Liverpool have agreed a fee for Aston Villa winger Stewart Downing, the Anfield club revealed on Wednesday.Downing, 26, has reportedly been a target of two previous bids from Liverpool during the English Premier League off-season, and it now appears that the Reds are close to landing the England midfielder.
A statement on Liverpool’s website announced a bid had been accepted for Downing, with Villa chief executive Paul Faulkner telling The Guardian that Downing had handed in a transfer request to help push through the move.
“I can confirm that we have reached an agreement with Liverpool following an improved offer received earlier today and the submission of a formal transfer request by Stewart Downing, and have subsequently given them permission to speak with the player,” he said.
“We believe there are replacements available in the market who can strengthen our squad ahead of the coming season, and we are in discussions as such. We are also working hard to conclude a deal for a goalkeeper, who we believe can also strengthen the side.”
Downing joined Villa in 2009 in a package worth 12 million pounds from boyhood club Middlesbrough.
His arrival at Liverpool would be the latest big-money buy for manager Kenny Dalglish.
Strike duo Andy Carroll (35 million pounds) and Luis Suarez (22.8 million) joined in January, while midfielders Jordan Henderson (16 million) and Charlie Adam (seven million) have been off-season arrivals.
When the Champions League draw was made, many Arsenal fans had a feeling they were going to draw Barcelona. Arsene Wenger’s side threw their group away, and this is the punishment Arsenal are going to face. Barcelona have been sensational for the past three years, and seem to be getting better. I wouldn’t give Arsenal too much of a chance against them – if they continue to play like they have over the past weeks. A defeat may actually help Arsenal’s long term Premier League aspirations.
Arsene Wenger must know that the Premier League is there for the taking this season. Although Arsenal have fallen behind Manchester United, they are still very much in it. Arsenal need to get their priorities right. Winning the Champions League would be a fantastic achievement but becoming Premier League champions has to be the priority. There are no certainties in football, however, Chelsea and Manchester United have been handed very favourable draws, and Tottenham stand a good chance of defeating Milan. A defeat against Barcelona would not be the end of the world in terms of the Premier League.
The longer Manchester United and Chelsea are in the competition, the better for Arsenal. Manchester United have a backlog of fixtures coming up, mix that with the FA Cup and they could struggle. Do Manchester United have the squad capable of challenging on three fronts in 2011? It would seem they do not, Arsenal could take advantage of this. Chelsea will also be competing on three fronts with a paper thin squad. Add to this, Chelsea’s obsession to win the Champions League and they may take their eye off the Premier League.
Again, nothing is certain in football. I am not saying for one moment that Arsenal will not beat Barcelona. However, going on last year and the way the two sides have played this season, the likelihood is that Barcelona will win the tie over the two legs. Arsenal have a better team this year, but so do Barcelona. They have added David Villa to their strike force, and his performance in the recent Catalan derby was majestic. If Barcelona go into the Arsenal game in this form, Arsenal will be put to the sword again. Arsene Wenger’s side have come a long way since being destroyed in the Nou Camp but again, so have Barcelona. There would be no disgrace in losing to Barcelona, it could help them.
If Arsenal lose to Barcelona but win the Premier League in May, it may be seen as a blessing in disguise. It is completely hypothetical but we have to accept that in all probability Chelsea and Manchester United will go further in the Champions League. If the Arsenal squad has their eye on the ball, fighting for one championship, Arsenal could very well become 2010-2011 Premier League champions.
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Delivering English football’s most famous trophy back to Anfield would have gone some way to appeasing Kopites who’ve witnessed the club take 10 steps back in the goal of Champions League qualification this season. Unfortunately the domestic double wasn’t to be, although I’m sure most Liverpool fans would have been happy (had they been asked at the start of the season) to have landed at least one piece of silverware this year. The hard work and rebuild for Liverpool, in terms of being competitive in the league, starts now and Kenny Dalglish will undoubtedly working tirelesslythroughout the summer to make the Reds once again contenders for a top four finish.
This week on FFC the jury is out on who is responsible for Liverpool’s underwhelming campaign and Dalglish gives an indication in respect to his summer transfer targets.
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Best of FFC
The Finger of blame at Anfield?
The transfer dilemma facing Kenny Dalglish
The 12 Premier League clubs stung by this ‘transfer premium’
One of the best decisions Kenny Dalglish’s can make as Liverpool manager?
Deep rooted personnel – how would they ever leave their clubs?
