The war of words between Joey Barton and Karl Henry has continued, with the Wolves man defending himself against claims that he is out to injure fellow players.
The pair clashed in QPR’s 3-0 win over Wolves at Molineux on Saturday, with Barton labelling Henry as a ‘Sunday League player’ and claiming Mick McCarthy must have ‘been on drugs’ when he decided to sign the midfielder.
The FA will not take action against Barton, and Henry has retorted and defended himself against the claims.
“Joey Barton was telling everyone he is on 80 grand a week as usual. That is him. He always does that during the game. Always. He riles a few people up when he says those things and tells everybody how great he is,” Henry told The Guardian.
“It is just embarrassing really. If that is what he wants to do, he can carry on doing it but that is why a lot of people dislike him. He has tried to reinvent his image but it is probably the same old story.
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“I know we had our battle last season. I don’t want to keep going over it. But [on Saturday] they were winning the match. There was no need for him to keep going on the way he does,” he concluded.
Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard has revealed that he feared that he would never play again, and that the last six months have been the hardest of his career.
The England international has just recovered from a groin injury that has kept him on the sidelines since March, making a scoring return to the Anfield starting line-up on Saturday against Manchester United.
Given the nature of the injury, Gerrard has stated that at times he wondered if he was facing retirement.
“When I got the injury, I knew it was going to be a serious one, something I wasn’t used to – and I’ll admit I was down, as low as I’ve ever been as a footballer,” he told Mirror Football.
“I think it’s only natural that you have doubts. Different things cross your mind from time to time.
“I was fighting to get fit, just to get out on the pitch. I was trying to put my body on the line, but it wasn’t the real me and I wasn’t the player I want to be,” he continued.
The operation that followed was necessary, and was a long time in the offing according to Gerrard.
“Before the operation, I’d been getting niggles and having injections to play. Basically I knew I wasn’t right.
“I was missing training sessions and coming in the day before a game trying to get that last session in, or having injections to play the next day.
“You can only do that for a certain amount of time before your body gives in, and mine gave in. My groin packed in on me and when it happened I was down and I was low.
“It probably wasn’t until I got off the crutches that I started being really positive again. I could see I was progressing day by day, and when that happens your positivity creeps back in. Without a doubt, the last six months have been the hardest of my career,” he concluded.
By Gareth McKnight
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New Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish has lashed out against the “super clubs” who are able to take any players they like from other clubs, given the financial backing and power behind them. McCleish’s comments came about after five of England’s starting eleven against Wales on Tuesday were former Villa players, and with the exception of Gary Cahill, now all play for the ‘super clubs’ who have the financial muscle to lure players away. The likes of Ashely Young who recently signed for Manchester United, Steward Dowining of Liverpool, and both Gareth Barry and James Milner of Manchester City all lined up to face Wales at Wembley, and the Scot insists that these departures emphasise how difficult it is for the other clubs to compete in the long run. According to McLeish, these ‘super’ clubs “are on another planet”.
The Villa boss was keen to reaffirm that the club were not a ‘selling club’, but that fans needed to be realistic in these ‘modern times’. McLeish aim then, is to continue to produce talent at Villa Park that is good enough to break in to the national team. Villa currently boast young English talent in the likes of Marc Albrighton, Ciaran Clark, and Barry Bannan, and while McLeish concedes that ultimately a ‘super club’ may come in and buy them, it is important for the club to continue to produce such talent. Although McLeish’s comments do hold some substance, and it is without question going to be difficult for the ‘smaller clubs’ to compete alongside the likes of Chelsea, United, City and Liverpool, there are one or two exceptions to the generalizations been made, in that a ‘rich’ or wealthy club does not necessarily entail any ‘superiority’, and as we saw with Tottenham two seasons ago, clubs without this kind of financial backing can still break in to the top four of the Premier League.
In the 2009-10 season, Tottenham secured Champions League football for the following season, having pipped big-spending Manchester City to fourth place in the final games of the season. This was the campaign in which City had brought in the likes of Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Kolo Toure, Joleon Lescott, Emmanuel Adebayor, and Carlos Tevez in a bid to break in to the top four, while the only players of note that Spurs brought in were Peter Crouch, Niko Kranjcar and Younes Kaboul Spurs finished the season three points clear of City, and enjoyed a successful run in the Champions League the following year before losing to Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.
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City’s solution the following year was to invest heavily once more, and this time it was to pay off as Spurs struggled to mount challenges on both a European and domestic front, and finished the season in fifth. Spurs’ qualification for the Champions League went some way in showing that money did not guarantee success, especially not immediately anyway. Spurs have also shown us that you do not have to let players leave to the ‘super clubs’ if you really don’t want to. Cheslea were in pursuit of Luka Modric for the majority of the summer transfer window, however both Redknapp and chairman Daniel Levy remained adamant that the Croatian would not be leaving White Hart Lane at any price.
