Southend United Pre-Season Begins

Whilst I have been caught up in the “World Cup Bug” that is still sweeping the globe, I now also have thoughts turned towards the start of the new season in August. As soon as the winning team lifts the World Cup Trophy in the Maracana on July 13^th, attention then turns immediately to club teams going through their run of pre-season fixtures before the competitive games kick-off next month.

Already I am excited about what the new season has in store for everyone. Regardless of how well a team is predicted to do over the course of the campaign, most supporters seem to have a sense of optimism at this time of the year and believe that their team can go on to accomplish great things. I too am no different, last season my club Southend United came ever so close to achieving promotion to League One, but just ended up missing out in the end after a League Two Play-Off Semi-Final defeat to Burton Albion. At the time the defeat was frustrating and a little hard to stomach, but now over a month on from the result I have confidence that we can bounce back from it even stronger this season and make another challenge for promotion.

The club have already cleared out the players that manager Phil Brown deemed surplus to requirements at the end of the last campaign and the remainder of squad returned to training this week after their summer break. So far we have made one new addition to the team, winger Myles Weston joined after his contract with Gillingham expired and he gives us a new option on the left-hand side of the pitch after Anthony Straker’s departure to York City. Weston is a former England Under-19 international and a player I do rate after seeing him put in some good displays for Notts County and Brentford in previous years. At only 26, I think he is capable of great things at this level and hopefully he can turn out to be one of our key performers this season.

The addition of Weston is promising, but we do of course need more new players if we are to really challenge again. The club did try and sign defenders John Egan and Jakub Sokolik on permanent deals after impressive spells on loan last season, but Sokolik recently joined Yeovil Town and Egan has just signed a deal with Gillingham, so that means we now need to look elsewhere in that department. We were also linked with midfielder John-Joe O’Toole but he has just completed a move to Northampton Town. With any luck, we will have more players on our radar that we do not know about yet that will hopefully be signed up as soon as possible so we can incorporate them into our current setup quickly and efficiently so that they are all ready and raring to go for the first game of the season against Accrington Stanley on August 9^th.

As well as adding, it is also important to retain. Many supporters feared that missing out on promotion would mean players such as Daniel Bentley, Kevan Hurst and Ryan Leonard would likely leave the club if good enough offers came in for them. So far all three have returned to pre-season training with the rest of the team and no known offers have come in for any of them. It is worth noting that Hurst and Leonard both signed new contracts during the second half of last season and I firmly believe that all three men are committed to us and our cause for the coming season, but ultimately given the level the club is playing at, income is generally very low, and if a good enough offer comes in then we may have to grudgingly accept that they have to move on as that helps ensure that the club itself still continues to maintain financial stability and ensures that it has a future in the game.

The way we play will also be key in knowing whether or not we stand a better chance of getting promotion this time around. Last season Phil Brown often had us playing with a 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 system which allowed us to pack the midfield area but required our wingers to work even harder to ensure that our lone striker had enough support going forward. It’s a system that works for teams that play at a higher level, but when I watched us play Bury back in March it did not seem as effective for us. It may have been that we just were not able to use it as well because we were in the middle of a winless run at the time and confidence would have been low, and that is something else we need to ensure does not happen this time around if we are to have a successful campaign. So ultimately, it is up to the manager and his coaching staff to work hard and ensure that we come up with a playing style and system that will work successfully throughout the course of the whole season, and any problems that we encounter are solved as quickly as possible to ensure they don’t leave us struggling to gain enough points to see us over the line towards the end of the season.

To conclude, whilst there is still a lot of work to do, I am hopeful for the new season and believe that with a few more quality additions to the side, we will definitely be near the top of the table again by the time May rolls around. I am also hopeful that despite living over 400 miles away in Edinburgh, I will possibly be able to take in our first home games against Stevenage and Wimbledon in August, and fingers crossed regardless of whether I am there or not, we pick up 6 points from the two games and help get the season off to the best possible start.

My Personal End Of Season Review

The words you are about to read come to you from somewhere in the middle of England as I am currently on board a high speed train from London bound for Edinburgh. Whilst there are limited options for things to do whilst inside a fast moving tube, I feel there is no better time than the present to air my thoughts on another jam packed football season that has just drawn to a conclusion.

I will start by getting my misery out of the way first. My Scottish team Hibernian did themselves no favours whatsoever this season and found themselves relegated from the Scottish Premiership after losing the relegation play-off to Championship side Hamilton Academical. The writing had been on the wall for quite some time, but there just seemed to be no way of halting the slide. The only game I managed to attend this season was the Europa League game against Malmo back in July, and the less said about that game as well the better! One thing I will say is that it helped sum up my opinions of Scottish Football and the rut it’s in as a whole, but I will perhaps go into greater detail on that at a later date.

