FA Cup - Where's the magic gone??

April 19th 2015 - Liverpool v Villa in the second Semi final of the once prestigious FA Cup, theres no  double page pull outs in the papers, not much shouting about it on the box, and only a handful of people tweeting about it, mainly from the clubs involved. What on earth has happened to this ICON of the footballing world?

Theres more noise about this weekends Premier League games in the news than the two semi finals. Leicester City are off the Bottom - Chelsea grind out result against United thats all the back pages read, a small column in the bottom left hand corner mentions the result of the other semi final, theres no bells or whistles and no pun - Just the full time score.

British football is now dominated by the riches of the Premier League. Clubs would rather finish 4th than win the cup... how times have changed. In five years time no one will remember who won the FA Cup in 2015, yet they will remember who finished fourth that season! Just look at Spurs and Everton they have spent so long trying to break back into the monopoly of the top 4, yet if they had just given that extra push in the cups they would have surly won a few medals instead of having an empty trophy room!

One of the games greats - Gerrard is calling time on his Liverpool career to move over to the MLS, if you ask him right now what would he rather achieve in his final season with the club - a top four finish or a FA Cup medal, I bet he would be undecided! Yet years ago players like Gazza, Adams, Ginola, Gray, Rush would of laughed at that question, in fact that question wouldn't off even existed.

Something needs to change for the love & the future of the game! Maybe just maybe when the money dries up  the Premier League may fall from grace just like the FA Cup.

The Weekender

Its been a while but we're back! The Weekender has been off on his travels, sampling some of the classic footballing derby across the UK! Sunday league football is on the rise and black boots have made a come back! It's like going back to the 70's!

With the season drawing to a close it looks like we're gonna have a few newbies joining us in the dizzy heights of the top tier next season - 'Arrys old-boys Bournemouth look nailed on for top flight. The seasons other surprise package Brentford are trying to get into the playoff places, spearheaded by a young loan player by the name of Pritchard - With the youngster gaining rave reviews along the way... A future Frank Lampard maybe?

Anyway thats enough rambling on for a Saturday morning, lets have a cuppa and a slice of toast and get down to business!


The Weekenders - Weekend cuppa

Now we've had some crazy results in the last few weeks and my footballing brain is telling me we're gonna have some more this week! But if you have a cheeky fiver to spare stick it on a high scoring draw at White Hart Lane, Tim's back in town and he has a point to prove against his old employers, his got his big men firing and the fact Spurs can't defend it has all the makings of a cracker!

We're going for a 4-4 Draw with Harry Kane to score a hat-trick!

The new season ... and England

With the football league kicking off this weekend, the summer break has flown by! In just a few seasons 'Arry has gone from managing a Champions League team to a Championship team, Wolves have gone from a Premier League team to a League One team and Barnet are no longer classed as a league team... Although it's likely that with Edgar Davids as boss, it wont be long until they climb back into the football league! 

So what has been the reflection of the summer? We've had Brazil beating Spain in the CONFED cup, Manchester United have had their first pre-season without Sir Alex guiding them, Chelski have re-apointed the Special one, although he hasn't really splashed the cash as of yet and there has been so much talk about bloody Real Madrid and Bale... im so bored of hearing them two in the same sentence! 

So as we look forward to another season, spare a thought for Trevor Francis the first million pound..... 

International rescue

Midweek international friendlies... What's the point of them? Players pull out left right and centre, club mangers moan about them, and in the end we end up watching average players playing for their countries, these average players then end up going back to their clubs demanding bigger, better contracts and then demand a move to a bigger club and end up wasting away out on loan somewhere... Just look at David Nugent, David Bentley, Michael Ricketts and Jay Bothroyd to name a few. 

The FA charge a packet to watch England play, isn't it about time that kids for a quid should be the normality every time The Three Lions play? With half empty stadiums up and down the county the men in suits need to take a long hard look at what direction football is going in, the everyday man can no longer afford the prices being quoted. 

We all like a good moan, but it's safe to say that in the eyes of FIFA that football is untouchable when it comes to making money... They fail to make any statements on administration or debt, except this one joke rule about fair-play and finances that the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City have managed to exploit with made up naming rights.... spare a thought for the likes of Swindon and Portsmouth who thought that Monopoly money was real.... Their fans could end up without a club come the end of 2013. 

Cult Hero

Next up in our cult hero section is Big Martin Jol (looking very youthful in the above image) Every club the big man has been @ the fans have taken to him like a nice half time cup of tea! Solid as a rock, this Dutch international started life at his local club ADO Den Haag where he went on to make over 150 appearances before signing on with Bayern Munich. Jol didn't really enjoy his Munich adventure and with only a handful a games under his belt he decided to return back to the Eredivisie with FC Twente. After a few seasons with Twente Jol headed over to England with WBA, The WBA fans took to him straight away, after only 2 seasons Jol was on the move again along the road to Coventry City. At the end of that season Jol returned to Holland and back to his local side ADO Den Haag where he would go on to win the Dutch player of the year!

After a short time out of the game Jol returned as manager of  ADO Den Haag after a few years making his name in the lower leagues Jol got his chance with Roda JC, then RKC Waalwijk. In 2004 Jol returned to the UK as part of the Spurs coaching staff, within weeks of his appointment the Spurs boss decided to leave and Jol was promoted to manager! After 2 top 5 finishes (The highest Spurs had finished in the premiership) Jol was replaced with a manager that nearly got Spurs relegated after spells with Hamburg and Ajax Jol now manages Fulham.

