Given to stay

The big deadline day news - other than Robinho's imminent loan move to AC Milan - is that Shay Given has decided to stay at City rather than join Fulham on loan. Daniel Taylor reports:

Given has based his decision on the fact he joined City in the hope that he could win the first trophy of his career and that, by leaving for a smaller club, he could effectively be passing over that chance. He had also worried that he might jeopardise his place in the Republic of Ireland team but the manager, Giovanni Trapattoni, has assured him that is not the case.

City are involved in four competitions and Given was assured the club are taking them all seriously and that, at the very least, there will be opportunities for him to play in the Carling Cup and Europa League Mancini, who described him as being among Europe's five best goalkeepers last season, has made it clear he does not want to lose him.

I suppose I'm pleased that he's staying. If Joe Hart gets injured or suspended we stand a much better chance of success with Given stepping up than with Stuart Taylor. But I'm not too enthusiastic with the sort of job-share scheme mentioned in the report. There are situations where a division of labour makes sense, particularly if we were trying to phase out a veteran for a young 'keeper: the Edwin van der Sar / Tomasz Kuszczak situation is perfect. But this is very different. We are not trying to phase out an older keeper for a new one, quite the opposite.

Moreover, once we have chosen Joe Hart as our number one, to play someone else in the League Cup or the Europa League is to necessarily diminish our chances of success. Given how important winning just one knock-out trophy this year would be to the club it makes little sense to pick a back up for these games.

Hart flies in

Interesting news this morning: Joe Hart has cut short his summer holiday to return to pre-season in Portland:

City told Hart and England teammate Gareth Barry they did not have to return until the New York leg of the tour next weekend.

But Hart is desperate to prove himself to Roberto Mancini and with Shay Given set to miss the start of the season through injury, the 23-year-old is heading for Portland, where City play a practice match this weekend.

This reflects very well on Hart. It was clear as soon as Birmingham City bought Ben Foster that Hart would be competing with Shay Given to be first choice in 2010/11. Which means that one of them is going to be disappointed. And with Given's shoulder injury jeopardising his early-season availability, Hart could well start the season as first choice.

I used to be unthinkingly pro-Given, but the more I think about it the more open I am to Hart being first choice. Ideally we'd have another year of Given and then Hart from 2011/12 onwards. But why not now? If he's good enough he's old enough and all that.

City ask for new keeper

It's being widely reported that we have asked for Premier League permission to bring in an emergency loan goalkeeper, such is our faith in Gunnar Nielsen.

There is precedent here - some teams are allowed an emergency loan when they are desperately short on keepers. I'm not sure how strong a case we have: Gunnar Nielsen is a 23 year old full international, not some naive adolescent who's only just started playing in goal.

Briefly, part of me wanted our request to get turned down - not just because I have total faith that Gunnar Nielsen is the new Arni Arason, but also because I think the bending of the rules to suit the bigger sides is pernicious. Remember Liverpool being allowed to to play Champions League football in 2005/06, or Javier Mascherano playing for three teams in one season? It's important that rules are applied equally to all teams.

But then I realised that we could conceivably bring in Nicky Weaver as our emergency goalkeeper, and now I'm very keen that we be allowed to. We're only really going to get someone who is a second-choice keeper at a team with nothing to play for - and Weaver fits the bill perfectly (as does Carlo Nash). He's a genuine City legend, for obvious reasons, and could write another chapter for himself in our history books if he could guide us to Champions League football. Can anyone think of a better idea?

SM: Hart to return 10/11

Simon Mullock has a report in the Sunday Mirror that Joe Hart will be brought back next season to compete with Shay Given:

The England keeper, who lost his place to Given when Mark Hughes drafted the Irishman in from Newcastle for £8m in January 2009, has enjoyed a sueprb season on-loan at Birmingham.

He is reluctant to return to City as an understudy to Given and both Birmingham and Arsenal are ready to offer him a permanent move away from Manchester.

But City manager Roberto Mancini has decided that he needs two international-class goalkeepers in his squad and wants Hart back.

If Shay Given's recovery from injury takes him into August then there is certainly a case for bringing back Joe Hart anyway. But putting that to one side I'm not one of those behind the idea of bringing Hart back to MCFC next season, for reasons I outlined here.

