Why the Noisy Neighbors still cannot win the Premier League
The last time Manchester City were leading the Premier League Table at Christmas, one of the first adventure comic strips ‘Tarzan’ first appeared, Popeye made its first appearance in the comic strip ‘Thimble Theater’, and the first sci-fi comic strip ‘Buck Rogers’ premiered. A pattern followed in all events – They were ‘Comic’. The current events of the Premier League Table are similar – They are Comic, leaded by Manchester City who are on top of the League right now and look strong to end the festive period on top.
There are huge voices coming strong, time and again about how Manchester City will win the title, how they have the strongest squad among all the teams and how it’s City’s title to lose now after such a strong start and consistent string of performances. Yes, City can win the Premier League…Only if you were playing Football Manager.
Agreed, City has the best squad in the League with the likes of Lescott, Kolarov, Dzeko, Adam Johnson on the bench and that’s not it, the list is too big and full of millions (thanks to riches of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan), but they don’t have the experience that will count in the crunch situations. They are ‘good set of boys’ just like Arsenal over several years but when it comes to March, they falter. Come March and we’ll see how many occasions of Poznan dance will the Etihad Stadium see.
The next issue with Citizens is that they always feature in tabloids and news for reasons off the pitch. This isn’t creating a problem now, but good times don’t last forever. Ask Leeds United. There can be a next ‘Carlos Tevez’ incident in the club which can affect team’s performance on the pitch and the frequent training bust ups will lead to some dismay on pitch. Not to forget, what the King of the unpredictable – Mario Balotelli may come up with next.
Injuries – Manchester City have been very lucky this term on the injury front as compared to other teams or the credit must go to their physio. But, what if Silva, Aguero or Kompany are sidelined? There’s no one from their so called ‘strong squad’ to replace these players.
Sooner or later, City will be given a slap on their face as they are constantly squandering the riches of its owners and FIFA’s new Financial Fair Play rules will hit them hard. Not to forget, they are just yet another ‘toy’ of their billionaire owner and once the toy becomes monotonous he’ll abandon it…
Needless to say, the picture is perfectly clear, Manchester is the strongest city in the Premier League as for now and the city will rock Channel 5 on Thursday night. The title still seems to be heading towards the Red Part of the city!
Renaming St James’ Park will revive Newcastle United
No matter what happens, one thing is clear, whatever Mike Ashley does he will always be a villain at the Tyneside. Even if he brings Cristiano Ronaldo at now “Sports Direct Arena” he will be criticized. But, again completely agreed. His past acts and his ‘do not care’ attitude towards the club demand uproar from the fanatics of this historic club. For 119 years, Newcastle United have called their home as St James’ Park and the moment the news broke, everyone like me was gutted (I’m not a Newcastle fan but still) to see commercialism taking over sentiments.
Newcastle are paying the price of not attracting a billionaire owner from abroad, but this is a decision which Ashley had to take sooner or later. Look at Barcelona; they never had a jersey partner but due to financial hardships they had to bow down and end their refusal of corporate sponsorship and ultimately signed a major deal with Qatar Foundation. This is not disrespect but rather an option or else Newcastle have to get rid of their star players – Cabaye, Tiote and even Ba because of whom the club is enjoying a good run since a long time.
Selling the stadium naming rights will bring in around £10 million a year or else an option of trimming the wages would mean not attracting star players in future. Trimming the squad can be an option but again when the club is looking good for a European slot, this does not look a viable option either. Rebranding has changed the face of German football and maybe now is the time for Newcastle to shine. Bayern Munich could afford £20 million rated Franck Ribery despite charging just £10 admission, all because of Allianz. There are some options for Newcastle but again, naming the stadium after some Arab firm looks the most lucrative option, ask Man City!
For Geordies, it will always remain St James’ Park, whatever the sponsors call it Ashley will move on someday, no-one lasts forever. He does his best to be unpopular when things are going well on the pitch, and by now Geordies should be used to such spoilsport techniques.
I just feel that money is destroying the history of the game which has been preserved since long and there will be a day sooner when we hear, Sports Direct United 1 – Aon City 0. Just one question – Will they rename the St James Metro station as well????
