Everton manager David Moyes is not surprised that his former player Mikel Arteta has been a success at Arsenal.
The Spaniard moved to the Emirates Stadium for £10m during the summer of 2011, but his arrival was met with bemusement by some sections of the club’s support.
However, the 30-year-old has won over the doubters and Moyes believes that this in no shock:
“I’m not surprised. He is a very gifted footballer, he is a great lad to work with,” he said ahead of their clash with the Gunners on Wednesday.
“I think the manager (Wenger) was probably surprised what he offers: he is a great professional, a really good footballer and I’ll be delighted to see him back – just disappointed it is in an Arsenal jersey.
“I see Mikel now and when they are having a bit of a huddle he is the one who is the leader and I think they look to him, he has taken on a lot of the leadership qualities in that side.
“He was part of the rebuilding process that had to take place at Everton when we tried to develop the team and move it on.
Moyes did confess that he was unsure of Arteta’s ability when he brought him to England:
“We took Mikel on loan from Real Sociedad after he’d been at Rangers and it hadn’t quite worked for him.
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“We were a bit unsure when he first came here. He was a bit lightweight to play in the middle and so we played him off the side and he was great there for us, he really was.
“Eventually he moved on to be a real key figure in that period and was a big part of us developing and moving Everton forward.”
Transfer windows just wouldn’t be the same for West Ham if they weren’t linked with every Tom, Dick and Harry who are coming to the end of their careers but have once been regarded as world class. In the past we’ve had the likes of David Beckham, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos, Ricardo Quaresma and Dejan Stankovic linked with unlikely moves to Upton Park.
This January it’s Nicolas Anelka’s turn to be the subject of West Ham’s interest, although this time it looks like a real possibility compared to some of the others, which where obviously just paper talk.
We all know what Anelka is capable of in the Premier League. During his time in England he scored 123 league goals in 352 appearances for Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Bolton and Chelsea. It was at Bolton, of course, where he worked with Sam Allardyce and at the Reebok he enjoyed one of his best goal scoring records with the net bulging every 2.41 games.
But do West Ham need, or can they afford, a player like Anelka in a team that is in desperate need of a regular goal scorer up front? He’s currently in talks with current club Shanghai Shenhua about the termination of his £200,000-a-week contract and will be available on a free, but his wages will still be quite a stumbling block for a club still £80million in debt.
However, on the pitch he could still be an effective signing. He wants to return to the Premier League after a dismal experience in China and a new lease of life and direction for him at a club like the Hammers could be what he needs.
At Chelsea he wasn’t the biggest name on the team sheet and, therefore, was constantly under pressure to perform and outshine the likes of Didier Drogba. Whereas, at West Ham and considering the position they are in and their expectations for their first season back in the Premier League, the Frenchman will be able play without as much weight on his shoulders and will be able to play with freedom up front.
Most importantly, he is a proven goal scorer and that’s exactly what the Hammers need. Of the 21 goals West Ham have scored in the Premier League so far this season, only five have been scored by strikers/attackers, with the majority coming from midfield. It may have been an enjoyable and surprising return to the top-flight for Allardyce’s side, but their goal scoring threat up front is a huge worry.
Allardyce knows Anelka well from his time at Bolton and will know how to get the best out of a player who has built up a reputation of sulking when he doesn’t get his own way. With the manager slowly adopting a Bolton-like approach to his West Ham tactics, albeit with a slight twist, he’ll know exactly how the player will fit straight in to the team.
Moreover, he will act as the perfect strike partner for Andy Carroll when he returns from injury. Carroll will be there to nod the ball down or flick it on and Anelka will be there to finish, just like we’re so used to seeing from him in the top-flight.
That’s another plus side that signing Anelka will bring to West Ham. Playing with a player who has so much experience and talent will bring the best out of the likes of Carroll, Kevin Nolan, Matt Jarvis and Mark Noble, while Carlton Cole will need to step his game up even more to remain in contention for a place in the side.
His arrival will add a healthy competition for places and his experience will be priceless in helping West Ham compete as strongly in the second half of the season as they have done in the first.
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The only real problem, as mentioned above, is his wage demands. He clearly moved to China for the money (who wouldn’t at that stage of their career) and will no doubt be reluctant to take a huge cut in his wages to return to the Premier League at a club battling out for mid-table mediocrity.
