My Thoughts of the Season Thus Far Part I

Friday, 23rd October 2009 at 12:10pm

As we pass into November, the football season is now well underway. There have been a number of big surprises already in the 2008/09 season, in what can be described as world sport's biggest rollercoaster ride. Football is such an unpredictable game. Few would have predicted that Tottenham Hotspur would have made such a shocking start to the season, even after the sale of Keane and Berbatov and not many more would have gambled their hard earned money on England having a 100% record after four World Cup Qualifying matches, given how poorly they had performed in the friendly matches that preceded them. But, as much as these events may have taken us back, the biggest and most pleasant surprise have been the performances from the Tigers of Hull City.

In an earlier blog, I predicted that as one of the newcomers to the Premier League, Hull City would struggle to cope with the step up in class. I am also sure that I wasn't alone in my belief and it has been a joy to see those words be rammed back down my throat by a team with a young, enterprising manager determined to play attacking football with a view to winning games and not simply avoiding defeat. For about twenty four hours on the 25th October, Hull City stood at the top of the league along with heavyweights, Chelsea and Liverpool as a result of their astonishing start. It is widely believed that it takes about forty points to survive in the Premiership and the Tigers achieved half that total after just nine games.

Manager Phil Brown has added thirteen players to his squad that achieved promotion and it has paid dividends. He has also given the players a license to play and they have repaid his faith in them tenfold which culminated in a deserved manager of the month award. Their recent three nil defeat by Chelsea brought an end to a four match winning streak which included a memorable win at the Emirates Stadium and a week later a victory over the Gunner's north London rivals Tottenham which both featured wonder goals from Brazilian Giovanni.

Pundits have predicted that "Hull's bubble will burst" and after suffering three succesive defeats they will feel vindicated. These last three matches have halted their charge but Brown firmly believes that Hull can remain in the top flight, stating, "We'll just have to blow another bubble." After seeing the start they have made so far, I would wager that many would be inclined to believe that's exactly what they will do.

Proceeding without Direction.

Directors of Football have been a major issue of late and it seems that the continental system doesn't seem to work in English football. Personally, I don't see why clubs feel the need to employ them unless they feel their manager isn't up to the task of buying players for the team. If this is the case then surely they have employed the wrong manager. It would be hard to imagine, Bill Shankly, Sir Matt Busby, Jock Stein and Brian Clough, all legends of the game, working without control of player recruitment. It simply wouldn't have happened.

The two obvious cases have been at Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur. With the former, it prompted Kevin Keegan to resign and at the latter, manager Juande Ramos was undermined by the transfer policy at White Hart Lane and its hierarchy. At Newcastle a players were signed without Kevin Keegan's knowledge. How is a manager supposed to fit a player into a side when he had no desire to sign him and doesn't know what qualities he does or doesn't have? It would be hard to imagine that Sir Alex Ferguson would have been at Manchester United for as long as he has unless he had complete control and wasn't being undermined by someone with less knowledge about players than he has.

In Ramos' case he was hampered by the sales of Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov, the latter being at the end of deadline day and not having direct replacements. What seems hard to believe is that Spurs didn't expect Berbatov to leave the club. Chairman Daniel Levy, quite rightly, dug his heels in over the price but why was Damien Commoli not approaching targets before the inevitable sale. Furthermore why wait until the last second to sign Pavlyuchenko for Robbie Keane, who had been sold well before the window shut. I believe it played a large part in costing the likeable Ramos' job. His record proves he's a good manager and I hope he will be given a chance to prove it again soon. But here's a lesson for the clubs; leave the signing of players to managers, simply because, it's their job.

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