Alan Shearer

If you've got 2 hours to spare? this is a really good interview.

Andy Carroll

I liked Andy Carroll, if he only he could have stayed fit he could have been a West Ham legend.
But 32 goals in just 120 appearances in 7 years just kept the physio's busy.
Hope he does well at Newcastle as long as he doesn't get fit for the games against West Ham.

Thanks to News Thump for this - Full Story

McClaren Gone

Maybe if Steve McClaren had got himself one of those dead animal wigs like Trump maybe he would have been more popular?
(Managed to crowbar in a political point there) :)

He seems like a nice guy (McClaren) but he's not a good manager, I was having nightmares at the end of last season when his name was being mentioned as a possible West Ham manager.
Despite bringing in players for £75 million this season they look worse this season than last? Shelvey and Townsend seem reasonable buys but the rest of the team look like they can't wait to get out of the door.

Not sure bringing in Benitez is going to help much as most of his successes have been achieved at clubs that were doing alright before his arrival, don't think Ashley will be too happy spending multi millions replacing all the Frenchmen with Spaniards, especially if they get relegated.

If it comes down to a relegation battle of Allardyce v Benitez I know who I would fancy to stay up.

Sack Race

So Dick Advocaat walks before he was pushed, who will be the first Premier manager to get the bullet?
Obvious candidates are McClaren, Sherwood, Mourinho and Rodgers.
I think Steve McClaren will be given till Christmas although it seems the players don't want to play for him.
Sherwood hasn't really improved Villa, reaching the Cup Final probably bought him some time but I reckon his days are numbered.
Mourinho seems to be bored with Chelsea and is probably trying to engineer a move out of the door? the mainstays of the Chelsea team have either gone or got too old and most of his signings just haven't worked.
Brendan Rodgers still seems out of his depth at Liverpool, I'm sure he would be brilliant at a smaller club with less expectation but most Liverpool fans still believe they are a top 4 side?

Probably doesn't help Chelsea that they have to play a disabled player at the back?

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.

Headlines

I've been clearing out my e-mails from work due to my imminent redundancy :(
I get the feed from BBC Football, and these are the only ones I have bothered saving because I liked the headlines :)

Well Mourinho is always good for a quote :)

January Madness

Like most Hammer fans I love Joe Cole to death but I'm still not sure we should have re-signed him.
He's 31 now and the injuries are coming thick and fast so will he be fit enough to compete for a place?
I can't see him getting a central role as Nolan and Noble have that sewn up with Diame if he stays and the returning Jack Collison.
The left wing should be occupied by Jarvis if he can start reproducing his Wolves form, leaving only a right wing position.
I thought Beny was on a season long loan but he's gone back to the Chelsea reserves leaving Vaz Te who is finding his form again after his injury.
Marouane Chamakh came to England with a good reputation but failed to live up to it in his early games for Arsenal so dropped down the pecking order, the only time I've seen him this season was when he missed a penalty against Bradford.
He might turn out to be a good signing if he gets game time and will probably need to take his chance early on while Carroll is injured and Maiga is off to Africa.
Sean Maguire looks a promising youngster who if he settles in England and is brought through properly looks like he could go a long way (or at least get a decent transfer fee).

The rest - Mercenary Demba Ba has gone to Chelsea which is good business for them as he's cost just £7m and they got £12m for Sturridge who has looked really disappointing over the last year.
QPR have probably confirmed relegation by signing Tel Ben Haim :)
Tottenham have pre-signed German scouser Lewis Holtby but he won't play till next season.
West Brom's Graham Dorrans has been made available and I know we tried to sign him a while back. Several other low profile transfers so far and a host of rumours.
The one that all made us laugh today was the story that Wesley Sneijder was considering joining QPR!! even dodgy Harry laughed at that one :)

Anyway let's hope Joe can silence all the doubts with a winning performance against Man U tomorrow :)

