Arsenal: Season is melting down???

Draw in the last four league matches 'especially against mid-table teams, growing injury list, lack of ideas, struggling defense, and drying strikers. Arsenal's season is melting down from incredible expectations. Their victory against AC Milan was good enough to celebrate but league form made them to lose their five point advantage against Manchester United and after the last draw against Middle borough put them in the second position with equal point of third positioned Chelsea.

Arsenal's position in the top was an unexpected result in the beginning. Pundits in media projected their position in between four to six for this season but from the beginning the stood in the lead role with a small gap in December. Why they reached in the top position and why and how they are losing that place in the league table..

Pre season preparations

Generally the two month 'June & July 'is considered as the preparation period for every clubs. For the last three years, Arsenal is finishing in the lower order of first four and the last two years they failed to achieve a single trophy too. In Arsene Wenger, they have an experienced manager who managed them for last 10 odd years and lifted a couple of trophies. Still they become an under achievers in the last four seasons. Financial burden due to their new stadium construction could be one of the reason but more things are to be addressed.

For nearly six years, Arsenal is one club in the top order who spent least money in the transfer market. The emergence of Chelsea and their spending power put all other clubs, except Manchester United, in trouble. To counter this high level spending, Arsenal adopted a different method by investing in very young talented players who comes for pretty cheap money. Stalwarts like Patrick Vierra, Denis Bergkamp, Robert Pires, Edu, Sol Campbell, Freddie Lungberg, Jermine Alidiare, Antonio Reyes, Ashley Cole and Therry Henry left the club. Arsenal didn't fill this gap by poaching best talents from the same league or other places. Investment during last five years were minimal, still they managed a team with their small but young talented players and kept position in the first four places.

Pundits make their predictions according to the spending power of the club, poaching of best talent, change of management in the clubs etc. With these parameters, it is difficult to place Arsenal in the first five teams in any list. In the beginning of current season, Manchester took the lead in spending for players followed by Liverpool and Chelsea. Interestingly Chelsea took a back seat this year because of some hostile relationship between the team manager and club management. On the other hand, Arsenal lost their best ever player-Therry Henry 'to Barcelona and didn't spend equal money to find another player in that position. They brought Brazil born Croatian striker Eduardo and young French full back Bakari Sagna and invested some money for a third choice goal keeper.

When Henry left, everyone expected that Wenger will enter into market to pick up the best established strikers from some clubs. But he went for Eduardo, who was little known to the Europe. When players like Vierra, Bergkamp, Pires, and Campbell left the club, it was Henry who led them from the front to fight for at least the fourth place. In his absence, no one in the football world counted Arsenal as a threat for first four places or even sixth place.

Instead of investing in established players, Wenger put his faith on existing young and raw talent in Arsenal. He brought Eduardo and Sagna and incorporated Walcott and Nicklas Bendtner in the first team. Interestingly, due to national commitments, one of the senior most players in the squad 'Gilberto-lost his place in the mid field to Matheu Flamini and later he lost that place permanently and started to appear as replacement. In short, during last couple years, Arsenal made an overhaul change in the team and replaced almost all players in the squad 'without spending much money. They found replacement in young players like Fabregas, Flamini, Diaby, Adabayor Bendtner, Walcott, Clechy, Sagna, Almunia, Denilson, and Senderos. These youngsters were blended in the squad with experience of Alexander Hleb, Tomas Roscisky, and Eduardo who were brought from European clubs.

With this young talented squad, Wenger surprised the whole world by keeping his team in the pole position in the league for last six months, especially against heavy spenders like Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspurs, and even middle order clubs but high in spending like West Ham, Aston Villa etc. Against all predictions, they remained in the first position till the end of January and suddenly started fading in the ground. Why it happened?

How Arsenal reached in the First Position until February?

Once Therry Henry decided to leave the club, the football world looked at Arsenal with sympathy and with a question in mind 'how they will cope up with lose of their greatest player. Financial superiority of Chelsea already made a power shift in the football atlas of London and emergence of Tottenham Hotspurs forced the pundits to write off Arsenal from the leading role.

But, Wenger's belief in the youth talent paid back. In Henry's absence, togetherness becomes the key word for Arsenal players. Fabregas come out from the ages to lead the midfield of the team and Matheu Flamini protected the defense with superior quality. Togetherness of players like Flamini, Fabregas and Hleb along with Adabayor and Van Perse in the front was enough to finish off any team. Fabregas openly declared that Henry's absence becomes a boon for the team and it allowed them to work as a single unit.

When Henry left the club, the main question remained was who will get the goals for Arsenal? In the first few matches, the midfield found the answer and then Robin Van Perse started scoring regularly till he got injured. Once Robin started struggling to get goals, Adabayor found form and started striking regularly in the league. Interestingly, whenever the strikers and midfielders struggled to get goals, the defenders especially captain William Gallas found the net for the team.

Along with togetherness, enthusiasm is another factor contributed a lot to the Arsenal team. Enthusiasm compensated the lack of experience of the squad. This factor helped them to play well against teams like Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea and got better result. The same factor supported them to get better in Champions League too. But the league is not just a matter of few matches. It has to go and complete 38 matches to become the winner. Enthusiasm is a factor which can push the raw talent to a certain extent. But keeping the demand of the game till the end of the season is a big task and remains as a question in front them.

For any team in the league, it is very essential to keep the players fresh and ready for each and every match till the end of season. Accepted, injury will create crises and it is one thing troubling Arsenal. To fight for complete season, which includes league matches, FA cup matches, European Championship matches, and league cup, the team should have a big squad. Replacement should be there for each position and those replacement should have the same quality of his predecessor. This is the place where Arsenal lost its way.

Every year, especially in the beginning months, the first few positions will be with unexpected teams along with the top four. This year, it was Manchester City, Portsmouth, and Everton took that mantle. Against the pre-season expectation, Tottenham Hotspurs lost its momentum in the beginning days. They invested in good players by lacked the togetherness for the team and lost crucial matches in the initial stage. Against the odd, Arsenal come out with a glorious picture and stood in the first position till December and regained the position in January.

Expectation and Analysis

Two months of holidays of Premier league were crucial for the pundits to assess each and every teams according to their ability to reach in the top. This is the time, all teams will try to reinstate steel in their team power. It is the holiday time for players but for managers, it is very busy time to find replacement for subdued players in their respective teams. According to investment capacity, scouting of talent, ability for proper replacement, each teams will assessed by the pundits and make the prediction or projection for next season.

For the last few years, Chelsea was holding the pole position in the transfer market. After the procurement of the club 'Chelsea by Roman Abrahamovich, the amount of money they pumped into transfer market was phenomenal. They brought over all best talent available and created a successful team which is capable to beat any team in the world and succeeded in the league for two consecutive years. Manchester United, after the ownership transfer to Glacier family in US, lost its momentum for a couple of years but they regained it in the last season by winning the league title. This season, they competed and defeated Chelsea in the transfer market for picking up best players. Liverpool, another club went into the hands of American ownership also played a big role in the transfer market in buying best players and rebuilding the team.

Meanwhile, Arsenal lost its couple of best players in the transfer market and replacement was not much impressive. They lost Henry, their top most player ever, and Freddie Lungberg who served 9 years in the club 'were replaced by Brazilian born Croatian striker Eduardo and French defender Sagna. Everyone expected that Arsenal will buy few more established players from the transfer market. Their financial constraints due to the completion and shifting to new stadium restricted them to move further in the market.

Financial constraints were secondary to the team and the main cause for not spending money was the policy of Arsene Wenger, who believes in unearthing talents from youngsters in the reserve team. For the last five years, Arsenal were following the policy of investing money in young talents. Their scouts moved around the world and found upcoming talent from all places. Wenger also kept a bench mark of 30 years as the top age of a player. This policy supported them in the last few years and also backfired in several aspects. It reduced the expenditure of the club in transfer market but made a huge lose in the experience matter.

Last couple of years, this policy failed them to become the champions and ended up in the 4^th position consecutively. Clearing off players like Henry and Lungberg with out proper reinforcement in the team provided wrong signals to the pundits in their preseason analysis. On the basis of reinforcement of teams with better players, they counted Arsenal behind clubs like Hotspurs, Manchester City and Everton. Almost everyone expected that Arsenal will end up in the UEFA cup for next season.

But a surprise to everyone, they kept their pole position for long period and recently lost it to Manchester United and Chelsea. Still 6 or 7 matches left for the season, they have a chance to finish at least in the second position. Early mentioned factors supported them to be in such position. Before season, only Sir Alex Ferguson predicted that Arsenal is good enough to threat its traditional rivals 'Manchester United. He said, they have a good talented squad and have an experienced manager. Assessment comes true and young boys of Arsenal were in the top position till March 2008.

