Battle lines drawn at Anfield

Hicks and Gillett, probably the two most hated figures in Liverpool right now (and maybe even across the globe, considering Liverpool’s fan base) are trying to keep control of a club that clearly doesn’t want them anymore.

Confuzzled as hell

Yesterday, two bids came in for Liverpool FC. One allegedly from New England Sports Ventures (the same company that owns the Boston Red Sox) and another one from Asia. The club have declared both these bids as “excellent financial offers”.

Meanwhile during yesterday’s board meeting, the American owners Hicks and Gillett tried to remove two of the clubs board members – Commercial Director Ian Ayre and Managing Director Christian Purslow. Chairman Martin Broughton, brought in to oversee the sale of the club, has appointed the legal firm Slaughter & May to prove the illegality of this decision under the Companies Act.

The owners seek to replace these two board members with Mack Hicks (Hicks’ son) and Lori Kay McCutcheon, a Vice President at Hicks’ Holdings.

Purslow - removed by the Yanks

The meeting was called to discuss the two bids that were received by the club. And after the meeting, a joint statement from Hicks and Gillett was received

“In April, we confirmed our agreement to sell Liverpool Football Club, and appointed a new chairman and advisers to oversee the process.

At that time we and Martin Broughton stated our commitment to finding the right buyer for LFC, one that could support and sustain the club in the future. We remain committed to that goal.

The owners have invested more than $270 million in cash into the club, and during their tenure revenues have nearly doubled, investment in players has increased and the club is one of the most profitable in the EPL.

As such, the board has been presented with offers that we believe dramatically undervalue the club.

To be clear, there is no change in our commitment to finding a buyer for Liverpool Football Club at a fair price that reflects the very significant investment we’ve made.

We will however, resist any attempt to sell the club without due process or agreement by the owners.”

Clearly the American owners are not happy with the valuation of the two bids received, and if the legal team appointed by Broughton fails to prove that their removal of the Managing Director and the Commercial Director is illegal, then Americans will have no problem blocking the two bids.

October 15th is set as the deadline for the repayment of the 282 million pounds loans from Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia.

The Liverpool FC statement after the meeting was as follows –

“The Board of Directors have received two excellent financial offers to buy the club that would repay all its long-term debt. A board meeting was called today to review these bids and approve a sale. Shortly prior to the meeting, the owners – Tom Hicks and George Gillett – sought to remove Managing Director Christian Purslow and Commercial Director Ian Ayre from the Board, seeking to replace them with Mack Hicks and Lori Kay McCutcheon.

“This matter is now subject to legal review and a further announcement will be made in due course.

“Meanwhile Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre continue to explore every possible route to achieving a sale of the Club at the earliest opportunity.”

Liverpool fans meanwhile stepped up efforts to oust the Americans from Anfield with the release of the video “Dear Mr Hicks“

A round up of the weekends action and assorted knick knacks

Dear fellow football crazy people,

This weekends action has not been the best if you’re a fan of any of the so called big four (no, City not included) unless you’re a Chelsea fan that is.

Arsenal get the Blues

The biggest fixture of the weekend ended 2-0 in the favour of the champions. Goals from Didier Drogba and an absolutely stunning free kick from Alex ensured that the Champions won comfortably against a depleted Arsenal side.

Arsenal didn’t look too bad though, especially in the second half, Chelsea were under the cosh a lot but Arsenal didn’t manage to finish. Final ball lacking? Perhaps its because of the absence of both Fabregas and Van Persie. One thing is for sure, Arsene Wenger wouldn’t have gone to Stamford Bridge expecting a win.

Check out the highlights

http://www.mysoccerplace.net/video/video/show?id=2413390:Video:205120&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_video

Sunderland steamrolled United, but the final score was 0-0

Off to the Stadium of Light where Steve Bruce almost got his first win over Sir Alex. But it was not to be. United managed to hold on and keep a clean sheet. The worrying thing about the United team was that there was absolutely no creativity in the squad.

