City High - FA Cup Final 2011

Yaya Toure. Transfer Fee: 24 million quid; Reported salary: 200 thousand English pounds a week; Scoring the winning goal to deliver your new club's first piece of silverware for 35 years: Priceless!



After their win over Manchester United in the semi final, Blue Moon was belted out in full voice at Wembley again yesterday as Manchester City delighted their fans with a 1-0 win over Stoke City securing the final domestic trophy of the season. This follows Birmingham's Carling Cup win in February and City's arch rivals United confirming their 19th league title just two hours prior.

On that note, how daft a decision was it by the authorities to schedule league fixtures on the same day as the cup final? The double success for the City of Manchester has been lauded in some quarters but you can't help but feel each achievement manages to overshadow that of the other. Still I imagine it would have been a great night out around Castlefield, Deansgate and the like...

The Eastlands club have been ridiculed for a number of years by their more blinged up crosstown neighbours with reds fans going so far as to display a banner at old Trafford taking the piss out of City's long barren spell. Toure's rocket couldn't have done any more to make sure that banner comes down if he marched over to Salford and yanked it down himself.

Having also secured Champions League qualification for the first time ever just last week, you'd have to say there have been worse weeks for the Blues. Even if they lost yesterday, the season could still be considered a success. Commiserations go out to their vanquished opponents in Stoke City who clearly went to Wembley as underdogs and probably had the backing of many so-called 'neutrals' beforehand (Can you really be neutral if you are wanting one of the two teams to win?).

The game itself was not a classic but with rare exceptions, it was par for the course in an FA Cup final. The sense of occasion and the build up almost always outweighs the quality of the game. A fact summed up by Tony Pulis' transformation from a smart dignified suit beforehand to his cheap, comical tracksuit and baseball cap combo by kick off.

Of course, the lack of excitement was to be expected given the reputations of both teams. It has been suggested that at times this season Man City's tactics couldn't have been more conservative if they were managed by Margret Thatcher and it's generally accepted that pretty football is about as out of place at The Britannia Stadium as Malcolm X at a Ku Klux Klan rally. If this were a fairy tale, it wouldn't be so much Beauty and the Beast, more Beast and the Beast.

In fairness, City have had their moments this season and with Carlos Tevez back in their line up, they were always likely to play with a greater sense of attacking urgency. Even the much maligned Stoke had recently starting playing a more expansive game deploying explosive wingers Matthew Ethrington and Jermaine Pennant with great effect.

City quite clearly lined up with a far superior team and for 45 minutes it showed. They controlled possession and created the better... sorry, ONLY real chances in the first half. For all the above criticism, Tevez injects life into their play and it will be a shame if rumours of him leaving are true.

Stoke, after recent good performances - in the semi final rout of Bolton and the win over Arsenal last week to name but two - unfortunately reverted to type and took a life-sappingly negative approach. At no point before half time did they have less than 9 men behind the ball. Pulis' men played the long game and seemed content to wait for set-pieces and throws as their only means of actually trying to win the game. All of which the City defence were able to absorb.

That said, Ethrington was clearly struggling after his recent injury and once Pennant picked up an ankle knock their chances became slimmer than Kate Middleton on a hunger strike.

For all their possession, City found themselves unable to break down Stoke. The red and white wall was standing firmer than a man asked to partake in a threesome with Eva Mendes and Mila Kunis. They did manage to force their way through once or twice but were limited. Super Mario Balotelli's great strike was denied by an even better Thomas Sorensen save and later, David Silva volleyed into the ground and the ball bounced up over the bar. The Potters were dire but managed to keep it level til the break.

The Second half saw Stoke improve. They began to keep the ball better and actually make the game something of a contest. Kenwyne Jones had a great chance to give them the lead following a fine pass from Ethrington but Jo Hart in the City goal was equal to it. This was Ethrington's only significant contribution before being subbed and only makes you wonder how different things might have been if he was fully fit.

City were still being frustrated by Andy Wilkinson and Ryan Shawcross in particular but kept plugging away until they were rewarded on 74 minutes when that man Yaya Toure continued the theme of Africans scoring at the new Wembley (Brappp!).


