1FITG mid-season review: Liverpool

Posted: February 12, 2013 by onefootinthegame in Uncategorized
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With less than a third of the season left to run, we’re reaching a key period for a number of clubs that still harbour some sort of ambition for the end of the season. In the first of a series of pieces where we’ve asked some of our writers for their thoughts on their team’s season so far, Trebor A gives us his reaction to Brendan Rodgers’s first season at Anfield.

1. So what are your thoughts on Liverpool’s season so far?

The season has been ok so far, in truth. An unconvincing tricky start in the league set off some alarm bells. The team looked unsure, of how to play under Rodgers. That has now changed, and the players are playing with greater fluidity, and composure. You can see that the team is evolving. The cup performances could have been better. I still can’t believe we lost to Oldham. However, doing well in cup competitions didn’t exactly help Kenny much last season.

2. How are you feeling about your chances in the Europa League this season – is it a cup Liverpool should be actively trying to win and will Rodgers prioritise it?

I’m feeling fairly optimistic about the Europa League. We have progressed well, whilst managing to give young players like Suso, Wisdom and Sterling some much-needed European experience. Liverpool have never won the Europa League – so I would like to see us make history this season. There are some big clubs still left in it i.e. Ajax, Tottenham, Napoli, Chelsea and Benfica. Which will certainly make winning it tough. Will Rodgers prioritise it? I don’t think he has much choice – put simply, this is the only competition Liverpool can now win this season.

3. Would you agree that Gerrard has been below par this season?

English: Steven Gerrard, Liverpool F.C. footballer

Steven Gerrard – still got it. Or, used to have it, but has replaced it in his aged state with something else also useful

No, I couldn’t disagree more. Gerrard, like the whole team, started the season slowly. He looked a bit lethargic. This was understandable, considering his involvement in last summer Euros. He has been excellent for a couple of months now though. What people do not seem to understand is that Gerrard is 32 years of age. He can’t run for 90 minutes from box to box anymore. Gerrard is a different player now – more reserved, but still able to produce moments of brilliance. 7 goals and 9 assists in the Premier League testifies to that. He’s the only premier league midfielder to have played every minute of every game this season as well. That is a remarkable feat, taking his age, and past injury record, into consideration.

4. Has Rodgers fundamentally changed the style of play at Liverpool. Do you feel you can progress into the top 4 in the future playing the brand of football that Rodgers is trying to play?

Rodgers and his love of buzz words, calls his football ideals a ‘philosophy’. When in truth it is fundamentally ‘passing football’. Not exactly re-inventing the wheel, is it? However, in fairness to Rodgers, there has been some change. A lot this has been off the pitch i.e. backroom staff, training methods, scouting network etc. Even the formation has changed from last season. Due to this, the teams results have somewhat fluctuated. The football hasn’t always been sparkling or scintillating, and I still can’t help but fret every time the ball is passed around in our own defence. Rodgers is militant about the constant need to keep possession and controlling the game. It can appear to be counter-productive at times. Yet I can sense the players are starting to become more and more comfortable with this. Overall, the style of play has been progressive. Will this brand of football get Liverpool back into the top 4? Hopefully the results will start to match the quality of football. Only then can progress be achieved. I know it might seem a bit cliché, but I can’t help thinking of this team as a ‘work in progress’.

5. Predicted finish in the Premier League this season?

Last summer, before the season started, I said finishing 5th in the Premier League and winning the Europa League should be Liverpool’s target. Nothing in that regard has changed. Obviously, I would love to see Liverpool finish 4th. While that is not improbable, it is possibly a tad unrealistic. So, 5th and winning a European competition – that’ll do for me.

The next five managers to move on

Posted: February 7, 2013 by onefootinthegame in Uncategorized
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In 2012-13 we’ve seen a mass extinction of managers not seen since that asteroid killed off the dinosaurs. The boardroom bloodlust has shown no signs of abating. And managers themselves are muddying the waters by taking the decision themselves. With the George Boyd deadline day eye-test debacle leaving Alex McLeish considering that a life of blissful unemployment was a more attractive option, where will the winds of change sweep next. Here’s five to keep an eye on in the coming weeks.

1. Paolo Di Canio

English: Paolo Di Canio Upton Park 11 Septembe...

Arrivederci?

Swindon’s result on Tuesday night moved them into 3rd place in League 1, two points behind the top two. But while prospects for promotion are looking favourable for a Robins side going for its second promotion in two years, things are not all rosy at the County Ground. Swindon have started to show signs of serious financial trouble this season. Alarm bells should have sounded with fans at the start of the season when it emerged that they spent half a million in agents fees the previous season, dwarfing the money spent by clubs in both Leagues 1 and 2. At a time when clubs in the Football League are starting to adjust to the financial fair play requirements, Swindon immediately appears as a club living well outside its means. Owner Andrew Black, presiding over club debts thought to total £13m and the threat of administration, is attempting to sell.

