2014/2015 SEASON UPDATE
Neall Johnston:
Johnston spent the 14/15 season on loan at Leeds United, primarily playing up front with their star man Andy Carroll and therefore didn’t get too many goals with just 6 in 22 appearances. The club managed to finish 10th in the Premiership, improving drastically on their last two league finishes.
Brian Arthur:
Lazio declared their interest in the Striker early in the summer and, since the Irishman had not played a single game for Manchester City, the club allowed him to move to Italy in a transfer believed to have cost around 3.6m. Brian had a decent debut season in the Serie A, scoring a total of 11 goals in 27 appearances. Lazio just about secured a place in the Europa League as they finished 7th. Arthur’s great scoring record for his country continued as he now has 18 Caps/15 International goals.
Stephen Kingman:
After starting the season as a Fulham player, making 2 League appearances, Stephen Kingman made the move to Premiership outfit Hull City as they came in with a 1.4m bid for the midfielder. However, he felt the pain of two relegations in two years as Hull just fell short of retaining Premier League status, finishing 18th. Kingman once again failed to impress as a footballer, only setting up 2 goals in 22 appearances.
Lee Taylor:
Unfortunately for Taylor and co, Las Palmas were simply not strong enough to remain in the top division for the 2nd season running, finishing 19th in La Liga – they were sent back to Liga Adelante. Taylor’s average performances were simply not enough to keep them afloat as he had just 3 assists in 24 appearances. It has been reported that he is finally fed up with life at a mediocre club and his ambition decides that he must move on, though he is yet to officially hand in a transfer request.
Jack Kidd:
Jack Kidd had his best season to date in the Championship with Fulham, scoring an impressive 9 goals from midfield whilst also contributing 11 assists. This impressive form was enough to take Fulham to 5th place by the end of the season, successfully reaching the play-offs. However, they were destroyed in the semi-final to eventual winners West Brom 5-0 on aggregate and so remained a Championship side. This led the young Englishman to speak out in a press conference sharing his desire to move to a bigger club, despite supposedly being a Fulham fan. Loyalty certainly isn’t his style.
Nick Main:
An amazing season for Nick Main not only saw the right-back picked by Stuart Pearce to be part of the England set-up (He now has 4 appearances for his country after making his National debut vs Romania in October), but also his new club Tottenham Hotspur managed to finally win the Premier League, with Nick the Main man (Bud-dum psssh!) as he made a total of 44 appearances throughout the season.
Darijo Vucetic:
Darijo’s progression at Villarreal has seemed to come to a stand-still, the right back clearly losing game time as a result. This season was by far his most disappointing to date, only making 7 appearances in total for the Spanish club. To add to his misery, Villarreal finished 13th after a very poor end of season form, with the Croat stating that ‘he’s embarrassed by the recent run of defeats’ to the press.
Stan Raymonde:
Stan once again proved his footballing ability was similar to that of a swordfish as the supposed striker only scored a single goal in 16 appearances in his loan spell to Championship side Portsmouth. New Chelsea manager Michael Laudrup has decided that Raymonde has had more than enough chances to impress, and has put the young striker on the Transfer list, despite Stan’s hesitance to move.
Jake Miller:
Miller was not sent on loan this year, nor was he given a fair opportunity at Manchester City either. He remained largely in the reserve squad, making 12 non-competitive appearances, scoring a couple of goals and setting up a further 3. Despite playing in 2 cup matches for City, he remained anonymous in both, and as a result remained a reserve player.
Dunc Greentank:
Following his move to the blue half of Merseyside, Dunc made 15 appearances for the Toffees throughout the season, scoring a total of 6 goals. He was very unfortunate with injuries in the first half of the season and so could not play as much as he would have liked, however it seems that manager Nigel Pearson is still satisfied with what Greentank brings to the club and so the young striker remains very much in his plans. Everton managed an impressive 5th place finish this year, securing a Europa League spot.
Ivan Korodzhov:
Ivan Korodzhov spent the first half of the season on loan to Stoke City, scoring 4 goals for the Potters in 11 appearances. He returned to Manchester City in January and it seemed as though they had given up on the French striker as he was quickly transfer listed, despite not wanting to move clubs. For the second half of the season he did nothing of note, not even being allowed to play non-competitively for City.