Almost - but not quite

Scholes was back for this fixture after missing out against Valencia and was kept really quiet in my personal opinion because United not only lack a (young, before you point out Scholes) creative midfielder, but also lack a good defensive midfielder. Fletcher is a good midfielder, but isn’t a defensive midfielder, he likes to get forward and make runs into the box and he’s useful to have because he tracks back and gets a good tackle in. But there’s isn’t anybody who’ll just sit and play the square balls to Scholes and Fletcher who then drive the team forward.

I don’t really subscribe to the policy of playing Scholes deeper either, we all know he’s not a great tackler and is very susceptible to get carded. So for the sake of my Fantasy Football team and also for the betterment of United I hope Sir Alex plays Scholes in a more advanced position.

And also, I’m just going to talk about Nani for a bit. He always does his best when the pressure is on him. Even if he’s trying to cross the ball, if he has three players next to him, he’ll put in a brilliant cross. When he has acres of space, he’ll cross it right into the keepers hands. And for God’s sake, PLEASE stay on your feet! Losing Valencia is clearly a big blow for United’s season.

Bebe came on. I just had to add it as an afterthought.

Sunderland should have actually won the game, but they failed to take their chances. Its heartening to see that United aren’t conceding goals, but I hope that they also realize that you need to score atleast one to win a game.

Trouble at Merseyside

After getting knocked out by Northampton at home, you would expect Liverpool would try not to lose to another small club (with no offence to Blackpool). Well, they didn’t learn their lesson clearly and things are troubled at Merseyside.

One of the hazards of maintaining an all round football blog is visiting Blogs of other teams (Arsenal, Chelsea and even Liverpool and City). Most of the posters on Liverpool’s blogs aren’t too happy with the way Roy Hodgson is handling things.

I like Roy Hodgson, but lets be clear, I wouldn’t be too happy if he was managing United. And he does seem pretty clueless at times as to where to play his midfield trio of Gerrard, Meireles and Poulsen.

Then again, the other side of the coin is that he’s inherited a crap team, some really crap players and he’s just come in, its bound to take time for him to change things. Also they really didn’t have an easy fixtures list for sure.

Fans are all calling for Kenny Dalglish to be appointed as manager of Liverpool and sack Hodgson, which doesn’t seem very unlikely if their recent results continue.

Anfield - A crazy place to be

Credit to Blackpool for their win.

Elsewhere on Merseyside, Everton registered their first win over Bimingham which meant that Ben Foster dropped points in my Fantasy Premier League team (Yes, I’m slightly obsessed about it)

League Table after this weekend

P	Team	Pld	GD	Pts
1	Chelsea	7	21	18
2	Manchester City	7	6	14
3	Man Utd	7	7	13
4	Arsenal	7	7	11
5	Tottenham	7	2	11
6	WBA	7	-3	11
7	Stoke City	7	-1	10
8	Aston Villa	7	-3	10
9	Blackpool	7	-4	10
10	Fulham	7	1	9
11	Sunderland	7	0	8
12	Bolton	7	-1	8
13	Blackburn	7	-1	8
14	Wigan Athletic	7	-9	8
15	Newcastle	7	0	7
16	Birmingham	7	-3	7
17	Everton	7	-1	6
18	Liverpool	7	-4	6
19	Wolves	7	-5	5
20	West Ham Utd	7	-9	5

Brazil

We decided to save the best for the last.Brazil,arguably the most popular international team on the planet enter yet another world cup as favourites to lift the trophy. But this Brazil side under Dunga is different from the teams we have seen in the past. Dunga has really got them playing as a team. This is a lot more balanced side than the one that participated in 2006.

Dung has made some strange decisions though in terms of squad selection. I really have no idea why Alex Pato wasn’t picked. Also there is a big debate around the exclusion of Ronaldinho. Some say that if you pick Ronaldinho you will have to start as a player of such status should not be on the bench and might create problems. As far as I am concerned if the manager is strong enough it really is not an issue. Where will the creativity come from if Kaka gets injured? Ronaldinho or Pato should have been selected ahead of  someone like Julio Baptista. But having said that Dunga has done well with these current set of players so it might work in Africa too.

