Angry Fans
Today, and every Tuesday, he will be acting as referee on your opinions on the Premiership. Let him know what you think and he’ll argue the toss with you. We’ll be offering a free sports prize to the star contribution each week. Today we look at the Cup draw; Liam gets stick over praise for Wayne; United fans get their tails up; there’s defence for Ian Holloway’s Blatter comments; questions over the Third Round attendances; argument over our team of the half season and worry over Boa Morte’s spooky name
GREAT cup draw with none of the top three sides being able to rest players and lots of smaller teams (that’s you Tottenham, if you can get past Cardiff) in with a shout. West Ham v Bolton final anyone?
LIAM, Glad to see you back from your break but on reading your latest comments you may want to take another break. In last week’s Half Time supplement you stated that “If Rooney doesn’t go off the boil, Fergie can land his most unlikely title yet.” I must point out to you that Rooney hasn’t been on the ball since his hat trick against Bolton.
Rooney is having a terrible season. You also tipped Chelsea to win the Champions League. Ludicrous. There are three or four other teams with a much better chance. So have a red card for yourself Liam, and you can send me out the book whenever you get a chance.
ONE of the sporting images of ‘06 was that of the English players crying when they got knocked out of the World Cup. The only other side to cry that much was the Argentineans, and you couldn’t blame them for getting emotional — they blew it big time. Football might have its problems but at least the truth can still win out over hype and spin.
WE are gearing up for one of the best title races since the Premiership started. Not since the Man Utd-Arsenal contest in 1999 has a title race gone to the last day. It is all set up for a classic with a Man Utd-Man City clash and an Arsenal- Chelsea clash in May. Both Arsenal and City will be gunning to blow their opponents’ title aspirations away. The final day could be a classic with West Ham standing in front of United for a title again, like 12 years ago. It would be great if a certain Everton striker could destroy Mourinho’s three in a row on the final day. It would be the perfect end to the season. The title could hinge on Terry and Drogba being fit for the season as the loss of one or both will be a huge blow to Chelsea. Even the loss of Ronaldo would not affect United as much as the balance is in the side this year.
SO has Jose’s self proclaimed Special One title been proven to be a little off the mark? His constant whingeing apart, his first REAL crisis in his two and a half years at the helm was met with criticism of his defence and a statement of how his Porto side was a better team than Chelsea. Fix the problem, don’t just point it out. Or can he? Meanwhile Sir Alex “quietly” gets on with it. Let me ask you this Mr Mourinho: Nemanja Vidic or Boulahrouz, Ronaldo or Wright-Philips or even Evra or Ashley Cole? I know who I’d choose, but then I’m not the special one.
JUST why is your columnist Ian Holloway facing “a rap” for calling Sepp Blatter “a lunatic and an idiot.” Have they not got better things to do in Zurich?
AH, the magic of the FA Cup. Average attendances at their highest for 25 years . . . but how much was this influenced by the expanded capacities at grounds such as Old Trafford? Let’s consider some other figures . . . 16,000 at St. Andrews for the visit of Newcastle; 15,000 at Sheffield United including 5,000 Taffs; 11,000 at Watford. Even at Nottingham Forest there were large gaps on the terraces. How are they going to blame that on Chelsea? The real reason is too much dross and too much cost after Christmas.
LARSSON is magnificent. One of those rare breed of players (Speed, Makalale, Sheringham and Giggs are others) of whom you can say “age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.”
SHOULD West Ham fans be worried that the Anglicised version of the name of the winger they have just bought for £7.2m from Fulham means ’Beautiful Death’?
CAN the Irish Examiner explain to me, and millions of others, just how it managed to pick Frank Lampard ahead of Paul Scholes in its team of the season to date? Or even Fabregas of Arsenal. I can’t wait to hear this one.
OUR SHOUT: Our man at the Bridge mutters something about 12 goals and loads of assists. Me, I think Scholes has been the player of the season.
HAS there ever been a worse FA Cup Third Round weekend for Merseyside than this one? Liverpool used to pride themselves on defence but on Saturday they gave the freedom of the city to Rosicky? Hugely disappointing. Now it’s Carling Cup, beat Barcelona, or bust.
RUMOURS of my death are greatly exaggerated, said Mark Twain. So are the rumours about Mourinho leaving Stamford Bridge, with not a single new fact being presented in this weekend’s yakkity-yak from Sky and the hacks. He’ll be around to make three-in-a-row over Old Trafford’s Old Boy. Just you wait and see. Oh, and Barcelona are only second in La Liga as we speak having only managed a draw with Getafe this weekend. They’re obviously in a dark moment as well.
YOU’VE got to hand it to the Italians. They do revenge better than anyone else. When Palermo go through a bad spell . . . what do the fans do? Throw their season tickets onto the pitch? Boo from the stands. No, they cut off a goat’s head and send it to the sporting director. That’s the way to do it.
AMAZING, isn’t it, that everyone says Shaun Wright-Phillips has been rubbish for 18 months and now there is a queue of clubs who want to sign him. Any explanation, Liam?
