Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday’s 18 year old defender Mark Beevers has been in fine form despite his side’s relegation battle and now it seems that both Merseyside giants are after £5m rated Barnsley born lad.

Liverpool and Everton both want young Sheffield Wednesday defender Mark Beevers. (Sunday Mirror)

The lanky centre back looks to be one of the most sought after youngsters in the country and with Rafa seemingly keen on increasing his English contingent you can see why Liverpool are monitoring the situation. Everton too want to add the England under 19 international to their ranks, but who, if either, will win the race?

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It’s fair to say that Shola Ameobi’s footballing career has never really got going. The gangly striker has made just 95 starting appearances for Newcastle United in the past eight seasons and it’s therefore a surprise that he’s only decided to go out on loan at this stage of his career. Sky Sports report that Championship table toppers Stoke City have taken the player on loan until the end of the season as they make a final push for the promised land of the Premier League.

Can the England Under-21 international be the final piece in the jigsaw as far as the Potters’ promotion quest is concerned, or will he flatter to deceive, much as he’s done throughout his time at St James’ Park? It’s certainly a risky move when you consider Ameobi has featured for the Magpies on only eight occasions this season, many of them as a substitute.

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A host of interesting transfer tidbits…

Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp has told Spurs they can stick their plans to sign David James where the sun doesn’t shine. (Daily Mirror)

..Spurs, possibly scared off by ‘Arry’s opposition to their David James move, have also made enquiries about Livorno’s 25-year-old ‘keeper Marco Amelia. (Daily Star)

…And Spurs defender Anthony Gardner aims to make his loan move to Everton a permanent one. (Various)

…And in this continued torrent of Spurs news, Sevilla winger David Capel is over the moon to learn of interest from both Tottenham and Arsenal. (Telegraph)

…And it doesn’t end there, the two North London rivals are also set for a punch up over Stockport winger Tommy Rowe. (Daily Star)

…And Arsene Wenger is set to annoy his grumpy Teutonic ‘keeper Jens Lehmann by dropping him for Arsenal’s Champions League encounter with AC Milan. (Daily Mirror)

Shock, horror! Lyon striker Karim Benzema doesn’t want to leave Lyon for Manchester United. (The Independent)

Sheffield Wednesday are set to bag young Chelsea striker Ben Sahar on a loan deal. (Daily Star)

Chelsea and Manchester United are squabbling over Reggina’s Italy 15 year old defensive star Vincenzo Camilleri. (Telegraph)

Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill is the number one choice to usurp Rafa Benitez as Liverpool’s head honcho. (Daily Mirror)

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Some more transfer heresy and hearsay….

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is after Congolese defensive “wonderkid” Paul Jose Mpoklu but will have to beat off interest from Tottenham in the 15-year-old. (Daily Mirror)

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has promised that he’ll be staying at Arsenal for twenty more years. (Daily Star)
…Russsian fat cat billionaire Alisher Usmanov has moved one step closer to gobbling up the Gunners after he increased his holding in the club. (Daily Express)

Chelsea’s 18-year-old Israeli striker Ben Sahar will be shipped off to Championship side Sheffield Wednesday on-loan. (Daily Mirror)

Newcastle gaffer Kevin Keegan has drawn up a wish-list of players that he wants to bring to St James’ park. Included in this list is Man United defender Wes Brown, Chelsea left-back Wayne Bridge and West Ham’s striker Dean Ashton. Whether he can actually bag any of these players remains an open question, but KK has decided to put this on the back-burner until safety is secured. (The Sun)

Ex-Fulham boss Chris Coleman could return to English football by taking the Coventry City hot seat. (Daily Express)

Reading manager Steve Coppell is after the jewel in the MLS crown, 18-year-old US international striker Jozy Altidore. However, poaching the youngster from New York Red Bulls will be tough for Reading, as Real Madrid are also after the youngster. (Daily Mirror)

Preston manager Alan Irvine wants striker David Nugent to leave his belly flop of a career move at Portsmouth and return to Deepdale. (Daily Star)

West Ham United have sent left back Joe Widdowson to Rotherham for a month. He has already been on loan at Carlisle earlier in the season and has been sent to Rotherham for more first team experience. (Various)

AC Milan’s legendary goal-bagging striker Ronaldo is facing more problems connected to his injured left knee. “The Phenomenon” is worried that the fact that his knees are completely buggered may have an adverse effect on getting a top up on his current Milan contract which runs out in the summer. (The Independent)

It’s not been a great year for Auntie, what with losing a load of funding, being found out to be dirty rotten cheats ripping of quiz contestants and Gary Lineker still smirking at the camera. So it with a smile on our face that we bring you better news from White City, the Beeb will be broadcasting Football League matches from 2009. Well, it worked for ITV Digital.

So, what are the details?

The BBC will show Football League and Carling Cup matches from the 2009 to 2012 seasons after winning the contract in a joint bid with Sky.

Oh yeah, the Carling Cup too, we forgot that.

It means Championship matches will be screened live on the BBC for the first time, with 10 first-choice games per season exclusively live on the BBC.

