“There is no Republic of Foreignia where all the foreign people live, doing foreign things, thinking foreign thoughts, hatching cunning little foreign schemes to carve up the bounty of English football and spirit it away to sit in a foreign vault” - Martin Samuel

Comment & analysis round-up

Quote of the day: “He [Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson] is not going to take money out of the club if that is your fear. He is not absolutely sure how this will directly affect him but one thing he is sure of is that this will have no implications on the other investments of him and his family. It is, of course, a blow for him and his financial strength but he himself has a number of other investments that are doing quite well at the moment so there is no reason to fear that he will not honour his commitment to West Ham football club. This event has limited his options for further investment this year. We have a very big squad and our manager feels it is not necessary to be of that size, nearly 35. The money for further transfers would need to be generated from sales. There is not an intention of him to invest further in the club at the moment but the club is standing strong, generating revenues. There is a great opportunity for the club to develop further - by selling players, by buying new and developing new players.” - West Ham’s vice- chairman, Asgeir Fridgeirsson.

Runner-up: “If we are both honest, and Stevie is a very honest man in the way he speaks about things, we both haven’t played as well for England as we have for our clubs, particularly over the last two seasons. That’s the case whether we’ve played together or separately. We have to try and make it work. I think if we had done, we probably would have qualified for the Euros. I don’t want to sound stupid - it’s not being big-headed - but from what we’ve done for our clubs and the way we can play, I’d like to think we could have qualified [had they been playing well]. We are both big enough and quite humble, but as individuals we would both say that… I’m big enough to say that, for the last couple of years, I haven’t done as well as I should have for England. ” - Frank Lampard.

Today’s overview: After week’s of watching stock markets crash around the world, today everyone is asking whether the economic downturn finally landed on the Premier League’s door. Is the Premier League looking at financial meltdown?

The worrying news, brought by Simon Cass and Neil Ashton, is that West Ham “fear a financial black hole of more than £100million after the club’s owner, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, was forced to resign from Landsbanki by the Icelandic government yesterday.” Colin Young adds to the economic scaremongering by reporting “If Barclays Premier League chairmen want evidence that the credit crunch is starting to bite, they only have to look at their own clubs’ attendances.” Rob Hughes is left wondering “For how much longer might sports appear to defy gravity by going from wealth to wealth while the economy collapses?”

Yet not everyone is buying into the notion of an economic crisis. Martin Samuel attempts to dispel some myths surrounding foreign investment - “There is no Republic of Foreignia where all the foreign people live, doing foreign things, thinking foreign thoughts, hatching cunning little foreign schemes to carve up the bounty of English football and spirit it away to sit in a foreign vault.”

The FA and the Premier League also seem to be at loggerheads about football’s financial standing. Kevin Eason reports that “While Lord Triesman, the chairman of the FA, delivered the grave news that City analysts had told him that football owed a collective £3billion, Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the Premier League, shrugged his shoulders and announced that there was nothing wrong with debt.” Paul Kelso adds that Lord Triesman and Richard Scudamore have two opposing philosophies on the world.

Manchester City are featured in several articles. David Conn reports on how the purchase of Man City is part of Abu Dhabi’s campaign to promote itself in the west, while in a second article David Conn claims that “the outgoing Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra doubled his money in just over a year by making a £20m profit when he sold the club.” In a final article connected with Man City, The Times’ Oliver Kay observes the regression of Micah Richards.

Blogging for Eurosport, Nicolas Anelka sticks the knife into Everton, while in other Premier League news George Caulkin sits down with Bobby Gould to discuss Joe Kinnear.

In a superb article, The Independent’s Nick Harris looks at the concept of “form” in football.

Moving onto England, Kevin McCarra believes there is no long term future in an English centre midfield of Lampard and Gerrard, while when looking at who is more worthy of a place in the England team at present, Martin Samuel concludes that Lampard is ahead of Gerrard. Lastly, Chris Waddle has some words of warning for England’s current golden child, Theo Walcott.

On matters Italian, Rob Bagchi sings the praises of Zlatan, Tom Kington reports the news that “the deaths of a growing number of Italian footballers from a rare and debilitating disease, and Scott Fleming analyzes Udinese’s fine start to the season.

Could West Ham be the first Premier League club to be crippled by the global economic downturn? The Daily Mail’s tag-team of Simon Cass and Neil Ashton believe so. “West Ham fear a financial black hole of more than £100million after the club’s owner, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, was forced to resign from Landsbanki by the Icelandic government yesterday. Sportsmail can reveal that Gudmundsson, who was chairman and largest shareholder of Iceland’s second biggest bank, is coming under government pressure to ‘repatriate’ his overseas assets to help save his country’s crippled economy. The Icelandic government admitted last night they are on the verge of ‘national bankruptcy’ and Gudmundsson, who bought West Ham for £85m in November 2006, may listen to offers for the club.”

