No Decision On RVP Contract Talks / Martinez To Liverpool?

Hi Mr Van Persie, could you sign me an autograph please?…just sign here, here and here.

Good morning!

Welcome to Friday, which spells, ‘slow news day’ as far as I’m concerned. A quick glance at BBC Football this morning tells me that Robin Van Persie hasn’t yet reached a conclusion in his contract talks with Arsenal, whilst Roberto Martinez is set to sit down and speak to Liverpool over their vacant manager’s position after Kenny Dalglish was sacked on Wednesday.

Aside from Kenny Dalglish flying all the way to Boston to be told he was sacked on Wednesday, Robin Van Persie hopped in his car and travelled to Arsene Wenger’s house that same day to discuss the Dutch striker’s new contract. Ivan Gazidis would also have been present and from what I can gather, the discussions went on for a long time, as they would when a contract worth millions of pounds is the subject of discussion, more so that the contract is designed to keep a high-performance component of the club in place for the next few years.

Naturally, an agreement wasn’t struck there and then. Talks between Van Persie, Wenger and Gazidis would have been preliminary, not decisive and typically a deal was not sorted out on Wednesday. Of course, Arsenal would have wanted Van Persie’s contract sorted before the Euro 2012 campaign, but Van Persie, always open to settle matters after the Euros, was happy to meet up with Dutch squad on Thursday and a decision will be settled one way or the other when Van Persie returns to Arsenal.

It’s widely accepted that Van Persie has great affection for the club. Van Persie broke through lines of stewards to celebrate with Arsenal fans at the Hawthorns on the last day of the season as Arsenal secured third place, dragged Pat Rice out of the dressing room so he could have a proper send off with the Arsenal fans, organised a player’s fund to buy Pat Rice a watch as a leaving present and his wife organised a girls’ night out with all the girlfriends and wives of the players.

Robin Van Persie has also organised many, many team events over the course of this season for the team to bond and relax in general. Family BBQ’s, meals out, trips to the cinema and other things have been organised by Van Persie in his capacity of captain.

This has all happened in stark contrast to Cesc Fabregas’ final year at Arsenal, where he refused to play in pre-season matches whilst he tried his best to join Barcelona and word is that Fabregas was generally a moody figure in his final year at Arsenal. Fabregas had a lot of friends, of course, and still does at Arsenal. Van Persie and Fabregas went on holiday together just before the Spanish midfielder moved to Barcelona, so relations were okay, but his default mood that year was one of wanting to get away. Fabregas would not have done any of the things above that Van Persie had done this year for Arsenal.

Whilst Van Persie has great affection for Arsenal, he is a competitive football player, and a player of Van Persie’s calibre needs to be winning trophies. I imagine this whole ‘saga’ to be pulling Van Persie apart; does he stay and be loved at Arsenal, or move away for trophies should his ambitions not be realised?

Van Persie held talks with Arsene Wenger last year to express his great frustration at the departures of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri. Recently in an interview with Four Four Two magazine, Van Persie claimed their departures had crushed him, saying that midfielders such as Fabregas are very rare and that to lose such a player was a crushing blow.

In Van Persie’s crisis talks with Wenger, he stated the need for top-level players and this is the decisive factor for Van Persie’s new contract talks. Should Van Persie return from competing in the Euros to find that Arsenal have signed two more top players to join new signing, Lukas Podolski, then I imagine Van Persie will be very warm to signing a new contract, but Arsenal must show ambition in the transfer market to realise their initial ambition of signing Van Persie to a new contract.

Along with Lukas Podolski, I would sign another striker, as I believe Podolski will play predominantly on the left, with Van Persie in the middle and Theo Walcott on the right. To join a new striker, Arsenal need another midfield enforcer, potentially Yann M’Vila, and another creative outlet to help with Arsenal’s natural flow.

After losing Fabregas and Nasri, Arsenal have become more methodical in their build-up, rather than fluid and unpredictable. There are pros and cons to both styles, but a more fluid style holds the more pros. With Fabregas and Nasri, goals were coming from those two, Arshavin, Walcott, Van Persie, Chamakh and Bendtner. This season, most attacks culminate in Van Persie applying the final touches and the goal return from other areas of the team has been relatively low compared to other seasons, which boils down to a lack of fluidity.

If Arsenal show their ambition in the transfer market, then the signing of Van Persie’s new contract will be pivotal in returning to a more fluid style, and, hopefully, Arsenal will finally provide Van Persie the silverware of which he is deserving.

Roberto Martinez

Finally today, Roberto Martinez has been linked with the Liverpool manager’s job after Dave Whelan allowed Martinez to talk with Liverpool over their new vacancy.

For me, I wouldn’t touch Martinez for another five years if I were Liverpool’s owners. Martinez could link up with Aston Villa and I believe he’d do a fantastic job with Villa’s youngsters and he’d have them playing to a style they haven’t enjoyed for three years. I don’t believe it will take a lot for Martinez to fire Aston Villa away from where they currently are.

