Excerpt from:
Football club tickets– A reason to rejoice

Jonathan Woodgate’s header five minutes from time secured our first away win in the league in five matches and crucially lifted us five points clear of the bottom three.

“We’ve got to make sure we stay in the Premier League and tonight was a huge step towards doing that,” stated a delighted Harry at the KC Stadium.

“It is a massive result. It puts us in a much better position and keeps Hull in the relegation battle.”

Aaron Lennon opened the scoring with a fine 20-yard strike in the 17th minute but Hull levelled via a set-piece from Michael Turner for 1-1 at the break.

Both teams hit the woodwork with headers in the second half – Vedran Corluka for us, Mendy for the home side – before Woodgate secured maximum points with a header from Benoit Assou-Ekotto’s cross.

“I thought we were terrific in the second half,” added Harry. “We came out and we upped the pace.

“They made it difficult for us in first half, they got in our faces and they worked hard, they worked their socks off and they were always a big threat on set plays.

“That was the big fear but in the second half I thought we got the ball down, passed it well, created some terrific chances and were the better team.

“If Hull would have won they would have almost been out of it and we would have been right in it even more. That result now gives us confident for the rest of the week.”

What could be the defining week of the season continues with us trying to overturn a 2-0 first leg deficit in the UEFA Cup last 32, second leg at the Lane on Thursday night before the Carling Cup Final against Manchester United at Wembley on Sunday.

The central defender, who so memorably scored the winner in the final a year ago, powered in a far more resounding header to seal victory five minutes from time after Aaron Lennon’s first half opener was cancelled out before the break by Michael Turner.

Harry Redknapp made two changes from the team which began our last Premier League outing against Arsenal at the Lane. There was a return at the back for Ledley King following his hamstring injury that forced him off against Portsmouth, while Darren Bent was drafted into attack to play in tandem with Robbie Keane. Michael Dawson and Roman Pavlyuchenko started the evening on the bench.

The trip to Hull marked the beginning of a big week and a bit for the squad, who next face the challenge of overturning a two-goal UEFA Cup deficit against Shaktar Donetsk on Thursday, before we make a return visit to Wembley on Sunday for the Carling Cup final with Manchester United in opposition. Then it is back to vital Premier League business against Middlesbrough next Wednesday. It is a period of time that will do much to shape our season.

Hull were the more robust in the early exchanges, Andy Dawson seeing yellow for two fouls in quick succession, while there was a worrying free header from the first corner of the game that set a few alarm bells ringing.

Woodgate almost managed to steer a header past Carlo Cudicini in the 13th minute, with the Italian scurrying back just in time.

The threat was clearly going to come from set pieces and the home side were getting a few too many for comfort in the opening exhanges.

The game was turned on its head in the 17th minute when a short corner routine involving Robbie Keane and Luka Modric led to Lennon being presented with the ball in a bit of space on the edge of the area. He opted for power and, with Bent cleverly ducking out of the way, it was an uphill task for Matt Duke, who couldn’t quite reach and the net duly rattled.

Hull responded with Kamil Zayatte getting the better of Vedran Corluka down the left hand side and it took an alert and brave Cudicini to smother and avert the danger.

It was indeed a set piece that proved our undoing when Hull levelled on 27 minutes. Cudicini did not deal effectively with a Dawson corner, the loose ball struck an unaware Wilson Palacios and ran goalwards to where Michael Turner was in position to scramble home.

Daniel Cousin then tried his luck with a piledriver from 25 yards before Modric and Keane began to impose themselves a little, along with Lennon, at the other end. Trouble was, when Hull countered, they appeared to have a lot of space to run into and, from a Dean Marney centre, Sam Ricketts was not far away with his glancing header.

The team began the second half with a decent tempo and a Bent turn and smash was foiled by Duke. However, Hull again posed problems from a corner and it took a combination of Jenas and Modric to throw themselves in front of Kevin Kilbane, who was about to make capital from a failure to sufficiently clear.

A Keane cutback in the direction of Palacios led to Anthony Gardner having the wind knocked out of him, the former Spur almost certainly denying a goal by getting in the way of the piledriver.

And for those who say we’re only where we are this year because Chelsea and Arsenal have dropped rather than us improving, ask yourself this: why have Chelsea and Arsenal dropped this season?

