EPL, Premiership, English Premier League

Manchester City’s bid for Roque Santa Cruz has been rejected by Blackburn. The Paraguayuan International  scored 23 goals last season with the Rovers. He was signed by Rover’s manager Mark Hughes from Bayern Munchen for €3.5 million. Mark Hughes was then transferred to Manchester City after Sven-Goran Eriksson was fired. Reportedly he may have offered €12 million to lure Cruz to City. While managing for the Rovers, Hughes proved to be an astute judge of young players ability with several excellent acquisitions including David Bentley for about €500,000.

“A bid came in and it was immediately rejected. Manchester City officials have been advised that the player would not be for sale and we are very disappointed they have continued their interest.” Manchester City is having real problems with David Vassell, Benjani Mwaruwari, Valeri Bojinov, and Jo all out.

However he attempted to silence critics, “I think what the bid does show is that the club is in decent shape financially and that we were able to make a bid of that significance. Maybe the stories of the financial crisis flying around are not as substantiated as they should be.”

City have been expecting a huge influx of funds from owner Thaksin Shinawatra, unfortunately he is now seeking asylum in England after he was convicted of corruption in Thailand.

Derek Williams, an English comedian who looks very similar to Sven-Goran Eriksson (who was recently appointed as the Mexican national coach), sent fake documents to the Mexican football federation in advance of his arrival. When he arrived he met with Universidad Nacional’s coach Ricardo Ferretti and said he had come to watch players ahead of his selection of the Mexican National first squad team.

Mr.Ferretti said “To be honest I was quite amused. The fake Eriksson told me that he was watching my players ahead of his next call-ups, and I believed him.” The look-a-like was given a tour of the field with two beautiful women on each side; he later issued statements to journalists and took pictures with women.

Portugese International Deco was recently informed by Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola that he was not a part of Barcelona’s plans and he cold leave. Deco is Chelsea’s newest acquisition since they acquired Jose Bosingwa (and Scolari’s first move as the new Chelsea manager). “It is good for me to be here and first of all I am very happy to be here” said Deco.

“I am sure I have come at the right time to do great things and be able to help Chelsea go back to the way it was and come back to being the first one, not only in England but also to win the Champions League that has been their dream for so long.”

Deco left Porto in 2004; but before he did, he helped Porto win domestic league titles, the Champions League, and the UEFA Cup (under Jose Mourinho). With Barcelona he won a Champions League Title against Arsenal in 2006 and won 2 League Championships. Unfortunately, during the 2007/2008 season he was hampered by injuries and made only 14 starting appearances.

While questions could be raised about the signing (since Deco is 31 years old), I believe that with his record and consistency he will play well. The contract is for 2 years but may continued at that point. The signing also raises speculation about Frank Lampard who could leave Chelsea perhaps for Inter Milan.

“The Premier League is a great league and it is getting better and you can see that with the Champions League final, where you had two English teams.I t is great that we have so many great players here at Chelsea and it is great that there is the competition which is healthy for everybody and this just makes the team better. To have great players in any position of the club just enhances the club. I know it is a new challenge but I am looking forward to it.”

Luis Felipe Scolari has been named by Chelsea as the new manager to suceed Avram Grant. “Chelsea Football Club is delighted to confirm that Luiz Felipe Scolari will be the club’s new manager from July 1, 2008. Felipe has great qualities. He is one of the world’s top coaches with a record of success at country and club level, he gets the best out of a talented squad of players and his ambitions and expectations match ours. He was the outstanding choice. Out of respect for his current role as head coach of the Portuguese national team, and to ensure minimum disruption to this work, there will be no further comment from Chelsea FC nor from Felipe about his new role until his employment with us commences.”

Scolari is currently coaching the Portugese national team in the Euro Cup. While Avram Grant was in no way a bad coach I am sure that Scolari is an excellent choice and will bring a new style of play to Chelsea. Grant also appeared to be rather unexciting and unemotional. The Brazilian International coached the Brazilian national team and won the World Cup in 2002. He also guided Portugal to the Euro Cup finals in 2004 and the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup. He also turned down the opportunity to coach England’s National team in 2006 after Sven-Goran Eriksson was fired. He has also won the Copa Libertadores (South American equivalent to the Champions League) with two different club teams. However, the 59 years old has never coached a European club team.

