Fixtures

I see Sky have managed to get another Big Four weekend in March, just like the one they had last season.

What are they chances of that?

Well, 20C4 = 4845-1, and 4845*4845 = 22,474,025-1 for it happening two seasons in a row.

That's quite some random fixture generating machine the FA have!

Good point, well made

Philip Cornwall says the following in his article on people rushing to judgment:

In a sane world, there would not even be a league table yet. Until Sky came along and wanted to show off their graphics, everyone waited till the second Saturday, by which point everyone had played home and away and at least some of the vagaries of the fixture list had been worked out.

Very good point. At the moment, Newcastle are "top" of the league, having won a match. It's the same thing as confusing percentages and numbers - 80% of 5 is still 4; I'd rather have 20.

American sports are obsessed with their stats, and the Skyification of soccerball has pushed into meaningless stats world - see the Fink Tank section of the Times; what on Earth does any of that mean? Newcastle will finish 14th based on a load of meaningless matches at the end of last season and one meaningful match this year?

See also their fantasy football this season where you rank players rather than buying a team.

Injury idiocy

F365 report a suggestion by referee's chief, Keith Hacket, to remove the fouler from play until the foulee finishes receiving treatment.

In an ideal world, it's a decent suggestion, but there are so many dodgy play-acters out there, that this would just encourage them.

Take this extreme example - Man Utd vs Chelsea, where Man U need to win to win the league, and Chelsea just to draw. 3 minutes to go, it's 1-1 and Man Utd are chasing the game: Rooney tackles Drogba who feigns injury, both go off; Ronaldo tackles Malouda, who feigns injury. All of a sudden, Man Utd have lost their two most potent attackers.

What I'm trying to do with the post is show that, while it's a decent idea, think it through before you mouth off. There are other counter-examples - 20 minutes to go, still getting "treatment".

Keane's back, oh yes

Roy Keane has had a scathing attack on modern footballers and the irritating WAG culture.

There's nothing more irritating than the whole WAG thing created at the last World Cup. A load of perma-tanned, bottle-blonde "stunnahs" evidencing the mentality of the England squad. Rags like Heat and the other one have picked up on it, attracting girls to football though their usual cesspit of eating disorders and body dismorphia. The more people backlash against this culture of non-entity, the better.

He also makes some good points about footballers, in particular Steve Bruce's qualities. You can see the players that he's brought in to Sunderland have a positive attitude, and that's going to be key to their success or failure this season. And I wouldn't like to fail if Royston was my manager...

Derby agogo

Big on the news today are Derby;
F365 reporting a new deal for Young Taggart Billy Davies.

He's done really well at that club, and is one of two promising "young" Scottish managers in the Premier League, along with Everton's David Moyes. He did incredibly well at Motherwell, progressed Preston, and now he's exceeding expectations with Derby. It'll be interesting to see how they perform against Man City tomorrow night.

Stupid Rumours

This is an entry I'm going to try and do each day going through the transfer tittle tattle of the day and looking at the Stupid and Interesting rumours.

From today's BBC Gossip page:

Stupid:
"Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce is considering a £4m swoop for Everton skipper Phil Neville. (Express)"
- Why on Earth would Everton sell their Captain? He's one of their most useful players.

"Gilberto has revealed he only found he had missed out on the Arsenal captaincy via the club website. "I was surprised," he said. "But I'm not upset." (Various)"
- A lot of websites were reporting that we was made captain last week, before the news that it was Gallas that had been made Captain broke.

"West Ham have offered Barcelona's Eidur Gudjohnsen an £80,000-a-week deal but want an answer from the striker, who wants £100,000, on Tuesday. (Mirror)"
- Are West Ham ever going to take no for an answer?

"Derby are set to hold on to Giles Barnes after slapping a £6m price tag on the midfielder. (Star)"
- Any hopes they have of staying up hinge on keeping him. I can't see the point in them selling him for that little when they're about to splurge £5.5m on Kenwyne Jones...?

Interesting:
"Tottenham are set to make an offer for West Brom's Curtis Davies. (Guardian)"
- Yawn...

"Everton have bid £6m for Benfica's 50% share in Manuel Fernandes. A private investor owns the other 50%. (Sun)"
- Oh dear, not more... What are they going to do with the other 50%?

"Everton have not given up hope of signing Middlesbrough striker Yakubu. (Independent)"
- Boro really are trying to buy relegation...

"Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is prepared to pay up to £8m for Blackburn's Morten Gamst Pedersen. (Mirror)"
- Good for Arsenal...

"Tottenham have been alerted that Real Madrid midfielder Guti will be available for £5m if Arjen Robben joins the Spanish giants. (Mirror)"
- Spurs real weakness in the middle of the park would be helped by that.


The Guardian's ever-excellent Rumour Mill has:

Stupid:
"apparently Bryan Robson reckons he can lure Peter Crouch to Sheffield United."
- What?? HUH??

"The only real question at this stage is which of West Ham, Newcastle or Manchester City will get to shatter his [Robson's] delusions."
- i.e. link the three teams who've been linked to players all summer to a player. Genius.

Interesting:
"Derby have made a bid for Marlon King"

"Shattering, of course, is exactly what Eidur Gudjohnsen would do to West Ham's wage structure later this afternoon, were it not patently obvious they simply don't have one. Expect Eggert Magnusson to cave into his £100,000-per-week demands by 5pm at the latest, before also lodging a bid for Newcastle's Nobby Solano."
- It's a dangerous game West Ham play, if you believe the tabs' tittle-tattle; throwing money at people isn't a guarantee they'd play brilliantly for you...


