Managers In Trouble, Horror Tackles And More…..Alan’s Diary

Alan’s 2013-14 Season Diary no. 19

Sat 2 Nov pm

Didn’t see that coming. Newcastle 2 Chelsea 0. Mourinho appears to succumbs to all the press pressure to give the in-form Mata a second successive start and what happens? They lose. What we need now is a draw between Liverpool and Arsenal and Spurs could be top.

71 mins and Moneybags MC have gone 6-0 up against Norwich. Poor old Chris Hughton must be feeling punch drunk. Jol booed off at half time as Fulham were 0-3 down to Man Utd. I wonder if Martin Jol will have a job come Tuesday. A rare wind-assisted goal from the Stoke no 1 Begovic. In the first minute a punt downfield bounces over the head of the Southampton goalie into the net. Tony Pulis would be proud. If he does it again, he will be Stoke’s top scorer this season.

First Welsh Derby in PL [Photo: Alan Hill]Is everybody else looking forward to the Swansea vs. Cardiff scrap as much as I am? Rumours are that Vincent Tan has signed a striker without Malky Mackay knowing until after the event. I read that the kid he put in charge of transfers doesn’t have the appropriate work permit. It’s as if he is trying to force the manager into quitting on a matter of principle because he doesn’t want to pay compensation. You’d think he could afford it.

85 mins Man City have their 7th and the goalie has actually made some good Ruddy good saves. Chris Hughton looking forlorn in the rain. Norwich aren’t known for being precipitous in their decisions. Think of what he has achieved in the past with limited resources. If it was me I’d hold my nerve and give him until mid-December to turn it around.

I really feel for the Cardiff supporters who are having to pay a horrible price to see their beloved club finally reach the Premiership. If I was one of them, I think I’d just be closing my eyes, waiting for the madness to pass and looking forward to when we are playing in our blue shirts again, even if it’s in the Championship. All tans fade eventually.

Jeremy Kyle a week ago Saturday in the Sun on Alex Ferguson’s autobiography,
“It’s a bit cheap to spill the beans in this way. The back-biting, score settling and trashing of former players feels like it should be beneath someone so rightly revered. He doesn’t need the money and if anything the revelations I’ve read seem to cheapen, rather than champion the legacy.”  

Yet another fan in the bag then, Sir Alex. Must be feeling really good about yourself.

Arsenal vs Liverpool live on Sky.  I am a closet Strictly Come Dancing Fan. There I’ve said it. Sorry lads. It’s out there. I also like to have my cake and eat it. So I will be going downstairs in a minute to watch Strictly with the wife, whilst I have the rest of the match at the same time on my i-pod touch. Such fun. Watching two screens with only one eye.  It just gets a bit complicated when I’m trying to eat my dinner too. Ever dropped an earphone in your gravy? Wow!

After a bright start from Liverpool, Arsenal break on 19 mins and  Santi-Cazorla scores a great goal (yes I know there have been so many of them this season), showing absolute confidence to latch on to the rebound from his own header and volley it into the net. 2 hours later, here I am back at the PC following a Strictly Halloween special and another sort of horror story – a comfortable victory for bl**dy Arsenal that I did not expect. A grudging hats off to Wenger yet again.

Hull v Sunderland [Photo: Alan Hill] Horror tackle[Photo: Alan Hill]Horror Tackles

Talking of horror stories, I’m wincing watching Match of the Day. Some nasty tackles. I know they say get your stamps in early for Christmas but Andrea Dossena and Riether should hang their heads in shame. Riether could be subject to retrospective action as it looked like it was blocked from the ref’s view. Cattermole’s tackle was rash but deliberate stamps are beyond the pale.

That hurt! [Photo: Alan Hill]Sunday 3 Nov

Talk about chickens coming home to roost. The scrolling news on Sky Sports shows that Blackburn made a pre-tax loss of £36 million pounds for the year ending June 2013 with a £27.3m drop in turnover and a rise in debt from £24.5 million to £54million. What looked like a complete farce from the moment the owners took over has now been confirmed in black and white.

Clearly running a football club requires a different skill set to selling chickens. They couldn’t have done a worse job if they had set out to ruin the club on purpose. Still, I think that’s about a tenth of the debt Man Utd are trying to service. Talking of which, I’ve mentioned it before but I’ve just seen a full page colour advert of Aeroflot sponsoring them and it made me shiver. It still seems a really insensitive choice of sponsor to me. A bit like Coventry City choosing Lufthansa.

Sunday pm

A 0-0 draw for Spurs at Everton. A fair result.  Two reports on Hotspur HQ.

I must mention a cracking first ever South Wales derby in the Premiership. Congratulations to Cardiff for a deserved win. They got stronger and stronger as the match went on.