Birmingham City v Wigan Preview
Tomorrow sees us face Wigan at St Andrews in the Premier League. I am going to be at this one as it also the latest fans forum at the club – more on that next week!
After a couple of disappointing results in the league, we will be looking to win and secure the 40 point mark – just to MAKE SURE that we are safe! 
After the fantastic run came to an end at Chelsea, we have struggled a bit. It is interesting that the squad has had a few changes too because of injuries. According to the news I have at the moment, we are back to full strength. It looks like Barry Ferguson is available again, of course he may not go straight into the side.
The other player who has missed a couple of games is Chucho. I didn’t see last Sunday’s game, but I gather that McFadden did pretty well up front with Jerome. Despite this, I think I would bring Chucho back in. This is the sort of game that he could get his first St Andrews goal. I get the impression, that he could go on a scoring run then.
As far as Wigan, they are going through a difficult time at the moment. They have only won one Premier League game since the end of November, a 2-0 away victory at Wolves. During that time was our 3-2 victory at their place, a mauling by Manchester United and they have failed to beat a number of clubs who are in the relegation fight.
Titus Bramble and James McCarthy are likely to miss the game due to injuries, but as far as I can tell, they don’t have any other problems with players.
With the greatest respect to Wigan, this is the sort of game we should be winning as we look to cement ourselves as a mid-table Premier League side. I hope that Alex McLeish gets us to go on the offensive and look to get the crowd going with an early goal.
It would be nice to see us win comfortably, however I would take a 1-0!
As long as we return to our the defensive organisation that we were getting credit for during the unbeaten run, we should win.
I’m going for a 2-0 to Blues as a confidence boost before we face Portsmouth twice in a week in the cup and the league.
The PL Issue Wolves a Suspended Fine
I see the Wolverhampton Wanderers have been hit with a suspended £25,000 fine for fielding a weakened side against Manchester United. Now while at the time I thought Mick McCarthy was mad to do that, Wolves had just had a good result against Spurs, and they just MIGHT have got something against United – the thing is what is going on here? So why would they fine Wolves? What are the rules?
The Premier League rules relating to this subject are:
E 20 In every League Match each participating Club shall field a full strength team.
B 13 In all matters and transactions relating to the League each Club shall behave towards each other Club and the League with the utmost good faith.
It seems cut and dried then, Wolves deserve their fine – let’s move on, however it isn’t that simple.
The top four have played weakened sides in a variety of games to protect themselves for the likes of the Champions League. Any fines dished out? No. Why? Well because of the talent that they have at the clubs. With the greatest respect to Wolves, or in fact virtually any other side in the Premier League outside of the top four or five – it would be obvious that they have fielded a reserve side. It would be less so for the other sides, and therefore they won’t ever get fined for this.
This isn’t a knock at the top four, it should be up to clubs if they want to play their reserves for whatever reason, I think they should be entitled to.
With hindsight, McCarthy should have left three or four of his first team in to make it look less obvious! 
Mind you, Wolves did beat Burnley the following game, and if those three points mean that they stay up – then a £25,000 suspended sentence will be worth it!
Kev
Credit Crunch in Football
Portsmouth. It’s their big day today. The hearing is at 11.30. Apparently talks broke down last night, and Pompey made a cash offer to HMRC this morning. However HMRC have refused that, they want most of the 7 million that’s owed.
The club face liquidation, where they will cease to exist today or more likely administration to give them longer to find a buyer. The problem with that of course is they will get a 9 point deduction which will relegate them making finding a buyer more difficult as Newcastle found.
This is the tip of the iceberg. Other clubs are also in difficulty, including Cardiff and Southend. Other clubs have also been talked about in the press.
It must be a horrible time for the fans of these clubs, I can remember when the Blues nearly went under and not knowing if we would continue. But the thing is, football is it’s own worse enemy.
The cash that has been pumped into the sport has caused clubs to plan and buy around possible income, speculate to accumulate approach. Portsmouth bought big the season they stayed up and we went down, clearly on wages that they couldn’t maintain.
Something has to be done or football will implode. The wages are too high for a start. Players at the top level earn the sort of money that would run hospitals and schools and possibly small countries!
I heard on the radio this morning that Manchester United’s debts are huge, the Glaziers have ensured that the debts are secured against the club rather than themselves. The advantage that United have that virtually all clubs don’t have is their brand.
