Singapore businessman Peter Lim has officially withdrawn his takeover bid for Liverpool.
Lim returned with a new and improved £320million offer for the Anfield club on the eve of the High Court case which current owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett hoped would prevent the proposed sale to New England Sports Ventures.
The High Court ruled in favour of a sale to the owners of the Boston Red Sox but the deal has now been placed on ice following a fresh injunction from Hicks and Gillett which has delayed the process.
Lim, who is reportedly worth £1billion, was hoping his alternative offer would be more attractive to the board.
However, he has now admitted defeat and appears to have cleared the way for NESV to complete their purchase, subject to the latest court hearings.
"It has become clear to me that the board is intent on selling the club to New England Sports Ventures (NESV) to the exclusion of all other parties, regardless of the merits of their bids," Lim said in a statement.
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Now I am as sartorially-challenged a bloke as you will meet, so when something in the fashion world makes me sit up and take notice, you know it’s bad. So when, whilst perusing the internet this morning I came across Cristiano Ronaldo’s new boots, it is safe to say they fell ominously into this category. With a pattern lying somewhere between a disco ball, the linoleum in your Gran’s kitchen and the skin of that spitting dinosaur that signalled the end of poor Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park, the new Nike CR Mercurial Vapour SuperFly II (yes that is what it’s called) apparently gives Ronaldo “everything I need to elevate my game”, but perhaps not everything he needs to launch his own fashion range. Ronaldo’s new monstrosities aside, it got me thinking; who are the worst offenders when it comes to having to call the fashion police in the football world? I mean we’ve seen some pretty horrendous kits (I’m looking at you early 90s), however these fashion faux-pas can hardly be blamed on the players, so which footballers clearly don’t have the use of a mirror in their own home, or, in some cases, the use of the brain in their head?
DJIBRIL CISSE
Some people think a title gives you carte-blanche to do whatever you like and behave however you want. However, it does not entitle you to dress in the guise of a Dickensian character found sauntering around south central Los Angeles. Here we see Lord of the Manor of Frodsham, aka Djibril Cisse sporting some quite dapper attire. You’d have thought with his title and substantial time on the sidelines, Cisse would have acquired a better taste in clothes, but, alas, he hasn’t, and his poor wife has to be seen out in public with her husband looking like this.
LIVERPOOL FA CUP FINAL TEAM, 1996
Coming up next is a true team effort. Sporting this both on and off the pitch in and around the 1996 FA Cup Final, Liverpool managed to become arguably the worst dressed team in the illustrious competition’s history. Even more shocking is that these suits were designed by fashion powerhouse Armani, less shocking perhaps, is that David James was the brains behind the design.
STEPHEN IRELAND
Wow, nice looking lass, but wait, why is she holding hands with a j-cloth in a waistcoat? Oh, sorry, it’s Stephen Ireland. Not known for his fashion sense, or any other sense for that matter (remember his dead grandmother’s and his outrageous cars?), Ireland has let even himself down here and is fast building a sartorial reputation to match that of Djibril Cisse.
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EL HADJI DIOUF
Sometimes language is an inadequate tool to work with. This is most definitely the case with El Hadji Diouf. Love him or hate him on the pitch, there is little to love about his dress sense which tends to border on the gangster-esque. However, as is admirably demonstrated here by the Senegalese international, he also has a penchant for Backstreet Boys videos.
PAUL INCE
Technically not a fashion faux-pas, but rather a footballing one which involves attire. A young Paul Ince was clearly far too excited about the prospect of joining Manchester United, so excited, in fact, that he was pictured donning the red kit of United, a snap which was published in a national newspaper. Not too bad really? The problem was the then 22 year-old Ince was still contracted to West Ham. Oops.
OLE HERMANN BORGAN
Ole Hermann Borgan can sympathise with Ince however having fallen foul of his own football shirt faux pas. Having been pencilled in to officiate the 2006 Champions League final in Paris between Barcelona and Arsenal, the Norwegian’s local paper were so proud they decided to run an article on the linesman. They wanted him to wear both Arsenal and Barcelona shirts, but found they only had a Barca shirt at hand. Borgan was pictured in the Catalan club’s shirt, his impartiality was questioned, he was then stripped of his duties in the final, and the rest is history.