Luis Suarez – A Disgrace to the Beautiful Game
He is one of the most disgusting players and the biggest cheat I’ve ever seen on the football pitch. Luis Suarez is the most premier diver in the modern game and his reputation for being a drama queen is becoming even stronger with each game.
From the moment he walks on the pitch, the mere sight of him make me throw up. Just look at the guy’s smile; he has features which convince me that Sid from Ice Age was inspired by Suarez. It’s just difficult to understand what makes him so arrogant? He has an average set of abilities (keeping aside diving) and after each missed opportunity he acts as if he is better than Messi or Cristiano. Such an overestimation of limited talent!
Every time you see a Liverpool match and someone lying down on pitch, it has to be him, Who Else? He gets booked too often for his ‘antiques’ on the pitch and has been involved in some crazy incidents. Ajax once suspended him after he was involved in a half-time bust-up with his own teammate Albert Luque. He was rightly deemed as “The Villain of World Cup 2010” after his goal-line handball left the entire Africa heartbroken. Suarez punched Adiyah’s goal-bound header which would have surely ended at the back of the net in extra time. Gyan missed the subsequent penalty and Uruguay went on to win the quarter finals in penalties. And the heights of depravity – He says his act was real “Hand of God” and he had made the save of the tournament. Such a shameless moment for the game and he seemed to be proud. Real disgust – should be “Hand of Devil”.
The “Cannibal” was at it again when he bit PSV’s Otman Bakkal. Finally, he did something which suited his class – Being a Dog. In the clash against Manchester United, Evra accused Suarez of racism and owing to his past record; the answer seems to be obvious although Suarez has denied the racism claims against him. He dives all over the place – these are Sir Alex Ferguson’s views over Suarez. Bang on Sir! Similar views are shared by WBA’s Paul Scharner who said that Suarez is one of the best on planet in diving!
The guy is on his way towards being the Most Hated Player in the Premier League and the World of Football. He is greatly loved by the Kop faithful (you guys are such losers) and despised by everyone else. I think that this is his sole motive – To annoy and be a serial pain. Well, then I must say – Job well done, Suarez.
Why Roger Federer Sucks Now (And Always!!)
Its all over for you buddy! No more titles and no more tears in Grand Slam Finals. Probably, you are getting out of the Top 10 list in 2012.
After sealing the Asian tennis treble of Bangkok, Tokyo and Shanghai, Andy Murray kicked out Federer from the podium of Top 3 Tennis players in the world rankings and no one can argue here, (even you “wise” fans of him) that he is way past his best and even John McEnroe can pop up anytime from the commentary box and defeat him in “closely competitive” straight sets.
Federer is likely to finish 2011 ranked number 4, which will be the first time since 2002 where he won’t be finishing the year ranked either one or two. The guy is mentally broken down and it’s quite visible that he won’t ever recover from it and winning an ATP 1000 event (Forget about Grand Slams) too looks quite distant, unless someone does a Monica Seles kinda stabbing to Nadal, Djokovic, Murray or even Maxime Teixeira (??)
He was leading by 2 sets in the Wimbledon quarterfinal against Tsonga but blew it away to lose in dramatic circumstances. This looked like just a minor slip before he was at it again, blowing away 2 match points in US Open semifinal against Djokovic. For a player who once won 24 consecutive finals, this failure of closing down matches was quite unbelievable yet amusing. That was quite heart breaking for the man, who for no reason why elevated his already “high ego” and criticized Djokovic for his risk taking ability in the post match interview. Quite a Loser!!
In his 30’s now, Federer is seen as quite a veteran on the circuit, with some relatively unknown players giving him quite a tough time. The desire is still there in him, no doubt, but desires cannot just become reality; Just as the US government desires to run their country efficiently but cannot fulfill it. One wonders, why doesn’t he just retire and baby sit his kids at home?
For all the Federer fans who celebrated his so called “dominance” for a few years, let me remind you dim-wits that he was never good enough; there just wasn’t someone or some group of players who could challenge him. And now when there are a few of them, your guy has just caught his tail in his hands and disappeared from the big stage. Such a shame!!
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