One of my must do tasks as I start my day off is to catch up on the news from the BBC Sport website and to my surprise this morning, I read that Gary Neville, ex Man Utd and England defender, had accepted a four year contract from The FA to be one of manager Roy Hodgson’s assistant coaches. Now don’t get me wrong, I have always been a fan of Neveille’s attitude and character as a player. He is one of those types of people that would play for his country for nothing. Living in the USA, I don’t get to listen too much to his game analysis but I have heard he has developed into one of the best, so why am I not over the moon about his appointment? It all stems from last summer.

I’m not going to rehash the debacle that was South Africa 2010, of which Neville was not a part of, but as a fan, I am not prepared to go through the same song and dance from veteran players and coaches trotting out the usual litany of excuses about why we didn’t play well, why the attitude of the players is not the best, and finally to not worry, because everything will work out in the end. I’m done with all that crap which is why I’ve advocated the dismissal of the veteran donkeys that were such a bust at that tournament. Of course, the spineless FA didn’t have the guts to do that and it took Fabio Capello to have a major attack of the “high and mighty principles” to change things. However, the appointment of Roy Hodgson as manager should have washed away those memories, but of course, it didn’t as Hodgson said all the wrong things, for me at least, at his press conference that same day. So here we are today, with Neville now part of the group that will lead us for the next four years.

I have no doubt that he has the ability to motivate others. His passion and emotion are unquestioned and he has shown some astute tactical knowledge during his stint as a TV analyst, so I’m sure he’s perfectly capable on the face of it to do a quality job. My fear is that he will be a torch carrier for the older players, some of whom were his colleagues on England squads that have failed. That simply cannot happen and I’m not 100% sure that it won’t. As a squad, England have to move on and bring forward young players to earn there wings in the hot cauldron of international tournament play. One thing I have learnt from our German friends is that they have always had a competitive team which is among the favorites at all the tournaments at which they play. It does not happen through luck but good management. They have a solid plan that allows their young players to join their senior players and develop alongside experience. They have no trouble dropping their spent veterans in favor of a more challenging younger replacement. We need to grow that attitude in England.

Someone asked me today if I had ever seen a day like this in my 45 years of watching football across the world, and after thinking for a few seconds, I had to admit that I had. I have to go back to that night at The Nou Camp in 1999 when Man Utd came back from 1-0 down in the last 3 minutes of injury time to beat Bayern Munich 2-1 and grab the Champions League title with goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunner Soljskaer. I remember the totally stunned look on the Bayern players and fans faces as what had just happened gradually sunk in. Today I felt like a Bayern fan.

With five minutes of injury time left at The Etihad Stadium, relegation strugglers QPR were amazingly leading Man City 2-1 with only 10 men on the field after their midfield thug, Joey Barton, had got himself sent off for elbowing Carlos Tevez and then kneeing Sergio Kun Aguero in the back. Over at The Stadium of Light in Sunderland, Man Utd were desperately holding on to a slender 1-0 lead over an engaged Sunderland side with nothing to play for. We all thought that the miracle was about to happen and United were to leapfrog City at the final whistle and snatch the title away. However, in football, we should not be surprised by anything we see, and obviously City had other ideas. As United’s game came to an end with a victory for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men, the men in blue managed to unbelievably score twice in the last 3 minutes to snatch the title back from their Manchester rivals.

In my world, the Premier League champions, by definition, are the best team in the League, judged by the excruciatingly intense fixture schedule and competition from within that division, but for a short time today, it appeared that for the first time that I can remember, a team which was clearly second best, would snatch the trophy away. However, sanity prevailed at the end, and a topsy turvy 90 minutes was put to bed with The Blue half of Manchester in ecstasy, and the Red half in abject disbelief. What follows now of course, are the inquests and the why and why nots. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has already fielded questions on transfer possibilities for next season, idiotically presumptuous to say the least, and will City continue to plough hundereds of millions into revamping their powerful squad to provide an even sterner test for the Premier League teams next season ?

