Jamie O’Hara has tasted relegation before, so you can forgive him for giving everything to the cause at Wolves to make sure lightening doesn’t strike twice. His performances since his loan switch from Tottenham have been brilliant, and yet again we are seeing that the 24-year-old is more than good enough for the Premier League. Are Spurs wrong to be overlooking such a talent?
It would certainly seem that way given some of the problems Harry Redknapp has in the middle of the park. He himself must have identified it to be a weak spot considering his recent injury list, as the manager tried in vain to sign Charlie Adam. I’d argue that if Redknapp would have got his man, Tottenham would have parted with in-excess of £15 million when they had a perfectly good centre-midfielder just waiting for the chance to stake a claim for a place in Jamie O’Hara.
I suppose the flip side of the coin is that when the likes of Luka Modric, Rafael van der Vaart and Tommy Huddlestone are all fit, O’Hara’s chances are once again going to become limited. But wouldn’t Charlie Adam’s as well? I’d even go as far as saying that if I was in Redknapp’s shoes and had to choose between O’Hara or someone like Jermaine Jenas to plug a gap left by his regulars, I’d be tempted to go for the current Wolves loanee.
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The Midlands club won’t be complaining of course. O’Hara is that little bit of creative quality which they’ve lacked in recent times. Along with the ever-impressive Matt Jarvis, Mick McCarthy has some real players at Molineux and they have every chance of staying up. Amongst others, Sir Alex Ferguson has said that Wolves’ current league position doesn’t reflect just how good they are, and I hope he’s right.
If Wolves manage to stay up, I can see O’Hara extending his spell in the Black Country for longer than the loan-spell which is the current arrangement. Wolves can provide the Englishman with a real platform to prove Harry Redknapp wrong. He will get regular games and will become one of the most important figures at the club – a role he seems to be relishing at the moment.
Wolves have a long way to go but they can start making plans for next season. They may be out of the drop-zone at the moment, but it’s that tight down at the bottom that one defeat could pull you straight back into the thick of things. It’s not getting any easier, either. McCarthy’s sides next three fixtures read: Tottenham at home, (as always when a player moves between clubs) Aston Villa away and Newcastle away. Spurs speak for themselves so will provide a huge test, one which O’Hara will be unable to take part it due to Premier League rules preventing him from playing against his parent club. Wolves’ away form has been a problem for them all season, so a trip to in-form local rivals Villa, is also going to be incredibly tricky.
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But the Spurs game aside, O’Hara could be the answer to Wolves’ troubles. If Tottenham continue to suffer with injuries and have to rely on their fringe players, seeing Wolves grow with O’Hara at the centre of things could make Redknapp regret the day he once again decided to over look his forgotten man.
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Joe Cole has revealed that Fabio Capello is keeping his England players guessing as to who will start Saturday's World Cup opener against the United States.
Cole is one of several players unsure over the places in the starting line-up ahead of the Group C curtain raiser in Rustenburg.
Unlike previous England managers, Capello is keeping his selection cards close to his chest and Cole believes his policy ensures the 23-man squad in South Africa remains on its toes.
"The great thing about the squad now, which is different to all through my England career, is that you don't know who the manager is going to pick in any position, so it keeps everyone on their toes," he explained.
"I've always found at club level when that is the case – when players are not just playing on reputation and are being selected on form, fitness and temperament – that's when you get the better team ethic and the way the team gels together.
"Fabio is a great manager. I've been lucky to work with some great managers and he is right up there with the best of them.
"You need discipline. It keeps us all on our toes. The discipline is very strong and I think that has worked well and we need that."
Capello will keep his starting line-up under wraps until Saturday afternoon but the Italian appears to have selection dilemmas in almost every position.
Any one of Robert Green, David James and Joe Hart could be selected as his starting goalkeeper, while the battle to partner Wayne Rooney up front could be won by Steven Gerrard in a supporting role or a regular striker in Peter Crouch or Emile Heskey.
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"It's great with England there is a lot of competition in the squad," added Cole.
