The age of football management is dead. In only a few bloody days, the whole landscape of top-flight football has changed, and even more unstable times lay ahead.

In a usually calm time for football – the lull before the transfer window opens again – the world outside the top four is going off the rails.

In the space of a few days, the proverbial has hit the fan. Case in hand Wigan. This is a team who have worked wonders to stay in the Premiership for two consecutive seasons with nothing much in terms of resources. Now they have lost their key asset Paul Jewell, perhaps to another, bigger club, perhaps he just could not handle the pressure of expectation any more.

Manchester City have also done away with Stuart Pearce, their new owner saying he will only consider foreign managers. Perhaps he believes that foreign coaches are some kind of a magic formula for success, a la Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Sheffield United, relegated after putting up a good fight to survive for as long as they did on a limited budget, have now lost Neil Warnock. While Warnock has never been the most popular of figures in football management, remember that United are a deeply unfashionable team, and they are devoid of any real Premiership talent or finances. To even take them into the Premier League in the first place was a massive achievement.

And not long ago, Glenn Roeder — shown the door at Newcastle after just one full season in charge of the club.

Weeks before, Chris Coleman, who had achieved so much at cash-strapped Fulham, was shown the door after achieving so much with the club after daring to critise the board for a lack of funding.

There is something not right about this impromptu turbo-boost spin of the managerial merry-go-round.

The appointments that have been made in the wake of this mini-cull carry with them the distinct odour of desperation. Sam Allardyce has worked miracles at Bolton — maybe he will do the same at Newcastle, but just how many false managerial dawns have Geordies been through to get to Big Sam? Lawrie Sanchez has pulled a few excellent results out of the bag for Northern Ireland — is there really any chance of him doing the same for Fulham with no real funding?

For the past two years, a club making their Premiership debut has astounded all the critics and punched way above their weight. First there was Wigan, this season there has been Reading. It seems that the manager du jour is Derby coach Bill Davies. What odds on his name being bandied about at City and the rest?

Steve Coppell is LMA manager of the year for a second year running, but what will happen to him if Reading get drawn into the relegation battle next season?

It has become almost impossible to make anything of these appointments. Exactly how are we to judge Roeder’s tenure at Newcastle? Just because Benitez won the Champions League in his first season at Liverpool, Mourinho at Chelsea won the Premier League in his, are we now to expect wonders of this scale within a season now? Remember that Sir Alex Ferguson had a torrid first few years at Man United, but look what he has achieved since. Nine Premiership titles and a European Cup.

The pace of change and the pressure managers are under has become totally unreasonable. Whatever happened to picking who you think the right man for the job is and sticking with them for a while? Fad managerial appointments have to stop, the idea of appointing whatever en vogue manager has been lucky enough to have fate on his side for a few weeks is simply crazy, but there is not an end in sight.

Top —flight football management is dead. Brace yourselves for the age of the miracle worker.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Chris Coleman’s was a story you could not have made up. From the lowest of despairs to the highest heights and then back again. The burly Welsh centre back was captain of the Fulham side that charged up two divisions and, under Kevin Keegan, made a dramatic arrival into the Premier League.

In early 2001, though, disaster struck for him, an injury he sustained in a car crash ended his playing days forever. However, after Keegan had left, and the Jean Tigana experiment ended in tears, there was many a raised eyebrow when the 33 year-old was appointed manager with absolutely no management experience on his CV.

In addition, Coleman was greeted by the news that club chairman Mohamed Al-Fayed was no longer going to bankroll the club in terms of transfer fees, as he had done under Tigana, when sums like £11 million were outlaid on expensive flops like Steve Marlet. Oh, and he was also told that he was expected to keep the club in the Premiership.

Many in the media were sceptical, and predicted Fulham would sink like a stone with Coleman in charge. But in his first season, the “other club” in SW6 finished an amazing 9^th. The following season saw them finish mid-table, in 13^th, and that without their star turn for most of the season – Louis Saha leaving for Manchester United in the January transfer window. In 2005-2006, they were had one of the best home records in the Premiership, beating the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea on their way, though their away form was dreadful.

2006-2007 has been hard for The Whites, they have slid down the table quickly in recent months. But, with only a month to go, and after daring to criticise his board for giving him next to nothing in terms of a transfer kitty, Coleman was shown the door.

Although his replacement, Lawrie Sanchez, has shown that he can do the business with Northern Ireland, this is was short-sighted appointment. Sanchez, too, has no Premiership experience, and years of international football management at various levels will not have prepared him to organise a team in the latter stages of a bitter relegation dogfight.

Fulham’s remaining fixtures are Liverpool at home and Middlesbrough away, and though their opponents in both games will lack motivation, neither of these games are easy.

