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ManYoo and Tottenham both drew this weekend but both make it into Pete Gill's list of winners, while Martin Jol is a loser for his tactical caution once again. And then there's Stu Pearce...
Winners
ManYoo
The route towards a second treble is proving an arduous one and single shots of whiskey are probably insufficient for Sir Alex when he considers his side's fixture list. 2007 has already brought 15 matches and a further 16 could await in the next two months. By way of contrast, Aston Villa have played just eight with a maximum of ten to follow.
An already-stretched squad was weakened on Saturday by Edwin van der Sar's injury. Suffered during the warm-up at the Riverside, it was an unwelcome reminder of the perils of a packed fixture list. In all, six senior ManYoo players are vying for attention on the treatment table.
Sir Alex knows better than most the value of a fit squad - whenever he's asked to identify the key ingredient of the 1999 treble, the Scot always highlights the fact that he was only deprived of Henning Berg that spring.
Still, every cloud has a silver lining and one unmistakable advantage is to be gleaned from a replay being crammed on to the schedule: Paul Scholes will serve just one game of his three-match suspension in the league.
Mark Hughes
With Sir Alex intent on remaining at ManYoo for the foreseeable future, identifying his successor has ceased to be a regular preoccupation for the footballing nation. Yet should the Scot make a second u-turn on his future - a not altogether preposterous possibility if his side prevail in Athens - then Hughes would be one of the favourites, if not the favourite, to move into the manager's office at Old Trafford.
Watford
A fortunate victory at Plymouth has brought Watford a place in the last four of the FA Cup but match analysis ought to bring gloomy foreboding. As against Ipswich in the fifth round, the Hornets were out-performed by their lowly-ranked opponents, suggesting that another season of disappointment beckons even after a return to their natural habitat.
Aaron Lennon
Following his off-the-record press briefing last month, it is an open secret that Steve McClaren intends to duck a choice between Frank Lampard and Steve Gerrard to partner Owen Hargreaves in Tel Aviv by deploying the Liverpool captain on the right of midfield.
The oser in the compromise will be Aaron Lennon if, as expected, McClaren accommodates the Tottenham winger on the left. The strength of Lennon's game is his pace, but if he plays on the left he will be inclined to cut inside, a movement that will naturally negate his speed. Disconcertingly, Stewart Downing still remains a favourite of McClaren and may yet start ahead of Lennon despite this Saturday's reminder that he possesses neither the touch nor trickery required of an international winger.
Only by offering repeats of the chasing he meted out to Cashley Cole, who continues to lumber in a team in which his principal attributes are palpably ill-suited, can Lennon force the England coach into finally picking between Gerrard and Lampard and selecting a balanced midfield. Amen to that.
Tottenham Hotspur
The archetypal football enthusiast Kevin Keegan has become so disillusioned with the Premiership that he has not bothered to watch a match for over a year. The disenchantment is so acute that the former England manager has left the country for, of all places, Scotland.
"It's not as interesting now," he complained in an interview this week. "The big clubs aren't just building their own future, they are knocking everyone else's down. I can see it for what it is now, a money-making machine, with everything geared towards the top clubs."
He has a point. The Premiership has become a closed shop and for it to justify claims that it is The Best League In The World - claims which were repeated this week after three of its residents qualified for the last eight of the Champions League - it requires a break-in.
The Premiership may boast four of the best teams in Europe, but the search for the fifth-best outfit exposes the hype as a flimsy marketing exercise. This is a league of champions - well, Champions Leaguers - and no challengers.
Beneath the elite, a Dormant Four of Aston Villa, Everton, Tottenham and Newcastle slumbers, apparently content just to hang on to the coat-tail of the Big Four's lucrative revenue stream. There is no disgrace in being eclipsed by ManYoo, Chelski, Liverpool and Arsenal, yet it should shame such former powerhouses of English football that the most consistent challengers to the new elite over the past three years has been Bolton.
Everton run them close, but Tottenham are the under-achievers of the Premiership era, so their recent renaissance should be welcomed. Sunday's entralling tie at Stamford Bridge was a refreshing glimpse of the entertainment comeptitiveness guarantees.
