Brazilian to be shaven from City squad?

It’s a miracle! Manchester City are putting three players up for sale – players who evidently have no future in Roberto Mancini’s title challenge season. Perhaps the most widely expected name on his list is Robinho, the £32m flop from Real Madrid, who spurned Chelsea for the riches of Eastlands in 2008.

His first season wasn’t half bad, although his home and away form was like …

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Kalinic presented with winner on a silver platter.

During pre-season, Everton appeared to be in the pink of health with six wins from seven. Today however, they looked simply daft in the pink, producing a performance almost as shocking as their chosen awayday hue for the season.

Although this game was a massive improvement on the 6-1 thrashing at home to Arsenal last season, Blackburn were full value for the three points by …

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The gift that keeps on giving, namely this season’s owners at Upton Park, have been at it again.You can almost picture David Sullivan sat in his threadbare office at The Boleyn.

With his Panatella knocking out only marginally less heat than his electric fan heater, mental military style coat on, fully buttoned up, our hero is sipping champagne out of a polystyrene cup.

Strewn across his desk an eye watering plethora …

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It gives me no pleasure at all to introduce you to Paul Terry, older brother of serial cad, John.

Paul it has been alleged was ‘involved’ with  Lindsey Cowan, the 25-year-old fiancee of Rushden & Diamonds keeper Dale Roberts.

Heartbroken Dale, 24, said, “It’s true, she told me she’d been seeing Paul. We’ve split up. I’m trying to get my head around it all, it’s only just happened. I’m …

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Nowadays it’s hard to think of Andriy Shevchenko as a deadly striker who terrorised defenders all over Europe after the Ukrainian’s career took a massive nosedive from 2006 onwards, but the Ukraine hitman was pretty prolific during spells with Dynamo Kiev and AC Milan. It’s a shame that our judgement of the man these days is clouded over by his disastrous spell at Chelsea but his failure to perform on our shores has led to Shevchenko being branded a failure by the English media.

It wasn’t always that way, Shevchenko had started his career at Dynamo Kiev after being spotted playing in a youth tournament and proved a massive hit with the Ukrainian giants, breaking into their first team at just 18 years of age and progressing with the club. By the time of his departure in 1999 Shevchenko had scored 94 goals in 166 appearances, one of the best records of a Ukrainian footballer ever.

At the age of 22 Shevchenko moved abroad to ply his trade at Italian giants AC Milan in a big money move and the risk of signing an untested Ukrainian quickly paid off for Milan as Shevchenko immediately settled into life in Italy, scoring 29 goals in his first season at the club. Shevchenko’s form continued and he proved prolific the next season as well, quickly establishing himself as a club favourite. His third year at the club brought a decent 17 goals and, though he disappointed in his fourth year, scoring just 10 goals, he was quickly back to form as he fired home over 20 goals in each of his three remaining seasons with the club.

In this time Shevchenko had come to be regarded as one of the best strikers in the world and gained plaudits from all over, winning the European Player of the Year award to go alongside the number of silverware he was claiming. Shevchenko eyed the record books as he became Milan’s second highest goalscorer of all time and climbed up the ladder of Champion’s League goalscorers to fly into the list of the top five scorers.

Shevchenko’s career at Milan was never going to last though; ever since Roman Abrahamovic had taken over Chelsea in 2003 and plied them with money there were rumours that Shevchenko would move to Chelsea due to his possessing a good friendship with Abrahamovic. Talk became reality in 2006 as Shevchenko moved to the London club in a £30 million move.

Signing Shevchenko a couple of years earlier would no doubt have caused hysterical delight around Stamford Bridge but Shevchenko’s arrival was not as pleasing as would be expected – Chelsea had splashed out a massive fee on a man who was nearing 30 and the rumours said that manager Jose Mourinho didn’t even want to sign him and it was all Abrahamovic’s doing. Plenty of fans were sceptical, believing that the move could easily go wrong. And it did.

