There was something inevitable about Chris Hughton’s sacking today, almost if after the last few weeks, it was a case of when rather than why. I was extremely critical of Mike Ashley’s reign in the season that Newcastle United were relegated and yet here we are again, two years on and the man simply can’t leave things alone. The trouble with some chairman is that because they own a football club, they think they actually know about football. Ashley continually proves this isn’t the case.

What I’m constantly astounded by is the Mike Ashley managed to become a multi-millionaire. How can someone who clearly has absolutely no clue about football make his money in sports retail? Hughton had done an astounding job by getting Newcastle United promoted at the first time of asking. Lets not forget this side, in the majority, were the one that limped so poorly out of the Premiership in 2008-09. Hughton cleared the dead wood, refused to panic after the humiliation of a preseason hammering at Leyton Orient and hit the ground running once the Championship season started.

Every mistake he made the first time round seems to be coming back to haunt the Newcastle faithful. Could any set of fans have such an out of touch owner since Peter Swales held the power at Manchester City in the 1990′s? It simply beggars belief that a man who employed Dennis Wise as a Director of Football and Joe Kinnear as a manager, now feels Hughton isn’t the man to take the club forward. A man who believe that Xisco was a better player than James Milner, who claimed that Newcastle fans had threatened his children and has refused to put a penny into the club in 18 months.

As Chairman go, Ashley shows all the facets of arrogance personified. Clearly he is under the misapprehension that he actually understands football when, with the exception of letting Hughton have the managers position, every major decision he has made shows he has none. He allowed Keegan to be ostracised over transfer policy, employed a manager who hadn’t managed to in the top flight for almost ten years, gave the job to Alan Shearer and then never rang him back once the season had finished and allowed Adidas to release that awful, awful cream and yellow stripe vomit inducing away kit last season.

As if I had anything left to surprise me, English bookmakers suspended the betting on Alan Pardew being the new Newcastle manager. Seriously. Sacked by West Ham, resigned from Charlton, sacked by Southampton. Of course now Martin Jol has walked out on Ajax too so he is now going to be the new Newcastle United manager. No-one has any idea really. Yet you have to ask yourself which top quality manager, after seeing the nonsense, chaos and simple bad management on display at Newcastle United would want to work in that environment.

I just feel sorry for Newcastle United’s fans. Often incorrectly portrayed as delusional big club chanting fans, Newcastle, over the last 25 years have seen so much talent leave the club, so many close shaves to major success and yet they find themselves continually run by people with no respect them as fans, as people and as consumers. That, for any set of fans is galling to take. Question is, have they finally had their fill of Mike Ashley or will the continue to turn up regardless.My colleague Matt earlier mentioned his disgust at the decision which you can read here but nothing that goes on at St. James’ Park under Ashley surprises me at all.

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Jose Mourinho fell out with Roman Abrahamovic over him, Martin Jol tried twice to sign him for Tottenham and Barcelona were even watching him but those admiring glances and failed bids seem a long way off now. When he first burst in to the Premier League back in 2006, I was blown away by the lad’s power and pace, especially for an 18 year old full back and I thought to myself, that’s England’s number 2 for the next 10 years then. His swearing faux pas on BBC 1 added to appeal of young man at the beginning of what looked like a long and successful career ahead of him.

Yet, here we are 3 seasons later, and whilst it must be great playing for the richest club in the world, there are no more big bids coming in for Micah Richards. He now keeps getting linked with moves away from Manchester City, but not to Chelsea or Barcelona any more or he’s being used as a makeweight in an attempted deal as City look to bring in defensive reinforcements.His form was criticised several times last season and he found it tough going in City’s back line along with Richard Dunne.

Is it simply another case of a young talent who’s got too much too soon and simply is more interested in being out on the town or is he too tied up with the new prerequisite for Premiership footballers, a fashion label, MR. Certainly, Richards has been caught up in one tabloid scandal which certainly didn’t go down well with Fabio Capello. By not picking him for Englands last two games and leaving him the Under 21 squad whilst returning Gary Neville to the squad is a damming indictment of Richards current form.

