TOP 100 SOCCER SITES
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| Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger was right to play me, says injured captain Cesc Fabregas Cesc Fabregas, the injured Arsenal captain, has said Arsène Wenger was right to play him against Aston Villa on Boxing Day. telegraph.co.uk |
Viduka over and out? It's ironic that a Socceroos squad gathered in Dubai this past week for an Asian Cup qualifier shorn of almost all its biggest stars, most notably Mark Viduka. foxsports.com.au |
The Fiver | Poisoned Chalice; and Cheering Up Liverpool's Fanbase Subscribe here for your own daily copy delivered to your inboxHART BEATThe Fiver has for some time been an advocate of the reverse-visualisation gambit, whereby openly tempting fate by saying out loud the worst possible thing that might happen means it somehow won't. For the Fiver, this means a daily routine of wandering around saying things like "no way could there ever be a beetle in my pocket", or "it would be probably be really awful to be routinely jeered and jostled by disdainful lesiure-suited youths outside Londis". Or "how unpleasant hypothetically speaking to find yourself jaded, frayed, smelling faintly of fish paste, all youthful vitality spent and increasingly prone to ranting in a way that seems angry and frightening rather than funny or in any way charming". Without which, the Fiver suspects all these things would have happened at least a bit more.It seems that Paul Hart takes a similar approach, judging by his comments on taking the QPR job only last month. "I am here until the end of the season at the moment and I am happy with that," Hart said at his unveiling in December. "As far as a poisoned chalice is concerned, it has not been deep in my thoughts," he declared, lowering a chalice from his lips and coughing violently. "Some people have said that it is like going out of the frying pan into the fire," he added, struggling to free himself from a giant flaming wicker replica of a sad-looking, long-faced manager. "This is a great club and it is privilege to be working here."And so it was until this morning when Hart left Loftus Road after just five games in charge, his second abrupt departure from a flailingly hopeless English league club in the last eight weeks, following his sacking by penniless Portsmouth. "The club would like to wish both [insert name of recently fired manager here] and [insert name of recently fired assistant manager here] good luck in the future and thank them for their hard work," droned the increasingly overworked template QPR use for announcing their managerial departures. Or at least something along those lines, the Fiver having nodded off counting up the recently departed bosses at a club which, since it got mixed up with swaggering blue-spectacled, disco-dancing, yacht-loiterer Flavio Briatore in November 2007, has been managed by John Gregory, Luigi De Canio, Iain Dowie, Paulo Sousa, Jim Magilton, Gareth Ainsworth, Steve Gallen, Marc Bircham, Hart and, now, his assistant Mick Harford.Semi-retired miserabilist Alan Curbishley is already being bandied about as next in line. And has no doubt spent most of his afternoon pacing up and down talking about how awful it would be to have a blue-spectacled yacht-swaggerer rattling the letter box and peering through the keyhole and how maybe it's time to turn off the lights and close the curtains and keep very, very quiet.QUOTE OF THE DAY"For the love of God, get your head out of your backside and have some respect for your yourself and stop acting the fool. And, just as importantly, have some respect for the club and the people that are working their nuts off to undo the damage of the prior 15 years ... we really don't need those Wednesdayites with a brain who should really know better than carrying on with the same garbage to make things even more difficult" - Sheffield Wednesday chairman Lee Strafford pulls back from the full Tom Hicks Jr just in time in this post on the Owlstalk.net forum.RAFA FACTS: PART IIThis afternoon Rafael BenÃtez read a pre-prepared statement to the media. As he nervously unfolded his piece of paper, the watching hacks awaited a momentous announcement, something serious enough to require advance planning and therefore likely to include one or, indeed, both of the phrases "I resign" and "the facts". Sweating mildly, the words started tumbling out of BenÃtez's mouth: "Before we start, some facts," he said.Facts! Facts, already, and we haven't even started yet! "The fact is we are not playing well and everyone here feels sorry for our fans." And he proceeded to announce detailed plans to make them feel better. So, quiz fans, which of the following methods does Rafa plan to use to cheer up Liverpool's fanbase?a) Giving every one of them free cake, a paper hat and 100 Tesco Clubcard points after each home defeat for the remainder of the season.b) Committing the entire first-team squad and the coaching staff to donating 50% of their wages to supporters' groups until either they win the league, or the supporters' groups are wealthy enough to buy the club, sack the lot of them and employ someone better instead, whichever is sooner.c) Publishing highlights of Manchester United's annual accounts on advertising hoardings across Merseyside.d) Producing a few frankly meaningless soundbites about how, even though the team is rubbish, has been rubbish for months and has shown no recent evidence of imminent non-rubbishness, Liverpool are suddenly about to not be rubbish any more.Go on, our puzzle-loving chums, which one was it? Well? OK, we'll tell you. Unbelievably, it was b! Not really, it was d."We know we have to improve and we have the belief we can do it," he mumbled. "How can we improve? Winning on the pitch. How can we be sure we win on the pitch? By training well," he stammered. "Everyone