Saturday, March 20, 2010

Phil Brown : The rise and fall

I am not a great fan of Phil Brown but thought his career with Hull city is something that does not deserve to be forgotten. Football is a cruel game, also off the pitch. Hull city sacked Phil Brown, after a string of poor results.
Here is a little glimpse of Phil's time with Hull city.

Brown was appointed as first-team coach at Hull City on 27 October 2006 under Phil Parkinson, and took over as joint caretaker manager alongside Colin Murphy on 4 December 2006 after Parkinson's sacking, with Hull in 22nd place in the Football League Championship. After taking Hull out of the relegation zone with three wins and a draw in the six matches as caretaker manager, he was appointed as the permanent manager of the club on 4 January 2007. Then Brown went on to lead 'The Tigers' to Championship safety and the following season Hull City won promotion to the top level of English football for the first time in the club's 104-year history.
Hull city continued their fairy tale run in the Premier league with six wins in first nine games and they occupied Third place, only next to Arsenal and Liverpool on goal difference. In this run, Hull beat Arsenal in  the Emirates stadium which is still regarded as their greatest victory in club history.

Gradually the fuzz settled down at Hull city, and they were able to win matches here and there just languishing in the mid-table.
Then came the dreaded day on 26 December 2008. Hull were playing Manchester City in the city of Manchester stadium. Hull were 4-0 down at half time. This infuriated Brown, who just couldnt take the fact that his team were playing so poorly in front of Hull fans, who had made a trip all the way to Manchester sacrificing their festival celebrations. He didnt let the players go off the pitch, he made them sit down near the touchline and gave them the first half team talk in full view of public. This was the moment Hull players lost it.
Their morale went down the pits after this humiliation, and they won only ONE match in the remaining half of the season.

But thanks to their amazing run in the beginning of the season, they managed just about enough to survive in the Premier League, finishing 17th, in a battle which went to the final day of the season. Brown was overjoyed and he even did sing after the match !

2009-10 season was much tougher for Hull and Brown couldnt inspire them to win games. Hull were playing like typical relegation strugglers. Brown managed to hang on to his job early in the season when he was on the verge of getting sacked. But on 14th March, defeat to Arsenal by the Nicklas Bendtner's injury time winner proved to be the final nail in the coffin ,the board had seen enough and finally parted company with Brown.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

The return of 'The Special one' !



2004.
Chelsea had just parted company with Ranieri and signed Jose Mourinho , the champions league winning manager of Porto. An unknown figure for the English press, the first words in the press conference by Jose were these -" Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.”  He has lived up to his words since then,with his achievements, ofcourse with a touch of his trademark arrogance. He took control of a club which had not won the Premier league in 50 years, and won back to back Premier League titles in 2004 and 2005, FA cup in 2006-07 and Two league cups.




He didnt build just a team in Chelsea, he built a family. Mourinho was a father figure to everyone and even 2 years after his departure from Chelsea, players like Lampard, Terry, Drogba, Cole consult him regularly.He built a team with character who simply hated to lose and for 2 years dominated the premier league such that the race was over half way thru the season.
He has this incredible record of NOT losing even a single league game at home during his four and half years reign, which can never be matched by anyone !
Just the fact that - Sir Alex Ferguson, the most successful manager in English football, played 11 matches against Jose and won only 1 (yes, only ONE !) speaks about Jose Mourinho.




As every fairytale has its end, Jose's reign too was slowly coming towards an end. Jose, a man with big egos was growing more and more agitated by the interference in club matters by the Chelsea owner Roman Abrahamovich and eventually Jose got booted out of Chelsea on 20th Sept 2007, well he liked to call it 'leaving Chelsea by mutual consent'.




March 16,2010.
Jose is returning to Stamford Bridge to play against Chelsea with his team,the Italian Champions - Inter Milan. It will be deja vu for Mourinho, entering the Stamford bridge , amidst the cheers of the Chelsea fans, only this time,as the opposition manager, playing against the same players who he nurtured and developed into champions. He already has a 2-1 advantage from the first leg which should make his job easier, only if he doesnt get carried away by the occassion. Anyway, he certainly knows how to keep emotions in check and win games, he is 'The Special one' !



David Beckham's green and gold Manchester United stunt was a load of tosh - the only cause he truly supports is himself

[This whole post is a part of Piers Morgan's article from Dailymail. Cant stop admiring this guy !]


