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.

Liverpool lucky not to pay the penalty!?

Liverpool have won their first piece of silverware for six long years, something a club with Liverpool's great history and winning story has found hard to swallow.  At the end of the game, before Kenny Dalglish picked up his first winners medal since lifting the Premier League crown with Blackburn in 1995, the Liverpool boss looked to have shed a tear.  The tears of joy are something Dalglish denied, but it could have so nearly been tears of sorrow after the boys from the Welsh capital did the Championship, their club, and country, proud.  Liverpool won't take too much from the performance other than the result, but the game showed their problems this season.


At the back they are fairly solid and limited Cardiff to only a few real chances, the difference between the two teams was how clinical they were in front of goal.  Where Cardiff were clinical and efficient, Liverpool were again lacking and deficient.  All season Liverpool have created chances for their forwards and midfielders, but just haven't converted enough of these opportunities.  One reason they haven't score as many goals as they should is perhaps down to three of their 'new' signings, Stuart Downing, Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam.  Downing, although voted 'Man of the Match' for his performance yesterday, (which took a few by surprise) had a pretty poor final ball and even when he did get to the byline or made space for a cross more often than not it didn't beat the first man, or floated over the head of Liverpool's flat footed forwards.  Jordan Henderson looked off the pace against more experienced, and frankly better Championship players.  His level looks to be Championship at best at the moment, his season was encapsulated by his reckless yellow card.  In a good area with the ball on the edge of the box he took too long to make a decision, dallied and lost the ball then went straight through the man who had dispossessed him with a desperate lunge.  John W. Henry the Liverpool owner may have wondered why he parted with the better part of 20 million quid for him as he was hooked off after 58 minutes. Charlie Adam, so deadly from dead ball situations at Blackpool last year ballooned his penalty in the shoot out so badly it showed how far he's dropped off from his credible form last season, maybe it's all the extra running he does now in midfield and the fact he's not the focal point of the attack, again, the harsh truth is, he's just not good enough to do that and boss the midfield in Liverpool or any other Premiership team worth their salt.


All this doesn't take away from the fact that they dug in and got the result the club needed.
It will be interesting to see if this result spurs Liverpool on for the rest of the season, and helps them get a good run in the FA Cup and maybe the final Champions League spot.
With the strength of the squad looking the best it has in a long time, but still far off the pace in the title race it'll be a few seasons more of building before they get up to where they, and King Kenny, believe they belong.

A wins a win, a trophy is a trophy and although it was nerve racking for all the Liverpool fans, the right result (for them) came in the end. Lucky for us Anthony Gerrard (part of the Stevie G family clan) takes a penalty like his more famous cousin. Not very well. Well played to Cardiff, and congratulations to Liverpool! Carling Cup Champions 2011/12, and a thought for Anthony Gerrard, sad day for him as he announced on twitter after...
“Sorry to everyone!”
“I can’t close my eyes wid out seeing that penalty!! It’s goin to haunt me for the rest of my days! Head is mashed!”

McCarthy and the rise of the Scots

This week Mick McCarthy became the third premiership manager to get the axe this season.  It's a low total of firings thus far, but that number will inevitably rise before May.  The Irishman is well liked throughout the game but during Wolves bad run he found himself 'undermined' by his Chairman, Steve Morgan, after he entered the changing room post match after an embarrassing 3-0 defeat in which even Andy Carroll scored! The writing was on the wall for Big Mick after the battering they took at the hands, or should I say feet, or Woy Hodgsons average West Bromwich Albion side.


So McCarthy follows the dismissals of Steve Bruce at Sunderland and Neil Warnock at QPR.  Sunderland have made the greatest strides since replacing Bruce with the energetic Martin O'Neill, not only have Sunderland won some games but they're are the in-form team in the Premiership.  Mark Hughes hasn't enjoyed a honeymoon period in West London, but he has been able to blow some of Tony Fernandes' cash in the January window and strengthen the squad with much needed firepower.  Wolves however have now missed the window and by not allowing a new manager to get involved earlier and bring in some fresh faces they will face the rest of season knowing it's the current squad, who's results ultimately got McCarthy sacked, to get themselves out of it and avoid the drop.  The Wolves job is a tough one to take over, expectant fans of a club which has maybe stayed up in the Premiership a little longer than they perhaps are capable of (they of course escaped relegation on the final day of last season).


McCarthy may argue that with the backing that Roberto Martinez enjoys at Wigan he would have been able to turn it around.  Maybe it's his broad Yorkshire accent that hurts him, perhaps if the 'Irishman' had a thick Scottish accent he'd still be in the job.  Steve Kean, the most hated manager in recent Premiership history has weathered attack after attack from his own support but has managed to keep his job at Blackburn and therefore granted the chance to turn it around.  Owen Coyle at Bolton has the same kind of support and even though his team isn't playing the 'attractive' football, he is for some unknown reason associated with, he finds himself employed and relatively safe.  Alex McCleish appears to be anti-football in his style and setup and many Villa fans would rather have last seasons Caretaker manager and fellow Scot Gary McCallister back!

What then is it about these Scotsmen that make them so attractive in the English game?  Is it the fact that they have accents that half of football fans don't understand and the other half enjoy listening too even if they're talking drivel? Or is it that they are living off of great Scottish managers past and present, Docherty, Shankly and Ferguson to name a few.  Possibly they hope that their Scotch boys will be more like new coach Paul Lambert and take the Premiership by the scruff of the neck, or like King Kenny and hold onto his legions of supporters with undying love for his job and club.


Whatever it is there are 6 managers in the premiership who hail from north of the boarder and after seeing what's developed in the last 24 hours at Rangers it's no wonder they are fleeing their homeland looking for work in the biggest and best league in the world, maybe the surprise is so many of them find the jobs and are able to hold onto them so long, despite playing poorly and losing games...