England Expects That Every Man Will Do His Duty

They will call it the 3rd test. They will be wrong! They will say that with KP out England have less chance of winning the ashes. They will be wrong!

The truth is that it is the 78th test. Or more importantly his 78th test, and then will come the 79th and finally the 80th and after that it will be over. That man of course sits, arms in the air, to the right of this paragraph, that man is Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff.

I know! Most of you care not about cricket but about football. But for those of you who don't know the man from Preston is about to retire from Test Cricket. He will no doubt be remembered as a great cricketer, as a great personality but one who never took as many wickets or scored as many runs as he probably should have. Freddie may still deliver a World Cup trophy for his nation, but if he does not then he will have led England to victory in at least one, and hopefully two, ashes series victories. Yes partially this will be through his talent, but mainly it will be through his will, through his destiny!

OK stop looking at me all funny! I've not suddenly developed a massive weird streak, well weirder any way. But does it not seem odd, in the case of Freddie and in the case of another English sportsman, that somewhere it must be written "You will capture the hearts of the nation and bring to them glory, but you will sacrifice your body and soul and injuries shall stop you from winning more.". Bit precise I know. And at this point you must be thinking the other sportsman must be a footballer, after all I couldn't have spoken this long without mentioning football. You're wrong, the other man is Jonny Wilkinson.

England's World Cup winning Fly-Half put in hours, days, weeks and months of extra training to learn how to kick the perfect kick in rugby. And so after sacrificing body and mind and, at times, getting England to the World Cup final almost single handed (or with his left boot), Wilko injured his shoulder in the final. He went onto kick that kick and so the celebrations began. The number 10 from Newcastle had brought World Cup success to England for the first time in a major sport since 1966 but the shoulder he injured would start the chain reaction that would see him barely play, not just for England, for a long time. Jonny is still playing, but no doubt he will get injured to the extent that will lead to retirement.

And what's the point of me yabbering on about these two men? One who plays with smaller and one with a more odd shape ball, than this column usually focuses on. Well my point is, these two men have put everything, and more, on the line. For what? For their country and their sport. And again the point to all this? The fact that England's football team do not have this man.

Rooney, Owen, Beckham- all these man have tried, with their will, to win England a World Cup, and all of these men have had injuries along the way. But none of these men have really made the sacrifices necessary. For one Owen and Rooney both play for the World Club champions and Beckham only threw away his chance of playing for one of Europe's best teams permanently and not on loan once Steve Mclaren had told him his chances of playing for England were over. No where is there a man willing to end his career prematurely in order to bring us the joy of being World Champions, one day, we may do it, we may even do it soon, without someone having to lose a leg or other limb. In this generation we may have to accept that we will see a rugby world cup, we will see 2 ashes wins (here's hoping) we just probably won't get the football world cup we

hope for.

Meanwhile, in the world of Sunday league football, all is well! We have a sponsor! This doesn't sound like ground breaking news I know, but it means that we get to stay a float. At the top level of football player's are getting paid more and more whilst at the bottom rung football gets more expensive. We find it difficult to find places to train, a five-a-side match costs £56 for an hour, our pitch for the season will cost £75 more than last season, all this in a recession. I must thank our sponsor Clive Anthony residential lettings for their commitment to our team.

Rising costs and falling numbers in males playing 11-a-side football in our country, it's perhaps no surprise that there isn't enough English players coming through to play in the Premiership and trying to force their way into the England football team. And with the nature of football- International stop club football, which is unlike the other two sports- perhaps it is impossible that one man will have to give up everything to win us a world cup. But England should at least produce one man who WOULD, given the opportunity, give it all up for that beautiful trophy. England Expects! Now we just have to wait!

Fantasy Football? More Stupidity that Fantasy

As the story goes Roman Abramovich flew over Stamford Bridge and decided to buy Chelsea instead of Spurs. It was great timing for Chelsea, they had just beaten Liverpool on the last day of the season to steal the last Champions League place, it apparently saved Chelsea from administration. In a manner of weeks they went from near administration to being cash rich beyond belief. The Russian bought to football his billions and set about taking Chelsea from battling for 4th place to battling for titles home and abroad.

