Craigy_f – 1. Many see the CL in the last few years as a tale of PL dominance. It's hardly that in the UEFA Cup. How to you explain the difference in the two comps for PL teams (or other leagues) in the last three odd years.
2. Do you like the playoffs?
3. The last noise the Liverpool Supporters Who Want To Buy Liverpool made was about having the clout to actually have a dialogue with Hillette and Gicks. Apparently they wanted to talk ' intentions'. Will this happen?
4. Will Ince be given a bigger club or stick with much moved Wimbledon?
5. Tevez's stock must have gone up with that late goal at Blackburn?
6. Gimme your top five footballing flops this weekend, please.
7. What; off what goes on on the pitch; gets your goat when watching football.
8. Who will finish fifth? (In the PL, Serie A and La Liga)
9. Scottish Managers seem to do well darn sarf, why do you think that is?

Bobby –1. Many would seem to have a very poor grasp of what constitutes dominance. One win this decade hardly represents dominance.

2. Yes.

3. Until they have money in the bank they are trying to bluff their way in the door. There is a large chasm between fans expressing a willingness to put money up and actually writing the cheque. There again 100,000 of them could borrow the money from the bank which is no more ridiculous than what Hicks and Gillett pulled off. (Couldn't resist the notion that the ESPN commentator missed a golden opportunity at the end of the game today when the cameras panned over to Hicks. The comments was something like "owner Tom Hicks must now take his Liverpool team to Stamford Bridge next week..." Should it not have been "owner Tom Hicks must now take his half of the Liverpool team to Stamford Bridge next week..."

4. There are always teams on the lookout for a savior so I cannot see Ince staying with MK Dons much longer. He could take a shorter route to the Championship I am sure.

5. Three late equalizers doesn’t hurt but I think that after what he showed for WHU late last season there are not too many people surprised.

6. You get 1 and 1 a – Clyde losing to Hamilton and Queen of the South beating Dundee.

7. What?

8. Villa, Milan, Racing Santander.

9. If I knew sarf meant then I might be able to answer.

Gorn – 1. Your opinion on whether Fake Ronaldo's PK technique is caution-worthy/unsporting? Seems to me that it's not much, if at all, different than if he just took a shorter run-up. Is there another line of thinking?
2. What sources do you use to do yer research (ie: top away goal scorer in BPL in 07-08, etc.)? Any links appreciated!
3. By how many goals will LFC beat Chelsea in both legs of the CL semi?
4. There appears to be a few quality strikers available this summer (Berbatov, Huntelaar, Villa, Henry, Crouch & hell even Ronaldinho). Do you think this will create a bit of a market correction in transfer prices? Or will this be the priciest market in years? I know you don't like to speculate on things like specific transfers, just wondering yer general feeling on what you anticipate happening, especially w/so many top teams rumoured to be changing managers....
5. Do you think MLS needs a marquee team or 3 to stimulate rivalries/dynasties like the BPL has? Not advocating a class system exactly, but maybe more along the lines of brand development & recognition. Beckham helps, but if his team is pants, it doesn't help MLS. Further, MLS seems not yet able to simply throw $ at players to solve the problem like NASL did.

Maybe MLS would be served by having more than one team in a big city like NY to create a derby. Thoughts?

6. Dis/agree that there are at most 3 Canadian cities than can support an MLS team?

Bobby – 1. Nothing wrong with it whatsoever.

2. I hunt through stats sites. There is not one that has everything and in some cases the information doesn’t seem to exist. Most of the time it is a case of getting raw information and adding things up. I don’t think I use any sites that I or others haven’t referenced before; BBC, Fox, Telegraph, Soccerbot (probably my favourite), soccerbase.com, premiersoccerstats, RSSSF, channel 4 are the normal haunts. I also buy the European Book of Football each year which contains a statistical recap of every league in Europe plus international games.

3. Leading the witness – can’t have that. And do you now wish to rephrase the question after today?

4. Prices aren’t necessarily dependent on supply but are more influenced by money in the system. In the last few years that has been Premier League money and there is no indication that the money will dry up. I would also suggest that managers are not looking for strikers per se they are looking for specific types of strikers depending on their needs.

