The Alternative Football Awards

With the recent release of the shortlist of both the PFA player and young player of the season and the Premier League 20 seasons awards, I have decided to give my own awards out. Unlike the conventional awards such as 'player of the season' and 'goal of the season', my awards will be a little bit different.

'Worst' Player of the Season

The Candidates:-

At least he has the looks

Andrey Arshavin - The enigma that is Andrei Arshavin, a player who can score 4 against Liverpool at Anfield one week and get substituted for Chu-Young Park the next. In his 26 appearances for the Gunners this season he has the amazing total of 2 goals the same amount as his Arsenal team mate Laurent Koscielny. As a result Arsene Wenger sent him back to Russia on loan with Zenit St Petersburg where so far he has one goal in five appearances.

Hindsights a wonderful thing

Fernando Torres - £50 million - Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney - some of the players you might think are worth this amount of money, to be honest Messi and Ronaldo are probably worth three times that amount. Three years ago you would most likely have added Fernando Torres to that list, two years ago he was worth £30 million, a year ago £20-25 million and now less than £20 million. Yet just over a year ago Chelsea payed £50 million for the Spanish international, since then has scored the grand total of 8 goals in 41 appearances for Chelsea, missed an open goal against Manchester United and been dropped from the Spain squad.

Get in! 7th place

Stewart Downing - To be quite honest I could of chosen any of Liverpool's recent signings especially Jordan Henderson and Andy Carroll, but I was so astounded by his stats this season I just couldn't leave him out. In 31 Premier League appearances this season Downing has the accumulated the grand total of 2 goals and 3 assists - appalling. It is even more appalling when you compare Downing with his former Aston Villa team mate Ashley Young, who in fewer games (22 PL appearances) has 6 goals and 12 assists.

Joey Barton - Maybe if he wasn't such an annoying, outspoken (Insert expletive here) prima donna I may have a bit of sympathy for the QPR captain, but the reality is Joey Barton has been one of this season's biggest under performers. his inconsistent form has seen a QPR team with decent Premier League players such as Bobby Zamora and Djibril Cisse become embroiled in a relegation battle. In all fairness to Barton since he has taken a break from Twitter his form and that of QPR has improved.

You only have yourself to blame Wolves

Roger Johnson - Throughout Birmingham City's recent two year stint in the in the Premier League their two stand out performers were the centre back partnership of Scott Dann and Roger Johnson, so when the brummies were relegated both Dann and Johnson were hot property. Blackburn snapped up Dann, who has had a decent season at Ewood park and Wolves captured Johnson, who has had an indifferent season to say the least. Wolves as a collective have been very poor this season, but it is defensively were they have been abysmal (This is what happens when you loan out George Elokobi) conceding 73 goals this season with Johnson being made to look very ordinary.

The Winner

Roger Johnson  

Yessssssssssss I won

They think its all over, they may have to think again

3.45 - We are staying up

I like many at half time at Ashton Gate on Monday allowed myself to believe that City would hold onto to the lead they had gained through Jon Stead's own goal through the second half and come away from Bristol with the valuable three points that were so desperately needed in the battle to avoid the drop, however 45 minutes and an inept second half performance later this belief of mine had been shot down in flames or maybe that should be rain. Worse still was what I can only describe as one of my most unpleasant moments as a Coventry fan, what seemed the longest walk out of a ground ever in the p*ssing rain with a few thousand Bristolians pointing out the fact that we may be going down this season (In all fairness we didn't need a load of cider drinking farmers to tell us that). Maybe it was Karma on my part as I had boldly predicted in my previous blog that we would stay up and Bristol would go down. At this point you may think I would accept the fact that relegation is an inevitability, ye of little faith, there is in my opinion many, yes many reasons with the City can stay up. I've been able to get down the many reasons to five main reasons why the Sky Blues can still stay up.

