Sunday Gossip

[JawD 99]

Tottenham coach Juande Ramos is planning a £30m swoop for Valencia's David Villa as he is worried Dimitar Berbatov still wants to quit the club. (News of the World).

 

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is tracking Scotland and Rangers fullback Alan Hutton, 22, as a possible long-term replacement for Gary Neville.

 

Dinamo Zagreb's diminutive Croatian playmaker Luka Modric is heading to Chelsea in the summer. (Observer)

 

Tottenham are ready to offer bitter rivals Arsenals around £7m for unsettled midfielder Abou Diaby. (People)

 

Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce wants to take his former Bolton defender Tal Ben-Haim for a knockdown £1m from Chelsea. (People)

 

Liverpool are interested in Athletic Bilbao defender Fernando Amorebieta and Spanish U21 midfielder Javi Martinez (People).

 

Manchester United are being sounded out about a possible swap deal which would see Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o trading places with Louis Saha. (People)

 

West Ham will finally seal the £5m swoop for Derby winger Giles Barnes in the January transfer window. (People)

 

Sven-Goran Eriksson has slapped a 'not for sale' notice on unsettled striker Rolando Bianchi. (Daily Star Sunday)

 

Birmingham are locked in a desperate scrap to stop manager Steve Bruce taking his assistant Eric Black with him to Wigan. (Daily Star Sunday).

 

Tottenham will sign ex-Arsenal hitman Julio Baptista in the January transfer window from Real Madrid. Spurs coach Juande Ramos has lined up a £5m swoop for the Brazil striker, who he managed at Seville. (Daily Star Sunday)

 

Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce admits he is unhappy after losing Michael Owen for up to six weeks with a thigh injury in England's friendly win over Austria on Friday. (Sunday Express)

 

Sam Allardyce is planning another raid on his former club Bolton in a bid to take controversial Senegal midfielder El-Hadji Diouf to Tyneside.

 

David Beckham insists he would sacrifice the chance to win his 100th cap in exchange for England grabbing a Euro 2008 place. (Sunday Express)

 

Peter Crouch is confident his partnership with Jermain Defoe can help England to victory if the pair are reunited for the final European Championship qualifier with Croatia at Wembley. (Mail on Sunday)

 

Manchester City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson is to be handed more than £150m from owner Thaksin Shinawatra for new players. (Mail on Sunday)

 

West Ham boss Alan Curbishley insists he would not be interested in the England job if the FA were looking to replace Steve McCLaren. (Observer)

 

Henk Ten Cate, Chelsea's assistant manager, has denied attempting to entice the Brazilian star Ronaldinho to Stamford Bridge. (Sunday Times)

 

Alan Shearer has admitted he wants to succeed Steve McClaren as England coach. (Various)

[Happy Face 29]

 

Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce admits he is unhappy after losing Michael Owen for up to six weeks with a thigh injury in England's friendly win over Austria on Friday. (Sunday Express)

(Various)

 

 

You gotta be shitting me! Hold the back page eh?

[Jusoda Kid 1]

We are Bolton, boring Bolton, no one likes us we don't care, except we do Sam you fat fucking pric

[Andrew 4856]

villa to tottenham

 

yeh ok

[Sensiemella101 0]

Diouf is a fine player but he is neither a goalscorer nor a winger...Right Now Nufc needs players with pace and who are willing to take on men and whip in crosses

 

Have a look at this guy....He plays in the French league anc he can be bought relatvely cheap

 

 

 

 

 

[Baggio 0]

Good player Diouf, better than N'Zogbia, Duff and Milner would be for us down the left in a 4-3-3 formation, links up the midfield and attack well.

[Sensiemella101 0]

Good player Diouf, better than N'Zogbia, Duff and Milner would be for us down the left in a 4-3-3 formation, links up the midfield and attack well.

 

Why not splash the cash on Anelka...Surely he must want to leave the Reebok...

 

Buying a big name like Anelka is all fine and good but money has to be invested in bringing young talent to the club....I don't mean spalshing 16/17 million pounds on a single player but many players can be brought in for as little as 6 or 7 million ...Who would predict that Kenwyne Jone would have made such an impact of the Black Cats....I did..Y because I saw him play in the Fifa U 17 tournament in 2001 ..A tournament which featured players like Kaka and Tevez..Good teams send scouts to these tournaments and buy them comparably cheap..Could u imagine NUFC could have had Kaka or Tevez on their books instead of Barton and Geremi..

 

The problem with the midtable teams is that they really don't know where to look and end up paying toop $$ for fading stars while sides like Arsenal have a global scouting system where they pick up the same type of player for pennies before they become stars.

[Sensiemella101 0]

Good player Diouf, better than N'Zogbia, Duff and Milner would be for us down the left in a 4-3-3 formation, links up the midfield and attack well.

 

Why not splash the cash on Anelka...Surely he must want to leave the Reebok...