Mancini/Hart talks planned

Aside from the future of Roberto Mancini himself, the question over the future of Joe Hart looms larger over the club than any other issue this summer. I had always presumed that Hart would stay at Birmingham City for 2010/11 but it seems increasingly likely that he will return to City, due to Mancini's comments today:

“We have a very good goalkeeper at the club in Shay Given. Shay and Joe Hart are two of the best in the Premier League, and it is important to have two good goalkeepers.

“The Premier League season is long, and if you are playing in the Champions League, as well as the FA Cup and the League Cup, then you need the players - you need two top goalkeepers.

“It is important that I speak with Joe in the weeks after the Premier League finishes, then we will see about next season. He has worked very well at Birmingham and he has developed."

This sounds clear: Joe Hart will come back to City next season to compete for a place with Given. I think this is probably the right move at the wrong time. Like most City fans, I like the idea of Joe Hart becoming our Number 1 at some point again in the future. But I don't see any value in his stagnating in our reserves. As good a season as he has had at St. Andrew's he is not yet a credible alternative to Given. Maybe with another season of Premier League experience he will be. Time is on our side here - Hart signed a five year deal three months before we bought Given, and so we've got him until the end of 2012/13.

It's quite possible that by the summer of 2011 or 2012 he will be as good a keeper as Shay Given, or at least the gap will be sufficiently narrow that it will be worth sticking with the man in his mid 20s rather than his mid 30s. But I don't think we're at that point yet. And I think that a season on our bench - rather than in the Birmingham City first team - will decrease the possibility of his reaching that point during his current City deal. If we want to keep him in the long term - and I really do - we should let him stay away next season.

Robinho 2 - 0 Given

Mark Hughes' best and worst value for money signings went head to head tonight in an international friendly at the Emirates. And it was the £32.5m man who came out on top. Brazil won 2-0 and both goals came from our very own Santos FC's Robson de Souza.

It wasn't a great match and Brazil never got going. They're set up to counter-attack through Robinho and Kaká but in the first half they could only run into the Keith Andrews-Glenn Whelan wall in midfield.

But they went ahead just before half time: Kaká put in Robinho down the right hand side, and he whipped in a cross that Andrews diverted past Shay Given. I don't know whether it's an own goal but Robinho's not exactly the sort to decline to celebrate lest he later lose the goal to the dubious goals panel.

Brazil improved in the second half, playing possession football in opposition territory. Robinho had one goal disallowed after Grafite robbed Paul McShane and then missed a great chance after Kaká did the same to Andrews.

He made up for these when he finished off the game's stand-out move. It started further back but it climaxed with an interchange between Kaká and Grafite before Robinho played a one-two with the Wolfsburg striker and scored with one of those perfectly placed side-foot finishes of his, beyond the sprawling Given.

He then went off for Nilmar, and the game finished 2-0. City legends Richard Dunne and Elano were both injured for the tie, while City's Greg Cunningham was on the Irish bench.

Cunningham makes Republic squad

MCFC Academy graduate Greg Cunningham has been named in the Republic of Ireland squad for their friendly against Brazil next week. He joins MCFC goalkeeper Shay Given and MCFC legend Richard Dunne in the 23 man squad.

It shows how highly the young left back is rated. I don't know much about him, but he looked solid enough in his 45 minutes at Scunthorpe in the FA Cup fourth round. And he only turned 19 three weeks ago so he's certainly very young. It will be interesting to see if he replaces Ryan McGivern as our best young left back from the other side of the Irish Sea. (McGivern is from Newry, and represents Northern Ireland.)

City legends Robinho and Elano are in the Brazil squad for the game.

The captaincy

With the return to England of Kolo Touré, and the return to fitness of Patrick Vieira, we're set for a period of speculation over our captaincy. Shay Given has been standing in recently, and has done well. Well enough to keep the armband even when Touré's back, probably. But I wouldn't give it to either. We're still early enough into the Mancini era for him to make grand gestures of imposing himself on the club, and the re-allocation of the captaincy is the perfect means to do this. And there is one outstanding candidate: Nigel de Jong.

I don't think there can be much doubting that Kolo Touré has been a poor captain. He's quiet, diffident and doesn't lead by example. I don't think Mark Hughes ever really wanted him as captain. The plan was for Gareth Barry to take over from Richard Dunne in the role. He had done it for years at Aston Villa. But I think Hughes was underwhelmed by Barry's leadership qualities when he arrived. Like che is quiet on the pitch. He has also has a frustrating habit of hiding in big games. Hughes saw this - and was right to - but erred in giving the armband to Touré ahead of Given, de Jong or Craig Bellamy.

