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Non Euro 2004 Football

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ONLY NICE THINGS

12:50 / 21.06.04

Well, it is a sad day - Wimbledon FC, as was, the sad, second-division remnants of a once proud club, have changed their name officially to "Milton Keynes Dons". I'll be curious to see whether this allows them to put the stigma of the name of Wimbledon behind them, and if so will anyone turn up anyway, wherever they find themselves playing? What a bloody mess...

Meanwhile, it's been a Summer of frenzied transfer activity at my own beloved Tranmere Rovers. Although obviously I'm missing first division football, it's been interesting to watch the series of transformations created by a series of managers after the lengthy stability of John King and then the comparative longevity of John Aldridge... Tranmere has gone from being a quite monocultural team, very white and also quite Wirral, to the current Brian Little incarnation, with two Jamaican internationals, the Ivorian Eugene Dadi and Zola, our new Congolese signing, formerly of Necastle United. Any Magpies fans seen him in the reserves? I've not come across him before... Brian Little seems to be playing Championship Manager - signing interesting-looking free transfers - which is better, I guess, than spunking £7m on Stan Collymore, and after a decent recovery last season (albeit punctuated by a slump that cost us the play-offs), I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt for the moment. I'll miss Graham Allen, though...

nedrichards is confused

14:26 / 21.06.04

That Zola lad from Newcastle is rather good in CM4, less good in CM 03/04, perhaps Brian Little can't afford the new version? Or maybe he's shrewdly waiting for Football Manager 2005, the spiritucal successor to CM programmed by the coding gods at Sports Interactive.

In Watford news we're pleasingly close to signing even more Icelanders, giving us the quality nickname of 'The Stoke of the South). But most indicative of how sad our financial plight for a Div 1 club is when the fans get excited and call a £70,000 sale a 'cash injection'.

nedrichards is confused

13:21 / 28.06.04

And the Gerrard will stay at Liverpool! This only makes his eventual Alan Smith like defection the harder to take.

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:24 / 28.06.04

Good luck with that one, Bunky.

Oh! And Julian Gray has left Crystal Palace. Although I understand his reasons, this is a shame, and probably means Palace are down before they even go up. A lot depends on the buys you can make and the frees you can get, of course, but I don't think there's enough in the kitty.

nedrichards is confused

15:08 / 28.06.04

Hopefully Palace will just take the money and run and come back stronger in 2 years becuase yes they're just not going to have the quality.

nedrichards is confused

08:37 / 29.06.04

Auxerre to Liverpool Please buy our best players.

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:45 / 07.07.04

"You know that big headline - 'The Truth'," I replied. "All you have to do is put 'We lied' in the same size. Then you might be all right."

This was Kenny Dalglish's response to Kelvin MacKensie's inquiry into how the Sun might recuperate its reputation on Merseyside. Today's apology and editorial seems to have made little impact so far. Perhaps it's time to trot out that gigantic headline. Or possibly go back in time and apologise for it les than four years later this time. Or go back further in time and check your facts. Any of those are credible options. I know it is inconsistent to boycott the Sun and not, say, Sky Sports, but sometimes a little moral repugnance is better than none at all.

I do feel sorry for Wayne Rooney, though, if only because he clearly needs to have a word with his PR company. The poor boy must presumably have assumed that he would be safely tucked away in West London or Manchester by now. This smacks of simple incompetence, rather than, say, posing in a Man United shirt while still a West Ham player in order to make it totally impossible to keep you - after all, all Rooney realistically needs to do to leave Everton on reasonably good terms is to make it clear that he wants to leave, but is happy to keep playing until Everton receive an offer they believe is suitable. £40-50m later, he's still playing in blue and Moyes has the resources to strengthen a team that is chronically in need of refurbishment, possibly more than it is in need even of a Wayne Rooney.

Hattie's Kitchen

15:55 / 07.07.04

Yup, tricky one. On my visits to Liverpool I have seen that it's very evident there is still a repugnance attached to buying The Sun, kind of like when you see blokes shuffling about and hurrying out of the paper shop with a copy of Razzle or Jugs Monthly stashed inside their raincoat...personally, I was a little surprised to see that Wayne had sold his story to The Sun, as I don't think he would be totally ignorant of fuss this would cause - even given his age, his parents surely would have known the hullabaloo that would follow...

