The race for the Premier League Golden Boot kicked off this weekend, with many of the main contenders already making their mark by opening their accounts this term. Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero made an impressive 30 minute cameo by scoring twice whilst Liverpool’s Luis Suarez and Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney also scored their first league goal of the new season.
If one team doesn’t run away with the league this term then I expect the top scorer charts to be a real mixture of players fighting at different ends of the table so my top ten includes a few outside bets.
Each of the top teams in the title race have at least one clinical striker on their books, so once again the race for the Golden Boot should be a close contest and a very important one in the chase for Premier League glory. But who will be the top ten challengers for this season’s top goalscorer?
Click on Gervinho to see the 10 players vying for the Golden Boot
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Do you agree with the top ten? Have I been too kind to one player or missed another out? If you want to read more of my bite size, 140 character views and thoughts follow me on Twitter @jennyk5
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Hamburg coach Armin Veh insists Ruud van Nistelrooy has accepted the club’s decision to block a return to La Liga giants Real Madrid.
Netherlands striker Van Nistelrooy, who joined Hamburg from Real mid-way through the 2009/10 season, was linked with a surprise return to the club in the January transfer window as a solution to the shortage of strikers at the Santiago Bernabeu.
But with Real unwilling to meet their asking price for the 34-year-old, Bundesliga side Hamburg have refused to sanction the transfer.
Reports suggested a disgruntled Van Nistelrooy – who has scored nine goals in all competitions this campaign – would leave the club at the end of the season, but Veh maintains the fallout from the incident has been minimal.
“I spoke to Ruud today, and the topic has been dealt with. He can live with our decision, he can live with it well,” Veh said.
“He is not the kind of person to stay angry. He needs to clear his mind now.”
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“It is an issue where you cannot say anything terminal about it. But for now it’s done. Let’s just calm down for a few days.”
Manchester City playmaker David Silva is not interested in a move to Real Madrid, and wants to stay with the newly-crowned Premier League champions according to his agent.
The Spain international has emerged as one of the most gifted and incisive players in the English game, and as such has been linked with a return to his homeland, with Jose Mourinho’s men supposed interested in him.
However, the attacking midfielder’s representative has confirmed that Silva will stay at the Etihad Stadium despite the speculation.
“David has signed a long deal with Manchester City and is very happy at the club,” Julio Llorente is quoted as saying by Mirror Football.
“Football is always unpredictable but he wants to stay in England.
“Real Madrid is a big club as well and they were interested when he was at Valencia but the deal was not possible.
“We are ignoring the plans of Real Madrid because he is very integrated at City and winning the Premier League has only increased his commitment to the club,” he confirmed.
Madrid are also thought to be eager to sign Sergio Aguero from City, but both of Roberto Mancini’s stars seem keen to remain in England.
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Newcastle are ready to battle Stoke City for the services of unwanted Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner, reports The Daily Mail.
Newcastle were thought to be targeting another front man in the form of Eren Derdiyok who currently plays for Bayer Laverkusen in Germany, even sending chief scout Graham Carr to watch the Swiss international. However, Newcastle have been forced to focus elsewhere after Derdiyok stated he had no intentional of leaving Laverkusen, who will play in this season’s Champions League.
‘I did not realise they were watching me, but it does not make any difference to how I feel about my future,’ he said. ‘I have a contract with Leverkusen until 2013, and I am extremely happy with that. I have no thoughts about leaving, because I have managed to force my way into the team at Leverkusen, and we now have a Champions’ League campaign to look forward to. I do not want to miss out on that after helping us to qualify’ continued the Swiss player.
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It leaves Newcastle to double their efforts in now trying to secure the services of Bendtner, who has been long out of favour at Arsenal, and courted by other clubs, most notably Stoke. The Potter’s who were thought to be leading the chase for Peter Crouch, have now grown tired of the Tottenham forward, and have instead offered around £8 million for Dane.
Stoke will be looking for revenge when they travel to Craven Cottage to do battle with struggling Fulham on Saturday.
Fulham visited Britannia Stadium last month with speculation rife over the future of manager Mark Hughes, but Chris Baird’s early double lifted them to a surprise 2-0 win over Tony Pulis’ side.
That win pulled Fulham out of the relegation zone and they now sit in 15th position, although the Londoners are just one point clear of the bottom three.
In their most recent league outing they had a goal from Andy Johnson to thank for rescuing a point in a 1-1 draw with Wigan at DW Stadium.
Stoke, meanwhile, have been one of the most consistent sides this season and continue to defy expectations with their eighth-place standing on the Premier League table.
Pulis’ men cruised to a 2-0 win at home against Bolton over the weekend before beating Cardiff by the same score on Tuesday to advance to the fourth round of the FA Cup.
