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?

Reports of Mourinho's departure from Stamford Bridge are now extensive with the debate now centering on whether he resigned or was fired. Here are the latest articles from a couple British newspapers with their take on the shock development - the Times and the Guardian. The Daily Telegraph and the Independent currently are without a story although the Telegraph contains a link to ESPN Soccernet.

With Ballack in the mix, Lampard's role become less clear and subsequently the English midfielder became less effective. Prior to his move to Stamford Bridge Ballack has been the fulcrum of the midfield at Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich and with the German national side. Two players trying to play the same role did not work as England has experienced when Steven Gerrard and Lampard were teamed together.

While the problem of Ballack and Lampard in the midfield became more obvious as the season progressed the issue of Shevchenko's role was more apparent, in fact almost from the start. In order to play Shevchenko, Mourinho had two options - the first was to opt for the former Milan man over Drogba. Although Drogba struggled at times in his first Premiership season in 2005, it was clear to all by season two that the Ivory Coast striker was a game-winner and not someone who needed to play second-fiddle to anyone.

That left Mourinho with the option of moving to a 4-4-2 formation which he fielded for most of last season. It was a system that rarely flattered Chelsea and left them generally looking disjointed and lacking the balance and pace that was on show during Mourinho's first two seasons in charge.

What's more Chelsea seemed to lose the mental edge and application that had been such an important part of their game when the won back-to-back titles. As the fear receded in other sides Chelsea was forced more frequently to come from behind to salvage a draw or to pull off a win - a position they had rarely found themselves in before.

With rumours rife of the owner and the manager not speaking the club appeared to grow more dysfunctional as last season progressed. The move to bring in Avram Grant looked to be the straw that was to break the manager’s back but a peace deal was brokered that appeared from the outside to have everyone comfortably playing in their own sandbox. However, reports that owner Abramovich was on a mission to sign Ronaldinho just before the August 31 transfer deadline, was perhaps a clue that the fix was only a band-aid solution and the cracks quickly reemerged.  

Over the last two or three weeks the issues have compounded – an unsatisfactory explanation as to why Michael Ballack was left of the Champions League roster; the Shevchenko dilemma escalated as the Ukrainian striker put in good performance against Italy something not seen in a Chelsea uniform; a loss to Aston Villa and a draw with Blackburn in the Premiership; an embarrassing tie at home in front of a small crowd to Norwegian team Rosenborg; and then perhaps the final sign that Mourinho had cracked – his egg story at a press conference this week.

So what now for Mourinho? It’s not good news for incumbent managers. Knowing that Mourinho is again on the market provides any trigger happy Chairman with a ready replacement should any of the big clubs stumble in the next few weeks.

As for a replacement two names will be prominent. Fabio Capello is available and if Chelsea is looking for a proven and tested winner then Capello fits the bill to a tee. The other is Guus Hiddink, currently in charge of Russia’s national team. Abramovich is rumoured to have brokered the deal that placed Hiddink in charge and so there does appear to be a prior relationship.

That potential move does however come with complications beyond Hiddink dumping Russia and it comes in the form of Frank Arnesen, the current Sporting Director at Stamford Bridge (another chief!). Arnesen and Hiddink worked together at PSV Eindhoven a few years back until PSV management opted to dump the Dane in a power struggle that Hiddink won.

Henry14 - I do not know if its your company policy Bobby that you are not supposed to say that MLS is poor, because if you read nick ' article you would have thought MLS is like the Prem. l do not see Becks in the near future, because in my opinion the MLS is more of a league that is based on passion and euphoria rather than quality. The defending and general play is generally appalling; the league is just not good enough as fantasy manager with Juan Pablo Angel will testify.

Bobby – In the twenty years I have been involved in the media end of things no one has told to say or not say anything so if there is such a policy it hasn’t been brought to my attention. As far as only watching “quality” football then you must be a connoisseur compared to me. I can enjoy watching the game played at all levels.

Venti_vidi_vici - What is your take on the goings on at Stamford Bridge? What will Chelsea look like in three months time, will they sign anybody important, who will leave? Reportedly during a strategic meeting last week to discuss summer transfer targets etc., Abramovich apparently drastically cut spending, removed himself from day-to-day operations of the club, Lampard and Terry still don't have a new contract, and Mourinho wasn't even in the meeting. I guess just like a spoiled kid, his new expensive toy isn't as much fun anymore, and is amazingly making a mess of a very fine football club.