And what’s more…

The Carling Cup final will be simulcast live with Sky, and two semi-final legs shown exclusively live on the BBC.

No, we don’t know what that means either. So, is this a step forward for the Championship or just another sign that BBC sport ain’t what it used to be?

For a while it was Kevin Phillips, for ages it was Jason Koumas, there was even some rubbish talked about Robert Earnshaw at some point. But who is currently the best player outside the Premiership? Well, here are some options, but feel free to pick your own?

Kevin Phillips (West Brom) - Is he past it? Probably, but a bit of expeience never hurt anyone.

Darius Henderson (Watford) - Scores a shed load of goal, but is he just a flash in the pan?

Zolton Gera (West Brom) - Top class midfielder, who really should be playing in Premiership soon.

Robbie Fowler (Cardiff) - Stop laughing at the back, he used to be the next Jimmy Greaves, that’s got to be worth something.

Jimbo Beattie (Sheff United) - The only good thing about Bryan Robson’s reign?

Peter Halmosi (Plymouth) - An outsider for the title, this Hungarian winger is leading Ollie’s Argyle revolution.

Any better suggestions?

No sacking-fest can be complete without the fire-happy Sheff Wed board, and who is that turning up with a cheap bottle wine at the Championship’s current p45 party? Yep, here they come, it’s Wednesday.

No surprise really, Wednesday are second bottom and the club really do like nothing more than thumbing through a few CVs. But wait a minute, what’s that? Brian Laws, who was summoned to tell the board where it all went wrong after Tuesday’s defeat to Scunthorpe, is none too happy to be heading for the Job Centre. In fact he is under the misguided impression that he might not be.

“I don’t know where this has come from. The board simply wanted to know what went wrong and what we’re doing about it,”

Oh right, our mistake Brian, nothing wrong with being summoned to the board to explain why the team is so crap.

“At the end of the day, win, lose or draw on Saturday, I’ll be here. I think it would be stupid for the board to come out and say my job is safe, but they’re telling me I have their support and that’s fine. At no stage have they said I’ve got a certain number of games to save my job.”

Famous last words…

It was back to the rat-race for Championship players at the weekend and they looked more than happy about it; turning in some great performances.

Sheffield Wednesday continued to get their season back on track with a impressive win at Stoke while Watford continued to steamroll their way to the Premiership as Marlon King grabbed another goal against Hull. Meanwhile, Neil Warnock almost got off to a winning start before Palace returned to their usual form and Man Utd’s Lee Martin proved to be a wise loan signing for Plymouth with a man of the match performance.

But here’s your chance to tell everyone what you learned from the weekend’s Championship results, and to see what others thought as well. Sort of a lower-league love-in, only not quit as disgusting.

Barnsley 1-1 Burnley

Blackpool 1-1 Palace

Colchester 3-2 West Brom

Norwich 1-3 Bristol City

Plymouth 1-0 Coventry

Queens Park Rangers 1-1 Ipswich

Scunthorpe 0-0 Leicester

Sheffield United 1-1 Preston North End

Stoke 2-4 Sheffield Wednesday

Watford 1-0 Hull

Wolves 2-0 Charlton

Like the first day back at school after half-term, domestic football returns tomorrow and it doesn’t look too appealing. But wait, don’t run off to MFI to buy that decking for garden just yet, their are some appealing fixtures in the Championship. How about Neil warnock’s first game in charge of Crystal Palace? Then, of course, there is the battle of the B-ley teams at Oakwell (ok, we’re stretching it here). What will happen is anyone’s guess, but why not show your guess is better than ours by challenging our predictions, below:

Cut and paste into the comments with your own predictions, or just put down a few thoughts:

Barnsley v Burnley - away win

Blackpool v Crystal Palace - draw

Colchester v West Brom - home win

Norwich v Bristol City - home win

Plymouth v Coventry - draw

QPR v Ipswich - home win

Scunthorpe v Leicester - away win

Sheff Utd v Preston - draw

Stoke v Sheff Wed - home win

Watford v Hull - home win

Wolves v Charlton - draw

Southampton v Cardiff - away win

Warning: none of the following rumours/facts are that interesting in themselves. But put them all together and they create something beautiful, a picture of the Championship on October 5th 2007. So…

High-flying-Bristol City (TM) have confirmed 34-year-old midfielder Alex Russell will be spending a second month on loan at Northampton. Quel surprise.

Cardiff’s trip to Blackpool has been delayed and will now played on December 11, so you will have wait an extra month to get your hands on a Kiss me Quick hat and a loose woman on a hen night, Bluebirds.

Danny Haynes will be staying at Ipswich until 2010 if his new contract is to be believed. Which it probably isn’t, he’s a footballer after all.

Norwich captain Jason Shackell has signed till 2010 too, it’s what all the cool kids are doing these days.

Leiceister’s Eric Odhiambo will be spending another month at Southend, who just can’t get enough of the striker who has scored 0 goals in 5 games.

AND…

Gray-head Kavenagh (arf) enjoys fighting against relegation so much that he wants to stay at Sheffield Wednesday forever, or at least till 2010.