Liverpool on the other hand are undergoing massive changes. To oversee Liverpool’s current transition, an experienced manager needs to come in and steady the ship, not the young Martinez. Another reason I’d say no to Martinez, is due to Wigan’s prosperity to perform only in the latter stages of a season. For twenty-eight matches a season, Wigan are terrible, but for those last ten games they are capable of winning them all and securing survival, it’s ridiculous how a team who lost nine on the bounce earlier this season can still survive.

Liverpool, I plead with you, do not open talks with Martinez because he’s a terrible manager, but because he’s still perfecting his trade and that is not the personality needed at Liverpool at the moment. Martin O’Neill would be an ideal appointment for Liverpool, but wouldn’t he be an ideal appointment for any club? If Liverpool were to hammer on Sunderland’s door, I don’t see Martin O’Neill refusing the chance to turn Liverpool round on to the right track again.

Right, that’s your lot for today, I’m becoming pushed for time as I finish this post!

Enjoy your weekend, I’ll see you on Monday.

Until then.

Follow @J4goalpostsblog

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Craig in England, Premiership Leave a comment

Blackburn Relegated In Defeat To Wigan

Blackburn's best player last night…

Good morning!

Try and get your head round this; 26,144 people gathered in Blackburn, in the pouring rain, to watch a football match which was 0-0 for 87 minutes. It sounds crazy, but truthfully, that actually happened.

Last night’s very bad match between Blackburn Rovers and Wigan Athletic culminated in a 1-0 victory for Wigan, who now avoid relegation once more. It’s amazing how Wigan manage to avoid near-certain relegation season after season, it’s like they’re bulletproof or something.

In a match more talked about for the fact a Chicken managed to penetrate Blackburn’s water-tight security, Wigan controlled a very limp Blackburn side. Steve Kean spoke after the match of his players covering every blade of grass against Wigan, but that’s only because they were made to run for miles on end trying to catch a far superior, Wigan Athletic. It impresses me more when a manager says, ‘we played brilliant football, the opposition couldn’t get anywhere near us’. I couldn’t give a fish’s tit if a player can run all day, it’s not a sign of quality, just fitness.

Blackburn needed to look to controlling last night’s match, attacking Wigan with wave after wave of pressure, but like we saw against Tottenham Hotspur, Blackburn played within themselves and didn’t represent the kind of threat they should have done.

Antolin Alcaraz’s winning header aside, there is precious little to talk about, the match really was that bad to watch. Whilst I’m not really going to speak about the match itself, it’s easy to talk about the chaos which has shrouded Blackburn since last season.

Said chaos emanates from Venky’s, the Indian Poultry company who bought out Blackburn in the autumn of 2010 rang alarm bells everywhere, certainly mine. When an Indian Chicken company take over a football club, instantaneously declaring they want to achieve Champions League football and bring Ronaldinho to Ewood Park, one can only worry for their sanity and the overall well being of Blackburn Rovers Football Club.

In nonsensical fashion, Venky’s decided to sack Sam Allardyce, a man who has built his career on over-achieving with a limited budget. With Champions League football their ambition, Venky’s replaced Allardyce with… Steve Kean, a man famed for… nothing. I hate to be the man who shoots down Kean’s managerial record – or lack of one – but what were Venky’s thinking they’d achieve in hiring a man with no experience?

Since his appointment, Steve Kean has faced ridicule from all four corners of Ewood Park (okay, four sides, there are no corners at Ewood Park) and I have to say it’s largely unwarranted. It is not Steve Kean’s fault that he’s been placed in charge of a sinking ship, with no experience himself of how to save such a ship. Chants of ‘Steve Kean out’ and the many death threats he has received are appalling to see, Blackburn fans have really let themselves down over the past few months. Rather than do their best to make Ewood Park a fortress, Blackburn supporters have been continually on the back of Steve Kean and his players, it’s not supportive, it certainly doesn’t inspire players into playing for the club.

Any ire should be directed at Venky’s for their poor decision making from the top. Sam Allardyce should never have been sacked and Steve Kean should only have ever been an interim manager at Blackburn, not charged with the death sentence of rescuing Blackburn Rovers.

Having posted a loss of £18.6 million in their last record of accounts, Blackburn will have to sell the bulk of their squad in order to survive. Paul Robinson, Junior Hoilett, Yakubu, Mauro Formica, Martin Olsson, Steven N’Zonzi will all need to be sold for Blackburn to re-build and it’s then that you realise that it will take a lot for Blackburn to gain promotion again and personally, this whole situation reminds me of the first time Derby County were relegated from the Premier League, shrouded by debt, having to pay massive wages to over-rated, over-the-hill players such as Fabrizio Ravanelli, Giorgi Kinkladze and many, many more.

It was a long time ago since Derby County first experienced relegation and only now are they recovering from the initial damage of that relegation. Blackburn Rovers look to be going the same way and I’m sorry to say, that’s the last we’ll see of Blackburn in the Premier League for a while now.

