All posts by h79snht.top

Lille midfielder Ludovic Obraniak believes Paris Saint-Germain’s attention-grabbing role in the transfer market could work in his side’s favour.Since being bought out by the Qatar Investment Authority, PSG have made a series of big money transfers, including Jeremy Menez, Kevin Gameiro and Mohamed Sissoko, with a 40-million-euro move for Javier Pastore expected this week.

The massive influx of money and players in the French capital means expectations are high that Antoine Kombouare’s side can win their first Ligue 1 title since 1994.

But Poland international Obraniak said defending league champions Lille were more than happy to let PSG hog the spotlight, preferring to plot their route to consecutive titles more quietly.

“It’s great for us,” Obraniak said. “We’ve always liked to work in the shadows; we like working calmly.”

“All the pressure is now on PSG who, along with Marseille, will be heavily armed this season.”

“PSG already had a solid squad, and with the new names they’ve brought in, they’ll be very hard to beat. But still, they have to put a style of play into place, while we just need to give our all.”

Lille have hardly been stagnant in the transfer market, replacing the losses of Adil Rami, Gervinho and Yohan Cabaye with the likes of Marko Basa (Lokomotiv Moscow), Dimitri Payet (Saint-Etienne) and Benoit Pedretti (Auxerre).

Crucially, Belgian winger Eden Hazard has spurned the advances of several of Europe’s glamour clubs, and Obraniak was confident the side could recapture their title-winning form of last season.

“We still have the same core as last season,” he said. “We still joke around, we don’t put too much pressure on ourselves.”

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“We know it will be tough to perform as well as we did last season, but still we played some excellent football in the Trophee des Champions.”

“It’s exciting to get going again with some new players on board. They provide a breath of fresh air even though we would have loved to hang onto the ones who left.”

“It gets you asking the tough questions again; there is a competitive air in the squad. The new guys want to prove themselves and that forces everyone to lift their game.”

Tottenham finally got their season started today with a hard thought win this afternoon. Emmanuel Adebayor and Jermain Defoe were the heroes today and Harry Redknapp will be hoping that the result is the kickstart to their season.

At FFC this week we have seen a mixed bag of Spurs blogs that includes time for Bale to be pushed back, Harry is no replacement for Capello, while Levy’s transfer standoff has the desired effect.

We also look at the best Spurs articles around the web this week.

 

Is Tottenham the place to showcase his talents?

Why Harry is no replacement for Capello

Time for Bale to be pushed back at Tottenham

Will transfer standoff have the desired affect at Tottenham?

Tottenham deserve great credit for showing some balls

A view that Tottenham can’t progress until they get rid of him

Has Harry Redknapp been let down?

The man to tame Emmanuel Adebayor

The rising star who has become the object of Premier League club’s affections

Barca looking to gazump Spurs with £15m bid

Ndinga reveals Tottenham and Newcastle approach

Best of WEB

What can possibly go wrong? – Spurs Musings From JimmyG2

Benny, the weight of the world is on your shoulders son – Dear Mr Levy

Levy: The King Canute of Football – Tottenham On My Mind

Ahoy-Hoy & Toodle-Pip: Musings on Spurs’ Transfer Window – All Action No Plot

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Arry Preparing Tottingham Exit – Harry Hotspur

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You can win two places in the box for Chelsea v Swansea on Saturday 24th September, simply by signing up to 188BET and depositing £10 of cash. That’s what Rob and Paul did, and they won places in a Stamford Bridge box for Chelsea v Norwich. This is what they thought of the experience…

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What a great FanCast; always gives me a little buzz when I get a mention, so can you imagine my delight today, it was fantastic to meet you boys and you were right we were well up for it. I have been going to Chelsea for over twenty five years and had some great days but that one was up there with the best!!”

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Wigan manager Roberto Martinez will be hoping his side bring a halt to an alarming run of six successive defeats against Fulham at the DW Stadium on Saturday.

Despite starting the season in good form the Latics have plummeted down the table scoring just three times in the current winless run. Goals have been hard to come by in recent weeks with Hugo Rodallega sidelined with injury whilst Victor Moses and Franco Di Santo have failed to hit it off up front. The Colombian returned last week at Newcastle but missed a couple of gilt edged chances before Yohan Cabaye scored a late winner when it looked like a point was secure. They should be buoyed by their display in the North East but ultimately came away empty handed and Martinez will need to get his strikers back on the goal hunt. They’ve scored only six times in the Premier League – the lowest in the top flight this season. Defending needs improve drastically as well with the back line all over the place ad individual errors costing the team dearly in recent weeks. Martinez will be hopeful of having James McCarthy back from injury to pull the strings from midfield after he missed the game last week. The history books do favour the Latics though with Fulham failing to win inthis fixture in 11 games dating back to third-tier encounter in 1992.