Cult Hero

It's been a while but our cult hero section is back! With Super Gerry Francis making it into the hall of fame! QPR fans will remember that youthful look and even though he has aged since his playing days, his hair hasn't .... well it's gone grey but other than that the famous GF mullet is still going strong!

Tea Stories

A new feature for 2013, is tea stories, a lighter look at the latest headlines making the news! So with Rafa under more pressure than a Catholic priest stuck in a room full of school boys, Martin Tyler decided to ask AVB about the on-goings at his previous club!

Teams of 2012

With 2012 turning into 2013, we @ It's a football thing have been a bit slow getting our teams of the year together, we could blame it on the rain or we could blame it on the Midweeker getting Man flu and being stuck in bed for god knows how long......

Fear not as we have finally made our selections and for the first time in 3 years Joe Hart fails to make it into either pundits team! Joe has been solid but there have been some outstanding displays by other keepers throughout 2012 including that twat of a bloke Szczesny. Defending was a problem throughout 2012, with teams such as Tottenham & Newcastle conceding 5 or more on more than a few occasions! As for Man United they had been leaking goals left right and centre! On the United front what has happened to the likes of Smalling and Jones? 2012 also saw Paul 'ave ago' Scholes return to Manchester as he got bored playing fifa on the PS3.

West Ham returned to the top flight and then decided to buy Andy Carroll.... lets just say he hasn't really hit the ground running... or played much!

What a signing Michu has been for the Swans! The Midweeker had tipped them to go down this season, but with Michu up top the Swans on their day can beat anyone anywhere.... Just ask Arsenal!

2012 saw the Toffees start a season on fire! it makes a change for them, in the past they seemed to like playing ketch-up (not the tomato type)

So with our debate settled with who makes the starting 11 of our teams of the year The weekender slumped in his pint of best raises his head and shouts out a request for Friedel to move the O's on loan! 

The Weekender

After a bumper festive season The Weekender is donning his new sheepskin jacket Father Christmas bought him and is heading out for another two days of footballing merriment.
The Boxing Day schedule was enough to keep the cold turkey @ bay but a full weekend fix is in order!
With no Christmas Card from Fergie this year he's going for West Brom to pull off a shock @ Old Trafford, but it's not looking good for the chasing pack either......
He has better news for The Toon though where Mike Ashby welds the sack like Santa Claus on a can of red bull and a 'arry Christmas for the Super 'oops with a win @ last against Liverpool!

The Midweeker

The Midweeker is back and he does like to stick the boot in! "No sugar in my tea love, im sweet enough!" It's all gone a bit wrong for Chelsea over the last few weeks, out goes Robbie and in came Rafa, but after boring draws at home to City & Fulham it was last weekends defeat to the Hammers that really took toll! I can't see him turning it around, they are gonna crash out of Europe and i fear that Rafa will be collecting his P45 a lot earlier than expected!

As for the rest of the British connection in Europe it's gonna be a long week, the best i can see for Wengers boys is a one nil defeat, i can't believe the bloke is under pressure, i mean a few weeks back they smashed their North London rivals 5-2! and now some fans are calling for him to get the chop! Pure madness. What kinda world are we living in at the moment?

Wombling free................?

This weekend sees the return of the FA Cup and while it may have lost some of it's magic it still has the ability to throw up the odd decent fixture.
Arguably the tie of this round is MK Dons vs AFC Wimbledon, I say AFC but that particular moniker seems to been dropped since they emerged into the football league proper though and there's no chance of getting the two teams confused.
As grudge matches go, it may not have the tradition of Celtic/Rangers, City/United or Arsenal/Spurs but a lot of footballing water has passed under the bridge and who'd have thought that a fan run team would ever get the chance to take on the exact same side that brought about their very meaning and existence? But as we all know Wimbledon have had their fair share of fairytales....

Back in the day Wimbledon may have had their fair share of critics, with the whole 'Crazy Gang' mentality, long ball game, and slightly heavy handed antics on the pitch but ultimately they were what grass roots old school football was all about.
Rising from the fourth to the first division in only four seasons (they were non league five seasons before that) and famously beating 'the culture club' of the Mighty Reds to win the FA Cup in 1988, they must have done something right, as players picked up for next to nothing went on to big money transfers and international honours.

Is there a hint of irony from those wanting to see Wimbledon get one over the MK Dons? Did those same people look down on the club during it's original rise and glory days of the late Eighties/early Nineties? Maybe, but the MK Dons - although a perfectly well run club with decent management and players came to represent the all that was going wrong about the game, with the possibilities of more American style franchised clubs feared to be on the horizon, once again grass roots old school football was proved to be the way forward.

So those who remember that David versus Goliath encounter in the FA Cup Final of '88 will be relishing this Sunday's game. But for the Wombles a victory if it comes may prove a hollow one, many fans are boycotting the game and still see MK's refusal to drop The Dons from their name as the ultimate betrayal.

The Midweeker is back

The Midweeker returns this week, and this tea drinking, hob-nob eating pundit reckons theres gonna be a few upsets this week, with both Manchester clubs dropping points!

The iconic pundit went on to say "Football is about 11 men on each side giving 100% it's not about tactics or  parking the bus, it's about the beautiful game. People complicate a simple game that lasts for 90 mins. Leave the people with degrees to run the country"