Fixture Failings

Well the season is barely over and here we are already issued the fixtures for next season. While UEFA,CONCACAF and South America further drain the players of much needed rest with their bi-annual, meaningless tournaments.

The UEFA U-21 Championships being particularly useless. If you have a Championship every 2 years what is the point? The players used 2 years ago are still not yet established in their various club sides and barely cracking the nod at full International level and here comes another raft of 20 players to fasttrack! These tournaments are devisive and serve no purpose whatsoever due to their frequency. Belarus,Iceland,Switzerland,Denmark,Czech Rep,Ukraine,Spain and England. Only the last 2 of those are from Europe's top tier of football nations. Where are Germany,France,Italy, Holland etc,all knocked out or more likely not interested.

The Gold Cup another bi-annual waste of time (Mexico meet Honduras in one of the semi's) Hardly quality stuff there. South America are about to start the Copa America for its 8000th running! Honestly who cares who wins these if you have it every 2 years? All you do is end up with poor quality football and tired players for the start of next season.

FIFA complain about too much football yet they are the ones creating the issues. 2 International dates a month? That means a player can get 100 caps in about 5 to 6 years of playing for their country. Yet someone like Kenny Dalglish took close to 15 years to achieve that and that was when Scotland were qualifing regularly for World Cups. Its all diluted and as a result is a waste of time.

The Euro U21 has been particularly poor. I have watched some of the games and Spain look decent. England have Sturridge,Smalling and Jones. Denmark, Eriksen and Switzerland Shaqiri. Thats it as far as quality goes. Even at this level its all about systems and shape. When are the players allowed to express themselves. Utter nonsense.

Henderson is like Steve Sidwell completely anonymous and unnoticeable. Hopeful we will see something else from him otherwise we have wasted 16 million on a mediocre player, which is what I think he is..

So to the fixtures once again, we get a somewhat short straw at the start of season. Bearling mind Liverpool have run the gambit of 2nd to 6th over the last 8 years or so, you would reasonably expect a variation in our fixtures. Policing and clashes with Everton fixtures considered. But no, here we are with Arsenal yet again in the first 2-3 games. Thats 9 times in the last 12 seasons we have played either Arsenal,Chelsea or ManUre in the 1st games of a new season.

So we have away trips to The Emirates,The Britannia,White Hart Lane and Goodison in the 1st 8 games. Hardly the recipe for improving our away day woes. Still it could have been worse. ManUre play everyone in the top 6 in the 1st 8 games (all at home) so they could really be in trouble or be so far ahead the rest of us can go home.Wigan have been handed a decent start playing the the 3 promoted clubs 1st up and they dont play a top team for the about 8 or 9 games.Early season 6 pointers for them. They could be off to a flyer.

As to transfers, it seems that the worst kept secret that Marveaux was coming to us was a done done deal was indeed fantasy after he signed for Newcastle. No news on the Charlie Adam front. Zapata looks promising although it seems that unless we spend £17mill we dont seem to be able to sign anyone! Still no left back in sight and Fulham dont want Konchesky back.Martin Jol's 1st masterstroke at the Cottage!

Still no wingers to be seen either. Lets hope Mr Comolli is more successful in his quest otherwise dont really see the point of him. We are linked with about 10 new players daily, obviously the journo's are getting their info from somewhere, seems to be very scattergun approach at this stage.

We need to get the balance right and ensure we bring in quality who can hit the ground running especially with the start we have. Cant afford to have lost 2 or 3 games by the time we face MaUre on the 15/16th of October. I dont think the PL will be like last season at all. No way can the top six teams be as bad again away from home and lets be honest the 3 new clubs are weaker than the teams we have lost.

Lets see what the next few weeks oftransfer madness holds.

YNWA

P.S. Have you seen the 3rd kit for next year? Lets hope we only wear it on League Cup nights.Its hideous. Bearing in mind we have no European competition do we really need 3 kits???? I am sensing exploitation here.