For Di Canio, matters are starting to interfere with his ability to run the team. Winger Matt Ritchie was sold behind his back to promotion rivals Bournemouth. Much needed deadline day replacements such as Bradley Wright-Phillips were agreed and subsequently blocked by the League, who refused to ratify the club’s takeover the previous day. Describing his own position as ‘untenable’, the writing is perhaps already on the wall. Last night Di Canio could only field 4 of his possible 7 subs. This morning, one paper reports they may get rid because he’s too expensive. With potential Championship clubs willing to take a punt, Di Canio must wonder if it’s really worth continuing to stick it out.

2. Paul Lambert

It’s been coming from the minute Lambert came in, after a poorly-handled departure from Norwich. Whether under direction from Randy Lerner, or through his own slightly misguided approach, Lambert added inexperience to an already young squad and assembled together a collection of players dangerously low on Premiership quality. Dumped out of one cup by Millwall, another by Bradford, and around the relegation zone much of the season – it’s somewhat surprising he’s still in post.

The January transfer window should have been an opportunity to right the wrongs of the preseason recruitment and add some established Premiership experience to the squad, and perhaps give the excellent Benteke some support up front. Lambert instead made two signings – 22 year old defensive midfielder Yacouba Sylla arriving from Ligue 2, and loosely-associated-with-Spurs loanee Simon Dawkins, who despite being 25 and making his professional debut in 2008 is yet to play in the Premiership with his parent club. On signing Dawkins, Lambert said “Simon can play anywhere” – no doubt it’s the limitless possibilities presented to Redknapp and AVB in the past 5 seasons that left both feeling it was far simpler to just not play him, ever.

3. Danny Wilson

If you’ve not being paying attention to League 1 over the past month, you may have neglected to notice Sheffield United’s rapid decline down the table. Since a win on Boxing Day that left them top with one of the last remaining unbeaten home records, they’ve collected just 2 out of a possible 15 points. Of those 2 precious points, one was scraped at the death at 10-man Doncaster, the other taken off Notts County – who had 10 men for over an hour. Three consecutive home defeats to lowly Hartlepool, Yeovil and Coventry have destroyed a solid home record and the team’s confidence, leaving the club clinging onto 6th from a chasing pack.

Add to that a season-ending injury to in-form striker Shaun Miller during their last win before the rot, and the strange decision to sell top-scorer Nick Blackman to Reading (having only signed him in the summer) and you have to wonder what Wilson has done to suffer such ill-fortune. Unfortunately for him, League 1 is not known of late for keeping faith in managers going through a rough patch. Last year’s ‘month of the long knives’ saw Lee Clark and Gary Megson dumped by promotion-chasing clubs with ultimately positive outcomes – another loss for Wilson in the next week could be the last straw.

4. Lee Clark

It was somewhat of a surprise that after his sudden departure from Huddersfield a year ago after a series of unsuccessful promotion attempts, his next job would come at a club a bigger club in a league above, desperate for promotion. While Birmingham have been eking out points since August, in recent weeks they can’t have failed to notice a worrying upturn in form in the clubs below them.

The owners at Birmingham, while no doubt disappointed by the absence of a promotion fight, had presumably been banking on three of Peterborough, Bristol City, Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday and Barnsley to provide a safety net below them. With all those teams on the ascent, three of whom having changed they managers in recent months, and with Wolves and Bolton likely to improve, that gap will narrow further. Clark’s uninspiring performances, mixed with the general disappointment of his spell to date, could see a safer pair of hands needed.

5. Michael Appleton

It’s been nearly 4 weeks now at Blackburn. Surely he’s getting itchy feet?

Written by @josephclift

Why American football will never be more popular than ‘soccer’

Posted: February 6, 2013 by onefootinthegame in Uncategorized
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ImageI watched last night’s Superbowl between San Francisco 49′ers and Baltimore Ravens with the same curiosity British suburbanites growing up in the 70′s would have had for spaghetti, i.e. a supposedly exotic alternative to the prosaic diet of pie and mash that is association football.

Despite my best efforts I gave up and went to bed at half time feeling hungry for something more emotionally fulfilling. To extend the culinary metaphors I would liken the NFL to a Big Mac. Once you scrape off the relish, gherkins and flashy packaging you are left with a pretty unsatisfying flaccid grey burger with little nutritional value.

My biggest “beef” with American Football is that the whole event is an exercise in style over substance. The bombastic trails, the warbled national anthem, the constant stream of advertising, the extravagant half time show. All of these things are the relish to cover up the lack of action.

The actual game is constantly peppered with interruptions the like of which would cause cardiac arrest in those who think goal line technology is going to disturb the flow in football. Mark Chapman commentating for the BBC asked one of his guests to hang around until the next break only to cut back to him some 9 seconds later when the action stopped again. Ludicrous.