The spine of this Brazilian team is really strong.In Julio Cesar they have a top top keeper. He is right up there with the best. He is a brilliant shot stopper and his distribution is excellent too. And also they have Lucio who is an beast of a defender.He is arguably the most dominating centreback out there (just ask Didier Drogba).He is supported by juan who enjoyed a great season with roma. At right back they have Maicon who is without doubt the best right back in the world. His crossing is absolutely brilliant and his defending is top notch too. They also have Daniel Alves who could play there but Dunga prefers to use him in midfield at times. Michel Bastos plays at left back for them.

Lucio - pastimes include kicking Drogba's ass

I wonder how often a brazilian side has lined up with two defensive midfielders. The system adopted by Dunga is similar to the one Mourinho used at inter this season where Cambiasso and Motta played as the two holding midfielders. The 4-2-3-1 has worked really well for them so far. Gilberto Silva and Felipe Melo are the two defensive midfielders for Brazil. It has to be seen though whether Gilberto who is 33 can have the kind of  impact that he used to earlier. Felipe Melo recently won the ‘Golden Bin Award’ for the worst signing of the season.. I think this is where Brazil might struggle.

Swift counter attacks is the hallmark of this Brazilian side. Check out this stunning goal Robinho scored against U.S.A in the conferations cup http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLDGuT2g90w. There is a lot of responsibility on Kaka’s shoulders. He hasn’t enjoyed a great season with Real Madrid and will be looking to prove a point. Change in Brazil’s formation has certainly helped as he has performed a lot better for Brazil under Dunga. The other two creative players are Elano and Robinho. Robinho is very unpredictable. On his day he can be outstanding. But at times he can be real liability with his laziness. Dunga like his attacking players to close down opponents quickly and it will be interesting to see whether Robinho does that.

Point to prove - Kaka

Luis Fabiano will be the lone striker upfront. Brazil have always had great strikers. Pele, Romario and Ronaldo to name a few.  Fabiano is nowhere near that level but he has been really impressive for Brazil. His workrate is excellent and 25 goals in 36 appearances is pretty good record. Nilmar and Grafite are the other two strikers and Brazil will hope Fabiano can stay fit and fire all cylinders.

Squad

Brazil squad: Goalkeepers: Julio Cesar (Inter Milan), Doni (AS Roma), Gomes (Tottenham Hotspur)

Defenders: Maicon (Inter Milan), Daniel Alves (Barcelona), Michel Bastos (Olympique Lyon), Gilberto (Cruzeiro), Lucio (Inter Milan), Juan (AS Roma), Luisao (Benfica), Thiago Silva (AC Milan)

Midfielders: Gilberto Silva (Panathinaikos), Felipe Melo (Juventus), Ramires (Benfica), Elano (Galatasaray), Kaka (Real Madrid), Julio Baptista (Roma), Kleberson (Flamengo), Josue (VfL Wolfsburg).

Forwards: Robinho (Santos), Luis Fabiano (Sevilla), Nilmar (Villarreal), Grafite (VfL Wolfsburg).

Expected line up

Julio Cesar

Maicon        Lucio         Juan          Bastos

Melo            Gilberto

Robinho         Elano          Kaka

Fabiano

Prediction- To be honest I have not been really impressed with this current brazilian side. They are in a really tough group but they should still qualify for the knockout stages. I will be very surprised if they manage to make it into the final.

Italy

Truth be told, it is very difficult to predict what sort of line up Marcello Lippi will put out for Italy in the World Cup. In the friendlies, they have tried out the 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 and the 4-4-2 and Lippi has apparently tried even more systems in training. He’s going to keep trying until they get the right formation.

Italy has an amazing goalkeeper in Buffon. Nobody can really question the guy’s ability and I’m not going to either. Their defence is shaky – they conceded two against Mexico, one against the Swiss as well. This doesn’t look like the same Italian defence that conceded only from a penalty and an own goal last time around. Chiellini will start as center back and will partner Cannavaro, who recently engineered for himself a move to Dubai – which in his own words was a “dream” move. The ageing Zambrotta will start and that’s a little worrying because he’s prone to mistakes and can be easily exploited by a quick winger. The attack minded Christian Maggio will mostly start on the right for the reigning World Champions.

