After two long weeks of nothing on the pitch, we were finally treated to not just one but two matches in a row as the frosty weather cleared that had interfered with our recent games.
First up was the home fixture on Valentines Day as Oxford made hard work of Dagenham and Redbridge. The first half in truth was a boring affair with very little to shout about, as the many new signings played competitively together for the first time. However the second half saw a change in mentality. United opened the scoring soon after the break with Oli Johnson netting his first for the club.
The Daggers hit back with just 20 minutes to go but this still gave enough time for James Constable to grab the winner and move into double figures for the season at long last. ‘Beano’ had been on a bit of a goal drought with this being his first of 2012 and hopefully it should do wonders for his confidence.
Confidence is a very important thing that we will need to be building up in the next couple of games before the small matter of facing Swindon Town.
Saturday’s fixture against Bristol Rovers saw a stalemate as the weather tried to be a factor once again. The match was actually in doubt as torrential rain poured in the West Country, but after an inspection it was decided the pitch was playable. It finished 0-0 and is another solid point for the U’s to build on with three home games in a row coming up next.
One player to comment on is Mehdi Kerrouche who came of the bench against the daggers and was handed a full debut against the Pirates, Kerrouche helped set up the winning goal on Tuesday and linked up well with the front line against Rovers.
The next two weeks sees three home games against Barnet, Macclesfield and then Swindon, providing there are no more unexpected postponements of course.
After our last home game there is hope that we can push on and transfer some of the brilliant away form from this season to home matches. This season in all competitions we have won only half of the home games and for a team wanting to push for promotion that just is not good enough.
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Not every team can play consistently well for a whole season and you have to think that the clubs above United are sure to slip up sooner or later. Automatic promotion currently looks a long way off but with a few more wins in the next couple of weeks anything could yet be possible.
Kenny Dalglish’s patience with media has become a little strained this season, and the Scottish manager’s latest run-in has done nothing to patch up the situation. Liverpool’s failings on the field of play, the Luis Suarez ‘handshake’ and now rumours surrounding transfers at the club have pushed the relationship to almost breaking point. But is the Reds chief could well be right in his criticism of growing press intrusion.
The world of football has never been the same since the Rupert Murdoch fuelled SkySports intervention transformed and repackaged the sport for the consumerist market of 1990’s Britain. Their alterations to the game centered around a new media aspect, turning the sport into more of a spectacle to infiltrate the living rooms of the nation, moving it away from the purity of its previous form
Since then this effect has snowballed with the creations of SkySports news, an increasing presence of the tabloid press and the internet, all of which are hungry for a story to fill pages an airtime. As a result almost every aspect of the sport is analysed, and dissected, pulling up stories which may not have been there in the first place.
As somewhat of an old school manager, Kenny Dalglish has found the transformation of the game to be disorientating, with the bulk of his previous management experience coming through the 1980’s and 1990’s. During this period the influence of the press was a little subdued as compared to now, allowing staff to go about the day-to-day running of their clubs without interruption.
Rumours surrounding the future of controversial striker Luis Suarez and a perspective move to Paris Saint-Germain, have once again riled the Scot, who believes that media outlets are unsettling his camp ahead of the season run in:
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“It comes as a surprise to myself, that yourselves [journalists] don’t know how the media work,” Dalglish said to SkySports.
“It was a journalist that mentioned the list of names and it was the chairman that said ‘oh they are interesting’. It was a list of names and Suarez’s name was mentioned, but I don’t know if it was Luis Suarez. I don’t know what Suarez it is.
“Also if the guy who sends the story in, if it is not repeated anywhere else and it has no soul and is not attractive to a newspaper, they don’t get any money.
“So I think it will be interesting to yourselves to disclose to the general public where the story comes from, how they get there, instead of asking us questions every time somebody’s name appears in a paper,” he finished.
It’s a frustrating state of affairs for managers across all leagues, with many transfer rumours being completely unfounded, and churned out purely on speculation. Suarez may well be considering a change of scenery, feeling that there may be too much bad blood between himself and various sectors of English football and as a result this has been seized upon to create a story and fill some time. Newcastle also suffered the misfortune of the press in their attempts to keep hold of Demba Ba, as stories were circulated stating the bargain buy-out clause written into his contract, upping the interest in the Senegalese forward. Individual clubs may well have found this out themselves, but media circulation of the fact alerted them, thus upping the interest levels for one of the Magpies key men.
