Blackpool goalkeeper Matt Gilks is set for a two-month injury lay-off after breaking his kneecap at West Ham United last Saturday.
The 28-year-old picked up the problem during the goalless Premier League draw at Upton Park and he will now be out of action until the New Year.
Gilks has been in fine form for the top-flight newcomers and his performances were rewarded when Scotland manager Craig Levein brought him into the national squad in August.
But his international and domestic aspirations have taken a knock with Holloway admitting he is set to undergo the surgeon's knife.
"If you can believe it, he did it taking a goal-kick but played on for 20 minutes until half-time," said Holloway.
"We knew it was sore but, gracious me, how brave is Matt? It's bad news. "He is going to have to have it wired up and pinned up to get better and it could take a couple of months.
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"Such is life. Everything was rosy for him but all of a sudden – bang, welcome to the real world. But he's going to be fine. It's not life-threatening."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
The Express and Star have regurgitated a growing rumour of the last few weeks that Norwegian striker John Carew could be off to the East London outfit. And despite Aston Villa’s lack of options in attack it would seem Gerard Houllier is desperate to get rid of the striker. The two do not get on ever since they were together at Lyon and it would appear neither is willing to put the past behind them. Added to this on £52,000 a week Carew is a drain on Villa’s wage bill if he is only going to be filling the bench.
For West Ham’s part they are in need of goals to help lift them from the bottom of the table, and prevent them from being cut adrift by the rest of the League. With reported interest in their current top hit man, Carlton Cole, from Liverpool they will need a replacement and someone with Carew’s ability in front of goal along with his physical presence he could be just the thing to start a bid for survival in the Premier League. However with debts of up to £90million hanging over West Ham they will need to drive a hard bargain, and question remain over the fitness of the big Norwegian.
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So will John Carew be swapping claret and blue this January – RATE THE RUMOUR
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Harry Redknapp has made it perfectly clear all season what he thinks of his Tottenham side. Not only does he believe he has built a good team, but he is convinced that given one or two additions, he has a squad capable of mounting a serious title bid. Like many, I laughed off this suggestion, but given their season so far it is by no means out of the realms of possibility. January could prove decisive.
Despite everything seemingly going to plan down at White Hart Lane, there is still one piece missing. The glaringly obvious form (of lack of) from Wilson Palacios has at times left Harry short of bite in midfield. Redknapp would be keen to replace the out-of-sorts Honduran, and a former player of his seems the perfect solution.
Lassana Diarra is very much out of the loop at Real Madrid. Jose Mourinho has set about putting his own stamp on things at the Bernabeu resulting in the summer arrivals of Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira, paving the way for a January move for Diarra.
The 25-year-old midfielder was at Portsmouth when Harry led them to FA Cup glory back in 2008. He played every minute of that successful cup run and earned such a reputation that he later signed for Real for £20 million. He has been reported as saying he would be keen to join up with Redknapp again after becoming discontent with life under Mourinho.
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Redknapp would know exactly what he was getting. If the newspapers are to be believed, for £12 million, Tottenham would have someone in the middle of the park to win the ball and feed the likes of Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart, as well as having the ability to provide an attacking threat himself.
This isn’t to say that Harry’s other options haven’t done well; Tom Huddlestone’s recent appearances as captain show the impact he has upon the side. But this is the signing Redknapp must make if Tottenham really are to turn into a genuine title contender. It’s the next step up, one which I’m sure all Spurs fans are keen to see.
The signing would not only be value for money, but a sign of intent. At 25, he already has the experience of top-flight football after previous spells at Arsenal, Chelsea and Madrid. Next up the Lane? Trust Harry to get it right…
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Avram Grant will have be pleased with the point at Upton Park this evening.
The West Ham boss has been under immense pressure of late; however the league table is starting to open up and with West Ham only two points away from moving out of the drop zone, there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel. It was a hard fought point in the end and the Hammers defence held firm right until the end.
So how do West Ham fans feel about tonight’s point, and what are the five things we have learnt from the Hammers tonight?
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West Bromwich midfielder Steven Reid is still hopeful of being involved in his side’s Premier League clash with Wigan on Tuesday.
Reid had knee surgery after injuring himself in the club’s 2-1 home defeat to Manchester United on New Year’s Day.
But the 29-year-old has surprised many with his recovery and is already back in training, with the goal of playing when Wigan visit The Hawthorns next week.
