Posts Tagged ‘Blackpool’

Leeds United And The Other 91 Basket Cases, Celebrated Too Early Special including Cardiff City, Portsmouth, Blackburn Rovers, Spurs and Blackpool.

Aug 19th, 10 / Comments Off
 

This lad could battle and pass.

Sit down, shut up, sit down, shut up.

I’m going to start this “too early” special by highlighting something that isn’t. The Leeds United fans performance at the City Ground should get highlight of the season already, across the 4 divisions. Superb stuff from the travelling support whilst the country looked on via Sky. However, as is our want, we also seem to think we have found the formula to settle into the Championship from this game, something I question. Yes the resilience was impressive but there was also a clear lack of forward penetrative play. I struggle to remember us creating a chance that wasn’t a header from a dead-ball or cross, no passing into the box, no running on to flicks and lay-offs. For me we need to bring Howson and Kilkenny more into the attacking play and Watt and Sam need to spend a little more time in the box. As for central defence and particularly Collins, don’t even go there (stress free season, stress free season, repeat).

Meanwhile in South Wales our old mates at Cardiff City are prematurely anticipating the PL based on the loan signing of Craig Bellamy, arguably Manchester City’s player of last season (not definitely, Tevez might have something to say on that). Except what is this? The FL want assurances the signing is sustainable and Motherwell are suing the club over £175k owed over a year (that’s one month’s worth of Bellamy’s wages). Now I want to be fair here, clearing up after Ridsdale must be a right strain but if you’re going to brag about your Malaysian billionaire owners you should expect some grief if you can’t pay off the smaller debts. Anyway they still won’t go up, the idea of Chopra and Bellamy ever actually passing to each other is too weird even for this site.

Portsmouth will be lucky not to go down, it’s a disgrace they are not starting with minus points this season. Last week, as the CVA was bizarrely ratified in court, the pompay fans were talking about Chainrai investing to return to the PL, well that has been reigned in quick, it’s all now about selling when possible and him not even being Chairman. Loans from Stoke City, Kanu given an extended career, Nugent expected to provide the goals alone and any half decent asset joining West Ham United in their relegation destiny is the order of the day this season. When Sam “skid-marks” Sodje flies in for a trial the smell of L1 inevitability is over-powering. Shame for Cotterill in my humble opinion but you can’t fight kismet.

Meanwhile in Lancashire a new odyssey looks like unfolding at Blackburn Rovers. Ashan Ali Syed, a Indian billionaire, has a month exclusivity to complete a takeover and is already talking about £100m transfer pots (to be spent in January clearly in the same way Birmingham City were going to spend £100m last January…), trophy’s and a world wide support base. Ok given the cultural make-up of that old cotton town having an Asian owner seems a reasonable thing to me, except what’s that you say? He wants to sign David Beckham because “I saw him when he was at Manchester United and I liked him very much”! Oh dear, here we go again, money and common sense, not related to each other. With that kind of approach Blackburn may find themselves spending £300m and still having nothing but a Fulham style squad full of bubbling up expensively paid talent.

Of course with expensively paid talent comes expectation, like getting past your Swiss opponents in the qualifying section of the CL. Poor Spurs, once they went 3-0 down to Young Boys no amount of come-back will stop the comparisons with Everton and Newcastle United’s disastrous qualifying round exits from previous years. Redknapp talked about artificial pitches but the truth is that he, his players and the support assumed the Swiss side would roll over. Well I for one hope they park the bus in front of the goal at White Hart Lane and knock Levy off his perch with a 0-0 draw. It will certainly make it easier for him to sack Redknapp after his forthcoming date with the Old Bailey concludes.

Which finally brings us to Blackpool where to be fair a bit of premature celebrating is in order after that wonderful 4-0 win at Wigan (but I still maintain both Harewood’s goals were own goals). However, as always with this kind of thing, ying follows yang. The chairman resigns and again as is the way of things, despite putting the club in the top division for the first time in 40 years, the fans celebrate. Now I am given to understand there are a couple of good reasons to see Karl Oyston departing as a good thing (although as he is staying as CE and his dad still owns the most shares maybe reports of his demise are premature) but the idea this kills the cautious approach to players wages at Bloomfield Road is not one of them. If the Blackpool fans want to be in Hull City, Portsmouth’s and Burnley’s position, relegated anyway but with a double-trebled wage bill then as far as I’m concerned they are idiots. For me romance only touches you if you’re true to your football heart and bringing in a bunch of mercenaries is anything but romantic. Stick to the £10k a week, £500k a year is only an insult to the deluded.

Michael Green.

PS: apologies for the mistaken title, got mixed up…

The Other 91 Basket Cases

Monday Talking Point With Graeme Garvey: What’s In A Name?

Aug 2nd, 10 / Comments Off

 

Graeme looks at names.

Blackpool F.C. have three nicknames, The Seasiders, The ‘Pool and The Tangerines and, in case anyone missed it, they will be playing in the Premiership this season. Tons of Premier League fans all over the country are planning on a day out in Blackpool when their teams meet and they had better not put it off till the season after because, as everybody agrees, whichever nickname you give them, they will be coming straight back down. It’s looking like a Tangerine Nightmare.

I used to think I understood how money worked – the more successful you were, the richer you became but modern football logic has dissed that. Rangers and Barcelona won their domestic leagues and each narrowly missed going into administration. Gallant, gutsy, unfashionable Blackpool won promotion to the Premiership and are only just getting round to paying their players the bonuses for doing so. Guaranteed £90,000,000, how come they are so skint?

