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West Ham wait on fitness of midfield duo

Published 15:35 17/12/10 By MirrorFootball

West Ham will give fitness tests to midfielder Valon Behrami (hip) and defender Lars Jacobsen (heel) ahead of tomorrow's Barclays Premier League match at Blackburn.
Mark Noble (hip), Jack Collison and Anthony Edgar (both knee) hope to return in the New Year.
Thomas Hitzlsperger (thigh) and Manuel da Costa (foot) remain sidelined.
Provisional squad: Green, Ben-Haim, Upson, Spector, Faubert, Tomkins, Parker, Barrera, Cole, Stanislas, Dyer, Piquionne, Hines, Obinna, Kovac, Boa Morte, Stech, Reid, Jacobsen, Behrami.

 

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Blackpool captain suspended for Spurs game

Published 15:11 17/12/10 By MirrorFootball

Blackpool captain Charlie Adam will miss Sunday's Barclays Premier League clash with Tottenham through suspension after collecting his fifth booking of the season last weekend.
David Vaughan and Craig Cathcart will undergo late fitness tests after sustaining ankle and knee problems respectively in training.
Goalkeeper Mark Halstead has been ill and the Seasiders may ask permission for Paul Rachubka, who is not part of their current 25-man squad, to be named on the bench as cover for Richard Kingson.
Provisional squad: Kingson, Eardley, Cathcart, Crainey, Evatt, Vaughan, Varney, Taylor-Fletcher, Campbell, Grandin, Phillips, Edwards, Carney, Euell, Sylvestre, Keinan, Southern, Ormerod, Halstead, Baptiste.

 

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Why winning promotion to the Premier League is not always good for a manager's prospects

By Ian Winwood
Published 12:38 17/12/10

Last Saturday Chris Hughton ‘celebrated' his 52 birthday, just days after he'd been shown the road from St James' Park for reasons that will mystify anyone who believes that football is a results-based business.
At the time when Hughton's thoughts turned form 4-4-2 to P45, Newcastle United were sitting pretty in mid-table. Certainly they were sitting a lot prettier in the Premier League than they had been for some time, and certainly a lot prettier than they were this time last year when they were in the Championship.
Chances are it might well be the Championship that Chris Hughton will find himself should he decide to take another job in the madhouse that is football management. It seems that this is the place that young or even early-middle aged British born managers must these days ply their trade.
The chances are that if a gaffer gets a team promoted from the Championship into the Premier League, and then loses his job following his team's relegation from the top flight, the gaffer has to start again one rung below.

It also seems that if an inexperienced Premier League manager loses his job, a different Premier League side is unlikely to give the man another chance at the top table. He too, then, will be relegated to the Championship.
There are exceptions to this rule, of course. It shouldn't perhaps be too surprising that Newcastle United – a club whose actions defy all laws of logic – have bucked the trend by appointing in Alan Pardew a manager who was last seen not in the Championship but actually getting the boot from Southampton, presently a League 1 side. And Wigan Athletic, a club whose homely style seems somehow more suited to a bygone age, are thus far keeping the faith with Roberto Martinez, poached from Swansea City.
But for the most part it seems that upward social mobility as it applies to managers in the Football League is a harder task today than at any time in the past. In fact, downward social mobility seems to be the order of the day.
In 2007 the one thing that ensured Sheffield United's relegation from the Premier League was the fact that West Ham United cheated by using Carlos Tevez when they knew the player was ineligible to take the field. Instead of a points deduction, West Ham were fined £5 million and the Blades went down. So too did manager Neil Warnock, whose next job was with Crystal Palace.
Chris Coleman parted company with Fulham, also in 2007, after making a club with a smallish fanbase and huge debts a staple in the Premier League. His next job in England? In the league below, with Coventry City.
A year after this, Aidy Boothroyd left Watford. The young manager had failed to keep the Hornets in the Premier League, but the question must be asked whether any manager in the country could have done any better given the funds and players at his disposal. Boothroyd's next job was in League 1, managing Colchester United.
Earlier this year Phil Brown was placed on ‘gardening leave' by Hull City following a terrible run of results that suggested the East Yorkshire side's two seasons in the top flight were soon to come an end. This proved to be true, but Brown's time as a manager also seems to have reached the same conclusion. The Wearsider has stated publicly his desire to get back in the game, but at the moment his stock appears to be so toxic that no club has shown an interest.
When a manager from the Championship takes a side into the Premier League it might seem that his personal fortunes are on the up. Much of the evidence available, though, suggests that such elevated heights are only to be enjoyed for a short and not always sweet period of time.

