Mails: Will Jose survive finishing in sixth?

Mails: Will Jose survive finishing in sixth?

Thank you for your patience. Watch Chelsea and mail us at theeditor@football365.com

To next year…
Right, so this season is pretty much done and dusted. The top three are sorted, with just the order of second and third to be decided (I say City for second with an unlucky Spurs third). Relegation is sorted with the current bottom three doomed (Hull unlucky here).

All that is really left is the fourth place trophy (the Europa might prove Utd’s undoing leaving Liverpool and Arsenal to battle it out) and the FA Cups (City to beat Chelsea in the final; Spurs can’t play at Wembley).

Which means eyes must start to turn to next season. We have been blessed this season with six strong clubs with exceptional managers battling at the top. Obviously Chelsea have walked away with it more than was expected but six very good teams nonetheless. I don’t see next season being quite so open or competitive. The way City have started playing over the last few weeks sets the template for next term. They look superb with a front line of youth, pace and guile. Under Pep’s tutelage they have to start next season favourites. However, I see a much more robust defence from Chelsea under Conte. He is a serial winner and the club have steel. Costa’s future needs to be determined but some astute signings and they will be there or thereabouts.

And that is it for me. Spurs will be playing the season at Wembley and their record is terrible there. The boost to visiting clubs will mean it will be like a side playing only away fixtures all year. The standards set by Chelsea and City will mean the slightest slip ups will do a lot of damage and the Wembley factor will be too much. Add to this that Poch might be at Barcelona and times will be tough for Spurs. Liverpool will need major surgery in the summer and will be happy with third or fourth, especially if they get fourth this season and so have a pop at Europe. Arsenal have way too much going on in the summer to have a go next year. Wenger looks likely to go, Sanchez looks likely to go. Ozil could go, Cech isn’t good enough, the midfield isn’t good enough, Giroud isn’t good enough. Any new manager will need patience.

Which leaves Utd. If they finish sixth will Jose survive? Louis van Gaal lost his job for finishing fifth and winning the FA Cup. I have a suspicion that Utd managers have a clause in their contract that they are sacked once they mathematically cannot reach the Champions League. Moyes went four games before the end of the season and LvG 48 hours after the FA Cup final. That said, I think Jose would survive because he has at least made Utd the big story which might be more important these days that winning things…at least for a bit. If he does survive, Utd will sign expensive players, Jose will alienate a couple of them and they will probably finish third. No challenge for the title though.

Relegation? Bournemouth, Brighton and Leeds with Burnley winning the 17th place trophy.

The cups? City for the League Cup, Liverpool for the FA Cup. City to have a real go in Europe, final at least. We could see a return to English teams going deep with Chelsea under Conte to go close also. Utd could win the Europa, unless they win it this year in which case they should expect at least the quarters of the Champions League next season.

By way of context I predicted Bellew in the eleventh on the weekend…
Micki Attridge

Liverpool have a great defender
So Mamadou Sakho..
Played 2
Clean sheets 2

For Crystal Palace! Only two clean sheets all season prior to that.

I’m not saying Big Sam hasn’t helped, I’m just saying hes good, really good…I can’t believe Klopp dropped him out of sight for being late to training. There has to be something much much more.

Hopefully he will come back next season.

Yes I would take Sanchez all day long.

How has no one praised Wijnaldum for his third goal, he starts in his own D when the ball breaks to Lala. Unreal effort to get up to score. Phenomenal!
Al LFC – Ed, Ant I am assuming you would be very happy to keep him?

Here’s Ed and his Palace thoughts
Managed to avoid the school disco this weekend, instead spent the time in the pub reading Dr Seuss stories and nursery rhymes with my son. He is 28 years old.

* This was a fantastic result for Crystal Palace. We are now out of the relegation zone and three points clear, and we were also able to stick two fingers up to Tony Pulis. Perhaps when people next complain about British managers not getting a chance at a top club, maybe it’s because the big clubs have looked at how the likes of Pulis, Harry Redknapp and many others have left smaller clubs in the lurch because the grass appears greener on the other side of the fence.

