Edward_ Black
26-07-2001, 02:49:AM
Well, it's not too long to go before the whistle blows for the oncoming season, and the dreams and the reality's of it all, so while we all twiddle our thumbs and hang around waiting for it all to start here is a good read for you all that i found on my daily prowl around the net, it makes for some very interesting reading .. Ned
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Italy is the one to watch
The league campaign I am looking forward to most in the coming European season is – and this might surprise you – Italy.
Why? Because it will be the most open in years. In fact, on analysis, the likely most open of any of Europe’s major leagues.
Yes it’s that time of the year. Crystal ball gazing time. Time to try and predict who will carry the big prizes at the end of the coming season.
And most of it is not very difficult to predict.
Let’s take England first. It will take you about three seconds of contemplation to make the prophecy. Man U of course.
The only rivals, as usual, will be Arsenal, Liverpool, Leeds and, in my view, Chelsea. But compared to United, and what they did to shape up for the new season, they don’t look very strong rivals do they?
The Gunners appear to be in emotional disarray what with the Vieira thing. And in the recruitment department Wenger, the fox, has done little to excite the goose bumps. That lad Jeffers is no Henry or young Bergkamp is he? Campbell is quality but he’s a defender. And Man U have won a bucketful of titles with far more ordinary defenders.
Liverpool’s the same. Houllier’s squad is growing, growing in maturity. But it lacks the cutting edge to toss a United because, apart from Owen, it has not one player of world class. Not one any of Europe’s major clubs would itch to buy.
Leeds have that in Kewell and Viduka but beyond them nothing much. Including Ferdinand and Keane. Above all they lack an influential and inspirational leader – a Keane or what I believe Veron will become for United.
My dark horse for the Premier League is Chelsea. Their recruitment has been good, Petit in particular. If Zola still has the legs, I believe the fruits of the work of that very astute coach, Claudio Ranieri, may come to ripen this season.
Ferguson did well in the off-season, in particular with bringing in Veron to lift his increasingly arrogant band out of its complacent slumber. The Argentinian has been a fabulous buy. Apart from being technically faultless, Veron is classically Argentinian: combative, tactically adaptable, tireless, a fighter. He is tailor made for Old Trafford and the English game.
Add him to the class acts of Beckham, Giggs, Keane and Scholes and, I am afraid, you have the concoction of another predictable Premier League outcome. And that’s with the jury still being out on Van Nistelrooy who is yet to prove himself in a major league.
In Spain, ditto for Real Madrid. Double ditto. Club boss Florentino Flores looks to be on track for his vision of assembling the best bunch of players in Madrid since the 1950s.
Zidane, for all his cost, has been obviously the best buy of the off-season: potentially a wonderful investment. He is a flamboyant creator, an instinctive technician whose genius can carry a team to second and third levels – qualities much better understood at Real than they are at Juventus.
Madrid oozes quality in all corners of the field. In comparison the formerly ambitious Barcelona is now a catch-up team, relying only on the magical qualities of Rivaldo and, again, an untested coach.
Barca’s recruitment, of Saviola and Geovanni, has been largely experimental. Now that the signing of Riquelme – the one master craftsman they were targeting – is heading for the gurgler, the Catalans look set for a deputy role again.
But Italy. Now there’s a different story.
Roma would be my pick to do it again but only because all other rivals are in transition. Juve will be the big threat if returned coach Lippi can do what he did for them before but patently flopped at doing at Inter.
Don’t hold your breath. Although Thuram was a great purchase, Nedved is no Zidane. And the failure to bring back Christian Vieri has been a body blow. True though, if Trezeguet continues to fire and Del Piero recaptures what Lippi has been able to harness in him before, Juve will give Roma a very rough ride.
Of the others, there appears little for Roma to fear. Milan have a coach in Terim who has done nothing since his arrival in Italy and leaving Istanbul. Lazio are rebuilding. And Inter? Well Inter have been a basket case for so long one can hardly suggest there is some historical justification for hope.
New coach Hector Cuper might make some music but he remains unrehearsed as a baton-wielder at an ambitious and historically great club.
But of course AS Roma are not a great team, at least not yet and they will be vulnerable to the challenge. Meaning the Serie A shapes up as the most fascinating contest on the European terrain.
I can hardly wait.
On another topic, when the new FIFA rankings came out I turned my head. Australia ranked 46th? Mexico 13th? Japan 32nd? USA 16th?
What credibility can such a ranking system possibly have?
The ELO rankings are an independent system not linked to any official body but are based purely on results of the recent era, each result weighted by the value of the challenge.
What will first catch your eye is that on the ELO rankings Australia stands at seventh, yes seventh, in the world. Seventh ahead of Brazil who are eighth.
Yet the system appears sensible. The ranking system is fully explained and I, for one, can find little wrong with it. Results go back only as far as 1988. Meaning that whatever a country did in the 1938 World Cup counts for nothing.
Some so called pedigree nations are ranked below Australia, like Germany and England, but by and large there are not many countries ranked below the Socceroos whom a fit and fully assembled Australia could not beat.
