It seems Ashley Cole has just been caught speeding again. He told the police he was in a hurry because he'd heard John Terry's car was parked outside his house.... Thank you! You're beautiful! I'll be here all week!...
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO3TJEseWAQ"]YouTube- Jose gives his take on the transfer window[/ame]
The difference is that while Anelka keeps racking up transfer fees in a record breaking manner, Keane seems to be given away more or less every other change of clubs.
Fabbio Capellos just phoned Wayne Bridge up and said "Ive spoken 2 John Terry and hes lost the captains armband. Do me a favour and have a look under your bed for it... ...Badda-Boom-Bing... - Joey from Friends kidz
It's a growing pain imo, ironically very much like Martinez at Wigan. Given how much Sunderland had spent in the years before he came, and the number of players Keane had brought in, they couldn't do a complete overhaul in one season, so he is sticking with some players that either are not good enough or do not suit his philosophy. Bruce did have money to spend this past summer: Bent (10m), Cana (6mn), Cattermole (5mn), Campbell (3.5mn) & Turner (undisc) but all of these guys have looked anything from good, to absolute quality. I was surprised to see no sales from them this January (I figured at least 4-5 peripheral names would be on their way to clear space), but I expect to see by Sep 1, 2010 very few holdovers from the Keane era (A. Reid, K. Jones, C. Gordon and probably Richardson are the only certain ones I can think of). I don't think the Sunderland board are worried about him to be honest, they have witnessed a manager in-over-his-head in Keane and surely notice the difference in the 'attitude' of the club/players/supporters/etc with Bruce in charge, that is something they will want to hold onto. Similarly with Martinez, Wigan are far worse off right now (though they are also a smaller club with 'lesser aspirations') but his budget is also considerably smaller. If you look at Wigan's squad there are a lot of players that don't suit how Martinez would rather play, or who are just a bit dodgy (yet dodgy players that Bruce knew how to get the best out of). To add to the plight, Martinez came straight from Swansea and as Jason Scotland has shown, even his best players there were not good enough for the Premiership. Yet he has brought in a number of players who look like they could contribute with time, and has really focused on teenagers and low-cost, high-potential signings. I've got faith in Sunderland & Wigan's boards though, that if they can keep the faith and stick with their managers, they will be considerably better off by the end of next season for it. For Martinez all he needs to do until then is stay in the league, for Brucie he needs to at least be competitive in terms of midtable finishes and no extended relegation-zone scares. Maybe I am being a bit idealistic here, but the global recession coupled with a) the failures of fickle, kneejerking boards such as Newcastle and b) the successes of clubs that have been loyal to their managers (e.g. Villa, Everton*) could hopefully mean that the 'poor first three months = automatic sacking' mentality that developed over the last decade or so in the Premiership will fade away. Not holding my breath, mind. *Villa in their first season under O'Neill struggled for the first while, but Moyes is the perfect example. After flirting with a CL spot in his first season (02/03) they went on to finish 17th his second season (03/04), and after finishing 4th in 04/05 they again spent most of 05/06 in the relegation race only to be pulled out by a run of late-season form. Countless other clubs would have tried to 'build' on Moyes' success as soon as he hit either of those stumbling blocks (especially as his prior seasons had each given a good 'base' to build from), but credit to Everton who deserve what they have got the last few years for sticking with him. He has always had a reputation for being a knob amongst young players here, in fairness (Andy Reid too, and one or two others). Most of the praise gets saved for Kilbane, Given, Dunne and the likes. It is a reason why many questioned him being named captain at first (he actually has doen quite well as a 'striker captain' though, in that they rarely have enough influence to be of much use), but many -myself included- would still rather Given, or preferably Dunne be named captain. I wouldn't really say 'given away' but yeah, it is a bit up-and-down. 1999: Wolves --> Coventry, £6mn 2000: Coventry --> Inter, £13mn 2001: Inter --> Leeds, £12mn 2002: Leeds --> Spurs, £7mn 2008: Spurs --> Liverpool, £19mn 2009: Liverpool --> Spurs, £12mn Total: 6 transfers, £69mn --Anelka meanwhile has raked up roughly £85mn in transfers If Celtic make it permanent though, the deal is not going to be for anything even approaching eight figures, my guess would be £5-7mn. It is a shame though that Inter had a managerial change-over when Keane was there so young. Cuper turned out to be an awful manager imo and entirely neglected some good young players. Not to say Keane would have necessarily made it at Inter (he might have, tough call) but with a Ferguson or Wenger-type managing him in his teens/early 20s, it could have done a world of good for his game in general.
of course Cuper was awful (at Internazionale anyway). only manager ive known to bring on 2 defenders when losing a game
so City let Benjani go on loan to Sunderland. with Robinho gone and Weiss too (though i guess he's not really a forward) i guess they are putting all their golden eggs on RSC's knee and Tevez/Adebayor leading the line the rest of the campaign.
I'm very surprised by that move actually. I thought Mancini explicitly said that they were light on forwards when RSC went down, and that's why they weren't gonna let Robinho go. Now they lose both Robinho and Benjani?......maybe they've got a new formation in mind.
They are still more than fine up front. I don't really where this is coming from, their abundance of strikers was one of the main jokes of the summer transfer window? Strikers: Ade, RSC Forwards: Tevez, Bellamy Wing-forwards: Bellamy, SWP, Petrov... Tevez or Ireland if needed With no CC final or European football, that is plenty of guys to get a two or three-man frontline out of for the remainder of this season and even allows for some injuries.
i guess since they have been playing Bellamy out wide lately i didn't really put him in the forward role. RSC will get hurt again once he's back. but yeah, they should be more than fine when you lay it out like you did.
Ashley Cole was asked to explain why he was speeding at over 130MPH he replied " I got a call to say John Terry's car was outside my house!"... ...I'm here all week boys and germs...
There was no chance of them losing this game. The only good point is that yet again they are shakey defending setpieces. Better teams than Hull will take advantage of that eventually.