However, co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan seem to have developed a way of persuading players to join on big wages and then magically finding a way of paying them without making too much of a dent in the club’s finances. Andy Carroll being the main example with his wages apparently coming out of their own pockets.
Anelka is a player who would be a great signing for Allardyce and West Ham, and one that would show great ambition from a club who are trying to increase their image and status ahead of their proposed move to the Olympic Stadium in a few years time.
What do you think? Is Anelka the ideal signing for West Ham? Or should Allardyce be looking for younger players for the long term? Leave your comments below.
It took until his late-20s before the world woke up to the talents of Robin van Persie. Sure, it was always obvious that he was a magnificent footballer with skills that would see him waltz into any club side in Europe, but the Dutchman’s move to Manchester United has given him a platform, the full backing of a surrounding cast and the starring role in another potentially thrilling title race.
That’s not to be disrespectful to Arsenal and van Persie’s time in north London; I always maintained that Arsene Wenger never gave his most talented stars the means to properly accelerate towards silverware. Other issues played their part in what might be seen as a largely disappointing or slow Arsenal career—notably the injuries—but Arsenal fans only really saw the best of van Persie last season.
It didn’t stop them professing their admiration for the player, a striker who in their eyes was comfortably the best forward in England. Wayne Rooney had the status, the trophies, the year-on-year seasons that would end in May as oppose to sometime in November or at a stretch February, but van Persie was always the most gifted. Van Persie always had the silky skills to be a Galactico, the immeasurable talent to be a graduate from La Masia, the impact to be the very best and acknowledged as such if he were playing in any other generation.
But the Premier League has always had figures to properly define various points in it’s young age. Eric Cantona, Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo. Van Persie is more than good enough to be spoken about as equally defining as each of those individuals. He’s a player who helps to draw audiences in the same way Lionel Messi does at Barcelona, he’s an absolute joy to watch, even if supporters of his former club struggle now to admit any interest in seeing him play.
But it’s not a discussion about van Persie the man and his choices in football, it’s a celebration of one of the world’s best players. He’s a footballer who has that golden touch, and one which was kept so long out of the limelight due to the frustration of his injuries.
Manchester United lost the league title on goal difference last season. It’s now theirs to lose this season, and van Persie is a player who will lead them to more successes in the near future. That’s the disappointment from Arsenal fans, but it’s what gives the Premier League as a whole a strong hand when battling the powers from abroad.
There’s nothing deceiving about the way van Persie plays the game, there’s no question that he is the finest player in English football today. It’s not about debates and rivalries. It’s not about trying to add worth to players who don’t really deserve it. How many more times will we see Twitter blow up because the footballing world has been stunned by another van Persie master class in front of goal? How much of a shame is it that he’s approaching 30 and who for some is just riding the momentum of last season?
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I don’t want to get into the idea that he deserves to be in a title race, because in some way that gives off a sense of entitlement. But van Persie is top of the league, top of the scoring chart and top of the mountain for good reason. If Manchester United play their cards right moving forward, he may not be knocked off that perch.
Emmanuel Frimpong believes that he will not be embroiled in a relegation dogfight with Fulham after joining the club on loan from Arsenal.
The Cottagers have struggled of late, picking up just two wins in their last 15 Premier League games which has seen them fall into 14th position.
Only six points separate the West Londoners from the bottom three, a precarious position to be in ahead of the latter stages of the season.
Despite this, Frimpong feels that his new club will turn their form around and move clear of the drop zone:
“The lads are very calm, I think when you are in a position like Fulham are at the moment you need players to be calm and not to panic.” He is quoted by Sky Sports.
“Every team goes through a patch in the season when you’re not getting results.
“As long as the manager and the team know there are players that can perform and it is only a little slip, I think we will be fine.”
He believes that the amount of experience within the squad will be enough to steer them clear of danger:
“We have some experienced players in the changing room, obviously the captain Brede Hangeland, Damien Duff and Dimitar Berbatov.
“You have got some very experienced players and I don’t think we should start panicking yet.”
Since breaking into the Arsenal first-team set-up Frimpong has struggled for game time.
A series of injuries and competition for places saw him loaned out to both Charlton and Wolves in the last year.
