World Cup: Winners

Germany: They won the World Cup.

Oh, all right. It’s not so much that they won, so much as how. The manner in which they dismembered Brazil was one of the all-time great World Cup events, a real “Where were you when…” type of moment. The pace from the flanks was outstanding – especially from super-sub Schurrle and future great Thomas Muller, while they were along with France the most potent attacking force in the competition. The key elements of the home World Cup team from 2006 were able to finally summit the hump that’s been their seemingly-eternal undoing, while several of their squad seem set for 2016 and beyond – the Germans had an average squad age of 25 years and nine months, and the two senior citizens (Miroslav Klose and Roman Weidenfeller) ranking as two of their more expendable players.

Starring Luis Suarez as Loki

There’s little question as to this weekend’s EPL marquee matchup – it’s Liverpool, who sit in second position in the table, travelling to Manchester United who, only six months into the season, are still waiting for their season to start.

It is unlikely the match will be won in the midfield. Both teams boast enviable forward corps, with the most damaging player on display being Luis Suarez, he of the deft feet and impish grin.

Last week, in describing Carles Puyol on this blog, I referred to him as an embodiment of the Norse god Heimdall – you may know him from the Thor movies, portrayed by Idris Elba – a noble being both watchful and powerful. There is a romantic mythos attached to the Norse gods. Few concepts of utopia are thought of so fondly by non-believers as Valhalla, where men and gods feast and do battle, while representations of Norse gods in popular culture far exceed those of the more well-known Roman gods.

Perhaps it’s their adventurous nature, but something about the gods of the (far) North lends to their use as descriptors for current events. It’s time to add one more. Most cultures have a deity who, while not necessarily evil, delights in spreading chaos – Set, Sadok and, as played so charismatically by Tom Hiddleston in the Thor series, Loki.

Few descriptions fit Luis Suarez better than as “Football’s Loki”. It seems that either by luck or design, Suarez’s greatest talent is for creating chaos around him from which he is able to benefit. He does this with an implacable ability to find space in the penalty box, devastating channel movement and an almost unparalleled goal-sense.

Luis Suarez’s ability to discombobulate a defence is at present the greatest in the world.

Image via flickr.com
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5007/5201393169_1665acd3f1_o.jpg

Unfortunately, Suarez’s ability to create chaos extends to situations from which he cannot benefit: he takes occasional nip at opponents, blatantly hand-balls on the goalline in a World Cup quarter final (but to be honest, many would do likewise), grants unreserved radio interviews in his homeland and holds a firm and vocal belief that Patrice Evra is the worst person in the world.

Even considering his lack of control over this situation, that he was the summer target of a £40,000,001 offer from Arsenal – the first bid of such a semantic type in years.

Chaos for chaos’ own sake.

Wherever Luis Suarez treads, he sows discord – for better or for worse. This ability has made him the single most valuable footballing property in the Britsh Isles and one of the best players in the world today. It also makes him one of the most easily-appreciable footballers going around, untempered by the cliché-ridden football world around him. Football – and sport in general – has lost several such types in recent years and we mayn’t see the likes of Luis Suarez and his energetic style of productive bedlam again.

EPL finally overcomes offseason inertia

The most pressing questions facing the English Premier League as the offseason began were:

Question: Will Luis Suarez stay at Liverpool?

Answer, May 30^th: Likely, but we don’t know

Answer, August 14^th: Likely, but we don’t know

Q. How will David Moyes fare as Manchester United manager?

Answer, May 30^th: Your guess is as good as mine

Answer, August 14^th: Your guess is as good as mine

Q. Will Arsenal spend big (or at least moderately) in the transfer window

Answer, May 30^th: Who can tell?

Answer, August 14^th: Who can tell?

Q. Does Wayne Rooney really want to leave Manchester United, and if so, will they sell him?

Answer, May 30^th: Probably, and probably not

Answer, August 14^th: Probably, and probably not

Q. Can Tottenham rebuff interest in Gareth Bale from bigger clubs in the long-term

Answer, May 30^th: Maybe for a while, but it risks destabilizing the team

Answer, August 14^th: Maybe for a while, but it risks destabilizing the team

Q. How will Manuel Pellegrini fit in as Manchester City manager?

Answer, May 30^th: He’ll favour attacking football and be more popular than Mancini, but we can only guess

Answer, August 14^th: He’ll favour attacking football and be more popular than Mancini, but we can only guess

You get the picture.  It’s time for the previews, endless transfer punditry and assumptive journalism to end and for football to start.  This close season has not produced one answer to any big question of relevance: before last term ended, we knew Jose Mourinho’s return to Chelsea and Manuel Pellegrini’s move to Man City were faits d’accompli, the baton had been passed between Scots at Old Trafford and that some clubs were going to remodel themselves almost entirely.  For most of the league, however, it has been an offseason marked by inertia.

