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I used to think people were crazy to complain that foreigners in the Premier League were killing the England national team. But now I think they’re right - only it’s not the foreign players, it’s the foreign owners that are to blame. The massive influx in money (highlighted by the recent madness at Manchester City) has created a culture in the Premier League where winning and staying in all competitions is important not just for the fans and players, but also to the long-term financial health of the club. Meaning that trivial things like World Cup qualifiers and even cup games are given second-class status to Premier League weekend games and European competition.

Take the example of Steven Gerrard’s latest injury. It seems that Gerrard has been playing on a groin injury for a while, even after further aggravating it in a midweek Champion’s League qualifier that Liverpool had to win. So what does Manager Rafa Benitez do? Asks him to gut it out for the weekend Premier League game and then schedule surgery for the international break - which, as you can imagine, did not initially sit well with England Manager Fabio Capello.

Rafa Benitez insisted he had made his peace with England coach Fabio Capello yesterday and dismissed claims of a breakdown in communication over Steven Gerrard’s latest injury absence.

Gerrard will have the second of two minor groin operations today and will miss Capello’s first two competitive games in charge, as England begin their World Cup campaign against Andorra next Saturday and Croatia four days later.

Capello was reportedly unhappy at being kept in the dark over Liverpool’s decision to arrange surgery for their skipper in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday night’s Champions League qualifying round win over Standard Liege.

Now it seems that captain John Terry, Frank Lampard, Owen Hargreaves, Wes Brown, and Ashley Cole will also miss one or both international games - which leaves me wondering how England is expected to get a result against Croatia - the team that will most likely be their toughest competition in the group - in a competition where, unlike Euro 2008 qualifying, winning the group is paramount to qualification. I know it happens on-and-off already, but is this going to get to the point where clubs will start to come up with all kinds of excuses to keep their best players out of all international games?

I suppose the good thing is that some non-regulars like Fulham’s Jimmy Bullard will get a chance to impress Capello. But without some kind of continuity in Capello’s system, how can the team be expected to play as a unit? Some would say Capello should drop the overpaid regulars and give the young England stars more consideration. But Capello seems to have a fondness for a more grizzled England team (see:David Beckham) with Michael Owen the only notable exception.

I say instead of picking an England All-Star team, just send Aston Villa. They seem to be the only Premier League team stockpiling young England talent (Ashley Young, Gabby Agbonlahor, Gareth Barry, Steve Sidwell, Luke Young, Curtis Davies, etc.) and there’ll be no worries about not playing together. I suppose they need to find someone to replace Carew, Laursen, Friedel and a few others, but it would certainly have saved them from paying both Shteve McClaren and Fabio Capello all that money when they could get the guy (Martin O’Neill) they probably should have hired after Sven left. Of course we’ll look past the fact that Villa’s owners are American and their manager is Irish!

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It’s the Cold War Final. An English team with a Russian owner and an English team with an American owner playing in Moscow a week after a Russian fan was stabbed in Manchester and 18 months after a Russian defector at odds with Vladimir Putin was poisoned (allegedly) in London … with Polonium. Throw in an Israeli coach, a distant cousin of Mariah Carey, the no-tolerance police, rat infested jails, traditionally binge-drinking English fans and Russian hooligans bent on revenge and you have all the makings of a grand spectacle!

Dan Roan reports

Sie sind die besten, indeed!

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If you don’t believe me - look at his body language. He’s been increasingly visibly upset in recent games as Arsenal’s Premier League season has unraveled, and once again in Liverpool as their Champions League campaign fizzled. Even before Adebayor’s supposed away-goal winner went in and especially after the Toure penalty on Babel, Wenger looked like he wanted to wrestle anyone in his immediate path. Why would he be behaving like this?

My only answer is that he knows this is his last year in North London. Even before this past off-season started, David Dien left the club. Dein was Wenger’s biggest supporter and the one that brought him to Arsenal 10+ years ago. And the ensuing few months were filled with wild speculation over takeovers from Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov. And even though Wenger signed an extension earlier this season, one wonders that there isn’t an easily triggered out clause.

With many apparent openings in top European sides this summer (Madrid, Barcelona, the Milans, etc.) no doubt they’d love to have Wenger’s coaching talents and his beautiful free-flowing style of football. And without an uncertain transfer budget to worry about, he could build a team with the depth that he couldn’t afford at Arsenal.

