An excellent article courtesy of Martin Banks at Soccer Lens. Retaining the knowledge spewing from this article is an absolute must if you want to understand how the game works.
It is brilliant posts like these are why I continually read Soccer Lens, a Coolsite.
I just discovered a REALLY cool fan-powered site called FanIQ which, like Bleacher Report, allows sports fans of all stripes to post their own their own sports stories for all the world to see. As Bleacher Report has partnerships with both Fox Sports and CBS Sports, its visibility is a little higher than FanIQ’s (Bleacher Report is pop music and FanIQ is punk rock). But not only do I designate FanIQ as a Coolsite, I also listed it on my Blogroll.
I discovered FanIQ when I came across one its recent posts, “The Fall of Chelsea – The Roman Empire.” The phrase “Roman Empire” directly refers to Chelsea’s current owner, Roman Abramovich. It’s a little long but an excellent read.
The gist of the article is this: the once can’t-miss Chelsea Football Club is currently misfiring on all engines. They’ve yet to beat one of the other top three clubs in the English Premier League (and you can’t win the league title if you do that) and are currently in fourth place, making them no shoe-ins for entrance into next year’s Champions League competition. The writer, jumbovonolyphant, places the blame squarely on Roman Abramovich’s shoulders, pointing to his well-documented micromanaging that’s led to good managers getting axed, short-sightedness, and creating an atmosphere that prevents Chelsea from bringing in young talent (as an FYI, I think that the last things is a big part of Chelsea’s problems). He does give him his well-deserved credit for raising the profile of the EPL.
The only part of the story that I’m not 100% on board with is jumbovonolyphant’s statement that Chelsea’s one the teams “affected by the credit crunch.” While the team may have spent too much too fast, they’re technically not having a credit problem. The teams that are (Manchester United for example) borrowed a whole bunch of money at a respectable interest rate to fund their businesses, whereas Chelsea got their cash straight from Abramovich’s deep pockets. Leverage is certainly part of his business and I’m sure that he’s feeling the pinch in some places, but I have a hunch that he’ll survive it. This is splitting hairs but it’s an important characteristic that’s getting loss in credit crunch discussions, that the less you borrow, the more prepared you are to ride out the storm. But this is just part of the story and not its basis.
I attempted to post my opinion about this statement on FanIQ but had to register as a site member to do so. I tried to join but the process took waaaaaaaay too long. I have to point this out because I’m not telling the author my opinion straight on-although not for lack of trying-and don’t want anyone to think that I’m hiding my statements from him.
Regardless of my feelings about the credit crunch statement, I still think that the story is well-written and makes valid points. Please read the story, and form your own opinion.
La Liga Talk offers a GREAT behind-the-scenes look at GolTV courtesy of this video. Any and all regular viewers of GolTV must watch this. We all knew it was a live feed…this is how it works.
I’m not to turn this blog into a Ray Hudson-only venue, but catch GolTV commentators Ray Hudson and Phil Schoen at 1:55 as well as a short interview with Ray himself at the end.
Also, La Liga Talk is Coolsite as well.
Wow…I’m just finding this out.
Coolsite EPL Talk has been thoroughly covering the Setanta Channel’s new show, Special 1 TV, which debuts this weekend and appears to be a retooling of its old show I’m On Setanta Sports. EPL Talk’s most recent story as of this post is here along with links to four related articles.
Setanta is the Irish equivalent of America’s ESPN, offering multiple sports channels in its home country while offering only one in the US. In the US, it’s available through Dish Network, DIRECTV, VerizonFIOS, some hard line cable companies and broadband for about USD $15 a month. If you have both Setanta and the Fox Soccer Channel, you’re pretty much guaranteed access to all of the English Premier League games, although some may be occasionally time-delayed.
About a year ago, they started airing a five minute comedy snippet, I’m On Setanta Sports, centered around current Inter Milan manager Jose Mourinho and his boisterous, hilarious personality. Utilizing puppets, it also made fun of Mexico team coach Sven-Göran Eriksson, Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney and England team coach Fabio Capello. Every week, the show parodied current events in football…think of IOSS as a low key Daily Show.
You’ve gotta love football to subscribe to Setanta and you’ve REALLY gotta love it in order to get all the inside jokes on I’m On Setanta Sports. But if you want a preview, below is one of its earlier episodes courtesy of YouTube (might be the first one). You can also view this episode on its YouTube page if you want to see related clips.
And to demonstrate how funny Mourinho is, and continuing in my love for omnipresent footie personalities like I did for Ray Hudson, here’s a GREAT Mourhino highlight clip from his time at Chelsea. Here’s its YouTube page, also with related clips.
Found this on euFootball.Biz (also a new Coolsite…good football business info).
Setanta and ITV are showing a decrease in viewership for the their third-round FA Cup broadcast. This when compared to the BBC’s coverage. I kinda attribute this to the fact that the third round of these year’s FA Cup isn’t that exciting. It will be as the season progresses.
Again, I give props to euFootball.BIZ…already put it on my Netvibes.
Found this story from the Soccer Tickets Online blog. While the title comes off a tad spam-y, it’s got some very well-written posts, including this one.
It’s a well thought out perspective on the struggles that US-based Major League Soccer are facing. Not only is stadium attendance down, but the TV viewing audience is taking a hit as well. It begins its analysis at David Beckham’s arrival to the Galaxy and ends at last year’s UEFA Champions League final.
And this sentence hits it all home:
…Americans will watch soccer, but they want to watch competetive[sic], entertaining soccer.
Like the EPL/La Liga/Bundesliga brand of soccer. Sadly, I agree.
I am NO Celtics fan…no way, shape, or form. And while I respect Kevin Garnett’s game AND his 2008 NBA Championship ring, I’ve never really followed his game: either now or during his run with the the Minnesota Timberwolves. But his devotion to footie AND Chelsea means I now have to watch at least five Celtic games this season. Kay Gee’s devotion is nicely laid out in this ESPN Soccernet article that I found via the Real Recognize Real blog.
EPL Talk also has a thread on this as well as a clip of him receiving the personalized 08/09 Chelsea jersey he’s sporting in this picture. He says to his presenter “You made my day man!”
With a comment like that, I may have to watch at least 10 games now.
From the twohundredpercent blog...I pretty much agree with all of it.
I get a lot of inspiration from Soccer Lens. They’re more of a thinking man’s site and provoke debate from their readership. Also like Bleacher Report, they take reader submissions, which I may partake of someday.
Two of their articles from today are really good…I learned a TON from them:
The first one, Is Football A Simple Game?, breaks down the characteristics of past winning clubs. Is you’re a footie neophyte like me, this is a must-read.
Then there’s Today’s Superstars and the Age of Maturity which directly challenges the consitency of todays football stars. Yeah, they’re good now, but how the article poses the question, how good will they be in a few years?
I’m hoping that their Cristiano Ronaldo assessment is incorrect, especially if he goes to Los Blancos, whom I strongly support. And past the personal reasons, the story that I want to submit to them is based around CR7, but I’ll only submit it after I see how he does at this season’s halway mark.