Southampton are reportedly lining up an ambitious £5 million move for Ajax starlet Nicolai Boilesen, Mirror Football can reveal.
The St Mary’s side are looking to reinforce their squad after winning promotion to the Premier League, and are locked in negotiations with Bologna over a potential club record deal for Uruguayan star Gaston Ramirez.
However, Nigel Adkins is eager to bring in extra defensive cover to cope with the increase in attacking quality of top-flight sides, and has identified the young Danish stopper as a target.
The 20-year-old has broken into the Dutch champions’ first team and has been tracked by Newcastle and Arsenal in the past, with Inter also keeping tabs on the prodigious talent.
Boilesen has already made a handful of appearances for his country and as such the Saints are keen to bring him to England.
It is unknown whether Ajax are willing to sell the Scandinavian after already losing Jan Vertonghen and Vurnon Anita to Premier League sides this summer.
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As the dust settles on the chaos of Tottenham Hotspur’s deadline day dealings off the pitch, it appears that the focus has almost inadvertently returned to what’s been happening back on the field of play. And whilst it’s hardly as if supporters haven’t been paying attention to performances in the first two fixtures, it feels as if now the sideshow has finished, the realities of the Norwich game came so much starker for supporters.
Results against Newcastle and West Bromwich Albion disappointed fans, but they seemed to be underwritten against the premise of some game changing dealings in the transfer market. Since the 1-1 draw at home to the Baggies, it’s fair to say that not everything has gone as was perhaps planned at White Hart Lane. And after a repeat result against Norwich on Saturday, it has been Andre Villas-Boas who has seemingly taken the brunt of frustration.
The fortunes of the squad won’t necessarily change overnight, but there is more than enough capacity and promise within the side, to progress back to the level supporters desperately crave to be. But this culture of short sightedness has to stop and stop quickly, at White Hart Lane.
Merely a simple look at the team sheet before the game against Norwich suggested that Tottenham were short in a couple of crucial areas and the responsibility of that lies with one man above all. Villas-Boas has made some mistakes already and he will have to rectify them. But Daniel Levy’s brinkmanship in the transfer window has let his new manager down badly. And both the team and Villas-Boas in particular, are suffering as a result.
Now whatever way you would like to look at it, Tottenham Hotspur fielded a team against the Canaries on Saturday that were more than capable of coming out with three points. The new system dreadfully lacked a sense of fluidity and Villas-Boas is going to have to find a way to start making it tick. People are quick to slate a new set-up (one that worked extremely effectively for the first halves against Newcastle and West Brom) after only three games and that’s a painfully impatient judgment.
But Villas-Boas must be proactive in changing the teams’ fortunes. If the shoe doesn’t fit, then it cannot be forced. Changing formations at a football club is difficult but it isn’t quite alchemy. Tottenham can change to the new 4-2-3-1 set-up and no football club is constrained to play a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 until the end of time. Although the players are going to have to adapt and AVB can’t stick with those who are unable to make the transition.
But it’s quite difficult to judge the merits of those who can succeed in the new set-up or even the credentials of Villas-Boas himself, when the team looks the way it is.
Jermain Defoe, for example, epitomizes the situation that Spurs and Villas-Boas currently find themselves in. The team has started the first three games of the Premier League season with a striker who isn’t suited to the way in which the new manager wants the team to be playing. Defoe has worked his socks of for the team, but he simply isn’t viable to play up front on his own. It’s almost like Levy giving AVB the keys to a brand new kit-car and telling him to take it as far as he can- just that he forgot to fit in the gearbox. In one respect already, Tottenham have been faulty goods since the season started on August 18th and that responsibility lies with Levy.
The hesitation and brinkmanship to bring in Emmanuel Adebayor has cost Spurs and Villas-Boas. Defoe has been the only option to play in Villas-Boas’ team; as was clear to see on Saturday, Adebayor is clearly still short of match-fitness and until Friday’s acquisition of Clint Dempsey, Defoe was the only recognized striker at White Hart Lane. But this point seemed to be blissfully ignored in recent days.