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Why the treatment of Fletcher and Balotelli this week proves refs don't treat all players equally

By Simon Mullock
Published 12:26 17/12/10

Just an observation about how two footballers from Manchester were treated this week.
One comes from solid Scottish stock. He’s has hard as nails but as honest as the day is long. He came up through the ranks at Old Trafford and is regarded as one of the best pros in the game.
The other is a temperamental Italian. He got a dodgy haircut, wears gloves and a snood. He’s only here for the money and is the kind that gives footballers a bad name.
Darren Fletcher ran 30 yards to barge into referee Howard Webb during Manchester United’s 1-0 victory over Arsenal on Monday night and got a nothing more than a knowing smile and a word of advice from a man who proved during the World Cup Final that reputations mean everything.

Mario Balotelli waved his arms in frustration when he wasn’t awarded a free-kick during Manchester City’s 3-1 win at West Ham last Saturday and referee Phil Dowd gleefully skipped 40 yards to make it three yellow cards and a sending off in eight matches.
To be fair to Dowd, it was arm-waving at its most threatening. I could understand why Mr Precious from Staffordshire felt so menaced.
Fletcher is indeed an admirable footballer, while Balotelli does seem to be in desperate need of anger management classes.
But the next time another ex-ref goes on television to pontificate about how all footballers are treated equal by the men in black, take it from me he’ll be lying.

 

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Why Man City supporters will decide if Tevez has a future at Eastlands

By Simon Mullock
Published 12:15 17/12/10

Carlos Tevez will find out on Monday night whether he is really finished at Manchester City.
In the six days since the Sunday Mirror stunned football by revealing that the Argentine striker had handed in a transfer request, everybody has been asked whether Tevez should be granted permanent leave.
Owner Sheikh Mansour and manager Roberto Mancini have insisted Tevez is going nowhere.
And even City-supporting rock star Noel Gallagher has given his opinion on the matter – somehow managing to blame Tevez's sudden desire to depart on Wayne Rooney's successful attempt to railroad Manchester United into meeting his wage demands.

The real test of whether Tevez should stay or go will come when City face Everton at Eastlands on Monday Night Football.
The City supporters I spoke to in Turin this week were divided on the issue.
Many felt it would be madness to sell the club's best player when he's got three-and-a-half years left on his contract.
Just as many felt it would be even crazier to follow the lead United set when they proved that some footballers are indeed bigger than the club they play for by caving in to Rooney.
It will be interesting to see the reception Tevez gets on Monday night – if Mancini decides to pick him.
If the supporters that last week worshipped him turn on the striker then Tevez's future at City will have been decided without the need for any high-level peace talks between his agent and his employers.

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Why Man City supporters will decide if Tevez has a future at Eastlands

By Simon Mullock
Published 12:15 17/12/10

Carlos Tevez will find out on Monday night whether he is really finished at Manchester City.
In the six days since the Sunday Mirror stunned football by revealing that the Argentine striker had handed in a transfer request, everybody has been asked whether Tevez should be granted permanent leave.
Owner Sheikh Mansour and manager Roberto Mancini have insisted Tevez is going nowhere.
And even City-supporting rock star Noel Gallagher has given his opinion on the matter – somehow managing to blame Tevez's sudden desire to depart on Wayne Rooney's successful attempt to railroad Manchester United into meeting his wage demands.


