Nick Harris on Mike Ashley’s takeover bid for Newcastle. Is there any Newcastle fan opposed to this? I doubt it. Two teams that I thought would be worth buying outside of the top four would be Newcastle and Manchester City.
An extract from Lisbon Lion Bobby Lennox’s autobiography.
Where to start this week? Seeing that Milan won the Champions League and that they are involved in the battle to stay in Serie A – they play relegation threatened Reggina – we will start in Italy.
With the final round on Sunday five teams are battling to avoid the final relegation spot. Here is a rundown in order of the team most likely to step on the trapdoor.
Siena (37 points) plays Lazio and if they lose they will be relegated. A draw could keep them in Serie A if either Catania or Reggina lose. Siena was docked a point for irregular tax payments and come Sunday night they may rue their run-in with the taxman. Siena has only one win in their last five matches and they must be hoping that Lazio - who has already secured a Champions League spot for next season - have already started their holidays.
Reggina (37 points) is surely hoping that Milan will lack motivation after winning the Champions League on Wednesday. Reggina pulled off a stunning comeback last weekend against Empoli. Down 3-0 they fought back to draw 3-3. Reggina has two wins and six draws in their last eight games and if it wasn’t for an 11-point penalty they would be sitting in a comfortable mid-table position. Reggina needs to match Siena’s result in order to stay up.
The only head-to-head battle of relegation threatened teams is Catania (38 points) and Chievo (39 points) and it will be played at the neutral site of Bologna. The winner of this game is definitely secure. However, a draw combined with Siena and Reggina wins would relegate Catania. The same fate is in store should Catania lose and the other two take a point each. Since the ill-fated match against Palermo that resulted in the murder of a policeman outside of the Catania stadium the Sicilian club has picked up only 8 points out of a possible 42.
On the other hand Chievo (39 points) has picked it up lately with only one loss in the last six games. A draw is enough for Chievo although a loss combined with wins by Siena and Reggina and a draw for Parma would mean some unhappy donkeys.
Parma (39 points) and Claudio Ranieri need only a point from Empoli and after suffering only two losses in their last 14 matches they would appear to be well positioned to do so. In fact they might even survive a loss given that in order to be relegated Reggina and Siena both need to win and Catania needs to at least draw with Chievo.
In Spain the focus is at the top end of the table with Real Madrid and Barcelona both playing on Saturday and Sevilla on Sunday. Talk of revenge will be prevalent as Barcelona takes on Getafe the side that knocked them out of the Copa del Rey. Barcelona is the only team in La Liga with an undefeated record at home while no team in the top 12 in Spain has a poorer away record than Getafe – only 5 wins and 18 points.
Getafe did however administer a 5-1 spanking last weekend to Espanyol in Barcelona. If Getafe is to pull off a major surprise then they are probably going to have to score at least a couple of goals given that Barcelona has scored in every home game this season in La Liga.
Next weekend it is the Barcelona derby while the season concludes with the reigning champions visiting already relegated Gimnastic.
Real Madrid has won eight of their last nine matches but in the last three games they have left it late. Wins against Sevilla, Espanyol and Recreativo have all been secured with progressively later goals - 85th, 89th, and 90th. For a team that has struggled to score goals this season, Real has hit a purple patch with 14 coming in the last four games.
However, they have also conceded eight. Real’s opponents this weekend Deportivo La Coruna has the third poorest away record in La Liga with only 13 points (2 wins) and have only scored 9 goals. After this match Real has Real Zaragoza away and Mallorca at home to finish the season.
Sevilla showed a lot of character to come back from a goal down to beat Deportivo last week and on paper they face a stiff test against Real Zaragoza. However, Zaragoza’s challenge has faded and they have not won consecutive matches since last November. They also only won once away from home since mid-December. Mallorca away and Villarreal at home await Sevilla.
A late charging Villarreal (5 straight wins) might bring to an end any faint hope Valencia may harbour of a La Liga title. Villarreal is only a point behind Atletico Madrid and pushing hard for a UEFA Cup spot. Valencia centre back Roberto Ayala has already signed for Villarreal for next season and in the last two days alone Shevchenko, Makelele and Heinze have all been linked with possible moves to El Madrigal.