* Sam Allardyce had the Eagles lined up in a 4-1-4-1, with new cult hero Luka Milivojevic screening the defence, with Yohan Cabaye and Jason Puncheon ahead of him in central midfield. This meant James McArthur once again was unfortunate to miss out, but Allardyce was justified in his selection. Milivojevic has been key in each of the last two games, and has made a good first impression, something he added to on the club website by saying he hadn’t heard of Brighton. Childish, but still amusing.

The starting centre-back partnership was James Tomkins and Mamadou Sakho, meaning Scott Dann was on the bench. This in turn meant the captain’s armband was worn by Puncheon. For all that we in the mailbox have debated the role/influence/nature of captains, there is something for the old school football romantic in someone captaining the side they grew up supporting. Insert joke about Robbie Keane here.

* Wilfried Zaha’s goal was his fifth of the season, to go with six assists. But you just carry on listening to pundits like Alan Shearer who say he’s got no end product. It’s entirely up to you.

Andros Townsend also showed why he can be so valuable with his lung-busting run and goal. I quite liked the MOTD commentator mentioning how he’d signed from Tottenham Hotspur. I could have sworn he played for Newcastle United last season. Of all football’s pleasures, few can match that of seeing a tricky winger turn a defender – especially someone as good as Gareth McAuley – inside out.

* The Eagles have Watford next, in two weeks’ time. Confidence is fickle but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Palace make it three wins in a row.

* Stat of the week: according to Football League Tonight, the last time Aston Villa won three games in a row Martin O’Neill was their manager. See also, the Villans have won 52% of their games when Mile Jedinak starts, and 0% of them when he does not. But you just carry on listening to pundits like Andy Townsend who say he’s poor. It’s entirely up to you.

* I’m probably in the minority but I do feel for Arsene Wenger, damned because he did, as he would have been damned if he didn’t. At least by punishing Alexis Sanchez he has shown that even the team’s best player is not beyond reproach. Also, Liverpool were coming off a fairly rocky run, and it was the perfect opportunity for the Arsenal’s underwhelming players to prove everyone wrong. That they instead proved everyone right can only be partially the manager’s fault.

* Micki Attridge highlighted the hit and miss nature of Channel 5’s Football League pundits. They do well in mixing regulars and guests, some of whom are likely making their first appearance on TV – as befits a show celebrating some of football’s lesser lights, they look beyond the obvious choices for punditry too. Owen Coyle’s appearance was a delightful bit of opportunism, as two of his former clubs were playing each other, but I didn’t think what he said was particularly interesting. Earlier this season Lee Johnson’s opinion of every team was “they’ve got some good players”, and Nathan Jones, of Luton Town, was nervous but good value on being a lower league manager linked to a high profile job. Everyone has to start somewhere, and it seems like George & Lindsey do a lot to help the newer pundits find their feet.

Elsewhere on the show, last week I mentioned a reporter referring to “Cov”; this week, someone referred to the red half of Sheffield as “Sheff U”. I can honestly say that I’ve never heard this before – I work with a United fan and his preferred familiar term is “the Blades”, he’s never said he supports “Sheff U”.

* Following Zweigen Kanazawa last week, Huddersfield Town this week provided an example of the best thing that happens regularly in lower-league football: a goalkeeper flying out of his area and failing to control the ball, presenting the opposition with an easy tap-in. Shouldn’t be funny, but somehow is.

* The polar opposite of that is the new advert for the Football Pools, in which John Barnes lipsyncs along to a reworked version of Vindaloo. It’s a crime against music, television, football, humanity, and all five senses.
Ed Quoththeraven

A Bournemouth perspective
I’ve missed the last six games and I’m told it was pretty mediocre. But notwithstanding all the Mings/Zlatan furore there is no doubt Saturday was one of the best performances of the season. Interesting that this should happen without Wilshere in the team too.

Perhaps the Surman red (expertly refereed by Rooney) acted as a bit of a focus at half time because although it was level at the time, Bournemouth had still been very open at the back, and had they continued like that would surely have lost. Second half was much more composed and organised defensively, easily Mings’ best performance. He was actually better than Cook I thought. Daniels too had his best game for a long time – maybe even since last season, and Gosling’s contribution in the second half cannot be overstated. Boruc is really divisive amongst the fans, despite the stats sometimes he can be fantastic shot-stopper as this game showed – same at Chelsea last season. But it is his distribution and handling of crosses which lets him down, neither of which were a big deal in this one.

