West Brom defender Jonas Olsson has no idea how many points Roy Hodgson’s side needs to guarantee their safety this season.The Baggies have improved dramatically since Hodgson replaced Roberto Di Matteo seven games ago, and they have 39 points, just one short of the traditional relegation-saving mark.
Yet with the bottom of the table incredibly congested – eight points separate the bottom 12 teams – centre-back Olsson admits his side cannot afford to relax as they head to White Hart Lane to face Champions League hopefuls Tottenham.
“We will carry on going – in the last few seasons it (39 points) has been well enough to keep you up but it has been a strange season,” said Olsson.
“Another win or maybe two, and it looks like it’s going to have to be 42 points plus to get that safety.”
“People say ‘will it be 40? Will it be 45?’ but for me it doesn’t matter, if we do what we have to do.”
And Olsson admits that Tottenham’s strength in depth is frightening.
“They’ve been playing a lot of games – they have had Champions League games and that North London derby in midweek,” he said.
“They have good depth in their squad so whatever they put on the pitch we will be afraid.”
But while Olsson admits he is still concerned about relegation, Baggies skipper Chris Brunt is convinced that a top-10 finish is possible for a side who were in real relegation trouble when Hodgson took over.
“We’ve seen Aston Villa in the last few weeks be on the verge of the relegation zone, win two games, and then they’re on 40 points and in the top 10,” Brunt said.
“If we can pick up a couple of results in the next few weeks, there’s no reason why we can’t finish in the top half of the league.”
West Ham United have made a miserable start to the new season, conceding six in their first two league games. The Hammers recorded their first competitive victory of the season by narrowly beating Oxford in the League Cup last night. The manager, Avram Grant fielded a relatively strong side and it was left to Scott Parker to spare their blushes as he scored the only goal of the game in the 90th minute. It will therefore come as some consolation that in naming their 25-man squad there should be fewer headaches. Whilst Arsene Wenger and others decry the new ruling, these squad regulations will benefit West Ham. No home-grown players have been bought since the takeover by Gold and Sullivan yet the club retains a strong domestic core. Moreover youngsters from their famed academy of football will find their playing opportunities enhanced.
The Premier League’s new rules on squad limits and home-grown quotas is operational as of 1st September. Clubs are required to name a 25-man squad of whom 8 must be home-grown. This is defined as a player who has spent at least 36 months with an English or Welsh FA club prior to their 21st birthday. No more than 17 senior non home-grown players can be registered. The bonus for West Ham is that an unlimited number of under-21s can be used, regardless of nationality, to bolster the 25-man squad. An under-21 player is one who is under the age of 21 on 1st January in the year in which the season commences. With the bureaucratic lesson over, here is the probable squad.
Senior Home-Grown Players (9)
Robert Green, Matthew Upson, Carlton Cole, Scott Parker, Mark Noble, Jonathan Spector, Kieron Dyer, Zavon Hines, Daniel Gabbidon
Senior Non Home Grown Players (12)
Manuel da Costa, Herita Ilunga, Tal Ben Haim, Winston Reid, Juilen Faubert, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Valon Behrami, Luis Boa Morte, Pablo Barrera, Radoslav Kovac, Frederic Piquionne, Benni McCarthy
Under-21s (Unlimited)
Freddie Sears, James Tomkins, Junior Stanislas, Jordan Spence, Marek Stech, Frank Nouble, Fabio Daprela
Talking Points
Jack Collison and Peter Kurucz are two glaring omissions from the senior squad. Crowd favourite and midfield creator Collison is ruled out until the new year after undergoing knee surgery. The Welsh international will surely return to the squad in January. Clubs are permitted to make changes to the composition of their senior squad during the next transfer window. Hungarian goalkeeper Kurucz is out for the foreseeable future having suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in pre-season. Hines is not expected to be fit until October but warrants a place in the squad given his astounding pace.
In this speculative provisional squad there is still room for four more senior players. All of which can be foreign as Grant is reportedly after three new players after Alessandro Diamanti’s departure to newly promoted Brescia. The manager is allegedly looking for an experienced back-up goalkeeper, a goal-scorer and a right full-back. Depending on the scale of the last minute recruitment drive there are a few players who would be expected to make way. Dyer who made his first start since March on Saturday is never far from the treatment table and McCarthy is still grappling with his waistband. Should injuries or suspensions start to bite, there are a number of promising under-21s who could yet step up to the first team. These include Anthony Edgar, Holmar Orn Eyjolfsson, and Cristian Montano.