His billions have of course brought success to Chelsea by bringing in some of the world's best players. But without doubt Chelsea's money has at times meant over buying, or certainly buying the wrong players. In fact one of the first players bought to 'The Bridge' under the Russians reign was Juan Sebastien Veron, once touted as one of the world's best players, the Argentinian had found British football difficult to contend with after his £30 million move to Manchester United. Two years later and United had recouped half their money by shipping him off to Chelsea.

5 years later, and from almost nowhere, Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (I looked it up on Wikipedia) bought Manchester City. The news shocked the footballing world. Mansour is very rich, rich beyond Abramovich. In he came and we were promised big money and big signings. On the last day of the transfer window in August 2008, as the world expected Manchester United to sign Dimitar Berbatov, City proved they meant business. News circulated that the Blues had put in a bid for the Bulgarian and that Berbatov was on his way to Manchester to have talks with City. As a United fan who never really wanted Berbatov at Old Trafford I suddenly panicked "We need to sign him" was suddenly my view. Meanwhile in London Chelsea were expected to finally wrap up the signing of Robinho, the Brazilian from Real Madrid. Chelsea were so certain of his transfer they had even accidentally had Chelsea shirts with Robinho's name on the back on sale from their website. I've no idea if any of those shirts ever got sold, if they were I'd love to get my hands on one. City had pulled the greatest trick ever. Whilst people laughed, and I'm sure Chelsea fans were amongst those laughing, at City stealing United's primary transfer target, City moved instead for a British record... £32 million for Robinho!

Nearly one year later and after a not so great season City were ready to spend their millions all over again. Everyone had been linked, from Adebayour to Andy Bishop (Bury FC's top goalscorer, ok they weren't quite linked to him but still). The two names who kept cropping up were Blackburn's Roque Santa Cruz, Mark Hughes's former talisman, and United's very own crowd pleasing Argentinian, Carlos Tevez. With Tevez seemingly at loggerheads with Sir Alex and the United hierarchy a move to City looked inevitable, and alas, it was done. £25 million and a wage no doubt near £125,000 a week took Tevez to City. Santa Cruz had already signed- £18 million and a wage probably similar to that of Tevez was enough to take the ex Bayern Munich striker to City. And finally this week Emmanuel Adebayor was signed from soon to be rivals Arsenal for £25 million and a wage of reportedly £140,000 a week. Wages not included City have spent around £67 million on 3 strikers, meaning they have 9 strikers to chose from. Right so we can see City mean business, and they have the money to back up their claims.

Down in London, Chelsea have not spend the millions and millions that they did in the early years of the Chealski era, they simply can't. Firstly Abromovich has to write off the money he's lost from pay offs for his previous managers- Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant and Luiz Felipe Scolari. Then there's money from the signings of flops like Andriy Shevchenko. And finally following the global recession we know Abramovich lost lots of money, up to £10 billion has been quoted. So Chelsea went after a cheap option as a striker. Chelsea have signed young Daniel Sturridge. A player who Manchester City have let go, the reason being they refused to give the 19 year old from their own youth system a £70,000 a week contract. Chelsea will have to hand over a maximum of £10 million for the youngster, though this fee could be signficantly less depending what the tribunal for his transfer fee decide. Whilst City have made it abundantly clear they will stop at nothing and spend anything to get to the silverwear and the promised land of the Champions League they have also continued to claim they will look after their youth system and continue bringing through youngsters. Youth players such as Daniel Sturridge. Now don't get me wrong £70,000 a week for a 19 year old is pretty hefty, but when you already have 8 strikers, including Santa Cruz, Tevez and Robinho, why not spend £70,000 a week for Sturridge and save yourself the extra £70,000 a week and £25 million transfer fee for Adebayour, it's madness. For one we know that FIFA would love nothing more than to enforce the 5 foreigner rule on the Premiership, good move City! Sturridge will hopefully go on to be an England player, under the coaching of Carlos Ancelotti and with help from fellow strikers Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba he may become one of the world's best. City will do great, but one day the money may dry up, and they'll look around for their youth prospects, funnily enough they may find it difficult to find them.

