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Oh how Big Sam must be laughing!

3 games in and no goals scored, 6 conceded, out of the FA Cup and Special K must already be feeling the pressure. That won’t have been helped by the bizarre number of appointments to the board in the last 48 hours. The most surprising of all of course being little Dennis Wise - particularly as a few weeks ago he was “Leeds through and through”.

Exactly what Wise’s role will be is still a little unclear - unless the board are saying that Keegan is an OK coach and will be able to motivate the team but has no idea of the transfer market. Who will have the final say I wonder, if Keegan wants a particular player and Wise doesn’t agree, or vice versa. Keegan could end up with a squad of players he doesn’t like or don’t fit within his team as he sees it. A bit like the Schevchenko and Mourinho situation at Chelski. It’s an expensive way of buying bench warmers if you are not careful.

Keegan’s reaction has also been strange. First of all he said he had no knowledge of the appointment at Monday’s press conference, saying “I am reluctant to tell you all I know as I don’t know anything”. Then last night after another thrashing at the hands of Arsenal this became “I knew about the appointment before I took the job I just didn’t know it would be Dennis”. Of course he went on to give the usual platitudes about Wise’s credentials, but I for one was left with the distinct feeling that he was far from happy. Perhaps he thought the Director of Football would be somebody who wasn’t quite so “hands on” and he would still call the shots. Or perhaps he had no idea it was going to happen.

Either way it will make interesting watching - I give it till the summer to blow up but then I’ve been wrong before. The fact is that Ashley has made a rod for his own back by appointing the peoples favourite. It will be difficult to get rid of Keegan, and if he makes it known that he has been forced out in anyway, then the fans will turn against the board pretty quickly.

I can’t let the controversy over the Manchester derby match go without adding my two penneth. The row is over whether to have a minutes silence to commemorate the Munich air disaster or go for the new fad of a minutes applause.

The request has been made by the Manchester City Supporters Club to have a minutes applause because they fear that a minority of the City fans might interrupt the silence and cause offense/create a bad atmosphere. To my mind Manchester United have quite rightly refused to do so.

Applause for a tragedy like this is completely inappropriate. For players or people connected to the game that have had a long and fulfilled life, then applause might be considered the way forward. But clapping people that died prematurely in a plane crash is simply wrong, in the same would be wrong to clap 9/11 or the Hillsborough disaster.

Without sounding like an old git this is symptomatic of what is wrong with society today. We repeatedly take the line of least resistance, in order to appease the minority - in this case the mindless minority - that might not be able to bury their rivalry for 60 seconds and show some respect. To appease these few the rest of us more civilised people must suffer in some way.

So good on Manchester United (there’s a phrase I never though I would say). Go ahead with the minutes silence. There are cameras watching the crowd anyway, so pin point the rabble, evict them from the ground and ban them for life.

While we are on the subject of respect, a quick mention about National Anthems. When did this fad of booing the opposition’s Anthem start? The problem is it started in football and is spreading to other sports too. I’m glad to say though that as yet it hasn’t reached hockey.

I went to the Euro Nations Indoor Hockey Finals on Sunday and the crowd stood in respectful silence to Anthems from all nations. It isn’t asking too much is it surely?

Ok so my skill at predicting football is not without it’s flaws, but then if it was perfect I would be worth millions.

At the beginning of the season I put my neck on the line and named the clubs I though would head for Europe and those that would get relegated from the Premiership. Now before you read that and start to pull it apart, two things to remember.

1. The season is not yet over.

2. Few would have predicted the sudden demise of Spurs and Fulham and the erratic form of Liverpool or that the kids at Arsenal would start to click.

For those that haven’t read it, I predicted that the league would finish Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, Pompey (of course). I also predicted that Derby, Wigan and Reading would go down, and that newly promoted Birmingham and Sunderland would avoid the drop.

Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up (said the actress to the bishop) - no real prizes for predicting Derby would head straight back down I suppose, but my prediction that Reading and Wigan would join them are still not blown away. History shows that there is always a surprise in the final few games, with somebody unexpected getting dragged into the mire and somebody who looks dead in the water getting out of trouble. With the exception of Derby any of the bottom 8 could get dragged into trouble with only 3 points separating 6 teams.

I expect Fulham to put a run together and get out of jail. I will therefore stick with Wigan and Reading to go down - my prediction that Sunderland and Birmingham would finish top half might have been over zealous but they will get out of trouble. The Sunderland players in particular will be too scared to upset Roy Keane again for fear of flying chairs.

