Football Hearsay: 2011

Thursday, 22 December 2011

We are top of the League, say we are top of the league

Sheen FC are top at Christmas!

More to come shortly

#SheenFC #Winning

Merry Christmas

Well at the moment I can't be bothered to write anything meaningful, so instead here's a heartfelt message from myself to you all, wishing you festivity and joy this Christmas, and hopefully lots of money, that helps, and hey, maybe if you do get money you could send some to me, these hilarious articles don't come on the cheap you know. I've got a team of writers sitting here thinking of puns left, right and centre. It's a competitive industry and you've got to have the best.

Gracias y ¡Feliz Navidad

Euro piece of shi...

Well it's that time again Ladies and Gentlemen, for England to rise again above everyone and crush the feeble opposition that stand before them and reign superior again... Or that's how the media (alright, The Sun) will portray it in the months leading up to Euro 2012. But we all know that the media is run by the underground British Mafia and that you can't trust the system!...

Or something along those lines anyway, but looking at the group, I think England have a great chance of progre.... Haha, what am I saying, we will inevitably fail again, and here's why.

1. We beat Spain, it can't get better than that, quite literally, it will be regarded as Capello's greatest and only achievement and will be forgotten in history as the only legacy will be the constant clip of Rob Green spilling that infamous shot into his own net, I really hope that image isn't what is remembered of Fabio, but I fear that will be the case...

2. Watch the video above, that explains everything

So England have to fend of the likes of Sweden, Ukraine and... FRANCE!!! You mean the team that went on strike during the World Cup, Hahahahahaha, this will be easy!!!

England Euro 2012 Champions

Gracias

This is such a shock, I'd like to thank my mum and my pet rock...

So, I didn't even notice but recently the site hit its 3000th view, and the winner is!.... Oh... Well it was me, along with the other 2999 views on this site, but carrying on, I'd like to thank everyone who viewed this site, for whatever motive you had, whether it was for the humour, or the opinionated stories, or you just happened to click on here by mistake, whatever happened I value you all equally, except my one valued reader from Bosnia and Herzegovina, you mate, are the greatest.

So yeah, thanks and all

Gracias

FIFA games and Alcohol

No, it's not my parody of an Oasis song (although now you say it, I might do that...) But continuing, it's not long now until I attend one of my mates (yeah, joke all you want) gatherings, here he is planning on playing a FIFA drinking game, now I'm not good at FIFA or drinking alcohol so you can kind of see where this is going, they are absolutely determined to get me drunk because, supposedly I'm funny sober (yeah, you read that right) so they think I'd be hilarious drunk, I'm not so sure...

Here's why

1. Alcohol is a depressant, so my normal hilarious self (what?) will be utterly destroyed by this toxin filled rubbish that I will be ultimately forced by peer pressure to "down".

2. It only works if you want it to, I will be so reluctant to do it that once I do do it (hehe do do) I will be so annoyed at myself for doing it, that it will probably enhance my depression causing everyone to hate me.

3. In the small space of time that I will have drunk the optimum amount of alcohol to unleash the party animal inside me, I will have lost at least 2 more games of FIFA and be out cold, either that or forced to go to the brothel across the road. (That's right, he lives opposite a known brothel, I KNOW!)

4. I'm making this organised list about alcohol, suggesting to you that I'm neither fun nor cool enough to be handling more than one shot of whatever they decide to poison my liver with

So, about mid way through December you'll get my update on my pitiful attempt at this FIFA tournament and my other updates on my newly acquired liver disease.

Gracias

Better Leighton than Never

What? It's a clever title, don't come here with your anti-Everton attitude, just because we beat Wolves and are now up to 12th (COYB), but this isn't even about Everton (for once), this is of course, our regular weekly (sort of) update about Sheen FC, that's right, after the players returned from their International duties last week to a harsh training regime laid out by my second in command Steve Claridge, Steve and the boys trained hard for this week and it paid off (mostly), Leighton Baines topped the pile with this weeks top score of 12 points followed by Sergio Aguero's 8 in a relatively quiet week for the lads.

It means that we lose pace on the runaway leaders at the top, but as long as Van Persil breaks his leg soon then we'll be fine. On a final note, look at the team in 3rd!! It's team Blah, I told you they were a threat, I knew it!!

I'll get Steve and the scouting team on a reconnaissance mission to the Blah training ground to get a few tips on how they are playing.

COYSFCIW!!

Roses are Red, Violets are blue, the Premier League's great and the MLS is too

Good afternoon/morning/late night (so eager to read that you stayed up til 3am, I am touched) But yes, we are getting about equal amounts of traffic from the UK and the US, SO, I had a huge brainstorming session of how I could link the two with football, after hours of deliberating, I came up with this.

