Simply, the Best!

Recently my blog posts, it could easily be said, have been written as a fan first and a blogger second. I'd argue that I am a football fan first and a blogger second so all my blog posts have been written in such a way.

I get equal joy in being a football fan as I do writing about the sport and so it gives me as much pleasure writing about Manchester United winning the Premier League as it did to be at Old Trafford on Monday to see them beat Aston Villa 3-0 and thus capture the Premier League title. Well okay, that's a slight lie.

Yes United wrapped up their 13th Premier League title on Monday night with four games to spare with a points gap that currently stands at 16 points. There is a good chance that the gap to closest rivals, Manchester City, will come down by the end of the season; City have a game in hand and United have the harder remaining fixtures. That though should not take away from the fantastic achievement of this title winning side. After all a team winning a title with so long to go, relatively, will always be remembered as a great side of course.....

Apparently not!

On winning the league, and even before hand, it has been levelled that Sir Alex Ferguson's side is not 'one of his best' and that, even more ridiculously, United have only won the title because everyone else is rubbish.

Champions always deserve to be champions, this much can be said of all league campaigns. That is not to say that you don't need a tinge of luck but over such a long competition the team that wins and the teams who get relegated will always be the best and worst respectively.

Is it SAF's best ever United team? No of course not but the Scot himself, not one for these comparisons has told us it's one of, if not the, best squad he's had. Upfront the 'Red Devils' possess one of the best strikers in the world in Robin Van Persie and probably the best strike force as he is partnered by Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck. Within the ranks are also some of the best young talent in the game, some of them even English, in the likes of David de Gea, Phil Jones and Rafael. Add this with the experienced perennial winners in the shape of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Michael Carrick and you have an almost perfectly formed squad, the likes of which not even Sir Alex's long reign can previously boast.

Is the rest of the league that bad? No! The Premier League's 'demise' is greatly exaggerated despite any representation in the last four of the Champions League. For one all 4 sides went out in very different circumstances and three of the four went out to at least one, if not two in City's case, of the semi-finalists. Three English teams did make it into the Europa League and Chelsea, still reigning Champions League winners for now, are still there. A sign of improvement is not usually found at the top anyway, it is normally in the middle and lower skilled where the gap closes. Take cricket as an example, no batsmen will ever be better than the great Sir Donald Bradman but the worst of this era's batsmen are far superior to the bygone age of the 'rabbit' coming in at 11. Taking this example we can see that the middle to lower sides have certainly closed the gap to the likes of Liverpool and Everton.

United's dominance is laughably being used as proof that they only won the league because everyone else is rubbish, meanwhile in Germany Bayern Munich won the title by 20 points and people are saying they are the best team in Europe in the best league in the world because of this.

This United team does not inspire and destroy like the Treble winning side of 1998/99 or even the Double winners of 2007/08 but it is a juggernaut of a squad who do not give up ever. They have ground out the title in a spectacular way and they have done it as a brilliant squad.

This title does not belong to the sides below being rubbish it belongs, simply, to the best!


Officially You Don't Know Your Job

Officiating in a game of football cannot be easy, I've never had to do it but that's only because the team Sporting JLGB were due to face when we had no referee assigned that day did not turn up- I was very relieved.

On some occasions referees and their assistants get a harder time than they deserve. Many occasions I have felt sorry for a 4th official, powerless to do anything but taking abuse from both manager's in the dugout on behalf of the 'ref'.

Of course officials do not help themselves. There is always terrible decisions to pour over, and I often do. I have been known to abuse 'refs' as much as the next Sunday League player/coach/manager/secretary/fan. Officials making mistakes, after the heat of the moment, is acceptable.

What is not acceptable is them not knowing their job. On Tuesday night Bayern Munich played Barcelona in the Champions League Semi-Final 1st Leg. Munich ran out comfortable 4-0 winners.

Bayern's second goal may have been offside, it was a close call. The assistant referee did not flag. In part this was because he did not believe Mario Gomez was offside but partially this was because Arjen Robben was stood in his way. Both ref and assistant did their job correctly. My issue comes with official number five, or six I'm not sure. The 5th official, the man stood by the goal, clearly thought Gomez was offside. His first reaction, like that of a striker believing he is offside, was to look at the assistant. When he saw no flag he too decided it mustn't have been offside but that's not his job. The 5th official is essentially just another assistant, his job is to decide his stance, in this case that Gomez was offside, flag for it and allow the ref to weigh up both opinions.

On this occasion the ref would have sided with his assistant ahead of 'number 5' but that's totally besides the point. Until officials know what their role is how can we expect them to do it properly?

