1. What is the point of the transfer window?
Initially designed as a way to “help coaches” by ensuring they must work with players rather than just buying new ones, it’s safe to say that after 10 years the January transfer window has achieved almost nothing of any value. The system just doesn’t work, coaches will just tap players up until the window starts if they want to which unsettles both players and clubs. Gary Cahill could and should have been sold in September. He hasn’t helped himself or his club by playing on further and has now moved, somewhat oddly, from the skipper of Bolton to the 4th choice centre back for Chelsea. Watching Sky & BBC feebly try to drum up excitement on a deadline day that featured Bobby Zamora as the star attraction, the time has surely come for either saying you can only arrange transfers in the close season... or just making it open season again. The former would properly allow players and managers to work together over an entire season, within the 25 man squad limit. Judging them on tactics, motivation and technical ability rather than being able to buy themselves out of trouble. Managers should also held by the same terms, it would be much more interesting if coaches had to stick with their choices until all 38 games had been played rather than just getting rid of them at the first sign of a crisis. Will it happen? Of course not, the transfer window and in particular deadline day has now just become a big marketing device which generates Sky and the Premier League even more money than before. I mean ‘Arry did all he could, but given he’ll be in jail this time next year, it’s probably time to try something new.
Initially designed as a way to “help coaches” by ensuring they must work with players rather than just buying new ones, it’s safe to say that after 10 years the January transfer window has achieved almost nothing of any value. The system just doesn’t work, coaches will just tap players up until the window starts if they want to which unsettles both players and clubs. Gary Cahill could and should have been sold in September. He hasn’t helped himself or his club by playing on further and has now moved, somewhat oddly, from the skipper of Bolton to the 4th choice centre back for Chelsea. Watching Sky & BBC feebly try to drum up excitement on a deadline day that featured Bobby Zamora as the star attraction, the time has surely come for either saying you can only arrange transfers in the close season... or just making it open season again. The former would properly allow players and managers to work together over an entire season, within the 25 man squad limit. Judging them on tactics, motivation and technical ability rather than being able to buy themselves out of trouble. Managers should also held by the same terms, it would be much more interesting if coaches had to stick with their choices until all 38 games had been played rather than just getting rid of them at the first sign of a crisis. Will it happen? Of course not, the transfer window and in particular deadline day has now just become a big marketing device which generates Sky and the Premier League even more money than before. I mean ‘Arry did all he could, but given he’ll be in jail this time next year, it’s probably time to try something new.
2. What has happened to Samir Nasri?
This time last year Nasri was close to untouchable. He was the star player in an Arsenal team gunning for success on all four fronts and had scored 14 times including some memorable and match winning solo efforts. Little wonder then that despite a slight loss of form toward the end of last season, he was coveted by both Manchester clubs this summer before eventually being bought be City. With the view of playing him and Silva as twin creators either side of Aguero and a lone man, Nasri, unlike Silva, just hasn’t kicked on at all. He has been invisible in almost every big game, outshone not just be his fellow first choice attackers but often by the likes of Barry and Milner as well. He doesn’t seem to be able to dribble anymore and his confidence looks very low. One piledriver against the bar this week reminded us what he was capable of, but the stats make pretty terrible reading for a player that City thought they had picked on the “cheap” at £20m. Nasri has 3 goals and 6 assists this season, but of those 9 key contributions, 7 of them took place in his first four games with the club. Since then, Nasri has played over 1000 minutes of football and City have scored 37 goals. Nasri has been directly involved in 2 of them. City may still be top, but they are badly missing Ya Ya Toure and even Balotelli, who can at least create a goal out of nothing which seems well beyond Edin Dzeko right now. They need Nasri to start stepping up, or it could well be Deja Vu yet again for their ex Arsenal starlet.
This time last year Nasri was close to untouchable. He was the star player in an Arsenal team gunning for success on all four fronts and had scored 14 times including some memorable and match winning solo efforts. Little wonder then that despite a slight loss of form toward the end of last season, he was coveted by both Manchester clubs this summer before eventually being bought be City. With the view of playing him and Silva as twin creators either side of Aguero and a lone man, Nasri, unlike Silva, just hasn’t kicked on at all. He has been invisible in almost every big game, outshone not just be his fellow first choice attackers but often by the likes of Barry and Milner as well. He doesn’t seem to be able to dribble anymore and his confidence looks very low. One piledriver against the bar this week reminded us what he was capable of, but the stats make pretty terrible reading for a player that City thought they had picked on the “cheap” at £20m. Nasri has 3 goals and 6 assists this season, but of those 9 key contributions, 7 of them took place in his first four games with the club. Since then, Nasri has played over 1000 minutes of football and City have scored 37 goals. Nasri has been directly involved in 2 of them. City may still be top, but they are badly missing Ya Ya Toure and even Balotelli, who can at least create a goal out of nothing which seems well beyond Edin Dzeko right now. They need Nasri to start stepping up, or it could well be Deja Vu yet again for their ex Arsenal starlet.
