Robert Philip manages to name check Mary Queen of Scots, Scotty from Star Trek, ####es, Bill Shankly and Sean Connery before getting to the point of his football article. You really just need to read his introduction.
Another idea of how to generate stadium revenue. Sounds a bit bizarre but....
A Soccer America interview with USA national team boss Bob Bradley.
The Financial Times and Guardian articles on Manchester United record revenue and profits are the best I have read in terms of giving good information about the interest payments.
From the top to the near bottom - the reverse of Sir Alex Ferguson's journey. The Times with a positive story about East Stirlingshire - the team that offerred Ferguson his first job in hairdressing nearly thirty four years ago.
With Newcastle United pulling the plug on another manager it is worth looking at the performance of the not-so-magnificent seven (although in relation to Keegan and Robson that remark should be tempered) during the Premiership years. Newcastle was not a charter member of the Premiership but after missing out on the first season Keegan secured promotion in his first full season.
Here are the managers, the position the club was in when they “left”, games in charge, average points gained and the approximate net outlay in transfer fees – it is a lot.
The list is in chronological order:
o Kevin Keegan – 4th, 143 games, 1.85 points, $80M
o Kenny Dalglish – 13th*, 56 games, 1.34 points, $27M
o Ruud Gullit – 19th, 41 games, 1.65 points, $13.6M
o Sir Bobby Robson – 17th, 188 games, 1.60 points, $58M
o Graeme Souness – 16th, 56 games, 1.16 points, $66M
o Glen Roeder – 13th, 52 games, 1.42 points, $19M
o Sam Allardyce – 11th, 21 games, 1.24 points, $28M
(Dalglish carries an asterisk as he was fired only two games into a season and 13th was the previous season’s finishing position.)
From Gullit on the managers are getting fired with the team sitting in ever higher positions. Maybe it is all part of some cunning plan to literally fire Newcastle to the top?
Looking back the failure to use the relatively successful spell under Bobby Robson to groom a successor was a faux pas of immense proportions. Who in their right mind would operate with one of their most important employees past the age 70 and with no succession plan in place?
As for Allardyce I don’t think any fair minded person would accept that half a season is enough time to turn a team that has failed to win a major domestic trophy in over half a century around.
A significant number of Newcastle fans are apparently upset at the type of football Allardyce had the team playing. But again if you are trying to change a culture of mediocrity then there is going to be protracted spell of rubbish dished up – that should not be a surprise. And in terms of a new manager it is likely to be more of the same.
I often wonder if a new manger might not get better results and reduce short term expectations if instead of asking for the cheque book he told players that they had half a season to prove themselves.
Immediately moving to sign new players and dumping the ones signed by the predecessor just leads to a belief that improvement will be immediate. Then if the new signings fail to impress – as they did in the Allardyce/Newcastle situation – the pressure mounts and the revolving door starts to rotate once more.
As for a successor, the names are beginning to appear in the press and on websites. Harry Rednapp, Mark Hughes, Steve McClaren (surely not!!) are all getting some play in the media. The odds are a Keegan return have also been slashed.
But as Simon Barnes said in The Times last weekend will a new manager be given a fair crack while Alan Shearer continues in the role of the best manager never to have managed Newcastle?
It would seem that Mike Ashley has done the easy bit in firing Big Sam, the hard bit is convincing someone of quality to pick up the poisoned chalice.
Quick free kicks
A number of teams are looking to cure some sporadic bouts of Premiership travel sickness this weekend. Spurs travels to Stamford Bridge in what could be a preview of the Carling Cup Final. But travelling to Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford, Anfield and wherever Arsenal were playing at the time, has not brought much joy to Spurs. In sixty-three Premiership trips to these grounds Spurs have won just twice - a win at Arsenal and a win at Liverpool.
Manchester City are the visitors to Goodison but they have only one once in ten Premiership visits to Goodison – and that was way back in October 1992.
Middlesbrough may not have scored against Liverpool in their last four Premiership encounters but Liverpool are without a win at the Riverside in their last five visits - two losses and three draws for the Reds. Despite Boro’s spotted form over the last couple of years the Riverside is still a place where bigger teams often come a cropper. United, Chelsea and Arsenal have all lost at the Riverside in the last two and a bit seasons
Oh and let us not forget that no matter who has been in charge of Newcastle a trip to Old Trafford as never ended in three points for the Magpies – it has however often finished with a loss (nine times) and sometimes a draw - five of them.
This weekend offers Reading, Wigan, and Fulham another opportunity to pick up three points away from home for the first time. This time against Aston Villa, Derby County and West Ham respectively. Also without an away win are Bolton, Sunderland, and Derby County but they will have to wait for another day.
Mark Lawrenson says that Newcastle Chairman Mike Ashley reminds him of David Brent.
And given that there is a shortage of good articles this week here is some stuff from Rick Gervais.
The first piece is with celebrity-Chef and former player Gordon Ramsey. The second bit I am sure most of you have seen but it is well worth revisiting. It's from the 2006 World Cup.
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 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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