Paper Talk
Jan Vertonghen's Tottenham future is in doubt - with Manchester United boss Louis Van Gaal weighing up a January move for the player.
Liverpool are to ask a team of medical experts to get to the bottom of Daniel Sturridge's injury nightmare.
Sheffield United last night scrapped the offer to let Ched Evans train at the club.
Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal stands by his decision to sell Danny Welbeck and claims he did the striker a favour by offloading him.
David De Gea is fit for Manchester United's game against Arsenal on Saturday.
Arsenal have pinpointed Pep Guardiola as the man they want to replace Arsene Wenger.
Manchester United sent their fans into meltdown by telling them key midfielder Daley Blind would be out for six months.
Liverpool will launch a special medical investigation into Daniel Sturridge's recurring thigh injuries.
AC Milan are ready to offer Petr Cech an escape from his Chelsea frustration.
Yaya Toure is out of two of Manchester City's biggest games of the season.
Southampton forward Jay Rodriguez has been ordered to ease up in his bid to return from a knee injury after a minor scare.
Wigan owner Dave Whelan has sparked new fury after defending Malky Mackay with an astonishing slur.
Liverpool have launched a full-scale probe after it emerged Daniel Sturridge has injured the same thigh nine times.
Michael Dawson has told Tottenham they must stick by Mauricio Pochettino - even if he was the boss who axed him from the club.
Arsene Wenger is delighted to have fit-again Olivier Giroud back in his squad - nearly a month ahead of schedule.
Wigan owner Dave Whelan is the subject of a new FA race investigation after making extraordinarily offensive remarks about Jewish and Chinese people.
Liverpool are compiling a dossier on the fitness issues that have plagued Daniel Sturridge's career after it emerged he has injured his left thigh nine times.
Louis van Gaal's selection problems deepened on Thursday after it emerged Manchester United striker Radamel Falcao will be out for at least another fortnight because of a new injury.
Manchester United want Borussia Dortmund defender Mats Hummels but don't expect the Germans to be willing to discuss any transfer until next summer.
Louis van Gaal insists he has no regrets about selling Danny Welbeck to Arsenal - even though he half expects him to score against Manchester United on Saturday.
Arsenal hope to beat Liverpool in the race to sign Benfica defender Maxi Pereira.
Wigan forward Shaun Maloney could be set for a money-spinning move to MLS side Chicago Fire.
BBC
TRANSFER GOSSIP
Manchester United are weighing up a bid for Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen, with the 27-year-old Belgium international said to be unhappy at a lack of first-team action with Spurs. (Mirror)
Netherlands international midfielder Kevin Strootman, 24, has already "shaken hands" on a move to United from Roma. (Talksport)
Arsenal are preparing to beat Liverpool to Benfica defender Maxi Pereira. The 30-year-old Uruguay international is out of contract at the end of the season. (Express)
AC Milan will rival Arsenal for the signature of Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech, 32, who has found himself on the bench for much of the season at Stamford Bridge. (Daily Star)
Queens Park Rangers are in talks with the Argentine defender Pablo Alvarez. The 30-year-old former Catania man is currently a free agent. (Evening Standard)
Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira, 27, has signed a pre-contract agreement to join Bayern Munich. (Independent)
Wigan's Scotland international winger Shaun Maloney, 31, is wanted by MLS side Chicago Fire. (Express)
Nottingham Forest striker Dexter Blackstock, 28, has turned down a loan move to Sheffield United. (Yorkshire Post)
OTHER GOSSIP
During the international break, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho gave the likes of Didier Drogba and John Terry eight days off in order to take a holiday. (Mirror)
Liverpool are compiling a dossier on Daniel Sturridge's medical history to find a cause for the injuries that have wrecked the England striker's season so far. (Telegraph)
Arsenal's Jack Wilshere hopes that his performances in a deep-lying midfield role for England will convince manager Arsene Wenger to employ him in a similar role for the Gunners. (Express)
