Avram Grant At His Finest

It's no secret that the Prince of Darkness, Avram Grant, is not a pleasant man to talk to. He's a guy who wears all black all the time, and when Chelsea plays during the day, I'm surprised that he even comes out of the dark tunnel to manage. He has no personality whatsoever. None. Zero.

It's no coincidence that there's going to be a mass exodus of players from Chelsea during the summer, and that most of them will follow their former manager, the charismatic, articulate José Mourinho, to whichever club he takes charge of. Not only is Mourinho a masterful tactician, something that Grant certainly is not, he's a joy to play for. His presence attracts the media in hordes and takes the pressure off the players. Mourinho will stand up and answer questions and make jokes while doing so.

Grant, on the other hand? Well, take a look at the following interview from ESPNsoccernet's Richard Jolly after Chelsea's 1-0 victory at Everton yesterday:

A deserved win Avram?
Grant said: 'Yes.'

What particularly pleased you about the performance?
'I'm pleased.'

What in particular pleased you?
After an eight second delay: 'I don't know.'

Is it a relief to win here?
'Yes.'

You seem lost for words by the performance. Are you more satisfied with the performance or the victory?
'Both.'

You seem distracted. Do you have a problem?
'No problem.'

Is there an issue?
'No. I'm ok. I have nothing to say.'

Do you have a message for the Chelsea fans?
'You represent the Chelsea fans?'

They must believe you are still in the title race, do you have a message for them?
'No message.'

Does this result mean you are back in it now?
'I don't know.'

How many steps have you climbed to undertake this press conference?
'I don't know.'

You seem less voluble than usual. Is it because of Sky TV moving the game to a Thursday?
'Maybe it's because of you. I don't know. I am ok.'

You are saying that you don't know if you are still in the title race?
'No.' Is it easier to say nothing Avram?
'I don't what to answer. It is a good question. I don't know what to answer.'

Is this because of Sky?
'No. Sky is ok. I enjoy watching them.'

Is it a protest against newspapers?
'No. Why?'

Why else would you come in and refuse to answer our questions?
'I answer every question.'

You are two points behind Manchester United and you don't know if you are still in the title race?
'No.'

Have you told the players that you don't know if you are back in the title race?
'What I tell the players is something else. You want me to tell you what I say to the players?'

We just want you to answer the question really. Are you in the title race?
'I don't know.'

Would you not like to gain some positive publicity for the result rather than this bizarre silence?
'I'm sorry. You can write whatever you want and I can answer what I want.'

Do you feel under pressure to deliver a trophy. Is that the reason for the monosyllabic answers?
'No.'

Are you upset? Do you feel you have been misrepresented?
'Maybe I have said because it is a bad season.'

Did Michael Essien faint?
'He had some problems, but he is ok.'

Michael Ballack?
'Injured.'

What's his problem?
'Ask the doctor.'

He's not here Avram.
'Well call him then.'

Have you ever played the yes/no game Avram?
.....

What an absolute disgrace!! This man is a joke. He's an embarrassment.

His team just won at Goodison Park, a tough place to play, and kept their slim title hopes alive. Their game against Manchester United next weekend will actually mean something now, and the Red Devils won't be able to officially clinch the title at Stamford Bridge.

You wouldn't know it by listening to this interview. Sure, the media have been putting pressure on Grant this season. What else does he expect, walking into the manager's position at one of England's most successful clubs in recent history without the proper qualifications? The media is doing their job. Writing stories and criticism is what they're paid to do, just like Avram Grant is paid to manage Chelsea FC, and hopefully to lead them to trophies.

Just because he hasn't held up his end of the bargain doesn't give him a right to give a little hissy-fit like he did to Richard Jolly. This interview makes Grant look like an ignorant, selfish baby.

In comparison, David Moyes, Everton's manager, was gracious and took the time to man up and talk about his team's defeat. It's not as if Everton has nothing to play for either; this is a team who has hit a rough patch recently and could miss out on UEFA Cup qualification if they keep failing to gain points. Moyes didn't whine and moan that his side lost.

Grant needs to grow up. It's looking increasingly likely that he won't be at Chelsea next year, at least not in the capacity of manager, and to be honest, he should appreciate and thank Roman Abramovich for giving him this opportunity to begin with. As I said, Grant doesn't have the credentials or club experience to be put in such a high-profile position in the first place, and interviews like this just make him look that much worse.

Cardiff City Granted European "Approval"...

...if the Bluebirds win the FA Cup final on May 17. The FA's professional game board has given their go-ahead, and now the main FA board and UEFA, which had already discussed giving Cardiff a wild card berth into the UEFA Cup, will make the final decision next week.

Remember, all of this talk will go for naught if Cardiff doesn't beat Portsmouth at Wembley, and let's make no mistake about it, the Premier League side is the clear favorite.

We've seen crazier things happen (Barnsley, cough cough) though, and I've been pushing for Cardiff to get into Europe's second-tier club competition ever since the possibility became realistic. There was debate about whether or not they'd be allowed to do so, as current FA rules don't permit Welsh teams to represent England in Europe, but that was such a red-tape issue that it was a disgrace to the game.

I don't think there's any question that if Cardiff does win the FA Cup final, they'll have played their way into the UEFA Cup and fully deserve to be there. As I said in my last post about this subject, there are other cases of teams based outside of the geographic boundaries of whatever domestic league they play in while still representing that other country in Europe. In the case of FC Vaduz, a team that plays in the Swiss Challenge League, they represent Liechtenstein in Europe as they're from that country and win their league cup almost every year.

If there's precedent, which there is, you can't legitimately argue that it shouldn't be allowed to happen in this specific instance.

Manchester City Wins FA Youth Cup

We talk a lot about the senior version of the world's oldest domestic tournament, but the FA Youth Cup goes largely unnoticed in the media and I don't think that's a good thing.

More and more, the big teams in England are importing their players from overseas or buying already established or up-and-coming stars from smaller clubs within Britain. There is less of a focus placed on youth academies and developing homegrown players. To them, it's a question of why waste time and money to run a successful youth system, where not of all the kids pan out to become good players, when you could spend those same resources to bring in already proven commodities?

Even when those teams do have quality young players, the majority of them were snatched away from their hometown clubs anyway, and those smaller teams have little choice but to take the transfer fee and use it to cover operating costs and pay salaries.

Example? 16-year old striker Luke Freeman joined now-League One side Gillingham when he was 11. Freeman was born in Dartford, in the northwest corner of Kent, where Gillingham is located. He became their youngest first team player ever, and the youngest player in FA Cup history, when he came on as a sub in an FA Cup game at 15. After spending a little over four years with his hometown team, Freeman was sold to Arsenal in January of this year for about $400,000, still at just 15 years of age. He had broken through to the first team at Gillingham, but now is stuck in the Arsenal academy and could very well likely never play a senior game for the Gunners. As a League One team, $400,000 for Gillingham is a big deal, and they had little choice but to sell the kid off.

The same general thing applies to Theo Walcott, who moved from Southampton to Arsenal as a 16-year old for a possible $24 million, with $10 million of that guaranteed up front. Walcott has struggled to maintain a place in the Arsenal first team, and it looks like he'll have to move to further his career as a player. What choice did Southampton have but to take that money? As a lower-league team, anything in the millions range for a player is like manna from heaven.

The same general thing also applies to a guy like Scott Sinclair, who was born in Bath, 13 miles southeast of Bristol. Sinclair joined Bristol Rovers at the age of 9 and made his first team debut at 15 in the 2004-2005 season. He only made two senior appearances with the club before Chelsea controversially gobbled him up in July 2005 for $400,000 guaranteed, with an additional $1.5 million in possible clauses based on goals and appearances still to come, and has only played in four Premiership games for the Blues since. He's been loaned out to four different lower-league clubs since moving to Stamford Bridge, and will probably never be a regular first-teamer in West London, at least not for Chelsea. Why did Bristol Rovers sell him? They had to; money talked.

In the media, all we hear about are those big teams, so no one really pays attention to clubs like Middlesbrough, who is known for producing good young players, and Aston Villa, and Manchester City, who I'll get to in a bit, and West Ham, who is starting to come on again after producing outstanding talent in the early years of this decade. The job that these smaller Premiership clubs have done to remain competitive in the league while still putting an emphasis on developing homegrown players is fantastic.

