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Ahead of the Game: ask our transfer expert a question

 

Who will be the biggest movers and shakers when the transfer window opens at midnight on January 1?

Will Chelsea finally make a move for Sergio Aguero despite the hugely talented Atletico Madrid striker's bloated wage demands? Sir Alex Ferguson might move to bolster his depleted defensive ranks while Rafael Benitez will be hoping for some spare cash to shore up his meagre attacking resources. And will cash-strapped West Ham and Portsmouth have any players left when the window slams shut at the end of the month?

All of these and more will be answered by our transfer expert Gary Jacob who will be here throughout the window's duration to field your queries in our Ahead of the Game bulletin.

Send Gary a question to aotg@thetimes.co.uk

Sign up for free here to get the full version of Ahead of the Games featuring the latest news, gossip and fun direct to your inbox every weekday lunchtime.

Debate: should Manchester United cash in on Nemanja Vidic?

Tim Meston

It looks increasingly likely that Nemanja Vidic will be playing for Real Madrid next season.

Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, is genuinely concerned that the 28-year-old defender's head has been turned by the idea of a move to the Continent and is unsure whether the offer of a lucrative new contract would be enough to persuade the Serbian to stay at Old Trafford.

Vidic's contract expires in June 2012 and the Premier League champions are expected to cash in on the player rather than let his contract run down. United would demand a fee of about £30 million for Vidic, but is sellling him the right decision?

Have your say.

The Rivals: Manchester United plan move for Hugo Lloris

Hugo's a £20m Fergie target - Daily Mirror
Manchester United want Hugo Lloris (right), the Lyons goalkeeper, to be Edwin van der Sar's long-term replacement.

Woe for Wenger as Bendtner suffers new setback - The Daily Telegraph
Arsenal's search for a new striker has intensified after Nicklas Bendtner was ruled out for a further three weeks with a groin problem.

Wild Rover - Daily Mail
Benni McCarthy says he wants to leave Blackburn to save his career. The South Africa striker is upset at being made to do extra fitness training: "I feel I'm being singled out unfairly."

Strachan Celtic bid - The Sun
The Middlesbrough manager is planning a £6 million triple raid on his old club for Stephen McManus, Barry Robson and Scott McDonald.

Franco Xmas chiller - Daily Star
Guillermo Franco has blamed the hectic Christmas fixture programme for West Ham's injury woes. "We have had two games in 48 hours and it is crazy," he said.

Harry's blasted by Bent - Daily Mirror
The Sunderland striker has put his prolific goal-scoring form down to playing regularly, something he says didn't happen at Tottenham under Harry Redknapp.

Managers as players, Villa wronged and what the heck is Cook saying?

Gabriele Marcotti

3. OK, so it's the silly season, why not have some fun. With the arrival of Roberto Mancini, it occurred to me that the 20 Premier League managers probably could put together a pretty decent six-a-side team.

Obviously, since they're all different ages you'd have to suspend disbelief to some degree and imagine them all at  the peak of their powers (Harry Redknapp was a very good winger, but he is in his sixties now).

But, if you can do that, a team of Mancini, Martin O'Neill, Alex McLeish, Carlo Ancelotti, Gianfranco Zola and Steve Bruce looks pretty good to me. Once you get to the second team things start getting ugly.

I'll take Mick McCarthy and Redknapp, Sir Alex has always claimed that he was better than people thought, Gary Megson was a useful midfielder, but then what?  Roberto Martinez? Sam Allardyce? Tony Pulis? It's all rather uninspiring.

The last guys to be picked, if we were choosing sides in the park, would be Roy Hodgson, Avram Grant, Rafa Benitez and Arsene Wenger I suppose.

Newcastle have found their soul in the Championship

George Caulkin

"The fate of peoples is made like this, two men in small rooms. Forget the coronations, the conclaves of cardinals, the pomp and processions. This is how the world changes." Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize winning novel.

Anything could have happened. In the maelstrom which followed their relegation, amid the uncertainty about their ownership and management, with staff being sacked and with players departing, Newcastle United felt like an untethered football club. No anchor, no base. When the first-team squad reassembled for pre-season training, they knew nothing and had been told less. They teetered on a precipice.

The previous few months had, in football terms, been horrific. Underachievement, poor decisions, upheaval in the dug-out, confusion and demotion; if you wanted a wish-list for excuses, this was it. Too many egos, not enough team-work, and every cough and criticism spluttered in the dressing-room had somehow found its way into the newspapers. A grand old club had been sapped of its dignity and vitality.

