Three and in – not just another football blog

No, those of you looking for him to follow will be disappointed. What I meant is he talks about Twitter in the light of some ill-judged Tweeting from Greg Halford.

He told the world, via his 140 characters, that he was sitting at Molineux with Steve Sidwell, leading to lots of speculation that he’d sign for them from Aston Villa. Then Fulham came along and he signed for them instead.

McCarthy said:

They should call it Twatter – and anyone on it should be renamed! Too many tweets make a twat.

It is interesting though. How are football clubs, usually so restrictive in terms of what they allow players to say in public, going to cope with the upsurge in social media? Twitter and Facebook are not going away. Young men are young men and footballers, let’s face it, are not renowned for their tact or discretion at the best of times.

Sometimes they’re going to say things in the heat of the moment. The permanancy of the internet is the issue though. Saying something then deleting it won’t make the slightest difference. As they stand by the now-closed stable door the horse is galloping away into the distance, powered by ‘OMGs’ and RTs. You can’t take it back.

Another interesting angle is the story out of nothing which is becoming more and more prevalent. There’s a good piece on They All Count about football journalists using Twitter for stories based on the random Tweets of footballers. Worth a read.

Bonus reading: Mick McCartree

Ian Holloway is known as a manager with a good sense of humour. However, even he has struggled to laugh off the news that the Premier League are due to investigate him. Indeed, he has suggested he will resign if the investigation precedes a charge:

“I’d pack in. I can’t work for this madness. I would resign. They do not know what they’re talking about.”

Perhaps the investigation would be understandable if Blackpool had disgraced themselves at Villa Park. As it happens, only a late goal from James Collins prevented them from grabbing a well-deserved point. Holloway’s selection was justified by a typically buccaneering performance.

Blackpool have four games in twelve days. In the modern era, we’re constantly told that it’s a ‘squad game’. What is the point in assembling a squad only for the manager to be investigated by the FA on the first occasion he elects to make use of it?

As Holloway argues:

“I picked a team that I spent a lot of money on. The right-back (Chris Basham) cost me £1m. The Israeli centre-half (Dekel Keinan) is an international. Jason Euell was my captain last year. Ludovic Sylvestre, I paid £600,000 for him.”

To launch an investigation in to the selection of these players is an insult to them and their professionalism.

Also, it’s wildly inconsistent. Yes, Wolves were fined £25,000 last season, but would the FA ever examine the team selection of Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger on the occasions when they opt to rest their top stars? Equally, why weren’t Portsmouth fined when refusing to field David James purely so they didn’t invoke an expensive contract clause?

It is the managers’ prerogative to use the players at their disposal as they wish. They are already working under the conditions of the 25-man squad rule: if the Premier League accepts that list on 1st September, they have to at least grant the bosses the freedom to use those players in whichever way they deem fit.

Today Tony Pulis entered his press conference, unfurled a prepared statement in Benitez-esque fashion, and responded to Danny Murphy’s recent comments about his side’s overt physicality.

Pulis has a history of releasing statements when his club come under fire.  His club are remarkably touchy about criticism.  It’s almost as if the comments are all too often, like the impact of some of Stoke’s tackling, unnervingly close to the bone.

Pulis began his statement by accusing Murphy of discriminating against smaller clubs:

“One challenge on Newcastle’s Hatem Ben Arfa by Nigel de Jong of Manchester City recently led to a broken bone.

Another by Joe Cole, one of our most technically gifted players, resulted in a sending off for one of our most celebrated clubs in the country, Liverpool, who are currently managed by Roy Hodgson, someone I have great respect for.

How ironic it is that Danny Murphy chose not to discuss either challenge or manager in respect of those tackles. How selective can someone be?”

Leaving aside Pulis’ understanding (or lack thereof) of irony, he’s plain wrong on this count.  Like the victim of a Ryan Shawcross tackle, he’s barely got a leg to stand on.  Whilst Cole and De Jong have both made awful challenges, Murphy’s point was that some sides are repeatedly and systematically violent.  Neither Liverpool nor City fall in to that bracket.

