Realistic expectations please

Usually, my posts are very light hearted. Many of them are just to p*ss certain people off and see them react with utter disagreement.

I admit right now, I do that on purpose. I try and stir as must shit as possible in order to get that "type" of response. Today's post however, is different. It's a more serious and darker tone. It's something I don't talk about lightly... it's too serious for that... today, I talk about Liverpool Football club.

As I type this, the only first team departures from the BEST CLUB IN THE WORLD have been Maxi and Kuyt. I don't really want to dwell too much on these departures, but they will be missed. Especially Dirk Kuyt. Our only arrival Borini, hasn't really set Serie A alight in the last season. As Themba so kindly pointed out, "He has less goals than his age in professional football." This isn't exactly something to get overly excited about. We won't speak about the potential that the kid has. It's not what I want to achieve here. We've been linked (Heavily) with Clint Dempsey for the last month or so. And more recently De Vries of Wolverhampton Wanderers (As a back up to Reina) and Joe Allen of Swansea City.

Now, looking at these players, that we have been strongly linked with, the question needs to be asked:

What are the expectations of Liverpool Football Club this upcoming season?


There have been three preseason games thus far. Basically, every person on tour has played 135 minutes of football. Oddly enough, there are some Liverpool fans who have "seen enough" of Joe Cole to make the bold decision "That it's time for him to go!" or my favourite "He is crap!" Ship him off and get in two kids for better wages!"

These types of comments scare me for two reasons:

1. How can you make up your mind on two forty-five minute appearances?
2. What exactly do you expect from Liverpool this coming season??

Can we as THE BEST CLUB IN THE WORLD really afford to let Joe Cole leave? Do we really have that much in reserve (player wise) to allow someone with the creative spark we lacked SO much last season leave for "a younger player who we won't have to pay as much"? I don't think we can. I don't think that the players we have at our disposal would be able to fill that gap (it was so evident last season). 

Joe Allen of Swansea City is now "close to signing" for THE BEST CLUB IN THE WORLD! What is this saying to us? Let's look at this: 

• He is 22 years old. 
• He has played over 30 games in the top flight (all last season) 
• He has a 91% pass completion rate, 
• Has scored four goals last season 
• And also a couple of assists. 

So here comes the "shit stir" moment. Players like, Joe Allen and Clint Dempsey are AVERAGE at best. The stats of Joe Allen read very very nice. But if you've actually watched him play last season, many of his passes were side ways or backwards. Tiki-taka I hear you say? Shut up.

Realistically, we don't have the "pull" anymore to lure big name players to Liverpool Football Club. Most top top players are looking for Champions League football and also the possibility of winning leagues. Are we in that position? No we are not. Clearly we aren't. Why? Look at our squad. Look at our players we are looking to sign. It paints a picture of where we want to be and at what time frame. 


Now before I get told "That I have no faith." And I am "Not a true supporter". You need to be realistic... and think of it with a clear mind and NOT go in there blindly. 

We will struggle to get top four next season. I honestly predict, that fifth will be our best position. I feel that Spurs will struggle this season with AVB the helm. That's just the state of the THE BEST CLUB IN THE WORLD'S squad. And the new style of play we looking to adopt. Nothing happens over night. Unless you have a bored billionaire owner who uses the club as his play toy. But then you lose your culture no?

@Potz56 <--- twitter. Follow.

Footiecall meets Sir Alex & co.

For the Footiecall team, this has probably been the most epic weekend in our short history.
Firstly to be given the opportunity to be part of the Manchester United / DHL Tour of South Africa was amazing. We were able to give away 2 tickets & 2 hampers to a lucky follower in Durban....we also gave away about 9 tickets to the Open Session in Cape Town, over Twitter, Facebook & the blog.
For us though, the main prize was being chosen to be part of the media who got entry into 3 of the 4 events that United had in the City. Here's a brief summary of what happened this weekend, who we saw, our meeting with Sir Alex Ferguson & our chat with Rio Ferdinand.
I had written out entire paragraphs of awesomeness about the weekend, but I've decided to let the pics do the talking. Right at the bottom there are some more pictures to look through, but our story begins on Friday...

Friday: We started off the day by heading to Ikamva - Ajax Cape Town's impressive training structure in Parow, Cape Town. Man United had sent a small delegation through to Ikamva in an attempt to give back to the kids in the community. It took us a good few minutes to recall where we'd seen our first celebrity before.....see if you can do better:

 .....well? Yes that's right, Charley Boorman from "A Long Way Down". (it's a show on Discovery Channel we think). He was part of the Unicef delegation also down to work with MUFC and the little kids. Nice people.

