Healy

Leeds manager Dennis Wise is Not Happy about Lawrie’s public amazement that no-one has yet signed David Healy in the transfer window. He said: “I’m fed up with him opening his mouth. I want David at this football club.”
Healy is to undergo a scan today to see whether the arm he hurt in his last match for Leeds is broken. If so, it would obviously rule him out of the Wales match.

Hammers after Brunt

Apparently West Ham have a ‘more than passing interest’ in Brunt and will try and sign him either now or in January.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/international/article2184506.ece

Gillespie hands in transfer request

Keith Gillespie has handed in a transfer request to Sheffield United, blaming the stalling of contract negotiations, however the club have said that negotiations are ongoing.
The 31-year-old is also facing a violent conduct charge after Saturday, and his 3-game ban may be doubled.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/sheff_utd/6291279.stm

Oh Keith

Keith Gillespie comes on as sub for Sheffield United (he should have started!) and lasts barely 10 seconds before being sent off for flicking his elbow in the direction of Reading’s Stephen Hunt (the person who put Petr Cech in that helmet thing). Keith than had another wee punch at him.
Chris Brunt scored yet another free kick in Sheff Wed’s 4-2 defeat to Sunderland.
Games involving Birmingham, Burnley, Leicester and Northampton were postponed.
Oh, and the Wales game is still in doubt as the North Stand at Windsor is falling apart, despite only being 20 years old. Having all those depressing won’t-stand-won’t-sing fans in it must have been getting it down :-P

Laffs = £6m

Well after a bit of turbulence there, AWS is back online to belatedly tell you that Burnley rejected Celtic’s 500k bid for Laffs, with manager Steve Cotterill saying:
“The bid that has been made for Kyle is nowhere near acceptable. With those words we are not encouraging anyone to come back with a bigger bid because he is not for sale. We are looking to build our squad and be better and Kyle Lafferty is not only one for now, but he is one for the future at Burnley. Kyle will be in our squad for the rest of the season. He is a young boy who has been put on a big pedestal and could end up having a big fall. So we just need to make sure he switches his phone off and doesn’t speak to anyone.”
An earlier report had suggested Burnley might have to sell as “they historically have to sell one of their best players every January to sustain them through the second half of the season.”

Laffs and Capaldi
Cotterill went on to say: “Kyle feels quite upset and down about what has come out this week. It should never be like that. He should be on a high because one of the biggest clubs in Britain have bid for a young man, but he’s not. It was wrong him being contacted in the first place. I don’t suppose I can do anything about anyone ringing him, but he needs to get his head down now because he is a kid who just wants to play football and that’s what he has to be doing. It has bothered him a bit and I have spent nearly two days on and off the phone about this, so we will be making sure we wrap our arms around him here.
“He loves playing for Burnley and Northern Ireland and it just needs to be left at that.”
Dean Shiels set up 2 goals for Hibs with corners last night in their 4-1 Scottish Cup replay over Kilmarnock last night and on Wednesday and Gareth McAuley got his first Leicester goal in their 4-3 FA Cup defeat to Fulham.

Laffs = “Crouch 2″

Kyle Lafferty must have done something wrong, as he’s already being compared in the media to England’s affable but useless Peter Crouch.
Here’s a few more quotes about him, starting with the Evening Times:
“Lafferty – who has become a local hero at Turf Moor since returning from a loan spell at Darlington last season – is considered by Parkhead scouts to be one for the medium-to-long-term. But Celtic have decided to make their move now in an attempt to get in ahead of other big clubs who are monitoring the kid.”
These other clubs apparently are Liverpool, Man City and Blackburn! The young lad’s head’ll be turned.
Lawrie also reckons he wouldn’t be first team material for Celtic just yet:
“I know Kyle is held in high regard by several clubs in England who are looking at him. He’s not the finished article – he’s very raw and I would think it could take him maybe 18 months to establish himself in the Celtic first-team line-up. But he has done very well for me. We took him on our USA tour in the summer and he was excellent. He also impressed in our victory over Spain.
“You can see why people say he’s like Peter Crouch. He’s tall, he’s got a tremendous touch and he’s a great finisher. Although, funnily enough, he isn’t quite as good in the air as his height would suggest. (harsh!)
“If he does go to Celtic I don’t think he would walk straight into the team but he’s a great one to have for the future.”
Finally, here’s the views of another great striker!
Lafferty’s team-mate at Turf Moor, Ade Akinbiyi, was astonished by the improvement in his strike partner when he returned after spending a year with Sheffield United.
“I couldn’t believe it when I came back and watched Kyle in training,” he said. “He’s come on in leaps and bounds and his work-rate is phenomenal. For a young lad who is hungry and wants to do well he has massive ability and a big future ahead of him.”

Celtic make 500k Lafferty bid

Celtic have made a £500,000 bid for 19-year-old Northern Ireland and Burnley striker Kyle Lafferty.

“Celtic are a huge club and I’m honoured to be the subject of a bid,” Lafferty told BBC Sport. “I grew up supporting Rangers but that wouldn’t stand in my way.”
“Obviously there’s a long way to go but I’ll be talking to my club and my agent. I’ll also have to have a long chat with my mum and dad. Celtic are massive and the lure of European football is very appealing.”
Laffs has 7 NI caps and 1 goal.

He gets the ball he scores a goal

Ivan Ivan Sproule!

With a young and inexperienced Hibs side drawing 0-0 at Kilmarnock tonight, John Collins introduced Ivan Sproule, and 5 minutes later:
“The little Irish winger picked the ball up on the right-hand-side of Killie’s box and, as the home defence backed off, he rifled a shot high beyond the flailing Combe.” (BBC)

Furthermore: “Sproule’s direct running down the right flank continued to create havoc in the Killie defence and he forced Combe into a good save on the hour mark.”
In the first half, “Deans Shiels wasted two glorious early opportunities for Hibs.”
That is all.

Elliott scores late brace to snatch win

Stuart Elliott scored twice in the last 5 minutes for Hull this afternoon to give them a 2-1 win over QPR.

Hull boss Phil Brown:
“He’s the hero and credit to him. He’s a very honest lad and has a well-documented asthmatic problem. He came to me a few games ago and said he can’t do 90 minutes and wasn’t doing justice to himself or for the team. He needs to prove to us he’s a goalscorer in the Championship and he proved that here with those goals.”
If it’s well documented then AWS must be letting y’all down badly…
Transfer-listed Andy Kirk scored his first goal since the end of September in Northampton’s 3-2 win over Carlisle, putting them ahead from 25 yards.

Sproule scores tap in

Like so.
It gave Hibs the lead at Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup. The game finished 2-2, so there will be a replay. Dean Shiels also started the match.