And Avram Grant, the former skipper of the Mighty Blues, declined the offer to take over his prior position as director of football at the club. It makes me wonder what is going on at the Bridge. Is the club finally coming apart internally because of Abramovich's poor management of the clubs resources? While there have not been widespread disputes over how the coaching staff has operated it remains to be seen if the recent activity will cause the club to fall out of its second spot in the top four by the end of the next season. Chances are greater than sixty-five percent that this could happen. The situation at Liverpool this past season is a perfect example of how poor communication between staff and the ownership and it is likely that these conditions will translate into a rough season for Chelsea next year.
On a more positive note. I am in Cancun and if I would not have turned the waiter at the restaurant away, I would be plastered right now. I will have to keep everyone updated as the week goes forward.
Showing posts with label Liverpool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liverpool. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
City Have Turned Into My High School Band Program
I know what you are thinking. "What the hell is Bela thinking?" Well, looking at the recent results from the clubs tour of Asia, it seems that they are using a tactic that we used to use when everyone in the band got angry over a decision from the director. We would essentially suck. We got knocked out of preliminary competition from time to time because of something that had happened either at the football game the night before or the morning of at practice. And Manchester City seem to be doing the same thing.
The club have lost their last two games in their Asian tour, including a loss against a Thai All Star team this past Saturday. Why are they loosing? It is likely that it has to deal with the departure of coach Sven-Goran Erkisson. City owner, Thasking Shinawatra, has all but kicked the former English gaffer out the door over his performance at the club this year. So, in retaliation, the club is playing down. Sounds a lot like what my band did in high school, right? But there is one small difference between us and them. We did this for free and there was never a fear that we would get kicked out of the program for not doing our part. This is not the case for City who ended up ninth in the league this year and who received a spot in the UEFA Cup for next season. There is also speculation that Thaskin will sell the entire first team squad this year. Of course Thaskin has denied these rumors but it is likely that he will sell the club by this time next year if they do not do well in the league.
So what? Ericksson gets canned. He will not be the first manager to be fired after a season. Thaskin will sell the club. This is certainly will not be the first time this has happened. The problem here is that you have more foreign owners in the Premier League these days and most of them do not really understand how to manage the clubs and how much slack to give the gaffer. A clear example of this is the situation earlier this year with Liverpool. The American owners wanted to sack Benitiez. Then when the club did not do that well, one of the owners wanted to sell his part of the club off. This leaves these clubs in upheaval year after year and the clubs will fall further down the rungs of the league ladder. Granted, you will never see anything like the situation at Man City occur at Chelsea or Manchester United or Arsenal for that matter. But for the smaller clubs, a mere mention of relegation and the owner starts to fire off about how things will change and people will be sacked and conversely, the team will start to play down due to their faith to their gaffer. It is a rather ugly cycle that makes the beautiful game far less beautiful.
The club have lost their last two games in their Asian tour, including a loss against a Thai All Star team this past Saturday. Why are they loosing? It is likely that it has to deal with the departure of coach Sven-Goran Erkisson. City owner, Thasking Shinawatra, has all but kicked the former English gaffer out the door over his performance at the club this year. So, in retaliation, the club is playing down. Sounds a lot like what my band did in high school, right? But there is one small difference between us and them. We did this for free and there was never a fear that we would get kicked out of the program for not doing our part. This is not the case for City who ended up ninth in the league this year and who received a spot in the UEFA Cup for next season. There is also speculation that Thaskin will sell the entire first team squad this year. Of course Thaskin has denied these rumors but it is likely that he will sell the club by this time next year if they do not do well in the league.
So what? Ericksson gets canned. He will not be the first manager to be fired after a season. Thaskin will sell the club. This is certainly will not be the first time this has happened. The problem here is that you have more foreign owners in the Premier League these days and most of them do not really understand how to manage the clubs and how much slack to give the gaffer. A clear example of this is the situation earlier this year with Liverpool. The American owners wanted to sack Benitiez. Then when the club did not do that well, one of the owners wanted to sell his part of the club off. This leaves these clubs in upheaval year after year and the clubs will fall further down the rungs of the league ladder. Granted, you will never see anything like the situation at Man City occur at Chelsea or Manchester United or Arsenal for that matter. But for the smaller clubs, a mere mention of relegation and the owner starts to fire off about how things will change and people will be sacked and conversely, the team will start to play down due to their faith to their gaffer. It is a rather ugly cycle that makes the beautiful game far less beautiful.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
You Win Some. You Draw Some
That seems to be the story of the start of the round of sixteen for the UEFA Champions League. The best clubs that Europe can offer took to their respective pitches on Tuesday and Wednesday evening and gave their fans something to talk about for the next fortnight.
