Derby day

Nottingham Forest VS Derby County 28th September 2013

It was a sunny Saturday morning in the East midlands as I made my way over the Trent Bridge. I looked across at a tranquil scene. Families were relaxing on the river’s edge and rowers took to the water for their morning workout. The city ground provided the backdrop for the oil painting, and already the prominence of red shirts was evident as the anticipation began to grow for what is the biggest fixture of the season for the two largest clubs in the East Midlands

Fast forward two hours and the scene had changed. The sun still shone over the city ground but the families had disappeared and the empty pubs were filled with passionate supporters creating a carnival atmosphere. If anyone in this city had been living under a rock, they would know that derby day had arrived by the chants that echoed through the city and into their homes. As the white shirts poured in, the chants grew louder and it seemed the match was just a by-product of the rivalry between the two clubs. The centrepiece was the atmosphere surrounding it, and bragging rights belonged to the fans that created the most.

As the stadium filled, anticipation for the battle about to commence on the pitch started to dawn. Both sets of fans reminded the other of their past victories. Terrace banter was exchanged and both ends were deafening to be in as they tried to out do one another’s war cries. Inflatables were batted from spectator to spectator and fans bounced around in excitement for kick off. Here were two fallen giants. Both had found major success through one man, winning league titles and European cups. Both now earned their crust in the second tier of English football. Forest were unbeaten at home and Derby had the best away record in the league. How this one would pan out would be anyone’s guess.

In actual fact the game panned out as most derby games do. A close encounter with neither team wanting to lose. The odd tussle on the pitch and very little in it. Derby were the team who won the stats for possession in the first period but in truth never really threatened. Neither side could create a clear cut chance until Forest went ahead just before half time. Hobbs made a timely run to reach Andy Reid’s corner and nodded into the back of the net to send Billy Davis’ team down the tunnel as the happier.

After the break, Derby failed to apply enough pressure to Forest to ask any questions of their rivals. On 78minutes, Richard Keogh left referee Simon Hooper with no choice other than to award him with an early bath as he brought down Chris Cohen inside the box and picked up his second yellow card. However, Lee Grant gave the Rams fans something to cheer about as he got down low to his right to palm away Darius Henderson’s penalty.

What followed was actually Derby’s best spell of the game. Somehow a light bulb seemed to go off in the players’ minds that now they actually needed to pull together and do something to prevent them from losing this game. You could see the 2000 away supporters asking why it took a dismissal this to get their side to play, but they got behind the team nonetheless. Sammon had the best chance in the closing stages to level the scoring but even 5minutes of added time and a number of free kicks awarded in the last 15minutes of the match was not enough to allow Derby to get level.

The teams were applauded off by both sets of fans, but in this match there would only be one winner. The Brian Clough trophy found a new home in Nottingham and we later found that Nigel Clough would be left searching for one. A man who had been in charge for almost 5 years was sacked on the back of the defeat, much to the shock of the Derby faithful. The ninety minutes saw two evenly balanced teams walk out to different fortunes. Forest reside within the top six and look strong enough to push on and make a serious bid for promotion this season. Derby gut their management and backroom staff in an attempt make major changes. Whether this will prove to be a shrewd or stupid move remains to be seen.

Match Report: Southampton 0-0 West Ham

Neither team managed to break the deadlock as the sides cancelled each other out in a moral win for both sets of defenders.

West Ham was without record signing Andy Carroll, as the forward picked up an injury in training. As a result, Maiga got the nod upfront alone for the visitors. Lambert returned to Southampton after his England adventure, where both teams would attempt to separate themselves having gone into the game equal on four points.

The opening period was cagey as we would expect with the knowledge that both teams were coming into the game on the back of a 1-0 loss. West Ham had the first real opening in the sixth minute, where Diame received the ball back from his cross and fired at the Southampton goal to win his team only a corner.

The best chance of the half came early on as Rodriguez pulled the ball back to Osvaldo, who found himself unmarked around 12yards out. He rifled his shot hard and low at Jaaskelainen who did well to block the ball and keep the scores even. Osvaldo should have done better with the goalkeeper already being committed in direction, and Southampton will be hoping for a greater display of quality in the coming weeks from their £17million signing from Roma.

West Ham had good cause to feel harshly done by on the half hour mark as they put the ball into the back of the Southampton net. Jarvis was played through from a nodded goal kick and Boruc was quickly off of his line to make a challenge. The ball fell for Nolan who lobbed the ball into the back of the empty net. The flag was up for offside against Jarvis, but on second look West Ham were on the wrong side of a very tight error from the assistant.