has to take responsibility, starting with us," he stuttered. "It is true I like to do my best every time," he grumbled. "Stoke is the most important game now and we have to prepare properly, I cannot be worried about the other things," he burbled.And so, for the Liverpool fans, there remains no good news. Their team is still rubbish. Their good players are still injured. Their manager still talks nonsense. Ryan Babel has been reduced to tweeting: "Hey people, I got some disappointing news, I m not travelling 2 Stoke.. The Boss left me out the squad. No explanation.." And they still don't have any cake.FIVER LETTERS"To every Liverpool fan I grew up with, even though I grew up in the East ruddy Midlands; to every Liverpool fan I met at university, even though you'd just come from Lowestoft, or somesuch place; to every Liverpool fan commuting in from some hole like Hatfield to your job in London: this is what it's like to support a team. Rubbish players, rubbish manager, stupid board, no cups. It's not novel, it's not interesting, the rest of us know all about it. Get over it or, alternatively, find out who's winning everything, and go and support them. That's how you chose your current team in 1980 after all, isn't it?" - Jon Millard."Re: Liverpool jumping the gun with their FA Cup fourth-round tie v Burnley message to season-ticket holders (yesterday's Fiver). My particular favourite has to be when Bradford City played Blackpool at Bloomfield Road in the second leg of the League Two play-off semi-finals. Blackpool (managed by Big Sam) were 2-0 up from the first leg at Valley Parade and were so confident of winning that they printed coach and travel arrangements for Wembley in the programme. Bradford won 3-0 on the night and, legend has it, our chairman Geoffrey Richmond rang the coach company to see if they had any cancellations for a certain Sunday in May" - Phil Hobbs."My hand slipped while reading yesterday's Fiver and I accidentally clicked on the unsubscribe option. This innocent mistake directed me to a page which declared 'Sorry, we haven't been able to serve the page you asked for', while the sidebar ran an advert for the Guardian's dating services. Is this a subtle hint for Fiver readers that if you feel ready to unsubscribe, you might also be ready to enter the world of male-female relations?" - Neil C0cker."Re: Plymouth boss Paul Mariner looking more like a scatter-brained academic than a football manager (yesterday's bits and bobs). Really? More like Mel B in Bo Selecta! surely?" - Stephen Worthy.Send your letters to the.boss@guardian.co.uk. And if you've nothing better to do you can also Tweet the Fiver now.BITS AND BOBSSpurs boss 'Arry Redknapp has denied any wrongdoing after being charged with two counts of cheating the public revenue. "It is farcical," he said.Portsmouth's inability to sign on the dotted line means David James's proposed move to Stoke City has been cancelled.Pope's O'Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor has denied the allegation that he $exually assaulted a young woman after Strathclyde police confirmed they were investigating the claim. "I'm devoting myself to clearing my name," said McGregor.Things must be bad at Blackeye Rovers dept: Sam Allardyce says he can't afford to sign Middlesbrough's Gary O'Neil.And Real Madrid midfielder Guti is desperate to leave Spain for Inter. "I would go there with open arms," he cheered, pointedly not answering speculation he could instead be off to Bolton or Tottenham.A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORSHave a bet on the men's Australian Open market and if Andy Murray wins the tournament we'll refund all losing bets. Let's hope we get a full card of Premier League action this weekend so our red card refund offer can be in full flight. Place a bet on any Premier League market and if there is a sending-off in that match we'll refund ALL losing bets.Good to see Richard Pigden and 1,056 others (yesterday's Fiver letters) picking up on our Pompey players being paid late odds. Indeed, we had a swathe of new accounts being opened in the name of Al Faraj yesterday but unfortunately it's a £100 maximum stake on this market. Check us out at https://twitter.com/Sportingbet_com for more free bet offers!STILL WANT MORE?Tom Lutz has sacrificed his Friday night to bring you live coverage of Ivory Coast v Ghana in the Africa Cup of Nations from 6.30pm. Not that he was going to do anything interesting anyway.Rob Smyth recalls half a dozen of the most memorable League Cup semi-finals in this week's Joy of Six.Ever wanted to tell Darren Fletcher to man up? Wanted to roar 'Not on my watch' in Phillip Degen's face? You are the Ref doesn't quite go that far, but still, we can all dream, eh?As the Bundesliga resumes this weekend, Raphael Honigstein is on hand with his predictions for the second half of the season.Big Sam's losing the battle at Blackeye Rovers, reports Tim Rich.And Paul Hayward reckons Kenny Dalglish could be the man to cool the mounting fury among Liverpool fans.SIGN UP TO THE FIVERWant your very own copy of our tea-timely(ish) email sent direct to your inbox for free every weekday? Click here to sign up for the Fiver today. And also, heaven forfend, if you want to unsubscribe.BUSY AND SHOCKED. IN EQUAL MEASURESBarney RonaySimon Burntonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Solid Stoke show up Briatore's folly The love of a local beats at the heart of Stoke's success, and is exactly what some other clubs are missingTony Pulis would not be drawn into a direct opinion on the subject of Liverpool's problems in the aftermath of Saturday's match at the Britannia Stadium, but there was a smile of quiet satisfaction on his face as he discussed the owners with whom he deals every day at Stoke City."Foreign owners? Don't get me started," he said, thinking back to the time, in