That’s your lot for today, I’ll see you tomorrow!

Follow @J4goalpostsblog

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Craig in England, Premiership Leave a comment

Wigan Smash Newcastle / Can You Really Stop Fan Chanting?

Wigan – My bogey team.

Good morning!

In the past three years, I’ve seen Arsenal play Wigan on three seperate occasions, none of which we’ve won. I was there at the DW Stadium as Arsenal were beaten 3-2 despite being 2-0 ahead with ten minutes to go and again last season when Arsenal drew 2-2. More recently I witnessed Wigan claim victory at Emirates Stadium with a 2-1 scoreline.

Whilst Wigan can be god awful some days, Roberto Martinez can have his side playing wonderful football just one match later. During September/October Wigan lost nine in a row and I, like everybody else, had Wigan written off as ‘relegated’. On the flipside to that, Wigan have lost just twice during the past nine matches, having beaten Liverpool at Anfield, Arsenal at the Emirates and defeated Manchester United at the DW Stadium.

Capable of complete mediocrity, Wigan are a very strange side and on Saturday they produced another incredible performance from out of their locker to beat a strong Newcastle United side. A four goal salvo in 45 minutes was enough to flatten a completely bewildered Newcastle team who must have travelled to Wigan with hopes of further consolidating fourth spot.

A rather brilliant header from Victor Moses opened the scoring in the 13th minute, before adding his and Wigan’s second two minutes later, slotting the ball home after Fabricio Coloccini failed to clear properly.

Newcastle tried to fight back having conceded their first goals for four matches, with Hatem Ben Arfa leading the way as he curled an effort just wide. Though Newcastle tried to recover from their 2-0 deficit, they lacked the intensity of their opponents, unable to work anything of real note and it wasn’t long before Wigan had punished Newcastle once more, this time via Shaun Maloney.

Maloney’s goal was my favourite of the afternoon. I really like seeing finishes which go across goal and into the opposite corner from an angle, it takes a lot of practice, a lot of technique and needs to be just right, otherwise the ball can run too close to the goalkeeper or fly wide. Maloney hit his strike with precision and such a lethal goal shattered Newcastle, with the scoreboard now reading 3-0 in favour of Wigan Athletic.

Wigan’s fourth came through Franco Di Santo, who curled home from all of 25 yards. I appreciate the aesthetics of a long range finish, but I’ll always prefer the craft and technique of a passing move or those similar to Shaun Maloney’s goal. Di Santo’s goal was delicious to watch, but I find long range efforts to be a bit like a poor darts player hitting bulls-eye once every ten attempts. For me, long range goals are more luck than skill, unless said player has a history of long range goals, such as Cristiano Ronaldo etc. I know comparing Ronaldo and Di Santo is ridiculous, but Di Santo doesn’t have the history of a great goalscorer for his effort to be considered a great strike, more a case of ‘pot-luck’.

The second half pretty much fizzled out, though I’d probably say Newcastle enjoyed the better of it in general.

You have to ask; if Wigan are so capable of such performances, then why are they fighting relegation each season? Personally I believe it’s down to Wigan’s telling of players that if they play well at Wigan, then they will earn a move to a big club, in the same manner that Antonio Valencia did when he joined Manchester United. Wigan players are always playing with one eye on moving away, which though may not be the case for every player, but certainly for imports such as Antolin Alcaraz, Maynore Figueroa, Hugo Rodallega James McArthur and James McCarthy. Of course, it’s just an assumption that those players play to impress big clubs, but I do firmly believe that Wigan are where they area because of that reason.

Fan chanting

Abuse from the stands has long been a problem in football. You all know which songs are sung by fans and those that are most sickening so I won’t go down the road of naming them all, but in light of Stoke City fans abusing Arsene Wenger at the weekend and the abuse of Aaron Ramsey, should there be something done about this moronic abuse?

When a fan is seen gesticulating and shouting abuse in clear view of cameras, should that man be brought into question? I certaintly entertain the idea of said fan being sent a picture of himself on a matchday, being forced to show his family what he’s like. I can’t imagine he, or his family, to hold the fan in a high regard.

I understand Stoke City fans defending Ryan Shawcross, I really do, as he gets booed by Arsenal fans, but it should stop there, not continue to abusing a young man in Aaron Ramsey who is still fighting his way back from that horrific injury he suffered at Stoke two years ago. Though Ramsey is now physically well, his form has suffered as a result of being a year behind in his development and that relates to the injury. To see a young, promising man struggle in his profession because of an horrific injury is sad, but it’s inhumane to see other human beings take delight in the fact and give abuse relating to what happened.

In a way, I hope Stoke City fans continue their abuse, as it would show the world for what they are; a bunch of knuckle-dragging thugs whose dirty, low-life tactics died out with the dinosaurs.

