Wednesday 9 May 2012

End of Season round-ups

It's getting close to that time with the end of the Premiership season drawing to it's conclusion this weekend, and the Championship nearly wrapped up after the playoff final and the Champions League final clash in bit over a week.

The review shows will be full of the goals at Old Trafford when United destroyed Arsenal, and then again for when City destroyed United. It will show the tears of the Wolves and Blackburn fans relegated and the t-shirts of support for Suarez (before his 8 game ban), it will have a montage of Fabio Capello's tenure as England boss, and some of Roy Hodgson's head banging antics in the WBA dugout.

Bloggers, journo's and twitterers will all have their say on the season so here is mine...

This is a great time to look back on my good, bad and the ugly for the season.

The good - Papisse Demba Cisse, 'The Cockney Mafia' the 'Toon'.

He's been a revelation for a wonderful Newcastle side this year, with his 9 million pound move in January showing that smart and effective deals can be done in the window and guys that score in German can score in England. His second goal at Stamford Bridge a couple of weeks ago during Newcastle's brilliant 2 nil win has my vote for goal of the season, with Peter Crouch's stunning chest and volley against Manchester City a close second, and Luis Suarez's long distance blast against Norwich picking up the bronze. Cisse has scored remarkable goals since his move, bettering Alan Shearer's record for goals in his first 12 games, NOT an easy feat. Newcastle have been terrific for the majority of the season, and although I think Alan Pardew is a complete weapon, it's hard to argue with the job that he, and the Cockney Mafia have done at St. James, oops, I meant the Sports Direct Arena this season. Will it finish with Champions League football a year after being in the Championship? We will see.  Pardew has done a good job and is in the running for manager of the year, he's not my cup of tea however and I'm interested to see how he fares next season now other teams are aware of Newcastle and they will probably sell some players this summer.

Swansea have been sensational too, and I really enjoyed watching Paul Lambert's Norwich City.




The bad - Liverpool (and Arsenal)

Arsenal haven't been good, like Chelsea and Liverpool this season, when a lot was expected from them. A truly terrible start from them including the refund inducing performance that ended in a 8-2 hammering at Old Trafford where a pissed up Tony Adams would have offered more backbone than the players on show looked like it could end Arsene Wenger's time in charge of the Gunners. He survived and so did they, but without the goals of RVP they wouldn't be anywhere near the Champions League places, and it's only really down to his goals and the poor play of the other teams around them that they are in with a shout. Tottenham should have had 3rd spot, or 2nd sown up. Chelsea have had a mad season sacking AVB, bringing in Di Matteo, winning the FA cup final, losing 3rd, 4th, or even 5th in the league, by solely concentrating on the Champions League final, which they won't win. Arsenal, will be there or there abouts, because they do have the PFA player of the year and golden boot winner RVP (for now at least). Liverpool with that man would probably be where Arsenal are now. Instead they have a 35 million quid caveman who didn't score enough, a Urugyuan superstar who missed 9 games of the season through suspension at a crucial time and fires hot and cold, and a squad of piss-poor players. Everton may well finish above their city rivals this year for the first time in recent memory, fans will blame long cup runs, and bad luck in front of goal this season for not getting more points on the board. 30+ times the Reds have hit the woodwork at home this season, and missed more penalties than anyone else, but so what? You have to get the ball in the net and make your own luck. Dalglish's signings (Adam, Henderson, Downing, Carroll) haven't lived up to expectations or been anywhere near good enough all season. It's back to the drawing board for King Kenny as he finds his team as close to the relegation zone as they are to the Champions league spots. Not good enough for a moneyball inspired team of highly paid players. Without the cup runs (and in truth, even with them) this has been a bad, bad, bad season for Liverpool.




The Ugly - Blackburn Rovers, Steve Kean & Venky's.

Steve Kean has held 'dignity' in the face of torrents of abuse throughout the whole season. Venky's the Indian poultry firm stood firm with him even after protests, sit in's and planes flying over head with messages of distaste for the Scotsman. The Venky's group bought the team with promises of Champions League football within 4 years, they achieved relegation and the hate of most of the home support within 2. The rumour mill had them signing players like Ronaldinho, but instead the agent put in charge of the clubs transfer dealings signed his own son (who is yet to play a first team game), and put one of the men he represents, Steve Kean, in the hot seat. Steve Kean should step down, there is nothing heroic in what he's doing, pledging to stay on. It's been an awful season, he's been an awful appointment and sadly for Blackburn, if it'doesn't make changes, will turn into a truly awful club. All this after good old Jack Walker had helped win them the Premiership in 1995 (still one of only 4 teams - soon to be 5, to do so). Steve Kean said "We're absolutely devastated. The players are numb inside the dressing room" after the turgid defeat to Wigan (who have been excellent over the past 8 games in comparison to Blackburn's hideous form). Kean seems to be 'numb' himself to the reality that surrounds him. As long as he is at the helm and Venky's run the club, there will be a poisonous atmosphere around the club. Kean looked like a drowning rat during Monday night's defeat and subsequent relegation, sadly for Blackburn he doesn't look like he's going to jump ship!
Wolves were crap, Bolton too.




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