The Good:Gary Hooper to Liverpool
I’m not much for buying into rumours but I liked this one. Why? You ask. Well it was only January of this year that Gary was being rumoured to move to Southampton. From Southampton to Liverpool in 10 months means he is doing something right. I truly hope he stays with us for another few years though as he is a quality finisher and will score at least 30 a year for us. We should lock him down to a long term contract and pay him what a 30 goal striker should be paid.
Internationals
We had eight of our squad featuring in important internationals over the last week. Here is a breakdown of how they did.
Efe Ambrose – Scored in Nigeria’s a 6-1 win over Liberia to qualify for the 2013 African Nations Cup.
Emilio Izaguirre – Helped Honduras progress to the next phase of qualifying in the CONCACAF region. After a 0-0 draw with Panama, they needed a win against Cananda to progress. No nerves shown in an 8-1 thumping to qualify in style.
Joe Ledley – Was influential in the 2-1 victory over Scotland but had a more backs to the wall approach when Wales lost 2-0 to Croatia.
Mikael Lustig – You would have to say it was a good week for Lustig. Sweden were 1-0 down to the Faroes before two late goals spared their blushes and then in keeping to their comeback mentality they gave Germany a 4-0 lead before staging an amazing turn around and equalizing in injury time. Our Bhoy Mikael was one of the scorers.
Kris Commons – Literally the last player I thought I would be talking about, went from “Seven players ahead of him” to getting called up as an injury replacement, to starting both games. Makes you wonder if Levein even watches us and only realized Commons was playing well when he saw him in training.
Scott Brown – Started the Wales game, went off injured at half time. Who saw that coming?
Georgios Samaras – Another good week for Sammy. A win against Slovakia and a draw with Bosnia. Greece are not spectacular, but they get it done.
Miku – Featured as a late sub in the 1-1 draw against Ecuador.
Special mention to Thomas Rogne who helped Norway U21’s qualify for the Euro’s at the expense of France. Rogne scored in the 5-3 second leg victory.
THE BAD
International Injuries
It is bad enough getting injuries on internationals in the first place, like Samaras’ in the last bout of International fixtures but Scott Browns has to be the worst. He should never have been there in the first place, we all know he is hurting. He cannot play 3 games in a row for us, never mind attempting to play International games as well. Now he is a huge doubt against Barcelona at a time when he was starting to assert himself again. It could be a big loss for us but it could be a bigger loss for Brown. No need.
THE UGLY
Nothing to report here, still a good time to be a Celt. Hail hail!!!!!
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