There Is Only One Sinnacle

Happy New Year To All, Thanks for checking out this site.

Portsmouth have turned down a combined £30m bid from Tottenham for defender Glen Johnson and strikers Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe. (The Guardian)

Liverpool remain confident of bringing England right-back Glen Johnson to Anfield in January. (Daily Mail)

Silly season opens up in 24 hours and Portsmouth seem to be at the centre of the storm.

Spurs have had a bid of £9m rejected for Middlesbrough winger Stewart Downing, but will return with a bigger offer by the end of the week. (Daily Express)

With Adam Johnson waiting in the wings look for Middlesbrough to cash in on Downing once Tottenham comes up with their best offer.

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp is set to bring in former Liverpool right-back Steve Finnan from Espanyol. (Daily Express)

With Espanyol near the bottom of the table in Spain I’m sure Finnan wouldn’t mind a return to England. He’s also be a good short term replacement for the injured Alan Hutton.

Arsenal will bid £12m to sign Everton’s Spanish midfielder Mikel Arteta as a stand-in for the injured Cesc Fabregas, who is out for the next four months. (The Sun)

The only thing Arteta and Fabregas have in common is that there both Spanish. It wouldn’t be a like for like replacement. There is no denying Arteta class however and a move to Arsenal may finally see him crack the light of day with Spanish national team.

Manchester City manager Mark Hughes will bid £8m for Chelsea left-back Wayne Bridge, but will turn to Bayern Munich’s Philipp Lahm if the Blues refuse to sell. (Daily Express)

Never understood why Bridge decided to stay at Chelsea after they got Ashley Cole. Bridge is a good enough player to play week in and week out and just about any EPL side.

Another City target, Arsenal defender Kolo Toure, has demanded a move away from the Emirates after a bust-up with team-mate William Gallas. (Daily Star)

Despite Gallas goal on the weekend it should be him and not Toure that gets shown the door within the next six months. Toure has been a loyal Arsenal player where as Gallas has been nothing but a distraction for the last twelve months.

West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola will consider stepping down if stars are sold without his consent in January. (Daily Mirror)

I’d wish Zola luck finding another head coaching role if he walks away from West Ham. Most would say he only got this job cause of his name.

For those are you wondering the Euro Watch part of this website will return on Monday. I figure with the European leagues taking a break I’ll take a mini break myself.

Chelsea striker Didier Drogba has hinted that his future may not be at Stamford Bridge. (The Sun)

Drogba always say that every year and in the end his future will be away from Stamford Bridge but it will be on Chelsea terms not his.

Chelsea boss Luis Felipe Scolari is lining up a £10m bid for Marseille midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa. (Daily Mirror)

I’m no Business major but it doesn’t make a lot of sense for Marseille to sell a player for roughly the same money they bought him for over the summer. Besides it’s not exactly like Chelsea has had a lot of success with their last French signing of Florent Malouda.

Wigan themselves are interested in Liverpool winger Jermaine Pennant. (The Times)

I’d love to be at the press conference to hear Pennant explain why he turned down a move to Real Madrid in order to play for Wigan.

Arsenal are preparing a £8m bid for Newcastle keeper Shay Given. (Daily Express)

Another player Arsenal has always been linked with. Given could play goal for any team in the world which shows either how impressive or how curious his loyalty to Newcastle has been.

But Tottenham also want Given and could offer Gareth Bale as part of the deal. (Daily Express)

Press linking Tottenham and Arsenal again with the same player. I have all the respect in the world for Given but if Tottenham are willingly to part with Bale you make the deal.

Everton manager David Moyes is keen on Fiorentina striker Giampaolo Pazzini. (The Sun)

Pazzini is wasting away on the bench at Fiorentina and his 8 million euro price tag is within range for Everton to pull off.

Fulham face a three-way fight from Marseille, Paris St Germain and Borussia Monchengladbach for Standard Liege defender Oguchi Onyewu. (The Sun)

Onyewu found himself in a bad spot for Newcastle but with his contact coming to an end Onyewu should be a player many teams will have a look at.

Bolton manager Gary Megson is lining up West Ham defender Calum Davenport. (The Sun)

After his rant at being subbed look for Davenport to be shipped out in January.

- Yesterday was the first time I recall a goalie giving up five goals and still having a good game. If it wasn’t for Shay Given’s performance it could of easily been 7 or 8 goals scored by Liverpool.

- Good to see Canadian David Edgar score against Liverpool. Bad to see him play defence as he was horrid yesterday capped off by giving away a penalty.

- Portsmouth at home could be the cure to a lot of teams ills this season. Wasn’t pretty but Arsenal got it done which is all that matters.

- Make that three clean sheets in a row for a Everton team that has come together nicely since there heart breaking loss to Aston Villa.

- Scolari needs to find himself a set piece coach. Portugal’s weak point during his time was defending set pieces which Germany exploited and after a late Clint Dempsey header for Fulham it appears not much has changed with Chelsea.

- He may not do it for England but Frank Lampard sure does it for Chelsea. Without him Chelsea would of dropped all three points to Fulham.

