While football success and failure is usually measured season to season, from August to May, the end of an year gives an opportunity to look back on the calender twelve months and see who we think has been worthy of appearing in this column.

Here’s a look at the teams and people who deserve to be nominated as the best performers of 2008. See our list and then suggest your own ‘winners of 2008′ at the end.

CRISTIANO RONALDO

This man has to be the biggest winner of 2008. Nobody else comes close really. Let’s look at what he has won during the year.

• Premier League winners medal
• Champions League winners medal
• FIFPro world player of the year
• Ballon d’Or
• European golden shoe
• UEFA Club forward of the year
• UEFA Club footballer of the year
• PFA Players player of the year
• PFA Fans player of the year
• PFA Premier League team of the year
• Football writers footballer of the year
• Barclays player of the season
• Barclays golden boot
• Barclays merit award

I don’t think I have to say anything else do I?

BARCELONA

A third place finish some eighteen points behind Real Madrid, coupled with a disappointing Champions League exit at the hands of Manchester United added up to a hugely poor 2007-08 season for Barcelona. It meant the end of Frank Rijkaard’s reign and a new beginning for the Club with the likes of Ronaldinho moving on.

Many people were surprised by the appointment of Reserve team manager and former playing legend Pep Guardiola and early results and performances seemed to support that surprise. However six victories of five or more goals and some quite wonderful performances from the team seem to have established Guardiola as a managerial hero as well.

In Europe, the qualifying round proved a formality and the fact that they topped their qualifying group undefeated seemed to go unnoticed in England as we all talk about which one of our four teams is going to win the tournament this year!

The year has got a whole lot better at the Camp Nou and I have a feeling that 2009 might be even better.

LIONEL MESSI

If this little genius had been fit for the whole of the year there is no doubt that he would have gone toe-to-toe with Cristiano Ronaldo in the player of the season awards.

Not since the great Diego Maradona have I seen a player who glides with the ball so effortlessly and terrorises defenders quite so much. He might not have won quite as much as Ronaldo but to be runner up in the Ballon d’Or, picked in the FIFPro world XI and win an olympic goal medal isn’t bad!

All he achieved was despite picking up an injury ruling him out of some of the season at a crucial time.

Both Pele and Maradona himself have said that Messi may be the best in the world. Recommendations don’t come much more highly than that. If they think he’s good then that’ll do for me!

FABIO CAPELLO

Don Fabio has achieved what was believed to be the almost impossible. He has turned England’s band of overpaid no-hopers into a band of overpaid some-hopers!

The side that looked so disjointed and dispirited under that buffoon Steve McClaren suddenly look like a disciplined and reasonably talented football team.

The 4-1 win in Croatia together with comfortable wins over Belarus and Kazakhstan have made him a national hero already. OK, it isn’t quite the same as beating Italy, Brazil and Spain but it’s a start!

The fact that he calls the England players by their surnames and demands that mobile phones are not used and demands that the players eat together and, best of all, has put a ban on the WAGS, all go towards making Capello one of my favourite people.

Obviously, should we not win the World Cup I will join the English press in absolutely destroying the man and saying that I knew all along that he wasn’t the man for the job!

TSG HOFFENHEIM

It is difficult to know where to start with superlatives about what this German club have achieved. The club was only formed in 1945 and up until the 1990s they were an amateur side playing in the eighth tier of German football.

By 1996 they had progressed to the fifth tier and then in 2000 another promotion followed. Remarkably the club stayed in the fourth division for just one season and the 2001-02 season saw them competing in division three.

The club made it’s very first appearance in the German Cup as recently as 2003. That gives an idea of just how meteoric their rise has been. The 2006-07 season saw the dream almost complete when promotion was earned to 2 Bundesliga but their promotion to the Bundesliga in their first season at that level surprised even themselves.

From Amateur to Bundesliga in fifteen years. From fifth tier to top tier in eight years. They would be bound to struggle wouldn’t they? Not a bit of it. They are battling away at the top of the table with European football within touching distance.

If Hollywood produced a film about the club, nobody would believe that it was realistic!

Well-deserved honourable mentions:

Manchester City deserve a mention because how can any club that comes into a five hundred billion pound fortune be described as anything other than winners?

Sir Alex Ferguson deserves a mention because the grumpy old git has done it again. After being written off by many, he has created an all new Manchester United team that has emulated their 1999 predecessors by winning the Premier League and the Champions League.

Hull City deserve a mention like Hoffenheim. They have started their first ever season in the Premier League with a style and success that few could have predicted. Their rise hasn’t been quite as spectacular as that of the German side but eight years ago, Hull were in the fourth tier of English football and very close to going out of business.

I wish you all a very happy Christmas and New Year and I hope it fulfills all your footballing dreams and ambitions.

Who do you think the biggest winners of 2008 have been?

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

While football success and failure is usually measured season to season, from August to May, the end of an year gives an opportunity to look back on the calender twelve months and see who we think has been worthy of appearing in this column.

Here’s a look at the teams and people who deserve to be nominated as the worst performers in 2008. See our list and then suggest your own ‘losers of 2008′ at the end.

REAL MADRID

They may have won La Liga last season but overall, 2008 has been a disappointing year for them, seeing them lose out on most of what they have wanted (although Real fans will call losing Bernd Schuster a good thing).

In Europe after qualifying relatively comfortably from their group, they went out of the tournament with a whimper by losing both games to Roma in the first qualifying round. That was the same Roma side that lost both games to Manchester United in the quarter-final.

In La Liga, their grip on the title looks to be a little weak. Defeats to the likes of Getafe and Valladolid is not the form of champions. Their defeat at home to Sevilla proved that they could be in trouble.

Probably their biggest defeat of the year however came in the battle to sign Cristiano Ronaldo. The club made no secret of their desire to bring the Portuguese winger to Madrid. They spent pretty much the whole Summer in the attempt to lure him away from Manchester United. They did so almost at the total exclusion of any other worthwhile transfer activity. As we all know, they failed. And worse, die to their pursuit of Ronaldo they lost Robinho at the end of the transfer window and they’ve been considerably weaker as a result since the start of this season.