But it is in the centre of Tottenham’s midfield that we are seeing the biggest legacy of Levy’s transfer brinkmanship. Andre Villas-Boas has only ever wanted one player more than anyone else since he stepped through the door at Spurs Lodge and it was no secret that the man in question was Porto’s Joao Moutinho. He was the metronome of AVB’s success in Portugal, a genuine top class central midfielder who was the jewel in which Villas-Boas wished to build his Spurs team around.
But it’s not even the fact that the deal fell apart on personal terms, that is the crux of the issue here. Tottenham are a tightly run ship, if not the tightest ship around and the club physically cannot afford to be bent over financially by either Moutinho or Porto. But the timing of the deal was simply absurd. The entire Modric scenario was drawn out because Levy believed he was getting the best deal for the club. Leaving it till deadline day to acquire your new managers’ most wanted transfer target, after drawing out the sale of your best player, was a game of risk that went far too far and it’s one that Levy lost.
Because by drawing out the entire Modric/Moutinho scenario, he was in essence telling Villas-Boas that he must start with Jake Livermore in the holding midfield pair. Why? Because Levy knew the system Villas-Boas was playing with the two holding midfielders and Livermore and Sandro were the only to players likely to play there. Modric would have, had he not wanted to leave. Parker would have, had he not been sidelined with injury. Tom Huddlestone is still feeling his way back after nearly a year away from Premier League football. Fans were astounded when Jermaine Jenas made a cameo the other week, but regardless about whether it was the right substitution, who else was there to play?
And with the greatest respect to Livermore, a player of real tenacity and promise, he isn’t of the caliber of a Modric, Parker or Moutinho. But like Defoe, he has started in a crucial position as a result of Levy’s brinkmanship- not through Villas-Boas’ unremitting wishes.
The facts and balance sheet suggest that Levy has indeed backed Villas-Boas to the hilt, but in practice, that doesn’t tell the entire story. Everyone makes mistakes and this isn’t to say that Levy doesn’t remain one of the best chairmen in the country. But he isn’t bulletproof and supporters must realize the situation their team currently finds themselves in isn’t entirely Villas-Boas fuelled.
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Now deadline day is finished, Spurs can now focus purely on the football and no more of the transfer fuelled nonsense. The likes of Dembele, Dempsey and Lloris are all fantastic signings. But the fact is they should have been at Spurs for a lot longer than several days, three games into the season. What’s done is now done and it’s time to get behind the team and support them as they look to build on something of a new era.
Villas-Boas has made mistakes. But let’s not pan a manager who has only just had his hands untied from behind his back.
How do you feel about the Levy’s brinkmanship this summer? Was he right to take the gamble or is it unacceptable that the Villas-Boas started the season without key acquisitions? Tell me what you think on Twitter: follow @samuel_antrobus and bat me your take on all things Spurs.
The big boys officially enter the fray this week in a cup competition that is much maligned by some managers who fail to see the benefits of it. You ask any football fan that gets the chance to go to Wembley and savour the cup final experience and it paints an entirely different picture. The League cup used to be heralded as the fan’s final – such was the greater ticket allocations that supporters would get for it.
I find it incredibly frustrating at the attitudes of those managers who pass up the opportunity of success. Sir Alex Ferguson shows great desire for it – then again the man is a born winner and is never satisfied unless there is a glimmering pot shining in the trophy room at Old Trafford. Jose Mourinho is another who would always be out to lift this trophy, during his time at the Bridge. Both men clearly know that winning silverware is what fans want to see regardless; a factor that seems to be lost on a certain manager in North London.
The failure to take a competition seriously is tantamount to cheating the supporters – something that cost Redknapp a huge amount of respect from the fans at White Hart Lane, due to his contempt for the Europa League. It sends out a negative message to supporters who subsequently feel wronged by it, especially as clubs still happily take any gate receipts that are forthcoming. I have heard a lot of people defend their actions, suggesting that it is good as it allows clubs to blood younger players – a view that is totally flawed. If you want a healthy youth set-up at a football club then the games they need are first team ones within all competitions, not a couple of cup ties every given season. Arsenal has been the champion in using the competition as a so called chance to bring players through – history shows (given the amount of different youngsters that have started) that it has proved fruitless and achieved little success.
