All posts by h79snht.top

After a really positive end to 2012 it’s not been such a great start to the new year for Coventry City. A disappointing defeat at home to Shrewsbury followed promptly by David McGoldrick’s inevitable exit, topped off with a 3-0 defeat to Tottenham in the FA Cup 3rd round.

The Shrewsbury defeat definitely sounds a lot worse than it was though. They raised their game and it was just one of those days in front of goal for us. If we continue to create that number of chances then we will carry on winning more games than we lose and that’s a fact.

The biggest worry I do have is whether or not we are going to be able to finish these chances that we are creating. Our main man in front of goal David McGoldrick has now completed his loan spell with the club and has decided against re-joining us.

I can’t hide my huge disappointment in this decision as he has been playing the best football of his career here at Coventry and it genuinely looked like he had found his home in football terms at least. He has been scoring goals for fun, terrorising defence’s and quickly became a firm fans favourite because of his quality and work rate. He finished his spell with the Skyblues with 17 goals from 25 games which is a sign of striker who knows where the back of the net is.

His decision however has surprised me. Not the fact he chose not to join back up with the skyblues but that he chose to join a club like Ipswich. Ipswich have been struggling this season and find themselves 19th only 5 points off of the bottom three with the worst goal difference in the league. They also are a club with a lot of good strikers on their books which include fellow new signing Aaron Mclean. He is therefore by no means guaranteed a first team place and he seemed in his time at Coventry like a player who wants to play.

I worry for him a little not only in the sense of the club he has chosen to play for who like Coventry have a reputation for ruining good players but the fact he is making the step up to the championship which he has so far failed to deliver in. He has spent a few seasons in the championship but has never been able to make a mark on it and has often been in and out of the team.

He is also going into a team where he is going to have to learn how they play. The way Coventry played suited his game perfectly and allowed him to be the main man of the team. If this changes which I’m sure it will at Ipswich I think he is going to struggle. We witnessed this in his last game for us when Mark Robin changed formation to 4-4-2. The team lost its balance a bit and McGoldrick seemed to lose his way and became unsure of where he should be with another striker up alongside him.

He has been a fantastic servant to the club in his short spell with us and for that I wish him all the best for the future and hope he makes a success of it at Ipswich. I don’t however believe that this will be the case and I’m worried his talents will once again be put into the background and become lost within the reserves and the subs bench.

McGoldrick is now the past for Coventry and Leon Clarke may be the future. Having seen him play both in these opening two fixtures for us and for his previous teams I am yet to be convinced of his talents. He is not the same sort of player as McGoldrick but I cannot stop myself from comparing them. My personal opinion is McGoldrick wins hands down on everything that a striker should offer. He is faster, has a better touch, holds the ball up better and from the goals I have seen clearly has a better finishing ability.

Another thing that worries me about Clarke is the number of clubs he has already been at despite only being 27 years old. Coventry will be his 15th club in his career with the majority of them being on loan. This worries me even more in that it seems almost as soon as a club signs Clarke they realise they have made a bad decision and loan him out. We are the 3rd club he has been loaned too since joining Charlton having only made 7 appearances for his parent club.

Whilst his overall goalscoring record is pretty appalling for a striker his goalscoring record in league one is something that could be promising for the rest of the season. He has scored 31 Goals in 40 appearances for four different League one clubs which is a prolific strike rate. If he continues this for us then we will have found a readymade replacement for McGoldrick and hopefully it will mean we won’t miss him too much.

Our first game without McGoldrick was the FA cup 3rd round tie against Tottenham Hotspur. We were all hoping for a repeat of the 1987 final but right from the start we could see this wasn’t going to be the case. Spurs came out 3-0 winners and it could of and probably should have been more. It was a disappointing day out for the club and the fans in the end which is a shame but it is time to get back to games which truly matter.

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Thursday’s Johnstone’s paint trophy tie at home to Preston is a huge game for the club. It is effectively the quarter final of the competition and I really feel it is a chance to bring some good times back to the club and get that winning mentality which we so dearly crave.

PUSB!!

Follow @benleach2

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Arsenal’s vulnerability has reached near-critical level at this point of the summer. Real Madrid played Arsenal like the high-spending, big market veteran that it is. The La Liga club called Arsenal’s bluff on the Gonzalo Higuain deal and ended up selling the Argentine striker to Napoli. It’s what you get when you’re new to this sort of game and other clubs are well aware of your apparent intentions and ability to spend.

But how much of Arsenal’s need to appease its fan base has distorted the real bargains out on the market?

