We all know that the Premier League is a multi-billion pound product broadcast to hundreds of millions of homes in every continent of the world. Games each week are intensely watched by people sitting in homes and pubs from Cardiff, Wales through to Cairo, Egypt and Sydney, Australia.
Advertisers also know this. Watch a game anywhere from Old Trafford to Craven Cottage and you will see around the pitch advertisements from the biggest companies in the world, each hoping that viewers will see their brand on display.
And then there is Burnley FC, a newly promoted Lancashire team playing in a town with a population little bigger than 70,000. Did multinationals take notice of their promotion and rush to display their product across Burnley's stadium, Turf Moor, in an effort to reach the hundreds of millions of potential viewers of clips from Turf Moor during the 2000/10 season?
You be the judge. Next time you watch a match a Turf Moor, pay attention to the advertisements around the pitch.
But we'll help in the meantime. The following is a list of some of the mammoth companies proudly marketing their brand around the Premier League pitch at Turf Moor to hundreds of millions of homes across the world this season:
David Fiskwick Minibus Sales
Farmhouse Biscuits
Vodka Rick
Rainham Steele
This may be the most competitive title race in Premier League history. Four teams - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Utd - have the ability to muster skill to gain points to win what promises to be an exciting competition.Alex Ferguson's club, whom recently knocked Liverpool off "their f*%#ing perch" as England's most successful domestic club, will be gunning for their fourth title in a row, though they will be doing so having lost by far their best player.
Looking to capitalize on the Man Utd loss will be Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. Only a meagre seven points separated the top 3 last season, with Utd needing a consistent and determined effort to hold off a brilliant Liverpool team that earned more point than it had in any other Premier League season.
Liverpool go into the new season with high hopes, but the recent loss of Xabi Alonso and their overwhelming reliance on the health of their two superstars will cause fans concern. Chelsea, on the other hand, have greater depth in their title challenge, which will be led by new manager Carlo Ancelotti. Meanwhile, the oft criticized Arsenal go into the season as underdogs in the title race.
Well, let's get to it. Plain Soccer writers' top 7 and bottom 3 predictions for the upcoming season.
HU
1. Man Utd. I choose Man Utd for the simple reason of defense. Utd probably have the best defense in the football world. Carrick will step up a level to support the maturing Nani and Valencia, while Rooney and Berbatov comprise hardly the worst strike force in the business.
2. Chelsea. Chelsea go into the new season as the favourites to lift the title. They are the only team of the top 4 who did not lose any starters during the summer. With the addition of the Zhirkov, they only strengthened their squad. I found it difficult choosing between Man Utd and Chelsea as I consider the London team superb, but, with a new manager at the helm who does not have Premier League experience, think they will fall just short.
3. Liverpool. Liverpool's lack of width concerns me, as does their reliance on the fitness of Gerrard and Torres. Their title challenge, and this is certainly possible, rests on their two big guns.
4. Arsenal. It is Arsenal whom I think will be this season's top scorers. Arsenal's attacking midfield and attack is tough to criticize. Fabregas is the best passer in the league, while the outstanding Denilson will back him up in midfield. This team will control the ball against every team they play against, but it is their defense that concerns me.5. Man City
6. Tottenham Hotspur
7. Aston Villa
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18. Birmingham City
19. Hull
20. Burnley
On relegation, I choose Hull because they have been absolutely dreadful so far in 2009. Birmingham will struggle for goals and Burnley, well let's see what they can offer in the top flight.
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Cameron
1. Chelsea.Chelsea will be very strong. They have a very well rounded squad, although this nonsense with Carvalho underlines how they need to either keep him or find another proper partner for Terry.
2. Man UMan U will be fine, but they won't dominate unless Anderson and Nani bring it every night, which they haven't done so far in their careers.
3. LiverpoolLiverpool still lacks width and depth. Dirk Kuyt is neither a winger nor a midfielder. The spine of their team remains terrific, though. I'm unhappy about them losing Alonso, who I thought was underrated. I guess we'll see if Lucas Leiva is the real deal this season.
4. ArsenalArsenal seem a little weak to me, but they still have a proper team in there, unlike City, who have 4 world-class strikers but only 1 or 2 world-class players elsewhere. I also always expect 1 or 2 Arsenal youngsters to surprise us.
