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Relegation in Argentina – is the system fair?
Olimpo, a modest team from the port city of Bahia Blanca on the windswept Atlantic coast in southern Buenos Aires province, are doing well in the Clausura championship. They are in fourth place three points behind leaders Velez Sarsfield.
Boca Juniors, one of the big clubs from the capital, are 14th — seven points off the pace.
Yet Olimpo, promoted this season, are in greater danger of relegation than Boca. Their fourth place in the table does not save them from also occupying one of the promotion playoff berths as a result of the three-season points averages.
The averages were introduced 28 years ago and although the move was not presented as such, it was designed as a safety net for a poor season by one of Argentina’s big clubs after San Lorenzo suffered a humiliating relegation in 1981, though it failed to save Racing Club in 1983, the first year of its implementation.
River Plate, third two points off the pace, began this season in the promotion playoff places and are now only just outside them with the constant fear of slipping back into them with a defeat.
The bottom two sides in the 20-team division go down automatically, those in 17th and 18th place meet teams from the second-tier Nacional B championship in two-legged playoffs.
River’s delicate position was due to a very poor 2008-09 season and failure to redress the balance enough the following season. They finished the Apertura championship in the first half of this season in fourth place and have been doing even better in the Clausura, edging away from danger — although playing pragmatic, defensive football a long way from their traditional, attractive attacking style.
Boro’s Southgate gets another chance. Does he deserve it?
Most people agree that sacking a manager after a few weeks or a handful of matches is ridiculous, but sometimes chairmen go to the other extreme and exhibit reserves of patience that would be beyond most fans.
Given the frantic pace of the soccer industry, Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate can consider himself an extremely lucky man after a season that brought the club just seven league victories, 28 goals and relegation.
Boro chairman Steve Gibson said in a BBC Radio interview this week he was backing Southgate to get the club back in the Premier League next season, vowing not to make the former England international a scapegoat for the club’s relegation.
A lot of people will be wondering why not.
In January 2008, Southgate brought in record signing Brazilian striker Afonso Alves for 12.7 million quid from Heerenveen and let captain George Boateng and fellow midfielder Lee Cattermole go in the close season.
This campaign, Boro struggled to compete in midfield and could not score goals. Alves managed just four all season and despite this problem Egyptian international Mido was allowed to leave on loan, along with another Southgate signing, Marlon King.
Gibson showed similar patience with former England manager Steve McClaren and Bryan Robson. While it is an admirable and rare virtue in football, it certainly has not done Gibson many favours to date.
I agree Dan, but Southgate’s transfer decisions to date have been one of his biggest downfalls as a manager. He is a good coach, but has not been able to attract the right type of player to the Riverside.
Signing flops like King and Alves will have not done his confidence for the new transfer window any good.
I too think it will be make or break for Boro. They either bounce back at the first time of asking or get ready to settle into a good few seasons in the Championship.
Should Shearer stay or go?
Alan Shearer has a big decision on his hands after his eight-game stint in charge of Newcastle United ended in relegation from the Premier League on Sunday.
Most fans of the club will be desperate for Shearer, the club’s record goalscorer, to be handed the job of rebuilding the team as they prepare for life outside the top flight.
But is sentiment once again in danger of clouding the judgement of those who will make the decision? After all, Newcastle appear in such a mess that surely a manager of vast experience is needed.
Then again, Kevin Keegan was a managerial rookie when he took over in 1992 with the club heading for the third tier of English football and he transformed them into a side that almost landed the Premier League title.
The recent record of former big name players making the jump to manage big clubs is not great, however. Paul Ince failed at Blackburn Rovers, Tony Adams at Portsmouth and Roy Keane ultimately walked away from Sunderland.
Geordie fans will demand an instant return to the top flight and that will heap huge pressure on whoever is in charge next season. Shearer would be given more leeway than an outsider, but it would still be a huge gamble for him and the club.
I dont care whether he is leaving or not and I am happy Newcastle were relegated.
Newcastle poised for tense finale to relegation soap opera
England’s most popular soap operas thrive on a weekly recipe of misery, doom and gloom that is gobbled up by television viewers seeking some relief from their own trials and tribulations.
