Former England international Dean Ashton has been speaking to Football League World about Charlton’s impressive start to the season, although he has one concern regarding the Addicks.
Lee Bowyer has overseen a wonderful return to life in the Championship for the south Londoners, guiding them to four wins and two draws from their opening seven games having won the League One playoffs last term.
Their unbeaten start to the campaign was ended by Birmingham at The Valley last time out thanks to 16-year-old Jude Bellingham’s goal, a match in which Ashton’s one concern was evidenced.
What did he say?
Ashton said: “It wouldn’t surprise me if Lee Bowyer did manage to keep them there.
“The way he’s built the team and got them playing is good, and I think a lot will just come down to Lyle Taylor.
“If they can keep him fit to score the goals to keep them up there they’ll be looking strong because defensively they’ve looked pretty good as well.”
Ashton’s concern evidenced vs Birmingham
In the 1-0 loss to Birmingham, Lyle Taylor was missing after sustaining an injury while on international duty with Montserrat.
Ashton states that “a lot” will come down to the 29-year-old staying fit and scoring the goals, and that much was certainly evident against the Midlands-based side.
With Tomer Hemed starting in Taylor’s absence, the Israel international struggled to replicate the former Millwall man’s impact.
Taylor has five goals and an assist in six Championship games so far this term, and his efficiency in attack will be key to Charlton’s hopes of success this season.
Bowyer’s men don’t often have unlimited chances – they managed just three shots to Brentford’s 21 in the 1-0 win over the Bees earlier this term – so having someone to finish off a rare chance is vital.
Against Birmingham, they didn’t have that man in Hemed, whereas his strike partner Jonathan Leko had no shots on target.
Taylor is unquestionably the side’s talisman, and Ashton is spot on in saying the Addicks need to keep him fit – the dire attacking performance against Birmingham proved just how key the 29-year-old is.
West Ham United fans have wished Michail Antonio well after he updated them on his injury recovery on Twitter.
The winger sustained a hamstring injury in the 2-0 EFL Cup win over Newport County last month.
He has subsequently undergone surgery in an attempt to correct the issue and The London Evening Standard reports that he could miss four months of action, ruling him out until 2020.
He posted on Twitter, however, that he is confident of making a swift return to action with the Irons.
He said: “Thanks for all the messages of support. This injury is nothing to a beast, I’ll be back bigger, better, faster and stronger.”
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And supporters are hopeful that the 29-year-old will be back sooner rather than later.
Indeed, his injury has left the club rather short in the forward positions, with Manuel Pellegrini having just Sebastian Haller and Albian Ajeti, both of them summer signings, to call upon, though winger Andriy Yarmolenko is capable of playing through the middle.
Many Watford fans have given their response on Twitter to one of the club’s tweets which shows new signing Ismaila Sarr at training on his first day.
The club posted a video of Sarr walking through the training ground, carrying his boots in a plastic bag.
Sarr, 21, joined the club for a reported fee of over £25m, blowing their previous record fee of £18.5m for Andre Gray out of the water.
The Senegalese winger has penned a five-year deal at Vicarage Road after impressing for Rennes, scoring 13 times in 50 games for them last year.
Yesterday was Sarr’s first day training for the Hornets, and the club updated their fans, letting them know how much he impressed the medical staff.
Head of injury prevention and rehabilitation, Alberto Leon, said: “It was the first day with the player and the first approach is a positive one.
“He came in a good condition and we did all the tests to see more deeply how he is.”
“With all this information we have created a profile of the player and we can see if there is an imbalance or a weakness point.
“We are still collating the results but all the staff say he is in a normal shape and this is not a player we are going to have to work a lot on different things. He came with a good baseline, he looks good and we are really happy with the player. He looks a good athlete.”
Watford fans couldn’t help but poke fun at themselves, though, considering the video posted by the club has Sarr looking rather grumpy. Others also laughed about how Sarr was carrying a plastic bag with his boots in, rather than a boot bag.
One fan commented: “Would love to see film of him laughing and joking with the other players and staff. And please can someone give him a boot bag?”.
Liverpool have completed the signing of Harvey Elliott from Fulham, per BBC Sport.
The highly-coveted winger became the youngest ever player to play in the Premier League last season, as he came on for a substitute for the Cottagers against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the age of 16 years and 30 days.
The BBC reports that Elliott attracted interest from a number of elite clubs, including Real Madrid, Arsenal and Manchester City.