Watching who’ll join The Satsumas in being parachuted back to the Championship will be great fun – always is, as long as your own team is not involved. Chances are that at least one team beginning with ‘W’ is doomed. There are so many to pick from; Wigan, Wolves, West Ham, West Brom.  Certainly, judging by Wolves getting soundly beaten by Leeds, I bet their odds are shortening rapidly. But Newcastle, Bolton, Blackburn and Stoke are not up to much either, so it could be a right old dog-eat-dogfight.

Casting a look down a division, to that which Leeds United will be gracing next week, the bookies don’t give either Scunthorpe or Watford any chance of staying up. It is easy to sympathise with small-time Scunthorpe who have recently sold Hooper, their prize asset, to Celtic and will see about as much of that cash as Leeds did with the Delph money, ie none. It is less easy to sympathise with Watford who easily beat Leeds in the play-off, earning the supposed Premiership bonanza in 2006. What have they done with all that money? And that’s despite having four nicknames; The Hornets, The Golden Boys, Yellow Army, The Horns, which just goes to show how useless nicknames are. In fact, losers have lots of nicknames and it would be a good idea for Leeds to quietly lose at least one of their three; The Whites, United, The Peacocks, the last being pretty old-fashioned nowadays outside of Scandinavia. Knowing KB, he might even try to sell one off. Scunthorpe, by the way, are nicknamed The Iron, which, though puzzling, comes as a bit of a relief when you think what they might be called given such a dodgy name for a town!

A number of years ago, Leeds fans were in the habit of scouring the footie gossip columns to see who Peter Ridsdale was trying to buy next and no one under £5 million was even considered. After £37,000 a week Seth Johnson, it’s quite nice in a way to not have to bother looking any more. If Alex Bruce proves a waste of money, it’s only £200,000 and the chances are he’ll do all right anyway. He’ll certainly find Grayson’s ‘hair dryer’ doesn’t blow quite so fiercely as did Roy Keane’. I bet he couldn’t start up his tractor and chug north fast enough.

It is one thing for Leeds fans to no longer look at the real transfer market but what a blow it must be for supporters of The Mandarins to find August here, no new signings, their ground not ready and a trip to Arsenal looming.    

Graeme Gaevey.

Monday Talking Point

GG’s Monday Talking Point: meanwhile in other news.

May 3rd, 10 / 0 Comments

 

Today our Monday correspondent reflects on some of the season’s outcomes already of note.

Whilst some football issues will need next week’s final matches to resolve, a number of key ones were settled this weekend and, for some famous clubs, it’s not good news. Topping that list are Liverpool who will have to make do with competing in the Europa League next season, unless Cup Finalists Portsmouth do the unlikely and persuade EUFA to let them play instead. In which case, the no longer so mighty Reds will completely miss out on European competition. As this column reported on 21st December 2009, Liverpool have been described as being in meltdown for some time, although supposedly still not near to ‘doing a Leeds’. I wonder. They are in it up to their lugholes and isn’t it about time people stopped giving good jobs to Rafa Benitez because he’s the main one who’s brought this on them? I don’t blame him for bailing out to Juventus, especially if he really is given £60 million for players but, considering how much money he has blown at Liverpool, there is no guarantee of trophies for his new club.

Though they have had some success in cup competitions, most famously the one where Dudek’s penalty-saving antics won the day, Liverpool have not won the League since 1990 and that, strangely, is more important than the Champions’ League itself in defining which of the Lancashire teams is top dog. Winning the Premiership is the true ambition of any Liverpool manager and anything below Champions’ League qualification means failure. Benitez got himself a fantastic contract when he was doing tons better than he is now. I reckon he’s one lucky guy. So does he and is probably packing his suitcases whilst penning his final team-talk all about pride, loyalty and commitment.

Now we wait to see how many of the superstars also leave Liverpool. The only thing that keeps the big-earners ‘loyal’ is the monster salary which flows into their offshore accounts . Remember how ‘loyal’ Benito Carbone became once Bradford City were relegated? When he said he wanted to stay on at City it made the hearts sank of Bradford fans because they knew exactly what he really meant. Will Stephen Gerrard pledge his ‘loyalty’ to his home town club or finally admit that they are a waning power? Will Torres settle for the smaller stage Liverpool now offer him? What seemed almost impossible to contemplate a year ago; Benitez, Torres and Gerrard all leaving, now looks quite likely.

 Meanwhile, Sheffield Wednesday’s relegation means fans can start getting used to life again in the lower reaches. They might well be wondering about the strange prospect of no Yorkshire derbies next season – a genuine possibility. There is no reason for anyone to feel sorry for Wednesday – they have an over-inflated view of themselves – but Crystal Palace have been very fortunate and probably deserve the drop for all the financial sharp practice that has gone on there. At the other end of the Championship, all credit has to be given to Ian Holloway’s Blackpool, F.A. Cup Winners on May 2nd 1953, for making the play-offs at the expense of Swansea City. It is a great achievement given the limited resources available at Bloomfield Road (capacity 12,555) and just goes to show what can be achieved if the set up is right, with management and players working hard together. I actually hope they do not go up because the only way smaller clubs can expect to win even a few games in the top flight is by borrowing ridiculous amounts and the consequence for that is the dread freefall down the leagues.

Graeme Garvey.

Monday Talking Point