Tag: football

Leicester City are the Barclays Premier League Champions of 2015/2016, but who will do it next season?

We all wanted it to happen (except Spurs fans) and it did. Leicester City went on to win the Premier League and what a fantastic achievement it is for them. No one saw this coming, even when Leicester were sitting at the top of the league, batting off all the ‘elite’ teams of English football. Everyone (myself included) was saying that they would drop off as the season went on. If anything though, they got stronger, they were ferocious and they were united.

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Well, well, well, we all wanted it to happen (except Spurs fans) and it did. Leicester City went on to win the Premier League and what a fantastic achievement it is for them. No one saw this coming, even when Leicester were sitting at the top of the league, batting off all the ‘elite’ teams of English football. Everyone (myself included) was saying that they would drop off as the season went on. If anything though, they got stronger, they were ferocious and they were united.

leicester

The outsiders prevail
They were 5,000-1 outsiders at the beginning of the season, but as time went on, everyone began to see the potential of Leicester – not once did they drop below sixth place in the league, and it’s fair to say, they spent a large proportion of the season in those top 3 places.

Money doesn’t make you happy
I think this is fantastic for football. For too long now football has been about money and who’s spending the most. The surge of Manchester City was down to the money they received from a takeover – they were able to buy football’s biggest talents, which pretty much secured them two league titles. Before them it was Chelsea, and recently Manchester United and Arsenal have joined the brigade by spending big money on players.

Just take a moment to look at Leicester City, the cost of the champions’ squad is around £54 million, compare that to the two Manchester clubs who are around £400 million. Leicester’s costs are similar to Crystal Palace, Watford, Stoke and West Brom. Although £54 million is a lot of money, in the world of football, it isn’t.

money

Deserved league champions based on the game itself
We can all be happy that Leicester won the league and no one can really have any complaints. Yes Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd underperformed this season, but that doesn’t take anything away from the fact that Leicester’s team has a good goalkeeper, a sturdy defence, an unbelievably hard working midfield and deadly finishers up front – making an all round quality team.

Who to watch for the title next season?
It seems pretty pointless trying to make any predictions for next season, but could Leicester City win the title again? Who knows, if they keep their team together and strengthen, then why not? They may be playing in the Champions League – therefore more games, but if they get more numbers in, they will be able to deal with the increase of games. They have to be a team to watch for sure.

Tottenham
Spurs have had a good season. They took some time to really be considered as title challengers but once they found their form, they seemed impossible to stop. The continued form of Kane and the discovery of Dele Alli gave all Spurs fans something to get excited about. Spurs though are not a two man team, their entire team is full of talent. Again, if they can keep the team together and strengthen, then I see Tottenham as major contenders next season. If I was a betting man, I’d certainly put a bet on Tottenham to go on to win the Premier League next season. That hurt writing that, being an Arsenal fan!

spurskanealli

Arsenal
Oh Arsenal, I do love you but my word, you do infuriate me. This season was the season for Arsenal. With the collapse of Chelsea and Mourinho, the uncertainty of Pellegrini’s future and the continued lack of unity at Manchester United with Van Gaal, the title was Arsenal’s for the taking. Wenger had been patient – developing a team, buying quality players (Petr Cech, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil come to mind) and now finally looking set to challenge. It fell apart. Again. From my point of view, there seemed to be a lack of passion on the pitch, clumsiness in defence, no ability to finish chances (from Giroud mostly, but he’s not entirely to blame) or games, and this then followed what seems to be tradition… The collapse of Arsenal after January.

1280px-Arsène_Wenger_statue

There’s a lot to talk about at Arsenal, but can they win the title next year? No, not with this team. There needs to be improvements (defensively and up front mostly) and there may have to be departures but even then, it may take a season for everyone to gel together. I wouldn’t personally bet on Arsenal, but who knows, maybe they’ll surprise us.

Manchester City
There’s no doubt that Manchester City have the strongest team on paper in the league, but their form this season has been extremely unpredictable, much like the British weather. But why? Their performances at times have been dull and careless, but with this team, they should have been doing much better than competing for a top 4 finish.

They recently lost to Southampton 4-2 at St. Mary’s, but with a slightly rotated team in preparation for their big Champions League clash, we can see why their minds were elsewhere. But earlier in the season, they lost games that they should have fought harder in and tried to pick up any sort of point. Some include their loss at home to West Ham in September, their thrashing from Spurs 4-1, which was followed by their second thrashing from Liverpool, then losses to Stoke and Arsenal, then the second defeat to Spurs and of course not forgetting, the champions Leicester beating them at the Etihad – one of the shocks of the season.

pellegrini

Pellegrini is only worried about one thing, and that’s the Champions League. With Guardiola taking over next season, Pellegrini probably isn’t as fussed about where they finish in the league as he is about securing the Champions League. Having got further than they ever have in the competition, could this be their year in Europe?

Could they win the league next season? It’s a tough one again to predict, with a new manager, there could be teething problems. Yes, Pep has a great record of success at clubs, but this City team may need more work than in his previous jobs. They’re still in contention though I believe, but it does depend on how quick he can get in there and make the changes.

Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and West Ham
I’ve decided to put these teams all in one group, simply because I think that they easily have potential to challenge but again, depends on a number of factors.

Manchester United haven’t done too bad considering. They’ve had some awful results this season and really looked shambolic in games, but Van Gaal has got them into the FA Cup final and they could still finish in the top 4. With rumours swirling that Mourinho will take over at Old Trafford, I don’t think that even he will get them playing well in one season. Man Utd need years of work and most definitely need new players and new tactics.

Chelsea are the same, they have a great team on paper but on the field have looked terrible. From being deadly in attack and impenetrable at the back one season, to being clueless in attack and easy to break through defensively, Chelsea have dropped significantly. They will take some lifting to get back into title challenge mode and again, it’s hard to predict anything with such significant changes at a club. Antonio Conte has his work cut out, but I believe we should see them rise again next season; challenging for a top 4 finish.

antonioconte

Liverpool are a funny team, they go from looking poor to being an all round impressive team. They thrashed Man City twice this season, drew with Arsenal twice, beat Chelsea, even beat Leicester and beat Dortmund in that amazing comeback, but then they lose to Swansea City 3-1. Liverpool’s problem is their defence, but if they can get some strength in that back line, I don’t see why they can’t challenge for a top 4 finish next season. Title challengers though? I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t disregard them just yet, Klopp is doing a good job.

And finally, I’d like to throw West Ham into the mix; they have had a great season. They started the season extremely well, shocking Arsenal at The Emirates, Liverpool at Anfield and then City at the Etihad. If only West Ham could have kept up those performances consistently throughout the season, then we could have seen them challenging Leicester and Spurs. Are West Ham title contenders for next season? Why not, no one predicted Leicester for this season, so I wouldn’t rule West Ham out.

westhamstadium

Will the big clubs be stronger next season?
Surely the top teams will be stronger next season. They will all strengthen significantly and I’m sure their teams will all look hungry in pre-season. But, with so many changes happening with the big teams, could it mean another shock Premier League triumph? I wouldn’t be surprised (well, I kind of would but you get what I mean) if Leicester, Spurs and West Ham all challenge, or maybe another team will? I know what we can expect – more action, unpredictability and shocks!

premier league

Roll on next season!

Copyright © 2016 T. J. Blake
All rights reserved. 

The End of the World Cup!

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Last night was the last match of the World Cup.

We all watched the finalists Germany and Argentina battle it out to win the biggest competition in the world!
The game was close, going beyond the standard ninety minutes, and into extra time, where the winning goal came just seven minutes from Penalties. Mario Gotze scored a great goal to seal the game for Germany.

Although the game was even, Germany deserved the win having been the strongest team in the competition. Their highlight of the competition of course will be beating the hosts 7-1 (which instantly made them favourites).

Overall the game was close, both teams cancelled each other out making it difficult to create too many chances, but when Germany got their biggest chance through Gotze, he made no mistake and put it into the back of the net in style.

So the Germans are the World Champions of football and that signals the end of the World Cup for another four years!

WC2014: So close yet so far

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Thursday night England were beaten by Uruguay in the World Cup group stage, dashing everyones hopes of qualifying for the next round. We needed two Italy wins to have a chance but Costa Rica knocked us out with a 1-0 win over the Italians.
Hodgson played an England side that were tamed by Italy 2-1 in the first game. This team was then easily dismantled by Suarez, scoring two goals in the game. A wasteful Rooney missed big chances and apart from that there weren’t many chances for England.

Whispers are that the England team to face Costa Rica is a different side, which I believe we needed in the Uruguay match so we will see how they do.

But the point of this blog post is actually for my bet I placed last night. Algeria and USA to win. There were great odds, so I put just £1 on them both to win, with a return of around £80. Of course I was annoyed with the later match… Algeria won 4-2 but USA came so close to upsetting Portugal… in fact they were winning 2-1 before the Portuguese equalised in the 95th minute – Typical, I lost my bet.

Enjoying the 2014 World Cup? My England Team Line-up would be…

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The World Cup has begun and football has been played everyday, 3 times a day for nearly a week, and it’s been a great.

Surprise surprise England lost their first game, and a huge shock (no sarcasm here) Spain lost. In fact they got absolutely torn apart by a fantastic Dutch side – Thanks to Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie, Spain did not know what to do to prevent them from scoring. Admittedly it could have been a lot worse for Spain, 5 goals conceded was the least they got away with.

Brazil have surprisingly been pretty dull as well as Argentina (even after that Messi screamer). But my favourites Germany looked strong in their first match against Ronaldo, I mean Portugal…

Focusing my attention to England, I believe that Hodgson is failing to use his biggest talents. This England team actually does have a lot of potential, they actually looked decent against Italy but I just feel that Hodgson is too scared of shunning the likes of Rooney out of the team.
I think the England defence is weak and to be honest I’m not sure how I would improve it, although I wouldn’t have called Luke Shaw up to the team and instead called up Kieran Gibbs, I think the other choices were probably justified. The midfield is decent, although my starting line up would consist of starting either Gerrard or Henderson, and partnering the starter with either Wilshere, Lallana or Barkley with Sterling and Ox on the wings supporting front man Sturridge. That’s my opinion anyway…

So if you’re watching the World Cup then feel free to express your opinion on this post and tell me your starting England line up if you were Hodgson.

