Join up to the Soccermongery mailing list for your chance to win 2 tickets for an England game at Wembley in 2009

That's right. Your name will go in a draw for the prize. To qualify you must subscribe (and stay subscribed until the draw's made, which will be on May 31st 2009). The game will be one of the full England internationals in the remaining period of 2009. The winner will be notified by email and announced on-site in early June.

Good luck!

Home Page

The Capello Project is d-o-o-o-med if Premier League bosses don't respect him.

Low confidence, a lack of attacking adventure and only two-goals scored against low calibre Andorra - but it's hardly surprising Fabio Capello's England is misfiring.

He has little support from inside the English game. "We're All Doomed" if we're not in this together.

Capello's agitated by a perceived lack of respect from fellow managers in the Premier League. He was disappointed by Harry Redknapp's comments about England's performance in the friendly against the Czechs. After all, when Fabio watched Portsmouth, Fabio didn't pass comment on the way Pompey played up. Fabio kept it professional.

Capello's antennae are well-tuned. His intuition about a lack of respect is right. How are we going to forage through Europe without co-operation from the Home Front?

But unwelcome comments about his team from fellow managers are just the tip of the iceberg.

Premier League bosses think nothing of withholding their players citing spurious fitness concerns. "England needs that player?"... Tough!

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez saw this international window as the ideal chance to put Steven Gerrard under the surgeon's knife. The operation though necessary, didn't need doing now; better Gerrard misses a couple of games for England than for Liverpool, eh Rafa?

Gerrard's drive in midfield is sorely missed and England's best starting line-up is compromised by outside forces.

Capello's been highly-visible stadium-hopping to assess the form of his prospective squad, but he's not across another major issue; a meaningful dialogue with managers about the players he needs.

Sven recognised this and often resorted to the press to air his grievances with managers by using the backpages to put them under pressure.

He was a canny operator was Sven. Fergie and Co were often forced onto the backfoot when it came to making players available for England. Remember how Sven scooped an injured Rooney off to the 2006 World Cup against Fergie's wishes?

Capello has a more rigid mindset than Sven and frankly, he doesn't seem to have the Premier League with him so far.

There are FIFA rules about making players available for international duty, but there's no help more locally from the FA to steer Premier League managers to play ball on a more informal basis.

Until Capello grapples with his peers and starts winning these mini-battles with the clubs, Capello's England Project looks compromised - and ultimately doomed.

Listen to Fabio's post-match news conference courtesy of Football Audio.

Sorry Geordies: Keegan's exit is a positive for Newcastle United!

I know this is unpalatable to Toon fans but Kevin Keegan is a proven loser and totally ill-equipped to lead a Premier League team in the 21st century. Newcastle, you're best off without him. The next thing for the Toon to pray for is a Manchester City-style change of ownership and rid themselves of Oyk Ashley too.

It's time for Newcastle United to extricate itself from the past. The last time Kevin Keegan led Newcastle to (near) glory in the 90's, he was merely pitted against Arsenal's Bruce Rioch, Liverpool's Roy Evans and Chelsea's Ruud Gullit.

Who beat Keegan to the title? the ultimate football winner, Alex Ferguson. Aside from the total one-off that is The Govanor, the game's moved on.

Now Arsenal are led by Arsene Wenger, at Liverpool it's Rafa Benitez, Chelsea have a World Cup winner in the shape of Big Phil and it's still SIR Alex Ferguson of United. Then there's Martin O'Neill at Villa and Tottenham's Juande Ramos. Keegan can't hold a candle to any of them.

"We cannot possibly understand the fabled north-east football mentality", we're told as outsiders.

It's that mentality which propels Kevin Keegan to its summit as some sort of messiah. A romantic figure, a Pied Piper leading Newcastle to Wembley wins and open-top bus celebrations around Sid James' Park.

WAKE UP!! If Newcastle played Blyth Spartans, Hartlepool(s) and Darlington every week, the north-east mentality would be all that was required. But Newcastle doesn't operate in isolation.

In fact, the fabled north-east mentality comes off the rails every time its pitted against the north-west mentality; clubs from there win big pots every year - and have done so for 50 years.

Keegan was never the man to lead Newcastle out of the mire. Even with a supportive Geordie board rather than Ashley, he'd have found a way to quit.

Not that Ashley's any better. He's even worse to be honest; he has a track record of division and riding roughshod over anyone in his way.

Newcastle need a strong man the fans recognise and who they'd get behind - BUT someone without the baggage of a triumphant return. Someone to wipe the slate clean, to look to the future not the past. To really be in charge without board or middle-management interference.

Jose Mourinho, Martin O'Neill and Fabio Capello fit the bill. They're not available and would never be under the current circumstances. Who'd work for Ashley? The severance clause would be the most important part of the contract!

Keegan's Long Walkout of Fiefdom is hardly going to encourage a top coach to replace him. It might even leave Dennis Wise in the boxseat for the hotseat.

Still, as indigestible as that might be to every Toon fan, at least it would simplify the lousiest management structure in the Premier League.

And until they sort that out, there's no future for Newcastle United at all.

It's Official. Football IS recession proof!

And there we were worrying that our gleaming English game would be affected by the worldwide economic downturn. That sooner or later, job losses would lead to less Sky subscriptions, empty seats and eleven Englishmen at Everton!

But Manchester City’s lightning quick purchase by Abu Dhabi Babby shows there's still a billionaire somewhere ready to buy the Premier League dream. Just who and where he comes from has shifted from west to east quicker than you can send tanks through a neighbouring state.

World capital is suddenly in the hands of the oil rich, the cash rich and the sovereign wealth fund – and they all want a piece of our game too!

This season we might see embarrassingly half-empty stadia for supposedly big games, but when you’re Barry Bigshot after instant status and a lot of fun, there’s seemingly nowhere better to splurge your cash than at ... Manchester City(!)

Spiralling wages and transfer fees will continue. Sadly the difference between fan and player will also become bigger.

Football’s economy bears no relation to the UK's because it's almost entirely without regulation. This is what happens when you truly expose yourself to Globalization. The Fit and Proper Person’s Rule is about the only regulation there is, and that’s about as sharp as pensioners teeth.

(By the way, I like it like this).

My main concern is that the Megamoney will make the mistake of believing the fans will be less and less important because they'll be contributing a smaller share of the overall financial pie.

But without the fan, there's no passion. Ultimately the billionaire's buying into them. Beware new investors; without the supporters your investment will shrivel.

And now, as with all finance-based editorial, here's a warning from our Compliance Officer: "Your investment in Manchester City could go down as well as further down."