Chelsea’s keeper Peter Czech welcomed the appointment saying, “He is a manager with great charisma, great experience, great results. I look forward to working with him. For the club to progress further, I think it’s a wise appointment.”

Reportedly his contract will be worth €6 million, though no details have been revealed officially yet. The decision came less than a week after Scolari said, “What’s going to happen to me after Euro 2008 - if I am going to stay or leave - concerns (only) me and I am not going to talk about it now. If I decide to leave or stay, I am only going to make a public declaration at the end of Euro 2008.”

“I think it’s a top-class appointment. They have got a top-class manager. When he was manager of Brazil their emphasis was on attacking style - I think he will bring that into Chelsea football club.” said Ron Harris (former Chelsea player and legend).

Chelsea midfielder Ray Wilkins described Scolari as “A manager of top quality. It appears that he’s up for a challenge. He’s a big guy, he’s charismatic. This will be a breath of fresh air.”

Carvalho also supported the new manager saying “We were all shocked by the news. We heard the rumours but didn’t guess he would be going to Chelsea after the Euros,’ said the 30-year-old. He is a great manager and a big personality. He’s the kind of guy that players respond to and I think we can go forward with him.”

Fellow Portugese player Paulo Ferreira said “I think Scolari is a good manager and he can do a good job there and it will be good for the club.”

Grant joined Chelsea 8 months ago and has now been fired largely as a result of the chief executive Peter Kenyon as well as Bruce Buck. Avram Grant had only lost 2 of all Premiership games. He brought Chelsea to 2nd place in the EPL and Champions League behind Manchester United. “Chelsea Football Club can confirm that Avram Grant has had his contract as manager terminated today. This follows meetings over the last two days. Everybody at Chelsea FC would like to thank Avram for his contribution since taking over as manager last September. We will now be concentrating all our efforts on identifying a new manager for Chelsea and there will be no further comment until that appointment is made.”

As of now, Rijkaard, Eriksson, Brian Laudrup, Roberto Mancini, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Mark Hughes have all been linked as possible new managers.

Grant had never managed a team in England before coming to Chelsea from Portsmouth. When Morinho left in December of 2007 and signed a 4 year deal with Chelsea. “We have very high expectations at Chelsea and a couple of second place finishes is just not good enough for us. So although we never would have thought in September when Jose Mourinho left that we would be able to make it into a Champions League final as we did - and that is fantastic - Chelsea are here to win trophies. So although it was an excellent season, we are still disappointed.”

Either way, Avram Grant did an excellent job at Chelsea. He came 2nd in the English Premier League. Probably the best club league in the world. Not only that but he played against what could easily be considered one of the best teams to ever play football : the 2007/2008 season Manchester United team. This team was incredibly versatile with some of the most innovative passing that anybody has ever seen. Consider just what Ronaldo has done this season: he has made every player at Manchester United bloom, not only that, but he has shown what can be accomplished by using English passing and foresight with the Hispanic style of dribbling and finishing. This was, and may well continue to be, one of the best teams to ever be assembled. Tevez himself kept West Ham in the Premier League by saving them from relegation. One season later after transferring to Manchester United he continued to show the same skill and ability. His innovative quick cuts and bulldog attacking style has fumbled many a defense.

Its unfair to criticize, or fire, a manager for competing with what could be considered the best team ever (Man Utd) and coming within inches of taking both the English Premier League Title and the Champions League Final. Think about it, he only lost 2 games in the EPL, and he almost won the Champions League, by only losing in penalties. He gave his players the opportunity to win both Titles, a manager can only do so much for the players. I believe that in this case Avram Grant gave the Chelsea players every opportunity to win both Titles.

