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North East fans yearn for success, they don't expect it

George Caulkin

Expectation. In the context of North East football, how annoying, cliched and utterly misplaced, is that single word? You hear it all the time, often from the lips of tired, beaten managers, getting in their excuses for another failure, another pay-off: “The expectations are so high, too high, up there.” Well, no. They’re not. Quite the opposite. Amongst most supporters, expectations slumber in a long hibernation.

Over the last half-century and more, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United and Sunderland have won a meaningful trophy apiece; respectively the League Cup, the Fairs Cup and the FA Cup. If there is any expectation, it is of ultimate disappointment. Manchester United and Chelsea fans may expect to win things, but in our region, history and precedent simply do not allow that luxury.

The Rivals: Gattuso lines up transfer window move to Manchester City

Take Gatt - Daily Mirror
Italian hard man Rino Gattuso is ready to quit AC Milan - and expects to sign for Manchester City in the transfer window.

Outcast Roman's rescue me plea - Daily Mirror
Spurs striker Roman Pavlyuchenko yesterday gave up on his bid to get back into favour with Harry Redknapp.

Chelsea in sight of a £50m deal for Aguero - Daily Mail
Chelsea are closing in on a deal for Sergio Aguero from Atletico Madrid which could be worth £50million - and make the Argentina striker the highest-paid player in the Barclays Premier League.

Let me have Hammers for free! - The Sun
David Sullivan has demanded a FREE 50 per cent stake in West Ham - in return for saving the club.

City forced to do more homework - Daily Express
Manchester City received a double transfer snub from Yaya Toure and Edin Dzeko to underline why they will invest heavily in a long-term plan to develop home-grown talent.

Sparky uses Pet as Bentley bait - Daily Star
Mark Hughes is ready to save David Bentley from his Spurs nightmare with an £8 million bid - and send Martin Petrov to White Hart Lane as part of the deal.

Middlesbrough a major comedown for 'stressed out' Strachan

Graham Spiers

Middlesbrough FC for Gordon Strachan? Strange choice of club by the former Celtic manager. I find myself in the highly unusual position, writing from a Scottish perspective of English football rather than the other way round, of being able to say, what a comedown for the former SPL manager. Middlesbrough are less than half the size of Celtic - in esteem, in history, in fan-base, in size of stadium, in size of crowds - so it all adds up to a very odd choice.

By the way, this isn't just my own vacuous opinion. This view, for large periods of the past four years, appeared to be Strachan's own opinion, too. On numerous occasions he stated that, if or when he returned to England after Celtic, he would want to go to a big club, and not one forever mired in the survival stakes of the Barclays Premier League.

In fact, here is Strachan verbatim on the subject when I interviewed him for The Times 18 months ago. "To be honest I'd had my fill of trying to keep clubs up [in England], of trying to stave off relegation," he said. "It’s like I had the pack-drill for that: same tactics, same motivation, the same desperate survival plans. I had years of it at Coventry and it can be very stressful. I don't want to do any of that any more."

So when you go back down south, I asked him, it will be to avoid all of that? "Yeah ... I don’t miss all that fighting against relegation," Strachan said. "I’ve been there, done it, and it was stressful work. Unless you are with the big four in England, there is only so high you can go."

The Rivals: Everton and Chelsea in race for £6m Adam Johnson

Moyes in race for Johnson - Daily Mirror
The Everton manager had made a personal check on £6million-rated Adam Johnson as he prepares to launch a January bid for the Middlesbrough winger. Johnson is out-of-contract next summer but will be able to sign a pre-contract deal with any club from January.Chelsea are also reported to be interested in the winger.

Is it a deal? Don't ask Ashley - Daily Mail
Mike Ashley's sale of Newcastle reached new farcical levels over the weekend with the owner - having given the impression he would finally accept the reduced offer of £80million from long-time prospective buyer Barry Moat - delaying his decision yet again.

New boss Strach eyeing Smithies - Daily Mirror
Gordon Strachan, the soon to be Middlesbrough manager, will put Huddersfield goalkeeper Alex Smithies at the top of his hit-list when he takes over at the Riverside.

Lions vow to ban yob - The Sun
Millwall have vowed to ban for life the fan who taunted Leeds United supporters by wearing a Galatasaray shirt during Saturday's League One match. Two Leeds fans were stabbed to death the day before the Uefa Cup semi-final against the Turkish club in 2000.

Red Bulls going Beck for Henry - Daily Mirror
Thierry Henry, the former Arsenal striker, is a target for Major League Soccer side New York Red Bulls. Manchester City are also thought to be interested in the player.

Expect Rafael Benitez to point finger at England

Matt Hughes

In the unlikely event that Rafael Benitez loses his job over the next few weeks – with the ink on a five-year contract barely dry, Liverpool cannot afford to sack him even if they wanted to – the Spaniard could be forgiven for taking out his displeasure on Fabio Capello. The pair have a difficult history, which will only have been exacerbated by the injury Steven Gerrard sustained on international duty two weeks ago. That has denied Liverpool of their captain during a crucial period in the season. The time-honoured club v country row is set to re-surface.