Who can blame the spectators for constantly popping away from their seats to grab a hot dog or a beer? There isn’t much for them to really focus on. I went to a Houston Texans game a couple of years ago and I constantly had to get up and let a steady stream of spectators file in and out of the seating. A visit to the stadium is more of a chance to see how many nachos you can ingest in a 3 hour period rather than enjoying the drama only skilled sportsmen can provide.

I also found the atmosphere at the game to be strangely dispassionate. Distances being what they are in the US, there isn’t the tradition of away fans and none of the frisson of partisan support you get between rival fans whether that’s by taunting their opponents or cheering on their own team. This is intrinsic in football and part of the charm of the beautiful game.

For those of you thinking I’m a whining limey scumbag with a couple of fish and chips on his shoulders lets look at the cold hard stats. The Wall Street Journal conducted a study on NFL games to establish how much actual play time takes place over the 3 hours it takes to complete a match. Their findings showed it was only 11 minutes. In comparison if you strip out substitutions, free kicks and game breaks a 90 minute football match has 60 minutes of actual play in it. If I wanted to waste 3 precious hours for only 11 minutes of action I would join a dating website.

I concede that the intricacies of American football will be missed by those who only have a passing knowledge of the game. Whereas a great bit of skill or a thunderous shot can be appreciated by someone who has never watched football before, American football puts a greater emphasis on strategy, tactics and “plays” the execution of which will only be appreciated by purists and completely missed by noobs.

You don’t need me to tell you there is no contest between the two sports. Football is played in over 200 countries by over 250 million players. American Football is currently played professionally in just one. The NFL have tried desperately to extend the “franchise” but the feedback has been underwhelming.

The European developmental arm croaked in 2007 after years of gasping for the oxygen of attention. For a while in the early 90′s American football held a certain novelty value in the UK with the likes of William “The Fridge” Perry publicising the game for the London Monarchs. Fashionable for a couple of years – like paisley hooded tops and Joe Bloggs jeans – the league slowly disintegrated as fans slipped away. Only in Germany did it retain a semblance of popularity making it the sporting equivalent of David Hasselhoff.

The Superbowl may be the most watched club event in the world but I would rather watch my local park team play real football. Oh. And don’t call it soccer. You’ll sound like a tit.

Written by Dara Yazdani

Farewell to Zeman

Posted: February 5, 2013 by onefootinthegame in Uncategorized
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Zdenek Zeman: enjoying a cigarette, probably not his team's defending

Zdenek Zeman: enjoying a cigarette, probably not his team’s defending

After Roma sack manager Zdenek Zeman following a turbulent and brief return to the club, our writer asks, ‘Failure? What failure?’

It’s been pointed out many times what you get with Zeman. But here’s a reminder if you’ve a short memory or aren’t familiar with the individual style of football he’s lived and died by for over 25 years.

You get a stubborn adherence to 4-3-3, played at a high tempo with relentless pressing and a suicidal high line/off-side trap. Possession is considered pointless. The sole focus for his team is to score more goals than the opposition, while on the bench, Zeman surveys the action puffing one cigarette after another.

The results, while not always successful, are usually spectacular.

So, last summer, when the Roma crowd grew tired and frustrated with Luis Enrique‘s attempts to turn La Magica into the crazy ‘keep-possession-at-all-times-Barca-boring-style’ I suppose it made sense to give the job to a guy who would play an attractive game.

Step in Mister Zeman Unfortunately, all the excitement at the fantasy football we were going to see blinded us to his all too familiar failings.

Sure, there were certainly plenty of goals. Problem was they just weren’t all in the right net.

I recall a game away to Genoa, where we went 2:0 down after 15 minutes, before coming back to win 4:2. More painfully, I remember leading Bologna 2:0 and losing 2:3. Even a 4:0 thrashing of Milan, and what should have been a comfortable victory, turned into a nervous wait for the final whistle when two late goals left us hanging on for the win.

Unfortunately, after being drunk on the excitement some fans began to sober up. They remembered that Zeman hardly ever wins any trophies. That his success is mainly with smaller provincial teams such as Foggia, Lecce or recently Pescara, and apart from a second place finish with Lazio he’s had no success with the big guns of Italian football. And when they looked at the table and saw Roma in eighth place, without a chance of even reaching a Europa League spot.. well, it just looked embarrassingly predictable.

Win or lose though, it’s not been dull. Francesco Totti has been playing some of his best football ever, aged 36. Zeman has also continued his track record of bringing through unknown youngsters (Lamela scored in 7 games in a row, and another Florenzi has been capped by Italy already after breaking through this year). Plus you always had the never ending speculation of falls outs between Zeman and Danielle De Rossi or Maarten Stekelenburg.

Am I happy Zeman has gone? Well eighth place is no better than Enrique, but the way we got there was so much more exciting. While Roma were in possession it was beautiful to watch, it’s just that when we weren’t in possession it wasn’t usually long before Roma were lining up for another kick-off.

So when asked to give my opinion about Zeman’s failure, I say what failure? He did exactly what he is known for – scoring lots of goals and conceding plenty. And I loved every bit of it. Long live Zeman. In Piacenza, Atalanta, Albinoleffe….

