Everyone in football agrees there is too much of it, most of the people in football would point the finger at International fixtures which there appears to be an excess of but what people can't agree on how to reduce this number. The likes are Arsene Wenger have raged against the bi-annual appearance of African Cup of Nations but if I was in charge of the world game I'd be wary about putting pressure on The African Football Association to move this tournament to a four year cycle. This decision is for the African Association to make and given that their best players emigrate to Europe at a very young age, I believe they are entitled to see some of their finest exports every two years should they wish to.
One tournament that I believe could be altered for the good of the game is the Confederations Cup. Maybe it is just me but other than testing out South Africa's infrastructure and pre - warning the world about the racket the vuvuzelas would make, what did anyone take out of the 2009 Confederations Cup?
It's pretty evident to me that FIFA need to "dry run" a mini tournament, especially in countries without the experience of hosting global tournaments (Brazil, Russia and Qatar hosting the next 3 world cups) but with the exception of the host nation which other nations are really interested in playing in these tournaments?
With that in mind I was thinking that seven representative sides could take on the Host Nation in re-badged "Continental Cup".The format would remain exactly the same, with two groups of four before a the semi final stage. I'm confident that more revenue would be generated from TV audiences sold from this tournament which could split around the developing football nations.
All of the representative sides should be strong even withstanding the inevitable injury withdrawals. The way I would divide the footballing stratosphere is thus, I have tried my best to keep continents together but obviously this was not entirely possible. Europe has been divided into 3 sectors, with each sector having roughly the same population aggregated from nations listed in FIFA Top 50 September 2011:
1. Northern Europe (Scandinavia, Great Britain, EIRE, Russia and Armenia)
2. Central Europe (The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Romania
3. Southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia)
The other regions to be represented would be:
4. South America
5. Central and North America
6. Asia / Australasia
7. Africa
Now I accept that there will be some people that can not abide the idea of a Greek sharing playing alongside a Turk for example but we all saw how the African continent got behind the Black Stars in 2010 maybe this will actually improve relations in certain regions as well.
The counter argument would surely be just imagine some of the teams that could be put out. You would see combinations of players that would ordinarily see together.
Just imagine, Rooney and Ibrahimovic linking up for Northern Europe, imagine the Central European Manager having to choose between Neuer or Cech in goal or having to work out how to get the best out of any combination of Wesley Sneijder, Marek Hamsik, Arjen Robben, Mesit Ozil and Thomas Muller.
The options available to the Southern European Manager are equally appealing with the Spanish contingent joined by the class of Andrea Pirlo, Antonio Cassano, Pazzini and Rossi from Italy with of course Portugal's Ronaldo, Fabio Coentrao and Pepe.
You know the South Americans will be strong when Argentina and Brazil are you 2nd and 3rd best nations! Could any manager get the best out Messi? Or would they opt to stick to potent Uruguayan trimative of Forlan, Suarez and Cavani?
Anyway I for one believe, it could be a goer and would interest me. If you need further convincing think back to what you could have witnessed in 1997 version....Ronaldo and Batistuta, Baggio and Raul, Bergkamp and Klinsmann.
Worth a try?
If the tournament was to start to tomorrow I would place my hard earned cash on the South Europeans - I would imagine they would line up something like this:
Casillas
Sergio Ramos - Pique - Pepe (Puyol) Fabio Coentrao
Xabi Alonso - De Rossi
Iniesta - Xavi - Ronaldo
Villa
Monday, 3 October 2011
Saturday, 10 September 2011
A Premier League Squad for 2011 - 12
Spending an afternoon sat on the sofa hungover can get you thinking about some strange things, who would win out of a fight between Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck for example (Donald Duck of course) but the subject of this weeks random musing was composing a Premier League squad.
The criteria I imposed on myself is that the squad would have 20 members with 1 player coming from each of the league's representatives. I've tried to cover each position as best as possible, anyway here's my squad I'd love to see yours!
