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Wigan’s plight may be due to the club’s transit-camp reputation

Roberto Martínez has a bee in his bonnet about the January transfer window. It is unsettling, he reckons, to have players approached and agents in action at a time in the season when crucial games are taking place, and he believes the disruption affected Wigan Athletic’s concentration and has quite possibly cost them points.

“At Christmas we are like a supermarket for the rest of the clubs in the league,” he says. “Anyone who wants a player seems to think: ‘Let’s see who Wigan have got.’ But at the same time as I am fending off enquiries and the players are talking to half a dozen agents about possible moves, we are supposed to win matches. It is not fair on the smaller clubs. I think the winter window should shrink to maybe a fortnight, with a weekend off in the middle, so that deals can be done and players are moved around before the second half of the season starts up, with everyone knowing where they stand.”

The Wigan manager may have a point, and he certainly has players on his books who would attract bigger clubs. Leighton Baines, Antonio Valencia and Wilson Palacios have already moved onwards and upwards from Wigan, and it seems only a matter of time and money before Charles N’Zogbia, Hugo Rodallega and Maynor Figueroa eventually follow. No one at Wigan resents players using the club as a stepping stone, Martínez least of all, although a transit-camp reputation may help explain why a capable manager is still waiting for back-to-back league victories after two seasons in charge, and why a side boasting players who can attract interest from the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool finds itself needing to win at Stoke City tomorrow to preserve its Premier League status.

Martínez predicted a couple of weeks ago that Wigan would need to win their last two games to stay up, and they at least gave themselves a chance with the stirring comeback that led to West Ham United being relegated last week. What Martínez could not have predicted was that winning two successive league games for the first time under his stewardship to finish on 42 points still might not be enough to guarantee survival. If there is a winner in the Wolves-Blackburn game, and Birmingham and Blackpool also win tomorrow, 42 points would only lift the Latics to third from bottom. There are a lot of ifs in that scenario, of course; in all probability a win at Stoke would be enough to keep Wigan up, and anyone who goes to the Britannia Stadium and takes all three points undoubtedly deserves to succeed, whatever the circumstances.

Yet although it is easy to scoff at Blackpool’s chances of saving themselves at Old Trafford or the possibility of Birmingham turning around a dreadful run of form by springing a surprise at Tottenham, you never quite know on the last day. Blackpool were two goals to the good against United with 20 minutes to play at Bloomfield Road in January after all, and that was when United were trying to win the title. Now they have nothing left to play for, and the suggestion that Sir Alex Ferguson’s reserves will be outdoing each other in an attempt to win a place at Wembley next weekend overlooks the strong possibility that the United manager will have known his side for the Champions League final from the moment Schalke were beaten in the semi-final.

At least Tottenham have something to play for, and with a home game against struggling Birmingham they ought to be confident of securing fifth place and pipping Liverpool to the remaining Europa League place. That’s fine, as long as you are convinced Spurs actually want to be in the Europa League next season. The result at Anfield last week could be regarded as a sign that Liverpool were not all that bothered about the less exciting of Uefa’s two competitions, and after the season Spurs have just had in the Champions League, a return to the Europa’s Thursday-Sunday treadmill does not seem to be filling Harry Redknapp with enthusiasm.

The Europa League is fine for teams with limited European experience – Stoke, Bolton or Fulham, say – but can only be a comedown for anyone with a Champions League pedigree. It would be entirely understandable if both Liverpool and Spurs wanted to give themselves a clear run at a top-four finish next season, without the complications of a minor European contest that goes on for too long. The usual compromise seems to be to take the Europa seriously before Christmas then get out before the going gets tough in the league; although in the context of tomorrow’s relegation struggle it cannot automatically be assumed that Spurs will be massively motivated by the prospect of European qualification. They do not have quite the same incentive as Manchester City have to finish above Arsenal and bypass the Champions League’s qualification round.

But no one has such an urgent incentive as the clubs playing for survival. “We might as well forget about the league, we just have one more cup final to win,” Martínez says. “There will never be a better time to win two in a row, that’s for sure, although whatever the result at Stoke we have lost fewer games than ever before in the Premier League this season, so that is a real improvement.”

