Jom Football

As we come to the end of the year one group of people who must be feeling a little confused are Newcastle United fans. 2008 has certainly been a year of mixed emotions for them and 2009 looks as though it will be little different.

Uncertainty

As we all now know, owner Mike Ashley has confirmed the club are no longer for sale and says that he hopes his decision will end the uncertainty over the Magpies’ future. Ashley had initially put the club on the market back in September when former manager Kevin Keegan’s sudden departure led to the fans turning against Ashley and Dennis Wise in all sorts of ways. The ‘Cockney mafia out’ campaign meant that neither man felt welcome at St James’ Park.

However, despite the media and Ashley’s people themselves claiming that there was plenty of interest in buying the club, it would appear that no suitable offers were actually forthcoming meaning that Ashley has now taken the decision to remain in charge.

Ashley said in Newcastle’s matchday programme,

“I am happy to end the uncertainty fans may have had about the future direction of Newcastle United. I know just how important that is to you. I have withdrawn Newcastle United from the market, and for me 2009 will be the year in which we drive the club forward together. Even when I haven’t been at games I have remained a keen supporter, kicking and heading every ball and cheering the team on TV and being the first to congratulate Joe whenever there’s a good result. When I took the decision to put the club up for sale in September I made a point of saying two things were very important. Firstly, any potential buyer would have to show they had the best interests of Newcastle United at heart and had both the commitment and finance to be worthy custodians of such a fine football club before I would even consider doing a deal. And secondly, I gave you my word that as long as I remain owner, this club would continue to be run responsibly at all levels. I hope you will accept that I have stood by that pledge.”

Mike Ashley originally bought the Magpies in the summer of 2007 and in January this year he brought the fans idol Kevin Keegan back to manage the club. This was a popular move and one that was sure to win over the Toon Army. Some sceptics suggested that was the reason for the appointment rather than it being a carefully planned football decision, but either way, it was an appointment that went down well on Tyneside.

The Messiah

So 2008 started pretty well for Newcastle fans with the return of ‘The Messiah’ although early results under Keegan were disappointing. This was not too much of a problem however because firstly, Keegan would be given as much time as he needed to turn things around by the fans, and secondly, as far as they were concerned, anything was worth getting rid of Sam Allardyce.

However, what did become an obvious problem fairly quickly was the fact that Keegan wasn’t happy with his role and the role of others at the club. In particular, he was unhappy with the role of Dennis Wise and the club’s transfer policy in general.

Hate campaign

Keegan left just a few weeks into the current season when the row over the club’s transfer policy, spiralled out of control. The fans were distraught at the loss of Keegan who had managed to turn things around sufficiently last season but was struggling again now. A hate campaign ensued against Ashley and he decided he had no option but to sell the club.

Sceptics were at it again when the sale was announced. Ashley had priced the club at a level whereby a sale seemed unlikely. Was the sale just a ploy to give Ashley some breathing space from the Keegan furore before returning to the club?

Those who said so at the time will be feeling pretty smug with their ‘I told you so’ smiles at the moment, but we’ll never know if that was really the case.

Genuine

Clearly, something had to be done before the transfer window opened as Newcastle are in need of players and who would go to a club in turmoil and officially for sale? What ever anyone thinks about Ashley, I believe that we all know he is a genuine Newcastle fan and he would have known that he had to make a move now.

Whether this is a spur of the moment move or one that he had always planned is open to conjecture. Whether he will be welcomed back with open arms by the Newcastle fans or not is also open to conjecture.

The one thing about which I am relatively certain is that Dennis Wise will never be accepted by the fans and if Mike Ashley really wants to stay and drive the club forward, he will have to do so without Wise.

Hatred

I don’t know what to believe about the current situation and I still feel that if an offer was made to buy the club that was financially sensible for Mike Ashley he would take it. He is a Newcastle fan but he can’t ignore some of the hatred that was directed towards him and his family after the Keegan affair.

