Hi and hello football fans, it's your old pal Roko the Football Guy, whats going down? I hope all is well wherever you are! There is an air of depression here in the broom closet at football guy towers. As many of you know, I've been in Barcelona recently for a friends wedding and had the best six days ever and now I'm depressed to be back in rainy Grey London with my boring job and boring friends.......(OK, just kidding about the last one....).

But seriously folks, I really did have the most amazing times and might well be relocating from the broom closet to Casa del Football Guy in the near future. I will tell you more about my adventures in Barca as the week goes on, but first I'd like to go over a couple of things that have happened in Football since we last spoke.

Barry to Manchester City

So after having spent the last year hearing how Liverpool are going to buy Gareth Barry he now ends up and Man City???? I will never trust the newspapers ever again!!!

Could there be more to the stories about Liverpool having no cash than meets the eye? Had this been the price last summer no doubt Barry would have ended up in Liverpool not Manchester, yet last season Liverpool were prepared to pay more than this....... What happened?

Pretty good signing for Manchester City, Barry should add some much needed stability to a City center that has been pretty erratic over the last season.

I'm sure this will be the first of many summer signings for City but I think it will be more intresting to see how Villa replace their Captain.

Perez back at Real - Galactico's round two?

The man behind Real Madrid's Galactico's has been back for a mere couple of weeks and already the spending seems to have begun with Real on the verge of signing Kaka for a record £54m.

The question is, were will it stop? With C-Ron, Ribery and David Villa all being linked with the Madrid giants I wouldn't put it passed old Perez to bring in anyone.

I've been reading in the papers and on other blogs the views of allot of ney-sayers criticizing Perez for the way he builds a team. I say fuck it, it worked before and if you can afford it why not. I don't think the fans of any other team on the planet would complain if Perez turned their team in to the Galactico's and brought in a Champions League or two.

One things for sure, love him or hate him, Perez knows how to bring in the top brass of the Worlds players and this summer should be an exciting one for anyone who loves Real Madrid.

Liverpool's financial problems

Take care

Football Guy

As it's the FA Cup, I'm not doing a full preview until we get to the next round. It's a little strange to see tin the space of three days we have FA Cup 5th round action, a Premier league match and finishing it all off on Monday is a 4th round FA Cup match........ Yeah....Right.

I read a quote midweek from a Spanish player (I forgot which one) praising what Capello has done so far in transforming England....... Well after Wednesday's results that does not ring as true as it might have a few days earlier.

Capello's England have beaten Belarus And Andorra, nothing special in either result, they smashed Croatia in what for me was "one of those games" not to take away from the fact England did play very well in that match, I think it's fair to say Croatia played as bad as England played good and believe me.... As an Arsenal fan..... Walcott does not score hat-tricks...... If only.....

So that brings us to the last two matches. England beat Germany 2-1, who on the night I thought looked terrible and thought England should have beaten them by more, then I watched extended highlights of Germany's game against Norway midweek, a game they lost 1-0 at home.... TO NORWAY.... Germany are poo at the minute and I think that Norway game confirms it.

So to sum up, before getting dismantled by Spain, Capello's England had won four out of four yet, hardly anything to write home about.... Unless scoring three more goals against Croatia after they went down to 10 men and had to push forward with a strange Walcott hat-trick is form your going to win the World Cup with.

Portsmouth v Manchester City

I think Pompey are due and there seems to be a trend of teams winning straight after firing their manager so that must be a good sign for the Fratton Park faithful.... But since they were two goals up against Liverpool with five minutes to go and still lost the match I don;t think the Pompey fans will be very optimistic.

How many points do you think Shay Given will be worth to this team over the course of a whole season? I'm putting the over/under at 12, he's already won them three from one game.

Football Guy's verdict 1-1

Lawro's verdict here

Take care

Football Guy

Hello all, never underestimate how important a good sleep is. I finally had one for the first time in a couple of night and I feel all the better for it!

Now, before I get on to the predictions I would like to quickly clear up a few issues from yesterday, first of all it seems that Lawro DID in  the end do a preview as was pointed out to me by the Sportboy in the comments section yesterday. Now I can categorically tell you that when I looked on the BBC's football home page yesterday at 11.00am (the time I started writing) it was nowhere to be found! And that's a fact...

