In the absence of Luis Suarez, Steven Gerrard will be looking to continue his superb scoring record for Liverpool against West Ham on Sunday. The Kop skipper has fired seven goals in 17 appearances against the Hammers. Only John Toshack (10), Ian Rush and Roger Hunt (eight each) have scored more for the Reds against the Londoners.
"When are games versus Scottish teams ever as easy as they should be?"
So asked one Liverpool fan after his team were drawn against Hearts in their Europa League play
off.
The answer, a bittersweet truth to be sure, is that too many clubs from too many countries have
found games against Scottish teams clubs to be all too easy in recent years.
Carroll became the most expensive British signing when he moved to
Anfield in January 2011 and has scored just eight goals in 47 appearances for the Reds
Ian Rush, who scored of 346 goals in 660 appearances for the
Merseysiders, thinks Carroll may take time to adjust to the change of mentality which comes with
moving to a club like Liverpool and fully backs him to come good for Liverpool.
Misfiring Andy Carroll gives limp Liverpool a new kind of 'Tosh'
• Striker still struggling to justify his £35m transfer fee • 'We've shown we are here to
fight,' says Swansea manager The pre-match Remembrance silence here evoked all sorts of memories,
of football's past, as well as the fallen.
Kevin Keegan today hailed Andy Carroll's aerial prowess as the best he's ever seen and is
backing the Reds' striker to follow in the footsteps of his former strike partner John Toshack,
boss of Swansea when they last played at Anfield in the top flight.
Liverpool 1-1 Norwich City | Premier League match report
Finally at Liverpool, the big number nine was sent on from the bench and saved his side's
afternoon with a powerful header at the Kop end of the sort that would have made anyone from Tony
Hateley to John Toshack proud.
Liverpool makes the long trip down to Exeter City in the Carling Cup on Wednesday night and it's
vital we play a strong side.
Too often in recent years we've played weakened teams in the competition and been dumped out at an
early stage.
Let's go there and get a thumping win to boost confidence ahead of the league game against Bolton
next weekend.
Wales versus Paraguay at the Millennium Stadium, March 2006. A warm up match for Wales'
opponents ahead of the World Cup and a match I remember well for typifying John Toshack's Wales.
The performance was satisfactory, Wales didn't have as many shots as their opponents, but held
possession reasonably well.
Chris Coleman has been appointed the new manager of the Welsh national team.
An odd fact associated to the appointment of Chris Coleman is that in March 1994 Wales played
Norway in an friendly at Ninian Park. It was the solitary game in John Toshack's first spell as
Welsh manager (a spell that lasted for little more than a few weeks).
During the final days of Mark Hughes reign at the helm of the Wales national team when the
marvellous win in Helsinki and a fully deserved victory over Italy were a fading memory, Welsh fans
would often travel to games more in hope than expectation.  Then John Toshack came and  killed
the hope. An inevitable slide down the world rankings ensued with defeats home and away to Russia,
Germany and Finland.
Wales fancied it, no doubt. Young players coming through nicely. England aside, a relatively
'easy' qualifying group. A real chance of the play-offs surely, and a local derby against the big
neighbours...and then...who knows? Optimism had returned after six years of rebuilding that
garnered some pretty poor results.
Thirty years ago, the football world was a very different place. What we now take to be the
Premier League was still the First Division of the Football League, three points for a win were
just about to be introduced as Aston Villa won their first league championship since 1910, having
fielded just fourteen players all season, and Nottingham Forest had surrendered their name as the
champions of Europe after two years with a 2-0 aggregate defeat at the hands of CSKA Sofia in the
First Round of the European Cup the previous September, but still finished the season in a
creditable seventh place in the table.
Things are getting quite congested at the top of the Championship. Just six points separate
second placed Norwich City from Nottingham Forest in sixth place in the table and, should Queens
Park Rangers find themselves being docked points over the Alejandro Faurlin, even the relatively
comfortable gap between them and the chasing pack they are seven points clear of Norwich and ten
ahead of third placed Swansea City even that could start to crumble.