Heading to the toughest league in the world - Cannavaro

Midfield is a little more interesting. Andrea Pirlo will be missing the game against Paraguay most likely but he should be back for the rest. He’ll definitely have a place in the starting eleven when he’s back from injury. Montolivo is there during Pirlo’s absence and himself a decent player. Cossu has been flown out and played against the Swiss. He’s the 24^th man for the Italians. De Rossi should start and hopefully this time around he won’t elbow anyone. He’s a very talented player and isn’t afraid to shoot once in a while.

Camoranesi will also be mostly picked as he’s favoured by Lippi. Marchisio is an option Lippi has and his versatility can be used if at all Lippi wants to change the system.

Di Natale should start up front. He’s had a fantastic season for Udinese and he’s scored nearly 30 goals. They have okay strikers otherwise. Quagliarella can pull something out of nothing at times, but he isn’t very consistent when doing this. Iaquinta too, is an okay player, but nothing extraordinary. Gilardino has been in good form for Fiorentina and if you need anyone to dive, well you have him. He has certainly improved from his Milan days. Pazzini was tried out by Lippi in one of the friendlies but I don’t think he will start.

Swooping in for the kill - Di Natale

Cassano was the surprise exclusion from Marcello Lippi’s squad and I’m sure he feels that he deserves to be in South Africa. The best part about Cassano is that he’s versatile. He can lead the forward line and can play on the wings as well.

Italy won the World Cup thanks to a solid defense last time around. I really don’t think their defense is even close to what it was four years back. Cannavaro is way past his prime and Chiellini will have to pull a miracle if they do come up against good teams.

Sadly, there isn’t too much I can say about the Italian team. This is sad because they’re World Champions. However, one thing is that they’ve done well at most international tournaments, even at Euro 08 where they held Spain to a 0-0 draw and eventually lost on penalties. They’re a side to look out for, even though the players are pretty much the same from last world cup, they’re not the same team, if you get what I’m saying.

Squad –

Goalkeepers

Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Morgan De Sanctis (Napoli), Federico Marchetti (Cagliari)

Defenders

Gianluca Zambrotta (Milan), Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Christian Maggio (Napoli), Leonardo Bonucci (Bari), Domenico Criscito (Genoa), Salvatore Bocchetti (Genoa)

Midfielders

Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan), Gennaro Gattuso (Milan), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Angelo Palombo (Sampdoria), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Simone Pepe (Udinese)

Forwards

Fabio Quagliarella (Napoli), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina), Giampaolo Pazzini (Sampdoria)

Predictions – Italy are in a relatively easy group. They’re paired with Slovakia, New Zealand and Paraguay. Realistically speaking Paraguay should be the only team that challenges them in the group stages. If they do make it out of the group stages, they could play Netherlands, Denmark, Cameroon or Japan. Realistically, we can say that they’ll either play Netherlands or Denmark (Cameroon have an outside chance). They’ll struggle against the Dutch and probably against Denmark as well who have had a very good qualifying campaign. I don’t expect the Champions to go beyond the quarter finals stage.

Expected Line Up (Like I mentioned earlier, Lippi is all secretive about his line up, so this is at best, an educated guess) –

Buffon

Maggio         Chiellini        Cannavaro      Zambrotta

Pirlo                         De Rossi                Camoranesi

Marchisio              Gilardino                   Di Natale

The Beautiful Game

We’ve been living with football as an integral part of our life the past few years. We’re just two guys who are crazy about The Beautiful Game. To us, football is an art form. And we stick by the belief that footballers are artists. There are lesser known artists and there are the more famous ones, much like any other art form.

We have been planning to launch this blog for about 3 years now but never actually got down to doing it. Now with (arguably) the biggest footballing event in the world coming up, we’ve decided to finally do it.

The first few posts will concern the top teams that are playing in the World Cup. Expect entries on the chances of Spain, Holland, Brazil, Argentina, England, France, Germany and Italy.

Two people write this blog. I hope you enjoy reading.

PS – We understand that talking about football can stir up a lot of emotions. I hope you refrain from abusing the (respected) authors of this blog. Any abusive comments will be deleted. No abusing footballers either (except Liverpool FC footballers). Okay, I’m joking about the Liverpool bit.

Keshav