The new television deal has been depicted as a cash cow for the already-haves. However, the money is to be spread surprisingly evenly around the league; if anything, it is unfair on the Big Four that so much financial reward is being pumped beyond their confines. For instance, the side that finishes bottom of the table in 2007/08 will accrue a similar amount of prize amount as Chelski earned in 2005/06 by winning the title. Only Robin Hood has previously robbed the rich so blatantly to feed the poor.
Granted, money isn't everything, but it helps. After collapsing along the final straight in May, Spurs were forced to sell Michael Carrick in July to ManYoo. But there's approximately £30m reason to hope that this summer will see reinforcent at White Hart Lane - and beyond - rather than mere replacement. If so, and the marvellous Dimitar Berbatov is retained, the Premiership may finally be a league worth hyping.
Losers
Manchester Citeh Nil and Stuart Pearce
Sky Sports are taking a huge risk by broadcasting two successive Manchester Citeh matches because they are vulnerable to accusations of gross callousness by intruding so publicly on private grief. Flower vendors at cemeteries profit from misery with superior delicacy.
Citeh's calamities used to be entertaining, memorable so-bad-it-is-untrue tales of ridiculousness being snatched from the brink of respectability. Whatever else they were, Citeh were fun. By contrast, their elimination from the cup at Blackburn this weekend after a moribund 90 minutes was made memorable only by the close-in shots of the enraged travelling support. Their fury is understandable (although, in the direction of Joey Barton, unwarranted). Citeh are worse than bad; they are horrible.
After failing to score in five of their past nine games, Sky mockingly referred to Stuart Pearce's side as Manchester City Nil. They duly record zero shots on goal at Ewood. This isn't a recent blip: only Watford have scored fewer goals this season in the top flight.
Pearce was given a stay of execution last week by the club's board but the sight of 7,000 supporters marking his two-year anniversary by demonically screaming invective will prompt reconsideration. He will probably still be on the touchline for the visit of Chelski but defeat to the champions, and against Middlesbrough next Saturday, will cause the axe to fall.
Pearce has brought passion to Citeh but passion, as Martin O'Neill has apparently discovered at Villa, can only hoist a team so far without the addition of quality. Pearce is culpable for the lack of goals because the league's worst set of strikers, Bernardo Corradi, Georgios Samaras, Darius Vassell and Paul Dickov, is compiled exclusively of his purchases.
The £6m spent on Samaras was especially ill-considered and it is sadly ironic that the folly of the England Under-21 manager's in spending abroad for goals has been exposed in successive weeks by Wigan's Caleb Folan, a £500,000 signing from Chesterfield, and Matt Derbyshire, discovered in the North West Counties League performing for Great Harwood Town.
Martin Jol
Relative to their team's success, Tottenham fans are the most demanding in England. For the reasons stated above, it is not necessarily an unpalatable failing. Yet the high level of expectation ensures that the club's manager is forever subject to an unflattering,spotlight and it is inevitable that Martin Jol will be castigated for substituting both Berbatov and Lennon as Chelski launched their comeback this weekend.
The background behind the criticism is January's Carling Cup semi-final with Arsenal at White Hart Lane when Berbatov succumbed to injury and Jol disasterously sought to maintain Spurs' two-goal lead by switching to a 4-5-1 formation. The Dutchman has already been accused of repeating such catastrophic negativity at Stamford Bridge.
In mitigation, Lennon was playing his sixth game in 20 days and it wasn't unreasonable to expect Mido, Berbatov's replacement, to at least perform comptently. The Egyptian did, after all, nearly win the Carling Cup tie at the Emirates in the final minute of normal time, while Jermain Defoe's injury-time shot was a foot away from transforming Jol in a master tactican.
Steve McClaren
For the neutrals, the draws at the Riverside and Stamford Bridge were compelling entertainment. For the England manager, the prospect of the two ties being replayed is the nightmare scenario - causing as many as 16 of his likely 23-man squad to be in action two days before the Three Lions depart for the crunch Euro 2008 qualifier in Israel.
