AUG 28 — You can’t win the league in August, as the saying goes, though not as widely known is the fact that a team can lose the league at this stage of the season.
The next few days, I believe, can make or break a club’s hopes of conquest in the English Premier League.
Tottenham Hotspurs, for instance, will now have to face reality. They just cannot afford to keep Dimitar Berbatov.
Economics will tell you that letting the Bulgarian rot in the reserves, as threatened, is a big no-no. Not only will Spurs be forking out a huge wage bill every week but they will also see the player’s value drop dramatically.
It would be best to just accept the ?25 million (RM155 million) that Manchester United are reportedly ready to offer. Though it is less than what Spurs are willing to accept, it is still the best opportunity cost.
This will help Spurs to speed up their hunt for a hitman upfront too. Latest reports have it that Roman Paylenchenko is poised to move to
Should the signing take place, then at least Spurs will add much-needed bite to their attack which has been disastrous of late, resulting in them playing David Bentley everywhere but on the right side of midfield.
Perhaps Juande Ramos mistook the club’s ambition in competing with archrivals Arsenal. He has taken it a bit too far by trying to compete with Arsene Wenger. Both the gaffers have been fielding players way out of their position so far this season.
What on earth was on Wenger's mind when he let Emmanuel Eboue, a right-sided player by nature, partner lightweight Denilson in the two central midfield positions? Yes, Cesc Fabregas was not available therefore a makeshift midfield was necessary but surely there were other suitable players.
Alexander Helb and Mathieu Flamini have left for, perhaps, greener pastures but what has Wenger done to replace them? He has come out saying his team is strong enough.
The Arsenal board must be the happiest bunch of businessmen in the world. In contrast to every other football club in the known universe, they have a manager who does not want to spend money and in fact makes a healthy profit from the sale of existing players.
We are led to believe that the likes of Carlos Vela and Aaron Ramsey will be the new faces to ignite the team and that Denilson would step up to the mark.
However, Wenger does not seem to have enough faith in Ramsey and instead takes a gamble in playing Eboue out of position. Denilson has struggled to make any sort of impact and Vela didn't even make the bench.
I really don't think managers like Jose Mourinho, Alex Ferguson or Luis Felipe Scolari would have allowed Denilson to play the whole game against Fulham.
While all this has been going on,
It would be a shame if we have to see Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips, who could be on his way back to
Roman Abrahamovic and his new tool Scolari are bent on turning
Not to be nasty or anything, but just that buying a winning team overnight is not the way the game was meant to be played.
This weekend's football action is sure to be over-shadowed by the transfer window deadline on Monday, but there are some interesting fixtures that will be played.
The first will be Blackburn Rovers’ visit to Upton Park where West Ham will be looking to bounce back from an embarrassing 3-0 loss to
In my view,
The match of the week has to be the game at
The transfer window will be closing on Sept 1 as Aug 31 falls on a Sunday. Will there be last-minute moves like the seasons before? Will Arsenal sign a much needed holding (defensive) midfielder? Will Berbatov follow his dream or rot in the reserves?
Whatever the outcome, surely these will be defining moments for the respective clubs involved.
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