“I’m hoping to get back into full training at the weekend if I do enough with the physios over the next few days,” Reid told the club’s official website.
“I need to be in full training then if I’m to have half a chance of being involved against Wigan.”
“Hopefully, I’ll be involved, touch wood. But I don’t want to push it too much as I only had surgery two-and-a-half weeks ago.”
“It still needs to settle down a little bit. Fingers crossed I’ll be back out there in the next couple of weeks.”
Reid was disappointed when he injured himself in the match, having suffered an injury-riddled last few seasons.
The timing of the injury was also poor, given the fact that Reid had just won a starting place in the side, but despite pre-surgery nerves, everything has turned out well for the former Blackburn player.
“I felt pretty comfortable in the United game. I’d not started a league game for four or five weeks before that. Sometimes it does take a little while to get back into it, but I felt really good.”
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“I was hoping for a little run in the team but, as luck would have it, I picked up that injury and it set me back a little bit. I feared the worst but it wasn’t too painful the next day and there wasn’t much swelling on it.”
“I was a bit nervous going back under the knife. But it was good news and just a little trim of the cartilage.”
Reid also believes his side can avoid relegation, citing the maturity and characters within the squad as a reason as to why they will stay up, as well as mentioning the loyal home support the club gets at The Hawthorns.
Steve Bruce was left deflated by a ‘desperately harsh’ defeat after Sunderland twice gave away the lead to lose 3-2 at Stoke City.
Visitors Sunderland went ahead through Kieran Richardson in their English Premier League encounter at the Britannia Stadium, before John Carew equalised for Stoke.
Asamoah Gyan restored Sunderland’s lead, but this time Robert Huth levelled with seven minutes left.
Centre-back Huth then snatched a late winner for the home side three minutes into extra-time.
“Sometimes it’s cruel when you’ve dominated the game but if you don’t defend properly … we knew what to expect and haven’t dealt with it at all,” Bruce said.
“To score two away from home and not come away with anything is desperately harsh.”
There was a case for offside and fouls to be given in the build-up to the Stoke goals, but Bruce refused to search for excuses.
“There is a debate and you need the referee to be strong, but for all afternoon that didn’t happen.”
“But I’m not going to try and complain, we should be dealing with the ball into the box better than we did.”
“It’s very difficult to replicate it on the training ground. You need the bravery to go and head the ball. You need your goalkeeper to come and catch them.”
Stoke boss Tony Pulis was delighted to see his side fight back to win what was their first match at home since January 15.
“It’s massive, we’ve played four consecutive away games and the spirit of the players is absolutely fantastic,” Pulis said.
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“We gave two silly goals away in the first couple of minutes of each half but we’re very, very pleased with the points.”
Pulis felt that luck evened itself up after a contentious moment in the first fixture between the two teams at the Stadium of Light in November went unnoticed in Sunderland’s favour.
“We played at Sunderland and (Lee) Cattermole flicked it up with one hand and away with the other on the post so whatever we have got today, thank goodness.”
Football fans’ willingness to show their dedication comes in all shapes and sizes. One such way is to splay their dedication over their body in the form of a tattoo. I can understand why somebody might choose to tattoo their footballing allegiance onto their body. Whilst women come and go, a football team is for life. It’s the manly man’s equivalent of getting “I love mom’ yet a tattoo is a big commitment, so it’s important to get it right. As you can imagine, this process isn’t always a success.
Below are the top 10 Newcastle United tattoos to be found on the net – the good, the bad and the plain ugly.
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Click on the tattoo below to unveil the gallery
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Have you got a better Newcastle tattoo? Football FanCast would like to invite the readers to submit their own entry via our Facebook Page. The winning entries will go forward to our grand competition to find the best tattoo in the Premier League.
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“Convicted thug”, “Lout”, “Disgrace”, “Animal”, these are some of the words that have been used to describe Joey Barton over the last few years. From drunken assaults off the pitch, to fights on the training ground, Barton has frequented the headlines of the newspapers of the last 8 years for all the wrong reasons. However, today I want to say something good about Joey Barton. You might have already lost patience with him. You might think I am mad. But I think people get Joey Barton all wrong, he can still offer a lot to the Premier League.
Football fans love to hate a bad-boy footballer. However, in Barton’s case there is not so much a pantomime villain as the likes of Robby Savage, but a genuine hatred. The difference between a Savage and a Barton, is Barton’s history, making him more villain than pantomime. This allows the media to really get stuck into him and be incredibly harsh on him.
