Since Robbie Keane returned from his loan spell at Celtic the Tottenham striker hasn’t had much too much to smile about. Limited playing time and a future that looks less than certain sum up the Ireland internationals current situation.
In recent weeks it has become evident that Keane’s future lies away from White Hart Lane. Today we take a look at a few clubs who could provide a new stomping ground for the striker.
First up, Celtic, Keane has already enjoyed a fruitful spell at the Glasgow club scoring 12 goals in 16 appearances. Keane is approaching the end of his career and Celtic would provide the perfect setting for his final few years. The striker, a catholic Irishman would arguably like to end his career at his boyhood club. However, It’s not hard to come to the conclusion that Keane could end up at Celtic, so lets look a couple of other more interesting propositions for the Spurs striker.
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Robbie Keane is already a bit of a Journeyman so it wouldn’t surprise me if the striker found his way to a completely new experience in a new club. Aston Villa currently find themselves at the wrong end of the table and in need of some firepower. Could Keane be the solution? Furthermore, it seems apparent that Gerard Houllier, the Villa boss, is assembling a vibrant youthful team. Houllier has already brought in the experienced Pires, could Keane be his next acquisition.
Then there’s Everton. I’m not sure I’ve heard this rumour before, but for me it makes total sense. Everton are another team somewhat lacking firepower. They are a team that could make a strong push for Europe if only they had a player that could regularly find the net. Keane certainly fits the bill. Everton are a club that do not exactly have bundles to spend but it is thought that it wouldn’t cost an arm or a leg for the services of Keane, thus adding weight behind the idea Keane could be on his way up to Goodison Park.
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There you have it! What do you think? Am I bonkers, or does it make as much sense to you as to does me?
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Chelsea have been told that Shakhtar Donetsk star Willian is for sale at the right price.
The Brazilian midfielder has impressed for the Ukrainian champions both domestically and in Europe, and the Blues are thought to be long-term admirers of the South American.
The Stamford Bridge club had a £16.7 million bid turned down by the eastern Europeans in January, but coach Mircea Lucescu has admitted that he could be tempted to sell his star man.
“They have to pay the price,” he told The Daily Mail.
“They have to pay the price because we bring the players here at 17 or 18 years old. We pay a lot of money because they are talented players and we bring them up. I have 23 or 24 [players like that], not only Willian.
“Luiz Adriano, Douglas Costa, Alex Teixeira, Dentinho, Alan Patrick – they are very young and they are already prepared to win the championship with a good mentality.
“They have played a lot of matches in Europe and they have a very, very good value. If Chelsea pay his [asking price], I am not against letting my players play for the big clubs.
“If they pay the price, he can go. If not, he will remain here because he has another two-and-a-half years on his contract,” the boss concluded.
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Robin van Persie has urged Arsenal to empty their pockets for quality players in order to keep pace with English Premier League rivals.The Gunners have been on the wrong side of much transfer speculation during the close season, with a host of names – including Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy – linked with exits from the club.
Clichy’s move to Manchester City has already gone through, while Fabregas is believed to be destined for Barcelona and Nasri is expected to sign at a rival English club soon.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger finally got moving by securing Ivory Coast striker Gervinho from Lille on Monday, for a reported fee of 10.6 million pounds.
Though he acknowledges Gervinho’s signature is a positive start, van Persie is adamant the manager needs to spend much more if the club are to be serious challengers in the 2011/12 season.
“These days, proper players cost money,” Van Persie told The Mirror.
“Sometimes you see players go for loads of money and you think, ‘Is he that good?’ It needs to be seen. Most of the time, they are.”
“But the main thing is it’s not just a label, ‘multi-million pound signing’, it’s more about the quality. If you buy a player who has got one year left normally he’s not going to be worth 40 or 50 million, he’ll be a bit less.”
“So it’s not really that you get a clear picture of how good someone is when you play a lot. It depends on loads of things.”
He added: “You need investment to keep up because, when you look around, Man City is buying loads of good players, Liverpool are doing it now, Manchester United have been doing it for years.”
“So, in a way, you need to keep that up, because if everyone is doing something you need to do it as well.”
The Dutch striker was another reportedly headed for the exit after the 2010/11 campaign, in which the club failed to get their hands on any silverware despite being on target for a domestic treble.
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While the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea are targeting the Champions League this season, Van Persie says the Gunners need to be less discerning and take whatever they can.
“The very least for us is to win something,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter what it is.”
“It’s time to win something now. Hopefully we can achieve that this year.”
