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#5617635 · 16 May 2007, 23:52 · · პროფილი · პირადი მიმოწერა · ჩატი
აუ საკაიფო რაღაც გავაძრე. დიდია მარა ვისაც აინტერესებს წაიკითხავს.
ინგლისელების აზრით ათი ძირითადი ფაქტორი, რამაც განაპირობა წლევანდელი პრემიერლიგის მიმდინარეობა და შედეგები:
That's all, folks. The Premiership season is over, and a long summer of no football beckons. But what were the key factors in the title race and the relegation battle? Where did it all go wrong, or right? Find out with our look at the ten things that shaped the season...
Sir Alex's Promise To Look After Ronaldo
Let's get one thing straight - this wasn't a story cooked up by the papers, although they played their part. Everyone knew that there was no way Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney could stay at the same club after events in last summer's World Cup.
Everyone, including their rivals. "It will be interesting in the Man United dressing room at the start of next season," said John Terry, while Frank Lampard expressed scorn for someone who was "supposed to be a team-mate".
"I think that sums him up as a person. I saw what Ronaldo did and if it was one of my team-mates I'd be absolutely disgusted by him because there's no need for that," ranted Steven Gerrard of the winger's infamous wink.
Even Ronaldo admitted his time at Old Trafford had come to an end. "I should get out of Manchester as the circumstances are not right," he declared the day after Portugal's World Cup exit.
"For some time I haven't had any support from my chief executive or my coach. Nobody stood up for me and my desire is to play in Spain. Will it be Real or Barcelona? It will be one of them."
It's impossible to say whether that prompted Ferguson and Gill to fly to Portugal and assure Ronaldo that he would have the same backing David Beckham had received when he became a nation's scapegoat, or whether they had always intended to make the trip when Portugal were finally eliminated. Either way, it proved to be one of the most important actions of Ferguson's 20 years as United manager.
"If he stays in England, I think he can turn things around," said Jose Mourinho of Ronaldo last July. He's probably never been so annoyed at being right.
Chelski's Winter Of Discontent
Accident or no accident - and contrary to Jose Mourinho's rants and the opinions of a few misguided newspaper columnists, it clearly was an accident - few individual moments had as much impact on this season's title race as Stephen Hunt's knee cracking Petr Cech's skull.
Chelsea's dreams were left in the hands of Carlo Cudicini (once he'd recovered from his own injury, suffered in the same game) and the hilarious Hilario for three whole months.
With the defence then hit by injury, including the ever-dependable John Terry being ruled out from the beginning of December to the beginning of February, Chelsea's real problems began.
Over the festive period and the new year, the Blues dropped points three games in succession - at home against Reading and Fulham and away to Aston Villa - while United notched up eight goals and seven points.
Three weeks later, Chelsea blew an invaluable chance to make up ground - United lost to Arsenal, but Mourinho saw his charges slip to a 2-0 defeat at Anfield...with Paolo Ferreira and Michael Essien shoe-horned in at centre-back and completely unable to cope with Peter Crouch's height.
Jose went public in his appeal for aid, begging Roman Abramovich to release the funds for a new defender. "The drama is when consecutively you cannot defend," he announced one day. "We sold William Gallas and Robert Huth in the summer. We don't have enough cover," he complained on another. "I want to go to the transfer market," came an impassioned plea, before reverse psychology was tried - "It is Mr Abramovich's club, and if he will not buy new players, that is that" - and failed. Chelsea would have to take their chances with what they had.
They might have got away with it, too, if it wasn't for those pesky end-of-season games. Following the Liverpool game, with no new defenders to shore things up, the Blues won nine Premiership games on the bounce, conceding just one goal. The gap began to close.
And then, disaster struck. First came a draw with Newcastle - but United were held by Boro. But then Ricardo Carvalho was forced from the field against Bolton. Michael Essien moved to centre-back. Chelsea dropped points. In his side's next game, against Arsenal, Mourinho turned to the out of favour Khalid Boulahrouz...who gave away a penalty and was sent off. Points were dropped. The title was lost. And all because Roman wouldn't buy Jose the defender he wanted.
Charlton's Mental Managerial Shenanigans
Perhaps it was just a case of the Charlton board having the seven-year itch (except for the Championship, rather than Marilyn Monroe). Little else can explain the bizarre decisions that led to Charlton having four managers in less than eight months.
It was always going to be difficult when Alan Curbishley left. Saying goodbye to a long-term manager often means saying goodbye to stability - see Bolton next season. But Curbishley had consistently failed to have his side perform in the second half of the season, and in his last three seasons the side slipped from a seventh-place finish to 11th to 13th. When he left, the majority of Charlton fans on these pages were boldly prophesying that their side would be heading up the table.
