Liverpool's Chances of Europe Evaporate as West Brom's Chances of Survival Improve

Roy Hodgson returned to haunt Liverpool yesterday as his West Brom side virtually killed off any slight outside chance the Reds had of Champions League football next year.

Two penalties from Chris Brunt after Martin Skrtel had opened the scoring for Liverpool were enough for the Baggies to deservedly claim all three points and thus extend their unbeaten run under the ex-Liverpool boss to five games.

Roy Hodgson Takes Over at West Brom in the Hope of Getting England Call

Ex-Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson has taken over from Roberto Di Matteo as manager of West Bromwich Albion after the Italian was sacked following a disastrous run of results that saw the Baggies lose 13 of their last 18 games. It will be the 63-year-old's 21st management job in a football career that has spanned 46 years.

The move back into the dugout for has come much quicker than anyone expected, including Hodgson. From being unceremoniously sacked by Liverpool after just six months it was assumed by the watching football world that the well liked manager would take a well deserved break from the game.

However, it would seem that his desire to succeed Fabio Capello as England manager next summer after the Euro 2012 finals would be the main catalyst to a quick return to the game.

Luis Suarez to Liverpool Could be the First Step in Fernando Torres Leaving

Liverpool FC is closing in on the signature of the Ajax centre forward Luis Suarez. However, the signing immediately begs two questions:

1) Why sign Suarez when the rest of team needs undoubted strengthening? And maybe more importantly,

2) Does Suarez coming in speed up the departure of Fernando Torres?

There is little doubt that this campaign has been one of the worst Liverpool fans or players have ever had to endure.

Roy Hodgson was brought into the club last July by Christian Purslow and was immediately hailed as the man to steady the sinking ship, but the truth worked out far differently than either man could imagine.

His steady approach, after the scattershot transfer dealings of Rafael Benitez, was seen as the way to get the club back on track, as Martin Broughton sought a new owner, and although a top four finish was the very most Liverpool fans expected, a season of improvement on and off the pitch was the very least Hodgson had to produce.

Instead, Hodgson's campaign stuttered from the start and after just 31 games in charge of the Reds, as Liverpool slipped towards the relegation zone, with a record reading W-13 D-9 L-9 the likable manager found himself heading towards the growing dole queues in Croydon.

The ex-Reds boss' biggest mistake at Anfield was in alienating the Liverpool fan base and The Kop in particular. He had umpteen chances to stake his claim with the Anfield faithful but he bungled every single one.

From refusing to take Fabio Capello up with playing Steven Gerrard for 90 minutes when the Liverpool captain should have only played for 45 minutes while on England duty (Manchester United’s and Chelsea’s players only played for 45) to taking a diplomatic stance when Sir Alex Ferguson accused Fernando Torres of trying to get John O'Shea sent off, Hodgson just did not know how to act as a manager of a big club.

There is an old saying in the workplace. A man may have been working for 35 years but if he has done the same thing every year, then he doesn’t have 35 years worth of experience he just has one.
This would seem to be the case with Hodgson at Liverpool. He just seemed out of his depth and did not know what to do from day one.

After looking for the job last summer when he did not like any of the managers he was profiling, including Hodgson, Kenny Dalglish has been given the job to right the good ship Liverpool.

In just three games there has been enough improvement in the team to suggest that, instead of fighting it out in the lower reaches of the league, Liverpool could indeed mount a challenge to finish in the European spots.

The Scot has a tough task ahead, because there can be little doubt that the current squad needs improving.
There are glaring holes all over the first team squad. Quite simply there are far too many players not of Liverpool quality currently residing in red shirts and it says much that, for a long time, the two best players under Roy Hodgson were probably Sotirios Krygiakos and Lucas Leivia.

The ex-Fulham boss did not enamour himself to Liverpool fans with his summer signings or tactics but it must be said that the new additions were just like adding water to an already burning oil fire.

Now as we pass the halfway point of the season, NESV look set to prove to Liverpool fans that they mean business and that LFC is still a big club.

To send this message out to the fans, Damien Comolli has contacted Ajax about the availability of Luis Suarez.

Currently the negotiations between the two clubs are about £8 million apart, with Liverpool valuing the striker at around £15 million while Ajax want an estimated £23 million for the 23-year-old.

Suarez is one of the most sought-after players in world football at the moment. Barcelona and Manchester United both sent scouts to assess him last season when he bagged 49 goals in 48 games.

His overall record at Ajax is impressive. Over the last four years, he has never failed to score fewer than 20 goals a season, and his current record reads as having played 154 games with 110 goals.

Rumour of his impending transfer from Ajax went into overdrive two weeks ago when Ajax announced that Suarez was being removed as captain of the club and from there he has been linked with various clubs like Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, and Liverpool.

While there is no doubting his class or his potential, one must have to question the reasoning behind signing such a player for so much money, especially as the rest of the squad needs strengthening.

Stephen Warnock and Charlie Adam have both been linked with the club in recent days and would be welcome additions to the changing room, but that still leaves the glaring holes at centre half, central midfield, and out wide.

Of course, Liverpool definitely needs to sign a centre forward. Neglecting to bring in a player who could replace Fernando Torres was one of the prime reasons for both Rafael Benitez and Roy Hodgson getting sacked, but it seems madness to sign a player of £20 million type calibre unless he is going to play all the time.
The main problem there is that both Fernando Torres and Luis Suarez operate primarily as lone strikers for their respective teams.

Torres has been at Liverpool since 2007 and has never played with a real partner, unless you count Steven Gerrard playing just behind him.

