With Fabio Capello insisting that he won’t manage England past the 2012 European Championships, names are already been branded about as a possible successor to the Italian. But with the FA proudly boasting that their next manager will be English there is hardly a wealth of managers to choose from.

Early contenders are Harry Redknapp, Roy Hodgson, Steve Bruce and Sam Allardyce with current England number two Stuart Pearce also reportedly in the frame. Without meaning to disrespect any of these they hardly have the same statute as Capello.

That is the real problem that the FA now faces after promising an English manager. The FA will be hoping that an English manager will bring more pride and passion from the players, something that was so desperately missing in South Africa.

The worry is though that the FA’s willingness to employ an English manager could backfire with huge consequences. After the 2006 World Cup there was the same urge to go English and Steve McClaren was given the chance to succeed Sven-Göran Eriksson.

What was followed was a drastic failure that lead to England failing to qualify for Euro 2008. If the same was to happen again it would mean England missing out on a World Cup which would the ultimate humiliation.

Personally I see myself more patriotic then most, but I just don’t feel the need for the England manager to actually be English and believe purely in picking a manager who is the most best man for the job.

In an ideal world yes, I’d love to see a top English manager making his national team play with the heart that we saw so many other countries play with at the World Cup.

But the fact of the matter is that we don’t have a top manager. International football is the very top level in football and I wouldn’t want to see England sacrifice the chance of success for an apparent need for an Englishman to be charge. However with the FA already promising an Englishman it means unfortunately this may be the case.

Sunderland’s record signing Asamoah Gyan has admitted he faces a stern task to justify his £13million transfer fee. The Ghanaian forward completed a move to the North East on deadline day, but the transfer raised eyebrows with its vast price tag, and Gyan is well aware that expectations from him will be high.

The 24-year-old told BBC Sport: “It has been my dream to go to England and it is one of the best moments of my career. I am somebody who can soak up the pressure. Sunderland is not like Chelsea who can buy players for £15m, but they did which suggests the coach has a lot of confidence in me and sees the calibre of player I am.

“As a spearhead people will expect you to score goals. Secondly they bought me with a huge amount of money and most of the fans will be expecting extraordinary things. But  I can deal with the pressure.”

Gyan’s confidence is admirable, but whether he can live up to his promises is another question.  Top players aside, It is rare that players come in from abroad and make an immediate impact in the Premier League, and you do feel that Sunderland have paid over the odds for a player with no experience of playing in England.

But what Gyan does have going for him is his physical qualities and exemplary attitude. While English fans won’t have seen much of Gyan, in the World Cup he was superb , showing some lethal pace and strength coupled with excellent finishes.

The worry for Sunderland fans will be that Gyan follows a long list of players signed on the back of a good World Cup.  A quick look over his past reveals a forward who although never clinical has always chipped in with goals, but has struggled with injuries. In the 2007-2008 season Gyan,  then at Udinese, was struck by injury and missed virtually the whole campaign.

But a move to France followed and Gyan scored 14 times in 48 games for Ligue 1 club Rennes.  That sort of record demonstrates the sort of role that Sunderland boss will be looking Gyan to play.  I suspect that Gyan will be the forward to do the dirty work, letting Darren Bent be the clinical goal-getter.

The problem with this though is that Gyan might not get the glory to justify his price. Football fans are fickle and often don’t recognise players who bring the subtle qualities of the squad together. But I hope for Gyan that Sunderland fans take note of what he brings to the team, should he not score the goals his price tag demands.

14 games without a Premiership win would be worrying for several sides, but when you’ve spent the best part of £50 million to improve the team, 4 months without a win is disastrous. When Bruce took the reigns at the Stadium of Light in the summer, the club had survived a dreadful season which had seen Roy Keane walk out half way through and they limped to the final day staying up.

If you were brutally honest, Sunderland stayed up due to the ineptness of the other clubs at the foot of the table. For the amount of transfer outlay the Black Cats have spent, around £130 million in 3 years, two successive relegation battles are simply not good enough. For all the criticism that came last season, Bruce’s tenure started so well and Sunderland were comfortably placed in the top ten.