Secondly, I hate being write about something I wish to be wrong about.... Do you follow?.... Yesterday I questioned my OWN decision to drop Kenwyn Jones from my fantasy team in favor of Jason Roberts..... Turns out I was right to question my silly decision, I still fell Jason Roberts will do me good but I think I should have dropped Zaki for him.... I guess time will tell.

Thirdly, Congratulations to Manchester United for setting a new record of 11 games without a conceding. What makes this run all the more impressive is the fact United have used about 10 different players at the back due to injury and suspension with only Nemanja Vidic being ever present. Speaking of Vidic, I was thinking about him last night and came to the conclusion that in a year with no real stand out attacking performances (e.g. Ronaldo's 42 goals last season), is Nemanja Vidic in pole position for PFA and FW Player of the Year? If I had a vote in the matter he would get it from me and I will say this, even if you don't agree the Vidic should definitely win I would ask you to give me a case for a player who is 100% definitely more deserving..... I might have to wait a while.

Chelsea v Middlesbrough

Boro have not won a league game since the 9th of November.... That's quite a long time and spans 10 matches, I'm pretty sure we can add one more to that list.

Chelsea on the other hand have no clean sheet in their last six league and cup games and have been on a very uninspiring run of form and to be honest, it's quite difficult to give you a good case as to why I think they will win this match but it basically comes down to this - Boro are currently POO and until otherwise notified I'm backing against them!

Football Guy's verdict 2-0

Manchester City v Newcastle

Not been the best 10 days or so for young Robinho, firstly he up's and leaves training which ended up netting him a £300k fine and this morning we find out he's been arrested over an alleged sex assault,as I said.... Not the best 10 days or so.

All you really need to know about the Toon army's changes of a win tonight are that they have claimed just two points and scored two goals in their last five visits to Manchester City and with only one fit striker don't expect that form to get any better.

Football Guy's verdict 3-0

Wigan v Liverpool

Wigan might need a few games to adjust to life without Heskey and Palacios and Liverpool really need to take advantage of this. 

Should be interesting to see how Wigan Egyptian boys hook up up front and I'm sure Steve Bruce will be hoping that the Zaki/Mido partnership can be as effective as the Heskey/Zaki one was.

Wigan have also never beaten a "big four" club EVER.

Football Guy's verdict 0-1

Blackburn v Bolton

Fat Sam host a second former club in as many league games and will no doubt be hoping for for a similar outcome to the 3-0 home win he enjoyed last time against Newcastle.

I'd be quite happy with that too as it would mean two goals for the latest addition to the "Better than Milan 89" fantasy football team which has won two title's in as many years!

I don't really think Blackburn are any better than Bolton but I have to go with the form team here.

Football Guy's verdict 2-1

Everton v Arsenal

I fear for Arsenal in this game, They were saved last season turning round a 0-1 deficit at half-time with some Eduardo heroics.

Everton welcome back Fellaini from suspension and I can see him scoring from a set piece as he is about 5in taller than any Arsenal player and defending crosses is definitely not their strong point.

Having said that the Gunners have been on a good run of form and will really need Adebayor and Van Persie to lead from the front if they are to keep pace with the four teams ahead of them.

Football Guy's verdict 1-1

West Ham v Hull City

Five straight league defeats for Hull..... Worrying times. I think they will be fighting for their Premiership lives before the season is out.

By contrast, West Ham have been on quite a good run of late and are unbeaten in their last four league games winning three of them.

I think they will notch up another one tonight despite the fact Hull have a 100% winning record in London this season.

Football Guy's verdict 2-1

Take care

Football Guy

 

I'm not sure what's more unusual - Me posting on a Tuesday or Arsene Wenger NOT mentioning "Mental strength and Desire" in a post match interview? Probably Wenger failing to mention his teams mental toughness as it's a Tuesday and I've got a post for you guy's!

There have been a few questions popping in to my head over the last couple of weeks and I feel they may need answering, so I'm going to throw them out to you, the reader to answer them for me.

Let's get the ball rolling.

 

Juande Ramos

Did Juande lie about where he has been from October 2007 - October 2008? As you may well be aware by now that Juande today got the Real Madrid job taking over from Beard Schuster.

