Controversy is seemingly never far away when it comes to Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, and during the recent Spurs game, he was booked for a dangerous kick on Scott Parker. After the game, Man United thug Wayne Rooted tweeted that Suarez should've been sent off, and I'm sure there are people out there that share that view.

Liverpool's goalless draw with Spurs on Monday night once again underlined the pressing need for Kenny Dalglish to buy a striker capable of *regularly* scoring goals. Last week, Anfield legend Steve Nicol argued that Fulham's Clint Dempsey could do a good job for one of the league's top sides, and now he has gone one step further and suggested that Liverpool should actually think about buying him

Liverpool drew their 8th home league game of the season against Spurs last night, and after the game, Kenny Dalglish declared that he was 'really pleased' with the way the team played. Dalglish's former team-mate Steve Nicol had the opposite reaction, and bemoaned the quality of Liverpool's play in the attacking third of the field.

The decision to strip Chelsea's John Terry of the England captaincy has polarised opinion across the football world, and many fair-minded people will be concerned by the FA's apparent failure to observe the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty'. On Friday, Liverpool legend Steve Nicol labelled the FA's decision as 'stupid', but his former team-mate Mark Lawrenson claims there may be more

Liverpool legend Steve Nicol has slammed the FA's decision to strip Chelsea's John Terry of the England captaincy. Terry is currently awaiting trial for the alleged racial abuse of QPR's Anton Ferdinand, and although he is innocent until proven guilty, the FA has take action that could be construed as a punishment.

Sean Donahue issued a short announcement last night over at New England Soccer Today explaining that New England Revolution officials have denied the reports he gathered from his source concerning the way the Monsef Zerka contract situation was handled. Through the media relations department, the team asserts that they made efforts to keep the Moroccan winger at the club.

Last month, I conducted a survey on this site asking if Liverpool fans would be happy if the club signed Carlos Tevez, and over 63% of fans who took part in the poll voted yes. Liverpool legend Steve Nicol was asked yesterday if he would like to see Tevez at Anfield, and he gave a completely different answer.

Monsef Zerka may be the closest the New England Revolution has come to replacing the consistency of Steve Ralston on the wings, but the Moroccan won't be returning to the team in 2012. New England Soccer Today has learned the 30-year-old winger is not in the team's plans this season.

Monsef Zerka tallied two goals and an assist in seven games for the Revs in 2011.

Prior to victory over Man City the other night, Liverpool had been in a poor run of form, slumping to seventh place in the league after managing only one win in six Premier League games. After such a huge financial outlay on underperforming players, it was inevitable that questions would start to be asked about Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish's position, but Anfield legend Steve Nicol believes

Manchester City may be top of the Premier League, but they were poor against Liverpool last night, and Kenny Dalglish's team arguably dominated for long periods of the game. Despite the ineffective performance, Anfield legend Steve Nicol still believes that City are the second best team in the world.

Despite spending over 100m on attacking players over the last year, Liverpool football club have scored less league goals than relegation fodder like Bolton and Blackburn. Clearly, the club needs a new striker, and Anfield legend Steve Nicol believes that Fulham striker Clint Dempsey could do a great job for Liverpool.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish publicly eviscerated his players after the wretched performance against Bolton at the weekend, and threatened to get rid of certain playres if they continued to perform in such a disappointing manner. Dalglish didn't name names, but Anfield legend Steve Nicol has given his thoughts about who might be on Kenny's sh1t-list.

Big money signings Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll have collectively scored only 3 league goals so far this season. Whatever way you slice it, that's not good enough, and Liverpool legend Steve Nicol believes that Kenny Dalglish must try and solve the problem asap by doing some business in the January transfer market.

Paul Mariner believes Khano Smith could make an MLS comeback. (Photo by Art Donahue/artdonahue.com)

Former New England Revolution midfielder Khano Smith's MLS career came to a screeching halt in 2010 at just 29-years-old thanks to extremely inconsistent and often frustrating play. Now former Revs assistant coach and current Toronto FC director of player development Paul Mariner believes the ex-pro could make a comeback at left back, according to a report in the Bermuda Gazette.