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His time Fulham will only be temporary, but he insists that he is happy to be at Craven Cottage:
“It has been a very good start,
“It has been good training and the lads have been really welcoming to me so I am looking forward to my first game.”
Come the summer and every manager throughout the Premier League will be on the hunt for a bargain. The art of wheeler-dealing is by no means dead, and there’s a huge array of top-flight talent that will be available for cheap in the next transfer window. We may still be some way away from the end of the season, but it’s always good to find transfer targets as early as possible, and in order to help the likes of Manchester United, Tottenham, Arsenal, Everton and Liverpool, as well as the teams lower down the table, who always have a tight hold on the purse strings, we’ve compiled a select XI of potential Summer Bargains.
Some are ageing veterans with a wealth of experience to their advantage, others are currently unsettled and need a new club to stop their careers from stalling, and a few are quite simply a cost-free investment.
Click on Brad Friedel to check out the Summer Bargains XI, all available at a knock down rate
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The term ‘rollercoaster season’ is usually rattled out all too often, yet after following up a superb 3-2 win over Tottenham with a crushing 3-1 defeat away to Southampton, Liverpool’s season is starting to look Nemesis Inferno in its appearance.
Defeat at St. Mary’s left Brendan Rodgers’ side one point above West Brom in seventh and potentially six points behind sixth placed Everton, should the Toffees win their game in hand. With eight games left to play and a Merseyside derby still to come, there’s certainly still the capacity for change, but the odds are that the Reds may find themselves exactly where they are come the end of the campaign.
And it’s here that we face something of an interesting proposition when evaluating the success of Liverpool’s first campaign under Brendan Rodgers.
The remit for the Ulsterman has always been one of ‘progress’ for this season. Upon his appointment from Swansea last summer, the feeling was one of light optimism, albeit very much under an umbrella of cautious ambition. The Fenway Sports Group appeared eager to reassure Rodgers that qualification for the Uefa Champions League wasn’t a mandatory requirement for the season ahead, preferring to aim for a target of ‘stability’ as opposed to a top-four finish.
Although after overseeing what was the club’s worst start to a season in over a century, John W Henry and co were certainly given a stringent test of their willingness to play their part in stabilizing the club, as they liked to put it. Yet if the start was a sticky one under Rodgers, the club’s hierarchy were rewarded for standing by their man with a superb run in the lead up to Christmas.
Yet if the one constant has been the board’s backing of Rodgers over the course of the season, the variable has almost certainly been within the aspirations set for this term. The rollercoaster like change in fortunes has made it incredibly difficult to gauge just where abouts within the Premier League they might finish and as a consequence, the goalposts for where many have perceived they should finish, have been subject to continuous change.
But for all the calls for stability and dampened expectations, Liverpool supporters have been given real reasons to set their sights slightly higher this term and that’s in no small part to Rodgers’ insistence that the club should be gunning for Champions League qualification this season, rather than a small step towards it.
His words may have been taken slightly out of context back in December, but even if his observations that second place was ‘up for grabs’ may have been misconstrued, Rodgers’ message here was loud and clear – a top four finish is exactly what the club should be aiming for.
But while Bill Nicholson’s quote about it being better to fail aiming high than succeeding aiming low holds gravitas here, should you set yourself such high targets, that’s what you shall ultimately be judged upon. And crucially, you can’t keep changing those targets at your own will, either.
As it stands, the Reds currently sit nine points behind Spurs who occupy the fourth and final Champions League spot, with both teams having played 30 games. While it’s not out the question that Liverpool could stage a stirring comeback over the course of the next eight games, if you’re going on the basis of the performance they churned out against Mauricio Pochettino’s side on Sunday, you’d have to imagine that seems highly unlikely indeed.
So should the status quo remain and Rodgers’ side finish seventh, for argument’s sake, can Liverpool’s term really be defined as a success, or even reasonable progress, for that matter?
In acquiring the likes of Fabio Borini, Joe Allen, Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho, Rodgers has spent over £43million on forging his own team up on Merseyside. Granted, he’s only had the latter pair since January, although on top of his additions it’s hardly as if he inherited a squad that was absent of quality. The likes of Steven Gerrard, Daniel Agger, Glen Johnson and a certain Luis Suarez were all in attendance before Rodgers’ arrival at Anfield.