Burning out or Crisis?

Reality lies in between ability, experience, and squad strength. They had a decent squad which has enough players in all positions. But some positions were not properly filled with backups. Experience counted a lot but they countered it with technique and talent. Togetherness of the team produced good results for long time. The demand of performance forced them to work in the optimum level for long time, even some point, they exceeded the optimum.

Here comes the burn out factor. Their full strength team has proved that they are good enough to beat any team in the league. But, when some crucial players are not playing 'either injured or out of form ' there is a decline in the performance rate. If we compare the performance of Arsenal with other teams like Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool, the squad strength and performance rate will tell us some interesting things.

They lost a proved striker in Henry to Barcelona and replaced with less known player like Eduardo. Robin Van Persie or Emmanuel Adabayor are not counted as a proper replacement for Henry. Their back up strikers 'Theo Walcott and Bendtner are not proved themselves as the true followers of Henry. So, the attack line of Arsenal can't be compared with clubs like Chelsea 'who have trusted, proved and reliable strikers in Dorgbha, Shevachenko, Solomon Kalau, and Claudio Pizarro. They also reinforced the striking power by obtaining service of Nickloas Anelka ' a former Arsenal striker 'from Bolton. Along with these players, they have replacement in SW Philips and Joe Cole. In the midfield, they have enough players who have enough experience in league and international level. Frank Lambard, who usually end up as the top scorer of the club along with Michel Bellack, Claude Mikelele, John Obe Michel, Michel Essien, Joe Cloe, Florent Maluda gives them substantial strength in the midfield. Some of these players can swap the position if it is required. This squad strength shows that even if some players are out of injury or suspension, their back up can immediately come up and make impact in any game.

Manchester United sold off their best ever striker Rudd Van Nistelrooy to Real Madrid last season and captured the league title from Chelsea. This was a tremendous achievement of Sir Alex and he found replacement in Wayne Rooney and Christiano Ronaldo. Manchester United has enough proved strikers in their disposal and interestingly their most prolific goal scorer 'Ronaldo is a winger. United holds a very good blend of experienced and young talented players. Along with Christiano Ronaldo, they have players like Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs who can win goals from any position. When their experience blends with young talent like Nani and Anderson 'two young players brought from Sporting Lisbon and proved midfield player Oven Hargraves, Manchester holds a terrible attacking force. Above all these players, Sir Alex brought Argentine Striker Carlos Tavez from West Ham to terrify the opponents. Alex Fergusan's first team is good enough to have two or more players in each position of the team. Injury and suspension won't be a big issue to such big squad and any player who comes up from touch line is capable to change the flow of game if required.

Liverpool is the third team who spent a good amount of money to strengthen the squad. Manager Rafel Benitez splashed a good amount to get service of Fernando Torres 'a fast striker who become a top scorer in Spanish league last year. He also brought Ryan Babel from Ajax and invested some good money in the mid field. Compare with the squad strength of Manchester United and Chelsea, Liverpool is little bit down and experience of the team is also not as good as those teams. But, they posses an upper hand over Arsenal in every department. They possess proved and experienced players in Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso, Yossi Benayun, Peter Crouch, Harry Kewell, Jermaine Pennant, Andriy Veronin, Jhavier Mascherano, and Drik Kuyt spread out in every department. The promising youngsters like Fabio Aurilio, Lucas Levia, Sebastian Leto, and  Alvaro Arbeola were capable to took over the mantle of any position from their seniors.

In the case of Arsenal, the number of experienced, proved and trusted player were less than all above mentioned teams. They have Gilberto who is the senior most player in the squad apart from goalkeepers and around him players like Alaxander Hleb, Tomas Rosisky, Matheu Flamini, and Cesch Fabregas share experience of less than 4 years with Arsenal and Denilson, Diaby, Theo Walcott, and Alexander Song were not natural replacement for all positions. They are good in some places but lack of experience makes them vulnerable. This squad has enough talent and they will emerge as strong squad in few years but current requirements are not met by them.

When Arsenal first team is available in complete strength, they are strong enough to beat any team. But even one player's absence makes them vulnerable against odd teams too. Other teams like Chelsea, Manchester United, and Liverpool are good enough to make impact in the flow of game by a substitution but Arsenal is not in such position. It is better to say the performance of the Arsenal first team is on the optimal side. While other teams can achieve that with a high level performance, per say 85 percent to 90 percent of the potential. If it is not enough to beat the opponent, they can raise the level by introducing some super substitutions.

Such situation, teams like Manchester United and Chelsea never use their optimum potential to beat any team in the league. Yes, they lost to few but in some odd circumstances.. If the full team of Manchester is available, Sir Alex will have a difficult time to pick up the best squad and same with Chelsea manager Grant. In Liverpool, available squad is not as big as the other two teams and rotation policy of Benitez invited severe criticism from fans and pundits for their failure. On the other hand, in Arsenal, Wenger struggle to pick up a powerful squad to face good opponents due to injuries. In such conditions the available team has to boost beyond their optimum level to achieve decent results. This is the cause of burn out problem for the team.

A surprisingly good run in the top order for long time took a lot from Arsenal players. Injury is natural for all teams but when the performance level is optimum and add with injury causes more trouble. They cannot produce the same performance they did in the beginning of the season and struggling in all departments due to injury or out of form players. In the mid term transfer market, they failed to add players in the squad but also lost one impact player to Portsmouth. Lessana Diara, who comes to Arsenal from Chelsea, was always with complaint of lacking first team chances. Wenger was forced to leave him out of squad immediately and that ended as a crucial mistake from his side.

Burning out of energy and form could be a problem for Arsenal but it can't be interpreted as a crisis. Wenger believes in his team and the team believes in him. So far, there is not discontent in that aspect but lacking trophies for long team will test the patience of club fans and authorities. Arsenal is not a club who splashes money in the market for any good players. They are known for shrewd buys and unexpected captures. Still, spending will be a big issue during the transfer market reopens. If they want to achieve something next year, they have to strengthen the squad and have to buy few established players in all departments.

England is out from Euro 2008 'So What?

Now back to square again, England is looking for a new manager for their national team. As per the wish of English media, Steve McClaren was sacked after losing to Croatia and edging out from the Euro 2008. Nearly after a week, still the Football Association of England hasn't decided whether they should look for an English man or a foreigner as the new manager. Print, TV and web media is pouring names as per their interest, suggesting how FA should approach the next manager, and criticizing the authorities for not listening to their words at last time when they picked Steve McClaren.

Now the Draw for the qualifying round of European teams to next World Cup 'in South Africa is also over. Interestingly, England again grouped in with Croatia for the qualifying round. Media toasted up this as a chance of revenge against Croatia, and some famous footballers also echoed this nonsense. The qualifying rounds will start by next year and it is better, before it starts English FA should come out with a new manager.

Anatomy of the failure is still going on. Each and every pundit are writing as per their feelings about the failure and suggesting how to play or how manager should pick up players for the match against Croatia. Before the match, the approach was different. Even though the press and pundits were not happy with McClaren, they were happy with the result of match between Russia and Israel. When Russia lost to Israel, everybody in England expected that their team is through to the finals. They required just a draw against Croatia and everyone expected they will defeat Croatia and will end up as the group leaders. No one expected that the team who plays only for a draw will end up in misery. They forgot the cardinal rule of football 'always play for victory.

Once the match got over, England lost in all terms. They lost to Croatia in both legs and also slipped their place in world cup seeding list. World cup qualifying draw of last week provided some breathing space for senior players in the English squad. After a long pause, they started emotionally responding to lose of Euro and future in World Cup. Now, interestingly, the responses and comments from English authorities and players are very close to the statements of Crusade days. One of the senior most player in the squad, who is in self imposed exile in US, declared that the world cup draw is an opportunity to do the revenge against Croatia. This former England captain claimed that 'he is looking for World Cup revenge on Croatia after they dumped England out of the qualifying stages of Euro 2008'. FA Chief Executive Brian Barwick echoed the same in different way by saying ‘it’s an opportunity at a competitive level to pit our wits against a team that did us twice and an opportunity for the new coach when he’s with us so see whether he can turn around our fortunes against a very good team'. English striker Michael Oven went one step ahead with arrogance to compare the Croatian team with English by saying "none of the Croatia players would get into the England team".