I'm sure you can all see how I came to that logical conclusion, it's quite simple, we n... Everton need Landon Donovan back (No more bias, I promise), on a more serious note Moyes needs him back in the team, he had an amazing impact on the team when he joined two years ago on loan from LA Galaxy, he instantly became a fan favourite (along with myself, AHH! ok, no more bias) he chipped in with two goals and a few assists and injured Ashley Cole in his short tenure with the Blues (Legend), but the thing he brought to the table that we.. Everton valued the most was his pace ,okay, you can say, "Oh, but Andy, Drenthe's got pace as well, even more than Donovan". To which I reply, "How the hell did you get my phone number?" But stalkers aside, he had discipline within his play which is something that Drenthe lacks at the moment, probably most obviously his red card against Chelski.

I seriously think that he would make a huge difference to Everton and that Moyes needs to be on the next cross-Atlantic flight to Los Angeles and find Donovan's house, ring the doorbell, hide just out of view and when he opens the door, Moyes and Hibbert pounce, restrain Landon and drag him back on that return cross-Atlantic back to John Lennon airport... Or we could just loan him again, your choice David, do it my way and it's quick and painless or do it your way and don't get a criminal record, it's your choice!...

But I digress, I hope my completely non-biased take on that subject has been full value for the UK readers and our cross-Atlantic viewers also, remember, always wear a seatbelt...

UP THE TOFFEES!!

Good evening New York

So it seems the main traffic to this site is from our good friends from across the pond, presumably once again confusing football with the sport that they call football, but only involves the foot touching the ball for about 1% of the game. I can't fault them for visiting the site, who can blame them? But hopefully this small diagram will help for future references:

Hopefully that clears up everything, also a MASSIVE shout out to my one fan in Bosnia and Herzegovina, you are the only reason I keep going dude, just stick in there, this is all for you.

Well all good things come to an end

This certainly isn't one of them, but as half-term has brutally finished (That's right I'm still at school, I know my immaculate use of the English language confused you didn't it) I'm now more heaped under than Kerry Katona's boyfriend, with homework of course, I'm not with the crazy Iceland woman, not any more at least...

But yes, back to the point, I have work to be doing so once again there will be fewer posts on here, I'll still try and keep you up to date with Sheen FC and Ilkeston but other than that I'm lazy.

Who even reads this anyway? But as Charlie says, with the motto emblazoned on our club badge, "We're still winning"

Thanks and goodbye

It's better, but it's still not Sheen-worthy

It's not all doom and gloom, Sheen FC has made its was back up to second place and we are now only 7 points off the top, and you know who it's all down to? Well not Dzeko if you answered that, I've kicked Edin out after he decided he thought it would be funny to throw darts at his team mates (I have no idea where he gets his ideas from). Do you know what, I take back every single word I said about Demba Ba, the guy's an absolute legend and his hat trick yesterday has single handedly propelled us back up the league, that and Steven Taylor, well done Steve.

Here's how it's looking at the moment:

Just on a final note, the world renowned team 'blah' are blazing up the league and now reside in 5th, I see them causing us problems later in the season, they must be crushed...

Match report: Ilkeston 4-1 Romulus

Ilkeston continued there push for promotion this weekend with a 4-1 over 16th position Romulus F.C. The Robins took all 3 points at home to go top of the division, 1 point above Sheffield F.C who could only manage a draw, a double double from Ricketts and McCall were too much for Romulus who could only find the solitary goal in reply.

It's looking good for promotion.

COYI

Adopted Club

As the hype of the Premier League takes all of the media spotlight these days, there aren't many followers of the lower leagues, (and when I say lower leagues, I mean properly low, even lower than the Conference South) Now I know Northwich Victoria aren't likely to be on the television at the local in 3-D, but hey, your pub owner might be a huge Vics fan, but then he'd have to install 3-D cameras at the ground and then hire someone to operate them and... It's pretty unlikely let's put it that way.

But I thought we could give a "smaller" club, it's time in the limelight so with my calculator at the ready, the random number generator says... 212... Oh great, now I have to trawl through the leagues until I reach club number 212...

And the results are in, the Football Hearsay official supporting club are... Ilkeston F.C. of the Northern Premier League Division One South!

So who exactly are Ilkeston?

In case you already didn't know, Ilkeston F.C. were originally formed in 1894 as Ilkeston Town, Oh how times have changed, In the 2008–09 season they finished second behind Eastwood Town in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. In the play-offs they beat Kendal Town 4–3 to reach the final. The club gained promotion to the Conference North on 2 May 2009 when they beat Nantwich Town in the play off final 2–1 after extra time with a 94th-minute winner, in front of 1,794 fans.

Their first season in the Conference North was a successful one as they finished in eighth place in the table, as well as progressing to the first round proper of the FA Cup where they lost to Cambridge United. At the end of the 2009–10 season the club came under new ownership with Gary Hodder taking over as chairman.

