The Final Whistle

This is a little late in coming, since the season started more than a week ago, but we wanted to let the season settle in a bit before making any comments. So far, three games have gone, and while it will probably take a couple more games for the teams and results to stabilise, The Final Whistle is seeing things that might shake up the old order a little bit…

So far, Tottenham Hotspur, last season’s laughing stocks (other than Newcastle) have won three on the trot and are sitting pretty on top of the table. Old ‘arry must’ve done them a world of good in the close season, and why not? Seeing how Defoe is playing like a man renewed is a far cry from how he was last season.

The other surprise package so far is Burnley…with two 1-0 wins over Man Utd and Everton, one wonders if they can keep up this form, especially when they play away from Turf Moor.

A team with high pre-season expectations is Man City, but so far, while they have two wins out of two, they are not playing up to what their combined total is worth. However, give them some time to gel, and we are sure they will start banging the goals in.

Another team with high-expectations this season is Liverpool. After getting their highest points total last season for a really long time, and only finishing second to Man Utd, many expected them to start off their season where they left off…with a bang. However, the “big bang” never materialised, and fans are left with more of a damp *ppphhhfffftttt*

After only losing two games the whole of last season, Liverpool have already lost two in three this season…leaving fans once again staring down a deep dark tunnel which is the rest of the season. While Pool fans knew that Alonso’s departure would leave a huge gap, don’t think that many expected how badly the team would’ve capitulated. Rightly or wrongly, Lucas (self-proclaimed heir apparent to Alonso) will be the scapegoat for last night’s game against Villa. Dark days are ahead…

Liverpool’s Merseyside neighbours are also doing poorly. Seems like Man City’s pursuit of Lescott has affected his performance, and distracted not only him but the entire team as well. One cannot blame Moyes for ranting at City, but the sooner he sells Lescott, the better for Everton.

Sunderland are also doing well under Steve Brucie, and the Bent/Jones partnership is really rocking at the moment. Good ol’ Steve must’ve done something right…

With three games gone, it is still early days…but like we mentioned at the top, the teams will be finding their feet soon, and that is when the real battle begins.

It is an attack of the green-eyed monster? Some pre-season mind games? Or is Barca coach Pep Guardiola just saying what’s on everybody’s mind?

In a recent Soccernet report, former (and current) Barcelona FC favourite Guardiola said in response to Eto’o and Ibrahimovic’s possible moves to and from Inter, that “each player has his own situation and today, apart from Madrid who have brought in everyone, the world is as it is because it costs a lot to sign players.”

Seems like Real aren’t the only ones though. Man City are probably the only other club who have gone and made multiple high profile signings this off-season. The current big-four English clubs have made nary a peep in comparision.

I guess the money driven merry-go-round is likely to continue, especially when it comes to players’ agents lining their own pockets. In remotely related news (it involves Barca too), Mascherano’s agent has come out to say that his client is keen on a move to Barca, despite the player not having said so in the media. Unless we hear it from the horse’s mouth (Masch does look a bit like a horse doesn’t he?), it’ll just be a lot of hot air from the agent looking to play both clubs (and Liverpool fans can rest easy…for now). Anyhow, Masch’s agent is not the first to do so, and certainly won’t be the last.

After reading what Robinho said, it seems to me that Man City may be getting a little bit ahead of themselves.

Sure…they managed to sign some big names, but who are nowhere near the players that Real Madrid have signed. But who can blame them? After all, Man City aren’t exactly the nine-time winners of the European Champions League, and players don’t exactly grow up dreaming of playing for the blue half of Manchester (“As a kid, I’ve always dreamt of pulling on the light-blue shirt and stepping out onto the pitch at the City of Manchester Stadium to play for City alongside Bellamy and Benjani”).

So, even if City manage to nick John Terry’s signature from Chelsea, and have a squad that even Man Utd would be envious of (now that a certain Portuguese winger has left), there is a big reason why they won’t be challenging for honours any time soon.

You see, a successful football club is not built only on players alone, but a large part of it depends on the manager. Sparky may have been a great player in his day, and he may have had some good managerial experience at Blackburn and City (and his native Wales?), but he does not have the experience of handling a dressing room full of big names and egos the size of Adebayor’s hair.

One only needs to look at a certain club from Madrid during the first ‘Galacticos’ era in the early part of the new millennium. The number of managers that came and went in failed love affairs with Real since then would have made Elizabeth Taylor seem like a one-man woman. Greater managers than Sparky have had problems controlling a dressing room full of stars at the Bernabeu.

I mean, who is the biggest name that Sparky has had to handle in his time at Blackburn? Tugay? At Wales? Robbie Savage? And when City signed Robinho, he was the only marquee name in a team of journeymen players and homegrown talent. Now, there are at least five big-name players (with more on the way), and it will be seen how Sparky handles the dressing room to keep all of them happy…he may want to call his former boss Sir Alex for some man-management tips.