AVRAM GRANT

He seems like a really nice bloke. He took Chelsea to within two points of the Premier League title and a John Terry slip away from winning the Champions League. He was in fact the first man to get Chelsea to the final of that prestigious competition.

What was his reward for achieving all of that? Yes, it was the sack.

Despite what he did at Chelsea, he seems to have become a manager that nobody else would want. I don’t understand what he has done to upset everyone, but certainly in the second half of the year he has been one of the biggest losers.

JUANDE RAMOS

Now then, Juande Ramos had a very strange year indeed. On 24th February when Tottenham lifted the Carling Cup at Wembley, Ramos was a hero. He was undoubtedly the man that was going to finally make Spurs break into that top four where everyone (Tottenham supporters, anyway!)thinks they should be.

A string of poor league form after that victory was put down to the euphoria of winning a trophy. The Summer came with high expectations at the Lane, as there always seem to be. This time, under such a great manager, the expectations seemed to be have a little more foundation than usual.

A lot of money was spent in the Summer, but everyone in the world (apart it seems from Ramos) knew that Dimitar Berbatov was going to leave the club. A replacement striker was essential but there was no sign of one. When Robbie Keane made the move to Liverpool the need for a striker was all the more obvious.

When Berbatov left the club a few minutes before the end of deadline day, Ramos claimed that this left him no time to find a replacement. It is still a mystery as to how Berbatov’s move to Manchester United came as such a shock to the manager!

A run of very poor league results saw Tottenham at the foot of the table. Constant team changes and players playing out of position seemed strange until we found out that the players had no idea what Ramos wanted from them. Not only did they literally not understand what he was saying, they didn’t understand his footballing concepts either.

The sack was a foregone conclusion. Never has a manager made such a mess of a great opportunity before. Being given the poisoned chalice that is Real Madrid isn’t exactly a bonus, but let’s see what 2009 brings for Ramos.

ARSENAL

They have not had the best of years. I know this will upset all you Gunners fans out there who might, with some justification, say ‘how can we be losers when we finished third in the Premiership, just four points behind the winners and got to the Champions League quarter-final?’

I’m a Watford supporter and if we finished third in the Premiership and got to the quarter-finals in Europe I would be drunk and dancing for a year. However, success is relative and for Arsenal, third place and a quarter-final is not good enough.

To compound the relative failure of last season, it doesn’t look like being any better this time around. With behind the scenes problems, disappointing defeats against the likes of Stoke and Hull and the defeat of the youngsters in the Carling Cup by Burnley after showing so much promise, third or fourth place and a quarter-final might be par for the course again.

MIKE ASHLEY

To start with he was loved by the Newcastle fans. He was one of them, a real fan. He stood on the terraces with them, drank beer, poured money into the club and, best of all, appointed Kevin Keegan as the manager.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, the appointment of Dennis Wise, disagreements with and the departure of Kevin Keegan, disastrous results on the pitch and a wish to sell the club for a profit but not being able to find a buyer, are just a few of the issues that spring to mind.

Obviously the death threats and the hatred and the fact that he can’t go anywhere near the North East of England may have put a bit of a downer on his year as well.

In his quiet moments, Mike Ashley really must look back over 2008 and ask himself, ‘how the hell did that happen?’

Well-deserved honourable mentions:

Derby County deserve a mention for getting relegated out of the Premiership with a remarkable eleven points and boasting a goal difference of -69.

Kris Boyd deserves a mention because he fails to get picked regularly for his club yet walks out on his country when not selected. That is the action of a real loser.

Heurelho Gomes deserves a mention because he has been so bad at Tottenham.

Finally, Sven Goran Eriksson deserves a mention because he has gone from managing a Manchester City team who looked odds on for European qualification at the start of the year, to getting the sack and taking over at Mexico where he is on the verge of…getting the sack.

I wish you all a very happy Christmas and New Year and I hope it fulfills all your footballing dreams and ambitions.

Who do you think the biggest losers of 2008 have been?

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Football must be a pretty good way to advertise your company. We all know that Emirates sponsor Arsenal, AIG sponsor Manchester United, Samsung at Chelsea and Carlsberg at Liverpool. But did you know that Beko sponsor Watford or Fraser Eagle sponsor Accrington Stanley? Just how much money is to be made by sponsoring or advertising a team outside the top four?

With so much money in the game at this time in England, and almost all of it in the Premier League (with the exception of Queens Park Rangers), companies are falling over themselves to jump on the bandwagon and advertise their products and services through the game. They must think it is worth it because they are spending vast amounts of money in the process.

I thought it would be worth looking at the different ways companies can advertise with clubs, the cost of doing so and just what they might expect for their money:

King of Clubs

The king of all clubs in relation to sponsorship and advertising has been Manchester United for some time now. When chief executive David Gill announced AIG as the new shirt sponsors of Manchester United in 2006 the sum of money certainly caused a stir. It was a British record shirt sponsorship deal of £56.5m to be paid over four years. That equates to £14.1m a year. Manchester United then had the most valuable sponsorship deal in the world, due to the renegotiation of the £15m-a-year deal Juventus had with oil firm Tamoil.

The four-year agreement has also been heralded, by extension, as the largest sponsorship deal in British history, eclipsing Chelsea‘s deal with Samsung.

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American Connection?

You may also know that Nike are the official sportswear partner, Budweiser is the official beer (anyone know where the American connection comes from?), Betfred are the official betting partners and Key 103 is the official radio station.

So… do these companies get their money’s worth?

Well, back in 2004, the club was able to report an operating profit of £58.3m ($105m) – not including the cost of player transfers – thanks to strong sales of replica shirts and other merchandise. It is believed that the club has 75 million fans worldwide, with 23 million in Europe, 4.6 million in the Americas, 40.7 million in Asia, and a further 5.9 million in South Africa. That’s an awful lot of people relating to AIG.

Just consider that every person in the world who wears one of United’s famous old shirts is advertising the company. Imagine if Soccerlens could sponsor Manchester United. How many people would visit this website if they did? The return must outweigh the cost.