Written by Vil Palac

Heskey does little to soothe Wellington woes

Posted: February 3, 2013 by onefootinthegame in Uncategorized
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It is fair to say that football is not New Zealand’s sport of choice. Indeed, if you happen to hear the word being bandied about at all in a Kiwi pub or workplace, it’s more than likely being used in reference to that other game – you know, the one that New Zealand tends to be just a little bit good at.

It’s not, therefore, the most accommodating country for a football-mad Englishman to reside in. From the requirement to crawl out of bed in the middle of the night if you want to catch any live Premier League action to the absence of any professional team in its most populous city Auckland, football in NZ can be a lonely desert of an obsession for those that dare to follow it.

If, then, the opportunity arises to watch a real live game with proper players who actually get paid to get their boots muddy every weekend, it’s not one you turn down in a hurry.

The game in question was an Australian A-League fixture pitting home side Wellington Phoenix (NZ’s only professional club) vs Newcastle Jets of New South Wales. If the latter name is ringing any bells, it’s probably because you read in some deep-buried summer news article about the club’s marquee signing of the Leicester-born behemoth that is Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey.

As an England fan, I’ve always had my fair share of misgivings about Heskey, even if he does have one of the finest middle names in football. How many times have St George’s flags sunk in quiet despair at the announcement of Heskey’s name on an England team sheet? How long did the nation suffer the ignominy of having to watch us field a striker so hapless at that murky business of scoring goals?

And yet, for all the poverty of his goal scoring record for both his country and all three of the Premier League clubs he represented after leaving Liverpool in 2004, it was always difficult to dislike Heskey either as man or player. On the pitch, he was a brutally effective ball-winning colossus who seemed to bring out the best in his more technically gifted strike partners. Michael Owen loved to play alongside him; even Wayne Rooney became more productive in his shadow. And off the field, he has always come across as shy, honest, humble even – basically, everything that John Terry isn’t.

So when a weekend trip to Wellington happened to coincide with Heskey and team’s visit to the Westpac Stadium, how could I refuse a look in?
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There was inevitably something rather surreal about the experience of watching a football match in blistering sunshine as the English game struggles through another bitter winter on the other side of the world. And being accustomed to heaving grounds and ticket touts, it felt a bit wrong to be able to waltz up to a queue-free ticket office only fifteen minutes before kick-off and join a crowd of little more than six thousand in a stadium built for six times that number.

Nevertheless, I was happy to be sitting watching a live football game for the first time in what felt like an eternity, even if the standard of play was comparable to third division or fourth division back home. And that I got to witness that rarest of spectacles – an Emile Heskey goal to draw the game level after the Phoenix took an early lead through Louis Fenton – certainly provided some extra spice.

That Heskey stood out as his team’s best player – despite putting in what was, in many ways, a typical performance of missed chances and balls knocked down to no one in particular – was a fair indication of this league’s quality. But we shouldn’t be churlish about an emerging football market that is very much on the up. With Italian World Cup winner Alessandro Del Piero drawing in the crowds over in Sydney and Heskey providing plenty of interest for the Antipodes’ hefty British ex-pat population at least, the A-League is improving with every season.

For New Zealand’s sole representative club, things look a little grimmer. On the morning of the game, an impassioned article appeared in Wellington’s Dominion Post beseeching the locals to turn out and support the Phoenix at Sunday’s game. Attendances have not been stellar in recent months, averaging little over 7,000, and there has even been the suggestion of the team having to abandon the Westpac for a much smaller ground in the suburb of Newton that seats only a 1,000 and has no floodlights or car park. By any club’s standards, such a move would be a huge blow.

An upturn in fortunes on the pitch would certainly help matters. Despite their best efforts, the Phoenix were unable to find another goal after Heskey’s downward header – his only real chance in a game where he often looked exasperated at the poor final balls lofted in his general direction by his team mates – brought the game level, leaving them rock bottom of the ten team table after 18 games.

Hope continues to be placed in Paul Ifill, the Phoenix’s own marquee signing of 3 years ago and former winger with Crystal Palace and Sheffield United. Still only 33, Ifill has enjoyed prolific form in front of goal during his stint with the club, notching up 30 strikes in 80 games. And he was lively against the Jets, creating chances from out wide and getting into threatening positions in the box on a number of occasions. The real signs of promise, though, came from 18 year old Tyler Boyd, a home-grown left winger who showed enough pace and trickery down the left to suggest he could be a Phoenix star of the future – unless, as is always the worry for clubs such as this, someone bigger comes in to poach him.

While the Phoenix supporters left the ground no doubt disgruntled by their team’s latest failure to win, I walked out into the early evening sunshine a happy man. Whatever the quality of the game, nothing beats the thrill of live football and in a country where 90% of sports conversations revolve around the dreaded All Blacks, you have to be grateful for small mercies.

