After publicising the serialisation of a book telling the inside story of the collapse of
Rangers FC, the Scottish Sun has now done a major about-turn and decided to drop the feature after
their switchboard was inundated with complaints from angry Rangers fans.
For anyone who was asleep for the whole of last week, you missed probably one of the biggest
stories in recent sporting history. Rangers FC were sent into administration because of an overdue
tax bill which stretched back to over 11 years ago. And although Rangers Chief Executive Craig
Whyte stated how this is not the end for Rangers, it can be deemed as somewhat wishful
thinking.
Andy Carroll saga: Liverpool playing hardball, Newcastle priced out of move - originally posted
on Soccerlens.com
The ongoing speculation over Andy Carroll's future continues, as the will-he, won't-he talk of a
transfer rolls on. Much has been made of Brendan Rodgers' intentions to play others ahead of the
England international for Liverpool this season, but the Northern Irish manager still will not let
the forward leave on the cheap; especially to former club Newcastle.
Maybe watching over 30 games of football in the last three weeks has left us a little frazzled
between the ears, but we worked under the assumption that there was a fixed order of penalty takers
to keep to in a shootout scenario. Apparently not so according to former-Premier League referee
Graham Poll.
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rafael Van der Vaart believes that despite finishing fourth, the
Spurs were not unjustly excluded from next season's UEFA Champions League. Instead, the Dutchman
feels that his side's poor form down the stretch warranted such an outcome.
Van Der Vaart was instrumental in powering the Spurs to title contention as recently as the
opening weeks of 2012.
Liverpool is a possible destination for Valencia coach Unai Emery, according to Valencia Plaza.
Emery is set to leave Los Che when his contract expires on 30th June, with the Mestalla faithful
having grown disillusioned with the club's failure to challenge Barcelona and Real Madrid in La
Liga.
Memories of the heady days of Rafael Benitez are still fresh in Valencia and Emery's inability to
move his side beyond third spot is causing Los Che to look elsewhere, despite the Spaniard having
to operate with a significantly smaller budget than the Blaugrana and Los Blancos.
After the weekends results it seems almost certain that the Premier League title is heading to
Old Trafford to give United their 20th title. In Sunday's earlier game, United defeated QPR 2-0
after being given a fortuitous penalty decision which saw QPR skipper Shaun Derry sent off. In the
later kick-off at the Emirates, a late Mikel Arteta strike gave Arsenal the victory over Manchester
City, who ended the game with 10-men after the headline grabbing Mario Balotelli saw red after
escaping a red card for a shocking tackle on Alex Song in the tenth minute.
Chelsea coach Andres Villas-Boas has for the first time revealed his uncertainty over his long
term career with the club. Of course, this comes as no surprise considering their poor run of form
in the past couple of days.
What makes it worse for AVB is that his track record is much worse than those of his
predecessors.
The recent sacking of a very promising young manager by the name of Lee Clarke got me thinking
about how difficult it must be to manage at the top level these days. After all, this is a manager
who had got his Huddersfield side up to 4th in the table, and only 6 months previous, had gone on a
run of 43 games unbeaten!
Why Chelsea Need To End Reign Of Player Power - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
When Andre Villas-Boas took over as Chelsea Manager in June 2011, he probably didn't envisage
the club's dressing room being his biggest problem during his first season in English football. A
dressing room filled with international footballers and seasoned professionals would surely have
been an attraction for any potential Chelsea manager following the ruthless sacking of Carlo
Ancelotti.
Although the English Premier Leaguehas witnessed the presence of several high-profile escape
artists inrecent years, there is one team above all others that has developed aconsistent habit of
pulling off the trick of EPL survival against all the odds.That team, according to soccer betting
tips, is Wigan.
Andre Villas-Boas Is Getting The Support He Needs At Tottenham - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
Thomas Jefferson once said "The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who
reads nothing but newspapers". There must have been times where Andre Villas-Boas during his spell
at Chelsea and now his time managing Tottenham was in danger of breaking his neck, so vehemently
was he nodding to that quote.
One of the players supposedly given an amnesty under the Villas-Boas reign is David Bentley who
is hoping that he can somehow reignite his career with a new manager.
It's nearly four years now since ‘that goal' against Arsenal in 2008/09 and since then, loss
of form and injury has led to very little match time outside of loan spells.
I do, I honestly fear for Andre Villas-Boas. It's not that I think he's a useless coach, because
given his track record at Porto, he's shown that he can cut the mustard.
With regards to the Chelsea debacle, I think we'll be able to judge his tenure after Roberto Di
Matteo has around 10 to 15 games under his belt.
Netherlands manager Bert van Marwijk is bitterly disappointed after his side's 2-1 loss to
Portugal yesterday evening confirmed their elimination from Euro 2012.
While the head coach took accountability for a highly fancied Dutch side's three-defeat showing
in the group stage, he also made it clear that the World Cup runners-up were beaten in all their
matches due to below-par performances from main stars.
Tottenham Hotspur vs Chelsea, Sunday 15th April, Wembley Stadium, 6pm kick off,
ITV1
THFC1882 asks Kenny Palmer for his preview and thoughts on the match that could dictate
the rest of Tottenham's season.
