I was thinking it’s time for a new TFK clock seeing we haven’t had one since the Patrick Swayze death clock.
I reckon we should have a transfer window countdown clock in honour of Sky Sports News’ Andy Burton.
Rocko, can you make this happen please?
PS, the window’s not closing until midnight on Monday, February 2.
Not a bad shout I suppose, although I can’t see it being as interesting a transfer window as some people are expecting.
Mattie Etherington signed a 3 and a half year deal to move from West Ham to Stoke City. 2m for the 27 year old. Not a bad bit of business there.
Don’t be surprised to see Herman Hreidarsson donning the Hoops of Celtic before the month is out
I see former Rangers legend Peter Lovenkrands is being linked with a move to Newcastle
Wigan’s Heskey Kops a deal with his old club Liverpool
Emile Heskey has agreed a pre-contract to return to his old club Liverpool in the summer.
Rafael Benitez is reluctant to pay 4million to sign the England striker from Wigan in the transfer windowand has decided to wait until he is out of contract.
Heskey, 31 yesterday, left Anfield in May 2004 to join Birmingham for 6.25m.
Wigan manager Steve Bruce, who hopes new 4.5m signing Hugo Rodallega will gain a work permit today, is looking at possible replacements and was at Wolves on Saturday to see Sylvan Ebanks- Blake score his 16th goal of the season.
Think he’ll be donning hoops alright but his preferred option is Reading. Bigger club I suppose
[quote=“myboyblue”]Wigan’s Heskey Kops a deal with his old club Liverpool
Emile Heskey has agreed a pre-contract to return to his old club Liverpool in the summer.
[/quote]
That’s just wonderful
[quote=“myboyblue”]Wigan’s Heskey Kops a deal with his old club Liverpool
Emile Heskey has agreed a pre-contract to return to his old club Liverpool in the summer.
Rafael Benitez is reluctant to pay 4million to sign the England striker from Wigan in the transfer windowand has decided to wait until he is out of contract.
Heskey, 31 yesterday, left Anfield in May 2004 to join Birmingham for 6.25m.
Wigan manager Steve Bruce, who hopes new 4.5m signing Hugo Rodallega will gain a work permit today, is looking at possible replacements and was at Wolves on Saturday to see Sylvan Ebanks- Blake score his 16th goal of the season.[/quote]
Paving the way for Robbie Keane to get the fuck out of there so.
Don’t know if Bruce has just got lucky with a load of his signings or if he is actually a shrewd operator.
[quote=“Mac”]Paving the way for Robbie Keane to get the fuck out of there so.
Don’t know if Bruce has just got lucky with a load of his signings or if he is actually a shrewd operator.[/quote]
Some of that, and a damn fine scouting network I’d say.
Robbie will hold on through the window anyway in the hope of that elusive medal.
[quote=“myboyblue”]Some of that, and a damn fine scouting network I’d say.
Robbie will hold on through the window anyway in the hope of that elusive medal.[/quote]
Pretty shrewd operator. Picked up a few from Wenger. Palacios is a decent midfielder. Was on trial at Arsenal at one stage apparently Wenger rang Bruce and told him that he wasnt good enough for Arsenal but worth a look. Bruce took him to Birmingham and did ok. McLeish didnt fancy him so Bruce took him to Wigan where he has thrived.
Wigan are awful to watch tho. That game at the weekend was shocking against Spurs. Spurs were a disgrace and a tactical shambles. They went there looking for a 0-0 draw. Some ambition from Harry Houdini who also had Zokora on the right wing and King in central midfield.
Reminds me of this
“I’m not surprised that (Antonio) Valencia’s attracting interest. He is, in my opinion, the best right-sided midfielder in the Premier League if you put Cristiano Ronaldo on the left.” - Steve Bruce
It’s hard to know what’s go on with the huns. Birmingham say they’ve reopened talks with Kkkris Boyd and the deal may be resurrected but his agent says there’s been no further talks.
Meanwhile, David Murray has lambasted ‘super agent’ Willie McKay for touting huns’ players around. He says they made him aware that their players were available but didn’t ask him to find potential buyers. Why the fook would you tell an agent snake about your players being available if you didn’t want him to do anything about it?
It’s a far cry from a decade ago when they spent more than anybody in the EPL even. They still desperately need to sell players but it’s a mystery as to who’ll go first to set the ball rolling.
[quote=“myboyblue”]Wigan’s Heskey Kops a deal with his old club Liverpool
Emile Heskey has agreed a pre-contract to return to his old club Liverpool in the summer.
Rafael Benitez is reluctant to pay 4million to sign the England striker from Wigan in the transfer windowand has decided to wait until he is out of contract.
Heskey, 31 yesterday, left Anfield in May 2004 to join Birmingham for 6.25m.