The Daily Mail’s Colin Young adds to the economic scaremongering by reporting “If Barclays Premier League chairmen want evidence that the credit crunch is starting to bite, they only have to look at their own clubs’ attendances. Very few clubs in the top flight are managing to maintain last season’s attendances and at many grounds across the country numbers are falling at an alarming rate… Everton’s televised home game with Newcastle was down 5,787 on last year, Sunderland’s visit to Aston Villa was down 4,234 on last season, Blackburn hosted champions Manchester United at the weekend with 2,995 fewer spectators and the London derby between Fulham and West Ham was down 1,334.”

Rob Hughes (IHT) reports on Sepp Blatter’s call to reign in on foreign investors in football. “For how much longer might sports appear to defy gravity by going from wealth to wealth while the economy collapses? In Brussels on Monday, Sepp Blatter, the president of soccer’s world governing body, FIFA, called upon the European Parliament to stop rich Americans, Russians, Asians and now Africans from buying up clubs, especially in England… The president doesn’t have a scheme to tackle the billionaires’ using free-market principles to buy clubs with money raised through loans from banks that are themselves going through a financial storm.”

Coming out all guns blazing (”There is no Republic of Foreignia where all the foreign people live, doing foreign things, thinking foreign thoughts, hatching cunning little foreign schemes to carve up the bounty of English football and spirit it away to sit in a foreign vault, guarded by a bank manager who twiddles his moustache, smells vaguely of garlic and chuckles greedily in that funny way foreigners do.”), The Times’ Martin Samuel attempts to dispel some myths surrounding foreign investment in the Premier League. “As if the biggest train wreck in English football is not Newcastle United, owned by Mike Ashley, of Burnham in Buckinghamshire. As if the greatest financial catastrophe of recent years had not occurred at Leeds United under Peter Ridsdale, a native of the city and lifelong supporter. Four legs good, two legs bad, chant the sheep in Animal Farm, and what is being advanced here is its football equivalent, in which all English owners have only the interests of the game at heart and those from Foreignia conspire and plot, their minds fixed firmly on the next quick buck.”

Following yesterday’s meeting at the Leaders in Football summit, The Times’ Kevin Easton reports on how the FA’s Lord Triesman and the Premier League’s Richard Scudamore argue on the gravity of football’s debt crisis. “While Lord Triesman, the chairman of the FA, delivered the grave news that City analysts had told him that football owed a collective £3billion, Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the Premier League, shrugged his shoulders and announced that there was nothing wrong with debt… At the heart of the debate was the hint of a power struggle between the FA and the Premier League, with Triesman calling on the Government to implement a new Sports Law to regulate who governs what in football. “At the moment, we cannot define where the buck stops on too many issues,” he said. For Scudamore, the present system works well… So, crisis or business as usual? No agreement yesterday, but Triesman will use his considerable diplomatic skills to force a debate on the future of a sport awash with cash but sinking in debt.”

The Telegraph’s Paul Kelso comments that Lord Triesman and Richard Scudamore have two opposing philosophies on the world. “Ideologically, practically and professionally, they could barely be more different. A student Marxist who became a Labour peer and Government minister, Triesman’s world view was never likely to tally with that of Scudamore, a free marketeer who has made the Premier League the pre-eminent global sporting phenomenon… On almost every level, Triesman is likely to face opposition. Scudamore was noticeably restrained in his own address to the conference, but he will disagree with Triesman’s analysis. Contrary to popular opinion, the Premier League are not oblivious to concerns widely held about their clubs. The rush to overseas ownership, scrutiny of owners and directors and spiralling levels of debt are all high on their agenda, but Scudamore is not inclined to see them as negatively as the FA chairman. ‘Debt is not bad, debt is inevitable,’ he said.”

In the Guardian, David Conn reports on how the purchase of Man City is part of Abu Dhabi’s campaign to promote itself in the west. “In his superb book Manchester: A Football History, Gary James writes of City’s beginnings that the club was established in 1880 by the rector’s daughter at St Mark’s Church, to provide poor, scrapping young lads with something wholesome to do in wretched east Manchester, the smoky side of the world’s first industrial city. Now industry is gone and east Manchester’s regeneration is based around the football stadium itself and new housing. Sheikh Mansour’s bold purchase of the Manchester club happened just as the post-industrial economy, reliant on credit and consumption, was slumping into banking collapse. For all the delight among City fans, there is clearly discomfort within the FA and football generally about so much wealth pouring into one club from a member of a country’s government. City’s takeover symbolises the wider phenomenon, of world financial power shifting from our credit-exhausted land to east Asia, where they actually make things, and the Middle East, where families who ruled for generations had the great good fortune to discover they were sitting on oil.”