Monaco, amid huge signings of intent in bringing the Porto band back together in Joao Moutinho, James Rodriguez and Radamel Falcao (as well as Ricardo Carvalho), have also been surprisingly astute, picking up Jeremy Toulalan from cash-strapped Malaga for €5million. It’s not really prudence if it’s an unbelievable deal for a very good and experienced international. The question is where were Arsenal before the deal went through?

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It’s further proof that some of the best players don’t always demand inflated fees. Is Toulalan not a player Arsenal need? There can be no discussion as to whether he’d be a signing of necessity. A player in his mould and of his calibre as a defensive midfielder is absolutely necessary. A hitch may be with his age at 29, not being too much younger than Mikel Arteta, but issues like that shouldn’t matter when bargains are waiting to be cherry picked. There’s no doubt the Frenchman would have made an immediate difference at Arsenal, and maybe this highlights a wider criticism of the club during the summer months.

Even prior to Toulalan’s move to Monaco, it has to be asked where Arsenal were in 2011 when he made the switch from Lyon to Malaga. Would Arsenal have been dealing with a financial giant? Well not really. Malaga signed Toulalan for €12 million and were nothing of the financial power that Monaco and PSG are. Furthermore, the European football on offer at the Emirates over La Rosaleda could have been a deciding factor.

But Arsenal rarely seem to be able to work on multiple transfers at once. The truth is we don’t really know, but that’s the general impression that’s created. I’d love to think that the transfer department at Arsenal is a well-oiled machine working diligently and purposely creating a false mask of ineptitude. But that could be a little out there.

This summer has been so central to finding a world-class striker that there has seemingly been total neglect over other areas of the squad in desperate need of attention. Oh, the club have lodged bids for Marouane Fellaini and Lars Bender, but those resembled passing interest over what is at stake in the striker market. Just like Monaco and its counterparts in the market, Arsenal need to make an impression and names like Bender and to an extent Fellaini will do that. But if they’re not there, if all the money in the world can’t prise them from their clubs, players like Toulalan offer an excellent stop-gap until next summer’s window.

Toulalan has the Champions League experience that’s required at Arsenal, as well as the title success garnered from his days with Lyon. He aided in Ignacio Camacho’s development last season, something that could be used in Aaron Ramsey’s redefining as a deep-lying playmaker/holding midfielder. It’s win-win, and for a club who previously boasted of its spending capabilities being in excess of £70 million, a €5 million deal for a player who will add much, much more than just a backup is not something to fret over or pass up.

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Have Arsenal missed a bargain in Jeremy Toulalan this summer?

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Summary: A last minute Emmerson Boyce own goal denied Wigan the chance to move out of the bottom three as Tottenham salvaged a point at the DW Stadium.

The Latics required a victory to leapfrog Aston Villa to the safe-haven of 17th but were undone by one of their own at the death, while a draw prevented Spurs from re-entering the top-four.

Andre Villas-Boas men were on top in the opening stages and almost lead after five minutes when Tom Huddlestone’s free kick came off the post before Gareth Bale put them in front in bizarre circumstances.

A farcical exchange of passes between goalkeeper Joel and Maynor Figueroa in the penalty area ended with the former’s half-hearted clearance collided off Bale and flew into the net. A just reward for the Welshman’s persistence.

That spurred the home side on and they levelled two minutes later when Callum McManaman’s corner was powerfully headed in Boyce before Joel atoned from his earlier error to deny Jermain Defoe and Scott Parker in quick succession.

And four minutes after the break Wigan went in front when the ball fell nicely for McManaman to control and smash a stunning 20-yard volley past Hugo Lloris.

Arouna Kone was denied by the legs of Lloris and substitute Franco Di Santo curled wide before Boyce inadvertently turned in Huddlestone’s drilled free kick from the right as Tottenham avoided an embarrassing defeat.

Roberto Martinez post-match…”The equaliser is what disappoints me. It is not a free-kick in the first place, when you are at the bottom of the table it seems you attract the ball to the back of your net sometimes, but those are the small margins that sometimes affect the results.”

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Andre Villas-Boas post-match…”We did ever so well in the first half, ten shots against their two. The problem is that when we came back on after half-time we thought we were in control and Wigan scored almost straight away and that really shook our confidence.”

Good day for…Tom Huddlestone: Handed a rare start by Villas-Boas and fully repaid his manager with an unblemished display in the heart of midfield. Conducted everything from his central perch, keeping it simple for the most park, while offering a fleeting reminder of his passing range with a few raking balls across the DW Stadium pitch.

