Vocalizing Sport

Although a little inappropriate to discuss joke of the year as Manchester United fans, after suffering a humiliating 4-1 defeat to Liverpool at Old Trafford only yesterday. However it seems to me that Liverpool’s very own Fernando Torres cracked one of the best jokes ever, mainly for England fans when he described Liverpool team mate Steven Gerrard as “the best in the world” after speculation linking Gerrard with a move to Real Madrid after he became the man who replaced current World Player of the Year, Cristiano Ronaldo as the top transfer target for Real Madrid.

Now I must agree that Steven Gerrard is a great player, but the best in the World? I have to disagree. Cristiano Ronaldo may not have shown this “Greatest Player” tag consistently at international level, but atleast he has been able to demonstrate that he can work with other brilliant players as a team. When England needed Gerrard and Lampard to work together as a fantastic partnership, which on paper is arguably the best central midfield pairing ever, in practice it was an awful partnership.

Although I cannot fully blame Gerrard for the failure of both his partnership with Lampard and the England team’s failure to qualify for Euro 2008 under Steve McClaren, now manager of FC Twente. Playing as a central midfielder, we as England fans, expect he and Lampard to be working together, pulling the strings and forming a fordible team that would help build England up as to one of the great footballing nations once again.

So before any Liverpool player starts shooting their mouths off about how great Gerrard is and how he should be considered “The World’s Best Player”, maybe if he puts in consistently great, team working performances, especially with Lampard in the central midfield role with him, then I may consider him to be half the player of what Ronaldo currently is.

Manchester United, Chelsea and Everton all booked their place in the FA Cup semi final this weekend, whilst Arsenal overcame Carling Cup semi finalists Burnley at the Emirates to earn a quarter final match against Hull. The winner of that quarter final match will have the task of taking on the new revitalised Chelsea, under new manager Guus Hiddink. Everton will have to take on the industrious Manchester United at Wembley, who after their 4-0 victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage, will be looking to continue their good form and increase their chances of winning 6 trophies this season, having already won the Carling Cup, FIFA Club World Cup and the FA Community Shield.

Chelsea managed to beat Coventry at the Ricoh Arena 2-0 with Didier Drogba opening the scoring after 15 minutes then Alex added to the scoreline after 72 minutes by capping off a simply mesmerizing, albeit controversial move. Chelsea have been looking much stronger since owner Roman Abramovich installed Russia coach Guus Hiddink as manager until the end of the season. With a trip to Italy to face Juventus on Tuesday, Chelsea will be glad that influential midfielder Michael Essien managed to play a part in this match after returning from a 6 month lay off from a knee injury.

Arsenal meanwhile took on Burnley in the 5th round at the Emirates Stadium, and won by a comfortable margin of 3-0, with goals from Vela, Eduardo and Eboue. Next up for the Gunners is a quarter final match against Hull City whereby the winner will have the daunting task of taking on Chelsea at Wembley. Arsenal will have to be focussed for their next match which includes a trip to Italy in order to take on AS Roma with a 1-0 advantage, Daniele De Rossi and David Pizarro are both doubts for the game against Arsenal which could see Arsenal through to the next round.

Manchester United managed to regain the goalden touch by thumping Fulham 4-0 with 2 goals from “reserve” striker Carlos Tevez, and 1 each from Wayne Rooney and Ji-Sung Park. The Red Devils’ quest for 6 trophies is still alive after this victory, although with Inter Milan on Wednesday and then Liverpool on Saturday, both fixtures at Old Trafford, the story could be much different by Sunday evening with Inter having the possibility of knocking United out of the Champions League and if Liverpool manage a win or a draw at Old Trafford it could see Chelsea reduce the gap to 7 or 8 points.

Everton kept their FA Cup hopes alive by beating Middlesbrough 2-1 at Goodison Park. Wheater opened the scoring for Middlesbrough just before half time. But Everton hit back just after half time with Fellaini grabbing the equaliser before ex-Manchester United striker Louis Saha scored the winner for the Toffees in the 56th minute.

Prediction 1- Arsenal to go through to the semi final. Although Hull will give them a run for their money I ca only see Arsenal getting through although you never know, one ex-United striker knocked out Boro, maybe an on loan striker from United could knock out United.

Prediction 2- Chelsea for the final. The revival since Hiddink has joined has been brilliant news for Chelsea fans and even if Arsenal, the stronger of the last 2 quarter finalists yet to book their place in the semi final I’m confident of a Chelsea victory and their progress.

