Author: content

Nicky Shorey has heaped praise on his former manager Alan Pardew saying that the 54-year old has the amazing ability to motivate the youngsters and make them take big strides in their career.

Pardew has turned the corner at Crystal Palace magically since taking over there at the start of this year.

At that point of time, Palace was sinking deep and it was almost looking certain that they were going to finish in the demotion zone, but, Pardew came in and just changed the fortunes of the team.

Not only did Pardew make sure that the Eagles got out of the bottom three, he guided them to quite a few positions higher in the points table and eventually, they ended up finishing in the top 10 in the standings in the 2014-15 Premier League which was an unbelievable achievement considering where they were in the first half of the season.

Even this season, Palace’s flying high and currently, the points table have them at the 4th position just 3 points behind the top positioned Manchester City.

Speaking of Pardew to a television channel the other evening, Shorey said, “I rate Alan the highest among all the managers whom I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside. He is incredibly good at instilling the confidence in the young players.”

“Being in charge at Newcastle and then moving to Selhurst Park, not many people were convinced with that decision, but, he made the move and it’s for everyone to see how he’s changed it all over there.”

“You see the performance of the Eagles since he has been appointed the manager. There is a significant difference in their body language. They have been excitingly good on the frontline, but, at the same time, they’re pretty solid in defence too.”

Former Liverpool winger Stewart Downing says that the club should have given more time for legend Kenny Dalglish, who spent a couple of years as the manager upon his return to the hot seat.

Dalglish is regarded as one of the club legends and this status is unlikely to have altered even after a poor spell with the club. American owners FSG were seen to have made this sentimental appointment of Dalglish and they quickly backtracked the on this decision by appointing Northern Ireland manager Brendan Rodgers as his replacement. This, however, has not turned out to be a great decision.

Rodgers has become the first Liverpool manager to go without winning a trophy in the first three seasons. The only success that he has achieved so far will be coming within two games of winning the league title. Liverpool returned to the Champions League only ones under the guidance of Rodgers, who was quick to sell Stewart Downing in the opinion of some. The former Aston Villa winger did not have the best 12 months upon his arrival at Merseyside, but he was not given much of a consideration under Rodgers. Downing, though, proved his quality with West Ham for a couple of seasons before joining his hometown club Middlesbrough.

“I played for a very good manager in Kenny Dalglish, he was very good to me. I’ll never forget what he did to get me to that club.When I was speaking to Kenny, I was thinking ‘this is mad, £20m for me to go there’, but it put a lot of pressure on Kenny because he spent big that summer. I went to Aston Villa and said to them ‘this is Kenny Dalglish and Liverpool football club, you have to let me go’ and they were okay about it.I just didn’t think we got time to gel,” said Downing.

Daniel Agger has been with his hometown club for the last 12 months and he has seen sufficient improvement in Brøndby to suggest that the club will be near the top of the table in the upcoming campaign.

The Danish club have been disadvantage of being involved in the Europa League from as early as in the first week of July. Since last season, the Danish league has been stripped of the automatic Champions League spots due to the low coefficients. Even title winners Midtjylland will have to go through the qualifying phase in order to reach the group stages.

Brøndby just managed to squeeze into the final Europa League spot. As a result, their matches start with an early qualifying round against Juvenes or Dogana. A recent friendly against Falkenberg finished in a 1-0 win. Agger has admitted that one of the primary reasons for the team finishing in the third place was the inconsistent form during autumn. He says that ifBrøndby overcome this, then they could be in for a runners up or even potential title challenging position. Agger has also dismissed suggestions that he is in need of a slightly larger break. He says that he is used to having only four weeks off from his time in the Premier League.

“We have shown our potential this spring and many of the young people have shown improvement. If we are to prosper again in the next season, we supply as this spring. We need to be stable. We had many fluctuations in the autumn, but has gotten the hang of it this spring. I feel we are moving in the right direction. If we can deliver as we have done in the spring over an entire season, as we get closer to the top teams,” said Agger.

It’s been over 7 years since Derby County competed in the Premier League as the English club was relegated from the top tier league during the 2007-08 season after finishing at the bottom of the league during that season.

Derby County recorded one of the worst Premier League campaigns in the history of the league as they only managed to secure 1 victory in the 2007-08 season and were relegated after only being able to snatch 11 points in 38 matches.

