EPL Talk » Bayern Munich

Talk Of Manchester City Making A Top Five Is Premature

Paul Bestall — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:55:02 +0000

If I was an Arsenal fan, I’d be fed up already listening to people saying that Manchester City were obviously going to usurp them as one of the “Big Four” sides. It’s amazing what spending money does to peoples judgement when it comes to football and Manchester City have certainly caught more than their fair share of attention over the summer. To all intents and purposes, Manchester City will easily outstrip Arsenal on the pitch and leapfrog them in the Premiership.

So since last summer City have spent over £160 million pounds, but have they really bought the required players to turn them into a major force in the Premiership. In my honest opinion, no they haven’t. It’s easy to simply look at the figures they’ve spent and it all becomes an addiction to money rather than talent. For some, Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson have suddenly lost the managerial skills they’ve earned over one summer due to players going to Manchester City.

How has Ferguson lost his abilities by not signing Carlos Tevez? Whilst the vocal United fans tried to convince Ferguson to sign him up, Ferguson would not be budged. He was quite right to question how a striker who only scored 5 goals in the Premiership was worth £25 million. He consistently failed to deliver in big games time and again, yet because he ran around like a dog chasing a rabbit, he was “world class”. It is such an over rated term, that is consistently trotted out all the time as to make it almost redundant. Would you honestly say he’s a better striker than Wayne Rooney? Really? Even the most blinkered City fan can surely see the stupidity of that comparison.

Not one of Manchester City’s new signings is World Class, that’s a fact. Not one of them. Honestly, seriously, none of them. With the exception of Gareth Barry, Shay Given and Wayne Bridge, there isn’t one player who would be at Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea. Adebayor, Toure and Tevez have all been let go because they aren’t good enough for a top 4 side. City had clean run at every one of the targets they’ve signed because the clubs that owned the players were happy to see them leave, Barry and Given apart.

Craig Bellamy, over rated, over paid and has never, ever delivered consistently. A temper that causes more problems than he’s worth, I witnessed one of his strops at Norwich. Refused a decision by the referee, little Craig stomped his feet and jumped up and down on the spot for almost a minute. Pathetic. I wonder how long it will be before he starts texting his team mates spiteful messages?

Roque Santa Cruz, so good that when he left Bayern Munich, he joined Blackburn, no offence Rovers fans. If every major club in Europe wasn’t interested, how has he become such a brilliant striker after one good season and then moping around for a year hoping for a move. In 8 years at Bayern, he scored 38 goals playing for one of the biggest sides in Europe and one that consistently challenged for trophies at home and in Europe. That’s a dreadful record for someone allegedly so good.

Robinho joined Manchester City, then forgot who he’d signed for. Chelsea to be fair, wouldn’t pay over £27.5 million for him and by Christmas, they were probably glad they hadn’t. Another one touted as “world class”, laughably so if you’ve watched him regularly at Real Madrid. A good player, almost really good, but wildly inconsistent, prone to having hissy fits and a strike rate that doesn’t match the amount of chances he gets.

As for the two signings from Arsenal, Toure and Adebayor, Wenger must be laughing all the way the bank with his £40 million transfer kitty. He has, thanks to Manchester City, made a fortune from Arsenal’s two biggest troublemakers who were simply not at the races last season. If anything, Arsenal are stronger without spending a penny. The issues that those two caused in the dressing room and on the training ground had caused fractures through out Wengers squad in the last two seasons. Arsenal are better without those two at the Emirates, no question.

Adebayor famously attacked a team mate during a match because he didn’t pass to him, Toure got his gang to ignore William Gallas because he couldn’t be captain. Once again, childish, immature and bringing tons of baggage with them.Good riddance, I don’t know one Arsenal fan who is sad to see them leave. Not one. That tells you everything you need to know about those two.

This rag tag bunch of egotistical, money driven mercenaries are now all nicely tied up on 4 and 5 year contracts, earning more money than they ever believed they possibly could. Do you really think they’ve come to win trophies or count their cash? All this talk of “ being excited by the project” makes me laugh, it’s jibberish. It’s all about the money, nothing more, nothing less. Now somehow this team will be bonded and formed into one the best teams in England within weeks? It’s crazy to expect such results so soon.

