Changing of the Guard in Manchester?

What a sporting week it has been. We've seen the conclusion of the African Cup of Nations, Andy Murray have a great Aussie Open and grabbing all the headlines, a brilliant night at Old Trafford as a pulsating Carling Cup Semi Final Second Leg was played out between the two halves of Manchester. Watching as a neutral, mostly, it was thoroughly entertaining and the 2nd half on Wednesday night was on the best halves this season. Going into the game the question was how close to United on the pitch are City and would a win for the blue half allow them to claim they are the top side in that part of the North West.

For me a City win wouldn't allow that, one result doesn't change the rest of your seasons result, the old league table is the ultimate parameter and so far he says United 2nd, City 6th. What I think did change though was who has the best claim to best derby in the English game. Every major club has that one fixture that they want to win most whether it be in Liverpool, Birmingham, Sheffield, North London, Tyne/Wear, Nottingham, Bristol the list goes on. In my opinion there are three of those that can claim to be the best, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield, ok maybe I'm a bit biased on the last one which is definatly the most underrated. Before Wednesday I would have said that Liverpool and Everton was England's best derby, there was and still is something about it that put it above others. But not anymore, seeing two sides give 100% to win the game in a competition regarded nowhere as near important as the FA Cup or League was fascinating. The 4-3 Old Trafford league fixture was the first of three classic games we have seen between the two sides this season and every single one has seen 22 plus players giving everything.

It's obvious that Man City's affluence has made this happen. SAF said earlier that he now considers them to worthy rivals on the pitch as opposed to a side looking to establish themselves in the Premier League and end years of going between there and Division One as it was then. The return fixture at Eastlands later this season will once again be a fantastic game and personally it the one club fixture I am looking forward to the most that doesn't involve my own Sheffield United.

One final note sadly leads to something off the pitch and the Terry saga that is of course being embroiled in the papers. Questions are now being raised as to whether he should be England captain or not in the summer. For me the situation in my mind is clear, do I care what this sportsman gets up to in his spare time? No, and do I hold him as a role model which would make me care about him in that way? No, do I want a fully focused John Terry in defence in South Africa? Yes, so media-type, leave the bloke alone but of course they won't. Next week of course is the start of the Six Nations, more on that next week, can't wait.

F1 starts here, well sort of.

So here it is, the first F1 related post on this blog. Although the racing season doesn't start till March the first launches of cars that will be appearing on the grid in 2010 commence this week. Mercedes/Brawn launch their new branding first with their all new German line up of Messers Rosberg and Schumacher, before many other teams follow suit in the next few weeks. For me, 2010 is even less predictable at this stage than it was last year, we can suppose the front-runners will come from 4 teams; McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull. But in what order? Who will win between Jens and Lew, Fernando and Felipe, McLaren and Mercedes? Those are just three scenarios leading into this new season and there's even more down the grid, no-one will be able to ignore Virgin v Lotus, you know you love it. News from last week came when Pedro De La Rosa was announced as Sauber's 2nd driver. I'm delighted to see the Spaniard back in a race seat after several years loyal service to McLaren and hopefully he'll punch above his weight and give Spain someone else to cheer for apart from eyebrow man.

In response to Bernie's 'shortcuts' idea, no, no and no. It's like if in football, 'oh, this game's a bit rubbish, RANDOM PENALTY SHOOT-OUT TIME'. The idea is absurd, and will never get passed. The amending of the points system will do and that is something that everyone agrees is necessary and for those saying it will spoil the points records as a yardstick for who's the best driver of all time, surely even before the change average finishing position is the best comparison right back to 1950. Just something to ponder over. I feel though that KERS would be a good way of spicing up overtaking, but limiting it more, perhaps to a similar system to a series in every other area is rubbish, A1GP. A power boost is used and limited to 4 or 8 uses per race. By using a similar system it would make use of KERS much more tactical and interesting even if every car on the grid had it. It would also be a good idea to have a stock system for all teams instead of the manufacturers spending millions on it, would BMW still be in the sport if they a) hadn't spent so much on KERS and/or b) couldn't use it in 2010 and onwards.

Much more will come out in the next few weeks as only 4 possibly 3 drives remain on the grid and of course testing results will cause much heated discussions but perhaps not as much as last year.

In response to my FA Cup post a few weeks ago, I think we're in line for a cracker of a cup this year. 3 of the big 4 out, a good smattering of teams from the Football League still around and a much needed South Coast derby that will sure bring in some valuble funds for Pompey and the Saints, come on ITV, you can televise that can't you.

Sort it out KP.

Well Week 3 has been for me a busy week (first week back at uni, been a bit crazy) so this week's blog should be short. England's final match of the winter tour to South Africa started today and it is somewhat more puzzling than pleasing that England go into the final test match 1-0 up in the 4 match series when they can play as badly as they did today. To put 180 on the board when you win the toss is unacceptable, bad conditions or not.

