Roll up Roll up! The Premier League circus is back in town

With a brand new logo that looks like Simba's passport photo the Premier League is back and with it the circus begins. The narrative has already been decided - this season's trophy is going to one of the Manchester clubs, and the mainstream media are going to make damn well sure of it.

The love-in has already begun and Jose Mourinho has returned to Demi God status despite overseeing Chelsea's worst season start since the Premier League began.

Since the Luis van Gaal era Manchester United have usurped Chelsea and become the Premier League equivalent of the Galacticos. With the 100 million pound spend on Pogba on the horizon potentially taking their total spend to £170 million it's fair to say that United's modus operandi has become spendus maximus. Yet the vast amount of money spent has yielded just one FA Cup. Jose Mourinho might be "the special one" but throwing money at the league will not necessarily bring instant success, as Luis van Gaal will testify.  

If Jose Mourinho is a Demi God then Pep Guardiola has been hailed as a Messiah, and on the face of it his CV matches the hype. But at Barcelona he inherited and maintained a system that was already in place, and at Bayern he inherited a team of superstars that had already won the treble. Manchester City are a different beast; the previous manager did well to win the Premier League and the capital one cup during his time there, but the squad Pep has inherited are older. Not to mention the serious questions about their keeper Joe Hart after his abysmal display in the European Cup.

Meanwhile Leicester, Tottenham and West Ham all had their best seasons last year and have kept hold of key players, their managers, and most importantly their philosophies. Leicester and Tottenham have the league's top scoring strikers in Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy; and West Ham have arguably last season's best player in Dimitri Payet. Although the coming season will be a tougher prospect, another fairytale from any one of these teams shouldn't be discounted.

Follow the Leader?

Follow the Leader?

 This is an article I wrote back in November 2015 after Tottenham's defeat against Newcastle and what a terrific season Moussa Dembele and Eric Dier had for Spurs. In Eric Dier I really believe that Tottenham have a future England capitain in their midst. Enjoy the read.

 Newcastle for the last few seasons have become our bogey team whenever we play them at home; so it could be said that Sunday’s result was on the cards. It also ended a run of 14 games undefeated, in which time we had only conceded 5 goals and had a goal difference of 13. This is testament to Pochettino, who in his 18 months at Spurs has toughened us up somewhat. Teams who play us know that they are in for a full BMF style workout. Pochettino ‘philosophy football’ is in full swing at Spurs and the game against West Ham is where we saw it executed superbly.

Since that glorious game under lights I have noticed that some teams are getting wise to this philosophy and are playing a smarter game. Chelsea, in their managers own words, ‘parked the bus’, West Brom kicked lumps out of us, and Newcastle executed a brilliant game plan.

So what do we need to beat teams like this and break our top four hoodoo? One word - Leadership: Hugo ‘the saviour’ Lloris is our deserved captain, leading by example in a similar vein to Ledley King. But I feel we need someone to take control of the middle park when teams prevent us from playing; someone with a little more experience who can calm down Dele Alli when he gets wound up (have you noticed how frequent this is becoming?), who can guide Carroll (or another academy graduate) through the match, and principally let others in the team know that the opposition have got our number.

So who can do this? In my opinion there are two contenders for this role:

Moussa Dembele An older respected member of the team who has come from the fringes to the forefront. His presence is highly valued by the team, feared by the opponent and adored by the faithful. He has cult hero status; strong, physical, and intelligent in how he reads the game. If he could be more vocal then I believe we would have a midfield General on our hands. His match winning strike against Anderlecht sums up how he can kill a team off when the pressure is on.

Eric Dier The story of how Eric Dier has risen from an underused central defender to defensive midfielder is one to behold, although not entirely unexpected. A graduate from the Sporting Lisbon academy, among alumni Nani, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Luis Figo (to name but a few), he has big game experience and great positional sense due to training in every position throughout his time there. He has passion, hunger and is the engine room of the centre of the park. His powerful strike to level us on the stroke of halftime was fundamental in our 4-1 victory over Man City.

 Pochettino’s Spurs have come a long way in such a short space of time, and I feel that we are on the brink of something special. Come match day, Pochettino can only stand in the technical area and for us to really push on, a leader is required on the pitch so we can finish the job.

It’s a funny old game...The Premier League returns

With the Tottenham V Everton game postponed due to riots in Tottenham you just knew that the opening day of the premier league would be as unpredictable and controversial as well, another riot in Tottenham. Luiz Suarez kicked off proceedings at Liverpool by completely missing a penalty and firing the ball over the crossbar into row Z. Eventually Suarez went on to redeem himself by scoring the first goal in this season’s premier league. Not to be outdone Sunderland’s debutant Seb Larsson scored what must already be the goal of the season with the sweetest volley to make it 1-1 the final score at Anfield.