As the weeks pass, it gets harder and harder to have sympathy with the Liverpool boss, as his talk of a media witch-hunt of his club serves to frustrate fans across the league, but he may well have a point with regards to some aspects of media intrusion. It’s not just Dalglish who has suffered, with the press infiltrating the ranks of clubs across the league system, stirring speculation at each turn. If were not for intervention earlier this campaign the speculation surrounding the demise of Arsenal and Arsene Wenger would have been far less fierce, sparing the Frenchman a fair few sleepless nights over what was ultimately an unfounded story.
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It’s been a tough season for Dalglish and the media, with their relationship pushed to breaking point. However, despite his calls for transparency in and a backing of from many areas of the press, it looks highly unlikely that a change will be made, even if would prove to be to the benefit of those involved in the game.
Follow @Alex_Hams on Twitter for more football based ramblings.
It was a bit like when you’re young and you get picked for the school team and spend all week in delirious excitement, only to get subbed after five minutes for that short annoying classmate who goes on to score a hat trick, rubbing it in by celebrating right in your face before he is carried aloft by his adoring team mates.
Not that that kind of thing ever happened to us. No sir.
But I imagine it must feel somewhat similar to Saturday’s result. While there is no such thing as an easy game in league 1, and with 19 stalemates the U’s are draw specialists but Colchester have been on a horrid run recently, lying third bottom of the form table, having not won in 10.
They were there for the taking. Unfortunately, we didn’t take. More unfortunately, one of the few teams on a worse trot than the imaginatively nicknamed U’s is Leyton Orient, so their capitulation at the sty was grimly predictable.
More worrying was the lack of cutting edge that seems to have been creeping in over the last couple of matches, most noticeable in the flying winger Antonio who seems to have had his wings clipped somewhat.
Depression, which seems to be many Owls fans natural state of being, is rearing its ugly head. There is even talk in the office of assuming we are doomed to the play-offs and should start resting key players now. Four points looks like a pretty big gap with a mere nine to play for.
To act as a counterweight to this malaise, here are some reasons to be optimistic.
First, Miguel Llera, the sorcerer of Seville, responded to his receipt of the coveted SWFC Football FanCast player of the week award with typical Latin flair, scoring again this week. Second, Reading’s unstoppable hurtle into the top flight of English football probably increases our chances of keeping hold of Antonio. Third, this is how things are going to pan out.
We beat plucky Carlisle and United suffer a not improbable reverse at MK Dons – one point gap. We get a slightly more improbable away win at Brentford, whilst across the city they only manage a point against Stevenage who, to be fair, are on a bit of a run themselves – we go ahead by a point.
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Then on the last day, we just need to beat Wycombe at home to secure promotion.
In the immortal words of Danny Baker, Nothing can go wrong now.
Queens Park Rangers were promoted to the Premier League last season and managed to scrape survival to continue their glory in Premier League football. With Tony Fernandes swooping in at the last minute to take over the club as Chairman in summer 2011, he frantically started dishing out the cash to build a Premier League worthy squad. Queens Park Rangers signed a huge 16 players last season to develop and advance their team. With them fighting the relegation battle was that squad good enough? Do they need to sign further players this summer to ensure they’re not fighting for survival again? Or does the team just need time to take shape?
With QPR’s massive 16 man signing last season arguably they do not need to sign anymore players this summer. They need to form a structured and disciplined squad to give them a chance to become an ongoing Premier League club. Yet there are areas of the squad that needs to be strengthened. With the Joey Barton incident pending, and Shaun Derry reaching his later years, there is room for another central midfielder, however with the return of Alejandro Faurlin brewing, the R’s fans would like to see the Argentine back making first team status.
The club this morning announced that Jamie Mackie has been rewarded with a one year extension to his current contract committing himself to the club until 2015 presenting that he is a vital player in the club’s future. Another original R’s player who helped the club with their promotion into the Premier League was last night rewarded for this efforts and contribution to the club. Clint Hill received both Players Player and Supporters Player awards after being called back to the club from a Championship loan deal with Nottingham Forest giving him 22 appearances for The R’s this season. Hill’s contract ends this summer with QPR however many R’s fans are looking for another contract to be signed for the club.