Interestingly, I think you could possibly draw a comparison between Micah Richards and England’s new first choice right back, Glen Johnson. Johnson was another “next big thing” when he broke through at West Ham United and joined Chelsea, but Mourinho cut his losses and sold him on to Portsmouth after a loan spell which included being arrested for trying to steal a toilet set and some taps. At that time, you could suggest that Johnson was a young player who’d completely lost touch with football too.

That seemed to be the watershed for Johnson and he knuckled down in a big way and last season he was tremendous flying down the right wing for Pompey. Ironically, now Chelsea want to re-sign him for 3 times the value they sold him for. His performances for England recently have been fantastic, apart from a wobbly opening 20 minutes against Kazakhstan and he scored the Premiership goal of the season at Fratton Park last November with a belting 35 yard volley.

Richards needs to find himself again and whilst he’s only 20, football is littered with so many players who were Under 21 regulars but simply couldn’t push on to become England regulars, such as Francis Jeffers, David Prutton and Chris Vinnicombe. Richards is still young enough and certainly has the natural talent to make sure he doesn’t follow that particular trio down the football ladder but he needs to start working hard again. His manager at Under 21 level could tell him a tale or two about hard work, especially pulling yourself up from non-league football to a World Cup semi-final in 7 years.

Richards has shown the potential, now he needs to get back to concentrating on football rather than being a celebrity.

The only thing that surprised me about Ricky Sbragia’s resignation was the timing of it, coming just 20 or 30 minutes after the final whistle. It was odd to watch Niall Quinn speaking about his manager not wanting to take up the option of another year as manager, whilst Sbragia stood there impassively.

Now it seems that the man who dared to question Roy Keane’s scattergun approach to transfer policy, correctly in my opinion, Ellis Short, is finalising his deal to buy out the board and complete his takeover at the Stadium of Light. A transfer kitty of £200 million will then apparently be made available to whoever takes the hot seat over which just makes me throw my hands up in exasperation.

60 years ago, Sunderland were known as the “Bank of England” due to their wealth but times have moved on and once again we’re faced with another club who seem to have no realisation of where they are in the scheme of things. The names being mentioned with the vacancy go from the ludicrous, Frank Rijkaard, to the obvious, Alan Curbishley, to the stupid, Steve Bruce being a Newcastle fan. The number one target, Martin Jol looks set for his dream job as Ajax manager; can Sunderland honestly think they can match Ajax in terms of appeal?

Now I’ve nothing against Sunderland wanting to better themselves but once again this is a club that the new owner assumes that just because it’s in the Premiership, everyone will be queuing up to join them. No offence to Sunderland fans but Short must be living in cloud cuckoo land if he thinks that they can attract the quality of players or a top quality manager he seems to think will want to join them. 

Despite the amounts of money washing around in the Premiership, to attract the top players you either need to be based in London, or an internationally known club such as Liverpool or Manchester United. Sunderland are neither at the present moment and Short needs to look at how tough Manchester City are finding it to attract the big name players they assumed would be desperate to join them. Regardless of what a lot of people think, the top players want to win trophies, with money being a distant second.

You can have all the money in the world, but as in Sunderland’s case, you have no real international presence or modern history, you will struggle to improve the player quality with signings from abroad. Look at Newcastle in their pomp or Leeds United when they were going well, which top quality international stars did they sign? None. Not one, because of geographical location and history of success.

They may have signed some great players, but not one of true top level international quality. Ginola was a swear word in France by the time he joined Newcastle after being blamed for the goal that cost France qualification to USA 94. Faustino Asprilla was a loose cannon, unable to fit in anywhere, a risk too far for many managers.

With Short trying to throw money at Sunderland, he may be very surprised of the actual lack of interest from a top quality manager to join him. With several massive clubs in Europe needing new managers, Juventus, Munich, Real Madrid, Ajax, PSG, Chelsea, Celtic and German champions Wolfsburg to name a few, he’ll realise that money isn’t everything in Premiership football.  Can Sunderland honestly compete with those sides, regardless of the money the may have?

Even in England, they only have to look up the road to Newcastle United to see the type of player having loads of money can give you. Inconsistent, infuriating and unwanted else where, the perception of the last few years in the UK was that if a player went to Newcastle, it was purely for the money as they had no chance of any silverware.