Berbatov is going to give you imagination, silky skills, and the ability to lead the line. Crouch is going to provide you with a lethal five yard pass back towards his own goal and ….come to think of it how many goals has your list of quality strikers actually scored this season?

Huntelaar 34 goals – we know from experience that goals in the Dutch league do not necessarily translate into goals in bigger leagues and he his coming up on 25 years old and nobody has made a real move for him yet. Wonder why? Berbatov 15 goals but also offers more. After that there have not been many goals from the others.

 5. Use the words “brand development” and you are not off to a very good start. Rivalries do not come from plunking a team or two down in the same city. They come from years of games, incidents and shared history.

Rivalries cannot be manufactured and it is not just about location. After all if your theory was right we would be watching the Greater London League every week. One more thing – the NASL did not solve any problems by throwing money at them; they just caused more problems.

6. Vancouver I have no doubt. Montreal is a strange market and I don’t know enough about it. The others - not a hope of being considered let alone being given a chance. It is after all an US league.


Ursusarctos - "Should the Moscow [CL] final turn out to be an all-English affair this season, there will be plenty of talk about the Premier League being the best in the world. It isn't. Torres is right [that La Liga is tougher than the Premier League because matches are more competitive all the way down the league, and that English football is really all about the top four.]" Yes. And it is too bad.

Do you agree with Wilson's (and Torres') analysis? How would you rate Serie A? Does it resemble the PL, in terms of the quality being consistently concentrated among the top (6 or so?) teams, or is it more similar to Spain? Leagues appear to tend to develop a quasi-permanent group of "haves", with the quality dropping off rapidly after-- Scotland's Old Firm and Portugal's Big Three are other examples.

Which major leagues would you consider to have the most turnover amongst the top group of teams, and the most competitive depth, over time (recent decades)-- and which the least? What factors might be responsible for differences between leagues? Or does the competitive depth of leagues go in cycles, with England at the lower end of the scale and Spain at the higher at this point in time (and Scotland doing its own thing)?

If so, will increasing financial rewards, such as CL prize money, tend to fix "elite" teams in place, or are there contrary factors that might help to promote intra-league competitiveness?

Bobby – I don’t care one way or another. You may as well argue about the greatest ever heavyweight boxer. At the end of the day it is what excites and engages you – it has nothing to do with a subjective definition of best.

(I notice another MLS is #### discussion has broken out. We have been around this one before but someone has yet to tell me what constitutes great football that they will watch and bad football that they won’t. Fans relate through building allegiances and they have no idea whether or not they will enjoy a game or will want to throw up when they pay their money or sit down in front of a TV. There is no such thing as all games in X league good; all games in Y league bad. When fans dismiss a league as being rubbish what they mean is they don’t relate to it. It has nothing to do with the standard of play even though they make it out to be.)

In terms of parity England use to be the exception in that there were a number of clubs that had a real chance of picking up silverware every season. The advent of the Premiership killed that extended era and the Premiership took on the same character as Europe’s other main leagues.

Take a look at the teams who have won leagues and cups in each country – it will closely follow the 80/20 rule. Eighty per cent of the silverware will have been won by 20% of the teams. The difference between success and failure long tern in soccer is the same as in business – the access to capital.

No guarantee of success but if you don’t have access to money through a large fan base (which normally means a team from a large city) you cannot compete in the long term. It works the same for leagues – that is why countries with large populations generally have better teams and more of them.

There are a couple of exceptions but they are exceptions, not the rule. I haven’t done the research but my guess is that the French league has probably enjoyed the broadest range of winning sides until Lyon started their domination.

The Champions League is installing or in some cases ingraining what could become a perpetual cycle of relative success for a relatively small number of clubs. Win their league and make it to the CL group stage generates money that their domestic rivals do not have access to; spend the money to improve the squad and qualify for Europe again etc etc.

Rosenborg had it down to an art for over a decade. Platini’s initiative to extend places in the group stage to more countries is in theory good and noble but it may also lead to a greater distortion at the domestic level.

