What you missed while getting wasted off bread…
- Yesterday’s Premier League roundup: Newcastle 6-0 Aston Villa, Fulham 2-2 Manchester United.
- Joey Barton’s Nazi-esque salute was apparently just a reference to the fact that he was shaving off his Hitler-esque moustache.
- As if losing to Newcastle wasn’t enough, Aston Villa may soon have to endure the wily management stylings of Bob Bradley. This is kind of a repeat from two weeks ago.
- David Stockdale’s penalty save and Brede Hangeland’s header earned Fulham a point in a well-played match against Manchester United.
- Sir Alex Ferguson will face a series of escalating fines if he continues his boycott of the BBC.
- Ajax are mad at Manchester United for snagging academy starlet Gyliano van Velzen without paying compensation.
- PSV Eindhoven have saved Liverpool the embarassment of buying another Eredivisie striker only to see him underperform; or, if you prefer, they’ve rejected a bid for Ola Toivonen.
- Alberto Aquilani has moved to Juventus on a season long loan.
- William “Benedict” Gallas is the first player to play for Chelsea, Arsenal, and Spurs.
- Spain’s FA has decided that they aren’t all that interested in probing matchfixing.
- MLS roundup: San Jose 1-0 Los Angeles, Toronto 1-4 New York, Columbus 3-1 Colorado, FC Dallas 1-0 Chivas USA, Kansas City 4-1 New England, Houston 4-3 Chicago, DC United 2-0 Philadelphia.
Advertisement
Barton is without a doubt a good player. He’s also dumber than a box of rocks. I have a feeling that Newcastle would be safer if they had a hidden electro-shock system and every time he was starting to dumb up: Zap. Controversy dead instantly.
Fulham/Man U was the game of the weekend for me. To see the same guy who gave up the OG then go spot the winner? Priceless.
It’s never fun when your player crosses over to the rival, but as many said: It’s a business. Obviously, the rival club doesn’t have an issue with taking those players on board. If you like London, you have X choices to play there. If you like Glasgow, you have 2 major clubs there and so on. Besides that, Gallas at this stage of his career is still worth a season or two more.
The Spain decision was a curious one. I really wonder if the government stepped in quietly to say, “don’t embarrass us” or “we’ll sort this out on the down low”. If not, I wonder if they didn’t want to find what they knew was there.
Other random things from the weekend: Chelsea, scary. Arsenal, woken up. West Ham, another one of those season. Hamilton Accies – what the hell is going on over there?
While the Everton-Wolves game was also a pretty good match (thanks in part to Lee Mason’s generally awful officiating), I’d have to agree: Fulham-Manchester United was the match of the weekend.
I find myself really nonplussed by Chelsea and Arsenal’s wins; they both put six past teams that, frankly, they completely outclass in every category. That’s not interesting, exciting, or really even predictive of the season; Chelsea SHOULD lay six on West Brom/Wigan, and Arsenal SHOULD lay six on a ten-man Blackpool side. Those games aren’t interesting unless the big sides falter; I’m not gonna watch just to see if the whipping boy can pull one back five minutes from time. Chelsea’s pretty much the least interesting team in the world until the middle of September when they play Man City.
After what City did to Pool today in terms of scoreline and just frustrating the hell out of them, I can’t wait for City v Chelsea. Let the amarillas fly.
The Hamilton situation is simple: the core of last year’s team is gone- MacArthur to Wigan having the biggest impact. Clubs like the Accies have always been and will always be “sellers” (it’s how they stay solvent) and in this case they just lost a bunch of talent at once rather than over the course of two or three years. It’s early days, but I think they are going to have a hard time…wait for it…avoiding the drop.
I like Hamilton. Were I not a Celtic fan, that would be my club. I don’t want to see them drop out, but the economics of the game are ridiculous. Scottish football is in deep shit financially. You get to the prem, money wavers, you have to balance the books, and out go the talent to keep you up. It’s the same story all over though, but the SPL seems to bleed talent. Hell, Middlesborough might as well be the SPL all stars. And the Old Firm aren’t immune, we’re losing money and Rangers are in fairly shit shape. Makes you wonder when the Old Firm to English League bullshit will start up again.
Hopefully the SPL, and Scottish football in general, will get its act together before there is an outright catastrophe- but I’m not going to hold my breath. The only financial model I’ve seen so far that is working is the one that Ross County and a few other sides have developed: throw what money you do have into developing youth players, get 3-5 first team seasons out of them before moving them on, and supplement the team with smart transfers (guys who have crashed out of the SPL and need a couple of seasons to prove themselves so they can get back into it and internationals from countries even smaller than Scotland- Northern Ireland and the Faroe Islands being the relevant cases at the moment).
You’re right about Middlesborough. Strachan and a few others have realized that they can get quality players at cut rate prices. Non-SPL players are even finding that they can make BETTER money in Leagues One and Two (and even with some of the bigger “Conference” teams) than if they stay in Scottish football.
Luckily, the McLeish Report is going to fix everything.
My internet cut out in about the 75th minute yesterday during Fulham-ManU. Of course it came back on about 5 minutes after time.
I suppose that’s for the best. I probably would have scared the dog yelling at Hageland, then for him.
My DVR of Everton-Wolves did the same thing at about the same time; it only lasted two minutes, but those two minutes contained the Ebanks-Blake goal. I didn’t see it until the EPL review yesterday.