When Newcastle’s history is updated to include 2009, their annus horribilis, the summer meeting called by Chris Hughton will figure prominently. Granted, more than two men were present, but Cromwell’s words are otherwise apposite; as much as anything which took place on the pitch, those discussions set the club on a course which, as the year turns, leaves them six points clear at the top of the Coca-Cola Championship.

The rivals: Jose Mourinho plans return to Premier League

Mourinho: I'll be back - The Sun
The Inter Milan manager has revealed that he hopes to return to the Premier League, possibly as early as the summer. "I want to be back," he said. "I have always said the same - I love it here."

Redknapp finally set to land Portsmouth keeper - Daily Mirror
The Tottenham manager looks set to sign a goalkeeper from his former club in January but it is not David James. Instead Redknapp has targeted Asmir Begovic, 22, the club's second-choice Bosnian keeper.

Pul is hot for Scott - The Sun
Tony Pulis, the Stoke City manager, is preparing to make an ambitious £9million bid for the West Ham midfielder Scott Parker.

The Debate: what rule changes or innovations would you introduce to improve football in 2010?

 

Patrick Barclay

Halfway though the Birmingham City-Chelsea match on Saturday evening, the ESPN pundits were asked to debate a linesman’s decision to deny Christian Benítez a goal on the ground that the striker was offside as he tapped the ball in with Didier Drogba stretched motionless on the turf. Kevin Keegan said the goal should have stood; Matt Holland disagreed.

Keegan was right, because every relevant part of Benítez’s anatomy was level, at worst, with Drogba — never mind that he was behind the ball. The linesman, lacking the benefit of slow-motion and freeze-frame, might reasonably have suspected otherwise, but there should still have been doubt in his mind and therefore, according to the law, the attacker should have been given the benefit of the doubt.

Ten years on, it is time for John Terry to be made into an example

 

Oliver Kay

Boxing Day 1999. Leeds United were top of the Premier League table, with a vibrant young team full of British players, and Chelsea, lagging eight places and 17 points behind, had just made history with a 2-1 victory over Southampton at The Dell by becoming the first team in English league history to field an XI filled entirely by overseas players.

That Chelsea team in full: Ed de Goey, Albert Ferrer, Emerson Thome, Frank Leboeuf, Celestine Babayaro, Dan Petrescu, Didier Deschamps, Roberto Di Matteo, Gabriele Ambrosetti, Gustavo Poyet, Tore Andre Flo.

As The Times match report the next morning put it, “if it is not possible for the likes of Jon Harley and Jody Morris to get more than a few minutes at the end of the game, when the Chelsea squad is down to its bare bones, what hope is there for them?” Very little, as it transpired. Harley, regarded at the time as England’s most promising left back, has had a journeyman career and is now with Watford. Morris is enjoying a renaissance of sorts with St Johnstone after spells with Rotherham United and Millwall. Mark Nicholls, another of Chelsea’s substitutes at The Dell that day, has spent the past seven years at clubs as prestigious as Maidenhead United, Northwood (two spells) and Uxbridge. Now, at 32, he can be found at Beaconsfield SYCOB.

Tony Cascarino's Fiver: Villa need new striker

 

1 Arsenal title hopes rest on captain’s hamstring

It’s clear that Arsenal need a fit Cesc Fàbregas if they are going to challenge for the title but hamstring injuries are very tricky. The muscle only really gets tested in sprints so players can get through training by taking it easy but their hamstrings often “go” again when they try a burst of speed in a match.

2 Villa’s attack in need of missing link

Aston Villa didn’t offer nearly enough going forward yesterday against Arsenal. Martin O’Neill should consider adding another attacker next month. They’ve got pace, power and directness, but Villa could do with someone more subtle, a striker who is a link-man between the forwards and the midfield — someone like Eidur Gudjohnsen.

Weekend in numbers

Bill Edgar

12

Goals in eight Boxing Day fixtures: the lowest per-game ratio on December 26 in Premier League history

19

Top-flight matches without a clean sheet for Bolton Wanderers, going back to last season

33

Straight games in which Chelsea had scored before Saturday. Their previous goalless game was last April, in Barcelona

0

Competitive games lost by Arsenal when Cesc Fàbregas has scored

3

Attendances above 25,000 in Coca-Cola League One