Short needs to be realistic at Sunderland and grow them steadily, otherwise he could end up with a frustrating summer and team full of mercenary players. Once again, a quick glance up the road will tell them all they need to know about that policy.

Never mind the fact that I’ve been subjecting myself to the pain of following Manchester City for nigh on 12 years – Despite what I and every other City fan have been singing at the top of our lungs all season, I always knew deep down I wasn’t coming to Istanbul at the end of May.

(Not only do I live in the United States, but I’m also a college student and one who is studying to become a schoolteacher.  In other words, I live far, far away from the club I love, I’m skint enough that I can’t afford flights to Turkey on a month and a half’s notice and will likely continue to be so for my entire professional career.  So there you go, that’s my excuse.)

A lot of City fans probably began to feel that way after their team survived a penalty shootout against Aalborg in the UEFA Cup’s round of 16 – their second win on penalties in the competition this season, both coming against Danish opponents – and they were hardly rewarded for advancing further than any City team has in Europe in the last 30 years.

When Blues supporters braced themselves for whatever fate was about to dealt to them at the last-ever UEFA Cup draw last month in Switzerland, they received pretty much the worst news possible.  A European cup final was still possible, but they would have to get through essentially two two-legged cup finals against Hamburg and Werder Bremen, perhaps the two most dangerous teams remaining in the competition, if they were going to the actual final on May 20.

Things were looking good early at the HSH Nordbank Arena on Thursday, though, when Stephen Ireland’s back-and-forth with Robinho resulted in the Irishman giving the Blues a 1-0 lead and a vital away goal in the first minute of the match.  Unfortunately, Hamburg would then overturn the early deficit to take a 3-1 aggregate lead into the second leg in Manchester next week after having scored three unanswered, and anyone who watched the game would tell you it could have easily been closer to five or six.

The good news for City, however, is that one of the few things that the quarterfinal draw allowed them is still in play: Both in the league and (for the most part) in Europe, City have been miles better at the City of Manchester Stadium than they have been away from it, and they’ll have a chance to prove it once again next week.

They were completely outworked for 89 minutes in Hamburg, but Ireland’s goal in the first 35 seconds of the first leg means that a 2-0 win in the second would send the Blues through on away goals.  It’s much easier said than done, obviously, but if City can take their undoubted player of the year’s advice in his post-game interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, show their team’s quality and “be braver,” then a spot in the semifinals isn’t completely out of the question just yet.

Thursday night should have shown any myopic viewers that are solely in the tank for Premier League sides that the German Bundesliga is not to be ignored, with Hamburg and Werder Bremen taking English and Italian teams to task.  Werder Bremen has most likely already booked its passage into the semis with their own 3-1 win on Thursday, but the gap in talent between Bremen and Udinese is greater than that between Hamburg and Manchester City, and Hamburg manager Martin Jol’s men would do well to keep that in mind when they come to Eastlands next week.

Well, can things get any worse for Newcastle United than they currently are? One win in the league in 3 months, the manager still recovering from his triple heart bypass operation, crowds are falling, the caretakers pointing out, in case you’ve missed it, that Newcastle find themselves in a relegation battle and then today the English papers are full of a certain ex-England manager riding to the rescue of the Geordie nation.

Ah, the return of Terry Venables to the Premiership once again. Could he be the man to save Newcastle United from returning to the Championship, 16 years after they left it? A man who has given me some of my favourite footballing memories during his spells at Barcelona, Tottenham and England but has seen his stock fall rapidly with disastrous spells at Crystal Palace, Portsmouth and Leeds United during the beginning of the implosion for the Elland Road club.

Now El Tel has several contacts in the media and his name often crops up whenever high profile vacancies or situations are in the media, so it’s no real surprise to see this latest connection being made today but honestly, can Venables really save Newcastle United? I’m not so sure he’s got the clout to pull it off at all anymore. At Leeds United, his term there was dreadful and the club were in real danger of going down, despite having a much stronger squad than Peter Reid inherited, ultimately keeping them up.That was nearly six years ago now and Newcastle are in more trouble than Leeds United were when he took over. Venables has always been Teflon coated in the eyes of some media outlets in the UK, who conveniantly forget the Palace/Pompey/Leeds situations. In fact, for a glimpse of Newcastle potential future, they only have to cast eyes down the A1 towards West Yorkshire.