If you blinked, you missed it. The 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft came in went in the space of about an hour, all four rounds of picks proceeding along lightning fast while thousands of live-chatters pontificated on names they'd never heard before and will likely never hear again.

The New England Revolution entered this draft with a stated desire to pick up goalscorers.

Anfield can be an intimidating place for the best of players, but sometimes, even the club's own players can feel 'overawed' by the responsibility and expectation associated with wearing the famous red shirt. Liverpool legend Steve Nicol believes this might be the case with Andy Carroll, but he's called on the beleaguered striker to 'get over it'.

Nicol thinks Boyd would be great in Houston

Former New England Revolution coach Steve Nicol has high praise for both Kris Boyd and Dominic Kinnear. Speaking to the Scottish Sun here, Nicol said "I haven't spoken to Dominic about him. We're mates but we don't speak about players like that. You don't hear Sir Alex Ferguson on the phone to Harry Redknapp to discuss his targets!

After last night's 1-0 victory against Man City at the Etihad, it's advantage Liverpool in the race for Carling Cup final place. Liverpool legend Steve Nicol was delighted with the win, but believes that tiredness may have had something to do with the below-par nature of Man City's performance.

Shortly after his contract with the Revolution was not renewed, Steve Nicol entertained an offer to fill the vacant heading coaching job in Colorado according to a Goal.com report in November. But, according to Nicol, it wasn't he who to reneged on the opportunity.

In a Jan. 10 report from the Boston Globe, the former Revolution manager stated that he never said "no" the Colorado job, but rather, it was the club who declined his services.

The Revolution won't have to wait long to start collecting frequent-flier miles thanks to a travel-heavy start to the 2012 regular season that will put them on the road for four of its first five games.

New England will pack its bags for where else - California, where they're scheduled to kick off their 2012 campaign on Mar.

Twenty-eleven turned out to be an interesting year, to say the least. It was a year that witnessed the long-awaited arrival of Jurgen Klinsmann as U.S. Men's National Team coach, the U.S. Women's National Team falling in agonizing fashion to Japan in the World Cup final, Steve Nicol's departure as Revolution manager, the introduction of Jay Heaps as his successor and.

Liverpool legend Steve Nicol was massively disappointed by his old club's failure to beat bottom-club Blackburn yesterday, and he feels that Kenny Dalglish must now go out and sign an attacking midfielder to play off Suarez. Nicol, who played alongside some of Liverpool's greatest attacking midfielders, argued that time is running out for the likes of Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson.

Liverpool have scored only 20 goals in 17 league games so far this season, and Anfield legend Steve Nicol has urged Kenny Dalglish to sign a proven attacking midfielder in January to compensate for the poor goalscoring performance of certain members of the squad.Nicol, who won the PFA Player of the year award in 1989, argued:"For me, one of the biggest problems is the back-up to the centre

An anemic New England Revolution offense started to turn around towards the end of the 2011 season thanks to some late additions, but new head coach Jay Heaps might not get the chance to build upon that improvement in 2012.

Jay Heaps may have to replace Rajko Lekic and other key players from the 2011 squad.

Junior N'Tame (left) may be set to join the Revs after trialing with the team in October. (Photo by Art Donahue/artdonahue.com)

Despite trialing under former New England Revolution head coach Steve Nicol in October, Théophile Junior N'Tame may be a part of new head coach Jay Heaps' plans. According to a report on French site MLS-News.

The New England Revolution are a team in transition this offseason. Long-time coach Steve Nicol has been fired and replaced by a man familiar to Revs fans: former player Jay Heaps. The new head man comes in at a time ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

The New England Revolution are a team in transition this offseason. Long-time coach Steve Nicol has been fired and replaced by a man familiar to Revs fans: former player Jay Heaps. The new head man comes in at a time ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

The Chicago Fire selected former New England Revolution striker Kheli Dube with the 8th Pick in the Second Round of the MLS Re-Entry Draft. Dube would leave the New England Revolution, the only MLS club he has ever known, if the two sides can reach a deal in the next 7 days. In four seasons the Zimbabwean compiled 14 goals and 8 assists in 72 appearances.