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Stadium Branding

Another very famous sponsorship deal was the £100m sponsorship of Arsenal by The Emirates. The stadium is named after its sponsors, the airline company Emirates, with whom the club signed the largest sponsorship deal in English football history. Arsenal fans try to ignore the deal and refer to the ground as Ashburton Grove, or the Grove, as they do not agree with corporate sponsorship of stadium names. Of course, everyone else in the world refers to the ground as The Emirates, so it really doesn’t make much difference.

The stadium will be officially known as Emirates Stadium until at least 2012, and the airline will be the club’s shirt sponsor until the end of the 2013—14 season.

The fact is, of course, that if it wasn’t for the money coming in from The Emirates, Arsene Wenger wouldn’t be able to spend huge amounts of money on transfer fees for experienced quality international players to come to Arsenal. Mmm….

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Conflict of Interest?

In relation to The Emirates sponsorship of Arsenal, did you know that Etihad airways are associated with Chelsea? According to the Chelsea website, they are the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, based in Abu Dhabi. Do you think that Abu Dhabi United at Manchester City know about this?

With Manchester United going American for their official beer, you might think that Chelsea would have Baltika or Stary Melnik, but no, they have Heineken!

So what are the different ways of advertising with, or sponsoring, a football club?

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Football Shirt Sponsor

Well, you could be the main shirt sponsor of a club like AIG or Samsung. It shouldn’t prove too expensive. The XL group sponsor West Ham‘s shirt for just £2.5m a year. That’s a bargain in anyone’s book. Come on Ahmed, why aren’t Soccerlens sponsoring a Premier League club’s shirt?

What else can you sponsor? Well you can sponsor the matchday experience at your favourite club. For your money you will get advertising in the matchday programme, on the scoreboard and over the tannoy. You are likely to get a pre-match meal, half-time refreshments and after-match drinks. You could meet some of the players and maybe even choose the man of the match. It will cost you, but business-wise and personally, it could be worth it.

For these privileges you have to pay a fair amount of money. At Manchester City it would cost you £8,000. They need the money, don’t they. At newly promoted Stoke City you can get a similar package for just £2,000. That is less than you would pay at Championship side Watford, where it would set your company back £3,000.

In League Two you still have to part with significant funds. Bournemouth are struggling with a points deduction after they went into receivership last season. To sponsor a match day at their humble ground will set you back £1,495. You won’t get worldwide publicity and only three or four thousand people will be at the game rather than fifty thousand, but is it still worth it for a local business?

For just £35 you can sponsor a matchday at the club I coach at, Wilton Town. Ahmed?

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Football Sponsorship

If matchday sponsorship is a bit rich for your tastes then maybe you could consider sponsoring the match ball. Manchester City will take £2,250 from you for the privilege, but that will come in handy for their new owners. Stoke City charge a little less at £1,500, whereas Bournemouth or Aldershot in League Two will only request £550 for the honour of having your company name on the scoreboard and in the programme.

Another way of helping your club and advertising your business is to sponsor an individual player’s kit. Premier League Bolton Wanderers will charge you £1,000 for one of their players whilst Stoke City will entertain you for as little as £400. Championship high-flyers Wolves are already looking for £726 whilst struggling Bournemouth can’t give a kit away for £375.

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Advertise

Straight advertising can be undertaken in a few ways, for example, over the tannoy system at the games or on the scoreboard, but the most traditional ways are to advertise in the matchday programme or to purchase an advertising board around the side of the pitch.

Prices for a programme advert vary from as little as £250 at Premier League Stoke City to as much as £6,500 for a whole page full season advert in the programme at Watford. At my Wilton Town you can get an advert for just £50.

The pitch side advertising boards vary enormously in price depending on where they are located in the ground. Are they pitch facing or crowd facing, and more importantly, will they be in the line of the cameras if the match is televised?

As a rough guide, Stoke City offer boards from £750 to £3,500. At Wigan it will cost you around £2,000 and at League Two Aldershot, you’ll only have to part with around £1,500.

And then there are opportunities to advertise football club merchandise such as memorabilia, football training kits, pre-season tours and of course, football club websites.

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Make Money or Enjoy Helping?

So as you can see, you can get involved with a football club in terms of advertising for anywhere between ~£100m and £50. One can only assume that the big companies make money out of what they do as they wouldn’t do it for nothing. At the smaller clubs it may not be a major money spinner for the companies who sponsor and advertise, but it might make some money and you have the joy of knowing that you are helping your beloved club.

Also see: World’s Biggest Football Sponsors | English Premier League Club Sponsors | English Championship Club Sponsors | English League One Club Sponsors | English League Two Club Sponsors.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Wednesday night sees the famous Argentina side arriving at Hampden Park for a ‘friendly’ (if either side could actually have such a thing) against Scotland.

I think I read somewhere that Argentina have got a new manager…?

Anything but uneventful

Yes, the great Diego Maradona has taken over and his spell in charge will, I’m sure, be anything but uneventful. There are already rumours of behind the scenes arguments about his choice of assistant and whether his tenure will be a long one or not remains to be seen. It will be fun while it lasts.

He has already said that he will walk out on the national team if he is refused permission to appoint Oscar Ruggeri as his assistant.

Threatening

Maradona’s first match is scheduled to be this game but he is threatening not to come.

“I will be the trainer with my technical staff I want, otherwise I will not come to Glasgow,” he said.

Carlos Bilardo, the Argentina FA’s technical secretary, insists Maradona will not carry out his threat.

Dispute

Argentina FA boss Julio Grondon, who Maradona is reported to be in dispute with, would not reveal the reasons for his dislike of former Argentina defender Ruggeri.

Maradona has already pointed out that he is a bit of a hero in Scotland after his exploits in 1986 and the two countries would seem to share a hatred of us poor old English.

Based in England

Despite that hatred, twelve of the Scotland squad are based in the English league and three of the Argentina squad are also based in England, Manchester United’s Carlos Tevez, Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano and Newcastle’s Fabricio Coloccini. They also include former Manchester United defender Gabriel Heinze in their squad.

Apart from Maradona the most notable thing about Argentina is the player who isn’t there. The new boss was unable to persuade Barcelona to release Lionel Messi for the game.