Prediction 3- Manchester United to win. Although Everton will be confident of showing what they are capable of, especially after only just losing to United 1-0 at Old Trafford in the league at the end of January and that United’s defence is looking more and more uneasy and perhaps all it needs is for a stronger team, when attacking to take advantage of those errors that have been cropping up. Could be an Everton fixture but Sir Alex Ferguson loves this trophy and I’m sure we’ll see a very strong and confident team going to Wembley.

Currently in 14th placein the Barclays Premier League, just 3 points above the relegation zone on 24 points, Bolton Wanderers have gone and sold arguably their best player, Kevin Nolan to relegation rivals Newcastle United, who currently lie in 16th place on 23 points, just 2 above the relegation zone.

In a move reported to be worth £4million, Bolton have gone and sold their midfield magician, who ran the show for Bolton, and his presence in the centre midfield position will surely be sorely missed. If Bolton are to avoid a drop into the Coca Cola Championship they may need to cough up the cash on another centre midfielder. However with the January transfer deadline literally days away, Bolton could be set to hammer the final nail in their coffin if they decide not to act now before clubs stump up the price of their players even more as deadline day looms.

With key clashes against West Brom, Tottenham, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth, Sunderland and Newcastle all yet to be played, selling one of your best players was not the smartest move Bolton could have made. Although Bolton may have made £4million from the sale of Nolan the consequences of this decision could mean that the club lose out on millions if they are to suffer the same fate as 2 other Premier League teams in that they are relegated to the Coca Cola Championship.

If Bolton are to survive the drop then they will surely require a replacement for Nolan as they will require a gritty midfielder who can help his team dominate in the middle of the park and this could ensure their survival. With a move for Miguel Veloso of Sporting Lisbon apparently off it seems that Bolton boss Gary Megson was unwilling to pay the asking price that was deemed too high in comparison to Bolton’s valuation of the Portuguese midfielder.

Without signing another midfielder Bolton will surely need a lot of luck in order to ensure Premier League survival, and as most know, you rarely get lucky when in the bottom half of the Premier League table. Could it be time to say bye bye Bolton?

After Manchester United managed to secure their place in the Carling Cup final after a 4-3 aggregate win over Derby County all eyes now turn to Burnley and Tottenham as they battle each other to secure a final match at Wembley against the Red Devils. Tottenham lead Burnley 4-1 as they travel to Turf Moor to try and finish off Burnley and book themselves a place in the final at Wembley. Many United fans are likely to be cheering on Burnley, not only because of the slightly poor relationship between the two clubs after the signings of Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov from Spurs to United, but also because former United player Chris Eagles joined Burnley in the summer, and United fans will surely be backing Eagles and his team mates to see how he has progressed since his move.

Eagles will perhaps be most remembered by United fans for scoring the final goal in a spectacular 4-2 win against Everton at Goodison Park on April 28th 2007, a result which practically handed United the title in the race against Chelsea. After coming back from 2-0 down to make the scoreline 3-2 Eagles cooly finished off his move curling a shot past Richard Wright into the back of the net.

Since his move to Burnley from the Barclays Premier League and UEFA Champions League Champions, Eagles has impressed his new club with 5 league goals in 25 league appearances for his new club as well as 4 league assists. This impressive form has helped Burnley climb to 7th in the Championship table, just one spot off of a play off place. His great form has also meant that he has become considered as one of the best signing for a Championship team during the summer transfer window.

Burnley will be hoping the great form of Eagles will continue leading into this match at Turf Moor against current Carling Cup holders Tottenham, with Burnley facing the uphill struggle of overturning a 3 goal lead Spurs have as their advantage, but I for one believe that Burnley can overcome this struggle, and would love to see Eagles facing his former club at Wembley.

Wembley here we come.
COME ON EAGLES.

King Cantona as he is known by many United fans was born in Marseille, France and began his career playing for Auxerre. Although having had 3 loan moves in his career he had arguably his most successful spell at English giants Manchester United.

Now although both the Chelsea match and the Manchester United match contained plenty of excitement in the last few minutes, with last gasp goals to seal wins for both sides, the game of the day surely has to go to West Bromwich Albion, who pulled off an unbelievable 3-0 victory over Middlebrough.

It seems everytime the West Brom players walk onto the pitch, be it home or away fans of all teams are writing them off, saying that they will lose, but here we have a team ready to repeat their amazing survival of the 2004-05 season, whereby the Baggies were bottom of the Premier League table at Christmas, under the former Manchester United captain and former Albion player Bryan Robson and managed to avoid the drop on the last day of the season after beating Portsmouth, whilst elsewhere results went their way, with Manchester United beating Southampton to guide Soton to the Championship.