Anyway....The FA Youth Cup has been around since the 1952-1953 season, when it was known as the FA Youth Challenge Cup. Manchester United has won it nine times, the most of any English club, but only twice in the last 14 years. Crosstown rivals Manchester City won it yesterday after beating Chelsea 3-1 in the second leg and 4-2 on aggregate. City's academy graduates in recent years include outstanding young players like Nedum Onouha, Stephen Ireland, Daniel Sturridge, Michael Johnson, and best of all, Micah Richards.

It's good to see a premium placed on developing youngsters from an early age and sticking with them. I've read Steven Gerrard's autobiography and in it, he talks a lot about the appreciation he has, as a homegrown player, for his youth coaches like Dave Shannon, Steve Heighway, and Hughie McAuley, guys who do a lot of great work that flies under the radar because it isn't with the senior team. The book provides a lot of insight into the life of a young kid in the system and is a fascinating read. Gerrard, Michael Owen, and Jamie Carragher are all graduates of Melwood, and now Kirkby, and look at what those three players have accomplished in their careers.

As I said, it was great to hear that City won yesterday because it gives validation to the philosophy of youth development more so than it would have if Chelsea would've won. It’s a system seen in professional baseball here in the US and has worked wonders over the years for major league teams that just don’t have the money to buy the best available talent, so they develop it over time through their minor league affiliates. Not everyone can be the Yankees or the Red Sox; not everyone can be Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool. Some teams have to rely on homegrown players and when they're successful, you have to give them a round of applause and appreciate their patience and mindset.

Podcast Possibilities

So, I've been writing this blog for almost a year now and I think it's about time that I sort of upped the ante a little bit. Posting daily (or as close to daily) like I do is great and I love doing it, but I know that you all may be tiring of me, right?

That's ok, my feelings aren't hurt. I'm a big boy; I can handle it.

In all seriousness though, I feel like bringing a guest on for a short podcast/interview/conversation every now and then would be a fresh, new aspect and upgrade to this site.

I'm trying to grow English Soccer Talk and get some more exposure for it, and one way to do that certainly is by making it more interactive with the readers. As a part of that, I'm interested in your opinions concerning this new plan of mine. Should I try and contact some individuals for a 20-30 minute show, maybe once or twice a week? If so, who would you like to hear? Obviously I can't just get in touch with Cristiano Ronaldo or Alan Parry or gentlemen of that stature, but I do think it's possible to still get some well-known figures on for a bit of a chat.

Let me know what you guys are thinking, either through leaving a comment or sending me an E-mail at bills2189@hotmail.com. In the meantime, I'm going to reach out to a couple friends of mine and see what I can come up with.

As I said, I want this site to grow. There are plenty of blogs out there about the Premiership, but not nearly as many of them that can also give you some quality conversation with other people who love this game. That's my ultimate goal, and I'm hoping that you can help in achieving it. After all, you're the ones who come to the site and read what I have to say, so I owe you something in return.

Give me a couple names and I'll see what I can do. I'm going to try and work a little magic here, but I need you guys to help me out and point me in the right direction.

2008 Big Ten/ACC Challenge

The slate of games for next year's annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge was released today and I have to be honest, there's only a couple of big-time matchups and I'm fairly disappointed. In past years, there have been four or five different games that were truly must-see TV early in the season, but that won't be the case this time around.

Exact dates, TV schedules, and tipoff times have yet to be determined, but once again, this event will take place in early December.

The ACC has dominated their midwestern brethren over the years, going 9-0 as a conference with their member schools posting a combined 56-30 record. Duke is 9-0 as a team, best in the ACC; they'll pay a visit to West Lafayette, Indiana and Purdue next year. The Boilermakers are just 2-5 in this competition and the Big Ten has only one team, Michigan State, that has posted a winning record so far.

Tom Izzo's squads are 5-3 in their eight games and will host a North Carolina team fresh off another Final Four appearance. Surprisingly, UNC is only 4-5 overall in this competition, and this game in East Lansing is the other must-watch game for fans.

As far as my boys, the Michigan Wolverines, go, they'll head down south to take on Maryland in College Park. Gary Williams' team had a disappointing 2007-2008 season, which ended in the NIT, and lost a few key players from that squad. With Michigan on the rise and Maryland on a downward trend, this is a game Michigan could steal on the road.

Here's the complete list of games (Big Ten team in bold):

Purdue vs. Duke
Michigan State vs. UNC
Virginia Tech vs. Wisconsin
Miami (FL) vs. Ohio State
Illinois vs. Clemson
Minnesota vs. Virginia
Boston College vs. Iowa
Georgia Tech vs. Penn State
Wake Forest vs. Indiana
Northwestern vs. Florida State
Maryland vs. Michigan

Update (Wednesday, April 15): The dates have, in fact, been confirmed for each of the 11 Big Ten/ACC Challenge games. The event opens on Monday, December 1 with one game (Virginia Tech-Wisconsin), and will see five games contested on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

Here's what we know so far, with tipoff times and TV networks yet to be determined:

Dec. 1: VA Tech-Wisconsin
Dec. 2: Miami (FL)-Ohio State, Illinois-Clemson, Purdue-Duke, Minnesota-UVA, BC-Iowa
Dec. 3: Maryland-Michigan, Wake Forest-Indiana, Georgia Tech-Penn State, Michigan State-UNC (at Ford Field in Detroit, not East Lansing as previously indicated), Northwestern-Florida State

Steve Bruce..Give the Man Some Love

When Steve Bruce left Birmingham City to take over as manager at Wigan in late November, many people questioned both the man himself and his new club.

"What was Dave Whelan thinking in hiring Steve Bruce? He's rubbish."

"Steve, why would you leave a club in the relegation battle just to join another club in the same predicament?"

I'll tell you what, folks, Steve Bruce is not a bad manager. I'm not saying this just because Wigan ended Chelsea's title hopes yesterday, either. Check the archives; I've been high on this guy since I first started watching the Premiership two seasons ago, when Birmingham was relegated. Bruce took them back up the next season, and although I predicted Birmingham would go down again this year, it wasn't because of the manager.

When he left for Wigan, I wrote an article about it and in that post, I said that his departure "really hurts Birmingham's chances of staying in the Premiership as Bruce is a quality manager whose players love playing for him." I talked about how Wigan, as a squad comprised largely of veteran, experienced players, had legitimate hopes to stay up because Bruce was the right guy to harness that experience and get the best out of what he had.

He supports his players in public and never throws them under the bus in the media. He takes the blame when his team doesn't get a result and gives the players credit when they do walk away with points.

This is a guy who, like Sam Allardyce, can grind and grind away and at the end of 90 minutes, can get out with a point or even steal a victory. Remember, Bruce has two draws at Anfield this season (one with Birmingham, one with Wigan), a draw against Arsenal, and now a draw against Chelsea. He's won the games he's needed to win, including a 2-0 victory against his former team 10 days ago.

Since Bruce's arrival at the JJB, Wigan is 9-6-10 in all competitions. I'll admit, that record doesn't look like anything special by itself, fair enough. When you look at what he has to work with, though, you do have to be impressed with where Wigan is right now. In 15th place, the Latics are safe and are just two points short of leaping into 13th.

Yes, there is a lot of experience on the roster, but there really isn't too much in the way of talent. When your goalscoring leader is Marcus Bent, yes, Marcus Bent, and he only has seven league goals, you have to admire the job Steve Bruce has done. A whopping 23 players have started a Premiership game this season and two others have appeared solely off the bench. Ryan Taylor, arguably Wigan's best player, rarely actually is on the field because he's always injured.

It's about time that more people started appreciating Brucey as a manager. He's not flashy and his teams don't always play an attractive style, but at the end of the day, all you can ask for is results and that's what Bruce can give you.

Remembering the Hillsborough Disaster

Nineteen years ago on this date, 94 people, all Liverpool fans, were crushed and died at Hillsbrough Stadium before an FA Cup semifinal match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. Two more people died from their injuries later on and 766 other supporters were injured, with around 300 of those needing to go to the hospital.

If you have a chance today, take a moment and say a prayer for the victims of this tragedy, their families, and everyone affected by what happened in Sheffield.

Wazza Finally Speaks on "I'm on Setanta Sports"

On the newest episode of "I'm on Setanta Sports", Rooney speaks Scouse, the "Voyeur" is caught like a rat, and The Special One is still fantastic.

Tiers of Leagues in Europe

In recent weeks and months, there's been some discussion on two of the sources for soccer news I check routinely -- Clever Football and the World Soccer Daily podcast -- about the tiers of leagues in Europe and where, if at all, MLS would fit in.

