Aston Villa are preparing to sell Darren Bent in January as his disagreement with manager Paul Lambert intensifies, reports Mirror Football.
A whole host of Premier League sides will be alerted to the availability of the England striker who has been repeatedly left on the bench and stripped of the captaincy at Villa Park by Lambert.
Villa’s record signing has been left in limbo over his future at the Midlands club after being snubbed by Lambert. He is understood to be willing to battle for his place in the team but is concerned that he further disappear out of the international picture after not featuring in Roy Hodgson’s recent World Cup qualifier squad.
Reports suggest that Villa will now seek a buyer in the transfer window for the striker they paid £18m to Sunderland for just 18 months ago and owner Randy Lerner will want to recoup at least £12m for Bent.
Bent had been handed the captain’s armband by Lambert at the start of the season but has since lost it after the arrival of defender Ron Vlaar.
The 28-year-old then lost his starting berth for the games against West Brom and Tottenham with summer arrival Christian Benteke appearing to be the preferred strike partner for Gabby Agbonlahor.
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QPR will be interested to hear about his availability with owner Tony Fernandes a long-term admirer while Liverpool are seeking a goalscorer after losing Fabio Borini to injury.
Villa are rumoured to be lining up a £5m move for Burnley’s goal machine Charlie Austin to replace Bent at the club.
Southampton and Liverpool have formed a unique relationship over the years, but it is not one that the all fans are particularly happy with.The Reds have bought a number of Saints stars that have become regular first-team members of the team.Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Nathaniel Clyne, Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk have been among the exodus from St Mary’s.Southampton have pocketed some decent cash from the sales, but as a result have lost some key players, particularly more recently when Van Dijk jumped ship in January to move to Anfield.[ad_pod ]Now, the rumour mill has been churning out reports suggesting that one of the Saints’ former stars intends to leave Liverpool.According toÂFrance Football, Mane has agreed personal terms with Real Madrid regarding a summer move, but a fee between both clubs is yet to be agreed.The publication claims, though, that a transfer has been put on hold due to the recent departure of Zinedine Zidane as manager.Losing Mane would be a huge blow to Liverpool given that he was a key figure in the prolific attack including Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.Some Southampton fans, though, would rather enjoy seeing Liverpool lose out this time around.
Southampton dropped points at home against another relegation rival and remained in the Premier League relegation zone as they drew 1-1 with Brighton and Hove Albion at St Mary’s on Wednesday night, and Saints fans have urged the club to sack manager Mauricio Pellegrino and replace him with Marco Silva.While the south coast outfit did move up to 18th in the table, their point against the Seagulls means that they have now failed to beat them, Newcastle United, Swansea City, Watford and Huddersfield on their own patch this season.Meanwhile, Silva was a contender to replace Claude Puel at Saints in the summer but eventually was appointed as the Hornets’ new boss instead, although he was sacked last month following a breakdown in his relationship between the board and the players over a failed move to Everton.Southampton supporters were quick to have their say on the 40-year-old via social media following the latest disappointing result – their 12th top flight game without a win – and while one said “get rid now and bring in Silva”, another said ‘Marco Silva would get much more out of this squad’.Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…
Despite the fanfare and hype about this top of the table clash, the performance from the home side was no different to most of the matches this season.
Wolves were set to face two different sorts of pressures over the hectic Christmas schedule. Against Crewe they were expected to win, the pressure was on the home side to put the Alex to the sword, which they did. On Sunday the pressure was different, a win against the swashbuckling London club would send a message to the rest of the league that Wolves really were the real deal and it would ensure Wolves would finish 2013 on top of a league.
The team sheets read for strange viewing, Griffiths and Doyle were once again omitted from the first eleven. However, the mercurial Malian, Bakary Sako, was reinstated on the left hand side as Wolves remained in a 4-2-3-1 formation. A dead leg and a confident performance meant Ethan Ebanks-Landell started in the right back position ahead of Scott Golbourne.
Jake Cassidy was given another chance to prove he could be one of Wolves’ first choice striker, up top on his own with Sako wide left, Henry wide right and Michael Jacobs was chosen as the ‘number 10’ behind the under pressure Welshman. Macdonald and Price played the controllers in midfield.
The top of the table side made just two changes from their last game, a 2-1 win over Gillingham in which Orient scored in the ninetieth minute to rescue all three points, Cuthbert and Batt were replaced by James and Simpson. Despite the injury to Shaun Batt, Orient still displayed the firepower they possess, players like Odubajo, Lisbie and Cox were still going to be huge threats to Wolves’ backline.
