Silly Season is Well and Truly Underway

The Summer.
It's the time when a club on the up build on the successes of the previous season. It's the time when clubs desperately try to rebuild a ship that has sunk under the weight of its own incompetence. It's the time when clubs go crazy. Quite literally, in some cases.

Let's start from the top. The premier example. The number one case study. Newcastle United Football Club, or Newcastle United (football) if your name is Mike Ashley.
Ashley recently said that he would be "willing" to sell the club for £100 million...i.e., he is desperate. But, let's face it. If you had a spare £100 million, would you really waste it on Newcastle? Ashely spent over £110m buying the club and he then spent a further £110 million trying to pay off some of the debts that the club had...and look where that got him.
He initially offered the club to prospective buyers at an absolutely astronomical price. Obviously, that failed.
Now, Ashley has set an asking price of £100 million. Overpriced, yet again.
'Experts' say that the club's true value is about £80 million. At least Ashley was close this time.

It has been reported that Singapore-based group could be in the running to take over the club. Why? Cause no-one else is deluded enough to even enter negotiations with Ashley.

Is anyone a winner in this situation?
Well, they can't offer the Shearer the job because the club could be about to change hands. They can't offer the likes of Owen a new contract because the new owners may not like the deals offered. Players such as Steven Taylor will be torn apart mentally between his love for his club, but the yearning to play Premier League football at a crucial stage in his career. And Ashley...Ashley is hated by just about everyone residing in Newcastle (and that's probably an understatement.)

Going from the ludicrous to the extreme, it appears that Tottenham are on the verge of signing Ruud Van Nistelrooy from Real Madrid for a meagre £1.5 million.
The 32 year old striker looks set to return to the Premier League as Harry Redknapp looks for short term solutions to fire Spurs towards European football.
When he was in England previously, Van Nistelrooy was absolutely sensational for Manchester United, and his move to Real Madrid came as a shock to many who felt that the striker still had a few years left at the top of his game.
However, whether he still has the ability to readjust to the Premier League at this stage in his career is doubtful.
My personal opinion is that Van Nistelrooy is the right player for Spurs, but at the wrong time.
He was a top striker, but whether he is still the main man is doubtful. He missed much of the last season through injury and it remains to be seen whether he can regain top form.


Across the city, Chelsea have shown their ambitions, with a supposed £45 million pound bid for Sergio Aguero, the Athletico Madrid forward. There are also rumours abound that Chelsea are chasing the AC Milan striker Alexander Pato. Milan always said that they would be reluctant to sell either Kaka or Pato, and it was hoped that due to the subsequent departure of Kaka, Milan would be able to keep Pato at the club for the forseeable future.
However, there are reports circulating that Chelsea are after Pato, and personally, that would make sense to me as I was mystified that they were not fighting Madrid tooth and nail for the services of the Brazilian. Maybe they held the ace up their sleeve with the bid to sign Pato? You never know.
Could Chelsea be about to challegne Real Madrid in the long term in the battle to create the team of Galacticos?




Finally, on a personal note, it has been a very interesting couple of hours for myself and others connected to Birmingham City Football Club. A local radio station reported that the Blues are set to sign 3 defensive players in the next 24 hours, with one player set to sign in a £4 million deal.
The news will excite Blues fans, especially after the recent record signing in the form of Christian Benitez.
Fans will already know about the impending arrival of Giovanny Espinoza, and the possible arrival of Manchester City keeper Joe Hart. Fans have been trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle, with many unsure of who the 4 million signing could be. In the past week, we have read stories that Blues have had a £5 million bid for Cardiff's Roger Johnson rejected, and there were rumours of a bid for Coventry City's Scott Dann.


These are exciting times for fans everywhere...just not in the North East.

The Season That Was...

So, another season has come to an end.

Manchester United have remained top dogs, but on the European scale, Barcelona have laid down a marker for others to try and beat. They have produced scintillating performances on a regular basis throughout the year as goals came at an even faster rate than yellow cards for Marouanne Fellani.

Real Madrid were shown up to be nothing but a bunch of pretenders in both the Champions League and then La Liga, while in Germany, Hoffenheim provided the game with a feel-good factor as they pushed forward in the race to win the Bundesliga before having their hopes cruelly hit by an injury to their star forward.

Closer to home, Newcastle United have come back down to Earth with an almighty bang, and their fans will be planning for trips to Scunthorpe and Blackpool next season, while followers of their greatest rivals, Sunderland, will continue to plan for trips to Old Trafford and Anfield.

Liverpool staked their claim for greater honours, as did Aston Villa and Everton, but as they say, the table never lies, and all three sides finished up where they deserved to finish, but not exactly where they wanted to finish.

After installing new managers, West Ham and Manchester City had contrasting seasons. While West Ham struck gold with the appointment of magic main Gianfranco Zola, City struggled to match the expectations of the fans who were sent into dreamland with the whirlwind entrance of their rich owners and their new 'star' player, Robinho.

On a personal note, it was a tremendous season for my local side Birmingham City who 'got the job done' as we were promoted back to the Promised Land along with Wolves and Burnley who won the lottery of the play-offs. The season was long and difficult, but all three sides should approach the 09/10 Premier League season with no fears at all after seeing their competition in action in the 09/10 Prem season.

Nicolas Anelka hit top form for Chelsea as he finished as top goalscorer, but it was Didier Drogba who hit all the headlines for his antics during the Champions League semi-final.

It was the season when Fabio Capello started to extract some of the undoubted talent from within the England side, and a season when Newcastle went through more Messiah's than I went through hot dinners.

It seems that Premier League players took the storylines from 'Roy of the Rovers' a little too seriously, as Kiki Macheda stole the headlines not once, but twice with crucial goals against Villa (yayy!) and Sunderland.

It was a strange season where Chelsea's home form disappointed in comparison to previous seasons, in direct comparison to Stoke City who had an absolutely fantastic season at home, mainly thanks to their vociferous crowd who never gave up hope.

Ryan Giggs seemed to defy the laws of ageing as continued to ply his trade at the very highest level for United, as Sir Alex search for a new central midfielder came to an abrupt end with the sensational form of Darren Fletcher, who finally emerged from the shadows to become a key player in the United side.

It was a Premier League season when playing the Arsenal-way brought few rewards for both Wenger's side and Mowbray's great pretenders as Arsenal held on to 4th place (just) and West Brom suffered relegation (for the 1 millionth time).

Hull were given a right royal dressing down by their manager on the City of Manchester Stadium pitch, but Harry Redknapp chose a more traditional mode of managing as he saved a Spurs side from the humiliating fate of relegation (which eventually befell Newcastle instead).

This has been another monumental season in the history of the beautiful game. It has been a season full of joy, pain, laughter, tears and anything else you can think of. It is the only game that can make big men cry, and unite men and women, young and old, to stand together as one.
It is the only game of its kind.
It is our game.
What a season.


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