EPL Ramblings – Injuries, Transfers & Other Crap

By: Wayne Farry | May 8th, 2009

Quite a lot of Premier League news lately, as there always is. One thing I’ve noticed is that quite a few players for EPL teams have been ruled out for the whole season.

What originally was a crappy situation for Hull has turned into an even crappier one after their captain Ian Ashbee was ruled out for the rest of the Premier League season. Ashbee injured himself in a clash with James Milner when Hull played Aston Villa last Monday. It looked, at first, like he’d be okay to continue, as he played on for a few minutes afterward. However, after playing on for a few minutes it became obvious that he’d seriously injured himself. It was confirmed by Hull that Ashbee ruptured his posterior cruciate ligament. Further investigation of the injury will be done later but the wound around his knee is too severe to look yet. It does look, however, like he’s played his last game this season.

Other players ruled out for the season (I’d go into more depth but what’s the need?) are Spurs midfielder Jamie O’Hara who is set to have knee surgery, Black Cats ‘keeper Craig Gordon who is also set for knee surgery, to fix the problem that has already kept him out for six months and Arsenal’s Gael Clichy, who’s fractured some vertebrae, ouch…

In transfer news, Manchester City appear to be hellbent on becoming the most ludicrous football club on earth. After having bids for Zeus, Hercules and Superman turned down, they’ve turned their attention to the Real Madrid legend Raul. The 31-year old Spaniard has been with the Spanish giants for seventeen years and has played over five hundred games for los Merengues. Somehow City think they can lure him away from the sun of Madrid to the er…wind of Manchester. They’ve apparently bid for the forward and are looking to offer him a four-year contract worth €35M. Can’t see this happening.

Another bit of interesting (and more realistic) transfer news is that Liverpool are eyeing up Napoli’s little Argentine Ezequiel Lavezzi. It’s been speculated recently that he could be on his way to Juventus but Liverpool are definitely in the market for a striker.

As you can see from the video above, he’s a good player, he’s stocky and fast and could take the EPL by storm. But if they do sign him, don’t be suprised to see him sold back to Napoli next January.

In the final bit of news, some mind-numbingly crazy news from the Reebok Stadium as Gary Megson hasn’t ruled out making an approach for Newcastle’s thug/scumbag/antichrist Joey Barton. The guy’s not a bad player but he’s easily the least-disciplined player (both on and off the pitch) to ever play in the EPL. In my opinion, he’s had all the chances he deserves. Gary Megson is obviously like the naive girlfriend who thinks she can change her abusive boyfriend, even after his previous girlfriends couldn’t. If you ask me, Megson will end up with a broken heart if he goes through with it.