At the other end of the table, it looks like being the closest finish for years, which will no doubt lead to some thrilling and tempestuous matches in the final couple of weeks, as the big 4 play each other. There is bound to be some controversy and some poor refereeing decisions but that all adds to the excitment - Fergie looks to be already feeling the heat with accusations flying that he gestured to the crowd/dugout when Manchester United eventually broke Reading down on Saturday.

Much as I hate to do so, I’ll revise my prediction for the top 6 and boldly say that Liverpool won’t make the Champions League and that will be the end for Rafa - even the fans that love him at the moment will not settle for that. I will keep the order for the top 2 though - Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal is the new prediction. The pressure will start to tell on the young gunners and much to my surprise Avram Grant appears to have settled in at Chelski - I gave him 2 weeks I think - like I said though my predictions are not without flaws.

Who will finish 4th though? It would be nice to think that either Everton or Manchester United will, considering the rivalry in those respective cities and that they have been living in the shadow of their respective neighbours for so many years. If it’s Everton then it will definitely signal the end for Rafa - if its Manchester City then it will be excellent news for Sven.
I still have hopes for Pompey nicking 6th spot, but they will have to turn Fratton Park back into the Fortress it once was - I haven’t done the maths, but if they had produced their home form of previous seasons, combined with their away form then they would probably be top 4. Harry must be scratching his head over this one. It’s a bit like playing golf - your putting and chipping never seems to coincide with you driving well.

The imminent arrival of Baros and Bergher will help, and they have to play a lot of the teams in the bottom half, which could also help. I guess the good thing is that not being a “big club” like Newcastle we would still be happy with a 7th or 8th place finish, with a chance to improve next season - I’m sure we wouldn’t say no to a cup run though - with Plymouth next round and more of the premiership sides clashing it could be good!

What is it about incredibly bright and successful business men, who throw away everything they have learned about business when it comes to football. I guess it could be just called “passion for the game” but really its more like a a child with playing with a new toy.

Mike Ashley is the latest example. Having paid £134M for Newcastle, settled over half of their debt with personal money, he has since sacked the manager and his team of 20 all of who would have need large settlements to cancel their contracts.

He has now recruited the peoples favourite Kevin Keegan, who has a flakey rack record to say the least. The only reason as far as I can see for the appointment is that the fans love him. Keegan has proved twice before at once as England manager and once as Newcastle manager that he cannot handle the pressure. He is paying Keegan £3M a year and will no doubt have to open a war chest to find the money he will want to build his own team. I estimate the entire sorry episode will cost him a minimum of £100M in addition to the original purchase. Not exactly good business sense.

So why do the fans love him? Because he play exciting attacking football that’s why. Big question. Is that all the fans want? They have been whining about the fact that they are “big club” and should be winning trophies. Unfortunately, attacking football doesn’t necessarily mean winning trophies. Teams like Arsenal, Manchester United and even Chelsea theses days all play attacking football, but based on a solid platform of good defence.

How long will it be before the pressure is turned up on Keegan and the fans start to ask where their trophy is? I give him two years tops before either the fans get tired of waiting, or Keegan realises he still cant take the pressure and walks again. Remember you heard it here first!

A I said in my other blog last week, there was never really any doubt that Harry would leave the South Coast and head north to the land of make believe. (As in make believe we are a big club with a divine right to win trophies, whilst playing attractive football, and keeping 60,000 fans with different opinions happy at the same time. Oh and do all that today please not in a few seasons time).

You have to feel sorry for the gum chewing foul mouthed ex Newcastle coach, but he knew what he was taking on when he signed on the dotted line, and I’m sure one look at his bank account will make him a little happier!

There was never any doubt in my mind that Redknapp would take over as that would mean massive upheaval on a personal level - he lives just an hour down the road from Portsmouth, and he has since said the extra money wouldn’t make any difference to his lifestyle.

The talk now is about either a Shearer/Keegan combination for no other reason than they are local (if only the FA used that philosophy when appointing England coaches!), or of Mark Hughes.

I’d like to see Keegan and Shearer take it on but I can’t see Alan leaving the comfort of the pundits box, where he can take pot shots at whoever the coach is without having to take any decisons himself, and I’m not sure Mr Keegan would like to come out of retirement into the cauldron again. He has twice proved that he cannot handle the pressure of big time management.

I’m not convinced that Hughes will be high profile enough for the Loony Toon Army either, and while he has the comfort of full board booking he would be daft to make that move.

