Tuesday 19 March 2013

Michael Owen - The Striker I Shouldn't Like





Michael Owen announced earlier today that he is to retire from football at the end of the season.  To be honest it's not surprising as he has been ravaged by injuries throughout his career and he has been making less and less of an impact in the limited game time he has had in recent years but it is still a sad day for football.  I don't feel entirely comfortable saying that as everything about Owen's career should make me hate him but strangely I don't. 

Owen played for five club sides throughout his career as well as having an excellent international career with England.  At this point it might be useful to know that I am a Leeds United fan so it seems fairly obvious that I didn't appreciate his spells at Liverpool and Manchester United.  I also hold a grudge against Newcastle as they were one of the teams who gained the most from scavenging amongst the wreckage of Leeds financial meltdown.  His spell at Stoke may seem inoffensive but let's be honest nobody outside the Potteries likes Stoke.  He also had a spell in La Liga with Real Madrid and yes you've guessed it, I have a soft spot for their biggest rivals, Barcelona.  As if all that's not bad enough I am also a proud Irish man and at the risk of offending my readers, us Irish don't really like England.  Hopefully, anyone who reads this will be mature enough to understand sporting rivalry and I don't think it's news to anyone that there's nothing us Celts love more than seeing England players readying themselves for a penalty shoot out.

I should maybe point out that I think a lot of the anti-English feeling is brought on by the media.  As I see it the English media are the most over reactive bunch I've ever had the misfortune of experiencing.  When it comes to major tournaments the media would treat a 1-0 win over San Marino as the greatest result of all time but once they suffer an often unlucky defeat to one of the top teams on penalties they instantly become failures and a national disgrace.  It's not fair and the players deserve better but the media love nothing more than to build up their team just so they can get stuck in when it all goes wrong. 

Getting back on topic, Owen's career has took him to what seems like a who's who of teams I don't like but I can't find it in myself not to like him.  He comes across quite well in his media appearances which perhaps helps his cause but I think it's a case of the memories I have of his early career. 

Many younger football fans will think of Owen as the guy who sat on the bench for Manchester United or as the guy who grew a fantastic moustache in aid of the Movember campaign but for the rest of us, Owen is the one who got away.  In his early years Owen was an exceptional talent and it is sad that he and we were robbed of watching that talent grow into what should have been one of the best players in the world.  Unfortunately the injuries took there toll and although there were flashes of genius he was never able to reach the peaks he did in his years at Liverpool. 

Owen is the only Englishman in my lifetime to win the Ballon d'Or and his international record of 40 goals in 89 games is exceptional.  If Owen had stayed free of injuries I have no doubt that he would have smashed Bobby Charlton's record as England's top goalscorer. 

However, the biggest compliment I could give to Owen is that he is the only player in over twenty years of watching football that made me want England to win a match.  I can remember sitting as a thirteen year old watching him score "that" goal in the 1998 World Cup against Argentina.  He was breathtaking that night and it's rare to see a player play that way.  With Alan Shearer providing the focal point of the English attack, Owen was able to drop deep.  When he collected the ball he would set off at pace, taking players on and to this day it is still one of the best performances I've ever saw.

After the game when England had lost on penalties and I had finished sulking my dad said to me "I didn't know you were an England fan" and I replied "I'm not but I just wanted to see Michael Owen again in the next round."  My dad said to me, "Sure the Premier League will be back soon and you can watch him every week" and I replied "Yeah but it won't be the same" and unfortunately it never was.

Monday 11 March 2013

Celtic, What Now?




Celtic crashed out of the Champions League last week in Turin, as expected, but there's no reason that it should be all doom and gloom for the Scottish giants.  

It was a great year for Celtic in Europe and it has been a massive improvement on their recent adventures into Europe's top club competitions.  They hadn't reached the knock out stages of the Champions League since 2008 when they lost at the same stage to Barcelona.  In the years between there has been very little to celebrate.  In fact they have only progressed beyond two rounds in the last four seasons and one of those was when FC Sion were kicked out of the Europa League for fielding ineligible players.  It's easy to see why Hoops fans weren't brimming with confidence at the prospect of having to negotiate two qualifiers to earn a place in the group stages and a shot at the big boys.  

