Euro 2008 – Spain to conquer…at last

With England not travelling to this summers tournament i have decided to support Spain. I’m backing the perennial underachievers to finally conquer Europe. With a strike force consisting of Fernando Torres and David Villa they can hardly go wrong for goals. Iker Casillas in goal they have a pretty steady backbone. Puyol and Sergio Ramos will be marshaling the defence. Just to top it off they have Cesc Fabregas and Xavi pulling the strings in a wonderfully talented squad. They just don’t seem to have a glaring weakness. One factor pulling for them is that Raul won’t be making an appearance. The so called Golden boy of Spanish football brings extra expectation which is very much unwanted.

It is about time that they deliver a major honour to the people of Spain. They are always tipped as the dark horses in pretty much every tournament they play in. With no one expecting them to win they can go out and play with freedom. They have momentum going into the tournament with notable wins over England, Italy and France. There should be nothing stopping them.

The group in which they have to qualify for the quarters is pretty much as easy as they come. Group D consists of them, Greece, Russia and Sweden. These teams shouldn’t prove too testing for them and they should cruise through. Hopefully we seem them lift the trophy come the summer.

Bruce puts on a brave face

Steve Bruce an ex Man U player who played under Ferguson throughout his time with the champions has vowed that his Wigan team will give 100% and are going for the win. Firstly why does he have to come and say this. I understand people have been saying he will throw the game, but surely a manager who is concentrating fully on the game wouldn’t come and say this. It just makes me more suspicious of the whole affair. Everyone was expecting him to give a 100% anyway so why does he have to state the fact!

The Premier league must fix the fixtures to give United an advantage. Chelsea their main rivals just happen to be paying their bogey team and before that they had to travel to Newcastle where they tend to struggle (this didn’t prove to be the case but I’m trying to make point here). While United hosted West Ham at home then travel to one of their old boys. O well its going to be a red ribbon on the trophy come Sunday night. Might as well face up to that fact now might make it easier to stomach when it eventually happens.

Rijkaard and Barca to part company

Frank Rijkaard has announced he will step down as Barca manager. After such a promising start Frank brought the Champions league trophy to the Nou Camp after a long absence. He also won consecutive La Liga titles and threatened to dominate Spanish football for a while but it all feel apart.

It can be down to several factors firstly a completely split camp. Too many stars in one team, Messi, Ronaldinho, Eto’o, Henry, Puyol. The list goes on. Big personality clashed with it being reported that the Spanish players didn’t get along with others. Secondly Real have progressed and gelled as a team producing when it matters. Thirdly Barca put too much emphasis on entertainment, results should come first. I would rather see my team win the league ugly rather than play pretty football and finish second.

With the money and backing Frank has received he should of done a much better job. He had pretty much unlimited money to play with. A production line producing the likes of Messi, Dos Santos and more recently the little Spanish wonder Bojan. He has a stadium which would intimate any traveling team. Losing to Real last night pretty much pushed him out of the door.

Sidwell unwanted

I think Steve Sidwell of serial buyers Chelsea has been linked with most of the premiership teams. Apparently Villa, Everton, Newcastle plus others all want the former Reading player. Chelsea having lured the player away from his familiar surroundings of Reading and thrusting him into star studded squad of the West London team. Frankly he didn’t stand a chance. Being among such prestigious company can only good for as he progressed through his career. Saying this you can only train so much without playing a match, frustration must be creeping in slightly even if he doesn’t admit it.

The ginger wizard who was one of if not the best players at Reading. Playing in front of James Harper gave Sidwell the freedom of the pitch. He was allowed to go on marauding runs in which sometimes ended in him finding the back of the net. He is clearly too good for any championship team. If he did stay at Reading i reckon they wouldn’t be in the same situation as they are now. Hopefully he does move on instead of just picking up his pay cheque week in week out. A player who delivers work rate and energy to a game deserves to be playing week in week out.

What a way to rub a victory in

Surely there is nothing better than winning the league and then having your greatest rivals visit your stadium i repeat your stadium the very next match. This is the case for Real Madrid having won the league last week with a 2-1 victory over Osasuna, they now entertain Barcelona this evening. A guard of honor awaits the newly crowned league champions. Not only is this enough for Barcelona to swallow they will have to watch them parade the trophy.

For a second season Barcelona will finish the season without a trophy. For a club of that statue its just not on. Something has to change surely.

The carnival atmosphere which will be generated by the fans at the Bernabeu will inspire Real to produce an amazing display of football. I expect Real to come away with the victory tonight, which would completely round off their season.

Sven Sven Sven

From being hated by everyone in England he is now love and adored by half or Manchester. The rest England feel sorry for him. I suppose tie does heal all. The way the Swede has been treated by the owner of Man City is despicable. Now he has been thrown into even more doubt with Shinawatra saying he is yet to decide on his future.

