Bleacher Report - Articles by Jacob Steinberg

Fernando Torres Was Just Too Hot To Handle For West Ham

Jacob Steinberg — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:15:52 -0400

As Nemanja Vidic found out in Manchester United’s 4-1 defeat to Liverpool last March, Fernando Torres has the ability to reduce even the best defender to a gibbering wreck. The Liverpool striker gave the previously impenetrable United defence a hounding from which they have not yet truly recovered. Arsenal, Chelsea, Inter and Real Madrid have suffered similarly at the feet of Torres.

So West Ham should not be too down-hearted after becoming the latest team to fall victim of Torres’s brilliance. He scored twice in Liverpool’s 3-2 win at Upton Park on Saturday, and ultimately was the difference between the two sides. That is usually the case with world-class attackers though, and even the best-laid plans implemented to deal with them can be made to look foolishly futile.

Torres has haunted West Ham before. In March 2008, he scored an effortless hat-trick in a 4-0 home win for Liverpool, while he had a hand in Steven Gerrard’s two goals at Upton Park in May this year. He will probably be back to haunt them again, but teams of West Ham’s stature should not judge their progress by how well they cope with a Fernando Torres. At best, it is a pointlessly self-flagellating exercise.

James Tomkins was made to look particularly hopeless by Torres when he scored his first. The young defender was isolated against the Spaniard on the left side of the area. A feint inside followed by enough stepovers to make those of Cristiano Ronaldo look positively prudent and Torres was away. Although Matthew Upson came across to cover and Robert Green appeared to have closed the angle, Torres’s poked blast with his right foot into the near corner took everyone by surprise. It was a quite majestic piece of forward play.

What had preceded the move, however, was not quite so brilliant. West Ham had cheaply given the ball away in midfield when trying to counter-attack after a Liverpool corner, before it was funnelled forward to Torres, making the goal essentially avoidable. Sloppiness has been the story of West Ham’s two home games so far this season. Tottenham punished errors by Carlton Cole and Jonathan Spector when they emerged with a somewhat fortunate 2-1 victory.

That is the danger against the elite. They afford little time or space, thereby forcing mistakes, and they are potent enough to capitalise on them. It is unlikely, for instance, that when Fulham come to Upton Park in two weeks, the likes of Bobby Zamora and Andy Johnson will be as clinical as Torres or Jermain Defoe. A misplaced place then will not receive so much scrutiny.

Liverpool’s winner on Saturday was a triumph for their pressing game, Glen Johnson picking the pocket of a tired Zavon Hines thirty yards from West Ham’s goal, before Ryan Babel crossed the ball for Torres to beat Tomkins in the air and head past Green. Babel had been introduced in place of the more prosaic Dirk Kuyt by Rafael Benitez to run at a tiring West Ham defence and the substitution paid dividends. The physical and mental strain of holding off a top team can take its toll, and West Ham eventually hit the wall that long-distance runners often refer to.

Had Upson and Valon Behrami not been forced off by injury in the first half, West Ham would have been fresher as the game progressed, but the two substitutions left Gianfranco Zola with no way of sprucing up his team. By contrast, Liverpool were able to call upon a £10.5m Dutch international to tip the scales in their favour.

Although the defeat leaves West Ham perched on four points from five games, their position is not perilous. Indeed there is much to be positive about, and once Zola is able to call upon a settled team, results will improve. Jack Collison and Luis Jimenez are sorely missed, while at left-back, Herita Ilunga looked a little rusty after a spell out with a broken jaw. At the moment, West Ham are being forced to change their line-up from one week to the next and a transitional period is inevitable.

Zola’s adherence to West Ham’s youth system is also pleasing. On only his second start for the club, Hines impressed once more, his pace constantly troubling Liverpool and inducing Jamie Carragher to give away the penalty from which Alessandro Diamanti scored his first West Ham goal. While many raved about the emergence of Freddie Sears in 2008, few had even heard of Hines, but his potential was evident in his cameo role against Millwall in the Carling Cup, where he outstripped the away defence before finishing confidently.

Although Torres has complained about rough treatment at the hands of opposition defenders this season, no Premier League player was fouled more than Hines this weekend and the way he kept on coming back for more, not to mention his refusal to let his head drop after hitting the post in the second minute, suggests the West Ham academy has produced yet another one. With the brash billionaires of Manchester City up next, it remains gratifying to see West Ham demonstrate that it is possible to get something for nothing, even if Torres did remind us of the value of a £26.5m striker.

Whatever Happened to West Ham's FA Cup Final Team of 2006?

Jacob Steinberg — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:56:49 -0400

Danny Gabbidon made his first start in the Premier League since December 2007 at Wigan Athletic last weekend. That makes him the only surviving member from West Ham’s FA Cup final team from 2006, the perennially injured Dean Ashton, whose performance that day had left Liverpool bamboozled, notwithstanding.

Every other player from that day has been jettisoned. Alan Pardew proudly led West Ham out and was tipped as a future England manager, yet he now manages Southampton in League One.

The enthralling match against Liverpool falls into the category of what might have been. As it approached its end, Pardew’s unfancied West Ham led Liverpool 3-2. The West Ham fans were jubilant, dancing and singing and disbelieving. Then, disaster.

The stadium announcer at the Millenium Stadium was midway through revealing there would be four minutes of added time, when a clearance bounced to Steven Gerrard thirty yards from goal, and with all the deadly precision of a Roger Federer forehand, the Liverpool captain volleyed the ball back into the bottom corner of Shaka Hislop’s goal.

