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...

Vile team.

Last British Team Standing In Europe Playing Tonight!


6pm ITV4

Dynamo Kyiv v Everton (Everton lead on agg 2-1)

COYB!!!

And then there was none. Alcaraz will never be an Everton player as long as I've got a hole in my arse.

The Demise of the Premiership in Europe :
That seems the case this year and we must hope that this is not a trend that is going to continue. we might be entering a phase like it was for a longtime for the French where their national squad picked from many clubs formed a very good team but at the same time time their clubs did not perform at all well in the european competitions.
England might be heading the same way;
I'm optimistic about Roy Hodgson having the ability to turn England into an excellent team !, but the clubs exiting at an early stage is a disaster !.
Partly the problem is that too many players are probably overpaid and far too many imports that in my view do not add quality to the premiership and the players are constantly being reminded by how good they supposedly are by the media : you see it suits everybody, the media because it fills bulletins up with nonsense , the papers like it because of the same reason, endless advertising...everbody's a winner except for the fans and the bad results that follow..
We are in a trough as far as great British players are concerned and this has been the case for a couple of decades now.....
Where are the Robsons..Keegans...Francis...Moores and Charltons..Bests...and many more of today ? : there aren't any ! that's the answer but the media will bullshit you otherwise...putting average players on a pedestal way before they have proved their worth...
The British and English public are and have been conditioned to "we are the best" when in fact we are now one of the mediocre nations as far as football is concerned...here's hoping RH can bring back some sturdy quality and imaginitive football to the national squad !..

One swallow does not make a summer

And as for the argument that this leads to a weakened England - what drivel

Who exactly do England look to from Chels, Pool, Arse etc

You may have been conditioned by the media that "we are the best" as you put it, but anyone with half an IQ knows otherwise and as for your closing comment - you're living in a dream world - it ain't gonna happen

The clubs are not as strong as they used to be but the England team can still perform well ....that's what I'm saying....

Remember the world cup 1990 !....English clubs were banned from playing in the european competitions.....if I remember correctly ManU around that time were back in the cup winners cup and won it first time round !....(not sure about the correct dates)...anyway.....the national side did ever so well in that world cup.....now....can our present side perform extremely well in the next year or so ? ....I believe so !.......anyway.....just a thought : a famous Italian manager said once when we were banned that the european competitions without English clubs were like a spaghetti without sauce !....

Burnley only 3rd from the top now... what a season -):

http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/fair-play.html

Joe Say - 21 Mar 2015 08:49 - 4386 of 4389

One swallow does not make a summer

...

Nor does it make a relationship.

Sorry, I'm weak, couldn't resist.

---

Premier League clubs in Europe:

Poor defences, poor quality/technique when pressed - look at Arsenal against Newcastle United - managers outfoxed, players outfought etc.

England; can the attack make up for the defence?

Cheers,
KidA

Mersey Hard Men: Johnny Morrissey was Everton FC's winger with bite
JOHNNY MORRISSEY might not have been the first name on manager Harry Catterick’s teamsheet . . . although despite international class competition like Alan Ball, Colin Harvey, Howard Kendall, Tommy Wright, Gordon West and Brian Labone, he certainly wasn’t far behind.



But the Everton winger was ALWAYS first pick in five-a-side.

Team-mate Colin Harvey revealed that such was Morrissey’s formidable reputation as a Mersey hard-man, even in training ground kick-abouts, that people always wanted him on their side.

“He was a winger who famously used to terrify the full-back who marked him,” smiled his former team-mate.

“He definitely belongs in any list of Mersey hard -men, but because of that reputation people don’t give him enough credit for the skill he had – and he was very skilful.

“He was an excellent crosser, with both feet. He would get up and down and put a good shift in every game. He was a real team player and when you put those qualities together you had a very good footballer.

“But he knew how to tackle, too!”

Leeds United were considered the most ruthless team of that era, with teak tough players who verged on the cynical.

