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AC Milan boss Beddows remains highly defiant in the fact of what appears to be mounting pressure on his position as AC Milan boss tonight.

But his companion Danerys the Snow Queen has released a song tonight to show her solidarity with Beddows and that of the Milan fans…

CLICK ON THE LINK TO DO THE VIDEO

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Good afternoon guys and welcome to another Thursday Blog with me, Gordon ‘Gino’ Kinnear. You know, I am amazed at how the name Gino has stuck as, a lot of you won’t realise this, I didn’t pick it up until I played Soccer Manager. It was not long after I had got to know Dale Price (Dale Piero) that the name became part of my SM profile. I had put up a new profile photo of myself with my daughter, Elise, and Dale said he thought I looked like some guy out of The Sopranos lol. He just came out with the name Gino and started calling me that. That was quickly latched onto by the likes of Prince Michael William and the name stuck. Eventually I added it to plain old Gordon Kinnear and the rest is history.



Talking of nicknames, when I was a kid my nickname was Tweet. This was because of my surname. As happens now, a lot of nicknames are made up by adding a Y to someone’s second name so that made me Kinneary, which of course sounds like canary. Since the most famous canary in they days was Tweetie Pie, the name was shortened to come up with Tweet. It must be all of 37 years since I was last called that and I doubt I will ever be so again.
The Kinnear household has been pretty quiet this last fortnight with nothing major taking place. The wife and daughter are still trying to stick to their diet but I have seen some signs of weakness recently and wonder if they can keep it going much longer. I still haven’t accompanied them to the gym but that is mainly because the wife is struggling to recover from her asthma attack that seen her hospitalised for 3 days. The good news is that last week everybody got paid so I have saved plenty of cash haha. I am the only one that has a weekly pay with everyone else being paid monthly so I collected a few quid from money owed.
This Sunday as everyone should know is Mother’s Day. My mother died about 12 years ago so it doesn’t really apply to me but I do help the kids, even now when they are grown up, decide what to do for Alison. This year the two girls are going to take her out for a Sunday High Tea at some place, not sure where and I thought that was quite a good idea. We all like to go out for something to eat and this year the girls have even asked me if I would come as well. Yeah ok, I agreed, but that doesn’t mean mum comes out when it’s Father’s Day haha. Now, call me a cynic, but why do I feel that on Saturday night the girls are going to ask me to bring my wallet, you know, just in case. Yeah, yeah how many times have I heard that one before.
Away from the family life, I watched the League Cup Final last weekend, or whatever it is called (is it Capital One Cup?) and thought I would have a little bet on it. Looking through the bets available, the one that stuck out most for me was a generous 7/2 on Manchester City to win and BTTS (both teams to score). I thought that was the bet for me and stuck a tenner on it. Raheem Sterling is a guy I won’t forgive for a long time after the chances he missed that ultimately cost me a winning bet. In the end I thought Manchester City just edged it and deserved to win on penalties but Liverpool certainly gave it a good go. What about the race for the Premiership title though? Who could have imagined that the league table would look like that with 10 games to play. Leicester City have been a sensation and are maybe even carrying that little bit of luck required after a disappointing draw with West Brom was made to look a great result when Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester City all lost. And after all the flack and criticism Louis Van Gaal has suffered at Manchester United, what a story it would be if they had a great late run and took the title. It is still possible with them lying equal with Manchester City now. It is certainly the most fascinating title race that I can remember since the Premiership was born all those years ago.
Well, as I said, it’s been quiet around our place and there is nothing else worth mentioning so it’s a short real life episode this week.
I thought I would add a little bit about Soccer Manager today. I am pleasantly surprised to see the old interface still being an option after hearing that it was going to end at the beginning of February. It is now March and it still goes on. Long may this continue as I cannot get into the new one, and trust me, I have tried a few times. I do, however, have to try and use it if I am out and about as the mobile version of the old one is unplayable. Maybe the longer I try and play it, the more used to it I will get but I am certainly not holding my breath on that one. If the old one eventually disappears then I am still undecided on what I will do. I really want to carry on in this great game but if I was finding it too frustrating then I would have to think seriously about quitting. I really hope it doesn’t come to that.
One more thing, now I don’t know what all of your opinions are but the Adam Johnson case has come to a conclusion and quite rightly he is facing jail time. I fully agree that he deserves all he gets as he knew this girl was 15, and to be honest it made me think about when I was first meeting Gemma (my ex-girlfriend that I mentioned on here a while back). Gemma was 16 when I first started meeting with her and the Johnson case made me think what could have happened if Gemma had been lying to me and she had only been 15. However she was telling the truth and I knew she was because she went to school with my son (OMG that looks much worse in print than it does when I just thought about it). Back to the Adam Johnson case and I might be in the wrong here, but when it came on the news about what the girl had said after the case, I couldn’t believe it. Her comments about him ruining her life and how he took advantage of her made me angry. She knew fine well what she was doing and even if you read what she said in messages to him it was quite clear she was up for it. For her now to come out and make out she was innocent in all this is a joke. Anyway, that doesn’t excuse Johnson for his actions and jail time is the only answer.