I dug into the previous posts and found that I called some of the groups right but others I called wonderfully wrong. Valencia did not make it through. And I certainly do not remember picking Olympiacos to make it this round. But if I remember correctly, they are not teaching me to predict the future, here in grad school, they are only teaching me how to make educated guesses off the available information.
The match action itself over the last two nights was descent. I will focus on the two games that I got a chance to watch, since I do not have Deportes. Liverpool and Inter from Anfeild. If you can not play at the San Siro, then by God Anfeild is just as good. The fans were getting their Merseyside pride on for the better part of the match. However, I'm not too sure what they really had to cheer for, apart from the two late goals right before the whistle. Inter went down to ten men at the 30 minute mark off a rather poor call by the ref. Materazzi was cautioned early in the game for a foul against Torres and then he was carded a second time for "fouling" Torres yet again. This would get him sent off and saw Inter go down to ten men.
It is interesting that it would take the Anfeild boys almost an hour to poke a hole through the ten men that were out there. Inter responded well to the hasty send off and really displayed what a minimum amount of effort was needed to hold off a Liverpool squad that has been knocked out of any hope of a domestic cup this season.
The goals in this one came almost at the full time whistle and the first goal by Kuyt, should have been handled better Cesar. The second goal by Stevie G was just poor pick up by the Brazil national teams keeper. All in all, this was a game that Liverpool should have won by a larger amount but the lack of cohesiveness within the squad played a large role in this, I think. Needless to say, it will be an interesting home leg for Milan at the San Siro in three weeks. With a full squad and fresh hit of steam, it is not unlikely that they could pull a three-nil victory and send Liverpool and Rotating Rafa back to England.
Arsenal and AC Milan. I have been excited to see this fixture since the round of sixteen draw was announced. You have a wonderful marriage of Premiership talent mixed with the technical and aged play of AC Milan. Early on, I don't think that AC were expecting Arsenal to come out and play at Premiership speed, but the Gunner surprised the current club champs. On the contrary, I do not think Arene Wengers side expected AC to be able to shut down their offense. Inter did an amazing job of shutting down Eboue, Fabregas, and Adebayor. Even after the start of the second half, when the Gunners seemed to find their boots, the back four of AC turned away attempt after attempt, making it look like child's play.
The chances in this match clearly favored Arsenal. Kalac, in goal for the injured Dida who hurt his back while sitting on a bench at the weekend against Palma, faced an amazing six shots on goal and performed with little strain even though there were concerns over his injured finger. With all these chances and four minutes of stoppage time, one would consider that the Gunners could get at least one goal out of this one and they almost did. However, Adebayor's header would ring off the crossbar and get sent out into touch, effectively ending any hope for a score in this one.
So, who do I favor for the return leg? I would have to put my money on AC. For starters they are playing at home. The San Siro is one of the most intimidating stadia to play at in all of European football. Secondly, Pato. The "Duck" had his first taste of European competition against the Gunners and had he calmed down just a tad, he would have had a goal and gave his team an away advantage. Lastly, it's AC. One of the most successful European club sides ever. It should be renamed the AC Milan League. Yeah, I know that is pushing things but hey, it's my blog. You don't like it, go read 90 Minutes magazine.
I dug into the previous posts and found that I called some of the groups right but others I called wonderfully wrong. Valencia did not make it through. And I certainly do not remember picking Olympiacos to make it this round. But if I remember correctly, they are not teaching me to predict the future, here in grad school, they are only teaching me how to make educated guesses off the available information.
The match action itself over the last two nights was descent. I will focus on the two games that I got a chance to watch, since I do not have Deportes. Liverpool and Inter from Anfeild. If you can not play at the San Siro, then by God Anfeild is just as good. The fans were getting their Merseyside pride on for the better part of the match. However, I'm not too sure what they really had to cheer for, apart from the two late goals right before the whistle. Inter went down to ten men at the 30 minute mark off a rather poor call by the ref. Materazzi was cautioned early in the game for a foul against Torres and then he was carded a second time for "fouling" Torres yet again. This would get him sent off and saw Inter go down to ten men.
It is interesting that it would take the Anfeild boys almost an hour to poke a hole through the ten men that were out there. Inter responded well to the hasty send off and really displayed what a minimum amount of effort was needed to hold off a Liverpool squad that has been knocked out of any hope of a domestic cup this season.
The goals in this one came almost at the full time whistle and the first goal by Kuyt, should have been handled better Cesar. The second goal by Stevie G was just poor pick up by the Brazil national teams keeper. All in all, this was a game that Liverpool should have won by a larger amount but the lack of cohesiveness within the squad played a large role in this, I think. Needless to say, it will be an interesting home leg for Milan at the San Siro in three weeks. With a full squad and fresh hit of steam, it is not unlikely that they could pull a three-nil victory and send Liverpool and Rotating Rafa back to England.