How long before the cracks appear at Eastlands and the dressing room becomes a pit of ego clashes and cliques. If they’re not in the top 7 come Christmas, the pressure will be really on Mark Hughes. Rome was not built in a day and Manchester City could end up being more like Sodom and Gomorrah than the Eternal City next season. They will have all to do to keep up with Everton, Tottenham, Villa and Fulham, never mind crack the top 4 and worry Arsenal.

Manchester United Change Transfer Policy

Paul Bestall — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:05:42 +0000

The Guardian today has a very interesting article regarding Manchester United’s owners changing the clubs transfer policy to concentrate on signing players under 26. It seems that the Glazer family want the club to only sign players that they can recoup transfer fees on later in their careers. Now maybe it’s me, but I’ve yet to come across a club that have continued to be as successful as Manchester United with such a transfer policy.

Yet, the majority of United’s recent signings over the last few years are all under 26, such as Vidic, Carrick, Evra, Tosic and Nani, So it’s not that big a change in transfer policy. The exception is the much maligned and misunderstood Dimitar Berbatov, who at 27 now seems to be the last player that will be signed above the limit. It would also seem to rule them out of making a bid for Franck Ribery, despite what Bayern Munich may have claimed today.

I have to say, I’m a little surprised about the story if I’m honest. It seems quite unusual for two reasons: Firstly, Ferguson is renowned for being extremely protective over having control over transfer policy at Manchester United. He does not suffer anyone meddling with his working methods, so it’s a big step to hear that the Glazers and David Gill have imposed an age sanction on him. Secondly, what would they do if the world’s greatest player, aged 27/28 suddenly declares his love for Manchester United and wants to join them? Would they only accommodate such a player if he was available on a bosman transfer?

For a club that has an excellent track record of producing top quality players through the youth ranks, probably better than most, it just strikes me as odd that signings will now be judged on their re-sale value. I think it’s a dangerous game to play to narrow your transfer targets to such a specific market. It certainly should concern whoever succeeds Sir Alex at the helm of Manchester United whenever he decides to step down after such an illustrious career.

Tottenham had a similar transfer policy trying to utilise their ill feted European coaching set up between 2004 and 2008 and whilst there is no doubt that the last 5 seasons have seen Tottenham have their most successful period in the Premiership, the lack of older, wiser heads did cost them Champions League football in 2005 and 2006. A couple of experienced signings could have really made the difference to the youngsters in the Spurs camp. Notably, Martin Petrov’s transfer was blocked based entirely on his age. A silly price to pay simply because someone was deemed not to gain in value.

Of course, I’m certainly not comparing Tottenham to Manchester United, not even the most fevered Spurs fan could seriously consider that a fair comparison. There is no doubt that Manchester United are one of the main draws in World Football for talent and could quite possibly sign anyone within reason if they wanted to. Ferguson is already laying the foundations of the United squad for the next 5-10 years with the Da Silva brothers, Tosic, Marcheda and Gibson getting plenty of opportunities to stake claims for the squad.

United’s squad is hardly ancient, but as I’ve said earlier, having a ceiling on the age of your signings could be a dangerous precedent. It’s not like they’re about to become a selling team, but they can’t rule out the need to sometimes look at what benefits the club on the pitch rather than in the bank balance. Whoever follows Ferguson may just find that a balancing act too far.

The European Super League Raises Its Ugly Head Once More

Paul Bestall — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 23:07:44 +0000

Where does this idea of a European Super League keep coming from? Scratch that, WE know where the idea comes from, The European Club Association, the collective of 135 clubs dotted around Europe, keeps trying to push for this dreadful idea to come into fruition. I can’t think of anything I’d rather watch less than a 3 league competition of 60 European sides week in, week out played out in front of empty stadiums on television.