There were young children in attendance at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday and they will be taking in what their parents, brothers, sisters etc are doing. Is that a healthy, encouraging environment? No. I support funyn banter. When a few Stoke fans dressed up as prostitutes when Manchester United visited after Wayne Rooney was reported to have used a prostitute, that was funny, even Sir Alex Ferguson and his staff found it a laugh.

To abuse a man who badly broke his leg however, is poor, and the sooner we find a way to end this knuckle-dragging behaviour, the better.

That’s yer lot from me today, see you tomorrow.

Follow @J4goalpostsblog

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Craig in England, Premiership Leave a comment

Wigan Athletic Shock Arsenal At Emirates Stadium

Picture from Eurosport.com

Good morning all!

I’m sorry this post is up a ~~little~~ lot later than usual, I was at the Arsenal v Wigan match last night and I got home pretty late. Monday night football is a brilliant idea, not so much when you have a 200+ mile-round trip to undertake!

Before the match, everybody was in confident mood, the Emirates has been a happier place to be of late as opposed to those dark, miserable days of late August and September. I’ve spoken to more fans and had more of a laugh this season than I have in any other at the Emirates, maybe because that’s due to the expectations being lowered a bit, but certainly of late the Emirates has been a good place to be and the fans were in a good mood, we expected to take Wigan apart.

A few days earlier I’d been speaking to one of my mates and declared I hate playing Wigan, purely because you don’t know how they’ll play. I went on to state I wouldn’t be surprised if Wigan took something away from the Emirates and that it would be a tougher match than people thought.

Impressive victories over Stoke City, Liverpool and Manchester United, as well as a superb performance against Chelsea, where Wigan were unlucky to lose, has seen the Latics perform their usual late-season surge to defy the odds and avoid relegation. Wigan do have it in them to produce big performances and play well, but frustratingly, you only witness those displays in patches throughout the season. If Wigan could maintain a degree of consistency, they’d be a healthy mid-table side.

Arsenal started the match pretty well, Thomas Vermaelen shooting just wide with his trademark hammer of a left boot and the Gunners looked set to carry on where they’d left off in their last home match against Manchester City.

With seven minutes gone, Mikel Arteta had walked off of the field with an injury and Arsenal were down to men as Wigan countered through Victor Moses, who found Jordi Gomez, consequently sending Franco Di Santo through on goal. Di Santo’s initial effort was blocked by Wojciech Szczesny, but looped over and in an aerial tussle between Di Santo and Yossi Benayoun, there was only going to be one winner and the Argentine notched home for Wigan’s first.

The Emirates had been stunned, scarcely believing that Wigan were a goal ahead. In my arrogance, I believed that goal to be a mere hindrance for what would be a comfortable Arsenal win after we’d restored parity.

With Aaron Ramsey not yet ready to replace Arteta, Arsenal were still playing with ten men and again, Victor Moses was allowed far too much space down the left, turning Bacary Sagna inside and out, before rolling the ball across Arsenal’s 6 yard box. Szczesny parried Gomez’s initial effort, but the Spaniard bundled home the rebound and remarkably, with ten minutes not even played, Arsenal were two goals down.

What followed, was wave after wave of Arsenal attack as the Gunners desperately sought out a goal to pull themselves back.

In the 21st minute, good work from Tomas Rosicky saw Thomas Vermaelen meet the Czech midfielder’s cross with a powerful header and Arsenal looked all good to grab a second. Shortly afterwards, Van Persie had a long range shot beaten away by Al-Habsi, Benayoun had nearly scored with a header before Vermaelen’s goal and Rosicky shot over after a break between himself and Robin Van Persie.

Despite laying almighty pressure on Wigan, the Latics refused to buckle.

In the second half, Arsenal seemed to have lost all cohesion. Several times throughout that second half I saw Arsene Wenger motion that Arsenal needed width and despite throwing Gervinho and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain into the equation, the Gunners seemed far too narrow. Theo Walcott kept coming inside when going outside and crossing would have been a better option. Every Arsenal attack resulted in an Arsenal player cutting inside and thus it became too congested ag Wigan squeezed the middle of the park.

There was no great chance in the second half, Wigan were fantastic whenever they got the ball and always wanted to hurt Arsenal. Roberto Martinez has to be commended for his enthusiasm to attack teams but then, isn’t that what teams should be doing? If you don’t attack, you don’t win, it’s really that simple, I hate teams who play for the point, they may as well not turn up and yes, I am looking at you, Tony Pulis.

Right, that’s your lot from me this morning, off to try and wake up now!

Follow @J4goalpostsblog

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Craig in England, Premiership Leave a comment

Man Utd Suffer Shock To Wigan / Man City Crush West Brom

Good morning all!

Sorry this post is a bit later than usual, better late than never and all that, though.

As far as match round-ups go, this will be a strange one, as I’m going on a combination of Match of the Day and a slightly dodgy Italian stream I found on the Internet for Arsenal’s match.

