James Lawton draws a parallel between the Premiership proposal and what the move of the Brooklyn Dodgers led to in the USA. (Insert craigy_f’s dismissive comment of Lawton here.)
I would happily link to a credible article that supports the Premiership’s ludicrous, ill-conceived and badly managed proposal but I have yet to find one. Almost all the stuff that is supportive is based on the concept of “I can see my team in Bombay” or “Money – Good, More Money – even Better”.
Raphael Honigstein on this season’s edition of Bayern Munich.
Simon Kuper spends sometime with Glenn Hoddle who is working on an interesting player development idea.
David Owen says that Manchester United has failed to punch its weight in Europe and it is down to the expectations of how the team should play.
Isn’t this convenient – international play takes a toll but travelling to Saudi Arabia to play a game doesn’t.
Another packed weekend of action with league titles decided, the Dutch Cup going to Ajax after an extended penalty shoot out, relegation fights continuing across Europe and Glenn Roeder resigning his position at Newcastle.
Premiership is suing YouTube over copyright infringement.
Meanwhile West Ham may find that they are sued into oblivion.
But Ian Bell contends that the likes of Wigan are missing the point.
On Friday’s FSR we mentioned that FIFA/UEFA might not take of any civil court action by Premiership clubs against West Ham to well.
Amy Lawrence looks at how the Premiership has changed as it reaches 1,000 games. Based on 380 games being played each year I can't work out where the number 1,000 comes into it. On the other hand one of the responses that lists the Premiership nightmare eleven is fun to consider. Who would be in your nightmare eleven for the 2006/07 season and you might also want to select a manager?
Philip Cornwall looks at the value of the Premiership at birth.
Patrick Barclay looks at Manchester United on what turned out to be the eve of their ninth Premiership title.
Guy Hodgson’s review of the City – United derby is worth reading for the first three paragraphs alone.
And remember to nominate your dogs and stars from this week’s televised games.
Wigan’s Dave Whelan claims that six clubs are ready to sue the Premiership over the West Ham ruling.
Bojan Krkic – remember the name says Jonathan Wilson.
Alyson Rudd on Steve Heighway’s reasons for quitting his post as head of Liverpool’s Youth Academy.
James Lawton on Wednesday’s Champions League game.
And now to the weekend action coming up.
Without any doubt the match of the weekend takes place at the Bernabeu. Real Madrid and Sevilla will slug it out with the winner designated as the main challenger to Barcelona with five games left.
Real were successful in appealing David Beckham’s yellow card for time wasting last week. He can now continue his attempt to leave the Bernabeu with at least one medal to show for his four year stay. The last two matches Beckham has set up defender Sergio Ramos for two goals and the big defender will be looking for more of the same when he faces his old club.
Ruud Van Nistelrooy is also enjoying a productive streak and has rattled in seven goals in the last eight league games. Sevilla’s Freddie Kanoute leads all scorers in Spain with 20 goals, two ahead of the Dutchman. Madrid has only beaten Sevilla once in their last five meetings although Sevilla’s away record of 5-5-6 is hardly intimidating.
In a week when Manchester United and Chelsea’s dreams of a treble (yes, Chelsea can still win three trophies but one would be the Carling Cup) have been shattered Sevilla are now the one club in Europe that retains the hope of completing a treble.
Based on league positions Barcelona’s trip to San Sebastian to play second from bottom Real Sociedad looks a certain away win. However, the side that came within a whisker of winning La Liga in 2003 has recently shown signs of life. With six games left Sociedad are three points from safety but Celta Vigo, Levante and Athletic Bilbao can all be caught. The Basque side has picked up nearly half of their 27 points over the last seven games and they have won their last three home games.
Sociedad may be the lowest scorers in La Liga with only 23 goals but they give relatively few away at the back – only thirty-eight in 32 games. Eleven of their seventeen losses have come by one goal and the other six by two. In other words this is a team which has yet to be blown out and is equipped to push the league leaders particularly when you consider Barcelona’s relatively poor away form.
Bottom of the table Gimnastic can improve their chances of staying up when they play fellow strugglers Levante.
Manchester United has a chance to banish the Champions League (and the City) blues when they visit City of Manchester Stadium to play Manchester City. City is a side that is redefining the word futile as it relates to goal scoring. It is now seven games since City has scored at home and that already exceeds the old record of five games set by Everton eight seasons ago. If City misfires again they will also set a new record for the lowest number of goals scored by a home team in the English top flight. Sunderland and Woolwich Arsenal jointly hold the record of 11 goals and to date City has scored ten.
In all likelihood Chelsea will need to beat Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday if they want to take maintain any hope of retaining their Premiership title. For Arsenal and Arsene Wenger a win would mean a first over a Jose Mourinho led Chelsea side but it might also mean that Manchester United will arrive for Wednesday’s match at Stamford Bridge as Premiership champions.
At the other end of the table and with the order of desperation in brackets – the higher the number the least desperate the club’s position – it is Wigan (6) vs. Middlesbrough (3), Aston Villa vs. Sheffield United (5), West Ham (2) vs. Bolton, Fulham (4) vs. Liverpool and on Monday Charlton (1) vs. Tottenham. Although at the start of the season I picked Fulham, Charlton and Watford to go down I can see the Cottagers surviving at the expense of West Ham. Given the ridiculous decision to fine West Ham rather than docking points such an outcome would only be delayed justice.
While the battle rages to maintain a Premiership position, the final three Premiership play off spots will be decided on Sunday. Birmingham and Sunderland are both automatically promoted and will sort out who will go up as Championship Champions while Derby County will finish third. After that five clubs are fighting for the other three spots. The teams in contention with position, opposition, points and goal difference in brackets are: West Brom (4, Barnsley, 73, 19) Wolves (5, Leicester, 73, 0) Southampton (6, Southend, 72, 21) Stoke (7, QPR, 72, 21) and Preston (8, Birmingham, 71, 10).
Up in Scotland Rangers plays Celtic is a largely meaningless affair but try telling that to Old Firm fans! Kris Boyd will attempt to break his scoring duck against Celtic. Boyd may be a predator when he faces other sides, but up against Celtic his scoring powers evaporate.
MLS Champions Houston Dynamo are still looking to get their new season in gear and have only scored one goal in four games so far. They travel to Denver to play the Rapids who have only lost one in four games and have former Manchester United and City player Terry Cooke in fine form with three assists in four games. Panamanian striker Roberto Brown has two game winning goals and a red card in his three games so far – never a dull moment for him.
Gordon McQueen’s chalkboard is no more sympathetic to the embattled Steve.
James Lawton has had enough and calls time on second-choice Steve.
Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor has been kicked off the Togo national team. The last time Adebayor went head-to-head with coach Stephen Keshi the coach was fired. Keshi has returned and this time Adebayor has gone.
Gabriele Marcotti on the long road that is Euro 2008 qualifying.
It looks as if Marseille will not be sold after all.
Gabriele Marcotti looks at some of the truths and myths of this World Cup.
Simon Kuper on Jurgen Klinsmann’s training methods.
Sepp Blatter continues his quest to be in the newspapers more often than the weather forecast - this time he wants to change the yellow card system. Of course another idea might be to actually reserve yellow cards for fouls of some substance.
When will India field a decent international team? Sanjay Rajan interviews the much traveled English coach Bob Houghton the new national team coach.
James Lawton looks at the end of Zinedine Zidane’s career and how some other greats brought the curtain down.
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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