Jose is gonna cut people

(Queens Journal)


The Special One has threatened death to Chelsea if he faces them in the Champions League next year. He also said that he still talks to members of staff at the Bridge such as Peter Kenyon and Roman Abromavich.

So, Jose wants to kill his former team if he plays them. This is interesting for the fact that Jose is not currently coaching anywhere and he would need to manage a team that has a chance at getting into the Champions League. There is talk that Jose could be going all over the place but after Tuesday, it is likely that he will not be off to Milan in the next few months. He will more than likely make a move to Barcelona. This would be great for him. Someone with the skill that Mourinho has and the level of talent at the club will certainly be a force to reckon with in both domestic and international competitions.

What's wrong with English footie?

(AP)




Besides the fact that they can't qualify a national team these days? Nothing really. That is why when I waddled over to SI.com today and was scouring the news section, I was kind of put off to see that one of their writers has come up with. He claims that American players need to move beyond the "English model" of play. His argument centers around three clubs currently in relegation worries; Reading, Fulham, and Darby. He wonders why these "American Teams" do so poorly. I think he lacked his research when it comes down to who plays for these teams and how long they have played for them.

Lets make one point painfully clear right up front: we do not play English style football in America. We play a slow, sloppy game. There is nothing about how Americans play the game that would even relate to how the English play the game.

Now, for the clubs mentioned. I started my search with Derby County. They got promoted this year to the Premiership. Their ticket in? They were third place in the Championship last season. Not exactly a high quality team. There are two Americans on Derby and looking at their stats, they just are not productive. Eddie Lewis has been playing the English game since 2000 and the only time and he has only seen major playing time at two clubs, and at both of them, he has scored goals. But if you only play someone sixteen times in three seasons, then they are never going to get their proper boots. Another factor to take into account with Lewis is that he is 33 years old. It is damn near time for him to go off to the retirement pitch for a kick about with Becks. The other player on Derby is Benny Feilhaber. He is young, I will give him that but he has only being playing in England since 2007. He has not had time to get use to the English game.

Next up we have Reading. This is another club with only two American players. Convey, who has been with Reading since 2004, has had a shallow fifteen goals in his entire career. This is an example of someone who can run with the ball, but can not put it into the back of the net. The other player for the team, Marcus Hahnemann, has been the teams primary goalkeeper since 2002. The key issue with Reading, much like Derby, is that they have never played in the top flight of English football. They simply can not compete as a team against squads that boast players that could score six times on you before you have a chance to get set again. In all fairness, I could probably play goalie for some of the teams that Reading and Derby have faced in the past and walk away with a clean sheet.

The last team, Fulham, reads like the US national teams roster. You have Kasey Kellar, Brian McBride, Eddie Johnson, Clint Dempsey, and Carlos Bocanegra. It is more of the same here that it is with the other clubs. Brian McBride is in his mid-thirties and he has scored goals, just not many. His first four years in England were spent on loan with not so descent teams and he started with Fulham in 2004. I don't even know where to begin with Kasey Keller. I've seen him play countless times and he is just rubbish. I think him and Paul Robinson have tea together or something. Eddie Johnson and Clint Dempsey are on the other end of this seesaw. They are both young but they have just started their careers in English ball and it is going to take time for them to come into the fold. The last player on the team is kind of in the middle. Carlos Bocanegra is in his late twenties and has played for Fulham since 2004. He is not that old but he has the experience. The best bet for the team though, would be to loan Johnson out if they are relegated to get him some true competition.

So, there is nothing wrong with the English model. You have a mix of old players and ones who have played in the MLS for the past few seasons. When you combine that with teams that have such limited budgets, the teams will get relegated. It is not the English problem or the American problem. It comes down to financial capabilities. Who can buy the best team? That's my two cents and remember.. be champions.

I might be missing Euro 08

I get home from class this afternoon and check my email. I got offered a position to teach kids about national security and intelligence. It was a thing that I had fancied doing all of three weeks ago but when I realized that I have to work on my thesis and watch Euro 08 I started to have second thoughts. So now I have my thesis class tomorrow and I need to pick out a topic and figure out how doable it is while I have to teach and babysit a group of high schoolers. Hopefully the dorms that I would be staying in will have some sort of t.v. room with cable. If I can catch the highlights, I would be happy.

On another note, I recommend that you guys all go over to www.worldsoccerdailyshop.com to get all of your Euro 2008 gear. I got my personalized Germany jersey from them and it looks rather spiffing if I do say so myself. Wow, look at that, two plugs in one day. I gotta be sick or something.

Dixieland supports Who Are Ya?

That is right. For those of you that thought that I may be a pompous, overbearing, only support my club and no one else, jackass, you were wrong. Well, to an extent. I would like to take the time to clue those of you who read this in about a wonderful company that I heard about through World Soccer Daily.
www.whoareyadesigns.com is a t-shirt company for those of us on the American side of the pond that produces footie related shirts. If you are a Reds fan or even a fan of that wonderful magic spray that helps your favorite player back into the game, this is the company for you.

I ordered the "Bollocks" shirt and got it within three business days (the post office kicked it around a bit at the distribution center before finally letting it go). It was the right size and looked exactly like the image from the website. They have already expanded by a few more designs and are about to launch three more shirts. I am greatly excited for the Jose shirt and will be sure to put my pre-order in within the next few days. Be sure to check the site. I also think there is the possibility of contacting them and getting a custom order done, though that will cost a bit more.

But do it! Go to the site. Get your shirt to support your favorite team as the final leg of this Premiership season starts to wind down. And be champions.

