All posts by h79snht.top

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson has admitted that he is looking to make several major signings in the January transfer window.

Hodgson's side have made a slow start to the new campaign and the former Fulham boss is keen to strengthen his squad, having been promised funds by New England Sports Ventures following their Anfield takeover.

He told the club's official website:"If we want the right quality, we have got to be prepared to pay the right price.

"The owners know that perfectly well. We have got to make certain that if we go out and spend £20million, we are getting a £20million player.

"We want to be attracting the players that Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter are chasing. It would be nice to think that we can shop at a high level.

"I'm like all managers in that I'm wary of the January transfer window. I think it can be dangerous as clubs try to correct mistakes.

"But, having said that, we are going to very interested in trying to improve our squad in January. There is no question about that. I am sure we will sign players.

"What I would hope to do is get this group of players playing well enough so we don't need to panic.

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"Then I can say to the owners 'if we are going to spend a lot of money, let's get the right man'.

"I don't want to spend half the money that might be available on someone for the sake of buying, when the player we actually want might not be available until the summer."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Professional football is a notoriously ruthless business. The game is littered with stories of players cast aside after failing to make the grade, however, once a player reaches the top level, an uncharacteristic amount of faith and patience can come their way.

The recent signing of Kieron Dyer by QPR is a fantastic example of such faith. Dyer made 30 appearances in four injury blighted years at West Ham United and yet he has now been signed by another premiership club. Does Neil Warnock really believe that he can get a full season out of Dyer? Does this move simply show that there is a startling dearth of players available who have experience at the top level? Such a severe shortage that a player of Dyer’s woes is a tempting option.

The signing of Jonathan Woodgate by Stoke raises the same questions. Woodgate appeared 4 times for Spurs in the last 2 seasons. He has been plagued by injuries since 2004, and yet he is still considered a top defender, still worth the gamble. It seems that once you have shown yourself capable of competing at the highest level, managers will display an unending amount of faith and patience in your ability to recover. The hope that you will rediscover the form that once made you a top premiership player does not fade quickly. The possibility of a bargain and a glorious renaissance keeps managers interested far longer than the fans.

Both players have been signed on a pay-as you-play deal, eliminating potentially huge losses such as those suffered by West Ham where Dyer picked up a reported £83,000 a week during his spell. Even so, do these players represent good business? In a sport where careers can be so brutally short, why are these players deserving of such patience?

Would you take a gamble on this man?

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Newcastle winger Jonas Gutierrez has stated that his side will look to beat Liverpool on Sunday, and if they do they will all but seal sixth place in the Premier League.

Alan Pardew’s men are currently eight points clear of the seventh-placed Merseysiders, and the Argentina international is hoping for three points at the Sports Direct Arena this Sunday to keep their good run of form going.

“We know we can open up a gap over Liverpool. It’s going to be a big game for us, so we’re going to have to be fully focused,” he told Mirror Football.

“We enjoyed ourselves against West Brom, and we know that we have a lot of games and a lot of points before the end of the season. We are taking it game by game and nothing else.

“We need to get as many points as we can before the end of the season, it’s not over yet,” he continued.

Hatem Ben Arfa was the Toon’s star player in last weekend’s 3-1 win over West Brom, and Gutierrez has went on to praise the talented France international.

“We know all about Hatem. We know what he can do when he has the ball, and he did that on Sunday.

“People say that he can’t adapt to English football because it is too physical, too tough, but he found the right moment and the right space to cause problems.

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“He’s an important player for us, he’s learning about English football, it’s different to other leagues. He’s learning that every day,” the South American concluded.

By Gareth McKnight

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Defender Matthew Upson has shrugged off the criticism of England's style of play made by Germany legend Franz Beckenbauer.

Beckenbauer claimed the Three Lions had gone backwards under manager Fabio Capello after reverting to a "kick and rush" style.

The 64-year-old, who captained West Germany to World Cup success in 1974, was unimpressed with England in their opening World Cup game in South Africa, in sharp contrast to his own country's 4-0 demolition of Australia just 24 hours later.

England were held to a 1-1 draw by the United States in Rustenberg on Saturday.

However, Upson claims the England players will ignore Beckenbauer's barbed comments as they prepare to take on Algeria in a vital Group C game on Friday evening.

"We want to win matches, so we will play according to that. We will play the football that suits us best," claimed the West Ham defender, who could start against Algeria following the groin injury suffered by Ledley King.

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"If we are accused of kick and rush but win something, I don't think many people would complain."

"Whatever he thinks about our style of play is his opinion."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti has quashed speculation linking him with a move for Benfica left-back Fabio Coentrao.