There are few atmospheres in the Premier League as awe-inspiring of that at in the Kop for Liverpool’s home matches at Anfield. Every fan knows that football anthems are as important to the game as the fans and players. Gerry Marsden (of Gerry and the Pacemakers fame) knows better than anyone – hailing from Liverpool, he is responsible for popularizing the song that became the best soccer chant ever, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Although this song is close to many soccer clubs’ hearts, its roots undeniably stem from Liverpool, so we decided to get to the core of it all by hearing it from the source; Gerry Marsden himself. On our visit with him to Anfield Stadium, the home of the Liverpool Football Club, we found out how it all began.
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For an insight into the We Are Eleven series check out our interview with producer Santiago Stelley.
The agent of Napoli’s Amadou Diawara has quashed reports linking the midfielder with a move to Spurs.
Reports in Italy via Corriere dello Sport suggested this weekend that Napoli’s interest in Sampdoria midfielder Lucas Torreira has opened the door for Diawara to leave the club this summer.
Diawara, who moved to Napoli from Bologna in 2016, has mainly appeared as a substitute for the title challengers this season but at just 20 is seen as integral to the future of the club.
The Guinean youngster reportedly has a release clause of just £21m though; something that the Italian press believe Mauricio Pochettino is sniffing around as he seeks a central midfield partner for Mousa Dembele.
The player’s agent has now expressed their discontent at the rumours.
“I don’t know who’s putting out such destabilising rumours at such a delicate moment in Napoli’s season,” Diawara’s agent Daniele Piraino told RAI Sport, as reported by Football Italia.
“Diawara is very happy at Napoli, he has three years on his contract and he’s focused.
Of course, even if Spurs were chasing the 20 year-old it would be best for all parties to keep it out of the news, so it does not mean the move is definitely off.
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Diawara is averaging an incredible 100 passes per 90 minutes this season in the league, at a success rate of 93%, and would certainly be a major coup for Tottenham if they can do some persuading.
Spurs fans, do you think a deal can be done for Diawara? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
In an incredible career, with two spells at Anfield spanning the course of 15 years, Ian Rush still remains Liverpool’s all-time top goalscorer. The Welshman terrified defences for the Reds in the 80s and early 90s, and he went onto score an unrivalled 346 goals in 660 games.
At present, Liverpool are going through somewhat of a crisis. The influential Luis Suarez packed his bags in the summer to head for Barcelona. His replacement Mario Balotelli has yet to score a league goal. Daniel Sturridge has been out for most of the season – and worst of all, last years runners-up currently sit in 11th place in the Barclays Premier League with just 21 points from 16 games.
We caught up with the Liverpool great Ian Rush – speaking on behalf of 888Sport.com, who are putting betting at the heart of football debate by asking punters to have the #LastWord over their mates by backing their banter with a bet – to get his thoughts on the current striker crisis, whether Raheem Sterling should get a run in the side as the main striker, if Brendan Rodgers’ current criticism is warranted and what his thoughts are ahead of the Liverpool v Arsenal showdown at Anfield on Sunday.
Lets make no mistake about it, Liverpool are massively underachieving this season. Despite an excellent 3-1 win and performance in the Capital One Cup over Bournemouth on Wednesday, Liverpool have picked up just seven league points from their last 21 available, and the Reds’ have made their worst start to a league campaign for 50 years.
But there’s only really one place to start – Luis Suarez. The Uruguayan international scored a phenomenal 31 goals in all competitions for the Reds last term, before earning a £75m move to Barcelona in the summer;
Just how much are Liverpool missing Luis Suarez?
Any team would miss Luis Suarez. Him and Daniel Sturridge were fantastic in attack last season, and any team in the world would miss Luis Suarez.
Do you think Mario Balotelli was the right man to replace Luis Suarez?
Well I don’t think Mario Balotelli was a replacement for Luis Suarez. I think Liverpool were just really unfortunate to have Daniel Sturridge injured. I’m now looking forward to when Sturridge, Balotelli and Sterling are all fit. The only time they have all played together – was when we played Tottenham and won 3-0. They all seemed to blend together, so that’s what I’m looking forward to seeing again. You can’t replace Luis Suarez with just one other player – as he’s so good. The first time I saw Sturridge, Sterling and Balotelli together was at Tottenham – which was our best win – and that’s what I’m looking forward too.
How vital is Sturridge going to be when he returns in the second half of the season?
Well you never know. But him and Luis Suarez were fantastic last season – they probably got 80% of our goals. So when Sturridge does come back, it will be like having a new player. It will be like having a January signing, but what we’ve got to do is keep him fit. He will be hungry because he hasn’t played for such a long time – he will be desperate to get back, and I think he will do very well. It’s just a matter of him settling back into what he done last year. So really what were looking at there is Daniel Sturridge being like our new signing in January, and hopefully he will stay fit.
Are you surprised by Liverpool’s plight this season, after going so close last term?
