For those of you who followed the FA Cup blog last season you will recognize Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association FC. That was the side that the blog started to follow at the Extra Preliminary Round last season.
A look at the challenge Israel will pose for England in European qualifying.
Duncan Castles considers the battle for the Arsenal boardroom.
I liked the article by James Lawton, because it's very true what he says. Like I said earlier Dein did great things for Arsenal but now he is trying to stubb us on the back like CAshley Cole did and I hope he won't succeed.
Rosisky was very impressive today and should have even scored another if not for the poor passing from Ade. Both him and Helb have started the season well and I hope they keep it up but the strikers need to score more from open play especially Van P.
Last edited by Gunner44 on September 2nd at 9:23 PM.
In a word association test, for me, the words Man Utd. automatically brings up up Law/Best/Charlton. The BC extract brings it all back. Certainly the best goal I ever saw in person was a George Best goal, a one-two with Charlton scored against Chelsea. For those who never saw him, Dennis Law was the most committed header of the ball I can ever remember. I can still see him flying through the air and his head swiveling like a wound up spring, rocketing the ball into the net. (Bobby your thoughts on Dennis Law?)
Meanwhile, Bobby, what's your take on our premiership champions pick? I can't begin to figure why JM played 3 holding midfielders against Villa and left Joe Cole on the bench. It was hardly the all out attack we saw at Reading. No-one looked sharp. Maybe it's not surprising when the manager looks so bored/resigned. I'd rather have "bad, angry Mourinho" back. I get the feeling that Abramovich actually didn't have money to spend right now and has asked Mourinho to make do with "adequate" for a while. Do you detect something missing at Chelsea in all of this?
Did anyone else catch the face Robbie Keane made to Martin Jol when he was subbed off on Saturday when Spurs were 3-1 up? It was "Do you know what you're doing? I'm the one holding it together. I made 2 goals?" Later Jol blamed everyone except himself. (Okay, so Robinson was asleep on the last goal.)
Martin Jol's problem... He has TOO many options on top, and they all seem better than what he has on the field (basic principle of the world, anything else is always something better)...
If I'm Martin Jol, Signing Darren Bent, not necessary... It's Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov's show... Jermaine Defore is a sub...
and for those of you who didn`t notice...
The mighty Croydon FC swept aside Slade Green 6-1 in the FA Cup preliminary round on Saturday in front of a bumper crowd of 68!
Next up in the first round qualifying ,the winners of the Worthing/Godalming Town replay.
Eleven more wins and The Trams will be marching out at Wembley....possibly in an all Croydon final....Athletic also made it through!
Martin Jol is lucky the international break comes now. Facing Arsenal next who are looking great they would of sliced his current squad apart. The break could give them some time to regroup while Arsenal lose some momentum maybe. Should be a dramatic game when it starts up again.
Bobby,
Cardiac screening for professional footballers....BRILLANT!! I mean this is an endurance sport right? How is it that other endurance sports such as cycling, hockey (yes an endurance sport) know such things as resting heart rate, lacitic threshold, VO2 Max and the participants of these sports have these tests done regularly. It is a travesty actually more on the scale of the biggest law suit for negligence the world has ever seen based on the performance of the clubs, federations, managers, agents and MEDICAL STAFF of the footballing world.
Last edited by neophyte on September 3rd at 9:34 AM.
Just read about Henry's divorce and it made me wonder whether it had something to do with Henry's departure from Arsenal? One fan said that maybe she was an Arsenal fan and when Henry said he was leaving to Barca she chose Arsenal over Henry.
Everytime I watch Tottenham I ask myself why Jol bought Bent for 16million. Looking at his defense he should have bought a quality defender with that money.
Real looked brillant yestarday but I have to say Villareal defense lead by CYGAN didn't look that good either.
After watching the end of the Milan-Fiorentina match. I have to say... Pippo Inzaghi should just be kicked out of FIFA all together. It looks like all he's good for is, running at/with/toward the ball, and falling down. Even that last foul, which really was a foul, was still well overplayed by him.
Maybe it's the American in me, but I grew up learning that you don't fall unless you have to. If there's a tussle between you and a defender, and you can run through it, you're probably going to have an advantage anyway.