Bad day for…Joel: Doubt many will hold it against Roberto Martinez for reinstalling Ali Al-Habsi between the sticks for Wigan’s next fixture after Joel’s role in a farcical opening goal. The Latics can’t afford to persist with a nervous goalkeeper given their Premier League status remains under threat.

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has admitted that young striker John Guidetti could leave the club on loan this month, as reported by the club’s official Twitter page.

Guidetti was expected to play a part in City’s first team over the past 18 months but was ruled out with a serious injury for over a year, leaving match practice non-existent.

Now fit, Pellegrini is hoping that a six month loan could boost the Swedish international back to his best and some Premier League experience would first choice.

After scoring 20 goals in 23 games on loan at Feyenoord in 2012, the 21 year olds attributes are clear and so West Ham and Stoke are preparing loan moves for him as both clubs are hugely struggling for goals this season.

Spanish side Malaga are also interested but Pellegrini’s main thought is just to get his player first team football.

“It’s true; I think that John [Guidetti] must go on loan. He’s coming back from a long injury for about 18 months,” Pellegrini said.

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Wales head coach Chris Coleman has stated that he would not swap key attacker Gareth Bale for any other player in Britain.

The Tottenham winger has been in fine form for the Celtic nation, and has scored six goals in his last seven internationals, including a brace against Scotland on Friday night.

With a tough trip to take on Croatia on Tuesday in the offing, Coleman has confessed that Bale is a talent unlike the nation has seen in some time.

“He’s scored all our goals so far, but that performance on Friday wasn’t just Baley,” said Coleman, published in The Telegraph.

“He got the goals but there were some terrific performances. I know people are talking about him. He’s a show-stopper. People pay money to come and watch him play. I know about that. But we have another 10 players who played their part.

“But when you have a player who can make the difference you have to use him. We’ve got options with Gareth. He can be devastating when he plays out wide and cuts inside his full-back, but it’s always an option to play him in the centre.

“Gareth knows where he can hurt the opposition. When you have good players you don’t want to pigeon hole him. Look where he got the winning goal from – yet he was playing on the right side for us. When he runs through the middle he can cause you problems.

“You’d be crazy to try and swap him. There’s a lot of good players in Britain. I don’t want to label Baley as the best but I will label him as a terrific, terrific player.

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“Anyone can see when he’s got the ball he’s devastating. He plays with passion and incredible ability,” he concluded.

By Gareth McKnight

The problems are rapidly starting to mount up for Andre Villas-Boas. In a week where managerial upheaval has gripped West London, the Portuguese strategist must be looking perilously over his shoulder. Four defeats in their last five games have hit Spurs hard and they now sit eighth in the table, seven points off the Champions League pace. It was at this point last year that he began to unravel as a manager down the road at Stamford Bridge and theres a danger of history repeating itself at White Hart Lane this season. There is no reason why he shouldn’t with the calibre of players at his disposal, but his tendency for convolution in his tactical strategies could prevent him from meeting the set objectives. And worse cost him his job.

This week on FFC will £20 million be enough to improve Spurs in the January transfer window and who could be set to swap White Hart Lane for the sunnier climate of Spain?

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Best of FFC

Time has come for Villas-Boas to be brave with his selection

A transfer risk worth taking for Tottenham Hotspur?

Time to make the change permanent at Tottenham?

Will £20m be enough for Tottenham?

Time for Villas-Boas to brave and throw starlet into the fray

Out of touch with reality at Tottenham?

Tottenham keen on £10m winger

Spurs and Chelsea set to battle for Brazilian

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Best of WEB

Not all 5-2 defeats are the same. – Spurs musings from Jimmy G2

All The Way From New York – Harry Hotspur

From Wankdorf to Wembley – Dear Mr Levy

Levy Refuses To Buckle : AVB Project Will Proceed As Planned – Transfer Tavern

Between love and madness – Dear Mr Levy

Bad News For AVB Haters – Harry Hotspur

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Quote of the Week

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“We’re all frustrated about the way things are going. I don’t know what’s not clicking. Hopefully it will start clicking as soon as possible otherwise, trust me, we will find ourselves in difficulty. My friends tell me to keep positive so I don’t really want to think about how bad it could be. If we get badder (sic) than this, I think we’d be dead. It was our lucky day against Lazio. They got so many chances. At the moment, things are looking bad, but we just have to find a way to get through this. We have to improve because we’re not playing the best game at the moment.” Emmanuel Adebayor says Spurs need to improve quickly or their season will be over before they know it

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Featured Video

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has hinted that Raheem Sterling will play a bit part role for the rest of the season.