Manchester City v Stoke City by geuzehead

In five FA Cup finals since the ground was reopened four years ago, Didier Drogba (2007, 2009, 2010), Kanu (2008) and now Toure have all found the net.

All three have also scored in semi finals and if you add Obafemi Martins and Drogba's exploits in Carling Cup finals this year and in 2008 respectively then you have to say Northwest London is becoming a home away from home for brothers from the motherland - take THAT France!

The Blues then retained possession until a few hairy moments at the end when Stoke won a succession of corners but held on for richly deserved win.

There's a lot of animosity directed at City for the way their rich Arab owners have been flashing the cash. Of course, jealously and hypocrisy have played a part. They aren't the only club with rich owners who have 'bought' success and let's face it, whoever you support, you wouldn't be remotely outraged if it were your team in a similar position.

City have always been a likable team and have had many sympathisers due in part to the vast shared dislike of United but also because they were seen as 'loveable losers'. Now that they are serious contenders, the bitterness has spread like Californian wildfires. Was there so much hate when were scraping around in the old Division Two a little over a decade ago?

Personally, I'm indifferent to the club but glad to see a 'new' team win a trophy. Moreso, I'm pleased for Roberto Mancini. The press have undermined him with all too frequent speculation about his job as well as unfairly criticising him and his tactics at every turn. You couldn't open a newspaper or click on a sport website this season without another name being touted for the Eastlands dugout. Credit to him for getting on with his job and succeeding in both reaching the top four and winning a trophy as a kicker. Well done, sir.

What of Stoke? In truth, does anyone outside Staffordshire really care? Harsh maybe but it's almost better to give such a frank assessment than to go with the patronising line that they should have enjoyed their 'big day out'. The better side won on the day so there is no room for sympathy or sentiment although it is lazy to say that it was some sort of victory against Stoke's 'attrition' football given how City themselves have played on occasion this campaign. Besides there is no 'right' way to play and Stoke's methods have established them as a Premier League side after their own previous 'lows'.

What next for the upwardly mobile Mancs though? More big money, big name summer signings? Title push next season? The Champion's League? World domination??? Now that they've got that winning feeling, you'd think they will only go from strength to strength. Ominous signs for the rest of us...

Man of the Match: Yaya Toure

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How things Change. Weekend Observations - November 6th-7th 2010

Where else to start than at Anfield? With the poor performances, player unrest, takeover shenanigans and financial troubles, it's difficult to imagine a football club experiencing a more eventful opening three months to a season. Much of the drama is akin to works of fiction and would not have been out of place on the horrifically unrealistic but highly watchable Sky One series Dream Team from days gone by.

Liverpool have somehow gone from a humbling shock home defeat against newly promoted Blackpool to an incredible victory over champions Chelsea in the space of just a few weeks – a third league win on the bounce propelling them from the doldrums of the Premier League relegation zone to the dizzying heights of mid-table.



The victory over the league leaders was inspired by the eye-poppingly good Fernando Torres whose two first half goals were enough to see off the visitors. The second of which was a moment of genius that simply reminds all of us exactly why we love watching this thing we call football.

Last week, I suggested that the Spaniard looked disinterested in Liverpool's unconvincing victory at Bolton and while I stand by that claim, the contrast in his performance this week could not have been more stark. Torres was back to his unplayable self and sent out something of a reminder as well as a huge 'F*CK YOU!!' to all the critics who have dared to write him off this season.

And it wasn't just Torres. The likes of Jamie Carragher, Maxi Rodriguez and Lucas all played unexpectedly well in this match making me think someone had spiked my coco pops with some kind of hallucinogenic drug such was my astonishment to what I was witnessing. Yes, Liverpool actually looked like a decent side for the first times in what seems like years. Maybe they finally have turned that fabled corner that everyone is so obsessed with.

As for their opponents, a strange thing occurred to me. The problem of subjective interpretations based on particular outcomes. Last week, Chelsea didn't play well but managed a result away at Blackburn. We all sat here saying it was the hallmark of champions to be able to do so and just assumed that the same would happen whoever they faced. I'm not saying that one defeat means Chelsea are in any sort of crisis but in truth, they haven't been at their best recently and perhaps are not deserving of the exaggerated hype surrounding them. They still undoubtedly remain the best side in the country and will more than likely end up as champions but maybe all the talk of them running away with the title ought to be set aside as of right now.

