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Experienced 6ft Player Ready to Agree Liverpool Move

Omer — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 19:00:07 +0000

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp splashed the cash in the summer transfer window and signed players to reinforce his defense and solve the defensive dilemma.
The Merseysiders signed the likes of Ragnar Klavan and Joel Matip to strengthen the central defense and also lured a new goalie in the form of Loris Karius.
However, the Reds have still been shaky at the back and have managed only two clean sheets in twelve league games so far this season.
Recently, Rangers’ 38-year-old defender Clint Hill has told Rangers TV that he will love to agree Liverpool move if he got the chance. When asked which club he will like to play for, Clint replied:

“I support Liverpool. So, I would love to go and play for them.”

French central defender Mamadou Sakho is only playing in the reserves and it will not come as any surprise if the former PSG star leaves the club in the January transfer window.
Hill has all the experience but it is highly likely that Klopp will consider the 6ft veteran to replace someone like Sakho. Moreover, with Lovren, Matip, Klavan and Gomes around, Liverpool do not really need to sign another central defender.
Therefore, Clint’s wish of playing in the Red shirt may not come true. The Reds must sign a new left back in the winter window if they do focus on further strengthening the back line.

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Picture – "Technically Gifted" Liverpool Player Finally Seals Move – Good Riddance?

Joe Rooney — Sat, 14 May 2016 07:54:59 +0000

Scottish club Rangers have officially confirmed the signing of Jordan Rossiter from Liverpool Football Club.
The 19-year-old versatile midfielder played 5 times for the senior Liverpool side and scored a goal as well.
The young England international is Rangers’ third capture for the new season and boss Warburton praised Rossiter very highly. He claimed that Jordan is a “technically gifted” player.
Rossiter was never really required at Anfield with the likes of Henderson, Can, Allen, Lucas, Milner and new signing Grujic available for the midfield positions. Hence, it is the right move for all the parties.
Here is the picture of Rossiter in Rangers shirt after completing move (Official Site).

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How good are (were) the Old Firm teams?

Fanatic — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:34:19 +0000

I’ve always been curious about the debate concerning if Celtic or Rangers should be allowed to join the English leagues. Obviously this debate has died down lately with the collapse of Rangers but I remain interested to know exactly what level the Scottish league is at compared to the one south of the border.
The collapse of Rangers has resulted in a large number of their players leaving and signing for other clubs; if we examine which clubs they have joined could we ascertain how good the team was as a whole? We can also look at recent transfers from the Old Firm and see how well they did in England, Kris Boyd, Danny Wilson, Nikica Jelavic and Ki Sung-Yueng all come to mind. Hopefully looking at all this will serve to answer the question: how good are (were) the Old Firm teams?
You’d like to think that Scottish and English football are very similar, as opposed to, say, Spanish football which is clearly more technical and less physical. Thus, the cultural adaption when transferring from a Scottish team to an English team should be marginal, if not negligible. If a player moves from Scotland to England they do not have to learn a new language, they do not have to adapt to a massively different style of play. Because of this there should be less transfers that fail due to the player not adapting to the cultural change; this happens a lot when players move to the English leagues and so makes it harder to compare the two leagues in terms of ability. After all, how can you compare the difference between two leagues if the culture change is what determines if a player succeeds or not? Because of the similarities between English and Scottish football, you can say that if a player fails to succeed when crossing the border it is a result of not having the required ability to perform in that team/division, therefore making his original team/division weaker than his new one.
So, I’ll give a quick run through of a few recent transfers and then look at the players that left Rangers in the summer.
Kris Boyd – Rangers to Middlesbrough – July 2010
Boyd left Rangers as the highest scorer in Scottish Premier League history with 164 goals and joined a Championship club, which may say everything that you need to know. However that’s not it, he was sold to Eskişehirspor the following summer after a short loan spell at Nottingham Forest. What else can you say apart from that he was a complete flop? Prolific goalscorer in Scotland, couldn’t make it in England’s second division.
Nikica Jelavic – Rangers to Everton – January 2012
This is the case of another prolific striker leaving Rangers for England, however Jelavic has seemed to be a success in the Premiership. 18 goals in 43 games for Everton isn’t a bad tally. He seems to have made it at one of the better teams in English football, a sign that the Old Firm have good players after all?
Danny Wilson – Rangers to Liverpool – July 2010
Wilson left Rangers with a host of personal honours; Scottish FWA Young Player of the Year award, Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year award and he was also declared the Rangers Young Player of the Year. He had begun to cement his place in the first team at Rangers yet has struggled to break through at Liverpool, with other defenders like Andre Wisdom, Jack Robinson, Martin Kelly and Jon Flanagan being promoted to the senior squad instead of himself. He is currently on loan at Hearts.
Ki Sung-Yueng – Celtic to Swansea – August 2012
The first signing from Celtic to be mentioned. This talented midfielder has started his career well in England (sort of, we’ll say Swansea is in England for now), making 28 appearances so far. He has made himself an important part of the Swansea team, a team which you could accurately describe as a mid-table team.
Now these players were some of the most talented players in their respective squads so it is not an indication of how good the entire team is, although we can assert the upper limit of an Old Firm team’s ability. If Ki Sung-Yueng and Jelavic can be successes at good Premiership teams, then we can say for sure that this is the best that Celtic or Rangers could achieve if they played in the English leagues. Challenging for Europe would be out of the question.
Now, a quick look at a few players who left Rangers over the summer and their statistics for this season. These players all featured in the squad for their final game of last season, a 4-0 victory over St. Johnstone in May.
Allan McGregor – Besiktas – 17 appearances
Steven Whittaker – Norwich – 9 appearances 1 goal
Kirk Broadfoot – Blackpool – 12 appearances 1 goal
Maurice Edu – Bursaspor (on loan from Stoke) – 1 appearance for both
Sone Aluko – Hull – 23 appearances 8 goals
Rhys McCabe – Sheffield Wednesday – 18 appearances 1 goal
Alejandro Bedoya – Helsingborg – 9 appearances 1 goal (now a free agent)
David Healy – Bury – 8 appearances 1 goal
Now I don’t intend to hide from the fact that many different factors determine how well a player performs at a new club, however I believe that looking at the clubs that ex-Rangers players have joined does give a rough outline of how good the team could have been. While you may point to Celtic’s Champions League campaign which is still on-going despite the group stages being over, a usual stopping point for Scottish teams, it seems that this is a result of incredible overachievement rather than natural ability. I don’t intend to take anything away from their fantastic European run, especially the victory over Barcelona, I just wish to state my belief that it is an anomaly in a series of pieces of evidence which point to the Old Firm being level with a good Championship club.
This is of course only my opinion, but the list above contains quite a few Championship clubs. Yes a few players have left the Old Firm and become good Premiership players, Steven Whittaker, Jelavic and Ki Sung-Yueng in particular. However these represent the tip of the iceberg, the best to come out of Scotland, and are a step above the other players in the Celtic and Rangers teams. I used to be of the belief that Celtic and Rangers could compete for the Premiership if they were allowed into the English leagues.
After thinking about the topic and researching it I have come to the conclusion that if Celtic (and the Rangers of last season) were to start playing in England they could achieve a mid-table finish in the Premiership at an absolute maximum. For me, the higher reaches of the Championship or the bottom of the Premiership is where I see them realistically. I’m not forgetting Celtics Champions League run when I reach this conclusion. After all, Middlesbrough and Fulham are average teams to also have had success in Europe; sometimes some teams just overachieve.
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Scottish Football 'Armageddon' A Breath of Fresh Air

