We’ve all been exposed to the odd horror away day in our time, but the advances in safety at our grounds ensures that the only real hooligans on a matchday, are those responsible for charging in excess of £3 for a pie.
Of course, all fans take and dish out their fair share of stick on a Saturday, but there are some away days across the world that will have you moaning about an awful lot more than a dodgy bit of catering.
Here, cold terraces are warmed up by mid-game pyrotechnic displays, mickey taking is replaced with the threat of trouble and the stands are so steep, they’ll probably give you a nosebleed.
So click on the Stade Velodrome to unveil the top 10
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Feeling miffed I left out Glanford Park or the Weston Homes Community Stadium? Let me know on Twitter: follow @samuel_antrobus and bat me all your away day suggestions.
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The sacking of Roberto Di Matteo and the appointment of Rafa Benítez at Chelsea last week has caused much criticism to come the club’s way.
Many have been taken aback by the level of venom shown towards Rafa Benítez when he came out in front of the Chelsea fans at Stamford Bridge on Sunday after the sacking of a manager who last season secured Chelsea the Champions League title and the FA Cup. The amount of booing towards the new appointment caused surprise and it is apparent that many Chelsea supporters are extremely unhappy at the decision.
Is this another incident that shows that club owners do not listen to what the fans want? It seems to be becoming more common that clubs are making decisions and running the club in ways many fans hugely disagree with.
The activity at Chelsea Football Club has clearly riled fans. Numerous supporters made it clear that they are angry at recent events, jeering Rafa Benítez, some holding signs, including phrases like ‘Rafa Out!’, ‘Chelsea fans never forget’ and ‘In Roberto We Trusted And Loved. In Rafa We Will Never Trust. Fact.’ They also had applause for Roberto Di Matteo at 16 minutes, referring to how he used to wear the number 16 shirt.
So, can it really be said that Roman Abramovich and the other people in charge at Chelsea really understand and listen to their fans when they have made such contentious decisions? They do not seem to have shown much regard for the history of the club, by sacking a man who is considered a club legend and seems to love Chelsea and managed the team when they won two titles. Can it be said that they really take into account the feelings of the fans when they employ a man who has previously criticised the fans and has had a generally bad relationship with the club.
This is not to say that the fans were right to boo their new interim manager and not actually give Rafa Benítez a chance. Additionally, it is not Rafa Benítez’s fault that Roberto Di Matteo was sacked. It is also a worry that some fans may want to see him fail, which, arguably, gives the impression they are not being good fans.
However, whatever people may think of the reaction of the fans at Sunday’s match, it still seems to give evidence that the owners may not really understand the club’s fans.
Trizia Fiorellino, the Chair of Chelsea Supporters’ Group has talked to BBC Sport about how while fans are not expecting to choose managers; she believes they chose someone unacceptable, saying: “The strength of feeling surprised even those in charge. It was quite venomous right at the beginning. The fans don’t expect to pick and choose the managers but it was pretty evident there were only two people that were not acceptable in this case – Benitez and Avram Grant. It was almost as if the board and the owner were trying to send a message to the fans to say ‘we run this club, not you – you have no say.’ Benitez is not popular and I think he will remain unpopular throughout his reign.”
Of course, Chelsea are not the only ones who could be accused of not listening to their fans. One notorious example is the outrage amongst Blackburn fans after their owners sacked Sam Allardyce in 2010, a move which even angered the players. They were also famously outraged about former manager Steve Kean, when many continuously called for his sacking. The sacking of Chris Hughton by Newcastle, in the same week as Sam Allardyce’s dismissal from Blackburn, was also an unpopular move.
Newcastle owner Mike Ashley has caused anger amongst fans in the past, for example when St James’ Park was renamed the Sports Direct Arena last year. It could be argued that moves like this, which anger fans, show that some owners in modern football prioritise money over and business over the desires of the fans.
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Many disagree with decisions their clubs have made. Arsenal fans have many opinions over the actions of the club. Many Arsenal fans have been concerned about the priorities of the club, including many wanting Arsenal to buy more players in transfer windows, and concerns over prices, where it seems that prices seem to be kept expensive despite protestations from supporters.