(Barton Sqaures Up to Arsenal's Debutant Gervinho)


Mean while down in West London QPR’s welcome party was soon in tatters as they were given a 4-0 beating by the 'mighty' Bolton Wonderers. But perhaps the most controversial game of the day has to be between Newcastle and Arsenal. Where not only were there some appalling haircuts on display by Joey Barton & Alex Song. But Joey Barton then decided to take it upon himself to lift Arsenal’s Gervinho off the ground (after he had appeared to have dived in the box) and then ferociously shake him. Gervinho responded by giving Joey Barton a well deserved slap round the face, which saw him sent off and Joey Barton fall to the ground in impeccable theatrical fashion. It goes without saying that a mass bar room brawl between the teams then occurred. This leads me to conclude that if these football players were doing it live on TV in front of millions worldwide, then no-wonder these kids are rioting in the streets... Just take a look at their so called role models.

Are West Ham really better off with Sullivan & Gold?

Today West Ham face a battle for their premier league lives. Regulation looks a given unless they win today.

But could this have all been avoided?

When Sullivan and Gold arrived at their 'boyhood club' it was hailed as a 'homecoming'. They basked in their new found spotlight and they promised to bring immediate changes for the good of the club.

Their first change was to axe Gianfranco Zola a perfectly capable manager who not only kept them in premier league but had the dressing room on side. Indeed Zola is a man well respected in football and in a world full of prima donna's and big ego's he has managed to endear himself to the public as a good, honest nice guy

The hasty decision to replace Zola with Avram Grant has certainly come back to haunt them. You could say that the omens were always there as at glance Avram's C.V doesn't make for good reading, as if West Ham get relegated they will be the second team he's taken down in back to back seasons.

Sullivan and Gold may have had perfectly good intentions when arriving at West Ham. But if they carry on like they are they might find it hard to fill up their brand
new, shiny Olympic Stadium






An Empty stadium awaits West Ham if they get relegated.

Is John Terry really the right man for the job?

Strong, brave, passionate, vocal it’s a no brainer he’s perfect for the job right? However this is also the man who will happily sleep with his fellow team mates girlfriend, which is hardly an attribute that will unite the England dressing room.

As much as we all like a Roy of the rovers captain that will pump is fists in the air and throw his body on the line. This is surely a terrible decision by Capello who Less than a year ago removed the captaincy from Terry due to his off the field antics and now he seems to giving it straight back to him on a plate.

All this has come at the expense of Rio Ferdinand, who in the last few months has endeared himself to the public due mainly to his mass presence on social networking site twitter. As at present he has a following of 659,179 fans. With many admiring him as he comes across as a down to earth, calm and responsible guy. Surely this is the man we want at the helm? Granted he was banned from international football for missing a drugs test, but he has served his ban and gone on to become the Man United captain and is very much respected figure in the game.

With many fans and pundits still fuming after England’s shambolic exit from the World Cup Fabio Capello would be wise to reconsider his current candidate of choice.

Arise Sir Redknapp?

I must confess that when Harry Redknapp (above) first came to Spurs I wasn’t exactly doing back flips with celebration or hailing the new messiah. On the contrary I felt that we could have maybe found someone with more winning credentials and a higher success rate in terms of winning trophies. Not to mention the fact that he comes across a bit dodgy and the term ‘brown paper bag’ is a phrase often coined when our ‘Arry is around.

However this all changed within two minutes when I saw his first press interview at Spurs. The passion and enthusiasm shown was something I hadn’t seen in a Spurs manager since Terry Venables and like Venables he came across as someone who can motivate players and get the best out of them.


At the time of his appointment Spurs were looking like relegation fodder, languishing at the bottom of the Premier League and to quote a typical Harry phrase

‘We had just 2 points from 8 games’

Within two weeks of his arrival we had beaten Bolton, dragged ourselves out of relegation and came back from 4-2 down to draw 4-4 against Arsenal in an epic game at the emirates.

Fast forward on to today, Spurs have progressed on to the Quarter Finals of the champions league. Having knocked out AC Milan and beating the champions Inter Milan in the process and in turn cheeky chappy Harry has become the first English manager to get this far in the worlds best club tournament. This feat has brought on heavy speculation that he will be the next England manager and although I’d hate to see him leave the lane, I think that he fully deserves it

Now this is by no means an ‘Ode to Redknapp’ but surely he deserves some sort of acknowledgment for what he has done so far. As nowadays good English managers are a dying breed and what Harry Redknapp has done at Spurs has put him up there with the best of them.

Crazy Italian pundits

If this isn't bias jornalism then I don't know what is.

The reaction to Tottenham's Goal and Milan's disallowed goal is priceless

and desereves an oscar!

Enjoy!