Speed slams Archer

In a staggering report in the Daily Star this morning, Ipswich midfielder Gary Speed criticised manager Andrew Archers transfer policy.

Speed is quoted as saying, ' The signing of Saviola was a joke, everyone knows that we were in no need to sign a new striker the boss was wrong'

Archer claimed his transfer policy is none of Speed's business and that he should focus his attentions on training and pushing for a first team place.

The latest from Portman Road i that Speed has been put in the reserves and been transfer listed with immediate effect

Barnsley have today revealed that an agreement has been reached for highly rated Chelsea goalkeeper Lenny Pidgeley. The young England U-19 international will undergo a medical at Oakwell on Sunday afternoon and the deal looks set to be completed on monday morning, with Pidgeley joining up the first team squad for his first training session on Wednesday.

Pidgeley is regarded as being one of the most up and coming talents in England, but he was struggling to get off of the bench at Stamford Bridge and saw this as a perfect opportunity to further his career playing first team games week in week out.

Pidgeley joins fellow international Calvin Zola Makongo, 19, into the door at Oakwell and believes the club are really starting to bring in some quality fresh faces into the acadamy who are ultimately pushing for starting roles in the first team:

"I'm really happy to move to a club like Barnsley, it's a massive oppurtunity to prove what i'm all about and hopefully I will be able to secure a first team spot in the not too distant future. It's a pretty big club, even though the team is struggling some what at the moment, but hopefully I can help start to turn that around.

I will be sad to be leaving Chelsea, Paul Rice has been very good to me and gave me a bit of expierience traveling with the first team squad for a few games, and giving me pointers all through last seasons reserve matches, but I must look to the future and it is here with Barnsley. I would like to commit myself to this club deeply, and I feel this is emphasized in my desire to sign a 4 year deal with the club."

Barnsley manager Matt Walling spoke of his delight after netting the young keeper:

"I've been watching the lad for quite some time now, I try to get to a lot of the Barclaycard Reserve league matches and see if there is any decent youth coming through, and this lad really caught my eye, as did Calvin [Makongo] from Newcastle. I feel it important to acheive a level of balance between youth and expierience in a squad, and this is something that we have not had over the past couple of years, which could suggest a reason to do with our lack of progression, but now we feel we have a side that compete in both youth and expierience.

I'm also pleased to present the two third year acadamy scholars who have both been handed senior contracts over the past few weeks, they are Tom Baker and Marc Shackleton who if both carry on there progression will both be handed first team games."

Speaking of the season so far, Walling had this to say:

"Well, things haven't gone as planned, that is for sure, the coaching staff and I are not trying to get on the backs of the players, we're just taking each game as it comes. I must say that I am disappointed that we haven't got a goal out of our new look strike partnership but I am just taking it as teething problems. The board have spoken to me and said they still fully support my ability as manager, which is a huge boost."

"It is importantant at this time to just keep going and don't let the results get you down, there is still plenty of time to push up the league and challenge with the big boys. I'm going to make sure we never give up in any game, and just as long as the lads all put in as good a performance as they possibly can then that is all I can ask."

Leeds boss Matt shepherd has made his first signing. Talks with Tottenham boss went on for a few days but a signing was finaly made. Leeds got kirkland and 12million for toldo and nedved. It is belived that kirkland will soon take over from Kahn

NEDVED SIGNS FOR SPURS

The Tottenham Hotspur Board today announced the arrival of Pavel Nedved to the club. A fee of £12M was agreed with Leeds, along with Chris Kirkland which allowed Francesco Toldo to come in the other direction.

When asked about the transfer, manager Edward Tomlin had this to say: "Well I'm really pleased with the deal, fantastic. I didn't think we were going to get him, but eventually we worked something out and he's here. There's always deals to be done. Hopefully I can get a couple more players in, as after the Liverpool game it's clear the squad needs a bit more work in order to become competitive with the bit of money I've got left."