For once the atmosphere in the away end was really good. There have been grumbles almost all season, but this time there was nothing but positivity about the team, really enjoyed it despite the 4.30am departure. I do agree with Johnny Nic about the abuse of referees. TV analysis and Twitter trolling is one thing, but even in the grounds it can be pretty nasty. Probably no more than one a handful of people in the ground clearly saw either of the controversial incidents (I didn’t), and obviously had no TV replay, yet the chanting from both sets of supporters was pretty crude. I was as guilty as anyone else, and having been a referee I know what it feels like to get that sort of abuse. My father-in-law made a fair point on the coach home though – if you’re there to support your team, especially in a hostile environment, it doesn’t really matter if you don’t believe what you’re singing, as long as the players on the pitch can hear you are behind them. Hopefully that togetherness is a turning point for the run-in.
Andy J

Sanchez to…Man City
Sorry to disappoint all the Liverpool fans and Arsenal fans.

If Sanchez leaves Arsenal and stays in the Premier League, there is only one place he is going.

To City to be reunited with Uncle Pep!

I remember when he signed for Arsenal thinking, but don’t you want to win the league?
DANNY B – MCR – MCFC

…or Chelsea
So Cowlick wanted Liverpool to make a cheeky bid for Sanchez, fair enough. However, as a Chelsea fan I think we should be looking at him as a top priority. You’d hope a move to Chelsea would be attractive to Sanchez as he wouldn’t have to uproot himself if he has settled in London, gets a chance to work with Conte, opportunity to win titles and progress in the Champions League and to play with some top quality players.

From Chelsea’s perspective, can you imagine a front three of Costa, Hazard, Sanchez? Now THAT is a fantasy football player’s wet dream. In reality though, there’s doubts as to whether Costa will be here next year, and I do worry Eden might be playing well to push for his move to Real after downing tools last season. If either of them leave, we’ll get silly money, and there’s not many that could replace Costa or Hazard but Alexis is certainly one of them.
Jimmy (Sorry Jakeyboy) Sham

Just watch Theo…
In response to Stew – or rather in addition, has anyone watched how Mr. Potential Theo Walcott plays? Well I have taken special interest in him and I can tell you his style of play and attitude does not inspire confidence or hope – it sums up what our problem is. We play like we are under no pressure at all. Severally I have watched him make a stupid decision with the ball and not even appear to feel anything about it or even turn to apologize to Giroud or Sanchez who was expecting a cross. He and a couple other guys in the team are just not turning up, they lack passion and the bite. We are bullied and we hardly win any challenges. Just by his attitude you can almost tell that he knows he will not be held accountable for it or, even if he will, it will really not have any consequences.

I think it is this kind of behavior that pisses Sanchez off. Severally I have seen him throw hands in frustration because of his team mates not pressing opponent players when we do not have possession. This is not to say he is right every time but most of the time, in those situations, I have always thought we can force the opponents into making mistakes. Sanchez himself has shown it pays. See AFC Vs Chelsea.

Of course I would not blame Theo for our loss at Liverpool because he came on at about the 74th min – and even if he had started I would not blame him because I do not have any expectations on him – this is an observation I have made throughout the season. And now I think it is about time both England and Arsenal fans admitted that Theo is not getting any better. Chamberlain too. When you are turning 28 and you are not showing any signs of ever mastering the basic art of beating a defender, I think people would be forgiven for thinking you would have been better of in athletics – competing against fellow runners.

Unless, of course, if the problem is the manager. Victor Moses was once a player who could not start for Chelsea but look at him now!
Joram Kioko, AFC, Nairobi, Kenya – (a two-season coach of Ngong Fantasy FC hence the experience to make these kinds of observations!)

Perspective please
Morning! Some hopefully coherent thoughts on another disappointing week for Arsenal. Even more predictable than Arsenal’s poor performance on Saturday was the reaction of the fans and media.

I have the hope of restoring a bit of perspective and stopping the internal poisoning from Arsenal fans.