I think we over achieved last season, everything just fell into place for us. We had that little bit of luck, we didn’t have many injuries and we wasn’t in the Champions League. So we’ve had our bit of luck and you have to be realistic. It’s been an indifferent start to the season for us. We’ve had new players in that have taken time to gel together at the start of the season. Obviously we’ve got to stop leaking goals, I wouldn’t concentrate on scoring goals because I think we can do that, we’ve just got to stop letting goals in. Last season, we were letting goals in, but if we let two in we would score three – this season that hasn’t happened. We haven’t had the luck, we haven’t had the rub of the green this time, we’ve had injuries, we’ve also had the Champions League – so little things like that are the difference from last season to this season.
Raheem Sterling was superb against Bournemouth on Wednesday, do you think he should be given a run as the main striker?
Yeah I think he should, against Manchester United he could have had a hat-trick, and he obviously scored the two against Bournemouth. When you look at it before the Manchester United game, we wasn’t creating any clear-cut chances. Although Sterling missed a few, I’m happy that we are creating chances. With Sterling down the middle with Daniel Sturridge, that’s a good option. He’s very quick down the wings, but when it does click down the middle – and he goes past you – he’s clear on the goalkeeper for a scoring chance. I’ve seen players who like it down the middle as well, and he can do that. With him in the middle, I feel we are creating chances now, whereas in the games against Stoke and Sunderland, we didn’t really create the chances that we needed.
As for Brendan Rodgers, do you feel like the pressure on him is warranted at the moment, and do you believe he’s the right man for Liverpool going forward?
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Yeah he’s the right man for the job, he done well last season. We’ve got to stick with him, give him a chance. He’s got a squad there that needs time to gel and that’s what we’re looking to do. He just needs time to come good, and I think we will.
Lastly, what’s your thoughts on the big clash between Liverpool and Arsenal on Sunday?
Well it’s always a good game when we play each other – there’s always goals in it. Last time, we hit Arsenal very early – we were a couple of goals ahead before they realised what hit them. That’s the difference, last season we were starting off early – we scored a lot goals in the first 30 minutes – but this season it’s been a big change. But Arsenal are a quality side, they always did know how to play football, and I think it will be a good test because they always do well. But when they play the top teams they try to keep the ball and fail, but they will be looking to press Liverpool to try and change that – and if they beat Liverpool they will be looking at one step ahead. As for Liverpool, our job is to stay in contention. I think there will be goals in it, and I think if we can get a result against Arsenal, it will put us back on track.
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Arsenal are close to agreeing a £4m deal with Schalke for star striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, according to reports from The Metro.
The Dutchman is one of the most sought after front men in Europe following an impressive spell with the Bundesliga club.
His 58 goals in 68 top-flight games have alerted Gunners boss Arsene Wenger, who is keen to strengthen his Premier League squad in the January transfer window.
Huntelaar’s contract is set to expire at the end of the season and it’s looking unlikely that he will extend his stay in Gelsenkerchin.
This may force the club to sell in January for a minimal fee to avoid losing him for free in the summer months.
At 29, he is unlikely to move on for a large amount, which has led to speculation that a £4m price tag has been placed on his head.
Huntelaar is believed to have impressed Wenger during Arsenal’s meeting with Schalke in the Champions League during October.
The striker netted in the 2-0 victory for the Germans and provided al all-round impressive display.
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A lack of goal scoring prowess has been a problem since the departure of former club captain Robin van Persie during the last transfer window.
Olivier Giroud was drafted in following an impressive spell in the French league, but has failed to transfer his impressive form.
At the start of the season, Leeds United made an early case for promotion contenders under Thomas Christiansen.
As the campaign progressed, the wheels began to fall off and in February, the Yorkshire outfit sacked the manager and replaced him with Paul Heckingbottom.
Since the new leader’s arrival, the Whites have picked up just one victory in eight Championship matches.
The problems began before Heckingbottom took charge, though, and it has now been revealed that Leeds are at the bottom of the form table taking into account the last 14 fixtures.
Leeds’ hopes of challenging for Premier League promotion have all but disappeared as they reside 14th in the standings, 12 points adrift of the playoff places.
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Since Boxing Day, the Yorkshire outfit have suffered eight league defeats and during that spell they have conceded 26 goals.
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On Saturday, the pain continued as the team were beaten 2-1 by Sheffield Wednesday at Elland Road.
As expected, fans have been left dismayed by the form table.
Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has stated that although Balotelli hasn’t performed to his potential, Liverpool have much bigger problems, Express reports.
The two sides will meet in Tuesday’s Champions League clash at the Santiago Bernabeu and while Real are firing on all cylinders after 11 straight victories, the Reds have already lost four out of six away games.
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And many have pinned Mario Balotelli as the scapegoat for Liverpool’s disappointing performances, but Ancelotti claims Brendan Rodgers shouldn’t focus on the Italian’s form as much as the club’s other weaknesses.