Rumours continue to circulate about a possible transfer to Real Madrid for Ashley Cole but Ancelotti has reiterated his desire to keep the former Arsenal star at Stamford Bridge.

When asked about the Coentrao rumours, Ancelotti said: "It is not true, totally rubbish."

However, the Blues boss has confirmed that he expects the £18million capture of Benfica's Brazil international Ramires to be sealed shortly, adding:"Ramires is, until now, a Benfica player. When he is here, I can speak about him, not now.

"I don't want to speak about Ramires. When Ramires signs a contract for Chelsea, he will sign. This is the same for other players. I read a lot of names in the newspapers."

Michael Ballack, Joe Cole and Juliano Belletti have all left Chelsea since the end of last season, while the only high-profile arrival has been Yossi Benayoun, and Ancelotti admitted:"For us, after a fantastic season, it was very difficult to change this squad.

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"We were totally agreed to maintain this squad. To put some young players in this squad from our academy, this was our aim. After a fantastic season, we could repeat the same season this year with these players.

"I think that the teams that can win the title will be the same as last year, including, obviously, Man City, because they've bought fantastic players."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

West Bromwich Albion manager Roberto Di Matteo was left purring after watching his Midlands side smash Everton 4-1 at Goodison Park on Saturday.

After picking up just one point from a possible 15 in November before the Merseyside clash, the Baggies turned the tide in emphatic fashion.

Goals from Paul Scharner and Chris Brunt shocked the hosts and, although Tim Cahill offered hope before the break, Somen Tchoyi and Sylvain Distin's own goal late in the day secured the victory.

Mikel Arteta saw red for a stamp on Gonzalo Jara as the game turned sour and Youssouf Mulumbu was also dismissed for two bookings, a decision that irked di Matteo.

"We played fantastic football today, got some great goals and it was a very entertaining game too," he said.

"The second one was an absolute world-class goal in my opinion from Chris Brunt and we played well. We deserved to go ahead. We were always very good going forward.

"We picked the players up at half-time. It's a difficult ground to come, we hadn't won here for 31 years so we knew it wasn't going to be easy.

"In the second half we just kept going and we stuck to our gameplan, fortunately we scored the third goal too. The third goal was a very good goal, the fourth goal ended the game really.

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"I think everybody saw he (Arteta) stepped on our player. In terms of the second yellow card for our player I think it was a very innocuous challenge.

"If you give yellow cards for those ones then you are probably going to get 20 yellow cards in a game."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Newcastle have approached Liverpool to enquire about the possibility of taking Andy Carroll back on loan, Sky Sports report.

The England international striker has had an inconsistent time at Anfield since a £35 million move to Merseyside back in January 2011.

With Brendan Rodgers taking over from Kenny Dalglish Carroll’s future is unclear, with new signing Fabio Borini thought to be the Geordie attacker’s replacement.

The Northern Irish manager has previously admitted that he may well send the targetman out on loan for 2012-13, and Newcastle are now said to have made a bid.

Initially Carroll would re-join the Tyneside outfit on a season-long loan deal, with a permanent move in the offing next summer.

AC Milan and West Ham have both also been linked with a move for Carroll in the off-season, but as yet there has been no news over where the striker will play his football next term.

Newcastle have Senegalese attacking pair Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse at their disposal, but did sell Leon Best to Blackburn this summer.

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By Gareth McKnight

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Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney will remember one autumnal week in 2010 for many years to come. It started with the England international stating that he needed to leave Man United and ended with an extraordinary u-turn in the form of the signature of a new multi-million five year contract. What happened in between may well be long gone but it definitely hasn’t been forgotten and as a result Wayne Rooney still has plenty of bridges to build at Manchester United.

We all know that football fans are incredibly fickle, but you can’t just flick a switch and pretend that something didn’t happen. A small number of Manchester United fans showed their feelings by protesting outside Rooney’s house in that extraordinary week, but will they be singing Rooney’s name when the striker next takes to the field at Old Trafford? I’ve no doubt that the majority of the Man United fans will get right behind Rooney, but so far it’s what hasn’t been said rather than what has that we should stand up and take notice of.

At the Britannia Stadium on Sunday as Manchester United battled past Stoke in an enthralling Premier League encounter, and it was silence from the United fans as far as the name of Wayne Rooney is concerned. Rooney never left the lips of the away fans, who are renowned as being die-hard followers of United, that day. I don’t think too much should be taken from this, the fans didn’t show their dislike for him but neither did they support him; it could be read as a silent protest if you like against Wayne Rooney’s actions.

