League Cup Tottenham match preview

September 24, 2008

Newcastle will try to control the downward spiral today in the League (”Carling”) Cup today against a Tottenham squad anxious to reverse their own problems.

The Magpies will be have Obafemi Martins back from injury but are still without Jonas Gutierrez, Jose Enrique, Habib Beye and of-course Mark Viduka. Danny Guthrie and the violent offender are both serving suspensions as well. Ex-Spartak Moscow man, Roman Pavlyuchenko who appears to be out of favour, is rumoured to be sitting out the match with Frazier Campbell getting the nod.

Michael Owen, noted to the BBC:

“It’s important we win. It would be great for team spirit.”

“Kevin Keegan was a very popular person among the players and the fans, so it did set us back a bit.”

“It’s unfortunate but that’s the way it goes. Players are paid to play and we have got to perform.”

“We are all feeling it at the moment, but we have to try and get some confidence and results – not picking up the results is hurting the players.”

“It’s the responsibility of a few players and a few people to make sure we haven’t got any excuses. It’s up to everyone to find an extra five or 10%.”

I will report on the match as it concludes.

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Tags: English Premier League

The Morning After – Fergie on Possebon, Ronaldo

September 24, 2008

Fergie is understandably very angry with Emanuel Pogatetz for his challenge on Rodrigo Possebon. However, the 19-year-old Brazilian midfielder, who was making his first United start, was taken to hospital, kept in overnight for observation but has now learned there is no break.

“It looked a really bad one. For the kid to make his first team debut and get an injury like that it was pretty horrendous,” said Fergie. “For 10 minutes everyone was numb about it. The thing about these challenges it is always the case that the opponent claims his innocence. One of their bench is out screaming that it wasn’t a sending off and there was nothing wrong with the player. But at least they apologised. Gareth Southgate understood the gravity of it. He was very, very apologetic. But it was a terrible tackle.”

An interesting aside was Fergie’s remarks about Ronaldo’s future. He effectively conceded that it is inevitable that he will leave for Real Madrid, just not yet. The interesting part is that it took another summer meeting to calm Ronaldo down, show him the love and set some conditions for the timeframe of his departure.

Fergie said, “Graeme Souness was right when he said that just as all Italians dream of one day playing for Juventus or the Milan clubs, so southern Europeans want at some point to play for Real Madrid or Barcelona, so I understand what was going on in Cristiano’s mind when he declared he wanted to join Real. But once we had talked, he accepted it was a move for the future. The crowd still chant Cantona’s name so I told Cristiano, ‘Leave a hero like Eric’, and one day he will – but not yet of course.”

Good man management? Damn right it is, but who knows what’s going through Ronaldo’s mind at the moment, he might even be tempted by City?

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Tags: English Premier League

10 Potential Buyers for Newcastle United

September 24, 2008

Before you read on, this isn’t a serious list. It’s just ten silly suggestions. Especially #4.

If you’re a Newcastle fan and thus in no mood for laughing, then don’t read any further. I’d suggest reading this more serious list of potential buyers on the always good NUFC Blog.

Everyone else, read on…

1. Kevin Keegan
I know he can’t afford it, but if he’s really the Geordie Messiah then the least he could do is front a multi-billion consortium.

2. Some Nigerian guys
Unless they have a yahoo.com email address and ask for your bank details. Be double wary if they’re offering £419 million.

3. The Dragon’s Den
Ashley could go on the show and pitch Newcastle United to the Dragons as an investment opportunity:

4. Some Middle Eastern fellas
Just because it seems fashionable these days. Plus maybe they’ll rebuild St. James’ Park underground.

5. Newcastle Brown Ale
For my money, Newcastle United were at their best when sponsored by Newky Brown. Those were the days of Peter Beardsley and Ashley Cole and nearly winning the league. And a moneypit of a football club might not seem like a sound investment right now for a brewery, but they wouldn’t have to pay full price. Just sit Ashley down and ply him with your product until he signs away the club for £20.

6. Mike Ashley
Take off the Newcastle jersey (it’s too tight anyway) and put a god damn shirt and tie on. Get serious. Then tell everyone that the Mike Ashley was actually your incompetent imposter twin brother and that you – the real Mike Ashley – have bought the club from him. Then fire Dennis Wise.

7. U.S. taxpayers
They’re about to bail out some other struggling businesses, so what harm could one more do? And at least this way all US based Premier League fans will have a de facto team to root for that isn’t Fulham.

8. Freddy Shepherd
Because now he looks good by comparison

9. Michael Owen
Well he’s been earning over 100k a week for a while now and has had plenty free time to take some business classes. Plus if he owned the club he could sell himself and finally escape.

10. Newcastle United fans
We all know the Toon Army love their club. So what if they all pooled their pocket money and made Ashley an offer. It would be like myfootballclub.co.uk except the owners would actually be fans of the club instead of a bunch of randoms who thought it might be a laugh.

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Arsenal Pre-Teens Thump Sheffield United

September 24, 2008

Bittersweet day for Sheffield United, eh? First they got a nice pot o’gold in the morning, then had their asses handed to them in the Carling Cup by the youngest Arsenal team ever fielded, which is truly an accomplishment. So young they had an average age of 19, something which must have warmed the cockles of Arsene’s heart.