Two things are for certain. Firstly, this is not the first time United have lost the title, but it is the first time they’ve lost it to their City rivals in 44 years. Will they now collapse in the face of this new threat? No, they won’t. They’ll re-tool over the summer and come back just as strong. They won’t embark on a spending spree, at least while Sir Alex still manages the club, but they will bring in some experienced talent to help bolster the squad. The larger question for me is whether Man City can now go on to win multiple titles much in the same way that Man Utd and Liverpool have done in previous eras. That is the tough part. As the season unfolded, it became clear that the “derby demolition” at Old Trafford was the crucial difference between the two teams and despite United’s persistence, City were just too good. Both of these sides tore lumps off each other through a grueling campaign and there’s no doubt in my mind that it was a huge factor in both teams failing miserably in Europe. That simply cannot happen next season for either club.

Who woulkd have thought at the start of this season that both Barcelona and Man Utd would both be trophyless at this stage of the season although the Spanish giants do have a shot at changing that in The Copa Del Rey against Athletico Bilbao.

Only four weeks ago, following Man City’s losss to Arsenal at The Emirates Stadium, almost the whole of the soccer world were crowning Man Utd as Premier League Champions for the 20th time. Their massive eight point lead looked insurmountable especially given the experience and success of United’s wily old manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Even the bookmakers made them 1/40 favorites to lift the title, and when comparing both clubs’ remaining fixtures, no-one wanted to argue against that. All except Man City manager Roberto Mancini.

It appeared after that Arsenal game that Mancini had conceded the title himself to United as he claimed “it will be very difficult now” and in subsequent interviews wrote off City’s chances of affecting the outcome. To the educated observer though, it was pretty clear what was happening and it was straight out of Ferguson’s playbook. Mancini was sending a message to his players that he thought they were spent, and at the same time transferring the pressure over to United in the hope that they would crack under the weight of expectations. Ever since that day, United’s form has fallen apart while City, with the help of Carlos Tevez, have gone from strength to strength, culminating in last Monday’s win over their Old Trafford rivals. With both teams winning today, the trophy is firmly in City’s grasp now as a win at home against QPR next Sunday will see the League title return to Man City for the first time in 44 years.

The tactics used by Mancini here have proven successful and the fact that Ferguson usually wins these mind games, just ask Arsene Wenger, just adds to the Italian manager’s credibility as a managerial force worldwide. The psychological war heated up this week as Mancini commented that they were not yet favorites as he thought United would beat Swansea 10-0. It’s amazing that after the Arsenal loss, experts were speculating on whether he would survive the end of the season if City failed to win any trophies. Today, he is seen as the hero of their cause to unseat United and in my view, deserves all of the credit if they win at home to QPR next week. The season still has yet to be decided and a motivated Mark Hughes and QPR, who might need a only a draw to escape relegation depending on what happens in the Wigan vs Blackburn game on Monday night, could yet still have a say in what goes down.

When the FA announced yesterday that current West Bromwich Albion manager Roy Hodgson had agreed on a four year contract to be England manager, it was one of those ho-hum moments where we are neither happy or sad, neither angry or calm. After the ups and downs of the Fabio Capello era where such budding promise ended in total chaos, England fans like myself have become somewhat immune to events like these, opting for more of a “wait and see approach”, but today, in typical England manager fashion, Hodgson showed us that we are already heading down the wrong track.

I’ve come to the conclusion over the past 15 years or so, that the England managers have had precious little to do with the success of the national team, and almost everything to do with all the failures. Despite boasting that the English Premier League is one of the best Leagues in the world, England players are generally not regarded in the same light and appear to not have the same level of talent as their Continental European adversaries. Consequently, we have struggled mightily in major tournaments such as the World Cup and the European Championships. What I see as the most important criteria is who the manager picks to play, a fairly simple question if you assume that quite naturally, any manager always picks the best players. Now that is true for club managers as they tend to control which players they have in their squad, but not necessarily for national team managers as they are stuck with a limited “player universe” that they have to work with.

If we go back to the World Cup of last summer, it was perfectly clear, at least to me, that something was badly wrong with Capello’s squad as England lurched through it’s pre-tournament friendlies against Mexico and Japan. The players looked tired, disinterested and lacking any spirit, and yet we were consistently told that “everything will be fine on the night. Well, we all know how that turned out. After the humiliating draw with minnows Algeria, I had written on WorldCupblog.org about how we should fire Capello and the crusty veterans after the tournament was done and go with youth, even as far to admit that we would not expect to contend for Euro2012, in the interests of nurturing our young players through the ranks into the senior squad. Since that day, I have maintained that belief, that the only way forward is to dispense with the services of John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard, James Milner and any other old donkey in the squad that proved to all the fans that they had no stomach for international football anymore.