MasMaz - I assume that tonight you will give us your opinion about Rooney being given free reign to do whatever he wants. If not I'd like to hear it.

Bobby – I can’t say that I have noticed any difference in the way that Ferguson is playing Rooney. He has been granted a lot of freedom all season from what I can see.

However, if you are trying to make some ridiculous comparison with Mascherano’s sending off against United then you will have to make a better case. If you can show me an example of Rooney running 40 yards to get in the referee’s face when he has already been given a yellow card and had no involvement in the incident then you might have a case – oh and your teammate has just been carded for yapping at the referee. Otherwise you might want to wait until you have a more credible comparison.

Neophyte - Did you see the Toronto FC/ Real Salt Lake match? It looked like the match ended with only one minute of injury time instead of the three minutes posted by the 4th official. Home cooking or poor clock management and communication from the center to the 4th official?

Bobby – You hit a sore spot. I opted to watch the Blackburn game, tape TFC, go out for the first kick about of the new season and then come home and watch three MLS games. Tape malfunction on the TFC game so the only part I saw was when I switched over at half time in the Blackburn match. I did catch the other two MLS games though.

Maybe the 4th official did as good a job programming his board as I did programming my tape machine!

Aldoray - Football clubs have a Manager and Assistant Manager and coaches. What are the roles each of them play? Does the manager give the overall plan and then the assistant and the coaches carry it out or is the manager always hands on with the squad and everybody else is just peripheral. Or is it different for every club.

Bobby – Unfortunately the answer is the old standby – it depends. Some mangers are out there with the squad every day, some occasionally and others hardly at all. I remember reading a feature on Martin O’Neill during his Celtic days and his view was that a manager can maximize his impact if he limits his contact with the players.

His theory was that with a lot of daily contact the messages that the manager wants to communicate are blunted and the motivational effect is dampened. I can only assume he still feels the same way.

There is a certain irony because that is a view from many years ago. Prior to Busby, Shankly, Stein etc. popularizing the idea of the “Tracksuit Manager” the preparation was left to a coach (rarely coaches!) and the manager would come in on game days to give the team talk. Otherwise he dealt with other things during the week.

JayAlves - Arsenal fans can sleep easy knowing Usmanov /=/ Abramovich from a money standpoint. Last time I checked Usmanov was worth 1/3 or 1/4 of Abramovich and considering how Arsenals profits are going might become an unrealistic team for him to buy assuming the board keep entering no sale agreements.

They floated this theory on WSD not long ago but they were off the mark on one point. They said maybe the board is being cheap on purpose to keep growing the club financially so they can’t be taken over. Thing is though the board on several occasions have dropped the huge money figures that Wenger has if he wants so you could hardly accuse them of being cheap.

Bobby – I don’t think that theory stands up. First off being debt free and enjoying the relative luxury of a fully paid for stadium did not save Manchester United from a highly leverage buy out from the Glazers. The same would hold true for an Arsenal club that is in a poorer position than United were because it still carries a huge stadium debt.

A case could be made that by improving the net financial position (not spending money) Arsenal are actually making the club a more desirable takeover target rather than turning the opportunists off. Companies that enjoy great balance sheets and hoard gobs of cash are often bigger and better targets for raiders than companies with huge debts.

Think about it from a lenders point of view and what would give you greater security –  your money to pay off someone else’s debt or go towards buying cash generating assets with a pile of cash already sitting there?

LGB – 1. Any chance you are going to be able to leave NA and go see some Euro matches?
2. Have you been to any Cup Finals? Worked any?
3. You see what’s going on with Liverpool how often do you think this happens in boardrooms(in the background that is)?
4. If you could do your own short list for PFA player of the year, who would be on that list?
5. You said last week that United's system of attacking is a variation of the Dutch system using fewer players. Has Ferguson reinvented himself with this approach? I don't remember the high-flying United teams earlier in this decade using this type of attack.
6. Speaking of the Ferguson's, I read the article on Darren. Have you seen any of Peterborough's games? Is he worth all the press?
7. Finally...has anyone offered you a bribe to pump up their team on the FSR?