Restored

Scotland’s captain Barry Ferguson and Alan Hutton have been restored to George Burley’s twenty-six man squad for the game. Ferguson is physically fit again, but is badly lacking match fitness. Tottenham’s Alan Hutton says he is relishing the challenge of fighting for his place in the Scotland team after four months out with a foot fracture.

Ross McCormack of Cardiff City has also been re-called after impressing with twelve goals already this season whilst Birmingham City’s Garry O’Connor has been left out.

Sunderland keeper Craig Gordon is in the squad, but is struggling with an ankle injury and is unlikely to play. That could mean a second international start for Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor.

Elsewhere, there is no place for Rangers defender David Weir or of course his team-mate midfielder Kevin Thomson who has a knee injury that will see him miss the rest of the season.

Obviously, as an Englishman I hope both teams lose on Wednesday! As that isn’t possible I predict a narrow Argentina victory. What do you think?

A Touch Of Controversy?

“E quando un giornalista inglese gli ricorda il gol di mano ai Tre Leoni e le dichiarazioni di Terry Butcher – suo avversario all’epoca e oggi assistente di George Burley, c.t. della Scozia – che non intende perdonarlo, d’incanto Maradona ritrova il piglio di un tempo. ‘Non mi interessa dare la mano a Butcher, dormirò anche senza la sua stretta di mano. Nessuno deve giudicarmi anche perché voglio ricordare che l’Inghilterra ha vinto una Coppa del Mondo (1966) con un gol che non aveva oltrepassato la riga della porta’ “.

“When an English journalist pointed out his handed goal against the Three Lions and the declarations by Terry Butcher, his adversary at the time and now the assistant to George Burley, head coach of Scotland, that he (Butcher) didn’t intend to forgive him, Maradona rediscovered a controversy from long ago:

‘It doesn’t interest me to shake hands with Butcher, I will sleep without his handshake. Nobody ought to judge me also because I remember that England won a World Cup in 1966 with a goal that hadn’t passed over the goal line.’ “

Source: La Gazzetta dello Sport, 18 November 2008. Translated by Steve Amoia.

Scotland Squad:

Goalkeepers: Craig Gordon (Sunderland), David Marshall (Norwich City), Allan McGregor (Rangers)
Defenders: Graham Alexander (Burnley), Darren Barr (Falkirk), Christophe Berra (Hearts), Kirk Broadfoot (Rangers), Gary Caldwell (Celtic), Alan Hutton (Tottenham Hotspur), Stephen McManus (Celtic), Jamie McAllister (Bristol City), Gary Naysmith (Sheffield United)
Midfielders: Scott Brown (Celtic), Kris Commons (Derby County), Barry Ferguson (Rangers), Darren Fletcher (Manchester United), Paul Hartley (Celtic), Shaun Maloney (Celtic), James Morrison (West Bromwich Albion), Barry Robson (Celtic)
Forwards: David Clarkson (Motherwell), Steven Fletcher (Hibernian), Chris Iwelumo (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Ross McCormack (Cardiff City), James McFadden (Birmingham City), Kenny Miller (Rangers)

Argentina squad:

Goalkeepers: Juan Pablo Carrizo (Lazio), Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar)
Defenders: Javier Zanetti (Inter), Nicolas Burdisso (Inter), Martin Demichelis (Bayern Munich), Daniel Diaz (Getafe), Gabriel Heinze (Real Madrid), Fabricio Coloccini (Newcastle), Emilano Papa (Velez Sarsfield), Cristian Villagra (River Plate)
Midfielders: Javier Mascherano (Liverpool), Maximiliano Rodriguez (Atletico Madrid), Fernando Gago (Real Madrid), Jonas Gutierrez (Newcastle), Luis Gonzalez (FC Porto), Jose Sosa (Bayern Munich), Daniel Montenegro (Independiente)
Forwards: Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid), Carlos Tevez (Manchester United), Lisandro Lopez (FC Porto), Ezequiel Lavezzi (Napoli), German Denis (Napoli)

Also See: Sam Kelly on the Argentina’s callups, Scotland the Brave, Viva El Futbol and Germany v England – 19 November 08 – Berlin.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

So, four games into the qualification campaign for World Cup 2010 and England sit clear at the top of their group with twelve points.

An unimpressive win over Andorra was followed by a scintillating performance in Croatia. Then, last Saturday they stumbled to a victory over Kazakhstan that was less convincing than the 5-1 scoreline sounded.

Potentially dangerous

Last night Fabio Capello took his men to Minsk to take on the potentially dangerous Belarus side. They did so without half of their regular back four with John Terry and Ashley Cole absent through injury and with a midfield of Lampard and Barry, with Gerrard playing, well, I’m not sure where he was playing, we’ll come to that.

With the afore mentioned Stevie G fighting for his place in the side, what he needed was to gloriously strike the ball home from thirty yards after about ten minutes to put England ahead. Guess what? Yep, he did exactly that. You couldn’t write it, could you?

Fell asleep

After that England didn’t quite function as Capello would have liked and Belarus put together a wonderful twenty-three pass move before Sitko headed home on twenty-eight minutes to even things up. He was left unmarked by Theo Walcott, so exciting going forward but prone to fall asleep when defending.

At half-time Capello tinkered a little with the formation and England came out looking like they meant business. Just four minutes into the second period a great run by the tireless work horse Emile Heskey was finished off by Wayne Rooney who gleefully continued his rich vein of goal scoring form.

World Class

Belarus were hardly getting a kick and it was no surprise when England increased their lead after seventy-four minutes when Gerrard and Rooney combined in a world class fashion for the Manchester United man to add his second and England’s third.

In truth it could have been more. England looked very good indeed going forward. In Theo Walcott, Wayne Rooney and Steve Gerrard there is a real threat. Add to that the indomitable Emile Heskey and you have a pretty decent strikeforce.

Judgement or luck?

The question is, has Fabio Capello come up with a master plan about how to get the best out of Frank Lampard and Steve Gerrard, or is it simply a case that he is still playing with the system in order to try to accomodate them both. In other words, is the great result a case of judgement or luck?