Chelsea continued to have managerial instability, with their current coach only appointed until the end of the season. Hmmm. And here we are talking about sacking our coach. Ironic.

Arsenal on the other hand have suffered a major loss with the absence of Fabregas, but I don’t think that alone explains their poor record.

Everyone has noticed how the premiership has become tougher. Today, 9 points (3 wins) separates the bottom club from 11th position. 9 points seperate Stoke – a team deep in the relegation battle in 17th place – from Fulham – a team fighting for a UEFA cup spot in 8th place. United are sitting quite happily on top of the pile, but compare their performances this year to last year. Last year, United were thumping the likes of Boro, Wigan and Sunderland by 3 or 4 goal margins: Last season they won 19 games by at least a 2 goal margin, including 8 matches in which they scored 3 or more goals in comfortable wins. This year they have so far only won 8 matches by at least a 2 goal margin, and have only scored 3 or more goals in 6 premier league games to date (including the 4-3 win against Hull, by a single goal margin).

To make the point clearer, United only won 11 games by a single goal margin in last seasons’ title race. So far this year, they’ve already matched that record, with several 1-0 wins and the occasional 2-1 win.

This is solid proof that the league has gotten much tougher. Teams have gotten better at nullifying even United’s goal threats – and they have four £30M+ attackers, 3 of whom were carving up opposition at will last season, to whom they added Berbatov. These 4 magic-makers (Tevez, Ronaldo, Rooney and Berbatov) have secured many a goal out of nothing to secure a 1-0 or 2-1 win this season, in very hard fought matches (like Sunderland at home). These are the kinds of matches where we have drawn, partly because we only have 2 such players, one of whom was injured for the entire first half of the season.

Arsenal have also struggled because they have found it tougher to break these teams down. They have drawn one match more than we have, and lost 4 more than us.

Chelsea have also struggled because in addition to the league getting tougher, they’ve been experiencing a self-induced transition.

This time last season (i.e. with 12 matches left) we had 58 points. United had 69 points.We both got 28 points from the final 36 points, and we finished 11 points behind them.

This year, we are 7 points behind United.

So despite the league getting tougher for everyone, we have improved relative to the leaders of the table at this stage by 4 points. We have handled the raising standards of the premiership better than our rivals have (surpassing Arsenal and Chelsea, and closing the gap on United).

That’s progress.

Rafa has achieved season on season progression. Perhaps not in terms of silverware, because Rafa won a fair amount early on, but certainly in terms of challenging for the title and strengthening the squad. (On a side note, something similar happened to Wenger, who had 1 good season in his first 5, winning nothing in the other 4 years, while Rafa has had a CL winning season, an FA cup winning season, and even if the other final appearances don’t count, he’s had 2 silverware winning seasons, without considering the Eurpoean Supercup).

But instead of giving him time to continue to bridge the gap with United we want him fired. Instead of letting him add another match winner (or two) to Torres and Gerrard with this summer’s transfer money, we want to see him axed. Rather than speculating as to what summer acquisition(s) will bring us closer in terms of world class talent and game changers that often make the difference between 0-0 draws, and 1-0 wins, or a nervous 1-0 lead and a 2 goal cushion, we’re speculating as to which manager will replace Rafa.

And who are these replacements we’re raving about?

Let’s start with Martin O’Neill.

I have 3 very big question marks about Martin O’Neill.

One poster, GaryStew1980, sums up the first point well really well.

(1) It’s a big step up from Villa to Liverpool

“Martin O’Neill has found his niche, so to speak. It is something he has done since he made his name. He goes to clubs where pretty much anything is considered success. Since he went to Celtic (big club on the way down) he steadied the ship and got them going again; as soon as they lost the league he was out of there although with other issues (his wifes health). Now at Villa once again a big club with realistic expectations being just getting to Europe, never mind breaking into the big 4. Once again though O’Neill is in an ideal position where he isn’t expected to do any better – they have already exceeded anything they could have hoped for. I think MON is smart enough to realise that neither the Man U or Liverpool job will give him this comfort zone. He is a very smart, intelligent shrewd man.”

