Lowly West Ham welcomes fellow relegation candidates Aston Villa on Saturday, with both sides needing a win to boost their survival hopes.The Hammers succumbed to a 3-0 defeat to Bolton Wanderers last Saturday in the English Premier League, however Avram Grant’s men saw two efforts on goal clash with the woodwork.
The defeat further dented West Ham’s bid to remain in the top flight as they sit in third-bottom on 32 points and having lost their previous two encounters.
Kieron Dyer, who was sent on loan to Ipswich Town last month, has returned to Upton Park to help with the Hammers’ relegation battle after appearing in four Championship matches.
England international Scott Parker, who was shortlisted for the PFA Player of the Year Award, will again be the focal point and talisman for West Ham as they look for inspiration heading into the final six games of the season.
And the Aston Villa game is arguably the most important game for Grant’s troops, given they have tough away clashes with Chelsea and Manchester City to follow.
Grant has stated that 41 points would be enough for his side to avoid the drop.
Aston Villa, like their opponents, are also in the thick of the relegation dog fight having contrived to struggle this season following last season’s impressive sixth-place finish on the table.
French manager Gerard Houllier has had a tough time resonating with the Villa players, since his appointment in mid-season, but they nonetheless will be buoyed by their triumph over Newcastle last week.
Welsh international John Collins scored the solitary goal that helped move the Midlands outfit into 14th spot on the table.
Captain Stiliyan Petrov, whose contributions have been limited in recent weeks, is fighting to regain his starting spot with Nigel Reo-Coker.
Victory on Saturday is also a must for the Villans who will encounter several tricky matches heading season’s end.
One name that has persisted in the transfer gossip columns and sports pages is that of French striker Loic Remy. The 23-year old Nice forward has reportedly been a target of West Ham, Stoke, Liverpool, Everton, Tottenham and Arsenal. Many more clubs across Europe have sent scouts to watch the forward who earned his second international cap last week. But is this player and his busy agent worth all the fuss and conjecture? Would Remy be able to live up to his ever burgeoning profile?
Goal-scorers have long been the hardest and most expensive position for clubs to fill. This partly explains why large sums are often charged for forwards who already have proven Premier League experience. Remy lacks that experience having spent his entire career in France but his attributes suggest he could adapt seamlessly to life in England’s top division. The forward who has been compared to Thierry Henry, started his senior career at Olympique Lyonnais. The youngster struggled to establish himself in their first team and was loaned to fellow Ligue 1 club Lens, where he found the net on four occasions. Such was the promise and potential of the 6ft striker, Nice decided to break their transfer record to sign Remy for 8 million euros in 2008. During his first season there he scored 6 goals in 6 games early on, then endured a relatively quiet period before hitting a purple patch later in the campaign. Remy scored 14 league goals last season in a faltering Nice team which finished 15th in Ligue 1.
Attuned to clinical finishing and playing in a variety of attacking positions his suitors patently believe he can take a step up to the PL. Remy appears to be a thoroughbred, possessing physical strength, skills, speed and scoring ability. He has been deployed as a lone striker but French football journalist, Tom Williams has inferred that he could struggle in this role against PL defences. “At Nice, he played from the right and he’s played from the left for the under-21s.” Williams additionally notes that Remy has used his pace to devastating effect when Nice adopt a counter-attacking style. PL scouts have sent glowing reports back to their respective clubs on the Frenchman who is technically proficient and a clean striker of the ball.
The wave of interest in his possible capture is due to this ability to perform in a range of forward positions, whether out wide or from deep. Put rather crudely strikers can be often be divided into two distinct camps. There are old-fashioned British style centre-forwards who rely on their physical presence and sense of timing and those who use their skill, wily movement and speed to unsettle defences. Remy’s potential to transcend this binary distinction explains his appeal to a diverse range of clubs.
This assortment of skills shows why clubs from Stoke to Arsenal have expressed an interest in Remy. He seemed destined for West Ham last month but the two clubs disagreed on the initial fee payment. Remy visited the Britannia stadium recently but stated that White Hart Lane would be his preferred destination. “A move to Spurs would be interesting,” he told L’Equipe. “Stoke is not a move I want. Nice is in real need of money and it should be adaptable with the price to help sell me.”