On a sad note, I for one, and I hope you my readers will join me in wishing John Hartson all the best in recovering from his terrible illness. Football is important to us all, it is a passion, a religion to some. But in life there is always something more important and in this case it is life itself. All the best John, get better!

I will leave you on something slightly lighter. As all football team's begin training for the new season the Sunday league's are no different. I wonder if Sir Alex, Carlos and Rafa have the same problems as us? Player's unfit because of drinking and general unfitness, players on holiday, taking a youth group on tour to Israel. On one hand our team does have someone away playing in the Jewish Olympics, I guess there's one link to professional football!

It's a Whole New Ball Game

The great return of a true legend is here.... Can you believe that "Sidler on Football" has been gone for so long. But fear not it is back.

Talking of being back, I had just arrived in the hotel room in Brussels when my fellow traveller announced "I think United have signed Owen!", not sure whether to believe him or not I text my dad immediately and then tried to catch a glimmer of information on Sky News in between breaks in the Roddick vs Murray Semi-final. And behold I eventually caught sight of the sports news midway through the 2nd set, and Owen was indeed having a medical at Old Trafford. "No don't worry" I jested to the third of our travelling party "Owen's not signing for United, he's having his medical". Several hours later and Michael Owen had signed for Manchester United, oh to see the look on Liverpool fan's faces.


For true neutrals and United fans you can't help but feel pretty happy for Owen. A man who has constantly given his all for his country and who constantly tries to pick himself up from injuries that would have burried lesser men is back where he belongs, not in the Championship with the laughing stock of Newcastle United but with the Premier league champions, not that he's ever been at a club to hold that title before.



No doubt though the arrival of the man from Chester was a shock and with their Manchester rivals seemingly using money as toilet paper it surely leaves cynics questioning United's ability to spend big money for big players. Enter Antonio Valencia and Gabriel Obertan, in the scheme of things not exactly the world's best known or most talented players. Of course the Red Devils have also lost arguably two world class players in the hard working fan's favourite, Carlos Tevez, and of course the world's most expensive football player, Cristiano Ronaldo. Suddenly United's team has lost 2 world class players worth up to 50 goals a season and gained one 'washed up' striker, an exciting winger who helped Wigan to the brink of Europe and an almost unkown young French winger, in total last season scoring a grand total of 14 goals between them in league matches. Is it possible that Sir Alex would willingly throw away that many goals from his team?



Of course it has to be noted that United are still continually linked with strikers such as Huntelaar, Fabiano and Aguero, and with still almost all of the £80 million from Ronaldo's transfer who could count out more signings coming in. But would United really spend the £20 odd million for either of the first two or the £40 million for Maradonna's son-in-law when they already have Rooney, Berbatov and Owen, along with their promising youngsters, Macheda and Wellbeck? That money would certainly be better used for a hard tackling central midfielder, with Hargreaves future uncertain, we've heard rumours from everything between him being ready to come back now to him having to retire, the Reds are short on true grit in the centre of the park, no matter how good Carrick, Anderson, Fletcher and co are.



But back to my holiday, and no I'm not going to suggest I have a comparisson with my holiday and what United need to do next season. I am though a holiday reader and figure myself a student of sport, not only in the literal sense but also by reading about many sports. Over a year ago I was reading Ed Smith's "What Sport Tells Us About Life", a great book on it's own, in it Smith talks lots about "Moneyball", a book about Baseball. Now I have no great knowledge of baseball but quite enjoy watching it so decided that Moneyball would be a good book to further my knowledge of the sport and its culture. I read some of Moneyball before departing for my holiday but whilst on holiday I read the majority of it and more to the point the juicy bits.

Moneyball tells the story of a team with very little money taking on the teams with lots and almost winning. Ok ok, stop shouting, I know this is nothing to do with United. But it's more in the science of it all that interests me. Billy Beane, the manager of the team involved in Moneyball, loses his main players on what are free transfers because they can't afford there wages once big teams come after them, and replaces them with not a like for like replacement but with several players who make up the different parts of the one he has just lost, in short- "the sum of all parts is greater than the whole". Ronaldo's goals will never be replicated by one player, and certainly not one winger but United can replicate his goals as a team. Returning to a 4-4-2 will allow Berbatov and specifically Rooney to score more goals, add in Owen's goals and more from a midfield which has often been too busy covering Ronaldo to score and you are someway towards Ronaldo's goals. Add in Valencia and Obertan's ability to run with the ball and cross and your creating more team chances than Ronaldo ever did.