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The number of emotions seen at Upton Park this year has been quite ridiculous. The anger shown towards Avram Grant, the gutted response to relegation and the cheer at scoring a few more goals and gaining a few more points in the Championship are just a few.
Things are looking up in the East End now as we approach 2012 with an optimistic attitude and the January transfer window with the expectations of keeping the top players. The Hammers are likely to go into the New Year in the top two of the Championship and Sam Allardyce has installed a positive attitude all around the club.
As it just a week before the year is out, it is time to have a look at the West Ham End of Year Awards for 2011:
Click on James Tomkins to unveil the West Ham Awards for 2011
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Petr Cech has admitted that Chelsea were beaten by the better side after exiting the Champions League against Manchester United.Chelsea lost 3-1 on aggregate over the two legs of their quarter-final against English rivals United.
The English Premier League leaders won the first leg 1-0 away at Stamford Bridge, before a 2-1 victory in the return at Old Trafford booked their passage to the last four at Chelsea’s expense.
The visitors finished the match with 10 men after Brazilian midfielder Ramires was shown a second yellow card with 20 minutes remaining.
“We lost both games so we can’t say that we deserved more,” Cech said.
Despite the disappointing defeats in the two legs, goalkeeper Cech insists that spirits remain high within the playing squad.
“You can see that the team is together because if you are not together then you go down to 10 men, losing 1-0 you will fall apart and we didn’t do so,” he said.
“Seven games to play, 21 points in it, so I think if you win most of the games then you can finish second. I think that our aim is to get as many points as we can.”
Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti is rumoured to be set for the sack at the end of the season, but Cech claims the players should share responsibility for a disappointing season.
“We win together, we lose together,” the Czech Republic international said.
“The players need to finish the season well for ourselves, the club, for everybody. We are not only playing for the manager or the owner, we are playing for the entire club.”
“It is always disappointing if you are part of a big club and you don’t win a trophy. After winning the double last season everyone thought we would defend the titles. We had a good start and then the season became difficult.”
“But we were doing well in the Champions League until the two games against United.”
After England’s dismal showing at the World Cup, it was inevitable that questions would be asked of Fabio Capello. The Italian’s disciplinarian style that was once hailed was now labelled as being too strict, his choice of formation and personnel was lambasted. Many in the media were calling for his head, predictably suggesting that Capello should be fired and that an Englishman should be brought into the frame. Fabio Capello has had great success in his career however, winning a host of tophies including eight league titles and a Champions League victory. Capello’s trophy cabinet dwarfs that of any English manager, but a good deal of the media seems desperate for an Englishman to take the job. Rightly or wrongly England have gone down the route of appointing foreign coaches, giving an English manager the top job now is not going to change that fact. Fabio Capello has known very little failure in his managerial career, and he will be as keen as anyone to remove the blot from his copybook that now exists. England’s issues can not be blamed solely on the manager, and there is no guarantee an English coach would fare any better.
Of course there is blame to be laid at Capello’s door. His consistent selection of Emile Heskey was ridiculous, the striker is clearly not cut out for international football but it is not his fault that he is picked. The 4-4-2 that was employed seemed outdated, teams like Germany and Spain made England look like a relic from a bygone era. This criticism of Capello is entirely fair, but a lot of the other accusations bandied at Capello are incredibly fickle. The Italian has ruled with an iron rod during his time as England manager, and during the qualifiers this was considered by much of the media to be something that was highly positive, the preening prima-donnas of English football needed some discipline put back into them. When it came to the World Cup however, Capello was being too severe and he should cut the players some slack; maybe the WAG’s should have been invited after all. Moreover Capello became a popular figure in English football, after a very successful qualifying campaign not many were saying Capello was the wrong man for the job. It must be remembered that this is Capello’s first job in the international arena, and though this is not an excuse for such a poor performance it means he is still learning. Capello would have learnt a lot from the World Cup and the fortunes of the English team will surely improve as a result.
