Five Things We Learnt From Watching Football This Week - Week Two

1. The Swans are flying.
Second season syndrome can be a terrible affliction and many people tipped Swansea to suffer from a pretty serious case of it. More so given their manager and best midfielders jumped ship to Liverpool & Spurs. Instead, Swansea seem a team who have been given a new burst of life under the stewardship of Michael Laudrup. They are passing the ball even better than before and have so far scored 8 goals to no reply without getting out of 3^rd or 4^th gear. The season may only be 2 games old, but it’s already almost impossible to consider their being a better signing than Michu. The Spaniard is entering his prime at 26 and scored or assisted 30 goals in La Liga last season. Better than Ozil, Iniesta, Santi, Xavi… or indeed anyone. His fee of £2m looks like a practical joke. Chico also cost just £2m and looks a considerably better player than, to name someone at random, Jordan Henderson. Swansea have a nice run of early fixtures and could well lead the table into October. Of course, things can change pretty quickly at this fledgling stage of the season, but for now it is Norwich who look to be suffering badly from a change of manager and a second stab at the top flight. The Swans, fast becoming everyone’s 2^nd team, are flying high. Even Barcelona players are starting to watch them…

2. Everton fans are beginning to believe.
I said at the end of the last season that if Everton could start this campaign well and keep their squad together they could make the top six; so far that statement looks like it should be the minimum of their ambition. The Toffees followed up their impressive; Fellaini inspired battering of Man Utd this weekend, with a ruthless dismembering of a flailing Aston Villa. The resigning of Pienaar, the versatility of Fellaini and the craft and guile of Jelavic had made for a fearsome attacking unit, something that Everton have badly missed over the past few years. Indeed, with two new strikers added into the mix and a solid back line they look in better shape than ever to make a serious tilt at the Champions League places. David Moyes has done a remarkable job at this club; he has got them playing together and punching above their weight year after year. If the season started at Christmas, Everton would have been in the Champions League five of the last six years. The problems have always been a messy close season and a sluggish start trying to find a settled team. This season, for once, they have come out flying. Suddenly finishing above Liverpool should not be the minimum achievement for this once great club. Finishing above Spurs & Newcastle is well within their grasp, especially if they can get lucky with injuries in what still looks like a thin squad defensively. The only bad side to all this? As the bond between Man Utd & Everton seems to gets closer, it looks increasingly likely that if Jose is not around, Moyes is the only other manager who will likely get offered the Old Trafford hot seat when Fergie retires. On this evidence, he would be welcomed openly. Everton fans may feel differently.

3. Rooney is no longer first choice.
Since Ronaldo & Tevez left in the same summer, Rooney has been Utd’s main attacker in a formation that has often been built around him. He has scored over 30 goals twice in that time and it has often looked like removing him from the team would be akin to cutting off a leg. Not anymore. Rooney was average towards the end of the last season, his form masked initially by some close range strikes. He carried that form into the Euro’s where he was predictably terrible and last Monday at Everton he had another one of those “is he even fit” moments. Sure enough, having bought RVP and Kagawa over the summer Fergie relegated his star asset to the bench and watched the two of them form an impressive and immediate partnership. Indeed, Utd only stopped looking threatening once Rooney came onto the pitch. RVP was the obvious star signing this summer, but Kagawa could be the most important. Utd have cried out for an attacking midfielder who can work in small spaces and the Japanese playmaker looks to tick all the boxes. For years Ferguson has refused to buy attacking midfielders under the guise that “nobody is as good as Xavi or Iniestia.” Given those two are clearly not for sale, the Scott seems to have finally found their closest heir. Kagawa looks a brilliant player, all one and two touches he moves the ball in every direction with pace and precision. In two games he has been the team’s best player twice and completed more passes than anyone. Following Rooney’s injury at the weekend, Ferguson’s statement that he would be out for “at least 4 weeks” seemed oddly direct for an injury which was little more than a gash and hadn’t even been assessed. It was almost as if the manager had found an excuse to give the striker a rest and watch as his two new signings work together over the coming fixtures. With Saints away and Wigan at home next up, Rooney may find it harder than ever to get back in the team. Given his combative personality, you’d think this would only serve to galvanise him. Good news for Utd fans… if not for the opposition when he eventually returns…

