What a hit. What a fucking hit. Darren Ambrose is the modern day David Beckham and yesterday was no excepition. A full 36 yards out, only Super Daz would have the audacity to go for goal: yet he did. And what a goal – Friedel barely moved. Yet again, the signing of the season comes up trumps for the Palace.
Twas a bit of a sickner to concede in the 87th minute, even if Warnock’s post match rant was a little unnessecary, albeit comical. However we musn’t let that dissapoinment ruin what was a truly fantastic day – both in terms of performance and the atmosphere around the ground.
Danns and Ertl were both absolutely immense, and C-Lord as he is affectionately known produced a blinder of a defensive display to outmuscle both Heskey and Carew for the entire 90 minutes. It was ultimately the quality of the ball in that cost us dear, but it could have been worse had it not been for Speroni. Then again, that’s hardly a surprise.
The atmosphere was utterly brilliant. At one point even the notoriously quiet “family stand” was bouncing, an incredibly rare sight at Selhurst. Block B on Wednesday should be good, but yesterday was something special. Listening to 606 last night, and I hear a Villa fan praising his teams support. What planet is he on? For a start, they barely sung a song all game, and to only bring 2,000 away to an FA Cup 5th round tie is absolutely awful. For a team the size of Villa that have a genuine chance of winning the competition, I thought it was a poor turnout.
Was great to see Coppell yesterday: and his refusal to rule out returning to Palace is obviously very pleasing. Warnock has the job for as long as he wants it in my opinion, but if he were to leave, then Coppell would be the obvious target. I suspect he would come in on very low wages indeed. It’d certainly give a lift to the whole club if he was to return, such is his reputation in SE25.
Playing the Semi Final at Wembely really devalues the tradition of the Cup, but the turnout yesterday (20,000 my arse), indicates that it still holds some importance for fans. Certainly if you gave me a choice between reaching the playoffs and winning the FA Cup, then the playoffs would be put on hold for a season. We have a genuine chance of getting to the Quarter final now and then who knows what might happen: Villa will be looking towards their Carling Cup final, and with several thousand Palace fans set to make the journey, a shock could well be on the cards.
Why would I value the FA Cup more highly than the league? Clearly from an economical point of view, getting promoted/avoiding relegation would be so much more benefical to the club. However, the buzz of beating Premier league opposition, the possibility of Wembley, and the long lasting memory’s that have already been created by this cup run mean that the FA Cup is something that I absolutely love. It may have lost some of it’s value, but certainly amongst the “smaller teams”, it creates an incredible amount of excitement.
Monday, 15 February 2010
Friday, 12 February 2010
Bust In The Morning...
Something is going wrong when a club like Portsmouth is likely to be wound up on Monday. Ok, the winding up order could be deferred for another couple of months/the club could put itself in administration, but will it make a difference? In the short run possibly, in the long run almost certainly not. The size of their debt is so severe than only serious investment very quickly can save them and there’s been no serious interest thus far.
If Pompey were a one off then there would be no real cause for concern: not much anyway. Alas, they are just one in a whole string of clubs that could well be liquadated shortly. Southend, West Ham, Cardiff City, Chester...all clubs on the brink, not to mention Palace and several others.
For what it’s worth, I think we’ll be taken over soon: the fairly relaxed attitude of the administrators seem to indicate that this is the case and let’s hope so. Performances have been pretty good, and even if we’re only a couple of points above the drop zone at the moment, I’m confident that we can stay up.
Teams have been getting into debt for an age, and it’s never been a problem: so why is it such a problem now, why this bad? For a start, the influx of foreign owners doesn’t help. 1, because they raise the barrier of player needed to compete at the top yet futher and 2, because they more often than not don’t understand how English football works. If Palace got an Arab billionaire owner, I doubt I would bother going anymore: a chairman needs to be a fan first and foremost. Anyhow, this desire to match the big guns has seen teams spend way beyond their means. How could a little club like Pompey ever afford the likes of Crouch, Defoe, Krancjar and Campbell? You can look at the smaller clubs too: Chester are going under, and I’d be amazed if Histon were still going in three years time, with Baldwin withdrawing his funding. You look at a team like Fleetwood Town and your gut reaction is that it will all go horribly wrong.