"There aren't 10 lads coming here thinking they're just going to sit on the bench. Everyone in the squad is thinking they have a chance of playing here."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
It would take a bold man to bet against Lewis Dunk leaving Brighton in the January transfer window if the reported interest of Chelsea, Arsenal and Fulham results in a firm offer being made to the Seagulls. Gus Poyet will face an uphill battle trying to convince his young star that staying at the Amex Stadium is in his best interests – even though, of course, it most probably is in Dunk’s best interests to ignore the bright lights and big cheques, at least for now.
Assuming an offer is made, Brighton will be obliged to accept it. The average Championship club is run on rather tighter budgets than those in the bright lights of the Premier League, and even if they do feel they can afford to turn down the bid, Brighton will acknowledge that they cannot stand between Dunk and the opportunity of a lifetime.
The problem is that a move to a Premier League club might not be the dream that Dunk, or most Championship youngsters, probably imagine it to be. Yes, they are exposed to a whole new celebrity life, have the opportunity to train with some of football’s biggest names, and take a much-improved salary. But these perks can often come at a pretty high cost – namely the loss of playing time in competitive football.
In fairness, this is a decreasing problem in the English football system as Premier League clubs become ever-more accustomed to loaning out their emerging young players to gain more experience at another club, be that at the Premier League, Championship or lower-league level. A quick glance over the Manchester United or Arsenal websites will show how many teenage prodigies they have sent out to ply their trade at another club, either for the year, or just a couple of months.
Dunk may want to consider some players who haven’t received that chance, though, and lose the momentum of their development by stagnating on the bench or on the fringe of the first team. John Bostock is probably regretting jumping from Crystal Palace, where he was emerging as one of the Championship’s brightest young stars, to Tottenham, where he is struggling to break into the youth and reserve teams ahead of the likes of Jake Livermore and Ryan Fredericks.
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Then there’s England u-19 star Connor Wickham, who couldn’t resist an £8 million move to Sunderland this summer, forsaking regular football at Ipswich Town in the process. David Wheater and Adam Johnson have both left Middlesbrough since they lost Premier League status, although playing in a first-team might be a better option in the long-term than warming the benches for Bolton or Manchester City. Danny Wilson, having been seduced into a £5 million move to Liverpool, is buried behind a bunch of other youngsters in the pecking order. The list could be a lot longer, but that might get rather tedious.
If there is one thing we can take solace in, however, it’s that this mistake isn’t limited to British youngsters. Teenagers from across the globe are coming to the Premier League only to not make the grade and end up slinking off to Europe without a trace. Diego Arismendi was one of South America’s hottest prospects three years ago, but since his 2009 move to Stoke the Uruguayan is still yet to play in the Premier League. Federico Macheda appears doomed to never fulfil his potential in the red of Manchester United, although his two fine goals in the tail end of the 2008/09 season, which earned the Old Trafford side vital points on their way to the title, are a substantial legacy for such a brief time in the spotlight.
A word of optimism for Dunk, though – it can be done. It’s just down to which club you choose. Michael Kightly and George Elokobi just two of several lower-league players to transformed into Premier League players by Mick McCarthy; Bostock’s former Palace teammate Victor Moses continues his emergence under Roberto Martinez at Wigan. So perhaps it’s all about which club and manager the teenager ends up which will decide his fate. In that case, Lewis: choose Arsenal. Mr Wenger has an eye for talented teens – and they could use a centre-back…
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There is a banner up at Old Trafford football ground. Everyone in Manchester with a passing interest in football (and many beyond its boundaries) knows about it. It shows the number of years since Manchester City last won a trophy. This year, it threatens to tick over to the number 35. In fact, by the end of February it will have done.
I asked a United fan last week who he would rather win the league – Liverpool or City? He said it was like choosing between drowning and being shot. But his main arguments in choosing Liverpool were that it would mean more to us (just, because of the 34 years), AND United would have to tear that banner down.
So you’d think that for every City fan on this planet, if they could have one thing, it would be to win a trophy – any trophy. Carling Cup, FA Cup, Europa League, the Premiership. Anything. For most of us, it would be the first time the team we have supported all our lives will have won something.