It’s been a month since Martin Jol’s side thrashed QPR 6-0 at Craven Cottage with many expecting them to build on that result and kick start their season. It’s been a polar opposite though with back-to-back defeats seeing them plummet to 17th just keeping their head above the relegation zone. A third successive defeat would represent their worst sequence of result in 19 months although it could have been different had Bobby Zamora not fluffed his lines against Everton last week. With the score poised at 1-1 the England striker had a glorious chance to claim victory in the 90th minute only to blast the ball over the bar after rounding keeper Tim Howard. To rub salt into the wounds the Toffee’s scored twice just minutes later to win the game. Dutchman Jol has struggled to get the Cottagers playing consistently and their record against teams in the bottom half has been poor – they’ve failed to win in five attempts. They are unbeaten in the last nine meetings with Wigan but have failed to win in 11 attempts at the DW Stadium.

Key Players

Hugo Rodallega – The Colombians return from injury has boosted a frontline that is struggling to score goals of late. His pacey movement up front will give Wigan an extra edge in attack and with Victor Moses and Franco Di Santo supporting the net should be bulging in no time.

Clint Dempsey – It’s been a topsy turvy season for Fulham so far but Dempsey has continued to show why he is so highly rated in the Premier League. The American will equal fellow countryman’s goal record of 36 in the Premier League should he find the net on Saturday and it’s certain that he will cause Wigan no end of problems from the wing.

Prediction: 1-2

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Despite their poor run, Wigan have some high performing players in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index. Defender Maynor Figueroa and midfielder Ben Watson are the top two tacklers, having won 39 and 29, 91% and 81% of all attempted respectively Victor Moses continues his unlucky streak in front of goal – no other player in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index has had so many shots on target (17) without scoring. Moses has now had 26 attempts at goal in total without a goal. Fulham midfielder Clint Dempsey has troubled goalkeepers more than any other midfielder so far this season, getting 18 attempts on target from 29 efforts overall and scoring twice Damien Duff also continues to threaten the box and has put in 31 crosses so far, the fifth highest in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index.

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As Chelsea and Liverpool battle it out for fourteen-year-old MK Dons midfielder Seyi Ojo many are left bewildered at the price tag for such a young and unproven player. Yes, Ojo is playing years above his age group for both England and MK Dons but at what point did the desperation to uncover the next young starlet become so great that top clubs were willing to pay two million pounds for a boy with an unbroken voice?

Seyi Ojo may have potential to be a star but ultimately clubs aim to buy youngsters so they don’t have to pay big, risky transfer fees in the future; isn’t paying two million for a boy that young a risk? Only about half of all the supposed young stars fulfil their potential, and it is particularly hard to judge whether or not they will when they are quite as young as Ojo is. So why has this happened? When did we arrive at this point and is it worth it?

Precedent and market inflation

Obviously the two major factors are that market prices have been inflated as a result of City, Chelsea and others and also the precedent for large fees for young players set by teams like Arsenal. Obviously with so much foreign money in English football, prices across the board have been inflated meaning that not only the price of youngsters will rise accordingly but also that the demand for younger players will increase as top stars become unaffordable. Secondly as soon as clubs like Arsenal or Tottenham pay huge fees for players such as Bale, Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain then every other small club will raise the prices for their academy graduates.

So the scene has been set for the rise in prices but that still doesn’t explain why Liverpool and Chelsea are willing to pay that much for such a young footballer? However Liverpool’s recent transfer tactics do suggest the route that they intend on taking in the market.

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Damien Comolli

Liverpool’s director of football has a brilliant record of identifying young talent for whatever club he has worked for, and in the past has unearthed talent such as Kolo Toure, Eboue, Clichy, Taarabt, Bale, Modric, Assou-Ekotto and others. Whilst at Liverpool there seems to have been a particular focus on not just young talent but young English talent such as Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing and he added these players to Liverpool’s then recent additions of Jonjo Shelvey (Charlton) and Raheem Sterling (QPR) who is supposed to be one of the brightest talents in English football. In fact they paid just under two million for Sterling when he was just fifteen. So, what all this tells us is that Liverpool are so desperate to build a base of young English talent that they are willing to pay large amounts of money for young players, even if they are a risk.

FIFA’s financial fair play rules

Another deciding factor in clubs’ recent attraction to younger and younger players is a result of FIFA’s financial fair play regulations that will soon be coming in to effect and so the appeal of younger cheaper players is much greater even if the prices are inflated, for the clubs it is far less of a risk.

Is this the right way to go?