Remy’s club may not be as malleable as he wishes given their reluctance to lose the player for less that £13 million. Barring the exploits of Manchester City, the transfer window has been exceptionally peaceful to the extent that Stoke’s £8 million signing of Kenwyne Jones had the capacity to shock. Yet for a fee not on the scale of a Mario Balotelli or David Silva many PL clubs could score an early victory over their competitors by swooping for the talented Remy.
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Another weekend passes and once again the officials take centre stage but for all the wrong reasons. Chris Foy was the pantomime villain this week, although Harry Redknapp and Tottenham didn’t find it very funny.
The referee had a shocking game at the Britannia and while the neutrals clamour (as they always do when the refs have a shocker) for technology, the reality is that officiating is simply getting worse and you shouldn’t need someone with a monitor to tell a linesman when a player is 3yrds onside, while referees should know that blatant handballs in the box actually constitutes a penalty for the attacking side and a subsequent red card. Foy went the other way and turned a blind eye to the penalties, before sending off Younes Kaboul for questioning his failings. If referees cannot get even the basics right; then my worst fears about the introduction of technology will come to the fore.
I am all for technology in football when it comes to decisions like sending offs, penalties, and of course goal-line technology; however my continued concern against it is where will it end? Would football end up following the same route as Rugby or Tennis when you find teams appealing for every decision and calling on refs to get video assistance? It will certainly ruin the ebb and flow of the game, especially as I feel that the majority of challenges will be unfounded. But are we going to be left with any other option, if the likes of Chris Foy and the assistant referees cannot get even the most basic details and decisions right.
So where does football go from here and want is the answer to the declining standards? Harry Redknapp mooted the idea of two referees, but is that really going to help matters, given the nature of the mistakes we witnessed over the weekend. Some say we should make referees stand court after a game and be open to questioning – a nice idea but flawed given referees will probably hide behind statements like ‘I didn’t see it’. It is certainly a worrying situation and one that has no long-term fix, unless the FA get tough with those who are failing and look to give them greater assistance on the sidelines in making crucial decisions. The refereeing training programme needs improving and officials need to be made fully aware that they’ll be penalised for continued failings. If Tottenham miss out on the Champions League by a point come the end of the season, then the officials at the Britannia will have cost the club something in the region of £20-40m for their negligence to the rule book; an expensive mistake and ones that the FA should look to start preventing in the future.
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Two of this season’s underachievers meet when Everton welcome Aston Villa to Goodison Park on Saturday.
Heading into the 2010-11 campaign, both Everton and Villa were considered realistic contenders for European football, but things have not worked out as they would have hoped.
Villa had, in fact, already secured a Europa League play-off berth with their sixth-place finish last term, but after Martin O’Neill’s walkout on the eve of the season, they slumped to a 4-3 aggregate loss to Rapid Vienna in August to dash their hopes of an extended European run.
Everton finished in eighth place in 2009-10, just outside the European spots, but after failing to register their first English Premier League win until October, David Moyes’ men never really got going this season and find themselves in eighth place, nine points behind fifth-placed Spurs.
The situation is far worse for Villa boss Gerard Houllier, who was brought in to replace O’Neill in September. With just one win from their past six league games, Villa are in 14th place, just one point clear of the relegation zone.
In their most recent league game they slumped to a 1-0 loss at home to fellow relegation contenders and Midlands rivals Wolves, prompting some supporters to voice their displeasure with Houllier after the final whistle.
The Frenchman has almost a full squad to choose from heading into Saturday’s match, with defenders Richard Dunne and Luke Young a chance to return from their respective shoulder and knee injuries, although fellow stopper Ciaran Clark is out through suspension.
The news from the treatment room is not quite so good for Moyes, with striker Louis Saha, midfielder Jack Rodwell and defender Seamus Coleman all carrying ankle complaints, while midfielder Mikel Arteta is battling a hamstring problem.
Javier Mascherano wants to leave Liverpool. He has decided he no longer wants to be at the club, and the disappointing aspect of today’s game is that there is very little Liverpool can do about it. Player power is still as strong now as it ever was, and loyalty to a club is becoming a far rarer thing. Loyalty still exists: Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Steven Gerrard, John Terry and Jamie Carragher are the most high-profile examples of one-club players, and perhaps Gerrard is the best example as he has had the greatest opportunities to leave. Over the last decade certain clubs have believed they might be able to prize the Liverpool captain away, and he has resisted any temptation. I’d be surprised if Manchester United have ever received an offer for Giggs in his time at the club, given the affiliation he has with the club and manager and vice versa. These player have however, spent the vast majority of their careers enjoying their time at their clubs. When a player is unhappy, they can play prisoner, and find the quickest escape route.
