Just when the 2008 FA Cup winners thought it couldn’t get much worse, the Premier League authorities stick the boot in further.
Paul Hart was hoping to sign free agent Eugen Bopp today (yes, I know) but the League have intervened as the south-coast club still owe transfer fees to fellow Premier League outfits. The club are now banned from signing any players until the matter is resolved. Pompey currently sit in bottom place with one victory in 10 matches.
“We can confirm that there is an embargo on Portsmouth registering any new players,” said Premier League spokesman Dan Johnson.
“This concerns unpaid money to other clubs and it is in the process of being sorted,” confirmed club spokesman Gary Double. “We are confident the situation will be sorted by the end of the week.”
The transfers involved are believed to be Lassana Diarra’s move from Arsenal in January 2008 and Glen Johnson’s signing from Chelsea in August 2007.
Both players have since left the club, Diarra moving to Real Madrid and Johnson to Liverpool.
Today’s mammoth clash between Liverpool and Manchester United doesn’t decide who wins the Premier League this season, but it did speak volumes about the make-up of both sides.
In years gone by, United have had big characters who rolled their sleeves up in times of need; Hughes, Bruce, Pallister, Ince, Keane, Stam – even Beckham. But for all the qualities that this current-day squad possess, a combative, body-on-the-line spirit isn’t one of them.
Too many times in recent memory have this United side surrendered a crucial match with a whimper, with the Champions League Final in Rome being the most inglorious example. Today, Liverpool didn’t have to be particularly impressive in order to celebrate their third successive win over United but they applied the fundamentals, scrapped for every ball, and fought as though their lives depended on it. In circumstances like that, you expect the opposition to match that endeavour but it never happened and the champions meekly raised the white flag and conceded three points to their most bitter rivals.
The one-paced United midfield were never gifted a second with Lucas and Mascherano in their faces and first to every loose ball, supported by the trio of willing hustlers in Kuyt, Benayoun and Aurelio. Scholes and Carrick surely isn’t the answer for Ferguson’s side in big games; technically astute they may be but as a pairing they lack pace, mobility and physical presence. What the great Scot would have given for Darren Fletcher and Owen Hargreaves. Sir Alex has a vast array of options in that middle third but, when it comes to the grand occasion, is it a case of numerous tradesmen and masters of none?
That’s for Fergie to seriously ponder. But nevertheless, take nothing away from Liverpool; when the chips are down, they seem to be in total contrast to United. Four straight defeats and yet you could sense even before kick-off that they were going to give this everything they had and more often than not, that’s enough.
The Premier League and Barclays today agreed a new three-year title sponsorship deal worth £82.25m to top-flight clubs. The new deal was finalised after league chiefs initially rejected a lower offer from the bank.
Barclays have sponsored the Premier League since 2004 and their current three-year contract, which expires next year, was worth £65.8m. The increase in the value of the deal reflects the continuing strength of the Premier League in a sponsorship market that has been badly affected by the economic downturn in other areas of sport.
The deal will run from the 2010-11 season to the end of the 2012-13 season.
Liverpool fans love the number five. It’s what sets them apart. It’s what makes them believe. Five times they’ve lifted the European Cup and they never let anyone forget it.
But now, they’re facing an altogether different number five. An unprecedented fifth successive defeat, against their arch rivals Manchester United on Sunday, would leave a season that was so hyped, so bullish, so promising…. in tatters. In October. Five has become a hugely frightening number indeed.
And it might not stop there. This morning Rafa Benitez’s side lick their wounds that could easily be reopened time and time again in the next fortnight as, after the champions come to town, there are two more crunch clashes with Arsenal and Lyon again.
Liverpool’s 2-1 home defeat to the French league leaders has left them with a uphill battle to qualify for the Champions League second round; failure to do so would be a catastrophic malfunction, both on the pitch and in the boardroom.
What has happened to the swash-buckling, steam-rollering, free-scoring, never-say-die Liverpool from last spring? Jamie Carragher cut the most forlorn figure you are ever likely to see as the final whistle went last night; close to tears in his post-match interview. This is Jamie Carragher – the embodiment of all that it stands for to be a Liverpool player – and there he was looking like a totally broken man.
These are worrying times for Rafael Benitez. Manchester United will head to Merseyside on Sunday smelling blood, envisioning a huge Street Fighteresque ‘Finish Him’ mirage above the Anfield pitch – and if they head back down the East Lancs with a ten-point lead over Liverpool, Benitez – and his team’s 2009/10 season – may well indeed be finished.
