Harry Kane is desperate to get his hands on some silverware and leaving Spurs is his grand plan this summer, but at the moment a move that looked possible and with Man City keen on a deal worth around £125million it looked likely that this would happen, but according to the latest talk, a move looks unlikely at this moment.
Anthony Martial could be moving from Man Utd after they landed Jadon Sancho. Spurs are said to be the new and likely destination for the French international who could be surplus at Old Trafford. Manchester Evening News reports that the player is said to have a chance to leave if an acceptable offer comes to the table.
Jack Grealish could be offered a package at Aston Villa that he will not refuse and a move to Man City can be in jeopardy as the England international might be staying at the club he loves in his heart and with that happening Dean Smith could bring Champions League football to Villa Park in a little while, also seeing an important addition in Ashley Young being influential for Grealish and a possible stay.
Arsenal will not give up their pursuit of bringing Leicester midfielder James Maddison to The Emirates. Leicester might be interested to sell if a price in the region of £60million is offered, with Mikel Arteta willing to let players leave and being part of the parcel, Ainsley Maitland Niles is mentioned as a possible option in the deal if it materialise.
Chelsea is said to be looking at a possible chance to bring Bayern Munich forward Robert Lewandowski to Premier League. At the age of 32 it might be the time to make a move, though Bayern Munich are reluctant to a move and want their super forward to continue to smash in goals in the Bundesliga.
Fulham have confirmed the signing of Harry Wilson, joining from Liverpool for a fee of £12million. Wilson (24) never played in the PL while at Anfield and after a number of loan spells including stays at Bournemouth, Derby and Cardiff it will be good to finally settle and of course promotion pushing Fulham will be a good place to play to continue.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has agreed to a contract extension, expire date in the summer of 2024 does see him as the long term manager alternative at Old Trafford. The former striker knows the club in and out and as a person he has started to grow into a position that just needs a trophy collected and the work is close to be completed, ending runners-up both in the PL and EL last season, reaching semi-final in the EFL Cup and reaching the Quarters of the FA Cup shows that the club is getting closer and closer to the big silverware.
Leeds are closing in on two new young wonders, Conor Gallagher in a supposed loan move from Chelsea, and goalkeeper Kristoffer Klaesson joining from Norwegian club Valerenga. Both moves are seen as really close and Marcelo Bielsa will continue to build at Elland Road. Leeds have already agreed a move for Chelsea youngster Lewis Bate.
The sport of soccer have a long tradition in New York City, beginning in 1910 with the first iteration of the American Soccer League. From those early days you had a number of teams competing and going back to that very first World Cup, USA picked up a bronze winners medal.
The 1930 group had a great number of players based in the city and representing New York Giants and New York Nationals, the two clubs had a total of six players in the squad and yes it was the same people that ran the Giants of baseball that had seen a possible chance to bring soccer to the masses at these time as well.
The first attempt to start professional soccer in the US goes as far back as 1894, and as we have seen a group of these pioneers were often from New York as it is a city with a long tradition for playing soccer.
The youth soccer leagues of New York has been around since that period of time, mentioning Cosmopolitan Junior Soccer League as the one still remaining. New York is so large that you have several area organisations building their own federations just to keep this sport growing.
Going down memory lane you have a number of clubs competing with New York Thistles as the first major team that competed from 1880 to 1906. They played other local clubs in the area, Brooklyn Longfellows and New York Caledonians, was two other traditional clubs.
From the early 1920’s into the 1950’s new clubs were founded with teams such as New York Hakoah and New York Brookhattan. Joe Gaetjens the goalscorer in that 1-0 defeat of England in the 1950 World Cup represented Brookhattan. You also had another player from New York in the squad, Joe Maca playing for Brooklyn Hispano. New York Americans was another club all being part of the New York settlement of soccer.
By the time NASL was established in the late 60’s you had new clubs being formed with New York Skyliners and New York Generals both taking part of the action , though it was short lived. A number of cups and different competitions were held as championships with Brooklyn Italians seen as winners, and still is a club in the area of New York.
The hype of the NASL will for always be part of US soccer history, but the fact that this league bended rules and regulations started with a change in the offside rule and also adding the shoot out competition to avoid games to end as draws, which in a way was against the normal part of US sports, to always decide a winner.
New York Cosmos emerged as Skyliners and Generals fell for financial reasons and with Warner Brothers in the back “Cosmos” managed to set the NASL and US soccer on the World map. The problem was that players were imported in masses and the US soccer talents never really became the best players and stars of this league, which probably was a key reason that it all went up in smoke by the year of 1984.
“Cosmos” imported stars of the past. Franz Beckenbauer, Pele, Carlos Alberto, Johan Neeskens and Georgio Chinaglia all joined and of course contributed to the quality rise and popularity. A number of more unknown players also managed to dig out a life as professionals alongside these huge superstars and the line-up’s are fascinating reading.
New York Cosmos had their stars of World football, but alongside those players mentioned above you had numbers coming in from the UK such as Sheffield United trio Keith Eddy, Tony Field and Terry Garbett, former N Ireland international and well travelled defender Dave Clement, as well as Charlie Aitken and Steve Hunt from Aston Villa. Aitken on his swan days of soccer, Hunt a young up and coming player that later represented England at full international level. You also had Belgian and later West Ham forward Francois Van der Elst there and of course not to forget Dennis Tueart who moved to “Cosmos” in between two periods with Man City.
