I am a Sunderland season ticket holder, and I firmly believe that Fabio would be mad NOT to take Bent to the world cup in South Africa.
Most pundits (what do these so-called experts actually know?) have Defoe, Crouch, Heskey and Carlton Cole earmarked as the four forwards to accompany Rooney, but, have they actually looked at the Premiership scorers table? Bent is third (2nd if you count only Englishmen), Heskey …
Even Ronaldo makes mistakes… this t-shirt for example.
For those of you that didn’t fancy wasting £15 on a football bloopers DVD (or VHS if you’re old school) last Christmas, never fear, the Transfer Tavern’s got your back. Rather than listening to Ian Wright make a lot of bad jokes at the expense of players playing in the Vauxhall Conference, here’s a selection of the Premier League’s ‘big four’ getting it all …
Are you the Sunderalnd fan that they’re after? Cos we is a hirin’.This is the card in the newsagent’s window. This is the Wonka Bar you’ve been waiting for.
As part of the vertible kaleidoscope of Sunderland footballing fun and hi jinkery in general we’re looking for match reporters. You might be a season ticket holder, you might be some grotesque and obese couch bound sloth living in a high rised flat on Coco Pops and chip sandwiches but have 327 channels on your telly box. Hell you could be a …
Well, wasn’t it exciting? No. It wasn’t really was it? Robbie Keane leaving Spurs and Adam Johnson joining Man City apart and despite Sky Sports attempt to hype the day into being the Football equivalent of the D-Day landings or the Birth of Christ, the Transfer Deadline day went with not so much a bang, but more an embarassing wet fart. I must admit, I was almost instantly aroused by the news …
£11.5m for the new Thierry Henry? It sounded like a deal and a half in July 2007. Ryan Babel, Ajax’s young winger and prodigous talent, would be making a big money move across the North Sea to Liverpool, where he would seemingly go on to prove himself as one of the best young players in the world and propel Liverpool on towards League and Champions League glory…
…Or so the script went ideally.
The reality was very different.
As a youngster Babel was always outstanding amongst his peers. Coming through the much vaunted Ajax youth system, he made his first team debut just a month after his 17th birthday. In his time with Ajax, his talent was undeniable. Marco Van Basten, then manager of the Dutch National team, quickly added Babel to his squad and gave him his debut as an 18 year old. However even for Ajax, Babel’s form was inconsistent at times and he would often spend periods on the bench or out of the team. As a youngster, this is of course, to be expected and it was thought, given his excellent performances as captain for Holland U21 in the 2007 European Championships, that he would go on to mature as a player, become more consistent in his performances at a higher level and from then on thrive at Anfield.
His first season saw Babel show flashes of brilliance at times but once again his consistency was a tad lacking. Many experts put this down to Babel just getting used to life in England and the pace of the English game. Many pundits felt that his second season would be much improved. Andy Gray notably selected Babel as being a player to watch in season 2008-2009 as he had the ability to develop his game and his talents into becoming a real force in the Premier League throughout the season.
Despite Liverpool’s improved season in 2008-2009, Babel was often only used from the substitutes bench and his performances never seemed to warrant, in the eye of manager Rafa Benitez at least, a consistent run in the team. While some games Babel would come on and turn the game in Liverpool’s favour, such as when he scored the winner against Manchester United at Anfield, or set up Fernando Torres for the winner at West Ham, he would often look out of sorts and fans were critical of his seeming lack of effort, poor touch and seeming unwillingness to match the workrate and endeavours of his team mates.
In his third season in England, the lack of opportunities at Anfield began to irk Babel. A loan move back to Ajax was mooted earlier in the season, with the player apparently suggesting that he’d be keen on a move. His relationship with Benitez and the fact that he seldom played from the start and was being used less and less frequently as a substitute saw him make his discontent at the club public in a Dutch magazine article, much to the ire of Benitez. The relationship reached breaking point around Christmas 2009 when Babel twittered his displeasure at being left out of the matchday squad for the trip to Stoke. Since then Babel has cut an isolated figure at Anfield and a move from the club during the transfer window seems certain, with talk of potential deals with Birmingham, Sunderland, Galatasaray and Arsenal almost daily in the press.
I have some sympathy with Babel, who seems to be a player who needs a run of games and perhaps some kind words from the manager, to restore his confidence and find his best form. For whatever reason, Rafa Benitez has chosen not to give Babel that chance, certainly over the past two years. Babel’s attitude hasn’t helped his situation and his seeming lack of application in games, similar to accusations levelled at Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov, haven’t endeared him to the Liverpool faithful.
This is a great shame, because Babel does have the potential to be a great player. He’s lacked the opportunities to prove that and the application to earn the right to those very opportunities.
Babel will bounce back, but it will be at another club. Babel’s move was destined to failure because Benitez and he never saw eye to eye on the key issues between them. In such circumstances, there is usually only ever one winner.
That’s why Benitez is staying and Babel will be going.
We’ve all been subject to some god awful street theatre in our time haven’t we? Two grubby students with nothing better to do than try to reinact Waiting for Godot via the medium of mime and milk bottle crates. Worse still are those idiots who mime they are stuck in an invisible box and think that their quirky gestures amount to something resembling art. Then there’s the ones who just stand their like statues, dressed as statues (novel or what?), a bit like Ness in that episode of Gavin and Stacey.
Have you also noticed how this form of expressionism has translated into football celebrations? Ah! You see? You thought all this running to the crowd, punching corner flags, sliding on your knees and kissing the badge were all empty gestures? No more. Did you know Peter Crouch’s famous “robot” dance was actually a celebration of the work of H.R.Giger? You didn’t? Well you do now.
Here’s exhibit one, former Liverpool, Chelsea and current Sunderland star Bolo Zenden at his former club Marseille. Remarkably he scores a goal, a pretty neat one too, before he decides to give us his street theatre artistic version of the 2009-2010 season Portsmouth are going to endure in the Premiership;
I almost missed it the first time because I was still momentarily stunned by Zenden scoring a goal.
In the summer of 2007, Tottenham Hotspurs fans had every right to be excited. Martin Jol had led them to two consecutive fifth placed finishes and the scene was set for Tottenham to push on towards the hallowed fourth place and above and Champions League qualification. To get them there Jol invested a club record £16.65m in arguably the hottest young striker in the Premier League, Charlton hitman Darren Bent.
Bent had …
Was it that Chelsea were magnificent, or were Sunderland just a load of tripe? Did Hull put up a magnificent display or were Tottenham just toothless? Were Stoke magnificent, or Liverpool just crap/totally unlucky if you are a Rafa Benitez fan and still believe he can do no wrong? Read on to find out what five things we’ve learned this weekend, now that the weather has relented and life can continue as …
The inclement weather played a part this week for many Fantasy managers as Arsenal’s game with Bolton was postponed, meaning many managers who had banked on Arsenal players scoring heavily for them this week, with it being a double game week for them, were left counting the cost as the snow saw the game called off. Still, it wasn’t too bad in the Potteries where managers who had Fulham or …
Unsurprisingly Leeds United striker Jermaine Beckford has a whole host of clubs chasing him in the January transfer window due to his impressive scoring record in League 1 this season, as well as his winning goal against Manchester United in the FA Cup. Newcastle are the club who have been most heavily linked with the striker, but the Championship outfit are likely to face some stiff competition for Beckford and Leeds …
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