The campaign didn't have the best of starts when Celtic stuttered to a 2-1 home win over HJK Helsinki.  The doom and gloom merchants were out in full force talking about Celtic's poor away form and the importance of Helsinki's away goal.  Fortunately neither mattered as Celtic picked up a 2-0 win in Finland to put them into the Final qualifying round. Standing between Celtic and the group stages were Swedish champions,Helsingborgs.  The Hoops made light work of them and after a 2-0 win in Sweden they followed it up with another 2-0 win and Celtic were finally back in the big league for the first time since 2008.  

Celtic were handed a very tough draw in the group stages.  Club World Champions, Barcelona, Portuguese giants, Benfica and big spending Russians, Spartak Moscow.  Barcelona need no introduction, Benfica reached the quarter-finals last year and Spartak Moscow's squad included former Celtic star, Aiden McGeady.  On paper it looked like Celtic would do well to finish third in the group but Neil Lennon's men had other ideas. 

Celtic got off to a bad start drawing 0-0 at home to Benfica which had them on the back foot straight away.  However, a 3-2 win in Moscow got the dream back on track and left Celtic on four points from two games.  Next up was a double header with Barcelona.  Going into stoppage time in Camp Nou Celtic looked like earning an unlikely point but with the last kick of the game Jordi Alba netted from close range to break the hearts of Celtic fans all over the world.  In the home game things went a lot better and although Barcelona scored another goal in the dying minutes, Celtic were already 2-0 up by that stage and hung on for a famous victory.  Celtic travelled to Portugal in their penultimate game knowing a win would secure qualification to the knockout stages.  It wasn't to be though and Benfica ran out 2-1 winners to set up a nail biting finish to the group.  The equation was simple; Celtic needed to better Benfica's result in Barcelona in their home tie against Spartak Moscow. Benfica to their credit picked up a credible draw in Camp Nou but Celtic weren't to be denied and Kris Commons scored a late penalty to send Celtic into the last sixteen. 

The draw was once again tough on Celtic and they were pitted against Italian champions, Juventus.  Unfortunately, Celtic had met their match and Juventus ran out rather flattering winners with an aggregate score of 5-0. It was a tough game for Celtic and despite performing well for the majority of the tie Juventus had too much quality and progressed to the last eight.  

It was a fantastic experience for the team, the coaching staff and the fans. A lot of people will have a lot of happy memories from this year but it's gone now and I'm more interested in what happens next.  

It has become apparent since Neil Lennon has taken charge that the clubs transfer policy has changed.  For years Celtic have had a habit of signing older players with little or no sell on value.  Aside from a few free transfers in his first year in charge, Lennon has concentrated on bringing in younger players playing outside the top leagues with high potential.  This policy has saw players like Joe Ledley, Gary Hooper, Beram Kayal, Emilio Izaguirre,Fraser Forster, Tony Watt, Adam Matthews, Victor Wanyama and Efe Ambrose arrive at the club.  If anyone of those were to leave the club this summer,Celtic would see a handsome profit on their initial investment.

Many Celtic fans would like to see those players stay but unfortunately it doesn't work that way.  Some players will leave and the money generated from their sales will be reinvested into the next generation of young talent and a few of the current players will receive pay rises.  Whilst Celtic are in a solid financial position they are not in the position to throw silly money into transfer fees or players wages.  The majority of the other clubs in the last sixteen are paying individual players annual salaries in the same region as what this entire Celtic team cost to buy.  Teams in England's Premier League earn almost as much from the league's television deal as Celtic's entire annual turnover.  The numbers quite simply don't add up.  

Celtic as a club had to come up with a plan to maximise the clubs potential. Fortunately, they came up with a model similar in style to the one that Lyon used so successfully in the 2000s.  Lyon were in a similar situation, successful domestically but not making an impact on the European stage.  The club began developing young talent and after selling them on at a healthy profit, they reinvested in the next generation of young talent.  Some of this talent included names like Michael Essien, Florent Malouda, Juninho Pernambucano, Éric Abidal,Mahamadou Diarra and Karim Benzema.  Lyon enjoyed a great period of dominance in France as well as reaching three Champions League quarter-finals and a semi-final.  In their first year back in the Champions League, Celtic reached the last sixteen so I see absolutely no reason why reaching the Quarter-Finals in the next few seasons is out of the question.