Szczesny (Arsenal)
Given (Villa)
Santon (Newcastle)
Brown (Sunderland)
Cahill (Bolton)
Samba (B'burn)
Showcross (Stoke)
Hangeland (Fulham)
Cole (Chelsea)
Baines (Everton)
Modric (Spurs)
Silva (Manchester City)
Brunt (WBA)
Jarvis (Wolves)
Taarabt (QPR)
Sinclair (Swans)
Rooney (Man United)
Suarez (Liverpool)
Holt (Norwich)
Rodallega (Wigan)
The criteria I imposed on myself is that the squad would have 20 members with 1 player coming from each of the league's representatives. I've tried to cover each position as best as possible, anyway here's my squad I'd love to see yours!
Szczesny (Arsenal)
Given (Villa)
Santon (Newcastle)
Brown (Sunderland)
Cahill (Bolton)
Samba (B'burn)
Showcross (Stoke)
Hangeland (Fulham)
Cole (Chelsea)
Baines (Everton)
Modric (Spurs)
Silva (Manchester City)
Brunt (WBA)
Jarvis (Wolves)
Taarabt (QPR)
Sinclair (Swans)
Rooney (Man United)
Suarez (Liverpool)
Holt (Norwich)
Rodallega (Wigan)
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Where Is The Real Academy Of Football In England?
West Ham United - The Self Proclaimed Academy of Football - has just appointed a new manager in Sam Allardyce who has the reputation of "long ball game" much in contrast to West Ham's football traditions. West Ham's demise is even more surprising when you look at the England Internationals the club has produced in the past 15 years Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Glen Johnson and Jermain Defoe all with 25+ caps. But can they really claim to be the academy of football when Manchester United produced a generation of footballers to represent the 3 Lions with distinction from 1995 for a decade and more.
I was interested in looking into the players that have represented England since the year 2000 and where their debut was made with more than 25 caps. Unsurprisingly the two aforementioned clubs top the list, with West Ham having six internationals (those players mentioned above plus Paul Ince) while Manchester United and Liverpool both had five (The Neville Brothers, Nicky Butt, Beckham and Scholes for United) (Folwer, Owen, Carragher, Gerrard and McManaman for Liverpool).
The fact that these clubs with a tradition of promoting from within have been successful in producing young english players in the past decade is not a surprise but only Wayne Rooney has come out Everton's famed academy. Of course Jack Rodwell could be a multi capped international in the future but this is no certainty of course.
So it appears West Ham are the academy of football but after Manchester United's 2011 Youth Cup win, with Ravel Morrison, Ryan Tunnicliffe and Will Keane starring, beating Chelsea and Liverpool on the way lets see how the land lies in 5 years.
I was interested in looking into the players that have represented England since the year 2000 and where their debut was made with more than 25 caps. Unsurprisingly the two aforementioned clubs top the list, with West Ham having six internationals (those players mentioned above plus Paul Ince) while Manchester United and Liverpool both had five (The Neville Brothers, Nicky Butt, Beckham and Scholes for United) (Folwer, Owen, Carragher, Gerrard and McManaman for Liverpool).
The fact that these clubs with a tradition of promoting from within have been successful in producing young english players in the past decade is not a surprise but only Wayne Rooney has come out Everton's famed academy. Of course Jack Rodwell could be a multi capped international in the future but this is no certainty of course.
So it appears West Ham are the academy of football but after Manchester United's 2011 Youth Cup win, with Ravel Morrison, Ryan Tunnicliffe and Will Keane starring, beating Chelsea and Liverpool on the way lets see how the land lies in 5 years.
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Underachievers
We've all heard the expression "sleeping giant", we can all point to serial underachievers in our domestic league but who really is the biggest basket case of a club found around Europe. If I were to ask you all to name biggest underachiever in your domestic league I suspect the names of Manchester City and Newcastle United would be shouted at me by the English readers, the Spaniards and Real Madrid fans would have no hesitation in suggesting their cross town neighbours Atleti. To be fair to Atleti, Europa League title in 2010 and a domestic double back 1996 has given them some breathing space.
Looking at the trophy cabinets of German and French clubs points the finger squarley at the capital clubs Paris St. Germain and Hertha Berlin although I'm sure Schalke would be pretty unhappy with their recent achievements.