The equaliser took the match into extra-time and West Ham, broken-hearted, lost on penalties.

In many ways, this was far more impressive than Portsmouth winning the competition two years later, having only played one Premier League side. West Ham beat Blackburn, Bolton, Manchester City and Middlesbrough to reach the final, where they succumbed to the European champions only on penalties.

Despite the game ending in a glorious defeat, optimism about West Ham’s future prospects soared. Promoted to the Premier League after a two-year absence, Pardew had constructed an exciting side burgeoning with young talent.

Aside from their Cup run, West Ham were never out of the top 10 of the Premier League and finished ninth, winning at Arsenal and denying Tottenham a Champions League place along the way. Few suspected that this would be the apex of Pardew’s time in charge.

With UEFA Cup qualification assured, pundits and fans predicted big things from West Ham the next season, but the team had reached a level it could not surpass, and the descent was harsh, swift and unexpected. West Ham fell into a comfort zone during the summer, failing to make the requisite reinforcements, instead strengthening on the cheap.

The identity of the two remaining signings from that summer, Robert Green and Carlton Cole, suggest what might have been achieved had money been made available. Although there was the stunning capture of the two Argentinians, Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, that merely created more problems than originally predicted.

After the final, Pardew could do no wrong, yet his seemingly unstoppable rise up the managerial ladder came crashing to a shuddering halt. He was the success story of the 2005-06 season, his team playing an all-action, quicksilver brand of football that spawned success home and away.

Just as importantly, this was a project very much centred upon English players, the likes of Anton Ferdinand, Nigel Reo Coker, Matthew Etherington and Marlon Harewood.

This was a team who had risen from the second tier as one, and as such, a strong unity held them together. Indeed much of West Ham’s success under Pardew was built on a solid team spirit, but it seemed as though that camaraderie was left behind in Cardiff. The problem facing Pardew was hubris.

After one season in the big time, one year of being told how great they were, everyone involved, both players and manager, believed the hype. After all, just a year before, this was a team who had threatened not to even make it out of the Championship.

As West Ham toiled in the second tier of English football in 2005, Pardew came under intense scrutiny. He had arrived at Upton Park from Reading in September 2003, taking over from Glenn Roeder who had overseen West Ham’s relegation from the top flight.

This was no job for the faint-hearted. Pardew was one of a new breed of English managers, all positive lingo, blue-sky thinking and catchy slogans - for West Ham’s play-off semi-final against Ipswich in 2004, he wore a t-shirt with ‘Moore than a football club’ written on the front.

The future when all is going well, but football’s answer to David Brent when it’s not. West Ham lost 1-0 to Crystal Palace in the final and Pardew attracted ire for taking off his three strikers when in desperate need of a goal.

They struggled the next season and Pardew was on the cusp of the sack when a late run helped them into the play-offs, and this time they beat Preston in the final. Pardew had become untouchable, and his status was further embellished by his fledgling Premier League season and Cup run.

Yet the 2006-07 season was disastrous, and the heroic Cup final was soon forgotten. The greatest culprit was Reo Coker, the club captain, whose form took an unsurprising dip after he was denied a move to Arsenal on the last day of the transfer window. He stopped trying and soon attracted abuse from the fans; when he scored a winner against Manchester United, he cupped his ear in defiance to the supporters.

Then no-one remembered that he had nearly won the game against Liverpool in the last minute of extra-time, when Yossi Benayoun’s free-kick looped off his shoulder and towards the top corner, only for Pepe Reina to despairingly touch the ball against the inside of the post.

From the rebound, Marlon Harewood, on his last legs after suffering a rough tackle from Momo Sissoko, shanked wide with his standing left foot. Harewood was a fans’ favourite, his powerful goal in the semi-final against Middlesbrough earning him cult status. He struggled thereafter, too, and both he and Reo Coker were sold gratefully to Aston Villa the next season.

They were not the sole culprits. Ferdinand, thinking he had made it, lost his focus and more often than not, opposing strikers. He now plays for Sunderland. Etherington’s threat on the left throughout the season led to talk of an England call, yet he was distracted by off-the-field activities.

His effectiveness dimmed, he moved to Stoke City last January. West Ham’s third against Liverpool was scored by Paul Konchesky, a lucky cross which deceived Reina and but for Gerrard, he would have been the match-winner, yet he was a pale shadow of his former self the next season.

The forgotten man of West Ham’s FA Cup adventure is Ashton, the cunning and deadly centre-forward whose career has been cursed by injury. His double against City in the quarter-final was a sign of things to come. He set up Harewood’s semi-final winner, and Liverpool’s Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia were unable to handle him in the final.

Ashton had a hand in West Ham’s first goal, cleverly playing in Lionel Scaloni, whose cross was turned into his own net by Jamie Carragher. The lead was doubled shortly after, Ashton pouncing after Reina had spilled Etherington’s shot.

He could have scored again when he flashed a shot wide, and it soon became evident that England had a genuine replacement for Alan Shearer. He was called up by Steve McLaren for the first post-World Cup squad, but it was there that he broke his ankle in a challenge with Shaun Wright-Phillips in training.

Ashton’s prolonged absence was as crucial a factor as any for West Ham’s subsequent decline, which was overseen by a beleaguered Pardew. Rampant egotism had afflicted the club and its toxicity engulfed the squad. Certain players enjoyed huge influence in the dressing room, and Ashton was one player who felt like an outsider.