It's an understatement to suggest that Andy Carroll has strugged at Liverpool. In his last sixteen appearances, the former Newcastle striker has scored only two goals, and he's clearly having problems adapting to Liverpool's style of play. However, Anfield legend Steve Nicol believes that there is another reason for Carroll's underwhelming performances.

Liverpool legend Steve Nicol has expressed his disappointment with the result at Fulham last night, and he also revealed his surprise at one of Kenny Dalglish's key personnel decisions.
Speaking on ESPN, Nicol - who won a bucketload of trophies as Liverpool player, including 4 league championship titles - noted:
"Disappointing is not the word; it's frustrating.

Revolution fans can finally exhale.

In a surprise announcement made during the team's 2012-13 jersey unveiling at the Gillette Stadium Pro Shop on Saturday, Revolution President Brian Bilello announced that the team had re-signed midfielder Shalrie Joseph. According to a tweet from Boston Herald reporter Kyle McCarthy, Joseph's new deal will classify the Grenadan center half as a Designated Player for the 2012 season.

Two small pieces of news before we get on with the Player Of The Year discussion:
*Steve Nicol turned down the Rapids interview request. There was some talk about him being uncomfortable with the environment here, but all along I thought getting Nicol out of Boston, where he's been for 13 years, would be a long shot.

FALL RIVER, Mass. He may not have a pink mohawk or have a life-sized wall decal in his likeness, but Dominik Machado is gunning to become the next homegrown talent to emerge from the Revolution Youth Academy.

After a pair of successful seasons with the U-16s, the creative midfielder didn't skip a beat with the U-18s last weekend.

Steve Nicol reportedly isn't interested in joining Colorado as head coach. (Photo by Art Donahue/artdonahue.com)

Former New England Revolution head coach Steve Nicol turned down a possible chance to jump right back into coaching in Major League Soccer with the Colorado Rapids, according to a report on Goal.

In the wake of the Expansion Draft, the New England Revolution placed three players on waivers, making them available for selection in the subsequent Waiver Draft. Alan Koger, Otto Loewy, and Andrew Sousa were cut after making exactly zero league appearances in their rookie seasons. As it turns out, they weren't picked up in the Waiver Draft by anyone else; only Nizar Khalfan found a new home through that process, moving to to the Philadelphia Union.

As a Liverpool player, club legend Steve Nicol was rarely on the losing side against Chelsea. Last week, he tipped his old club to beat the Blues 2-1 at Stamford Bridge, and as we saw, Nicol was proved right. After the game, the Scot described Liverpool's victory as 'absolutely perfect', but still felt that his old manager Kenny Dalglish made one small mistake during the game.

Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson believes it's a 'good time' for Liverpool to be playing Chelsea, and he thinks Kenny Dalglish's team can win the game, but only if certain changes are made to the starting XI.
Lawro feels that Liverpool need a bit more bite in attack, and he's urged Daglish to be ruthless:
"Chelsea play a high line; the defenders push on, but John Terry has lost even more pace, so I think it's a game where you leave Andy Carroll out and you play Suarez and Bellamy up front.

First of all, Colin Clarke's name has been floated in some circles as a possible candidate, but he just accepted the Carolina Railhawks job, so we can rule him out.
Today Jeff Plush did an interview with ColoradoRapids.com that lays out what they're looking for in a coaching search, and a bit about what happened with Gary Smith.

Now that we've had a few days to examine things from every angle and formulate responsible judgments, I feel the time has come for a measured and well thought-out reaction to the Jay Heaps hiring. And no, it's not an unintelligible exclamation of frustration.

I still have plenty of reservations about Jay's lack of experience, and also about his leadership style.

The list continues to grow of former coaches and teammates who heap praise on the new coach of the New England Revolution, Jay Heaps.
Frank Dell'Apa of the Boston Globe speaks to former New England coaches Fernando Clavijo and Steve Nicol about their protege turn manager.
"It's a bold move, isn't it?