4. QPR are playing a dangerous game, and people will want them to fail.
If there is one thing more distasteful amongst football fans than getting a millionaire owner and buying a team of A-List talent set for glory, it’s getting a slightly less rich millionaire owner and buying a team of C-List talent set for mediocrity. Step forward QPR, who currently have the largest squad in the league (including a ridiculous ten strikers) and are still looking to buy all and sundry over the coming few days. Proudly sporting “everyone else’s reserves XI” – Rangers have scraped a single point from two very winnable games and have Man City, Chelsea and Spurs up next. They look like a team who could go down and drop like a stone into the lower leagues under this set up. Inflated fees are one thing, but it's inflated wages which really cost a club if they don’t succeed and QPR are signing up countless players on salaries they don’t deserve at that stage of their careers. There is no investment in youth, no long term sell on value to most of these players and they still have Joey Barton to contend with. The fans must be worried, very worried. Still, at least they can console themselves that they have Mark Hughes at the helm. A man who still seems to believe he is the greatest manager… in the world.

5. Chelsea could well be a Hazard for the Manchester clubs.
The experts predicted a two horse race for the title, but having seen Chelsea come out of the blocks faster than a speeding bullet; they have been embarrassingly backtracking to include them in the shakeup via a host of ifs and buts. Much of the reason for this has been the form of Edin Hazard, the most expensive signing of the summer so far and already looking worth every penny. The Belgian has pace and trickery to burn and is already well suited to life at his new club given he is both a cheat and a complete prick. Around him Roman has assembled an attacking unit to rival any in the land and this week spent his one billionth pound on new signings for the club. Let me rephrase that in case you didn’t get that first time around. In the 9 seasons since Roman Abramovich took over at Chelsea they have spent £1BILLION on new signings. That. Is. Madness. Still, this time around Chelsea have the holy grail in their back pocket and are finally ready to play the entertaining, expansive football that Roman craves for his cash. Will they win the title? No chance. They have a defence made of balsa wood and John Obi Mikel as their solitary holding player. Will they actually prove entertaining for once? It certainly looks like it. And if they ruffle the feathers of those who are truly mad for it in the meantime then it should at least make for another interesting season.

Five Things We Learnt From Watching Football This Week - Week One

You can’t make predictions after one game, but it’s fun to try.

As is often the norm on opening day, there were some truly ridiculous scorelines as the Premier League roared back to life with its usual overblown gusto and drama. If Fulham beating Norwich 5-0 was a shock, it was topped by West Brom hammering Liverpool and then Swansea putting 5 past QPR away from home. Saints meanwhile, gave the champions the fright of their lives as City picked up where they left off from last season by once again coming from a goal down to win late on. On this evidence Pool will struggle, City will ship goals, Steve Clarke is under no pressure at all, QPR will go down and Fulham & Swansea will cruise to European slots playing free flowing attacking football. The reality of course is probably that on this evidence… Pool will struggle.

Luis Suarez really, really can’t shoot.
Liverpool have had one of the more interesting close seasons. The King has been dethroned and in his place has stepped up Brendan Rodgers, a man who has made his name in a very short period of time. So far, Rodgers has paid a lot of money for a player Swansea appear to have replaced on a free and completely ostracised Liverpool’s most expensive ever signing. He has also signed a young Italian striker, seemingly to play on the wing and shipped out a lot of big earners from the club. Whilst he’s certainly trimmed the wage bill, Liverpool’s squad looks light. Very light. And they need Luis Suarez to find form and fast if they are going to avoid another mid table position far away from the top four. Suarez is a fine player, as good as any attacker out there at getting into the box. In it however, he now rivals Ade Akenbiyi. Glen Hoddle once dismissed Andy Cole as a striker who needed “six chances to score.” Since the start of last season, Suarez has scored a goal every TEN chances he has had. That is an appalling stat for a striker of his supposed quality and the scary thing is that over 50% of the attempts haven’t even been on target. His record in Ajax now looks like a statistical anomaly rather than the work of a forward genius. Suarez still has the look of a player who will suddenly score five in a game but Liverpool need to unlock that player and fast. Their midfield looks abject and the defence weakened massively by Agger’s early season bath. With Chelsea strengthening heavily and Newcastle showing no signs of going away, Liverpool have a mammoth job finishing in the top six let alone the top four. Brendan Rodgers has his work cut out, but teaching his main man some finishing skills would help speed the process up a bit.

