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"From Atlanta, Georgia to Longsight, Manchester…"

This week saw Thaksin Shinawatra finally return to Thailand to face corruption charges, after 18 months in exile. He was bizarrely accompanied by Academy graduates Kasper Schmeichel and Kelvin Etuhu, who seemed a little bewildered to find themselves on the trip (presumably they were there as a security measure, in case members of the military junta tried to lynch Thaksin for his previous misdemeanours). Not that he need worry, of course; the ruling People’s Power Party are not so much sympathetic to Shinawatra as practically subservient to him. The trial should be a formality. Christ, we’ll probably be able to claim back the lost interest on his frozen assets.

No Luck, Just Magic Juande

The BBC website ran a story this week about how many superstitions Spurs Head Coach Juande Ramos has.  Perhaps he relies on the Napoleon dictum of “Don’t bring me good generals, bring me lucky ones.”

But there is more to Juande Ramos than good fortune.

It's over; a short post

Please have a look at this picture.

It is a picture of a collision between two fast moving footballers.

Some observations:
Nobby Solano's boot did not make contact with the ball.  It went straight into Antti Niemi's throat.
Then the ball hit Solano on the elbow and went in.
This was all quite clear in real time as well.
But the goal was awarded.  Is it now legitimate to challenge goalkeepers with your studs?  Is it alright to use your elbow to score goals?
Leon Andreasen (rightly) made these same points to referee Howard Webb.
So he was sent off (he had already been booked).
Because of this sending off we must now play Man Utd without our best (only) defensive midfielder.

That is all.  Why waste any more words?  It's all going wrong.

Thoroughly second-best

You’d think that a good 24-hour period of reflection would be needed after losing to Spurs in a competitive final but, in truth, no Chelsea fan with even an iota of self-respect can do other than hold their hands up today and acknowledge that the better team won on the day.

Shocking Rams hit new depths

On Saturday we decided to make a day of it and left Derby at 7.30 and headed for Blackpool. Whilst you were eating your cornflakes, we were playing beach football in force 5 gales.

As the incoming tide forced a premature conclusion to our game, we spent an enjoyable hour on the various amusements followed by one of the best seaside fish and chip dinners I've had for ages. We then set off for the JJB stadium and the day went downhill from there.   

The appliance of science: Fulham fans show considerable bias in predicting the rest of the season

Have you heard of the wisdom of crowds? The thinking is that a series of quite well informed judges will be better able to predict something than a single expert. This might be demonstrated by a 'guess the weight of the cow' competition: take the average of twenty farmers' guesses and you'll probably be closer to the cow's real weight than if you ask one cow weighing expert for his opinion.

For Fulham fans it has been two weeks since we had anything to jump to conclusions about and frankly this is making many of us nervous. ARE WE STAYING UP OR NOT?

To find out I asked a number of these same Fulham fans to run the BBC's predictor machine. In this you are given the fixture list for the remainder of the season and asked to fill in the scores you expect for each game. The BBC then works out the league table based on your predictions. 

For the purposes of this exercise I only bothered reporting on the bottom half of the table. Here are the average points totals from the 19 completed predictions:

Jewell taints Latics return

Without doubt Paul Jewell achieved a great deal during his time at Wigan Athletic and the loyal supporters are grateful of this fact, however it is with distaste that the Scouser ridicules that same support.

