I know that the hot new thing is to sell sports teams. Billionaires do it just for fun and then buy another one and sell it again–because it’s all the rage. However, this is getting a little crazy. In Liverpool we have 3 guys. Two of them own the team and one of them sold it to the other two. Now the seller is complaining that the buyers should sell–huh?
David Moores sold the team to Tom Hicks and George Gillett in 2007. Now he’s regretting that move. He wrote a letter to the Times which said, in part:
Fernando Torres has been up and down in Liverpool. On the one hand he wants to stay and bring the club back to glory and on the other hand he’s sick of it and wants to just win a title already. Well, maybe he’s made up his as to what he wants to do.
Torres’ agent has assured fans that he will be with the team NEXT year, but cannot say about any length of time after that. So, this means a few things:
1. Liverpool will be a happy city for at least another year.
West Ham has made a move to sign Thierry Henry and make him the highest paid player in the history of their club. Yeah, that’s what I thought too–huh?
Their reasoning makes sense:
“We’re trying to assemble a more prolific strike force at West Ham and I’d love to have Henry here. Our club is in debt but a striker of his quality and standing would make it a great deal.”
“Henry is still up there with the best.”I’ve made an offer which would make him the highest-paid player in the club’s history.”And it’s a serious offer because Henry could walk into almost any Premier League side.”
This is pure madness. I know I’ve been down on Rafa and the club in the past, but this is just nuts. I think we’ve all determined that Rafa is actually doing a good job–despite my early assertions that he was a flake–and now it seems he’s going to stay in Anfield even though it has become clear that the real problem is the management of the club.
Rafa seems to think differently of the situation–I would have stupidly but I didn’t think that was going to flow in the sentence:
Chelsea completed the FA Cup and EPL double with a 1-0 win over Portsmouth in Portsmouth’s last hurrah before relegation. With the EPL season over and nothing to lose one would have thought that Portsmouth might have come out pretty loose and given Chelsea a hard time and they did. Only allowing Didier Drogba the double-clenching goal in the 1st half.
What does this mean for the future of the EPL? Well, it means that United is really pissed. They already gave Chelsea the regular season title and now they had to watch the blues win the FA Cup. It kind of makes that epic final from last year seem like a distant memory–doesn’t it?
Perhaps Fernando Torres is leaving Liverpool? Perhaps he’s moving somewhere else in the EPL? Chelsea thinks it might be them. They seem to be ready to make a bid for him and some current players are quite happy about the prospects. Didier Drogba–their monster scorer says:
“I have heard the talk about Torres maybe coming in and I would welcome it, of course. Every time there is a new player coming here it’s making the club bigger and giving us a lot of strength. If there is a chance for him to come he will be welcome because any help is welcome!”
Fulham has risen to a new level of success by reaching the Europa League final. They’ll play Atletico Madrid today in Hamburg for the trophy and it seems that they may have carved a brand new direction for themselves under the leadership of Roy Hodgson.
Hodgson even has a role model–which is very helpful since so many coaches are SO egotistical:
“To follow a manager like Bobby Robson would be fantastic because as you know, we were friends for many years. He was a great man, a great manager and it would be very nice to think I could follow him.”
Chelsea blew out Wigan 8-0 (after Wigan said they could do something “historic”–yeah right.)
The win clinched the EPL Title for the Blues after both United and Chelsea won on their final day. This gave Chelsea their first title in 4 years and snapped United’s title streak at 3.
With United in 2nd, Arsenal in 3rd and Tottenham in 4th e now have the English line-up for the 2010-2011 Champion’s League and it looks like we’re going to have a loaded Champion’s League AND a loaded World Cup. With Chelsea winning the EPL and their players having to play with United players one would think that the competitive fires would be burning extra bright.
Well, here it is. Chelsea plays Wigan and it’s time to see who the Premier League Champion. This is the coolest season format on the planet. Every game matters and there are no playoffs. You don’t sneak your way in and then make a miracle run. You’ve got to be good ALL year or you have no chance.
United and Chelsea have made this into a 2-horse race all season. They’ve really made it difficult for other clubs to compete and now all United has to do is wait and probably watch Chelsea beat Wigan.
Wigan has a potential championship-deciding match with Chelsea this weekend. If Wigan can pull something out against Chelsea then they spoil Chelsea’s whole season in one feel swoop–and United would be ripe to step in and take the Premier League title from the Blues. However, this seems like a pipedream when a team that isn’t very good suddenly decides it wants to do something great. Roberto Martinez said so:
