West Ham have gone a long way to alleviating the pressure of Premier League survival with the signing of Andy Carroll. Carroll may not be everyone’s idea of a modern striker but there can be no doubt he’s the best in the league at doing what he does, and with Sam Allardyce’s direct tactics his career could be reborn this season.

Liverpool seem to have made a rash decision in getting rid of Carroll so soon without any real cover in the striking area. They’ve lowered the wage bill but at the expense of being left with just two recognised senior strikers. After Carroll shone in West Ham’s 3-0 demolition of Fulham many Liverpool fans are asking questions of the people who make the financial decisions at Anfield.

Carroll is a real battering ram of a centre forward and his all action display against Fulham showed exactly how effective he can be if a team plays to his strengths. West Ham surely couldn’t have imagined having a £35million pound striker playing for them last year, but Carroll’s fall from grace at Liverpool means they have just that.

With Carroll heading the ball into 50-50 areas and Nolan feeding off the scraps West Ham will be looking to emulate the success Newcastle had with that exact same combination. Throw Vaz Te, Noble and Jarvis into the mix and the Hammers look to have a genuinely effective side.

If Carroll can overcome his early hamstring injury and pick up where he left off you’d think that West Ham would be near certain to avoid the drop. As long as Carroll is up there wreaking chaos chances will occur.

West Ham are around about 3/1 to go down which means that the uk online casinos and bookies think they are now reasonably safe. Southampton remain firm favourites for the drop at around about even-money.

West Ham have gone a long way to alleviating the pressure of Premier League survival with the signing of Andy Carroll. Carroll may not be everyone’s idea of a modern striker but there can be no doubt he’s the best in the league at doing what he does, and with Sam Allardyce’s direct tactics his career could be reborn this season.

Liverpool seem to have made a rash decision in getting rid of Carroll so soon without any real cover in the striking area. They’ve lowered the wage bill but at the expense of being left with just two recognised senior strikers. After Carroll shone in West Ham’s 3-0 demolition of Fulham many Liverpool fans are asking questions of the people who make the financial decisions at Anfield.

Carroll is a real battering ram of a centre forward and his all action display against Fulham showed exactly how effective he can be if a team plays to his strengths. West Ham surely couldn’t have imagined having a £35million pound striker playing for them last year, but Carroll’s fall from grace at Liverpool means they have just that.

With Carroll heading the ball into 50-50 areas and Nolan feeding off the scraps West Ham will be looking to emulate the success Newcastle had with that exact same combination. Throw Vaz Te, Noble and Jarvis into the mix and the Hammers look to have a genuinely effective side.

If Carroll can overcome his early hamstring injury and pick up where he left off you’d think that West Ham would be near certain to avoid the drop. As long as Carroll is up there wreaking chaos chances will occur.

West Ham are around about 3/1 to go down which means that the uk online casinos and bookies think they are now reasonably safe. Southampton remain firm favourites for the drop at around about even-money.

The manager of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, Markus Babbel, has made it clear that the club wants to release Ryan Babel. As per the manager, when Babel joined the club last season, the club had a lot of expectations from him. But, he has not been able to stand up to the expectations. He has not shown enough commitment and that is not acceptable. He doesn’t work hard in the training sessions. He said that Babel doesn’t give his 100% for the team and there is no place for such a player in the Hoffenheim team.

The manager of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, Markus Babbel, has made it clear that the club wants to release Ryan Babel. As per the manager, when Babel joined the club last season, the club had a lot of expectations from him. But, he has not been able to stand up to the expectations. He has not shown enough commitment and that is not acceptable. He doesn’t work hard in the training sessions. He said that Babel doesn’t give his 100% for the team and there is no place for such a player in the Hoffenheim team.

Babel joined Hoffenheim last season, but, he was not able to perform that well. He played in 46 matches, but was able to score only five goals. He also had controversies while playing for Hoffenheim. In a match against Hertha Berlin, Babel was shown red card by the referee. After the match, Babel wrote on Twitter that the referee was under the influence of drugs.

Meanwhile, the agent of Babel, Winnie Haatrecht, has said that Hoffenheim’s decision to release Babel is not due to his poor performance in the last season. It is due to some issues with his contract. According to Haatrecht, last year, there was an agreement between Hoffenheim and Babel that if Babel would play in more than four matches in 2011-12 season, his salary would be doubled. As per Haatrecht, Babel didn’t perform that badly for Hoffenheim.

Haatrecht said that Hoffenheim wants too much money for Babel. So, getting a transfer is very difficult for Babel. Hoffenheim bought Babel from Liverpool at a price of 6.9 million Euros. Now, Babel has only one year left in his contract, but, Hoffenheim is asking 6.5 million Euros for him. As per Haatrecht, Hoffenheim should lower its demand a bit.

Sunday’s match in Kharkiv sees Portugal face 1988 winners the Netherlands, with the latter knowing that victory is imperative if they are to have any chance of qualifying from Group B. They must beat Portugal by two clear goals, as well as hoping fierce rivals Germany pick up all three points in their game against Denmark.

