Last week it was Maradona’s fingers causing debate, this week it’s the gesturing of Steven Gerrard’s digits in Liverpool’s 1-0 loss to Wigan on Monday that’s causing a stir. Not for Rafa Benitez though.
“Sometimes you move your fingers. It was nothing. We are not considering it, it was nothing.”
He’s right you know, sometimes you do move your fingers. Can't argue with that. Case closed.
Wilson Palacios has made his plans for the future clear, and in doing so has signalled that Tottenham have moved up the food chain and are ready to become a big four club; their best players no longer want to leave and play for Manchester United, they want to go and play for Real Madrid.
“I am really happy at Tottenham but I will continue working for a future move to a bigger club. I would like to play for Real Madrid.”
News broke today that a tape, supposedly of England player’s private conversations, exists and is being offered to newspapers. Since then just about everyone who cares has been wondering whether it contains a recording of Fabio Capello giving John Terry a bollocking over the Wayne Bridge affair, or reveals what the players are actually like behind closed doors.
“The squad is capable of producing better and we probably need two or three players who will go into the team and make an impact every week, and three or four more to beef up the squad. We probably need six or seven signings.”
Talking to the Sunday Times, Jamie Carragher shows just how much faith he has in his current team mates. After last night’s poor result at Wigan, JC might be thinking that seven new signings might not be enough.
After his cracking goal in Newcastle’s 6-1 beating of Barnsley on the weekend, Jonas Gutierrez finally got to pull his Spiderman mask out from his pants, pull it over his face and web sling around St. James Park.
Carlos Tevez, a key player on 'Team Bridge', has again condemned John Terry for his actions.
“It's wrong. In my opinion, Terry has no moral code for what he did to Bridge. In my neighbourhood if you do that, you lose your legs, or more - you don't survive.”
His neighbourhood? Doesn’t he live in Cheshire? Oh, he means Argentina. How silly of me.
On the pitch, Craig Bellamy showed his quality with two goals in Manchester City’s 4-2 remarkable win at Stamford Bridge this weekend. Off the pitch, he weighed in on the Terry saga and showed the controversial nature that, justified or not, has long gotten in the way of his football career.
According to an upcoming UEFA report seen by the Guardian, debt in the Premier League in 2007/08 was running at just under £3.5 Billion. And that’s only the figure for the 18 healthiest clubs that season. Apparently West Ham and Portsmouth aren’t included in the figure because their finances were so bad they weren’t granted UEFA Licenses in that year. According to UEFA, Premier League club’s liabilities accounted for 56% of European football’s commercial debt that season, more than four times as much as its nearest rival in the race for financial ruin, La Liga in Spain.
Ex-Blackburn striker Matt Derbyshire is in line to start Olympiakos’s last sixteen Champions League match against Bordeaux tonight. After making a dream start to his career at Greece’s biggest club, scoring two goals in the cup final as his new team beat bitter rivals AEK Athens to complete a domestic double, Derbyshire has had to endure seven months out injured. The road to recovery wasn’t a smooth one for the striker either, as he told the Daily Mail:
“I went through four courses of 27 injections into my pubic area, which was every bit as painful as it sounds.”
Even if you didn’t see Sunday’s game at the DW Stadium you’ve probably heard that Wigan’s 3-0 loss to Spurs was played out on a pitch so muddy it almost slowed the game down to Peter Crouch’s pace. Don’t worry though; this should be the last seventies throwback game at the ground, for this season anyway. The club are going to relay the pitch at the end of the month; probably because playing on a boggy surface doesn’t suit Roberto Martinez’s passing side as much as it did Steve Bruce’s Heskey inspired entertainers.
When Manchester United took Arsenal apart at the Emirates last month in the first game to be broadcast in 3D, it was obvious which of the teams looked better on the pitch. But what about the managers?
Owen's 09/10 season so far. Ferguson and Capello not impressed.
“It's been a long time since I was in the England squad. You never give up but it's probably a long shot in racing terms.”
It’s a sad day for Michael Owen. Talking to BBC Radio Five Live, the Manchester United bench warmer seemed to have finally resigned himself to missing out on the World Cup squad. Unless he starts and scores in every game from now until the end of the season, there’s only one way we can see Owen convincing Fabio Capello to take him to South Africa now…
Next up to to take a shot at Portsmouth is their very own Kevin-Prince Boateng, who had a lot to say in a frank and very quotable interview in a German magazine.
The players who don’t get their dues, rightly or wrongly.
When asked about the best players he has ever played with in a recent interview, Teddy Sheringham put his old Spurs and England team mate Darren Anderton up with Roy Keane and Paul Gascoigne.
Wolverhampton Wanderers have been punished for fielding a weakened team in their match at Old Trafford on 15 December. The West Midlands club made ten changes from the side that beat Tottenham 1-0 on 12 December for their 3-0 defeat to Manchester United, and the Premier League have decided that the team Mick McCarthy put out that night “was not full strength and therefore in breach of Rule E20”. Because of this the League have come to the conclusion that the club “failed to fulfil its obligations to the league and other clubs” violating another rule; B13. To punish Wolves for these crimes that undermine the integrity of their competition, the Premier League have handed down a suspended fine of £25,000.
If the rumour in the Spanish newspaper Sport is true, and it’s almost certainly not, then Manchester United are in for another summer of fighting to keep a big Spanish club from tempting away their prize asset. That asset would of course be the ultimate utility man himself, John O’Shea. Even the Irishman himself will have had a chuckle at this one.
Our next comic book passing resemblances is Manchester United’s very own superhero, Wayne Rooney, and the Fantastic Four’s slightly more unfortunate looking The Thing.
It’s being suggested that the Premier League introduces a play-off involving teams that finish between fourth and seventh for the fourth Champions League place. Apparently it will take 14 out of 20 clubs voting in favour of the proposal to introduce it. So if the rest of the Premier League wants to bring about the change, the ‘big four’ won’t be able to stop them. Would the new structure actually benefit the little sixteen though?
“I don't care who my captain or troops go to bed with, but what ideas they wake up with in the morning”
Carlo Ancelotti
Ancelotti's strangely worded response when questioned about Ashley Cole’s naked text message shenanigans just gets us wondering what ideas JT and the Chelsea ‘troops’ do wake up with in their heads in the morning.
Probably something along the lines of ‘that was probably worth a super injunction’ or ‘did I delete those text messages?’
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