Finally F.A is Sweet

Luis Suarez bit another footballer, for the second time in his career!

Just read that sentence, read it several times if something doesn't look quite right, it shouldn't look right. No person should bite another. It, in the worst possible way, is what animals do. It is a disgusting act done by no one with any decency.

Suarez has previous, and not just with biting, and his constant trips to F.A disciplinary hearings, the fact he's a repeat offender and the fact he bit someone has led to him getting a 10 match ban.

Many believe this is harsh and the Football Association has once again got it all wrong. They have pointed to Jermaine Defoe's bite on Javier Mascherano going unpunished but just because it has made once mistake a few years ago this doesn't mean they should compound it by making the same mistake again. Some, including Gus Poyet, say that Suarez is being targeted but perhaps the Uruguayan should stop biting and diving amongst his many other flaws.

For once they've done something and it really is sweet F.A

All is Said...

Now it is Time To Do

I hope it doesn't matter what football team you support, or if you even like football, but what happened on the 15th of April 1989 at Hillsborough, the home of Sheffield Wednesday, should shock you to the core.

That the truth about what happened on that day has finally come out, a massive 23 years after the event, should not lead one to care less but in fact to care more- now there is truth next there should be justice.

Last week, after the results of the inquest by the Hillsborough Independent Panel, I decided not to write a blog post; little else in football mattered that week and I didn't have enough insight or intelligence to add to the proper debate, with Liverpool due to play against rivals Manchester United I have decided to throw in my comments.

Sir Alex Ferguson has once again asked for United fans to respect the 96 who died as a result of that tragedy and their families after some idiotic fans chanted, with ambiguity, about Luis Suarez at the match at Old Trafford against Wigan. With Sunday being Liverpool's first home game since the findings emotion will be running high.

'SAF' has written to those fans attending on Sunday to remind them the rivalry with their Scouse neighbours is built on "a determination to come out on top – a wish to see us crowned the best against a team that held that honour for so long" rather than the hatred and vitriol that usually surrounds these matches. Football is no doubt all about passion and rivalry but it does not need to lead to idiocy, tribalism and heartlessness that has led to songs about Hillsborough, Hysel and Munich- none of these tragedies are footballing, they are all human and horrible and we should not laugh at those involved but empathise with them.


Any one who does now not believe the truth is a moron, anyone who does not respect the dead should not constitute a human being. I, for one, believe that Sunday will go off without a hitch and we'll just have a moving tribute and hopefully some fantastic football to talk about.

We have done the talking, now is time for the action.

Has Too Much Been Said?

I wrote in this blog on Tuesday about Joe Hart's performance and that of the defence in front of him. Furthermore I mentioned how Hart should pick his words wisely in regards to teams winning 3-2 from 2-1 down with 5 minutes to go, it was all very ironic.

However to concentrate on that one line would be too miss the point, Hart was actually incredulous with rage at losing and the performance of the team- he told us as much. Hart blamed City as a whole team for losing the match, whilst at no point blaming himself he never said he wasn't to blame. This, along with Hart making a mistake for the winning goal, led to Roberto Mancini to criticise his goalkeeper.

Mancini said in his press conference "Joe Hart should stay in goal and make saves. If anyone should criticise the team it should be me, not Joe Hart. I am the judge, not Joe Hart", which may have been okay as criticism but it is not as if Mancini did not agree with the England 'number 1' after also suggesting that the defence was too deep at the end of the game.

Since then both Vincent Kompany, the club captain, and Gareth Barry have come out in defence of Hart with Kompany further backing his 'keeper' by admitting he was at fault for the important goal. 

Hart was harsh but honest about the team and that included himself. It would surely be more worrying if both he and the rest of the players failed to see their own failings.

It's Never Enough

Some may argue that Joe Hart said too much. Some have even argued that, by not paying Real Madrid enough respect for their win, he didn't quite say enough.

On the other hand one man who was extremely happy with himself was Jose Mourinho, the Madrid manager, whose words after his teams loss last weekend inspired them to victory over City.

Of course Mourinho can't take full praise for the victory, after all it is the players who go out and play the football and score the goals...Actually scratch that, if any manager can ever take full credit for victory it would be the 'Special One'. Once upon a time the former Barcelona interpreter graced the Premier League as manager of Chelsea and wowed us with his arrogance, tactical brilliance and on camera personality and ever since leaving we have missed him. 
Mourinho's jump from the bench and slide across the turf as Ronaldo scored reminded us of his most famous moment, sliding down the sidelines at Old Trafford as his Porto side beat Manchester United, but more poignantly it reminded us that Jose is the master puppeteer who never wastes a word- that goal was as much his as it was Ronaldo's.