Manchester United versus Chelsea

United started with their strongest lineup with one unusual change: Hargreaves started in right midfield. In the 26th minute Scholes had the ball on the right wing. He was surrounded by 2 players until Brown came in to help, Scholes made a quick pass back to Brown (only a few yards away), who then passed it back and then made a run, Scholes immediately one touched it perfectly into Browns run who then took a touch and then made a curling cross. Ronaldo, covered by Essien, jumped into the air and then perfectly headed the ball with machine-like accuracy into the left side of the goal inches away from the post .

Minutes later, Ballack ran onto the box during a cross with Rio Ferdinand defending between Ballack and the goal. Ballack pushed Ferdinand’s head downwards almost forcing him into scoring an own goal. Ferdinand used great strength to keep his head up and head the ball over the goal. The ball came back into play near the United goal and Rooney stole the ball from Ballack. He took a step and then kicked the ball across almost the entire field to Ronaldo who ran all the way to the other side of the field with one defender on him. Rooney’s ball curled in to Ronaldo somehow perfectly who then made a short cross to Tevez who headed the ball low to the left of Cech from about 6 yards away. Somehow Cech managed to block it and it rebounded, rolling on the ground out of the penalty box. Carrick ran on it and fired away; the perfect opportunity for a center mid, Carrck shot it too close to Cech who once again blocked the ball.

In the 40th minute Tevez got a great ball from Rooney who crossed it by megging a defender. Tevez should have had it but missed the ball by inches. 2 minutes later Ferdinand elbowed a defender outside the box and got a yellow card and United got a free kick. Ballack took the shot but it went high over the wall and goal.

In the 45th minute, after a good amount of possession by Chelsea, Essien took a shot which deflected and landed into Lampard’s path (right in front of the goal) who then put the ball in. The lucky deflection gave Chelsea the chance to frustrate United.

In the 57th minute UEFA thought really hard about replacing the ball on the field because Ballack ripped a shot from 29 yards out when he got a clear opening on the goal. The ball went wide by a yard as it curled but it was a good time to take a shot and force United to pull their defense out more.

Chelsea really began to possess and push United back in the 2nd half and they probably got more opportunities. Ronaldo played largely perfect throughout most of the game and beat Essien multiple times on the wing.

But chances were available throughout the game just like when Drogba got the ball at the top of the United box and while falling, kicked a curling shot which hit the United right post. However, the game was destined to go into overtime with Giggs coming on for Scholes (who had a bleeding nose) 6 minutes before OT.

Three minutes in OT Lampard got the ball within the box, spun around and shot the ball to the top right and hit off the post. In the 96th minute the camera showed a bunch of really drunk Russian soldiers taking off their Jerseys and putting on United jerseys.

In the 100th minute Giggs got a clear shot on goal when Evra won the ball just outside the Chelsea box and pass it right backwards right over the PK area. Terry was there however and headed the ball over the goal preventing it from going in.

In the 116th minute, after every single player spread his legs and started stretching for some odd reason (after anyone thought they made a dumb foul they started stretching), an argument erupted between Tevez and every other player on the field. Tevez ended up getting a yellow card, Drogba a red card and Ballack a yellow card. Everyone seemed to be pushing each other as rain started falling with the referees trying to break it up. Drogba did lightly slap a United player in the face as the referee came up behind him. The arguments were an escalation of the entire game as their were many bad fouls and stupid tackles.

The game proceeds to Penalty Kicks:

Tevez took the first shot and kicked it the the right with Cech (wearing bright orange with his safety pad headpiece) diving to the Left.

Ballack fired esentially the same way as Van der Saar

Carrick, this time to the left. (The rain continued to fall)

Beletti (who just got subbed in for this purpose), this time to the right against Van der Saar.

Ronaldo against Cech, he kicked it to the left and Cech dove and blocked it!

Frank Lampard, to the right and Van der Saar almost stopped it!!

Hargreaves against Cech and he kicked it to hte upper left, Cech dove the right way but couldn’t get to it.

Ashley Cole against Van der Saar, he kicks it to the right and Saar almost stopped it, it may have been because of the rain.

