Could Optus EPL deal provide the A-League with a TV broadcast windfall? Read my @FourFourTwoOz article to find out.
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/au/news/optus-deal-could-provide-league-windfall#MBgkgjg2bxX4HlhT.01#:VW1mdMBsSUGxMA
Showing posts with label English Premier League. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English Premier League. Show all posts
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Monday, July 13, 2015
Exclusive Interview with Swansea Striker James Demetriou
My exclusive interview @FourFourTwoOz with Swansea’s young Aussie striker James Demetriou on moving onward & upwards after a first season of up and downs in the EPL
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/au/news/swanseas-young-aussie-striker-takes-missteps-his-stride
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/au/news/swanseas-young-aussie-striker-takes-missteps-his-stride
Friday, February 19, 2010
Monday, October 19, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Aston Villa: English Premier League Preview, 2009/10
In the last few seasons of the English Premier League (EPL) Aston Villa have threatened to end their run of mid table mediocrity and break into the elusive cash rich top four.
With Northern Irish man Martin O’Neil in charge the Villans have finished sixth in two consecutive seasons. At one point Villa were in the top four and were looking to displace Arsenal. An eventual end of season slump caused a dark shadow to appear over Aston Villa’s bright start to the campaign.
For Villa fans it must have felt like ground hog day.
Martin O’Neil would read the Sunday papers and before Aston Villa was mentioned the words “smallest squad in the premier league” would introduce every Villa story. That should have been a sign to spend some of Aston Villa’s American owner Randy Lerner’s cash.
The squad in normal times would have been strengthened but that was before the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) hit.
Even Football can’t spend paper money all the time and having American owners take charge of Football clubs doesn’t seem such a good idea now. It’s the Arabs that have all the cash these days.
The scourge of small squads hit Villa badly as injured players and loss of form during the run home ended any hopes of a top four finish. Danish defender and club captain Martin Laursen got injured so did Norwegian big man John Carew. Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor lost form while Gareth Barry was having daydreams about Manchester city’s cash. All these misfortunes were not as critical as the signing of lumbering English striker Emile Heskey.
For some unknown reason the English striker was signed by Marin O’Neill and keeps getting picked for Capello’s English squads too.
Villa have showed some form during pre-season winning the Peace Cup and defeating the likes of Porto and Juventus while also enjoying a win over Fiorentina last weekend. Stiliyan Petrov injury could give the already thin Villa squad a light feel in midfield.
Key Signings:
Senegal International defender Habib Beye joined Villa from Newcastle in August 2009. The 30 year old will strengthen the club's defensive options and should be seen playing at right back.Beye also has 35 caps at international level and featured for Senegal in the 2002 World Cup.
Exciting young quick midfielder Fabian Delph signed for Villa in July 2009. The 19 year old signed from Leeds United and is considered one of the rising stars of English football.The England under-21 international was named in the PFA League One Team of the Year, and won the FourFourTwo Young Player of the Year, as well as three end of season awards at Leeds.
Stewart Downing joined Villa from Middlesbrough in July 2009. During the 2008-09 season supplied 362 crosses, just behind Villa's Ashley Young, who provided the most in the Barclays Premier League with 377. However Downing will not play for a few months as he is injured, he will provide cover for the departed Garth Barry.
Key Players:
Gabby Agbonlahor went off the boil towards the end of the 2008-09, but he did finish with a tally of 13 goals two more than the previous season.His goal tally included an eight-minute hat-trick in the opening game against Manchester City. It was the fastest treble since Robbie Fowler's (now at North Queensland Fury) three for Liverpool against Arsenal in 1994. Villa needs Gabby to step up this season.
Ashley Young won the PFA Young Player of the Year award last season. The English winger’s two goals in the 3-2 win over Everton was one of the highlights of the season for me. Manager Martin O'Neill later described the player as 'world-class' and a 'genius' in the post-match press conference. Perhaps that goes some way to explaining the England International’s form slump towards the end of the season.
Young Guns:
Shane Lowry was born in Australia and his international future could be with Ireland as his parents were born there, and the midfielder has already represented the Republic at under-21 level.The young Australian arrived at Villa with fellow Aussie Chris Herd when they were just 15.Last season he was on the bench in five matches - the UEFA Cup-ties against Hamburg SV away and both legs against CSKA Moscow, plus the FA Cup-ties against Gillingham and Everton. Perhaps Australian coach Pim Verbeek should ask Chris if he wants to go to the World Cup with the Socceroos instead, especaially after this weeks 3-0 thrashing they dished out to the Irish in Limerick Ireland.
