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Just 11 years ago Aston Villa vs. Bradford would have been a normal Premier League fixture, with the Bantams plying their trade against the very best clubs in English football.

But, the period between then and now has been a tough one at Valley Parade, tougher than many would have expected when they dropped out of the top-tier in 2001.

Financial meltdown, multiple administrations and subsequent relegations have left the club battered and bruised. Beaten to the extent that dropping out of the professional league system was a real possibility at the back end of last season.

But, this campaign’s League Cup exploits have seen the Yorkshire side roll back those painful years, and dish out some angry punches, flooring the likes of Wigan and most recently Arsenal to book a spot in the semi-final.

In some ways the club made a rod for their own back, splashing more cash than they actually possessed when they were at the top table. Italian striker Benito Carbone arrived at Bradford on £40,000-per-week wages, whilst the stadium and training facilities were developed, in a period that then chairman Geoffrey Richmond described afterwards as “six weeks of madness”. Maybe they would have coped had relegation not struck in the same year, however their haul of just 26 points saw the prosperous era of Premier League football end for the club.

Manager Jim Jefferies was sacked shortly afterwards, following a training ground bust-up, and to make matters worse debts spiralled to an unmanageable £13m. Although they managed to avoid the drop to the third-tier, administration struck, forcing the release of almost all of the club’s playing staff.

Miraculously they survived once again in 2003, but the following year, under Bryan Robson, Bradford were unable to keep clear of the relegation zone, falling into Division Two.

Colin Todd replaced Robson ahead of the next campaign, and kept the club safe as administration bit once again. Despite this, he was sacked in 2007, as owner Julian Rhodes appointed David Wetherall as player-manager with the team three points clear of the relegation zone. However, he was unable to save City from entering the bottom tier of professional football.

Yet, after managing to remain safe, now manager Phil Parkinson has set his sights on catapulting the club back through the league system, and this season’s Capital One Cup could be play a big part in his lofty plans.

Although lifting the trophy is improbable, it’s not impossible, and the feel good-factor that statement brings has rejuvenated the club’s loyal support – they still average a gate of 10,000-per-game in League 2.

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The financial impact will also be significant, with the estimated £300,000 generated from the Arsenal tie alone thought to be enough to cover half of the club’s overspending on wages. With a two-legged affair against Premier League opposition in the semi-final another large sum of income is expected, which will go some way to repairing the remaining damage.

With promotion to League One a legitimate possibility as well, things are finally beginning to look up in Yorkshire. They may only be facing England’s elite in the Capital One Cup for now, but maybe, just maybe, Bradford could be back in the big time in the not too distant future.

When the first international break of the season comes around it gives a club time to reflect on a their start to the domestic campaign and assess how their new faces have settled in to their new environment. For the Gunners they can look back on the first two weeks of the new term with a broad smile on their face. Three games in, no goals conceded and five points from a possible nine on the board. Not bad after a summer that saw Arsene Wenger wave goodbye to his two most influential players. A 2-0 victory at Anfield last Sunday certainly laid bare a slight modification in philosophy at the Emirates Stadium with many attributing the North Londoners’ promising start to the influence of Steve Bould following his promotion to assistant manager in place of recently retired Pat Rice. It may only be early doors but Bould’s influence has already shone through with the Gunners back four visibly brimming with confidence, structure and discipline Wengers’ new number two is rightly taking the plaudits for that. With an attack bristling with new blood, fresh energy and bags of creativity  there is a sense that the club, having removed any remnants of past glories, are now ready to move forward and finally end its seven year trophy drought.

This week on FFC is Abou Diaby the man to the hole left by Alex Song in midfield and why is Bacary Sagna criticising the Gunners current transfer policy?

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Best of FFC

Will new rulings see many look to Arsenal as the ideal blueprint

What state do Arsenal currently find themselves in…

What is going on with Cesc Fabregas?

Are we looking too much into his influence at the Emirates?

This Diaby fever can last all season…

A genuine upgrade at Arsenal?

What does Wenger do with this embarrasment of riches?