In Scotland and Germany cups will be decided. Relegated Dunfermline will be making a third appearance in a final since 2004 and all against Celtic. They will hoping to make it third time lucky after losing both the CIS Cup and Scottish Cup finals. Dunfermline won the Scottish Cup twice in the sixties and beat Celtic on route both times. All in this will be the fourth time Celtic and Dunfermline will have faced each other in a Scottish Cup final.
Celtic finished the league season sluggishly with three losses in last four league games and five of their six league season losses came in the final nine league games. In contrast Dunfermline have had half of their six league wins this season come in their last four league games and have lost only three of their last nine. But still there was a 58 point gap between the two teams come the final league table.
Domestic doubles are not normally frequent events but it doesn’t seen that way in German where for the last four seasons it appears to have been a case of win one and get the other one free. The last four seasons Bayern Munich three times and Werder Bremen have all done the double. Stuttgart has a chance to make it five when they play Nurnberg in the German Cup final on Saturday.
Both teams have won the Cup three times. Stuttgart’s last German Cup win was in 1997 and Nurnberg’s in 1962. Nurnberg finished sixth in the Bundesliga, their best performance since 1988 when they were one place higher. They beat Stuttgart 3-0 on the opening day of the season and again 4-1 after the winter break. Nuremberg coach Hans Meyer is trying to become the first coach to win cup competitions in both East Germany and Germany.
On Monday there is the Premiership play off that is worth zillions of dollars – just pick a number everyone one else does. Derby versus West Brom – I’ll go for West Brom.
I`m looking forward to the German cup final ,as I haven`t seen one before!
Also ,Saturday and Sunday`s play-off finals ,Bristol Rovers v Shrewsbury Town and Blackpool v Yeovil Town.
These two games might not sound like much ,but if the semi-final second legs last week are anything to go by ,then they could be well worth watching.
I`d love to see the old Home Internationals come back ,rather than all these meaningless freindly`s and boring qualifying matches.
Two weeks after the cup final ,England/Scotland ,one of the few live games on TV at the time ,and THEN ,the season was over!
Of note (for those of you who haven't clicked the link yet): Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Juventus, and Milan receive more visitors from OUTSIDE of their respective home countries.
Man United too, but to a lesser extent than the above.
I am guaranteeing an Atleti win on Sunday ,and a UEFA cup spot for my new favourite Spanish team (sorry ,Bilbao) !
And I think the stats for overseas visits to the Chelsea website are slightly misleading ,as half are from myself and LACF!
OK this is getting serious now ... the deadlines looming. La Liga is almost done ... What are we going to do between now and July preseason.?
Wait I have an idea, yes that's it. I'm going to be the world's first soccer poet. Let's try it out ...
______________________________
If the Gunners are playing the beautiful game
How come when I check, their results are so lame?
H14 likes Arsenal ‘cause their play is so twee
And the whole team comes from “La terre des grenouilles.”
Even the center back goes by the name of Gaul-####
While the midfield can’t score, and the forwards just pass.
Last edited by LosAngelesChelseaFan on May 25th at 1:29 AM.
peter kenyin went to korea to open a website in chinise to help chelsea supporters abroad, how ironic
and benitez has threatend to quit if there is no 100m pounds
Mark Gonzalez is set to join Real Betis. He will join two new Betis signings: Marko Babic from Bayer Leverkusen and Roque Santa Cruz from Bayern Munich.
If Gillett thinks he is getting Snoogy Doogy for his Liverpool franchise ,forget it.
Roman already has him under contract and loaned out to Harchester Utd.
h14: Can't you just go back to ripping on your own manager. Benitez won't leave Liverpool...afterall, you and Mas think he's a lousy manager, so who else would want him?
I just saw the "source" for the Rafa warning that he'd leave if not backed with enough money and it's the S*n. If you know your history, which you likely don't, not only is that a very sketchy source of info, but NOBODY associated with LFC would EVER give them any info whatsoever due to the whole "The Truth" debacle.
if benitez says something foolish he has to rebuked and l do not care if he is my manager or not.it will only take a fool to not know that benitez has has spend in excess of 25m pounds every summer and he uses defeats as an excuse that he needs money he started playing that card the weeks after we hammered you out of both cups and , he is behaving like $10m a season
H14: Your team or any of the other big EPL clubs don't need to worry about Ronaldo, he only puts on a show against the smaller teams.
