Newcastle Disunited: Pardew faces end of the road

Saturday 19th May: The sun shining, the train clinging to the coast in between Dunbar and Berwick.

A day to feel optimistic. Somewhere behind me Hibs fans are travelling west in numbers, hoping, praying for a longed for, pressure relieving win.

I'm leaving them to it. Ahead of me, as the blue skies fill with clouds, Newcastle United, St James' Park and Swansea. England v Wales. Alan Pardew v Gary Monk.

A young manager fighting for survival in his job and in the top flight. And Pardew, safe in the league but apparently never less comfortable, a Cockney losing himself and occasionally his mind in the northern wilderness.

Swansea's plight is unfortunate. They looked set fair to establish themselves in the Premier League. Winning a trophy brought delight and European football. Did they get twitchy about Michael Laudrup too early? Possibly. Did they compound that by then promoting Monk too soon? Probably.

But for me the intrigue lies with Pardew. At times Newcastle seem less a football club than a collection of cliches: the sleeping giant, the great football city, the topless fans in the winter cold, the nasty southern owner with no feeling for a northern citadel.

And yet, like most owners, Mike Ashley would surely be tolerated - if never liked - if he somehow managed to deliver success.

His style, so successful elsewhere in his empire, seems particularly unsuited to football, to this football club in particular.

But it wasn't so long ago that it looked like he'd found a way of making it work.  Alan Pardew was manager of the year, Newcastle were qualifying for Europe, their scouting policy envied, there was talk of cracking the top four.

The NINE bar at St James' Park: Rebranded in tribute to a revered shirt rather than a favoured son. You can still buy a Shearer's Burger but if atmosphere is an indication of quality you probably shouldn’t.

Tottenham v Fulham plays out on the TV screens. In the dugout another dead man walking v another relegation contender.

Some watch half heartedly, some watch transfixed. Others ignore it, chatting quietly. It's more Toby Carvery Sunday afternoon lull than pre match boozer.

Maybe that's understandable, the whole place is just another front in football's corporate takeover. Wear their replica shirts while drinking in their bars before buying their food and taking a seat in their stadium. But the real passion will always be found elsewhere.

Or maybe not. There's over 50,000 people in the stadium. The faithful are still attending but they're giving the hymn singing a miss.

They're briefly roused when referee Chris Foy takes a clearance to the face and takes a delayed tumble. Has any referee ever fallen over gracefully? He raises himself but eventually has to be replaced.

The players seem to be feeding off the crowd, the game is flat. Shola Ameobi gets them to their feet with a calm finish in  minutes.

Swansea lack incision. The style that brought their recent success isn't clicking and Plan B seems out of reach.

But they have Wilfried Bony and they have the largesse of Newcastle's defence. Just before half time he's given space at the near post and his header gives the visitors parity.

The second half meanders along, the spring sunshine and lack of urgency lending proceedings the air of a meaningless end of season game. With Newcastle on a four game losing streak and Swansea not out of relegation danger that must frustrate the managers.

Newcastle look slightly more dangerous for long spells but it's Monk's substitutions that work. In the closing minutes Marvin Emnes goes on a run. Fabricio Coloccini, whose performance suggests he's already thinking about the summer and life after Newcastle, tracks and tracks without intervening.

As they reach the penalty spot Cheik Tiote decides to do something. It doesn't look the sternest of challenges but it's a giveable penalty.

The crowd go through the motions of noisy protest, then turn their attention to trying to distract the penalty taker. Undeterred, Bony is on hand to knock the penalty away and secure the three points.

The Swansea fans, more vocal than their counterparts all day, go into party mode. They've taken a big step towards safety.

The Newcastle fans trudge out: While neither side could have complained about the draw, Newcastle really complain about losing. There's been a defeated air lingering around St James' Park all day. A banished Pardew phoning in his instructions from the stand and too many players phoning in their performances.

Alan Pardew's programme notes expressed sympathy with a Swansea side suffering from the detrimental affects of competing in the Europa League.

Didn't I, poor, put upon Alan, not suffer the same thing last season, he seems to be saying. But I got through it and this season we're a top ten club with no danger of relegation and no danger of European football.