Meanwhile, the Gunners are lining up Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola to replace Wenger. (Daily Star)
Southampton striker Jay Rodriguez, 25, has been told by medics to slow down his recovery programme following knee surgery after having to have fluid drained from his knee. (Daily Star)
Swansea boss Garry Monk doesn't plan to recall striker Michu, 28, from a loan spell at Napoli to cover for the absence of Wilfried Bony, who will soon depart for Africa Cup of Nations duty with the Ivory Coast. (Daily Mirror)
Everton manager Roberto Martinez says criticism of the club's approach to players reporting for duty with the Republic of Ireland by Ireland's assistant coach Roy Keane is nonsense. (Guardian)
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal claims Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck would still not get a game at Old Trafford if the England international, 23, had stayed at United. (Daily Express)
Manchester City will look to extend the loan spell of former England midfielder Frank Lampard, 36, beyond the start of January, with Ivory Coast international Yaya Toure set to miss key games due to the Africa Cup of Nations. (Times - subscription required)
BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Paul Scholes has not lost his touch and training with fellow ex-Manchester United player Phil Neville went well, according to a tweet from Karen Baird, the chairwoman of Salford City, the club bought by 'the Class of 92'.
AND FINALLY
American comic book giants DC Comics are suing La Liga side Valencia over the use of their club logo, which the company says depicts a bat just like that sported by superhero batman. (Yahoo Sport)
Swiss third division side Grenchen sacked 11 players after a 10-0 defeat at the hands of the Lucerne youth team. (Guardian)
If sold in today's transfer market, former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane would be worth £32m, ex-Tottenham playmaker Glenn Hoddle would fetch £37m and former Newcastle striker Alan Shearer would cost £50m. (Daily Mail)
A nine-year-old school boy applied for the manager's job at Bolton Wanderers but was pipped to the post by Neil Lennnon. (Guardian)
Guardian Rumour Mill
Scott Murray
Manchester United have decided that spending upwards of £30m on Borussia Dortmund defender Mats Hummels would be madness, and are planning to save around a third of their cash by settling for Tottenham man Jan Vertonghen instead. The remains of the pot, and then some, the Rumour Mill will be bound, will go on Roma midfielder Kevin Strootman.
Petr Cech won’t sit around on the bench at Chelsea for the rest of his career. He’s either off to Arsenal, or if José Mourinho has his way, anyone but Arsenal. Milan meet that particular remit.
Arsenal will console themselves with a bid for Benfica defender Maxi Pereira. Liverpool are in for the Uruguay international too, but Brendan Rodgers is destined to spend the rest of the season staring exactly one thousand yards into the distance, not really focusing on anything as his eyes fill up with a hot, salty discharge, and Dejan Lovren performs his act.
Arsenal have also hatched plans to replace Arsène Wenger with Pep Guardiola. There’s a reason we’ve left this one until last, and it’s got nothing to do with going out on a high, or leaving the audience wanting more.
London24
Tony Cottee Column: Great days at Everton but West Ham will always by my team
The thoughts of Hammers legend Tony Cottee on their return to Premier League action against Everton, the international break and the African Cup of Nations.
The international break is now well and truly over and that allows us to focus back on what we all love – the Premier League.
The Hammers make that ever familiar trip up to Goodison Park and I more than most know our record in Merseyside isn’t a great one!
It is the one game I tend to look at as the fixtures come out and having played for both sides it’s the one I get asked about a lot.
A lot of people always ask ‘Who do you want to win?’ and while I enjoyed six very happy years at Everton, West Ham will always be my team and the one I hope comes out on top.
Everton had a slower than expected start after letting that 2-0 lead slip against Arsenal and then getting hit for six at home to Chelsea, but they look like they are back on track now and I still feel they will make the top seven, as apart from Chelsea everyone has had an inconsistent start.
