Should the Toon faithful buy the club, Berbatov is not the new Cantona & are the refs losing their power?

Comment & analysis round-up

Quote of the day: “Nasser Al Kharafi has the money to buy the club, but the way Mike Ashley is going about things is wrong. He is putting off any interested buyers with the price and his refusal to negotiate. If he genuinely wants to sell he is going about it the wrong way.” - a spokesman for Kuwaiti billionaire Nasser Al Kharafi.

Runner-up: “I know that the attempts to intimidate me on the pitch will start again immediately — but everyone finds sooner or later that it is difficult to make me lose my rag. I’ll be booted again but I will not kick out when it happens. I’m tough and, again, it’s all just part of the spectacle. I’ll do my damage as usual by paying them all back with my goals.” - Cristiano Ronaldo.

Today’s overview: The pace settles down this morning, with many of the papers offering slim pickings this Friday. With that being said there remains some worthwhile articles which deserve a mention.

With Newcastle’s Mike Ashley making a mess of selling the club, Dave Boyle wonders why the Toon faithful are not getting together to buy the club themselves.

Other domestic news includes Ian Gibb’s report on QPR’s decision to raise ticket prices to £50 per ticket, cricket legend Michael Atherton compares the competitive nature of cricket compared to the reality of the Premier League, Paul Parker warns readers against comparing Dimitar Berbatov to Eric Cantona, and Paul Kelso reports that Manchester City’s new owners demanded a star signing to ensure their takeover at Eastlands.

Moving onto more global issues, Rob Hughes argues that the authority of the man in black is being eroded and Giancarlo Rinaldi focuses on the 2-2 draw between Lyon and Fiorentina asking whatever happened to fair play.

There are two articles centred on England’s heyday as World Cup winners. Barney Ronay sat down with England World Cup winner George Cohen to discuss marking George Best, Greavsie’s interest in satanism and Tarby’s golfing exploits while the Telegraph serialise Sir Bobby Charlton’s autobiography with extracts on three of his team-mates who helped to win the 1966 World Cup.

… and finally, Bild.de report on how Jens Lehmann is infuriating his new neighbours by taking a helicopter to get to training.

Dave Boyle (Telegraph) wonders why the Toon faithful are not getting together to buy the club themselves. “With the club’s owner struggling to find a buyer, the question now is why don’t the fans attempt a buy-out themselves? Some would wonder why they would need to, when the weekend’s events showed who was really the boss. The issue isn’t whether Newcastle fans can run the club well; experience across the continent shows that they could… The club reportedly have more than 45,000 season ticket holders and thousands more on the waiting list. Imagine if the money for those tickets was spent to buy the club.”

The Daily Mail’s Ian Gibb reports on QPR’s decision to raise ticket prices to £50 per ticket. “Rangers have come under fire from their own supporters who cannot understand why the billionaire owners who took over at Loftus Road last year, Lakshmi Mittal, Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone, have sanctioned the £10 hike. One angry season ticket holder said: ‘I’m disgusted with the pricing. I hope other supporters do not judge the fans and team of QPR by the greed of the owners. I hope away fans stay away in protest. It’s daylight robbery.’”

In a brilliant article for The Times, cricket legend Michael Atherton compares the competitive nature of cricket compared to the reality of the Premier League. “On one level, the uncertainty over the destination of the championship is to be celebrated. Since its inception in 1992, football’s Premier League has become a cosy private party for three clubs, Blackburn Rovers the solitary pooper in 1994-95. I’ll get off Mr Samuel’s patch quickly before he sends me a 1,500-word eff-off in his column on Wednesday, but in the same time-frame that United, Chelsea and Arsenal have dominated the league, the County Championship has been won by nine counties. This year it may be won by Somerset, who have not won it before. What chance of Hull City doing the same, Martin?”

