Competiton being spoilt by too much money

People say that the influx of money in professional sports spoil the sport. Atheletes are in it for the money and go through life getting things doen their way because these hangers on want to be in their good books and get paid for doing nothing of significance.

That is true but what is absurd to see is how in football a team can buy the players they want and basically win a championship.

This is why I am really disappointed by this new Chelsea. With the deep and almost endless pockets of Roman A, the team is able to buy who they want. They just outbid teams and pay exorbitant prices for players.

For instance last season they paid 21m pounds for Shaun Wright-Phillips and he hardly got a run. Anyone who plays that much for a plyer should expect them to be superstars each week. not Chelsea.

So what is happening is they have bought the English premierships the last 2 seasons. Sure the tactical side comes into play but their weekly domestic domination makes the EPL boring and it is now a race for 2nd.

However the past 2 seasons they have been kicked out at the semi final stages of the FA Cup and Champions League by non other than the wonderful Liverpool. Some slight reward and reason to believe that good things come to good people.

However, now they have bought Andrey Shevchenko from AC Milan. He is a terrific goal scorer and makes it harder for the other English teams to compete with Chelsea. They have also bought Michael Ballack, Germany’s top player I believe. He is gettign paid something like 130,000 pounds a week. That is absurd for a player who has not really done a lot. Frank Lampard deserves more because he has delivered. So do players like Thierry Henry and Steven Gerrard.

My only hope now is for there to be ego clashes in the team. As an old coach of mine said, you can have a team of stars but I would rather a star team. I certainly pray that this statement holds true. But over a 6 month season I find it hard to see Chelsea dropping too many games for LFC to be able to bridge the gap and win the championship.

A shame really. But I hope Rafa gets us some good players and the bond they have will make it hard for teams to beat us.

I can dream can’t I!!!

I know, I know.....

Yes it has been a while and yes, i am lazy. But I, Dev Vagel, shall endeavour to blog more.

But first thing first.

Well done to Liverpool - we won the FA Cup!!

REPRESENT!!!

First match

Well I had my first match of Football (that is soccer for the Americans and some Aussies) on Saturday. The team I played for were struggling for players so the call came out for me to help them.

We only had 11 players because a number of players were out due to suspension, injury and other plans (they had better things to do!!). This was of course the worse timing as we were playing the top team, we were 2nd so it was a top of the table clash.

The pitch was poor and very muddy – so perfect for me as it took the skill away from some of the quicker players. While that was one advantage my lack of fitness would be the killer for me.

Anyway, we lost 5-0. We did well and came into half time down 1-0 after they scored 10 seconds before half time. But unfortunately our keeper made a stuff up and that 2nd goal deflated the team. They scored another 2 goals within 5 minutes and a final goal later in the match.

Not that I am blaming the keeper for the score line. He had a sensational match and made a lot of more saves. Unfortunately we did not have the fitness and substitutes to play and entire match.

It was a bummer as it was my first competitive match in nearly a year. I was not expected to play more than a few minutes during a season as I was more the manager but there are times, DESPERATE, times where I am called upon.

The result of all this action, very sore muscles and tired body. Look forward for the next match.