When the going gets tough, Luis Suarez gets out

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Those sounds you hear emanating from Liverpool aren’t Billy Ocean’s 1985 hit*, but of Luis Suarez’s discontent.  The going’s gotten tough – and now he wants out.

The Liverpool forward – who came within a suspension of claiming the 2012-13 Premier League Golden Boot – has this week repeated his statements that he wants to leave England due to the biased nature of the Football Association and the pervasive English media. 

Amongst Suarez’s body of “proof” is the eight game ban levied upon him for making racially-charged comments to Patrice Evra when “England’s own” John Terry received a four match sanction for similar actions.  While he has a point – racial abuse is racial abuse – Luis Suarez’s situation is entirely of his own manufacture.  For him to want out now is a disrespectful to his manager, club and supporters.

Ignoring for a moment his Dutch ban for biting and the histrionics surrounding his World Cup Quarter Final handball, Suarez has repeatedly shown a willingness to operate outside the spirit of the game.  This is nothing special – you’d venture to say that most players if presented with the opportunity would embrace an advantage – but what makes Suarez’s case “special” is the public nature in which these incidents occur.

Luis Suarez, startling talent though he is, behaves badly in perhaps the most public place on Earth – an English football pitch.  It is this willingness to work so visibly outside the spirit of the game that have earned him the scrutiny he now disdains. 

Without doing the rap sheet thing again, his recent interviews in Uruguay have shown a remarkable ability to apply reason to recidivism.  Those interviews neglect to mention, however, that each indiscretion has been under his control, the result of his decisions. 

Sometimes Suarez happens upon a point of some reason – in this case that the footballing public has been unable to judge him solely on his footballing ability.  This of course is true, but simply because the player has made a judgment of independent football talent impossible because of the circus of malfeasance in which he so readily engages.  After three years of constant, tiring uproar, there is now no separation between his play and his on-field persona, warts and all.

Throughout his time on Merseyside, the Kop – and his managers – have supported him.  He has become one of the league’s best players and one of its handful of truly influential players.  For him to want out – ostensibly to Real Madrid – after having such a large and vocal supporter base back him so often reflects very poorly on him.

When faced with a sticky situation of our own design, few in life have the option to bolt and therefore we must live with our decisions.  Most realize that if our actions put us into awkward circumstance, we must make the best of it: either to make it right, or to cope (and hopefully flourish) from prior choices.  For that to happen though, there must be an awareness of how one arrives at their current position – discernment Luis Suarez apparently lacks.

*I will take any excuse to link to a Billy Ocean music video.

Is Luis Suárez a cheat?

In English football, one of the most debated players is Liverpool and Uruguay forward Luis Suárez.  Rumours – and even some visuals – of alleged misdeeds arrived on British soil before he did in early 2011; since then, his list of perceived sins is ... notable.

Luis Suárez far more than a Black Hat bad guy or simple cheat.  He is the single best example of the dichotomy that exists between football’s rules and their on-field execution.

The latest act in Suárez’s vile reign of terror occurred on Sunday as he scored a decisive goal against 5^th-tier Mansfield Town after controlling the ball with his right hand.  As always, intentionality – as fits his narrative – can only be guessed at, especially when seen by a referee at live speeds and without replay.

The dictionary definition of cheating is to act dishonestly or unfairly to gain an advantage.  According to that black and white dogma, if he deliberately controlled the ball with his hand, Luis Suárez cheated.   Therefore, so did Thierry Henry, when he controlled the ball to score his game-winner against Ireland during World Cup qualifying in 2010.  As has every player who ever earned a penalty by simulation or popped an opponent with an elbow and escaped unscathed.

The word “cheat” is not often used in sport.  When it is, it’s usually preceded by the adjective “drug”.  It is a label to be avoided and the gravitas of such a moniker isn’t taken lightly.  Add to this the multifactorial nature of any situation in sport, difficulty in judging intent and simple urge to avoid litigation and it’s probably for the best that the phrase isn’t bandied about.  As ESPN commentator Jon Champion found out on Sunday, the term “cheat” doesn’t provide for much wiggle room; it is a black-and-white descriptor that just doesn’t sit right.

