Football News Roundup – October 21

Back with another edition of the Soccerlens Roundup – Henry as a 19-year kid, more West Ham takeover talks, the wrath of Arsenal fans, the low-key El Classico and a look at the weekend’s matches as well.

West Ham Takeover

They’re at it again. Before it was Magnusson increasing his bid and pushing Terry Brown, and now Kia Joorabchian, the man who earlier came into the picture with the ‘acquisition’ of Tevezcherano by West Ham. Joorabchian has recently met with Brown, and the key factor here is the price each man (or consortium) is willing to pay.

Magnusson may not be willing to go over 75 mil, whereas KJ could play for bigger stakes.

How West Ham’s recent Premiership form will impact this takeover, that’s anyone’s guess. Too good to go down? What matters is whether they can deliver in the form of goals, and against Tottenham today they will have a chance to prove themselves as Premiership regulars.

European Review

Champions League: United won, Arsenal lost, Chelsea won, Barcelona lost, Liverpool won, Madrid won, Lyon and Milan won…yea, I know you already know.

UEFA Cup: Hahahahaha…

(Ok ok, all British teams won, big deal.)

Arsenal Fans

Soccerlens does not have very cordial relations with Arsenal fans, mainly due to a couple of incidents during the World Cup where I said that Henry wasn’t showing enough class, and I got slated for insulting his honour.

It seems that I’ve done it again over at BlogFC. Shame on me for expressing my opinion in public 🙂

Arsenal fans bite back.

Platini’s got a point

We need more quality football, but we don’t necessary need more football.

There’s a temptation to resist change (if it ain’t broken…), but the problem here is that the current format for football – in the Premiership, the World Cup and European football – has become all about ‘quantity’. I don’t want to see lesser teams not get sponsorship money or money from tv rights, but there should be a restructuring of the system where we get to see more quality at the top of the pile – namely in Europe and in the World Cup.

The Premiership has improved considerably this year in terms of competition, and to an extent you have to congratulate Chelsea and Arsenal for bringing that about – Chelsea with their money (money has funded Aston Villa (O’Neill) and Portsmouth this season) and Arsenal with their self-belief and long-term planning (Everton, Liverpool, and whisper it, but Tottenham and Bolton as well).

But would you really want to see one less Premiership team in Europe? I don’t mind, as long as it’s the weakest of the four dropping out every time. More quality, hurray.

Then again United are more likely to get in than other teams, so I’m a bit biased.

Cisse’s back

In training, that is.

Bookies are already accepting bets for the time he will stay fit before breaking a leg again (cruel, I know).

In seriousness, best of luck to the former Liverpool striker and hopefully he can regain his confidence and pace quickly at Marseille, and team up with Ribery to give Lyon a hard time.

Liverpool vs Manchester United

This deserves a full preview, and it will get it (tomorrow, probably), but for now, here are the main things to note:

• • Liverpool fans think that they will sneak through a win to kickstart their campaign, although secretly a few of them are worried that they could be at the wrong end of a 4-0 drubbing.

• United fans think they’ll win comfortably, although secretly a few of us are worried that Liverpool will pull an Arsenal on us. Then again, Alan Smith is fit so maybe he’ll slot into the midfield and kick Gerrard out of the park when the going gets tough?

Real Madrid vs Barcelona

Another game that will get a full preview, but I want to take this moment to pay tribute to two former United players playing at Real Madrid. And they couldn’t have more different fortunes at the moment.

Ruud van Nistelrooy is banging in the goals and looking forward to scoring in the big game on Sunday. They still don’t rate him in England though.

David Beckham could be ‘Sir David’ soon, although he can’t get a game at Madrid and … yea, they don’t rate him in England either.

Shows you how little football fans know, eh?

Larsson to Aston Villa?

Martin O’Neill is at it again.

A Thierry Henry special

And for the one person that read through all this (thanks Hasan :P), here’s Thierry Henry, 10 years ago:

If you get the time, read The Sun’s article on Henry.