Back of the Net!

The UEFA Champions League takes an interesting turn this week as Manchester United travel a small Danish town to take on AaB Aalborg.  Their previous journey to Denmark in the competition saw an injury-ravaged side beaten by FC Copenhagen in 2006.

This time, attention is on former Arsenal, Middlesbrough and Bolton manager Bruce Rioch, the man behind Aalborg’s current run of fortune.

It’s a far cry from the glamour of playing teams in Spain, Portugal and Italy, but nevertheless Berbatov, Rooney and Ronaldo are all expected to make appearances.

“Aalborg were lucky to get a draw at Celtic but they will be at home and my old mate Bruce Rioch will have them fired up,” said Sir Alex Ferguson.

“They are playing Manchester United, they will have a sell-out crowd and the whole town will be up for it. Danish clubs are always battlers.”

Looks set to be a fascinating clash; armchair viewers from three key areas of the UK (Teesside, North Lancashire and North London) will all no doubt be getting behind their one-time hero Rioch’s team, while the old “anyone but them” brigade will take pleasure in backing a British manager against Ferguson too.

Kick-off is 19.45 BST on Tuesday September 30th

So with Gus Poyet once again wheeled out to talk to the press, Spurs continue to struggle.

Comfortably dispatched 2-0 at Fratton Park by Portsmouth, Tottenham Hotspur are now enjoying their worst start to a season for an amazing 43 years.

With a long line of managers all attempting to bring more than an FA Cup or League Cup back to White Hart Lane since their last championship in 1961, the Spurs faithful are being asked to put up with an awful lot.

Last year’s dismissal of Martin Jol - for far less than Ramos and Poyet are currently getting away with - left a nasty taste in the mouth, with the Dutchman undermined and embarrassed in public by elements within the club that wanted him out.

Of course, the sale of Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov during the summer and the earlier departure of Jermaine Defoe to Portsmouth - one of the scorers today -  has not helped the team.

And would you believe it, Tottenham have a Director of Football.

Stand forward Damien Comolli, a name that will become well-known throughout the UK over the next few days as Spurs do their best to avoid lurching into a Newcastle or even a West Ham-style crisis.

Liverpool and Chelsea have found themselves neck and neck at the end of play on Saturday, with Aston Villa and Arsenal close behind.

Manchester United floating on 8 points won’t leave anyone in any doubt of their ability, but the real shock 6 weeks into the season is the bottom of the English Premier League.  The expected suspects Hull FC (congratulations on a superb win at Arsenal!) and West Bromwich Albion don’t seem to be reading the script.

While Stoke are struggling, they’re still above Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur.  Newcastle have of course had far too much attention over the last few weeks, but the situation at Spurs isn’t much better, in all honesty. Continue Reading »

Leaving the power struggle soap comedy that is Newcastle United aside, Manchester City’s defeat in the Carling Cup this week to struggling Brighton & Hove Albion came as a major shock.

While record signing Robinho has since sacked his agent - don’t read too much into, but the timing is something approaching perfection - the rest of the Manchester City team have put their heads down and got on with the business of preparation of taking the short trip to Wigan.

The Carling Cup threw up all sorts of shocks - while City were bruised and beaten by Brighton, Wigan Athletic slotted home four.  The signs are that this weekends fixture is set to be a bit of a racy affair, with the potential of goals.

Elswhere,  Sunderland fans deserved the telling off that Roy Keane gave them.  Frankly, I wouldn’t look at him from too close-up, for fear of him scything me down in a crunching tackle… but I’d love it if he was my team’s manager.  He was well within his rights to demand the fans didn’t boo him and the team, their disappointment at Sunderland’s performance has added another load of nonsense to Keane’s already ridiculous fall out with FIFA’s Jack Warner.

With Sheffield United awarded a massive £30 million over the illegal signing of Carlos Tevez by West Ham United, a veritable can of worms has spewed open this week.

Naturally feeling hard done by, West Ham are appealing the Football Association arbitration panel’s ruling on the Tevez affair to the Court of Arbitration for Sport as well as challenging Sheffield United’s estimated cost of relegation.