The first forty five minutes were a hectic affair. Wolves, as usual, were dominating possession and creating chances. Their endeavour and bravado were rewarded five minutes in when Kevin Macdonald slid the ball out right to Ethan Ebanks-Landell who lashed home a shot that flew past Larkins in the Orient goal. The afternoons crisp and wintry feel was cut into two when Landell’s shot flew into the net, the atmosphere in the Molineux went off the chart as the 28,000 fans stood and applauded the burling full backs magnificent strike.
The game restarted and Wolves’ game plan was exceeding their wildest expectations, going at Leyton Orient and attacking them with purpose, pace and power worked. Those three things twinned with the atmosphere emitting from the south bank was enough to intimidate the O’s into conceding the first goal of what could have been a cagey, scrappy affair.
The pattern for the first half was set, Wolves were dominating in all areas of the pitch but were failing to convert any of their chances. These missed opportunities were sprinkled with Orient half chances. Orient seemed to be cutting inside and delivering rather tame, easy to deal with, crosses, something that the centre half pairing of Batth and Stearman could deal with all day long.
Lisbie then soon broke against the supposed Orient game plan, he went outside on his right foot, past Ricketts and whipped in a low, fast ball that Ikeme only just caught, it was a fantastic cross in, the type of cross that strikers dream about.
Wolves the displayed their abilities on the counter attack, Kevin Macdonald picked out an onrushing Bakary Sako with a delicate through ball down the left hand side. Sako then completed the one-two as his cut back found Macdonald whose shot was deflected out for another corner.
Wolves continued to rattle Orient in the opening exchanges, the O’s still unable to get to grips with Wolves quick transitional play. Another lung busting run saw Landell pick out Sako who should have done much better with the shot. Michael Jacobs then found himself in a great position to double the lead, his direct and purposeful run into the Orient penalty area came to nothing after Jacobs dawdled and should have released his shot earlier.
Despite Orients high position, this was one arguably one of the best forty five minutes of football we were witnessing from Kenny Jackett’s side. Wolves were dominant in every area of the pitch, Price looked like a rejuvenated player with Macdonald beside him. Landell was showing everyone why he is a genuine contender for that right back spot, it’s heartening to see that Wolves have so much strength in depth, something Orient, Preston and Brentford simply don’t have. Both of our first team right backs (Doherty and Golbourne) were out yet in come Landell and the home crowd forget all about the more experienced pair of full backs.
Jacobs was having his best game for Wolves, he looked a lot more purposeful and effective in the centre of the pitch, he didn’t have to cut inside and beat as many players on the turn. Playing in the middle meant he could really go through the gears and have more efforts on target. He displayed an excellent display of speed and poise to shoot from outside the box, unfortunately, his shot selection was poor and it hit the Orient reserve ‘keeper, who parried it away, Cassidy then had a great chance to tap in from the rebound but shanked his shot wide.
Leyton Orient were awarded a free kick in an awkward area, it was bang on eighteen yards out, almost impossible to get it up and over the wall. Instead, power was the option, fortunately the wall of Wolves stood tall and strong and the free kick was deflected and cleared, not before a nervy goal mouth scramble.
Worry and doubt were cast in the minds of the Wolves fans though when Jack Price went down injured, he managed to hobble off and back on for the rest of the game but it was clear he wasn’t the same controlling midfielder he was before the unfortunate injury.
With half time approaching Wolves were turning the screw, looking for that second goal that would have surely finished Orient off and opened the flood gates to more and more goals from the home side. Henry swung another delightful ball in, if Cassidy was just an inch taller, it would have been two-nil.
Annoyingly, half time was called by the referee, in an ideal world, Wolves would have kept on playing, that second goal just eluded them in another wise perfect first half. Wolves had dominated in every department (even the bad ones, with ten fouls to their name!) more chances, more corners and more possession. This wasn’t reflected in the overall score line though as Orient stood firm against the onslaught of Wolves attack.
Kenny Jackett was forced into taking off Jack Price after he was unable to continue after the injury he sustained in the first half. A body blow for Wolves as one of our most technically gifted midfielders was taken off, he and Macdonald were beginning to forge a real partnership in the middle of the park. Both have differing attributes, Macdonald’s ball retention, ability to dictate the tempo of the game and look up enough to spot a pass is astounding. Whereas his counterpart, Price, has a terrier like attitude when attacking the ball, he always wants it, whatever position he is. Always looking for the ball receiving it from a team mate and giving it back, he then moves into space and asking for the ball back again, so simple but almost unseen by Wolves fans who’ve been crying out for a number of years for a ball playing midfielder. It’s so refreshing to see a player that young have that much confidence.