And not surprisingly, most fans do list a trophy as the priority, this season, any season.
But not all fans. And, I suspect, not City’s manager or owners either.
And for why that would happen, you need look no further than the Champions’ League. The league of Champions, and those that weren’t quite champions, and loads of teams who were nowhere near being champions. In any other sport, 4th would mean failure – it wouldn’t even get you on the podium. But in the money-orientated world of top-flight football, 4th is everything – a possible gateway to untold riches and possible world domination.
As we all know, modern (top-flight) football is all about money. And here are the numbers to show why the Champions League is so, so important.
Teams competing in the UEFA Champions League group stage this season can expect to receive a minimum amount of €7.2m according to the “revenue distribution system” in place for the 2010/11 campaign.
Each of the 32 clubs that took part in the group stage received a participation bonus of €3.9m, plus a match bonus of €550,000 per group game played. On top of that, the following performance bonuses were paid: €800,000 for every win and €400,000 for every draw in the group stage.
There are additional payments made to the teams that progress in the competition with €3m the reward for advancing to the round of 16, €3.3m for reaching the quarter-finals and €4.2m for a semi-final place. The winners of the final at Wembley Stadium on 28 May will collect a further €9m, with €5.6m going to the runners-up.
So, win all your six group games and you would earn €15m – comprising €12m for your group stage performance plus €3m for getting to the last 16. If Manchester United had beaten Barcelona in the final of May 2009, they would have earned a cool €45m. It is estimated this year’s winners could pocket close to €60m.
In addition, participating clubs are entitled to a share of the market pool based on the commercial value of their domestic television market, the number of UEFA Champions League matches they play this season and their final position in the domestic league table last term. They will also keep their UEFA Champions League gate receipts.
Each of the 20 teams that contested the play-offs received €2.1m.
The Telegraph ran an article the other year where it stated: Telegraph Sportunderstands that Uefa’s internal forecasts predict a 35 per cent increase in Champions League commercial and broadcast income for 2009-12, taking gross income to more than €1.1bn, an increase of around €300m on the €820m or so generated in each of the last three seasons.
Currently Uefa distributes almost €600m to the 32 clubs competing in the Champions League group stage, but that figure could rise to more than €800m from next season, heightening fears that the financial gap between the European elite and their domestic competitors is too wide.
Culture secretary Andy Burnham and FA chairman Lord Triesman have both voiced concerns this season that financial disparity is affecting the competitive balance of English football, and such dramatic increases in Champions League revenue will amplify the issue.
Regular Champions League football has helped United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal render the upper-reaches of the Premier League predictable, with only Everton breaching their dominance since England’s Champions League representation rose to four. The concern among their domestic competitors is that European success becomes self-perpetuating, providing additional income sufficient to fend off challengers in all but exceptional circumstances.
Unlike Manchester City fans, Roberto Mancini has not had 34 years of hurt – far from it. He’s had quite a charmed life, if truth be told. He has to finish top 4 this season – it’s pretty certain his job depends on it. Finish 5th and win the FA Cup, and I wouldn’t guarantee you he’d keep his job. Finish 4th and win nothing, and I can guarantee you he will be in charge next season.
The reasoning is simple, if not shared by many/most of the blue persuasion. It’s that aforementioned gateway to a “better world”. Champions League football (providing City got through a qualifier if they finished 4th – what could possibly go wrong?) means City are more attractive to world-class players, it means City are earning a lot more, and thus closer to becoming self-sufficient and satisfying Platini, it means more high-profile games, and with all that, with the players and the income, a greater chance of winning trophies from that moment onwards.
And there are City fans that see it that way too – it relies on a gamble that getting in the Champions League will mean everything else will follow – and what’s another year to wait when you’ve waited all your life?
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In addition to previous points, if as expected City finish outside the top 4 and Mancini loses his job, then once again City will have to recruit a new manager, and go through yet another building process with new players and new systems and new routines and changes to staff and the endless cycle of repairing damage that seems to define the club. Top players may leave – Tevez will for starters, and recruitment will mean more persuasion skills from Cook and Marwood. And more money, of course. Above all, a top 4 finish would bring one thing the club has lacked for decades – stability. Another year for City with the same manager? Blimey, it might just work.