It was a disappointing loss, no doubt. But should Arsene be the focus of frustrations? Can you actually hold him responsible for the abysmal performance of the whole back line in the first half? No one would have been more disappointed than Arsene himself with the two cheap goals we conceded given that vastly experienced and competent defensive line up.

People have clamoured for years for a plan B. Here it was, success or not, but because it didn’t work the decision is derided. Criticisism for dropping Sanchez? The revelations of the follow day show just how little we know about what’s going on day to day, and that the decision was arguably justified.

You can criticise Coquelin all you like, but it wasn’t that long ago that he was a revelation. He’s in poor form, and there’s a lot more that the fans can do to help that than the manager – more on that in a bit. Arsene went balls-out to address central midfield and brought in Xhaka. Yes, he hasn’t been amazing, but can we please remember this is his first season in England in a new team. When I compare him to some bloke who is returning to his former club, has no settling in required, and who cost a world record ~2.5 times as much a Granit, I don’t think he’s looking too shabby.

I think the fans need to take a long hard look at how they’re acting now. I believe the message has been sent and received. Sadly, I think this will be Wenger’s last season, and I am just about accepting that, change could be interesting and could be good. Arsene deserves a lot more respect than he’s getting from fans and media. What the fans seem to have forgotten is they are the 12th man, we affect the players performance and confidence, we create the positive and the negative atmosphere. What will be will be but unless there is a change in attitude back to supporting the team in whatever guise, each and every whining negative fickle think-they-know-better fab needs to shoulder as much blame for any failure as the players and the manager. If I was a fan of another team I would be laughing my arse off at how the fan base are fueling the rot.

So where does it leave us. Well it leaves us exactly where we were before… Right in the chasing pack! All this drama, and we are still, assuming we were to win our game in hand, three points off second. All this hate, and we’re STILL in the mixer with Perfect Pep, Magic Mourinho, Prince Pochettino and King Klopp. And we’re still in the FA Cup with fixtures going our way in that competition. Losses happen, bad form happens. A little perspective goes a long way.

To end, I won’t accept anyone claiming my views to be unambitious or settling for perennial runners up, I’m just being realistic. There are four trophies to win, along with qualification to European competition. Arsenal have always been challenging for all cups as well as getting into Europe, and have continued to this season. What we’ve seen over the last few years that the majority of the time the league is won by a team who significantly outstrips the rest, unfortunately that team hasn’t been Arsenal, and maybe that warrants a change in staff, maybe Arsene and co deserve maximum credit for keeping us as contenders and giving us a chance where others have yo-yo’d. Winning isn’t as simple as wanting it to be so.
David, Arsenal, can we all just be a little more constructive please?

Is there anybody left who believes in progress under Wenger?
There’s something that Wenger said in an interview with BT at the weekend that really bothered me. He actually said he wanted to take the club to the next level of winning the league and the Champions League.

Now, sure we have won the league three times under Wenger and have been to a Champions League final but does anyone seriously think we have it in us to win another league and actually get our hands on the European Cup?

I completely lost faith in Wenger after the Watford defeat in the cup last season – now nothing surprises me about Arsenal – even dropping your best player.

Can someone that has faith in the manager please explain to me how we’re going to turn this sh*t show around?

It’s a genuine question – I really want to believe in Arsene and Arsenal again and if the remit is fourth and the odd cup then fine, but taking us to the next level? does Wenger actually believe this?

Tomorrow’s protest pre Bayern will probably be very well attended. While I think it’s really sad that our fans have to go to these measures but the manager really isn’t getting it.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

Indeed
Remember on the Simpsons when Mr Burns blocked out the sun so that no one could see it?

BT Sport just paid £1.2bn for no one to watch Champions League football until 2021.
Thom, Newport

Football monopoly rules
I’ve seen this morning that BT have retained the rights to the Champions League and Europa League through to the 20/21 season, paying £1.2bn for the privilege. This comes as a slight surprise after the rumours that UEFA were upset with viewing figures, but, as we should all know by now, money will win out in the end.

I am personally in two minds as to BT’s coverage. I find their matchday coverage generally disappointing, with only a handful of pundits worth listening to. On the other hand, as noted regularly by your own John Nicholson, the Goals Show is excellent and was a genuinely new and exciting idea in an area that had been more or less devoid of them for years.