In their 2010–11 season they initially played in Conference North, but their record was expunged on 8 September 2010 as they were subject to a winding up order in the high court over a £47,000 tax bill from the Chek Whyte era. Two months after liquidating, the club was reformed as a renamed Ilkeston F.C. and were admitted into the Northern Premier League Division One South in May 2011.

So as you can see, we've picked a club with a wonderful track record on the pitch, financially,...

We'll be keeping track of Ilkeston's performances throughout the season, but here's a how they are doing at the moment.

Ilkeston are currently sitting in 3rd place the Evo-Stik League Northern Premier after a flying start to the season, they've picked up 9 wins from 14 and are just 1 point of the leaders Sheffield FC, their biggest win of the season was against Market Drayton Town with a 6-0 smashing by the Robins with a Caskey double.

Their next game is today against Romulus at home, the Robins will be looking for their 5th home win of the season at the fortress of New Manor Ground.

COYI

And in case you want to show your support, the club's official webiste is here http://www.ilkestonfc.co.uk/

We're on Twitter

As any self publicist should, I've created a twitter account for the blog, I know you're leaping out of your seats in excitement that you can now get my hilarious comments in 140 characters or less as well as on the main blog. I shall now sit back and watch the followers roll in.

Follow the blog @FH_Blog
http://twitter.com/#!/FH_Blog

What are you waiting for?

Sheen FC is Winning

That would of course be the name of my fantasy football team, and what a brilliant name it was, a couple of weeks ago when I probably should've done this update, hey, who knows if things go well, you might even be getting one of these bad boys every week (disclaimer: under no circumstance will I ever be able to keep that up for longer than 1 week). So after my run of about a month at the top of the leader board, my team has started to hit the proverbial brick wall, I've slipped down to 3rd after a shocker of a week, here's how it looks at the moment

It has now become Sheen FC was winning but after some terrible player/managerial performances has slumped down to 3rd, not as catchy but still, I'll explain why, after I quickly show you the bunch of failures that I call my first XI.

Look at them, I can't any more, the team were having an absolute blinder and then I decided to take some ill advice from my friend, sorry ex-friend, I take this very seriously you know. The transfer window was before the weekend of the Manchester Derby, my main talisman next to Wayne up front was Edin Dzeko, he had an early season belter scoring 6 in 5, but he hit a rough patch, I stuck with the lad, I changed his ringtone to "things can only get better" by D Ream and the less successful theme for the labour party campaign. and you know what, things did get better, he scored 2 in the derby followed by another brace in the carling cup match against Wolves midweek, but only after my fri.. ex-friend said and I quote "Dzeko is terrible!! Get rid of him" and I did replacing him with the useless Demba Ba, well who's laughing now? No-one, that's the answer, no smiles in the Sheen FC camp, they've lost the enthusiasm for the game, but worst of all, look at the team in 8th, that's right team "blah" are even catching me now, I fear for my job after Edin left, the fans are protesting outside the training ground, it's getting to me. We can only hope that Brede bags a hat-trick on Saturday.

COYSFCIW!

Thanks

That's right, I've got myself a job at... No, no, don't let my hilarious antics get the better of you, as you may have noticed, or not, you may never have been here before, well in that case welcome, relax, make yourself a nice cup of tea, go on we'll wait... You've done that? Great. Let's continue, So basically the site has a brand new fresh approach going on, there isn't as many features as before, I can't include my world renowned twitter feed on here, so you'll just have to follow me instead (@YourPalAndy just in case anyone cared) plugging aside, it's mainly just about the articles now, similar to playboy in a sense, call me the Hefner of Sports Journalism. Make what you will of that. But basically just enjoy the nonsensical rambling.

From the Football Hearsay mansion in California.

Did you miss me?

Well the answer to that is obviously no, as you are all well aware I haven't posted anything on here in a long while and that's been mainly down to piles of homework and lack of ideas. And slight laziness as well, but in the coming weeks I'll try and get some stuff going on here again, there will be an update on the fantasy football, which I know you've all been having sleepless nights just waiting for the results and just some regular pieces on that game we call football, unless you're American which chances are you thought this was going to be about your football, which it isn't, so go, leave.

Oh and there's going to be a change to the interface of the blog/website (whatever this is), I'm going to try and spruce it up a bit, all for you guys.

Enjoy

Everton don’t need to panic… just yet.

The Toffees haven’t spent a penny this transfer window and are the only team in the professional English leagues not to have brought in a player. Luckily they have one of the best managers in the country and an impressive first XI. Although desperately in need for investment, fans don’t need to be alarmed at this present moment, the club still have a squad capable to get them a top half finish, and with a decent start, possibly a Europa League place.

