Kevin Keegan came out after Newcastle’s 0-2 loss to Chelsea and said that he could not turn the Toon into a Big Four team again within the three years his contract lasts for. Such talk has landed him in hot water with owner Mike Ashley, who has called him down to London for “crisis talks” today.

Since his emotional outburst though, it turns out that Portsmouth Manager Harry Redknapp and Reading manager Steve Coppell both actually agree with him, with Harry quoted as saying:

“You would need £150million to spend to have any chance of breaking into that top four, Look at Liverpool last summer, they spent £28million on Fernando Torres and he is a fantastic player but who else can compete with that?
I agree with Kevin Keegan, I do not see any way that anyone else can break into the top four. Tottenham came closest for a few seasons but if you look at them now they have fallen back into mid-table. Nothing is guaranteed by spending money and it is getting harder and harder to get there.”

And Coppell today saying:

“I have been saying that for a long time. At the start of the season you know within four teams definitely, probably within three and most betting people would say within two teams who is going to win the league, I contradict myself by saying it is brilliant to watch these teams do well in Europe but they have too much of an advantage on a week-to-week basis for it to be a really competitive league.
There are sub-divisions within the league that are competitive but in terms of winning the division you know who is going to do that at the start of each year.”

Are they right? Is the Premier League boring or just predictable? Should the Top Four be booted into an Elite Euro League? Should the Champion’s League rules be changed? Surely something needs to change or the fans will vote with their feet.

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What happens when a team who have won just one home match all season come up against a side who have won one away match in the league this term? All will become clear at Pride Park on Sunday, when Derby host Reading in a match which the visitors need to win if they’re to stay in the Premier League.

The Press Association reports that County boss Paul Jewell is far from happy with some of the comments made by Royals assistant manager Kevin Dillon ahead of the match. The latter has said the following.

“Let’s put it this way, if we can’t beat Derby, it will be hard to take.”

However, the fiery Scouser has not taken these comments lying down and Reading probably could have done without indirectly motivating a team who might otherwise have gone through the motions instead at the weekend.

“Kevin Dillon’s comments lack tact. You would think Reading had been playing Champions League all these seasons instead of down in the Championship and the Second Division where Derby and Wigan also came from.

“At Derby this year we’ve been sneered at, we’ve been laughed at, we’ve been ridiculed and I can accept it after the season we’ve had – but for Reading to say things like that is not right.

“The lads have been speaking about it and if I was Reading, who do you want to come to last game of the season? A side that have won once at home all season – but it’s a dangerous game they’re playing,” Jewell added.

Can Derby go out with a bang and drag Reading into the Championship with them? It doesn’t bode well for Steve Coppell’s men, who have failed to score in their past six matches and will be relegated if Fulham win at Portsmouth anyway. Just what is going to happen at Pride Park on Sunday?

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It’s possible that Sky may have missed a trick by not showing Portsmouth v Fulham on Sunday, especially as the Cottagers’ chances of survival (along with Birmingham and Reading’s) rest in their own hands. However, the Sky Sports website reveals that they’ll be televising the matches from the JJB Stadium, Stamford Bridge and St Andrews instead – which game will you be watching?

Sunday’s title showdown is in danger of being a complete anti-climax, especially if Manchester United tear into Wigan from the off as they did against West Ham last Saturday. The ITV website reports that Michael Ballack expects the Latics to put up a decent fight, although it was only a fortnight ago that Steve Bruce was reporting a smooth operator that goes by the name of Sir Alex Ferguson had been calling him up.

“The pressure is on and I hope Wigan are proud enough to give everything in the last game and we have to beat Bolton.

“United have everything in their hands, but we are relaxed now. We did our job. We will give everything to beat Bolton at home and we will see what they do.”

Goodness me, the German captain is really getting into this fighting talk malarkey. One minute he was out of favour with Mourinho, now he’s leading the calls for United’s opposition to give it their best shot! Let’s also hope that the Wanderers play with pride at the Bridge after essentially guaranteeing their Premier League safety against Sunderland.

The match being televised at St Andrews could also be pretty dull, although the Sky cameras are likely to have some gratuitous shots of football fans in tears, with Birmingham extremely likely to be relegated after their 2-0 defeat at Fulham. Watch out for small children sobbing their hearts out – and a few grown men too!

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After all, his team looked pretty pretty shabby against Middlesbrough on Saturday, another team who looked like they needed the points more than Pompey. Sky Sports reports that Harry Redknapp is adamant that his team aren’t going to go through the motions against Fulham, alhough exactly how heartening that is for fans of Birmingham and Reading remains to be seen.