This season the Baggies have lacked a goal scoring talent and when faced with talented attackers like Afonso Alves and Tuncay, you would expect them to crumble under pressure from these two strikers, however Albion managed to prevent those threats producing goals and instead produced 3 goals to stun their opposition, 1 from Chris Brunt and 2 from Robert Koren althoughthe first of Koren’s goals is disputed between Koren and debutant Marc-Antoine Fortune as after a one-two between Koren and Fortune, Koren’s shot appeared to deflect off of Fortune to take it beyond Ross Turnball, the Boro shotstoper.

This victory now ensures that until tomorrow the Baggies will not be bottom, as they climbed above Tottenham Hostpur, who will host fellow strugglers Portsmouth who travel to White Hart Lane with not only the prospect of playing against former player Jermain Defoe and former manager Harry Redknapp, but also bringing Sol Campbell back to play against one of his former sides in Tottenham. If Tottenham manage to avoid defeat tomorrow they will climb above Albion but it will still leave the battle to avoid relegation close with around 10 teams battling to avoid the drop into the Coca Cola Championship.

To those that have consistantly written off the Baggies, do you still believe they will definitely go down? Having known what the Baggies can achieve, and what they have in previous seasons, I believe that with the closeness of the bottom half of the table, that the Baggies have a very realistic chance of avoiding the drop, as they did in the 2004-05 season. They have shown today that they can convert the chances into goals, and if they can go on a run of good form, they can climb up that table quicker than you can say “relegation”. Just like the Premier League Title race, the race to avoid relegation is far from over, and there are likely to be many twists and turns before the final whistle on the final day of the season.

In recent years the Premier League has been fairly straightforward, however the 2008/09 Barclays Premier League season has been fairly unusual thus far; with Liverpool mounting a serious title challenge and a relegation battle that possibly includes 13 teams, however the most unusual event to have occured in this seasons Premier League is the steady rise of Wigan Athletic.

Wigan are into their fourth season of their Premier League spell, although they have not always had it easy in arguably the best league in the world. After their successful season along with then fellow new boys West Ham United in the 2005/06 season whereby the Latics finished one place behind the Hammers, who were placed 9th, Wigan started to struggle, with the 2006/07 season seeing the Latics stay up on goal difference at the expense of Sheffield United after a dramatic last day and a season which was full of controversy in the relegation battle after West Ham signed Carlos Tevez, now of Manchester United in circumstances against Premier League rules. Then in the 2007/08 season Wigan finished in 14th only 4 points above Reading who got relegated in 18th place. Now though it seems that Steve Bruce has built the foundations of a team that could remain in a comfortable mid table position or challenge for a continental cup via the league for many years to come.

Bruce, a former Red Devil had already had one managerial spell at Wigan Athletic in 2001, and although guiding them to an unsuccessful Second Division play-off campaign left the club after less than two months in charge in order to become manager of Crystal Palace. He officially returned to once again manager the Latics on the 23rd of November 2007, he would have joined earlier if it had not been for complications with his release from Birmingham City. In his first match in charge he guided the club to a 1-1 draw against Manchester City at the JJB Stadium.

With Steve Bruce at the helm Wigan have managed to attract some lesser known players, but who have seemingly attracted a fair amount of interest in recent months. Wilson Palacios and Antonio Valencia, of Honduras and Ecuador respecitvely have been just two players who have attracted big team interest, with current Barclays Premier League and UEFA Champions League champions Manchester United showing an interest in the pair. With the loan signing of Amr Zaki, Wigan have looked much stronger, and Zaki himself has made an instant impact on the Premier League, being 3rd in the current top scorers on 10 behind big money signing Robinho of Manchester City, in 2nd with 11 and Nicola Anelka of Chelsea in 1st on 14.

The Latics are currently 7th in the Premier League table and are currently 10 points behind Aston Villa in 4th place and Manchester United in 3rd, with a game in hand over Villa but have played one more than United. Wigan’s game in hand is against the Red Devils at Old Trafford and although many people may right them off, they shouldn’t be underestimated. Chelsea may have lost 3-0 to United on the 11th of January but Wigan are likely to provide a bigger threat, not because they have more talented players than Chelsea, but because they are likely to be up for this match, especially as their manager is a United Legend thus they realise they have little to lose and are likely to take the game to United.