In Sir Alex Ferguson’s post-match interview, he was very relaxed about the defeat, (to the cameras, anyway) stating that Wigan Athletic were the better team and that they occupy a ‘false position’ whilst going on to commend their style of play and claiming Wigan to be an underrated team. It’s rare that you hear such gushing praise from Sir Alex Ferguson following a potentially damaging defeat and I 100% agree with Ferguson’s notion that Wigan are underrated as for one, I never look forward to Arsenal playing them. You do tend to get days where Wigan roll over and let you tickle their belly, but you do get others where they really match you man for man and play some lovely football. Unfortunately, those days of great quality from Wigan are few and it’s achieving a level of consistency which is the difficult part for Wigan, as if they manage that, there would be no relegation battles to be experienced at the DW Stadium.

Wigan were superior against Chelsea and recently beat Liverpool, so they do have the quality and when a team is battling for it’s survival, anything can happen and last night, Wigan just wanted the win a lot more than Manchester United did.

I doubt very much that Manchester United are getting over-complacent over winning the title, they’ve been here before, they’ll know the routine but last night they seemed to relax a little, Wayne Rooney in particular was guilty of that and found himself hauled off after 65 minutes.

Wigan were great all evening, we can’t focus on why Manchester United didn’t win, that’s a major insult to Wigan’s efforts and they denied United their usual grandstand finish, played brilliant football, dominated possession and enjoyed the more shots at goal. (eleven compared to Manchester United’s eight) One of those shots at goal was an absolute peach from Shaun Maloney, curling the ball past a helpless David De Gea after the Scot had worked a short corner routine with Jean Beausejour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gcDDGXDPo0

Maloney’s strike puts Wigan 17th, on 31 points, two ahead of Bolton Wanderers in 18th.

As Manchester United were being beaten by Wigan Athletic, Manchester City were cruising to a 4-0 win over mid-table West Brom.

Potentially, West Brom could have proved a banana skin for Manchester City. In the knowledge of being safe and knowing they can’t do anything else further up the table, West Brom could have played Manchester City and put on a real show. Instead, Manchester City ‘wanted’ it more than their opponent and in the end it was very comfortable for Roberto Mancini’s side.

Manchester City were 1-0 up by the 6th minute when Sergio Aguero, realising their was no pass available, launched an effort from around 25 yards and found Ben Foster’s bottom right-hand corner. Simply put, you can’t afford that kind of time or space to Sergio Aguero and it was lazy pressing from West Brom which lead to City’s goal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35oVJJtVve8

West Brom were fighting to start the match all evening and were dumped out in a ten minute spell of three goals. Firstly, Sergio Aguero completed his brace when he curled home from close range, before a tidy move lead to Carlos Tevez claiming his first goal of the season and finally, David Silva added his input with a beautiful chip as he was running away from goal.

Manchester City had enjoyed a pretty routine evening and after recent results it’s just what they needed. Their big match however will come away to Norwich City. Manchester City’s away form has been dreadful of late and if they are to force an unlikely way back into the title, they simply have to beat Norwich and create some form of momentum as they enter the final stretch of matches.

Personally, I’ve already ruled Manchester City out of it, I can’t see any way of them coming back to beat Manchester United and for me this morning, that’s that!

Bit of a short effort on this morning’s post but I’ll be back at some stage to write about French side Quevilly, a third division team who have reached the French version of the FA Cup, the first third division side to do so in history.

Until then!

Follow @J4goalpostsblog

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Craig in England, Premiership Leave a comment

Transfers, Form & Tackles

Morning all!

We have some bits and bobs to run through this morning, so buckle your seatbelts! I’d like to settle the post on that note, as I’ve always wanted to use the term, ‘buckle your seatbelts. Really, I wow myself with the standard of writing on here.

Moving on, Manchester City scraped to a 1-0 win over rock-bottom Wigan Athletic. No, it wasn’t a classy performance from Manchester City and no, they didn’t create chance after chance and they most definitely were not ‘unlucky’ to score only the one, which was a set-piece goal courtesy of Edin Dzeko’s lump of a Bosnian forehead. That a ‘stylish’ Manchester City side have had to rely on a set-piece goal against a very poor team says a lot in my view. Rather than battering them possession wise, constantly creating chances, City looked as adventurous as they did last season at Emirates Stadium against Arsenal, where they camped out in their own half against Arsenal, displaying no attacking adventure.

To be fair, that is as good as City looked last night. Rather than play in their own half and just batter up the hatches as they did a season ago against Arsenal, City seemed to play keep-ball in midfield, looking very flat. For me, that stinks of a team lacking in confidence and one starting to feel the pressure. Can they handle it? No, David Silva is a world class player but we are yet to see if he can dig in when it comes to Wigan away. Samir Nasri is the same, though we’ve known that for years, he’s a talented player, but that’s partnered in fateful fashion with a poor attitude.

