Which Premier League manager will get fired first

Thursday 23 September 2010

My Night

We're gonna light up the night like fireworks
flashing through the sky like a satellite
A series of bangs, beautiful colours
Baby, tonight this is my night

It is a fair assumption that when the Carling Cup draw was made not many people thought that Northampton, Brentford, Newcastle, Scunthorpe and West Bromwich Albion would be the teams that would be celebrating but with the assumption of Scunthorpe United that is how it has transpired and even then it would be fair to say that Manchester United were flattered by the eventual scoreline considering the boys from Glanford Park had double United’s attempts on goal, both on and off-target and had it not been for some outstanding goalkeeping by Tomas Kusczak it would have been a lot closer. You can understand Chelsea putting out a reduced side considering they were at home to a newly promoted side with some difficult matches coming up but considering Liverpool have no chance at the title this year one would have thought that they would have given Torres & Gerrard some easy target practice but Roy Hodgson felt that he would prefer to give his fringe players a run out and paid the price.

Several commentators have said that it is one thing when you are winning trophies regularly and your reserve team has players like Michael Owen, Darron Gibson, Anderson, Park, Hernandez, Wes Brown and Rio Ferdinand in it and another thing when it is mainly players no-one has heard of and you aren’t winning trophies. If Arsenal and Liverpool took the competition a bit more seriously they could well have won the League Cup in the last 5 seasons but for me the worst offenders last night were Manchester City considering that they have spent more money than anyone else and were away to a Premier League side and got to the semi-final stage of the competition last season I would have thought that Mancini would have viewed the Carling Cup as a winnable trophy and played his first team or at least limited it to 3-4 changes. As it was Sky have had 2 nights of outstanding cup results to report on which should ensure higher viewing figures in the next round.

So who are most likely to be in the final at Wembley in April. Arsenal have got an excellent chance as while Wenger plays his youth they are undoubtedly talented but to have any chance they will need to avoid Manchester United, Villa and any physical sides like Blackburn, Stoke and Birmingham until the semis Realistically it will be very hard for Brentford, Burnley, Ipswich, West Ham, Northampton or Leicester to reach the final as there will be extremely tough games in the forthcoming rounds against clubs who will take the competition seriously. Stoke, Newcastle, West Brom and Birmingham will fancy their chances of at least the semi-finals and a trip to Wembley but for me I believe this years final could well be a repeat of last seasons as United have improved their side and Houllier has always taken this competition seriously. Villa have a solid side and whilst Milner has left Albrightson has come in and played very well but you wonder will Villa run out of steam again this season. If I was to nail my colours to the mast I am going to plump for a final of Manchester United vs Arsenal with United winning by a couple of Michael Owen goals as he will want to finish the match this time after his injury after scoring last seasons equaliser.

As unpalatable as it may be to non United fans I think Gary Neville will be lifting that trophy in April at the end of what is likely to be his last season at United and singing that it is indeed his night.

7 comments:

  1. Adam,you know your preamble at the top says you'll be talking about historical or political events as well?Any chance of one of those instead of banging on about Un**ed.

    Good lad.

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  2. Hey Adam. fairly good prediction there. I hope so we do meet at finals.

    I have heard many Un**ed fans grumbling about GNev that 1) In the finals, he comes on for last 15 mins and demands for the Captain's arm band. 2) He does nothing the whole season but is in forefront when it comes to lifting the trophy.

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  3. should be easy enough for Arsenal to avoid Blackburn. Go Cobblers!

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  4. Jacks I was going to do a follow up to my Milliband one but Channel 4r not only beat me to it with a documentary but nicked the title as well off me - shocking.

    Anyway next weeks will be a non-sport one I just thought you were missing my United propaganda posts this week due to my rubbish work PC

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  5. I just thought you were missing my United propaganda posts this week

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    no, not really adam

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  6. It would be nice to see a final between,say WBA and Ipswich.Although the knocking out of a number of prem teams is good news for those of us under the radar(ie not in the prem)as there will now be plenty of loan signings available.

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