Life at Anfield in the Top 100 is currently tough. We are so out of form that I wouldn’t tip us to beat a schoolboy side at the moment. Rumours, however, of my job being under threat are just that ……. rumours. My task this season is to make sure that Liverpool are still a Division 1 team next season and since we are currently 16th, the target is, as you could say, on target. Next season is when I am expected to start taking Liverpool in the right direction and gradually make them a force to be reckoned with.
Since my last blog we have had mixed fortunes in all competitions. In the league we have managed 3 draws and suffered one defeat, albeit it was a heavy 4-0 loss at Barcelona, but although we haven’t had a win, we have done enough to currently sit outside the bottom 4. Tonight we face Valencia, who just this morning named David Senior as the new boss. Valencia are currently second bottom of the table and that was enough for the Valencia board to act and they sacked Simo before deciding to go with Olympiacos boss, Senior. David is a relatively new name to me but he has been around SM for a long time. Our paths may have crossed in our early days but there was league, that I was in, that was as high profile as the Top 100. I wish David a lot of luck as Valencia boss starting tomorrow morning. For tonight’s game Liverpool have a horrendous list of players that will miss out. A flu bug ran riot around the club on Monday and although nearly everyone has got rid of the bug, many players didn’t train and are not match fit. The list of players who wont play tonight is Bender, Campana, Dede, Destro, Erkin, Gabbiadini, Kolasinac, M’Bia, Markovic and Rafael. That is a huge burden to carry in to tonight’s game but, who knows, maybe it will take the pressure off those who do play and we might get a result. I will give league debuts to two players with them being Origi and the recently acquired Mendy.
In my last blog I said that if we were to progress in any of the domestic SM cup competitions then we would need to put a jinx to bed. This was that we could not seem to beat any team that started with the letter ‘A’ and since we had been drawn against two such teams in the cup and shield then we would have to go against the grain to progress in the competitions. Well in the Top 100 Cup, a Pinheiro Toze goal enabled us to beat AS Roma and progress into the last 16, where we have drawn Manchester City. We beat City 3-1 at Anfield earlier in the season and are confident we can repeat the win when we visit the Etihad on Tuesday. In the Shield we were not so lucky and we exited the tournament as we went down 3-2 at Arsenal. I thought we put on a good performance and we deserved to at least take the game to penalties but it wasn’t to be and that competition has gone for another season.
The Regional Cup is a new competition this season and we were put into the northern section of The Churchill Cup where we would face Celtic and Sunderland at home and go on the road to Everton, Manchester United and Newcastle United. Before the competition I was quite hopeful that we could finish in the top two but it has certainly not turned out that way. The first game was at Anfield where Sunderland were the visitors and I have to say that we put in probably our worst performance since I took charge and we went down 1-0 in a game that we should be winning. That was a major blow and I feel it has played a huge part in the team’s lack of confidence at the moment. Our second match in the competition seen us at Old Trafford and we went down 3-1 and again I was disappointed, not by the result, but by the lacklustre performance by the guys. I have to put it down to the flu bug that swept the dressing room and perhaps I shouldn’t have put out the team that I did. Our next game in that tournament is a week on Wednesday, when we visit Newcastle. It is ’last chance saloon’ and anything other than a victory will see our interest end. In between, we have a friendly with Aston Villa next week and we will try a few things in that game that may help us for the Newcastle game.
Our youth team played two games since a fortnight ago in the Youth Cup and picked up one win and one loss. We beat the previously unbeaten CSKA Moscow 2-1 at Prenton Park which put us back in the race for a qualifying place but we then went down 3-1 at Tottenham, putting in a poor performance to boot and getting what we deserved. At the half way stage in the Youth Cup we are bottom of Group D and again our next game against Sassuolo is make or break for the kids.
Overall our performances have not been good enough to say the least and there is much room for improvement. Despite this, I feel if we can just get back to back victories then the luck could change and we could go on an unbeaten run that would lift everyone at the club and in particular the fans in the stands. We are currently six games without a win in all competitions and that is something we have to rectify quickly.
On the transfer front there is nothing doing at the moment but if the current form does not improve then we may have to take another dip into the market and see if there is anything we can do to improve our fortunes. This could mean maybe cashing in on a couple of players such as Origi and Sakho but we will see how things work out over the next couple of weeks.

