Buzzin Football

The inaugural UK Football Academy (UKFA) symposium at Emirates Stadium on February 8th has been renamed The Gary Speed Football Congress by UKFA founder, Raymond Verheijen as a tribute to the manager alongside whom he worked last year to elevate the Wales football team to new heights.

As a player and a manager, Gary Speed was a model professional who embraced a forward-thinking approach and modern methods. This pioneering attitude made him a stand-out choice as an ambassador for the UKFA for Verheijen and co-founder Guus Hiddink when the institute launched in November. The new coach-education body is dedicated to bringing the world’s best coaches and football experts to the doorstep of UK football people. Speed had been due to speak at the February 8th event.

The Gary Speed Football Congress will become an annual fundraising event on the football industry calendar, supported by Gary’s close friends Shay Given, Craig Bellamy and Alan Shearer, in association with the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) and the League Managers Association (LMA).

Alan Shearer comments:

“Speedo’s forward thinking approach transformed the Wales National Team. He left a true legacy. The Gary Speed Football Congress will allow coaches to learn from this approach. It is an honour to support this event as it will not only remember him but also celebrate his achievements and everything he stood for.

The dedication of the event and setting up of the fundraising has been organised in collaboration with Gary’s wife Louise Speed. All proceeds of this year’s event will go towards a charity of Louise’s choice.”

Shay Given adds:

“Throughout his career Speedo never stopped giving to football. He would never resist the opportunity to discuss the game or to pass on advice to anyone who asked. This event will enable him to continue to give something back to football.”

The Gary Speed Football Congress will be open to managers, coaches and practitioners at every level of the game, where Hiddink and Verheijen will be joined as keynote speakers by UKFA ambassador, Sam Allardyce. Former Wales Head of Performance, Damian Roden will make a special presentation in memory of Gary entitled ‘ Building a Successful Team’ – A Tribute to Gary Speed.

As well as plenary presentations, the congress will comprise specific sub-sessions for professional, amateur and youth football, and also for medical and sport science staff. All presentations will be delivered by internationally-renowned football specialists, including Marcel Lucassen (Football Technique), Frans Hoek (Goalkeeper Coaching), Ton Van Roon (Football Management), Nigel Mitchell (Football Nutrition), Simon Bitcon (Football Strength Training) and Frans Lefeber (Monitoring Football).

For further information or to register for the Gary Speed Football Congress, visit www.ukfootballacademy.net.

To make donations or to discuss sponsorship opportunities please visit www.acornpeople.com or contact Mandy Atherton on 01633 660000. Acorn Recruitment is one of the UK’s leading recruitment agencies, and a Welsh-headquartered business that Gary Speed had a long-standing relationship with.

The FA Cup 3rd Round began on Friday night when Liverpool came from a goal down to thrash Oldham 5-1.  But the tie of the round was always going to be Manchester City at home to Manchester United.  Fierce rivals who happened to be the best two teams in England right now, according to the Premier League table.  Add to this the small matter of revenge for a humiliating 6-1 drubbing earlier in the season and you might start to understand why Sir Alex Ferguson was going to pull out all the stops to win this match.  Mind games alone were not enough; and after the last two shock defeats to Blackburn Rovers & Newcastle United, Ferguson made the unprecedented move to plead to Paul Scholes to come out of retirement!

The game lived up to expectations and was full of goals and incidents.  Vincent Kompany’s two-footed challenge was in every way a fantastic, clean tackle.  He won the ball and didn’t touch the player.

However, both feet were off the floor.  To the letter of the law, that is a red card offence.  Ridiculous though it may be, the referee had to make a split second decision, and got it spot on.  Even though a red card is unwarranted for such a clean challenge that in no way was reckless or dangerous.

Man City were clearly shaken at losing their influential captain in the 12th minute not long after conceding an early headed goal from Wayne Rooney.

Ferguson and Manchester United fans were probably looking to avenge the thrashing from earlier in the season when they found themselves 3-0 at half-time.  But in the second-half Manchester City showed how far they have come as a team rather than a group of individual players and fought back to within an inch of saving the game.