Utd & City will surely entertain us all year.
Despite the obvious reduction in quality in the Premier League over the past 5 years, there is little denying that except when Aston Villa are playing, the entertainment levels continue to go up to 11. City & Utd look set to take their battle one step further this year with an all-out commitment to attack. City have come out playing a very positive 4-1-3-2 and even if Aguero is injured for a long time, have three quality strikers alongside Silva, Nasri, Johnson and a further attacking signing to come. Utd meanwhile, not content with having four strikers on the books have added the best one in the league alongside two further attacking midfielders. The fact that both clubs were weakest in the full back and defensive midfield positions appears to have been completely lost on both managers, but should be championed as a victory for positivity. Ferguson has looked at the goals City scored last year and simply said… we need to score more than them. It looks a mouth-watering prospect and if it means the end of the hideous 4-5-1 formation that no top team should ever have to adopt, then all the better.

Fantasy Football is back… and it’s more frustrating than ever.
With Sergio Aguero injured and Torres the safe bet for first week captain, fantasy football managers across the land must be cursing this morning after watching the likes of Michu, Dyer, Ridgewell, Demel and countless people from Fulham whose names you can’t pronounce, propel those who had gambled on them up into what will surely be a false early position. Fantasy football is a funny old game, it looks so easy but is at its most frustrating when you actually try and work it out. I actually checked some analysis at one point before deciding to go for Noble over Nolan, only to see the latter score. Two of my players fell ill hours before the match and what with Aguero’s injury, my day was further wrecked by transferring out Michu at the last minute to make way for Joe Allen. For no reason. Oh wait he plays for Liverpool now. Maybe this is what it feels like to be manager of England? You want to gamble on the little men at the smaller clubs but there’s this voice which keeps coming back to you which says “but surely if he plays for Spurs or Liverpool he must be great.” How else did Jordan Henderson play in the Euro’s? Or Jermaine Jenas ever get capped? It clearly all got too much for Matthew Letts, whose shockingly bad team is hindered by his refusal to pick anyone from Man Utd or Chelsea. Oh well Lettsy, I’m sure once Agger comes back from his suspension and er… Junior Hoilett starts banging the goals in you’ll be alright.

It’s make or break time for Arsene Wenger’s experiment. Again.
Like a scientist who keeps hinting at a fantastic discovery, Wenger has just managed to keep his head above water over the past few years by continuing to qualify for the Champions League. This achievement has just about managed to offset the grumblings about lack of trophies and a migrating squad. This season is different though… this season for the first time he has carefully researched targets and brought in new players to fit a system he still believes can win trophies. The Van Persie loss is huge, but unlike Nasri he knew it was coming well in advance and has signed young, attacking players who will inject pace and urgency into his team. Arsenal’s first choice midfield of Wilshire, Arteta, Santi, Podolski & Walcott is full of pace and penetration. It’s arguably still better than the midfields of Utd, Liverpool & Spurs (now Modric has gone). The problem with Arsenal though has never been looking good on paper or playing pretty football, it’s been about killing teams off, not conceding silly goals and winning when the chips are down. To their credit, the second of these points appears to have been arrested of late; thanks almost entirely to Thomas Vermaelen being fit. But on Saturday against a stubborn Sunderland team, Arsenal dominated possession for long periods but lacked a killer instinct. An instinct that even with Van Persie they have pretty much lacked since Henry left. Arsenal were a one man show last time around and Wenger needs his team to come together and work together this year if they are going to finish top 4 again. If they do, you suspect Arsene will continue to rumble on with his merry band of entertainers for another few years yet. If they don’t, it’s probably time to pack up tools and call the experiment a failure. On the plus side unlike most research facilities, they’ve actually made money…

Five Things We Learnt From The Olympics.