That very term, 'crisis' has been bandied about a great deal so far this season. As each week passes another club is on the brink of declaring some kind of state of emergency. Whereas Manchester United and Liverpool seem to have come through their periods of sensationalised disaster, last week it was the turn of Manchester City, with reports that Roberto Mancini was about to be taken out round the back of Eastlands by a large man armed with a handgun, duct tape and enough space in the back of his car to fit the body of a diminutive Italian wearing a scarf. However, the billionaires were back to winning ways thanks to two goals from marquee summer signing Super Mario Balotelli at West Brom.

If you believe what you read about Mancini being on borrowed time, this win would have surely bought him some breathing space. However, the pressure could well be right back on if City, minus their Hawthorns match winner following his sending off late in the game, lose this Wednesday in a little match taking place at Eastlands against their penny-pinching neighbours from around the way.

Speaking of whom, Ji-Sung Park's winning goal in the last minute of Fergie time... I mean, stoppage time at home against Wolves could well prove to have huge ramifications given the erratic results of the teams surrounding them this weekend. Manchester United, once again, looked far from convincing, but remain unbeaten and are slowly looking to build up something like momentum. They're turning those early season draws into wins and continue to put pressure on Chelsea above them. You have to believe that the performances will eventually come too and it will be just as important for them to avoid defeat on Wednesday as much as their cross-town rivals.



As I pointed out weeks ago following his hat-trick against Liverpool, the excessive praise dished out to Dimitar Berbatov that day proved to be somewhat premature with the Bulgarian having gone five league games without finding the net before being dropped... sorry, "rested" on Saturday. This doesn't make him shit either, it just means he's probably somewhere halfway between.

A major talking point from Manchester United's win this weekend was the aborted return to action for the lesser-spotted Owen Hargreaves, a player so unfortunate with injury an entire Salford-based hospital is set to be built and named in his honour*. For those that didn't see it, the former England international was withdrawn after just 5 minutes of the game with a hamstring injury. Yes, FIVE MINUTES!! Sir Alex has suggested 'anxiety' may be the cause of the latest set back suggesting that, understandably, there may be some psychological hump that Hargreaves will have to scale if he ever to get back to his best.

On the subject of perpetual injury problems, Arsenal found themselves in a rare position this week when what a good portion of what many believe to be their first team were available for selection. In the past five trophyless years, we've been constantly been led to believe that had Arsenal not been victims of a gypsy curse and hadn't had more players in hospital than available to play then these barren years would have been far more fruitful. The first chance to prove the validity of this claim came against Newcastle at the Emirates and it was a test they failed in spectacular fashion.

Andy Carroll gave the visitors a shock 1-0 win in a game where the same old problems reared their ugly, ugly heads again. I'm tempted to copy/paste previous statements about goalkeeping problems, failure to perform when Cesc Fabregas isn't 100% and inability to break down any team that actually knows how to defend but these problems are so glaringly obvious they don't really bare repeating.

Arsene Wenger's team is at risk of becoming the most pointless entity in football. Every season it's the same. A top four finish without ever really looking like winning the title and a decent cup run until they come up against someone half decent. Same old tedious story every year. Repeat to fade.

Equally pointless are an Aston Villa team who this season are about as interesting as a three hour lecture on socks by Iain Duncan-Smith. Following a prolonged and patient rebuilding process, Villa were on the brink of reaching the holy grail known as the Champions League just a little over a season ago. Now, in the space of a little under six months, the whole plan seems to have unravelled and they have returned to the level of midtable obscurity that preceded Randy Learner’s takeover some years back. It's hard to lay blame at the feet of new manager Gerard Houllier but this current side are hardly one to get the juices flowing.

This weekend's 1-all draw at Fulham was just about par for the course for a team averaging less than 1 goal a game so far this season with just 10 in 11. Only West Ham (9) and Wigan (8) have scored fewer and both those sides are in the relegation zone. If Villa are not careful, they could easily join them over the coming weeks as they sit a mere three points about the bottom three.