Tirath Singh:
Although interest seemed to be highest from French side Lille, Singh ended up making a shock move to Hoffenheim for 6.75m. Despite numerous injuries getting in his way, Tirath managed to make 16 appearances in total for his new club, scoring once and setting up a further 5 goals. This considerable contribution helped Hoffenheim finish 2nd in the Bundesliga while winning the German Cup for the first time in the club’s history. Tirath Singh now boasts 27 caps for Australia.
OJ Simpson:
Simpson is incredibly unfortunate, a series of injuries kept him out for the majority of the season, allowing the Scotsman to play only 6 competitive games for Bolton. He only scored 1 goal in this period and so could not prevent his club from being relegated. He has supposedly struck up a good friendship with striking partner Ed Syers.
Billy Redrup:
The young, England goalkeeper continued to impress in the Serie A as he made 47 appearances for Juventus this season, getting an incredible 20 clean sheets while only conceding 43 goals. Although they failed to win the League, coming 2nd to Internazionale, they did manage to secure some Silverware as they beat the League Champions in the Italian Cup (With Redrup keeping a cleansheet in a 1-0 victory). Billy Redrup has made 12 caps to date for his Country.
Alfie Redrup:
Although Celtic yet again failed to win the SPL, he had undoubtedly his best season so far: In 36 appearances in all competitions, Alfie Redrup scored 2 goals and assisted an impressive 14 to become Celtic’s player of the year. Celtic also reached the final of the Scottish League Cup, but fell short to Rangers (Who, incidentally, won the domestic treble).
Conor McFadden:
Conor McFadden had rotten luck with injuries in the beginning of the season, suffering from strained knee ligaments, a twisted knee and a torn calf muscle almost all consecutively. This kept him out of action for a considerable chunk of the season, however he came back strong as he performed relatively well for loaner club Blackburn Rovers in the 19 appearances he made for the side.
Nathan Burbidge:
Although not as influential as in the previous season, Burbidge continued to contribute to his team as he scored a single goal and provided 8 assists in 34 appearances for the Potters. He was also called up by England manager Stuart Pearce to play against Iran on 11.2.2015 (a game in which he got an assist). Stoke City didn’t have a good season however, only missing out on relegation by two points. League Champions Tottenham are rumoured to be interested in the winger.
Ed Syers:
Despite Bolton’s relegation from the Premier League, Syers had a decent season for the club, scoring 10 goals in 26 starts. Although he hasn’t stated that he wants to leave the club, it has been reported that he is very disappointed at the team for allowing relegation to happen, stating that the team has ‘more potential than it’s showing’.
Daniel Oakes:
Oakes finally managed to break into the first team set-up at Manchester City, making a total of 23 appearances for the club – scoring 12 goals and setting up a further 3. Unfortunately for Manchester City however, the players didn’t seem to adapt to new manager Rafa Benitez’ style very well and so after a disappointing start the club only managed to finish 8th in the League after winning just a year before. Despite this, overall the season was a success for Daniel Oakes, with City winning the Community Shield and the FA Cup and breaking into the England squad under Stuart Pierce with 9 caps/4 International goals.
Ronan Eboue:
Ronan continued to be Burnley’s most creative influence this season with 10 assists in 37 appearances to his name. This contribution helped the club reach 3rd place in the Championship, however due to how harsh the play-off scenario is, Burnley failed to gain promotion, losing in the final 3-1 to WBA. Eboue has made 4 appearances so far for Ireland.
Premier League - Tottenham
FA Cup – Manchester City
League Cup – Liverpool
Johnstone's Paint Trophy – MK Dons
Champions League – AC Milan
La Liga – Real Madrid
Spanish Cup – Atletico Madrid
Spanish Super Cup – Real Madrid
Serie A - Inter
Italian Cup - Juventus
Italian Super Cup – Palermo
Bundesliga – Bayern Munchen
German Cup – Hoffenheim
COPA AMERICA 2015 - Chile