In Italy it is difficult to identify a side that obviously performed way below it's natural level, Inter Milan acquired an unwanted reputation for choking but even in their Serie "A" draught they still claimed the odd Uefa cup and Coppa Italia, however following the Mancini and Mourinho dominance culminating in a treble in 2010 this has been laid to bed. Possibly Lazio should be labelled Italy's laughing stock, only Sergio Cragnotti's lavish spending in the late 90's leaves this as a question mark.
Dutch football has always been dominated by the big clubs from Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Rotterdam and with all of these clubs winning the European Cup it would be harsh to label any of them underachievers.
I would argue that there are certain clubs that don't spring to the imagination straight away that should be considered as massive underachievers- these would be Real Betis of Spain and Udinese of Italy. So for the sake of this blog I will look at the "claims" of the following clubs, Manchester City, Real Betis, Paris St. Germain, Hertha Berlin and Lazio to determine who should take the title of Europe's biggest loser. It may the first title they have won in years!
Manchester City (2 League Championships, 4 FA Cups, 2 League Cups, 1 European Cup Winners Cup)
English football is littered with underachievers, the revered Leeds side of Don Revie only managed to win 2 championships, 2 Fairs Cups and 1 FA Cup in 13 year period but they would settle for a slice of this success now after spending too much time in the third tier. Some would argue that two time European Cup winners Nottingham Forest are major underachievers in recent seasons but I would suggest that during Clough's reign they genuinely punched above their weight and that since his retirement in 1993 they have returned to their natural level.
Newcastle are a huge club with limited success to put it mildly, no league title since 1927 and no honour at all since the moon landings (if they ever happened) but all of these clubs are nothing compared to the Blue side of Manchester.
Officially the world's richest club when the Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited completed their takeover in 2008 but without a major honour since before The Sex Pistols unleashed "Nevermind The Bollocks" on the world. However if you ever need to be reminded how long it is since their last bit of silverware take a trip to Old Trafford and look up at the Stretford End to see the "35 Years" banner which refers to the lack of trophies their 1976 League Cup win. Even before the Arab takeover this barren spell was far too lengthy for a club that had an average attendance of over 32,000 when they spent a year in the 3rd tier of the English game however unless they can overturn their city neighbours on Saturday at Wembley then they will appear on lists such as this for a while.
Paris St. Germain (2 League Championships, 8 French Cups, 3 League Cups, 1 Cup Winners Cup)
The only professional club located in a metropolitan area of Paris with a population over 11 million has scandalously underachieved. Imagine what Chelsea could have achieved with no Arsenal, Tottenham or West Ham in London to get a sense of perspective. A club that has two Fifa Player of the Year winners in George Weah and Ronaldinho but no trophy since 1996 really has to be classified as massive underachievers when set against Marseille's 19 titles and the fact that Monaco, Lyon, Nantes and Bordeaux have won the title at least 5 times each!!
Real Betis (1 League Championships, 2 Copa Del Reys)
One of three teams to defeat the great Barcelona team put together by Pep Guardiola however this was in the Copa Del Rey whilst Betis languish in the Segunda Division in Spain after being relegated in 2009. Spain's 6th best supported club has been in shadows of their traditionally smaller neighbours Sevilla who won back to back Uefa Cups in the new millennium but they appear to be on the way back as they sit top of the league but to give an indication of how they are struggling Barcelona's 'B' team sits only 6 points behind in third. With only two Copa del Rey's since the Spanish Civil War it is about time that a club of this size made headlines for the right reasons other than spunking £20 million on Denilson.
Lazio (2 League Championships, 5 Copa Italia, 1 European Cup Winners Cup)
The barb often aimed at Manchester City is that despite spending £475 million since 2003 (http://www.transferleague.co.uk/) they still have a bare trophy cabinet at least when Lazio splashed the cash in the late 90's when Sven Goran Eriksson was in charge they had trophies to show for it! Christian Vieri was signed for 19 million in 1998, Juan Veron joined him in 1999 for £18 million in and in 2000 £35 million was spent on Hernan Crespo allowing Lazio to capture the Italian Cup in 1998 and 2000, The Serie'A' title in 2000 with the last European Cup Winners Cup title secured at Villa Park. Without this 3 year purple patch the club from the capital's record would be decidedly average with only 5 others trophies won in their 111 year history, the reasons for Lazio's slide back into mediocrity would appear to have been Sven's decision to manage the English national side followed quickly by the liquidation of Cragnotti's Cirio company in 2002.
