I’ve always taken a sadistic pleasure in knocking the SPL ever since I met Jonathan, who has the pleasure of supporting Glasgow Celtic. Celtic are a team rich in tradition and history but also a team, in recent times, rich in the embarrassments and miseries that fuel the banter of football fans around the world. Telfer, Dublin and Virgo, Doctor Jo and Jon Barnes, the night that saw, “Super Cally go ballistic,,” have presented me with enough ammunition to survive at least 5 relegations in my eyes. Maybe six if I’m lucky.......
To put it another way, I held the SPL in a very low light but was willing to sample it firsthand recently in a trip to the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, to see if my short sighted opinion was in any way truthful.
With both alternative solutions, Hibs and Dundee United, playing away from home it was the Jam Tarts of Hearts that got the nod for my first Scottish football experience. Things did not start well with the far from enjoyable 35 minute queue to get tickets. For some reason I thought we would be presented with the familiar turnstiles of my youth but was dismayed by the snaking line coming from the ticket office. Bad times indeed.
Once in Tynecastle though I noticed how intimate the stadium was and how close we were to the action. We had somehow managed to get tickets in the singing section of the stadium and found ourselves smiling as the Hearts faithful belted out hit after hit during the match.
The match itself was a shocker in many respects. Hearts were clearly the better of their opponents, St Mirren, even before the sending off of Spaniard Tonet. Hearts had so much of the ball but failed to create any clear cut chances or use the ball effectively. To be honest some of the passing was poor but the crowd seemed far from annoyed with this, almost as if it was part and parcel of the game and was to be expected. It took a moment of speculative magic from the young striker Mole to give us and the Hearts fans the deserved reward for a first half full of energy and commitment but lacking in genuine quality.
The second half saw Hearts nearly throw away the game to their opponents, even letting them back into a match that by all rights should have been dead and buried by 60 minutes. St Mirren grabbed a scrappy equaliser but eventually Hearts possession paid off and two penalties, with one scored, giving the home team a thoroughly deserved win.
The football was far from magic at times but was played with passion, commitment and fairness, qualities often missing from the spectacle that is the English Premier League. I would definitely go again, but maybe not for £24!
Sunday 31 August 2008
Tuesday 12 August 2008
Has the Premiership lost its spark?
Has the Premiership lost its spark?
We are but days away from the opening fixtures of 2008-2009 Premier League and I guess I should be stupidly excited about the new season by now. My team, Portsmouth, have just had their best ever season, having finished 8th and won the FA Cup, a feat no Portsmouth fan would have ever given any realistic thought too, not even after a heavy nights worth of drinking. Everything should be rosy in theory, we’ve just bought a new 11miliion striker and are playing in Europe for the first time ever, it should be the stuff of dreams but I find myself becoming more and more disillusioned about the upcoming season.
Looking at the league it is highly unlikely Portsmouth will ever finish any higher than 8th and the best we could ever dream of is 5th. The harsh truth is we can never win the league, we will never come close. Back before the days of Sky Sports and Andy Gray a good manager could put together a team and try and aim for the stars. Look what Brian Clough did at Forest and Derby County.
Clough took two teams going nowhere fast and made them into league champions and in Forests case, European Champions. Clough had money to spend but not the bottomless pits that are in existence today and had to be clever with who he bought. It was the astute nature of his signings, plus his beliefs on the way the game should be played and his tactically nous, that helped bring him his success. The stark reality of today is this will never happen again in Britain unless Roman Abramivoch fancies a challenge and throws all his money at a team of no hopers or renames them Harchester United......
The fact Portsmouth can’t win the Premier League is made worse by the fact that they won’t. I’m not a glory hound looking to bask in the pleasures of victory, far from it, and I’m not saying winning is the be all and end all, but the fact we compete, and I use that term very loosely, in a league which has been monopolised by four teams since the mid 90’s, has rendered the premier league far from competitive.
The likes of Portsmouth, Villa, Everton, Man City and Tottenham are stuck at a crossroads of where to go from here. If they want to even vaguely challenge the status quo they need to spend big to attract the type of players to do so. But in doing so they put themselves in danger, buying over inflated and over priced players commanding excessive salaries. These salaries can only really be paid if the clubs are pulling in the gates and rewards of competing in the Champions League and even the UEFA cup. Look at Leeds United. They saw the dream and they chased it but when it went wrong the effects where catastrophic and now the club is spending its second season in league 1.
The trouble is that the big four will keep on getting the best talent from home and abroad as they have the big money and the big reputations. Liverpool won nothing last season, did not even come close, but can still attract a Robbie Keane for £20million. The big clubs have the big money, generated from the cash cow of the Champions league which they have all been regularly attending since the turn of the millennium. This money gives them a huge financial advantage over the rest of the league and one that I can never see being over turned.
The future? The rich get richer and the rest fight amongst themselves for a chance to go into the intertoto cup. All that can happen is that the 2nd tier of Premier League teams becomes solidified, making the league even more stagnant. I’m sure that fans of Rotherham, Bournemouth and Luton, teams who are staring into the mouth of oblivion and face an uphill struggle to stay in the football league would undoubtedly swap positions with Portsmouth but the reality of it is at least they have something realistically to aim for and achieve this year. Finishing 6th does not press the right buttons for me.