I’m not neccessarily saying Wigan will break the “Big Four” stranglehold, but perhaps with a few changes to strengthen certain areas and with a fair amount of luck and good form, then they could seriously mount a challenge to replace the struggling Arsenal into 4th place.

David Beckham has become a Football icon at four of his five clubs, and he started this long journey of stardom at current Champions League and Barclays Premier League champions Manchester United. Listening to some of the Los Angeles Galaxy fans it seems they have very little recollection of who David Beckham is, other than the former Real Madrid player, and have little recollection of where he became famous. Many of the ones I saw being interviewed seemed to only recognise his stint at Spanish Champions Real Madrid and it seems as if they believe that his fame started after he had joined the Galacticos.

Beckham has always had his controversial moments, from the sending off in the 1998 World Cup against Argentina, to getting sent off in a United shirt in the Club World Championship match against Necaxa. His controversial bust up with his managers which include Sir Alex Ferguson and Fabio Capello when he played for Manchester United and Real Madrid respectively have also added to produce a higher profile for Beckham in the Football World.

In 1999 Beckham helped United win the Treble which included the Barclay’s Premier League, the English FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League. Due to the bans of the first choice centre midfielders Beckham was moved to centre midfield for the FA Cup and Champions League finals. In the Champions League final it was two David Beckham corners which produced 2 goals in injury time in the second half to secure a memorable final win against Bayern Munich, who were winning 1-0 for the majority of the match.

Often overlooked as United’s greatest number 7 now that Cristiano Ronaldo has burst onto the scene after last seasons 42 goal haul. Beckham has not only been a World Class player for his club, but also for his country and has produced consistent World Class performances and this seems to be something that separates him from Ronaldo as it often seems that Ronnie produces fantastic performances for club, but for country he seems to produce more lackluster performances. Beckham may not produce 42 goals a season, but he produces consistent World Class performances, especially for United, not in the area of scoring goals, but in assisting, his corners, freekicks and crosses are all a memorable part of his game, and that is why Beckham should be classed as United Legend and should be considered United’s greatest number 7 ever.

Let’s face it, no matter which league you are in, any English team can have a good run of results and achieve a few giant killings in this Cup competition. The oldest football cup competition the FA Cup is back, and the defending Champions Portsmouth, started on rather a low note, being held to a 0-0 draw by Bristol City at Fratton Park.

Meanwhile the most successful team in the FA Cup’s history, 11 time winners Manchester United cruised to victory against 10-man Southampton at St. Mary’s in a 3-0 scoreline, with Danny Welbeck, Nani and Darron Gibson all getting their names on the score sheet.

Several shock results came out of the matches at the weekend, with Southend, Nottingham Forest and Hartlepool providing the biggest of the shocks. Hartlepool knocked out Premier League new boys Stoke City in a 2-0 scoreline at Victoria Park, home of the underdogs Hartlepool. Southend managed to overcome the atmosphere (if they have one) at Stamford Bridge to earn a replay against the Blues at Roots Hall after Southend managed to score a late equaliser to provide a 1-1 draw at the Bridge. Nottingham Forest provided perhaps the biggest shock of them all, by knocking out the richest team in the world, Manchester City, 3-0 at the City of Manchester Stadium, with Forest even having to take on an almost full strength City squad.

The FA Cup has always had the magic of being able to produce the giant killings, the results that no one would think possible, with last season seemingly reigniting that magic, after Barnsley managed to beat two of the “Big Four”, Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield, and Chelsea 1-0 at Oakwell. With three of the semi finalists having been playing outside of the top division that season, it really did produce the idea that in the FA Cup, it doesn’t matter which league you are from, impossible is nothing, the biggest of giants can lose to the smallest of minnows, and isn’t that why we all just love the competition?

Yes we’ve waited long enough, Dimitar Berbatov has finally added another Premier League goal to his tiny collection of 2 thus far this season, with his latest goal having been scored against Middlesbrough in a 1-0 victory at Old Trafford to make his Premier League victims consist of Boro, West Brom and Stoke, and I bet Inter Milan are quaking in their boots when they look his Premier League and even Champions League victims.

Maybe I shouldn’t judge him on his performances for the Red Devils thus far because lets face it, its only been a few months, but at the same time you have to consider that for a player that is dubbed “World Class” he is clearly been performing well under par. I had also better not judge him on his awful, greasy hair, which is perhaps the main reason why he is dubbed as “lazy” as he always fixes his hair whilst doing his weekly walk, often during a match.