Liverpool, of course, have done this before; they have scooped up highly promising young talents in the hope of turning them into superstars.
But how has that worked out for them?
Football FanCast takes a look at 10 recent examples below!
Raheem Sterling
Soccer Football – Euro 2020 Qualifier – Group A – Montenegro v England – Podgorica City Stadium, Podgorica, Montenegro – March 25, 2019 England’s Raheem Sterling celebrates scoring their fifth goal Action Images via Reuters/Carl Recine
Where else can we start?
Sterling was signed from QPR in 2012.
Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur were all guilty of passing on the opportunity to acquire the future England international, per the Daily Express, and were left to rue the mistake.
The winger went on to make 129 appearances for the Reds, scoring 23 goals, and he subsequently earned a £49m move to Manchester City.
He has scored 69 goals for the club and won the Premier League twice, while also winning 51 caps for England.
He is the role model for Elliott to follow.
Jerome Sinclair
Signed at the age of 14 from West Bromwich Albion, Sinclair showed a great deal of promise at Liverpool.
He spent four years at the club and made his debut under Brendan Rodgers against West Brom in a League Cup tie at the age of 16 years and six days, becoming the youngest ever player to play for the Reds.
He made a total of five appearances before moving to Watford in 2016.
Sinclair remains on the books at the Hornets but is currently on loan at Dutch club VVV Venlo.
Jonjo Shelvey
Less a prospect, more a star at Charlton Athletic, Liverpool paid £3m to sign the 18-year-old in 2010.
The Guardian claimed at the time that Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs were all interested in the attacking midfielder but he flattered to deceive at Anfield.
He made 69 appearances for the Reds but laid on just four assists, scoring seven goals, and was ultimately sold to Swansea City in 2013.
The Reds received a mere £5m for him – a profit of £2m – and he went on to enjoy a good spell in Wales prior to a move to Newcastle United, where he remains.
Joe Gomez
Still at Liverpool, Gomez was another player snaffled away from Charlton.
The Reds paid £3.5m for the defender and he has gone from strength to strength since his move at the age of 18.
Indeed, he has made 66 appearances for the club and has also won seven caps for England.
He is likely to be a fixture of the Reds’ defence for years to come.
Jordon Ibe
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Brought in at the age of 16 after a spell with Wycombe Wanderers, Ibe spent four years at Liverpool.
He made 58 appearances for the club, with most of his appearances coming in the 2015/16 campaign.
AFC Bournemouth signed Ibe in 2016 for a fee of £15m and he remains with the Cherries, where he has made 88 appearances.
Sheyi Ojo
Liverpool snapped Ojo up in 2011 when he was just 14.
Now 22, he has made 13 appearances for the Reds, with five starts in the Premier League, but he has spent the majority of his Anfield career out on loan.
Indeed, he is currently with Rangers, having spent the 2018/19 campaign with French club Reims.
It feels like now or never for Ojo if he is to make it on Merseyside.
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Pedro Chirivella
Liverpool signed Chirivella after he spent nine years at Valencia but he has failed to make the grade at the club.
He made five appearances for the Reds in 2015/16 but, since then, it has been loan spells for the Spaniard and the club even accepted a £3.5m bid from Rosenborg for him in 2018.
He opted against the move, however, and it remains to be seen where his future lies.
Ovie Ejaria
Liverpool signed Ejaria from Arsenal in 2014 but he has yet to make any sort of impact at Anfield.
He has spent time on loan at Sunderland, Rangers and Reading and has made a total of eight senior appearances for the Reds, though that equates to just six minutes of Premier League football.
Now 21, Ejaria is said to be for sale this summer.
Bobby Duncan
Still just 18, Duncan joined Liverpool from Manchester City and hopes are high for the striker.
He has scored 23 goals in 26 outings for the Under-18 side and has been capped at Under-16 and Under-17 level by England.
His ceiling appears to be high and he is beginning to be embedded into the Under-23 side, making three appearances at the higher age group.
Yusuf Mersin
Signed from Millwall for a transfer fee at the age of 16, the goalkeeper was nowhere near the required level to make a breakthrough at Liverpool.
He joined Kasimpasa in 2014 prior to a move to Crawley Town; he is now with Dover Athletic.
A Turkey youth international as he was breaking through, this is a cautionary tale for Elliott.
Daniel Sturridge is just days away from being officially released by Liverpool.
