My Mind Is Cup Tied Right Now
Nothing says increasing excitement quite like having a series of meetings about increasing excitement in the Premiership.
What I want to know is just what they're planning on doing about it. The two things being cited are television saturation, ticket prices, and lack of competition. The first set of recommendations that could come out of the meetings would be to show less footcer on television in the United Kingdom. Let's see if Sky Sports is willing to negotiate what they've got now.
If attendance keeps falling, TV revenue is the stream that's going to keep a lot of teams going. Ticket prices they can reduce. But lack of competition would take the kind of tough decisions that the EPL isn't willing to make - such as salary caps.
But here's the thing about competition. If you take out Chelsea running away with the league, there is some serious parity in the Premiership this year. Sure the season is only about 15% over but looking at the bottom of the table, there is a serious logjam from Aston Villa all the way down to Everton, all the teams are beating each other - unlike the last few years, no team is really separating themselves out as relegation locks - except for Sunderland.
And there's a similar situation from Bolton to Tottenham looking for European spots.
Anyone who was thinking anything else would happen at the very top than what's happening now coming into the season was deluding themselves. And, even that's not true because Arsenal has looked beatable.
That being said, how about the Carling Cup today?
Too bad it was Manchester City taking the bullet on behalf of underdog supporters everywhere. I am getting extremely worried about my second team as it's pretty obvious Vassell and Sibierski are not a strike pairing that will take City anywhere but into the mix at the bottom. But with Cole gimpy, Ireland too young (and he didn't play well today either), and Fowler still not up to full speed, the blue side of Manchester is going to be screwed for a while.
But I mean, come on, it's Doncaster "Our Ladies Team Is First Rate" Rovers!
What's really disheartening is the fact that City lost the same way in the Carling Cup that they did on the weekend. The possible game winner in extra time hit the crossbar (as did one of the missed penalty kicks). And I've said it elsewhere but that's where Cole makes the difference. He sneaks the same shots in under the crossbar that everyone else on the team seem to be knocking into the woodwork.
Fulham nearly had a similar result but Brian McBride headed one of the biggest goals of his career against Lincoln City to give Fulham a 5-4 win over the League Two side! The reason it's one of the biggest goals he'll ever score is that it happened in injury time of the second period of added extra time.
Had the game gone to penalty kicks, Fulham would probably have lost. The goalie was playing like garbage (thank you Tony Warner from saving Fulham from having to start that guy) and if David James let in three penalty kicks for Manchester City, who knows what Ricardo Batista would have done.
Blackburn, at least had an easy time of it.
How's that for excitement? Though if that fails to raise the excite-o-meter there's are some various other kinds of excitement going on around the footcer world like Djibril Cisse posing nude for a French calendar (though that does nothing for me personally) and Wayne Rooney starting a verbal sparring match with Peter Kenyon.
But, that doesn't really do anything for me either. I'm sure there's more out there, but I'm too depressed to look right now - stupid crossbar!
What I want to know is just what they're planning on doing about it. The two things being cited are television saturation, ticket prices, and lack of competition. The first set of recommendations that could come out of the meetings would be to show less footcer on television in the United Kingdom. Let's see if Sky Sports is willing to negotiate what they've got now.
If attendance keeps falling, TV revenue is the stream that's going to keep a lot of teams going. Ticket prices they can reduce. But lack of competition would take the kind of tough decisions that the EPL isn't willing to make - such as salary caps.
But here's the thing about competition. If you take out Chelsea running away with the league, there is some serious parity in the Premiership this year. Sure the season is only about 15% over but looking at the bottom of the table, there is a serious logjam from Aston Villa all the way down to Everton, all the teams are beating each other - unlike the last few years, no team is really separating themselves out as relegation locks - except for Sunderland.
And there's a similar situation from Bolton to Tottenham looking for European spots.
Anyone who was thinking anything else would happen at the very top than what's happening now coming into the season was deluding themselves. And, even that's not true because Arsenal has looked beatable.
That being said, how about the Carling Cup today?
Too bad it was Manchester City taking the bullet on behalf of underdog supporters everywhere. I am getting extremely worried about my second team as it's pretty obvious Vassell and Sibierski are not a strike pairing that will take City anywhere but into the mix at the bottom. But with Cole gimpy, Ireland too young (and he didn't play well today either), and Fowler still not up to full speed, the blue side of Manchester is going to be screwed for a while.
But I mean, come on, it's Doncaster "Our Ladies Team Is First Rate" Rovers!
What's really disheartening is the fact that City lost the same way in the Carling Cup that they did on the weekend. The possible game winner in extra time hit the crossbar (as did one of the missed penalty kicks). And I've said it elsewhere but that's where Cole makes the difference. He sneaks the same shots in under the crossbar that everyone else on the team seem to be knocking into the woodwork.
Fulham nearly had a similar result but Brian McBride headed one of the biggest goals of his career against Lincoln City to give Fulham a 5-4 win over the League Two side! The reason it's one of the biggest goals he'll ever score is that it happened in injury time of the second period of added extra time.
Had the game gone to penalty kicks, Fulham would probably have lost. The goalie was playing like garbage (thank you Tony Warner from saving Fulham from having to start that guy) and if David James let in three penalty kicks for Manchester City, who knows what Ricardo Batista would have done.
Blackburn, at least had an easy time of it.
How's that for excitement? Though if that fails to raise the excite-o-meter there's are some various other kinds of excitement going on around the footcer world like Djibril Cisse posing nude for a French calendar (though that does nothing for me personally) and Wayne Rooney starting a verbal sparring match with Peter Kenyon.
But, that doesn't really do anything for me either. I'm sure there's more out there, but I'm too depressed to look right now - stupid crossbar!
posted by incendiarymind at 2:28 PM
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