Latest 5 aside and 6 aside football Blog posts from LeisureLeagues.net

The Never Ending Saga Of Carlos

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As Derek McGovern put it in the Daily Mirror this week: “since the start of December, Manchester City have kissed goodbye to the Champions League, to the FA Cup and to the Carling Cup, but not to Carlos Tevez.” And so it was that perhaps the most surprising aspect of the transfer window is the fact that Carlos is still at the Etihad.

In recent months it was said he was going to PSG, to one of the Milan Clubs, back to South America, that he was going to retire from football, but nothing has happened, except he has been pictured playing golf in the sunshine while his team mates were training in the cold and his agent Kia Joorabchian has collected more Air Miles than its possible to use.

And then last week – with time running out to see the player leaving the club – a story emerged with set out the staggering amount of money that Tevez was missing out on.

These forfeited payments included a SIX MILLION POUND loyalty bonus, £1.2m in lost wages for his initial disappearing act, another £1.7m because City haven’t paid him since November and a £400,000 penalty for the now infamous refusal to come on as a sub against Bayern Munich.

These stories were subsequently denied by Joorabchian’s Media Advisor, former NOTW Sports Editor Paul McCarthy, who said there was no animosity on his client’s behalf, and the striker had waived his rights to wages deliberately and explained: “It was never an economic situation with Carlos.”

Of course, it is easy not have “economic” worries when it turns out that you earn nearly £10m in five months, lets be honest, if Carlos Tevez – who lets not forgot is 27 years old – fancies living in luxury and not doing another days work in his life then he can do it. The sums of money involved are ludicrous and beyond our comprehension, but now isn’t the time to discuss whether footballers get too much money, but rather to ask who this unedifying can be ended?

It appears that City’s asking price is putting people off – £25m allegedly for a player that hasn’t kicked a ball since September and comes with, shall we say, baggage – and whether his continued non appearance is a strategy to bring his price down is debatable, but this has been denied by Tevez’s side.
And as much as we can say that the player himself can cheerfully remain on the beach, wouldn’t he, deep down want to play the game he is gifted to perform in? He must surely have the hunger that got him to the top level in the first place?

That being the case, it appears that there are still three options for him. First he could move to Russia still (their transfer window is open for another month) second, perhaps he could make some sort of return to West Ham, or third, is there no chance of a truce – however uneasy it would be – and the player pulling on the Sky Blue shirt again?

There are problems with all these suggestions, not least is what sort of physical condition is Tevez in after his inactivity – we all know how hard players have to work in pre –season to get fit and that after only a couple of months, so if he does any of those things we suggest it might be of no immediate use to any of the parties involved. And of course he won’t be named in Man City’s squad for the rest of the season, so can’t play for them.

Which is perhaps the saddest thing of all. One of the best strikers in the world is, in theory, at the peak of his career and yet is playing golf in South America. One day, at some point in the future, Carlos Tevez will look back on his life and realise he has made a terrible mistake.

Keeping Plenty In Reserve

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One of the great recurring themes of British Football happened the other day. Once every couple of years one of the Managers of the “Big Six” clubs sticks his head above the parapet and says something about wanting to have their reserve sides in the football leagues.

The most recent exponent of this idea was Andre Villas Boas who said we should follow the model in Spain and have reserve teams playing in their equivalent of the championship: “What happens in Barcelona is a good model in terms of competitions. They promote talent,” he said.

He went further in explaining himself. “The reserve team, for all the hard work, is not competitive. It serves the first team, but it doesn't serve the progression of talent coming through.

"The youth development system in England is not right. If you’re 'B' team plays in the Championship, where they are fourth or sixth and threatening, playing good football, you'd call them up.

"It could be a great benefit because you don't have to work with a 26-man squad, but a 19-man squad and just recall the best young guys with constant activity.”

Not surprisingly this preposterous idea was given short shrift by the football league themselves. Their Chief Executive Andy Williamson was aghast: “The suggestion is frankly offensive," he said

.
"Our clubs are constituted as sovereign entities which represent their town or city with pride, rather than being a subsidiary of another club in another part of the country.”

"These are senior professional football matches that matter - they are not just platforms for developing other clubs' players.”

