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Darren Fletcher
The Scottish midfielder has gone from being “Alex Ferguson’s lovechild, surely” to one of the first names on the Manchester United team sheet. His partnership with Michael Carrick is coming on in leaps and bounds and, on Sunday, he achieved Red Devil hero status by bagging a brace in United’s 4-3 win over bitter rivals Manchester City.
Titus Bramble
No laughing at the back. As customary as it has become to mock the formerly disaster-prone Wigan Athletic centre-back, he has begun to iron out the mistakes which destroyed his reputation at Newcastle after a £6m move there from Ipswich and is proving to be a strong and, my goodness, reliable performer. The all-too-familiar sight of the camera panning in on a dejected Bramble sitting on the ground and shaking his head is becoming rarer and rarer.
Florent Malouda
The French left-winger was looking for all the world like a £13.5m flop at Chelsea until something happened towards the end of last season and he began to play like a world-beater. Was he struck by lightning? Did he find a magic lantern? Did he manage to rid himself of a gypsy curse? Whatever it was, he seems to have finally ‘arrived’.
Aaron Lennon
Several other Spurs players seem to have stepped up a level over the last year – namely Heurelho Gomes, Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Tom Huddlestone – but none more so than Lennon, whose recent marriage of end product to his searing pace has seen him shoot up the pecking order for England.
Lee Cattermole
Middlesbrough’s £3.5m sale of the Cattermole to Wigan in 2008 seemed like a strange decision at the time and, sure enough, the tigerish midfielder soon became a key member of both the Latics’ and the England U-21s’ sides. A £6m summer transfer to Sunderland looks like being another bargain.
Emmanuel Eboue
A series of dreadful performances on Arsenal’s right-hand side culminated in Gunners’ fans cheering his removal from the pitch against Wigan last season, but his subsequent improvement has turned the cries of “boooo!” into cries of “Ebooooouuuue!”. The Ivorian has added goals to his game, and was sarcastically heralded by the Emirates announcer as a “goal machine” after he scored in a 4-0 win over Blackburn in March.
Steven Pienaar
The South African midfielder has turned in consistently excellent displays since he arrived at Everton from Borussia Dortmund in 2007, and he stepped into the breach left by Mikel Arteta’s long-term injury earlier this year with aplomb, becoming the Toffees’ main creative influence while maintaining his formidable work rate and chipping in with more goals.
Carlton Cole
The centre-forward burst onto the scene with some spectacular strikes as a youngster at Chelsea, but seemed to have stalled during stints at Wolves, Charlton and Villa before his belated finding of feet at West Ham last season. Usually deployed as the Hammers’ lone front man, Cole is still capable of conjuring the kind of sublime strike with which he scored against Spurs the other week. Let’s just not mention his subsequent through ball to Jermaine Defoe…
Ricardo Fuller
The 29-year-old Jamaican striker’s career looked destined to never rise above Championship-level proficiency, but the role he’s played during Stoke City’s rise to prominence has put paid to these notions. His strike rate last season of one goal every three Premiership games was one of the main reasons behind the Potters’ impressive 12th-place finish.
Gary Cahill
The young centre-back grabbed attention at Aston Villa when he scored a stunning volley against local rivals Birmingham City, but he failed to establish himself under Martin O’Neill and was moved onto Bolton Wanderers after impressing their scout, Everton legend Colin Harvey. Such has been his improvement at the Reebok that he was linked with a £20m move to Arsenal over the summer.
http://blog.sport.co.uk/Football/394...e_Players.aspx
The Scottish midfielder has gone from being “Alex Ferguson’s lovechild, surely” to one of the first names on the Manchester United team sheet. His partnership with Michael Carrick is coming on in leaps and bounds and, on Sunday, he achieved Red Devil hero status by bagging a brace in United’s 4-3 win over bitter rivals Manchester City.
Titus Bramble
No laughing at the back. As customary as it has become to mock the formerly disaster-prone Wigan Athletic centre-back, he has begun to iron out the mistakes which destroyed his reputation at Newcastle after a £6m move there from Ipswich and is proving to be a strong and, my goodness, reliable performer. The all-too-familiar sight of the camera panning in on a dejected Bramble sitting on the ground and shaking his head is becoming rarer and rarer.
Florent Malouda
The French left-winger was looking for all the world like a £13.5m flop at Chelsea until something happened towards the end of last season and he began to play like a world-beater. Was he struck by lightning? Did he find a magic lantern? Did he manage to rid himself of a gypsy curse? Whatever it was, he seems to have finally ‘arrived’.
Aaron Lennon
Several other Spurs players seem to have stepped up a level over the last year – namely Heurelho Gomes, Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Tom Huddlestone – but none more so than Lennon, whose recent marriage of end product to his searing pace has seen him shoot up the pecking order for England.
Lee Cattermole
Middlesbrough’s £3.5m sale of the Cattermole to Wigan in 2008 seemed like a strange decision at the time and, sure enough, the tigerish midfielder soon became a key member of both the Latics’ and the England U-21s’ sides. A £6m summer transfer to Sunderland looks like being another bargain.
Emmanuel Eboue
A series of dreadful performances on Arsenal’s right-hand side culminated in Gunners’ fans cheering his removal from the pitch against Wigan last season, but his subsequent improvement has turned the cries of “boooo!” into cries of “Ebooooouuuue!”. The Ivorian has added goals to his game, and was sarcastically heralded by the Emirates announcer as a “goal machine” after he scored in a 4-0 win over Blackburn in March.
Steven Pienaar
The South African midfielder has turned in consistently excellent displays since he arrived at Everton from Borussia Dortmund in 2007, and he stepped into the breach left by Mikel Arteta’s long-term injury earlier this year with aplomb, becoming the Toffees’ main creative influence while maintaining his formidable work rate and chipping in with more goals.
Carlton Cole
The centre-forward burst onto the scene with some spectacular strikes as a youngster at Chelsea, but seemed to have stalled during stints at Wolves, Charlton and Villa before his belated finding of feet at West Ham last season. Usually deployed as the Hammers’ lone front man, Cole is still capable of conjuring the kind of sublime strike with which he scored against Spurs the other week. Let’s just not mention his subsequent through ball to Jermaine Defoe…
Ricardo Fuller
The 29-year-old Jamaican striker’s career looked destined to never rise above Championship-level proficiency, but the role he’s played during Stoke City’s rise to prominence has put paid to these notions. His strike rate last season of one goal every three Premiership games was one of the main reasons behind the Potters’ impressive 12th-place finish.
Gary Cahill
The young centre-back grabbed attention at Aston Villa when he scored a stunning volley against local rivals Birmingham City, but he failed to establish himself under Martin O’Neill and was moved onto Bolton Wanderers after impressing their scout, Everton legend Colin Harvey. Such has been his improvement at the Reebok that he was linked with a £20m move to Arsenal over the summer.
http://blog.sport.co.uk/Football/394...e_Players.aspx
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