Liverpool

There's really only one place we can start this morning and that is with Liverpool, who crashed out of the FA Cup last night after getting beat 2-1 by Reading. As they did in the 1st game, Reading played some really good football and Liverpool were terrible, probably the worst Liverpool performance that I can remember. Some good counter attacking Reading played gave them 2 golden chances in the first half, and as they were missed you wondered if that might have been the break they needed to win the game - you don't normally get many chances at Anfield, not normally anyway. Liverpool got their 2nd jammy goal of the tie (don't care what anyone says, Kuyt tried to get on the end of the Gerrard cross in the first game) thanks to an unlucky Betrand own goal. They had a decent start to the second half but then the momentum when back Reading's way, more chances spurned, including a jinky run from McAnuff that he HAD to just clip into a half empty net, and a Church free header which he should have hit the target with. In stoppage time Reading got the break they deserved, a stone wall penalty thanks to Benayoun bizarrely hacking at Shane Long's ankle. The pen was coolly dispatched and Long won the game in extra time after some great Gunnarsson work, he got on the end of the big man's cross with a glancing header. Liverpool's response was non-existent. They played poorly all game, but what was astonishing was the lack of fight and desire on their part, I can't remember Federici even getting tested. And so the most decorated club in English football history are dumped out of the FA Cup at the earliest stage, and all that does is pile the pressure on Mersyside.

Let's look from the top down at Liverpool. Firstly these bloody owners. It's common knowledge now that Hicks and Gillet can't stand each other. I can't really be arsed to find out why, who started it etc but it can't be a good thing for Rafa that his bosses can't agree on anything and can't stand the sight of each other. You also hear that maybe one of them wants to sell and the other is happy staying in charge, probably to spite the other more than anything. Then there's money, apparently both men are struggling with it. We seem to hear every 6 months or so about 'refinancing loans' and other such boring financial terms, the long and short of means that there isn't much money available to invest in the squad. They would argue that Rafa has had a decent chunk of cash already, but the truth is that there is no money to even argue about at the moment. The prospective new stadium at Stanley Park has been in the pipe line for years, and been on hold for a while now due to lack of funds. Perhaps they thought that this job of being a 'soccer team' owner would be a walk in the park, maybe the sports teams they own in the States are so profitable that they don't need £30-£40million of reinvestment every season, who knows. There were for a while some (and excuse me for being so broad here) rich Arabs sniffing around at the club but apparently baulked at the asking price. I'm sure that the Arabs could have done a better job than the Yanks at handling the infamous Klinsman approach. The German was approached by the owners behind Rafa's back to see if he fancied taking over at Anfield. I don't think anyone would have begrudged Benitez if he'd just walked out of there right then. But to his credit he stuck around and had a very good season last year, coming 2nd in the league after leading it for so long. Throughout all of last season there was a running saga over his contract negotiations which was finally settled in March when he signed a lucrative 5-year contract. And that appears to be the main reason why Liverpool have not sacked him yet, it would cost them a bomb to pay him off so for now he's happy to keep going and picking up his wages. Boy do the Yanks wish they hadn't worked so hard to keep him on now...

