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5. Paul McGrath (Manchester United, Aston Villa)

A brilliant defender who spent seven years each with United and Villa and played in three international tournaments for Republic of Ireland. His only honour for United was an FA Cup in 1985, in which he was voted Man of the Match. As his alcoholism grew worse, his performances began to suffer and in 1989 was offered a retirement package and a testimonial from United. He refused and signed for Aston Villa. A number of knee injuries and an addiction to booze meant McGrath never really cemented his place as one of English footballs top defenders.

4. Paul Merson (Arsenal, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth)

A talented midfielder who never really achieved as much as he could have. Merson’s drink and drug problem caused his first marriage to fall apart as he struggled to overcome his battle with booze. Despite claiming to now be clean he was spotted coming out of Boujis nightclub in South Kensington in 2006 completely smashed.

3. Tony Adams (Arsenal)

Another excellent defender who was part of George Grahams ‘famous four’ along with Steve Bould, Nigel Winterburn and Lee Dixon. Adams’ alcohol addiction saw him play several games hung-over, regularly get into fights in nightclubs and let off a number of fire extinguishers in a Pizza Hut with team-mate Ray Parlour. On a positive note Adams overcame his drink problem and founded the Sporting Chance Clinic, a charitable foundation that provided treatment for sports stars suffering from drink, drug or gambling problems.

2. Paul Gascoigne (Newcastle, Tottenham, Lazio, Rangers)

Without doubt the most gifted English midfielder of his generation, Gazza is now a sorry shadow of himself. Gazza’s drink troubles really escalated after he retired from football in 2004. He loved football so much that when he couldn’t play professionally anymore it “ripped his heart out”. Drinking such vast amounts of booze, as well as doing his fare share of drugs, has fried Gascoigne’s brain. In February 2008 he was sectioned under the mental health act. In channel 4 documentary Surviving Gazza he claimed to have close contact with the Royal Family, the Prime Minister, the US President and the Pope. Only weeks ago he turned up at the police stand of with Britain’s most wanted man Raoul Moat. Gazza claimed to be close friends with Moat and had brought him a can of lager, a chicken and a fishing rod. If it wasn’t so sad he’d be hilarious.

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1 . George Best (Manchester United, Fulham, Hibernian)

Only ever going to be one winner really, despite Gazza’s heroic efforts. Arguably the greatest footballer to ever live and the first sporting sex symbol. Best suffered with alcoholism most of his adult life. He had it all, playing football for Manchester United, money, fame and women throwing themselves at him. Too much too young most would say. His drink problem saw him spend Christmas of 1984 behind bars for drunk driving and assaulting a police officer. In 1990 he appeared on Terry Wogan’s chat show clearly pissed, slurring his words and swearing. In August 2002 Best had a successful liver transplant, controversially paid for by the NHS. A year later he was spotted drinking again. His continued drinking saw him admitted to intensive care in October 2005. Two weeks later, at Best’s request, the News of the World tabloid published a picture of the dying star in his hospital bed with the message: “Don’t die like me.” Despite his condition improving for a short while, George Best died on 25th November 2005, aged 59. Pele once said: “George Best was the greatest player in the world.” Best’s problem was that enjoyed drinking as much as he enjoyed football.

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It began last night, and lasts for roughly three weeks. It is the period of the year when I cast envious glances at Premier League supporters up and down the country – come the weekend, I will even be jealous of Blackburn fans (now I’ve got your attention haven’t I!) It is – wait for it – the beginning of the Winter Break.

The closest I am going to get over the festive period to watching my beloved Los Blancos is the re run of the last El Clasico kindly provided by sky any time. Now for anyone who watched the game – this isn’t really something I fancy doing alongside eating more selection boxes and mince pies than should be allowed.

Of course, from a reasonable person’s point of view, the winter break may seem like a good idea, and players and managers in recent years have shown a willingness to introduce it into the English game – it gives players a much needed break and the chance to spend Christmas with their families at home – or in the modern footballer’s case, the Bahamas – and then allows them to push on through the last half of the season, especially for top clubs playing a huge amount of games.

The idea is that it will help prevent injury and allow the English clubs to reach the latter stages of all competitions without players suffering from fatigue and still be in a position to compete with their European counterparts who are privileged enough to have a winter break.