Loan deals made of Samba Diakite and Taye Taiwo in the January transfer window, the Rangers fans will be looking to the club to make permanent signings as both players played a fundamental role in the survival of relegation.
Recent transfer rumours for Queens Park Rangers are the Daily Mirror reported that the club had an interest in signing Victor Moses from Wigan. Moses would be a great addition to the QPR squad as a versatile winger replacing Shaun Wright-Philips who has not lived up to the expectations of the fans. QPR have also been linked with Alessandro Del Piero from Juventus as he revealed that he would love the chance to play in England following his release. Rangers on paper show they have a quality strike force, it would be unnecessary for The R’s to bring in a 37 year old Italian to strengthen that, it would be a wasteful signing. An extreme signing suggestion would be to invest in a player like Jordan Rhodes from Huddersfield Town. He is a strong striker and under the reins of Mark Hughes can develop and progress as a player and become a potential excellent forward.
With the changeover of managers during the season Queens Park Rangers this summer should look into spending time reforming the team and producing a cohesive strong side. Mark Hughes needs to build and strengthen the squad allowing the players to work together creatively on the pitch to produce results in the upcoming season.
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Give me your opinions and continue the debate on my twitter @gmileham1
The King has left his throne. On the back of one of their worst Premier League seasons in recent memory, Kenny Dalglish has been sacked as manager of Liverpool. Despite winning the Anfield club their first trophy in 6 years, owners Fenway Sports Group decided to take action and are keen to find a replacement as soon as possible.
Even with no Champions League Football and a squad that needs improvement, the Managers position at Liverpool will still be one of the most sought after jobs in the game. As shortlists are drawn up by John Henry & Co. a look at some of the potential candidates may give an indication as to who is the right man to lead the Reds into battle next season.
1. Andre Villas-Boas
So much was expected of the 34 year old Portuguese tactician when he arrived at Chelsea last summer. Having just guided Porto to a Domestic and European Championship double, shouts of a new Mourinho were heard around Stamford Bridge. Suffice it to say, things didn’t work out for Villas-Boas. If he were to take over at Anfield, he would have to connect with the players on a far better level than he did in West London. Fractions within the Chelsea camp led to poor performances on the pitch and his inevitable sacking. However, with his reputation only slightly tainted from his time with The Blues, Villas-Boas is still a very good manager. His fast, attacking style of play and his tactical prowess make the young coach a very good candidate for the Anfield hotseat. It would be a risk considering his Premier League record but if Liverpool grasp Villas-Boas’ philosophy with both hands, it would be a gamble that ultimately pays off.
2. Rafa Benitez
A dream come true for many Liverpool fans, the return of the popular Spaniard would be one of the more surprising appointments of the summer. His first stint at Liverpool was a huge success guiding the team to two Champions League finals and delivering a second placed Premier League finish in 2009. He would certainly lift the mood in Merseyside should he return to the hotseat. However, expectation levels could see Rafa’s reputation tarnished if he fails to deliver. Considering his success in his previous time with the club, an immediate turnaround of Liverpool’s fortunes could be demanded. With the squad lacking the real quality that it had during Rafa’s last reign, it could be a tough task for the Spaniard to get Liverpool back toward the summit of the table. However, with fans showing their excitement at the prospect of Benitez returning, his appointment could bring a buzz about Anfield that had been missing for periods of last season.
3. Roberto Martinez
After battling relegation with Wigan for the last three years, Martinez has quite rightly gained national notoriety as an astute manager capable of keeping a team competitive on a shoestring budget. At just 38, Martinez has an experienced attitude way beyond his years. The free-flowing attacking formation that he has adapted to his Wigan side worked wonders for the club and saved them from relegation. Not only would Martinez put a stamp on the playing style at Anfield, he would be able to handle the Media in a manner that was so lacking when Kenny was at the helm. Even in his darkest hours at Wigan Athletic, Martinez remained upbeat and never let his guard down in front of the cameras. This type of conduct may be exactly what Liverpool need to kickstart a new campaign. Although he may not be the ‘big name’ that some Liverpool fans desire, he probably is the best candidate for the job.
