If you were your country’s top scorer with a healthy 35 goals in 73 appearances, chances are you’d be an established top league player in most countries in Europe. Add to that record a career that has seen you start out at Manchester United and take in spells at Leeds United, Sunderland and Fulham, you’d expect a pretty good record. Yet, if that player was David Healy, you’d be scratching your head.

Here’s a man who scored a hat trick against Spain in September 2006. In fact, during qualifying matches for the 2008 European Championships, Healy bagged an incredible 13 goals in 12 games, making him the top scorer in qualifying for the tournament. Yet in the last 18 months he’s scored just 2 Premier League goals in 20 matches and his time at Sunderland has seen him struggle to maintain a place in the starting line up.

His time under Roy Keane never really took off and when Keane walked out after spending the best part of £100 million to make a team worse, his replacement, Ricky Sbragia preferred pragmatism to striking options and played with only Kenwyne Jones up front. As he’s just turned 30, is it too late for him to force himself into Steve Bruce’s plans? With Darren Bent joining over the summer, Healy has yet to play any Premiership football so far this season.

Healy has almost had the reversal of some players careers, in that he is so prolific at international level, but so inconsistent at domestic level. How is it that someone can score 35 goals against sides such as Sweden, Spain and Denmark, yet struggle to score more than 15 goals in a league season? He’s managed that feat only once, in 2003-04 when he was at Preston and currently has scored a total of 90 goals in English domestic football.

He’s the only player to score a hat trick twice for Northern Ireland; even George Best never managed that, but only scored one in league football. I doubt I can remember a striker with such a strange record in the modern era. When he joined Fulham in 2007, it was supposedly the move that would finally see Healy establish himself as a top flight striker but he only scored 4 Premier League goals for the Cottagers. He hit two in his first two league appearances, so then hit 2 in another 28 games.

How is it possible? I don’t understand it at all. When you look at someone who was the complete opposite, Ian Wright, who was so prolific at league level but only scored 9 goals for England in 31 games. Or even Andrew Cole, with just one international goal to his name in 15 games but 289 throughout his domestic career.

Healy has the talent, his international record cannot be a continual series of flukes spread over a series of years. If anything, the early part of his international career could be written off, as Northern Ireland struggled to win any game for nearly16 matches and two years between 2002 and 2004. His international career is currently going through a similar spell, with only 1 goal in his last 12 appearances. No doubt a hangover from his domestic struggles but Healy is an international footballing enigma.

The question is can he finally find the right relationship with Steve Bruce at Sunderland to finally ignite the touch paper under his career? Northern Ireland’s fans will be hoping he can find his form as soon as possible.Unfortunately they need him to be in form right now, but the next match could see him end his bad run and if he ever needed to do it, now is the time.

Wednesday night sees them entertain the group leaders Slovakia and a win will put Northern Ireland top of the group and just one game away from a return to the World Cup for the first time since 1986 and wouldn’t that be a phenomenal achievement.

Related posts:

1. Exciting Night in Euro 2008 Qualifying Football
2. Man City Bids For David Villa and Mario Gomez
3. Manchester United: Best Eleven Of The Premiership Years

Everton are on the verge of selling striker Andy Johnson to Fulham for a tidy profit. Johnson joined Everton from Palace for £8.6m in May of 2006 and after scoring 22 goals in 74 appearances, his value has gone up significantly. Fulham will reportedly pay a fee that could eventually rise to £13m for the 27-year-old, who is thought to be keen on a move back to London for family reasons.

For their part, Everton are expected to use the money obtained from the transfer to make an improved bid for 21-year-old Sporting Lisbon and Portugal midfielder Joao Moutinho. Everton had an £11.8m bid rejected over the weekend, with Sporting demanding £20m.

If Fulham complete the deal for Johnson, he will become Roy Hodgson’s ninth signing since the end of the season. Johnson would join Mark Schwarzer, Zoltan Gera, David Stockdale, Andranik Teymourian, Toni Kallio, former West Ham duo Bobby Zamora and John Pantsil and defender Fredrik Stoor who signed on from Rosenborg.

I can’t help but recall Fulham’s busy summer last year and the resulting struggles as the team did not seem to settle. You’ll recall that last summer, Lawrie Sanchez went on a £25m spending spree and brought in a boat-load of new faces. Hodgson is also bringing in many new faces so I thought it would be interesting to compare the two manager’s performances in the transfer market. Obviously it is much too early to know how Hodgson’s signings will turn out but that’s what speculation is for !

