By Alan Duffy

In the past 12 months or so, the global nature of football has become all the more apparent, as the UAE, India and China have suddenly become legitimate destinations for some of the game's bigger (and mostly older) stars.

By Chris Wright

Unbeaten going into the game, ten-man Stoke stumbled to defeat in Turkey in their final Group E game, though it mattered little with them having already booked their place in the knockout phase courtesy of a draw against Dinamo Kiev last time out.

I said, it could be done and Besiktas did it!
Besiktas beat, unbeaten Stoke City 3-1 and claim the top spot in the group E and earned a spot in the round 32 of Europa league..
They,prett much did the damege to Stoke in the second half, after going down in the first half.

The top team in the Group E, Besiktas will try to win their second match against Stoke City, after beating Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv with 5-1 score.
Besiktas coach Carlos Carvalhal told his players to be on their guard against the threat of Stoke striker Peter Crouch.

Stoke boss Tony Pulis has admitted Liverpool should have been awarded a penalty in their win over the Reds.
Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish was left fuming with a number of decisions that went against his side at the Britannia Stadium and is considering making a formal complaint to manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board Mike Riley about the standard of refereeing.

Jamie Carragher has urged Liverpool to banish the memory of their 1-0 defeat at Stoke City when they travel to Tottenham next Sunday.
The Reds' unbeaten start to the season was ended in controversial fashion at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday.
Referee Mark Clattenburg awarded Stoke a dubious penalty when Carragher was harshly adjudged to have brought down Jon Walters.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish shows strain after Stoke defeat

• Dalglish complains about standard of Premier League referees • Liverpool consider lodging an official complaint For those with ambition and an appreciation of history there are few more appealing jobs in football than that of Liverpool manager.

Stewart Downing believes Liverpool have every right to feel frustrated at the manner of the defeat to Stoke City on Saturday - but insists there are positives to be derived from their performance.
The Reds slipped to a narrow 1-0 loss courtesy of Jon Walters's 21st minute penalty after Jamie Carragher was adjudged to have brought down the Potters forward inside the box.

Kenny Dalglish seeing red over referees' 'contentious decisions'

• Liverpool manager vents rage after penalty decision • Club owners to be consulted before complaint is made Kenny Dalglish vented his fury at the standard of Premier League refereeing after his Liverpool team lost 1–0 at Stoke City.

Liverpool head to the Britannia tomorrow to face Tony Pulis' Stoke City in one of the more challenging away fixtures on the Premier League calendar. The Reds have only earned two points in their last three visits, and the hosts have a well-founded reputation for being one of the least hospitable clubs in the top flight.

Why Spurs chief Levy is my hero of the transfer window for keeping Modric

So who was the star of this transfer window for you? Alex Ferguson for swiftly ­snapping up two of England's brightest young talents? Roberto Mancini for bringing in genuine top quality in Sergio Aguero and Samir Nasri?

Huge day for Stole City as they spent around £20million, including a club-record fee of £10million for Spurs striker Peter Crouch. In addition to Crouch, Stoke also signed midfielder Wilson Palacios and forward Cameron Jerome. The Crouch deal could even rise to £12million dependent on the fulfilment of various clauses.

Huge day for Stole City as they spent around £20million, including a club-record fee of £10million for Spurs striker Peter Crouch. In addition to Crouch, Stoke also signed midfielder Wilson Palacios and forward Cameron Jerome. The Crouch deal could even rise to £12million dependent on the fulfilment of various clauses.

Stoke manager Tony Pulis has told Liverpool to forget about signing Ryan Shawcross, insisting the club have "got no need to sell" their star defender.
Following the arrivals of England internationals Matthew Upson and Jonathan Woodgate, rumours of Shawcross potentially heading for the exit door have circulated.

It was only three years ago that Stoke City got promoted to the Premier League and everyone expected them to immediately get relegated. Instead they finished 12th in their first season in the Premier League and have not looked back.