Spurs, the team that eventually achieved what Villa couldn't by breaking into the elusive top four and subsequent Champions League qualification, did their reputation no harm last week after comfortably beating European champions Inter Milan at White Hart Lane. Now, unless you superglued your eyes shut and stuffed your ears with playdough, you wouldn't have failed to notice that the major talking point from the game was Gareth Bale whose the stupendous performance presumably had Inter's right back Maicon on the phone to a victim support helpline after the game, such was the brutality of the public violating he suffered.



Bale's performance had the 'experts' almost literally frothing at the mouth in excitement and declaring, in all seriousness, that the young Welshman is somehow up there with the likes of Ronaldo, Messi, Xavi and Drogba as the best in the world. Leaving aside the fact that in both games against Inter he was allowed the freedom of Europe to do his damage thanks to the absence of any attempt to try and stop him, I was interested to see how well Bale was performing back on home soil. His sum total of two goals (both in the same game) and one assist having played every minute of every Tottenham match this campaign would suggest that maybe he's not quite the new Maradona just yet. Talk about people getting ahead of themselves. Best in the world? Have a word with yourself!

Bale and his Tottenham team were on the receiving end of something of a hammering from Bolton which by some folks' twisted logic would mean that Owen Coyle's side are now the best team in Europe.

Final point this week would be to tread on already well trodden ground and talk about Stoke City. The staffordshire club are floundering somewhat in the league and are only outside the bottom three thanks the the abovementioned woeful scoring record of Wigan Athletic. Grandmaster Tony Pulis seems to think that this down to bad refereeing decisions going against them and Dean Whitehead has pointed to Danny Murphy's comments some weeks back, believing they have influenced officials. It's funny that Blackburn and Wolves, also criticised by Murphy, have not faced similar troubles but let's not let that get in the way of Pulis' deflection tactics to stop people noticing how piss poor his team actually are. I seem to remember him criticising other managers for 'moaning' in the past. Nothing like good old fashioned double-standards, eh Tone?

*This may not be true

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Weekend Observations 16th - 17th October 2010 - Part Two

Part one here

On Saturday, Arsenal took on Birmingham looking to get back on track after a number of recent poor league results. Predictably, the Gunners made hard work of a game they should have strolled to victory in. They did get the win in the end but the main talking point was once again, a dangerous over the top tackle that potentially could have caused serious injury. Yes, those dirty Brummies... hold on. Wait a sec. It says here that it was an ARSENAL player who was the culprit. That can't be right, surely? Wenger’s precious little lambs wouldn’t say boo to a goose! Turns out in their midst is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Step forward Jack Wilshire who rightly saw red for the exact type of challenge on Big Nic Zigic that Wenger has long been calling for to be essentially outlawed. If I knew the proper definition of irony, I'm sure this would be an example of it.



Both Arsene Wenger and Wilshire have been quick to acknowledge that the red card was deserved rather than trying to defend the indefensible as many other managers more often than not will try and do. Some credit has to go Brum gaffer Alex McLeish who had the decency not to complain and even gave the wholly contrived 'not that kind of player' spiel usually reserved for incidents such as this. However, you can't help feel that his motives were less than sincere when you see how smug he came across by suggesting that people 'draw a line' under the Eduardo incident from way back when. You almost think he wanted his own player's leg to be broken just so he could say "now we're quits".

The subject of tough/reckless/dangerous tackling just won’t go away at the moment it seems. Fulham’s Danny Murphy committed the cardinal sin of expressing an honest opinion by suggesting that managers of certain teams are responsible for sending their teams out with less than honourable intentions on the football pitch. Having seen two of his teammates suffer serious injury against two of the teams he mentioned, you might think his frustration was justified. Not in the eyes of the football community unfortunately as all and sundry have rounded on Murphy like he claimed that the slave trade had its benefits.

