It is now time to switch to a new Money AM football blog as the world cup is now over and we all look to the future.....World cup 2010 is over, Bravo Espana, and Forlan, once again and bring on the new season !.....I never expected the last thread to be such a success...thanks all.... so this new one might go on for years without the need to edit the title...we shall see...

Scotland 1 England 3: Wayne Rooney and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain secure victory for Roy Hodgson's side

Scotland v England, international friendly match report - Manchester United striker puts in captain's performance with two goals in England's victory at Celtic Park



By Henry Winter, Football Correspondent, Celtic Park

10:03PM GMT 18 Nov 2014

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It had to be Wayne Rooney inspiring England to put the Auld Enemy to the broadsword. It had to be the occasional Celtic fan, the man who most understood the nature of occasions here, scoring twice in a deserved victory.


Rooney had advised his younger players of the need for total commitment here, and he certainly showed it, moving even closer to Sir Bobby Charlton’s goalscoring record.


The memory of a wretched World Cup remains but England at least finished the year on an upbeat note. A sixth win on the spin was achieved with goals from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Rooney. His 45th goal in 101 internationals took him clear of Jimmy Greaves, and his 46th carried him even closer to Gary Lineker’s 48 and Charlton’s 49.


Barring some slack marking by Raheem Sterling when Andrew Robertson briefly made it 2-1, this was a good night for England from back to front. Fraser Forster had no chance with Robertson’s strike and is now vying strongly with Ben Foster to be Joe Hart’s understudy. Nathaniel Clyne again impressed at right-back.


Luke Shaw made a gutsy contribution at left-back. Jack Wilshere excelled in the centre while Danny Welbeck and Oxlade-Chamberlain were tireless. But Rooney took the headlines, deservedly so for a performance in a historic match that takes him even closer to dominating the history books


A historic fixture, originally contested in 1872, had been typically fast and furious, graced with little technical class in the first half, barring Wilshere’s sumptuous pass to create Oxlade-Chamberlain’s header and then that cleverly guided header from Rooney for England’s second just after the break, taking England's captain closer to Charlton's record.

Rooney had stepped from the bus to some caustic chants while others were treated to almost pantomime-style boos. There were chants about Jimmy Hill, a nod to past collisions, but there was little real venom in the cold Clydeside air. England’s goalkeeper for the night, Fraser Forster, was greeted warmly.

“We can’t boo him,’’ said one fan. “He’s Celtic.’’ Others nearby recalled Forster’s fine performances against Barcelona here in the Champions League before he eventually moved on to Southampton.

Forster, Rooney and company had marched past the statues of Jock Stein and Jimmy Johnstone, into the magnificent stadium, a ground with even greater stature since the development of the surrounding area. If an ambush lay in store, it was being staged in elegant surroundings, and the way England took control of the game in the first 50 minutes reflected the way the players had listened to Rooney’s advice about being prepared for the noise.

Gary Neville made sure the players did not cut themselves off from the occasion, instructing Wilshere to remove his head-phones. Yet Wilshere delivered one of his best displays, tigerish in midfield and technical when opportunity arose.

Wilshere began deep, looking to escape the attentions of Steven Naismith. This time he was flanked by the industrious James Milner and Stewart Downing, who was playing far deeper than his position at West Ham where he has done such damage this season. It all seemed a wasted opportunity for Downing, who went off at the break. Danny Welbeck, who again was relentless in his running, tracking back and seeking out of chances, and Oxlade-Chamberlain were ostensibly supporting Rooney but were frequently out wide, trying to subdue Scottish insurgents as England shaped up 4-3-3.

It was initially left to Rooney to take on Grant Hanley and Russell Martin of the Championship. Rooney created a moment of early hope, running at Scotland’s defence, slipping the ball left to Welbeck, who shot straight at David Marshall.

Nerves were briefly detected in some of the white shirts. Nathaniel Clyne deserved another chance after his promising debut against Slovenia, seeking to fill a role where England have struggled in recent times. Yet the Southampton right-back looked troubled early on by the runs of the Watford flier, Ikechi Anya, whose face adorned the side of Celtic Park and whose pace was similarly evident on the pitch. Anya kept running at Clyne, beating him but running the ball out, then forcing the Englishman into conceding a corner after 11 minutes. Yet Clyne eventually saw Anya off.

