Aren't Southampton Good !

Haven't Southampton done well? They did well last season with an exceptional start, looking like they could challenge for a European place before falling away slightly but still remaining up at the top end of the league.  They had individual players reaching the very top of the game in this country with Lambert and Lallana winning great reviews whilst representing England, Lovren, Schneiderlin and Wanyama amongst others making names for themselves around Europe and young players including Luke Shaw tipped for the very top, all under the leadership of young forward thinking coach Pochettino who is also tipped for big things.

Then during the summer the inevitable happened and the big boys came calling, as is always the case when a team has a small amount of success clubs at the next level up have a look and invariably take their players away.  Liverpool were the biggest vultures taking Lambert, Lallana and Lovren, with Shaw leaving to join United and Callum Chambers Arsenal and perhaps the biggest loss to Southampton the man who had moulded them all Pochettino leaving to take charge at Spurs.  But Southampton made them pay, they made huge amounts of money on every player, important for a smaller club.

Importantly Southampton refused to sell more of their players and big clubs were clubs circling around especially with regards to Schniederlin but others to, but they didn't need to sell and it was important that at least something resembling a core of the team remained.  Firstly, Pochetino needed replacing and the board brought in Ronald Koeman, a big name who had a bit of experience around Europe, he arrived and set about rebuilding the squad that had almost been picked clean by premiership rivals. Some of the money made from the sales was invested in team with Tadic, Pelle, Forster, Gordos, Long and Mane all signed.  Tadic and Forster to me looked like excellent signings but some of the others I was unsure about but they have in general proved me wrong.  Pelle was a low level striker with a poor scoring record but has been a major success since joining and has been banging the goals in for fun.  On top of these signings more youngsters have joined the squad from the impressive academy that is one of the best in Europe, if you look at the names that have been produced, young players that I'm sure will attract interest from clubs in the not to distant future and earn Southampton more money.

Clubs the size of Southampton have to sell, most clubs do, but thanks to their academy they are producing quality players who are getting first team experience and they are then able to sell them on with huge transfer fees, this money is re-invested in the first team, so far very wisely with good players coming in to the team and pushing the club further up the table, would anybody seriously bet against them challenging for a place in Europe come the end of the season and if they make it that's more cash into the coffers.  It all relies on quality coming out of the academy and sensible business in the transfer market, but that's exactly what they have been doing and currently it looks like the best model in the league.

At the start of the season Southampton were tipped almost universally for a season long fight against relegation and following their first game defeat against Liverpool all the reports suggested that this predictions were true, nobody could lose so many top players and survive.  How wrong were we all? They have gone from strength to strength culminating in a recent 8-0 victory over Sunderland in the league and are sitting at the time of writing in a superb second place, all their players are winning rave reviews, so much so that the vultures are again circling, already and Koeman appears to have slotted in and carried on where the previous management left off.  

We, as supporters of other teams are all jealous of what they have achieved, but you have to admit, aren't Southampton good?

@lfclumo

Should Sunderlands Players Pay?

Following Sunderland's 8-0 defeat at the hands of Southampton at the weekend Sunderland goalkeeper Vito Mannone suggested in the press and apparently in the dressing room that the players should take responsibility for the unacceptable performance and apologise by way of refunding the supporters who travelled to Southampton their ticket and travel expenses.  Club captain John Oshea later announced that all 2600 fans who travelled will be refunded their £24 ticket price (the club had already subsidised each ticket by ten pounds for travelling supporters) they however would not be refunding any travel expenses for the fans who had made the 630 mile round trip, some train prices were as much as £152.  O'Shea also apologised to the supporters saying "we win and lose as a team, players, staff and fans, however we wanted to acknowledge and thank the supporters who had travelled such a long way and despite everything, stayed with us until the final whistle.

This is a nice gesture by the Sunderland players and a decent effort as far as an apology goes.  Everybody who has played football has had a bad day, sometimes no matter what you do or how hard you try nothing goes the way you want, every touch is to heavy, every shot balloons over the bar, nothing clicks.  for Sunderland everybody had a bad bad day together.  Southampton are no mugs in fact they are a very good team and were favourites to win the game in any case, most would have expected a comfortable win.  But, everybody who has played or watched football will also tell you that when you are having an off day and things just aren't working for you what you do, the very least that is expected, is that you put the work in, in my opinion Sunderland didn't do this, they seemed to give up as a team and as individuals, all of them, without exception and this isn't acceptable, not when you are playing in the park, you don't let your mates down and certainly not when you're a professional not only do you let your colleagues down but also the supporters the people who pay your wages.  It's not just my opinion that the Sunderland players stopped trying, the local paper, The Sunderland Echo, gave Fletcher the Man of the Match a mark of only five with two players suffering the embarrassment of gaining only two.  The captain John Oshea said they were guilty of not putting their foot in.

