Stephen Warnock Fan

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.

Although a number of Leeds United fans are not pleased with the appointment of David Hockaday as the head coach, but, Dale Vince, the chairman of Forest Green Rovers (a 5th division team in English football) reckons that the 56-year old deserved that opportunity.

After the departure of Brian McDermott, somebody with a high profile and a lot of experience was expected to be named as the next man in charge at the club, but, , the Leeds board decided to go with Hockaday much to the surprise of the fans.

Hockaday has only been in charge of one team in his 4-year managerial career so far and that team is the Forest Green Rovers. To pick a man from the 5th tier and give him such a big responsibility, it’s a bold move by Leeds United and now, it would be interesting to see if Hockaday manages to repay the faith of the owners or not.

Vince reckons that his former employee is not a bad choice at all for Leeds united. Talking to the reporters yesterday, the Forest Green head said, “David has got a great footballing brain. Apart from that, he has got other qualities too. He’s loyal and he puts 100% effort in his job. That’s what you want from your manager. He deserved to have this opportunity to showcase his potential. I want to see him doing wonders at Leeds. I have had a chat with him and I have wished him all the luck.”

“He’s actually been appointed as head coach and not as manager and that’s pretty interesting. He will not have to take care of the recruitments. The president (Massimo Cellino) would do that and it would certainly reduce some pressure from David’s shoulders.”

For the past 3 seasons Aston Villa has been struggling trying to get out of the bottom spots of the Premier League and the fans of the club have agreed with the decision of the club owner Randy Lerner to sell Aston Villa.

Randy Lerner took control of the club in 2006 when he paid €63 million but the American entrepreneur announced a few days ago that Aston Villa is up for sale with a price tag of €200 million.

The fans of Aston Villa are desperate for a new someone to buy the club and get ready for the upcoming season.

A statement from AVST read: “AVST wish Mr Lerner the very best in his future endeavors. We are sure all Villa supporters appreciate the great respect he has shown for the club’s traditions and heritage during his time here. We are also sure that, with this in mind, he will make it a consideration of the utmost importance that these traditions should continue to be respected by whomever he passes his custodianship to’’.

“We would ask the sale is completed as quickly as possible in order that the new owner can put his team in place, and make the required changes to ensure Aston Villa become a competitive force on the field again.”

Martin O’Neill was in charge of the squad from 2006 until 2010 and during his time at the head of the team Aston Villa managed on securing consistent 6th place position in the Premier League but the club suffered a huge twist when the Irish coach left Villa and Paul Lambert took over.

Since Paul Lambert’s appointment as the head coach of the club, they have struggled just trying to escape the bottom relegation zone which is why he has been under a lot of criticism recently and his future in Aston Villa is in jeopardy.

Leeds United manager Brian McDermott has said that the change of tactics for the match against Blackpool has paid dividends after his team arrested a run of several consecutive defeats on the bounce to get a win. Leeds came into the match on the back of run, which had seen them suffer by consecutive losses.

This has pushed them closer to the relegation zone with only a couple of mentions left in the campaign. Even though they had a sizeable advantage over the teams in the drop zone, there was nervousness from the Leeds United camp ahead of this match.

McDermott, whose own future at the club has come under increasing doubt in the last few weeks after the takeover from a new Italian owner is set to happen, decided to go with the new tactics after working on it in the training ground. This along with great performance from players like Stephen Warnock helped them get a victory according to the manager. The win has taken them to 50 points with four matches remaining. Due to the 10 point advantage over teams in the drop zone, they are almost certain to avoid relegation this season.

McDermott will be hoping that a good run in the final few matches will help them challenge for promotion next season.

“We went a different way and the players did what they had to do. Ross’ set-up for the first goal was a lovely pass. We worked in training on the way we played on Thursday. At Watford we never looked like scoring and that was really disappointing so we went back to basics and said ‘how do we score?’ I thought (Michael) Brown in midfield was excellent, Stephen Warnock too. The experienced players have come up for us,” said the manager after the match.

Leeds United is located in the middle section of the Football League Championship; they are not expected to make a title charge at this point in time but are safely above the bottom relegation zone.

What has been placing the club in the headlines of newspapers and websites around the world is not about how well or bad they are performing in the league but instead about the recent rumors about an Italian businessman taking over the club.

Massimo Cellino is the chairman of the Italian club Cagliari and in February a deal was agreed involving the club owners of Leeds United, Gulf Finance House with Cellino as the Italian businessman launched a bid to buy 75% stake of the club but some days later it was rejected by the Football League.

The Football League said: “The board considered detailed legal advice with regard to the application of its regulations within the context of a decision made under Italian law.