Arsenal and AC Milan. I have been excited to see this fixture since the round of sixteen draw was announced. You have a wonderful marriage of Premiership talent mixed with the technical and aged play of AC Milan. Early on, I don't think that AC were expecting Arsenal to come out and play at Premiership speed, but the Gunner surprised the current club champs. On the contrary, I do not think Arene Wengers side expected AC to be able to shut down their offense. Inter did an amazing job of shutting down Eboue, Fabregas, and Adebayor. Even after the start of the second half, when the Gunners seemed to find their boots, the back four of AC turned away attempt after attempt, making it look like child's play.
The chances in this match clearly favored Arsenal. Kalac, in goal for the injured Dida who hurt his back while sitting on a bench at the weekend against Palma, faced an amazing six shots on goal and performed with little strain even though there were concerns over his injured finger. With all these chances and four minutes of stoppage time, one would consider that the Gunners could get at least one goal out of this one and they almost did. However, Adebayor's header would ring off the crossbar and get sent out into touch, effectively ending any hope for a score in this one.
So, who do I favor for the return leg? I would have to put my money on AC. For starters they are playing at home. The San Siro is one of the most intimidating stadia to play at in all of European football. Secondly, Pato. The "Duck" had his first taste of European competition against the Gunners and had he calmed down just a tad, he would have had a goal and gave his team an away advantage. Lastly, it's AC. One of the most successful European club sides ever. It should be renamed the AC Milan League. Yeah, I know that is pushing things but hey, it's my blog. You don't like it, go read 90 Minutes magazine.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Champions League draws announced
(arsedup.com)
It's nearly September and that means one thing: the Uefa Champions League is heading into group play. After the qualifying rounds drew some familiar and favorite faces(Liverpool & Arsenal), Europe's premier cup competition will begin it's group play later in the month. For a full listing of the tables you can zoom over to the BBC's sport section and look under the football tab and from there look for the Europe tab on the left side bar.
Looking at the group stages, there are some familiar battles from last year. Manchester United and Roma who met in the round of 16 and whom Fergie's lads destroyed in the home leg, will meet in the group stages. I look for these two teams to be the top of their group, honestly. The only thing that could hurt United is the loss of Rooney. Hell, the loss of Rooney is impacting the whole of English ball as well.
We will also see a rematch of Chelsea and Valencia. Chelsea barely scraped past the Spanish team last year and I remember sitting there watching the match with my friends, trying to put off going to work as late as I could. Just like Uniteds group, I take Chelsea and Valencia to get past the group stages.
As far as the other groups go, I have to take the elusive Liverpool from group A. This is a team that can't win the Premiership, but they can win against the rest of Europe. The FA should talk to the British government and see if they can extend dual citizenship to the players on Liverpool that aren't from Great Britain. Then they can field Liverpool's starting 11 as the national team. Also in Liverpool's group, I have to take Marseille over Porto. Marseille is a wonderful team with a good record in French football but I think they have a little more gusto than Porto does. And to add to Porto's folly, Chelsea are trying to wrangle one of their best players away, Quersma.
For group C, I am taking Real Madrid and Werder Bremen. These are both teams that know what they are doing when it comes to European football and they should breeze past their competition.
Group D has one obvious prospect and two circumspect prospects. AC Milan will lead the group. And as a runner up I am saying Celtic. The Scottish side is always a joy to watch and I think that they will give the group a run for the money. The other "upset" roles that might come out would be Benfica but I don't see that happening.
Group E is the group of death. You have Barcelona, Lyon, Rangers, and Stuttgart. These are all wonderfully composed teams. Lyon and Stuttgart won their respective leagues last year and Barcelona was a runner up. Despite loosing Eto'o for two months, I still think that Barcelona will be the first team safely clear of the group. Then comes the fight for the other position. I have to put my money with Stuttgart. German football is more aggressive than French football and while the intensity of Champions league games does not get turned up until later in the competition, by that time Stuttgart will have knocked Rangers and Lyon out of the running.
Groups G and H are the two groups that I think no one will pay much attention to. Your top draws are Inter and Arsenal, respectively. I think they will both emerge from the group stages but as for the second teams in the groups, I've got nothing.
By looking at the groups as we have them now, it is going to shape up to be another cracking year for the Champions League. I think the group stages will see more knockouts of bigger clubs this time around as opposed to last year, where there were still formidable clubs up until the semi finals. As far as picking a winner, it's too early on. However, I think if Chelsea can get it's players fit and not end up drawing Liverpool again this year, I think Chelsea could get to the final and probably face AC Milan or perhaps Liverpool. I do think AC or Liverpool will be in the final and who knows we might have a repeat of Istanbul and Greece, all over again. Good luck to all the teams. And to the fans, don't be upset if your team goes out in the group stages. It takes a great commitment to get to the Champions league. The winner wouldn't be referred to as the Kings of Europe if it wasn't so prestigious. Once again, good luck to all and go Chelsea.
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