McLeish’s suggestion that money or financial backing entails ‘superiority’ is also contradicted somewhat by the lack of success at Anfield in recent years. Liverpool have always had the funding to bring in new talent, though those players brought in were often not of a high enough quality, and the management in place was also deemed to be substandard for a club of Liverpool’s stature. While the club was generally considered a ‘top-four side’ for a number of years, Liverpool have failed to qualify for the Champions League since 2009 and have finished seventh and sixth in their last two Premier League campaigns. Kenny Dalglish has spent heavily since taking over in January, and for the first time in three seasons this Liverpool side look as though they could be a force to be reckoned with. However, while Dalglish has brought in players of quality, both Benitez and in particular, Roy Hodgson, brought in names that simply weren’t good enough to compete with the top four.
McLeish makes a valid point in that those ‘smaller clubs’ who lack any real financial support or backing will generally struggle to compete with the big-spenders of Chelsea, United, City and Liverpool. However, Harry Redknapp has shown that a top-four challenge can be mounted with the right kind of players, and that quality players do not have to cost the thirty or forty million pounds that these clubs are willing to fork out. Redknapp, and particularly Levy, have shown that key players do not have to be sold. Keeping a player against their will is always a risk, however if they are of as great importance to the club as Modric is to Spurs, it is perhaps a risk worth taking. It seems McLeish could probably learn a thing or two from Levy and Redknapp, and his assumption that money entails ‘superiority’ is not always the case. Good management and the right players is also fundamental to a clubs success and while heavy funding will certainly make things easier, it does not guarantee success nor the ‘untouchable’ status that McLeish has placed on these clubs. Tony Fernandes completed his takeover of Queens Park Rangers back in August and despite a reported net worth of £250m, McLeish will surely fancy his chances when the two sides meet this season.
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Agree or disagree? Do Premier League clubs have ‘no chance’ up against the “super clubs”? Let me know your thoughts either below or @sixthofficial on Twitter!
Samir Nasri’s stock has never been higher than this summer following a great season at Arsenal. The Frenchman was mooted as the missing link to both Man Utd and Man City’s title hopes this campaign. His creativity, movement and quality in the final third are without question. However, what may be, though, is his role in Mancini’s plans, which since the debacle away at Bayern Munich, has been reduced to one on the periphery.
The Bayern Munich game appeared to mark a watershed moment for Mancini for several reasons. While not choosing to ignore the moment that hogged the headlines (and still does) with Carlos Tevez’s apparent refusal to come on as a sub, two sub-plots have also come to light.
Kolo Toure was unfathomably restored to the first-team line-up despite a six-month absence in the place of Joleon Lescott. An error so great that it threatened to put paid to any hopes City had of qualifying out of a difficult group, with the Ivory Coast defender’s ring rustiness notable. The other being that this was the final point in which Nasri’s name became a guaranteed starter on the team-sheet.
Nasri made his debut at White Hart Lane on the 28th August in a 5-1 demolition, with the new signing blending into the squad fantastically well setting up three of the goals in the process.
Against Wigan he came off the bench with half an hour left to play and was integral in increasing the 1-0 deficit. He started the next two games against Napoli and Fulham, with Adam Johnson coming on as a late sub for him both times, before starting their next league game, the 2-0 win at home to Everton.
However, since the Bayern game, in the eight games that have proceeded it, he has started just four of them – against Wolves in both the league and the Carling Cup and against Villarreal in the home and away ties in the Champions League.
He came off the bench after 27mins against Blackburn away from home, was an unused sub against Aston Villa at home, he came off the bench with the job already done against Man Utd with the scores at 3-1 and 15mins left on the clock and was an unused sub against QPR.
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Since the Bayern game, by which time he had settled into the side superbly and was a regular, he has seen just 347 minutes of football in the next eight games across all competitions. Only 177 minutes have these have come in City’s last five league games. His role has rather unquestionably been reduced, but why?
The recent resurgence of James Milner may have something to do with it. Milner offers industry and a degree of creativity. His all-action style has been ideally suited to difficult league ties against the likes of Aston Villa and QPR.
Whereas the Bayern game may have marked a watershed moment, the real turning point came with Mancini’s preference for Milner over Nasri for the 6-1 humbling of fierce rivals Man Utd at Old Trafford. The shock result of the modern Premier League era.
