King retires

Sadly Ledley King has called time on his playing career which sadly blighted by injuries. The club captain who will no doubt be a firm favourite and club legend in years to come, will become an ambassador for the club and rightly so.

Whilst some fans may not have been sympathetic to King's situation, the Spurs fans have stuck by their man through the bad and good. His commitment has shown why he has been a respected player. Whilst he only had a League Cup win to hold to his name, he was not seen to be running off to the nearest club in search of money and glory. Something these days is not seen that often by some players in the Premier League.

Whilst not a Spurs fan, I have to say that it is a sad day for football to sat farewell to a player who has shown loyalty and commitment. If injury had not plagued him, who knows what may have seen in his international career.

Carroll going home?

Ever since the possible signing of Borini from Roma, to Brendan Rodgers being willing to allowing him to go on loan, the future of Liverpool's Andy Carroll has been in question. First AC Milan, then West Ham and now Newcastle United have put in a loan bid. Newcastle if reports are true would be looking to sign the England striker permanently at the end of the loan deal.

Whilst Carroll had a good end to the season together with a good Euro 2012, it may have come too late especially with a new manager. Brendan Rodgers' style of football differing to previous managers, it would appear that the tall striker may no longer appear in the manager's plans. Rodgers seems to lean towards the 4-3-3 attacking style of football that would not favour the big man.

Opinion of course will no doubt be divided. You will have the Liverpool fans who say one more chance, others who will agree with the loan deal and those who will say he should be sold straight off and not loaned out. This situation may not be too different from a case down soutg

The Robin Van Persie contract situation leaves opinion split. There are those saying force him to stay till the end of the season. That maybe all very well but doing so could see a player refuse to play and sit on the sidelines causing more issues. With Van Persie I would imagine that he will play and respect the club. Whilst he has said he does not want to sign a new contract, I dont believe he has said he would be unhappy to play.

We also have the other view that Arsenal should sell him now because be has forgotten how much time and patience that he doesn't deserve to wear the Arsenal shirt again and that they should sell him and strengthen the squad with the money.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks, two different players, two different paths but with one same future and that future is a new club will be on their doorstep.

Russian FA want Harry;Carroll on loan and more

The Russian Football Association listed their list of possible managers for the job to lead the Russian national side following the departure of Dick Advocaat. He joins a high profile list that includes Pep Guardiola and Fabio Capello. Rafa Benitez and Marcelo Lippi appear amongst some Russian candidates. 

Capello has 'turned it down' and Harry according to the BBC is not to keen. I can't think why, although I imagine his dog Rosie may not be too keen and could have barked his disapproval at the thought of seeing the Russian mafia out with their friendly dogs. I also imagine Moscow in winter is not quite the same as walking in North London. I guess one positive thing though, more money and less games and no Sir Alex Ferguson. His agent is quoted that he would consider the job, there is some appeal to managing on the international stage apparently. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Andy Carroll's Liverpool future looks mixed as manager Brendan Rodgers appears to be willing to let him go on loan if I imagine the right club comes along.  That club could very well be AC Milan who were impressed by his performances at Euro 2012. Would it be premature to judge Andy Carroll on a handful of appearances at the European Championships, or would they include his pre end of season cameo appearance where he played well. At the same time Rodgers is hoping to complete the signing of young Italian Fabio Borini. This Roma player is someone that the Liverpool manager worked with in his time at Chelsea and Swansea and believes he can do a job at Anfield.

There is maybe a possible permanent transfer away from Liverpool too. The Independent reported that Liverpool would be prepared to take a £20 million loss on the former Newcastle man. It would be interesting to see if they would sell him but talks of Dempsey heading to Anfield may not help the matter. Personally the idea of Dempsey playing at Anfield impresses me, he has always shown himself to be a capable player and goalscorer.

Van Der Vaart's Spurs career looks to be at an end as he continues to be linked to Germany. It would also give Spurs money to reinvest under the leadership of Andre Villas Boas.  Modric looks certain to leave Spurs too and will get the North London club a large sum of money. Whilst they have signed Sigurdsson , they will still need to strengthen following the loss of Modric. Staying on the subject of Spurs signings, Hugo Lloris being linked with a move to London. This would be a great move. Whilst Friedel was a good servant, he did have his moments and being over 40 surely his time to hang up the gloves moves ever closer. Spurs or any club would not go wrong in appointing him as a goalkeeping coach. 

QPR have made intentions well known as they look to retain their Premier League status.They signed Park Ji-Sung believed to be around £5 million as well as Fabio on loan, from Man Utd. Samba Diakite became a permanent deal from French club Nancy. England goalkeeper Robert Green signed free from West Haj, Ryan Nelsen from Spurs and Andrew Johnson from Fulham. Johnson if he remains fit could prove crucial in getting goals as they look to avoid going to the last game of the season to stay in the Premier League. 