DAVID BECKHAM
Being possibly the most photographed footballer ever to walk the earth has its downsides, as is demonstrated here by David Beckham. The face that launched a thousand Mohican haircuts shows here that sometimes, even he gets it wrong. Needless to say, the sarong for men never really caught on.
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CRISTIANO RONALDO
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I couldn’t let the infinitely fashion-conscious Cristiano Ronaldo get away with merely a brief mention at the start of this article now could I?! Here is the Portuguese superstar taking metrosexuality to its absolute limits, and combined with his inexplicable mahogany-hue tan and his fashionable ankle-injury boot, Ronaldo deserves more than just an honourable mention in this list.
DIMITAR BERBATOV
Now I have absolutely no idea what on earth is going on here. Dimitar Berbatov? Fashion? The combination shouldn’t work, and comprehensively doesn’t as this picture shows. Voted most stylish man in Bulgaria in 2005, we can only assume Bulgarians either don’t get out much, or 2005 was a VERY lean year for them. Having said that, perhaps his competition was Martin Petrov.
DAVID SULLIVAN
Many football fans would like their chairmen to be behind the scenes, pulling the financial strings, none more so it would seem than West Ham fans. Since the two David’s arrived at Upton Park they have had a rather heavy presence in the media. Fair enough you might say, it is, after all, their club. However, when you dress like this it is probably not advisable to spend much, if any, time in front of the cameras. Although I could have gone for his ‘head of the KGB Soviet Russia’ look he donned whilst watching the Hammers play Newcastle, I have plumped for his tailor-made West Ham United smoking jacket he decided to wear when taking over the club in 2009.
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With Christmas approaching, many teams, who feel the season hasn’t quite gone to plan thus far, will be assessing their options regarding management. Sides at the bottom of their respective divisions and sides who feel they have grossly under achieved, will look to change the man at the helm for a quick fix. But while the names of the recently sacked or resigned remain fresh in the minds of the decision makers, there are a few names that, although they may be linked with managerial vacancies, haven’t take up a position in a while.
Click on image below to see the FIVE managers
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There is no denying Gareth Bale is a quality attacking outlet for Tottenham at the moment. But is his fine form making Tottenham over reliant on him? Certainly attacks tend to come far more from the left than they have done in recent years, and players can be seen to be looking to Bale first to ping the ball out to the left flank. Yet it is obvious such over reliance is detrimental to the team. If Bale has a bad game, or the opposition are able to limit his contribution on the game, like Everton did so successfully a few weeks back with Phil Neville at right back, then a lot of Tottenham’s attacking momentum is taken away. Also such reliance on one player will erode the confidence and attacking threat of other creative players. And Spurs do have others so they do not need to be overly reliant on Bale; Luka Modric, Rafael Van der Vaart and Aaron Lennon are all capable of doing the opposition real damage.
It is the form of the first, Modric, which has really stood out recently. Especially against Chelsea in the first half he was the focus of everything that the team created and covered a lot ground, popping up deep in his own half as well as theirs. Yet there is a trend occurring that Spurs players try too hard to get the ball out to Bale to let him run at the opposition’s right back. And because this route of attack has become so popular, it is now sometimes tried when this option really isn’t available.
By limiting their attacking options in such a way it makes it easier for the opposition by giving them less to worry about, i.e. their only concern would be how to control Bale? But by spreading the point of attack more, varying the play leaves them with more problems to solve. For instance, if they tend to crowd to the Tottenham left flank to deny the option to Bale then ping the ball out to Lennon on the right to exploit the space left there, rather than try and force the ball to a surrounded Bale. It is a position Tottenham should be exploiting by allowing opponents to concentrate too much on Bale and then hit them from another area. And in recent games Lennon’s form has suggested he is returning to his best, particularly against Werder Bremen the other week. With two flying wingers on the flanks and on top of their game Spurs would be really difficult to contain.