What fans do need to keep a tab on is the impending financial state, in an interview with Bill Kenwright, the chairman revealed that the club cannot borrow any more money from the bank, if that situation continues the club will not be able to pay off its debt and could fall into administration.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, in the form of the young Ross Barkley, hailed the new “Rooney”, by Louis Saha, he has burst onto the scene at Goodison Park, catching the eyes of pundits and fans across the country, he is another example along with Rodwell that our academy can produce quality players and if it comes to it, they can be sold to cover the debts. But that will be a last resort.

It’s clear that Everton need investment, but the fans need not panic at the moment, the club have one of the best managers for the job and an experienced and capable squad of players. It’s the future that needs be planned for.

Predictions and round-up of Pre-season

That’s right! I’m back, for the many 1000’s of readers this blog has accumulated I thank you for returning for another season. Okay bit of an overstatement but this blog has reached more hits than I thought it would so I have to thank you for that.

I probably should’ve done this before the season started, but my team Everton haven’t actually started yet so I have forgiven myself. But yes as you probably have realised, the football season is back and that means only one thing, I’ve done a fantasy football team that will inevitably end up in the lower 60,000^th position.

But before I bring you my pearls of wisdom about the ultimate team I have picked, let’s get my predictions for the Premier League out of the way. As always, I think that Manchester United will once again walk away with this year’s title and reach the 20 titles milestone.

It baffles me how United can lose their high profile players and replace them with sometimes unknown players who can step up to the plate and become household names, I think this is what makes Sir Alex one of the best managers in history.

If you saw the West Brom match, you could see how well Ashley Young fitted in to the team and how, not on this occasion as such but how Nani has filled that Ronaldo shaped hole at Old Trafford that no-one thought he could.

So this is how I think the Premier League will pan out in the end.

1^st. Manchester United

2^nd. Manchester City

3^rd. Chelsea

4^th. Liverpool

5^th. Arsenal

6^th. Tottenham

7^th. Everton

8^th. Sunderland

9^th. Bolton

10^th.Villa

11^th.Fulham

12^th.Stoke

13^th.Newcastle

14^th. West Brom

15^th.Blackburn

16^th. Wolves

17^th. Norwich

18^th. QPR

19^th. Wigan

20^th. Swansea

We’ll see how wrong I am in the season round up in mid-2012.

Onto the Fantasy Football team, now I’m not normally any good at these, but this season I’ve decided to put some thought into it. See what you make of my team.

GK. Cech

DF. Baines

DF. S. Taylor

DF. Huth

DF. Samba

MD. Walcott

MD. Silva

MD. Dempsey

MD. Nani

ST. Bent

ST. Aguero

So the blog is finally back for the season, I’ll try and keep as up to date as possible, but since I’m not getting paid for this and I have a minimal audience, I am under no obligation to.

Leave your comments and abuse in the section below.

Just a small note to West Ham fans

If your new manager, who has a reputation for long ball play openly claims that your club will look to grind out results away and play 'Wenger' football at home, then you have a real problem.

If you play "long ball" football, then you are falling into the championship trap, they will be more used to defending hoofs than Premier League clubs are, and for West Ham playing "attractive" football at home, don't get me started, they don't have the players and after Parker, the only single person that was desperately dragging them anywhere close to safety leaves, then you have no chance.

Good luck to the Hammers, I'm sure the Olympic Stadium will be wonderful when they are blessed with teams like Doncaster and Scunthorpe.

Villas-Boas - the double barrelled surname on everyone’s lips

Well, it’s become more of an anniversary than anything, because the start of the season normally means another manager arriving through the revolving doors at Stamford Bridge, they usually end up back the other way by May. But do we have someone different in Mr. Villas-Boas? Is this a new tactic employed by Abramovich? Well on the face of it, no. Many expect the inexperienced ex-Porto man to be fired before the end of his 3 year contract, mainly because that is the trend that Abramovich follows, but trends are there to be broken, I’m sure Arsene will be hoping that will be the case this season.

For us to understand whether this is a good appointment or not we need to go further than, “Abramovich sacks everyone”. It’s a different kind of selection on Roman’s part, whereas previous seasons he has looked for experience to try and bring him that all elusive Champions League glory. But as you may have gathered Andres is younger than Chelsea’s reserve keeper Hilario. Whether that means he won’t have any authority within the camp is a different question.

In Villas-Boas we have a young upcoming manager that already has proven himself in the Portuguese League, of course we know that the heady heights of the Premier League are completely different to Portuguese football. I believe that he can adapt, the man seems very intelligent and has already worked at Chelsea as the head scout and that didn’t do enough to put him off returning so we know he has the drive.

It all comes down to whether Abramovich has got it through into his head yet that sacking managers year after year just doesn’t work, if he gives Villas-Boas time then we could see trophies returning to Stamford Bridge, but the pessimist in me think that we have seen this all before and the inevitable “Villas-Go-as” headlines will be appearing in several poor tabloid newspapers.

