Capello’s first England squad

Well there were high hopes for David Beckham to join those hand full of players who have reached one hundred caps, but alas is was not to be, this time! But with all the choice from the premier league what else could the new England manager do. After all as good as Beckham is, he has not been playing much, in fact the only ball skills he has managed to do is playing with a small ball in Rio!

Well it’s make or break for the manager now, if they win he will great, lose and he will be hounded, here is the full squad.

The Full Squad

Goalkeepers

Carson (Aston Villa), James (Portsmouth), Kirkland (Wigan)

Defenders

Bridge (Chelsea), Brown (Manchester United), A Cole (Chelsea), C Davies (Aston Villa), Ferdinand (Manchester United) G Johnson (Portsmouth), King (Tottenham), Lescott (Everton), Richards (Manchester City), Shorey (Reading), Upson (West Ham), Woodgate (Tottenham)

Midfielders

Barry (Aston Villa), Bentley (Blackburn), Carrick (Manchester United), J Cole (Chelsea), Downing (Middlesbrough), Gerrard (Liverpool), Hargreaves (Manchester United), Jenas (Tottenham), Wright-Phillips (Chelsea)

Strikers

Young (Aston Villa); Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), Crouch (Liverpool), Heskey (Wigan), Owen (Newcastle), Rooney (Manchester United).

Source [ITV Football]

Premier league should shut down

There are calls for the premier league to be shut down during events like the African Nations Cup, according to David Moyes the manager of Everton. He has three key first team players missing while they play for the countries in the tournament.

The problem is not just hitting his side though there are many teams throughout the league that have players missing too, not only that next week there are many world cup 2010 qualification matches coming up, this will also hit team who have players from Asia and Australia who will be needed by their countries for these matches too.

But having said all of that, the problem exists for all clubs, and this is a problem that will occur when there is a football league that attracts the best players from all around the world. So in reality this is a problem that could affect all teams, so it could be considered a fair system in the long run.

Source [Fox Sports]

Liverpool’s refinancing details

When it was announced that Tom Hicks and George Gillet the be leagued owners of Liverpool football club had secured a decent refinancing package, it was believed that the club would find itself in a brighter financial situation and therefore could move forward with building the new Anfield and more importantly for the fans the team.

But as details begin to emerge it would seem that the club is not in such a brilliant financial situation after all, with the club itself being laden with £105 million and the holding company Kop Holdings having a massive £245 million worth of debt on its books.

But as if that was not enough to worry about, the club is going to have to find around £30 million per year in order to service this finance, this will clearly leave the club struggling to find a decent budget for the manager Rafa Benitez to buy new players with, which is really what the club needs at the moment.

Source [ITV Football]

Liverpool’s refinancing details

When it was announced that Tom Hicks and George Gillet the be leagued owners of Liverpool football club had secured a decent refinancing package, it was believed that the club would find itself in a brighter financial situation and therefore could move forward with building the new Anfield and more importantly for the fans the team.

But as details begin to emerge it would seem that the club is not in such a brilliant financial situation after all, with the club itself being laden with £105 million and the holding company Kop Holdings having a massive £245 million worth of debt on its books.

But as if that was not enough to worry about, the club is going to have to find around £30 million per year in order to service this finance, this will clearly leave the club struggling to find a decent budget for the manager Rafa Benitez to buy new players with, which is really what the club needs at the moment.

Source [ITV Football]

FA Cup fifth round draw

It promised to be a great round for some of the lower league clubs that had made it through to the fifth round of the FA Cup, but as usual it seemed the balls were not going their way as the top two teams in the country Arsenal and Manchester United have once again been drawn against each other preventing those lower league teams of a decent pay day.

This means that one of the top teams will not be making it any further in the competition, which is probably a sad thing, although it will give a couple of those teams the opportunity to progress through and maybe then have the opportunity to face up to the premierships finest.

FA Cup fifth-round draws in full:

Bristol Rovers v Southampton

Cardiff v Wolves

Sheffield United v Middlesbrough

Liverpool v Barnsley

Manchester United v Arsenal

Preston v Portsmouth

Coventry v West Brom

Chelsea v Huddersfield

Ties to be played 16/17 February.

Liverpool wants Walcott

With new financing in place at Liverpool the first thing on their agenda is to build the new Anfield, but clearly that is going to take some time and really what Rafael Benitez needs to be doing is getting his team to win some games and get some points, because they could be in danger of being caught by the team below them.

One way that he can bolster his team up is by bringing decent players on a loan basis and one such player is Arsenals Theo Walcott, he has not had enough starts this season to get the experience he needs to become a great player and playing first team football every week would give him that. But Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is having none of it.

