1. The Transfer
window needs to close before the first game
Much has been written about the transfer window this summer, possibly born more than ever from the frustrating and now epically boring sagas revolving around the likes of Bale, Rooney, Suarez and any Real Madrid player. One thing however has emerged as clear as the purest crystal… the transfer window is a terrible idea and the most terrible thing about it is that it shuts a full three weeks after the season starts. Who exactly does this system benefit other than agents? Do players really benefit from not being played because their head isn’t in the right place? (Bale) Or from refusing to play because their head has been turned? (Cabaye) Do clubs or fans benefit from not knowing who the true make up of their squad is prior to starting a campaign? Do bookmakers or gamblers benefit from having to make start of season punts based on lies and hearsay? Take Man Utd for example; right now I make them 3rd favourites to win the title. If they sell Rooney and buy nobody they’ll slip further away. But buy Ronaldo and Modric and keep Rooney and suddenly they look favourites again (p.s. this won’t happen… just an example… a fan can dream). The most damning thing about the transfer window, in particular the last few weeks once the season has kicked off, is that it has become stale. It was supposed to make things more exciting and over time has done the complete opposite. We just want to watch the football now please, not listen to managers be asked zero questions about the game and twenty questions about who they’re going to buy/sell in the coming days.
Much has been written about the transfer window this summer, possibly born more than ever from the frustrating and now epically boring sagas revolving around the likes of Bale, Rooney, Suarez and any Real Madrid player. One thing however has emerged as clear as the purest crystal… the transfer window is a terrible idea and the most terrible thing about it is that it shuts a full three weeks after the season starts. Who exactly does this system benefit other than agents? Do players really benefit from not being played because their head isn’t in the right place? (Bale) Or from refusing to play because their head has been turned? (Cabaye) Do clubs or fans benefit from not knowing who the true make up of their squad is prior to starting a campaign? Do bookmakers or gamblers benefit from having to make start of season punts based on lies and hearsay? Take Man Utd for example; right now I make them 3rd favourites to win the title. If they sell Rooney and buy nobody they’ll slip further away. But buy Ronaldo and Modric and keep Rooney and suddenly they look favourites again (p.s. this won’t happen… just an example… a fan can dream). The most damning thing about the transfer window, in particular the last few weeks once the season has kicked off, is that it has become stale. It was supposed to make things more exciting and over time has done the complete opposite. We just want to watch the football now please, not listen to managers be asked zero questions about the game and twenty questions about who they’re going to buy/sell in the coming days.
2. Is Lucas Leiva the
most underrated player in the league?
A line that has been trotted out around 30 times over the last week is that Liverpool are unbeaten since Luis Suarez got suspended. It is a statement that almost defines the type of lazy journalism and punditry we now have to endure week in week out. Whilst true, it takes into account no other outlying factors and works on the assumption that Liverpool are seemingly a better team without Suarez. Which is absurd. No, a key factor for Liverpool’s form since last Easter has been the re-emergence and return to form of Lucas Leiva. Unlike the Suarez suspension issue, it is not coincidence that Liverpool went on their worst run for some 40 years from the moment Lucas got injured at the start of King Kenny’s last season… right up to his return midway through the current reign of Brendan Rodgers. Leiva is criminally underrated. Initially maligned when he joined, seemingly for not being Steven Gerrard, any Scouser worth his salts now recognises the importance of Lucas to Liverpool’s team. Sitting at the base of what has become a fluid 4-3-3; Lucas is a classic destroyer in the mould of Makelele. He does the simple things well and his reading the game has got better each year. Him staying injury free is the only way Liverpool have a punt at finishing in the top 4 this season. It doesn’t matter how good the players ahead of him are, Liverpool are twice as strong defensively and statistically concede 30% less goals when he plays (in the last 4 years). As Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea all look, flail or just keep buying number 10’s until the cows come home… the greatest compliment you can pay Lucas is that he would get in all three of those clubs first XI.