It’s an idea that’s been thrown about since the formation of the Champions League back in 1992 and reappears with regularity to terrify national league associations the length and breadth of Europe. For me, it’s a complete acknowledgement that certain people who own or run certain football clubs have a complete disregard for the bread and butter supporter who turn up every week. According the reports that appeared in today’s Sun, it seems A.C. Milan are the main movers behind this attempt to put the wind up U.E.F.A aided and abetted by the quiet and modest owner of Lyon, Jean-Michel Aulas.

Aulas has been slating the strength of the French League this week, blaming them for Lyon’s exit from the Champions League. Whilst I appreciate that Ligue 1 isn’t as strong as La Liga, The Premiership or Serie A, it’s a bit rich for the owner of Frances richest club to blame everyone else for their tactical naivety in the Champions League. Especially as this season has seen the closest title race in France for 5 years and sees Lyon hanging on to the top spot by a point from Marseille and PSG.

The irony of the ECA is that the Premiership has 5 members, The obvious big 4 but oddly Newcastle United are our fifth member, which for me makes a mockery of the whole set up. I could understand Everton, Aston Villa, Tottenham and Manchester City vying for membership, but Newcastle United? I have yet to meet anyone who supports a Premier League club who would swap the Premiership for a Euro League of 38 games, the appetite for such competition simply exists in the boardrooms of greedy football clubs, detached from the true feelings of the fans. Sure, European competition can give us some truly wonderful nights of great football, but that’s what makes it so special.

It’s the desert to the main meal, a delightful bonus that can offer continental delight to the fans and gives us a different type of atmosphere. I have to say Anfield and Old Trafford’s atmosphere in a Champions League game can be spine tingling, Liverpool have thrived on such atmosphere’s since their magical routing of St Etienne in the 1977 European Cup Quarter Final Second League. Yet, we’ve seen this season half empty stadiums in the group stages of the Champions League across Europe for games where the results didn’t matter, so how would the European Super League change that? Who would be in the top league? Surely it wouldn’t change a thing in regards to the traditional power houses of European football still carving the spoils between them every year, Porto’s magical win in 2004 excluded.

I honestly believe that if the clubs are so determined to break out of their national leagues, then the leagues should let them go. Would the Premiership really die if the big 4 left and allowed the rest of the league to suddenly become competitive overnight? Would French football really miss Lyon? The Catalans wouldn’t care for it if they couldn’t play Real Madrid, Athletico, Valencia and Espanyol, Italian football, riddled with corruption and rampant hooliganism, couldn’t seriously consider bi-monthly visiting sides and the protection of any fan brave and rich enough to attempt a visit to the Stadio Olympico can they?

The one trick they miss here is that in European football, they all whine about the strength of the Premiership but every other league is far more weighted in the protection of its bigger clubs than England. The Premiership’s collective TV deal allows everyone from Manchester United to Watford to receive a flat fee regardless of the clubs size. Sure they receive additional monies for TV appearances and finishing positions, but no other major league in Europe does that. All the major clubs have individual deals, which in turn makes the leagues weaker by comparison, making them weaker when facing English clubs in Europe. They have an easy ride at home, so can’t cope with the raised level of performance they meet against Premiership sides.

To make European Football more competitive, UEFA needs to re-introduce collective TV deals for all leagues, then Jean-Michel Aulas will really have something to complain about when Lyon finish 6th in Ligue 1.

Defoe Joins The Boomerang Gang

Paul Bestall — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:04:31 +0000

When Jermain Defoe rejoined Tottenham yesterday, he became the newest member of an extremely unique club that has seen it’s membership dwindle over the last few seasons. Very few players rejoin a club they used to play for whilst at the peak of their powers but Defoe returns to Tottenham with his best years ahead of him to join up with Redknapp for the 3rd time in his career. Some players usually return to the home of former glories to wind down their careers but Defoe is not the first player to come back when he still has the skills and the abilities to continue adding to his goalscoring record. To say Spurs fans are happy to see the striker return would be an understatement and I’ll be amazed if he doesn’t start and score on his second Tottenham debut against Wigan Athletic on Sunday. As a long suffering Spurs fan, I never wanted the lad to leave and I’m delighted to have him back at White Hart Lane. It’s not something that is that common these days but as soon as the deal materialised, I began to think about other notable returns in top flight football and two names jumped out straight away.