Yet since November, it’s all gone horribly wrong and Sunderland have slid down the table once more. Free scoring twitter addict Darren Bent has suddenly found goals hard to come by in open play and the side seems gripped with a fear of losing. As daft as it sounds, it’s a common occurrence for sides struggling to win to try and close up defensively, which in turn invites teams to attack them. The fear of having a go back leads to a footballing paralysis, the team simply forgets how to win.

Bruce has certainly got his work out at probably his biggest managerial role so far. Up until November, Bruce could honestly be pleased with the sides progress and they seemed to playing a good, high tempo attacking game. Beating Arsenal had seen them continue to re-affirm their ambitions of an outside chance of European football, but suddenly the confidence evaporated.

Bruce was in bullish mood earlier this week, coming out and defending his signings and perhaps he would point to Kenwyn Jones having his head turned by Liverpool’s underhand transfer methods in January, and the loss of Lee Catermole has certainly shown just how important he is to the Sunderland side.  Yet, two signings do not make a team and several players simply have not performed not just for Bruce but over the last couple of years.

What has happened to Keiran Richardson? He seems to have completely lost his way again after picking up last season, so much potential and promise seems to be shackled with a fear to work hard and show the talent he has. Michael Turner has struggled to justify his £10 million transfer fee (as quoted in the court documents in the Hull City v Paul Duffen case). Anton Ferdinand has looked like he’d walk back to London if he could get a transfer, but he at least made me smile with this peach of a quote this week.

“It would be naive to say that we’re not in a relegation scrap. The league is so tight that a couple of results either way can make a massive amount of difference. No one is mentioning the R word around here, and we don’t want to start having to talk about it.” Priceless.

Of course, the bottom of the table is so tight at the moment, anyone from West Ham, in 13th could go down right now. 4 points separate 7 clubs and Sunderland’s goal difference is a real bonus despite the situation they are in. Unfortunately, they’ve a dreadful run of fixtures after Tuesday’s clash with Bolton. Only one of the next 6 games is against a side in the bottom half of the table and that could be crucial. It is not a run of games to take such a dreadful run of form into.

Yet, it could be what they need. Gaining three points in any of those matches would be a massive boost for Bruce and the club, giving them a much needed shot in the arm. No-one wants to say they’re too good to go down, we’ve seen it from sides such as West Ham United and Newcastle before. Now Bruce has to prove his reputation and really earn his stripes at the Stadium of Light.

When I first heard of Twitter, I thought it was a dirty verb, like: “Get Twittered!” or “Go Twitter yourself!” (And maybe there’s still potential for that.) Turns out it’s a social networking website. And it has undeniably become the Next Big Net Thing.

In addition to allowing friends to keep up with each other’s day-to-day goings-on, all kinds of organizations from restaurants to sporting clubs to Ashton Kutcher are learning to use its free marketing potential to promote themselves. EPL Talk’s own The Gaffer uses it to keep folks current with our site’s updates.

But alongside the benefits, there’s plenty of room for error as well. Controversy arose this week when Tottenham Hotspur’s Darren Bent used Twitter to vent his frustration over stalled transfer talks. He reportedly posted the following items on his Twitter account:

“Why can’t anything be simple? It’s so frustrating hanging around doing jack s**t. Seriously getting p***ed off now.”

“Do I want to go to Hull City, no. Do I want to go to Stoke, no.”

“Do I want to go to Sunderland, yes. So stop f*****g around, Levy.”

There was speculation it wasn’t really Bent’s account (I was hoping it would prove to be Steve Bruce’s), but today Bent owned up to his posts when he apologized on Tottenham’s official site:

“I appreciate that transfers are seldom straightforward and are often complex. However, after a long period of waiting following my withdrawal from the plane to China, I had become incredibly frustrated by the time these things take and I posted inappropriate comments on my Twitter site.

“I allowed my emotions to get in the way of my better judgement. I regret my actions and did not intend to offend Daniel Levy or anyone with the nature or the content of my posting.”

