EPL Talk » Birmingham City

McFadden’s Wonder Goal Raises Scottish Hopes

Paul Bestall — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:41:08 +0000

I settled down yesterday afternoon ready for one of those great footballing days that come along every now and again. I had the prospect of 4 matches in a row to keep me entertained (including Charlton v Brentford!) and to see if Scotland could get a win against Macedonia. It was an opportunity to run the rule over a few players who have returned to regular football in the Premiership and see just what Scotland could do.

I’m one of those strange people that wishes no ill to my Scottish cousins over the border to the North, I always try to watch the other home nations when I can, as well as the Republic of Ireland. I always have done, since the days of the Home Championships when I was a little lad and I always want them to do well.

With Scotland still reeling from the hammering they took in Norway last month, and the S.F.A once again seemingly trying their best to destabilise their own team, Scotland manager George Burley was up against it. With 9 players in the starting line up either having played or still playing in the Premiership, the time had come for Scotland to dig in and get a result.

Craig Gordon, the Sunderland goalie has endured a torrid time since his £9 million transfer 2 years ago, but yesterday, he was immense. His reflexes and strength kept Macedonia at bay throughout a nervous first half performance when Scotland could have been easily 2 goals down. It was the form that saw him so highly rated before joining Sunderland and he continued to excel throughout the first half.

Scotland were wobbling, but one incident seemed to change the whole game. Macedonia had been indulging in the type of behavior that would have embarrassed Eduardo but a drop ball was given. Scott Brown, the Celtic midfielder kicked the ball against a Macedonian player and it spun out for a corner to the Scots.

Macedonia were incensed and all went to try and get hold of Brown. Queue much pushing and shoving, shouting and finger pointing but the Scots wouldn’t bite. Half time went and half the Macedonian team came after Brown, but he slipped off down the tunnel. That incident completely changed the game. I don’t know what George Burley said at half time or if he even put something in the half time drinks, but the second half saw Scotland emerge as a different team.

Macedonia couldn’t cope and with Stephen Fletcher setting up Scott Brown for a cleverly flicked header, Scotland were in the ascendancy. Darren Fletcher was in his busy best, bustling and chasing, tackling and harrying everything. Macedonia had chances, but Gordon and the Scottish back four stood firm and then came the champagne moment. Take a bow, James McFadden. A wonderful solo run with 5 minutes to go, saw him bamboozle four Macedonians before putting the keeper on his backside and rolling the ball into an empty net.

It was another great goal for McFadden’s resume but one goal can’t answer the doubts that still hang over the undoubtedly talented striker. His return to the Premiership can only benefit Scotland, but he needs to return to a more consistent approach. The last 18 months have seen his form dip and blighted by injuries, his performances fluctuate wildly. On his day, he is Scotland’s most naturally gifted player but he needs to have more of those days.

At his time at Everton, McFadden was a firm favourite with the crowd but could infuriate as much as he delighted. For a player that scores the occasionally brilliant goal, he doesn’t score anywhere near the level his talent says it can. He showed both sides yesterday, missing an easy chance from 12 yards out, slashing his shot high and wide. 20 minutes later he danced his way through the Macedonian team and scored. Work that one out.

With Scotland having to beat Holland on Wednesday night, McFadden needs to have one of those nights in back to back matches. No doubt it’s a massive ask but Holland have already qualified. They don’t need to win and that could play in to Scotland’s hands. Good luck to them, I’ll be wishing them well.

Premiership Promotion Preview No.2 : Birmingham City

Paul Bestall — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:40:26 +0000

They seemed as if they’d thrown it all away, but they pulled themselves together on the last match of the season to gain automatic promotion. Birmingham City always seem to do things the hard way and they just about squeezed over the line. The fact of the matter is that they should have never been relegated from the Premiership, but the board have continually refused to accept the blame for the Carson Yeung fiasco.

Yeung hilariously rolled in to Birmingham in the summer of 2007 claiming to have the financial muscle to make them one of the top teams in the world. “Next year Birmingham will be the most popular team in China,” he said. “The whole of China and Hong Kong know very well about Birmingham City, and want this club to be successful.”

Of course it never happened and the main ramification of this dalliance was that Steve Bruce left to join Wigan Athletic. Alex McLeish came in to replace him, but Birmingham couldn’t hold on to their Premiership status and were relegated. Last season, they were expected, quite rightly with the squad they had, to run away with the league but it never materialized.