Of course, I could be reading way too much into this. Maybe he was just upset that a 5 point lead in the Premiership evaporated just as soon as Eduardo’s broke his leg and now with the domestic cups gone and the European Cup run teetering, the only thing to look forward to was a slim chance of passing both Manchester United and Chelsea in the league.

But I don’t have a good feeling about this.

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A juicy tabloid story about Paul Jewel’s sex scandal appeared on News Of The World yesterday, complete with photos and tasty descriptions and punny turns of phrases, like:

Prem boss in sex video shame

A MARRIED Premier League manager has filmed himself bedding a blonde lover in a shocking hour-long video.

Soccer boss Paul Jewell is today filmed scoring a shameful OWN GOAL—as he romps with a married blonde lover behind his devoted wife’s back.

The Derby County manager hits the net more times than his relegation-haunted team have managed all season in a sleazy HOUR-LONG home-made BONDAGE PORN VIDEO.

Dad-of-two Jewell likes to portray himself as a staunch family man. And he has even bragged that he gives his players marriage guidance counselling.

But all that is as forgotten as Derby’s last victory as the portly Scouser—whose club is aptly nicknamed the Rams—pounds away at his mystery busty blonde in a series of sessions filmed in living rooms and a bedroom.

He also videos her sprawled near-naked in graphic poses over a Mercedes.

And before the match kick-off excited Jewell can be seen painstakingly setting up his camcorder on the sidelines, hopping to and fro as he laboriously works out his TACTICS, ANGLES and POSITIONS.

Today the club’s chairman and fans might think it’s a pity Jewell didn’t show the same passion for detail in his job this season.

Unfortunately, as tends to happen, the story was pulled - probably for legal reasons. It’s a good thing I still had a copy in my browser cache. Amazing what managing Derby leads you to do.

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You know - I see a lot written and said about how Arsenal with their foreign manager and lack of English talent are ruining the Premier League and the soul of English football. Similar comments were made when Fabio Capello was hired as England manager - xenophobic, to be sure. Then when the Premier League unveiled their plan to go International, the same complaints came up yet again. But why? Sue Mott wrote an interesting article in the Telegraph proclaiming that while Premier League boss Richard Scudamore was a blight on the soul of the game for the average fan, he was no idiot, and that there must be something afoot. Something on the order of stemming a breakaway league or an individual TV rights:

There is no doubt that Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool would find a lucrative market abroad. With their glossy foreign players and three out of four foreign managers, the next logical step would be to have training bases and matches abroad, perhaps one day soon? in a global Super League which invites the likes of Real Madrid, Inter Milan and, if money is the only language, LA Galaxy to join in.

Perhaps this is the vision that terrifies the Premier League stragglers, all 16 of them. They fear the day that the supreme artists of domestic football, the money-makers and rakers of the Premier League, move on to a more natural habitat on the French Riviera or a purposely-bought Caribbean Island. Anything to cling on to the coattails of that little goldmine. Anything is better than languishing in the remnants of decapitated, land-locked English football.

Look at it. Manchester United have record revenues but profits only enough to cover their enormous debt. Chelsea is seemingly never going to balance the books and keep winning titles. Liverpool is as mortgaged as the entire west coast of California. Then you have Alex Ferguson ducking out after his city came to a standstill to honor their fallen so he could promote a tour in South Africa or wherever it was … only a few weeks after taking his team to play a testimonial in Saudi Arabia in the middle of a week of a busy season. These new foreign owners are not about breaking even. They’re about making a profit, and doing it in whatever way possible. Including an integrity-compromised 39th fixture.

As an Arsenal supporter, it would be nice to have more access to my team here in the US, but I understand. However, it should be noted that of the Big 4, Arsenal are the only ones with majority English ownership and direction, a solid business and operating structure, and with an Academy producing English talent that aren’t hemorrhaging cash and chasing dollars 4 and 5 timezones away. As Obi Wan in Star Wars would say, “These are not the droids you are looking for.”

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David Beckham has gotten a lot of flack for not giving back to the soccer community in the US: LA Times’ TJ Simers: So much for Beckham being a voice for MLS (PDF)

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The question is - which one do you hate more. I hate Joey more. I never really watched the OC, or even knew anything about it other than geographic location. But I suppose Mischa is hate-able too. DUI and drugs ain’t like beating someone up.

Perhaps some other Bartons should also be arrested pre-emptively: Dick Barton. Reid Barton. Clara Barton?

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