A more left wing argument (no pun intended when compiling an article on Sinisa Mihajlovic's Lazio) would be to include Udinese who are a fixture in Serie 'A' and could well make their 2nd appearance in the Champions League next season but as yet are to open their account when it comes to major honours. With a capacity of over 40,000 this is a club of some repute and I can't think of another club around Europe to draw a blank on this scale.
Hertha Berlin (3 Bundasliga's)
If you want to get an indication on what a calamity Hertha are, just consider the story of the last two seasons. In 2008 - 2009 Hertha were leading the way in the Bundasliga for much of the campaign with a series of 1 - 0 victories pushing them to the summit, however they ran out of steam and Wolfsburg pipped them to the title. The next season they finished bottom.....stone last. If you are thinking that every side can underachieve from time to time you are going to easy on them, their last title was in 1931. Its at this stage that fellow underachievers but current Champions League semi finalists Schalke breathe a massive sigh of releif for the massive chokers from the capital.
Thats why I would nominate Hertha Berlin is Europe's biggest loser just nudging out PSG.
Looking at the trophy cabinets of German and French clubs points the finger squarley at the capital clubs Paris St. Germain and Hertha Berlin although I'm sure Schalke would be pretty unhappy with their recent achievements.
In Italy it is difficult to identify a side that obviously performed way below it's natural level, Inter Milan acquired an unwanted reputation for choking but even in their Serie "A" draught they still claimed the odd Uefa cup and Coppa Italia, however following the Mancini and Mourinho dominance culminating in a treble in 2010 this has been laid to bed. Possibly Lazio should be labelled Italy's laughing stock, only Sergio Cragnotti's lavish spending in the late 90's leaves this as a question mark.
Dutch football has always been dominated by the big clubs from Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Rotterdam and with all of these clubs winning the European Cup it would be harsh to label any of them underachievers.
I would argue that there are certain clubs that don't spring to the imagination straight away that should be considered as massive underachievers- these would be Real Betis of Spain and Udinese of Italy. So for the sake of this blog I will look at the "claims" of the following clubs, Manchester City, Real Betis, Paris St. Germain, Hertha Berlin and Lazio to determine who should take the title of Europe's biggest loser. It may the first title they have won in years!
Manchester City (2 League Championships, 4 FA Cups, 2 League Cups, 1 European Cup Winners Cup)
English football is littered with underachievers, the revered Leeds side of Don Revie only managed to win 2 championships, 2 Fairs Cups and 1 FA Cup in 13 year period but they would settle for a slice of this success now after spending too much time in the third tier. Some would argue that two time European Cup winners Nottingham Forest are major underachievers in recent seasons but I would suggest that during Clough's reign they genuinely punched above their weight and that since his retirement in 1993 they have returned to their natural level.
Newcastle are a huge club with limited success to put it mildly, no league title since 1927 and no honour at all since the moon landings (if they ever happened) but all of these clubs are nothing compared to the Blue side of Manchester.
Officially the world's richest club when the Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited completed their takeover in 2008 but without a major honour since before The Sex Pistols unleashed "Nevermind The Bollocks" on the world. However if you ever need to be reminded how long it is since their last bit of silverware take a trip to Old Trafford and look up at the Stretford End to see the "35 Years" banner which refers to the lack of trophies their 1976 League Cup win. Even before the Arab takeover this barren spell was far too lengthy for a club that had an average attendance of over 32,000 when they spent a year in the 3rd tier of the English game however unless they can overturn their city neighbours on Saturday at Wembley then they will appear on lists such as this for a while.
Paris St. Germain (2 League Championships, 8 French Cups, 3 League Cups, 1 Cup Winners Cup)
The only professional club located in a metropolitan area of Paris with a population over 11 million has scandalously underachieved. Imagine what Chelsea could have achieved with no Arsenal, Tottenham or West Ham in London to get a sense of perspective. A club that has two Fifa Player of the Year winners in George Weah and Ronaldinho but no trophy since 1996 really has to be classified as massive underachievers when set against Marseille's 19 titles and the fact that Monaco, Lyon, Nantes and Bordeaux have won the title at least 5 times each!!