Maybe that's the only target the club has at the start of the season. But it seems a sad not to aim a little higher.

If that's the only league ambition then the fans should at least expect more consideration given to the cups.

The Europa League might not have helped Swansea this season. But they're close to surviving now and, if they do, then in the last couple of year they'll have given their fans the promise of a third straight Premier League season, a cup win, some enthralling European nights and famous wins over Cardiff and Manchester United.

What have Newcastle offered their fans? A win at Old Trafford (and hasn't everyone been doing that this season?), a couple of meek cup exits and a worst ever sequence of Premier League results.

Meanwhile the manager has tried to blame the world and his dog for his predicament and stuck the heid on an opposing player.

It is true that Mike Ashley has dealt Pardew a poor hand, the owner cashing in on prized assets with the money not being diverted back to
the squad.

With the prized assets gone Pardew has been left with a squad of journeyman that he can't seem to motivate while being unable to get the best from his best players. That's the sort of managerial combination that loses you five games on the bounce.

On Monday evening they visit Arsenal. Cardiff at home and a trip to Anfield round out their season. The winless run might just stretch to the end of the campaign.

Pardew has lasted longer than others in Mike Ashley's Toon soap opera. But it was hard to come away from the game and not think that he's reached the end of the road. The idea of seeing out that ludicrously long contract must fill him with almost as much dread as it does the fans.

It's hard to tell how the Ashley era will play out. This is a club that deserves more from an owner.

But in the short term it's also a club that deserves more than a manager who's run out of ideas, luck and excuses.

Pardew might well realise that himself. If he doesn't then it's time someone told him.

(Image via @NUFC_Stats)

Forgotten Scotland Players: Stephen Glass

Pittodrie. A cold (I suspect it was cold, it usually is) October afternoon in 1998. Scotland are enduring one of their periodic clashes with the Faroe Islands.

A 2-0 lead, the goals from Craig Burley and Billy Dodds, had lasted from the cusp of half time until the 79th minute.

At that stage Craig Brown chose to introduce our latest forgotten Scotland player.

Before the final whistle our hero had missed a chance to wrap the game up, the Faroes had pulled a goal back through a penalty and another Scotland team had turned a meeting with minnows into something of a struggle.

It wasn’t an auspicious start to a Scotland career. For our fourth forgotten Scotland player it was to be both the beginning of his international life and the end of his international life.

Few youngsters, as they put down jumpers for goalposts and dream dreams of future greatness, can imagine their entire international career lasting a little over ten minutes.

Or that they’ll miss a golden chance to score. Or that they’ll watch on aghast as Scotland lose their 11 minutes of international fame by a goal to nil. Against the Faroe Islands.

You never read stuff like this in Roy of the Rovers.

But it’s doubtful if any of this really registered with Stephen Glass at the time.

He was a likely lad on the up, destined for great things.

It was fitting that he took his international bow in Aberdeen. It was there he’d made his name.

He was part of the last Dons side to hoist silverware aloft with a 1995 League Cup win.

That victory served notice of his talent. Glass created both goals in a 2-0 win over Dundee. And possibly cycled home to Aberdeen upon receipt of the mountain bike that was his man of the match award.

By 1998 the much admired midfielder had won himself a move to Newcastle.

It all started brightly enough. So brightly that even Craig Brown, who had little time for new blood in his Scotland teams, took notice and gave him that international debut.

Things then began to stutter. His first season at Newcastle gave a few hints of the injury problems to come although it culminated in an appearance at Wembley in the FA Cup final.

Over the next year or so the injury troubles got worse and Glass was unable to force himself into Bobby Robson’s plans when he was fit. Seen as no more than a squad player he was soon deemed surplus to requirements.

In 2001 he became a successful part of Gianluca Vialli’s unsuccessful stint at Watford. Outlasting the Italian, he played for the Championship side in an FA Cup semi final.

Watford’s finances meant there was to be no extension when his contract ended in the summer of 2003. A free agent, he returned to Scotland and signed for Hibs.

I remember at the time someone describing this as the “Best Signing Of A Scottish Player By A Team Outside The Old Firm For Years.” It wasn’t.

It hinted at Hibs being giving a glimpse of the astuteness for which Bobby Williamson was oft admired but that he too often seemed to mislay in Leith. It wasn’t.