Palermo swatted West Ham aside in the first round of the UEFA Cup, and rather than another top-half finish, they became embroiled in a relegation battle, only won on the last day of the season.

Although Pardew was seen as one of English football’s brightest young managers, his stock swiftly plummeted. He was unable to handle the disruptive influence residing forming in his squad or the two world-class Argentinians thrust his way. The team were suspicious of Tevez and Mascherano, and made them less than welcome.

So was Pardew. They had been brought to West Ham by the agent Kia Joorabchian, who had an interest in purchasing the club. So too did an Icelandic consortium, headed by Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson and fronted by Eggert Magnusson, and they eventually came up with the money.

Against the backdrop of an ownership battle, Pardew’s days were numbered, and after a distressing 4-0 thrashing by Bolton in December 2006, he was sacked. He moved to Charlton a few weeks later, but West Ham stayed up in their place and they now reside in League One, alongside Pardew’s new club, Southampton.

West Ham replaced Pardew with Charlton’s former manager Alan Curbishley. He struggled too, and less than a month into his reign, West Ham lost 6-0 to Reading. Cliques had formed in the squad and Curbishley, old-school to the core, had them in mind when he spoke damningly of the ‘Baby Bentley Culture’ which had pervaded the club.

Eventually, and with a fair slice of luck, West Ham survived. The damage was done though and one by one, the remnants of that team were purged.

Only one can say he went on to bigger and better things, Benayoun, who is now starring for Liverpool. Most of the rest went sideways, downwards or found a spot on a substitute’s bench. If nothing else, it is a cautionary tale of what can happen when mediocre players get too big for their boots. They usually end up shooting themselves in the foot.

Window of Opportunity Slips Away For West Ham

Jacob Steinberg — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:52:31 -0400

Why is it always West Ham whose fingers are caught as the transfer window is slammed shut? It’s Groundhog Day at Upton Park, a club doomed to repeat the promises, lies and rank incompetence in the transfer market over and over again. The failure to land a new striker to support Carlton Cole would be disappointing if it wasn’t so predictable, yet supporters still feel cheated.

At the start of last season, West Ham began with Dean Ashton, Craig Bellamy and Carlton Cole, adding David Di Michele and Diego Tristan on a short-term basis. Ashton has been injured since last September and Bellamy left in January, so the need for a striker to complement Cole has not exactly crept up on the club. West Ham are now a hostage to fate, praying that serious injury does not disastrously rob them of Cole.

Scott Duxbury, the chief executive, is currently attracting most of the fans’ ire. For whatever reason, he has been unable to convince a striker to scrawl his name on a contract, although he cannot be accused of a lack of effort. Marouane Chamakh, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Mancini, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Luca Toni were all targets. None could be persuaded. Duxbury, a lawyer by trade, is guilty of allowing his silver tongue to become rusty.

None of these players will score a goal for West Ham, but they have raised expectations. It is only natural for fans to hear of negotiations with Champions League players and become excited, so the eventual reality is a cruel comedown. The reaction to this disappointment on the terraces may be telling and nothing is more detrimental to West Ham than a scorned Upton Park crowd.

The most galling aspect of this transfer window has been West Ham’s inability to learn. They have no sense for when they are being strung along by a target. Chamakh and Gudjohnsen were realistic targets, yet talks with the pair trundled along for an eternity. Not signing Gudjohnsen may well be a blessing in disguise - he was asking for too much and joined the tax haven of Monaco. Football itself appears a secondary thought for the former Chelsea man.

West Ham allowed pressing matters to reach deadline day, leaving themselves little wiggle room. Arsenal were put off signing Chamakh by the intransigence of Bordeaux, and the swaying nature of the striker’s comments should have been a warning for West Ham. The Moroccan seemed to change his mind about moving on a daily basis, yet still West Ham pursued him. That it all fizzled out was not the greatest of shocks.

This is not a new experience for West Ham during a transfer window. August 2005: Deals to sign Benni McCarthy from Porto or Emmanuel Adebayor from Monaco were scuppered at the last. August 2006: A three-month pursuit of Steed Malbranque ends with him signing for Tottenham. August 2007: A three-month pursuit of Gudjohnsen ends with the last-minute loan signing of Henri Camara. January 2009: The mission to replace Bellamy sees the youngster Savio Nsereko brought in from Brescia. He joined Fiorentina on Monday, the defender Manuel Da Costa travelling in the opposite direction.

The funds to sign Chamakh were supposedly made available by the £5m sale of James Collins to Aston Villa. It is a mystery why that deal was allowed to go ahead once it became apparent Chamakh would not swap Bordeaux for West Ham. Accusations of asset-stripping by the club’s Icelandic owners abound. Although Craig Bellamy has been the only big name to leave under their tenure, the exit door keeps on opening as the squad gets smaller.

Thankfully Robert Green, Matthew Upson, Scott Parker and Cole have not been sold, and there are reasons to be positive. The solidity instilled by Gianfranco Zola and Steve Clarke is evident by only two goals conceded from the team’s opening three matches, and performances have been encouraging.

Cole has impressed and although he has no orthodox partner, Luis Jimenez has ably supported him. The Chilean will also be able to work in tandem with one new arrival, Alessandro Diamanti, who scored 16 goals for Livorno in Serie B last season. Chamakh might have made schmucks out of us all, but it is not all doom and gloom.

What the start of the season has shown us is that West Ham will need more from the bench to change games. They were unable to in their dull 0-0 draw at Blackburn, so it is not a surprise Zola is looking to sign an experienced free agent, just as he did with Tristan last year. The Spaniard was a leaden-footed shadow of his former self, but his goals did directly produce an extra seven points. Mark Viduka it is then.

Departing Ronaldo May Expose United's Flaws

Jacob Steinberg — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:00:46 -0400

The jaw-droppingly huge fee will doubtless soften the blow of losing Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid. Manchester United can take solace in that at least. Yet £80m in the bank will not score 42 goals in a single season alone, and that is the dilemma Sir Alex Ferguson must now tackle if his team are not to be left in the slipstream by Chelsea and Liverpool.

Expect a debate to rage over the wisdom of so lavish a sum being spent on a man who kicks a ball for a living. In the worst recession many can remember, Real have seen fit to spend nearly £140m on two players. For that amount, they might have considered a defender or three. Let us leave football's freakonomics for now though. We now know that even the largest of clubs has its lavish price.

The adage goes that no player is bigger than the club and Ferguson has constantly re-inforced that notion during his time at United. He has never been afraid of selling his stars and those decisions have never come back to haunt him. When he sold Mark Hughes, Paul Ince and Andrei Kanchelskis in 1995, the double was won a year later. Ruud van Nistelrooy was sent to Real in 2006 and United regained the league from Chelsea the next season.

Those men had grown stale however. Ronaldo is only 24 and has the best part of a decade at the top left in him. Perhaps a more fitting comparison was the sale of Jaap Stam to Lazio in 2001. United lost a title they had won three years in a row to Arsenal that season. This move is less reckless and, unlike the Dutchman, Ronaldo wanted to leave, but the implications could be similar.

United's fans have already begun drawing up their epitaphs for the Portuguese. Some claim he will not be missed; they cite the tantrums, the arrogance, the refusal to track back. This is merely putting on a brave face in difficult times. How to replace a player who has bagged 91 goals in the past three seasons?

The accusation against this United side has been that they are reliant on Ronaldo, that their trophy count would be considerably smaller without him. The critics are about to find out whether that's true, but the suspicion last season is that Ronaldo agrees with them. That is worrying for a group that can boast Dimitar Berbatov, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez.

The facts are in support of Ronaldo, who missed the start of last season because of injury. Without him United began with an insipid draw at home to Newcastle and soon followed that up with their first defeat against Liverpool under Rafael Benitez. Ronaldo made his first start on 27 September and scored in a 2-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers.

Having been denied his dream move to Real last summer, he carried the air of a man struggling against the weight of the world's indifference. The Old Trafford crowd's reception was frosty, and he often tried the patience, such as when he substituted himself against Sunderland or threw his tracksuit top to the ground after being removed against Manchester City.

For all that, he was too good for Ferguson to truly admonish. Against Aston Villa in April, his mistake allowed the visitors to go 2-1 ahead, yet he still scored two excellent and vital goals. He erred similarly against Porto in the first leg of a Champions League quarter-final, gifting his compatriots a goal. In the second leg, his decisive shot from 40 yards silenced all criticism. Ronaldo always comes up with an answer

In a team that has struggled to put chances away, that is vital. Sixty-eight league goals on their way to winning the title was a meagre total, and Ronaldo got most of them. Success was built on the foundation of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic. United are not flush with goalscorers and the pair could struggle if the team neither swash nor buckle next season. Berbatov, Rooney and Tevez flatter to deceive, Nani and Park Ji-Sung cannot be relied upon, and there are few threats from midfield.

The theory now is that Ronaldo's departure will allow Rooney to shine for United in a central as he has for England. It has been Rooney's year at the start of a season too many times. Now he must deliver on a consistent basis. He must prove Ferguson wrong once and for all. Berbatov and possibly Tevez must improve as well.

United, of course, will have money to spend. Options are plentiful and the likes of Franck Ribery, Antonio Valencia and Karim Benzema could join. Ferguson will choose carefully, and it is likely he has been planning for this eventuality for at least a year. Ferguson once blustered that he would not sell Real a virus, let alone Ronaldo, but he may soon have to cure United's ills.

Desperate Ashley Places Newcastle on the Cyber Market

Jacob Steinberg — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:44:55 -0400

We have truly entered the digital age. It has been public knowledge for some time that Mike Ashley has been looking to flog Newcastle United to the first party dim enough to part with a spare £100 million. And we knew he was desperate—we just didn't know precisely how desperate.

A statement on the club's official website today read:

"The Board of Newcastle United can today confirm that the Club is for sale at the price of £100 million. Interested parties should contact Newcastle United at admin@nufc.co.uk (or Keith Harris at Seymour Pierce) for further details."

So great is Newcastle's staunch commitment to comic farce, it cannot be too long before they are sued over image rights by Jongleurs Comedy Clubs. With the best will in the world, this is can hardly be the best way to go about selling a football club. It simply reeks of the rank amateurism the club has cultivated under Ashley.

When the former billionaire bought Newcastle from Shepherd in 2007, he surely did not expect to be flogging the club on footballclubs4u.com just two years later. But Newcastle are no ordinary team. For a lengthy period, they jostled with the likes of Manchester City and Tottenham for the title of The Country's Most Ridiculous Club (awarded by Peter Ridsdale). Their special brand of incompetence has blown all competition out of the water.

With that in mind, just who will pay the £100m Ashley wants before he will sell up? In a recession, few will be putting the acquisition of a Championship club on the top of their shopping lists. Under the "Cockney Mafia," fans watched through their fingers as six different managers in two years have come in, Dennis Wise was recruited and then jettisoned, and terrible player after terrible player was signed.