England were struggling to link moves together until Wilshere and Oxlade-Chamberlain combined so well just after the half-hour. Welbeck drove a ball into Rooney, placing too much pace on the ball, and his captain turned around and glared in frustration.

England were building, though. Wilshere was beginning to impose himself on midfield, outmuscling Chris Martin, the Derby County striker who had dropped back briefly. After 32 minutes, Wilshere played the pass of the half, drilling the ball from left to right, catching out Russell Martin and Hanley, picking out his Arsenal team-mate, Oxlade-Chamberlain. Watching the ball’s journey like a hawk, timing his arrival to meet it perfectly, Oxlade-Chamberlain sent the deftest of flicked headers past Marshall.

As England’s players celebrated, the visiting fans went into overdrive with their singing, taunting the hosts, disgracefully abusing Gordon Strachan, and continuing to sing “f*** the IRA” accompanied by the fans’ band. As the band enjoys semi-official status with the FA, there will surely be an inquiry by the governing body.

Close to the Scottish dug-out, Wilshere then fell awkwardly when challenged, staying down, rubbing his ankle but was soon up again, albeit slightly gingerly, before continuing. Rooney was also relishing the occasion, dribbling down the left, until stopped by a thumping challenge, a totally fair one, from Celtic’s Scott Brown, much to the delight of the fans.

Rooney had told his players that this would be a test of character, and they had to stand tall and strong. Shaw was impressing down the left, outsprinting Hanley, setting up another attack. England’s bench were shouting to wind down the clock to half-time, to avoid being caught on the counter. Ray Lewington was out of his seat, gesturing them to calm down.

After a stirring rendition of “The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond” by the Scottish fans at the break, the historic passion play resumed with a few changes to the cast. Phil Jagielka and Adam Lallana replaced Gary Cahill and Downing.

There was soon a change in the scoreline, Rooney making it 2-0 with a clever header. It all stemmed from Charlie Mulgrew taking out Oxlade-Chamberlain, bringing the Celtic header a caution and England a free-kick out on the right. Milner swept in the free-kick, Andrew Robertson failed to clear properly but Rooney still had much to do. He did well to inject sufficient pace into the ball to direct it past Craig Gordon, who had replaced Marshall at the break.

Scotland looked tired, following their exertions against the Republic of Ireland here on Friday night. Mulgrew did lift in a free-kick from the left, Russell Martin headed goalwards but Forster tipped the ball over. After 65 minutes, the excellent pair of Shaw and Welbeck were replaced by Kieran Gibbs and Raheem Sterling. It seemed strange that Saido Berahino and Ross Barkley were not introduced into the action at that point,

Barkley eventually arrived with Rickie Lambert. Yet Scotland briefly made a real contest of it, Andrew Robertson storming forward, exchanging g passes with Johnny Russell before placing a firm low shot past Forster. Any hopes of a Scottish comeback were swiftly stilled by Rooney. Lambert and Lallana fashioned the chance, Rooney finished emphatically and then celebrated with a cartwheel.

Scotland v England: Celtic Park provides racousness, not rancour, as Wayne Rooney underlines gulf in class

This was not a night for the Auld Rivalry to boil over, but Roy Hodgson's side did teach the Scots a footballing lesson




By Roddy Forsyth

10:43PM GMT 18 Nov 2014

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They assembled to celebrate that euphemistic event of debatable merit, a British-style international. From outposts of the Disunited Kingdom which do not bask in the glow of top class club football - Dagenham, and Dingwall, Maidstone and Maud and their like - the Auld Enemies faced each other on Scottish soil for the first time since 1999.


Despite much fevered talk of ultras and casuals and overspill from the Scottish independence referendum, this collision was not riotous, but raucous, as befitted the venue, although the gladiatorial renown of Celtic Park is an accident of geography.


After Celtic were saved from insolvency by Fergus McCann in 1994, the Scots-Canadian millionaire set about reconstructing the stadium with the intention of building a cantilever stand on the north side.


However, the owners of the adjacent cemetery wanted rent for their airspace and McCann commissioned the precipitous structure which has become legendary on Champions League nights for concentrating fiery and intoxicating passions like a long distilled malt whisky. For those who speak of noise fit to wake the dead, this is the location to test the proposition.


Certainly the hallowed ground shuddered as the two supports threatened to burst their longs disrupting the respective anthems, but if this calculated disrespect was taken to the limit, it also provided the context for both sets of fans to show that they could also observe a poignant propriety.
They duly united for a minute’s wholesome applause for Nathan McSeveney, who was killed in an accident at the stadium at Scotland’s Euro 2016 Euro qualifier against the Republic of Ireland on Friday.