Arsenal star hails Bould’s influence at the Emirates

Kouyate confirms Arsenal transfer talks

Arsenal hopeful of securing a new deal

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Best of WEB

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When Does A Stadium Become Home? – A Cultured Left Foot

Could he be on his way back to Arsenal? – Gunnersphere

The Other Man That Makes Arsenal Money – Online Gooner

Can he really be Arsenal’s new Song? – Gunnersphere

Don’t tell me that you think it’s green … – Arseblog

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Peter Hill-Wood defends Arsene and Arsenal – shock / horror | Steve Bould fan club grows and grows… – Le Grove

So we didn’t play that well then, the opposition were just poor! What Rubbish! – Highbury House

Jack Wilshere Will Surely Be Key To Arsenal’s Season – Transfer Tavern

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Quote of the Week

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“I expected the departure of Robin van Persie. We all expected it. It was ‘obvious’. But the Alex one, it was a surprise! He is 24 years old, he has three years remaining on his contract. I still do not understand. It is huge loss for the club. When you see the two best players of last season leave, you have a lot of questions. Sometimes in the street the fans talk to me. I can understand they are upset. I am just like them, I don’t understand everything. At Arsenal you come back after holidays, you make preparations, and you see two players leave and the season resumes – it has been like that since I have been at the club. I am used to it now” Bacary Sagna criticises Arsenal summer transfer policy

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Jobi McAnuff says he will hold talks with Reading at the end of the season and is refusing to make a decision on his future just yet.

The Royals are heading for a swift return to the Championship following Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Norwich and if that is the case then there will be big changes in the summer.

One or two players will want to move on while new Royals boss Nigel Adkins will also be looking to clear the decks a little bit in order to make way for new blood.

McAnuff, who has a contract until 2014, could be one of the players asking to leave, but for now he would rather focus on seeing out the remainder of the season.

“We’ll have a look at it, obviously, once that time comes,” McAnuff revealed. “We’ve got a few games here to make the most of it – we have to try to dig in and get results.

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“We’ve all got our own pride and we don’t want to finish bottom, that’s for sure. So we’ll be trying to pick up as many points as we can between now and the end of the season and address things then.”

Fulham manager Martin Jol has expressed little worry over losing Moussa Dembele over the next few days, as he insists it would take a large sum for Fulham to part with the Belgian international.

Dembele has reportedly attracted attention from other clubs after a series of impressive performances for the Cottagers over the past couple of years. He has started the new season in fine style, posing plenty of problems for Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday in a 3-2 defeat. The way he played could lead to some late interest in the transfer market, but Jol doubts whether anyone will lodge a bid that would tempt Fulham to sell.

Dembele has always stressed that he is happy at Craven Cottage and remains a key part of Jol’s plans, unlike somebody such as Clint Dempsey who has been left out so far this term after declaring a wish to move on. Asked about Dembele, Jol told Sky Sports: “He plays and he likes the club, so there’s no problem. You have to pay a lot of money to get Dembele. There won’t be a lot of clubs putting that sort of money on the table, so I think we are fine.”

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The Daily Mirror are reporting that Premier League Champions Manchester City are keen to launch a stunning £7 million bid for Alen Halilovic, touted by many as “the best young player in the world”.

At just 16, Halilovic has already broken into the first team at Dinamo Zagreb, becoming the youngest player and goalscorer in Croatian League history. Only breaking into the first team this year, the youngster, born in 1996, has become a sensation in his country, with comparisons to Luka Modric already prevelant. Dinamo are renowned for producing young talents with former Arsenal man Eduardo, the aforementioned Modric and Lyon defender Dejan Lovren all products of the academy. However, expectatiuons of Halilovic are high and the Croatian media have dubbed him as the best player in the world in his age group.

Rumours of interest from Manchester United and Real Madrid became public over summer, before the youngster had even kicked a ball in the professional game. However, his handful of first team appearances this season have been impressive enough to garner interest from Man City, who are willing to splash out up to £7 million on the 16 year old.

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Halilovic’s father Sejad was also a professional footballer, earning 15 caps for Bosnia during a 13 year career and will be hoping that his son can live up to the enormous expectations that lay before him.

It seems years ago now, well in fact it was years ago, but Kieran Richardson’s loan move to West Brom back in 2005 proved to be one of the most genius pieces of <a href=”https://www.footballfancast.com/premiership”>Premier League</a> business in the history of the competition. The former <a href=”https://www.footballfancast.com/team/manchester-united”>Manchester United </a>youngster was in lethal form and at times appeared to be keeping the Baggies up single-handed. At the end of the season, West Brom avoided relegation with much of the plaudits going to their young loan signing.

The English top flight is littered with youngsters just waiting for a first-team opportunity and the chance to make a difference at a smaller club in order to stake a claim for a first team spot back at their parent club.

We don’t have room to tell you all of them, so here is a collection of the Top 15 Premier League youngsters that clubs should consider loaning in January that would be beneficial to both parties.