Whilst the teams changed physical ends of the field, the way the game was going was certainly still in Wolves’ favour. Jacobs hitting just wide after another purposeful run through the centre. Minutes later, Wolves were on the break, Sako hit a cross field pass to Macdonald who was really beginning to shift into top gear, he was one-on-one with Larkins but his poor shot selection meant it was an easy save for the under fire ‘keeper.
Orient had a rare venture into the Wolves half Odubajo’s deep cross was impossible for the pint sized Dean Cox to reach. It was just a little wake up call for the home side that their opponents were top of the league for a reason, despite them being under the cosh for so long.
This wakeup call was ignored and the away side soon levelled.
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Orient took their free kick quickly, the ball was channelled down the right hand side, Odubajo’s cross wasn’t cleared and Baudry was there at the back post to tap in and cause the travelling fans to rejoice. Completely against the run of play, Orient had somehow managed to equalise.
If the Wolves goal was a shock to Orient, the away sides goal was an absolutely body blow to the Old Gold.
With the game in a deadlock both Slade and Jackett changed it up. For the away side, off went Simpson, on came Lasimant in a like-for-like change. Jackett switched the system from a five man midfield to a four man midfield with Cassidy and Griffiths, on for James Henry up top to try and grab a winner with half around twenty minutes to go.
Cassidy almost had his own ‘hand of god’ moment when Ethan Ebanks-Landell’s in swinging cross flew just beyond the head of Cassidy who, in a last gasp attempt to break his scoring drought, stuck out his left hand, only for the referee to book him for a clear, and comical, hand ball. Up the other end the substitute, Lasimant, almost made the perfect impact after being played in by the influential Kevin Lisbie, thankfully the substitute shot wide and Wolves lived to fight another day (fifteen minutes)
With time almost up it was Wolves who were on the attack, wave after wave of skirmishes on the Orient goal. Interspersed with frustrating battles for possession, the Wolves midfield clearly missing the tenacity and composure of midfielder, Jack Price, as much as Dave Edwards puts a hundred percent into his work, he hasn’t got the technical ability to be a calming presence in the middle of the pitch. Heads were in hands time and again as Wolves failed to get the ball on the floor and play their way to victory, like everyone in the ground knew they could.
Despite the introduction of Kevin Doyle for Jake Cassidy, Wolves were unable to find a winner and the game ended in a frustrating, for the home side at least, draw. The cheers from the away support indicated their expectations and desires were fulfilled, whilst the dampened applause from the home fans told you that this was most definitely two points dropped.
Charlie Adam insists that Stoke City are in no danger of letting complacency set in simply because a run of easier fixtures are around the corner.
Stoke have had a very hard run of games in the opening eight games of the Premier League season where they have already played last season’s top four.
Their next eight games will see them play against the likes of Sunderland, QPR, Fulham and Newcastle at the Britannia and will now travel to Norwich, West Brom, West Ham and Aston Villa.
The Scotsman has acknowledged the hard start to the Potters’ campaign and insists that the next run of fixtures are even more important and could have a significant impact come the end of the season.
“There’s no reason why we should be complacent,” Adam told the Stoke Sentinel.
“And certainly not if we want to build on what we have done so far this season and what the club did last year.
“It’s great to play at places like Manchester United, but they are not the games that decide your season.
“It’s games against the likes of Sunderland that are going to influence where we finish.”
Stoke are recently coming off a 4-2 defeat at Old Trafford, despite taking the lead due to a Wayne Rooney own goal, the midfielder insists that it was simply not good enough conceding four goals from crosses.
“The goals we scored gave us an opportunity to do something in the game, but overall we are disappointed by the goals we conceded.
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“In that second half they had the quality to kill us off.
“To lose a goal a minute before half-time was crucial and then we lose a goal a few seconds after half time.”
With just one year left on his contract, Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy is demanding a bumper pay rise in order to commit his future to the club, according to the Southern Daily Echo.
What’s the story, then?
The report claims that 28-year-old McCarthy wants to become one of the best-paid players at St Mary’s on the back of a season that saw him take the number one jersey away from Fraser Forster.
The report states that moving past Forster in the pecking order has emboldened McCarthy to demand that his new deal sees him earn the same as the former Celtic goalkeeper, who signed a £15m five-year deal last summer.