Liverpool have much bigger fish to fry, with the Champions League final coming up, but every player Rafael Benitez fields will be fighting to prove themselves worthy of a place on the team sheet for May 23^rd. Boro, with the likes of Viduka and Downing, can also hurt Fulham, who have one of the worst recent away records in English football.

Financial analysts Deloitte have calculated that missing out on Premiership football could cost clubs up to £60 million, and with a small ground that does not always fill up, and no more blank cheques from Al-Fayed, if Fulham do drop down to the Championship, there may well be no way back for them.

Their record under Sanchez so far is 0 wins, 1 draw and 2 lost. There is no indication that things are on the up at Craven Cottage, and with West Ham and Charlton both putting up a fight at the bottom, Fulham’s position looks very uncertain.

Sacking Coleman, a manager who has done the club proud with almost no resources at his disposal, was a spiteful and ultimately self-destructive thing to do, especially with no real Plan B. A run of 15 games with only 1 win is poor by any standards, but allowing for the fact that their outstanding player of 2006, Louis Boa Morte, was released for a paltry £5 million, the board have not helped themselves one bit by their decision. Sanchez and Fulham may just have to pray for results elsewhere in London to go their way.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

It is very rare in the life of a football fan that you look at an early March fixture and say to yourself “This game will define the very life of my football club”. But such a fate befalls West Ham’s loyal following going into the game at home to Spurs this Weekend.
Usually a London derby like this is a time for fire and animosity for the Hammers. This time round, though, only the brave and the foolhardy will harbour optimism; Upton Park will be filled with gloom.

Spurs, fresh from drubbing a Bolton side that do not often get drubbed will show no mercy to their neighbours on Sunday, and every West Ham supporter in the land is painfully aware that one more home defeat could mean almost certain relegation for their team.

It is becoming football’s biggest cliché to point out the fact that only a few months ago, they came to within minutes of winning the FA Cup but now they have been brought so low. News reports on reported dressing room rifts and on-the-pitch brawls are becoming tiresome. That something is seriously wrong at West Ham is no longer a deduction, it is a simple fact.

Which is why, if you are really a fan of this football club, you should hope the side loses on Sunday, and that that horror of relegation becomes a reality.

The takeover, the switch of managers, the false dawn of beating Man United, all of this is becoming a collage of errors and pain too much for the usually cheery Hammers fans to bear.

Despite the apparent riches of their new owners, financially, the drop would be crippling. The board took a massive gamble in letting Curbishley spend big in the transfer window, and the inflated wage bill are going to mean that the club will be forced into a massive fire sale at the end of the season, involving not only the prize assets of the club — Ashton, Reo-Coker and Benayoun, but the newer acquisitions too.

But on and off the pitch, the players have been an embarrassment. Never has it been more apparent that a major squad cull is desperately needed at West Ham.

Money is a major issue, too. If the Hammers do not take quick control of their finances now, they could end up following Leeds into the kind of financial quagmire that may see them drop into the abyss in May.

The rot had started long before January, it is clear now, but the transfers of the likes of Lucas Niell and Luis Boa Morte have all but sealed their fate. Something was seriously wrong with these buys. Despite both being competitive, fierce even, both gave up the captaincy at their respective clubs, where they were loved and respected by their fans, to join a club further down the table than them. Niell even rejected the advances of Liverpool, his supposed “dream club”, in favour of a bigger pay day. Is this really the kind of player West Ham fans want to see in the claret and blue?

West Ham need to wipe the slate clean, to get rid of all the negatives and start again.

Curbishley did a great job rebuilding Charlton. If the board and the fans have the kind of patience they will require to unite behind Curbs and give him the time and support he needs, he will bring the Hammers back up from the Championship a happier, stronger unit.

Right now, the message could not be clearer: accept defeat and start planning for the future straight away. Knee-jerk managerial sackings and more of the ugly in-fighting we have seen this season could spell oblivion for West Ham United FC.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The Abramovich-Shevchenko-Mourinho love triangle may be what seems to have brought Chelsea’s dominance of the Premier League to a temporary halt this season, but it could be argued that the “Special One’s” evil plans were undone by something altogether different.

A couple of fine early goals from a Liverpool side with plenty to prove has all but sunk Chelsea’s season. It leaves most of the country on a high, content that signs are that the “natural” Arsenal-Man Utd-Liverpool harmony at the top of the table is on as the Roman Empire appears to crumble, a return to the three party state possibly on the cards.