But to many, to most in fact, the emotional attachment to the football club does not include financial analysis of what finishing higher may bring. It does not include analysing business models, or fair play criteria. There are those, as always, that would even welcome a change of manager. For the first time in many blues’ lifetime, a trophy looks not only possible, but probable in the years to come. And that trophy is all that matters – break the duck, break the curse, and everything else will follow. They have pictured the moment of a City captain lifting a trophy aloft as confetti rains down from the sky for far too long. The Champions League can wait for now. Winning the Carling Cup trumps playing Barcelona in the Champions League, when the heart rules over the business head. And rightly so.
No one transfer has quite summed up the excess of the flawed approach to the transfer market during the Kenny Dalglish and Damien Comolli reign than Stewart Downing and under a new manager, he has a point to prove all over again in what must represent a make or break season for him at the club.
Liverpool paid a whopping £20m fee for him to Aston Villa last summer, seemingly because the club had already sold Ashley Young to Manchester United for £17m and were reluctant to part ways with both wingers in one transfer window, but as ever, money talks and the club got their man.
Out of all the big-money moves given the green light by Dalglish during his 18-month spell in charge, none have disappointed more than Downing. Andy Carroll arrived with the huge fee of £35m, but he still retains the faith of a large majority of the Anfield faithful for the simple reason that when he’s fit and on form, he can be a truly terrifying presence up front, capable of battering the opposition’s defence into submission and his form picked up towards the end of last season as he scored in both the FA Cup semi-final and final against Everton and Chelsea while dismantling John Terry in the league game at Anfield.
Jordan Henderson could still be some player and he’d burdened by expectations of what he should be rather than an accurate assessment of the player he is – quietly efficient, composed and above all, a player that keeps the game simple. Downing, however, came to the club with an already established reputation and at 27 years of age, without much room to manoeuvre in terms of future improvement or sell-on value. He was purchased off the back of a successful season for Villa during which he scored seven goals from midfield and displayed a maturity to his game, often finding himself starting in the middle of midfield. He was signed to provide the manager with more options in midfield, but his poor form only succeeded in causing headaches
Liverpool paid hugely over the odds for him simply because Aston Villa themselves did when they forked out £12m for him from Middlesbrough back in 2009-10. If we’re being honest, that’s about the maximum that you should ever play for someone of Downing’s quality, but when you factor in the English premium that you inevitably pay and the fact that he had improved markedly at Villa Park, then you are left with an inflated price that he was always going to struggle to justify.
I’ll set my stall out now, I’m a Downing sceptic – it’s not that I don’t believe he doesn’t exist (if only), but I’ve never been privy to his supposed powers. Of course, he can whip a decent ball in at pace from time to time, but he’s always looked as if he’s never quite had the pace to trouble a quality full-back, nor the trickery or guile to beat them on the inside.
At Liverpool last term, he could regularly be found guilty or narrowing the midfield, with a reluctance to take on and try and beat his man, while Jose Enrique at left-back was quicker with the ball than he was without it. He completed a pretty rotten 0.6 dribbles per match and failed to register a single assist or goal in 36 league appearances, 28 of which he started. Just to compare, Ashley Young, who enjoyed a similar move to a bigger club and who struggled after a bright start, completed 0.9 dribbles per match and finished the campaign with six league goals and seven assists from 19 starts and six substitute appearances.
Downing struck the only goal of the game during the side’s narrow 1-0 victory over FC Gomel in the Europa League last week in what was a fairly anonymous performance aside from that. He was used on both flanks during the match as Rodgers went with his preferred 4-3-3 system, with Joe Cole, then Raheem Sterling being used on the other side. New signing Fabio Borini often cut an isolated figure up front at times as the side struggled for match fitness against opponents already well into their league season.
Nonetheless, given that Craig Bellamy looks to be on his way out of the club to Cardiff, Maxi Rodriguez and Dirk Kuyt have already left and that Rodgers has a limited transfer budget, Downing could be set to be handed a key role over the coming season, as one of the more senior members of a fairly young squad.