We are but days away from the opening fixtures of 2008-2009 Premier League and I guess I should be stupidly excited about the new season by now. My team, Portsmouth, have just had their best ever season, having finished 8th and won the FA Cup, a feat no Portsmouth fan would have ever given any realistic thought too, not even after a heavy nights worth of drinking. Everything should be rosy in theory, we’ve just bought a new 11miliion striker and are playing in Europe for the first time ever, it should be the stuff of dreams but I find myself becoming more and more disillusioned about the upcoming season.
Looking at the league it is highly unlikely Portsmouth will ever finish any higher than 8th and the best we could ever dream of is 5th. The harsh truth is we can never win the league, we will never come close. Back before the days of Sky Sports and Andy Gray a good manager could put together a team and try and aim for the stars. Look what Brian Clough did at Forest and Derby County.
Clough took two teams going nowhere fast and made them into league champions and in Forests case, European Champions. Clough had money to spend but not the bottomless pits that are in existence today and had to be clever with who he bought. It was the astute nature of his signings, plus his beliefs on the way the game should be played and his tactically nous, that helped bring him his success. The stark reality of today is this will never happen again in Britain unless Roman Abramivoch fancies a challenge and throws all his money at a team of no hopers or renames them Harchester United......
The fact Portsmouth can’t win the Premier League is made worse by the fact that they won’t. I’m not a glory hound looking to bask in the pleasures of victory, far from it, and I’m not saying winning is the be all and end all, but the fact we compete, and I use that term very loosely, in a league which has been monopolised by four teams since the mid 90’s, has rendered the premier league far from competitive.
The likes of Portsmouth, Villa, Everton, Man City and Tottenham are stuck at a crossroads of where to go from here. If they want to even vaguely challenge the status quo they need to spend big to attract the type of players to do so. But in doing so they put themselves in danger, buying over inflated and over priced players commanding excessive salaries. These salaries can only really be paid if the clubs are pulling in the gates and rewards of competing in the Champions League and even the UEFA cup. Look at Leeds United. They saw the dream and they chased it but when it went wrong the effects where catastrophic and now the club is spending its second season in league 1.
The trouble is that the big four will keep on getting the best talent from home and abroad as they have the big money and the big reputations. Liverpool won nothing last season, did not even come close, but can still attract a Robbie Keane for £20million. The big clubs have the big money, generated from the cash cow of the Champions league which they have all been regularly attending since the turn of the millennium. This money gives them a huge financial advantage over the rest of the league and one that I can never see being over turned.
The future? The rich get richer and the rest fight amongst themselves for a chance to go into the intertoto cup. All that can happen is that the 2nd tier of Premier League teams becomes solidified, making the league even more stagnant. I’m sure that fans of Rotherham, Bournemouth and Luton, teams who are staring into the mouth of oblivion and face an uphill struggle to stay in the football league would undoubtedly swap positions with Portsmouth but the reality of it is at least they have something realistically to aim for and achieve this year. Finishing 6th does not press the right buttons for me.
Sunday 10 August 2008
Portsmouth V Manchester United Preview
Portsmouth V Manchester United Preview
Out of all the glorified pre-season competitions in the summer this is the one that probably captures the average football fans interest. The traditional curtain raiser between the league champions and the FA Cup winners has lately become a game of chess between the big four, with teams unwilling to lose kudos and the psychological blow of losing to one of their major rivals before the season starts. Thus we have seen dull encounter after dull encounter as the big four dance the dull dance of not wanting to lose. Not since 1996 (Manchester United V Newcastle United ) has there been a team outside of the top four in this curtain raiser. All eyes are on Portsmouth and United to put on a game that reignites are interest in the Premier League once more.
Portsmouth should hopefully make a game of it and much will be expected from the Defoe-Crouch partnership in their first official game together for the club. If this little and large partnership hit the ground running then United might just find themselves in a game. I’m hoping that Harry Redknapp puts out a team to have a go and not just enjoy a nice day out in the sunshine. If Portsmouth play then it will bring the best out of United and they’ll push themselves that bit extra to avoid losing a game they’re very much expected to win. Let’s hope we have goals as at the end of the day, goals win games and I do love goals, lots of them.
Prediction – Portsmouth 3 – United 2
Out of all the glorified pre-season competitions in the summer this is the one that probably captures the average football fans interest. The traditional curtain raiser between the league champions and the FA Cup winners has lately become a game of chess between the big four, with teams unwilling to lose kudos and the psychological blow of losing to one of their major rivals before the season starts. Thus we have seen dull encounter after dull encounter as the big four dance the dull dance of not wanting to lose. Not since 1996 (Manchester United V Newcastle United ) has there been a team outside of the top four in this curtain raiser. All eyes are on Portsmouth and United to put on a game that reignites are interest in the Premier League once more.
Portsmouth should hopefully make a game of it and much will be expected from the Defoe-Crouch partnership in their first official game together for the club. If this little and large partnership hit the ground running then United might just find themselves in a game. I’m hoping that Harry Redknapp puts out a team to have a go and not just enjoy a nice day out in the sunshine. If Portsmouth play then it will bring the best out of United and they’ll push themselves that bit extra to avoid losing a game they’re very much expected to win. Let’s hope we have goals as at the end of the day, goals win games and I do love goals, lots of them.
Prediction – Portsmouth 3 – United 2
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