Names like Norman ‘Bites Yer Legs’ Hunter, Billy Bremner, Johnny Giles and the formidable central defender Jackie Charlton were renowned for their ruthlessness.

In October 1970 Charlton famously appeared on a TV programme where he said he’d once kept a “little black book” of names of players whom he intended to hurt or exact some form of revenge upon.

Johnny Morrissey presumably figured on page one.

“We knew all about the so-called black book,” laughed Colin. “Johnny absolutely clattered Jackie one afternoon then went over to pick him up. As he bent over he muttered into his ear ‘you can put that in your ****ing book now!’

“It’s fair to say he wasn’t easily intimidated.”

That school of hard knocks attitude was imbued during Morrissey’s upbringing in the tough Scotland Road area of Liverpool in the 1940s and ‘50s.

His first club was Liverpool, but Morrissey’s value as a footballer was clear to all but the short-sighted members of the Liverpool FC board.

A £10,000 move from Liverpool to Everton for the diminutive dreadnought was sanctioned in September 1962 – without manager Bill Shankly’s knowledge.

When the incensed Reds boss belatedly discovered the deal had been done he penned a resignation letter and made it clear that any further transfers without his seal of approval would result in his exit.

Liverpool’s loss was undoubtedly Everton’s gain.

Morrissey made 33 appearances and scored eight goals in his debut season at Goodison, which culminated in the 1962/63 League Championship.

He missed only one league match in 1969/70 – claiming nine goals as Everton were crowned champions again – but it was the silverware Morrissey missed out inbetween times, the 1966 FA Cup, which played most on his mind.

The disappointment at missing out on that success perhaps explains his enthusiasm for accepting a nerve shredding role two years later – and underlined that Morrissey possessed mental strength as well as physical prowess.

The first penalty kick he ever took was in an FA Cup semi-final against Leeds United – and it took Everton to the 1968 FA Cup final.

“I’d not been in the 1966 Cup winning side and was desperate to play at Wembley,” he later recalled. “It’s the one big occasion in a footballer’s life that he dreams about.

“I’ll never forget the circumstances during our preparations for that semi-final battle against Leeds were all against us.

“First of all Alan Ball was suspended. Then on the eve of the match poor John Hurst was ruled out with jaundice, which meant we had to call in reserves Tommy Jackson and Roger Kenyon, with Roger playing in the back four.

“Bally was our main penalty taker – well he took everything, corners, free-kicks, the lot! – and during our final workout on the Friday morning, the boss, Harry Catterick, asked which one of us was going to take over.

“None of the other lads were all that keen. So, because I didn’t suffer from nerves, I decided to volunteer and during practice that morning I had ten or a dozen spot kicks.

“During the game the turning point came just before half-time. Gary Sprake was put under pressure and trying to clear the ball he threw it straight to Jimmy Husband.

“Jimmy chipped it back into the goalmouth where Jack Charlton was forced to handle it to save a goal.

“I remember screaming for a penalty and when things had died down after the referee had pointed to the spot, I suddenly realised it was me who had to take it!

“Tommy Wright and one or two of the other lads couldn’t bear to watch as I put the ball on the spot.

“Despite the noise I didn’t panic. I took about a 12-yard run and sidefooted it with my right foot to Sprake’s left. He dived the right way but it went just inside the post.

“Seeing the ball go in was a tremendous experience. From that moment on we played a lot better and could have won comfortably in the end.

“It wasn’t until the Sunday that I appreciated just what an important penalty it had been. I watched a film of the game on TV. I saw how the crowd was going mad behind the goal and waiting for myself to take the penalty I broke out in a cold sweat.

“Even though I say it myself, it was the perfect penalty.

“I reckon if I’d missed that penalty I’d have been playing for Crewe Alexandra the following season!”

If he had, you can guarantee he’d have been the first pick in five-a-side there, too!