I still believed the team would be capable enough of finishing in the top half of the league despite the mauling from the Swedes, but it just wasn’t meant to be. A managerial change towards the end of 2013 did nothing to help change things and many would say it only made matters worse. Looking back at the statistics, two wins in the whole of 2014 is relegation form and as much as it pains me to say it, we definitely got what we deserved. The summer clear out at the club has already begun with a host of out-of-contract being told that they will not be given new deals.

More arrivals and departures should be announced over the coming weeks with regards to playing staff, but I do feel that there needs to be change higher up as well unfortunately. The club chairman Rod Petrie strikes me as a man who is more concerned with keeping the financial balance sheets clean and healthy than investing money into improving the actual team. Don’t get me wrong, with Petrie at the helm the club has remained financially stable and now possesses one of the best stadiums and training facilities in the country, but since becoming chairman in 2004, Hibs have never been competitive in the transfer market. I know that resources in Scottish football are limited in comparison to those in England, but given how much money the club have raked in from selling players over the years, I see no good excuse as to why more of that income could not have been invested into building a stronger team. The owner of the club Sir Tom Farmer helped save us from extinction in 1990 and for that, supporters will be forever grateful, but given that Sir Tom possesses next to no interest in football and has left Mr Petrie in charge of handling all of the clubs affairs, I believe the time has come for the club to look at new investment before the situation potentially worsens.

Now onto a slightly more positive topic. My English side Southend United had a far more productive season and got themselves a place in the League Two Play-Offs, but ended up missing out on another trip to Wembley after losing out to Burton Albion 3-2 on aggregate after two games. It was upsetting seeing the team come so close to finally getting out of League Two, but I would like to think that they are more than capable of coming back next season even stronger and giving it a right good go once more.

Most Southend supporters would agree that what cost us an automatic promotion place at the end of the season was our barren run from the end of January to the end of March where we couldn’t win a single game in twelve attempts. I attended the 0-0 draw with Bury in mid-March which gave me a better insight into what was causing the team problems and afterwards I posted on here where I thought we were going wrong. Fortunately it did not take the team long after that game to get back to winning ways and cement a Play-Off place, but had that run been prevented it could well have been a very different story at the end of the season.

Manager Phil Brown appears keen to stay and hopefully a number of key players will stick around too. Resources will once again be limited for the club when it comes to investing in new talent for the team, but I have complete faith in Brown’s ability to find the right players that need to be added to work with the current crop in order to ensure that we are still going to be there or thereabouts at the top of League Two at the end of next season. This season the team had the best defensive record out of all the 24 teams in the league this season and shows that if we can carry on that sort of defensive form next season, improve our scoring statistics and maintain it all throughout the course of the season, there should really be no problems in gaining promotion next time around.

For me as a writer, the season has not quite been as productive as I’d initially hoped for this time last year as work and other commitments have stopped me from contributing articles for my blog and other sites on a regular basis. I did decide last month to start an open college course on Freelance Journalism which will hopefully help me improve my skills and help me find ways of being able to do this sort of thing on a more regular basis. I enjoy giving my views and informing people about what is going on in the world, and I hope my readers also enjoy what I produce. With any luck the course will help me potentially forge a new career path and allow me the chance to make a living out of something that I love doing. In closing, the hard work starts now!

Andrew.

P.S. No picture included with this post. Train wi-fi can only take so much unfortunately!

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Southend United 0-0 Bury - My Thoughts.

    

Yesterday afternoon was my first opportunity to see Southend United compete in the flesh for the first time in almost a year. Now whilst this might prompt some to question my support of the club for not for not attending enough games, those that know me that well enough will know that I actually stay over four hundred miles away in Edinburgh and so only ever really get the chance to see The Blues in action when I am down visiting friends and relatives. I would love to be able to attend every game we play, but like Southend, I’ve not got a huge financial backing behind me and so making regular trips south of the border every second weekend would leave me penniless unfortunately.

As you all know, yesterday The Blues drew 0-0 with Bury at Roots Hall in a game that we’ll be unlikely to ever talk about again once this season is done and dusted. A game filled with few chances and a red card for Barry Corr which helped kill off any slim chance we had of nicking just one goal that would have surely made a big difference for us in both league table standings and team confidence to help get us through the remaining games this season. Whilst it’s harder to really judge a team over one game and just two minutes worth of YouTube highlights every week, I will try and figure out what were the good and bad points from yesterday’s match and how we can potentially fix the problems so that we are still in the fight for promotion at the end of the season.