They have also had the Europa League to deal with and now with the prize of a Champions League spot, that competition takes greater significance than it has had it previous years.
The outcome of the game will depend on what shape the players who featured in international duty come back in.
These international breaks are the bane of most Premier League manager’s lives and preparation is severely hampered by many of their top stars being involved for their country.
Diafra Sakho and Cheikhou Kouyate were part of the Senegal team that will now go to the African Cup of Nations and on top of Alex Song’s involvement in the competition, that will mean three of West Ham’s better players will now be away for a spell in the new year.
It’s disappointing to have such a big tournament in the middle of the season and I understand why it takes place when it does, but it can have a big impact on the season for any Premier League club, such is the number of African players in the top flight.
But at least this season West Ham’s squad is a stronger one, and hopefully they will be able to do well without the trio.
Lets hope that along with Stewart Downing and Carl Jenkinson they return without any injuries ahead of Saturday’s game, as that will give the Hammers the best possible chance of picking up a positive result.
But once again I will sit on the fence and go with a 1-1 draw at Goodison Park to go into a good set of fixtures for the Hammers.
Sam Allardyce reveals strange details of Diafra Sakho injury
Brad Pinard
West Ham boss Sam Allardyce believes Diafra Sakho’s back injury may have simply been caused by travelling to and from international duty.
The Senegal striker was selected for his country for the first time last week having decided against waiting for a France call up, for whom Sakho also qualifies to play for.
The 24-year-old has hit the ground running at Upton Park, notching seven goals in his first nine games for the Hammers and looking like the bargain of the season.
His place in the side for the trip to Everton tomorrow is in major threat though after he was sent home from international duty with a new injury.
Allardyce revealed his star striker has suffered a back spasm that was probably caused by a combination of the long distance journey and the high intensity of the Premier League.
“Diafra was torn between Senegal and France I think,” Allardyce said. “In the end Senegal persuaded him in the end to go and play for them.
“Because of his early success it pricks their ears up and probably at Metz, even though he was scoring lots of goals, they didn’t even consider him.
“The demand on him in the Premier League is far greater than that at Metz, and now with the international travel too, the back problem has probably come from a travel problem not an actual football problem.
“The distance he has been travelling is probably because of the travelling he has done combined with the demand he has had in the Premier League.”
Allardyce believes the Premier League would benefit from a winter break in order to avoid the accumulation of injuries and fatigue.
“The demand on the players in the Premier League is so great for so long and so often that eventually they are going to break down at some stage,” he said.
“If you look at the load this year on players, it gets greater than ever before. Not only do they travel at international level across the world, but the constant pressure of the Premier League is getting faster and more demanding, both physically and mentally.
“The time they have to rest is fewer and further between and that ultimately ends up with players never really recovering fully enough to go into the next game, hence they go into a game with a knock or a bruise and it ends up resulting in an injury.”
He added: “We still don’t look after our players as well as other countries because we don’t put a couple of weeks in January to re-charge the batteries for everybody and let them go again.”
It's a Grand Old team (Toffee blog)
Everton vs West Ham
Things and stuff, but mostly things.
Stuff. Yeah! Things. YEAH!
I feel like so much stuff has happened since we last corresponded. And by corresponded I really mean me putting too much effort into a sub standard and not-very-good preview that will get lost in the intergalactic mire of internet football opinions. Things!
Since we last spoke Japan dipped into recession. Sturridge’s groin died unexpectedly thus writing off another year’s big red league challenge in November. Pink Floyd released their final album and went straight to number one. Scotland beat Ireland. England beat Scotland. Someone called Ched caused an angry-at-X Factor crew moral outrage meltdown by training with Sheffield United. Off a small isolated penitentiary island in southern France a soon to be very rich bearded man was fished out of the Mediterranean by a band of smugglers and shown mercy. Humankind put an actual robot on a comet by Jupiter. Believe that? Which begs the question, why can’t they find flight MH370 then? Something is seriously amiss if we can fire things travelling at great velocity around space and they stick to it and we can lose an item on our own planet that is approximately 84 times bigger than said robot.