Nani puts in an excellent kick against Cech.

John Terry against Van der Saar (for the win): HE MISSED!! He slipped last second and it hit off the right post!

It continues!!!

Anderson puts it in against Cech.

Malou puts it in against Saar.

Giggs puts it in against Cech.

Anelka shoots but its stopped by Edwin Van der Saar.

UNITED HAVE WON THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!!!!! THEY HAVE OBTAINED THE DOUBLE!!! Players sag in relief and complete fatigue! Terry cries in the rain hugging Grant. Ronaldo falls to the ground.

By the end of the 2007/2008 season Bolton barely avoided relegation by only one point. After Bolton’s miserable season, it seems like several players feel like they no longer belong with Bolton and have decided to leave. Three of the clubs midfielders including Andranik Teymourian, Stelios Giannakopoulos, and Ivan Campo have left. “Ivan, Stelios and Andranik have all done well for Bolton Wanderers and I’d like to express my gratitude to them. It’s time for them to move on and I wish them all the best.” said the Bolton manager Gary Megson.

Not only that but Jussi Jaaskalanen and Ricardo Gardner’s contracts will be expiring at the end of June; Megson, of course will be trying to stem the tide of fleeing players who sense the danger of relegation. “Jussi and Ricardo have both been excellent servants and are still very much part of my future plans for this football club. Hopefully, we can get them secured on new deals as soon as possible.” said Megson.

The last few games of the season ended with Manchester United obtaining their 10th League Title. United played Wigan who were at home; some wondered if Heskey could once again cause an upset as e did against Chelsea. Ronaldo scored a penalty kick in the 33rd minute (his 31st EPL goal) and Giggs scored in the 80th minute (his 758th appearance for United). United enjoyed 67% of possession. Chelsea needed to win their own game and have United to lose or tie their game; in the end Chelsea was unable to get the win against Bolton, who they tied 1-1. United obtained the League Title by 2 points with 87, Chelsea had 85, Arsenal 83.

Other struggles were underway on the last day of games in the EPL; Tottenham had the opportunity to reach 10th place in the upper half of the League Table. Tottenham had 46 points in 11th place and West Ham had 48 points in 10th place. Both teams were fighting to earn an extra €720,000 in extra merit payment from the League. Tottenham were unable to secure the coveted upper tier table position because they lost to Liverpool 2-1 with Torres scoring his 33rd goal in all competitions. Benitez was proud of Fernando and exclaimed how his prolific scoring justified his approximately €20 million cost. “Always when you sign a player you do not know if he will settle down and how he will do in the Premier League, but Torres is a young player who is hungry and wanted to do well. Sometimes you sign a player for a free transfer and people say he is bad signing. Then other times you can sign a player for a lot of money and he does well and everyone is happy, so lucky for us he is a good signing. He is one of the best strikers in the Premier League and is the best for us. We had spoken about the record. After the last game he said he wanted to play in this one and score here.” West Ham managed to tie Aston Villa (who were fighting for a position in the UEFA Cup, they needed Everton to lose against Newcastle, however Newcastle lost 3-1) 2-2 in an exciting game with multiple great goals by Nolberto Solano, Dean Ashton, and Ashley Young. The extra money will certainly bolster West Ham for the coming season and transfer season.

For Liverpool this season has been a disappointment, despite all of Torres’ goals they were unable to produce any Trophies. “Torres, he was terrific at scoring and 76 points is a good total for us. There are a lot of positive things from this season, but the most important thing is we did not win a trophy. Our idea is to finish as high up as possible and to win trophies was a priority, but we know this season has been very difficult for us. We are working hard to improve the squad. Throughout the whole season we are watching players and trying to sign the players we need. We want to sign the best players as soon as possible and I think we will get investment from the owners, so we can go forward. Some of the players here are under contract and they are our players and we are waiting now to see if clubs are interested in them.” In the meantime we can certainly expect Peter Crouch to leave Liverpool, he wasn’t even on the bench and hasn’t played very many games this season. At least they finished with a win beating the Spurs 2-0.