Prior to Hodgson’s appointment, I really had no preference on who should get the job. I understood the need to make sure that he was English, and that he was someone who fans and players could get behind. To me, there were four clear candidates: Hodgson, Harry Redknapp, Stuart Pearce and Alan Pardew. Frankly, I could have cared less who they picked out as I was adamant about having someone who would strike through the names of the so-called “Golden Generation” failures in favor of going young, so imagine my horror today when I read that Hodgson’s first order of business was to patch up the rift between John Terry and Rio Ferdinand. Quite unbelievable. Obviously, these two old farts will be Hodgson’s first choices or he wouldn’t even be talking to them. Here we are, two years from South Africa and nothing’s changed. We haven’t learnt a damned thing from the Germany hammering and we’re headed down the same road again in favoring reputations instead of talent.

Coming into the Manchester derby today, we were told that potentially 650 million people around the world would be glued to their TV sets to watch, what many people argued, was “The Game of the Century”. It’s been my experience over the years that matches which are hyped up the way this game was usually fizzle out as both teams fail to live up to their reputations. Tonight, at The Etihad Stadium in Manchester, one team lived up to it’s reputation, the other did not.

We all knew that United needed only a draw or a win to pretty well wrap up the title and that City needed nothing less than a win, and that is pretty much how both teams played with City finishing on top with a 1-0 win to take over the lead in the Premier League title race with only two games left. Two more wins from City will win them their first League title since 1969. In what turned out to be a very poor United showing, Sir Alex Ferguson started with a defensive line-up and as a result, his team were never able to trouble a strong City defensive scheme that dominated from the start. It looked ominous for the Old Trafford club once Vincent Kompany planted a header in United’s net at the end of the first half, and as hard as United tried, they never really looked liked troubling the scoreboard.

Even though Barcelona and Real Madrid’s exits from Champions League Semi Finals last week to somewhat less favored Chelsea and Bayern Munich respectively was a surpise, what was a bigger shock to me was what unfolded at The Nou Camp the day after the Chelsea match. Manager and long time Barcelona icon Pep Guardiola announced that he would not be returning to the club next season and would also be taking a year off to rest from the pressures that his position has brought upon him. Barcelona club officials wasted no time in naming his successor, assistant coach Tito Vilanova to take over next season. What I found most surprising was that this whole scenario seemed to erupt out of Barcelona’s inability to impose it’s usual dominance over a Chelsea team who succeeded in scoring two goals at The Nou Camp with only 10 men on the field despite only having a modicum of possession. To the casual observer, it’s possible that Guardiola’s exit smacks of sour grapes caused by a run of poor results. I can’t say I’d argue with that conclusion although Guardiola has never been in perfect synch with his bosses and has only ever signed one-year contracts throughout his reign as manager, but even so, his claim that “pressures” in managing this team have to be over exaggerated. How much pressure can there be when you’re team has been tagged as “the best club side ever”, proven by their dominance over their nearest rivals and a plethora of trophies to go with. There’s no doubt that their two games against Chelsea and last Saturday’s defeat at home to Real Madrid, seemed to expose some of Guardiola’s weaknesses tactically. However, I think now that there are more ramifications at work here now as a result since I have always felt that Pep would be a natural successor to sir Alex Ferguson at old Trafford once the old man retires. United will search for a career man who has a track record of loyalty and a belief in producing attractive football along with the development of young talented players. That possibility is shot to pieces now as media pressure in England would be double that in Spain, especially following Ferguson’s success over 25 years of management. I doubt a man of Guardiola’s mental fragility could stand it.

On now to John Terry whose moment of madness in The Nou Camp last Tuesday night tarnished a spectacular performance from his Chelsea club. Terry’s blatant knee in the back of Barcelona’s striker Alexis Sanchez could be regarded as one of the dumbest moves ever on a football field, except that when you consider the source, it really is no surprise. In my opinion, Terry represents all that is bad about English footballers. He has a thug mentality which hasn’t been seen since the days of Roy Keane, and his off the field activities bear that description out. He consistently embarrasses his teammates and his club, and not least his family, but fans still seem to tolerate his lunacy. Following his red card on Tuesday, to show how dumb a guy he is, he tried to absolve himself from blame by claiming that he was wrongly dismissed as there was no intent in his foul, right up to the point where he was told that the video slow motion replay showed differently. In double quick time, this clown does a complete 180 degree about turn and “apologized to the fans”. How dumb does this guy think we are ? The final straw here was UEFA’s decision to allow this juvenile delinquent to lift the Champions League trophy if Chelsea happen to beat Bayern Munich in the Final. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he had the stones to do it, and therein lies the problem at the root core of English football. The glorification of stars at the expense of common sense.