The issue here is that there are rights and wrongs on both sides. Of course Williamson is right, these clubs with hundreds of years of history and fans who live and breathe the team and this is not something that can be overridden on the whim of a Manager who has no concept of the English game (and unless results improve will probably be gone at the season’s end!)

But where you do have to agree with AVB is on his comment that the Youth Development in this country was not right. It does have to be said that there is not a lot of quality coming through – certainly not in the abundance that it used to be.

Of course it could be argued that this is a direct result of the big clubs themselves, stock-piling all the best young English talent and buying expensive foreign players meaning that those expensively assembled young players never get a chance anyway so that their career stalls.

But whatever the reasons it is abundantly clear that something needs to be done, because there is not the quality in this country that there is in other places.

There is little doubt too, that reserve football isn’t a great breeding ground for players any more, but if reserve football isn’t doing it, and AVB’s idea is both nonsense and a non starter, then what can be done?

Arsene Wenger – who has produced more than his fair share of good young players down the years – had some interesting ideas on the subject. He first rejected the idea of his Chelsea counterpart, saying: "The supporters of Barnet do not want their club not to be promoted because the reserve team of Arsenal is in front of them."

He then continued: "It is very difficult to mix the interests of the smaller clubs with the interests of the big clubs who could have a second team, and could be competitive in the smaller leagues."

The Gunners Boss is one of the many Premier League Managers who loan the best of their young players out to Football League (and in some cases Premier League) clubs to help them gain experience, and this, he says, has served him well. "We give our players out on loan to the lower leagues. If they manage to convince people they can play in there, they come back,” was how he put it.

Indeed Wenger believes that the forthcoming change in the Academy System (as ratified by the PL) would help any way. This will create an under-21 league, pitting the best youngsters against each other. According to the Frenchman its “an interesting idea,” and I am inclined to agree.

Not perfect perhaps, but infinitely better than Chelsea reserves playing in the championship.

A Window Of Opportunity?

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There has been much talk about who would do what in the January Transfer window, and yet, despite all the conjecture, very little has happened.

It is hard to see anything really that will rival the earth shattering last day in 2011 when Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll moved clubs for an astonishing (for all sorts of reasons) £85 million. Indeed, it could be argued that both those transfers going so badly for both the clubs and players concerned has proved a salutatory lesson that all should learn from.

Those two transfers – and the ones which saw David Luiz and Luis Suarez move to the Premier League total spend in the window that ended January 2011 to an eye watering £215 million, but this time around there has been just a fraction of that.

A quick glance at the Premier League Transfer Tracker shows that Gary Cahill swapping the race to avoid the Championship for the race to get in the Champions League is comfortably the biggest transfer, with only nine other clubs signing players for money.

The same glance tells you that nine of the 20 elite clubs in the UK are yet to sign a single player this January.

In and of itself this might not be that odd – most of the big business we talked about above was done towards the end of the window last year, but there does seem to a bigger than usual reluctance on behalf of managers to part with cash.

Part of that, surely, is to do with the summer transfers. Squads are overstocked with players, so at this time of year they are looking to offload rather than freshen up their rosters.

Also it is worth noting that generally in January it tends to be struggling teams that are the most active as they try and avert the slide into the Championship. To that we can add teams with new managers and teams with new owners who are eager to splash the cash, either to impress fans, or to avoid relegation.

In that respect it is easy to see why Queens Park Rangers are just about the most mentioned club on gossip columns so far in 2012. With Neil Warnock gone and flamboyant Airline magnate Tony Fernandes appearing eager to get big name players to Loftus Road, the R’s seem likely to be the big players in the next 14 days.

Whether they get value for money is another matter, as January is a month for ridiculously overblown transfer fees. Not just the likes of Carroll, Luiz and Torres, but in the years since the window has been open, January is the hardest month to buy players it seems, and moreover it seems that the only winners usually are the teams doing the selling.

And it’s a conundrum that all managers have to face. A couple of well chosen signings could make the difference, but get then wrong and the club is in a worse state than ever.

Increasingly too, Manager’s are judged by their signings, just as much as results. With the bigger price tags comes the bigger pressure – and in these days of Media saturation it is tremendously difficult for a player who is having a bad trot to escape, just ask Messrs Carroll and Torres right now. As well as the Managers – for example Carlo Ancellotti – who lost their jobs at the end of last season.

