Another trip to the San Siro for Tottenham in their quest for Champions League success. The North Londoners will recall the last time they faced AC Milan in European competition that they defeated the Italian giants on their way to UEFA Cup success, and although the chances of Harry’s men going all the way this time is unlikely, they certainly have enough ability to defeat the current leaders of Serie A.
At FFC we have seen a mixed bag of articles which includes Tottenham facing €4m battle; five things fans want in their stocking and variety needs to be the spice of life for Spurs.
We also look at the best Tottenham articles around the web this week.
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A Champions League guide to Milan for Tottenham fans
Tottenham on transfer alert as January sale likely
Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs – what is the best move for City ace?
The Top TEN Premier League prospects for 2011
Spurs swoop highlights Liverpool’s plight
Tottenham face €4 million battle for Serb
TEN players at a career crossroad
Tottenham Christmas Stocking Fillers
FIVE things Spurs fans want to see in their stocking…Harry take note
Variety needs to be the spice of life for Tottenham
Top TEN most wanted PL transfers in January
THREE Spurs players I would be happy to see leave in January
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Click here to see the best TOTTENHAM blogs around the web this week.
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Daniel Levy, stripped bare and naked – Dear Mr Levy
The ‘Glass More Than Half Full Society’ – Spurs Musings From Jimmy G2
Pienaar, Gomes and All The Cranberry Stuffing You Can Eat – Who Framed Ruel Fox?
Spurs 1-1 Chelsea: Make Sense of That If You Will – All Action, No Plot
Spurs Are Good At Impressions – Harry Hotspur
This is what it’s going to be like now…all the time – Dear Mr Levy
Hamburg Sporting Director Bastian Reinhardt will fight Real Madrid to retain the services of striker Ruud van Nistelrooy.Van Nistelrooy, 34, has been linked with a surprise return to Spanish giants Real, who are down to just one fit striker after Gonzalo Higuain was ruled out through injury.
Dutchman Van Nistelrooy left the La Liga outfit for Hamburg in January 2010 after a three-and-a-half years in Spain, but manager Jose Mourinho wants to bring the former Manchester United and PSV Eindhoven striker back to the club as a short-term solution to the injury crisis.
Van Nistelrooy is said to be keen on the move, but Hamburg are not prepared to let one of their prized assets leave without a fight.
“I can understand him, but in my opinion, HSV is bigger than Real Madrid,” Reinhardt said.
“I am responsible for HSV and have the responsibility to look after the interests of HSV and not Real Madrid or any particular player. We have no interest in letting him go.”
The proposed departure of Van Nistelrooy is not the only cause for unrest at the Bundesliga club, with former Germany international Matthias Sammer and retired Hamburg favourite Horst Hrubesch rumoured to be in line to replace under-fire manager Armin Veh.
Veh remains the subject of speculation surrounding his future, despite easing the pressure with a 1-0 win away to Schalke on Saturday.
Hamburg lie in seventh on the Bundesliga table, but are 19 points from league-leaders Borussia Dortmund.
Central defender Joris Mathijsen credited the victory over Schalke with lifting the mood at the club.
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“It’s much better here, better than before the winter break,” Mathijsen said.
“Back then, you never felt secure, but that has changed since last Saturday, we were very good.”
Whiz, bang, crunch, pop, wow, zing, whoosh, krang, smash, ding. Just some of the sounds that will have gone through the heads of Sky executives when planning the latest installment of their Super dooper mega whacky manic mental Sunday madness.
As usual, their unswerving dedication to ramping up the hyperbole for their televised matches to somewhere between a Fox News military bulletin and the straight to DVD Steven Segal sequel of another straight to DVD Steven Segal movie got the better of them, although at least this time there was the legitimate excuse – and tantalizing prospect – of three passionate local derbies (of which Sky had two) and two of the most attack minded teams in the league going at it in a top of the table mega mental super whammy title clash. Boom!
Introducing us to this pleasatronic spectacle was – as always – waxed handed presenter-droid and Andy Gray’s personal pet Richard Keys and stalwart rent-a-pundit and shirtless Thomas Cook rep Jamie Redknapp, for some reason dressed in a 19th Century gentleman’s low cut tuxedo waistcoat, but unfortunately still in some unavoidably distracting 21st century shiny skinny trousers. Joining this duo, who’d arrived at White Hart Lane a full five hours early to sit uncomfortably on plastic chairs and watch the preceding matches on presumably small monitors, was Dwight Yorke, dressed as a kind of garish curtain and with an orange chocolate liquor wrapper sticking out of his top pocket, in a presumed attempt to look like a sophisticated dapper Englishman about town.