Since being unveiled as the new Wales manager yesterday, Gary Speed has wasted no time in
re-opening the lines of communication with the veterans that former incumbent John Toshack
systematically put out to pasture – insisting that the door is open should ageing stalwarts like
Ryan Giggs, Simon Davies and Robbie Savage wish to overturn [.
Wales' old guard: Simon Davies, Ryan Giggs, Robert Page and Robbie Savage
Since being unveiled as the new Wales manager yesterday, Gary Speed has wasted no time in
re-opening the lines of communication with the veterans that former incumbent John
Toshack systematically put out to pasture insisting that the door is open should ageing
stalwarts like Ryan Giggs, Simon Davies and Robbie
Savage wish to overturn their respective international retirements.
Ryan Giggs has insisted that he never seriously considered quitting Manchester
United to become the next Wales manager.
The veteran winger and all-round good guy was one of the favourites to take over the job after
the sacking of John Toshack, however Giggs' bond with the Red Devils proved too
strong:
"It was flattering but it was never going to happen.
Expressions of the more traditional and less traditional nature could best describe the state of
affairs currently surrounding the Welsh FA.
‘A stitch in time saves nine' is one way to portray John Toshack's resignation as national
team manager this week as the Welsh FA look to nip in the bud their early form in Euro 2012
Qualification Group G.
Fulham manager Mark Hughes has urged Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs to take the position of
Wales manager. Rumours persist that Giggs is the favourite for the job after John Toshack, once the
Real Madrid manager, resigned from his post as Wales manager on Wednesday evening.
Ryan Giggs and Mark Hughes played together for Manchester United in the early and middle part of
the nineties, winning the club it's first Premiership title in 26 years.
With John Toshack standing down as manager of Wales rumours of a possible first managerial job for
Welsh star Ryan Giggs have surfaced. But Sir Alex Ferguson has quickly quashed the speculation
linking the evergreen winger with his first move in to management.
Ferguson said: Â "We have to be selfish here; I am not even prepared to negotiate on this
matter.
The transfer deadline may have passed, but that's not stopped people going in and out of
football's revolving doors. This week, its is all about the managers. Gerard Houllier has taken
over Aston Villa while John Toshack resigned from his post as Wales boss. Meanwhile, Fabio Capello
has said that he will quit after Euro 2012 – meaning that we're likely to end up with some
no-hoper in the shape of Steve Bruce, or Lord help us, Sam Allardyce.
Manchester United midfielder Ryan Giggs hasn't exactly ruled himself out of
becoming the next manager of Wales, although he hasn't exactly ruled himself in either.
Giggs continues to play a pivotal role in the United midfield, but the 36-year-old veteran (who
has already taken his UEFA coaching badges) has admitted that the prospect of taking charge of his
country certainly appeals to him, telling the Daily Telegraph;
"If you go into management, the big job is to be in charge of your country.
After John Toshack quit the Wales job, it took a matter of minutes before Welsh legend, Ryan
Giggs, was linked to the job, with some claiming he was the Football Association of Wales' first
choice.
Former United coach, Eric Harrison, has claimed if Giggs wants the job, he couldn't carry on
playing too.
So Robbie Savage finally got his way. After years of petty character assassination, some of it
deserved, but most of it simply out of the frustration we all feel, John Toshack has finally
decided to jack it in. Now the big man can go back to his hacienda in Spain, put those giant feet
up, watch Sexy Beast and periodically appear on the telly as an expert on La Liga when Sid Lowe is
busy.
Tabloid male cow faeces rather than story of the season? John Wragg from the Daily Express today
makes a sensational and unsubstantiated claim. It seems clear to many of the papers that John
Toshack is at least in a position whereby he is considering his position, but Master Wragg goes one
stage further.
With the bookmakers slashing the odds of Gary Speed being the next Wales manager from 40-1 down to
2-1, it seems somebody knows something. The rumours are getting stronger that the Welsh FA are
about to approach Sheffield United regarding their manager.
Wales have been on the look-out for a new gaffer after John Toshack stood down in September and
they are now weighing-up a move for the former midfielder.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has revealed another plan to shake things up at the World Cup,
announcing that a study to determine whether or not extra time should be eliminated would take
place.