Ian Rush was the first player that I came across as fan who made the jump back to the club that had sold him when he left Juventus after just over 12 months to rejoin Liverpool in 1988. Rush’s time at Juventus is often not given the credence it deserves, with people viewing it as some kind of failure but whilst he only notched 7 goals in 29 appearances, at the time Serie A was easily the best league in the world and the concentration on the art of defending meant that many a great striker had trouble scoring double figures. As one of the three great top goal poachers playing the First Division back in the 1980’s, Rushie’s status as one of the greats was never in jeopardy on Anfield, but to return and continue scoring goals cemented his place in Anfield folklore.

The other returning hero was Mark Hughes, who left Manchester United to join Barcelona in 1986 but his spell at the Camp Nou was a major disappointment playing alongside Gary Lineker and after Venables was sacked, Hughes was shipped out on loan to Bayern Munich the following season and regained the form that had seen Barca pay £2 million for him at the time with 6 goals in 18 games. The Summer of 1988 saw Alex Ferguson re-sign Hughes for £1.8 million and Sparky won the PFA player of the year award in the 1988-89 season. Hughes’ reputation for United was probably built on his performances after his return from the continent and his performance against Barcelona in the 1991 Cup Winners Cup Final, scoring both of United’s goals in a 2-1 win, would have laid more than just footballing ghosts to rest.

Of course another notable member of the club is David Unsworth, but more for comedy value than anything else. Unsworth had been with Everton before leaving the side to join West Ham United in 1997, but after only one season Unsworth left for Aston Villa and that’s when the problems began. His family had missed being near Merseyside during his spell with the Hammers so wanted to move further North to be closer to their nearest and dearest. Unfortunately, Unsworth declared that he thought Birmingham was 10 minutes away from Liverpool and his unhappy wife kept throwing his dinner in the bin when he got stuck in traffic jams on the drive back up the M6 to their Liverpool home. Within a month of joining Villa, Everton came to his rescue with a £3 million bid to bring him home to warm meals and a happy family. The fact that the day he joined Villa, he found out Everton wanted to re-sign him obviously had nothing to do with the scenes of domestic strife that Unsworth painted to Aston Villa.

Ironically, we’ll finish with a connection to where we started with Harry Redknapp. You may never have heard of a player called Joey Beauchamp, but Redknapp and fans of West Ham United, Swindon Town and Oxford United certainly have. Most Football League players dream of a Premiership move, with the exception of one Joey Beauchamp. Redknapp signed the tricky winger from Oxford United in 1994 for £1.2 million and great things were expected of the player but it all went a little bit surreal when Beauchamp declared he was homesick after two months in London without kicking a ball. The distance of 63 miles or a drive of 1 hour 40 minutes was far too intense for this young man, he requested a transfer to be nearer home and 58 days later the Hammers sold him for £800,000 and defender Adrian Whitbread to Swindon Town, a mere 30 miles away from his beloved Oxford. 12 months later Beauchamp finally made his return to Oxford United for a measly £75,000, a massive loss of investment for Swindon Town and face for Mr Beauchamp. Beauchamp is still playing non-league football for Abington Town who play in the Hellenic League and hopefully the travelling won’t be too much for him.

So Defoe joins an elite club, but is there anyone I’ve missed? Obviously Robbie Fowler springs to mind but he took 5 years and two clubs to return to Anfield, Steve Staunton spent 5 years at Liverpool, left to join Aston Villa for 7 seasons, went back to Anfield for 2 seasons before returning to Villa for another 3 years and goalkeeper John Lukic matched the achievement by leaving Leeds United to join Arsenal in 1983, returned 7 years later to Elland Road before finishing his career at the Gunners from 1996 to 2001. Yet none of these players can match Scottish striker and well known party animal Frank McAvennie who played for all three of St Mirren, West Ham and Celtic in two separate spells in the 1980’s and early 1990’s.