He is one man who can never say enough!

Only 140 Characters To Say it All 

In the past I have Tweeted about football and written about Twitter. I have discussed Joey Barton and his use of Twitter, mainly to try and make him seem more intelligent whilst really making himself ridiculously conceited.

Many have damned the use of Twitter, Sir Alex Ferguson said he did not understand how someone would have time to bother with it  whilst answering questions about Rio Ferdinand's Tweets.

Twitter though has proved its worth with all sorts of campaigns and charities but one major campaign Twitter has helped with was in getting #JFT96 (Justice for the 96). And one main character to help this campaign was in fact Barton himself. 

Like him or not, Tweet or not, sometimes we have to doff our caps to the power of celebrity and the power of social media, especially when there's only 140 characters to get the message across.

That's Just Champion!

Not Very Italian

Perhaps the most exciting last 22 minutes of a football match you're likely to see kicked off the 20th season of the Champions League as Manchester City came within a defensive mistake and 5 minutes of a famous victory away to Real Madrid.

That City came within 5 minutes of winning was incredible testament to their effort although, as Joe Hart said and I suggested in a previous blog post, simply going to the Bernabéu and coming close is not enough for a team of City's current stature. That the 'Blues' lost because of a serious of defensive errors is almost baffling. 

On the way to winning the league last season City conceded just 29 goals, already this season they have seen the opposition score 6 times with Arsenal to come on Sunday. Only two season's ago it was being suggested Roberto Mancini would never lead City to the Premier League title as he was too defensive, last season Mancini was able to combine defencive stability with flair and attacking prowess to win the league. Tonight, in the Champions League City looked terribly poor at the back especially Vincent Kompany, the captain and usually a rock at the back. 



It seems worrying for City that they have looked so oddly weak defensively because it is not one or two mistakes creeping in they look, as a unit, to be poor. Joe Hart has made mistakes, Vincent Kompany too, whilst Joleon Lescott looks less assured than last season- a knock on effect from Kompany's form- and the full backs have never settled under Mancini as he enjoys rotating them.

Fortunately for City their title rivals weaknesses are also prominently defensive, it means that games between the top four may turn out to be just as exciting as last season's 8-2's and 6-1's.

We're Not So Different You and I

I said in my last blog post that I thought AVB just needed time and, though the turnaround is nowhere near complete, my faith does seem a little vindicated already.

It is not just the win that has led me to gleam over AVB this week but also the manner of the football, the ex Porto manager seems to have got his system correct with Sandro and Moussa Dembele creating a fantastic midfield partnership. Villas-Boas also had a good week in the press managing to hit back at his predecessor, the shadow that is Harry Redknapp, after Harry had criticised his style of management. This was also, accidentally, a response to Martin Keown who had suggested on BBC Radio 5 Live that Villas-Boas was 'too tactical' and 'confusing' his players. 

Surely though the most pleasing thing for Spurs fans and, even more so, the manager will be the excellent form of Jermain Defoe who already has 3 league goals this season and 2 for England (which should have been 3 against Ukraine). Defoe's goals have kept Emmanuel Adebayour on the bench and the ex Portsmouth striker looks full of confidence unlikely to stop scoring.

Ironically Defoe's upturn in fortune seems to have come from AVB's man management skills and decision to give the Englishman an extended run in the team meanwhile Harry lost his job after being unable to keep his player's focus once he was convinced he'd get the England job.

Pick Your Words Wisely

Joe Hart was rightly a little mad at the end of his teams match versus Spanish champions Real Madrid. Not only had City seen their 2-1 lead to turn to a 3-2 deficit in only 5 minutes but Hart was also partially at fault for the last goal.

Hart was interviewed after the match and suggested in his answer that the interviewer wanted him to say that the team could go away from the match with their heads held high instead he apologised and then, rightly said, they were annoyed they lost from 2-1 up with 5 minutes to go and lost. He even questioned it "how can you be 2-1 up with 5 minutes to go and lose 3-2?", the answer to winning from 2-1 down is; with the will and determination to win no matter what, but then I guess he should know that after May 13th 2012!

Retain or Regain?

We're in our 20th year of the Champions League, in its current guise, and still no club has managed to defend their title as best team in Europe. On Wednesday night Chelsea begin their challenge to become the first.

