A hard fought draw was all that Liverpool could muster in their opening day of the season. It will take time for the new boys to gel and supporters should show the team great patience in Kenny’s new look team before it starts to turn out results.
At FFC this week we have seen a mixed bag of blogs that include Liverpool’s transfer pledge; King Kenny to finally deliver, while it is time for supporters to move on from Alonso.
We also look at the best Liverpool articles around the web this week.
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What to expect from Liverpool FC
Caption Competition: Newcastle’s loss is Liverpool’s gain
FOUR Liverpool players whose future lies away from Anfield?
Will this new transfer strategy see other Premier League clubs follow suit?
The perfect way to fast-track Liverpool’s development?
Liverpool’s trump card in Premier League title race
Will King Kenny finally deliver silverware to Anfield?
Time for Liverpool to move on
Liverpool chief’s transfer pledge
Liverpool lining up Dann swoop
A genuine cause for concern at Liverpool?
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Best of WEB
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Reality Check – This is Anfield
How Liverpool Can Win The League Title – Tomkins Times
Player-by-player 2011/12 Preview – This is Anfield
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Fan Focus: Getting The Lowdown On Liverpool From Paul Tomkins – Roker Report
SO WHAT WILL WE BE GETTING FOR £6MILLION? – Live4Liverpool
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Click on Miss Blasi below to see her in all her glory
There is no competition in club football more special than the UEFA Champions League. Just ask Steve McManaman and Christian Karembeu. Both players have great memories of the competition and indeed won the coveted trophy whilst at Real Madrid. They now work as ambassadors for UEFA at the Heineken-sponsored UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour.
Speaking on the Bangkok leg of the tour, McManaman, who scored a magnificent volley in the 2000 Final against Valencia, said: “The Champions League means everything to me. One of the reasons I actually left Liverpool was to play in the Champions League.
“Whilst I was there, only the domestic champions got to play in the competition and I wanted to test myself against the very best in the world. You have to test yourself against the best teams in Europe, that is what it is all about. And because I joined such an illustrious club with such great players, I was fortunate enough to win the Champions League the first year I got to play in it and that was fantastic!”
Karembeu was an unused substitute in the 2000 Final, but started in 1998 when a solitary Pedrag Mijatovic strike was enough to sink Juventus at the Amsterdam Arena. In that same summer, the 53-times-capped French international lifted the World Cup in Paris and although he remembers both occasions very fondly, he is unable to compare one to the other.
Karembeu said: “The Champions League is the first title that I won as a player so it means a lot me. It was also the first time in 32 years that Real Madrid had won the trophy and that made it extra special because the club were missing it. Both for me personally, and for the club it was genuinely a dream come true. It was one of the best moments of my life without question.
“But to then go on and win the World Cup in your home country is something else. You can multiply any feeling or emotion that you have by ten because you know that the whole country is with you every step of the way. I suppose looking back it is almost idealistic the way that I won those titles but I could not have done it without my teammates. I could not compare winning one trophy to the other because it was two different experiences with two different sets of people and I will cherish both memories for the rest of my life.”
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The Trophy Tour
The schedule of the 2011 UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour presented by Heineken is:
February 22 – 27: Kuala Lumpur
March 5 – 6: Penang
March 11 – 12: Kuala Lumpur
March 16 – 17: Bangkok
March 19 – 20: Chiang Mai
March 25 – 27: Kon Kaen
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April 6 – 9: Seoul
April 15 – 17: Hong Kong
There will me more to follow about the UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour presented by Heineken…
New Sunderland signing Sebastian Larsson has revealed that working with Steve Bruce again was the key factor in the Swede’s decision to move to Wearside, amid interest from other clubs.
The Scandinavian was available on a free transfer following Birmingham’s relegation, and despite interest from Newcastle and Arsenal, he was eager to link up with his old Blues boss again.
“The gaffer showed an interest in me quite early, a lot of interest, which is obviously nice. I have worked with him before and it is a big club, a massive club,” he is stated as saying in The Telegraph.