Shevchenko started the season unsurprisingly as first choice striker and he managed to score on his debut in the Community Shield against Liverpool. Goalscoring form wasn’t to continue though and Shevchenko finished his first season in England with 14 goals from 51 appearances, not quite £30 million form. Unsurprisingly Mourinho wasn’t impressed with the man who he hadn’t wanted to sign and he began to use Shevchenko sparingly with many believing that the striker caused arguments between Mourinho and Abrahamovic. Mourinho’s lack of faith in Shevchenko showed in the Ukrainian’s second season at the club as Shevchenko made just 24 appearances, though he scored a decent 8 goals in those appearances. Things clearly couldn’t remain as they were, Shevchenko was being deemed a massive flop and Mourinho’s replacement Avram Grant didn’t seem too fond of him either.

In the summer of 2008 Shevchenko moved on loan to former club AC Milan in the hopes of getting first team football. You’d be forgiven for believing that a club legend would easily get into their club’s team, but it wasn’t to be for Shevchenko who found himself ignored for much of the season in favour of veteran Filippo Inzaghi and youngster Alexandre Pato. Shevchenko managed 26 appearances for Milan but most of them were from coming off the bench and he managed just two goals, really failing to impress.

Shevchenko returned to Chelsea following the unsuccessful loan stint but his continuation with the club seemed unlikely and in late August 2009 Shevchenko left the club to rejoin his first club Dynamo Kiev. So far Shevchenko has managed 5 goals in 19 appearances whilst back at Dynamo where he is a first choice once again.

Shevchenko’s goalscoring ability has always been with him – his international goal record is good and he looked capable of getting goals in his second season at Chelsea though Mourinho and Grant seemed unwilling to give him chances. His massive transfer fee and failing to continue the goalscoring form of his Milan days are what turned him into a flop though and Shevchenko is now looked on far less favourably than he had been in the footballing world, considered a shadow of his former self. Shevchenko still has goals in him but, now he’s 33, don’t expect to see him back in the limelight again as a football player. Shevchenko’s glory days are gone.

Christian Vieri was a bit of a nomad at the start of his career. A list of the number of clubs he was at demonstrates this quite clearly. From 1991 to 1999, in nine seasons he played for nine clubs including spells at Atletico Madrid, Lazio, Atalanta and various other small Italian clubs. It was not as though he was not good enough for most of these clubs but he was in great demand, especially after scoring 24 goals in 24 league games during his one year in Spain for Atletico Madrid in the 1997-1998 season. He then went on to play in the World Cup after that successful season in Madrid and formed a threatening partnership with Roberto Baggio.

His successful spell with Atletico inevitably led to more interest back in Italy, and he was purchased by Lazio after the World Cup in France. During his only season in Rome he scored twelve goals, helping the team to Cup Winners Cup success. His style was of a typical old English centre forward, strong and powerful in the air, and when Marcello Lippi came to manage Inter for the start of the 1999/2000 season, he wanted another striker to partner Ronaldo. Chairman Massimo Moratti went after the Italian striker and he paid Lazio a then world record of £32.5million for the player.

Internazionale would be the most settled time in the career of Vieri, as he successfully led the line for the Milan club. He never developed a partnership with Ronaldo due to injuries which affected both players but he started to score nonetheless during his six year stay at the club. Managerial changes at the start of his career at Inter did not help in his settling in period but he shone under the management of strict disciplinarian Hector Cuper. Inter narrowly missed out on the title on the last day of the 2001/2002 season but Vieri still hammered in the goals as he regularly scored 20 a season, including becoming Serie A’s top goalscorer in 2003 with 24 goals. At international level, he had a successful World Cup in 2002, playing as a lone striker and scoring four goals in four games, including a goal in the controversial last 16 defeat to South Korea.