The Reds have already confirmed his release and the 29-year-old centre-forward will now be available on a free transfer.
But, despite a rather bleak and tepid conclusion to his time at Anfield, Sturridge is seemingly in good spirits and enjoying his holiday.
His latest
/BzL9buUgHBS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link” data-lasso->Instagram snap shows him in the company of no other than Kylian Mbappe, who cost Paris Saint-Germain an eye watering £166m to sign him from Monaco.
Of course, when stars meet it catches the attention of the crowd, and this particular snap caught the attention of Manchester City star Raheem Sterling.
Sterling noted how the partnership between Mbappe and Sturridge would be insane. And that is definitely hard to argue against, even if the PFA Young Player of the Year award winner is not the most popular figure amongst Liverpool supporters.
The soon-to-be ex-Liverpool man played a total of 18 games in the 2018/19 season and managed to score twice and assist one goal.
Unfortunately, his time as a Red was very much hampered by injuries, but he will leave with plenty of fond memories from his time on Merseyside.
After a disappointing season for Manchester United, one positive to come out of the campaign was the club’s reported pursuit of a sporting director.
Reports in recent months had suggested the club were looking to appoint someone to the role before the start of the next season, and there were even claims that United legend Rio Ferdinand was in the frame to take on the job.
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Instead, a few months later, United have no-one to show for it and are staring down the business end of a transfer window that is threatening to spiral out of control.
A muddled mess
More than anything, the sporting director would have provided greater clarity. For far too long, criticism has been aimed at United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward over his apparent influence on the footballing side of things despite his relative lack of experience or inside knowledge.
Appointing someone like a Ferdinand would have given the club a figurehead to rally around and an authoritative presence of whom people would know what their job was. In contrast, United’s work in the summer transfer market – both in terms of incomings and outgoings – has been muddled to say the least.
Their reported interest in Bruno Fernandes has developed into somewhat of a parody. Ander Herrera’s comments that United left it “too late” over reaching an agreement with him was a damning statement of their indecisiveness. And the cherry on top – Paul Pogba’s agent, Mino Raiola, continues to run rings around the Old Trafford bureaucrats with his finely-tuned PR machine.
The club look totally out of their depth from top to bottom and it’s hard to shake off the nagging feeling that they would have been better served by showing some due diligence and getting a deal done for a sporting director, before they made any moves in the transfer market.
The next three to four weeks are set to define United’s future not just for next season, but for the following ones too. If things don’t work out, they will certainly regret not following through on grabbing their very own transfer guru.
This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…
Speaking to Liverpool’s official club website, former Reds defender Stephen Warnock has tipped two of the club’s academy players to potentially step-up and fill the shoes of the departing Alberto Moreno.
What did he say?
After confirmation that Moreno would leave Anfield at the expiration of his contract, the natural talk has been who the club would use to fill the void as the second-choice option at left-back.
The indoor football skills in the video below have to be seen to be believed…
Scotland international Andrew Robertson has well and truly nailed down a place in the first-team, and now according to Warnock, youngsters Adam Lewis and Yasser Larouci should be looking to put a marker down to Jurgen Klopp during pre-season.
He said: “When you see one of the first-team players in Moreno leaving the club, Adam has got to look at that now and think, ‘Is this an opportunity for me?’
“We know the manager will look at the youth and give them a chance, but I think he will also be looking to bring someone in as well. Can the likes of Adam and Yasser put a seed in the manager’s mind of positivity towards the way they play?”
A bit too soon
Despite impressing at academy level, the step-up in level in playing for the first-team of the reigning Champions League holders will surely be a bit too far. Robertson was a cornerstone of the team’s success in Europe and was a major factor in Jurgen Klopp’s side’s title challenge in the Premier League.
If the Scotsman were to suffer an injury next campaign, Liverpool would feel rather concerned about having to throw in the inexperience of the 19-year-old Lewis or the 18-year-old Larouci in the major competitions. Whilst the Anfield side were rewarded handsomely for placing their faith in fellow academy product Trent Alexander-Arnold, the right-back could be eased into action.
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In the high-pressure situations, it would be a major oversight on Liverpool’s part to go into the next season with just Robertson as their senior left-back option. The likes of Lewis and Larouci however could feature in the domestic cup competitions as 16-year-old Ki-Jana Hoever did against Wolves in the FA Cup earlier this year.
