Alan Pardew says he has left the door open for Newcastle midfielder Joey Barton to stay with the club.The 28-year-old was placed on the transfer list earlier this week, and was fined two weeks wages after he criticised the club on social networking site Twitter.
Barton was also made to train by himself as a result of the sanction, but the Newcastle boss was not about to give up hope on his influential midfielder.
“I think I’ve never closed the door on any individual and I won’t close the door on Joey,” Pardew said.
Pardew believes Barton could still have a future at St. James’ Park, but has urged football authorities to take control of player’s use of social media websites.
“The problem with Twitter and I think this is a bigger problem generally for football is that we need to get hold of this. There’s nothing coming down from above within the game to tell us how to deal with this from the Premier League,” Pardew said.
“I spoke to Sir Alex (Ferguson) this morning because they’ve had a problem with Twitter as well and we’ve gone on a similar line to Manchester United in that you cannot criticise from within on your personal account. In fact, you shouldn’t mention your football club at all, in my opinion.”
Pardew said there were no hard feelings between him and Barton following their pre-season friendly loss to Leeds United on Saturday, contrary to reports.
“Myself and Joey have had words since Saturday and most of it has been pretty controlled from both of us. I think we both realised we could have done things better at the weekend and I think that’s where our relationship is,” he said.
“Our relationship at the moment is unbroken as far as I’m concerned. And the repairing of that will be quite simple but the bigger problem is the criticism of the club and the board and that’s something else we need to reflect on to.”
Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish has been given permission by the club’s owners to bring in fresh talent during the January transfer window.
Dalglish’s return to Anfield as a replacement for sacked manager Roy Hodgson is yet to produce a win on the field, but the Reds legend said he will not rush into the market looking for a quick-fix.
“We had a positive meeting yesterday with (owners) John (Henry) and Tom (Werner) in which we discussed many things,” Dalglish said.
“One of them was obviously transfers. There’s no problem with transfers. As long as we are responsible we can go and look for players, try to sign them and bring them in here.”
“I’m not going to sit here and give you names or comment on every question that is asked about an individual player.”
“We certainly won’t talk about sums of money. Every time I go into the transfer market I am responsible and I will continue to be. I will try and spend the club’s money as diligently as I would spend my own.”
The 59-year-old also confirmed striker Ryan Babel was almost out the door at Anfield, with the Dutchman yet to make up his mind on a move to Bundesliga outfit Hoffenheim.
“We’ve accepted a bid from Hoffenheim. Ryan is considering what he wants to do. That’s his right. A transfer only goes through if three parties agree,” he said.
Liverpool will look for their first win under their new manager against second-from-bottom Wolves on Saturday, but Dalglish is wary of the threat posed by Mick McCarthy’s men.
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“They were excellent last week at Man City, especially in the first half hour. Even when they went 4-1 down, which was a bit unfair I thought, they pulled it back to 4-3,” Dalglish said.
“If Mick McCarthy is in charge of a team they are not going to lie down, are they? They are going to work as hard as they can and we know that from first-hand experience.”
“There are no games in the Premiership where you can rest a couple here or a couple there. They are all really difficult games.”
Barcelona are thought to have turned their transfer attention to Arsenal’s Thomas Vermaelen, and will make a move for him this summer according to The Daily Mail.
The Catalan giants are keen to bolster their backline, and had initially targeted AC Milan and Brazil centre half Thiago Silva.
However, with the Rossoneri asking for more than £30 million for the South American defender, Tito Vilanova’s men are considering other options.
Belgium international Vermaelen has emerged a surprise option for the Camp Nou giants, with his versatility of being able to play on the left or centre of defence and in a holding midfield role if necessary of appeal to the Spanish side.
Arsene Wenger will be keen to hold onto his vice-captain, and it is thought that the north London side would turn down any approach from Barcelona.
Spurs target Jan Vertonghen is also mentioned in the Spanish press as a possible target for Barcelona as they look for a long-term replacement for Carles Puyol, and as such Tottenham would do well to wrap up a deal for the Ajax man.
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With Charlie Adam signed, Liverpool ’s next high profile target is Stewart Downing . The England winger has made no secret of his desire to leave Aston Villa this summer and is expected to force a transfer by handing in a transfer request if Liverpool ’s advances continue to be knocked back. The proposed transfer has been met online by a group of whingeing Liverpool fans, many crying ’sign Mata, sign Mata’ or alternately stating that Downing is average at best, or simply not good enough. Such comments display the naïveté of some fans in terms of how they perceive the modern game.