A cup is cup at the end of the day and the managers should remember that those who pay their wages crave it.
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England manager Roy Hodgson named Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney as his stand-in captain for last night’s World Cup qualifying clash against San Marino and the uproar about the decision strikes me as making something of a mountain out of a molehill. Is the role of captain that important in the international arena these days?
May I just say to start things off, I’m not overly concerned about Rooney leading the team out against the minnows which are currently one of the worst teams in international football. The side were going to cruise to a resounding victory no matter what side Hodgson picked and the prospect of Rooney donning the armband for future fixtures doesn’t quite fill me with the same sense of dread that many apparently feel.
Rooney said on being handed the role ahead of the game: “This is something I’m really proud of. “It’s a big challenge for myself, and I’m excited. Hopefully we can cap the day off with a good victory.” So far, so patriotic, so normal you may think, but the main crux of the issue against the 26-year-old leading the troops out so to speak is his criticism about England’s fans in the aftermath of the abject goalless draw against Algeria at the 2010 World Cup.
Now with Frank Lampard withdrawing from the squad through a knee injury, regular skipper Steven Gerrard suspended and Ashley Cole getting himself into hot water for ‘bringing the game into disrepute’ by insulting a bunch of old men in stuffy suits, Rooney remains the next logical choice on the face of it.
While he may never have reached the peaks of his breakthrough tournament back at Euro 2004 and has subsequently struggled for rhythm and form for the national side, he remains our most creative and important player in an attacking sense and with 76 caps under his belt already, he’s already hugely experienced at representing his country and one of the more senior members of the squad in terms of responsibility.
Nevertheless, the ire has focused on his under-performance for the national team and being rewarded if you will with the captaincy has provoked something of an outraged response from some supporters. Rooney address these matters in his press conference earlier in the week with clear reference to the aforementioned incident: “It was partly to do with my own performance. I was partly looking to justify my own performance. The England fans have been great. They’re always there in their thousands and since then I’m a different person and a different player. I’ve matured.”
Clearly, despite earning himself just one yellow card while playing for Manchester United last season, Rooney has not matured, he never will. I simply don’t buy the argument that if you take away his aggressive tempestuous nature that you’re left with half the player. His red card against Montenegro which ruled him out of the first two games of Euro 2012 makes a mockery of that flawed line of thinking. He will never calm down completely because that’s just who he is; of course, it would be better if he was more disciplined, but a leopard hardly ever changes its spots, so we are left with an excellent but flawed player.
Secondly, the England fans are clearly not ‘brilliant’. We might like to think we’re special but we’re not. Selling out a 90,000 capacity stadium at Wembley for what looks to be a pretty straightforward game is in itself an admirable achievement and large swathes of our travelling support are exceptional, but so are other countries for that matter. We’re prone to booing at a moments notice and the amount of pressure we heap on them must in some way have contributed to our patchy performances for the past few decades.
Nevertheless, the role of the captain, on the international stage at least, is by and large a ceremonial and symbolic one and getting angry about Rooney being named as skipper with the prospect of retaining it later on in his career as the obvious successor after Gerrard retires from international football after the next World Cup has left everyone in a tizz over nothing.
Naming your best player as captain in cricket can often be more of a hindrance than a help, with Kevin Pieterson and Freddie Flintoff helping to back this up, with the various tactical sides of the game neither players strongest suit, but in football, leading by example can at times be genuinely successful.
One theory why Gerrard has never been quite able to replicate his club form for England is the fact that he wasn’t skipper. Being in charge appears to bring the best out in the Liverpool man in that respect, it clearly still means something to the players, although I would question the mentality of a player who seemingly can’t perform to the best of their abilities without another player barking orders at them every five minutes.
Rooney is likely to be England captain full-time in a couple of years and there are hardly many other options available to choose from. While he may be a symbol of everything that’s wrong with the game these days, he’s probably done enough to earn a crack at the largely arbitrary role.
