Buzzin Football

Sir Alex Ferguson’s latest team of Red Devils played Tottenham Hotspur off the pitch for large parts of the match at Old Trafford last night, as Manchester United thrashed Spurs 3-0 with outstanding performances from young guns Danny Wellbeck, Tom Cleverly and Ashley Young joining ‘old boys’ Wayne Rooney and Nani in a team with an average age of just 23.

Amazingly Man Utd went into the game without Rio Ferdinand & Nemanja Vidic.  But Phil Jones, Johnny Evans and Chris Smalling joined Patrice Evra along with new goalkeeper David de Gea in keeping a weak Spurs attack with Jermain Defoe offering no threat as the lone striker.

In fact, if it wasn’t for veteran goalkeeper Brad Friedel, playing his league debut, Spurs could have lost by a whole lot more.

Both City and United have now won back to back Premier League matches and have thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the chasing pack.  After this display, is anyone foolish enough to bet on the Premier League title going anywhere else but Manchester come May?

Over the course of a long weekend the English Premier League began with a whimper rather than a bang.  Not so much because of the quality of the football matches but the fact that with Tottenham’s home game against Everton cancelled, only one of last season’s top six kicked off on Saturday at three o’clock.

I know it’s never going to happen but wouldn’t it be a more exciting start if all matches kicked off simultaneously, like the last games of the season.

Before the weekend I had my customary accumulator bet on outright winners for the Premiership, Championship, League One & League Two.  I’m with the popular opinion that Manchester United was crowned champions last season more for the lack of consistent competition rather than sheer brilliance and this summer they have strengthened enough for me to believe they will notch up another Premier League title.

In the Championship I believe Leicester City’s spending and Sven Goran Eriksson’s man-management skills, combined with the experience he gained last season will see them promoted back to the Premiership, while new managers Danny Wilson & Paolo Di Canio at Sheffield United & Swindon Town respectively will give them enough momentum to win League One and League Two.

As for the winner of the Premier League Golden Boot I had already earmarked Luis Suarez (Liverpool) & Sergio Aguerro (Manchester City) as being the main contenders but wouldn’t rule out Fernando Torres returning to his best, if he can stay fit and Chelsea can play a 4-3-3 formation that best suits the Spanish strikers’ skills.

Suarez scored an early goal before missing a penalty in Liverpool’s disappointing 1-1 home draw with a new look Sunderland; while Sergio Aguerro set the second half alight when he came off the bench yesterday to help Manchester City thrash new kids on the block Swansea 4-0 by scoring twice.  Torres failed to score in Chelsea’s 0-0 draw at Stoke on Sunday but looked fitter and sharper than he has done since his £50 million transfer from Liverpool last January.

It’s that time of year again when, looking back it seems the English Premier League finished ages ago as the transfer market starts to heat up and British clubs are scattered around the globe appearing in various pre-season tournaments. The new 2011/12 English and Scottish football seasons are only a few weeks away now and before I know it I will be pawing over the weekly results both in our domestic leagues and beyond.

So it’s a good time to give you a heads up about a new website that is about to launch which will bring you a scores and results service covering all of the major British and European leagues and tournaments, including the Premier League, English Football League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, and the Champions League.

As well as following favourite domestic clubs in the Premier League and Championship, I also follow the trials and tribulations of my non-league hometown team, formerly Gravesend & Northfleet now known as Ebbsfleet, as well as favourite European teams of which I have personal favourites in each of the top European leagues.

These passive allegiances stem from my childhood when the only European football to be shown on British television was on Wednesday nights on the sadly missed Sportsnight programme.  My memories are full of exciting  European football matches when I was allowed to stay up way past my bedtime to watch great teams with world class players and cool looking football kits to match.

Johan Cruyff and Ajax, Franz Beckenbauer and Bayern Munich and wonderful sounding teams like Dukla Prague, Panathinaikos and Borussia Monchengladbach!

I recall Leeds United losing 1-0 in a ill-tempered game to AC Milan in the 1973 Cup Winners Cup final just four days after losing 1-0 to Sunderland in the FA Cup final; Nottm Forest beating the Swedish part-timeers Malmo in 1979 with a Trevor Francis header and retaining the European Cup by beating Hamburg in 1980; and West Ham losing to Anderlecht of Belgium in the 1976 Cup Winners Cup.

