Due to Man City's impossibly lackluster finish to the 2006-2007 campaign, I pretty much lost interest in posting about soccer for a while, but with the 2007-2008 season just a couple weeks from beginning, this is as good a time as any to get back into the swing of things.
I liked Stuart Pearce, so it was tough to see him go, but after two successive finishes in the bottom half of the table, and ten home goals this past year (a record low), I don't see how anyone could have been surprised. I don't know that it was all Pearce's fault - he wasn't given much money to work with, and every striker he brought in was just too inconsistent, with Samaras and Vassell having difficulty displaying their class on a match-to-match basis and Corradi struggling mightily in his first English season.
Barton was the best player on the team - at least among those who don't play on the back line (Micah Richards) - so it was a shame to see him go. But then again, it really, really wasn't. You just can't keep guys like that around. I'm not ashamed to admit that I read about his injury today and had a bit of schadenfreude about it. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, right?
Opinion is hugely split on the whole Shinawatra/Eriksson thing. I'm not so far terribly concerned about the owner - the charges against him have been levied by the coup that overthrew him, which doesn't exactly seem the most reputable source ever - but of course I think everyone is given a bit of pause by Eriksson, considering how his time with England ended. The optimists point to his strong club record; the pessimists point to England and the fact that his club successes mostly came in Italy. Of course, it's hard to say how much of England was Sven's fault; it seemed like he delegated a lot of the job to McLaren, which is another issue entirely, but certainly under McLaren's full-time stewardship England haven't done much so far (albeit with few chances to). You could also argue that the failure of the team to win came in part from the difficulty in assembling so many stars - I don't think even Brazil and Argentina had their sides stocked with so many world-famous players. When you have a team on which almost no one is used to being a role player - even the guys playing what are normally role-player positions - it may be hard to adjust, especially when clubs are complaining more than ever about players putting time in for their national teams. Eriksson didn't seem great about second-half adjustments, true, but look - England can't win the World Cup every year. This generation is talented, but their failure to win cannot be laid entirely at Eriksson's feet. And the fake sheik scandal notwithstanding, I think the charges that he somehow charmed Shinawatra into giving him the job are probably more than a bit overblown. Eriksson's a big name, like it or not; Shinawatra wanted to make a splash, and who else was out there?
Whether Rolando Bianchi is the striking savior of this club, I don't know; England is not Italy. It's not Sweden, either, where Bianchi has impressed with three goals in two games on City's preseason tour. But having another Italian around seems to have perked up Corradi, and that's a start. Man City have a long and sordid history of playing down to the level of their opponents, but in three preseason games so far against generally lesser opposition, they have three fairly comfortable wins. I'd call that progress.
Bring on West Ham.
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