Rafael Benitez is one of the most astute tactical managers in the game and even he failed to find a strike partner for the Liverpool No. 9.

Gerrard's best position is as the supporting midfielder, so if Suarez does come in, then Liverpool will gain in one area but lose in the other. Gerrard would revert to a traditional central midfielder when he simply does not know how to dictate a game from deep.

The other option for Liverpool on Suarez is to utilise him with Torres in the same way that Peter Beardsley complemented John Aldridge in Dalglish's first stint at Liverpool in the late '80s.

The problems with that particular tactic are that Torres' link up play is not up to the same class as his finishing and that he is a player who plays his best football when facing the goal rather than away from it.

It is also worth noting that John Aldridge was sold by Dalglish while he was still at his peak...

No, the Suarez signing only makes sense, to me anyway, on two levels.

1) He is a big-money signing that will get the fans back on board and,

2) His signing is the first part in Torres' future transfer.

The latter statement makes particular sense when you realise that Pere Guardiola is Pep Guardiola's brother as well as being Luis Suarez's agent.

It is no secret that Barcelona have indicated that they want to bring Torres and Fabregas back to Spain next season and Suarez's signing follows NESV's ideal by bringing in a player with vast potential while selling another at what could be his peak value.

If Suarez does indeed come in, he would be too valuable to leave on the bench so it would look as if Dalglish will be employing a 4-4-2 type system for the rest of the season with Steven Gerrard and possibly Charlie Adam as his two main central midfielders.

The problem with that set up is that it leaves the two centre halves exposed.

One would have to assume that since Martin Kelly is commanding the right full berth that Dalglish will stick with the youngster out there instead of the haphazard Glen Johnson, with Stephen Warnock coming in at left full.

That would leave Liverpool with a very one-paced back line and with a team whose tactical approach would be very direct, an accusation that the Kop levelled at Roy Hodgson with some venom on more than one occasion.

Is Suarez the right signing at the right time? Because it might even end up causing more questions than answers.

Premier League Sack Race: Odds For Every Manager

Who will be the next manager to get the sack in the English Premier League? Are Avram Grant’s days numbered? Does Wenger have to win a trophy? Can Roy Hodgson turn Liverpool around?
You wait around all season for the first EPL manager to be sacked and then two happen within the space of a week.

Harry Redknapp and Danny Murphy: Misguided Or Malicious?

Within the space of a couple of days, both Harry Redknapp and Danny Murphy issued extensive comments about two of the hottest topics concerning the English footballing world at the moment, the financial situation at Liverpool and dangerous tackling respectively. But were those comments genuine attempts at voicing their opinions or just misguided attempts at something else completely?

KPMG; Liverpool FC On The Verge Of Administration After Massive Rise In Debt

The season that just keeps kicking gave Liverpool and it's many fans the worst news imaginable after it emerged that the club have sunk deeper into debt . Yesterday's financial report from Kop Holdings revealed a record loss of £54.9 million over the course of the last season meaning that the clubs total debt now stands at £472.5 million.

Accounts for the club's holding company for the year ending in July 2009 show spiralling interest payments of £40m, wages breaking the £100m-a-season barrier, a record loss of £54.9m and an increase in the club's debt of £51.5m.

At the end of last season, after a record profit of £10 million, Liverpool's debt stood at £350m. Urgent negotiations with RBS and a refinancing of the loan reduced the deficit to £237 million, and the British Government owned bank are now expected to come back and seek their money.

Liverpool now stand £351m (net) in the red. Some £233m of that is owed to the British government-owned RBS and the US investment bank Wachovia, while another £144.4m is owed to Hicks and Gillett's parent company, Kop Cayman.

KPMG were brought in as financial auditors to survey the wreckage on show at the Anfield based club.
They found that Liverpool's debt had grown but, just as alarming, also found that Kop Holdings were also in debt for £42.6 million.

KPMG had warned Kop Football Ltd of the "material uncertainty" of their product. In other words, should Liverpool fail to bring the EPL trophy or the Champions League trophy home in the 2009/10, then the debt would increase substantially, as there would not be any monies available to pay off their debt.

With the current findings we can see that that is exactly what has happened to the once great club.

Liverpool have until the end of July to pay RBS and Wachovia their debt, but this looks increasingly unlikely. Already ahead of the curve, the EPL and UEFA summoned new Chairman Martin Broughton to their headquarters to discuss Liverpool's participation in in their respective tournaments next year.

Their greatest fear being that the now Government owned bank will have no where near the level of sympathy for the club that they had last year. RBS restructured their core business after the EU allowed to company to redesign itself after the biggest tax payer bail out in Europe during the financial crisis, some £100 billion.

The EU’s top competition enforcer, Neelie Kroes, warned that if the bank failed to meet 2013 targets to restore healthy, natural order to its balance sheet, her successor Joaquin Almunia would not hesitate to take fresh action.

The fact that the goalposts have now shifted for RBS means that the bank will almost definitely come looking for Liverpool to repay their debt. There is no sympathy for football clubs who spend beyond their means in the current climate and Liverpool will do well to garner support from political parties because their debt is essentially tax payer money.

Broughton has been quick to talk of the proposed £81 million four year sponsorship deal with Standard Charter and how it will help to reduce the debt. However, it would now seem that the level of sponsorship depends upon Liverpool's success during that period.

One theory on Broughton's role thar has begun to surface is that his appointment to the role of Chairman is only window dressing to appease RBS, to make it look as if the club are actively looking to reduce their debts, but are in actual fact threading water with no serious buyers on the horizon.