The main issue though is undeinably the wages: John Utaka on 80K per week is a prime example of what is wrong with the modern game: Why on earth did the Premier league officials allow Pompey to spend such extravagent wages on such an unknown player? Surely they could and should have intervened?
Who knows what will happen to Pompey and indeed all the rest of the clubs in trouble. We’re by no means out of the woods yet, and until the takeover is completed, I’l l still be very anxious. With the impact of Sky and the fairly modern way of running a football club, teams are living off assets that they don’t have, something that needs to stop. The sooner the Football Association do something decent for once and try and stop this, the better football will become.
If Pompey were a one off then there would be no real cause for concern: not much anyway. Alas, they are just one in a whole string of clubs that could well be liquadated shortly. Southend, West Ham, Cardiff City, Chester...all clubs on the brink, not to mention Palace and several others.
For what it’s worth, I think we’ll be taken over soon: the fairly relaxed attitude of the administrators seem to indicate that this is the case and let’s hope so. Performances have been pretty good, and even if we’re only a couple of points above the drop zone at the moment, I’m confident that we can stay up.
Teams have been getting into debt for an age, and it’s never been a problem: so why is it such a problem now, why this bad? For a start, the influx of foreign owners doesn’t help. 1, because they raise the barrier of player needed to compete at the top yet futher and 2, because they more often than not don’t understand how English football works. If Palace got an Arab billionaire owner, I doubt I would bother going anymore: a chairman needs to be a fan first and foremost. Anyhow, this desire to match the big guns has seen teams spend way beyond their means. How could a little club like Pompey ever afford the likes of Crouch, Defoe, Krancjar and Campbell? You can look at the smaller clubs too: Chester are going under, and I’d be amazed if Histon were still going in three years time, with Baldwin withdrawing his funding. You look at a team like Fleetwood Town and your gut reaction is that it will all go horribly wrong.
The main issue though is undeinably the wages: John Utaka on 80K per week is a prime example of what is wrong with the modern game: Why on earth did the Premier league officials allow Pompey to spend such extravagent wages on such an unknown player? Surely they could and should have intervened?
Who knows what will happen to Pompey and indeed all the rest of the clubs in trouble. We’re by no means out of the woods yet, and until the takeover is completed, I’l l still be very anxious. With the impact of Sky and the fairly modern way of running a football club, teams are living off assets that they don’t have, something that needs to stop. The sooner the Football Association do something decent for once and try and stop this, the better football will become.
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Coyle - You Must Go To Bolton
Owen Coyle/Iain Dowie: The similarities are remarkable. Fantastic motivators, yet tactically very naive: Coyle would be a fool to reject a move to Bolton.
What a crazy thing to say, you might ask: he’s got them up, and with more than half of the season gone, they are 14th, which is perfect for them. However, with no wins in 9 Premiership matches, their position is all of a sudden looking very precarious – and at this rate, they will get relegated.
Just 1 point from 10 away games does, in my opinion, ridicule Phil Mcnulty’s article on the BBC, hailing the Scot as somewhat of a tactical genius. OK, so I wouldn’t expect them to win many away, but he never changes things – and sometimes in the top league you do have to tinker a bit. Burnley playing 4-4-2 away to Arsenal just isn’t going to work, something that Coyle seems unaware of.
So why Bolton: well firstly, their current position of 18th does nothing to justify the squad they have. Megson bought very well - he just couldn’t get players playing for him, which was ultimately why he was sacked. Furthermore, with the league so tight at the moment, Bolton are just 5 points away from the top half – with two games in hand on most teams. In short, I think they will comfortably stay up, whereas Burnley with or without Coyle, will be relegated.
Secondly, Phil Gartside – as much of an idiot as he is, generally sticks by his managers. Allardyce did a remarkable job but was given time, Megson was given over 2 years and in the end it was the fans that really did for him, whilst Sammy Lee was just never cut out for management. He can have this season, where they will stay up, and then rebuild in the summer with decent funds. Bolton are far wealthier than Burnley, and the hard facts are that you can’t progress in the Premiership without any money. Say Burnley had stayed up this year: It would have been like Hull City, who haven’t really progressed at all. In fact I would say that Bolton are the most underacheiving team in the top flight at the moment. They should be in the top half, so even if Coyle does a half decent job, they’ll move up the league fairly quickly. In addition to that, the fans are very keen for him to come (being an Ex-player and that), so they will give him far more time than they gave Megson – again to his advantage.