“I wanted to take the next step and I really feel I have done that by coming here. It has a huge fan base, great stadium and facilities and that is what you want when you play football. The club are trying to push forward. There have been quite a few new signings which, hopefully, will make the squad better,” he stated.
The midfielder is one of nine additions to the Black Cats squad in the transfer window, and the 26-year-old is impressed by the outfit’s ambitions of spending money whilst they can.
“That is what they told me before I signed – that they were really going to try and have a go. How far that goes, we will have to wait and see,” he concluded.
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Sunderland open their 2011/12 Premier League campaign against Liverpool at Anfield on August 13th.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted that he would like to sign the £30m rated Lille playmaker Eden Hazard, but he is constricted by a need to generate profit on a season-by-season basis.
The Belgian international looks set to leave the Ligue 1 champions in the summer, sparking a scramble between Europe’s leading clubs for his services.
The Gunners have a successful track record of buying talent from France under Wenger, and the Emirates Stadium trainer has praised Hazard’s considerable ability.
“I really like him (Hazard) and, for several reasons: it’s his creative power, his ability to misalign the opponent, his vision of the game and his consummate skill to address the last pass which make him a very interesting player,” Wenger stated according to Mirror Football.
Despite realising Hazard’s quality, Wenger revealed that he is required to make a certain amount of money each campaign to balance the books, which may limit his ability to bid for the attacking midfielder.
“You should know that each season, it is imperative to show a profit of between fifteen and twenty million pounds. I would add that the purpose of a coach is to always buy at a price he sees fit,” he concluded.
Arsenal can expect competition from the likes of Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Manchester City for Hazard’s services should they enter the race for his signature.
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Last week the International Football Federation of History & Statistics’ (IFFHS) released it’s ‘manager of the decade’ list.
All the familiar faces were there and there were no glaring omissions but the thing that did catch my eye was the order in which the managers were ranked. Now a list like this will all was be open to be questions but the IFFHS have a system in place to rank managers annually and at the end of the decade using these scores they were able to compile this list:
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1. Arsene Wenger (France) 156
2. Sir Alex Ferguson (Scotland) 148
3. Jose Mourinho (Portugal) 135
4. Fabio Capello (Italy) 120
5. Guus Hiddink (Holland) 112
6. Carlo Ancelotti (Italy) 108
7. Luiz Scolari (Brazil) 101
8. Marcelo Bielsa (Argentina) 101
9. Rafael Benitez (Spain) 97
10. Marcello Lippi (Italy) 88
As I said they have a system in place to rank the managers but what system would allow a manager who hadn’t won a trophy in the later half of the decade to be named the best manager of the decade? I do not write to speak ill of Wenger, he is a good manager but from 2000 to 2010, I’m pretty sure there are managers, namely Sir Alex Ferguson, who could and should have ranked higher than him.
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If we look at the the decade and compare United’s results and achievements with Arsenal’s it becomes apparent that Wenger was actually the best manager in England over the past decade let alone the world.
United won the league in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008 and 2009; the FA Cup in 2004; the league cup in 2006, 2009 and 2010 that’s just domestically if you add to that the Champions League in 2008 and the Club World Cup in 2008 the sum dwarfs Arsenal’s haul of the league titles in 2002 and 2004 and FA Cups in 2002, 2003 and 2005. Of course Arsenal’s unbeaten season has been taken into account as well as the times they have finished as runner up domestically and in Europe but in a competition to decipher who exactly has been the best manager over the past 10 years it kind of defeats the purpose to reward not actually winning!
I have only mentioned Sir Alex’s achievements in comparison, if we were to then look at say Jose Mourinho’s too it would make for lugubrious reading from an Arsenal perspective considering Mourinho has did the treble twice in the time span being considered (albeit he spent the early part in Portugal, considered a weaker league in terms of European football).
I’m not 100% sure how exactly points are awarded by the IFFHS but I would imagine having to declare a manager who hasn’t won a trophy in nearly 6 years kind of harms their credibility.