The Nedved deal comes after Tomlin's initial moves to improve the squad after taking control of the team last week, with Hakan Sukur, Benito Carbone and a £2M fee arriving for Saviola and the sale of young French striker Pongolle for £5.5M.

Latest News from Villa Park

H_Crespo is no longer for sale despite renewed interest from Sheffield Wednesday, the player in question is indespensible to my squad and we wouldnt be in the position we are in if it wasnt for his 6 goals in the 2 games so far.

He has had a total of 7 shots and produced 6 goals and is linking up magnificantly with strike partner G_Batistuta. The season is proving more successful than last season already having taking part in the relegation battle at the foot of the premiership last season.

I'm looking to add 1 more big signing in the near future just to complement the rest of the players in the team and then i believe the squad we have is good enough to stay where they are or there abouts for the remainder of the season.

Craig Johnson <Aston Villa>

18th July 2003

Sheffield Wednesday manager Joe Davies has been branded a few things in the past week.

'Roman Abromovich', 'Money-Bags', 'The Money Monster' and 'Richie Rich'.

But this week saw him saw him lose in memorable fashion, 6-2 to last years main rivals Man City and has now gained a new name which rounds him up quite wonderfully........... 'IDIOT!!!'

He had this to say...... 'I like pizza'

Wise words as always from the man who spent £83million in one week. Congratulations Joe, you are an idiot!

Saviola signs

Andrew Archer last night revealed that long term transfer target Javier Saviola had finally agreed a deal at Portman road. Archer said he was delighted to finally get his man and that he was excited at the prospect of Saviola and fellow new boy Helder Postiga up front

However Archer admitted he was disappointed to see Hakan Sukur moving the other way but he said there was no option after the players plea for premier league football

Nottingham Forest have finally given up hope of signing Tottenham's Argentinian striker J_Saviola.

Manager Adam Pyke has been tracking the 22 year olds progress for over a season now and looks set to lose him to Division 2 side Ipswich.

He said today "I've been after the young lad for a while now but their former manager would not return our calls or respond to E-Mails so we had given up hope, we were then informed 2 days ago by his (Saviola's) agent that he was available for transfer."

It was then reported that Mr. Pyke made a substantial offer said to be in the region of £10 million but it was rejected by the Tottenham board.

Forest are now scouring the transfer market for a new striker.

Theres a 50,000 missing from the coffers at Ewood Park and investigations have already began to track down and kick the bastard out of Blackburn staff. The news emerged when the updated finaces arrived from KO headquarters and Ewood supremo Päärn Volk found out that his team are still in need of 50,000 to get out of red. This left the manager fuming as he was heard saying: "Ive been workin my ass off to get the club out of debt and then some bastard decides to pull this trick on me. No way will I tolerate such behaviour and the first person who brings the fucker to me will be rewarded with a friendly pat on back and will also have the pleasure seeing the bastard hang from one of the Ewood stands for absolutely free. Though at the moment I cant say which stand it will be as we are considering all the options how to serve this spectacle to as many people as possible. COME ON ROVERS!!"

In a post match interview with Sky Sports, Marcus Stewart spoke about life at the City of Manchester Stadium after his recent move from Arsenal. " I was well pleased to score on my debut, it was a vital goal and I really feel I can forge a strong partnership with Lee Hughes. It was great to go to Stamford Bridge and prevent them from winning, the lads here are confident for a successful season after having snatched the title away from Wednesday on the last day of the season. The players are pumped about facing the Owls in the next match. Our season will really click into gear once we've played a game at the fantastic CoMS."

At a press conference after the recent draw against Chelsea, Manchester City FC proudly unveiled Willy Sagnol a 15million pound signing from Bayern Munchen. "I felt that with the increased quality of forwards we'll be facing this season I wanted a bit of extra security at the back. I wanted someone who would slip under the radar of Joe "Moneymonster" Davies. I think it was worth paying that little bit extra to make sure we got the player. The financial situation of this club is secure but we may have to tighten our belts in the coming months."