Bobby – 1. No chance whatsoever.

2. I’m assuming you mean FA Cup Finals? – No.

3.  I think you would find this sort of thing at lower levels but not at the top flight. You are dealing with multi million pound budgets and usually that brings with it some sober second thought. You don’t call for the CEO’s resignation knowing that you don’t have the votes to achieve it without it being part of a longer term objective. What’s his longer term objective? I can only guess the purpose it to continue to poison the atmosphere to the extent that Gillett bales or the other directors will pay a healthy premium to get rid of Hicks.

4. Ronaldo, Torres and four others.

5. United has help true to attacking football right from the Busby era. It is part of the culture to go out and entertain – that was why I questioned the fielding of two defensive midfield players at the start of the season. Ferguson from his days at St. Mirren (perhaps even East Stiringshire!) and Aberdeen has been a manager who likes to go forward and take the play to the opposition. I think the only thing that is different this season is how fluid their play is and that comes down to the players he has.

6. Really don’t know anything about Posh (the team not the “singer”) apart from the owner Barry Fry. The press are taking an interest because of the family but also at this time you will see a few articles about younger managers pushing for promotion spots in the lower leagues. Paul Ince got some attention after MK Dons won at Wembley and Swansea’s Spanish manger Roberto Martinez has also received some coverage. 

7. Yes it happens on a fairly regular basis and I have even been threatened.


Matt_Johnston - I know this is a common question, but in light of the attention paid to the Champions League has the domestic cup challenges become something of an after thought for the top clubs in any league, whether it is the EPL, SPL, La Liga, Serie A, League 1, etc? As you mention Cardiff and Queen of the South (what a story there) getting to their respective finals, but it goes even deeper than that. In Scotland, Rangers, Celtic, et al and in the FA Cup, every one of the big four teams was gone by the semi-finals if not before.

Bobby – First of all I think you have to consider that some countries don’t have a deep Cup tradition – Italy is good example of that. What I find strange is that it was my sense that more teams took the FA Cup “seriously” this season than in previous years and we got the wackiest results in a couple of lifetimes.

The format  of single game cup ties lend themselves to surprises so maybe what we are seeing is that trend being reestablished and making up for some predictable finalists over the last decade or so. 

Ranges and Celtic have dominated Scottish football to a large extent for over one hundred years but they have contested 14 finals out of a total of 122. You would need to do a bit more analysis to find out how many times one of the Old Firm has knocked the other out before the final but even so it shows that there is a good chance that at least one finalist in Scotland will not come from the Old Firm.

footie_fan - Bummed you won't be on tonight. Could you give us your views on the two games you watched? Thanks.

Bobby – United and Arsenal game was cracking match. Arsenal had the chances to win the game in the first half but allowed United back into it and United did not pass up the opportunity. United went for the throat – Arsenal didn’t.

TFC and Galaxy was a horrible game but three needed points for Toronto. Like Arsenal, the Galaxy failed to take their chances (Landon Donovan take a bow) and paid the price. I don’t know it was just me but the playing surface at the Home Depot looked to be playing very poorly. The ball seemed to bump along rather than rolling with any consistency.


Dasayev - And speaking of wacky coaching transitions, what about Klinsmann's impending takeover of Bayern? Of course he did a great job at the world Cup but he has no managerial experience at club level and will take over a Bundesliga champion team headed for the CL. And on Bayern, did you catch that finish with Getafe? Between that and Liverpool-Arsenal, it was two of the great finishes in a matter of days...

Bobby – If you get a chance there is a very good article about the Klinsmann appointment in the March issue of World Soccer by Nick Bidwell.

Albertagooner - I caught Inter-Fiorentina and was hugely impressed by Mario Balotelli, a 17-year-old who showed a lot more composure in front of the net than either Adebayor or Wayne Rooney for that matter. Apparently he's hopped ahead of Hernan Crespo in the pecking order, which is why the former Chelsea man will move to Juventus this summer.

Bobby – One of the regular posters was talking Balotelli up earlier this season.