Liverpool chief drops transfer hint
Liverpool join the £12m transfer race
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Best of WEB
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Time To Stand Up and Be Counted – Live 4 Liverpool
Hansen warns: ‘Poor’ LFC must beat Chelsea or this season is a failure. Agree…? – Liverpool Kop
The scale of Fenway’s challenge at Liverpool becomes clear – This is Anfield
Dalglish, Transfers and Looking Ahead – The Tomkins Times
Do Any Summer Signings Depend on Sales? – Live 4 Liverpool
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The transition from digression to progression – This is Anfield
Why Dalglish Is Wasting Valuable Time Scouting Belhanda – Transfer Tavern
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Quote of the Week
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“People will judge us after Saturday. People will say ‘you haven’t done well in the league’ but we can say ‘yes, but we have won two cups’. I think that’s a fair argument.
“We will assess the season after the weekend. If we can look back and say we have won two cups, then we will be happy. But we need to address the problem of our league position. We are all aware we have underachieved in the league and the squad of players is certainly better than where we are.” Ahead of the FA Cup final Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard insists Liverpool will be happy with their season if they end up with two trophies
Unless a team is in the Premier League or has a very wealthy backer they are unlikely to have much money to play with to bring players in. Therefore, players have to be signed for low transfer fees and low wages. Even teams in the Premier League may have to use a similar strategy or at least choose to use this strategy. Take the example of Blackpool; a team that spent comparably little on players ahead of their solitary season in the Premier League. The Blackpool manager Ian Holloway has repeatedly said that he refuses to pay wages in excess on £10,000 per week.
So the dilemma is a club with a limited budget finds a young starlet and brings them into the club. After a few seasons of playing regular first-team football; their value begins to soar. Now while the player has plenty of time on their contract this isn’t so much of a problem. However, when the star gets into the last 18 months to a year this begins to become an issue. The club will then look to agree a new contract with the player. Now in an ideal the world the player will accept a decent wage with the financial constraints the club has. But as we all know this doesn’t always happen especially if the player’s head has been turned by bigger clubs showing an interest. Then the player may ask for an excessive wage or request they move on and join the bigger club with deeper pockets.
This creates an obvious dilemma for the smaller club as they must decide if to meet the player’s demands or sell the player on. But there is of course a third option of allowing the player to run down the contract and hope that personal terms can be agreed at some point. However if the terms cannot not be agreed then the club will risk losing the player for nothing.
Sometimes though a club may feel that they are better off using a player for the last year of the contract and then losing them for nothing; clearly this is the case due to the high number of quality bosman transfers that are available each summer. Critics may say why would a club allow a player to run down his contract and then leave for nothing? Well a couple of things need to be kept in mind here; the proposed market value of the player and the advantage of using a player over a period of time rather than selling them. It’s obviously really but a player in the last year of their contract is highly unlikely to command a high transfer fee in comparison with the potential transfer fee they would have if they had 5 years remaining on their contract.
Now if the club is in mid-table then they may be best advised to sell the player on for any transfer fee they can get. However, if the club is involved in the promotion/relegation picture then the situation may be quite different. Even if the player is out of contract at the end of that season; the player could be persuaded to stay and sign a new contract if the club is successful in staying up or gaining promotion. Also the club may take the view that the money in gaining promotion or staying in a division is more significant than any individual transfer fee for one player.
But as ever with contracts the issue isn’t always black and white and it isn’t always a case of if the player will sign or not and there could be any number of reasons why a player won’t sign. Sometimes the player won’t sign purely for financial reasons; but length of contract or desire to win trophies could also be contributing factors. Therefore, an ambitious player that doesn’t see his long-term future at the club; may only be prepared to sign a short term deal with a significant weekly wage and a possible get out clause for a set fee.
So should a club accept such terms or take the view that no player in bigger than the club? Well my opinion is they should not agree to these terms. At this point the player should be allowed to leave and the club should look for their next star. Smaller clubs must accept that there comes a time when a player should be allowed to leave. However, it’s important to get the balance right because a team can’t be selling all their best players when they reach a certain level. But it’s time for smaller clubs to get smart by having a scouting system that recruits young players and if they turn out to be superstars then sell them on and then reinvest that money in the team. Smaller clubs should not pay crazy wages but find ways to be successful with an element of financial control.
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Wigan Athletic boss Roberto Martinez was full of praise for his side's discipline after a 1-0 home win over West Brom lifted the out of the relegation places.
A Victor Moses strike proved decisive at the DW Stadium, as Wigan won only their third league game of the campaign, with the victory enough to lift them above Birmingham City.
Martinez told the club's official website:"It was a very difficult game and it might not have been pretty, but it was three valuable points.
"I am so proud that the players were able to find the answers, because we didn't have the control or the dominance we have had in recent weeks.