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Also if teams would then have to get tight on the wingers on both flanks, this would leave tremendous holes in the middle of the pitch where Tottenham have players with pace to exploit these gaps between the centre back and full back, such as Defoe. And Van der Vaart could drop deep into the created space to cause problems, while Modric would be allowed more time on the ball as defenders are constantly concerned with Bale. Spurs do have the quality across the team to turn the added attention shown to Bale into a real advantage. In much the same way that Barcelona compensate if teams overly focus on trying to limit Lionel Messi’s contribution, Xavi, Iniesta and Villa are able to take advantage. Not that Tottenham have the quality of Barcelona but they still have quality players who should be taking advantage of Bale’s extra attention as opposed to forcing the play through him.
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David Moyes will have been the more disappointed of the two managers as Everton notched up their 10th draw of the season.
The Merseyside club were on top for most of the game but failed to break down the host’s resolute defence. You do sense that the Toffees problem stems from a lack of quality in the final third; something David Moyes I am sure will be keen to resolve in the January window.
So how do Everton fans feel about tonight’s point, and what are the five things we have learnt from the Toffees tonight?
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Newcastle boss Alan Pardew is looking to make some major moves this January and has the likes of Robbie Keane, David Bentley and Wayne Bridge on his wish list.
The Magpies are thought to have made an enquiry about the possibility of taking Manchester City left-back Wayne Bridge on loan until the end of the season. Bridge has so far only made three Premier League appearances and has fallen behind the likes of Aleksander Kolarov and Joleon Lescott in City’s back-four pecking order.
Pardew is also said to be keen on a mini raid of Tottenham’s squad players and has Keane and Bentley in his sights. Newcastle are preparing a £4 million move for Keane, but could be priced out of a move for Bentley as Spurs are hoping to recoup a large proportion of the £15 million that they paid for him in 2008. Spurs manager Harry Redknapp has said that he would only consider permanent deals for his squad players in order to increase the funds in his transfrer kitty.
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Since his controversial move, Alan Pardew has led Newcastle two wins and two defeats but knows that he will need to find some consistency to keep his doubters quiet.
Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez is thought to be angry with current side Ajax for preventing his dream move to Liverpool, according to reports from Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
The on/off transfer story has been dragging on because Liverpool are unwilling to meet the asking price demanded by Ajax. Suarez is believed to be keen to meet with the club’s general director and plead with him to lower his valuation.
However this is something that seems unlikely to happen, as Ajax boss Frank De Boer has once again reiterated Suarez’s importance to his team: “If you compare the €15 million [£12.9 million] Liverpool want to pay for Suárez with other transfers you can imagine that it’s far too low for us.”
“Luis is our top goalscorer for the last three years and also the man with by far the most assists. He was one of the big guys for Uruguay in helping them come third in the World Cup in the summer and he still has a contract with us for two and a half years.”
Liverpool know that they still have time to capture their man, but have also been told that the longer they take to muster up an acceptable bid, the pricier Suarez will become. Dalglish believes that Suarez would be the ideal partner for star-man Fernando Torress and help shoulder some of his goalscoring burden.
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Pick over a current world eleven? Easy. Decide upon the worst FA Cup final suit in the history of Wembley clashes? No problem. Choose from a list of classic football video games and identify a winner? Impossible.
I thought this was going to be the most fun article ever. The idea of smashing out hours of qualification drama on FIFA: Road to the World Cup with a fledgling Trinidad and Tobago side and once, just once winning the league title on Pro Evolution Soccer 5 sounded incredible.
Alas, my task was a little tougher than I thought it might be. Can I justify including Steven Gerrard’s Gameboy Advance game in the list, even though no one will have heard of it? Can I possibly get a mention in for ‘Michael Owen’s World League Soccer’ and the painstaking banter between the forgotten Peter Brackley and Ray Wilkins every time there is a lull in play?
I know I can’t possibly please everyone, but all of the games on this list are absolute masterpieces, one way or another- let me know your favourite…
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10: FIFA Street (2005)
Presumably inspired by the Nike advert from the 2002 World Cup, FIFA Street was EA Sports’ attempt at trying to bridge the gap between themselves and the phenomenally successful Pro Evolution Soccer series.