Chris Herd has been described as a dynamic and energetic central midfielder, graduating from the Academy set-up to become a regular reserve player.Herd was unfortunate to miss a big chunk of last season through an injury playing just seven Premier Reserve League appearances, although he was on the subs bench for the UEFA Cup game away to Hamburg SV in December. If he sees some game time with the first team you never know maybe a call up to South Africa, it's a long shot but anything can happen in a World Cup year.
Nathan Delfouneso scored on his full first team debut with a goal against MSK Zilina in the UEFA Cup and did it again against Hamburg two weeks later. The 18 year old made 13 senior appearances for Villa last season, including five starts in cup-ties. The striker possesses natural speed good dribbling skills and has an eye for goal but the pressure is already on for the kid to perform with French football magazine Onze likening him to Barcelona and French star Thierry Henry. Delfouneso should see more game time this season.
Facts and Figures from avfc.co.uk
Coach Quote: “Show me the money Randy!”
A Football Story Best Villa 11:
————————Brad Friedel(USA)——————
(Sen)Habib Beye—Curtis Davies(ENG)—Carlos Cuellar(SPN)—Bowma(HOL)
(ENG) Young ——–Petrov(BULG) Reo-Cocker (ENG)——Downing(ENG)
———————(NOR) Carew————Agbonlahor(ENG) —————
A Football Story Prediction: Mid-table mediocrity. Unless they get new signings.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Life is hell outside the EPL top Four
"Purgatory's kind of like the in-betweeny one. You weren't really shit, but you weren't all that great either. Like Tottenham."
This quote is from the very funny 2008 film In Bruges.
After watching Aston Villa lose to Fulham away 3-1 at the weekend the above quote came in to my head.
Let’s be honest; if you don’t support a team in the top four of the English Premier League then like the above quote; your team isn’t really shit or that great either.
Your team is like Aston Villa who has given up the comfortable lifestyle of mid-table mediocrity for challenging for European spots.
Yet this season after qualifying for the Uefa cup, Villa fielded a weakened side when they played CSKA Moscow, the Villa manger left eight first team regulars at home for this match. The small size of the Villa squad then saw the Birmingham’s side get unceremoniously dumped out of the cup during the last 32 tie.
Perhaps from that all encompassing view of hindsight, that was the wrong decision to make.
Buying Emile Heskey from Wigan is surely not going to go down as one of the buys of the season when with 12 games to go Villa where six points ahead of Arsenal and very close to Chelsea who were leading at the time.
Is coming fifth in the EPL better than winning the Europa league? It appears it’s too hard to do both.
The top four have a mortgage on the Premier league title. Mortgage literally means death contract.
Morbidly you can say that your chances of watching your team win the title before you die is slim.
So with no chance of your team winning the title, what about other glory like cup competitions for instance?
The Uefa cup is soon to be replaced by the Europa cup is a competition that can feature mid-table teams and fluky cup winners or runner up of cup competitions.
In a guardian interview Villa manger Martin O’Neil still was not convinced:
“There are too many games," said O'Neill.
If Villa is to win the Europa league then that is 17 fixtures they have to play.
Even with European glory on the line Premier League managers have one eye to the EPL, in the past this would not happened.
Aston Villa is not on their lonesome, when it comes to teams that aren’t shit but not that great either.They are in fine company with Everton who without Tim Cahill playing, the toffees can make football look very difficult to play at times.
Tottenham also are in the purgatory group as well, however they do treat their fans to a yearly league cup runners up trophy.
Maybe it’s better to support a team with no title or European ambitions. Perhaps living the mantra of no expectations no disappointments, is the way to go?
If you supported Stoke and their basketball lookalike of a team this season, your thought about how your team went would have been one of supreme triumph. Stoke after all did avoid the drop and did produce a secret weapon.
Every one who can throw long is now being touted as the new Rory Delap.
Surviving the drop can be as exhilarating as winning the league or the FA cup. Watching Newcastle play Middlesbrough at the weekend was enthralling, however if that fixture was played earlier in the year it wouldn’t have carried as much infatuation.
So it seems that if you follow a club outside the top four the only last day glory your club will achieve is surviving the drop. During the year you might get the odd win against the top four, go all the way till the knockout stages of a cup competition and maybe lose a cup final.
And if that is all the glory you get then that is ok because your club share’s a special place, in being not really shit, but not being all that great either.
Like {enter club here}.
This quote is from the very funny 2008 film In Bruges.
After watching Aston Villa lose to Fulham away 3-1 at the weekend the above quote came in to my head.
Let’s be honest; if you don’t support a team in the top four of the English Premier League then like the above quote; your team isn’t really shit or that great either.
Your team is like Aston Villa who has given up the comfortable lifestyle of mid-table mediocrity for challenging for European spots.
Yet this season after qualifying for the Uefa cup, Villa fielded a weakened side when they played CSKA Moscow, the Villa manger left eight first team regulars at home for this match. The small size of the Villa squad then saw the Birmingham’s side get unceremoniously dumped out of the cup during the last 32 tie.