"But we got the three points we feel we deserved and that is a massive step forward for us.
"I just felt that it was a performance where everyone had to be at 100 per cent and had to stay concentrated for the whole 90 minutes. In that respect, we were perfect.
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"You have to find a way of creating chances without leaving yourself too exposed at the back.
"We managed to create three good chances, we took one of them and three very deserved points."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Believe it or not, West Ham can make history today.
A win at Barnsley will better our previous record of winning 11 away matches in a single season, which was way back in the 1957/1958 campaign. It was the season when Ted Fenton’s Hammers clinched the Division Two title and John Dick was top scorer with 26 goals in all competitions.
Unfortunately, it’s looking very unlikely that we’ll be celebrating a record breaking season as league champions again but, that doesn’t really matter anymore, does it?
Last Saturday’s loss to Reading was hard to take, especially after starting so well. The game did nothing to reassure us that Big Sam is getting to the bottom of our ‘inability to perform at home’ problem and it put us further away from our goal of automatic promotion. Despite that, and with six games left to play, a four point gap between us and second spot isn’t that big a mountain to climb. Reading will no doubt slip up and they’ve still got to go to Southampton. We’ve still got a lot to do, yes, but the season is far from over.
Anyway, with today’s visit to Barnsley in mind, we’ve got a big chance to put last week’s disappointment behind us and keep up the pressure on the top two. What’s important is that we don’t make it hard for ourselves. If we make a job of it then there’ll be more nerves and pressure on the team going into Monday’s meeting with Birmingham.
There has been a lot of discussion about what formation and what selection Allardyce should go with today. Many are calling for a Sam Baldock and Nicky Maynard partnership up front, while others are calling for Ravel Morrison to be given his first real chance for the club. Personally, Baldock deserves his chance to start. His last few appearances off the bench have been encouraging and he always looks hungry for a goal. He’s a player who, despite missing a few chances over the past few games, will only need a goal to re-discover the form that made him a fan’s favourite earlier in the season.
It is also a good game for Morrison to show us all what he can do. We’re all looking forward to seeing the youngster in action and an away day at 18th placed Barnsley will be a good time to throw him in to the mix.
There are rumours that Julien Faubert hasn’t travelled which, if true, will be a loss to us. The Frenchman has been like a new man this season and testament has to go to Big Sam for being able to get the best out of him. Barnsley have just two wins in their last 10 outings but will want to win to give themselves a chance of staying clear of the relegation zone. They’re currently nine points clear, but with six games left a poor run of form could suck them in before they even know it. I’m not going to hazard a guess at how we’ll line up today or what the score might be, purely because there’s so many variations of how Allardyce can approach this game and whenever I predict a scoreline it almost always goes the opposite way.
Hats off to all those traveling to Barnsley today, and here’s to a record breaking win for Big Sam’s side.
The Game in Numbers
22 – It is 22 years since West Ham lost a league match against Barnsley.
12 – Victory today will secure a club record for most aways wins in a single season.
6 – A win today will give West Ham their sixth double of the season.
5 – The Hammers are unbeaten in their last five away matches.
4 – West Ham have kept a clean sheet in their last four meetings with The Tykes.
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Juventus striker Amauri could be on his way to the Premier League after two unnamed English clubs bid for the player, according to Sky Sports.
The Brazilian-born Italy international is out of favour at Juventus and spent the second half of last season on loan at Parma, scoring 7 goals in 11 appearances. He signed for Juventus as part of a complex swap deal in the summer of 2008 but has only scored 24 goals for the Turin-based club.
Amauri’s agent is yet to reveal the clubs interested in his client but Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp is rumoured to be keen on the 31-year old. Redknapp is hoping to overhaul his attacking options after an inconsistent season and is believed to be willing to listen to offers for Peter Crouch, Robbie Keane, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Jermaine Defoe.
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Parma, who originally brought the player to Italy in 2000, are yet to make a move for player on a permanent basis. However, Lazio and Napoli are rumoured to be after the 6ft 1in target man. Amauri has one year left to run on his contract but Juve are keen to recoup some of the money they invested in the player.
After lurching from one crisis to another over the last few months Liverpool appear to have returned to some semblance of normality this week with two important wins for both their domestic and European aspirations.
Wins against Bolton and Napoli would be the bare minimum in previous seasons, but after the desperate run of results that had left the Reds locked in the Premier League basement, Steven Gerrard’s late hat-trick against the Italians and Maxi Rodriguez’s last gasp winner in the league put a more positive spin on Roy Hodgson’s start at Anfield.
