Source: Daily_Mail
MARTIN SAMUEL: Door to Champions League is open...will anyone push?
A single win in nine games is not a blip, it is a bust. It is no longer possible to talk about Liverpool's run of form as an inconsequential phase because it has been running too long to be without significance. We must now presume that the sale of Xabi Alonso was as debilitating as many, including Steven Gerrard, believed and that its effects will continue throughout the season.[LNB]And now it gets interesting because it is not only Liverpool who have been found wanting of late. Manchester City, the team it was presumed would fill the fourth Champions League spot were any of the elite to falter, are on a pedestrian run of five straight Premier League draws. A Carling Cup tie at home to Scunthorpe United aside, they last won a game in September.[LNB]So there is a chance, a very real chance, of change. If ever there is a season in which clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa, even Sunderland, should have an eye on the January transfer window and a tilt at greater glory in the second half of the season it is this one.[LNB] Good times: Will Aston Villa be the team to take advantage of Liverpool's slump and break into the Champions League places?[LNB]The dynamic of English football may yet be altered. Perhaps for one year only, perhaps for longer. Who can say? We will never know what would have unfolded had Everton not lost to Villarreal in the Champions League qualifying round in 2005-06, whether the financial boost of reaching the group stage would have left them better equipped to take on stumbling Liverpool and Arsenal teams in recent seasons, whether our big four would have become a big five.[LNB]So we can only speculate on what might happen if a cash-poor Liverpool fail to make it into the Champions League next season, and their place is taken by an upwardly mobile Villa or Tottenham.[LNB] More from Martin Samuel... MARTIN SAMUEL: Qatar will pay the earth to join sporting elite13/11/09 Terry set to miss England clash with Brazil as Capello's woes mount up13/11/09 MARTIN SAMUEL: Brown, spin and how we've lost sight of the truth12/11/09 MARTIN SAMUEL: You all know who David Haye is now!10/11/09 MARTIN SAMUEL: One problem with franchise idea, Phil. No place for Bolton08/11/09 MARTIN SAMUEL: Wear a poppy out of pride, not just habit05/11/09 Martin Samuel: When Voronin's your only hope, Reds must know game's up04/11/09 MARTIN SAMUEL: Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez has to be a Champions League Lyon tamer03/11/09 VIEW FULL ARCHIVE With Manchester City continuing to throw money at the problem, thebig four could quickly expand to six or maybe more, because once thehegemony of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool isbroken, the Champions League will seem considerably more attainablenext season, and the season after that.[LNB]If ever there is a month that could define the ambition of a club itis January 2010. Martin O'Neill, the manager of Aston Villa, will hopehe has got his first punch in early by securing the signature ofEngland winger Stewart Downing in the summer when he was still injured.It seemed controversial at the time but does not look foolhardy now.[LNB]Meanwhile, Harry Redknapp will no doubt return to Daniel Levy, hischairman at Tottenham, with another appeal to add the one player,probably a centre half, who will make a difference (with Harry, thereis always a final player needed, although this time he may be right).[LNB]The most intriguing element will be if a club such as Sunderland arestill in contention. The owner, Ellis Short, has traditionally backedhis managers with enough money to survive but set his sights on a top10 finish before the season started. Will he have the resolve for afinal push if Steve Bruce can take this team even higher?[LNB]Roy Hodgson at Fulham could also be in the frame, but it is doubtful whether his club can financially sustain a tilt at the top four, considering qualification for the Europa League has already caused problems.[LNB]The cynic inside us predicts the same top-four finish as there has been since 2005-06, with not even Manchester City capable of breaking that stranglehold.[LNB]Yet nothing in the way Liverpool are playing suggests a team capable of nonchalantlyshrugging off this malaise. They are already fragile but, even when their form picks up as it surely will, it is hard to imagine the remainder of the season running faultlessly.[LNB]There is a real opportunity for an outsider this season and, more importantly, if not now, when?[LNB] Why fair play and Mr Platini are Poles apartMichel Platini, president of UEFA, is still doing the rounds with his plan to ensure the richest team wins the league every year.[LNB]He calls it financial fair play, limiting spending to turnover, and last week it took him to Brussels to meet the new president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, who was prime minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001.[LNB]Buzek, like most politicians, was star-struck in the presence of a famous footballer and fell for Platini's calamitous ideas hook, line and sinker. The pair then issued a joint statement praising the financial policy as crucial for football in Europe.[LNB]Platini needs men like Buzek on side so he can sidestep European Union laws to make sport a special case and also because responsibility for hosting the next European Championship will fall increasingly on Poland, unless three venues in Ukraine - Donetsk, Lviv and Kharkiv - meet UEFA's November 30 deadline to show preparedness.[LNB]Sign of things to come? Jerzy Buzek (left) and Michel Platini before their meeting in Brussels[LNB]So here is what Platini left out of his little Franco-Polish love-in: an ongoing corruption scandal implicating 29 clubs, plus referees and members of the Polish national federation, the PZPN; 310 arrests and 17 prison sentences; a boycott of Poland's last World Cup qualifier with Slovakia by supporters; the withdrawal of sponsors of the national team and a 10-year low in the FIFA world rankings.[LNB]'Poland is the most corrupt country in the football world,' saidnational hero Jan Tomaszewski. 'If nothing happens, Platini should takeEuro 2012 away from us.'