Somehow, I have a feeling that Hughes may become a victim of Man City’s recent revolution if results don’t go their way. Just ask a certain Signor Ranieri who was shipped home to Italy after Mr Abramovich wanted to build his own Roman empire at Stamford Bridge. Chairmen these days don’t take too kindly to not having almost immediate ROIs on multi-million pound players.

Mark Hughes may just be looking at some dark, lonely Arabian nights right around December or January…

Tevez is full of it.

First, he didn’t want to join Liverpool out of respect for Utd cos Pool are Utd’s rivals. Next, he joins Man City, because Man City are not Utd’s rivals?

Now, he reveals that he snubbed Real to join City because City “showed lots of interest in me and are intent on growing and signing big players”…and Real aren’t?

Seems like the smell of cold hard cash is too alluring…

“I am sad to leave United but I am excited to join City. I’m thinking about the future and I will grow (richer) with this club.”

And in other related news, Gareth Barry has refuted accusations by Rafael Benitez that he joined City for the cash, when he obviously joined them for the Champions League football that they are going to provide him. How dare Rafa make such allegations when Gareth Barry is obviously a trustworthy person whose words can always be relied on?

A friend and I were discussing Michael Owen’s shock transfer to Man Utd during breakfast this morning. He (my friend, not Michael Owen) is a Man Utd fan, and I (as regular readers would’ve figured by now) am a Liverpool fan. Yes, ‘Pool and Utd fans CAN co-exist! (but that’s not the point of this post).

Anyway, we were both stunned by the news, but were not overly for or against it. We both felt that Owen was there as a back-up striker to Berba and Rooney, and adopted a wait-and-see attitude regarding Owen’s form for this coming season in the red of Utd.

We got to talking about how players were unveiled at their new clubs, and the inevitable press conference (and questions) that would come with it. Being a corporate comms/PR person myself, i can imagine that the clubs’ press secretary would have a lot to do with the answers that new players give during press conferences at their unveiling. In situations such as Owen’s (coming from a hated rival, no matter how many times removed), it would be difficult to “renounce” former ties (for fear of angering and alienating your former fans), and it would also be difficult to win over Utd fans if he did not. So how?

Here’s where the club’s press secretary comes in…with a list of neutral statements (or non-statements) to placate and please everyone, except the tabloids who are sniffing for blood with one (just one) wrong answer to a well-placed difficult question (i.e. “as a former Liverpool player, do you think you are betraying Liverpool and its fans by signing with their most hated rivals in the history of the English game? And how do you hope to win over the Old Trafford faithful now that you are seen as past your prime?”)

I would expect Owen to have no problems handling this sort of questions as he is a professional, but a bit of prepping before the press conference would not hurt. Here’s a list of statements which I think would be given to every new signing by the every clubs’ press secretary, just to be safe.

1. I am happy to be here.
2. It is an honour and privilege to sign for a club with such a long and successful history (for English clubs outside the big four, replace the word ’successful’ with ‘distinguished’ or ‘illustrious’).
3. I will do my best for the team, and help them win the league/avoid relegation/qualify for the Champions League/get seventh place/achieve mid-table mediocrity (delete where applicable).
4. I look forward to a successful season with __________ (enter name of current club).
5. I may have been from ___________ (enter name of current club’s most hated rivals), but I am here now at _________ (enter name of current club).
6. I am grateful and thankful for the opportunities given me during my time with __________ (enter name of current club’s most hated rivals), but I am now a __________ (enter name of current club) player (no harm emphasising again).
7. I will be focused on the task at hand.
8. The fans are amazing, and are the most passionate in the country.
9. I look forward to showing them what I am capable of.
10. I look forward to a successful season with __________. (enter name of current club…one can never highlight this point enough)

The ten statements above are relevant for any new player in any country (Barbados to Brazil), in any club (Rotherham to Real Madrid), in any language (English to Esperanto). Put it all together and you’ve got one heck of a press statement to give to the media pack, and prevent a feeding frenzy.

If you don’t believe me, look at all the comments in the media by new players from now on.

I almost fell off my chair when I read that Michael Owen might be signing for Man Utd, and I don’t think anyone saw it coming (except Fergie and those who needed to know the news). The Utd players also probably choked on their morning coffee when they saw the news in the back pages…

I figure Liverpool and Man Utd fans everywhere are gagging in disbelief as well…for different reasons though. For Liverpool fans, it is hard to stomach one of the former Kop favourites and one of Anfield’s favourite sons putting on the Man Utd shirt, no matter how off-form he might be. For Man Utd fans, it is hard to imagine a former player from your most hated rivals joining your team, and being really off-form to boot.

This off-season has turned out to be a really interesting one, especially with all the big name transfers going round (mostly to Real Madrid, with everyone else picking up the scraps).

It’s like a huge game of musical chairs, except that Liverpool is sitting this one out. Glen Johnson for $17 million pounds? I still find it hard to believe.

He’d better prove he’s worth every penny…

Way before EA Sports, EIDOS, and their respective multi-million dollar, ultra-realistic, super-star endorsed football video games franchises FIFA 09 and Championship Manager (respectively) became popular, there was Subbuteo.