Read more Manchester United articles at the excellent ‘The Busby Way’
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The news this week that Chelsea are in talks to move to the site of the soon-to-be-demolished Earl’s Court exhibition centre must be seen as a step in the right direction for the economic future of the club. Earl’s Court is set to be demolished after hosting the Olympic Volleyball tournament in 2012, and Chelsea have reportedly expressed an interest in the site. They will have a fight on their hands to secure the land, however, as there has already been interest in turning the site into a residential estate with over 8,000 homes being built there. But in order to keep up with the footballing giants of this world Chelsea must move, as over the past decade they have slowly but surely outgrown their spiritual home of Stamford Bridge, and the logical step is to increase capacity and increase revenue.
With Roman Abramovich’s desire for the club to become self-sufficient and UEFA’s new regulations coming in, which somewhat tie owners hands when it comes to financing their club’s needs, Chelsea need to increase their fiscal means somehow, and through selling around 20,000 extra tickets per home game, they may find the answer. This, combined with the increased revenue more corporate boxes a new stadium would bring, such as the facilities found at the Emirates and Eastlands, will greatly increase the matchday financial intake.
Although they have the 5th highest average attendance in the Premier League, Chelsea fall well behind title rivals Manchester United and Arsenal, and, as has been mentioned above, in terms of revenue from corporate boxes, they rank well below Manchester City. Like Liverpool, whose average attendance ranks 4th and whose Anfield stadium holds a little over 45,000 compared to Stamford Bridge’s 41,841, Chelsea are searching for pastures new in order to compete both globally and financially in years to come.
A move half a mile down the road to Earl’s Court may seem ideal, keeping the club in west London, and, in fact, moving the club from the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, but there may be some problems along the way. Namely, that neither the Stamford Bridge pitch, nor the naming rights of the club are owned by the club. They are both owned by the Chelsea Pitch Owners. This was originally set up in the 1990s to protect the ground from property developers, before the time of Roman Abramovich, and means, if Abramovich moved the club without the consent of the CPO, the club would no longer be able to operate under the name of Chelsea FC. In financial and legal terms I don’t see this being a problem for Abramovich as he could surely just buy these rights back. But what could become interesting is if the CPO have an ideological opposition to the move, after all, the CPO number over 12,000 fans who bought a share in the non-profit organisation for the precise reason of protecting the club and its traditional home. If the move goes ahead, there could be some interesting ramifications.
Stamford Bridge has been Chelsea’s home for over 100 years and has a long history and heritage, but in order to keep up with their main rivals in England, Chelsea must look to their future, as well as taking solace in their very successful present, and secure a move to a new, purpose built, stadium.
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Click on image below to see a gallery of Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest lady
Shane Long struck nine minutes from time to secure a well deserved point for West Brom after QPR looked to have secured only their second win at Loftus Road this season.
The Republic of Ireland international was on hand to covert substitute Peter Odemwingie’s cross to claim a vital point for Roy Hodgson’s side and provide a substantial buffer between them and the Premier League relegation zone. For long periods it looked as if Rangers would be collecting only their second three point haul at home after Heidar Helguson had put them into a 20th minute lead. Chances came and went for both sides with Shaun Wright-Phillips seeing his effort disallowed for offside whilst Albion thought they should have had a penalty for a foul on James Morison. Neil Warnock will be disappointed his side once again failed to turn their chances into goals in what turned out to be a miserable afternoon for the R’s boss who turned 63 on Thursday. Despite dropping two points he will have been purring over the performance of captain Joey Barton who returned from suspension to turn in an inspirational display.
It was the former Newcastle midfielder who provided the cross leading the first goal sending a superbly weighted ball into Helguson who made no mistake from six-yards heading past Ben Foster for his fourth goal in as many games at Loftus Road. The home side were well on top and Wright-Phillips thought he had doubled their lead four minutes later lashing the ball into the top corner only for the goal to be chalked off due to the assistant referees flag. Replays showed the goal should have stood and ultimately it proved crucial as QPR went on to spurn a series of chances that would have made the game safe. The visitors were missing the creative influence of the injured Zoltan Gera but went close through Morison and Jerome Thomas although both failed to test goalkeeper Radek Cerny.