What seems to escape the attention of these fans is that in January of this year Liverpool paid a club record £35m to sign Andy Carroll. Call me crazy but I believe this would suggest that Andy is seen as a key first team player for next season. One only need look at Liverpool’s last two games of last season, when Carroll, despite clearly not being fit, was chosen to play alongside Suarez as a striker ahead of the in-form Dirk Kuyt. Carroll is seen as first choice. As such Dalglish will be looking to construct a side to get the best from his £35m man.
To think that Kenny Dalglish gave the go-ahead on signing Carroll for £35m without realising that he needs good service borders on insulting the King’s knowledge of the game. We all know Andy’s main strengths, he has great physical presence and colossal heading ability. He gets less praise for his ability to pick a pass and he also has a decent touch, impressive attributes for such a big man. Carroll also has a ferocious shot, it is clear to see why, in this department, parallels with Alan Shearer have been drawn.
Carroll however, also has weaknesses. He could do with working on his ball retention and hold-up play, as he is often clumsy or wasteful when playing a simple pass. Also, for a man who to look at, appears at a glance to be something of a beast – Carroll could also improve on his strength.
Upon his signing I had noticed in his medical photos that his upper-body could do with a lot of work, he did not cut the figure of a toned, conditioned and muscular modern pro, but then he did have a reputation. Carroll is also not the quickest, which diminishes our ability to thread through-balls to Carroll as a viable, steady supply-source of goal-scoring chances.
This is precisely the problem in the debate over Mata that so many fans seem to miss. Liverpool need someone who can deliver a cross. This is not Mata’s style. He is a great little player but a gamble in terms of getting the best from Carroll. Mata is a typical Spanish schemer, playing in a floating role on the left, looking to playing quick one-twos, or to pick an incisive through ball. Mata plays most of his football in a more central area of the pitch, drifting in on the left side of a front three. The same people who clamour for Mata would also likely state that Liverpool need width. Mata would simply not provide the desired width we need.
Whilst the thought of Mata and Suarez linking up on the left, playing intricate, incisive football on the deck is great in theory, such a system would not suit big Andy, who thrives on good crosses (or indeed even average ones. Man City anyone?). Make no mistake – next season we will be looking to get crosses to him. Whilst Mata does not provide traditional, touchline-hugging, by-line-driving width, Downing certainly does.
It is the width offered by Stewart Downing which puts him ahead of Mata as a priority signing for Liverpool. The left-footer whipped in more crosses in open play than any player in the Premier League last season, 135 in total. According to Opta stats, this is more than any other player has accumulated in a season in the last three campaigns. Very impressive. We are all aware too that Downing is not overly elaborate and could hardly be described as a ‘flair’ player, but then the same can be said for the likes of Antonio Valencia at Man Utd, who was widely praised for his simplicity on the ball at the tail end of last season (rightly so in my opinion, he rarely loses the ball).
Downing is not a ‘one-trick pony’ as many lazily suggest – some, with dreams of comedy superstardom have described him as a ‘no-trick pony’. Again, this is lazy – if not just downright idiotic. As we can see, Downing’s main ‘trick’ is offering width and providing crosses, but he is also capable of scoring goals as well as creating them (as we found out to our detriment) – eight in total last season. Downing can also pick a pass as well as deliver crosses. Strikers with pace, such as Gabriel Agbonlahor, and more recently Darren Bent have both benefited from Downing’s ability to split a defence over the last few years. Were it not for Bent’s famed profligacy in front of goal, and inability to stay onside, Downing may have claimed many more than the nine assists he contributed last season.
Continued on Page TWO
Downing also displayed his versatility when playing on the right-wing last year, showing that he can cut inside and create havoc in such a role. Were Kenny to employ a 4-3-3 next season. Suarez would naturally play on the left, where he creates so much trouble for club and country. As such, were Mata to sign where would he fit exactly? He is untested on the right. Downing provides better options in this regard – added to this, Downing has also shown he can still provide crosses and width when playing on the right if the system is a 4-4-2. Something Mata cannot provide from either side.
Which brings me back to Andy Carroll.
I wish we weren’t building a side around Carroll but lets face it, we are. His price tag makes him almost undroppable. It is for this reason I feel that, barring injury to Carroll we will employ a 4-4-2 next year. In every game Carroll played last season, we utilised this formation. That Downing is a desired signing theoretically re-enforces this view.
Parallels with Dalglish’s signing of Alan Shearer can be drawn here. Dalglish recognised that Jason Wilcox and Stuart Ripley could provide ammo for Shearer in what turned out to be a masterstroke. Neither player was flash or full of tricks, but without these two it is hard to see how Shearer would have scored such an alarming amount of goals. Width was a crucial factor in getting the best out of Big Shearer – the same goes for Carroll.