Wenger had obviously decided on this long before the game:

“There is a possibility it will be the youngest side ever… In the first team there are many players around 20. In the Carling Cup we will keep a few in there, but the side will be more between 16 and 19. At Arsenal you can say 20 and 21-year-olds are the experienced players.”

Truly. After all, only Lukas Fabianski, Johan Djourou, Niklas Bendtner and Alexandre Song are past their teens with the Polish netminder, at a positively ancient 23, was the elder statesman in the group. At the other end of the spectrum it was big money summer signing Aaron Ramsey and England’s next great hope Jack Wilshere at 17 and 16, respectively.

But hero for the day was the young phenomenon from Mexico Carlos Vela, who at 19 has seen enough tutelage in Spain to make his way up with the big London boys. Scored a triple and, in the process, looked every bit as tantalizing as the hype machine has suggested.

Once again, the youngsters in North London look ready to assume the Gunner mantle. Of course, that’s until they’re sold and a new batch is ready to drool over.

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Sony Hates Soccer, Apparently

September 24, 2008

If you’re a football fan, I’m pretty sure this Sony ad for the US market – featuring Peyton Manning and Dale Earnhardt Jr. – will piss you off. I thought we were past this sort of soccer-bashing in the USA, but apparently not.

I spotted it over at EPL Talk, where the “Soccer Fans: Boycott Sony Bravia HD TV” headline has elicited a PR-heavy response from a Sony rep, attempting to justify the commercial like so:

Hi Everyone-

My name is Jennifer and I work for Sony Electronics.

Please know, that the intent of Sony’s latest commercial was to bring light on the U.S. consumers’ lack of knowledge or awareness of soccer, compared to NASCAR and NFL and not meant to offend anyone who enjoys or plays the sport. Sony is a strong global supporter of soccer/football with long-term sponsorships of both FIFA and FIFA Player of the Year Kaka. Again, Sony did not intend to offend anyone with this commercial.

Personally, I don’t buy it. Seems like a last ditch attempt at spin to dig Sony out of a bad publicity hole of their own digging.

I’d also say that you can’t have it both ways. You can’t be one of the big corporate mega-sponsors of the World Cup and bang on about how much you love the beautiful game one day, and then try and sell TVs to American jocks by laughing at the sport the next day.

And if it’s true that “the intent of Sony’s latest commercial was to bring light on the U.S. consumers’ lack of knowledge or awareness of soccer” then aren’t Sony just laughing at the very people the ad is aimed at?

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Tags: World Cup

Cheryl Cole Admits to Being Even Skinnier Than She is Now!

September 24, 2008

Cheryl Cole reveals she was at one time virtually anorexic, this girl has some issues!

Cheryl says: ‘Before I did the Popstars: The Rivals audition in 2002, I’d been clinically depressed and dangerously underweight.’

She continues: ‘I was having terrible panic attacks and suffered from anxiety, and as a result my appetite went.’

‘I was 5st 11b at my worst point, like a walking corpse.’

Wowza! Just goes to show, you can be the most beautiful girl and still have enough issues to fill a stadium!

Also revealed in ‘Dreams That Glitter’, the Girls Aloud book that won’t need to be read soon, as it’s loads of its in OK! magazine, is Nadine discussing Jesse Metcalfe.

Nadine has said she regrets the way she handled her ex going in to rehab: ‘He had a horrible time going to rehab and it was all too much for me.’

‘I blocked it out of my life and decided not to be a part of it and that’s wrong. That’s not something you should do if you love somebody.’

She adds: ‘I regretted being so selfish about it and so dismissive of him genuinely having a problem.’

But I’m afraid there won’t be any chance of them hooking up again, not anytime soon anyway: ‘I don’t feel the need for another relationship. My life is fulfilled as it is and I have loads of male friends so I’m never stuck for male company.’

This is why Girls Aloud have been so successful, they’re real girls and not afraid to admit it!

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Retirement beckons for doddery League Cup

September 24, 2008

The League Cup came through a difficult birth and a forgettable youth to enjoy a long, proud middle age but the time has come for this doddery old relative to be shuffled off into retirement.

When it was launched in the early 1960s the new, midweek competition was pretty much ignored by the big clubs, as evidenced by Rotherham and Rochdale reaching the first two finals.

In 1966/67 the format was changed, the final switching from a two-legged affair to a one-off Wembley showcase, and with the subsequent additional carrot of a place in Europe for the winners, it eventually became a serious tournament.

Throughout the 1970s, 80s and early 90s a League Cup winners’ medal was something worth having and the idea of Liverpool, who won it four times in a row from 1981 while still managing to compete and win in Europe, fielding a weakened team in the competition would have been preposterous.

However, the arrival of the Premier and Champions Leagues and the associated money, meant it quickly lost its appeal for most of the top-flight clubs.

Current Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez changed all 11 players from the team who drew with Stoke in the league last weekend for Tuesday’s home game against Crewe, while Manchester United and Arsenal were not far behind.