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Setting aside club affiliations for one minute, the fact that he plays for a rival club doesn’t bother me, neither does the point that I don’t particularly like him as a person, but if it manages to get the best out of our potentially most dangerous player, then I’m all for it, I just wish people would stop harping on that the position still means something. It was devalued long before Rooney stepped in, so perhaps the faux moral outrage should just be dialled down a notch in future.
Andre Villas-Boas has condemned the negative approach that most English clubs have towards the Europa League.
He insists Tottenham will be taking the tournament seriously this year as they prepare for tonight’s match against Panathinakos, where AVB is expected to field his best available players.
Former Spurs boss Harry Redknapp argued that the competition “kills you off” in the Premier League and used the Europa League to play youngsters and fringe players. On their last visit to Greece in the Europa League, Spurs’ Starting XI had an average age of just 23.
Villas-Boas however has the competition to thank for much of his success. The winner’s trophy was one of four acquired during his reign as head coach of F.C. Porto.
“I respect the competition. I certainly think it is viewed as a punishment in England and I cannot understand why. It is a traditional trophy.
“The profile of the competition is raised in other countries, but not England. I don’t understand it,” he said.
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The Portuguese coach insists the Europa League is integral to Tottenham’s future adding, “For us to go on and eventually win the Champions League we have to get used to playing in these situations, both physically and mentally.”
Both Sunderland and Newcastle go into the Tyne-Wear derby on the back of 3-0 defeats, to Man City and United respectively.
But on Sunday lunchtime all form will go out the window as one of the Premier Leagues most heated rivalries takes centre stage.
Sunderland winger James McClean will be in contention for a return after shaking off a groin injury.
The 23-year-old missed the Republic of Ireland’s 6-1 defeat by Germany with a groin problem, but Sunderland manager Martin O’Neill has revealed he could have been available for Tuesday’s trip to the Faroe Islands if required.
Phil Bardsley could make a return to action, having made a first appearance of the season for the under-21’s in midweek, although Titus Bramble is likely to miss out against his former club with a hip problem, whilst Lee Cattermole is suspended.
Fabricio Coloccini and Steven Taylor could hand Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew a boost if they return from injury. Both were absent for the defeat to Manchester United last time out.
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Roy Hodgson’s England side face a tough international Friendly fixture against Sweden next week, and the Three Lions will be looking to continue their good start to the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign.
The critics were divided over Hodgson’s England at Euro 2012, some praised their achievements of reaching the quarter finals despite possessing their weakest squad in years, while others criticised the negative style of play that saw them dominated by other teams.
This time around, there are no surprise call-ups and the squad looks strong on paper which cannot be said for previous efforts. For such a strong footballing nation, England have capped some players that were simply not up to international standard, and in recognition of those who should never have pulled on the white shirt, or perhaps have been called up too soon, I’ve thrown together 20 players that will make you wonder what the England manager was thinking.
Click on Theo Walcott to see the full list of England shocks
Have I missed any England clangers? Let me know on Twitter @dudeyoungy
The majority of us will at some point pull a cracker and read out one of the notoriously bad jokes inside that are always funny, in a really unfunny way.
How suitable it is then that we sit here still awaiting the ‘imminent’ announcement of a completed takeover by GFH Capital, as this truly is becoming a bad joke, and nobody is laughing at this one.
I’ve always been in the ‘give them time’ camp. I’ve said all along that I’ll judge them on what they do after they take over from Ken, but with a third of the season gone and Leeds’ league position falling quicker than David Haighs popularity, I’ve had enough.
Back in October GFH told us “We have a separate budget from the purchase total to buy better players to achieve promotion to the Premier League”
That was all good and well at the time, we were doing quite well in the league and the emergency loan window was far from slamming shut. But what use is it now? Warnock is a good manager, but he’s no miracle worker. Our team are doing the best they can but it’s nowhere near good enough for promotion, we’ve been crying out for a sprinkling of quality for months and yet still we sit here waiting for things to change.