4.45 - Oh Dear

Reason 1 - Fixtures - With Millwall's win over Pompey last night it is now more than likely that the final relegation spot is between us and Bristol City, with this the final four fixtures of the two teams come into play. Bristol City's next two games are against promotion chasing Birmingham away and West Ham at home, it doesn't take a genius to work out the point I am making, that these two sides are just about guaranteed to be in the play-offs and should therefore have the quality to beat Bristol. Obviously this is the championship where anything can happen, but when you look closer at these fixtures you see that Birmingham have only lost one game at home all season and that West Ham have the best away record in the division. Add to this that we have two very winnable home games to come against Millwall and Doncaster, results in the fact that we should at least be able to take the relegation battle to the last day of the season.

We can only dream

Reason 2 - Oliver Norwood and Alex Nimley - Originally I was more impressed with Nimely than Norwood but the Northern Ireland international has impressed during the last ten or so games with his passing ability being particularly good. The fact that on Monday the fans had to chant Nimely's name to get him on the pitch shows his worth to the team (Lets face it he's the only player we have with real pace). Both players have been vital to getting City into a position where we can still fight for survival and I believe that they will both be key in the final games of the season.

Alex Nimely

Reason 3 - Fortress Ricoh - No one could ever say that the Ricoh has been an intimidating place for an away team to come to, but currently it appears that it is as we are unbeaten in six games at home. We need to use this to our advantage and I plead with anybody reading this blog (and that is quite a lot of people) to buy tickets for the final two games at the Ricoh and try and revive a Highfield Road-esque atmosphere.

Reason 4 - Brett Pitman - Bristol City's striker was red carded for a shocking tackle on Jordan Clarke on Monday and as a result he will miss the Robins next three games. I would now like to point out the fact that he is their top scorer this season and without him they do have trouble scoring. 

Reason 5 - The Return of David Bell - Yes I'm serious David Bell could be the answer to all Cov fan's prayers. Ever since Carl Baker pulled up with a Hamstring injury against Birmingham, the right side of the diamond position has been city's major weak link. Conor Thomas, Gael Bigirimana and most recently Gary Deegan have all been played their and all struggled. This is where Belly comes in, no-one really knows his best position he's not an out and out winger and not quite a central midfielder but maybe something in between. Whereas Thomas, Bigi and Deegan are naturally definsively minded midfielders, Bell has flair and skill to his game and in my opinion would be naturally suited to that position. 

David Bell

Well there they are, five fool proof reasons as to why Coventry City will stay up. Failing these five reasons we can only hope that Clive Platt actually starts to play like his name sake Michel Platini.

Clive Platt

Michel Platini

       

The Championship - Every team with something to play for (except Barnsley and now Peterborough)

Part 2 - Relegation

Team - Nottingham Forest

Garath McCleary

My View - After the debacle that was Steve McClaren's reign as Forest manager, Steve Cotterill appeared to have steadied the ship with four wins out of his first six games. However a poor run of results coinciding with the failure to score at home in seven consecutive games, led to Forest being thrust into a relegation battle. However recently they have played some decent football and got some excellent results, none more than the 7-3 hammering of Leeds at Elland Road. As it stands they are six points outside the relegation zone and with the quality of squad they have I expect them to stay up.   

Key Man - Garath McCleary - The skilful wide-man has been one of the reasons for Forest's return to form, his explosive performance against Leeds in which he bagged four goals highlighted his quality.  

My Prediction - 18th

Andy Keogh

Team - Millwall
My View - It's been a case of second-season syndrome for Millwall this year. Last season a newly promoted Millwall team finished the season in 9th and flirted with the play-offs throughout the season. However this season they've consistently been a bottom half team. Personally I don't expect them to go down but their recent form hasn't been brilliant with only eleven points from their last ten games.   
Key Men - Darius Henderson and Andy Keogh - One of the main reasons for Millwall's underwhelming season has been the loss of Steve Morison to Norwich. If Henderson and Keogh can continue the decent scoring record they've had this season Millwall should be ok  
My Prediction - 21st

Team - Coventry City

Inspirational

My View - The super Sky Blues have struggled for the majority of the season, mainly for reasons off the field. Many youth players have been thrown into first team action as a result, with the likes of Conor Thomas, Gael Bigirimana and Cyrus Christie showing their worth. However they are unbeaten in six games and are now out of the relegation zone for the first time since October. At this stage of the season momentum is key and with five of their last six games against teams in the bottom half I am confident that City will maintain their championship status for another season. 
Key Man - Richard Keogh - A rock at the back all season long and has formed a solid partnership at centre half with Martin Crainie.
My Prediction -19th