- Is Harry Redknapp’s magic wearing off at Tottenham?

- Losing 2-0 against West Brom must have Redknapp working the phones looking for a striker once the transfer window opens up.

- You have to be some sort of idiot to do what Ricardo Fuller did. Trying to punch a team mate, getting red carded and having your team lose a valuable point is a player not worth having. This makes it two games in a row where a Stoke player got sent off for committing a silly foul.

- Mark Hughes must be feeling that luck is now starting to come his way after Manchester City came back from two down to split the points against Blackburn.

Liverpool Skipper Steven Gerrard Arrested
Apparently, just hours after an heroic performance, the Liverpool hero has had one of his darkest hours as a footballer and now finds himself in jail…

Article

Gerrard got arrested for assault, not exactly the type of distraction you want to be dealing with but still something that should blow over long term. Note to self, few good things can happen hanging out with a bunch of people in the middle of the night. Especially if you are a famous footballer.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will start his radical transfer-window surgery with a raid on Newcastle: keeper Shay Given and defenders Steven Taylor and Charles N’Zogbia are all targets. (News of the World)

Kind of surprised News of the World didn’t link Obafemi Martins with Arsenal as well. It seems every transfer window there is rumoured Arsenal interest in Martins.

Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill has warned Spanish giants Real Madrid not to try to poach his England winger Ashley Young. (News of the World)

That not exactly going to scare Real Madrid. If they really want Young they will do everything possible to sign him.

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp admits Tottenham are running third in a three-horse race to sign Jermain Defoe from Portsmouth, behind Aston Villa and Manchester City. (News of the World)

Out of principal if I was running Portsmouth the last place I’d sell a player to is Tottenham.

Liverpool are closing in on Portsmouth’s England defender Glen Johnson. The Reds could soon make a £9m bid for the right-back. (News of the World)

Would be double what Portsmouth spent on Glen Johnson when they purchased him from Chelsea last year. With Portsmouth looking to be sold other teams know that they will do Business if the price is right.

Manchester City are ready to start their new year spending with a £12m deal for Spain’s Euro 2008-winning midfielder Marcos Senna from Villarreal. (Daily Star Sunday)

The money is right but the timing is wrong.

It all comes down to this…..

England

Sinnacle -$50
D.G.F -$293.50

Spain

Sinnacle +36.50 Winner
D.G.F -$291.50

Germany

Sinnacle +$479.50 Winner
D.G.F -$525.50

Italy

Sinnacle +$1051.50 Winner – D.G.F threw in towel
D.G.F -$2154.50

England

Sinnacle

Manchester United- Middlesbrough over 2.5 -138
Arsenal-Portsmouth under 2.5 and 3 -107
Bolton-Wigan over 2 and 2.5 -110

D.G.F

West Ham United -137 vs Stoke
West Brom-Tottenham under 3 -187
Newcastle-Liverpool under 3 -205
Blackburn-Manchester City under 3 -181
Hull City team total under 1 -102

In football sometimes players play they way into a starting role. Ricky Sbragia coached his way into Sunderland’s top job with their results over the last month. This Sunderland team was on the rocks when Roy Keane took his ball and went home which goes to show just how great of a job Sbragia has done guiding the ship. Even after yesterday’s 0-0 draw at home against Blackburn once the players the week prior hijacked his BBC interview telling the higher ups at Sunderland to give him the job there was only one choice for the time being.

Celtic gained their revenge on Rangers after beating them at Celtic Park earlier this season by beating there rivals 1-0 at Ibrox Stadium. In what was a hard fought battle that wasn’t an example of the beautiful game but enjoyable none the less Scott McDonald’s strike at the 58th minute mark gave Celtic the lead on their first real scoring chance. From there they held on to capture a hard fought 1-0 victory which further separates the two teams in the SPL standings.

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp has persuaded chairman Daniel Levy to part with £15m for Middlesbrough winger Stewart Downing. (Daily Mail)

My question is if Downing is moving to Tottenham who is on the way out of Tottenham since that midfield is crowded already.

Spurs are also eyeing Manchester United number two goalkeeper Ben Foster, who could be persuaded to move from Old Trafford if Redknapp offers £20,000 a week in wages. (The Sun)

To be fair, Heurelho Gomes has played well in goal for Spurs the last month. With the transfer window opening Gomes may of done enough to keep his job going forward.

Unsettled Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz is the latest Premier League name to be linked with a move to Real Madrid. (The Sun)

Santa Cruz would suffer the same faith for Real Madrid as he did with Bayern Munich where he was nailed to the bench.

West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola is desperate to hang on to striker Craig Bellamy, who scored twice in West Ham’s 4-1 win over Portsmouth. (The Sun)

Bellamy is also the benefit of good timing with his two goal display yesterday as the shop window opens up.

Hull boss Phil Brown gave his own unique take on the reason why he gave his half-time team-talk on the pitch in his side’s 5-1 defeat by Manchester City on Boxing Day. He said: “I thought it was nice and cold and I wanted to keep them alive because they were looking dead.”

4-0 down at half on the heels of a 4-1 defeat last week was too much for Brown to stomach it appears.