The real test of whether Tevez should stay or go will come when City face Everton at Eastlands on Monday Night Football.
The City supporters I spoke to in Turin this week were divided on the issue.
Many felt it would be madness to sell the club's best player when he's got three-and-a-half years left on his contract.
Just as many felt it would be even crazier to follow the lead United set when they proved that some footballers are indeed bigger than the club they play for by caving in to Rooney.
It will be interesting to see the reception Tevez gets on Monday night – if Mancini decides to pick him.
If the supporters that last week worshipped him turn on the striker then Tevez's future at City will have been decided without the need for any high-level peace talks between his agent and his employers.

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Why UEFA have to abolish the Champions League group stages to avoid dreary games like United v Rangers

By Simon Mullock
Published 09:23 26/11/10

Michel Platini wants to do his bit to save football from the abyss.
The UEFA president should start by making the Champions League a straight knock-out competition.
Too many of the games in the group stages this season have been about as entertaining as an Audley Harrison fight.
It was the same last season. And the season before that.

The top teams know before a ball is kicked that even an off-night somewhere will not prevent them collecting the 10 or 11 points they will need to progress to the latter stages.
It has all become as sterile as a computer game.
When Manchester United face Rangers it should be an occasion dripping with anticipation and excitement.
Instead, these kinds of clashes have become so mundane that no-one even bothers to hype them up as a Battle of Britain anymore.
This isn't meant to be a criticism of Walter Smith, but to watch the Scottish champions show absolutely no attacking ambition in two games against United this season proved to me that time is up for the Champions League in its current guise.
The competition only comes to life when it becomes cut-throat. One misjudgement and your dream dies.
Going back to the old European Cup format of champions-only isn't the answer because the gap between the best and the rest is wider than it ever was before the reorganisation of 1992.
Television money, as always, will dictate any changes.
But, Tottenham's two gripping encounters with Inter Milan apart, the group stages of the Champions League are becoming one big turn off.

 

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Jack Walker must be spinning in his grave after Venky's shocking treatment of Big Sam

By Simon Mullock
Published 12:06 17/12/10

Jack Walker was one of the men who helped make the Premier League the worldwide phenomenon it is today.
The great man must have been spinning in his grave this week.
Walker's beloved Blackburn Rovers were brought into disrepute this week by new owners Venky's.
Sam Allardyce knew from his experiences at Newcastle that when a powershift takes place at a football club it is usually followed by a change of manager.

But the disgraceful way he was dispensed with after saving Rovers from relegation and then taking the team into 13th place in the table gives the impression that Venky's will not be good for the club.
Let's be honest, Allardyce had Blackburn punching well above their weight.
It's 15 years since Walker lived his dream, spending a large chunk of a fortune earned through sheer hard graft on making Blackburn champions of England.
The legacy he left behind was tainted by events at Ewood Park this week.
There will be a lot of people – not all of them admirers of Allardyce or his methods – who hope that Venky's pay a sorry price when points at tallied up in May.

 

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Why Hammer horror proves future isn't bright for Fergie

By Simon Mullock
Published 18:01 03/12/10

Manchester United's Carling Cup hammering at West Ham proves that Sir Alex Ferguson is absolutely right when he says there's no value in the transfer market.
Anderson cost £18million, Chris Smalling was valued at £10million, Bebe came in for £8million, Gabriel Obertan and Tomasz Kuszczak at £3million apiece.
Watching them crumble against a team that is heading for the Championship suggested that Fergie has been, to use his own phrase,"kamikaze" with his own transfer dealings.
United, of course, are aiming for much more prestigious trophies than the League Cup.

But Ferguson has always used the competition to blood youngsters.
The fact that he had Ryan Giggs, Darren Fletcher and John O'Shea in his team on Wednesday night suggests that Fergie himself fears there's a lack of numbers as well as quality coming through the ranks at Old Trafford.
This was no team of kids that was beaten 4-0 by the Hammers.
It was a mixture of hardened first teamers and expensive young recruits who should be much further advanced in their football development.
The past 25 years have been a glorious period in United's illustrious history.
The future doesn't look so bright.


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