The 2008/2009 FA Cup has reverted to a more familiar line-up for the semi-finals. Manchester United and Chelsea are already in the semi-finals and Arsenal look set to join them.

People may dismay that the FA Cup has fallen back into the habit of catering to the ‘big four’, but could this dominance be good for English football?

If Arsenal beat Hull City on Tuesday March 17, then the FA Cup winners will most probably be the recipients of a Champions League or UEFA Cup (to be the UEFA Europa League from 2009/2010) through their involvement in the Premier League. With Manchester United lifting the Carling Cup, the UEFA Cup, sorry Europa League, spot goes to the 6th placed Premiership team, which is currently comfortably held by Everton.

This means that the UEFA spot that would go the the FA Cup winners funnels down to the team that finishes 7th in the Premiership. At the moment that would be West Ham, but they have Man City, Wigan and Fulham chasing them.

In my opinion, this would be a better outcome as it relies on the strength of a team throughout the season (although theses teams could still be easily sucked into a relegation fight), rather than their ability to luck it to a cup final like Sunderland in 1992, Millwall in 2004 and Cardiff last year. It also provides more competition in the Premier League. With only one official Europa League slot to the 5th placed team, and Arsenal and Aston Villa effectively fighting for that, 6th-15th makes no real difference (prize money aside) to a team and many of the Premiership fixtures could fizzle out. With another two places and points now all important, teams up their game and fans get more for their money.

As long as Everton don’t implode, fall out of the top half and win the FA Cup.

He surprised many by maintaining his ambition to play for England by maneuvering a loan deal to Milan. He also sprang a further surprise by playing considerably well for the Rossoneri.

Now the cherry on the cake has well and truly arrived.

AC Milan have announced a loan agreement with LA Galaxy that could be the most complicated in footballing history. The only one to run it close was the ‘one season at Real, one season at Barca’ deal with Los Blancos legend Alfredo di Stéfano, although that was eventually overlooked by Barca.

This new deal will see ex-England captain playing at the San Siro until the end of the 2008/2009 season. He will then jet back to LA to play out the remaining 13 or so games of the MLS season. Once July arrives, Goldenballs then goes back to Milan for the start of the 2009/2010 season. The loan deal comes to an end in November 2010, when Beckham arrives at the mysterious buyuot point of his Galaxy contract. Furthermore, Beckham has agreed a salary cut to engineer the move.

The initial impression is that it is good for both clubs and the play. Milan do not have to spend £12m on a 32-year-old. Beckham gets to play high-quality football and keep in Capello’s mind. LA Galaxy do not lose face by being muscled out by a European giant, while also being able to sell his shirts as he is still ‘their player’. However, one cannot help but think that once this deal reaches November 2010, the Galaxy may see the back of Beckham for the last time.

In June 2006, he accused England of spoiling the World Cup in Germany:

I’m delighted that teams are playing offensively, one exception is the English.

During January 2008, he blasted the FA for choosing Italian Fabio Capello over an English manager to lead the England team:

I would say it is a little surprising that the motherland of football has ignored a sacrosanct law or belief that the national team manager should be from the same country as the players. I have never seen Italy, Germany, Brazil or Argentina with a coach from another country.

In Febuary 2008, he continued his rant he accused the Premier League of losing its English identity, despite being the best league in the World in terms of entertainment, standards and income.

March 2008 saw Blatter threaten to overrule the FA as they decided to hand Birmingham’s Martin Taylor a three-match ban for his tackle that broke Arsenal striker Eduardo’s leg. He also branded the mistimed tackle an ‘attack’:

It is shocking when you see how this player was attacked. It is not football.

The summer of 2008 saw his worse judgement of a situation in regards to Real Madrid’s pursuit of Manchester United’s Christiano Ronaldo, comparing the £120,000 a week wingers treatment to slavery:

I think in football there’s too much modern slavery in transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere.

And today he is once again having a go at English football, stating that the Premier League is not competitive enough. It does not seem to matter than France’s league is on course for its seventh successive year of Lyon dominance. It also does not seem to matter that for the past 8 years the Liga title has rotated between Real Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia.

If all four English teams reach the Champions League quarter-finals, no doubt he’ll use that as a platform to attack England’s football. It does not seem to matter that there was an all Italian final in 2003, with three Italians in the semi-finals. It does seem to matter when the same thing happens, but its with English teams.