5. Man City
6. Aston Villa
7. Everton
- I don't trust the health of Tottenham's central defence, and that'll badly hurt them.
- Everton will be just as they've been for the past few years; good but not very good. Their squad has been kept together for a while now, though, and that's a promising sign for this season.
- Man City will be very good, but they still lack about 4 starters to be considered for the top 4. They'll crush weak opposition, and then will be exposed against teams like Arsenal who will play keep-away.
- Villa always surpasses expectations, if you keep those expectations reasonable.
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18. Birmingham
19. Wolves
20. Burnley
I know, these relegation picks are obvious and boring, but there just isn't enough quality there, and other weak clubs (Sunderland, Stoke, Hull) have all been strengthened in the past year.
The team I'm tempted to single out for sudden problems is Wigan - they keep selling their best players, and they haven't been replacing them. Meanwhile, the bottom half of the EPL is actually fairly strong this year. The two together bode poorly for Wigan. That said, they still have players like Scharner who can hold down the fort for a year.
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So there you have it. The Plain Soccer writers' predictions for the 2009/10 Premier League season, which promises to be one competitive battle.
Notts County are reportedly in the hunt to sign Sol Campbell.
The 34 year old former Portsmouth defender's contract expired at the end of last season. The defender has been linked with the likes of Aston Villa, Everton, West Ham and Newcastle, but it is the big spending League Two side who reportedly now lead the trail for Campbell.
Campbell has of course had a marvellous career with Spurs, Arsenal, Portsmouth and England. He has won the Premier League, featured in the Champions League final and won over a half century of England caps. I also still have his autograph on the back of a London bus ticket. My sister met him in Winchmore Hill (I think by the Green) back when he played for Spurs and, as he was my favourite player at the time, grabbed his autograph for me.
This report - a fourth tier club trying to sign a 34 year old Premier League defender - certainly reminds me of Championship Manager and it is only for this reason that it caught my interest. Indeed, as The Score noted, the whole Notts County venture is like a Champman game. The new Notts County uber rich owners make me want to go back seven years* and start a Champman 01/02 game as the club just to see how quickly I can take them up to the Premier League.
Unfortunately I highly doubt the Campbell story, but its fun anyway so I wanted to share it.
*By going back seven years, I mean going back to this morning. Only kidding, Champman was many a year ago deleted from my computer. My rehab is going well.
The 34 year old former Portsmouth defender's contract expired at the end of last season. The defender has been linked with the likes of Aston Villa, Everton, West Ham and Newcastle, but it is the big spending League Two side who reportedly now lead the trail for Campbell.
Campbell has of course had a marvellous career with Spurs, Arsenal, Portsmouth and England. He has won the Premier League, featured in the Champions League final and won over a half century of England caps. I also still have his autograph on the back of a London bus ticket. My sister met him in Winchmore Hill (I think by the Green) back when he played for Spurs and, as he was my favourite player at the time, grabbed his autograph for me.
This report - a fourth tier club trying to sign a 34 year old Premier League defender - certainly reminds me of Championship Manager and it is only for this reason that it caught my interest. Indeed, as The Score noted, the whole Notts County venture is like a Champman game. The new Notts County uber rich owners make me want to go back seven years* and start a Champman 01/02 game as the club just to see how quickly I can take them up to the Premier League.
Unfortunately I highly doubt the Campbell story, but its fun anyway so I wanted to share it.
*By going back seven years, I mean going back to this morning. Only kidding, Champman was many a year ago deleted from my computer. My rehab is going well.
This week's furor over Manchester United "stealing" Le Havre's Paul Pogba shows, to me, the deeply conflicted ethical issues at play regarding underage players in today's soccer world.
The player here, Paul Pogba, is a very highly rated 16 year old who plays for Le Havre. According to Le Havre, Man U have offered his family money/employment for him to end a contract he has signed with the French club.
Now, we should all agree that the harm here to Le Havre is real. Le Havre has a wonderful academy, and they are seeing a prized investment walk away with minimal compensation.
To my mind, however, we can see from this story that any regulations of this sort of thing are likely to hurt those everybody professes to want to protect: the children. See, for instance, UEFA's Michel Platini: "The question of minors is above all a moral and ethical issue. We have a duty to take concrete steps to protect young players and training clubs."
