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“One more year”
Depending on how you read between the lines, Sir Alex Ferguson managed to persuade Cristiano Ronaldo to stay at Manchester United for “one more year”. Remember, of course, that the rumours of a move to his boyhood club Real Madrid first surfaced during 2008. Six Alex and those higher ups at Man Utd rubbished the rumours [...]
Continue reading...Winners and losers of the season
21. May 2010
Ironically, Chelsea didn’t finish top of the Premier League’s pay table. The league figures, which incorporate broadcasting revenues, TV appearance money and bonuses for positional finish in the league, show that despite winning the title, the Blues finished second to Manchester United. United netted £52,99 million compared to Chelsea’s eventual pay-out of £52,83 million. Tottenham, who [...]
Continue reading...What do you mean, ‘strongest team’?
30. April 2010
Just how can the Premier League ensure that clubs field the strongest possible team? There has been a lot said about the matter by (especially) Wolves boss Mick McCarthy and Fulham’s Roy Hodgson so far this season. Wolves were given a £25000 suspended fine by the league after making 10 changes to a midweek team that faced [...]
Continue reading...Sly owners get their message across
23. April 2010
We’ve been treated to some interesting outbursts from Premier League team owners through the course of this season. It’s arguably been one of the most entertaining seasons in recent memory. At least since the Special One and his utterances left Chelsea. Particularly interesting has been the effect of the pronouncements by owners on the performances of [...]
Continue reading...Champions League success? Follow the money
16. April 2010
Supporters of the Premiership’s top clubs – Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool – will blindly tell anyone who will listen that the English Premier League is the strongest in Europe. This despite the failure of any of England’s bigger clubs to progress to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League this season. Liverpool failed to [...]
Continue reading...English Premiership: Train-smash in the middle
9. April 2010
Game on! The Premier League this season has really morphed into three distinct battles. Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal will fight for supremacy over the next five games. It’s by no means a foregone conclusion that the top three will remain in this order till the last day – the lead has already changed hands [...]
Continue reading...Why must Pompey players suffer?
26. March 2010
I would hate to be Andrew Andronikou right now. In fact, I can’t think of many people with a worse job. Andronikou is, of course, the administrator of nearly bankrupt Portsmouth – the first club to enter administration since the Premier League was founded in 1992. He’s made the bizarre decision to [...]
Continue reading...A punch to the stomach
19. March 2010
It was the cruellest of heartbreaks. When you get winded without being punched. The kind that gets inflicted by that girl you really like. Where you prepare (read: set yourself up for) failure on “that” date. And you find yourself ready to cry. And here I’d kidded myself that I’d be writing [...]
Continue reading...Why is Benni McCarthy earning R2 million a month?
12. March 2010
As we hurtle towards the end of the season (doesn’t it seem like we just started last August?) this is as good a time as any to ask (and try to answer) some questions about the Premier League. Vexing, confusing questions like why Bafana Bafana striker (wunderkind aka “he-who-can-do-no-wrong”) Benni McCarthy is earning £40000 a week [...]
Continue reading...The rich get … well … richer
5. March 2010
Real Madrid is the world’s richest football club, for the fifth year running. The rich are indeed getting richer. Despite the global economic recession, Madrid became the first team in any sport to report revenue of euro400 million (around R4 billion). Guess the euro 250 million-odd they loaned to buy Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso, amongst [...]
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28. May 2010
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