Above mentioned statements shows the arrogance of English players and reveals that they are still in an imaginary world and will take much more time to come down to reality. Before the match between Israel and Russia, Russian manager Guss Hiddink said, England team doesn't deserve to be in the finals of Euro, but he lost. I accept, Russia also doesn't deserve a place in the finals like England but they are in. It was on England's expense, Russia made it. But the arrogant statement from Russian team manager never went into the minds of English authorities. He was right in saying so, because Russia managed a draw against Croatia in their both legs and at the end, they lost one match less than England in total.

I love English football, especially premier league. But, very sorry to say, for the last few years, though they talk about golden generation, they were mediocre. Just because of the tactics of Sven Ericksson than the performance of the team, they reached in the quarters of World Cup in Germany. But, the power of media urged Eriksson to move out from the position and install their favoured "English Man" as manager. What went wrong with McClaren? Still people are debating such issues; pundits are providing their own versions. Interestingly, nobody is ready to accept the fact that Croatia was a superior team at least for the day They played fantastic football and dominated in all aspects over England. Yes, most of the senior English players were injured and not playing in the team, still, the expectation on this football nation never reached to its potential.

Now I can start my anatomy on these issues. I am seriously watching English football for more than two decades. Currently, football in England means Premier League football. Other than EPL, everything is secondary for the authorities and the media. Everyone knows, it is just because of the revenue generated from the EPL. The revenue attracts better players from outside and that attracts more viewers and they generate more revenue for FA and clubs. The national football comes to lime light only when they are engaged in qualifying rounds in Euro or World Cup or in international friendly. Beyond this, everything is about EPL only.

The feeling of 'Englishness' appears only in the nonsense debate on the number of foreign players playing for clubs. Whenever England lose against any national team, the media will bring the issue of English quota in the clubs and drag the attention to it. Issue is much beyond this aspect. They are lying with the FA, their management, and planning abilities. They should change the approach of 'picking the best players from the domestic league and creating a team in urgency'. They should invest money and effort in nurturing young prospering players for the country. Clubs will take effort for their purpose, but nation also should take initiative or join hands with clubs in finding players. They should have a proper plan to approach qualifiers.

In my observation, I will pick up few factors and analyze the causes of the failure of England. For narrowing down the approach, I will pick up three factors which were lacking in the English team throughout the campaign. They are Consistency, Motivation, and Teamwork, the areas where one good manager have a big say. Consistency is the key factor of success in the qualifying round. Motivation will come next. Team work, the aspect which is completely absent, is another key aspect of any team in their success. In a nutshell, if the manager is good enough to merge these three factors in proper composition he will succeed in his work.  McClaren failed to prepare a planned approach and include the above mentioned factors in the qualifying campaign. Sven proved he was more successful in this.

We hope, the selection of next manager will fulfill those missing aspects and English FA will be able to bring an expereinced hand who can deal the English Stars in proper way.

 The match between the giants of English Premier League, Arsenal and Manchester United at Emirates stadium, ended up in a fantastic draw with a score line of 2-2. Both clubs played well, match was attractive, young Arsenal competed very well against the talent and experience of United, still the match ended up in a positive draw. Now news media says it was the match viewed by more than 1 billion people allover the world. If it is true, it was a healthy match and good for football. But, the post match responses are not showing such healthy signs from both sides. Just after the match, Sir Alex fired the first shot against Arsenal to rejuvenate the rivalry which was quiet for some time. He complained about the behavior of Arsenal fans in the stadium, then pointed his figure towards the match officials by saying that they ’supported Arsenal’. After two days of the match, he took a general snipe against his close competitors in the league by supporting Fifa’s argument to introduce quota system in club football to encourage development of native talent. People who are watching football closely for last one decade can easily make out that, it was a deliberate shot against clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea, and to some extend, against his city rivals Manchester City. But implication of such attack is much more, especially when it comes from senior personalities like Alex Ferguson.

A neutral person can view it as the continuing verbal battle and mind game between Sir Alex and Arsene Wenger. It will go on. But the fact is the quality of English Players and responsibility of English clubs. If it is verbal battle, one should give damn care to it. If it is a serious allegation, then people should see the development in a different perspective. I hope this is just a beginning of another round of Mind Games. Absence of former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho produced the space for the old rivals. May be the performance of young Arsenal players might have created a serious impact on Ferguson’s football brain. The success of young players in containing experienced United and the creative and attractive game they were playing will definitely create jealousy and insecurity feelings among other club managers and of course to Sir Alex.

In the age of globalisation, it is very difficult to argue that one country should restrict its football space in clubs just for their native products. We are living in the age of Euro…not the age of small nation states. It is like saying English football is for English and others should not be allowed. I don’t know whether the English clubs and FA will say no to the TV money from abroad? If sir Alex can say that, he is very correct to say there should be a restriction on foreign players. It is better to remember, many countries in Europe, who plays attractive football are considering importing football talents for their national teams. It is England, the mother land of Football, the beautiful game, took initiative to utilise service of a foreign manager few years back. Footballistically very conservative countries also included players from Africa in their national teams. Till now, nobody is asking England to do that, but the time will say whether it is required for England too.

England will definitely think about the inclusion of foreign talents in their national team. May be after some time. The qualification round of Euro 2006 will be a preparation round for such thoughts for England. In the present condition, England has to win their qualifying match against Croatia, the country which reached in the Semi Finals of World cups in 1998. Croatia, the country who produced Devor Sukor, are now depending on a foreign talent for their qualification. Eduardo da Silva, is a Brazilian player who left for better opportunity and landed up in the national team by acquiring Croatian nationality. He is the top scorer and was the player who killed England’s hopes when both countries fought each other in Croatia. If England fail to manage a place in Euro finals, they will follow the steps which they did for Sevn Goran Erickson.

How many English players flourished abroad till now? How many English players are ready to go to other leagues and compete for their place? Yes, Beckham and Oven did..but first one was not his choice at that time and it was his business charisma than talent which attracted Real Madrid. Oven’s was his option than Real Madrid’s’. Why the big clubs like Real, Barca, Milans, Juventus, Bayern etc are not looking for English talent? All these clubs are interested in picking up the best talent from anywhere in the world. Whey they are not looking to England? Definitely… there are reasons and first one it the expense because of inflationary prices of English talent. During every transfer period, we can hear all European big clubs are behind the best talents…and rarely hear that they are looking for English players. Manchester United has already brought the best talent and possessing them.. and they knew that there is very little left in England. This is a kind of monopolistic attitude.

After all, everything in the club football related to the money power of the club. Manchester United possessed it for quiet long time and slowly other clubs are reaching near to them in revenues. The upper hand in the market with high revenue collection, Manchester always picked up the best talents from England. When Chelsea come out with same money power, for the first time, Sir Alex started blaming about the money spending in the football. This year, once can see many club entered in the talent hunt with deep pocket. When Liverpool, West Ham United, and Tottenham started spending money equal to united, the availability of English talent become nil. To counter such attitude, it was Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger come out with his own way of finding talents with out stretching the clubs financial muscles to unimaginable limits. Definitely, it will create insecurity for United and others.

The question of nationality and representation in football will kill the charm of the game. Those are strictly political issues and it should not be address in club level. If England want to produce a talented team, they should encourage their children to play football. The government and professional organizations should provide facilities for football to grow. They should approach football with an open mind and should think about the inclusion of foreign talents, if it require, as national players. Sir Alex can say anything about quota system and influence of foreign players. It is better to remember his latest acquisition, Oven Hargreaves, who plays for England -may be the best English player of last world cup squad -is not a home grown talent. Before playing for United, he was in Germany with Bayern Munich and by birth he is a Canadian citizen and because of his father’s ‘passport’ he is eligible to play for England. Now Ferguson is using that same loophole to import Hargreaves as a home grown talent in his club.

Rivalry between Arsenal and Manchester United should be healthy …but in some aspects, they breaks the thin barriers. Still I believe… it is Ferguson’s natural approach against rival clubs. Remember, this allegations are not made in a public media…it was appeared in an interview in an inside magazine of United. This shows that he is purposefully doing it to counter the confidence of rival teams like Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea, but away from football pitch.

It is better to to congratulate the young boys of Arsenal who destroyed Slavia Prague yesterday. It was really an eye catching football at London, where Arsenal defeated Slavia for 7-0 score line. Above all the score and performance, they contributed a genuine striker for England in Teo Walcott. The holding premier league champions Manchester United also marked an authoritative victory against Dynamo Kiev and performance of your young stars Christiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney were quiet impressive.

