Angry Fans
ANYONE else think that West Ham’s new owners have made an enormous mistake sacking Alan Pardew? A few months ago people were lauding him after the Cup Final.
: At least the Icelanders didn’t make Pardew’s continued leadership the longest Nordic saga since Noggin the Nog. West Ham are playing like relegation certainties. Whether it was wise to wield the bloodaxe before the visit of Manchester United we’ll find out on Sunday.
SO Newcastle are going to bid for Andriy Shevchenko in the January window. Sure thing, and I still believe in Father Christmas.
So, you’ll be putting out the glass of whisky and mince pies on Christmas Eve then Michael? Here’s a New Year’s resolution for you . . . take everything you read about Shevchenko with a huge dose of salt.
WHAT is the goals-per-game ratio telling us about the Premiership? In the Eredivisie you get 3.16 goals per game. In the Bundesliga it’s 2.75. Even boring Serie A has 2.52. You can see more goals in Portugal or La Liga before you get down to the average 2.14 goals in every Premiership match. What’s all that about then?
Errr, it’s about defence Phil. Best form of attack as Brian Clough used to say.
ANOTHER week, another €200,000 added to Kevin Doyle’s transfer value. If Reading sold him in January they would be able to ask €7.5m. Is this the biggest mistake Cork City have made?
Ask us again next season Reb.
Jesus, do you ever read anything I write? It is like talking to the wife. I said that the data your Chelsea correspondent used included pre-war figures which is discredited, erroneous, incorrect, unusable!!!. This therefore means that her spurious claim that Chelsea are the fifth best supported English team in history is just plain wrong. They are not even the third biggest team in London so they unlikely to have ever been the fifth biggest in the country. Now, where is my prize?
The trouble with “history” is that it starts when some supporters want it to. That “discredited, erroneous, incorrect, unusable” data is the same as is referenced by all clubs, and for those geeky enough to check (like me) the 70,000 figure quoted against Spurs was in the early 60s. And while you’re mulling over the “fifth best supported claim” take a careful look at the stats on www.nufc.com/html/attendance-all-time.html. As for your prize, we’re always happy to oblige our readers. But you’ll have to try a bit harder. You are on the trail of Cork Blue in the disciplinary stakes however. Have another red card!
WHAT about this idea that Mourinho floated and Rafa Benitez has taken up about some Premier League reserve teams playing in the Championship? It’s nonsense isn’t it.
Let’s just think about this. Reserve team football is usually rubbish and is it really fair that some Championship teams can use the loan system to improve their chances of promotion (Birmingham with Bendtner, Queens Park Rangers with Mancienne and Jimmy Smith to quote a couple of examples)? Would it really be the end of life as we know it if Division Three were expanded by, say four teams, with those teams being allowed to climb to Division One and no higher and being excluded from the FA Cup? And while we’re at it, why don’t they open the Carling Cup to teams from Scotland and Ireland? Don’t tell me that Cork City or Shamrock Rovers versus Liverpool wouldn’t be a top attraction. Mourinho and Benitez are saying their plan would help younger English players and the national side. Just why a Portuguese and a Spaniard would want to do that is beyond me though.
DOESN’T “Cashly” Cole deserve all the abuse that’s thrown at him. He betrayed the club that looked after him since boyhood.
Rearrange this well-known phrase or saying — “Life. Get a”. Arsenal got a fair price. They got William Gallas, and they had good cover in Gael Clichy. Didn’t hear too many Arsenal fans complaining when Sol Campbell joined them from his boyhood team.
MATTHEW Taylor — 50-yard strike, the goal of the season and the best wing back in the country? Discuss.
It was a hit and hope, and O’Gara does it better. As to the second he’s certainly the most in-form player in that position at present. But he’s always looked useful ever since his days at Luton Town.
IS Xabi Alonso right to worry that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum’s takeover might mean Liverpool selling its soul and abandoning traditional values? For me it’s nothing but good news.
We’ll have to see how the dust settles when the deal goes through. Clearly Liverpool need an extra boost to their playing resources if they are going to challenge United and Chelsea, and if you’re going to have a new owner why not the world’s fifth richest man, even if he is Prime Minister of an Islamic state? I’d be worried about the plan to leave Anfield though, and the suggestion that Tranmere Rovers are also to be purchased to act as a “feeder club”. One other word of warning. Godolphin are one of the great racing stables in the world. But they can’t win everything.
AC Milan had 1,800 for a Cup game in the San Siro the other day (and 300 of those were Brescia fans.) In midweek they were selling their Champions League tickets against Lille for less than €3. Are they a “big club?”
Wasn’t it Berlusconi who once said that fans would eventually have to be let in for free in order to provide an audience and atmosphere for TV viewers? And people laughed at him. And while we’re on this subject...
DID anyone else notice that Chelsea sold tickets to Levski Sofia fans for less than €10 . . . the same price that they would have to pay back home? Is this an interesting new development, charging supporters on an “ability to pay” basis.
Generosity towards Eastern Europe will be one thing Nick, don’t expect the same for the East End.
SHOULD we worry about the Premiership being taken over by foreign owners? Will the Maktoums have the same feeling for the community that the Moores have demonstrated over the years?
Companies get bought and sold all over the world Tony. Don’t you think the current rush of Arabs, Icelanders and Americans is because of worries that UEFA and European sports ministers are going to start interfering?
SO, Chelsea don’t know what it’s like to be eight points behind? All the pundits, and Sir Alex Ferguson get it wrong again. Check out the 2004/05 season.
Ah, there you are Cork Blue. Good point, but have a red card anyway for coming in after the ball has gone.