I saw plenty of Birmingham City last year and they never blew me away football wise. On paper, they had a fantastic team that simply never got going throughout the season, they spluttered and stuttered. They only scored more than two goals in a game on five occasions in the league and for a team that boasts the firepower they have, that simply wasn’t good enough. Kevin Phillips was the only player to hit double figures in the league, with 14.

The Blues have looked to bolster the attack by signing Ecuadorian Christian Bentitez, breaking their transfer record to do so, but it’s a hell of a risk.Fair enough, the lad is 23, scored 10 goals for his country and hit 31 league goals in the last two years in the Mexican League but doubts persist over his fitness and his build. With Birmingham struggling to kill sides off in Championship, can they honestly hope to score goals in Premiership?

Yet, maybe I’m being too negative, but when your top scorer left West Bromwich Albion when they got promoted citing that he didn’t want to be in a relegation struggle, it makes you question why he feels Birmingham City will be in a better situation. If anything, Phillips would have had a hatful of chances for the Baggies and would have possibly been the difference for them last season. Are the Blues such a superior team? With 3 International strikers at his disposal in Benitez, O’Connor and McFadden, McLeish now has to get them scoring more goals.

Or will he finally release Cameron Jerome and give him a real run of games. There is no doubting the boys pace, he is fast, and he has had a taste of Premiership football before with Birmingham, netting 7 goals. He now needs to respond to signing a new 5 year contract with consistency and increasing his goal tally.

The rest of the side has Premiership experience running all the way through it, from the two Lee’s, Carsley and Bowyer, to the back line with Franck Queudrue, Stephen Carr and Martin Taylor. Of McLeish’s new signings, only Bowyer is a midfielder, but that concerns me. Carsley and Bowyer are players that are not afraid to put it about a bit, so having the quality in reserve will be paramount to cover for those two when serving the inevitable suspensions.Of course, bringing another quiet soul in Barry Ferguson may be more trouble than it’s worth, but maybe Ferguson can actually try and save his career with this move. It surely can’t get any worse for him can it?

At the back, is probably where Birmingham are at their strongest. The loan signing of Joe Hart is an inspired piece of business, Hart is easily the best of the young English goalkeepers out there and he can really add a bit more quality for the side. The big changes for the team will be at Centre Half. Liam Ridgewell broke his leg in April so he’s not due back until October at the earliest and Raidhi Jaidi has been released. In for them have come the Cardiff City defender Roger Johnson, who looked impressive for the Bluebirds and another risky international signing, Giovanny Espinoza.

Yet Espinoza has 80 caps for Ecuador, showing he’s no mug and one season in European football already under his belt. A big, uncompromising defender, if he dovetails with Johnson, it could be an inspired signing. The full back positions are full of Premiership experience and shouldn’t need much tinkering with. Carr and Queudrue, once he recovers from a calf strain, have seen it all before and can be relied upon to keep it simple.McLeish has made no secret in his attempts to cover the left back area, so he knows Queudrue has to eased back.

Overall, Birmingham have a sprinkling of experience but need to make sure they score. They have the fan base and financial strength but the biggest task will be scoring more than they concede. That may seem obvious, but the Blues strength will see them hard to beat, so for them to stay up, they have make those draws victories.If they can get one more season out of Phillips, Benitez and Jerome scoring in support and the two Scottish enigma’s, O’Connor and McFadden finally begin to deliver, they’ll be fine.

Eduardo Returns In Style For Arsenal

Paul Bestall — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:53:10 +0000

358 days have passed since one of the worst injuries I’ve ever seen in a live game was sustained by Eduardo Da Silva against Birmingham City on February 23rd 2008. It make me cringe, I was shocked and stunned and urged the medical staff on to help him as quickly as they could. The players looked badly shaken and a hush descended on the crowd. Forget some of the nonsense comments that followed that game, Martin Taylor was simply late in going for the tackle and caught the Croatian badly, of that there is no doubt, but it was accidental, Taylor is no thug. It could have been the end of Eduardo’s career, no question. Tonight saw that injury consigned to history as Eduardo inspired Arsenal to an emphatic 4-0 victory over Cardiff City in the F.A.Cup 4th round replay at the Emirates Stadium. People were keen to see the return but did anyone expect him to perform so well, so quickly. His movement, his pace and his eye for goal weren’t diminished in the slightest at all tonight, only his match fitness began to suffer as the match went on but Arsene Wenger is not one to forget the power of emotion. He removed Eduardo from the action enabling him to receive a standing ovation after 67 minutes from the Arsenal faithful. It was a delightful moment in football and a fitting gesture from Wenger.