The manager is a curious bloke, accused in the past of not respecting the FA Cup and the Premier League, too much rotation, a continental focus on the European Cup etc etc. I don't think however that these accusations are fair anymore, he seems to know the importance of winning the league now, it's his failings in other departments that are costing him. Firstly his transfer work. I don't have to name the long line of players he's let go from the club, only to mention how well Bellamy is playing at City and how well Crouch is doing at Spurs, he would cut his right bollock off to get them back at the club. The Robbie Keane debacle was quite amazing, signed for £15million or so, and then decided that he would play a system that Keane didn't have a place in - either that or for whatever reason just didn't fancy him. I'm sure Hicks and Gillet would have loved that call from him saying, 'Hi Bosses, just to let you know, I'm going to sell Keane back to his old club, after just 6 months, for half the fucking price. See you at the next Utd game!' Letting Alonso go was a massive mistake, I've said before that a contract is a 2 way deal, you're agreeing to pay a player for a certain amount of time, and he's also pledging himself to that club for a certain amount of time. A manager should never be under pressure to sell a player just because he likes the look of the Real Madrid revolution. Believe me, if Rafa had played hard ball and got through until the end of August, Alonso is a professional and he would have just got on with playing football for Liverpool and he'd probably be playing as well as he did last year. Managers aren't in the business of keeping unhappy players around, granted, but they are in the business of winning football matches, something that Alonso would have helped them to do. The Alonso issue goes back a long way, to a Champions League game a couple years ago. I can't remember who they were playing but it was an away game, and Alonso requested permission to stay in England for the birth of his first child. Not a problem, this is a common occurrence in the game, but for a petty man like Benitez he felt that Alonso let him down and apparently their relationship was damaged beyond repair. Then, Rafa does all he can to get rid of Alonso to get Gareth Barry in, and I understand that if they were willing to come down in price by a couple of million, he would be an Arsenal player right now. The whole Barry situation was very public and very ugly, but when the window shut Alonso got his head down and was probably Liverpool's best and most consistent player last season. And his replacement, the much talked about Aquilani. I remember very clearly the day that Alonso got sold, the same day they announced the bid for Aquilani had been accepted and that he was to become a Liverpool player. It seemed a desperate attempt to keep the fans onside, getting rid of one of their star players and bringing in one of the hottest talents in Europe. And so far? He's been injured for several months, but the little bits we have seen of him (why don't you just play him Rafa?!) have been at kindest, tidy, and harshest, a waste of money. Sure it'll take time for him to settle and get 100% fit but the early signs are not good. The other 'case study' if you like is that of Glen Johnson. Johnson is a fine player, unquestionably England's World Cup right back and has developed his game remarkably over the last 18 months, but £20million? They sold Arbeloa to Madrid for a paltry £1million, and shelled out £20million on another right back. Was Arbeloa really £19million worse than Glen Johnson? Not for me, in fact there are some serious frailties in Johnson's defensive game, great going forward but lets not forget he is a right BACK. That is silly money for a defender for me, some of that cash could have been better spent on other areas of the pitch. Benitez's tactical prowess has to be called into question as much as his transfer policy. He may be a 2-legged continental mastermind but in the league and most recently the FA Cup he is far too cautious and places the focus on not getting beat, something that probably translates to the players as being negative, which probably causes them to lose games - 10 of the last 20 FYI. You wish sometimes he'd chuck on that unknown Pacheco with 10 to go, instead of replacing Degen with Skrtel. He's always banging on about protecting Gerrard and Torres, maybe he should worry more about winning the game he's playing right now, than the game next week.

Finally, there really are some stinkers in the current Liverpool team, it's not all on the managers shoulders. He may have brought in some poor players and got rid of some good ones, but right now most of them aren't playing anywhere near their potential. In the end it's the 11 on the pitch that have to win the games, there is only so far a manager can go. From the back, Reina is an excellent goalkeeper, fine, Johnson (currently injured) is suspect at times defensively, Carragher has had a difficult year and maybe his legs are getting to him finally, Skrtel/Agger it's probably no coincidence that Rafa doesn't know which of these boys to pick, and Insua who to me looks just plain shit. I always thought Riise was a good player, gave everything, had that hammer of a left boot, and I'm sure he could be doing a more effective job at left back right now - was the last straw with Rafa that horrible own goal against Chelsea? In the middle Gerrard is obviously top class, and despite maybe things not going right his way at the moment, you can always count on him to give his all. Lucas is a very poor player, offers absolutely nothing going forward, his passing is so limited and simple, it's beggars belief why Rafa keeps playing him. Mascherano has been missing too often with those long haul international flights and his questionable disciplinary record, a good player on his day but looks like his head has been turned by Barca. Kuyt is a good hard working player but let's face it, he's playing wide right because Torres is a better striker so he's been forced out there to give him a place in the side. You used to be able to rely on him getting you a goal when you needed one but I can't remember many of late. Benayoun I rate as a talented lad, and Torres is a super player, but then you look at the fringes, N'Gog, Riera, Aurelio, Babel, jesus Babel, so much promise but probably more guilty than anyone of under performing. He would argue that he hasn't had the chances but at a club like Liverpool you have to make those 20 mins off the bench good enough to deserve a chance. I read some remarkable quotes from him following that great goal he got at Lyon, saying something like he doesn't get on with any of his teammates and doesn't want to pass the ball, that's why he just hit it and it flew in. A great goal but those are some shocking things to hear, there's no room for any of that shit in a team sport. The long and short of it is that there are some really shit players in that Liverpool squad and even the decent/good players are nowhere to be seen at the moment. Take her easy.