It looks as if Rodgers is aiming to make his mark at the club, bringing an end to the English contingent’s privileged positions in the dressing room; they are no longer guaranteed a first-team place merely due to the nature of their hefty fee. Andy Carroll has already tasted the sharp end of the stick and unless he starts to perform, so will Downing.
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Downing has always looked as if he struggles to cope with the pressure of playing for a big side – he has for Liverpool so far and in the majority of his 34 appearances for England since making his debut back in 2005. However, as a big fish in a small pond, he can often be seen to perform above expectations, like he did at Boro and Villa and with Anfield becoming a smaller pond than in years gone by, now is the time for him to step up. Another failure like last season will see him marginalised – fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
After watching his side in the 8-2 thrashing by Manchester United, Arsene Wenger cut a despondent figure at Old Trafford. It was after this display that Wenger and the board realised that they desperately needed to strengthen the depleted squad. After collecting nearly £80 million of transfer fees over the summer, it wasn’t like they didn’t have the money to spend in the window.
Wenger reacted to the horrific result with three days of hectic activity, spending an estimated £30 million, before the transfer deadline came to pass. Arsenal’s team of worldwide scouts went through their intensive scouting notes and turned to a supply of options that the club have been tracking for years. By the time the transfer window closed Arsenal had a new look defence with Brazilian left-back, André Santos, and German centre-back, Per Mertesacker joining the club. In attack, Spanish midfielder, Everton’s Mikel Arteta, had joined South Korean striker, Park Chu-young, on the late arrival list, along with Israeli international Yossi Benayoun, who joined on loan from Chelsea.
Looking over the signings I think that Mertesacker is just the sort of defender Arsenal needed to sign with a no-nonsense commanding style that will provide much-needed strength to their defence. Benayoun and Arteta may be proven Premier League players but they are not in the same league as the recently departed duo of Fabregas and Nasri. Benayoun has left Stamford Bridge after being deemed surplus to requirements while Arteta has only made an average of 26 appearances during the last three seasons, a worrying statistic. The other two arrivals are both unproven players who may have featured for their respective international sides but it is difficult to tell whether or not they will make a huge impact at the Emirates this season. This is the risk Wenger is taking, by rushing through the late transfers he has gone against his usual transfer prudence and as a result they have ended up with older players on extended lucrative contracts.
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The team will certainly have a fresh look in their next Premier League game against Swansea and Wenger has instantly appeased the loyal fans by signing experienced players without really bothering about the fees and wages paid. Not only did he manage to refresh an inexperienced squad but he also shifted out some deadwood who were taking up vital wages.
While I can understand why Wenger has felt the need to sign so many players in such a short space of time I fail to see why it could not have been completed earlier in order to get better value for money. Nasri and Fabrgeas departed a full week before the transfer window closed and if Wenger would have just matched Chelsea’s offer for Juan Mata it is much than likely the former Valencia player would have ended up there instead.
Wenger was left in a difficult position after the Manchester United defeat and I that is probably why they made a late bid for Arteta and even offered him a four-year contract, despite the fact he will be 34 when it finishes. It appears quite a desperate move but I think it could out to be quite a coup as Arteta has always been regarded as a top-class performer and if he can stay fit he could be an excellent purchase by Wenger, although there is an element of risk involved.
While Ferguson and Mancini were able to sit back with a relaxing day last Tuesday, Wenger was desperately trying to secure some new recruits for his team. By deciding to strengthen so late I think he has taken a gamble by bringing in quantity over real quality. New faces were certainly required at the Emirates but by going against his own transfer policy he showed his desperation. The only way we will find out if it was the right thing to do to from their results at the end of the season.
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Manchester United have lined up Ajax goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg to replace Edwin van der Saar, according to first-team coach Rene Meulensteen.
Van der Sar, 40, confirmed this week that he will quit at the end of the season, ending a remarkable two decades at the top of the game.
Now it seems the Old Trafford club want another Dutchman to take over.
“Stekelenburg is indeed a keeper who is at the top of our wanted list,” Meulensteen told Dutch radio.
