Let’s gear up for tomorrows FA Cup matches with a video. Take a look at the highlights from last years final.

Here’s the links:

• Aston Villa shaken up [Caught Offside]
• Buy Beckham’s 2008 Porsche [Ebay]
• Manchester City played for the draw [A Different League]
• Obi Mikel out until February [Sky]
• Dzeko interview [M.C.F.C.]
• Soccer Songs [53 Songs]
• Anelka isn’t so bad [Sports Illustrated]
• Wanker of the year contest [Arsenal Review USA]

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and let me know if you’d like to suggest an article, video or photo for inclusion on the Premier League Links Of The Day.

Blackburn Rovers look set to become the latest Premier League club to be snapped up by foreign investors. Indian group Venky’s are hopeful of completing a takeover of the club by November, a move which will see the first Indian owners of a Premier League club.

While the announcement is sure to course excitement amongst Rovers fans, the statement made by Venky’s chairperson Anuradha J Desai should make them urge on the side of caution. He said: “We expect to be the first Indian company to acquire a Premier League team. We are particularly delighted that the team is Blackburn Rovers, with whom we believe we have many shared values and ambitions.”

It is the word “acquire” that sets alarm bells ringing for me. Blackburn fans will see this purely as an investment, and while the club will fall in to foreign hands, they will be adamant that the general ethos of the club remains the same. Another perhaps worrying figure is Venky’s total turnover of £440 million, which is hardly ground-breaking compared with other Premier League owners.

Football clubs are not like other businesses. It is virtually impossible to succeed at a club with purely financial motives. If the Indian group don’t realise this, then it is guaranteed that they will be looking for a way out before long.

The warning signs are there. Fans of Liverpool and Portsmouth will be the first to tell you that takeovers don’t always bring the good times that Manchester City and Chelsea are experiencing, and even if they do bring some joy for fans, there is always the question of sustainability.

Take Portsmouth for example, who in 2008 were paying astronomical wages after Alexandre Gaydamak’s millions were invested in to the club. Pompey would go on to win the FA Cup that year, but soon after, the man who had bank-rolled the clubs success wanted out, leaving Portsmouth in a dire financial situation.

Just last week Portsmouth were fighting liquidation a direct impact of Gaydamak’s withdrawal, and while it appears they have managed to fight off the threat of closure, it will surely act as a warning to every club around to make sure whoever invests in the club is the right person, and has the right motives.

Yes the Premier League will make investors go through all the due diligence tests, but there really does need to be greater control to ensure no more cowboys are allowed to invest in something which ultimately can be the most important thing in people’s lives.

Portsmouth

Relegation was the least of Portsmouth’s problems from the season, with the on going off-the-pitch saga of the sheer volumes of money owed to the tax man.  This highlights that Football is not an exception to the global financial crises we are currently in.  Back on the pitch the poor start to the season, (not winning their first league game until end of October against Wigan) continued throughout the campaign winning 7 games all season.  Yet by the unpredictability of the FA Cup reached the Final and had Kevin Prince-Boateng scored the 54^th minute penalty, things could have been very different.

Grade: F-

Teacher’s Pet:  Avram Grant for taking on the challenge and winning the hearts of the Pompey fans facing such adversity.  On the pitch, that distinction goes to Jamie O’Hara, who has showed real quality in his loan spell.

Detention: The board for the financial mess Portsmouth are in.

Stoke City

No second season syndrome for The Potters, top of the bottom half the Premier League, never in any real threat of regulation and have shown that they are a settled and well organised team to cope with the best of England has to throw at them.  Lack of goals up from Fuller, Kitson, Beattie and Tuncay suggested that if Stoke want to go to the next level they will need to find a goalscorer.

Grade: C-

Teacher’s pet: Matthew Etherington has rediscovered the form that he had for a few years with West Ham United, even got mentioned in the media of England honours, but realistically that was never on the horizon.

Detention: James Beattie for his spat with Tony Pulis in the middle of the season.