After the 1-1 draw away to Chelsea the Man City boss was delighted with his teams effort. "Arguably we've just played our most difficult game of the season and come out with a very creditable draw. I'll even claim the moral victory since everyone had written us off against them." Thompson also hit back at criticism from certain football journos, that he was being too defensive minded. "Fuck 'em! They're not paid to be in charge of the team. Anyway they're just asskissing the allstars of Chelsea."

Nottingham Forest scouts have been sent to Brazil by manager Adam Pyke to try and uncover some fresh raw talent to bring to England.

Earlier reports suggested that Pyke was interested in Kaka and Kleberson but he has denied the claim in an interview at the Forest training ground this morning.

"We've made enquiries about Kaka and Kleberson but they would command a very high fee and would want gastronomicaal wages so we are now looking for some younger players who we can bring on trail for free."

He has already sent scouts to Australia, Sweeden and Portugal but they havent found any players who fit the bill.

"We will keep looking, we have many agents getting in contact with us recommending players, if we think they have any kind of potential, we will take a good long look at him to see if he could become a forest player in the future."

Forest face Blackburn at Ewood Park this weekend, they have reported no fitness worries ahead of the fixture.

Nottingham Forest boss Adam Pyke has named tough tackling midfielder N_Montgomery club captain for the coming season.

Speaking in a press conference, the midfielder said "It's a great honout to be named club captain and I didn't have to think twice about accepting the offer, it's the highlight of my career so far."

The captaincy has been taken away from M_Silvestre as he was unlucky with suspensions and injury for most of last season.

Pyke said "Mikeal was a very good captain for this club last season but unfortunatly he didn't have much luck with injuries last season and I felt Nicky would be the perfect replacement."

Another press conference lol

with the season just a week old there was another press conference at molineux, it took the press by surprise, wolves announced the signing of french international Christian Duggarry fron Bordeux for 10 million, imc was delighted with the signing Quoting " we have needed to beef up the front line, Pierre scored alot of goals last season but we relied to heavily on him, Christian will add a new dimension and more options whether playing up front or from midfield.

Press conference at Molineux

a hastily arranged press conference was arranged early this morning as rumours circulated that wolves had dug deep into the transfer coffers to sign Australian international Brett Emerton, wolves manager imc was delighted that Brett had signed for wolves and was quoted " we have been on the look out for a quality midfielder who can score goals and I think we have found that in Brett, he impressed me with his "Rolf Harris" impression and thats the reason we signed him!!!!!!!

Sunderland unveil new signings.

Today saw the fifth and possibly last addition to a new look Sunderland squad.

After taking control at in the latter stages of last season Jamie Kellett knew that to push for top flight football next season some ruthless changes needed to be made.

First out was Sunderland legend Kevin Phillips who was looking to end his career with a new challenge elsewhere.

That deal saw Alpay and speedy welsh international Craig Bellamy slip straight into Phillips' boots.

Steffan Postma came across from premiership Arsenal to take a place as cover for Tommy Sorrensson.

Then finally today Kellett laid out 15 million to cash strapped Blackburn Rovers and acquired the signatures of both, the experienced Turkish and ex Rangers midfielder Tugay and promising solid defender Dunne.

After the first games initial disappointment that saw Bellamy score on his debut but still end up on an unfortunate losing side these new signings add a new dimension to an already formidable team.

With the right judgement and statistical prowess Kellett's team could end up in the top league next season. Who knows maybe silverware could come early in one of the cups.

Happy times are back at Ewood Park after Rovers's brilliant manager Päärn Volk managed to get his team out of debt only few days after going 23.5 mil into red after hugely over-ambitious wander into the transfer market. He had to sell on one of the players he got on the T-list bidding and also had to let go several other first teamers. But in the end didn't lose much talent-wise as he got few talented lads in return and now hopes to mount a serious challenge for title after a dismal 4-1 drubbing in the hands of Aston Villa. COME ON ROVERS!!