Personally, I think that particular debate shouldn't even be had; it's like comparing apples to oranges.

MLS, of course, has a salary cap in place, plays a different schedule than most of the European leagues, and is based in a country where its teams are in cities that aren't really in close geographic proximity. This affects travel time and style of travel, two factors that don't play any role whatsoever in Europe. The style of play, too, is different; MLS is a highly Latin-influenced league that plays at a slower, more possession-oriented tempo. Playing games in the middle of summer and dealing with the oppressive heat that can be found in many MLS cities is another contributing reason to the tempo, and again, that doesn't happen to as large of a degree in Europe.

If all things and variables were equal, which they aren't and likely won't ever be, I'd say that the best MLS teams (New England, Houston, DC United, and Chivas USA) would battle to stay out of the relegation zone in the Premiership, fight for a playoff spot in the Championship, and contend for a UEFA Cup spot in the SPL. The worst teams (Toronto FC, Real Salt Lake, LA Galaxy) would struggle to stay afloat in the Championship, and maybe finish mid-table in League One. I am by no means an expert on MLS and to be honest, don't pay much attention to the league until closer to the playoffs, so those are just broad, perhaps slightly misinformed opinions of comparing MLS teams to teams in Britain. Again, all things would be equal in those scenarios.

However, we can have a valid, legitimate discussion about the tiers of leagues in Europe. The prevailing notion is that three leagues -- the Premiership, Serie A, and La Liga -- are by themselves at the top end. Doesn't really take a genius to come up with that.

After "Tier 1", though, things start to get interesting. There are 49 different top domestic leagues recognized by UEFA outside of the three already mentioned, some of them more established than others.

In coming up with the groups that you'll see in a minute, I considered a couple of things:

1. What is the OVERALL STRENGTH of the league? Yes, Rangers and Celtic are solid teams and are capable of making a run in the UEFA Cup and/or Champions League every year. Aside from them, though, the Scottish Premier League really is not much to brag about and I'd go as far as to say that it's a weak league. I want to see leagues that are realistically at least four or five teams deep.

2. How successful are the league's top teams in Europe? I know what I just said about leagues having more than just one or two good teams. If that's the case, though, I want to see those teams progress far in Europe. I want to see relatively lower-level leagues still able to send their champion or runner-up (or third place, however many teams a league gets into Europe) and have those teams do something against their peers on the continent. The French league (Ligue 1) is fine, but it seems like teams like Lyon, Marseille, Lille, and others get bounced out of European competition early every year. How can I take a league seriously if the best they have to offer doesn't stack up against teams of generally equal reputation and stature?

So, here's the rough grouping system of top-flight domestic leagues I came up with, by country. The order in which the country are listed isn't important; that is, I'm not saying that the Premiership is a better league than La Liga, or that La Liga is better than Serie A.

Tier 1: England, Spain, Italy
Tier 2: Germany, Holland, Portugal, France
Tier 3: Russia, Sweden, Turkey, Scotland, Norway, Belgium
Tier 4: Croatia, Serbia, Greece, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Israel
Tier 5: Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Wales, Romania, Bulgaria, Denmark
Tier 6: Hungary, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Belarus, Poland
Tier 7: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herezgovina, Cyprus, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, FYR of Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, San Marino

Feel free to disagree..I'm sure you will.

Fulham is Not Done and Dusted Yet

Amazing.

Just last week, I wrote, in effect, that if Fulham didn't beat Sunderland at Craven Cottage, their hopes for retaining a place in the Premiership were finished. Their remaining schedule didn't provide too many opportunities to pick up points, so the Cottagers absolutely needed to get a victory against a team that had been poor on the road all season.

We all know what happened; Sunderland came into London and walked out with a 3-1 victory, despite a great goal from Fulham striker David Healy. At that point, I thought Healy's team was doomed for the drop.

Not so fast. Yesterday's game against Reading was truly, in all senses of the term, a must-win affair. Fulham HAD to have all three points, no if's, and's, or but's. They played like it too, dominating the match for all 90 minutes and in the end, earned a 2-0 victory that could've eaily been 4-0 or 5-0. Brian McBride scored in the 24th minute, and Erik Nevland, one of the Scandinavian players brought in under Roy Hodgson's watch, finished it in second half stoppage time.

Sure, Reading didn't show up, but you have to give Fulham a lot of credit for taking their fate by the scruff of the neck and fighting for survival. Anything else besides a victory and the fans back in West London would've needed to get used to drinking Coca-Cola for at least a season.

Fulham will be a bit disheartened by Bolton's 1-0 win over West Ham, as the Trotters moved themselves to within two points of safety and kept their position in 18th place, two points ahead of Fulham.

With that said, though, 18th isn't Fulham's ultimate goal; 17th is, and they moved two points closer after Birmingham's home draw against Everton. Again, Fulham will feel a bit unlucky because Birmingham equalized in the 83rd minute to snatch a share of the spoils, but making up two points (instead of three) is still huge right now.

Let's take a look at the run-ins for Fulham, Birmingham, and Bolton, and we'll even throw Reading in there as well as Steve Coppell's club is only three points clear of the drop zone. These four teams are likely to fight it out until the last kick of the ball this season; I believe everyone ahead of Reading is safe and obviously Derby County has long been relegated.

Fulham (27 points): Liverpool, @ Manchester City, Birmingham, @ Portsmouth
Bolton (29): @ Middlesbrough, @ Tottenham, Sunderland, @ Chelsea
Birmingham (31): @ Aston Villa, Liverpool, @ Fulham, Blackburn
Reading (32): @ Arsenal, @ Wigan, Tottenham, @ Derby County

Clearly, the biggest game of the 16 shown here is Fulham-Birmingham at Craven Cottage. If Fulham can manage to leapfrog Bolton and, in the process, cut their deficit to two points or less when they host Birmingham on Saturday, May 3, a victory would catapult the London side out of the bottom three.

How do I see things going, you ask?

Well, I can see Fulham taking five points (draw with Liverpool and at City, victory over Birmingham), Bolton taking only one (draw with Sunderland), Birmingham only one (draw with Blackburn), and Reading three (draws at Wigan, with Spurs, and at Derby).

If those predictions stayed true, the final standings would look like this:

16. Reading (35)
T17: Birmingham (32)
Fulham (32)
19. Bolton (30)

Birmingham and Fulham would then have to be sorted out by using goal differential. At this point, it definitely favors Birmingham (-13 to Fulham's -24), but three Birmingham losses, including the one at Fulham, could turn that around. I would still say that Birmingham would win a tiebreaker, but you never know.

The last four games of the season are going to be great. This is a relegation battle that will go down to the last day and for Fulham to even make this a contest after last week's loss to Sunderland is great. As I said, I'm not sure if they climb out, but they're going to keep fighting until the end.

PFA Award Nominees Released

The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) has named their candidates for their Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year awards.

No problem here with the nominees for Player of the Year, but I definitely take exception with a couple of the possibilities for Young Player of the Year. More on that in a bit.

Player of the Year (club):

Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, last year’s PFA Player of the Year)
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
David James (Portsmouth)
Fernando Torres (Liverpool)
Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal)
Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal)

Young Player of the Year: (club)

C. Ronaldo (last year’s PFA Young Player of the Year)
Torres
Fabregas
Micah Richards (Manchester City)
Ashley Young (Aston Villa)
Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa)

First off, it was nice to see someone from outside the “Big Four” represented in the finalists for Player of the Year. David James has had an outstanding season in goal for Portsmouth and has been the best keeper in the league, bar none. There’s a reason that Fabio Capello has made him England’s number one at the moment, even at Jam-O’s age.

As I said, I have no issue with any of the six players on that list. They all deserve to be there, although if Ronaldo doesn’t win close to unanimously, it would be a joke. He’s had a truly once-in-a-lifetime year for the Red Devils.

The Young Player of the Year nominees, however, is where I do have a problem. It’s not so much the fact that three players (Fabregas, Torres, and Ronaldo) are in the running for both awards; yes, I would rather see this honor be completely exclusive and separate from the Player of the Year, but I can live with the current alternative. Again, Ronaldo should win nearly unanimously, though Torres will get some votes as well.

It’s the definition of a “Young Player” that has me irked. To be eligible to win under the PFA’s definition, a player has to be under 23 years of age at the start of the season. Newsflash: 23 is not young in soccer; almost every single Premiership team has multiple players from ages 21-23 that feature regularly. If you’re going to give this award based strictly on age, it should be for players under 21.

Personally, I think two factors should go into it. One of them, obviously, is being 21 or younger, and the second is a maximum of 38 Premiership games (a full season) played. I understand that Fabregas is only 20, but he’s been playing in the league for Arsenal since he was 17 and has appeared in 135 league matches for the Gunners.

Give me a break. He’s young in age, but certainly not in experience.

Torres is now 24 years old, come on.

You get the point. This award should be more for a breakout-type young player, a guy who splashed on the scene out of the blue. Theo Walcott, for example, would be a perfect candidate to win this honor. He couldn’t get a game last season, but has played some hugely important minutes for Arsene Wenger this year and has really contributed. He's not even on this list though, which is ridiculous.

With the PFA’s list of nominees for both awards, then, here are my 1st-3rd place winners:

Player of the Year:

1. C. Ronaldo
2. Torres
3. James

Young Player of the Year:

1. C. Ronaldo
2. Torres
3. Young

Manager of the Year--Semifinalists

First off, I want to let everyone know that I'm going to make a bit of a change in this Premiership "Manager of the Year" award procedure.

Instead of naming my personal winner on Friday as previously planned, I'm going to wait and do it on the 21st. Two more rounds of games will have been played by that point, and hopefully there will be some more clarity as to where teams will finish up in the table. Right now, things are fairly jumbled up and although they may stay that way, I think we'll still have a better, more concrete idea in two weeks' time.

However, I was still able to cut down the original list of five "quarterfinalists", Wenger, Moyes, Ramos, O'Neill, and Keane, to three. One of them was a pretty obvious choice to drop, and the other went down to the wire with one of the three who I kept in the running. It was like splitting hairs, but I went with my gut.

On Monday, the qualifications for each manager were laid out for everyone to see and there's no point in repeating them for the three who are still in the running. Instead, I'll tell you why I dropped the two gentlemen that I did.

So, without further ado, the "semifinalists". Drumroll please...

David Moyes (Everton)
Roy Keane (Sunderland)
Martin O'Neill (Aston Villa)

As for Monsieur Wenger and Señor Ramos, don't get me wrong, they're both very good managers and have done good things with their respective clubs this season.

However, as manager of a "Big Four" side, Wenger has to be held to a higher standard than bosses of the other 16 teams. Arsenal's elimination from the Champions League yesterday by Liverpool essentially put the final nail in the coffin of another trophyless season for the Gunners. To many fans, that's unacceptable. When you basically have a 1-in-4 chance of winning English competitions (and there are three of them), you need to get the job done in at least one. Yes, this year, Spurs won the Carling Cup and either Cardiff City or Portsmouth will win the FA Cup, but this is not a typical season.

I think Wenger has a fantastic squad of up-and-coming players and the team will contend for big things in the future, but he made a fatal mistake, in my opinion, in not bringing much in the way of reinforcement to the Emirates either last summer or in the January transfer window. Wenger overestimated the ability of his players to slog through a long season; it's something that they really haven't done before. Arsenal FC has a ton of money to spend and Wenger basically has a blank check to go out and get whoever he wants, but he opted to stand pat with the team that he had and it's coming back to bite him.

Injuries have plagued Arsenal this season, and I understand that, but every team has injuries. The Gunners just don't have enough depth to recover from them and that has to be attributed to the person who brings players in, Wenger.

For Juande Ramos, let's not forget that Spurs finished 5th last season and were picked by many to break into the top four this year. Spurs were in shambles early in the season under Martin Jol and while Ramos has more than turned that around and won a Carling Cup, he also has an incredible amount of talent on his roster.

I do give him a lot of credit for outcoaching Avram Grant in the Carling Cup final, but one of his goalscorers in that game, Dimitar Berbatov, is good enough to feature for Chelsea and the other, center back Jonathan Woodgate, has played for a world power in Real Madrid, albeit briefly.

Ramos also hasn't been able to fix the defensive issues that hampered this team under Jol, and if you can't defend in professional soccer, you won't get far. It's just that simple. Ramos has been at Spurs long enough now where one would think the defense would be tougher to break down and the system of play would be geared more towards helping out the back line, but that hasn't been the case.

As I said, check back on the 21st to see my choice for Manager of the Year.

Big Win for Portsmouth

Amidst all the Champions League hype yesterday, Portsmouth’s 1-0 away victory at West Ham, keeping their hopes of finishing in 5th place alive, more than sailed under the radar and I would be remiss to not talk about it and its ramifications a little bit.

England killer Niko Kranjčar scored on a terrific effort from just outside the penalty area in the 61st minute for his fifth goal of the year. David James made four saves to preserve another clean sheet, Portsmouth’s 21st of the season. The win was the team’s 9th in their last 11 games in all competitions.

West Ham had their chances, numerous chances actually, but just couldn’t finish. They had seven corner kicks; Portsmouth had four. They had the slight edge in possession, although I don’t find that stat to be particularly useful anyway. They had, obviously, the advantage of playing at Upton Park, where they’ve beaten the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool this seaon.

This is a team that is playing out the string now and aside from pride and for some, perhaps a place on next season’s roster, there’s just not much to compete for. The Hammers are in 10th place and have looked fairly lethargic over the past few weeks. Their spot in the standings appears nearly locked in as Tottenham, five points behind in 11th place, isn’t playing well either, and I can’t see West Ham climbing any higher.

This post is about Portsmouth, though, and I really can’t overemphasize how significant this win was for the South Coast side. With five league games still remaining, Pompey now trails Everton for that automatic berth into the UEFA Cup by four points. This would become moot, of course, if Portsmouth beats Cardiff in the FA Cup final on May 17 to play their way into Europe, but you can’t assume that that will happen.

Portsmouth has a much easier schedule heading down the stretch, with games (in order) against Newcastle, at a struggling Manchester City, against Blackburn, at Middlesbrough, and against Fulham to finish up the season. By comparison, Everton still has to play Chelsea (home), Aston Villa (home), who still has a chance to finish 5th, and Arsenal (away). The Toffees also have to pay a visit to Birmingham City this weekend, and a home date with Newcastle rounds off their year.

Although Portsmouth is behind by four points in the standings, it’s really a five point gap because Everton has the superior goal differential (+22 to +14). With that said, Portsmouth can definitely pad their total against the lesser quality of their opposition, while Everton will probably lose a few goals from that +22 figure.

Great win for Portsmouth yesterday. Their current deficit is more manageable than it would’ve been without that victory, particularly if West Ham would’ve knocked them off and left Portsmouth with nothing. In that case, the gap still would’ve been 7 points and it would’ve taken three out of the last five games to make that up. Look for the difference to be down to 2 points after this weekend, because I can see Everton only getting a draw at Birmingham and Portsmouth should beat Newcastle at Fratton Park. If both results come to pass, game on.

Wayne Rooney Solves Rubik's Cube and Sings in "I'm on Setanta Sports"

Not only does Wazza score goals routinely for one of the biggest clubs in the world and have a beautiful girlfriend, he can figure out a Rubik's Cube in no time at all and sing like Ronan Tynan. Oh, and juggle a ball at the same time. Oh yeah, and do everything blindfolded.

In the words of his manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, there was never any doubting the quality of the boy.

He is fantastic.

Full-Time Thoughts--Liverpool vs. Arsenal (Second Leg)

It's over at Anfield, and as predicted here before the quarterfinal round started, Liverpool has advanced after winning 3-2 tonight. Captain Steven Gerrard stepped up and converted the game-winning penalty just minutes after Arsenal had equalized at 2-2 through Adebayor, who was set up nicely after a terrific solo run by Theo Walcott. That scoreline obviously would've sent the Gunners through on the away goals rule, but a justly awarded spot kick quashed any momentum and good feelings that the North London side had earned back.

Ryan Babel coolly finished a breakaway to seal the deal in stoppage time, and full credit has to be given to Liverpool FC for fighting back the way they did.

Arsenal has to be commended as well for overcoming their 2-1 deficit and when the Togolese striker levelled the match, it looked for all the world like his team would progress.

It was not to be for Arsene Wenger's team though. Liverpool will meet Chelsea, a 3-2 aggregate winner over Turkish club Fenerbahçe, in the semifinals for the third time in four years, but I'll have more on that as we get closer to the tie. The first leg is scheduled for Tuesday, April 22.

We were treated to a fabulous game today. In truth, I think Liverpool had the better of things all match long and if either of those teams were going to win, it was going to be the Reds. Arsenal didn't look the same after Mathieu Flamini had to be taken off due to injury right before the first half ended, whereas Liverpool got stronger as time went on.