This however is slightly flawed logic –Fulham reached the Europa League final and played a 60 game season, and at least one English club has been present in the Champions League last stages for the last few years. In fact, United had reached three out of the last four finals before becoming Jim Ronsenthal and Channel 5’s most valuable asset this year.

Even more than that, the 2008 final was an all English affair between United and Chelsea, and in the years where United failed to win the competition it was very little to do with the fact they did not have a winter break like conquerors Barcelona, and more to do with the fact they were embarrassingly outclassed.

Perhaps then the reason for the winter break is to help teams in the Summer’s international tournaments, with the break allowing fixtures to be more spaced out and although the season may have a later finish time, the idea is players are more relaxed and rested come either the Euro’s or World Cup.

Well sorry to burst that bubble, maybe I have been a supporter of England for too long and have become cynical, but we could have a year’s winter break and still not win an international tournament. Likewise I am fairly sure the ever efficient Germans could qualify for the latter stages without one and the scintillating Spaniards would still be in the final despite a break coming into the equation.

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Don’t get me wrong, I fully understand why players and managers push for a winter break, and if you would have asked me this a month ago before the harsh reality of watching England’s value brand equivalent to the Special One in AVB had set in, I may been slightly more in favour of three weeks off over Christmas and New Year. Another three weeks without La Liga however, and I will even be missing Barcelona – it is then I know things have gotten really bad, and I become about as bigger fan of the winter break as I am of low fat mayonnaise – it’s just not mayonnaise!

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Sunderland led twice but fell 3-2 to West Bromwich Albion at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.Albion leapfrogged their opponents on the table and are on the brink of safety in the English Premier League, but it was not until the dying stages that they found themselves ahead and on their way to a hugely significant result.

It looked as though the Black Cats were on their way past the 40-point safety mark when they took an early lead ? Asamoah Gyan’s cross from the left in the 11th minute deflected towards goal and defender Nicky Shorey headed it past Scott Carson under pressure from Ahmed Elmohamady.

Albion equalised just before the half-hour mark when Sunderland failed with some basic defending and striker Peter Odemwingie capitalised, stretching to turn the ball past Simon Mignolet.

The Wearsiders almost instantly regained the lead when Phil Bardsley smashed a free-kick home after Gyan had been brought down 20 yards from goal in the 31st minute and Steve Bruce’s men successfully held on to their lead until half-time.

The second-half might have gone either way but Sunderland were gradually broken down, as Albion took heart from the home team’s nervy play.

The visitors levelled in the 54th minute through another scrappy goal, Albion passing it around static Sunderland players and Odemwingie given far too much time to find Youssouf Mulumbu who scuffed a shot home from 10 yards out.

Sunderland continued to play dreadfully and for the second time in consecutive weeks they were indebted to a fantastic performance from Mignolet between the posts to keep them in the game.

But there was nothing he could do about Albion’s 72nd minute winner – the visitors once again given the freedom of the park before Odemwingie found Paul Scharner 12 yards out and he finished dutifully.

Sunderland mounted a late surge but it never looked like being enough to snare a point, and at the final whistle, the home team were jeered for their poor second-half performance.

Over the past few years, the Premier League has become an attractive place to play football, not only joining Spain as one of the top two superpowers of football alongside the Primera Division, but also offering players a greater monetary incentive to move to England than anywhere else. In 2008-09, English top flight clubs spent more than £1.32 billion on salaries – more than Serie A (£930 million), La liga (£800 million) and the Bundesliga (£684 million). That relates to earning on average 65% more in England than Spain, which considering Spain is at the very least on a par with the level of quality of the Premiership, it doesn’t reflect greater value for money.

Players are amply rewarded for their services, hence a great influx of foreign talent at almost every club, and at all ages. However though the wages on offer remains an attractive proposition for foreign players to come here, the high wages being paid already has made trade amongst Premier League clubs more difficult.

On average Premier League side’s spent around 67% of their revenue on wages in 2008-09, an indication of many clubs spending beyond their means in recent years (highlighted by the fact Arsenal spent only 46%). And with players already in possession of lucrative contracts, it requires a substantial investment to buy from English clubs.