Managers do not want to keep players who aren’t happy at their club. If a player publicly states that they want to leave, and there are other teams interested, then the deal is effectively done. Previously, when a player signed a contract, that was the end of the matter. Contracts now can count for very little in terms of commitment to a club; they are now more a case of dictating how much a club will receive in a transfer fee.
When Robbie Savage decided that he no longer wanted to play for Birmingham City, he made sure a move away was the end result. What had been a healthy relationship between player, manager and fans was destroyed in the sequence of events that led to his departure. He was three months into a four year deal at Birmingham, but eventually, it counted for nothing.
Despite being adored by his fans at Manchester United, and depended upon by his manager, Cristiano Ronaldo decided that he would much rather play for Real Madrid. It took him a year to get his move, and by the time the deal was done, most Utd fans were glad to see the back of him – no fan wants a player who doesn’t care for their club, regardless of how good they are.
Both Joleon Lescott and Gareth Barry engineered moves away from their clubs to join Manchester City. The latter had to make do with another season at the club that had nurtured his career since he was a boy, after missing out on a move to Liverpool the previous summer, and to be fair he played well, but he was not the same player in the eyes of the Villa fans, and a move away remained on the player’s mind. That last season at Villa had barely finished before he was having a medical at Eastlands. Lescott simply stuck his heels in the ground and maintained his desire. Everton got a hefty sum of money for him, but the season had already begun by the time he left and David Moyes would have much preferred a player he rated highly to money that he couldn’t spend.
Mascherano will get his move. He has served Liverpool well in the time that he has spent there, but then shouldn’t all players serve their club well – isn’t that a basic demand of all contracted players to their clubs? It will be interesting to see what happens to Cesc Fabregas because it would appear that he has a real affection for both Arsenal and Barcelona, and that he is genuinely torn between the two. It would be difficult to accuse Fabregas of being disloyal, but if he reiterates that he wants to leave, how long can Arsenal try to keep him. As with Javier Mascherano, if he wants to leave, the cold reality is, that he will.
With the PL season nearly upon us, let’s see the WAGS that will be keeping the players on their toes. Click on image to VIEW gallery
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Lille star Eden Hazard has put a number of Premier League clubs on red alert after admitting he is likely to leave the reigning Ligue 1 champions next summer Sky Sports reports.
The talented Belgian playmaker was the subject of intense transfer speculation over the summer with Arsenal, Liverpool and both Manchester clubs vying for his signature alongside Serie A giants Inter Milan.
However the 20-year-old opted to stay at the Stade Lille-Metropole for this season but has confessed that he is likely to leave the club and France next summer also ruling out a move to big spenders Paris Saint Germain.
“I feel ready to make it to the next level in a great club.” he said.
“I stayed in Lille this season because there were still things I had to work on, things to prove. But now, I’m ready.
“Paris is not for now. After France, I want to go abroad.”
Hazard has been in fine form for Lille this season scoring four goals and assisting as many in 12 games this season. Arsene Wenger has been a long term admirer of the Belgium international and tried to bring him to the Emirates Stadium during the summer window.
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However he will now face serious competition from his Premier League rivals with Sir Alex Ferguson reportedly set to strengthen his interest as he strives to add a creative midfielder to his ranks.
AC Milan meet champions Inter Milan at the San Siro on Saturday in a match that could well define the title credentials of both sides.Milan have topped the Serie A standings for much of the 2010-11 campaign, but Massimiliano Allegri’s men have stagnated in recent weeks and were held to a 1-1 draw at home by bottom side Bari on March 13 before slumping to a 1-0 defeat at Palermo.
Inter, by contrast, endured a difficult start to their campaign under former manager Rafael Benitez, but since he was replaced by Leonardo in December, the reigning Italian and European champions have gone from strength to strength.
Their league record since the Brazilian took over has been impeccable, with 12 wins, two losses and a draw seeing them sitting just two points behind Milan with eight games remaining.
Leonardo will be hoping for more good form from Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o, who has scored 19 league goals this season, with four in his last four Serie A games.
Also on Saturday, Brescia will be desperate to move out of the relegation zone when they host Bologna.