Pete Gill
Winners
ManYoo
The route towards a second treble is proving an arduous one and single shots of whiskey are probably insufficient for Sir Alex when he considers his side's fixture list. 2007 has already brought 15 matches and a further 16 could await in the next two months. By way of contrast, Aston Villa have played just eight with a maximum of ten to follow.
An already-stretched squad was weakened on Saturday by Edwin van der Sar's injury. Suffered during the warm-up at the Riverside, it was an unwelcome reminder of the perils of a packed fixture list. In all, six senior ManYoo players are vying for attention on the treatment table.
Sir Alex knows better than most the value of a fit squad - whenever he's asked to identify the key ingredient of the 1999 treble, the Scot always highlights the fact that he was only deprived of Henning Berg that spring.
Still, every cloud has a silver lining and one unmistakable advantage is to be gleaned from a replay being crammed on to the schedule: Paul Scholes will serve just one game of his three-match suspension in the league.
Mark Hughes
With Sir Alex intent on remaining at ManYoo for the foreseeable future, identifying his successor has ceased to be a regular preoccupation for the footballing nation. Yet should the Scot make a second u-turn on his future - a not altogether preposterous possibility if his side prevail in Athens - then Hughes would be one of the favourites, if not the favourite, to move into the manager's office at Old Trafford.
Watford
A fortunate victory at Plymouth has brought Watford a place in the last four of the FA Cup but match analysis ought to bring gloomy foreboding. As against Ipswich in the fifth round, the Hornets were out-performed by their lowly-ranked opponents, suggesting that another season of disappointment beckons even after a return to their natural habitat.
Aaron Lennon
Following his off-the-record press briefing last month, it is an open secret that Steve McClaren intends to duck a choice between Frank Lampard and Steve Gerrard to partner Owen Hargreaves in Tel Aviv by deploying the Liverpool captain on the right of midfield.
The oser in the compromise will be Aaron Lennon if, as expected, McClaren accommodates the Tottenham winger on the left. The strength of Lennon's game is his pace, but if he plays on the left he will be inclined to cut inside, a movement that will naturally negate his speed. Disconcertingly, Stewart Downing still remains a favourite of McClaren and may yet start ahead of Lennon despite this Saturday's reminder that he possesses neither the touch nor trickery required of an international winger.
Only by offering repeats of the chasing he meted out to Cashley Cole, who continues to lumber in a team in which his principal attributes are palpably ill-suited, can Lennon force the England coach into finally picking between Gerrard and Lampard and selecting a balanced midfield. Amen to that.
Tottenham Hotspur
The archetypal football enthusiast Kevin Keegan has become so disillusioned with the Premiership that he has not bothered to watch a match for over a year. The disenchantment is so acute that the former England manager has left the country for, of all places, Scotland.
"It's not as interesting now," he complained in an interview this week. "The big clubs aren't just building their own future, they are knocking everyone else's down. I can see it for what it is now, a money-making machine, with everything geared towards the top clubs."
He has a point. The Premiership has become a closed shop and for it to justify claims that it is The Best League In The World - claims which were repeated this week after three of its residents qualified for the last eight of the Champions League - it requires a break-in.
The Premiership may boast four of the best teams in Europe, but the search for the fifth-best outfit exposes the hype as a flimsy marketing exercise. This is a league of champions - well, Champions Leaguers - and no challengers.
Beneath the elite, a Dormant Four of Aston Villa, Everton, Tottenham and Newcastle slumbers, apparently content just to hang on to the coat-tail of the Big Four's lucrative revenue stream. There is no disgrace in being eclipsed by ManYoo, Chelski, Liverpool and Arsenal, yet it should shame such former powerhouses of English football that the most consistent challengers to the new elite over the past three years has been Bolton.
Everton run them close, but Tottenham are the under-achievers of the Premiership era, so their recent renaissance should be welcomed. Sunday's entralling tie at Stamford Bridge was a refreshing glimpse of the entertainment comeptitiveness guarantees.
