The agent of Hatem Ben Arfa has denied reports suggesting that Manchester Nigel de Jong has apologised in person for the challenge which left the Newcastle United loanee with a broken left leg.
Ben Arfa is set to miss the majority of the season after sustaining a serious injury, with de Jong having been dropped by the Netherlands as a result of his latest indiscretion.
Agent Simon Stanford revealed:"De Jong hasn't been in touch at all.
"Brian Marwood, who is a top-class professional person, sent a note from Manchester City saying everyone wished him a speedy recovery and sent a gift, but that's it.
"A visit from de Jong wasn't put to him. Brian wanted to visit but Hatem was on morphine at the time.
"The facts of the matter are he hasn't been in touch and he hasn't apologised. Brian Marwood has been in touch, but not de Jong."
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Meanwhile, Ben Arfa's parent club, Marseille, have hinted at possible legal action against de Jong.
President Jean-Claude Dassier told a French TV station: "We will file a claim against de Jong. It's about getting rid of this type of individual from European grounds."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Blackpool boss Ian Holloway has stated that veteran striker Robbie Fowler still has the quality to play for The Championship club, as the former Liverpool legend trains with the club.
The Merseyside attacker has most recently plied his trade in Australia and Thailand, but has made a shock return to England and is on the verge of signing a deal with the Seasiders.
Holloway is backing the now 35-year-old to still be a success, and feels Fowler can cut it at Championship level.
“It’s brilliant to have someone like Robbie at the club,” said Holloway in the Blackpool Gazette.
“He looked terrific in training and I don’t think he’s that far away from being fully fit.”
Holloway has also sung the player’s praises to the club’s official website, stating that his quality is still there for all to see.
“Has he got some quality, can he play a pass, can he score a goal? Yes, he can.
“I still think he wants to play and he’s got undoubted quality,” he concluded.
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Fowler is yet to sign a contract with the Bloomfield Road side, but the club have confirmed that he will not be available for Friday’s game against Hull whether he pens the deal or not.
There have been some outstanding players in the Premier League over the years, but what ingredientsare needed to make a great Premiership player? The English league is widely regarded as the league which is played at the highest tempo, so if a player doesn’t have the grit and determination required this is the league that will find them out!
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what makes a great Premiership player, as the attributes for each position vary, as a great defender’s make up will be different from a great striker’s. If I had to single out one player who optimises what it is to be a great Premiership player, I would just say the name Steven Gerrard. He has everything in his locker, I’d go as far as saying he is the complete football player. Most players have a weakness, they may be adept at scoring goals but the defensive side of their game is lacking, or they might have excellent defensive skills in terms of tackling and breaking up of play but little in the way of going forward. For me Gerrard can do everything. He has vision and an excellent range of passing and he is a set piece specialist. His tackling is ferocious and solid and he has the ability to shoot with pure power or finesse. He also has leadership qualities and passion, desire and determination.
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There aren’t many players who possess all of the attributes required to be a great player in the Premiership and players like Steven Gerrard don’t come along very often. The Premier League has experienced a selection of players who have excelled in other leagues, but when it has come to the Premiership they have been found wanting. Juan Sebastian Veron and Mateja Kezman would fall under this category. They were players who were undoubtedly talented footballers, however they weren’t destined to be great Premiership players as they couldn’t adjust to the pace and high tempo required in Premiership football. In contrast, two players who came from abroad who did have the skill set to make them great Premiership players are Dennis Bergkamp and Gianfranco Zola. Both of these players had the ability to adapt to the pace and power of the Premiership and were still able to exhibit the full extent of their skill and football expertise.
With it being so hard to distinguish what it is that makes a great Premiership player, it ultimately comes down to individual opinions. Is it the all round game that Steven Gerrard encompasses or is the brilliance of a player like Bergkamp, maybe the abundant skill and prolific goal scoring of Thierry Henry. The Premier League is the best league in the world and while there are many great players out there, in my view to be a great Premier League player requires something more than it does to be a great La Liga or Serie A player. You only have to look at the likes of Diego Forlan and Freddie Kanoute who were average Premiership players but have gone on to take La Liga by storm. What’s your view?
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Sometimes, the footballing world is rocked by the unlikliest of transfers. Overnight, a player can go from hero to zero after joining his previous club’s deadliest rivals. This occasionally works out, but there are also times when it signals the downturn of a player’s career.
So let us go back and delve into the firey depths of football treachery.
