Randoms

The UEFA 2007 Awards in Monaco. From L to R: John Terry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Frank Lampard and Petr Cech.

And so what an interesting week in football it has been, what with the very first Premier League managerial casualties and the World Cup qualifiers this weekend.

1. Alan Curbishley became the first Premier League manager to resign, citing his unhappiness at players being sold without his consent (namely Anton Ferdinad and George McCartney to Sunderland) and the loss of power over transfer dealings. He was followed out of the exit door shortly by 'King Kev' (Kevin Keegan), barely eight months into his second stint at St. James' Park; who resigned after bitter showdown talks that led to him issuing an ultimatum to either fire sports director Dennis Wise or risk losing him. Mike Ashley refused to see sense so guess who had to go. The reaction was fast and furious among the Toon Army, who were stunned to see their 'Messiah' leave. One front page story was that a 20-something Newcastle fan hurled his season pass and Magpies T-Shirt into the river, vowing that he would never support the club again. The players meanwhile staged a revolt when it was leaked that the entire first 11 were up for sale. The Sun newspaper was inundated with texts and emails from fans denouncing Ashley and Wise, and demanding that the entire board be replaced and leave Newcastle for good. Ouch. For now, frontrunners for the vacant job at Upton Park are Roberto Donadoni and Slaven Bilic. For Newcastle, Gus Poyet (assistant manager at White Hart Lane) has been mentioned while Geordies legend Alan Shearer has meanwhile ruled himself out of the rat race.

The Magpies' crisis will have more serious implications however, because this would probably lead to all the players loyal to Keegan handing in transfer requests come the January transfer window. The biggest loss will probably be Michael Owen, who has yet to pen a new contract that at St. James' Park and come January, he will be free to talk to other clubs as his contract expires next summer. Many pundits feel that Owen will probably leave the club after such a betrayal of trust. For West Ham, Curbishley was never really beloved by the Upton Park faithful mainly because they never wanted to see him take over from Alan Pardew in 2006, and there was always a sense of underachievement. Frankly speaking, Curbishley has done a good job: saving them from relegation on the very last day of the 2006/2007 season, and steering them to mid-table stability last season. Well, their loss anyway.

2. I forgot to congratulate dear Frankie for winning UEFA Midfielder of the Year! Wow, congrats for beating off stiff competition from the likes of Steven Gerrard, Francesc Fabregas and others. Viva La Blues for making it almost a clean sweep of awards this year, with Petr Cech being named Goalie of the Year and John Terry winning Defender of the Year. Personally though, I felt that perhaps Edwin van der Sar deserved the award for his heroics in the penalty shoot-out but Cech is a good choice nonetheless. Needless to say, C-Ron was crowned Forward and Player of the Year. Wished I could wipe that stupid smirk on his face at the awards though.

3. Poor Scotland made a dismal start to their World Cup campaign crashing to a 1-0 defeat to lowly Macedonia. The Scots, who were feeling (pardon the pun!) under the weather in the blistering heat fell behind to a 5th minute goal from a corner kick due to some slack defending. They recovered in the second half but never managed to push for an equaliser. I managed to watch the second half of Wales vs Azerbajian though. The Azerbajian goalkeeper, Kamran Agayev impressed, shutting out MOTM Gareth Bale's free-kick and making a stunning double save from a Jason Koumas penalty and the subsequent rebound. However, a misunderstanding in the penalty area among the Azerbajian defense led to Sam Vokes (Wolverhampton) scoring his first international goal in the 84th minute to give Wales their first victory. A card-happy referee (4 yellows and 1 red in the second half alone!) and some bad calls from the 4th official marred the game however. Gareth Bale got a yellow card for taking a free-kick before the whistle was blown, Jason Koumas was also cautioned for kicking the ball out of the stadium in frustration while the the opposition goalie was also shown a yellow for yelling at his teammates before a corner kick. (?) Even worse, during the penalty, the fourth official did not raise the flag and signal for a retake when Agayev went out at least 1m from his line as Koumas was about to take the spot kick. The reason? The commentator said he worked in Azerbajian before or something like that LOL.

Have yet to see England's result over Andorra. Verdict on that sometime later during the week. The real test however will be the trip to Zagreb sometime later this week. Can Croatia make it 3/3 victories?