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Soccer / Slow down, Ben, you move too fast By Neil Allen and Uzi Dann Ben Sahar really wants to make it in the Premier League. It's clear. He even opted to be loaned out to Portsmouth rather than play with Dutch league club Nijmegen, where he could almost certainly get more playing time, perhaps even start. It was an admirable decision. Moreover, he's a good kid, who puts in 110 percent in practice, shows what he's made of in friendlies, and gets along with his teammates despite his age and foreign background. But it will be a long and hard slog until the young striker gets playing time, let alone starts, on a club that currently holds the English FA Cup, plays in the UEFA Cup and is near the top of the Premier League. It is doubtful, for example, that an injury to Sahar on the eve of a match against Manchester United prevented him from playing. It's a safe bet he would not have played anyway; he hasn't spent a minute on the pitch during the team's first three league games. Advertisement The fact that he distinguished himself during Portsmouth's preseason friendlies had people in Israel mistakenly believing he would be a star this year. Postgame quotes by Sahar suggest he might have been misled, too. After scoring a pair of goals right in front of coach Harry Redknapp for a 4-0 victory, he talked as if he was going to compete with Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch for a spot in the starting lineup. With all due respect, those two players are clearly superior, and if they are fit, they are Redknapp's dream offense. In that 4-0 game, Sahar came in with striker John Utaka, a member of the Nigerian national team who cost Redknapp 7 million pounds a year and is at least Sahar's equal. Add to that players like Nwankwo Kanu and David Nugent, and the fight for a spot in the starting lineup is tough indeed. Sahar is good. He has potential, but to get significant minutes he needs a spate of injuries along the front line. Alexandre Gaydamak, Portsmouth's owner, has repeatedly said that "if Sahar would work hard he would succeed," but Redknapp knows what he wants - the best strikers he can put on the field, and there's no room for a third. "We are in four different competitions this year," Redknapp said this week. "So I have an expanded roster in general and several strikers. Each one could vie for a spot in the starting lineup, it's clear, but whoever is the best plays in the important games." A euphemism is a euphemism Redknapp acknowledged that it's a long season with severe competition. "Ben Sahar is a talented player who wants to prove himself," added Redknapp, "and he is part of this broader roster." In other words, chances are that Sahar will play in one of the less important competitions such as the Carling Cup. Craig Terry, a local journalist in Sheffield, saw Sahar stand out as a scorer with Sheffield Wednesday at the end of last season. "There's no doubt he has potential. He scored and didn't play badly at all, but I think Sahar's problem is that at a young age he was turned into a star." Terry said. "To be 17 on Chelsea's roster and to practice with the greatest and even play a bit, albeit in the Carling Cup, is a big deal. To be loaned after that experience to second-division teams, without knowing what lies ahead, is very difficult." According to Terry, Sahar "really wants to prove himself. That's how it was with Queens Park Rangers [in 2007], where he was less successful, and that's how it was in Sheffield where he did better. But to be good in the second division does not mean you have a spot in the Premier League." Terry concludes: "It could be that what Sahar needed was to spend two years or so with the same team in the second division, start, score, and prove himself over the long haul, so then maybe he could return to the Premier League. But it seems that either he doesn't have enough patience, or maybe it's the people around him." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Interfaith grandchildren A new group is helping U.S. seniors teach their interfaith grandkids Jewish traditions. Iranian war games Iran army to hold three-day drill amid speculation over Israeli strike.

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