Five months on, Mancini has a chance to correct Hughes' mistake. He might well stick with Given if he does not reinstate Touré. And Given hasn't done a bad job. But I do think we have one exceptional candidate in the ranks. Nigel de Jong is consistent. He plays every game - starting every match under Mancini so far. He is a leader on the pitch: brave, vocal and determined. He tackles like a tank but still hasn't got sent off yet for City. He sets an example. He's tactically disciplined. He tends to play with all but Given and the centre-backs ahead of him on the pitch - if something is going wrong he tends to know about it. In short, like the best of captains, he plays with his heart and with his head.

I don't think that this is a blazing priority, and I don't even think that the success of our season depends upon it. But I do think that Nigel de Jong would be an excellent captain of Manchester City. Certainly better than the current incumbent.

Players talk up derby

With just two days to go before the League Cup semi-final, we're into a quite predictable pre-derby tradition: City players talking about how important it is that we win.

Here's Nigel de Jong:

"It was hard for that moment [our hilarious 4-3 loss at OT]. When you play that kind of game against United and lose it in the last few seconds, it is devastating.

"United is a special game, but that was just a moment and we had to continue and prepare for the next game. That was then, and now is now, and we play them again on Wednesday."

"They are not weaker than they were - you just have to see where they are standing in the league. United are never weak.

"They lost a good player in Ronaldo, but that gives the opportunity for other players to show their qualities. Wayne Rooney has been on fire for them, and so has Ryan Giggs.

"It doesn't matter who plays. We have to focus on ourselves and perform the best we can on Wednesday."

And Shay Given:

“The fans are excited and so are the players,” he declared. “These should be two red-hot encounters.

"Semi finals are great but people only remember the cup winners. We are all set up to achieve something here. We want to win a trophy...

“The aim is still to try and win something this season. We made a good start in the FA Cup at the weekend and we a close to a final in the Carling Cup."

This is all well and good, but the fact is that the dismal 2-0 loss at Old Trafford last May was preceded by some pretty bold statements from Nigel de Jong and others. The fact is that Wednesday night is probably our biggest game since Gillingham, and all that really matters is coming away with a decent lead. I'm already rather tense about it.

Given talks about Mancini

Until today I had not seen Shay Given speaking anywhere about the change of management at City. It wasn't a concern, as such, but given that Craig Bellamy and Gareth Barry had spoken publicly it would be a relief when it came.

Clearly Given gave interviews to the Monday newspapers after the Middlesbrough game because Colin Young's match report in tomorrow's Daily Mail quotes Given saying these nice things:

'Mark Hughes left and I will always be grateful for him bringing me to this club, but, as a professional, you know these things happen and you have to be prepared to move on.

'The new manager has worked hard on the defence, not just the back four, but the whole team when we lose the ball. He is adamant about the way he wants his team to be set up.

'You cannot argue with the guy's record. He did great with Inter and he was a great player, so you have to respect him for that. I have been impressed with him. I like the way he knows what he wants from his teams.'

TLDORC November awards

If you thought that October was frustrating, then how did you enjoy this? Another four consecutive league draws, each one less satisfying than the last. In three of them we were ahead in the second half, in two we were ahead with ten minutes left, and in two we were at home. And they weren't exactly against the Premier League's form teams: Birmingham City, Burnley, Liverpool and Hull City. We finish the month in seventh place. Had we taken another four points from this month (from holding out against Burnley and Hull) we would be fourth. Throw in a win against Birmingham or Liverpool and we would now be third. Turn all four draws into wins and we're one point behind United with a game in hand. Bollocks.

Birmingham City (a) 0-0 (thoughts, ratings, reax)
Burnley (h) 3-3 (thoughts, ratings, reax, more reax)
Liverpool (a) 2-2 (thoughts, ratings, reax, more reax)
Hull City (h) 1-1 (thoughts, bumper reax)

Player of the Month

Like last month, I'm not particularly eager to bestow this honour on anyone. I'm tempted to declare it void this month, or even to award it to Uwe Rösler to coincide with his induction to the MCFC Hall of Fame. But what's the point? Player of the Month is still fun even if it does feel better when rewarding real excellence - such as Gareth Barry in August or Craig Bellamy in September. (Both of those players had woeful Novembers, for what it's worth.)

