Roy Hodgson has to be credited for resurrecting Fulham and turning them into a genuine top half side. In Europe and flying high in the Premier League, he has also made a number of excellent signings, Damien Duff being one of them. A £2.5 million signing from Newcastle United, Duff has shown this season he can terrorise defences just as he used to in his Blackburn and Chelsea days.

Joining Blackburn as a trainee in 1996 after playing for Leicester Celtic, St. Kevin’s Boys and Lourdes Celtic as a schoolboy in Republic of Ireland. He made his Blackburn debut at the age of 18 against Leicester City on the final day of the 1996-97 season.

After being relegated, Duff helped Blackburn achieve promotion back to the Premier League in 2000-01 and then win the League Cup the following season. In the 2002-03 season he finished top goal scorer for Rovers with 11 league goals.

A £17 million transfer to Chelsea followed and he started his Chelsea career well but was somewhat disrupted by injury. The arrival of Jose Mourinho threatened to put an end to Duff’s Chelsea career as he signed Arjen Robben, though Duff found solace on the right-wing and formed a great partnership with the Flying Dutchman as Chelsea went on to win two League titles and a League Cup. Injuries plagued Duff during the latter stages his career and was eventually transferred to Newcastle United for £5 million in 2006.

Duff’s Newcastle career can be summed up with one word; injured. He spent most of his time in the northeast on the treatment table. In the final match of the 2008–09 Season, against Aston Villa in a crucial relegation decider, Duff unluckily scored the deciding own goal that sent his side down. He voiced his intention to help Newcastle back into the Premier League but Hodgson and Fulham stepped in and brought the Irish winger back to London and back to the Premier League.

The transfer can only be described as a bargain; Duff has regained some of the form that led Chelsea to pay £17 million for his services an age ago. Reunited with his first boss Roy Hodgson, it seems he is happy playing once more and with 21 games so far this season for Fulham, it seems his injury problems are behind him. Hodgson has employed Duff mainly on the right-wing allowing him to cut inside more often and with a tremendous work rate he fits into the Fulham system extremely well.

At £2.5 million he could well prove to be the bargain of the season.

First you had Gianluca Vialli, then you had Gianfranco Zola; Italians coming to England were having a great time and in 2001 Blackburn Rovers decided to get in on the act, signing Corrado Grabbi from Ternana for a fee of £6.75 million, 2 goals in 30 matches were all he could muster during his time in England, that’s £3.38m per goal.

Somewhat of a journeyman player, he began his career in the Juventus youth side and on his debut for the first team against Lazio, he scored, one of his total two appearances in the 1994-1995 season. Despite a great start he failed to cement a place in the squad as was loaned from Juventus to Lucchese and then Chievo, despite a poor goal scoring record Modena took him off Juve’s hands in 1996 where he found his goal scoring prowess.
Ternana were quick to snap up Grabbi but he couldn’t replicate his Modena form and was loaned to Ravenna after only one season, 13 goals in 29 games for Ravenna was a decent return and he was duly welcomed back to Ternana with open arms.

Back at Ternana he was again a regular scorer, with 91 goals in 84 games and became idol for the local supporters, who still remember him as the best player to ever have played for Ternana.

This amazing form alerted the likes of AC Milan and Juventus, however it was the lure of Premier League football that swayed Grabbi and he joined Blackburn Rovers for £6.75 million. Injury and personal problems blighted his Rovers career, 2 goals later he was on his way back to Italy on loan with Messina. Failure to reignite his career upon return to England resulted in a permanent transfer to Ancona.

In an interview with an Italian TV Station, Grabbi stated that he was finding it hard to acclimatise himself to the British weather and game, and also said that he was finding it hard to fit in with the team. The team was accused of singling him out, and not being friendly to him, which also accounted for Blackburn’s slump in form.

In the same interview, Grabbi stated that the only person who he became friends with in this time was Tugay Kerimoğlu.

After 7 games with Ancona and a year out the game he signed with Genoa in the third tier of the Italian league system, scoring 9 goals in Genoa’s promotion campaign. After promotion Grabbi considered retirement after a number of injury concerns, but was persuaded to stay on by fellow players and the Genoa fans, but he was sold during the transfer window in 2006 to Arezzo. A half season with them and he moved for the final time in his career to Swiss second division side AC Bellinzona.

A World Cup third place with Sweden in 1994, a vital part of Manchester United’s treble winning side of 1999, but whatever happened to Jesper Blomqvist?

Starting his youth career with hometown side Tavelsjö IK, he was very quickly snapped up by Umeå who were in the second tier of Swedish football. His performances for Umeå caught the eye of IFK Göteborg who signed Blomqvist on 11th September 1993. This was the big break that Blomqvist waited for and he grabbed it with both hands.