I remember the glory days of Saint Etienne in the French League and how Real Madrid played in a similar all-white kit to Leeds United (only to recently read that Don Revie changed the home kit to mimic the Spanish giants on becoming manager of Leeds United in 1961!).

I also have a passive favouritism for teams with cool kits, choosing Celtic over Rangers not for any political or religious reasons but because I thought green and whites hoops looked cooler than a regular blue shirt.  I also preferred the black & blue stripes of Inter Milan to the red & black stripes of AC Milan.
So even before European football was made available on satellite tv, my interest in football spread further than the English leagues.  The English Premier League is often cited by critics and players alike to currently be the best league in the world.  But I still lookout for scores and results from the Spanish La Liga and Italy’s Serie A.

The Football Scores website will be a great source for all this information and will also include international tournaments, such as the European Championships, international friendly matches, international qualifiers and the World Cup. The website is called FootballScores.com and it launches this month.

Kissing the Badge - How Much Do You Know About 20 Years of The Premier League?

Kissing the Badge – How Much Do You Know About 20 Years of The Premier League?

Two decades of England’s Premier League football have brought glitz and glamour, wonder-goals and WAGs, billionaires and bail-outs – but how much do you remember?

Whether you’re a die-hard fan or a cosseted member of the prawn-sandwich brigade, Kissing the Badge will test your football knowledge and refresh your memory of the heroes and zeroes, the one-season wonders and the ever-presents.

With 20 categories of facts and stats, quiz questions and soundbites, Kissing the Badge recalls the brilliant best of the Premier League – and the occasions when football’s superstars haven’t quite covered themselves in glory. It’s time to sort the seasoned football anoraks from the part-timers who only sing when they’re winning.

Buzzin Media has 5 copies of  Kissing the Badge to giveaway.

To enter the competition all you need to do is correctly answer the following question:

Eric Cantona scored the first hat-trick in the Premier League.  But for which club?

Send your entries to comps@buzzinmedia.co.uk with ‘Kissing the Badge’ in the subject line (any other subject title will be not be entered) with your answer and your full address and contact telephone number.

This Buzzin Football ‘Kissing the Badge’ Book Competition ends on 4th August, 2011. The editor will randomly choose 5 winners.

The editor’s choice is final.

Kissing the Badge is written by Phil Ascough and published by Bloomsbury on 4th July 2011 priced £7.99 (ISBN: 978 1 408 15636 0)

I was surprised to hear Sam Allardyce named as the new West Ham manager this week. Following Avram Grant’s disastrous appointment a year ago I thought owners David Gould & David Sullivan would have made more effort to win back the support of the fans by appointing a former player such as Martin Allen (current Notts County manager) or at least a manager known for playing the West Ham way. Big Sam will have to prove he won’t adopt the long ball and big man upfront tactics that he is best known for.

Less than one full season into his contract, Aston Villa has parted company with Gerard Houllier who was hospitalised before the end of last season. That said, I felt Houllier was about to get the sack anyway and expected Rafa Benitez, who has been loitering around since returning to his family home in England in January, to become the next Aston Villa manager.

But Fulham boss Mark Hughes is the bookies favourite for the job. This follows rumours that Hughes has recently fallen out with Fulham owner Mohammed Al- Fayed and that he has a get-out clause in his contract. But yesterday I heard that ex-Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has stated that he would like to stay in England rather than return to Italy. I am sure both parties would be interested in Ancelotti becoming the next manager of Aston Villa.

The other manager-less Premier League team, Chelsea look like they are closing in on their first choice to replace Ancelotti at Stamford Bridge, as Guus Hiddink has apparently stated he is ready to leave his current position coaching the Turkey national team, to return to club management. If there is any truth in this statement then I would expect Hiddink to be the next Chelsea manager by next week.

Guus Hiddink to Chelsea & Carlo Ancelotti to Aston Villa is my bet.

The appointments of a Chelsea and Aston Villa manager will be followed by what I believe will be a busy summer for transfers in the English Premier League. Chelsea desperately need to buy some younger players and begin to build a team around striker Fernando Torres. While Manchester City will be throwing a lot of money around again, only in this transfer window they will be able to attract the very best players in the world with Champions League football next season.