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.

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. 

Lack of Premier League experience sees Villa fall fowl

Football’s a game where too many opinions can be drawn from one game. Robbie Savage will be happy with his prediction that Villa will go down this season. Alex McLeish will insist after Villa’s opening game that the claret and blue army need more
players. One of those is correct.

Yes, controversial as this might be, but big eck had a point. One that actually we all agree with, at the same time as knowing the Scot is a poor manager, also correct.

Guest Blog: Aston Villa’s Next Manager

As the hunt for a new manager seems to be in full swing, with a new favourite every day, @kerrylynn21 shares her thoughts on how the Midlands’ biggest club (!) should approach the appointment.

At the moment, despite what the latest odds are saying, there’s been no official statements of intent from the Board or the club and no informing the fans of how the manager search is being conducted. This however is no surprise for many Villa fans: the club and the fans are two separate entities at present – the connection between the two has been worn down so far it’s practically non-existent.

Guest Blog: Familiarity breeds contempt, Wolves need a miracle to stay up this season.

Familiarity breeds contempt. Wolves have roughly the same bunch of players that they have had for the last two seasons, yet they are performing worse. They are too comfortable. The football club needs a manager to come in and shake things up.

Guest Blog: Is Steve Bruce’s exit part of a new cycle?

Whilst reading this article from Phil McNulty I started thinking that the cycle that Sunderland are going through rang true a little, like I’d read the blog before, and like I could really connect and felt sorry for Sunderland fans and the situation their club is in. I came to the conclusion that Bruce’s exit is a sign of what may well now be the norm for clubs such as Sunderland.

This is the cycle which Villa, Everton, even Spurs to an extent (obviously less now than in the past) will go through. Work hard, sign good players, create a happy squad with a few star players. Inevitably, with the money the big guns have we’ll see them now circle to sign these players, turning their heads and offering large contracts: Bent; Henderson in Sunderland’s case; Downing and Young in Villa’s; potentially (despite a new contract) Fallaini at Everton; and Modric at Spurs (if it wasn’t for Levy digging his heels in). They then leave and the re-building starts again. Other players question the ambition of the club and the harmony is broken. Results suffer, Chairmen are impatient and the manager is sacked, simply to start the cycle again.

Guest Blog: What’s your favourite football chant? [Part 1]

One of the best and worst things about football, in my opinion, is the fans. The good: they follow their team without a thought – bad form, bad weather, bad players or a a bad manager, nothing will put fans off supporting their club. The bad: they can have ridiculous expectations towards their team, they can chant foul things and they can have one too many beer and have a fight after the match. But we do know that the one thing fans always bring to any match, home or away, is a football chant. This week the Cooler Editors bring you their favourite football chants, and here is part 1, from Editor-in-Chief, George. We’ve tried to stick to one for our club and one from another.

My best from my team has to be Villa at Liverpool, singing “Let’s pretend we’ve scored a goal, let’s pretend we’ve scored a goal…. <cue noises of elation>”

Guest blog: Arsene Wenger’s Interview Explored

With Arsene Wenger giving a very rare interview with the French newspaper L’Equipe last weekend, doubts have been raised about the Arsenal manager’s long-term future at Emirates Stadium. The Cooler’s Head of Content, being an Arsenal season ticket holder, reports on what could be seen as a ‘PR stunt’, a warning to the club’s board or simply a rare opening of his thoughts to the media.

We’ve been complacent for too long: it’s time to stamp out obscene chanting

Whilst we prefer to focus on on-the-pitch matters here at the Football Water Cooler, recent events have suggested the need to have a think about the behaviour of the nation’s football fans. And @timwoffers thinks things need to change…

Have you been following the crusade of Times columnists Matthew Syed (one of today’s most intelligent and thought-provoking sports journalists around) and Simon Barnes against the bizarre behaviour of some football fans, whose aggression and offensive chanting during matches seems to know no bounds? The most vivid example in my own experience was when I sat in the Everton end when the Toffies visited the old Highbury on the day when Arsenal won the Premier League back in 1998.