Roberto Baggio (Juventus -> Fiorentina)
Italians have always been passionate about football, but £8m was a king’s ransom back in 1990, which was paid out for Baggio’s services by the giants from Turin. This move was such a controversial one, that a riot erupted in Florence. His arrival coincided with a very successful period for Juventus’. Baggio is now president of the technical sector of the Italian Football Federation, not bad eh?
MALICE RATING: 2/5
SELFISHNESS RATING: 2/5
EFFECTIVENESS: 5/5
Jermain Defoe (Charlton -> West Ham Utd -> Spurs)
Defoe has done the rounds and followed mentor Harry Redknapp around like a duckling follows mother goose. After starting his career as a youth at Charlton Athletic, a 16 year old Defoe made the controversial decision to turn professional with a West Ham United side containing Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Michael Carrick.
Charlton were paid due compensation having first scouted him, and after West Ham’s relegation in 2003, joined Tottenham, and then went to Portsmouth five years later. He has since returned to White Hart Lane as a goal machine, and the controversial move from West Ham to Spurs ultimately paid dividends, with the hugely talented striker rightfully desiring to play premier league football in the interest of his own career. To this day, Defoe remains a cemented first-teamer in a Champions League football playing Spurs side.
MALICE RATING: 1/5
SELFISHNESS RATING: 5/5
EFFECTIVENESS: (First stint at Spurs) 0/5 (Second stint at Spurs) 5/5
Paul Ince (West Ham -> Man Utd -> Liverpool)
Back in the day when people still had brick phones and hand-carts (1989 to be precise) Ince wore a Manchester United shirt ahead of his £1m transfer to Old Trafford, leaving the Upton Park he once enlightened, not so much in a blaze of glory, more a brown trail of smelly gas. After a spell at Inter Milan, Ince returned to England in 1997 to play for (fanfare)… LIVERPOOL! Unfortunately, his career then went on the slide, as his arrival coincided with Liverpool going trophyless in both seasons.
He was then drummed out to Middlesbrough in 1999 as a frustrated 31 year old, and finished his career with Wolves (moving there in 2002), experiencing relegation in that time. Since retiring in 2006, Ince has since managed sides such as Milton Keynes dons and Macclesfield – not quite the same as team-mates such as Mark Hughes and Steve Bruce in the Premier League – having blown his chance of glory with Blackburn Rovers in 2008/09.
MALICE RATING: 3/5
SELFISHNESS RATING: 4/5
EFFECTIVENESS: (WHU->MU) 4/5 (MU->INTER->LIV) 0/5
Nick Barmby (Everton -> Liverpool)
Although crossing the park was relatively common practice in the days of Dave Hickson (who moved from Goodison to Anfield in 1959), come the new millenium it was unthinkable for anyone to in either direction. Simply put Liverpool players didn’t want to go to a perpetually struggling club for a cut wage, and Everton players… well… just didn’t. Unfortunately for one Nick Barmby, that rule did not apply. Having gone to “represent Everton” in England’s poor Euro 2000 squad, Barmby made the overnight move to Anfield barely a week after the tournament finished for England.
Naturally, the Everton faithful were incensed that their best midfielder in years had betrayed them – to make matters worse, he scored in Liverpool’s 3-1 derby win at Anfield in October 2000 – but he ultimately proved a flop for the treble winning Liverpool side. Since then his career has gone down the pan – with a spell at Leeds coinciding with their meltdown, and slogging his way upwards through the football league with Hull City from Division Three to the Premier League. Last time he played at Goodison, he was awful and looked completely washed out as Hull were demolished by Everton.
MALICE RATING: 5/5
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SELFISHNESS RATING: 5/5
EFFECTIVENESS: 0/5
Ashley Cole (Arsenal -> Chelsea)
Not only unfaithful to Cheryl, but also to his beloved boyhood club Arsenal. Although he won honours at Highbury and looked every bit like a long term fixture in the England squad (meant in a good way), he ran into controversy in 2005 after being found guilty of engaging in talks with deadly rivals Chelsea without notifying Arsenal. A year later, he was indeed signed by Chelsea for £5m plus William Gallas. However, it’s bad news for the League of Justice, as Cole’s career has continued to go without any drastic hitches – except for his private life, but he doesn’t care about that…. does he?
For any football fan to come to the conclusion that Spurs have the best of any anything, no offence Tottenham, in the Premier League seems slightly more than unlikely, yet that is the prospect we are faced with. They might have qualified outside of the top four last year, but perhaps that was down to their maiden season in the Champions League rather than a poor squad. If their squad last year was good then the additions this year have taken it to the next level. In particular their midfield is arguably the best in the league. Last year I think it was Arsenal’s. Any midfield that had Nasri on his then form, Fabregas and Wilshere all playing in the centre was always going to be formidable, however this year Spurs have taken the mantle from their north London rivals.