Ian Mulholland — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:30:41 +0000

2012 was a turbulent year in Scotland. Something had to give. Not just financially at Rangers FC but for the whole of the Scottish League.
There once was a time when TV money and the sponsorship it brought helped fund big signings such as Chris Sutton (£6m – Celtic) and other top players. They would flock to one of the Old Firm for a chance at silverware and get a tidy wage to boot.
Not long after that particular signing the SPL rejected a reduced offer from Sky TV in 2002 and opted to set up their own TV channel. After that idea proved nothing short of disastrous they ended up signing on severely decreased terms with BBC Scotland, followed by Setanta Sports (which went into administration) and then scooped up at even more reduced terms with Sky and ESPN.
The way Scottish football has went about its business, the past decade has been nothing short of farcical. A failure to understand that the product was no longer as appealing to viewers outside the country is something the league has failed to grasp. It relied heavily on the the two Glasgow clubs bitter rivalry as its main draw and as such the two clubs used their power to gain the majority off what little TV money was available, dominating the league with no other club winning the top flight outside Celtic and Rangers since Aberdeen in 1985. What’s so appealing about a two horse race? Nothing, unless you happen to follow one of the two.
So when Rangers went into administration on Valentines day last year the inevitable media circus that followed predicted doomsday on the horizon. The punters were persistently told a league without the ‘lucrative’ Old Firm clashes seemed akin to simply just shutting down and throwing away the key. The Scottish Football Association chief executive Stewart Regan even went as far to say:
‘The only solution for the game now is that Rangers come into the Football League and they come into it at the First Division. Perhaps clubs could survive for a short period of time, but it’s not sustainable.The game is not sustainable, so there would be a slow, lingering death for the game in Scotland. It would then trickle down to the Football League.’

This blatant display of self-interest provoked anger amongst fans. The lack of leadership and short-sightedness from the people at the top struck a note with supporters, many threatening boycotts if Rangers NewCo were allowed instantly back into the SPL or First Division. Club chairmen listened and the SPL, then followed soon after by First Division clubs, voted swiftly against the instant return of a NewCo Rangers and they were forced to start all over again in the Third Dvision.
It’s a short winter break now and we still await the predicted Armageddon. In my opinion things are looking more positive for the league than ever. Celtic have progressed to the last sixteen of the Champions League and other clubs below now feel they can contest for a European place. Whilst the loss of Rangers travelling fans and the funds their supporters bring to the SPL’s cash strapped members has forced budget cuts, the clubs have abided to their fans wishes and the competitions righteousness remains intact. The removal of Rangers has also seen the status quo torn up and forced the issue of restructure and re-branding upon the Football Association. It is something that has been years overdue.
Proposals have been initially agreed by member clubs. A bamboozling new set up of 12-12-18 and it turning into an 8-8-8-18 with play-offs, right, okay, its getting silly looking now but at least it’s showing intent for progression, competitiveness and more importantly an acceptance that change is needed. The next change must then be the removal of Stewart Regan and Neil Doncaster (SPL Chairman) for their disgraceful lack of leadership throughout Scottish Football’s most difficult period.

The death of Rangers has almost been one of sacrifice. Had they sauntered back in as if nothing had happened then any integrity the league had would have been lost. What every club still has failed to recognise though is that the fans got them into this position and preserved the honour that no club is bigger than the league. Without the threats of boycotts we would see an SPL still with Rangers and it all carry on as normal.
The clubs should now reward their fans with lower ticket prices. Their failure to recognise that the quality of the product has declined but yet continue to increase ticket prices serves only to hurt the game even further. If the Scottish fans don’t recognise the game as value for money, then what makes them think the TV companies will?
‘Football without the fans is nothing’ – Jock Stein
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