Bobby – Chelsea is a bit of a freak show at the moment. With all the speculation and rumour mongering I would not be surprised to find out that Elvis has been spotted at Stamford Bridge. Let’s just wait and see.

djnima -  I just have one question and one question only this week. Who do you think deserves to win La Liga this year? and please don't say whoever has the most points and head to head records. Also, when is Rupert Murdoch going to give you your own show?

Bobby – It is probably one of these seasons when no team deserves it because Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla have all suffered through some pretty poor results. I picked Real Madrid at the start of the season and I will stick with that pick. As for a show – between the two shows a week and the blog I am busy enough as it is. But I will be asking for blog ideas, preference etc in the next few days.

Venti_vidi_vici - Where does Milan rank in terms of all time great football clubs? Over the past half century they have been incredibly successful - are they possibly the greatest ever? What is the key to their success over the past twenty years? Berlusconi? In the past twenty years they have reached eight UCL finals, next best is a Serie B team with four, and their five titles are two better than anyone. Their players always seem to love the club, they've always had a lot of Italian players in the team, and they seem to get the best out of their players, and make their players into champions?

Bobby –One of all time great teams – absolutely. The greatest ever? An argument as fruitless as trying choosing the greatest ever heavyweight. Weren’t Milan in Serie B a while back as well?

MeanSucka – I saw someone on Sky Sports (Alan Mullery, a former England player from the 60's) talking about Beckham not getting the proper training to stay on England's team past this week's call-up. In the process he called MLS a Mickey Mouse league and said it's only slightly better than the Conference - a sentiment echoed in the Lovejoy column. That's a little harsh, I thought. What do you think - how does MLS compare to England's divisions?

I would like to think that MLS is on the level of the Championship or at least League One, especially considering results of some of our players overseas and our team internationally.

And speaking of MLS, I tend to think sometimes that it is not as good defensively as it should be. I continue to see flat footed defenders giving goal scorers ample opportunities to finish. Do you think defense is a problem in this league?

Bobby – Your average former-player-now-pundit in Britain doesn’t know the difference between his arse and a hole in the road when it comes to anything outside of English football. The major short coming of the MLS is the lack of depth and that will take some time to rectify. There are some very good North American based players in the MLS (proven by the number that have moved overseas) but there are a number who would struggle to get a game in League Two. But there again you could look at Jay Demerit who was playing A League and started regularly in the Premiership so there are examples of it working both ways.

It is interesting that when Capello arrived at Real Madrid he was appalled at the shape the team was in physically which would seem to indicate that Beckham wasn’t getting the kind of training in Spain either. No doubt Mullery believes that only good English coaches can get English players fit.

Given the choice between watching a league with good defenders and bad forwards and bad defenders and good forwards which would you prefer?

Atleti female - I've heard a lot of good things about an Arsenal player called Francisco Merida Perez (aka 'Fran Merida). Some are dubbing him Arsenal's new wonderkid. What have you read about him? Do you think he is in the same level of ability as other wonderkids, such as Jonathan dos Santos and Bojan Krkic?

Bobby – Until you mentioned him I had heard nothing about him. I am a bit leery of wunderkids – is it just me or are there more of them around? – so I prefer to just wait and see. The Champions magazine this month had a piece that linked players with past stars i.e. the new Pele, the new Maradona etc.

Meansucka - What do you make of this FIFA ruling that games may no longer be played at altitude above 8200 feet? I read that one of the Brazilian club teams were upset that they had to play in Bolivia with freezing rain at altitude. But to me - it seems home field advantage is the reason you play a home and away leg to begin with and if they eliminate altitude, why not also look at air quality, temperature, or other factors? Why has this become a problem now?

Bobby – To answer in reverse I think it has become an issue as more clubs and countries have been or have been threatening to take games to higher elevations in order to get an even greater advantage. While FIFA claim it is far medical reasons it is more likely down to lobbying by Brazil and Argentina. Having said that I could see how playing at some of these elevations could be dangerous. However, you do make a good point about air quality. In Mexico City it is the combination of altitude and air quality that makes it so challenging.