And there are a handful of credible candidates. Even some of our more maligned players - Joleon Lescott and Carlos Tévez in particular - strung a few decent performances together. Shaun Wright-Phillips was better than he was in October; not a high pass mark admittedly but two goals and two assists (from a possible six) implies a hint of form returning. But they're not going to win. Neither is Nigel de Jong, although he does win the silver medal off the back of some battering ram tackles against Birmingham City and Liverpool. I'm going to give it to Shay Given instead. He is always excellent, but two saves in particular stand out. First from James McFadden's penalty at St. Andrew's: diving far to his left, keeping us in the game, silencing the locals. The match finished goalless but imagine how bad November would have been had it started with a loss. The other was at Anfield, reacting like a Jedi to palm Daniel Agger's header past the far post. Our first half performance that day was nowhere, and had we gone 1-0 down that early we may have never recovered.

It's becoming increasingly obvious that Shay Given is not only our best player, but the Premier League's best goalkeeper and the closest thing we've had to a world class player at MCFC since the 1970s. If I made awards for the calendar year (and I'm not ruling it out) Shay Given would win the 2009 prize with much more comfort than that with which his compatriot Stephen Ireland would have won 2008.

Performance of the Month

Tempted by ironic joint award to Lescott and Bridge against Burnley. But it's got to be Given against Birmingham.

Goal of the Month

Ireland against Liverpool. Patrick Barclay wrote a nice article about this but I can't find it (tell me if you do.) But it was a lovely move.

Barry's role

Mark Hughes has talked of the importance of Gareth Barry's role in the new City side:

“Gareth was always someone I had admired from afar,” Hughes declared. “I looked at his qualities, and the amount of games he had in the Premier League, and the amount of quality performances he had produced over a long period of time.

“He has a huge range of passing, can be constructive and destructive at times and I felt he was a player we needed to bring to the club. Thankfully we were able to do that very quickly, and to an extent I think it helped enable us get other players to come to the club.

“Gareth understood what we were trying to do here very quickly, and that we were able to get one of the key men in the England set-up to come to us really helped our strategy of acquisitions.”

He's right. The signing of Gareth Barry - and, in a similar way, Shay Given - have changed the fundamentals of this City side: from one - under both Eriksson and Hughes - capable of occasional artistic football but essentially a fairweather team, insufficiently gritty, insufficiently worldly. Barry and Given, though, have transformed this. (Robinho was never really a transformative signing: we already had one mercurial Brazilian capable of great things on the rare matches he wanted to play.)

Barry and Given just make me feel so much more confident watching City. With them, you know that for all that may go wrong we will always have a good chance of getting something - that not every mistake will result in our losing possession - such is Barry's control and awareness - and that not every shot on goal will result in our conceding - such is Given's command and agility.

Praise for Shay

From his manager: (from the official site)

“Shay brings maturity and experience to his position,” heralded the manager. “It is not just his ability to keep the ball out of the net that benefits us but the way he commands the defence and reads the game. He is a great talker and organiser at the back.”

And from Kolo:

“Shay is a fantastic goalkeeper to play in front of,” enthused the central defender. “He is so calm and he reads the game very well and that is always a great thing for those in front of him. Shay is very experienced and whenever you make a mistake he is there at exactly the right time.

“Keeping clean sheets is not just about the back four and the goalkeeper though it is about the whole team defending as unit. We have to make sure we keep doing that and improve on it where we can.”

Hart slams the haters

Daniel Taylor has a very good interview with Joe Hart in The Guardian today. Hart, despite his rejection by City, is still very supportive of the club, and rejects 'the haters':

"There are too many bitter people. Too much jealousy. Everyone wants to knock them down but I hope they do really well. They have not broken any rules. They have paid the money, they are not doing it with backhanders, it's legitimate money. So good luck to them, I say."

And all this while he has no assured future at City:

"There's no guarantee I will ever play for them again," Hart says. "I would love to but, if I'm not needed, then fair enough. I'm at Birmingham now and I've got nothing to do with Manchester City any more. I still find myself supporting them, their result is the first one I look for and I want the lads to do well, but Birmingham are my priority now.

