man u edge closer to Prem title

I managed to catch some of yesterday’s match between Man U and Arsenal at our local supermarket here in Italy. It was being shown on a large screen in the food piazza and there was a large interested crowd. Cool eh! I couldn’t stop there long and listened to the rest of the match (or at least highlights) at home via Talksport online. It sounded like a great game and by all accounts Arsenal were unlucky not to get a draw at least. But yet again they seem to have been let down by a thin squad and near-exhausted players. As I said in a recent posting I reckon that’s not just bad luck which has caught up with them but also a lack of foresight and boldness in the transfer market. They say Wenger never buys class players at their peak, preferring to buy promising uncut stones and turning them into polished gems. Well I believe he need not shed that policy but surely the time has come for him  to use that cash reserve  to supplement the squad with some top class players too, otherwise it could be a few more seasons of lovely football, without any silverware.  Even Fergie seems to be getting all sympathetic and I’m sure I saw him offering to help by letting Wenger have Saha for just the £15M….. go on Arsene, he even speaks French.

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big sam joining little sam?

Clutching their P45’s that is perhaps? What do you think? Allardyce wasn’t the managerial choice of new owner Mike Ashley, he spent quite a bit of money in the transfer window and after a decent start they’ve now gone 5 games picking up just one point in the process. It’s not exactly the biggest slump of all time but the toon are starting to get badly beaten; the fans are, in the words of that great observer of human nature Joey Barton, turning ‘vicious’ in their criticism of the manager and the standard of play, and yesterday it came out that a delegation of senior players led by captain Geremi are making representations to the manager about his tactics and methods. It all sounds very recent Bolton-like.

2018 dream team

It’s great news that England is going to bid for the 2018 football World Cup. There was unseemly haste today to close the door on a UK bid which I think was a bit sad given the quality of the stadia and fan support in Scotland and Wales. But at last our sporting associations and the Gov are starting to believe in the benefits of such major events coming to the UK. First benefit – we wouldn’t have to qualify (and indirectly that would justify the FA’s decision to appoint McClaren as team manger). But jokes aside it is a good thing even though it will be extremely tough to win the decision with expected competition from Australia (the best ever-hosted Olympics under their belt), China (amazing stadia and proven Olympics -maybe!), Russia (huge resources and surely their turn to host something big), US (always put on a good revenue-delivering show and football still needs to establish a foothold post Beckham), Neths/Belgium joint bid (the perfect location for such a description!).