However, there is no doubt that the consumer has been getting a raw financial deal for several years now. Ever since The European Commission insisted that Sky not be allowed a monopoly on TV rights, consumers have been forced to pay more for essentially the same amount of coverage. (I believe it was the European Commission that insisted upon this – happy to be corrected if wrong.) By my estimation you’re looking at around £70 a month to watch as many PL, CL and EL games as legally possible in the UK (excluding offers for new customers and broadband etc.), which is a hell of a lot.

Whilst anti-monopoly logic works in theory – preventing Sky from arbitrarily inflating their prices and forcing them to continually innovate – in practice it has just led to the consumer being shafted. No one expected Sky to lower their prices when they lost packages, and so it has proven.

It is clear that football broadcasting laws need an overhaul. The experimentation with competition has benefitted no one other than the clubs lining their pockets, and consumers have consistently lost out (as have pubs showing games, which was excellently illustrated in your recent article on the matter). With the advent of Brexit, the ability to change all of this will be in the hands of the UK government. Here is what I propose they do:

– Insist that all football in the UK be split between free-to-air providers and a maximum of one paid provider (likely Sky).

– Insist that the Champions League rights revert to the old system of a free-to-air provider having one game per matchday. Keep the FA Cup rights as they are.

– Abandon the 3pm rule – it simply doesn’t work anymore. If my beloved Manchester United aren’t on TV, do I go to a local non-league game? No, of course not. We all know I still watch United on my laptop. Let providers show every game in English football should they wish.

In response to this, providers could do several things:

– Create a ‘CL Goals Show’ for the Premier League. Personally, if Sky had the rights, I’d nick most of the current Goals Show pundits and have them do it. Jeff Stelling can host the PL one, and James Richardson can host the CL one. Lovely.

– Create an online ‘Premier League Pass’, much like the NBA pass in the USA, whereby you pay a monthly/annual fee and can stream any PL game at any time. Maybe they can offer a ‘Football pass’ that could be customised – pay extra for all La Liga, Championship, Serie A etc.

– Have a ‘vault’ of old matches accessible online. The WWE have done this with wrestling, allowing their fans to stream any old match from about 30 years’ worth of coverage. Countless hours of content available. Whoever has the rights for old matches could do this, allowing instant nostalgia whenever you want. Add it into the football pass I discussed.

What are everyone’s thoughts? I am very curious to see if people agree with me that actually, a monopoly (with some matches on Freeview) is best in this scenario.
Rustin Cohle

…Back in January, I was summoned to my grandparents. Their BT price had increased for the second time in 12 months, and they were now faced with a £52 bill per month for normal internet and unlimited calls. My job, find a better deal which I quickly did (talk talk – £25 a month). BT responded with their usual gaff where they’d have to pay to leave (they didn’t) and they would lose BT Sport 1 (not bothered), ultimately this resulted in a ‘market-beating’ offer of £37 a month. I actually started laughing and politely told them to do one.

Now today I read that BT have agreed to pay £1.18 billion to extend their Champions League rights, a 30% increase on the last deal. It is quite clear who is paying for this, the ordinary customer, who despite their loyalty and refusal to change suppliers are being fleeced. Viewing figures for Champions League games have plummeted, yet BT remain joyous as their masterplan has obviously worked driving up broadband sales and ultimately revenue. However, there is a major flaw in this approach. Champions league matches have been used to attract customers to more expensive fibre optic packages (I wonder what people can do with fast internet?). Speaking to a group of retired gentlemen in the pub during the Liverpool v. Arsenal match, it was very interesting to hear that they were all streaming matches. One gripe was the buffering, however, fibre optic is set to be rolled out in the area so this issue should quickly disappear.

This highlights the perilous world English football has now entered, too dependent on TV money which in turn is dependent on the fans’ willingness to be fleeced. English football bubble is booming but a fan rebellion against the greed of Murdoch and BT has already begun, the question is when will this bubble go bust?
Rhys Jones

The Champions League is dead to me
With BT securing the rights to the Champions League for the next few years (along with their third price hike for customers within 18 months to foot the bill), that is literally the tournament dead to me. Purely because I can’t watch it.