As well as young talent on the pitch, Celtic also have a young management team. Manager, Neil Lennon is 41 and is assisted by Johan Mjallby (42) and Garry Parker (47).  If I'm completely honest I'm not 100% convinced by Neil Lennon.  I absolutely love the guy and regardless of how his managerial stint at the club turns out he has already earned his place in Celtic folklore but I find myself totally bemused at some of his decisions. In recent weeks he has made some increasingly bizarre decisions that I simply cannot agree with or even begin to understand. 

The biggest and possibly most costly mistake was the decision to play Efe Ambrose in the first leg against Juventus.  In hindsight it turned out to be a terrible decision but I can confirm that I am not simply jumping on the bandwagon.  I wrote a preview of the Juventus game and wrote "Efe Ambrose is a good player but I can't see how Celtic can put a player into the biggest game of the season who has had the lack of preparation that he has."  The Juventus game was the biggest of our season and the team won't have played the Inverness game on the Saturday and then started to prepare for the Juventus game.  They will have been preparing for that game for weeks and for all of that preparation, Ambrose was in South Africa representing his country.  I don't think many other managers would have played Ambrose in those circumstances and it was a gamble that backfired spectacularly. 

Another recent incident also involved Ambrose. He was substituted in the first half against Dundee.  He had made a few mistakes in that game and looked to be low on confidence. Celtic's following game was a top of the table clash with Motherwell.  The game was tight with the score at 1-1 when Lennon decided to bring on an out of form Ambrose.  If you want to build a players confidence the last thing you do is bring him into a big game like that.  Sure enough, Ambrose was at fault for the goal that saw Motherwell take the lead. Lennon still wasn’t finished though. Right after the goal he decided to put Victor Wanyama into defence and moved Ambrose into centre midfield.  At2-1 down Celtic were going to be pushing forward and needed their best players in more advanced positions.  I am completely baffled at what Lennon was thinking by effectively taking the one player who could drive the team forward out of his best position to play defence and replacing him with an out of form player whose confidence was at zero. 

Having said all this, in the European run Lennon did get his tactics spot on in most of the games.  I would argue that the Barcelona win went to his head a little and it led to him fielding a very attacking team against Benfica which led to us getting over ran in midfield which cost us at least a point but in the end it didn't matter.  He is a young manager and I genuinely hope he learns from these mistakes as I don't think there is a Celtic fan on the planet who could take any satisfaction in seeing Neil Lennon struggle as Celtic manager.  Nothing would please me more than in a few years time to be talking about how great a manager Neil Lennon is but as things stand the jury is still out.

Next up for Celtic is trying to secure a domestic double.  The league looks a certainty despite two league defeats in a row.  Celtic are fifteen points ahead of second placed Motherwell with just eight games remaining.  To be honest I would say Celtic have already got enough points to secure the title as the teams from second to eleventh are tightly grouped and have been taking points off each other on a regular basis.  To complete the double Celtic will have to beat Dundee Utd in the Scottish Cup Semi-Final and then the winners of Hibs v Falkirk in the Final. Obviously, Celtic will be hot favourites but there are no guarantees in Scottish football and Hibs in particular will fancy their chances as Celtic are yet to beat them in the SPL this season. 

This summer will inevitably see some players leaving.  I would expect Gary Hooper and Victor Wanyama to leave.  Both are exceptionally talented and in my opinion are ready to make the next step in their careers.  Celtic spent less than £3m to sign them and I would be expecting huge profits on both players.  The profits won't be as big as they may have been with both players contracts due to expire in 2014 but they should still pull in a combined fee in the region of £10-15m.  I would expect a good bit of that money to be reinvested but not necessarily on direct replacements.  Tony Watt looks like a younger version of Hooper and I would expect him to get more time on the pitch.  For Wanyama's place I would expect Beram Kayal to get an increased workload and the young Australian, Tom Rogic also looks to be one for the future.  Before Wanyama's arrival Kayal looked superb and he was being linked with some of the top clubs in the Premier League.  There's no reason why he can't rediscover that form if he gets regular games.

