Former Brum chairman says he can turn the club around…
Bongo baron David Sullivan has announced he’ll ’save’ West Ham from financial doom, but only if the club’s Icelandic owners hand him over half the club. For free. According to this morning’s Sun, Cardiff-born Sullivan, apparently a Hammers fan from boyhood, told bosses at Straumur he’ll inject £40m and turn the club back into a profitable business, but won’t touch any debt repayments:
West Ham’s debts are frightening and nobody in their right mind would take on such a nightmare. So he’s come up with an ingenious plan.
He basically told Straumur: ‘I’ll turn this club round, I’ll make it profitable and healthy but only if you give me a 50 per cent stake right now and leave me to run the ship with my people.
Hopefully we’ll be bored to tears by events at Anfield tonight
Nine successive Liverpool home games in the Premier League had featured at least three goals prior to the 2-0 win over Manchester United 15 days ago. Here’s why we’re hoping that the flood is about to be followed by a drought…
» The last three meetings between the two sides have all featured under 2.5 goals, with just three goals scored in total during the encounters. Incidentally, Liverpool won none of them.
» Premier League games this season have averaged 3.03 goals a game but Birmingham’s have featured the fewest of any top-flight club, with just 20 in 11 matches - 1.82 a match.
» Liverpool’s is among the highest because of their goal-heavy clashes with Stoke, Burnley and Hull but three of their last four have failed to breach the 2.5 barrier.
You can find odds of 2.28 (almost 13/10) on Betfair that there will be under 2.5 goals in tonight’s game.
Steven Howard in today’s Sun no less, has piled onto the bandwagon marked ‘Arsenal goalkeeping crisis’ and let rip. Howard writes:
“They have four goalkeepers on the books - Vito Mannone, Manuel Almunia, Lukasz Fabianski and teen Wojciech Szczesny - and none, for one reason or other, look up to the job.”
before making the stunning claim
“In fact, you would be hard pushed to find a Premier League club WITHOUT a better keeper than the four at Arsenal.”
Well thespoiler has been scratching itself having a good think this morning, and we reckon maybe Chelsea and Birmingham City are the only clubs without a better keeper than Arsenal - your thoughts below please…
Burnley 1/ Manchester Utd 0 (mit Deutsch Kommentar, ja!)
When The Spoiler went to bed last night, Burnley had beaten reigning champions Manchester Utd for the first time in 41 years, Tottenham were top of the league and all three promoted sides had won their midweek games. We woke up this morning and discovered we hadn’t transported to some sort of football parallel universe, but that the Premier League is already shaping up as one of the most exciting in years.
Muchos congrats to Burnley, who thoroughly deserved three points in their first Premier League match. Will this result cause Sir Alex to dip into the transfer market?
Spoiler bonus: Highlights of all the other Premiership games after the jump, including Jermain Defoe’s hat-trick at the KC and Birmingham’s win over doomed Pompey…
The players who won’t make the grade at their new clubs
In the spirit of writing people off at an unreasonably early stage of the season, we asked Spoiler correspondent Joe Thompson to list the top ten newbies who are likely to struggle in 2009/10. Thankfully, he obliged…
Alberto Aquilani (Roma to Liverpool, £20m)
‘What?! I’ve seen him on YouTube, he’s a maestro! Great vision, long range shooting! Like Gerrard with nice hair!’ True, but he’s also crocked enough to make Darren Anderton look like The Terminator. In all competitions, he’s made 90 starts in five seasons. Look at the YouTube compilations again, he’s got a different haircut in every clip. OK, he’s Italian - it proves nothing- but he doesn’t play much. At £20m, Benitez has taken a massive gamble. By the time he plays it’ll be nearly Christmas, and a crunching (or even soft) tackle away at Stoke or Bolton might mean he’s glad to get back to the comfort of the treatment room.
Ronald Zubar (Marseille to Wolves, undisclosed)
Very few players are immortalised in a football expression– The ‘Cruyff’ Turn, The ‘Blanco’ Bounce and ‘Zubrelances’. The latter is a term the Marseille faithful coined to describe Zubar’s regular defensive howlers. He’s played for France U-21’s, but then Titus Bramble also played U-21 football when he was clowning around at Newcastle. Mick McCarthy is already ‘pleading for patience’ with his new signing - Wolves fans are going to need it.
Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn Rovers to Man City, £17m)
Initially, this looked like a great match. Hughes had long been giving him the eye after re-launching his career
A team of fresh faces who represent excellent value for money
Although the transfer window isn’t locked shut until the end of the month, the brand new Premier League season is but a few hours away. With this in mind, Spoiler correspondent Ben Baker has considered the best buys of the summer so far, compiling a team of his favourites…
Joe Hart (Manchester City to Birmingham, Season Long Loan)
A transfer that suits both parties. Joe wants to win more senior England caps, and since he has been edged out of the number one spot at Manchester City by a certain Mr. Given, first team opportunities have been lacking. His search for regular football has led him to the Midlands and Birmingham are surely delighted that this promising young English goalkeeper will be between the sticks for the season. Also, you just have to love him for his mental attitude and abrasive shouting when facing a penalty - he’s like a loopier version of Bruce Grobbelaar.
Glen Johnson (Portsmouth to Liverpool, £17.5m)
Beating off Chelsea and Manchester City and getting one over his rivals would have made this deal extra sweet for the ever-irritated Rafa. Johnson had a superb season last year, both with club and country, epitomised by his man of the match performance against an (albeit woeful) Andorra side that saw him notch up four assists from full back, and will add a whole new dimension to Liverpool’s right side. A high price to pay, but as Rafa said, “Sometimes you have to spend a little bit more.”A sentiment that is particularly true for English players.
Yuri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow to Chelsea, £18m)
A Russian at Chelsea? How did that happen? This versatile
The latest transfer gossip, rumours and damned lies
Ashley Young not going to Tottenham The Guardian say Martin O’Neill will definitely not sell his prized asset, particularly to a club “on a similar level”. He utterly refuses and will not be persuaded. Unless they stump up £30m, that is.
The Spoiler truth-o-meter: As much as ‘Arry admires the left-sided forward, £30m is a little steep.
Barry Ferguson to Birmingham Despite his infamous naughty drinking problems, Alex McLeish is keen to reacquaint himself with the former Scotland captain. The 31-year-old midfielder would cost around £1.5m.
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