Europa League Draw

Group A - Liverpool, Udinese, Young Boys, Anzhi Makhachkala
Group B - Athletico Madrid, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Plzen, Académica
Group C - Marseille, Fenerbahce, Borussia Monchengladbach, AEL Limassol
Group D - Newcastle, Bordeaux, Club Bruges, Maritimo
Group E - VFB Stuttgart, FC Copenhagen, Steaua Bucharest, Molde
Group F - PSV Eindhoven, Napoli, Dnipro, AIK Solna
Group G - Sporting Lisbon, FC Basel, Genk, Videoton Fehervar
Group H - Inter Milan, Rubin Kazan, Partizan Belgrade, Neftchi
Group I - Lyon, Athletic Bilbao, Sparta Prague, Hapoel Kiryat Shmona
Group J - Tottenham, Panathinaikos, Lazio, NK Maribor
Group K - Bayer Leverkusen, Metalist Kharkiv, Rosenborg, Rapid Vienna
Group L - FC Twente, Hannover 96, Levante, Helsingborgs

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.

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 Bad

The Prems back and watching MOTD last night it looks like it's gonna be the same old story.
Wenger's moaning, Barton's being a twat, Dyer's injured, the smaller teams are praying for the transdfer window to close, Fuham draw and the pundits all think the sun shines out of Kenny Dalglish's arse.
I was going to try to be more charitable about Liverpool this season, but after Suarez's dramatic fall and imaginary card waving after Richardson breathed on him that soon ended.
QPR as predicted were shit (at least I got one prediction right) and anyone that thinks Warnock isn't a wanker were proved wrong after he signed West Ham's injury prone pair Gabbidon and Dyer?
Bolton were impressive but I think anyone would be against that lot.
Wigan and Wolves surprised me and looked quite good, I'm a bit annoyed I forgot to pick Blackburn in my bottom 3 predictions they looked pretty awful apart from Hoillett.
Norwich played reasonably well although I guess they will end up struggling due to lack of top class experience.
Fulham and Villa looked comfortable and I expect them both to be mid table.
Sunderland looked pretty good and have made some good signings.
Newcastle I still think wil struggle this season but they weren't too bad against Arsenal, although Arsenal were a shadow of last seasons team and need several players.
I have to admit I'm starting to like Joey Barton? especially against teams like Arsenal, they like a dive and whinge so it's always funny to see it happen to them :)

Barton Returns

Joey Barton gets angry after realising Gervinho has beaten him to the "stupid haircut of the week award"

Mike Ashley

This guy seems to be disliked by everyone including me, but I've just read how much of his own money he's put into Newcastle and you have to wonder why the Geordie's still don't like the bloke?
Yes he was the man who fired Chris Hughton after he did a decent job getting Newcastle back into the premier league and mid table this season which stunk, after also getting rid of Sam Allardyce who was possibly their best managerial appointment since Bobby Robson. Also it's rumoured his sports company pay minimum wage to it's employee's with the Thatcherist option of "if you don't like it fuck off".
But his one redeeming factor is he's given Newcastle £140 million in interest free loans since taking over which considering they were in deep shit when he took over has probably kept them afloat, so if I was a Toon fan I might give the guy a break? despite the fact that he's a big fat cockney cunt :)

Going Down?

8 Games to go and only 8 points separate the bottom 12, and only 6 points between Sunderland in 9th and the drop zone.
As a Hammer I should have been pissed off that Wigan Stoke and Wolves won while we dropped 2 points at the Spuds, but it brings teams like Villa and Newcastle back into the mix so it's not such a bad thing.
This is entertainment :)

09 Sunderland 30 -4 38
10 Stoke 30 -2 37
11 Newcastle 30 -1 36
12 Fulham 30 0 35
13 Blackburn 30 -12 33
14 Aston Villa 30 -14 33
15 Blackpool 30 -15 33
16 West Brom 30 -15 33
17 West Ham 30 -13 32
18 Wolves 30 -14 32
19 Birmingham 29 -13 31
20 Wigan 30 -22 30

Barton

I can't stand that little scouse twat Joey Barton, who just can't seem to stay away from trouble on and off the field, but .... just for once I think he's innocent.
The tackle that started the trouble which led to Diaby getting sent off was the best tackle I've seen in ages in the premier league, the sort of tackle I loved to make many years ago in my Sunday league career, take the ball first and if the player isn't quick enough to get out the way then take him as well :)
As expected Arsene Whiner thinks Barton should have been sent off for the "dangerous" tackle (was it even a free kick? shouldn't have been), I do think Kevin Nolan was lucky to stay on after his two "raised hands" incidents but Barton's tackle was just classic right out of the old school of tackling you used to see every game before all the players became ponces.