Written by Jonny Barker

 

Adkins sacking breaks Southampton fans hearts, but don’t call Cortese a fool

Posted: January 20, 2013 by onefootinthegame in Uncategorized
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Nicola Cortese: You can call him many things, but a fool isn't one

Nicola Cortese: You can call him many things, but a fool isn’t one

The sense of loss Southampton fans have felt these past few days is as strong as the rest of the football community is imagining.

Not only was Nigel Adkins the clubs saviour, taking the club from League One to Premier League in consecutive seasons, the fans have also lost a man they loved for his positive attitude and all-round good guy personality. His relationship with the fans made them feel as much a part of the team and as worthy of a pat on the back as the players.

And now, just like that, he’s gone.

But for all the football community’s shock and disbelief that the club’s chairman, Nicola Cortese, could be so foolish, there has been very little in depth understanding of the development of the club over the past few years. There’s a lot more to this staggering progress than the success of one manager, and Saints fans know this.

The media have quoted Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier describing the chairman as a “laughing stock” (a line too juicy for most to avoid). Yet they’re overlooking that this is the same Le Tissier who was beaten in a bid for the club by this very same chairman (and the bad blood has escalated since).

Cortese, an ex-banker, persuaded his millionaire friend Markus Liebber, to purchase the club after he spotted their dormant potential: Premier League ground, phenomenal youth system, and sitting in League One.

Liebber ageed to invest, but only on the condition that Cortese ran the show. The plan was to create a Barcelona style set up that could rule the world: with 50% of the team graduating from the youth team, and playing attacking, progressive, football. No lack of ambition from a club in the lower leagues.

Alan Pardew was recruited with clear objectives: we’ll give you millions to spend, you give us promotion. He did well, but ultimately didn’t fulfil his part of the bargain and was unceremoniously dumped.

Adkins came on board and met the challenge: back to back promotions (although with apparent discontent from the chairman that it didn’t come with any league trophies). In normal football folklore, fairytale stuff. But in the world of Cortese, just another step towards his ultimate goal.

In interviews after Southampton beat Coventry to secure promotion to the Premier League, an oddly reflective Adkins talked as if this was the end of the road rather than the beginning. This was a man who new what was at stake.

Before the amusing titled ‘el sackico’ game against QPR, a feisty Adkins told the media he was up for the challenge and the man for the job. But his message sounded more like it was intended for the chairman than the readers.

Now in the Premier League, after a tough start, the team and Adkins showed growing potential (not many teams come back from two goals down to draw at Stamford Bridge). But if viewed through the eyes of Cortese’s and his targets (people sniggered when he talked about qualifying for the Champions League, but he means it) potential isn’t enough.

Without anyone realising it, Cortese had been lining up a potential replacement all along. I don’t believe Adkins would have found his sacking unexpected, he will have understood well the deal all along, but I suspect he will have hoped he’d done enough to remain until the end of the season.

Appointing a new manager at this time of the season is risky enough. Add to that the fact he doesn’t speak English and has no Premier League experience and you can’t blame outsiders for questioning the chairman‘s sanity.

However, you’re looking at a chairman with massive expectations and no sentiment, with the nerve to risk money and trust his instincts (ex-banker, remember). His modus operandi is meet the agreed target or you’re out. And that kind of mentality is where winners are born. It might not be fun working for him (if you’re lucky enough to keep hold of your job in the first place), but don’t take him for a fool.

Cortese hasn’t got much wrong up till now. In the future, the decision to ditch Adkins could well be seen as astute as the one to sack Pardew.

Written by @louisekyme

150 years on from the first match report

Posted: December 28, 2012 by onefootinthegame in Uncategorized
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With today’s back-pages concentrating on the fall-out of Sir Alex Ferguson’s latest attempt to influence officials, you might be forgiven for missing the 150th anniversary this weekend of the first recorded match report in a newspaper.

As Bramall Lane tomorrow plays host to a top vs bottom League 1 encounter, on 29 December 1962 it hosted its very first football match between the world’s two oldest clubs – Sheffield FC and Hallam FC. While not their first encounter, which happened two years previously (reportedly the world’s oldest football match), it was the first match where there was a report in the paper. The proceeds of the gate receipts went to the Lancashire Distress Fund, which had been set up to respond to the fall in the cotton trade caused by the American civil war. Any critics of how far behind the MLS is compared to the UK should consider then that back when Britain was playing its first football matches, Lincoln was fighting to abolish slavery.

There’s seemingly no headline for the article that the British Newspaper Archive provides. Given that the game finished scoreless after three hours of play, arguably the world’s first football headline should have been “Bore Draw Raises Question Over Football’s Future”. But a quick read of the article suggests it was a bit feisty – dubbed “The Battle Of Bramall Lane” (no, not that one).

For starters, the game seemed to give birth to the passionate football fan baying for blood. Hallam apparently had “many partisans present”, who when the team “were successful in ‘downing’ a man, their ardent friends were more noisily jubilant”. This was apparently back in the days when Downing was met with a great reception.