A dull forty five minutes even seemed to demotivate some of the players as Wanyama rocked up late for the second half and Southampton were forced to restart with ten men. He was quickly readmitted to the field as Southampton applied some early pressure. A shot from Wanyama was palmed away by Jaaskelainen to hand Southampton a corner. The ball was whipped in low towards Lambert, who did well to get his head on it, but was narrowly denied by the woodwork.

Schneiderlin gave a display of his athletic abilities on the hour mark as his bicycle kick was saved by Jaaskelainen. He then had a good attempt six minutes later as he hit a half volley to really test the West Ham goalkeeper. However, any questions of the keeper were answered as he pulled off a fine save and again kept the sides equal going into the final twenty minutes.

Ward-Prowse put in two good deliveries from free kicks deep into the second half to show that Southampton have options on the bench. Both set pieces were curling toward the attacking side but escaped the touch that was needed to open the scoring, much to the despair of the majority of the St Marys crowd.

West Ham then thought that they had finally created the chance that they needed to steal the match on eighty three minutes. The ball was pulled back to Collins who found himself alone deep inside the 18yard box, but the pressure was too much for the unnatural finisher who leant back and blazed his shot over the bar.

The final whistle blew to signal the end of a dreary afternoon on the south coast. Both teams had chances, but neither could take the opportunity to gain 3points as West Ham and Southampton finish the weekend sitting in tenth and eleventh places respectively.

Value for money or over the odds?

We have been waiting for what seems an eternity for Real Madrid to confirm the completion of the signing of Gareth Bale, which has finally been released as a done deal. It is a transfer that has attracted global interest, not because of how the star will fit into the team or adapt to the local paella and sangria rather than pie and mash that he is used to, but because of the fee that the player has attracted. Reporters from around the world have given different values that they believe the player will move for over the past few weeks, and everyone is wanting to know just how much the current record transfer fee will be beaten by.

There is no questioning Gareth Bales quality, but many are asking whether he has proven his abilities consistently enough and for long enough to hold the title of record highest transfer. Common sense would assume that the highest fee has been for the best player out there, but how often has this been the case? Let’s cast our minds back to some of the previous record holders.

Diego Maradonna
1982 Boca Juniors – Barcelona £3m

Voted joint Fifa player of the 20th century alongside Pele, the Argentinean striker is the only player to set the record transfer fee twice. Firstly with this fee to Barcelona, and then leaving two years later for a further record of £5m to go to Napoli. Maradonna played in four world cups for his country, helping them lift the trophy in 1986 where he captained his side’s final victory over West Germany. He scored over 250 club goals throughout his career and 34 international goals, with god giving him a hand to just one.

Jean-Pierre Papin
1992 Marseille – Milan £10m

Creater of the ‘Papinade’, a volley shot which was his biggest trait; the striker had scored 134 times for Marseille in 215 games. He helped them to win four league championships in a row. After signing a sure firing forward like this, Milan may have regretted the £10million that they forked out for his following 18goal return. Struggling to settle into Italian life and being plagued with injuries, Papin stepped on the grand stage for Milan in the Champions league final in 1993 as a substitute, only to go on and claim a runners up medal against his old side.

Alan Shearer
1996 Blackburn Rovers – Newcastle £15m

The day that the Geordie returned to his homeland and boyhood club raised the bar again as far as transfer fees were concerned. Shearer had helped Blackburn win the premier league title and remains the leagues top ever goal scorer. Helping England as far as the semi finals at Euro ’96, shearer never failed to turnout for his national side. He netted 30 times in 63appearences for his nation, and almost managed to score 1 in 2 for Newcastle also with 148 goals in 303 matches. Shearer was loved by the Geordie faithful, and went on to retire at the club. He also returned to take a much less successful managerial position a few years later. However, his reputation is untarnishable at St James’, and his name can still be heard being chanted around the toon.

Ronaldo
1997 Barcelona – Inter Milan £19.5m

‘The Ronaldo’, as controversially referred to by Jose Mourinho is one of only 3 men to have won the Fifa player of the year award three times. He has helped Brazil win the world cup twice, and in 2006 became the highest goalscorer in World cup history. Scoring 47 times in 49 games in his one year at Barcelona was enough to persuade Inter to meet Roanldo’s release clause. In his first season for Inter he finished second highest scorer. He went on to injure his knee at the club which caused him aggravation on and off for the rest of his career. Inter did however still manage to make a profit on Ronaldo, selling him onto Real Madrid, a club that we will see spend plenty of money in the coming years.

