Footy News

Well that's the end of that little era.

David Sullivan stood down due to accusations of abuse, he was a porn baron so not really a total shock.

Although Panorama have a history of making stuff up so we shall see.

Lady Brady left in April and David Gold sadly died three years ago.

Not sure where this leaves West Ham? I guess Daniel Kretinsky might buy Sullivan out, or Gold's daughter Vanessa might have a say.

Hopefully we won't get taken over by some dodgy foreign asset stripper or hedge fund.

Southend have appointed Keiron Dyer as the new manager after the shock sacking of Kevin Maher, wish him well but hope the treatment room is up to scratch 😁

Enzo Maresca who is the likely to be the new Man City manager, has hit a stumbling block.

It seems he wasn't sacked by Chelsea he just left, meaning Chelsea want a compensation fee?

World Cup stuff - some of the Iran staff are not being allowed into the US where they play all their games, their team has to fly in and out of the US on the same day they play.

One of FIFA's own referees has been denied access, plus several other players from other countries also having Visa problems.

 

Maybe they should move it all to a more open country like North Korea 😁

 

Football Round Up

Arsenal win the League for the first time since 2003/2004.

Relegation down to the last game, Tottenham need a point vs Everton, West Ham have to beat Leeds and pray  🙏

European places very complicated. If Aston Villa win the Europa league but then lose to Man City on Sunday and Liverpool win it means 6th place gets a Champions League place (currently Bournemouth or possibly Brighton).
Other comps I'm not sure about, Bournemouth Brighton Brentford Chelsea and Sunderland still in with a chance, Crystal Palace get Europa league if they win next weeks Conference League.

Looks like Guardiola is leaving Man City at the end of season, Enzo Maresca tipped to take over which makes complete sense.
Former Man City coach, with 3 trophies in 2 years, rated by everyone except the Chelsea owners.

Chelsea have lined up Shabby Alonso as their next temporary manager, wish him luck but should get a bank boost and maybe be available for Liverpool sometime next season when Slot gets thrown under the bus by more players 🙄

Iraola and Glasner both leaving at end of season, Maybe Silva as well? plus might be some less expected?

Although if West Ham get relegated I'll be more interested in Lincoln, Millwall, Charlton and possibly Stockport

Championship play off game is still undecided, should have been Southampton vs Hull but the Saints have been expelled for spying so now it's going to be Middlesborough vs Hull. Although Southampton have appealed so might change?

My local club Southend win the FA Trophy on Sunday at Wembley, their first proper trophy ever.
Two days later and they sack manager Kevin Maher ????
It's always been said Southend hate success, everytime they've been doing well they've either sold off the best players or sacked managers. Maybe Guardiola was looking for a new challenge  😀

Champions League

Champions League Quarter Finals this week.

Barcelona v Athletico Madrid (2-1)
Bayern Munich v Benfica (1-0)
Paris St Germain v Man City
Wolfsburg v Real Madrid

Barcelona beat Athletico Madrid after Fernando Torres did a 10 minute Hero to Villain routine, Barca should be favourites but Simeone's Madrid are horrible to play against. I should dislike them with the miserable moaning Simeone in charge and a team that displays all the dark arts but I like the way they upset the mega-money pair in Spain.
Bayern Munich struggled to beat Benfica 1-0 and will have to perform better at the real Stadium of Light.

Tonight sees City taking on Zlatan and his Paris supporting cast, shame City don't have a defence so they just need to score more goals than Paris? should be good :)
Real Madrid should be able to overcome Wolfsburg  assuming Ronaldo plays.

European Club Draws

Here's the last 16 draw for this seasons Champions League

Arsenal v Barcelona
AS Roma v Real Madrid
Benfica v Zenit St Petersburg
Dynamo Kiev v Manchester City
Juventus v Bayern Munich
KAA Gent v VFL Wolfsburg
Paris St Germain v Chelsea
PSV Eindhoven v Atletico Madrid

Tough draws for Arsenal against the likely winners, and Chelsea having to play the team that knocked them out last season.
Man City's only complaint could be that Kiev are not allowed to have visiting supporters due to their racism against Chelsea fans earlier in the competition? surely a total ban would have been better? Yaya Toure won't be happy.