Where did Gerrard play against Belarus? Nominally, he appeared to be playing on the left hand side of midfield. In reality he popped up all over the place which made him a major threat. On the down side, against a better team, defending in an unbalanced way such as this, could lead to major problems.

Not a night for negatives

Let us not dwell on that aspect however, because tonight is not a night for negatives. England played bloody well and the rest of Europe and indeed the World, will have taken note of the progress Don Fabio is making with this under achieving team.

It is the first time England have ever won their first four World Cup qualifying games and let’s not forget they’ve scored fifteen goals in the process.

What’s next?

So what’s next for England? There is a long break to the next competitive match which takes place at Wembley on April 1st next year when England take on Ukraine. This will be another potentially difficult game with Ukraine only two points behind England if they win their game in hand.

After that game there is another break until June when the seemingly easier games away to Kazakhstan and at home to Andorra take place on the 6th and 10th respectively.

Where are England now?

On top of group six. That’s where they actually physically stand. The table looks like this:

1 England 4 4 0 0 14 3 12
2 Croatia 4 2 1 1 8 4 7
3 Ukraine 3 2 1 0 4 1 7
4 Belarus 3 1 0 2 4 5 3
5 Kazakhstan 4 1 0 3 5 11 3
6 Andorra 4 0 0 4 1 12 0

Where do they stand in terms of their progress as a team? At the back, Rio Ferdinand is imperious and although Matthew Upson did well as a stand-in for skipper John Terry, they will look even stronger when JT returns.

In midfield, Barry and Lampard are disciplined and efficient. Theo Walcott is frightening for defenders and dare I say it, Capello may be the man that is able to get Gerrard to reproduce that elusive club form on the international stage.

Up front, they have an Emile Heskey looking like a twenty year-old rather a thirty year-old and Wayne Rooney looking like the World class star that we all thought he was going to be.

Excited

I’m in grave danger of making that oh so English mistake of building us up prior to yet another disappointment, but for the first time in many years, I am genuinely excited about what England might be about to produce.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

It was all set up. Six points out of six, a crowd of 90,000 passionate and expectant fans and coming off the back of a fabulous 4-1 win in Croatia. The opponents? Kazakhstan, who have never qualified for anything and were at Wembley to just play a bit part as England showed the world that they are back in the game.

Perfectly to plan

Well, if you look at the result, it all went perfectly to plan. England win 5-1 and move on to Belarus with nine points out of nine, eleven goals in three games and everything looking exciting and promising for the future. Or is it?

Wayne Rooney scored two goals and won the man of the match award. He looked every inch a world class striker and looked like the player we all thought he would be for England when he first burst onto the scene. Rio Ferdinand didn’t put a foot wrong and looked every inch a world class centre half and skipper and got the opening goal. Emile Heskey held the ball up, brought other players into the game and helped them score goals. Wouldn’t he be the best striker in the world if he could just score goals?

Traitor

There were so many good things about England’s performance that I feel disloyal and a bit of a traitor to paint a less than rosy picture. The fact is that Ashley Cole made a terrible schoolboy error, Wes Brown and Matthew Upson will never be international class players, Gerrard and Lampard CAN NOT PLAY TOGETHER and Shaun Wright-Phillips is not a left winger!

Apart from that, I fancy England to win the world cup!!

Sterner test

So now England move on to Belarus on Wednesday evening and they will provide a much sterner test for Fabio Capello’s men than the hard working but limited players from Kazakhstan did.

Belarus have had a weekend off and they will be trying desperately to get Barcelona’s Alexander Hleb fit for the game. Draws with Germany, Finland and Argentina in their last three games before the qualifiers put them in a great frame of mind but a 1-0 defeat in Ukraine took the wind out of their sails a little. Having said that, Ukraine are a decent side and it took a ninety-fifth minute penalty to beat them.

Supremely confident

Belarus bounced back from that defeat with a 3-1 win in Andorra and what they saw at Wembley in England’s game against Kazakhstan won’t have frightened them too much. There is no doubt that they will fancy their chances, but why should England be anything other than supremely confident after 4-1 and 5-1 wins?

Is it an English disease that we feel slightly pessimistic and worried after a 5-1 win? I think it must be. The first fifty-one minutes when we looked a little clueless and the sloppiness of the goal we gave away are the things that stay in the memory. Not the five goals and the good aspects of the performance that I discussed earlier.

We are top of the group for goodness sake and we should be celebrating. So why aren’t I?

Never won a thing

Maybe it is because I have been an England supporter for forty one years and I have never seen us win a thing. Maybe I just don’t allow myself to get excited or optimistic. Maybe I know we are not as good as the best teams in the world. Maybe I’m just a miserable bastard. I don’t know.

There are so many nationalities who should feel less excited than us English. The Austrians only managed a 1-1 draw in the Faroe Islands, Scotland failed to beat Norway, Sweden and Portugal failed to beat each other when they would both have been hopeful of a win. A 5-1 win isn’t a disaster is it?

Confident?

There is no doubt that England can win in Belarus and there is also no doubt that a draw would be a satisfactory result. England are more than capable of getting the desired result on Wednesday and in fact, all English fans should be confident of doing so. So why aren’t we?

I’m not really sure why we are not optimistic. We have some of the best players in the world. Would Ferdinand, Cole, Lampard, Gerrard and Rooney get into most international sides? Yes they would. Would David James and Joe Cole be close to getting into most international sides? Yes they would.

Exciting options?

Would Shaun Wright-Philips and Theo Walcott be regarded as exciting options in most countries? Yes. OK, Matthew Upson might not challenge for a place in many national sides but John Terry sure would!

In other words, England have nine fine players to be in their first eleven. Wes Brown might not be everyone’s choice as right back but he did win the Premier League and Champions League double playing there last season. As previously discussed, if he could only score goals, Emile Heskey would be an automatic choice for any country.

If England lined up as James, Brown, Terry, Ferdinand, Cole, Walcott, Gerrard, Lampard, Wright-Phillips, Heskey, Rooney, would anyone bet against them winning something? OK, everyone would because England don’t win things. Would any country pick too many of their own players against these individuals? No, they wouldn’t.