Wright-Phillips then went close again only to see his header beat Foster but sail agonisingly wide of the post and Rangers were made to rue another missed chance. The Baggies were still spoiling after being denied a penalty for Daniel Gabbidon’s foul on Morison as they desperately sought an equaliser. They’d have to wait until the 81st minute for their salvation with Long display the predatory nature that persuaded Hodgson to spend a club record £7.5 million on him in the summer turning Odemwingies cross in from six-yards to seal a vital point.
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has spoken of his happiness at his side’s 1-0 win over Swansea on Saturday, stating it was vital for the Gunners to get their first win of the season.
After just one point from their first three games, and the 8-2 humiliation against Manchester United in their last outing, The Gunners were under pressure to get a win against the newly promoted team.
An Andrey Arshavin goal five minutes before half-time gave the London side a 1-0 victory, but the home team were helped by a mistake Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm.
Despite this, the French trainer was pleased with the victory.
“It was vital for us to win the game. I think we started quite well and slowly the nerves took over. We played handbrake-ish, restrictive in the second half,” Wenger told Sky Sports.
“It’s not often that we pass the ball back to the goalkeeper from halfway. We just wanted to get over the line. We didn’t manage the second goal and any mistake and then you don’t win the game – a game that we absolutely had to win.
“Swansea make it difficult for you because they keep the ball well and are quick on the flanks,” he continued.
In a new look Arsenal team, Per Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta made their first appearances for their new club, and their boss was happy with the manner of the performances.
“Mertesacker was calm and composed – he leads the line well but needs to adapt to the pace of the game. Arteta played well overall, especially in the first half. You could see that he will bring us some technical security,” he praised.
Russia international Arshavin has had a dip in form of late, but Wenger has backed the goalscorer to get back to his best.
“Arshavin has a very good spirit. He had lost confidence and has a good attitude in training – people sometimes think he doesn’t care. That’s not true at all, he cares very much and he had just lost confidence – you could see he was himself again,” he concluded.
Arsenal will now face a tough test in midweek as their Champions League campaign starts on Tuesday with a trip to Germany to take on Bundesliga holders Borussia Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park.
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When a player manages to break into the Barclays Premier League under the provisions of any suspecting radar, it feels as if we are often very quick to douse them in a blaze of uncertainty. Today’s modern age dictates that every next big thing is usually well publicized within the realms of the footballing community- be it through the column inches of a dedicated blog or the YouTube montages of a fan boy’s creation.
This isn’t to say that Moussa Dembele’s talents have never been clear for all to see, but such is his ability, it feels truly remarkable that it’s taken till the age of 25 for him to really burst into public consciousness. But it’s not how you get there, more as long as you do. And make no mistake, Tottenham Hotspur have picked up one hell of a player in the Belgian.
The final game of last season’s Premier League calendar saw White Hart Lane encompassed in one of the more bizarre atmosphere’s you’re ever likely to witness in N17. Supporters were paying as much attention to the select few who had brought in personal radios, as they were to what was going on in the field of play, such was the situation regarding Champions League qualification.
But in between seeking out the West Brom v Arsenal score and hopelessly trying to attain any form of mobile phone signal, fans were left aghast as the authoritative number 30 from the other team, began running their midfield amok.
Spurs ran out 2-0 winner on the day, but all that left Spurs’ hallowed old ground that day were in no doubt as to who the best player on the pitch was – not that too many particularly cared. Fulham’s number 30 danced around the edge of Spurs’ penalty area at times, playing cute little balls through at angle, attracting the ball like a magnet and causing Harry Redknapp’s team all sorts of problems. Moussa Dembele’s performance may have been a surprise for some of the home fans but for the away support, it was simply another day in the life of the talented Belgian.
The beginning of this season saw Dembele continue from where left off from that day at White Hart Lane but this time, no one was under any illusions as to what he was capable of. Yet no one seemed able to stop him. After pulling the strings in Fulham’s devastating opening day 5-0 win over Norwich City, he then put in another virtuoso display at the Theatre of Dreams, causing Manchester United all sorts of problems as Martin Jol’s side succumbed to an unfortunate 3-2 defeat. By now, Dembele wasn’t so much hot property but a transfer market supernova- moves to both United and also Real Madrid were widely touted in the gossip columns.