All of which probably explains why so many managers are set to sit this one out, content to work with what they have, watching the mad scramble from afar this time around.

There is of course one hidden cost of this. Sky Sports News lives for the transfer window. It loves having reporters standing at the training grounds of all the clubs that are signing people, while crowds of people build up throughout the day, it loves having Jim White shouting louder and louder as the last minute comes, and what will happen to them if the whole thing is damp a squib as I, and many others, expect?

Surely it will have to come down to Harry Redknapp doing them a favour and talking about the fact that whatever player he is about to sign is a “good, good player, I like him, we’ll try and take him but it’s a long way off.” Like he normally does.

Go on Harry, don’t let us down.

Collective Responsibility

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Everyone is total agreement that the abuse handed out by a Liverpool supporter to Oldham Athletic defender Tom Adeyemi was despicable, disgraceful and has no place in any section of society.

A man has been arrested and bailed over the incident, and you can only hope that if the person concerned is found guilty of the offence he is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

In life we are all responsible for our own actions – and if this man is convicted he will only have himself to blame for his gross stupidity. He may well be contrite, he may well regret what he said for the rest of his life, but, if the law decides he said it then its no one else’s fault.

That said, you do have to wonder if Liverpool Football Club could have handled the Luis Suarez affair in a different way, and you do have to wonder whether, if they had, this abuse of young Adeyemi, who is on-loan from Norwich, would have happened.

It has been reported in the press this week that some at Liverpool do wish their response had been different with yesterday’s I newspaper saying that it was now acknowledged that those infamous Suarez t-shirts the players – including Suarez – and Manager Kenny Dalglish wore before and after the game with Wigan were something of a mistake.

Even at that stage it was widely agreed that Suarez had used what might be considered to be offensive language towards Patrice Evra. Whether he meant it in an offensive way or not (indeed there is absolutely no reason to believe that Luis Suarez is a racist) will never be proven, but the words were said and that should have been the end of the matter.

But it wasn’t. Instead Liverpool carried on their fight, threatening appeals and refusing to apologise, until, it seems they looked at the fixtures and saw what the games were coming up after the eight games were served (Man Utd and Everton in case you didn’t know) and decided to accept the punishment.

In many ways you would have had more respect for the club if they had continued with the appeal. If they truly do believe that they were right, and that their player had done nothing wrong then surely they should have just gone ahead and fought their corner.

The fact is that Luis is not an angel. He is no stranger to controversy. He gave away a penalty in the World Cup Quarter Final against Ghana, and whilst it is easy to say that any player would perhaps have made that decision to handball, any player might nit have bitten an opponent, as Suarez did in Holland last season (for which he was banned.)

For all his faults (and the fact he is far from a prolific striker is not least of them) Suarez is a fine, fine footballer, blessed with tremendous skill, and one who is hugely popular with both the Liverpool fans and his team mates. That perhaps does not excuse the wearing of those t-shirts. Suarez, however much he wants to paint himself as such is not the victim here.

It is not a giant leap to suggest that those t-shirts, the lack of an apology, the continued adoration and support has created an atmosphere where the issue of race has become a little more raw at Anfield than it might have been. And on this occasion it was a young defender on loan from Norwich to Oldham who had to suffer the consequences.

Oldham Athletic themselves have praised Liverpool for the way they handled the affair, but Piara Powar, Executive Director of anti racism organisation F.A.R.E, believes they haven’t gone far enough: "I'm afraid there is no question that the club's approach has stoked this affair, and there is now a highly charged atmosphere around the issue. The Suarez T-shirts surely no longer have a place at Anfield,” Powar said.

"This has done a lot of damage to Liverpool FC and in many people's eyes to English football.
But it is time surely that progressive fans stepped forward and started to be active in this debate……[and] show support to Adeyemi at this weekend’s game.

“I would say it is time for progressive fans to tell the club and Kenny Dalglish that enough is enough, this episode has done a lot of damage to Liverpool FC, and the manager, as their spokesperson, needs to publicly start to calm the waters.

“A club position that says, enough is enough, Suarez is serving his ban and everyone at Liverpool should move on and try to build bridges, would be very welcome."

And the sooner this happens and we can back to talking about Liverpool on the pitch instead of off it, the better.