In general, the two days of European Champions League was more comfortable for the leading European teams from England, Italy and Spain. Liverpool, the runner up of last year, along with Valencia, the Spanish giants remained as only losers among top flying European teams. They lost to Turkish team Besiktas and Norwegian team Rosenburg respectively. Spanish league champion Real Madrid fought out a home victory against Greek club Olympiacos after trailing for 1-2 by the beginning of halftime. Real converted the deficit of one goal as a profit of two goals by the end with a score line of 4-2.

It was Barcelona, who didn’t live up to the expectations. The team playing with the best strikers in the world failed to find a goal against Scottish club Rangers. In the absence of Eto’o, their attacking line up contained three best players in the world -Henry, Messi, and Ronaldinho- but failed to open the score sheet. Here the defense tactics of Rangers reaped the success. At the end of the game, Lionel Messi of Barcelona declared that Barca lost to the ‘anti-football’ of Rangers, but in reality, they lost to a good team who utilized their maximum resource efficiently. On the other hand, it was Barca who disapponited the people who watched the game.

Chelsea’s performance was really great. They found their rhythm back after dismissal of their charismatic manager Jose Mourinho. Avram Grant is not a media entertainer like Jose but he is slowly tightening his grip on the team and coming out with a better result than expected. Interestingly, one should congratulate him for playing Chelsea an entertaining football. Chelsea lost their Jose, but they still have all ingredients in the team to win matches and most of their players are world class.

Liverpool, i don’t know what to say. No idea, whether it was the pressure on the team from expectations or a tactical approach of Rafel Benitez to prepare their team for making a league victory against Arsenal by losing an in between game??? But, this lose made their position weak for the second round. After spending huge money to rebuild the squad, it is a very disappointing result from a club like Liverpool. Sorry to say another thing, Rafa is also moving towards the footsteps of Jose Mourinho. Liverpool was playing much better entertaining game under Gerald Houllier, the manager before Rafa and they reached in better position in the league than Rafa reached. Only gain Rafa made was winning Champions League in 2004-5 and taking them to the finals of 2006-07. If they lost another game and come out from CL, i am sure, the fans of Liverpool will ask for another manager.

Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger are doing well in the CL and Premier League with their expensive and inexpensive squads respectively. Sir Alex spent more than 50 million GBP to rebuild the squad and added fire power in the attack by buying Carlos Tavez. An attacking formation combines Ronaldo, Tavez and Rooney can terrorize any team in the Premier League and CL. On the other side, Wenger assembled an inexpensive squad which is based on the performance of young players from various countries. With such an young squad, he produced a great entertaining football for the viewers. In Tuesday's game, 5 of Arsenal goals come from players who were not completed their teens. Walcott, the 17 year English striker Fabregas the 19 year old Spanish midfielder and Bendtner, the 18 year tall striker from Denmark marked their goals along with Alexander Hleb, one of the senior member of the squad. It was a great achievement.

This weekend, the youngsters of Arsenal is going for a touch match against Liverpool at Anfield. This will be litmus test for them and if they win it, one can easily say, the magician in Wenger is ready to add another feather in his cap.

England lost to Russia in the qualifying match for Euro 2008. English newspapers and channels are doing anatomy of each section of the national team. What went wrong to England? Is it just tactical inability of Steve McClarin? Or the English team is not good enough to play in international level? Here, I am looking into the performace of England for last one decade.

English Media claims that English Premier League is the best football league in the planet. I don’t want to challenge it, even though i can’t agree with it. But, it is sure that EPL is the league which makes more money than any other leage for the time being. It has more number of clubs which high quality players than other leagues. Still, England is not doing well in the internatioanl arena, why?

It is better take a retrospective of English league and England’s national performance. Of course, in the last 10 year, England managed to reach in the finals of two world cup and 2 Euro cups. In the tournament, they also managed to overcome the league rounds and reached till quarter finals. So -this proves that England is not a bad team. The world TEAM is very important. Most of the media projects, over the last few years, that English team means few players. All the reporting were around few players. From the reports, once can easly make out, they are not looking for a team performance and they are for individual performance from the most marketed players. I still believe that England did well in the last one decade than most of other European team. They played much better than other European teams. Where things went wrong?

Whenever England loses, the English media turns against the leading clubs who makes achievements through foreign players. For the last 5-7 years, whenever, the national team loses, the blame will first hit on the leading club like Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, etc. Claim is that foreign players are doing well in the clubd and blocking the emergence of talent in national pool. How much it is true? This should be analysed under the background of globalisation. After all, clubs are for profit and their main income comes from fans and followers. Their primary object is to win the league and trophies than producing good players for the national team. 

After losing to Russia, English media started the blame game. First they will try to find out the  scape goat. In 2002 world cup, it was David Seaman the goal keeper. Interestingly, after Seaman, they failed to find a dependable goalkeeper for last 5 years. David Seaman emerged as a Hero of 1996 Euro and he never struggled to be the first choice till 2002 world cup exit. After him, England tried David James and Paul Robinson and but never satisfied with their performance. What was lacking? Why England failed to find a good replacement for goalkeepers? Is it just because of the failure of the goalkeeper or there is something to do with the back four for keeping the goal post in best condition?

For years, the dominance of foreign players (non-euro) is a big issue in England. Tell me how many English player has experience in playing abroad? It is a matter of exposure. It is foolish to say that England team will play in a particular way and expects other teams should play against them in same way. Remember, English clubs are also changing the method of their game according to their managers and coaches strategies. Football is a game based on strategies, tactics, technique, and athleticism. If England is adamant to say they will play only in a particular way….it will end up in more trouble. Others will change their game plans according to their abilities and advantages.

England did a very good experiment by appointing Sven Goran Erickson as their manager. The Swede was big success in his native country and in Italy and tried to get best out of English team. My observation is, he did extremely well. But his failure was more in dealing of team members. During his tenure, i rarely come across any report covering about English Team and most of them were covering about individual achievements. They rarely talked about the team performance, its tactical abilities, its cohesion as a team…etc. but they explained the celebrity side of the team, their wifes, injuries of most popular players ..etc. Everybody knows that the selection of a national team is not just selecting playing 11, it includes backup players in each department. If one is injured, there will be replacement. That part is always missed from the media.

Apart from David Beckham, Michel Oven and Oven Hargraves, how many players were exposed to other leagues? Oven’s experience was accidental and Beckham’s was forceful. Hargreves made his name in Germany before joining in English team. Why it is so less in number? Is it because English players are not good enough to break into best clubs of Spain and Italy? Yes, the money factor is there, but the first layer of clubs in Spain and Italy are extremely good in financial position. Still, why they rarely come for buying an English player… this says some extra truths..isn’t it? How many English managers have foreign experience? Yes, Sir Boby Robson and Terry Wenebles had Spanish experience….but the number is very small.

Premier league is the best league in the planet. Yes, i accept it. But who made it? I don’t think English FA will come and take the whole credit. Everyone knows that the credit is more with the foreign managers and foreign players who changed the rough and boring face of premier league. They contributed to English clubs but FA failed to convert these achievements to national level. The English Club Arsenal was known for the most boring approach. One-nil-to-Arsenal was a well known slogan. Appointment of the French manager Arsene Wenger changed it. Sir Alex Ferguson, Rafael Benitez, Jose Mourinho, even Sven Erickson.. changed the face of English club football and made it as part of world football. Still, when it matters to English national team, they will go back to old tactics of long passes and headed goals.

I don’t know when they will realize that they don’t have Alan Shearer in up front to get goal. Wayne Rooney is not a player like him. Oven is not a player like old time English strikers. Yes, Peter Crouch is there, but the whole team is not composed in such a way for one player. Owen will play better in a game with small passes. Rooney is a better creator and good finisher. But he generally carries the midfield and defence burden on his shoulders. This is because of the game plan. That’s why they lost to Russia. Steve McClaren is a good manager but very conventional. He strongly believes in conventional English game. For the national team, which includes players from different clubs who plays under the direction of foreign managers, it is difficult to cope up with old pattern. I think, it was the main problem. When the club football is flowing in full course, it is difficult to pick the best players from each club and produce a team and make them to play in a different method 'especially in a short time span. This is what happened to McClaren's team. Along with they underestimated the strength of Russian team. Yes, of course, Russian team is not known as a great team and they lost to England in their qualifying round in London. This margin produced a huge confidence in the team management and they didn't prepare well against the Russian who are playing in their home turf. In fact, Russians took advantage of all available aspects, which are not familiar to English team. The English team and media cried a lot about the plastic (synthetic turf) ground.