The Europa "Mickey Mouse League" draw, last 32

Anderlecht v Olympiakos
Borussia Dortmund v FC Porto
FC Augsburg v Liverpool
FC Midtjylland v Manchester United
FC Sion v Sporting Braga
Fenerbahce v Lokomotiv Moscow
Fiorentina v Tottenham
Galatasaray v Lazio
Marseille v Athletic Bilbao
Saint Etienne v Basel
Sevilla v Molde
Shakhtar Donetsk v Schalke
Sparta Prague v FC Krasnodar
Sporting Lisbon v Bayer Leverkusen
Valencia v Rapid Vienna
Villarreal v Napoli

Tough draw for Tottenham against Fiorentina the team that knocked them out last season.
Man Utd play Midtjylland from Denmark who beat Southampton in an earlier round.
 Liverpool play German team Augsberg, currently 13th in the Bundesliga.

 Sorry Paul :)

Birthday

Happy Birthday to Yaya Toure
We don't want him thinking we've forgotten do we :)

The Good Old Days

Just found this on You Tube, a compilation of full episodes of ITV's the Big Match and BBC's Match of the Day from nearly 30 years ago.
Back in the days when I was a regular on the terraces, so good memories :)

The Big Match features Chelsea v West Ham from Stamford Bridge back in the days when Chelsea couldn't afford grass and had to supplement their income from the half empty ground by using the ends as a car park and storage area for building supplies.
A good game with West Ham having Paul Hilton in defence (a defender we signed from a team we put 10 goals past in the cup?), Chelsea had left Hazard on the bench.
The other game is Everton v Newcastle with Sky's Martin Tyler commentating.

Match of the Day from the next week features 2 Manc v Scouse games first Man Utd v Everton again, followed by Liverpool v Man City.
Also the 2nd Division game Brighton v Portsmouth.
They also have Cricket with England getting hammered by the West Indies.

Interesting

The Germans dominated the Champions league last season and were rightly praised after some amazing results mainly from Munich and Dortmund. With the exception of Arsenal's great win in Munich, England's teams looked to have some catching up to do.
This season early on Munich won at the Etihad and Dortmund won at the Emirates, so it looked like the story would continue despite Chelsea and Man Utd's home wins over Schalke and Leverkusen.
But the four away legs in the second half of the competition maybe show a shift?

Schalke 0-3 Chelsea
Borussia Dortmund 0-1 Arsenal
Bayer Leverkusen 0-5 Man Utd
Bayern Munich 2-3 Man City

Champions League

The Champions league group draw

Group A - Man Utd, Shakhtar Donetsk, Bayer Leverkusen, Real Sociedad
Group B - Real Madrid, Juventus, Galatasaray, Copenhagen
Group C - Benfica, Paris SG, Olympiakos, Anderlecht
Group D - Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow, Man City, Viktoria Plzen
Group E - Chelsea, Schalke, Basel, Steaua Bucharest
Group F - Arsenal, Marseille, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli
Group G - Porto, Ath Madrid, Zenit St Petersburg, Austria Vienna
Group H - Barcelona, AC Milan, Ajax, Celtic

First thoughts, Man Utd and Chelsea should stroll through, Man City should finish 2nd.
Arsenal have a really tough group and could struggle.
Celtic have little chance but will hope they can give Barcelona a tough time again.

Champions League Draw

Champions League Draw

Group A - Paris St Germain, FC Porto, Dynamo Kiev, Dinamo Zagreb
Group B - Arsenal, Schalke 04, Olympiakos, Montpellier
Group C - AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg, Anderlecht, Malaga
Group D - Real Madrid, Man City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund
Group E - Chelsea, Juventus, Shakhtar Donetsk, FC Nordsjaelland
Group F - Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lille, Bate Borisov
Group G - Barcelona, Celtic, Benfica, Spartak Moscow
Group H - Man Utd, Sporting Braga, Galatasaray, CFR Cluj

Tough draw for Man City with the champions of England, Spain, Germany and Holland all drawn together!!
Celtic get Barcelona and 2 other hard teams.
The others look to have easier groups Man Utd and Arsenal should be really happy.
Chelsea have got Juventus and Shakhtar but should be good enough to go through.