Who Will Win What in 2012?

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It’s that time of year again when people make their predictions for what will happen throughout the year.

The other week on this very blog, I nailed my colours, as it were, to the Manchester City mast – and since I did they have stuttered slightly, losing at Sunderland and drawing at West Brom.

But I thought it would be fun, if for this first blog of 2012 we looked at who might go up – and down – throughout the four divisions.

Starting with the Premier League, I will stick by my Man City prediction. If losing to Sunderland and drawing at the Hawthorns is as bad as it gets then that’s hardly a crisis, is it? The other side of Manchester will be second, with United – despite their current defensive issues – seeing off Spurs, who will end third.

None of the main contenders for fourth spot are all that great at the moment, but I will back Chelsea to continue their transition by pipping Arsenal for the last Champions League spot.

At the bottom the bottom five have got cut adrift and it does look increasingly likely that the final three to go down will be from those. However, strange things happen in the second half of the season – ask Blackpool and Burnley fans and they will tell you that being halfway at Christmas counts for nothing – but it does seem that both Norwich and Swansea have enough to survive.

It is tempting to say that the bottom three might stay as it is, but oddly, I think Blackburn could, despite all that’s been said, get out of trouble, and instead it will be Wolves who get sucked in. Simply put the Wanderers are overly reliant on Steven Fletcher for goals and although the signing of Emmanuel Frimpong is a fine one, Wanderers stay at the top may well be coming to an end.

Joining them in the championship next term will be Wigan – who seem to be finally running out of time, and quality – and Bolton, who have seen their talisman Kevin Davies finally wane and will surely lose their star centre back Gary Cahill this month. QPR are looking dodgy too, but they are highly likely to be active players in the January window. However, if they don’t sort out their abysmal home record it could be that Neil Warnock’s stay as a Premier League boss is just as brief as it was when Sheffield United were at this level with him at the helm.

The Championship is notoriously difficult to predict and seems even more so this season. There are just 15 points separating Reading in fifth from Nottingham Forest who are third from bottom. This unbelievable fact means that anyone who goes on a run during the second half of the season could make the play-offs, while on the flip side any team that loses from could struggle very quickly.
Having explained my predictions might be so bad, I will still make them. West Ham will take the title with Cardiff finally achieving promotion after so many years of trying. Current leaders Southampton are having a blip and don’t seem able to last the course, but look good for the play-offs, where I think Reading will join them, along with Birmingham who will be the team to emerge from the pack. Currently 14th, they have two games in hand and an unbeaten home record. If they can sort out their away from, as well as not suffering from fatigue after their Europa League exertions haven’t taken to much out of them.

At the other end Coventry look doomed, and Doncaster, despite signing a whole host of players including El Hadji Diouf and Pascal Chimbonda will join them, with Millwall, who are really struggling to score goals completing the relegated trio.

Charlton already look to have League One sewn up, with the two Sheffield clubs battling it out to join them. Wednesday might just have a little bit more than United – especially if they keep their star winger Ben Marshall on loan.

The relegation spaces are just as tight and although Chesterfield look doomed and probably Rochdale too, it really could be any of seven or eight teams who finally drop, Yeovil have been flirting with relegation for a year or two and it could be their year to go, along with perennial yo-yo club Wycombe.

Milton Keynes, Huddersfield and Carlisle will be other teams to contest the play-offs and although Stevenage have done superbly to be in the top six going into the new year it is difficult to see them sustaining their challenge.

Another former Conference team, Crawley, is setting the pace in League Two and with the resources at their disposal they should have enough to take the silverware. Whether Cheltenham and Southend can say likewise is open to question, which could let the likes of Shrewsbury – who were cruelly robbed last season by a goal that didn’t cross the line – and Swindon, who have assembled an eclectic squad under maverick boss Paulo Di Canio, avoid the white-knuckle ride of the play offs.

As always, the real scramble in that division is to avoid the fall into the conference – a division from which it is increasingly hard to return it seems. Plymouth are currently bottom, but finally have some stability so will gather enough points to keep their league status and Northampton, who are in the other relegation place, have a new Manager in Aidy Boothroyd who should navigate them clear too.

Dagenham have been on a horrendous run and don’t have the resources to compete it seems, while Hereford, who have been constant strugglers for many seasons, will join them.