Bent’s retraction aside, does this mean Twitter will play a bigger role in our football media terrain? Will we see players and managers using Twitter to wind each other up? Complain about refereeing decisions? Flush out transfer speculation? Will we be reading articles every week about professional football Tweets?

The possibilities are endless…

A_Zaki: I was completely onside. Linesman was drunk. Time to sulk.

RafaBeni: Getting nervous. Bought Xabi case of Rioja in case he’s on fence.

Fergie99: TiVo’ed Rafa’s latest press conference. Hoping for rant pt 2.

BexInLA: Took Landon bowling to ease tension. Kicked his arse. Oops.

City_Hughes: Players in place. Time to shop for chemistry.

J_Barton: Anybody know a good lawyer?

In 1998, when I started going to the University of New Hampshire, AOL Instant Messenger was the big rage. We were bent over our computers all hours of the day, keeping up with old friends from home and getting to know new ones at school. I remember many the awkward moments and endless misunderstandings that come too easily with such brief, faceless, voiceless interaction. We learned some big lessons. Like: sarcasm is hard to convey over the internet. And: always talk about the big issues in person. Eventually, we succumbed to communicating using the away message function (the message one left when away from Instant Messanger: at the library… at the dining hall… surfing for porn…) in an attempt to avoid the real-time electronic faux pas. These “status updates” became the template for today’s Tweets.

Later, this desire for online social networking gave birth to sites like Friendster, MySpace and Facebook. Each one seemed to catch on for a while before getting knocked off the perch by the next. But Twitter seems to reach all the way back to Instant Messenger and amplify that concept to a mass scale.

Bent’s comments might have once been some quiet griping to personal friends. No story there. But today it gets broadcast the world over. Anyone who’s paying attention gets wind of his complaints. And it ends up on all the media sites as the controversy du jour.

As we demand more and more information in shorter and shorter bursts, it’s easy to get caught in the stream. The lesson those in the public arena need to learn—similar to what we students learned at University long ago—is despite the ease of transmission, you need to watch your words. Now more than ever. The world is potentially listening.

Oh, by the way… keep an eye my upcoming can’t-live-without-it social networking site: TweetMySpaceBookster.com™. It’s going to be huge. Coming soon to a laptop near you.

When I heard that Steve Bruce was being lined up as the replacement for Ricky Sbragia, a few alarm bells rang in my head. Bruce, being a Newcastle United fan surely couldn’t be Ellis Short and Niall Quinn’s choice as the new Sunderland manager could he? Would Bruce seriously consider near enough ruling himself out of becoming Newcastle manager in the near future by taking the job? How much would Wigan want for a man they paid £3 million for?

Yet, amazingly, it seems as if Bruce has said yes to becoming the new manager at the Stadium of Light after an all day meeting in the Algarve. Short has made no secret of his plans to pump money into Sunderland and Bruce has seemed frustrated in the last few weeks with his sides perceived lack of effort once they’d passed the magic 40 point mark in the Premiership. After the defeat to Stoke City on May 18th, Bruce let go with his frustrations about his players lack of effort and the fact that what could have been.

Losing 3 top players in the last transfer window didn’t help and with rumours flying around about the future of Antonio Valencia, Bruce may have thought he’d had enough of life in Wigan in his second spell with the Latics. There’s no doubt that Bruce is keen to push himself with the challenge of a bigger club, and looking at his career, Sunderland will be the biggest position he’s held since being the manager of Sheffield United. He’s got an ambitious chairman, a squad of underperforming players but the additional carrot of plenty of money to spend in the summer.

Bruce is attempting to follow in the footsteps of a Sunderland legend with his affection towards Newcastle United. Bob Stokoe, the Black Cats manager between 1972 and 1976, is feted by the Mackems for the 1973 FA Cup win and winning promotion to the old First Division in 1976. If he can impose himself early on at Sunderland, it may end up being the most successful spell that Sunderland fans have had in a long time, Peter Reid’s reign excepted.