Campbell, FA Cup, Spain

The portion of my blog on transfers yesterday was ill timed, shortly after posting it the Arsenal website reported that Sol Campbell would be playing in a reserve game for the Gunners against West Ham. It's common knowledge that Sol has been training with us since is disaster move to Notts County, agreeing a 5-year £40,000 a week deal, playing one game then jumping ship. Since then the County manager has departed, twice, and the big money owners who promised Premier League football in a few years time, have put the club back up for sale. Something tells me that big Sol knew something that we didn't. Anyway, he has been unattached for several months now and Arsene Wenger has been able to get a really good look at him up close, and it seems he is set to sign a deal until the rest of the season. Does le boss have a history of signing players over 30? Nope, certainly not 35 year olds. Does he have a history of re-signing players he's previously sold? Never, this will be a first. Interesting. The big man did great things with the club, winning 2 league titles, 3 FA Cups, was part of the Invincibles team, and scored in the Champions League final. His first spell at the club though ended in mysterious and sad circumstances. 2-0 down to the Hammers, Sol walked out of Highbury at half time apparently distraught at his part in conceding the goals and the supposed realisation that he was getting on a bit. He wasn't seen by the club for something like a week until he turned up on holiday in Belgium - very strange indeed. Since then he won the cup with Pompey so has tasted more success than most of the current Arsenal side. I think he'll be a great addition to the squad, low risk, low expense, high experience and high presence. Who knows, 5 games to go in the title race, Gallas picks up a thigh strain and it's up to Sol to come in and do a job. 10th April, White Hart Lane, 5 to go, it's 1-1, and 'The Sol Man' leaps like a salmon to meet a corner and gives us the win. Haha, get in!

FA Cup 3rd round replays started last night and continue tonight. Pompey scraped through against Coventry thanks to a goal in the last seconds of extra time, in form Bham beat in form Forest, and Cardiff v Bristol City will have to go to a Seven Bridge replay - this was the original tie. Tonight Liverpool take on Reading at Anfield after a poor performance when they came down to the Mad Stad a few weeks back. It shouldn't be underestimated what a big game this is for Liverpool. They are in a real shit fight for that Champions League spot, City are looking strong and Villa and Spurs are still knocking about. They still have a shot in the Europa League, but the FA Cup is a winnable trophy that would salvage something for their season, especially with Utd already out. As for Reading, they played great in the first leg and fully deserved the replay, no-one will be fancying them to go up there and do it, but they'll have nothing to lose and will go for it.

Finally, a little rant on those dirty mischief makers at Barca and Madrid, whose public pursuit of a certain Spaniard is getting quite silly now. First of all, we shouldn't be surprised at the way things are done over there, they have big daily sports papers like Marca and big sport radio stations that make it their business to create transfer rumour nonsense, we have the same over here. The difference though is the system of presidents, heads of football and other such positions that are voted on during elections. That's where you get guys like Florentino Perez at Madrid, he says 'vote for me cos I'll bring in Ronaldo, Kaka and Benzema' and there you have it. It has mainly been Barcelona though who have been pursuing Cesc, twats like Joan Laporta and Txixixixixi Bergustin (or something) go on about the Barca DNA that Cesc has and all this fucking nonsense, you've even got Xavi, Iniesta and Puyol joining in now. We know that one day Cesc will go, to Barca or Madrid, but it's down to us and the boss to make sure that day is in 5/8 years and not 1/2. I get a little nervous when he's away with Spain, I don't want him to enjoy playing with Xavi too much and get his head turned, something like that could easily happen this summer. The boss has hand written a letter to both of them to say, 'look, I'm not selling Cesc or anyone at the moment so you might aswell fuck off. If you wanna make a mistake and buy another Hleb from us in a few years, give us a ring and we'll sort summink out, until then, shit off.' A £40million bid for him and signs of unhappiness and the boss might think again. He's done nothing but be committed so far though, our best player, our captain, our leader. We love you boy! Take her easy.