One last word on Owen. I for one can't wait till the day Owen comes on as a substitute for United at Anfield. The boo's will ring out! Owen inside will smile and say to himself "they hate me, they really hate me". Owen loved Liverpool, they made him the striker he was and got him into the England squad. Liverpool, or more to the point Rafa Benitez, sold him, got rid of him! Then they didn't want him back, both on his return from Madrid and in his horrible time at Newcatle. Finally with Newcastle relegated and a Liverpool hero falling into the Championship Rafa didn't want to know, he made no approach. And so the world's best team did, and Owen signed. Liverpool fan's will talk of loyalty, of playing for the enemy, maybe Liverpool should look at the enemy within.



Meanwhile Sir Alex will continue with his scientific approach to football, replace the parts not the sum, continue winning and continue pulling the rabbit out of the hat. Elsewhere in Madrid, Ronaldo will be happy, £80 million pounds were payed for him, he'll like that, people will adore him and think of him as the saviour, he'll love that! United will replace him with a bunch of players no where near as good as him, he'll be a little baffled but he knows Sir Alex well enough to not be surprised. Batter Up!

Oh for a little escapism!

Firstly I’d like to apologise to you my avid followers for taking so long for my latest post, I was planning on writing something about the comparison between a money mad Gareth Barry and a success mad Kaka, based on the latter’s turning down Manchester City back in January to go to Real Madrid for less money in July. There are problems here of course, firstly Kaka is hardly on the minimum wage, secondly who am I to criticise Gareth Barry, I mean who wouldn’t want 110k a week, and finally if the papers are to be true Kaka asked Madrid for in the region of ten million pounds for his dad and one million for his brother, greed apparently is good after all.

Right so that’s that done with now to the world of escapism! Many people in the world, not me obviously I have time to write this blog, have busy, hectic, demanding lives including jobs, children to look after, parents to look after. Of course many use sport as their way to escape. After all what’s better after a stressful week’s work than to sit in your favourite seat at your football team’s ground and watch them play frustratingly poor and nearly give you a heart-attack with woeful defending. But for one man sport and specifically football could be the answer to all his troubles!

With his world tumbling around him this country’s ‘top’ man could turn to football. Of course I’m talking about the hapless Gordon Brown! With good old ‘Gordo’ changing his cabinet members more often that students change underwear at the moment I’ve come up with some footballing suggestions for the next time Mr Brown decides to shuffle his ministers about a bit.

I’ll dive straight in with our PM’s old position of Chancellor of the Exchequer, and my choice is another Scot. The man who took Everton to the FA cup final this year, none other than David Moyes. In this day and age of economic frailties who else but a man who’s done a lot from very little. Signing Tim Cahill, one of the Premiership’s most dangerous midfielders, for only £1.5 million is pretty astute, £2 million on England international Joleon Lescott. I could go on for a while. The fact is that with so little money having to go so far only Moyes could be a choice, after all Britain would happily be the 5th best country in the world right now.

I know you’re wondering who’s going to be Secretary of State for Energy and Climate change. Well it’s none other than Manchester City’s Robinho. Ok, so not the greatest of seasons for the small Brazilian but he still ended the season as 4th top goal scorer in the league after moving from the sun of Madrid to the rain of Manchester. And no one can question the ex-Santos man’s bountiful energy. Plus there’s the added fact he got the bus to the Trafford Centre when going shopping with his wife.

Next up, and you’ll notice there’s no logical order for these, is Secretary of State for Defence, now this is more difficult than the previous two, I mean we could pick good old Joey Barton, no one would start with us then, but I’m thinking Secretary of State for Justice for this magpie, after all which footballer knows the justice system better! So back to defence, we could go with the big Serb Nemanja Vidic but seeing as the best form of defence is attack we’ll have to go a different way. And with that thought in mind I’m going with Rory Delap, our air missiles will be the best in the world without doubt.

Gareth Barry certainly won’t be the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, after all Manchester might be in Europe but no one from the mainland will be visiting Eastlands any time soon. No this spot would have to go to the master of all things foreign, Arsene Wenger. I considered Secretary of State for Health going to Michael Owen, in the same way as his Newcastle colleague Mr Barton is a justice system expert, Owen is definitely an expert on the health system.

Finally the PM himself, well I don’t think Mr Brown should continue so we need a footballing replacement. I considered going outside of football and going with Ross Brawn but that wouldn’t be very Sidleresque. Sir Alex is always an option, but then he’s not an expert at making failing things work, or at least not since the early 1990s. Down the road at Anfield things are hardly running smoothly, but after too much pressure Rafa would end up ranting at the leader of the opposition, FACT! Like Mike Ashley, and this is the first and last time I’ll ever compare myself to him, I’m not convinced Alan Shearer will get Newcastle promoted or this country in the right shape. There can only really be one man, and whilst his team could lose to Andorra and make me look very stupid, our next PM has to be David Beckham..... Ok so I’m joking. If we can have an Italian run our football team then why not have Fabio Capello run our country. I know this week it’s not linked to Sunday league football, but trust me, everyone in our team could run this brilliant nation better than it’s being run at the moment. Unfortunately Mr Brown won’t step down, but we can always dream of a world run by football!

Game Over?! Oh it's just about to start!

So as the dust settled and the smoke of Guus Hiddink's cigar cleared it was clear for all to see... the season was over! Not just here but everywhere, in Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland and Portugal, all over Europe seasons were coming to an end, be it leagues or cups that brought down the curtain. For some of the world's most famous and legendary players it was game over for good, as in Italy, Pavel Nedved, Luis Figo and most legendary of them all Paolo Maldini, retired. Heroes of their clubs and countries 3 men modern football could truly be proud to call it's own.

They'll no doubt be some one on Sky Sports News telling us exactly how many months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds till we next see the likes of Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard (we always go on about foreign players I thought I'd go a different way this time) but why should we care. Firstly we'll be seeing these three, and the other non-injured England players, twice in the next 10 days in World Cup qualifiers, first a horrible trip to Kazakhstan and then a home match against Andorra. Secondly who needs these overpaid and under performing (not so much since Capello but they've still won nothing with him) England seniors when we've got the overpaid but pretty good under 21s (still won nothing but we seem to think they're better) battling it out with the rest of Europe's kids to become the best under 21 team in our fair continent.

The third reason we shouldn't listen to SSN's detailed countdown to the season, which of course is so important to them because they don't have this weeks internationals, is that the best part of the season is about to begin, in fact in its own right this time of year is a different season... SILLY SEASON!!!! It began in earnest this morning with the news that Carlo Ancelotti has become the new Chelsea manager. But with Sunderland yet to have a new manager in place, though it may be that Wigan swap places, thus the Latics being the ones looking, and of course Celtic also looking for a man to beat Rangers, the managerial merry-go-round is far from over. But managers are pretty boring, it's all about who they want to buy that excites us all. The most intriguing of team will be the usual suspects no doubt.

Chelsea's millions along with their new manager and new direction has them linked with Kaka, Pirlo, Aguero, Adebayor, Tevez, Ribery and Villa, to name just a few. Manchester City's billions have seen them linked with far too many to name but pretty much everyone from Messi to Sidle is being linked. City are made more interesting by the fact this is their second season with money, and one where most have none, but their first in which they already have a squad with several quality players. It is the Chelseaesque balancing act that they must begin, where to buy quality players for big money without forgetting about those we already have. The must improve the defence, but what of those they have already bought such as Zabaleta and Bridge, those promising but inconsistent youngsters Richards and Onuoha or team captain but highly frustrating Richard Dunne.

Sunderland and possibly Portsmouth owned by new foreign money will be keen to push away from relegation candidates to mid-table or possibly a fight for Europe. Of course the newly promoted sides will look to spend some money to avoid relegation, but not so much as to bankrupt the team as they fly back down the leagues. Fulham will buy to prepare for the Europa League, but as usual will teams like Aston Villa really fight to win Europe's poorer competition, or will they keep dreaming of a top four finish. Liverpool and Arsenal, along with the already mentioned Chelsea will hope to buy big to catch Manchester United. Having said that, for all Arsene Wenger's brilliant management, buying players to catch the champions is not his forte, he will need to lose his stubbornness and buy experienced players. United though, whilst some thought will be on the chasing pack don't fool yourself into thinking Sir Alex will buy to keep them at bay, more likely it'll be to chase Barcelona.

In the world of Sunday League transfers and transfer budgets are not amongst our greatest of worries. For a team who's season ended playing wise several weeks ago a line was drawn under the sand on Sunday night at the end of season awards. A goalkeeper and a left back won the awards for the best players and rightly so. But it's not the awards that really mattered last night (they matter more today), but it was the joy of seeing some friends get together, party and thank thier manager for his hard work, a little like the Chelsea boys and that smoking Dutch man.

Oh yeah, I nearly forgot our friends at Sky! One last reason you shouldn't care about the countdown. And this might sound strange from such a massive football fan, is that we can celebrate the fact there's no more football. Open a beer, toast your team, sit back, relax and watch the beauty of Roger Federer's tennis or a Lion's rugby union match or of course that very British thing an Ashes's summer. Football will be back, but for now let's forget it!

Simply the Best?

"Football, bloody hell!" Famous words spoken by a man who may have had stronger things to say almost 10 years to the day later. It sounds stupid, almost hopeful from a United fan to say, but before that most incredible of leaps by that most incredible of 5"7 Argentinians, we may have been heading for an exact replica of the scenes we had on Sir Matt's 90th birthday this time the day after his 100th.

OK just bear with me, I know you're about to click away from the babbling United fan's blog but I'm fighting through tears here. United were well and truly hammered, as they had been that night in the Nou Camp, Barcelona had hit the woodwork, as Bayern had and Barce had failed to kill off United much like Bayern had. But Munich did not have Lionel Messi.

The thing here is that during the match, and even now, I'd be pushed to say that Messi is the best player in the world, I mean we're led to believe it's someone new every year, in fact some people spread it round every month or two. On the night we were led to believe it was Messi vs Ronaldo the show down! Messi won, but he didn't really. I'm not being biased here I just think it's difficult to believe a) it was really Messi vs Ronaldo and b) Messi himself beat Ronaldo.

The English champions were well below par, Barcelona were brilliant. Had both teams been brilliant we may have still had the same result but at least we'd have a better picture of who really was the better player. For me the man of the match, and possibly the best player in the world, was and is Andres Iniesta. Messi has flair, innovation, the ability to make the ball stick to his feet, but Iniesta has all these plus the best pass in the world and a footballing mind better than most. In any other era, and I say this whilst hearing the chorus of boos from those who remember "back in the day", Iniesta would be mentioned as a true great. These days though, we like the trickery and flair of a Messi and Ronaldo. We like the celebrity of Gerrard or Kaka. The famous names on football management games, who usually don't make it as big as their virtual selves like Rafael van der Vaart and Kim Kallstrom (thank you to the Football Manager Live boys for those examples.)

The best players are often those who sit in the background doing the hard work. In the world of Sunday league the newly crowned league champions had the top goalscorer by a mile, they also had the player of the season. This was not the same person. Even in the Sunday leagues it's often the quiet man, the left back or central midfielder doing the work, pulling the strings, making a team really tick. Goalkeepers are also undervalued a lot of the time. I have mentioned these 3 positions as coming up to the team awards I hope it's these players who pick up awards.