And with all this going on it helps a lid forget, put things into perspective even. We’re we really that unhappy with Everton before all this happened? How could we be? Everton are ace, maybe even acer than landing washing machine sized robots on comets. Samuel Eto’o plays for us. Just what were we thinking?
There’s nothing quite like an international help you forget how crap Everton are. I reckon we can win the league now.
Our quest to win that league starts right here this weekend, at the place you probably love the most. L4 4EL if you’re a Sat Nav. But you’re clearly not Sat Navs, so we’ll call it Goodison Park.
This week’s unlucky souls are everything Jihadi John hates – West (and) Ham. Carefully not to choose an orange away kit there. And typically for Everton that same West Ham who were tipped to be absolute dung this season have found themselves going through a claret patch, with their best ever league form since 1928.
Doesn’t matter though as, well, they still remain West Ham. And Sam Allardyce is their manager with an allergic face that looks like it’s been stung by a thousand bees. A cranium so giant that it amassed it’s only gravity, of which Kevin Nolan is caught in as a lonely trapped satellite moon.
Really got nothing too bad to say about their fans as yet again the fixture list is kind to us in a lower bell count. They’re a bit Dwyerish, but Dwyer is largely alright. Football straps on it’s instrument of doom and regularly shafts them hard. I like that in a team. I people who have genuine cause to moan. They’re a bit too “England” for our liking but how boss were they in 1986? Cottee and McAvennie doing all sorts.
But, they still remain West Ham.
They’ve just won a big Olympic sized stadium on the government lottery so everyone is predicting they will be loaded now and piggy back us into the boss but not quite boss enough stakes in the Premier League. Good luck with that. Was reading that Cottee was saying that they will eventually surpass us soon enough, good luck with the string of league titles you’ve got planned and managing that not getting relegated thing West Ham. And while we’re at it pipe down Cottee you gel headed fat legged goal hanging dwarf, I preferred Wayne Clarke to you any day of the week you little southern beaut.
Seriously though and I don’t like to over labour a point but how gutted would you be if you spent all that money on Balotelli and your main striker got injured leaving Lambert and Borini trying to train dead hard and impressing you into picking them instead? Do you reckon they’re gutted that they haven’t got Samuel Eto’o waiting in the wings with blacked out boots and the insta-smile of a foreigner looking at you when they understand your scouse accent? No two ways about it.
So where will the threat come from with West Ham? Quite simply in the air and their physicality. They are going to hyper compete and put our defence under pressure from the sides and long. And there’s no shame in that and nor will I sneer. We know how it’s going to be so if we’re meant to be so sound then we should be able to overcome it right? Should be.
They’ve done well to sign super grock Sakho up front who is beasting vulnerable defenders who have been skipping upper body day in David Lloyds. There’s a whole host of beauts in the media purring over him but truth be told he will get found out soon enough as does pretty much every other striker that over relies on physicality. It might (famous last words) be a good thing that Distin has to be in the back line. There’s an injury doubt over him apparently which means that either caravan heart throb kopite bankrupter Andy Carroll will replace him or if they’re really desperate then Carlton Cole.
They’re going to have considerable threat from the wing, both in directness and crosses. The two who will likely start will be that jarg Valencia they paid a small ransom for from the World Cup and twenty million kopite club member Stewart Downing. Relax, it’s not a very exclusive club these days, with high membership and low quality. Like the UK Netflix before you learn what changing IPs can do. Oh and apparently he’s doubtful too, more power us?
Midfield will be hard working and stubborn. Nothing defines hard working and stubborn more than little Mark Noble the eggplant faced little whopper. He’s like a mix of a very bad Didier Deschamps and John Ebbrell. He’ll moan and snarl like the younger brother of the cock of the school and I can’t wait until someone wipes his clock rar out one day. He’ll have a foreign athletic box to box type next to him who I can’t even be arsed checking to find out who it may be, because there’s always one. It’s a Sam Allardyce team after all and it’s components are identical if the name isn’t. Vauxhall and Opel if you like. Or “just a jarg Bolton”.