In that sense, the final weekend of the Premier League season is quite similar.
With Manchester United already polishing the trophy again after sealing a third consecutive title last week, neutral television viewers are salivating at the prospect of watching the suffering of fans of Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Hull City and Sunderland as their clubs desperately scarp for top flight survival.
Like the inevitable rubber-neckers at road traffic accidents, there is something cruelly compulsive about the raw emotions of relegation D-Day.
For those poor fans at Villa Park, the KC Stadium, Upton Park and The Stadium of Light, fingernails will be whittled down to nothing as their sides hover between survival and exile from Planet Premier League and all its hype and glamour.
Sadly, there is usually one club that the majority of neutral voyeurs want to see fall off the cliff — and this year they play in black and white stripes.
And it was written.Owen at United!Cheer up Alan Shearer, Oh what can it be, to be a S***E Jordi B*****D – and a S**** Football TEEEEAAAAM!
Shearer’s arrival could give Toon Army false hope
Newcastle’s interim boss and Geordie hero Alan Shearer opened St. James’ Park on Tuesday and his Premier League side trained in front of 7,500 fans.
It could prove to be a masterstroke. As the sun shone down and school kids on half-term flocked to the stadium, it had the city buzzing again just two days after the disappointing loss to Chelsea.
But the Geordie faithful are precisely that, and rarely do they turn their backs in disgust when things aren’t going well, just ask Habib Beye.
If the Magpies don’t escape relegation, it will be horribly sad to see St. James’ Park half-full at best for Championship games.
Newcastle’s run-in however is a tough one, and with just seven games remaining I fear for the club and their most loyal fans.
Seeing the optimism that abounded on Tuesday among the young faces was uplifting, but the effect Shearer’s return has had could turn to heartbreaking scenes come the season’s end.
PHOTO: Newcastle United’s interim coach Alan Shearer gestures during their training session at St James’ Park in Newcastle April 7, 2009. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis
I don’t think this gives Newcastle fans ‘false hope’ but I do think it gives them something to get excited about – unfortunately its in the situation they’re in.
As for the ground half empty, they won’t sell out in the championship but with the amount of seasons tickets that would have been renewed in January/February they’ll have a big turnout.
http://www.worldfootballcolumns.com
Shearer confirmed as Newcastle manager — can he keep them up?
Well, at least we now know it wasn’t an April Fool’s Day joke… Alan Shearer has been confirmed as Newcastle manager for the final eight matches of the season.
He faces a Herculean task in keeping Newcastle up and with no managerial experience to his name the odds must be against him.
Click here for the full story, and let us know in the comments if you think the move is inspired, desperate, desperately inspired or just plain daft.
PHOTO: A Newcastle United fan is seen outside St James’ Park in Newcastle, April 1, 2009. Alan Shearer will become the club’s new manager until the end of the present season. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis
Honestly, I’m surprised it took Newcastle and Shearer this long to agree to what had been rumored months ago.
England’s north east goes from hotbed to wasteland
Things are looking grim in the north east, England’s fabled “hotbed of soccer”.
The phrase, if you are interested, was used for many years to describe the passion for football in the region before a scholarly book by reknowned journalist Arthur Appleton “Hotbed of Soccer – the story of football in the North East” was published in 1960 and told a mainly successful story.
If a similar tome was being written today, I’d suggest a more apt title might be “The Frozen Wasteland of Soccer — Under-Achievement, Broken Dreams and Very Few Trophies in the North East.”
A suitable sub-title? “Staring Relegation in the Face in 2009.”
With the end of the English Premier League season fast approaching, Newcastle United and Middlesbrough occupy two of the three relegation places with only seemingly-doomed West Bromwich Albion beneath them.
Sunderland, the region’s other major power, may appear to be safe in 14th spot, but they are only three points above Newcastle and five ahead of Boro.
One online betting service on Tuesday was offering odds of 25-1 that all three north east clubs will go down — and who knows, if West Brom launch the kind of miraculous escape they managed in 2005, that could still happen. (more…)
It’s sad that the north east is of so little influence compared to the old days. But England is still the strongest competition in the world.Too bad that so many clubs are concentrated around London, though.
it cant be fair can it? And you need to be a maths teacher to work it out