelsea, Man City or Man United decide to have another go at prizing the Croatian out of a stubborn Levy’s hands, then another £40 million bid would have to be considered. The investment that can be made in the squad on the back of losing one player is monumental. An adept replacement for Modric along with one or two signings to sure up defensive frailties would surely be welcome at Spurs. However, after the success for Man City domestically and Chelsea having captured Belgian playmaker Eden Hazard, it would seem that only Man United would have an interest in Spurs’ No. 14. His stats this season have not been breath taking and the tumultuous handling of Modric and his future last year, along with the ever increasing asking price, will undoubtedly steer Sir Alex Ferguson away from declaring an interest.
Another question that must be posed to the Croatian is why he would want to go anywhere else. It could be argued that Tottenham squad looks more prepared for a domestic title challenge than the ageing Chelsea squad in which he could have been a part of. Granted Chelsea are European Champions and have managed to capture one of Europe’s best young talents in Hazard but the future at Tottenham looks considerably brighter than the advancing years of the rest of the squad at Stamford Bridge. His chances at Manchester City would be limited considering the playmaking talents that are already plying their trade at the Etihad and a transfer to Manchester United can go awry especially with the pressure of playing for such a successful team. Lessons learned from Dimitar Berbatov would indicate that sometimes it does not go to plan. For now, staying at Spurs might be best for his long term ambitions.
The summer of activity that will commence in the next few weeks, will always have players like Luka Modric at the epicentre. With age on his side and endless talent on his day, the Croatian will be filtered through the rumour mill. However, if one of the rumours comes to light and a bid is made that is comparable with Chelsea’s audacious attempts last year, surely Levy, Redknapp and the fans at White Hart Lane will deliberate offloading Modric and using the investment to refurbish certain areas of the squad. With The Daily Telegraph asserting that the former Dinamo Zagreb man could be sold for as much as £40 million, the impending seasons at Spurs may look brighter without their ‘star man’ in the team.
Should Spurs Luka to move Modric on? For more embarrassing Football puns, follow me on Twitter @mattpegg1
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