Premier League: Christian Benteke, the £32.5m misfit set to be first big casualty of Klopp era

                     Liverpool's Christian Benteke

It was David de Gea’s comeback. He had been banished to the stands, while his unconvincing deputy Sergio Romero was culpable for defeat at Swansea. He had almost joined Real Madrid, only for a deal to break down amid claim, counter-claim and shared attempts to blame the other club. He had signed a new contract.

The narrative dictated that he would keep a clean sheet. He was about six minutes away from a restorative shutout. Then a 6ft 3in Belgian battering ram went airborne, swivelling to volley spectacularly.

De Gea had no chance. Christian Benteke had beaten him. It was brilliant, but in vain. It finished Manchester United 3 Liverpool 1.

hat was September. And while it is only the half-way stage of the campaign, and Liverpool have scored other memorable goals - whether from Philippe Coutinho at Stoke in August or Roberto Firminoagainst Arsenal on Wednesday - the sense is that the club’s goal-of-the-year contest should be closed. It ought to be a formality.

And yet when Liverpool and United reconvene on Sunday, De Gea and Benteke will not be pitted against each other again. Not at first. Perhaps not at all.

The second most expensive player in Liverpool’s history has become the multi-million pound substitute, a microcosm of the lack of joined-up thinking at Anfield. Benteke looks a symbol of Liverpool’s capacity to sign the wrong player; not always a bad footballer per se, but exemplifying the ever more prevalent case of club and player being a mismatch.

Firmino’s own goal-of-the-season contender, his wonderfully curled second on Wednesday, was not the most significant element of the 3-3 draw with Arsenal for Benteke. Nor was his headed assist for Joe Allen’s last-minute leveller. That came when the teamsheets were posted an hour before kick-off.

Firmino, with a solitary goal in his previous 24 Liverpool games, was preferred in attack, a false nine chosen ahead of the sole specialist striker available. It was a selection that was signposted when Benteke was sent with the kids, the stiffs and the strangers to Exeter last Friday.

It is easier to contort Benteke's sizeable frame in mid-air to execute a high-class bicycle kick than to get him harrying and chasing in a way to suit Jurgen Klopp. Benteke is deemed too static to gegenpress in the German’s style.

In other circumstances, with Daniel Sturridge, Danny Ings and Divock Origi injured, he would be a shoo-in to start. Instead, Benteke has suffered the ignominy of being omitted so Klopp can improvise with an ersatz striker, in Firmino. Rather than being the first name on the teamsheet, he seems the first chosen on the bench. He is Plan B.

Plan C, remarkably enough, is sending centre-back Steven Caulkeron alongside him in attack.

It is not that Benteke’s Liverpool record is actually that poor. Anfield has been a strikers’ graveyard. Yet his return of seven goals in 23 games compares favourably with Iago Aspas (one in 15), Rickie Lambert (three in 36), Fabio Borini (three in 38), Mario Balotelli (four in 28), Andy Carroll (11 in 58) and Fernando Morientes (12 in 60).

Read the full article on eurosport.co.uk: Christian Benteke, the £32.5m misfit set to be first big casualty of Klopp era.

With Richard Jolly

A girl jumping across rooftops falls to her death

                                                                           FACEBOOK

A Manhattan teenager, whose family owns a popular Chelsea pizzeria, plummeted six stories to her death when she slipped jumping across a rooftop airshaft in Hell’s Kitchen Friday, police and witnesses said.

Natalya Jimenez, 15, fell into an airshaft on the roof of a 10th Ave. apartment building near W. 48th St. at around 4:30 p.m, witnesses said.

“It was a big thump,” said Leslie Rodriguez, who lives in the back of the building on 699 10th Ave. “I thought someone had slammed the door. I ran down and saw someone lying there. She was in a crouch. It was horrible.”

Jimenez had been hopping across rooftops with two 14-year-old girlfriends before her fall police said. The teen lived above her family’s Famous Original Ray’s Pizza on Ninth Ave. and W. 22nd St.

"She was the best little girl in New York," said her grandfather Rosalino Mangano outside the pizzeria Friday night.