Check it out. Despite the temptation to like the rankings because they flatter Australia, they look a more realistic thing to me than FIFA’s illogical and mystifying masquerade of where football strengths really lie.
[ 07-25-2001: Message edited by: Edward_ Black ]
...........................................
Italy is the one to watch
The league campaign I am looking forward to most in the coming European season is – and this might surprise you – Italy.
Why? Because it will be the most open in years. In fact, on analysis, the likely most open of any of Europe’s major leagues.
Yes it’s that time of the year. Crystal ball gazing time. Time to try and predict who will carry the big prizes at the end of the coming season.
And most of it is not very difficult to predict.
Let’s take England first. It will take you about three seconds of contemplation to make the prophecy. Man U of course.
The only rivals, as usual, will be Arsenal, Liverpool, Leeds and, in my view, Chelsea. But compared to United, and what they did to shape up for the new season, they don’t look very strong rivals do they?
The Gunners appear to be in emotional disarray what with the Vieira thing. And in the recruitment department Wenger, the fox, has done little to excite the goose bumps. That lad Jeffers is no Henry or young Bergkamp is he? Campbell is quality but he’s a defender. And Man U have won a bucketful of titles with far more ordinary defenders.
Liverpool’s the same. Houllier’s squad is growing, growing in maturity. But it lacks the cutting edge to toss a United because, apart from Owen, it has not one player of world class. Not one any of Europe’s major clubs would itch to buy.
Leeds have that in Kewell and Viduka but beyond them nothing much. Including Ferdinand and Keane. Above all they lack an influential and inspirational leader – a Keane or what I believe Veron will become for United.
My dark horse for the Premier League is Chelsea. Their recruitment has been good, Petit in particular. If Zola still has the legs, I believe the fruits of the work of that very astute coach, Claudio Ranieri, may come to ripen this season.
Ferguson did well in the off-season, in particular with bringing in Veron to lift his increasingly arrogant band out of its complacent slumber. The Argentinian has been a fabulous buy. Apart from being technically faultless, Veron is classically Argentinian: combative, tactically adaptable, tireless, a fighter. He is tailor made for Old Trafford and the English game.
Add him to the class acts of Beckham, Giggs, Keane and Scholes and, I am afraid, you have the concoction of another predictable Premier League outcome. And that’s with the jury still being out on Van Nistelrooy who is yet to prove himself in a major league.
In Spain, ditto for Real Madrid. Double ditto. Club boss Florentino Flores looks to be on track for his vision of assembling the best bunch of players in Madrid since the 1950s.
Zidane, for all his cost, has been obviously the best buy of the off-season: potentially a wonderful investment. He is a flamboyant creator, an instinctive technician whose genius can carry a team to second and third levels – qualities much better understood at Real than they are at Juventus.
Madrid oozes quality in all corners of the field. In comparison the formerly ambitious Barcelona is now a catch-up team, relying only on the magical qualities of Rivaldo and, again, an untested coach.
Barca’s recruitment, of Saviola and Geovanni, has been largely experimental. Now that the signing of Riquelme – the one master craftsman they were targeting – is heading for the gurgler, the Catalans look set for a deputy role again.
But Italy. Now there’s a different story.
Roma would be my pick to do it again but only because all other rivals are in transition. Juve will be the big threat if returned coach Lippi can do what he did for them before but patently flopped at doing at Inter.
Don’t hold your breath. Although Thuram was a great purchase, Nedved is no Zidane. And the failure to bring back Christian Vieri has been a body blow. True though, if Trezeguet continues to fire and Del Piero recaptures what Lippi has been able to harness in him before, Juve will give Roma a very rough ride.
Of the others, there appears little for Roma to fear. Milan have a coach in Terim who has done nothing since his arrival in Italy and leaving Istanbul. Lazio are rebuilding. And Inter? Well Inter have been a basket case for so long one can hardly suggest there is some historical justification for hope.
New coach Hector Cuper might make some music but he remains unrehearsed as a baton-wielder at an ambitious and historically great club.
But of course AS Roma are not a great team, at least not yet and they will be vulnerable to the challenge. Meaning the Serie A shapes up as the most fascinating contest on the European terrain.
I can hardly wait.
On another topic, when the new FIFA rankings came out I turned my head. Australia ranked 46th? Mexico 13th? Japan 32nd? USA 16th?
What credibility can such a ranking system possibly have?
The ELO rankings are an independent system not linked to any official body but are based purely on results of the recent era, each result weighted by the value of the challenge.
What will first catch your eye is that on the ELO rankings Australia stands at seventh, yes seventh, in the world. Seventh ahead of Brazil who are eighth.
Yet the system appears sensible. The ranking system is fully explained and I, for one, can find little wrong with it. Results go back only as far as 1988. Meaning that whatever a country did in the 1938 World Cup counts for nothing.
Some so called pedigree nations are ranked below Australia, like Germany and England, but by and large there are not many countries ranked below the Socceroos whom a fit and fully assembled Australia could not beat.
Check it out. Despite the temptation to like the rankings because they flatter Australia, they look a more realistic thing to me than FIFA’s illogical and mystifying masquerade of where football strengths really lie.
[ 07-25-2001: Message edited by: Edward_ Black ]