Real Betis (1 League Championships, 2 Copa Del Reys)
One of three teams to defeat the great Barcelona team put together by Pep Guardiola however this was in the Copa Del Rey whilst Betis languish in the Segunda Division in Spain after being relegated in 2009. Spain's 6th best supported club has been in shadows of their traditionally smaller neighbours Sevilla who won back to back Uefa Cups in the new millennium but they appear to be on the way back as they sit top of the league but to give an indication of how they are struggling Barcelona's 'B' team sits only 6 points behind in third. With only two Copa del Rey's since the Spanish Civil War it is about time that a club of this size made headlines for the right reasons other than spunking £20 million on Denilson.
Lazio (2 League Championships, 5 Copa Italia, 1 European Cup Winners Cup)
The barb often aimed at Manchester City is that despite spending £475 million since 2003 (http://www.transferleague.co.uk/) they still have a bare trophy cabinet at least when Lazio splashed the cash in the late 90's when Sven Goran Eriksson was in charge they had trophies to show for it! Christian Vieri was signed for 19 million in 1998, Juan Veron joined him in 1999 for £18 million in and in 2000 £35 million was spent on Hernan Crespo allowing Lazio to capture the Italian Cup in 1998 and 2000, The Serie'A' title in 2000 with the last European Cup Winners Cup title secured at Villa Park. Without this 3 year purple patch the club from the capital's record would be decidedly average with only 5 others trophies won in their 111 year history, the reasons for Lazio's slide back into mediocrity would appear to have been Sven's decision to manage the English national side followed quickly by the liquidation of Cragnotti's Cirio company in 2002.
A more left wing argument (no pun intended when compiling an article on Sinisa Mihajlovic's Lazio) would be to include Udinese who are a fixture in Serie 'A' and could well make their 2nd appearance in the Champions League next season but as yet are to open their account when it comes to major honours. With a capacity of over 40,000 this is a club of some repute and I can't think of another club around Europe to draw a blank on this scale.
Hertha Berlin (3 Bundasliga's)
If you want to get an indication on what a calamity Hertha are, just consider the story of the last two seasons. In 2008 - 2009 Hertha were leading the way in the Bundasliga for much of the campaign with a series of 1 - 0 victories pushing them to the summit, however they ran out of steam and Wolfsburg pipped them to the title. The next season they finished bottom.....stone last. If you are thinking that every side can underachieve from time to time you are going to easy on them, their last title was in 1931. Its at this stage that fellow underachievers but current Champions League semi finalists Schalke breathe a massive sigh of releif for the massive chokers from the capital.
Thats why I would nominate Hertha Berlin is Europe's biggest loser just nudging out PSG.
Saturday, 26 March 2011
How Strong Is The Premier League?
With the Champions League quarter final containing 3 sides from the English Premier League the simple argument would be to suggest that it has regained it's place at the pinnacle of the European Game again after being usurped by big spending behemoths from Madrid and Barcelona. The argument that Spanish league was the best league in Europe could not be disputed after Barcelona took Manchester United's crown in 2009 and then Real Madrid smashed the world record transfer fee to take their spearhead, Cristiano Ronaldo for £80 million, the very same summer.
My suspicion is that La Liga still remains the best league in Europe. Obviously it depends on what criteria you use to determine the strength of league - representation in the latter stages of the Champions League would favour the English League by 3 to 2 (Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United for England and Barcelona and Real Madrid for Spain). The secondary Europa League does not offer much indication into the strength of any of the major leagues with only Villareal of Spain in the last 8 (The Dutch and Portuguese Leagues dominating here with 2 a piece).
Another argument would be to predict where a mini league between the current top 6 of the two leagues would look like, seeing as Inter Milan are the current European Champions the top 6 in Italy can be included as well to see where this league would fit.
Currently 18 teams would read as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Villareal, Valencia, Espanyol, Athletic Bilbao from Spain. England's top 6 is Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham, and Liverpool with Serie 'A' represented by AC Milan, city neighbours Inter, Napoli, Udinese, Lazio and Roma.