The teenager burst onto the scene this term, becoming a key member of the Reds’ first-team during the opening half of the Premier League season.

His fine performances even led to the 18-year-old securing his first international cap, with Roy Hodgson selecting him for November’s friendly against Sweden.

However, in recent weeks a dip in form, allied with Liverpool’s moves in the transfer market, has seen the winger play a more peripheral role on match days.

Rodgers believes that his starlet must be managed correctly if he is to on to fulfil his potential at the highest level:

“This is a kid we’re talking about, so we have to take a wee step back,” he is quoted by The Mirror.

“This league is so mentally and physically draining, it hurts experienced professionals and this boy has just stepped up from the Academy.

“The zip has gone and that’s down to fatigue. But was that to be expected? Yes it was.”

Sterling has been impressive on the whole this season, notching two goals and assists in 23 Premier League appearances.

As a result he is likely to be disappointed by his manager’s decision to ease him out of first-team action, but Rodgers says that he has talked to the player about it and explained his reasons:

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“I was talking to him the other day about this, and if he didn’t kick another ball this season he’s had a good one.

“So we have to nurture him and protect him – it’s just a very demanding league.”

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In any football match, goals win games. Scoring goals is an extremely fundamental part of the difference between winning and losing. Keeping clean sheets is also pivotal for a team to progress with relative success. With forwards in the shape of Christian Benteke, Darren Bent, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Andreas Weimann on the books at any club, scoring goals should quite frankly be elementary. Yet this is not the case for Aston Villa and their goal shy frontline.

Scoring just five goals in 11 games so far in the Premier League, not only are Paul Lambert’s men the lowest scorers in the English top flight, but they are also the lowest scorers across all four divisions in England. Cancelling the October goal of the month award due to not scoring a single goal in four games over a four week period really made their struggles evident.  With 11 points on the board and sitting in 16th place, the Villains are in serious danger of another relegation scrap if their strikers don’t buck up their ideas and start hitting the back of the net. It’s safe to say that the days of Martin O’Neil, where the Villa Park outfit were a force to be reckoned with and a top eight finish was simply a routine every season, are long gone.

Benteke is arguably Villa’s best forward and is most likely to score the goals they so desperately need. The powerful target man is not only good in the air, but can also produce moments of brilliance when getting the ball on the floor. With his undoubted quality, it’s quite surprising that he chose to stay at a confidence ridden club. Had it not been for that torrid knee injury that has ruled him out for the past six months, as well as other niggling injuries since he arrived from Belgian side Genk, then the Belgium international would definitely have more than his 29 goals in 61 games over a two year period for Aston Villa.

Quite frankly a legend amongst the Villa faithful is Gabriel Agbonlahor. The pacey forward has notched 279 appearances for his boyhood club, and has been an ever present in the first team since 2006. Despite being blessed with electric pace, Agbonlahor’s goal scoring record is nothing to boast about. With 69 goals to his name, the one club man has always struggled in front of goal, and if he had his shooting boots on more often, then he may have been a regular England international.

Another striker who is looking to follow in Agbonlahor’s footsteps is Andreas Weimann. The Austrian has the same attributes as Agbonlahor, but unfortunately, the same goal scoring record. In 92 games, Weimann has netted 17 times. His age helps him though, considering he is still only 23 years old, Weimann has plenty of time to improve. Meanwhile, Darren Bent looks like his days as a Premier League footballer are numbered. The goal poacher, who has proved at the likes of Ipswich Town, Charlton Atheltic and Sunderland that he is deadly in front of goal, his spell at Villa Park has been one to forget, and is the reason why Lambert has ousted him from the team.

For a club with such massive stature, tradition and fan base, Aston Villa should not be in the position they are in now. When the January transfer window comes calling, a proven goal scorer should be there priority. However, it pains to say, their main focus looks to be keeping hold of star defender Ron Vlaar.

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Norwich City, West Brom and Fulham are all keen on signing Birmingham City wonderkid Nathan Redmond this summer, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Redmond will have just 18 months left on his Blues contract when next season gets under way and the cash strapped Midlands club may have no option but to sell another one of their prized assets.

City’s owner Carson Yeung is standing trial for money laundering and so Birmingham are struggling to cope financially, despite selling England goalkeeper Jack Butland to Stoke City in January for £3.5million.

Redmond has regularly featured for England under-19’s and has impressed this season with his tricky wing play and pace that is a constant threat in the Championship.

Norwich, West Brom and Fulham are set to test the water with small bids in the next few weeks but no doubt other Premier League clubs will become interested over the course of the summer and Birmingham will hope to start a bidding war.