If I’m wrong come May when it concerns City’s desire and mental strength, feel free to shoot me down in a plethora of flames and arrows, but for me, I doubt they will cross the finish line as champions. Runners-up, yes, but for me, City won’t win it.

In other news, there is the usual transfer news floating about, which is natural when you consider it is January after all. For a transfer window, it’s been quiet so far and I agree with Arsene Wenger when he says it should be shut throughout a season as it doesn’t really help any club as their respective player will suffer a dip in form as they worry about seeking a transfer. That’s not to say every player is looking for a move, but the majority of squad players are and that isn’t an ideal situation to have midway through a season.

Arsene Wenger did go on to say that either the transfer window remains shut, or it stays open permanently. That would not be a good situation to have. For example, imagine you’re Tony Fernandes, chairman of QPR. Having invested money into the playing staff etc to enable your club to compete with the Premiership’s finest , you find yourself in 18th, struggling to find form and dead certs in the eyes of bookmakers to get relegated.

Naturally, that situation or others similar would cause panic buys. Tony Fernandes for example, would spend horrible money trying to right a wrong in signing a player like Luis Fabiano to save QPR. Fabiano’s club would realise this is a bid made out of desperation and would charge top dollar for their player. As well as that, Fabiano and his agent would have a field day with QPR’s board negotiating a contract.

When a club needs to stay in the Premiership to stay afloat financially and competitively, they will do anything to stay their and these situations would be created where teams are running the risk of ruining themselves long term for a short term fisk.

Speaking of QPR, how does Tony Fernandes aim to finance deals for Chelsea’s Brazilian defender, Alex? QPR have the lowest average attendance in the Premiership and already pay wages of £60-£70k to Joey Barton and Shaun Wright-Phillips, which in crude Maths terms, works out at about £6 million a year combined for just those two players. In more crude Maths terms, I’ve worked out that if 17,000 people a week go to Loftus Road and pay an average price of £40, then QPR take £680,000 in gate receipts, which over 19 home games a year, works out at just over £12 million, half of which pays for one Joey Barton and a Shaun Wright-Phillips each year. When you take into consideration QPR still have a first team squad to pay, as well as reserves etc, how on earth are QPR affording all of this?

Tony Fernandes is playing a very risky game with QPR, one that smells violently of Leeds United all over again. I do hope my crude sums are lying and that Fernandes has more sense than previous Chairmen to have graced our beautiful game, but my figures can’t be far wrong there and you do have to worry for QPR’s future if they get relegated.

Finally today, I must mention tackles. Referees of late are doing about as well as a French credit rating. Inconsistencies in decision making is an all too familiar subject within the game and there needs to come a point when certain tackles are just red cards and not available to interpretation.

A two-footed, sliding tackle with studs showing is a red card. There were over ten instances over the weekend where red cards should have been shown, with at least two in the Reading v Watford match. Shaun Derry should have received his marching orders for a foul on Yohan Cabaye and Glen Johnson should have seen a red piece of laminated card waved in his face last week against Manchester City.

In two sentences, I’ve highlighted four instances where red cards should have been shown but were deemed not worthy of such punishment.

Personally, the tackles are risky in ways other than breaking an opposition player in half. For example, if you slide in having lost control, what happens if the opposition reads what you’re about do, shifts the ball, moves and leaves you sat on your arse tackling nothing? You’d be on the ground, of no use to anyone as the opposition attacks your team. Rather than dive in for a 50/50 challenge, just press the opposition player now in control of the ball and force him into a mistake, force him to play the ball behind him or to his side, just don’t give the opposition chance to attack by either shifting the ball away quickly, or handing them a set-piece opportunity.

Stay on your feet, fend off the ball and start again. A football match is made up of lots of little moments and broken legs and red cards are easily avoidable if you simply use your brain, it is that simple.

See you in the comments…

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Posted on January 17, 2012 by Craig in Championship, England, Premiership 1 Comment

Good Evening / Bad Evening

Good Evening

Arsenal

After going eight matches unbeaten before Sunday’s loss away to Manchester City, it might have been easy for an injury hit, physically tired (having only played three days earlier) Arsenal side to have travelled to Villa Park and got something other than a win. Aston Villa away is always a tricky match for any side, and you can guarantee Villa will raise their game for the visit of a top club.

Last night was no exception to that rule as Aston Villa were generally better than Arsenal for most of the evening, with Albrighton and N’Zogbia severely testing the Arsenal defence on several occasions. That a patched-up Arsenal defence only conceded the one goal, which was down to an individual error from Mertesacker, is credit to how Arsenal have come on this season and it’s a massive three points in regard to their survival.

If Mertesacker hadn’t have decided to let a long put up-field roll across his chest facing goal, then Albrighton would not have had chance to score and honestly, I don’t believe Villa had it within them to score.

Wigan Athletic

It isn’t too often Wigan get to feature in ‘Good Week’ (or ‘Good Evening’, in this case) but due to their recent form and outstanding performances against Chelsea and now Liverpool, they can’t do anything but feature in the ‘good’ section.