Wigan manager Steve Bruce, who hopes new 4.5m signing Hugo Rodallega will gain a work permit today, is looking at possible replacements and was at Wolves on Saturday to see Sylvan Ebanks- Blake score his 16th goal of the season.[/quote]
What is the point of bringing Heskey back to anfield…He is still as average as he was when he left…He won’t score goals and lacks consistency, if they want a work horse up front who will battle and try and bully the centre halves wouldn’t Benitez be as well off and persevere with Dirk Kuyt who is a better player than Heskey…All Heskey will end up doing is slowing the development of the younger lads at Liverpool as he will take their gametime away…
If a 31 year old Emile Heskey is going to be a better option than what Liverpool have coming up through the ranks then it’s a sad indictment of their youth system.
Indeed and it is runty, indeed and it is…I presume Heskey is getting a fairly decent wage packet to come back to Liverpool also…40k + I would say…
Graham Spiers on the huns’ travails.
From The London Times:
Rangers need a new owner, a new strategy, new energy and fresh ideas
Ive spent the past five days trying to think of a previous episode in Scottish football comparable with the current Kris Boyd situation at Rangers. Thats to say, a club which, with genuine and realistic title aspirations, chooses to try to sell its principal striker who is on course for a 40-goal season. Answers on a postcard, please.
In the current case of Rangers, the circumstances are more than a mite familiar. The clubs balance sheet once again is starting to overheat, with bank borrowings beginning to rise from 15 million to 25 million and soon to be 30 million. Onwards and upwards the figure will remorselessly climb, and Sir David Murray, having been there before and caused the club years of suffering as a consequence, does not want to go back.
So some assets need to be sold, Boyd being one, Barry Ferguson being another. It seems Rangers need an influx of around 7 million to cool their situation, hence the fire sale. It is a phrase loathed by Murray, who duly rounded up the usual patsies last week to have the claim shot down in print. But a fire sale, metaphorically speaking, is what it is.
Indeed, the situation at Rangers just now is exactly as it was two years ago at Austria Vienna, who, in a near-identical crisis when they were required to rein in their budget, were forced to sell their main assets. Frank Stronach, Austria Viennas enigmatic American owner, suddenly decided that his lavish investments in the club had to stop, and they duly had agents put it about that their best players were up for sale.
Rangers, performing another of their famous financial botches, became the principal takers for Filip Sebo, Libor Sionko and Sasa Papac. Back then, no one at Ibrox quibbled about viewing the Vienna situation as a fire sale, yet that is what it was.
The current drama at Ibrox is fascinating in regard to Murray. Never again, he vows, will he recklessly take the club back to the days of 80 million-plus debts, and here he is duly sticking to his word. At the moment the Rangers debt is around 25 million but, if the current remedial action was not sought, the next set of Rangers accounts could show a leap in borrowings of around 20 million in two years.
It would not look good, and Murray knows it. He knows full well that the less pliable and poodle-like members of the wider Scottish media would highlight the fact that old habits die hard. In truth, Murray and Martin Bain are having to take tough decisions today, as much for their own reputation as that of Rangers.
Yet what remains utterly baffling is the Boyd sale itself. He is the one player in the current squad there is no one else to match him who might guarantee Rangers the 2009 title and the 10 million Champions League bounty to follow. Is there really no other fiscal option open to Rangers no other rearranging of the figures which could allow Boyd to stay, at least until the end of the season? I find it hard to believe that selling the striker is the only way out for Rangers.
Boyd, I believe, will still leave the club. The current assessment of the strikers sale apparently being dead in the water is identical to the circumstances that surrounded Alan Huttons transfer last year. In mid-January, you may recall, the deal was supposedly dead, with Walter Smith asserting as much. Two weeks later, just as everyone guessed, Hutton was at Tottenham Hotspur for 9 million.
It will be amazing if Boyd is still at Rangers after the January window. The only factor that could keep him in Glasgow would be the player himself digging in and insisting he wanted to stay. But if Boyd leaves, following Hutton and Carlos Cullar, what would it say about the state of Rangers?
The club seem fragile and unable to go forward in their current structure. They need a new owner, a new strategy, new energy and fresh ideas. Murrays famous phrase about every so often changing the menu appears to have finally run its course. There are no other dishes to try.
The sooner Rangers FC find that elusive man who has made his millions in North America and wants to come home to Ibrox, the better.
James Beattie is gone to Stoke according to Sky Sports.
This is the youth system that has produced no one of note since Gerrard. It’s a big problem.
Just saw this on the Bbc gossip Column.
Respected Spanish journalist Guillem Balague and Spanish newspaper AS claim Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo has agreed a deal with Ramon Calderon to join Real Madrid in the summer.