Ed- this piece was written by James Harrower, a new writer for the site.

The English premier league is widely regarded to be the best league in the world so it brings the best players to it, but is the influx of foreign players a good thing or is it seriously detrimental to the future of English football? It’s disgusting to think that Arsenal, a successful club based in North London regularly field a starting 11 with not one British, let alone English player.

Perhaps it’s not Steve McLaren we should be worried about with the state of the current National side; maybe we should be worried for the manager when the World Cup could possibly be hosted in England in 2018.  How many good English players will we have then, with the majority of the premier league taken up with foreign names?

It’s not just foreign players either, along with foreign managers we now have foreign owners in the league, to which all their funds have only secured lucrative contracts for foreign stars.  Since Roman Abramovich has bought Chelsea he has bought 8 English players and 21 foreign players, for huge exorbitant sums (£268m) who don’t always play.

Admittedly, the premier league would be a duller place without the likes of Ronaldo, Essien, Fabregas, Torres and Berbatov but we need to know how far down the list we need to go before we find an abundance of British talent.  Sepp Blatter’s foreign quote plan of 5 foreign players per team, per game could end up pushing the premier league behind La Liga and Serie A; however this could be a good thing, in the long term.  Although this would force a complete reshuffle of the Arsenal and Chelsea sides and major changes to many other sides, the National team would benefit profusely from the English players being played week in and week out, the majority of which would come from club academies.

It is time to decide whether we hold our league or our National team in higher regard as we seemingly don’t be able to succeed in both.

Posted on November 4th, 2007 | No Comments »
Filed under: England

Apparently, Owen plays for two clubs; England FC and England national team. Reason to this? All pundits, commentators and the press ever seem to talk about when talking about Owen is England, not Newcastle. Every week Big Sam is asked ‘How is Owen’s chances of recovering for the England matches,’ every week newspaper headlines are ‘Owen On Road To Recovery For England’, if I was Sam, I’d say ‘Feck England we pay his wages!’, then walk off, ring Garth Crooks’ missus and shag her to get revenge for being asked about England every week! 

I feel sorry for Newcastle fans. Over the years they have been let down season after season, but let’s stop being negative. Newcastle are on the way up, it won’t happen quickly, but it will happen. Newcastle will be a top 6 team by 2010. How do I know? Because I’m a fortune teller and today I caressed my crystal ball and I saw ‘

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Posted on October 3rd, 2007 | 232 Comments »
Filed under: England, Newcastle, article

Talksport: ‘Talksport speaking how can I help?’

Me: ‘I’d like to be put on air to speak to Adrian about England’s performances’

Talksport: ‘Have you rung before?’

Me: ‘Yes I rang him about 2 months ago when Arsenal signed Bacari Sagna and Adrian was ripping Wenger apart for spending £7.5m on a foreigner’ And before I knew it…

Adrian: ‘Ramin from London… I seem to remember your name from a couple of weeks ago, what would you like to talk about this time?’

Me: ‘I’ve sat here and listened to you talk crap about England and how crap they are, but it’s time people like you realised the national team won’t get anywhere until the press and media ease the pressure off them. I know you say what you do because you’re second favourite to Five Live and you need listeners but….. BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP’

That was the end. He cut me off.I was just about to tell him how he was a pleasant young chap and one of the best presenters in the radio industry… bollocks was I.

Steve has come under severe criticism in the last few months, but in my opinion it’s not all his fault. It’s not his fault the F.A appointed him when they needed someone who the players respect and listen to, it’s not his fault England players are lazy and overhyped, but hey that’s life. Read more »

Posted on September 22nd, 2007 | No Comments »
Filed under: England, Mourinho, article

Three seasons ago Jose Mourinho had just completed one of the hardest feats of the modern game- surprising the world after helping Portuguese club FC Porto win the Champions League; today he is without a job. Despite winning two Premier League titles, two Carling Cup trophies and an FA Cup trophy in his time with Chelsea Football Club, there was always speculation that Mourinho would leave one way or another eventually- his relationship with Abramovich was rocky, to say the least. Although Mourinho had won the trophies Abramovich craved, he did not do it in the style the owner wanted. Envious eyes were cast over London neighbours Arsenal after their glorious unbeaten season, but it seemed that Abramovich was happy to allow Mourinho to stay at the helm as long as the trophies came in- although those close to the Russian businessman hinted that he wanted the Champions League most of all.

