World of Sport

Crumbs, as Penfold used to say, now we know why they call it transfer dead-line day.

This time last year clubs spent £170m in  January, compared to a measly £32m in 2010.

We did a live blog on the last four hours of the window – you can see how it unfolded here – and the most excitement probably came when one of the contributors offered to make a virtual cup of tea! (if that doesn’t make any sense, check the live blog at 4.37pm)

The biggest deal of the day from our perspective was of course Adam Johnson’s move to City for around £8mill. I’ve watched him play and he looked good. Strong on the ball, wiry and determined.

United as per usual did nothing. The Reds have to be the most boring deadline day team of all time (apart from the Dimitar Berbatov one).

But I suppose you can’t really blame Fergie given his side had just demolished Arsenal at the Emirates. I still think Chelsea will nick the title.

:: Talking of Chelsea, a quick word on John Terry. Leaving aside all moral judgements on him, I don’t think he should be England captain because I don’t rate him at international level. I like Matt Dickinson’s idea in the times asking if England need a permanent captain at all. For my money, just pick the best XI and make one of them captain, that way the selection is not biased. I think there needs to be a link man who can convey player issues to management and vice versa, but there’s no reason why that needs to be a first team starter.

:: I went to Bury v Rochdale at Gigg Lane last night – a good old fashioned derby game. There were some ferocious tackles flying in, mainly from Shakers midfield tyro Stephen Dawson, but referee Penn let the game flow really well and only brandished three yellows. If that was a Premier League match, I guarantee* that it would have been stop/start all the way and at least seven yellows shown. Bury won of course, but for me Rochdale looked stronger overall. They have some big units in that side and that counts for a lot in League Two. I still fancy Keith Hill’s men to go up, and let’s hope Bury make it a north west double.

*I do, I guarantee 

:: Finally, it’s RBS 6 Nations rugby this weekend. England have selected Sale Sharks star Matthew Tait at outside centre – a good move. I’d take electric pace over crash ball brawn every time.

Crikey – that was some derby on Tuesday. It didn’t hit the dramatic heights of the 4-3 Old Trafford game earlier in the season, but there was still more than enough to talk about.

Needless to say, my prediction of a narrow home win (2-1) was bang on the money. I have to wonder sometimes why I’m not a millionaire.

I still make United firmish favourites to go through to the final though. If there were any doubts about how much Sir Alex Ferguson wants this one, his team selection should have dispelled them.

Given that is the case, Fergie will proabably put his strongest team out next Wednesday, and I don’t believe City will be able to hold out.

If I was chairman of the official handicapping board for football clubs, which I hereby declare myself to be, I would say United at Old Trafford are currently off plus two… i.e. a par score for them would be a 2-0 home win. I would make City a plus one handicap at home, as it proved on Tuesday.

On that basis, I see United winning by the two clear goals and progressing.

Meanwhile, City have again been linked with a move for Mathieu Flamini. There is a danger of the Blues becoming Arsenal old-boys. Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure and Patrick Vieira are already there after all.

I’d be wary of that happening. No doubt about it, they’re all top players, but you want a new squad to have its own identity.

:: Bury climbed into the League Two top three with victory over Bradford on Tuesday. After flying below the radar, Alan Knill’s side are making a decent play for promotion with just two defeats in their last 18 league games. Knill does a great job at Gigg Lane, and was unlucky to miss out on automatic promotion by a single goal last season. Let’s hope the Shakers go one better this time around.

:: Even if you’re not a fan of skiiing, it will be worth catching Ski Sunday to watch the men’s downhill at Kitzbuehel. The competitors will take on the feared Hahnenkamm and there are usually a few major wipe outs. Lunatics.

Tonight Oldham Athletic host Tranmere Rovers in what is clearly Greater Manchester’s biggest game of the week.

Forget TevezNevillegate, in the words of some fondly-remembered legends, This Is The One.

Why? because I’ve not seen Latics play since December 1 when they put in a weak performance against Leeds United and were cast aside 2-0

Hopefully, for me at least, that gets put to bed tonight against a team managed by a promoted physio.