Perhaps from that all encompassing view of hindsight, that was the wrong decision to make.
Buying Emile Heskey from Wigan is surely not going to go down as one of the buys of the season when with 12 games to go Villa where six points ahead of Arsenal and very close to Chelsea who were leading at the time.
Is coming fifth in the EPL better than winning the Europa league? It appears it’s too hard to do both.
The top four have a mortgage on the Premier league title. Mortgage literally means death contract.
Morbidly you can say that your chances of watching your team win the title before you die is slim.
So with no chance of your team winning the title, what about other glory like cup competitions for instance?
The Uefa cup is soon to be replaced by the Europa cup is a competition that can feature mid-table teams and fluky cup winners or runner up of cup competitions.
In a guardian interview Villa manger Martin O’Neil still was not convinced:
“There are too many games," said O'Neill.
If Villa is to win the Europa league then that is 17 fixtures they have to play.
Even with European glory on the line Premier League managers have one eye to the EPL, in the past this would not happened.
Aston Villa is not on their lonesome, when it comes to teams that aren’t shit but not that great either.They are in fine company with Everton who without Tim Cahill playing, the toffees can make football look very difficult to play at times.
Tottenham also are in the purgatory group as well, however they do treat their fans to a yearly league cup runners up trophy.
Maybe it’s better to support a team with no title or European ambitions. Perhaps living the mantra of no expectations no disappointments, is the way to go?
If you supported Stoke and their basketball lookalike of a team this season, your thought about how your team went would have been one of supreme triumph. Stoke after all did avoid the drop and did produce a secret weapon.
Every one who can throw long is now being touted as the new Rory Delap.
Surviving the drop can be as exhilarating as winning the league or the FA cup. Watching Newcastle play Middlesbrough at the weekend was enthralling, however if that fixture was played earlier in the year it wouldn’t have carried as much infatuation.
So it seems that if you follow a club outside the top four the only last day glory your club will achieve is surviving the drop. During the year you might get the odd win against the top four, go all the way till the knockout stages of a cup competition and maybe lose a cup final.
And if that is all the glory you get then that is ok because your club share’s a special place, in being not really shit, but not being all that great either.
Like {enter club here}.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Is the Premier League Future Unwritten?
Is the Premier League Future Unwritten?
For a while there the Premier League season looked like it was going to throw up a new champion-Liverpool, a new member of the champion’s league elite-Aston Villa and rags from riches story- Hull, and there was even talk of Tottenham making the top six.
While Liverpool have cut down the Red Devils lead at the top down to four points. Manchester United still has a game in hand and you would say the Champions are still favourites to win the title again, and even win a crazy five if things fall in place.
The loss of Vidic to suspension is a blow; however manager Alex Ferguson has a skilful, experienced and deep squad to choose from.
Liverpool looked like dare I say it “the Liverpool of old” when they smashed United last weekend four-one. Liverpool would be higher up the ladder except for too many draws, and bad results against lower ranked teams. Losing brilliant striker Fernando Torres for a period earlier this season was also a big blow to their Championship ambitions.
Aston Villa was hanging in the top four all season, except that loss to Tottenham last week allowed Arsenal’s to leap frog them giving the top four an all familiar look.
Villa’s players look tired, they have only used 19 players this season, and they have one of the smallest squads in the premier league. Competing in four competitions including Europe with such a small squad is going to take its toll.
Villa has lost their power, lately the ball gets to Ashley Young a lot, with not a lot of help around. James Milner has gone off the boil, while Emile Heskey can be frustrating at time; John Carew has been injured and Gabbie Agbnonlahor needs a goal for his confidence, I gather he likes playing with Carew more than he does Heskey.
Losing Martin Laursen was a big loss; replacements Zat Knight and Curtis Davies have looked shaky at the back. Luke Young is a right back and has been playing at left back and Cuellar is more of a central defender than a right back.
The Gareth Barry transfer saga earlier in the year when he almost went to Liverpool probably didn’t help Villa’s cause either. At times they looked mesmerising with Young, Barry, Agbonlahor, Milner and even Carew playing some nice football and scoring some great goals. Ashley Young’s winner against Everton comes to mind.
Owner Randy Learner will probably regret not investing more funds into bringing new players if Villa misses out on a Champions league birth this season.
The Liverpool-Villa game on Sunday will be crucial in deciding the makeup of the top 4, well at least for a week anyway.
Meanwhile at the bottom of the table:
With 9 games remaining for Hull, despite the amazing start they made at the start of the season were they occupied the nose bleed section of the table for a while, it felt refreshing to see the underdogs do so well.
They won six out of their first nine matches, losing only once. Along the way they beat Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium,
So what went wrong?