How long must we accept his biased attacks on England?

The worst thing has been the injuries to Torres. Maybe if Torres had not been injured so much things would be different.

He has been our main striker and scored a lot of goals for us last season. And this season could have been totally different with him.

With the former Valencia manager pointing out this very obvious fact, is he admitted that he has made mistakes this season, mainly in the shape of not getting the best out of Robbie Keane and his teams inability to convert chances?

Fernando Torres was, no doubt, the star of Liverpool’s 2007/2008 season. The Athletico Madrid idol arrived in July for a hefty £23 million and proceeded to score 29 goals in all competitions. This season, Liverpool were expected to challenge Manchester United’s dominance at the top of the Barclay’s Premier League, and for a time they did so.

However, Liverpool faltered, having drawn 6 of their 13 league matches at Anfield and also drawing 3 times and losing once since the turn of the year. Benitez has been criticised for failing to break down teams like Stoke, Fulham and West Ham.

Benetiz has pinpointed the lack of a striker of Torres’ quality as the main problem, but that leads to more questions. If you have noone beyond Torres that can score goals, why let Peter Crouch leave? Why let Robbie Keane leave? Why not focus on bringing in a backup striker in the summer instead of endlessly chasing Gareth Barry? Did he seriously think that he could rely on N’gog and Babel to lead the line?

With this admission, Benitez has taken a small step in admitting that the title is lost and that he made mistakes. The summer will tell us if he further admits those mistakes, by bringing in a true squad striker who can bring the title closer to Anfield.

He finished the conference by stating:

The squad is good, but there are too many games when things go wrong and that makes a massive difference

Try telling that to Sir Alex’s defence over the past month, however, Manchester United pulled through. Liverpool need a squad, not a handful of stars.

A game at Wembley on the 10th August 2008 seems to have been forgotten. Granted, the game was nothing to write home about, but when Glen Johnson failed to convert Portsmouth’s fourth penalty kick, Manchester United lifted the 2008 Community Shield.

People may dismiss the Community Shield as not being worthy of being grouped with the FA Cup, Premiership or Champions League, but was it any more difficult to win than the World Club Cup? United had to win the Premiership in order to qualify for the ‘final’, and they had to win the Champions League to get to the World Club Cup. The finals of both competitions were hardly difficult for Manchester United, regardless of how FIFA or South America views their precious competition. So surely if the World Club Cup counts towards a quintuple, the Community Shield counts towards sextuple?

Just over two weeks after the Community Shield, United then lost all hope of completing a ‘clean sweep’. When Daniel Miguel Alves Gomes put Zenit St Petersburg 2-0 up in the Stade Louis II in Monaco, United could not claw back the defecit and eventually lost 2-1, missing out on lifting the 2008 UEFA Super Cup. It is because of this game that United’s quintuple, not matter how amazing, will never be a ‘clean sweep’. Once again, if the Super Cup and Community Shield are ignored from the arguement, then so should the World Club Cup, and once again the name changes to the quadruple.

That said, United’s sextuple is something to look forward to…

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The media have both been speculating about the future of both of Newcastle’s long-term goalkeepers Shay Given and Steve Harper. With Harper signing a new three-year deal this week, it seems that Given is ready to make a move, with Manchester City sniffing around the Republic of Ireland stopper.

Kinnear mentions that he has done all he can to keep Given at St James Park, but the 32-year-old has made up his mind.:

I have bent over backwards to keep him – I’ve tried to make him stay. He’s done 11 years here and I think he wants a new challenge.

I would be heartbroken to see him go because he is one of the best keepers in the world. But Man City keep banging on the door to talk to him.

Newcastle fans that I have spoken to appear to share Kinnear’s outlook that losing Given would be terrible for their chances of Premiership survival but after 11 years of top quality service, they can understand Given’s need to move on to bigger things.

With the Citizens reportedly offering £8 million of their new-found wealth and Steve Harper as a ready-made replacement, will it be long before we see given turning out at Eastlands?

However, some have said that United are getting more praise for their achievement than Chelsea ever did, which prompts the debate: Is one achievement more of a feat than the other?

The main argument in favour of Manchester United is the strength of the defence that set the record.Chelsea got there with a full-strength reliable back four of Terry, Carvalho, Ferreira and Gallas. United used a mix of Gary Neville, Raphael da Silva, Evra, Evans, Vidic, Ferdinand, Brown, Ecklesly and O’Shea during their 11 game run, mixing experience and youth, perhaps making it harder. You could also throw in that United had to travel to Japan and take on the world’s best club teams in the process of setting the record.

