EPL Talk » Elano

Who Will Move Premiership Clubs In January?

Paul Bestall — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:23:18 +0000

A little under 32 hours remain until the transfer window finally opens once again in World Football and the merry go round of mad money begins once again. I’ve seen several people claim that due to the economic climate, it’s probably going to be a quiet window with little money changing hands, but don’t bet on it. Back at the beginning of the Premiership, the world had seen a similar economic downturn and yet over the course of the first four seasons, the British transfer record was increased from the £3. 2 million that Blackburn Rovers paid Southampton in July 1992 to prise a young lad named Alan Shearer to Ewood Park to the whopping £15 million Kevin Keegan paid to take the same player back to his North East roots from Rovers in July 1996. I’m not stating that the British transfer record will be broken again but I doubt it will be overly quieter than usual. During the same period, the average players price moved upward, (£4.5 million for Chris Armstrong anyone??) , with Blackburn especially throwing money about like confetti which enabled other teams to spend and that leads us to the key two words of the transfer window, Manchester City.

There is no doubt that City will be looking to spend, spend and spend to get the players they need in and I read earlier today that since September 1st, in the British press alone, they’ve been linked with 103 different players but I don’t expect anything more than 5 or 6 big money arrivals coming to Eastlands. The advantage they have is that with the exception of the Big Four, Villa and Spurs, most clubs will be happy to listen to offers for most of their players, despite what they may say in press. The boards of football clubs will always come out, as Everton’s have today regarding Joleon Lescott and Mikael Arteta, saying players are not for sale, but we all know that virtually every player at every club has a price. If City came in on Thursday and offered Everton £40 million for those two, do we think Everton wouldn’t sell them? A board making a statement of intent not to sell usually is simply wanting to up the price of the player and courting the press in this manner simply keeps the fans sweet whilst allowing them to then save face by saying they were offered silly money, the players now want to leave and it’s in the clubs best interests to accept it.

Ironically, it’s probably going to be Blackburn who find themselves involved with the first big money move of the window, with the open secret that Roque Santa Cruz seems to be moving down the M66 to arrive at Eastlands. Whilst Blackburn would definitely like to keep him, they’re not in a position to fight off a major bid from City. Allardyce will want some funds in and moving on a player who simply hasn’t delivered so far this season for a large sum will enable Big Sam to bring in a few new faces to mix it up and try and pull Rovers up the table.

Portsmouth are another club who, despite the crazy amount they’ve received for Diarra, still need to balance the books and know that Defoe, Crouch and Johnson are all coveted by other clubs, once again pushing up the sale price. Harry Redknapp will certainly be casting his eyes over his former charges and it wouldn’t surprise me to see a couple rejoin him at White Hart Lane with Spurs needing at least 4 or 5 new faces to strengthen the side whilst trying to move on players like Boateng, Rocha, Gilberto and Ghaly. Adams will hope he can hang on to as many of his first choice side but with only 2 wins in their last 13 league games, Pompey are sliding fast and maybe he needs to ship out two or three to enable him to get some fresh impetus into the team before they find themselves sucked into the bottom three.

West Ham are also under pressure to sell, with a £30 million pound compensation deal hanging over them, several players on high wages and an owner desperate to sell, they may be the one to suffer the most in January. Bellamy, Ashton, Neill, Green, Upson, Bowyer and Boa Morte have all been touted around the rumour mill recently and it could be a perilous month for the Hammers. I really feel for the fans at West Ham, they’ve been through the mill in the last two seasons and now have to hope that the transfer speculation surrounding the majority of the first team squad is simply that, the fans deserve better than they way the club has been run over the last couple of seasons.

So my ten players who I’ll be amazed don’t move in January are below:

Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn)
Craig Bellamy (West Ham)
Emile Heskey but depends how bad his hamstring injury is (Wigan)
Jermaine Pennant (Liverpool)
Matthew Upson (West Ham)
Jermaine Defoe (Portsmouth)
Gilberto (Tottenham)
Peter Crouch (Portsmouth)
Elano (Manchester City)
Michael Owen (Newcastle)

So who do you think will be on the move and more importantly, who do you want your club to sign??