It’s no longer a secret that Sheva and his wife (boss) would love to go back to Milan, and Chelsea won’t miss him much either. Sheva appears willing to play for his old salary, but there’s the issue of the EPL record $60m transfer fee involved. Milan are also optimistically targeting Ronaldinho, Zambrotta and Buffon. So my match of the week is Barca – Getafe, because a Barca defeat at home to Getafe, although unlikely would send them into a tailspin which would lead to wholesale changes (which may happen anyway).
Personally I think Benitez is an excellent manager, knows how to assemble a team and is a very good tactician. However, the criticism of Benitez stems more from the amount of money spent compared to other transfers around the same time.
Kuyt, Bellamy and Crouch didn't come cheap, and with strikers like Kanoute, Gudjohnsen and Van Nistelrooy changing teams for approximately the same price, doesn't necessarily make Rafa look like a genius.
He paid $12m for Agger and reportedly $20m for Mascherano. Last summer Real paid $25m for Cannavaro and Emerson, and Inter paid $12m for Viera. Agger and Mascherano, who are excellent players, are only 23 but their contracts are 4 years anyway, and mixing in some more experience would help; just look at the Chelsea and Man Utd lineups who coincidentally were the class of the EPL this season.
Verbal: To me the cause of Liverpool losing started at the beginning of the season (see further down). My take on the final was Benitez figured that he couldn't win unless he overpowered the midfield at the expense of the strikers. I think it was a negative attitude that caused Gerrard to be too far forward for his best game - generally which is bursting out of midfield to pick up balls from all over the place. Not only was he not there to do it himself (Alonso made a few “Gerrard” runs in that space), but he stopped Riise getting forward as much. To me, all this made Liverpool look good in the middle of the field and give the impression that they were playing well, but almost guaranteed they couldn’t win. All Milan had to do was get a bit of luck, which they did. Like MasMaz said, whatever Reason he played Zenden, it didn’t work. Against that, he correctly predicted that Pennant would roast Jankulovski.
My take on Chelsea right now is similar to Liverpool at the beginning of the season. I.e. to get to the next phase you need some world class skill players. I think that ultimately cost Liverpool everything. I assume that Benitez could only buy what he was allowed and was available. Pennant seemed a possibility, although I think his great display this week was as much due to weak defending. Bellamy, Gonzalez were higher risk buys that didn’t work. At least Benitez put himself in the mix with those buys. He gave a shot at getting the skill players. ....
Last edited by LosAngelesChelseaFan on May 25th at 8:29 AM.
... Kuyt might have been okay with others around him. Crouch is obviously a problem for Benitez – maybe he’ll be bartered for someone else.
OK finally my question for you, Bobby and others. Given all of this and the money being made available:
1. What’s your assessment?
2. Who would you dump/bring in at the front and what midfield shape and players would you pick that would win the EPL or UCL?
Last edited by LosAngelesChelseaFan on May 25th at 8:27 AM.
LACF: the differnce btn chelsea and liverpool is that chelsea can afford to buy a player for $50m and send him on loan for virtually nothing look at duff, creespo etc, something benitez can not afford
H14:
Actually they only paid about $35m each for Duff and Crespo; the former was sold for $10m, which still may not be enough of a discount for Milan to sign Sheva back. I think Crespo has spent more time on loan than at Stamford Bridge since he was signed which has at least saved them paying most of his salary.
Last edited by Venti_vidi_vici on May 25th at 9:34 AM.
I'm not a Newcastle supporter, but I think it would be incredibly rotten if Owen returns to Anfield. Newcastle have been very patient with him and for him to up & leave would be a slap in the face. He owes the club more respect than that.
Moreover, now that Benitez has been given a substantial transfer budget, I don't see the point in going after Owen.
Last edited by atleti_female on May 25th at 10:27 AM.
Kuyt, Bellamy and Crouch have cost a grand total of 23 million, which is still less than what Ferguson paid for Rooney. And while Madrid got a deal for RVP for the about the same amount spent on Kuyt, do you honestly think that Ferguson would EVER have sold him to Liverpool?! Personally, I don't think Kanoute or Gudjonnson would be an upgrade on what Liverpool have already.