English football doesn't know what to do with itself. If this was Johnny Foreigner, people could dismiss it but because an old custodian of the domestic game and experienced former England international has spoken out, the entire country seems about ready to combust and it's just absurdly hilarious. The rebuttals have been brilliant; from Scholarly Sam Allardyce's epistemological views on perception to Tony Pulis' shocking revelation that he can actually read, the whole thing is has been reduced to farce and just gives further credence to the theory that football is full of morons. This was further highlighted on Match of the Day 2 this week when Kevin Day presented a feature on arguably the biggest culprits in the league at the moment, Wolverhampton Wanderers who somehow felt one 'clean' game against West Ham vindicates them for the crimes against football they’ve committed so far this season. I used to like and respect Steve Bull until he came across as a pompous arse while Mick McCarthy’s childish, petty, sarcastic retort amused only himself.

But then, you expect the accused to defend themselves no matter how ridiculous they sound. What was really disappointing were the League Managers Association wading in to have a dig at Murphy showing that they completely miss the point. Saying that managers have a responsibility to make sure their players aren't making dangerous tackles is something that the LMA should be addressing to it's members anyway or maybe they're just pissed because Murphy is doing their job for them.



Without wanting to dwell on this, my final point is that it is borderline idiotic to say that "back in the day tackles were worse" because the game has moved on since then. Rules have been changed to prevent reckless play going unpunished and more poignantly, I'm sure you will find that a darn sight more players were effectively crippled, permanently damaged or failed to fully recover from injuries sustained in their playing days. You'll also find that a lot more players were forced to hang up their boots early because of injury in these fabled golden ages of hard men and tough tackling. Having broken limbs isn't 'all part of the game' as some would have you believe.

Part Three to follow...

Stoke-ing the Flames

Not content with one ass-whooping, it seems that the players at Stoke City have resorted to beating each other as well.

It has emerged to day that Abdoulaye Faye and Glenn Whelan allegedy got into a fist fight with one another following their 7-0 humping at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.



Now, this is no major surprise. Fallings out within teams have existed ever since that fateful day when a load of bored young men decided to kick and chase a pig's bladder and christened this bizzare activity 'football'. There have been countless examples of disagreements and in-fighting down the years. It has always happened and will continue to do so given all the egos, Alpha-male-ism and testosterone flying around the changing room.

What is a worry however, is the fact that this does not seem to be a rare occurrence at the Britannia club. Whelan and Faye's Flip Flop fisticuffs is not the first incident of this kind at Stoke City.

Manager Tony Pulis was reported to have come to blows with striker James Beattie following a disagreement about a Christmas party last December.

And of course, who could forget this....



No doubt we'll soon be hearing the typical “it will be dealt with internally” line as well as the “this kind of thing happens all the time behind closed doors at every club” quote to accompany it. But does it? If it does, are Stoke just really bad at concealing it compared to other teams or is their problem far worse than elsewhere? I'm inclined to think the latter. Yes, you hear about disagreements (Hello, Dutch national team!) but rarely do you hear of players 'belting each other in the face'.

At the risk of stating the obvious, it is evidently clear is that there is a fundamental disciplinary problem within the Stoke City squad. It's not even credible to say that Pulis has lost control because as Beattie will tell you, the manager is seemingly part of the problem.

Stoke has been cited in the past for their 'robust' approach to the game of football culminating in the horrific leg break suffered by Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey earlier this year. At the time, so many were quick jump in and defend the both the perpetrator Ryan Shawcross and Stoke City's style of football. Well, all the defences and suggestions of 'not being that kind of player' lose all credence when more and more stories of heated internal battles come out.

They are clearly a team packed with thugs and animals who have no respect for their own team mates so when they say that they 'never go out to deliberately hurt other professionals' they are clearly lying. Tony Pulis was on TV once again last week suggesting that Shawcross isn't a maniacal, bloodthirsty hatchet man but when it is clear to all and sundry that the there is a culture of violence within the club, how can we take his comments seriously?



What amuses me is the fact that he isn't disappointed about the fact the Faye/Whelan incident even took place but rather because the story was leaked. This just how much perspective the man lacks.

If this is the attitude that Pulis fosters and encourages we can only hope they keep it behind closed doors. They can massacre each other for all I care so long as they don't continue to wreak the careers of many more promising youngsters like Ramsey or any of their other 'fellow professionals' at other clubs.