Well, how can we be sure? Is it any more risky for Liverpool or Chelsea to pay two million pounds for a fourteen year old than it was for Chelsea to pay fifty million for Torres or Liverpool to pay thirty five million for Carroll? Some may see people paying millions for boys who haven’t even take their GCSEs as ridiculous but frankly I would rather have Ojo for his price tag than Carroll for his.

 Follow me on Twitter @H_Mackay

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Match-winning players are hard to come by in the English game and when one of them is sitting on the bench consistently, only playing twenty minutes here and there in the league, it is frustrating to watch.

With the money that has been spent at Manchester City, players such as Adam Johnson are falling further and further down the pecking order at the Etihad stadium, not only affecting his confidence but also his international chances, something that is vital with just eight months until Euro 2012.

Last season’s captain and top scorer Carlos Tevez has already fallen out with City manager Roberto Mancini and reports during last week in the press suggested Johnson had also been involved in a disagreement with the Italian before putting in a man of the match performance against Wolves in the Carling Cup, followed by another stunning goal coming off the bench against the same opponents on Saturday in the league.

With Samir Nasri, Mario Balotelli, James Milner and David Silva all seemingly above Johnson in Mancini’s head, surely Johnson could look for a January move to enhance his England chances and use the natural quality he has as he enters the prime of his career.

Johnson will not be eligible for Europe having already played in the Champions League this season, but that would not stop any of the big guns taking Johnson if he became available in the New Year.

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Averaging a goal every other game this season, the wide man has not looked happy on the pitch and has failed to celebrate when he scores, furthering the suggestions of his rift with the manager after his lack of first team starts in a very competitive side.

But where could Johnson go and who could afford to bring him in? With Manchester City unlikely to want to sell to their biggest rivals in the title race, Manchester United and Chelsea, Arsenal could be an ideal place for the Sunderland born winger to relocate to. The style of football that is played at Arsenal is ideal for the potential of Johnson and the natural width on the left would also ideally suit Arsene Wenger’s side who are looking to mount their own attack on the top three.

With constant injury problems for Aaron Lennon and a new five man midfield system working well at Tottenham, Spurs are also a viable option for Johnson who can play on either wing and could link up well with Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart supplying Emmanuel Adebayor with inch perfect assists as they are becoming the dark horses for a title push themselves.

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Steve Bruce clearly has money to spend at Sunderland, and a return to his home town club would be refreshing for Johnson after a successful breakthrough in the Middlesbrough youth system. The Black Cats have struggled this season so far but attacking flair is something that could catapult a side up the league table, plus supplying Nicklas Bendtner and Connor Wickham with his deadly crossing could be a winning combination for Bruce’s side.

In fairness any side in the league would be happy to have Johnson is their squad, but whether he gets his move away from Manchester is down to him and Mancini along with the owners coming together and wanting the best for the player, which is not sitting on the bench for 70 minutes and getting a run out in the Carling Cup.

Johnson offers more to the England side than Theo Walcott does, who seems to have cemented his place on the wing, and regular first team football will prove that to Mr Capello and his staff ahead of the Euro’s next year. The England games next month could be the deciding factor for Johnson and his agent, as if he does not feature it could be time to demand a move away from City and further his career elsewhere.

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Liverpool face tough competition from Juventus to sign highly rated Bologna striker Gaston Ramirez in January, according to talkSPORT this morning.

The Uruguayan playmaker has impressed for Bologna so far this season scoring three times for a side on the brink of the relegation places in Serie A and Kenny Dalglish has been a long term admirer. Ramirez caught the eye of Europe’s top clubs last year but interest has fallen away since this season began.

The £15million rated playmaker; broke into the Uruguay national side last year but missed out on the country’s successful Copa America tournament last summer and his omission from that squad has prompted him to look for a new club. Ramirez is looking to sign for one of Europe’s top clubs and Liverpool would certainly fit the bill.

Dalglish is looking to fellow countrymen Luis Suarez and Sebastian Coates to nudge Ramirez in the direction of Merseyside as he looks to bolster his shallow strike force. Suarez is facing a lengthy suspension and Andy Carroll is struggling to find any form so the competition would be welcomed.

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Serie A league leader Juventus are also looking at the Uruguayan and they will have the perfect opportunity to run the rule over the forward as the Old Lady take on Bologna in tonight’s Coppa Italia quarter final in Turin.

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With the Premier League season reaching the half way point, supporters are in the perfect position to assess their team’s performances and the areas in which their football club need to improve. Once again the Premier League has been broken up into three tiers, with each team facing their own private battle.

Unlike previous years there has certainly been some stability on the managerial front with only Steve Bruce succumbing to the bullet so far, as clubs look to show patience with their managers to turn around their current plights. The managers may not be so patient with players at their disposal and may look to make significant changes in the January transfer window.