Sunderland

Despite a period of 11 league games without a win from mid November to early March – with the goal machine that is Darren Bent – Sunderland always had enough in the locker to survive.  On paper they have a productive strike force with Kenwin Jones and Frazier Campbell to boot, who scored key end of season goals for the Black Cats. Next term one would expect to see a better performing Sunderland team especially if Lee Cattermole stays fit and away from disciplinary problems.

Grade: D-

Teacher’s pet: Darren Bent – 24 league goals in a struggling side, fait accompli.

Detention: Kieran Richardson – a player with plenty of talent who has had a below par season.

Tottenham Hotspur

After going so close in 2005/06 Spurs finally make the potentially lucrative position of 4^th spot in the Champions League.  All-round they have a strong squad, with many attacking flair players including Modric, Lennon, Kranjcar and Bale; they still have some cracks to fill defensively, with King and Woodgate re their fitness and Bale requiring more experience to play at left-back.  Let’s put things into perspective: it’s still only a playoff and not qualification but fully deserved for a fantastic season.

Grade: B

Teacher’s pet: Tom Huddlestone – the ever-present in the centre of midfield and fully deserved his place in the England 30-man squad.

Detention: Jermaine Jenas – was at one stage a stand-in captain and England international who now struggles to make the first eleven.

West Ham

Survived in the Premier League by the skin of their teeth.  Another football team with financial difficulties but this time with very outspoken Chairmen David Gold and David Sullivan, Sullivan has stated that everyone is for sale except Scott Parker, clearly emphasising they need to sell before funds are available to spend on new players.  They are in the market for a new manager and current favourite appears to be Avram Grant, which would a good move for West Ham, a manager with good experience of managing in the Premier League something that despite all of his charisma and friendliness Zola didn’t posses.

Grade: F

Teacher’s pet: Scott Parker – the fans favourite: week in week out gives 100%, and fittingly scored the winner against Wigan to secure survival to round off an excellent end of the season for him.

Detention: Kieran Dyer – still struggling to get to fully fit, and has only played 4 league games this season.

Wigan

Closing the leaky pipe defence will be the No. 1 priority for Wigan, they conceded 79 league goals – only Burnley and Hull shipped more.  Key victories at home to Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal saved Wigan’s season.  On the plus note, they do have a couple of match winners in Hugo Rodallega and Charles N’Zogbia (when N’Zogbia feels in the mood that is!!).

Grade: E-

Teacher’s pet – Hugo Rodallega – Score goals in a struggling side, all in his first season in the Premier League.

Detention – the defence for conceding so many goals.

Wolves

There was only one priority for Mick McCarthy’s men and that was finishing 17^th or above.  He was heavily criticised for playing an under strength 11 at Old Trafford in December before a massive six pointer against Burnley.  It proved to be the correct decision – they won 2-0 and finished 8 points above the drop zone.

Grade: D

Teacher’s pet: Kevin Doyle – a work ethic and goal threat throughout the whole season where he often played up-front on his own. An excellent signing by Mick McCarthy

Detention – Sylvan Ebanks-Blake – hasn’t scored the goals in the Premier League and looks out of his depth at the highest level.

Congratulations to Chelsea on beating Portsmouth 1-0 to win the 2009-10 FA Cup Final. Enjoy the photogrphs. More pictures after the jump.

In what is the last big match of the 2009-10 season featuring two Premier League teams, the FA Cup Final from Wembley is always a special occasion especially today with two amazing story lines featuring the rags of Portsmouth against the riches of Chelsea.

Can Chelsea win the double or can Portsmouth somehow find a way to beat the Premier League champions? The game has all the markings of a classic final if only it can be close. We can hope.

Join in the debate about the game in the comments section below.

In the build-up to the FA Cup Final today between Portsmouth and Chelsea, I thought it’d be interesting to enter the time machine and to go back to 1992 to watch the first ten minutes of the television broadcast of Portsmouth versus Liverpool in the FA Cup Semi-Final from Arsenal’s Highbury Stadium.