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:48 / 11.07.04

Oh, bollocks. That ain't good *at all*.

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:54 / 19.07.04

Meanwhile, back in the (slightly) lower leagues... sweet Jesus o'Reilly! Tranmere have signed Jason McAteer! OK, it's not exactly getting Koumas back, but how on Earth are we paying his wages? Guaranteed coaching job, I guess, but nonetheless, this is a bit odd. Hopefully he will help to strengthen a slightly lightweight midfield, in a kind of Deiter Elts role.

Gosh. This is reminiscent of the signing of Aldridge or Nevin ((they were much better players, yes, but then Tranmere was then a much better club) - hopefully it might have a similarly catalysing effect. Or it could be a disaster as the dressing room rebels against an overpaid and overrated midfielder who fails to pull his weight. I've got high hopes - I'm oddly fond of McAteer.

This does rather suggest that Brian Little (favours a 5-3-2, good with youngsters) is indeed playing Championship Manager a bit too much - signing all the elderly players on frees that you have heard of is a classic CM technique...

nedrichards is confused

11:53 / 20.07.04

You can't be sure until he makes an audacious attempt to capture Kim Kallstrom or a related low wage, high flip potential Swede.

13:18 / 20.07.04

All i can say is that Hull City got Nick Barmby!

Apparently he's took a massive drop in wages to play for his home city, something like £28,000 a week.

What a guy!

We'll see you in the Premiership soon.

nedrichards is confused

13:27 / 22.07.04

I can only assume that means Barmby was on £29,000 a week before. Yowza. Watford have just signed Jermaine Darlington on a free thus keeping the Jermaine quotient up, surely the great modern cliche in footballers names, Jermaine. Also, Leeds, Bakke out for a year with an ACL injury, can it get any worse?

16:01 / 22.07.04

I think he was on £30,000 or something and the wage limit at Hull City is something like £2,000.

They must of told him something like if they get promoted again the wages will go up a lot.

Still, it's pretty unbelievable.

ONLY NICE THINGS

21:55 / 22.07.04

Well... given that Barmby has already earned more than a basically not-really-as-good-as-Peter-Beardsley footballer ever should, that no premiership club would have him and that he was clearly being wiped off the Leeds balance sheet one way or another, a deal in which he gets to move home in advance of his retirement and still earn £100,000 or so a year must look, if not the best deal ever, then not a bad deal, given that squads this season are likely to be 20% smaller than last year. See also Jason McAteer, who clearly fancied moving back to the Wirral, being a local hero and preparing for life after football when no premiership club wanted him.

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:49 / 26.07.04

And speaking of pay...

£50,000 per week. Phil Neville.

Anyone want to spot the FLAW IN REALITY here?

08:00 / 26.07.04

a deal in which he gets to move home in advance of his retirement and still earn £100,000 or so a year must look, if not the best deal ever, then not a bad deal, given that squads this season are likely to be 20% smaller than last year.

Yeah i suppose when you put it like that it isn't all that unbelievable.

nedrichards is confused

15:24 / 27.07.04

You are a Portugese defender. Before 2004 you were worth, at most, say £5m (for a quality player like Fernando Couto). Now you are worth somewhere between £13m and £17m all without any internal or external change in your personal circumstances. Does this throw you into existential crisis?

Goodness Gracious Meme

22:50 / 27.07.04

naaaa. dependent on what yr name is, you sign for Chelsea for £30million. Who have now spent £90milion during the close season.

Meanwhile, talking of lower leagues, we may have found our new archetypal hero(Simon Walton):

The 16-year-old Leeds-born midfielder scored their opener from the penalty spot and was then sent off for two rash tackles.

2-2 in a Valencia friendly tho'. I'll take that.

Can I have one last moan that I'm still looking for our team news in the wrong section on Soccernet?

Goodness Gracious Meme

23:30 / 09.08.04

Leeds 1 - Derby 0.

W00t! (I'm trying to get excited, really I am)

06:43 / 10.08.04

Millwall have signed a Canadian left winger on a free. And everyone's favourite angry midget (other than Wisey or Muscat) Jody Morris. All we have to do now is get Lee Hughes on a pre contract agreement and we'll have the most popular team of all time.

