Bleacher Report - Articles by Chris Stone

Stewart Downing in £12 Million Move to Aston Villa

Chris Stone — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:45:58 -0400

BBC News: Middlesbrough are believed to have agreed a fee in the region of £12m for the transfer of England winger Stewart Downing to Aston Villa.

I'm intrigued by this news, if it goes ahead, which I expect it will. Will Downing and Ashley Young compete for the left wing? I personally rate Young more, but perhaps he will be used more as a forward?

If it means Young is on his way out, there have been rumors that Chelsea and teams from abroad are interested.

It would also be nice for O'Neill to improve Downing's performances. He has never impressed me for England, but maybe that can change!

As for Middlesbrough, it had looked increasingly likely that Downing would move after being relegated, especially as he had handed in a transfer request in the new year.

Hopefully, the money will allow them to stay financially competitive despite the obvious drop in TV revenues, etc. It also brings up the question of who will replace him.

Some Friendly Advice to Manchester City and Mark Hughes

Chris Stone — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:27:59 -0400

First I would like to make it clear I have nothing against Man City.

In fact—as a neutral fan—I'm excited that a team outside of the top four has a chance to break in and keep the best clubs on their toes, as well as potentially bring in some of the bigger names from outside Europe to the EPL.

But there is another part of me that wonders what on Earth the people in charge of the Blues are thinking. I'm referring to the overabundance of strikers and attack-minded midfielders that Man City is purchasing willy nilly. Let's take a look:

Strikers/Forwards:

1. Valeri Bojinov: Unfortunately has been injured since the dawn of time; he has recently regained fitness and played a few games toward the end of the season

2. Jo: Loaned out to Evertorn for the final half of last season, and again for the next season in its entirety. Doesn't really count for this purpose

3. Robinho: You can argue that he is a winger, but I'd say he is practically a striker, similar in the way many refused to call C.Ronaldo a winger.

4. Craig "The nutter with the putter" Bellamy

5. Roque Santa Cruz

6. Benjani

7. Felipe Caicedo

8. Chedwyn Evans

9. Carlos Tevez

10. Adebayor: Almost a certainty

So I count...10 forwards. Only one more to go in goal and they have a full team of strikers! Admittedly, you can knock a few of the list, still leaving a good five to seven forwards that will be around wanting to play.

How can they possibly accommodate that many players? Plus, there are still attack-minded midfield players such as SWP and Ireland (a quality player and deserves a first team place in my opinion).

So why are Manchester City going for Adebayor? Did they not just get Tevez, Santa Cruz, and Bellamy? Are they going to off-load Caicedo and Benjani?

Here is my advice, Mr.Hughes. Stop buying players you aren't going to play. You will end up with far too many egos in one dressing room, and things will get messy.

Look at the big four: Man United have Berbatov, Rooney, and Owen, plus two youth players. Liverpool has Torres, and, well, that’s about it. Arsenal now has RVP and Bendtner, possibly Eduardo if he can get fit, and a decent array of youth talent. They still managed to score more goals than the other teams.

And let's not forget that the Blues were the highest scoring team outside of the top four. It doesn't seem like they need to do too much in the way of enhancing their attacking prowess.

They did, however, leak goals more than 50 percent of the other teams in the premiership. They led in more than double the amount of goals Man United and Chelsea conceded, a big weakness if they want to challenge the top four.

Terry and Lescott are both targets, and would be good buys. But, currently, Man City need to take the finger off the "buy striker button."

If someone can show me a formation that will accommodate all their major strikers, keep their defense strong, provide a midfield that can attack AND defend, then I will take back everything in this article!

Adebayor to Manchester City? A Good Deal for All

Chris Stone — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:20:14 -0400

Sky Sports have recently announced they believe Arsenal and Manchester City are in talks over the possible transfer of Adebayor. I am of the opinion that such a move would be good for all parties involved.

Good for Arsenal:

Rumours have been circulating about Adebayor since last season, and it would be good to sort it out one way or the other.

Adebayor has had his best season (2007/2008) I don't see him recapturing that form that saw him net 30 goals in all competitions, in fact, the season just gone saw him almost half his goal return to 16 in all competitions. Arsenal need someone that can consistently bag 20+ goals a season up front.

In fact, not a single Arsenal player made it into the top 10 scorers list last year (whilst the rest of the top four had two players each in the top 10), despite the fact that Arsenal scored as many goals as Man United and Chelsea.