Touching, wasn’t it? Watching that loyal, diehard United hero David Beckham getting the roaring welcome so thoroughly deserved of Manchester’s prodigal son brought tears to the uncynical eye.But not, I’m afraid, to the cynical like mine.
Beckham keeps telling us United is, and always has been, the only club for him. And the inhabitants of Old Trafford seem to happily go along with this tosh. When the reality is that he walked out on United at the peak of his powers for the riches of Real Madrid, then walked out on Madrid for the even greater riches of Hollywood, and now cheats on LA Galaxy whenever he can with AC Milan, purely to keep himself in the World Cup frame, where England glory could bring the greatest riches of all.
Compared with genuinely loyal United heroes like Giggs, Scholes and Neville, Beckham’s been a treacherous, money-grabbing, club-hopping, fame-hungry, egotistical little weasel who likes nothing better than making everything all about HIM.
And nothing personified this more than when he swooped to pick up the green-and-gold anti-Glazer protest scarf and wrapped it round his tattooed neck. The crowd roared. There he was, the most loyal man in football, their Becksy, showing the world he was united with United fans in their fury at foreign ownership.
Because the very last thing David Beckham would ever want to associate himself with is rich, fatcat Americans exploiting soccer for pure commercial gain. Which is why he currently resides in Los Angeles, choosing to play pub football over proper football because rich, fat-cat Americans line his Armani pockets with millions of dollars to exploit soccer for pure commercial gain.
Of course, as David explained afterwards, he wasn’t actually supporting the protest, nor trying to interfere in the running of Manchester United.
Nothing could be further from his massively cerebral mind. He just liked the colours of the scarf because they used to be United’s original colours.
What a load of old Goldenballs. Let’s face some harsh facts here, Becksy old son. You’re not the best footballer in the world. In fact, given you can’t actually get into the AC Milan starting line-up, you’re not even the 11th-best player in a shockingly mediocre side.
But you ARE the greatest self-publicist the game has seen and you knew exactly what you were doing when you swooped on that glinting symbol of disloyalty to the Glazers. For weeks, you’ll have been monitoring the mounting furore and planning exactly the image you would communicate to the world. It’s what you do best.
And you seized the moment in typically self-adulatory Beckham style. Waiting until the pitch was empty, standing like Emperor Nero, alone in the amphitheatre, milking the applause in the eager way a farmer milks a particularly well-uddered Friesian cow, then dramatically pausing to pick up the scarf. Thus quite deliberately pushing the much more deserving Wayne Rooney off the headlines (I was only surprised he didn’t leap on Rooney’s back when he scored, to share the photographic credit — a crafty move that has served Beckham well over the years).
It was the most perfectly choreographed stunt since Sacha Baron Cohen parascended, as his Austrian fashion reporter character Bruno, on to Eminem’s lap during last year’s MTV awards. And just as fake.
The Glazers are big boys and I don’t have much truck with the way they’ve allowed United to build up such potentially ruinous debt. But the hypocrisy of David ‘United ’til I die’ Beckham definitely moved me.
To extreme nausea.

Friday, March 12, 2010

The Football Oscars !!

After the Oscars on Sunday, I just kept thinking how it would be if footballers were given Oscars.
[This whole post is an excerpt of Pires Morgan's article in the Dailymail]

Best Picture :
No contest here. Pepe Reina’s dumbstruck face as Darren Bent’s shot ballooned, quite literally off a balloon, into the net at Sunderland was hysterical. Only matched by rumours that Manchester City promptly put in a bid of £40 million for the balloon.
BEST ACTOR : John Terry - For his brilliant performance in the movie " Bridging the gap "

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Look who's beck in town !


He first arrived as a 13-year-old , a boy who won a Bobby Charlton competition and spent a summer in Salford on trial. He departed in 2003 as David Beckham, Manchester United superstar, England captain and global icon.
Time has come for Beckham to play against his old club again in an emotional Champions league enocunter tonight ,with a club that has given him a lifeline to his falling career to play in the world cup  this summer.
Its Manchester United Vs AC Milan at the Theatre of dreams, tonight for a place in the quarter finals.
Utd look favourites with a comfortable 3-2 lead from the first leg, which means Milan have to win by 2 goals margin atleast.

Whichever team wins, it wont be a happy night for Beckham. However professional he might sound, dumping out his beloved club with whom he had a love affair for so long will not make him proud. On the other hand, defeat at the hands of Utd virtually ends his final chances of showing his quality on the european stage , which puts his world cup chances into question.
Whatever the result may be, Beckam is sure to get a rising ovation from the fans who will never forget his curling free-kicks and pin point crosses that played a major part in so many trophies they won.
Even Alex Ferguson, who flung a boot at him, which eventually resulted in Becks leaving the club, will be looking to have some wine with him later ,ofcourse after making sure Utd are through to the next round !

Monday, March 8, 2010

A tribute to centurion Scholes !

Paul Scholes scored his 100 th goal for Manchester United yesterday. Here is my little tribute to him, as I thought great players need to be admired, beyond the boundaries of the clubs. Though I am a fan of Arsenal and havent watched him as much as a Utd fan, I will try my best !