Injury robbed Williamson of the chance to see Glass at his best. But even when fit he seemed unable to perform consistently.

When Tony Mowbray arrived at Easter Road he looked to have found a way of rejuvenating Glass, reinventing him as the experienced man in an inexperienced midfield.

Perhaps relieved to let other steal the headlines rather than labouring under that unwieldy “Best Signing Of A Scottish Player By A Team Outside The Old Firm For Years” moniker, Glass responded positively enough.

But not positively enough for Mowbray to make him an automatic starter the following season, although he did eventually feature more regularly and win a contract extension.

Maybe injuries had taken their toll, perhaps the experience of falling in and out of favour at Newcastle then falling foul of Watford’s finances had diminished his confidence. Whatever the reason, Glass seemed to struggle to provide the stability and influence a young Hibs team needed. He certainly never looked like adding to that solitary international cap.

His Hibs career simply drifted away under both Mowbray and John Collins.

He left memories of flashes of his talent (one particular volley against Aberdeen remains a favourite), a fair dollop of frustration and death by a hundred puns (“Glass in frame,” Glass shattered” and on and on.)

From Easter Road to East End Park. Joining Dunfermline on loan Glass won a permanent move and was captain before injury ruined his 2009/10 season and led to a parting of the ways.

Unable to find a club in Scotland willing to take him on full time, Glass trained with Hibs and considered his future:

"I did think about calling it a day. When people stop answering the phone to you and don't return your calls, you start to wonder. You aren't looking for favours, but you do expect a bit of courtesy.” (Edinburgh Evening News)

He blames this lack of interest on managers labouring under the misapprehension that he was injury prone. But, in many ways, it was because managers were labouring under the quite correct apprehension that Glass has been injury prone throughout his career.

The Carolina RailHawks offered a lifeline and earlier this year he joined up with an expanding Scottish colony at the North American Soccer League side.

Now in his mid 30s you would expect that to be the final act in his career.

It’s an odd story.

Aberdeen, Newcastle, Watford, Hibs, Dunfermline.

The initial trajectory couldn’t be matched. But this was a solid enough career. Fans at all those clubs should have at least a couple of happy Glass moments locked away in the memory banks.

Yet there is a frustration that he wasn’t the player he looked like he could have been.

Odd too that he only got one cap, his profile remained high enough to give the impression of a player more richly rewarded.

He can perhaps count himself unfortunate. Other countries would have given him a cap long before Craig Brown – whose relative success with Scotland carried it with it a hostility to youth - did. These days being a squad player in the Premiership or featuring in the Championship would probably be enough to get him at least a handful of caps.

But it wasn’t to be.

At Hibs his career continued but didn’t quite flourish in the way it could have. Somehow there always seemed to be something holding him back, even when he appeared 100 percent fit.

It’s another example of a talented young player failing to quite make the leap. Glass didn’t have a career that ended in failure. But nor did he have the career you feel he could have had.

Maybe that’s just bad luck. But it’s a bad luck story that seems to happen an awful lot in Scotland.

He got his cap though. A reminder of what might have been? Maybe. But also a reminder of the player he once was and of what the future once promised.

Forgotten Scotland Players Number 4: Stephen Glass, Newcastle United, 1 cap

English Premier League: Goals For Sale

Cuts. The new age of austerity. Money too tight to mention.

Aye, right.

Not in the English Premier League this January transfer window.

Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Aston Villa all spent big. And everyone of them threw cheques at attackers.

Money might have grotesquely disfigured football. But the essential simplicity of the game remains.

You have to score goals to compete. And you have to compete with massive money to score goals.

Mark Briggs has been hanging around Hadrian's Wall with his night vision binoculars to bring us a guest post on the comings and a-goings in the London Stock Exchange English Premier League:

What do we want? Goals! When do we want them? Now!

And we are prepared to pay for them!!

The January transfer window has a reputation as being a bit anti-climatic. All talk, no trousers. Damp squib. Any others? Pointless?

But not this year. The English Premier League is known as the most exciting league in the world and I think that is in no small part due to how much teams are willing to spend on strikers.

