January 2009 Archives

So far this Premier League season has been wierd. You might be saying to yourself "well now that's an understatement" and to be honest I'd probably agree with you. With more or less the whole bottom half of the table consumed in a battle for survival including premiership oldboys such as Tottenham Hotspur, Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United, the richest club in the world football along with newbies such as Stoke and West Brom, what a climax we should be in for. Yet, in this post I want to focus on the two teams who are currently sitting in 7th and 8th: Wigan Athletic and West Ham United. Whilst Wigan have held Liverpool twice this season and only conceded 8 in their last 11 (impressive when you consider they're joint third best in the league in that respect), the Hammers are unbeaten in 7 in all competitions with a forward in the shape of Carlton Cole who's scored 5 in his last 5.

Where are all the plaudits?? Cole looked like he was a player who was down and out not too long ago yet look at him now. 10 goals in 22 appearances so far this season seems not bad to me, not bad at all. We can only salute the man-management skills of Gianfranco Zola here in making the big striker believe in his own ability. There was always something there- why do you think Claudio Ranieri's Juventus recently made an inquiry about his availability? Ranieri groomed Carlton Cole at Chelsea and knows him better than most; moreover this suggests that the striker's recent run of form has not gone unnoticed on the continent. With Craig Bellamy gone and Dean Ashton still injured, on current form Carlton Cole looks more than capable of, to quote Rio Ferdinand, "taking up the mantlepiece" up front.

Although Wigan have lost two key players in Wilson Palacios and Emile Heskey, Mido's loan deal may be a smart piece of business by Steve Bruce. I reckon that the temperamental striker will discover a good understanding between himself and his fellow Egyptian, Amr Zaki, up front. In terms of the back 4, a couple of years ago every football fan loved to slate Titus Bramble and rightly so. His time at Newcastle will never be favourably remembered yet look at how he has turned things around with some stunning performances at the back alongside the Austrian hustler, Paul Scharner.

Both these two sides could be said to have doubtful long term futures. West Ham's Icelandic owners are in big trouble and you only have to wonder to what extent the Hammers will sell sell sell in the summer. Wigan are faced with the fact that they simply cannot compete financially with the big teams in the league and in Europe. They couldn't argue with Aston Villa and moreover will struggle to repel Real Madrid if they come in for Antonio Valencia. Dave Whelan is no Sheik Mansour but he remains one of the best owners in the country because more than anything, he strikes me as a realist who knows what Wigan can achieve but is not for one minute going to ascend into 'cloud cuckoo land'. 

In short, let's give these two sides the credit they deserve. Let's applaud the management skills of Zola and Bruce and fundamentally let's take our hats off to Cole and Bramble- two players who would have been in our worst premiership 11s a few years ago and now I bet they grace a fair number of Fantasy Football sides. As ever, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

As a youngster and an 18 year old fresher who's certainly no Jeff Stelling and who has the co-ordination of a limp merecat (and thus could never player football in his life), I realize that this is quite a bold statement to make but I'll make it anyway. Anyone who saw Barcelona slaughter a strong Deportivo side 5-0 will acknowledge that Pep Guardiola's team are more than phenomenal, they are an outfit which defines how football should be played and a side which confirms the axiom that football is not just a game, it is an artform. "Hold on Nation, haven't you forgotten the Barcelona side which won the Champions league and destroyed Real Madrid in their own backyard in 05-06???"" I hear you cry. Yet, what makes this Barcelona side particularly incredible is the fact that Guardiola has got the jigsaw puzzle down to a tee. Every player knows where they fit and overall this has created a team which ticks like a swiss watch. There are a few observations which I think are important in this respect. Firstly, the role of Txiki Begiristain as Director of Football has been integral to their success so far. While Guardiola coaches the players, Begiristain has been the key mover behind the scenes and, crucially, is said to have a great relationship with the President, Juan Laporta. I personally think he has and continues to do a fantastic job in a role which, comparatively, is the prime cause of friction in the background setup of Barca's eternal rivals, Real Madrid. You need only look at the clear animosity between Madrid's director of football Predrag Mijatović and Fabio Capello, or between Mijatovic and Bernd Schuster, or between Mijatovic and the disgraced former President Ramon Calderon, to observe one of the fundamental issues behind Madrid's decline this season. Secondly, Guardiola makes good use of cantera or youngsters such as Sergio Busquets or Bojan who have both pledged their future allegiance to the Catalan outfit. Thirdly, just look at the way the manager has re-invented Eidur Gudjohnsen and Thierry Henry with the former playing on the left side of a midfield trio and the latter forming a formidable partnership with a re-invigorated Samuel Eto'o and a sublime Lionel Messi up front. With a record 50 points at the half-way stage in La Liga, I reckon that this is only the first of the records which Barcelona will break this season and beyond. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts