09.20.08
Rematch
Just months after that game in Moscow, the rematch, albeit a league fixture against Chelsea hot on the heels of another huge Premier League clash comes a bit too soon for my liking.
Signs look bleak for United. The likes of Ronaldo and Berbatov are not 100%. The rest of the squad were also under-par the last few games. As far as Chelsea is concerned, they are hot – blue-hot. Scolari’s side looks so much more confident than say, a side put out by Avram Grant. Their defensive reinforcement in the shape of Bosingwa was wanted by United before his move to Stamford Bridge, and dear me how he could have sorted out United’s own defence for this game.
But there’s always a saying that everytime United lose a league match, they’ll make up for it the next game. This “backlash” idea has held true in recent years – United never lost twice in a row in that period – but there’s no greater task of any Premier League encounter than to go to Stamford Bridge.
Unbeaten in four years at home is an astonishing record. Last time it took a goalkeeping error by Cudicini to hand Arsenal the three points, but since then some have come close but failed.
There is solace that if there is a side to break that record it would be United. The sweet victory that ended Arsenal’s 49-game unbeaten run still lingers in any United fan’s memory. It’s due time to break another, and hand Scolari the reality of the Premier League – that anyone can beat anyone else.
Call me foolish but I’m praying to the stars for a United win. I’ve faced enough humiliation since last week so it’s time for the footballing gods to give mercy.
09.15.08
Judge the ‘keeper not by the cover
Lots of sad results personally for this round’s matches. Who do I blame, the sudden international break? The transfer window? The Olympics, even? I don’t have a clue, but as far as I’m concerned the global timetable for world football needs to be revised and given a major overhaul. Blatter is known for being radical in his views but if he suggests something like this I’ll start to think better of him.
Then we have Tottenham bottom of the league after 4 matches. With no team having a 100% record this season looks to be a very tight league. But the worst start ever for Tottenham Hotspur is predicament to the unpredictable nature of the Premier League – for better or worse, every matchday turns up a shocker or two.
That could be said for Spurs, who have a top manager, a top assistant manager and a healthy, brilliant squad of players – individually that is. Like frequently mentioned, it takes a team effort to win football matches and Aston Villa showed this exact point to Tottenham with their first goal.
But with the second goal, along with Liverpool’s gift of a first some days ago, proves that it also takes individual errors to determine games. Usually when you buy a player you see his qualities, on and even off the pitch, but could there be a measure of his tendency to drop a clanger?
David James, the incumbent England goalkeeper, is renowned over the years for not just his shotstopping but his failure to stop the shots in normal circumstances – but he has turned the leaf with his age. I fear the reverse has happened to Edwin van der Sar. Ever since the back end of the season, despite winning the double, his decision-making has waned a lot.
Heurelho Gomes is a different case altogether. Having won the lot for PSV and gaining international pedigree, he is at a stage in his career which, at 27 for outfield players would mean their prime, but for a goalkeeper would go towards a crossroad. James’ current mentality and form at his age is to me because he hasn’t won much in his early career, while van der Sar having won the European Cup at the age of 19 would mean he has been in the limelight for too long. I’ve seen even Oli Kahn drop clangers just before retiring too. In short, the degree of success a goalie has achieved may contribute to his mentality in the twilight of his career. Thus we saw Jim Leighton, Neville Southall, Alberto Fontana, Marco Ballotta et cetera, whilst not having an illustrious career playing into their forties and remaining as solid custodians, being remembered more for their goalkeeping heroics. Today Brad Friedel looks to be doing just that.
I guess you need to buy keepers old and steady but with no sort of honours to their name… but there’s probably much more to that. You can’t deny that the Cechs and Buffons of this world are timelessly good keepers, but there’s a pattern for the rest. Stuttgart watch out.
09.11.08
Money doesn’t make the football go round
I’m not one to defend a character like Robinho, and especially where he plays now, but how is he different, or even not better, from those active players who suddenly move to the Middle East for no reason? Oh wait there is a reason: to packet more money.
I’m excluding Henrik Larsson’s ex-strike partner Razak Omotoyossi from this – as a devout Muslim, he felt compelled to move to Al-Nasr to be closer to his religion, geographically and spiritually.
But when you have players like Christian Wilhelmsson, Lomana LuaLua and Rafael Sobis moving there, in the peak of their playing years, and still established internationals, it begs belief. You need to prove yourself in the major European leagues to get a better salary. Don’t care if you can double that by playing just a few toasty games down in the desert lands, the pride of a footballer should be intact, be paid for what you can bring to your club.
I can’t help but fear for the game with players like this – soon everyone would want to move to Al-City.
09.09.08
They’re no pushovers anymore, but…
I wonder if the Canadian guy who pushed Noel Gallagher off the stage in an Oasis concert just recently is a disgruntled Man U fan who reacted to his comments that every drop of oil we buy goes into the City coffers?