I have gone through few pre-match analysis and saw how they approached the game. The analysis of pundits in media also reflects the thoughts of English football management. They observed that Russian team who lost in London against English is not good enough to beat them at any cost. Most of them expected a draw and very few expected victory. This shows the casual approach of English team. Injury and replacements were discussed but none of them analysed English team as a football team. Most of the analysis were based on individual achievements and individual injury crisis. None of them talked about the strength and weakness of opposition team. The tactics of their well known manager Guss Hiddinks. Very few observed the crowd factor. Russia is not a small country and they are not new to football. English media forget about the inspiration factor from the crowd, which comes around 75,000. They also forgot that fact their manager made wonders with perennial under achievers like South Korea and Australia in World cups.

In fact, Russian manager approached the game in a pragmatic manner. They took the advantage of all key factors 'synthetic turf, inspirational crowd, and game based on small passes. On the other hand, England tried to play their conventional game which was based on defensive approach. When the key players, especially in midfield and defence are absent, why they approached a game with defensive tactics? The post game reports says, the game was one sided and English team was just their shadows of the London game between them. Now English media is looking for a scapegoat. They pinpointed Steve McClaren as the chief culprit of the failure. Yes, as the person responsible for that, he is. But, is it just McClarin only? I think, the entire English football should take the responsibility of failure. It is difficult to follow the conventional English game when the entire clubs in England are following a different format. In this system the transition of players of leading clubs to national team and vice versa require more effort and time. On the other hand, if FA and management decided to combine the club approaches according the requirement of the game, in future, English game will achieve something.

After a long pause, i am starting again to scribble my observations..

English Premier League has completed two months and almost all teams played around 8 games each, some played 9. The picture of the performance is very much different from expectations. Some developments were beyond the imagination of common man. Till this week, those who watches EPL will accept that things are going beyond expectations.

Biggest earth quake till now was the resignation of Jose Mourinho. He lost trust of the club owner Roman Ibrahovich and on mutual consent, resigned. It was all because of Chelsea’s stuttered start. In the first game, they struggled to defeated Birmingham for 3-2 and escaped with a 1-2 score line against Reading (away). Then they faced Liverpool and ended up with 1-1 draw and defeated Portsmouth in an unconvencing margin of 1-0 at home. These results and the unattractive performance under Mourinho went against the aspiration of Roman. When they lost to Aston Vill for 2-0, Roman felt that Mourinho crossed the rubicon and it is the time for change.

Next shock was from the holding league champion Manchester United. They splashed more than 50 million euros for new players and failed to come up to the expectation. Starting of the league was against Reading which ended up in a goal less draw and next one also ended up with draw against Portsmouth. Then the real shock happened. Manchester United lost to their city rivals Manchester City for 1-0. At this point most of the people expected Manchester is struggling and their new spending is back firing. Injuries also added more trouble to the team. But, slow and steady, ManU stabilised their peformance and started winning games; at present they are in the second position of league table.

Next shock was the position of Manchester City in the league table. They ended up in the last five of the table in one year back. But, after complete changes -Owner+Manager+Players - they are in the third position of the table. Former England manager Sven Ericsson carefully brought players from different countries and built up a good team, which is unfamilier to all other clubs. The take over of the City by former Thai primeminister (Tashin Shinawatra) is giving a good challenge to all leading clubs.

Big shocks due to the expectation and spending -were Liverpool and Tottenham. Both spend more than 40 million GBP for strengthening squad. Liverpool, who ended up as runners of Champions League last year splashed money to win the league for first time in 15 years. Some how, present league table showing the picture in other way. So far they haven’t lost any match but compromised with draw more than others. Availability of players in plenty is causing big problem for manager Rafel Benetiz. Currently they are in 4th position and struggling to find more goals.

Story of Tottenham is much different from Liverpool. They were the finalists of UEFA cup last year and ended up in 5th position in premier league. Keeping Champions League position as an aim, Spurs splashed more than 40 million GBP for strengthening squad. Before the start of league, most pundits predicted they will end up at least in 4th position or may be better. But, the present picture shows that they are in 4 position from the bottom and manager Martin Jol is expecting sacking order at any time. Their start was a disaster in which they lost to new join Sunderland. So far, they played 9 matches and lost 4, drew 4 and managed to win only 1 and that against Derby who is in the last of the table.

The last and important shock is about the first placed team. The title is also about them. One minus -team. During the transfer period, Arsenal lost their Charismatic capitain Therry Henry to Barcelona. This was shocking to the fans and nobody expected their young squad can challenge the old stalvarts and neo riches. Arsene Wenger, the manager of Arsenal for last 10 years didn’t splashed money like others. He brought Eduardo Silva from an under-rated league, and added few more youngsters in the team. But, they managed to be in the poll position of the league table at present and their performance is more convencing than others. So far, they won all matches expect one against Blackburn. In Champions League also they are doing well and most important factor is their most pleasing and attractive passing game.

Even you lose the best player, if you have dept in the squad, you don’t need to buy more. The team will perform as a team.  

After a long break, English Premier League is starting on 11th August. Twenty clubs are ready to try out their talents, tactics and luck to win the league. Along with last years 17 teams, Birmingham, Sunderland, and Derby joined for the championship of 2007-8 season. For the last two months, almost all clubs were very much active in the transfer market insearch of the best player according to their requirement. Transfer market was much active than last year and the top order clubs were busy in picking up the suitable players for their team. In this episode, i am scribbling about two clubs, one was known for big spending and another was the leader in the transfer market for more than one decade but lost out to the other.

There are few differences from last year’s transfer activity. First one is the silence of Chelsea, who use to spend nearly 50 million pounds every year for last couple of seasons. They usually heats up the market by spending huge amount for players without any hesitation and this time Chelsea decided not to splash money and moved to get good players who completed their contratcs with others clubs and now being free to move to another club. They got Steve Sidwell and Claudio Pizzaro on free transfer and they spend very nominal amount to PSV Eindhovan for the service of the Brazilian defender Alex. They also landed up Ben Haim from Bolton on free. Apart from these three proved players, they brought Florent Malouda from French champion Lyon for 13 million pounds. Interestingly, for the first time in few years, they will make a profit form the transfer market, if the manage to sell Aryan Robben to Real Madrid for more than 20 million pounds. Along with Malouda, they are trying to land up Daniel Alves, a Brazilian full back from Sevilla, which will cost them around 20 million pounds. So, Chelsea’s transfer activity will be very much controll in the accounts formalities.

Except for the last three years, Manchester United use to lead the business in the transfer market. After few years, they repeated the show this time by spending more than 50 million pounds in the market for 4 players. They splashed money on two young talents from Portugal and Brazil, both were playing for Portuguese clubs. Nani, the winger and Andersson the midfielder were still in their teen age but there is no one better than United manager Sir Alex to assess the potential and talent of those youngsters. While Rayan Giggs and Paul Scholes are moving towards the end of their career, Sir Alex had no option rather than filling those positions with best players of tomorrow. Last year, he missed out in the transfer of Oven Hargraves, who was playing for Bayren Munich. He kept that money intact and used it this year to land up this English talent, who is capable to fill the gap left by their prolific captain Roy Keane. Last year, United sold their ace striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy to Real Madrid and didn’t fill that position. Without a striker like Nistelrooy, his team managed to win the league but Fergusson is the better than anyone to realise the demand for a striker. As what he always do, sir Alex moved quickly to get one of the best striker in the league also considered as best in the world. Carlos Tavez was the sensation of the last years world cup team of Argentina and he uplived that expectation with WestHam United in the last season. Because of the transfer irregularities, Tavez bid was not worked out so far but yesterday’s compromise talkes between West Ham and Kia -the man who owns transfer rights.. will allow him to move to Manchester United very soon. This will be a huge boost for United for their display in the league and also in Champions League.

Here, between Chelsea and Manchester United, the fight is not just between two clubs, it is more than that. It is for the domination of the league and extend domination to Champions League. The Russian owner of Chelsea was generous for last few years in the transfer market, but he decided to keep his purse in the locker and asked the club to find resources to get better players. But, they already have enmassed huge amount of talent in the club and they have an experienced coach in Jose Morinho. On the other hand, Manchester United has gone through some difficult patch in the last few years. The club was brought over by Glazer family of United States. They took huge loan to arrange finance to gain control of United. This affected their transfer spending for few years. United manager Sir Alex did a fantastic job in keeping the spirit up in United camp in those dark days and one things started getting in better shape, they pushed themselves up and won the league. League championship and semi-final berth last Champions league supported them financially and allowed them to splash money in the market to gain the best players available.