The first thing I’m going to highlight is formation. We’ve gone with this 4-5-1 system for the majority of this season and now I like many believe that it is time for a change. Clubs who play at a much higher level than us often like to play with just one up front and try and pack the midfield, and whilst I generally don’t have a problem with that, it seems not to be the way to go about business in the lower divisions. Route one football appears more common at this level as it seems to be the main way that teams can grind out results for themselves. I’ll admit right now that I would hate to see Southend constantly playing like this on a regular basis as it would take away some of the enjoyment you get from watching the game, but introducing a small part of this style of playing into our game is something I am less likely to object to when we are in need of goals and points in a big way.

Yesterday there would have been no point in us trying to play the long ball from the back up to the lone striker Freddy Eastwood as the Bury defenders kept a close eye on him for the entire time he spent on the pitch and the lack of a strike partner meant that anytime he did manage to receive a long ball from the goalkeeper of the defence, there was no one for him to give it to, and by the time the midfielders had made themselves available the opposition had already won possession back. The best chance that came Eastwood’s way was in the second half, but he put his shot over the bar after a decent turn. I didn’t think that he would last more than an hour, and I was right when Barry Corr replaced him on 57 minutes, but some feel that the change could have been held off slightly longer as Eastwood was eyeing up a free kick on the edge of the opposition area which of course came to nothing in the end.

A positive from yesterday’s match I felt was how solid we looked defensively. Whilst Bury didn’t create any great chances themselves, given how much bad luck we’ve had with defenders picking up injuries lately, it was good to see us keep a clean sheet for the first time in almost a month. John Egan and Jakub Sokolik looked well placed together and give us something new to work with while Luke Prosser and Adam Thompson return to fitness. With regards to midfield, our wide men showed some promising signs yesterday, with Anthony Straker’s runs at the opposition full backs probably being my personal highlight of the match. The central midfielders worked well with the defence in keeping the likes of Ashley Grimes and Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro of Bury quiet, but their communication amongst each other could have been a lot better and I felt that none of them offered us anything special going forward, even though Ryan Leonard fancied a couple of shots from distance that sailed over the bar.

To summarise, if yesterday is anything to go by then we will hopefully have no more defensive calamities before the season concludes in May and we can keep a good looking back four together that will see us through to the end with no major problems. That should then allow us to now turn our attention to improving the product being supplied by the front line. Hopefully Phil Brown will now realise that playing with just the one man up front isn’t going to keep us in the hunt for a top 7 finish and that seeking a new forward to help us in the remaining games shouldn’t be ruled out. It would seem like the best option at the moment as Barry Corr, who will now miss the next game isn’t getting the job done on a regular enough basis, Freddy Eastwood occasionally adds an extra spark to the team but also continues to fade, and Lee Barnard still doesn’t look match fit having missed the whole of the first half of the season except for the odd Southampton reserve game here and there. I am all for giving youth players a try when they are ready, but I’m not sure Jason Williams, for all the promise he is showing can be considered a realistic option for what we are trying to achieve at the moment. A loan move for someone with a little more experience and a poacher’s instinct is what we should be looking at I think.

Whilst this current barren run is something which is getting us all down, we can’t afford to lose the faith. Remarkably we are still 7th in the league and not completely out of the race just yet. I believe that if we change our formation so that we have two men playing up front, it will definitely make us a more threatening force going forward, which will hopefully result in us scoring more goals again. Bristol Rovers away on Friday will be tough, and we follow that game up with one against fellow promotion hopefuls Oxford United on the Monday at Roots Hall in front of the television cameras. If the performance from the defence and midfield yesterday is anything to go by, then once we’ve got the attackers sorted out then the wins will come again, and when they do it will do wonders for our confidence and that will hopefully send us on a decent run that will see us secure a comfortable top 7 finish in May.

Andrew.

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Lukaku Deserves Chelsea Chance

Today I’ve decided to focus on Chelsea, and in particular, who I think should be leading their frontline this season. If they do end up signing Wayne Rooney then he will undoubtedly be the main man at Stamford Bridge given the qualities he has on the pitch and also because of the amount they will end up having to fork out for. But as it stands, United are holding their own and making it abundantly clear that he isn’t for sale, meaning that as it stands, he won’t be wearing Blue on the opening game of the season. So who then should be Chelsea’s main man instead?