Clearly a muted point during his time with the club, Jewell is now free to roam in his well supported sleeping giant that is Derby County and he must be revelling in the embarrassment that he is now in charge of. Adrift at the foot of the table without a hope in hell of surviving in the top flight, Jewell is the boss of a well populated grave yard. Derby are in serious danger of being relegated with the lowest ever points total of a Premiership club. Sunderland currently hold that record of 15 points, and few would argue against Derby beating that. However, it is the remarks made about his new found love of all things Derby supporter related that brings a bitter taste. Obviously, after becoming somewhat of a hero amongst supporters during his time at the JJB, you would expect Jewell to hold the club's supporters in high regard. Clearly Jewell thinks otherwise. The former Liverpool player and Bradford manager has been outspoken about the fantastic support that Derby has. He even went so far as to say they are the best supporters he has encountered as a manager. Maybe a comment to try and win the Derby lot over, but he has done himself no favours in Wigan and such talk will taint his return on Saturday. To put things in perspective, it is a little similar to Wigan supporters hailing Bruce as the clubs best ever manager. Pride Park was full for our trip there earlier this year, but the only atmosphere came from the loyal and very much sold out away section of the stadium as the Latics faithful voiced their support. It was much the same on the pitch with Jewell's concoction of has beens, playboys and so called promising players being dominated by a well organised Wigan side. This was early in Jewell's tender at the club and now with a transfer window behind him, and enough time to organise his outfit, Saturday should be a different test. It was the first game for players such as Savage, Villa and Laurent Robert who were going to turn around struggling Derby's fortunes. This is still a long way from materialising. In the time Steve Bruce has amassed over fifteen points for the blue and white of Wigan Athletic, Paul Jewell has managed just three points for the Rams. Fitz Hall, David Cotterill, Denny Landzaat, Julius Aghahowa et al were some of the later Jewell signings with the Latics and he is far from a consistent master of the transfer market. Now, with little signs of Jewell turning Derby round, the supporters are getting impatient and a bad result at the JJB on Saturday against his former club could see the pressure mount even more. Finally, it is worth remembering that the Wigan Athletic team that earned Jewell so much success was built on fight, courage and bottle. These words could well be associated with the town of Wigan as a whole, but as for Derby…? Maybe Jewell is onto his next Sheffield Wednesday, a sleeping giant that the angry Scouser couldn't awaken, no matter how hard he tried.

Exclusively yours

Walk into Stamford Bridge as we approach the business end of the season and you could be forgiven for thinking that you’ve stumbled into the court of the Medicis.

Liverpool in crisis - a fan writes

Liverpool's disastrous FA Cup defeat to Barnsley has provoked an enormous response by disgruntled fans on the red side of the city. Our poll on TheGame blog, "Is Rafa still right man for Liverpool?", has 34 per cent of voters demanding Rafael Benitez leave the club now. It also led to one of our readers, Phil J Noonan, sending in the following excellent impassioned plea...

"It isn't easy being a Liverpool supporter these days.

Sure, we are still a "named" side that garners enough opinion from all football fans, despite current form, and many years of "top four status", but the respect is dwindling to a meagre trickle.

Respect. That is a huge word in sport.

What Is The Meaning Of Ambition?

The dictionary meaning of ambition is - a strong desire for success, achievement, power and wealth.

The Smith, Geremi and Viduka meaning of ambition is - a strong desire for mediocrity, past it, never going to win anything and, of course, personal wealth.

Thinking of jacking it all in

There's a lot to be said about football these days. And that amount now doesn't spout from the mouths of the man on the terraces, the outspoken chap down the pub or even the match commentators. The death of football has long been prophesised, and I fear it will go the same way as a certain Ms Spears. Some days (and recently, more than usual) I wonder why I even bother turning up to games.

Be a part of the Fanzine Fanzone

Here's your chance to join the most informed fans in football and take centre stage in our brilliant forum.

This is where supporters from around the country give their views on the clubs close to their hearts throughout the week and go head-to-head on the big issues. It's the best partisan content on the web. TheGame's forum for real fans. Ballsy and biased.

Need more reasons to join the team?

You can:

- moan when you're losing and gloat when you're winning

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And most importantly:

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Have a look here to see what our Manchester City fan thought of the minute's silence held at Old Trafford last weekend, read this poignant plea to Fulham's defence to keep them up and marvel at our Derby man's silver lining on the dark cloud that has been his season so far.

This is not just a Premier League forum, though. Perhaps you're a long-suffering supporter of a League Two perennial struggler. Or you may be a grass roots Conference man. Or woman.

Think you have what it takes? Are you passionate, piqued or pitifully partisan? Then send an example to sport@timesonline.co.uk.

Teams we already have covered can be seen in the third column of this blog.

Heather Mills to buy Fulham?

Of course not. But these are strange times at Fulham. If you've been paying attention then you'll know that two weeks ago we suffocated our way to a 0-0 at Bolton, and followed that up with a nice home win over Aston Villa. On this evidence a number of us felt that Roy had cracked it, that we'd go unbeaten for a while, and generally turn a potentially lengthy relegation fight into a very short relegation glare.

Down The Dip

A visit to Derby County is not one of the trips that always fills Spurs with glee, as they are the sort of team that invariably rob points off us when we feel (in that oh, so superior way that other fans think Spurs fans are thought to live their lives) we ought to pick up without turning up.

"Enjoy the silence..."

