The Fan

England land ‘soft’ group in Euro 2008 draw

ENGLAND, Croatia, Russia, Israel, Estonia, Macedonia, Andorra

via BBC

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Eriksson to quit after World Cup

The BBC is reporting that Sven-Goran Eriksson will quit as England coach following this summer’s World Cup finals.

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Chelsea are reportedly interested in buying Earls Court Exhibition Centre in a £400m deal so they can build a new stadium to replace Stamford Bridge.

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Sven Goran Eriksson at Highbury

Given that Arsenal started game with 11 foreign players, and that Middlesborough were reduced to fielding a team of youngsters, what exactly was Eriksson doing at Highbury on Saturday?

Surely the England manager could have found a more useful game to watch.

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German watchdog highlights World Cup stadium faults

German consumer watchdog group, has reported that four of the country’s World Cup stadiums have “considerable deficiencies”.

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The Magic of the FA Cup

Somebody tell Ferguson

While so many lower league teams raised their games and fans’ hopes, Manchester Utd once again treated the Cup with disdain.

Firstly, congratulations to all the teams who contributed to one the best 3rd rounds in recent history. From plucky efforts from the non league teams and a great giant killing by Leyton Orient, to some great perfomances from Championship teams against Premiership rivals, most notably Luton and Leicester.

While Burton rightly received enormous praise in the national media for their nil-nil draw with Manchester Utd, Alex Ferguson’s choice to field a team of nobodies (again, after Exeter last season) was a huge let down. Until Rooney and Ronaldo came on as subs in the second half, it was a team you’d have been disappointed to see in a pre-season friendly and while Burton will be delighted with money spinning replay it will be a shame for the Burton players not to have been able to compete against Utd’s international stars.

One has to wonder why Ferguson did it? Considering the are out of Europe and stand little chance in the Premiership, the FA Cup is their only chance for a major trophy. I cannot believe Ferguson is saving his players for the League Cup, so the depressing conclusion is that finish 2nd (or even 3rd or 4th) in the league is now more important than actually winning the FA Cup.

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Only 4 days into the new year Wenger and Ferguson have conceded the title to Chelsea. Liverpool could move into second place above Man U if they win their games in hand.

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Mourinho-Wenger soap opera disguises Arsenal woe

The almost comic, love-to-hate relationship between Mourinho and Wenger has managed to divert attention from Arsenal’s disastrous first half season.

Arsenal are now 8th in the league, twenty points behind leaders Chelsea.

From a team who went unbeaten (and looked unbeatable) a couple of seasons ago they have already lost 6 of their 16 games this season.

They have lost 3 games in row for the first time on over 10 years and have not scored in their last 4 games.

I’m sure Wenger will be given longer to fix things than other managers would due to his success in recent seasons and his ability to hugely improve players that he signs. He a hugely talented manager, but given the current psychological hold his Chelsea rival currently has over him, you wonder whether he will want to stick out for many more seasons.

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Why Alex Ferguson won’t talk to the BBC

After walking out of a press conference after 74 seconds, Ferguson is in danger of burning his bridges with the national press.

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Welcome to ‘The Fan&#8217

This website aims to provide news and opinions on all aspects of English football. We will cover all levels of the game and a range of general and special interest topics.

Short links and comments to interesting stories will be posted as they happen, and we aim to release larger stories and opinion pieces on a regular basis (a publishing schedule is in the works).

‘The Fan’ won’t be impartial (and I don’t want it to be). The author’s opinions and biases will inevitably show up in their writing and I think this is a good thing.

Thanks for your interest. Please email any comments you have on the site - they will be gladly received.

The Editor

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