Best of all though is the onfield fight that apparently broke out, following an “accidental” hit on a Hallam player by Sheffield’s Major Creswick. Frankly, anyone with the rank of Major wouldn’t have accidentally hit someone – their army training would have made this all tactical. In the same way that modern-day Midfield General, Paul Scholes, accidentally makes appallingly late challenges. Repeatedly.

Hallam’s player, Waterfall, appears to have agreed – confronting the Major in “a most irritable manner”, striking at him several times, and even “threw off his waistcoat”. He sounds like a slightly better dressed Joey Barton. This in turn led to a pitch invasion and a fight between the players and fans. Where were the stewards? Or the Major’s regiment chums? It sounded like chaos – presumably with someone yelling from a megaphone “Supporters are advised to please not encroach onto the pitch”. It makes the modern-day pitch invasion seem tame in comparison.

Artist’s impression of Major Creswick being helped from the field

Waterfall gets a bit of a rough deal in the report, which seems heavily biased towards Sheffield FC. Plenty of his team-mates are said to have rejoiced in the attack on the Major and “were just as ready to ‘Hallam it’ on the slightest provocation”. Rather than being sent off though (ref probably bottled it), Waterfall suffered the next worst punishment that could be offered up – playing in goal.

The report appeals for the Hallam players to apologise, “for it is not to be endured that healthful sports should degenerate into unseemly brawls”. Can you imagine The Times calling for a public apology from Sir Alex for haranging Mike Dean and his officials in the Newcastle game?

Given the fiery nature of the game, it’s a surprise that the reporter chooses to end the article with an attack levelled at the “long interval in the middle of the game, that was devoted to refreshments”, which the Sheffield players objected to. The interval, as stated earlier in the report, was 15 minutes. This seems a perfectly reasonable amount of time for fans to have a cup of tea and enjoy Britain’s latest new craze, the Garibaldi biscuit. The players could even change their sweaty waistcoats. So when you read this weekend’s reports on your club’s match, spare a thought for the man that had to report on three hours of football, watching presumably in a non-existent press box, without a goal, or even a “rouge”. Whatever the hell that was.

Written by @josephclift

The match report from the Sheffield Independent, courtesy of The British Newspaper Archive

The match report from the Sheffield Independent, courtesy of The British Newspaper Archive

Rafa Benitez: This week’s guest host on Have I Got Blues For You

Posted: November 26, 2012 by onefootinthegame in Uncategorized
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There are legitimate reasons why you might be sacked within six months of achieving for your employer its greatest ever success. Stealing from the company, perhaps, or punching your boss in the face and calling him a knob. As far as we know, Roberto Di Matteo didn’t do any of these things, and he has every right to feel a little aggrieved. (You might also get sacked for using a racial slur at work, but of course that sort of thing would never happen at Chelsea.)

But when your boss is Roman Abramovich, it can’t come as a great surprise. This is a club owner who gets through managers at roughly the same rate as hoover bags. Like replacing hoover bags, it’s an annoyingly expensive habit: when you give an elite football manager the sack, the sack has to be filled with wads of cash. According to The Times, Abramovich has spent almost £60 million paying off dismissed bosses.

Rafael Benitez

Rafa Benitez – will he win the Odd-One-Out round of recent Chelsea managerial failures?

This isn’t too much of a worry for a man whose pockets are deep enough to drown in. Clearly he doesn’t believe managing a football club requires any kind of long-term planning. Given his acute fear of commitment, why not adopt the successful formula used by “Have I Got News For You” since Angus Deayton’s ignominious departure, and put someone different at the helm each week? They could even use some of the same personalities – I for one would love to see any of Miranda Hart, Alastair Campbell or John Torode and Gregg Wallace take charge of Chelsea.

For now, the title of Britain’s best-paid temp falls on our old friend, Rafa Benitez. As a Liverpool fan, my feelings towards him are, shall we say, mixed. I’m definitely not looking forward to his post-match interviews and the endlessly dull debates about zonal marking and squad rotation. “I am only theenkeen about the next game” is not a catchphrase anyone has missed.

But in the context of what has followed, it’s impossible not to judge his time in charge at Anfield favourably. He inherited a squad containing Djimi Traore, Igor Biscan and Vladimir Smicer, and guided them to a Champions League title. In the league, Liverpool averaged 1.90 points per game under Benitez, compared with 1.42 since he left.

Parting company with Benitez seemed like the right decision at the time: an abysmal performance in the league saw Liverpool finish seventh in 2010, having been second the year before. The reversal of fortunes owed no small part to Benitez’s disastrous decision to sell Xabi Alonso. It was a devastating loss, which the choices of Alberto Aquilani and Lucas Leiva as replacements did almost nothing to mitigate. Benitez might claim things would have been different had the owners backed his efforts to sign Gareth Barry, but even Gareth Barry’s mum would find the notion risible.

