After a desperately disappointing World Cup exit at the weekend, the question is where do England go now?
The whole tournament showed England to be an over hyped mediocre side set up in a way by Capello that below average sides were able to simply raise their game and get a result against them.
People have actually forgotten that before this tournament England actually failed to qualify for Euro 2008, with exactly the same squad as the current campaign. So it’s the same squad, just four years older, or as Capello whinged in his press conference, ‘four years more tired’.

There are serious issues that go deeper than just who is manager and these must be addressed if England are to have any success on the international stage.

Premier League vs Football Association

Firstly the Premier League must work closer with the FA. A winter break must be introduced to maximise tournament play. The premier league is more physical and faster than most of the European leagues and having a break would allow battered bodies time to recover fully and allow for a strong finish to a campaign.
Where are the international super stars?

This next issue is painful, but where are the next batch of world class international stars? Where is the next Alan Shearer. Where are the mesmorising Paul Gascoignes, the next fox in the box Michael Owen? Where is the next David Beckham or Paul Scholes? Opinions will vary and people will argue that Jack Rodwell, Jack Willshere, Adam Johnson, Ashley Young and a few others will fall in to that category, but seriously, are these players international quality?

This brings me on to the next issue. Whoever has the job after Fabio Capello needs to be English speaking and has the full backing of the media, the public and the club managers to play these youngsters alongside current players like Ashley Cole, Wayne Rooney and John Terry, so when the time arrives to pass on what legacy is left of the three lions, they all have enough experience at this level to go on and compete against all opposition in major tournaments, like Germany did so amazingly against England on Sunday. Remember five of the starting eleven played in the victorious Under 21 German side against England last year. James Milner was the only member of our successful set up to play on Sunday.

The issues will not be resolved overnight and the whole problem needs all the right people in all the right places to be singing off of the same sheet (preferably God Save the Queen) in order to achieve the collective glory that everyone, well almost everybody craves.

Finally who springs to mind when speaking about choosing a manager?
Who commands instant respect from the players? Who is great with the media and has seen it all before in an international career spanning 14 years .That’s right Fabio Capello’s number 2…….. David Beckham?!

Tottenham qualified for the Champions League for the first time, beating Manchester City 1-0 Wednesday night.

Peter Crouch was the goal scoring hero for Spurs as he reacted first to a save from Man City goalkeeper Marton Fulop to nod the ball into the net.

“For a club like us to break into the top four is a fantastic achievement— it’s probably one of the best nights I’ve been part of,” Crouch said. “I was in the right place at the right time. The keeper made a good save and I was in the right place just to nod it home.”

The win completed a dramatic turnaround for Spurs, who were bottom of the Premier League only 16 months ago when Harry Redknapp took over.

“It’s been a terrific season for us,” said Harry Redknapp. We picked an attacking team and took a big gamble. We were one point in front—we could have played 4-5-1 but went for it.”

With the loss, big-spending Manchester City will play in the Europa League next season along side Aston Villa and Liverpool. The loss was a bitter disappointment for the richest team in the world as questions will be asked about the future of Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini.

“I think I will stay here,” Mancini said. “I’m not a magician—I don’t have a magic wand. We tried and we worked very hard for this. I’m disappointed because we lost this game and we didn’t deserve to. We have been very unlucky in some games.”

Mancini got the City job because his predecessor Mark Hughes was fired in December when a loss to Tottenham left the owners fearful of missing out on the top four.

This is an interesting point of view on an EPL player from an EPL coach that isn’t even his own discussing another coach who didn’t sign said player.  I’m really starting to love the honesty in the ranks of Europeans Soccer coaches and everytime I see more of it I just get all jittery and excited at what they’re going to say!

On one hand it’s funny to hear coaches talking about a very good and useful Striker who has brought just about everything you could ask for to Manchester City.  Though City hasn’t had the best season Tevez has played very well, so that makes these comments even more hilarious.

“To be fair to Sir Alex, he probably thought that £45 million – or whatever the true cost for Tevez was – was a bit much, plus his wages of £180,000 a week, when he wasn’t even a regular in the United team last season, spending most of his time coming off the bench.”

“Sir Alex has spent £30 million on Berbatov and he had Rooney and, at the start of the season, he would have thought that was enough, and so would most people.”

I think that’s fair.  You don’t need to spend that much money on a bench player even if you think he might have a breakout season somewhere else.  I’m also sure that Harry Redknapp–the commenter here–is getting killed for not signing Tevez himself and he kind of needs to deflect the blame from himself and onto Tevez–for the price tag–and Fergie–for the signing–so he has an excuse to have NOT signed him.

Will this strategy work?  Nope.

Tottenham will have to do something this offseason and it probably means making a Tevez-like signing even though he doesn’t really want to.

photo credit: Alfonso Jiménez

Tottenham, Man City, Aston Villa, and Liverpool are all in a 2-point race for 4th place and Champion’s League qualifying in the EPL.  The season will be over next weekend and who will be left standing in 4th place and who will have to make a Europa League appearance next year?