This would be done in an attempt to encourage more of an attacking style during the knockout
stages.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has revealed another plan to shake things up at the World Cup,
announcing that a study to determine whether or not extra time should be eliminated would take
place.
This would be done in an attempt to encourage more of an attacking style during the knockout
stages.
If Craig Levein were in charge of England, fans and the media would be calling for his head
right now! Following their 2-1 over the footballing giants of Lichtenstein, courtesy of a 97th
minute winner from Stephen McManus, Levein admitted that he was massively relieved that he didn't
have to face a humiliating result in his first competitive game at Hampden Park.
The Aston Villa manager saga appears to officially be over as French publication L'Equipe
reports that Gerard Houllier will inform the French Football Federation that he will sign a
two-year contract to take over at Villa Park.
Houllier (pictured above, center), who coached Liverpool from 1998-2004, will step away from his
post as the FFF's technical director after the country's notorious World Cup stint and replace
interim manager Kevin MacDonald.
Despite a confirmation from the Football Association of Wales that manager John Toshack has not
officially resigned as of early Monday morning, media reports suggest that the former Real Madrid
boss will be doing so within the next two days.
Although Toshack's men lost only by a slender 1-0 margin in Friday's Euro 2012 qualifier against
Montenegro, the failure to collect any points from their opening fixture has cast doubt over the
manager's ability to get the most out of his youthful squad.
So Robbie Savage finally got his way. After years of petty character assassination, some of it
deserved, but most of it simply out of the frustration we all feel, John Toshack has finally
decided to jack it in. Now the big man can go back to his hacienda in Spain, put those giant feet
up, [...]
Ladbrokes currently lists eleven men in the market for the next Wales manager, this even
includes the ridiculously poor value of 25/1 for Robbie Savage. Every single one of eleven men is
Welsh. I thought I'd take a look at my top ten "leftfield"/not so serious foreign choices
for the Wales post.
Gareth Bale of Tottenham celebrates with his Heart Shaped hand gesture (Google Creative Commons)
Liverpool legend John Toshack has come out in the press this weekend with major support of his young Welsh countryman Gareth Bale as the debate grows as to whom is better between the Tottenham left winger and new Brazilian FC Barcelona signing, Neymer.
- QPR History: From the 1880s to the 21st Century: Bushman QPR Photo Archives - QPR REPORT on TWITTER! - QPR REPORT MESSAGEBOARD- Old QPR Video Links
_________________________________________________ Queen's Park Rangers CEO Philip Beard on Sky's
Footballers' Football Show this week- and as usual spoke a lot of sense.
A few eyebrows were raised in the Kop when Andy Carroll was named in Kenny Dalglish's Liverpool
side to face Wolves on Saturday, seemingly out of faith rather than merit.
After all, the £35 million man has been well below-par this season – not least in the 4-0 defeat
at Tottenham six days earlier – and Craig Bellamy had looked extremely sharp in the midweek
League Cup win at Brighton.
Macedonian media has begun to pay attention to Veljko Paunovic's run of form for the
Philadelphia Union, naming the midfielder as one of the country's potential internationals to
watch.
Despite playing twice for Serbia - when it was still Serbia-Montenegro - in the early part of
this millennium, Paunovic is able to make a one-time switch to Macedonia because of FIFA's
eligibility rule change in 2009.
By Dominic Vieira, writing from Lancaster, England
38 or 39, does it really matter? No! But to the Madristas or fanatical MARCA
journalists it certainly does; that debate can take place elsewhere. A player who has scored 52
goals in 53 season appearances is sensational and that's a word which can describe
Cristiano Ronaldo.
New boss Gary Speed takes charge of Wales for the first time tonight as his side faces the Republic
of Ireland in the newly formed Nations Cup.
The former Wales skipper, who has only four months managerial experience with Championship side
Sheffield United, will go up against Italian legend Giovanni Trapattoni; winner of seven Italian
league titles and five European tournaments – including the European Cup with Juventus.
This week's Video Of The Week continues a series of the Danny Baker hosted BBC series "Match Of
The Eighties". This week, the BBC flexes its archive muscles for the 1981/82 season. It was and
this seems difficult to believe, even now the first season of three points for a win in the
Football League.