When they appointed Iain Dowie, the flames of enthusiasm roared higher. Dowie had led Crystal Palace on a remarkable run to the Premiership, and even though he had failed to keep them up they had bounced straight back into contention at the top of the Championship, losing to Watford in the play-offs.
But from the first, Dowie's reign was bizarre. Having left Palace reportedly insisting he wanted a move back north to be nearer his family, he caused outrage at Selhurst Park by making the short trip to The Valley; the story of Simon Jordan sending a bailiff to serve a writ on Dowie in the middle of his first Charlton press conference will be told for years. Legal action brought by Jordan is ongoing against both Charlton and Dowie.
Even Charlton's decision to sack Dowie came at an odd time. They stuck by him when he had led the side to seven losses from eight games and the bottom of the table...then sacked him after a narrow loss to Wigan that followed an unbeaten run of three games that nearly tripled their points tally.
The odder decision, of course, was to hand the job to the completely-untested Les Reed. When news of his appointment came through, nearly every news source reported that Reed had been named as caretaker manager. It needed an extra press release the next day to confirm that, actually, he had the job permanently. Well, permanently for 39 days, before he was sacked on Christmas Eve after a run of one win in seven games.
By the time Alan Pardew was appointed manager, Charlton were eight points away from safety and it was too late for a man with a collection of average players and very little money to strengthen. Even so, by the end of March it looked like Pardew might pull off a remarkable escape, as the Addicks climbed outside the relegation zone. But it wasn't to be.
Six games and no wins later they were down, just one day shy of the anniversary of Curbishley's departure.
Rafa Benitez's Early-Season Tinkering
You can prove anything with stats. So here goes. Chelsea have only lost three games all season, but still failed to win the title. Liverpool had lost three games - and any chance of the title - by the end of September.
Not lost on anyone was the fact that the 100th consecutive game in which Rafa Benitez had failed to name an unchanged line-up was fast approaching.
The major criticism made of this was, of course, that it meant Liverpool were out of the title race by early autumn. Tied in with that was the worry that Benitez, who had brought in a number of new players, was preventing any of them settling in by changing things around so often.
Benitez, though, insisted that he knew what he was doing. In Valencia, he told us, he had always managed like this, and his players would be fresher than their rivals at the end of the season.
Fast forward eight months and, in one way, he's been proved correct. As Chelsea's tired legs began to give up, a workmanlike Liverpool held their nerve and their clean sheet for 120 minutes at Anfield.
End result? Liverpool are in a Champions League final for the second time in three years. Impressive, whichever way you look at it.
But while Jose Mourinho's comments about big clubs may have upset Steven Gerrard, he's right. Sooner or later, a club like Liverpool should be challenging for the title. Benitez's rotation system may have worked in Spain, but when his Valencia side won the title in 2004 they did it having lost seven games. That wouldn't have you close to the Premiership crown.
A Champions League final is more than compensation, of course. But this wasn't all part of a Benitez masterplan. No-one can plan to win a semi-final on penalties. Sooner or later, Benitez must either accept that his rotation system will not win the league and try something different, or Liverpool must learn to live with being a cup team.
Henry And Van Persie Having A Season Off
Robin van Persie hasn't played for Arsenal since his 24-minute appearance against Manchester United on January 21 (he scored, incidentally). He only managed to complete 90 minutes in the Premiership eight times this season. But he's still the Gunners' top scorer.
Thierry Henry, meanwhile, managed to complete 15 Premiership matches. But for whatever reason - Arsene Wenger blames France for picking him in a pre-season friendly; Henry blames the exertions of the World Cup and Champions League last term, as well as a back injury; rival fans point to his age in glee and hope - he looked a shadow of the man who had topped the Premiership's scoring charts for four out of the past five seasons.
Those who have already written off Arsenal's hopes of success next season would do well to remember that, minus their two top goalscorers, neither United nor Chelsea would have challenged for the league. Just last week Alex Ferguson announced that "only Drogba" had kept Chelsea in the chase for so long. While, like Liverpool, Arsenal blew too many points early on to be considered serious contenders, they would have been a lot closer if they had kept their key men fit.
Whether that's dumb luck or whether training or rehabilitation methods need to be changed is something else open to debate. Luck is only a factor in football to a certain extent. Arsenal, like Newcastle, have a recent history of players being brought back too quickly and making their injury worse. At some point, when the same things keep happening and the same muscles keep being tweaked in different players, it has to be wondered how much one should be looking at luck and how much one should be looking for a reason.