New York float the answer to United's problems?

The debt ridden Glazer family are looking to float Manchester United on the New York Stock Exchange. Not only that, they intend to register Man Utd in the Cayman Isles. A sharp intake of breath for Manchester United fans. Whilst they maybe making reasonable turnover, their debt stands at £423 million. This is of course not to mention the half a billion pound in extra add ons and payments. 

It would come as no surprise to say the least if relying on Paul Scholes coming out of retirement had anything to do with it as a lack of real spending money. Whilst spending big on players doesn't guarantee your success, it is not unreasonable to think that the club will give you a relative transfer kitty. In fact Man Utd (as reported in the Guardian back in May 2012) have a net spend over the last 5 years of around £50 million. Far less than the big guns. For a team such as Man United, whilst it is good to nurture the youngsters, you are not going to be able to rely on that policy on its own unless you mix it with big name players.They may have signed Kagawa for £12 million but that is not a title winning signing it will need more than that.

Going back to the potential Man Utd floating on the NYSE, whilst it would raise $100 million or £64 million in our money it would be unlikely to be used on transfers for the new season either. Reducing the debt would no doubt take priority and the way the share release would work would give two sets of shares. One lot of shares that the Glazer family would get would see them maintain power, whilst the rest would see no power for the new investors. The idea of Man United being registered in the Cayman Isles, is not great. It was something that Hicks and Gillett did with the taking over of Liverpool FC.

Whilst going on the stock market could be greatly beneficial, if United take a downward spiral post Sir Alex, who is to say that shares and value may not decrease. It is interesting to note that Man Utd's debt increased by £26 million this year a sum that could be a possible transfer target. Should Man United continue to have trophy less seasons, this could also have a major impact on transfer funding and debt reduction.

One final thought, Facebook found trouble on the NYSE, who is to say that Man Utd may not find the same...

The AVB appointment a Dan Raywood guest blog

It was the evening of my third wedding anniversary when having dinner with my wife (and Arsenal season ticket holder) Vicky that the news broke – Harry Redknapp had been sacked by Spurs.

At first I was devastated. Harry had been a real ‘constant’ for Spurs, signed and managed some great players, overseen probably the best Spurs squad in 30 years and taken us into the Champions League. Not to mention achieving a fourth place, to which us fans were disappointed with.

This to me was a terrible idea, not to mention the following decisions to allow coaching staff Joe Jordan, Kevin Bond and Clive Allen to leave as well. Then I started to think about how last season had gone – I was at the 5-0 win against Newcastle which was the last great result before the season went downhill.

I’ll cite the excellent article by the BBC’s Phil McNulty, where he laid out some of the failures of the management in regard to the second half of the season. From my view, the biggest failings are what our newly appointed manager Andre Villas-Boas will have to correct, but one of the main failings was the refusal to rotate or rest players, despite Luka Modric looking visibly tired and too much reliance on Adebayor regardless of his low scoring rate.

Firstly, I have remained positive yet sceptical about AVB. I see him as a manager who has had a very good grounding via Bobby Robson and Jose Mourinho and who has seen the way management should be done. His success at Porto is pretty unknown, mainly because Mourinho signed a lot of his Champions League-winning team to Chelsea, and AVB arrived at Chelsea without such an impact as ‘the special one’.

His time at Chelsea was unfortunate; he was faced with an old guard that even the most experienced manager would have struggled to reason with. Yes his tactics were a little questionable, his direction is unorthodox and his high defensive line was the cause of some goals conceded.

The fact is that AVB was not given enough time at Chelsea because the fans, players and owner expected results and trophies; at Spurs I doubt he will face such a wall of demand. He will be expected to deliver results; otherwise he would not have been entrusted with such a heavy task.

However Spurs are not expecting to win the league, we expect a top six finish and the return of Champions League football would be a delight, but I expect that this demand will allow AVB to be given time to instil his tactics and signings into the squad and succeed over a longer period.

There were some Spurs fans comparing him to Juande Ramos, I don’t see that – I see a young manager with great ambition to succeed and with a task that can go one of two ways. And there will be no room for failure.

That said, there does need to be some changes and my suggestions are as follows:

1 – Sign some strikers: we looked woefully short last season with loan signing Adebayor, emergency signing Saha and squad player and perpetual bench-sitter Defoe our only available options. We do have Van Der Vaart as an attacking midfielder and this week’s signing of Gylfi Sigurdsson this week will add competition for places and offer a viable option for a 4-3-3 formation or 4-5-1 and to cover the right wing.