It’s pretty clear a number of Man City players are available for purchase (primarily Stephen Ireland, Craig Bellamy, Roque Santa Cruz etc.). Players, that generally over the past few years, if available, would have been snapped up by other Premier League clubs in an instant, but now find themselves stalling at a club where they’re unaware if they will be given any real game time next year. Who no doubt have attracted the interest of other managers, who would happily welcome them into their squad with open arms, if not for the cost.

It’s hard to imagine Ireland and Bellamy wanting to move anywhere they will earn less than the £80,000 plus they are already on. And though, in an ideal world, the lustre of first team football should be more of a priority to players than money, it’s understandable, as for anyone in employment, to grimace at the notion of earning less. So for clubs to buy them they must be willing to at least match what they are already earning.

However following the trouble other clubs such as Portsmouth (whose mistakes could haunt them for years) and West Ham have had to deal with recently, primarily because they had accumulated a wage bill that could not be realistically maintained, clubs have learned a bargain in the Premier League is hard to come across, because you are not just investing in a hefty transfer fee, but also extravagant wages.

Clubs have been more reserved this time round in the transfer window, rather than follow in the footsteps of those in charge of West Ham, who at the time foolishly left themselves in a position where they had the likes of Kieron Dyer, Freddie Ljungberg, Craig Bellamy, Lucas Neill etc. all earning £70,000, more or less. It should have never appeared viable for what is a generally mid-table team to believe they could pay players that much with no financial repercussions, and therefore were forced to take extreme measures to stay afloat.

Even Newcastle made a similar error of judgement, buying big names that were passed their best, like Kluivert and Viduka, but have now adopted a more cautious approach, so far, second time round. They realise what other teams have hopefully begun to realise, that if they continue to overspend like previous years (maybe with the exception of some foreign owned clubs whose financial future is no clearer than a crystal ball), the Premier League could suffer the same plight as Italian football did.

Their own transfer market experienced a huge boom almost a decade ago, following the successful exploits of Italian teams in European competition, particularly in the 1990s, and the knock-on effect of the financial recklessness that ensued is clear to see. Fiorentina, a giant of Italian football at the time, nearly went bankrupt, and Italian teams have suffered to replicate (with the exception of Inter Milan last year) the same success of Spain and England in European football in the last few years. Furthermore, the top clubs in Italy find difficulty in competing financially with English and Spanish clubs when the best players in the world become available, more likely that they would find themselves having to fend off the advances of a Barcelona or Chelsea.

So a relatively quiet transfer market is a good omen, with clubs appearing to realise that tightening their purse strings is more important than appeasing supporter’s desire for signings. That no matter how enthusiastic owners are to see their clubs succeed, a football club must be treated like any other business, and with plenty of examples already showing how it can go wrong, there is no excuse for clubs to fall into the same trap.

Written By Darren Doherty

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With the PL season nearly upon us, let’s see the WAGS that will be keeping the players on their toes. Click on image to VIEW gallery

The Premier League is littered with talent everywhere you look, though of course it is and has always been defined by its star names. Where would we be without Rooney, Gerrard, Terry, and the rest who light up the stage week in, week out. These are the players we read about every day, and who get all the limelight and plaudits for their efforts on the football field.

In this era of Premier League mega-stars it is easy to forget about the other few hundred players in the league (excluding David Bentley), who work just as hard and make vital contributions to their sides. There is a load of unsung heroes out there on the field every week who put in just as much effort-if not more-as the top names yet don’t get anywhere near the same amount of recognition. Why these players don’t get the recognition they deserve is a mystery. Some probably don’t get the credit they deserve as their vital contributions are within unglamorous sides who aren’t in the big four. Other players simply shun the media limelight and mega stardom, as they are only interested in playing football and putting the team before themselves.

These players are the type who would be the first on the team sheet every week, yet they don’t get the plaudits like a Drogba or a Fabregas. They are just as critical and most are the heartbeats of their sides, who would be much poorer without them. Some have made vital contributions that have saved their sides from dropping out of the division, others have propelled their sides to achieve greater things than expected, yet they barely get mentioned in the same breath as the big stars of the league. It’s time to pay tribute to the Premier League players who don’t get enough recognition.

Click on Dempsey below to see the top ten

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%image% Australia scored a surprising 2-1 victory over European heavyweight Germany at Borussia Park on Tuesday.Despite Mario Gomez’ first half goal, the Australians rallied in the second half to topple the home side.