Firstly, and it almost seems to have snuck under the radar, Manchester City stumped up from of their vast reserve to buy in the ‘Bosnian Diamond,’ Edwin Dzeko.

After tallying 66 goals in 111 games for Wolfsburg he’s arrived at Eastlands to help out the one man attacking unit that is Carlos Tevez.

At a cost of £27million, he isn’t a gamble for City who don’t need balance books (yet). It does look like he will require City to change their tactics though, and play two up front. Maybe with a bit more attacking intent. We live in hope.

Villa were next up. Splashing £18million and rising on Darren Bent. Say what you want about him, he scores a lot of goals, where ever he’s been, however good his team.

At Tottenham, where a terrible miss and lack of interplay ultimately cost him, he is perceived to have failed, but scored at a healthy ratio. Villa need goals and they need them now, Darren saw something there which made him decide it was a good career move to drop around 10 league places. So the deal was done.

‘Crazy money!’ People cried. Little did they know what was coming on deadline day.

Torres £50m, Carroll £35m, Suarez £23m, plus David Luiz for another £25m. Big, big deals.

Liverpool could have waited to sign Carroll in the summer and maybe got a better deal. But in an interview with the Guardian John Henry (Liverpool’s new owner) said the team still had aims for this season, and Carroll would help them meet them.

He also, interestingly said the price of Torres was dependent on how much Newcastle wanted for Carroll. His negotiation tactic was he wanted Carroll plus £15million for Fernando Torres. I’d say (laying aside the mind boggling sums of money for a second) that’s a good deal.

Add in the sale of Babel and Liverpool are only £2.5million worse off, and probably have a better squad.

They failed with a last minute £14 million bid for Charlie Adam. He would add something to them, but is worth more than that to Blackpool who, in my opinion, need him to stay up. But he wont last till next season and, even if not to Liverpool, I think he’ll leave after being denied his big move.

So who has come out of this well?

I think everybody except Sunderland. They don’t have a replacement striker. And none are in sight. Yes, they have the money but players who cost that much might now want to play for Sunderland, no matter how high up the league they are at the moment. They need consistency at that level to draw in big names. Without their big player that may prove difficult.

You can repeat that last paragraph but read Newcastle instead of Sunderland.

Chelsea gave their team a lift, splashed some cash and said “we are contenders” and Liverpool can now think about who is coming in, not worrying about who is going out.

Did Arsenal need a centre-back? Tottenham another striker? Maybe.

This season has been damn good so far. Thrills, spills, big transfers.

Football is great again.

Now the trophies are up for grabs from here on in.

The Carling Cup must surely be Arsenal?

The Champions League is Barcelonas to lose?

The FA Cup is far too early to even guess. But, Chelsea?

The English Premier League?

Well, Manchester United are a good few points ahead and tend to get stronger in the spring.

I’m going with Manchester United, although I think it will be a proper title race, with Chelsea, Arsenal, and Manchester City all hopeful of a late burst to the line.

English Premier League: Bent Transfers In England

Football's versions of the January sales - inflated prices and manager's traipsing far and wide with the desperation of a father searching for a Buzz Lightyear toy on Christmas Eve.

Regular English Premier League guest blogger, Mark Briggs, is back with a look at the moves and speculation as Kenny Dalglish looks to revitalise Liverpool, Charlie Adam and Blackpool face up to a parting of the ways and a calm and collected Aston Villa are in no way panicked into a big money move for Darren Bent. And Scottish managers take control:

With December now behind us, and festive waistlines deflating quicker than English confidence in Wayne Rooney, it's time to look at the stage of the season where the games become mere fodder and filler compared to the noble art of transfer speculation.

Last month we saw Chelsea slip and recover. Aston Villa moved from saying “we’re not worried” to “we’re in a fight no doubt about it” in a week or two. It looks like we’ve got a proper title race, with Manchester City confirming they are contenders.

Arsenal look like they are going to give it all they have to win something this season. Yet despite seeming progress, they are currently 0-1 down to Ipswich in the Carling Cup, needed a last minute penalty and a replay to see off Leeds in the FA Cup and face Barcelona in the Champions League. Things may not look so rosy in a month.

But they’ve played well enough to have the chairman asking where they left the key to the trophy cabinet, despite being on the third goalkeeper of the year.

