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Liverpool “legend” heads to Fulham; Middlesbrough sweat on £8m Brazilian

More from the crazy finale to Silly Season as Sportingo.com throws us a roundup of the latest transfer gossip.

Please, someone, put us out of our transfer-window, pain. Here we are, feeding on pathetic morsels such as the greatest ever Finnish striker joining Fulham … you must remember Jari Litmanen, once of Liverpool? And Malmo and FC Lahti and Hansa Rostock and MyPa. He’s also played for the half-decent Ajax and Barcelona. But he’ll be 37 years old in three weeks time. Old enough to be Theo Walcott’s grandMyPa.

He’s even more geriatric than Alan Stubbs, who has left Everton for Derby County this afternoon. Surely Afonso Alves is going to give us something to chew on by joining Middlesbrough from Dutch club Heerenveen any minute now for £8m – the Brazilian has apparently been granted a work permit so it’s just a matter of how much moolah he can squeeze out of Riverside supremo Steve Gibson.

But what the hell is going on at Newcastle? Has anybody told Kevin Keegan that it’s deadline day? Doesn’t he realise that Michael Owen and Alan Smith just don’t cut it any more. Hang on … STOP PRESS from Tyneside – 6ft 3in teenage striker Fabio Zamblera has arrived at St James’ Park from Italian club Atalanta to discuss terms.

And one more bit of almost real transfer action – Charlton have signed Sunderland defender Greg Halford on loan until the end of the season with Andy Reid expected to go to the Stadium of Light for £4.5m.

Cahill signs for Bolton Wanderers

Express and Star has reported that Gary Cahill has decided to move to Bolton Wanderers instead of Birmingham City from Aston Villa. The defender has signed a three-and-a-half year contract with the relegation threatened club but says that he is happy to have left the Midlands.

Cahill says:

It is the right move for me to come to Bolton. I had a look around their set-up and met with the manager and chairman, and I was impressed with what I saw and heard.

The transfer fee is believed to be around £5million and the 22-year old is also said to have rejected an offer from Birmingham City. Cahill is a decent defender who could provide valuable shield for struggling Bolton at the back as the fight for survival in the English Premier League intensifies.

Barca board back coach Rijkaard

FC Barcelona know one thing very well and that is not to wash their dirty linens in public. Goal.com reports that the club’s Board of directors has ended its meeting this week in a vote of confidence or the club’s coach Frank Rijkaard.

Rijkaard is in his first season at Camp Nou but this season he has had to face severe criticism from section of the media. The Catalan giants are already 9 points off the pace and there is no likelihood that Real Madrid are going to drop 9 points in La Liga in the remainder of the season.

But the Board has decided to stick with the Dutchman until the end of the season at least. Although this must be a relief for the under-speculation Rijkaard, he just cannot afford to rest too much. He has to think about UEFA Champions League football from next month and also has to discover some tactic to march on a winning stride in the league.

Portsmouth set to sign Spiderman from Mallorca

Portsmouth are flying high in the English Premier League this season and Pompey manager Harry Redknapp is doing all he can to reinforce his team this month to push for a UEFA Cup place. Goal.com reports that Redknapp is looking towards foreign shores to sign a striker.

Portsmouth are said to have lauched a €10million bid for the Real Mallorca striker Jonas Gutierrez and in all likelihood the deal will go through as the January transfer window slams shut fast. Portsmouth has long been an admirer of the player who is nicknamed the Spiderman for his goal celebrations which involve pulling a red mask over his head and pretending to shoot web from his fingers.

So far all is well but Harry Redknapp would certainly be more grateful should the player shoot goals in the Premiership for Pompey.

Valencia winger hits out at Koeman

Poor old Ronald Koeman, The man whom they affectionately call Tintin in Spain is now trudging on like an out of sorts Captain Haddock. His Valencia side are just above the relegation zone in 11th place in La Liga and if the pressure from the fans and the media alike wasn’t enough, the players too have commenced hinting at their disapproval of the Dutchman.

Goal.com quotes the Valencia winger Joaquin as saying that things have got worse since the arrival of Koeman in early November. He told Marca:

Since the coach joined, the situation has been deteriorating. Sometimes we’ve shown improvement in individual matches, but not so often - that decreases our confidence even more. The squad is working hard, despite the doubts. It’s hard to get out of this situation, but we’re the only one who’ll fix it.” Everything hits us - the dismissal of Quique as well as the controversy that followed. The squad has been affected, and it’s evident that things aren’t going well. It’s a hard situation because they were important players for so long. It was hard, for although we didn’t want to rock the boat and make comments, they were strong squad members and the team didn’t take it too well. I don’t know what I’d have done in that situation… there may have been problems. It’s all very difficult.

Now that players too have started chipping in, apparently targeting their coach, maybe Koeman should now realize that he can no longer control the situation. It would be for the best interest of the club that Koeman resigns. Maybe President Juan Soler should now try and seek the address of Quique Sanchez Flores who was given the sack at 4.23am in late late October. Bring Quique back!