Calamity James strikes again

Team - Bristol City
My View - Similarly to Forest the robins sacked their manager Keith Millen early in the season and replaced him with Scot Derek McInnes. This change had the same effect as it did at Forest, after an initial run of wins they have fallen down the table and have only one win in their last ten games. The loss of top scorer Nicky Maynard to West Ham in January only added to their woes and with David 'calamity' James giving goals away relegation is a distinct possibility. Failure to get anything out of key games with Coventry and Forest will in my opinion see relegation become a reality   
Key Man - Brett Pitman - If the former Bournemouth hotshot can find his shooting boots Bristol may have a chance of survival 
My Prediction - 22nd

Oh dear

Team - Portsmouth 

My View - If Portsmouth go down it is a simple case of a club not learning its lesson. Having been in administration once before you would have thought that they would have tried to stabilise the club, this wasn't the case and in February they entered administration again (If your going to pay tinpot players like Tal Ben-Haim 60k a week what do you expect). With administration came a ten point deduction, the loss of first team players such as Erik Huseklepp and Liam Lawrence and in my opinion relegation  
Key Man - The Administrator - If he does his job properly Portsmouth may have a future as a football club
My Prediction - 23rd 

'Yes lads were going down'

Team - Doncaster Rovers
My View - What can be said about Doncaster that hasn't already been said, frankly there just not good enough. It doesn't matter how many 'big' players you sign for huge money on short contracts, the fact of the matter is that the likes of Diouf, Piquionne, Ilunga and Beye are all over thirty and couldn't careless if Donny go down as long as they get their pay packet   

Key Man - Dean Saunders - A good manager who will do well with Donny as he did with Wrexham 
My Prediction - 24th

The best of the rest - Peterborough and Barnsley

My View - With six games to go they are ten and nine points outside the relegation zone and as a result I can't see them going down. However I can see Barnsley not picking up a single point for the rest of the season. The only reason Barnsley will be safe is down to Ricardo Vaz Te's goals in the first half of the season

The Table

The Championship - Every team with something to play for (except Barnsley)

As it stands in the Npower Championship every team (except Barnsley) has something to play for, whether this is gaining automatic promotion, achieving a place in the play-offs or avoiding relegation to League 1 the remaining fixtures in the league will define the majority of teams season. In this blog I will give my opinion on each teams prospects going into the final month of the season.

Part 1 - Promotion/Play-offs

Team - Southampton

Rickie Lambert

My View - Consistently strong throughout the season, Southampton have made St Mary's a fortress with 15 of their 23 wins this season coming at home. Nigel Adkins is now so close to mirroring the achievement of Paul Lambert and Norwich with successive promotions and I see no reason why this wont be the case.

Key Man - Rickie Lambert - The big mans goals and all round play have been the shining light in Southampton's bright season 

My Prediction - 1st

Team - Reading
My View - Reading have, like last season come into form at the right time in the season. Their long run of successive wins has seen them move into the 2nd automatic promotion place and the acquisition of Jason Roberts has proved to be a shrewd bit of business by royals boss Brian McDermott with the former West Brom and Wigan man scoring 5 times in 11 appearances
Key Man - Jason Roberts - His experience of past promotions may be key during the run in
My Prediction - 3rd      


Team - West Ham United

Big Sam

My View - Despite fans complaining that Big Sam's team are not playing the 'West Ham way', the table doesn't lie and with seven games to go the hammers are in with a great chance of getting automatic promotion. Many of their squad have premier league experience and in my opinion this experience may just see them pipping Reading to 2nd place
Key Man - Kevin Nolan - The attacking midfielder may be pushing 30 but has scored important goals this season and I'd back him to get a few more before the end
My Prediction - 2nd