Where's the cup money and Cahill fee gone? The chairman's probably spent it on bugle.

nedrichards is confused

11:08 / 10.08.04

Danny Webber is back! After an iffy last season the Hornets legend and bloke you always sold as Man Utd in Championship Manager rounded the keeper twice to score with a combination of him and Heider Helguson I think we could flatter to decieve this year. (better than a grim, lower 1/3 but never going down like last year).

nedrichards is confused

14:46 / 18.08.04

And bollocks, Antonio Nunez, the bloke Liverpool got in part exchange for Michael Owen and thus the Ford Focus of the football world has injured his knee ligaments 1 day after signing. Typical.

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:23 / 18.08.04

I still can't get used to "McAteer" on the team sheet at Prenton Park. Since I associate the glory days of Tranmere with faded Merseyside quasi-legends, this seems to be a positive sign, although I am sceptical we have the defence for promotion...

Mind you, an embarrassment of strikers... great to see Chris Dagnall (42 goals in all competitions for the youth team) getting some goals... I suspect that, faced with a set of attackers who can all do one thing (well, and Gary Jones, one of the few strikers whose primary feature is his marking), we may get option paralysis.

01:33 / 19.08.04

Why oh why do I insist on watching Scotland friendlies?

I feel a bleakness so pathetic that I can empathise with Linkin Park's 'Numb' at present.

09:20 / 19.08.04

Sean Wright-Phillips! Wow. God, I don’t think I’ve enjoyed an England friendly so much since ever. Sven made all the subs that I telepathically ordered him to make, and it all worked out just fine.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

11:52 / 19.08.04

Yeah, that was a lovely goal wasn't it. I was hoping Dyer was going to score too, if only to shut up all those people who booed him whenever he touched the ball? What was that all about anyway? Motty was in typically incoherent form when 'explaining' it...

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:08 / 19.08.04

Essentially - Keiron Dyer is rumoured to have had an explosive bust-up with Bobby Roboson about his willingness to play on the right wing - he wishing to playin the centre to improve his chances of getting a regular left-wing berth for England, since obviously any right-sided midfielder is going to be queuing behind Beckham. He then apparently pretended not to hear Robson's instructions to move right in the game against Middlesbrough, leaving space which they exploited to equalise. This has not made him terribly popular among the Toon Army, which since the friendly was played at St. James' Park was a bit of an issue, Robson being a native son with a love of the club and a pedigree in football and Dyer being an attacking midfielder with 1 goal in his last 37 games.

18:22 / 09.09.04

Check out Barbelith's newest member; a hard-tackling midfielder, who took precisely one penalty in his entire professional career.

And missed it.

nedrichards is confused

21:49 / 15.09.04

After watching Liverpool look to the manner born in the champions league this evening and thinking long and hard I believe that the difference between Liverpool this season and last can be eloquently summed up by their respective number 10s.

Last year:

this year:

Thanks again Birmingham.

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:33 / 16.09.04

Luis Garcia - the Jari Litmanen who can get a game.

Meanwhile, Sparky for Blackburn, but it looks like he wn't be able to manage Wales part-time after the next couple of games. So, whither Wales? There are some exciting young playeres, but can you think of a Welsh manager to replace Mark Hughes? Rush? Pulis? Flynn?

Then again, Hughes was untried when he was appointed... or is it time to go the England route and get a scheming continental?

00:14 / 17.09.04

Ooooh. Well, while we're doing pictures, can I quickly add that this piece from the Guardian’s gallery of photoshopped Alan Smiths pushed all my joy buttons:

*gurgles with joy*

08:35 / 01.11.04

Wigan beat bastard Leeds 2-0... go six points clear... 16 unbeaten games... Sax ejaculates in trousers...

11:30 / 01.11.04

I want to join in, I reallu want to write about happy football things. But I'm a Forest fan. And the shining light that is Andy Reid is surely soon to be no longer a red... so I'm sad.

I did however see a game between LA Galaxy and Dallas Burn recently, and was quite impressed that the (mainly hispanic) crowd made a lot of noise and enjoyed the game in a way that some clubs over here would have been proud of, the game wasn't half bad, and it was a full house.

23:03 / 01.11.04

You've always Eoin Jess, son.

My teen hero, along with Mike Patton.

Two in a row at Parkhead. How's them apples, Timothy?

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