Grant Grumbles like a Grade Schooler

(Courtesy BBC)


Chelsea gaffer Avram Grant spoke out earlier in the week about the bad press that he has been receiving after his side missed out on their first chance to snag silverware for this season.

Grant, who took slack at the start of his coaching career with the club, is in the fire again but he is not taking it lightly this time. He has went on record saying that the allegations being made do not only hurt the team, but the club as well. Some of the allegations being thrown at Grant include a notion that the chief scout for the club wants Barca manager Frank Rijkaard at the helm for next season. Other allegations include accounts that club owner Roman Abramovich has been hand picking squads for matches. Grant flat denies this, however, there were strong rumors back when Grant took over in September that would give a large dose of credibility to these rumors. Lastly, the media is picking at the gaffer for a practice pitch dispute between team skipper John Terry and first team coach Henk ten Cate. Both parties have worked out their differences.

What does this mean? It means that Grant has earned his top-flight gaffer wings. His, "don't attack the team attitude" even though his actions are clearly under attack, are SOP for managers in the Premiership. The problem with this is that he is taking it in the wrong context. Instead of lashing out at the press, he should remind them that his team is still involved in three trophy races. And after the stomping that the Blues dealt to West Ham on the weekend, it is clear that his team has what it takes if they can hold out and knock off Man U and the Gunners, whom they both play at the Bridge before the season ends.

So Avi, the people are not insulting your friends literarly, they are doing it to see if you call them names and run off to Roman and they are getting their wish. Stop the grumbling, mate. Drogba does enough of that for the team.

Book Roundup (Yes, footie fans write books and I'll be damned if we don't read as well)

(Provided by Wikipedia and Penguin Books)



So, I am not a huge Arsenal fan but I passed this book in Boarders one day and I decided to give it a go. I think it is unfair to put it in the sports section of the story. Sure, it deals with the authors devotion to the Gunners, but it is more of a life story and therefore deserves a spot in the biography isle.

The book is a wonderful collection of events in the authors life. It covers the time period between 1968 and 1992 and highlights what was a very bleak Arsenal squad in the good ol' days. The author takes each match and compares it to an event in his own life.

Perhaps the most interesting quality of the book is how the author abandons Arsenal over and over again but somehow always makes it back to Highbury. The fan base for an English team is more intense than anything an American football team will ever experience. And to see a fan leave the game on more than one occasion is an amazing thing to read. This couples well with the authors description of his level of ritual before and during a match. Hornsby allows the reader into the mind of someone who abandons what he loves.

A second interesting factor that is brought out in the book is the presentation of the life that the author leads. When you look at the fan who commits such a large portion of their life to a team, one would expect them to have no life, no love, no nothing. Hornsby shows the reader something entirely different. He discusses his school life and proceeds to his college life. Then he shows the black and white world of office work and how football can make a boring day at work interesting. He then moves on to being a teacher. This takes the mask off the average American picture of a European soccer fan.

The third and final point that the author strives to drive home is that all English fans are not hooligans. To look at a work like "Among The Thugs" that stresses that violence is key to the football experience and then look at "Fever Pitch," it is a complete 180.

If you want to see how a true fan lived during twenty plus season of football, read "Fever Pitch." It is extremely well written and is a quick read that any true fan of the game would enjoy.

Memories

(courtesy BBC)


This is a photo of the Croatian international for Arsenal, Eduardo, on the weekend after a challenge gone bad. The bad tackle shattered the strikers left fibula and left an open dislocation of his ankle. Reading this instantly brought back memories of my injury over the summer. I think I suffered almost the same injury as Eduardo and let me tell you, it really is the suck. He has it a bit better though, he won't be doing most of his crutch work in the middle of a Southern Summer like I did. All reports though say that Eduardo will be out for about nine months, which will bring him back around the Christmas window of the 2008/09 season. What impact will this have on the leaders of the Premiership though?

It could have been worse for them, that's for sure. However, from the numbers alone, it could hurt them in European competitions. He trails Fabregas by two goals in that category. All around though, he is the only striker for the Gunners with goals in all competitions. Where he will be missed the most will not be with the north London side but with his national team. Eduardo, a Brazilian native but a Croatian national, has been on fire for his team throughout the qualifiers for Euro 08. In twenty two appearances, he has stretched the back of the net thirteen times. And with an expected return in nine months, he will miss the European Championships this summer.

There is another side to this incident though that should not be downplayed. The role that Martin Taylor played in this. Taylor challenged Eduardo three minutes in and caught the striker with the spikes of his boot on his ankle. Taylor was red carded straight away but it does not stop there. Birmingham's skipper, Alex McLeish, agreed with the decision to card Taylor but has tried to downplay the severity of the action by leaning on the emotional state of his player. Arsene Wenger has called for Taylor to be banned from football, he thinks the attack was intended to take out the Gunner. This, coupled with the personal grief that Taylor must be feeling and the harrasment from fans will compound for some time. It could certainly be worse. Eduardo is expected to make a full recovery and will more than likely go on to play another seven or so years (rough guess). There have been players that have went down and never got up again. That would be a far more traumatic experience for Taylor.

At the end of the day, should Taylor be punished? Sure. Should he be dismissed forever? No. It was a rough challenge but with a strong chance of Eduardo coming back, there is really no need to dismiss Taylor from football forever. Wenger's reaction that everyone is "targeting" Arsenal is rubbish. Birmingham is seventeenth in the league right now with a negative GD. The only team that could catch them right now would be Man U. But that would take two by the Red Devils and at least a loss and a draw by the Gunners. It could happen but it's unlikely. But it is likely that Taylor and Eduardo will continue to play for years to come and that Wenger, like every other Premiership gaffer, will be paranoid when they are at the top.