The arrival of Alberto Zaacheroni as coach in 2004 however changed Vieri’s fortunes dramatically. An injury he had sustained against Valenica in the Champions League Quarter final second leg the previous season had affected his game, and despite partnering Adriano upfront, his performances became substandard. His loss of fitness became an issue with the club and his contract was terminated in July 2005. Vieri’s career began to go downhill rapidly and he once again became a nomad, switching from club to club at regular intervals. After a brief six month spell with Inter’s city rivals Milan, he moved to Monaco in France to get regular first team football in a bid to get into the 2006 World Cup squad. A serious knee injury put pay to those ambitions and he returned to Italy on a small wage with one of his previous clubs Atalanta. Vieri had signed a contract with Sampdoria but the Genoa club terminated it due to laziness and he was picked up by Atalanta on a minimal wage, earning bonuses for scoring goals.

After a brief successful spell with Fiorentina in 2007/07 where he scored 9 goals in all competitions, he returned to Atalanta before his contract was terminated in April last year. Now 36 years of age, after a failed trial with Blackburn in the summer, Vieri finds himself in Brazil looking for work. A contract was withdrawn by Brazilian first division side Botafogo and last month Vieri expressed his desire to join third division outfit Boavista. Vieri is certainly a long way from the heights of European football he was at ten years ago.

The dynamic duo were in top form in the early 2000’s for PSV Eindhoven; winger Arjen Robben and striker Mateja Kezman (nicknamed Batman) provided the partnership that left PSV fans drooling. So more was expected from the duo as they both joined mega-rich Chelsea in 2004 as part of Roman Abrahamovic’s Russian revolution. Their career paths differ from here on in – whilst Robben has since impressed for Chelsea, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, Kezman has stumbled around Europe, playing for five different clubs in five and a half years and never really finding his niche. It’s a big change for a man who scored 129 goals in 176 games in Holland and was considered one of the deadliest strikers around.

Kezman had previously made his name in his native Serbia with a good spell at Serbian giants Partizan Belgrade between 1998 to 2000 the catalyst to his move to the Eredivisie. Kezman, 21-years-old when he was transferred to PSV, had scored 43 goals in 74 games and was Serbia’s brightest talent. He adapted quickly and easily to Dutch football, managing 24 league goals in his first season and he proved a consistent scorer throughout his four years there, impressing particularly by scoring more goals than the amount of games he’d played in the Eredivisie for his latter two seasons in the club. Kezman was just 25 when he made his £5.3 million move to Chelsea and should have been in top condition, expectations were high.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned for Kezman; whilst he was part of a title winning side, he managed just 7 goals in all competitions for the Blues and was deemed a big failure – part of his failure was due to his inability to hold down a first team spot with Ivorian Didier Drogba preferred as a lone striker with Robben and Damien Duff operating on the wings to great effect. Kezman also failed to adapt to the Premiership after playing in the relatively easier standard of the Eredivise. Signings from the Eredivisie have proven unpredictable over the years – the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy and Robin van Persie have excelled but some, like Kezman, Afonso Alves and (as a striker) Dirk Kuyt have really not been good enough. Kezman’s failure to adapt was never rectified as Chelsea decided to cut their losses and sold the Serbian to Atletico Madrid.

And thus the man once the star of Dutch football had started his journey across Europe; Kezman spent one year at Atletico where he hit 10 goals but, given the right price, he moved on, this time to Turkish side Fenerbahce. It looked like Kezman had found a suitable home there as he impressed in Turkish football, scoring 30 goals over two years with the Turkish club. But in 2008 Kezman was loaned out to Paris Saint-Germain as his relationship soured with the Turkish club. Kezman managed 8 goals for PSG in his loan spell, only 3 of which came in the league but they still decided to buy him and completed a permanent signing for the Serbian in summer 2009. The move seems an odd decision though as Kezman, now 30, was loaned out to Zenit St. Petersburg in Russia. Kezman scored twice in 10 games for Zenit to help them finish 3rd in their league but has recently returned to PSG where his future is uncertain.

Kezman is a classic example of a player who has failed to adapt to a new country – after leaving Serbia he excelled in Holland but couldn’t adapt his play to suit the Premiership quickly enough for Chelsea and he was moved on. At Atletico he did okay but that drew a large bid from Fenerbahce that put him on the move again, and things have promptly gone wrong since. Where Kezman will now end up is unclear as PSG are reportedly eager to be shot of him which could mean a 6th club in less than 6 years for Kezman. How things have changed for a man who was once consistently one of the world’s top scorers.