That being said, Milan finished that game like ####. It looked like the whole team philisophy was:
1. Get the ball to Inzaghi
2. Let him do his "thing"
3. Score the penalty, for the win
Thoroughly disappointed... Milan should be much better than that
1 Do you think diara 's addition can help arsenal with the bullies up north and maybe there is a chance for a real tittle challenge?
2 th14 is looking doggy for barca for the past or so games l have seen him do you see him being a great player as he was or he will be another sheva or ballack?
3 Do you still think arsenal will be under hill wood come start of next season
here I'll answer your arsenal centric questions.
1. No and yes there always was a chance.
2. Hes far from washed up so barring injury he will shine.
3. Yes but more importantly they will be under Fiszman. The first round of takeover attempts were much more realistic. Clean American suitor with history in sports. Dein's second run at it with shady Russian money will not be even close to welcomed compared to the Kroenke approaches.
Info on Fiszman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_ Fiszman
Re: Robson article. I feel it's unfair to match Pires/Ljunberg with Rosicky/Hleb head to head, toe to toe. This is because Arsenal have changed their way of playing since the 2005 and new players were bought for this new style. Bobby would you please give some analysis of their change?
Re: Arsenal takeover. Think Wenger said it all. In the short term (3 or 4 years maybe), he believes, although many doubt, his selected team of so many young players will grow to be strong enough to remain within the top 4 or even challenge for the title. In the long run, however, if money keeps flowing into EPL, the club's revenue alone won't be enough to sustain its competitiveness.
The question remains, however, whether investors, bar Roman, will reap profits in a few years. Perhaps Wenger's betting this frenzy will end soon once the income reaches plateau. For example, like in Italy in the nineties, more and more teams would adopt very pragmatic or cynical approaches to win and drive off the fans with boredom.
Bobby, do you see the foreign investments will go on forever? Will the top teams break FA's restrictions and getting their TV deals individually?
Re: players' sudden death. Bobby, nobody mentioned their insurance situation. Any insights?
Sometimes modern sports are indeed challenging limits on the human body perhaps to an excessive degree. Sudden death is tragic but there are other forms of tragedy coming from practicing sports. For examples, some weight lifters when retired cannot trim down their huge appetite which was necessary for their success as athletes and thus fall into obesity. Many footballers don't walk that well after injuries.
Nick Szczepanik – wow. It wasn’t too long ago that English football witnessed a revolution in terms of the health and fitness of players. Mr. Wenger had to tell his players not to reveal the secrets of Arsenal’s late game fitness levels; you know things like eat right and exercise smarter not harder.
It’s really nice to see players looked after and given the best care possible; they are after all valuable, marketable assets.
CnnMoney.com –
Actually published by Jamie Gavin who works for comScore, Inc. There are two distinct articles, one has figures for US MLSnet.com traffic and one has European figures.
The time line and the stats have a fairly erroneous link; of 13 months only five have a description in the timeline, so what happened the other 5 months and what if something else actually happened that doesn’t appear on the timeline that would result in people visiting the site, perhaps the signing of Juan Pablo Angel or Cuauhtémoc Blanco, maybe the rumours that Klinsman was in the running for the US MNT job, maybe the Copa America.
We can see one year’s statistics, which is a poor sample, show us statistics from several years so that we can see trends and patterns better, and then we can draw our own conclusions.
Some statements are generous, of course MLSnet.com traffic in December is going to be slow and when any news is announced in the off-season it is BIG, just look at what EPSN does with a minor story on a slow news week.
I’m not arguing that Beckham hasn’t had an impact on MLSnet.com
FA CUP BLOG – The best football competition in the world
Marcus Christenson is optimistic in saying, “England should win against Israel”.
HESKY, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOT THE DONKEY! McCLAREN! ARE YOU MAD!
It’s like a trip back in time to a darker less glorious past.
Anyone who isn’t English can hardly comprehend the Faustian nightmare that is the FA, Steve McClaren, Stuart Pearce and no Youth Development.
And Graham Taylor thought he was vilified when he appeared as a Turnip!
Duncan Castles:-that link took me to the Marcus Christenson article.
Thanks Ringo!