Finally, Monday night brings on the match of the season that most fans around the world are drooling over, the Manchester Derby between City and United at The Etihad Stadium. Amazingly, over 400 million people worldwide will tune in to the game that could decide who wins the Premier League title this season. What makes this game so special, not surprisingly, is that it is a derby match, which without the title aspirations on the line, is already charged with intensity. When you listen to some of the comments coming out of management of both clubs and ex-players, this is one occasion where hype is too weak of a word to describe the importance of Monday night. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson described the clash as “the most important derby match I have ever been involved in”. Man City captain Vincent Kompany described it as “the second biggest cub game in the world”. Ex-United defender Gary Neville even called it “the biggest game in the 20 year history of the English Premier League”. Fighting talk, no doubt, definitely adding to the expectations for this encounter. What adds to the fervor was the reverse fixture earlier in the season at Old Trafford when City demolished United 6-1 which Ferguson called “his worst ever nightmare”. I’m sure things will be very different tomorrow night.

Normally I don’t steal other people’s words for my blog posts as I like to stay as original as I can but I’m breaking my own rule tonight in favor of a Facebook post from my son who was commenting on Chelsea’s epic Champions League Semi Final elimination of Barcelona at The Nou Camp stadium tonight. The description of the night’s events is more accurate than I could have written about. I’m not sure if it’s 100% original but either way, it sums everything up to a tee.

“That 90 minutes just shows why virtually every football fan loves football so much.

Football. Bloody hell.”

Whilst watching Man Utd’s incredible collapse against Everton today at Old Trafford, I was reminded of a scene from the hit movie “Top Gun”, when, following a practice flight where Lt. Pete Mitchell, call sign “Maverick” had run his training officers ragged with his flying skills.Lt. Cmdr. Rick Heatherly, call sign “Jester”,  walked into the locker room and barked at the young pilot,“that was some of the best flying I’ve seen yet, right up until the point you got killed”, and so it felt today watching this absorbing game. Man Utd had roasted Everton with some of their best football of the year to take a 3-1 lead and then even a 4-2 lead, only to give it all up as Everton scored two goals in the last seven minutes to tie the game at 4-4 and rob United of 3 points. Man City’s 2-0 win over Wolves puts them only 3 points back now and firmly back in the driving seat to win the title.

I recall my first game watching United back when I was about 9 years old when they entertained Crystal Palace at Old Trafford. That was back in the days of Best, Law and Charlton or “The Holy Trinity” as they were called in later years. I think it was a 2-2 tie (my memory isn’t good for details that old) but I do remember how the match was pulsating end-to-end stuff. Later on, I watched them from the Stretford End during my days at college in Manchester and the sight of United’s woeful defending, week in week out, gave us all fits, but it was the most entertaining football around. I don’t think the club would have it any other way. Why do things the easy way when it’s much more fun to do it the hard way ?  Yeah, right !

Today’s game was no different as Everton never gave up the ghost almost as if they knew that United would sit back like a lion who had just just finished a meal, and at that point, Everton proved good enough to score twice as complete panic set in with United’s defenders. It’s the price we pay for being United fans and the draw today coupled with the Wigan defeat might be enough to hand City the title. However, knowing Sir Alex Ferguson’s methods, United are just as likely to spank City in the derby match at The Etihad next Monday night as they are to get hammered themselves. This season has been a roller coaster ride for both clubs and we’re not finished yet. The fact that Ferguson has already labelled next week’s clash as “the most important derby game of his career” shows how much is at stake.

Chelsea 1-0 Barcelona | Champions League semi-final first-leg report | Football | The Guardian.

Along with a little Lady Luck, and a whole bunch of good old English pouring rain, Chelsea last night held on to a 1-0 lead to beat Barcelona in their Champions League Semi Final home leg, despite some heavy pressure towards the end of a pulsating game.