From Football365's Transfer Gossip:

Stupid:
"ALVES NOT ON STRIKE. PROBABLY
Daniel Alves has been left out of the Sevilla squad for this week's Champions League tie with AEK Athens, prompting renewed speculation that he is set to move to Chelski. According to the Daily Mail, Chelski are still trying to sign the £20m-rated defender in time for Sunday's rather tasty match at Liverpool. "The decision to play or not is mine. It's not something I have to think about very much," the Brazilian commented. Naturally, The Sun has a more sensational twist, announcing: 'Alves has threatened to go on strike at Seville to force a move to Chelsea. 'The Brazilian right-back revealed he will refuse to play in tomorrow's Champions League qualifier against AEK Athens.' Err, not according to those quotes above, he didn't."
- Yet more evidence of the "come and get me plea" style of tabloid journalism, inventing crises where they don't exist.

Interesting:
"ALLARDYCE WANTS FAYE
Sam Allardyce is, for the second time this week, returning to Bolton - and this time he wants to sign Abdoulaye Faye. The Toon boss wants to add Faye to his injury-ravaged squad and the likelihood of Faye leaving the Reebok increased last night when Bolton signed Portsmouth's Andy O'Brien for £1.2m. 'Bolton do not want to sell Faye to Allardyce but Newcastle's offer is the best so far for the 29-year-old Senegalese, whose contract is up next season,' says The Mail."
- Would add yet more depth and steel to Big Sam's side. Many Toon fans would still shudder at the name Faye, though..

More tomorrow, obviously.

Quality bit of nonsense

The Unofficial World Cup is a quality bit of nonsense, charting the holders of the World Cup in a boxing style. Scotland, perennial "underachievers" have the most titles with 86, with the competition stretching back to the first ever international in 1872 between Scotland and England.

Rafa's Tinkering

F365 report from an interview with Rafa about his trouble accommodating all of his players, reportedly the second most aptly-named footballer being unhappy at not even making the squad for the Villa match.

The flipside, of course, is that Liverpool have the squad to compete more on two fronts. In 2005, when they won the European Cup, they came 5th, behind Everton. Last season, they got to the European Cup final, but they were 21 points behind Manchester United in the league. Having four quality strikers will allow some effective rotation; Crouch might see more European than English action, and they've got great cover for injuries. I think Rafa will be able to adequately manage his player's expectations, and that the media are hyping up a crisis out of nothing.

Please, please, please...

... can this be the end of the second-most tedious summer transfer saga involving Manchester United and an Argentinian.

Lyon are many people's tip for the Champions League this season... Heinze (En-say if you're Mark Lawrenson) is a quality player, but let's face it, The Purple One isn't going to sell him to Liverpool...

Derby strengthen

BBC report that Derby's transfer of Kenwyne Jones from Southampton will go through in "the next couple of days".

This would be a good move for Southampton and Derby; the front pairing of Earnshaw and Jones will cause a lot of problems to some Premiership team's creaking defences, but crucially, will seriously help them in next season's Championship, should they go down.

Buying quality, young British players will help Derby; a lot of teams have wasted money on foreign imports, but Billy Davies is clearly building a solid team for the future - he worked miracles at Motherwell and built a strong team there which continues to keep them up. Whether it's enough to keep them up this year is anyone's guess, but they should be an established Premier League team in the next five years.

If West Ham and Bolton continue to struggle, you just never know who's going down... Aside from Wigan, obviously.

Tough job

I saw the Southampton score last night and did some thinking.

Two seasons ago, George Burley worked miracles at Hearts, turning a bunch of Scottish journeymen and hastily imported Eastern Europeans into a table-topping side, winning eight and drawing two of their first ten matches. They looked like they would romp the league, or certainly challenge the Old Firm. In the end, George fell out with Vladimir Romanov, the Russian-Lithuanian bankroller (quite literally) of Hearts. His stock was so high that he was linked with top Premiership jobs like rebuilding Newcastle, but eventually went to Southampton, with a view to rebuilding and getting promoted back to the Premiership.

Last night's result was interesting; I thought that his stock had sunk so low now that he was bankrupt; losing to Peterborough in the Carling Cup is an atrocious result.

Now it turns out that Burley had to sell this summer to avoid the administration that is killing Dirty Leeds. He mentions building a young new team. Perhaps if anyone can do it, George can.

Convenient

Arsenal target Artur Boruc is out of Celtic's Champion's League qualifier with Spartak Moscow.

How convenient.

Preview

Tottenham Hotspur vs Everton
After Saturday's tirade against his strikers, expect a change here tonight from Big Martin, most likely £16m man Darrent Bent in for Dimitar Berbatov, who looked out of sorts in Saturday's defeat to Sunderland. The media are placing a lot of pressure on his shoulders after yet another non-win on the opening day, already 3 points behind Arsenal, etc. Everton looked confident against Wigan, albiet losing a soft goal to Sibierski, and still have injuries up front.
Verdict: Score Draw

Apt

Peter Crouch, the second most aptly-named footballer ever, is not happy at Rafa's rotation policy. Having splurged £40m on attacking players, has Crouch got a valid complaint? Kuyt, Torres and Voronin are all ahead of him in the pecking order, surely? Rafa might want to cash in on the big man, for £8/9m, and buy a couple of centre halves, where Liverpool might come unstuck if their first pairing get injured/tired.

Bad news for Man City

Arrest warrant issued for club owner Thaksin Shinawatra. Get in bed with the devil...

The Saviour

England's Michael Owen will save England! He managed 60 minutes against a Newcastle pub team!

My God, the season's only just started and the nonsense follows. Surely Andy Johnson deserves his break?