MasMaz - I hope this isn't a trend, all the shows besides Monday and Friday can get a little slow.

Bobby – I try to keep Mondays and Fridays but sometimes it just doesn’t work out.

Craigy_f -1. Isn’t it normal protocol for the referee to flip the coin at the beginning of the match?
2. What three things stand out for you in all the football you’ve seen this weekend?
3. To what do you attribute the MLS’s inability to get its best teams into the final of the CONCACAF Champions League. Two wins and one final appearance from ‘97 through 2000 and then nothing? The MLS Cup holders were stifled at home and outplayed comprehensively by a team from Costa Rica and the Supporters’ Shield Holders had a dreadful away leg and didn’t take the opportunities to make the home leg their own.
4. Peter Couch has been rated at 10M GBP and 6M GBP this week, which valuation do you think is closer to the fee he would actually be sold for?
5. Why do we not see ‘three at the back’ formations in the PL?
6. Can you see any of the three promoted Championship teams not going straight back down?
7. Next Jan/Feb there will be no ACoN. Do you see this having any effect on the transfer targets of PL managers (or other big euro league managers) this off season. (Of course it’ll be on in 2010 – football does have a short memory though doesn’t it)
8. Do you think the title race is over?

Bobby – 1. From what I know there is not a rule about who flips the coin. All the rule states is that a coin is tossed and the winner chooses the way to play. The loser gets kick off. I experienced referee’s flipping the coin, and have also seen referees ask one of the two captain’s to flip and the other to call.

2. Hargreaves’ free kick and a great example to a poster of sometime ago of what happens when a wall doesn’t jump. Evra and Clichy putting on a fantastic display of how to play full back. Some great sot blocking from Greg Sutton for Toronto.

3. Not good enough at that stage in the season.

4. Based on transfer inflation at least 10M – is he worth it? I’ll let you decide.

5. Three at the back especially when played at a high temp allows forwards too much space to make runs into. It puts the defenders under lots of pressure and in turn it takes away the option of building through wide positions. It also creates a bit of space for midfielders to attack if the forwards pull the markers wide. Dominant teams can get away with it but a lot of coaches believe that the formation lacks balance.

6. It will be very tough on them. I would hope that West Brom might give it a real shot given Tony Mowbray’s commitment to attack and trying to play from back to front. I’ve mentioned it a number of times that there are a lot of poor teams in the Premiership this season and it is likely that there will be a good number next season as well.

7. It’s been shown that the human brain is more likely to discount the long term in exchange for short term gratification.  I can only assume that managers’ brains are wired in a similar way.

8. Two wins and a draw wins the title for United – one win and a draw if the win comes against Chelsea. It is now a Willie Waddell.  

Thierry_Henry - Just a personal question if you don’t mind.
If you were to compare yourself at FSC with managerial job, which one would mostly be the closest:

-Benitez at Liverpool
-Wenger at Arsenal
-Mancini at Inter
-SAF at UTD
-Rijkaard at Barcelona
-Ancelotti at Milan
- Ramos at Tottenham

Bobby – Alex Rae at Dundee.

Jahmikes - With Ronaldhino pretty much on his way to Milan, what do you think of my Gunners acquiring the services of Seedorf? , He seems to be unhappy with his new role, since the introduction of Pato, I think the price would be right, we would have an experienced player who has won on all levels, and he would provide good leadership for at least three yrs.

Bobby – Not going to happen.


Seanhipworth - How many of Cristiano Ronaldo's goals (in the Premiership) are from the penalty spot? I cannot seem to find this statistic anywhere, (even on ESPN's stats-loaded website). Are these things only Americans care about?
Secondly, I assume it's not illegal but it should be: why are players allowed to pause their approach run when taking a penalty? It's hard enough for a keeper to stop it, why does the kicker get to try and fake him out in such a way? I think it's a tasteless way to take a penalty, results aside.

Bobby – From what I gather Ronaldo has scored three goals from the penalty spot in the Premiership. Louis Saha has a couple. In terms of the penalty kick you have to consider that not so many years ago the goalkeeper was not allowed to move at all until the ball was struck. There is nothing within the Rules of the Game but the following appears as part of “Additional Instructions and Guidelines to Referees”.  