Chelsea and more recently Manchester City have been heavily invested in by rich overseas people, I’d hate to imagine what the wages are at those two clubs. If either of the owners of those clubs walked away, they would probably go under because they wouldn’t find other rich people to take over.
I really hope our new owners don’t over stretch themselves to buy success, the one thing our previous board did seem to get right – was they knew how to balance the books.
Sorry that this is a ramble, it is really a collection of thoughts around a problem that I believe will only get worse unless someone makes a huge decision such as capping wages.
What are your thoughts on it?
Cesc’ Fab but Fragile Arsenal Facing
Here is Dale’s latest article.
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Arsenal’s artistic style of football has striking similarities to Van Gough, a genius at what they do but a product of their own downfall. The gunners are yet to see silverware since 2002 and there’s only so many “end of the seasons” that Wenger can be judged on. As a manager, it is admirable that he has taken the moral stance on financing the team but how longer does he have before the North London faithful start jetting out of the Emirates. There are 2 departments to the Arsenal team that have to be addressed if they have any realistic ambitions of reaching the heights of the “invincibles”.
Goals and Power. Fernando Torres, Didier Drogba and Wayne Rooney. Frequently found in every tabloid readers fantasy football team at the start of the season (to the expense of having a Titus Bramble-esque defence as a large amount of the £50m was gobbled up by the front 3). They cost money but they score goals. The correlation is simple yet too complex for Arsene Wenger “the talent spotter” to digest.
Goals. Wenger prides himself on producing the best young, exciting and talented players to ever grace the premier league and beyond. Snapping up players for a fraction of their worth and selling them on for tens of millions of pounds. His uncanny ability to develop players is unmatched by anyone in the business since Ferguson’s Beckham, Neville, Scholes and Giggs era. However Wenger MUST break the bank and sign a proven world class goal scorer to compete with the superstars strikers of Rooney, Drogba and Torres. Van Persie looked to fill that void until getting injured on international duty during Holland’s friendly against Italy back In November. Wenger should have addressed the problem during the transfer window with Marouane Chamakh the obvious signing. Instead he has chosen to wait for the summer to sign the Moroccan hit man as his contract expires allowing him to join on a free. In doing so he has kissed goodbye to any hopes of winning their first premier league title for 7 years. Two successive defeats against United and Chelsea made sure of this.
Power. Arsenals visit to Stamford Bridge was a demonstration of how power is everything in the toughest league in the world. Down the spine of the Chelsea machine stood Terry, Ballack and Drogba. Three powerful, commanding and authoritative figures up against the tipy-tapy trio of Gallas, Denilson and Nasri. The appropriate and yet tired cliché of boys against men has seldom being demonstrated with as much evidence. Arsenal were not without their own spell of pressure and had enough possession without reward. The difference in the two teams, on the day was the physique and clout in a Chelsea side that simply bullied Arsenal off the park. It seems Wenger has developed a seemingly dismissive approach to a vital element of the English game, disrespecting it almost. As a neural it would give me great pleasure in seeing an Arsenal team as talented and skilful as the current one lifting the evasive premier league title. Yet there are no points earned for style of football and for this reason the best opportunity Arsenal had for the past few seasons is slipping from their grasp.
Until Wenger learns that pretty football is simply not enough to win a title, Arsenal will be part of a cycle that starts with anticipation and promise but ultimately ends with disappointment and failure.
Dale Moon
Post Chelsea: where do we go from here?
Nat, one of our forum regulars, has written this article post Wednesday!
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Looking back, I can still barely believe it. Birmingham City going fifteen games unbeaten whilst in the top-flight, a team that less than a year ago huffed and puffed like the Big Bad Wolf in getting out of the Championship. A team at that point that did well to string fifteen passes together, never mind results. It has to be written down to be believed, draws in the league at home to United, Citeh and Chelsea, and then more draws in the league at Anfield and Goodison. Smash and grab raids at Wigan and Stoke, and to top it all, a place in the FA Cup fifth round for the first time in four years, as a result of our first win at Goodison since Ken was born.
But it’s over. We barely even had time to raise the white flag before Malouda bagged the first. Lampard effectively ended the contest and our unbeaten streak before half-time. You can try and point to different reasons for the collapse but I think the reason for our comprehensive defeat is the same reason Chelsea are top of the league. We were playing against a top quality side, who would blow away most teams if they play to anywhere near their best.
