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@Kanjiman >>>But knowing Abramovich he may just sack him anyway :(.
Yeh I have the same feeling.
@vanandrew >>I’m for Arsenal too.
They played really well (mostly) the second half of the season, tons of goals. Were great to watch. Chamberlain is going to be a beast.
@ andrew
I agree with your logic about two teams playing each other that you don’t support. The early 2000′s were great seasons. Not just as an Arsenal fan, but it seemed more equal back then. I do feel money is sadly dominating where players play and who finishes in the top 4 each season nowadays. Liverpool need to get rid of Dalglish asap. I thought Rafa was bad in his final season but Kenny takes the crown. But whoever gets the job at Liverpool will have to deal with the fans moaning. So true about Newcastle and Liverpool switching positions.@ Chris
Sadly, that’s Abramovich’s mentality. He has unlimited money and can do what he wants. When the team fails, his first action is to sack and replace the manager. Still think Ancelotti shouldn’t of been sacked. AVB would of come good eventually, he just needed time. His downfall was trying to make too many changes at once, especially with the senior members of the squad. Can’t fault his commitment and dedication though. He was the first to arrive at training and the last to leave. He’d spend hours watching matches on DVD and compiling data on stats.Chamberlain is a great prospect. He should make the squad for Euro 2012. Looking forward to him and Ryo Miyaichi playing on the flanks next season. I do hope we can keep hold of RVP and he resists any offers from City or Barca.
@ Chris – Agree on the Ox, he seemed to play with maturity beyond his age this season. Hopefully he plays more next season.
@Kanjiman – RVP has to stay! He’s been at Arsenal for so long now, if he threw that away to go to City for money & not play less would be a tragedy. Mr Tintin is better than that!
Sadly, you’re right money has ruined it to a large extent. I’m a lot less passionate about football than I used to be. It’s slowly gotten worse – the mid-2000s was end for me. Too much money, commercialism, short-sightedness, hype, celebrity and very impersonal. For me one of the aspects that got me in was the connection with the community the clubs had, with small stadiums in the area they’re from (e.g. Highbury) now it’s all mega-stadiums (e.g. “Emirates” – urgh, even the name is tainted).
@ andrew
I don’t think money will be the biggest factor if Van Perise stays or not. He wants to win trophies and sadly Arsenal haven’t won anything since 2005. If he leaves and that is his reason, there’s not too many people who could argue against that. If he does go then I hope it’s abroad and not another team in England as that wouldn’t feel as big as a blow. What’s positive about him staying is he and his family are settled in London and he genuinely does love playing for the club. Different to Nasri who was originally going to go go Man Utd but then signed for City as they offered him a bigger wage.I’m with you fully on the money topic. I’m also less passionate about football than I used to be. The astronomical transfer fees and wages has ruined the game to an extent. More and more players are getting greedy and have too much power over their contracts. Seems every team has a rich owner now and they just spend, spend, spend to get the best players. Smaller clubs don’t have a chance of winning anything these days due to the bigger clubs throwing money around and snatching their talent. Aside from Barcelona, any team that develops their own players will usually end up selling either as the player wants to go or for financial reasons.
I was sad to see Arsenal leave Highbury but understand the reasons why. The Emirates while bigger and modern, lacks that atmosphere that Highbury had.
My local team (Exeter City) just got relegated back into League 2, so sad times here. On the plus side, Daglish looks like he’s set to stay on for another hilarious season. As far as the Premier League goes, I’m pretty neutral, but you’ve gotta love to hate some teams. ;)
I noticed you said you’re interested in J-League in the first post. I’ve been wanting to get into it for a while, but can’t really find where I can get information on it. Any chance you could give me some links?
@ Nick
Darn, that sucks Exeter got relegated. Good luck for promotion next season. Dalglish has just been sacked. Not surprising considering their poor season. He was always miserable in interviews too. Will be interesting to see who Liverpool appoint now. As far as teams that I dislike, as an Arsenal fan, naturally first will be Tottenham. Then, I’d say Man Utd and Liverpool.Regarding the J-League, my Japanese friend who lives in Saitama and is a Urawa Reds Diamond/Urawa Reds fan, keeps me updated on what’s going on. On Sky they sometimes have a football Asia program which I watch if it’s on. I look at the official J-League site http://www.j-league.or.jp/eng/ to read up news too. Once my Japanese ability is alot better, I’ll watch some live matches and read the J-League website in Japanese :)
Check out this goal, the Nagoya Grampus manager scored http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWw62NTi9aM. It’s incredible technique. He played under Arsene Wenger when Wenger was Nagoya manager back in the 90′s.
Thanks for the info kanjiman. What a goal by the manager! Would even make Papiss Cisse blush.
I just saw the news about Daglish leaving myself. I guess I spoke too soon. He always looked like he wanted to deck the interviewer whenever I saw him on TV. I really hope they don’t take Martinez, Lambert or Rogders like I’ve seen some Liverpool fans suggesting; I like those guys.