I always remember him as a school boy faced player ! Scholesy made his debut with Utd in 94-95 season and 16 years on, is still playing . That speaks volumes of this guy. He was one of the golden generation of Utd,and the midfield of Giggs- Keane -Scholes- Beckham  ruled English football for years.
These are some things that will always be remebered about Scholes :

His fighting spirit: Here is a guy who retired from playing for England to concentrate on his career at Man Utd. He is still an inspiration for the youngsters ,still making those wonderful passes at the age of 36,  when most of the players are well off their peak and cant get into the first team. Even the likes of Pires, Ljunberg, Vieira from Arsenal's solid midfield, who played in the same era , couldnt take the toll of age and had to move out of Arsenal.

Trophies :Scholes won almost every trophy with ManUtd - The Premier League, Champions League, FA cup, Carling cup,World club championship and the most memorable being the treble of 1999.


Poor tackles : Well,we've seen it so often - Scholes is a poor tackler . I myself have had the pleasure of seeing him sent off after making some really stupid tackles and I cant forget his face after that - like that of a shamed school kid sent off the classroom, chin down  and slowly walking off :)

His love for volleyball : Scholesy sometimes confuses football pitch for volleyball. He will always be remembered for the two red cards he has received for stretching his hand and reaching for the ball. Once he scored a goal and the other time he stopped a goal, but got red-carded on both occassions. Its beyond anyone's imagination why he did that !!!


Thunderous volleys : Alex Ferguson once said that Scholes is the best striker of the ball he had ever seen. This is time and again shown by the goals he scores from outside the box.Here is one of them- the volley is so spectacular that even the commentator is stunned !




Scholes, who prefers to stay away from spotlight and rarely gives interviews, once described his ideal day as "Train in the morning, pick up the kids from school, play with them, have tea, get them to bed and then watch a bit of TV."
What a character !

sdc 
P.S: I couldnt resist ending this with an Arsenal touch :) . This is my favourite moment of Paul Scholes. It is the2005 FA cup final ,the game is 0-0 after 120 mins and we get to the penalty shootout. Everyone scores and Scholes misses it. Vieira scores with final kick and wins the FA cup for Arsenal. Thank you Scholesy !!!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Shawcross - He s not that type of player ??!!!


Even before Shawcross left the pitch after making that horror tackle on Ramsey which broke his leg into pieces,  Testimonials  were already being written on the lines of  'How good a person he is' , 'He is not that type of player',' It was an honest tackle'.
As one section of the media, tried to highlight the injury and the graphical pictures/ videos to analyze the tackle frame by frame, a larger section of the media had already started to search for interviews and stories to tell people "How nice a lad Ryan Shawcross is". The media was by large worried about ' What Ryan was going thru, how hard it is for him'  than Ramsey, lying on a hospital bed, having not seen his leg, facing a lengthy and lonely layoff for months if not an year .
I mean, relate it to a real life situation - Is the judge going to spare you by reading 'how good a person u are' testimonials after u recklessly drove and caused a grievious injury to someone ? NO.
This video shows why Ryan " is that type of player".  It just amazes me how the commentators are biased - Ryan makes a clumsy tackle on Ade after the ball had gone out , and instead of telling it is a bad tackle , he is praised saying he doesnt care for big reputations !!!
Well, All i m gonna ask is We are least bothered about how good a person he is or whether it was his mistake or how many matches ban he is gonna get. Because none of it changes the fact that a 19 year old promising teenager is out of the game for an year , and it will take months for him to just start walking, and he has to make a recovery all by himself, going thru a very lengthy , lonely spell. And in the meanwhile atleast please dont irritate us with "Ryan is not that type of player" crap.

Get well soon Aaron ...


Shocking. I still remember the moment Aaron Ramsey broke his leg. He and Shawcross went in hard for the ball, honestly, I felt Ramsey was committing a foul on Shawcross it was Ramsey who fell in a heap crying in pain. Only when the players started getting wild and started gesturing at the medical staff, I realized the magnitude of the injury and I had one look at Ramsey's leg and  I couldnt look at it the second time. Everyone was shell shocked. I just couldnt care about the result of the game, even when it was at 1-1 till 90 th minute, I wasnt much bothered. Anyway, it was great to see the team and esp, the captain showing unbelievable character and winning it so late.
          There has been a wide debate on Ramsey's injury. I dont want to get too deep into it. It is just obvious that teams want to roughen up Arsenal , it s been going since 4-5 years, with lower teams , not being able to compete with Arsenal in football and adopting the physical approach. (Why just the lower teams, even Chelsea and Man Utd 'muscled out' Arsenal and won rather than by playing better football). How else can you explain 3 such incidents in 4 years ? - Diaby, Eduardo and now Ramsey.
I just want to end it saying one thing - Its time Arsene Wenger toughened up the players , teach them to give as good as they get. Its easier  to bully a schoolkid than some guy who would break ur jaws. Why do Utd and Chelsea not get such treatment from other teams ? its only because for every tackle they get, they gonna give one right back from a Fletcher or Essien, Just to remind them they are not there to get bullied.
Its a pity though to see a player , 19 years old, as talented as ramsey in sidelines for months due to one bad tackle.