Released in between their 2005 and 2006 editions, the game never really took off, and was a little too complicated, however there was enough about it to admire its inventiveness. Putting Peter Crouch on the front cover, however, was not the smartest move in the world…
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9: FIFA 2000 (1999)
By the turn of the century, the FIFA series was almost untouchable. Helped by a number of turkeys released around the same time, such as; ‘Michael Owen’s World league Soccer’ and ‘This is Football’, the game franchise was a significant force to be reckoned with. This edition, released in October 1999 managed to pack in the first comprehensive season mode and the ability to unlock classic teams.
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8:World Cup Italia 90 (1990)
Not quite the game that started it all off, but one of the first attempts to try and tie in a major tournament with a video game release. Sega’s Mega Drive was not renowned for its sports simulators, however there was much here that later games would build on.
The interface is very reminiscent of arcade soccer games that adorned cinemas, leisure centres and airports throughout the 1990’s, and for a game that is over 20 years old, the concept and graphics hold up well.
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7: FIFA RTWC (1998)
Back when I first acquired a football game for the PC, my main requirements were that the goalkeeper could get sent off and that you could give every player on your side a peroxide blonde haircut in tribute to the Romanian side that donned the look in that year’s World Cup.
Sadly, the holy grail of the goalkeeper getting sent off was still some years away, however this game remains very close to my heart. A meticulous qualification process was available to those with patience, and the database of players and teams from across the world was unrivalled. The commentary of Des Lynam, Andy Gray (R.I.P) and John Motson was also world class.
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6: Pro Evolution Soccer 2 (2002)
Who would have known that a game which referred to West Ham as ‘Lake District’ would go on to be such a major success? The Japanese company, Konami, were responsible for the creation of the Pro Evolution Soccer (Winning Eleven) Series and in the early years of the PS2 implementation, rose to become FIFA’s biggest rival.
Games snobs initially refused to play PES because of the lack of licencing on any of the top sides or players, however the addictive nature of the series took off, even with a control system which was in direct contrast with its rival.
Played now, the game feels very dated, but the framework for success was laid here for more illustrious successors.
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5: Championship Manager 2 (1995)
Before the 2004 Eidos/ Sports Interactive split put paid to this top selling franchise, Championship Manager, was a humongous hit for football fans. Like Sensible Soccer, it was the first game of it’s kind with creators Paul and Oliver Collyer, designing the game from the confines of their bedrooms.
Starting slowly, the series exploded with the release of Championship Manager 2. Implementing many of the key features which adorn management games today, the 1995 release remained popular even after more updated versions were made available.
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4: FIFA 2010 (2009)
When the Playstation 3 finally hit shelves in the first quarter of 2007, the big question surrounded how EA Sports and Konami would deal with the transition from PS2 to PS3.
FIFA games from the early noughties had become formulaic and to be honest, pretty dull. As always they were a visual treat, but the ability to bend the ball in on the volley from 40 yards every game quickly became mundane.
When PS3 came along, everything changed. Konami struggled to transfer the fluidity of the PS2 hits when developing a visually more impressive product for the new console. EA Sports were quickly ahead, learning from many of the mistakes they had made in the PS2 era.
FIFA 2010 was an amalgamation of the best parts of the franchise’s visually stunning past, and the addictive playability that had contributed so much to the success of EA’s rivals.
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3: Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (2006)
I once sat down with a friend at university and had a race to 100 (ish) wins on ‘Pro Evo 6’ over the course of a term. It was the sort of titanic tussle that I will look back on with my grandchildren and explain how I gave away a 35-6 lead and recovered from being 95-70 behind to draw level at 99 apiece.
There was something about Pro Evo 6 that compelled you to keep playing. It had neither the technical wizardry of recent FIFA Playstation 3 versions, nor the endearing loveableness of earlier Konami incarnations, but it was just so damn addictive.