Perhaps Martínez is too idealistic for a dogfight, whereas Alex McLeish, with two relegations behind him, is the real Chumbawamba. “I’ve been knocked down a few times and I’ve got up again pretty quickly,” the Birmingham manager says. “We are looking for one last gigantic effort and the players are certainly capable. It has been hard this season but they have battled for every single point. It has been a hugely competitive league with many memorable games, and three teams will go down that probably don’t deserve to.”

It is hardest of all to argue Blackpool deserve the drop, yet as Ian Holloway has just pointed out in apocalyptic terms, the end of the world will arrive unless the Seasiders can do something no one else has managed this season – beat the champions on their own ground. One feels Blackpool deserve some sort of award just for getting this far in such admirable style. Unfortunately that is not the way leagues work.

Just for the record, but mostly for the rare opportunity to claim prescience, you could read in this column back in August that Newcastle and West Brom would stay up while West Ham and Blackpool would go down with Wigan. So far so Nostradamus, except I do not expect the present bottom three to be the final one. Based on last week’s results, I give Wigan a fighting chance of escape, with either Birmingham or Blackburn being sucked down at the last.

Premier LeagueWigan AthleticBlackpoolBirmingham CityTottenham HotspurLiverpoolPaul Wilsonguardian.co.uk

• Dutchman feels club are close to repeating 2009 title tilt
• ‘A few good signings and we will be right up there’

If a 5-0 win over Birmingham City stirred memories of Kenny Dalglish’s Double-winning debut season as manager at Anfield, thoughts among the players turned to more recent halcyon days. The 2009 vintage was the finest Liverpool team of Dirk Kuyt’s five years on Merseyside and they finished the campaign with an avalanche of goals.

“When we were really close in 2009 and finished second I had the same feeling – a matter of a few good signings and we will be right up there,” Kuyt said.

Liverpool know to their cost that optimism can be the prelude to disappointment. Two years ago they unravelled at startling speed after their flirtation with the title, so while a severely depleted team have earned the club’s biggest win for 19 months, past experience teaches Kuyt that further investment is required in the summer.

“We have learnt from what happened in 2009 when we lost Xabi [Alonso],” he added, before voicing his belief that history is unlikely to repeat itself now. “Maybe we are better placed now. With the arrival of Luis [Suárez] and Andy [Carroll] we have two top-quality players, and if we can add a few other good players then we can compete with the best next season. It is exciting to see. The future looks a lot brighter than it was seven or eight months ago.”

Three months have made a marked difference. Liverpool’s last dozen games have produced 26 points, a return that, were it extended over the course of a whole season, would put them in contention for the title. “What happened up until January happened,” said a matter-of-fact Dalglish, ever careful not to criticise his sacked predecessor Roy Hodgson. “We just accept it.”

Liverpool have been rejuvenated by recruitment, both on the touchline and in attack. Even without scoring, Suárez has a capacity to capture the imagination, as Birmingham’s defeated manager could testify to. “There is no doubt Suárez is a sensational signing,” Alex McLeish said. “I have always admired him. He is going to be a huge star for Liverpool.”

As Suárez illuminated Anfield with elusive movement and bursts of devastating acceleration, Kuyt maintained his own prolific form. A ninth goal of Dalglish’s reign – coming amid a hat-trick from Maxi Rodríguez – makes him comfortably the Scot’s top scorer, dwarfing the combined output of Suárez and Carroll (four). The sense, however, is that the unassuming Dutchman is happier among the supporting cast. “It is easier to play with top-quality players,” he said.

Instead, the spotlight is shared between Liverpool No7s past and present. As a strangely supine Birmingham team conceded goal after goal, the deification of Dalglish continued from the stands. The supporters’ choruses were, if anything, louder and more frequent than in previous games. “It is humbling when they chant my name, but it would be better for me if they chanted the players’ names,” added the 60-year-old. It is a wish that is unlikely to be observed.

“Kenny’s back with a bang,” said McLeish, a former Scotland team-mate. “He has got an aura about him.” His side had held Liverpool in a forgettable stalemate in September, but were swept aside in the rematch in another endorsement of Dalglish’s credentials for permanent employment. “I cannot see him not getting the job,” McLeish added. “I just can’t imagine that.”

Dalglish took the fifth amendment on the subject of his future; the concern for Tottenham Hotspur, however, must be that his revived team will pinch fifth place.