Relegation only shocked due to the size of the club. A spell in The Championship could financially cripple Newcastle. Following Leeds United, another club with aspirations beyond their means, into the third tier may not be beyond the realms of reality. Newcastle have mediocre footballers tied down to long, expensive contracts with apparently no relegation clauses in place, a recipe for disaster.

Newcastle may want to shift the deadwood, but those deals could make it impossible. Many of their players would struggle to find similar wages elsewhere, even back in the Premier League. In that case, why leave? The likes of Alan Smith, Nicky Butt, and Fabricio Collocini have already proved that the well-being of Newcastle United is hardly a pressing engagement.

There were reports today that a consortium involving the former Liverpool midfielder Steve McMahon were logging on to their Hotmail accounts today. Another false dawn sounds more likely. The group did not possess the whiff of credibility.

Still, that has never been Ashley's selling point. Guzzling beer and wearing his replica shirt in the stands, the man did not even do due diligence on the club's books when he swept in, so his email request did not surprise. We must now eagerly await his next move. My advice would be to keep a keen eye on Ebay.

What England Learned In Kazakhstan

Jacob Steinberg — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 08:15:47 -0400

1 Cross Capello at your peril

Fabio Capello has always ruled with an iron fist rather than the gentle arm round the shoulder and it showed in Almaty. England's start, harried as they were by fervent Kazakhs, was riddled with errors. They could have been a goal down inside 20 seconds and an offside flag later spared them.

The shoddy opening irked Capello and he was soon stood on the edge of the touchline, his gesticulations the very epitome of the angry Italian, screaming and shouting at his players. Sven Goran Eriksson or Steve McLaren mollycoddled under-performing players. Capello would sooner strangle them.

The approach paid off and England ended the first-half two goals to the good thanks to efforts from Gareth Barry and Emile Heskey. They are sitting pretty atop their group after six wins out of six and surely all that can derail their journey to South Africa now is complacency. Under Capello's disciplined order, that is unlikely to happen.

2 Green fingers

Sergei Ostapenko oh so nearly became Kazakhstan's answer to Davide Gualtieri when he missed inside of 20 seconds. That he failed to score his gilt-edged chance was down to a combination of Robert Green, making his first competitive start in goal for England, and John Terry. England would probably have preferred to play in mankinis than to have conceded to Ostapenko

Green's touch was vital, for England and his confidence alike. Conceding so early into his England career would have made him a laughing stock - being the goalkeeper for the national side is not the easiest of tasks. But he survived that scare and looked assured for the rest of the 90 minutes. David James may have a challenger.

3 Rooney finds the centre ground

The defensive forward is football's latest tactical innovation. Attackers like Dirk Kuyt and Wayne Rooney are increasingly employed by their managers to destroy and create in equal measure. In the Champions League final, Sir Alex Ferguson assigned Rooney to Manchester United's left flank in order to negate Lionel Messi's impact.

For England, though, Capello has used Rooney behind a main striker and the United forward has repaid him by scoring eight goals in his past six matches for England. Given his goal drought for England previously, Rooney is clearly thriving unde Capello's guidance.

His goal on Saturday took the breath away, a acrobatic overhead kick into the far corner after his initial improvised effort had been saved. Few would have tried it; fewer still would have pulled it off. After the match Rooney spoke about how much he enjoys being England's focal point - a pointed reminder for the boss back at Old Trafford?

4 Left-wing leanings suit Gerrard

After a dismal 2-2 draw in a friendly against the Czech Republic last August, Harry Redknapp blasted Capello for "destroying" Steven Gerrard by playing him on the left. It was a parochial view that betrayed the English manager's lack of tactical flexibility. Those calling for Gerrard to play in central midfield need their heads testing.

The beauty of the current system is that Rooney and Gerrard can interchange at will. Each is comfortable in the other's current position, and the Liverpool captain has demonstrated an ability to cut inside from the left and unleash with his right foot, as he did away in Belarus.

Gerrard did not sparkle in Almaty, not that he was required to. Yet he is dangerous from anywhere, as his part in England's second goal highlighted. What Redknapp must understand is that Capello has located a balance painfully absent in recent line-ups. Two holding midfielders in Barry and Frank Lampard (although each has permission to maraud when appropriate) support an attacking trident of Gerrard, Rooney and Theo Walcott. It's worked so far. Don't change it.

5 Possession frittered away too easily

They say possession is 9/10ths of the law, but it's a dictum England have never really appreciated. They reached their nadir in their World Cup quarter-final against Brazil in 2002, when opposition reduced to ten men passed their way to victory. The fear for Capello must be that as solid as his team can be, the ball is still given away with alarming regularity.

If Kazakhstan can harry them into errors, and they did on Saturday, then what hope against Spain, Argentina or Brazil? More care must be taken. A state of panic when pressed must not be reached so easily. Players like Lampard, Barry and Gerrard must take more responsibility.

So must the defence. Too often John Terry and Matthew Upson hoofed the ball forward with barely a thought for its eventual destination. England may never be Spain and it is true that successful sides are generally ones that play to their strengths. Yet it will not escape Capello that his two defeats have come against France and Spain, teams who, unlike Kazakhstan, will have the weapons to punish sloppiness in South Africa.

Farewell Jimmy Walker: One of Football's Good Guys

Jacob Steinberg — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:11:43 -0400

It is unusual for a reserve goalkeeper quietly released by his club at the end of the season to stir the fans' emotions. Yet no West Ham supporter will forget the contribution made by Jimmy Walker after his departure from Upton Park yesterday. The game is full of footballers who take themselves far too seriously; he does not belong to that group.