The Stoke manager has no fresh injury concerns, with strike duo Mamady Sidibe and Eidur Gudjohnsen the only players under a fitness cloud.
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For Fulham, Belgian striker Moussa Dembele will be better for his half-an-hour against Wigan after returning from eight weeks out with an ankle injury, while David Stockdale will retain goalkeeping duties in place of Australia’s Mark Schwarzer who is competing at the Asian Cup.
Matthew Briggs’ calf injury rules him out, while Bobby Zamora and Philippe Senderos remain long-term absentees.
West Ham have launched an ambitious £8m bid to re-sign Demba Ba from Newcastle United.
The Hammers are looking to strengthen their strike-force ahead of the new Premier League season and see Demba Ba as the perfect man to lead the line next campaign.
The striker enjoyed his previous time at West Ham, and although it was short, it was very promising. Demba Ba notched up seven goals in just 12 appearances.
The London club allowed Ba to leave as a free agent when they were relegated as David Sullivan did not want to pay a striker £50k whilst in the Championship. A decision that David Sullivan describes as ‘his biggest mistake in football’. It’s understandable that a relegated club would look to cut the pay bill, but had Sullivan have known just how good Demba Ba was, there is no doubt about it, Ba would have remained a Hammer.
Ba really did like playing for The Hammers; he appreciated the huge support from the fans, he liked London and also made some very good friends at the club. He still meets up with Carlton Cole whenever he plays in the capital and despite wayward rumours it wasn’t a straight forward decision to leave. But when the Chairman didn’t want to pay his wages he had to leave, and Ba decided to join Newcastle.
Demba Ba has been phenomenal in his first season at St. James’ Park, scoring 16 times. His goal scoring ability has caught the eye of most clubs, and the bad news for Newcastle is that he could leave for very cheap. In order for Newcastle to secure the services of Ba they had to put a buyout cause into his contract that would allow him to speak to any other club.
David Sullivan spoke about the contract and said: “I’m told he’s got a £7 million get-out at Newcastle and he gets half the money over that. They keep denying it, but I think you’ll see in the summer he will leave Newcastle, or he’ll get a monstrous rise to stay there.
“If they get about £4 million, half will go to him, so if they sell him for £7 million, they’ll only net about three because they paid his agent £2 million to get him out of here. Getting £3 million is not bad, but for a player of his quality, it’s not fantastic.”
Knowing that such a little sum can open up talks with the player, Sullivan has lodged a bid of £8m bid in the hope that he can persuade the Senegalese forward to come back to Upton Park. It is thought that Demba Ba’s management team, which is headed by his brother, are interested in what the London club will offer. West Ham will offer near enough anything to bring Ba back and this is what makes Demba Ba’s management team interested.
However, the good news for Newcastle is that despite the bid, and the possible talks Ba is unlikely to want to give up Europa League football. The chances of Ba re-joining West Ham are very low; the player himself has said he is happy at the Toon.
Although he loved life in London he has admitted that the Newcastle faithful have been the best supporters he’s ever played in front of.
The striker said: “The season has been very great for the club and the whole city.”
“For me personally, I had a very good season.
“I scored 16 goals in half a season. It was very good. We play in the Europa League next season, so we’re very happy.
“The Premier League, for me, is probably the best league in the world.
“Nobody expected us to do so good. At the end we were there in fifth place, and it was absolutely amazing.
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“I have to say these fans are just amazing.
“The best fans I’ve seen, and the best stadium I’ve played in so far.
Perhaps a more lucrative move to the likes of Arsenal, Man Utd of somewhere abroad mayt urn Demba Ba’s head but for the time being, West Ham is not interesting him.
Manchester United’s Michael Owen and New York Red Bulls’ Thierry Henry flipped the switch to light up the Empire State Building on Tuesday.The building will shine the white, green and blue colours of the Major League Soccer on its North and South sides, while on the East and West sides the building will shine all red for Manchester United.
United tackle an MLS All-Stars team on Wednesday at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey.
“We’ve been over in the States for over two weeks now and we’ve had three good results against different American sides and this has got a good feel to the game,” Owen said.
“Obviously, it’s got an All-Star team with a lot of players that we already know about, that we’ve played against, obviously with the likes of Thierry Henry and David Beckham.”
“So we are really excited for the match and we’re obviously here to win, we want to win, even though it’s a friendly.”
Owen, who has signed a new deal with United, said manager Sir Alex Ferguson was still weighing up his options for the new season.
“Well at this stage of the season, there is a lot of change because we’re all not where we want to be yet. It’s still pre-season,” Owen said.
“We’ve still got three or four weeks until we start properly.”
“So, the manager chops and changes things and the training that we do is equally as important as well to get that fitness up, but obviously once the season starts then that’s when the manager will generally pick his stronger teams and that’s when we’ll see who he picks.”