“Cosmos” grew in popularity and had at some stage during the late 70’s an avarage of 40 000 on home games and played at The Yankee Stadium, which of course made this huge sports events and happenings as great stars moved in and took part.
Today you have New York City and New York RB in the MLS with Rochester also inside the state starting up as the Rhinos again in 2022, and you had the Lancers of the NASL era, and still have that team around in the third tier NISA league today known as Flower City Union. So the soccer is much alive in the state and other cities as well. Jamie Vardy of Leicester City is involved on the owners side of the new Rhinos.
New York Cosmos do still exist also in the modern era starting up again in 2010, competing in the new NASL that had a status as the number two league behind the MLS. Today they are found in the third tier. NISA as wel, and hopefully they will keep on going as the name and club have a legacy few can copy. The most winning team in the history of US Soccer, today you can say that the name, and a kits are what is left as a reminder of those great days 40 years ago. In the NISA you also have other New York based clubs such as New Amsterdam FC and New Jersey Teamsterz. Westchester Flames is also a club to notice, being around since 1999 and competing professionally at level four.
The Amateur Soccer of New York City does have a great number of clubs as the movement of this game continue to grow. Manhattan SC, which is said to be the largest club with most members in the state of New York, the upbringing of soccer players will probably continue as a base for this sport to grow.
This season New York City and New York Red Bulls will be playing in the MLS, the top tier of US football, also including teams from Canada.
We have seen a number great players moving to New York to play, and of course the men of Cosmos is well documented as we have seen Andrea Pirlo and Frank Lampard playing for New York City, Leeds flank midfielder Jack Harrison also reprsented the club a few years back. Thierry Henry representing New York Red Bulls, Cesar Louis Menotti, mostly known for being the Argentinian coach winning the 1978 World Cup, played for New York Generals.
Today and in the present season coming up, New York City will have Maxi Moralez in their team, probably the most notable today, too mention also another Argentinian, the forward Valentin Castellanos, a player of great importance to the team scoring vital goals.
For the Red Bulls you have Sean Davies who might stand out as one to notice, the midfielder is of great importance to the team, not really having any players with a great past instead building on younger players and from there build a better team. Also mentioning Cristian Casseres Jr. playing at full international level for Venezuela.
This season ended in a total disaster for Sheffield United, after a fantastic last campaign and it was like the mirror had turned up again from that very special 74/75 season, with a sixth place finish just four points behind the winner Derby County.
It was such a great season for The Blades finishing that campaign at home v. Leicester, winning 4-0 and also in that game you had that iconic moment when Tony Currie and Alan Birchenall kissed each other on the gras floor, and became an iconig photo and among the most famous football photos ever.
Sheffield United finished off the campaign with a draw away to Birmingham City at The St. Andrews. The team of that campaign had a number of fantastic players in there, with Tony Currie the star of the pack. But there were also other internationals in the side with Jim Brown and Eddie Colquhoun both representing Scotland at full level.
The game against Leicester was one to highlight with goals from David Bradford, John Flynn, Tony Currie and Keith Eddie. 28 947 spectators was at Bramall Lane for the game on this April day. Despite this fantastic season the shadows were over the club, who had been in the top flight since their return in 1971. The team had slowly been weakened with big money moves. Mick Jones left to join Leeds, Alan Birchenall was sold to Chelsea and Geoff Salmons moved to Stoke.
The star of the team was of course Tony Currie, a player that had such a pivotal presence being a midfield on his own, but when he missed the start of the 75/76 season it looked doomed and as they struggled heavily and finished in the bottom of the table with only 22 points collected.
Looking in the mirror it looked a bit like this season when Sheffield United came from a brilliant campaign to leave at the PL from a bottom position and a disastrous season, though this was only the second season up, you can see how a club would struggle without their best players on the field.
Tony Currie left Sheffield United in the summer of 1976 for a fee of £250.000 and as Mick Jones joining Yorkshire rival Leeds. It was obvious as a second division team, it could be a struggle and it started a slide down the league that ended in the fourth tier before a new climb again was established.
Key players all over the field and as Sheffield United fans know their history, but probably names such as Len Badger, Mike Speight, Ted Hemsley, John Flynn and Bill Dearden could have had a bigger star in the football league history, they were all in a team finishing sixth in the football league top tier.
Ken Furphy had done a glorious job on a string budget, finishing just one point from a UEFA Cup spot, but as the history tells us, it can fast change from sun to rain, and without Tony Currie in those first games that next season, Furphy was dismissed in October, but that opened new doors at a totally different continent, taking over the reins at New York Cosmos.
Furphy just jumped into a fold of superstars and if Tony Currie was seen as such at Sheffield United, Pele was the main man at Cosmos. Keith Eddy, Terry Garbett and Tony Field all followed and became Cosmos players.
Furphy left New York Cosmos after that 1976 season, but Eddy, Garbett and Field stayed on and must have experienced something of a dreaming scenario as they found themselves among players from the top shelf of World football.
David Bradford, Eddie Colquhoun, Colin Franks, Alan Woodward and Jim Brown were other players to move over to the US and continue among stars and being part of the phenomena NASL that in all finished as a system in 1984, with a number of Sheffield United players making history also in this part of the football planet.
Most of the players in the squad during that special 74/75 season had left three or four years later and it was surely not a slide of a ride that anyone had expected after such a close reach to a league title win, but life in football can sometimes be rocky, something that also shows why we all are so fascinated by this game.