Now I happen to respect what O’Neill has done (especially at Celtic), but I agree with GaryStew1980 that it’s a totally different task to take a team that are fighting for an Intertoto cup spot up 3 or 4 places in the league to fight for a Champion’s League spot, vs making a team into title winners. Arsenal’s demise has helped Villa this year, but the work at Liverpool is a lot more intense with a lot more pressure than the job at Villa, and I have my doubts O’Neill could handle the expectations at Liverpool.

My second issue is regarding (2) the transition period O’Neill’s appointment would put us into:

The question over how much of a transition period a new coach would need I think boils down to how different their tactics are from their predecessor’s. You have to realise how different Rafa’s tactics are from O’Neill’s. O’Neill has relied on very pacey wingers and a big target man. Agbonlahor and Young are two of the quickest wingers in the premiership, and they were aiming for Carew in the middle and are now aiming for Heskey. So it’s fair to assume that O’Neill would require quite some time to change Rafa’s team of possession hogging, game controlling, but not the quickest attackers with no real target man, and change our style of play to suit his.

Last but not least, there’s the issue of (3) What to do when teams park the bus:

Villa sometimes play good football, and I respect O’Neill for that, but it’s easier to play that kind of football when teams try to attack you. I don’t know how well O’Neill would cope when teams show up to park the bus. He never had to deal with this at Celtic, and no team arrives at Villa to defend. It’s a totally different kettle of fish. You only have to look at Arsenal to see how their free-flowing football has struggled since the “weaker teams” started adopting increasingly defensive strategies. Would O’Neill be able to adapt to this new challenge? I have grave doubts.

I highly doubt O’Neill would do much for Liverpool, except oversee our decline. Appointing O’Neill would be like having another Roy Evans era. We’d probably play some good football, but while O’Neill was getting his team together (with a very limited transfer budget mind you), United would be growing stronger and stronger, Gerrard would be ageing, Carra would be ageing, and United would surpass our title record quite comfortably.

The disrupted continuity from Sacking Rafa and appointing O’Neill wouldn’t give us much more than some more attractive football, and, most importantly, a greater gap between us and United.

This brings us to the other name being bandied about: Jose Mourinho – a top quality coach by any stretch of the imagination. His tactics also aren’t that different from Rafa’s. His teams control possession and dictate the pace of the game as do Rafa’s, and Jose also likes to play 4-2-3-1. So arguably, Mourinho wouldn’t need a huge transition period.

But we all know about Mourinho’s ego. He would want to make changes to the team so that he could call it his own team. And it’s difficult to imagine him having anything like the Abramovich budget to spend.

But aside from that, even if we believe he is so Special that he could pull it off in very little time and without much money, you have to ask yourself this: Having been forced to end his love affair with Chelsea because of an egotistical, meddling owner, would Jose Mourinho really want to come and work for Hicks, Gillett and Rick Parry?

Can you really see that happening? With all the media circus about our ownership saga and the issues with Parry, it’s hard to imagine Mourinho wanting to deal with this mess.

Who’s left? Rijkaard? Please spare me. Why would we want to abandon a coach who is figuring out the premiership and is making steady progress, to experiment with a man who is untested in the premiership and who’s style of play is so radically different from Rafa’s that he’d require a long transition period? And Rijkaard’s man-management is quite questionable (see the saga at Barca). One can only imagine what sort of relationship he’d have with our owners. The thought is quite frightening. I can see him quitting in mid-December.

In fact, most coaches would have quit a long time ago if they had to deal with our ownership situation. But Rafa hasn’t because (as he has repeatedly said) he wants to stay and win things. He is determined to be here for many more years, because he loves the city and the club.

So is the grass really greener on the other side? Understandably, people are frustrated that we haven’t done better this season, given our league position in December. But as I’ve said elsewhere, there’s a major learning curve to becoming champions. Nobody has ever done it over night – gone from not challenging to winning. Just about every title winning team first loses a title challenge and then builds on that learning experience before becoming champions.

I hope I’ve shown that it wouldn’t make sense to sack Rafa anytime soon because:

1) We are making steady progress under him – it takes time to build a championship winning team, and we’re moving steadily along the learning curve.

2) The alternatives aren’t that great – assuming any of them would want the job (a rather hefty assumption given the uncertainty in the boardroom), there are major question-marks as to whether any of them would do better than the man we have in charge.