I’m curious to hear what Monsieur Wenger has to say about the penalty decision so close to full-time. To me, it wasn’t even that close. Babel was hauled down from behind and could’ve fallen several strides before he actually went down, and I respect the fact that he didn’t dive.

Congratulations to Liverpool on the victory and credit to Arsenal for making this such a good game. The Gunners had their chances and didn’t take them. In the end, that will haunt them more than anything.

Halftime Thoughts--Liverpool vs. Arsenal (Second Leg)

I'm typing this as sort of a live blog as the game goes on, so yes, there are a few contradictions but soccer is a game that can change very quickly.

• Clever stuff from Derek Rae right before kickoff...“most anticipated end to a trilogy since Return of the Jedi.” Quality.

• Good to see Peter Crouch rewarded for his great game last weekend with a start today. Yes, it changed the shape that Liverpool has been successful with recently, but Crouch deserved a run-out. Rumors of a slight knock for Babel also played into Benitez’s decision.

• VERY shaky first few minutes for Liverpool; if only Arsenal could’ve stayed onside and shown some composure, the Gunners could’ve had a precious early away goal sooner than they got one.

• Gerrard is playing wide left in name only. He’s roaming a fair bit, which is fine because Alonso and Mascherano are back there to clean everything up.

• Reina should’ve saved Diaby’s goal. Diaby struck it very well, but Reina needed to get more of his body behind the ball, preferably a hand, and at least deflect it somewhere else. No excuse for getting beat at the near post.

• Adebayor is running Hyypia ragged. Can’t understand why Hyypia is even starting; Carragher matches up better against Adebayor physically and Steve Finnan is a natural right back.

• Correct decision in not awarding Liverpool a penalty when Kuyt went down in the box midway through the half. Arsenal didn’t get a close call last week; Liverpool wasn't going to get one this week.

• Hyypia’s goal means he’ll probably be at Liverpool until he’s 57 years old. Might as well hand him a long-term contract right now. Just joking, of course, but he’s been a loyal servant to the club and although he’s lost more than a step defensively, his goal today was hugely significant.

• Losing Flamini is a big blow for Arsenal. Gilberto gives the Gunners basically nothing going forward and has shown his age this season. He’s not nearly as quick as he used to be and while he is certainly experienced, Liverpool can exploit him if they’re patient enough with the ball.

Cardiff City Should Be Allowed into the UEFA Cup

I'm not sure what the issue is here. There shouldn't even be any debate about it; if Cardiff City becomes eligible for the UEFA Cup based on winning the FA Cup, the Bluebirds should play in Europe. If Portsmouth qualifies for the UEFA Cup through their final league position, which is possible, that would give Cardiff a berth as well because they've reached the FA Cup final.

I don't care that geographically, Cardiff is a city in Wales. They play in an English-based domestic league, the Coca-Cola Championship. They don't compete in any Welsh competitions and haven't for a while.

FC Vaduz is based in Lichtenstein, but have qualified for European competition while playing in Switzerland's second division and winning the Lichtenstein Cup seemingly every year. AS Monaco is located, obviously, in Monaco, but they play in France's top flight and reached the Champions League final in 2004. Derry City plays their home games in Northern Ireland, but are part of the Irish league and have played in Europe as an Irish team.

Here in America, the Toronto Blue Jays (MLB), Toronto Raptors (NBA), Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, and Calgary Flames (all NHL) all are located in Canadian cities and play in American-based major professional sporting leagues, and there are countless other examples of this at the minor league and junior levels as well. If those teams reach the playoffs or win their respective leagues' championships, it's not like those accomplishments don't count because they're not American teams; they count the exact same.

Don't tell me that because the city of Cardiff isn't in England, their club can't represent England in the UEFA Cup. That's nonsense.

As usual, the English FA has taken a moronic stance towards this matter:

"Our position remains unchanged and should Cardiff win the FA Cup this season they would not be chosen as the FA's nomination for European competition.

Cardiff enter into English domestic competitions on this understanding and they are fully aware of the rules and regulations under which they take part.

These rules remain the same and there would be no scope for Cardiff, or any of the other Welsh clubs in the English system, to qualify for Europe as England's representative."

OK, fine. I understand that Cardiff, and other Welsh teams playing in England like Swansea and Wrexham, originally had some sort of verbal agreement and understanding that they couldn't play in Europe as a representative from England. That can surely be modified or altered in some way. Cardiff earned their way to the FA Cup final, and tradition, practice, red-tape, and geography were standing in their way.

Not so fast. I also don't applaud UEFA president Michel Platini very often, but I absolutely will for his recent commments concering this situation. Platini wants to look into giving Cardiff a "wild card" entry into the FA Cup if necessary, which is fair.

Again, this becomes a moot point if Cardiff doesn't win the FA Cup or Portsmouth doesn't qualify for the UEFA Cup automatically through league position. I hope the Bluebirds do end up playing in Europe though, because not only do I want to see egg all over the FA's face, but it's a true underdog story that deserves a storybook ending.

John Collins Set to Take Over at Fulham

According to the Times Online, and you can read it for yourself at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article3701789.ece, former Hibernian manager and Everton and Fulham (amongst others) player John Collins will begin talks with ownership later this week, with a formal announcement to be made if/when Fulham get relegated.

Current boss Roy Hodgson would head upstairs to become director of football. The Cottagers would like to keep him around for his experience in the game and could benefit from the contacts he's made across Europe during his managerial career.

Collins did a good job at Hibs, leading them to their first trophy in 16 years after beating Kilmarnock to win the Scottish League Cup in March of last year. There were strong rumors and talk about dressing room mutinies and uneasiness in the relationship between Collins and his players, but he was 23-15-16 in his 54-game SPL tenure and that's a solid record in a league annually dominated by Rangers and Celtic.

If you’ll remember, he also was in the running to take over at Craven Cottage when Lawrie Sanchez was fired right around Christmastime, but chairman Mohamed Al-Fayed believed that the club needed a battle-tested manager to guide his team out of the drop zone and into safety.

At 40 years of age, Collins is relatively young for a manager and marks a stark contrast to the calm, stoic figure that has been Roy Hodgson. If Fulham were to be relegated, Collins' energy and passion would really need to be harnessed and used in a positive way; as I recently wrote, the 24-team Championship is built on parity and there isn't much between clubs. Every game is a fight and each point is crucial in the race for promotion.

On the surface, this seems like it would be a good move for Fulham. They're a team that I have a soft spot for and if Collins is the man to bring them back up, that'd be a great story.

Manager of the Year

Out of the 20 managers currently in charge of Premiership teams, I’ve narrowed the list down to five for my personal “Manager of the Year” award for the 2007-2008 season. I’ll trim it down further to three on Wednesday, and announce the winner here on Friday. Your comments and feedback are definitely welcome; if you’re a fan of a particular team and/or manager, let me know why you think your guy should win. If I didn’t include someone who you wanted to see amongst the “quarterfinalists”, take me to task for it and tell me why I made a mistake.

The five candidates are in no particular order; I haven’t yet determined my “semifinalists” and winner:

1. Roy Keane (Sunderland): After taking charge early in the season last year at Sunderland and proceding to win the Coca-Cola Championship, Keane has led the Black Cats to almost certain safety in England’s top flight this campaign. Many people believed that Sunderland, as is the case with most Championship teams that come up to the Premiership these days, would go straight back down, but that doesn’t appear like it will happen. His team has defied expectations and this is a man who, despite a well-earned reputation as a fiery player during his day, has been calm, level-headed, and optimistic all year, even when things weren’t going well.

When you look at his roster, there is only one player, striker Kenwyne Jones, who could possibly earn significant playing time at a bigger club, but Keane has molded this patchwork group together and he’s got his team in 13th place right now. An impressive road victory at Aston Villa is probably the signature win of the season, but triumphs in North East derbies against Newcastle and Middlesbrough in a couple weeks’ time would be huge for Keane and Sunderland.

2. Juande Ramos (Tottenham): Ramos inherited a team that was in the relegation zone and was really suffering both from fitness issues and player apathy. He’s turned that around and then some, beating London rivals Chelsea to win the Carling Cup, which represented Spurs’ first trophy in nine years, and reaching the Round of 16 in the UEFA Cup before being eliminated on penalties by PSV Eindhoven.