Did Real not look at his performance at Spurs? Did they think that once he left La Liga that he must be on Holiday? I wonder if he had to go to an interview like a normal person with a CV and like a normal person would, put instead of managing Spurs he put he was traveling in South America. I know I've always put down "traveling" on my CV when there is a gap or when I was at some crummy job I would get a bad reference from.

Maybe Real looked at it from a business sector point of view. Example - He might have failed in the English sector but in the Spanish sector he has done very well. Like if you worked in sales and were very successful at telesales, you then quit and decided to try your hand at field sales but failed miserably, when you went back to telesales I'm sure your employer would overlook your failure in field sales as it's different to telesales, right?

I guess Juande was in the right place at the right time, it's midway through the season as there are not a lot of top class managers sitting around waiting to be picked up. I wonder if Frank Rijkaard's name ever popped in to there minds? That would have been fun, picking up the ex Barca man to try at right the ship at their biggest rivals.

Can Ramos right the wrongs? Well he has done very well in Spain but has never had a job like this (Let's be fair, not many jobs are like managing Real Madrid). Real do need some work obviously as does Juande's reputation. Will it work out? We shall see.

Michael Owen

Will Michael Owen be sold in January? Is there a market for broken down strikers who IF fit can score but spend as much time in the treatment room as Amy Winehouse does in crack dens in Camden. I think Micky Owen still has it but, what's the use if he's injured all the time?

If he does go, who will buy him and for how much?

If Owen does leave he will want to go to a big team right? I'm sure if Newcastle a willing to let him go cheep then Liverpool might be interested but I can't see Newcastle's price being less than £10m and I think that would rule out Rafa who sold him for about that much four years ago. United are already having problems trying to fit Rooney, C-Ron, Berbatov and Tevez together but, if Tevez were to leave in January it might open the door for Owen. Siliemrly with Chelsea if Drogba were to leave in January maybe there would be room for him at Stamford Bridge but I don't think Scolari would want/need him and Arsenal already have one sick-note in the team who goes by the name Tomas Ro-sicky.

Could Owen go back to Europe? Well again it comes down to price and who would want him and I don't really think Owen want's to go abroad again.

Everton would be a good fit for him as they are in desperate need of front me but they have less money to spend then I have (£15m on Screech took care of that. Tottenham would also be interesting but there is not enough room in their treatment room as Ledley King and Jonathan Woodgate have it booked up for the foreseeable future.

Should he just stay at Newcastle? Well it would be a novel idea, player signs contract and see's it out. Unless there is a better offer on the table (don't count on it) I don't think he will have much choice.

Liverpool FC

Do people see Liverpool as realistic title challengers? At the moment I'd still say most people don't. Why? I guess it's because they feel Chelsea and Manchester United are better equipped for 38 games.

Is that fair? Well yes and no. Yes - Liverpool do seem to lack quality replacement in certain areas notably upfront, who is going to bang in the goals when Torres (like he is quite often) is out of the line up? Rafa seems to have lost some confidence in Robbie Keane as he has been left out of the starting XI recently and as my friends the Sportboys pointed out, has cost £5m a goal so far. The rumors are already staring about Keane possible heading back to Spurs (no chance). Elsewhere, what happens if Gerrard goes done for a couple of months as well as Torres? I just don't think they have enough quality replacement for a long season.

No - Let's not forget they have beaten United and Chelsea (Not as impressive anymore since Arsenal have as well)and they do lead the title by a point. Other than Arsenal coming up at the Emirates they don't have an awful lot of tough games from now until the end of January and I'm sure if they are still in front going in to February peoples opinions will have changed somewhat.

Manchester City

How good are Manchester City? Not very good looking at the league table, it currently tells me that Stoke, Boro, Wigan, Bolton, Fulham and Hull are all better than them.

Why are they talk about so much? Well City are a team which people find themselves talking about what they MIGHT do instead of what they ARE doing. The tabloid hack's love it as they can write ridicules stories like my favorite - Buffon to City for £5om - There are many others but I don't have all week to write this column.

Were City better last year? So far yes. Why is that since they have bought the likes of Robinho and Co? Well Sven (despite what you hear) was a better manager than what Mark Hughes is. City were better last season because they were tighter at the back, remember last season when they started with four clean sheets out of the first five games? Their personnel at the back is pretty much the same (apart from their best defender leaving - Corluka) and if anything they have a more potent attack so for me the blame falls squarely at Hughes door for their lack of form.