So there you have it. Leisure Leagues predictions for 2012. I will re-visit these in May just to see many I got right (or wrong).

Premier League:

Winners: Man City
Second: Man Utd
Third: Tottenham
Fourth: Chelsea

Relegated: Wolves, Wigan, Bolton

Championship:

Winners. West Ham
Promoted: Cardiff
Playoffs: Southampton, Middlesborough, Reading and Birmingham

Relegated: Coventry, Doncaster, Millwall

League One:

Winners: Charlton
Promoted: Sheff Wed
Play-offs: Sheff United, Huddersfield, Carlisle, MK Dons

Relegated: Chesterfield, Rochdale, Yeovil, Wycombe

League Two:

Winners: Crawley
Promoted: Shrewsbury, Swindon, Cheltenham
Play-offs: Southend, Cheltenham, Gillingham, Oxford

Relegated: Hereford, Dagenham and Redbridge.

Slamming The Christmas Schedule - Bah Humbug!

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There’s always one every year.

One manager who “slams” the fixture schedule at Christmas.

It’s usually Steve Bruce, it used to be Rafa Benitez, but neither of those two chaps are bothering us this festive season for various reasons, but this year the baton of chief moaner has been passed to Brendan Rodgers, the Swansea City Manager, who had this to say: “The people who put fixtures together do not have a clue about physical conditioning,”

He then went on: “If we are having a normal recovery period from a game on a Saturday, the Sunday would be the first day of recovery and then the players really feel the effects of a game on the Monday, so they have a second day of recovery.

"They don't properly come back up to speed until the Tuesday because of the tempo of the modern game.

"So for us on what would normally be a second day of recovery after we play Tottenham, we have to go and play another [game] full on, high-tempo Premier League at Aston Villa.”

This is a point of view that I can’t subscribe too. And I can’t subscribe to it for the simple reason that these people – whether they are Swansea players, or whatever team they play for – are highly paid, professional athletes and they are entitled to play a few games over the festive period as far as I am concerned.

There was another strand to Rogers’ argument too. He was angry at the two games in three days over the New Year weekend. For those that don’t know there are games on New Years Eve (this is a normal Saturday game) with another fixture two days later on the Bank Holiday and Rogers is less than impressed: “We don't need the Monday game," he said.

"They should play that game on the Tuesday or Wednesday or extend the season by a week. Or we could have a midweek game somewhere else in the season.

"I can understand the New Year's Eve game but is there a need for the Monday game? I don't think there is. It's ridiculous."

Let me, if I can, explain to Rodgers and anybody else who wants to bleat about it, just why we SHOULD have that game on the Monday. Its really quite simple.

People can get to the match.

It’s a bank holiday. People are off work. Therefore people can go.

Perhaps these Manager’s would like to consider, just for a second, the travelling supporters. If that game was on the Tuesday many of these would need to get a day off work – perhaps two.

Quite frankly its about time that football remembered that, first and foremost it is an entertainment business and as such, it has a duty to do just that – to entertain the spectators and perform. Whilst increasingly clubs – certainly at top level – are less and less reliant on gate receipts for income, playing games to empty stadiums would be pointless, and as such people in the game would do well to remember just how important the supporters are.

There is another reason for wanting the games over Christmas too. It’s traditional.
Forgive me for living in the past, but this is world where many of the things we used to hold dear about our game have been eroded and one of the only things we have left is the Christmas games – and lots of them.

Given the criticism from various sources, the cutting down of fixtures, just like video technology and the winter break, will probably happen whether we like it or not, so the Leisure Leagues Christmas message is a simple one:

Have a good one, enjoy the football, and don’t listen to Brendan Rodgers, or anyone else who thinks you shouldn’t.

We're Gonna Win The League - Playing the Predictions Game

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On Monday night Chelsea ended Manchester City’s unbeaten start to the season.

In doing so they moved seven points behind City, who themselves are now just two points clear of United.

In the build up to the match Andre Villas Boas was pretty clear that defeat would mean the end of their title ambitions, but after the victory he was quite bullish about their chances.

So are Chelsea back in the race? Are Tottenham serious contenders? Do Arsenal have a sniff? Or can we really look past the Manchester Clubs?