Roll on 50 years of hurt

Well I’m getting tired of saying it, but that was a disappointment, the performance of the England under 21 team in Denmark was just a little short of a disgrace and they will know it. I thought Pearce got his tactics all wrong, the fact that we set out to emulate Spain and not play to our strengths says it all. The need for us to continually pass the ball back to Frankie Fielding was a mystery. There was no movement from the players and our best attacker was Phil Jones.

Surprisingly Jones looked very good going forward and I wonder whether playing him in a centre defensive midfield position would have suited him better. I was also quite surprised that Jack Rodwell didn’t get more of an opportunity, fair enough, he didn’t have the greatest of seasons at Goodison but his appearance in the Ukraine game showed that he was performing better than Muamba and Mancienne.

I just think that some of these players will never be good enough to make the move into the first team, they just didn’t show enough quality or desire and just didn’t look like they were vaguely interested in playing together.

One final point I’d like to pick up on was Pearce’s tactic to play two holding central midfielders in all 3 matches, especially in the final match where we had to win in order to progress. The combination of Mancienne and Henderson showed no ambition and created a gulf between the midfield and the strikers, meaning Welbeck was isolated and Sturridge had to keep coming deep to receive the ball.

To be honest with you the future looks bleak for England, but don’t let me bring you down, just watch them for yourself.

Twitter: @andyelement

There is no news!

Well as all you keen readers will have seen, I haven't wrote anything in a while, mainly down to exams and lack of ideas. But the Blog will be back to usual when the new season begins, there may be a few transfer related posts and others, but don't get upset without your weekly hearsay.

Normal service shall resume in August.

Crisis? What Crisis?

The words of our good friend Mr Blatter there who tonight was rewarded for his corrupt antics with another 4 years in office. Yes that’s right, he’s like the George Bush of the footballing world, nobody wanted him but the other option was, well nobody.

And here I go again with my radical ideas again, we don’t need FIFA, we can become self-sufficient in our own footballing federation and make England great again. Sound like any fascist dictator of the 1930’s? No? Well without taking any more ideas from Nazi ideology I continue…

We obviously aren’t the most popular footballing nation going at the moment, the Argies don’t like us because they think handballing is fine, the Germans don’t like us because “ze ball did not crozz ze line!” and let’s not go back to the Nazis again… I promise no more of ze impressions....

And of course FIFA doesn’t like us because we like to do things fairly (sort of), well fairer than them anyway. As with any institution if you give someone at the top all the power they will change things to benefit them, I can't blame FIFA for the bribes they take, they are only human and greed will always be a factor in anyone's life but it shouldn't have been allowed to have gone this far, there needs to be reform and we shall start with the head of the corrupt organisation and work our way down.

I don't normally agree with anything The Sun writes, but they want to give Blatter the boot and so do I and although it pains me to say, I agree with The Sun, im just not as radically racist.

The End of Season Review

Everyone else has done one so why can’t I? So here we are at the tail end of another eventful season. Some would say that it was the best season in Premier League history, certainly true in the fact that West Ham have finally been relegated, how you can be £80 million pounds in debt and then drag Newham Council (The poorest council in the world…. Okay London) to hand over another £40 million pounds for a scheme devised by the new crazy gang, no not AFC Wimbledon (by the way good luck to them for restoring Wimbledon to the Football League) but Gold, Sullivan and Brady, I would call them a threesome but I think that has already been devised by Gold in one of his many pornographic collections.

They will fail… inevitably, Alan Sugar said it and now I am saying it too, it can’t fundamentally work, West Ham fans will be dejected and they will be in the Championship (or maybe League 1 but one can only hope) the season they will move in to the Olympic Stadium, it was supposed to be a sign of new times for the club, but as fans realise what the owners have done to their club, they will quickly realise that watching the club lose from 100 feet away will be even more disappointing than it was at Upton Park. Now I’ve got that little rant from my system let us continue.

In a sense that little mini explosion of my mind was aimed at someone I know and they will know it too… Dan, but I digress….

It has been a season of ups and downs but universally we will all agree that it will feel like we have lost a piece of ourselves with no Blackpool for the upcoming season, it has now become a cliché but they have been a breath of fresh air, and watching Ian Holloway’s press conferences have been such a difference from the bleak, suicide inducing drivel of Wenger and Ferguson, when your manager starts singing in the middle of his interview then you know you’ve got someone good.

In terms of “the best season ever” I would have to say yes for entertainment but no for performance, mainly because of Manchester United’s pathetic away form and Chelsea’s decision to throw away the title by sacking Ray Wilkins, to be honest I never thought the “Stay on your feet” guy would have such an impact on a team, but what do I know…

But to keep with tradition I have brought in the End of Season Awards:

Best performance of the season: Newcastle 4-4 Arsenal (4 nil down at half time, no-one saw this happening)

Team of the season: Blackpool (for the pre mentioned reasons)

Arse of the season: Roman Abramovich (Torres for £50 million and a sacked Ancelotti, as Paul Merson would say “He has had a shocker”)

Class of the season: Scott Parker (He plays for West Ham, and I like him, need I say more?)