A goalkeeper who is second-choice for his team can have cause to become sullen with opportunities for matches rare. With West Ham approaching their second season in The Championship, their manager Alan Pardew signed Walker from Walsall in the summer of 2004 as back-up to Stephen Bywater. Little was known about a man whose football had been played exclusively in the lower leagues.

Yet fans looking for a reference point had one. In January 2001, West Ham were given an away draw at Walsall in the third round of the FA Cup. Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Frank Lampard, Trevor Sinclair and Fredi Kanoute each started and the Premier League side won an engrossing match 3-2. One performance stayed in the memory however - that of the home goalkeeper, Jimmy Walker, whose many saves kept the final score respectable.

How, one wondered, could this excellent goalkeeper not be plying his trade in the top flight? The answer was simple: size. Walker suffered from Napoleon syndrome. At just 5'11", he was judged too small. A goalkeeper can work on his catching, kicking or shot-stopping. Growing taller is a physical impossibility.

Walker had to wait his turn at West Ham. Bywater was first choice, although many were unsure whether he was truly capable. Hesitancy off his line and poor kicking were worrying features in his make-up.

So when Walker was picked for a Carling Cup match, interest in him was high. His only problem was that the tie was away to Jose Mourinho's Chelsea. Yet he performed as if his very life depended on it. There were 6,000 West Ham fans at Stamford Bridge that night and none will ever forget it.

Predictably shot after shot rained in on the West Ham goal. Joe Cole, by now a Chelsea player, was in a threatening mood and appeared determined to score. He could not beat Walker. Only Mateja Kezman could, and only the once.

Kezman's goal turned out to be the winner, but the game's narrative swung away from the outcome of the match near its end. With 15 minutes remaining, Tomas Repka fouled Arjen Robben in the box and a penalty was awarded - at the West Ham end. Immediately Frank Lampard grabbed the ball. This was his moment to finally silence the taunts of the West Ham support. This was his penalty.

He struck the ball hard and slightly of the ground, down the middle, almost as if he was hoping to burst the net and send the ball into the crowd. Walker dived to his left. He had been tricked by simple bludgeonry. Yet the net did not burst. Lampard was lifting his hands, but not in celebration, to put them to his head. The ball had spun high up in the air and away from the goal. Somehow Walker had saved the penalty with a combination of knee, leg and luck.

The away support erupted, their foe beaten, a cult hero spawned. In one moment, in his short West Ham career, Walker had sealed his place in the hearts of every West Ham for ever. If he didn't appreciate it that the time, he soon would.

He was back on the bench in the next game however. There were no complaints. He simply waited. He earned a run in the side in January, but an error-strewn display in a 4-2 defeat against Wolves let Bywater back in. Walker did not feature again until April.

By then Pardew was desperate. West Ham were in serious danger of not making the Playoffs and the financial consequences did not bear thinking about. Walker was thrown in for a crucial match at the league leaders, Wigan Athletic, that West Ham did not dare lose. Pardew never did make it easy for him.

With Walker sure of himself in goal, West Ham won the match 2-1. Walker was not dropped again and West Ham eventually reached the Playoff final, where they faced Preston North End. The better side throughout, Bobby Zamora gave the Hammers a merited lead after 57 minutes.

West Ham had performed so well that Walker had barely been called upon - then, out of nowhere, disaster struck. Coming well off his line to catch a high ball from Preston's defence, in mid-air Walker realised he had left his area. In an attempt to end his descent in the box, he twisted his leg back, inevitably tearing the cruciate ligament in his knee upon landing. To compound matters, he had landed outside the box. He was spared a red card for deliberate by a sympathetic referee and after seven minutes of injury time, West Ham held on.

For Walker, though, his Premier League career was over before it had even begun. Few doubted he would have been West Ham's goalkeeper in their first season back. Roy Carroll was signed from Manchester United instead.

The day after the Play-off final, I headed to an open-top bus parade to celebrate West Ham's promotion. Near enough to the bus to speak to the players, I chanced upon Walker. "How's the knee, Jimmy?" I shouted. His answer, delivered humorously and with a wide smile, was cheerily blunt: "Fucked!" Not many players are so open or self-deprecating. On a day of great celebration, that memory stands out.

Having recovered from his lengthy injury, Walker made only two more appearances for West Ham. Indeed his final memorable fact came after a match in which he had not been involved. West Ham qualified for the UEFA Cup in 2006 but their campaign ended with a heavy first round defeat to Palermo.

After the second leg, lost 3-0 in Italy, the away support were kept in the stadium for some time. In an empty stadium, Walker took it upon himself to lift what had been a miserable night. Shooting against a vacant goal, he met a cross with a stunning bicycle kick which cracked against the crossbar. To cheers, he eventually put in the rebound before accepting his fans' chants of appreciation.

Funny and down-to-earth, he will be sorely missed. Everyone liked Jimmy Walker. Maybe just not Frank Lampard.

Capture of Kaka Shows Real Madrid Mean Business

Jacob Steinberg — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:04:21 -0400

Owners of football clubs are well-versed in making empty promises. Not Florentino Perez. When Real Madrid's president promises galacticos, galacticos are headed for the Bernabeu. Reports tonight indicate that Milan have agreed to sell their prized asset, Kaka, to Real in a deal worth €64m (£55m).

