Nothing like a good loser

Hats off to Manchester United and its two headed management and media machine Carlos and Alex.  It is a kindness that Manchester United rarely lose because  it is hard to stomach the petty sour grapes that are on offer when they do come a cropper.

They were beaten fair and square judging by the highlights given us on match of the day but the conspiracy theories raged.  Sir Alex sticks to the line that Manchester United are hated and as a result they get the rough end of all the deals going, Cup draws, refs decisions,  you name it.

When is he going look at it the way we all look see it.  Manchester United are hated because they  and their trophy obsessed fans arrogantly believe that the world revolves around them and football is beholden to them and their legendary self serving egos.

Double anyone? Arsenal hopefully - at least their manager has a sense of humility and other peoples needs?  Oh, no he's raging self obssessive, too.

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Under New management 2

Back in October we opened the debate of God vs. Money with the Vatican taking over Ancona and the equally international and potent Briatore and Ecclestone taking over QPR. Since then there has been a revolution at QPR with a series of eye-cacthing developments which have illustrated what makes Briatore a worldwide success in both the fields of fashion and Formula 1. Whilst QPR are still at the wrong end of Division 2 [sorry old habits] there is much to suggest that the goal of Champions league in 4 years is well within a compass that for too long was heading magnetically south.

But what of Ancona - has divine intervention been the path to the italian second flight?

Back in October Ancona were riding high in SerieC1-B which is a southern division of this third tier of the Italian football, and whilst the are still in the promotion running they are fifth in the and going through what might be termed a slump, having lost their last two games and drawn the three before that. In a league of 18, there isn't the same relentless battle of fixtures the Championship serves up. This leads to a much more consistent form based development of the league table, so 2 defeats have seen the "RossoBianci" drop out of the promotion places.

So how have the two clubs compared since October. Well Significantly and ironically QPR have employed an Italian coach. Luigi di Canio, a huge culture shock for all involved. Heck he can't speak English - imagine that. With a limited vocabulary and a good translator he has succeeded in creating a new football at Loftus Road something that the fully worded up Gregory and Waddock were unable to do. Whilst on the personnel front there has also been a dramatic influx of new blood at Loftus Road during the January window. Eleven new signings and an equal number of cancelled contracts and loan exits have left the 2007-8 team picture looking a bit sad and redundant. Ancona by contrast have continued with a largely unchanged squad and team - when your topping the league I'm guessing it ain't broke.

As for the new owners, Briatore and Ecclestone continue to turn up to most home games. With the F1 season beckoning I suspect their time and focus may understandably switch shortly. Whilst over in Italy, the Pope is yet to swell the mass ranks of the Ancona faithful, I'm guessing there's a problem, when games are mostly on a Sunday and the Pope is generally working.

Manchester United Conspiracy Theory

Growing up as a kid I read Matt Busby's autobiography shortly after watching the emotional night that was Manchester United 4 Benfica 1. I reckon that such events can seriously affect the team you end up supporting. Growing up in Liverpool with a dad who stood on the Kop habitually post World War could have also turned my head.I am glad to say that neither held enough draw, even when trophy after trophy headed their collective ways.

With remembrances of Munich '58 still fresh, I can still remember with much affection as an 8 year old in the 60's, reading about Duncan Edwards . "He was some player" is the general consensus - no hype or multi million dollar endorsement, which is enough for me.

In all the media shenanigans of the last month or so, the vicarious memory of Duncan Edwards has been central to my sense of remembrance of the human tragedy that was Munich - Greatness snuffed out. The spirit of football snuffed out. Which makes it a crying shame to think that Manchester United FC, central players in the whole process of remembering the dead and their loved ones, chose to depict the flowers of Manchester as AIG sponsored clothes horses.

We have to be thankful that the marketing men didn't feel the need to include the club's official airline partners Air Asia. Having got it so right in so much of their commemorations, in one single commercially motivated moment they showed the barren nature of our modern day money, money, money state of Football.

Sick innit.

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Goodbye G14

Yesterday the G14 was disbanded. I venture that was a good day for football. When rich and powerful people gather together to pursue their interests it is never a good thing for the rest of us. Perhaps they have succeeded in creating football in the image that suited their original aims. A football that has sufficient barriers to avoid the elite from having to share their power and their money.