For me, GFH are as much to blame as Ken. I was happy for them to take their time, who wouldn’t when buying from Bates? But they’ve let the entire saga drag on to the point where the season is practically beyond us. Not only that, but the lack of information throughout the process has been nothing short of ridiculous. As fans, we don’t want to see David Haigh tweet ‘Working hard’ every week.
Enough is enough. The January transfer window is fast approaching and someone needs to put their money where their mouth is. Takeovers can take time, but six months suggests a serious problem. GFH have sat back and watched our season fall apart, if they are really in this for the good of the club then where has the urgency been?
I want Ken Bates out as much as every other Leeds fan, but what are we set to replace him with?
GFH have been getting frustrated with people questioning their financial capabilities, but how can they blame us? They’ve done nothing to allay the fans fears other than release a few pointless statements. Actions speak louder than words, and their actions are speaking volumes.
They are not completely to blame for all of this.
Our beloved chairman has played his part too. His unjustified rants at fans, LUST, GFH and seemingly every journalist on the scene has been embarrassing. I’m in no doubt that he’s thrown more than the odd spanner in the works over the last few months, but did we ever expect anything less.
All in all, our season is becoming a waste of everyone’s time. Warnock only wanted one more season and what a season he’s having. For a campaign that started with so much promise and optimism, it is heartbreaking to watch as it dwindles out into nothing.
If GFH do take over they have a lot of work to do. Leeds need more than just investment in the team now. The fans, players and manager are devoid of all optimism, support is divided and frustration is growing by the day.
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Southampton’s mini-revival came to an abrupt halt at Anfield as Daniel Agger scored the only goal of the game to earn Liverpool only their third home win of the season.
The Saints had taken eight points from their last four games to lift themselves out of the relegation zone but were thrown back into trouble after falling to their first defeat since the start of November.
Brendan Rodgers will be delighted by his sides response to Wednesday’s defeat at Tottenham and made it back-to-back wins on Merseyside for the first time since September 2011.
Nigel Adkins’ men were hoping to start December as they’d ended the previous month and went close to scoring through Rickie Lambert’s 25-yard strike that flew wide of Pepe Reina’s post.
The hosts picked up afterwards and Glen Johnson slice a Luis Suarez cross wide before having a left-foot strike saved by Paulo Gazanigga after cutting in from the right flank.
Steven Gerrard then proved his worth to the Reds after receiving criticism during the week, seeing a 15-yard effort blocked by Morgan Schneiderlin and setting up prospective successor Jonjo Shelvey to crash a 20-yard strike off the crossbar.
The woodwork saved the visitors once again just before halftime as Suarez blasted his free kick off the bar but thew switched off in the aftermath and Agger was well placed to head home after Johnson returned the ball back into the box.
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A 40-yard volley from Lambert that forced Reina into a save proved to be Southampton’s best opportunity after the break and, in truth, they should have fallen further behind.
Jose Enrique’s fierce effort was kept out by Gazanigga while Suarez fired wide as Liverpool comfortably saw the game out to move up to 11th in the table.
Manchester United and Arsenal are both interested in signing midfielder Remy Cabella from French champions Montpellier, according to the Sun.
The French ace is rated at £5million and has recently started to make an impression with a string of impressive performances for the Ligue 1 side, who crashed out of the Champions League group stages in their first ever participation in the tournament.
Despite their surprising achievements of last season, the French champions have struggled in this campaign and currently sit 13th in the Ligue 1 table.
This, along with their failure to reach the next round of the Champions League has left some of the teams star players considering their future with the club.
Club president Louis Nicollin has expressed his desire to keep Cabella with the French side and said, “It will take a fortune for us to consider letting him leave.”
It is believed the 22-year-old is also close to earning his first French international cap after scoring four times in 15 appearances in the league for Montpellier this season.
It’s yet another name that both Arsenal and Manchester United have been linked with recently with Sir Alex Ferguson still looking for a long term replacement for Paul Scholes, while Arsene Wenger is under increased pressure at the Emirates to bring the glory days back to the club.
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At an estimated £5million, Cabella would certainly be a cheaper alternative to other players who have been reported targets for these two clubs.