After the sensational news emerged last night that Mourinho had left the club by mutual consent, many football fans were not surprised. It seemed as if this moment had been coming for quite some time, ever since Abramovich apparently refused the signing of Israeli defender Tal Ben Haim in January- a decision that may well have cost them the title. Since then, it appears that Abramovich’s extravagant transfer spending has ended, with Chelsea’s sole big buy in this transfer window being Florent Malouda from Lyon for around £13.5 million. The club were in for Daniel Alves, but Abramovich refused to shell out the fee that Sevilla wanted- meaning that Mourinho got Barcelona fringe player Julio Belletti instead; hardly a like-for-like swap.

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Posted on September 21st, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Filed under: Chelsea, England, Mourinho, Premiership, football

Ask almost any fan of a club that has done well in their first year after being promoted to the Premiership and their feelings will not be one of anticipation, but more of fear- all due to the condition dubbed “second season syndrome”. Second season syndrome is defined as a downturn in fortunes for a club two years after promotion to the top flight- especially if they have done exceptionally well the prior season. While most promoted clubs often drop straight back down into the division they came from, quite a few have surprised football fans and pundits alike with a brilliant first season- however after expectations are raised, they often struggle in their second year.

The first notable example of second season syndrome that was seen in the Premiership was Middlesbrough in the 1996/97 season. Promoted as champions of Division One in 1995, Middlesbrough shone in their first season- reaching the heights of fourth place in October before eventually finishing well clear of the relegation zone in 12th place. The next season however, despite manager Bryan Robson buying expensive players (at the time) like Fabrizo Ravanelli and Emerson, Middlesbrough eventually slumped to a dismal 19th place in the table and were relegated, starting the trend that would be continued quite a few times over the next decade.

For Ipswich Town in 2001/02, the sudden drop was even more alarming. After being promoted due to them winning the Division One playoffs in 2000, Ipswich shocked the Premiership after storming into fifth place and thus winning a place in the UEFA Cup. Although they qualified for the UEFA Cup again next season (this time via their UEFA Fair Play ranking), Ipswich were relegated at the end of the year- winning just one of their first seventeen Premier League fixtures and eventually going into financial administration.

While the next team to be hit by second season syndrome was not relegated, the drop was still a massive seven places down the Premier League table. The team this time was Manchester City, promoted as Division One champions in 2002. They did well as a team in their first season- eventually finishing a respectable ninth in the table. Their second season, however, saw them sucked into a relegation battle for all but the last few days of the season, finally finishing sixteenth to stay up (and have since pushed on to become a comfortable mid-table team).

The last example of second season syndrome that I will give you is the season of 2006/07, where not just one, but two teams struggled in their second season. This time both teams were not relegated- but a struggle of such great magnitude looked almost impossible after their successful first seasons in England’s highest division. West Ham United and Wigan Athletic, both promoted from the second tier in 2005. West Ham finished ninth in their first year as well as reaching the final of the FA Cup (and thus qualifying for the UEFA Cup), but in their follow up season were almost certain to be relegated until an exceptional run of form by Argentine striker Carlos Tevez. Wigan Athletic went from tenth in their first team to surviving due to goal difference on the last day of the season- despite keeping most of their star players.

While all this does is highlight the difficulty of going from a side promoted to the Premiership to a comfortable mid table side in the top flight, fans of those clubs about to celebrate their second season should still have faith- there are survivors, as West Ham, Manchester City and Wigan Athletic have shown, and the former two at least are almost certain not to go down this season.

Posted on September 5th, 2007 | No Comments »
Filed under: England, Premiership, football, soccer