Belarus

So, to Belarus. Are we confident and pretty sure of a victory? No we’re not. We should be but we aren’t. I can’t explain why, but we’re not.

Come on England, get a professional win in Belarus and I’ll believe that the Fabio Capello revolution has truly arrived and the Italian can take us to where we haven’t been since 1966.

Win the world cup?

England to win the world cup? Two decent wins and it is possible. I have thought England would be there or thereabouts ten times so far in my life and the closest we have got is the 1990 tournament where we lost the semi-final on penalties to Germany.

Can we go one better this time? We’ll know a little more after Wednesday.

Come on England! Engerland, Engerland, Engerland…

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Watch World Cup qualifiers live here.

It’s great being an England fan. The despair and doom and gloom hanging over the team and indeed, over the entirety of English football, has been transformed into a genuine belief that we are going to win the 2010 World Cup on the basis of one performance in Croatia. It was an exceptionally good performance I’ll admit, but it was just one game.

Unrealistic

Of course, we now have the talents of Theo Walcott who will undoubtedly be the best player in the world and will play a pivotal role in the build up to John Terry lifting up that trophy in just under two years time. That’s the view of the media in England and the ridiculous and unrealistic view that many England fans now have. We just get caught up in all the hype and can’t stop ourselves. It isn’t our fault!

Naively optimistic

Well, over the next few days, we have a real opportunity to cement those naively optimistic feelings or to bring our hopes and dreams crashing back down to earth. I know managers often say that there is no such thing as an easy international match but home to Kazakhstan and away to Belarus?

Fabio Capello has named his twenty-three man squad for the two games and it looks like this:

James (Portsmouth), Green (West Ham), Carson (West Brom); Brown (Manchester United), Johnson (Portsmouth), Terry (Chelsea), Ferdinand (Manchester United), Lescott (Everton), Upson (West Ham), A Cole (Chelsea), Bridge (Chelsea); Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy), Walcott (Arsenal), Barry (Aston Villa), Jenas (Tottenham), Lampard (Chelsea), Gerrard (Liverpool), Downing (Middlesbrough), Wright-Phillips (Manchester City); Heskey (Wigan), Crouch (Portsmouth), Rooney (Manchester United), Defoe (Portsmouth).

There is as much talk about who isn’t in the squad as there is about who is. The most notable absence of course is Michael Owen who seems to be well outside of Fabio Capello’s plans. He has a wonderful record for England and many people think he is worth a place in the squad, but he is suffering from the turmoil at Newcastle and his chance may come again if Newcastle can sort out the mess or Owen moves on.

Big miss

Also missing is Joe Cole who suffered a foot injury in Chelsea’s win over Aston Villa. He will be a big miss because he is in sparkling form and is one of England’s few players who can produce a moment of individual brilliance to change games.

Jimmy Bullard and David Bentley are also left out of the squad to be replaced by Steve Gerrard and Shaun Wright-Phillips. I feel sorry for Bullard who has done nothing wrong, but really can’t complain about Gerrard returning to the squad. Maybe Bullard might have an argument to say that he deserves his place more than Jermaine Jenas? As for Bentley, his disappointing form for Tottenham has blown his chance of becoming the long term replacement for David Beckham.

International class keepers

Scott Carson comes in for the injured Paul Robinson and this is based on the fact that…well, we haven’t got three international class goalkeepers!

Two players who can consider themselves as slightly unfortunate not to be included are the Aston Villa pair of Ashley Young and Gabby Agbonlahor. They have been impressive for Aston Villa again this season and Young especially must have been close to selection, particularly with the injury to Joe Cole. Does anyone really think that Stewart Downing has more of a claim to the left hand side of England’s midfield than Ashley Young?

Booed from the field

Prior to the 4-1 win in Croatia, England were booed from the field at Wembley after a 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic and a particularly uninspiring 2-0 win over Andorra. Now, after that one game we will see a 90,000 sell-out crowd at Wembley on Saturday all expecting us to thump the minnows from Kazakhstan.

England have six points from their opening two games to sit at the top of the group and anything less than six points from Saturday’s game, which kicks off at 1715 BST and Wednesday evening’s trip to Minsk to take on Belarus in a 1930 BST kick-off, would be regarded as something of a disaster.

Capello is wary of complacency and has said that England must concentrate on every game.

“We now have six points and we have to play every game like a final. Against Kazakhstan and against Belarus – you must focus every game. This is my philosophy, my vision of football. It is important to win but you have to focus for the next game, not on what we did against Croatia.”

Kazakhstan have three points from the three games they have played so far. A convincing 3-0 win against Andorra (better than England did!) was followed by a 3-0 defeat in Croatia and a 3-1 defeat to Ukraine.

Since the beginning of June 2007 they have played eleven competitive matches and six friendlies. They have won just two games, the victory over Andorra and a 1-0 win over Armenia in a Euro 2008 qualifier. There have been four draws and eleven defeats including a 6-0 drubbing in Russia. However, they haven’t conceded more than three goals in any of the other sixteen games and in seven games they kept a clean sheet or conceded only once.

Their squad is made up almost entirely of players who ply their trade in Kazakhstan. Of the last squad they announced only their midfield player, Andrei Karpovich, who plays for Dynamo Moscow, earns his living elsewhere.

Belarus may well provide sterner opposition for Fabio Capello’s men. They too have three points from their two matches so far but were unbelievably unlucky to lose 1-0 in Ukraine to an injury time penalty. They won comfortably in Andorra 3-1.

Also this year, Belarus achieved a 2-2 draw in a friendly in Germany and a 0-0 draw in a friendly at home to Argentina. It is fair to say that Belarus are no mugs.

They have some notable victories to their name, none more so than a 2-1 win over Holland in the Euro 2008 qualification campaign. They are also well known to British football fans after their 1-0 win in Scotland in 2005.

The Belarus squad play their football far and wide although a majority play in the Russian league. Their most famous player is probably Barcelona’s Alexander Hleb.

Current manager Bernd Stange has a decent record of six wins and four draws in the sixteen matches he has been in charge.

