By Chris Wright
Early on Saturday morning Nottingham Forest owner and former chairman Nigel Doughty was found
dead, aged 54, in the gym at his home in Lincolnshire.
A Forest fan from birth, Doughty saved the club and I don't use that term flippantly from being
reduced to it's component parts and being flogged off to the highest bidders when he bought
his football team using nigh-on £11 million of his own personal wealth back in 1999.
Premier League duo Liverpool and Newcastle are both interested in signing FC Twente striker Luuk de
Jong but neither side has made an offer, according to the player's agent.
The 21-year-old has been linked with a number of clubs around Europe after impressing for Twente,
with Italian side Fiorentina already having declared their interest.
Last night, BBC Radio 5 live broadcast an interesting discussion about playing "Moneyball" in
football and other popular UK sports. The discussion provides a nice overview of the issue, along
with interviews of Billy Beane, Damien Comolli, Steve McLaren, and others. Here's the synopsis from
5 live:
"On the eve of the UK release of the film Moneyball, based on the influential book, 5 live Sport
takes a special look at the growing influence of statistics in sport.
England: John Terry no longer needed - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
England face Sweden at Wembley on Tuesday as Fabio Capello looks to sign off 2011 in a
flourish. On Saturday England claimed a deserved 1-0 victory against, World Champions Spain, which
will be remembered as one of the highlights of a successful year for the Three Lions.
Steve McLaren, 30 August, 2011: "What happens over the next few days will decide whether we can win
promotion or not. Absolutely it will, without a shadow of a doubt. What we do now, over the next
few days, will determine whether we are good enough to challenge or whether we are scrapping to get
into the play-offs.
Being seventeen and relatively football-ignorant is a wonderful thing. We were gearing up for
the start of the 08-09 season; and I was jumped by a ephemeral, white- sheathed figure as I walked
home from school.
‘Boooooo!' the figure said, rattling its chains, moaning and groaning and sounding not unlike
some Arsenal supporters at the Emirates Cup the other weekend.
Alex McLeish had 5 seasons in charge of Glasgow Rangers. He only won the SPL twice. That's a
failure.
His four-year tenure at Birmingham City may have been crowned by League Cup glory in February,
but it cannot hide two relegations in four years. That's a failure.
He nearly guided Scotland to the World Cup but, at the end of the day, that campaign ended in
failure too.
Alex McLeish joins the growing list of Judases in the Premiership. His terse resignation by
email has set off a lot of teeth gnashing. Adding more fuel to the fire is Birmingham's concern
that he's moving across to Villa Park. Their rivals are on the lookout for a coach but the odds are
getting a bit long.
Alex McLeish joins the growing list of Judases in the Premiership. His terse resignation by
email has set off a lot of teeth gnashing. Adding more fuel to the fire is Birmingham's concern
that he's moving across to Villa Park. Their rivals are on the lookout for a coach but the odds are
getting a bit long.
Spain U21 vs England U21 Final score:- Spain U21 v England U21 1-1 ( A.Herrera/ D.Welbeck) 2011
Euro U-21 Football Championship @ Denmark- Group B 12/6/2011- Herning Stadium Danny Welbeck's late
equaliser gives England U21 a draw against Spain U21 in the 2011 UEFA U21 European Championship
after Ander Herrera's controversial opener had put the [.
Wigan's chairman says he has given Aston Villa permission to speak to Roberto Martinez about
Villa managerial opening.
Wigan chairman Dave Whelan told the Daily Telegraph newspaper's website on Wednesday that Villa
wrote to him and asked for permission to talk to Martinez:
"Aston Villa have acted above board and in a totally professional manner," Whelan said.
Avram Grant should have gone four months ago. That is the conventional wisdom and a fairly safe
one at that. But the problem was no one was willing to take over for him. Grant reveals that there
were six candidates including Martin O'Neill, Steve McLaren, and Sam Allardyce who were sought out
in January but they would not do it because " they knew the situation there.
Simon Kjaer's agent has told suitors of the player to direct their interest to Wolfsburg if they
wish to make an offer.
The Danish international has been a long-term target for a number of Barclays Premier League clubs,
but moved to the Bundesliga instead of England last summer following a successful World Cup.
Liverpool defender Daniel Agger is a summer transfer priority for Wolfsburg, according to reports
in Germany.
The Bundesliga strugglers, who sacked former England manager Steve McClaren earlier this month,
have identified the Dane as the man they want to shore up their defence.
And it is reported that the clubs have already been in contact about a possible deal in the summer
with Wolfsburg prepared to pay Liverpool around £9m for the 26-year-old.
Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel is being linked with a summer Anfield exit.
The Slovakian centre back has been in-and-out of the side at Liverpool under Kenny Dalglish, and
now Wolfsburg are reportedly keen to add the player to their ranks.
Bundesliga champions under Steve McLaren just two seasons ago, the German outfit have struggled
since, but have money to spend after the sale of Edin Dzeko to Manchester City.
It's easy to be distracted by some of the soap opera-like goings-on we see in professional soccer;
every year (week, day?), there's plenty of gossip and bad behavior on and off the field. Some of it
is even entertaining and interesting. But it's easy to lose track of some of the fundamentals of
the game when we pay too much attention to that sort of stuff.
Here's an interesting (and perhaps useless) factoid of the day. Don't know how and why I missed
this last summer, but I was astonished to read just today about the huge discrepancy in the numbers
of highly qualified coaches across European soccer nations, and in particular England's relative
and absolute backwardness.
By Amy Quinn, writing from Dublin.
Sat down today to try and make sense of the chaos at VfL Wolfsburg, a club I have followed on
and off since the wake of their championship winning 08/09 season. Since then, many things have
changed. Felix Magath, the coach who achieved what seemed impossible with the Lower Saxony side,
has moved on to Schalke.
Steve Cherundolo and Hannover dealt a final blow to Steve McLaren's Wolfsburg tenure while Timothy
Chandler continued in his role as Nurnberg's first bench option in their win over Leverkusen.
By JOHN BOSCHINI
After a reign of only eight months, Steve McClaren's time at Wolfsburg is over.
McClaren was let go by Wolfsburg on Monday after the former England manager has struggled at
the helm of the 2009 champion, who is now fighting a relegation battle near the bottom of the
Bundesliga table.
Gems of the Lower Leagues: Danny Graham is a post from: Just Football
Just Football's 'Gems of the Lower Leagues' series continues now with a
look at the Championship striker currently banging in the goals for Watford. Making his JF debut,
we welcome James McMath:
Danny Graham is the Championship's joint top-scorer and an integral part of a
Watford team whose attacking prowess has seen them make an unlikely challenge for
promotion.
The January transfer window has opened but as yet there hasn't been much to talk about.
Manchester City have agreed a transfer fee with German side Wolfsburg for their Bosnian striker
Edin Dzeko. The 24 year old has scored 66 goals in 111 games so it is not surprising that
Wolfsburg manager Steve McLaren was [.
So 2011 is upon us. And with ominous trumpets and bad violins, BigFourZa start this decade with
the second part of our Annual Football Awards or Fourzys. You can relive the horror of Part One if
you wish, or else continue to Part Two.
-
The 'Not That Kind Of Player' Award- Joey Barton
This award is given to players who masterfully imitate a rabid dog foaming at the mouth without
the pundits catching on to it.