After the thunder from the stands, the rush of blood on the field. For 20 minutes, the nearest counterpart to this for spectacle was the running of the bulls at Pamplona. Yet, as matadors demonstrate when they face a cascade of charging muscle, the best response is the deft and measured thrust of the lance, in this case applied by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with the most delicate of contacts on Jack Wilshere’s perfectly lofted cross.

Scotland had fallen behind against Germany and Poland in their qualifiers but rallied to achieve parity, temporarily in Dortmund and effectively in Warsaw. The drawn breaths of the home support testified to the sense that this time would be different and the unease in the tartan ranks was echoed on the pitch as Scotland’s ploys - short free kicks and corners and long balls punted towards Ikechi Anya - frayed and faded.
When the England team bus had drawn up outside the front door, Wayne Rooney and Jimmy Hill were excoriated by the waiting Scottish throng. Hill was not in a position to respond, but Rooney could and did, with deadly timing immediately after the restart, as he nodded past Craig Gordon.

The number 45 is resonant for that percentage of the Scottish electorate who voted Yes in the indyref - here it stood for the tally of Rooney’s international goals after that header. A 46th late on meant proud Gordon’s army trudged homewards to think again on the improvement still required from their heroes.

Convincing result or what?

Congratulations to striker Danny Ings and manager Sean Dyche who have both been successful in this year's North West Football Awards.
Danny was up against Jordan Rhodes, Tim Ream and David Perkins for the Championship Player of the Year whilst Dyche faced Brendan Rodgers and Manuel Pellegrini, the managers who finished in the top two places in last season's Premier League.



Congratulations to both on winning these awards.

Sounds like we were beaten by the far better team on the night - well done England!

COME ON ARSENAL! - Despite the millions spent by VAN GOD United are no better off this season than they were under MOYES. I for one hope DANNY WELBECK scores a hat trick today.


By Mark Ogden, Northern Football Correspondent10:34PM GMT 21 Nov 2014 Comments53 Comments
Louis van Gaal has claimed Danny Welbeck was good enough only to be a substitute at Manchester United, and insisted he does not regret sanctioning the England forward’s £16 million exit from Old Trafford.
In a robust defence of his decision to sell Welbeck, Van Gaal has claimed that the 23-year-old was "more a substitute than a line-up player" and that the forward’s ongoing presence at United would block the progress of teenager James Wilson.
Manchester-born Welbeck, who progressed from the schoolboy ranks to become a first-team player at United, faces his former club for the first time this evening since his move on transfer-deadline day to Arsenal in September.

Should be a good match at Goodison today, though both teams have suffered injuries to key players.



Provisional squads
Everton: Howard, Coleman, Distin, Jagielka, Garbutt, Gibson, McGeady, McCarthy, Barkley, Osman, Lukaku, Robles, Browning, Hibbert, Pienaar, Besic, Atsu, Naismith, Eto'o.
West Ham: Adrian, Cresswell, Reid, Collins, Jenkinson, Downing, Noble, Song, Kouyate, Valencia, Sakho, Jaaskelainen, Carroll, Cole, Nolan, Amalfitano, Tomkins, O'Brien.
Match notes
There was a time when a meeting between Everton and West Ham was a switch off for the purists. These days it is in danger of being billed as the reconstruction of a meeting between the 1974 Dutch squad and Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona. Sam Allardyce will surely admit substance is the key to making his side look more stylish, but if the Hammers emerge triumphant from a trip to Goodison – beating Martinez at his own game – his reinvented West Ham will have another notable scalp.
Chris Bascombe prediction: Everton 2 West Ham 1

How did Arsenal lose that match? Simples, superb goalkeeping, SHIT finishing by Arsenal.

United now in 4th place kin joke! Wenger how can you leave Giroud on the bench for so long?

Everton..... Robbie had a dream

to build our football team

we had no money, so we signed the players on loan.

we play from the back,

with Ross in atack.

The school of science is on the way back!


Great result for Burnley. Danny Ings and Ross Barkley Englands future but let's play them in the under 21's. FFS build the England team around them WOY you knob head!


Rant over, over to you Stanley :0)

Oh yes CC we have a rich seem of talent around at the moment.