County is currently competing in the English League Championship but Stephen Warnock is hoping that things can change this time around.

Stephen Warnock was signed by Derby County in January of 2015 and even though his debut with the new club was a disastrous one as he received a red card when playing against Reading, the 33 year old left-back wants to recover from that horrendous debut and help push Derby County to back to the Premier League.

Warnock expressed his objective about what he wants to do with Derby County as the defender said: “I wanted to come in and try to get the lads promoted. That’s not saying I think I could do it single-handedly but you want to be part of the team and say you’ve played your part in it.We’ll try our best to get Derby out of this league, one way or another.’’

“There’s no two ways about that and the lads are determined to make it happen.The league is funny, we know that.All we can do is win our games you can’t try to predict what other teams will do.Nobody would have predicted we would have gone on a run like we did.’’

Stephen Warnock has performed in the Premier League a few years ago when he was a player of Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers and Aston Villa, the experienced wants to make a return to the top tier English League.

Derby County manager Steve McClaren has revealed that the players and the club need to take heart in order to recover the form that made them title favourites only a few weeks ago.

Now, the club has won three matches and has suffered two defeats and a draw during this run. It is threatening to put them back into the play-off places. It would be a major downer for the club after they had done extremely well to lead the table for a few weeks. The poor form in recent weeks has followed the likes of Bournemouth and Watford to close the gap on the table leaders.

The top of the Championship is now incredibly close with four teams locked on 66 points. McClaren feels that Derby are collectively capable of getting away from this run of form especially having players like Stephen Warnock in the team. The former Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers defender moved to the club only in January for an undisclosed fee. At 33 years of age, he will not only provide enough Championship experience but also the capability to deal with opposition players in the Premier League. This weekend will see a top of the table clash with Derby taking on Norwich City, who are just one point below McLaren’s team.

“It is a tough week – we always knew this week was going to be a tough one.I’m not saying it will decide things. I always say be in with a shout with 10 games to go, and we are.We have to dig in this week. We have to come out of it with performances, with points, and we have to maintain our challenge.That is the target. To still be there or thereabouts knowing then that when we come back after the international break all injuries should have cleared up and we have the squad ready to go,” said McLaren.

The injury that Steve Sidwell sustained versus the Reds yesterday has put him out of contention for the remaining matches of this year.

Although, the injury is not that serious, still, it would take Sidwell almost a month to recover.

Seeing Sidwell’s anguish, people initially thought it was a major blow, but, the veteran playmaker made his way out of the ground without the help of a stretcher.

Mark Hughes also told the media persons later on that Sidwell is not in as poor a condition as he looked to be in first up.

Hughes did admit that there was tearing in the ligament, but, according to the Stoke boss, it’s only slight tearing and thus, Sidwell would be fit around mid-January.

Speaking to the reporters, Hughes said, “I have just been told that the scan reports are a bit more encouraging than our expectations. We were expecting his recovery period to stretch to two months, but, now, it seems we will not have to wait for that long to get him in again. It’s probably a month or so and he will be back I reckon.”

When asked what kind of injury Sidwell suffered, the Welshman said, “Well, he has torn his ligament, but, it’s not as serious as the ligament injuries can be. It’s an injury nevertheless and he would be sitting out for a bit of time, but, as I told you, it’s not going to be as long as it seemed first.”

Glenn Whelan, the man who was put in there on the pitch by Hughes as Sidwell’s replacement versus Liverpool, also got injured. He did not come back after the half-time break, but, Hughes is confident that the 30-year old Irishman would be available for the next Saturday’s league game.

Leeds United suffered a 2-1 defeat against Blackburn Rovers during the weekend.

This defeat is yet another hit to their promotion aspirations, but defender Stephen Warnock is not prepared to let this defeat to get into the heads of the young players. Leeds have several young players like Lewis Cook whose heads could drop at a vital stage in the season. Even though the prospect of an automatic promotion spot appears to be beyond them, Leeds can still reach the play-offs since the season has more than half of the matches remaining. However, December represents a crucial time in the Championship season due to the sheer number of matches.

Warnock has speculated enough experience in the game to be aware that more points dropped during this period could hurt the club’s objective for the campaign. He is not prepared to allow this as he believes that the experience of older players, like himself, will help the team get back on track. Leeds have been showing decent form at home and their next match is at Ellands Road where they take on Derby County. The Championship leaders represent a very tough match for Leeds given that they come on the back of three consecutive wins. However, they are one of the top teams in the division to have already suffered four defeats.