Spurs have also gradually climbed up the league table into 11th place, and are only five points behind West Ham. With the start that this team had, a top-10 finish looked nearly impossible but Ramos has created a new era and mentality at Tottenham. His players have said that Ramos’ strict focus on fitness and diet, two things not really valued in English culture, has really had a huge impact, and aside from that one blip after the winning the Carling Cup final in which some of his players were caught drunk in public by the media, it’s a team with a completely different outlook than the one they had under Martin Jol, who had taken them as far as he could.

Yes, the talent has been there in the form of guys like Berbatov, Keane, Lennon, Jenas, and others, but it takes a special manager to harness that talent and turn it into success on the field, especially since he has a roster full of players that have been extremely moody and inconsistent in the past.

3. Martin O’Neill (Aston Villa): O’Neill has done incredible things with the England U-21’s…excuse me, Aston Villa, and has a team that will further develop and contend for a Champions League spot in the future. With that said, they’re in 7th place at present and have already exceeded last season’s win total (11) by three so far this year with five games still to play, and are definitely going to improve on last year’s 11th place finish.

What’s remarkable about O’Neill is that he’s been successful with the Birmingham-based club without spending a whole lot of money (although he has apparently been given a sizable war chest to spend this summer), and has one of the smallest (in number, not size) first team rosters in the Premiership. Only 16 field players have started a league game for the Villains this season and of those 16, nine have started 20 or more matches in the Premiership and 12 have started over ten or more games.

With all that said, I think the most telling thing about O’Neill and how much he means to his team can be shown when one of his players scores a goal. O’Neill jumps for joy nearly 26 feet off the ground and is the first to run to the touchline to hug, high-five, and celebrate with his players. He praises them in public and will support them to the end, but is also the first to criticize them a little bit when necessary and push for the extra gear that he knows these young players have.

4. David Moyes (Everton): The Scotsman and his team operate in the shadow of city rivals Liverpool, but Moyes has done a fantastic job with the Toffees this season and they could make another appearance in the UEFA Cup next year if the standings end up the way they currently are. They reached the Round of 16 this season before bowing out to Fiorentina in penalties, and got to the semifinals of the Carling Cup before losing to Chelsea.

Moyes has guided his team through injury problems (Leighton Baines, Tim Cahill, Mikel Arteta, etc.), and extended absences due to the African Cup of Nations (Joseph Yobo, Yakubu, and Steven Pienaar). This is another squad with some very serviceable, useful players, but no one that would really feature for any bigger teams in Europe, and Moyes has done very well to get the best out of them. The club’s eight road wins are tied for the third-most in the league.

Upcoming games against Chelsea, Arsenal, and Aston Villa will be huge for Everton and their quest to remain in 5th place, but you can count on Moyes having his team prepared and ready to play.

5. Arsène Wenger (Arsenal): Although it looks like Arsenal will fall short in both the Premiership title hunt and Champions League, one can’t discount what Wenger has been able to get out of a largely inexperienced team. There are some older, veteran players on the roster, but not all of them play significant minutes and it’s no secret that the Gunners’ fate hinges on their young guns.

Wenger has been criticized by many, myself included, for coddling his team in the media and never calling anyone on his roster out, but he knows exactly what he’s doing and the puppet strings are in the right hands with the Frenchman. This is a team that had legitimate aspirations for a double earlier in the season, and yes, perhaps it was a bit of a flash in the pan, but Wenger has kept his team more than competitive all season. They haven’t lost yet at the Emirates and have only been beaten twice in the league this year, which shows a lot of discipline and hard work, and that can be attributed directly to the players’ respect and desire to play for Wenger.

As I said, this list will be cut to three on Wednesday. Did I miss someone? I don’t think so, but if you think I did, let me know; I want to hear you.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland..in April?!?

This weather in England is crazy.

I wrote a post a couple weeks ago about how there was rain, sleet, snow, and sunshine all in the space of an hour or so in the Tottenham-Portsmouth game at White Hart Lane. I couldn't believe the drastic, sudden changes in weather but after today, nothing should surprise me.

It's the beginning of April, but you wouldn't know it if you were watching the Middlesbrough-Manchester United match today in the North East. I turned on the TV and thought I was watching an NFL game in Cleveland or Buffalo in the dead of winter. Snow was falling as hard as I've seen it come down in a while, and the condition of the field obviously reflected this. The ball was skipping, players were slipping and sliding, and yet the passion from them and fans alike was still evident.

I have to give Middlesbrough's supporters a lot of credit; I've criticized them harshly (but fairly) in the past for not filling the Riverside for a big game but today they came out in droves. The stadium was nearly sold out and the fans gave such a boost to the team. They played a huge part in spurring their club on to hold Manchester United, the defending champions and likely champions this season as well, to a 2-2 draw, and Tuncay almost won the game for Boro at the very death. Snow and cold didn't seem to bother the crowd in the least bit and they were singing and chanting and shouting for the full 90 minutes.

Good stuff as usual from England. Soccer can truly be played in all conditions, and we saw that today.

An American League in England?

Well, not really, but there are definitely some similarities between professional sports leagues here in the States and England's most exciting, most competitive soccer league.

And no, I'm not talking about the Premiership.

I want to show a little bit of love to the Coca-Cola Championship, England's second-tier domestic league.

The Championship is fabulous. I don't get to watch it that often; most of the English games on TV are Premiership games and that is part of the problem I'll get into in greater detail later; the same teams benefit from the wildly lucrative TV contracts that the Premiership has signed in past years and the little guys don't get to bask in that sunlight.

Parity. It's a word that fans of many Premiership clubs, particularly fans of the "Big Four", and fans of other big clubs across Europe hate hearing. They seem to believe that their teams are entitled to finish at the top of their respective leagues each and every year, and that their teams are the only ones allowed to actually win trophies.

They look down at the little guys, which their club could very well have been at some period in history, and sneer at the notion that anyone else can challenge them. Their clubs bring in significantly more money than their competitors, and they are at such a financial advantage that not only can they sign big-name, high-profile players in the prime of their career, but they are also able to snatch rising young stars from the clubs that developed them in their youth systems as well.

These teams have built their reputations over time, although there are a few instances in which a team shot to prominence in a short period of time for some reason or another. Chelsea is an example of this, having been a relatively mid-table team until Roman Abromavich and The Special One himself, Mr. Mourinho, came to West London. Usually, though, the traditional superpowers have enjoyed their status as such for the majority of their history and if not, were at least on the periphery before rising to the top.

It has progressed over time to the point where within Europe's top three leagues, for example, there are actually at least six mini-leagues, and I'll show you what I mean in a second.

By and large, and there are a few exceptions, of course, only the teams in the upper tiers of the full 20-team leagues have a realistic chance to win the domestic title and cup competitions. They are usually the only teams to take part in the Champions League and benefit from the huge financial boost that comes with it. Sure, there are years in which we see outliers, as I said, but it's not too often that someone from beneath the top four or five teams can break the stranglehold that those big clubs have on the rest of the pack. Unfortunately, it is a situation in which the rich get richer and the rest of the league, well, they're basically treading water, stuck in neutral; whatever expression you want to use.

England:

Upper Tier-Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal
Lower Tier-everyone else

To be more specific, there actually seems to be three tiers in the Premiership. The upper tier is the same, then comes Portsmouth, Everton, Aston Villa, and Manchester City, then comes everyone else.

Italy:

Upper Tier-Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus, Roma, possibly Fiorentina
Lower Tier-everyone else

Spain:

Upper Tier-Barcelona, Real Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia, Atlético Madrid
Lower Tier-everyone else

Now, take everything I just said and put it in the back of your mind for a second. Don't throw it out completely, but let's move on.

In American sporting culture, parity reigns supreme. This is a country with four main professional leagues, the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), and National Hockey League (NHL). All four leagues have some sort of salary cap and while I'm not suggesting one should be used in world soccer, I will say that the fact that an enforced, to some extent or another, limit to how much money teams can spend on their players controls and checks, for the most part, domination of these leagues by one or a few teams.

It is a common occurrence for teams who win a championship in their respective sports leagues to not even make the playoffs the next season. Sometimes they're forced to cut payroll, or they have a bad rash of injuries, or players who had good seasons the year before can't duplicate their success the next season for some reason another.

There are plenty of reasons for the merry-go-round that can be sports in the US, but one common factor is that the talent is fairly evenly spread across the leagues and there are upwards of 30 teams in these leagues (30 in MLB, the NBA, and the NHL, 32 in the NFL). It's very difficult to assemble a roster full of superstars like what we see done every year at Manchester United, Barcelona, and Inter Milan. In fact, teams that often win championships here are the teams with a bunch of solid, capable, good players, with a crucial contribution from a role player or two every now and again, but without a true superstar.