Goals Goals Goals

Still got the Man Utd v Wolves to go but what a day so far.
Stoke v Sunderland 3-2
Aston Villa v Fulham 2-2
Everton v Blackpool 5-3
Man City v West Brom 3-0
Newcastle v Arsenal 4-4
Tottenham v Bolton 2-1
Wigan v Blackburn 4-3
38 goals (a new record) with the Newcastle Arsenal game just taking the game of the day from several contenders.
Due to an irritating git at work who's a Newcastle fan I was quite happy to see Arsenal 4-0 up and was looking forward to Monday especially if the Hammers win tomorrow, but I love the fact that Newcastle came back just to see what excuses whining Wenger comes up with :) I was hoping for Pardew v Wenger round 2 but they shook hands at the end sadly instead of a hoped for punch up.
Once again Arsenal had a player sent off which has cost them the game, Diaby should have done a proper job on Barton, there are ways to get that little shit sent off but he failed.
Blackpool were leading at Everton but Louis Saha proving that when he's not injured he's a great striker blew them away with 4 goals.
* and Nani has just scored for Man U *
Wigan beat Blackburn 4-3 which would normally be the best game of the day, but not today.
Now I'll carry on watching the game :)

The Transfer Window

A couple of silly transfer fees but not as much movement as predicted.
Chelsea blow £71 Million on 2 players to try and finish above Tottenham.
Liverpool get £50 Million for Torres and then blow it all and more on Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez.
Blackpool spend bugger all and keep their best player and get a few more good players which should keep them up.
Arsenal, Man U, Man City and the Spuds don't buy anyone.
Newcastle sell their best striker and only get Stephen Ireland.
West Ham pick up Tottenham reject Keane plus a guy from Dulwich Hamlet! (although the last signing we made from Dulwich was Rio Ferdinand so hopefully ..).
Horrible c**t El Hadji Diouf has gone to Rangers, I wonder how long he'll survive in a Glasgow bar :)

Most of the moves are loan deals so here's the last weeks transfers, might have missed some but it's as good as I could find.

Arsenal
In None
Out Aaron Ramsey, Benik Afobe, Carlos Vela, Cedric Evina, Craig Eastmond, Henri Lansbury, Kyle Bartley

Aston Villa
In Michael Bradley
Out Curtis Davies, Isaiah Osbourne, John Carew, Jonathan Hogg, Stephen Ireland

Birmingham
In Curtis Davies, Obafemi Martins
Out Daniel Preston, Jake Jervis, Michel

Blackburn
In Mauro Formica, Ruben Rochina
Out Aaron Doran, El Hadji Diouf

Blackpool
In Andy Reid, James Beattie, Jason Puncheon, Salaheddine Sbai, Sergei Kornilenko
Out None

Bolton
In Daniel Sturridge
Out None

Chelsea
In David Luiz, Fernando Torres
Out Daniel Sturridge, Gael Kakuta, Jacob Mellis, Patrick van Aanholt, Nemanja Matic

Everton
In Apostolos Vellios
Out James Vaughan, Joao Silva, Kieran Agard

Fulham
In Eidur Gudjohnsen, Gael Kakuta
Out Eddie Johnson, Keanu Marsh-Brown

Liverpool
In Andy Carroll, Conor Thomas, Luis Suarez
Out David Amoo, Fernando Torres, Paul Konchesky, Stephen Darby

Man City
In None
Out Andrew Tutte, David Ball, David Gonzalez, Emmanuel Adebayor

Man Utd
In None
Out Cameron Stewart, Danny Drinkwater, Joe Dudgeon

Newcastle
In Stephen Ireland
Out Andy Carroll, Wayne Routledge

Stoke
In John Carew
Out Eidur Gudjohnsen, Louis Moult, Tuncay

Sunderland
In Stephane Sessegnon, Sulley Muntari
Out Andy Reid, David Healy, Paulo da Silva