Despite drinking enough Red Bull to believe that Tal Ben Haim might actually be a decent central defender, taking the shoulder buttons out of my controller because I believed it made Michael Ballack run faster, and not showering for three days I eventually lost the series 105-103. Needless to say, I struggled with the ladies that term…
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2: Football Manager 2005 (2004)
After being the product of the Eidos/ Sports Interactive split in 2004, Football Manager has set new standards for sport’s management games. Quite simply, the level of detail and control afforded the armchair fan is insane.
Sports Interactive have done particularly well in creating a consistent interface across each edition which they still release on an annual basis. The biggest advantage over competitors, however was the introduction of the network game, linking armchair fans all over the world. Millions of courses, degrees and exams have been failed the world over as a result of this particular feature.
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1: Sensible Soccer (1992)
When I took a straw poll of my friends’ favourite games on this list, Sensible Soccer was the first name on everyone’s lips.
When you look at the game’s level of invention, it is not hard to see why it remains such a popular title. Originally released for the PC, later 3D versions were released, however, it was this basic, birds eye view of the football pitch that initially won over fans.
The 1994 release of The Sensible World of Soccer was later named as one of the ten most important video games ever created by a Stanford study. Most uniquely, SS managed to transfer it’s charms across all platforms and systems- a feat that both FIFA and PES have yet to manage.
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Inter moved to within five points of city rivals and Serie A table-toppers AC Milan after a 2-1 win over Fiorentina on Wednesday.
Leonardo’s side climbed above Lazio and into third place with the victory – Inter’s eighth in 10 league matches since the Brazilian took over from Rafael Benitez at the San Siro.
At the Stadio Artemio Franchi, Marco Camporese own goal gave Inter the perfect start with just six minutes on the clock.
But Sinisa Mihajlovic’s side responded well and hit back with a goal of their own just after the half-hour mark when defender Manuel Pasqual found the back of the net.
As the game opened up and both sides searched for a winner, Inter snared a vital goal on 62 minutes when Giampaolo Pazzini struck for the fourth time in five matches for his new club.
Italy international Pazzini has already made a big impact at Inter since joining in the January transfer window from Sampdoria, with his goal giving Leonardo the response he would have craved after his side were 1-0 losers at Juventus on Sunday.
In Wednesday’s other match, Genoa claimed a 1-0 win at Sampdoria in a tense local derby that sent Davide Ballardini’s side ahead of their rivals on the table.
Brazilian defender Rafinha scored the game’s only goal after 55 minutes and, despite a raft of attacking substitutions, Sampdoria could not find the all-important equaliser.
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After losing Pazzini to Inter and Antonio Cassano to AC Milan in January, Sampdoria have struggled to find a replacement, with Palermo signing Massimo Maccarone and Manchester United loanee Federico Macheda battling to fill the void of the departed duo.
Ignoring Sampdoria’s 3-1 win against Bologna on Sunday, Domenico Di Carlo’s side have just scored two goals in their last eight Serie A games.
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has refused to discuss the performance of referee Miguel Lasa in his side’s 1-1 draw at Sevilla on Sunday.Barca’s lead in La Liga was cut to just five points over Real Madrid after the Spanish champions could only manage a point at Sevilla, though Lasa was in the spotlight for two decisions that potentially cost Guardiola’s side the game.Firstly, the referee disallowed an early Lionel Messi goal after ruling that Sergio Busquets had infringed at the free kick.Then, the referee waved away calls for a penalty in the second half after goal-scorer Bojan Krkic appeared to be felled in the area.But Guardiola did not wish to make any comment on the referee and said he was satisfied overall with Barcelona’s performance.”The referees always do their utmost,” Guardiola said.”I’m a representative of the institution Barcelona. I don’t want to talk about the disallowed goal of Messi.””A Barcelona coach doesn’t discuss the referee’s performance.””We put in a good performance against a great team. Maybe we deserved more than a draw after our first-half performance.””Sevilla improved after the break and showed their great mentality.””Overall I’m quite satisfied with how we played. We always try to control the game, but sometimes you face a strong opponent. We didn’t lose though and never stopped trying.”