Straight forward?

So there we have it. Potentially a fairly straight forward win at Wembley against Kazakhstan and a tougher but easily winnable game in Belarus. The problem is, when has anything been straight forward when it comes to the English national team?

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

A letter in the Soccerlens postbag today came from a desperate sounding footballer. We have tried to give reassurance and sound advice to help him through what is clearly a dificult time.

Dear Soccerlens,

I am a twenty-eight year old footballer who has achieved a modicum of success in my career so far. I am probably best remembered for a goal I scored when I was eighteen but there have been a few more over the past ten years.

Bad mistake

I made one bad mistake in my life and now it is ruining everything. I know I can’t turn the clock back but I need to let somebody know just how badly everything has gone wrong.

I have suffered from a number of injuries over the years but despite that I have played three hundred league games at the very top of the game and scored over one hundred and fifty goals. My international record is not too shabby and I’ve hit the back of the net forty times in my eighty-nine games.

More than Emile Heskey

This season I am playing in a pretty poor side which is in a bit of a mess, yet I have scored three league goals which is less than Jermaine Defoe, but as many as Peter Crouch and more than Wayne Rooney and Emile Heskey, who are all playing in decent sides.

That is where my problem lies. I have once again been overlooked by Fabio Capello for the England squad to play the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers. I am not sure what else I can do to prove I should be given a chance as I would like to think that my record stands for itself. The players I have mentioned above have all been selected ahead of me and between them, they have one hundred and fifty two caps and have scored thirty nine goals. That’s one less goal in sixty three more games. Am I going mad?

World soccer player of the year

When asked about me the other day I understand that Mr. Capello said, “Is he in good form now? He’s scoring but it’s not enough to score goals. Sometimes I see games where a player has not played for 89 minutes and then scores a goal. It’s not enough. Goals are very important but not only goals. I have to decide on 23 players. I do not decide out of sympathy or because I like or dislike players. I decide on who I think is the best player at the moment.”

I think I am in incredibly good form at the moment considering the mess my team is in and I am doing my best to keep a disjointed and dejected team together at a time of great stress as the captain. I really don’t think I could be doing much more than I am.

Hero

I used to play for a Premiership team at which I was regarded as a hero. I then tried my luck with a big team abroad and that didn’t really work out for me. I only started fifteen games for that club but I scored a respectable eighteen goals. I was popular with the fans, especially after I scored a goal against their biggest rivals.

When I left that club to come back to England I made this terrible mistake about which I have spoken. It was a mistake that has cost me dear and may have brought my fantastic international career to a premature end. I joined a club with fantastic support, huge potential but a pretty poor team and the type of behind the scenes nonsense that you just wouldn’t believe.

I can still score goals

I am stuck here until the end of this season I think although I desperately hope to get away in January. I know I can still score goals and I know that I should still be in the England set-up. It is just that whilst I stay where I am it seems I have no chance.

Please can you advise me as to what I have to do to persuade Mr. Capello that I am worth a place at least in the squad?

Thank you.

MO. North East England.

Dear MO,

Keep trying, get a new club and try to match the scoring exploits of Emile Heskey.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

What is the lot of a football club owner in the English Premier League in this day and age?

Well, if you are Abu Dhabi United or Roman Abramovich, then you are in it for the fun and kudos of owning a football club.

Neither of these two owners are in the game to try to make money. They are already richer than normal people can even imagine and they know that they are unlikely to make a profit from football.

For them, it is a toy, a game, a bit of fun.

The club he loves

For the likes of Bill Kenwright at Everton it is a labour of love and a desire to help the club he loves to remain at the top. He doesn’t have the type of fortune that the previously mentioned owners have, but he has to try to keep up with them, even though he has to ensure that he doesn’t lose money in the way that Abu Dhabi United or Roman Abramovich wouldn’t even notice if they did.

It is the same with Dave Whelan at Wigan. He wants to run the club that he loves in a way that sees them achieving a reasonable level of success, but that does see them going into so much debt that danger signals would be going off all around them.

Chuckle Brothers

For the Glazers at Manchester United and the Chuckle Brothers at Liverpool, it is an investment from which they want to make money. They have no love for the club they have invested in, it is simply a financial adventure that they have embarked upon because they can and because they want to make even more.

It can work. Look at the allegedly, and definitely, dodgy, Thaksin Shinawatra. He has made about one hundred million pounds out of owning Manchester City for just over a year. Nice work if you can get it.

Mike Ashley

So where does Mike Ashley sit in this list of owners? He is a bit of all of the above really. He is clearly a football fan, but he isn’t a Newcastle fan. That is a small detail in itself but a massive one in the overall picture. If people who don’t understand football get involved with clubs it is a recipe for disaster. If they have the money of an Abramovich or Abu Dhabi United, that fact can be covered, but if they are merely rich, then an understanding of football, the club and its place in the community, is absolutely essential.

Ashley thought he knew Newcastle and the Toon Army but he didn’t. It was that lack of knowledge that has caused him so many problems. The appointment of Dennis Wise’s mate as the interim manager until he manages to sell the club almost looks like a deliberate attempt to get back at the very people he said he wanted to help.

No business could survive

The weekend saw reports that both Portsmouth and Tottenham are also looking for new investors. You can rest assures that neither club is looking for a Bill Kenwright or a Dave Whelan. They are looking for a multi-billionaire overseas investor to make a fast buck. The figures announced at the weekend make for interesting and frightening reading. Portsmouth pay 90% of their income on player wages. That is ridiculous and frightening. No business could survive being run along those lines.

Just what were the owners thinking when Harry Redknapp said he wanted to buy Peter Crouch and pay him fifty thousand a week for them to reply that it was a good idea. I’m not questioning the wisdom of wanting Peter Crouch, I am simply saying that to buy him was financially irresponsible and putting the club, and indeed the whole English game, in jeopardy.

Astonishing debt

Football in England is being run by a mixture of the incredibly rich on one hand and the quite rich, who love their clubs on the other. The amount of debt in the game is a truly astonishing statistic and one that could easily blow up in the faces of the authorities who have allowed it to happen.