They could call it a late Christmas present..

City fans must have experienced a painfully familiar realisation while watching the Blues play Everton on Saturday: they’re not that good.

For about the last 30 years the club has been pretty mediocre on the playing field and at times worse than that. This season has been better, as their fifth-place standing suggests, thanks to huge investment.

But they’re still not that good.

Okay, there are lots of injuries, but I don’t think a full strength squad would make a huge difference. Perhaps if Emmanuel Adebayor was back and playing to his potential things would be better.

The fact is, at the first sight of organisation and industriousness, ie Everton, City capitulated. Craig Bellamy ran up against as canny a competitor as they come in Phil Neville and was nullified. Gareth Barry and Nigel De Jong looked tired in comparison to Marouane Fellaini. And Petrov and Robinho, well, forget about it.

But just as City probably aren’t as good as the 4-1 hammering of Blackburn suggested, they’re not as bad as the 2-0 defeat against Everton would have spectators believe. Somewhere in between is about right I reckon.

:: I’ve got to go for a derby tip in the Carling Cup, but there are so many variables my usual 100 per cent prediction may be slightly vulnerable.

I’m going to go for a narrow 2-1 home win in the first leg, that will be duly overturned at Old Trafford.

:: England were lucky to draw that Test series in South Africa. Not enough runs were scored by the big guns. And although I’m loathed to admit it, I actually agree with Graeme Smith that England spent too much time moaning about decisions. But although the England team was a bit out of form, the TMS team were absolutely flying up in the comm box. The Agnew/Boycott partnership is simply the best commentary team on any sport in any medium. When Prior got himself out hooking second ball on Sunday, Boycott was so distraught you’d have thought he was skippering the side himself. Really marvellous stuff.

One Premier League football club has just posted profits of £48m, sits second in the table and is in the Champions League knock-out stages. Another has just posted record losses of £93m is in fourth place in the table and is not even in Europe.

If ever there was a case of statistics not telling the true story, surely this is it. Just take a glance on our United and City boards to see which set of fans are feeling good about things at present. In case you can’t be bothered to do that, it’s City.

And with good reason.

The 4-1 victory over Blackburn was the sort of effortless win we’ve come to expect of United over the years. There was about a five minute window just after Gamst Pedersen scored where there was a bit of old-school dithering, but other than that it was a fairly routine win.

Tevez is playing out of his boots and Micah Richards hasn’t shown that kind of form since he burst onto the scene as a teenager. I hesitate to describe Benjani’s presence and performance as any kind of re-birth though. Yes he got three assists, but two of them were courtesy of miscued shots.

City came in for a lot of criticism over the sacking of Mark Hughes and the hiring of Roberto Mancini, and it was a bit of a shambles. But one thing the club did right was to give their new man a rolling start.

Stoke (h), Wolves (a), Boro (a) and Blackburn (h) for your first four games. It’s buffet time Roberto – go on, help yourself.

Just quickly, it’s good to see new defenders breaking through at City, namely Congo-born Belgian Dedryck Boyata. Rowan Atkinson as Blackadder would have loved to pronounce that phrase.

Meanwhile, I don’t really know what to make of United at the moment. I watched them on Saturday and saw yet more evidence of a squad badly lacking in stardust. Joe Cole could be up for grabs in the summer, Franck Ribery seems to be agitating* for a move. United should be 100 per cent out for this type and calibre of player.

The money is all a bit of a riddle from my perspective. There are so many ways to spin it. I guess the only way to judge from a fans’ perspective is the playing staff. And United aren’t buying.

The problem for the Reds is they are looking for value in the transfer market, yet they’re competing against clubs who are not. City, Real Madrid and Chelsea all regularly pay over what would could reasonably be judged a player’s market price. But although they don’t often get value, they usually get the player.

*This is now the must use verb for players who want out. They’re just so agitated.