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There were – and there remain – a fair share of faults within this side, but Liverpool bestow the core components needed to make something of a top-four push. And who knows, had they not put together such a terrible run of results at the start of the season, maybe there might not be such a gulf between themselves and a push for Champions League qualification.
Ultimately, if FSG were looking for a season of ‘stabilization’, then there will be few in their Boston offices that will be having any particular complaints. Should the season finish today, a seventh placed berth would represent an incremental improvement on last season’s eighth and where as the squad felt bereft of any real identity come the end of last term, they’re undoubtedly moving in the right direction under Rodgers.
But on the same coin, while Brendan Rodgers might have put the brakes on the clubs recent regression and brought a relative calm to the club, any progress made has been more of a cautious step sideways, rather than a positive step into the future. Judging by the targets that were set out for the Ulsterman at the start of the season, Rodgers hasn’t failed by any stretch of the imagination – the problem is that he hasn’t really achieved anything, either.
Liverpool could reportedly turn to Real Madrid’s unsettled centre-back Raul Albiol as a possible replacement for Jamie Carragher, according to the Express.
With Carragher set to retire following Sunday’s final game of the season against QPR, Reds boss Brendan Rodgers is on the look-out for an experienced man to come in and replace him.
Reports in Spain suggest that Real defender Albiol has decided he wants to leave, having fallen out of favour with Jose Mourinho, and that has apparently alerted the Reds.
The 27-year-old is keen to ensure he stays in contention for a World Cup place for Spain in next summer’s World Cup in Brazil and would be open to a move to Anfield.
Rodgers is currently looking for alternatives to Carragher and had identified Ashley Williams at his old club Swansea but Arsenal are also keen on him and that potential deal has stalled in recent weeks.
Albiol could be the experienced centre-half the Northern Irishman is looking for and he could be available for around £6-8million, although with Mourinho expected to leave Real this summer and return to Chelsea, it is by no means a certainty he will still want out when the transfer window reopens.
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Roberto Soldado has sort of flown under the radar this summer, and that’s completely understandable. With Europe’s leading strikers in Edinson Cavani, Radamel Falcao, Luis Suarez, Mario Gomez, and a handful of others dominating much of the headlines, it’s easy to forget that Roberto Soldado, while not in those players’ class, is more than good enough to jump on the striker merry-go-round of this summer’s window.
Soldado falls into that category of strikers that compatriot Alvaro Negredo finds himself in: very good, but not quite world class. The Valencia striker has the talent, the experience at the highest level and the scoring credentials to warrant a big-money move out of La Liga. The problem is, he doesn’t have that aura and wow factor that can force an upturn in morale at Arsenal, or a big enough name to be Chelsea’s leading striker in the way Cavani could have been.
But that’s all politics that take away from his ability on the field. Like Negredo – and should Soldado arrive in England, the comparisons will rightly continue – he can play a significant role at a major team challenging for honours. With Valencia in a financial mess, he’s the club’s most saleable asset, allowing them to make up plenty of the revenue that is now lost after they failed to land a Champions League place for this coming season.
So forget the marketing factor that would be lost in signing Soldado over a genuinely big-name forward this summer and question whether he can be a team’s go-to outlet over the course of a season.
Can Soldado do it in big games? Last season at the Bernabeu, Soldado wrongly had a goal waved off for offside as he sprung the offside trap from an incredibly high Real Madrid backline and rounded Iker Casillas to offer Valencia what should have been a 2-1 lead and eventual win.
Since arriving at the Mestalla in 2010, Soldado has competed in three back-to-back Champions League campaigns, scoring a combined total of 15 in 21 games.
Surely the sensible and perhaps logical line of thinking is that a striker who can score over 20 goals a season in an okay though not terrible team, as Valencia were last season, can only go on to better those numbers in a team with the attacking capabilities of Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, or even Liverpool.
Chelsea may not really need him, with Romelu Lukaku, Demba Ba and the myriad attacking options from midfield able to supplement Fernando Torres’ unpredictable output over the course of a season. Liverpool, however, could do very well to replace Luis Suarez with Soldado, though how much will a lack of Champions League football affect the Spaniard’s decision to go to Anfield, as well as them being a little further away from breaking into the top four than Tottenham?