With John Motson commentating and awful shirt designs from both teams, it’s interesting to see some of the differences between the level of play 20 years ago compared to today. While players are often nervy during big matches, there were plenty of bad passes and tough tackles as can be seen in the above video.

The game is also remarkable for another reason. Liverpool’s manager that day was Graeme Souness. Both teams in this match were unable to win so they had to replay the match later, that time at Villa Park. But before the replay, Souness was rushed to the hospital where he had heart surgery and Ronnie Moran took over as caretaker manager in the absence of Souness.

Liverpool went on to beat Portsmouth and then went to the final where they defeated Sunderland 2-0 to win the 1992 FA Cup trophy.

With the FA Cup Final only days away, and every Portsmouth fan like myself trying to convince ourselves we have a chance to defeat a club like Chelsea that’s clicking on all cylinders, it saddens me to think that we’ll be going down to the Championship next season. Our time in the top-flight has, at times, felt like being an emigrant on a passenger steamship who snuck into first class to see how the rich lived, only to be tossed back to steerage when discovered. That said, reflection can be a wonderful thing.

Many Pompey fans have nothing but anger for Harry Redknapp, but I would simply thank him for all he’s done and wish him the best in Europe next season. He got and kept the club up when it seemed impossible, guided us in lifting the most historic trophy in the land, and, in turn, booked us a European tour of our own, although Harry didn’t stick around for the thrilling 2-2 draw against Milan.

Besides that glorious FA Cup victory over Cardiff, the reckless spending at Portsmouth did allow us to see some incredible talent come through Fratton Park. This is well-evidenced by the fact that in South Africa this summer, there may be as many as 17 players participating that show Portsmouth on their C.V.

Hopefully an investigator will one day figure out where all the transfer profits went, but our financial freefall did provide an unexpected result – the banding together of a rag-tag group of players, unwanted by other teams, that created an “us against the world” mentality that gave way to Uncle Avram’s exciting attacking football and completely unexpected results one week to the next. The way our starting elevens have looked, if we took on any more loans, one would think Portsmouth FC is a U.S. financial institution that was too big to fail.

With so many great memories to choose from, I’ll just run through five of my favorites:

1. Lomana Lua Lua’s two goals against Southampton to secure survival in the Premier League in 2005.
2. Benjani, who couldn’t hit the back of an open goal on the training ground after his initial transfer into the club in 2006, not being able to stop scoring in the latter half of 2007.
3. Tony Adams signing Theofanis Gekas in January as the answer to our lack of strikers, which seemed to be the final straw in getting himself sacked.
4. Club legend Linvoy Primus’ return to Fratton Park against Sunderland in May of 2009 after a long recovery from injury, where his name was chanted as he ran out as a substitute, and the Pompey faithful cheered every time he touched the ball.
5. The unbelievable 2-0 victory over Tottenham in the FA Cup Semifinal.

I hope we’ll be able to come right back up, but satisfied creditors and a willing new owner would be enough for me at the moment. In the meantime…Play Up Pompey.

Fulham Boss Hodgson Wants Europa League Final Postponed

With the Icelandic volancano rearing its ashy head over the weekend Eurpean air travelers are once again experiencing serious delays and restrictions. Fulam skipper Roy Hodgson has asked UEFA to postpone their Europa League final in Hamburg against Athletico Madrid on Wednesday unless the situation improves.

“If Madrid are also in that situation, UEFA should show some transigence, rather than the usual intransigence, and trying to find a solution which helps us both by postponing the game until we both can fly there,” Hodgon told ESPN Soccernet.

The ash cloud hovering over European airspace caused serious travel problems during the semi-final legs of the European Cups. With many blaming poor performances by Liverpool and Barcelona on lengthy travel times. Even if both clubs were to make it to Hamburg on time it would be nearly impossible for away supporters to attend with air travel shut down.