1. Glory won over Greed.
Before the Olympics, the talk in the British press wasn’t so much of athletic glory, but of poor organisation, unnecessary cost and some of the most shameless corporate greed you were likely to find. The ridiculous rules about brands and where or where you couldn’t eat fries; were topped only by the story and subsequent campaign about the tax breaks given to some of the biggest companies in the world whilst our country sat knee dip in a recession. All this negativity, most of it fully justified, disappeared into a wave of national euphoria as over two weeks the United Kingdom finally learned how to live up to its name. Even the corporate bullshit was turned into a positive. Visa saw a record number of cancellations in a two week period, victims not benefactors of the ridiculous rule that no other form of card payment was allowed in the venues. Meanwhile did anyone waste more money than Adidas? Allegedly the official sponsors of the games, the company saw almost every major winner be backed by Nike, not least the mercurial Usain Bolt. Ultimately though, nowhere saw more benefit than London itself. The hangover may well be large, but as people 20 deep lined the streets for the entire Marathon on Sunday, there was a genuine sense that this famous city had been brought together by an event that could so easily have torn it wide open. The organisers didn’t get everything right, but they were given a huge, huge helping hand by the athletes themselves. Showing just what is possible with a committed, genuine investment in sport development, coupled with up to 80,000 screaming home fans cheering your every move, the real story of these games wasn’t McDonalds… or London… or Boris fucking Johnson… it was Team GB. Each and every one of them.

2. It was a triumph for diversity.
Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony was derided in some quarters for portraying an “idyllic,mulit-cultural Britain” where Mixed Race families played together in mutual harmony with White, Black & Asian children. Looking back, Boyle may not have been saying what was actually true, but what was potentially possible. Our list of winners had roots in Somalia, Jamaica, Africa, Australia & Europe – they came from state school, private schools and even home schools. Some had been trained for two decades, others just four years. Women from working class backgrounds won medals, men from billionaire families won medals. In the end it didn’t matter, because the country was proud to call each and every one of them British. People needed some hero’s to get behind and over the past 17 days we have found them in spades. The whole thing needed a catalyst, and that moment was probably the first Saturday, dubbed “super Saturday” – it was Britain’s most successful Olympic 24 hours in over a century. Things had just started to take off anyway, but this was the moment when the whole country suddenly stood up and took notice. Few athletes possess the ability to pull people together in the way that Jessica Ennis did. Here was the face of the games, a pretty, mixed race girl from Yorkshire who only got into athletics when her parents wanted her out of the house for a while. An almost impossibly likeable person, Ennis possesses that rare ability to unite huge swaths of people from different backgrounds. She was a triumph for the working classes… a triumph for hard work and perseverance… a triumph for ethnic diversity… a triumph for the north… and took on the whole world in the hardest individual athletic event for a woman and absolutely wiped the floor with the lot of them. That by the end of the Games her historic achievement was merely a footnote compared to the almost by the day “greatest ever Olympian” debates, merely proved to highlight how far things had come in the 8 days since she crossed the line to tears in a stadium, nay to a country, that had told her she was their girl.

