In my weekly column on SWOL, I take a look back at the weekend's English Premier League and domestic cup action and the talking points that it throws up, as well as any significant news related to English football at large. Follow me@theredarmchairfor regular updates throughout the week.
EPL Round 36 Recap: United Get Complacent, City Bore, Merseyside Underwhelms
Last weekend's draw against Arsenal confirmed that Manchester United wouldn't break Chelsea's all-time Premier League points record, so naturally, Sir Alex Ferguson decided to play a weakened team to treat his Old Trafford crowd to a home loss against Chelsea.
CHINI: Datuk Seri Najib Razak today spoke of the possibility of Malaysian footballers playing for the Malaysian-owned Cardiff City FC team of Wales which has secured promotion to the English Premier League (EPL) next season. The prime minister said Malaysian footballers could be allowed to play for the Welsh team to gain experience playing top-level football.
After three seasons of play-off disappointment, Cardiff City finally gained promotion to the Premier League next season, and they have a chance to go up as Champions if they win at Burnley on Saturday.
It has been 51-years since Cardiff were in the top tier of English football and for the first time the Premier League next season will have two teams from Wales.
It's official: next season the league known to most people outside the UK as the English Premier League will be one-tenth Welsh. Cardiff City last night confirmed their promotion to the top-flight with a 0-0 draw against Charlton. That ensured that they will go up against south Wales rivals Swansea next season.
Cardiff City are promoted to the Premier League. The club needed a draw to clinch promotion from the nPower Championship tonight, and they got just that with a 0-0 draw, which is enough to mathematically move them up to the promised land of the Premiership.
Cardiff become only the second Welsh club ever to play in the Premier League.
So next season we'll have two Welsh sides in the Premier League, with Cardiff City deservedly securing their first ever place in the top division, where they'll join Swanswa City, after a 0-0 draw at home to Charlton. Cue massive celebratory pitch invasion.
Just shows you where a lot of hard work and, er, a Malaysian billionaire can get you.
The best managers in England this season - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Fans of English football know by heart which teams are sitting atop the Premier League table or the Championship and where their favourite club is standing at the moment. But what about the managers in England?
How are Alex Ferguson and Brendan Rodgers performing in a league table of managers?
One of the toughest challenges in football is the race to win promotion to the Premier League
from The Championship. The rewards for just one season in the top flight are reported to be worth
in excess of £100 million, thus, it is understandable why each of the 23 teams in the second tier
want to get out!
Cardiff City's promotion back to the top flight after several decades of absence has started joyous celebrations in Wales. As Cardiff are aware of their status for next season before May itself, they are expected to get a significant advantage over other promoted teams. Cardiff manager Malky Mackay will be able to start looking at potential signings, while the club will be able to start negotiations much earlier than their rivals.
Sabah, coached by David McCreery, have signed Rhys Weston. The former Arsenal trainee also played for many Malaysians new favourite team Cardiff City as well as Walsall, Dundee and KR Rekyavik most recently.
In recent years, the Premier League has witnessed some of the harshest managerial sackings in soccer. The majority of dismissals in recent years have been at the expense of a manager who has just gained promotion with his side to the Premier League. Managers have been sacked (some unfairly) for their work in the top flight, whilst others have been replaced for reasons that are still unknown today.
Now that Cardiff City have been promoted to the Premier League, there are still two places remaining to join the Welsh club in the top flight next season.
But who would you like to see promoted alongside Cardiff? Post your opinions in the comments section below.
Currently, the Championship table reads as follows:
The team that finishes second in the table at the end of the season (after 46 games) will join Cardiff.
I knew it wouldn't take long. Peter Ridsdale remains far better at taking credit than earning it. So he was always going to consider himself pivotal to Cardiff City's promotion to the Premier League. It was just a pity that, last night, the BBC fell in with (for?) PR-Pete's spin so readily. Ridsdale's ability to be around when the plaudits are handed out resembles David Beckham's when there's a goal to be celebrated – the only thing about Beckham's game which has ever matched his crossing ability.
Tonight Cardiff City have finally reached the summit of the English football pyramid after years of faltering at the last hurdle. Congratulations to them. Where the majority of fans will be elated at the thought of playing Manchester United and a top flight derby game with Swansea, there are a few who called themselves fans this time last year that find themselves apathetic towards this success.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of what now looks likely to be stage two of the rebranding of Cardiff City is how easy it has all proved for Vincent Tan so far. There were, presumably, meetings held at the club towards the end of last season at which the possible risks of him pursuing such an aggressive rebranding of the club were explained.
