Angry Fans
Today he's spraying comments to left and right on the Respect campaign, the Champions League away games rule; the Tevez affair; the comedy that is Newcastle; overseas owners of Premier League clubs; Stephen Ireland; the comedy that is Spurs, Setanta and England supporters , Croatian racism, and the antics of Cristiano Ronaldo.
The first prize of the new season goes to Barry. . . get in touch with your postal address . . . and it will be in the post to you before you can say Arab billionaires. HOW do you think the "Respect" campaign is coming along Liam? Mark Halsey sent to the lower leagues for daring to give a rugby tackle a red card; Rob Styles gifting a struggling Manchester United a penalty which changed the game? Mike Riley dishing out seven yellow cards, including three for dissent at Stamford Bridge. It doesn't seem to be going awfully well, does it?
Still, imagine how bad things would be if the campaign hadn't been introduced: full-scale riots, drive-by shootings, the collapse of society as we know it. Or, worse, the kind of stuff you sometimes see at a GAA game. Frankly, I think the FA acted just in the nick of time.
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SHEFFIELD UNITED and West Ham should just accept the consequences of the various tribunals into the Tevez affair. Sport relies on quick decisions but they are still arguing over Tevez two years later. It wasn't Tevez who made Sheffield draw at home to Wigan when three points would have made them safe. All clubs should agree to abide by the decisions of the governing bodies. Otherwise we have rule by lawyers, and they have too much influence over all our lives already.
I could see both sides of this argument until you mentioned the word "lawyers" and suddenly I can see how right you are, Declan.
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SPURS, Newcastle, and Portsmouth all linked with takeovers; unfinished business at Arsenal with Alisher Usmanov and Stan Kroenke; Liverpool up for sale. How many more years before every Premier League club is in the hands of foreign owners? And would it matter anyway? Where there are British owners (Mike Ashley for example) they're not necessarily doing a great job.
Assuming we're not talking about war criminals ( a rash assumption in the modern game, I'll admit) the surely the issue isn't so much about who owns the club, even less about where they're from, but whether or not they allow the manager free reign to get on with his job.
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SOME Ireland supporters may not like to hear this . . . but won't our chances of getting to the World Cup be greatly improved by getting Stephen Ireland back into the green of his country. He's been excellent for Manchester City, just been chosen as their player of the month and doesn't look out-of-place alongside Robinho. We're not so well off for midfielders that we can afford to leave talent on the sideline. Bringing him back into the fold, should be a priority. At least Trap was watching the game at Wigan yesterday.
I take it you missed Mr Ireland's latest dismissal of any immediate prospect of a resumption of his international career. Time to draw a line under this one, methinks.
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LOOKS like 'St Totteringham's Day' — the day when Arsenal fans celebrate the fact that Spurs can no longer catch Arsenal in the League — is getting earlier and earlier. It usually falls in March or April . . . but this year it could be December! One win in 13 Premier League matches. They sacked Martin Jol for less.
WATCHING that rubbish at Fratton Park yesterday, you wouldn't have realised that it was a battle between the Carling Cup winners and the FA Cup winners, would you?
Er, you would, actually.
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JOE Kinnear at Newcastle Liam? C'mon. Who are they going to hire next . . . Nervo and Knox, Flanagan and Allen, Naughton and Gold, and 'Monsewer' Eddie Gray?
DOESN'T it just about sum up Newcastle that they should take on a caretaker manager who is banned from the touchline for two of the six games that he is contracted for? Don't they know the meaning of the words "due diligence" on Tyneside? Niall Baker, Killarney, by email IF Newcastle needed a short-term manager, why didn't they give the job to Dennis Wise?
Perhaps if they just needed a short manager. Anyway, let's be honest: Newcastle don't really need a manager, they need a shrink.
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LOT of managers are saying that they're short of strikers. How about this pair who will be available in January . . . Michael Owen and Thierry Henry? Doesn't get much better than that does it?
LIAM, do you, like me, derive a certain amount of satisfaction from the fact that, with England getting their only decent tournament results in years and years against Croatia, their supporters had to pay an Irish company for the pleasure of watching it? At one fell swoop the dumb/smart balance is restored.
I SEE that UEFA's idea of getting tough with Croatia for racism is to fine them less than 20,000. That'll show them then.
But were you even surprised?
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TWO weeks since Cristiano Ronaldo returned to the Manchester United fold. In the first week he carried out a dive so embarrassingly awful that Frank Lampard burst out laughing in front of a worldwide TV audience of hundreds of millions. Then on Saturday Ronaldo dives again to change the game against Bolton. He should have been sent off at Chelsea for his second yellow card, and earned another yellow at Old Trafford at the weekend. Ferguson is always bleating about Ronaldo needing protection. It's the Premier League that needs saving from him.
LIAM, you may remember me or not? I am the Charlton fan who believed when Ian Dowie was appointed that we would achieve a top seven finish and get into European football. However disappointing the past two seasons have been I am so proud of the club's manner and the appointment of Pardew was an excellent decision. He is highly ambitious and I hope he gets us somewhere and is given time.
In the first Angry Fans of the season I want to talk about the Football League's Board of Directors decision to deduct points off Bournemouth, Rotherham and Luton Town. Now I understand that these clubs have been run in a poor manner lately and I do agree they shouldn't get off lightly. However I question the points deduction. Clubs in financial difficulties must be helped, not punished. It seems the English Leagues are rewarding the rich and punishing the poor. This is all well and good until eventually teams will never be able to compete with the big clubs.
Or worse, teams will disappear unless billionaire Americans come in more often. Is this what we want? Clubs taken over by Americans or Asian investors? Is that a good thing for sport? Is that even sport? Another issue is the 'tapping up' of players in football. Such cases include Cristiano Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov and other players within England and Europe. Football authorities need to stamp on such acts and punish clubs if evidence is available.
Why not ban a team from making a signing in a season if this act is done continuously? It may be harsh but for the sake of it let's keep sport, and more importantly, soccer fair. Football is changing, perhaps for better in entertainment purposes but definitely for the worse in moral standing. Here's hoping this trend does not continue.
Letter of the week and prize winner.
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