3. Commentators & Presenters are still rubbish.
It was a good thing that so much excitement was going on in the arenas, because in the BBC studios the “analysis” and commentary continued to do its upmost to drive us all into a murderous rage. Following on from Trevor Nelson’s inexplicably inane attempts to describe the opening ceremony, the likes of Colin Jackson, Gabby Logan, John McEnroe, Jonathan Edwards and John Inverdale all helped devalue the achievements of legends by either talking total shit, or just being really rude. Inverdale was possibly the worst offender, refusing to let drop his belief that sprinters were only successful because they were black and then continuing to pepper a beleaguered Michael Johnson with a series of totally stupid questions about things he clearly couldn’t care less about. Mark Cavendish fared better in the Velodrome, even if he couldn’t quite drop the look of quiet resentment from his face that his own shot at glory had ended in failure. In the gymnastic & diving arena the commentary ranged from excited… to strangely absent… to maddeningly refusing to shut up depending on who was competing. Possibly the worst offenders though were during the Team GB football matches as the usual suspects regularly failed to differentiate which players were Welsh & English and continued to share some sort of strange notion that we could actually win…

4. It’s still great to laugh at others.
It’s not often Britain gets to be great at something, so to sit proudly in the third position in the medal table enabled us not only to fist pump the air on copious occasions, but also to roll around laughing as other, supposedly better countries failed to win as many medals. Yorkshire alone finished the Olympics in a barely believable 13^th position. Above the likes of Holland, Ukraine, New Zealand, Brazil & Spain. In the rivers the Great British team trounced the Aussies who came, saw and spectacularly failed to conquer. In the Velodrome, Hoy, Pendleton, Trott & Co destroyed the entire field, but especially the French who feebly whined that bikes made from wheels in their own country must have been illegal. But perhaps special mention has to be made for Russia who won a staggering 82 medals and still managed to consider the games a failure. Tears and protests abounded as they won “mere silvers” in unintentionally hilarious scenes. Of course, being British, we also really like to laugh at ourselves. And so as “Super Saturday” came to a close with six gold medals under our belt, there was still time to switch over and laugh whole heartedly as Team GB crashed out of the football on penalties. It shouldn’t be an Olympic sport anyway. But then if we’re being picky, neither should dressage…

5. Sports Personality of the Year will never have so much action.
Jess Ennis must have thought she were a shoe in… as she jogged around the stadium with a Union Jack around her body, nobody could have predicted that by the end of the games she would not only have so, so many contenders for the coveted British award, but that she wouldn’t even be favourite anymore. The cyclist all deserve the plaudits, Hoy was superb, a six time Olympic gold medallist and an incredibly nice bloke to boot. Wiggo won another gold, following on from his brilliant Tour de France victory. And what of Victoria Pendleton? Only a farcical penalty and a harsh disqualification stopped her winning a ridiculous three gold medals. All the cyclists were amazing, but she was SO much faster than her competition it was unreal. Elsewhere the British rowers once again took centre stage and few would deny Jess Grainger the award following her lifelong battle for Olympic gold. Tom Daley’s bronze deserves a mention, a reward for a mesmeric final performance following the sort of storyline normally reserved for Hollywood films. Gemma Gibbons was perhaps the first athlete to bring many people to tears after her brilliant Judo silver and each and every one of our boxing medallists covered themselves in nothing but glory. Meanwhile, an enormous shout out has to go to Ben Ainslie, a complete legend who has won 4 Gold Medals in 4 consecutive games in a sport almost nobody understands but him. But when all the dust had settled, my vote will probably have to go to Mo Farah. To win the 10,000 meters (never before achieved by a British athlete) was something truly special, to win that AND the 5,000 meters was something else. In just an incredible demonstration of distance running, Farah won both races with spot on tactics and final laps of solid gold. He will go down in history as one of the greatest athletes ever, and I was proud to witness him win both events. 

As a final point, I realise I haven’t even mentioned Usain Bolt. Given he is now without dispute the fastest man that has ever lived, I would personally like to see him retire from racing against humans in a way not dissimilar to how Schwarzenegger stopped fighting earth bound creatures during his mid-80’s heyday. What a wonder if would be if he stepped forward and said:

“for my next trick I will race against a Dingo, a Rhino, an Antelope and a Hare… one day I hope to take on the Cheetah. I’m coming for you Cheetah. I’m warning you. I’ll be back.”

Now that’s the Olympic spirit…