Well that is it from me this week. A more of a subdued blog than the last one but hopefully still one that you enjoyed so once again its thanks for taking the time to read and I will be back in a fortnight’s time. Next week is another Fannie Licker interview and that should be another entertaining episode in the series. Until next time, I thank you all once again.

Ciao

Match-day two arrived in France’s version of the Group of Death with much anticipation…it disappears into the rear view mirror of history with Lyon manager Giovanni Cabrioli struggling to see his three opponents anywhere in his wake.

Two games played, two wins and the rest of the field now battling for scraps…that is the tale from France now for Lyon as the competition looks towards next weeks fixtures.



The battle at the Parc des Princes in front of a crowd of 10,746 proved an enjoyable pitched struggle for those in the stands, both managers had obviously given instructions for a degree of getting ‘stuck in’ and the 4 yellows and a Red Card for Wakaso of Lyon in the 79th minute would suggest the instructions got through to the players.

Tactically both sides went with the same formation, more indication of the nature and tightness this group suggested on paper but Lyon must now feel confident of progressing after goals by Rodrigo (14) and Man of the Match Klaassen (43) sent the teams in at half time with PSG scratching their heads and Lyon comfortable for the 2-0 lead. Pastore pulling one back in the 65th minute suggested a bit of fight in the home side and with Wakaso getting sent of with 11 minutes to go it looked like PSG might manage to scrape a point at least but Lyon have a glint in their eye and a bit of steel now and they succeeded in seeing out the 10 man period with little worry.

A win next Wednesday at home to Monaco might all but wrap things up nice and early now for Lyon…such is the reality of a group with one team now head and shoulders above the rest.

The battle for the 3rd Division bragging rights over at the Louis II stadium in Monaco was…predictably…a draw!

Both sides went with a fast, pressing game with Monaco edging the stats but of course stats mean nothing when the goals tally ends up at 2-2.

It was entertaining for the 6,430 who turned up to watch, good strength squads were deployed and both managers did take it seriously but there was always a chance that separating them would be hard and 2-2 was a good reflection on where these sides are at the moment in their development.

Monaco opened the scoring on 19 minutes through Gobi, Marseille pulled one back through Dje Djedje on 30 minutes before a lovely goal by Vieirinha latching on to falcao’s second assist gave the home team the edge at the break. Marseille pressed hard for the equalizer and were rewarded in the 73rd minute when Ben Yedder once again impressed with a finish worthy of the affection the Marseille fans are starting to hold him in.

Its a bit of a climb now to catch Lyon for both these sides and PSG too, Marseille know that after they visit Paris next Wednesday they then have three home games to finish the group…it might give them a bit of a chance, especially if they can beat PSG next week and Monaco slip at Lyon…but this group may yet have a few twists to come and no one can deny that it is tight in France right now for at least three of the four sides…the aim of all now is to pull Lyon back into the pack.

Onward to match-day three…

The second round of matches took place in The Churchill Cup tonight and after two games we have surprise leaders. There was also a surprise guest at one of the games. Who was it? Find out below.



NORTH SECTION


CELTIC ………………..  1  NEWCASTLE UNITED ……………….  0

Celtic followed up their fine 1-1 draw with Manchester United with a 1-0 win over Newcastle. Celtic were meant to be the whipping boys in this section and with boss ruts 66 already a self confessed S&M addict, whipping boys suited him just fine but it has not turned out that way and with 4 points from 2 games they have surprised their critics. The first half was end to end with both teams having their chances but the goalkeepers were the outstanding men on the field with both making some fine saves.