After South Africa, Roy Hodgson and Harry Redknapp became the media’s most popular choices for England manager. But going forward would the England team perform so much better under one of these two? An English manager does not equal success and passion as some in the media might lead us to believe, after all there was virtually none of each during the last English manager’s reign. The FA have already stated that Capello’s successor will be an Englishman, but it is far from certain that he will have more success than the Italian. There were tentative signs of improvement against Hungary, and Capello selected some exciting young players in his squad. Capello would have learnt a great deal from the World Cup and is well qualified to take the team forwards, who knows, another successful qualifying campaign and the media may well be singing his praises again.
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Reports in the British press today are stipulating that Arsene Wenger may be ready to make a club record bid for Borussia Dortmund’s teen sensation Mario Gotze.
The 19-year-old has shot to prominence at Signal Iduna Park with impressive displays for the Bundesliga champions, and he scored the winner recently in a 1-0 away victory over Bayern Munich.
Gotze has also broken into the Germany international setup, and is likely to play a part in Joachin Low’s first team at Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.
Mirror Football state that Arsene Wenger is ready to bid £30 million for the playmaker come January, as a statement of intent to the likes of Robin van Persie to sign a new contract.
Dortmund have previously stated that Gotze was not for sale at any price, and have rejected rumours that he will leave Dortmund in the next transfer window.
Bayern Munich are also thought to be massively keen to add the attacking midfielder to their ranks, and if The Gunners do bid for the starlet they can expect competition from a number of leading European clubs.
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The Wanderers return to St Andrews having previously defeated the Birmingham side 3-2 in the FA Cup that booked their semi-final fixture at Wembley. They will be hoping to copy the Birmingham side that went on to win the League Cup earlier this season, especially as Bolton look to have Premier League security in 7th on the magical 40 points.
Despite City’s cup win, the Blues go into this game 2nd from bottom and Alex McLeish’s men will be hoping that his side are able to treat their remaining league fixtures, like they treated that final against Arsenal.
The Blues are without a win in their last 4 league games but welcome back key players; Nikola Zigic and Lee Bowyer from injury with also Alex Hleb tipped to return to the squad.
Owen Coyle’s made an impressive step up to management in the top flight with Bolton, top half of the table and a FA Cup semi-final coming up, however the Trotters have suffered 5 defeats and 1 draw in their last six away games in the Premier League.
With Stuart Holden’s unfortunate injury at United, Bolton are stretched for midfielders which may give Birmingham the opportunity to dominate this game. However, Bolton can boast they’re undefeated against Birmingham in the last 5 encounters.
Considering Birmingham’s league position, Alex McLeish and his team will be desperate to get out of the relegation zone and start moving up the table to avoid the drop which would certainly sour the taste of cup success. However, they will have to be on top form if they are to defeat a very competent Bolton side.
Prediction: Birmingham 2-1 Bolton Wanderers
Watch Jason Cundy & Scott Minto on Scoreboard and see their pre-match predictions
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With the gossip, speculation and downright wishful thinking continuing unabated on the information superhighway, here is my update of the week’s transfer activity from four of the Premiership’s teams.
West Brom
The Baggies have been searching for competition for Scott Carson all summer but have, to their frustration, had a third bid for Preston goalkeeper Andrew Lonergan turned down. North End’s manager Darren Ferguson values the 26-year-old at an incredible £20m forcing the West Midlands’ club to turn their attentions elsewhere – namely Sheffield Wednesday’s £1m-rated ‘keeper Lee Grant.
Midfielder Borja Valero has joined La Liga side Villareal on a season-long loan with a view to a permanent deal. The 25-year-old had only just returned to West Brom for preseason training following a loan spell at Real Majorca but is desperate for a return to his native Spain citing family reasons. He became Albion’s record signing at £4.7m two years ago after joining from Mallorca but he has struggled to adapt to life in England.
Wolves
Wolves are currently battling alongside West Ham and Blackburn to secure the signature of ex-Man. City striker Benjani who was released by Mancini this summer after failing to make an impact either at Eastlands last season or whilst on loan at Sunderland.
Mick McCarthy has also confirmed that Doncaster have made enquiries over the availability of Republic of Ireland international Andy Keogh. The 24-year-old made 15 appearances in the Premiership last season but is thought to want more regular first team action.