Pulis moved on to question Murphy’s motives:

“Maybe Murphy’s pursuit of a new career in the media does not allow him to criticise, or fall out with the Premier League big boys. Instead, in my opinion, he has selected easy targets that are based on his own perception and not facts.”

Ah, perception.  The enemy of football.

The hilarity of accusing Murphy of seeking media-attention, whilst at the same time protecting a kabal of managers led by Sam “I could manage Real Madrid” Allardyce, needs little comment.  You could even call it ‘ironic’.  But that would only confuse Pulis.

Didier Drogba celebrated his backheeled goal against Arsenal by crossing himself and thanking a higher power.  For Drogba, it was unusually and unnecessarily modest.  Whilst he could never have predicted the ball would cannon in off the post in that fashion, his unconventional flick was the mark of a player instinctive, alert, and opportunistic – all signs of a striker at the very top of his game.

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Already this season, Wolves have picked up 21 cautions and two red cards.  Unsurprisingly, they’re now starting to worry that they might acquire something of a ‘reputation’.  Kevin Doyle has insisted that any notoriety is misplaced:

“If you were to look at it on paper you’d think we were a dirty team, but if you look back to last year we were one of the fairest sides in the league.”

Which as defences go is pretty weak.  The evidence of Wolves’ physicality is clear.  What did or didn’t happen last year is irrelevant.  If Wolves are, God willing, relegated this season, then they won’t be able to appeal to the Premier League on the grounds that they played much better the year before.  In football, the present is all that really matters.

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The chief perpetrator of Wolves’ overly-physical approach has been Karl Henry.  Perhaps he’ll be forced to reconsider the manner of his ‘tackling’ having been dismissed so early in their game against Wigan for his latest lunge.  With any luck, a referee will finally step up and apply the same disciplinary sanction to Nigel De Jong, who this weekend did what he had been threatening to do for some time and snapped the leg of Hatem Ben Arfa in two places.  The warning signs were there during the World Cup – De Jong serves little purpose other than to clatter his opponents.  His style of play shows a basic lack of respect for the safety of his fellow professionals, and it’s essential that referees respond accordingly.  If they continue to allow such challenges to go unpunished, then the FA or Premier League will be forced to introduce retrospective action.

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Mark Hughes looks healthier, happier, and settled in to his new job at Fulham.  He says it’s because he’s put on weight.  Maybe it’s actually because he’s finally found a club whose ambitions are compatible with his love of a level scoreline.  It was a run of seven successive draws that essentially ended his spell at Manchester City.  Six ties from his opening seven games as Fulham manager, however, have seen him heralded as captain of an unbeaten ship.  As a player, Hughes was something of a sharpshooter.  As a manager, it seems he’s still quick on the draw.

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So Liverpool have slumped to a new nadir.  One question: would a foreign manager be under more pressure from the media than struggling Woy?

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As ever, your thoughts, observations, and ramblings are welcome.

Is there some kind of edict from the Premier League that Match of the Day shouldn’t focus on the darker side of football? It would be a reasonable explanation as to why they hardly ever look at bad tackles, or if they do they make a joke of it as they did with Wolves treatment of Joey Barton

The man involved in the incident which saw Bobby Zamora end up with a broken leg, Karl Henry, was very lucky not to get a red card last time out. Match of the Day pundits laughed as he embarked on a sequence of progressively worse fouls on Barton. Maybe a mild rebuke might have made him think about tackling Zamora differently yesterday.

pic via Arseblog

Let’s face it, tackles like the one to your left, are not a great advertisement for the English game. The studs-up, over the top of the ball tackle is about as dangerous as it gets, yet not one minute of analysis could be spared for it on last night’s show.