After some precursory promotional whiz banging, we were whisked off to St Andrews where the second City derby was about to commence, before quickly bleeding into the Merseyside one with as little rent-a-punditry as possible. This quick tracked relay approach to football broadcasting does at least come with that blessed upshot, allowing the viewer to relax quite comfortably in front of a days worth of action without being literally-ed to death (but not literally) by Redknapp and whatever vaguely connected former – or possibly injured – player they’ve managed to cajole onto an uncomfortable looking plastic bar stool for five hours. The insight of these guests rarely stretches beyond how “well the lads done there”, and despite the infrequent exception of some surprisingly analytical players (Jamie Carragher and Andy Cole spring to mind) they’re preferably ignored all together, along with Redknapp. Literally.
After a lively Brum derby in which a smoke bomb and a streaker added more neutral enjoyment to a game in which Villa hit the home bar four times -a feat they haven’t achieved since Paul McGrath was in the side – the attention fell on Anfield, where the return of King Kenny was being hyped up to suitably excitable levels.
No whooshing or clanking or zoomed close ups cut in sequence to the theme music from Requiem for a Dream could possibly have made adequate replacement for the real emotive moment of the afternoon however, as Dalglish stood parentally in the dug out being serenaded by his faithful crowd to the tune of their favorite Rogers and Hammerstein number. There are still few spectacles in football better, and all the more poignant for its complete antithesis to Sky’s Americanized whiz pop presentation values.
The game itself was all you’d want from a Merseyside derby, except perhaps in terms of actual quality, with Liverpool fans perhaps starting to realize that it might not be all evil uncle Woy’s fault after Everton overturned a their one goal deficit within what seemed like seconds of the second half. Liverpool drew level from the penalty spot but it was Everton who pushed forward for the winner later on, albeit almost entirely in the style of an Allardyce side, with Marouane Fellaini acting as a sort of fuzzy beacon for up field hoofs. The performance of Fernando Torres will have given Dalglish some comfort however, and it was an entertaining spectacle for it’s openness alone.
After some brief reflection from Jammers in which we were reminded helpfully that there were “some positives in there for Liverpool… and some negatives too” which was almost certainly literal, we were whisked off yet again, this time to where we were anyway, and had been all day, back to White Hart Lane.
Unfortunately what was supposed to be the show stopping headline act turned out instead to be a rather damp squib, which are always at least partially enjoyable just to see how Sky attempt to put a positive spin on it.
As little as three games into the season Andy Gray had wasted no time in telling viewers how much better the Premier League (that Sky had) was already than the World Cup (which Sky didn’t) and even during the most lackluster of games he finds it excruciatingly hard to admit they might have picked a duffer, instead relying on admirably stubborn phrases like “fascinating” “delicately poised” or “still anyone’s game”
As it happened this game had started well, which Gray had wasted no time in telling us, but it died down into a bit of a mess by the second half, as both teams forget completely how they’d scored so many goals this season, and so thus it remained ‘delicately poised’ for the duration. Most of the highlights came from United’s mop headed mentalist full back Rafael, who seemed to be playing on far too much caffeine, like an excitable puppy on heat who’s accidentally been given coffee and then pointed in the direction of a group of females. After receiving one booking mid-way through the second half, it was obvious to pretty much everyone watching that he’d eventually go, though few foresaw the second booking being so tame, such was the reckless abandon with which he was approaching both defending and attacking.
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The cliché of the Brazilian fullback is thankfully alive and well. And so is the giant walking, talking, whizzing, popping and banging cliché of Sky Sports television. But hey, it could be worse, it could be iTV!
You can follow Oscar on Twitter here http://twitter.com/oscarpyejeary for hot fun late night cha….err….innocent public discourse on a number of topical matters.
Anderlecht shot out to a six-point buffer atop the Belgian First Division with a 2-0 win over Standard Liege on Sunday.
Few chances were on offer for both sides at the Stade Constant Vanden Stock, with the first half finishing scoreless.
