English football season climax

This time of year is normally quite sad, because as exciting as it is, the football season is coming to an end. At least this year we'll have Euro 2012 and the Olympics in London to get us through the summer!

The Football League season came to a conclusion yesterday, with Southampton taking the final automatic promotion place to the join Reading in the Premier League next season. 
And although Wolves will be playing in the Championship next year, all is still to play for in the fight to beat the drop. I have to make special mention of Wolves and their manager Terry Connor who put on a fantastic display yesterday, even though they were only playing for pride. I think Mick McCarthy, Terry Connor, the players and the fans of Wolves have been treated despicably by the board of their club and even though things have not always gone right for them on the pitch they will go down with dignity. 

Swansea v Wolves

Terry Connor should never really have been put in the position of trying to drag Wolves out of the mire, and Wolves should have made sure they had a manager in place before sacking McCarthy. If rumours are to believed, there were managers that turned down the position on the salary alone; if the Wolves board had put their money where there mouth is, they might have had a fighting chance. 

So, any three from five for relegation from the Premier League. Although Aston Villa would seem to be in the box seat, three points and three goals from six games in April is definitely relegation form. I think they are up against it personally. They are not helped by the fact that the teams around them seem to have hit very good form at just the right time. 

Wigan have had just about their best month in their entire history according to manager Roberto Martinez; they have beaten Newcastle United, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool in recent times and if it wasn't for a poor display by the match officials they would have beaten Chelsea as well. Massive credit to chairman Dave Whelan for sticking by his manager, and also for Martinez for sticking to his principles. 

Mark Hughes has got Queens Park Rangers playing some good football recently, and they have beaten Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool in the last month or so. The form is there, but the trouble has been keeping eleven players on the pitch, and they will need eleven players to take points from Chelsea, Stoke and Man City.

Bolton manager Owen Coyle said recently that he believes his squad would have been in the top ten if they'd stayed fit all season, which may be the case as they play an attractive game; but they will need to show heart with grit and determination to stay up. They are well capable of beating Stoke and West Brom though, so they are in with a real chance. 

Blackburn on the other hand are three points from safety at the moment, and I think if they are to even have a hope they will need three wins from three games. Unfortunately they have to play Tottenham, Wigan and Chelsea so the writing may already be on the wall. Albeit Blackburn have been in the bottom three for most of the season, Steve Kean deserves a lot of credit. Few football managers have ever had to work in the face of such adversity and vitriolic abuse from the supposed supporters. These fans should be ashamed of themselves, and I wonder if any of think that if they had got behind the manager and his team a bit earlier, would they still be in this position. 


Good luck to all, and I hope the climax to the season is as exciting as it promises to be. 

SPORT SHORTS

• I am enjoying the World Championship snooker at the Crucible so far. The highlight has been Stephen Hendry's maximum in the first round, as well as him getting through to the quarter finals by beating defending champion John Higgins 13-4. 9/1 for the title anyone?
• I think playing midweek fixtures in the Premier League three and four days before the cup final is not ideal for either team. I hope the occasion is befitting of the history of the FA Cup, and I also hope unashamedly that Liverpool win. 
• Not long until the cricket season starts; England have not been on a great run of form. Will they still be the number one test side in the world after the summer?
• The Premier League title could well be decided tomorrow in the Manchester derby. I think the score will be Man City 3-1 Man Utd. The game is at the Etihad Stadium, and I don't think Man Utd's defence can live with Aguero, Tevez and co.

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Is British football in complete disarray? (Part two)

Unfortunately this tale gets more rather than less woeful. For a club to be mismanaged in to administration once is bad enough, but this has happened Portsmouth twice in about two years. It is the third time they have been in administration in fourteen years! The situation could possibly not be worse at Fratton Park without the club going out of business altogether. (Which is not beyond the bounds of possibility!)

The hallowed turf at Fratton 

Portsmouth are in a situation where if their debts are not sorted out very quickly then people will refuse to do business with them.
Portsmouth's creditors are rumoured to consist of other football clubs including Wolves, West Brom and Bristol City as well as The Football League itself. Portsmouth City council are also said to be owed £78,000, and the electricity and gas suppliers have been threatening to cut them off for some for non-payment of bills. You have to wonder how far can it go, and I have said all this without even mentioning the bill to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. It is also said that Portsmouth owe previous owners Balram Chanrai and Alexandre Gaydamak in the region of £20 million. Portsmouth are not even worth £20 million, they never have been and probably never will be, so how on earth can they be allowed to end up in this kind of mess?

As Portsmouth are the closest football club to me geographically, some of my friends and family are Portsmouth fans, and a lot of them are in complete despair, and who could blame them? Portsmouth fans are among the most passionate you could meet. They're trophy count might not rival the likes of Liverpool or Manchester United, but the unequivocal support they give their club certainly would. Do they deserve to be treated in this way by businessmen from foreign shores looking on the club as some sort of cash cow? In a word, NO!


The football powers that be have to take some accountability here. In a recent BBC Sport article it is said the The Football League were 'misled at best' regarding former owner Vladimir Anotonov's finances, but surely it is their job to leave no stone unturned in matters of this nature? Particularly as they had been in exactly the same situation less than twenty four months previously with the same club! The man had been refused a license from the GFSA to operate his bank in this country for not complying to rules and regulations, what more of an indication could you want?


All this said about the sad situations at Glasgow Rangers and Portsmouth, here are some further brief reasons why football needs a complete overhaul; starting at the very top.

• We have a player in Carlos Tevez, who does not come from a wealthy background, sees earning nearly a million pounds a month as being treated like a dog. He feels that bad about these abhorrent working conditions he went on strike.

• We have a governing body, that three months before the second largest tournament England enter, see fit to undermine (rightly or wrongly?) Fabio Capello to the point where he felt he had to resign leaving us without a full-time manager. 

• The custodians of our wonderful game also see fit to make the game a laughing stock, by on one hand banning one player for alleged racist remarks for eight games with little more than hearsay evidence. On the other hand, the England captain is caught on television cameras clearly abusing his England colleagues brother, and God forbid it should interupt his playing season we'll defer the criminal charges until the end of the season. 

• Players that want to retire from international football for one reason or another. David Beckham has it right; as far as he is concerned he will always be available for selection until he retires from the game completely. 

I don't intend to discuss the rights and wrongs of these issues, but all the average fan wants is clarity and consistency throughout the game on every issue. Please governing bodies, get your heads together and sort this mess out. We do not need to be the laughing stock of world football any longer.

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