:: Football aside for a moment, we’ve been in darts and snooker territory over the last couple of weeks. There is talk of a darts style makeover for snooker, but I can’t see it myself. By my reckoning, the reason darts pulls in such huge crowds and creates such a good atmosphere is because everyone gets hammered. The fact that two blokes happen to be playing darts about 50 yards away is by the by. I defy anyone to jazz up a long drawn out safety exchange between Steve Davis and Peter Ebdon.

These are worrying times for United fans. The Premier League picture might look relatively rosy but Sunday’s FA Cup defeat against Leeds exposed the squad’s weakness.

The defensive injuries and issues are one thing, but just as important is the lack of spark going forward. There are too many trundlers in there, and not even powerful trundlers at that. One bright spot is Antonio Valencia, whose reliable mix of pace and directness is begninning to have an impact.

If I was Sir Alex Ferguson I would be pleading for money to buy someone. The squad is really lacking in stardust at the moment, and for a club like United, that is a dangerous path to tread. They made their name and brand on great names playing entertaining football, and fans lose interest very quickly if they stop getting what they’re used to. Check out our message boards if you need convincing of that.

A big signing would be a signal of intent on and off the field.

Ironically, the defeat at Leeds could be bad news for City. Fergie is bound to have his side well fired up for Wednesday’s Carling Cup semi-final first leg.

:: I saw a bit of Phil Taylor winning his 15th world darts championship last night. He has to be the most dominant sportsman of all time. Will he get a look in at sports personality of the year award for 2010? Don’t bet on it.

:: Quick predictions for 2010 in sport:

City crack top four, United finish second and reach quarters of Champions League, England get knocked out of the World Cup on penalties in the quarterfinals by whoever they play, Ricky Hatton will make a victorious comeback, Tiger Woods will make a comeback, Tiger Woods will break the record for the amount of grief taken at a golf event at the Ryder Cup, Andy Murray will win the US Open and Lancashire will win a cricket trophy. Get down the bookies.

It’s amazing what a couple of wins will do to quieten down antsy football fans.

Before he emerged as the man to take over at City, to most Blues fans Roberto Mancini was just some bloke who used to manage Inter Milan and play a bit. If they were really lucky they’d have seen this goal.

But apart from that he was a bit of an unknown. He was certainly - and still is really – an unknown quantity in terms of Premier League management.

But two wins, five goals and two clean sheets later, he is the best thing since sliced focaccia. The goal that City almost scored against Wolves was vaguely dream like. The ball pinged forward in a one touch blur as if it was being controlled by a Play Station 3. 

Tevez missed the finish, but if he hadn’t it would have been an extremely strange experience. It would have been a goal so at odds with the bobbling, deflected history of MCFC that it would have seemed unreal. Real Madrid and Arsenal score goals like that.

And never mind the top four - Mancini reckons City could snatch the title.

Well all I’m saying is… hold on a minute. It wasn’t too long ago that City beat Arsenal and Chelsea in successive games. And look what happened then. 

If Mancini thought festive football was a busy time in English football he should try January.

City face Boro (FA Cup), United twice (Carling Cup) as well as Blackburn, Everton, Stoke and Portsmouth next month. The City fans are happy now and they have every right to be. I hope they’re happy at the end of January because that will be a better time to judge Mancini’s impact.

:: Poor old Gary Megson. It seems like he was clinging on to his job at Bolton from the moment he got it. He took a lot of stick from the fans and gave a bit back too.

:: What a fantastic performance it was by England’s cricketers in Durban. To thrash South Africa like that on their own turf is a rare achievement. The batting is great, although I’m still not convinced by Ian Bell, and if Alastair Cook can show the same steel in Cape Town the tourists are in with a good chance.

My main concern is Graeme Swann. You might think that strange because he is playing so well, but I’m surprised at how much damage he is doing. On modern pitches it is rare for an off-spinner to go through a side. He has a decent slider but no doosra. He’s no Murali or Warne. Surely SA will bat better against him next time around, and England’s other bowlers need to be ready to step up.

CITY never fail to amuse.

Monday’s press conference was it a bit of a disaster in terms of PR, and the national papers have absolutely laid into Garry Cook.