With the possibility that booing against Rafa Benítez could continue, it is clear that many fans are unhappy. It could be said that this means clubs perhaps should listen more to what the fans want.
Four games unbeaten isn’t a bad start. Well it certainly sounds better than four games without a win. In truth, it is probably a fair reflection of what the performances have been like.
Absolutely average.
Some glimpses of the old Blackpool, sometimes mind-numbingly dull, but for the most part, just really average football.
After two games without a win or loss, I expected consecutive home games to shape the Blackpool fans’ opinion of the new manager. A win or loss would have made it a definitive good or bad start for Appleton. But here we are, two games later talking about four games without a result and unfortunately some minds are already being made up.
It is always difficult to give a manager time. In Appleton we had an unknown quantity, which was good. No Blackpool fan had any prejudice against him. Which made him the ideal candidate to be given time to shape the squad. Unfortunately though, the way the team has played for the last two matches has left some supporters a little disillusioned.
After an uneventful end to the loan window where Blackpool brought only Wes Thomas in, Watford came to town on Saturday in pretty decent form. And you could see why. They were a team with a plan and they executed their counter-attacking style perfectly against a home side that got booed off the pitch at half time following one of the worst 45 minutes of football I could remember at Bloomfied road. Lacking in every area, poor performances all round and, perhaps most frustratingly, no sign of a plan.
When a new manager comes in, you can always expect a transitional period. Things will change and they will take some getting used to. Not just for the players but for the fans too. But where Watford came with a gameplan, Blackpool seemed to lack any kind of direction. Despite a second half which saw Watford penned into their own half, it was still hard to see what the defined ‘style’ was. It wasn’t blustery, attacking football, it wasn’t long ball, nor was it formulaic, disciplined football. It was just a great comeback that maybe masked the flaws.
But it was a comeback, and kept a bit of belief around the place coming up to the Birmingham game. Assuming we could carry our second half display into the game, against a side really struggling for form, then surely we would be seeing the first positive result for Appleton.
Disappointingly, it didn’t materialise and whilst the Watford game contained the worst 45 minutes I could remember, the Birmingham match was the worst 90 minutes in recent times. I will point out that I don’t just mean a Blackpool performance, but just the worst game of ‘football’ I can remember. Both teams deserved to lose. No points should have been awarded and the game erased from the footballing chronicles. It should have been aborted after the ball didn’t see the turf for almost a full 10 minutes after kick-off and all players given a one-match ban for unsporting conduct.
The state of the pitch has to be taken into account, because it was instantly used as an excuse by the players. The pitch is a shambles, there’s no doubt about it. If this was in February, after a tough winter period then ok, but in November, for the pitch to be cutting up as it was is a disgrace. But no more a disgrace than 22 professional footballers not being able to string two passes together. You can blame the pitch for isolated moments and individual errors, but you can’t blame a bad surface for 90 minutes of what we used to call football.
Blackpool eventually got off to a good start by getting the much sought-after first goal. So surely then, after weeks of harping on about the importance of the first goal, Blackpool would power forward and win the game with ease. In reality, it was hard to see what difference the first goal made. The pattern of the game didn’t change, Birmingham didn’t come out, Blackpool didn’t press on and then just after the break Birmingham scored from, you guessed it, a poorly defended corner. No change whatsoever.
The problem with the manager going on and on about the importance of the first goal is that when we do concede first the players lose belief. It was evident against Watford when they scored after just 5 minutes and the Blackpool players looked frightened. The have had it drilled into them that if they score first they will win, so then when they went behind they lost the faith. And I wonder what they think now after they got the elusive first goal and still went on to draw.
On Tuesday night, not even a handful of players came out with any positives. Basham performed manfully in the midfield, our one-man defence of Cathcart did ok and Delfouneso had one of his best games, giving the Birmingham right-back trouble all night. Aside from that the team were woeful. Ince put in another anonymous display after getting on the scoresheet early on. Thankfully, he does have this knack of getting a goal, even when playing poorly, but there can be no doubting that he is indeed playing poorly. The best description I heard likened him to a sycamore leaf. Going round and round and round until he inevitably hits the floor.