What Blackburn under Dalglish did not have was creativity from the centre. Their title-winning side contained David Batty and Tim Sherwood in central midfield. Whilst both were good players, neither possessed great vision, or the ability to deliver a defence-splitting pass. This was not essential however, as neither Shearer or Sutton possessed great pace. Their title win was largely based on a strategy of bombarding the opposition with crosses, they played to their strengths.
But Blackburn did not have a Luis Suarez.
In Gerrard and Adam, Liverpool have players capable of releasing Suarez with quality through balls – both can pick a telling, defence-splitting pass. Liverpool have the quality to be creative in the central areas, many would argue that Aquilani or Meireles could also provide such options. I agree. We are not lacking in creativity in central areas, which is what Mata would provide us with more of.
Mata can pick a pass, but then so can Downing. Mata can score goals, but then again so can Downing. Mata can drift into central areas, but then isn’t this the type of narrow football we have been looking to get away from? Creativity in central areas is not what we are looking for – it is what we already have. It is the predictability of this style which has led to the clamour for width in the fist place.
Width is where we have been lacking. As such, Downing can give us the added option of natural width which we so desire. Mata cannot.
Downing would give us the ability to drag and pull defences apart, to keep them guessing where the next threat is coming from – making as dangerous from wide areas as we are from central midfield. As all Liverpool fans know, this is something we have lacked badly for years. Dalglish is looking for a player that provide such width, a player who can get the best from both Carroll and Suarez.
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This is why Mata, however talented, is simply not what we are looking for..… Perhaps in some alternate reality where we have Suarez and Sergio Aguero up front it makes perfect sense. But not in this reality.
In this reality it’s £35m worth of 6ft 3” of Geordie bruiser we’ve got, and Dalglish isn‘t afraid to use what he has.
In addition to chasing Downing, the signing of Charlie Adam further demonstrates the importance that Dalglish has placed on getting good service to Carroll. In Adam’s case – particularly in regard to set-pieces. Carroll in particular is going to be salivating over those patented Charlie Adam ‘corners from hell’.
Even the greatest sceptic must admit that the thought of Downing providing the ammo for Carroll from the flanks next season, in addition to Adam’s delivery from set-pieces – is a very juicy thought indeed!
Read more Barry Henderson’s articles at Live4Liverpool
Manchester United were utterly dominant at Old Trafford today as they eased past Sunderland 2-0 to keep themselves at the top of the Premier League table. Sir Alex Ferguson’s men were in complete control from start to finish, with Dimitar Berbatov planting home a header from Wayne Rooney’s cross with just five minutes on the clock.
United were slicing Sunderland open with ease and looked like scoring with almost every attack as Berbatov and then Anderson hit the woodwork later in the first half. Berbatov himself made the points safe within the hour, with the Bulgarian striker bagging his second of the match courtesy of a deflected effort. The result puts United two points ahead of City with two games in hand, but perhaps more importantly five and six points ahead of Arsenal and Chelsea respectively, who meet at The Emirates Stadium tomorrow.
So what five things did we learn about Man United today?
Former Arsenal midfielder Patrick Vieira has stressed the importance of keeping Robin van Persie at the Emirates Stadium.
The Netherlands international is in the last year of his contract at the north London club, and is thought to be stalling on signing a new contract.
With Vieira’s new side Manchester City waiting in the wings and eager to bring the prolific forward to the Etihad Stadium, the Frenchman has admitted that losing their captain would be a sickening blow for Arsenal.
“I think losing Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas last year was a big shock for Arsenal – and if they lose Robin this year, it will be a trauma,” he told Mirror Football.
“When Samir and Cesc left, you could say, ‘OK, but we still have Van Persie and Jack Wilshere at the club.’
“But if Robin leaves, that means next year it may be Theo Walcott, next year it’s Wilshere, and it’s going to be difficult for Arsenal to keep their top players.
“I’m quite surprised they have waited until he has only a year left on his contract to talk to him. It’s difficult to find players of Robin’s quality anywhere in the world with only a year left – especially strikers who can score 34 goals in a season. It’s difficult to understand.
“Robin wants to win trophies – and Arsenal have to prove he can do it with them.
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“We know that Robin loves Arsenal. That is not the question – the real question is how Arsene Wenger will convince Robin they can win trophies,” he concluded.