4. Brendan Rodgers
It comes as no surprise that the Swansea City boss is among the candidates to take over at Anfield. Rodgers has had such an impressive season in Wales that he has been linked to the only other Premier League managerial vacancies, these being Chelsea and Aston Villa. After guiding the Swans to an 11th place finish in the clubs first ever outing in the Premier League, Rodgers is a sought after manager. His record this season has been very impressive; however, his lack of experience at this level of football may hinder his chances of taking the vacancy at Anfield. His man management skills are on a par with the best, being a popular figure with the clubs he has managed but this may just be too much too soon for the Northern Irishman.
5. Fabio Capello
A look at the favourites for Liverpool’s next manager show former England Boss Fabio Capello among the shortest odds. A surprise choice if asked, Capello would certainly not be many Liverpool fans choice of new manager. However, his club record speaks volumes of the quality managerial abilities he possesses. He has one the league for every club he has managed, Guiding, Juventus, AC Milan, Roma and Real Madrid to domestic glory. The problem that would undoubtedly arise should he become Liverpool manager would be the connection with players. It was made clear by some of the England squad that they did not like the way the Italian approached certain matters. His poor grasp of the language was also a problem in the dressing room, an issue that would certainly be prevalent if he were to take the vacancy at Liverpool. Whilst Capello is an underrated manager, it does not appear that Liverpool will look for a coach of his age and will instead go for a fresher, younger approach.
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6. Jurgen Klopp
A relative unkown for many English Football fans, Jurgen Klopp has gained notoriety in Germany for his guidance of Borussia Dortmund to back-to-back championships. At just 44 years of age Klopp has now put himself in the spotlight across Europe and Liverpool may take a gamble with him. Having managed Mainz for 7 years, Klopp was appointed Dortmund manager in 2008 and has changed the fortunes of the team dramatically. Particularly impressive this season, the team from West Germany have stormed the Bundesliga and played some impressive attacking football. He certainly fits the criteria that Fenway Sports Group are looking for. However, he is completely untested in English Football and his appointment may backfire on the Reds. Klopp is currently achieving his best work in the Bundesliga and it may be advantageous for him to stay there for a few more years before he tries his hand at managing in the toughest league in the world.
Who would you like to see take the managerial reins at Anfield?
Now that the dust has firmly settled on Merseyside and the commotion that followed Brendan Rodgers appointment as Liverpool and attentions now turn towards who will be following through the Northern Irishman through the entrance into Anfield. After being given a week to settle into his new surroundings and gauge the expectations of supporters, who did well to hide their exasperation when he was announced as Kenny Dalglish’s successor, it’s time for Rogers to get down to brass tax. Changes are already afoot under the new regime with Dirk Kuyt ending his six-year association with the club after agreeing to join Turkish giants Fenerbache as the former Swansea boss and his team of back room staff try to stamp their authority on the dressing room. His summer shopping list will prove intriguing with the onus likely to be on players who will benefit his tiki-taka philosophy. Gylfi Sigurðsson is an obvious target with Rodgers having brought the Icelandic international to the Liberty Stadium on-loan last season. His short but prolific spell in south Wales will have given the Premier League a glimpse of his goalscoring capabilities from midfield and penchant to change the game with the swing of his boot. A long-term replacement for Steven Gerrard perhaps? Thinking that far ahead would be awfully optimistic from Mr Rodgers.
This week on FFC will staying at Anfield benefit Liverpool in the long run and how important is it to play attractive football in lieu of Rodgers’ appointment as manager.
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Best of FFC
A Wise Choice for Liverpool to remain?
Time for the Premier League to recapture it’s interest in Huntelaar
How important is style in football?
Liverpool Must Exercise Patience To Exorcise Demons
Have Liverpool missed a big trick here?
A huge investment that delivers no guarantees
Gone but certainly not forgotten at Anfield
A true Measurement of Success within the Premier League?