That reportedly poses a dilemma for new Saints manager Mark Hughes, who knows that if he doesn’t satisfy McCarthy’s demands, he faces the prospect of losing one of last season’s top performers for a small fee this summer or for free next.
McCarthy has earned the pay rise
Southampton backed themselves into a corner by committing to a long-term bumper deal for Forster, whose form has been declining steadily in recent seasons and is easily upgradable.
McCarthy has shown that the now the Saints have nowhere to go because they have shown that they are willing to reward an English, first-choice goalkeeper so handsomely.
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The stopper is also, at 28, coming to the stage of his career where this is likely to be his last big contract – although goalkeepers can go on longer – and he is within his rights to demand that is a huge one, especially off the back of last season’s impressive displays.
As reported by The Mirror, Manchester United are ready to rival Chelsea for the signature of Juventus star Alex Sandro.
What’s the story?
Jose Mourinho has struggled to find a consistent and natural performer at left-back all season, a situation that’s fast becoming a major problem for the Portuguese.
In order to solve that, it appears he’s ready to go to battle with his former side Chelsea in the transfer market once again, after winning the race to sign Romelu Lukaku last summer.
The Mirror say that the Mourinho has identified Brazilian international Alex Sandro as the man to revitalise their left flank and is urging the club’s hierarchy to shell out and meet Juventus’ £53m valuation of the player.
The paper reckon that interest is unlikely to materialise in a formal offer until the summer, but any move by Chelsea could prompt a bid as early as this month’s transfer window.
The right man?
There’s no doubt that Alex Sandro is one of the leading left-backs in Europe right now, helping Juventus reach the final of the UEFA Champions League last season, playing in 11 matches along the way.
With a natural tendency to attack and carry the ball forward, he would fit in excellently to United’s system and give them new width on the left hand side that can help exploit determined defences.
He’s a born winner too, having won nine major honours in his career in three countries. If Mourinho is to bring United back to the glory days of yesteryear then he needs personalities like that in the dressing room.
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At the reported £53m he’s costly, but you have to pay that kind of money for quality in today’s transfer market and ensuring he doesn’t move to Chelsea should be a big priority for the Old Trafford side.
Every week Diego Simeone was asked the same question, each week and after every game from the start of the season up until the winter break in Spain the Atletico Madrid manager was asked if his team were title contenders. Every week he batted the question away. Simeone dismissed such talk; La Liga is a boring league, he continued to say. And yet after every dismissal of their title credentials, Atletico continued to win, keeping pace with league-leaders Barcelona and keeping an up until now decent distance from Real Madrid.
The Atletico manager’s response changed slightly, but only for a moment. He was looking now at how far his side had come in the season and he was now talking about the title, though not as much as many would have hoped.
It’s the underdog mentality that Simeone wanted. He didn’t want his players, perfectly capable, to get carried away by expectation and pressure. Whether they could do it is one thing; Simeone, however, didn’t want to entertain the idea. At least not before the time was right.
Despite being top of the table, Arsenal remain underdogs to win the Premier League title this season, behind favourites Manchester City and Chelsea. And much like the case with Atletico, this should suit Arsenal until the end of the season.
You have to stop for a moment and question how much you can compare the current Arsenal to that of the past few years. The old Arsenal would have buckled under pressure, going into a must-win game, even against lowly opposition, and failing to perform. When the pressure was off, as we’ve seen in matches against better teams in the past, Arsenal normally came away with a surprise win and at times a performance that contradicted their underachieving place in the league.
But a lack of pressure from outside can be a good thing. It won’t be lost on the Arsenal squad what’s required of them to end the trophy drought this season. Very few outside of Arsenal are tipping them to land the Premier League title. If they don’t, there shouldn’t be any accusations of poor mental strength, a lack of ability or whatever else may be thrown the club’s way. They would have finished where most expected them to. Without the pressure from outside, the fall, if silverware isn’t attained, is shorter.
Arsene Wenger, however, will keep the team going until the end. It would be remiss of him as manager to sit back on what he and the team have and call it a job well done. It’s also not in his nature to give up, even if some of the events of the past suggest so.
Even with the signing of Mesut Ozil in the summer and the dramatic improvements in some of the other members of the squad, this Arsenal team isn’t complete. It’s lacking depth in one or two areas, and of course there have critics citing the lack of mental toughness in big games.