"The clubs feel they belong to the family of football again." Their outgoing President Jean-Michael Aulas [left] nobly states with the "sound-bite-I'm-a-reasonable-bloke-we-love-the-game" chumminess that is understandable when you got what you wanted and have royally kicked the crap out of the game and worked towards creating multi tiered ghettos within European domestic leagues and an elite continental competition that each season has a last 16 that changes little from the usual suspects year on year

"Manchester United ...... will play.......... Bayern Munich " don't they always, it's a regular fixture.

So good bye you greedy bastards. Feel free to regroup in the future should anything ever threaten your stranglehold on our game.

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To Beijing or Not to Beijing, that is question?

More carping about the Premier League's forward thinking imperialist desire to take Bolton and Fulham to the five corners of the earth?

Sorry - I am on the fence on this one - The FSA is up in arms and ready to bring Barclays and Lucozade to their corporate knees if the they put their support behind the "winter road trip". Bold words and surely well within the compass of such an august body.

Back in the 80's, when going to the match was marginally less acceptable than smoking crack and sleeping with your family pet, the FSA was born and did much, if not all, to return football from the hooligan abyss. Thatcher (remember her) was all for marching the fans into pens at railway stations, tagging them and keeping them under surveillance for the duration of the week. The FSA successfully fought the battle and won. Since then a gentrified game has taken up with Sky and the Yankee dollar.

Sadly that is the last time fan power prevailed - we were united in one cause and there was a seamless resolve. Having seen the Glazers protest fizzle out, "Getting behind Rafa" and a whole bunch of worthy but failed attempts to display who is at the heart of the game, the writing is on the walls. The Premier league hierarchy are under pressure to deliver US sport style solutions to UK sports franchise owners. The Premier League is now so divorced from the reality we grew up and understood as football. MP3 download against wax cylinders. Go and watch Crawley Town this weekend in protest.

We're dead in water brothers and sisters

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Wednesday 7th February 2008 - write it in your diary.

What a terrific day for world football it was yesterday.

1. The premier league imperialists laid out their world domination plan.

2. Andre Bikey strikes a blow against that unseemly football minority stretcher bearers

Where to start?

My favourite response to the impending shoe horning of a new Pay for View money laundering operation into the beautiful game has got be Gareth Southgate. If you aren't totally au fait with the premier managers below Fergie and Arsene, Gareth is the English one who looks and talks like a secondary school physics teacher .

Southgate felt, when questioned about the concept, that he was being exposed to some April foolery. It has got be a great idea for English football for establishing it as the number one world leader in selling itself. It should be no surprise that, wherever football is played it there by virtue of the pioneering spirit of British travelers at the turn of the last but one century.

When Steve Bruce and other dissenting voices have to employ an extra man with a wheelbarrow to help them take home even more money in season 2010 -11 I'm certain they will have been tuned into the many positives that can be taken out of the scheme.

Mr Bikey - yowser. There will be people who tell you this was a dark day for football when Andre saw red last night but like Zidane in 2006, Cantona at Selhurst Park in the 90's, Di Canio when he was an owl, these are the moments that punctuate and validate our beautiful game. They are pure gold and whilst I would hate to see them more than once in any given football season, they brighten up everybody's [except the surprised bearer] day.

It's a passionate game (copyright Martin O'Neill and Gordon Strachan)

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Beautiful Game - my arse

Let's have it right, football is not as good as it was. It is in a constant state of decline since the day it began. With the plethora of live football available to view on telly it becomes more apparent that if you want a guarantee of quality you may better going to see the new Coen brothers film.

Against this backdrop of falling standards and unmet expectations I would like to speak up on behalf of the African Cup of Nations. Far from the turgid moments of recent Euro and World Cup finals I am yet to see a game that didn't excite and raise the pulse rate. Last night Angola showed abandon, joy and a little homage to the stalwart role of the traditional English No.9. Blood and thunder, passion and desire. No balloons in site.

Kevin Cummins the revered Rock photographer is currently in Ghana and posting regular albums of photos on his facebook depicting the sights and flavour of what must be a joy to behold - check them out