If you look at just momentum and the facts of the season then you can assume that Tottenham or Aston Villa can easily take this.  Tottenham has Bolton and Burnley to close the season.  Aston Villa has Man City and Blackburn.  However, the Spurs also have to play Man City.  So, Manchester City actually holds everyone’s fate in their hands.

Getting to play two of the teams you’re fighting for a spot gives you the unique privilege of ruining two seasons if you can win both matches.  However, that means that Aston Villa and Tottenham has easier opponents otherwise–so it may backfire on the City club in their quest for 4th place.

Left out of that equation is Liverpool.  They’ve been up and down all year.  I’ve praised Rafa and I’m scolded him in this space.  Sometimes they look good and other times they look positively dreadful.

They have Chelsea and Hull to end the season.  I think it’s a pretty safe bet that Chelsea is not giving that match away and Liverpool can beat Hull, but that won’t be enough.

Liverpool ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong number of points.  Man City holds their fate in their hands, but they have too much to do. 

Tottenham and Aston Villa will duke it out and in the end it will prob be Tottenham.  They’ve stood higher on the table this season and carried more momentum through the season.  Aston Villa was good, but they’ve faded significantly–they just can’t keep up.

I hope the Spurs enjoy the Champs League next year.

photo credit: OliverN5

Manchester City will face Tottenham, the New York Red Bulls and Sporting Lisbon on their pre-season tour of the United States.

The club today confirmed they will play in the inaugural New York Football Challenge, a tournament hosted by New York at their new Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey from July 22-25.

“The New York Football Challenge 2010 is an important one for us,” said City manager Roberto Mancini. “We have big ambitions for the Premier League next season and this tournament will give us the perfect opportunity to prepare for our season with some highly competitive games, enthusiastic supporters and world-class facilities. It will be fantastic for us to visit the United States, and especially for us to visit New York during our tour of the east coast.”

New York Football Challenge Schedule

Day 1: Thursday, July 22: Red Bulls vs. Tottenham Hotspur – 8:00 PM – Buy NYRB v Spurs Tickets
Day 2: Friday, July 23: Manchester City vs. Sporting Lisbon – 8:00 PM – Buy Man City v Sporting Lisbon Tickets
Day 3: Sunday, July 25: Tottenham Hotspur vs. Sporting Lisbon – 1:00 PM and Red Bulls vs. Manchester City – 3:30 PM (one ticket for both matches) – Buy New York Football Challenge Tickets

With Manchester City’s win last night the race for fourth in the Premier League looks like this:

4. Spurs P:31 Pts:58
5. Man City P:Pts:56
6: Liverpool P:32 Pts: 54

The run-in for Spurs, Man City and Liverpool looks like this:

Tottenham
Sunderland (A)
Arsenal (H)
Chelsea (H)
Man Utd (A)
Bolton (H)
Man City (A)
Burnley (A)

Man City
Burnley (A)
Birmingham (H)
Man Utd (H)
Arsenal (A)
Aston Villa (H)
Spurs (H)
West Ham (A)

Liverpool
Birmingham (A)
Fulham (H)
West Ham (H)
Burnley (A)
Chelsea (H)
Hull (A)

Liverpool have the easiest run of the three teams. Birmingham away and Chelsea at home are their only difficult games. It is not hard to imagine Liverpool picking up 14 to 16 points from these six games. The 14 points would put them at 68 while the 16 points would put them at 70 points.

Spurs have by far the toughest schedule with games in succession against Arsenal, Chelsea and Man United, all coming on the heels of an FA Cup semi-final game. But even if they lose all three of those games, wins in the remaining four games will give them 72 points for the season, two ahead of Liverpool.

For Manchester City, the big game left is the one against Spurs on Wednesday 5 May. They can afford to lose at Man United and Arsenal, and if they win all their remaining games, including Spurs at home they would get 71 points and finish fourth.

I cannot see any way that Liverpool finish fourth. The gap is too big and with playing one game less than Man City and Spurs the math doesn’t add up. So it comes down to Spurs and Manchester City and the game on May 5th. Winner plays in the Champions League next season. Loser plays in the Europa League.

Who do you think will get 4th place?

There have been rumblings for several months now that Manchester United will once again tour the U.S. this summer. Soccer By Ives and Sports Business Journal both report that Manchester United are close to agreeing to a four game summer North American tour.

During the tour United would headline the MLS All-Star Game at Houston’s Reliant Stadium which will be played either July 29 or Aug. 5 according to the Houston Chronicle.

Because the deal is not complete, a person with knowledge of the talks confirmed the negotiations only on condition of anonymity.

“We remain in discussions to bring a world-class opponent to Houston to take on the MLS All-Stars,” said Dan Courtemanche, the vice president of communications for MLS and SUM. “We have not finalized an agreement yet. We just haven’t.”

In addition to the All-Star game, Man United are also expected to play three other games in North America; in Boston, Philadelphia and Toronto.