The Manchester teams are in good little battle of their own, with the blue half splashing the cash on Dzeko and having a bit of a clear out of players who didn’t quite make the grade.

Alan Pardew rode in on a white horse and with promised to play “sexy football”… No, wait. Getting my managers confused, that was Kenny Dalglish way back when, or was it that bloke now in charge in Chechnya?

I am too young to remember with any detail the last Anfield reign of King Kenny but (despite some mediocre results) he has already given Liverpool a sense of belief. They don’t have a good squad and are not challenging for trophies but a feeling has been created that this is now a temporary state of affairs, whereas a few weeks ago it seemed inevitable. They will need more players to come in this month, and they need quality, but optimism is on the rise.

An interesting little side note brought to my attention the other day: There are currently more managers working in the English Premier League from Glasgow than from the whole of England. (Ferguson, Dalglish, Moyes, McLeish, Kean and Coyle vs Redknapp, Bruce, Holloway and Pardew)

Blackpool look to be facing up to the inevitability of their success, the realisation that they aren’t big enough to hold on to your truly good players. So how much is Charlie Adam worth? And, more importantly, when to let him go? Now at an inflated price, at the end of the season after hopefully staying in the Premiership, or for free in 18 months? Pros and cons to all. Tough job being a football manager.

The big news, about six months after losing Martin O’Neil because of lack of investment, Aston Villa have been forced to shell out £24million for Darren Bent because they can't score goals and might go down. Worth the trade? Tough job being a football chairman.

It's staying interesting people!

Will blog again once the transfer sagas are done and dusted to try and make sense of the prices, winners and losers.

The Scottish Football Blog News Feed

Kenny Dalglish Looks To Turn Back Time

Football seems to have a hold on those involved that many of us don't experience in our working lives. It's not too much of an exaggeration to say that I've been daydreaming about my retirement since about second year at school.

Football managers are different. They just keep going and going. Sir Alex Ferguson. Our very own Craig Brown.

And now, as he approaches his 60th birthday, Kenny Dalglish. The king is back, long live the king.

More than ten years since he left Celtic Park on the back of the John Barnes pantomime, for which he was at least partly responsible, Dalglish has been granted his wish and is back as Liverpool manager on an initially temporary basis until the end of the season.

He had wanted the job before Roy Hodgson was appointed. When that didn't happen the presence of Dalglish, as revered as any of the Kop's heroes, hung over the club. No matter how dignified and respectful Dalglish was in his ambassodorial role, just by being there he offered a rallying point for increasingly disgruntled Liverpool fans.

Some of those fans seem to think that Dalglish offers a quick fix, that his appointment will return immediate dividends. It would dangerous to put your faith in that.

Liverpool's problems did not begin when Hodgson became manager. Nor will they end now that he has left. If Dalglish's methods, even his legend, can stir a reaction in the squad then they can improve. But from what I've seen of Liverpool this season their failings are too deep to be healed by nothing more than motivation.

And if any club should realise the importance of steady, measured empire building it is Liverpool. Bill Shankly transformed the club. But European dominance wasn't delivered until after Shankly had retired. Their journey to pre-eminence in the 1970s and 1980s was about building a dynasty. No matter how messiah-like the new manager is depicted as being, he can't replicate that sort of success overnight.

Emotional attachments, past achievements and a nostalgic longing for him to do well aside, what can we say for Dalglish the manager? His achievements at Liverpool and at Blackburn are on record and remain as impressive as they ever were.

A good start at Newcastle drifted in his second season. Those Liverpool fans expecting their club to turn their back on Hodgson's defensiveness might have forgotten that the Newcastle fans came to deride Dalglish's negativity.

At Celtic he steadied a ship that John Barnes had left steaming for the rocks. A league cup win followed but there was little evidence that anyone at Celtic wanted to retain Dalglish's services when the season ended.

And let's not forget that Dalglish was in place to mentor and support Barnes. He failed in that role and, in prickly, facetious press conferences often conducted from a pub, he showed little desire or even aptitude for the day to day business involved in running a modern football club.

