With Lucas out for the rest of the season and Steven Gerrard out until January at the very
earliest, Liverpool and Kenny Dalglish face an extended run with their two best midfielders
sidelined. The club reacted by recalling Jonjo Shelvey on Wednesday, though few expect he's
returning to regular starting minutes at Liverpool despite his success on loan with Blackpool, and
even fewer would see him as a direct replacement for Lucas in any case.
Ducky's Note: Readers, please re-welcome Kiran Vr, a
United fan who takes his football very seriously. He's the editor-in-chief of Red Army
India, a blog for all things United and more. After a wonderfully insightful first
post for BFZ, Kiran is back with a wonderfully insightful, well, second
post.
By FRANCO PANIZO
Stuart Holden's road to recovery is officially complete.
Having been sidelined since March with a devastating knee injury, Holden played in his first
official match of the season for Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday. The U.S. men's national team
midfielder started and went the distance in Bolton's 2-0 triumph over Aston Villa in the third
round of the Carling Cup, a promising return for a player looking to get back to the form that had
many considering him one of the best midfielders in the Premier League.
Online.
Sometimes, an internet leave of absence is just what the doctor ordered. I rolled up my trouser
legs, knotted my hanky and set off south for ten days, and being too stingy to pay for 3G abroad, I
made do without the interwebs entirely.
Well, not entirely. When I encountered unlocked wifi (as I did, rather excitedly, in a Co-op car
park) I inhaled it and I inhaled it deep.
Where all things finally come to an end, it seems that Cesc Fabregas will finally make his move
back to his boyhood club Barcelona. After a few years of media manipulation, we can finally put one
of the biggest transfer sagas in the Premier League history to rest.
Although the proposed deal with Barcelona is lower than Arsenal hoped for (£35million + fees),
the Gunners can finally move on.
Sometimes interviewing professional players is tough. Ego's, timing and personalities can make
things difficult. However recently I had the opportunity to speak with Nick Rimando of
RealSaltLake. It was an absolute pleasure. We discussed the team's ups and downs as well as his
thoughts on the future and even the fan base in Utah.
As a fair few mentioned yesterday, one of the residual effects of the Charlie Adam really for
real this time medical is that we can stop talking about what might actually be happening. We saw
him arriving with Kenny Dalglish, we saw him getting all checked out by Zaf Iqbal in the Melwood
training room, and soon enough we'll see him putting pen to paper.
Liverpool have announced that captain Steven Gerrard will miss the club's preseason Asian tour
to continue his recovery from groin surgery.
"After sitting down and talking with the medical experts and technical staff, it's been decided
that the best course of action is for me to continue my rehabilitation program at Melwood,"
The England international has not played since March 6 and manager Kenny Dalglish's priority is
to have Gerrard fit for the start of the Premier League season.
I just saw (via the ol' twitter) that Barca are upping their bid to £31m for Cesc. Regardless
of whether this is true or not, it raises that annoyingly seasonal question:
How much is Cesc worth to the club?
I was considering writing a bigger background for this bit, including all the special goals he's
scored, the leadership qualities, the world-class skill, etc, that he has brought to this club.
Last Sunday D.C. United faced off against one of the biggest names in world football, AFC Ajax.
If you are unfamiliar with the Amsterdam giants, we ran a nice refresher on de
Godenzonen (Sons of the Gods in Dutch) on dcunited.com. The match ended up being very
entertaining, and I was lucky enough to do a quick interview with one of
the best midfielders of all-time and current Ajax manager, Frank de Boer.
We return to Premiership action after a difficult few weeks concentrating on the
peripherals.
An away trip to an opponent who are desperate for points and are in real danger of the drop is
just what we need to get back on track. WBA will be giving everything today as their situation
becomes more desperate.
With over £210m spent in the just closed January transfer window, there are some deals that
make you shake your head and some that are actually good value. Here were the top five buys in the
January window.
Luis Suarez (Ajax to Liverpool for £22.8m)
The 24-year-old Suarez has a great goal scoring record in Holland with 81 goals in 108 games
with Ajax.
West Ham 0-3 Arsenal
Yesterday evening we got a tantalising glimpse of the real Arsenal. There is absolutely no point
in going overboard because of a win against the leagues bottom side but everything that had lacked
the previous performances was shown here in abundance. I was the proper Arsenal.
FIFPro announced the 2010 World XI yesterday during the Balon d'Or gala in Zurich, a list
consisting of the years best goalkeeper, the four best defenders, the three best midfielders and
the three best attackers. The list goes as follows: Goal: Iker Casillas (Spain, Real Madrid);
Defense: Maicon (Brazil, Internazionale), Lúcio (Brazil, Internazionale), Gerard Piqué [.