Chelsea remained disciplined for much of the game although the Catalans had several chances to score but could not find the net. Chelsea however, took one of their few chances through a brilliant Didier Drogba goal, who gave the Barcelona defense all it could handle.

Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola surprised everyone by leaving out Gerard Pique, his towering center back, in favor of a more diminutive Carlos Mascherano and the Spaniards were made to pay dearly at the back. They were consistently exposed by Chelsea’s willingness to use the long ball to Drogba and at times, Chelsea could have added to their lead.

Surprisingly enough, despite Barcelona’s obvious invincibility, their record in England is poor having won only two of their previous eight contests in two leg matches. Tonight was not their night and a relatively poor game from Lionel Messi compounded their misery. As the torrential downpour wore on, Barcelona’s grip on the game loosened which allowed Chelsea to crowd out any probing moves.

Here we are again, people. I know it’s been a while but another howler of a decision by a refereeing crew in England today in a massively important football game has again thrust the issue of video technology onto the front burner again worldwide. Premier League referee Martin Atkinson ruled that Chelsea had scored following a frantic goalmouth scramble to take the lead in their FA Cup Semi Final at Wembley Stadium, London against Tottenham. The fact that Chelsea went on to win the game 5-1 probably let the man and his gormless assistants off the hook. Even so, it was a horrible decision which ranks up there with Frank Lampard’s non-equaliser for England against Germany in last summer’s World Cup in South Africa. Frankly, I’m not surprised at all that it’s happened again.

I have penned several articles on this subject over the last couple of years and generally speaking, I have absolved the referees from blame whilst choosing to rail on the governing authorities such as FIFA. However, what happened today was a clear example of why the game of soccer cannot continue in it’s current form until these mistakes are wiped out. The issue is that you cannot trust refereeing crews to make the correct decision any more. We have all seen instances where it is tough for officials to judge situations just simply because they were unsighted or from the speed at which the game is played, but today’s actions by Atkinson was down to just piss poor officiating. Nothing more nothing less. A total disgrace. Both him and his assistant never saw what happened clearly but the referee chose to award a goal without consultation, and then, when he and his assistant must have realised that they screwed up, failed to make the necessary adjustment. Many fans will say that you can’t reverse a decision. That’s a load of bollocks – no-one is going to get suspended or fined for making the right call in the end. Today, neither Atkinson or anyone else could have seen that ball cross the line, and yet a goal was awarded.

Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea Highlights footyroom.com by footyroom

I watched the game today with my eldest son who played soccer more recently than my old bones, and we both agreed that maybe what it will take is a mistake like this in, let’s say, a Champions League Final between Barcelona and Real Madrid and one of these boneheaded decisions to go against Jose Mourinho which leads to the Portuguese maestro to call his players off the field and refuse to play on. I am never usually an advocate for “revolution” and hostility towards authority but it has now gone beyond a joke. Maybe that is what it will take to affect change. I know that FIFA has promised all kinds of new developments in this area, but do we really trust those buffoons in Switzerland to do the right thing ?  The game is now achieving clown status with fans around the world who also follow other sports. Here you have the largest spectator sport on the planet being ridiculed for it’s archaic attitudes.

Many fans world wide criticise American sports for it’s lengthy duration of games, and there are other concerns too, but one thing the US has got right is it’s officiating, for the most part. The problem with soccer is that officials do not work together as equals and referees become sole dictator and executioner when it comes to the final outcome, right or wrong. He won’t admit an error and all he gets from his assistant is a dumbass stare and a weak kneed acceptance of the fateful outcome. As for the 4th official, they should just put a red nose and yellow shoes on that guy for all the use he is. His day consists of standing with a lighted plastic board and keeping managers inside their their technical areas. The attempt by UEFA this year to improve European competition games is a joke too, as the two twits they have positioned behind the goals at each end will totally ignore a foul that is feet away from them while bowing to a refereeing decision from someone who is 25 yards away at best, looking at the wrong angle. When we look at US major sports, officials work together far more democratically in order to get the decision correct. It’s not perfect, but it works. If I was Harry Redknapp today, I’d be throwing the furniture around about what happened out on the field, despite his team’s pitiful surrender to a marginally better Chelsea team. It definitely threw Tottenham out of their stride from which they never recovered.