Archive for the ‘Team Talk’ Category

Connor Wickham
The youngest first team players in Ipswich’s history at 16 years 11 days, and is tips to be the next Wayne Rooney in the making. A hat-trick 2 week ago for England U17 saw his suitor increasing their interest. So far, all the big 4 has expressed their interest in Wickham, can Roy Keane keep hands off his prized asset?

Antoine Griezmann
The french starlet has rejected the offer to remain in his homeland to play for Lyon, Saint-Etienne and Auxerre, to join Real Sociedad instead. He was immediately called up by first team directly upon joining the clubs without going through B team. He managed to break into the starting lineup at the age of 18 as he make his debut in the Sep 09.

Mesut Ozil
The 21 year old attacking midfielder already have 6 cap under his name for Germany.  He joined Werder Bremen last Jan for 4.3m Euro at the age of 19, since then, he  have been a regular in the Werder starting lineup. He had so far attract the interests from Arsenal and Sevilla, and his value is rated at 15m Euro now. He was reported rejecting new contract offer from Werder’s attempt and with just 18 months left in his contract, there will be a high chance Werder will part with him for a good amounts of money in January.

Nassim Ben Khalifa
The 17 year old starlet who impressed the world with his performance in U17 World Cup where he led Switzerland to lift the trophy for the first time after a 1-0 victory over Nigeria and has been awarded Silver Ball trophy in the tournament. He has attracted the interest of Arsenal, Aston Villa and Portsmouth while Barcelona and AC Milan scouts have also delivered glowing reports on the youngster. With his club, Grasshopper struggling with financial problems, he might be sold in January to relieve the financial problem.

Jeffren
The Barcelona winger is likely to leave Nou Camp in the January in order to seek for regular football. Both Arsenal and Racing Santander has expressed interest in the 21 year old winger. But Racing is more likely to be his destination as he look unlikely to be able to enter the first team of Arsenal right away.

Pablo Sarabia
The 17 year old starlets was describe to be the next Walcott who also operate in the left midfield, has the pace and dribbling skill. Wenger has already attempt to lure him away from Real Madrid before he turn 16 last year where in Spain, players cannot sign professional until they are 17. Although their previous attempt has fail, but look likely they are going to try again.

Manchester City manager Mark Hughes has draft out a list of players to strengthen his squad once the transfer market reopen. With his clubs draw 5 games in a row in the leagues, cause them to drop 10 points, they are now 10 points behind Chelsea with 1 games in hand. 1 area of concern will be the defence, as Man City conceded 14 goals in last 8 matches, if not for Given great form despite draw, they will concede even more goals.

Edin Dzeko
Dzeko has been a targets for Man City during the summer, where they fail to attract the Bosnia striker in joining them. Dzeko has bagged 26 goals last season for Wolfsburg, 2 goals behind topscorer Grafite from Wolfsburg too, to lead Wolfsburg in winning the Bundesliga for the first time in clubs history. Dzeko has bagged 8 goals for Wolfsburg in all competition this season, despite the arrival of Martins, Dzeko still remains as the first choice striker for the team. Man City are ready to offer 22 million euro to obtain the 23 year old striker.

Frank Ribery
The 26 year old frenchman has attracted all the big clubs in the world. With his contract going to expire at the end of this season, Bayern Munich are likely to sell him away when transfer market reopen if he didn’t pen a new contracts by then. Bayern Munich currently at 8th in the leagues, and struggling to qualify in the last 16 of the champion league, its seem unlikely Ribery will pen new contracts anytime soon. Man City are reported to have 65 million pound ready for the playmaker as Ribery can provide the lack of creative of Man City squad. Real Madrid, Barcelona and Chelsea are also monitoring Ribery situation.

Angel Di Maria
A promising youngster which backed by Maradona to become the next Argentina superstar. At the age of 21, he was included in the Argentina senior squad with the like of Messi, Aguero, Aimar, Tevez and Mascherano. At the ages of 19, he becomes a regular member in Benfica starting line-up. He was being tracked by a number of european top side including Juventus, Barcelona, Chelsea, FC Seville, Real Madrid, Valencia and Manchester United. Man City will need to outbid the rest of the contestant in order to seal the young starlet signature.

Yaya Toure
With lots of players competitng for the starting lineup, Toure doesn’t have much time on the field to perform. Currently he is rated behind Xavi, Iniesta, Keita and being used in rotation along with Busquets for the 3 midfield spots. With Barcelona constantly link up with Robinho and he appeared to be interested in Barcelona too, Man City will likely wants Yaya Toure to be include as part of the deals. Man City defender Kolo Toure believe his brother Yaya Toure can provide the stability in the midfields for the club.

Milos Krasic
He is a stars which attracted AC Milan and Real Madrid to enquiry for him last season before CSKA Moscow scare the suitor away with a £18m price tag. With his recent great champion league form, lots of club start to monitor on him again. Arsenal, Liverpool and Man Utd are all preparing to weight up a move for CSKA Moscow winger which valued at £9m.

With just 1 win from last 8 matches, the mood in Liverpool dressing room aren’t impressive at all. Though Torres and Gerrard are still remains doubtful and needed to pass a late fitness test in order to play, Benitez are likely going to feature them anyway. Rafael Benitez can’t afford any results other than a graceful win in order to recover.

Few of the liverpool players has recovered from injury, like Fabio Aurelio, Glen Johnson and Albert Riera, and might going to feature in Anfield tonight. £20million signing Aquilani are likely to make his debut in Anfield tonight since his arrival to Liverpool in the summer too.

Pepe Reina has been very disappointed with the Liverpool forms recently, and felt disgrace for a European top side  struggling to qualify for the Champions League last 16. Benitez admits he fully understands the frustration expressed by goalkeeper Jose Reina after last week’s 1-1 draw in Lyon and urge his players to work even harder and show confidence to the team.

Liverpool record at home has always been impressive such that, for the past 4 season, they only suffer 1 lost in the league per season. Alots people and footballer has said that, the atmosphere in Anfield is totally different from other stadium, whereby Liverpool players was really not alone, their fans are their 12th players, behinds them cheering their lungs out through the match.

Liverpool’s c0-owner Tom Hicks give the clubs a morale boosts before tonight match, by stating that even the clubs fail to qualify for the next stage of the Champion League or even fail to remains in top 4 and missed out on the competition next season, Liverpool won’t be forced to sell their star players like Torres, Gerrard, Mascherano and Johnson.