This would seem to go with the EPL's recent talks with Broughton about their commitment to meet every fixture next season.

"I expect to be chairman until we sell, so a matter of months,” Broughton said. “There’s no fixed price, there’s no agreed price — it’s a willing buyer, willing seller trade. We have willing sellers and there are willing buyers out there — that will determine the price," which all sounds a little bit desperate.

With the club now losing £110,000 a day through interest alone it looks as if Broughton, RBS, and the UK Government will have much to discuss over the next two months.

Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia have been forcing Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr to move Liverpool’s borrowings away from them and on to Hicks' Cayman Islands-listed parent company, Kop Cayman.

Many fans rejoiced last year when Liverpool appeared to reduce their bank loan from £350 million to £290 million, but that was only because their offshore parent company increased its loan to the club by £86.2 million to £144.4 million. That loan, on which Liverpool has to pay 10 per cent interest, is likely to have increased over the last 12 months, explaining these new devastating figures.

Only this week Rafael Benitez eventually agreed to meet Martin Broughton about the Spaniard's future at the club. There has been a huge amount of speculation about his future role at the club, with stories emanating from Italy every day with new links to Juventus.

Benitez has played a polital chess game with Hicks and Gillett in the corridors of power at Anfield and he has become part of the fabric at the club with his people in virtually every position of power regarding the football side of the club.

He has called upon the owners to lavish him with money, or he will leave. He has told them not to sell Fernando Torres or Steven Gerrard, or he will leave. Rafa knows the club lies on the edge of a financial precipice and has made demands that he knows sound impossible given the level of debt.

During his six years at the club he has spent some £210 million on 49 players whilst bringing in some £125 million for 80 players.

With the news that Rafa is now saying he needs at least six new players to challenge for fourth it would seem that Rafa has spent quite poorly over his time in charge. To say he needs six players for a decent team after six years in charge in nothing short of Benitez admitting wasting Liverpool's money.

The biggest rise however has come in the wages bracket at the club,where Benitez has almost doubled the clubs wage bill since taking over.

2004- £66m, 2005- £65m, 2006- £68m, 2007- £75m, 2008- £79m, 2009 - £101m (£453m total)

For the second year running KPMG have given a brutal audit on all that is wrong with Liverpool FC. Citing "material uncertainty" yet again...

"These conditions indicate the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast doubt on the parent company's ability to continue as a going concern," it said.

Liverpool are on the verge of becoming the next Leeds, the EPL think so, UEFA think so, and KPMG know so. The next two months are vital for the club.

Challenging for the title is gone, keeping Benitez at the club looks less and less likely every day, Fernando Torres has intimated that he wants to leave English football, and Steven Gerrard has just endured his worst ever season in a red shirt.

Liverpool will not earn Champions League money next season, they will not challenge for the league title, their best players could leave, and their manager could go to Italy.

Next year couldn't be any worse than this one, could it?

Chelsea All But Win The EPL Title at Liverpool, Where To Now For Rafael Benitez?

After beating Stoke City 7-0 last week, Chelsea strolled to an even easier win today by triumphing 2-0 over a sterile Liverpool side at Anfield. In the run up to the game many pundits had questioned if the Reds would roll over and have their bellies tickled, well they did that, and more.

Football Is Not Recession Proof, Now UEFA Know and 2012 Begins a New Era

The landscape of football is about to take a dramatic change if UEFA and Michel Platini are to get their way.

Since Platini took over as UEFA President in 2007, the Frenchman has always stated his desires for financial fair play across Europe.

Manchester United vs. Liverpool: EPL Destiny on the Line for Both Clubs

Manchester United and Liverpool meet at Old Trafford this Sunday in a game that will almost certainly define their seasons.

If United loses, they will lose ground in the title race, while a loss for Liverpool will increase the mounting pressure on their beleaguered manager, Rafael Benitez.



Ferguson the Wily Manager

For many reasons, it is probably the wrong time for Liverpool to be traveling to the white-hot cauldron of Old Trafford. Having dispatched AC Milan 4-0 with childlike ease last Wednesday, Fulham then walked into the lion's den—and were duly sent packing with a 3-0 drubbing.

In short, United are on song—and they are very much the team you do not want to travel to at this stage of the season. One of the most vital elements of Alex Ferguson's coaching acumen is his uncanny ability to get his team to peak as we enter the business end of the league.

His team has stepped up a gear during the last couple of weeks—since Everton beat them 3-1—and not since 2002 have they managed to score as many goals in one season: 70 in 30 games. And you have to go all the way back to January to find the last goal they conceded at home.

Wayne Rooney has been firing on all cylinders since the start of the season, and he has carried the team through games when it looked as if this title challenge was going to slip away before it really started.

Much to Ferguson's credit, other players have begun to share in the burden Rooney has carried for so long. Antonio Valencia, despite a quiet start to his Red Devils career, has been brilliant since November.

Paul Scholes still defies Father Time and produces performances that players half his age would die for, and Dimitar Berbatov is finally beginning to give regular quality performances.

If he can keep this up, United's attack will be simply frightening as the end of the season draws in.

Park Ji-Sung has continued his selfless existence in the United midfield—and given his recent form and phenomenal honesty on the pitch, it is almost impossible to see him out of the side to face Liverpool this weekend.



United's Predicted Starting Lineup

Edwin Van Der Sar is guaranteed to start in goal. Since his return to the United starting lineup, they have managed to keep five clean sheets in eight games—no small coincidence.

Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic will also start—and it will be very interesting to see how the giant Serbian stands up to the power and pace of one Fernando Torres, who always seems to give him a torrid time. Rio Ferdinand should partner Vidic at the back, so the only real question is who Fergie will start at right full.

Given the options, it will either be Gary Neville or Rafael. Despite Neville having a field day against Ronaldinho, who managed to make the United man look 21 again, he should not play. His legs are gone at this level, and the pace his protege will provide could be key to United shackling Torres.

The next big question is whether Ferguson will start with four or five in midfield. Again, the system Benitez has always employed dictates that the Scot has to match him man- for-man—and for that reason, I see United going 4-5-1, which means Berbatov will start on the bench.

Valencia, Park, Fletcher, and Carrick will all start—be it in a 4-4-2 or 4-5-1—so the only question remains for midfield: Scholes or Nani?

The importance of the game would suggest that Ferguson will go with tried and trusted over flair and unpredictability—with Scholes getting the nod over Nani.

That leaves Rooney as the lone striker. This season, he has really come to the fore as a world-class talent—and now the other players look to him to not only make things happen, as before, but also to dig them out of their holes, too.

His industry and honesty mean he will always be a threat for this Liverpool defence—which is blessed with neither the speed nor the strength to combat the United front man.

A win for United would serve as a huge psychological boost as the intensity of their run reaches fever pitch—and it would set them up nicely to welcome Chelsea two weeks later.



Tough Times for Liverpool and Rafa

Liverpool, for their part, have had their worst season in living memory. Dumped out of the Champions League before Christmas and losing 15 matches in one season, the high- spending Anfield outfit now faces the extra embarrassment of missing out on the Champions League completely.

This is a must-win game for Rafael Benitez and his lacklustre side. Lose and the odds of them finishing fourth will increase exponentially—and despite Thursday's 3-0 win over Lille, the Reds flattered to deceive on the night, and they have yet to turn the corner on a miserable season.

This game not only provides that corner, but it also resembles a last chance for the Reds.

Should Liverpool lose and their rivals win, the points difference would almost certainly be too much for them to bridge, given there are so few games left to play.



Liverpool's Predicted Starting Lineup

Pepe Reina is the only player who has lived up to his billing this year, and without him between the sticks, it is frightening to think of what could have happened to Liverpool's season.

Glen Johnsen will start at right full, with Park most probably his opposite number. It will be interesting to see how the duo combat each other and how United look to break the indiscipline of the defender—or whether he will stay loyal to Rafa's orders and guard the "bank."

Emiliano Insua should start on the left. So far this season, his performances have ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. The Argentinian youngster is not blessed with pace— and as such, he must choose his forward forays carefully. The enemy he faces on Sunday will be ruthless and swift should he stray out of position too often.

Jamie Carragher, Daniel Agger, and Kryiagkos will battle it out for the central berths, but the Greek international should at least find himself on the bench.

As ever, Javier Mascherano will shield the back four, with the only question for Rafa being Lucas or Aquilani. Looking at the season, it is clear that the Spaniard prefers the creatively numb Brazilian—but he will offer a defensive mind and honesty that the Italian is incapable of offering in the middle.

Dirk Kuyt, Yossi Benayoun, and Ryan Babel will battle it out for the two wide positions as a fully fit midfield should provide Rafa with plenty of questions—except for Albert Riera, that is...

Steven Gerrard and Torres will act as link and striker, and the key to unlocking United will fall to this pair—as it almost does in every match.

So far this year, Gerrard has been a shadow of his former self—and he will be looking to improve upon that poor form as the World Cup gets closer. He is no longer the untouchable player he was—and given the right circumstances, he could find himself outside Fabio Capello's starting XI for Aston Villa's James Milner.

Not only does this game represent a turning point in Liverpool's season, but it also represents a turning point in Gerrard's season.

Torres, who unbelievably finds himself on the bench for Spain, will be the key for Liverpool. His Indian sign over Vidic is sure to be on the mind of the Serbian—and it would not be unusual to see Liverpool try to isolate Vidic early on.



Only One Winner?

Looking at the form book, one could only pick United as a winner of this game. But these matches notoriously have their own style of ecosystems and are literally impossible to call.

For instance, no one would have predicted that Liverpool would have destroyed United 4-1 in this fixture last season.

When push comes to shove, I expect Manchester United to have too much for Liverpool in this game.

United will push their wide players right down onto Liverpool's full backs—but with Liverpool pretty much employing a defensive eight and trying to catch teams on the break, they will contribute to their own lack of ambition.

That will leave United's midfield to pick up Gerrard in an effort to snuff out their one consistent creative source in midfield.

Saying all that, Liverpool will fight tooth and nail for every inch of ground—and the onus will be put on the likes of Fletcher and Carrick to create something out of nothing as the Reds will leave no blade of grass unguarded.

Almost too difficult to call, but it is hard to see United not scoring...

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Big Sam To Rafael Benitez: I'm Under Your Skin, I Don't Like You And You've Blown Liverpool's Chances Of Reaching The Champions League

Just when you thought it was safe to go back out on the pitch. Big Sam and Rafa are at it again. Fresh from Benitez's Barcelona jibes, Big Sam has hit back by claiming he has got under Rafa's skin, that he doesn't like him, and that the Liverpool manager has blown his clubs chances of reaching the Champions League.