A modern football club. Crucial that. The Liverpool Dalglish led to three league titles was closer to the Liverpool of Shankly than to the English Premier League side of today. 20 years away from the club and ten years out of football is a long time. For all that we're assured he's still watched the game passionately, that is not preparation for running a club like Liverpool. Nor, for example, do we know how Dalglish the manager will react to working with a Director of Football - a role he himself never appeared particularly comfortable with.

So King Kenny is destined to failure, proof that you should never go back?

No. The appointment of Steve Clarke is a clever one and offers Dalglish Mark II a firmer foundation than earlier rumours of Ian Rush becoming assistant would have. And Liverpool still have quality players. Maybe not enough and maybe some of them are experiencing commitment issues, but they remain good footballers.

If anyone can unleash their potential surely it is Dalglish, a walking embodiment of both the glory days and the emotional pull of the club. His previous spell at Liverpool proved him to be a manager adept at knowing almost instinctively how to pick 11 players who could go out and do the jobs expected of them. Maybe the players will react to that more positively than they did to Hodgson's more lecturing style and system based methods.

The truth is none of us know how Dalglish will fare. I don't know, the Liverpool fans don't know, the ex-Liverpool players lauding his appointment don't know and the press don't know. Maybe he himself doesn’t know.

Some managers click at certain clubs and some don't. Dalglish has worked his magic at Liverpool before. It's a very different club now but he might well repeat the trick.

I'm finding it hard to get over my initial scepticism though. We don't like to see our heroes fail. Dalglish is maybe the greatest Scottish football hero of them all, blessed with more ability in just his backside than most of us could dream of. And there is a chance that he's about to fail.

And surely Liverpool's owners, New England Sports Ventures, realise is this is the simplest move they could make to establish their power at the club.

For as long as he remained on the peripherary, active but not fully involved Dalglish offered the fans a figurehead to acclaim as they aired their grievances.

That's now changed. If he succeeds then the new owners can bask in his reflected glory and acclaim themselves as visionaries for going back to the future. If he fails they can jettison him in the summer and free themselves of his influence, however benign he himself saw that influence as being. The past will be shown to have failed and the owners will be free to dictate their own future.

I wish him luck and I'll be watching with interest. But my misgivings remain.

Liverpool play Blackpool tonight.

A Dalglish Anecdote

Some years ago a retired Dalglish played for Hibs in a testimonial at Easter Road (I think for Alan Sneddon against Aston Villa) and made a cameo man-of-the-match appearance. Before driving home Dalglish was asked if there was anything he wanted. There was. A fish supper and a can of cream soda. The groundsman of the time was dispatched to the chippy to pick it up. Dalglish left a happy man. Old school.

Wicked Webb

I only saw about the last ten minutes of Manchester United v Liverpool. And I haven't seen either the penalty or red card decisions. I've enjoyed the discussions over the past few days though. I don't actually believe Howard Webb is biased towards Manchester United through any skullduggery. Rather I think he is suspect in his handling of big games, swayed by both the crowd and how his decisions will be played in the media. That makes his career trajectory odd. What I've really been enjoying is the lists of Webb's failings produced by Liverpool fans, dossiers of evidence you might say. Bad refeereeing and the conspiracy theories that go with it recognise no borders.

The Scottish Football Blog News Feed

Albert Stubbins: Beatles Icon

As these articles are required to begin: “It was thirty years ago today...”

Thirty years since John Lennon was killed in New York.

Football and Music has more on the relationship between The Beatles and football - turns out they weren’t all that bothered. Although there is also a suggestion that Brian Epstein told them not to make their allegiances clear to avoid upsetting the red or blue sides of Liverpool.

But one Liverpool player has enjoyed Beatles immortality. And, apparently, because Lennon liked his name.

Albert Stubbins was one of the 70 personalities chosen to grace the cover of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as one of John Lennon’s choices.

Stubbins’ career began at Newcastle in the late 1930s just before the Second World War deprived Britain of official football leagues. The war meant that Stubbins’ prolific goal scoring for his hometown club came mainly in unofficial competitions and matches.

In the 1945-46 Northern League Stubbins scored 39 goals for Newcastle, some 25 more than his Geordie colleague Jackie Millburn, and cemented his reputation as the country’s top goal scorer during the war years.

