pterodactyls asked: American Landon Donovan scored his first Premier League goal yesterday. I don't expect that it was a big deal, he's just some guy, but it's still pretty neat. Is Everton even a good team?
I saw the goal this morning, and it was a hell of a deflection. They all count though! Donovan’s debut for Everton came against Arsenal, actually, and he played pretty well. Should be a useful player to have in the squad for the second-half of the season.
Everton are a pretty good team, middling to fair. A couple of years ago, they were very good, and pushing for a top-four finish, but the wheels have come off a little since then. They had a bad start this season, but are steadily recovering.
They’ve got some good players in their squad (Cahill and Fellaini spring to mind), and an excellent manager, so they’re underperforming, really.
I find it amazing that Utd can run up these eye-watering debts, because banks are willing to support them based on the name/brand status, and that the football authorities turn a blind eye to the sheer level of debt in which they find themselves.
And yet teams lower down in the leagues get huge point deductions and are effectively crippled because of debts of a mere (in the grand scheme of things) £250,000 or so. Yes, these clubs got themselves into debt and problems, but all it takes is the withdrawal of backing from either a bank or the multimillionaire owner and the club goes tits up.
Can you imagine what would happen if the banks behind Man Utd starting calling in their debts, rather than just accepting interest payments? Utd would be fucked, absolutely fucked.
And they’re not alone in running up massive debts, or relying on the never-ending pockets of their owners. To varying degrees, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, practically every big team, is in the same boat.
I like to think that Arsenal’s debt is a little more structured, having been taken on voluntarily in order to fund the stadium move, and with a solid plan regarding paying it off, but we’re as equally enslaved to the banks as anyone else.
Yet we see clubs, famous clubs with lots of history, go to the wall. Luton Town got screwed over, and now that area has no league football team. Teams like Southampton, Chester, Bradford, all of them got points deductions for relatively small financial issues.
It’s a shame that the hypocrisy is so brazen, it really is.
Liverpool’s home matches have now been moved from Sky Sports to the Gay Adult Channel. Apparently the sight of 11 arseholes being hammered for 90 minutes every week was far too explicit for a sports channel.
Cheers to a mate for sending me that one.
afootballreport asked ‘Who has been Arsenal’s Player of the Year so far? For me, it would have definitely been RvP, but now I’m not sure.’
OK, this was originally asked on my other blog, but here seems a better place to answer.
For me, it’s got to be Alex Song. He’s been absolutely fantastic in the defensive midfield role, and has really grown into it this year. You can see just how much he dominates that part of the pitch, breaking up attacks and intercepting passes. His positional sense is just tremendous.
He’s also very good with the ball at his feet, unlike other players who do the Makelele role, including Makelele himself. Song is a lot more confident taking the ball on and going past players, surging into the box ahead of the other midfielders.
But he’s equally aware of times when one of the centre-backs goes past him, just dropping into the middle of defence when Gallas or Vermaelen heads upfield momentarily. Gilberto used to do the same thing, effortlessly, and it’s a sign of footballing intelligence to recognise the need to cover gaps when they arise.
He’s also a very physical player, which is something we sorely lack in midfield. He adds a bit of grunt and an ability to compete against teams which come to kick us off the park.
I should also add that Gallas has been immaculate this season. His partnership with Vermaelen seems to be one that just works.
First things first: I’m an Arsenal fan, and have been for nearly 20 years. I have a season ticket, and go to pretty much every home game. I also watch most away games on TV or on the web. I read a couple of Arsenal blogs, and Arsenal-related news is what I look for in newspapers first.
I’ve no bones about letting this influence my writing here, but this isn’t an Arsenal blog. Go read Arseblog or the like if you want that.
I intend to write about anything that comes to mind football-wise, be it thoughts on the last Arsenal game, transfer rumours, laughing at other teams’ misfortunes (I’m looking at you, red half of Merseyside) and just about everything connected with the beautiful game.
I’m not one of those people that harks back to the “good ole days” of players earning a pittance and every game kicking off at 3pm on a Saturday. I love the amount of coverage that football gets nowadays, on TV and in other media. I think it’s added something to football as a whole, even if the tabloid lies when it comes to transfer rumours leave a little something to be desired…
If you like it, let me know on Twitter or leave a comment (when I get that up and running).
I think about, read about, talk about, and watch football far too much, and I feel that I could write about it endlessly too. I’m pretty damn opinionated about a lot of what happens in and around football, and am also one of those people that can laugh at how serious football takes itself.
I don’t want to turn my normal blog into a football-heavy one, because it is still only a small part of me, and of what interests me, so I’m starting a new blog on the side for all of my football-related thoughts and ramblings. Aptly enough, I’m calling it “Rob, Rambling about Football”.
If you like football, or even if you don’t, yet want understand the obsession, check it out.
