The FC 100: Loves Talking Football.

The latest moves:

Greg Halford has gone on loan to Charlton for the rest of the season from Sunderland. Arguably one of the poorer decisions Roy Keane has made in his career is signing the defender last summer for £3 million from Reading where he had barely played. He has barely played since his move and a drop down into the Championship is his best chance of regular first-team football.

Andy Reid could be Roy Keane’s latest mistake in the transfer market. Although he fits the Irish / Ex Man Utd model that Keane seems to covet, he is also twice the man anyone else in the Premiership is. Despite his dodgy fitness, Reid may well be a decent signing but £4 million? Anyone? Charlton must be licking their lips after the sale of Darren Bent for £18 mil in the summer, Reid for another £4 mil will do nicely.

Perhaps the biggest news of the day, Benjani is undergoing a medical at Man City ahead of an expected £6.5 million deal. Benjani, one of the top scorers in the Premiership, has been regularly praised by manager Harry Redknapp but with 18 months left on his contract he may have given an indicatio that he wants to move on. Rumour is that Jermaine Defoe will replace him at Portsmouth…and that must mean no-one is willing to take Darren Bent off Spurs’ hands….(more later)

Jonathan Woodgate has joined Tottenham from Middlesbrough for a fee of £7 million tonight. Woodgate will form a new partnership with Ledley King at the back for Ramos’s team. Michael Dawson will fill in for whichever of the two is injured on any given day. The prospective signing of Gilberto should, by rights, mean the end of Paschal Chimbonda’s Spurs days, however Kevin Keegan has stated he is not interested in signing the French right-back who recently expressed an interest in a move up North because “it’s all about the money”. Quite.

Mohammed Sissoko should be having a glass of water with Juve’s top honchos as we speak having completed a medical at the Italian giants today. Juventus will part with between £8-9 million for the Mali International who is currently on duty at the African Nations. Liverpool fans will be praying that Juve don’t discover he hasn’t been able to see properly for the last year or so since getting a kick in the face and temporary blindness in one eye….or at least with the number of stray passes, we assume he’s still suffering from the effects.

Continue reading ‘It’s looking like King Woody for Spurs’

Sam Allardyce has been sacked after 24 games in charge of Newcastle.

A change in ownership at the club had not impacted on Allardyce’s reign too much with continued support being offered from Mike Ashley.

However, hours after speaking to reporters about potential transfer targets, Allardyce wa contacted by Sky Sports to ask was there any truth to the rumours he had been dismissed.

Sam said he’d have to go and check and sure enough. Bang. Sacked.

Continue reading ‘Big Sam feels some Geordie wrath’

After an extended break from writing over Christmas, hopefully the blog will be updated slightly more regularly.

We have had requests about the live games on Setanta and Sky for Jan / Feb, they will be published tonight.

In the meantime, rejoice and be merry for TRANSFER TALK can resume!!

Nicolas Anelka claims Chelsea are talking to Bolton about a reported £19 million transfer fee for the much-travelled striker. Apparently Chelsea are also looking at Berbatov and Kevin Doyle. Liverpool are being linked with Richard Dunne. Gallas says Arsenal don’t need cover for the African Nations while goings on at Old Trafford are suspiciously quiet which means Ferguson is up to something. Cantona to come out of retirement? Man City are being linked with everyone, Villa may prioritise tying down Mellberg and Laursen to new contracts. Arsenal and Liverpool need to tie down Flamini and Macherano respectively. Coppell has said ‘hands off’ to Sunderland over their approach to Stephen Hunt while Roy Keane may turn to Robbie Savage to bolster his team’s midfield presence. Derby will need to bear in mind their upcoming relegation while Spurs are apparently not interested in transfer activity this January. Looks like Ramos intends to do as well as possible this season before making the team his own in the summer.

Isn’t it wonderful?

Rafael Benitez is not a happy man at the moment.
After surprising reporters by mentioning that he might be a candidate for the England job, Benitez has now been given a stern rebuke by co-owner Tom Hicks.

Hicks said:
After the Champions League final in Athens, Rafa made certain demands of us and we responded to those demands in the summer.
We brought in some good players and spent more money than has ever been spent before at this club.
We now have some crucial games coming up in the Premier League and the Champions League and we want to see if we can win these games with the players we have.
This was the message we gave to Rafa recently and I think during the international break he must have grown a bit frustrated about this.
We told him to concentrate on the games coming up and nothing else and I guess he didn’t like that.
But, for the time being, we just need to be focused on what happens on the pitch.

Benitez stunned the media assembled for his press conference on Thursday by saying he would be a good candidate for the England job. Apparently unhappy at the reaction to his announcement, Benitez said:

Maybe I could be Steve McClaren’s replacement if I improve my English. I was being serious. You never know what can happen in the future.