Critics say Benitez didn’t do enough to develop young talent, and it’s true he brought few players through from the youth team. The current crop of youngsters breaking into the first team suggest however that he left the Academy in reasonable health, and arguably the lack of opportunities for them under Benitez’s reign resulted from the club’s relative success.

The Champions League triumph, and a generous donation to the Hillsborough Family Support Group after his dismissal, might have earned him a measure of fondness from the Kop. He’s the uncle with the dodgy beard who used to take us on fun days out, but told us all kinds of rubbish in the car on the way there.

I suspect any warmth towards him will dissipate quickly once we see him scribbling notes and gesturing incomprehensibly in the Chelsea dugout. Still, I wish him the best – he’ll need it to stay in the job for more than a few months. I don’t like to make predictions, but since the editor has insisted, I think he’ll do alright. Chelsea’s form will improve – thanks more to regression to the mean than Benitez’s managerial skills. He’ll alienate one or two of his players as he did Alonso. He’ll wind up a few opposition managers, and probably his employer. Crucially, Chelsea won’t win anything this season – and consequently, Rafa will walk away with another sackful of cash from Roman’s attic.

Written by Sam Wong (@SamWong1)

Southampton dreaming big

Posted: November 25, 2012 by onefootinthegame in Uncategorized
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Adam Lallana: Young, talented and staying at Southampton

Nothing is more exciting than potential. Spotting talent before it blossoms, getting sucked into the dream of something big.

But with all future prospects, there’s the reality of the here and now. That’s when it gets tough – your team losing week in week out. You need to be steadfast and remember what you can see in the future, not what is stumbling before you now.

This team I’m describing my friends, is Southampton FC. Bottom but one in the league. Papers and pundits circling for a managerial sacking, written off after of a tide of defeats.

Yet, on the terraces the crowds roar week in, week out for the manager Nigel Adkins, no matter the result. All 30,000 of them believe something special is being built at St Mary’s. The Chairman’s dream: to create a squad playing beautiful football, constructed from the Southampton Youth Team.

And right now, the Saints are the youngest in the Premier League – a mix of homegrown and bought talent:

Luke Shaw, 17. Pacey left back, made his full debut only this month.
Nathanian Clyne, 21. Attacking right back. Bought from Crystal Palace, England U21 star.
Morgan Schneiderlin, 22. Silky smooth French midfielder. Core to the back to back promotion squad.
Jack Cork, 23. Tackling, ball-winning midfielder. Played in the summer for Great Britain at the Olympics.
James Ward-Prowse, 18. Product of our youth system: visionary midfielder
Adam Lallana, 24. Graduated with Walcott from the Saints youth system, but stayed with the club for through thick and thin. Tricksy, playmaker. Only recently called up for the full England Squad.
Gaston Ramirez, 21. Signed for 12 million in the summer, one of the biggest young talents in the world right now.
Ben Reeves, 21. Another youth team graduate – attacking midfielder, massive prospect.
Lloyd Isgrove, 19. Another trainee – talented winger who made first team debut in October.

We used to be a feeder club for rich clubs looking for new talent to poach – Bale, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain. But now it’s different, now we don’t need to sell.

And we try to play football like a dream: chips, passes, flicks, attacking, one touch in the spirit of Le God. Trying, failing, trying again, and slowly getting better.

So while everyone else is seeing doom and disaster, Southampton fans are imagining a team that keeps hold of its youthful talent, imagining what this talent could achieve with a few months more Premier League experience. Imagining the manager – Nigel Adkins, who had the talent to create back to back promotions, soon finding his feet in this challenging Premier League, and fulfilling the Chairman’s dream.

With a bit more experience we won’t be talking about potential anymore – we’ll be talking Champions league! You might laugh (and highly unlikely this season…ok, definitely not going to happen this season) but a club with our ambition and resources can go far – you heard it here first!

Written by Louise Kyme

The Abramovich Situation

Posted: November 22, 2012 by onefootinthegame in Uncategorized
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English: Roman Abramovich

Abramovich might look patient, but behind those eyes lies a man ready to fire you at the drop of a hat…

The sudden, unexpected sacking of Roberto Di Matteo yesterday, and his instant replacement with Rafa Benitez as interim manager, is yet another episode in high budget soap opera taking place in West London. Or as AVB aptly commented, ‘just another day at the office’ for Chelsea. But it raises questions about just how Roman Abramovich continues to go about his running of the club – and whether the short-termism he’s displayed over the course of his tenure is really in Chelsea’s best interests.

Until 2003 Chelsea were a plucky, medium size club. We brought in exciting foreign talent and played ‘sexy football’. We were popular. Our increasingly less stuttering Italian manager and league form made us popular. We were humble, we didn’t even have a training ground, sharing fields and a clubhouse with a university campus near Hatton Cross, three stops from Heathrow on the Piccadilly line. We played in Europe with moderate success. Much like the Kings Road in the 60’s, we were cool.