A 2-1 victory over West Brom has been followed up with draws against Chelsea and Liverpool, two massive points for Wigan as they look to avoid the drop. Okay, these two points haven’t taken Wigan out of the relegation zone, but it’s often said that matches against the big sides don’t count when fighting relegation, it’s what you do against the teams around you. If Wigan can build on these two points against top opposition, then those two points will prove to be massive come May.

Sunderland

Like the DW Stadium, Loftus Road is also a tricky place to visit, it feels very claustrophobic once inside and it can rattle up one hell of a noise. For those reasons, I don’t believe many teams will go to QPR and roll them over, just ask Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea, who have all had to pull their socks up at Loftus Road.

Sunderland didn’t have the easiest of evenings against QPR, yet came away with a very credible point as they look to pull away from the relegation places. Whilst maybe not the prettiest of wins, it does put Sunderland back on track, all thanks to Wes Brown’s big forehead diverting the ball past Paddy Kenny in the 89th minute.

Manchester City

Much to the annoyance of every other football fan in England, Manchester City carry on turning over teams with consummate ease.

The latest team to be brushed aside by Manchester City, is Stoke City, a side who previous to last night, had won four on the bounce for the first time in 44 years. Stoke are notoriously a pain in the arse for every team in the league and that they were spanked 3-0 with City barely wasting any breath says a lot for the strength of Manchester City.

Bad Evening

Alan Hutton

Two minutes to go, two yellow cards, one red card and an utterly humiliating evening for Alan Hutton.

Following a bad challenge on Robin Van Persie, Hutton squared up to Yossi Benayoun, received a yellow, only for a minute later to give Thomas Vermaelen the good news, sending the Belgian flying, equalling another yellow card.

Personally, I can’t stand the Scot. Hutton’s childish antics are consistently the topic of conversation when Hutton is dropped into debate, not his football, which leaves you wondering just how good Hutton is at football? I’m going to conclude that Hutton isn’t actually that good and takes pleasure in trying to break more talented players in half.

Tit.

Liverpool

Luis Suarez banned for eight matches and an away match to Wigan, just what you want for the Christmas schedule!

For me, I will not give an opinion on Luis Suarez himself unless evidence used against him is brought to the public’s knowledge. Until then, I will continue to say he’s a fantastic player, an absolute joy to watch and as an Arsenal fan, I’m highly jealous of Liverpool for being able to say he’s theirs.

As for the draw against Wigan, well it was always going to happen, wasn’t it? Football never helps you after you’ve received bad news, it just kicks you when you’re down, so a match away to Wigan in December was never going to yield anything more than a point. Unlucky or not, it certainly is not ‘good’ for Liverpool.

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Posted on December 22, 2011 by Craig in England, Premiership Leave a comment

Good Week / Bad Week

Good Week

Newcastle United

Having just had their unbeaten start to the season ended by Manchester City despite busting a kidney trying to avoid defeat last weekend, I’d have forgiven you for writing them off in this match as their fairytale start to the season came to a gruesome halt. Strangely enough however I still believed Newcastle had it in them to fend off a Manchester United side in poor form and they did, earning themselves a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, a remarkable result considering they had a man sent off with ten minutes left of play. I had Newcastle down as a draw for this match on my accumulator and they did me proud, especially Tim Krul who was that good I gave him a standing ovation in my living room at the end of the ‘Match of the Day’ highlights.

Pepe Reina

Another goalkeeper caught my eye over the weekend, this time in the shape of a smooth-headed Spaniard. Three times Reina was seen out of his area making tackles on a bewildered Sergio Aguero, blatantly stunned that he had the opposition goalkeeper tackling him 25 yards from goal and again near the corner flag in the second half. Reina also stood up against his fellow compatriot, David Silva, not allowing the playmaker room for manouvere in the dying stages as City broke for an equaliser. Reina’s pressing of Silva in his own area allowed three Liverpool defenders to get back on the line when Silva was finally able to commit Reina to go to ground so he could get a shot off. It was immense goalkeeping all afternoon from Reina, a very ‘brave’ performance.

Mark Schwarzer

No striker really had a good weekend in the Premiership, with the headlines belonging to anybody wearing a set of gloves. At Emirates Stadium, Mark Schwarzer kept out wave after wave of Arsenal attack. Arsenal fired off twenty shots at goal, thirteen on target and eight wide of the mark. If weren’t for Schwarzer, (a man whose name I detest spelling) Martin Jol would have been looking at a horror show.

Wigan Athletic

Franco Di Santo ensured Wigan didn’t go a horrible ten matches without winning by nabbing a goal deep, deep into injury time against Sunderland. In nine matches previous, Wigan had drew one (against Blackburn) and lost the other nine, a ridiculous record. Wigan are now away from the foot of the table and up to nineteenth on nine points, pushing Blackburn to bottom spot.