Given the fact that Barton has been in prison, hit a pedestrian with his car, fought fans and players, and I can see where people’s hatred is coming from. But I reserve the right to respect Joey Barton this season, and here is why….
I think Abou Diaby reacted the way he did up at St James’ Park because it was Barton who made the tackle. Diaby clearly shares a preconception that people have against Barton; that he is a thuggish idiot. But if you actually listen to what he says in interviews, I would argue that not only is he remarkably eloquent for a footballer, but he is also intelligent and brave enough to say what he thinks.
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Upon his England call-up, attention was brought to Barton because in an interview he criticised Gerrard and Lampard for ‘cashing in’ on ‘bullsh*t autobiographies’ that exploited their failure in the World Cup. Barton, was presented as arrogant and fame hungry, criticising established players when he was still to make his England debut.
But Barton was right. Footballers all-too-often release money spinning books, written by ghost writers that are nothing more than a season-long diary and not a creditable autobiography. (Incidentally, Wayne Rooney has already released 5, he is only 25. Come on Wayne). Steve Gerrard even admitted that Barton was right after the incident, the fact that Frank Lampard continues to hold a grudge says more about Lampard than it does about Barton.
Another time Barton was in the spotlight was when he criticised Alan Shearer for being a ‘sh*t manager’ and using ‘sh*t tactics’. This came at a bad time for Barton who had been sent off for a tackle late into a dead game against Liverpool. Shearer then banned Barton indefinitely, and Newcastle looked into terminating Barton’s contract. However, you cannot argue with the fact that Barton was spot-on in his criticism, again. Shearer was a dreadful manager.
Now, don’t get me wrong here, he is definitely not innocent. But he is not as bad as he is made out to be. His mistakes come mostly off the pitch not on it. Abou Diaby was wrong to assume that Barton’s tackle was malicious, more it was over-zealous and an embodiment of the passion of the man.
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Barton has been honest about his mistakes and makes interesting points about modern footballers. He said that he was earning more a week at 20 than his whole family put together. This shows he was of a child’s mentality, living on a man’s wages. The point that Barton makes is that he never had to grow up. Agents and associates took care of mortgages, car insurance and all the difficult things that being an adult entails. Because of this Barton did not engage with real life for a large part of his early twenties. His honesty here highlights a problem that most young footballers suffer from due to over protection.
I am not defending some of the things Barton has done when drunk and on a night out, and I am not saying I would make him the Godfather to my kids, but I am defending the assumption that he is stupid, and I am defending the assumption he is a dirty player. He is hardly the first person to fight people on a night out, and he has said himself that where he is from it is ‘quite normal to get drunk and get in a fight’ occasionally.
I admit, he has not fully amended his ways; he has been involved with the homophobic provocation of Torres and a ‘punch’ on Morten Gamst Pedersen. But, these incidents aside, he has shown willingness to reform both on and off the pitch. For example, he has been teetotal for two years. Yes, occasionally he does stupid things, but this is more a case of his passion boiling over and not petulant behaviour like in the past. This year he has shown good self-control in the face of players who try to get the ‘red mist’ to descend by taunting and fouling him.
Barton, it seemed, was down and out after his prison sentence, and after his ruck with Shearer it seemed his career might be over. But this year he is on top form, he has a better tackle success rate (81%) than Scott Parker (77%) and Gareth Barry (76%), while having made only 2 less key passes than Cesc Fabregas (48) and Charlie Adam (45). He also has 6 assists and 4 goals. The man keeps bouncing back.
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Despite what his critics think, he can be a role model, both to kids who have committed crimes, and to kids from a similar background. He has shown that a change in attitude is possible, and he has never given up on himself and is definitely on his way to becoming a reformed character.
His is not a fairy tale story of reform, and for that reason may not get the positive attention he deserves. But he shows the realistic side of transformation, and sends a much more ‘real-life’ message to those who would see him as a role model. He shows it takes time, that it is difficult and that there will be setbacks. But if you work hard enough at it, it is achievable.
I’m not telling you to like Joey Barton. If you want to hate him, go for it. But don’t under-estimate his value in demonstrating to young people that change is possible, and don’t under-estimate how well he has played this year.