Rangers’ Champions League hopes have been thrown into disarray after the Scottish champions were beaten 1-0 in qualifying by Malmo FF.The first leg of their qualifying tie at Ibrox on Tuesday was meant to be smooth sailing for Ally McCoist’s men, but an 18th-minute strike from Daniel Larsson was enough to hand the Swedes an unlikely triumph.
The loss continues Rangers’ uneasy start to their overall campaign, after they were forced to come from behind in their Scottish Premier League opener against Hearts to force a draw.
The result means the SPL title holders must score at least once in the second leg next Wednesday at Malmo’s Swedbank Stadion, to avoid an embarrassing pre-group stage exit from Europe’s elite football competition.
Last season’s Europa League quarter-finalists Dynamo Kiev were beaten 2-0 by Russian side Rubin Kazan in Ukraine.
A sixth-minute opener to Alan Kasaev gave the visitors the ascendancy, before Bibras Natkho’s penalty midway through the second half sealed a commanding victory for the Russian club.
Racing Genk pulled off a stunning come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Partizan Belgrade at their Cristal Arena home.
The Belgians were in strife when South African defender Anele Ngongca was shown a red card just past the half-hour mark.
But before the first goal, the sides were both down to 10 when Partizan’s Stefan Babovic was shown his marching orders also in the 48th minute.
Despite their setback, Partizan led on 65 minutes through a Nemanja Tomic goal, which seemingly sparked the hosts into action.
An equaliser within five minutes from the penalty spot, converted by Jelle Vossen, gave the Belgians hope of a result, before Marvin Ogunjimi struck the winner deep into injury time to give Genk the lead heading into a second leg in Serbia.
In other results, Poland’s Wisla Krakow beat Lovech 2-1 in Bulgaria, BATE Borisov, a Belarusian club, held Ekranas to a scoreless draw in Lithuania, Georgian side Zestafoni earned a 1-1 draw at home to Sturm Graz, APOEL’s battle with Slovan Bratislava ended 0-0 while a Marc Janko brace gave FC Twente a 2-0 triumph over Romanian side Vaslui.
Joleon Lescott has admitted he may need to leave Manchester City to preserve his England place.
The former Everton man has failed to assert himself at Eastlands, with City boss Roberto Mancini favouring Vincent Kompany and Kolo Toure ahead of him.
He has often been deployed in the left-back position when he has played, but Mancini is now favouring Belgian teenager Dedryck Boyata in this role instead.
With the January transfer window set to open in less than a month, Lescott has admitted he may be forced to seek regular first team football elsewhere.
Speaking about his situation, he said: "I'm not happy with the situation. I don't enjoy sitting on the bench, and sometimes not even making the bench."
Fuelling the rumours about a possible move, he stressed: "That's down to myself and the club. The club might say 'If there's a chance to play, go and play' and, if not, I will have to stay here."
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On Saturday, Hartlepool United fans travelled south to London to watch their team to take on League One Champions Charlton Athletic. Football FanCast blogger Chrissy Bell was part of a contingent of 170 smurfs who made global headlines. Here he tells the story of a day the Poolies will never forget:
It’s not every day you dress up as a smurf.
It’s not every day you cake your face in blue (or in my case, cake your face in blue until your constant rubbing wears it off after a couple of hours).
It’s not every day you become London’s main tourist attraction.
It’s not every day you create a worldwide Twitter sensation, by that meaning you trend worldwide.
And it’s certainly not every day you manage to upstage the FA Cup final.
And above all it’s not every day you become famous.
Enough of the everyday’s. But all of the above apply to the 171 fantastically dressed blue and white smurfs who took London by storm and enjoyed a truly memorable weekend.
From an early start of 5:30pm, the look of astonishment coupled with amazement of the taxi driver was just the first of thousands of similar looks throughout the day.
The local press, the Hartlepool Mail, were waiting at the smurfs’ first port call, Hartlepool Train Station. Five hours later and the Mail weren’t the only media outlet following the fancy dress nuts around, however.
Snaking around Eaglescliffe’s train station bridge was the sight of scores of endless white hats and strap-on beards. Next stop: King’s Cross.
And boy oh boy was that the start of the internet phenomenon. Raiding their song book, the smurfs chanted from stepping off the train, through the station, down the escalators, on the tubes, through the streets, in a shocked hotel lobby, in the pubs and in Covent Garden. And that was before the actual football match against Charlton and the night’s journey through London.
Amidst that, news was filtering through that media outlets were broadcasting images, talkSPORT’s Adrian Durham refused to talk about anything other than the smurfs, and onlookers all stopped from their sightseeing, dug deep to find their cameras and clicked the capture button relentlessly.