The rules of a sport are just as monochromatic, and plainly as two-dimensional.  Unfortunately, the field is green, white and most certainly encompassing not only third but fourth dimensions.  That they are enforced by humans with (one presumes) opinions, reasoning skills, no replays and imperfect positioning  mean rules can only be best implemented rather than perfectly applied.  Referees cannot be 100% correct and this means that players will accordingly risk sanctions to try and gain an advantage.

Suárez puts himself in positions to take those risks and obtain that advantage more than almost anyone else in the game.  This doesn’t make him evil, or a cheat (unless you like black and white descriptors); it makes him a pragmatist – someone who values results over aesthetics.  That he can shape matches – and debate – to such an extent is actually a compliment, of sorts.

Luis Suárez is not evil.  Well, not as far as I know, anyway.  He has a knack for being in the right (wrong?) place at the right (wrong?) time.  And this rare talent gives him more opportunity to display how much he’s prepared to trade for a Liverpool win.

Huntelaar a great fit at Liverpool

Reds fans must be salivating.  Liverpool have today been linked with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, the 29-year old Dutch goalpoacher extraordinaire of Schalke 04.  Should the transfer come to fruition – which is eminently possible, but a long way off – it would remedy perhaps Liverpool’s greatest failing so far this term, converting on-ball dominance into goals.

So far this year, Liverpool rank sixth in the Premiership in possession, spending over 52 minutes per game with the ball.  They get shots off, too – averaging nearly nineteen a contest.  However, the Reds have managed only 13 goals all season for a conversion rate of 7% - a modest figure when compared to other teams who dominate the ball like Manchester City (9.5%), Arsenal (9.1%) and Manchester United (16.8%).  Expect these totals to regress to the mean somewhat – City managed 12.6% last year, the Gunners 11.6 and United 13.8% – but such a low total help throw Liverpool’s lack of consistent goal scorers into sharp relief. 

(Liverpool managed to score on only 7% of their chances last season as well, however this was under the system employed by then-boss Kenny Dalglish).

Some of these numbers are surely attributed to the systems each club deploys, no doubt, but as Robin van Persie has proved at United, you can always find room for a forward with spidey-sense.

Liverpool have been almost universally praised for their industry and creativity so far this term; however, the improvements in game style have yet to materialise as the wins the fans – and Rodgers himself – expect.

 This is where Huntelaar should help.  While Luis Suarez has been in sparkling form and was described by manager Brendan Rodgers on Sunday as “unplayable”, accuracy isn’t necessarily his strongest suit: his conversion rate of 11% this term is up from 8.6% last season. Huntelaar’s past three seasons has seen his cumulative conversion rate reach a stellar of 20.5% – over 2 percent greater than van Persie’s over the same period.

Transfers are never really done until they’re done.  Just ask Fiorentina.  They should always be taken with a hefty pinch of salt.  However, if one rumour gets Liverpool fans licking their chops, it should be this one.

Why Kenny Dalglish was (sort of) right

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish was roundly chastised last week for suggesting that Liverpool's season, by every other measure than Premiership points, had been a success. The Reds sit in eighth position on the Premier League table after a forgettable 2012 that has seen them take only eight points from their twelve fixtures since the turn of the year.

Although a peculiar statement, the fact is that he could be right. The Kop legend just failed to articulate his sentiments correctly – everything depends on your definition of “success”.

Broadly speaking, all sports fans want to see one of two things from their club: present success or promise for the future. There's scant, if any, middle ground. If a club isn't on the threshold of achievement (whether than be team harmony, staying in a division, avoiding liquidation or securing a title) then fans must see management putting structures into place that will realise ambition.

Those structures, as Dalglish rather ineloquently posited, could be on-field – such as new players, value-for-money signings or a team adjusting well to a new style or set of tactics. They could also come from the boardroom, like the now-infamous kit deal.

However, clubs can only trade on hope for so long before it becomes fatuous. The confounder therefore is supporter expectation, a notoriously difficult and formless concept.

Despite an improved squad and a collapsing percentage of achieved points (his ratio has decreased from last term's 61% to 45% this season), Scouse fans should feel their icon's major failing has not been mismanagement of players but of fan expectation. With the arrival of Bellamy, Carroll, Adam, Downing, Henderson, Doni, Enrique and, ultimately and definitively, Luis Suarez, Reds could well have expected a Champions League challenge – at least.