Soldado could be a perfect fit for Arsenal, able to act as the “fox in the box” that Wenger has spent years looking for. He’s not just another Olivier Giroud, if there is some kind of negative connotation attached to the Frenchman. The former Montpellier striker arrived at Arsenal after one very good season in France, though prior to that his name was hardly up in lights. Soldado, on the other hand, is very well known across Europe and has been one of Spain’s leading marksmen for the best part of the last four years.
Yet Arsenal are a bit of a strange one. While Soldado does fit the bill for what the club need – a natural and at times lethal goal scorer – he simply does not fit the bill of that “marquee name” the club have seemingly promised supporters. Make no mistake, there is a very real chance that Arsenal will completely fluff their lines this summer and be left with a worryingly small pool of strikers with which to choose from, forcing the club to target the Valencia man. But from a football perspective, it’s no real worry. The big hammer blow and backlash will come on the PR front, where the club have once again failed to deliver. Yet Soldado, combined with an improving Giroud – who isn’t bad by any means – plus Theo Walcott and Lukas Podolski, is capable of helping to turn pretenders into Champions.
Local rivals Tottenham have plenty to offer too, though again you have to bring up the debate about a lack of Champions League football, mainly because it could be on offer elsewhere for the player. Yet in a World Cup year, Tottenham would offer him a regular place in the starting XI over the other London options.
There would be no PR damage at Tottenham’s door, rather it would be greeted with huge praise that the club were able to land a forward good enough to have his name featured on the list of big-name forwards on the market this summer.
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Valencia will lament the loss of such an important figure should a transfer occur, as they have done in the recent past with other forwards. But if Soldado does arrive in the Premier League, White Hart Lane would appear to be the ideal fit, for both club and player, and due to the waves others are looking to make in the market.
Which Premier League club is the ideal destination for Soldado?
In light of the 2014 World Cup, a Brazil three-part special is on the cards. Part one will be looking at Brazilian players specifically, part two will look at the national side and their current set up, how it has changed and how it will fair in their own nation next year. Finally, part three, will look at the dazzling Neymar, and if he really is the wonder kid that can live up to the hype.
So part one. After identifying a common theme among most Brazilians I decided to investigate further. It is something which has always been there, but it was first drawn to everyone’s attention on a larger scale with the move of Ronaldinho.
It’s fair to say that Ronaldinho made his mark not only in Europe but around the world. Blasting onto the stage in the 2002 World Cup, everyone knew who he was by the time his free-kick dipped over David Seaman and hit the back of the net. At this point, Ronaldinho was already playing in Europe for Paris Saint-Germain, which was his first club after boyhood Brazilian team Gremio. Soon after the World Cup, where Brazil won and Ronaldinho had bagged himself two goals, he moved to Barcelona in a €30million deal. This is truly where he shined and in his time at Barcelona Ronaldinho scored 70 goals in 145 games. He also won one Ballon D’or and two FIFA World Player of the Year titles.
Ronaldinho summed up what Brazilian football was all about, he played with flair and his footwork was the best the world had seen. After spending five years at the club and stating they were the ‘best of his life’, Ronaldinho took on a new challenge at AC Milan. Unfortunately he wasn’t as prolific with a return of 20 goals in 76 games, but he still showed signs of that footwork mastery we’d become accustomed to.
[cat_link cat=”worldcup” type=”list”]
After two seasons, Ronaldinho and AC Milan parted company – alerting a number of other clubs to his availability. However it was Brazil that he chose, in the form of Flamengo, something which meant, no more Champions League, no more Europa League and no more big big money. At the time, this baffled quite a lot of people, why would you go back over there, when the better football is here? But is it that or is it because we don’t know enough on the Brazilian league and set up? I believe it is the latter, undoubtedly Europe is far bigger with the likes of many nations coming together and playing in the Champions League, however Brazil does hold a certain footballing quality unseen anywhere else in the world.
Ronaldinho went back home to play football, he wanted to go back where it all started and bring back the quality. As well as guaranteed play he would enjoy a better quality of life. It becomes a lot clearer when Ronaldinho stated at the time of his move to Flamengo, that he did it to get back in the squad for the 2014 World Cup. Although he is playing in a league with less quality, if he can prove himself to be the player he once was, it wouldn’t matter what league he is in. Still, playing in Brazil for Atletico Mineiro, Ronaldinho has found some form and has won a place back in the national side.
