With just 10 days left of the January transfer window Plymouth Argyle are still a little light on the attack front. Plymouth have signed one striker to replace Hayles and Ebanks-Blake, Luggy has managed to snag Steve MacLean from championship rivals Cardiff City for 500k. But is still on the look out for another striker as our current line-up aren’t really good enough for the championship in my opinion! Plymouth have tabled two bids for Exeter City’s Jamie Mackie, and both bids (rumoured to be 80k and 100k) have been rejected. But it’s looking likely that Mackie will be leaving the club imminently after being left out in the last game. So it seems silly to reject 100k for the striker when he clearly wants the move up three divisions with Plymouth especially when he is out of contract at the end of the season. Mackie has scored 13 goals for Exeter this season so he has an eye for the goal but can he do it at championship level, there’s a massive gulf between the championship and league one, let alone the championship and the Conference. But what I would like to know is what happened to all the cash that was made for Ebanks-Blake, Hayles, Buzsaky and Gosling sales, which totals some 4m. So far we have signed two players, MacLean for 500k and Chris Clark for 200k, what happened to the other 3.3m? Argyle need a high profile striker, maybe someone that is past their best from the Premiership but still more than good enough for Championship football. Rumours are still flying about David Norris leaving Plymouth for 1.5m and Argyle are still waiting on central midfielder Paul Wotton to come back to fitness!
Liverpool have fallen even further behind Premiership leaders Arsenal and Manchester United after being held to a 2 – 2 draw with Aston Villa at Anfield. Liverpool are as unsettled as Argyle right now with all the speculation that owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett are about to sell up to Dubai International Capital (the Dubai government) for 350m. The unrest has manifested itself on the pitch with a series of under par performances. Yossi Benayoun put the Reds into the lead in the 19th minute at the second time of asking but the home team couldn’t convert pressure into a second goal. Then in a crazy three minutes Liverpool suddenly found themselves behind after Marlon Harewood’s spectacular overhead kick defeated Jose Reina. Then Fabio Aurelio attempted clearance only looped the ball past his own keeper into the back of the net. Villa had a nervous 18 minutes to the end and almost pulled it off but substitute Peter Crouch picked up on a loose ball and fired home from the edge of the penalty area. Liverpool are now a massive 14 points off the top of the Premiership, despite Benitez’s bullishness about Liverpool’s title challenge, that dream has gone, the gap is two big now with Arsenal and United not dropping many points so far!
Finally, something from my personal life. After some serious discussion myself and Erin have agreed to take things a little slower. Instead of just jumping in with both feet, the plan is for me to visit for a week or two. There is no guarantee that things are going to work out as planned so it makes sense not to put all my eggs in one basket. We are still convinced that it’ll work out as planned as we don’t feel any different towards each other, if anything this has made our love and resolve even stronger. This move is to appease her parents as much as anything else, so far I have been accused by her father and stepmother of being a paedophile, child molester and serial killer and all this without even saying one word to me. I am amazed that these people can make a decision on someone without even seeing me or even hearing my voice. Erin is apparently desperate and they have likened our relationship to someone falling into love with a convict on death row through letters. Now there’s one big difference, we can see and hear each other and talk for hours every day and probably know each other better because we aren’t together physically. How can either of us be desperate? Seriously… if we were desperate it really wouldn’t make sense to start a relationship with someone 4399 miles away. The thing they seem to forget is that even if Erin met someone locally, he could still as easily be a paedophile, child molester or serial killer, but they have their arses so far up their own arses they can’t see the logic in that!