The short answer to those questions would be: yes but they won’t win, no, yes – just about and probably not. But that wouldn’t make for much of a blog would it? So I will expand.

Manchester City, let it be said, should win the league. If you made a list of the best players in each position in the league I would argue that they would have about six of them, maybe more, and some of them aren’t even in their starting 11. In Hart, the best keeper, is there a better centre back than Kompany? If there’s a better midfielder than Yaya Toure then I haven’t seen him, they have the most creative player in the league in the magician that is David Silva and up front, if Balotelli and Aguero don’t get you than Dzeko probably will – and that’s before we even talk about the likes of De Jong and Nasri, who aren’t regular starters. In short Roberto Mancini’s squad is frighteningly good. But everyone knows that the best team doesn’t always win the league, which leaves the way open for the chasing pack.

Manchester United have some exceptional players too. Phil Jones has looked a brilliant signing – arguably better than Sir Alex himself might have expected, and after a shaky start, David De Gea is looking better in goals. But if you are being honest, you do wonder about – of all things – about United’s strength in depth. Vidic being out for the season is a massive loss, especially when coupled with Rio Ferdinand’s ongoing fitness issues and Fletcher’s illness leaves them a little short in a midfield that is already without Anderson and Tom Cleverley.

Up-font too, if Rooney doesn’t score then Dimitar Berbatov isn’t exactly banging them in – or looking interested – this season and although Danny Welbeck has many qualities, he is not yet the type of player who can carry a team to a title.

It’s been a trying start to the season at Stamford Bridge as the club has struggled to adapt to its new Manager’s beliefs and he in turn has struggled to sort out a squad in need of overhaul.

There have been signs recently of a changing in fortunes, though, with the Manchester City game perhaps the embodiment of this.

The clearout is starting too, with Nicholas Anelka leaving the club in January and other established players set to join him, the future of the club is increasingly looking like being the likes of Oriel Romeu and Daniel Sturridge, but with such transition taking place it is too early to expect a serious and sustained challenge. Another year though and it might be a different story, especially if they can add a couple of quality players, maybe at the back or on the wings.

So to two other clubs who always seem to be the proverbial one or two players from the title. Tottenham and Arsenal.

The latter’s recovery from that start to the season where they got destroyed 8-2 at Old Trafford has been little short of astonishing and all the doubters who thought Arsene Wenger were somewhat premature in their dismissal of the Frenchman, but really, can you see them winning the league?

Maybe, just maybe they have an outside shot of taking their first championship since 2004 if Robin Van Persie stays fit. The Dutch master is that good. No club at the top is a one man team, of course, but they are as close as it gets. Its not that they don’t have great players, because they do, its just that somehow all those players do better and look more confident if RVP is there.

It is their defence that will cost the Gunners though. Injuries have ravaged their full-backs and Per Mertesacker is struggling to adapt to the Premier League and as such they still look some way short.

As do Tottenham. As much as Spurs have played some fine football this season and arguably posses the best midfield quartet in the top flight in Lennon, Bale, Modric and Parker, it is their soft centre that might ultimately count against them.

Harry’s men play such attacking football that the opposition feel they can “get at” them. It’s fantastic to watch but doesn’t look like bringing a trophy.

Tottenham too suffer from another issue. They don’t know what it takes to win the league. And that is why, whilst I am backing City to win the title for the first time since the 1960s I will not count out United either. Their greatest strength in the race is that they are United. They are still the benchmark to which others need aspire, but the team that Fergie called “noisy neighbours” could – and probably should – be singing loudly in May.

The Sky's Not The Limit (Maybe...)

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Karen Murphy has the potential to be quite an influential football figure in the coming months and years and what she is doing might just revolutionise the game.

Karen, though, isn’t a player or even an Administrator; rather she is a landlady from Portsmouth.

She is the landlady of the Red, White and Blue Pub in the City to be precise and six weeks or so ago she won a landmark ruling in the European Court of Justice.

She had taken Sky TV and The Premier League to court over her right to show Premier League matches through a foreign decoder. A move they claimed was illegal, but now according to a rather complex judgement in the European Courts, might not be.

The issue was one of cost. Mrs Murphy had bought a decoder for Greek Channel Nova, which cost her £800 a year to subscribe to. By contrast a Sky Subscription would cost her £700 a month.