A childhood dream for most players is playing in a World Cup, playing in a World Cup on your home soil is even more special. No doubt this will be Ronaldinho’s last World Cup and he will go on to retire in Brazil. And this is a common theme. Many Brazilian players starting off their career in Brazil and making their mark in Europe, have all since gone back to Brazil to the end of their playing days.
Ronaldinho is just one case, but here is a starting 11 of Brazilian internationals that ended their playing days where the started:
– Dida (Brazil 91 Caps, AC Milan 206 Apps)
– Juan (Brazil 79 Caps, Bayer Leverkusen 169 Apps, Roma 117 Apps)
– Josue (Brazil 28 Caps, VfL Wolfsburg 140 Apps)
– Lucio (Brazil 105 Caps, Bayern Munich 144 Apps, Inter Milan 96 Apps)
– Kleberson (Brazil 32 Caps, Manchester United 20 Apps, Besiktas 45 Apps)
– Elano (Brazil 50 Caps, Shakhtar Donetsk 40 Apps, Manchester City 62 Apps, Galatasaray 33 Apps)
– Rivaldo (Brazil 74 Caps, Deportivo La Coruna 41 Apps, Barcelona 157 Apps, AC Milan 22 Apps, Olympiacos 70 Apps)
– Ronaldinho (Brazil 97 Caps, Paris Saint-Germain 55 Apps, Barcelona 145 Apps, AC Milan 76 Apps)
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– Ronaldo (Brazil 98 Caps, PSV Eindhoven 46 Apps, Barcelona 37 Apps, Inter Milan 68 Apps, Real Madrid 127 Apps, AC Milan 20 Apps)
– Luis Fabiano (Brazil 45 Caps, Porto 22 Apps, Sevilla 149 Apps)
All of these players made a decent impact in European football, the three R’s in there being the most noticeable. All of them retired or still play within the Brazilian league. It may surprise many people to learn that in fact Rivaldo still plays on at the age of 41 for Brazilian side Sao Caetano. He’s scored twice so far in 2013.
Whether it be a lifestyle choice or a bid to regain the passion of football, nothing beats the essence of home for most Brazilian players. This could arguably be fanned out as a South American trend, if we look at Carlos Tevez, who by all means, could play for most clubs in the world, but wanted to move back to South America. Corinthians nearly had a deal in the bag, before it was scuppered at the last minute. Tevez was desperate to re-unite with his family and spend time with them, he even left the country for three months to try and force a move and be alongside his family.
The greatest player that ever breathed, Pele, never left Brazil until his final two playing years. He played for Santos for a total of 18 years never once going to Europe. Argentine legend Diego Maradona started and ended his playing career in Argentina, while having a stint in Europe. There is definitely a theme not many can deny that, all for different reasons. Most of all, the football league in Brazil is bigger than we may think, and this, is where we are having our next World Cup.
The whole of England went Rickie Lambert crazy last week after the 31-year-old netted the winner for the Three Lions against Scotland with his first touch on the international stage.
And indeed, the Southampton forward’s rise to prominence is an inspiring and captivating tale. Released by Liverpool aged 15 and subsequently Blackpool two years later, Lambert earned his place in the Premier League and the England squad the hard way – working his way up from the depths of lower league football with spells at Macclesfield, Stockport County, Rochdale and Bristol Rovers, before the Saints acquired his services in 2009 for £1million.
As the south coast outfit achieved back-to-back promotions to the English top flight, Lambert’s efforts in front of goal gained notoriety, netting 78 times in 132 appearances for his League 1 and Championship campaigns combined at St. Mary’s.
But the enigmatic Lambert’s ascension into the England squad is a rarity to say the least for a former fourth tier player, and more than anything, the 31-year-old’s defiance of the footballing norm in England highlights the Premier League’s snobbery regarding lower league players.
[cat_link cat=”premiership” type=”tower”]
The negative cultural stigmatism attached to those donning their trade at any level lower than the top flight couldn’t be summed up better than by Three Lions manager Roy Hodgson himself, who remarked after including Lambert in his squad for the Scotland friendly: “I’d just gone to Fulham and we played [Bristol Rovers] in the FA Cup – and lost on penalties. Lambert played, and did very well.