In the meantime Fulham was fighting to stay in the Premier League. Reading and Fulham were both tied at 33 points (Fulham had them beat with on goal differential by 3). Fulham played Portsmouth, and Reading played Derby. Reading managed to destroy Derby (probably the worst team to ever play in the EPL) 4-0, and they would have stayed in the EPL if Fulham had lost or tied their game. Unfortunately for Reading, Fulham managed to win the game 1-0 with a season winning header by Danny Murphy.

Birmingham succeeded in winning against Blackburn 4-1 while at home; it mattered little because both Fulham and Reading won their games forcing Birmingham into relegation. However, if either Fulham or Reading had lost their games Birmingham could have stayed in the Premier League.

Sven-Goran Eriksson ended his season in humiliation as Manchester City lost a stunning 8-1 against Middlesbrough. “You can use whatever word you want and I would probably agree.” said Eriksson. “It started badly when Benjani was injured after just a couple of minutes. A little bit later penalty and a red card for our captain. I don’t think he (Dunne) tried to foul him. I think they crossed but it is difficult to be the ref in this case. It was a collision and it was the wrong place. I don’t think the ball has gone to the striker, it has gone straight to Isaksson but I think the referee maybe must send him off in a place like that.” Alfonso Alves scored 3 goals, Stewart Downing scored 2 (one off a penalty where Richard Dunne received a red card for a foul in the box in the 15th minute).

English International Peter Crouch has been unsatisfied with the minute role he’s been allowed to play at Liverpool. “When all is said and done, I don’t think I can have another season like this year where I’ve started nine Premier League games. Out of a 38-game league season, nine games is not the amount you want to be playing.”

In the most recent game against Fulham Benitez didn’t even play Crouch though he made 5 changes on the starting lineup making one think that he’s trying to discourage Crouch from staying. “I’ll have to speak to the manager and see what his plans are. I need to see him and sort things out. I have to find out what he wants from me next season and whether or not I can continue with that. In some ways, I want to feel wanted. So I’d like to speak to the manager and the club before I commit to anything and know whether or not I’ll be here next year. It’s always nice to know that if things did go completely wrong for me at Liverpool, I’d have options to go somewhere else and it’s not the end of the world if things don’t work out for me there.”

Eriksson, the current manager of Manchester City has been informed by City owner Shinawatra that he will be sacked at the end of the season. He met with Benfica to discuss working for them; however, according to Benfica, “No details of the contract, namely salaries and timing, have been discussed”. Eriksson met with the Benfica director of football and the Benfica President Luis Felipe Vieira in Manchester this past Wednesday. The preliminary meetings with Benfica indicate that Eriksson believes that his chance of remaining at the club is slim. But it seems that Eriksson is not inclined to speed into a decision. In the 1980’s Eriksson led Benfica to a domestic cup and 2 championships. Eriksson then worked in Italy for a span before returning to Benfica in 1989; Benfica went to the European Cup final in 1990 (they lost to AC Milan) and won the Portuguese Title in 1991. “I’ve had a meeting with the Benfica people. I’m considering the offer and it could be a step forward in my career. Let’s see what happens” said Eriksson.
Benfica is currently 4th in the SuperLiga, 3 points behind Sporting Lisbon; as a result, they may miss qualifying for the next Champions League. Shinawatra refused to state who would be City’s next manager only mentioning who would be considered, “They all - Sven, Scolari, Mourinho - they are great coaches, great managers”. Scolari has supposedly been offered a €3.2 million year deal which is waiting for his signature. 59 year old Scolari is reportedly interested in managing City but wished to wait until after the Euro 2008. He has often been concerned with uprooting his family from Portugal which is why he refused to take over Erikssons job as the England coach in 2006. City fans and players have been behind Eriksson since Shinawatra announced the decision. As a result, Shinawatra would love to have a quick take over with the former Coach of Brazil (Scolari managed Brazil during the 2002 World Cup, which they won). “There will be an evaluation at the end of the season of what needs to be changed, what needs to be added to the success of the club” said Shinawatra.