Archive for January, 2011
Chelsea's win at Bolton in midweek has just about kept them in touch with the top three, but that doesn't suddenly make them championship contenders again.
The FA Cup represents Carlo Ancelotti's best chance of winning a trophy this season. ...
Well, that came out of the blue.
Just when the transfer window seemed to be petering to its usual conclusion of determining at which of his childhood favourite clubs Robbie Keane will end up, Chelsea lit up the whole process by offering £35 million for Fernando Torres. ...
The last time Manchester United lost a top goalkeeper, it sent them into a kind of existential crisis from which they did not escape until they signed Edwin van der Sar, six years too late, in 2005.
The quest to find the New Schmeichel encompassed not-good-enoughs (Bosnich, Ricardo, Carroll), past-its (Van der Gouw, Goram), a not-ready-yet (Tim Howard), an unmitigated disaster (Taibi) and a ciggie-puffing misfit (Barthez). ...
You get a measure of a man's personal popularity by those who gather round him when he is in trouble.
As Sky colleagues queued to stitch him up by releasing old footage of his crass behaviour stockpiled against the day it might be used for revenge, it is clear Andy Gray did not have much in the way of support from those who worked with him. Or as he would put it, under him. ...
Day two of Lino-gate, as nobody is calling it, and as with all manufactured scandals we have entered the phase of 'pressure intensifying' on Richard Keys and Andy Gray.
The latest revelation is that Gray discussed with touchline reporter Andy Burton whether or not lineswoman Sian Massey is "a bit of a looker" - for which Burton has now been suspended. ...
Liverpool's 3-0 win against Wolves was flattering to Kenny Dalglish's side, who were let down by some petulant conduct from Fernando Torres.
Torres might have scored two goals but he was helped by some shambolic defending and let himself down by getting embroiled in a personal battle with Richard Stearman.
After scoring, Torres picked up the ball and chased the Wolves defender with it, sarcastically motioning to hand the ball to Stearman. ...
Player to watch: Darren Bent
There has been a lot of criticism of Bent over his move to Aston Villa from Sunderland, but I think he did what any player would do. Somebody, probably his agent, has rung him up, proposed the move and thrown some figures at him. He has thought 'I can move 150 miles closer to home and get better money' and decided to go for it. I don't think he can be criticised for that. ...
Mario Balotelli has a mouth on him. Like his choice of headgear (did you see that cockerel-style knitted number he was wearing during the big freeze?), there is nothing shy or retiring about the Italian's public statements. One minute he is claiming never to have heard of Jack Wilshere, the next he is insisting he is the only serious rival to Lionel Messi. Which given his comparative achievements seems, to say the least, a little optimistic. ...
If Darren Bent is worth £18 million, how much would Harry Redknapp's wife cost on the transfer market? You will recall the occasion when Bent was at Spurs, flopped in front of goal and his then manager suggested his missus could have buried a chance like that.
How we laughed at the time. Typical Harry. What a joker. But thinking about it afterwards, it was a pretty sharp public statement, evidence that the manager had no faith in his player. ...