 

Buying a big name like Anelka is all fine and good but money has to be invested in bringing young talent to the club....I don't mean spalshing 16/17 million pounds on a single player but many players can be brought in for as little as 6 or 7 million ...Who would predict that Kenwyne Jone would have made such an impact of the Black Cats....I did..Y because I saw him play in the Fifa U 17 tournament in 2001 ..A tournament which featured players like Kaka and Tevez..Good teams send scouts to these tournaments and buy them comparably cheap..Could u imagine NUFC could have had Kaka or Tevez on their books instead of Barton and Geremi..

 

The problem with the midtable teams is that they really don't know where to look and end up paying toop $$ for fading stars while sides like Arsenal have a global scouting system where they pick up the same type of player for pennies before they become stars.

[bassplayerjj 0]

Good player Diouf, better than N'Zogbia, Duff and Milner would be for us down the left in a 4-3-3 formation, links up the midfield and attack well.

 

How do you know Zog wouldnt do better as the attacking left forward in a 4-3-3, he's never played there for us as far as I can recall

[Baggio 0]

Good player Diouf, better than N'Zogbia, Duff and Milner would be for us down the left in a 4-3-3 formation, links up the midfield and attack well.

 

Why not splash the cash on Anelka...Surely he must want to leave the Reebok...

 

Buying a big name like Anelka is all fine and good but money has to be invested in bringing young talent to the club....I don't mean spalshing 16/17 million pounds on a single player but many players can be brought in for as little as 6 or 7 million ...Who would predict that Kenwyne Jone would have made such an impact of the Black Cats....I did..Y because I saw him play in the Fifa U 17 tournament in 2001 ..A tournament which featured players like Kaka and Tevez..Good teams send scouts to these tournaments and buy them comparably cheap..Could u imagine NUFC could have had Kaka or Tevez on their books instead of Barton and Geremi..

 

The problem with the midtable teams is that they really don't know where to look and end up paying toop $$ for fading stars while sides like Arsenal have a global scouting system where they pick up the same type of player for pennies before they become stars.

 

Anelka's a different kind of player to Diouf, he's more of a goalscorer where as Diouf is more of a link up man, we need the latter at the moment as our ability to create anything is non existent.

 

As for our scouting and youth system, I've banged on about it for years, how a club who likes to think it's one of the big boys can operate with one scout and an awful youth set up is beyond me, hopefully Mort puts more investment in that area and gets someone in separate from Allardyce to run the whole thing, that way if he does get sacked things like this won't suffer like it did when Robson went and the likes of Milne got the boot too, it just leaves every manager coming in with the job of building up the whole club from scratch.

[Baggio 0]

Good player Diouf, better than N'Zogbia, Duff and Milner would be for us down the left in a 4-3-3 formation, links up the midfield and attack well.

 

How do you know Zog wouldnt do better as the attacking left forward in a 4-3-3, he's never played there for us as far as I can recall

 

Because N'Zogbia seems to struggle the further he plays up the pitch, when he plays at left back he's more of a threat going forward than when he's out on the wing, Diouf is just a better player than N'Zogbia in every aspect of his game.

[The Fish 10963]

Good player Diouf, better than N'Zogbia, Duff and Milner would be for us down the left in a 4-3-3 formation, links up the midfield and attack well.

 

How do you know Zog wouldnt do better as the attacking left forward in a 4-3-3, he's never played there for us as far as I can recall

 

Because N'Zogbia seems to struggle the further he plays up the pitch, when he plays at left back he's more of a threat going forward than when he's out on the wing, Diouf is just a better player than N'Zogbia in every aspect of his game.

sorry like, but that bit in particular is bollocks. He's wasted at left back, he's not a defensively minded player and is at his best when he's the freedom to attack the opposition fullback.

 

Also, He's a better player than Diouf in one particular way, he's already more of a professional instead of that tempestuous child who cheats and dives and spits and has that nasty streak to his game that makes me retch.

 

This is yet another non-story if you ask me, simply put the media have nothing to write so they just link Allardyce to ex players. It's bollocks and tiresome to say the least

[Baggio 0]

Good player Diouf, better than N'Zogbia, Duff and Milner would be for us down the left in a 4-3-3 formation, links up the midfield and attack well.

 

How do you know Zog wouldnt do better as the attacking left forward in a 4-3-3, he's never played there for us as far as I can recall

 

Because N'Zogbia seems to struggle the further he plays up the pitch, when he plays at left back he's more of a threat going forward than when he's out on the wing, Diouf is just a better player than N'Zogbia in every aspect of his game.

sorry like, but that bit in particular is bollocks. He's wasted at left back, he's not a defensively minded player and is at his best when he's the freedom to attack the opposition fullback.

 

Also, He's a better player than Diouf in one particular way, he's already more of a professional instead of that tempestuous child who cheats and dives and spits and has that nasty streak to his game that makes me retch.

 

This is yet another non-story if you ask me, simply put the media have nothing to write so they just link Allardyce to ex players. It's bollocks and tiresome to say the least

 

I never mentioned him as being defensively minded, I've said he's better going forward when playing at left back, if you watch him he has the ability to ghost in when coming from fullback, usually the opposition right back is up against Milner so Zog can both double up on the fullback and overlap like how Arsenal use their fullbacks, as an out and out winger this season N'Zogbia has been disappointing, I was one of them calling for him to be moved from his fullback position and be given more freedom to attack but since he has I've found him a lot less affective.

