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Last night on Sky Sports News Paul Merson called United’s performance against Portsmouth on Monday ‘different class’, everyone else in studio agreed and proceeded to wax lyrical about how great they were.
Now, I am a Liverpool fan and as such have a general hatred for all things Manchester red, but I believe I’ve reached an age where, apart from during a match when I’m filled with rage and hatred and bile and shameful thoughts of broken spines and permanent blindness, I can give credit where it’s due.

Deserving champions, it’s not nice but yes I think so.

On Monday I thought they were average. I thought it was a typical early season performance, a game they won but could just as easily have drawn or lost.
Different class? Certainly not.

Am I mad?
Are all pundits morons?
Do Sky have an agenda?

Michael Dawson is one of the worst centre-halves I have ever seen. If you could win medals for shirt pulling he’d be a fucking champion but someone needs to explain to him what defending is about.

Spurs are a team built for La Liga. Go past the centre-halves and there is no physical presence. The midfield is tiny, technically very good, but tiny. They’re going to struggle unless they beef up that area with a signing.

Boos for Adebayor and Berbatov from Arsenal and Spurs fans show, perhaps, that fans patience with greedy players is wearing thin. It’s very uncommon to hear players so roundly booed by their own fans as those two were yesterday. Interesting.

Boro looked good. Stoke are going down. Hull had a great win and if they play with that kind of spirit who knows?

Arsenal desperately need a central midfield player. Although he did well enough the fact that Emmanuel Eboue is playing there for a team that wants to win the title tells its own story. West Brom did well at the Emirates, I think they showed enough to suggest they won’t go down too easy.

Torres made the difference again for Liverpool who still look very poor in the wide areas. Sunderland look a better side than last season and passed it around very nicely at times. They have a bit more craft in midfield now and that will help them, I think.

Everton must buy. They need to strengthen but they shot themselves in the foot yesterday. Poor defending by Lescott for Blackburn’s second and ball-watching for the winner which came when Yakubu gave away a stupid free kick. Blackburn were better than I thought they’d be.

It’s great to have it back though. So much to talk about. Thoughts on day 2 tomorrow.

I’m tremendously excited about this new season.

Even though we had the European Championships, this off season seems to have taken so long it’s almost rude. Maybe it’s been the relatively quiet transfer market (in terms of big name players at least)

My best guess is that the title race will be between Chelsea and Man United, although much was made of Portugal’s defensive frailties from set pieces under Scolari, and how will United get on while Ronaldo is out injured?

After Wednesdays performance against Standard Liege, is this really the season Liverpool mount a serious title challenge? Also, I’m guessing Liverpool’s European away kit was already designed prior to the purchase of Robbie Keane, someone should have warned Rafa he’s not the same player when he wears green.

Arsenal’s squad looks thin, they all said that last year and despite leading for a long time and being highly entertaining it ultimately proved correct. Squad looks even thinner this time though…..worried Arsefans?
Spurs will be fun I think, not sure in what way but fun nonetheless.

Questions:

Can any of the promoted teams survive? Come on you Tigers!
Will Sunderland’s expensively experienced mediocrity based approach to transfers bear fruit?
How is Deco going to enjoy being kicked around the park?
How could Setanta hire Clive Tyldesley? Really.
Will Everton sign anyone?
Paul Ince !?!?
Can Man City entertain us again?
Will Portsmouth miss Muntari as much as I think they will?

Think that’s all for now.

A few things have caught my eye in the first week or so.

1) Free kicks - how many from outside the box have been on target? Not many! I hate to say it, but I think the ball plays a part in this. It looks like the one I bought in 1982 from a newsagent.
2) Diving - Jesus, how many times are people going to get away with this? Refs were told to clamp down on it, as with the shirt pulling, yet it just goes on and on.
3) Defending - I think the team that wins this tournament will be the one with the best defence; so far, I reckon that’s Holland. My initial prediction has gone out the window, with the French back four looking like they met in the tunnel just before the game.
4) Coverage - ITV’s is crap. Radio Five’s has been crap on occasion too. Steve McLaren for fuck’s sake.
5) Best player - Wesley Sneijder for me.
6) Worst player - apart from Thuram has to be Wasilewski for Poland who gave away the penalty in the Austria game. He’s terrible.
7) The hosts - if it hadn’t been held in those two countries, I can’t see how they would have qualified.
The holders - glad they’re out, they were pants too.
9) It’s not over yet - despite Spain’s outstanding display in the first game, they struggled to break down a well-organised if not very creative Sweden team. Germany look good going forward but suspect in the middle of the back four. Italy are spawny bastards and could still get out of the group; the game against France could be a cracker. Luca Toni is a handful and against ropey Thuram and shouty Gallas so he could cause big problems.

So, just a couple of things, and I think the tournament is fairly open with the Dutch looking as early favourites over Spain. Van Nistelrooy looks a more rounded and better player than he was at United and Sneijder is class - even Ooijer, who I thought was bobbins has looked capable!

Right, work have stopped me using this site (I know, everyone’s gutted).

I got Spain in the sweep so I’m pretty chuffed; but I still think France are going to win Euro 2008. Ribery has had a great season, Henry’s fit, if Vieira doesn’t play there’s Flamini… Several pundits say they’re too old, but I say there’s experience - plus they’re not THAT old! Jesus, Henry is only 31 and still more than capable.

