Time to bring back Beckham?

Beckham’s performance, against Bayern Munich in mid-week, was an example on what England were missing in the last few matches. I am no fan of the player, and think with a fully fit England squad, Beckham shouldn’t make the starting line up. But, again in mid-week, we saw why Beckham still has something to offer to the squad. England, missing key players, will often fall short, they lack depth in both the squad, and in any imaginative play connecting the midfield to the strikers.

What Beckham managed to do was, even when England were short in creating chances from open play, you could always rely on him for a cross or a set piece, which would usually be one of England’s major outlets for chances. In other words, while not being the player he was, he remains a great utility player, someone that can be relied upon for good service. With England having relative depth in defence, you could rely, somewhat, that they would concede little. Beckham was the ideal player to create some chances from set pieces or crosses, and goals would come, even when England were playing very poorly. We saw this case scenario through the last world cup. So would I like to see him come back to the squad? Yes, why not, after all, England can’t always bank on the fitness of their first choice players.

Charlton Vs. West Ham

It’s the big one, Charlton Vs. West Ham. Rivals, both battling for survival. I just don’t know how to call this one, a draw is a strong possibility, but I’ll go out on a limb on this one. I think, and naturally hope, that Charlton will win this one. It’ll be tight, but a victory by a one goal margin. I would say either 1-0 or 2-1. If Newcastle pull off a win against Wigan away from home, personally I am not too sure about that one, then I would tend to say Charlton have a very strong chance of staying up. Either way, it will probably be this weekend, where we will know which two teams are all but knocked out of the relegation battle. Hopefully it will be both Watford and West Ham.

Finally, Holland hails fans

Update: I was right! But the scoreline was 4-0 and it was not tight! But I got the result right. Anyway, who would have predicted a 4-0 win?

Why Liverpool’s Academy system has been a failure

As Rafa Benitez uses the transfer window to draft in a bunch of foreign youngsters, questions continue to mount over the local production line at Anfield.

With all the fanfare over the Liverpool takeover, Rafa Benitez’s January transfers and especially his emphasis on youth has been overlooked by nearly everyone. But they could prove to be as important as the takeover itself.

I remember reading Alan Hansen’s biography years ago; in one story, he told how he and Kenny Dalglish watched an evening game of football and arrived back at King Kenny`s house at about one in the morning. Instead of going to bed, Dalglish searched frantically through his hundreds of channels until he found a live game of football to watch. It was only a non-event South American game, but to Dalglish it was like a drug fix. Hansen then decided that he could not devote so much of his life to football management, so instead decided to go for the easier path – the football pundit. Read the rest of the article…

FA Cup predictions

No premiership football this Saturday, it’s FA Cup day. Charlton have already been knocked out by the mighty Nottingham Forest. So I am personally a neutral here, but I would prefer Plymouth to win the thing, they play such attractive football, and I follow them week in week out. I was jesting, of course.

I’ll give my predictions:

2 Arsenal v 1 Blackburn, 12:30

4 Chelsea v 0 Norwich, 15:00

2 Man Utd v 0 Reading, 17:15

2 Middlesbrough v 1 West Brom, 15:00

1 Plymouth v 1 Derby, 15:00

2 Watford v 1 Ipswich, 15:00

Sunday, 18 February 2007

FA Cup

1 Fulham v 2 Tottenham, 16:00

2 Preston v 2 Man City, 13:10

Update: I didn’t have a good week with the predictions. I got some of the results right, and some just wrong. Here’s how things turned out. 

Oh the hypocrisy of it all…

Nice banner, but now Liverpool are being pumped with millions by their new American sugar daddy, I think it’s a tad hypocritical of them. I’d be convinced otherwise if the new owners developed a football academy for local kids, at least it would be an indigenous team. Something Manchester United did in the 90s. Not going to happen.  

