What next for Man City’s peripherals?

Although the score line reflects otherwise, Manchester City’s latest 1-0 victory against Bolton proves that Roberto Mancini is finally allowing expansive football to seep through their ultra-defensive exterior, but it’s still very much work in progress. The affluent City owners will certainly sanct...

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He Should Do Well: David N'Gog (Liverpool)

Excuse our indifference but we’ve been through this before. No matter how hyped up the transfer of David N’Gog is, it is hard to get excited. Any flattery lavished on the French sounds far too similar to the praise devoted to the likes of Anthony Le Tallec and Florent Sinama Pongolle before the...

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5578 He Should Do Well: Goklan Inler (Udinese)

by : Paul Grech It is what Udinese do best. Few clubs are as capable at spotting players, fewer still have the patience to allow them to develop. Rather than being a limitation, the inability to challenge the top clubs as dictated by the club’s financial reality has been transformed into one of Ud...

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5561 He Should Do Well: Mike San Jo

by : Paul Grech Much of the attention surrounding Liverpool’s reserve team has centred around the side’s attacking players. It is the likes of Kristian Nemeth, Jay Spearing and Damien Plessis. Any interest in the back line has normally focused on Emiliano Insua, the Argentine left-back that many fe...

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5546 He Should Do Well: Krisztian N

by : Paul Grech It has been the recurrent theme of Liverpool’s reserve season, the question asked after each game: is Krisztian Nemeth ready to play for the first team? The Hungarian striker has certainly made an impact since his arrival from MTK Hungaria in the summer. Exceptional with the ball a...

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5483 He Should Do Well: Johan Vogel

by : Paul Grech “Well, there's no guarantee of anything in this world - it all depends on how well the club is run. Are we wise enough to choose the right people to run our Club? Good question! Democracy has its weaknesses, we all know that, but at least you have the chance to get rid of the Board ...

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5459 He Should Do Well: Scott Loach

by : Paul Grech No one can accuse Scott Loach of lacking ambition. Asked what he wanted to achieve in his career soon after joining Watford as a raw teenager, the goalkeeper promptly replied that he aimed to play for England. At the time not much was known about him. Originally on Ipswich’s book...

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5228 He Should Do Well: Martin Skrt

by : Paul Grech Whilst everyone was expecting a move for Ezequeil Garay following one of those rumours that over the internet tend to spread so quickly and mysteriously gain credibility, Liverpool were silently doing a deal for Slovak defender Martin Skrtel. Where the situation surrounding the clu...

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5227 He Should Do Well: Nery Castil

by : Paul Grech Much of Sven Goran Eriksson's successes has been down to his courage in signing players irrespective of the league or club of origin. Whilst the rest of Europe shied away from making a move for Elano, despite the Brazilian's continued excellence in the Ukraine and for the national ...

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5194 He Should Do Well: Chris Gunte

by : Paul Grech One of the main advantages of having a director of football – if not the only one – is that it ensures a certain consistency in transfer strategies. Pressure can force managers to focus too much on immediate results and players who can guarantee that which might not always be in th...

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5139 He Should Do Well: Sam Tozer (

by : Paul Grech Sam Allardyce may have built his reputation on his ability to scout foreign players – Jay Jay Okacha, Hal Ben Taim, are some of the few on whom he took a gamble where others wouldn’t – yet this has overshadowed his ability to nurture talent. Under his guidance Kevin Nolan made it t...

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4887: He Should Do Well: Ishmael Mil

by : Paul Grech Liverpool (4) vs Tottenham Hotspur (18), KO 15:00 Liverpool remain unbeaten in the league, but it will be interesting to see how the pallid mid-week performance will affect them. Liverpool are often poor after a European game; and although Spurs were also in action in Europe their ...

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4803: He Should Do Well: Jermaine Be

by : Paul Grech As it turns out, life in League One isn’t proving to be that bad for Leeds United. Of course it would have been all the better if the FA hadn’t docked them fifteen points but, with that penalty erased within five games, they’re looking very much like the big team in the wrong divis...

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4692: He Should Do Well: Lucas Leiva

by : Paul Grech With Premiership clubs looking increasingly further in their search for new players, it is somewhat surprising that there are so few Brazilians being targeted, especially when the rest of the world is constantly looking at such players in the search for flair and talent. There are ...

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4675: He Should Do Well: Kevin-Princ

by : Paul Grech If the deal does go through, it will mean another step towards securing Tottenham’s long term future because Boateng does look like he’ll become quite some player. He’s already proven his talent at the top level of German football and, even though it might take him a bit longer to d...

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4665: He Should Do Well: Bacary Sagn

by : Paul Grech Arsene Wenger knows French football so well and has been so successful at spotting players there that whenever he signs someone from the Ligue 1, people no longer ask whether he is any good: they assume that he is. And, of course, they usually are. Despite other clubs monitoring t...

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4660: He Should Do Well: Julien Faub

by : Paul Grech How did Julien Faubert become such a highly sought after player? When he joined Bordeaux three seasons ago from Cannes he was simply an average right back who didn’t look anything special. But then came an inspirational move by Ricardo Rocha when the manager moved Faubert to mid...