<p style=”text-align: center;”><a href=”https://www.footballfancast.com/?attachment_id=195945″><strong>So click on Tom Carroll and see if any of our starlets catch your eye</strong></a></p>

<a href=”https://www.footballfancast.com/?attachment_id=195945″><img style=”margin-left: 150px; margin-right: 150px;” title=”Tom Carroll” src=”https://www.footballfancast.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Carroll_26560971-300×225.jpg” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”225″ /></a>

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Liverpool midfielder Joe Cole appears to be attracting interest from French outfit Lille once more after a successful loan spell there last term, but should Brendan Rodgers consider letting him go given the paucity of options within his squad or is the fallen former England star simply destined to never realise his potential on Merseyside?

The French club’s boss Rudi Garcia told RMC this week, hinting at a future move for Cole: “Joe is not only a great person, but also a great footballer. But financially it was not possible to save him. This can be prohibitive for the return of Joe to Lille. Sportingly and humanly, I’d love to see him back.”

While something may have been lost in translation, that Garcia is supposed to have said ‘save him’ couldn’t be closer to the truth after falling even further down the pecking order since returning to Liverpool in the summer and Rodgers criticism of his display against Swansea in the 3-1 defeat at home in the Capital One Cup marks his lowest point since arriving at the club.

It’s worth remembering that Cole is still just 30 years of age and as such should be seen as one of the senior members of the squad at Anfield, but he’s currently sat behind teenagers Raheem Sterling and Suso in terms of a first-team place, while Stewart Downing is quickly becoming Rodgers go-to attacking substitute.

Rodgers commented on Cole’s performance against Swansea: “Joe Cole had an opportunity, the club has invested an astronomical sum of money in a talented player and he has to seize his opportunities. It [Liverpool’s approach] was too slow, it just was not what I would expect from a team I had set up to be dynamic so I think it was a difficult night for him.” While it may have been a tad on the harsh side, for the whole team underperformed that evening, that he was singled out points to a fractious relationship similar to the one that Rodgers shares with Downing.

The senior set-up currently just has 19 players in it and the manager has talked about the need to invest in January and that it’s unlikely that many people will be leaving in the opposite direction, but Cole’s struggles, coupled with his ‘astronomical’ wages makes him an ideal candidate to shift on.

It was reported at the time of his move to Lille that Liverpool were willing to pay as much as 60% of Cole’s £100,000 per week wages such was their insistence on getting him some regular football. However, his prospects appeared to improve in the summer after the departures of Dirk Kuyt, Maxi Rodriguez and Craig Bellamy all left for various reasons and the lack of attacking depth, with the side overly-reliant on Luis Suarez at present is clear for all to see as a result.

On the face of it, a lack of depth and a new manager should all point to more playing time for Cole, who lest we forget, has three Premier League winner’s medals, three FA Cup winner’s medals, and 56 England caps to his name. Yet he’s struggled with injury and two successive hamstring strains have disrupted his season so far.

When looking at Rodgers preferred system, the 4-3-3 formation would seem to lend itself to Cole’s talents – an appreciation of working the ball around in tight spaces, the ability to glide past a man in the middle of the park and the vision to spot a pass in the final third. Of course, these were the characteristics which he used to be lauded for, but weight and form issues have dogged his time at Liverpool.

Balancing the books has been a major concern of FSG’s for some time now and was the motivating factor behind allowing the fringe trio of Bellamy, Kuyt and Maxi to all leave the club. The suspicion that Cole’s strong ties to previous club Chelsea, coupled with the realisation that the club are getting a particularly bum deal considering their outlay on the midfielder has always meant he’s not been highly regarded on the terraces and remains something of an easy target for the boo boys, so it’s not as if there would be much opposition from either side at his departure.

Any movement out of the club is entirely dependent on how much Rodgers has to spend, with a figure around the £10m mark mooted for January business, but his wages and his lack of playing time only point to a role which will become even more marginalised in the future and it’s hard to see a way back for him at Liverpool now.

Should Liverpool let Joe Cole leave in January? Or should they retain his service and grant him a more prominent role?

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You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1

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Swansea welcome Everton to the Liberty Stadium on Saturday lunchtime looking to recover from their first defeat of the season suffered at Aston Villa last weekend.

Swansea defender Ashley Williams faces a race to be fit for the game having been suffering with an ankle injury. His loss would be a blow to Michael Laudrup who is already without the injured Neil Taylor, Kyle Bartley and Gary Monk. Chico Flores will also serve the second of his three match suspension.

