Well they do say what goes around comes around. A few years back Man Utd fans took great delight in singing that there is only one Peter Ridsdale during matches against Leeds.  Now those same fans are being serenaded around Premiership grounds with a similar ditto about a certain Mr Glazer.  However Ridsdale and Glazer, and their circumstances, couldn’t be much different.
 
Starting with Portly Pete he was in fact a longstanding fan for whom fate had handed him the job of his dreams.  With no expense spared he started on a fast track to get his beloved Whites to the top of European football.  No corners were cut as he lavished riches on every average player who simply told him they would love to play for Leeds, and then proceeded to do the same with their greedy agents!  He acted like a megalomaniac out of a Bond film and surrounded himself with inexperienced highly paid non-executive directors who wouldn’t challenge his excesses.  However the kid in the sweet shop finally ran out of cash and the rest is history.
 
In comparison to Ridsdale the Glazers are the chalk to his smelly cheese.  The Americans have vast personal wealth and experience in running successful sports businesses but appear to have no love of “soccer” never mind a love for Man Utd.  For them it is purely business. However one of the biggest differences is the size of the respective debt.  Leeds went bust for around £85 million whereas according to the latest reports the Glazers have used the cash cow of a premier league club to fund the debt on their failing shopping centres and other USA property ventures to the tune of up to a billion quid.
 
Man Utd. fans are right to be concerned as despite a credible effort to challenge Chelsea for the title they had a poor season, especially in Europe. At times it looked like Rooney Utd as their striker gave such outstanding displays that he almost seemed to be playing on his own at times.  A club of their size needs to replace stars who either leave to go elsewhere or retire.  When Ronaldo left instead of bringing in a really top name he was replaced with 2 players; a guy from Wigan Athletic and a free Michael Owen!  This can only be because of a lack of funds available. Ferguson has always splashed cash to help buy success and for every Rooney and Ronaldo there has been a Berbatov or a Veron.  Do the Glazers not trust his judgement enough to give him the £75 million that is needed to keep up with the rest? Barca are lining up Fabregas, Real will no doubt have cash for the Special One to rebuild with, the Noisy Neighbours have their billions and Abramovich seems to have the appetite back again after buying new yachts over the last few years instead of footballers.
 
It could be interesting to see if this is the beginning of the end for Man Utd.  A lack of real power in the transfer market, and an angry fan base together with stubborn owners may have Ferguson questioning his reasons for staying if he is not competing at the very top table.

This was of course in the good old days when winning a European trophy was based on proper knock out football as opposed to today’s seeded group stages. It also meant travelling behind the “iron curtain” on dodgy airlines, staying in 2-star hotels in Dresden, Bucharest and the like, and flying back to the UK just in time to prepare for the Saturday game which would kick off at 3pm – and all this with a squad of 15 or 16. 

So what has gone wrong with the Scousers?  Well, to be frank, they have been under performing for 20 years on the domestic front, with no league titles since the formation of the Premiership. After a their great comeback against Milan they appeared to be making progress and came close in 2008/09 to claiming the Premiership and they seemed to be getting back to where they once were.  However ,to keep progressing, a team must improve each year and to do so the cash has to be flashed and good players replaced with great players. Liverpool’s problems, I believe, are mainly in the board room and we have all seen how the lack of cash, dodgy chairmen (in this case 2 dodgy chairmen!) and managerial uncertainly can cause a club to implode – take a bow Newcastle, Leeds, Wednesday, Pompey, Southampton etc.  Liverpool were also unlucky with injuries to Torres and Gerard as well as a few of the new signings which certainly did not help their cause at all.  The continual debates about Benetiz were also an unwanted distraction, but the guy didn’t help by making comments such as guaranteeing 4th place. 

But ultimately they are a club that are potentially in financial meltdown and I can’t see this changing without new owners coming in, and such owners need to very, very wealthy indeed to find say £350 million to buy out the yanks, fund a £500 million new stadium and splash another £150 million on 3 or 4 true superstars.  This is a big ask in the current financial climate and an even bigger one without Champions League football to tempt the big money men and also the big players.

So to conclude: Liverpool were on a hiding to nothing in the Champions League this season and if Benetiz can win the Europa Cup it would be a hell of an achievement, especially as the final could well be his last game as manager if the mighty Juve prove too much of a temptation.  I am afraid the red half of Liverpool could be in for  rocky few years.

Now the return of the self proclaimed chosen one was never going to be an easy tie.  Over the two legs the game was won on the tactics board as Inter totally out thought Chelsea and ran out very worthy winners. However putting aside the Jose factor Chelsea were also in the middle of the annual sticky patch that all teams go through.  Draws with teams such as Hull did not help the confidence and also the African Nations cup and the John Terry scandals affected the performances over a 4 week period.  These are now yesterdays news and their current form is back to where it was as the 7-1 and 3-0 wins against a quality Villa team have evidenced.