It was a big day in the North. A very big day, in fact, given the absurd level of media coverage given to the minute's silence prior to Sunday's Manchester derby. You'd be forgiven for thinking that there weren't people starving in Africa, or a global warming crisis threatening the very existence of mankind, for all the sensationalist nonsense about how City fans might react. A hypothetical scenario, goddammit! The Daily Mail, showing typical restraint, wanted one policeman at the ground for every City fan. Yes, 3000 policemen lined up on the touchline. Andy Dunn of The News of The World wanted pictures of our 'scum' fans emblazoned across his high-quality newspaper and alluded to the fans being beaten up. Other journalists called for life bans, points deducted from City, the death of our nation, the end of the world. The government pleaded for silence, even the Pope was heard to be gravely concerned.

You can't put a price on fortune

"You have got to learn how to win, and how you gain that experience and the habit is by winning when you don't play particularly well."
(Roy Keane, 30 Jan 2008)

If our victory and performance over Wigan could be condensed into a few simple words, then the ones above would fit the job perfectly. We didn't play well, rode our luck but survived to take another priceless three points and move a little further away from the relegation zone.

Time to big up the Rams

After our frankly pathetic tilt at the Premier league this season, Derby County have been laughed at, lambasted and humiliated by anyone and everyone in the football world. We will be relegated in a couple of weeks and our primary focus now is Sunderland's worst ever premier league points tally (15) and getting the bones of a team together ready for a full on promotion tilt next season.

Can someone explain then why we have the 12th best average attendance in the Premier league, why every away game is sold out weeks in advance and why the general mood amongst Rams fans is one of positivity? 

    

Two points for a win?

One of the best things about the Sopranos is the sub-character development.  While it's great to watch Tony and his boys doing what they do, that alone would not make for first rate television.  Luckily for us we have so much more to take in, the most obvious being Tony's immediate family: his wife, his daughter, and his son.

Samba Time Again

There has been a shortage of Brazilian flags on Teesside today as news filtered through that Afonso Alves was to be unveiled at the Riverside Stadium. There has also been a shortage of wax in the area as people have suddenly rushed to beauty salons for appointments. The main headline on the back page of the local newspaper read, "Southgate gets a Brazilian at a good price".

This is such a massive day for all Boro fans that even the Mayor of Middlesbrough has called for all workers and school children to have the afternoon off to welcome Mr Alves to Teesside.

2008: a footballing democracy

High on the seas of the interactive bunfight that we call the Internet, you’ll find a project called A Swarm of Angels. In as small a nutshell as I can fit it, it’s an attempt to wrest control of the film-making process from the traditional fiefdoms of studio and marketing man.

Sir Jimmy Bullard

Before the West Ham away match the other week we were all quite excited. It was, you see, Jimmy Bullard's comeback game. When the squad was read out and his name was confirmed among the subs the whole away section went mad.  He'd been out for ever, since our last away win in fact, and we'd feared that his career was over.

Jim Bullard Bullard
He's better than Steve Gerrard
He's better than Frank Lampard
Jim Bullard Bullard

we sang. Bullard did all the warm up things that footballers do, sprinting up and down just there in front of us, waving sometimes, clearly on cloud nine that he was BACK.

Rattled

In some matches over the last nine years, a point against Manchester United may have been deemed a good result, but with a trademark equaliser in the 94th minute, the visitors robbed Spurs of a well-deserved victory that almost saw the Premier League champions so rattled that the toys were flying out of the pram.

The Waiting Game

So the hunt for the first win in the new Keegan era goes on after a disappointing game against not really local non-rivals Middlesbrough at SJP.  However, it is difficult to be too downhearted as this is certainly the team that Sam built and as he looked down from the Sky gantry (what is it about Sky employing our failures as pundits – Gullit, Souness, Allardyce…) it would be difficult for him to find any evidence of where we were going to progress under his stewardship.

Derby joy is Blues Tragedy

In this modern age when sports psychologists are part of the furniture and "positive thinking" is more advice-down-the-pub than psychobabble, should a team who take the field to "Tragedy" really feel aggrieved at conceding a last minute equaliser? (Alternatively, "should a team who take the field to Steps etc..."). As Birmingham's self-fulfilling prophecy came true, it was Derby fans who had a rare occasion to dance.

Am I right to criticise officials? Or is that too easy?

Failing to win a league game since Boxing Day is a big thing for a team like Liverpool, yet Anfield seemed more bothered about their American owners than their out of control league form, maybe explaining why the club has recently been on the slide. Unsurprisingly the same dogged Liverpool of late showed up, but this time they came away smiling, maybe because Sunderland showed no desire to attack until it was too late and maybe because Rob Stiles was the referee.