“We naturally talk a lot among ourselves about who should replace Van der Sar. Alex Ferguson has spoken about Stekelenburg with Edwin, and that does not seem strange to me at all.”
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson on Friday said he hoped the club dealt with Van der Sar’s retirement better than they did with the departure of Peter Schmeichel in 1999.
That triggered a tortuous six years at Old Trafford, when 10 keepers tried and failed to fill Schmeichel’s enormous gloves before Van der Sar headed north from Fulham.
“We hope we are better organised about it this time,” said Ferguson.
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“I made a mistake. I should have taken Van der Sar at that time but didn’t do. We tried several goalkeepers in the interim before I eventually got Edwin. Hopefully we’ll be better prepared this time. We’ve learned from that.”
When you have an off-season as entertaining as what we’ve experienced this summer, it’s not a surprise that supporters are suffering a serious dose of dizziness. After a month of tiki-taka carousels and managerial Magic Roundabouts, the new Premier League season is being met on a backdrop of motion sickness. But amongst it all, Aston Villa’s appointment of a certain Paul Lambert, feels as if it’s got lost in the shuffle.
Villa fans didn’t so much feel motion sickness last season, but Alex McLeish induced salmonella. Throw in the deeply upsetting illness to skipper Stiliyan Petrov and it felt as if 2012 was amounting to something of an annus horribilis at Villa Park. The appointment of a new manager, especially after the tenure of McLeish, was always likely to be greeted with cautious optimism, but the wounds of the 2011-12 season won’t heal overnight.
Yet supporters should be able to afford themselves a wry smile at the countless feet of column space that the likes of Brendan Rodgers, Andre Villas Boas and even Michael Laudrup’s managerial appointments were afforded. The steely Lambert can galvanise Aston Villa in a way that maybe none of the aforementioned trio can.
One of the most poignant images of last season, was a banner held aloft in the Holte End, addressing one Alex McLeish. It bestowed the words: “It’s not where you came from, it’s where you are taking us.” To underplay the impact of appointing a coach with such ties to a rival club, is failing to grasp the sensitivities of football. No matter who they are, supporters are always going to greet their arrival with a degree of scepticism and blunted loyalty.
George Graham won Spurs their first bit of silverware in eight seasons, but supporters always struggled to get around his Arsenal past. Although McLeish didn’t exactly ride into Villa Park with a résumé that held as much gravitas as Graham’s. Despite his League Cup win, McLeish had been relegated twice in three years and advocated, shall we say, a pretty attritional style of football. That’s reasonably hard to buy into on it’s own, let alone the fact he arrived from Birmingham City.
The fact that he came from St. Andrew’s mattered. But the fact that supporters didn’t think he was any good, mattered more.
And come the climax of last season, fans fear for the future was felt just as urgently as their anger for the present. Writing in the Heroes and Villains fanzine back in May, Stuart Griffin seemed to capture the mood to a tee:
“There is a feeling that the club as a whole is utterly rudderless. No leadership or direction at the top, outside of getting the wage bill down. No real idea of where we are going or how we are going to achieve it”
“The fans have lost hope and unless that is renewed, next season will be horrible.”
Paul Lambert doesn’t have a magic wand and he isn’t going to soothe the worries about the top. But he won’t stand for a rudderless ship. Lambert has the drive and intensity to bring back the hope that got blasted away like the long ball that infected the McLeish brand of football.
For starters, you can guarantee that Lambert won’t stand for any of the gutless performances that Villa seemed to produce last season. One of the biggest critiques of Alex McLeish’s reign, was that in spite of the football his teams played, they always seemed to play with courage, heart and a ballsy work ethic; this never seemed to manifest itself at any point last season.
Lambert gets the best out of his players. Many who plied their trade for Norwich in the team who finished 12th in the league last season, played under Lambert for Norwich and even Colchester United, during his time in League One. David Fox, Marc Tierney, Grant Holt and Wes Hoolahan aren’t players you’d have thought would have got anywhere near this Villa team two years ago. Lambert has got them playing above them.