This shows that a lot of pressure is being put on non-strikers to score goals, something that shouldn't really be happening. If the gunners had a striker that could get 15+ goals in the league and a handful in the FA cup/Champions league, that pressure can be relaxed a little.

Financially, Arsenal would benefit. It is common knowledge that Man City have vast sums of money to spend, and perhaps over-pay for players. Arsenal will be able to get a good deal for Adebayor (reportedly £20 million), and that could be put to getting a striker that can perform potentially better than him.

Oh, and he also is somewhat unpopular with the Gunners fans at the moment ( I suggest you look at the brochure on Arseblog)!

Good for Man City:

I may have been critical of Adebayor in my previous comments, but make no mistake, he is a decent player and there is always the potential that he will get those 30 goals a season again.

He is also a physically tall player, something that perhaps Man City are lacking up front, giving them another option to get on the end of crosses, set pieces etc. He may also be a stepping stone to bigger and better players.

Man City probably won't break into the top four this season, but they can aim to improve on last season. It may be a case of "slowly but surely," but adding Adebayor to the squad will only straighten it. On top of that, he has Champions league experience that could prove beneficial.

Good for Adebayor

As I mentioned earlier, Adebayor isn't the most popular player at the Emirates right now, whether that is justified or not is another matter. If he moves to Man City, he will be sacrificing Champions League football. But he will also obtain a better pay package.

I'm not calling him a merc, nor money driven, but he has the potential to become popular at Man City, earn better money for it, and perhaps become part of a club that has the financial clout to break into the top four.

So that about wraps up my thoughts on this rumoured transfer dealings, thank you for reading. I have noticed that a few articles have popped up on this topic, but hopefully mine is different enough to be worth publishing anyway! Regards!

Premier League: Why Next Season's Title Will Be More Competitive

Chris Stone — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:13:32 -0400

The premiership season that was wrapped up months ago was very much a two-horse race after the New Year. Liverpool had an astounding season and at Christmas were the top of the pack. Chelsea were within touching distance, but never seemed to get going until Scolari was sacked, and by then Liverpool and Manchester United had found more consistency and were churning out victories themselves. The Red Devils started deceptively bad, and always seemed to be around 6 points behind Liverpool. They did, however, have a number of games in hand…up their sleeve (?) …. Perhaps the most out of touch with the title (out of the big four) was Arsenal, who finished a massive 18 points (6 wins!) behind Man Utd. Whilst comfortably in the last Champions League spot, there was a period of concern until Aston Villa experienced a large dip in form. Everton, like Aston Villa, had a terrific season, but when you consider that both where almost 30 points (10 wins!) behind the champions, it’s hard to imagine they could ever get higher than a 4th spot at best. Whilst I’m not going to try and make any predictions about the next season, I will go through each of the big four (and perhaps some others!) and explain why I think they will do better or worse than last season, and how that could potentially make the upcoming year of football much more uncertain, and hopefully, more exciting!

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The Greatest Salmon Impersonators in Football

Chris Stone — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:45:03 -0400

I know what your thinking. What does football have to do with Salmon? What could a migratory fish possibly have to do with the beautiful game, other than as a crude metaphor for player transfers? And let's be totally honest here, fish in general don't have feet to even play football with. This is particularly noticable in Salmon, whom have fins. So what do Salmon have that is coverted by the greatest of all football players? One thing is their steely determination, their drive to reach the hardest of places, to fight against the (literal) mainstream. But this is just but the mental talent. As we all know, whilst mind games etc have some effect on the game, football is a game of the physical kind. There must be a bigger, more fruitful reason some of the highest paid people in the world seek to imitate the deceptively lowly Salmon, surely? And that, my friends, brings us to the fabled "salmon jumping"....

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The 5 Most Punchable EPL Football Players of Recent Seasons

Chris Stone — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:44:50 -0400

We all feel it at some point in our lives. A feral, primal rage deep from within that burns at our soul and instigates a desire to inflict GBH to the face of an over-paid, arrogant, despicable sportsman. They are never wrong, they never foul, they never dive, they are never offside. They are never at fault. The referees, the linesman, their team mates, the opposition, the mascot, the pitch. These are the ones that make mistakes. But never themselves. Here is my list of the EPL'S most punchable players from last season. Apologies for any offence.....

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