If they want to present a sanitised version of the Premier League then they’re doing the game a huge disservice. There were three or four incidents that could have been looked at during the Arsenal Bolton game, not one was mentioned. I understand people are more interested in the football but there has to be a balance.

The next time there’s a serious injury caused by a bad tackle they’ll sit there, hand wringing, dishing out mealy-mouthed platitudes which do nobody any good. Paul Robinson got away with a shocker, not even a yellow card, and he then had the temerity to do a Steven Taylor and pretend to be injured himself.

I’m not suggesting Robinson be hung, drawn and quartered, but some focus on his behaviour means referees and linesmen are more aware of it in future games. If Stuart Atwell and his assistant had been criticised for not seeing it and not dealing with it properly, it could ensure other officials will do their best to ensure things like that don’t go un-punished in the future. It helps raise standards. Ignoring incidents like this is counter-productive in the extreme.

The football is the most important part of any highlights show, that goes without saying, but unless there’s some effort to feature some of what’s wrong with the game then things will never change for the better. They have a responsibility not to laugh off or ignore serious foul play.

At the moment they’re failing miserably.

Best Signing
It’s rare that ‘best’ also equates with ‘biggest’, but Sunderland’s acquisition of Asamoah Gyan does look very promising indeed.  The Ghanaian forward was one of the most impressive players at the World Cup, and his all-action style ought to be well suited to the Premier League.

Most Surprising Move
Incredibly, Jermaine Pennant managed to fly below the radar before joining Stoke on loan from Real Zaragoza.  His tag must be broken.

Most Predictable Move
Marcus Bent going somewhere, anywhere on loan.  Having signed for Wolves, he becomes the first player to have played for every known football team.

Most Embarrassing Climbdown
There’s a few candidates here.  There’s Shay “I need to be playing” Given, who elected to stay at City and count his cash on the bench.  There’s Arsene Wenger, who must call on the services of Manuel Almunia having spent the summer trying to replace him.  But the winner has to be Aleksandr Hleb, who left Arsenal citing a dislike of London, and has today moved to picturesque Birmingham.

The ‘Andrey Arshavin’ Award For Late Arrivals
We still don’t know if Rafael Van Der Vaart is a Spurs player.  If he is, he must have rolled through the closing window with all the dexterity of a double-jointed Indiana Jones.

The ‘Harry Redknapp’ Wheeler-Dealer Award
Remember, Harry definitively isn’t a wheeler-dealer, so is no longer eligible for the award.  The winner instead must be Stoke’s Tony Pulis, who brought in Eidur Gudjohnsen, Jermaine Pennant, Salif Diao and Marc Wilson, offloading Liam Lawrence and Dave Kitson to Portsmouth in the process.

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Your own awards, gloating and wailing are all, as ever, welcome.

Let’s be honest, there aren’t too many people who have a great deal of time for Joey Barton. He’s a man of dubious character who has, in the past, behaved abysmally on and off the pitch.

Hong Kong Phooey plays for Wolves

However, I’ll give him some props for not reacting to the kicking he got at Wolves yesterday. Match of the Day might have thought it was funny, chuckling away as they showed foul after foul on Barton. Sure who wouldn’t want to see the bad boy of English football kicked about a bit?

Well, regardless of Barton’s past, none of us should condone deliberate foul play, which was bordering on dangerous at times. Laughing about it on the most watched football show on television does exactly that. Would they have been laughing if it were Wayne Rooney or Theo Walcott or Fernando Torres on the other end of it? I don’t think so.

There was one clash with Karl Henry which was great to see. Both players fully committed, going for the ball and despite the collision they both got up and got on with the game. No complaints. Henry, however, went too far. There was a late ‘shoulder charge’ which was worthy of a yellow card on its own. There was no intent whatsoever to play the ball, he went into to hurt the opponent.