Tomorrow is the curtain raiser of this season’s premier league. Manchester United and Chelsea will fight for Community Shield in Wembly. One week after this, the league starts. We will get a chance to asses the performance of those teams and will be able to compare that the spending is helping them in ther purpose.

At last, the season is over in Europe. Fight till last minute became a reality in Spanish League and finally Real Madrid won the league title after four years. Interestingly, the defending champion Barcelona also had same points and a better goal average but head-to-head advantage helped Real to lift the cup on the final day. Now, all big and small clubs will be active in the transfer market. Italian giants like Milan, Inter, Juventus, Roma, Lazio are already in the market and trying to bid the best players. Meanwhile, big buyer of last three seasons, Chelsea is keeping a low profile this time. Entry of Real and Barca will heat up the market and the price for match winning players will go up. Before others entered in the market, English Champion Manchester United did their business by capturing the signatures of Oven Hargraeves from Bayern Munich, Andersson and Nani from Portugal. They have already splashed more than 50 million GBP in the market and still looking for an ace striker.

This is just an attempt to analyse the transfer news appeared in media and its worth and reality. The new Television Deal by Football Association made English Premier League  more rich than other leagues and the clubs in the league started thinking about their pruchase based on this new income. The new revenue is attracting new investors from different continents. Today one of the main club in the league was brought over by a Thai politician. Americans and Russians started this move and Arabs, Scandinevian, Africans started showing interest in this money miniting league. In this juncture, spending power of a club is not a joke and ther performance in the next season will depend on this factor. Here i am trying to analyse the transfer spending power of clubs on the basis of one article appeared in Times newspaper published from London. This news item is almost one month old, so it helps us to see what all happend in last one month and what will be the next in coming days.

On 20th May, Times carried an article on the spending power of each English League Clubs. They made a list according to the money power of the club and their requirements for next year. According their list, it shows two clubs have kept GBP 50 million to buy players this time. It says five clubs have kept 30 million and another 5 has 20 million and two clubs saved 25 millions to spend and 5 more clubs raised 15 million for spending for players in the market. But the remaining three is in a different league of spending power. 2 clubs have 50 million and another one have 40 million.
There were some miscalculations in that list. They counted 21 clubs, kept Manchester City free from spending and added West Brom in the table. This list was prepared before the playoff of the promoted clubs from Championship. In the playoff, Derby made it to EPL and West Brom stayed back. The table shows the purchasing power of clubs and the table is minus West Brom. Don’t ask me this is a real estimate of not. While calculating the whole amount together, English Premier League market is worth more than GBP 500 million.

While including West Borm in the list the money available for clubs was 515 million.We have to deduct 20 million of West Brom and add 15-20 million minimum for Manchester City. This is a huge amount and bigger than GDP of many small countries.

Till today (21 June), it seems the money is not spend properly and spending is still below hundred million mark. Interestingly more than half of that spent money belongs to one club -Manchester United. That means, others together spend less than 50 million. Transfer market is open till 30th August but clubs will be interested to buy their players before the start of league, even before the friendly matches starts.

The Champion, Manchester United started their headhunt just after the last day of the league. Last year, they sold out their key striker Rudd Van Nistelrooy to Real Madrid and signed Michel Carrick in midfield position and Sir Alex attempted lost out in signing Oven Hargraves to Bayern Munich was not interested in the deal. By January, Bayern made it clear that Oven is ready to leave if Manchester matches with their demand. Ferguson didn't think twice and moved in for Oven Hargreaves as his first target by shelling out 17 million. This was just a beginning and he moved further to out bid Tottenham to capture two young talents in Anderson and Nani. Performance of Christiano Ronaldo gave him confidence in raiding Portuguese clubs again for new talents and he got winger Nani from Porto and Brazilian midfielder Anderson from Sporting Lisbon. For these three players, Manchester United has spent more than 50 million and still ready to spend on an established striker. Today, the news is Manchester is linking up with Italian striker Fabio Quagliarela from Sampadoria. If they succeed in this bid, Manchester United will cross 60 million this year and so far they haven't sold any of their player. Their quick move was enough to keep the transfer market in boiling condition.

Big spender of last 4 years, Chelsea, decided to keep their money in the bank for the time being. Interestingly they collected the players who were available for free in transfer market. Steve Sidwell, who played well for Reading refused to renew his contract and joint with Chelsea. Coludio Pizzaro joined them from Bayern Munich on free and Chelsea got Tel Ben Haim, established defender of Bolton also on free. So far they spend some nominal amount on Danny Phillskrik, who joined them from Oldham, the club plays in lower division. But, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is less satisfied with the low profile approach but he makes the point that this time pressure will be on big spender, who is not Chelsea. Mourinho is interested in signing some players in key positions. He knew, his club will loss the service of African players during the African cup. So, replacement for them is his key concern and for striker, he is interested in his former striker in Porto 'Bene Mc Carthy of Blackburn Rovers. There is also pressure from the players to sign Florent Malouda from Lyon, who is a proved winger. Latest news is about Chelsea's interest in Dutch under 21 and Feyenoord player Royston Drenthe. Few days earlier, there was some news that Chelsea are competing for Valencia's Portuguese defender Miguel to out bid Arsenal.

Another expected big spender is Liverpool, the club that was brought over by two American billionaires. Rafael Banetiz is expected to splash 50 million in the market. He is still searching for his best players. Till today, he tried to bid players like Folrent Malouda 'a left winger of Lyon, Fernando Torres 'striker of Athletico Madrid, and Diego Forlan 'Striker of Villa Real. If his bid come reality, the cost will exceed 50 million barrier. Apart from them, Benetiz has eye on Simao Sabrosa who plays for Portugal and some good players who can play in defence. They have already acquired a striker in Andrey Voronin from Bayer Leverkusen for free and brought two Hungarian players; Kristian Nemeth and Andras Simon, both from MTK Hungariam, and the fee is undisclosed. He also snapped up another 6 million player in Lucas Leiva from Brazil. Once the Champions league final got over, Benetiz decided to test the integrity of the new owners Gillet and Hick. He declared that for winning the league title, we require very high quality and for buying them we need heavy financial support from management. Then he suggested some names like Samuel Eto'o, Florent Malouda, Diego Forlan etc. This week, Liverpool was linked up with Spanish striker Fernando Torres and Diego Forlan and made a formal 3 million bid for Bolton defender Yossi Benayoun. If Benetiz manages to land up Eto'o or Torres, we can expect he will spent major part of his transfer kitty this time on quality players.

Arsenal is going through a chaotic patch. Take over bid from an American millionaire and resistance from the board put them in a fix position. They lost their vice chairman David Dien, who resigned from the board due to difference of opinion. He was the person behind all business deals and transfers for Arsenal in the market for more than a decade. Uncertainty in the future of their manager Arsen Wenger whom completes his contract by the end of coming season, and confusion on future of players like Henry and Fabrigas holding their activity in transfer market. The player they were looking for some time, Frank Ribery joined in Bayern Munich and Wenger is known for his reluctance in spending money in market. So, their expected 30 million will remain with them.

Tottenham is one of big actor in the transfer market. They are known for bidding for all good players and coming up talents in Europe and other places. So far, they splashed 10 million on Garth Bale and expected to spend another 20 million on few more players. Till the date, they are in a pole position in landing English striker Darren Bent by spending 16 million. Apart from signing established players, they are also snap young talents for fewer prices. The agreed to buy Adel Taarabt from France. We can see their name behind players like Curtis Davis 'defender of West Brom, and Younes Kaboul from Auxerre 'France.

Astonvilla, who lost out in the market last year due to takeover decisions will be very active this time. They have a very good manager in Martin O'Neill, who is thinking to create a good team for future will be very busy to purchase good players. According to Times, they have 25 million to spend. So far they haven't spend much for players but they allowed releasing few good players who were not interested in continuing in Villa. O'Neill placed bids for players like Nigel Reo-Cocker, Diego Forlan, Bruno Alves, Nigel de Jong, Jason Koumas, and Jussi Jaaskelaien. If he is able to land up all these players, Villas modest budget will go up and touch 30-40 million. Till today, nothing has happened and O'Neill still searching and bidding for players.