As a result, we see different teams winning championships or at least, making the playoffs, routinely in America. In the NHL, seven different organizations have won the Stanley Cup since 1997-1998. In the NBA, only four different teams have won the finals since 1998-1999, but in the Western Conference at the moment, only 6.5 games separate teams 1-8 in the standings and 4 games separate teams 5-8. In the NFL, eight different franchises have won the Super Bowl since 1998-1999. In MLB, seven different franchises have won the World Series since 1999. The Colorado Rockies reached the World Series last year with a payroll ranking in the bottom third of the league. This doesn't even include the teams who made the playoffs in those years, but you get my point. Success is there for the taking and isn't shared by the same four or five teams year in and year out.

Now, to the main point of this article.

The Coca-Cola Championship, a 24-team league, is a great example of parity and almost every team has a legitimate chance to gain promotion to the Premier League in a given season. Yes, some teams have a more realistic chance than others, but nearly everyone is in with some form of a shout. There is no salary cap like we see in American sports, but by and large, teams have similar budgets and there's only a relatively small difference in the salaries their players are getting paid.

The 2007-2008 season has been a great one. The league's top two teams, currently Bristol City and Stoke City, gain automatic promotion to the Premiership. These two teams, on 70 and 69 points respectively, are only about ten points ahead of the clubs in places in 7-10 right now. Burnley, in 10th, is 12 points behind Bristol City with seven games to go. Twelve points can mathematically be made up in four matches, so Burnley will fight tooth and nail until the end of the season.

If they don't manage to catch Bristol City or Stoke City, there's a good chance that they can still end up in the playoffs, where teams 3-6 (3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5) play a two-legged semifinal, with the winners advancing to a one-off affair at Wembley for promotion to the Show, aka the Premiership. Burnley is only three points behind 6th place Wolverhampton at the moment. Cardiff City, in 12th position, is just five points adrift of Mick McCarthy's Wolves side.

Listen to this. If the season ended today, Southampton would be relegated as they're in 22nd place. Southampton was a playoff team last year, finishing 6th, and took eventual playoff winner Derby County to penalties before being eliminated. Even in 22nd, the Saints are 15 points (just five games) out of a playoff spot right now and are three points away from 17th place Norwich City and safety, where they could live to fight another season in England's second division.

Bristol City, who are leading the league as I mentioned earlier, wasn't even in the Championship last season. They were in League One, where they finished as the runner-up to Scunthorpe United. Where's Scunthorpe this year, you ask? 23rd.

Suffice it to say that things in the Championship are tight and the title race, playoff race, and relegation battle will undoubtedly go down to the final game of the season. Teams can jump several places in the table or fall several places in one day depending on what happens in other games.

It is this unpredictability and competitiveness that I find highly entertaining. We see it all the time in American sports and rarely, if ever, in Europe's top leagues. Before every Premiership season in recent memory, nearly every "pundit" has the same four teams finishing in the top four. It is considered to be almost of a freak of nature or a superhuman performance for any team outside those four teams to crack their vicegrip on the league, and when someone is able to do it, they are praised to the high heavens. Those same four teams are the ones picked to go far in the Champions League and who usually go far in the FA Cup and Carling Cup.

Yes, the Premier League has the best athletes soccer has to offer and yes, individual games are great to watch. The same four teams nearly always come out on top though, and it's usually the same group of teams who make up the bottom of the league. Instead of striving for excellence, teams settle on striving for medocrity and simply retaining their Premiership status.

Can you ever see a team like Middlesbrough or West Ham or Bolton or Manchester City ever actually winning the Premiership? I certainly can't.

Can you ever see Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester United ever finishing in the lower half of the table? I certainly can't.

For sheer drama and entertainment, give me the Championship over the Premiership any day of the week. Sure, the players in this league have nowhere near as much talent as their comrades one league above, but I guarantee you that collectively, they have more heart and more fight and play for their teams more than they play for themselves and the money. We have our share of primadonnas in America just like there are in the Premiership, I won't lie to you. But, our top leagues are more competitive and more closely contested than the Premiership.

Hopefully you see that the Championship deserves more attention. Hopefully you see that like sporting leagues in the US, this is a league built on parity and one in which everyone has a chance to achieve their dream, to one day play in the Premiership.

Fulham Needs Victory Against Sunderland

The title of this post says it all.

It's straightforward for the Cottagers. Anything but a win against Sunderland tomorrow and Fulham can start packing their bags for the Coca-Cola Championship next year. Instead of lucrative home games against the likes of historic Premiership city rivals like Tottenham, Arsenal, and Chelsea, the fans at Craven Cottage will have to get used to seeing their team play Queens Park Rangers (QPR) and Crystal Palace.

Fortunately for Fulham, tomorrow's match will be played in London and Sunderland has struggled mightily away from home all season. The Black Cats have managed just one win in 16 road games and taken only four points outside of the Stadium of Light, but, to their credit, that one win came at a pretty good Aston Villa team on March 22. Possible starter Dwight Yorke will miss the game due to a knee injury, and Dickson Etuhu won't take any part either, also because of a knee problem. Fulham is healthy and ready to go, having been unbeaten in three of their last four contests.

Right now, Fulham is six points adrift of 17th place, where they need to be at the end of the season to avoid relegation. With the 24 points they have now, it appears like they'll need to find a way to earn anywhere from 6-9 more to escape the drop. A victory tomorrow and that task would become far more manageable, but a loss and Fulham are doomed with the schedule they still have to navigate.

Hypothetically, let's say that they do scratch out a win. That would probably vault the West London club into 18th place ahead of Bolton, who seem unlikely to go to Villa Park and get anything from their hosts. Birmingham, in 17th, travel to Wigan in a huge six-pointer as those two teams are separated by only one point and one place in the standings at the moment. Fulham will be rooting for either a draw in that game or a Wigan victory, because either would make climbing out of a relegation spot more realistic.

After tomorrow, Fulham will travel to Reading and take on another team in the relegation battle. The Cottagers are eight points behind Reading right now, but two consecutive victories could see that deficit slashed to two heading into the last four games of the season. Reading is alright at home, but they've conceded more goals at the Madejski than they've scored and that will give Fulham some hope.

The key game of the season in the quest to stay in England's top flight could very well come on May 3, the second-to-last weekend of the year. Fulham will welcome none other than Birmingham to Craven Cottage and their guests are another team that are absolutely abysmal on the road. At that point, Fulham would need to be two points (or less) behind to leap into what could be safety, because their goal differential is inferior to Birmingham's and that is the first tiebreaker if needed.

It's no secret that I have a soft spot for Fulham, given the fact that their roster is loaded with Americans and I want to see them do well. I also picked them to finish 13th this season, which may have been a bit of a reach, but I'm rooting for them to make me look good. Guys like Brian McBride, Clint Dempsey, and Kasey Keller all deserve better than the Championship and I'm hoping their team stays up.

It all starts tomorrow though, and Fulham desperately, desperately needs to beat Sunderland. Failing to do so wouldn't result in mathematical relegation yet, but they could very well need to run the table to remain in the Premiership and that's unrealistic. A win and Fulham would be in business.

The last six games of the season are going to be extremely enjoyable for viewers, as we have a little bit of a title race and a full-on relegation battle. Here's to Fulham coming away with three points tomorrow.

Tribute to Derby County

I'll be honest with you. I've written over 300 posts here on English Soccer Talk since I started this site, and other than in my preseason predictions and my midseason summaries, I can't remember any posts specifically about Derby County or even mentioning that club in another post for more than a sentence or two.

Well, don't accuse me of not being an "equal opportunity" writer. I'm going to use this time to salute the Rams, who were officially relegated back to the Coca-Cola Championship after last weekend's round of games.

Derby County FC:

Just by the "eye test", and I like to think I know a little bit about this game, Derby County has been the worst Premiership team I've ever seen.

Too harsh? Don't agree with me? Ok, that's fine. Let me give you a few stats to prove my point.

1. With six games left to play, Derby needs at least four more points to avoid becoming the team with the fewest points total in Premier League history. Those four points would give Derby 15, which would equal the record held by the 2005-2006 Sunderland squad. Five points, obviously, would propel Derby over the top. Can you see them getting five points from a schedule including games against Everton, Aston Villa, West Ham, Arsenal, Blackburn, and Reading? I can't.