Stoke have always been strong defensively and last season Tony Pulis focused on scoring more goals, breaking the Stoke transfer record to sign Kenwyne Jones from Sunderland for £8 million.

Stoke have pulled off another astute free transfer deal, which see's former England defender Matthew Upson join the Potters after being released by relegated West Ham following his contract expiration.

Upson (32) will join Jonathan Woodgate in the Stoke ranks following his free transfer from Tottenham last month.

Stoke have pulled off another astute free transfer deal, which see's former England defender Matthew Upson join the Potters after being released by relegated West Ham following his contract expiration.

Upson (32) will join Jonathan Woodgate in the Stoke ranks following his free transfer from Tottenham last month.

Owen Hargeaves' bizarre online self-advertisement acts a reminder of the talent that is available to Premier League clubs in the form of free agents. The former Manchester United man has tongue firmly in cheek in proving his fitness in gym-based YouTube videos, but is nonetheless a come-and-get-me plea.

Another Transfermations, this time, Blackburn...

Where that stand:

Avoiding relegation was the priority last season, but Blackburn are a thinning squad with Phil Jones gone and Christopher Samba on his way. It's obvious that The Venkys need to strengthen somewhat to avoid a repeat.

Another Transfermations, this time, Blackburn...

Where that stand:

Avoiding relegation was the priority last season, but Blackburn are a thinning squad with Phil Jones gone and Christopher Samba on his way. It's obvious that The Venkys need to strengthen somewhat to avoid a repeat.

Sam Allardyce has been named as the new manager of West Ham United, replacing Avram Grant, who was sacked after the Hammers' relegation.

Allardyce comes into the position fully aware that several of the Hammers' big names, like Scott Parker, Carlton Cole and Robert Green, will be sold this summer.

West Ham United's dismal season ended in hugely disappointing fashion when the only team already relegated before the final games of the season suffered their 19th defeat of the campaign. Sunderland owed a rare win – only their third in 14 games – to goals from Asamoah Gyan, Stephane Sessegnon and Cristian Riveros.

By their very nature relegated teams are not overloaded with talent worthy of the Premier League. That is not to say that West Ham United, Blackpool and Birmingham City do not have players who will attract interest from top flight clubs. Some players are already the subject of approaches.
West Ham have a core of English players who, whilst generally have been disappointing this season, will be attractive due to their Premier League experience and native nationality.

West Ham United's relegation from the Premier League has been on the cards for some time. This in itself prevents the Hammers' demotion from being a surprise, but a look at the club's squad suggests a bottom placed finished was unexpected and something few predicted at the start of the season.
When Avram Grant replaced Gianfranco Zola as manager in June 2010, optimism at Upton Park was genuine.

There are certain natures, purely contemplative and altogether unfit for action, which nonetheless, impelled by a mysterious and unknown motive, act at times with rapidity of which they would have believed themselves incapable. Thus, Baudelaire introduces us to Le Mauvais vitrier; the exemplar of what Poe coined The Imp of the Perverse, and as exemplified by David Gold's unpropitious comments in this morning's papers.

The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief...

It was predictable wasn't it? Our ushankared overlord drops an inflammatory communiqué to an apparatchik in the national press designed to get a reaction from manager and players... and manager and players duly proffer a solicited response in time for the next day's headlines.

Photo by The Gaffer.

The convincing 5-1 win in the FA cup against Championship side Burnley Monday confirmed that West Ham might be turning a corner. A good thing too, as they would look an expensive joke in the Championship with a half full Olympic Stadium after 2012.

West Ham's season so far has been one of inconsistency, lack of goals and more worryingly, the third worse goals against column in the league.

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Will AW break the bank or not?

January is stuttering to an end, and with it so is the ingeniously named January transfer window. Even Wayne Rooney can count the number of days remaining in the month now, but Wenger's purse has remained closed with its usual ten-digit combination lock and dragon guardian.