Who will they buy in January? That's kind of like asking what Bill gates buys his kids for Christmas, when you have funds like that anything is possible.

Who would you buy? I'd start out by getting a new left back, Garrido and Michael Ball are not players you want in your first team if you have higher aspirations than mid table. I'd also look for a top class defensive midfielder as Didi Hamann is so old he actually fought in the second world war for Germany and get free travel nationwide.

What is City's ceiling? Well this season if they can stop conceding goals they can still make the top 6-7 in the league and possible 5th although they need to start getting back to back win's soon. For the future, who knows? When you have a portfolio of £500b backing you anything is possible.

Who is going down?

With it being the holiday season we shall soon find out who will be bottom on Christmas day and therefore almost guarantee their relegation back to the football league. West Brom have to be favorites at the moment but they are the only team in the Premier league era to avoid relegation after being botton on Jesus birthday.

Who will join them? I'm saying Stoke will join them, I'm actually hoping Stoke join them. I don;t like the way they play and as Hull are proving, you don't need to play ugly to survive to the Premiership.

Who else? Well I could argue that about six or seven teams could be the other. Blackburn have real problems, namely at the back. Paul Ince could well be the next manager out especially after these comments from the board. Sunderland won't be far away, even if Fat Sam get's the jobthey still have issue's, they would also become the team most people want to go down due to Fat Sam being a arse.

What about Bolton, Wigan and Fulham? They will all be in the mix as well, just at the moment they have a nice little cushion and are all playing quite well.

Spurs, Newcastle and West Ham? I think one of those three will still be in the mix come March/April and unfortunately for hammers fan's I think it will be you. Not getting anything from Tottenham at home was bad and I really thought you would get something against them.

So ti clarify, I believe it will be West Brom and Stoke followed by one of Blackburn, Sunderland, Bolton, Wigan, Fulham and West Ham.

At least I'm sure of two.

Who will win the Golden Boot?

Who will score the most goals in the Premiership? Well at the moment Anelka has a 5 goal lead at the top with 13  followed by Robinho, C-Ron and Zaki all with 8.

Where's my money? I'm going to stick with C-Ron retaining his crown. C-ron can make up five goals in two games when he gets back to top form and Anelka's goals will surly come less ferquent once Drogba get's back. You can get odds of 7/2 at most bookmakers on C-Ron winning it and thats where my money will be.

Anyone else stand a chance? Well Robinho looks good to keep scoring and I'm sure Adebayor will get back in the groove so their two to also consider.

What about Jermaine Defoe? Yeah, what about him? he has the same amount of league goals as Peter Crouch and Defoe takes penalties. I think a better question is - Will he be top goalscorer at Pompy? For whatever reason Defoe seems to get a lot more olumn inches than his lanky counterpart and I think that's unfair. Crouchinho is banging in the goals too, lets give him some credit!

What has the Football Guy got in store for us in the coming weeks?

Well It's my 25th birthday on Friday so next week I'm planing a column on the 10 greatest domestic football moments of the last 25 years which should be good.

I've heard you mention a Podcast? Yes I'm still planing on getting one up and running although it's taken longer than I hoped for due to a "friend" blowing me out every time I ask to get a piece of equipment from him! I guess I should go and buy it and stop being cheep.

Is there anything you want from us your readers? Yes. Any suggestions you have be sure to let me know. There is a thing on here called "Comments" and what that does is allow you to leave.... Comments. No need to past a message through Facebook or Email, leave a comment and I will read it. That's what there there for people!

Anything else? Word of mouth. It's a powerful tool and please use it to help me. If you like reading what I write then tell your friends who also might like it. That's how it works, quite simple and it does not cost you a penny.

Is there any other way we can get involved? Well when I have the Podcast up and running and when there is the odd week I'm not interviewing a leading figure from the world of football you will be welcome to join me on the Podcast. As long as you know a bit about football and are half funny we can make it work. YES WE CAN.

Final Thought

If the 6th, 7th and 8th placed teams in the league have negative goal differences, does that make it a poor league?

Take care

Football Guy