A line that has been trotted out around 30 times over the last week is that Liverpool are unbeaten since Luis Suarez got suspended. It is a statement that almost defines the type of lazy journalism and punditry we now have to endure week in week out. Whilst true, it takes into account no other outlying factors and works on the assumption that Liverpool are seemingly a better team without Suarez. Which is absurd. No, a key factor for Liverpool’s form since last Easter has been the re-emergence and return to form of Lucas Leiva. Unlike the Suarez suspension issue, it is not coincidence that Liverpool went on their worst run for some 40 years from the moment Lucas got injured at the start of King Kenny’s last season… right up to his return midway through the current reign of Brendan Rodgers. Leiva is criminally underrated. Initially maligned when he joined, seemingly for not being Steven Gerrard, any Scouser worth his salts now recognises the importance of Lucas to Liverpool’s team. Sitting at the base of what has become a fluid 4-3-3; Lucas is a classic destroyer in the mould of Makelele. He does the simple things well and his reading the game has got better each year. Him staying injury free is the only way Liverpool have a punt at finishing in the top 4 this season. It doesn’t matter how good the players ahead of him are, Liverpool are twice as strong defensively and statistically concede 30% less goals when he plays (in the last 4 years). As Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea all look, flail or just keep buying number 10’s until the cows come home… the greatest compliment you can pay Lucas is that he would get in all three of those clubs first XI.
3. Newcastle need a
rethink
When you play at home, to a team managed by Big Sam and you’re even more boring than they are, you’ve got real problems. Newcastle v West Ham on Saturday was the sort of game that could put you off football for life. It was less interesting than the 4th days play at the Oval, which was entirely rained off. In West Ham’s defence they… well… that kinda of is their only defence really… their defence. But Newcastle? At home after just being thumped by Man City, with a transfer policy that makes Arsenal look busy, they simply had to make a statement. They didn’t have a single shot on target. Not one. At Home. To West Ham. A club who’ve just bought Stewart Downing. For no reason. Sadly for Newcastle, creatively this was bad as it gets. They treated their strikers as if they were invisible and don’t think for a moment that means I’m letting Papiss Cisse off the hook. The striker looked so bored I thought he was just going to sit down at one point. Newcastle are in real trouble, and not just because they employed Joe Kinnear for no logical reason whatsoever. Having recruited every C-list French player in the game, they need a couple of major and crucially English signings to instil a bit of steel back into the team again. How many captains have left Newcastle in the past decade alone? Five or six easy and Coloccini will almost certainly join them if this farce continues. The Geordies don’t have long to put things right and whilst I would never, ever advocate panic buying towards the end of a transfer window that should have shut a fortnight ago… for God’s sake lads panic buy the life out of this window. Go. Go now.
When you play at home, to a team managed by Big Sam and you’re even more boring than they are, you’ve got real problems. Newcastle v West Ham on Saturday was the sort of game that could put you off football for life. It was less interesting than the 4th days play at the Oval, which was entirely rained off. In West Ham’s defence they… well… that kinda of is their only defence really… their defence. But Newcastle? At home after just being thumped by Man City, with a transfer policy that makes Arsenal look busy, they simply had to make a statement. They didn’t have a single shot on target. Not one. At Home. To West Ham. A club who’ve just bought Stewart Downing. For no reason. Sadly for Newcastle, creatively this was bad as it gets. They treated their strikers as if they were invisible and don’t think for a moment that means I’m letting Papiss Cisse off the hook. The striker looked so bored I thought he was just going to sit down at one point. Newcastle are in real trouble, and not just because they employed Joe Kinnear for no logical reason whatsoever. Having recruited every C-list French player in the game, they need a couple of major and crucially English signings to instil a bit of steel back into the team again. How many captains have left Newcastle in the past decade alone? Five or six easy and Coloccini will almost certainly join them if this farce continues. The Geordies don’t have long to put things right and whilst I would never, ever advocate panic buying towards the end of a transfer window that should have shut a fortnight ago… for God’s sake lads panic buy the life out of this window. Go. Go now.
4. Are Spurs genuine
title contenders?
No club has had more false starts than Spurs over the past decade. Despite always been kinda there for first the title, then the champions league spots, then the cups… each and every season has seen them fall away and end up with nothing (a token Carling Cup aside). Post Bale that surely looked like being the case again. But Spurs have spent and have spent big. Even with Willian moving to Chelsea (for no reason that I can fathom given they need him about as much as Arsenal need another lightweight, injury prone, occasionally creative midfielder) – Spurs have a solid looking squad which looks set to be added to further before September. But it’s not the numbers this time, after all Spurs have always had a predilection for buying midfielders; it’s the quality of the signings that stands out. After capturing the superb Dembele last year, not to mention Vertonghen, both Paulinho and Soldado walk tall as A-listers. Both have started the campaign well, with the latter already scoring more than Adeboyer did in 30 games last season. Spurs haven’t had the toughest start and it will be interesting to see how they get on at the Emirates for next week. For now though, given they appear capable of keeping clean sheets now as well as scoring goals, I’m happy to say with a degree of confidence that this is the year they may just get in amongst the big boys again.