African Nations Cup, Premier League, Transfers

The beginning of the African Nations Cup was shockingly overshadowed by a machine gun attack on the Togo team bus on Friday. I believe 3 people have died from the attack so far, and that another player is currently in serious condition in hospital. It's a truly horrifying incident that hammers home what a different world we live in, that this kind of thing can happen with a degree of 'so what' about it. People are getting killed in their hundreds in these sorts of incidents across Africa and it makes football seem very insignificant indeed. Togo have since pulled out of the tournament and their players are in a period of mourning - Roberto Mancini rightfully stated yesterday that his player Adebayor should not return until he is absolutely ready to do so. To go back slightly, this attack wasn't a few bullets by some mad men who get scared away very quickly, it was a relentless barrage that lasted half an hour. Some people have suggested that this summer's World Cup is in jeopardy or maybe that it should be in jeopardy, but it's difficult to agree with that. While I and probably many more certainly have some long standing concerns about South Africa and rightly so, but an incident like this can't be used as an excuse to cancel the whole thing. I think Angola is something like 2000 miles away from SA, they're clearly very different places. The tournament is underway now anyway, Ivory Coast slipped to a surprising 0-0 draw with Burkina Faso, but the standout result has to be the opening game, where hosts Angola were 4-0 on Mali with 10 minutes to go, and somehow managed to draw the game 4-4. Incredible.

With the weather strangling most of the sport over the weekend, it gave Arsenal and Utd the chance to close in on Chelsea's lead in the Premier League. The Arsenal played pretty badly and snuck a 2-2 draw at home to Everton. A disappointing result on paper, but no disaster. The drew 3-3 at Stamford Bridge a few weeks ago, and despite a poor start to the season the Toffees are clearly no mugs. They won't have forgotten the 6-1 hammering they got from the Goons on opening day, and have some very decent players. Landon Donovan has been added to their squad and played pretty well on Saturday. From what I've seen of the bloke I rate him, he's had some disappointing spells in Germany but maybe he will prove he can do it on this side of the pond at last. For Arsenal, we did well to keep that unbeaten run going because it's a real tough period we're about to get into. We have Bolton back to back now, but then Stoke away in the cup, then Villa (A), Utd (H), Chelsea (A), Liverpool (H) and Porto (A). The Villa and Liverpool games are both midweekers aswell, that run of games really will decide our season. As for Utd they struggled to a 1-1 at in form Birmingham, and look a team who are having serious problems at the moment. They've been pretty poor all season really, only that in the first couple of months they managed to get the wins using their famous Utd powers of jammyness and time added on. Now they've been found out a little, Ronaldo is badly missed, Valencia and Obertan are poor replacements, Berbatov isn't fit, Carrick not playing well, defence MIA, and Rooney is doing his level best to hold them together. Ahh, it feels good.

Paddy Viera has returned to England, he's joined City and former boss Mancini. You hear a lot of people saying he's not got the legs anymore, he's past it, blah blah blah, but I can't pass any judgement because I don't see alot of Italian football. He'll bring a big lift to that dressing room, and there's a certain Monsiuer Domenech who he needs to impress so you can bet he'll be up for it. Utd claim they don't want anyone but you hear that a £12million + Nani move for Di Maria is already on the table. Chelsea are making similar claims, but with their transfer embargo due to kick in in the summer, the chances of Aguero or Ribery turning up are increased. Wenger has distanced himself from Chamakh, Gignac and Carlton Cole, of those the big Hammers man seems most appealing. And the smaller clubs will be doing their usual wheeling and dealing to try and keep their heads above water - Van Nistelrooy to Stoke anyone? Take her easy.