Chelsea's group is tricky with Juventus and Shakhtar Donetsk to play but they should still qualify for the knockout stages. Roberto Di Matteo's side should arguably be better equipped to win the Champions League this season as their new players have made them into a dangerous attacking outfit, however this new setup will work adversely against the likes of Barcelona and this season they will also have a Premier League title challenge to contend with.

It looks like we'll be waiting till at least the 21st year till we get a defending champion!

After the opening, before the closing

Barce Envy!

Thursday morning I got up, late for work, got dressed and left my girlfriend's flat and headed for work and checked twitter on the way to the metro.

Now none of this is particularly interesting I agree but my girlfriend's flat has no signal for my phone and thus checking twitter leads me to read all tweets since about 8 o'clock the previous evening.
As I began my reading I realised that on top of the usual crap there was football to catch up on, namely El Classico.

As the updates began it became apparent that Real were on top and Barcelona were struggling to compete, they were soon 2-0 down and had Adriano sent off. Oddly enough I wasn't really surprised by this. I was, however, taken aback by the amount of vitriol tweeted against Barca and how much glee there was in seeing them lose.

Over the last few years the Catalans have excited and entertained us by playing their brand of beautiful football, they've done it all whilst winning endless amounts of trophies. Such is the appeal of how Barcelona play that the Spanish national side have adopted this approach and this has bought about 2 European Championships and a World Cup triumph. And yet there is happiness when they lose?

There is criticism when Stoke win and achieve above their expectations playing in a way that is considered 'anti-football' now there is joy to see Barcelona lose playing a completely opposite way, for me both can be explained by envy. Arsenal have had no success playing what they believe to be Barcesque football so they instantly patronise the way Stoke win matches, meanwhile other teams question if Lionel Messi could "do it" on a cold Wednesday night.

The football snobbery and jealousy is pathetic and needs to stop. We should embrace the differing styles of football, much like great fights in boxing are created by differing styles so are great football rivalries.
Another reason for the hatred of Barce is that the press swoon over them and in particular Messi and so people get bored of all the stats and praise to some extent this makes sense but the reason that people go on about Barcelona is simple, they are perhaps the best side to ever play football and that is something to celebrate!



18 Months is a long time in football

Can it really only be 18 months since that barmy couple of days at the end of January 2011 when Chelsea splashed out £50 million pounds on Fernando Torres and Liverpool used the cash raised to pay £35 million for Andy Carroll, for both much has changed since then.

Torres was at the time already short of form and often getting injured. Carroll, on the other hand, was flying high in his first season in the Premier League, given the famous number 9 shirt for the Magpies and had netted 11 times in just 19 Premier League games. Then came the Chelsea bid for Torres which would lead to Carroll going to Liverpool, it was too much money for most transfers never mind for a just turned 22 year old fresh in the Premier League.

The moves turned out to be awful for both players with both having dreadful first full seasons with their new clubs. Torres though has benefited from a summer transfer campaign geared towards playing him as the main man upfront on his own whilst Carroll has had to sit back and watch the new manager transform Liverpool into a side that would never be able to function with him in it.

Carroll has been sent to West Ham on loan, he didn't really want to go but he had to if he wanted to play this season. At the Hammers he will get the chance to be the main man but with far less expectation baring in mind the last 18 months and the lowly £1 million pound loan fee.

It may only be 18 months but at 23 and worth £34 million pound less this is a crucial time for Carroll's career.

Spurned in the Champions League

For the 2nd year in a row Manchester City were handed a horrible draw in the Champions League group stages after being grouped with the champions of Spain, Holland and Germany.

Manchester United, on the other hand, were handed another easy draw this time being drawn with Braga, Galatasary and Cluj. 

I was asked how I felt about the draw and as a United fan I was pleased to get an easy group but a little gutted there was no exciting matches, unlike in City's group. I then heard Spurs fans compare City's plight to their own Champions League experience when they played Inter Milan, A.C Milan and Real Madrid and loved every minute of the journey even when losing. This was an admirable stand point but not the right one.

The Spurs experience was one of "happy to be here", "lets enjoy it whilst we can" and so the trips to Milan and Madrid were exciting and magical no matter what. Spurs hope to get in the top 4 for the money and the prestige, City on the other hand hope to qualify for the Champions League by winning the Premier League and then going onto win the Champions League and so their draw is a bad one. No doubt it will give them great experience playing big teams rather than being an experience.

Basically get through the group easily and earn the chance to play the likes of Barcelona in the quarters, semis and final and that's what United should do, City on the other hand...

North London- It's only 930 miles long!

Rivalries in football always make life much more interesting. Who doesn't look for their team's derbies when the fixture list first comes up?