So there are reasons as opposed to excuses for their early exit from the Champions League.  However the big reasons for me are Chelsea’s ageing squad and a lack of a productive youth policy. Other clubs seem to have a fairly regular rotation policy but with Chelsea it is nearly always the same 11 regardless of if they are playing Arsenal or say Aldershot in a cup game.  The likes of Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Ballack etc. are not getting any younger and with a world cup coming up they will be playing in excess of 60 games in a 11 month period.  Where are the kids pushing for places?  It is well known that a few years ago Chelsea went on a spending spree poaching a lot of the best 15/16 year olds, and paying good money for untried kids.  However this has backfired.  Take the example of Tom Taiwo who was poached from Leeds as a 15 year old by Chelsea with an alleged +£1 million compensation paid to the Yorkshire club.  A few weeks back Taiwo returned to Elland Road as he warmed the bench for Carlisle United!

The figure of £60 million has been talked about as the expenditure on Chelsea’s youth academy over the last few years and this I feel is where the problem they have is rooted.  The guys at the top at Stamford Bridge seem to think that throwing money at a problem will bring success and, whilst Chelsea have had their most successful few years ever, the holy grail of the Champions League is still as elusive as ever.  Although noises are being made about prudence moving forward, the problem is now very deep rooted and money will have to be made available.  As their first team gets older Chelsea have to get the kids coming through the ranks.  If they don’t then the only option is for Roman to get the cheque book out again and spend very big as £5 million on a player here and there will not get them the price he relishes the most.  The big question though is has he still got the appetite?  As he has just spent a reported £400 million on two new super-yachts it may be that his thoughts are not necessarily on cold winter nights in Wigan or Sunderland.

JT has now been exposed in the papers for a variety of misdemeanours, he has also lost a big mate, upset the missus, lost the England armband and has had to endure, not unjustly, the gleeful abuse of every opposing fan every time he steps onto the pitch.  OK, Chelsea are never going to be anyone’s “second team” after their dirty reputation on the pitch in the good old days; the name Chopper Harris will bring back memories no doubt!  Also their infamous Head-hunters and the recent New Money injection from Russia did them no favours.  Consequently, I can understand the banter from the fans when Terry is wearing the Chelsea badge, but the booing when he was wearing the 3 Lions was out of order.

Time for closure I think as we need to pull together as a country for what will no doubt be a very tough World Cup in June. So no negative sentiment please from the terraces out in South Africa for any England player… unless of course the unthinkable happens and Gary Neville gets a call up!!

Apologies for upsetting all the patriots who have been sticking a fiver on England down at William Hills but we have no chance I’m afraid.  “Rubbish!” you may scream as you look through your English rose tinted specs whilst dribbling a pint of Stella down your St. Georges t-shirt.

Well here are 10 good reasons:

1.    Goalkeeper. We don’t know who will be playing in goal as we don’t have a decent keeper.  Oh, for the days when custodians such as Clemence, Parkes, Martyn etc. were deemed not good enough to get any further than the bench; such was our strength between the sticks.  Now we are looking at either an injured 39 year old nicknamed Calamity, a keeper who is third choice at Man United or an internationally unproven Robert Green.  In fact the only English goalie who has had a blinding season is Joe Hart at Birmingham City.  Will be interesting to see who Capello gives the no. 1 shirt to for the next friendly.

2.    Right back.  We have Glen Johnson who is probably in the top echelon of attacking full backs in world football.  But he cannot defend and at the top level he cannot give the ball away with the frequency he has done in the qualifying campaign.  And another problem is that he has done his knee in and may not be around for a while.  Gary Neville anyone?  No – I thought not.

3.     Rio.  Is he finished?  Injury prone, out of form, lost a yard of pace, too many outside interests etc.  However true these claims are there is no escaping the fact that he is not the player he was 12 months ago.

4.    Too many other potential winners.  Any one of Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Holland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ivory Coast could win the trophy.  If we qualify from our group we would probably have to beat 4 of the above teams to win it.  I very much doubt that we could do so.  This is the most open world cup ever with possible winners everywhere you look.

5.    Penalties.  We can’t take them, and we can’t save them.  For some reason we concentrate on blaming players who miss as opposed to our keepers who never save them.  Why not pick the most successful English spot kick saver over the last 2 seasons and take him as 3rd choice keeper who we bring on for the penalties?

6.    The Aussies.  They hate us and if we end up playing them they would give us a hell of a game.

7.    Rooney’s temper.  Okay he has matured a lot over the last couple of seasons but if he is frustrated at getting no service will he keep his cool when some Argie is kicking lumps out of him whilst whispering in his ear about all the nice things he would like to do to Coleen?

8.    Fitness.  Our players are nearly all knackered!  Injury concerns about James, Johnson, Woodgate, Rio, Gerrard, J. Cole, Heskey, Walcott and Hargreaves.

9.    Form. Too many players having average seasons. Big names such as Barry, Gerrard, Terry, Heskey, Downing, Upson, Crouch, Carrick, Brown, Wright Phillips, Owen etc. have become very mediocre over the last couple of months.

10.     No kids coming through to pressurise the old guard. With the exception of outstanding Lennon and Milner there is no-one knocking on Fabio’s door demanding a starting place.  The good young English players are not getting a look in at there clubs who pack their starting eleven with foreign players.  Star prospects such as Sturridge at Chelsea and the Arsenal crop are very much bit players who spend time waiting for the next round of the Carling Cup.

It’s not all doom and gloom though.  The weather will resemble an English winter so at least we won’t suffer from the heat experienced at previous tournaments.  So no excuses boys – bring back the big prize!