This is my take on the 2008-2009 premiership which Manchester United were worthy champions. It was quite an exciting season which had Liverpool take up an early lead up till Christmas but Man United showed why the league is a marathon and not a sprint.

Also-rans such as Arsenal and Chelsea could have certainly done more to compete for the title considering all the talent at their disposal. In this season we saw a bigmoney-backed Man city with 35million pound man Robinho trying to see if they could use their new found position to claim the crown. Arsenal's young guns entertained as usual but sometimes were not up the physical demands of the premiership as well as choking in big games.

It was interesting to see Aston Villa battle them a good fight for the last champions league spot. In my own opinion, one of the reasons liverpool lost the title after going 11 points clear at the top of the table at one point was boiled down to some bad decision making by Benitez.. not just his rants and infatuition with Alex Ferguson but also his entire handling of Robbie Keene saga just smacks of poor man management. How could a manager buy a striker for 18 miilion pounds at the beginning of a season only to sell him at christmas after 6 months at the club when the main striker (Torres) is out injured! Liverpool could have easily won this year premiership if more creative player like Benayoun were playing regurlary.Just look at manu they have the most creative attack in Europe.

NOW FOR THE TEAM OF THE SEASON

My team will be sporting a 3-1-3-2-1 formation

Formation: 3-1-2-3-1

Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United) - has to be the goalkeeper that had 12 consecutive clean sheets .Van der saar is further evidence that goalkeeper get better as they age. He had a truly wonderful season.

Jose Bosingwa (Chelsea)- Stated the Season very well; was always a threat while scolaris used him as a menacing wing-back in the typical brazilian style.His most impressive performance was how he kept messi quiet at the Nou camp ... very puzzling indeed.

Phil Jagielka(Everton)- The powerful centre has really been a revealation and very solid.

Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United) - If I had a vote for player for the season, it would be Vidic. He has been a colossal force at the heart of the man united defense and partly responsible for long string of clean sheets at the same time he is always a huge threat at setpieces which also makes him a formiable attcking force for a defender.

Wilson Palacios (Wigan Athletic & Tottenham Hotspur) - As a member of two teams this season,palaciois had helped Wigan and notably tottenham get to thier respective position in the league. He is a tough tacking, all action player.The strength of his performance this season could see him possibly get snapped by by one of the big four.

Stephen Ireland (Manchester City) - With the coming of big name players to the city squad one might not have expected Ireland to shine but he has been their most consistent performer. He has goals ,grit, and a real knack for being in the right place at the right time.Well done.

Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) -Captain Marvel is definately a source of inspiration to his side unfortunately all his marrounding runs, shots ,goals and the fact that they beat all the "big four teams" in this season could not translate to any silverware.

Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) - Although the current World footballer of the year scored half as many goals as he did last season, his contribution to the Manunited successful campaign was immense.His dribbling runs,speed and cunning always posed a threat to opposition defenses.

Robinho (Manchester City) - Man City might have not been the first choice destination for mercurial Brazilian midfielder but he certianly did not allow it to dampen his spirits or affect his game. He came up with 14 goals and showed opposition teams why the citizens paid 35 million pounds for his services.Remeber his debut free kick goal against chelsea? boy, that was a beauty. I fondly remember Mancity fans singing "You have dickson while we've got Robinho" during games.

Anelka- A lot of eyebrows might be raised with his selection in my list but with 18 goals this season he definately deserves his place. The higly controvesial frenchman silenced a lot of his doubters and almost made amends for the champions league penalty miss with his steady performance this season.

Van der Sar

Phil Jagielka Vidic Bosigwa

Palacios

Ireland Gerrard

Ronaldo Robinho

Anelka

Notably mentions:Torres, Darren Bent, wayne Ronney, Essien, lampard,Carrager,Sktel,Alonso.

The news dominating headlines right now is the purported transfer of Kaka the Brazilian football superstar from AC Milan to Manchester City not United, City!
Since their purchase by the 15 billion dollar, Abu Dubai Corporation, City has been basking in the euphoria of their new found status as the World Richest Club!
They stole Robinho under the noses of the former holders of the title-Chelsea, which was then seen as a major coup now they are gunning for the Mother of All Coups by bidding for the services of Kaka for wait for it, 100 million euros and rumors have it that his wages could be $500,000 a week. Damn! am in the wrong business.