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4659: He Should Do Well: Adam Hammil

by : Paul Grech Southampton had been hoping to get a player on loan from Liverpool ever since the season ended, yet it wasn’t Adam Hammill they were thinking of. Back in March, Danny Guthrie came in initially for a month’s loan as the team struggled to contain injuries and missing players. His ro...

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4658: He Should Do Well: Ryan Babel

by : Paul Grech Sometimes, it is difficult to understand football fans. The reaction when, some eighteen months back, Rafael Benitez admitted that he had been interested in signing Theo Walcott but couldn’t offer the money Arsenal were willing to pay Southampton was of frustration at Liverpool’s p...

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4656: He Should Do Well: Olivier Kap

by : Paul Grech In over thirty years as manager of the club, Guy Roux transformed Auxerre from an amateur side to one of France’s best outfits. His philosophies were simple: good football and plenty of investment on the club’s youth system. Over the years, Auxerre became a production line of tale...

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4647: He Should Do Well: Paul Anders

by : Paul Grech One of the unexpected – to a certain extent – benefits of appointing someone like Roberto Martinez as manager is that he has an extensive contacts’ list and isn’t afraid to use it. Already this summer has seen the Welsh club signing , Angel Rangel as well as striker Guillem Buaza ...

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4643: He Should Do Well: Younes Kabo

by : Paul Grech Whisper it, but Tottenham might just about be copying Arsenal. For their search for young talent with which to bolster their squad – and build foundations for the future – has been increasingly taking them to France, a market that director Damien Coboli knows all too well having ...

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4628: He Should Do Well: Yuri Berchi

by : Paul Grech It has been a dismal season for Basque clubs. For the first time in over fifty years, Real Sociedad have to plan for life outside the Primera Liga whilst rivals Atletico Bilbao avoided a similar fate by just one point. For two of the proudest clubs in Europe it is a galling situat...

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4614: He Should Do Well: Yassin Mout

by : Paul Grech Yassin Moutaouakil is the perfect antidote to those who complain about clubs’ apparent lack of willingness in signing young English players. For a club like Charlton, just relegated from the Premiership, to sign a comparative local player would be virtually impossible. The captain...

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4617: He Should Do Well: Massimo Don

by : Paul Grech Massimo Donati is a strange choice for Celtic. Occasionally brilliant, often inconsistent is the best description of a player who promised to deliver so much but never really fulfilled expectations. In retrospect, that might be a bit too harsh on him. Yet there will always be a f...

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4609: He Should Do Well: Danny Guthr

by : Paul Grech The last thing Liverpool need at the moment is another central midfielder. With Xabi Alonso, Momo Sissoko and Steve Gerrard all securing extended contracts, the arrival late last season of Javier Mascherano will make Rafael Benitez’ job in selecting the ideal formation extremely co...

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4607: He Should Do Well: Danny Guthr

by : Paul Grech The last thing Liverpool need at the moment is another central midfielder. With Xabi Alonso, Momo Sissoko and Steve Gerrard all securing extended contracts, the arrival late last season of Javier Mascherano will make Rafael Benitez’ job in selecting the ideal formation extremely co...

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4606: He Should Do Well: Lukasz Fabi

by : Paul Grech As Steve McLaren struggles to find three English keepers who play fairly regularly, Poland seem to be awash with excellent goalkeepers. Forget Jerzy Dudek who, despite his imminent move to Real Madrid is winding down his career, there are the likes of Artur Boruc who was so fanta...

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4593: He Should Do Well: Jon Otsemob

by : Paul Grech Crewe’s recent success has been built around Dario Gradi’s ability to develop players – both those coming through the club’s own youth system and those let go by others – before selling them with the money being invested back into the club. But that was before the Bosman ruling. F...

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4585: He Should Do Well: David Rozeh

by : Paul Grech Regardless of what he does throughout the rest of the summer, in most people’s eyes Sam Allardyce has already made the most significant step to solving Newcastle’s major headache: letting Titus Bramble go. But that is oversimplifying matters. Bramble made far too many errors in a ...

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4407: Liverpool: Cup Success Would

by : Paul Grech In the aftermath of Liverpool’s 6-3 defeat at the hands of an Arsenal side filled with young players, the club’s academy took something of a battering. Rafael Benitez’s comments that the academy system wasn’t working – which weren’t intended specifically at his club but at the gen...

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4239: He Should Do Well: Roberto Mar

by : Paul Grech Of all the foreign players who have flooded into English football over the past decade, Roberto Martinez has to go down as one of the most successful. Even if he is a relative unknown to the wider public, at Wigan and Swansea where he played for large chunks of his career and where...

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4135: He Should Do Well: Jordy Brouw

by : Paul Grech "We didn't have the complete conviction that he was ready for it. Internally we have talked about Jordy a lot. That doubt stayed after Liverpool expressed their interest. I say that without bitterness, because I wish Jordy all the success at Liverpool.” Famous last words perhaps,...