Sunday’s match in Kharkiv sees Portugal face 1988 winners the Netherlands, with the latter knowing that victory is imperative if they are to have any chance of qualifying from Group B. They must beat Portugal by two clear goals, as well as hoping fierce rivals Germany pick up all three points in their game against Denmark.

This is the first meeting of the sides since Portugal’s 1-0 victory booked their place in the 2006 World Cup quarter finals. A goal from midfielder Maniche was enough to separate the sides in a game which saw a record four sending’s off, resulting in the match later being referred to as the Battle of Nuremburg.

Bwin give odds of 10.5 (19/2) that more than one red card will be shown this time around, whilst Bet Fred offer 3.75 (11/4) for there to be at least one sending off in the game; both teams will have to be disciplined if they are to have the best chance of progressing in the competition.

The Netherlands are 2.50 (6/4) favourites to win the game, with Portugal at a best price of 2.88 (15/8) with Paddy Power. The draw, which would only suit Portugal should Germany not lose to Denmark, is around 3.50 (5/2).

Three points would definitely see Portugal through, even if Denmark beat Germany, due to their 3-2 victory against the Danes in L’viv on Wednesday.

Despite misfiring in the tournament so far, captain Cristiano Ronaldo is generally regarded by the bookmakers as the favourite to open the scoring, though some firms are offering the same odds for Robin Van Persie to get the first goal.

Whoever nets first, one thing that is highly likely is that there will be an end to end game, so you may well be tempted to back there to be four or more goals at 3.0 (2/1) with Sporting Bet.

Former Liverpool winger Ryan Babel has once again fallen into troubled times following an update on his Twitter account. Ryan Babel has already had bad experiences with sharing his views on Twitter when he was at Liverpool.

However, it seems that he has not learned from his mistakes after it was revealed that the Hoffenheim player could be punished for calling the referee as being on drugs. Hoffenheim lost in the match against Hertha Berlin recently, which prompted Ryan Babel to come out with a statement that appeared to suggest that the referee was on drugs.

Former Liverpool winger Ryan Babel has once again fallen into troubled times following an update on his Twitter account. Ryan Babel has already had bad experiences with sharing his views on Twitter when he was at Liverpool.

However, it seems that he has not learned from his mistakes after it was revealed that the Hoffenheim player could be punished for calling the referee as being on drugs. Hoffenheim lost in the match against Hertha Berlin recently, which prompted Ryan Babel to come out with a statement that appeared to suggest that the referee was on drugs.

As a result, the German Football Federation has revealed that they will be opening an investigation into the matter. It is extremely likely that Ryan Babel will be punished with a huge fine for this statement on the social networking site Twitter.

Back in January 2011, Ryan Babel was punished with a £ 10,000 fine from the English football association after posting a picture of referee Howard Webb dressed in a Manchester United shirt. Howard Webb has always seen as a referee who favours Manchester United with his decisions, but it was Ryan Babel who became the first to come out with this audacious picture.

“I don’t know, I think the ref was on drugs,” said Ryan Babel immediately after the end of the match on his Twitter account. It is also very likely that the Dutchman will leave the club in the summer after failing to impress since joining from Liverpool in the summer. Babel also received two yellow cards in just 2 min to get his marching orders in the 3-1 defeat against Hertha Berlin. It has been a very poor season for Hoffenheim, who finished in the 11th position in the table – 19 points away from the final Champions League qualification places.

Ryan Babel who moved on from Liverpool to Hoffenheim has been known for his excellent skill and performance.

This has even been reflected on his scores which go on to show that he has been the highest scorer for Hoffenheim.

However, of late, he has been accused of not putting in enough effort for the team. The allegations come from none other than his own team mate Tom Starke. Starke has gone on to say that Ryan has not been showing positive attitude for quite a few weeks and this has gone on to reflect on the poor performance in the matches.

Ryan Babel who moved on from Liverpool to Hoffenheim has been known for his excellent skill and performance.

This has even been reflected on his scores which go on to show that he has been the highest scorer for Hoffenheim.

However, of late, he has been accused of not putting in enough effort for the team. The allegations come from none other than his own team mate Tom Starke. Starke has gone on to say that Ryan has not been showing positive attitude for quite a few weeks and this has gone on to reflect on the poor performance in the matches.

Ryan Babel in retaliation made sure that he maintained his calm and in a composed manner sarcastically gave it back to Starke by saying that a poor performance in the match is due to the entire team as a whole and not any individual’s. Just like it’s a team effort when a victory takes place, similarly the team should learn to unanimously join hands together when there is a loss.

Instead of complaining and pointing fingers at one another, Ryan feels Starke should go on to practice and improve his game. This hit at the criticism made by Starke has kept him speechless and he had no words to give back to Ryan who seemed to be quite right in what he said. It’s not always right to blame the best player in the team for a mishap.

If that’s the case, why not praise the best player for a victory. Football is a game of coordination as well and a team effort. Hence any loss should be taken in a competitive spirit and care should be taken to ensure that the team performs better. These thoughts by Ryan Babel have made all the critics think before they speak again.