And finally I thought I’d look back on my predictions for the season I made:

Winners: Man United (I felt like an idiot when Chelsea won their first 6 games 20-0)

Everton: 7^th (I felt like an idiot when we were second bottom for what felt like a year)

Relegated: Blackpool, West Ham and West Brom (I felt like an idiot when Blackpool were beating everyone)

FA Cup: Manchester City ( No I’m just kidding, I said Chelsea, what an idiot I am)

Beckford v Piquionne: Beckford (Just in case you were wondering what this is, I had a bet with someone over who would score more goals, of course I won, but I have yet to get my winnings….)

So it’s all over, we just have the Transfer Window and next season to look forward to, the fun begins here…

West Ham Post - Coming Soon

I shall be slagging off everyone at Upton Park sometime soon...

Respect, You want Respect?

If your going to preach about something, then you'd better make sure your are not a hypocrite. You can't expect someone to respect you if you show no example of leadership, It just doesn't work, its why Gordon Brown never made a good Prime Minister, no one respected him and he didn't have a good enough attitude for the job. But JFK had charisma, enthusiasm and he wasn't but ugly, so people respected and didn't write him off in an instant.

In some sort of way that links to my point, the FA and the Football League do not warrant respect with the constant courage less decisions they consistently continue to make, this whole QPR situation should have been settled long ago.

The man in question, Alejandro Faurlin didn't even sign this season, he joined the club in 2009. The Football League just have themselves to blame in this situation, they claimed the reason that they didn't give QPR a points deduction was that it was too late in the season for them to act because of the impending playoff fixtures that could not be rescheduled. Well who's fault is that.

The Football League are responsible for the age that it has taken them to deal with this, and they don't even take proper action, and £875,000 for one of the richest teams in England is pittance. There should have been a points deduction and it should have been last year, you can't have one rule for West Ham and one for QPR just because it suits you better if you just sweep it under the carpet.

No wonder that no one respects them, they don't deserve respect, they never use their powers to rescind red cards that are blatantly not even yellows and they don't hand them out when they are deserved, yet the insist on fining Ian Holloway for fielding a weakened team, even though Wenger does it in the Carling Cup and Ferguson rotates his squad every week, the FA cannot judge the quality of Holloway's team when they have said that he can have a 25 man squad and play anyone of them.

When you ask for respect the first rule is don't contradict yourself (not that there's a rulebook), but if there was the FA obviously haven't read their it.

Money is Priceless

Well, that's what they used to say, after Everton's 2-1 victory over Manchester City on Saturday there shone a glimmer of hope for teams that don't have a rich oil baron throwing cash at them. It showed that you don't need money to be successful (although it helps), but the right manager, tactics and attitude can have more effect than any amount of money. Even team spirit can make a difference, if you have players that know each other, play well together, you are going to perform much better than a team of multi-millionaires who have just met, that is of course why Fernando Torres can't buy a goal at the moment.

With a combined price tag of £170 million, Man City should have walked over an Everton team who's starting XI contained 4 academy graduates and who's price accumulated to less than what Joleon Lescott cost.

Leon Osman got the winning goal, he is probably one of the most underrated players in England at the moment and he has completely run the show for Everton in the past month or two. For one of the smallest players on the pitch, his diminutive figure rose above the towering figure of the City defender and brilliantly headed past Hart. But this wasn't just luck, Everton had beaten City in the 5 games previous to this match

This result will give belief to all the teams who think they can't compete with the bigger teams, it shows that if you apply yourself and put in the effort then you can always beat the favourites.

Why "Silent" Stan may have more to say than you think

With the recent news of Stan Kroenke's takeover at Arsenal, fans of the North London club were falling over themselves with the belief that they could finally compete on the same financial levels as Manchester City and Chelsea. But this gives Wenger no more excuses, he now must be winning trophies every season and challenging for Europe's most prestigious prize.

This investment could well signal the end for Wenger's 14 year reign at the helm of the Gunners, Wenger has already shown us that he is a man of principles and he will not change no matter how much opposition he faces, that is good for some but now it could make Wenger appear stubborn or even deluded in his own little world of perfect football.

We know that Arsenal like to play football "the way it should be played" but of course that is subjective and I'm sure Sam Allardyce would tell you differently. But when funded by that sort of money is invested into a football club, the pressure builds and results are expected immediately, normally followed by a "win at all costs" mentality when the manager finds out he can't buy the league.

Wenger won't do that and that might ultimately cost him his job. At the moment he has relatively small amounts of money to spend and he rarely uses that anyway, choosing to concentrate on the youth set-up at the Emirates. Now he has a choice to make, he either sells himself out and admits he was wrong by buying a keeper and a centre back, or he faces the sack by not winning the silverware the club so desperately needs. Now that the money is there, Wenger has nowhere else to turn and failure to achieve results will ultimately cost him and himself only.