So whilst Warnock’s comments are understandable in trying to encouraging the club’s youth talents that there could be an immediate route into the first-team with a good showing in pre-season, Lewis and Larouci may not be in Klopp’s plans just yet.
Losing in the play-offs will have raised plenty of questions about the futures of a number of people at Leeds United.
It might have been ten days ago since that defeat, however, time certainly has not made things any easier at Elland Road as speculation continues to be rife about what will happen over the summer.
Marcelo Bielsa has been at the forefront of sections of the media with questions over his future, whilst some of their talented stars have also been the subject of transfer links as well, i.e. Jack Clarke and Tottenham Hotspur (Football.London).
However, one man’s future seems to be rather clear and it is not with Leeds, or potentially anyone else either.
According to a report by Voetbal Primeur, Laurens de Bock is set to return to Elland Road this summer after a disappointing loan spell with KV Oostende.
The Belgian outfit have recently appointed a new manager who wants to start with a clean slate and it appears the left-back did not do enough to convince him that his future was with him.
And, that news could make Leeds’ summer just that bit more challenging.
Football Insider reported last month that Bielsa had made it clear that he had no desire to have De Bock at Elland Road regardless of the division they would be playing in.
But, if he failed to make a positive impression on a side that finished towards the bottom of the Belgian Jupiler League Pro, then it would be hard to see anyone else looking to take a chance on the 26-year-old.
It would be difficult to see English clubs look to take him as well following a poor six months under Thomas Christiansen and Paul Heckingbottom.
Having signed a four-and-a-half year deal when he joined in January 2018 for a £1.5million transfer fee (The Sun), he still has two years left to run, but Leeds will be hoping they can find someone to take him off their hands.
Leeds fans, do you think the club will be able to offload De Bock this summer or do you think it will be a tough ask? Let us know below!
Gareth Bale really wasn’t half bad at Tottenham.
“He [Bale] is a player of great quality and, as we always say, our aim in each window is to improve the quality of the squad. He has the ideal combination to become a top, top player.â€
These were the words uttered by sporting director Damien Comolli (as per BBC Sport) in 2007 when Spurs signed a relatively unknown gem by the name of Gareth Bale for an estimated £10million, and we find ourselves wondering, did he really, truly believe what he was saying? Because if he did he’s a genius.
Now, we admit that if you take out the blistering speed, unrivalled athleticism, sensational skills and insatiable thirst for success (yes, he used to have it before the Madrid spell) then Gareth Bale is a pretty normal player. Actually, whilst we’re at it, best not forget about his free-kicks as well or some of the long distances worldies he’s scored – THEN he’s a pretty normal player, right? Wrong. Bale still had enough in the tank to be one of the best in the league back when he turned out for Spurs what seems to be a lifetime ago now.
It didn’t always come so easy to Bale, though. Indeed, he suffered a truly extraordinary winless record at the beginning of his fledgeling Spurs career which saw him go 25 Premier League matches without winning a single game. Which, we suppose, makes the whole success thing all the sweeter. Everyone loves a comeback story. An underdog tale, if you will.
There are plenty of stories about Bale’s magnificence. Too many, in fact. But there’s always one that sticks out in our minds above all others. “That†night in Milan. Goodness gracious me, what a spectacle it was. Spurs were four goals down at the break and a man down. Harry Redknapp, King of the Jungle, was the boss at the time and faced probably one of the most challenging half-time team talks of his life. We reckon it probably boiled down to a simple: “think of your families, you pathetic worms†– but then we aren’t managers, and probably that’s probably why.
Gareth Bale was clearly spurned on by Redknapp’s words of encouragement – or threats – collected his first of the game after running the length of the pitch passed the hapless Maicon and Zanetti (I repeat: Maicon and Zanetti) making them look like worthless school children picked last in football. Another sank in the net moment later from an almost identical angle before the Welshman grabbed his third of the night. There’s a reason Inter stopper Julio Cesar ended up at Queens Park Rangers a few years later. He was broken.
Then there were the 21 goals in 33 Premier League games during the 2012/13 campaign, which saw him collect both PFA Player of the Year and PFA Young Player of the Year. Sit down and stop it, Gareth, you’re making us all look bad.
And sit down he did, right on Real Madrid’s undeserving lap for the costly sum of £85.3million – a world record deal at the time. Classic Madrid ruining all our fun.
Spurs fans, just how special was it to see Bale become a superstar at your club? Given his situation in Spain, would you take him back now? Let us know in the comments below…