Platini's heart seems to be in the right place, but you simply can't protect one without endangering the other.
The answer to this sort of scandal, according to many including Juventus' President Claudio Lotito, is to either regulate the signing of underage players, or to allow binding contracts to children as young as 14 or 15.
These moves protect small clubs such as Le Havre, no question: they can effectively 'own' the youngsters. But the underage players will suffer. Taking the Pogba case in point: notwithstanding the shadiness of the deal, the Pogbas will be making a lot of money out of this deal that Le Havre can't match. Having Lotito complain that "the parents sign on behalf of the players" is mind-boggling - these are children! Of course the parents sign and make the ultimate decisions!
You could make an interesting case that perhaps the parents here are sponging off the child-player, and are actually hurting his commercial-sporting opportunities in the process, but who could ever correct for that sort of thing? Even if you make employment offers or payments to parents illegal, this would only hurt the player unless child-player contracts are de facto unlimited in potential outlay. I highly suspect attempts to limit parental gain would act as a de facto ceiling on player compensation, although the devil would be in the details here.
Returning to the Pogba case - he is a child. Do we really think we are helping him, or the thousands of exploited footballing prospects flown in from Africa or South American by shady agents, if we create enforceable contracts for underage players?
Countries around the world recognize that children shouldn't generally be held to enforceable contracts, particularly on things like education, housing, and employment. Given that FIFA, UEFA, and the CAS have created a contractual regime where horrific injustices such as the Mutu fine have been allowed to stand (no national/state court would impose damages such as this for individual breach of contract,) who would we be helping by strangling the options that 15 or 16 year olds have in world soccer? Well, we wouldn't be helping those 15 year olds, that's for sure.
Le Havre has my sympathies, but people like Platini and Totito scare the bejezus out of me.
The player here, Paul Pogba, is a very highly rated 16 year old who plays for Le Havre. According to Le Havre, Man U have offered his family money/employment for him to end a contract he has signed with the French club.
Now, we should all agree that the harm here to Le Havre is real. Le Havre has a wonderful academy, and they are seeing a prized investment walk away with minimal compensation.
To my mind, however, we can see from this story that any regulations of this sort of thing are likely to hurt those everybody professes to want to protect: the children. See, for instance, UEFA's Michel Platini: "The question of minors is above all a moral and ethical issue. We have a duty to take concrete steps to protect young players and training clubs."
Platini's heart seems to be in the right place, but you simply can't protect one without endangering the other.
The answer to this sort of scandal, according to many including Juventus' President Claudio Lotito, is to either regulate the signing of underage players, or to allow binding contracts to children as young as 14 or 15.
These moves protect small clubs such as Le Havre, no question: they can effectively 'own' the youngsters. But the underage players will suffer. Taking the Pogba case in point: notwithstanding the shadiness of the deal, the Pogbas will be making a lot of money out of this deal that Le Havre can't match. Having Lotito complain that "the parents sign on behalf of the players" is mind-boggling - these are children! Of course the parents sign and make the ultimate decisions!
You could make an interesting case that perhaps the parents here are sponging off the child-player, and are actually hurting his commercial-sporting opportunities in the process, but who could ever correct for that sort of thing? Even if you make employment offers or payments to parents illegal, this would only hurt the player unless child-player contracts are de facto unlimited in potential outlay. I highly suspect attempts to limit parental gain would act as a de facto ceiling on player compensation, although the devil would be in the details here.
Returning to the Pogba case - he is a child. Do we really think we are helping him, or the thousands of exploited footballing prospects flown in from Africa or South American by shady agents, if we create enforceable contracts for underage players?
Countries around the world recognize that children shouldn't generally be held to enforceable contracts, particularly on things like education, housing, and employment. Given that FIFA, UEFA, and the CAS have created a contractual regime where horrific injustices such as the Mutu fine have been allowed to stand (no national/state court would impose damages such as this for individual breach of contract,) who would we be helping by strangling the options that 15 or 16 year olds have in world soccer? Well, we wouldn't be helping those 15 year olds, that's for sure.
Le Havre has my sympathies, but people like Platini and Totito scare the bejezus out of me.