West Ham United, the club brought over by Iceland consortium somehow managed to keep a position in the EPL in the last days. Their big buys of last year Carlos Tavez and Javier Mascherano ended up in high-level controversy and still cases are haunting them. Mascherano has left for Liverpool in January and Tavez is under observation of many big clubs in Europe. Even though, the captured the signature of two well established players along with a team which ended in first 7 positions of EPL a year earlier, struggled to keep position in EPL this time. Their management has changed; manager Alen Padrew lost his place and replaced by Alan Curbhisly who is now looking to rebuild the team. They are planning to sell off many players and replace with better and committed. According to Times, West Ham is expected to spend 30 million and so far they have already spend 7 million for Scott Parker and lost out in bidding Charlton's Darren Bent for 17 million. They are also looking for bidders for players like Nigel Reo-Coker, Merlon Harewood, Yossi Benayun, and Mathew Ethertington and also waiting for right kind or price for their ace striker Carlos Tavez. Once they clear their issues, we expect they will come out with more money than expected to rebuild the team.

Another expected big player in the market is Newcastle United. They are the third largest club in the EPL on the basis of stadium capacity. Before the end of last season, the sacked their manager Glenn Rodier and replaced with Sam Allardyce. They also released players like Titus Bramble, Antonio Sibriski, Craig Moore, and Oliver Bernard, and sold Scott Parker to West Ham. Meanwhile, the ownership of the club also has gone through changes. English billionaire Mike Ashley started buying shares from the market and till now he has managed majority of the shares and nearing to complete ownership. He is also planning to make the club great again. Times says they have 30 million to spend but it seems they will be more active in the market and most probably cross that amount. On the other side, they will definitely sell few of their key players. So far they have brought Joye Barton from Manchester City for 5.7 million and received Mark Viduka on free. There are lot of interventions to keep their key striker Michel Oven from other big clubs, and also trying to land established players like their former striker Craig Bellamy, defender Curtis Davis, David Rozenhal, and Samy Hyppia of Liverpool. They lost their bid for Ben Haiem, to Chelsea.

Clubs like Reading, Wigan Athletic, Birmingham, Fulham and Derby, will be active but try to find low profile players who require less money as transfer fee. So, the spending expectation of Times will remain with them. They will go for the released players from big clubs and also try to capture young players and established players who costs low, from other leagues. Their first intention will be keeping a place in the Premier League than winning the league.

Sunderland, the club, who finished top in championship under the guidance of former Manchester United Captain Roy Keane, is expected to spend more this time. The paper says they have 30 million estimate to spend for players. Some other channel says they have 25 million war chest only. But they started their activity in the market by signing Greg Halford from Reading. They are trying their best to capture the signature of David Nugent who costs more than 7 million. It is expected that Roy Keane will try to lure his former colleagues Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and Diego Forlan to Sunderland. If he manages this, the estimated budget will go up and cross 30 million mark.

David Moyes, the manager of Everton is not known for big spending. His biggest spending was last years 8.5 million for Andrew Johnson. Times says they have a war chest of 20 million to spend. But, their activity in the market says that they won't be able to spend that money and they will focus to strengthen their remaining squad with some proved players who costs lesser. This year, it seems their first priority is to go for a new stadium with capacity of 55000 seats, and they are trying their best to find a suitable place for that. So far, they managed to sign only one player in Phil Jagielika from Shefield United for 4 million. To strengthen the squad, they are bidding Jason Koumas from West Brom and also for David Nugent from Preston.

Harry Redknapp was very active in the market for last summer. This time we expect Portsmouth will be more active. Times says they have 20 million in their pocket and it seems Redknapp will go for big purchase this time at least to better the position of Portsmouth in the league table. So far, they managed to buy Sully Muntari ' young established Ghanaian midfield player by spending 7 million. He also added Sylvian Distin and Hermann Hreidarsson for free and now looking for some more vibrant players. Harry is trying to sign Lyon's Alou Diarra for 5 million but seems it will cost more. He is also trying to lure his former striker Yakubu from Middles borough. Recently, Redknapps name started linking with bidding of his former striker Federic Kanoute, who now plays for Spanish club Seville. Move for Yakubu will cost more than 10 million and Kanoute will be nearly 7 million. It seems, Portsmouth will surpass the estimate of Times. Harry is known for signing senior players from big clubs when the complete their contract with them. He signed Sol Campbell and Lauren, Kanu, David James, and Andrew Cole from various clubs and used them in the best way. It is also known that he is waiting for the release of Arsenal's Freddie Lungberg and the latest news is his interest in the oldest playing player in the league Teddy Sheringham, who is 41 years now.

Middlesbrough, under the least experienced manager managed a middle level position in the league table. Gareth Southgate lost their main striker Mark Viduka to Newcastle, who was out of contract by the end of the season. But he managed to sign on loan defender Jonathan Woodgate from Real Madrid for 7 million. Times expect that Boro will spend around 25 million this year. So far they spend nearly 10 for two players in Woodgate and striker Jermine Aliadiere from Arsenal. They also managed to sign Tuncay Sanli from Turkish club Fenerbahce for free. Apart from signing new players, their focus will be keeping their established players with them. Protecting Yakubu from the interest of Portsmouth will be difficult and the money they offer is not bad to refuse. So, we can expect more players to Boro. So, priority will be not keeping Yakubu but keeping their midfield player Stewart Downing from big clubs. Southgate is trying to get West Borm's Diomansy Kamara and Chelsea's Cameroon international Germi who played one season for Boro on loan from Real Madrid.

Sam Allardyce left Bolton to better challenges for his coaching and management credentials. He took Bolton to the highest position in the league table so far. He built up the team with very less money. Strengthened them with good young players and adopted a winning method which was allergic to many teams in the league itself. He found talents in Kevin Davis, Kevin Nolan, Tal Ben Haim, Ricardo Gardner and organized them in team mixed with experience of Jay Jay Okocha, Gary Speed, Ican Campo, Stelios Giannokopoulos, etc. Later he added strength with Abdoulaye Faye, El-Hadji Diof, Abdoulaye Miete, and later he made his biggest purchase in Nicolas Anelka. His shrewd approach took them to Europe and produced same impact in some level. By the end of last season, he found that Bolton's ambition is not matching with his plans and they are not ready to spend money to rebuild the team with more talents. He resigned and another Sam -Sammy Lee took over the charge. Sammy Lee also followed the steps of his former Sam. He decided to buy some established players who were left out of contract. He paid 1 million for Gavin Macann of Astonvill and also signed Villa's Jlloyed Samuel for free. They lost their defender Tal Ben Haim to Chelsea who was also out of contract and also released a few players like Henrik Pederson, David Thomson, and Quinton Fortune. Time says Bolton has 15 million to spend, but it seems they will save that money and develop a team from existing resource.

Mark Hughes is keeping his hands close in the transfer market. Blackburn Rovers are so far silent in the transfer activity but they are busier to keep their existing squad intact. Time shows that Rovers have 20 million budget to spend but more interested in keeping their key striker Benedict McCarthy from Chelsea's bid. They are trying to keep their midfielder, 36 year old, Tugey in the team for another year by extending his contract. Along with, they showed interest in signing their former striker Craig Bellemy from Liverpool. It seems, their 20 million budget will be sufficient for them at least till January, when the transfer market reopens.

Manchester City is left out in the table of the Time. Till the end of the season Stuart Pearce managed the team and kept them above the relegation table. But disastrous performance of city team forced the club management to step down Stuart Pearce from the position. Disciplinary problems and dressing room chaos, especially the issue of Joey Barton put Stuart Pearce in a vulnerable position. Meanwhile, there were a lot of news on takeover of City and management slow down their search for new manager. May be, because of this situation, Time left them out from the budget analysis. For the last one month, lot of names appeared for manager position including former Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri, Seville coach Juande Ramos, Co Adriaanese, Koeman, and at last it reached in former England manager Sven Eriksson. Today only, the picture of Manchester City's future is getting clear. Former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawarta made a formal 82 million bid to take over the club and also announced that he has had a word with Sven Eriksson for the position of manager. Now rumors started spreading about the transfer kitty of City. It seems another club is coming out with GBP 50 million as transfer budget.

Now, all eyes are on transfer market. English Premier League moved very fast to announce the fixture for next season while Spanish seson is still waiting to get over. Who will go to which club -is the main question moving around the big clubs. In English league, the top most two teams were very active in the market for last few weeks. Manchester United splashed more than 50 million pounds for just three players and still have enough to spend for a good striker and more.

Just against the odds, Chelsea so far didn’t open their cash bag to splash but were very much active in the market by signing few established players who are free from contract. Due to African cup competitions, they have to keep good back up playes in the position where Drogba, Essien, Obi Mickel, and Kalou playing. So they stepped in to sign Steve Sidwell, attacking midfielder who completed his contract with Reading and become free agent. Then they pitched in for contract free Bayern Munich striker Claudio Pizarro and also captured Tal Ben Haiem from Bolton on free. So far they signed only one player with some money and he is a young prodige from Oldham named Danny Philliskrik, for a nominal fee.