For me it has to be Romelu Lukaku, the 20-year-old did more than enough at West Bromwich Albion last season to show that he is capable of scoring a hatful of goals in the Premier League and deserves the chance to become Chelsea’s new main striker. With The Baggies he was able to create his own chances due to him possessing the ability to bully opposition defenders and his goals played a key part in helping the team finish as high as they did in the league table.

Now back at Chelsea, Lukaku should still be allowed the opportunity to take on the best that the Premier League can throw at him, but as well as giving opposition defences a nightmare, he will now get the chance to feed off a much higher standard of supply. Juan Mata led the Premier League assists table last season, with Eden Hazard not too far behind him. With Mata down the right, Hazard down the left, Oscar in the centre and Victor Moses and new signing Andre Schurrle there as good backups, there should be no shortage of goal opportunities this season at Stamford Bridge.

I also feel that Lukaku has earned the right to start ahead of the likes of Demba Ba and Fernando Torres. Ba did prove himself to be very useful at times last season when he joined from Newcastle United in January, but really he is no more than a backup striker at the club. Torres also improved in the second-half of last season, but Chelsea will never see a full return on the £50 million they paid for him in 2011 and with the Spaniard unlikely to be happy with a similar type of role to Ba this season, perhaps the time has come for the club to look at moving him on.

Chelsea play their first game of the season against Hull City on August 18th, but if pre-season form is also anything to go by, Lukaku has earned the right to be in with a shout of starting that game after scoring and impressing in several of the club’s friendlies in the past month. I’m sure that he must be giving manager Jose Mourinho something of a selection headache, but even if he doesn’t get the nod for the Hull match, it’s best not to forget that he is still only 20 and he will surely still keep going from strength to strength this season and beyond.

Andrew.

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Luis Suarez Saga - My Latest Thoughts

Until the respective Bale, Rooney and Suarez situations are sorted out, we will continue to debate them. Over the summer I’ve posted something about all three players, today I am going back to Suarez after reports emerged that he allegedly told The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian that Liverpool said he could leave if they failed to qualify for this season’s Champions League. We still await Liverpool’s response to this, but after a lot of thought on this situation, this is how I see it.

Suarez scored 30 goals in all competitions for Liverpool last season, he finished as the second highest scorer in last season’s Premier League but it still wasn’t enough to get Liverpool into either the Champions League or Europa League. His performances on the pitch have done more than enough to show that he is capable and worthy of playing in the Champions League. Liverpool have every right to feel reluctant about letting him go, but the facts are simple, they didn’t qualify for European competition this season and they should not be holding proven players back that want the opportunity to play there.

So while I believe that Suarez has every right to want a move, he should have looked to have conducted things in a more appropriate manner, especially after all the support the club has given him during his most controversial moments over the years. The fans continue to support him too and this was proven by the reception he was given when he came off the bench for the last 30 minutes of Steven Gerrard’s testimonial match against Olympiacos on Saturday. Surely for the sake of all of those that continue to look up to him, he should be trying to handle things in a different way so that if he does end up leaving, he will still have some respect in tact from many connected with the club.

To conclude, I believe Liverpool should not be as reluctant to let him go, because they are guaranteed to get a good price for him. And whatever money he would end up going for should be invested in either a replacement striker that still has the potential to score lots of goals, because there are plenty of them out there that I am sure would jump at the chance of playing for a club like Liverpool, or perhaps it should go towards investing in youth recruitment so that more young players are coming through the system and will stand a better chance of playing for the first-team instead of being let go at an early age and spending the rest of their career in lower league football. It’s a sticky situation at the moment, but one that both club and player should be looking to resolve as soon as possible so that both will be able to benefit from the eventual outcome. 

Andrew.

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The Future Of Cristiano Ronaldo

There are a couple of Manchester United supporters who I know personally that may not like or agree with this piece that I am about to write, but as it stands, I do not believe that Cristiano Ronaldo will be returning to Old Trafford to play for the Red Devils this season.

While he may not be getting the same kind of attention that Gareth Bale, Wayne Rooney and Luis Suarez are on a daily basis, Ronaldo is still the subject of many discussions and there is a strong belief that he won’t be a Real Madrid player for much longer. But the real question is what do you believe? Reports in Spain say he could be about to sign a new contract with Madrid that will effectively keep him at the club for the rest of his career, but during a recent press conference, Ronaldo basically stated that while he was happy at Madrid for the time being, he did not know what lies in store for his long-term future. Supporters and experts all across the globe have all had their say, and now it is my turn.