“We are a young team aside from myself and probably Mirco (Antenucci) and us and the rest of the lads around the place such as (Michael) Tongey and Stewie Taylor have got to try and lift the place and get them going. That is what senior players do. I am sure Redders will try and lift the lads this week and I am sure the senior boys will do that as well,” said Warnock. Leeds have only 20 points from the opening 18 matches.

Darko Milanic was selected as the new head coach of Leeds United a few weeks ago on September 23 and his arrival has sparked a series doubts concerning the left-back position at the Championship League club as Stephen Warnock was one of the most consistent players in the squad during last season and the left-back has continued his wave of impressive performances throughout the start of this new season.
Milanic’s played his first match in charge of Leeds United on September 27 when his squad travelled to Griffin Park and faced off with Brentford in a match that concluded in a 2-0 defeat for Leeds United.
In that match, Stephen Warnock was featured as the defender played for the entire match but in the next game Warnock was surprisingly dropped to the bench as he was replaced by Liam Cooper in the left-back position.
This was a move that surprised Liam Cooper himself as he was amazed to know that Darko Milanic had implanted as a left-back during Leeds United’s Championship League match against Reading instead of Stephen Warnock.
“It was a surprise and especially at left back but it is something I am willing to do and have a good crack at. I don`t know if I will keep my place. If the manager thinks I did well enough on Wednesday night, he will put me back in but if not, Stephen will go back in.” Liam Cooper said.
The match ultimately concluded in a goal-less draw but this raises the question if Liam Cooper will be a consistent starter for Leeds United in the left-back position instead of the experienced defender Stephen Warnock who will be 33 years old in December.

Leeds United secured their first Championship victory this summer as they defeated Middlesbrough in a home game yesterday by 1-0.

The match winning goal for Leeds came courtesy of Billy Sharp who was making his first appearance in the Whites’ shirt.

Leeds had lost against Millwall in their first match last weekend. So, it was important for them to put in some extra effort against Middlesbrough and they looked like doing so when the game kicked off, but, they faded pretty quickly as the Smoggies started having the maximum possession.

Leeds’ defence did pretty well in the first half though especially Stephen Warnock. He frustrated the key players of the opposition with his brilliant defensive skills. And to go with the skills, he showed courage as well. On quite a few occasions, he took blows on his body and made sure that the harm didn’t get done to his team. It was a top class showing by the veteran left back. Had it not been for him, Middlesbrough would surely have been able to go 1-0 up in the first half.

Warnock was actually supposed to be a weak part of the back line of the whites, but, he emerged as their rescuer. He proved again that there’s no substitute for experience.

However, the defining contribution was made by Sharp just minutes before the final whistle. The 28-year old Englishman was looking a bit out of sorts before that. He had been getting the placements of his shots wrong, but, he had the last laugh as he got his debut goal for his new club in the 88th minute beating the shot stopper of Middlesbrough with a fantastic piece of work.

Leeds has to play their next match against Brighton & Hove Albion three days later.

The future of former Blackburn Rovers defender Stephen Warnock is in doubt after the 32-year-old has reportedly been told by Leeds United to find a new club. Since he has 12 months left on his contract with Leeds, it was highly expected that he would remain at Ellands Road for this new season. However, he will now be searching for a new club since the club’s new manager Dave Hockaday does not seem to have him in his plans. Warnock has played for several clubs over the years, but he is best known for his spell at Blackburn where he was excellent.

Since then, he joined Aston Villa were he struggled to fit into the plains of manager Paul Lambert. This led to joining Leeds in the summer of 2013. Last season, he was used extensively by former manager Brian McDermott. He featured in 33 matches over the course of the campaign and also scored two goals. Due to his versatility of being able to play anywhere across the left side, Warnock will have no trouble in finding a new club. At 32 years of age, he still has the ability to. Hence, it would not be surprising to see Warnock find another championship club interested in offering him a couple of years.

“I’ve said before that Leeds had some good players here last season and a number of them have gone, including Ross. From my point of view, if we need to replace them we will replace them and we’ll do that as quickly as we can, but we won’t panic and we won’t do anything silly. We might have to show patience in some positions and some things might move quicker than others,” said new Leeds United manager about the transfer plans for the club in this transfer window.