Team - Birmingham City
My View - With their finances apparently in crisis it appears to be promotion or bust for the brummies. They have a strong squad and under the reassuring calmness of Chris Hughton I expect them to make the play-offs.
Key Man - Marlon King -Despite his much publicised background, he appears to have but this behind him and is concentrating on scoring goals.(Still not welcome at the Ricoh)
My Prediction - 6th

Dodgy Keeper

Team - Brighton
My View - Their free flowing football has been a pleasure to watch this season with the likes of Vicente and Mackail-smith shining. However with tough fixtures to come and a questionable keeper in the erratic Peter Brezovan I feel they may fall just short of the play-offs. If they can keep Gus Poyet for next season they have they potential to be champions.
Key Man - Vicente - The Spanish winger is finally fit and showing his pedigree
My Prediction - 8th


Team  - Middlesbrough
My View - Tony Mowbray's men have been in the play-offs for the majority of the season and I expect them to stay their. Strikers Bart Ogbeche and Lukas Jutkiewicz has recently scored important goals to acquire two vital away points at West Ham and Ipswich and with Scott McDonald on the way back from injury plus Marvin Emnes and Curtis Main they appear to have the fire power to see them into the play-offs
Key Man - Barry Robson - The experienced Scot will take over the captain's armband from the injured Matthew Bates
My Prediction - 5th


Team - Blackpool

Ian Holloway

My View - Everyone knows what Blackpool are about; ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK. This season has been no different with players such as Matt Phillips and Thomas Ince showing their worth. I cant see a reason why they shouldn't make the play-offs as they did in the 09/10 season
Key Man - Kevin Phillips - The evergreen striker still knows where the net is and has 17 so far this season
My Prediction - 4th


Team - Cardiff City
My View - The perennial underachievers of the championship and I feel this will be the case again. Despite their league cup heroics I feel there isn't as much quality in their squad as there has been in previous seasons. They haven't utilised the goalscoring talent of Robert Earnshaw as much as I thought they would
Key Man - Robert Earnshaw - Malky Mackay should give him a run in side he may just find his shooting boots at the right time
My Prediction - 7th

Nicky Barmby

Team - Hull City
My View - Nick Barmby has taken to management like a duck to water, he has a defensively solid team with flair players such as Cameron Stewart trying to make the difference at the other end. However recent results haven't been brilliant and at this stage in the season momentum can be everything and they don't appear to have it.
Key Men - Hull's strikers - Hull need to score more goals, if they can they may have a chance
My Prediction - 9th


Team - Leeds United 
My View - An enigma of a team who can dominate and win away at Boro, then concede seven at home to Forest. No question that they have quality in Becchio, Snodgrass and McCormack with 30 goals between them but there are questions to be asked defensively
Key man - Neil Warnock - He's done it all before and maybe can inspire Leeds into the play-offs
My Prediction - 10th


Team - Leicester City
My View - Biggest spenders in the championship have been consistently inconsistent all season long, but with a potent striking duo in Nugent and Beckford scoring consistently now could they put a run together and gatecrash the play-offs.
Key man - Jermaine Beckford - Played well in the prem last season with Everton and is more than lethal at this level
My prediction - 11th

Beckford and Nugent

The best of the rest - Derby, Palace, Watford, Ipswich and Burnley
My View - Despite mathematically still being able to make the play-offs in reality they will all probably miss out. Mid-table consolidation is not a bad thing and going up through the play-offs if your not ready is not always good as Derby will testify to.




     

The Table

        


       

Save Our City – The Downfall of Coventry City Football Club

Seeing as this is my first blog I decided to tackle a subject quite close to my heart, Coventry City football club. Once a great family club with a rich history, which includes the 1987 F.A cup final victory over Spurs and being one of the founder members of the premier league, has in recent years turned into a debt ridden club which fails to fill even half of its 32,609 seater stadium and constantly sells its best players. As a season ticket holder I have witnessed firsthand the demise of the club and I can say without any doubt that this demise is down to the owners SISU Capital Limited. In this blog I will explain the reasons as to why SISU have done their level best to ruin the club.