The January transfer window is loved and loathed in equal measures, with many managers and supporters alike welcoming the opportunity to freshen things up, while others see it as a source of distraction. History shows it is a renowned place for panic buying, as last January certainly proved, but there have been notable successes in the past that shows it can be a significant period to turn around a club’s fortunes. I feel the African Cup of Nations and the unprecedented amount of long term injuries we have seen will force many club’s hands and subsequently we can expect to see another expensive month for many Premier League chairman.

So how do you feel about Liverpool’s fortunes so far this season and would you look to see changes made this January window? Who would you like to see brought in and ultimately who would you like to see moved out in the coming weeks?

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On the one hand we have Premier League managers complaining, perhaps rightly so, about fixture congestion. On the other hand we have the same managers calling for a winter break. The words ‘having’, ‘cake’ and ‘eating’ spring to mind. I don’t think you’ll find many managers, players or fans who, at some point or other, have not felt aggrieved by the often unkind fixture list. It is not uncommon in England to play three games a week, particularly if you happen to play in European competitions as well as domestic ones. However just how a winter break, which would mean the same amount of seasonal games having to be played in a shorter amount of time, would help fixture congestion?

Whilst admitting that the hectic Christmas schedule is part of ‘the charm and craziness of English football’ the Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger complains on at least a bi-annual basis about the lack of breathing space in between games. I don’t begrudge him that. His complaints, along with those of Roberto Mancini and many other managers are perfectly valid. The situation is often farcical; however their demands for a winter break seem juxtaposed with said complaints. You could argue that a short two week break, like the one Wenger has called for, involving ‘a week to rest and a week to prepare’ would allow the players to better deal with the rigours of having to play quite so much football. However in taking those two weeks in January the players will have to make up for it at some other time of the year. Many managers seem to believe that in adding a winter break they would be adding weeks on to the year. To accuse the FA and the Premier League of failing to give a winter break, like they have in continental leagues, and also failing to provide an acceptable fixture list seems rather childish without the provision of a proposed solution to the problem of where to place these games.

There are two main problems that we have in England. Firstly we have two domestic cup competitions. A situation that is not common in Europe. There are some other countries that do this but not all do. Therefore immediately the idea of a two-week winter break seems impossible if we are to include those extra games. The second problem is that, like some but not all leagues, we have a squad limit of 25 players (not including those players who are under twenty-one years of age). This means that some clubs, like Arsenal, are in a position where they need to buy more players but they already have a full squad. Therefore despite being involved in more competitions they are not allowed more players. Proportionately to the lower clubs the top clubs therefore have a smaller player to games played ratio.

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Clearly you cannot allow some clubs to have larger squads just because they are involved in more competitions, however changes to squad rules can be made. For example, in France the squad limit is ninety-nine players. Obviously not all of those squad spaces would be used, however the teams that were in other competitions, such as the Champions League, would be able to use the money they received from that competition to buy extra players to lighten the load on the rest of the squad.

I’m not against having a winter break, nor am I always happy with the fixture list, but it is important to recognise that these problems are not necessarily connected. It is important to recognise that there are external, and potentially unavoidable, factors that hinder English clubs. The other point to remember is that, on the whole, all English teams are in the same boat. Even those not involved in European cups still have cause for complaint when to comes demanding fixture lists. Perhaps clubs should also be looking in the mirror before complaining about such issues. After all clubs such as Barcelona manage to, season after season, go all the way in every single competition they enter whilst still achieving success. Yes, the physical demands of our league might be greater but it is still something worth considering before Premier League managers start to point the finger.

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Follow me on Twitter @H_Mackay

Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard has admitted that playing in the Carling Cup final at Wembley would be a dream, but has urged his team-mates to concentrate on beating Manchester City in the semi-finals second leg.

The Merseysiders recorded a 1-0 win over Roberto Mancini’s men at the Etihad Stadium in the first leg, and host the Premier League leaders at Anfield on Wednesday night.

Despite the advantage that Kenny Dalglish’s men have, Gerrard is still urging caution in thinking about playing at Wembley.

“(Wembley talk) has got to be banned because we haven’t made it there yet,” the England international stated in the matchday programme, which was republished on Sky Sports.

“Of course it enters your mind and you dream about it; that helps when it comes to motivation.

“But I don’t think any of our players will be getting carried away or thinking we’ve already done the job.

“We know this is a big game and a tough game.

I think experience is important, it always is. Especially when you have a lead in such an important two-legged fixture.

“We need to play to our maximum. We need every player to turn up and play well to qualify.

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“We need to ignore the scoreline and go into this game trying to win it. I think if we’re too negative and try to just protect the lead it could be very dangerous,” he concluded.

By Gareth McKnight

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