Bad Week

Sunderland

All of that money spent on big name players, only to win two matches so far this season is plainly not good enough for Steve Bruce’s Sunderland. Losing to Wigan at home is not an impressive result and Bruce could well see himself out on his ear if he isn’t too careful. They need a big lift and where it’s going to come from is anybody’s guess.

Andrey Arshavin

Having finally been given the chance to start a match, everybody’s favourite little Russian produced a performance of anonymity, showing two or three flashes of his brilliance. It’s not enough from a player we all gawped at when he first arrived in England and one has to question, does he actually care about football anymore? Has the Russia captaincy drained him? Arshavin has claimed he feels so much better now Russia have qualified for Euro 2012 and hopes that this can spark a revival of his Arsenal career, all too knowledgeable of his failings so far in Arsenal red. If somebody knows they have a problem, then they are halfway their to sorting themselves out. Since Arshavin knows his failings, he shouldn’t be too far from hitting top form. Hopefully a run of games allows him to pick his game up, but as for Saturday, well, it just wasn’t good!

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Craig in England, Premiership Leave a comment

‘Aon United Vs Etihad City in the FA Cup with Budweiser.’ Sorry, what?

Goooooddd Morning! You’ve probably just looked at that headline, and thought:

“Ah I know, this article is going to be about Man City’s new sponsorship deal with Etihad, and how the growing commercialisation of Football is sucking the soul out of the game, and alienating the fans which have gotten the clubs to where they are today.”

And you would very much be right. You may also be thinking:

“That’s all very well, but this was big news last Friday you muppet. You’re a week late!”

Well, I write this article on a Thursday night, or if I’m feeling particularly keen, maybe even a Wednesday. For some reason unbeknownst to nature, all the big football stories seem to happen on a Friday, meaning I miss them. So here you will find a cutting edge report of everything you were vaguely interested in last week, but are a bit bored of now! Enjoy! And feel smug when the biggest (non-transfer related obviously) Football news of the century breaks this morning. Something so massive the mind can’t even comprehend it, let alone imagine it, and therefore putting an example here would only disappoint you. Look out for it today, and then look forward to reading about it here in precisely one week’s time. Cutting edge journalism here I tell you!

(By the way, If this footballing news of a biblical proportions doesn’t occur, then look forward to another of my *insert here* XI articles, aka, ‘I can’t think of anything to write, so here is 11 blokes in an imaginary football team to keep you happy till next week’ articles.)

Anyway, onwards and upwards, and we’ll start with Man City and their £400 million deal With Etihad to rename their ground The Etihad Stadium. Now, I’m not here to discuss the legality of that within the rules of FFP, that’s for UEFA to look into (and they won’t); although I will say it has made a mockery of the whole Financial Fair Play idea. Is it dead before it’s even begun? A Football ruling miscarriage? Maybe that’s another article. I think I’ll give it a few weeks and wait for it to really fall off the radar before taking it up and flogging a dead horse.

What really concerns me is the growing influence commercialism is having on Football, and the history and club identity it seems intent on destroying. The Etihad Stadium joins a list of 5 other new grounds in the Premier League with naming rights deals:

Emirates Stadium (Arsenal)

Reebok Stadium (Bolton)

Britannia Stadium (Stoke)

Liberty Stadium (Swansea)

DW Stadium (Wigan)

As well as countless others in the lower leagues. In most other cases the naming rights have had to be struck to finance the building of the stadium. Man City’s case is different however as they already had the stadium, and this has been done purely to get round the introduction of the previously mentioned FFP, which sets a dangerous precedent. How long will it be before a team sells its name to sponsorship? Would you really be happy to cheer on Etihad City? Those who may think this a ridiculous idea and will never happen should remember there’s also precedent set for this other sports, such as Formula 1 with Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes.

Even our beloved FA Cup has fallen into sponsorships ever-tightening grip

The amount of money in the game has had many positives, with greater talent on show, better stadia and arguably the most exciting league in Europe. But is this enough to sacrifice a whole clubs identity? It saddens me that it’s had to come to this, but now the game has gone down this path, maybe the truth is the only way is to tread even further, with sponsorship becoming more and more part of our beloved clubs? It seems to be a downward spiral; more money means a need for more money to outdo the other clubs with even more money, all to get into the Champions league and the reward of, you got it, more money. The only way to get this money other than from sponsorship is the even more unpopular options of price increases and player sales.

It will be a sad day when a club whores out its name for the benefit of money, and when fans feel ever more isolated from the clubs they support, this will only increase that feeling. Maybe I’m just a traditionalist, but although it is only a name, I’d much rather cheer on my team at Highbury or Eastlands than at the Emirates or Etihad, even if that is at the loss of some of the quality on show.

On the bright side though, even if we do lose all that history and sentiment, you know our stadia are going to have a damn sight classier names than what the those Tacky-tastic Yanks can come up with. Pizza Hut.

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Posted on July 15, 2011 by Rob in Championship, England, Europe, League One, League Two, Premiership, World Leave a comment