In a second article on Manchester City, David Conn claims that “the outgoing Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra doubled his money in just over a year by making a £20m profit when he sold the club to Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi, according to well-placed sources. It is understood that the final price paid to Thaksin remained close to the £210m originally stated by Amanda Staveley of PCP, who acted as an adviser on the deal. It has not been disclosed how that figure broke down in terms of payments to Thaksin and the club’s debts taken over by Sheikh Mansour, but a source confirmed the profit to Thaksin was close to £20m. That represents an almost doubling of Thaksin’s money — he paid £21.6m to buy City in June 2007. The money for the shares leaves around £170m paid by Sheikh Mansour to take over City’s debts.”

In a final article connected with Man City, The Times’ Oliver Kay observes the regression of Micah Richards. “Twelve months ago Richards was the one top-class English youngster who was emerging, but since Capello’s arrival the Manchester City defender has not figured for his country at senior level… Injury denied Richards the opportunity to figure against France in March or the end-of-season friendly matches against United States or Trinidad & Tobago, but there is no reason to suspect he would have been involved anyway. Capello has named three senior squads this season and on each occasion he has left Richards to the Under-21 set-up. It is quite a fall from grace.”

Blogging for Eurosport, Nicolas Anelka sticks the knife into Everton. “Everton should be challenging the big teams but I did have a feeling that they would struggle to repeat last year’s top-five finish. And now I really doubt they can come close to it. They have started the season quite badly, and their recruitment in the summer did not match the level of their ambition. Everton lost several players in important positions, but they did not bring enough of the right men in to replace them and to improve the team, while other clubs have made big signings. They will not do so well this season, I think.”

George Caulkin sits down with Bobby Gould to discuss Joe Kinnear in The Times. Gould: “Is Joe a madman? Well, I’m a madman. We are all madmen. Fergie’s a madman, Scolari’s a madman. It all depends on how much pressure comes your way. Do you have to be extra-mad to manage Newcastle? No, no, you need it all over. Keane needs it, Southgate needs it. He’s a lovely lad, a lovely, lovely man. Benitez, Scolari. What about the gifted one down at Chelsea? How many times did he explode?  I’m still mad, of course I am, pal, but I can control it now because I have not got that expectancy. I don’t have to win every Saturday afternoon. Wenger has to win and that creates extra pressure. At times, I have been out of the game for a long time and all of a sudden you get this ‘phwoooar!’ It just comes out sometimes.”

In a superb article, The Independent’s Nick Harris looks at the concept of “form” in football. “The leading striker at your club – or for your country – has just banged in a hat-trick. He must be in “form”, mustn’t he? And thus more likely than average to score in his next game as well? No, actually. According to a new book, the concept of “form” in football is a myth. Analysis suggests that the goalscoring runs of even the supposed “hottest” strikers are no more attributable to a “form streak” than they are to chance. The book, Myths and Facts About Football, draws together academic research from around the world, taking to task widely held notions about the beautiful game. Many intuitive beliefs are shown to be flawed. Teams do not run a greater risk of conceding just after scoring. Home teams in penalty shoot-outs have no advantage. By subjecting what happens in football to scientific and mathematical tests, economists and psychologists argue that other “football phenomena” are indeed provable. Second-leg home advantage in two-legged cup ties is real. Teams that celebrate goals collectively achieve better results. Penalty takers who shoot down the middle have the best chance of scoring.”

The Guardian’s Kevin McCarra believes there is no long term future in an English centre midfield of Lampard and Gerrard. “Without Cole there could be a role for Gerrard on the left. Conceivably the Liverpool player may even be at right-back or further forward on that flank. Capello, with his occasional allusions to the small number of Englishman from which he has to choose, might feel that someone of Gerrard’s gifts is never to be marooned on the sidelines. The trouble is that the Anfield midfielder and Lampard not only have a common instinct to go on the attack but seem, accidentally, to prevent one another from playing to their best. They might thrive in tandem on Saturday against a feeble Kazakhstan but it would be harsh indeed to dispense with Barry, who achieved such status in Zagreb. Unease over the combination of Lampard and Gerrard is no novelty. Despite being picked together in the starting line-up for 38 matches, they have been the central pairing in a midfield quartet on only 20 occasions, the most recent of which was the win over Austria in November 2007.”