I was at Old Trafford that day in 68. I couldn't look when he took that penalty. I always thought he was underrated. He used to walk down the wing and beat everyone. Joe Royle will be ever grateful to him. And he had a fag at half time :0)

Raheem Sterling rejecting £100,000 a week is obscene - but at least he's honest
Liverpool winger has become a poster-boy for excess in his hard-ball stance over contract talks, but he simply playing by football's modern rules

Sometime in 1999, a journalist relatively new to a sports reporting career was granted a thorough education into the fantastical financial perspectives of a professional footballer.
He found himself discussing salaries with a top class player and decided to have a bit of a moan.
“I only earn £12,500,” was the complaint.
There was a pause.
“Is that a week or a month?” was the player’s response.
The reporter waited for the giggle, but it was a straight face staring back.
The realisation that some (not all) footballers have no concept of the value of a pound - believing we all measure pay slips in thousands over a week rather than a year - was both amusing and disillusioning. The empathy gap has been widening ever since.
To those of us accommodated in that distant dwelling from training grounds we like to call ‘reality’, many footballers and agents inhabit the kind of world Terry Pratchett would have been proud to call his own. Egos clash if players have the audacity to reject offers that will only make them a mega millionaire when it is quite evident they have their heart set on being multi-mega millionaires. We become so accustomed to seeing numbers between £80,000 and £200,000 a week in the Premier League, rarely is there a moment to pause, digest and consider its grotesqueness, judgment invariably passed based on popularity.
“Have you seen his recent goals or assist record? He deserves every penny he gets,” is a regular justification.
“He wants how much? He can’t even take a penalty,” the counter-argument.

Every so often someone like Raheem Sterling comes along to become the poster boy for these economic excesses, even though using him and his stance over a new contract at Liverpool as the basis for a diatribe against players’ wages would be too easy, and also unfair. Sterling is no more than a product of the age, and for football to rail against him is rather like Victor Frankenstein holding head in hands as his creation develops free will.
Footballers have a talent with a value placed upon it and a short career, so good luck to all of them if they can manipulate an industry created to facilitate such exploitation. It’s hideous, of course, but that’s capitalism, kids. The entertainment business pays well.
Clubs treat some players shabbily, but those in demand have the expertise to maximise their worth. Talent is power is money in all the most popular sports, and the political battle between clubs, players, managers, agents, leagues and governing bodies to protect and enhance their own interests, position and wealth is ceaseless.

Liverpool have little to fear from the Sterling situation, other than the small detail of losing the player, which they’ll easily get over if it comes to that. They’ve lost better in the last 12 months, never mind in their history, and every wage bill has its ceiling.
The Anfield board knows there will be a popular movement in their favour as the figure Sterling rejected (an obscene £100,000 a week) and is demanding (an even more obscene £150,000 a week) is dissected in public. If Sterling is sold for £40 million this summer, it is more likely to provoke a bit of disappointment and ‘ho-hum’ than a fans protest. There was a noticeably impatient murmur whenever Sterling lost possession against Manchester United on Sunday. Presumably he knows why.

Sterling and his agent Aidy Ward will have their sympathisers, but broadly speaking the pounding in the PR war has started, while Fenway Sport Group’s hard-line stance will be presented as an ‘example’ to others. If every promising 20-year-old is valued according to what his agent wants, that new TV deal will be absorbed within one round of contract extensions - and we can’t have that when there are so many middle managers doing the square root of absolutely nothing in need of subsidising at Premier League clubs these days.
As we lay it on the player there should be a note of caution, however. Liverpool, lest we forget, bought into this when they invested so heavily in Sterling as a 15-year-old and there should be no surprises at what has come to pass - the biters are being bitten.
• Liverpool target Walcott as Sterling plays hard ball
When Liverpool signed Sterling five years ago they knew what they were getting on and off the pitch. He was taken from the QPR Academy by the highest bidder, the big club removing the crown jewels from a smaller one. He chose Liverpool because they paid more than anyone else, not because they had any recent track record blooding youngsters.
What is happening now is on a grander, higher profile scale where Ward is exploiting interest from elsewhere to provoke Liverpool into paying more money. Are Liverpool really surprised the kid who wanted to be the highest paid 15-year-old in English football, and then wanted to be the highest paid 18-year-old in English football, now wants to be the highest paid 20-year-old in English football? Blaming Sterling for behaving exactly as he did when he left QPR is hypocrisy. Those who knew Sterling and his representatives at Loftus Road must be granting themselves a wry smile.