Eurosport’s Paul Parker warns readers against comparing Dimitar Berbatov to Eric Cantona. “True, both are capable of delivering moments of magic that can decide matches in the blink of an eye, but to expect Berbatov to have the same impact as Eric did 16 years ago is unfair. That thinking will only serve to heap even more pressure on the Bulgarian who, having finally completed his dream move to Old Trafford, surely now just wants to prove himself. I believe that being labelled as the new Eric will only hamper his progress - as it does when any player is compared to a former great. But if he does choose to dwell on the obvious similarities for a minute, Berbatov will find he can learn a great deal from Cantona.”

The Telegraph’s Paul Kelso reports that Manchester City’s new owners demanded a star signing to ensure their takeover at Eastlands. “The revelation that City’s new owners demanded a star signing ahead of completing the buy-out helps explain the frantic developments on the last day of August as Thaksin and his representatives rushed to secure a marquee signing and ensure the end of their troubled tenure as City’s owners… According to sources with knowledge of the deal, the apparently frenzied rush for players was at the direct instruction of Sheikh Mansour, who wanted to demonstrate that ADUG’s ownership of the club would be backed by genuine investment.”

Looking back at a variety of refereeing incidents this week, Rob Hughes (IHT) argues that the authority of the man in black is being eroded. “Terry’s club, Chelsea, hired a leading criminal lawyer to pick holes in the decision, and the English Football Association, the FA, rescinded the red card. Halsey has no right of response, and is being demoted to a third-division match this weekend. In another case, the FA announced that it had no power to add to the automatic three-match ban for a Newcastle player whose only excuse for deliberately kicking an opponent, and consequently breaking the man’s leg, was that he felt “frustrated” because his team was losing and the opponent was wasting time. The injured player is now considering legal action against his assailant. The age-old credo that a referee is the final arbiter on matters on the pitch is being destroyed; the lawyers will have many a lucrative day ahead.”

Football Italia’s Giancarlo Rinaldi focuses on the 2-2 draw between Lyon and Fiorentina asking whatever happened to fair play? “After a collision in the penalty box Luciano Zauri was left on the ground clutching his head. Instead of stopping the play, however, the man in black allowed proceedings to continue. This disaster was compounded by the fact that Lyon decided to play on too. With the prone Zauri playing everyone onside it was child’s play for them to pull a goal back. Now, sometimes such behaviour can be excused if the players are unaware there is a man down. However, Lyon virtually played the ball over the top of the Florentine defender. Everyone was quite clear what was happening and it was well within their power to roll the ball out of play.”

The Guardian’s Barney Ronay sat down with England World Cup winner, George Cohen. “How did you mark Bestie? Did you try to get close to him? If you got close to him you could cut down the options he had to pass the ball. Then again he could easily turn or do something to trick you. You just had to make sure you understood what his body position was with the ball in relation to your body position. There were times where you’d think, OK you can have the ball there. But these great wingers, they all have the same thing – great balance. Peter Jones at Tottenham could go either way, either side of you. All these players – you can play against them for 89 minutes and 55 seconds and then they’ll do something that costs you the game.”

On the same theme, the Telegraph serialise Sir Bobby Charlton’s autobiography with extracts on three of his team-mates who helped to win the 1966 World Cup. “Nobby Stiles Even today, when I think of Nobby Stiles, maybe after a visit to his home in Stretford, near Old Trafford, to which he donated his heart as a boy growing up in the tough district of Collyhurst, one phrase inevitably comes to my lips – what a lad! What a unique little character, what a friend and what a competitor to have on your side. He was one of the most superb footballers I have ever known and yet behind the laughter and the good heart was a seriousness of purpose that refused to shy away from any challenge.”

… and finally, Bild.de report on how Jens Lehmann is infuriating his new neighbours by taking a helicopter to get to training. “Lehmann and his family recently moved to the picturesque town alongside Lake Starnberg, but the ex-German keeper is not making any friends among the new neighbours, thanks to his habit of taking a noisy helicopter to his training in Stuttgart, 250km away. He has landed at least twice in the centre of the town – in the middle of the football pitch!”