2 – Reintroduce the reserve team: this was removed by Harry and led to us loaning our players to lower division teams rather than sit on our bench. A credible argument, but this led to us being under-resourced with the likes of Caulker, Townsend, Carroll, Nicholson, Smith and Kane being on loan elsewhere. The reintroduction of the reserve team will allow these players to play regularly against their peers and alongside established squad players to be match fit and available to play immediately.

3 – Make decisions on squad players: I was happy to see the club make the decision to let Krancjar and Corluka go, mainly because you had to question what they brought to the first 11. More decisions need to be made on the likes of Jenas, Bentley, Gomes and Dos Santos (among others) and decide what they offer to the team. If the answer is nothing and they can be sold at a good price and replaced in the 25-man squad with a young player, then that should be done.

4 – Treat the Europa League properly: Ok so the Europa League is not the Champions League and I had no argument with Harry’s decision to use it as a run-out for the aforementioned young players, but with the right amount of ambition we can win this tournament and what we want is trophies, and a European one would be well received by all in AVB’s first season.

5 – Look at the long term for our goalkeeping options: We have been blessed by the form and presence of Friedel, Cudicini has been a viable replacement and the fans still love Gomes, but we need to look at a 20 something arriving in the next year who will be our next number one. A goalkeeper can take time to settle (see Szczesny at Arsenal, Krul at Newcastle) so having someone arrive sooner to work with these keepers can only be a positive.

I therefore welcome AVB with an air of suspicion – that it may take time to deliver the project and that we may have to see the AVB era as a long-term option. I hope Daniel Levy shares this view.

Many thanks to Dan Raywood a Spurs fan and friend, for his contribution and thoughts on the appointment of Andre Villas-Boas. Also check out his guest blog on Sol Campbell from earlier.

Where will he go? What now for RVP

As Arsenal fans digest the news that they hoped they wouldn't hear, but maybe were resigned to preparing for, where will Robin Van Persie go at the end of his contract. It seemed to be irrespective of money, but instead direction which the Dutchman found himself not on the same page as his current employers.

Where would he go? There are several clubs that would love to see Van Persie at their club and one of them is current Premier League Champions Man City. Recently we have seen Arsenal players depart take the trip north to Man City, would the Dutchman dare to upset the Gooners again and team up with Nasri, Toure and Adebayor?  Would he ignore their thoughts, loyalties and take the reported £220k a week to play for the Champions? It didn't bother Samir Nasri who jumped and saw himself with a title medal. Nasri could say that he was right to leave but fans may say that he did it in the wrong way, but I imagine that the £185,000 a week wasnt really anything to do with it....

There is hope from United fans that Fergie may tempt to sign him, but it would seem that it would have to be on a free transfer. Would Fergie dare to make that signing. Would Van Persie even dare to incur a bigger wrath from the Arsenal fans. Arsenal fans can accept players moving on, but players who move on to fierce rivals just isnt acceptable. Of course the only other way to make the fans despise Van Persie would be if he went to Spurs. Whilst Spurs fans may have smiles the size of cheshire cats if it happened, Van Persie at the same time may damage any status that he had built at the club.

The reality is that if by his own accord it is not money but the ability to win things, then he will go abroad, destination Barcelona or Real Madrid. The favourite in that battle would be Barca who could happily wait a season for the Arsenal striker.  The Spanish giants will no doubt rub their hands at the prospect of signing Van Persie for free. Given the Spanish domination of recent times it would no doubt hard to resist the temptation. He would also find himself teaming up with old mate Fabregas if he were to sign for Barcelona. That is of course not to rule out Real Madrid and their team of stars who won the La Liga. Van Persie to Real would certainly make them favourites to retain the Spanish title and who knows go one step further and win the Champions League in 2013.

Should Van Persie stay with a Premier League club that will be great for the Premier League, if not it will be a loss.

One final point is that whilst Van Persie may have run out of patience with the club, RVP should remember the support of the club and fans during his times he was injured, that loyalty is something that money can never buy.

Euro 2012 Balotelli sends Azzuri to glory

The much misunderstood Mario Balotelli gave a superb performance grabbing two goals to send Italy to the final. They eliminated the favourites Germany in a game where surprisingly Germany had played not to their usual standard. The Italians who narrowily missed out on keeping back to back clean sheets, could be rightly proud of taking their place in the final where they meet Spain.

For Spain it will be a tester with the fast paced Balotelli. The Man City star will no doubt force the Spanish defence on the back foot as the current holders also look to deny the influence of Pirlo who has been one of the big guns in the competition. An unmarked Pirlo can cause problems for Spain unless they can stick a player on him and not let him pick out the passes for Balotelli to finish. Somehow I dont think this will go to penalties.

For Germany this was a minor setback for the young team as they continue to build for the future. They will now focus on qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. For this team a group which features Sweden, Republic of Ireland, Austria, Faroe Isles and Kazakhstan, qualification should be an easy process.