I recently saw an interview with the head coach of Hull, Phil Brown on Sentata,
When asked why Geovanni was benched. The answer was that Brazilian didn’t train hard enough.
He said:
“that he should train like an Englishman, and play like a Brazilian”.
But isn’t it the case if you train like an Englishman, you play like an Englishman? If you train like a Brazilian, you play.......
Tottenham are the perennial underachievers, it evokes tales of every rock and movie star that died too early, so much unfulfilled potential and large amounts of nostalgia and yearly Carling Cup finals appearances.
After not winning any of their first eight games it was no surprise to see Juande Ramos was sacked, strangely he was given the role at Real Madrid soon after. The strange return of prodigal twins Jermaine Defoe and Robbie Keane still sees Spurs only Six points away from the drop zone. Harry Rednapp is a good coach and will probably seem them come out of it; the side just has too many quality players to go down you would think.
Football has the ability to throw up some inspiring and unbelievable results, and it can also deliver dull and inevitable winners and losers as well. Will Liverpool be able to catch Manchester United, Can Villa snatch a Champions League spot? Hull and Tottenham have faded but will they fade away?
Tell them Ringo:
“Tomorrow never knows”
For a while there the Premier League season looked like it was going to throw up a new champion-Liverpool, a new member of the champion’s league elite-Aston Villa and rags from riches story- Hull, and there was even talk of Tottenham making the top six.
While Liverpool have cut down the Red Devils lead at the top down to four points. Manchester United still has a game in hand and you would say the Champions are still favourites to win the title again, and even win a crazy five if things fall in place.
The loss of Vidic to suspension is a blow; however manager Alex Ferguson has a skilful, experienced and deep squad to choose from.
Liverpool looked like dare I say it “the Liverpool of old” when they smashed United last weekend four-one. Liverpool would be higher up the ladder except for too many draws, and bad results against lower ranked teams. Losing brilliant striker Fernando Torres for a period earlier this season was also a big blow to their Championship ambitions.
Aston Villa was hanging in the top four all season, except that loss to Tottenham last week allowed Arsenal’s to leap frog them giving the top four an all familiar look.
Villa’s players look tired, they have only used 19 players this season, and they have one of the smallest squads in the premier league. Competing in four competitions including Europe with such a small squad is going to take its toll.
Villa has lost their power, lately the ball gets to Ashley Young a lot, with not a lot of help around. James Milner has gone off the boil, while Emile Heskey can be frustrating at time; John Carew has been injured and Gabbie Agbnonlahor needs a goal for his confidence, I gather he likes playing with Carew more than he does Heskey.
Losing Martin Laursen was a big loss; replacements Zat Knight and Curtis Davies have looked shaky at the back. Luke Young is a right back and has been playing at left back and Cuellar is more of a central defender than a right back.
The Gareth Barry transfer saga earlier in the year when he almost went to Liverpool probably didn’t help Villa’s cause either. At times they looked mesmerising with Young, Barry, Agbonlahor, Milner and even Carew playing some nice football and scoring some great goals. Ashley Young’s winner against Everton comes to mind.
Owner Randy Learner will probably regret not investing more funds into bringing new players if Villa misses out on a Champions league birth this season.
The Liverpool-Villa game on Sunday will be crucial in deciding the makeup of the top 4, well at least for a week anyway.
Meanwhile at the bottom of the table:
With 9 games remaining for Hull, despite the amazing start they made at the start of the season were they occupied the nose bleed section of the table for a while, it felt refreshing to see the underdogs do so well.
They won six out of their first nine matches, losing only once. Along the way they beat Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium,
So what went wrong?
I recently saw an interview with the head coach of Hull, Phil Brown on Sentata,
When asked why Geovanni was benched. The answer was that Brazilian didn’t train hard enough.
He said:
“that he should train like an Englishman, and play like a Brazilian”.
But isn’t it the case if you train like an Englishman, you play like an Englishman? If you train like a Brazilian, you play.......
Tottenham are the perennial underachievers, it evokes tales of every rock and movie star that died too early, so much unfulfilled potential and large amounts of nostalgia and yearly Carling Cup finals appearances.
After not winning any of their first eight games it was no surprise to see Juande Ramos was sacked, strangely he was given the role at Real Madrid soon after. The strange return of prodigal twins Jermaine Defoe and Robbie Keane still sees Spurs only Six points away from the drop zone. Harry Rednapp is a good coach and will probably seem them come out of it; the side just has too many quality players to go down you would think.
Football has the ability to throw up some inspiring and unbelievable results, and it can also deliver dull and inevitable winners and losers as well. Will Liverpool be able to catch Manchester United, Can Villa snatch a Champions League spot? Hull and Tottenham have faded but will they fade away?
Tell them Ringo:
“Tomorrow never knows”
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