Benitez is already shopping, but denies it’ll be a Chelsea situation, “More money will make it better for us. Manchester United have spent big money on key players, and now we have the spine of a team maybe we can approach the market like they have done. But it is not going to be a Chelsea-situation here.” He also said “We have plans to improve everything. The stadium, the squad, young players, everything that can be really good for the club. “

I think he’s trying to say that he’s going to use an in between strategy, while buying some players, he’ll attempt to keep a tradition alive, by balancing it with young players that can come through, at the more grass roots level. But so far, since Rafa arrived at Liverpool I can’t remember him opening  chances for the youth to come through the local ranks, if anything his reliance on imports from abroad has surpassed Houllier. Either Steven Gerard is some amazing exception, or the pressures of marketability, and quick fix results simply work against any local talent. Gerard is an exceptional talent, but there’s  plenty of potential to tapped through local young players,  talent is there with the right resources and opportunities. Sure Rafa can say he’s not going the Chelsea route, but his track record doesn’t show him that much different, I’d be amazed if anything changes at all. Expect more quick, expensive buys, Liverpool may not do a complete Chelsea, but they’ll come sure close.

Nice read: Liverpool - the new Chelsea?

Let it pass

Charlton take on Manchester United at Old Trafford, in one of those “Oh God, let it pass” fixtures. No need to predict, Charlton will loose, I’d go for a 3-0 but 2-0 is perfectly possible. Anything higher is plausible anything other than a loss is a miracle. But, as I said before, once this passes, we can look forward to a proper relegation battle, where Charlton face fellow strugglers Wigan, Sheffield United and West Ham. On balance Wigan’s run in is about the same standard as Charlton’s, unless Wigan go on a losing streak, I can’t see Charlton jumping them in the table. Watford, West Ham and Charlton are all going down. Just a little recompense, West Ham are coming down at the same time, trading managers is always a bad omen, and that’s not something I made up.

In other news:

Arsenal strike a partnership with the mighty Colarado Rapids, a club that just happens to be owned by a certain billionaire, a take over bid? Of course, stop being naive.

And Spurs get a bye in the UEFA cup, now that’s just plain luck. The funny thing is that they’re complaining, apparently they are not too pleased about losing out on gate receipts and TV rights. Some people are just never pleased.

Update:

I was right, Charlton lost 2-0, can I even call it a prediction? West Ham lost at home to Watford and Sheffield united beat Spurs 2-1. That means Sheffield United are heading out of the relegation pack, and it looks like it’s between four teams – Wigan, Watford, West Ham and Charlton. Let’s hope Wigan lose to Arsenal, at least it’ll make it a bit more open. I do expect Wigan to loose, but Arsenal can be unpredictable in their form. Still, it’s a slim chance that Charlton survive, but even if Wigan loose to Arsenal, I still think Wigan are too ahead in points, it looks very bleak.

Charlton are going down

I haven’t posted that much about Charlton Athletic, so this will be my first post. Why has the season gone bad, two names – Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank and Iain Dowie, well there are other reasons, like all round dodgy defending, but I want my scapegoats to burn at the stake.

Are they going to survive? As much as I hate to say this – Probably not, they drew with Watford at home, that was the final omen. But at least most of the big teams (apart from Liverpool) are off the fixture list and we can look forward to the likes of Reading, Sheffield United and Wigan. Of course there’s that  little fixture against West Ham. No, they’re going down.

Whither England?

It’s been a while since I last posted, well a good six months or so. I’ll try to start over again, this time, hopefully, I’ll be more reliable. I came across this comment by a reader (Jeremy) at the ‘Daily Telegraph’, and thought it captured a lot of my feelings about the England team at the moment, especially after the lack of depth in the England squad was exposed again, in the recent friendly against Spain:

Woodgate makes up for lost time – He went awol for the Morientes missed chance in the first half and was definately missing in action for the goal. Can Woodgate make the lost time longer please?

Average player, average review – both Woodgate and Alan Smith.

To my eyes there is a real problem here in that it seemed no English player looked as comfortable with the ball at his feet as even a Puyol (with due respect to his Sideshow Bob haircut!).

We are going the way of the Yanks here. Think Baseball for example. We have devised such a ‘quality brand’ such a high-velocity marketing opportunity in the game that is dynamic 100mph football, the whole world must think we are a laughing stock in much the same way your average Cuban feels about US baseball as come back to spank their asses all over again.