 "Feinting to take a penalty kick to confuse opponents is permitted as part of football. However, if in the opinion of the referee the feinting is considered an act of unsporting behaviour, the player shall be cautioned."


Neophyte - Where would you put the signing of Luca Toni on the scale of successful signings?
Is it just the proximity of the stands to the pitch or are the fields smaller in Germany (dimension wise) than you see in England? (It could be my TV...they just look more compact)

Bobby – Toni - very much a success. I doubt very much that fields on average are that much smaller in Germany than England. It is more likely caused  by camera angles…..or your set.

Neophyte - I just read a comment on FSC site from Cruyff about Man Utd. being an "English" side that plays the long ball. It seems that stereotypes can blind even some of the most respected soccer minds (talents). It is a good thing that Frank R. is not being advised by Mr. Cruyff....he would have Frank preparing for a different team. What's your prediction for the CL's semis? (any comment on Cruyff's statements?)

Bobby – I’m guessing that Cruyff comments may not have been accurately reported for no other reason than if true it provides greater motivation to United. United to beat Barcelona and I have yet to decide on the other tie.

Aldoray - Which do u think is the lesser of two evils Hicks or Gillete. And why?
And have u known of any previous examples in the Prem where 2 people have equal ownership in a club and run it successfully?

Bobby – Gillett has been given – and taken – the better PR advice. They are both experienced and largely successful businessmen but as we have seen on many occasions that does not bring with it a guarantee when owning a football team in Europe. I don’t think either got into this understanding the culture of Liverpool FC and their fans. What’s more it would appear that the previous shareholders were seduced by the money on offer and did not represent the true nature of the purchase offer to the fans.

After stating that they were not offering a Glazer-type leverage buy-out deal it is clear that is exactly what they were intending to do. In that circumstance you cannot separate the two. I think the remark was attributed to Roman Abramovich but I am sure it was not an original – “a hamster is just a rat with with better PR.” That probably sums it up.

It you consider success in the Premiership as winning the League title then you are limited to Manchester United, Arsenal, Blackburn and Chelsea and none of these clubs had a 50/50 shared ownership.


Finally perhaps I should I clarify my answer to LGB way back at the beginning of the responses. The bribes and threats come from the Old Timers team who offer to waive the price of a post match bru or if that doesn’t work to post slanderous remarks on the blog about my on field performances!

Ruud van Nistelrooy looks set to start the new season at the Bernabeu and not Old Trafford. Manchester United and Real Madrid have agreed a fee and a medical seems to be the only thing between the Dutchman and a move to La Liga.

RVN becomes the latest in a long line of either clubs or players that Sir Alex Ferguson has fallen out with. And to think he once accused Dennis Wise as being able to cause a fight in an empty house.

His playing days in Scotland were marked by recurring friction - St. Johnstone, Dunfermline, Rangers and Falkirk.

His second managerial appointment - at St. Mirren - finished with him being fired and then suing for unfair dismissal through an Industrial Tribunal.

Players who have eventually fallen foul of Fergie include Gordon Strachan, Paul Ince, Paul McGrath, Jim Leighton, Jaap Stam, Roy Keane, David Beckham to name a few. RVN was added to that list in the spring.

For United the question is who replaces the Dutchman? Rooney, Solksjaer (fitness question), and Saha are not going to be enough. Fernando Torres looks set to stay with Athletico Madrid for the forseeable future. It seems unlikely that another Premiership side will sell United a striker even if one was considered good enough and there doesn't at the moment.

Klose at Werder Bremen is an option. Ronaldo's name crops up on the rumour mill but it is hard to understand why United would take such a risk and if they were it surely would have been part of a swop deal. The lack of top class goal scorers was reinforced at the recent World Cup Finals.

As for Real Madrid they have another forward which seems to be a clear indication that Fabio Capello is far from happy with the choice he inherated. So out of Raul, Robinho, Baptista, Ronaldo, and Cassano who will be forced out?