football debates

• http://matthewread88.blogspot.com/ #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• http://matthewread88.blogspot.com/ #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• http://matthewread88.footballunited.com/ #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• http://matthewread88.footballunited.com/ #

Powered by Twitter Tools

Hello all! Here is my new debate!

As we all know the big 4 (Man U, Chealsea, Liverpool and Arsenal) have dominated since the Premiership began. They have consistently all been in or around the title race, FA Cup finals, carling cup finals and most importantly the Champions League!

This year however there are many new threats to the top 4!!! Man City have spent enough money to make even Bill Gates worry about going into the red, Spurs have finally had a good start to a season and Redknapp is awesome! Everton are consistently 5th and so will be about and Aston Villa have a team that can beat anyone on their day!

Along with this the top 4 have not started as well as normal; Liverpool have already lost twice the amount of games they lost all last season, Man U are doing well but have lost Ronaldo and a couple of games they should have won, Chelsea can’t win away at the moment and Arsenal…well they are Arsenal, they play pretty but wont win the title!

From all this surely we can say that we will see the big 4 broken and some refreshing changes to the top of the Premier League!!!

However, there are a few issues/debates:

1. will it actually happen?

2. will it be sustainable if it dose?

3. do we want it?

The first problem is that no matter how well everyone else plays and how badly the top 4 play they always manage to finish in the top 4! Last year everyone outside of North London would have bet money on Aston Villa taking Arsenals place but it just didn’t happen! They couldn’t keep it up! The same with Spurs a couple of years ago, they just can’t keep the momentum up!

Secondly, if we have learnt anything from Leeds United it is that it may not be the best thing to break the top 4! It’s all well and good doing it in one season but it has to be maintained or money troubles can occur. Now Man City could probably handle it with their billions but would Aston Villa and Everton cope?

Finally, if someone broke the top 4 would that be good for English clubs in Europe? With the top 4 we have had 3 English teams in the final 4 of the champions league for the past 3 years! That is just remarkable! My worry is that Spurs, City, Villa and Everton would struggle to get past the quarter finals. Can we really see Everton beating Inter, Barca, Bayern or even Lyon???

So this is my question to you all, will the top 4 be broken? Will it be maintained? And will it work?

All comments will be well received, it is time to debate once again! 

Hello again,

Here is my new debate focusing on the growing trend of sacking a manager after just a handful of games!

I have chosen to take a look at this after Brian Gunn was dismissed by Norwich this week after only 1 League match and 1 Cup tie!!! This is utterly mad! What are they going to say to the new guy who comes in ‘win your first match or you are fired’! I know they lost 7-1 on the opening day but so what! Freak results happen and we have to move on, how can a manager be seriously judged on one game? What if I got a job as manager on WHSmiths, for example, and on my first day profits were down from the week before, would I be instantly to blame and fired? I don’t think so! Managers need time to build and mould their team and cannot do that if they have this unbelievable pressure to win every game or be sacked!

Unfortunately it has come to the point where cases like Gunn are not unusual, look at Scolari at Chelsea, Allardyce at Newcastle (which I will come onto later) and Jurgen Klinsmann at Bayern Munich! We measure their times at these clubs in Days and Weeks rather than Months and Years!!!! It is shocking! It is my true belief that even if a manager looses his first 5 games you should stick by him for at least 1 year to give him time to build his squad and integrate his style of play.

We only have to compare successful clubs to failing clubs to see that faith in a manager is key, Man United are the most potent club in English history, since Newcastle challenged them for the title in 1995/96 campaign they have had 9 managers whilst Man U have had 1 and look at where they both are now! Again look at Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton. They have all had long term managers and consistently good seasons whilst clubs like Newcastle, Derby and dare I say Leeds United who keep changing their managers have done consistently badly!

here are the key down sides to constantly firing your manager:

1) Lack of consistency in the dressing room, style on the pitch, building a solid team and managers ideas.

2) The cost! Constant sacking means paying huge settlements as well as new managers to come in!

3) Fear for new managers – Under pressure to win every game or else!!!

4) Look at the results – teams who stick by their manager do better! They just do!

The premier league hasn’t even started yet but you can already bet on who is going to loose their job first and I think that is despicable!

So please tell me what you think? Use examples from your own clubs? Am I wrong? Who will go this year?

One of the big issues in modern football is similar to that of economics: ‘the trickle down effect’. Apparently as the richer clubs get richer from TV deals, sponsors and sales etc. the smaller clubs in the lower leagues are supposed to get some of this money fall down to them, and although this is evident with larger salaries in the lower leagues the gap between championship and premiership seems bigger than ever!

We have got to a point where teams going up into the premierleague have to nearly bankrupt themselves just to try and reach 16th place! And it is getting harder and harder to stay up and establish yourself. A good example is Reading, who were probably the strongest championship squad to get promoted for years but even they only managed 2 seasons.

As teams in the premiership get more and more money and more established it is going to become nearly impossible for a new team to get in there. I truly believe we will get to the point where the 3 teams that go down will always be the 3 back up next season.

And it is not just in premiership promotion where there is a problem, it is also with reaching the ‘big 4′. Again to try and reach this holy grail a club has to bankrupt itself e.g. Leeds United! Getting into the top four was the worst thing that ever happened to us!

I’m sure most of you will agree that the old league 1 was better when there was practically a different winner every year and anyone could get promoted/relegated. But I fear those days will never be back!

What do people think?

Does the ‘trickle down effect’ work?

Can a small team fight with the big boys?

Hello all,

this is my first of hopefully many posts in which I would like to start a football related debate.

Everyone who enjoys football (and everyone else) has an opinion about players wages. The numbers seem to skyrocket every year and with every newspaper I read I am shocked to learn how much even the most average of players earn.

It was reported, across multiple publications in recent weeks, that Ronaldo will earn over £550,000 in his final year of contract with Real Madrid. What is more mind blowing is that this WILL NOT be his main income as his sponsor deals earn him more than this! After the tax man and agent have taken their fair chunk (and I use the term fair loosely) he will still earn millions every year. 

So, is this wrong?

Well I am unsure. I am a huge football fan and follow the mighty Leeds United, I go to their games a pay £25 to get in, £10 on beer, £30 on a shirt and god knows how much more on programs, food and other merchandise, so I am giving the club this money for which they pay the players wages. Can I really complain about wages when I hand over fist fulls of cash to the FA? I watch sky sports which pays them so much money and unconsciously I probably buy into the advertising, therfore if I want to criticise the wages shouldn’t I stop giving any kind of attention or money to the sport that I love?

The ultimate point is that clubs like Chelsea, Madrid, Man U (and now Man City!) Milan and Bayern Munich can afford to pay these salaries and would argue that ‘if they don’t the players will go else where to earn big bucks’ so can we fault them?

Here are some questions to start this debate (although I’m sure there is enough opinion out there already):

Should we have a salary cap and would it have to be across the whole of Europe to stop players just moving for money?

Should money be divided equally between all clubs (like the NFL in America) so that one club cannot easily pay as much as others?

Should we stop complaining if we are the ones buying into the system and paying them their wages?

Give me your opinions, criticisms and arguments people!

Welcome to FootballUnited.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!