3) Rafa has built an excellent core of players, with 2 great game changers and a strong supporting squad, with an excellent defensive core and CM strength. The addition of a few finishing touches, one more gamechanger on a par with Torres and Gerrard or Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney et al, and we’ll be right up there with – perhaps even ahead of – United.

Of course this is premature nonsense but who on the strength of yesterdays performance, would dare to disagree? It’s doesn’t look good however, some of the piffle that’s been spouted since the final whistle blew yesterday defies belief. Because we have dropped more home points and didn’t play that well that’s it. As if we are incapable of raising our game and going on a run. As if the Mancs performances have been so convincing that they won’t drop any points eh? Yep that’s it, it’s over, even with a further 36 points up for grabs and another game with the Mancs coming up? Why do people talk in this way? Every game seems to be given a misplaced short term significance even when, in the overall scheme of things, it may not?

I didn’t see the game yesterday so had to content myself with the brief evening highlights and Radio Five Lives’ ludicrous commentary. When is someone going to have a word with Alan Green? What a pompous, arrogant, self centred, self righteous man he is. Green’s job is to describe the action, to paint a picture of the game in the minds eye as it were, and give a degree of opinion. However, the “opinion” side is overdone and done in such a verbose, crashing way that it becomes painful and irritating listening. I don’t think for a minute Mr Green will read this but if he did I can hear him saying “tosh” but belittling players as he did with the likes of Dossena and Lucas is not “honest, telling it as it is” commentary it is simply snide, cheap, verbal, bullying.

Then we have the cowardly laughing of Mark Lawerenson in the background in a manner that suggests that when all is said and done, nothing can hold a candle to the football he played. He should know better but seems to have forgotten he was once a professional footballer or thinks he never had an off day. The lack of respect shown to players of the club he once played for is simply unforgivable. Implying that Dossena is overweight and that Lucas is no good because although he was born in Brazil, his parents are Albanian is simply crass ignorance. Did the BBC’s diversity section pack up after they’d dealt with Jonathon Ross? It’s very easy to slag players at the expense of insight, perspective, balance or even constructive criticism. Sadly however, the end result of such lazy, “cop out” behaviour is unpalatable, downright nasty, not to mention amateurish, “alehouse” commentary.

Rafa without Alonso and Gerrard drafted in Lucas and stuck Kuyt behind Torres. There seemed to be enough chances with Kuyt, Benayoun and Riera all going close however, perhaps the pressure of knowing that we had to win to maintain Saturday morning’s position got to us? Memories of the City game at Eastlands where we rallied and came back strongly were not rekindled.

Bellamy, after his deflected opener, turned around and made gestures to suggest that he wasn’t celebrating because of respect for his old club. Too little too late, you needn’t have bothered Craig. Kuyt’s equaliser from Torres’ scuffed shot gave some hope but on the whole we seemed to be bereft of inspiration. Benayoun crashed one against Given and the resulting action saw Dunne handle or did the ball hit his hand? Either way it was a struggle and what’s done is done.

So did we miss Gerrard and Alonso? Is the squad lacking creativity without them? Has Rafa got too many foot soldiers and not enough artists and not as much strength in depth as United? Has he himself made too many rash or curious decisions? No doubt all these questions will be asked as post mortems begin up and down the land but let’s hope rumours our demise are exaggerated? Perhaps I’m in denial and I agree, it doesn’t look good but remember, come backs have been our specialty this season!

Steven Gerrard will miss the City game with his hamstring injury, and a judgement will be made on Monday as to whether he can travel to Spain for Wednesday’s Champions League tie with Real Madrid.

Liverpool then have vital Premier League games at Middlesbrough next Saturday and at home to Sunderland on March 3 to be negotiated.

“Four games in the next few days will be a crucial time for us,” Benitez said.

First up are an erratic City, who have spent over £100million since the beginning of the season.

That does not bother Benitez as much as many other people.

He said: “I do not believe their money is changing the face of football, there are other teams who have spent big, big money this season too. There is not a massive difference.

“They will be dangerous opponents. It is not just the money, it is the fact that they have high-quality players.

“This is a crucial time for us with games in quick succession that can make a massive difference to whether we will be fighting for trophies at the end of the season.

