ChippKG

Cast your minds back a few to when Manchester City were not owned by a rich arab. Below was the Manchester City team back in 2006/7 season. Isaksson Richards Dunne Distin Su Jihi Abdoun Barton Johnson Ireland Mpenza Vassell Subs: Hart, Onuoha, T.Sinclair, Samaras, Dickov, Dabo A vastly different team to the one seen today. A team that were predicted to be around 16th in the Premier League table. They had a average age of 23. Many of these players have moved on since 2006 and as of today only 3 remain. Joe Hart, Micah Richards and Michael Johnson who we will be focusing on. Long gone the days of George Best where a footballer could go out to a nightclub on a Friday and still start a match on the Saturday. These days you would be fined for such antics. Young players in particular can have problems with alchohol and can slow down their development. Unfortunately for Michael Johnson it didn't just slow down his development, it absolutely...

As some of you may be aware this year there has been an event that has dominated headlines across the world. A event were only the very best athletes take part. It was not a big event but one then has taken much interest from around the world. People dream of playing at this event. I am of course talking about the Futsal World Cup which has recently taken place in Thailand. It is the 7th time that the FIFA Futsal World Cup has taken place and like the normal World Cup it takes place every 4 years. Though it has always been largely dominated by two teams in particular. Brazil and Spain. This year it was no different. After both winning their groups and looking strong in their Round of 16, Quater Finals and Semi Finals it came down to a meeting of Brazil VS Spain. Brazil took an early lead through player of the tournament Neto. But this was soon cancelled out by Spanish goals Torras and Alcardo. Spain were looking dominant before Brazil pulled a goal back through Falcao (Not the one...

A few days ago Chelsea made an astonishing decision which was to sack Roberto Di Matteo after only 6 months in the job. Interestingly only 6days more then Andre Villas Boas lasted at Chelsea. So are Roman Abramovich's sights aimed too high? What exactly did Di Matteo do wrong? How many more managers will fall into the Abramovich trap? Is Benitez really the right man for the job? We will cover all of this in this post. So Di Matteo won the Champions League, FA Cup and bought 2 world class players in the summer transfer window. Not bad for someone who was only sacked from West Brom the previous year. For probably 95% of the Chairman in the world that is a dream come true. Your club winning trophy's, buying world class players and being debt free in the same year. So how on earth can Mr. Abramovich justify the sacking of Roberto Di Matteo? He connects and gets on with everybody at the club. He is loved by nearly everyone at club. He has the players playing the best football of ...

Amongst all the action from the return of the Premier League which has thrown up some crackers already this season. Along with a light soaking of controversy as per usual. Some of you football intellectuals out there will be aware this season will feature a new Premier League which will be on offer to U21s. As part of a much needed comprehensive review into youth development from the FA, This season will feature the start of the first national competition for U21 players. The league has been especially designed to help bridge the gap between Academy level and Firs Team Level. This league will feature 23 clubs who applied for the Category 1 status as part of the FA's categorisation process to support Youth development. For those interested the league will consist of 17 Premier League clubs and six championship clubs. Now the league has already kicked off unfortunately (started on the 17 August) A draw was recently held at the Premier League to determine which clubs will p...

Recently a friend introduced me to a hidden Spanish/Portugese gem. It's called Futsal. Futsal is a 5 a side game (with one goalkeeper) which is played on a small indoor hard court surface and really emphasises on improvisation, creativity and technique as well as ball control and passing in small spaces. Some of the best traits that the Spanish are known for. I Spain they have been playing Futsal for years with their youth academies. So could England benefit from Futsal? I think so. Always England fans watch Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Argentina and think "How come we are so far behind these teams in terms of quality?". Well it's because teams like Spain have had games like Futsal for years and their youngsters have become used to playing in tight situations and being calm, composed, wise in these sort of situations. When England seem to get the ball like they did against the Italians they could never seem to use it well due to lack of composure and ability. A...

Arsenal's recent troubles seem to be neverending as today it has been revealed that Theo Walcott is become tempted to walk out the Arsenal door following the footsteps of Van Persie. Let's start off with RvP who has decided to leave the Gunners after 8 years with the club. He released a statement on his personel website stating that he won't be signing a new contract with Arsenal. In his satement he stated that... "As announced earlier this year I had a meeting with the Boss and Mr. Gazidis after the season. This was a meeting about the club’s future strategy and their policy. Financial terms or a contract have not been discussed, since that is not my priority at all." "I personally have had a great season but my goal has been to win trophies with the team and to bring the club back to its glory days." Now the way I see this is that he doesn't think that the team is good enough to win trophies. Which at the moment it is hard to disagree with h...

I'm sure most of you witnessed England climb out of the group stages with a sequence of good results against good opposition (with the exception of Ukraine who are shocking!). England struggled yesterday against Ukraine who lets not forget are ranked 52 in the world. England did get the job done though and managed to somehow grind out a 1-0 win thanks to a header from the returning Wayne Rooney in the second half. Rooney also missed a glorious chance in the first half which he really should have buried but nevertheless a win is a win and as Roy Keane said "England just have to win and the table will take care of itself" which it did. So England play Italy on Sunday in Kiev which promises to be a tasteful game for both teams. Do England really have what it takes to win the EURO's? From what I have seen. No. People seem to forget that yesterday England were playing against one of the worst teams in the tournament. Yes, they had a massive backing but that was always...

So England have no manager, no captain, no heart going into this up-coming Euro2012 Tournament. It is a nation that needs complete re-building from top to bottom. Which is why it is surely important to introduce Harry Redknapp as England manager sooner then later. But then again why Harry? Why not Alan Pardew for the work he has done at Wolves? Why not someone like Terry Venables? Although my personnel favourite to get the job is Ian Holloway which I think we know will NOT happen.  Whoever gets will have a huge task on their hands in employing some new tactics, new staff,new captain, new philosophy to the England side. Harry Redknapp can do all of that well and knows certain players and knows how to get the best out of them. The job he has done at Tottenham is incredible conjuring up a nearly 50% win percentage since he has been there. So surely there is only one man for the England job? Now if I asked you to name the current England Starting XI without any injuries or any...

Okey , Be Honest... How many of you had actually written Wigan Athletic off at the start of the season? I'll put my hands up because I did. By March I thought they were dead and buried. They were bottom of the league and had picked up a measly 20pts from 27 games. This was as a result of a incredibly poor run of form picking up just 4 wins all season. They being beaten heavily every week. Attendances were falling (of whatever attendance they originally had). At this point in the season which Sir Alex Ferguson calls "Squeaky Bum Time". Something had to give. Let's not be too harsh on Wigan. They have been playing some awesome football at times. It really has been their finishing that has let them down. They have had an incredible 401 shots on goal all season. They have only scored 32 goals this season and conceded 58. This comes at an goal scoring average 0.97 goals per match. This is poor seing as they are letting in on average 1...