“She was the smartest girl," said Jimenez’s shell-shocked mother Agatha Mangano.

Jimenez was rushed to St. Luke’s Hospital after police found her body at the bottom of the four-by-15-foot airshaft.

Her two friends wept as emergency responders took Jimenez’s body out of the building in a black bag, a witness said.

“The two other girls were crying. they couldn’t even speak,” said Kelvin Thompson, 30.



With Ben Kochman

Woman jailed for writing scripts for romance scammers

Jailed: Patricia Wutaan Photo: Metropolitan Police/Handout

A woman who wrote scripts for romance fraudsters to use, including one about losing a loved one in the 9/11 attacks, has been jailed for two years.

Patricia Wutaan offered scammers tips on how to tug at the heart strings of unsuspecting victims and also laundered the money from a 70-year-old victim.

The 55-year-old was arrested following a tip off in February 2014 and when officers searched her home they found a number of hand-written notes including one which purported to be from the widow of a victim of the terror attacks in New York in 2001.

The script read: “I am a widow. Lost my husband to 9/11 terror attacks in New York. He made it out of the collapsed building but he later died because of heavy dust and smoke and he was asthmatic.”

Script OnPhoto: Metropolitan Police/Handout

Another note claimed to be from a widow who was waiting for money from her late husband’s will.

Script TwoPhoto: Metropolitan Police/Handout

The notes also included instructions such as: “Stay calm and moody until you get his final word” and “Let him do most of the talking, be sad and worried about taking care of bills for rest of the month. When he asks what he can do to help ask him for $2000 - $3000.”

Script FourPhoto: Metropolitan Police/Handout

Wutaan initially denied writing the notes, but handwriting experts proved they were a perfect match with her hand.

Police said there was no evidence that she had used the scripts herself, but they also recovered fake passports and drivers’ licenses from her Bromley home.

Script FivePhoto: Metropolitan Police/Handout

Detectives also discovered she had almost £30,000 paid into her bank account from a man in Switzerland, who had fallen victim to one of her associates.

Detective Constable Neil Sykes, of the Central Criminal Finances Team, said: “Wutaan's home was an Aladdin's cave of fraudsters' scripts and false IDs. It was almost like she was compiling a fraudsters' handbook.

“The scripts she had written demonstrate exactly the kinds of stories that victims are fed by fraudsters; designed to manipulate the victim into feeling sorry for them and wanting to help them.

“I urge anyone using a dating site to question what they are being told by other 'daters', especially when they are being asked for money or personal details.

“If you think you have been a victim, please don't be embarrassed - tell police, so we can try and stop the fraudsters.”

Manchester City plan costly overhaul so team will play Pep Guardiola way

Guardiola is expected to take over from Pellegrini

Manchester City are planning an expensive summer overhaul to build a squad capable of playing the Pep Guardiola way, with Eliaquim Mangala and Wilfried Bony poised to be two of the major casualties.

Guardiola is expected to take over from Manuel Pellegrini as manager at City during the summer, despite suggesting he could wait two years to take a job in the Premier League.

City remain confident they can land Guardiola this year and are already plotting major end-of-season transfer moves to make sure the squad will suit his style of management.

They are ready to bid against Manchester United, Chelsea and Guardiola’s former club Barcelona for Everton central defender John Stones, and ideally want to add a new forward, a central midfielder and new wide players – either at full-back or on the wing.

There have been suggestions that Guardiola is already having an input in City’s summer transfer plans and it certainly appears the club’s overhaul is very much being designed with the Bayern Munich manager in mind.

City want a more versatile forward to take over from Bony to support Sergio Agüero. Thomas Müller would appear to fit the brief perfectly, but the German has insisted he will not follow Guardiola to City, which leaves director of football Txiki Begiristain looking at other options at home and abroad.

The prospect of striking an incredible deal to sign Lionel Messi is still rated as improbable, if not impossible, and, despite denials, City are among the clubs who have taken an interest in Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy.

Bony was signed only last January for £28 million from Swansea City, but the Ivory Coast international will be allowed to leave the Etihad Stadium at the end of the season with the club hoping to recoup around £20 million.

