Sorry wrong audience! Champions league has started, and all the excitement has come back. The talk with friends all week has pretty much been about the Champions League, better known as the trophy Chelsea have failed to win even after spending £350m+, but that’s another debate. Who will win this year’s champions league? 

My friend Darren said- ‘Chelsea… Mourinho knows he needs it so he will do his best to win it’

My friend Pete said- ‘Man Utd… Fergie wants to win it one more time before he retires’

And my friend Behfar said- ‘Real Madrid… they have bought sensibly for once and it will come to aid them this year in the champions league’ 

The truth is, nowadays no-one knows. Apart from me. This year no ‘surprise package’ will win it… either Real Madrid or Chelsea will win it. Why? Because they will. More seriously, Mourinho is edging closer to being sacked by Roman. Roman has done something this season we have never seen him do; walk out after Chelsea let in a goal. This was done after Villa scored their second goal at Villa Park a few weeks ago. Read more »

Posted on September 19th, 2007 | No Comments »
Filed under: Champions League, Chelsea, football, soccer

When fans of the English Premier League refer to the ‘top four’, they are generally talking about Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. However with the influx of the new TV money there appears to be a tide of contenders threatening to break the dominance of the big four.Ever since Rafa Benitez joined and started reshaping a Liverpool side that often failed to deceive into genuine contenders for honours and Roman Abromovich came in and gave Mourinho so much money to spend that they could afford to buy £21 million bench players like Shaun Wright Phillips, the top four places in the league table have generally been filled by those teams each season. Finishing in one of the top four places gains qualification for the Champions League- the two top automatically enter the group stages while the teams that finish third and fourth play a two legged tie against often substandard European opponents.

The last time the stranglehold on the top four was broken was by a spirited Everton side in 2004/05, who finished three points ahead of a Liverpool team distracted by the Champions League - but the Toffees then failed to advance in either the Champions League or the UEFA Cup, losing to Villareal and then getting thrashed by Dinamo Bucharesti. Liverpool still qualified for the Champions League the next season by virtue of them picking up the trophy and being allowed back in by UEFA. Other than Everton, the closest a side has come spoiling the party was the Tottenham Hotspur team of 2005/06, who led a struggling Arsenal side for large parts of the season before succumbing on the last day of the season to West Ham United and thus gifting Arsenal their place in the Champions League qualifiers. While most do not think that another team will break into the top four very soon, with the amount of big spending and the types of players being brought into the Premier League, anything is possible. Here, I will take a look at the four teams that I feel are the most capable of doing so.

Read more »

Posted on September 12th, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Filed under: Newcastle, football, soccer, top four, tottenham

When Barcelona wrapped up arguably the coup of the transfer window by picking up the world class Thierry Henry for just over £16 million pounds, football fans were both puzzled and ecstatic about the transfer. Yes, they would be able to finally see four of the most formidable attacking players play together for one team- but on the other hand did Barcelona really need Henry? Already possessing Ronaldinho Gaucho, Leo Messi and Samuel Eto’o up front, Barcelona had three players that any team in the world would be happy to have one of- let alone three. Those that watched last season’s title race would surely argue that their defensive needs needed improving much more than their attacking ones, which is why the purchase of Henry was seen as unneeded by many top football pundits around the world (Gabriele Marcotti stated that “where else but La Liga would their [Real Madrid] closest rivals sign one of the greatest attacking weapons in footballing history at great expense despite already boasting three of the best strikers in the world?”). Although Barcelona scored more goals and conceded fewer goals than any other team in La Liga, they finished second, not winning the title due to their inferior head to head record against champions Real Madrid.