Roberto Mancini looked cool enough, although that was probably because he was only catching about 75 per cent of what was going on. Ignorance is bliss and all that.

As for the sacking, there is clearly more of an issue with how it was done than why it was done. Most City fans were calling for Hughes’ head on our message boards (not literally) after the Tottenham defeat, yet there was still much sympathy for him when he went. 

What I would say is that there has been a lot of people accusing City having no class. Loadsa money, no class. If I’d had five pence for every time I’ve heard that over the last few days I’d have, I don’t know, probably about 4op by now.

I’m not defending the way City acted over Hughes at all, but I can’t see many clubs that can honestly hold their hands up and say they are a paragon of virtue. It’s not fair to single City out.

No sport can inspire dread like cricket.

If England faced Argentina in the football World Cup final (is that even possible?) I wouldn’t dread Lionel Messi. He’s a little genius for sure and a joy to watch, but I wouldn’t dread him being in their team.

Cricketer Jacques Kallis is a different story. When the South African run machine arrives at the crease my heart just sinks. I’m tormented by images of him blocking away ball after ball for literally days on end.

He’s one of these players that you have to get out early or you’re totally snookered. Once he’s in you’ve had it. I’m depressing myself just writing about it.

Other players that have the same effect on me, and no doubt legions of other England cricket fans, over the years have been: Steve Waugh, Ian Healy, Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting and Shiv Chanderpaul.

It must a great feeling though, walking to the crease and knowing that heads are dropping into hands in your opponent’s nation. Grudging respect.

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How bad were City against Spurs?! Poor old Sylvinho was hung out to dry against Aaron Lennon. No amount of know-how can make up for that disparity of pace and trickery. The one thing that struck me about the Blues was the lack of pace. No Bellamy and no SWP equals distinctly pedestrian progress.

Still, at least City put a team out. I would be seriously hacked off if I was a Wolves fan and I’d travelled to watch the reserves get crushed by an understrength United. The Reds are vulnerable at the moment, their defence is injury ravaged and Wayne Rooney is their only really reliable source of goals. But regardless of the minutiae, what is the point of getting promoted to the Premier League if you’re not going to bother playing United? That is the game the players want to play and the game the fans want to see. Mick McCarthy’s top priority is keeping Wolves in the Premier League so it’s no mystery why he did it. But if I was a Wolves fan I’d much prefer to see my team give the Premier League a whirl and go down than limp to a 16th place finish and survive.

The combination of City conceding three goals against Bolton and Richard Dunne starring in Villa’s win at United has not been lost on our Blues fans.

Kolo Toure and Joleon Lescott, near-enough £40m worth of player, have done a pretty good impression of a sieve with massive holes in so far for the Blues. Admittedly, that’s a tad harsh, but suffice to say the defence is not as solid as it might be.

Dunne meanwhile is having a barnstorming time at Villa after his move there for around £5m. No doubt about it, Villa got a bargain there, but I still think City knew exactly what they were letting go. Dunne is an excellent defender but he’d had a below par season in 08/09. The move was perfect for him because it’s seemingly given him a new lease of life.

I don’t think he would be playing as well if he was still at City now. No, the Blues need to forget about Dunne and get to the bottom of why two top drawer defenders in Toure and Lescott have not enjoyed the burst of form that Dunne got from switching clubs.

My view is that City will become more miserly with those two at centre-back eventually. It helps when Nigel de Jong is playing in front of them, and more solidity at full back would help.

Quick predictions for the midweek games:

United 2 Wolves 0

Tottenham 1 City 1

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A quick mention of the old BBC Sports Personality of the Year award… fair play to Ryan Giggs. He is one of the few United players that City fans grudgingly admire.  I was interested to hear that he no longer sprints at full tilt to protect his hamstrings. It makes perfect sense. Giggs doesn’t usually outpace opponents, instead unbalancing them until their body position prevents a tackle. In a bit of a fallow year as far as sport is concerned, I reckon Giggs was a worthy winner.