But it suits Arsenal. The focus is currently on what Manchester City and Chelsea can do. Talk of City winning the quadruple is a good thing. It means Arsenal can get on, relatively quietly, with what they’ve been doing.
Click below to see Arsenal, Fulham and Everton in action this weekend!
Well Wednesdayites, we’re now in the midst of a glorious one-game unbeaten run, having clawed back Burnley three times in our last game, and hopefully it’s the start of a resurgence of sorts.
After a run of six straight defeats, in which we conceded 13 goals and scored only three, we’ve picked up a valuable point and can now try and kick on from that.
Yes, we scored as many goals against The Clarets than we have in the last six, but we also conceded more than two goals in a game for the eighth time this season, and lets face it, we really need to get our backline sorted. No team who wants to stay in a division can concede that amount of goals on a regular basis, it’s just not going to work.
However, on the plus side, every cloud has a silver lining and all that, we managed to come from behind on three occasions and battle our way to a point against a side that not so long ago were in the Premier League. It showed bottle, it showed a bit of fight, and to be honest, I’m not surprised that Chris O’Grady was at the heart of it.
O’Grady, who has established himself as a fan favourite at Hillsborough, made sure that Dave Jones didn’t regret his decision to start the former Rochdale man as he bagged a brace that was followed by an absolute beauty from Michail Antonio as our boys recovered from a Charlie Austin hat-trick.
As I say, we shouldn’t really celebrate a draw, we want to be winning games, but, as O’Grady has said post-match, it’s about setting positive foundations.
He said, “Getting back to where you want to go is not always about picking up a big win; it’s about setting the foundation and starting things off. That’s what we’ve done. We played well on Saturday (at Wolves) but didn’t quite get the result. Now we’ve played well and got a result. This Saturday, we’ll be wanting to build again and go again.”
We’re just above the relegation zone, have dropped dramatically off the pace which we set in the early part of the season and are now nine games in with only eight points. However, look at Charlton, the team that won our division last year, and are just one place and one point above us, they were technically better than us last season, and they’re struggling just like we are, we should have expected it.
Anyway, like I say, lets enjoy our current unbeaten run, take in the positives from the draw at Burnley and try and work against the negatives. We scored three, lets keep that up, and I think that O’Grady deserves his place in the starting line-up. He helped take us up last season and obviously cares very much about pulling on the famous blue and white stripes. As long as he’s playing out of his socks, and scoring goals, then he deserves to be there.
I’ve got faith in Wednesday, I’ve got faith in Jones, I’ve got faith in Wednesdayites everywhere to continue to back the team that we’ve so avidly supported over the years, now lets use these foundations, and build a fortress.
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As reported by The Scottish Sun, Rangers are on the verge of bringing defender Martin Skrtel to Ibrox this summer.
What’s the story?
Rangers have already made significant moves in the transfer market after completing the signings of Allan McGregor, Jamie Murphy and Scott Arfield.
While new boss Steven Gerrard was confirmed to have signed off on all three, they are deals that were likely led by Director of Football Mark Allen, so fans are eager to see what kind of players the Liverpool legend wants at the club and they could soon get their wish.
One name that could be arriving at Ibrox soon is Fenerbahce defender Martin Skrtel, with The Scottish Sun reporting that Rangers are on the verge of sealing a £2.7m transfer for the 33-year-old.
Skrtel of course played for years at Liverpool with the new Rangers manager and the paper report he is set to sign a three-year deal to link-up with his former teammate.
Is this a good signing?
There are certainly risks attached to handing a three-year deal to a 33-year-old.
Investing a big chunk of their transfer resources in a player with no resale value or future potential could be argued to be short-sighted, but Rangers are in need of short-term solutions and Skrtel is most definitely that.
He’s a player who will immediate improve upon the current central defensive options at the club.
Although it’s tempting to compare this deal with previous moves for the likes of Philippe Senderos and Bruno Alves, neither comparison has merit.
Skrtel is a far more talented player than the journeyman Senderos, making hundreds of appearances for Liverpool and spending good chunks of time at both FC Zenit and Fenerbahce.
Coming off the back of a 31 appearance season at the Turkish giants, he is also playing better, in a more talented side than Bruno Alves was before he arrived at the club.
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His clearance and aerial duel averages this season, collated by WhoScored.com, demonstrate a player who is still putting himself about in a physical manner and he will be a tough opponent for most Scottish Premiership forwards.
Rangers fans are right to be excited about his potential arrival, even if in the long-term it doesn’t make much sense.