BIRMINGHAM, England Birmingham's Craig Gardner booked a League Cup final showdown against Arsenal as his extra-time goal sealed a 3-1 victory over West Ham in Wednesday's semi-final second leg that secured a 4-3 aggregate win. Gardner, a boyhood Birmingham fan, capped an impressive fightback from Alex McLeish's side, who can now look forward to [.

I don't need to tell you that Arsenal thumped West Ham in a convincing 3-0 win. I also don't need to tell you that it was a huge return to form for most of the squad, save for Eboue. But, what I do need to tell you is that Robin Van Persie has finally made me the fool. Several weeks ago I wrote about how unconvinced I was of Robin van Persie's return to form, in particular that Chamakh is capable of delivering more.

It is suspiciously quiet around Arsenal regarding transfers at the moment, there have been the mutterings of Gary Cahill, Matthew Upson, Per Mertesacker, Samba and a few other names that nobody has ever heard of, however, the Daily Mail are reporting that we are not willing to stump up the cash for Gary Cahill: According to [.

As promised in my Strike Partnership article (Although not to the most pinpoint time schedule) here are my top ten defensive pairings in Premiership History.

10. David Wier and Alan Stubbs

Stubbs and Wier defied all odds in the 2004-05 season when relegation candidates, Everton, qualified for the Champion's League.

If 2 can't handle him, surely Upson is no challenge for RvP

Let's just jump straight into the team news. Arsene Wenger will be without Lukasz Fabianski, Sebastien Squillaci, Bacary Sagna and Manuel Almunia for various reasons. Those that were rested for the cup games will likely play from the start, that being Samir Nasri and Robin Van Persie.

One current transfer rumour is highly disturbing: Matthew Upson is one of the defensive options open to Arsene Wenger.

A few years ago Upson was a decent defender, maintaining his affiliation to Arsenal through a plethora of injuries throughout his career. The question I have to ask is if Upson wasn't good enough for us back in 2003 when he was actually a decent defender what makes Arsene think that he is good enough for us now when he is clearly over the hill?

It's been a while since I dreamt about Arsenal. Last night I was playing an indoor training match with some of the players. I say some because I'm pretty sure Zoolander wasn't an Arsenal player (he's rubbish, btw). Anyway, at one point I had the ball out on the touchline, Jack Wilshere came over to tackle me and I nutmegged him.

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Belief is the key

Arsenal's sorry run of results continued on Wednesday night as they lost to Championship side Ipswich Town. The only solace that the Gunners can take from the defeat it is a two legged match and they have a chance to rectify the loss at the Emirates on the 25 January.

MANCHESTER, England Wayne Bridge has joined bottom of the table West Ham on loan from fellow Premier League side Manchester City until the end of the season, the Hammers announced Wednesday. The 30-year-old former England international has found himself out of first team reckoning at title-chasers City following the pre-season arrival of both Aleksandar [.

By Chris Wright

Surely not?

With Wednesday morning comes the news that Arsenal centre-back Thomas Vermaelen has suffered yet another setback in his bid to recover from the mystery Achilles injury that was initially supposed to have seen him ruled out for a fortnight that was back on September 7th, 2010.

After the inevitable exit of Roy Hodgson from Liverpool last week there is strong speculation that Avram Grant will be sacked tomorrow morning. Irrelevant of the score in tonights Carling Cup Semi Final against Birmingham.

Sam Allardyce, Martin O Neill and Chris Hughton are the front runners, although that is natural to link out of work managers to a possible vacant position.

Excellent.

It's Sunday; it's quiet. Everybody's out snowing the yard or mowing the driveway, or whatever it is you're supposed to do on January 2. That and it's hard to take a great deal of meaning away from the match that wasn't already covered by Ed in yesterday's write up. As has been said on the few occasions Liverpool's looked a touch more interested not to mention tactically aware wake me up when it becomes a habit instead of a one off.