2. Derby has one win in 32 league games. If that figure stands, Derby would have the fewest wins for one team in Premiership history. That 2005-2006 Sunderland team managed to win a whopping three matches, which is the current low.

3. The Rams' -51, yes, you read that right, -51, goal differential is the third-worst in Premiership history behind Swindon Town's -53 in 1993-1994 and Ipswich Town's -57 the following season. Remember, Derby still has six games to eclipse that record, and two or three of their opponents score goals for fun.

4. Their manager, Paul Jewell, was recently rumored to be involved in a sex tape scandal. It's unclear whether there's actually any evidence of this or if it was simply tabloid fodder, but still, this is pretty funny. You would think the manager of a woeful Premiership team would spend his time thinking of ways to improve his side, or be out on the training field with his players, or just something involved with soccer.

Apparently not Paul Jewell, who would rather make a sex tape with, if you believe the reports, a woman who isn't even attractive. If he's that good from behind, if you know what I mean, Derby should've been able to come up with some better results this season.

Alright, I really don't want to bash Derby any more. As soon as they won the playoff final to gain promotion to the Premiership for this season, they basically had their ticket to return to the Championship next season. It's extremely difficult to come from the Championship and compete with the big boys, especially when the money in England's top flight is flying around like it is and there's such a financial and competitive disparity between the two leagues.

They also have two Americans, Benny Feilhaber and Eddie Lewis, on their roster, and I like that. Feilhaber hasn't gotten a chance to play much this season, which I don't understand. One would think Jewell would try and get his youngsters as much experience as he can because some of the veteran players, like Robbie Savage, for one, won't be playing for Derby next year, and surely Feilhaber can't be that much worse than who is playing ahead of him. Lewis has played signficant minutes for the Rams and hasn't looked bad at all, especially considering his age and the position he plays. Ryan Giggs on that left wing, he is not, but he's still serviceable.

The players also clearly haven't given up and packed it in for the season, and that's more than I can say for some players at Spurs and West Ham, for starters. Derby's fans continue to pack Pride Park as well and again, that's more than I can say about fans of teams in a better position than Derby, like Middlesbrough, Blackburn, Wigan, and others.

So long, Derby. You've been one of the worst teams in league history, but it's been nice knowing you, and good luck in the Championship next year.

Full-Time Thoughts--Arsenal vs. Liverpool

It’s all over in North London and after the first leg, Arsenal and Liverpool are level 1-1 on aggregate and will settle things at Anfield in six nights’ time. Briefly, here’s what I thought of today’s game:

• First of all, it should be said, and I know I’m stating the obvious, that this was a proper game of soccer. Both teams laid it all on the line and we saw a little bit of everything, from goal-line clearances, good, clean challenges, two well-crafted goals, and solid refereeing.

• Liverpool were extremely fortunate to get out of the Emirates with a 1-1 draw, and now they’ll head home in command of the tie. Arsenal had more chances and dominated possession in the second half, but couldn’t capitalize. They huffed and huffed, but couldn’t blow the Liverpool house down.

• William Gallas and Dirk Kuyt were terrific for their respective sides. Gallas compeletely neutralized the world’s most in-form striker at the moment, Fernando Torres, and was everywhere in the back for Arsenal. You’ll never hear anyone say Kuyt has a lot of natural talent and skill, but he’s the hardest worker on the field whenever he plays and Liverpool needed every ounce of his determination and energy today. Oh yeah, and he scored the Reds’ goal. Not too shabby.

• The Dutch referee, Pieter Vink, made the correct decision in not awarding a penalty for the Kuyt/Hleb incident in the second half. Sure, Kuyt had his arms on Hleb, but the Belorussian went down pretty easily and to be honest, wasn’t looking to score as much as he was looking for a penalty. I will guarantee you that there are Premiership referees who would’ve given a PK, because I’ve certainly seen them give penalties for less, but more so because they tend to give in to home crowds on questionable calls. Vink was looking right at the situation and had a clear view of it; he made the decision, and that’s it, end of story. It’s a talking point, but that’s all it is.

• Bringing Yossi Benayoun on for Ryan Babel was a complete waste of a substitution. Benayoun is a central midfielder; I don’t care that he's played on the wing this season for Liverpool, he’s a natural central midfielder. He doesn’t offer you pace and two-footed ability like Babel does, and Kolo Toure’s job on the right side became that much easier when Benayoun was brought into the game.

• Other than his run to set up Kuyt’s goal, Steven Gerrard really didn’t have much of an impact on the game. He made a couple of nice passes and won a couple of corner kicks, but I just didn’t see the same player who’s made his reputation off thriving on European nights. He’ll have to come up big for Liverpool next Tuesday night.

• On the other hand, Arsenal’s talisman, Cesc Fabregas, didn’t have a particularly good game either. Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso really limited the amount of time Fabregas had on the ball and closed him down very well. His long balls, which he’s known for, were constantly being hit 4-5 yards past where they needed to be to give Adebayor, van Persie, and Bendtner a chance to do what they do best: score goals.

• I don’t want to hear any more plugs from ESPN to take part in Derek Rae's chat session on ESPN Soccernet; I like the guy a lot and think the world of him as a play-by-play man, but I have no interest. Thanks anyway.

• As I said, Liverpool now controls their own destiny. A 0-0 draw next week will suit them just fine, and the 12th man that is the crowd at Anfield will be roaring. Can Arsenal’s inexperienced (not young) team, at least on the European stage, cope with it? We’ll see.

It will be very interesting to see the lineups that Arsene Wenger and Rafa Benitez field for their league game this weekend. Arsenal needs every single point that they can get as they’re trying to hunt down Manchester United for the league title, while Liverpool are seemingly secure in 4th place. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Benitez opts to rest Torres, and possibly Carragher and/or Gerrard, to have them all 100% for the second leg, but Wenger has to go with a full-strength team because Arsenal likely needs to win the rest of their Premiership games.

In today’s other Champions League game, Turkish side Fenerbahçe made me look good on my prediction yesterday by beating Chelsea at home 2-1. I don’t think they’ll be able to hold that lead at Stamford Bridge next week, but I’ve been very impressed with Fenerbahçe’s run in this competition and they’ve given their fans a lot to cheer about. They’ve put Turkish soccer on the map, and in the southeastern Europe/Balkan region, that league is clearly tops.

Halftime Thoughts--Arsenal vs. Liverpool

• It’s been a tale of two halves; Arsenal had the better of things and were in control for the first 20 minutes or so, and Liverpool came alive for the last 20-25 minutes.

• Very impressed with Liverpool’s immediate response to Adebayor’s goal. Once again, Steven Gerrard, the captain, put the team on his back and came up with a nice run and low cross for Kuyt to finish.

• Ryan Babel needs to continue to run at Kolo Toure. I said this in my “keys to the game” yesterday, and when Babel did use his speed on the left wing, he was fairly successful. Toure can’t match him step-for-step, and I’d expect to see Babel wear him down gradually in the second half.

• Pepe Reina is a fine, fine goalkeeper, but his relative lack of height for a goalkeeper puts him at a disadvantage on corners and free kicks. Arsenal needs to keep pumping the ball into the area, where Adebayor is having his way with Hyypia and Skrtel right now.

• Speaking of Hyypia, I have no idea why he is in the lineup. He is 34 years old now and has lost more than a step. He was exploited by Adebayor on the first goal and as I said, Arsenal needs to take advantage of Hyypia through the air and on the ground with pace.

• Jamie Carragher despises playing right back, but he does a good job there and it shows how much he cares about Liverpool FC by playing out of position for the team. With that said, him not being in the center allows Adebayor to win balls more easily in the air and I have a feeling Bendtner will be brought on as well.

• 1-1 clearly favors Liverpool, so Arsenal will have to push for a second goal. That should make for a great second half.

Happy April Fool's Day

I'll be honest, I've never really gotten into this holiday too much. I know that there are plenty of you out there who enjoy it and have used it to your advantage today or in past years, so good for you.

For those of you who want to see a decent April Fool's joke, or what seems to be a joke, at least, head over to www.epltalk.com; you'll like what you see.

Today's Champions League action went the way of the home teams, as Roma topped Manchester United 2-0 and Schalke beat Spanish giant Barcelona 1-0 in Germany.

April Fool's! Ha!! I got you, didn't I?

No? Oh well. Maybe next year.

Happy April Fool's Day, everyone.