Cameroon international Geremi has been in the news a lot recently over a feud between Newcastle United and the Turkish side MKE Ankaragucu. The Turks recently unveiled the midfielder as their new star signing, however sources at St. James Park are still claiming ownership of the player in what is already set to be one of the more amusing transfer stories of the year. Sit back and take a moment of reflection and you will realise that this is the same player who once wore the colours of Spanish giants Real Madrid and also the man who helped Chelsea gain back to back title successes. So what has happened to the Cameroonian to make him consider a move to European minnows Ankaragucu?

In 1999, Real Madrid secured the services of the promising 20 year old international Geremi. He had impressed in his early years playing for Turkish side Glenclerbirilgi and earned himself a move to the coveted Bernabeu. During his 3 years in Madrid, Geremi won two Champions League medals as well as perfecting his reputation as a skilful free kick taker and after spending a little too much time on the bench, he decided it was time for a new challenge.

Having already spent a year on loan in England with Premier League side Middlesbrough, Geremi became one of the first signings of the Roman Abramovich era at Chelsea as the west London club paid £6.9 million pounds for the midfielder’s services. He would feature heavily in his first few seasons in at his preferred position of right midfield and contributed greatly in Chelsea’s historic title winning season of 2004-05. He proved to be a valuable member of the squad in his four years at Stamford Bridge, often deputising in the right back position if the side were experiencing an injury crisis and whilst he was not a fan favourite as such, he was a much appreciated squad member.

In the summer of 2007, newly appointed Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce brought the former Real Madrid man to St. James’ Park, where he would spend a season as club captain before Kevin Keegan passed the armband onto Michael Owen. He was part of the Newcastle side that were relegated from the Premier League last season and a player who was often regularly spotted in the Champions League drifted out of many people’s minds.

At 31, Geremi is admittedly no spring chicken. However this is also the age of Didier Drogba, who has recently found himself in resurgent form and is at the peak of his game. Geremi on the other hand has fallen from the heights of Europe’s elite competition to the Championship, and now allegedly the Turkish league.

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Manchester United had won the Premiership in 2006-07 but there were fears that they would not be able to strengthen as their rivals did due to financial constraints brought on by Malcolm Glazer’s takeover. This proved to be far from the case though as United splashed out over £30 million on the duo of Anderson and Nani with £17 million going on the latter. The Portuguese international was meant to be one of the world’s top talents with a pendant for cracking goals and great skills and United fans were left drooling by the prospects of both him and Anderson.

Nani had made a name for himself at Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon who he had joined as a teenager. Breaking through the ranks, Nani had spent two years playing for the first team for Sporting – racing down the wing past players and cutting inside to fire home shots – where his reputation had flown very quickly. Likened to United’s former Sporting Lisbon star Cristiano Ronaldo, due to them both being trick ponies who’d been effective in Portugal, United moved quickly to use their links with Sporting to bring the Portuguese to Old Trafford where expectations were high for another Ronaldo. Portuguese legend Paulo Sousa declared

“He’s very explosive and very strong. He’s fast and is going to be a great signing for United.”

Nani’s first season at Old Trafford was largely effective as he played often and showed a good ability to beat his man and charge down the wing, scoring a few goals and looking highly talented in the process. The highlight of the season for Nani was a man of the match performance against Arsenal in the FA Cup which United won 4 – 0 where Arsenal players had to revert to attacking him to get him off the ball. His second season at United was where it started to go wrong though; he was used sparingly by manager Alex Ferguson and showed inconsistency when he played, wasting many opportunities which led to United supporters becoming very frustrated with him. Nani’s inconsistency and wastefulness led to some United fans declaring that Nani would never be like Ronaldo and should be sold from the team.