Despite this should the players pay out of their own pockets, I'm certain that not one of them intended to let people down, I'm certain they wanted to do well, should they pay financially for not playing well, if so where is the line, if they had lost 10-0 do you pay the travelling expenses or is 6-0 acceptable and you don't pay anything, should Man Utd players have stumped up going down 4-0 to supposedly inferior opposition after all their fans suffered expense and saw an embarrassingly poor performance from probably better payed players than Sunderland have.  What happens if only one player has a poor performance do then they cough up on their own, their would be several players filing for bankruptcy.  I'm playing devil's advocate a little but you see my point.  On this occasion it's was the idea of the Sunderland players and I understand that they all agreed that they had some responsibility and that they wanted to do something to apologise to their supporters who had made one of the longest journeys in the league and this is what they decided to do, a decent gesture and one that I am sure is appreciated but I'm absolutely certain that supporters would rather the players put things right on the pitch and make sure in future that they put in the effort that is expected.

@lfclumo    

Football is for Everybody

Football is a wonderful sport that over the years has given me so much, I've played and loved it, I've supported club and country with so many emotions good and bad, I've coached and refereed and wouldn't change a thing.  The thing is I've had so much enjoyment from the sport over the years, it has given me so much that I think everybody should be given the opportunity, if people want play or coach or whatever they should be given that opportunity, boy or girls, old or young, fat or thin, black or white, rich or poor everybody.

When I coached and managed teams I firmly believe that winning is important, football is a competitive sport so the competition is an important element but this does not mean that less skilled or less athletic people should not be given the opportunities to play and compete, simply play In a team at a lower standard for now, with coaching and experience skill levels should improve and so will your team, that team may move forward to play at a higher level or the individual may improve enough to be selected for a team at the higher level.  What is important is that everybody, no matter what their ability gets to play competitive football. If they don't want to compete there should still be the opportunity to train.  We can't all play at the top level, we can't all win trophies, but we can all get out on the pitch and play and should all be given access to organised teams and coaching.

Everybody should be given access to football, football for women and girls has become more established in this country and we are seeing extremely talented dedicated players making a name for themselves in the game at the top levels but also thousands enjoying the sport on a weekly basis in organised leagues across the country.  But is this true with disabled people, I'm unsure, it should be, I've seen competitions on TV but normally at international level how easy is it for a kid who lives in any of our major cities to find a team to be able to play when they have any form of disability, I hope it's easier than I think it is.  I recently watched a tournament for adults with various levels of mental disability and it was an absolute joy, the standard was not the highest but the effort was amazing and one or two tough tackles were thrown in, but the absolute joy of everybody playing and one or two proud family members on the sidelines confirms my belief that everybody must me given the opportunities.

Discrimination needs to be removed from grass roots football as well as from the top of the game, it's the only way to give everybody the opportunity, if you aren't given a chance in a team or club because of your colour or because you are gay how can you possibly enjoy playing.  It's difficult for anybody to approach a team asking to join but almost impossible if you know that people there are going to discriminate against you for whatever reason.  We all know of teams for just people of a certain ethnic background or for gay people or whoever but surely it is better for everybody to integrate I don't understand why any club would not want new, possibly talented players.  I've no time for bigots and they are the ones who should be forced out of the game allowing normal thinking people to get on with enjoying the sport.

Money is always a problem for most of us, but as a sport football is relatively cheap to play, but still there are some children missing out because they simply can't afford weekly subscriptions at local clubs.  At grassroots level we do have to pay to play, clubs have to hire pitches, pay refs, buy kits, balls etc not the most expensive sport but there is a cost.  Most clubs I know will try to help out people who genuinely can't afford to play, I know many coaches who travel at their own expense to pick up kids to train and play games but this shouldn't be the case, there is literally billions of pounds floating around in football, just make sure a tiny fraction of it filters down to the people at the very bottom and they will make sure that every child in the country that wants to play is given the chance.  Think about what i said a tiny fraction of the money, so small that it probably wouldn't be missed and the coaches and parents at the bottom levels will give every child the chance, every child! They will do the dirty work and ensure football is a sport for all.