Mourinho would never get his wife to live that far north - given the choice of dinner in The Ivy or a drink on the quayside I think she will always The Ivy.

That doesn’t leave too many options for Mr Ashley, although they had reportedly sounded out a number of suitable candidates. My money would be on Martin Jol who is currently 8/1. I think he has the pedigree and is also thick skinned enough to take the pressure, and has shown an ability to win over the fans (in not the board at Spurs).

Whoever they eventually go for, one thing is for sure. Ashley and the Loony Toon Army must give him time - not weeks or months but a minimum of 3 years to assemble a team of his choice and get them playing a style that the fans like as well as winning matches. Everybody wants success but the more astute people know it doesn’t happen overnight. It is no surprise that the 2 most consistent teams in the Premiership have been Manchester United and Arsenal and that they both have the longest standing managers.

The ICC are once again in the mire, due largely to their own stupidity, although the players have to shoulder some of the blame too.

For those that need a catch up, Harbhajan Singh was accused and found guilty of a racial slur against Andrew Symonds during the second Test and banned for 3 matches. He and the Indian team deny this (although some reports suggest that Ponting was asked not to file a report, which would mean that Kumble at least heard it as well). Whatever the truth behind the accusations, the fact is that a ban was imposed and the Indian team pulled out of the series in protest. Although some progress has been made following umpire Steve Bucknor being stood down, (I’ll come on to that in a minute), the tour might still not go ahead should Singh lose his appeal.
The first comment to make (at the risk of sounding racist myself), is that this is typical of both the Indian and Pakistani teams. As soon as a decision or reprimand is issued against them they immediately threaten to disrupt things through strike, claiming victimization or ironically using the race card. Imagine if the boot were on the other foot and one of their players had been abused in such a fashion. They would have been threatening to pull out if the offending player had not been suspended and no doubt been burning effigies of the accused in the streets by now.

As it is the situation has been made worse by the Steve Bucknor having what is termed “a shocker” and making a couple of shocking decisions - the worst one being giving Symonds not out when he took a thick edge having scored 30. Symonds then went on to make 162 and the Ozzies by 122 so you can understand the Indian team being a little peeved.

The second comment therefore concerns the ICC and their apparent lack of backbone. If in the opinon of the match referee Singh is guilty and the appropriate penalty is a 3 match suspension, then that decision has to be final. End of story. If there is not enough evidence then he should not have been given a suspension in the first place. If they bow down to what is in effect blackmail then they do themselves and the sport no good at all. They may well have offered up Bucknor as a sacrifice to try and appease the Indians and this prove to be sufficient, but where will they go if they still threaten to walk out?

The final point to make is that the players only have themselves to blame. That is players from all countries and not just Australia. They haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory, in particular with Symonds publicly admitting he knew he had hit it but was waiting for the umpire to give it. However, players failing to walk has been part of the game for years, and has only gotten worse with the advent of technology. Players these days feel that it is up to the umpires who now have the benefit of technology to give them out. What has been over looked is that Ponting himself earlier in the Test gave a catch not out when his team thought he had held it, and thereby avoided the need for the third umpire - this was remarked upon by Aggers who said it “makes a change” - this goes to prove the point I am making. i.e. It was unusual.
I recall last year that Gilchrist came out and said he hated it when players failed to walk when they knew they were out and started to do so himself, rather than wait for the umpires verdict. I distinctly remember an Ozzie commentator (Lehman?) saying he might not be too popular in his own changing room for walking on one particular occasion. That comment just about sums up the attitude of players today.

I have absolutely no doubt that there will be Indian players as well as players from every Test playing nation that have in the past benefited from a wrong decision - in fact they will see this as payback for the times a decision goes against them. It is therefore not right to start criticising umpries when such decisions go against you.

The only solution as far as I can see is for all players to take the same stance - forget about the “gentlemen’s game” of 50 years ago. There is too much at stake in terms of prestige and big money contracts these days for players to be expected to walk. Therefore all players should wait to be given out, as there will always be times when they are genuinely not sure and they will get slaughtered in the press if they wait for a decision or a replay. Not only that, in the heat of battle when your team is in trouble or you are desperate for a good knock then there will be players who will still wait, giving them an advantage. By waiting to be given out it makes it fair on everybody, but means you can’t go crying to the ICC if you get a bad one or two or even three - it’s the price you pay for earning a good living at something you enjoy, a privilege not enjoyed by players 50 years ago, who could “afford” to be gentlemen.