Tottenham
In None
Out Giovani dos Santos, Jamie O'Hara, Robbie Keane, Ryan Mason, Tommy Carroll

West Brom
In Carlos Vela
Out Ishmael Miller, Kayleden Brown, Paul Downing, Reuben Reid, Romaine Sawyers

West Ham
In Demba Ba, Gary O'Neil, Paul McCallum, Robbie Keane
Out Frank Nouble, Valon Behrami

Wigan
In Conor Sammon
Out Lee Nicholls

Wolves
In Adriano Basso, Jamie O'Hara
Out Andy Keogh, David Davis, Matt Hill

The Cup

A good weekend in the 3rd round of the FA cup, 5 Premier league teams bite the dust and 4 more face replays.
Best results saw the big 2 in the North East lose to lower league teams Newcastle thrashed by Stevenage (such a shame haha) and Sunderland lose at home to Notts County.
Blackpool were beaten by Southampton but I guess Holloway wasn't too upset, and West Brom's poor run continues by losing to Reading.
Chelsea put the league behind them to put 7 past managerless Ipswich, Fulham hit 6, Everton hit 5 and even West Ham win :)
Dalglish's return to Liverpool failed to inspire the players as they looked even worse against Man Utd who were pretty poor themselves with only Giggs performing with credit, the only goal was a penalty after Berbatov went down easily and if Dalglish (who spent most of his Liverpool playing career diving for penalties) says it was a dive then it probably was.

Pardew

It's hard for me to criticise Pardew as I was gutted when he was sacked by West Ham and I really like the guy, but is he better than Chris Hughton?
Ashley said he wanted someone with more experience but Pardew's record is not a whole lot better than Hughton, one good season in the prem with West Ham followed by an average few months before his sacking, after that he took Charlton down although they were on their way before he got there, he did reasonably well in the lower divisions with Reading and Southampton but Hughton leading Newcastle to the Championship last season must put him at least level as far as achievements are concerned.
Signing a 5½ year deal seems like a good bit of business by Pardew as he'll be in for a good payout when Ashley sacks him after 5½ weeks :)

Chris Hughton

Proving finally that Mike Ashley knows as much about football as my missus, the sacking of Chris Hughton shows the guy is living in a dream world where Newcastle are one the biggest clubs in the world and should win every game, the fact he hasn't got Abramovich or Sheikh Mansour's billions seems to have passed him by.
Last seasons record of 30 wins, 12 draws and only 4 defeats was outstanding especially for a club that started the season in "crisis" and expectations were very low, Hughton deserved better after turning round the team that had been so bad the previous season.
But since taking over at the start of last season it has been obvious that Hughtons face didn't really fit with Ashley and he only got the job because he was already there and none of the so called world class managers would touch the job without considerable financial back up.
This season despite a few defeats they have probably punched above their weight to be mid table, a win and a draw against Chelsea is a pretty good return for a newly promoted team and recent wins at Arsenal and the 5-1 thrashing of local rivals Sunderland should have given Hughton a safe job for the next couple of seasons and if their new striker Ben Arfa hadn't got injured it could have been even better.

Newcastle have said that they are "looking for someone with more managerial experience"? anyone with the required managerial experience wouldn't touch this club with a barge pole after this would they?

Contenders -
Martin Jol has just left Ajax so is the current favourite but is his record any better? Tottenham fans might have an opinion on that, as far as I know he hasn't won a league title with any team even Ajax who finished behind Steve McClaren's Twente last season.
Martin O'Neill is in the frame but again his record isn't top class, titles at Celtic are good but that is Scottish football where as long as you beat Rangers you're probably going to win the league, Aston Villa really should have qualified for the Champions league under O'Neill but they never managed it and his record at Leicester is good for a small team in that they won a cup but the league form was patchy.
Alan Pardew again has a reasonable record of getting teams to punch above their weight with Reading, West Ham and Southampton but nothing much in the way of trophies.
I see Peter Beardsley has taken the 30 pieces of silver to take the job on a temporary basis, I would have thought a Newcastle legend like him might have told Ashley where to stick it.