For that to occur the team would have had to have gelled instantly and avoided all controversy and injury. All three were highly unlikely. Though he's been lost/lazy/awful at times, Carroll still has the potential to the league's best big forward, and I defy suggestion that Henderson and Adam won't at least be serviceable. However, all three depend upon being deployed correctly. There remains plenty of promise for the future, if thosee talents boasting “Standard Chartered” on their chests are aptly harnessed.  

Sponsorship and stability should be prized as well - if not perhaps more so than finishing above Everton, or winning the League Cup.  Dalglish, in the immortal words of Obi-Wan Kenobi, could quite rightly say "What I said was true ... from a certain point of view".

Courtesy: dailymail.co.uk

Dalglish began trading on instant achievement when, with Carroll and Henderson struggling, Bellamy crocked and Suarez, well, controversial, the club were better placed to plug the promise of seasons to come for one more year.

How this would have gone over with his superiors is anyone's guess, but with squad expenditure since January last year topping out over ₤85 million, indications are that success had become th expectation. However, and by whoever, the suggestion that the club was placed to succeed now, rather than after a short seasoning period, has placed Dalglish's stiffening neck in a tightening noose.

The Football Year 2011

Best Moment: Wayne Rooney's overhead kick against Manchester City to cement a derby win and Manchester United's nineteenth domestic title.

Best Team: Barcelona. Although their reign of terrifying beauty may come to an end sooner rather than later if the defense is not reinforced.

Most disappointing Team: The A-League's Adelaide United, despite bringing in quality during the offseason (Dario Vidosic), last week fired manager Rini Coolen after finding themselves near the table's lower reaches. His replacement is former boss John Kosmina, who will undoubtedly achieve results, but a team which had high expectations are unlikely to trouble Playoffs predictors this year.

Best Manager: Napoli manager Walter Mazzarri led the Partinopei to the Champions League behind the attacking triumvirate of Marek Hamsik, Ezequiel Lavezzi and one Edinson Cavani. While only sitting in seventh position at the moment, he also masterminded qualification for the Champions League last sixteen from a very tricky group. Honorable mentions go to Juventus' Antonio Conte and Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini, who started the year amongst the favourites to be sacked. Mancini loses out as his team drew a tough Champions League group but should still have qualified for the second round.

Man of the year: Mario Balotelli, for his emergence as a figure both of awesome talent and application, but also for having a sense of fun so all-encompassing that he's gone from villain to hero in the course of six months. His resume this year includes throwing darts at youth team players, popping out for an iron and coming back with a Scalextric track, attempting a back-heel in a friendly against the LA Galaxy, nearly burning his home down when lighting fireworks in his bathroom and unveiling a T-shirt after scoring saying "Why always me"?

Signing of 2011: Even though he's unlikely to win any popularity contests and seems to attract headlines at the same rate as Balotelli, Luis Suarez scores goals more regularly than the guy he replaced, Fernando Torres. Runner-up goes to Manchester City's Sergio Aguero, who looks already to be the one of, if not the, best striker in the Premiership.

Unheralded Signing of 2011: Mauro Rosales of the Seattle Sounders was a magnificent pickup and headlined the MLS Team of the Year. Staying in North America, the Montreal Impact selecting Justin Mapp from Philadelphia in the Expansion Draft.

Worst Signing: It's harsh given his status as the reigning World Cup Most Valuable Player, but Inter Milan's acquisition of Diego Forlan - under the short and star-cross'd reign of manger Gian Piero Gasperini - to replace Samuel Eto'o was bemusing given his ineligibility to play for Inter in European competition.

Most stubborn resistance to commonsense: FIFA's refusal to countenance the use of technology - especially on the goal-line - belies the fact that journalists, players and administrators insist it's needed due to the increased speed of the game.

Goal of the Year: Benji de Ceulaer's strike for Lokeren against Brugge in the Belgian League was a combination of skill, touch and positioning.

Gaffe of the year: Theyab Awana's back-heel penalty for the UAE against Lebanon wasn't necessarily a gaffe per-se, but it did lead to his substitution for showboating only minutes after being introduced. The UAE youngster died in a road accident only two months later.

Poorest Managerial Fit: It has to be Gasperini, who replaced Leonardo, who superseded Rafael Benitez, who inherited the blue side of Milan from Jose Mourinho. Gasperini set the Nerazzuri up in a 3-4-3, while not having defenders mobile enough to pull it off.

Explosion of 2011: David Silva has always been known as a talent, but this year he emerged as perhaps one of the world's top three footballers. He is justifiably favourite for the English Footballer of the Year award and has kept big-money signing Samir Nasri out of the first team picture at Manchester's Etihad stadium.