I can’t see Ronaldo leaving Madrid this season for any price, sure like every player in Spain, Ronaldo has a release clause in his contract, but that is reportedly around £800 million. New manager at the Bernabeu Carlo Ancelotti has made it pretty obvious that Ronaldo will once again be key to any success Madrid have this season and his inclusion in the club’s pre-season preparations so far don’t seem to suggest otherwise. When Ronaldo signed for the club back in 2009, everybody knew that he was joining his boyhood heroes, 4 years on, the man continues to be the clubs standout star and inspires young children all over the world to try and be the next Real Madrid legend, so what concrete evidence is out there to suggest that he would want to give all of that up now? I’m certain that he wants more success at Madrid, particularly the Champions League trophy, which has evaded him during his time at the club so far. I could be wrong, but from what I have seen and read, this has been enough to make me think that Manchester United supporters will have to wait even longer for any potential return of one of their greatest Number 7’s.

However, until there is any truth to these rumours about the Portuguese winger agreeing a new contract with Madrid, United faithful should not give up hope completely. There is still plenty of time for more developments in the transfer market, and anything can happen in football. If Ronaldo still hasn’t officially agreed to a new Madrid contract, and United end up selling Wayne Rooney for big money, the door then opens for them to break their own transfer record and try to bring the 28-year-old back to Old Trafford. I think it would definitely earn new manager David Moyes more “brownie points” with supporters that maybe still aren’t convinced that he is the right man for the job. Madrid will still likely take a firm approach with regards to transfer offers for Ronaldo and be quick to reject anything that comes in, but if history is anything to go by, keeping a potentially unhappy or unsettled player at your club can have negative effects both off and on the pitch.

I’d relish seeing Ronaldo playing in the Premier League again, but for now I just can’t see it happening. Right now clubs are rejecting big money offers for their players who do want to leave, so the chances of a club accepting a big offer for a player who isn’t as keen for a new challenge seem very slim right now. But, I guess all I can do right now is wait to see what happens next and end this piece with an old cliché. Never Say Never in Football.

Andrew.

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Gareth Bale Transfer Saga - My Thoughts

Along with Wayne Rooney and Luis Suarez, Gareth Bale is another name that just doesn’t seem to be disappearing at the moment when it comes to transfer speculation. Tottenham Hotspur say he isn’t going anywhere and they want to agree a new contract with him, but reports in the Spanish press claim Real Madrid are about to agree a deal with him instead.

I have no doubt in my mind that Gareth Bale would excel in La Liga if he ended up making the move to Madrid, but as long as he was going to be getting enough playing time for the kind of high fee that would likely be agreed for him. If you pay big money for a player, you can’t expect them to be warming the bench almost every game. It would also put him under increased pressure to succeed whenever he would play because supporters would be questioning why such an expensive player isn’t starting in matches and when he does play, he should be expected to play well every time simply because he cost the club so much money. I don’t doubt for one second that the Madrid faithful won’t give him the support he needs to help settle in quickly and feel welcome at the club, but if it takes him too long to start producing the same kind of displays that he has done for Tottenham in recent years, that support won’t last forever.

Personally I’d prefer it if Bale stayed in the Premier League, even if it wasn’t with Spurs, but I think the club are even less likely to sell to a divisional rival for a massive fee. I wouldn’t get the chance to see him play as often if he moved to anywhere else in Europe and his jinxing runs and incredible goals, just to name a couple of traits, would be greatly missed by the Premier League viewing audience. While it is another season in the Europa League for Spurs, the signings of Paulinho and Nacer Chadli look promising and there is still plenty of time for more additions that could help the club take the extra step this season. Should Bale leave, the chances don’t improve unless even more major investment is made to fill the void that he ends up leaving.

Reports that Bale is unsettled don’t surprise me, he is causing a stir in both the English and Spanish media and while it certainly won’t be doing him any favours, it also appears to be driving Tottenham crazy too. His manager and chairman say he isn’t for sale. The club reportedly wanted him to sign a new contract that would allow him to stay at White Hart Lane for another season, but should they fail to qualify for the Champions League again, a minimum fee release clause would then become active and Bale would then become available to anybody for a fixed price. There was no confirmation on whether or not that contract was signed or not, and so it allowed speculation to continue and reach the stage that it has now where all sorts are being said about the player and his whereabouts for the new season.

Like I said, I hope Bale stays in the Premier League, but right now it isn’t looking too promising. The Spanish press work in special ways that help players become unsettled before the big clubs like Real Madrid then have a clear shot at getting their man. Spurs are holding their ground, but it is surely only a matter of time before we are due something of a big breakthrough in this now dragging saga.

Andrew.

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