Given these cold hard facts it is not hard to see why many pubs have chosen to go down the foreign decoder route. Mrs Murphy points out that pubs all over the country are closing down and she argues that these prices are “a massive part of that.”

She added that it “It is not right that a monopoly, who think they are above the law, should be able to dictate the price I pay.

"Football broadcasts should be treated like any other commodity, where customers can shop around and get the best deal.”

All of which could have massive ramifications not just for the next TV deal that football clubs are able to negotiate, but also the potential impact on the clubs themselves.

Earlier this year, when he was still Sunderland Chairman, Niall Quinn said he “despised” supporters who stayed away from the ground to watch these foreign broadcasts, saying: would never criticise anyone who doesn’t come to the stadium because of financial constraints, but I despise those who spend far more than the price of a ticket watching some overseas commentator describing the action at the nearby Stadium of Light,” he raged.

“My belief is a significant number of these people are taking the easy option of spending their money in the pub watching their team as opposed to supporting their team and helping to create a better atmosphere at the stadium.”

Surely if more and more pubs follow Mrs Murphy’s lead following this ruling the situation will only get worse?

Except it’s not all that simple, and indeed when the ruling of the ECJ was examined it raised more questions than answers. And the whole idea could be reduced to a farce by a copyright ruling. Crucially the ECJ ruled that the Premier League logos and things such as slow motion replays, which are not subject to copyright in the UK, would be so in European Broadcasts and in order not to contravene copyright rules technically the person showing the broadcast would have to turn off every time a slow motion replay came on.

The ruling makes a distinction between pubs and other public places and the consumer who watches at home, which legal minds have interpreted as making it entirely legal to watch these broadcasts in your living room but not in the pub. The problem with that is that the Nova Subscription would cost £42, which is more than Sky currently charge domestic users.

As always in law it seems that nothing is as cut and dried as it first seems and this story has a long way to run despite Karen Murphy’s apparent victory.

What is more certain though is that the Premier League will have to re-think the way it sells its overseas broadcast rights next year for the package that runs until 2016 and the way we watch televised football might never be the same again.

Unless The Premier League make sure there is a copyrighted graphic on screen at all times – and what is the betting that happens?

Gary Speed 1969-2011

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The shocking events of Sunday morning mean that all other ideas for blogs this week might seem pointless and rather trivial.

Sometimes, just sometimes Football isn’t the most important thing in the world and the tragic passing of Gary Speed aged at just 42 proves that.

The inquest into his death starts today and it would be entirely wrong of us to speculate as to what happened. But what we can say with certainty is that Gary touched lives far beyond the fans of the clubs he played for.

Everyone, from fans, players, his friends and family has been left shocked and stunned at his loss and the tributes have been both moving and fulsome.

He was a model professional for club and country and one of the greatest – perhaps the greatest - goalscoring midfielder’s of his generation. Here was a man who lived a quiet life with his wife and two sons, who was never in the tabloids and who appeared happy. Speaking on the BBC, Mark Lawrenson said his abiding memory of Speed was how “normal he was.”

He was also a dedicated professional footballer. He embraced the new thoughts on diet and fitness a long time before they became prevalent in the game only the most dedicated and fit of players can still be playing football into their 40’s as Speed did in a career that spanned over 20 years.

And what a career it was! Playing 677 league games for Leeds – with whom he won the league in 1992 - Everton, Newcastle, Bolton and Sheffield United, he also scored 103 goals.

A boyhood Everton fan, he jumped at the chance to sign for them in 1996 after eight years at Elland Road, and whilst at Goodison Park he scored the winner in a Merseyside derby. It took £5.5m to get him to the North East and St James’ Park, and it was here that he enjoyed the second most prolific spell – playing over 200 games for Newcastle.

He was nearly 35 when he left there to move south to Bolton in 2004, but far from winding down he managed three and a half years more in the Premier League playing another 120 games before moving to Sheffield United as Player-Coach.

It was whilst at Brammall Lane that he took his first steps into the Management Career he had always seemed destined for, taking over in the hot seat after Kevin Blackwell was sacked in September.