“You would be placing the game with thousands and thousands of English and Spanish fans not able to go, which I would say is another reason for UEFA to reconsider. It would be harsh, especially on a team like ours who have had to do it once already.”

Blackpool and Cardiff take early leads in Championship Playoffs

Charlie Adam’s penalty on the hour mark sealed a first-leg win for Blackpool in their clash with Nottingham Forest. Chris Cohen silenced the home fans with a volley in the 13th minute. But Keith Southern brought the Tangerines level in the 26th minute before Adam’s penalty gave the home side a victory. Forest will be disappointed with giving up an early lead but are only behind a goal.

In the other semi-final Cardiff nicked a 1-0 away victory against Leicester City. Peter Whittingham broke the deadlock 13 minutes from time with a stunning long-range free kick. The Bluebirds created the majority of the chances during the match and Leicester City is lucky to only be trailing 1-0 going into Wednesday’s matchup.

Grant might stay on as manager of Portsmouth

Avram Grant has told Pompey that he would like to remain manager of the embattled club, but only if he can focus on running the team. Constant scrutiny over the clubs finances have made Grant field questions about a host of issues not related to his team’s performance.

“If I can work like a manager of football, and only a manager of football and not like this year, when I needed to be a manager of football and many, many other things,” said Grant. “I don’t know if you know. I was a financial man, I was a lawyer, I was many other things. This I will not do one season more. I don’t think it is a good idea, not for me, not for the club.”

Grant has won admiration from the southern fans by staying at a club that faces questions on whether or not it will survive.

Brown may return as Hull City manager

After being unofficially sacked and replaced by Ian Dowie earlier in the season Phil Brown is still technically the manager of Hull City. Facing a big financial payout to Brown should Hull fire him, the Tigers simply put Brown on administrative leave and brought in Ian Dowie as a “football consultant.” This means that it’s very likely that Brown could be back managing the Tigers in the Championship next season.

Brown is fueling fire to those rumors by refusing to deny them. “I just want it to be honourable. If it’s closure then give me what I’m due and appreciate what I’ve done for the club in the last three and a half years. I’ve never heard of it before [a manager returning after being removed] but nothing in football surprises me,” said Brown.

Dowie managed only one win in eight games at the helm and the Tigers were relegated to the Championship with two games to spare.

Man, it’s been quite a year for wonderful football stories this season. First, there’s Fulham who have made it to the Europa League Final. And we also have the incredible Portsmouth who have reached the FA Cup Final (to be played May 15) against Chelsea.

In honor of Portsmouth’s FA Cup final appearance, their shirt manufacturer Kappa has designed a special away shirt that the Pompey players will wear. They’ll be paying homage to their early years by incorporating the club’s original colours of burgundy and salmon pink (pictured above).

For the largest selection of Premier League shirts for all 20 clubs, visit the EPL Talk Shop.

It’s bad enough that Portsmouth supporters have had to endure a terrible season off the pitch, but now Fox Soccer Plus prevented them from watching the second half of their match against Bolton on Saturday.

Here’s what happened during the 4pm ET delayed match on Fox Soccer Plus. After showing the first half with Bolton leading Portsmouth 2-0, the customary half-time commercials and highlights were shown. And then the unthinkable happened. Instead of showing the second half of the match where Portsmouth’s Aruna Dindane pulled two goals back to level the game at 2-2, Fox Soccer Plus showed the entire first half AGAIN!

The match was then followed by a rugby game.

The snafu was noticed by Pompey fan and Fox Soccer Plus subscriber Gary Talarino who said, “As a Portsmouth fan, and with the second half comeback, I cannot even articulate how disappointed I was with this. Considering that Pompey’s going down and I might get the chance to catch 4 or 5 Portsmouth matches in the fizzy pop league next season, if I’m lucky, this is frustrating.”

Sounds like folks at Fox Soccer Plus have been watching Groundhog Day, the 1993 film starring Bill Murray where a weatherman finds himself living the same day over and over again.