True, the deal in 2010 was completed before FSG’s takeover and well before Brendan Rodgers was manager. We’ll never know if John W. Henry would have sanctioned it like Tom Hicks and George Gillett. At Rodgers’ behest, recent changes at Academy level at Anfield are shifting the onus firmly onto self-development rather than plucking players from elsewhere, but there must be acknowledgement the most successful recent graduates from the youth team – Sterling and Jordon Ibe – were products of a now abandoned policy.
In defence of those who signed them, Liverpool have gone so long since producing a world class player from the locality (Steven Gerrard in 1998) they felt they had to act by looking beyond The Mersey and for the last three seasons Sterling has been presented as if he is one of Liverpool’s own, the current regime quite happy to assume credit for Sterling when it suits.
On the walls of Liverpool’s Academy there is a photographic display celebrating all those who came through the club’s youth ranks and Sterling’s portrait rests alongside that of the local boys Robbie Fowler, Gerrard, Michael Owen, Jamie Carragher, Steve McManaman and the rest.
Given Sterling was spotted and nurtured by others, at best his place does not sit comfortably and to be blunt it should not be there at all.

The current situation exposes the difference between players shaped by their club – and in the case of Liverpool the working class community in which they were raised - and teenagers lured with the promise of millions. It’s the price you pay by spending so much on youth players in the first place.
Anfield history shows it is much easier to take advantage of the loyalty and connection of the local players to their badge to keep their salaries at a manageable level throughout their career – a fine line often tread between incremental rewarding and taking advantage. All clubs are the same. When they say the onus should be on developing their Academy, the consideration is financial as much as one of identity.
Contrast Sterling with 21-year-old Harry Kane, brought through the ranks at Tottenham Hotspur and recently rewarded with a £45,000 a week deal, incomparable to that requested by Sterling. Is one such a more exciting prospect than the other?

The products of Liverpool’s Academy ‘Golden Age’ under Steve Heighway between 1993-1999 had to wait until their mid to late 20s to get anywhere near parity with the club’s highest earners, and with the greatest respect most were better players than Sterling at the same point in their careers.
That’s the fundamental image problem Sterling has as phrases such as ‘going rate’ and ‘market value’ are sprinkled liberally into the justification for his position. No-one at Anfield – in the stands as much as on the board – really thinks he is worth it.
Sterling is a good player, a very good player, but the problem for him and his advisor is this.
He is not (yet) great.
He is not Robbie Fowler aged 17 great.
He is not Michael Owen aged 18 great.
He is not Steven Gerrard aged 19 great, or Steve McManaman aged 20 great.
He is not Jamie Carragher in Istanbul great (if you were assessing wages ahead of the 2005 Champions League Final, Carragher would have come in above Dijimi Traore but well below Harry Kewell and Djibril Cisse).



Basically imo as an unbiased Evertonian is The little shit is taking the pcxs :0)

"Partly the problem is that too many players are probably overpaid and far too many imports"


Kenwynne Jones on 37.5K a week for a championship club says it all !

Kid A - LOL

We've offloaded Kenwynne to Bournemouth ... that's gonna be a big dent in their chances of being promoted !

The Carduffers for promotion?... What a cracker -):

Listen to the Master http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32084976

Having come to Tel Aviv on business - I was surprised last night to find myself in Taf Aviv

Lol and I bet you can't pronounce any of those names behind you :-)

Love the Merthyr mission statement of progress through stability, make your minds up for fecks sake!

Anyway England were well worth their draw and should have won it.