It’s not just that Scott Parker has proved to be one of the best buys of the summer; it is that the players around him have grown as well. Parker may be the only addition to the Spurs midfield from last year but he has acted as a catalyst in the middle, liberating his team-mates, especially Luka Modric.
There weren’t many people, other than Daniel Levy, who wouldn’t have simply taken the £40m offered by Chelsea for Modric in the summer. It seemed an extortionately large sum for a player who whilst very good was never worth that much. I’m not saying that he is worth that now, but Modric’s performances this season have at least proved that Levy was right to hang on to him. Last season when Modric was playing beside Wilson Palacios or Tom Huddlestone on Sandro he was playing well but the sheer amount of work Parker does for the team means that Modric has been allowed to play with a sense of freedom that very few in Premier League midfields are allowed. As a result I don’t think that there is a team that Modric, on his current form, would not get in to.
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They also have arguably the best winger in the league in Gareth Bale. David Silva’s form this season was untouchable for the first few months but that form has cooled in recent weeks and whilst Bale has a similar level of technical ability his physical attributes greatly outweigh those of Silva. Clearly on his day there doesn’t seem to be anyone better than Silva but for consistency in quality performances there are none better than Bale. He has also improved a lot this year from last. This season he has seven assists in the league. That is already more than his last three years put together.
Then you have Aaron Lennon on the right, he clearly isn’t the best right-winger in the league, but he has improved a lot. You have to watch Lennon regularly to realise just how consistent and valuable he is for the Tottenham team. Though his recent spell on the sidelines was only for a few weeks it was clear to see how much Spurs missed him. His acceleration, first touch and driving runs are crucial for opening up space in opposition teams and when you combine his presence with that of Gareth Bale on the other wing the partnership they have is ruthless. It may not be a conventional partnership in that very few passes are played between the two but both rely on the other. With both Bale and Lennon on the pitch it not only stops opposition full backs from attacking but it stretches them defensively.
So if you consider that midfield four of Bale, Modric, Parker and Lennon, then remember that Spurs have Van der Vaart, Huddlestone, Sandro, Pienaar and Kranjcar as reserves it is hard to argue against the fact that not only do Spurs have the best starting midfield players but also the best strength in depth. Clearly Man City has some very talented individuals. Samir Nasri, David Silva and Yaya Toure are all exceptional players. However Adam Johnson, Nigel de Jong and Gareth Barry are consistently underwhelming in their performances and even Silva and Nasri have been disappointing over the Christmas period. No other teams even come close, United have excellent wingers but the fact that they need to bring a 37-year-old Paul Scholes out of retirement is testament to the quality of their other central midfielders. Then you have Liverpool who have extravagantly assembled the most mediocre midfield in the league, Chelsea who lack a defensive midfielder or any real midfield partnerships and Arsenal who are desperately trying to deal with a season in which they lost Nasri, Fabregas and Wilshere all at the same time. Believe me, as an Arsenal fan, it took me a long time to come around to this conclusion, but ultimately you can’t really argue against it. Hopefully it won’t last.
Follow me on Twitter @H_Mackay
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Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier will be absent from the dugout for Saturday’s match against Stoke, having been admitted to hospital with chest pains.The former Liverpool manager needed a major heart operation during his time at Anfield but will not require surgery this time.
Villa assistant Gary McAllister will take charge for the match at Villa Park and he said: “He is on the coronary ward. He was great and bubbly. He had a tough night but he was looking surprisingly well and in fine fettle.”
“They (the specialists) are definitely saying there is no surgery needed, which is a massive plus.”
“The last time there was major surgery. This time there will be no surgery needed, purely medicine and rest.”
Villa are likely to be unchanged after collecting seven points from their previous three games to climb into the top half of the table, easing their relegation fears.
Midfielder Fabian Delph was the only previous absentee and he has recovered from a groin injury.
McAllister was at Liverpool when Houllier required major heart surgery in October 2001 and the Villa assistant is confident the team will be able to cope as well as he managed the first time Houllier suffered a scare.
He added: “There was shock within the Liverpool dressing room and we knew there was a major problem with the length of the surgery and what it entailed. It was a big operation.
“But Phil Thompson came in and that midweek we went to Kiev for a Champions League game and it was the first time Kiev had been beaten at home.
“The players rallied and were playing for the manager and I’m sure that is what will happen here. A perfect tonic for the manager will be getting three points against Stoke.”
Stoke City manager Tony Pulis is hopeful of making a number of new signings before the transfer window shuts at the end of the month.