He was only at the helm for a matter of months before his beloved Wales came calling. Speed had been the Captain of the National Team had played 92 times for his country. He was appointed at the Welsh National Manager on December 14th 2010 and he was slowly turning the fortunes of the country around, declaring his “pride” at the way his team had played despite the loss to England and since then they have recorded three successive wins for the first time in three years, including a 4-1 friendly win against Norway which Speed himself declared as “sensational.”

Sadly we will never get to see just how good a manager he could have made.

His last public appearance was as a pundit on Football Focus on the BBC on Saturday, when he gave no impression that was worried about anything. Making plans to visit Alan Shearer at his home this weekend and thanking host of the show Dan Walker for having him on. Tragically he will never be on again.

Amongst the many moving and warm tributes to Gary came from his friend Robbie Savage, who was in tears on the news when he said: "I loved him as a friend, his wife is beautiful, he had a lovely family, he'd do anything for anybody.

"I idolised him, he was one of my heroes in life, he's been there for me, someone I spoke to every week…this guy had everything, a beautiful family. He had a caring, loving family and was doing great at his job. Why has this happened?

"He was a larger than life character, he's got a great family, his father Roger travelled all around the world to watch him and he's left behind two beautiful, beautiful boys. It's just so sad.”

Everyone at Leisure Leagues echoes those thoughts and our condolences and good wishes are with his family and friends.

Saturday Night: X Factor Followed By Chelsea v Barca - Yes if Rossell Has His Way

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The European Club Association (ECA) made itself some headlines last week when the President of Barcelona, Sandro Rossell (who just happens to be the Vice President of the organisation) said that the Premier League should be reduced to 16 teams.

This reduction, he said, needed to happen: “We have to convince the Premier League to reduce to 16 [teams]. We could perhaps play Barcelona versus Manchester United on Saturdays.

It wasn’t just the EPL he wanted to see slashed, though. He went further: “It's something all of them [the domestic leagues] would have to agree to," he said. "The objective of reducing from 20 to 16 teams is to give more space to our players.

"Then, once the dates are liberated, these dates are not for the [national] federations. The dates are for the clubs to organise friendly games or to increase the European competitions."

Not surprisingly the Premier League's Richard Scudamore (who let’s be fair isn’t shy of a stupid idea or two himself) gave this particular edict short shrift. “Well, that's very nice of him to issue that as a statement but that's a very Barcelona-centric view,” was his response, before he added "Our clubs have no view to be playing European football on a weekend. European football is a midweek competition and domestic football is a weekend competition."

Whether you think Rossell is right or wrong in his view, there is no denying that the debate is an interesting one, and one which is more complex than it first appears, because while Scudamore purports to speak for “our clubs” you can bet your life that there are some in Old Trafford, say, or at the other big boys, that would rather play Barca on a Saturday than they would take on Wigan.

The Champions League is becoming ever more important both in terms of money and also prestige, players now leave smaller clubs because they want to “play Champions League football” when it used to be they would leave to try and win trophies.

In many respects getting in the Champions League has, these days, replaced the pursuit of silverware in importance and these comments are further proof of this.

Indeed those comments can perhaps be seen as the first skirmish in a much bigger war to come. The ECA’s “memorandum of understanding” with UEFA runs out in 2014 and the organisation is flexing its muscles rather with Rossell in particularly bullish mood stating: “"We want to have the Champions League under the Uefa umbrella but we want them to hear our demands. If Uefa and the ECA reach an agreement, then that's good for both parties. If not, with or without the Uefa umbrella, the ECA is entitled to organise their own champions' competition by themselves.”

It’s a threat that the governing body had best take seriously, because we have already seen recently just how toothless these organisations can be when the big clubs really want something and although Scudamore dismissed the idea of any split between them and UEFA, it does seem we haven’t heard the last of this idea.

There are sections of fans as well TV viewers and no doubt the TV companies who might welcome the change, they may indeed welcome spending their Saturday nights with X Factor and then Barca v Chelsea so this idea of breakaway or reduction might not be as farfetched as it first appears.

The stumbling block would of course be the teams who would be booted out of the EPL would never vote for it – but then when did the big teams ever think of anyone but themselves anyway?

In the end you suspect, that - just like it always does - money will talk, and if there’s more to be made from Saturday nights in the Champions League, then eventually, that’s what we will get.