Season 2012/13

Less than 2 hours to go till another Premier league season kicks off :)
The title race should be between the big 3 of Man City, Man United and Chelsea with Van Persie's transfer probably meaning Arsenal drop into the second group chasing the 4th place with Tottenham, Everton and maybe Newcastle.
AVB has the chance to show what all the fuss was about when he went to Chelsea last season, although he will probably have to do it without Modric, but the money will come in useful.
If Liverpool have the quality and can embrace the Rogers way they could have a decent season, but if they lose a couple he could be under pressure from the unrealistic ambitions of their fans and owners.

At the bottom it's a complete lottery, the poll currently has Wigan and Reading for the drop but I'm not so sure? Brian McDermott is a very likeable manager who will get the best out of a good Reading team and Martinez's Wigan looked very good at the end of last season.
Chris Hughton is a really good manager and might keep Norwich from suffering "2nd season syndrome", Brian Laudrup is highly rated and could lessen the blow of Brenda Rogers departure.
Martin Jol of Fulham has signed a few good players which might lessen the blow of probably losing their star player Dempsey.
Stoke should have a better season without having the European games which cost them last year.
I think West Brom could struggle without Roy Hodgson and I really don't rate Steve Clarke, QPR despite a number of good signings still don't have a settled team and I reckon they will have another season of fighting for their lives.
I really hate to say that the Hammers will be fighting relegation but unless we take advantage of the reasonably easy start to the season and manage to pick up at least 2-3 quality players before the end of the transfer window it could be a tough season.
Looking at this years teams any 3 of around 12 could be in the relegation places at the end of the season?

My predictions for the season -
1st Man Utd,  2nd Man City, 3rd  Chelsea, 4th Arsenal
Relegated - West Brom, QPR, Southampton

Cigarette Cards (Part 1)

Bristol City - Now in the Championship, I do remember them being in the top division during the seventies but have spent most years in the second and third tiers.
Manchester City - The new Premier league champions, thanks to the Arab money have returned to the top table after many years of under achievement. One of those clubs that most people quite liked but I've no doubt the hatred will start soon.

Bolton Wanderers - Sadly relegated yesterday, although holding on to Premier league status for a few years they have not been one of the big boys since the 1920's
Newcastle - Had their most successful season in many years, and really for a club of their size and support should be in the top ten regularly.

Everton - Have a great history but have lived in the shadow of Liverpool for most of the last 50 years and despite a few good seasons sadly don't seem to be able to compete financially with their noisy neighbours.
Swansea - I always thought of them as Wales' 3rd biggest team behind Cardiff and Wrexham, but recent history shows they are the only ones to have made the top division in the last 50 years (twice). Not sure why they call themselves City when Swansea is not actually a city?

Bristol Rovers - the Black Arabs? never heard that before, although a well known club really they haven't won anything of note and have never been in the top division. I think of them as a big club mainly because of them winning the Watney cup in 1972 which used to be a big event on telly in those days :)
Barnsley - Had one season in the top division back in the nineties with the "just like watching Brazil" team but have spent most of their history in the second tier which is not too bad really.

Leicester City - One of those nearly teams having been runners up in the league and FA Cup (4 times), had a brief period of glory under Martin O'Neill when they won the league cup twice.
Norwich City - Back in the big time this season and have done pretty well with most of the players that got them out of league one 2 seasons ago, like Leicester their only trophies have been the league cup twice.

Muppet Of The Season

There is an obvious winner here but please vote anyway :)
The poll is on the right, with the 10 football related people who I think deserve recognition for their outstanding contributions.

Joey Barton started and ended the season with the thug behaviour that we have been used to for many years, although somehow he has become a minor celebrity during the season for appearing to be "intelligent"??

John Terry has again managed to lose the England captaincy this time for on pitch antics after racially abusing Anton Ferdinand, and then his idiotic foul in the Champions league semi nearly cost Chelsea the game.

Luis Suarez diver extraordinaire and racist moron.

Neil Warnock has the amazing knack of blaming everyone else for all his failings, despite bringing in a shedload of expensive players at QPR he turned them into almost certain relegation candidates and has followed up by making Leeds also rans when they looked certain for the play-offs before his arrival.

Ched Evans rapist scum.