Just to give you an idea of how much money we are talking about, it is reported that the Abu Dhabi United group have a fortune of around five hundred billion pounds. The USA has been looking for seven hundred billion dollars to rescue their economy. In other words, Manchester City’s new owners could help to solve the world’s current financial crisis and still have over a hundred billion pounds left. Is the world going mad, or is it just me?

Football has always been a wonderful game but it took a turn for the worse when money men got involved and decided that clubs needed to be run like businesses. The simple joy of the game and its success and popularity with the public revolved around the position and importance the club held within the local community. Once people started to try to make fortunes from the game the very essence of why it was so popular started being whittled away.

Kudos and glamour

Ten of the twenty Premier League clubs are now in the hands of overseas investors. It is very likely that the likes of Bill Kenwright and Dave Whelan will be gradually eased out of the game and all of the top clubs will be run by people who know little and care less about the club and are only interested in the kudos and the glamour that being associated with Premier League football affords at the moment.

If things continue as they are, that kudos and glamour could easily disappear and the big money overseas investors could look elsewhere to find a toy to play with. If that happens, where would that leave the game in England?

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The well known match fixing scandals of the past in Italy and South America have rocked world football over the years. The allegations made against Bruce Grobbelaar and others a few years ago in England forced the officials and fans in that country to assess their own game.

As fans, we need to know that the outcome of each game is decided by twenty-two players trying their hardest to win the game and four totally neutral and honest officials overseeing the proceedings. Any suggestion that what we are paying to watch is anything other than an above board, fair and corruption free contest is quite simply an anathema to any right minded fan.

Realistic or a naive dream?

Is the desire for football to be whiter than white as described above realistic, or is it the desire of a naïve dreamer who doesn’t live in the real world?

There are very few walks of life that haven’t had some sort of corruption scandal or at least the whiff of things not being entirely as they seem. The chances of corruption seeping its poisonous way into the body of something is increased in direct proportion to the amount of money involved.

Football at the top level, particularly at this time with the Abu Dhabi United takeover at Manchester City, is certainly where an awful lot of money is to be found. As I say, in most walks of life, where there is money, there is corruption just around the corner.

Fair and honest

I might be really naïve but I still believe the game, at least in England, where I have most knowledge, to be almost completely clean. I do not believe that match fixing takes place at all. I have no doubt that there are grey areas around transfer dealings and tax matters, but the actual games are still a fair and honest contest.

With so much money being gambled on football matches, the financial benefits of match fixing would be enormous. Other sports have fallen foul of that fact, particularly horse racing, but I believe English football has so far escaped.

Does the evidence from the past suggest that my view is likely to be a realistic one? Let’s look at some of the evidence;

Soft line on gambling

In England the football authorities have taken a soft line on gambling. The FA only prohibits betting on a match by those directly involved in the game in question. This is despite a betting scandal back in the sixties when several football league players were involved in fixing matches. The most notorious incident involved three Sheffield Wednesday players, including two England international players, who were subsequently banned from football for life and imprisoned after it was discovered they had bet against their team winning in a match against Ipswich Town.

Floodlight scam

In 1999 a Malaysian based betting syndicate was caught trying to sabotage the floodlights at Charlton Athletic, then in the Premier League. If the match had been abandoned after half-time, then the result and bets would have stood. It was found that this same gang had been responsible for previous floodlight failures at West Ham and Wimbledon.

Dodgy ref

In possibly the most damning incident in 2005, German football was rocked by the news that Bundesliga referee Robert Hoyzer had bet on and fixed several matches. Hoyzer admitted to the charges and implicated other referees and players. He was imprisoned for two years and banned from football for life. Whether all those involved were caught and dealt with is a matter for conjecture.

Bribe to lose

Also in 2005 Italian Serie B champions Genoa were placed last in the division, and relegated to Serie C1, after it became known that they had bribed their opponents in the final match of the season, to lose the match. Genoa won the match 3-2.

Brazilian fix

Later that same year a Brazilian magazine revealed that two of its referees, Edílson Pereira de Carvalho (a member of FIFA’s referee staff) and Paulo José Danelon, had accepted bribes to fix matches. Soon afterward the replaying of eleven matches officiated by Edilson was ordered in the country’s top competition, the Campeonato Brasileiro. Both referees have been banned for life from football.

The Italian scandal

The most infamous of all the incidents took place following the 2006 Serie A season. Italian Police uncovered evidence implicating league champions Juventus, together with AC Milan, Fiorentina, and Lazio, of rigging games by selecting favourable referees, and even superstar goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was charged with betting on football games.

So, working on the theory that very little crime is ever detected, it seems extremely unlikely that these incidents are the only cases of corruption, alleged or otherwise, that have occurred in European football and beyond, over the past few years.

I ask again, is my belief that English football matches are free from suspicion realistic or naïve?

What is natural and what is corrupt?

We have all seen matches played where both teams need a point to win the league or stay up or get promoted, etc, and surprise, surprise, the game ends in a draw. Is that corrupt?

We have all seen games where top teams have rested players in matches against teams down at the bottom, allowing the lowly placed teams to pick up points that they wouldn’t have gotten against a full strength side. That is hardly fair to the other clubs fighting against relegation and certainly greatly annoyed Neil Warnock when he was at Sheffield United. Is that corrupt?

“I’d love it!”

We have all seen players produce better performances and more energy against better teams. Remember Fergie’s blast at Leeds United? The one that got Kevin Keegan so riled. Is that natural or could it be corrupt?

We have all seen spectacular own goals, easy chances missed and horrific defensive and goalkeeping mistakes. It is what football is all about, but could it sometimes be corrupt?

I truly hope that the answer to all of these questions is an emphatic no. It would destroy everything I love about the game if the answer was any different. I just have this nagging doubt at the back of my mind that with the ludicrous sums of money involved at the top of the game the chances of undesirable people getting involved and people succumbing to the only too natural human failing of greed, is more likely than not.

How big is the if?

We all have a go at the football authorities, but if they have managed to keep corruption out of the sport to a large degree then they deserve a great deal of credit. I just fear that it is a very big if.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News