When looking at who is more worthy of a place in the England team at present, Martin Samuel concludes that Lampard is ahead of Gerrard in The Times. “Against all expectation, Lampard has the jump on Steven Gerrard after his key role in England’s 4-1 win in Croatia. Gerrard missed the match through injury and must sweat on a return, albeit a likely one. Lampard is the leading man for this game at least: back in favour on and off the field, with the new manager and supporters who previously targeted him as emblematic of the underachievement of England’s star names… In many ways, this lack of understanding [between Lampard and Gerrard] has been overplayed. It is not so much that the two are terrible together, more that they are so effective as individuals for their clubs that the disappointment when they fail to re-scale these heights as a pair is made greater. In fact, they have had a great many perfectly adequate games for England in tandem, throughout the 2004 European Championship, for instance, and against Brazil at Wembley in June 2007. But more is expected.”

In the Daily Mail, Chris Waddle has some words of warning for England’s current golden child, Theo Walcott. “He’s very quick and beats players with his pace rather than tricks and cleverness. His ideal ball is not the one to his feet so he can take players on. Instead, it’s between the centre half and full back so that he can open his legs, get behind the defence and chase it. I don’t ever really see Walcott run at opponents, go outside them and beat them one on one. More often than not, he picks up the ball in his own half, runs with it and, with his pace, he gets to the byline without his opponents getting anywhere near him. But now for a note of caution. Although his acceleration is an obvious gift, maybe it’s covering cracks in his game which he will need to fix in time. When a match is tight and teams are sitting on the 18-yard box and defending deeply, he needs to develop another side to his game to break down the opposition. Walcott will quickly discover that international football is not as simple as the domestic game - you can’t just rely on your pace.”

Under the wonderful headline ‘Zlatan and co are flicking brilliant,’ Rob Bagchi (Guardian) sings the praises of Inter’s frontman. “During the 2006 World Cup, Martin O’Neill, usually the most compelling and perceptive of pundits, furrowed his brow in that trademark pensive fashion to deliver a scathing assessment of Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He is, said the Villa manager, “possibly the most overrated player in the world”. I remember thinking then that, despite his Carlsbergesque proviso, it was a highly questionable evaluation - David Beckham, after all, was playing in that tournament - but now it looks even more like pure twaddle… for years the best players have valued how ball mastery and the ability to showboat is an intimidating psychological weapon in the armoury.”

Staying in Italy, the Guardian’s Tom Kington reports the news that “the deaths of a growing number of Italian footballers from a rare and debilitating disease may be due to pesticides and fertilisers used in the 80s and 90s, an Italian magistrate has claimed. Fifty one professional and amateur players have now died from it, six times the average in the general population, said the Turin magistrate Raffaele Guariniello, who has run checks on every man who played in the top three divisions from the 60s to 2006… In Turin investigators have identified heading the ball as well as doping, including the use of legal anti-inflammatory drugs, as possible triggers for the disease among the footballers, typically those who played for more than five seasons in Italy during the 80s and 90s.”

In a final article on Italian football, Football Italia’s Scott Fleming analyzes Udinese’s fine start to the season. “Their results have been complimented by an entertaining, attacking style, employing a 4-3-3 system long before Jose Mourinho put his into place at Inter, as Marino pointed out this weekend. Antonio Di Natale and Fabio Quagliarella have been mesmerising, and Simone Pepe, inactive at Roma and ineffective at Cagliari, has been transformed, resulting in a national call. It is scarcely believable that the northern side actually sustained criticism following their penalties victory over Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Cup last Thursday, a tie so few had given them a hope of actually winning.”

Raphael Honigstein (Guardian) has sympathy for the Bayern fans, but not the players, for their 3-3 draw with Bochum. “Truth be told, 3-1 up with seven minutes to go is the exact time one should leave Munich’s stadium because all you’re going to miss is getting stuck in the car park for two hours… But this is Klinsmann’s Bayern. They do things differently. And infinitely worse. Out went the tireless 34-year-old Zé Roberto, in came Lukas Podolski, Tim Borowski and José Ernesto Sosa. With the exception of Podolski, who will soon take his unique brand of tactical dyslexia, laziness and unbridled sense of entitlement to the Premier League, they immediately swept forward in a deeply misguided attempt to impress their boss. With the exception of Podolski, who couldn’t have looked more wooden and inanimate if he had been put on the pitch as a cardboard cut-out, they ran around like kindergarten toddlers on a sugar rush, and forgot about any defensive responsibilities. In the midst of this uncoordinated assault on an already beaten opponent, Luca Toni missed 10 out of seven clear chances and Bochum thought: why not? With the stadium almost half-empty, they twice moved forward to find no resistance but the net, and equalised through a Dennis Grote header after another Michael Rensing shocker in the 85th minute.”