3. Barcelona might be surrendering their title, but not their status.
The best football team on the planet are not having a great time. They drew again last night, all be it in the cup against a decent Valencia team, but have now already drawn or lost the same number of games as last season and more than the season before. They trail Jose’s ruthless Madrid machine by 7 points and look unlikely to claw that back from the fixtures remaining. Despite that though, they remain the team to which all other teams aspire to and will continue to do so until they are beaten by another on a regular basis. Jose may well triumph in the league, but he has beaten Barcelona just once in 9 games (and that in extra time) and has been soundly beaten in half of those matches. Unless he can match them over two legs in the Champions League and come out on top, his tenure will still be known as someone who achieved success by slipping round the back door. Barcelona are not as strong as they were despite the two excellent new signings. They badly miss an in form David Villa to swap positions with Messi and defensively the cracks are starting to show. On their day however, they are 20% better than any other team, something that has been shown time and time again in the big matches. Even if they lose the title and fail in the Champions League, barring a close season break up of their entire squad, they will still be the team to beat next year. Not even the special one can change that.
4. John Terry is right not to give up his captaincy.
This may be the only time I ever defend John Terry, so as a caveat I should note that I’m not defending the man, but merely the situation. Terry pleaded not guilty to racially abusing Anton Ferdinand this week and the trial is now set, somewhat bizarrely, until after the European Championships. Since then, there have been several calls for Terry to step down and resign from the England set up until he’s cleared his name. In short, why? If he’s innocent, which he clearly believes he is, why on earth should he sacrifice captaining his country at a major tournament. Despite people’s claims that there could be “conflict of interests” in the squad, I just don’t buy that. For starters, Anton Ferdinand does not (and never will) play for England. Rio of course, has been JT’s partner for several years, but if Capello selects him for the final squad based on this year’s performances he wants his head examined. Right now, Danny Simpson is a better defender let alone countless others. Terry should be allowed, like any person, to continue with his life as innocent until proven guilty. If the FA care that much about it creating an issue, why on earth doesn’t somebody release the “evidence” that the case is based on? Surely we can’t be going to bloody trial for a case of one man’s word against the other? Of course, all that said, he shouldn’t be in the England team either on form, let alone our fucking captain. But if Capello has stuck with him this far, he cannot disregard him now. Although obviously if he does... I will openly celebrate it.
5. Andy Carroll. Hell, at least he’s better than Torres.
Two goals and two assists in his last three starts, Carroll is not firing on all cylinders just yet but he is at least starting to show signs of recovery. In fairness to the lad, he has continually been played in the wrong tactics for his strengths to shine. Carroll has never been a loan striker; he is not mobile or quick enough and needs a proper number 10 alongside him to flourish. In recent weeks, Dirk Kuyt has fulfilled that role which Kevin Nolan did so well at Newcastle. Breaking from a deeper position and feeding off the knock downs that Carroll provides. Carroll can hold it up and spin with the best of them but when the ball has gone out wide, too often the service has been dire. Liverpool were wrong to try and offload him this window, it is less so the player than the tactics which haven’t been right. Something that, at least, King Kenny seems to have worked out. The same cannot be said of Fernando Torres. Whilst he would probably benefit from playing the ball over the top more often than Chelsea tend to, he has more than enough skills in his locker to play in a 4-2-3-1 formation and feed off the creativity of Mata and Merillies. He just isn’t doing that. Too often he gets in good positions to look for the pass rather than the shot and bar the odd instinctive moment, his confidence now looks so far gone there is a real worry it will never return. You can’t pay 50m for someone and then watch them not score in 18 games. Torres record over the past 12 months is as bad as any striker currently playing regularly and time is now running out for him to do something... anything at all to arrest that.
Two goals and two assists in his last three starts, Carroll is not firing on all cylinders just yet but he is at least starting to show signs of recovery. In fairness to the lad, he has continually been played in the wrong tactics for his strengths to shine. Carroll has never been a loan striker; he is not mobile or quick enough and needs a proper number 10 alongside him to flourish. In recent weeks, Dirk Kuyt has fulfilled that role which Kevin Nolan did so well at Newcastle. Breaking from a deeper position and feeding off the knock downs that Carroll provides. Carroll can hold it up and spin with the best of them but when the ball has gone out wide, too often the service has been dire. Liverpool were wrong to try and offload him this window, it is less so the player than the tactics which haven’t been right. Something that, at least, King Kenny seems to have worked out. The same cannot be said of Fernando Torres. Whilst he would probably benefit from playing the ball over the top more often than Chelsea tend to, he has more than enough skills in his locker to play in a 4-2-3-1 formation and feed off the creativity of Mata and Merillies. He just isn’t doing that. Too often he gets in good positions to look for the pass rather than the shot and bar the odd instinctive moment, his confidence now looks so far gone there is a real worry it will never return. You can’t pay 50m for someone and then watch them not score in 18 games. Torres record over the past 12 months is as bad as any striker currently playing regularly and time is now running out for him to do something... anything at all to arrest that.
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