Too many Blackpool players are not playing well, right the way from front to back. The strikers have lost their confidence, midfielders don’t get to play back-to-back games so never get any sort of form going and the defence is, well, as bad as always. The goal conceded was like a terrible deja vu that just keeps happening. Curtis Davies must mark Blackpool games in his diary as he knows he will have a fruitful night. Heading long balls away all night long until he has the chance to trot up for a corner and convert his obligatory goal. If every man and his dog knew that he would score against us, why didn’t somebody on the pitch do something about it?
Which leads nicely onto the main question. What exactly is Appleton’s plan?
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If that game had finished 1-0 you could have walked away, after rousing from your slumber, thinking that although it wasn’t entertaining, the defence has been tightened and we are hard to beat. But it didn’t finish 1-0 and all you can see are the same old problems, but without the old attacking flair that kept everybody on the edge of their seat. Kept everybody entertained. Kept everybody awake for starters.
It is always difficult to give a manager time, especially when you can’t see where he wants to go, but with 4 draws under his belt it would seem unfair to make a judgement just yet, however hard it may be to resist.
Saturday’s trip to rock-bottom Peterborough is now a huge game. Fail to get a win there and Appleton will leave himself with a lot of work to do to impress the fans. Just as it was last week, the first win or loss under the new manager is so crucial. Five games unbeaten is a credible start. Five without a win would be a big fat black mark against his name. No pressure then…
Stoke City goalkeeper Asmir Begovic has claimed that he is flattered by reported interest in him, but he is happy to stay at Stoke to be successful.
Begovic has been in fine form this season, attracting interest from the Premier League big boys along the way, but it is clear that the Bosnian stopper is happy to stay with Tony Pulis and Stoke for the foreseeable future.
The Potters would bag a huge profit if they were to cash in on their ‘keeper in January but with three and a half years left on his current deal, it seems Begovic is going nowhere as the improving club do their best to hang on to their star players.
Begovic has dismissed the transfer talk as just speculation for now despite being flattered, but he also reveals that Pulis will not let him get carried away with his current form and he is extremely focused on continuing to push Stoke in the right direction.
“As far as I know it’s all speculation. It’s always nice when the biggest teams in the world are looking at you,” Begovic told the Stoke Sentinel.
“It’s a compliment, but it doesn’t mean anything.
“We keep our feet on the ground here and the manager wouldn’t let that change.
“I have three-and-a-half years on my contract and I am concentrating on playing and staying in the team and trying to help the team be successful.
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“I am happy here so there are no issues with that.”
What exactly do you say to your team after an 8-0 drubbing. Thats the problem Paul Lambert faced at the weekend after the Aston Villa were humiliated by Chelsea just a week after they pulled off an astonishing win over Liverpool at Anfield. With such a young team at his disposal, one that is still learning the Premier League ropes, Lambert will be aware that inconsistency of extreme fluctuation goes hand in hand. The sobering reality is that the irregular nature of Villa’s performances puts them at serious risk of relegation. Thats not to say they haven’t impressed at varying stages this season but Lambert needs to start turning his kids into men.
Spurs, whilst picking up wins, are also blowing hot and cold on an alarming scale under Andre Villas-Boas. Of course that can be put down to the transitional period expected to take place when a new manager arrives. But with the campaign reaching its halfway point Villas-Boas should be expecting his side to be fully integrated with his ideas and producing a steadier flow of performances. Four points from the last two games against Swansea and Stoke looks excellent on paper but the football served up by the North London club was far from vintage. They’ll need to get back into their groove sooner rather than later if they’re to stay in touch with the top-four.
Team News
Villa trio Ron Vlaar, Gabby Agbonlahor (thigh) and Charles N’Zogbia (knee) will all be assessed before kick off.
Clint Dempsey is suffering from a groin complaint and may not be risked but Benoit Assou-Ekotto could feature after recovering from a knee injury.
What the managers said…
“I’ve experienced that a few times. I’ve been absolutely tonked before, as player and manager. Thanks for reminding me! You just try and win the next game. It’s how they react now – that’s the mark of good players. It’s up to me to get the players up for Wednesday. I won’t have a problem doing that because they’re really hurt by that. None of them will be feeling great. I expect a reaction.” Paul Lambert wants a reaction from his Aston Villa players (Daily Star)
“He has been outstanding, for sure. He has eight goals so far. I think he is surprising everybody. To his credit he has come up strong. He has strong competition from Bent. I think Paul Lambert was courageous in his decision to keep on persisting with a player that he got so well in the transfer market so credit to them. But it is good to see him up there.” Andre Villas-Boas commends Paul Lambert’s handling of Darren Bent (Independent)
Pre-match Statistic
One win in their last 11 Boxing Day games should ensure the writing is clear on the wall for Villa fans especially given Spurs are the only team in the division to score in every away game this season.
