Who should be given the Manchester United number 7 now ?

Who should be given the number 7?

The Manchester United number 7 kit is perhaps the most important of all, Best, Robson, Cantona, Beckham, Ronaldo. With CR7 now CR9 the question becomes who will be the last #7 under Fergie?

If Valencia is given the #7 body’s will roll in their grave!
Now I am not saying this is the plan but it is my fear.

So who is worthy? An old boy like Giggs, Scholes... A committed player like... Fletcher, Carrick...
Rooney was just given the 10 and was thrilled about it but Rooney is worthy, he is committed to the future, and he has the talent.

So, the two ideas I have come up with,
Either it's given to someone like Fletcher for the season to hold and respect,
Or
The boss sits Rooney down and says you have the number 10 for England, I know I know you hate playing on the wing, don't worry that's not going to happen just because you will be taking the #7…. but you are now the most important player in the squad, and if we give the #7 to Nani George Best will haunt me in my sleep.... So, Rooney takes the number 7, Berbatov is given the number 10 (hoping to make him shoot more!) and the new signing takes the number 9, if they can sign anyone that is…

Diadora Soccer Cleats Review

I recently had a chance to try out a new version of cleats and in my opinion they were very impressive. They were very responsive and helpful when changing direction. They also enable a nice controlled, low shot. Overall, very impressive.

Provided by Diadora America

Soccer Cleats

Diadora Maracana RTX 12 Soccer Cleats

Arsenal Had the Best Head to Head Record Within the “Big 4”

It is interesting to look how the big clubs did against each other last season while disregarding the other 16 clubs that make the season such a marathon. This is just another look at trying to understand the strength of each club.

Overall, Arsenal got the most points against the others in the “Big 4” and in this view went from 4th in the league table to 1st in its record against the others in the “Big 4”. Consistency is something that Arsenal missed last season but it definitely has the capability to not drop many points as is seen from its performance against top notch competition.

"Big 4" Head to Head Records:
Arsenal – 3-1-2 (11 pts)
Manchester United – 2-2-2 (8 pts)
Chelsea – 1-1-4 (7 pts)
Liverpool – 2-4-0 (6 pts)

Henry’s Transfer to Barcelona

There will be a lot of analysis on this topic but logically it does seem to make sense for every side involved (Henry, Arsenal, and Barcelona). Arsenal needs cash and has stayed out of the transfer market. Arsenal could not even compete for Franck Ribery, a long time target, even though Bayern managed to secure him for £17m. So Arsenal sold Henry for a transfer fee of £16m because:

1) Henry wanted to leave anyway
2) £12m would not be there next season as the striker gets older
3) There was a lot of promise shown by the younger players last season

The negatives for Arsenal are:
1) Lack of depth at striker
2) Arsenal may suffer in the short term
3) Henry still is an amazing player and is likely to have a strong season with a restful summer unlike last summer’s World Cup run

For Arsenal, this is an end of an era and a move with the future of the club in mind

Sheva's Season Evaluation

The release of season ending statistics gives a new light of how to evaluate Shevchenko’s performance for Chelsea this season. Although under a lot of pressure and with terribly unproductive stretches – Sheva was fairly active and successful at times. Not many players do well in their first season in the premiership (ex. Drogba) and Sheva can potentially give a great next season, especially with proper rest after a busy World Cup summer. According to the stats, he was responsible for 8 assists and 10 “aids” (secondary assists) in addition to 14 goals. He can be successful next season.

Sheva vs the Spurs



OFFICIAL STATS

Appearances this season 64
Lampard 58+4, Drogba 54+6, Essien 54+1, Carvalho 51, Terry 44+1, Ballack 42+4, Makelele 42+4, Shevchenko 41+10, A Cole 37+3, Cech 36, Ferreira 29+9, Bridge 27+6, Kalou 25+33, Mikel 24+18, Robben 24+13, Gérémi 23+5, Wright-Phillips 19+25, Boulahrouz 19+4, Hilário 18, Diarra 17+6, Cudicini 10+1, J Cole 9+15, Sinclair 1+2, Morais 0+5, Sahar 0+5, Woods 0+2, Hutchinson 0+1.