UEFA Cup Semi-Finals Set

Lonnie — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:10:11 +0000

From ChampionsLeagueTalk.com

Luca Toni continued to justify his massive transfer fee as his brace in extra-time rescued FC Bayern München’s UEFA Cup campaign from being derailed by Spanish club Getafe on Thursday. His 120th minute header allowed Bayern to steal the tie on away goals after an action packed 3-3 second leg draw.

Getafe have to feel hard done by, having gone down to 10 men from the sixth minute when Rubén De la Red normally a midfielder but deployed at centre-back because of injuries, was sent off for a foul on Miroslav Klose just outside the Getafe penalty area. Not willing to capitulate, Getafe took a 1-0 lead just before halftime on a solo effort from midfielder Cosmin Contra. Visiting Bayern fans reacted violently to the goal by tearing up seats at one end of the stadium before they were quelled by the police.

Getafe clung to that lead and should have extended it midway through the second half when substitute Braulio sprinted clear and rounded Oliver Kahn only to slip over on the wet turf as he lined up his shot. The roller-coaster ride began two minutes from the end of normal time when Bayern equalised on a strike from midfielder Franck Ribery. Heading into extra time, one would have thought that Bayern should be the stronger side but they quickly found themselves down 3-1 as Getafe potted two quick goals goals from midfielder Francisco Casquero and Braulio within three minutes of the start of extra time.

It was then time for Luca Toni to take centre stage. His first goal was created when Getafe keeper Roberto Abbondanzieri dropped a Mark van Bommel cross at his feet and the Italian striker does not often make mistakes when presented such opportunities. Still trailing 3-2 and with time running out Bayern goalkeeper Oliver Kahn piled forward into the opposition area, disrupted the Getafe defence as he got a touch on the ball and Toni headed home to take the score to 4-4 on aggregate, sealing the German club’s place in the semi-finals.

You can’t help but feel bad for Getafe and Contra who put his disappointment aside to say that “nights like that make football special” after his team’s elimination from their first season in European competition. Getafe still have a Copa del Rey final on April 16th against Valencia CF to look forward to and I will be cheering them on in that one.

Bayern will now face FC Zenit St. Petersburg on 24 April and 1 May after Zenit hung on to dispatch Bayer Leverkusen despite losing the second leg at home 1-0. They had built up a 4-1 lead in the first leg in Germany so had little to do in order to advance on Thursday but still turned in a good showing and were a bit unlucky to lose. After weathering an initial storm by Leverkusen, the Russian side finished the match stronger than their German-based opponents and had Anatoliy Tymoschuk not missed his penalty kick, the match would have ended in a draw. Ironically, it was a Russian-born striker, Dmitri Bulykin, that scored the only goal of the game for the German side.

Perhaps the most impressive display of the day came from Fiorentina, who scored a 2-0 win over PSV Eindhoven on the strength of two goals from Romanian striker Adrian Mutu. Mutu, who also scored in the first leg, had a strong match and linked well with strike partner Giampaolo Pazzini. PSV had a few chances to get back in the match but when Sébastien Frey saved Timmy Simons’ penalty on 80 minutes, the writing was on the wall for the Dutch side.

Fiorentina will face Glasgow-based Rangers FC after they dispatched Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon with a 2-0 away. Rangers played a conservative game and twice hit Sporting on quick counter-attacks. Their first goal was a well-worked counter that led to Jean-Claude Darcheville cooly slotting home while Steven Whittaker’s brilliant solo effort in the 90th minute sealed the victory. Their 4-5-1 system, though unpopular with some of their fans, has seen them concede only two goals in their last six UEFA Cup games.

Rangers will be hungry to make the finals as they have not tasted continental success since a European Cup Winners’ Cup victory in 1972. Fiorentina have to go even further back, winning the same Cup Winners’ Cup back in 1961. It is amazing that Fiorentina are even in the UEFA Cup considering they had to overcome a 15-point penalty last season (due to their part in the Italian match-fixing scandal). Fiorentina also lost their top goal-scorer Luca Toni to Bayern Munich this past summer but they have charged forward and are currently in 4th spot in Serie A which would see them attempt to qualify for next season’s Champions League.