No club has had more false starts than Spurs over the past decade. Despite always been kinda there for first the title, then the champions league spots, then the cups… each and every season has seen them fall away and end up with nothing (a token Carling Cup aside). Post Bale that surely looked like being the case again. But Spurs have spent and have spent big. Even with Willian moving to Chelsea (for no reason that I can fathom given they need him about as much as Arsenal need another lightweight, injury prone, occasionally creative midfielder) – Spurs have a solid looking squad which looks set to be added to further before September. But it’s not the numbers this time, after all Spurs have always had a predilection for buying midfielders; it’s the quality of the signings that stands out. After capturing the superb Dembele last year, not to mention Vertonghen, both Paulinho and Soldado walk tall as A-listers. Both have started the campaign well, with the latter already scoring more than Adeboyer did in 30 games last season. Spurs haven’t had the toughest start and it will be interesting to see how they get on at the Emirates for next week. For now though, given they appear capable of keeping clean sheets now as well as scoring goals, I’m happy to say with a degree of confidence that this is the year they may just get in amongst the big boys again.
5. Cardiff deserved
to paint the town red
After the opening performances of both these clubs this result seemed about as likely as the second coming. City could have an off day sure, but could Cardiff really score a couple of goals to nick it? No chance. Indeed, following Dzeko’s blistering opening strike the odds on Cardiff winning at all were 40/1. The Welsh team winning 3-2 was well over 100. This, of course, is the Premier League. And whilst the cream rises to the top over a whole season each and every game weeks tends to throw up at least one result that nobody saw coming. This was exactly the sort of match that City struggled in last year, ultimately costing them the title and their manager his job. To see a further £100m ploughed into the team and watch them toil again away to a relegation candidate will surely not sit well with the clubs hierarchy. Joe Hart looks increasingly unstable at the back and whilst excuses can be made with the injuries to the centre backs, the refusal to replace Gael Clichy with anyone who can actually defend appears strange. Toure was as bad as I’ve ever seen him and only Silva and Dseko can walk away with any credit from a front line that failed to spark all afternoon. For Cardiff though, this was an exceptional performance full of determination but also imagination. The front three caused problems all game and as the space opened up in the second half they cut loose several times. They may have changed their kit colour, but the fans won’t mind painting the town red after this effort. After a week of pretty dreary stuff, this was the moment the league woke up from its summer slumber. Let’s hope it’s for good.
https://twitter.com/HinduMonkey
After the opening performances of both these clubs this result seemed about as likely as the second coming. City could have an off day sure, but could Cardiff really score a couple of goals to nick it? No chance. Indeed, following Dzeko’s blistering opening strike the odds on Cardiff winning at all were 40/1. The Welsh team winning 3-2 was well over 100. This, of course, is the Premier League. And whilst the cream rises to the top over a whole season each and every game weeks tends to throw up at least one result that nobody saw coming. This was exactly the sort of match that City struggled in last year, ultimately costing them the title and their manager his job. To see a further £100m ploughed into the team and watch them toil again away to a relegation candidate will surely not sit well with the clubs hierarchy. Joe Hart looks increasingly unstable at the back and whilst excuses can be made with the injuries to the centre backs, the refusal to replace Gael Clichy with anyone who can actually defend appears strange. Toure was as bad as I’ve ever seen him and only Silva and Dseko can walk away with any credit from a front line that failed to spark all afternoon. For Cardiff though, this was an exceptional performance full of determination but also imagination. The front three caused problems all game and as the space opened up in the second half they cut loose several times. They may have changed their kit colour, but the fans won’t mind painting the town red after this effort. After a week of pretty dreary stuff, this was the moment the league woke up from its summer slumber. Let’s hope it’s for good.
https://twitter.com/HinduMonkey
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