A neatly-taken goals by Blackpool’s David Carney, the 1000th goal conceded by Germany, and a penalty from Luke Wilkshire, consigned the Germans to defeat.

A late goal from Asamoah Gyan earned Ghana a 1-1 draw with England at Wembley.

Recent Liverpool signing Andy Carroll put the Three Lions ahead just before the interval but the English were denied a victory over the World Cup quarter-finalists when Sunderland forward Gyan curled in a fine goal for the Africans.

France and Croatia played out a scoreless draw at the Stade de France, in a rematch of the 1998 World Cup semi-final which saw Croatia coach Slaven Bilic controversially have his opposite number Laurent Blanc sent off.

World Cup semi-finalist Uruguay overcame a late comeback to grab an entertaining 3-2 win over Ireland.

A Shane Long headed effort cancelled out Diego Lugano’s goal but then strikes from Edinson Cavani and Abel Hernandez put the Uruguayans 3-1 ahead.

A Keith Faley penalty gave the Irish a chance but the Uruguayans held on.

The hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, Russia and Qatar respectively, played out a 1-1 draw in Doha.

Qatar grabbed a surprise lead through Mohamed Kasoula, but they were denied a famous victory when Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchenko equalised with a shot that Qatari goalkeeper Meshal Mubarak got a hand to.

Former World Cup champions Italy beat Ukraine 2-1 in Kiev thanks to goals from Giuseppe Rossi and Alessandro Matri.

Greece was held to 0-0 draw by Poland in Piraeus despite a handful of scoring opportunities falling their way in each half.

Portugal beat Finland in Aviero thanks a brace from debutant Rúben Micael.

Canada edged out Belarus at a near-empty stadium in Antalya in Turkey courtesy of a 58th minute strike from Houston Dynamo defender Andre Hainault.

A Michael Krohn-Dehli winner saw Denmark come out on top against Slovakia. Denmark drew first blood after an own goal from Slovakia’s Kornel Salata although the Slovakians drew level Filip Holosko but it was the Brondby midfielder who had the last laugh for the Danes.

A solitary goal separated Bulgaria and Cyprus with the Bulgarians coming out on top courtesy of a contentious Martin Petrov goal.

In Asia, China resoundingly defeated Honduras by three goals thanks to a from goal from Huang Bowen, and a Yang Xu double – all of which were set up by Schalke midfielder Hao Junmin.

In Latin America, Ecuador were held 0-0 by Peru in The Hague, Netherlands.

The Peruvians, who were reduced to 10 men, managed to hold on after goalkeeper Salomon Libman’s saved Ecuador captain Walter Ayovi’s penalty in the first half.

A Matias Fernandez free-kick and Jean Beausejour strike saw Chile beat Colombia 2-0.

Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas has thanked Arsenal for helping make him into a World Cup winner, but his future at the Emirates Stadium continues to look uncertain.

Barcelona target Fabregas was forced to wear the shirt of the Spanish giants while in Madrid celebrating Sunday's World Cup final victory with his international team-mates.

Barca pair Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique ambushed the Arsenal skipper and pulled the shirt of his boyhood club over his head while he was on stage addressing Spanish fans.

Fabregas has already been the subject of one unsuccessful bid from the Catalan club this summer and is reported to have told manager Arsene Wenger of his desire to leave north London after seven seasons.

The 23-year-old looked embarrassed to be the victim of the prank, but his future in England continues to look uncertain despite admitting he owes a debt of gratitude to the Gunners and Wenger.

"This is for the Arsenal players, the Arsenal fans, for the manager and all his staff," said Fabregas.

"I have had lots of texts and Blackberry messages. My phone is full.

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"I had a text message of congratulations from Arsene Wenger. He said I deserve it. I just think this is for everyone at Arsenal who helped me get to where I am now.

"I am really proud to be an Arsenal player."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

‘We are in transition.’ The phrase that seems to have become the excuse for all managers after a period of bad performances and indeed results. Wenger has been using it for the last 6 years at Arsenal, and now AVB and Chelsea have become the latest to wheel out the most overused excuse in football.

Now don’t get me wrong, you cannot have constant success all the time – eventually the spine of a team will ages, and new players will have to be brought in, which inevitably becomes a transitional time, and for one, maybe two seasons this is fine, and both fans and owners need the common sense to understand and respect this.