The challenge for which he was booked, on display to your left there, might have been a sending off. It was head high and the way he twisted his body and flicked out his foot meant he was trying to hurt Barton again. Henry was shown a red card last year for a reckless challenge on Tomas Rosicky which might have caused serious injury. He was lucky he didn’t get one yesterday too.

Two or three other Wolves players had a go at Barton as well. It’s clear it was deliberate tactic to wind him up. We know his temper is short, we know he’s capable of reacting, it’s to his credit he didn’t.

The bottom line is that some of those tackles could have caused serious injury yesterday. The rules are the same for everybody and everybody is entitled to the protection they offer too. Even Joey Barton.

Weekend #2 of the new Premier League season is upon us. At this stage of the season, each passing fixture will increase our knowledge of the league’s component teams. Perhaps this weekend will answer a few burgeoning questions: Are Chelsea charlatans? Are Blackpool bluffers? And why is Javier Hernandez allowed to wear spanish grocery jargon on the back of his shirt?

Saturday

High-flying Blackpool emulate a man recently discharged from the Israeli army as they face a tricky trip to the Emirates. After a disappointing performance at Anfield, Arsenal will be looking to the returning Robin van Persie and Cesc Fabregas to help them bounce back in style.

Blackburn will hope to continue their good start to the season as they travel to St. Andrews. It doesn’t look a tie for the purists, but is noteworthy for a possible debut against his former club for Birmingham‘s new signing Malcolm Christie, returned from his Greek Odyssey.

Wolves will attempt to chew their way through the Toffees, but back at Goodison Park and smarting from defeat last week, Everton will be a difficult proposition for Mick McCarthy’s men.

Heurelho Gomes will have been having many a restless night in anticipation of his return to Stoke. Whilst he’s recovered from the calamitous form that characterised his early Tottenham career, if anything is likely to spark a relapse it’s Stoke’s muscular approach to penalty box tomfoolery.

According to the omniscient @Optajoe, Bolton‘s Kevin Davies has scored eight goals in his last ten appearances against a cowering West Ham. He’ll be aiming to continue that record as the hard edge to Owen Coyle’s increasingly silky Trotters.

After being smothered by the Tangerines, Wigan could be in the stocks again as they brace themselves for the visit of Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea. Wigan’s defence is so bad that they were described this week as “struggling to cope with the loss of Titus Bramble”. That says it all.

Sunday

Newcastle‘s return to the top flight confuses me. When I see them appear in the fixture list, I get a tingle of excitement, as I briefly forget they’re no longer the glamour team of the mid-90s. And then I see Andy Carroll, the bemopped behemoth upfront, and come tumbling back to Earth. They’ll be up against a Villa side whose grief over the departure of James Milner will be soothed by all those millions and millions of pounds, and the arrival of Stephen Ireland.

Man United travel to Fulham, the scene of a drubbing last season. With United old boy Sparky Hughes now in charge for the Cottagers, they might encounter less resistance.

Monday

The weekend looks, on paper, to be saving the best for last, as Man City host Roy Hodgson’s Liverpool. This game should mark the Premier League debut of Mario Balotelli, the angriest man earning £180,000 p/week I’ve ever seen.

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Full fixture list:

Saturday, 21 August 2010
Arsenal v Blackpool, 15:00
Birmingham v Blackburn, 15:00
Everton v Wolverhampton, 15:00
Stoke v Tottenham, 15:00
West Brom v Sunderland, 15:00
West Ham v Bolton, 15:00
Wigan v Chelsea, 17:15
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Newcastle v Aston Villa, 13:30
Fulham v Man Utd, 16:00
Monday, 23 August 2010
Man City v Liverpool, 20:00

Last Man Back’s Accumulator

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Your predictions, as ever, welcome. There will be a prize for anyone who gets anything right. But the prize will probably just be figurative. So don’t get your hopes up.

Just one game left of the opening Premier League season, it’s Man United v Newcastle (remember when that used to be a top of the table clash?!) but some thoughts on what we’ve seen so far.