the summer of 2005, when he was fired by the Icelandic consortium which had bought two thirds of the club's shares. He had saved the club from relegation but the Icelandic directors appointed a Dutchman, Johan Boskamp, to replace him. Although Boskamp spent money, results did not improve and he left at the end of his first season, along with the owners, who sold out to Peter Coates, a former majority shareholder, who returned as chairman and restored Pulis to the manager's office.Coates had secured his initial stake in the club with money made from stadium catering in the north of England. By the time he bought his second shareholding it was with a fortune made from a Stoke-based online betting company whose logo now appears on the players' shirts."I've got a fellow here who was born and bred in Stoke," Pulis continued. "He's an absolute Stoke City nut. So is his son. And his grandson. All Stoke City nuts. It's reassuring to know that he puts this club first and foremost, above everything."Stoke City are operating at a loss, which means that Coates has to subsidise them – just as Nigel Doughty, a private equity investor, has spent eight years funding the efforts of Nottingham Forest, his local club, to regain a place in the top flight, or, among other examples, Dave Whelan and Bill Kenwright have used their own money to support Wigan Athletic and Everton. There is no suggestion that conditions have been attached to Coates's generosity, believed to amount to at least £10m, or that his plans involve preparing the club for a profitable sale."Whatever other clubs do is up to them," Pulis said, "but I know what my parameters are, what I can and can't do. We're desperately trying to stay in this league for the next three years, for the benefits of the Sky TV money and everything that comes with it. The chairman realises it's three years. It's about looking a little further than the end of your nose."Contrast Pulis's experience not just with that of Rafa BenÃtez at Liverpool but that of whoever is managing Queens Park Rangers this week. Since Flavio Briatore, the egregious Italian playboy-entrepreneur, took over just under two-and-a-half years ago – never having previously set foot in the ground – as the front man for a triumvirate completed by his pals Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal, no fewer than six "permanent" managers and several caretakers have occupied the home bench at Loftus Road.Whatever Briatore's record may be in other areas of business, his stewardship of a club founded more than 120 years ago is a scandal, violating every tenet of tradition and common sense. Chairmen should not impose their will on managers when it comes to picking the team (although there is nothing wrong with them plaintively issuing requests via the media, as Silvio Berlusconi, Briatore's compatriot, used to do to catch the ear of Carlo Ancelotti, mostly without success) and when it comes to changing managers, they should err on the side of patience and trust rather than behaving like Caligula, who disposed of his senators with a brutal whimsicality.Caligula ended up by making his horse a consul, which suggests that he would have felt right at home in English football, among the current breed of owners who see the game as a suitable vehicle for their vanity or greed. Perhaps Briatore will one day give in to the urge to occupy the dug-out himself. There is nothing, sadly, to stop him.Team Sky look ready to aim for the starsOnly six months ago the sight of a line of riders in white, yellow and black jerseys only minutes from the end of a race would have meant precisely one thing: another win for the all-conquering Columbia-HTC team. But in a pulsating finale to Sunday's criterium in Adelaide, an hors-d'oeuvre for the Tour Down Under, the Columbia boys were disconcerted to see a file of six riders in blue slide past with less than 5km to go. The brand-new Team Sky were on the march.The Columbia riders regrouped and charged back into the lead, but a second Sky attack was good enough to give Greg Henderson and Chris Sutton the sort of one-two finish that Columbia's Mark Cavendish and Mark Renshaw achieved on the Champs-Elysees back in July. Neither Cavendish nor Renshaw was present on Sunday, but don't forget that their understudies were good enough to contribute to the team's 86 wins last year. Maybe, just maybe, the British-based Sky squad will be good enough to justify their lavish funding with a repetition of the success masterminded by their boss, Dave Brailsford, in the Beijing Velodrome. In which case, their rivals had better start worrying.Ferguson should find a role for ColeIf Sir Alex Ferguson really wants to do something about Manchester United's persistent lack of creativity, he should talk to Chelsea about Joe Cole. Still feeling his way back after injury, Cole is out of contract in the summer and arguing about a new deal. At 28, and with 53 England caps, he has both the experience to cope with such a move and the inventiveness lacking among United's existing midfielders, as well as boundless enthusiasm. He may not want to leave his native London, but he could be attracted by the idea of finishing his career on such a stage. Wayne Rooney, too, would probably be pleased to get some help.Maybe Foden should not be dropped, even if the ball isBen Foden? I take it all back. If the Northampton full-back can put on an England shirt and still set up tries like the one he made for Chris Ashton at Franklin's Gardens on Sunday, he can drop all the high balls he wants.Premier LeagueStoke CityTeam SkyManchester UnitedRichard Williamsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Fowler overshadows derby draw A 1-1 draw between North Queensland Fury and Brisbane Roar has been overshadowed by an apparent fallout between the Fury and star striker Robbie Fowler. foxsports.com.au |