For certain those members of the Glasgow fraternity will always look for the Old Firm matches. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately if you happen to be a policeman in Glasgow or a member of the SPL's disciplinary committee, Old Firm matches are a regular occurrence with 4 league games every season and the possibility of a cup game- or three- to look forward to.

Local derbies are always exciting in build up but not always so on the pitch, a la the first Manchester derby of this season, as the two teams nervously circle each other determined no to lose. It's amazing how quickly a teams usual attacking instincts go out of the window when it comes to derby days. This week we saw, quite frankly, the oddest ever North London derby played over two nights, during two matches, in cities roughly 930 miles away.

On Tuesday night Arsenal, away from home, were forced to abandon their usual glorious marauding style of play as they spent most of the first half of this Champions League derby inside their own half. So much were they on the back foot that, for the first time since 2002, a team managed no shots in a Champions League match. A ridiculous stat from a side that, despite the absence of Theo Walcott, included the likes of Robin Van Persie, Jack Wilshere, Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas, and that's before we get to the subs of Andrey Arshavin and Nicklas Bendtner. To simply read such a stat would probably lead you to believe that for once in his life Arsene Wenger had dropped his usual stubbornness and inability to change game plan and had realised that his best chance of progressing on Tuesday was to sit back and defend and see out the game, possibly hitting the opposition on the break. The truth is completely different, the truth is that Arsenal were forced to play only in their own half and because of their love of playing pretty football, no matter where on the pitch, Arsenal gifted the home side their opening goal, and the goal that changed the tie.

In the second half of this derby Spurs played the part of the team that have to forget the way they usually play in favour of defending for their lives as the away side came back at them. Spurs have no doubt been a sigh of relief in the often mundane world of football since Harry Redknapp took over and with the likes of Gareth Bale, Rafael van der Vaart, Aaron Lennon, Luka Modric at his disposal it is no surprise that Spurs prefer the 'we'll score more than you' approach to football. Mid week though Tottenham hung on to their lead as if it was their lives at steak. Whilst they were on the back foot for most of the game the team from White Hart Lane still managed a few shots, two even actually on goal, unlike their North London rivals- this probably had something to do with keeping 10 men on the pitch (a decision that was clearly ridiculous but did not cost Arsenal the match). Spurs of course were not trying to play on the back foot, they would have love to have been attacking the oppositions goal at every possibly moment but the sheer pressure exerted on their midfield and defence did not allow them out of their own half often enough.

As with all derbies there was some real controversy and both sides had chances at the end to clinch the tie or throw it away. Arsenal really should have given away a penalty before they eventually did in the second half, when Laurent Koscielny should have received his second yellow card for two actual yellow card offences. On the other hand Robin Van Persie clearly should not have been sent off. Van Persie's initial yellow card was his own fault but his second was harsh to the nth degree, though I don't buy his claims he couldn't hear the whistle or suggestion he didn't know he was offside, but we'd all had taken that shot- ironically Arsenal's only one. Spurs had little of the controversy but still could have thrown it all away were it not for a William Gallas clearance off the line and Heurelho Gomes' save right at the end following a brilliant move. It could have also been so different if it hadn't been for Bendtner's awful first touch.

Despite all this it is quite ironic that on the nights it was Arsenal who scored and not Spurs but that is the beauty of games played over two legs, it creates compelling 2nd legs. Fortunately for all of us none of the Champions League ties this week were anywhere near finished when it came to the 2nd legs and excitement could be found everywhere and even the most drab of games, including ones that featured sides from North London abandoning exciting football, were exciting because we did not know which way they would go.

If you didn't know I have of course been referring to two completely separate matches. One between Arsenal and Barcelona played in the Camp Nou which featured Barcelona prove why they really are the best football team on the planet as they penned the Gunners into their own half for most of the match and Arsenal couldn't cope, the immense pressure they were under really being shown as Fabregas gifted his boyhood team their first goal and Koscielny giving away a penalty when extra time was still a possibility. The second match was at White Hart Lane and features Spurs and, Serie A leaders, A.C Milan. Milan, 1-0 down from the first leg, did most of the attacking in the game and forced Spurs to play on the counter attack, arguably their favoured way of playing, for much of the match but failed to find away past the resolute defending of Michael Dawson and William Gallas. Yes the difference in class between Barcelona and Milan is hugely recognisable but the difference between going out of the Champions League, like Arsenal, and going through to the quarter finals, like Spurs, was simply being resolute and not losing.

Two matches, two cities 930 miles away, 2 different results, no winners but only one North London derby!