This round of their constant belittling of each other started on the eve of Blackburn's trip to Liverpool where Sam Allardyce claimed that Rafa had turned Liverpool into a modern day version of Bolton.

An unhappy Benitez decided to bite his tongue on that occasion, but hit back in the press conference following the Reds 2-1 win over Rovers.

An angry Rafa said: "We can win on the pitch but some people have to talk before and after the game because they find it difficult to do a football job. I am sure he is a model for football all around the world. I am sure Barcelona are thinking about copying their style of football," amongst other things, but that was his most damning comment.

It appeared to be the final say on the matter, this season, but following Liverpool's shock 1-0 loss to Wigan at the DW Stadium, Big Sam has returned with a few choice words of his own.

"It was a good cover-up by Rafa (jeering Blackburn's style of play) because he knows how bad his side were and that was repeated against Wigan on Monday night.

"He's got personal with it for many, many years now.

"That's why I don't like him and the feeling is probably mutual.

"I don't get personal with him; I get into him and under his skin, yes, but that's all part of the game.

"The tit for tat between me and Rafa will probably go on until one of us is no longer a Premier League manager. I've managed to psyche out one or two here and there and that's how the Premiership has evolved over the last 20 years. But no, Pep Guardiola has not been in touch yet!"

He went on: "The last time one of the big four didn't finish in the top four it was Liverpool - Everton got that spot - and I think this time it looks pretty difficult having lost against Wigan.

"They are having to rely on other teams slipping up now. They have a wealth of experience and that may be a telling factor when the nerve ends start jangling. We saw what happened to Tottenham a few years ago with the famous 'poisoned lasagne' scenario - and they let it slip.

"But I think it might be more difficult for Liverpool this time around because there are more teams involved. There's Manchester City, Aston Villa and Tottenham in there and if Everton keep rolling on you might be surprised to see them making a late run."

Allardyce insists that Liverpool's losses to Wigan and Lille prove that he has won the psychological battle. He said: "You do it to try to get your team in a position to get a result. Personal criticism is not the road I go down, and I don't personally criticise Rafa Benitez but I clearly get under his skin and that can be a benefit to my side when we play them."

With the two of these guys going at it hammer and tongs you could almost believe they were rival boxers rather than managers of football teams.

Pity they won't meet again until next year...

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English Premier League Finances 2010, Every Single Clubs Financial Report

Portsmouth are on the verge of becoming the first Premier League club to go into administration, and if many fans fears are to be believed Pompey may not be the first to go.

Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool are all under the heavy weight of massive debt. Such is the level of debt in the Premier League that it makes up 56% of all the debt in European football, some £3.5 billion.

The really shocking indictment of that ludicrous figure is that the traditional top four Chelsea, United, Liverpool, and Arsenal own almost £2 billion of that total figure. Meaning that just four clubs own 36% of all the debt in Europe.

It is something that Michel Platini and UEFA are trying to clamp down upon. There has been one of these English teams in every one of the Champions League Finals since 2004.

Obviously UEFA feel that the EPL teams enjoy far greater freedom to run into debt, and that the EPL as a management body are happy not to police the sector as it brings much more coverage to the league.

Here are the annual accounts for every single Premier League team.

Read them and weep...




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Premier League Rejects Playoff Proposal

Premier League chairmen have rejected the idea of a introducing a play-off to decide who takes the fourth UEFA Champions League place. The motion was beaten after it failed to gather the 14 votes it needed to pass.

The controversial idea of introducing play-offs for the final Champions League spot was proposed last month. Under it's premise teams finishing between fourth to seventh place would then go into a playoff to decide the leagues last place in the Champions League.

At best the proposal received a mixed reception from Premier League managers with some very much for the idea while others were dead set against it.

The idea was examined by Premier League chairmen at their meeting on London on Thursday after Peter Scudamore brought forward a mandate for the proposal and they have voted against it, meaning the status quo will stay as is.

While managers from Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool were vehemant opposers to the proposition, they were the four clubs with the most to lose, they were also somewhat ironically the four clubs who would have gained most.

Given the finances that the four clubs enjoy over every other team it is highly unlikely that any of these clubs would have finished outside the top seven positions in the short to medium term future.






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Real Madrid and Barcelona Head Football's Rich List, Arsenal Up To Fifth

Manchester United have dropped out of the top two richest teams in the world for the first time as Spanish giants, Real Madrid and Barcelona, have established themselves as the new dominant financial forces in football.

Seven of the top 20 richest teams in the world are based in the English Premier League, but it now looks as if La Liga is where the real power lies.

Over the last 18 months, La Liga has seen itself attract some of the best talent in the world, some of it from the EPL, and become the new dominant league in Europe, and the world.

Rising tax rates in Britain combined with an ailing currency have become a vital ingredient in seeing Spain become the destination of choice for footballers.

Currently the high tax rate in Britain is 50 percent, meaning that half of everything a player earns goes directly to the government. While this has been going on in England, the Spanish government has reduced the tax rate for "foreign executives" down to an amazing 24 percent.

This in turn enables Spanish teams to attract bigger names and pay bigger wages. This then returns to the clubs through advertising and merchandise revenue streams making Spanish teams winners on every angle.

English football also has another cross to bear.

The current amount of debt the Premiership owes is £3.5billion.

Incredibly, that is 56 percent of all the debt owed by football teams in the whole of Europe. And £2billion of that total is owed by just four teams, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, and Liverpool.

Barcelona's rise on the list is due to their phenomenal success on the pitch over the last two seasons, and last year in particular.