 

As for N'Zogbia being more professional instead of a tempestuous child, did you miss his antics last season because we signed Duff?

 

Neither is a saint but I'd prefer the better player in our side right now and Diouf is easily the better player and more suited to the formation that I think Allardyce wants to play.

[Scy 0]

Villa to Tottenham is the worst transfer gossip I've ever heard.

[The Fish 10963]

I never mentioned him as being defensively minded, I've said he's better going forward when playing at left back, if you watch him he has the ability to ghost in when coming from fullback, usually the opposition right back is up against Milner so Zog can both double up on the fullback and overlap like how Arsenal use their fullbacks, as an out and out winger this season N'Zogbia has been disappointing, I was one of them calling for him to be moved from his fullback position and be given more freedom to attack but since he has I've found him a lot less affective.

 

Surely though, with the manner in which we are conceding goals a defensively sound unit is our first priority?

 

As for N'Zogbia being more professional instead of a tempestuous child, did you miss his antics last season because we signed Duff?

I'd hardly put being a bit mardy in the same category as spitting at fans and the other distasteful dishes on his menu

 

Neither is a saint but I'd prefer the better player in our side right now and Diouf is easily the better player and more suited to the formation that I think Allardyce wants to play.

 

How can you be sure how Allardyce wants to play, also, N'Zogbia seems to feature quite heavily in Sam's plans so why would he replace him and finally, this is a non-story concocted to fill some column inches.

[Baggio 0]

I never mentioned him as being defensively minded, I've said he's better going forward when playing at left back, if you watch him he has the ability to ghost in when coming from fullback, usually the opposition right back is up against Milner so Zog can both double up on the fullback and overlap like how Arsenal use their fullbacks, as an out and out winger this season N'Zogbia has been disappointing, I was one of them calling for him to be moved from his fullback position and be given more freedom to attack but since he has I've found him a lot less affective.

 

Surely though, with the manner in which we are conceding goals a defensively sound unit is our first priority?

 

As for N'Zogbia being more professional instead of a tempestuous child, did you miss his antics last season because we signed Duff?

I'd hardly put being a bit mardy in the same category as spitting at fans and the other distasteful dishes on his menu

 

Neither is a saint but I'd prefer the better player in our side right now and Diouf is easily the better player and more suited to the formation that I think Allardyce wants to play.

 

How can you be sure how Allardyce wants to play, also, N'Zogbia seems to feature quite heavily in Sam's plans so why would he replace him and finally, this is a non-story concocted to fill some column inches.

 

 

You're missing the point, I'm not saying I'd play N'Zogbia at left back, I'm saying he's looked better coming forward when playing at left back rather than when he's been out on the wing, Enrique should be playing at left back unless Allardyce wants to get better but I'd much rather have Diouf playing wide left than N'Zogbia as I think he's a better player.

 

Diouf is an arsehole but he's better than anything we've got out wide at the moment, if people say they don't want him because of what he's done in the past then fair enough but I think what Barton's done is worse, if he improves us as a squad these things will be forgotten about.

 

I'm not sure how Allardyce wants to play but I think he'll favour his 4-3-3 formation that he tried to play earlier in the season, the problem he has is apart from Martins that none of his strikers really suit it, Viduka looked poor and Owen has no attributes to play there, I also look at the midfielders he brought in in the Summer and to me they suit 4-3-3 better than 4-4-2, N'Zogbia features heavily because we have little options out wide, he chose not to replace either Dyer or Solano with wide men which leaves us with Zog and Milner.

 

As for Diouf, according to Lee Clark we had a bid for him rejected towards the end of the Summer and Allardyce plans on going back in for him in January, whether that is still the case I don't know but that's what he said at the time.

[Baggio 0]

Villa to Tottenham is the worst transfer gossip I've ever heard.

 

They were linked with Casillas (sp?) the other day too for £26 million or something close to that.

[acrossthepond 878]

I'd have Joey Barton before I'd have Diouf, the filth.

 

Oh wait...

 

But seriously, I'm more interested in having Ben Haim for 1m. Maybe then we could offload Taylor before his ego gets the better of us and get some proper talent in.

[Dr Gloom 22143]

I'd have Joey Barton before I'd have Diouf, the filth.

 

Oh wait...

 

But seriously, I'm more interested in having Ben Haim for 1m. Maybe then we could offload Taylor before his ego gets the better of us and get some proper talent in.

 

howay man. taylor scores 7 in the magness league

[acrossthepond 878]

I'd have Joey Barton before I'd have Diouf, the filth.

 

Oh wait...

 

But seriously, I'm more interested in having Ben Haim for 1m. Maybe then we could offload Taylor before his ego gets the better of us and get some proper talent in.

 

howay man. taylor scores 7 in the magness league

 

Doesn't make him any good

We could probably pick up some decent money for "future England captain" Taylor...why shouldn't we cash in?