A brilliant free-lick from Aleksandar Kolarov gave the blue half of Manchester hope while Paul Scholes was introduced to tighten up the midfield.  Unfortunately a lack of match fitness showed, and when Aguerro scored a second, it was City that looked the more likely to score again.

It ended 3-2 to Manchester United who will now face Liverpool in the Fourth Round.

Paulo Di Canio’s Swindon Town caused the upset of the round as they beat Premier League Wigan; and when Sam Allardyce announced a weakened West Ham team, it wasn’t a surprise to see League One promotion contenders Sheffield Wednesday win through to the next round.

FA Cup 4th Round Draw

•    Brighton or Wrexham v Newcastle
•    Sunderland v Middlesbrough
•    Dagenham & Redbridge or Millwall v Southampton
•    Hull City v Crawley Town
•    MK Dons or QPR v Chelsea
•    West Brom v Norwich
•    Blackpool v Sheffield Wednesday
•    Arsenal or Leeds v Aston Villa
•    Stevenage v Notts County
•    Watford v Tottenham
•    Liverpool v Manchester United
•    Derby v Stoke
•    Everton v Fulham
•    Macclesfield or Bolton v Swansea
•    Sheffield United v Birmingham or Wolves
•    Nottingham Forest or Leicester v Swindon

All matches to be played over the weekend of the 28th & 29th January.  Too soon for a Suarez v Evra rematch. Though don’t be too surprised if Sir Alex Ferguson is calling Edwin Van Der Sar & Peter Schmeichel.

Some unexpected results over the Christmas & New Year period have brought the Premier League season to life.

What with Chelsea continuing to stutter under the ‘leadership’ of Andre Villas-Boas as he attempts to stake a strong air of Mourinho-like authority and dampen any dissenting voices from the old guard, going into the Christmas period it seemed that Manchester United & Manchester City were going to sprint away from the chasing pack.  That was until last weekend when both clubs lost.

Unfortunately for the chasing pack didn’t take full advantage.

After scoring no less than 10 goals against Fulham & Wigan, Manchester United lost at home to bottom of the table Blackburn Rovers 3-2. Take nothing away from Blackburn whose mix of young and experienced players appeared to be playing out of their skins for under-fire manager Steve Kean, Manchester United were shocking; and Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to leave Wayne Rooney out of the squad for some petty disciplinary decision backfired.  Why when it comes to Ferguson making blatant mistakes do football pundits & journalists alike not tell it as it is? Yes he’s the most successful manager English football has ever seen.  But when he gets it wrong, say so!

Chelsea & Tottenham failed to capitalise on Man Utd losing points (Chelsea lost at home to Aston Villa 3-1 & Spurs drew with Swansea 1-1), leaving Arsenal as the only top 6 team to win last Saturday.

To cap a weekend of surprising results in the Premier League, Manchester City failed to take advantage of Ferguson & United’s blunder on Monday, knowing that winning at Sunderland would have opened a three point gap at the top.  But they failed to beat a rejuvenated Sunderland on Monday as Martin O’Neil continued to steer the Black Cats away from the threat of relegation & into the top half of the Premier League.

As the busy Christmas & New Year fixtures reached a final round of matches this week there were wins for Manchester City (Liverpool 3-0), Spurs (West Brom 1-0) & Sunderland away to Wigan 4-1 on Tuesday; and yesterday was a chance for Bolton to start the New Year with a win and for Man Utd to make amends for ending 2011 with their tail firmly between their legs.

Bolton was captained by Gary Cahill at Goodison Park as they took on an Everton side that included American Landon Donovan in his second loan spell from LA Galaxy. Cahill was probably playing his last match for the North-east side before moving to London.  Though it was interesting to see Harry Redknapp & his chief scout at Goodison, as personal talks between Cahill & Chelsea appear to have stalled.  I expect Redknapp to do everything in his power to sign Gary Cahill. The decision I believe is going to be down to Cahill.