While Sheffield United are expected to invest the money in promotion-winning players, the existing bunch who were part of the relegated squad are examining their chances of taking their own action against the Hammers for loss of earnings.

It really is an insane mess, and whether the blame lies at the feet of big business, the influence of agents and investment companies or simply insane chancers at West Ham, its no surprise to find that the Hammers are said to have hired Manchester United solicitor Maurice Watkins who untangled Tevez’s complicated but necessary transfer from the Hammers to Old Trafford in order to advise them following this continuing insanity.

Looking on with an open mind, it is hard to see how English Football could be considered less corrupt than Italian.

While there’s every chance that we’ll stop focussing on the Geordies and their football soap opera in the next couple of days, there is a need, necessity and indeed time to point out the lack of wisdom in the latest rumoured management candidate to fill the Kevin Keegan shaped hole at Newcastle United.

A team run by a much maligned so-called Cockney Mafia is apparently expecting Terry Venables to drop in and take control of day-to-day coaching and man management in the next couple of days.

This is the former Chelsea player Terry Venables who later managed Crystal Palace, Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur and England, represented England as a player at all levels and is as cockney as jellied eels.

With a Nigerian consortium apparently waiting in the wings and Newcastle themselves getting knocked out of the Carling Cup 2-1 at White Hart Lane this week, it seems that injury is constantly followed by insult on Tyneside.

The recent uproar in the UK following the near collapse of HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland) and the behaviour of certain shareholders has served to underline the virtually unbreakable relationship between football and business.

Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has reportedly lost £300 million betting on HBOS share prices - more than likely contributing to the worrying state of the European economy and probably accelerating the sale of his club.

It’s the dark side of success, and what choice does Ashley now have other than to cut his losses?

A self-made billionaire, the pilloried owner of Newcastle United Football Club can easily afford one such disaster.

But a local problem at his overrated football club and such a big loss in the City must leave him wondering what can go wrong next?

Currently holidaying in Portugal, it’s not hard to see just how pervasive football has become in Europe.

This particular Algarve resort boasts bars and pubs able to display not just the coming weekend’s English Premier League action - every minute live, including Middlesbrough vs Sunderland - and not just every available match North of the Border.

Also on the televisual menu of 22 men kicking a pigs bladder round a pitch is the gamut of Portuguese and Spanish fixtures not to mention the highlights from leagues from far-flung places like Brazil and Japan.

Like many British-focussed resorts, Sky Sports News is everywhere, often running on one screen while a match plays on another - in some bars all available matches are playing.

Sun, sea, sand and Saturday afternoon football!

There’s no getting away from it - the Champions League is pushing on in earnest this week with a selection of juicy ties.

Liverpool’s emphatic win over Marseille on Tuesday was just the first of a set of resounding victories for the English Premier League teams who look set to echo their 2007/2008 dominance.

With Chelsea disassembling the opposition 4-0, and Arsenal drawing 1-1 with Dinamo Kiev in Ukraine and Manchester United also drawing against strong opposition there’s nothing to stop another all-English Premier League final this season.

Yet of those teams, which can be judged to genuinely represent England?

A smattering of Englishmen and a single British manager between them, the so-called Big Four are more cosmopolitan than a Hollywood film premier.

A passing fad and symptomatic of the vast sums of money in the game today perhaps… but where exactly will it all end?

You couldn’t have made up the last few weeks in English football.

From the transfer deadline day drama featuring a pre-determined cast and plot that was cruelly and entertainingly disrupted by the shock takeover of Manchester City to the shock win by England over Croatia, from Keegan and Curbishley leaving Newcastle and West Ham respectively amid accusations of director-level interference to the shocking form of Juande Ramos’ Tottenham, it’s been the sort of fortnight usually afforded only to devotees of the Football Manager series of videogames.

Remember though - for each big EPL headline there’s 10 big stories in the lower leagues getting ignored.

As a football fan, I’m challenging readers of Back of the Net (hi to you all!) to have a good browse through the sports news this week and find some item that relates directly to that clubs future…