Luis Figo
2000 Barcelona – Real Madrid £37m

Real Madrid’s first record breaking transfer fee. Madrid signed the player from their fierce rivals Barcelona which left a bitter taste in the mouths of the Barcelona faithful. The former fan favourite was quickly turned against, and had a pigs head thrown at him whilst taking a corner following the transfer to Madrid. This signalled the beginning of the ‘galactico era’ at the club. Figo helped Madrid to two La Liga titles and the Champions league trophy, but could only ever achieve a runners-up honour with his national side at Euro 2004.

Zinedine Zidane
2001 Juventus – Real Madrid £46.6m

Soon to break Figos fee was Zinedine Zidane, as Real Madrid built a team of world superstars. He was named the best European footballer of the last 50years by Uefa. Perhaps his biggest contribution to Madrid was his match winning volley in 2002 Champions league final against Bayern Leverkusen. Zidane started international life on a bad foot when he got sent off in his first world cup for France during their second group game for a stamp on the back of Fuad Amin. This would not be the last time his national side cursed the temper of the star. However, the dismissal was quickly redeemed during the competition as he came back to score two goals in a victory over Brazil in the final. He then went on to help France also become victorious in Euro 2002.

Christiano Ronaldo
2009 Manchester United – Real Madrid £80m

Eclipsing his colleague Kaka’s record deal of £56m, Ronaldo significantly raised the bar as far as transfer fees are concerned. The Portuguese ‘winker’ raised eyebrows when he first joined Manchester United for over £12m as a young teenager, but proved to be one of Fergusons better signings in the coming years. He won three league titles with Manchester United as well as several domestic cups and the Champions league, becoming world famous for his trickery and scoring ability. This prompted Real Madrid to smash their own transfer fee and pay £80m for the star that rewarded them by becoming the fastest player to get to 100 club goals at Madrid. He is yet to add international honours to list, but has certainly set the benchmark at his club for Bale to follow.

It is evident that there is one club inflating prices of the top players in recent years. But as the only club that continues to be willing to pay more than anyone else, Real Madrid are surely only shooting themselves in the foot? Bales transfer fee will give us some idea of the new value of players out there in Madrid’s eyes, but it will only be a matter of time before this again is broken and as a result the value of every other player is dragged up. As Bale is set to move for over £80m, we can only imagine the value of a player like Lionel Messi if he ever found himself on the transfer market!

Eye of the Tigers - A football club rebranded

On the 3rd May 2010, Hull City Association football club were relegated from the English premiership. Just 3 years later, Hull City Tigers ltd return in their place to take on Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea at Stamford bridge. Today I attempt to understand why this change has occurred, and whether it is just the start of another phase of footballs transformation.

Since 1904, Hull’s top club has been known to all as Hull City AFC. Here is a club that has perhaps always been dwarfed locally by its Rugby playing counterparts. However, Hull City AFC have competed at all levels of the national game and are very much a part of the sports heritage in England. Any football fan will recognise the black and amber stripes of Hull, but how many overseas would make this connection?

In short this is the argument that Assen Allum, Hull City’s Egyptian owner, puts forward for the reasoning behind the change. With the English Premiership being the most lucrative league on the planet, attracting worldwide audiences and revenues to follow, Hull have decided that rebranding the club with a new identity will help distinguish them from the other 19 clubs that are constantly under the magnifying glass of the Premier league.

Allum stated in an interview that “in the commercial world, the shorter the name the better. The more it can spread quickly”. This will grow association with the club and ultimately attract a greater overseas following. It is a clear business move from a clear business man to attempt to market the club outside of Yorkshire and England. No club will turn down new fans and a greater income, but the heart of Hull’s following is not beyond our shores. They live just down the road in and around the city and they spend a great amount of their time and income on the team that has forgotten about them.. Having grown up and been loyal to Hull City AFC, a name change has come as a huge finger to their loyalty from the club owner. Is this enough to deter the local crowd? Perhaps not of those fully committed, but for new fans making the choice, will they follow the commercial ‘Tigers’, or a long standing historic club down the road? Only time will tell.