United will be hoping for a repeat of last season’s All-Star result when they ran out 5-2 winners in Houston.
Arsenal centre-back Thomas Vermaelen will not feature for the Gunners until the New Year as he struggles with his Achilles tendon injury.
Vermaelen has been sidelined since early September, when the 24-year-old picked up the problem whilst playing for Belgium in a Euro 2012 qualifier in Turkey.
It was originally thought that the defender would only be missing for a week and Arsene Wenger says there is "no logical explanation" for his lengthy absence.
The Gunners boss said: "Vermaelen is in a protective boot. We want him back and I hope he will be back soon, but not before January."
Wenger added: "On the scan, his Achilles is clear. But as soon as he stays out for a while, it tightens up and he has pain. We don't know the source of his pain."
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Arsenal are currently top of the Premier League but there are question marks surrounding their defence. Wenger admits he needs to focus on his back-line and so will be hoping the Belgian will return soon.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Looking across the squad lists of various Premier League sides soon shows up players who are simply wasting their time at their current club. Whether they have the skill to achieve better things, aren’t getting the playing time, or are just a little out of their depth, there are plenty of names who should be looking to move on to further their career.
They may have arrived with great hopes and failed to live up to the billing, or quietly gone about their job without the praise they so deserve, but it’s fair to say that there are quite a few players who have outgrown their surroundings.
This is my list of 15 players who are wasting their time with their current employer. Some may seem harsh, but a footballer’s career is relatively short, so they need to play to the best of their ability, while they can.
Click on Wilson Palacios to unveil the 15 players wasting their career
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It has been a summer of turmoil for Aston Villa that started with the simple task of appointing a new manager. When Gerald Houllier confirmed that he would not be returning as manager due to health issues, the fans must have thought it was a chance to start afresh with a new man steering the good ship Villa.
But I do not think they had in mind the manager of huge rivals Birmingham City, Alex McLeish.
However Randy Lerner disagreed and went against all of the fans protest and complaints to appoint McLeish as manager. The summer was not to improve for the Villains as Ashley Young sealed his highly expected £16m move to Manchester United, goalkeeper Brad Friedel left to join Spurs and Nigel Reo Coker was released, it really has been a summer of discontent for Aston Villa and their fans.
Only today the club have had to turn down a £15m bid from Liverpool for Stuart Downing but the England winger seems to have set his mind on a move to Anfield and is likely to hand in a transfer request in order to force the move.
With so many integral players moving on to pastures new, the upcoming season will be one of transition for the Villa and McLeish will now be looking to bring in some new talent to complement the squad that he already has at his deposal while also trying to win over the many disgruntled fans.
This time last year Aston Villa had just experienced a successful season under the stewardship of Martin O’Neill, reaching their first Wembley final since 2000 going down 2-1 to Manchester United in the Carling Cup final and achieving a 6th place finish in the Premier League. However to the surprise of everybody O’Neill resigned just five days before the start of the season on due to a disagreement over the future ambitions of the club with owner Randy Lerner.
The season that followed was one of disappointment with Villa flirting with the bottom three, so much so that Lerner had to splash the cash on Darren Bent to ensure the club even remained in the league.
Now McLeish will be looking to rebuild a new side to which mount an attack on the top six in the Premier League. To do this he will need to bring in a number of new players and it is not like the club is short of cash with all the money from the Young sale.
At the back, signing Shay Given to replace the departed Friedel, bringing in Alan Hutton at right back and raiding his old club to sign Roger Johnson would make for three very good signings for McLeish and would probably only cost around £10m for all three.
In midfield, Charles N’Zogbia who is almost certain to leave Wigan this summer would be a suitable replacement for Ashley Young while signing Scott Parker in the middle would be a good move. It is important that they add some experience to a young side that chucked away the most points from winning positions in the Premier League last season and Parker will surely bring a new-found resilience to the side. The injury-stricken Owen Hargreaves may also be an option in the midfield on a free transfer but only a pay as you play deal as he proves his fitness.
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One positive to come from last season was the emergence of young talent progressing into the first team. After their impressive displays last season Marc Albrighton and Irish international Ciaran Clark will surely now play a major role in the team. It is also easy to forget about Fabian Delph who has been overshadowed by his £6m fee during his time at Villa Park but this could be the year he proves his worth to the side. Steven Ireland will also feel he has a big chance to establish himself under a new manager and if he can show the undoubted quality we all know he posses, he could well become an important player this term.
With the many departures this summer, fans optimism ahead of the new summer season remains low but if McLeish can suitably replace the departed players, bring in some much needed experience and still continue Gerald Houllier’s youth policy, you never know it could actually turn out to be a pretty good season for the Villa Park faithful.