If the hypothetical season was to start tomorrow with all short and medium term injuries clearing up (i.e Owen Hargreaves hasn't got off his death bed to be the midfield destroyer that Manchester United crave) I would reckon the league would look something like this.
1. Barcelona
2. Real Madrid
3. Manchester United
4. Inter
5. Chelsea
6. AC Milan
7. Arsenal
8. Tottenham
9. Manchester City
10. Villareal
11. Liverpool
12. Napoli
13. Valencia
14. Roma
15. Udinese
16. Espanyol
17. Lazio
18. Athletic Bilbao
If you aggregate the position of each team from the various leagues then the championship with the lowest total should be judged as having the strongest league. Lets look at this alphabetically then:
England 43
Italy 68
Spain 60
Those results are really surprising to me and I think that the spending power and general strength of Barcelona and Real Madrid have weakened the rest of their league. Perhaps if clubs such as Atletico Madrid and Sevilla in La Liga were performing closer to the standard that clubs of their size should then La Liga may well be closer to the overall strength of the Premier League. The same argument can be made for Juventus in Italy and to a lesser extent the clubs from the capital who are placed in 5 and 6 place currently. Its also difficult to judge the strength of the Milan giants as well, I'd back Milan to be a stronger outfit next season with Cassano having a pre-season with them as well Van Bommel who were both ineligible for European competition and Inter getting over the Benitez debacle.
So I suppose the conclusion is that overall the Premier League is the strongest league when it comes to the top 6 but I would always back Real Madrid and Barcelona to have edge over the English Pair of Manchester United and Chelsea and I think AC Milan and Inter would run them close as well.
My suspicion is that La Liga still remains the best league in Europe. Obviously it depends on what criteria you use to determine the strength of league - representation in the latter stages of the Champions League would favour the English League by 3 to 2 (Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United for England and Barcelona and Real Madrid for Spain). The secondary Europa League does not offer much indication into the strength of any of the major leagues with only Villareal of Spain in the last 8 (The Dutch and Portuguese Leagues dominating here with 2 a piece).
Another argument would be to predict where a mini league between the current top 6 of the two leagues would look like, seeing as Inter Milan are the current European Champions the top 6 in Italy can be included as well to see where this league would fit.
Currently 18 teams would read as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Villareal, Valencia, Espanyol, Athletic Bilbao from Spain. England's top 6 is Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham, and Liverpool with Serie 'A' represented by AC Milan, city neighbours Inter, Napoli, Udinese, Lazio and Roma.
If the hypothetical season was to start tomorrow with all short and medium term injuries clearing up (i.e Owen Hargreaves hasn't got off his death bed to be the midfield destroyer that Manchester United crave) I would reckon the league would look something like this.
1. Barcelona
2. Real Madrid
3. Manchester United
4. Inter
5. Chelsea
6. AC Milan
7. Arsenal
8. Tottenham
9. Manchester City
10. Villareal
11. Liverpool
12. Napoli
13. Valencia
14. Roma
15. Udinese
16. Espanyol
17. Lazio
18. Athletic Bilbao
If you aggregate the position of each team from the various leagues then the championship with the lowest total should be judged as having the strongest league. Lets look at this alphabetically then:
England 43
Italy 68
Spain 60
Those results are really surprising to me and I think that the spending power and general strength of Barcelona and Real Madrid have weakened the rest of their league. Perhaps if clubs such as Atletico Madrid and Sevilla in La Liga were performing closer to the standard that clubs of their size should then La Liga may well be closer to the overall strength of the Premier League. The same argument can be made for Juventus in Italy and to a lesser extent the clubs from the capital who are placed in 5 and 6 place currently. Its also difficult to judge the strength of the Milan giants as well, I'd back Milan to be a stronger outfit next season with Cassano having a pre-season with them as well Van Bommel who were both ineligible for European competition and Inter getting over the Benitez debacle.
So I suppose the conclusion is that overall the Premier League is the strongest league when it comes to the top 6 but I would always back Real Madrid and Barcelona to have edge over the English Pair of Manchester United and Chelsea and I think AC Milan and Inter would run them close as well.
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