Aston Villa sign Spurs winger

Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill has been looking to add strength and depth to his squad that is gunning for a place in Europe and the Ulsterman has made his first signing of the month. Express and Star reports that Villa have signed the forgotten Tottenham Hotspur winger Wayne Routledge for £1.5 million on a one-and-half-year contract.

The England Under 21 international is the first January signing for the Midlands club and must be relived to have finally left behind Spurs where he had failed to cut any ice. He might had separate spells at Portsmouth and Fulham but Routledge has never been able to exhibit his schoolboy displays.

Yet at Aston Villa, he certainly has a considerable amount of hope. After all, Martin O’Neill is an intelligent man.

David Ginola: Newcastle should look to the future

Since Kevin Keegan took over as the manager of Newcastle United, things have looked to be on the up. But to be frank, much has been drummed about the arrival of an old favorite to alter things and recapture the glory days of the past. Yet evolution in football is always a painstaking and slow process and Newcastle legend David Ginola knows that.

Sky Sports quotes the former Newcastle player telling the Daily Express that although the Geordies should cling onto optimism, they must no demand instant success. Ginola says:

You can’t expect Kevin Keegan to bring back success in two weeks. I mean, Newcastle have some tough games coming up, Middlesbrough, Manchester United, and they are all fighting for something. So you have to make sure to stay in place for next season, and start again. He is on his own as a manager, playing with the players he has got. He has to keep the club in the Premier League first, and start next season with a new base.

Sound advise from a great player. And there would be few who would like to disagree with him

Chelsea manager Grant wants his team to be more lethal

Chelsea might be still in with a shout in the English Premier League title chase this season but manager Avram Grant wants his team to be more lethal and merciless. This after watching his multinational team struggle to overcome Reading in the English Premier League on Wednesday; the Blues managed to beat the Royals 1-0.

Fox Sports quotes the Israeli as saying:

I am very pleased with the performance and that we won. But we should have scored more goals. We had a lot of chances one-on-one with the goalkeeper. I would be happier if we had scored more goals. I think over the last three months, we have seen the development of the team - and how we have kept our style even though we have missed a lot of players. I hope that we play like this in every game and create chances, because I don’t think we will miss them like we did in this game. I will be very happy if we create five, six or more chances every game - then we will score more. If we create so many chances we want to score more. It is good that we win anyway. But we need to put the ball into the net.

Scoring goals could become an asset at the end of the season when the title race may well come to hinge on a goal difference.

Man City no more interested in striker Soren Larsen

Manchester City’s rejection of the Schalke 04 striker Soren Larsen in the eleventh hour as reported by Setanta Sports comes as a massive surprise. Not least because manager Sven-Goran Eriksson is desperately looking for a striker to bolster the club’s chances of finishing in the top six in the English Premier League at the end of the season.

The deal was in its last stages with a transfer fee of £3.7 million being agreed between the two clubs but then the Danish international player’s agent informed the German Bundesliga club that City had cancelled the proposed deal.

This is of course a surprise since everything was set between the two clubs and the player himself was expecting to play in the Premiership from next month. Why would Eriksson not accept a striker who was already one foot in his squad?

Rafa not undermined by West Ham defeat

Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat to West Ham United in the English Premier League on Wednesday leaves the Reds 17 points off the pace in 7th place but in Rafael Benitez, they have an obstinate manager who is not going to give it all up, at least not publicly. The Northern Echo quotes the Spaniard as saying that although it would be more difficult now that the Reds are so many points behind the leaders, he can still turn the season around.

Rafa says:

I am a manager, so I have some experience. We must think about how to improve, how to take our chances and to win. I’m thinking just about the next game and I will try to win the next three points against Sunderland. Our next game is more realistic to think about.

But where will Liverpool end in the league position at the end of the season? Will last year’s beaten UEFA Champions League finalist fail to secure a spot in next season’s competition?

Duff: Keegan era excites me

Newcastle United are a club basking in hype and expectation at the moment with the appointment of old Toon favorite Kevin Keegan in charge. And the players too are joining in the swelling wave of optimism.

Setanta Sports has quoted Newcastle winger Damien Duff as saying that he believes under Keegan, the Geordies would improve and entertain their fans once again. The republic of Ireland international says:

Especially at Newcastle I think the wingers then were a big focal point in the team, along with the strikers. So I can’t wait to start working properly with him. Obviously, he has only been in a week or so and we haven’t had time to work on the training ground with him because of the games, but I’m just really looking forward to the future there with him. It’s really good, really positive. The gaffer has been brilliant, even though we haven’t won a game if you don’t count Stoke [in The FA Cup] since he came here. But the place is buzzing. He’s a God up there, the fans love him.

There’s a lot of hope and expectation in the air but will it all be a matter of much ado about nothing in the end?

Eriksson: 2 points dropped against Derby

Now, now. You would expect a club placed as high as Manchester City in the English Premier League to storm past rock bottom Derby County. Sven-Goran Eriksson anticipated 3 easy points for his Blues when they played them on Wednesday in the Premiership but at the end of the day, had to remain satisfied with just a single point.