Redknapp told Sky Sports: “I will field a full strength side as I owe that to other people in a relegation battle.

“I wouldn’t do that – it is not fair, I wouldn’t want someone to do that to me so I won’t be doing that.

“It will be a tough game against Fulham. I know some people say you have to look after yourself maybe, and if I get injuries they will say I shouldn’t have done it but next week I will be putting out as good a team as I can field.

“They have had a flyer, they have done what we did two years go – everyone wrote us off and everyone wrote Fulham off and now they are right back in the race and it will be a very difficult game again next week but I will make sure we are up for that game – I will make sure of that.”

In a way, fielding a full-strength team may be to Fulham’s advantage anyway. After all, if Redknapp played a bunch of fringe players, they might be more likely to play their socks off in an attempt to get into the reckoning for the Wembley final against Cardiff. Perhaps the first-teamers will be more likely to shun a few tough challenges and make sure they are fit for one of the biggest games of their footballing career.

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Today Reading, fighting for their Premier League lives, managed to get soundly beaten by Spurs, who sit in mid-table purgatory with nothing to play for. The score may have been 1-0 to Spurs, but it could have been a lot more with Darren Bent – among others – coming close to adding to Keane’s goal in a silky Tottenham display. Reading were flat in the first half and although they huffed and puffed in the second their best chances came from Liam Rosenior and André Bikey and not their zombie-like strikeforce.

Do Reading deserve to stay up after a limp display against Tottenham?

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There’s an almighty scrap at the top of the Championship to determine who will be playing Premier League football next season, which teams will the likes of West Brom and Stoke City be replacing? The bookmakers still don’t give Fulham much of a chance, despite their heroic comeback at Manchester City last weekend. A victory against fellow-strugglers Birmingham on Saturday would mean that their top flight safety could potentially be in their own hands!

Surely Reading fans are a touch on the concerned side, considering their team’s inability to score, let alone win a game. OK, so they managed a creditable 0-0 draw at Wigan last weekend, although the decision to bring back Leroy Lita from his loan spell at Charlton smacked of desperation, while the Daily Mirror report tension in the camp ahead of Saturday’s game against Spurs. The Royals record signing won’t play for his ’stupid team’ anymore apparently.

“It is not clever at all to suspend your own players, it is stupid,” said the 24-year-old. “The sanction is heavy – two weeks!

“I cannot understand their attitude. I refused to play with the reserves and they said: ‘Okay let us meet on Thursday’.

“But in the meantime I received a letter saying I am axed.

“They are not courageous enough to tell me things in the eyes, man to man, in five minutes.

“I am an adult, I can recognise when I make mistakes. I can also admit to people when I am wrong. The team needs all their players for the last two games.

“For sure my future is not with Reading.”

Not exactly what you need when you’re teetering on the edge of the drop zone, although perhaps this will galvanise the rest of the Reading squad, who face a last-day trip to Derby after the weekend game against Spurs. Bolton are in action at home to Sunderland and will at least have the comfort of the Black Cats having nothing to play for after their 3-2 win over Middlesbrough last weekend.

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Despite an impressive 3-2 win at Manchester City, the bookmakers still expect Fulham to go ‘down with the Derby’ this season. However, the fact that they still have a chance of survival is pretty amazing when you consider that they were several points adrift of safety a couple of months ago.

A draw at Blackburn on 8th March seemed to provide the required confidence for the team to go on and record victories at home to Everton, away at Reading and now at Eastlands on Saturday. With Birmingham the visitors to Craven Cottage next weekend, retaining their Premier League status is a definite possibility, with the BBC reporting that manager Roy Hodgson now believes.

“It was a splendid victory for us, one we so badly needed.

“It looked bleak at half-time, and we had a mountain to climb – we didn’t deserve to be losing. But we did it.

“At 0-2 I honestly thought we weren’t out of it. I never lost hope, but to win it was extraordinary. We’ve given ourselves a chance now.”

It’s likely that they’ll need to beat the Blues to give themselves any chance of climbing out of the drop zone. They then face a tricky last game of the season at Portsmouth, although they’ll hope that Pompey have one eye on the FA Cup by this stage and perhaps lack motivation or even rest key players.

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Reverse psychology or is Gary Megson just stating how he sees it? Bolton managed to clamber above Birmingham in the Premier League last weekend, yet the Wanderers gaffer is making the Blues favourites to stay up at the expense of his team or Reading.