Back to the Dowie anallargy: and here is what I mean. Dowie got us up almost miraculously which was fantastic. The next season, we got relegated, and the season after that we limped to the playoffs before being thrashed by Watford. Burnley might not have Andy Johnson, but the one trick pony of “motivator” that is now associated with Dowie is something that could come back to haunt Coyle if he stays at Burnley. He needs to move on to get a club that has resources to progress. Whether he is truly a fantastic tactition or not, we’re yet to see. However, if he stays at Burnley his career could well never progress, in the same way that the once highly rated Iain Dowie has only ever gone backwards since leaving Palace.
As for lack of loyalty: well I’m sorry Burnley fans, but your club has reached it’s potential. Bolton is a far bigger club at the moment, and in the cut and thrust world of football management, I don’t think anyone can deny a move that he clearly would love. We all want our managers to stay as long as possible (providing they’re doing well) and Burnley fans only have to look at where they got Coyle from in the first place to realise that it is just one massive food chain.
What a crazy thing to say, you might ask: he’s got them up, and with more than half of the season gone, they are 14th, which is perfect for them. However, with no wins in 9 Premiership matches, their position is all of a sudden looking very precarious – and at this rate, they will get relegated.
Just 1 point from 10 away games does, in my opinion, ridicule Phil Mcnulty’s article on the BBC, hailing the Scot as somewhat of a tactical genius. OK, so I wouldn’t expect them to win many away, but he never changes things – and sometimes in the top league you do have to tinker a bit. Burnley playing 4-4-2 away to Arsenal just isn’t going to work, something that Coyle seems unaware of.
So why Bolton: well firstly, their current position of 18th does nothing to justify the squad they have. Megson bought very well - he just couldn’t get players playing for him, which was ultimately why he was sacked. Furthermore, with the league so tight at the moment, Bolton are just 5 points away from the top half – with two games in hand on most teams. In short, I think they will comfortably stay up, whereas Burnley with or without Coyle, will be relegated.
Secondly, Phil Gartside – as much of an idiot as he is, generally sticks by his managers. Allardyce did a remarkable job but was given time, Megson was given over 2 years and in the end it was the fans that really did for him, whilst Sammy Lee was just never cut out for management. He can have this season, where they will stay up, and then rebuild in the summer with decent funds. Bolton are far wealthier than Burnley, and the hard facts are that you can’t progress in the Premiership without any money. Say Burnley had stayed up this year: It would have been like Hull City, who haven’t really progressed at all. In fact I would say that Bolton are the most underacheiving team in the top flight at the moment. They should be in the top half, so even if Coyle does a half decent job, they’ll move up the league fairly quickly. In addition to that, the fans are very keen for him to come (being an Ex-player and that), so they will give him far more time than they gave Megson – again to his advantage.
Back to the Dowie anallargy: and here is what I mean. Dowie got us up almost miraculously which was fantastic. The next season, we got relegated, and the season after that we limped to the playoffs before being thrashed by Watford. Burnley might not have Andy Johnson, but the one trick pony of “motivator” that is now associated with Dowie is something that could come back to haunt Coyle if he stays at Burnley. He needs to move on to get a club that has resources to progress. Whether he is truly a fantastic tactition or not, we’re yet to see. However, if he stays at Burnley his career could well never progress, in the same way that the once highly rated Iain Dowie has only ever gone backwards since leaving Palace.
As for lack of loyalty: well I’m sorry Burnley fans, but your club has reached it’s potential. Bolton is a far bigger club at the moment, and in the cut and thrust world of football management, I don’t think anyone can deny a move that he clearly would love. We all want our managers to stay as long as possible (providing they’re doing well) and Burnley fans only have to look at where they got Coyle from in the first place to realise that it is just one massive food chain.
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