Obviously our next celebrity blew (two of) our minds!!! The #7 legend of the Man United midfield - BRYAN ROBSON!!! Grey hair and all. We spoke for a short while before he started work coaching the kids. Great guy!!

 

We then shot off to Cape Town stadium to join Sir Alex Ferguson's press conference. The main table had some non-football people (Patricia De Lille & media folk) but it also had John Comitis, Michael Carrick & Sir Alex Ferguson.

The presser went as usual...openings from the un-important people, then Comitis & Sir Alex spoke about their expectations of the game & the tour. Nigel Pierce, the host, eventually gave us our time in the spotlight and we asked Sir Alex this...
Footiecall: "why have there been so few African signings for United? Is the quality not good enough for United? Are you afraid of losing them during the AFCON? Or is it the work permit issue?"
Sir Alex: "I'm not afraid of the AFCON, we've generally got enough depth to cope with that. There is quality in Africa but we want to get the talent while they're still young & put them through our training & facilities. There aren't many older African players who truly reach their potential while in Africa. The main problem is the work permits. To get a work permit for an 18 year old African is not going to happen for United. It's easier to get young Brazilians or Argentinians, but we'd never be able to get a work permit for someone that young from Africa"
Sir Alex spent about 4 minutes answering our question, so the above is a summary (we also had to translate his native Scottish language into English). We have an understanding of what Fergie was talking about though. If you aren't from the EU, you need a work permit to play in England. The work permit states that you need to play 75% of your country's A team games over the past 2 years. The country also has to be in the top 70 of the FIFA rankings. This is enforced by the British Home Office. For players like Kagawa who already come from a top European league where they played often, it's not so difficult. Fortune came from Spain, Djemba-Djemba from France & Manucho had been playing for his country for 2 years before Man United signed him.
Clubs can appeal if they're rejected a work permit but only if they believe that the player is an exceptional case & are "able to contribute significantly to the development of the game at the top level in the UK". So you can see how it would be difficult for Man United to sign a young South African such as Ngidi. The grading system is slightly different depending on the country obviously. If South Africa had a stronger national team, we'd see more SAFFA's in the EPL.
We also got to meet the chief editor of www.manutd.com - Nick Coppack & the managerial editor, Gemma Thompson (pics further down). And while we enjoyed the open training session, we took time out to talk to the guy sitting behind us.....none other than Quinton Fortune who is following the team to China.

Saturday: The game has been documented by so many already that there's no need to go through that again...Bebe the saviour #BEBElieber

We once again sat in a presser with Sir Alex and posed him this question:

Footiecall: "Tyler Blackett & Robbie Brady look good for US but are still young. With Fabio going out on loan and Zeki Fryers off to Spurs, are WE going to sign a new left-back?"

Sir Alex: "Evra's played nearly every game for us over the past few seasons. He's clocking up something like 45 games a season. It's incredible really. The guys we've brought with on the tour are really good & we've got a lot of faith in them but they're still only 18 & 20 years old. To play at that age in the Premiership is difficult & that's why we rely on loan deals to strengthen the guys before starting them in the top team. I'm not sure why Zeki wants to leave, but he's currently on trial with Tottenham. I'm not sure how that's going for him. If Evra gets injured we'll have a real problem on our hands."

So it sounds as if United aren't in the market for a left-back. At this point the SABC asked us not to refer to Manchester United as "we". They said it's disrespectful to the other journalists. Luckily we have DSTV so we don't really care what the SABC said. WE WE WE!!!

We then met up with Rio Ferdinand for an informal chat....

Footiecall: "Hey Rio, is it true that Anderson speaks better English than Kagawa?"

Rio: "hmmmm, nah mate, it's the other way around. Kagawa speaks better English than Ando. Ha ha, true story I swear."

Footiecall: "Hey Rio give me a hi-5 please"

Rio: "sure"

We shook hands instead. All in all, we felt extremely privileged to be involved in the tour with the give-aways. We got to see United live as a Footiecall team. We met some legends & the current captain, and of course, the highlight was the presser with Sir Alex Ferguson.

Going for Goal. London 2012

Only a couple of days to go before the Olympic Games gets underway in London.


We only have to look at the squads sent by Brasil and Spain to see how serious the football side of this event is taken.

12years later. Fortune favours United...

Cast our minds back a dozen years.