In the 2009/10 season, Barcelona entered six competitions, and won every single trophy available. Something no other team in world football has ever matched before.

This has sent their annual income soaring above previous high levels.

Alan Switzer, director of Deloitte's sports business group, warned: "Real Madrid and Barcelona have created a clear revenue gap between themselves and their main competitors.

"They look set to contest the top two positions in the money league for the foreseeable future, particularly if the pound doesn't strengthen against the euro."

Dan Jones, a partner in Deloitte's sports business group, added: "Just like it was in Rome last May, Barcelona just proved too strong for United. Like other English clubs, United were impacted by the continued depreciation of sterling - and the scale of this is shown by the fact that, if exchange rates remained at their June 2007 level, they would be top of the money league table."

Real, whose new class of Galacticos include the £80million Cristiano Ronaldo, became the first club to generate more than €400 million of revenue in 2008-09.

Despite the drop seen by most Premiership clubs, Arsenal have replaced Chelsea as the fifth richest club in world football. Returning the favour for the Pensioners taking their place over the last couple of years.

This is quite remarkable especially when you consider that the Gunners are trophy-less for the past five seasons.

A prudent financial footing and a huge revenue creating stadium the main reasons why Arsenal have moved back up. However, the Gunners do have large debts hanging over them, although they look well placed to deal with them if they continue with their current policies.

In recent times speculation has begun to mount about an American consortium being interested in acquiring Arsenal. This rumour spread after Liam Brady resigned from his post as Assistant Manager to Giovani Trappatoni, the Irish national team manager.

Speculation is rife that Arsene Wenger was happy to let Brady double job, the Irishman is in an extremely important job at Arsenal as "Head of Youth Development", but that he was put under pressure by the board to resign as they did not want to be seen to be allowing an important member of staff to take his eye of the main job at hand.

Despite the top fours empires being built on massive debt, Jones believes leading English clubs are still well-placed to survive.

With speculation arising that the EPL will sign a £1 billion TV deal, Jones said: "While there has been much recent comment on the finances of English clubs, we believe problems are experienced at the very highest level are more likely to be a result of mismanagement, weak cost control or a lack of credit than any problems with revenue generation."

How will Premier League teams survive their massive debt strains and still be competitive in Europe is something that will occupy the minds of many owners and chairmen over the next couple of years.

Already, the league has proposed a "39th game" which would be played outside England in the hope of each Premiership team being allowed to generate millions as cities bid to have certain teams play there.

That idea was scrapped but another has surfaced in it's place. A set of playoffs between the four teams who finished from fourth to seventh, allowing the winner to play in the Champions League.

As these playoffs would be outside a normal season they could be brought abroad to the highest bidder...

Either way, the EPL has some way to go to gain on La Liga, whilst Serie A is in real danger of becoming a mid-tier league in Europe.

The pressure is on for all European teams in Serie A. The league faces losing it's coveted fourth Champions League place next year unless an Italian team wins in Europa and every German team gets knocked out in the current rounds of competition.

Given the strong cases being built by Bundesliga teams, that looks a distant prospect.

The power in football is currently residing in Spain, it will stay there for some time until it finds a new lover, expect the new mistress in the coming years to speak German, the Bundesliga is a league on the up.



The Top 20 Rich List:

Position Club Revenue (£m)

1 (1) Real Madrid 341.9

2 (3) FC Barcelona 311.7

3 (2) Manchester United 278.5

4 (4) Bayern Munich 246.6

5 (6) Arsenal 224.0

6 (5) Chelsea 206.4

7 (8) Liverpool 184.8

8 (11) Juventus 173.1

9 (10) Internazionale 167.4

10 (7) AC Milan 167.4

11 (15) Hamburger SV 124.9

12 (9) AS Roma 124.7

13 (12) Olympique Lyonnais 118.9

14 (16) Olympique de Marseille 113.5

15 (14) Tottenham Hotspur 113.0

16 (13) Schalke 04 106.0

17 (n/a) Werder Bremen 97.7

18 (20) Borussia Dortmund 88.1

19 (n/a) Manchester City 87.0

20 (17) Newcastle United 86.0

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Rafa The Klingon Twists The Knife On Big Sam After Liverpool Beat Blackburn

The Klingons have a saying; Revenge is a dish best served cold. After years of thinking that Rafael Benitez was an emotionless Vulcan, it would appear that he is actually a first cousin of Worf...

Mere moments after Liverpool vanquished Blackburn 2-1 at Anfield, Rafa couldn't wait to stick the knife into Big Sam and twist. Of course, his comments were a direct reaction to Allardyce's claims that he had turned Liverpool into an expensive version of Bolton.

The relationship between the duo has always been strained, but now it is absolutely poisonous.

Blackburn for their part received five yellow cards during the game, and were lucky not to see Chimbonda and Nzonzi get red after two awful challenges. But Sam defended his team's discipline by saying that the referee had been swayed by the Anfield crowd.

Allardyce pointed out that Liverpool had committed 25 fouls without being punished with a card, while Blackburn had only made 10 fouls.

“If we had possessed a goalscorer, we would have won,” he said. “It is not often you come to Liverpool and create more chances than them but we don’t have a goalscorer and they have Gerrard and Torres.”

Rafa for his part was pretty unrepentant and left his most vicious comments 'til last.

“It doesn’t matter, we won,” was Benitez’s retort when that was put to him about Liverpool's current style of play.

“We prefer to play football. If they play the way they play under this manager, it is difficult but it is their decision. When you have won you don’t have to think about how you played...”