On the blog front much has been made of Liverpool’s behind the scenes management changes. Roy Hodgson may claim to be comfortable with the continental approach reflected by Damien Comolli’s appointment as Director of Football, but what will this mean for the Reds in the long term? There is also analysis of the fallout from the end of the Hicks and Gillett era and Roy Hodgson’s bizarre spat with former manager Rafa Benitez.
We also cover the best of the web’s articles on the Anfield club.
Featured articles of the week
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The Premier League’s New Comic Strip #2
Spurs, Liverpool, United…whose need for Real Madrid swoop is greater?
Did Broughton miss a trick in safeguarding Liverpool’s future?
Should Liverpool fans look upon Comolli’s appointment with trepidation?
Controlled ruthlessness in football
An important FACT that is lost on most Premier League players
The FIVE ‘realistic’ transfer targets for Liverpool to ponder
Liverpool’s Stadium Dilemma
Will transfer deals meet expectations at Liverpool?
The ten most heated matches in England
Liverpool’s transfer policy could have a knock on effect
Ten things we have noticed from the Premier League this season
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Click here to see the Best LIVERPOOL BLOGS around the Web this week
Best of the Web
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Damien Comolli: A view from a Spurs fan – Live4Liverpool
Nice move NESV, Bad move Roy – Kopblog
Soto Kyrgiakos: Liverpool’s Unlikely Hero – This is Anfield
Red hails Young Starlet’s “Unbelievable Skills.” – Live4Liverpool
In the football world, the Euros is the biggest event happening this year, but there’s one particular sporting event later in the summer that’s going to completely overshadow it. The Olympics is coming to the UK and London will host the greatest sporting event in the world. The greatest athletes in their field will compete in their disciplines, but you also have the chance to show off what you’re good at.
No matter where your skills lie everyone’s best is worth celebrating, no matter what it is. While we don’t want to eliminate any particular skills, here we’d like to unearth the best footballers, or at least the ones with skills that they can show off. Whether that be that you’re adept at the crossbar challenge, amazing at keepy ups or can do something with a football that’s never been seen before, if you can wow the judges of Olympians then you’ll be in with a chance of winning some great prizes.
The prizes on offer include being featured in a TV advert for the Olympics that will be shown around the world closer to the time of the big event, but the big prize is winning a trip to London and tickets to the 2012 Olympics. Considering how difficult it is to get hold of these tickets, this prize is something special and you could even go to Wembley to watch Stuart Pearce’s Great Britain team attempt to lift the Olympics trophy.
Whatever your skill is, all you need to do is film yourself performing it with a camera or your smartphone and upload it for the judges to take a look at it. All the advice you need is to: keep it simple, keep it safe and, most importantly have some fun! Take a look at the video below for some more information and to find out how to enter…
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Carlos Tevez has been in inspired form this season for Manchester City, scoring 21 Premier League; two of which were scored last night in a 3-0 win against Stoke. The Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini now says that Tevez wants to stay at the club – but how confident can he really be with the constant transfer speculation and the fact he submitted a transfer request earlier this season. Therefore, if he did move on in the summer; it would present Manchester City with a huge transfer headache especially considering the other expensive signings up front have yet to prove to be reliable.
Bosnia & Herzegovina striker Edin Dzeko came to the Premier League with a glowing reputation after performing very well in Germany with Wolfsburg. However, despite a transfer fee on £27m he has yet to demonstrate any sort of form in the Premier League and has so far only scored one goal in 14 appearances. However, there is some hope that he will come good bearing in mind that he has scored 4 further goals in the European competition and the FA Cup.
Mario Balotelli has adapted better to the Premier League and has managed to score 6 goals from 15 games. However, he has had his problems with injury and discipline since signing for Manchester City from Inter Milan for £24m in the summer. Balotelli has already been sent off in the Premier League against West Brom and in the Europa League in a game against Dynamo Kiev. Balotelli has shown an inflated ego and a petulant attitude in the past at Inter Milan. These things could cause trouble for Manchester City in the future, there is little doubt about his talent – but can he be relied upon?
So if Tevez was to move on in the summer there would be a massive hole in the Man City attack and Mancini will need to decide how best to fill it; Keeping in mind that he will need a striker that can hit the ground running and not one that will need six months to settle in. Therefore, the obvious place to start looking is the Premier League itself; players like Dimitar Berbatov, Robin Van Persie and Didier Drogba spring to mind. But failing to get this transfer right could mean City lose ground on their top four rivals; it appears that convincing Tevez to stay is the best option.
If you enjoyed reading this article don’t stop your involvement there leave a comment below and join me on Twitter to discuss if Tevez will stay and if not who can Man City buy to replace him?
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