We knew Sunderland were interested in Manchester City winger Adam Johnson. Adam Johnson Manchester City winger interesting Magpies? But today is the first time Newcastle have been linked with the player, who was on Newcastle's books when he was a youngster. And although Adam was born in the Sunderland area, he grew up as a Newcastle fan, even though his family were [.

England edged Norway 1-0 in Roy Hodgson's first match as English National Team manager on May 26, 2012.

The Three Lions started out quickly with a ninth minute Ashley Young goal. It was a great individual effort from Young as he dribbeld past a defender before a clinical finish.

The visitors couldn't add to their lead for the rest of the match but were solid defensively.

You would have to say that Roy Hodgson has a strong midfield line-up to choose from, for his England Euro 2012 squad in Poland and Ukraine, and he will be hard-pushed to select his first midfielders for the game with Sweden.
Aside from Stuart Downing, who was a complete surprise call up, there can be little complaints with the other nine players, namely, Theo Walcott, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Gareth Barry, Scott Parker, James Milner, Ashley Young, and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain.

It has been a mixed reaction from fans and the media to Roy Hodgson's England squad selection for Euro 2012 but it would appear that the vast majority are giving the 23 man squad the "thumbs down" with suggestions that it will not be good enough to qualify for the knock-out stages of the tournament.

Because it's always fun to talk TerryBall.

England's 2012 Euro squad:

Nine lives for Defoe, who lives on for England at the 2012 Euros....

Goalkeepers:

• Joe Hart, Rob Green, John Ruddy

Defenders:

• John Terry, Ashley Cole, Gary Cahill, Joleon Lescott, Glen Johnson, Leighton Baines, Phil Jones

Midfielders:

• Scott Parker, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Theo Walcott, Gareth Barry, Ashley Young, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, James Milner, Stewart Downing

Forwards:

• Wayne Rooney, Andy Carroll, Danny Welbeck, Jermain Defoe

Standby players:

• Jack Butland (GK), Phil Jagielka, Jordan Henderson, Adam Johnson, Daniel Sturridge

Samir Nasri almost cost City the title when he mistakenly let the ball go out of bounds thinking it was off QPR

The former Arsenal midfielder couldn't sit back and enjoy City's historic season. He had to resort to a cheap shot at his old club underlining that very true adage, "money doesn't buy you class.

Perhaps we missed the news piece detailing who, what, where, when, why and how exactly manskirts are the new trousers? It may have something to do with the fact that the football season is 900 weeks long and there are very few staffers sober enough at any given moment to keep up with the joneses, but ‘tis strange indeed.

What does the future hold for Tevez, Baines, Drogba and M'Vila? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Here's a look at the top transfer stories circulating in the Premier League today, with guest appearances from Carlos Tevez (will he stay or go), Leighton Baines (can he match the flying Frenchman) and Didier Drogba.

Lille's Eden Hazard has revealed that he will be wearing "blue" next season. And I don't think he'll be at Stamford Bridge. I guess the 21 year old Belgian winger / attacking midfielder has enjoyed his time playing with Joe ... Continue reading →

Manchester City's Summer 2012 Transfer Targets - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Backed by their wealthy owners, Manchester City have spent a fortune on players including Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Carlos Tevez in recent seasons.

It's fully expected that the Manchester club will continue to spend big to bring in new, quality, players as soon as the transfer window re-opens.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

Welcome back, Carlos Tevez.

The Argentinian striker, who recently returned to the club after a six-month absence due to a dispute with Manchester City manager Roberto Macini, netted a hat trick in City's 6-1 win over Norwich City. Sergio Aguero added a brace while Adam Johnson completed the rout in the 90th minute.

It seems that Manchester City's Adam Johnson may be made available in the summer and Newcastle could be interested in the Sunderland-born player. Adam Johnson could be available this summer Adam was born in Sunderland to a family that were Sunderland supporters, but he turned out to be a Newcastle supporter, and even joined Newcastle when he was just 10 years old [.

By Alan Duffy

Norwich City Manchester City Premier League 14th April 2012

The Argentine duo of stocky Carlos Tevez and silky Serio Aguero were in inspired form at Carrow Road on Saturday, with the resurrected Tevez bagging a hat-trick.

A hat-trick from Carlos Tevez inspired Manchester City to a 6-1 win at Carrow Road today as Man City closed the gap at the top of the Premier League to only two points ahead of Man United's match against Aston Villa tomorrow.

City looked dead and buried after loosing to Arsenal last weekend, but two wins in the week have reignited the title race,

Starting consecutive matches for the first time in 11 months, Tevez curled his side into an 18th-minute lead, before turning provider for Sergio Agüero to make it two.