A lot of pundits and soccer analysts have questioned the move, concluding that ultimately it is not a good move for the Citizens for a number of reasons. They are as follows:
1. Thier Attack so far this season has not been the problem in fact they are the second highest scoring side behind Chelsea.
2. The back four of Manchester are leaking goals like a basket and one would have considered buying defenders such Alex or some defensive midfielders as a logical priority.
3. The high wage differential between players could cause major unrest in the dressing room. I know it did in Chelsea's case where in the first season that Ballack and Scevchenko came in they were earning more than Terry and Lampard which prompted everyone,ok almost everyone to ask for a renewed contract. Robben then was quoted as saying that "There were some people that don't anything but earn large amounts of money". Robinho maybe could also be asking himself, "if i had only known how rich this guy was ,i could have asked for more'. sob ,sob.

4. They will get victimized by clubs in future transfer dealings. Many clubs would double or triple prices of players when they hear City is asking for their services.
Well, if one was a Manchester City fan, one could not be bothered. The thought of seeing a great player such as Kaka in blue jersey week in week out is absolutely mouth-watering. Besides there are some reasons the move could work in their favor.

1. All eyes will be definitely be on City now. This move might be a marketing gimmick that has got everyone paying attention to them and "as God come punish Devil" as they say in my country Nigeria, if City were now to do well on the football pitch and become a Champions league Team then the i guess its mission accomplished.
2. Sales of memorabilia would increase as their fans swells which it definitely will . TV revenues would also improve considerably.
In the days of the "Galaticos" the Real Madrid president was quoted as saying that the money generated by the big name players covered up the wages paid them.
All in all, it could out out positive for the citizens.
Some say it is immoral to pay such amount for one player and it is spoiling football. then maybe those that share that view can answer these questions.
Is David Bently or Micheal Carrick worth 17 million pounds or is Wayne Rooney worth more than Christano Ronaldo at 30 million pounds.
In my view if this move of Manchester city is spoiling football then football was spoilt years ago. Remember the days when Manchester United then richest club in the world upsatged Liverpool as the kings of the English game or the Galacticos era then followed by the Roman Revolution at Chelsea.
So, I guess this is Move over -heralding the "Citizen's Renaissance".

Go to http:// chinedubond.blogspot.com. that's my blog

All hail king Anand. Anand defeated Kramnik in a 12 game Match to retain his title as the Undisputed Chess World Champion. Anand first won the crown as the Undisputed Chess Champion in a tournament in Mexico 2007 after Kramnik had Unified the title ealier on that year by defeating Topalov in a highly controvestial Match marred by the famous "Toilet Gate" Scandal.
















But Few really recognized Anand as a real champion since he won the tile in a tournament but he has more than convinced any doubters of his championship credentials by soundly beating Kramnik. For long periods in the match, Anand was hardly in trouble.
















He out prepared and out played Kramnik by taking Vladmir out of his comfortable zone and placing the game in complex positions. Such is the astounding aspect of his victory since Kramnik had a reputation as one of best prepared players. Such was his desperation for victory, Kramnik had to reply Anand's E4 with the Sicilian Nadjorf one of the sharpest opening which he had previously never scored a victory with. Previously, In the match, Anand had been playing D4 as white and this meant Kramnik had to abandon his tried and tested Petroff which would have garanted a least a draw. Anand scored victory in game 3, 5 ,6 while kramnik got his sole victory in game 10. The final Score was 6.5- 4.5.
The following is a quote by Kasparov to Mig Greengard, and published on ChessBase:

[In this match] Kramnik did not expect tough, sharp challenges with white and this was the key for Anand. He kicked some sand in Kramnik's face and hit Kramnik's weakness: his conservative approach to the game itself. Suddenly Kramnik had to fight in these sharp positions and he wasn't able to do it. This result ends the illusion that Kramnik is a great match player. London was a unique occurrence and I still stand with Leonid Yudasin as the only players Kramnik has ever beaten in a match! Kramnik now has some work to do. His overly-defensive play seems to represent a general decline in strength.

Just to mention Kasparov tipped Kramnik to win the match.

Replay the games here



Congratulations Anand.