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It’s proven to be a testing season for Mark Hughes and QPR so far, following some hefty pre season spending. Hughes has seen his side take just two points from their opening seven games, and the Welshman has already become odds on to win this seasons sack race.

Many have voiced their surprise at QPR’s current predicament, considering the money they have spent during the last two transfer windows and the appointment of  the highly rated Hughes last season.

Personally, I am not so surprised, being of the opinion Hughes is highly overrated. I have never really understood the hype surrounding Hughes and his coaching ability.

Press and pundits almost simultaneously gathered to mourn his sacking at Manchester City, as if a managerial great had been cruelly snatched away from the Premier League. The brutal nature of his dismissal surely played a part in the outpouring of sympathy, but the harsh truth of the matter is that Hughes didn’t do nearly well enough at the Ethihad.

I have struggled to see any particular playing style Hughes brings to the teams he coaches. None have ever been hailed as particularly exciting, interesting considering his own skillful and flamboyant playing style. His sides are infact often considered overly physical and aggressive. When in charge of Blackburn, Hughes saw his side finish bottom of the fair play league in all four of his seasons in charge. Let us also not forget the seemingly never ending list of red cards QPR received in the second half of last season.

Off the pitch I have also struggled to warm to him. Hughes’ post match interviews are never the most interesting or exciting, and more often than not consist of blaming match officials for a lack of result rather than providing answers for his teams shortcomings. His resignation from Fulham in 2011 showed a distinct lack of class, claiming: “As a young, ambitious manager I wish to move on to further my experiences”. His struggles at QPR since prove he may have been better staying at the club who rescued him from football wilderness after his ill-fated spell at Manchester City, for slightly longer than 11 months.

Looking back at his managerial career, there has been limited success. A top six finish with Blackburn in 2005-2006 is arguably the highlight, alongside narrowly missing out on qualification for Euro 2004 with Wales.

But since his spell in charge of Manchester City, Hughes has struggled. The problem I think lies in Hughes dealings in the transfer market. His most successful spells in management came at Wales and Blackburn, where on both occasions he had to simply work with what he had.

He did very well on a limited budget at Ewood Park, bringing in the likes of Benni McCarthy, Roque Santa Cruz, David Bentley and Christopher Samba for a combined total of roughly £9 million. It is my opinion that Hughes is better working at smaller clubs where there is less pressure, as his strengths appear to lie in galvanising a team that is struggling and scrapping for points as underdogs.

It is when Hughes has had money to spend at a bigger club that he has been questioned. Hughes was responsible for spending over £100 million during his time at the Etihad. Of all the players he bought in from 2008 to the present, only Gareth Barry, Vincent Kompany, Kolo Toure, Joleon Lescott Pablo Zabeletta and Carlos Tevez (just about) remain.

The likes of £32.5 million man Robinho have long gone, alongside other expensive acquisitions such as Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Wayne Bridge, Nigel De Jong, Shay Given, Craig Bellamy, Tal Ben Haim and Jo. Of all the names in that list, how many were successful at the Ethihad?

It seems Hughes has bought that unpredictability in the transfer market with him to QPR. Last season saw him tasked with keeping Rangers in the Premier League, and was given money to spend in the January transfer window. It went to the last day, but following some superb home performances QPR avoided the drop, and served as another example of Hughes galvanising a struggling side.

But this season, having been tasked with taking QPR to the next level as an established Premier League side, Hughes has once more looked out of his depth. He has virtually started from scratch at Loftus Road, purchasing almost an entire new squad, in what looks like something of a scattergun approach.

The likes of Park Ji-Sung, Julio Cesar, Fabio, Ryan Nelsen, Andy Johnson, Jose Bosingwa, Esteban Granero, Stéphane Mbia, Samba Diakité and Junior Hoilett have all arrived at Loftus Road, with the vast majority being free transfers over aged 30 or above. January signings Djibril Cisse and Bobby Zamora are also reaching the latter stages of their careers.

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It is hard to see any sort of vision Hughes is outlining for the future, and looks more of an attempt for a quick fix. After a disastrous start to the season, it is time for Hughes to step up and get his team fighting for points as he has done before deploying the underdog tactic, a tactic that has served him well before.

It is only when Hughes is able to show more than this, that he will ever be considered anything more than a mediocre manager in my opinion. QPR should have enough to stay up this season, but the clubs owner Tony Fernandes, as well as Hughes himself  would have been hoping for far more this time around.

Do you think Mark Hughes is overrated? Follow me on Twitter @LukeGreenwood89 and let me know your thoughts.