Daily News Roundup: 11 April 2007

The massacre at Old Trafford – a 7-1 win for Manchester United over Roma – dominates today’s headlines, but there’s plenty going on underneath the surface to warrant a closer look.

1. Living in a Keano Wonderland

The most significant story of 2007 has been Sunderland’s inexorable rise to the top of the Championship, finally culminating into a title-topping away win against Southampton on Easter Monday.

Simon Turnbull has covered Roy’s rise to the top in detail, looking at transfers, key stories during his tenure and the very real change of public persona from Roy the red-eyed warrior (maniac) to Roy the wise (clever) leader.

Sunderland now lead the Championship with 4 games to go, and they are now favourites and expected to win the league.

Manchester United fans will be interested to know that Danny Simpson (right-back) and Jonny Evans (centre-back) have been a regular feature of Keano’s Sunderland since January – I wouldn’t mind Evans staying at Sunderland for another year to get more experience while we break Pique into the first team.

I’m waiting for the end of the season before doing a full feature on Keano, but suffice to say that the dream of seeing Roy Keane manage in the Premiership will be a reality by August 2007.

2. Should Portsmouth dump Kanu?

Pompey striker Kanu wants a 2-year deal from his current employers instead of the 1-year deal currently offered to him. On the surface it looks like Kanu is more worried about the time than the money (20k per week), for which Portsmouth are reported to have really stretched their budget.

Kanu’s comments are an embarrassment. Will Portsmouth keep him and accept his demands, or will they hold their ground and dump Kanu if he doesn’t cooperate?

My vote is on the later – Portsmouth can get better strikers in, especially after the season they had this time around.

3. Manchester United 7-1 Roma

Here are the goals.

The match report will be up soon.

And here’s a look at the fan violence that happened outside the stadium between Manchester United and Roma fans. There’s a video too.

4. Poll helps Pardew, what’s wrong with that?

After the Charlton-Reading draw at The Valley, Pardew told the press that it was the officials who helped Charlton realise that Alex Song was close to a second yellow, something that led Pardew to substitute the Arsenal loanee.

There is some controversy surrounding this, but why? If referees are allowed (or made to, by regulations) to engage managers and captains of each side and to help them control players on the field, what’s wrong with that?

Pardew could have talked to Song and told him to calm down – he subbed him because he knew that Song would be provoked again. Poll did the right thing, and this is something we should see more and more.

5. Fulham sack Coleman

Yesterday night, news broke that Fulham had sacked Chris Coleman and asked Lawrie Sanchez (Northern Ireland manager) to act as caretaker manager till the end of the season.

Coleman is only 36, so he’s likely to go on and manage better clubs (hopefully for him). Fulham? Will they be a top 10 force soon? With the competition in the Premiership, that’s not likely at all.

Other News

Michael Owen scored on his return in a behind-closed-doors friendly on Tuesday, and a return before the end of the season is now very much on the cards.

Jose Mourinho continues to play the media, this time on the subject of his possible departure from Chelsea. The Premiership will be a lesser place without him, which is why it would be really amazing if Mourinho was to take up the management of another Premiership team.
Newcastle? Tottenham? Your guess is as good as mine 🙂

Not only did Birmingham lose their chance to catch up with Sunderland, they also got caught up in a brawl with Burnley players after the final whistle and now face charges from the FA. Here’s the brawl on Youtube.
Idiots? Yes.

Jose Mourinho’s 10 arrogant quotes (Who Ate All The Pies)

What if the football authorities were to allow managers / captains to refer controversial decisions to the fourth official? They’re doing that in cricket right now – hopefully someone will do this for football before long. They’ll need to bring in video technology first though.