On the pitch, Cardiff City are having a season that has been about successful as any of their supporters could hope for. The club is eight points clear at the top of the Football League Championship with only a third of the season left to play, and barring a spectacular collapse a place in the top division of the English football system for the first time in a little over fifty years is now a near certainty.
The race for the Premier League which Championship clubs will get lucky? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Cardiff City are the current favourites to get promoted to the Premier League at the end of the season but Crystal Palace, Middlesbrough, Hull and Leicester all stand a great chance of pulling off promotion into the big time.
Red is the new blue for resurgent Cardiff City and Gillingham - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
A football team's home colours are their identity.
While players and managers move on, those colours remain, representing both the club as it is and as it was. A reminder of fans departed and of history made.
If you want to know something strange about football then all you have to do is study the life and times of Peter Ridsdale, a man who has been associated with Leeds United, Plymouth Argyle, Cardiff City, Barnsley and currently Preston North End. The latter is particularly interesting since he has [.
If the Insolvency Service (IS) had wanted to really punish Preston North End "chairman of football" Peter Ridsdale for his recently-revealed derelictions of directorship duties, they would not have stopped at barring him from holding company directorships for seven-and-a-half-years. They would surely have barred him from any personal PR-activities.
We could argue, perhaps, that there is one set of rules for the well-to-do and another for the rest of us. Peter Ridsale, latterly of Leeds United, Barnsley, Cardiff City, Plymouth Argyle and currently at Preston North End, has been disqualified from acting as a company director for seven and a half years following an investigation carried out by Insolvency Service into the collapse of into the collapse of his company WH Sports Group Limited (WHSG), which provided sports and leisure consultancy services to football clubs from 2003 on.
We continue our series of archived matches of the clubs of the Football League Championship this
morning with six matches from the history of a club that has been generating a large number of
headlines over the last few weeks, Cardiff City. Cardiffs position in the Football world as a Welsh
club playing in the English league system is not unique but for many years it did allow them a
route into European football through the Welsh Cup and our first two matches come from that
competition.
With less than 48 hours to go, Rob Freeman interrupts the Premier League Previews to bring the
first of three previews of the football league. In a break from tradition, the previews are mainly
predictionless, considering that most clubs won't finalise their squads until the transfer window
closes at the end of August.
Football Match just over at Cardiff City Stadium English League Championship Home Team Cardiff
Goals & Scorers 65′: Peter Whittingham;14′: Peter Whittingham;11′: penalty Peter Whittingham;
Keeper David Marshall Midfield Peter Whittingham; Tommy Smith; Craig Noone; Jordon Mutch; Forwards
Nick Maynard; Heidar Helguson; Defense Kevin McNaughton; Andrew Taylor; [.
Adam Campbell was one of the few positive things that came out of last Saturday's 4-1 defeat at
Cardiff City, but it was no flash in the pan, and Adam scored for Newcastle Reserves in
mid-week, and he seems to have continued his impressive form in training. Adam Campbell could be
in squad for Atromitos game Newcastle will field their [.
Local lad Steven Taylor has come out this morning and he's yet another player who has now
apologized for the terrible display against Cardiff City last Saturday, and said the lads let
down the faithful Newcastle fans who traveled all the way to Cardiff, and had that stuff to
watch from the Magpies.
Alan Pardew had been interviewed today in the Newcastle Journal and he is hopeful of the
Anita deal going through, and this will come at a good time with Newcastle being heavily
defeated at Cardiff City on Saturday and Cheick Tiote will not be fit for the Tottenham game on
Saturday. Alan Pardew we must have been losing this game Alan Pardew was asked why it had
taken so long for Newcastle to get new players through [.
Seb Hines was back in Middlesbrough's starting lineup in their draw with Derby County, while Will Packwood and Jonathan Spector featured in Birmingham City's loss to Cardiff City.
Jonathan Spector and Will Packwood look to lead Birmingham City to victory against Cardiff City, while Frank Simek and Carlisle United take to the road and play lowly Bury.
English Football League team Cardiff City FC has launched its 2012/13 third kit from technical sponsor PUMA. Using the same design as the blue Cardiff City 12/13 away uniform, the...
Wales vs Belgium 0-2 Highlights 2012 Collins red card Kompany Vertonghen Goals Video WC
Qualifying is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter
Wales vs Belgium 0-2 Highlights 2012 Collins red card Kompany Vertonghen Goals Video WC Qualifying
is a post from Soccer Blogger.