To misquote the lyrics of Ossie's dream Spurs are on their way to Wembley their knees have gone
all trembley, could be referring to the teams recent performances in a dreadful run of 1 win in 8
as they come into Sunday's pivotal game.
"Going... going.... gone!" Well that just sums up the 8-month journey of
Andre Villas-Boas as Chelsea coach... a journey which culminated in a spectacular
and timely dismissal on Saturday. Don't play the angel now, you knew this was coming!
Anyway, the fact is Chelsea probably aren't very proud about being relegated to "third best" in
London now, behind Spurs and Arsenal in the standings.
Sunday's North London derby brought Tottenham Hotspur back down to earth after an unexpected
thrashing at the hands of Arsenal. Two goals down with five minutes to go until half time, the
Gunners drew level prior to the break before emphatically defeating Spurs 5-2. A lot of the blame
seems to have been thrown at manager Harry Redknapp for his tactics and substitutions that had
little impact.
The Sounder Women fought hard, but a mistake on a set piece was their downfall. The better team
is moving on to the semifinals in Ottawa. Pali remains undefeated in their season. The only other
team in the league that remains undefeated is DC United. They have also downed their opponent today
to move on to Ottawa.
Their Words "D.C. United is a valued member of the local sports landscape and community, and we are
excited the team will continue playing its home games in the nation's capital. RFK Stadium has been
home to many special memories for the team, and we look forward to many more." Events DC President
and CEO Gregory A.
The England fans and press never really believed Roy Hodgson's assertion that Rio Ferdinand was
dropped for ‘footballing reasons', but were prepared to accept it for now as attention switched
towards the impending European Championships.
But as the steady succession of England players pulled out through injury, with Ferdinand still
excluded, it became increasingly obvious that the Manchester United man was left out for political
reasons.
Liverpool put the hurt of Saturday's FA Cup final defeat behind them with their biggest league win
of the season which ended Chelsea's hopes of a top-four finish.
Kenny Dalglish's side was as energetic and irresistible in the first half as they had been
lethargic and wasteful for an hour at Wembley.
March brings with it not only the start of spring but also a change in management at Chelsea
Football Club. It's almost become as regular as clockwork. After barely eight months in charge the
man who was supposed to herald in a new era at Stamford Bridge, Andre Villas-Boas, has been shown
the door after a poor run of results and having lost the dressing room.
It's often cast as the sporting equivalent of the descent to Hades where brutality reigns for
what seems an eternity and only heroes emerge unscathed and Arsenal prepared as if they were
entering the Britannia Stadium as such. But just as Stoke City had a gameplan to stop Arsenal based
on exaggerated muscularity, so did The Gunners to show their technical superiority.
Sunderland has always been a tough side to crack and yesterday was no different on a horrible
pitch at the Stadium of Blight. The first half was marked by the usual spectacle of Arsenal bossing
the ball with little to show. Sunderland known for its strong defending did just that but their
counterattacking was laboured.
Jozy Altidore may be finding the back of the net more frequently than ever and may be playing
some of the best soccer in his career, but that is not to say the recent success has come easy for
the young American striker.
The Montreal Impact beat the New England Revolution 1-0 at Gillette Stadium tonight thanks to
a brilliant goal by Sanna Nyassi in the 61st minute.
It was a pretty drab first half with New England coming closest to scoring as first Tierney and
then Sene rattled the woodwork.
Montreal set the tome for the game early when Patrice Bernier was lucky not to be given a
straight red card for a brutal tackle on Benny Feilhaber inside the first ten minutes.
Spanish football blogger Chalkontheboots continues his analysis of the current structure of
Athletic Bilbao by examining Marcelo Bielsa's struggle between pragmatism and idealism, as he
searches for the perfect tactical approach for the situation. You can read part two of this piece
here.
Shambles in Shanghai: Tigana, Tantrums and Anelka as manager is a post from: Just Football
by Andrew Crawford
The Chinese Super League (CSL) is once again watching its most noisy tenant,
Shanghai Shenhua, soak up all the attention. Its big name manager, Jean
Tigana is gone, replaced, or rather deposed, in headline-grabbing style by Nicolas
Anelka, who will now try to rescue the club from its plunge into the bottom half of the
league.
Well well well, I thought it might happen after reading AVB's full interview comments that have
been heavily featured in the press this week. Now it's normally our foreign
players who end up being quoted saying something about the club when they are away with their
national teams but in this case it's our manager.
Chelsea lost tonight 3-1 away in Naples in a strange game that literally was end to end. After a
difficult start, Chelsea nicked an away goal after a bobble on a dodgy pitch found Juan Mata who
calmly slotted the ball past the keeper to make it 1-0.
With that you'd expect Chelsea to keep their shape try and remain solid and compact but it never
happened.
The amazing Chipolopolos scored the winning goal in the 77th minute as substitute Emmanuel
Mayuka found space and on the turn curled a right footed shot past Adam Kwarsey in goal. It was
probably the second chance for the Zambians and very much against the run of play.
The Black Stars should have gone ahead early as Asamoah Gyan missed out on a golden chance when
his penalty was stopped by Kennedy Mweene (bringing back painful memories of his World Cup PK miss
against Uruguay).