What we should also ask ourselves is whether the name change is actually that big a deal? The shakeup of the league system to introduce the Premiership itself was a much greater deal. Perhaps the biggest commercialisation of the game itself reduced the number of clubs in the top flight and broke away from the football league system that was in force. This has introduced revenues to clubs beyond belief and allowed domestic teams the platform to market to audiences further from their doors.,

And how about the changes at Cardiff City? For the same reasons given by Alum, Cardiff’s owners stripped their clubs identity as the bluebirds and changed the home kit colour from blue to red. As well as this, they have introduced a dragon on the clubs emblem, with a very small bluebird still present, but ultimately awaiting the time when it is forced to flee from the nest.

It seems that foreign owners are quick to forget a clubs history, but the renaming of grounds is another money spinner, with Englishman Mike Ashley making many Geordie enemies when he changed the sacred St James’ Park name to the Sports Direct Arena.

So how far will clubs go in the race to increase revenues from across the globe? Will it stop at colour changing and introducing catchy titles? Or will advertising space go even further and follow suit of the New York Red Bulls? In the next few years it could be Manchester McDonalds United VS Chelsea Coca-Cola. We can only hope that some thoughts are sparred for the traditions of football. However, ultimately the game is a business, a very big business, and business decisions will always rule the way forward.

Should safe standing return?

Since the Taylor report was produced in response to the Hillsborough disaster in the late 1980’s, the option to buy a standing ticket no longer exists. However, this does not guarantee that you can sit comfortably for 90minutes on an English match day if you expect a good view of the game. Over twenty years on from the recommendation of all seated stadiums, is there still a need not to allow standing on the terraces?

The Taylor report was produced in response to the occurrence of one of the largest football disasters in history; the Hillsborough disaster of 1989. On this day, supporters of Liverpool football club were packed onto the Lepping Lane terrace in such a way that 96 people ended up losing their lives. The disaster was mediated across the world and it was vital that this sort of tragedy never occurred again. Lord Taylors report ruled that stadiums in the top two flights must now be fully seated, which would inevitably prevent crushing.

However, fans have never really taken to seating. There is a continual battle between safety stewards asking fans to take their seats during a game, and the passionate fan wanting to stand and cheer on the team they adore. Usually fans will realise that the stewards are just doing their jobs, and one by one take their seat. Then comes the inevitable chant of ‘stand up if you hate…’ and the battle starts all over.

With atmospheres in grounds becoming more sombre and record high ticket prices in a struggling economic climate, the fans have given a call to change. It seems that clubs will be keen to listen to ideas of how to bring those fans staying at home back into the stadium. Standing terraces can still be found around the country without cause for concern in lower divisions, with Peterborough United of the Championship being the highest ranked English team still to offer this option. Is this a coincidence that last year ‘Peterborough United’s London Road was the most popular ground for npower Championship away fans to visit’?

The Hillsborough report doesn’t blame standing for the tragedy, but the control measures put in place, the pens that existed on Lepping lane, and overall, the fact that ‘the maximum capacity for the terrace was significantly exceeded ’. In a world where many clubs have automated turnstiles that prevent unofficial tickets gaining entry, it would seem that now exceeding capacity is impossible. Safety of the fans will always be the main focus, and ways to reintroduce standing in a safe way have been explored.

Many German clubs in the Bundesliga offer coach style standing, with safety barriers between rows, and pull down seats an option for European events. This seems to be a safer option than even the all seating approach, as those fans that want to stand in certain areas inevitably do. Without proper safety in place to accommodate for this, spectators can be more at risk. On top of this, theses tickets can be obtained for the coming match at Borussia Dortmund for as little as €17. When comparing to the £62 that Manchester City fans paid at the Emirates on Sunday, it seems that the pricing of tickets are worlds apart. This can never been attributed solely to the areas being seated or standing, and the difference in global interest between leagues needs to be considered. However, the Taylor reports statement that prices of seating areas ‘should not increase significantly’ has completely gone out of the window in the twenty years since its production.

It is reported that around 11 clubs in the top two divisions are backing the return of standing in some shape or form, and trials for the idea are currently being proposed by clubs such as Aston Villa and Derby County. It will be interesting to see whether the idea will prove successful and whether a standing option could ever be brought back into English football. It has to be said that with all the research that has gone into standing areas, the greatest risk perhaps of reintroducing these to English football is now to the reputation of the FA. If ever even the slightest problem were to occur, they will need to explain to the world why they overruled the advice of a report that was produced in response to one of the most mediated sporting disasters in the world.