Top Heavy City Struggle With Flair

Paul Bestall — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:11:55 +0000

Watching Manchester City yesterday left me in no doubt as to the scale of the issues currently affecting Mark Hughes team and the dreadful run of form they currently find themselves in. With 4 wins, 1 draw and 7 defeats so far in the Premier League, the optimism that greeted the signing of Robinho on August 31st has quickly evaporated, leaving City with something of a deadline day hangover that doesn’t seem to be clearing up anytime soon. For all Robinho’s hype and pomp, his speed and dead ball ability, he’s left the City team overloaded with attacking flair but little work-rate, a side desperate to charge forward at every possible opportunity with little thought as to the consequences of what may happen if they lose the ball. Starting yesterdays game alongside Robinho were Vassell, Wright-Phillips, Ireland and Benjani, giving City a quintet of attacking potential and that leads us to the issue at hand. Charging back to pressurise opponents is something that is obviously missing from the current City lineup and it’s beginning to show in abundance. The ironic thing in all this is that I’ve seen it all before with my team and it didn’t work then either.

Ossie Ardiles’ Tottenham team that started the 1994-1995 season had another attacking quintet that on paper oozed quality, Klinsmann, Sheringham, Barmby, Dumitrescu and Anderton. All international players, all great footballers, but it left the Spurs team top heavy and easy to pull apart. Ardiles only lasted 12 games of the 1994-95 season, fired after winning 5, drawing 2 and losing 5 and witnessing an amazing 45 goals in those 12 games. If you add in the 17 goals in 3 League Cup games, you get an incredible average of just over 4 goals a game. Entertainment by the bucket load, but unfortunately it usually benefited the opposition and Tottenham had to change tact, bringing in Gerry Francis and a more pragmatic tactical mixture.

Manchester City are currently working on the same principle of using 5 attacking players, a defensive midfielder and a back four, with full backs pushing up to fill the gaps in midfieldwhich are left when the wingers charge forward. It then leaves them open to quick counter attacks on both flanks, leaving the centre halves exposed and vulnerable, putting pressure on them and eventually leading to mistakes. When you’ve got everyone bombing forward with the ball, it’s brilliant. When they lose it with no end product, it becomes a different story.

I saw comparisons with Real Madrid’s Galactico side last week which made me chuckle no end, no offence to Manchester City and their dedicated and loyal fans but can you really compare the current City quintet with Raul, Ronaldo, Figo, Zidane and Beckham? Even with players of that ilk, the trophies dried up for Madrid because they were so top heavy and never replaced the underrated player who was the essentially fulcrum of the side, Claude Makelele. Now if players of that calibre can’t play 4-1-5 especially after Makelele left, it becomes blinding obvious that City need to be pragmatic and play a more restrained version of the beautiful game because some players look as if they’ve lost all the confidence they had and the tactics are increasing this burden on the team. Confidence is a fragile thing at the best of times, some people can seem Kevlar coated and deflect any criticism or set back and continue forward but another key component of Manchester City’s recent Premiership side looks deflated and defeated, his confidence shattered and broken.

Richard Dunne cut a dispirited and disillusioned figure yesterday, as he has in recent weeks. Since the Liverpool defeat, when City threw away 2 goal lead, the 4 time winner of Manchester City’s fans player of the year and club captain looks shattered. 2 own goals and a red card in recent matches hasn’t helped his state of mind and the tactics are pulling the relationship he had with Micah Richards to pieces. Dunne has been a rock for Manchester City over recent seasons and to see his demeanour is not a pleasant thing to see.

Mark Hughes blamed the weather for both of City’s red cards yesterday, but the referee was left in no doubt about both of them. They were stupid challenges and the players involved paid the price, the same as Assou-Ekoto, with the justified retribution from the officials. I understand Hughes stance of defending his players but tactically, City are all over the place and Dunne and Richards are the casualties of too much flair and not enough work, being left constantly exposed and unsupported.

Richards was one of England’s brightest prospects two years ago, now his potential seems unfulfilled, out of the England squad and in a leaky defence with a side on the slide. With both centre backs consistently exposed to the counter attack, teams are making the pairing look ordinary and brittle, passing their way around them with ease.

Thankfully, Hughes has received the backing of chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak today after reports began to circulate on Friday that the owners had lined up a replacement for him. Labelling the reports “rubbish” and stated that he was personally committed to him and Hughes would have money to spend once the January transfer window opens in 52 days time. Mubarak continues to support his manager in public and Hughes certainly deserves the backing of the chairman after only 4 months in the job. With some fans calling for his head already, Hughes needs his players to deliver in Sundays televised clash with Hull City at the KC Stadium to get things back in perspective at Eastlands.

FA Cup: More Third Round replay shocks

Lonnie — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:36:48 +0000

Blue Square Conference South club Havant and Waterlooville beat League One leaders Swansea 4-2 to book a dream trip to Anfield in the fourth round of the FA Cup on January 26.