Everton will be without Darron Gibson, who is suffering with a thigh injury. Nikita Jelavic is an injury concern after he was hurt in a collision with his own teammate Leon Osman during Monday’s draw with Newcastle.

Despite last weeks defeat, its been a superb start to the season for Swansea. Only Manchester United and Fulham (10) have scored as many goals as the Swans this season, who are infact unbeaten in their last five home games.

Summer signing Michu has been the star of the show so far for Laudrup’s men, and will be looking to score in his third consecutive home game for the club.

David Moyes brings his side to Wales in decent form also. His side have in fact lost just one of their last 13 Premier League matches.

Leighton Baines was on the scoresheet during Everton’s 2-2 draw with Newcastle on Monday night. It was the fullbacks tenth goal since August 2010, making him the highest scoring defender in the Premier League during that period.

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Prediction: Swansea 2-2 Everton

Wigan have doubts over the fitness of Antolin Alcaraz after the defender picked up a hamstring injury at the weekend.

Alcaraz has only just returned to the first team following a lengthy spell out with a groin injury and any more time on the sidelines will come as a huge blow to Latics.

The return of Alcaraz coincided with an upturn in results as Latics have won five out of the last nine games but there is still plenty of hard work to do if they are to beat the drop and they need the defender fit.

Roberto Martinez is now waiting to hear the full extent of the damage and will be hoping and praying that it is nothing serious, with just five games of the season remaining.

“The injury to Antolin made for a very difficult afternoon for us at West Ham,” he told the Wigan Evening Post. “He’s got a soft tissue injury to the back of his hamstring, and so we’ll assess him this week before discovering exactly how long he’ll be out for.

“It’s obviously a real negative note, and had an effect on how we wanted to play.”

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Though Arsenal have not won a trophy for seven years, of course, many Arsenal fans will not have forgotten about Arsenal’s great ‘Invincibles’ run, where the Gunners went unbeaten for 49 games in the Premier League.

Many over the years have tried to compare Arsenal’s greatest players. However, while Thierry Henry wins a lot of the plaudits, outside of the Arsenal faithful, is Dutch legend Dennis Bergkamp really mentioned enough for his great achievements for the club?

Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ team are given much credit for their stunning unbeaten run. But, while many talk about Thierry Henry’s achievements, could it be said that Dennis Bergkamp, along with other members of the team should be praised more for their contributions to Arsenal’s successes in the early 2000s? It seems that many Arsenal fans consider Dennis Bergkamp to be one of the club’s biggest legends.

I have even seen it be suggested how trying to choose whether Thierry Henry or Dennis Bergkamp is the best is like trying to choose between a mum and dad. Could it be said that perhaps some may not mention Dennis Bergkamp as, say, Thierry Henry, because people outside the Arsenal faithful may not understand the connection between fans of the Gunners and Dennis Bergkamp?

He played for Arsenal for 11 years, making 423 appearances and scoring 120 goals for the Gunners. He also showed great loyalty and commitment to the Gunners, unlike many other Arsenal players, he retired as an Arsenal player, and talking about retiring if he could not stay at Arsenal before extending his contract for the 2005/6 season, despite Ajax being interested in him.

So, could it be said that Arsenal fans are always going to laud his talents more than others because of his connection with the club?

Dennis Bergkamp is seen as a footballing legend for many reasons. He scored superb goals, had awareness tactically, prowess physically, the ability to pick out killer passes, accuracy, and many other things. Could it be said that while Thierry Henry is one of Arsenal’s greatest ever players, Dennis Bergkamp should maybe get more credit. Could it be said that a big part of Arsenal’s success was down to some of Dennis Bergkamp’s work as well as the efforts made by Arsenal’s top goal scorer?

However, Dennis Bergkamp’s great talents have been recognised by the footballing world. He got into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame in 2007, becoming the first ever Dutch player to achieve this. He has garnered much acclaim, for example, being picked by Pelé as one of FIFA’s 100 greatest living players.

However, could it be said that his talent and achievements are not mentioned enough by the media and fans of clubs other than Arsenal? Although, could the case be that perhaps he is not mentioned more because of the sheer number of great Arsenal players during that era like Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Robert Pirès?

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But are his achievements for Arsenal given enough attention? How much attention is given to his 22 goals in the 1997/8 season that helped Arsenal to a League title and an FA Cup, for example? What about his brilliant goal against Newcastle in 2002?

Dennis Bergkamp is considered by many to be one of the greatest footballers ever. However, should more people who are not Arsenal fans take notice of the highlights of his career?

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