It appears as if Nasri has now become the first name on the team-sheet for the Man City B-team. Through no real fault of his own and in part because others have grasped the opportunities afforded to them, he has fallen down the pecking order.
Aguero and Silva’s places in the starting line-up appear untouchable. Gareth Barry and Yaya Toure remain for the time being important parts of the Man City machine. There appears to be two spots up for grabs in the long-term – in which four players (Milner, Balotelli, De Jong and Nasri) have to fit into.
Nasri has swapped regular football at Arsenal where a trophy didn’t look like coming any time soon, for a crack at a higher level and a much better chance of silverware. The result has been that’s he’s fallen from a leading light of the Premier League to an also-ran of it’s best side. In an instant, he’s gone from a lead to a supporting actor.
Many felt that Arsenal could ride the blow of Cesc Fabregas’s departure as long as they kept hold of Nasri and installed him as their creative hub. His transfer to City marked a re-aligning in the pecking order – City had finally pinched a player that Arsenal had wanted to keep hold of. Whereas once, he was a jewel in the crown, now he’s little more than a pearl on an admittedly priceless necklace.
Man City do have a large squad filled to the brim with top-class internationals. Mancini will inevitably have to rotate many of them in an attempt to keep the whole squad happy, but it’s noticeable that there have been no injuries in this unusually long sequence of intermittent bench-warming.
Nasri has set up six league goals so far this term, second only to his City team-mate Sergio Aguero. Only at a club such as City would this sort of form fail to guarantee you a starting place. With Mancini’s charges facing a run of Newcastle (H), Napoli (A), Liverpool (A) and Arsenal (A), it will be interesting to see how much he’s involved, for it could hold the key to his Man City future and the nature of the role he has to play in it.
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Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp would never consider quitting the game despite his health concerns according to Kevin Bond, and will make his return against Aston Villa on Monday night.
The 64-year-old has recently undergone an operation on his heart to unblock two coronary arteries and has been absent for the White Hart Lane side’s last two fixtures.
Despite being recommended to stay away from football for five weeks Redknapp will return against Villa, and Bond feels at no point would the trainer have considered retirement.
“There was no way Harry was going to quit after his heart operation,” Bond stated to Sky Sports.
“There is pressure but he’s been doing it for a long time and has learnt to live with that pressure. He loves it and would be lost without it.
Redknapp has admitted that he feels stronger and healthier than ever, and is keen to see his side get three points on Monday night.
“I feel fine, I feel really good. In fact, I’ve got more energy than before,” he admitted.
“I certainly feel better than I did three weeks ago and I’m looking forward to getting back to work. I can handle the stress of a football match. I’ve been used to doing it for so long now that I’m sure I won’t have a problem.
“If I keel over, the doctors will be right behind me, I’m sure,” he concluded.
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Spurs go into the game looking to make it eight wins from nine games, and can move up to third place with a victory.
The agent of Juventus winger Milos Krasic has stated that both Tottenham and Chelsea are keen on securing his client’s services during the January transfer window.
The Serbia international had a spectacular start to his career in Italy after joining from CSKA Moscow back in 2010, but has seen first team opportunities something of a commodity since Antonio Conte became coach in the summer.
With the wideman eager to play more regularly, Dejan Joksimovic has revealed that Krasic has a number of suitors, two of which come from the Premier League.
“In the next few days Milos will talk with (Juventus director, Giuseppe) Marotta to understand what the club plans for him – offer him another chance, sell him or loan him out,” he agent told Calcio Mercato.
“There are clubs interested him in – like Chelsea, Inter Milan and now Tottenham and Fenerbahce.
“There are also three Russian clubs in the running that I cannot name.
“Milos doesn’t want to return to Russia so soon and there is the possibility that, with some assurances, he could remain at Juventus – even if I believe that he should change team,” Joksimovic concluded.
By Gareth McKnight
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Chelsea boss Andre Villas Boas has stated that Frank Lampard is part of his long-term plans and will not leave the club in January.
The veteran midfielder has not been an automatic choice for the Portuguese coach since he assumed power in the summer, with rumours rife that the England international may make an exit from Stamford Bridge.
However, Villas Boas has confirmed that Lampard will stay with The Blues for the foreseeable future.
“He’s going to be here for sure. Yes, long-term,” the trainer stated at a press conference.
Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou are both out of contract in the summer and have also been speculated with leaving the club, but Villas Boas wants to keep the Ivory Coast duo.
“They will return to this club from the African Nations and hopefully we will hold on to them until the end of the season.
“That’s our intention, and I think their willingness as well,” he continued.
Finally, the under-fire tactician stated that it was time for his players to get victories on the pitch to reignite their title challenge.
“The problem is you have to show it on the pitch.