All I am saying is football is a wonderful, amazing sport please give everybody, no matter who they are the chance to enjoy, surely everybody deserves to know what it feels like to smash one in the back of the net.

@lfclumo  

Ticket Prices

Are ticket prices fair, of course not, no way, not even close, I can't afford to go to the game any more, never mind take my son, who because of not going is not developing the interest and the passion that I always have had.  It hurts that I can't go, I miss it and it hurts that he is missing out on something that has been a huge part of my life.  I don't mind admitting that I'm jealous of people who can go but I simply can't justify spending the amount of money needed to regularly attend Premier League games.

It would take well in excess of one hundred pound a week for the two of us to attend and that's before you add in anything to eat and drink, never mind the cost of everything else needed by a young boy to support a club, the shirt etc.  maybe not a lot to everybody , but that's a lot to me and I can no longer do it.

I blame the clubs plane and simple they are grabbing cash and as far as I can see not following simple economic rules.  We have known for a long time that despite all the bluster we here coming out of all the premier league teams that they really honestly do not give a shit about the everyday fan.  The players do, the manager probably does after all we pay their wages but the board and the club as a whole, no way, they couldn't give a shit, they know when I stop going there are plenty more to take my place and anyway I probably didn't have enough money anyway, there will be somebody else who will buy my ticket and they will probably spend more in the ground.

The prices have been rising year on year with pay rises in this country falling year on year making the real price higher and higher.  Many working class people are being forced out of the grounds and replaced with the higher earners that the clubs really want.  Traditional supporters, those who have created the atmosphere for years, the same atmosphere the television companies pay so much to experience have mostly been forced away in favour of higher earning, higher spending corporate supporters.

the clubs will argue that we all love the big name signings, to be able to compete they have to pay the big wages, they have to pay to get the players who will keep them in the league win the promotion.  That's probably all true, I certainly like it when my club buys a player and love to see a trophy won.  But do they need my money to do it, I doubt it the money raised in gate receipts is  not as big a part of the total income of a club as it used to be they make far more money from TV, sponsorship and investors and in one or two cases sugar daddies, gate receipts are becoming less and less important and clubs can afford to charge less and less.

The top clubs play huge wages, selling one player would allow these clubs to drop the cost of tickets dramatically, not because of the sale price but because of the saving in wages.  Is it ever considered, I doubt it, most the top clubs have hundreds of thousands a week in wages wasted in players who are not playing yet will not consider a small percentage price drop on ticket prices.

In my opinion the clubs are in danger of loosing support, many can't afford to take children their is a real danger of a whole generation not only missing out but going missing from the game, from the crowds for life, the clubs must be able to see this but don't appear to want to do anything about it.  Yes corporate money is important but don't lose the kids, the next generation of supporters, those who will create future atmospheres that you can sell to future tv companies, sponsors and corporate supporters.  

I'm not asking for the world, I am prepared to pay to go, just make tickets and everything else around the game affordable.  Three quid for a cup of tea is ridiculous, it's a cup of tea.  Make it so we can afford it and we will spend our money, the club will still get its hands on our cash we want to support our teams, just let us.

All those fans groups who were set up to put pressure on the clubs and leagues to look at ticket prices, please keep going, please keep working because we simply have to take our game back.

@lfclumo 

Should We Forgive?

With Sheffield United recently admitting they are thinking about re-signing ex player, convicted rapist, Ched Evans We must ask the question is this morally correct?

Evans was convicted of rape and has served his time he has completed the punishment placed on him by society but should we all now just forgive him and return him to the hero status he enjoyed before, I argue no, certainly not.  I accept that he has done his time but I don't accept that anybody including me has to forgive or certainly the victim, her family and friends have to forgive him.  It's not that he shouldn't be allowed to work he should but he shouldn't be allowed or placed in a position allowing him to be hero worshiped, footballers are role models to many, they are looked up to by many and not just children but grown men and I don't want somebody with a conviction for rape being looks up to by anybody, in fact almost the opposite should happen and he should be held up as an example of what is wrong with society.