For the Wigan Athletic Chairman, Dave Whelan, now it looks as if Bruce on the way to Sunderland, needs to avoid the mistake he made once Paul Jewell resigned. By allowing Chris Hutchings to take over as manager, it almost cost the Latics their Premiership status, until Bruce rode to the rescue. Ordinarily, you’d say the obvious choice would be Roberto Martinez, currently winning plaudits with Swansea City and the expansive way they play football.

As the club that fetched Martinez to England originally as one of the “Three Amigos” in 1995, Wigan obviously are close to his heart. The news that Celtic have made an approach for Martinez will have depressed the usually irrepressible Dave Whelan who would have had the Spaniard at the top of his wish list. Martinez may yet turn the opportunity down, but Celtic is a massive job, with European football every season added to the continual battle with Rangers to win trophies. Is it too big a job to turn down, regardless of his emotional attachment to Wigan Athletic?

Whelan needs to make sure the mistakes of 2007 are not repeated but to lose such an excellent manager and potentially his readymade replacement is dreadful luck. His next managerial appointment will be the most important decision that Whelan will make this year. He has to get it right, but he needs a proven Premiership manager or the rising star of the Championship. Candidates like that aren’t exactly are growing on trees and Whelan needs to give the Latics fans reasons for optimism this summer.

I admit it. I was fully dazzled by Amr Zaki when he first came to play in England. The stunning goals came so quickly. And they were gorgeous. Wigan Athletic’s unknown striker just needed half a second on the ball to make miracles happen and it seemed like the goals were going to stream from his thirsty feet all season.

In late September Wigan manager Steve Bruce couldn’t bubble forth enough shining praise of Amr Zaki. Awesome. Fantastic. A real future. Fan favourite. Power. Pace. Gives everything he’s got. At the time Zaki was top scorer in the Premier League and there was no sign of the unprofessionalism that would vex Bruce and Wigan later in the season. “I can’t question his attitude,” said Bruce in admiration.

Zaki was one of the most exciting players to come out of last summer’s transfer window. Loaned from Egypt’s El Zamalek for the season, Zaki’s influence was immediate and exceptional.  By the end of September, Zaki had scored six goals in eight appearances, helping the Lactics secure three league wins, two draws and a cup win against Notts County. Wigan’s quick eight points put them 10th in the table. A great start for a club that sat just four points from safety at the end of last season.

The inevitable question arose: Could Zaki continue this amazing form throughout the long season? But no one thought to ask: Would Zaki continue showing up to practice throughout the long season?

In April, reports surfaced that Bruce fined Zaki for failing to return on time after international duty. This was the fourth incident of Zaki absenteeism. Bruce said Zaki had already been fined “considerably more than the average person in Britain earns in a year.”

His unprofessionalism has seen him fail to meet anything close to the potential he showed early on. He’s been a player with a foot out the door since midyear, and while Steve Bruce may have been cursing himself in the early winter for not buying Zaki outright, he is now ready to help the 26-year-old pack his bags.

Bruce complained Zaki has been distracted by supposed interest from other clubs like Real Madrid. This was the cause in the change in the player. Wigan was just to small for him. He was ready to move on.

But shouldn’t this interest have sparked Zaki’s form rather than cause him to switch it off? Shouldn’t the prospect of playing for a larger club have been a call for Zaki to step up the professionalism rather than abandon it?

His agent claims that Zaki has offers from four other Premier League clubs, so maybe the mid-season sulking hasn’t jeapordized his ambitions. But the sad display should be a warning to prospective clubs.

Any club that goes for him risks all the primadonna baggage that he can bring.  If he goes to a bigger club, what happens when he’s benched for the star strikers already there? He’s not going to start over proven talents like Torres, Anelka, or Rooney. If he goes to a top four club, he’ll have to compete for spots with established strikers who have been plying their trade successfully for the best teams in England. If Zaki’s late season antics are an indicator, I can see him reacting childishly to any significant amount of time spent on the bench. Remember Craig Bellamy at Liverpool? The pouting. The dirty looks when subbed off. I don’t see Zaki breaking out the golf clubs, but the point is professionalism. It’s one thing to be a proven goalscorer. It’s another thing to be a part of a team. Zaki doesn’t seem to have that second, all-important part down.