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Prediction: Aston Villa 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur
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It’s amazing what happens with Arsenal fans when you propose to give them exactly what they want. Young, inexperienced players are not good enough; those who will take an age to come good and then speak out of their desire to move on to the silver halls of rivals, both domestic and abroad. It’s not good enough when the player is an unknown that may or may not be totally fabricated. Fans want excitement, a player they know they can put faith into and whose status is well-known around European football.
The reaction, then, to Arsenal’s reported interest in David Villa has been staggering. It was unbelievable when people dismissed Fernando Llorente earlier in this season because he apparently couldn’t get a game in Marcelo Bielsa’s side, but this is something else.
David Villa is injury prone and over the hill, according to some. He’s not the same player he once was and why would Barcelona be willing to let him go if he was that good? Well that’s not the whole story or the whole truth. Barcelona don’t want to let him go because they know exactly what his worth is and how much he can contribute. The player, on the other hand, wants to play every week like he once did and is more than keen on the idea of a move away.
Injury prone? Hardly. Arsenal fans should know exactly what injury prone is. It’s the Abou Diaby three-week injury which lasts half a season. It’s the Robin van Persie ankle injury picked up every time Holland make the call. It’s most definitely not one bad injury in a near spotless career.
Thomas Vermaelen and Jack Wilshere have picked up lengthy injuries in the recent past, does that equate to them being dispensable? David Villas is exactly what everyone has been crying out for over the past six years, and now, with the possibility of signing him, the reservations and questioning of the manager’s decision come to the fore.
David Villa still plays like one of the best strikers in world football. His worth to Barcelona was evident last season when he was out from December onwards. Would they have retained their La Liga title had he been fit? Possibly. Does he still have the same movement, lethal finishing, calm under pressure? Of course. He grabbed the crucial winner in an epic encounter with Sevilla at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan; a fight back that seemed hugely unlikely until Cesc Fabregas got the important equaliser with less than a minute left of the 90. But there was David Villa, back from injury to bring home the winner in injury time.
Isn’t he exactly what’s needed to guide a young pretender like Theo Walcott? There was nothing wrong with Thierry Henry going back to Arsenal last season, nor was there anything wrong with Didier Drogba winning the Champions League for Chelsea with his kick in the penalty shootout. Both of those players are older than Villa, and yet there’s an idea that players’ careers come to an end once they hit 30.
Van Persie is around 18 months younger than Villa, but if it were the case, no fan would oppose the idea of giving him a four year contract extension. Everyone wanted experience and now the club are looking to add more. They’re not only doing that but bringing in a big name, one of the biggest in fact, to drive the team on to fourth.
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Villa’s most recent birthday hasn’t forced him to forget how to move in the final third, how to spring the offside trap and how bag 20 goals in a season. With so much excess cash reported to be laying around the Emirates, is £16 million too big a fee to part with for one of the world’s best who has won everything there is to win in the game?
It would have been great if he were arriving as a 26-year-old, like when he was linked with the club in 2008 but Arsene Wenger went on to say he wasn’t interested. But football doesn’t always work how you want it to. Would the excitement be any less if he were to arrive now? Certainly not, and it really shouldn’t be. How often do Arsenal have the chance to prize an experienced player of that calibre away from Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich?
If your assistant manager is going to get to make the back pages of the papers following a gritty cup win, they might aswell do it in style. Steffen Freund’s 90th minute cascade of fist pumping during Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-1 over Lyon last night may have gone down like a lead balloon with the French team’s backroom staff, but for supporters, it simply put the gloss on a hard-earned win.
But while Lyon’s fitness coach Robert Duverne may have been understandably miffed by Freund’s slightly excessive celebrations, he shouldn’t take anything to heart. Because for Spurs’ eccentric assistant manager, showings like last night are simply par for the course.