I can understand why Sheffield would be considering this as an option, I really can.  Football is huge business and when a talented striker as Evans undoubtably is becomes available for nothing, everybody would be tempted and for Sheffield it must be more tempting as they have already invested money and time in Evans before he was convicted but they absolutely must take the lead on this issue look at the long term and stand up for the correct thing to do.  I'm certain that the vast majority of their supporters don't want to cheer and support this man or anybody like him, they don't want his name on the back of their shirts and they don't want their children looking up to this man.  Imagine if your child said to you that they wanted to grow up and be just like him.

The players union have inexcusably said that Evans deserves a second chance, no he doesn't, not in football, it's not their game it's ours and we don't want rapists representing us.  They should be standing up for the many hundreds, thousands of players who do deserve the support and admiration of our children, the players who do deserve our money, and who's skill will make us want to pay to watch for years in to the future.

it's not just Evans, rape and Sheffield, its all clubs and a moral stand point.  Some footballers have been out of control, young men with to much money who because of their standing in their communities feel they can get away with anything we have seen so much over the years but for me there is a line, it seems fine to help people who have perhaps had a drink or alcohol problem, especially if they can use their experiences and fame to help others but should we be allowing people into OUR game who have cheated using drugs, or who have fixed games showing a total lack of respect for their supporters and club I don't think so we as supporters are the victims of these crimes us and the clubs we love so much, force these people out of the game, not encourage them back in for a short term financial gain.  Rape is way way across the line nobody should be allowed back no matter who no matter how talented, please show the respect to the victims and the supporters that we all deserve.

@lfclumo  

About England and Our World Cup

   Despite supporting Liverpool I don't subscribe to the popular, we support Liverpool so don't want England to succeed ethos, don't get me wrong I can see what people are saying I'm frustrated with the results and performances from what are top quality players, I'm frustrated with the way we play, with the lack of passion, I hate Hodgson as much as the next man and I can't see why he seems to escape criticism when others would have lost their jobs, but above all that I really hate the deep look at ourselves every every two years followed by absolutely nothing changing.  Despite all of that I can't help myself but support England and can't understand why others aren't the same, I'm very proud when our players are selected, especially for the captains role, when Sterling won praise at the World Cup I was glowing, so please don't criticise me or England, allow me my guilty pleasure and let me wallow in my misery every couple of years and hope for better in the future.

   So what went wrong this time in Brazil?  My opinions are perhaps over simplified and people with greater knowledge of tactics etc. than me could possibly give far more detailed answers but I believe there are three main issues.

   Firstly, our players and tactics are not good enough.  There are undoubtably issues with selection. Every Liverpool supporter could tell you Glen Johnson was simply not up to the job at club level, never mind international, every supporter would tell you Wellbeck isn't international standard, yet they are continuously selected in key positions for the national team.  Regardless of the selection I never notice any passion in any of the players they all have it week in week out for their clubs but put on an England shirt and nothing, I put this down to the tactics.  We seem to want to copy the style and tactics of other countries rather allowing the players to be English and play the style they are used to playing every week.  We copy the style of the last World Cup winners, on this occasion Spain and do it very badly, whilst people tell us it's all about possession, we lose our drive and passion, then the World Cup rolls around and we are still trying to play a style from four years ago that not only is outdated but is alien to many of our players, is it any wonder they seem confused and look like they couldn't care less.

   Secondly, to put things simply Roy Hodgson, I don't know what others see in him but for me he is clueless.  He sits on the bench with a confused look on his face for the entire game and appears to react to nothing.  He is outdated In his ideas and systems so doesn't know what to do, the solution, do nothing, keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best.  What do we do? Change manager, I don't know for who but let's have somebody with up to date ideas, who can react to situations on the field and can show a bit of passion themselves.

   Thirdly England isn't important any more.  Supporters, managers, clubs, players and administrators all put England well down the order of priorities, for success things need to change it's hard enough for nations to win tournaments when the national team is the most important thing for the players, for example, not behind their clubs, families, sponsorship deals, holidays, endorsements, possible transfers and so on in their list of priorities.  It's probable that things won't ever change but not difficult to understand why we slip down the rankings as the national team slips down players priorities.