Carlos Tevez, I obviously like the guy and reckon he is one of the best players in football, but his 6 month sulk almost cost City the title and showed him up as a prize muppet.

Steve Kean totally out of his depth as a manager and really didn't seem to know why everyone hated him, I know he was unlikely ever to land another managers job but he really should have walked.

Mario Balotelli is an easy choice, yes is he is a great player but only on days when he wants to be and yes he is young but the mind is probably still 10 years behind the body.

Kenny Dalglish for his blind support of Suarez showing his football brain is still stuck in the 80's.

Garth Crooks, why oh why is this guy on telly every week? his rants can send insomniacs into a deep sleep and he really doesn't seem to know the first thing about football.

Premier League Final Day

Final day and still a few things up for grabs.
Man City need to win to guarantee the title, Man Utd have to win to stand any chance.
Arsenal, Tottenham and Newcastle fighting for 3rd, 4th and 5th where only 3rd is guaranteed Champions league football next season.
At the bottom Bolton have to win at Stoke to overtake QPR, QPR themselves need only a point to be absolutely safe but they are at Man City.

Half time -
Man City lead 1-0 but have lost Yoyo Toure to injury, QPR might have been happy early on but with Bolton now winning they have to do something.
Man Utd also 1-0 up with a Rooney goal but anything but safe.
Arsenal started well but then found themselves 2-1 down before pulling a goal back.
Tottenham got an early goal against Dempsey-less Fulham, you would expect them to carry on unless Martin Jol still holds a big grudge and feels he owes Tottenham some payback.
Newcastle looking dead and buried at 2-0 to Everton.
Bolton got a really bad start but have come back to lead which at the moment keeps them up.
The other games not really mattering at the moment.

Second Half -
Great start with Cisse scoring for QPR, and Arsenal have taken the lead again.
Oh dear Joey Barton the Twat is back!! he elbows Tevez who is not usually a diver and then after being sent off kicks Aguerro and has a bust up with Ballotelli, probably means QPR will go down and City should go on to win, maybe Barton is still a secret Man City fan? but after a season where he has improved his reputation he has reverted to type and proved he's a 100% Twat.
The Spuds have scored again. Everton 3 up.
Amazing stuff QPR have scored again!!
Stoke have just scored to take the pressure of QPR.
Bolton game finishes and suddenly QPR give up and concede 2 goals in the last few minutes to give them the title amazing stuff!!!
The Man Utd game finishes with them as champions but 2 minutes later they are runners up.
Arsenal finish 3rd thanks to Ben Foster being injured and reserve Fulop having a nightmare, Tottenham win and finish 4th meaning we all have to cheer Chelsea on next week :)
Newcastle finish 5th but still can be proud of a good season.
Swansea beat Liverpool, Norwich, Chelsea and Wigan all win and Bolton are relegated :(

Not the results I really wanted as I'd predicted Man U as champions and QPR getting relegated and neither of those happened, you have to wonder what would have happened if Stoke hadn't equalised against Bolton? would QPR have carried on to get the result insted of throwing the towel in? we shall never know.

So Far So Good

Just checked my Premier league predictions from August 9th -
"So my predictions for the season are -
Top - 1 Man Utd 2 Man City 3 Chelsea 4 Arsenal
Bottom - 18 QPR 19 Wigan 20 Wolves"
Swap Tottenham for Chelsea and it's looking good at the moment.

At the bottom it's almost certain to be those 3 plus Bolton and Blackburn, Blackburn always look likely to score goals so they should be OK, Bolton could drop in place of QPR.
At the top it's still a 2 way fight with the 3 London teams fighting for 2 places?
Chelsea despite Luiz have the best defence but seem to have forgotten how to score enough goals, Arsenal are totally unpredictable either very good or very bad, Tottenham's defence is a problem although Brad Friedel will save them a few points.
So I'll stick with my previous predictions :)

Hoyfoy

Will Sir Chris Hoy be getting more abuse on Twitter today? or have City fans got the brains to realise it was Chris Foy unlike the Spuds fans after his last crap game?
The Kompany sending off was the turning point in the match, and yes it was a 2 footed tackle but he didn't make any contact with Nanny so in my opinion it shouldn't have even been a booking.
But some of his decisions after that were even worse, both teams were denied clear penalties the Kolarov foul on Valencia was probably as clear cut as you'll ever see, the booking for Wellbeck was an attempt to pacify the City fans and yet he kept his cards in his pocket for 2 worse fouls by Carrick?
Paul Scholes came out of retirement but maybe should have stayed there.
Anyway it was an enjoyable game despite Foy's attempts to ruin it.