Liverpool then forked out £13,000 for his services - a sum he repaid with 24 goals and a league championship in his first season at Anfield.

Another six seasons - and 83 goals in all competitions - followed at Liverpool. Stubbins was what we now call an 'old fashioned centre forward', with an imposing physique. "Always robust, but never unfair."

And then, 14 years after Stubbins had left the club, John Lennon remembered his name, a name that apparently amused him as a child. And so Albert Stubbins took his place on arguably the most iconic album cover of all time.

He’s said to have enjoyed his link with The Beatles. Paul McCartney - whose own footballing choice of Dixie Deans didn’t make the final cut - sent him a copy of the record and a note:

"Well done, Albert, for all those glorious years of football. Long may you bob and weave."

Albert Stubbins died in 2002. Obituaries at The Guardian and The Independent.

> Another player with a career disrupted by the Second World War provides a second Beatles footballing link. The lyrics to Dig It (Let It Be album) include the lines:

Like the FBI and the CIA
And the BBC--BB King
And Doris Day
Matt Busby
Dig it, dig it, dig it

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England: Make or Break Month

The Scottish Football Blog, unlike the 2018 World Cup, is going to England. To the land of Manchester's United and City, of Newcastle and Bolton, Chelsea and Blackpool.

Why? Because there's only one Scottish game on this weekend. And because regular English Premier League guest blogger, Mark Briggs is back.

A cracking weekend of EPL action last weekend actually. Much to enjoy. Something of a shame for those who still insist that it is the best league in the world that Saturday and Sunday's goalsfest was overshadowed by the ridiculous brilliance of Barcelona on Monday night. Ouch.

Actually this season has confused me a bit. Sky's bombastic claims of the best league in the world seem at odds with all these experts telling me that this is the worst Manchester United team in the history of the world, EVER.

Sky of course would prefer us to stick with the pretence that football, and thus the whole WORLD, only began in 1992.

So probably United aren't really that bad and the league is going through a bit of a dip. Apply a bit of moderation to your world view and the INEXPLICABLE suddenly become explicable.

Anyway, I'm rambling now. So here's Mark:

Some clubs have set season objectives. A good start or a bad start sets the benchmark for success or failure going into the second half. West Ham will be hoping not to go down, Spurs will be looking for Europe again. But what of the clubs who have snuck under the radar and those whose seasons hang in the balance.

Firstly the under the radar section. At the time of writing Bolton sit sixth. I opened up the league table to check some of the details for this article and found Wanderers sitting pretty, just 3 points off a Champions League place.

Capable of playing flowing football (see their second goal against Blackpool at the weekend) but are not averse to knocking it long to the big man Davis up front and playing the old fashioned way. Could it be that a good December will see Trotters beginning to dream?

There is enough about this Bolton squad to suggest this isn’t unthinkable. They have a goalie who, back in the days when his team were lower mid table patrons, was playing beneath himself. Jussi Jääskeläinen

has been one of the most consistent goalkeepers over the last decade. And now in front stands an international centre-back in Gary Cahill.

A fresh and energetic midfield operates behind a spearhead of captain Kevin Davis, a man deservedly called up for England and then overlooked, inexplicably, for Jay Bothroyd. Alongside is the player Bolton thought they’d brought last season as Johan Elmander begins to show his quality. Again I refer you to a goal, this time against Wolves. YouTube should see you right on both counts.

At the other end, shorn of strikers and struggling for goals Everton and Fulham have so far not had seasons they would care to buy the DVD of. Just above them, Aston Villa are also looking over their shoulders.

So to the people whose season hangs in the balance. Namely Newcastle and Blackpool. Trouncing teams while being just as likely to get themselves humped is entertaining to watch but a run of either over the next month would really set their stalls out.

Andy Carroll is obviously the Geordies big hope. A local lad made good, knocking in goals in the big league as he wears the No9 shirt. That’s football like it used to be. Well almost, there is the small matter of some night time brawling and the disgusting issue of the girlfriend beating incident hanging over his head. We might, rightly, have moral issues with this behaviour. But, if it starts to affect his form, however unlikely that seems at this point, Newcastle could be in trouble.

