Hughton & Newcastle, An Unfortunate Parting

The sacking of popular manager Chris Hughton by Newcastle United seems to have come as a surprise to many in the footballing community, but should it?

Houghton is a well liked manager that had control of the St. James’ dressing room. He guided the Geordies back to the Premiership after only one season in the Championship. He’s been instrumental in guiding young Andy Carroll to becoming quite a formidable young striker against some of the best defenders in Europe. But, in all honesty he was never going to be a successful Premiership manager at Newcastle.

It has nothing to do with skill, leadership or ability. He has those by the bucketload. What kept Hughton from being successful was simply Mike Ashley.

With all due respect to the Geordie faithful, Ashley is a Championship owner. Newcastle is a Premier League club. Ever since he took over the Tynesiders they have struggled. He hasn’t wanted to spend money, instead opting for the cheapest route possible turn after turn. He openly tried to sell the club two years ago to a very interested buyer and botched it with his adolescent behavior.

When the club was relegated many of the players opted to stick with the club and bring it back to the top flight. Their reward…an owner who looks for any reason to withhold money from them, including bonuses. It’s difficult to keep up player morale when the front office is doing its best to submarine your efforts. Chris Hughton was doing a fairly good job and HIS reward…sacked.

Mike Ashley is doing his best to guide Newcastle United back to the Championship. I hope for their sake a new owner comes along and rescues them from this man. The club and supporters deserve better than that.

FIFA’s Big Announcement! Sort Of

FIFA’s announcement that the 2018 World Cup would be hosted by Russia and the 2022 tournament would be held in Qatar was interesting to say the least. For an organization trying to appear above reproach, to award the biggest event in football to the two groups with the deepest pockets is in my mind…a little sketchy.

I’m not saying that because England didn’t get the ’18 Cup. I’ve voiced my opinion on that already. And given the current state of the Portuguese economy I can see why they didn’t vote to give it to the Spain/Portugal bid (Although I was hoping that they would get it). But, their own report raised some significant questions about the Russian bid as far as facilities, transportation and logistics are concerned. Well I can see why they didn’t worry about those things, it’s not like they’re important to hosting a World Cup or anything. The Russian deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov says they will make history and one way or another I wouldn’t doubt it.

Then there’s the ’22 WC. In the vernacular of today’s text happy youth…WTF! I can see them beating Japan and South Korea. No offense but they hosted recently and it’s too soon. Beating Australia was a bit surprising to me though. The Aussies did a fantastic job with the Olympics and would have been great hosts. The big shock to me was the fact that the small nation was able to beat the United States to the punch. The U.S. did a good job of hosting the Cup at a time when they didn’t even have a domestic league to speak of. The vast distances between venues couldn’t be an issue (Dasvidaniya mean anything to anyone?). And they couldn’t be concerned about the heat (it’s 54 degrees Celsius  in Qatar! 130 for the Fahrenheit crowd).

Russia and Qatar have something that the other bids all lack right now. Money. And whether it’s being delivered in a briefcase or through back door deals in contracts, money makes FIFA happy.

Blaugrana Whitewash Los Merengues

I for one was quite shocked by yesterday’s 5-0 drubbing by Barcelona over their Real Madrid house guests, definitely not hospitable. Though if these two sides played in The Hague I doubt they would show any hospitality to each other.

This match was one-sided from the beginning and went a long way to show that you can spend all the Euros you like, but that doesn’t guarantee you’ll have a squad that are world beaters. Madrid’s team sheet reads like a Hollywood nightclub guest list with a wage bill that could honestly bail out Ireland’s economy as easily as the EU can. But, for all of their success they still look like a bunch of individuals running around looking for personal glory. Jose Mourinho has had experience in guiding a group of high-profile players to the pinnacle before, but this group is bigger than anything he has had to deal with before.

Barcelona’s epitaph has been chiseled since the beginning of the young season for some reason. I think some of the Spanish media have bought into the Real hype and have been polishing the crown since the season kicked off. But the Catalan club showed their foes from the capital that they still have something that Real Madrid doesn’t, teamwork. The way Barcelona controlled the ball was mesmerizing. They seemed to know exactly where each other would be and it showed in the gross disparity in time of possession. They looked for most of the match like they would score at will, and for a couple of periods of time they did.

There was the usual passion you would expect in El Clasico, with tempers flaring on both sides. I did enjoy the handbags flying for the innocuous push of Pep Guardiola by Ronaldo that brought Valdes charging all the way from his goal box and earned them both a yellow card. Ladies, please! As if Guardiola needed his keeper to defend his honour.

This was billed as the battle of Messi and Ronaldo, but it failed to live up to the hype as neither of these explosive players were able to find the net. Although the Argentine was by far the superior of the two. Kudos to David Villa though who scored twice for the club he dreamed of playing for in the game he dreamed of playing in.

 

Dimitar’s Big Day!

Dimitar Berbatov reached rarefied heights today as he hit five goals against Blackburn at Old Trafford. Not bad for a player that supporters were calling for Sir Alex to sell only a year ago. I’m happy for Dimi. Supporters are fickle if you are a forward. If you’re not banging home goals with regularity, you’re just not doing enough. But watch tape of him as he plays. Ignore whether or not he scores, and watch his movement when he has the ball. His deft touch in close quarters. the slight of hand flicks through defenders to find a teammate in space. THAT is what makes it the beautiful game.

The Bulgarian striker will never be accused of being too fiery or passionate for his own good. I can see how someone could accuse him of being disinterested in his demeanor. Just watch him play folks. He won’t do the multiple step-overs a la Cristiano Ronaldo, but you don’t need him to do that. His fourth goal against the Rovers was a thing of beauty. He chased down a ball that was going out deep in the Manchester United half and got it to Evra, played some quality one-two football then found Nani deep in the Blackburn half. If you watched the match you saw him follow the play all the way through to receive the cross from the Portuguese winger and slot home the goal. It’s easy to dismiss the effort until you rewind and watch just the work put in by one player at both ends of the pitch.

This win was not just a one man show, don’t get me wrong, Park Ji-Sung doubled the score when he received a well timed Wayne Rooney through ball and chipped it over a sprawling Paul Robinson in the 23rd minute. Nani showed how he has matured when he passed up a bad opportunity that he would have lashed out at a year or so ago and cut back to curl in a fantastic goal with his left in the 48th.

Rooney failed to add to the celebration by scoring, but his presence was definitely felt on the pitch as he did some of the little things that Berbatov is known for. He’ll find that scoring touch given the time and when he does the rest of the Premiership will be in for it. Manchester United 7-1 Blackburn Rovers.