Given that, this term's problems could be a blessing in disguise. Arsene Wenger has a habit of burying his head in the sand over key issues - the downright refusal to let his team work on set-pieces in training for so long is testament to that. It might be that long-term injuries to his talismanic club captain and bright young goalscoring hope force him to take note.
Certainly, if Henry and Van Persie are fit, Arsenal will have more of a say next season than they did this time round. Yes, the squad needs strengthening. Yes, there are still major issues with the defence - although it too has been hit by major injury problems this term. But with the continued emergence of a fantastic crop of young players, there is reason to hope for next season.
Just look out for fireworks if either Henry or Van Persie are selected for their country before they make a full comeback for the Gunners.
The second half of our look at the ten key factors in the Premiership season, including Chelsea and ManYoo's squads, a Bolton match in April, the difficulties of the UEFA Cup and that man Tevez...
The Signings Of Shevchenko And Ballack
In the first half of this feature, I discussed Roman Abramovich's refusal to put his hand in his pocket when Jose Mourinho went begging for a defender. The flipside to the Chelsea transfer story this season was the summer that saw two of the biggest names in world football arrive at Stamford Bridge.
"The only superstar you need is me," was the legendary response Mourinho gave when, in his first meeting with Abramovich, the Russian asked him what world-class players he wanted in his squad. Jorge Valdano compared Mourinho and Rafa Benitez last week, and you can see why. Every aspect of the Chelsea manager's purchases fit Benitez's claim that, "You don't need to buy the best leg for your table. You need to buy the leg you need for your table."
Mourinho had done so for two seasons, and had delivered two titles. So why the sudden shift to buying big names?
Perhaps it was a vanity thing. Perhaps Abramovich got bored of Chelsea's route one, functional football, and decided the addition of two superstars might spice things up a bit.
It did, but only in that it allowed United to leapfrog Chelsea at the top of the league while Mourinho struggled - and failed - to find a system that accommodated his new players. Ballack, the man who carried Germany to the brink of a second successive World Cup final last summer, became a passenger. Shevchenko, probably the most feared striker in Europe over the last five years, started firing blanks.
The attempts to rewrite history have already started. "Ballack, even against some opinion, has contributed to the team very positively," said Mourinho this week, to widespread guffawing. But even the Special One couldn't pretend Shevchenko had delivered. "Sheva's season was not what everyone was thinking, including myself," he said.
Given the fact that every member of F365 Towers tipped Shevchenko to be Premiership top scorer this season, it's hard to argue with him. But that doesn't answer the question: Just what went wrong?
Bolton Losing To Arsenal On April 14
Rather specific? Perhaps. But as single matches go, you'd be hard pressed to find one with more impact.
Firstly, it more or less confirmed that the Big Four would be the top four for the second season in succession. A win would have seen Bolton move above Arsenal into the Champions League places; a loss moved the Gunners five points clear and meant all Sam Allardyce's men could hope for was a place in the UEFA Cup.
That wasn't lost on Sam Allardyce, who, in the aftermath of the defeat, tendered his resignation to Phil Gartside (when media reports eventually forced Bolton to acknowledge Allardyce was on his way out, on April 29, Gartside insisted "I've known for two weeks."). Sam's complaint was that, with Bolton unable to break into the top four, he had taken them as far as he could. A win at the Emirates might have changed that.
Since then, Bolton have failed to win a game, and scraped into the last UEFA Cup place in seventh. And the repercussions haven't stopped there.
If Allardyce had not tendered his resignation, thus freeing him up as an immediate replacement for Glenn Roeder, would Newcastle have been so eager to part company with their manager? Remember, Roeder only ended up with the St James' Park job full-time after Allardyce (and Martin O'Neill) rebuffed Freddie Shepherd's advances last year.
Just think how different things might be if Cesc Fabregas hadn't scored his first goal of the season and ended Allardyce's dream.
The Detrimental Effects Of The UEFA Cup
At first glance, Tottenham's cup commitments don't appear to have taken too heavy a toll on their season. After all, they still finished in fifth place, winning the 'best of the rest' award that is so applauded these days.
On closer inspection, though, the difficulties Spurs have faced are more obvious. Last term, in which they played just 40 games - the shortest season of any top-flight team - Spurs challenged for a Champions League place. Indeed, they were in pole position going into the last day. This season, Martin Jol's men were never in the running for the top four.
That's not intended to either criticise Spurs' performance this season, in which they performed admirably in more than one cup, or belittle their achievements last time out; merely to underline that the rigours of a European campaign can have a heavy toll on a squad. Spurs are far from the only example. In fact, every Premiership team that played in the UEFA Cup this season is in the same boat.