But maybe, after all this, I've missed the point! Maybe the little Argentinian is the world's best player, although it was Xavi who laid it up for him, that moment, that leap, that's what makes a player great. Many have said it was Eto'o's goal that changed the match, but with United's past of great comebacks it was really Messi's goal that changed the game. And that ability to change a match, in fact make history unimportant perhaps just makes Messi the best player in the world. Now I'm off to console myself with a DVD of the Champions League final of 1999, it still gives me goosebumps. Football Bloody Hell

Prepared? Only Time Will Tell

As the final whistles blew at the KC Stadium, the Stadium of Light, Villa Park and the Boleyn Ground we knew that Newcastle and Middlesbrough would be joining West Brom and the other 21 Championship sides in England's second tier of football. It's difficult to really know what to write about relegation, it is a horrible sight to see and yet some fans, such as Hull's and especially Sunderland's, could be no happier about the situation. Even Sir Alex broke out a smile as he shook Phil Brown's hand, no doubt thinking about when Alan Shearer turned him down twice all those years ago.

But as Newcastle and Boro fans try and get over that horrible feeling in the pit of their stomach, telling them there is no longer trips to Old Trafford and instead trips to Bloomfield Road await, the management and chairmen of these teams must prepare for life in the fizzy pop leagues.

First for Newcastle is deciding who their manager is. The choice may not be theirs to make. Shearer is yet decided on his future and yet a nagging voice in my head makes me think that relegation only makes him more likely to stay, we all thought 'the Messiah' was in a win-win situation but he'll no doubt feel some guilt towards his teams relegation. But the 'ex' TV pundit will only stay on if he gets what Kevin Keegan couldn't get, full control! Once the manager is decided then the players must decide if they'll stay or go. Damien Duff is already ready to stay and help Newcastle's promotion chase, possibly to repay them for the own goal. But whilst no club is too good for relegation Newcastle have some players who are. Bassong linked with Arsenal is certainly one, Steven Taylor, an England prospect, another. But the player with the most question marks circling his head is former England saviour Michael Owen. Owen is the club's top earner on £110,000 a week and yet he can barely put together two matches in a row, he is a former goal scoring machine and yet was too limp to grab any goal that would save Newcastle, the Owen of old is far too good for the Championship but the defunct £110,000 a week Owen we have now is barely worth the Sunday leagues.

Boro will no doubt stick by Gareth Southgate. Steve Gibson, the Middelsbrough Chairman, is different to most of his quick firing counterparts and will stand by his former captain. Stewart Downing's injury on the penultimate match of the season may be a blessing in disguise, his addition to Boro's team on the last day of the season would have made no difference to the awful performance by Boro. But his up to 6 months out may now mean possibly suitors, such as Spurs could be put off buying a player who will be untried until November, and if Boro could be battling for promotion by January they may even be able to keep him till season end. One player most certainly on his way out is the brilliant Tuncay, linked with Chelsea in January as a cheapish option, the Turk has been far above his team-mates all season. With Tuncay gone Southgate must go about finding a man to score goals, his team scored an awful 28 goals all season, to put it in context, West Brom scored 26 at home.

Both teams must be ready for a battle no matter what. The Championship is not easy to get out of, Cardiff, Sheffield United, Preston, Swansea and Reading will want to build on nearly but not quite seasons, newly promoted Leicester and Peterborough will want 2 or 3 promotions in a row respectively whilst teams like QPR, Watford, Ipswich and Crystal Palace will look to restore former glories of Premeirship days. And these teams have the advantage of knowing the league and the teams they will face, Newcastle and Middelsborough will not. It is also West Brom's advantage over their rivals, experts at promotion Tony Mowbray's side will be looking for automatic promotion and then will need to prepare for the Premiership better next time.

In the world of Sunday league football preparation is arguably less important. But for a team who are yet to work out their best 11 it is essential. Pre season will start as soon as possible and the management will sit down and discuss new signings and frendlies. But most of all as a team who threw away leads late in games over and over again last season, fitness and concentration will be high on the list. Maybe if Southgate could go back to last years pre season he'd have focused on this more- Saturday 23rd August was Boro's second match of the season leading Liverpool 1-0 away with 4 minutes remaining they lost 2-1, how different a season Liverpool and Middelsborough could of had.

Ok ok, I know, it's the end of the season so you want to know my Premier league team of the year and what not. Well the Premiership team who have impressed me most this season have more preparing to do than any other, Burnley! Well done to them and all play-off winners this weekend!