The league-leaders, however, took charge of the match in the 49th minute when Mbark Boussoufa’s cross evaded Standard goalkeeper Srdjan Blazic, allowing Guillaume Gillet to prod into an empty net.
Two minutes later, Gillet was felled in the area by Standard defender Jelle Van Damme – in his first appearance against his former club since returning from a short stint with Wolves in the English Premier League – and winger Jonathan Legear converted the penalty to ensure Anderlecht keep a healthy lead on top of the table.
Gent moved into outright third place on the table with a 2-1 victory over Lokeren at Jules Ottenstadion.
Francky Dury’s men went ahead in the seventh minute when Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Soumahoro netted, before Christophe Lepoint made it 2-0 to the hosts in the 25th minute.
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Lokeren striker Nill De Pauw pulled a goal back for his side four minutes later, but Gent held on for their 13th win of the league season.
Aston Villa boss Gerard Houllier will hold talks with Nigel Reo-Coker at the end of the month in a bid to keep the midfielder at Villa Park.
Reo-Coker has made over 100 appearances for Villa since joining from West Ham United in 2007.
The former England Under-21 captain fell out of favour with former Villa boss Martin O’Neill and was thought to have no future at the West Midlands club beyond this season, when his contract expires.
But he has found himself a regular starter under Houllier, who made Reo-Coker stand-in captain after regular Villa skipper Stiliyan Petrov was sidelined through injury.
Now, the French boss has hinted a new deal could soon be on the table.
“Nigel will play probably against Blackpool (on Saturday) and he is my player until the end of the season,” Houllier said.
“Funnily enough, he is improving but there is not the situation where there is 11 players and the rest are not involved.”
“To me when you have a big squad they should be united. You don’t have sulkers and moaners.”
“This is very important and Nigel plays a part, not only in the dressing room, but every time he steps on the field.”
“I think Nigel’s performances from the beginning of the season compared with now have been different.”
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“He is more calm and more composed and does things simple. He is a ball winner and gets forward when he can.”
“I like his discipline, I like his commitment and his aggression. I said to him and to his agent that we will have an assessment from the end of February to the beginning of March.”
“But I know also there are clubs after him because he is a free agent.”
Newcastle boss Alan Pardew hailed strikers Peter Lovenkrands and Leon Best after they both scored in Tuesday’s 2-0 win against Birmingham.
The Tyneside club’s decision to sell Andy Carroll to Liverpool on the last day of the January transfer window was the subject of much discussion, with many quick to criticise Pardew after he was left with just four fit strikers on the books – including virtually untried duo Best and Nile Ranger.
When Shola Ameobi – the club’s new number one striker – went down injured just three days after the transfer deadline had passed, Newcastle’s attacking options looked even thinner.
But Best, who now has five English Premier League goals this season, has formed a good partnership with Lovenkrands and Pardew was delighted with the duo after the win at St. Andrew’s.
“It’s about encouraging them and getting what is best for their particular game,” Pardew said.
“They’re not Shola Ameobi and they’re not (Andy) Carroll. They’re different types but we got the best out of them tonight.”
“I’m so pleased for Leon Best. I think there is a bit more pressure on him than Peter (Lovenkrands), because he hasn’t really done a great deal at the club, but he produced a great performance tonight and he can be really proud of that.”
Pardew also heaped praise on his defence, insisting his side had put in a ‘really complete performance’.
“We’ve defended well since I’ve been here and we did that again today,” he said.
“Birmingham are superb at working positions for angled balls into the box and they did that at times to us but we defended them brilliantly. And when we tried to pay our game, I thought we passed it well on a tricky surface. It was a really complete performance by an away team, I’m very pleased with that.”
Birmingham manager Alex McLeish admitted his side were off the pace on Tuesday in a contrast to their recent performances.
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“We’ve had a fantastic month really in terms of results since the game against Manchester United at Old Trafford (a 5-0 loss on January 22),” McLeish said.
“There have been some inspired performances but tonight we looked a bit flat. To lose the first goal so easily as we did and so early goes against what we were like at the weekend (against Stoke) when the concentration levels were phenomenal.”
“I think there was a bit of fatigue. One or two players looked a bit tired and I am not going to hammer the players after one performance like that.”
When looking into the history of the illustrious, handsome, and most stimulating club in British football, you would find many a hero. The double-winning side are all heroes, but success does not create cult heroes.