The 2009/10 season was meant to be the making of Nani as the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo and the ageing legs of Ryan Giggs gave the Portuguese the chance to start the season as United’s first choice left winger. Although he scored in the Community Shield season opener against Chelsea Nani continued to flatter to deceive and, after a few lacklustre performances, was removed from the first team in favour of Giggs who has kept the first choice left wing spot with stellar performances since.

Whilst Nani is still just 23 many are questioning whether his potential can be fulfilled with it looking more likely that he’s destined to be nothing more than an inconsistent waster. Many United fans think he should be sold as it is, and Nani made his departure even more likely by criticising boss Ferguson for his style of management. United have recently been linked with a move for Benfica’s Angel Di Maria with Nani included as part of the deal, given how his stock has fallen United will probably jump at the deal.

At 28 years of age, Nathan Ellington should be in his prime as a striker. After starting out in non-league, he progressed swiftly to become one of the most feared strikers outside of the Premier League. After spending brief spells at Tooting and Mitcham United, and Walton and Hersham, Bristol Rovers snapped the forward up for £150,000 in 1999. At just 17, the “Duke,” as he was nicknamed, made his debut for the Third Division side against Gillingham. His appearances were limited to substitute appearances during the start of his career at the club, but it did not take long for the young striker to establish himself in the first team.

Things really got going for the player in the Second Division during the 2000/01 season as he scored 18 goals. The following season was even more productive as he scored 21 goals in a season which saw him strike a great partnership with fellow striker Jason Roberts. His successful second season with the Pirates first team attracted interest from other clubs, and he was sold to Wigan Athletic for £1.2million in March 2002. His time at the Latics would be the most productive of his career as he scored 59 league goals in three years for Paul Jewell’s side. His goals, along with strike partner Jason Roberts who had also joined from Bristol Rovers, guided Wigan from the Second Division up to the Premier League in three years, finishing 2nd in the First division at the end of the 2004/05 season. Ellington had scored 24 League goals in that Promotion winning season, becoming the league’s top goalscorer in the process.

The 2005/06 season should have seen Ellington release his undoubted talents onto the defences of the Premier League, and with his pace and finishing abilities, he could trouble any opposition defence and engineer space to create opportunities for himself. A dispute over his contract at Wigan however, led the striker to moving for £3m to West Brom at the start of the season. The Baggies had initiated a clause in his contract that allowed him to move for such a low figure, a move which could have been prevented if Ellington had signed a new contract with the Latics.

Ellington blamed Wigan for the failure to sign a new contract and he hoped for good times to continue at West Brom. He however struggled at the Hawthorns as niggling injuries limited his starts for the new club and his inability to stay fit made it hard for him to settle at the club. After not being able to settle, Ellington put in a transfer request in January 2007 which was accepted by the club. Wigan had constantly tried to re-sign the striker during his stay at West Brom but they could never agree on a fee. So Ellington hoped for a new start at Watford, after the Hornets paid a club record £3.25million fee for the striker.

Ellington found it hard to get into the team at Watford though and he was substitute for most of the season as he played second fiddle to Darius Henderson and Marlon King. He managed just 4 goals in the 2007/08 and was shipped out on loan last season to play under former Wigan manager Paul Jewell at Derby County. He initially started well at the club and scored 9 goals before Christmas. He only played 5 more games after the New Year however and only two as substitute under new manager Nigel Clough. 3 goals in 27 league appearances was not good enough to get a permanent deal at Pride Park and he returned to Watford unwanted. He remained in limbo at the club at the start of this season, but was given a lifeline by Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce in August by offering the striker a trial. The trial was unsuccessful though and Ellington returned to Watford, to consider his future. After making 16 sub appearances with the Hornets this term, Ellington once again found himself out of favour and he has now been sent out on loan to Greece of all places, to Skoda Xanthi. Ellington is looking forward to a fresh start in a new league:

“I’m really thrilled to be here and I want to help the team climb higher in the table and even qualify for Europe. This is the first time I’m playing outside of England and it’s a new experience for me.”

The fact remains though that only 4 and half years ago, the striker was on the verge on becoming a promising star in the Premier League, now, he finds himself loaned out from a Championship club to a Greek first division side. How times have changed.