It was an emotional and positive end to a year of hell for the young striker and everyone connected with Arsenal will be delighted to see his contribution have such a positive effect on the team and the fans. Cardiff may have given a great account of themselves in the first game at Ninian Park 3 weeks ago, but today they were blown away by Arsenal and have their on loan goalkeeper Tom Heaton to thank for keeping the score at 4-0. Arsenal were rampant.

The nicest moment tonight was the hug Eduardo shared with the Arsenal medical staff after slotting the penalty home, a real touching gesture and one that was completely genuine. It was a heartwarming sight to see such joy on everyone’s faces and says so much about the player and his relationship with Gary Lewin and the rest of the medical team. There’s no doubt in my mind that Lewin’s prompt action at St Andrews last season saved Eduardo’s career along with the unsung assistance of Gilberto Silva’s role as translator as Eduardo, in his pain, could only speak in his native Portuguese. Silva kept Eduardo from passing out, talking to him, cajoling him, urging him to stay conscious. That hug summed up the immense respect that both men have for each other and it’s rare to see such mutual admiration and thanks these days in football.

The impact this return could have on the final weeks of the season cannot be underestimated for Arsenal now. There are 13 league games to go, Eduardo is back, Arshavin is primed to join the fray and with Theo Walcott, Cesc Fabregas and Tomas Rosicky pushing for returns before the end of the season, the confidence that seeing Eduardo back on a pitch can give Arsenal now is a massive and timely boost. Players will want to be back and share the feel good factor that seeing the Croat play competitively again has given whole camp and Arsene Wenger will know that you cannot buy the confidence such moments as tonight bring you. It is priceless and for Arsenals season, it cannot come soon enough. Do not rule out Arsenal of finishing in the top 4 just yet, the Eduardo factor has just begun and who knows where it could take Arsenal come May 24th.

Wigan Begin To Rebuild But Can Mido Help Or Hinder?

Paul Bestall — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:15:53 +0000

When the season began, few people would have given Wigan Athletic a snowball’s chance in hell of finishing in the top ten, never mind pushing on the brink of European Football as January almost comes to a close. After a fantastic first season under Paul Jewell in 2005-2006, which saw them finish in 10th place and then a nerve wracking final day survival by winning at Sheffield United to stay up on goal difference. Last season saw them struggle to cope after Paul Jewell walked away and Chris Hutchings paid the ultimate price after trying to fill his mentors boots again after unsuccessfully trying to follow him at Bradford City and Dave Whelan was left facing a major decision in who to turn to in order to keep Wigan Athletic in the Premiership. Thankfully for Dave Whelan, Steve Bruce was having a terrible time at Birmingham City and desperate to get away from the boardroom infighting and aborted takeover from Carson Yeung. It was in no small part to the laughable attempt at a takeover from Yeung that benefited Wigan Athletic but also, in my opinion, saw Birmingham relegated. Yeung’s statements that he wanted to get Birmingham into the Champions League certainly raised a smile on most football fans faces, especially Wigan Athletic’s once Bruce came back to the JJB Stadium in November 2007.

In the 14 months since Bruce returned for his second spell in Lancashire, Wigan have stabilised, survived and pushed on as Bruce looked to add some flair to the qualities that Wigan already had in their squad with players like Chris Kirkland, Emile Heske, Antonio Valencia and Mario Melchiot giving him an experienced and talented spine to add to. His two signings last January,Palacios and Figueroa certainly raised some eyebrows, but now no-one is in any doubt about the qualities of those two players. The duo certainly began to make certain other clubs wonder why their scouting networks couldn’t pick up these bargains and now with the sale of Palacios to Tottenham for £13 million, a fantastic piece of business for Bruce and Wigan. For whatever reasons Bruce has excelled at picking up some fantastic players for peanuts in his time at the JJB Stadium.