Shakes Mashaba took a group of Saffer footballers to Sydney to compete...and compete they did.
The group included the likes of Fortune, Lekoelea, Buckley, Pule and Benni McCarthy.
In the same group as Brazil, who had none-other than Ronaldinho Gaucho, Lucio and Fabio Aurelio in their set up...the gents went on to beat the South Americans [3-1] and their was nothing coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo could do about it.

AFCON and Olympic Champions. Why Not?!

It was another African side who would take the Gold Medal that year. Cameroon! Remember names like Samuel Eto'o, Patrick M'boma and Pierre Wome? Yes, they were among the victorious 'Indomitable Lions' who overcame the might of Spain [featuring Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol and David Albelda] in the Gold Medal Match




Four years before this achievement, Nigeria did the unthinkable. Winning Gold in USA! Many will remember a young Nwankwo Kanu, Jay Jay Okocha and Taribo West among the winners. It was Kanu's heroics against Brasil in the semi-final, where he scored two late goals [overturning a 2-3 scoreline, to end 4-3] which saw them through to the final/Gold Medal Match

Schucks, going through some of the other squads...it was pretty much the who's who of football [today] starting out back then.

Super Eagles in full flight

In 2008 it was an Argentine side riddled with talent who won Gold. A comfortable 3-0 victory over fiercest rivals Brasil, with a brace from *cough* Riquelme, seeing them through to the final. Nigeria were the opponents and a goal by Angel Di Maria grabbed a 1-0 victory.

______________________________

Argentina, current holders, missed out on the 2012 Olympics as they ended 3rd in the South American Youth Championships, which were held last year. Despite this there are still a number of talented players to look out for at this event.


We've seen before, that for some of these youngsters, this event often proves to be the 'springboard' for a future in football.


Great place to find your future favourite, who might be playing for your club next season?!?

Official Website - Mens' Football

______________________________

Finally, you'd do well to check out the Women's event as well. Brasil have the likes of Marta and Fabiana, while USA, who are current holders will look to Hope Solo and quite a few others from the '08 squad, to try and win Gold again.

Official Website - Womens' Football

That's it from me. Enjoy the Olympic Games. Enjoy the Football.

Los Che. It's NOT All about the money

Hi all you footiecall faithful.

I trust you're enjoying the off-season with loads of transfer murmurings and pre-season fixtures coming up.

As we know the modern game is driven by money both on and off the field. The common thread of thinking is that you can't be successful without spending [wisely]. We find that most of Europe's top clubs are in debt, referred to as a manageable debt and they're therefore still able to compete at the highest level.

Just recently Glasgow Rangers, founded in 1872, were liquidated falling foul to an unmanageable debt crisis. The outcome of this debt crisis is the club has subsequently been renamed and demoted to the lowest division in Scottish football. Quite shambolic for a team who has won the SPL for a record 54times.

Let's turn our attention then to Valencia Club de Futebol or fondly known as Los Che.

Mid 2000's it was reported that VCF had an internal debt issue exceeding 400million euros, which resulted in players going unpaid, among other unpleasantries. At this point things were looking dire, and honestly, most other clubs would probably have stared liquidation in the face.
Not Valencia!

Gaizka Mendieta. Maestro!

Now if you looked back a decade+ at their 2000 and 2001 squads
[who both reached the UCL final], you'd know that this was no 'mickey mouse' outfit.
There was a lot of pride playing for Los Che.
A decision was made that in order to save the club, pride needed to be placed slightly to one side, to sell off key players a'la David Villa, David Silva and Juan Mata in order to keep the club afloat.
Selling key players?!?! Surely this means a definite down-turn in performances, RIGHT?

Not Valencia!

Super Cup Winners 2004

Strategic player acquisitions, developing youngsters and playing a style suited to those wearing the shirt all helped in continuing a measure of success for the club.

Remember 2009? When Everton FC had all but sealed the signing of Ever Banega, only for Los Che to decline at the last minute...and look at how Banega went on to boss things in midfield for them. The season prior he wasn't getting a look in, but some smart thinking and calculated risk paid off.

Same goes for Jordi Alba. Not really playing, with Joaquin, Mata and Silva running the wings, they opted to hold onto him and a season+ later they've sold the young fullback to FCB for approximately €14 million.

Throughout this time Valencia have unearthed new finds like Sofiane Feghouli, while landing Daniel Parejo and Roberto Soldado to strengthen where they have had to sell.
Soldado has bagged 25 and 27goals in the two seasons he has been at the club, showing that there is life after David Villa.