Kaka's expected departure is hardly a surprise despite his earlier insistence today that he would not leave Italy. Madrid have moved disarmingly fast to secure his signature. There has been none of the hesitancy that was on show last summer when the long pursuit of Cristiano Ronaldo ended in failure. Madrid mean business this time.

They have no other option. They barely mustered a fight as Barcelona became the first ever Spanish side to win the treble, and were given a footballing lesson in their own ground by their fiercest rivals, losing 6-2. To compound matters, they were humiliated in the last 16 of the Champions League by Liverpool. It is imperative Madrid can claim to match Barca's insanely wonderful attacking trio of Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi. The current line-up reads too much like a who's who of mediocrity.

It is unlikely the new manager, Manuel Pellegrini, had much say in the negotiations but he will surely not mind a player of Kaka's pedigree being foisted upon him. This is Perez's modus operandi. Already, he has cast a dark shadow over the reign of the previous president, Ramon Calderon.

In stark contrast to Perez, Calderon delivered little. It was his bumbling that so offended Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson into doing everything in their power to keep Ronaldo. The previous summer he insisted he would sign Cesc Fabregas, Kaka and Arjen Robben. Robben alone would be procured from Chelsea, and his has been a career overwrought by injury after endless injury.

Perez's belief is that marketing is the most viable way for Madrid to make money. Kaka, a devout Christian who carries himself without affectation, might not offer millions in this way. He will not preen and prance like Ronaldo. Yet with a ball at his feet, he is just as deadly as the Portuguese.

Kaka, lest we forget, was the best player in the world in 2007, having single-handedly dragged a decrepit Milan side to their seventh Champions League title. He had caught the eye long before then, helping Milan to the Serie A title in 2003-04, his first season.

A year later, he was part of the team which threw away a three-goal lead at half-time in the Champions League final against Liverpool. Even so, few will forget the way he nutmegged Steven Gerrard to create the space for the brilliantly curved pass from which Hernan Crespo would score Milan's third. Impetuousness of that sort would earn him the tag of the tournament's best midfielder.

2006-07 season made the world sit up and take notice of his unique talents. With Andriy Shevchenko busy making a pig's ear of his first season at Chelsea, the onus finally fell on Kaka to inspire Milan, as Carlo Ancelotti made him the focal point of the team's attack.

He was the Champions League's top scorer with ten goals, a record that included a hat-trick in a 4-1 victory against Anderlecht. In the knock-out stages, he scored crucial goals against Celtic and Bayern Munich, but nothing would compare to his performance in the semi-final against Manchester United.

United were overwhelming favourites, having beaten Roma 8-3 on aggregate in their quarter-final, but they had no idea what was about to hit them. In the first leg at Old Trafford, United took an early lead.

This was Kaka's cue. As half-time approached, he accepted a pass from Clarence Seedorf and burst past Gabriel Heinze before the defender even had time to blink. A cute left foot finish from a tight angle, delivered early, surprised Edwin Van Der Sar in the United goal. What caught the breath was that so difficult an act had been made to look so simple.

He was not finished there. Minutes later, he strolled through after Patrice Evra and Darren Fletcher had run into each other, and casually rolled the ball past Van Der Sar with his right boot. United rallied to win the match 3-2, but in the second leg at San Siro, Kaka ran amok and his early goal set them on their way to a 3-0 triumph.

That set up a rematch against Liverpool in the final. Here the brilliant holding midfielder Javier Mascherano was detailed to follow Kaka wherever he went. He performed as well as anyone had all season against the Brazilian. It was not enough to prevent Kaka from providing the assist for Pippo Inzaghi to score what would prove to be the winner.

He has suffered with a knee injury that has stymied his impact since that match. His reputation remained undimmed however, and Manchester City were besotted enough to table a £100m bid for him in January. Milan, understandably, pondered the offer long and hard, but it revealed much that Kaka was moved to tears in public at the prospect of the move. City were eventually rejected.

Madrid is a different proposition altogether. In his first spell as president, Perez vowed to sign a galactico each summer, and Luis Figo, Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham duly arrived. Now Perez wishes to do the work of five transfer windows in one. Xabi Alonso, Franck Ribery, Cristiano Ronaldo and David Villa are on his wishlist. The signing of Kaka may persuade them.

Steve Bruce's Exit Leads Wigan Down a Dangerous Road

Jacob Steinberg — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:22:39 -0400

There is a certain nobility attached to making ends meet, but balancing books can eventually weigh down a manager. The Premier League's glass ceiling is a formidable barrier to any aspiring team, and that is why Steve Bruce is set to leave Wigan in order to take the Sunderland job.

Bruce has a well-earned reputation for leaving football clubs in the lurch, as fans of Crystal Palace would testify, but he cannot be blamed in this case. The simple truth is that his journey with Wigan can be extended no further. Sunderland may not exactly be a more glamorous option, but Ellis Short's millions at least offers a fighting chance to puncture the Premier League's elite.

It should surprise more that a club who made a challenge for European qualification this year should so meekly lose their manager to one which only secured their survival on the season's final day. Wigan missed out on the Europa League because of a late slump. With safety assured by March, it revealed a mentality unsuited to the upper echelons.

The January transfer window carried a warning however. Then Wigan had lost the power and poise of Wilson Palacios and Emile Heskey to Tottenham and Aston Villa respectively. The quicksilver winger Antonio Valencia is rumoured to be on his way this summer, possibly to Manchester United. Bruce has been adept at bargain hunting in the transfer market, but the trend of losing his best players has made Sunderland impossible to reject.