The report uses the usual British media tactic of ” a club insider told us” to give credence to the story,but ultimately, Venables has been so out of form managerially recently I can’t see there being any substance to it. As much I loved the memories of the 80′s and 90′s under Venables at White Hart Lane, I can’t seeing him being able to do anything to save Newcastle United. Yet, it wouldn’t surprise me under the current regime if he did reappear at St James’ Park as interim manager until the end of the season such is the lack of football knowledge in the boardroom in Newcastle.

The Geordie fans may be thinking just what they’ve done to deserve this but ever since Bobby Robson was sacked after 4 games of the 2004/2005 season, Newcastle have fallen further and further down the table, seeing 5 managers and 3 caretakers try and fill his boots. What they would give for Robson to be anywhere near healthy to come in and save them but his battle with terminal cancer is catching up with him sadly. Mike Ashley’s made plenty of mistakes, hell, he’s hardly made any right decisions since coming in, but  getting Venables in would compound them all.

Newcastle are facing relegation in the face, with trips to Liverpool, Tottenham, Stoke and Aston Villa to come and the only bonus being that they’ve got to play Middlesbrough at home. To stay up, they need all the luck in the world to fall for them but with every passing defeat safety becomes a more distant prospect and the realisation that next season could see them playing at Barnsley, Peterborough and QPR will reduce the staunchest Geordie to tears. If Mike Ashley is serious of transforming Newcastles fortunes, he needs to prepare for relegation under Kinnear, wait until the end of the season and then ask SV Hamburg to name their price for Martin Jol and allow him to rebuild them in the Championship.

Anyone who’s caught Tottenham in action recently will not fail to have been impressed by Aaron Lennon’s recent form on the right hand side of Spurs’ midfield. For me, it’ll be a major surprise if he’s not in Fabio Capello’s next England squad for the Friendly against Slovakia and the qualifier in Kiev against the Ukraine. Lennon has an opportunity to finally step up and show everyone outside of White Hart Lane just how well he’s playing at the moment.

Lennon is one of those players that can infuriate and delight in equal measure, his pace and jinking runs coupled with a poor goal return for such pace and some very wayward deliveries and crosses. Yet, this season he was one of the best players under the dreadful start Ramos endured but was still short of reaching his full potential. Slowly though, under Harry Redknapp he has begun to recapture the level of performance he showed toward the end of Martin Jol’s 2nd full season, his performance against Chelsea away in the F.A.Cup particularly. With Ramos playing him out of position to accommodate David Bentley, his game was tested but he still gave 100%.

4 goals and 3 assists in his last 5 Premier League games, coupled with a superb performance against Patrice Evra in the Carling Cup Final has seen him play his best football since he joined Tottenham back in 2005 for £1,000,000. That fee gets cheaper by the week and Lennon is on fire at the moment. Sure, his distribution needs to improve and his first touch can sometimes let him down but let’s not forget he’s still only 21 years old, he can only get better. Redknapp has really got the best out of him recently and he’s worthy of at least a squad place for England, of that, there is no doubt. The Ukraine game notwithstanding, England have 3 pretty easy games coming up and Lennon can cement his position in the squad for South Africa if he keeps performing to the level he currently is. Capello loves his attacking players to have pace and Lennon has it to burn, making him easily one of the quickest players in the Premiership.That alone would have made Fabio sit up and take notice. Another great performance against Chelsea on Saturday wouldn’t go amiss either.

Now it’s all down to Aaron Lennon how far he goes, he needs to really deliver the level of performance he’s showing currently, week in, week out for Tottenham and England when he gets the opportunity. He needs to keep working down the training ground to get his crossing ability up from inconsistent and push himself onward to get the rewards that await him if he wants them. When Spurs signed David Bentley, I was worried that Lennon would be on the way out but Bentley’s dreadful form since joining from Blackburn Rovers has seen Lennon make the right wing his own and Bentley occasionally get a run out on the left. Unfortunately for Bentley, the signing of Palacios and Jenas’ return to form has seen him drop on to the bench, as Redknapp has changed the midfield set up until he can fetch a left winger in, so he has to enjoy the sight of Lennon dancing past him most matches.That goal against Arsenal must seem a lifetime away.