The dispute between Benitez and the club’s owners seems to have got slightly out of hand, with the Americans refusing to talk about further signings until they meet with Benitez after Liverpool’s home game against Manchester United on the 16th of December. Benitez is reportedly frustrated that the owners have refused to green-light the full signing of Javier Mascherano whose loan expires at the end of the season.
Mascherano has impressed fans and pundits alike with the ease in which he has settled into the club and become an important member of the first-team. Mascherano will not be short of suitors should Liverpool fail to come up with the money for his transfer, though the player is reportedly keen to stay on Merseyside.
Whatever happens, watch this space because this dispute won’t go away easily. Liverpool’s results will be under huge scrutiny with the club’s owners unlikely to need too much persuasion to part with the Spaniard should they fail to qualify for the next stage of the Champions League, or should league form not improve.

Brazil has been announced as the host nation for the 2014 World Cup Finals. With all they hype about Mr. Ramos taking the reigns at Spurs, this story has been slightly overlooked today. Perhaps because we have to wait another seven years for it to materialise. Still, it’s exciting news and most of us will be wondering whether we’d be in a position to afford to go in seven years time. Personally I think I know the answer to that question, good luck to the rest of you though….
Ok, ok. Ramos. Spurs.
Continue reading ‘In Brief’

Thursdays newspapers are reporting that Scott Carson will leave Liverpool again this season, and will join Saturdays opponents Aston Villa on a season-long loan.

Villa, who yesterday saw top goalkeeping target Craig Gordon join Premiership rivals Sunderland, have moved quickly to bring in a top class keeper, with Martin O’Neill skeptical about Thomas Sorensen’s abilities, despite the Dane having been the unrivaled no.1 for the past number of seasons.

The Daily Mirror goes even further with this speculation, stating that Man City were prepared to spend £12 million to bring Carson to Manchester on a permanent basis, where he would link up with his former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson; Swedish guy, you may have heard of him.

£12 million? Stuart Pearce must be banging his head off a wall somewhere wondering why the worlds most over-rated manager gets ludicrous amounts of money to spend on players he’s only seen on video, while Pearce had to referee fights between his central midfielders.

Eriksson seems unlikely to get his man though, Liverpool are not willing to sell the highly-rated young keeper, and would prefer a season long loan to a decent Premiership side, despite the huge amount of money apparently on offer. Villa will have to pay £1-2 million to secure Crson’s availability for the year.

Meanwhile, spare a thought for poor Stuart Taylor. The lifelong substitute goalkeeper will start Saturdays game against Liverpool as Carson will be ineligible and Sorensen is injured. Taylor will then be relegated from no.2 keeper, to no.3, presuming Martin O’Neill doesn’t fancy a game in goal himself. Ever feel like you decided on the wrong career…..?

 (A picture of how Robben saying goodbye to the Chelsea fans would look. In truth he is simply being substituted in a Premiership game last year. Probably got a sore ankle) 

It’s being reported tonight that Arjen Robben has agreed personal terms on a move to La Liga champions Real Madrid. Robben, who has been linked with Real for the past twelve months, has recently claimed he is set for a move, happy to stay, likes the sound of Madrid, is happy to be playing for Chelsea again. Robben’s father is also rarely out of the press saying this, that and the other about his son’s future however this time it is Real Madrid President Ramon Calderon who has told radio station ‘Onda Cero’ that discussions will be taking place over the coming days. Calderon has always maintained an interest in the Chelsea winger, and is reportedly set to green-light a £15million move for the man who cost Chelsea £12 million from PSV three years ago. Robben enthralled English audiences in his first season at Stamford Bridge and collected a Premiership winners medal in his first season at the club. The past two seasons have been slightly less successful (although Chelsea retained the title in 2006) with Robben suffering from a succession of injuries, falling out with Mourinho over his commitment to the club and appearing to seek a move abroad. Now it seems he may get his wish as Jose Mourinho refused to rule out the Dutchman’s sale after Chelsea’s 1-0 friendly win over Suwon Bluewings.

Where does this leave Chelsea? Although the figure being mentioned in the press suggests the fee will be around £15million, don’t be surprised if this is short of the mark. Chelsea are under no obligation to sell. Madrid recently spent a similar amount of money on Pepe, the reasonably inexperienced former Porto defender, and have a habit of paying ridiculous money for players who will entertain the crowd. So Chelsea will no doubt recoup more than they paid for Florent Malouda, a younger player with a fresher attitude towards life at Stamford Bridge, on the back of being voted the best player in France’s Ligue 1 last season. It will still be a blow for the Blues however; Robben has been one of the few at Chelsea who consistently runs with the ball and is permanently looking to attack. The Dutchman is also one of the few flair players in the team and with Shaun Wright Philips likely to move on this summer, Peter Kenyon’s claim that Chelsea have finished their spending this summer will be withdrawn should Robben move on. Most likely, Chelsea will return to Sevilla with an improved offer for Daniel Alves, the Brazilian right back- right winger who put in a starring performance in Brazil’s recent Copa America win over Argentina. While Chelsea had previously issued Sevilla with a take it or leave it offer, Malouda’s signing takes care of the left wing, should Robben move on, Alves fits the bill perfectly on the right……..