The former-German international was always something of a cult figure at White Hart Lane during his spell with the club as a player, but since he rejoined the club as Andre Villas-Boas’ assistant during the summer, his rapport with supporters seems to have taken on a life of its own.
To the outsider however, the sight of the ex-Borussia Dortmund man celebrating every goal scored and tackle won like a man possessed, might seem like a cheap attempt at winning affection and a needlessly display of over exuberance. Yet not only is that statement way off the mark and far from the truth, Freund’s presence in this set-up has been one of the most undervalued cogs in the Villas-Boas story so far.
On the face of it, the combination of Freund and Villas-Boas has more than a touch of the chalk-and-cheeses about it. In Villas-Boas, Spurs have one of the more refined and astute characters within the game.
The Portuguese isn’t afraid to show his love for the game, but he tends to do it with a babble of techo-speak and a jolt of continental charm. While Villas-Boas looks ready to head to a dinner-party win, loose or draw, Freund gives off the impression he’s ready to finish off what he started in the Bricklayers post game.
But in appointing the German as assistant coach, Daniel Levy wasn’t simply offering a novelty choice to fans in a doff of a cap the nostalgia merchants amongst us.
Villas-Boas may now have won over the vast majority of Tottenham Hotspur supporters, although even amongst the more positive contingent of fans, his appointment wasn’t without a certain degree of doubt. In Freund, Levy was bringing perhaps not legitimacy, but a degree of relatability to the new set-up.
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The German proved to be the intermediary between fans and club throughout the earlier stages of the season and although it may seem easy to dispel that notion now, without Freund, things could have been a lot more difficult for Villas-Boas when the going got tough.
As the frustration seemed to be accumulating within the bowels of White Hart Lane following the hugely disappointing 1-0 home loss to Wigan last year, Villas-Boas had little in the way of allies at the club.
As is the norm at the club, Levy and the hierarchy offered nothing in terms of public backing and as well as having a home crowd that remained unconvinced, Villas-Boas had to put up with cries of discontent from club legends, too. Several weeks earlier, former FA Cup winning defender Graham Roberts claimed that the club would go nowhere under the Portuguese “unless he gets a personality.” Hardly a vote of confidence, was it?
But where as Villas-Boas may have been lacking support in and around the club, in Freund, he didn’t just have his assistant manager backing him up, but a fans favourite whose opinion was valued. And you can’t put a price on that.
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When the German talks about the club, there is a genuine feeling of passion and understanding; it all sounds terribly cheesy, although Freund knows what it’s like to win a trophy with the club as well as he knows what it feels like to sit in the stands with supporters. Not everyone may have heeded his call for calm, but when Freund spoke, people listened. Had he not been around earlier this season, some of the malaise that existed towards Villas-Boas might not have been quite so isolated.
Of course, while it was joint decision from all involved to bring Freund to the club, Villas-Boas wanted him by his side, providing what he described as ‘club knowledge.’ He’s done that in abundance, but his role at the club stretches far further than simply as a cheerleader.
Freund came to Spurs with a burgeoning reputation as a coach through his time with the German international youth sides and it’s been said that he doesn’t hold back in offering Villas-Boas his take of events when things aren’t necessarily going the side’s way. Indeed, in the acquisition of Lewis Holtby, Spurs’ assistant manager certainly played his part in convincing the rest of the club’s transfer committee that the 22-year-old was an imperative purchase.
Such is the passionate demeanor that Freund tends to exude on a matchday, it can be all too easy to see him as little more than a pantomime side-show to the studious management of Andre Villas-Boas. But to do so serves only to undermine the important role the German has played in crafting Tottenham’s newly found steely mentality in recent months.
England can still qualify for the World Cup finals in Brazil, according to Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard.
Gerrard and his England counterparts were held to a 1-1 draw in Montenegro on Tuesday night. Despite sitting two points off the top of Group H, the Three Lions destiny remains in their own hands.
Wayne Rooney opened the scoring from a Gerrard corner before Dejan Damjanovic equalised late for the hosts, but the influential midfielder remains confident they will still qualify.
He said: “We’re still confident we can finish top of the group. We need to win all our games, we certainly need to improve on that second half performance and play like we did in the first half.
