Friday, February 27, 2009

English Clubs Enjoy A Great Week in Champions League

After another great week of champions league action, all 4 English clubs involved in Europe's top club competition enjoyed a successful week. The best result undoubtedly belonged to Liverool, who without injured talisman Steven Gerrard still managed to claim an excellent 1-0 win in Madrid - including the all important away goal. Elsewhere, in spite of a dominant performance away from home, Manchester United had to settle for a creditable goalless draw against Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan side - but should still be favourites to progress with the second leg of the tie still to follow at Old Trafford. New Chelsea manager Guss Hiddink was delighted to claim a 1-0 victory at home against Italian giants Juventus through Drogba's early scuffed volley - but with the blues' solid defense you would expect them to hold firm in the away leg to go through. Arsenal's position is perhaps the most fragile of all the English clubs, in spite of a 1-0 win through Robin Van Persie's penalty. There away form and unpredictability this season may yet prove to be their downfall.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Kinnear Feels Wrath of Charles "Insomnia" Backlash

Fans of football banter across the country have been physically unable to ignore the sheer hilarity of Newcastle Boss Joe Kinnear's inexplicable pronunciation of his former Winger Charles Nzogbia as "Charles Insomnia" in a press conference last week, but it seems the latest spat between the Newcastle manager and his former employee has now taken another twist. The £6 million Wigan midfielder today hit out at his former gaffer, branding Kinnear incapable of the job and accusing him of living in a "fantasy world." 22 year old midfielder Nzogbia also seemingly suggested that Kinnear was not helping him develop as a player at an important stage in his career, and that a lack of respect from his manager had left him with no choice but to seek pastures new. Kinnear has reportedly reacted angrily to the accusations, accusing the player of fantasising stories of his own, and stated that the Frenchman could do with "bringing down to earth" after claims he was wanted by a host of top clubs. Nzogbia is not alone in his public damning of his former boss, with new Manchester City keeper also sticking the boot into Kinnear last night. If JFK's job at Newcastle wasn't hard enough, it seems he is now set to continually face the wrath of his former employees in the public eye.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

English Football's Foreign Legion - Who have your club signed?

With the transfer window once again seeing English clubs grabbing talent from literally throughout the world, I was intrigued as to whether I could find website's which sold replica soccer jerseys for the huge variety of national teams that have been brought into the English league in the last month or so. Like many English football fans, I have been a long time collector of rare and unusual football shirts from across the globe and I already proudly sport the likes of Nepal and Bolivia in my wardrobe! Indeed, with the recent arrival of a Mexican international at my local club, I thought it would be fun to have a look online for the latest Adidas Mexico Away Jersey - particularly as I have never seen a Mexico shirt in a UK high street store before. I was glad to find it was actually a very attractive shirt and was available at a reasonable price, so I opted to have it shipped over from the US. When it arrived I was certainly not disappointed. It is not only a very comfortable kit to play in down at the local 5-a-side pitches (being made from Adidas' climacool material and having 3 quarter length sleeves gives it sufficient warmth for a UK winter whilst maintaining very good breathability) but also more significantly - it certainly turns heads down at the local pubs in Leeds! I can imagine a lot of Arsenal fans itching to get hold of the Russian national shirts after their acquisition of a certain Mr. Arshavin, so why not check them out online!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Robbie Keane's "Loan" to Liverpool Costs the Scousers £4.5 million per goal!

So another English Transfer window has come and gone - with deadline day once again proving as dramatic as ever. Even the intervention of a British economy in turmoil and some extreme snowy weather has seemingly proved a help rather than hindrance to English football's January sales, with many big moves across the country occurring within the FA's officially sanctioned extension of the transfer deadline. Arsenal's announcement of their final hour "extra time" transfer of £15 million Russian playmaker Andrei Arshavin will no doubt dominate tomorrow's headlines, but please spare a thought for another deadline day move that will surely incense those suffering in the financial crisis gripping the UK even more: Robbie Keane's outrageous return to Tottenham. Now I'm no wall street banker, but selling a player that cost the club £20.3 million 6 months previously for £12 million (plus the small matter of a weekly wage reputed to be as high as £90,000 per week) does not seem to be a great financial move in today's troubled climate. After making just 19 appearances and netting just 5 times for Liverpool, I would conservatively estimate that each of those goals will have cost the Reds in the region of £4.5 million PER GOAL! Rafa has spoken out this evening on his apparent justification for such a waste of transfer kitty. However, it seems that this is just another step towards the Liverpool boss finally losing his marbles.