Subbu…who?

Well, if you don’t know what Subbuteo is, you probably are too young. Not that I am that old…but I remember wanting to own a set ever since I was a kid, and create epic games with ‘Roy of the Rovers’ type storylines (Roy of the what?) with 22 miniature plastic footballers and a green mat. Kids these days have it easy…they just flip on a couple of switches, pop in a disc, wait for the game to load, and select the scenario they want to play (Liverpool vs AC Milan at half-time, in Istanbul? Man Utd vs Bayern Munich in the final two minutes at the Camp Nou?). Where’s the imagination??

Anyhow, I never got a set when I was a kid. I finally got my first set when I was around 20-years-old, thanks to my then girlfriend who knew I had always wanted one. It was really sweet of her…she managed to get a second hand set online, cos the shops no longer had them…*sigh*…and, in lieu of a Subbuteo set when I was younger, I did what any kid at my age would do. Improvise.

I somehow got hold of a large piece of green flannel, used cardboard to cut out 22 miniature footballers, made goals out of more cardboard…and voila! Well, it wasn’t as polished as the real thing, but hey…it worked, and I had hours of fun making up epic on-pitch battles (off-pitch battles didn’t really exist then…it was a simpler time, you see).

Anyway, you can see that I am really bored in the off-season…and so, while waiting for the new season to start (and because I don’t have one of those Xbox thingamajigs with the latest installment of the FIFA series), I dug out my good old Subbuteo set and once again let my imagination do its thing.

And, while YOU wait for the new season to start, check out the rest of the pics below…of the players “modeling” their new kits, and taking part in an exhibition game.

"George Best" lining up to take a free-kick just outside the opponent’s penalty area…

18 million pound wingback?!?!

Liverpool have been rather inactive in the transfer market, compared to their domestic and European rivals. However, when news finally broke that they were looking to buy 24-year-old former Chelsea player Glen Johnson from Portsmouth, it made fans sit up and go “Huh?”

Just when you thought they were going to augment the forward line with more firepower to support Torres, they go and seek to splash out a cool 18 million pounds on a wingback. Granted, Johnson had a good season with Portsmouth, but is he really worth 18 million? Ok…so Pompey still owe Liverpool 7 million for Crouchie, but that still makes it 11 million…is it worth paying that much for someone whom Portsmouth bought for 4 million, and who was on the Chelsea bench most of the time…?

I am of the opinion that while the defence needs to be shored up (with the possible departure of Dossena), the limited transfer budget could be better spent on someone to support Torres…someone in the mould of Sergio Aguero…or David Silva…

Come on Rafa!! You got what you asked for, when you said you wanted more control over transfers…now show us what you got!!

After all the pain of last year’s “will-he-won’t-he” saga, Manchester United and Christiano Ronaldo spared the football world a repeat ordeal by finally succumbing to Real Madrid’s overtures. Real Madrid, led by Florentino Perez, had been courting the Portuguese winger and added him to their pay-roll the same week they signed Kaka from AC Milan.

Fans of English football will no longer be able to see his tantrums, dives, pouts and other such antics anymore (interspersed with moments of footballing brilliance). Oh well, there’s no loss…

As a ‘Pool fan, I must say I have mixed feelings watching the guy leave. On one hand, I am pleased that United have lost an icon and a skillful player. On the other hand, they now have 80 million pounds to spend on other skillful players. That’s 80 million more than what Liverpool have got…

It will be interesting to see how Alex Ferguson rebuilds his squad, especially since Tevez might not be staying, and a number of senior players are already waiting to collect their pension after this next couple of seasons.

But Liverpool aren’t any better off. After seeing Gareth Barry snatched away by Man City from right under their noses, Liverpool have yet to make any headway in the transfer market. Only a couple of rumours seem to be floating around, and there has not been anything concrete yet, but i’ll tell you who i’d like to see in the red of Liverpool next year…Sergio Aguero, David Silva, and David Villa.

Now THAT would be a proposition to whet any Liverpool fans dream, or…errr… give them wet dreams…?

I thought i’d seen it all…and then, i came across this article on Soccernet which said that a Singapore-based group is one of those linked with a takeover of Newcastle United Football Club…

Just when you thought Newcastle could not sink any lower…they go and release news like that, which would shake the very heart of every Newcastle fan in Singapore (if there are any left).

It’s not that I have no confidence in the Profitable Group’s ability to run Newcastle properly, but if you saw their ads on cable TV so far….well, let’s just say it would look weird to have Alan Shearer and his team (whoever is left) plug for land and property investments, especially when they would have to wear plastic smiles and mouth cheesy slogans (“Buy PP Land, we did!”)

Then again, just for kicks (no pun intended), and to see how far Newcastle can actually sink (then the rest of us can gloat in glee!), maybe…just maybe…it would be fun to see the Profitable Group takeover the Toon…afterall, they are Profitable, and that is something Newcastle will probably hope to achieve soon…

Wonder what the Toon Army will have to say about this piece of news…