Roy Hodgson makes his point for new club West Brom

Roy Hodgson – the former manager at Fulham and Liverpool – secures his first point for his new club West Bromwich Albion in his first game managing the club.

Or he is not really called manager, but head coach. But it was hard fought and the team needed injury-time to level up against fellow relegation candidates Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Roy – or Woy as many banterers has called him because of his speech impediment or is it an accent? – was lucky to get that point as West Brom didn’t play well in the game. In the first half Wolves dominated play and a very nice effort on goal after a free kick by Jamie O’Hara made Wolves go one up.

But in the second half Wolves gave the initiative away and the Hodgson team was invited back in the game. The goal by Vela came as no surprise as they had the pressure on for most of the second half.

Congratulations to Woy for that point, but he has much to do before he has sorted out their play and they are out of the relegation scare. If they ever will be. His recent record at Liverpool shows that he can manage without success, so to speak.

Leonardo makes sensational switch

The former Brazilian star player Leonardo made a sensational switch when he was appointed as manager of Inter Milan.

The fans of AC Milan – the other club in the city – will be totally pissed off by this as the star has been both manager and played for Milan for most of his career. The AC Milan owner Galliano thinks that the new situation is strange indeed.

Leonardo replaces Benitez who was sacked after only six months on the job, probably because of a bad league position.

The job is now cut out for Leonardo to prove himself by bridging the gap to the league top and to win against Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Inter Milan are cup holders and face a very difficult opponent. Leonardo could surely have found himself an easier task.

Colin Calderwood wants upper half position for Hibs

The Hibernian Manager Colin Calderwood – appointed as late as in October 2010 after being assistant manager at Newcastle – is aming at a top six placement for his team.

That is despite that the team has lost five of the eight games under his management.

Calderwood said to the BBC:

“We have got to get to the top six at least. It was the goal when we came in and it’s still obviously the goal. Small signs of improvement in certain areas will always help, But, at the end of it, there is nothing to celebrate until you get your league position at the end of the season. Then you can say we have progressed forward from where we were.“

Calderwood has experience from Newcastle and also from Forest as a manager and of course lots and lots of knowledge about the game of football as a top player.

But the gap is windening to top six and it is now eight points. He’ll better get his act together fast if he is to measure up to his own standards this season.

Arsène Wenger: You never know whether it’s the best time to play Chelsea

Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal are facing a tough game the day after Boxing Day when they meet Chelsea.

But he seem to be confident enough of his teams chances to get something out of the game.

“Chelsea have gone through a period where results are a bit less good but that can happen to anyone in this league. We have seen recently that any team, when you think they are on the brink of breaking through, can have a hiccup. Maybe it’s just the quality of the league.”

‘You never know whether it’s the best time to play Chelsea. Every game is specific and a new start. They have a little bit less confidence than they had in October but we know that winning will be down to our performance.

‘We know that on Monday we will play against a top team and we do not expect any weakness on their side. We want to put a top-level performance in at the Emirates and show we are masters at home.’

‘Of course this is a must-win game’ he said. We have mixed feelings because we came out of both games against Chelsea and Manchester United this season thinking we could have won and that there wasn’t a difference between the teams.

‘We have a good opportunity to show that in the coming months and that our improvement is bigger than any other team because we are a very young side. It’s about how well we respond to what happened to us at Chelsea and Manchester United that will be the decider for our season. We are confident over taking Chelsea on at home. We face a big challenge.“

They sure do. I think it’s interesting that he mentions that their improvement will be bigger than any other team because of their youth. It will certainly be a clash worth watching.

Eloquent McCarthy talks about transfers and injuries

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy was snubbed by Aston Villa midfielder Steve Sidwell. The Villa player opted to go to West Ham instead and his medical is reported to have been o.k.

McCarthy said on a press gathering:

“I thought he was coming to us. We had a deal on the table. He has a house half an hour from West Ham. He spoke to the lads and wanted to come but West Ham came in and kyboshed it.”

“Maybe they will bring him in and sell Scott Parker. It was the choice of the player.“

He also took his time to rubbish a couple of transfer rumours about Wolves players.

“All the nonsense about Fletcher leaving – there is no chance,. I don’t believe he said what was in the paper.“

And referring to the rumours that star winger Matt Jarvis would leave for a Liverpool club he said:

“We’re in a relegation scrap and the only way we will be able to dig our way out is with our best players. They are here for the long haul and if anyone comes in for them they can Foxtrot Oscar.”

Mick McCarthy is perhaps the most straight spoken manager in British football and sometimes very amusing to listen to.

Wolves injury problems are getting fewer ahead of the game against Wigan at home on Boxing Day as players like above mentioned Jarvis, fellow midfielders Dave Jones and Stephen Hunt are ready for a come back together with defender Christophe Berra.

But Michael Kightly, Karl Henry and Jody Craddock remains in a crowded  rehab department for some time together with Chelsea loanee Michael Mancienne, striker Kevin Doyle and defender Stephen Mouyokolo who hopefully will be back soon.

Dave Jones destabilised

The Cardiff City manager was very irritated about the rumours flying about that it was disharmony at the club a couple of weeks ago and said:

“People are trying to destabilise this club by setting rumours off about fighting and arguing.

I promise everyone – and I don’t lie – there is no trouble at this football club, we have a great bunch of players.”

“[We need to] get rid of all the destabilisers around this place – and then watch us fly.“

But they didn’t seem to get rid of the destabilisators in time for the Boro match, though. They lost it with an only goal and Jones said after the game:

“I don’t know how often we are going to leave the door open at the back, a bit of fear has crept in there somehow. At the moment that unit isn’t working. We are the second biggest scorers so there is nothing wrong going forward. If you don’t score you have to keep a clean sheet and that isn’t happening.“

So the distabilisers are located in the defence then, Mr Jones?!

David Moyes praised for performance

The Everton manager David Moyes has earned himself the manager associations Performance Of The Week award.

It was of course because of the win and excellent performance by the team away against Manchester City.

Moyes will receive a specially engraved crystal football and it will be screened on Sky on Boxing Day.

After the match Moyes said

“I think it is our best performance of the season but I think it has been coming. We have been playing really well in recent weeks without maybe scoring enough or keeping a clean sheet to win the games. Our performances have been improving every week and it is now getting a bit more like where I want us to be.“

Sir Alex Ferguson beat Sir Matt Busby

Sir Alex Ferguson became the longest serving manager of Manchester United a week ago.

He  has already surpassed the figure of 2000 games in professional football management and he now passes Sir Matt Busby in the club’s record books.

Sir Alex has managed Manchester United since November 1986 – longer than any other manager now in the British league system.

In those 24 years he has brought eleven  league titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups and two European Cups to Manchester United.  Amazing!

Sir Alex was asked a couple of days ago who he thinks will win the league this season and said:

“I don’t think there will be anyone outside ourselves, Chelsea or Arsenal. I know Harry [Redknapp] is talking up his chances at Tottenham but they are involved in the Champions League, which is a new thing for them.“

“If they get through the next stage it is not easy to manage European competition at that level and doing your league programme, plus FA Cup ties. Usually experience gets you through.”

“Manchester City have got a chance, of course. But they will also have the Europa League which will make it difficult. Maybe they, and Harry too, could buy in January because it is very difficult to manage both.“

I think the veteran managermight be right in this, as he is in many things concerning footballing.

Sir Alex turns 69 on New Years Eve. And he is still going strong. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if his team takes some silverware home to Manchester this season.