As with Bradley Johnson, Jonny Howson and Steve Morison, Lambert has proved he can take players deemed by others to be ‘lesser’ and get the very best out of them. He has hardly been given a transfer war-chest at Norwich, yet he hasn’t needed one, as the likes of Morison et al have shown. Supporters don’t need to loose sleep over the amount of money Randy Lerner will make available. Lambert will invest whatever he gets very wisely indeed.
The style of football too, will come as a huge boost. Lambert doesn’t employ the tiki-taka-lite of Brendan Rodgers, but his own brand of football is direct, pulsating and thoroughly enjoyable to watch.
Supporters can’t get carried away, although the fixture computer has been kind to Lambert and Villa. They play newly promoted West Ham and Southampton in two of their first three away dates and Swansea and West Brom visit Villa Park in September. If Paul Lambert can get Villa staring well, then the momentum could act as a springboard for a great season.
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Next season is going to be a big challenge for Paul Lambert. Expectation won’t be sky high for a team who were in all honestly, lucky to avoid relegation last term. But Aston Villa aren’t a team who should be anywhere near the bottom three. Yet in the nicest possible way, Lambert’s ego and determination demands success.
He is as fiercely determined as any manager in the Premier League. And that’s just the tonic for all involved at Villa Park.
Are you excited for the new season under Paul Lambert? Are are expectations still relatively muted after the events of last season? Let me know what you’re looking forward to at Villa Park next season, follow @samuel_antrobus on Twitter and bat me your views.
Scotland manager Craig Levein has announced a relatively inexperienced 24-man squad for a friendly against Denmark on August 10.Just four members of Levein’s squad for the match at Hampden Park in Glasgow have won more than 20 caps for their country.
Captain Darren Fletcher and fellow regulars Craig Gordon and James McFadden will miss through injury, giving the likes of Barry Bannan, Robert Snodgrass and David Goodwillie a chance to be involved.
“The most important thing just now is to win matches but at the same time trying to build up this bank of players who can help us in the future,” Levein said after unveiling the squad.
“It is a young squad but if you have a look at the recent friendly matches, we’ve tried in all of those to add a group of maybe a handful of players who I believe will be future, regular Scotland internationals.”
Scotland squad: Charlie Adam (Liverpool), Barry Bannan (Aston Villa), Phil Bardsley (Sunderland), Christophe Berra (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Scott Brown (Celtic), Gary Caldwell (Wigan Athletic) Kris Commons (Celtic), Stephen Crainey (Blackpool), Graham Dorrans (West Bromwich Albion), James Forrest (Celtic), Matt Gilks (Blackpool), David Goodwillie (Dundee United), Grant Hanley (Blackburn Rovers), Alan Hutton (Tottenham Hotspur), Craig Mackail-Smith (Brighton & Hove Albion) Allan McGregor (Rangers), Kenny Miller (Cardiff City), James Morrison (West Bromwich Albion) Steven Naismith (Rangers), Barry Robson (Middlesbrough), Robert Snodgrass (Leeds United), Iain Turner (Preston North End), Steven Whittaker (Rangers), Danny Wilson (Liverpool).
Despite being linked with big money moves for former World Cup stars, Blackburn Rovers look set to lose their captain after Chris Samba reaffirmed his desire to leave the club in January.
Samba’s comments will be of interest to a number of clubs such as Arsenal, Aston Villa and Fulham who have all been rumoured to be keen on the Congolese defender.
He told press that he was disillusioned with the conduct of Blackburn’s new owners Venky’s, and would like to leave the club in the coming transfer window.
Samba said: “This is my fifth season here. I’ve had ups and downs but today I don’t want to waste any more time”
“New owners have arrived, they have fired the coach when he saved us from relegation two years ago.”
“The least they could have done is come to us and explain their project. They haven’t done that, it’s a lack of respect. I don’t want to be part of it.”
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Samba has made over 100 appearances for Rovers since joining from Hertha BSC in 2007. Sometimes deployed as a part-time striker, Samba has notched an impressive 12 goals for Blackburn, including two this season and is a constant threat from set-pieces.
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