Clearly Tempted by £6.8m Liverpool switch
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Best of WEB
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Rodgers Appointment Breeds Great Expectation – Live 4 Liverpool
New ‘keeper? Is the man Rodgers has lined up to replace Reina? Let’s hope so… – Liverpool Kop
Farewell Dirk – Our Working Class Hero – This is Anfield
‘The public knows the truth’ – Robbie Fowler slams ex-LFC manager. Fair? – Liverpool Kop
Brendan Rodgers, The Tactician – The Tomkins Times
Why There’s No Longer Room At Anfield For This Dutch Legend – Live 4 Liverpool
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The Liverpool Story – This is Anfield
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Quote of the Week
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“Criticism makes you stronger. You are always going to get criticised at a big club like Liverpool but it is a great club to play for.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my first season and I am sure we will be better next year.” Stewart Downing responds to the criticism received during his first season at Liverpool
West Ham chairman David Gold has admitted that the club are interested in sign Liverpool forward Andy Carroll.
The England international’s future at Anfield hangs in the balance as new coach Brendan Rodgers evaluates whether the targetman fits into his future plans.
With rumours of the burly forward being sent out on loan, the Hammers have emerged as a shock potential destination for Carroll, as the newly-promoted side look to add quality to their ranks.
Despite no negotiations happening as yet, Gold has confirmed that the Upton Park club will be keeping tabs on Carroll’s situation and may make a move for him should he become available.
“I am not aware of any talks between ourselves or Liverpool over Andy Carroll,” Sky Sports quote Gold as saying.
“But that’s not to say we don’t have an interest should he become available.”
Liverpool are said to be closing in on the signing of Roma’s Fabio Borini, and as such Carroll’s place at Anfield looks under threat.
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Three different owners, four different managers over the course of five seasons, but one common thread binds them all these random numbers together – how truly rotten Liverpool’s transfer record has been in recent times – just how many successes has the club had since 2008-9?
Including this summer’s lone purchase of Fabio Borini, Liverpool have spent £221.8m on 36 different players since 2007/8 – I use that as a cut-off point as that summer, the club did some fabulous business, bringing in the likes of Fernando Torres, Javier Mascherano and Martin Skrtel which led to the club’s title challenge a year later in 2008-9, where they narrowly missed out courtesy of two late strikes from Old Trafford’s forgotten man, Federico Macheda.
In 2008-9, the club signed Robbie Keane, Andrea Dossena, Albert Riera, David N’Gog and Diego Cavalieri, while Phillip Degen came in on a free transfer. The Irish striker was sold back at a loss of £7m just six months later to Tottenham, while Dossena, a memorable goal in the 4-1 demolition of Manchester United aside, made just 18 league appearances before returning to Italy with Napoli, with the club having made a loss of £2.5m.
Brazilian goalkeeper Cavalieri was signed for £3.5m from Palmeiras and then sold off Cesana for just £1m two years later, making a mockery of the fee forked out for him, seeing as he was never realistically going to dislodge Pepe Reina as the club’s number one, while Riera, after a bright start, faded badly after falling out with Rafael Benitez and was sold off to Greek side Olympiacos at a loss of £3m.
N’Gog may have come in for a lot of stick at the time and he was far from being good enough, but the club did at least make a profit of £2.5m on him after flogging him to Bolton and his goalscoring record, considering the majority of his appearances were made from the bench, wasn’t that bad.
Moving on to 2009-10 and Alberto Aquilani, Glen Johnson, Maxi Rodriguez and Sotirios Kyrgiakos were the players to walk through the gates at Anfield. Johnson may have his detractors still, but considering the club didn’t have to pay the full fee, after being owed some of the money by Portsmouth for the transfer of Peter Crouch still (a sign of things to come), which was immediately written off, the deal was more like in the region of £13m, which considering that it’s tied the position down for the past three seasons and more to come, seems a reasonable price and he’s criminally underrated if you ask me. Both Krygiakos and Maxi were signed with squad positions in mind and considering the relatively small outlay, they can be deemed as successes, but hardly huge ones.
Aquilani cost a great deal, at £17m from Roma that summer, with Benitez opting for the Italian on the advice of head scout Eduardo Macia, who is coincidentally now in a similar role at Fiorentina, the club Aquilani has just moved to. The move will go down as one of the greatest ‘what if’s’ in recent history. He was deemed good enough to play for both Juventus and AC Milan on loan, but not to force his way ahead of Charlie Adam, Christian Poulsen and Jay Spearing by Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish.