The match produced the most bizarre goal of the season as Tim Howard hoofed a big clearance downfield only for the ball to get caught up in the gusty wind & end up in the Bolton net.  Howard becomes only the fourth goalkeeper to score in the Premier League after Brad Friedel, Peter Schmeichel & Paul Robinson.

The other Premier League game saw Manchester Utd travel to St. James Park (yes, I kmow its been renamed!). Newcastle were in the midst of a bad run with only one win in their last three games, so I was thoroughly expecting Manchester Utd to hit them for four.  Wayne Rooney started along with Dimitar Berbatov.  But United played worse than they did last Saturday.  While Newcastle played with confidence and bossed the midfield.  Alan Pardew’s Newcastle went on to win 3-0.  Another shock result. United have leaked 6 goals in two games.  But more than anything else I believe they are missing a midfield general.  I wonder what Paul Scholes thought of Man Utd’s performance.

At the weekend Manchester United play Manchester City in the FA Cup.  I can’t wait!

This time last year I had a small accumulator bet on who would be crowned champions of the English football Premier League, Championship, League One & League Two; and following a nail-biting last weekend to the season, successfully collected my winnings as Manchester United, QPR, Brighton & Chesterfield held on to their mid-season poll positions to be crowned champions.

But midway through the 2011/12 season and it isn’t too clear who will be the eventual winners.  Although Tottenham are having a great season, and by winning their game in-hand will only be four points off the lead, I can’t see the title going anywhere else than Manchester.  The problem is whether to choose Manchester United who have a habit of being stronger in the second half of the season, or Manchester City who remained unstoppable and unbeaten until they a late penalty against Chelsea earlier this month.

The Championship is almost as tight with Southampton three points clear of West Ham & a rejuvenated Middlesbrough.

League One has been dominated by Charlton who are currently seven points clear of the chasing pack after almost completely changing their squad last summer.  Sheffield United & Sheffield Wednesday are both showing good form with MK Dons & Huddersfield Town a further two points adrift.

Finally, Crawley Town are leading the way in League Two in their first season and look likely to continue their ascension from non-League football, though they are only three points clear of Cheltenham and four ahead of Southend, who have a game in hand.

So last weekend, unsure of the outcome of all four leagues I decided on Manchester City, Southampton, Sheffield Wednesday & Crawley only to see Man City held by West Brom to a 0-0 draw while Man Utd thumped five passed Wigan, and Crawley Town lose at home to Gillingham.

My initial choice, and one I would have stuck to if it wasn’t offering such a poor return was Manchester United, West Ham, Charlton & Crawley.  Here’s hoping my bet is still alive come next May.

Chelsea overcomes early pressure to beat Premier League leaders Manchester City with a late penalty at Stamford Bridge last night.

Man City took the lead after only two minutes when Mario Balotelli went round Petr Cech to score after a great through-ball from Sergio Aguero.  At that point it looked like it was going to be a long night for Chelsea and their young, under-fire manager Andre Villas-Boas.  In fact, for the first 30 minutes Chelsea did their best to hang on as Manchester City bossed the game with a master class of sublime football.

But Chelsea managed to claw their way back into the game and in the 34th minute former Man City striker Daniel Sturridge got to the byline and found Raul Meireles who scored with a great volley.

Against the odds it was 1-1 at half-time.  Chelsea had battled hard and showed some team spirit while Roberto Mancini would be berating his team as they should have finished the game off before Chelsea had a chance to get a foothold.

The second half started with a yellow card for Gael Clichy.  A red card followed in the 58th minute and that was enough to turn the game.  Chelsea played well to make the extra man count and were less overrun in the midfield.  Tempers frayed with Raul Meireles and Yaya Toure among those getting stuck in.

In the 73rd minute Frank Lampard come off the bench to replace Raul Meireles; and in the 82nd minute scored a vital penalty even though Juan Mata has allegedly been given penalty-taking duties.

Chelsea’s win end Manchester City’s 14 game unbeaten league run and inadvertently helps rivals Man United who are now only two points before City in the Premier League.