Arsenal snatch 4th in the Premier League, but what’s next for the Gunners? This is my view of the Arsenal team and manager Arsene Wenger

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Arsenal snatch 4th in the Premier League, but what’s next for the Gunners? This is my view of the Arsenal team and manager Arsene Wenger

This is another article written by me, this time it is my view of Arsenal, the team and manager Arsene Wenger. 

An article I wrote for A-level on the language of Football commentators

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This was an excercise that I did back in the old days (well about two years ago) at college. The task was to write an article on something to do with language. So I chose what I’m passionate about… Football! I found it earlier, and thought I’d just put it on here 🙂 This article of mine is about Soccer for any of you American readers.

FOOTBALL COMMENTARIES: ‘A GAME OF TWO HALVES’?

Should we be worried about the Language adopted by the most famous and recognisable football commentators on well-known broadcasting channels?

 

People all over the world listen to football commentaries and all types of individuals, classes, gender or age. Football is a dominant sport world wide, adored and worshipped by die hard football fans. If football is such an influential sport then should the language set an example to football fans, or indeed set an excellent example to other countries of our language?

There are some that say that in public life and in the media, there are standards to maintain. In the case of the ‘Linguistic Police’, the subject of the language of which commentators decide to use is a massive problem. They detest sentence structure which is ‘poor’ in their view and clichés are infuriating to many audiences.

An example of the atrocious sentence structure is from the historic Manchester United 8-2 Arsenal match, the commentator on BBC Radio Live 5 (whose identity will be hidden for his own safety) decided to say “Down the left side” which is a rule breaker in the English Language bible. When a sentence is structured, especially in describing something, most simple sentences must include a Subject, Object and a Verb. In the example of the offender above, he uses a preposition ‘Down’, ‘The’ being the definite article and ‘left side’ is an adjective. From a linguists point of view this is outrageous, they would ask “Where is the Verb!?” Don’t be silly, we don’t need the Verb in this context.  Maybe in his spare time this culprit revises the English Language bible, but it just evaporates when he’s under pressure speaking to millions of people and needs to keep up with the game in real time to inform us the audience about what is happening.

We are all aware that the fashion for football commentators is their use of clichés. Many people get irritated by the clichés used by commentators. Admittedly, some are very irritating for example ‘On paper…’ Possibly one of the most recognised and most heard cliché. I personally dislike the use of it. It was used frequently by Mr Andy Gray and I find it very biased. Football is about what happens on the pitch, not on ‘paper’. There is no contribution to trying to make the game more exciting because surely that is one of the main jobs for a football commentator? Tension builds and excitement rises when the game is about to begin and then the cliché is used and then you feel as if the game has been decided and is too predictable… Thanks Andy.  ‘That’s a great cross but no one was there.’ Is another cliché that annoys people. If a ‘crosser’ has crossed a ball then surely it’s his job to pick out a player? This just seems discriminating to any player attempting to get to the ball, you assume there is no error from the crosser which there obviously is if no one receives the ball.

So should there be some kind of guidance for our Football Commentators? Well, I’m going to propose some techniques that I believe to be of great importance when commentating. This will be based on the professionals and what we want to hear, not what the ‘Lovers of the English Language’ aka The Language Police see as important.

 ‘TERMS AND CONDITIONS’ of being a professional football commentator

1. You MUST know the footballing terms, Such as Specialised Language ‘Penalty-Area’, the overused clichés in football ‘A game of two halves’ and learn common words used in football, some being Curl and Foul.

2. You as the commentator SHOULD exaggerate everything. You have to shout non stop and get over excited to make the part of the game you’re speaking about seem like it’s one of the most amazing sights you have ever seen and experienced.

3. You MUST know the names of football teams, stadiums and more importantly the players, Such as ‘Arsenal’, ‘The Emirates’ and ‘Van Persie’. Depending what the player has done you only use their full name if they score.

Some DO NOTS.

4. You MUST not use highly intellectual language. You are describing football to all types of people, different educated ability audience.

5. Your voice MUST not be Monotone. You MUST vary in pitch, High and Loud at times to show your admiration. After all, no one wants to listen to someone lacking passion and sounding like a robot.

*Terms and Conditions Apply

So, let’s put all the right and wrongs aside and focus on the game. The main focus of football commentaries is the football being played. No-body is bothered about how the commentator sounds or how the commentator speaks. We want to hear what is happening in the game, we aren’t concentrating on the language of which the commentator decides to use. Football is a sport for anybody in the world and I for one do not care about the language. At the time I’m listening to the sport I love, I have too much thought about the game.

Nobody cares whether a commentator squeals excitedly down the microphone like a little boy receiving his first bicycle, Nor whether they elongate some words or even the fact that commentators don’t use the correct sentence structure.

Football Commentaries has two sides to the argument on language used or should I say ‘A game of two halves’. There needn’t be two halves to the dispute when the language isn’t important, the football is.

By T. J. Blake