Rumors have been flying about claiming that Sven is going to be replaced by Scolari. The Portugal manager had reported talks with England as well. Maybe Shinawatra has a thing for potential England mangers. he may even go for Steve McClaren. Well time will only tell. Sven has done a decent job at Man City considering he didn’t have much time to build a squad and brought players only from videos. his season may have been completely different if his star striker hadn’t been injured for the entire season, and his other one didn’t through a wobbly. Their early season form was magnificent seeing them top the table for a couple of games. They also beat their fierce rivals Man united . Although the display wasn’t amazing they still came away with the bragging rights.

No manager deserves to be thrown away like a used toy. Sven has an excellent club record with the various clubs he has already managed. Hopefully he is given more time in order to build a squad ready for European football. He has the base of a very good team Richard Dunne and Micah Richards in defence. Elano and the youngster Johnson. Also Bojinov when he returns from injury should add some much needed firepower up front. He also has a great selection of goalkeepers. One or two additions and they should be able to challenge the likes of Everton and Villa for European competiton.

Berbatov on his way

Berbatov seems to be on his way out of Spurs with his absence at Tottenhams kit launch. The same thing happened with Henry departed for the sunny shores of Barcelona. He is Spurs best player surely he would be there to display the kit. Rumors have been circulating throughout the season. Berbatov is clearly too god to be playing at Spurs. His talent deserve to grace the champions league. the Bulgarian can control a game from upfront. If he decides to turn up and play then they pretty much win the game.

Ramos may have enough charm to keep his star player at the club but i doubt it. Man u or Milan maybe too much of an opportunity to turn down for this player who’s best hopes of winning medals comes through club football. Lets face it he isn’t going to win anything with Bulgaria. The player himself has criticised rumors linking himself with a move away from White hart lane. So why leave him out of the promotional work? It clearly doesn’t make any sense there has to be another motive behind it. We will have to wait and see.

Keegans worries

Kevin Keegan has recently shown his fears of the big four in English football. He fears that the top four will dominate English football and cause it to be a boring league. The top fours dominance isn’t just domestic it is also on a European stage. An all English final of the champions league beckons. I don’t understand his comments to be honest. Fair enough i cant really see any of the promoted teams from the championship coming up and challenging for a European place. It isn’t exactly their fault they have built up teams worthy of dominating English football. Sponsorship money and Champions league does play a big part. Consistently having these resources available to you will help a lot.

Being able to offer players a chance to play in the best competition in club football can sway the worlds best players decisions to join a club. Would Kaka or Messi prefer to play for Chelsea or Fulham. I think we all know the answer to that.

I personally don’t think they will dominate for a long time. Everton threatened a couple seasons they finished above their city rivals Liverpool. Aston Villa ave shown massive improvements if they can keep hold of key players and strengthen key areas i cant see why they wouldn’t be challenging next season. Tottenham should have  fair go next season with a new manager and spending power anything is possible. Man City had a very strong start if they could do the same next season and strengthen their squad. They eventually run out of steam. They key clearly squad strength. The top four, maybe minus Arsenal have a massive squad with players capable of playing in most teams in the league. It is clearly just being clever with transfers. Tottenham managed to steal Modric form under the noses of Arsenal and Chelsea. Both team were reportedly interested in signing the Croatian play maker . Come on Keegan surely management is meant to be a challenge. Lets see you put some work in.

Capello’s targets

The FA have set Capello the target of reaching the semi-finals or either of Euro 2012 or the World cup of 2010. This is a very good idea. It gives the public an idea of whether he is actually doing a good job or not. Surely they will form their opinions but at least we will know what the FA will be thinking at last. Sven was shipped out after doing fairly well with the team, and Mclaren was unfairly untreated and pretty much harassed by the press. To be honest i think Capello is the best of all of those candidates to take this talented England squad all the way in a major tournament. By God we have been waiting for it. I having been longing to see England win a trophy in my lifetime. I haven’t had much to get excited about maybe apart from Euro 96 where we came so close. If only Gazza would of connected at the far post.

Chelsea take title to the last game

Thank God! At last a title race which goes to the last day. There has been a severe lack of excitement when it comes to the last day of the season. Chelsea have won the league with five or six games to go, United won it with a couple games to go last season.

A confident performance by the blues saw off Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle 2-0. From the off Chelsea pretty much dominated. Ballack opened the scoring with Malouda adding shine to the victory. I would personally like to see Grant lift the title. He has come under criticism which really wasn’t needed. Stepping into Mourinho’s shoes would be difficult for anyone but he has done extremely well. he has even got Chelsea to a place where Jose couldn’t. The Champions league final.

Give him a summer to bring in players he wants and i think we could see Chelsea’s name on the Premiership trophy a few more times. Back to this season and Chelsea entertain their so called bogey team Bolton, while Man u travel to Wigan. It happens to be a massive coincidence that one of Fergie’s ex players is in charge at JJB. It seems that every that could go the Red Devils way clearly is. I cant see them dropping points against Wigan who have no secured Premiership football for next season. I think Chelsea will get the victory they need against Bolton but with United’s goal difference the title is pretty much theirs. O well hopefully next season it will travel to another ground.