Scoring in a 3–1 win over Manchester United in the Champions League, knocking them out of the competition. This performance caught the eye of United manager Alex Ferguson. Winning four consecutive Allsvenskan (Swedish Championships) with IFK Göteborg, goal of the season for a goal against Helsingborgs, midfielder of year in Sweden and fans’ player of the year in 1996. He was then bought by AC Milan who were champions of Italy.
In his only season with Milan they finished 11th in Serie A and failed to qualify for Europe, during this season Blomqvist spent most his time on the bench, despite Manchester United trying to sign the player, Milan refused to sell but surprisingly he was later transferred to Parma. His reason for leaving was the search for first team football. After a relatively successful season with Parma Sir Alex Ferguson eventually snapped him up for £4.4 million.

Commenting on the signing, Sir Alex said, “Looking back I should have tried harder to bring cover for Ryan Giggs on the left side. I did try to buy Blomqvist from AC Milan but they wouldn’t sell him. They eventually let him go and perhaps I should have pushed them harder.”

Essentially at Manchester United for three years, he only played in his first; the magnificent 1999 treble winning season. He was bought as cover for Ryan Giggs on the left wing, and managed to play 25 games for the club scoring only one goal, against Everton in a 4-1 victory. He also started in the 1999 Champions League Final eventually making way for Teddy Sheringham who went on to score the equalizing goal. But this was his last game for the club as a serious knee injury prevented him making any more appearances.

Two years after this final United released him and Everton manager Walter Smith snapped him up on the recommendation of Sir Alex Ferguson. Only 15 games were managed as injuries ravaged his career and new Everton manager released him in June 2002 only to sign for Charlton Athletic with whom he managed four appearances.

A return to Sweden came when he signed for Djurgårdens IF; Blomqvist played a part as the side became Swedish champions that year. Injury problems, however, restricted him to only nine league appearances. As with Manchester Unied he stayed at the club for two years without kicking a ball, before eventually announcing his retirement in 2005.

Blomqvist joined Enköpings SK as a coach in 2008 and has since made a playing return in the Superettan, the second tier of Swedish football. Ironically, a shortage of players at the club due to injury forced Blomqvist’s playing return. He left Enköping after one season and later signed a contract with newly relegated Hammarby IF as assistant manager.

After officially retiring in 2005, he became a pundit for Swedish television station TV4. He also owns a nightclub in Stockholm.

Manchester City have been on the look out for a centre midfielder ever since Roberto Mancini took charge at Eastlands. After being turned away in a bid to lure Fernando Gago to City, the Italian tactician has turned his attention to Parma starlet McDonald Mariga; the midfielder has been a revelation in Italy and has attracted interest from a number of English clubs already in his career.

The Kenyan international …

Read more & vote on this transfer rumour »

I’ve got to admit that I have a certain fondness for the cherub faced Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti. He seems to be quite the opposite of Jose Mourinho, in terms of his personality and demeanour, and yet he is still achieving similar results to the idolised former Chelsea boss.  We all know Carlo has pretty much a blank cheque at the moment to sign who he wants when he sees fit, …

Read more & vote on this transfer rumour »

Ok, I’ve set myself a slightly different task this week. Lets face it fellow fantasy managers, if you haven’t got Cesc Fabregas or Wayne Rooney (or both) in your team at the minute then you really need to consider taking up another hobby. No, I am serious. Few players are offering nailed on mega-points each week as much as this pair and while it would be tempting (and …

Read more & vote on this transfer rumour »

Five years before a 16 year old Wayne Rooney burst onto the scene with a goal on his debut against Arsenal, Everton had a young striker who showed bags of promise: making his debut for the club aged 16, a striker who became the joint top scorer for England U21’s, a player who has a record of one game and one goal for England and who impressed Arsene Wenger enough …

Read more & vote on this transfer rumour »

There looks to be a lot of wheeling and dealing at Parkhead in run up to the close of the January transfer window, with players in and out. With rumours occurring of a possible sack of Celtic boss Tony Mowbray, the former West Brom boss is only concentrating on adding to his squad notably a defender and striker according to the Guardian.

Mowbray has been criticised for the Hoops’ poor performance this …

Read more & vote on this transfer rumour »

Newcastle United have thrown themselves into the race for the signature of Crystal Palace wonder-kid, Victor Moses. United offered an initial £1.5million for Moses, last night, matching the bid made by West Bromwich Albion.

The striker has been tipped for a bright future ever since making his first team debut at the age of 16. Palace, who are in administration, will be looking to raise as much cash as possible for the …

Read more & vote on this transfer rumour »

Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung has flown into England today in an attempt to secure the transfer of Roman Pavlyuchenko. The transfer has been put in doubt after City refused to meet the £13million Spurs are demanding for the player. Yeung is believed to be a big admirer of the Russian but will not be forced into breaking the bank. Tottenham are seen to be trying to use his successful cameo …

Read more & vote on this transfer rumour »