A knee injury may have interrupted his first season, but when fit, he looked like he had the potential to be a key player. The fee never got up to the £20m factored in for add-ons seeing as he barely played for the club, but it appears as he’s been sacrificed for as little as £7m this summer as Brendan Rodgers continues his pursuit of both Joe Allen and Clint Dempsey. It’s extremely harsh to label him as a ‘flop’, because if we’re honest, he never really got a fair crack of the whip, but due to a combination of mis-management and injury, the club still took a significant hit on him financially.
Roy Hodgson’s transfer record at Liverpool was supremely rotten, with Joe Cole, Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen all flopping. Jonjo Shelvey was a deal tied up by Benitez prior to his departure and while he hasn’t flourished quite yet, the signs are there that he could force his way into the first-team over the next season or two.
Raul Meireles is a player that few shed a tear for when he left for Chelsea, with the club having made a marginal profit on him – aside from a great run which saw him notch five goals in six games as part of the Dalglish resurgence in the second half of 2010-11, for the most part, he flattered to deceive, lacking any sort of real role in the side and frequently getting bullied out of games – he’s failed to win over the Stamford Bridge faithful since too for similar reasons.
Now, this is where it gets tricky. The club spent the huge amount of £58m on a brand new strike-force in the January transfer window in 2010-11 on Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll, having sold both Fernando Torres and Ryan Babel to raise the money. Suarez has been an unqualified success on the pitch, but his penchant for controversy has seen the club radically altered since, while Carroll has struggled for both form and fitness after his record-breaking move to the club – of course, this isn’t to say that Carroll may not be a success at Anfield in the future, he certainly has the potential to be, and on form, he can be absolutely brutal, but he doesn’t look to have much of a long-term future under Rodgers at the moment and they’ll be fortunate to get over half of what they paid for him just 18 months ago now.
Kenny Dalglish was sacked in the summer after a whole swathe of players he signed in the summer of 2011/12, with the help of Damien Comolli, failed to perform or live up to expectations. Charlie Adam, Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson all had pretty rank seasons last year as the side slumped to an eighth-place finish. Jose Enrique was consistent, but faded terribly towards the end of the campaign, as did Craig Bellamy – you’d class them both as successes, but again, hardly huge ones, with Bellamy set to leave this summer amidst concern over his wages and injury-proneness, even if Jose Enrique does represent a sound long-term signing. Uruguay centre-half Sebastian Coates hasn’t quite adapted to the demands of the league yet, but his pedigree does promise more for the future.
Borini arrived from Roma this summer making him Brendan Rodgers first signing in charge of the club, costing £10m despite making just 46 first-team appearances in his career to date. The club’s sheer inability to negotiate itself a fair deal is laughably poor and Roma paid nearly £3m less for him just a few months earlier, after first buying 50% of his ownership rights, then the full lot before Liverpool moved for him and he represents something of a gamble given the outlay.
Out of the 36 players that the club have signed in the past five seasons, I’d go as far as to say that only Luis Suarez could be considered a resounding success for the impact that he’s had on the team, with the likes of Glen Johnson, Jonjo Shelvey, Jose Enrique, Sebastian Coates and Jordan Henderson providing decent value over time and some potential to keep a close eye on for the future. The majority of the rest of those deals can’t be considered anything more than huge flops.
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The changes in management hasn’t helped matters, as the club has lacked a clear and coherent direction for quite some time now. Flawed transfers are almost part and parcel of being a Liverpool fan in the modern era, but the hit rate, even by their ropey standards, has dried up noticeably of late. You suspect that Rodgers is not quite done in the transfer market this summer, but he’ll have to improve a truly shoddy record, which at times, has cost the club huge amounts of money on fees and wages in the process.
It’s often perceived that after FSG bought the club, that Liverpool have spent heavily in the transfer market to little success, but when you take a closer look at their transfer activity, it’s all part of a wider, long trend. The lack of competitiveness from the side can be directly linked and partly attributed to their failures in the transfer market; the pressure is on for a change in approach and a higher hit rate, otherwise the club may continue to slide further from the pinnacle of the English game.
Back in 2002, Aston Villa beat Everton in the FA Youth Cup Final 4-1, hammering an opposition that featured a certain Mr W. Rooney on their team sheet. The strikers for Villa that day were a pair of brothers, Stefan and Luke Moore, who Villa fans thought were just as talented, if not better than the Manchester United and England superstar was back then. While Luke’s career hasn’t exactly gone according to plan, at least he still plays in the Premier League for Swansea City. As for Stefan, well he’s an absolute goal machine still. Unfortunately, those goals are scored for St Neots Town in the United Counties Football League.