Goals 117
Drogba 33, Lampard 21, Shevchenko 14, Kalou 9, Ballack 8, Essien 6, Wright-Phillips 6, og 5, Carvalho 4, Robben 3, J Cole 2, Mikel 2, Bridge 1, Gérémi 1, Makelele 1, Terry 1.

Penalties won 6
Kalou 3, Drogba 1, Shevchenko 1, Terry 1.

Assists 100
Assists are judged not for last touch but by the subjective view of the author for a crucial part played in the goal
Lampard 21, Drogba 13, Robben 11, Shevchenko 8, Wright-Phillips 8, Kalou 7, Essien 6, Bridge 5, Ballack 5, Carvalho 4, Gérémi 4, A Cole 3, Terry 3, Mikel 2.

Aids 80
Aids are for important but not crucial parts played in the goal
Robben 10, Shevchenko 10, Lampard 9, Kalou 8, Ballack 6, Drogba 5, Makelele 4, Wright-Phillips 4, A Cole 3, J Cole 3, Essien 3, Bridge 2, Carvalho 2, Diarra 2, Mikel 2, Terry 2, Cech 1, Cudicini 1, Ferreira 1, Gérémi 1, Morais 1.

Woodwork 30
Lampard 6, Drogba 5, Kalou 5, Robben 4, Essien 3, Shevchenko 2, Wright-Phillips 2, Ballack 1, Carvalho 1


Chelsea efforts cleared off the line 14
Shevchenko 3, Carvalho 2, Essien 2, Terry 2, Bridge 1, Kalou 1, Lampard 1, Sahar 1

Stats

End of the Season Summary

The season began with an indecisive victory by the national Italian squad in the World Cup and ended with an indecisive and underwhelming victory by an Italian club team in the Champions League.

The premiership chase was exciting to the end and Chelsea just could not get over the dropping of so many points during Christmas batch of games. Chelsea is set up very well for next season and should not make any extreme changes. Mourinho needs to stay. What other manager actually represents the team “brand” so well? Overall it has only 2 holes to fill – additional depth at central defender and a right fullback (although Paolo Ferraro has gotten much better towards the end of the season). Two players stood out by their inability to perform at the top two premiership clubs - Boulharrouz and Heinze.

The attendance in England broke all records and at all levels.




Congratulations to Ukraine and Poland that will host the Euro 2012 – the 1st major tournament in Eastern Europe.

It’s impossible to generalize which league is better than the other. Spanish football was on “top” a year ago. Italian football was at a low point after demolition of Roma. The English game was “top” when 3 premiership clubs were in the semi-finals of the Champions League. None of those generalizations stood.

Don’t look for many changes in the richest clubs listings

Stay tuned for more of the same next year….

English Teams for Sale

Business magazines (even American ones) have been obsessively covering the recent rush to buy up English teams. One of the clearest analyses of the situation comes from the newly launched Portfolio magazine. It outlines the strategy and reasoning of American billionaires that have been looking to England for the next major investment:

1) Lack of teams to purchase in the U.S. There are 122 top flight teams (NBA, NFL, NBA, MLB) and they are rarely available for sale

2) (and this is the biggest reason) The growth potential for soccer is huge while the American based sports (with NBA being an exception) are NOT taking off worldwide – especially in emerging markets. See for example an earlier post of the NFL delaying entry into China. On the other hand, Liverpool already has 28M global fans.

3) Pure capitalism - No restrictions of a professional US sports league which functions to even the field. The leagues are closed, revenues are shared, salary caps are imposed, and drafts give everyone a chance to get compete. None of these exist in the European game
For these reasons, 3 English teams are now owned by Americans (Man U, Liverpool, and Aston Villa) and more rumors are popping up every day (recently regarding Arsenal and Southampton)

Portfolio.com article
English view on the subject

Trophy Hype

The 4-trophy season for Chelsea may actually end up a 1-trophy season very quickly. Just as Arsenal found out in one week that it had lost its chances for silverware, Chelsea may go through a very similar thing. The premiership title looks very unlikely at this point, going to Anfield without Carvalho and without a rested squad leaves no room for error, and the FA final is a 50/50 game.

The game against Bolton was quite a disaster since it required a careful balance of preserving the squad and still gaining 3 points. None of those happened and that game may cost Chelsea 2 trophies.