Well that’s not the way to retaliate, really…
09.07.08
Elite clubs take a decade
Man City with their new owners is proposing a worldwide branding campaign soon, targeting the Asian market amongst other avenues.
Now, for a club that has yet to win anything in four decades, that’s a stretch. This mirrors the lofty ambitions of Chelsea a few years ago when that traitor Kenyon announced the exact same thing, but at least they did good by winning the league twice in a row and scoring good points on that.
But not even Chelsea can reach the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester United, Liverpool, Bayern Munich or the Milan sides in terms of name and prestige, they’re still one short of a certain victory at the very least. Indeed, Celtic, a side from Scotland, engraved their names in footballing history with their Lisbon Lions all those years ago, and to this day could still be mentioned under the same breath with all those fellow European conquerors of yesteryear. Rapid Bucharest, Red Star Belgrade, Marseille, even the soon-to-be-awakening Nottingham Forest, those sides probably can’t match up with Man City or Chelsea on paper currently but having been winners of the most elite cup competition in Europe, they are truly recognised clubs.
A good European record will aid a side in all aspects – in footballing terms, staff dealings, economically and most importantly fame. The likes of Sevilla and Villarreal are attracting good players into their team and boosting their credentials because of this reason. Suddenly that Robbie Fowler penalty miss a few years ago could have changed things for City – looking at the possibilities, if that had gone in and City qualified for Europe, City could get a good UEFA Cup run that next season and win it, and there wouldn’t be as much turmoil as it had been in recent years, knowing they’ve won something finally. Of course that’s a bit too farfetched of a what-if scenario…
In my opinion, TV coverage alone is enough to attract new fans. Ultimately, people have different reasons on why they like a club. But most of them are despising football being nowadays more of a product than a sport, as projected in some quarters. This City advertising won’t work if they don’t do their business on the pitch first. Chelsea is a good example for them, both in success and in failure.
09.04.08
Floodlights, Camera, Kick Off!
The very recent departures of Alan Curbishley and Kevin Keegan sparked two similarities: both were managers with decades of experience, and their former clubs have this position that’s relatively new in football: the Director of Football.
Like what you can read at an online public dictionary, the Director of Football is the “link man” between the playing staff and the administrators. People like David Pleat and Avram Grant have held this position before.
But in my opinion, some old-style managers don’t like this role. Curbishley and Keegan aren’t the first managers to walk out because of the “interference of footballing affairs”. I can understand their sentiment; having players available or taken away without your discretion would be a horrible scenario for a club manager.
But football is an ever-changing sport, and managers need to adapt to having somebody buying and selling their players behind their backs. So how will this role work? What is bad is when these directors simply don’t care what the manager thinks or wants. The admins, who in this case would be closer to the director than the coach, have a role in this too. They think they are wiser than the coach and demand some of these players to play in the first team, or sell this key player to generate funds and the like, without ever knowing what’s inside the dressing room, what do the players really feel, assessment of the players’ fitness levels, what tactics the coach is looking to employ, etc.
A case of admin fiddling would be Hearts. They once seemed to be a side that’s capable of breaking the dominance of the Glasgow sides since Aberdeen. Now after a disastrous managerial crisis in recent years they finished 8th last season. Romanov’s affairs were a double-edged sword in which good but unknown players could be bought for the team, but surely it damaged the fans’ mentality of suddenly feeling alien with the team they support, and the reputation of Scottish football of having a satellite Lithuanian team there.
So in the end, if a club want to appoint a Director of Football they need to get a coach who thinks the modern game first. Then appoint a very understanding person for the job. Now I wonder if it’s Gianluca Vialli who would take over at St. James’ Park?
09.02.08
No time for window shopping
As the transfer window shuts, it’s busy times for people like me to update databases of not just the football teams we like but in fact everyone since we love to put things straight and factual.
I missed the old system of having no transfer window, but it seems like the world has gotten used to it. Now I’d like to agree with some managers over having the summer transfer deadline before the season starts.
This would avoid the “disturbance” caused by Berbatov in the Tottenham camp for the first few games of the season (Indeed it was Juande Ramos who suggested this) and also the case of Daniel Cousin who wanted to move to Fulham in the winter transfer window last season but couldn’t because he’d turned out as a sub for Lens before his move to Rangers and FIFA ruled that a player couldn’t turn up for more than two clubs in one footballing season.
Of course, the problem lies in the starts and ends of league fixtures in Europe which differ greatly between countries. You could see now why Blatter wants every league in Europe to have only 18 clubs (I oppose this), and we can probably put a line somewhere on when the top leagues start the season, but countries like Russia and Sweden end theirs just before the freezing winter.
But I’d like to make a point that two months is really a long time to wring out a deal for a club with transfer targets that have been identified throughout the season, even with a major footballing summer tournament happening, and with the flexibility of the internet, players could discuss and sign contracts in their vacation homes.
Player agents and superagents would then have a crazy summer but since they do nothing else over most of the season and still get money over player transfers then it’s a good case to take up with.