If newspaper reports are to be believed Celtic also face losing Joe Ledley, Fraser Forster and James Forrest in the summer. I don't think any of these players will leave this year.  Ledley's contract is up next year but unlike Hooper, he is already an established international and it's unlikely that he would get a move to one of the Champions League clubs so it’s in his best interests to stay at Celtic and I would expect to see him sign a new deal that will put him among the top earners at the club. Forster only signed for us permanently last summer and I would expect we will keep him for one more year at least. Forrest is still very young and I think his future in the game would benefit from another few years at Celtic. One player I think will leave is Efe Ambrose.  Things have turned into a nightmare for him since his return from international duty and I feel his indiscipline in Turin when he missed the bus to training will have been his last chance and going on his recent performances it's no big loss to Celtic. 

Even if Ambrose stays I think Celtic need to look to strengthen the defence,particular the central area.  Kelvin Wilson has progressed well in that position but other than Charlie Mulgrew, I have little faith in any of the other options. If we can bring in a decent centre-back and build from there, I'd be confident of another successful season among the cream of Europe's footballing giants.


Follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/gjsportsblog

Tuesday 5 March 2013

Manchester United v Real Madrid Preview



Tonight should be a great night for football fans as two of Europe's giants go head to head in the Champions League.  Manchester United and Real Madrid are arguably Europe's biggest clubs but there's only room for one of them in the Quarter-Finals of Europe's elite competition.  They drew 1-1 three weeks ago in Madrid to set up what should be a breathtaking night at Old Trafford. 

The game is packed with some of the best players in the world with players like Nemanja Vidic, Wayne Rooney and Robin Van Persie going head to head with Xabi Alonso, Mesut Ozil and Cristiano Ronaldo.  It's not just on the pitch that world class competitors will be going head to head.  There will be another heavyweight battle in the dugouts as Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho do battle.  These two are right at the top in the management game and although there is a mutual respect between them, both are ultra competitive and would love to add the others scalp to their already overloaded CV's. 

I am a complete neutral in this one and have no love for either club.  In England and Spain I follow Leeds United and Barcelona so I am used to cheering against both sides.  Having said that, as a football fan I have a lot of respect for the players and coaches on show as there's not many better in the game.  All I can hope for is a good game, played in the right way by two world class sides with two world class coaches. 

My biggest fear is that the two sides will take a cautious approach and cancel each other out.  As much attacking quality as there is between the teams, the two coaches are more than capable of setting up their teams not to lose.  Fortunately, the 1-1 draw in the first leg means that a dull game would benefit Manchester United more and I simply cannot see Sir Alex setting up his team to play defensively against anyone at Old Trafford.  I have no doubt however that Mourinho will have a plan in place to spoil the game if his side score the first goal. 

Tactically, I would expect to see them both line up in the 4-2-3-1 formation.  United are without Phil Jones and I would expect Tom Cleverley to take his place alongside Michael Carrick in midfield.  Kagawa, Rooney and Welbeck should line up across the attacking midfield area supporting Robin Van Persie in attack.  Defensively, I would expect to see De Gea in nets behind a back four of Rafael, Evra and two from Ferdinand, Vidic and Evans.  For Real, I would expect to see Lopez in goal behind Arbeloa, Varane, Ramos and Coentrao.  In midfield Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira should provide the muscle to allow Ronaldo, Ozil and Di Maria to join Benzema in attack. 

I can see this game being one of the classics but as far as predictions go, I'll leave that to someone else.  It's almost impossible to call.  United could simply roll over a Madrid side who have struggled on their travels all year or Madrid could outclass United with their technical superiority.  Equally Ramos could throw the head up and get himself sent off or Ronaldo could once again grace a stage he has many happy memories of and send Madrid into the last eight.  You want a prediction?  Get a coin and flip it.  Heads says United win and tails says Real win.  It really is that tight.