For the first time, I actually feel sorry for Arsene Wenger he has tried and failed (to some degree) to dominate English football with skill and flair and it seems like the time could be up for one of the greatest tacticians in the English game.

Hey, here's an idea... Goal line technology

After seeing Hilarious Gomes flap at another shot, this time it didn't cross the line, although that wasn't the opinion of the linesman who was on the 18 yard line when the shot was struck and the 6 yard line when Gomes clawed the ball back into his arms, there is no way from that angle that he could have seen whether the ball was fully over the line, and the whole of the ball has to cross the line.

There is a misconception over how a goal is scored, some people think that only more than half the ball needs to cross the line, but the FIFA rules state, and I looked them up... From law 10: A goal is scored when the whole of the ball passes over the goal line, between the goalposts and under the crossbar. and for those of you who learn from pictures:

You don't even have to get all technical with lasers in the posts or chips in the ball, you can set up 3 cameras, two in either post and one in the crossbar looking down on the line, give the fourth official a TV screen and he can tell you in seconds whether or not it is goal, it's not like the fourth official does anything else during the match anyway.

It has happened too often for FIFA to say it will be a waste of money, maybe, just maybe England wouldn't have had such a crushing defeat against Germany because I am sure that goal would have given them the momentum to go on and take control of the game.

Football is too much of a money run franchise to be leaving these decisions to the referee and his assistants, they have too much to deal with already, and these poxy "assistants" they have introduced in the Champions League, they don't do anything and can't make the decision because the post is in the way.

FIFA's only real argument against this technology is that it would slow the game down, now with the camera way I suggested, it would take a matter of seconds for the fourth official to see where the ball is and radio the ref. Millions of people do it in their living rooms while watching Sky, within seconds the whole audience could see that Gomes had pulled the ball back to safety.

I don't know what FIFA do in their little world, but it seems like they don't want football to progress and I can't quite understand that. We need a governing body that listens to the people, not one that tells the people what to hear.

And when we get that, goals like this won't be debated, they will be done justice.

Arsenal v Man United: Title Crunch Match ... oh wait.

Well here we are again at the tail end of the season and it seems that once again only one contender remains with a legitimate title challenge, of course Arsenal still mathematically can win it and Chelsea are in with a shout but it has all come too late for anyone to knock United of their perch. You would think that if Chelsea had managed to pull themselves out of their run of such poor form sooner than they did, it would be a much different story. But then again you could say that about any team.

Many people are expecting Arsene Wenger to give up coming in to this match, especially after his recent press conference where after years of denial even he seemed to be dejected. You never know, with calls for him to resign from his fans, it may just have become to much for Wenger to handle and this may be his last season at the Emirates.

But that isn't Wenger's style and it certainly isn't Arsenal's. As we have seen on countless occasions, Arsenal's "never say die" attitude has seen them score several goals after the 85th minute to take all 3 points. Unfortunately for them their weakness at the back has seen those extra points thrown away and that could have been the difference of winning and losing the title this season.

Arsenal's major dropped points this season

Newcastle 4-4 Arsenal (2 points) Arsenal 4-0 up at half time
Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool (2 points) Arsenal 1-0 up in the 98th minute
Spurs 3-2 Arsenal (3 points) Arsenal 2-0 up at half time
Arsenal 2-3 West Brom (3 Points) Arsenal 3-0 down at half time
West Brom 2-2 Arsenal (2 Points) Arsenal 2-0 for 70 minutes

Add those points together and Arsenal have 12 more points, that puts them 3 points clear at the top with 76 points, and this is why Wenger can no longer rely on excuses, he has seen first hand his side throw away the title and they will do well to finish 2nd.

Messi v Ronaldo: The Battle of the Spanish Giants.

It was long debated even before Cristiano Ronaldo made the move from Manchester to Madrid, and there was never a real chance for a comparison, because of the huge bridge in quality of the Spanish and English league defenders, but since he made the choice to go to Spain we have had a equal look at what each of the player's can do. They both have a fantastic scoring record in La Liga and have set the competition alight with skillful moves and wonderful passing, but there has been little between them.

The defining moment for these two players will come tonight at the Bernabau in front of 80,000 fans, the atmosphere will be electric and it will be interesting to see if they can both handle the pressure in what comes as a season defining moment for the two teams. It will be here that the best player is revealed, one will triumph and the other will have to bow and accept defeat.

Messi Comes Out on Top - Not for the First Time

As I said, one player would shine in the Bernabau this evening and that player was Lionel Messi, it seemed for a while that neither Ronaldo nor Messi were on top of their game but in the 76th minute Messi lost Alonso in the box and slotted home through Cassilas' legs.

