Blog Archives
Football is just one big TV Soap
Football is just one big TV Soap, by @Gwoffer
I used to be a big fan of Eastenders. Years ago. But I was. I watched it religiously and if I missed it I watched the omnibus. Cue half of the readers to click off this blog. Read the rest of this entry
Premier League: Week Two Report
Another lively weekend in the Premier League sees Chelsea, Swansea and Everton topping the table after week two. Here’s the wrap up of all the games from our weekly columnist @j_wattsy.
Premier League 2012-13: Opening weekend review
This week we had some staffing/technical issues so this weekend review is a little late, but just as good for a memory jog before you tweak you fantasy teams and make your predictions for this weekend’s fixtures.
It’s also the first by our now regular columnist @J_Wattsy who we’d like to give a warm welcome to. Do leave him your comments, suggestions for future columns and let us know what you think.
#mnfdiscussions – BRFC v MUFC
This evening’s #mnfdiscussions came from a quote from Sunday Supplement. One of the journalists said that manager’s need to get at least 50% of their signings correct. Someone once said “Manager’s live and die by their signings”. Slightly extreme, but you get the drift. Therefore we posed the question of “Who is the worst ever Manchester United signing”. Twitter answered the question for us in the following fashion:
NickOD84: David bellion!
Calder104: Bebe?
mcarlton9: Ralph Milne. So bad he became a cult figure
JAScammell: Can you afford to overlook Bebe?!” terrible!
Guest blog: What’s your favourite chant? [Part 4]
Such is the response to our chants blogs, this was a contribution by enthusiastic reader @GavChandler. A great read, enjoy!
There’s nothing I like more than a decent football chant and have been known to while away the early hours of many a morning singing about random players or trying to adapt them to suit players in our own side; much to the mirth of partners/housemates/bystanders on the tube. In fact I’d go as far as to say that I judge the success of a night out on the tune buzzing around my aching head when I wake up; for example if your last memory is strolling down Stockwell high street at 3am, shirt off, singing songs about Nicola Berti being aged around Thirty then it’s fair to say it’s been a good evening. Read the rest of this entry
Guest Blog: What’s your favourite football chant? [Part 3]
My best ever chant has to be Spurs at Real Madrid, “Tottenham in the Bernabeu, Arsenal watching Emmerdale”.
This echoed through Plaza Mayor during the afternoon of Tottenham’s Champions League Quarter Final visit to Real Madrid as the travelling supporters took joy in surviving longer than the old enemy in tournament . Unfortunately, it wasn’t sung in the Bernabeu for too long as we trailed 1-0 in the 5 minutes (eventually losing 4-0). Although, on current form another rendition might not be too long away.
Other great moments supporting Spurs over land and sea in recent years include numerous spine tingling “Oh when the Spurs go marching in” throughout last season’s European campaign and spending the whole of the first half away at Bayer Leverkusen in November 2006 singing “Martin Jol’s blue and white army” without a pause. Read the rest of this entry
Arsenal v Manchester United: Fergie shines through
With a recent conversation in the pub inspiring this blog I felt it good timing (ish) to post this with Sir Alex Ferguson celebrating 25 years at the helm. Although the topic of conversation over a pint wasn’t led with Fergie, his brilliance naturally shines through whilst discussing the topic covered.
Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, Petit, Vieira.
Scholes, Neville, Giggs, Solskjaer, Keane. Read the rest of this entry
Guest Blog: Carlos Tevez – through the eyes of the fans that once loved him
Carlos Tevez – through the eyes of the fans that once loved him
The football world was left stunned by Carlos Tevez on Tuesday, when he refused to come off the bench for City in their Champions League fixture against Bayern. We asked fans of his current and previous English clubs whether this has fatally tainted him in their eyes, if that hadn’t happened already, or whether there’s still some love left for the man and his unquestionable talent on the pitch.
Guest Blog: Are Manchester United Fans Getting Carried Away Too Soon?
With Manchester United off to a flying start this season and scoring hatfuls along the way, I’ve decided that Manchester United fans are getting too carried away too soon. This might be because I’m slightly bitter because they signed Villa’s best player in the summer, but it might just be that fans of United (and City for that matter) should err on the side of caution when claiming the title is theirs so soon. They only need to look at Chelsea last season when Chelsea were 5 points clear of their rivals in October and off to a flyer. It’s a long season! I asked Man Utd fan Sam (@Cranno7) for his thoughts on the matter.
The new United: Are we all getting carried away too soon?
Four games in and much of the early hype has been about the new-look Manchester United and how they swept aside Arsenal at Old Trafford two weeks ago and Bolton at the Reebok yesterday. There is no doubt that Sir Alex Ferguson’s young team are looking the part at this stage but it is a long season and I’m not sure United have their 20th title in the bag just yet.
What Sir Alex appears to have got right is getting his squad together early. The team that have started the Premier League campaign this season enjoyed a full tour of the United States together in the pre-season. In the US, the likes of Young, Cleverly and Welbeck were able to learn the Manchester United philosophy of attacking, whilst Smalling and Jones got themselves accustomed to the United backline. The one weak link so far appears to be the Spaniard between the posts who has the potential to be the next Massimo Taibi (remember that calamity against Southampton!?). The jury is certainly still out on him. But the US tour meant that when United began their competitive season against Manchester City at Wembley they looked far more composed, comfortable and unified than their city rivals and this was encapsulated with Nani’s first goal after a great team move.
Sir Alex had his full squad whilst the other big teams were sweating over transfer deals on deadline day (Sneijder never looked likely from the outset). And four early wins, including an 8-2 demolition of Arsenal, sees the pundits and journalists already engraving Manchester United on the Premiership trophy. But… after a shaky opening game at the Reebok, Manchester City have four wins from four and a strike-force of Dzeko, Aguero and Silva who are all enjoying their football at City and scoring goals in the process. Questions will continue to be asked about Mancini and whether he has the ability to keep his very large and very talented squad happy. You feel that if the City boss can solve his selection dilemma and keep his team content then he might just be able to take the Premier League trophy to Eastlands.
Away from Manchester the other top contenders are looking far from threatening. Liverpool, who were tipped by many to be a real title challenger this season, have failed to impress thus far and suffered their first defeat yesterday to Stoke. Kenny Dalglish has spent a huge amount of money since January on players that would probably not make the first XI if they found themselves at City or United. After four games they are already five points behind the leaders and will need to do a lot more to impress. Tottenham have had a dreadful start to their season including a 5-1 thrashing at home to City and Harry Redknapp’s team seem to be a long way from the team that beat AC Milan in the San Siro in February. Redknapp will hope that the signings of Parker and Adebayor will make the difference at White Hart Lane and they were pivotal in their win away at Wolves yesterday. As for Arsenal… we shall see! Chelsea, though, look the only other credible threat to United apart from City.
As it stands it looks like a three horse race but it is only the beginning of September and there are a lot of games to play. One of the major factors marking United and City apart from their rivals at this stage is the number of goals they are scoring at home and away – both have goal differences in double figures already with Chelsea leading the rest of the pack with just four.
The question of this blog was whether we’re all getting carried away with this new Manchester United team. In reality the answer is yes – much can happen between now and May but with Wayne Rooney and his new hair getting back-to-back hat-tricks it is extremely difficult not to get carried away. City are posting big scores but the message from United every weekend seems to be ‘anything you can do we can do better’.
For me, the most important dates to remember this season are 23 October (United v City at Old Trafford) and 28 April (City v United at Eastlands). This is where the title could be won or lost because both teams look unbeatable right now.
You can read more from Sam Cranston on his great Blog, but for now, why not let us know your thoughts below!!
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