If he doesn’t grow up, he’s not going to make it at a bigger club. There’s no room for such childishness at the top.

Why don’t more managers come clean in the press about disruptive or unprofessional players? It seems that more and more in these sanitised and sponsorship heavy times that too many people keep quiet about the players who are taking the Michael. At least Steve Bruce has bucked the trend and come out in public with his frustration over Amr Zaki and his time keeping.

To most football fans, it’s been obvious that Zaki has been wanting to leave Wigan since mid November, such has been the fall off in his performances and attitude. Here’s a striker that scored 9 times in his first 13 Premiership matches but his last goal for Wigan was a penalty in a 1-0 win at Bolton on December 28th and you’ve actually got to go back to October 18th for his last goal in open play in the 3-2 defeat to Liverpool.

A classic case of someone who has decided he’s too big for the club that’s given him the chance to make a name for himself in 6 months and feels that he’s better off without them. Yet it comes to something when your behaviour makes Mido look like a model professional and Zaki is a long way short of that level of commitment to Wigan Athletic and their fans.

I can only assume that Wigan can’t terminate the loan deal they have with Zaki’s Egyptian side Zamalek, otherwise I think Bruce would have kicked him all the way to Manchester Airport and threw him on the next flight back to Cairo. It’s an absolute disgrace that this player feels he can muck Wigan Athletic, their management and the fans about as much as this. In fact it’s pathetic. No-one had heard of Zaki outside of Africa before he joined Wigan Athletic, they took a punt on a striker who was ranked as the worlds best in the FIFA rankings last summer and gave him an opportunity to shine in the Premiership.

As soon as rumours began to circulate that bigger clubs were after him, he just packed it in and put his feet up. Bruce’s comments on Wigan’s website are heartfelt and the frustration and anger drip from every word. This is apparently the 4th time this season he’s done a bunk after International duty which is why I mentioned earlier that I don’t think Wigan can cancel the deal without some kind of financial penalty clause kicking in to touch.

Too many times modern footballers get wrapped in cotton wool and protected from the real world that the fans need to see and hear about. They get paid fortunes in the Premier League and they treat their fans like this, on this form he’s in danger of knocking Ashley Cole off the perch of most idiotic footballer in Britain, which is some going on Cole’s form.

You have to question the reasons behind Zaki’s thinking that if any big clubs are interested, who in their right mind is going to take a chance on someone who quite clearly doesn’t give a damn about anyone else but himself. Good on Steve Bruce for coming clean about Zaki and I feel sorry for any manager that takes the plunge to give him another chance in the Summer. You can bet on one thing, he sure as hell won’t be at Wigan Athletic next season.

So the big story that will be blown out of proportion from United’s 2-1 victory over Newcastle is the war of words at halftime between Cristiano Ronaldo and Stephen Taylor. Nothing too serious, Ronaldo calling Taylor a rubbish footballer and Taylor in grand reply going ‘well you are ugly’ like some high school girl would say to another in the middle of a junior high spat. Why this is a story I’ll never know.

So the League Managers’ Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association have got together to come up with some recommendations about referees. I have to say some of the recommendations aren’t all bad. The main ones include setting up a way of formalizing complaints and feedback between club and ref, and having the top two divisions use licensed referees with video analysis after every game. You can read the rest of the things recommended here.

Harry Redknapp is telling his Spurs players to lay off the booze, even if they stay in the top flight. I wonder if that comes with random BAC checks?

Who would have thought it would be James Beattie heading Stoke City’s fight for survival?

Fulham are opening up contract talks with Brede Hangleand to make sure he stays a Cottager. Good idea.

Here’s the latest red top Manchester City fodder. Spending 100 million quid to sign Messi in the summer. Remember the source on this one folks.

Thank you Jose Mourinho for stating the bloody obvious when you say Manchester United will win the title.

West Ham will be without the services of Valon Behrami for the rest of the season.

And finally, Gianfranco Zola and Steve Bruce have two totally different observations about the refereeing of Stuart Attwell. One backs him, the other says he’s not ready. I’ll let you figure out which one said what.