West Ham
Avram Grant has apparently been handed a £25m war chest to ensure that the Londoners avoid the threat of relegation next season but seems to be more concerned with who might leave. The Hammers’ owners announced that the whole squad would be up for sale except for Scott Parker who is now the subject of several reported bids from around the Premiership. Aston Villa and Spurs are keen to entice the influential midfielder away from Upton Park but will have to meet West Ham’s £10m-plus valuation if they are to stand any chance of succeeding.
Meanwhile Mikael Silvestre has emerged as a free transfer target for the Hammers. Avram Grant was thwarted in his bid to sign Ben-Haim from his former club Portsmouth after the Israeli failed his medical and sees the former Arsenal and Man. Utd defender as a perfect replacement. The 32-year-old is of course a free agent following his recent release from the Emirates.
Blackpool
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Ian Holloway is yet to make any signings for the Premiership new boys and says that he wants to retain the spirit that saw the club win promotion at Wembley in May. In other words he’s got bugger all money to spend and wants to save some face by honourably sticking by the XI he had in the Championship last season.
However, the gaffe-prone Bristolian is close to signing Israeli defender Dekel Keinan. The 25-year-old has already undergone a medical at the Seasiders and is now awaiting a work permit to complete his move from Maccabi Haifa. Finally, ex-Arsenal striker Francis Jeffers is training with the club.
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You could sense the rage and indignation around the country as the news was announced. You could hear a collective tut and a million heads being shaken. Football had died (again). Manchester City had announced their annual financial results, and had posted the biggest losses in football history, a cool £195m for the 2010/11 financial year. They’re Manchester City, they spend what they want.
Well not if UEFA have their way of course. And the inevitable response to the announcement was to reignite the debate over how they could possibly meet UEFA’s new Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.
Obscene losses? Perhaps. But less obscene than owners who wrack up debt, or owners who asset-strip clubs, or are there for personal gain alone. At least the money being spent is their own – but that’s an argument that has already been done to death (but will have inevitably resurfaced over the past few days).
Rival fans might scoff at how the huge losses will cause City to fail to meet FFP rules, but it was these rules that bizarrely helped cause the losses in the first place. City’s owners knew the day they took over what was on the horizon, and as Brian Marwood has stated in the past, the club embarked on an accelerated programme of expansion and purchases, “attempting to squeeze ten years’ development into three”.
Equally bizarrely, due to the ruling on “trends”, the huge loss might actually benefit City. Why? Well the FFP rules are far from set in stone and far from black and white. The key to meeting the requirements is not simply to spend only what you earn, but to make movements towards that point (at least for the next few years). So for now City and other clubs have to be seen to be taking steps to narrow the gap between outlay and income, and City will undoubtedly do this – this year’s figures are certain to be the worst by a long way, so the only way is down from now on (or up, depending on how you look at it). As long as the losses reduce each year, the club has little to worry about. Thus City have deliberately posted bad results – they have used last year’s accounts to lump in all the deadwood and heavy purchasing before the rules get stricter – £35m of those losses are precisely for the writing off of deadwood, a one-off cost of players City know they won’t get a good return back on. After all, if your wife told you to start behaving better as of next Sunday, you could be tempted to burn down the house on the Saturday (I could have used a better example to be honest). So whilst in theory a club can only lose €45m over the next three seasons, the fact is that UEFA will probably be quite liberal with that figure.
What’s more, UEFA are highly unlikely to ban a “big” European club from the Champions League – in a sport ruled by money at the highest levels, it simply isn’t in their interest. Ian Ladyman of the Daily Mail said as much on Friday, reporting that Michel Platini has softened his stance on punishing clubs, looking at fines rather than expulsions, a system that will not unduly worry City.
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But as mentioned already, City will bridge the gap. Over the weekend came reports of a new kit deal at the end of the season which could be worth an extra £18m per year. City’s huge stadium sponsorship and campus deal is not included in last year’s figures, nor was any income from the Champions League, which City will expect every season now – even if they go out in the group stage, they will earn over £20m.
And whilst big-name signings will continue, they will become less common. What’s more, as City now have a top-class squad, they will recoup more in player sales than of old, so will become more self-sufficient on that front.