Sunday sees another huge fixture, when third-placed Napoli – who are just three points behind Milan – take on a fifth-placed Lazio side who are desperate to keep their Champions League push alive.
As well as Inter, the big movers of 2011 have undoubtedly been Udinese and the northerners are unbeaten in the league so far this year from 13 games – scoring 35 goals and conceding only 10.
That form sees them lying in fourth place in the league, six points behind Milan, ahead of Sunday’s trip to relegation candidates Lecce.
Elsewhere on Sunday, sixth-placed Roma host Juventus at the Olympic stadium with a spot in next season’s Europa League the objective for both teams, and the visitors will be keen to slash Roma’s five point advantage.
Catania welcome Palermo at the Stadio Angelo Massimino for an all-Sicilian affair while struggling Cesena play host to Fiorentina.
Bari are six points adrift at the foot of the table and need maximum points from their trip to Parma, Cagliari visit Genoa in a mid-table clash and Chievo Verona welcome a Sampdoria side who are just three points clear of the relegation zone.
Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp has admitted Jonathan Woodgate is in danger of missing out on his final squad eligible to compete in the new Premier League season.
Each club must submit a final 25-man squad list on August 31 and only those players listed can compete in league games until the winter transfer window opens on January 1.
Woodgate has been sidelined since last November with a long-running groin problem which required surgery.
It is the latest in a long line of injury lay-offs for the 30-year-old former Leeds United, Newcastle and Real Madrid defender and Redknapp is currently concerned about his ability to fully recover.
"Woody's nowhere near at the moment. Nowhere near," Redknapp told the Daily Star.
"It must be really hard for him. He's nowhere near kicking a ball.
"He's been out for a year, been in America and Australia, but he's still nowhere near.
"I just couldn't put him in my 25. It's impossible at the moment.
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"If he doesn't start playing before the start of the season he's got no chance. You can't have somebody in who's never going to play.
"To have any chance, he's got to be back playing, otherwise you couldn't possibly have him in the 25. Not at the moment, and he's a long way off now."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Wigan boss Roberto Martinez has stated that he is glad to see the back of October, after the Latics suffered a pointless month in the Premier League.
Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Fulham made it seven league defeats in a row for the side from the DW Stadium, who are bottom of the standings with a mere five points.
The Spanish coach is already worried about a season battling against relegation, but feels his side can turn their fortunes around.
“October has been a shocking month for us. I could go from things on the training ground, to suspensions, to injuries, to bad decisions, to hitting the post; I’m delighted it’s the last game in October,” he told Mirror Football.
“But the experience that we had last season really prepared us for anything in football. We are a young group but I think we’re ready.
“The players need to forget about winning games, they just need to focus on improving individually. We’ve got many good options, especially going forward.
“We need to see the overall aim. We need to get 40 points, we’ve got five so we need 35. With the amount of games there are left, there is not a situation where you have to win the next two.
“We want to win the next one because of the momentum, the confidence, the belief that you need to stop the negative run, and that’s what we need to change,” he concluded.
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Wigan travel to take on Wolves at Molineux on Sunday, in an important game against one of the Latics’ likely relegation rivals.
Liverpool will be looking to continue their resurgence under Kenny Dalglish when they face Braga in the last 16 of the Europa League on Thursday.Dalglish’s side, who are unbeaten in the competition so far, head to Portugal on the back of an impressive 3-1 win over English Premier League leaders Manchester United at Anfield on Sunday.They will have to make do without influential captain Steven Gerrard, however, who has not travelled with the squad after suffering a recurrence of the groin injury that kept him out of both legs of Liverpool’s round-of-32 triumph over Sparta Prague.New striker Luis Suarez is also unavailable, with the Uruguayan cup tied having represented former club Ajax in the Champions League this season. On a positive note, 35 million-pound signing Andy Carroll could be set for another cameo from the bench, with the former Newcastle forward unlikely to start as he battles back to full fitness after a groin complaint.Liverpool will have to be at their best to keep their unbeaten record intact as Braga have won five of their six home games in Europe this season, including a 2-0 win over Arsenal in the Champions League.Although Domingos Paciencia’s side have struggled for form recently domestically – sitting in sixth spot in Liga Sagres – they will come into the game buoyed by a 2-1 victory over reigning league champions Benfica on Sunday.