   What's the solution, well short term as I have tried to explain a new forward thinking manager with forward thinking ideas and a decent selection policy alongside a hopefully better attitude from a new set of players as we replace the old guard.  Alongside this I agree with some of the policies and schemes in place the National Football Centre, St George's Park has to be a good idea and better coaching for coaches has to mean better coaching for players, more hours coaching per player also has to be good the more the better.  I believe identifying players at a young age and getting them into national set ups is also important other countries such as Spain and Germany seem to move players from junior national teams such as U17 through the Under 21's and in to the full squad, I don't know figures but I think the numbers progressing through from our junior age groups will be far less meaning we are either not identifying the correct players at a younger age or that the players we are selecting are getting let down by coaching etc and not developing to the level that there contemporaries from other countries are.

   Hopefully this time at least some of the faults will be rectified and come the next tournament I will not feel like the only England supporter in the pub as we will have something to be excited about.

@lfclumo

Why Roy Hodgson? Just Why?

Roy Hodgson, England manager is a disgrace and i simply don't understand why people can't see it, why the media treat him like he is the saviour of English football, in fact I can't see why he is working in football at all, certainly in this country.

Normally the total, embarrassing failure in a World Cup finals is enough for the media and supporters to turn on him closely followed by people in general and then the FA.  With Hodgson we didn't just fail, he seemed to go out of his way to ensure we failed, we desperately needed a result against Uruguay, a team who were also under performing at that stage of the tournament and Luis Suarez was just returning from a long term injury.  Now we all know how Suarez feels about The FA and authority figures in England, so instead of letting things stay calm and quiet Hodgson winds up Suarez and ensures that he not only plays in the game when he may have taken further time to recover on the bench but winds him up enough to ensure he would put in a great performance, sure enough Suarez single handedly knocks us out of the World Cup, crying with the emotion of it all, whilst we get nothing but whimpers from Hodgson.  All this before we fail to score against Costa Rica, who we are told are a team of world beaters and before we know it we are coming home before we have started.

This is what Hodgson does again and again, he calls it managing expectations, I call it destroying the confidence of the team and individuals. We have recently been told that games against Costa Rica in the World Cup and Switzerland in the recent qualifiers are huge games Implying  we would do well to get a result, so when we do, our manager is a hero, since when, we should comfortably beat these teams we should be qualifying for the European Championship finals without dropping a point and if we do drop a point the media should be asking questions of the manager not buying into the rubbish he tells us, other managers have been destroyed by the media with far better records and I don't understand why Hodgson gets the unconditional support, he is managing all our expectations down to the point where we think a draw against Switzerland would be a good result, Switzerland.

I expect the England manager to be up to date on modern coaching methods including player recovery, so when a club with the stature of Liverpool give you information regarding the recovery of an influential player who maybe needs a little special treatment because of his injury record I would have thought you use this information to your advantage, that's just common sense right, no what Hodgson does is the opposite and instead of using a period for recovery forces the player to not just train but complete sprints even after the player expresses his concerns to coaches.  Of,course this results in an injury, the player is missing from the next three qualifying games and out for his club for well over a month.  Does Hodgson accept any responsibility, of course not, after all he knows best.  So now he has harmed the relationship between the national team and Liverpool and I'm sure other clubs have noticed, anything from the press, no, it appears we are supposed to accept this as well.

During the qualification for the World Cup at half time in a vital match against Poland Hodgson told a joke to illustrate a point about the teams play that several players allegedly thought had racist connotations, this did make the national media but was again largely laughed off, certainly no punishment, many others have correctly received harsh punishments for racist incidents, many people would lose their jobs on the spot, anything for Hodgson? No not a thing, if he is not racist, this shows he is at least an idiot and incompetent, neither are adjectives I want associated with the England manager.

During England's match against Estonia on Sunday following Rooneys goal the commentator made a comment that just prior to his goal England were preparing to take him off, nothing wrong with that, this happens relatively often, as the manager I would have thought you just thank your lucky stars and get on with it.  So why after the game does Hodgson lie, clearly it was true we all saw everybody on the bench laughing about it and the paperwork had gone in to the fourth official, so just laugh it off Roy don't lie on national television and then even worse when you realised you had been caught out try and blame the television people, just tell the truth and then you wouldn't have to look like the bungling idiot that you are.

it's about time the media and the country woke up this man has done enough to lose his job several times over and he is managing our expectations down and down he sooner people see it the sooner we will no longer have to watch his panic stricken, nervous face during games as even he realises how far out his depth he is.

  Don't worry though, we did beat Switzerland, got our worst ever result against San Marino and managed a thumping 1-0 win against 81st ranked Estonia who only had ten players and we have been managed so well that we think this is impressive.

@lfclumo