Premier LeagueLiverpoolBirmingham CityRichard Jollyguardian.co.uk

Roy Hodgson has followed Rafa Benítez in failing to allow his Dutch forward the opportunity to shine at Anfield

How do you prove yourself without ever being given the chance to do so? That’s the question that Ryan Babel must ask himself every night. Liverpool fought off a host of clubs for the £11.5m winger-cum-forward in July 2007 after the then Ajax player’s impressive showing in the European Under-21 Championship. Playing as a forward, Babel scored in a man-of-the-match display and inspired Holland to a 4-1 defeat of Serbia in the final. “He has the potential to be the next Thierry Henry,” said the then Holland coach Marco van Basten.

Perhaps he still does, not that Liverpool fans could say with any conviction. In 84 league appearances for the club 54 have been as a substitute, and of the 30 he has started, he has been hauled off on more than 20 occasions. The former Liverpool manager, Rafael Benítez, religiously replaced either Harry Kewell or Albert Riera at the 70-minute mark and gave Babel the unenviable task of trying to make an “impact” in inert games or ones Liverpool were chasing. Preferred on the left by Benítez he was never an inside-out winger in the mould of Ashley Young or Leo Messi. Babel’s simpler qualities make him better suited to the attacking role on the right perfected by Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United. Collecting passes on his wrong foot for Liverpool has taken him backwards in more ways than one.

A fleeting appearance on his stronger right-hand side as a substitute against West Ham in September last season, when he set up the winner for Fernando Torres with a delicious cross, enabled Babel to showcase his abilities as a more physical player whose pace and power could better any defender. But in the following two matches against Hull and Chelsea, Babel’s backside felt the harsh and painful reality of splinters again.

With Roy Hodgson’s appointment many Liverpool supporters thought that perhaps now would be Babel’s time to shine – particularly with Torres’s absence through injury at the start of the season. But his role has been persistently peripheral. At 6ft 1in tall with pace to burn and of stocky build, with a trick or two if not always deft touch, on the face of it he has all the attributes to be the Spaniard’s ideal deputy. But David Ngog, signed for £1.5m from Marseille as a back-up player has so far been preferred to the Dutchman with Hodgson even trying to offload Babel to West Ham for Carlton Cole in exchange.

So what is it about Ryan? Accusations about a lack of dedication and poor attitude have been the easy assumption given his interest in rap music (he had a No1 in Holland with this gem). But, so what? Providing he turns up for training and puts the effort in that’s all that matters. As recently as this Tuesday he tweeted: “Sacrificed my day off for some shooting …” and he wasn’t bagging pheasants in Formby.

A poor attitude could even be excused given the almighty knock his confidence must have taken. Lauded as the future of Dutch football and with the opportunity to impress at a club regularly performing well in the Champions League, he has kicked his heels on the bench while a succession of workaday wingers, cheap buys and players past their best, such as Fabio Aurelio, Andrea Dossena, Kewell, Riera and Maxi Rodríguez, have started ahead of him.

Hodgson’s pleas for Babel to prove his worth before the 0-0 draw with Birmingham would have seemed fair had he started the player in the right-wing slot freed up for once by a rare injury to the ever-dependable Dirk Kuyt. But he was benched. And then ignored for 90 minutes as a team crying out for pace struggled to puncture the Birmingham defence. Perhaps Glen Johnson’s propensity to leave his station at right-back as he marauds forward has dissuaded Hodgson from using Babel on that side and, if that is the case, it’s just another mouthful of bad luck for the player to swallow along with the rest.

Babel is likely to start up front on his own against Steaua Bucharest at Anfield tonight albeit with what may resemble a skeleton team around him with Liverpool’s trip to Manchester United on Sunday looming. In these situations it is easy to see why frustration sets in. To truly flourish he needs to have regular first-team players around him who can bring out the best in him.

After playing the part of an extra for three years and largely being patient, it is hard not to feel that Babel deserves the opportunity to play a more central role for once. He still has the support of many Liverpool fans and has vowed to prove himself when or if he is given the chance to. But with 4-5-1 the dominant formation in modern-day football, and Hodgson being a loyal proponent of it, it is unlikely that this will ever be the case.

It’s a shame. Babel may be the “next Thierry Henry”. But probably not at Liverpool.

LiverpoolGregg Roughleyguardian.co.uk