“At this stage, you can only think of taking three points and then seeing how your rivals do. We cannot influence what happens to other teams so we must concentrate on our own job and see whether someone else loses a match or two.

“And Manchester City are dangerous opponents. Robinho, (Stephen) Ireland and (Craig) Bellamy are fine players. They can change games and we must not underestimate them.

“We had Craig with us last season and he has great pace and can be a match-winner. We know what he is capable of.”

Liverpool go into the match on the back of a dramatic late victory at Portsmouth in their last match.

Benitez was not slow to hit back at critics who ridiculed his team selection at Fratton Park.

The Spaniard, who will also be without the suspended Xabi Alonso tomorrow, said: “It was important that we won at Portsmouth in our last game, after a few disappointing draws.

“People were critical of my team selections, which I found very funny. We played really well, controlled the game and at the end we scored three goals with seven offensive players on the pitch.

“We showed determination and deserved the win. Maybe some of the commentators need to go to coaching school to understand what they are watching.”

The Wanderers boss has seen seven of his contemporaries lose their jobs this season, most recently Luis Felipe Scolari at Chelsea and Portsmouth’s Tony Adams.

Between them, the pair had racked up less than a year in charge of their respective clubs, and their departure reduced the average job expectancy of a top flight boss to just 15 months.

That means Megson is now a statistical anomaly. It has been 18 months since he walked through the doors to launch his rescue job at the Reebok.

And although the Whites boss says he is concrete proof that having several clubs on your CV no longer puts you at the back of the queue when opportunities come along, he claims an ever-decreasing shelf life is something managers have grown to accept.

“It has always been volatile,” he said. “After a kamikaze pilot, football managers have probably got the next best job security.

“Everyone accepts it, but moving on from a football club does not now have same stigma as it used to 25 years ago. I remember Harry Bassett saying that.

“You can lose your job if the chairman doesn’t like something, it doesn’t just have to be about results.”

The landscape has changed somewhat since Ian Porterfield became the first manager to be sacked in the Premier League, ironically at Stamford Bridge, 17 years ago.

In that time, the 20 current top flight clubs have got through an average of nine managers each. In employing just five – Roy MacFarland, Colin Todd, Sam Allardyce, Sammy Lee and Gary Megson, the seat at Wanderers is among the safest in town.

This week, managers have queued up to condemn trigger happy chairmen – the cynics might say with the same venom turkeys campaign against Christmas.

But Megson, who has sampled his fair share of boardroom battles in the past, maintains the view that the only thing that can save a manager is his players and the right measure of success.

“It makes me laugh how people say so-and-so is a good manager, or such-and-such is a good coach,” he said. “It is purely and simply down to the players you have got.

“What makes you a great manager is great players.

“You can have a three or five-year plan for a club but whether you get to that point is open to debate. You have to be successful in getting to that stage.

“People won’t accept that you have to wait for success.”

Expectation levels are an obstacle for any manager, and coming off the back of the Sam Allardyce era, Megson perhaps feels them more acutely than most. And what exactly would constitute success for Wanderers this season divides opinion among the supporters.

For any club, the first hurdle to scale is achieving safety. A top-10 finish seems to be the aim for those in the dressing room.

Megson is reticent about revealing his own targets but says similar expectations make for more success on the pitch.

“There needs to be a realisation of what that expectation should be,” he said.

“Here, I have spent more than any Bolton manager ever. But I have also sold more.

“If you look at the millions that have come in, there are more than the millions that have gone out.

“The wage bill is way down, the cost of running the club is way down, so we have to do these things and yet still try to be as successful as we can.

“They were all done for a reason – the situation we found ourselves in 18 months ago. So our expectation levels had to change as a result.”

Wanderers head into today’s home game against West Ham knowing victory could put them level on points with Fulham – who currently occupy the dressing room goal of 10th place.

Home form could well be the key in reaching that target, but Megson is careful about taking his eye off the ball.

“This season, the club that is bottom of the table is still in with a really good shout, and I mean rock-bottom,” he said “There have been times in the last few seasons when the bottom team has been right out at this stage.

“There are about 13 or 14 teams that can’t say they’re safe yet, but as the weeks go by that’s going to get less and less and we want to be one of those sides that drops out and ensures we stay up as quickly as we can. Then we can talk about other targets.”