Chelsea, though, the big bad wolves of the Premiership, have been undone by their own big bad wolf, Peter Kenyon. In trying to turn the club into The Biggest Club In The World TM overnight, Kenyon and his cohorts are starting to make glaring errors of judgment.

Bringing Adidas in as kit sponsors may have seemed like extremely shrewd business at the time, but it has brought with it a massive piece of baggage nobody now knows what to do with. Its name is Michael Ballack. And his transfer, in terms of its importance, may well turn out to be arguably the worst transfer in the history of world football.

Now Ballack, like Lampard, is an Adidas poster boy. In fact, throw into the equation the fact that he, like Adidas, is German, and you might even argue that he is THE Adidas poster boy. If he was not going to stay at Adidas club of choice Bayern, where on Earth could he go? United, who would have desperately loved a Ballack back at the end of last season are sworn to Nike. Realistically, he could only go to Real or the new Adidas flagship club, Chelsea. A deal was born. One in which the Special One had no say in at all.

Take a step back to last year. Central midfield is the engine room of any given Premiership club. The discovery of the priceless Cesc Fabregas saved Arsenal from any post-Viera misery; at United there was a black hole – which is why they struggled last season; at Liverpool in Sissoko, Alonso and Gerrard there was an embarrassment of riches which propelled them on to FA Cup glory and a good second half of the season.

However the prize midfield combo was Makelele/Essien/Lampard. There was nothing of the spectacular here, just grit, determination and raw footballing talent.

This season the combo is still going. Except they have Michael Ballack stuck in there with them. And neither they, nor he, nor anyone else, for that matter, seems to be able to understand what he is supposed to be doing. The most effective midfield in the country (if not in Europe) has been reduced to a laughing stock. Against Liverpool at Anfieled, the Chelsea midfield, though admittedly lacking personnel, looked at sea. Remember this is the team that beat the Merseysiders 1-4 in the same fixture last year, when that midfield was running like the smoothest of machines.

The business deal that brought Ballack to Chelsea has critically destabalised them in the area where they were the strongest: midfield.

Buying Shevchneko may have upset the balance behind the scenes for Chelsea, but a dysfunctional and undroppable Michael Ballack has stalled things for them where it matters most – on the pitch.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Man Utd are incredibly top of the pile at Christmas, and probably wondering how they got there. More pertinent a question might be who let them get there?
 
There were a few of stutters from Chelsea early on as their World Cup-weary stars shook and tried to get used to playing, for the most part, out of position while challenges from Arsenal and Liverpool failed to materialise. United could not believe their luck. Consistent performances and a relatively clean injury list saw them sail to the top of the Premiership table unchallenged.
 

This while Arsenal look like they still have a lot of work to do if they want to turn the Emirates into a fortress. Though when they are on song, the Londoners are still the most exciting team in the league, they are horribly inconsistent and this will doubtless stop them from getting back into the title race proper this season.
 

Liverpool appear to be finding their rhythm at last, but it is all illusionary, their early season programme was tough; picking off the likes of Charlton away, and Fulham and Watford at Anfield in recent weeks hardly qualifies them as championship material. They are more likely good solid candidates for a Champions League qualifiers spot. Alonso, Gerrard, Carragher and possibly Kuyt might be capable, but there are too many Luis Garcias in this side — players who only seem to really turn it on in cup competitions. 
 

United, meanwhile, are in sparkling form, coming back from a hiccup against West Ham and displaying a lot of character with an excellent away win against Martin O’Neill’s tricky Villa side.
 

Giggs and Scholes have been outstanding and Saha/Rooney is starting to look like the most efficient front line in the league. At the back, Vidic is starting to show some evidence of being worth the £7million, while Van Der Saar’s class is unquestionable.
 

The only problem with United, however, is their lack of squad depth. It would only take one or two injuries to seriously unbalance this team.
 

Those waiting on the sidelines: the Wes Browns, Darren Fletchers and Alan Smiths, are just not, for all of their unquestionable commitment to the club, championship-winning material. There is no doubt about it: should any of their key players face a month on the sidelines, this would be a massive blow to their title ambitions.
 

Chelsea, on the other hand, might even welcome one or two injuries, at least it might give some of their well-paid, five-star reserves a run in the first team. Their strength in depth is second to none anywhere in the World.
 

Liverpool, meanwhile, do have a bigger squad than United, but theirs is brimming with ineffective utility players like Bolo Zenden. Arsenal, too, have strength in numbers, but most of their squad outside the first eleven are untested at the highest level.
 

Ferguson’s admission that his transfer kitty is a measly £25million a year (albeit with a £25 million “superstar” fund), simply does not allow him to be able to compete with Mourinho, who can squander that much on £50k-a-week reserve team players several times over. 
 