“We certainly need to get three points when we go to Ukraine in September and we need perfect results at home.”
The England captain also conceded that a draw was the right result on the night.
“We stopped playing after the break for 20 or 30 minutes and away from home you can’t afford to do that,” he added. “We stopped passing the ball and that’s when we lost control. I think they deserved the equaliser.
“I think there was a lot of experience out there and I think the first half we showed that. We controlled the game.
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“The problem is at 1-0 you’re always vulnerable. You’ve got to go on and get the second goal to get complete control and we never did that. They took control of the second half up until the last 10 minutes so they deserved the draw.”
One win and just five points in their last 13 Premier League matches paints a gut wrenching picture for Stoke’s supporters. With the club now on high alert after slipping to within three points of the relegation zone the pressure is firmly on manager Tony Pulis to escort his side to safety. Sadly for the Potters it’s difficult to see where their next victory will come from. Manchester United descend from their throne at the top for a visit to the Britannia Stadium and even with home advantage on their side they will undoubtedly be classed as underdogs. And rightly so after a dismaying home display last week in which they more or less relinquished the game to Aston Villa without so much as a whimper. That isn’t the Stoke we’ve all come to dread playing against and Pulis has a monumental task on his hands to dig them out of this rut.
Unfortunately for Stoke they come up against a United side spoiling after their derby defeat at home to Manchester City on Monday. Sir Alex Ferguson’s men lost out to their local adversaries for the second season running at Old Trafford but despite losing the battle they can solace in the knowledge that they are close to winning the war. The loss only put a minor dent in the Red Devils’ lead at the top-flight summit with their advantage now standing at 12-points. That should rise to 15 once again with City contesting an FA Cup semi final and United recording eight victories in their last nine meetings with the Potters. One more and their title grip with grow even firmer.
Team News
Matthew Etherington (back) and defender Marc Wilson (back/hamstring) will be assessed before kick-off by Stoke after being forced off in last weeks clash with Aston Villa. Glenn Whelan is back in training and could feature.
Ashley Young hurt his ankle in Monday’s Manchester derby with City and is out for two weeks. Captain Nemanja Vidic (calf) was back in training on Friday, while Jonny Evans is available after missing the last two games with a hamstring strain.
What the managers said…
“We have got targets. He was one that was mentioned, but whether we do any business or not we shall have to see. We have been monitoring four or five players in Europe and if our staff are watching players, then it’s important I follow it up. I went abroad Sunday when it was cold and I got covered in snow, which is why I’m feeling the way I am.” Tony Pulis dismissed speculation over his future at Stoke (This is Staffordshire)
“If you look at our history over the years we always make it difficult for ourselves. The supporters are hanging on the edge of their seats every year. It is a 12-point lead, we go to Stoke at the weekend and we will have a go.” Sir Alex Ferguson insists Manchester United won’t succumb to complacency (BBC Sport)
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Pre-Match Statistic: Manchester United have netted 27 Premier League goals in the opening 30 minutes of games – Stoke have managed just 28 all season.
Prediction: Stoke City 0-2 Manchester United
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Manchester City star Yaya Toure believes his side will have to be at their “very best” to get past Chelsea in the FA Cup on Sunday.
City’s chances of defending the Premier League title appear all but over despite their victory in the Manchester derby last time out as they trail their city rivals Manchester United by 12 points, leaving the FA Cup as their only realistic chance of landing silverware this season.
Toure, who helped City secure the trophy in 2011, is desperate to secure the FA Cup title but feels his side will have to be on top form to see off semi-final opponents Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday.
“All we can do is do everything in our power to win the game both individually and as a team,” Toure told the official Manchester City website.
“We have a really tough challenge because Chelsea are a very good team and they have some fantastic players and to beat them we will have to be at our very best.
“We were faced with a similar challenge against Manchester United in 2011 and it was because we fought so hard and played really well that we beat them – the same is required on Sunday and we can’t leave the pitch with any regrets.
“I’m very focused on what we have to do and the whole team is and if we win, we will have done so because we deserve it.
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“Wembley is a very special place for me and I have some great memories from our last FA Cup run, particularly the semi-final and final for obvious reasons so I hope I can experience more great moments this season.”