FFP doesn’t work in simple lines of income versus outlay anyway, and some losses can be discarded from calculations, such as for academy development, spend on infrastructure and the like. It’s all linked to the insomnia-curing UEFA Club Licensing Handbook, especially its Annex XI.
For the purpose of the first two monitoring periods, i.e. monitoring periods assessed in the seasons 2013/14 and 2014/15, the following additional transitional factor is to be considered by the Club Financial Control Panel:
Players under contract before 1 June 2010
If a licensee reports an aggregate break-even deficit that exceeds the acceptable deviation and it fulfils both conditions described below then this would be taken into account in a favourable way.
i) It reports a positive trend in the annual break-even results (proving it has implemented a concrete strategy for future compliance); and
ii) It proves that the aggregate break-even deficit is only due to the annual break-even deficit of the reporting period ending in 2012 which in turn is due to contracts with players undertaken prior to 1 June 2010 (for the avoidance of doubt, all renegotiations on contracts undertaken after such date would not be taken into account). This means that a licensee that reports an aggregate break-even deficit that exceeds the acceptable deviation but that satisfies both conditions described under i) and ii) above should in principle not be sanctioned.
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All perfectly clear I’m sure you agree – but the new point to mention in that cut and paste is the dismissal from calculation of player contracts agreed before 1st June 2010.
City’s income will continue to rise and their costs will tail off, having probably reached their peak. Brian Marwood admits there is still plenty of work to be done to adhere to UEFA’s rules, but I doubt anyone at the club will be having sleepless nights just yet. What they want soon though is the deadwood to be cleared for good (yes, that includes you Carlos), and for the academy to bear fruits within a couple of years to keep player purchases down. Until then, they just have to move in the right direction – on and off the pitch. Whatever the figures may suggest, it’s a case of so far, so good. And however much whinging may emanate from non-City fans, the club hasn’t yet broken any rules.
An Idol. An inspiration. A Hero. A Trailblazer. A Martyr. These types of words are banded around frequently and liberally for all manner of people these days (except perhaps martyr, which does come with the relatively sturdy and mandatory requirement of death) be they entertainment celebrities, sportsmen or charismatic if ultimately ideologically barren politicians. These are words we’re all too familiar with and mostly for the wrong reasons. They are also all words that are seldom if ever used to describe the one and only top-flight footballer – in the world – to come out as gay, Justin Fashanu.
Don’t get me wrong, Fashanu was not necessarily any of these things (though he’s surely as close to a martyr as football will ever get, even if football didn’t play a direct role in his death – a myth that still perseveres today, acting as a scare story to any would be closeted players and fans.) He was – like us all – a flawed individual. Notoriously difficult to work with, with a reputation for being aggressive and opinionated on the training field and often courted the media gratuitously in that age-old celebrity duality of being both the user and the used by the tabloid press. As a footballer he ultimately failed to live up to his early billing as the first million pound black player and flopped on his first and only move to a big club. He died tragically amidst lurid allegations, a year after retiring after a journeyman career in Scotland and the US. But despite all this, his status as a trailblazer, a genuine original and an eventually bullish and motivated combatant for social progress and tolerance on two fronts – the burden and brunt of which he seemed to bare all alone – is rarely appreciated in the wider circle of public life in the way many other more trivial cases are.
It’s all too natural to lionize people after the fact, to romanticize the tragic as saintly figures and throw generous hagiography the way of anyone who’s ever performed a kind or valiant gesture in the public eye. Yet this man, for all this flaws and sadly still vain sacrifice, was a true pioneer and is still brushed under the carpet and kept out of the spotlight like an embarrassing relative when polite company calls.
Ever since that Cricketer who wasn’t actually that Snooker player came out I’ve been trying to write an article on Fashanu. The man has always struck me as a fascinating figure, and the fact that so little is known about him by so many of my age group (mid-20s) beyond his death and sexuality only added to the mystery. Unfortunately I’ve been suffering from crippling writers block, a condition, nay disease as obviously serious and important as sex addiction or compulsive eating but which never the less allowed me the time to research the subject in a more expansive way than I would’ve if I’d just knocked this up of an afternoon.