An argument to support Chelsea is that the record was utterly smashed when broke in 2004-2005. Petr Cech kept the Premiership at bay for 1,025 minutes when the previous record, set in 1997 bt United legend Peter Schmeichel, was merely 694 minutes. Cech was also only 22-years-old and in his debut season at Chelsea after his £7 million move from French side Rennes.

As for an answer to the question of who set the better record, I suppose that depends on whether you watched it set from Stamford Bridge or Old Trafford…

We had the £130+ million raid for European Footballer of the Year Christiano Ronaldo in the summer and we heard hints of a £100+ million move for Real Madrid keeper iker Casillas this week. Now we move on to the next one, and also yet another rebuff for City.

Reports have done the rounds that The Citizens were going to make a move for Valencia’s Euro 2008 starlet for an astonishing £60 million, but his agent has swiftly denied any such possiblity.

David Villa had a great summer, he scored vital goals for Spain as they lifted the European Championships trophy and attracted interest from all over the Premiership. He rejected rumours of moves to Liverpool, Chelsea and Liverpool and said he wanted to concentrate on doing his best for Valencia in the 2008/2009 La Liga season.

Now, as January closes in, Mancheaster City’s new found wealth and Valencia’s new found debt are being culminated into a £60 million move to The City of Manchester Stadium for the 27-year-old. Yet, his agent is quick to reject any chance of it happening, blaming the English press:

At the moment, we are not speaking with any clubs, as David Villa is trying to make history with Valencia. Until that day and, despite the fact everybody is aware that Valencia are facing economic difficulties, David was always paid on time and never had to complain about anything.

These are just rumours emanating from the English press that the Spanish one rewrite, but, believe me, there’s absolutely nothing.

We await the next fantasy move cooked up by the press…

Several names, who are normally connected with most jobs, have been bounded about; Peter Ried, Alan Curbishley and Davod O’Leary have been mentioned. But one person has put themselves forward for the job. An ex-Magpie.

Sam Allardyce, who was at the helm of rivals Newcastle United for 8 months, has put his name forward to be the fiery Irishman’s replacement:

I’ve said over the last few days that I would like to get back into managing a football club and I’m bound to be linked with Sunderland at the moment. There’s been no official contact but I know what a great club it is. I’ve worked there twice before, so I know what it needs.

But we’ll just have to wait and see. I really feel I’m ready now.

There are two obstacles to overcome with the possiblity of ‘Big Sam’ being in charge of the Black Cats. First and foremost, would he take Sunderland forward? His Bolton side were known for succeeding, but playing a brand of anti-football, whereas Sunderland under Keane played attractive football. If he is chosen, the second factor comes in, how would ther Sunderland fans react to him? Has his association with Newcastle tainted him forever, or will his lack of success at St James Park, like Michael Chopra, ease him into the Stadium of Light hotseat?

This led to many players, such as Peter Crouch, becoming disgruntled and leaving. Now Benitez’s lack of team-picking consistency has led to one of his current stars expressing a desire to find first-team football. The Dutch star has only started two games in the Premiership this season and his agent has revealed a loan deal, including his old club, could have been on only for the Anfield club to reject the idea.

Ryan Babel, is apparently finding life difficult at Liverpool, despite being top of the league, as he finds himself on the bench to often. The 21-year-old, who joined from Eredivisie side Ajax 18 months ago, has been hankering for a loan move back to his old club in a bid to gain first-team football.

Babel’s agent, Winnie Haatrecht, spoke to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf:

Ryan sits on the bench too much. He wants to play more and asked me to see if Ajax were interested in a temporary return. After we got an enthusiastic reaction from Ajax, we asked Liverpool but the club don’t want to see him go.

Rafael Benitez finds Ryan too important. Hopefully we will see that in more playing time.

Babel has found his chances limited in recent times, which has baffled some pundits who note Liverpool’s lack of width as a reason for their stuggles at home against Stoke, West Ham and Fulham. Benitez obviously rates Babel, enough to pay £11.5 million for him, yet not enough to give him game time. Will the (possibly strategic) agent-talk bring Babel to the forefront on the Spanish gaffer’s mind, handing the Dutchman more game time?