Jermaine Pennant's mission break into the ranks of the Arsenal first-team began with a brilliant performance for the Arsenal reserves on Tuesday night. The 20 year-old attacking midfielder showed that his boots are not his only asset with a massive throw in that was belted in the back netting for the first goal of the match. Pennant remained active in the midfield, content to allow team mate and fellow future first-teamer, Shola Ameobi, a pick up from Newcastle last season, to notch two goals on his mission to catch Frail's eye. Along with Landon Donovan, the trio seek to provide the once aging Gunners with some fresh blood for the future. Stuart Taylor performed well between the pipes and has been called up to back up Jerzy Dudek with Stefan Postma's move to Sunderland on a season-long loan.

All in all the 3-1 result that favored the home side Gunners capped a brilliant weekend for the club that is not expected to fair too well this season. However, if performances such as those from the reserves Tuesday night, and those of the first-team this past weekend become the norm and not an anomoly, Arsenal could be in that unexpected position near the top of the table again this season, with renewed depth to possibly hold on down the stretch rather than fade. Frail is eager to have more players than he knows where to field, saying, "It's a problem I could certainly learn to live with, indeed!"

Harry Kewell must have heard the rumours of his possible sale to Newcastle in the off-season as he made every effort to prove to Arsenal boss Gabe Frail that he did not make a mistake in keeping the Australian international. Although not the most dynamic player on the day, Kewell freed up Brazilian sniper Ronaldinho for a much needed equalizer and found net himself in the second half of Arsenal's opening match.

Arsenal took a risk in losing talent to land Kewell and it had seemed in the off season that his value to the club would be in trade rather than action. Talks between the Gunners and more that one club but specifically Newcastle seemed to indicate that Kewell was destined to ply his craft on grounds other than Highbury. However, a equittable deal between Frail and Newcastle manager Birch never materialized and Frail instead decided to bring Landon Donovan back to Highbury and send Marcus Stewart packing. Stewart failed to impress in his brief stint with the club and Frail made no secret of his pain at sending Donovan away and of his desire to retain him.

This deal essentially solidified Kewell's position with the club, as the focus of negotiations were now towards the defensive side, and Kewell thus far has proven his worth to Frail in the offense. His return to Elland Road should be an affair in which Frail will once again call upon Kewell to create scoring chances for himself and his teammates as Leeds has proven themselves more of a contender in the Premiership than had been thought before the weekend.

Arsenal unveiled a new look on the opening weekend with a 4-1 romp over Fulham in a style that the Gunners faithful have not seen for some time. Most of last season was marked by braces from Ronaldinho with the occasional contribution from a supporting striker or midfielder. Ronaldinho was only one of the 4 Arsenal hit men to find the back of the netting in this match.

Ronaldinho starting things off providing an equalizer to Raul's early strike for Fulham in the first half. The second half saw Arsenal put on a display of depth as Marcus van Bommel and Harry Kewell both struck from there midfield positions in a two-minute rush, with a final contribution from wing back Wilfred Bouma five minutes later.

Bouma had made the match his own well before hitting the final Gunner goal with spectacular play all over the pitch. One has to feel that the fate of the Gunners this season relies heavily on the efforts of the Dutch defensive midfielder, who has apparently embraced his role of play-maker that Arsenal boss Frail brought him to Highbury for in the first place.

It is certain that Frail will need a similar multi-faceted effort from his crew as they travel to Elland Road to take on Leeds, who made the biggest statement of the young season in blanking title favourites Liverpool in stellar fashion.

15th July 2003

Arsenal FC were pleased to reveal the transfer completion of Croatian wing back Igor Tudor on a fairly hefty transfer fee. The Gunners were reportedly in the hunt for a defensive midfielder or a defender, but the signature of Tudor caught even manager Frail by surprise.

"20 million may seem like a high transfer fee but Igor is a prize catch to fill one of the final pieces of the puzzle for the squad we are trying to assemble. His presence not only provides us with the aditional defensive strength but frees up talents like Wilfred Bouma to add to his array of talents as he did on the weekend."