Richard Paquette, Jamie Collins and Rocky Baptiste gave the Hampshire side a three-goal lead, before Guillem Bauza pulled a goal back for the League One leaders in the 39th minute. Jason Scotland made it 3-2 – but Tom Jordan’s 65th-minute goal sealed the victory for Havant and Waterlooville.

I absolutely love the story behind Havant and Waterlooville and, in particular, their striker Ricky Baptiste. Baptiste, as well as preparing for his role as a potential giantkiller, is doing the Knowledge in a bid to become a London cabbie. Baptiste explained to The Sun: “To complete the Knowledge you have to know all of London’s streets within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross. It’s very hard work and I go to bed dreaming of London streets. I want to be a cabbie so that when I finish playing football I have something to fall back on. ”

The other upset of the day came from League Two club Hereford United, who set up a fourth round tie at home to Cardiff with a 1-0 victory over League One side Tranmere Rovers. Winger Simon Johnson scored in the 72nd minute to push his club through. Tranmere will feel hard done by as the match reports all say that they dominated most of the game.

Newcastle beat Stoke 4-1 at St James’ Park to set up a fourth-round trip to Arsenal. Newcastle played over an hour with just 10 men as Emre was shown the red card at the half-hour mark for a bad tackle on Stoke’s John Eustace. Micheal Owen, Claudio Cacapa, James Milner and Damien Duff scored for the Magpies before Stoke’s Liam Lawrence notched a consolation goal.

Manchester City will face Sheffield United in the fourth round after beating West Ham with a 73rd-minute goal from Brazilian midfielder Elano. City’s striker problems will continue in the new year as on-loan Mexican Nery Castillo fell awkwardly under a challenge from Lucas Neill and was stretchered off with a dislocated shoulder in the second half of the match.

Premier League 2007 Awards (Traditional)

tyduffy — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:46:13 +0000

Best Player: Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United

It’s difficult to argue with this one. Even if he does score a number of goals on penalties, he still produces a striker’s tally from midfield and, unlike Frank Lampard, he manages to look skillful while doing it. The scariest thing is that he is only going to get better.

Worst Player: Kevin Kilbane, Wigan Athletic

This was a difficult choice, as teammate Titus Bramble is equally incompetent. However, Bramble at least shows flashes of ability at times, while Zinedine Kilbane is 100% useless. Michael Ballack would have been in the running, but was disqualified due to two few appearances.

Best Manager: Sven-Goran Eriksson, Manchester City

There are some worthy candidates, notably Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp. However, both had far better raw materials to begin the season. Sven had a squad that looked likely to be relegated and revitalized it into a Champions League contender in a matter of weeks, even without a striker.

Worst Manager (still standing): Alan Curbishley, West Ham

Consistently outclassed tactically, check. Bad signings, check. Inability to regognize/utilize talent, check. When is the last time that anyone has praised a brilliant decision made by Curbishley? West Ham are mid-table, but in spite of him rather than because of him.

Best Signing: Elano, Manchester City

Torres may be a better player, but Elano was 1/3 as expensive. No one, at least in the English media, knew who he was (despite him being a Brazilian International). City bought him for 8m GBP and could probably sell him for 3 times that now. A brilliant signing.

Worst Signing: Darren Bent, Tottenham Hotspur

Nothing against Darren Bent, he is a solid above average striker. But, he is certainly not worth 17m GBP. Particularly to Tottenham who already had Robbie Keane, Berbatov, and Defoe. The 17m GBP could have been redirected toward buying a few competent defenders.

Best Game: Tottenham 4 – West Ham 3

No particular reason that this was the best game, but it sticks in the memory. Carlos Tevez scored his first goal in this match. Berbatov had a nice free kick. It was edge of the seat action and entertainment.

Worst Game: Wigan Athletic (Entire Season)

Best Goal: Seb Larsson vs. Tottenham (Dec. 2)

Some other goals were flashier, but this strike was simply pure skill.

Most Overrated: John Terry, Chelsea

Throwing his personaltiy aside, John Terry is not a bad defender, but he is not a particularly great one either. He hasn’t been one for quite a while. Claims that he is a world-class elite defender are ridiculous. Just in the Top Four of the Premier League one would take Carvalho, Carragher, Vidic, Ferdinand, Gallas, and Toure over Terry at this point in time.

Most Underrated: Peter Crouch, Liverpool

Crouch does two things, he causes defenders to panic and he scores goals at a reasonably high rate. He may look like a jackass while doing it, but he is a solid player and definitively Liverpool’s 2nd best striker.