There is a golden rule in top flight football, and that is to never allow a player to leave and join a club where they can come back and hurt you and this could be one of the reasons why the young player will have sit on bench and play the odd few games until the end of the season.

Source [Telegraph]

Cup Loss Troubles Pale Against Player Conduct

If losing 5-1 to Tottenham at Tuesday’s Carling Cup semifinal wasn’t troubling enough for Arsenal, the behavior of their players during the match may well be. Emmanuel Adebayor and Nicklas Bendtner shared an aggressive moment in which Adebayor head-butted Bendtner. Today Adebayor escaped punishment from the FA, who have have chosen to deal with the matter by sending both players a letter regarding expected conduct.

There is no word yet on how Arsenal will handle the situation, if at all. Adebayor issued an apology on the club’s web site, but pundits are expressing concerns and speculation that if not dealt with properly the blow-up could cost the club either player.

Referee Howard Webb intervened during the match to stop the row from escalating, but by then plenty of anger had been vented between the two players. Whether the confrontation was born from the frustration about Arsenal’s poor play or an off-the-pitch grudge between them remains to be seen. Bendtner was responsible for an Arsenal own goal earlier in the game; no doubt his emotions were roused as it was.

Bendtner was not an innocent party in the altercation; although the worst offense was Adebayor’s head-butt, the younger player did accost the side’s captain William Gallas when he stepped in to separate his feuding teammates. Howard Webb admitted he didn’t see the entire episode and therefore did not impose as harsh a penalty as may have been expected.

The FA reviewed footage of the incident before ruling that no action would be taken against the Togolese striker. The decision came with Webb’s recommendation that the video wasn’t conclusive enough to warrant retrospectively penalizing Adebayor.

Any wider repercussions of Adebayor’s and Bendtner’s behavior remain to be seen. However, Arsenal have more than their performance to dissect; if they are to keep the peace and cohesion in their side, they must consider the current chemistry and address issues that arise between players. The result of letting attitude problems come to a head on the pitch can be the difference between a win or a loss. The root cause of Arsenal’s thrashing at the hands of Tottenham could lie in a lack of cooperation between players. Having just been eclipsed by Manchester United in the EPL, Arsenal cannot afford to give away matches so cheaply.

Source:
ESPN

Liverpool accused of damaging football

It would seem like a rather strange thing to be accused of, but this is exactly what the former leader of the conservatives Ian Duncan Smith has done, picking out the club as being one of those that doe not nurture young English talent, but favour recruiting their youngsters from abroad.

This comes as the Anfield based club has linked up with a club from Hungary, MTK Budapest. In fact to bolster these claims, the reds manager Rafael Benitez has recently signed three teenagers striker Krisztian Nemeth, Andras Simon and goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi.

But having said that if we look at the premier league club academies which is what he is talking about, only have around fifteen per cent of foreign players, so the reasoning is not fully justified there. However in the first team squad, foreign players make up around thirty seven per cent.

One thing is for sure, something has got to change.

Source [Liverpool Daily Post]

Beckham to Newcastle

This time of the year is sometimes called the “Silly Season” this does not relate to the actual season or the football that is being played, although in some cases it really should do, especially if you are an Arsenal fan.

But what this refers to is the transfer rumours that are running around in the media and the terraces, the favourite one this weeks has to be the fact that one David Beckham could soon become part of the newly hired Kevin Keegan’s squad, imagine Beckham and Owen both playing in the same team!

Well this may be a rumour but we have heard stranger stories, however the team owner is short of a few pounds as he has recently bought a £180 million stake in the sports clothing and footwear company Adidas, they make the Newcastle team kit and having a star like David Beckham as the face of Adidas would make perfect business sense, so maybe it is not such a silly season after all!!

Source [Telegraph]

It promised to be an exciting weekend

But apart from the top two, Man Utd and Arsenal things just didn’t really live up to the expectations that the previous days promised. However there are always lessons to be learned from a mere weekend of football.

Ten things that we have found out about the Premier League in the past:

1. Kevin Keegan is not the Geordie Messiah…

2. Matt Derbyshire wants to play Middlesbrough every week

3. Edwin van der Sar is too tall

4. Fergie is in trouble (again) for his “gesture”

5. What African Cup of Nations?

6. Titus Bramble is back!

7. The six yard box should be renamed “the panic zone”

8. Carlton Cole is the new Rudi Voller

9. Nicolas Anelka is keeping us waiting…

10. Robbie Keane must be getting dizzy

But despite the above one weekend does not make a season, but it can have an effect on how the rest of the season plays out and for one Kevin Keegan, failing to get his side to beat struggling Bolton was definitely not the start that he would have wanted.

Source [The Offside]

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