New Chelsea coach Guus Hiddink says he is not interested in reports that the dressing room was divided before his arrival at Stamford Bridge.

Player discontent is thought to have played a role in the dismissal of his predecessor, Luiz Felipe Scolari.

“I don’t want to know about the past – I am here to go forward,” said Hiddink.

“People have said Chelsea had problems but I’m not aware of them. I have watched the team and I cannot see that there is division, or whatever.”

A delegation of senior players, including Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack and Petr Cech, were reported to have been unhappy with former boss Scolari’s training methods, while captain John Terry recent admitted only “two or three” players were fully behind the Brazilian.

Drogba subsequently suggested that Scolari had “divided” the dressing room rather than uniting it by going public with his criticisms of the squad.

Hiddink took over as temporary coach until the end of the season following Scolari’s dismissal on 9 February.

And he added: “I notice how people behave and how people get on with each other or not, but in my view there is no problem in that.

“I have watched the team from a little distance on the training ground and in the locker room over the last few days and I cannot see that there is division, or whatever.

“I am not totally naive and I wanted to see whether anything which has been said about the recent past is true.

“But you can see when you play games in training whether the players get emotional. You cannot mask things then – you show your emotions and show whether you get at a certain player or whatever.

“But I haven’t seen that. They respect each other. From what I have noticed, they are a united squad.

“They are 20-plus players, and I am realistic enough to know that everyone from number one to 11 will be very happy but the rest will want to play. But they know they are in a big club and that not everyone can play.”

The former Real Madrid and PSV Eindhoven manager re-iterated that he was only a temporary appointment at Stamford Bridge, and was fully committed to his other job as coach of the Russian national team.

He said he had only taken the job because of the special relationship between the Russian Football Union and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.

Ray Wilkins took charge of Chelsea in last week’s FA Cup win over Watford, and Hiddink said he was taking the advice of the former Chelsea midfielder as he got to know his new players.

“From a distance you know the players, especially those who are dominating for many years at international level, but for me it’s important to know the less-known players and their place in the squad,” said the Dutchman.

“That’s what I’ve done in the last days and my very respected colleague Ray Wilkins has given me a lot of very good information about the players I don’t know that well.

“This is a squad of 20 players – I’m realistic enough that 1-11 will be happy to play, from 12 they like to play but they know they are in a big club and know how when needed to contribute to the team.”

And despite only being a temporary appointment, Hiddink made it clear he was keen to achieve as much with the team as he could during his time in charge.

“Chelsea are 10 points down on Manchester United (in the Premier League) which will be very difficult, but we must and will give it a try.

“In the other two competitions (the FA Cup and Champions League) we are of course in the race which is why it’s a challenge.

“I’m not just here to pass the time until the end of the season – that’s not what’s in my mind.”

There was hope earlier in the week that Gerrard could be on the bench this weekend, but manager Rafael Benitez today confirmed he will not figure.

“Steven will not be ready for this game. We don’t know if he’ll be back for the game in midweek but clearly he will not be involved against City,” said the boss.

“I spoke to him five minutes ago and he has confidence he will be back for Madrid, but we will decide on Monday.

“He is improving but we cannot take any risks, so he won’t be in the squad this weekend.”

Gerrard and Philipp Degen apart, Benitez reports no fresh injury worries for Sunday’s game.

Manchester United beat Blackburn 2-0 in this corresponding fixture last season with 2 goals from Ronaldo and repeated that score line 2-0 victory at Ewood Park earlier this season.

The current Premier League leaders are on their best form of the season and have won 11 successive games at Old Trafford, making this a daunting task for lowly Blackburn, especially as The Rovers haven’t won away from home in nine games since beating Newcastle 2-1 at St James’ Park.

However, despite defeat in their last match, Blackburn are on improving form in general and as a Lancashire derby, they will be trying their best to prevent Manchester United notching up another victory at their expense.

The reigning champions seem to be building momentum, and with Dimitar Berbatov hitting some kind of goal scoring form (with 5 goals in his last 8 matches), the return of Wayne Rooney and the home crowd behind them; and despite the good form of Benni McCarthy and Jason Roberts with 8 goals in the last 7 games between them (4 each), the Red Devils will go into this encounter as strong favourites for victory.