Your welcome. Haha, yeah that goal would give Papiss Cisse a run for his money. Think most Liverpool fans wanted Dalglish to stay just because of his stature at the club, which is ridiculous as he’s doing more harm than good. Legendary player for the club but he should just accept he can’t take them further and should go back to an ambassador role.
I also hope they don’t go for Martinez, Lambert and Rodgers as they will no doubt be under immense pressure and end up being sacked. Liverpool should go for someone proven. One of those three you mentioned should get the Aston Villa job.
>>>smaller clubs don’t have a chance of winning anything these days due to the bigger clubs throwing money around and snatching their talent.
I disagree on this sentiment a bit. As in, this has always been the case. The top flight in England has been extremely predictable for many years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_League#.22Big_Four.22_dominance
I get that people are upset that it seems money is ruling these days, but that has been the case for a while. The richest teams at the time (the big four, who have the biggest brands, win the most things etc.) got the best players. Now the money issue is just way more out in the open, now teams that didn’t have the players to beat the bigger teams, can afford to buy them (Man. City).
The big four don’t have a strangle hold on all the available money anymore, because now the money is coming out of the east, and going towards any random team that catches their fancy.
You still can’t buy a trophy, just because you have money doesn’t mean you’ll get the correct players or manager or have cohesion/will to win in your team (Oh Chelsea). It just affords previously lesser teams the opportunity to do better.
When these UEFA Fair Play rules come into effect, we’ll see if clubs start to spend less and cut the wage bill. While you do have a point about the traditional top 4 having all the success prior to Man City and their rich owners, you can’t help but feel that without all that money, they would still be the mediocre club sitting in Man Utd’s shadow.
It’s not just in England where this is the case. In Scotland, it’s either Rangers or Celtic who win the SPL. In Spain, it’s either Barca or Real Madrid who finish in the top two. Serie A has been quite interesting surprisingly. Usually people groan and say it’s boring, but with Juventus winning the league again and the top 4 positions changing each season, it might reach the heights it did in the 90s.
I’d like to see players playing for a club because they’re passionate about the club, e.g. Tony Adams at Arsenal, Paolo Maldini at AC Milan, and not just because they get a couple more zeros added to their weekly wage.
>>I’d like to see players playing for a club because they’re passionate about the club
I agree, but the world as a whole isn’t really like that anymore, sadly. I have to hand the NBA some credit (maybe there are other sports that do it) for having wage caps.
>>It’s not just in England where this is the case.
Agreed, it’s an inherent problem of the system. The people at the top make the most money, the more money you make, the better players you get, the better you play, the more money you make. It’s almost a closed loop, which is why personally I don’t have a problem with mediocre Man. City being bought and turned into a good team.
I understand why people don’t like it, but it has made this season MUCH more interesting. The stale top flight was turned in to a fight down to the last match (and last minute), it was epic. If money pays for more teams to get into the scrap then it’s fine by me.
@Chris – I agree money has always been an issue (going back 100 years), but I feel that it’s got to some sort of tipping point now, where it has a much larger negative impact & poorer clubs have much less chance of succeeding than they once did.
The influence of the G14 is largely to blame.
@kanjiman – that’s kinda of the problem, it’s harder to think of players like Adams, Maldini etc in the current game.
How to solve the money problem is hard, hopefully the new UEFA rules do it. I’m not convinced drafts and salary caps are the answer though. You end up with leagues where everybody gets to be a winner if you wait for your turn, which lacks a sense of achievement.
Club football *snore*
I do look forward to Germany annihilating everyone else at the Euros though. ;)
@yggbert – Indeed Germany will kick ‘em all! They did so well at the last tournament, & this time they’ll have the young Dortmund players coming through too. Exciting!
I agree that long gone are the days of players like Adams and Maldini. John Terry will probably be one of last few to be a one man club. Signing a player should be more about that clubs history and success, rather than the wage they can offer.
I think there should be a gap between teams but it shouldn’t be so big. For example, in Spain, Real and Barca get alot more TV money than the other clubs do. This naturally gives them more money to spend in transfers. While that’s not the case in England, seems every club has a billionaiore now willing to throw around unlimited amounts of cash and not care if they make it back or not.
I can’t see a draft working and that would be really bad. Imagine Messi joining Norwich or Stoke lol. Just wouldn’t work. A salary and transfer cap seems like a good idea though.
Aside from it being a tad unfair for competing for trophies, you also have to be concerned about each clubs long term future. Rangers and Portsmouth are both in administration, and in Portsmouth’s case for the second time in three years. No one wants to see a club go out of business, but it’s happening because of money. These billionaires, could in theory just pack up shop and leave the club they own in dire financial trouble and not care one bit. So some rules have to be put in place to make sure that won’t happen.
As for the euros, I think Germany have a great chance of winning but they will need to beat Spain who have beaten them at the last Euros and World Cup. When it comes to International football, I’m neutral and prefer it that way. Saying that, I do wish an Asian team win the World Cup one day. Be it Japan, South Korea, China or Australia (who come under the Asian Football Confederation now).
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