Now all Lennon has to do is maintain his form and that, in the most part is going to be his toughest opponent.

Tomorrow night sees a meeting between two of  Europe’s best coaches in the Champions League when Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United travel to Milan to face Jose Mourinho’s Inter side. Mourinho’s magic touch is still continuing in his current spell in Italy, with one trophy already safely stashed away with the SuperCoppa and 3 more on the horizon for Inter. Currently sitting 9 points clear of second placed Juventus and 10 ahead of fierce rivals A.C. Milan, Jose has continued his phenomenal run as a coach by now reaching 110 home games unbeaten in all competitions since 23rd February 2002.

English football has certainly been duller since Chelsea made the ultimate mistake by letting him leave by “mutual consent” back in September 2007, Chelsea haven’t won a trophy since and are now on their 3rd managerial replacement with a 4th lined up to take over from Guus Hiddink in the summer. Abramovich may have all the money, but he can’t buy the qualities that Mourinho gave the Blues and his 6 trophies in 3 seasons spoilt them. He took a Portugueseteam and won both European competitions in successive seasons when faced with richer, stronger opponents on the way, including beating Manchester United in the 2004 Champions League with a last minute goal from Costinha at Old Trafford that took them through.

Mourinho’s celebratory sprint down the line introduced him to the British public and no doubt his growing reputation was cemented with Porto’s success that season. Beating Lyon in the next round too was a impressive performance, Lyon were a better side than they are now and probably will never have as good a chance to finally add some European silverware to their bulging trophy cabinet as they did that season. In his last 3 jobs, as manager of Porto, Chelsea and now Inter he has collected 13 trophies and has an incredible winning percentage of 71% in all competitions.

The Inter job is probably the easiest one he’s had in his career so far, replacing Roberto Mancini last summer saw him take over the reigning Italian Champions so he had a more successful platform to move on from but he knows he will be judged on Inter’s success in the Champions League. Inter have spent over £600 million since president Massimo Morratti took over in 1995 but have only a lonely Cup Winners Cup trophy, won in 1998, as their only European silverware during his tenure to show for that investment. If anyone can take Inter to the next level, Jose Mourinho is the man.

If Inter knock Manchester United out of the Champions League this time, only Barcelona can stop Mourinho winning the title for the second time in my opinion, but to win it again would confirm his reputation as the best manager in the world. I know a lot of his critics accuse him of arrogance, but he simply has supreme self confidence, as he once again showed in his press conference when taking over at Inter, when he claimed to have learnt Italian in 3 weeks and dropped local terms in to his answers, showing once again his unbridled ability to work hard and continually push himself forwards.

Now that was impressive, both in linguistic ability and his attitude of soaking himself in local culture. Learning Catalan whilst at Barcelona was another excellent piece of P.R. for him, the Barcelona fans take anyone to their heart who learns the language. He perhaps strained that relationship with his antics in the clash during the 2005 Champions League, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go there after he’s finished his latest project in Italy.

A man that can speak 5 languages so fluently (Portuguese, English, Spanish, Catalan and now Italian), with trophies in 3 different countries and has a wonderful ability to wind his opponents up, after his spats with Wenger and Benitez in England and now Ranieri in Italy, often seems him come out on top in the mind games and a penchant for sartorial excellence. Yet he’s not always so spiky and outspoken, notably in the  fantastic relationships with other managers, such Sir Alex Ferguson, Martin Jol and Sir Bobby Robson.  Sometimes he can go too far, as the voyeur comments towards Wenger and his current fall out with Claudio Ranieri but he will apologise when he realises he’s gone too far. He loves his family and his Yorkshire Terrier dog, he demands respect from his players and they love him for it. He pushes himself constantly and strives for improvement. He wears his heart on his sleeve, announces targets and usually achieves them. He is a winner.

It looks as though the Serie A title is Inters, giving Mourinho his 14th trophy but Jose knows that only the Champions League will do to take Inter back to their golden period of the 1960′s.  As Inter are celebrating 100 years of unbroken top flight football, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if Mourinho takes the Champions League again. He’s the real deal, the Special One and you can never rule any team he manages out of any competition.