According to ITV, Megson thinks that City having two home matches left gives them a far greater chance of accruing the points required for survival, whereas his Bolton team still face trips to Tottenham and Chelsea.

“When you look at the games Fulham, Birmingham, ourselves and Reading have got I think you would probably look and say that Birmingham are favourites in this relegation battle to stay up because of the fact that they have got two home games,” Megson said.

“I know they got a poor result against Villa last week but I think one of the things they’ve got is a huge partisan crowd.

“I know very well from being in that part of the world and I don’t think it’s any coincidence the amount of penalties and free-kicks they seem to get at that place that have enabled them to pick up results.

“So I would say that Birmingham are probably favourites to get out of this because of the two home games.”

Alex McLeish’s men face an understrength Liverpool team on Saturday, while they’ll be playing a Blackburn team on the last game of the season with nothing but pride to play for. Meanwhile, Reading have a tricky trip to Wigan on Saturday, while they also have to host Tottenham and visit Derby.

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The ice-cream loving winger was caught allegedly slying off for talks with Inter earlier this year, just before the Arsenal were due to play Milan in the Champions League. Although captain William Gallas has called on the likes of Hleb, Fabregas and Flamini to commit to the club for next season, it’s clear that the Belarussian is going to have other offers on the table after a fantastic season for the Gunners.

Sky Sports report that Hleb is banned for the next three matches after losing his rag with Reading captain Graeme Murty last weekend and striking the defender, much to the chagrin of the Royals. Will the player now start plotting his Emirates exit?

Referee Peter Walton did not include the incident in his initial match report as he did not see it, but having video evidence he admitted he would have red-carded the Arsenal midfielder.

As such the FA charged Hleb – and he has now admitted the charge rather than appealing.

Hleb’s season is now over as he misses Arsenal’s three remaining matches against Derby, Everton and Sunderland.

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Yes you saw the game, and now it’s your turn to say it as you saw it! Who had a ‘mare’ and who was on the money? You decided with our lovely cut and paste thingy!

See below the line-ups, then simply give your personal rating for each player and cut and paste the whole thing into the comments box. Then see how your fellow fans scored the game.

Arsenal
Lehmann
Toure
(Eboue)
Gallas
Song Billong
Clichy
Walcott
Fabregas
Silva
Hleb
(Denilson)
Van Persie
Adebayor
(Bendtner)

Reading
Hahnemann
Murty
Sonko
(Duberry)
Ingimarsson
Bikey
Rosenior
Kebe
(Matejovsky)
Cisse
Harper
(Fae)
Convey
Kitson

The heat is on at the bottom of the Premier League after a Bolton win meant it’s a three-horse race to the Championship that nobody wants to win. Although Reading put up a deent second-half performance away at Arsenal on Saturday, it wasn’t enough to stop them losing 2-0 and manager Steve Coppell appears to be feeling the pressure.

Sky Sports report that Coppell is unhappy that Alexander Hleb got away with slapping Graeme Murty during the match, when a red card should apparently have been brandished instead. His captain was knocked to the floor as a result, with the officials taking a leaf out of the Arsenal manager’s book and ‘not seeing anything’.

Coppell said: “Hleb slapped him across the neck and it is clearly visible on the video. It is there to see.

“I don’t know how the procedure is at the Football Association. It seems some mystery man phones in and says ‘have a look at the tape’.

“The whole process is unexplainable and arbitrary. Maybe someone in their front room somewhere will do something about it.”

It’s getting tight at the foot of the Premier League table, with just one point seperating Birmingham from Bolton and Reading. It appeared that the Royals had hauled themselves clear a few weeks ago, but last week’s defeat at home to Fulham means the prospect of returning to the Championship is a very real one.

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Then you’ve come to the right place. Or at least you’ll be there in just a click of a mouse. Our friends at New African Soccer magazine are relaunching next month with a special promotion, which includes the giving away of ipods, a five-a-side goal and numerous football shirts signed by some top notch Premier League footballers.

If you’re a Chelsea fan, there’s a Drogba, Kalou and Essien shirts available, while there’s also Arsenal shirts from Toure, Adebayor and the wild card that is Emmanuel Eboue. Portsmouth fans will also be interested in getting their hands on shirts signed by Kanu (maybe Gooners as well for this one), Utaka, Muntari and Diop. Finally, Royals fans can snap up a shirt signed by Ibrahim Sonko.