Swansea have already been linked with a move to re-sign Bony, but Everton could look at the 27-year-old if they lose Romelu Lukaku, while the player also has admirers abroad.

City have again struggled to cope with losing captain Vincent Kompany to injury this season, with Mangala failing to prove that he will justify his £32 million price tag.

Mangala was almost loaned to Valencia as part of the deal to sign Nicolás Otamendi last summer, but an impressive performance against Chelsea altered that plan.

Having been given a second chance, Mangala has not maintained the form he displayed against Chelsea and the 24-year-old’s appalling performance against title rivals Arsenal just before Christmas appears to have sealed his fate.

The contract of 35-year-old Martín Demichelis is due to expire, which will also help to make space for a big new arrival in the centre of defence. Guardiola is understood to be a fan of Aymeric Laporte, who has a £37  million release clause in his Athletic Bilbao contract, while City are among the clubs ready to make a bid for Stones.

England international Stones helped Everton keep a clean sheet against City on Wednesday night and will cost at least £40 million after the club turned down a number of bids from Chelsea last summer.

United and Chelsea are already lining up moves for Stones at the end of this season, while Barcelona have been watching the 21-year-old for some time.

Other than simply looking at the players they want to sign and are willing to sell, City are considering the changes they will have to make to alter their style of play to suit the Guardiola blueprint.

The wide areas are a cause for concern, as City do not have full-backs capable of combining their defensive duties with raiding up the flanks and putting pressure on the opposition, while insiders believe they do not get enough from Jesús Navas or Samir Nasri.

City chiefs believe the club either need to change their options at full-back, so they have players who can overlap throughout a game, or sign more effective wide attacking players, who can allow their more defensive full-backs to stay back.

It is likely that at least one of City’s current full-backs will be allowed to leave, while the club would also listen to offers for Navas and Nasri, although the Frenchman has insisted he wants to stay.

City will agonise over the future of Yaya Touré, whose agent has claimed Guardiola is overrated, and a central midfielder will be among the club’s summer priorities with Borussia Dortmund’s Ilkay Gundogan one of the players under consideration.

While City have very much started to plan for the future, there is still the immediate task of trying to overhaul Premier League leaders Arsenal this season and Bacary Sagna believes Liverpool’s late equaliser against his old club could prove to be a big moment in the title race.

City’s draw with Everton meant they failed to close the gap on Arsenal, but Sagna said: “I’d say this was a good point on the night now. If they were five points ahead of us it’d be very difficult to catch them. Liverpool managed to come back and at the end of the day we’re still three points behind.”

Sagna has also put himself forward to stand in at centre-back if needed, having played in the position during his Arsenal days.

“The manager hasn’t said anything, but it’s an option,” said Sagna. “Our centre-backs are quite injured. If I had to play there I would give my maximum, try to learn and analyse the video before and talk to the manager to bring what I can by the team. We have quality centre-backs, but if they need me it’d be a pleasure to play there.”

With The Telegraph

Naked woman goes on rampage

Jennifer Mary Nicholson (Cobb County Sheriff's Office)

A 37-year-old woman was arrested after police say she stripped off all her clothes and went on a rampage at a Georgia Waffle House.

Investigators said Jennifer Mary Nicholson, 37, of Marietta, Ga., took off all her clothes, punched a woman in the face and broke her nose and then threw plates and other dishes at a window and at stunned patrons on Jan. 8, Fox 5 Atlanta reports.

The incident took place at the Waffle House restaurant in Kennesaw, about 27 miles north of Atlanta, the station reported Thursday.

Jennie Box told the station Nicholson grabbed her and then punched her.

“She came across and hit me in the nose, grabbed me in the chest and made a second attempt to grab me in the arm,” Box said. “She broke my nose, broke my glasses and my phone went flying out of my hand.”

Police said they restrained Nicholson with a stun gun. She is facing several charges, including assault and public indecency. She’s also accused of scratching one of the arresting officers.

She is being held in the Cobb County Jail.

The popular 24-hour restaurant chain has drawn attention in several states recently as the scene of several criminal acts and unsavory behavior.