Being a selling club is not a new sensation for Wigan and it will never grow old. After an impressive first season in the top flight, when they finished 10th, Jimmy Bullard and Jason Roberts both left. Wigan do not have the necessary clout to avoid these situations.

A lack of a history and a fanbase accounts for this. West Ham had a similar season to Wigan, yet they would surely feel confident of fending off an approach by Sunderland for their manager, Gianfranco Zola. Potential at Upton Park is clear. Wigan's prospects will always appear limited.

Their position is a warning to clubs of similar standing. Fulham were the club who signed Bullard from Wigan. Under Roy Hodgson they have qualified for next season's Europa League, yet they must err on the side of caution. Success does not always breed more success. Keeping their star defender Brede Hangeland will be difficult. He may, after all, be destined for Arsenal.

Blackburn won the title in 1995 but were relegated four years later. Perhaps the title win was more of a shock. There are far bigger clubs with far greater support in the north-west. In their more recent history, Mark Hughes excelled in the dugout for four years. They became more used to a battle for a European spot than a relegation tussle, but that is what happened when Hughes left for Manchester City and was replaced by Paul Ince last summer.

Perhaps the most glaring example of this trend is Charlton Athletic. Under Alan Curbishley, the club established itself as a Premier League side for six seasons. This was satisfactory until the fans grew gluttonous by sitting at the middle of the table for too long. Claiming there was no further to take them, Curbishley left in 2006. Charlton will play in League One next season.

For these clubs, there can be no guarantee of constant safety, particularly from football's major forces. Disappointment constantly lurks round the corner and is often sprung when least expected. The trick may be to embrace it. Wigan must.

Will Carlo Ancelotti Last the Season at Chelsea?

Jacob Steinberg — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:30:35 -0400

Roman Abramovich has long craved for Chelsea to play the brand of football that would capture the neutrals' hearts. Carlo Ancelotti is the latest manager trusted by the club's owner to deliver it, but this is no easy task. Chelsea, as a general rule, don't do pretty.

If there is a prevalent feeling of deja vu about this move, it is because we've been here before—this time last year, to be exact, when the former Portugal coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, took over at Stamford Bridge. Scolari promised Chelsea would play like Brazil.

Yet, Scolari had tried to fix something that wasn't broken. Under Jose Mourinho, Chelsea revelled by becoming all but impossible to defeat. They destroyed first and created later, and they won five trophies because of it. When Avram Grant replaced Mourinho, he did not alter that philosophy and Chelsea ended a post away from winning the Champions League.

Scolari's style proved to be disastrous for Chelsea. He was pedestrian, narrow, and careless, so his results suffered; Key players such as John Terry, Frank Lampard, and Didier Drogba became disillusioned. The Brazilian was eventually sacked after a 0-0 draw at home to Hull in February.

Where his replacement, Guus Hiddink, succeeded was merely by restoring Mourinho's values. This was borne out most of all by Chelsea's Champions League semifinal against Barcelona. Hiddink received much criticism for his ultra-defensive tactics, but to take Pep Guardiola's side on at their own game would have been pure folly. Chelsea may have lost, but the tie highlighted them at their most effective.

Therein lies the dilemma for Ancelotti: be brave and beautiful alike, or solid and triumphant? He has already hinted at the former, telling Abramovich that Chelsea are "too physical and need more quality in the middle of the pitch," something that may not bode well for certain players at the club.

Moreover, he has claimed that Chelsea lack a personality, and, when you consider the rampant egos and divisive nature of the dressing room at Stamford Bridge, these comments will hardly endear him to his new team.

Abramovich, however, backs Ancelotti. But the sort of player required to alter Chelsea's core strengths will not come cheaply. Ancelotti has reportedly identified Xabi Alonso, Franck Ribery, and David Villa as possible signings, yet all three are on Real Madrid's radar. Last year, Abramovich refused to start a bidding war with Manchester City to secure Scolari's top target, Robinho. Such stinginess is not expected this summer.

Like Scolari, Ancelotti may also be hindered by his poor English. The ability to communicate in a multinational dressing room is vital. Here, Scolari struggled; although, he had been bound by the international game for several years.

Contrastingly, Ancelotti can draw upon his experience in Serie A with Milan, though it has been pointed out that he won just one scudetto in eight seasons. Instead, it is his record in the Champions League that commands respect: two victories and one appearance in the final.

An appreciation of skillful souls has meant the likes of Clarence Seedorf, Rui Costa, and Kaka have flourished under Ancelotti, but he will not be gung-ho. The Italian found space for Gennaro Gattuso in his midfield, too, and Milan's defence was the best in the world until advancing years took their toll.

Last summer, Sir Alex Ferguson provocatively declared that Chelsea were too old to win the Premier League. Yet, for Ancelotti, his new team will resemble a group of young tyros compared to the elderly bunch he has left behind at Milan. Just as Arsene Wenger's youthful Arsenal require a few old heads for guidance, young legs can do the running for players nearing the end of their careers.

Ancelotti cannot allow himself to be as casual at Chelsea as he was at Milan, where he opted not to freshen up a side in desperate need of fast legs. Chelsea have too many players around the 30-year mark and too few in their early twenties. That is a situation that the Italian must resolve.

It will not be beyond Ancelotti to succeed at Chelsea, though he must tread carefully when attempting to introduce the fantasy football Abramovich desires. Indeed, if that venture fails, what are the odds of Ancelotti starting the season in charge, and Hiddink finishing it?