The Ricoh Arena

Since relegation from the premier league at the end of the 2000/2001 season after 34 years in the top flight of English football and up to 2007, City went through 8 managers (including caretakers) not one being able to make the play-offs, many having to sell their best players and little or no funds to acquire new players. The club found themselves having to file for administration in late 2007 with reported debts of £38 million. On The 14th December 2007 City found themselves hours away from entering administration but former footballer Ray Ranson and the SISU group successfully completed the takeover. With this many fans thought the future looked bright for Coventry City.

Chris Coleman

Iain Dowie

However this was not exactly the case, the same pattern of managers being given no funds and having to sell their best players occurred, for example the likes of Scott Dann, Danny Fox and Leon Best were all sold to generate funds for other players or in other words so SISU could recoup the money they had put into the club. Managers Iain Dowie and Chris Coleman failed to do any better than the eight that had preceded them, both talented managers Dowie who had been promoted with an unfancied Crystal Palace team into the premier league in the 2003/2004 season and Chris Coleman who had previously managed Fulham and Real Sociedad. But this is what happens when the owners of a football club do not have any aspirations, just to make a quick profit for themselves.

Aidy Boothroyd

Then came Aidy Boothroyd a successful manager in the past with Watford who like Dowie, took a perennial struggler in Watford into the premier league through the play-offs in 2005/2006. The appointment of Boothroyd in the summer of 2010 raised some eyebrows in the city, as his reputation as a long ball merchant seemed to put many fans off before a ball had been kicked. Despite these criticisms Boothroyd or Hoofroyd as he was known by many fans, took city too fifth by mid December after the clubs best start to a league campaign in 10 seasons. However during the last few games of 2010 city picked up a number of injuries and suspensions which included a bad injury to the influential skipper Sammy Clingan. Due to the good position of the club and the injuries and suspensions occurring, Boothroyd hoped that the owners would back him in the January transfer window so the club could push on and cement their place in the play-offs. Yet the owners had other ideas and not one player was bought or loaned. As a result the club fell to 19^th in the table and Boothroyd was sacked. Again a promising manager wasn’t backed by SISU and a reoccurring theme was starting to show.

After the sacking of Boothroyd, the owners looking to cut costs by not appointing a well known manager on high wages appointed the chief scout at the club Andy Thorn as manager. The appointment which had come about because of their lack of aspirations for the football club actually worked rather well, Thorn bought attractive flowing football to the Ricoh for the last 10 games of the season with the likes of Marlon King, Aron Gunnarsson and Lukas Jutkiewicz flourishing. This open passing style produced optimism for the summer transfer window and season ahead. However yet again SISU would do everything they could to destroy this optimism.

Andy Thorn

During the summer of 2011 the optimism previously mentioned slowly began to wane. With players like Marlon King, Aron Gunnarsson and Kieran Westwood being key to success of the last 10 games of the previous season, extending their contracts was the vital issue. Despite this all three players were allowed to leave on free transfers with both King and Gunnarsson citing that their reasonable wage demands were not met. SISU not seeing the promise the team had shown would rather free up wages for themselves than maintain a potentially promotion chasing team. Add to this that a promising youngster Ben Turner was allowed to join Cardiff on transfer deadline day and that the only money spent was 500k on striker Cody McDonald who was very much unproven at championship level.

Despite all this SISU had a chance to retain some dignity and respect when the chance occurred to sell the club in August 2011. The club’s former vice-chairman and lifelong city fan Gary Hoffman and a team of investors offered to buy the club from SISU for a pound, with the promise of pumping £30 million into the club. With many expecting SISU to cut their losses and sell up they defied belief and rejected the offer from Hoffman. With this SISU showed for sure that they wanted to bleed the club dry and recoup all of their investment, even though this seemed impossible with the club having hardly any assets to left to sell. The future of the club looked bleaker than ever with rumours of administration floating around once again and the direction of the club being unknown.

The Saviour? Gary Hoffman

As it stands now as I write this blog the club is adrift at the bottom of the Championship 3 points from safety and has just sold its top goal scorer Lukas Jutkiewicz to Middlesbrough and SISU seem to just be allowing the club to fall into the third tier of English football. There is a glimmer of hope as in recent months Gary Hoffman has again began talks with SISU over a potential takeover, but for many Sky Blue fans it all seems too little too late.