If you thought that was good then it got a lot better from their on, with his renewed confidence from the goal, Messi looked threatening and Madrid were dejected and in the 87th minute he picked up the ball midway in the Madrid half, surrounded by 5 white shirts he slipped past them all and cooly slotted past the keeper.

In a match that was destined to be remembered for diving and theatrics not seen outside of broadway, one man stepped up to the challenge and showed why he is renowned as the best player in the world.

The Budget Cap?

£80 million for Ronaldo, £56 million for Kaka and Torres for £50 million. Not bad if you have the money but as we have seen not many clubs do. It is no longer the team with the best manager, the best tactics or organisation. It is the team that simply has the most money.

Chelsea have done it, Man City are doing it, it is no longer about football anymore, if some rich oil baron throws his endless pile of gold at a club then it isn't long before the footballers' "greed senses" pick up and they switch clubs and triple their wages for no apparent reason. You surely can't have that kind of cash dominance controlling a sport, it's as soon as you let that happen that it no longer is a sport and it becomes more of a franchise.

The solution? well I know that some of you will think that this won't work and I'm sure that you will find loopholes in this idea. But I digress, if there was to be some from of transfer fee cap then the richer clubs couldn't have the dominance over poorer teams because of their finances alone. Lets go for a starting figure of £35 million, this would give enough money for the market to remain competitive and it wouldn't take all of the power away from rich clubs, that's not what I'm trying to do here, what I am trying to do is make the sport more viable.

This restriction will give the managers with the large kitty a choice, they either spend their whole budget on one superstar, or play the game conservatively and buy 2 or 3 good players, it adds another aspect to the transfer market and gives the rich clubs a dilemma rather than them spending widely at every chance.

Or even the unspeakable might happen, these clubs may spend their riches investing in the youth of the game, which is something that has come under scrutiny recently. With the remainder of their riches they can improve facilities for young players, they can help grassroots football progress because to be honest the quality of our pitches in England is appalling compared to somewhere like Holland.

So this cap could benefit England in two ways, our Division wouldn't become so money run and the youth would be brought forward with much better quality facilities on their side, and hopefully go someway to producing an England team that could end the 46 years of hurt.

Any thoughts? please leave a comment at the bottom of the article.

Scott Parker: Player of the Year by far

You can't have a Player of the Year who is relegated that same season. That is the opinion of several people, who are frankly wrong. It is about time that these awards were actually given to the players that deserve them and not the player who's respective team is highest in the league.

There were calls for the gong to go be given to Nani. Here's why they're wrong, The award is for the Player of the year NOT the Team of the year, it is supposed to be recognition for the single player that has made the most difference to their team's performances. There can't be any argument that Parker hasn't done that for West Ham this year. You may say "well he hasn't made that much difference, they are still bottom of the League".

That is where you're wrong again, the 12th February at the Hawthorns, the Hammers trail 3-0 at the break, Avram Grant is helpless, the players are dejected, step forward Scott Parker, It is not clear what exactly was said, but sources said that Parker's half time speech reduced some of the players to tears. Sure enough, West Ham come out in the second half, guns blazing and they salvage a 3-3 draw, a result which could be vital in the Hammer's survival hopes this season.

And that is something that Nani or any of the other nominees don't posses, the ability without even touching the ball to affect their teams performance's. But take nothing away from Parker's ability on the ball, he has a kind of aurora about him, something that gives him so much more time on the ball than other players, but that's just the start, he can tackle, he can dribble and he's got a decent shot on him aswell.

Parker has been the only consistent player nominated this season, the others have either been out injured or have hit low form during the campaign, of course these players have their high-profile moments, Berbatov's over-head kick against Liverpool and Bale's stunning performance at the San Siro to name a few. But what about the tackles, the defensive displays that have kept teams in games, there is no recognition for them, mainly because people don't want to see that, they want the exciting and the skillful side of football.

The only reason Gareth Bale won the PFA player of the year award was because of his hat-trick against Inter, fair enough it was a great effort by Bale, but he has been injured for half of the season and has been ineffective after that night in Milan anyway. A player who is kept out of a game by Phil Neville needs to take a long, hard look at themselves.

The nominations for the FWA Player of the Year are as listed:

Carlos Tevez
Nemanja Vidic
Samir Nasri
Gareth Bale
Dimitar Berbatov
Jack Wilshere
Florent Malouda
Scott Parker
Robin van Persie
John Terry

The 3 players that lead their players by example are Terry, Tevez and Parker. The problem I have with who these awards are given to is that it is often not taken into account the 'What If' factor, what if Arsenal didn't have Wilshire, what if Chelsea hadn't had Malouda for the season, it probably wouldn't have made much difference. But if West Ham didn't have Parker, I think they would have been consigned to relegation already.

The difference that these players can make is vital and I think that they need to be based on their value to their team aswell as their individual performances, after all it is a team game.

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