Don’t you just hate international breaks? There are eleven whole days until Liverpool are next in action. Mind you, it comes at a time to give our injured players some space to recover.
Meanwhile it’s also giving some of our players some very valuable experience. Take defender Andre Wisdom for example.
Wisdom could find himself filling in for Glen Johnson over the coming weeks after it was revealed on Wednesday the 29-year-old right-back has sprained his high ankle. Wisdom replaced his mentor during the second half of Liverpool’s 1-0 victory over Manchester Utd on Sunday.
Now others are seeing the shining light and qualities in 20-year-old Wisdom with England Under-21 captain Gareth Southgate selecting him as the new permanent U21s captain.
Wisdom’s first duties will be to lead the team out against Moldova for their first U21 European Championships qualifier against Moldova.
“It’s a great honour to captain any England side at any level so I’m pleased to retain the captaincy and hopefully we can go on and do well,” Wisdom is quoted in the Liverpool Echo as saying.
“We’ve got two games coming up so it’s a chance to impress everyone and hopefully me and the lads can put a good performance on and show the fans what we’re really capable of.”
Wisdom also spoke of how he has learnt from role models such as Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and, more recently, Kolo Toure.
“Steven Gerrard is a great captain for club and country,” he added.
“It doesn’t matter what position you play, you can learn a lot from him, especially training with him every day and seeing the way he presents himself and lifts teams in times of need.
“I can see the way he lifts the team and hopefully I can do the same.
“It’s good to be called a wise head on young shoulders – I think it goes well with my second name as well!
“But I just try to take everything in my stride and be as humble as possible and learn from players like Kolo Toure and Jamie Carragher.”
Good on you, Andre. Good luck tonight. England U21s vs Moldova U21s gets underway at 7.45pm tonight at Reading’s Madjeski Stadium.
Over in Italy, Lazio president Claudio Lotito has said the club made inquiries to sign Reds forward Fabio Borini on loan before the transfer window closed.
Borini ended up on a season-long loan move to Sunderland to gain valuable Premier League experience with the Black Cats.
“His name was under consideration, but Liverpool didn’t want to sell him outright and they preferred to keep him in the Premiership,” Lotito told Corriere dello Sport.
And finally, former Liverpool defender Alan Hansen has revealed he is set to retire from football punditry at the end of the season.
The 58-year-old will see out his contract with Match of the Day, before hanging up his boots – despite offers from the like of Sky Sports.
“I’m retiring from Match of the Day at the end of the season,” Hansen told the Telegraph. “I will have been there for 22 years and will be 59, so it’s the right time for me.
“I’ve been in football for 41 years and I’m going out right at the top, just as I did at Liverpool. The plan was always that I would retire at 55. I kept going, but I finally decided to retire during Euro 2012.
“I had just signed a two-year contract and felt that, by the end of it, I would have had enough. But I have worked for a great organisation with wonderful people on the most fantastic programme.”
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