Carling Cup, Coyle, Rosicky

The Carling Cup semis start tonight with Villa taking on Blackburn, the one that no-one really cares about. Villa will be favourites but Blackburn deservedly beat Chelsea in the last round, despite having to take them to penalties to do so. These are of course 2 legged affairs and if the rules haven't changed from 2007 then away goals only count after extra time. I remember 2007 because I was lucky enough to go to Arsenal v Spurs that year, the White Hart Lane leg having finished 2-2 (after a 2-0 Spurs lead) and the Grove leg was 1-1 after 90. We went on to score 2 more in extra time to send those dirty boys back up the Seven Sisters Road, revenge was painful the following year though.... The main event is unquestionably tomorrow at Eastlands for the Manchester derby. I'm glad the Beeb have finally taken some note in this competition by picking up the game for live TV, should be an intriguing clash. The red half edged a thrilling 4-3 at Old Trafford earlier in the season, there was the Owen goal, the Bellamy goals, the Rio horror show and Carlos Tevez getting booed by his old fans, much to the Argentine's confusion. Make no mistake this is a great competition to be involved in, I would have been delighted if Arsenal were in the semis, as I've said before it was a chance to finally bury that 'haven't won anything in....' tag. A day out at Wembley will be most welcome for 2 lucky clubs, I'll take a punt on Villa v City.

Owen Coyle has been the subject of a bit of a tug-of-war in the last few days between current club Burnley, and possible future employers Bolton. An approach was made by Bolton to steal Coyle away, and as I write all compensation issues are solved and it is basically down to Coyle now to decide what he wants to do - apparently he asked for 24 hours to sleep on it. Coyle has done well with Burnley, a side from an unfashionable part of the world he's got them promoted to the Premier League and is doing ok. Their away form has admittedly been very poor but they've turned Turf Moor into a bit of a fortress. Bolton sit in the relegation zone two points worse off that Burnley albeit with 2 games in hand, but the club are almost famous now for ugly dirty football, so I hope Coyle stays and Bolton go down. He had a brief spell with the....Reebokers? as a player, which included a very important game which if I talk about too long in Reading, SAS Royals fans will come smashing through my window to kill me, but surely sense will prevail ahead of sentimentality. The only other reason he must be interested then, is money. Money for himself and money to spend on players. Bolton aren't exactly rolling in it, but he must know that the finances available to him would be considerably more than the funds he currently has. Who knows, it could be Coyle's dream to turn Bolton into an attacking, free flowing, footballing team more akin to his current side. Amazingly, he turned down an approach from Celtic in the summer but now he's willing to hedge it all on a trip across the North for the sake of a few quid. I wouldn't if I were you Owen.

Finally, good news from the Arsenal, Tomas Rosicky has signed a new contract with the club, his old deal was up in the summer. True to Arsenal form it's a 'long term contract' which doesn't stipulate the length, I would think it's 3 years though as Rosicky is already an old man at 29. I've loved the lad since he stepped into the club in 2006, a good engine, a sly eye for a pass and has one hell of a hit on him. His spell at the club has been dogged by injuries though, the worst coming in January 2008 where he limped off against Newcastle, not to be seen again for an astonishing 18 months. It was some kind of rare hamstring tendon problem, the likes of which Wenger had apparently never seen before, and numerous surgeries were unable to stop the pain for Super Tom. He spoke recently of his time out and the fear he had that he would never play again, but thankfully that is behind him now and he's back involved in the team. It shows some tremendous faith from the boss to stick with the player, and he's well aware that now is the time to pay back all that faith and patience by winning the league with this team. He's one of the old heads in the team now, so he's got a big responsibility to show these kids the way to pick up trophies. This signing marks a busy period for the club, they have re-signed 15 players in the last 9 months, including the likes of Van Persie, Walcott, Song and Eduardo. The appointment of Ivan Gazidis as Chief Exec has been an excellent one, we've brought in Arshavin and Vermaelan in that time, and done all the other aforementioned in-house signage. Come on you Gunners! Take her easy.

Welcome Back!