The longer the game went on, the more likely it seemed one goal would settle it and that goal came on 63min when Niang’s strike found the top corner of the Newcastle net, sending Celtic Park wild. Newcastle could not find a response and to be truthful they were disappointing and didn’t seem to believe that they could get a result here. It wasn’t until the last 5 minutes that they put Celtic under pressure but Fernandez in the Celtic goal was in inspired form and the hosts held on to record another great result and we wonder if Celtic could be the shock side in this cup. We have been asked to point out that ruts 66 is NOT into S&M but is in fact into M&S which we believe is a totally different thing altogether. Personally I think the former is much less embarrassing.




MANCHESTER UNITED ………………..  3  LIVERPOOL ………………….  1

There was a surprise guest in the V.I.P. section of the Old Trafford main stand for the match against Liverpool tonight. The main sponsor of this cup made an unexpected appearance but the fans were delighted to see Churchill, the star of the Churchill Insurance adverts, take his seat. Well they were delighted until Churchill’s real life owner told him to get down off the seat as he wasn’t allowed on the chairs at home so here would be no different. The game itself was predictable, with the current Top 100 Champions running out comfortable 3-1 winners against struggling for form Liverpool. It took only 2min for Depay to open the scoring with a low free kick beating Szczesny to his left and that was to set the pattern for the night. It was one way traffic towards the Liverpool goal for the whole of the first 45 with Depay and Rooney’s link up’s causing Liverpool all sorts of problems. Liverpool were so far out of the game that 11 dustbins would have put up a better show. Kinnear in the visitors dug out looked resigned to defeat apart from the couple of times that he broke out into a big smile when he looked up at Churchill in the main stand.


When Mata made it 2-0 straight from the second half kick off, we were prepared for more of the same but at last Liverpool started to try and play a bit of football. Whether it was United thinking the game was won that made Liverpool look better was unknown but it certainly looked that way. Sturridge managed to cause United some concern but he still couldn’t get the ball on target. It was game over on 69min when Depay added his own second and United’s third and at this stage Kinnear started throwing a ball down the touchline, urging Churchill to chase it. The celebrity pooch was unmoved - literally. Liverpool got on the scoresheet on 70min when Bender fired home after good work from Sturridge but it was little more than a consolation. The last 20 minutes provided very little of note and the game was brought to a close with United taking the points. Kinnear doesn’t have his troubles to seek at the moment and can’t buy a win. Is his job in danger? To find out you will have to read Gino’s Thursday Blog tomorrow. What? No advertising? Oops ok, sorry.


SUNDERLAND ………………….  2  EVERTON …………………..  1

After their surprise(?) win at Liverpool last week, Sunderland played host to the other half of the city, Everton with the outcome being another great result, a result that sees them sitting at the top of the Churchill Cup North section. For Everton, it was their second defeat from two games but whereas last week they contributed nothing for over an hour, this time they made a game of it for the whole 90 minutes. The first ten minutes was much like a boxing match with both sides doing bit of sparring but Everton’s Reinartz took it too far and was yellow carded for a foul on Szalai. It was Everton who went in front through a Negredo goal on 18min with the striker fooling Pantilimon with what has been described as a deft flick but it could be typo and it could have actually been a daft flick. Really, Everton should have went on from there as they had Sunderland on the ropes and Negredo had more chances to extend the lead but he failed to take them.


The home side were struggling to get a foothold in the game and chances were scarce but that all changed after the break and whatever Wayne Bullough said to his side in the dressing room, it worked wonders. Sunderland won a free kick just seconds after the restart which Gomez sent into the Everton box. First man there was Szalai and his shot flew into the roof of the Everton net. The Toffees were rocked and Sunderland took control, denying Everton time and space and whatever else they had enjoyed in the first half, before going in front through Halilovic on 64 minutes. This brought Everton back to life but Sunderland shut up shop much to the annoyance of some fans that were still hungry. Back on the pitch, Sunderland fell much deeper and soaked up anything Everton could throw at them while still looking dangerous on the break. Time eventually ran out for Everton and Sunderland had now put both halves of Liverpool to the sword. Sunderland top the section after two games  and no one could deny they deserve it.