Frail also indicated that he didn't consider the transfer market close for the Gunners.

"I think the team we have now can do well but I wouldn't mind adding another offensive weapon, even as a reserve. Although this is not a must just yet. It will take time to feel out our weak areas, but I think we are well fit for the moment. Any major move might mean too many sacrifices and that would be a deal that will probably take a while to develop. However, you never know..."

Nottingham Forest started off the new season with a dull 2-2 draw at home to Sheffield United.

In a dour first 45, Forest created more of the chances but only punished slack defending once when L_Chadwick set up J_Lester with a superb ball, Lester didn't even break stride as he hammered the ball into the top corner past Spainiard I_Casillas.

Forest were caught on the break 4 minutes later as United favourite D_Granville scored after a defensive mixup bettween Silvinho and L_Bronby.

United didn't have to wait long before the went into the lead, B_Goldbaek scored with a stunning volley after being set up by Granville.

Fuming boss Adam Pyke was sent to the stands after an argument with the fourth official about United second goal and a touchline ban looks like it's on it's way to the City ground.

2 minutes before half time, Forest got back into the game, R_Page made a hash of a backpass which went past Casillas who slipped trying to change his direction to get to the ball, and it trickled over the goal line.

The second half was less eventful with both teams cancelling each other out.

15th July 2003

After months of speculation as to his future, J_Hjelde has finally left Nottingham Forest to join Ipswich.

The 'Tractor Boys' paid Forest £4 million, a fee which Adam Pyke is more than happy with.

"Towards the end of last season, we agreed a deal with Matt Walling at Barnsley which he subsequently went back on, Jon was ready to leave and he was devastated when he heard that the deal had fallen through, it's just one of those things."

Forest are in a very healthy financial position now but Mr. Pyke has stressed that there is no need to buy any players at the present time.

"We will not buy for buyings sake, we already have a squad that I'm happy with, if we do decide to bring in a new player or two, we will only invest in players who want to play for Forest and have potential."

More news as it comes.

15th July 2003

Wolves press conference

Following the match against Watford on Saturday wolves manager ian mcnaughton was asked about the the standard of refereeing during the game, imc reply was quite scathing "yet again we have lost 2 points due to a poor decision by the referee, its decisions like this that could cost me my job if we don't have a good season, there was no way it was a penalty and considering we played virtually the whole game with 10 men when McCann got sent off early on it was a kick in the teeth when Watford were awarded a penalty late on, now lads you must excuse me I've gotta do a dump in the ref's loo and don't ask me to flush the toilet either!!!!

15th July 2003

Coventry Manager, Sean Mckeown, was left gutted this weekend, when he found out that 1 more million would of captured the signature of W Rooney. " I decided before the transfer window re-opened, that i would be mounting a serious bid for a world class striker, and W ayne took my fancy. Id seen him playing in the Reserves for Everton on numerous occasions, and thought he would do a job for us. The annoying thing is, that we did have the money to buy him, but we just missed out '. Since his weekend transfer to Newcastle, it seems, he could not settle and has already moved onto Sheff Wed.

" Im in no rush to spend my money, ive learnt the hard way, from my time at Ipswich, not to rush into any transfers. I want a player for the long term, and not just a short term fix. "

This Weekend Coventry won 4-1 against a lacklustre Bradford, with none of the forwards getting on the scoresheet. With the kind of service they will be getting from the Midfield, it seems Coventry need a forward who will be able to put away their chances.

Toon boss Matt Birch put behind him the disappointment of an opening day defeat at Old Trafford when welcoming in three new signings.

Birch "Well I'm not too worried about that game. Obviously it would have been good to pick up a point against the Premiership favourites but our game plan was destroyed by two bad injuries. Having planned to keep their two big strikers out for 63 minutes the plan was to switch tact's and bring on Shearer, Quinn and The Goat and pound their keeper for the last half hour. Bad gamble on my part as our keeper and star mid went down in the first half and Big Al didn't even get on the pitch.