Pulis has recently been thwarted in bids to sign striker Craig Bellamy from Manchester City and West Ham midfielder Radoslav Kovac, but is still confident of sealing a number of further deals.
He said:"I'm hoping next week we'll get another four players in if we can.
"We are really, really desperately keen to change one or two things around and shake the place up.
"That is very important. We are looking all over for different players and I'm hoping next week one or two things will drop for us.
"We have worked very hard to put things in place and we were disappointed with the Bellamy situation – we worked hard to try and get Craig here, but it just didn't drop for us.
"We were very keen to take Craig, but he has gone to Cardiff and I think (manager) Dave Jones is very fortunate to get what is a top, top player.
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"Cardiff is his home town and he has been living away from his family for quite a while now.
"I think he has thought 'how can I help them get into the Premier League?' and I'm sure they have a great chance now."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Liverpool supporters have been left reeling by the breakdown in talks between the Reds and Lyon over the transfer of star talent Nabil Fekir.
As reported by the BBC, the French club announced that he will not be moving to Anfield and will in fact will be staying with his current side in 2018/19.
His signing had previously thought to be imminent, with Liverpool fans excited about what he could bring to Jurgen Klopp’s starting eleven next season.
Now the German will either have to move onto other talents or risk counting on a late move for the midfielder later on in the transfer window after the World Cup in Russia.
Fekir had a phenomenal season in France last season, scoring 23 goals and providing 9 assists, the kind of direct goal contribution that could have made him a real fan favourite at Anfield.
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Supporters took to Twitter to share their thoughts on it all…
As reported by The Daily Mail, Newcastle United are considering making a loan move for Borussia Dortmund attacker Andre Schurrle this January.
What’s the story?
Schurrle has found himself on the fringes of the Borussia Dortmund first team this season, making just six Bundesliga appearances and struggling with injuries throughout.
The Daily Mail report that Borussia Dortmund are ready to offer him on loan to English Premier League sides this month and are even willing to pay half of his £150,000-a-week wages.
The paper say that Newcastle and Stoke City are interested in such a move, with both clubs looking for fresh options in attack in the second half of the season.
Can he be the man that revitalises Rafa Benitez’s threadbare Newcastle squad?
What can he offer?
As reported by The Mail, Schurrle moved to Borussia Dortmund from Wolfsburg for £25m in 2016 on a five-year deal but thus far has failed to live up to his billing as an elite talent in German football.
With just five goals and six assists in a season and a half in all competitions, Dortmund fans would probably have been expecting more from such a high profile deal.
However, he still has plenty to offer a side like Newcastle, who aren’t exactly blessed with lots of options in attack at the moment.
With the versatility to play on either flank or through the middle in attack, he could perform a variety of roles for Rafa Benitez and during his time at other German clubs and for the national team has proven he can find the net on a consistent basis.
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He of course has Premier League experience with Chelsea too, meaning he wouldn’t find it too hard to blend in mid-season.
On loan, signing him would be a relatively low risk move and if he hits top form he could be an excellent addition indeed.
It’s no secret that there will be a changing of the guard in Tottenham’s dugout this summer.
Geezer-gaffer Tim Sherwood boasts a better win percentage – 58% – than any of his Spurs predecessors and if his side beat Aston Villa on Sunday he’ll also equal the North London outfit’s third-best points total of the Premier League era.
But initially brought in to steady the ship after the abrupt sacking of Andre Villas-Boas back in December, Mirror Football’s labelling of the gillet-throwing 45 year-old as the Premier League equivalent of a supply teacher, regardless of his 18-month contract only issued in January, summarises the current situation at White Hart Lane permanently.
To label Sherwood as ‘lucky’ in his debut management spell would be rather harsh, but he’s not the experienced and inspiring model of manager Daniel Levy is searching for. The Tottenham chairman’s silence over the issue of Sherwood’s future – whilst the Lilywhites are relentlessly linked with Southampton’s Mauricio Pochettino and Ajax’s Frank de Boer – is incredibly telling.
During this afternoon’s press conference, a club representative had to step in to stop questions over where the former midfielder will be next season. For me, that’s enough evidence alone that Sherwood will be collecting his P45, not to mention the fact midfielder Sandro told ESPN Brazil earlier this week that Spurs will have a different manager next season. Everybody knows this will be the case, even if nobody from the Spurs camp has officially announced it.
De Boer and Pochettino are undoubtedly leading the pack. One harking back to the Eredivisie-inspired philosophy and club structure Tottenham enjoyed under Martin Jol, in addition to offering significant experience in the Champions League, the other boasting proven Premier League credentials and a commitment to hard-working, high-velocity football.