Confusing

Just came back to check the latest scores on the BBC website, before I went out it had said Man City were 3-1 up, now I see that it was a 2-2 draw? might have been a disallowed goal I suppose but then checking the report it gets really confusing?? it says that Kompany scored City's 3rd goal on 2 different pages!!

Happy Sunday

Match of the day should be worth watching tonight.
Man U 8 Arsenal 2
Spuds 1 Man City 5

I would 8 2 be an Arsenal fan today :)

Arsene says he won't quit - I thought he was French?

At least you can't accuse Arsenal fans of being glory hunters anymore.

Gary Cahill handed in a written transfer request today, it said "anywhere but Arsenal"

Another Bad Day

Hugely disappointing day, glad that Man U won the league but annoyed they didn't smash Blackburn and settled for the point they needed, wins for Blackpool and Wolves mean only a freaky set of results can save the Hammers now :(
Even if we win our last 2 games the chances of Fulham winning at Birmingham tomorrow are slim to non existant so relegation should be confirmed by 5.45 tomorrow evening .... Bollocks!!

The FA Cup final was another dull Wembley final with Man City deserving the win without ever looking that good, Stoke suffered the cup final nerves and never got going.
Slightly controversial as Yoyo Toure should have been sent off for the horrible challenge on Wilkinson before scoring the winner, to even it out Huth was lucky to still be on the pitch as well.

Predictions (Week 24)

This weeks games spread over 4 days with a bonus game thrown in.
The Manchester derby gets star billing, I'll go for a narrow United win (in the tenth minute of added time?) but it will be interesting to see if last weeks defeat by Wolves is the start of a bad run or they can bounce back?

Saturday
Man Utd v Man City 2-1
Arsenal v Wolves 3-1
Birmingham v Stoke 1-1
Blackburn v Newcastle 2-1
Blackpool v Aston Villa 2-3
Liverpool v Wigan 1-1
West Brom v West Ham 1-2
Sunderland v Tottenham 1-2
Sunday
Bolton v Everton 1-1
Monday
Fulham v Chelsea 2-2
Tuesday
Birmingham v Newcastle 2-2

Lee v Longy tied at 6-6 :)

Saturday / Sunday

Longy wins the prediction challenge but won't be happy (send money if you don't want me to predict Chelsea wins again), Only die hard scouses could have expected that after the way the seasons gone so far.
Arsenal play some nice football again but Newcastle do the one thing Arsenal struggle with and put the ball in the net.
Tevez was back for City and they got back on the winning trail with 2 goals for hit and miss striker Balotelli who then got himself sent off, West Brom had their 3rd player of the week sent off as their 4th place a couple of weeks ago looks like the highlight of their season.
Yesterday West Ham managed to throw away a 2 goal lead and nearly lost but feel hard done by again by a dodgy ref decision who missed a blatant shirt pull near the end which should have given us a penalty.
Tottenham got stuffed by in form Bolton who are looking a really good team under Owen Coyle and should finish well clear of the relegation area.
Blackpool continue to surprise and if goalie Matt Gilkes hadn't of had an off day they could have shocked Everton.
Man Utd again failed to impress but got the 3 points with a late late goal, tough on Wolves who are looking much better than last season, Owen Hargreaves lasted just 5 minutes of his comeback match (the new Keiron Dyer?).
Fulham left it even later against Villa to snatch yet another draw.
Jason Roberts did his best to miss another open goal but luckily for Blackburn his mis-hit went in off the post for a 2-1 victory over Wigan.
Sunderland managed to win without Bent with Asamoah Gyan repaying some of that 13 million with 2 goals, but Stoke were again robbed by the officials who missed a blatant double handball by Cattermole and possibly the ball being over the line anyway? Cattermole should have had his 3rd red card of the season and Stoke must be thinking that the league have money on them being relegated as for the third game in a row they are cheated by crap refereeing.