Written by chas

When the draw was made for the group stage back in August, there was mixed reaction from the gooner faithful. Dortmund were deemed the strongest of the pot 4 teams and Otelul Galati perhaps the weakest. No surprise when Arsenal got Dortmund and the mancs were drawn with Otelul.

Written by chas

When the draw was made for the group stage back in August, there was mixed reaction from the gooner faithful. Dortmund were deemed the strongest of the pot 4 teams and Otelul Galati perhaps the weakest. No surprise when Arsenal got Dortmund and the mancs were drawn with Otelul.

Praise continues to come in for Sir Alex Ferguson, and Mark Lawrenson writes of why we will never get a manager of his kind again.
Sir Alex Ferguson is a one-off and we will never get a manager of his kind again.
Ferguson has built six different and successful Manchester United teams.

Why United should be very afraid of City in the Manchester derby

There are still, quite clearly, troubling issues at Manchester City that have arisen largely as a result of their accelerated rise up the league. A gang of superstars, many with egos even bigger than their pay packets, have been signed with the inevitable corollary of occasional discontent and lack of discipline.

I think Graeme Souness restrained himself magnificently when describing Carlos Tevez after the striker's refusal to come off the bench for Man City in Munich.

The former Liverpool hero described the Argentine as a "bad apple" and says the club need to get rid of him ASAP.

Now I'm probably not alone in thinking that Tevez represents more than a ‘bad apple'.

Kenny Dalglish has revealed that new signing Craig Bellamy made 'financial sacrifices' to rejoin Liverpool, which basically translates to taking a pay cut. In a sport that is now defined by greed and shameless selfishness, it's refreshing to see a top level, highly paid player actually move to a club for love rather than money.

Why Bryan Robson deserves his financial reward unlike mercenaries Modric, Cesc and Tevez

I stumbled across an interview the other day which had me beating the table as wildly as Rupert Murdoch in denial. It was given last summer by Luka Modric, after he'd signed a new deal at Spurs.

It gets played time and time again by the fans, Manager's and Chairmen, but isn't it time we gave up on the idea of the loyalty card. Carlos Tevez and Craig Bellamy are currently both on the books of the same club, but both are for lack of a better word, 'shining' examples that player loyalty has no place in football.

The transfer saga starring Luka Modric has quite rightly angered many Tottenham fans. How dare a player that Spurs have given the opportunity to showcase his skills to the world, and just a year ago signed a 6(!!) year contract demand to leave.

Unfortunately in recent years we have seen this situation before, and in the 3 high profile cases (Carrick, Keane, and Berbatov) it has always concluded with the player getting their way and leaving.

As a blue I always know we aren't going to launch audacious swoops for top level players. Extravagent wages tempting foreign mercenaries to be joined by cherry-picked England internationals...nope it's fair to say that Everton are not a "Money" club.

Instead Moyes' revolution, whilst no less seismic than the City/Chelsea uber-splurges, has been all about players with a point to prove being given the perfect place to prove it.

So Clichy has left and gone to Manchester City for £7M and apart from Arsenal fans nobody is crying over this departure.

When Gael first burst onto the scene we thought we found the perfect replacement for Ashley Cole, and whilst Clichy had speed to close players down, he offered little going forward.

Yes after an extended break, the Hawke is back in the blogosphere.

Where to start? Well firstly, there has never been and there never will be a footballer at Arsenal who is even 0.1% of the size of the club itself.

Anybody who has believed for even one second that Cesc was not going to leave this Summer needs shooting, the club told Cesc this time last year to give us one more season and then if Barca stump up we won't stand in the way.

This season marks the first time in 35 years that Manchester City have won a trophy, and only the fourth season in the last ten when Chelsea haven't. Yet, despite the unprecedented success these clubs have enjoyed of late, and the vast amounts of cash sloshing around their bank accounts, they remain, now and forever, without class.

This is what Hicks and Gillett did to Liverpool's playing squad.
Yes, Benitez had a Redknappian fondness for wheeling and dealing – and had to rebuild right away despite winning the Champions League in his first season – but an awful lot of that business was compelled by the tumors' poverty and indebtedness, evident in the number of transfers in the last two to three seasons.

By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London

Finally the fateful day has arrived - Survival Sunday. Come this evening we'll all know who will be joining poor old Scott Parker's West Ham in The Championship and who will be staying up to enjoy another season of fun and frolics in the Premier League.

Ducky's Note: BFZ's regular Manc Bharat lays out a red-tinted view of how the season has ended up for each of the Big Four... or Five I think. Oh and in case it wasn't clear, this is the view of a Manc looking from the outside with respect to the other clubs, so it is very very possible that you will not agree.

So Everton 2 - 1 Man City and our hoodoo over the billionaire mercenaries continues...Extremely gratifying given it was Lescott's first return to Goodison.
Also gratifying given how much I detest the faux-zany superfan-wannabe scoring celebration that is "The Poznan". Honestly, what is that all about?

Eric Cantona was asked about Wayne Rooney's decision to hold Manchester United to ransom over a massive pay rise. Cantona has claimed he has no problem with players taking their share but can't abide by players whose motivation is money rather scoring a last minute winner.

"I have no problem with players taking their share, because without players you have no game," Cantona told ESPN.

It is occasionally said that it is easier for a player to be loyal to the biggest clubs than to a small club. Without the temptation of being lured somewhere else, for some players at the likes of, say, Liverpool or Manchester United, it is easier to stay put for the whole of one's career than it is at a smaller club and, while supporters of the biggest clubs may seek to transfer the allegiances that they themselves hold towards their clubs, the fact of the matter is that players are professionals, mercenaries paid to do a job, and that job is easier if the pay packet is plumper and the chances of playing in the biggest competitions on the planet are greater.

Roy Keane has repeatedly stood up for the rights of footballers, claiming that clubs treat them like meat, selling them on whenever they want to, so why shouldn't the players do what is best for them?

To a certain degree, I agree with what Keano has to say, but what I can't abide by is these players who claim to be loyal, who repeatedly speak to the press about their desire to stay at the club, then stab their fans in the back by handing in a transfer request.

Newcastle United's first game of 2011 against Wigan Athletic could go a long way in seeing the Toon stay in the Premier League. While not quite a relegation six-pointer, it's a game you would hope Newcastle could get something from. Although that task has been made that little bit more difficult due to Andy Carroll's absence with a thigh-injury there is also news that the NUFC number nine could miss out on more games.