“We have four or five players bleeding because of studs,” said Benitez. “We can win on the pitch but some people have to talk before and after the game because they find it difficult to do a football job. I am sure he is a model for football all around the world. I am sure Barcelona are thinking about copying their style of football.”

Ouch...

Look out for their next bout in 2011...

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Blackburn's Big Sam Taunts Liverpool and Rafael Benitez -You're The New Bolton!

Never a pair to let sleeping dogs lie, Big Sam has moved to provoke Rafael Benitez and Liverpool fans everywhere, by claiming that the Spaniard has destroyed Liverpool and turned them into a modern version of Bolton.

The duo have endured a rivalry that began in 2004 when Bolton beat Liverpool 1-0, the result stirred Benitez to launch a scathing attack on the Lancashire club and their manager for the physical tactics employed during the game. Of course Big Sam reciprocated, and the duo have taken every chance to wind each other up since.

Last season Rafa drew the ire of Big Sam after the Blackburn boss read his counterparts body language as being extremely disrespectful.

Liverpool had taken an early two goal lead through Xabi Alonso when the Liverpool manager walked from the dug out with his arms in a gesture of finality. Big Sam read the hand gesture as Rafa saying the game was all but over. However, Benitez then countered by saying that his gesture was aimed at Alonso, who had refused to follow his managers orders prior to scoring.

Either way it was a storm in a tea cup as both managers looked to get one over on each other.

The two main protagonists meet again today when Blackburn travel to Anfield, and Big Sam has moved quickest this time, by claiming Liverpool under Benitez are just like the Bolton team he used to criticise.

Allardyce said: ‘He’s used all that stuff that he always says he doesn’t like — it’s ironic, isn’t it?

‘I watched them at Manchester City and they got six players booked, so he’s brought the physical side out as well.

‘If it’s a good physical challenge on Sunday then I’ll be more than happy to go down that route — although I don’t really have the players to do that like I did at Bolton.

'But they’ve had to go back to basics and the pretty stuff goes out of the window until you start winning. They have been professional and dogged enough to slowly improve over recent weeks.

‘They have not been as pretty and fluid as they could be but they have done the job and got the results they needed to get back in the pack.’

Allardyce also sensationally revealed that, at the height of the pair’s dispute, he discovered that Rafael Benitez had gone to referees’ chief Keith Hackett with video evidence against Bolton.

Such was the Liverpool manager's dislike of Bolton and Sam Allardyce, he actually compiled a DVD of all of their fouls and tactics and then distributed the recordings to the top referee in the country.

Why Benitez would take such a route is unknown, but it does come across as being extremely childish. Was it an effort to influence referees decisions against Bolton?

Allardyce thought so before adding: ‘He went as far as putting a DVD together and sending it to Keith Hackett. He doesn’t know I know that, but I do. I got on to Keith Hackett and told him I didn’t want it to influence what refs do because it was all a load of rubbish.’

This match between the pair is an important one. Liverpool are currently embroiled in a four way battle for fourth. With only one point separating four teams, Spurs, Manchester City, Liverpool, and Aston Villa.

Losing ground at this stage of the race would be tantamount to disaster and the Reds will go into this game needing to collect all three points.

Fernando Torres and Yossi Benayoun are returning to fitness but should find themselves on the bench, meaning that Liverpool will employ the same stifling tactics that have seen them only lose once in the league since Christmas.

Blackburn, for their part, are on a similar run to the Reds having only lost twice since Christmas and they have begun to pull away from the drop zone that threatened to engulf them.

11 points off the relegation zone and 11 points off Europe mean that Big Sam's team should finish in mid-table respectability.

They will not be easy for Liverpool to break down, especially in their current state, but the difference should be seen when Rafa springs his aces from the bench.

A tight affair that Liverpool should just nudge, but as ever, all eyes will be on the two managers.

John Terry and Wayne Bridge, who?

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Big Four Monopoly To End? English Premier League Clubs To Vote On Proposed Champions League Playoffs in April

The monopoly that Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Chelsea have enjoyed for the last ten years looks set to end. The Premier League are considering the introduction of a playoff for the last Champions League place, meaning a team as low as 7th could play in Europe's foremost trophy.

Premier League sources have confirmed that the play-off system proposal was presented to all at the most recent meeting of EPL clubs, on 4 February. As with his mandate of Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore, now has until the next meeting in April to produce a proposal that would be acceptable to the teams of the EPL.

Under the proposal, a playoff would be played at the end of the season between the teams that finished 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th. The matches would take the form of two semi finals and a final, with the winner progressing towards the Champions League as reward.

One major obstacle that the likes of Liverpool and United will hope to exploit is the lack of fixture time between the end of the league season, the start of May, and the traditional end of the season, the FA Cup Final.

The proposal is still in it's infancy but with 16 teams backing the initial plan, it looks as if a solution should easily be found around the sticky situations of home and away legs, or seeding.

Or even God forbid if England's UEFA co-efficient should drop and only three, not four teams were eligible for Champions League football.

These topics will be picked over by Scudamore over the next month as he readies his proposal.
The move has been met with open arms by the vast majority of clubs plying their trade in England's upper echelon, with only four dissenting voices to be heard, those of Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, and Chelsea...The four clubs with the most to lose.

It is not known which chairman raised the issue but it is safe to say that he was not from one of the leagues top four teams. And only needing a majority of 14 it looks as if this proposal could be implemented by as early as next season.

The move was sparked by the aforementioned clubs domination of the the league since the Premier League's inception in 1992.