The fee for Palacios, coupled with the the money raised from the sales of Heskey and Kilbane has begun to allow Bruce a chance to build his Wigan Athletic. Crucial to this is the intriguing signing of Mido from Middlesborough and Bruce’s options of playing the Egyptian national side’s striking superstars week in, week out. Mido is a player so frustratingly talented, yet wildly inconsistent that Bruce is going to need every ounce of managerial nous to deal with him but Mido finally needs to stop acting like a primadonna to finally deliver on his natural talent.

At 25 years of age, he is now with his 9th club which should tell you all you need to know about his motivation issues and with a career that has seen him play in 7 different countries, banned from his national side after an amazing touchline argument with his national manager in the Semi Final of the African Nations Cup in 2006, numerous red cards, driving bans, alleged scissor throwing incidents at Ajax and so on. Wigan have made steady progress this year and Bruce tried to sign Mido whilst he was still at Birmingham City so he certainly seems to be keen on the striker. Perhaps Bruce is banking on Mido’s compatriot, Amr Zaki, to assist in getting the best out of the talismanic striker and if it pays off, Wigan Athletic will be a very different prospect to the one that faced sides prior to the transfer window opening.It is certainly an interesting replacement for Emile Heskey.

Premier League Wants To Be The NFL

The Gaffer — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:01:16 +0000

You may have missed an article by Oliver Kay in The Times this past weekend that featured a very revealing interview with Manchester City executive chairman Garry Cook regarding the future of the Premier League. The headline perfectly sums up Kay’s article: “Vision Of A Breakaway League With No Relegation.”

Here are the revealing quotes followed by my opinion:

“I wouldn’t have promotion and relegation. That’s what central entity is, like the NFL in American football. Once you get central entity, you basically share the wealth.” — What? Promotion are relegation are two of the reasons why the Premier League is so much more attractive to global viewers compared with the NFL. We’ve heard the Premier League mention this idea before, but the reaction from the paying public would be totally against it.
“If you want to become a multi-multibillion-pound empire, you may have to look at changing the model.” — ‘May have to look at changing the model’ is business talk for ‘Definitely will change the model.’ Be forewarned.
“I talk to Richard Scudamore about this all the time: ‘Are we maximising the central entity of the Premier League?’ And he rolls his eyes and says: ‘If only, if only we could, if only we would.’” – Quite a revealing statement from Cook that gives us a peek inside Scudamore’s thought process.
“We’re getting into a situation where there are maybe ten clubs. Do Saudi Arabians want to buy – and no disrespect to these clubs – Stoke City or Derby County? Or do they want to buy Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Manchester United, Manchester City?” – So, let me get this straight. The end goal is to sell all of these major clubs to the Middle East? Could D.I.C. be the first?

While the NFL is what the Premier League wants to be, especially in terms of their TV revenue, the biggest mistake the EPL could make is by creating a central entity. It’s the promotion and relegation which adds so much excitement and drama to the league.

If they Premier League did move to a central entity, a closed league, who would the 14 teams be?

Manchester United
Chelsea
Arsenal
Liverpool
Aston Villa
Portsmouth
Tottenham Hotspur
Everton
Manchester City
Newcastle United
West Ham United
Sunderland
Middlesbrough
Blackburn Rovers

The teams that are currently in the Premier League who would not be included in the central entity, I believe are:

Fulham
Stoke City
West Bromwich Albion
Hull City
Wigan Athletic
Bolton Wanderers

Fulham would not be included due to the small capacity of their stadium. There’s little to no chance of the club leaving Craven Cottage. Wigan’s average attendance is the worst in the league, while I don’t see Bolton remaining in the Premier League much longer based on their current form.

The advantage of a central entity is that the league can have all 14 clubs working together and sharing the TV revenue to build the Premier League brand worldwide. The other advantage is that it would ensure club owners that their football team would continue to generate massive amounts of revenue each year rather than having to worry about the threat of dropping down a division due to relegation.

But by closing the doors on the league, it would break the hearts of the fans of other clubs hoping to be promoted into the top league. Massive clubs such as Leeds United, Birmingham City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and others would be refused the opportunity to see their club regain greatness.

And plucky clubs such as Reading would be prevented from reaching the upper echelons of English football.

Sure, the NFL generates more revenue than the Premier League does right now but that doesn’t mean that the Premier League has to imitate the American football league to achieve success.

What do you think? Share your feedback via the comments link below.