If you’ve never head of them, New African Soccer magazine is the only English language magazine devoted to the African game and provides a forum for serious, informed and honest journalism about all aspects of the game in Africa. The next three issues of NAS will be available free as online PDFs so get involved and land yourselves one of the prizes on offer.

Here at COS, we’re going for the Drogba shirt before he buggers off to Italy!

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To say that the last two campaigns haven’t been kind to Petr Cech on the injury front is something of an understatement. There was the coming together with Reading’s Stephen Hunt last season, which threatened to end the Czech’s life, let alone his footballing career. Thankfully he made a full recovery from his fractured skull, although he still has to wear protective headgear when playing matches.

If this wasn’t bad enough, The Guardian have reported that the Chelsea keeper has had to have 50 stitches to mend his face after a training ground clash with Tal Ben Haim. It seems once again that the stopper has been too brave for his own good, incurring some pretty nasty lacerations to his lip and chin. This follows problems with his calf, hip, thigh and ankle which have kept him out for large chunks of the season.

“Petr has been a bit unlucky this season,” said a characteristically deadpan Grant. “He was great in training but sometimes it happens. It was a tackle between two players and I think he will be out for two weeks.”

As Homer Simpson once sang, “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all” and the same can be said for poor Petr Cech. Let’s hope one of the more likeable players in the Chelsea squad (and let’s face it, there aren’t that many) makes a full recovery and plays a part in the Blues’ finishing runner-up in the Premier League and being knocked out of the Champions League semi-final with Arsenal.

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Hot on the heels of their romp at White Hart Lane, Kevin Keegan’s side managed to storm away with a 3-0 win over Reading, in which all three of his star strikers, Owen, Viduka, and Martin’s basked, like three very chuffed performing seals, in the glory of a goal apiece. Keegan though, is haunted by the fact that his Newcastle side could still be officially the work Toon team in Premier League history – Keegan said:

“The main focus still is to finish as high in the league as we can.

“I don’t want to be manager of this club and finish with less than 43 points, which is the lowest total they have ever got.

“My personal ambition is not to be remembered as the manager who got the lowest points.”

Newcastle are currently on 38 points, and their lowest season total was 43 points — a record currently held by Glenn Roeder – only 6 point needed to beat that Kev!

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Reading have been suffering a tormenting season in the Premiership and are yet to assure themselves of not dowing down the gutter into the Championship at the end of the season.

Their best player this season has been Nicky Shorey and even then he was out of sorts in the early weeks of the season. But the England international says that he is now focused on Reading and admits that it was the mounting speculation on his future at the Royals that adversely affected his performance.

Shorey says:

It probably affected me through the early stages of the season until we come to the decision to put it on hold until the summer.

Ever since I’ve done that I’ve had an upturn in my performances.

I think that’s helped me to put it to one side. It has helped me personally and the team as well, so it’s good.

The Reading fans pray that Shorey lifts the Royals out of the relegation war zone.

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I thought it would be interesting to try to make an eleven out of players that cost nothing! Either they came through the ranks to make it into the big time or were wise investments that cost less than a peanut!

Brad Friedel (Blackburn) – Commonly cited as one of the best keepers in the Premier League. Cost nothing and regularly saves the day for Mark Hughes’s side.

Micah Richards (Man City) – What a player, decided to opt for him in full back mode, although he is as effective at centre back

Nicky Shorey (Reading) – I am cheating a little with this one as the talented left back did in fact cost £25k when he was snapped up from Leyton Orient, but that’s practically nothing!

John Terry (Chelsea) – One club man (minus a loan spell at Forest) who has served Chelsea with aplomb almost a decade now.

Jamie Carragher (Liverpool) – derided by many outside Merseyside, at Anfield he is revered for his workmanlike attitude and his ability to deal with situations in a no nonsense manner which is what you should expect from a defender.

Adel Taarabt (Spurs) – I know he is receiving far more attention than is healthy for the young lad, but he looks like he could be one hell of a prospect!

Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) – Stevie G, what can I say that has not been said? Nothing I guess!

Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal) – Wenger’s finest hour, raiding Barcelona for the midfielder who even at age 20 can legitimately be considered a legend in the making!

Ryan Giggs (Man United) – Has now been at Old Trafford over 20 years and is still capable of doing the business in 2008.

Freddie Sears (West Ham) – Could be the next Tony Cottee or Marco Boogers, too early to say, but that’s fine as he cost nish!

Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa) – Villa will have their work cut out keeping hold of their 21 year old star. Sure to be an England man for the near future

So those, for what it’s worth, are my choices. Who would you pick, i know your just dying to tell me! Let me have it!

Arsene Wenger, clearly buoyed by his playground superstars and their bravura performance against the doddering duffers at the San Siro – is plumbing even further to find young starlets he can mould. Arsene is scouring the world like a crazed Hollywood agent, the latest young sprite to show the requisite talent is 12 (yes, t-w-e-l-v-e) year-old Ryan Gates, who has hit the back of the net 95 times for Havant and Waterlooville Under-12s this season.
It looks like Arsene will blaze in with the glitz and glamour of the bright lights and the big city and bag wide eyed Ryan from under the noses of fellow admirers Portsmouth, Reading and Southampton.

Elsewhere in slightly less mind-blowing Gooner transfer news:

Arsenal and Man Utd were both having a hearty sniff around top transfer totty, Lyon striker Karim Benzema but he has stuck two fingers up at them and will sign a new contract with the French club. (The Sun)

Juventus are glancing coquettishly at Arsenal left-back Gael Clichy, and may ask him for a dance. (Daily Mail)

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has followed on from where Arsene’s knee jerk reaction to Taylor’s tackle left off by claiming that players found guilty of reckless horror tackles should be banned for life. (The Times)

And last but not least…Arsene has shrugged off claims from Arsenal old-boy David Bentley that little Theo Walcott will have to leave the Emirates in order to progress as a player. (Various)

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Reading decided to offload striker Leroy Lita to Charlton Athletic on loan for a month and for all those who might still be bemused as to why and how this move came to fruition, here is the reason from Reading manager Steve Coppell’s own mouth:

Leroy has been very, very frustrated.

He’s started a number of games this season and not scored many goals. He’s been frustrated recently when I’ve selected a front two who haven’t scored, carried on choosing them and he’s not got a sniff.

Just by chance, this week I was speaking to Alan Pardew and Leroy’s name was mentioned. It just seemed to me to be almost a logical thing.

There’s an element of risk, I know that. If we get an injury at the weekend, we’d be left a striker short and the risk I’ve taken would have been unnecessary.

But Leroy being here and frustrated isn’t helping him, or us. Now he’s got a chance to go there, fight for his place and hopefully play.

We have four strikers, he wouldn’t have started Saturday, so it seemed the right thing to do.

Last season, Lita was one of the best players for Reading but this season he has failed to capture his old form and is supposedly not wanted by Coppell anymore. Lita has started just 7 Premier League games this season and let’s hope that his stint at The Valley does him some good.

You often hear players returning from international duty with a broken leg, torn ankle ligaments, a wrist problem, hamstring woes….. Hell, you even have players not return from international duty at all or returning late. But how many times do you get to hear a report stating that a player came back from an international competition with malaria?

Well, you have heard that now. Reading’s Ivory Coast international Emerse Fae has been discovered to have returned from the African Cup of Nations in Ghana with malaria. The club’s physio Jon Fearn says:

It appears that Emerse picked up malaria when he was in Ghana for the Africa Cup of Nations and it lay dormant for a couple of weeks before coming out over the weekend.

He received prompt treatment and is now under medication. He’s recovering well at home and shouldn’t be out for too long.

Fae though will be available soon and that’s the good news for Reading manager Steve Coppell who is desperate to have all his soldiers available as the race to finish above the bottom three in the Premiership intensifies.

Middlesbrough are now just 4 points above the relegation zone after falling 1-0 to Reading at the Riverside Stadium in the English Premier League on Saturday. This was a relegation 6-pointer with Reading also threatened with relegation woes.

Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate though rues his side’s inability to hold on until the end of the match. James Harper scored a last-gasp winner against them and Southgate is frustrated at this.

He says:

We were finishing the game quite strongly and looked more of a threat than they did in the last 15-20 minutes.

But I thought we went chasing at a time when perhaps we just needed to see it through.

We had a spell of pressure but once they were in our half we needed to get people behind the ball instead of going and selling ourselves.

It’s a real disappointment at the end because we’ve had a good run and to concede so late and give it away at home is hard for us.

Credit to Reading, they’ve been on a horrendous run and you knew that had to end some time.

It looked like they’d get a point, which I’m sure they’d have been satisfied with, but we didn’t do our job in the last minute of the game and it’s cost us a point.

But that’s just how Middlesbrough’s season has been and the Riverside club are still not safe yet from the drop.

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