But in my opinion, both are huge risks. They’re equally as risky as the hiring of Andre Villas-Boas in summer 2012, which took just 18 months and two poor results against Manchester City and Liverpool for Daniel Levy to talk himself out of. In fact, many of the Tottenham chairman’s appointments have failed to live up to expectations – he’s sacked seven permanent managers since taking over at White Hart Lane in 2001, and Sherwood is set to become his eighth. By no coincidence, the Lilywhites’ best league finishes under Levy’s leadership have come via the two longest serving managers, Martin Jol and Harry Redknapp.
There’s no more room for Hail Mary appointments – if Tottenham’s flirtatious relationship with the Premier League’s top four is ever to become more than that, Levy needs a long-term solution in the dugout that he won’t get cold feet about a couple of transfer windows later.
With that condition in mind, the club’s first choice should undoubtedly be former Liverpool and Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez. Admittedly, the players at his disposal have often been luxurious, but from six seasons at Liverpool the 54 year-old finished just twice outside of the Champions League standings. Likewise, he recorded a third-place finish with the Blues last season and won a Europa League title despite the endless burdening pressures of his ‘interim’ job title. In a nutshell – the current Napoli boss knows exactly what’s required to get into the Premier League’s top four – for Pochettino and de Boer, it will all be educated guess-work.
The Spaniard’s pragmatic approach may not go down too well at White Hart Lane, considering the Lilywhites’ traditional tendency towards fast-paced attacking football. But Liverpool shared that tradition too – through his consistent results and progress in cup competitions, Benitez was able to win over one of the most militant supporter groups in the country.
Likewise, he has experience with big-name foreign players and, in my opinion, that will be the ultimate test of the next Tottenham manager – summer signings Paulinho, Roberto Soldado and Erik Lamela, all arriving in North London for record-breaking fees at the start of the season, have to start producing next year, and that responsibility will eventually be buck-passed back to the dugout.
Well acquainted with La Liga and Serie A, on paper at least, Benitez has a better chance of getting Soldado and Lamela to start paying back their price-tags than De Boer or Pochettino do. Southampton is the largest club the Argentine has worked at, and although de Boer has fought finite resources and funding to continually nurture impressive talents from Ajax’s academy, the days of the Dutch side being laden in star quality are far behind them. When it comes to prior history of getting the best out of top players, Benitez is in a different league.
Not only is the Spaniard’s record in the Premier League incredibly consistent, but he’s also a master of the other front Tottenham will be fighting in next season – the Europa League. The Lilywhites have put more emphasis than most English sides on the second-tier tournament over the past two years, but have eventually come up short in its latter stages, knocked out by Basel in the semis last term and Benfica in this season’s quarter finals. They’ve lacked the experience and insight to get them over the line, but Benitez offers both in abundance; he’s twice won the Europa League – including in its previous format with Valencia in 2004 – and famously claimed a Champions League title with Liverpool in 2005.
Not only is Benitez a manager capable of guiding Tottenham into Europe, but he’s furthermore a manager who can make something of it once they get there. They won’t be simply making up the numbers.
Admittedly, whether the former Valencia, Liverpool, Inter Milan and Chelsea boss would be willing to quit Napoli after a single season remains to be seen. Mirror Football claim he’s interested in returning to London after living there for the second half of last season. But the Spaniard’s last three jobs have all been with Champions League clubs – he may view qualifying for Europe against the odds as a challenge he’s mastered enough times before.
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Furthermore, although Napoli may have slipped a place in the league standings from last year, the Italian side are impressed with how Benitez has coped with the loss of star striker Edinson Cavani. He’s also finished his first season in Naples by clinching silverware, following his side’s victory in the Coppa Italia final last week. Without further meaning to blow smoke up the 54 year-old’s proverbial, that means he’s won a trophy in each debut season at his last five clubs.
But the Premier League comes with an allure that has enticed Benitez twice before. He must feel he has unfinished business in England too, considering his Liverpool tenure ended in disappointment and his Chelsea stay soon became a complete farce. Furthermore, Benitez is a manager Levy will know he can trust – de Boer and Pochettino have shown great promise but proved nothing concrete yet in their dugout careers, whilst the Spaniard has seven major trophies to his name and is a two-time winner of the UEFA Manager of the Year award.
In my opinion, that’s the most crucial factor – a manager the chairman can put his faith in to provide relative stability, without a sour patch immediately making him think twice. But whether Tottenham’s ambitions and aims appeal enough to convince Benitez to quit Napoli remains to be seen.