Let’s start with Sanchez’s deals from last summer.

A couple of the players had a positive impact on the team such as Paul Konchesky, Hamuer Bouazza and Aaron Hughes. Most of the others never found their stride at the club and you wonder if they’ll remain after the summer. I’m choosing to abstain from judging David Healy as I don’t feel he’s yet to get a proper run of games at the club in order to show his worth.

In particular, I could see Seol Ki-Hyeon and Chris Baird moving along and Fulham have been trying to sell Steven Davis to Rangers. Ki-Hyeon was essentially traded for Liam Rosenoir and I think that was a bad deal for Fulham. Rosenoir is only 24 and still growing as a defender while Ki-Hyeon struggled to break into the first team and did not produce much when given a chance. Baird seems better suited to the Championship level at this point though that might be a bit harsh of a judgment.

Diomansy Kamara, a £6 million signing from Championship outfit West Brom, would have to be looked upon as a flop. 5 goals in 28 appearances is simply not what Sanchez was hoping for with that signing.

Shefki Kuqi, Dejan Stefanovich did not bolster the team much, if at all. I like Danny Murphy as a player but he had a rough start for Fulham but did come good towards the end of the season. All in all, a so-so record for Sanchez.

With that in mind, let’s examine some of Hodgson’s signings a little closer. Replacing Kasey Keller was vital and in Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, Fulham have a decent starting goalkeeper. When you consider they picked up the 35-year-old on a free, I’d put that down as a solid signing.

Fredrik Stoor is a 24-year-old who played for Sweden at Euro 2008 and made 29 appearances for Rosenborg’s first team, including 7 appearances in European club competition. He looks to have a good shot at grabbing the starting right-back berth as Moritz Volz seems to be out of favour and loan signing Paul Stalteri does not appear to be making a permanent move to Fulham from Spurs. Whether Stoor can adapt to the Premier League remains to be seen.

Toni Kallio did not make a single first-team appearance during his loan period with Fulham and must be viewed simply as a depth signing as he is versatile enough to play either centre or left-back positions. He is also well known to Roy Hodgson from his time as Finland’s coach.

Andranik Teymourian came over from Bolton on a free after struggling to get first team action under both Sammy Lee and Gary Megson. He had shown flashes of brilliance and could be a very good bargain pickup. Cracking the first-team might also been an issue at Fulham considering how many senior players are currently at the club.

Bobby Zamora is a streaky player and is likely a depth signing though he might get some starts if he starts the season on one of his hot streaks. He was not a costly investment so consider this one a roll of the dice.

John Pantsil spent two years with the Hammers but made just seven league starts and is hoping to use his move across London to prove he is good enough for the Premier League. Pantsil will compete with Stoor for the starting right-back slot. Another relatively low cost gamble.

Zoltan Gera turned down a contract extension with West Brom to sign on a free with Fulham and wages have to be the reason. He’s likely to be a depth player as I don’t see Gera supplanting Dempsey or Bouazza as an attacking midfield player. Coming over on a free looks to be an OK deal for the club.

That brings us to the Johnson signing. Is he going to offer something that Healy does not? They both seem to be pacey, predatory players and I don’t see much to choose between the two. I think Fulham could have used a strong centre forward ala Brian McBride and I’m not sure that Zamora or Collins John, if he remains with the club, are the answer.

Overall, beyond the big splash signing of Johnson, I would say that Hodgson has been pretty shrewd in his transfer dealings and has taken calculated chances on “unknowns” ala Sam Allardyce. He has spent a good amount of cash but Fulham are backed by a relatively rich chairman that does not mind investing in the club from time to time.

Fulham’s Premier League consolidation (they’ve stayed up since 2001) is quite an achievement in view of their low ebb during the 1990s. The club was relegated to the Third Division in 1994 and two years later finished 17th out of 24 teams. Mohammed Al-Fayed (owner of Harrod’s department store) bought the club in 1997 and has to be praised for reviving their fortunes.

They have yet to find their feet in the Premier League but I think this could be the season they finally move toward being a top 10 club possibly at the expense of a club like Blackburn. I am not predicting a UEFA Cup berth or anything that high but I certainly feel they will do better than 17th. Hodgson is an underrated manager and I look for the club to move forward this season under his experienced tutelage.

Related posts:

1. Fulham Continue To Progress Under Hodgson
2. Where’s The Wisdom In Andy Johnson’s Move From Everton To Fulham?
3. Hodgson Looks To Build On The Great Escape