But having said all that it's not the end of the world, we started last season with defeat at Old Trafford and look what happened then !!!

The major news of the week is that I have finally finished building the Newcastle squad. We have just signed Zola, Abbiati and Hamann who will all be first team regulars. We needed the midfielders as was highlighted on Saturday having played 9 rated Dinning for the full 90 minutes. Abbiati was a bargain buy and goes straight into the first team... I wasn't even looking for a keeper, having Richard Wright and Paul Robinson on the books already so competition for the number one jersey will be fierce.

I think if you look at the squad that won the title last year, compared to the squad we have now you will notice an improvement in the standard of the first eleven but the main thing is the strength in depth we have now. We never had much backup last season but now we have the strongest squad in the league, especially considering the versatility of players like Bridge, Lucio, Domi and Ortega. This should also stand us in good stead for the two cup's as this is a squad capable of sustaining three challenges for silverware, where you saw Newcastle lose in the semis of the cup in the last two seasons.

The Future's Bright, The Future's Black & White"

Nottingham Forest boss Adam Pyke made his teams aim for the season to avoid relegation after the leagues were re-structured.

“On paper, we are the weakest team in the division but that doesn’t mean we can’t surprise a lot of sides and pull some results out of the bag.”

“We are still looking to add to the squad but at this present moment in time, I havent found any suitable players to bring in.”

Forest have been tipped by many for relegation but weather that happens remains to be seen.

“If we survive this season, you can guarantee that I will hit McCluskies with the rest of the squad and get totally hammered, woah - Deja vu!”

11th July 2003

Just prior to the kick off to the new season, Bradford City manager Richard Kellett spoke to the press about his aspirations for their chances in the newly formed 2nd division.

" I believe that with the advent of the new set up, we will find the games are a lot tighter, and hopefully by the end of the season we will be competing for honours at the top of the league.

I've been in charge for just over a season now and I think you will agree we have had a steady improvement over that time. Last season we were difficult to beat, but our problem was in scoring goals, I think in the old division one we had the second best defensive record but the lowest number of goals scored, which highlights our problem. A lot of changes to the playing staff have taken place over the close season, not least the arrival of Neilson and Keane a completely new forward line who will hopefully provide the goals we were lacking last season. Hughes and Wise have arrived and will be providing the backbone of our midfield, if Wise plays as well as he did whilst he was on loan earlier last season we should do OK in that department, and even though Mettomo arrived from Newcastle in the latter stages of last season he had a long spell out injured, so his return can only improve our defense.

Our first game is against one of the pre season favourites in Coventry and hopefully we can put in a decent performance, which will show the teams intentions for the rest of the season"

Wimbledon fans today celebrated the first major signing of the season bringing super striker Kevin Phillips in from Sunderland in a part exchange deal. Speaking to Kick Off News manager Mike Overill expressed his delight at such a major coup:

"I'm absolutely over the moon, when I took over the club we were a bottom half div one side, now we're up at the top with the big boys due in much part to an incredible last season."

"I'm sad to see Bellamy leave the club, he was a big influence last year, but the only other option was letting Saha go, and those who know me will know that ain't happening."

The deal also saw Alpay leave the club but Overill did not seem to bothered by this, and in fact had some scathing comments.

"Alpay is a quality player, if the guy could go even one bloody game without getting suspended, the guy is a moron, Vinnie and Dennis had better disciplinary records at the club. So no I'm not sad to see in go, in fact I'm delighted I finally got rid of the w*****r."

6th July 2003

Archer Planning Striker Signing

Ipswich manager Andrew Archer admitted last night that he was interested in bringing a top striker to Portman Road. In an inerview with Sky Sports News Archer said:

"Its no secret that we are lacking firepower, which i believe was the reason for our relegation last season, so im looking for a 20goal striker to partenar Hakan up front"

The bid in question is believed to be either £10m Helder Postiga of FC Porto or£ 12m J_Saviola of Tottenham although Archer would neither confirm nor deny these rumours.