If he is genuine in his desire to stay with the club, backs Joe Kinnear with some funds and sacks Dennis Wise, it is just about possible that the old wounds could be healed. I just fear for the club that all three of those points may be questionable.
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Written by Graham Fisher · Tags: Editorial, English Premier League

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has been arrested after a fight in a bar on Merseyside, reports and a police source said Monday.

The fight took place overnight in Southport, near Liverpool, in north-west England.

“Six men were arrested on suspicion of section 20 assault on Lord Street,” said a spokesman for Merseyside Police, without officially confirming England midfielder Gerrard's identity.

Written by SoccerNews · Tags: English Premier League

Wayne Rooney’s agent Paul Stretford on Monday lost an appeal against an 18-month ban imposed by the Football Association in July for breaking regulations when signing up the England striker.

Stretford was also fined 300,000 pounds (then 377,000 euros) in July after being charged by the FA following his troubled appointment as Rooney’s agent in 2002.

Seven of the nine charges brought by the FA against Stretford for breaches of world football governing body FIFA’s players’ agent regulations were proved.

The charges included failing to protect Rooney’s interests and failing to respect the rights of third parties.

Stretford was also hit with an improper conduct charge in relation to the “making of false and/or misleading witness statements to police and giving false and/or misleading testimony to Warrington Crown Court” in a case about the circumstances of how he came to represent the England striker.

Stretford made it clear he would lodge an appeal but an independent appeal board here Monday upheld the original punishment.

“The board dismissed Mr Stretford’s appeal in its entirety and the decisions of an independent regulatory commission in July 2008 were confirmed,” said a statement on the FA’s official website.

Stretford can now go to an arbitration panel to challenge this latest ruling and his ban will be suspended until he has made that decision.

Written by SoccerNews · Tags: English Premier League

In goal, there are a few decent candidates. Chelsea’s Petr Cech was really good but won nothing and made a mistake that cost his country dearly at Euro 2008. Without him, we need to look at keepers that won things.



Pepe Reine won the Golden Gloves award, but remained as second choice behind Casillas for Spain. Van Der Sar wan the Premier League and the Champions League and Iker Casillas won La Liga and the European Championships.

It’s a tough choice but Casillas gets my vote.

Back four

The back four has no end of contenders. Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra from Manchester United’s double winning side are all worthy of a place in the squad as are John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho from Chelsea’s nearly double winning side.

Sagna and Clichy at Arsenal made many ‘team of the season’ selections last Summer and Bosingwa at Chelsea might make quite a few at the end of this season.

Maicon at Inter, Daniel Alves at Carles Puyol at Barcelona and Sergio Ramos at Real Madrid are all screaming for selection as is Philipp Lahm from Bayern Munich.

That list is only scratching the surface. Chiellini had a great Euro 2008 and it seems very strange to select a list of the world’s great defenders without nominating anyone from Italy, the home of the magnificent defender.

Anyway, my back four looks like this:

Ramos, Ferdinand, Puyol, Lahm.

Midfield

Into the midfield and I am sure there was some fellow at Manchester United who did quite well this year! Yes, it would be a strange selection if we weren’t to include the Portuguese wing wizardry of Cristiano Ronaldo. Forty-two goals, fantastic skill and tricks and the ability to produce Olympic style tumbling at the faintest of touches make him an automatic choice!

Strangely, after winning the double, it is difficult to think that any of the other Manchester United midfielders that would be nominated in this category. Carrick, Anderson, Scholes, Hargreaves, Nani, Giggs all played their part, but none of them stood out enough to make this squad.

At Chelsea, Lampard, Ballack and Essien were all excellent for their club and Essien may well have made this team if he hadn’t been injured for most of this season so far.

For Liverpool, Mascherano and Gerrard were superb and at Arsenal, Cesc Fabregas came of age.

Pirlo and Gattuso continued to produce the goods at the ageing Milan side and Frank Ribery has developed into the world class player at Bayern Munich that we all thought he would as an under twenty-one international.

The European Championship winning midfield of Barcelona’s Xavi and Iniesta and Villarreal’s Marcos Senna probably all deserve to be in the team, but are difficult to accommodate in my rigid English 4-4-2 system!

