Has The Game Gone
Mad?
There are moments where I do question the decisions and
mindsets of the people involved in making the big decisions in football, and
one of those moments came up on Friday when I heard the news that Southampton
chairman Nicola Cortese relieved Nigel Adkins of his managerial duties and
replaced him with 40 year old Argentine Mauricio Pochettino. This came as both
a surprise and a shock given that Southampton were sitting in 15th place in the
Premier League 3 points from the drop zone and had just come away with a very
creditable point against Chelsea in a 2-2 draw just two days beforehand. Now it
would be fair to say that early in the season the Saints were struggling and if
they were to have given Adkins the boot back then it might well have been
understandable, but given that he appeared to have steadied the ship and began
picking up some good results in the league, this then makes the decision to get
rid of him both harsh and bizarre. Given the work he has done for the club in
the two and a half years he’s been there, he shouldn’t have too much trouble in
finding another job. If I were a betting man I would bet on him getting a job
in the Championship and could see him doing a good job with any team in that
division even if the budget is lower than what he had to work with at
Southampton, before Saints he was the manager of Scunthorpe United and won two
promotions to The Championship with them while working with a very low budget,
so having proved that he can work with any budget at that level, any team in
The Championship looking for a new manager would be foolish not to consider
approaching Nigel Adkins.
With regards to the new man in charge at Saints, I have to
say in these early days I’m not convinced he’s capable of doing what is
required of him. He is probably best known by English fans for giving England a
penalty at the 2002 World Cup after fouling Michael Owen and allowing David
Beckham to score the only goal of the game and give England the 1-0 win over
Argentina. He speaks little to no English, has no experience of the English
game having spent his playing career in Argentina, Spain and France. He moved
into management at the start of 2009 and spent three and a half years at
Espanyol in Spain before he was sacked in November of last year after leaving
them bottom of the league table. If I were a Saints fan I’d be pretty concerned
about the new man coming in. But despite my doubts, I hope for the sake of the
fans that he can get it right and prove me and all the other doubters wrong.
Tonight Southampton host a dangerous Everton side and the home fans will need
to play a key part in making sure that regardless of how they feel about the
change in backroom staff, they continue to back their team for the whole 90
minutes tonight and help them get the best result they possibly can. I will be
watching the game tonight with great interest.
Transfer Window –
Weekly Review
Without a doubt the biggest deal in the country this week
was the signing of Loic Remy for Queens Park Rangers from Marseille for an
undisclosed fee believed to be about £8 million. It seemed like he was actually
on his way to Newcastle United instead after they had agreed a fee with
Marseille but he failed to turn up to a contract talks meeting and instead met
with officials from QPR and signed what was believed to be a four and a half
year contract worth more than £70,000 a week. Alan Pardew and others linked to
Newcastle made noises during the week that they felt it was the pay packet that
brought Remy to QPR but the Frenchman denied this claiming he was moving to
take on the challenge of trying to keep them in the Premier League this season.
While one French striker came in to Loftus Road, another was on his way out and
yesterday afternoon Qatar side Al Gharafa confirmed that they’d taken Djibril
Cisse on loan for the rest of the season, a move that hasn’t caused much too
much surprise given that Cisse hasn’t quite met the same standards for QPR this
season as he had done in his first for the club.
Other moves involving Premier League clubs included Wigan
Athletic signing 22 year old goalkeeper Joel Robles on loan from Atletico
Madrid till the end of the season to provide competition for Ali Al-Habsi.
Chelsea’s 18 year old prospect Lucas Piazon joined Malaga on loan for the rest
of the season in the hope of getting more game time. Southampton signed 24 year
old Norwegian centre half Vegard Forren from Molde for an undisclosed fee and Sunderland
completed a loan deal for 29 year old defender Kader Mangane from Saudi Arabian
side Al Hilal in a deal that will run until the end of the season. As we get
closer to deadline day on the 31st, more teams will begin to realise that time
is running out and they will have to strengthen as soon as possible in order to
achieve their targets. A few examples of clubs who could do with new additions
in my opinion are QPR who I think could do with a couple of new defenders to
strengthen their back line, I feel Aston Villa could do with an experienced
central midfielder to toughen them up for the rest of the season and give them
the best chance of staying up and I also reckon West Bromwich Albion might want
to look into bringing in another defender or a midfielder just to ensure they
can keep going for the rest of the season and be in with a chance of finishing
in the top half of the table. The clock is ticking.
Premier League –
Weekend Review
The Premier League title race took an interesting turn on
Sunday evening after Clint Dempsey scored at late equaliser for Tottenham
Hotspur against league leaders Manchester United at White Hart Lane. United
took the lead midway through the first half through the league’s top scorer
Robin Van Persie, but after a lot of Tottenham pressure in the second half,
United couldn’t hold on and Dempsey stabbed in a late winner from close range
in the 93rd minute of the game. This meant United’s lead at the top of the
table was reduced to 5 points ahead of rivals Manchester City who picked up a comfortable
2-0 home win over Fulham with David Silva grabbing both of the City goals. 3rd
placed Chelsea closed the gap on City to 6 points with a 2-1 victory against
London rivals Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea dominated the first half and
got their goals through Juan Mata and a Frank Lampard penalty. Arsenal came
into the game more in the second half and got one goal back through Theo
Walcott but couldn’t find a second. This result left The Gunners in 6th place 3
points behind Everton who play Southampton away tonight, a win for them will
close the gap on 4th placed Tottenham to one point. Spurs themselves are 4
points behind Chelsea.
At the bottom, Queens Park Rangers picked up a point from
Upton Park in a 1-1 draw with West Ham United. New boy Loic Remy scored his
first goal for the club in the first half before Joe Cole equalised for The
Hammers in the second half. That result leaves QPR 5 points from safety.
Reading picked up an important 2-1 away win at Newcastle United that lifted
them out of the bottom 3 until Aston Villa earned a point from a 2-2 draw
against their closest rivals this season West Bromwich Albion. Villa’s point
means that Wigan Athletic who lost 3-2 at home to Sunderland move back into the
bottom 3 this weekend. In the other games that took place, Michael Owen scored his
150th Premier League goal and his first for Stoke City, but could not prevent
them from losing 3-1 away at Swansea City and Liverpool thrashed Norwich City
5-0 at Anfield, the second time they’ve managed to knock 5 past The Canaries this
season after their 5-2 win at Carrow Road back at the end of September.
So the gap at the top of the table has been reduced from 7
points to 5. Man United’s next game is at home to Southampton on the 30th of
January while Man City will play QPR in London on the 29th. Looking at where
both teams are in the table, the fixture itself to me has the kind of both
teams have to win, but neither team can afford to lose feel about it. There
will be much less pressure on United who will still be top regardless of the
result from that game, but if City were to lose or drop points then they will
be in a great position to take advantage of that when they play the next day.
It does now look like it is a two horse race which is a bit disappointing given
that we’re only just past the halfway mark in the season, but if Chelsea or
maybe at a push Tottenham can get a good string of results together and the two
Manchester teams drop points, it might just make the title race even more
interesting.
In the race for survival, it is a much closer affair. I’ve
been very impressed with Reading in recent games and remembering that a month
ago today they were bottom of the league with only 9 points, they’re good run
of form has helped them climb a couple of places and given themselves a much
better chance of survival. The same can’t really be said for teams like Aston
Villa and Newcastle just now who are on bad runs and if they don’t start
picking up the right results soon, it’s going to be even harder to get the
results closer to the seasons climax. They both play each other in their next
Premier League game on the 29th and it might well be fair to say that for these
teams given their current situation, this game can be classed as a relegation
six pointer.