Then, that fateful day when, according to the stories, Abramovich flew over Stamford Bridge after being turned down by Spurs and decided to be our new owner.

What followed as Abromovich’s legacy was a multimillion pound deluge, recruiting some of the most exciting talent from around the globe (and ruining a few careers in the process, see Wright-Phillips, Kezman, Crespo, Shevchenko etc). The stream of players in and out of SW6 was matched only by the management staff. The first casualty was the aforementioned Italian, Claudio Ranieri. The much loved replacement to Gianluca Vialli, Ranieri’s season before Abramovich took the reins boasted a 2nd placed finish in the Premier League. This impressive position that would see him fired the following year.

Ranieri’s departure made way for the arrival of the world’s most sought after manager, Jose Mourinho. The swaggering portugeezer, the self proclaimed ‘Special One’ brought success to Chelsea in the form of back to back league titles plus success in both domestic cups. Unlucky exits from the Champions League were the only real black mark on Mourinho’s copy book. He was accused of playing negative football, his reliance on a stoic defence often created the victories desired by the owner. In the end, these victories weren’t enough. We didn’t play the brand of football seen at the Bernabeu or Camp Nou and this was enough for Jose and Roman to part ways.

Short spells in quick succession have followed as Abramovich’s pal Avram Grant, ‘Big’ Phil Scolari, Gus Hiddink, and the perma-arched eyebrowed Carlo Ancellotti all took the reins. Ancellotti won the double in 2010 with Chelsea scoring over 100 league goals and beating Man United in the FA cup final. While impressive to most fans, it still failed to meet Abramovich’s ever-raising bar.

With the short-termism undermining whoever was in the hot seat, player-power came to the fore. AVB was the first manager to attempt to stand up to it – standing on the balcony at the new training base to make sure the players arrived on time. It became a game for players to taunt their new young manager by hiding in their cars around the corner and screeching into the car park at the last minute. AVB snapped back selling Alex and Anelka as a way of exerting his authority. But it didn’t work and following a spate of bad results he lost his job. It’s interesting that, like his successor, AVB’s last 2 defeats were West Brom in the league and an Italian team in the Champions League.

So what went wrong for RDM?

This season started with a big loss, Didier Drogba. The Ivorian and the club deciding that his winning penalty in the Champions League final would be the last time he kicked a ball in a Chelsea strip. This left a 6 foot 2 hole in the Chelsea squad and despite heavy investment in small skilful players the squad still seems to be lacking something. Torres is not the player he was. Whether it’s the job he’s being asked to do or the weight of a £50 million price tag continuing to hang around his neck, we may never know, but he’s not got the class to lead a Premier League team right now – and potentially may never be.

Abramovich surely can’t ignore the fact that much of Chelsea’s disappointment this season has been outside of the manager’s control. What with the Terry court case and Ashley Cole’s loose tweeting, RDM has had more than most managers have had to deal with on top of his job. Despite being blamed for a lot of Chelsea’s problems over the last couple of years it’s actually the absence of the ‘Old Guard’ that’s hurt Chelsea in recent games. Before Lampard and Cole’s injuries and Terry’s ban, Chelsea sat top of the league having beaten Arsenal and Tottenham away along the way. Since the three have been absent we’ve drawn 2 and lost 2 in the league. Players that have had to take on extra responsibility as a result haven’t sufficiently filled that void – David Luiz is certainly talented, but he’s no leader to rely on in a crisis. RDM has added to these problems with his recruitment, as Chelsea have developed a squad full of creative yet irresponsible players. It’s great when it works. Against Juve, it really didn’t – Hazard up front, Azpilicueta right midfield and the Mata narrow on the left allowing the marauding Leichensteiner space didn’t exactly help.

Is Abramovich’s approach working?

Since 2003, the Roman Revolution has brought three Premier League titles, four FA cups, two League cups, two Community shields, and a Champions League title. Can any Chelsea fans argue with that? The height of our achievements in the decade before he arrived a one-nil Cup Winners Cup win in 1998. Sure, some beloved characters left SW6 with nothing more than a multimillion pound pay off. And sure Manchester United and Arsenal fans enjoy crowing about their long term managers. But would you trade all the silverware to see Ranieri sat in the home dugout at the bridge?

So what does Roman want? He wants attractive football that wins titles. He’s spent a lot of money  on this club. How can anyone deny him anything? If he creates an English football dynasty (as he aims to do0, who will remember the people he cast off on the way? On top of recent successes Chelsea have posted profit for the first time in the last fiscal year. A measly £1.4m but good to know the club is moving in the right direction. Why should Roman change his successful management style?

Rafa Benitez wasn’t a popular figure amongst Chelsea fans when he was Liverpool manager and the brand of football he plays is unlikely to please the boss but if he sures up our defence and gets Torres firing, good luck to him. But as history proves, interim manager or not, any silver gained between now and the summer is no guarantee of security under the Abramovich regime.

Written by Dan Northcote-Smith and Nick Moss (@dnsandnick)

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