But it was Andre Villas-Boas’ side who managed to capture his signature and Dembele signed for Spurs in a deal worth near on £15million. Most supporters have been pleased as punch with the 25-year-old’s acquisition, but there are a small minority who remain unconvinced. After all, if Dembele was so good, why has it taken him this long to get such a high-profile transfer? The boots of Luka Modric’s are massive ones to fill and although he isn’t a direct replacement, fans are well within their right to have the odd reservation. But the truth is that Dembele has always had the talent; it’s just that finding the right way to channel it has taken a little longer.
His goal scoring record might suggest that it was hardly ever rocket science, but Moussa Dembele was originally something of a conventional striker during his beginnings back in the Netherlands. Indeed. When Mark Hughes snapped him up from AZ Alkmaar in the August of 2010, the talk was that The Cottagers has signed another frontman or ‘attacking option’. Sparky said at the time:
“Moussa is strong and quick and will add another dimension.”
You were hardly expecting the Shakespearian but Hughes was being rather basic in his assessment of Dembele to say the least.
The Belgian’s career has gone from strength to strength in the last few years and it’s no coincidence that it’s prospered as he’s worked his way deeper down the pitch. During Alkmaar’s 2009-10 Eredivisie winning season, Dembele chipped in with an impressive 10 goals in 23 games but that represents something of an anomaly during his career. He is, as Spurs fans saw first hand against Norwich on Saturday, capable of putting the ball in the back of the net, but it isn’t primarily where his strengths lie.
His talents are far, far more influential in the engine room of a team, more centrally in midfield. His technical ability and close control are as good as any but he perhaps lacks a little bit of quicksilver to really make a case as a regular forward. This isn’t to say he couldn’t do a great job there, but he needs to be playing deeper- especially in this Tottenham Hotspur side.
As no one is under any illusions to how much the side are crying out for an injection of creativity within the heart of the team. Luka Modric is an outstanding footballer and as we are perhaps already seeing at Real Madrid, perhaps one of the best in the business at what he does. A player like that is in some respects, always going to be irreplaceable. But that doesn’t mean that Dembele can’t have as big an influence as the mercurial Croatian.
He has that similar ability to redistribute as Modric but perhaps in an alternate way. Maybe he doesn’t have the outstanding agility or metronome like quality as the Croatian does, but he certainly has a far more imposing physique and an authoritative level of power that Modric lacked. The combination of technical excellence and physicality is a rare one, but Dembele has it. No one is saying he is necessarily a better footballer than Spurs’ old number 14. But he has the ability to be just as important.
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And that is all that matters for Andre Villas-Boas and Tottenham Hotspur. Like his journey to the top, Dembele’s game is cut from a different cloth from many of his peers. He is as equally unique as he is exquisite and there can be no doubt that he has the skill in his locker to perform the deep lying role that the Portuguese wishes him to play. The challenge now for him is to come into an under-pressure side and produce the goods from the off.
And if Dembele the man is anything like Dembele the footballer, then expect him to take it all in his strider. Harder tests will lay ahead but the stage is set for him to finally kick-start his new team’s season into life.
How do you feel about Moussa Dembele’s White Hart Lane prospects this season? An inspired purchase or do you remain unconvinced? Let me know how you see it all playing out on Twitter: follow @samuel_antrobus and bat me all your Spurs chat.
Manchester United are reportedly interested in signing Juventus midfielder, Arturo Vidal. talkSPORT reports.
The Chile international scored in Juve’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and was part of the side which won Serie A at a canter last season.
He first established himself in Germany, spending four years playing for Bayer Leverkusen and helped the side finish second-place in the 2010/11 Bundesliga season.
Vidal has apparently attracted the interest of those at Old Trafford, who believe the midfielder could add a cutting edge in the centre of the park and be someone that could be a long-term replacement for Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.
As United missed out on Lucas Moura- who will join Paris St Germain in January instead, a move for Vidal appears even more likely, but Sir Alex Ferguson will have to dig deep as a deal could be worth a staggering £40million.
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This is due to the fact that the player is under contract with the Turin club until 2016.