Premier League Season 2008-09 - Half Time

What a season of Premier League we are witnessing (I'm talking about Barclays Premier League & not IPL) this year !!! It is already past the half-way mark around X-mas & still shows no signs of letting up in steam ! The title race is incredibly tight even by the own lofty standards of England's Top Division. But, the focal point of this discussion is the battle for relegation. Yes, relegation is nowadays more of a juicy topic than the title. For sure, there are teams who are content to stay in the middle of the table for years to come, like Everton, Newcastle & Spurs. But, as the end of May approaches, the relegation battle takes emphatic twists & turns & wrongfoots even the most experienced bookies. This time round, till date, 10 teams have found themselves in the bottom tier of the league. Those include famous names such as Newcastle & Tottenham. And the pressures on their respective boards warranted a change of coach at both clubs to help them out of the bottom three. Hull City, the promoted side from the championship, deserve a worthy mention here. Normally, you tend to assume that the promoted sides from the championship lack depth in squad & are the favourites for relegation. But boy, Phil Brown's side has proved them wrong. A combination of keeping comapct midfield & defence & using Geovanni in a free role behind the strikers masterminded by Brown proved victorious at Emirates where the final score read Arsenal 1-2 Hull City. No wonder then, that they were dreaming of a UEFA Cup slot not long ago. Other promoted teams, i.e., West Brom & Stoke were not so lucky. However, they can be the master of their own destiny. With a couple of wins, Stoke will be able to climb out of relegation zone & shoot directly to 10th place according to the stats at the time of writing this post. That's how tight it really is !!! Now, the January Transfer window will be a Godsend to some - Everton for instance, who have played nearly 2 months without a single proper striker & a nightmare for some- like Portsmouth & West Ham, whose star players have demanded transfers. It will undoubtedly be interesting to see how it shapes up. Another team looking to play havoc in the transfer window is Manchester City. With its seemingly endless pockets, Mark Hughes is already rumoured to have launched bids for Valencia frontman David Villa, Juve stopper Gianluigi Buffon & Inter striker Adriano, alongwith Fernando Torres. Overkill, what you say !!! Stay tuned for more action as January looms ahead with a jam-packed action both on & off-field & enjoy this video of Hull City boss Phil Brown giving the half-time talk on the pitch itself after their 4-0 thrashing by Manchester City in first 45 minutes. And lastly, Happy New Year to all !!! Enjoy the beautiful game of football.

At last !!!

Well, I wanted to start writing a blog for quite a while now........but couldn't find an opportunity good enough....Or maybe, when the opportunities presented themselves to me, I was too lazy to pay any heed....So, the day of 21st June was kinda lucky that I finally decided to do it.....needed a strong motivation from my friends, who just seem to write stupendously cool blogs day after day...how can they find such clever stuff everyday is beyond my imagination..... So, here you are........I have finally started it.....& hope to continue it this time.....