“At the moment, we have exhausted ourselves in words.
“It’s time for us to get a practical run of victories to make our title challenge together. We are trying to begin that,” he concluded.
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One accusation that has been floating around for a number of seasons and has become much more talked about this season is the question of if certain players escape sanctions because of their reputation off the field and vice versa.
I have to say, on recent viewing I have to agree with this – in the last few weeks alone there have been players who have escaped any kind of sanction for tackles which should have been straight red cards, and others who have been sent off for offences that are dubious to say the least.
Take Frank Lampard – a player who is not known for being malicious or dangerous on the field, and off it has a pretty good reputation to boot – he escaped a red card for a horror tackle in the match against Wolves when Kompany saw red for a challenge that made no contact with Nani some games later. Lampard’s challenge was a certain red card, yet this was not the case in the eyes of the officials.
Likewise this of course works the other way – players such as Joey Barton or Mario Balotelli get such attention off the field – albeit entirely deserved, and this can then influence the decision of the officials when a borderline decision has to be made. Take the Balotelli sending off against Liverpool – would this have happened had the player been say Fernando Torres? Most likely not, then again it would probably punish Chelsea more to leave their misfit on the field than to send him off.
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Rooney is a similar type of character and again is well known for his loss of control at times and outbursts, and again it is not a shock to see him pick up a card for something another player – for example Gerrard who seems to be Teflon in officials eyes – would get away with easily.
This is much the same with players winning free kicks and penalties. Certain players have a reputation for diving and thus officials are reluctant to give away a penalty just in case they are being conned. Nani is one of the players well known for his diving practice on the field and you can’t really blame a referee for failing to give him a free kick every time he goes to ground.
Of course I am not saying this is right – players should be judged on the incident that has occurred, not what has preceded it or how they are viewed in the tabloids – yet it is a fact of life that the referee will have an opinion of his own and this may become clouded by what his personal feelings towards the player are – entirely wrong yes, but not an impossible scenario to envisage. Like the accusation that top clubs get favoured by officials, and that Fergie time exists, the worry that some players are treated differently to others is, in my opinion an entirely accurate one. Don’t get me wrong – I do not agree with it or like it, but it is certainly a valid argument to make.
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Wigan striker Hugo Rodallega has admitted that he wants to leave the club this summer, and is already in discussions with other clubs.
The Colombia international’s contract at the DW Stadium will run out at the end of the season, and despite attempts from The Latics to extend his stay, the South American is determined to leave the relegation-threatened outfit.
“It’s sure that I won’t play anymore for them after this season,” Rodallega told The People.
“This will be my last three months with Wigan.
“I’m already talking with other teams, but I won’t name them. I must respect Wigan. Wigan have received many offers for me, but they always said no.
“I want to leave Wigan with the team having avoided relegation.
“I would love that Wigan fans recognise my effort when I leave the club in May,” he concluded.
Tottenham were believed to be interested in signing Rodallega in the January transfer window but instead acquired Louis Saha, as the Colombian looks towards the next step in his career.
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Liverpool stalwart Jamie Carragher has admitted that he is frustrated at no longer being an automatic selection for the club, but will remain professional in his bid to return to the first team.
Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger have been given the nod by Kenny Dalglish more often than not this season, but with the Dane recovering from a cracked rib, Carragher will be given the opportunity to play over the next coming weeks.
Despite this, the veteran defender wants to play every week and is not accustomed to starting games from the bench.
“I can’t lie, it has been difficult at times,” Carragher told the club’s official magazine.
“But I’ve said it loads of times in interviews: you have to be respectful to the manager and the other players.
“Privately at times I’m frustrated but that’s because I’m a footballer, I want to play and I’m passionate – I wouldn’t be here in the first place otherwise.
“But I realise this happens to everyone at a certain age. It also reminds me what I’ve done.
“I’ve played for Liverpool’s first-team pretty much every week for 16 years.
“When you do it every week, it slips your mind a little but when you play the odd game against Oldham or Brighton at Anfield in the cups and you leave the pitch knowing you’ve won well and done all right yourself, it’s a great feeling.
“So it sinks in more when you’re not playing,” he stated.
Carragher is also eyeing more success before he quits the game, and is looking forward to playing in Europe again next season.
“I want to win more before the end of my career. That’s why I’m desperate for the FA Cup and to play in Europe again.
“At the moment we’re definitely in the Europa League and I know people knock it but I’d love to reach the final of that competition.
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“I’ve been to three in Europe so far. To have four in your career would be a fantastic achievement.
“At the end of a career you’re desperate more than ever for medals, grabbing as much as you can as you go,” he confessed.