[LNB]He will not, of course, because the head of football in Europe hasmore important concerns than the fact that one of his host nations isin disarray and the other is mired in scandal. He wants to make sureManchester United get to win the Premier League every year and his newfriend in Brussels is going to help him do it.[LNB] Platini's statement said that Buzek shared his appetite for a vague'fight against corruption linked to betting' but made no mention of thevery real fight against corruption linked to match-fixing that iscurrently being waged in the Polish courts.[LNB]Last April, 17 people, including referees, match officials and members of the PZPN, received prison sentences (some suspended) as a result of Operation Clean Hands, which investigated bribery and fraud in Polish football.[LNB]At that time only 15 top-level referees remained untouched by the scandal, which has now led to 310 detentions. As a result, Polish fans organised a boycott of the World Cup qualifier against Slovakia in Chorzow on October 14, with FIFA recording the official attendance as 5,000 in a stadium that holds 50,000.[LNB]The PZPN gave the snowy conditions as reason for the low turn-out but this would not explain why Compensa, an insurance company, withdrew sponsorship.[LNB]Nor does it explain why BZ BWK bank took down all pitch-side banners, and why Sniezka, who make paint and industrial products, issued a statement to the effect that their sponsorship support is for the team, not the PZPN.[LNB]Poland lost 1-0 but it did not matter as they had already failed to qualify for the World Cup - they were fifth of six in Group Three, ahead of San Marino - and had sacked Leo Beenhakker, the coach, after losing 3-0 to Slovenia in September.[LNB]In a nice touch, Beenhakker found out about this decision live on television, when a reporter asked him his reaction to being fired. The oversight in not telling him was later blamed on 'pressure, stress and nerves' by a PZPN spokesman.[LNB]Still, as a man is judged by his friends, Platini will be pleased to know that football is not always the cause of embarrassment in Polish sporting circles.[LNB]Indeed, when sports minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki resigned on October 9, it was because he had lobbied on behalf of gambling companies to block a law introducing higher taxes. Financial fair play, he may well have called it. [LNB] Let's not get all pumped up about a new ballWhen a lot of goals are scored it is only a matter of time before somebody starts talking balls. These new ones swerve and dip too much, apparently, leading to more goals like the one Cameron Jerome hit for Birmingham City against Liverpool on Monday, or Emiliano Insua's strike for Liverpool against Arsenal in the Carling Cup.[LNB]It reminds me of the time two seasons ago when everybody was terribly excited by Cristiano Ronaldo's free-kicks, and were trying to work out his secret. Did he hit a valve inside the ball? Was it something to do with his boots or his stance? There were plenty of theories, the majority with a technical explanation.[LNB]Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, heard and read them all, and then mocked the amateur scientists in the media.[LNB]'There is no mystery,' he chided. 'All I've heard about is how he shapes up and where the valve is. It's all rubbish. He takes about 30 free-kicks after training every day, that's how he does it. Practice. The balls aren't even the same ones we use in matches.'[LNB] Having a ball: Birmingham's Cameron Jerome unleashes his stunning strike against Liverpool[LNB]Carlos Queiroz, Ferguson's assistant at the time, has subsequently claimed that there was a little more calculation involved in Ronaldo's preparation, and the reality is no doubt somewhere in between. [LNB]Ronaldo might try out a new ball - as he did before the Champions League final against Chelsea - to see how it would fly, but his great weapon was nothing more than natural talent combined with a desire to work harder than any other player on the training field.[LNB]It is the same with the number of goals scored this season. We presume there is a scientific explanation, and sports equipment manufacturers would certainly like us to think so, but Steve Bruce, the Sunderland manager, probably had it right when he said the new balls made no difference.[LNB]'It is just that teams are spending a lot of money on really good strikers,' he said.[LNB]This is undeniably true. To assess the size of the Premier League investment on goalscorers, one only has to consider the strikers who cannot always get a game right now: Michael Owen, Eduardo, Roque Santa Cruz, Emile Heskey, Peter Crouch, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Benni McCarthy, Salomon Kalou, Yakubu.[LNB]A mid-ranking club with even a modest ambition to reach the Europa League will be operating with a quartet of international-class forwards.[LNB]Nike and Mitre may vie for the credit, but acknowledging the ball, not the striker, is too much hot air.[LNB] A final thought on the goals scored by John Terry and Eduardo at the weekend. Should the credit not go to the player who intended a goal to be scored rather than the hapless sap/lucky so-and-so who got in the way?[LNB]A cross that ricochets off a defender and is diverted at a right-angle into the net is different, but, against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Eduardo was directing a chip towards the top corner when it glanced off the head of Jody Craddock. Maybe that did ultimately defeat goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey, but Eduardo's intent was plain, Craddock's involvement merely accidental.[LNB]If anything, his significant touch was a direct result of Eduardo's splendid thinking. The same with Terry. He meant to score against Manchester United, but his header struck Nicolas Anelka. To deny the intent is churlish. It would be like giving Sunderland's goal against Liverpool to the beach ball.[LNB]CONTACT MARTIN AT: m.samuel@dailymail.co.uk [LNB] Explore more:People:Nicolas Anelka, Martin Samuel, Roque Santa Cruz, Harry Redknapp, Steve Bruce, Benni McCarthy, Cristiano Ronaldo, Stewart Downing, Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen, Emile Heskey, Wayne Hennessey, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Peter Crouch, Alex Ferguson, Leo Beenhakker, Daniel Levy, John TerryPlaces:Brussels, Liverpool, Chelsea, Birmingham, United Kingdom, Poland, Slovenia, Europe