News today in the Daily Mail that Roberto Mancini has decided to sell former Middlesbrough winger, Adam Johnson, at the end of the season. Adam Johnson - Manchester City winger available in summer Johnson was born in Sunderland, but contrary to some news reports, he was a Newcastle fan as a boy not a Sunderland [.

Liverpool are reportedly consider moves for Man City duo Adam Johnson and Emmanuel Adebayor as Kenny Dalglish looks to improve his attacking options after seeing his Anfield side consistently struggle for goals this term. Having spent over £110m on new signings in the past 15 months the Scot will hope the club's American owners will be willing to dig deep into their pockets to finance moves for the Etihad Stadium pair but will also look to sell under-performing players to help fund any summer deals.

Soccerex, the global business network for the football industry, held its annual conference in the North of England last week, affording retired footballers the chance to say hello and exchange man hugs (see: Patrick Vieira and Steffen Freund, at left), executives time to try out the latest and greatest gadgets and gizmos (see: Arsenal's Vice Chairman, David Dein, above) and charities booth space to drum up interest in their fundraising pursuits (see: Shay and Jane Given, below).

Images: Flynetpictures.

Canadian hip hop superstar, Drake, made a MEN Arena concert tour stop up north on Saturday night. Stacks of local 'ballers, WAGs and wannabes flocked.

With an entire of catalogue of hit songs from Drake (real name Aubrey Graham) to choose from and not nearly enough snark from us to spit we've remixed Drake's mottos in true Kickette fashion to give you a rundown of who showed and who didn't.

"It is not nerves there is nobody in the team who has not been in this situation before in another league. So, it wasn't nerves."

Joe Hart
League titles: 0

Micah Richards
League titles: 0

Vincent Kompany
League titles: 2 (Belgium)

Pablo Zabaleta
League titles: 0

Joleon Lescott
League titles: 0

James Milner
League titles: 0

Edin Džeko
League titles: 1 (Germany)

Adam Johnson
League titles: 0

Aleksandar Kolarov
League titles: 0

Stefan Savić
League titles: 0

Sergio Agüero
League titles: 0

Gareth Barry
League titles: 0

Samir Nasri
League titles: 0

David Silva
League titles: 0

Gaël Clichy
League titles: 1

Kolo Touré
League titles: 3 (2 in the Ivory Coast, 1 in England)

Carlos Tévez
League titles: 4 (1 in Argentina, 1 in Brazil, 2 in England)

Nigel de Jong
League titles: 1 (Holland)

Yaya Touré
League titles: 4 (1 in the Ivory Coast, 1 in Greece, 2 in Spain)

Mario Balotelli
League titles: 3 (1 by default, all in Italy)

"What Is Kompany Talking About?

Arsenal left-back Kieran Gibbs has chosen teammate Theo Walcott as the best winger in England on the merits of the former Southampton starlet's current form.

It has been a roller-coaster year for Walcott, whose inconsistency resulted in jeering from certain sections of the Arsenal faithful as recently as last month.

By Alan Duffy

Manchester City 3-2 Sporting Lison (Aggregate 3-3 Sporting win on away goals) Europa League 15th March 2012

Despite coming from 2-0 down at home on Thursday night, Manchester City's valiant 3-2 win against Sporting at the Etihad still failed to see them through to the last eight of the Europa League.

There are words and phrases that have become all too familiar for fans of the English national team. "Almost". "Not quite there". "Promising".

For over a decade now the England squad has been the also-rans of international football. They are the team that could beat anyone on their day, but quite simply they have never "been on their day" when it has truly mattered.

By Alan Duffy

Manchester City Bolton Wanderers Premier League 3rd March 2012

City started the game with Silva, Aguero and Dzeko all on the bench, but Roberto Mancini's men still came out with all guns blazing, laying siege to Adam Bogdan's goal from the off and only failing to score thanks to the Hungarian's netminding skills.

Manchester City continue their reign at the top of premier league for this weekend after picking up another important victory against their opponent, Bolton Wanderers, with goals from Gael Clichy and also Mario Balotelli.

The three points temporarily put City five points above their current title rival, Manchester United, and might even stay that way should Sir Alex Ferguson's team gets beaten by Tottenham Hotspurs this Sunday.

Manchester City moved five points clear at the top of the Premier League after beating Bolton Wanderers 2-0 to pick up their 14th successive home victory of the season.

Roberto Mancini's side went ahead through a Gretar Steinsson own goal and Mario Balotelli doubled City's lead with 20 minutes remaining, courtesy of an excellent backheeled assist from Adam Johnson.

