bellend of a lazy journo writes....

 

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/premi...MHD=premiership

 

Tosser.

The content below! Wonder what Sam will make of it?

 

BASIC BOLTON DISPROVE PREMIERSHIP HYPE

By Peter May

 

If the league table doesn't lie then Bolton Wanderers are the fourth best team in England, a suggestion which makes a mockery of the Premiership circus and wider game in England.

 

Graeme Souness' complaint that Bolton bullied their way to victory and into the Champions League placings on Sunday is difficult to take - seldom have the Nobel Peace Prize committee been moved to praise the Newcastle manager's work.

 

But the Scot was right to criticise his players for failing to compete with a team whose shortcomings are so stark that it is difficult not to despair at the state of the world's most over-hyped league.

 

Trotters manager Sam Allardyce dismissed Souness' complaints as sour grapes (another observation of the pot, kettle and black variety) but his team has enjoyed success through a kind of meticulously planned crudity.

 

Jay-Jay Okocha's midfield trickery aside, Wanderers use brute force with and without the ball, succeeding thanks to opponents' own lack of subtlety.

 

A robust back-four by-pass the Nigeria captain with clearances towards Kevin Davies and the former Blackburn striker competes gamely for every header; a moderate percentage of these balls fall or are half-cleared to supporting widemen and Wanderers' territory gains allow a penalty area bombardment via crosses, corners and long throws.

 

Nothing unlawful or dishonest in this, of course, and Allardyce deserves plaudits for shaking off Bolton's tag as relegation fodder.

 

But never has there been a Premiership team to reach such heights through such basic means and it is worrying that the populous Reebok Stadium backroom is correct.

 

Overcrowding midfield, pumping long balls to a one-dimensional target man and using Okocha's array of talents as a specialist taker of corners and throw-ins, rather as if playing Subbuteo, apparently is enough in today's Premiership.

 

Bolton have starred in some of the worst spectacles of a poor season thus far, the 1-1 draw with Birmingham in September proving remarkable as an illustration of how ineffective the Premiership's middle classes are.

 

It was astonishing that Blues, who have spent lavishly on Jesper Gronkjaer, Muzzy Izzet and Emile Heskey, could not sustain the slightest pressure on a team who, by the very nature of their play, afford the opposition so many chances to seize the initiative.

 

Unfortunately this is simply once chapter in the routinely woeful 2004/5 story.

 

The failure of Allardyce's better funded rivals to construct superior teams suggests the most damning criticism of the entertainment on offer.

 

Had Bolton won last season's Carling Cup final versus Middlesbrough their limitations would have been exposed by UEFA Cup opponents exhibiting patience and intelligence, qualities difficult to find outside of the Premiership top three but widespread on the Continent.

 

The English top flight has long prided itself on being the most entertaining league in the world but Bolton's presence in the top four, achieved neither through technical excellence nor buccaneering audacity, plainly refutes the claim.

 

Allardyce's achievements are admirable to a point but they serve only to stress the room - and need - for improvement elsewhere.

 

Even at this early stage in the season, it should be hoped that the league table is being unusually deceitful.

Ah well, all those who patronisingly (or otherwise) say we're a good premiership side (usually with a hint of surprise in their tone) obviously have it wrong.

their limitations would have been exposed by UEFA Cup opponents exhibiting patience and intelligence, qualities difficult to find outside of the Premiership top three but widespread on the Continent.

 

would that put us on a level with arsenal then?

 

simply brilliant in the league, but not quite as effective in europe?

 

 

do we give a flying, i know i dont!!!! :D/ :D/ :D/

I WONDER IF HE IS A NEWCASTLE FAN???????

play 'total football' and possibly struggle in bottom half

 

OR

 

Play direct football and possibly push fer europe

 

hmmm tough choice, pillocks!

I refer you to a previous column from Mr May at http://tinyurl.com/5gtny

- a similarly knee-jerk critique of Greece's Euro 2004 win - and select a few of his mots juste from therein:

 

"For all their underdog status, Greece never had the credentials for that particular title and nor did they present them.

With every player on the field dedicated to destruction, there was little room for invention and rarely did Rehhagel offer the most rudimentary entertainment.

So poor have they been on occasions that Greece may well be the first European champions not to defend their title, qualification for the Alpine tournament in 2008 will certainly not be a formality with or without their 'King Otto'.

But, contrary to popular belief, sport is not part of the entertainment industry.

Great sport and great sportsmen can, for all the pundits' efforts, never be distilled into one convenient soundbite; it's a welcome change for a great team and a great coach to break from the tiresome status quo."

 

So why not in the Premiership? What's changed, Pete?

"Jay-Jay Okocha's midfield trickery aside, Wanderers use brute force with and without the ball, succeeding thanks to opponents' own lack of subtlety."

 

Brute force eh? Remind me how long it is since our last sending off??