Champions league finalist Liverpool still looking for players on their requirement. The takeover by two american billioners gave high level hope to liverpool fans. George Gillet and Hick also offered financial support to Rafel Benitez to purchase good players from market. But, now picture is not that bright. They spend a good amount to keep their exisiting good players like Gerrard, Alonso, Reina etc. and also brought few players like Andrey Voronin from Bayer Leverkusen on free, Kristian Nemeth & Andras Simon both from MTK Hungariam on an undisclosed fee but it won’t be much money. To check the spending power, Benitez asked the management to sign Florent Maluda from Lyon, who is a proved left wing player who can replace Zenden and Kewell. He asked Rick Parry to sign him for 10 million but Lyon is asking 17 for the player now. Benitez also checked the availability of Samuel Eto’o from Barcelona but nothing happend so far. And big spending is also looking bleak or he has to find some money by selling some players from the club.

Arsenal is more in focus for wrong reasons. They have purchased a goalkeeper from Poland who will assist Lehmann. Also sold few players like Maumba to Birmingham, Jermine Aliadire to Middlesborough, and allowed Mart Poom to leave for Watford and younger striker Aurthro Lupoli to Italy after completing his contract. Now the market focus is on their most priced asset -Therry Henry. Milan and Barcelona declared their interest in him but Henry rubbished about the transfer talks. If Henry also leaves the club, it will remain as a club of inexpereinced players with only three established players in Gallas, Lehmann and Gilberto. Wenger so far didn’t show any inclination to buy any player from the market and he is reluctent to spend much money on established players. Wenger also lost out in signing of Frank Ribery to Bayern Munich, who paid 17 million for him. Wenger was a big admierier of Ribery for long time and placed a bid of 12 million but lost.

Apart from the top four clubs, most active players in the transfer market are middle level clubs. West Ham is in re-building process and showed willingness to splash money for good players. Their star performer of last season Carlos Tavez is almost certain that he will leave to Italy or Spain for this season. Manager Alan Curbshly is trying to sign his former striker in Charlton, Darran Bent for a huge sum but it seems a failed story. But he managed to sign his another former player Scott Parker from New Castle for 7 million, which is considered as a good buy.

Newcastle United, one of the big club in England, who have the third biggest stadium in the league is on re-building process. Here, the changes started from the management. The club was took over by an English billionare Mike Ashly and before his buy, they changed the manager Glen Rodier to Sam Allardyce. Big Sam’s first attempt to release the players who is not up to his mark and also who are not interested to play under him. Scott Parker was sold to West Ham, and playes like Craig moore, Bernard, Sibriski, and Titus Bramble were released from contract. Then he entered into market to sign a striker in Mark Viduka and midfielder in Manchester City’s troubled boy Joe Barton.

Tottenham has a habit of bidding for all young talents. Any club in the league finds a talent, next day one can see a bid from Spurs. Manchester United beat them in the market for Nani but they defeated Man U in signing Garth Bale, the left winger or full back. Now, market says that they are behind Darren Bent and also looking for Wesly Snider of Ajax. One thing is sure they are ready to off load their egyptian striker Mido and defender Hosam Galey.  

Portsmouth is very much keen in the market but not for fresh players. They prefer senior players who proved and spend most of their career in other clubs. Lunjberg of Arsenal is a target of Portsmouth and they brought Sulli Muntari from Udnise, Sylvien Distin from manchester City and Hendersson from Charlton.

Outside English League, Bundesliga clubs were more active in the market. Bayern Munich, the former German Champion, who lost Champions League place this time was the most active club in the league. They acquired best talents like Frank Ribery, Miroslav Klose etc and allowed Oven Hargraves to join Manchest United and Pizarro to Chelsea.

Real Madrid is not entered in the market and more interested in keeping David Beckham from his newly signed contract with LA Galaxy. Their left back, Roberto Carlso decided to finish his career in Turky and signed for Fenerbach. Champions Barcelona is sniffing around Therry Henry and plannig to release few players like Edieur Goodjonson. Within few weeks, the picture will be more clear and that will help to assess the capabilities of each club in the Champions league and domestic league.

Only one match is left in Spanish League and still the claim for the title is on. Very interesting finish for the season. All other European Football leagues are over and most of the clubs are in the transfer market to pick up their ‘most wanted’ to strengthen their squad. But Spanish giants have to wait till 17th June, when the league will get over and either Real or Barca will crowned as Champions of season. What a photo-finish?

After three trophy less years, Real is looking for a win in their home ground aganist Mallorca. On the other side, Barcelona, who were in the pole position for major part of the league has to win next match and pray for the lose or draw to Real. Both have equal points and Barca have goal advantage but Spanish title will count head-to-head advantage before counting goal advantage, where Barca lost to Real.

For last few years, Real Madrid were in a leading position in picking up the most valued players, especially under the chairmanship of Florentino Perez. Last year the leadership has changed and they stopped shelling out money for ‘Galaticos’ -the showpiece items. Perez started his Galatico policy in 2000 by snatching Luiz Figo from Barcelona with a record sum and he continued the same spending spree next year for Zidane, who lead the club to their last Champions League trophy. Perez continued his spending spree in next few years to purchase players like Ronaldo, David Beckham, Robinho, Sizinho,etc. But none of these world class players could help Madrid to win another trophy in the last four years. Last year, after changes occured in board room, Real re-built the team, not on the basis of names, but performance. First selection was Fabio Capello, who lead Juventus to successive titles, (last one was tripped off due to corruption allegation). Capello who was known for tough stands and rigid football than making football as an art and he was more known for pragmaticism. He looked for proved players than popular names. So, they purchased Ruud Van Nistleroy a proved striker from Manchester United, Fabio Canevaro, the most successive player in the World Cup who kept Italian defence intact, followed his manager from Juventus. Then he opeted for strong mid-fielders and brought Diarra from Lyon and Emerson from Juventus. These purchase helped to stablise the ship and later he controlled it towards a winning streak.

Barcelona was an another story. They were under achievers in the beginning of this century, were in complete chaoes especially with failure of management and financial problems. They also gone through election and choose new management under Laporta. Barcelona started its re-building process in 2003 season and allowed many players to leave the club including Rivaldo, who was the most prominant figure in the team for years. Laports took advise from Barca’s old player and manager Johan Cryuff in the rebuilding process and appointed Frank Riijkard as the manager. Laporta’s primary interest was stabilising the club from financial turmoil and for than he curtailed expenditure. So, they decided to buy one or two key players to strengthen the team. Their marketing process endned up in buying Ronaldinho from Paris St. German. Around this talented player, Barca started team building process. First year of Riijkard, Barca made a fantastic come back and finished as second in the league table, interestingly two position over Galaticos. Next year Barca brought Samuel Eto’o to get more fire power in the front and Rafel Marquez in the defence and ended up the season as champions. Third year, Rijkard took his team to a new heaven by lifting Champion League along with Spanish league title. But, once achieve those level, any team will have some lethargy and this gave a chance to Real to make their come back to league title.

Even though, Capello manages to capture the title back to Real, there is no guarntee that he will manage the same team for next year. Capello took this position as a challenge for one year and Real is searching for their best man to manage the club. Still they have enough money to spend and can make huge impact in the market. They are searching players who can create real impact in the team. Also they have to replace David Beckham who is waiting to finish his contract with Real to make a move to Los Angles. This will be big lose to the Club especially in terms of brand marketing. Replacement for Beckham is not an easy job because his star value is so high in many parts of the world.

In Barca, Rijkard produced a fantastic team, good result for successive years, even though they lose out this year, it was not on points or goals just because head-to-head advantage. But, they also have to think about rebuilding process and to find answers to some question on disintegrity among team members etc. Samuel Eto’o, their top scorer exploded against the team spirit and preferencial treatment in the team, which shows, they have to find another talent to replace his service. As well as they have to find some players who can create real impact in the defence and midfield. Once the season gets over, Barca will enter into the market for atlest three or four exceptionaly good players. Last time, they made a mistake in the replacement of Henrick Larson in Ediur Goodjonson, who didn’t performed as expected.

Transfer market is already boiled and big clubs like Chelsea, Manchester United, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Bayern Munich, etc started pouching talents. Manchester United already shelled out nearly 50 million pounds on three players and still looking for Carlos Tavez or striker like him.