With the World Cup final on July 12th, a North Amercia tour in early August would mean that stars like Wayne Rooney and Nani would have started back in training after the World Cup and would be part of the tour.

As with last summer, Manchester United will not be the only big name team touring the U.S. this summer. Tottenham Hotspur, which sits fourth in the Premier League table, and Manchester City, who are fifth are both planning to tour the U.S. this summer and one of them may be chosen to play the MLS All-Stars if negotiations with Manchester United unravel.

In addition Chivas de Guadalajara and Club America of the Mexican first division also plan to tour the U.S. again this summer

Liverpool got their challenge for a Champions League place back on track with a deserved 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield.

With Fernando Torres injured, Dirk Kuyt took over the goal scoring duties for Liverpool, scoring in the sixth minute and then wrapping things up with a penalty in stoppage time.

The result moves Liverpool up to sixth, just a point behind Spurs, who remain fourth.

This was one of Liverpool’s better performances this season and the score could have been much higher as both Kuyt and Sotirios Kyrgiakos both missed great chances to finish off Spurs early in the game.

For all the ups and down Liverpool have faced this season, that they are still so close to that final Champions League place shows how average the Premier League is this year. Other than the top three teams, none of the other chases have the quality and consistency to pull away from everyone else. If Liverpool can stay within 3 or 4 points of that final place while Gerrard and Torres get fit, is their anyone who doesn’t think that when the season is over, that it will be the “Big Four” who are once again occupying those top four places.

photo credit: wonker

With Chelsea “accepting” a draw with Fulham and ManU getting blasted by West Ham I have 3 questions to ask (and yes, this goes back to the “picking the wrong team to crumble thing”.)

1.  What does it say about the 2 best teams in the Premier League that they took a draw to a team that is pretty close to being relegated and losing (badly) to a team that will most likely be relegated?

Well, what it says is that neither Chelsea nor ManU is mentally prepared to complete the season in the manner in which they started it.  This also means that they will have issues STARTING the postseason…not finishing.  They’ll both probably have pretty bad opening matches (that they’ll end up winning anyways) and then one of them will get hot and take the whole thing.  Who will that be?  Probably Chelsea.  Why?  John Terry is their captain.  I bet he’ll keep saying to his club “We’re going to get to 90 points if it kills me!” 
(and you know what?  They’ll believe him!)  I don’t think ManU has a player like that…sorry boys.

2.  What does it say about the chances that Aston Villa, Arsenal and Tottenham have?

Well, it tells me that these clubs are fighting for 2nd place.  Since I’m taking Chelsea to make it to the final match and discounting ManU then one of these 3 “stragglers” is going to be hoping they don’t get destroyed by Chelsea in the Final.  I’ve seen them all play and right now I’d take Aston Villa because they’re so tenacious…but that’s just me.

3.  How in the world did ManU lose to West Ham?  (a team that might be most famous because Russell Peters likes them.)

Lack of leadership…the same reason they’ll crap out before the final.  Sorry again boys, but you don’t have John Terry standing up and saying “We will make it to 90 points.”  Teams in England need a “mouth” and there really isn’t a “mouth” for ManU…not a good one anyways.

PS – I don’t care about the drama with the penalties in Chelsea’s draw.  We know the officials are pretty bad, but teams like Chelsea should still win those matches if they want to get to 90 points…

photo credit: wonker

There’s something about a 3-0 win for Fulham over Manchester United that just rubs me the wrong way.  Long ago I predicted that Real Madrid would be the “Super Club” to fall apart at the seams (and though I’m still waiting for that prediction to come true) I’m starting to wonder if I chose the wrong club.  ManU is right there with Chelsea at the top of the Premier League table and they just gave away points to a team that really shouldn’t even be on the same field as them.  Fulham is only 10 points away from being relegated and now they beat the defending Champions 3-0?

ManU is in the unique position where they can’t lose everything right now but they can get far enough behind that they will seriously impact their chances of catching back up to Chelsea.  Given Chelsea’s confidence in their ability to get to 90 points then ManU needs to get it in gear before they fall into a hole that gets too big to climb out of.  (Granted, right now that hole isn’t that deep, but it could EASILY get that deep if they keep stinking up the joint the way they did against Fulham.

Menawhile, Arsenal, Tottenham, and Aston Villa are holding steady in the Top 5 of the table.  If you asked me I’d say that those teams aren’t going anywhere because they held fast in their slots while Man City faded.  Clearly, Man City’s early season success was a fluke because they just dropped another match AND fired their manager.  That’s pretty big stuff for the middle of December.

Now, because ManU gave up a bad loss and 3 other teams in the Top 5 are hanging in with them the boys in red need to decide if they want to be in 2nd or 5th because from where I’m standing their going to be in one position or the other.  2nd place if they rebound from the Fulham loss and find themselves and 5th place if they lose another bad one and let Aston Villa, Tottenham, and Arsenal get comfortable.

The last team in the League that should be showing blood is the defending champs…that gives the other clubs hope…hope they shouldn’t get until ManU loses in the postseason…