You can share your appreciating of, or aversion to, Joey Barton with me on twitter @joeaustin8
The other day I was looking back at photos of a night out I had at University. Struggling to recall the night I tried to pull of a flowery Hawaiian shirt and a John Hartson beard, I was forced to remember the sporting event of the day and how I watched it. That night, four years ago, was one of those meaningless friendlies between Spain and England that provided the bread for Steve McClaren’s disastrous qualifying campaign for Euro 2008.
Although we could have not appreciated it at the time, the game was actually quite a significant one for several of England’s squad players. The defeat at Old Trafford turned out to be Gary Neville’s final appearance in international colours, the controversial Joey Barton made his England debut and a certain Kieron Dyer impressed as part of the England midfield.
Dyer, then a Newcastle United player, was the perennial nearly man for England for the best part of a decade. A youth team prospect at Ipswich, a 1999 move to St James Park was seen as the start of a glittering Premier League career for the flying winger.
Yet, this week Dyer, at the age of 32, returned to Portman Road having been unable to fulfil his talents and potential at the top level of domestic and international football. Incapable of featuring regularly for Premier League strugglers West Ham, Dyer has dropped a division to ensure his former employers do not drop into the relegation quagmire.
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The winger was a young prospect for such a long time that you had to check that he wasn’t a character from ‘Captain Scarlet’ – sadly for Dyer he was anything but invincible. With a succession of hamstring and knee injuries blighting his attempts to push on, the midfielder spent vast chunks of his prime years on the sidelines. From young gun to vulnerable old-timer in a matter of seasons, the fall from grace has been dramatic.
It is a wonder that he managed 33 games for England – places in squads for the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004 were secured through promising runs of form when at Newcastle, but a lack of first team action since 2004 has limited Dyer to two caps in seven years.
Dyer’s move to West Ham in 2007 actually appeared a positive career move. Having finished the 2006-07 season strongly at Newcastle, he remained hot property and his joining Freddie Ljungberg in the capital excited fans looking to build on the Hammers team that had miraculously escaped relegation the previous year. Both men were quickly injured – Dyer’s broken leg at the hands of Joe Jacobson of Bristol Rovers, kept him out of the game for over 18 months and in truth marked the terminal decline in trajectory of his career.
In recent months, Dyer’s time at West Ham has become a case study of the crazy money thrown around at the club before the global economic downturn. Last summer it was reported in The Daily Telegraph that the winger was being paid a staggering £83,000 per week, alongside loyalty bonuses and image rights exceeding an extra £500,000 a year. All of this for a player never to have completed 90 minutes for his club nor to have scored a single goal, indicates just how expensive the Dyer gamble has been for the London club.
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As he completes his month long loan spell in the Championship with his boyhood club, Dyer himself might still harbour hopes of returning to play a role in West Ham’s struggle for Premier League survival before the end of the season. However, with his contract up at the end of the campaign, the overwhelming likelihood remains that he will never return to the top level and that Portman Road will be the last stop on the Kieron Dyer career train.
Remember the last time Kieron Dyer played 90 minutes for club or country? Find me on Twitter for the answer to this and why I spent 94 minutes watching ‘John Tucker Must Die’ last night instead of Sevilla – Barcelona.
Wigan manager Roberto Martinez says Saturday’s opponents Tottenham will not be distracted by their upcoming Champions League quarter final.Tottenham will play a massive game against Spanish giants Real Madrid on Tuesday but Martinez knows the north Londoners will be fully focussed on the Premier League this weekend.
Martinez said: “Regardless of their Champions League involvement next week this will be a very difficult game.”
“Sometimes having fixtures like that on the horizon can work as an advantage and teams may look at the games beforehand as the ideal chance to gear themselves up and tune their performance.”
“But from now until the end of the season it is all about us, our performances on the pitch and being to take every game as a unique opportunity to collect points.”
“We’re facing one of the best teams in Europe because Tottenham have been the surprise package in this season’s Champions League.”
Wigan sit last on the Premier League table but just five points separate them and Fulham in 12th place.
Martinez knows now is the time to turn good performances into points and ensure top flight survival.
He said: “The differences between all the clubs at the bottom of the table are so small and we’re prepared for the fight going right down to the final game of the season.”
“From our point-of-view we’ve been very consistent over the last few weeks, played to a high standard and now is the time to collect the points we’ve been missing. ” Martinez has a fully-fit squad to choose from.