During this period of research two things struck me most prominently. Firstly, that the reaction of those closest to him was every bit as archaic and patently damaging emotionally than even the oft exaggerated passage of time had insinuated. Specifically his agent Eric Hall – who still believes there are no gay footballers – and even more strikingly his brother, the elbow mad Gladiator baiter John. John Fashanu came out after his brother’s death and expressed sadness and the belief he was at least in heaven, but had spent the aftermath of his outing relaying to the media his overt disapproval. Brian Clough, who became aware of Justin’s homosexuality long before his outing and during his stint as the worlds most expensive black footballer, expressed deep regret for his treatment of him, something it seems hard to imagine a man like Cloughie – never one to mea culpa if he didn’t have to – would admit to lightly or without significance. He certainly never apologized for punching his own players or even, on occasion, his own fans, but for this he did. That alone must lend a deal of significance to the level of treatment Justin endured during what was supposed to be the peak of his career. A career in which – it should be remembered – he was a very promising and talented player.
The other thing that stood out, and which runs almost at a contrast to the point above, is how much of his footballing persecution is mythically tied to his death. One of the most tragic things about Fashanu’s story is how it’s still used today as a scarecrow for gay players. It’s a cautionary tale, and is remembered as such by many of my age. “Don’t come out or you’ll end up like Fash.” Fashanu’s outing certainly caused the well of clubs after his signature to dry up, but he still played on for seven more years. He was even briefly made assistant manager at Torquay in 1992. He was certainly a pariah, but he wasn’t a total outcast and his death was as much the result of his personal rejections and tribulations – including his struggle with religion – as it was his professional. His suicide note told of his sadness at being presumed guilty of sexual assault in America and the embarrassment it would bring his family. A belief made all the more tragic as his guilt hadn’t been assumed, and the charge was never followed up on and had already been dropped.
And yet football continues to treat Fashanu as both it’s cautionary tale and it’s embarrassing secret. Both of which serve no purpose but to dissuade any future outings. When it suits football, it’s football’s fault, and serves as a terrifying reminder to those who wish to follow suit. When it doesn’t, it’s not, and is simply not their problem, or any reason to address it. But it’s both, and it’s all. If football wants to ignore it’s role in his decline then it can’t continue to propagate the lie that no one can survive the process, or as Max Clifford claimed in 2009 that it would “end their career in two minutes.” Paradoxically if football wants to acknowledge it’s role, then it should hold Fashanu up in a better light for fighting against it, and if he was remembered as a less tragic and more heroic figure then his legend might serve as an inspiration rather than a curse.
This was a man who came out at the end of the 80s, whilst a black footballer in still a relatively (compared to today) hostile racial football environment, whose family abandoned him, profession forsook him, and religion condemned him, each to some degree. Who still took to the pitch to play for seven more years, went on talk shows and eloquented his trials and tribulations and argued his points incredibly well for a footballer, and ploughed on strongly, and seemingly alone in the world until the burden evidently became too much.
It’s very easy for those who wish to ignore it to say “it doesn’t matter he was gay, why should we care” or other such Daily Mail comments page type wafflings seemingly designed to ignore the issue or remove it from the public consciousness with a disingenuous display of egalitarianism. It does matter, because social progress depends on people like Fashanu. It shouldn’t matter, but it does, and to ignore that is to ignore the reality of the world we live in. Only through proliferation does acceptance grow. It mattered that America had it’s first black President. It mattered that the UK had it’s first female Prime Minister and it mattered that the world had it’s first gay footballer.
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When Gareth Thomas can be admired so readily for his coming out in socially progressive 2010, why this man, who was both far more brave, far ahead of his time and far more alone, not remembered as a similar icon, or hero, or some other kind of lionized figure that he seems – in my young mind at least – to deserve? Where Fashanu failed he suffered for it greatly but where football failed, it shrugged it’s shoulders. He was a beautiful and intelligent man who was failed by many, even himself, and although it wasn’t football alone that lead to his demise, it failed him too, and he should at least be remembered much better by it. At least for the sake of those who may wish to follow in his footsteps.
You can follow Oscar on Twitter here http://twitter.com/oscarpyejeary, where you can help him plot the guerilla invasion of ITV2’s OMG! – With Peaches Geldof. It must be stopped!