Chelsea are like a juggernaut whose momentum has hardly been affected by the summer break. They were somewhat aided by a naive West Brom but showed that their tag of favourites is very well deserved. A Drogba hat-trick on the opening day is going to make every defence think ‘Oh-oh’.

Villa’s lack of manager made no difference to them whatsoever. O’Neill’s departure doesn’t seem to have upset fans or players and they looked comfortable against a West Ham side who look defensively very suspect indeed. Yes, Villa’s first goal was a mile offside but they more than deserved their win.

Joe Hart’s performance for Man City against Spurs makes Capello’s decision not to use him in the World Cup seem even more remarkable. Yes, you can understand the caution but in 90 minutes he showed he would have been more than ready and barring some kind of long-term injury has just ended Shay Given’s Man City career.

Arsenal badly need an experienced Premier League goalkeeper. If they can persuade City to sell them Given then it will strengthen them considerably. The alternative, Mark Schwarzer, should be considered just that. If there’s any chance of signing Given they should go for it.

The Gunners struggled to draw against 10 man Liverpool but played with Arshavin, who declared he was injured pre-game, Abou Diaby who hasn’t played one minute of pre-season football, and an 18 year old Jack Wilshere in midfield. There’s a lot of expectation surrounding the young Englishman and he showed that he’s still got a lot to learn.

Goalkeeping errors were a big feature. Tim Howard cost Everton the game against Blackburn, Chris Kirkland was hardly the only reason Wigan were beaten 4-0 by new boys Blackpool but he played his part, Scott Carson was wobbly for West Brom, Rob Green’s poor punch led to Villa’s first against West Ham (offside aside like) and the usually reliable Pepe Reina fumbled an equaliser for Arsenal. And not one Jabulani in sight.

Referees did mostly ok. New boy Anthony Taylor was spot on with his dismissal of Lee Cattermole. Two blatant yellows deserve a red despite what Steve Bruce says. His linesman spoiled the day a bit by giving a penalty for a foul outside the box but overall he showed the courage of his convictions with the red card. The same applies to Martin Atkinson who rightly sent off Joe Cole at Anfield for a reckless leap at Laurent Koscielny which could have seriously injured the Arsenal new boy. He then spoiled it by sending off Kosciely for an accidental handball but it was good to see a ref crack down on the kind of challenge we all want to see eliminated from the game.

Wolves picked up where they left off last season with a good 2-1 win over Stoke while you have to give enormous credit to Blackpool for their win over Wigan. At the same time you have to ask serious questions of the Wigan performance. Defensively it was worse than amateur and Roberto Martinez’s baffled countenance from the dug-out was worrying. If he doesn’t know why they played like that it doesn’t bode well. Add to that the outrageous behaviour of Charles N’Zogbia – a perfect example of the worst kind of mercenary modern pro – and it was a bad weekend for the Latics.

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As always feel free to pitch in with your comments or thoughts. Anything worth talking about that I’ve missed? Have at it.

Ivory Coast striker Aruna Dindane, who spent last season on loan at Portsmouth, has just signed for Quatar League side Lekhwiya.  Although I’ve not yet seen any quotes from the player, I’d hazard a guess that the move is motivated by more than just a desire to test himself in a new country.

Aged just 29, Dindane has turned down offers from Premier League clubs including Wolves and Blackburn to take the Quatari millions. The move comes after Dindane played a key role in Portsmouth’s run to the FA Cup Final – a run he was only able to take part in after cash-strapped Pompey were forced to negotiate a deal with Lens to escape a pre-arranged £3.5m fee.

Dindane impressed many with his work ethic and desire to keep playing for a club who were already doomed.  He was playing, we assumed, for pride, and a second crack at the Premier League with another club.  How wrong we were.  It seems that the Ivorian has learnt one thing from his time of Portsmouth: the importance of making sensible economic decisions.