Moore actually made his professional debut for Chesterfield, who he joined on loan in 2001 to gain some first team experience. Villa recalled him after just three appearances from that loan spell to get him involved in the first team squad and by the summer of 2002, Stefan was firmly in the frame for regular football. He appeared in the Intertoto Cup, before making his Premier League debut in September, scoring a belter as well against Charlton Athletic. As we all know, Moore wasn’t the only young starlet to score a sensational goal after breaking into the first team in 2002, but that’s where the comparisons with Rooney have to stop.
Injuries then wrecked the rest of that promising campaign and Moore struggled to get into the starting line-up the next season, making just eight Premier League appearances and scoring one goal against Blackburn. An ankle injury put paid to the 2003/04 season and all of sudden, Moore’s prodigious talent was in doubt. Villa manager at the time, David O’Leary, decided to send his talented striker out on loan to give him first team experience and Moore spent time at Millwall and then Leicester in the 2004/05 season, failing to find the net at either club. The writing was on the wall for Moore and he left Villa and his brother behind in the summer, signing for QPR.
While Luke began to make his mark at Villa Park, bagging a hat trick against Middlesbrough, Stefan was struggling to make things work at Loftus Road, managing just three goals in 39 league appearances at the club. Having spent time on loan at Port Vale and not managing to have any impact on proceedings there, he signed for Walsall in 2008, a couple of months before his brother completed a £3.5 million move to West Brom. Moore then pulled out his customary trick of scoring on debut, but things simply didn’t work out at the Bescot Stadium, his strike against Luton turned out to be his only one for the club and after just five appearances, his deal was terminated.
Moore’s journey into the nomadic world of non-league football began after an unsuccessful trial with Melbourne Victory, a tell-tale sign that his career was sliding down the drain. Australia is the common destination for washed up footballers, just ask Francis Jeffers or Michael Bridges. Kidderminster was his first port of call though, where he lasted just 14 games for the Harriers, before he signed for Silhill 4th XI in the Birmingham and District AFA League Division Five to maintain his fitness. Five goals in two games showed he still had the ability to trouble defenders and he soon joined Halesowen Town in the Southern Premier League. Proving he was far too good for that lowly level, Moore scored 39 goals in 44 games for the club in the 2009/10 season, prompting interest from a number of clubs, including two football league sides.
For whatever reason, any proposed move never came off and Moore fell out with the Halesowen board after accusing them of a lack of ambition and ineptitude. He moved to St Neots in the United Counties League, continuing his sensational goal scoring record in the lower leagues, having notched 62 in his 75 league games so far.
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Moore’s tale is a harrowing one for any young footballer who makes the breakthrough as a promising young player. Villa fans always talk about the two brothers Stefan and Luke, with a misty look in their eyes, remembering the pair of home grown strikers who were supposed to fire them to Premier League glory. Injuries did affect Stefan’s career, but his dramatic fall from grace is rather inexplicable. There are no obvious disciplinary issues and his passion for the game is clearly still what it used to be, considering he still plies his trade in the lower leagues when many others would have simply quit. At the age of 28, he now runs a taxi firm, balancing his off-field commitments with his scoring feats for St Neots, but you imagine that Stefan Moore would have expected quite a different life when he and his brother fired the Villa youth team to victory all those years ago.
Gossip plays a big part in the world of football today, indeed where would we be without the transfer rumours that fill up the empty space in the summer vacated by the actual games themselves? The papers comply fully with people’s desires to hear shocking stories about their clubs and which potential superstars they’ve been linked with this week.
Unfortunately, the Internet has ensured the business of transfer rumours has been taken to a whole new level, with numerous sites dedicated specifically to the subject. This means that all sorts of stories can be broken to the world, and many of them without a shred of truth behind them. Fans now have to decipher between the accurate rumours, the unlikely rumours and the ‘not a chance in hell that’s happening’ rumours. This summer has been no different and therefore we bring you ten of the worst transfer rumours to hit the press this transfer window.
Click on Hulk to see this summer’s dodgiest deals
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
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