The new television deal has been depicted as a cash cow for the already-haves. However, the money is to be spread surprisingly evenly around the league; if anything, it is unfair on the Big Four that so much financial reward is being pumped beyond their confines. For instance, the side that finishes bottom of the table in 2007/08 will accrue a similar amount of prize amount as Chelski earned in 2005/06 by winning the title. Only Robin Hood has previously robbed the rich so blatantly to feed the poor.
Granted, money isn't everything, but it helps. After collapsing along the final straight in May, Spurs were forced to sell Michael Carrick in July to ManYoo. But there's approximately £30m reason to hope that this summer will see reinforcent at White Hart Lane - and beyond - rather than mere replacement. If so, and the marvellous Dimitar Berbatov is retained, the Premiership may finally be a league worth hyping.
Losers
Manchester Citeh Nil and Stuart Pearce
Sky Sports are taking a huge risk by broadcasting two successive Manchester Citeh matches because they are vulnerable to accusations of gross callousness by intruding so publicly on private grief. Flower vendors at cemeteries profit from misery with superior delicacy.
Citeh's calamities used to be entertaining, memorable so-bad-it-is-untrue tales of ridiculousness being snatched from the brink of respectability. Whatever else they were, Citeh were fun. By contrast, their elimination from the cup at Blackburn this weekend after a moribund 90 minutes was made memorable only by the close-in shots of the enraged travelling support. Their fury is understandable (although, in the direction of Joey Barton, unwarranted). Citeh are worse than bad; they are horrible.
After failing to score in five of their past nine games, Sky mockingly referred to Stuart Pearce's side as Manchester City Nil. They duly record zero shots on goal at Ewood. This isn't a recent blip: only Watford have scored fewer goals this season in the top flight.
Pearce was given a stay of execution last week by the club's board but the sight of 7,000 supporters marking his two-year anniversary by demonically screaming invective will prompt reconsideration. He will probably still be on the touchline for the visit of Chelski but defeat to the champions, and against Middlesbrough next Saturday, will cause the axe to fall.
Pearce has brought passion to Citeh but passion, as Martin O'Neill has apparently discovered at Villa, can only hoist a team so far without the addition of quality. Pearce is culpable for the lack of goals because the league's worst set of strikers, Bernardo Corradi, Georgios Samaras, Darius Vassell and Paul Dickov, is compiled exclusively of his purchases.
The £6m spent on Samaras was especially ill-considered and it is sadly ironic that the folly of the England Under-21 manager's in spending abroad for goals has been exposed in successive weeks by Wigan's Caleb Folan, a £500,000 signing from Chesterfield, and Matt Derbyshire, discovered in the North West Counties League performing for Great Harwood Town.
Martin Jol
Relative to their team's success, Tottenham fans are the most demanding in England. For the reasons stated above, it is not necessarily an unpalatable failing. Yet the high level of expectation ensures that the club's manager is forever subject to an unflattering,spotlight and it is inevitable that Martin Jol will be castigated for substituting both Berbatov and Lennon as Chelski launched their comeback this weekend.
The background behind the criticism is January's Carling Cup semi-final with Arsenal at White Hart Lane when Berbatov succumbed to injury and Jol disasterously sought to maintain Spurs' two-goal lead by switching to a 4-5-1 formation. The Dutchman has already been accused of repeating such catastrophic negativity at Stamford Bridge.
In mitigation, Lennon was playing his sixth game in 20 days and it wasn't unreasonable to expect Mido, Berbatov's replacement, to at least perform comptently. The Egyptian did, after all, nearly win the Carling Cup tie at the Emirates in the final minute of normal time, while Jermain Defoe's injury-time shot was a foot away from transforming Jol in a master tactican.
Steve McClaren
For the neutrals, the draws at the Riverside and Stamford Bridge were compelling entertainment. For the England manager, the prospect of the two ties being replayed is the nightmare scenario - causing as many as 16 of his likely 23-man squad to be in action two days before the Three Lions depart for the crunch Euro 2008 qualifier in Israel.
Pete Gill