Long time no blog eh? I am sad this morning because the Christmas/New Year festive season is finally over, it's probably my favourite time of the year. I told myself everyday to write a little something, I mean it's not as if we don't have any football to comment on over these wonderful couple of weeks, is it?! Without going into every talking point of every game that has taken place, I can safely say that we have a wonderful Premier League. What a title race we are having this season! Chelsea have gone through a tough period, Utd likewise, and despite Arsenal's good form of late, we have had bad spells aswell. It's a cliche I know, but right now anyone really can beat anyone in this division, there 'aint no gimmies anymore. On the Arsenal, the Villa result was massive and we owe it in no small measure to our captain Fabregas, who half injured already came off the bench, scored 2 wonderful goals and 27 minutes later left the pitch fully injured. It's apparently not too serious and he should be back for Everton on the weekend, where he'll probably be placed on the bench and have to perform the same rescue mission all over again! We need a striker, no doubt about that right now, despite our excellent goals tally and good form of late, Arshavin isn't a centre forward, Eduardo is struggling with form, and he along with Vela are getting played wide which isn't helping their confidence in front of goal. Walcott seems permanently injured, and Bendtner is some way off too - his last game was on 31st October. I don't like to moan about injuries because every team gets them, and some are worse off than us, but we do seem to get our big players out every season for significant lengths of time. This year Walcott, Clichy, Gibbs and Bendtner have all been out for months at a time, Denilson, Rosicky, Nasri, Cesc and Diaby have all had little 2/3 weekers and of course our main man up front RvP who was in ridiculous form will miss something like 6 months of football. We're told that Chamakh won't be moving in January but we should sign a pre-contract with him now, Dzeko and Balotelli will be too pricey, and there's no way Wenger would take a punt on a Van Nistelrooy. The window should be interesting.

Elsewhere in the division Birmingham continue to be this year's surprise package, unbeaten in 10 I think and having won most of those. Fulham are doing very well again and it speaks volumes of the club and of Roy Hodgson to say that that is not a surprise to anyone. Mancini has had a decent start at City but in 2 easy fixtures, we won't know if the decision to dump Hughes was the correct one, for some time yet. They are fighting with Liverpool, Villa and Spurs for that elusive 4th spot for Champions League football, right now I'd put them in the following order; City, Spurs, Liverpool, Villa. West Ham have sneaked themselves out of the relegation zone, the current bottom 3 of Pompey, Hull and Bolton would be an excellent trio to wave off to the darkness of the Championship. Speaking of Bolton, Gary Megson was turfed out last week, he managed to put together a team as ugly as Sam Allardyce's, but without winning any games. And the rolling joke that is Pompey, for a third month this season they haven't paid their players and staff, and have been issued with a 'wind up petition' for HMRC, which I understand means that they need to 'strengthen' their financial situation by February, or face administration. At the moment every penny that comes into the club (and there aren't many of those) goes straight back out the door to creditors, other clubs they owe money to, and outstanding loans. It doesn't look good.

FA Cup 3rd round weekend is always a highly anticipated one, but with one glaring exception it really failed to catch fire. That exception happened at Old Trafford where Leeds rocked up, played some great stuff and thoroughly deserved to win the game. There's always this horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach when watching Utd chase a game, they almost always get at least the equaliser, and as Leeds led the game I was fearing the worst. But the League One side continued to press on the break, hit the bar from a free kick and Beckford would have expected to add to his earlier goal. It didn't matter in the end though, a poor Utd team (not just yesterday but a wider picture of their whole season) couldn't make the breakthrough and Leeds are rewarded with another tough trip in round 4, this time to Spurs. Arsenal didn't really deserve the win at Upton Park, a familiar story for the Hammers this season of play well, get nothing. They deserved a replay last night, but some persistence and quality from the Gunners was enough to edge it. Liverpool toiled to a replay after a 1-1 draw with Reading, probably the only other result to raise half an eyebrow over the weekend. Reading deserved it too, and might well have nicked a late goal, but now face a tough trip to Anfield for a replay. Only 1 non-league side remains, and Forest Green have only the weather to thank for that after their game at Notts County was called off, and there wasn't a single win for a team in a lower division than their opponents. More tomorrow, I promise. Take her easy.