Great.
Andy Wilson

Give referees a break
Agree with Johnny Nic’s article about the amount of criticism that the refs get – I was thinking similar for the penalty that Burnley got on Saturday and the pundits were saying how it was so blatantly obvious it was a Burnley player who handled it, not a Swansea player, yet that was only after they had the benefit of numerous replays to show how blatantly obvious it was. How many of them at real time on first viewing were as confident? When I saw it on MotD, my initial reaction was that it was a penalty.

As well as the suggestion that refs should all criticise the pundits’ performances, another suggestion should be for players to be the refs at SoccerAid or other friendly matches, and then have referees as the pundits picking apart all the decisions they made, so that they can get an understanding of how difficult it is. However, given that they used to be professional footballers and some of them still seem to be unaware of how easy it is for players to not be perfect every single game, I don’t hold out much hope it would change their tune for very long. Being a pundit is generally all about being the master of pointing out faults in hindsight.
Don L. Renegade

…Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes and yes. All of that.

Finally, yes.

John Nic has hit the nail right there on its head, with his piece on treatment of referees. Everything I have been bleating on about for years…

This is my biggest gripe about the ‘beautifully ugly’ game.

People seem to forget (or never realised) – referees ‘give what they see’. Nothing more nothing less. That’s what we ask of them.

The day a referee ‘gives something’ he didn’t see, or doesn’t ‘give something’ he did see, because someone screaming obscenities in his face tells him to, is the day we can all pack up and go home.

And how any manager stood in front of a camera has the audacity to criticise a referee for making so-called ‘mistakes’, when all eleven of his players have just spent 90 minutes trying to trick the poor guy into making as many mistakes as possible is.. well.. I have no words. Luckily John Nic does.

They even try to claim every single throw-in as their own! They do this one on autopilot…both opposing players with an arm aloft, as the ball crosses the line. I mean, really??

It is not the most thankless job in football. It is possibly the most thankless job in the world.

Of course nothing will ever change, because nothing ever does. Because money.
Sean (not ever criticising refs, since 1971), UK

Blaming lazy punditry
I think John Nicholson’s article regarding the criticism referees was a great read, but I think lazy punditry plays an even more important part in this constant shaming of referees. The reality is, most punditry and newspaper football coverage is poor (there are, of course, always exceptions to this). Watch Match of the Day, Sunday Supplement, read the newspapers (or, even worse, their online articles), and there is very little tactical analysis. They focus on this, because it doesn’t require any research, and is, on the face of it, difficult to dispute with absolute conviction. Rather than analyse the performance and tactics of the two teams playing, instead they berate a referee decision, say that it changed the outcome of the game, and so any actual discussion of the rest of the match becomes obsolete. It’s an easy way out – as refereeing decisions are frequently shown to be really bloody difficult to call, and even with the benefit of multiple replays, the pundits disagree with each other, they are able eat up the allotted air time, no one can say with absolutely certainty who is right and wrong, and so the pundits get away with whatever opinion they might have on the incident.

The same is true of most of the writers who show up on Sunday Supplement – I have no idea how much football they watch, but they are meant to talk about all the Premier League football from the day before. Rather than watch the matches to engage in a detailed debate about the game, they can bring up 3-4 key incidents (again, the easy thing is to focus on referee decisions) as this will require them to watch probably one minute of footage, and all of them generally can be discussed without context, as referee decisions are dissected as isolated incidents.

Referees get a hard time because they are an easy avenue for lazy football writers and pundits to appear knowledgeable whilst putting in the least amount of effort into obtaining that knowledge. Guardiola called them out on this laziness when he questioned the Premier League’s tagline of being the most intense league in the world – how can you know that when you never watch anything other than the Premier League?

I don’t know if it’s not the done thing to talk about other football content on here, but there is a great chapter in the Football Ramble book regarding referees where there is a really strong case as to how good referees are for the most part, and how incredibly difficult their job is.

Sorry if my point became lost in this, but I’ve written in before regarding the standard of football coverage in this country (this website clearly not included my criticism), and I think JN’s article was another case in point.
Martin, Brighton