The other notable feat is that for the past three seasons they've placed 3rd in La Liga, behind big spenders FCB and Real Madrid and fended off the advances of 'oil-rich' Malaga.


So Valencia CF continue to fight off the debt threat, by being somewhat of a selling club, yet still maintaining their status among Europe's elite.

Going a long way to proving that it's not All about the money!

I respect that!

Greedy!

The Football world has gone nuts. Nuts I tell you! What am I referring to? Well, Thiago Silva has left Italian Giants AC Milan and moved onto PSG… in Ligue 1. Yup, that’s right, from AC Milan to PSG at the age of twenty-seven. The amount? £33 000 000!

Money is close to my heart. 

Now, there are a few factors to this move:

1.       The AC Milan president says that the sale of Thiago Silva and Zlat Ibra will save the club close to a €100 000 000 over the next 4 years

2.       Leanardo is sort of a PSG and Brazilian legend and would have had some influence in getting Thiago Silva to agree.

3.       Carlo Ancelloti is a former AC Milan coach and seems to know what he is doing.

4.       And finally… the money. The money, the money, the money.

Now we know that, players are always looking after their pockets when it comes to signing for new clubs. But let’s look at my top 5 who moved for cash more than Football:

5. Samir Nasri (Arsenal – Manchester City)

for Footbal

The wonder of the over-hyped froggie’s contract debacle came to a huge climax at the end of the summer transfer window in 2011. Samir “I swear at Journo’s coz I played SHITE at Euro2012” Nasri had basically told Arsene Wenger and the entire Arsenal business… I mean football club, that he wants to leave. Now, in my opinion, there is NOTHING wrong with leaving Arsenal (Ask all their ex Captains).  However, his destination was undetermined. The two Manchester teams were in the running. I thought he would have gone to the red part. Samir “I sat on the bench for most part of last season coz I was shite” Nasri didn’t think so and chose the light blue part. For about £30k more than what United were to offer.

4. Didier Drogba (Chelsea FC – Shaolin Tiger Hidden Judo Chops FC)

spinner droogey

Granted, he isn’t a spring chicken anymore. And Chelsea weren’t too keen on getting him to sign another contract. So he left to go and play Football in China with “Le Sulk”. That’s all good and well. Go and get your Golden Egg.  But please DON’T I repeat DON’T come out in the media and say “I’m not going for the money, I believe in the project”… what?! I spit at that excuse! You earning £200 000 a week! And it’s the project that you believe in?! I hope they eat your dog for that!

3. Cashley Cole (Arsenal – Chelsea)

....

OK, he proved many of us wrong by actually going to Chelsea to win trophies. But at that time, Arsenal were still very much a top 2/3 football team. However they’ve become worryingly content with just finishing top 4. What irked most about his move to Chelsea, was his parting shots! This basically vilified him to the rest of the premier league teams and fans. According to some reports, the £55k a week offer by Arsenal, made him feel like he was treated like a slave. I picture Arsene standing whipping him good and solid while he picks cotton… do you? Didn’t think so… Chelsea offered him £120k. Mmm… yeah, football.

2. Asamoah Gyan (Sunderland – Al pontofel)

How much? 

Do I need to give much detail? Playing in the premier league for Sunderland AFC, he moves to Al falafal for … money. What else could it be? If you disagree, please let me know? I’ll be sure to ignore your reasons.

1. Samuel Eto’o (Inter Milan – Ahnzi makaveli)

Ok, I can do £364.123 a week

Apart from struggling to pronounce his silly name, this chap is probably one of the best strikers in the world. THE WORLD. So it made perfect sense for him to move to Ahnzi kirichoohoo right?! Yeah, wrong. If he was mid-thirties, ok with racist chants and Russian one could understand his reasons for leaving. But he was neither of the above. He signed for an amount of close £350 000 a week.

Bonus ball

Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea – Chelsea reserves)

Heeey Macarana! 

He just won’t leave Chelsea… nobody wants him… and he doesn’t want to go anywhere else for less than his current wages. He sits on the bench more than Michael Owen. The only difference is, he isn’t injured…

Local mercs

Carlo Scott.

As a youngster this boy had the premier league whispering about “The Next Benni” while playing for Ajax. Then, the offer to play for Sundowns came up. He grabbed it! With both Bank Accounts. Yet, he sat on the bench for almost all of his stay… came back to Cape town on loan to Santos. Broke a leg and disappeared shortly after. If you have seen Carlo, please send a please call me to 083 911.

@POTZ56