Implosion of 2011: After surrendering to Stoke City 5-0 in the FA Cup semi-final at the end of last season, Bolton Wanderers have struggled badly as key players have been injured or badly out of touch and star centre-back Gary Cahill is counting down his days at the Reebok Stadium. The Trotters look like they'll need a lot of luck to escape relegation.

Villain of 2011: Could it be anyone else but Carlos Tevez? The world's most malcontent footballer attracts controversy like no other. After losing his starting place to the firing Edin Dzeko and Kun Aguero, he - allegedly - refused to enter a game and has hardly been seen since. Some big European clubs are interested in the diminutive Argentine, but aren't prepared to stump up the cash City would like.

What message does your T-shirt send?

The T-shirts worn by Liverpool players – and manager Kenny Dalglish - supporting the banned Luis Suarez may have seriously undermined football’s alleged zero tolerance to racism.  Suarez, the Reds’ Uruguayan forward, was banned for allegedly using a racist term to Manchester United’s Patrice Evra.

This doesn’t make Liverpool’s players or manager racist, but perhaps misguided.  Whether Suarez used the offending term (which may have different implications in his homeland) or not, the guilty verdict marks the record books officially as Suarez having committed the offence.  Public displays like this, though laudable for attempting to support a mate, therefore support not only the player but also, by implication, his actions he was suspended for.

This incident could have come about as a result of a misunderstanding, mis-translation or spite – from either side.  However it started, Liverpool have been placed in a situation where, with the bigger picture in mind, T-shirts supporting Suarez have the unwitting side-effect of undermining football’s anti-racism message.

Inevitability = Mid-Season Transfer Deadline

It's the proliferation of owners crying poor that make this year's transfer deadline yet another sign, in the immortal and notorious words of disgraced presenter Richard Keys, that the football "world's gone mad". According to ESPN Soccernet, English clubs spent a combined 214 million pounds this January, more than seven times what was expended at the same time last year. Chelsea sunk a reported £45 million into Liverpool striker Fernando Torres; which the Merseysiders then re-invested into a pair of front-men: 22 year-old Newcastle leviathan Andy Carroll, who's presently injured, and Ajax Amsterdam's Uruguayan World Cup supervillain Luis Suarez. Abramovich's deep pockets also reportedly funded the transfer of Benfica's ball-playing centre back David Luiz for 21 million.

The greatest feeling on transfer deadline day wasn't a sense of opportunity, though Chelsea and Liverpool fans probably disagree there. The sense was probably more one of resignation for clubs losing impact players. With the obscene amounts of money bandied about there was little to no question that any of those ballpark bids would be rejected out of hand - the risk in selling is much less than the risk of keeping. Unless the player is one fo the top five in the world (ie. Messi, C. Ronaldo, Iniesta, Xavi etc), when initial gambits are north of £20 million mark, any refusal to sell isn't met with an outright "No" but a valuation of their player based on everything working in their favour: "We know he's worth 35 million at least", conveniently forgetting that player is any/all of inconsistent, injured, demotivated, undergoing criminal proceedings or a bad influence in the locker room. This allows a manager to transmit that they aren't really interested in selling, but also also provides the bidding club with more information. If they then choose to return with a figure approaching that speculation, then perhaps business can be done. Every player has his price.

Also adding to the sense of inevitability was that so many of the stars rumoured to be market items handed in transfer requests. With the sums of money suggested for all of the deals above - including Blackpool captain and virtuoso puppeteer Charlie Adam - once a bidding team's interst has been registered both with the club and player, they then begin agitating - publicly or privately - for a move whether for the increased club stature, better competition, a hefty chunk of extra cash in their pay packet or perhaps finally for a possible/probable 10% cut of a multi-million pound/euro transfer fee. That desire to leave is reflected in the number of transfer requests we've seen this period: of all the big-name players rumoured to change teams during January, all handed in official requests to be transferred except Luiz. This can work both for and against a selling club as it can partially mollify any fan anger at management sabotaging their ambition by selling their most important players. With Andy Carroll's 35 million pound move from Newcastle United to Liverpool, popular opinion has the Tyneside club's ownership saying there was such a request simply to pacify a vocal and thoroughly irked supporter group, rather than because Carroll actually wanted to leave.

Selling clubs can both appreciate and fear this time as needy teams pay vastly overinflated prices. However by selling late - and not having control over when unknockbackable bids are registered - they find themselves in a dichotomy that by selling those players so late it robs them of the chance to replace them with more reasonably priced alternatives. Cue more fan anger and a rapidly worsening vicious circle.

