Flying Kiwis – February 3
Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)
Well, there ya go folks. Despite the all the noise from the morons with voices, Winston Reid remains a Hammer for the rest of the season, just as predicted in these pages. There was a rumour that Liverpool were preparing a bid of, like, £7m - which turned out to be every bit as bollocks as it sounded. Where do people come up with this? Are there professional trolls out there feeding ridiculous ideas to gullible journalists? Or do the tabloids just make it up themselves to sell papers? Gotta do something to arrest the decline of the printed word, maybe.
The other rumour on Deadline Day was that Winston would be swapped with Sylvain Distin of Everton. Given that Distin is 37 and Reid only 26, that seemed unlikely.
West Ham did have a few late moves in the works, as promised by Chairman David Gold, but he turned out to be a big ol’ tease.
There are more substantial rumours that Winston Reid has agreed to join Tottenham in the English summer when his contract expires, which sounds like a solid fit. £60,000 a week if the tabloid rags are to be believed. Spurs apparently made an approach last summer (for whatever that’s worth). Of course, he cannot have an actual deal in place, nor even a pre-contract, given that he’s strictly not supposed to be dealing with other Premier League clubs while under contract. Sam Allardyce hinted at (/accused various parties of) tapping up a few weeks back and if something legit has been agreed then this is exactly what he suggested. But that’s old news.
This Spurs story comes from the old standard: “Sources close to the deal”. Which could be anybody from a player’s agent to a waitress in a coffee shop that overheard something to graffiti in the bathroom stalls at Upton Park. So basically, don’t put all your eggs in this basket, Spurs fans.
On the field, things are looking stretched at the back for West Ham, so lucky for Winston Reid still being there. James Tomkins missed the game at Anfield against Liverpool with injury as did usual right back Carl Jenkinson, and James Collins would have come off hurt at half time due to a hamstring tweak… but they didn’t have a replacement ready. Eventually fullback Guy Demel came in for Collins, who had been strapped up and played a further 20 or so minutes. But it meant playing deeper to protect his even-more-limited-than-usual mobility and it gave Raheem Sterling too much room to work in. The lil guy scored broke the deadline in the 51st minute having generally been a complete handful all game. Like, for example, what he does to Winny here.
Oh, dear God. That’s brutality.
Daniel Sturridge then sealed the game with a late goal having made his return to the team off the bench. A perfect first touch and a fine finish, everything Liverpool had been missing. West Ham lot 2-0, another loss against a big team following defeats to Chelsea and Arsenal over the Christmas/New Years period. Granted, they did beat Liverpool and City at home earlier in the year.
Up Next: Manchester United come to town, 5.15am Monday (NZT)
Chris Wood – Leicester City (English Premier League)
The word is that Chris Wood will miss two to three weeks with ankle ligament damage, which he picked up last week in training, as confirmed by manager Nigel Pearson. That probably means that any chance of a transfer away from Leicester is dead, given he’s not passing any medicals. Sheffield Wednesday’s manager was the latest to speak of his admiration for the All Whites striker, but Nigel Pearson doesn’t wanna weaken his squad in any way, and that filters down to injured, fifth choice strikers too.
Without Woody in contention, Leicester faced Manchester United at Old Trafford. United scored three times in the first half (one an own goal by Wes Morgan) and killed it off in the second half. No big comeback this time, just a loss that keeps them at the bottom of the table. 3-1 was the final score.
Still, they picked up Stoke defender Robert Huth on loan and they’re playing with more confidence these days. A win next week and they can climb all the way out of the relegation zone, it’s that close.
Up Next: Crystal Palace at home, 4am Sunday (NZT)
Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)
A slight slip-up for Ipswich this week after losing last week too.
Top scorer Daryl Murphy was ruled out of the trip to Wigan. In his place started Irish duo Dave McGoldrick and Noel Hunt (Murphy’s an Irishman too, actually), a pair of guys whose style of play really doesn’t fit the target man thing that Ipswich went for. Hunt’s mostly a midfielder anyway. Meanwhile Wigan are scrapping for Championship survival, having lost several key players over the last few years. So what unfolded was quite possibly the most boring game ever played. There were 4 shots on target in total. Neither keeper had much to do. Eventually, mercifully, the game finished 0-0.
Mick McCarthy is a true proponent of the Win-At-Home, Draw-Away strategy so he was happy enough with the result, although it does see Ipswich slip to fourth after the top trio of teams all won. But McCarthy won the Championship with Watford a few years back despite an 11-game streak with only one win. And his case now is helped plenty by the fact that no team is running away with it, as Chris Wood’s Leicester City did last season.
Tommy Smith picked up a yellow card and a clean sheet.
Up Next: 4am on Sunday, Ipswich head to 20th placed Rotherham (NZT)
Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)
Zwolle kept pace with all their rivals near the top of the table with a win this weekend. PSV Eindhoven, unbeaten in 13 league games, are running away with it, and Ajax in second have a little buffer between them and third. But form third through sixth there is only a four point split. All four of those teams won this week.
Zwolle travelled to middling Utrecht. Ryan Thomas started up front, a rare change from his usual right wing position. Speaking of odd selections, Utrecht had their own one with Anouar Kali selected to start despite breaking a teammate’s jaw midweek in a fight on the training pitch.
It was a sloppy game by Zwolle, losing the ball too often and falling back upon long balls. The home side dominated possession but their finishing was slack. Five minutes before half time, a goalkeeping error gave Zwolle defender Thomas Lam a gifted opener, 1-0 to Zwolle. Utrecht were still the better team after the break but couldn’t turn it into goals and with ten to play, Stefan Nijland (who had come on for Ryan Thomas up front) finished things off with a second goal. 2-0, final whistle.
The change in position didn’t alter much for Thomas in his approach, it just meant he was more central and slightly further forward, with less space. His touches were down but he did manage a shot on target, though he was definitely sloppy and gave the ball away too many times. But it was very interesting to see him used in a different position after he’d been a regular on that right wing. Something to watch in the future, possibly even an option for the All Whites?
Up Next: Thursday morning at home to FC Dordrecht, 7.45am (NZT)
Marco Rojas – FC Thun (Swiss Super League)
The friendly-stacked winter is over for Rojas and Thun. They polished off their final friendly with a 1-0 win over Servette of the Swiss second division. Not much else. The league kicks off again next week.
Up Next: The first opportunity for Rojas in the Swiss Super League, 1.45am next Monday vs Aarau (NZT)