The first half produced little except for an Arjen Robben effort shut down by Joe Hart and Adam Johnson's slanted drive that missed goal. Stevie Gerrard had to exit with a hamstring pull with Daniel Sturridge replacing him. There was little inkling to what lay in store in the second half.

By Chris Wright

Okay, maybe 'Premier League stars' is pushing it slightly, but both Dickson Etuhu and Jay Bothroyd (of Fulham and England fame respectively) turned out for the FIFA '12 Interactive World Cup (FIWC) UK qualifying tournament in London last night and at least one had their derrieres handed to them by a 18-year old urchin from Birmingham.

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has played down the current form of one of his star players in typical fashion, suggesting that goalkeeper Joe Hart still has ways to go before being compared to the world's best.

Hart, 24, is having a brilliant stadium with the Premier League leaders and made a couple of brilliant saves to ensure that City walk out of Villa Park with a vital 1-0 win yesterday.

By Chris Wright

"There's contact...juuuuust...hold on...wait a second...there."

Ne'er does a week go by without some dime-a-dozen pundit rolling it out. That sodding word. 'Contact'. A word which is quickly becoming the bane of my very existence.

Manchester City moved three points clear at the top of the Premier League thanks to a convincing 3-0 win at home over Fulham.

Heading into the Fulham match a lot of questions were being asked about a City side that had lost four of their eight matches in 2012, exiting the FA and League Cups and seeing Manchester United draw level with them on points at the top of the Premier League.

Manchester City moved three points clear at the top of the Premier League thanks to a convincing 3-0 win at home over Fulham.

Heading into the Fulham match a lot of questions were being asked about a City side that had lost four of their eight matches in 2012, exiting the FA and League Cups and seeing Manchester United draw level with them on points at the top of the Premier League.

By Alan Duffy

Manchester City 3-0 Fulham Premier League 4th February 2012

Manchester City put the disappointment of that midweek defeat against Everton behind them at a snowy Etiahd Stadium on Saturday, coasting to victory against a Fulham side who rarely threatened Jose Hart's goal.

I imagine there will be people angry about this but City have won every single home game this year, right? So quite what we were supposed to do about that I'm not sure. People talk about our record at Eastlands but that was before City became CITY and, well, honestly...

The shame was that the game was over before it had begun, Adam Johnson managing to fall over Chris Baird in the area to win a dodgy penalty to make it 1-0, then Baird put through his own goal to make it two before we'd even started to play.

Two women. Two crucial football matches. One widescreen TV. One slightly dodgy internet feed. Copious amounts of white wine & fruit juice.

Ain't no party like a liver failure party and a liver failure party don't stop.

We thought that supplying the Kellys with all the equipment they demanded might compel them to produce full match reports of the Copa Del Rey quarter-final and the Carling Cup semi-final.

Leading the league table for quite sometime and even managed to build a pretty huge lead with their rivals, things gets really tight at the moment for Manchester City, but their players still have high confidence about their title chance at the end of season.

Adam Johnson is one of those who believes his team strength in maintaining their current position until the end of season since the winger thinks that it would be a big disappointment if his club can't do that.

I've seen some hand-wringing and questions as to how Liverpool were lined up yesterday, especially in the second half.
I tried to explain the set-up and the reasons for it in yesterday's match review, but pictures always make things easier. Not a 1000 words easier, but easier nonetheless.

Manchester City 0
Liverpool 1 Steven Gerrard 13′ (pk)

A week after falling 3-0 to Manchester City in the league, a Liverpool side without two of their top players returned to face a City side missing three of their best for the first leg of the League Cup semi-finals.

Roberto, ditch Sheikh Mansour for Mitt Romney. He's got cash to give away.

The Italian is complaining that he's down to two central midfielders and one striker. James Milner and Nigel De Jong will start in the middle and Sergio Aguero patrols up front.

The Ivory Coast has refused his demand to release Yaya and Kolo Toure till after the Man Utd FA Cup showdown for their ACN campaign.

Manchester City's coach, Roberto Mancini, reveals that they might try to snatch an additional midfielder in the January transfer window, but it will only happen once they managed to offload some of their current unused players, including Carlos Tevez.

Mancini reveals that there are around three to four players that his club planned to offload this winter and the manager is very hopeful that everything would happen just as planned.

Dynamo Kiev forward Andriy Yarmolenko has emerged as the latest striker to be linked with a move to Liverpool.
Despite being linked with a host of players including Colombian striker Teo Gutierrez, Jan Klaas Huntelaar, Eden Hazard, Adam Johnson and Christian Eriksen, Footybunker.com are reporting the Anfield giants have now switched their sights to Ukraine international Yarmolenko.