ITV quotes a visibly frustrated Eriksson telling that they actually dropped two points against Derby instead of gaining 1 point. The former England head coach says:

It was two points lost today. I think we deserved a win if you look at the chances we created. We made three or four very, very good chances in the first half - and for the goal they scored, we helped them with because it was a shot that would have gone 10 yards past the goal. Sun and Hart were very unlucky there. I was disappointed last Sunday when we were knocked out of the FA Cup - but today I can’t complain to the players because I thought the attitude was right. We stood up; we fought; we created chances, wanted to win the game. I think we were a little bit unlucky - but that’s part of football.

Man City move into the top six in spite of this draw as Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat to West Ham United on Wednesday shoved them to 7th in the table.

Is Cristiano Ronaldo better than George Best?

There’s seems to be no stopping the new hero of Manchester United. Two more sensational goals last night has Sportingo’s Gerry Horsfield wondering if the Portuguese winker is now better than Bestie.

After his latest sensational double strike against Portsmouth, the question has got to be asked. Is Cristiano Ronaldo now a better player than the legendary George Best?

I’m not a Manchester United fan…but I do appreciate football genius. And there’s no longer any doubt that the Portuguese maestro is just that. A genius.

His 25-yard free-kick that put United 2-0 ahead last night was truly special. I never played the game professionally so I can’t comment on the technique itself. All I know is that Sky Sports studio guests Jamie Redknapp and Graeme Souness, both highly-rated former players, were positively purring about it.

”It was as good a free kick as I’ve ever seen in the Premier League,” gasped Redknapp. ”It was unsaveable.” And Souness echoed: ”I’ve never seen a free kick taken like that before. It was so special. Unique.”

The histrionics and theatrical diving that made Ronaldo so many enemies earlier in his career have been replaced by a maturity for one so young (he’s still only 22). But more important, the cheeky winker has an assured arrogance that I find, well, irresistible.

Last night, I saw no dissent, no over-the-top behaviour. Just a shoulder-shrug at any decisions that went against him … and indeed even an endearing smile of acceptance. Why, there wasn’t even a claim for a penalty when the man of the match went tumbling under a double challenge in the Pompey box.

But Ronaldo’s character is not the issue when it comes to comparisons with Georgie boy. I remember Best at his dazzling best…jinking past defenders as if they weren’t there. Defensive bulls would see red as they tried to stop him - only for the little Irish matador to leave them for dead.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two superstars is that Best didn’t have enemies in his playing days. Not on the terraces , anyway. Every genuine football fan thrilled to his genius …even when he was weaving that magic against their own team.

Ronaldo, on the other hand, still has to win over large swathes of the English football public – and in some quarters that dislike borders on hatred. Some of it no doubt lingers from his involvement in Wayne Rooney’s World Cup sending off against Portugal. But if Rooney has forgiven his Old Trafford teammate, what grounds are there for the rest of us to hold grudges?

OK, the 6ft 1in magician from Madeira hasn’t always behaved in a manner that would endear him to rival supporters. The reputation he built up for diving during his early days with United won him no friends, neither have recent seedy allegations about his private life.

When Manchester City defender Michael Ball deliberately stamped on him during last season’s derby clash at Eastlands, there were those who said: ‘’Serves the little so and so right. Pity Ball didn’t put him in hospital.’’

I can’t remember people talking like that during Bestie’s playing days at United. There were those who objected to his booze-and-women lifestyle off the field, of course. But disliked as a player? Not if my memory serves me right.

Like them or not, no one can deny that both Best and Ronaldo have to go down among football’s all-time greats. But while Best’s career ended nearly a quarter of a century ago, Ronaldo is probably three or four years short of his prime. How much better he could still become makes the mind boggle.

And while I have always regarded Best as the best of the best (indeed, I used to scoff at those who compared the vastly inferior Ryan Giggs with him), there is no doubt Ronaldo is now right up there with him.

Is he even better than Georgie? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

FOR THE RECORD:
George Best. Born Belfast, May 22, 1946. Died November 25, 2005. Manchester United (1963-74). Games 361, goals 137. Northern Ireland (1964-77): Games 37, goals 9

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro. Born Funchal, February 5, 1985. Manchester United (2003-08): Games 150, goals 56. Portugal (2003-2008): Games 51, goals 20

Sissoko: Spurs and Newcastle wanted me

Mohamed Sissoko might have been unwanted at Liverpool but he was certainly desired by other clubs. The 22-year old Mali international who moved to Juventus earlier this week has revealed that he was also a target of two Premiership heavyweights.

Sky Sports quotes Sissoko telling The Mirror:

A lot of people were interested in me, notably Tottenham and Newcastle.

Sissoko is on international duty at the African Cup of Nations and would commence his Juventus career later this month. He is certainly a talented player and may he do well in the Italian Serie A.

Bolton lose Christian Wilhelmsson to Deportivo la Coruna

Goal.com reports that Spanish strugglers Deortivo la Coruna have signed Swedish international Christian Wilhelmsson on loan for the rest of the season.

The player has been at Premiership side Bolton Wanderers again on loan from French side Nantes but couldn’t cut the ice deep and was ignored by Bolton boss Gary Megson. The left-sided midfield who made his name with Belgian giants Anderlecht will stay at the Riazor for the rest of the season and will return to Nantes in the summer.

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