Why are Tottenham fans still so unforgiving toward Hossam Ghaly is a mystery to me, but Friday night left me even more perplexed as to why the Egyptian is still disliked so much still at White Hart Lane. There were 12 minutes to go on Friday night and Ghaly seemed set to be sent on by Harry Redknapp to add a bit more steel to midfield and help close the game out against Wigan Athletic. As he stood up, a fair amount of booing and jeering began to echo around the stadium, Ghaly looked stunned, Redknapp horrified and a couple of minutes later, Ghaly was sat back down, tracksuit top now zipped up and looking beyond crestfallen. The day after, Facebook groups and petitions began to appear, all appealing for forgiveness towards the midfielder and the club have acknowledged hundreds of letters and phone-calls sending Hossam their best wishes and sympathy for the events.

Let’s be honest, to still be giving the lad stick nearly 2 years after he threw his shirt down in a fit of pique is pathetic and I don’t understand the boo boys at all. The shirt throwing incident happened against Blackburn Rovers in May 2007 and saw Ghaly substituted for tactical reasons after actually coming as a substitute in the first half for the injured Steed Malbranque. Spurs were desperately pushing for 5th place and Martin Jol made the decision to increase Tottenham’s attacking potential, Ghaly didn’t agree and as he reached the touchline, threw his shirt down and stormed down the tunnel. Three days after the incident, Ghaly issued a public apology and offered to redeem himself by his performances on the park for Tottenham, but he’s never been close to the squad until Friday night.

Now I know football’s a passionate game, but surely this is getting a bit stupid when someone makes a mistake, apologies and yet two years later, people still castigate him. After the Sol Campbell debacle at Portsmouth earlier this season, the last thing Tottenham fans need right now is more abuse aimed at a player which can quickly be leapt upon by morons using the situation to vent more than their displeasure at Ghaly’s treatment of the shirt. Look at the Campbell issue; fine vent your displeasure at him for leaving Tottenham for Arsenal, but racial and homophobic abuse? For any moron to racial abuse players as a so called Tottenham fan makes a complete mockery of the clubs history, squad, integration and location. Tottenham fans and players are a multicultural bunch from all creeds, races and areas. These are the people that will jump on the Ghaly situation to use for their own twisted agenda’s.

Hasn’t this gone on quite long enough? I can understand the treatment given out to players who cause injury on and off the pitch, who walk out to go to other clubs just for the money and who simply don’t try when they’re out on the pitch, but Ghaly realised he made a mistake, apologised and yet still for some it’s not enough. It’s a sad indictment of an extremely vocal minority of Tottenham fans that they cannot find it in themselves to let the situation die down and allow the lad a chance to show us some of the form he’d given in the 2006-2007 season. It’s time to forgive and forget Spurs fans and give Ghaly the opportunity to make it up to us on the pitch.

While you’re enjoying EPL Talk, don’t forget to check out the sister sites in our network for a taste of German, Italian, Spanish, European and American soccer.

Bundesliga Talk has the statistics comparing Schalke to Atletico Madrid for the most enticing Champions League third round qualifying match. Another new article written by Bundeliga Talk correspondent Mark Moll is a piece on the new manager at Hamburger SV, Martin Jol, who lost 2-1 yesterday against Real Madrid in the 2008 Emirates Cup in London.

Prolific writer Lonnie Smetana at Champions League Talk has been busy previewing the most exciting matches in the Champions League third qualifying round stage, the latest transfer market activity in Europe and a roundup of the results from the third round of the Intertoto Cup.

If you’re a fan of Major League Soccer, Kartik Krishnaiyer writes on a near daily basis at Major League Soccer Talk about topics such as Cory Gibbs who may be heading to LA Galaxy, the list of MLS players playing in the Olympics, how the Mexican players are notorious sore losers when they get defeated by US club sides and/or the national team, and a very interesting article entitled, Does SuperLiga Have A Future?

Over at Serie A Talk, Kevin Walker has an interesting article about the Italian connection at Bordeaux, as well as rumors about Tiago leaving Juventus.

Yours truly has written an article about the Spanish influence at Swansea City under the website Championship Talk. Shakira Graham meanwhile writes about one of the best supported clubs in England, Derby County.

If you’re a fan of the world’s game, be sure to check out the sister sites on a regular basis.