a few newsworthy items
on tottenham and manchester united
so with the departure of ruud van nistelrooy, manchester united is making room for some fresh new signings to fill roles that have been left empty for the past few years. their most recent signing, 25-year-old michael carrick, england international and now former tottenham central midfielder will look to bring his streak of success in the premiership and at the international level to man u. surprisingly, the role of central midfield is one that manchester united have been trying to fill with a consistent player for quite sometime, but have failed to do so over the past few years. the guardian's jon brodkin wrote yesterday, "carrick brings something none of those had in proven premiership ability and united will hope their first major signing this summer helps to spark a big improvement in the pursuit of chelsea and european honours."
all signs point to carrick as the consistently quality midfielder that man utd can rely on, however, some wonder whether he has the ability to fully control a game, like gerrard displayed in this year's fa cup final. nigel winterburn, a former coach of carrick's while playing for west ham (where all great players come from) had this to say about carrick's abilities if you are considering him as a midfielder to your squad:
he had a good season last season and got in the world cup squad but i think my one reservation is whether he can change a game round," winterburn said. "he has certainly got fantastic talent and i am sure he is going to be a big asset to manchester united. when they play in the premiership they have a lot of possession, usually more than 50%, so they need creative players. when they go into the champions league and come up against good teams will he still have that influence? i hope he can develop his game...the main part of his game is long and short passing with both feet. at times when i was at west ham i was waiting for him, in games where we were struggling, to take games by the scruff of the neck and change them round like vieira did at arsenal, but I don't think that's his style. he's not a big tackler. he can get forward but he will probably more sit in front of the back four and support and look to get on the ball.
as if losing carrick (but gaining--what--£15 mill?) for tottenham wasn't enough, it looks like they will be without their captain, 25 year old ledley king who injured his knee during training and will miss the start of the season and possibly up to eight weeks of play. yet all is not lost for the spurs. selling carrick to man utd for £15 mil opens up a lot of spending money for the squad before the transfer period ends august 31st. and in a recent 2-0 preseason victory over relegated birmingham city, tottenham's most recent signing, bulgarian international dimitar berbatov has set himself a target of bagging 15-20 goals in his first season after scoring both goals to give the spurs victory. berbatov scored 20 goals in his last two seasons playing in the german bundesliga for bayer leverkusen, and plays his first spurs home game today against inter milan.s
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on arsenal and their frontline
for those of you who were wondering who arsenal would be starting up front with henry, it might be a wise decision to put your money on robin van persie. jose antonio reyes has been linked to move home to--surprise, surprise--real madrid. the 22-year-old, was a £10.5m signing from sevilla in jan. 2004, but has been linked with a move to real before, in early 2005, so again it just may be wishful thinking on reyes' end. reyes has made 110 appearances with arsenal and scored 23 goals. not numbers that would immediately make arsenal want to keep the young talent, so we'll just have to wait and see how this develops. if he does leave, i would be all but sure that van persie and henry would be arsenal's front combo, with van persie hoping to emulate his mentor dennis bergkamp for the 2006/07 season.
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also
links to articles and rumours that might have affect on our league, your team, or your future team:
chelsea looking to sign arsenal back ashley cole (bbc)
preseason scores and match highlights (bbc)
lerner vague about possible aston villa move (espn)
so with the departure of ruud van nistelrooy, manchester united is making room for some fresh new signings to fill roles that have been left empty for the past few years. their most recent signing, 25-year-old michael carrick, england international and now former tottenham central midfielder will look to bring his streak of success in the premiership and at the international level to man u. surprisingly, the role of central midfield is one that manchester united have been trying to fill with a consistent player for quite sometime, but have failed to do so over the past few years. the guardian's jon brodkin wrote yesterday, "carrick brings something none of those had in proven premiership ability and united will hope their first major signing this summer helps to spark a big improvement in the pursuit of chelsea and european honours."
all signs point to carrick as the consistently quality midfielder that man utd can rely on, however, some wonder whether he has the ability to fully control a game, like gerrard displayed in this year's fa cup final. nigel winterburn, a former coach of carrick's while playing for west ham (where all great players come from) had this to say about carrick's abilities if you are considering him as a midfielder to your squad:
he had a good season last season and got in the world cup squad but i think my one reservation is whether he can change a game round," winterburn said. "he has certainly got fantastic talent and i am sure he is going to be a big asset to manchester united. when they play in the premiership they have a lot of possession, usually more than 50%, so they need creative players. when they go into the champions league and come up against good teams will he still have that influence? i hope he can develop his game...the main part of his game is long and short passing with both feet. at times when i was at west ham i was waiting for him, in games where we were struggling, to take games by the scruff of the neck and change them round like vieira did at arsenal, but I don't think that's his style. he's not a big tackler. he can get forward but he will probably more sit in front of the back four and support and look to get on the ball.
as if losing carrick (but gaining--what--£15 mill?) for tottenham wasn't enough, it looks like they will be without their captain, 25 year old ledley king who injured his knee during training and will miss the start of the season and possibly up to eight weeks of play. yet all is not lost for the spurs. selling carrick to man utd for £15 mil opens up a lot of spending money for the squad before the transfer period ends august 31st. and in a recent 2-0 preseason victory over relegated birmingham city, tottenham's most recent signing, bulgarian international dimitar berbatov has set himself a target of bagging 15-20 goals in his first season after scoring both goals to give the spurs victory. berbatov scored 20 goals in his last two seasons playing in the german bundesliga for bayer leverkusen, and plays his first spurs home game today against inter milan.s
-------------------
on arsenal and their frontlinefor those of you who were wondering who arsenal would be starting up front with henry, it might be a wise decision to put your money on robin van persie. jose antonio reyes has been linked to move home to--surprise, surprise--real madrid. the 22-year-old, was a £10.5m signing from sevilla in jan. 2004, but has been linked with a move to real before, in early 2005, so again it just may be wishful thinking on reyes' end. reyes has made 110 appearances with arsenal and scored 23 goals. not numbers that would immediately make arsenal want to keep the young talent, so we'll just have to wait and see how this develops. if he does leave, i would be all but sure that van persie and henry would be arsenal's front combo, with van persie hoping to emulate his mentor dennis bergkamp for the 2006/07 season.
---------------
also
links to articles and rumours that might have affect on our league, your team, or your future team:
chelsea looking to sign arsenal back ashley cole (bbc)
preseason scores and match highlights (bbc)
lerner vague about possible aston villa move (espn)
posted by Jonathan at 09:45
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