Sean Dyche: Burnley can stay in Premier League this season

Burnley boss Sean Dyche says his team can achieve the "impossible" and avoid relegation from the Premier League.

Ings puts Burnley 2-0 ahead inside 13 minutes
Walters diving header pulls one back for Stoke
Burnley win for second time in league this season
Stoke dominate possession but cannot force equaliser
Danny Ings scored twice in two minutes as Burnley beat Stoke to claim their first away win of the season and move off the bottom of the Premier League.
Ings put the visitors ahead in the 12th minute when he tapped in after Asmir Begovic parried Ashley Barnes's cross.
The striker grabbed his second soon after, with another close-range finish following Michael Kightly's low pass.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30163181

Bad day at the office for Liverpool.

Spurs got lucky, never a sending off.

Spurs v EFC next Sunday should be interesting both playing in Europe on Thursday night.

Liverpool look a mere shadow of the team last season and much as I'm a great Gerard fan I think he's gone off the boil, as a player and as a captain. He had some scoring chances today which he normally would have buried.

Hull were robbed, the referee spoiled a good contest.

Yep, it was the linesman who got the Hull player sent off, pathetic!

Chris Carson [Send an email to Chris Carson] [View Chris Carson's profile] - 22 Nov 2014 09:33 - 4078 of 4084
COME ON ARSENAL! - Despite the millions spent by VAN GOD United are no better off this season than they were under MOYES. I for one hope DANNY WELBECK scores a hat trick today.

...
They are much better off, there is more to it than points.

How did Arsenal lose? They played like Arsenal; Manchester United did that v Leicester City and look what happened. Everyone can see it, yet Wenger does nothing game after game.

Offside; is there room for it? :)

Liverpool:

Last season a poor defence with poor cover - 50 goals - had an out of Sterling, Sturridge, and Suarez. This season they have a poor defence with poor cover.

Cheers,
KidA

It seems that Arsenal have no one with the ability or inclination to shoot from more than 6 yards.
2517

KidA - You can't blame the manager for poor finishing. United were shite in the first half and Arsenal should have been 3-0 up. Game over.

I can blame him for Arsenal still being the biggest suckers re the counter. They should've been down to 10, then of course what follows is different. As to them being 3-0 up, when is that game over v Arsenal? In the end they were lucky not to concede 4; incorrect offside with 2 on 1 - the 1's position meant he was all but out of the game - and Di Maria's miss.

Cheers,
KidA

Ok KidA, you know your team better than I ever could :0)

Cheers,
Chris

By Jeremy Wilson
12:48PM GMT 24 Nov 2014
Alisher Usmanov wants Arsene Wenger to continue his work at Arsenal, he has pointedly suggested that the manager is failing to learn from past mistakes

Alisher Usmanov, Arsenal's second largest shareholder, has offered his most critical assessment yet of Arsene Wenger and claimed that the club need to strengthen in every single position to seriously challenge the elite of English and European football.

Although Usmanov says he wants Wenger to continue his work at Arsenal and is desperate to see him succeed, he has pointedly suggested that the manager is failing to learn from past mistakes and being restricted by his footballing principles. Defeat against Manchester United on Saturday continued a losing pattern against the very best opposition in recent seasons.

"My opinion, and I tell it openly, we need to strengthen every position to play on the level of such teams in the UK as Chelsea and Manchester City or in Europe like Real, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and other clubs," said Usmanov. "Arsenal is a dream that sometimes becomes a mirage and sometimes a pain as every dream. The potential of the team is there, but there is no critical evaluation of mistakes and their admittance.
"Not a single genius can retain its level when he does not admit his own mistakes. Only when you admit your mistakes are you rid of them. We just repeat the same results year by year. Quite high to secure the place in the Champions League but we regularly lose in the first circles of play-offs. As an investor I am not happy with that."

Asked if Wenger still had his backing amid calls from some fans for him to leave, Usmanov told CNBC that it was "frustrating" to have no say over such a key decision, despite owning 30 per cent of the club.

Usmanov has not been offered a place on the board and has never spoken to majority owner Stan Kroenke since losing a battle for control of the club.

"As to Arsene Wenger - he is one of the greatest coaches not just of European, but of world football," said Usmanov. "But we have a Russia proverb which goes 'even an old lady can have a roof falling on her'. Everybody makes mistakes. He can make mistakes and I know as you age that it is more difficult, more challenging to accept ones mistakes. Maybe it's a problem today.