 (highlight of thefc100’s year)

(Thefc100 would like it known that it would welcome the sight of Alves playing in the Premiership!!)

West Ham have completed the signing of Craig Bellamy from Liverpool for 7.5 million pouns today. The Welsh forward has signed a five year deal after resolving a contract dispute with Liverpool over an unpaid bonus, presumably along the same lines as Joey barton’s dispute with Manchester City earlier in the summer whereby the player feels he’s entitled to a ‘loyalty bonus’ as he hasn’t sought to move.

Manchester City boss Sven Goran Eriksson has agreed terms with Reggina on a preliminary agreement to sign the first player of his Manchester City reign. 8.7 million pounds is the reported fee for Rolando Bianchi, and the move represents something of a coup as Juventus were known to be keeping tabs on the forward. The deal is expected to be completed by Wednesday for the forward, who scored 15 goals in 37 games for Reggina in Serie A last year.

Wigan have completed the signing of Jason Koumas from West Brom for a fee of around 5.3 million pounds. Koumas becomes the sixth signing so far under Chris Hutching’s reign, and the fee involved is worth a lot West Brom who make a 3million pound profit on the versatile midfielder. The likes of Everton, Aston Villa and Fulham were all reportedly interested in the Welsh International but he has chosen the JJB stadium and has penned a four-year deal at the club.

Liverpool are thought to be close to securing the signature of Dutch forward Ryan Babel. The Ajax youngster who can play a host of attacking positions, has expressed his satisfaction at being linked with Liverpool, despite claiming earlier this summer that he expected to move to Arsenal at some stage in his career. The only sticking point could be the fee involved as Ajax are holding out for a massive 13.5 million pounds for the player who recently won the U21 Euro Championship with the Netherlands. However Liverpool are reported to have significantly upped their bid to secure Babel, and he could move to Anfield in the coming weeks.

Bakari Sagna is expected to complete his move to Arsenal from Auxerre over the next 24 hours according to reports in France. Sagna, who can play at either left or right full back, is thought to have undergone a medical at the Emirates already and will sign for a fee in the region of 6million pounds.

    (The rather dashing Carlos Tevez)

 It’s been a strange day for the little known Carlos Tevez. Never one to find himself in the news normally, Tevez has stepped into the limelight for a change and is at the centre of another tug-of-war, this time between Manchester United and West Ham. Yesterday, thefc100 reported that a 20million fee was being thrown around in the newspapers but that potential problems existed in further confusion regarding the player’s owners.

Today, the earliest reports suggested that Man Utd had agreed a two year loan with West Ham, and had the option of a third year should they wish to take it up. Reports suggested Man Utd officials were on their way to meet the player, representing the Argies in the Copa America, to set up a medical and finalise personal terms.

Tevez, for his part, insisted yesterday that he had heard nothing of an offer from Utd and that he wasn’t prepared to rule out staying at West Ham as he was settled there and it was clear ‘the fans loved (him)’.  News broke in the afternoon then that the biscuit man and West Ham’s chairman Eggert Magnusson had insisted the deal was not on course for completion as West Ham owned the player and could block any attempt to sign him.

The Premier League had also stated last night that they would be keeping a very close eye on any move to make sure and avoid a repeat of last season’s furore which led to Sheffield United’s appeal of their relegation to the Championship over concerns about the Hammers move for Tevez and Mascherano.

This evening however, the loveable Kia Joorabchian, Tevez’ dodgy agent, has insisted that the move to Man Utd will be formalised in the next couple of days as the player had been ‘given permission to talk to other clubs’. Tevez has also insisted he desires a move to Old Trafford now and his agent has suggested that the player has already agreed terms on the move and that it will be finalised in the next few days…..

The fact that West Ham expressed an interest to Liverpool today about bringing Djibril Cisse suggests that the club were possibly resigned to losing the player. The fact that Magnusson insists that they are not could mean one of two things. Either (a) they know he’s going to leave and thus want to make some serious money on him rather than let him leave on loan, or (b) they believe there are still problems with the registration that could see Sheffield United’s appeal be subsequently upheld.

Either way, this case makes for interesting and very strange reading: watch this space…..