SOUTH SECTION


CHELSEA …………………..  0  TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR ………………  2

The two winning sides from last week met at Stamford Bridge and it was Tottenham that ended the day on top of the section after a surprise 2-0 win. Chelsea had been in superb form last week with a 5-0 demolition of Aston Villa but tonight they met their match in a dogged Tottenham, who matched them all the way. Tottenham boss David The Squirrel Piero had no reason to go nuts tonight as for many periods in the game it was them that looked like the top flight side, leaving Chelsea to chase shadows. The Fox? His nickname is apparently The Fox and I was told this last week. Ok, I am sure I wasn’t but I will go with that. Ok, Chelsea boss James The Fox McKenzie  (are you happy now?) couldn’t be too upset at his sides performance as they had their chances to score but a combination of bad luck and bad luck, with a little bad luck thrown in was their undoing.


The great Chelsea team, captained by The Ox, were my pre competition favourites to go all the way and I still think they will despite this loss to a very lucky Tottenham side. Both goals had a very lucky look about them with Dembele’s opener on 22min taking a lucky swerve that out-foxed Courtois and somehow ended up in the net but if you thought that was lucky you should have seen the second goal when Icardi sent a free kick, which was sooooo obviously a shot, into the middle and battered off the bum of Alderweirald before hitting a post and rolling over the line, just. I have no doubt that Chelsea will bounce back from this and go on and win the section and then the Cup and be Champions. David The Badger Piero’s side will crash and burn next week allowing Chelsea to go top and all will be well in the world. I will leave it at that. Go Chelsea!!


WEST HAM UNITED …………….  2  ARSENAL ………………….  0

Ok, I have settled down now, thanks to something called Ritalin, whatever that is, and we move on to the East End of London where Arsenal made their debut in the Churchill Cup against West Ham. Arsenal were expected to do well in this competition and recently new manager Michael Bowes has done a good job since taking over but tonight they slipped to a disappointing defeat at the hands of their Fourth Division opponents and already find themselves with a lot to do to try and get out of this section behind the mighty Chelsea (sorry, sorry wont happen again) A boring first half seen next to nothing happen on the pitch although on 19 minutes a pigeon landed near the far corner flag and a huge debate opened around the ground as to whether it was a Woodpigeon or if it was actually a Rock Dove, which is very similar. The pigeon/dove walked around for a few seconds before flying off again and the attention turned back to the footy. That was it for the first half but things improved after the break. Well not for Arsenal obviously, as just three minutes into the half, Obiang fired a low shot into the bottom corner to give the Hammers the lead.


Bowes was out his dug-out giving his players his thoughts but considering it was he, who did the half time talk, then he had a bit of a cheek on him. Nicky Thomson was also out his dug-out but he was celebrating the opener along with the West Ham fans and for a moment Bowes eyes met Thomson’s eyes and the whole ground froze as one, expecting the worse. Both managers returned to their respective dug outs though and calm was restored. Arsenal hit back and at last, looked a first division side but, against the run of play, West Ham went 2-0 ahead. Obiang again did the damage and he showed his versatility after the goal which could get him into trouble with the SMFA. The referee told him to tuck his versatility away and the game restarted. At 2-0 down, Arsenal accepted that they were on the end of a shock defeat which was fine by me since they knocked Liverpool out of the Shield during the week. A great result for West Ham that will elevate Nicky Thomson to legendary status in the East End and his photo is expected to appear in the Queen Vic alongside Dirty Den and Phil Mitchell. For Michael Bowes, he has to try and lift his side for the league match at Manchester United tonight.

That’s it for Matchday 2 in the Churchill Cup. For full tables, go to the Churchill Cup tab at the top of the page. I will be back next week with Matchday 3 and we should know a lot more as to who is likely to qualify for the play off stage of the competition.

No offence is intended to any manager in this article. Thanks for reading.

Ciao

J Oblak A. Madrid

I Jimenez Levante

Dodo Malaga

Mbodji Malaga

Jucilei A. Club

Banega Sevilla

Weimann Espanyol

Silva Sporting

Hulk A. Club

D. Mbokani A. Club

Pitroipa Malaga