Benitez was relatively relaxed when Gerrard withdrew from England’s squad to face Belarus last week with a groin problem, but his attitude will have changed considerably in the intervening eight days. The 29-year-old missed Liverpool’s Premier League defeat by Sunderland at the weekend and could manage only the first 25 minutes of their Champions League loss to Lyons before hobbling off on Tuesday, which has left him struggling to face Manchester United at Anfield on Sunday. Without their inspirational midfield player Liverpool have slumped to successive defeats. If they break an unwanted 56-year record of five straight losses on Sunday, their Premier League title hopes will effectively be over for another season.

North East football: a three-month report

George Caulkin

International week. For clubs and supporters alike, an opportunity to sit back and reflect (cliche alert - why? Why can’t we do star jumps and reflect?) on the first three months of the season and consider the tribulations which might lie ahead. In the lack of any grand theme to get our teeth into, this column is getting in on the act: this week, a scattergun approach to North East football.

I love Kevin Keegan, love him

George Caulkin

I love Kevin Keegan, love him. I don’t love him because he has been attempting to wrest compensation from Newcastle United and I certainly don’t love him because I’ve got a Messiah complex (and it would be greatly appreciated if somebody, anybody, took notice of that). I don’t love him because he left the club at a difficult moment a year ago, nor do I love him because he has held his tongue since doing so.

Before anyone gets any funny ideas, I love other football people, too. 

In no particular order, I love Niall Quinn, Steve Gibson and I ****ing love Peter Reid. I desperately love Sir Bobby Robson, I love Alan Shearer and I’ve got a feeling that I’m going to love Steve Bruce and Darren Bent. I’m pretty damn keen on Steve Harper and Gareth Southgate. I love Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough. I love my home.

The Rivals: Manchester United close in on Napoli midfielder

Ferguson moves for Napoli midfielder - Daily Star
Manchester United could make an £8m move for Marek Hamsik, the Serie A club's Slovakian midfielder.

United escape punishment over Fornasier - Daily Telegraph
Manchester United look set to avoid a Fifa investigation over their attempted recruitment of Michele Fornasier, the Fiorentina teenager.

Tottenham to reprise Ferdinand deal - Daily Mirror
Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, is lining up a move for Anton Ferdinand, the Sunderland defender, when the transfer window reopens in January.

Redknapp plans Spanish invasion - Daily Mirror
Tottenham are also tracking Pedro Mba Obiang, Sampdoria's Spanish midfielder.

Everton line up super Simeon - The Sun
David Moyes is planning a January move for Gillingham's 22-year-old striker Simeon Jackson.

Vokes sent to Coventry - The Sun
The Wolverhampton Wanderers striker will join the Championship club on loan.

Victory for Middlesbrough means far more than three points

George Caulkin

As Gareth Southgate explained on Monday lunchtime, it all comes down to winning. It comes down to 11 men with inexplicable haircuts dressed in shorts and boots kicking a bag of air more effectively than 11 other blokes. That is what keeps managers in jobs, makes people smile, what makes them buy a pint or two more in nearby pubs. It is what makes the production line hum a little more smoothly the following week.

Ridiculous really, when you think about it. But quite a responsibility, too, particularly at a club like Middlesbrough, which is not only the flagship of a town, but also its bedrock. If you want to know what football means and what football does, you could do worse than travel to Teesside, where a groundbreaking community programme set amid real impoverishment improves thousands of young lives on an annual basis.

Football is not an escape here. How could it be? Football infiltrates everything. Its tendrils spread across and deep into a region, shaping it and influencing it, and the same is true at Sunderland and Newcastle. It is why football matters in such a tangible, substantive way (which is not to say it does not matter elsewhere), and it is why defeat hurts, why relegation hurts. Each disappointment jabs at the heart like a betrayal.

New season already offering new hope for North East trio

George Caulkin

It is Tuesday morning, the sun is almost shining (when I say 'almost', I mean it's only drizzling), and if we can't smile now then, hell, we never will. The North East's big-three football clubs are unbeaten this season and for one week - and probably one week only - this column will deviate from a path which is as familiar as it ploddingly tiresome. Today, we embark upon a dangerous and possibly stupid experiment: optimism.

This could all evaporate very quickly, so grasp it firmly. Tonight, Sunderland play Chelsea, who are masters at deflating opposition teams, Newcastle United-s prospective takeover stands at a critical juncture and Middlesbrough ... no, stop! See how it easy it is slip back into misery? Even as the brain attempts to focus on happy thoughts, fingers on the keyboard strain towards the letters C-O-R-R-O-S-I-V-E.

Right, start again. Optimism. And, given their league status, it is only proper that we begin with Sunderland. Last weekend’s 1-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers may have lacked the headline-wresting drama of other scorelines, but there are some truisms (ie cliches) in football that are worthy of repetition and the Reebok Stadium has seen many sides flounder on their own self-importance.