I don't imagine he will ever play for us again. If Shay Given was 36 or 37 Hart could well have a decent shot at being our first choice keeper on Given's retirement in a few seasons' time. But Shay is only 33. He should be able to play beyond his current contract, which expires at the end of the 2012/13 season, when he will be 37. And I can't forsee Hart wanting to spend the next four or five seasons in a perpetual state of loan, biding his time for Given's retirement.

It's tough on Joe. But revolutions have to have losers as well as winners, as we are about to see with Richard Dunne's departure. And can any City fan with open eyes watch the first three matches of this season and honestly say they'd stick with youth?

Given confident

From the official site:

“I was at Blackburn as a player and I don’t think they won a game pre-season the year that they went on to win the Premier League,” he recalled.

“Pre-season is all about getting players games. In the back of everyone’s mind it is all about Blackburn in a couple of weeks and hopefully we will have everyone fit and firing then...

“We had a number of chances on Saturday and it is just about sharpening ourselves up,” he argued. “We had a good few chances but their keeper made a couple of good saves and we missed a few but we are coming together nicely.

“The big thing at Barnsley was getting the fitness levels up and the sharpness in front of goal will come. We will be better for that game. There is some exciting quality on the pitch in front of me and I am sure it will be an exciting season. We have some fantastic players in City shirts.”

Season ratings: Goalkeepers

Shay Given (21 starts, 0 goals)

If you ever want to remind yourself how far we've come in the last ten years, draw up a 'best City players since I've been supporting' team. If you're under fifty - and I imagine that most of my readers are - the likelihood is that quite a few of the names on the teamsheet will be from the Eriksson and Hughes era. In terms of talented players, we're as lucky as we've ever been at the moment, even if it doesn't always seem that way. No player represents that better than Shay Given; he may have only played twenty-one games for us, but he is surely the best goalkeeper we have had for thirty years. Of all the players we've bought since the takeover, he is the only one I almost feel guilty over - he's just too good. Some of the saves he's made since joining have been breathtaking - a few from Afonso Alves, the Aalborg penalty shoot-out and one from Marouane Fellaini - which helped him to my April Player of the Month award - stand out but there have been many more. Probably the best move Hughes has made, if one of the easier too. If we ever win anything, it will largely be down to this man. A

Joe Hart (33 starts, 0 goals)

Given's arrival made Hart one of the few real losers from the ADUG takeover, in what was ultimately a season of frustration for him. He had a good start to the season, recalling the form that had made him such a good prospect last season. His heroics in the shoot-out in Midtjylland brought back memories of another young English goalkeeper making a name for himself nine years before. But he could never quite do enough to dissuade Hughes from deploying our new found wealth at the top end of the market. When he conceded two soft goals at the Hawthorns on Boxing Day, his fate was sealed. Hart has not had another touch since, and a loan deal to Birmingham City suits all parties. I'd be surprised if we see him again in a City shirt. B

Kasper Schmeichel (2 starts, 0 goals)

Unplacing Joe Hart was always going to be difficult for Kasper; unplacing Hart and Shay Given is impossible. Chances were limited this season to just two games, but even when he did play he never excelled. At the Withdean Stadium he conceded two soft goals and became the only City goalkeeper to lose a penalty shoot-out this season. Surely has no long term prospects at City and will move in the summer. C-

TLDORC April Awards

A month that started terribly - with three consecutive defeats and terrible performances to match ended much better - as we beat HSV (on the night), West Brom and Everton.

Only one month left!

Arsenal (a) 0-2 (thoughts, ratings)
HSV (a) 1-3 (thoughts, ratings)
Fulham (h) 1-3 (BBC report)
HSV (h) 2-1 (thoughts, ratings)
West Brom (h) 4-2 (thoughts, ratings)
Everton (a) 2-1 (thoughts, ratings)

Player of the Month

I know most people would give this to Elano. The last three wins saw him finally reproduce his form of Autumn 2007; playing wide on the right he's graced us once more with his passing, his vision and his deadly set pieces. He's scored two penalties (both of which he won) and he set up Robinho for the opener in the Everton win. He certainly deserves praise for this recent up turn, but not this award. Not yet. Instead, I'm going to give it to our most consistent performer this month, the man who was narrowly edged out of the March Award by Nedum Onuoha. An honourable mention for Ela, certainly, but April's TLDORC Player of the Month is Shay Given. He's made big saves in every game. He kept the score respectable at the Emirates, when our ten outfield players did not deserve to leave with only 2-0 against them. He then put in a performance of genuine world class in the Nordbank Arena, allowing us to escape with only a two goal deficit and a glimmer of hope. After a disappointing defeat to Fulham, he did everything possible to keep us in the UEFA Cup, making some more crucial saves as City strove but ultimately stumbled out. One or two good saves in the West Brom game then led to the big match at Goodison where his Jedi-like reflexes kept out Maroune Fellaini at 1-0. The best £8.5million MCFC have ever spent.