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4102: He Should Do Well: Adam Hamill

by : Paul Grech When Anthony Stokes joined Falkirk on loan six months back, virtually no one knew anything about him. Yet sixteen goals in the first half of the season transformed him into one of the most sought after players by clubs both north and south of the border, eventually moving to Sunder...

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4082: He Should Do Well: Clint Demps

by : Bill Urban With the work permit hearing obstacle negotiated, Fulham finally secured the services of their latest US international signing, Clint Dempsey. What will be interesting for Fulham supporters and Chris Coleman both is the fundamental differences between Dempsey and the other two US p...

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4072: He Should Do Well: Michael Mif

by : Paul Grech The Galaxy turn out in gold and green, a base gold shirt with a green diagonal slash and green shorts being the home kit and one of the more recognizable and identifiable among MLS clubs. There have been rumours of a “re-branding” of the kit that would coincide with the arrival of ...

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4064: He Should Do Well: Curtis Davi

by : Paul Grech .Having spent most of the past decade scouring foreign markets for potential signings, it seems that Premiership clubs are finally starting to shift their attention to the domestic market once more, particularly on the lower leagues. It is a welcome change, one that is probably lar...

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4063: He Should Do Well: Daniele Pad

by : Paul Grech Sheffield United (16) vs Portsmouth (6), KO 15:00 Neil Warnock appears to relish the prospect of winding up every other manager he meets - but against a canny old manager like Harry Redknapp this is hardly worthwhile. The Blades home record is poor and only Watford have won fewer h...

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4043: He Should Do Well: Adel Taarab

by : Paul Grech In recent years, young French (or France based) players making a trip to London have tended to end up at Arsenal. Given Arsene Wenger’s extensive knowledge and contacts in his home country – as well as his success at bringing through such players - he has been able to pick the best...

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3995: He Should Do Well: Emiliano In

by : Paul Grech Tom Huddlestone Highly rated English U21 who can play either in the centre of defence or in midfield, Huddleston hasn’t managed to find enough space at Tottenham. Still very young, many expect him to develop into a fine leader. Yet, given his experience at Tottnehman, he can only ...

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3949: He Should Do Well: Ben Alnwick

by : Paul Grech However if the Dons hadn’t leaked late equalisers against Inverness Caledonian Thistle and St Mirren in the opening games of the season they could already be nine points behind Celtic and four clear in second. But Ian says the fans should forget about those incidents now. “The bott...

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3883: He Should Do Well: Tim Krul (N

by : Paul Grech The UEFA Cup may have lost many qualities in the recent past: its attraction for the big clubs; the prestige in winning it and the fans interest immediately come to mind. Yet there is one characteristic that no one can take away from it: its ability to make heroes out of players. ...

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3869: He Should Do Well: Tom Soares

by : Paul Grech Portsmouth (4) vs Fulham (9), KO 15:00 One of the three top half of the table clashes pairs two of the surprise packages of the season. Although this writer was predicting a better season for Portsmouth culimating in a top six finish before a ball was kicked, there were many who th...

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3803: He Should Do Well: Nabil El Zh

by : Paul Grech You probably won’t have heard of the transfer, but last summer Liverpool signed Moroccan forward Nabil El Zhar. The young striker was apparently unsatisfied with his contract at St. Etienne so he decided to move. Only that the club didn’t know anything about it. So far, this has ...

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3724: He Should Do Well: Neil Eardle

by : Paul Grech There can be few worse ways to start the season than getting sent off on the opening day, especially if you’re an 18 year old doing your best to establish yourself in the first team. But that’s exactly what happened on this season’s opening fixture to Oldham youngster Neil Eardle...

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3126: He Should Do Well: Joleon Lesc

by : Paul Grech It has been another bitterly disappointing season for Wolves who haven’t even achieved the minimum target of making it to the play-offs. Unfortunately for them, the summer is unlikely to offer much respite. Defender Joleon Lescott, one of the few who performed with any credit this...

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2999: He Should Do Well: Danny Crow

by : Paul Grech When West Ham bid £7 million for Dean Ashton, there was no way that Norwich were going to refuse. Yet this sudden transfer resulted in an immediate problem for Nigel Worthington who had to find a suitable replacement so as to keep alive the club’s slim promotion hopes. His choice ...

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2958: He Should Do Well: Scott Carso

by : Paul Grech This time last year, Scott Carson was getting ready to face Juventus in the Champions League quarter final. With both Jerzy Dudek and Chris Kirkland out injured, the 19 year old – signed by Liverpool just weeks earlier from Leeds for £750,000 – was unexpectedly thrust in the spotli...

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2870: He Should Do Well: Cameron Jer

by : Paul Grech When Cardiff sold Robbie Earnshaw at the start of the 2004-05 season, many predicted that this would signal their descent back into mediocrity. The same happened this summer when their two Welsh internationals, Daniel Gabbidon and James Collins, made their way to the Premiership. ...

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2480: He Should Do Well: Kelvin Wils

by : Paul Grech The past couple of seasons haven’t been particularly happy for Notts County as financial difficulties almost got the better of one of England’s oldest club sides. In such instances, how a team does on the pitch tends to be of secondary importance. Perhaps thankfully so for County ...

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