“Balotelli is spoken of a lot, maybe too much, he has quality,” said Ancelotti. “He is at a side where they’re not playing well having lost Luis Suarez who scored a lot.
“They need another solution, but I don’t think all of Liverpool’s problems are Balotelli. He needs to do his work for the side. That’s all that can be asked of him.”
Meanwhile, Ancelotti has a fine dilemma to solve with the return of Gareth Bale, who could replace Isco on the left side of the Los Blancos midfield.
“Gareth Bale is ready to play and is back from injury, but I don’t know if he will play from the off or be on the bench,” said Ancelotti, whose side have plundered 46 goals in 11 straight victories in all competitions.
“The side is fine and right now the football is intense. The side are fine now, we have things to improve and rotation is important to help prevent problems and injuries.
“The side fills me with confidence because we’re playing well, especially in big games. The players know better than me that all games are an examination and we can improve or take a step back.
“We have been on a good run and that helps us, we have a serious side and I don’t think that we will lose. The team’s professionalism is total.”
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“I know people will boo me but I love that. The more you boo me the more power I get. I don’t want people to love me – I just want them to respect me.” (Daily Record)
El-Hadji Diouf is no stranger to controversy. His attitude, conduct and general demeanour invite a weekly dose of abuse that rains down from the stands. However, is the Leeds United winger the only man who enjoys such unfavourable attention? It appears that a growing number of players are developing an addiction to the hatred that comes their way. Is it fair to suggest they can only produce their best performances to an unrelenting chorus of boos?
Luis Suarez carries the weight of an entire city on his shoulders. The footballing Mecca known as Liverpool is a breeding ground for hope and expectation, desperate to relive the glory days of decades gone by. The current strikeforce is so bereft of options that if he doesn’t find the back of the net, it’s difficult to see the club picking up three points. The heavy feeling of responsibility must be overwhelming.
Liverpool’s new number 7 – a digit with royal connotations – is perhaps the only recent acquisition on Merseyside to have justified his hefty transfer fee. However, he has still attracted more criticism and ridicule than the likes of Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson combined. Putting aside the race row with Patrice Evra, there’s no denying his frequent niggles at defender’s heels coupled with his apparent lack of balance have further damaged his reputation.
However, with the Uruguayan now pigeonholed and seemingly forced down to a path of no return, is it any wonder that he persists with this playing philosophy? When supporters focus all their attention on hurling insults, they neglect supporting their own team, which serves to benefit the victimised player and his team-mates.
The club’s supporters have stood by him, singing his name with the same gusto that was once reserved for fellow adopted striker Fernando Torres. It seems that the more boos he receives, the further he is pushed into the arms of the Liverpool faithful. This love-hate relationship he shares with English football seems to be an effective motivational tool and has propelled him to the top of the goalscoring charts this season.
Another player rapidly accumulating an undesirable reputation is Gareth Bale. The Tottenham winger is seemingly desperate to emulate Cristiano Ronaldo, right down to his egotistical nature and distinctive free-kick technique. Having once been confined at left-back, Bale is now relishing his free role at White Hart Lane and all the attention that comes with it.
Tottenham’s recent victory against Fulham saw Bale pick up a hamstring injury as well as a second consecutive booking for diving. Ashley Young has distanced himself from the ‘serial offender’ tag since attracting criticism last year, but it will be interesting to see if Bale follows suit upon his return. If not, will the Welshman seriously pursue his desire to play abroad, perhaps in Spain, where theatrics are praised rather than persecuted?
Joey Barton is certainly a man who thrives on the negative attention. It’s unsurprising that he has decided to resurrect his career in one of more notoriously ‘intense’ regions of France. Unlike Bale and Suarez though, Barton is no world-beater – despite what he might say – and therefore resembles a pantomime villain. A successor to Robbie Savage.
The tenacity of Barton’s playing style will inevitably stir a negative reaction from opposing supporters, but as we’re all aware from his thought-provoking if slightly preachy website, the man likes the sound of his own voice – even if it is followed by a string of expletives. Barton may have failed to fulfil his potential, but there was certainly a time during his stint with Manchester City and Newcastle, when you would rather have him on your team than line up against him.
As much as it pains me to say it, football needs these characters; they provide an unpredictable element to a game built on raw emotion. Gary Speed once told the aforementioned Diouf that ‘people never boo a bad player’, and while I have definitely booed a few in my time, there is still an element of truth to his words.
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Supporters are unlikely to be unsettled by those who cannot make an impact on the game. When such players hear their name associated with all manner of derogatory terms, it’s like adding fuel to the fire. They thrive on the attention and strive to silence their critics by raising a single finger to their mouth or cupping their ears after putting their name on the scoresheet.