Barcelona scored 78 goals in their 38 league games, meaning they scored an average of around 2 goals a game. Their 33 goals conceded meant they conceded an average of just below 0.9 goals a game. If you take these two figures into account, this means that should have (on average) won every game 2-1, so why didn’t they win the title? Obviously in football you cannot win all your games- you will draw some, and yes you will lose some. However, given the fact that Barcelona scored 12 more goals and conceded 7 goals less than champions Real Madrid, this shows that they should have not even let the Bernabeu side close enough to let the head to head results have any meaning on the title race. The conclusion we can draw from these facts is that when Barcelona won games, they won them well yet when they conceded in games, they often lacked the impetus to claw their way back into a winning position. Most would argue that a striker of Henry’s calibre would only help them do this- here I will reason whether Henry’s signing was as needed or not. Read more »

Posted on September 7th, 2007 | 9 Comments »
Filed under: Barcelona, Henry, La Liga, football, soccer

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

Throughout the history of football, there have been many innovative ideas. Deciding to disallow the use of the conventional backpass to the goalkeeper, putting numbers on shirts, even the intense physical conditioning that a lot of the top level managers use have all contributed to make the sport the spectacle it is today. In the past few years, one of the things in football that has caused the most amount of debate is take-overs by “foreigners”. Whether it’s Thaksin Shinawatra at Manchester City, Malcolm Glazer at Manchester United or Roman Abromovich at Chelsea, most businessmen that have taken over clubs in the recent past have courted controversy at one point or another. In the past, most football clubs were owned by fans of the club itself- no it seems that more and more businessman looking to make a quick buck or for a real time version of popular computer game Football Manager. Now, it seems like ordinary fans will be able to actually have a say in the running of a club. MyFootballClub, a website set up by former football journalist Will Brooks claims that common football fans will finally be able to effect decisions of a club- be it who to sign in the transfer market, selecting which players will feature in the first team or the amount of money put into the youth fund for the coming season.

The site charges a fee of £35 for all those wanting to take part (£7.5 for administration of the MyFootballClub Trust while £27.5 goes into club expenditure) and members get to vote on which club they would like to see taken over. Currently leading the list is League One club Leeds United, with Nottingham Forest and Cambridge United in second and third place respectively. Although the website is keeping the number of people that have signed up a secret so that clubs they were negotiating with would not know the extent of their wealth, 53,051 members had signed up as of July 31st- making the total value of the company worth £1.46 million at the very least. Now that all the facts have been sorted out, this writer will give his view on whether he feels that the idea is a good one or not.

While the idea of “the people” running a football club may be a sound one in principle, a look at nearly any football forum on the Internet will tell you that most of “the people” are lacking a few brain cells. The very fact that a club like Leeds United, a team that was given a fifteen point penalty for financial issues leads the list of clubs to purchase speaks for itself- as do the listings of Arsenal and Manchester United (two clubs that would cost over £1 billion to purchase) at 9th and 11th place respectively shows that voting even in large numbers can sometimes produce futile results. Also, while the MyFootballClub scenario allows your vote to be counted, it is unlikely that a solitary vote in 50,000 people will make a large dent in the decisions you want to affect. There are official fan forums of teams that ask you to contribute ideas as to how the team can be improved and they are often free to join- what difference does MyFootballClub offer you, apart from charging you £35 to voice your opinion?

Although a fee of £35 seems a fairly cheap price to join the service, which as MyFootballClub says is “less than most Premiership tickets” as well as the price of a “football manager computer game”, what benefit does joining the service give you? Whereas football manager computer games can be played for hours on end, and going to a football match allows you to see your favourite team in the flesh, how does joining what is effectively a glorified fan forum create any more ‘fun’ that a free online message board would do? As MyFootballClub have not even selected the team they are going to purchase yet, those fans that have already paid up could be hugely disappointed if their dream to control the decisions of Leeds United turned into a reality of controlling the decisions of non-league side Cambridge United. Since football is a very passionate sport, it is nearly impossible for those that have a true interest in it to generate support for another team. Why then, should fans of the club that MyFootballClub will purchase waste money on a team they were never interested by in the first place?

Even though it must have seemed a good idea when Will Brooks concocted the MyFootballClub scenario, in reality there are just too many problems and too many drawbacks for it to work smoothly. While fans would get to ‘own’ a football club for probably the first time in their lives, there are many ways they could satisfy their passion for the sport, and spending £35 on MyFootballClub is certainly something that will bring them a great deal of satisfaction.

Posted on August 29th, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Filed under: England, Premiership, football, myfootball club, soccer