Using Sir Alex Ferguson’s words from last season, it is fairly clear to understand the problem that existed in the Red Devils squad, and why Berbatov was not the solution to that problem. After the defeat to Portsmouth in the FA Cup last season, a trophy that Portsmouth would go on to win in the final against Cardiff in a 1-0 scoreline at Wembley, Sir Alex hit out at the referees but also hinted at the type of striker United needed in order to get the best out of the team and produce a squad that would be more difficult to pick up a result against than ever before when he said “We’re out and you could look at a lot of things, we missed a lot of chances for one“. This may just be my opinion but exactly what kind of striker do you believe would have helped to have solved this problem? Because if you ask me, a talented goal poacher would have been the answer, not necessarily one who would replace Rooney or Tevez as a first team regular, because let’s face it, the partnership of Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez was one of the world’s finest last season but we need a striker who can come off of the bench, and who can produce a goal, scrappy or not that would help us to win or draw against teams that were playing to our weaknesses.

Sir Alex has once again pointed to the fact that United are not converting the vast number of chances being created this season, much like last and it was after the 2-2 draw with Aalborg in the Champions League Group Stage that he said “As we’ve experienced recently and again against Aalborg we’re missing too many chances“, and this yet again adds to the idea that we need an out and out, goal poaching striker, who could convert some of the many chances we create and at the most crucial of times, so basically a player who can score Tevez-esque and Solskjaer-esque late goals, but on a more consistent basis.

There are several non-playing reasons as to why I hate Berbatov, with one of them being the treatment he dished out to Tottenham Hotspur. Last time I checked he wasn’t forced to sign a contract by Spurs or his agents, he signed it himself, he didn’t have to, he chose to, he must have realised that Spurs had the challenge of trying to break the grip of the top four and that it would be difficult, yet when they failed to achieve that in his first season, he seemed to think that he was above his team mates and wanted to move to a bigger club. It seemed he had given up on Spurs after one season, got sulky and decided he was too big for the London club and wanted to move to a bigger club, in the hope of getting to play Champions League football, and this was a major factor as to Spurs’ dismal performance in the Premier League last season. When people say “he chose us over City because he loves us and he’s always wanted to play for us”, I feel like saying “please, please wake up and smell the coffee, roses whatever”, people have to realize the reason as to why he wanted to leave Spurs in the first place, not for money, but for Champions League football, so he didn’t choose us over City because he loved us, but because we could guarantee Champions League football, I would imagine if it were between us and Chelsea, they would have won his signature, because they could offer higher wages, along with guaranteed Champions League football, and he wouldn’t have to move far away.

I want the club to move forward and sign players who will help solve the problems that we had in the previous season. I feel that Berbatov ruins what we did so often last season, which led to us scoring not only a whole heap of goals, but also earning us valuable points, this was our fast exciting counter attacks, which often had Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo all playing a part in these counter attacks. Not only do I feel that he has ruined our counter attacks but I also wonder why so many people wanted him, people say that he is more of a provider than a scorer, but this makes me wonder even more, as I would’ve liked to have signed him, but only if we were in dire need of a creative player or a creative forward, but last time I checked, both Rooney and Tevez were creative forwards in a team full of creative players, not only that but Tevez and Rooney also had such a fantastic partnership, so the way I see it, is that if we needed a player it would be a player that could come on, when we were struggling to score, and be able to poach a goal, either to secure all 3 points, or to claim a draw against the opposition, not only a player who could poach a goal, but also a player who would not have minded staying on the bench and not starting too many games.

In a team full of players who create chance upon chance, why did Sir Alex sign yet another player who can create, but doesn’t score so many? We need a goal scorer, otherwise we just start to turn into Arsenal, creating more and more chances, passing and passing and passing but not scoring so many, and with the injury to Ronaldo meaning it has taken him longer to hit top form, it means we are lacking a real goal scorer, and without a goal scorer, goals are harder to score, and without goals, teams cannot win matches, trophies cannot be won, and eventually, if the problem is not solved and gets worse relegation becomes and all too real possibility. Today Berbatov took on the mighty Southampton along with his United team mates and even the kids only just out of their nappies/diapers managed to pressure him enough to make him make a mistake, I bet Inter’s defences are running to the hills as we speak. Now don’t get me wrong, Berbatov is a great player, but the solution to United’s problems, at a whopping £30.75million? I very much doubt, in my honest opinion an overpriced midfielder cleverly disguised as a striker.