Even the likes of Sunderland, Fulham and Stoke (for whom the League Cup provided their only major silverware in 1972) felt able to put out weak teams despite the fact that it is the only trophy they now have a realistic chance of winning.

It’s all very nice for Arsenal to field a side with an average age of 19, especially when they hammer Sheffield United 6-0 with a performance the envy of most clubs’ first teams, but it still undermines the credibility of the competition and makes the award of a UEFA Cup place for its winners laughable.

With the FA Cup showing signs of a similar decline, surely the time has come to cut off a limb to save the body and give up on England’s “third competition”.

I don’t hear too many people demanding a return of the European Cup Winners’ Cup.

PHOTO: Crewe Alexander’s Michael O’Connor scores against Liverpool during their League Cup match at Anfield, September 23, 2008. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis

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Does Henry merit a place in Barca’s starting XI?

September 24, 2008

Thierry Henry is in danger of playing a peripheral role in Pep Guardiola’s new look Barcelona with his continued failure to find his feet in Spain.

The France striker missed Sunday’s 6-1 rout of Sporting Gijon due to a throat infection, and that leaves Guardiola with a tough choice as to whether to keep a team that claimed a first league win of the season, or continue rotating his players for Wednesday’s visit of Real Betis.

The latter is the most likely course of events with a derby against Espanyol coming up at the weekend and a Champions League trip to face Shakhtar Donetsk next week.

But the question remains, should Henry feature in Guardiola’s best starting XI?

Against Sporting, who admittedly are bottom of the table, Barca were outstanding. Their pressuring of opponents when they didn’t have the ball was impressive, and when they did hold possession they were a delight to watch.

Lionel Messi and Samuel Eto’o are first choices up front, while Andres Iniesta appears to have filled the space on the left vacated by Ronaldinho with aplomb, creating and scoring goals. Iniesta’s versatility means he can play in a variety of positions, but he will always play.

With Xavi and a holding player like Yaya Toure or Seydou Keita almost guaranteed places, Henry is in effect competing with one of the youth team products Guardiola seems keen to blood in the side.

Winger Pedro Rodriguez and midfielder Sergio Busquets have won over the home fans, something Henry has yet to achieve after a year in Barcelona. Aleksandr Hleb’s injury means his former Arsenal team mate doesn’t enter the equation just yet.

Is Henry simply going to be first-change striker behind Eto’o, competing with another fan favourite Bojan Krkic? It’s looking that way.

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Dynamos give Zimbabwe an unlikely success story

September 24, 2008

In Zimbabwe people joke that when you join the queue to buy a ticket for a major football match, chances are the price will have gone up by the time you get to proffer your cash at the kiosk.

Rampant inflation in the southern African nation has robbed life of its conveniences, leading instead to shortages, blackouts and a set of bizarre daily rituals, like customers racing around the supermarket to keep up with the employees changing price tags.

The power sharing agreement signed by Robert Mugabe and his arch rival Morgan Tsvangirai was the first bit of good news in a long time for the beleaguered country; now there has been a second fillip as Zimbabwe’s most popular club have unexpectedly made it to the African Champions League semi-finals.

Dynamos have not been immune to the crisis in the country. Twice they have almost missed out on making away trips in the competition because they could not find enough foreign currency to pay for airline tickets.

They were forced to turn to fans and benefactors to scrape money together for trips to north Africa, eventually arriving just hours before the scheduled kick-off.

It has demanded a level of patience and tolerance from the players that few other footballers, in similar circumstances at the same level of a competition anywhere in the world, would ever be capable of.

But even the Dynamos squad has a limit and at the weekend there were threats of a strike as players haggled over bonus money … and just how much it would go up to keep pace with the ever-changing level of inflation.

Remarkably, 24 hours later they were overcoming Zamalek of Egypt in Harare to win their last group match and ensure progress to the semi-finals of the continent’s top club competition.

Dynamos were surprise Champions League finalists a decade ago but had not played in the competition since. Now back, they are again threatening to dispel all the accepted norms of success in the game.

Sometimes adversity provides the fuel which drives players to extraordinary feats and given the cricumstances this is some achievement.

Mark Gleeson covers the African Champions League for Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Lazarus Muhoni celebrates scoring for Dynamos against Al Ahly during their African Champions League soccer match in Cairo Stadium, August 17, 2008. REUTERS/Amr Dalsh

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Tags: WC Qualifying South-Africa

Kelly Brook Dates Rugby Player… So That Would Make her a WAG then!

September 24, 2008

Miss Kelly Brook is dating England Rugby hottie Danny Cipriani and appears to be enjoying herself too.

The couple have made their relationship public knowledge and have being spotted on the town frequently in the past couple of weeks, poor Billy Zane, Kelly moved on quick!

Mind you we all knew Kelly Brook wouldn’t stay on the shelf for long.

20 yr old Cipriani took Kelly out again last night and the pair were spotted leaving the private members club Hurst House at around 10.30pm, after attending a make-up launch at store Rouge in Covent Garden.

The model looked stunning as usual in a sixties inspired sequinned minidress and silver heels, I would really love Kelly Brook’s wardrobe, and I wouldn’t mind the figure either!

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