Carneade - What would you change in soccer to improve the game? I'm not talking so much about the rules of the game itself (even though I do think that the goal size and the pitch width should be increased), I'm referring to max number of players in rosters, domestic and international schedules, number of games per year, national teams, refs and instant replay etc.

Bobby – I think FIFA’s desire to have leagues maxxed at 16 teams is a good one. How you ensure that the clubs don’t fill the vacant dates with other stuff is another issue. I would also find a way to curtail the World Cup and European Championship qualifying schedules – it would be an easy fix. I would also like to see the Gold Cup and Copa America consolidated into a true Cup of the Americas.

Henry14 - Can anyone tell me why Carragher is seen as a great defender, because for me he is highly overrated. He plays for an extremely defensive minded team and he is not usually exposed, l do not think he is as good as Gallas, Toure, Rio, Vidic, Carvalho, Terry, so why do pundits rave about this guy?

Bobby – Because he is a great central defender. He reads the game well, makes few mistakes and is a great tackler. Apart from that I can understand why you wouldn’t rate him.

Henry 14 - Have you ever considered having a Bobby McMahon weekly podcast, because surely you have a lot of friends who are journalist or football experts and talk about football thoughts. The two hours you have a week do not exhaust all burning soccer issues, because you are one of the best and rationale football pundits l have met rather than a lot of so called Liverpool biased pundits we have all over the world.

Bobby – Thank you for the kind words. Hold that suggestion as I will be asking for some input in the next days in terms of the blog.

CIAO -  Do you think Buffon will leave Juventus? Also have you heard whether or not Inter are ready to split with Julio Cesar and Toldo? If so, and Buffon doesn't transfer who would they get -Amelia?

Bobby – It is strange that after spending a season in Serie B that Buffon would leave but I have heard that there is a strong possibility that he will move. I have not heard anything on the Toldo / Cesar front but you would expect that neither of them is particularly happy with the situation. Your suggestion of Amelia moving from Livorno to Juventus is an interesting one and one that would make a lot of sense. He is young for a goalkeeper and if he stays at Livorno then Champions League football is a pipe-dream. Probably a good time for a move and I would expect him to stay in Italy rather than moving to another country.

I am a bit behind this morning. We went to see country music legend Don Williams last night and so I am going to have to watch the EPL highlights show and the FSWR on tape.

Another wild and woolly weekend. It could not have turned out better for SAF (my thoughts on Fergie the greatest ever can be read tomorrow). Meanwhile we are still waiting to hear why Terry got sent off. Watching the replays of the incident during the match there is something very untoward about it. Terry and a Spurs player (King?) get tangled in the penalty box but there is nothing unusual about that. Then when Terry gets up and starts to move away some of the Spurs players are livid. A ruckus ensues then Terry gets called over and sent off – he says nothing which given what is becoming Chelsea’s natural reaction to referee’s decisions is surprising. Terry did something (I have read elsewhere that he threw a punch but I have yet to see it) otherwise he and the other Chelsea players would surely have reacted. Maybe Terry can come clean and tell Jose.

Anyway on to some weekend articles.

Anthony Stokes is on loan from Arsenal at Falkirk and he is currently the hottest player in Scotland.

Michael Grant on the club that the then Alex Ferguson left twenty years ago. It was a move that all but brought to an end an era when the Old Firm was firmly second class citizen in Scotland.

One of the British games great characters Tommy Docherty (the original man who has had more clubs than Jack Nicklaus) has just released on new book “The Doc, Hallowed Be Thy Game.”

Some interesting observations from Stewart Robson on the ability of Jens Lehmann and Edwin van der Sar to start attacks with excellent distribution.

Steve Tongue makes some astute observations about Chelsea. I find it interesting that on a number of occasions since he took over at Stamford Bridge Mourinho has been compared to Brian Clough. It seems to me that Mourinho has more in common with Don Revie. Revie’s Leeds team of the 60’s and early 70’s, although widely admired for the football that they were capable of playing, was widely despised for the cynical win-at-all-costs approach.

…….and now that I have brought up Leeds. After losing on Saturday to Barnsley, Leeds now sit 23rd in the 24-team Championship. Six years after playing in the Champions League semi-final. Leeds and new boss Dennis Wise are facing a relegation battle to avoid what is really Division Three.

Peter Risdale may have lived the dream, but he has the left Leeds to face the nightmare.