"He is a great man, a great coach, he had great victories and he has to have an opportunity to secure the place, which he and his team ought to have. I think the men who created winners have to be winners themselves. I wish him this."

Usmanov, though, fears that Wenger's principles have become a restriction on the club. "I like Arsene for his principles," he said. "But principles are sort of a restriction. And restrictions are always lost possibilities. That's why sometimes coaches even without principles became the coaches of great teams. And some coaches with principles lose because some positions in teams are vacant because of ethical, moral or personal views."

Arsenal can play some attractive attacking football, but can't seem to convert the attacks into goals. Players always seem to add another pass and another pass, instead of having a crack at goal.

By Jim White2:26PM GMT 24 Nov 2014 Comments36 Comments
It seems unlikely, but just imagine for a moment James Tomkins as a member of Wimbledon's Crazy Gang. And imagine what Vinnie Jones, John Fashanu or Lawrie Sanchez might have made of their colleague's performance at Goodison Park on Saturday.
Falling to the turf clutching at his face after being lightly brushed in the chest by Kevin Mirallas: back in the dressing room, the mockery would have been unyielding, his suit would have been cut to ribbons, buckets of water emptied over his head.
This was not the sort of behaviour that passed muster in the Wimbledon dressing room back when the Crazies were at their fractious, rollicking peak. It was not so much the feigning that would have been considered anathema by the knuckle draggers of Plough Lane. What would have disturbed them was Tomkins's evident lack of masculinity. He went down, you could almost hear them pointing out, like a girl. At Wimbledon they would simply never have given their opponents any hint that they might be hurt. For them it wasn't manly.
Plenty has changed in the game in the 25 years since the Neanderthal days of the Crazy Gang. Much of it for the better, not least in referees' vigilance against the kind of career-ending assaults on ankles and shins that they referred to as tackles, or the end of tolerance for their relentless mental and physical bullying of colleagues that coaches once mistook for team building.
But of this there can be no doubt: the assumptions of how a player should behave on the pitch have altered, too, beyond recognition. If players were hurt in the past - and they frequently were, especially with Jones and Fashanu on the prowl - they would be reluctant to show it for fear that to do so might be a demonstration of weakness.

A reputation for being hard to knock off your stride was hugely valuable in an intense competitive environment. In the 1970 FA Cup final, for instance, the level of physical assault was more appropriate for a boxing match. As scything tackles rained down, there was no point in the players feigning anything. As the journalist Hugh McIlvanney reported wryly at the time, the only way Eric Jennings, the referee in that particular match, might have reached for his book was on production of a death certificate. So everyone instead tried to stay on their feet, to show that they were the sort who would not easily be knocked off their stride. Or indeed knocked out.
But as football has increasingly become a non-contact sport, such renown is no longer required currency amongst those who play the game. These days it is a rare event when a player does not roll around on the turf as if under small arms fire the moment he comes into the vague proximity of an opponent. Indeed, so institutionalised is the requirement to hit the ground as often as possible when running, that if a player doesn't go down when expected it becomes a point of comment.
As on Saturday when Yaya Toure received plaudits for powering on through various invitations to tumble issued by the opposing defence to score the winning goal for Manchester City against Swansea. The expectation is now that the challenged player will invariably play the victim. And the better they play it, the more shameless their subterfuge, the higher the chances of kidding the referee into reducing the number of opponents.
When faking is now so routine, the inevitable corollary is the sort of behaviour that would have been considered undignified in the past but has now become commonplace. And the odd thing is, the unyielding glare of the television camera has not reduced the practice.
Despite being shown to look ridiculous in repeated slo-mo after the event, players appear more willing than ever to adopt a position of weakness. Since Rivaldo first demonstrated in the 2002 World Cup the effectiveness of going down ostentatiously, for more than a dozen years the growing urge has been to assume the position of the cry baby. Real men, it appears, don't get their opponents sent off.
And despite the widely delivered common prejudice, this is not a habit restricted to players raised overseas. It was not Carlos Kickaball and his dodgy foreign ways on show on Merseyside in November 2014. It was James Tomkins, who was born in Basildon, the kind of foresquare, uncompromising centre back who in the past would rather have undergone root canal surgery without the benefit of anaesthetic than behave like a theatrical toddler. Now, however, he is shameless in the pursuit of nefarious advantage. Off with the end of his socks.