Individual Performance of the Month

Elano v HSV (h)

Having denied Elano the more prestigious Player of the Month award, I feel like I have to let him have this one. Stationed on the right wing in the absence of Wright-Phillips, he danced and dazzled all night, the best he's played since 2007. The vision and the passing were inspired, in tandem with Ireland he started most of our best attacks. But best were the set pieces. A perfect penalty (his eighth for City), and two freekicks which hit the woodwork. A delight to watch.

Goal of the Month

Robinho v WBA.

Ireland gets the ball from de Jong in midfield, runs into space and then flights a beautiful pass over the defenders' heads, curling into the path of the on rushing Robinho who meets it perfectly to volley past Scott Carson. Honourable mentions for Ireland in the Nordbank and Ireland at Goodison - very similar goals set up by Robinho.

Given wants trophies

The main theme of his interview with The Sunday Times:

Being feted as among the world’s best is no consolation. “I don’t think adulation amounts to very much unless you’ve got trophies. You look at the great keepers through the years, [Ray] Clemence and Peter Sch-meichel, they’re remembered for what they won in their lives as much as anything else. I’d hate to look back on my career and have won nothing. I want people to say, ‘He was a good goalkeeper – and he won some silverware’.”

I almost feel guilty about our signing Shay Given: we managed to get probably the best goalkeeper in Britain by virtue of being a wealthy club who needed a new 'keeper at just the right time. But the prospect of his finally winning a trophy at City takes the edge off the guilt somewhat.

Dunne on Given

From M.E.N.:

Dunne said: "He has done really well since he has come in. I don't think anyone has really been surprised - everyone knows how good he is.

"Obviously, he is a big loss for Newcastle - their fans and their players will know how good he was - and he has come in and just carried on.

"He is just doing the exact same things. Just the way he walks around and the confidence he gives off has been great for everyone."

TLDORC March Awards

A month that mirrored many others this season: two impressive home league wins, two flaccid away league defeats, and continued progress through the UEFA Cup. It was quite busy - six games in total, four in the last ten days - but the international break brings it to an early end.

West Ham (a) 0-1 (thoughts, ratings)
Aston Villa (h) 2-0 (thoughts)
AaB (h) 2-0 (thoughts, ratings)
Chelsea (a) 0-1 (thoughts, ratings)
AaB (a) 0-2 (thoughts before and after penalties, ratings)
Sunderland (h) 1-0 (thoughts)

Player of the Month

No obvious winner, but a difficult choice between two very good candidates: Shay Given and Nedum Onuoha. One of the best things about the second half our season has been the discovery of basic defensive competence. An unfortunate dip in form for both of last season's centre backs, never mind the occasional presence of Tal Ben Haim and Michael Ball in the side meant that August-December was a time of some calamity. The coinciding of three factors in January, though, rescued the situation. The return to form of Richard Dunne, after his four game ban, the signing of Shay Given and the introduction of Nedum Onuoha at centre half combined to turn us from an incontinent and incompetent defensive unit into a really quite successful one. And while Dunne and Given have over 600 Premier League appearances and 139 Irish caps between them, Onuoha has only four injury ravaged years behind him. And so for producing his most consistent and successful spell in a City shirt, and for proving quite a few people (myself included) wrong - Nedum Onuoha is March Player of the Month.

Individual Performance of the Month

Shay Given v Aalborg (away)

As good as Wright-Phillips was against Aston Villa, I think it has to be Shay Given against Aalborg. Were it not for his two penalty saves, we'd be cursing another messed up cup run. But thanks to him we're still in with a real shot.

Goal of the Month

Wright-Phillips against Aalborg - reminiscent of some of those strikes in his first spell when he'd beat men at will and then smash it in from twenty yards. Honourable mention for Wright-Phillips against Aston Villa too - a good finish but some fantastic interplay with Evans, Bozhinov and Ireland in the build-up.