These will be rapid fire after the fun day of news already discussed.

* Shawn Wright-Phillips receives a three match ban for the kick he gave Rory Delap. Delap is supporting SWP saying he deserved what he got after his tackle on him. And through all of this, Jose Bosingwa is just laughing that he got away with nothing.

* Monday was the 30th anniversary of the first million pound transfer, that of Trevor Francis.

* Edwin Van der Sar is getting bored about talking about the goalless record he currently has in England. Don’t blame him, I’m sure he’s getting tired of people telling him he’s that good.

* Speaking of Manchester United, Mike Phelan admits they are gunning for the quad.

* Steve Bruce admits he got the team selection all wrong against Fulham.

* Tim Howard is singing all of Jo’s praises. Let’s see how that feeling is towards the end of the loan move.

*  Tony Pulis hopes that Ricardo Fuller won’t have to miss the rest of this season due to his shoulder injury.

* I wonder how much hot water Gareth Southgate will be in after saying Middlesbrough are 85 million in debt? For a man who isn’t exactly safe in his position, that’s information I wouldn’t be letting the public in on.

* And finally, Eduardo is expected to play for Croatia on Wednesday. I am honestly amazed he is back this soon.

The sooner Rafa Benitez keeps his mouth shut about how teams are playing against Liverpool, even in off handed ways, and focuses on getting your team back on the winning path; the better off you will be. The comments made after Liverpool’s 1-1 draw at the JJB against Wigan in my mind read like a manager who has lost grip with what is important…winning.

The comments, where he calls the game crazy, says his players were okay, and takes a back handed swipe at how his team played with this comment “We’ve been giving away too many points. This has happened in the last three games and it’s something I don’t like. “I know why but I cannot say anything…” tells me that Rafa doesn’t get it.

I notice a pattern here. Ever since Rafa’s swipe at Sir Alex Ferguson, nothing has been Rafa’s fault. Maybe it’s time for Rafa to look at himself in the mirror and realize maybe it’s what he’s doing with the squad that has Liverpool playing in this manner. With Chelsea coming up on Sunday, Rafa doesn’t have long to turn things around. It’s going to be very interesting to see how he deals with Scolari’s men, considering the chances they have created lately.

Other Stories
Gotta love the red tops. I don’t think Roque Santa Cruz is gonna want to leave one team struggling for relegation to head off to another (that would be to Tottenham).

These type of gentleman’s agreements better be dealt with quickly by FIFA. No wonder why Zenit St. Petersburg has been so smug about this whole Andrei Arshavin situation. It looks like if Arsenal want him, it’ll be fifteen million to secure him.

In a subject I talked about yesterday, West Brom are going to appeal Paul Robinson’s red card picked up against Manchester United. I hope the suspension is overturned.

The BBC wins the UK Premier League highlight rights.  The only added bonus is MOTD will be available for UK Users on iPlayer on delay.

I don’t think anyone associated with Manchester City will be getting a Christmas card from Steve Bruce.  Saying that Palacios was used as a pawn in the Craig Bellamy deal is a strong accusation.

Could Marco Storari be the next backup to Petr Cech at Chelsea?

As mentioned earlier on the site today, Michael Owen looks to be out for six weeks while Joey Barton looks to be out six weeks thanks to ankle injuries sustained against Manchester City. This on the say night where Joe Kinnear confirmed that Shay Given will more than likely leave the club in January.

Friday will be the day when FIFA will decide Nemanja Vidic’s fate from the red card he picked up at the World Club Cup.

Tony Adams wants three more players before the transfer window closes. It’ll be interesting to see if he can secure them. Meanwhile Sol Campbell is coming out and lamenting that talks haven’t started on a new contract for him.

Manchester City is pledging their full support behind Robinho.

Emile Heskey feels Aston Villa are top four worthy. We’ll find out soon enough.

Here is an interview I did for Football Corner.

And finally Vinnie Jones will be our next guest for the EPL Talk Podcast. Now I shouldn’t have to be doing this but I will. Please keep your questions reasonable or else don’t expect them to be asked on air.