Watch: Wales 0 - 2 England

England played impressively on away soil at the Millenium Stadium today, with two early goals separating the two sides. The three lions proved too much for the one dragon as England breezed to victory without any real problems at the back whilst performing very well in the midfield and out wide. 

Watch the Goals below:

Liverpool Bid Just £12.7 million for Suarez as Babel leaves

Not only has Blackpool's Ian Holloway voiced his displeasure of a lowly transfer fee offered for Charlie Adam received from Liverpool, but now Ajax have asked for a more "respectful" bid to be made for their star striker, Luis Suarez.

Ian Holloway was recently angered by a £4 million bid for his captain Charlie Adam, and subsequently went on a little rant in his usual passionate fashion at a press conference in which the Blackpool manager also confirmed that Adam had submitted a formal transfer request.

Now, Luis Suarez, who has been subject of much speculation as to where his future lies, has been bid for by Liverpool in what Ajax believe is another unsubstantial offer.
An Ajax spokesperson said:

We'll have to wait for them to come back with something more respectful. We want to keep him - at least until the end of the season and preferably for the rest of his contract."

"If you compare the 15 million euros [£12.7 million] Liverpool want to pay for Suarez with other transfers you can imagine that it's far too low for us. Luis is our top goalscorer for the last three years and also the man with by far the most assists as well.

"He was one of the big guys for Uruguay in helping them come third in the World Cup in the summer and he still has a contract with us for two-and-a-half years."

These comments are completely understandable. Luis Suarez is obviously an integral part of the Ajax side, someone who scores a lot of goals and wins a lot of matches for both his club and country. The fact is, £12.7 million really isn't enough to persuade a side to let their star striker go anymore, especially one of Suarez's calibre.

Darren Bent was only recently bought by Aston Villa for around £24 million - a figure which I believe is quite overpriced, and I question the ability of certain Aston Villa negotiators in coming to such a price. However, this is the climate of the market at the moment, and even small teams like Blackpool are able to ask for decent money and get away with it.
The fact is, if Liverpool want to sign a top quality striker, they have to pay the full price, especially now that they have left it so late in the window. Ajax need time to buy a replacement, and need the money to do that, so Liverpool must get a move on to pick up Fernando Torres' partner who can drive both Torres and Liverpool to success in the Premier League table.

In other news, Ryan Babel has accepted personal terms and agreed to move to German club 1899 Hoffenheim (as I reported on on January 18th). A brief statement on the Premier League club's official website read:

"Ryan Babel has agreed a move to TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. The Dutch international will fly to Germany tomorrow to finalise the deal.

Darren Bent... Why He Wanted A Transfer...

"It does hurt to be honest," said Bent in response to the idea that he is a footballing mercenary. "When I was at Charlton I could have gone to West Ham for double but I chose for footballing reasons to go to Tottenham. I am sure people will have opinions on why I have joined Villa given where they are [17th in the league]. But I believe Villa are in a false position and it's a massive football club with massive tradition and massive history."

I'm no mercenary screams the headline in the Guardian... So why has Darren Bent moved? Is it to move to a bigger club like he says? Is it to be closer to his family in London like the rumour mill says? Or is it for the money like most people think but don't say?

I have a theory, all footballers have a shelf life, with strikers having the shortest sell by date. He is currently in the richest vein of form in his career scoring 38 goals in 58 games for Sunderland and challenging for a first team place for England. His market value is currently as high as its going to get. So why move? Paul Hayward of the Guardian has probably summed it up the best in my eyes when talking about Wayne Rooneys transfer request,

"Advisers get ideas. Advisers think ahead. A notion that starts in a sleepless night becomes a possibility and then a desired objective. Already we see that Rooney is not on the Scholes longevity chart. He smokes and drinks and blunders across the minefield of our front pages. When precocity collides with hedonism, agents tend to calculate that their star ought to make one big move before deterioration sets in. That way the whole camp can shake the money tree."

Now I don't know if Bent has hedonistic or self destructive tendencies, what I know is he doesn't sell shirts and it is likely that he won't gain international recognition like a Rooney, Lampard or Gerrard. He is known for being a Premier League footballer who gets goals and at the moment he's currently looking like the best one at doing that, with the demise of Fernando Torres, Didier Drogba and Wayne Rooney.

It's fair to say that Bent has hit his peak value at the age of 27. So its time to make some money for Bent and his agents. His name doesn't carry the same brand value as a Villa, Rooney or an Ibrahimovic and he doesn't have the all round ability to reinvent himself like Alan Shearer and Dwight Yorke for example have done in the past. His agents know this and understand that goals can dry up as quickly as they come. An example of this was Kevin Phillips was at Sunderland, the club rejected a £16m bid for Kevin Phillips only to sell the striker to Southampton for £3m less than two years later. Bent and his agents have just ensured that he doesn't end up missing a bumper payday like Kevin Phillips.