Of course huge foreign investment is the only way to finance a football club these days. Oh sorry! Arsenal is actually 2nd in the Premier League and Chelsea and Manchester United are below them.
I like the comment at the end of the article.
James Lawton:- stating the obvious AGAIN. Nice little tidbit about Beckham by Rodney Marsh. James Lawton has never delved deeply into anything; he either states the obvious or rehashes old stuff. It’s OK though he must be knowledgeable, he does write for the Independent.
Stewart Robson: - good questions to ask, liked the use of stats
Stewart Robson: - good questions to ask, liked the use of stats. The same question could be asked in a few years.
I wonder which other players’ impact on a team would make a good comparison, say Gianfranco Zola for Chelsea and Jurgen Klinsmann for Spurs, who had the most impact? Let me check Optima and Actim…
Brian Doogan: - on Utaka, good article, his stats show that he can score goals
Years Club App (Gls)*
1997-2000 Enugu Rangers 45(11)
2000-2001 Ismaily SC 21(17)
2001-2002 Al Sadd SC 27(14)
2002-2005 RC Lens 102(24)
2005-2007 Stade Rennais 63(22)
2007- Portsmouth FC 3(2)
National team
2002- Nigeria 17(6)
Poor American Samoa – but what about their impact in Rugby?
Bobby:-
Your comments on the US MNT squad? Any USA v Brazil predictions?
So far only two teams remain on maximum points in Serie A, does that surprise you. What has stood out in Serie A so far?
Any thoughts on who might be favourites for the MLS Cup yet?
leche – good game between Milan and la Viola! How could Super Pippo miss that tap in, his mum would have scored that! What about Emerson, he looked unfit. The whole team; apart from maybe Seedorf; tired in the last ten minutes. I have a game summary of that match on my blog. Definitely a good away point for Fiorentina. What about Napoli!
Pulling Defeat from the Jaws of Victory, you just have to love Tottingham Hotspurs.
USMNT squad – the article says he’s picked his strongest squad, so why are Onyewu, Mastroeni and Bradley in and Altidore and Clark not???
So wh
So who is injured, Bornstein was dropped but this isn’t the best USNMT available at the moment, Olsen is one of the best US midfielders playing at the moment and he plays in a team that has just won six straight, but let’s pick my son!
Convey only came back from injury this month, and your poicking him in a friendly game?
My bash at the starting line up.
Howard
DeMerit Bocanegra Onyewu Spector
Donovan Feilhaber Mastroeni Beasley
Johnson Dempsey
This week I’ll have the time to look at the squad some more, on first glance it looks like a very comfortable Brazil win.
Club revenues are enough to remain competitive in the EPL in the long run for Arsenal. You just have to be that much more of a shrewd business man. This illusion that you need an outside money man is somewhat debunked when you consider Chelsea would be better squad if all their player deals were done by the manager and not from outside pressures. Do you really need the extra money if it comes at the price of being forced to sign the new owners favorite players in some quasi arrangement where its like he gets to play Football Manager whenever he feels.
When the new Wenger contract is finally revealed its length will really indicate if outside investors are going to be seriously taken. Wenger is a proven shrewd manager who refuses to be taken for a ride in the transfer market. Whats the point of an extra 20-30m in the transfer budget if he wont use it anyways? Home grown stars (in academy not nationality) are always that much more dearer to the fans and thats what Arsenal are trying to build on.
In Puerta's case, he had a heart scan. It didn't help. This comment from Sid Lowe's blog on Gu sport sums it up well:
"it has been determined that Puerta suffered from Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia.
It is a rare disease, and sudden death is common, particularly in the young.
Puerta had been throughfully tested, and they even looked for ARVD in particular, but weren't able to find anything.
ARVD is really difficult to spot because you have to look for a really small abnormality in the heart, about 1 mm wide (that's about 0.01 inches for you non-metric people), and the heart is never still, with its beating, and breathing, etc.
So, it seems everything that could have been done, was done, but unfortunately it wasn't enough.
Since ARVD is a genetic condition, there's 50% chance that his daughter inherits it, let's hope she doesn't."
