This has been a fun week to be a fan of the EPL. For starters how is Mark Hughes coping with Manchester City’s possibly needing bank loans to fund the players wages when the club generates 45 Million Pounds from the EPL TV package? And he thought he was moving up from Blackburn? Seriously though I love this time of the year. You can almost smell the fresh cut pitches and the crisp air. All the clubs have renewed enthusiasm and optimism with the beginning of a new season. New players dot the landscape and some of the old guard has moved on. The best new name has to be Liverpool’s Fabio Aurelo. Everytime I hear his name I think of Emporeror Marcus Aurelius in the movie Gladiator.
Is anone more animated and into the entire match from the dugput than Aston Villa’s Martin O’Neal? I love watching him as he suffers through every single kick of the ball particulary towards the end of matches. Talk about intensity and focus. I remember what a passionate player he was and a story the late Brian Clough told about him in his autobiography. Seems Martin was not selected for a first team game on Saturday and he came busting into Clough’s office demanding “To know why I am playing with the second team this week?” Cloughie calmed looked at him and said, Because Martin, you have far to much talent to be playing with the third team!” A classic!
Having big Phil coaching in the EPL is a breath of fresh air. This week he learned a new word, “Derby”. He said when he asked what that meant he was told that the fans expect him to win the games against Fulham, Tottenham and West Ham to which he responded “I would like to win a few more games than that”!
Alan Curbishley has to be the prototype EPL manager as he has taken both Charleton and now West Ham with modest budgets and worked wonders keeping them in the top flight. Yet after only two games the fans were calling for his head. Hopefully the win against Blackburn will calm everyone down. It is not like West Ham is a glamor club that players are clamoring to get into. His genius is in spending his money wisely to afloat stay in the EPL and perhaps getting close to Europe once in a while.
World Cup Quaifiers start this weekend and I will be glued to the TV and Setanta Broadband. Until then I guesss I will have to settle for the Coca Cola Championship League. I am rooting for Fabio Capello to do well with England’s hopes for South Africa 2010 beginning with tiny Andorra in Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium. Problems already abound as Owen Hargreaves, Steven Gerrard and Michael Carrick are injured. He should have enough talent for a result Saturday but next up will be in Croatia in Zagreb. Enjoy your football this week!