However, multiple seasons down the line, the same excuse quite frankly cannot wash. Wenger has used said excuse for years now, and whereas immediately after the departures of Campbell, Henry Bergkamp and the like, not to mention the emergence of the ‘young guns’ this was acceptable, and people would have happily given the Gunners a couple of seasons to develop and progress as a team, six years and zero trophies later – arguably going backwards – this simply cannot be the case anymore.

Now they are going through a period of so called transition again with the departures of key players and the arrival of new ones, but how long can this cycle go on for without Wenger coming out and offering a real explanation for the perceived lack of success?

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Some teams are genuinely having a season of transition – look at Chelsea – AVB has to contend with the entirety of his spine ageing at the same time, and all losing that extra bit of pace that made them so special – and in Abramovich he has an owner who has as much patience as Joey Barton does with the cast of TOWIE. Now I am not suggesting allowing AVB the next ten years to build what resembles a winning team, but a couple of seasons of patience will do Chelsea no harm in the long run.

Likewise with Liverpool, under the ill-fated reign of Hodgson and before that the end of Benitiez’ time in charge, Liverpool were simply not good enough, and using the excuse of ‘transition’ could not be tolerated. However, at this minute in time, under King Kenny, they are slowly rebuilding a team worthy of challenging for major honours, and patience is required – but said time will not last forever, and eventually fans will expect progress to be made.

One of the teams who dispel the ‘transitional’ excuse are United, who have been reinvented multiple times under the 25 year reign of Sir Alex Ferguson, who has the uncanny knack of knowing when it is time to move players on or bring new blood through. Yes, they may go a couple of seasons without trophies or a title, but no more than that and Fergie would never attempt to excuse poor performances season after season by trying to say that the team had lost their spine and were trying to rebuild. One season maybe two, certainly not more than that.

Do not misunderstand me – I am not trying to advocate trigger happy owners sacking managers after one season without a trophy, I am simply trying to make the point that aside from blaming the referee, the most overused and pathetic excuse in football is to claim a team is in a transitional phase – at least sometimes it really is the referee’s fault!

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Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger insisted the Premier League remains his top priority after the Gunners thumped Leyton Orient 5-0 in the FA Cup.Orient secured a lucrative fifth-round replay at the Emirates thanks to a last-gasp equaliser in their opening tie, but a Nicklas Bendtner hat-trick and goals to Maroune Chamakh and Gael Clichy ensured there would be no such fairytale on Wednesday.Arsenal advance to a thrilling showdown at Manchester United in the quarter-finals, but with leaders United a mere four points away on the Premier League table Wenger said the Gunners were focused on the top-flight silverware this season.”The league is a vital race. For us, the most important one,” Wenger said.”It will be interesting until the end of the season. Every game now is a cup game – we had one tonight, and will have one on Saturday (against Sunderland).””The race is tight, exciting. I don’t rule out Chelsea or Manchester City because everybody can drop points everywhere. If we maintain our consistency we have a very good chance.”Arsenal let slip the Carling Cup trophy with a 2-1 loss to Birmingham City in Sunday’s final at Wembley, and Wenger was pleased to see his charges return to their winning ways so convincingly.”It was a good response, we took the game in a serious way. It was good to win the game,” he said.”We are in a fantastic run. On Sunday we lost a game in special circumstances.”Orient boss Russell Slade praised Arsenal for ruthlessly responding to their 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture.”It was a difficult night for us. Chances were few and far between,” Slade said.”Arsenal were in the mood tonight and made life difficult for us. They played some wonderful football and we tried to live with that.””They are a group of internationals who are very focused and disciplined and their attitude tonight was spot-on.”

Pre-season is now in full swing as teams get ready for the 2010/11 Premier League season and hope to get up to speed so they can start with a bang. Chelsea are no different, as the Premier League champions prepare themselves for the defence of their title. Given the strength of Manchester United and Arsenal, the positivity coming out of Liverpool and the money that Manchester City are splashing around, that could be a difficult task. Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti seems pretty relaxed about the situation though, here he is with Director of Football Frank Arnesen keeping an eye on striker Daniel Sturridge amongst others. What are the Chelsea top two thinking?

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