Jay Jay Okocha though, the only player I’ve seen that lived up to his Pro Evolution Soccer hype. What happened to Robero Larcos?
Nothing is more grockier than an Allardyce defence. Collins will be elbowing the gibbons out of any of our strikers in his vicinity and that Winston Reid is not a bad defender at all. Goals shouldn’t be too easy to come by. Carl Jenkinson who played for Arsenal or may still be on loan should be full back along with someone else.
Jääskeläinen seems to be trying desperately to break free of Jupiter swede’s gravity to avoid a collision with Nolan, so Adrian may start again between the sticks.
It’s very much a sum of its parts job and you know what to expect. Their tail is up, up higher than it’s been for quite some time and despite my general apathetic state to other teams I’m a wee bit happy for them as they’re alright a far as London teams go. But they’re in our way.
It seems like yonks since I’ve pondered Everton, longer than one of Giant Haystack’s skids, so it’s a nice proposition for me to ponder. We’ve got too many moody injuries for me to sit here, in a bath towel none the less, and confidently predict who will start. So that’s exactly what I’ll try to do.
Lukaku or Eto’o up front. Barkley or Naismith behind then. Or maybe all of them at once wedged in different postions. And really Roberto, you need to jib that experiment right off as it does my head in. All of them are ace in their positions at various stages of the season against differing opposition. They make me warm inside with their very evident aceness. But it’s overload trying to stuff them all on the pitch at the same time. Why not just start one and then bring another on after an hour to finish the job? But defo start Naismith as he’s the sex.
Pienaar needs to get fit soon and stay fit before age ravages him too much and he does one back to South Africa to set up township projects while regrowing his dreds, and getting frustrated with them taking so long. He looked like a Garbage Patch Kids version of the Predator pre clippers. Played like one too. Probably McGeady on the other side of the wing then. Rejoice though fellow Evertonians as we are led to believe the boss eyed Belgian is likely to be on the bench for this. And how we’ve missed him.
Barry getting wrecked by that bad texan Jordi Gomez poses us a big problem. Did you think he was ace? You’ll notice just how ace he is now with his absence in each game to come. Time for Gibson to step up, if he can, from injury or Besic to come in and continue his improvement. But can any of them adequately replace Barry’s worth to our midfield at the moment? I’m not so sure.
McCarthy is apparently sound but Roy Keane is sat in the stands making him para and prompting him to throw his hand up to signal an injury to the bench and prompting an imminent substitution. Or in other words Leon Osman. Wasn’t so long ago we had Hitzlsperger and Neville in there so I suppose we should be thankful really.
Jagielka and Distin at the back as there’s no one else, save for young untested Browning. What about fullbacks I don’t hear you cry? They’re both a bit touch and go too. Coleman should be sound but there’s a good chance Baines will sit this out and with Oviedo still not ready from his leg MOT it should mean that Luke Garbutt gets a chance to start at left back. Probably will be something else there now as it never seems to work that way, Premier League managers are prudent when it comes to defenders. Do one Howard with your positioning from free kicks and what was you doing lying on the ball? It worked anyway so well in.
Were having a frustrating season all be told and it’s games like this that a fresh Martinez’s Everton found a way of winning last season. Whilst draws are sound there’s a bigger disparity between win to draw than there is draw to loss: those extra two points make all the different.
We find ourselves now again in a little sequence of games that we have to finally find out gears and kick on to do what we know we can, but then there’s many other clubs in the same league thinking the exact same.
An under inspiring Everton turning your days off into an absolute scrotum of a weekend is no good thing. Yet they remain West Ham. We are Everton.
Lots of things can happen really.