Yeh, I guess it does tell you summat about the Prem standard that we're 4th; you can also judge Prem standard by the fact that Arsenal can go an entire season unbeaten - but they never choose to look at it that way.

And in fact what it really tells you about the current state of the Prem is that if you have a good manager organising a team to its full potential then they can get rewards for it. So there's more to football at the mo than just highly paid twats in London - well, that can only be good. After all, if we were Spurs and were playing an identical way with identical success non of these fuckers would be bleating.

This really is gettin my fookin back up now !

 

Can anyone remind me how Souness used to play the game ?

Dirty & in yer face, that's how ! Cheeky fecker !

 

& when Newcastle had a corner or freekick on Sunday ... did they take it short ?

Nope, they hoofed it into the box !

 

Now we have this doofus saying we couldn't hack it in Europe !?

 

Firstly, only time will tell (fingers crossed) ...

& secondly, we've played what the media would have us believe is the cream of Europe (Arsenal, Man United, Liverpool & Newcastle) & our record reads P4 W2 D2 L0 ...

 

To$$ers the lot uh em ... & long may we continue to get up their noses !

 

Rant over ... going for a lie down now .......

A good article in relation to this! I don't know if its been pasted on here before but here see below:

 

Souness bleats but Allardyce deserves credit By David Miller (Filed: 02/11/2004)

 

 

Come on Graeme, being a cry-baby was never your style. Bolton Wanderers may

not equal Brazil for artistry, but for Graeme Sourness to condemn their

functionalism when inflicting defeat

<http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2004/11/01/sf

gbol01.xml> on his Newcastle United side last Sunday is amusingly out of

character.

 

This, remember, is the manager whose disarmingly honest autobiography, as a

Liverpool player some 20 years ago, was entitled No Half Measures, in which

chapter four was headed "Meanest Man in Football". Sourness has sufficient

experience to know that, in a hard game, you have to deal with whatever,

almost literally, is thrown at you.

 

Bolton, to be sure, have not been designed by Sam Allardyce for the purists'

delight: long on aggression, short on entertainment. Allardyce himself was

an old-fashioned stopper centre-half, essentially physical, with Bolton in

the old Second Division, 1973-78: a poor man's Jack Charlton, you might have

said. His team reflects his upbringing.

 

I watched them at White Hart Lane 10 days ago. They allowed Spurs as much

space as a dog in a telephone kiosk. It was muscular, anything but pretty,

and it worked. Set-pieces are their speciality, as against Newcastle. The

first goal against Spurs came from a corner.

 

"I would like to have seen some football, but there was not a lot,"

complained Sourness. "The way they play is to put you under pressure from

set-pieces and long throw-ins." Nothing new in that.

 

Newcastle's new manager - in a post that Allardyce declined to consider when

Sir Bobby Robson was dismissed nine weeks ago - should be familiar with

Bolton's smothering tactics. They were, after all, the basis of Charlton's

rule at Middlesbrough, where Sourness, in his early career, fashioned a

reputation as the hardest midfielder since fellow Scots Jimmy Scoular, of

Newcastle, or Billy Bremner, of Leeds United, yet with twice the skill.

 

Souness knows that the majority of successful players, and teams,

metaphorically take no prisoners. It is the responsibility on the one hand

of the referee to ensure that severe functionalism does not infringe the

laws and on the other for the opposition to find ways to rise above such

tactical intimidation.

 

With Liverpool, Sampdoria and Scotland, Souness exhibited both facets of the

game. He could pass as sweetly as Kenny Dalglish, yet is fully aware that

every Dalglish needs a Mark Lawrenson behind him. Souness tackled like a

gladiator. Indeed, Frank Worthington, dandy striker of Leicester City,

labelled Souness "the most ruthless man in soccer".

 

So who is more right, theoretically: Allardyce or Souness? Where lies

legitimacy? Allardyce asserted: "The bottom line is that his team could not

cope with mine. All across Europe, at World Cups and in the Champions

League, matches are decided by set pieces. This is a `results' business."

 

To Allardyce's credit, his functionalism is flexible enough to have included

Youri Djorkaeff, last season, and Jay Jay Okocha, whose touch emulates

Souness. Bolton are not the dead-end team that were Wimbledon in their

so-called prime.

 

If Souness wants Newcastle to flourish, he has to build the platform of a

sound defence.

 

Traditionally, Bolton have always been tough nuts. No pair of full-backs

were more formidable than Tommy Banks and Roy Hartle in the Fifties. The

saintly Bobby Charlton used to tell the story of his baptism at Burnden Park

as a teenager, being thumped left and right by Hartle, until Banks called

out: "When tha's finished wi' 'im knock 'im o're 'ere an' I'll gi 'im one."

 

The unending duel between brain and brawn is the game's fascination. So get

real, Graeme.