Today I want to look at cult heroes. A cult hero is a maverick, one who is often idolised by little pockets of fans. These players are revered for their oddities and their individuality and not so much for their greatness or success on the pitch.
I am going more along the lines of Ramon Vega, Andy Sinton, Gary Doherty (the ginger Pele) and David Ginola, rather than legends such as Greaves, Lineker, Blanchflower, Perryman, Mackay, Bobby Smith, Cliff Jones, Glenn Hoddle and Gary Mabutt.
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Click on the image below to see the Top TEN
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Are you one of those fans who admired a player so much that you decided you’d get his name and number on the back of your football club’s replica shirt? I have, but once and only once have I got a player’s name on a shirt. It was back in the Nineties when striker John Spencer was up front for Queens Park Rangers, he was hot on form that season but unfortunately for me he was sold a few months later and I never wore that top again. However, it was just considered part of the risk.
Recently, a fan decided to stand up against his club when a similar incident happened. Jon McGhee bought his son a Reading shirt with his favourite player, Sigurdsson on the back for his 13th birthday that cost £42. However, the player was sold to German side Hoffenheim a few days later despite stating he was happy to stay at the club.
After the club refused a refund on the shirt, Royals fan McGhee decided to take legal action after he felt the club had taken advantage of fans’ goodwill and on the grounds the club has used a misrepresentation of facts, after the player, Gylfi Sigurdsson had signed a new long term contract dismissing rumours of the player being sold.
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Reading FC decided to not let the case go to court offering a full refund and paying for McGhee’s £72 legal costs. However, a spokesman for the club said they had chosen to settle the case out of court because the hearing was in Middlesbrough, where the fan lives and it wasn’t logical to waste time and effort with a court case.
The fan in question said “It was a bit of a joke really. I bought Jon the shirt and it was all fine, Sigurdsson said he was going to stay and then leaves. Everyone knows football fans get ripped off and I am sick of it. The clubs take advantage of fans and this is my stand.”
Perhaps this could be the ‘Bosman’ case for us football fans who get mugged off by our football clubs for our loyal support. If this story had been at a bigger club, perhaps we would start to hear more cases like this, I am sure Newcastle United fans who bought replica shirts with Carroll on the back would have a strong case following the player’s departure after the club had stated he was not for sale previously in the season.
However, after hearing McGhee speak on a national radio last week, he mentioned that the letter he received from Reading FC was rather “arrogant” with the club saying that the case would get thrown out of court and he would have no chance of winning.
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But I stand by what McGhee did, it was bold and also brave as a supporter has so much love for his club, it would be hard to go against them, especially as most Pro clubs have money to spend on top lawyers. I fully support his decision and feel that there should be a system where you’re given a refund on a shirt with a player’s name, if that said player is sold before the following season.
A name Manchester United fans will be getting on the back of their shirts soon, Ravel Morrison…
Sought-after Argentinean Javier Pastore will be staying with Palermo, according to club chairman Maurizio Zamparini.Pastore, 21, has impressed for the Serie A side since joining from Argentine outfit Huracan in 2009 and is a reported target for some of Europe’s biggest clubs.
But it looks as if he could be staying in Italy for at least another season, with Zamparini setting an asking price of close to 60 million euros.
“Pastore wants to remain at Palermo,” Zamparini told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“He is a very intelligent man, who wants to improve. He has decided to remain with us for another year.”
“I have already turned down a 50 million-euro offer for Pastore. Even if Chelsea were to make an offer this year, he would not move.”
“Barcelona already made an offer and I said to them that this year he would not leave.”
Pastore, who has scored 10 goals in 30 appearances this season, is contracted to Palermo until June 2014.
Fabio Borini is currently on loan from Chelsea and the striker has been a real hit down in Swansea, scoring two on his debut and then bagging a brilliant goal against Norwich at the weekend.
About the goal itself, in the opening five minutes of the game Swansea were awarded a free kick around twenty five yards out. Up stepped Borini who curled in a brilliant effort past John Ruddy. The free kick reminded me of Juninho Pernambucano who curled in some beauties for Lyon, while the technique was very similar to that used by Didier Drogba.
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Listen to the first episode of our brand new podcast – The Football FanCast. Featuring Razor Ruddock, Gary O’Reilly and Toploader’s Dan Hipgrave makes a special appearance!