I don’t think Germany are going to do it, and Italy will miss Cannavaro. Portugal… oops, nearly did it. Nah. Not good enough.

So, France for me but Spain will be close behind; the quality in midfield and up front that Spain have in Fabregas, Xavi and Torres will see them through to the latter stages but experience will show through.

I think so, anyway. Your thoughts?

Speaking after scoring a goal in last night’s game against the mighty USA, John Terry said:

I’ve shown that I’m a big man. I take full responsibility for what happened in Moscow but I’m a man for the big games and I’ve shown that.

Firstly, anyone who says ‘I am a big man’ is opening himself up for the kind of ridicule and scorn normally reserved for men who thump their chests and say ‘Come on then! Come on then!’ in a pub fight and then get knocked out with one punch.

And let’s be clear, scoring in a meaningless friendly against relatively poor opposition like the USA does not make you a ‘big man’, nor is it a big game. Had he saved this kind of empty rhetoric for next season when he scored the winner against United or Arsenal or Liverpool in a crucial league game then you might say he has a point, but to do it after last night’s goal was just plain daft.

This was the best bit though:

That goal was for the fans and in particular the Chelsea fans who have been great to me and really helped me through it. That was for them.

Wow, I’m sure they’re grateful for an England goal.

‘Forget the Champions League, at least JT scored against England and he dedicated it to us! I feel so much better now!!’

Give this man his own TV show.

With all the fuss over Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid isn’t it time to rethink the way the transfer market works?

Real have obviously sounded out the player and his agent before launching their Marca led media offensive for the player. Ronaldo, if he wanted, could kill the whole thing stone dead by categorically committing his future, for next season at least, to United. He has failed to do so and the whole thing rumbles on. United’s ire is understandable but Ferguson can hardly claim the higher ground on this one with cases like Stam and van Nistelrooy under his belt.

But what Madrid are doing is no different to what clubs all across Europe are doing right now. Agents are being contacted to see if their player would be agreeable to a move to a certain club, perhaps certain things will be offered, and then the club will approach the player’s club to make an offer. It’s just on a smaller scale.

We’ve seen high profile cases in the past - Patrick Vieira courted constantly by Real Madrid, Thierry Henry by Barcelona, Steven Gerrard by Chelsea and so on. Clubs talk about reporting the offenders to FIFA but nothing is ever done. Things continue the same way all the time.

So what can we do about it? Either accept this is the way things work or implement new measures to try and give clubs some control over the players. With the Bosman rule and the Webster clause the transfer market is going through a serious upheaval. No longer can a club say ‘You’re under contract, you’re not leaving’, as players can now buy out their deals. At some point a high profile Webster case will happen and that will open the floodgates.

The behaviour of agents won’t change, they’ll still strive to make as much money as possible for their client (and themselves), often at the expense of the footballing side of a player’s career. Kudos to the agent of Steve Sidwell who ensured his client got a £52,000 a week deal at Chelsea last summer. But then a player who was being spoken about as a possible international started only a handful of games and his career has gone backwards while he’s gotten richer.

I’m not quite sure what the point I’m trying to make is. It might be that the transfer market is fucked up anyway and there’s not much we can do to fix it. Unless clubs have real evidence that their player has been tapped up, and that would require the player and his agent to confirm it as the other club certainly won’t, nothing can be done about it.

Is there any way to make agents behave like decent people? Is there any way of stopping a player wanting to leave a club when he’s being offered three times as much money elsewhere? Is loyalty a thing of the past or does it require purchasing these days?

Your thoughts are very welcome.

It’s a small man who takes pleasure in another’s misery.

I look at John Terry’s weeping countenance and I admit it freely, I am that small man. I also enjoyed Drogba, the great big bottler, getting sent off. He didn’t fancy a penalty and took the easy way out. English football won’t miss his drama and histrionics no matter how many goals he scores.

What’s great is that basking in the pain of Terry allows me to ignore the fact that United won it. Thank you, JT, thank you.

On the other hand Avram Grant was quietly dignified, consoling a man who many suggest might have been one of those voices from within the dressing room leaking stories to the press about the Israeli’s supposed ineptitude.

On another note, what the hell was Peter Kenyon doing leading the team up to get the medals? He really is a despicable man - but then as a ‘life long red’ his night surely had a silver lining.

So, it’s the final day of the season. There’s much to be decided although I think I’ve got it sussed.

United will win the title despite Chelsea beating Bolton because they’ll spank Wigan to kingdom come. At the bottom I think Birmingham will lose to Blackburn and Fulham will lose to Portsmouth because the Portsmouth players, having been off the ball since reaching the cup final, will be giving it 100% today to ensure their Wembley places. Reading will beat Derby.

Everton will clinch the final UEFA Cup place with a win over Newcastle. And that will be that. If the other results come in then I’m going to be up a couple of quid. I might buy you a pint if I win. Click for big…

You have to admire Rafa Benitez. Peter Crouch hardly gets a look in all season, the manager preferring to play the hard working but goal shy Kuyt ahead of him and deciding he’ll keep the frankly rubbish Voronin over him, yet there’s a £15m price tag slapped on his head.

Amazing. Crouch is a decent Premier League player but how can he justify asking for that kind of money when, if he really was a £15m player, he’d surely have played more games this season?

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