So there we go, these look to me to be the teams to watch over the next few weeks. And with six games coming for most teams in December a loss of form now, or a little run, could make or break this season.

England: The Story So Far

So England won 4-0 last night. All is well with the world. Hell of a manager that Italian boy, isn't he?

Elsewhere down south the annual cattle auction that is transfer deadline day has passed. As in Scotland the international break has come too early in the season to allow us to draw any firm conclusions about the English Premier League season ahead.

Still, as guest blogger Mark Briggs discusses below, we might just be able to find a few pointers about the drama to come:

We’ve hit the international break, so this is the ideal time to reflect on the start to the new Premiership season. In a handy combo for summarisers the transfer window has also closed. So who’s started well, who is squirming in their seat, and who did the transfer window treat well or poorly.

Well let's start at the top, well it’s the big 4 isn’t it. Isn’t it?

Well, yes and no. Chelsea, Arsenal, and Manchester United make up the top 3. Then Aston Villa have got themselves up there, despite being hammered by Newcastle and dumped out of the Europe League (still sounds weird).

Europe, of various kinds, looks to have caused a slight hangover for Manchester City and Tottenham who both had disappointing results after midweek games.

Blackpool sit comfortably in mid table (also despite being humped 6-0) and Stoke lie in the bottom three, but have picked up some very useful looking summer signings.

All this shows that looking at teams start to the season is pointless in terms of, well, points gained. So which individuals have caught the eye, and who looks a bargain, or a financial pain in the neck.

For all the sobbing about England’s golden generation (see previous posts) and the lack of replacements for them it’s young Englishmen who have caught my eye. Theo Walcott looks sharp, not just quick, and with purpose. Neither of these could be directed at him last season. This year he has had the summer off, and has started the season fully fit. These are also two things he couldn’t have been accused of last year. Twelve months ago Arsene Wenger complained the Walcott shouldn’t have gone to the U21 tournament, he needed rest and a proper pre-season. Whinge, whinge is what most people heard, but having got just that this summer, well, he looks on fire.

Andy Carroll caught my eye when Newcastle got relegated. Despite not scoring a hatful of goals there was something about him. A season of regular football at Championship level and he looks ready for the Premiership. It was the manner of his hat trick against Villa that was most impressive and his early season form must be making Carlton Cole look over his shoulder, nervous for his England squad place.

And finally Joe Hart. His performances so far this season have spectacularly made a mockery of Fabio Capello’s decision not to play him at the World Cup. Having kept Shay Given out of the team the only goal he has conceded so far is a penalty.

Questions remain over the rest of the City team, however. What is their preferred line up, important for when the big games come around, what style do they want to play, and how do you keep Given, Adebayour etc etc happy (or at least quiet) till January?

Liverpool have recouped more money than they have spent this summer, perhaps a statement on the teams behind the scenes troubles, and haven’t had the type of start that suggests they are ‘back’. Their quest for a second striker yielded no results, so hope now falls on Ngog to continue some bright form. Arsenal also failed to acquire a goalkeeper. This is the bad side of Arsene Wenger. We love the flowing football, the attacking intent, and the slicing open of a defence with one touch. But the stubbornness to not get a goalkeeper, because he believes in someone the rest of us have never seen, or because the one he was after cost 99p too much looks likely to turn round and bite him at least once this season.

A goalie gives the rest of the team stability, look back to the history of Manchester Utd between the Schmeichel and the Van der Sar years. If nothing else they lacked the aura. These two goalies put it in the opposition’s head; it is going to be hard to score today. Never mind generating chances, if you get a chance, in the back of your head you back the goalie to save it. Manuel Almunia is capable of spectacular saves, but he doesn’t give you that aura.

Staying with Manchester United, what can you say about Paul Scholes? He is simply getting better and better. At one point last year he came in for a few games and looked totally inept. The decision to keep him in the squad looked a sentimental one. Then he burst back into form and hasn’t looked back. At the moment he is playing like Iniesta or Xavi, and over the last few years at club and international level there is no higher praise.

It has been the start we hoped for, goals flying in from everywhere, many of them from Chelsea who have carried on as if the summer didn’t happen. Now switch your attentions to Euro 2012 before we really get this season going and into the autumn months, where the football really starts to count.