Other players who could have made the squad include Wesley Sneijder, Kaka and Quaresma.

It’s a very, very tough choice but I’m going with the following:

Ronaldo, Senna, Xavi, Ribery.

Strikers

The strikers sort of pick themselves. I know that Lionel Messi isn’t a striker but give him a free role playing off the main striker and he will be more effective than anyone else in the world.

The main striker is probably between the two Spaniards who led their country to European glory. Fernando Torres and David Villa.

Many other strikers deserve a mention. Benzema, Rooney, Tevez, Drogba, Ibrahimovich, Klose, Arshavin and even the evergreen Ruud Van Nistelrooy.

For me though there are only two names for the team. Messi and Torres.

So there we have the SoccerNews representative team:

Casillas

Ramos, Ferdinand, Puyol, Lahm

Ronaldo, Senna, Xavi, Ribery

Torres, Messi

Written by Graham Fisher · Tags: Editorial, General Soccer News

Here we go with some more predictions. They come thick and fast at this time of the year. Can I beat the four out of ten I managed on Boxing Day?

Sunday, 28 December 2008
# Arsenal v Portsmouth

Arsenal have slipped up at home a couple of times and managed to throw away a two goal lead at Villa, but Portsmouth don’t look too threatening at the moment. A 4-1 defeat at home to West Ham will hardly be worrying the Gunners.

It will be strange for Tony Adams to take a side to Arsenal and try to beat them. He is a Gooner through and through.

I think Adams will be celebrating tonight. Only because his favourite team has won mind, not the one he manages.


# Blackburn v Manchester City

Blackburn with a new manager take on shortly managerless Manchester City unless Mark Hughes can start to get some decent results, building on the 5-1 win over Hull.

Blackburn are a decent side and their ‘up and at them’ approach is not one that will sit comfortably with the flair loaded City side.

Blackburn’s recovery starts here. Although a 3-0 win against Stoke and a 0-0 draw at Sunderland might just be regarded as something of a recovery already.


# Bolton v Wigan

The dour derby. For anyone in the world who doesn’t come from Bolton or Wigan this must be the least exciting of all Premier League fixtures.

Sadly, it is likely to be amongst the least exciting games of football as well.

# Everton v Sunderland

Decent team playing poorly against a poor team playing OK. Could go either way this one.

I fancy Everton to just about have enough. Probably a last minute goal. Probably Tim Cahill or Aaron Lescott. It’s a fairly safe bet.

# Fulham v Chelsea

The West London derby doesn’t have the same sort of image, reputation or glamour of most of the other big derby games around the world. I guess that is because for many years, Chelsea have been so much better than their neighbours.

It is possible that the gap is beginning to close. Nowhere near enough for Fulham to get any sort of result in this one though.

# Newcastle v Liverpool

Michael Owen gets the chance to put one over his former employees and put himself in the shop window.

Liverpool are a tighter unit than they have been for sometime but I fancy Owen to bag one against them. Unfortunately for Michael, I expect Liverpool to bag a couple too.


# West Brom v Tottenham

West Brom are nowhere near as bad as Derby were last season, but they must be beginning to wish the season would end. There is no let up in the tests they face and Tottenham will be too strong for them at The Hawthorns.

# West Ham v Stoke

Gianfranco Zola’s beautiful football against Tony Pulis’ get it in the mixer football. For the neutral it would probably be best to see a Hammers victory, but then again, it is always good to see the underdog do well.

I’ll sit on the fence.



Monday, 29 December 2008
# Manchester United v Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough are a bit of a bogey team for United and I well remember them beating United over the Christmas period a few years ago.

United are looking pretty formidable at home and as long as they manage to take at least one of the many chances they will create I suspect they will be alright here.


Tuesday, 30 December 2008
# Hull v Aston Villa

Another stern test for Hull as the exciting Villa come to town.

This game should be good to watch with both teams liking to play attractive, attacking football at pace. I’d certainly rather be watching this one than the game at Bolton!

I reckon Villa might just come out on top, but they’ll know they’ve been in a game.


Written by Graham Fisher · Tags: Editorial, English Premier League