In regards to Arsenal, the stadium is generating more income than any other in the world. In addition to that, the Highbury Square flats are soon to be completed, which will give the club an extra J100 million. There's money there, just that a loan needs to be paid off. And anyway, one gets the feeling that Wenger doesn't want to spend anyway. he could have gotten Babel for J6 million, but decided to stick with Tomas on the left.
Another interesting aspect is the academy that Wenger has built. It (when fully established) will provide the club with a long line of good, cheap footballers. Some of the players there (Rui Fonte, Nacer Barazite, Merida, Simpson, Gibbs, Nordvert, etc) are already going to be fighting for Milk Cup places this year and next.
extraordinary...
I can appreciate the difficulties of finding an extreemly rare/difficult heart disease. My comments were fueled by the ridiculous post siezure on the field care I witnessed being given to Puerta. The men wearing firefighter pants come running out with a stretcher if some guy rolls around enough after getting steped on but if you collapse and have a siezure on the field they just let you walk off. The videos I saw of him being evacuated from the stadium also didn't lend any hope in emergency medicine at the stadium. Some guy...again in firefighter pants was bagging him but no cpr being administered no EKG leads no difib. in place not even an IV in place. This was a player in great shape. If someone like him collapses you must at least consider dehydration (severe enough to cause a seizure, heat stroke or heart failure. The medical staff seemed out dated, unprepared and grossly ineffective. This is just my opinion of course
Last edited by neophyte on September 4th at 6:26 AM.
H14- have you watched Henry play for Barca? I wonder b/c I saw both their destruction of Inter in mid week and this weekends match. In both games Henry looked potent and still incredibly fast. He had many good moves and played within the system which now places him out on the left wing with ROnnie in the middle.
-Henry is still the best striker in the world, easy. He has been unfortunate not to get a goal yet and has hit the post twice in three.
-I do see him becoming frustrated b/c of the lack of touches, but with so many good players that is bound to happen.
Ringo-Is it already time for Mulligans? Well on the show I said Chelsea would do the treble if Alves signed for them....and he didn't. So can I revert back to my predictions I left on Bobby's blog?
What do you make of the final day transfers? Or lasck there of in the case of Riquelme, Adriano and Ballack? Maybe Inter and Chelsea should just swap the 2 players. Inter has much better luck with German players than Brazilian strikers...
Interesting articles. David Dien has been an Arsneal fan since age 6, its 2 bad hes been a DD fan since birth and holds his self interests much more sacred than that of the gunners. Gooners (TM pending) everywhere realize that wenge's busines model works just right. Hows this, since his appointment in 1996 as manager, net trasnfer spending for Arsenal, is at 2million pounds. Not a bad return id say.
Ballack is still injured, no? That's a deterrent to any club interested in possible transfer move.
Riquelme is a genius on the pitch (although he requires two defensive midfielders behind him because he's lousy at defending), but he has a volatile personality and has difficulty adapting to different surroundings if things don't go his way.
and as brasil showed int he most recent copa america, riquelmie can be muscled off the ball and out of the game with good result, so im not sure hed produce in the epl either. his game maybe more suited for italian or spansih leagues.
I think Riquelme is simply better suited to play for Boca Juniors, where he is a god. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it just means he should consider a massive paycut.
Bobby
How do you take Keane out of that game? I just dont get it
Why the need for the lack of a better word "lies" in the handling of Graversen and Miller transfers by Gordon? Is he simply covering incase the transfers dont go through and then dont the players already know that he was willing to let them go?
Whenever I read something on George Best im always reminded of my Uncle talking about what a shame it was that he never played in a world cup for a United Ireland team (if they could have made it?) so that the world might see him on its biggest stage.
Im not sure if you posted this but this article talks about some of the other greats to have never played WC football
1998 - 2007
Henry
271 177
France - 92 40
van Nistelroy
243 200
Holland 55 28
Mutu
285 103
Romania 55 25 96-07
Inzaghi 97-07
352 171
Italy 56 25
Totti 93-07
352 152
Italy 58 9
Ronaldinho 98-07
219 93
Brazil 75 30
Raul 94-07
447 196
Spain 102 47
Vieri 97-07
212 145
Italy 49 23
Klose 98-07
264 123
Germany 69 33
Shevchenko 94 07
351 191
Ukraine 74 33
Trezeguet 95 2007
258 113
69 34
owen 96-07
267 139
England 83 37
MVB 82 93
280 256
Holland 58 24
just league goals mind
All but the last of these strikers is comaprable in age to henry; none of the younger players are listed; so tell me MM, how is the decision EASY to pick Henry as the best striker in the world
Certainly he is good but at the very least van Nistelroy has more goals in fewer games.