Since then debt has spiralled out of control in English football, but in the Premier League in particular.

As it stands the 20 teams in the EPL owe around £3 billion in debt, with £2 billion of that total being spread amongst the monopoly on top. Manchester United, famously in debt for £716m recently set up a £500m bond trust to push them further into debt.

Chelsea were smarter and used slight of hand to remove their £700m debt by giving Roman Abrahmovich sole ownership of the club, as owner the debt is now his, and as the Pensioners owed him the money in the first place the slate is wiped clean...

Liverpool came within hours of going under last summer only for RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) to baulk at the last moment and give them a one year reprieve. The Reds now have until June to find over £100m from a £290m debt.

The Gunners have been more spendthrift than their rivals but are still in debt to the region of £400m with a £25m mortgage to pay on the Emitates stadium for the next 24 years. This despite a recent £150m share issue that saw Bank of Ireland take on shares at the club to quash their debt.

Should other plans by Michel Platini come into fruition then Arsenal could be further plunged into debt as their property company Arsenal Holdings is struggling under the debt they accrued in the development of apartments at Highbury.

Meaning that the other £1billion is spread between the other 16 clubs. When you realise that newly promoted sides like Birmingham and Burnley are reletively debt free it shows that the leagues leading clubs have been allowed to exploit their stature by going further into debt and that the rest are playing an impossible game of catch up.

The fact that these four clubs are the only opposing faction speaks volumes of how this little clique see themselves as being above every other club. Their flat refusal to share the spoils of European football is pure indication that their monopoly is under threat and that the EPL are moving to breakup their strangle hold for the good of the game in England.

Ironically this latest move by the EPL comes as Manchester City enter the fray as the world's richest club and as such are insulated against giant debt. On top of that, Liverpool's traditional placing at the top of the EPL table is under threat from three different sources for the first time in decades.

The top fours opposition to the playoff system is obviously driven by self interest, but their argument that such vast rewards should not be given to a team as low as seventh do not wash as Liverpool themselves won the trophy whilst finishing in fifth place in the league. Add this to the fact that very few champions have actually won the Champion League and finishing seventh is no different than finishing fourth.

The proposal  will of course have massive implications for both the Carling and FA Cups and the relevant teams who have enjoyed their stay at the top of the league.

The two cups have already been devalued by almost every team in English football, attendances show that from the FA Premier League all the way down to League Two that gates have reduced for the cups by almost 20 percent since the 80's.

The new proposed playoff system means a further devaluation to the once great trophies, as EPL teams will now have very little incentive to win the cup as finishing seventh could bring greater glory than winning a cup.
But why introduce a playoff system after almost 20 years of Premier League action?

Is it a reflex reply to the scathing criticism that the 39th game received? In a way one could easily come to this conclusion.

The EPL is the most watched league in the world and the introduction of a "cup" involving four teams with everything to play for at the end of the season would be sure to spark major interest around the world.

At the moment the Championship Playoff Final is labelled as the most lucrative match in world football with an estimated £40m waiting for the winner. How much would the Champions League Playoff be worth?

Currently the top fours budgets earn almost 15 percent of their turnover from the Champions League. Just on television rights alone a trek to the final could be worth almost £40m, and that is before prize money and gate receipts are taken into account.

This season Liverpool were eliminated from the Champions League in the group stages and were dumped into the Europa League. Should Liverpool win every match in Europe's second trophy and lay claim to the trophy, nine matches, they will still pick up less money than they would have earned from playing in the CL Last 16 alone.

In short, the Champions League is huge, and the money earned there is massive. Little wonder that the top four are obsessed with keeping the league in it's current status quo.

If there is one competition that is more drenched in money than the English Premier League, it is the UEFA Champions League.

And now the lower lights in the EPL want their say, will they have the moral courage to break such a powerful monopoly?

Doing it in paper is one thing, doing it on the pitch is another...

Rafael Benitez To Juventus: Black and White or Red All Over?

It would seem that the soap story at Anfield has taken another twist, after Juventus confirmed that Rafael Benitez is their number one target to take over from the embattled Ciro Ferrara, and wood was definitely thrown on the fire after Rafa's agent suggested the move could happen...

Analyzing Tottenham Hotspur After Their Defeat To Liverpool

Let us start as we mean to go on. Spurs, are cowards.

There has never been a better time to take on Liverpool at Anfield. Morale was at it's lowest in decades, their three best players out through injury and facing the end of the season if they lost.

But what did Spurs do? The same thing they always do:

They took the cowards way out, the easy route, the road of least resistance. In short, Spurs gave up. They chose to avoid the win. Because if that happened they would be expected to achieve something.

Who Will Replace Rafael Benitez at Liverpool?

Liverpool are now out of all the domestic cups, out of the Champions League, and adrift in the Premiership. It looks as if Rafael Benitez will be replaced, but who is up to the task?

It would seem that bookmakers have already decided that Rafael Benitez has no future at Liverpool. The strangled 1-1 away to Stoke will not have done anything to deflect the talk that Rafa will be replaced, sooner rather than later.

Liverpool Tells Fans to Book Tickets Early for FA Cup Clash With Burnley

In a week where things have not gone well for Liverpool on the pitch, it appears that their off-pitch exploits are even worse. Yesterday the club sent out e-mails to all its season ticket holders to book their FA Cup fourth-round tickets early...

On Wednesday, fourth from bottom side in the Championship, Reading, knocked the once mighty club out after a 2-1 extra-time win at Anfield.