Now to make things clear the main man getting attention this week wasn't wholly responsible for today's dismal batting collapse but in my mind only a good bat today would save himself from my wrath so here we go. Kevin Pietersen, what is wrong with you. Here are the stats, out of the 4 tests and 6 innings he has completed he has scored 165 runs, an average 27.5. Not particularly sparkling who has been batting at number 4 and is regarded as one of England best and definitely most adventurous batsmen. The stats get even more worrying when you remove his series best of 81 which came in the first test over a month ago and his average is 16.8, including one innings where England declared just short of 600 yet Pietersen only took 30 runs back to the pavilion with him. For me KP's image as the new poster boy of English cricket after Freddie is giving him too much of a barrier, especially when the English media sent a barrage of abuse to Ian Bell earlier in the tour who has responded brilliantly with scores moving his series average above 50.

Having scored 7 today and a total of 6 in the previous test I think it's time someone whether it be coaches or the media (how ever much I dispise them) give him a clip round the ear and get him to respond by not giving his wicket away so cheaply, this isn't Twenty20, it's still the 5-day game, keep your bat on the ground boy. Remembering back to 2005 and England's glorious triumph in the Ashes, Pietersen started poorly in that series too, got a push from media-types and the result was that century at The Oval that clinched that famous series win. He's the kind of player who clearly responds to criticism, a rare thing for a English sportsman although that's the thing, he's not really English is his. Tomorrow though is another day and hopefully England's bowlers can make the break through, take a few quick wickets early on and keep England in the game. It's what I love about the 5-day game in that although it looks bad now there's still a long way to go and a fully firing Kevin Pietersen in the 2nd innings could be just what Strauss's team need to clinch the series.

Snow and crowds; falling around us

'5,335, seriously'. That was the reaction of many including myself to the shockingly low attendance at the FA Cup Third Round tie between Wigan Athletic and Hull City. On a 3rd round Saturday that lacked the sparkle of any potential upsets this attendance figure was surely one of the most worrying and perplexing stories in this football season. Some said it was a general downturn in the popularity of the FA Cup as a spectacle, especially in the earlier rounds. That is right to some extent, it doesn't help when Premier League sides put out weakened XI's even against reasonable Championship sides but personally I feel it is a club-to-club problem. Taking the whole weekend into account, attendances where lower due to the cold temperatures and the cup being a week earlier this year and nearer to those Boxing Day and New Year sales but that can't be the explanation to the silent DW Stadium. For example, Aston Villa's home tie against Blackburn Rovers, a similarly all-Premiership tie not involving the top 4, brought in 25,433 punters. When you compare those two homes sides, Villa and Wigan, there's one huge difference between them and it's history and this is where the problem for Wigan lies.

Having only been in the Premier League a few seasons and with no major trophy to there name. Wigan as a town has a greater sporting history in rugby league with the Warriors being the most successful British league side. It's just the same situation as my home town of Sheffield but vice versa. Sheffield Eagles will never be able to gain the same reputation and prestige from the locals because the Steel City is a football city. Returning to the 'magic' of the Cup arguement, personally my respect for the FA Cup has come from my dad when the Cup was just as important as the league which united with my opinion on the historic value of a club shows somewhat in the number of people who turned up to the games last weekend.

The question now is how do clubs and the FA combat this and boost the reputation of the greatest cup competition in the world against the brands of the Premier League, Champions League and the stronger European leagues. The clubs have their hands tie behind their backs, reducing ticket prices isn't something they want to be doing at the moment and anything they do will cost money through advertising and other initiatives. For me the buck lies with the FA. First things first, no change of the competition's format is required, if they want to experiment with such things then that's what the League Cup is for. At the moment the FA Cup Winners are given a place in the following season's Europa League/UEFA Cup. But why not give them the fourth Champions League spot. Sadly this probably won't happen, the big four will probably kick up too much of a fuss about it, but if it happened you probably wouldn't see Premier League teams giving fringe players a run out, the pressure would mount for the top four as each of them would need to win the competition to be safe for next season. But with the format the same and every chance that on the day a high spirited League One side could come along and send the house of cards crashing down. As I said before, the big four won't like it, but the last time I looked the Football League had 92 clubs in it, the other 88 would love it.

But the chances of this happening are sadly not exsistent, not whilst we have a board in charge of the FA they make a mockery of any game at Wembley by staying in their posh lounges with their entourages at the beginning of the 2nd half, all to see as ITV broadcast pictures of an empty block of seats behind Messers Capello, Ferguson and Wenger. Yes this is a rant and I could quite easily go into ITV's lack of advertising on its upcoming FA Cup games but I'll hold that for another day.

To conclude, changes are going to have to be made to rejuvenate the FA Cup. They won't be easy and there will be tantrums but it would be for the good of English football and a lack of change will definately leave the FA Cup in peril in the long term, and in turn England's 2018 World Cup bid (another topic for another day). It's the not the competition that's wrong, it's the people running it. The Old Trafford classic on Sunday showed how the FA Cup should be, two sides poles apart in ability scrapping it out and the best team on the day taking the spoils. I admit as a Sheffield United fan I'm not the fondest of the blokes up the M1 but I couldn't help but smile at the passion still at that club that shone through. Good luck to them when they go to Tottenham in Round 4, they're going to need it as I see Spurs being one of the only top sides taking the FA Cup seriously this year and are my tip for Wembley glory. Until next week enjoy the snow!