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Off Season News : July 22nd 2009

Published by Ian John on July 22, 2009

Well, it’s been an interesting few weeks as we approach the start of the new season, what has been happening in the crazy, credit crunch free world of football in the past few weeks?

Manchester City have confirmed they have signed Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor. This is to add to a club that already has Valeri Bojinov, Jo, Craig Bellamy, Chedwyn Evans, Robinho, Felipe Caicedo, Benjani and Roque Santa Cruz. It is quite patently ridiculous that a club needs that many strikers. While I have no argument with City spending their money, to do so and condemn at least seven international class players to no better than a place on the bench most weeks, seems a dreadful waste. I could understand it if, defensively, last season they were rock solid but they were anything but. I don’t know if Mark Hughes thinks that missing out on quality like Kaka and Eto’o means he has to stock up with quantity in their place but the last I heard you could only pick 11 players to play out on the pitch at any one time. Personally I think Mark Hughes has taken leave of his senses and is storing up for himself a whole host of future problems from players who do not get played, or paid, enough.

Several Premiership sides including Manchester United and Liverpool are out on a tour of the far east at the moment. The premise for this is “bringing the game to the East” to their loyal fan base over there. Yeah, right. It has nothing to do with generating vast sums from merchandising from this lucrative market of course, plus the cash they’ll receive from promoters from attending in the first place. Me a hardy old cynic? Never!

Considering Real Madrid are not talking about Xabi Alonso as it is disrespectful as he is a Liverpool player, Real Madrid keep talking about Xabi Alonso saying it is disrespectful to talk about him as he is a Liverpool player. I fully expect tomorrow to read in the press that Real like Alonso, but refuse to mention him as he is a Liverpool player and to do so would be disrespectful. I’m glad they are not continually mentioning him however as it would get a tad boring and you could accuse a team of trying to bore another team into submission using these tactics.

Anyway, I was pleased to see just how the massive investment in Real has paid off. 18 billion Euros worth of talent and it takes a goal three minutes from the end of time to defeat the mighty Shamrock Rovers, whose collective squad cost about as much as Cristiano Ronaldo earns in his sleep and whose ground costs about the same as a pair of boots for Kaka. God help them if they draw someone really good in Europe, like Rhyl or Falkirk. They are going to find it tough! Perez may have to spend another 400 million to try and reach the second qualifying phase at this rate.

Steven Gerrard’s trial for punching a DJ is now under way. What I have read so far doesn’t shed too great a light on the Liverpool star, in actual fact, if it is true, it makes him sound like a pompous, arrogant, petulant, violent baby who couldn’t accept that not everyone would bow down and kow-tow before him. If it brings him back down to Earth with a bump then all the better for it. I wouldn’t mind but there are plenty of DJ’s out there who need a good slap rather than picking on some poor unknown bloke in a Southport nightspot.

Aston Villa signed an injured Stewart Downing. That’s an odd one for me as it means one of two things. Either Martin O’Neill wants to play Downing more centrally or swap Ashley Young to the right flank, or someone is about to sign Ashley Young for a lot of money. I wonder who that could be, eh Roman?

I saw an interview with Andrei Arshavin on TV the other day and he is starting to look more and more like the Smash Robots from the famous television adverts. (If you haven’t seen them search on You Tube). Either that or their love child from a failed dalliance with a pixie.

I also wonder why so many teams who get promoted to the Premiership, buy so many players from clubs who have just been relegated from the premiership. Why do this? The clubs were relegated because these players were not good enough over the course of a season? They may be a cheaper alternative, but they are not likely to transform from being relegation fodder one season to title contenders the next. Every season clubs do it and it baffles me. I’d rather take a chance on a player who hasn’t had the chance in the Premiership than one who has and has failed.

However the most surprising thing for me this pre season has been that Harry Redknapp has been unusually quiet. It was a worry actually as Harry can normally buy two players, sell a third and send two players out on loan, in his sleep most days. But so far the news from Tottenham has been very quiet indeed. One wonders if the Credit Crunch has hit home with owner Daniel Levy having his private jet impounded. I suppose that was easier to do than slipping clamps onto Jermaine Defoe or depositing Roman Pavlyuchenko, as security, into an Icelandic bank vault for the foreseeable future, although I can think of a few Spurs fans who wouldn’t have minded the latter. Levy for one.

is it just me or does Steve Bruce’s appointment as the saviour of Sunderland have eerie echoes of last season? A north east legend returns home to rescue a “big club” starved of success? The thing is, it could all end up the same was as the Alan Shearer miracle did. Still, at least it got the idiot Joey Barton out of the Premier League and for that we should all be thankful.

However my most enjoyable moment of the past couple of weeks came when Sam Allardyce came out to extol the many reasons why Michael Owen wasn’t the right player for Blackburn Rovers. Which was mainly due to his injury problems. However Big Sam’s answer to Rovers striking plight was to persuade the portly (and that is being generous) 36 year old Italian Christian Vieri to come over for a trial. This is the same Vieri who has also struggled badly with injury, who is 36 and way past his prime and who in the past 4 years has played 57 league games scoring 14 goals. He is a better bet than the 29 year old Owen who could well be entering his prime and in the past four years has played 71 league games scoring 26 goals. The logic is unerring isn’t it? Especially when you consider the wage demands for both are likely to be very similar.

Do join us again shortly as I begin a preview of all sides in the EPL as we begin the countdown to the new season before letting you know who is going to win the league at the end of the season… Nice man that I am.

Image Courtesy of **urhh** at Flickr.com

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