Overall, by my calculations, Benitez has spent about 80 million pounds over three years with the net spending of less than 60 (or less than 20 per season).
Blackburn were more than happy to collect $13m from Benitez for Bellamy, (which is probably about $2m per goal!!), and I'll be surprised if Liverpool recoups half that transfer fee when they offload him this summer.
SAF would've never sent RVN to any EPL club, I think people (me included) are just making comparisons with other transfers during the same period. Sort of like comparing the Kaka, C.Ronaldo & Beckham transfers in the summer of 2003!
Last edited by Venti_vidi_vici on May 25th at 10:00 AM.
It's one thing to compare transfers and it's quite another to completely disparage one team's manager. But silly me, how could I forget that Ferguson, Wenger, Mourinho, Ancelloti, et al. are infallable and have perfect track records in the transfer market?
verbal: rooney is a special talent, and is still young and was worth the 28m quid they paid, he is far better than bellammy kuyt and crouch combined.rooney is already paying some of that transfer money, if rafa had bought eto, or kloseor any really world class forward with that money l would understand.if crouch left liverpool l struggle to find a decent team that wants him.l am saying the cry for money from benitez is amazing for a guy that has spend $196m is shocking.lwould not want wenger to spend that kind of money in three years because it affects the bulding process of a team
where did you get that figure (196 million) from? Anyway, Benitez has spent a lot, but couldn't blow it all on one or two players (like and Eto'o or a Klose) due to the need to rebuild the entire squad (I've now said this 4 times!!!), and a large part of it has to do with the fact that Houllier made a LOT of mistakes in the market before Benitez came in. Wenger has his own system for building teams and it's up to you as an Arsenal supporter if you like it or not. But it also is imperative to say that Wenger's been there for a decade and walked into a much better situation than Benitez. I, as a Liverpool supporter, like the direction the team is going in and the job he has done so far. And for you to ponder...the past three years, who's been better, Arsenal or Liverpool.
V97:The transfer market is an educated guessing game, but we have to pick on somebody.
I think what SAF has spent on Carrick and now Hargreaves is insane, as were all of Chelsea's signings last summer. Wenger forgot to sign another player besides Henry who can score, and you are absolutely correct when you state that Ancelotti is infallable!
I don't think he needs or will get 100m. But I do trust his eye for talent. When he first arrived, he wanted to swap Owen for Eto'o when it became clear that they were both out of their respective clubs, but he didn't have the money so Eto'o went to Barca. As I stated earlier, he wanted Simao, Alves, Milito...but couldn't find the extra 2 million.
Liverpool need a goal-scoring striker, preferably with some pace; a top winger and some cover for other positions such as CB.
I don't expect them to win everything (or necessarily anything), though I hope they do. I do expect vast improvement in the league to the point where they can be considered contenders going forward (and if they win the league, great!!!, but I don't expect it next season); and it's too much to ask for a third CL final in 4 years, but I wouldn't mind that happening at all.
And yes, VVV, you did mention Kuyt was offside, which I noticed right away and hoped nobody else would.
Even though I am an Inter fan, I have to agree with VVV. Ancelotti has done a great job in the transfer market. What is even better is the core of the team are Italians. It is rare for a big club team to have so many native players in the starting 11.
Verbal: I wouldn't get hung up the $$$. It doesn't matter what was spent. It's done. All the managers can do is take a shot. Somewhere along the line someone weighs up the risks or they do what they want. JM must have figured that Sheva couldn't handle the pace. RA overuled him and my guess that he learned that lesson now. Leaving the center backs with no cover was real mistake. Rafa has got a midfield mix that could have blended but didn't. You can see that he kept rotating the players because he kept trying to get it right. I think it showed he wasn't locked into repeating something that wasn't working in the hope it would change. To me the skill is having a mix of players that leaves lots of options. SAF got very, very lucky. Saha was the star at the beginning, Scholes and Giggs could have easily had bad seasons but his development of Ronaldo deserves huge credit. Look at Rosicky. He looked a great buy, but was pretty marginal. Baptista ditto, and he’s gone. There’s lots of luck involved.