“Like I am certain many other managers, we looked at it and thought, ‘Division One? Is he going to be able to step up?’ and we didn’t take the chance – but other clubs did.”
The former Cottagers boss decided Lambert wasn’t good enough for the top flight, and rather than taking a punt on a budding Englishman who’d been taking the lower leagues by storm, Hodgson signed former Norway international Erik Nevland, who found the net just nine times in three seasons in West London. But now Lambert has wormed his way into the Premier League, with 15 goals in his inaugural top tier campaign, he’s more than good enough for an England squad that’s disturbingly lacking in prolific centre-forwards.
Fair enough, every manager lets transfer opportunities slip through the net, but this summer alone, we’ve seen Premier League clubs reject Championship and lower league players in favour of signings from the continent on an almost systematic scale. So far in the current transfer window, only 15 of the 61 Premier League signings to date have been promoted from the lower tiers, and with six of that 15 having already played in the top fight, three of which did so last season, the actual number of players from the Championship or beyond is ten, and three of those – West Ham’s Danny Whitehead, Cardiff’s Simon Moore and Stoke’s Alex Grant – are unlikely to feature next season, being still considered as youth prospects.
So that’s just six from 61 players in total without top flight experience who will be playing Premier League football this season that played Championship football last term without acquiring promotion, while the top flight welcomes 46 new foreign arrivals.
It begs the question of what do we actually use the lower tiers for? The Championship is often praised for its high quality and depth of competition from top to bottom, with just 13 points between relegation and play-off places last season, but a Premier League outfit actually investing in a second flight player has become a rarer occurrence.
And it’s very much a glass ceiling, considering that in comparison to the Premier League, 33 players have jumped ship to the Championship from clubs plying their trade in League 1 or lower already this summer, equating to around 30 % of all transfers. But unlike the Premier League, a significant amount of second tier acquisitions have been sourced from other Championship clubs, whilst only ten Premiership players have secured new tenures at other top flight outfits thus far in the current transfer window.
It seems the prevailing opinion is that a striker who can net 25 times in the Championship will be disturbingly lacking in front of goal in the top flight, or a goalie that can keep a wealth of clean sheets in the second tier will suddenly become a flap-happy calamity ‘keeper in the Premier League. Despite often claiming the Championship is one of the most competitive second tiers in world football, the gulf between itself and the Premier League is still judged as too vast.
Gary Hooper had to move to the SPL with Celtic to get a top flight club to acquire his services, despite scoring 43 goals in 80 appearances for Scunthorpe and being the Championship’s third top scorer during the 2009/2010 campaign, at just 22 years of age. But the £5million Norwich signing is yet another Premier League starlet to have to work his way up from the bottom, having started his playing career with Grays Athletic.
There are signs that things are changing for the better however. Along with Lambert and Hooper, who both began in lower league football, Crystal Palace signed budding youngster Dwight Gayle this summer for £4.5 million from Peterborough after plying his trade with Essex Senior League outfit Stanstead FC two years ago, and had it not been for a failed medical examination, fellow former non-leaguer Charlie Austin would’ve joined Hull. Similarly, ex-Eagles prodigy Wilfried Zaha officially joined Manchester United for an initial £10million fee in January.
But there still remains a negative stigmatism in the Premier League towards players from the lower tiers, especially if they’ve already surpassed the 24 year old benchmark. Top flight managers view foreign imports as less risky, despite the obvious flawed logic; can a Spaniard, an Argentine or an Italian from abroad possess a greater knowledge or better understanding of the English game than a tried and tested Championship performer? It’s almost as if excelling in the second flight pigeon-holes players for their foreseeable future, rather than implying that they’re ready for the next level.
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Pundits, managers and players alike often bemoan the poor state of the England national team. But with the Premier League cutting off opportunities for Englishmen in the lower tiers to play football at the highest level, is it that surprising that our top flight is now filled with foreign imports to the extent that only 34% of starting line-ups from the Premiership’s opening weekend were home-grown talents?
We’re suffocating the English game by our reliance on players from abroad, and a significant factor in that process has been the Premier League’s cultural lower league snobbery. Unfortunately for Rickie Lambert, he doesn’t represent the end of the trend, but rather shines brightly as a rare anomaly.
Is there a snobbery regarding the lower leagues in England?