Blackburn have amassed nine points less than last year, and slipped four places down the league. West Ham topped that, missing last season's total by 14 points. Needless to say, they were nearly relegated, and parted company with their manager along the way. Newcastle, though, suffered the greatest loss of form, finishing 15 points and six places worse off than last season. It is widely accepted that the loss to AZ Alkmaar was the beginning of the end for Glenn Roeder.
More games mean a more difficult season. Stating the obvious? Perhaps. But how often are we told that UEFA Cup qualification is a necessity for any club hoping to build a credible challenge to the top four? "Qualifying for the UEFA Cup was a big part of what Big Sam and I have planned to take this club on to the next level," said Sammy Lee on Sunday. Lee, like most people, is convinced that European football is a bonus for a club.
In a way, it is. The point of football is to win things and to entertain your fans; Europe gives you the opportunity to do both. But that comes at a cost, and that cost is usually your league form. The teams in the tier below the big four do not have the squads required to sustain assaults on several fronts. Even the big four struggle to do so.
Qualifying for the UEFA Cup is an admirable achievement, if not as admirable as it was in the days before a fifth of the Premiership qualified for the Champions League. But all those who think it is a means to an end and a certain chance to improve a football club should tread warily - it is most definitely a double-edged sword.
The Carlos Tevez Saga
Where to begin? When West Ham, FA Cup finalists and with a top-half finish in their first season back in the top flight, snapped up two of the brightest stars of the World Cup, the majority of the footballing world predicted a swift rise up the table.
Alan Pardew certainly thought so. "I think this is a fantastic move to take us to the next level. I want to manage and coach at the highest possible level and this gives me the opportunity to do that - to compete," he said.
Talk about making a rod for your back. Between the arrival of the Argentinians and West Ham's new owners dispensing with Pardew's services at the start of December, the Hammers managed just three wins. Neither Carlos Tevez nor Javier Mascherano featured in any of them, for even a single minute. The Hammers were a mess - they couldn't even beat Chesterfield in the League Cup.
Come January, Javier Mascherano was shipped off to Liverpool. In his 235 minutes on the pitch for West Ham, they had conceded five goals and scored none. His move raised no eyebrows in footballing terms. The same could not be said of the paperwork, as both the Premier League and the media began to realise that not only had West Ham behaved improperly when signing the players, they had lied to cover up doing so.
If the Premier League had responded immediately with a £5.5million fine, they might have faced less opposition. Tevez's contribution at that point had been nigh-on worthless, and the claim that his signing had not benefited the Hammers would have been hard to dispute.
Unfortunately, the Premier League stalled for time, presumably hoping that West Ham would be relegated and that any points deduction could set a precedent without damaging one of their darling London clubs. It was a plan that could have worked any time up until March, when Tevez burst into life with a goal and two assists against Spurs.
Since then, the Argentinian has scored six goals in nine games, helping West Ham more than double their points tally. Enough words have been written elsewhere on the wongs and rights of the issue. Suffice it to say, without Carlos Tevez, West Ham would not have beaten the drop.
ManYoo's Indian Summer
Manchester United need new players, we said. They can't keep relying on old legs, we said. Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Ole Solskjaer are a shadow of their former selves, we said. What did we know?
Well, you can't blame us for getting it wrong. After all, Scholes had managed just one game in 2006, having had nearly half a year out with blurred vision. Even Alex Ferguson had admitted he might never play again. What were we supposed to think? Anyone who predicted he would play 44 games this season and be named in the PFA Team of the Year should pack in their job and set themselves up as a full-time soothsayer.
Anyone who made the same call about Ole Solskjaer should sack off the gambling and go into business as a clairvoyant. After nearly two years out with injuries, the Norwegian returned in December 2005, but played just five games between then and the summer of 2006, and didn't score a single goal. He managed 34 appearances this time, and reached double figures for the first time since 2002/03 - the last time United won the league, if the significance of the date escaped you.
Ryan Giggs topped both of them. The 33-year-old played an astonishing 47 games for United and Wales as he collected a record ninth Premiership medal and, like Scholes, a place in the PFA Team of the Year.
Obviously, none of the trio matched the performances of Cristiano Ronaldo or the goalscoring tally of Wayne Rooney. But those who predicted that they would burn out as the demands of the season took its toll were silenced, as their magnificient form continued all the way to the title. If Ronaldo had won an Oscar rather than both Player of the Year awards, these are the men who should have been on the receving end of a gushing couldn't-have-done-it-without-you acceptance speech.
This post has been edited by java83 on 16 May 2007, 23:56
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