“Having fully considered the matter, the board agreed unanimously that the decision of the Italian Court does constitute a disqualifying condition under its owners’ and directors’ test. The relevant disqualifying condition being that Massimo Cellino has been convicted of an offence involving acts that would reasonably be considered to be dishonest.”

Cellino failed the League’s Owners and Directors Test because of a recent conviction in an Italian court which involved unpaid tax and ultimately forcing The Football League on having to reject the businessman on taking ownership of the Championship club.

The staff board of Leeds United has already released a number of statements expressing their disappointment after having already agreed to an amount of money for the club but they have also announced their intention of finding a solution that would benefit all of the parties involved.

It was as if strong breeze and Stephen Warnock (Leeds United Footballer) conspired together in order to make sure that Leeds United win the match against Yeovil Town FC that was held on the 8th of February, 2014. The match was a part of the Sky Bet Championship 2014 and it took place at Huish Park.

Leeds United was able to score two goals because of which it could defeat Yeovil Town. The first goal was scored by Ross McCormack who curled in an amazing 22 yard kick. Before McCormack’s goal, Ishmael Miller (Yeovil’s footballer) had already scored a goal. So the game had been tied.

Surprisingly the weather had started changing at Huish Park even before Leeds United had scored their first goal during the match. Due to the weather change, Stephen Warnock was able to kick a forty yard free kick and the wind assisted the ball in flowing over the head of Marek Stech (goalkeeper of Yeovil Town).

Marek Stech was absolutely bemused when the ball bent away and instead of reaching its expected target, flew over his head and into the net. Maybe the most humorous sight on the football field during the match was that after the goal Warnock had the sheer audacity to celebrate his goal.

Warnock scored his goal in the second half of the football match when every player of Leeds United was trying to make sure that there is now draw and Leeds United can win the game.

Usually, experts are of the opinion that the winds help keep things even at any football match. However, this opinion turned out to be wrong in the match between Yeovil Town and Leeds United because winds played a very important role in helping Warnock to score the winning goal. It seems Warnock just turned out to be lucky this time.

Leeds United could be searching for a new manager after their conventional rumours that they are about to sack their manager Brian McDermott following a run of poor results, but the former Reading manager has stated that he would not walk away from the club.

The club’s last victory in all competitions came back in the middle of December when they won 3-0 at Doncaster Rovers. Since then, they have picked up only a few draws, which has seen them slip several points below the play-offs positions. Leeds have brought in experienced players like Stephen Warnock from Aston Villa, but it has had little effect on the team’s results.

This could lead to McDermott being sacked according to reports. The ownership of the club has also led to reports that McDermott may not last long. Leeds are on the verge of a takeover from two bidders, who are trying to take control of the club. Italian businessman Massimo Cellino has been very controversial during his time at the club and he has been contemplating sacking the manager and also his assistant ahead of the match with Ipswich Town. McDermott, however, was in charge of the team for this match, which finished as a 1-1 draw.
It has helped to the club bring an end to the four consecutive defeats in the league.

“This has been one of the most difficult periods I’ve had as a manager, especially the last few days. Some of the stuff that’s gone on has not been pleasant and it doesn’t belong in football in my opinion. The bigger picture for me has always been the stability of this club. At the moment the most important thing at this football club is the ownership and where it goes in the future,” said McDermott after the match against Ipswich.

Arsenal defender Kieran Gibbs has revealed that he needs to score more goals in order to improve his game and battle for the England left-back spot. The defender has taken over from Ashley Cole as the first choice left back for the club.

The departure of Gael Clichy also allowed him to get more game time, which has seen him on the cusp of internationals. It is highly expected that Gibbs will be a first choice for the England national team in a few years, but before that, he is targeting at scoring more goals.

He is known for his attacking ability to do his pace, but he has been unable to score goals on a regular basis. He has scored just one goal for Arsenal during his career. It is remarkable considering that he made his debut back in 2007.

The latest sports betting makes him the third favourite for the England left-back spot, behind Baines and Cole.

This is something that he is keen to address over the coming years. Arsenal fullbacks are known for their attacking strengths, but Gibbs needs to score more goals. The defender was speaking in the Arsenal programme notes ahead of the match with Marseille. They will be taking on this French club in the Champions league group stages looking to seal progression to the knockout round.

“I think this year I’ve moved up a level. I’ve stayed fit and finally shown what I can do. There’s still a lot more I want to do though, especially offensively. I want to add more assists and even goals too. We play a certain way which enables me to get involved in the attack,” said the 24-year-old.

A win and other results going their way would take them into the last 16 stage. Despite being relatively young, he has already made three appearances for the England national team. His form has helped Arsenal move to the top of the table with Christmas fast approaching.