It gives us a right bump to earth though. I think even the most optimistic Bluenose realises that, deep down, the European tour we sing about remains nothing more than a pipeline dream in terms of qualifying via the Premier League. Wednesday served as a reminder that we are still a bazillion light-years from regularly being able to go toe-to-toe with the elite of the elite. Finishing in a comfortable mid-table position would still count as a great season for us, anywhere higher than that and Alex McLeish gets the keys to the city.
Of course, I am discounting our Cup run. A juicy (and VERY winnable) tie at Derby leaves us, not within touching distance, but relatively close to Wembley. We’re only two games from the Semi-final and what would be my first visit to our National Stadium. If (and it’s a huge IF) we could even get to the Semi-final, or dare I dream, the Final, it would probably top off what is turning into an incredible season, the pride I’d feel watching Blues at Wembley for the first time would surpass seeing us play twice at the Millenium Stadium, what a great end to a fantastic season it would be. Still, we’ve got to get past Derby first. I once saw us lose a Fifth-round tie against a second-tier Sunderland when we we’re in the top-half of the Premier League under Steve Bruce, so I’m taking nothing for granted.
To get anywhere quickly though, there was a clear need for reinforcements. Our backline is well covered, and the two (in my opinion) shrewd signings of Michel from Sporting Gee-hon and Craig Gardner from the Sty gives us a boost in the middle. But as everyone knows, we need strikers. It’s not as if Chucho and Cameron are particularly bad players, they’ve done relatively well together, but behind them we have Kevin Phillips (I’d be quite surprised to see him start another game for Blues), Gary O’Connor (I’d be very surprised to see him start another game for Blues) and, returning from a glorious loan spell at ‘Boro, Marcus Bent (I would be in two minds as whether to leave a match if I ever saw him play for Blues again).
Quite simply, we need an extra option. At the time of writing, a deal to bring Aruna Dindane to Blues is apparently all but agreed for £4million. I’m not particularly enamoured with the prospect of him coming in, especially at the price. He just seems to be all tricks but no delivery, ala Quincy perhaps. But I suppose we could do worst than him for back up. The more exciting prospect is the on-off deal to bring Roman Pavlyuchenko to Blues. The lad has strength, height, skill and an eye for goal, four things that when rolled into one make him a class act. Colin Tattum says the deal could be on between us and Spurs, and the lad wants to come, which would be great. I genuinely seem him as a cornerstone of turning Blues from also-rans into genuine challengers in the top half of the League.
Still even if we don’t nab him, I won’t be too perturbed. We’re in a League position which means we aren’t desperate for points. We aren’t in a need to sign whoever we can get. We’re comfortable. Our pre-season objective has pretty much been achieved already, we can pick and choose who we sign. If the right player comes along at a reasonable price, then sign him. But if that player is unavailable then not to worry, there will be more available in the Summer and beyond.
Portsmouth and West Ham in the past few months have shown us the consequences of spending money willy-nilly. They are in a total mess right now. We need to maintain that our house remains in order, whilst still having the ambition to progress continually. And then there’s the fact that mad signings could upset the applecart in the dressing room. The players we have, just by looking at our do or die performances recently, have a strong bond and a fluency that comes from playing with each other week-in week-out. Why upset that now? Bring in players who could provide alternatives to the players we have if need be, but only bring in ingredients that would garnish the recipe, not alter it.
Still I’m looking too far ahead, as Big ‘Eck would preach, take things one step at a time. We’ve got two big home games coming up. Spurs at home tomorrow will be tricky, but aren‘t an insurmountable challenge. They play good football under Twitch, and are pretty much impregnable at White Hart Lane, but for me never seem to be the same grizzly monster outside their own cage. Our last home defeat came towards the end of September, and who’s going to whole heartedly bet against us tomorrow?
Then next week the Dingles come to town. A tough game in a different regard. Whereas Spurs offer a multitude of talent, Wolves are probably the most untalented footballing team I’ve seen in the Premier League this season, with the possible exception of Blackburn. But Mick McCarthy seems to have rallied them to the point where they have half a chance of survival. They don’t score many goals, and aren’t totally competent in their own penalty box, but Wolves always give 110% every game. In a local derby where they will be kicking and scrapping for every point they can muster in what for them, in my opinion, will be a desperate battle for survival for the, they present themselves as tough opponents.
Two tough games, but both winnable. Two wins and six points would mean we are sitting thirty-nine points at the start of February. And then we’re laughing, right?
Keep Right On (hopefully to Wembley!)
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