As far as Rooney’s Manchester United teammates are concerned, they have unsurprisingly got behind the striker. Gary Neville told BBC Sport that “It will take time to settle down but once it settles down and time heals he will go on to have a great career and win trophies here.” While Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson won’t have enjoyed playing second fiddle to Rooney, Roo was quick to show his appreciation for Fergie by calling him a “genius” and the Scot will be happy to have the United number 10 for the rest of his Old Trafford tenure.

So Rooney’s United teammates are right behind him, and I’m sure the Red Devils’ fans will take a similar stance in the near future if they haven’t already, but what about the rest of the footballing world? As PR expert Max Clifford rightly stated, “if Wayne Rooney cares about what people think, he has got a lot to do over the next two or three years.” Many football fans already think that the lack of loyalty of footballers these days is disgusting and while Rooney said he wanted to leave Old Trafford due to a lack of ambition, when United Chief David Gill offered him significantly more money he didn’t turn it down, did he?

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Wayne Rooney has said that he always wanted to stay at Manchester United and we’ll never know whether it was purely his agent Paul Stretford who was hankering over more money or not. One thing you can rest assured will happen is that as soon as Rooney hits some form fantasy football players up and down the country will be transferring him into their team. And what about United fans? Well, if Rooney nets the winner at the City of Manchester Stadium on Wednesday the 10th November you can guarantee that all will be forgotten.

The WAGs of Premier League footballers get just as much attention as the players themselves these days. There was the whole John Terry v Wayne Bridge incident last season, which saw Vanessa Perroncel coming between the ex-Chelsea teammates. This season we’ve seen Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney hit the front pages for his actions off the pitch that will have put him in the doghouse with Coleen, which is exactly where Tottenham’s Peter Crouch finds himself after cheating on Abbey Clancy.

Given the increased status of football WAGs we thought it was only right and proper to put the spotlight on the best of the best, the Lionel Messi’s and Cristiano Ronaldo’s of the WAG world. They’re showcased in all their glory in our countdown of the Top Ten Premier League WAGs. You won’t be surprised to know that Rooney’s recent bits on the side didn’t make the list, but who did make the list?

Click on the beautiful Daniela Martins to see the top 10 Premier League WAGS

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I doubt players like Nicklas Bendtner give much worth to a number, just as long as he can show the world how much his wages are each week. For other players and specifically those of particular nationalities, there’s a lot of significance in a squad number.

Lionel Messi was given the no.10 shirt following the departure of Ronaldinho to AC Milan. There’s a lot of weight and responsibility in that number, especially due to it’s reputation in South American football. But clubs like Barcelona were hardly going to give a famous number to a player like Alex Hleb or Martin Montoya.

However, the importance of numbers do work both ways. Clubs want to hand responsibility and the prestige of certain numbers to their best players. At Arsenal, Jack Wilshere was recently given the no.10 after Robin van Persie found more worth in an extremely forgetful number elsewhere, while newcomer Lukas Podolski also chased the Dutchman’s former shirt. But Arsene Wenger’s decision to hand Wilshere the number was symbolic of the faith he has in the player and his position at the club moving forward. His position on the pitch and as a leader for the club.

It’s also not something that’s central to just football players. You’re sure to find players in many other sports who chase a number due to it’s meaning, while others land on a number and never change for the rest of their career. Does it hold worth beyond just being a throwaway gimmick? Sure, and it’s a strange one, yet wholly understandable.

And we can take it a step further and into the world of gaming, where I’m sure serious addicts of FIFA or Football Manager are going to offer their latest signing a respectable number and one in keeping with his talent and importance to the side.

William Gallas looked ridiculous in the no.10 shirt while playing for Arsenal, and not just because of the player who wore the number before him (although it did have something to do with it). But no Arsenal fan will complain at the decision to hand Wilshere the number. Quite simply, defenders have no place in a shirt number that is so regularly associated with one of the key attackers in a team.

No one will ever wear Wayne Gretzky’s no.99 shirt in the NHL again, while Bryce Harper is making the no.34 look increasingly more fashionable in the MLB. The importance of Michael Jordan’s 23 has been transferred to football with David Beckham opting for that number upon his arrival at Real Madrid, yet I’m sure he’d swat away the worthlessness of the number 24.

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Players like to feel comfortable in their numbers, and a classic no.9 striker needs his worth to be made a little more obvious with the correct number of his back. To outsiders, it’s all just sports nonsense, like which shin pad you put on first or the album that has to be played before a game.

One thing is certain, like Gallas at Arsenal, Michael Owen really shouldn’t have worn the no.7 at Manchester United. Again, probably a lot of old nonsense, but certainly not to those who are more used to players like Beckham, Eric Cantona or Cristiano Ronaldo carrying the traditions and importance of the number.