Another inevitability was the involvement of Liverpool in three of the largest deals of the period. Unsurprising as they've been horrible this year and their marquee guy, Fernando Torres, has looked more and more disheartened. Like a snakeskin, Torres has only resembled the killer he was in prior Premiership seasons as his last eighteen months has been destroyed by injury and poor form. When healthy he gives the league's best Centre-Half (Vidic) fits the like of no other, but has been neither healthy or invested and looked as if he felt it was time do like the Beatles and leave Merseyside before the stank becomes difficult to remove. Once his head was turned by Chelsea last week, a deal was indomitable. Luis Suarez joining the Reds was always likely but became nailed-on when Torres started flashing his big blues at London's Russian quarter, but the Carroll bid came from left field and may well be the single biggest splash for the month.

Carroll, a Northeast local, is emblematic of the tariff placed on all English players. While the fees this window have been striking, the money that's been demanded for British talent, proven or unproven has exceeded all previous precedents. If, as most right-thinkers believe, Fernando Torres is one of the League's top three forwards - and probably the best - based on results, then Villa and Liverpool are suggesting that their new purchases: Bent, Suarez and Carroll are worth respectively 55%, 50% and 78% of Torres's value. And Bent's record in consistently banging in eighteen-goals-per-year justifies this; Carroll's worth comes down to his undisputed potential. A young man whose raw physique and rare combination of abilities (imposing aerial abilities, gut-running and instinctive ball-skills) have helped him score eleven times in his nineteen Premiership starts this year. His value to the Reds is in being able to recreate some of the successful lineups that the Anfield club ran with during the 1980s - a little and large show, with Suarez playing off the gargantuan ex-Magpie's grunt-work. If he only has to be three-quarters of Torres as a player, Liverpool have made the correct investment.

Money talks much louder than a manager's press conference, perhaps even more so than a manager on the sidelines. When he agreed to join Liverpool, Carroll became the seventh most expensive signing of all time (which was then surpassed by Torres) and the two joined the 35 million club alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Zidane, Crespo, Figo and Ibrahimovic; each a great of the game. The fee - a record for an Englishman - was sure to get Kenny Dalglish's objectives accomplished.

Again, once the sums of money became too great to ignore, Newcastle's hand was forced in Carroll's record move, the sums too much for owner Mike Ashley to resist. With only last year's powerful Championship season and an excellent August-November period to back up that huge wodge of cash, it was inevitable (I said: inevitable) that the Tyneside Hulk would leave. The World's Most Unpopular Football Manager - and he has some pretty stiff competition - Mike Ashley is looking for any returns on his initial investment and as such felt the need to pocket the 35 million and risk another spell in English football's second tier. As soon as fees over 20 million were mooted, it was certain in the minds of Toon supporters that their man would be leaving the club whether he wanted to or not. It's assumed he will free up only a little of the monies received to buy new talent, especially replacements as the Magpies are now left to hunt for goals with the uninspiring trio of Ameobi, Best and Lovenkrands, almost exactly the lineup which saw them relegated two years ago.

Carroll's preference is unknown at this time and most assume he wasn't angling for the move, but with the Reds dangling a 167% wage increase in front of him and the chance to join the an elite list of 35 million-plus players (and the percentage of that fee he may have received as part of the deal). As certain as it was that Ashley would sell, also sure was how the Toon Army would react - calling for Ashley's head on a platter. Their anger is directed at ownership with reason - selling one of their own perhaps without reinvestment - but surely they must understand the principles of buy low, sell high and that these prices may never be repeated? There is every chance that Carroll could flop and to be known as the guys who turned down 35 million only to then sell for 4 million (link to Sunderland/Bent story) would be undesired in the extreme. The fans have every right to be disappointed - especially in the timing and paucity of Carroll replacements - but should forget they managed to secure one of the bargains of the transfer window, picking up Stephen Ireland from Villa on loan for a song. Not a like-for-like replacement, the bald one may well provide a creativity that those noted creation-shy types like Lovenkrands and Ameobi need to flourish.

It was inevitable given UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules that this could be the last big splurge of some serial offenders like Chelsea. But perhaps the best way to sum up the craziness of the mid-season transfer window goes to Darren who posted on Soccernet: "Mesut Ozil + Sami Khedira + Rafael Van der Vaart + Javier Hernandez = Andy Carroll".