H14 I don’t think it matters how much money they can afford. It's how much they actually decide to spend. None of the boards are never going to tip their hand anyway. That's why I asked Bobby if he thought Chelsea were just pretending they're not going to spend so as to try and contain the transfer fees. On the face of it, it looks like Liverpool will outspend all the others.
The media is saying that Ribery is going to Munich.
Final thought. Could there be an Owen, Couch swap. Does that make sense?
V97;the alvare, eto and militos are players arsenal, manu, chelsea, madrid hell every big club will buy but it comes to if you can not get the popular players then pull a rabit out if the hat frgie got vidic when we all did not know of him, and wenger got toure and eboue out of the blue, you can not say he has an eye for talent and point at simao,eto, evryone knows that they have talent.benitez's best buy has been agger, if he could do that more often rather whinning that if manu spend 20m quid give me the same
As far as Liverpool goes, they should be offloading the following players to make room for in coming talent: Dudek (let him leave already), Hyypia, Gonzales (Betis), Fowler, Bellamy, Zenden. Then clear the books by selling: Cisse, Pongolle and other that no longer fit the bill. I actually think Crouch should stay. He is a good option to have... I think Liverpool should raid Inter. Get the likes of Solari, Adriano and Recoba, players that are mentioned to be leaving the club. These three players could add a lot to their creative game. They can take Julio Cesar (keeper) too.
-Nice Poem LACF.
-I think Rafa is a great manager who is in love with his own image. This guy is as arrogant as Jose, Arsene and SAF, maybe more so, but at least they will take a chance, Rafa never does.
-Getafe has won exactly 2 road games this year and Barca are undefeated at home, true Getafe will not take a dive in this game as Atletico did last weekend but it is not the game of the weekend.
-H14 is instigating trouble, I love it. I dub H14 as the Snarling dog Gattuso of this blog!
-CIAO you think Liverpool should get rid Cisse who will score another 100 goals at least in his career for Inter's rubbish. You must really hate Liverpool.
I hope they clear out the following players:
Julio Cesar, Burdisso, Coco, Pizarro, N. Gonzales, Solari, Adriano, and Choutus (has he even played a game?). Unfortunately Figo and Recoba (I wish Mancini would have utilized him better, now Recoba wants to leave) are to leave too.
Replacements: Maresca, Micolli, Simao, Bresciano and Chiellini. These five would round up the team nicely. I also think they should make a move for Chivu from Roma, maybe trade for Pizarro or Recoba.
paul parker is a fool does he honestly believe we can challenge for anything as walcott a main striker, he is a manunited sympathiser so he is looking to say okay fergie should strengthen and arsenal should not buy any one what a mother ####ker he is
My question is for all this bashing of Rafa and Liverpool, what about Chelsea.
-Chelsea have made the worst moves of any team. And I do not blame Jose.
-I mean really some of the stupidest decisions.
THE 2 DUMBEST DECISIONS:
1- Buying Dutch defender Bouhlarouz when they already own the best defender in the Eredivisie- Alex. While knowing they are very light at center back.
2- Loaning out a world class striker, Crespo knowing they are light at that position while bringing in a player Sheva who has already played with Crespo, quite successfully, I might add. This would certainly have made the transition easier for Sheva while giving him at least one other player who knows how to play proper football.
H14, I agree that Paul Parker is not a good voice of reason. However, even if Henry is sold... I don't think Walcott will have his day. RVP would take lead and Wenger would have to bring in another proven forward.
MasMaz, I think you are right on regarding Chelsea. That is why they intend to bring Crespo back for next year. As for Ballack, I think he just doesn't fit in with Lampard.
Mas
You are forgetting the DUMBEST move we made ,the Gallas/Cashley swap!
You didn`t see the best of Gallas this season ,but next season he will be your second most important player after Henry (that`s Thierry ,not Henry14)!
the thing with benitez is that he has made some awful signing and gives excuses like he got them on a free.
here is a guy who just wants to spend , so we are going to see a situation of benitez needing 100m quid and the guy wants 200m pounds in 4 years to challenge for the tittle, even fergie has not spend that much in the last 5 years wenger not even in his 10 years so he is being foolish
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
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