Chelsea have hit their stride now, and they will return to their efficient, if dull, results-based service of last season.
 

Sorry kids, but money still rules, and unless Fergie waves some kind of magic wand over his players that will somehow keep them all injury-free until May, there seems to be no conceivable way the title is going to head back up North in 2007.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Correct me if I am wrong, but are Manchester United on the verge of going into Christmas six points clear at the top of the Premiership?

While Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea were busy spending gadzillions in Summer on Kuyts, Rosickys and Shevchenkos, United were selling off their goal machine and their only recruit was a defensive midfielder.

Without Van Nistlerooy, Manchester United looked like toast. Rooney may be their jewel in the crown, but as everyone is so keen on pointing out these days, he is not an out-and-out striker. So the goalscoring mantle has fallen on Louis Saha, who has only recently been showing the kind of form that convinced Ferguson to buy him in the first place.

There seemed to be nothing new, nothing left, perhaps in the creaking bones of the likes of Scholes, Neville and Giggs.

Young talent, Rooney excepted, promised little. Fletcher and O’Shea have been Premiership laughing stock and Cristiano Ronaldo labeled as an unsporting and expensive show-pony.

Yet it is they, not Arsenal, not Liverpool, not even Chelsea, who are in pole position for the Premiership season and it has been confounding the heck out of everyone as to how they got there? Does Fergie have a secret formula he is not letting on to?

Actually, it is much simpler than that. All three of the other member states of the Premiership Elite have been so busy tinkering with their teams that they have taken their eyes off the prize.

Benitez’s intentions may be good in introducing wide players at Liverpool, but the results have proved almost disastrous on too many occasions. Chelsea, meanwhile, have been doing the opposite, eliminating wide play altogether. Mourinho has instead plumped for a hideous 4-1-3-2 formation which attempts to accommodate all three of Ballack, Lampard and Essien, but fails to get the best out of any of them.

Wenger is also guilty. His obsession with turning obscure foreign youth players into unlikely Premeirship superstars is becoming unhealthy for Arsenal and their league form is erratic because of this.

For Manchester United, though, it has been all the usual suspects -Scholes and Giggs in particular, who have turned on the style in what may well be their final hurrah as championship material. Everyone that matters at Manchester United has been settled and on form.

Fergie has stuck with a formation that is comfortable for his side, one that works. And by default his team are now in the driving seat. That has been his formula for success. He will just hope that the others keep tinkering with theirs into 2007.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

New writer ‘tda’ thinks that Arsenal captain (legend, hero, demi-god, etc etc) Thierry Henry deserved the Ballon d’Or. A bit late, but every man’s entitled to their opinion…

Gerard Houlier thinks Fabio Canavarro was not worthy of the title of European Footballer of the Year that was bestowed on the Italian captain at this year’s awards ceremony.

According to the former Liverpool and current Lyon manager, merely captaining your unfancied side to the biggest prize in World football is not enough.

And, strange as it may sound, he is right. It is difficult to see what has Fabio Cannavarro done to merit the title of European player of the year. He had an average end of season at disgraced outfit Juventus before moving to Real Madrid with Fabio Capello, where he has failed to set La Liga alight. The title, again, is player of the year, not of the summer.

It might even be argued that Cannavarro, though solid and consistent throughout the World Cup campaign, was not even Italy’s best player. Others caught the eye far more, especially the tigrish Gennaro Gattuso, a gutsier Roy Keane on speed. How Alex Ferguson may yet rue lavishing £17 million on Michael Carrick when he probably could have snapped up Gattuso for the same amount, if not less.

Houlier reckons Thierry Henry should have got the gong, but is there anything that amazing about banging in 20-odd goals a season for Arsenal every season for as far back as anyone can remember? I mean, when was the last time Henry did not have an amazing season? Would it not be more imaginative to give the award to someone who did something a little out of the ordinary in 2006?

Petr Cech at Chelsea, David Villa at Valencia or even Fulham’s vastly underrated Luis Boa Morte would have been far more daring and accurate decision, but the Ballon D’Or panel have decided to jump on the same kind of bandwagon they jumped on last year when Ronaldinho bagged the prize.

Henry would have been a better choice, especially considering the fact that he has never won the award, and that no French player has won it since Jean-Pierre Papin in 1991. Houlier is right in thinking the esteemed journalists who make up the Ballon’s panel are guilty of failing to think outside the narrow box of celebrity.

What do you guys think? For my money, Arsenal are right in whinging about the fact that Henry has never won the Ballon d’Or, but citing past excellence (at Arsenal, mainly) does you no good – Henry should get it on this year’s achievements, right?

From Soccerlens.com - Football News