Covent Garden’s street performers were forced to take an untraditional step back in terms of camera snapping for a change, the Nags Head packed with the joyous and soon-to-be intoxicated smurfs.
The match itself was a good spectacle (Charlton narrowly won 3-2, by the way). But, again, just like so many things on this craziest of days, it played second fiddle to the smurfs. It was reminiscent of a play-off final, the atmosphere.
Following the match the smurfs divided, but the estimated 80+ who remained in the Capital continued soaking up the fame. Some pubs, however, didn’t see the funny side and refused to serve the happy smurfs. Yes, The Round House, I am talking about you!
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Nevertheless, that didn’t deter the fun and they continued to march onwards. Fans from all clubs were coming up to individuals, buying them a drink for their efforts and departing. There was even one occasion when a roughly-spoken Cockney barged into a pub and starting singing ‘Hartlepool, Hartlepool, Hartlepool’.
The word had spread. As Oasis sing: All around the world, you’ve got to spread the word, tell them what you’ve heard. People were certainly adhering to Noel Gallagher’s lyrics.
Big Ben, London Eye, Downing Street, Buckingham Palace: eat your heart out. As on Saturday London had a new tourist attraction that its customers will cherish forever. Not to mention the attraction’s party.
You can find me on Twitter @cmbell310 for more smurf and football chat.
For those of you that were there when we thumped Everton 7-0 on a Wednesday night at Highbury in May 2005, you might recall singing ‘one more year’ to the tune of ‘here we go’ over and over again for the last 20 minutes.
It was our last home game of the season, with a cup final to look forward to, so why were all our voices in accord that evening? The whole of Highbury were saluting the genius of one man, who if I recall correctly, came on as second-half substitute and we were imploring him to sign a one-year extension to his current deal at the club – this man of course was none other than Dennis Bergkamp , and he did indeed sign on for one final year.
Now the circumstances are not the same in 2011, but one could certainly argue that we need Fabregas for one more year now, more than we needed ‘the Iceman’ in 2005. Dennis was in his mid 30’s, and whilst still a remarkable player, the team was not built around him or reliant on him as it had been in earlier years. Indications this week are that Cesc will stay as he has told us himself that only monsieur Wenger can make the decision to sell him and will not ask to leave. However, he will return to Barcelona one day, and with Xavi turning 32, you have to think 2011/12 could be the ‘one more year’ for our skipper.
So I hope he stays, and I hope, as I have said in a previous article last week, that we revert to a four man midfield, but only last week I thought that would be without our uniquely talented Spaniard. With a stronger back four, as we had in the 1998, 2002 and 2004, we do not need a genuine holding midfield player. So I hope we do give the traditional formation a go, but either way, Fabregas will thrive. He is not necessarily a genuine goal-scoring central midfielder yet, but like the great Dutchman before him boy can he create goals for those around him.
I have heard so many tributes to the retiring Paul Scholes, and heard him described as a one of the greatest creative central midfielders of the Premiership era. And for years we have had to suffer the boring debate about which of Lampard or Gerrard is the greater.
Well I am happy to tell you all that when it comes to creativity, vision and pure improvisation, none of them compare to our Spanish talisman. Fabregas was the youngest player in Premiership history to reach 100 assists. In fact, Fabregas reached 100 assists in only 190 games, creating an Arsenal league goal more than every other game. It took the mighty Paul ‘I never learnt to tackle’ Scholes 325 games to reach the same milestone. This is the player that Zidane describes as the greatest English player of his generation? It took Gerrard 332 games and Lampard 354 games to create 100 league goals and before you comment that they both score more goals check your facts. Neither Lampard nor Gerrard came close to scoring double figures in a league season until they were 25, and Cesc did so in 2009/10 at the tender age of 22. At 23, Cesc has 35 league goals for the Gunners, and at the same age, Gerrard and Lampard had 20 and 12 respectively.
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I have given you plenty of evidence there to suggest that our enigmatic captain is the best creative central midfielder in the Premiership in this century. Of course what he is missing to go with this mercurial talent are Arsenal trophies and for that we need proper sensible investment this summer from Wenger and the backing from the board.
By sensible investment I do mean in proven experience Arsene, not unproven French potential. It is not a case now of what Fabregas owes Arsenal, but what Arsenal owes him.
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So let’s make the right defensive signings, keep our best players, and ensure that if our skipper gives us ‘one more year’, he can leave England with more than just incredible statistics, but with a Premiership winner’s medal around his neck, and like Bergkamp, as a true Arsenal legend.
Read more of David Seager’s articles at Gunnersphere