Tell me/us why you think henry is "still the best striker in the world"
Anyone else? Who is your current best striker in the world?
For me no one currently playing is as good as MVB but I like Vieri, Inzaghi, Trezeguet, Kuyt, Keane, di Canio
players who have already ended their careers would be Weah, Aldridge, Lineker, Rush & Shearer,
Players nowhere near MM's accolade, Heskey!
Favorite strikers that come to mind for me: van Nistelrooy (when he was at ManU), Eto'o (when he's uninjured), Henry (deadly final touch), Crespo (classic Argentine centre-forward), Sevilla's Kerzhakov (amazingly talented), Larsson (pure class), Shevchenko (when he was at AC Milan).
Last edited by atleti on September 4th at 5:47 PM.
applying stats to footy isn't an exact science especially when trying to rate players. This isn't an American sport where the amount of statistics kept about the game can be used almost in a scientific way like it is in Baseball. Comparing Henry to Rudd by goal scoring records when one is a player who can play on the wings and outside the box to pretty much an out and out goal poacher really doesn't work. Not to take anything away from Rudd by saying scoring tap ins is easy as he has the amazing ability to be there first which should be respected but I know which one I would want with the ball on the edge of the box or with a defender in the way that needs to be fleeced.
Stats DO only outline the worth of a player, the league, club and country he plays for all count as to why you would prefer him over someone esle, but as you pointed out yourself, it's not easy, plenty of factors come into play.
Weighted stats would be more useful, the goals Liverpool scored against Derby wouldn't be as valuable as the goals they scored in the 05 Champions League Final or goals they may score against Everton or Manchester united.
But one of the things that has kept me a football fan is that playing well or being deserving or dominating games aren't as important as wins.
Atleti could you compare Maicon with Alvez, I've not seen enough of Alvez to make one myself.
Stats are mostly rubbish in Football. You cant just post goals. You would have to adjust for how many are PK's. How many minutes in each game he played. How many assists the player created which is a very underrated stat especially compared to Hockey and Basketball. How many hat tricks are against Monaco. Even the UEFA golden boot is weighted by which league you play in.
I think its still very safe to say Henry is the best striker in the world because when I think of strikers I think at the team game and the partnerships up front. If I were forming a dream team Henry would almost always be my first choice at striker because he just that damn versatile I know whoever I pair him with it could work. Henry + RVN sounds like a much more deadly combination then say RVN+Inzaghi/Kloser/Shevy/whoever.
Ringo,
Do you think Shearer would have scored more or less goals if he'd transfered to United instead of the Tonn in 96? He'd most certainly have won more trophies :)
Goals scored are important in football though, each year the player with the most; in each league and/or confederation gets an award, the player who scores most in a tournament usually gets an award as well.
So you pretty much have Henry as the world's best striker; which is fine; blogs would be cack if we all agreed on stuff.
A group of professors write for The Times, they work from a UK university and have analyzed the data from thousands of games in dozens of countries over many years. They come up with some interesting conclusions. These blokes don't just mess with the numbers, they do some really intense work to pull out things that occur consistently.
Their stuff isn't mostly rubbish. It's science.
Does anyone know who these Professors are? I've read a few articles but never bookmarked who they were.
Assists is the worse stat in football, if player A hits the bar and the ball bounces back to player B who scores, the goal is listed as Unassisted. Every goal should have at least ten assists. Unless it's scored when a man has been sent off.
Stats are only a starting point to a discussion. Who wins the most (CUP) or accumulates the most points (League) is far more important.
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.
Thank you to all who take time to visit this blog and especially to those of you who post your comments and thoughts.
PS - If you have questions please post them on the regular Monday blog. I am unable to answer e mails posted to the inbox on this site.
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