| Niall Quinn calls on Sunderland fans to pack out Stadium of Light Chairman Niall Quinn spearheading charm offensive to put more bums on seats as attendances fall at Wearside club. telegraph.co.uk |
Red Sox Owners Pledge to Remove Liverpool's Debt The owners of the Boston Red Sox got approval from Liverpool's board Wednesday to buy the storied but struggling Premier League club, pledging to wipe out the team's debts if their bid withstands a court challenge. feeds.nytimes.com |
Inter Milan 4 Tottenham Hotspur 3: match report Sloppy start costs Spurs dear against reigning champions, despite magnificent hat-trick from Gareth Bale. telegraph.co.uk |
Man U push on, Tottenham fall Manchester United, without Wayne Rooney, defeat Bursaspor 1-0 while Inter Milan beat Tottenham Hotspur in a seven-goal thriller. foxsports.com.au |
Remembering the top second-tier teams There is a heady list of contenders, ranging from Alf Ramsey's Ipswich through to 02-03 Pompey, via Leeds and LiverpoolThese are heady times for Queen's Park Rangers, the Championship's current early-season hare. A second consecutive goalless draw, the latest against Swansea City on Tuesday night, might have stilled their boisterous momentum; but if Neil Warnock's team can avoid defeat at Bristol City on Friday night they will have equalled a club record of 13 matches unbeaten from the start of the season.The larger picture is even more feverishly hopeful. Lakshmi Mittal, the world's fifth richest man, owns 20% of the club. With the likelihood of money to spend in January should they remain in the running for promotion to the Premier League, there has even been some cautious talk about Rangers finding themselves transformed before long into one of the strongest teams to have emerged at this level for some time.This may be a little premature. Against Norwich on Saturday, Rangers looked solid and sprightly rather than captivating, lacking in the excess of attacking options that marks out the best teams. Warnock still sounds a little nonplussed by the efforts of his main centre forward, Heidar Helguson. And while much has been made of Adel Taarabt's subtle talents, the Moroccan seems often to decorate games rather than dominating. Rangers may – technically - be the richest club in the history of English football's second tier. But they are still some way short, as yet, of registering as one of the best at this level.There is a heady list of contenders for that particular title. Any attempt to identify the greatest second-tier teams is fraught with handicaps, requiring as it does a comparison between disparate eras and also an awareness of the temporary nature of these things: success can often lead to the dismantling, or at least, derailing of even the finest promoted team. A flush of second-tier success can often be tarnished by travails at the higher level. But it is still worth celebrating in its own right.In recent times the Portsmouth team of 2002-03 stands out. Inspired by an Indian summering Paul Merson, Harry Redknapp's team went top of the table in the autumn and stayed there for the rest of the season. Two years earlier Fulham, in the first flowering of their brief Manchester-United-of-The-South period had topped 100 points by the end of the season, with Louis Saha scoring 27 times.Kevin Keegan's title-winning team of 1992-93 is worth a mention, as is, from a personnel point of view, the promotion-winning Newcastle United of 1983-84, who could field Chris Waddle, Peter Beardsley and Keegan himself, soon to depart his playing career via post-match helicopter.Howard Wilkinson's Leeds United demand consideration by their achievements alone: champions of the second tier in 1990, Leeds won the last Football League top tier title two years later with pretty much the same group of players. The 1981 West Ham United champion team was a delight: Billy Bonds, Alan Devonshire, Paul Goddard and Trevor Brooking had also played a part in winning the FA Cup from the second division the previous year.Beyond that, things become a little fuzzed by the passing of time. There are those who will be able to make a case for Bill Shankly's Liverpool or Don Revie's Leeds, both of whom topped the second tier in the early 1960s.My own preference, based solely on their enduring legend, would be for Alf Ramsey's Ipswich Town, champions of the Second Division in 1961 and then champions of the top tier a season later fielding an almost identical team. Under Ramsey, Ipswich came pretty much from nowhere, propelled by the benevolent chairmanship of the eccentric John Cobbold and inspired by Ramsey's innovative tactics that involved deploying the one-paced, one-footed but sublimely talented inside forward Jimmy Leadbetter in an unusual roving attacking role.There are, no doubt, many unforgivable omissions in this list. The only thing that seems certain is that – club records and sub-continental fortunes aside – the current QPR team has some illustrious forbears to live up to in its pursuit, not just of promotion, but of extreme second-tier excellence.QPRBarney Ronayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |