Well that just about wraps it up for another Premier League season. Amazing to think how quickly time passes, isn't it? It seems like only yesterday the season was just beginning...
Anyway, congratulations to Manchester United, the new champions and to my mind the right ones given the standard of the opposition. Had Chelsea claimed the title today, I doubt it would have sat right with many fans of the Premier League. I say that only because Chelsea have barely been at the front of the title race all season and have limped along in third or fourth place for much of the time. Man United, for all their poor phases this season, have always been there or thereabouts like Arsenal were until they capitulated so dramatically when it mattered most.
That said, Chelsea did an amazing job pushing United all the way to the bitter end. Today's result has little or no significance to me today given the fact Alex Ferguson's men were such strong favourites to see off Wigan. Bolton earned a creditable draw, but it was all a fait accompli anyway. The FA in their wisdom elected to take the real Premier League trophy to the Man United match today (rather than the copy which went to Chelsea) and with some justification too. United proved again they have the pedigree to make a sustained challenge for the trophy over 38 games, so the title must be theirs.
At the other end of the table, an eventful afternoon saw Fulham and Bolton Wanderers keep their place in the Premier League at the expense of Birmingham City and Reading who are relegated to The Championship.
As I may have said before, I tend to feel that Fulham are perpetually one of those sides that seem to achieve little, perhaps flirt with relegation but ultimately retain their place every season and for that reason I wouldn't have batted an eyelid if they'd been relegated today. The thing is Roy Hodgson looks like a genuinely nice bloke who deserves great credit for all he's done thus far in his career. I want to see if he can turn Fulham around and make them more of a force to be reckoned with, and thanks to today's 1-0 win over Portsmouth, it looks like he'll get the chance to do so.
As for Reading, I have some sympathy with them. I think they've done pretty well since arriving in the Premier League and have played some exciting football at times, but they've gone steadily stale over the course of this season and as we all know, when the rot sets in the result can be fatal.
Birmingham have been brave in their approach this season, looking capable of putting up a decent fight with most of the teams in the bottom half of the table, but they too have seen their challenge run out of gas when they needed it most. Alex McLeish's arrival in November may have given the club a belief that better things were around the corner, but sadly it didn't quite turn out that way. Whether McLeish is still their manager by the time they return to the Premier League remains to be seen.
So that's it - the final curtain has fallen on the 2007/08 season, but fear not - we still have some things to discuss on this campaign before we can draw a line under this whole sorry affair, and we'll be tying up all those loose conversational ends over the coming week or so.
Showing posts with label Birmingham City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birmingham City. Show all posts
Sunday, May 11, 2008
The Axeman Cometh...
It's come to this, then... While Manchester United and Chelsea fight over who should have the Premier League trophy for the coming year, four teams will fight just to survive in the top flight.
Derby County have already succumbed to the executioner's axe, which means two relegation places need to be filled, and by 5pm BST today either Bolton Wanderers, Birmingham City, Fulham or Reading will fill them.
The way things stand at the moment, Reading and Birmingham occupy those remaining places, but such is the closeness of all the teams involved that the axe could come down on almost anyone.
That said, there are a couple of things to note. Firstly Bolton are definitely in the best place at the moment, being that they're three places ahead of their nearest rivals, Fulham, and two places clear of the drop zone.
That means if Bolton get a draw away to Chelsea today, they'll be safe, no matter what the others do.
Then there's Birmingham. They're only one point behind Reading and Fulham and have a far better goal difference than the two of them. That gives us the situation that if Birmingham avoid defeat at home to Blackburn today and Reading and Fulham lose, Birmingham will stay up.
The fact of the matter, though, is that Birmingham look likely to go down today. Many of the possible permutations from today's results will see Alex McLeish's men demoted to the Championship, and if that's the case, it should be interesting seeing who takes the last place between Reading and Fulham.
All of which brings us to the handy Relegation Calculator that SPAOTP have designed for you. When all the important matches get underway today, you might want to know who's set to go down and who'll stay up, so why not use the chart below? It'll give you many of the outcome permutations just by cross-referencing who's doing what in each game involving Bolton, Fulham, Reading and Birmingham.
And before you check it out, we've left out all the permutations involving Bolton winning for the reasons mentioned above and yes, we know the writing's a bit small, but that's easily alleviated. Just click on the image to see a bigger, clearer version.
The best of British luck, then, to all the teams involved. Oh and by the way - who do you think will go down today? Leave us a comment and let us know!
Derby County have already succumbed to the executioner's axe, which means two relegation places need to be filled, and by 5pm BST today either Bolton Wanderers, Birmingham City, Fulham or Reading will fill them.
The way things stand at the moment, Reading and Birmingham occupy those remaining places, but such is the closeness of all the teams involved that the axe could come down on almost anyone.That said, there are a couple of things to note. Firstly Bolton are definitely in the best place at the moment, being that they're three places ahead of their nearest rivals, Fulham, and two places clear of the drop zone.
That means if Bolton get a draw away to Chelsea today, they'll be safe, no matter what the others do.
Then there's Birmingham. They're only one point behind Reading and Fulham and have a far better goal difference than the two of them. That gives us the situation that if Birmingham avoid defeat at home to Blackburn today and Reading and Fulham lose, Birmingham will stay up.
The fact of the matter, though, is that Birmingham look likely to go down today. Many of the possible permutations from today's results will see Alex McLeish's men demoted to the Championship, and if that's the case, it should be interesting seeing who takes the last place between Reading and Fulham.
All of which brings us to the handy Relegation Calculator that SPAOTP have designed for you. When all the important matches get underway today, you might want to know who's set to go down and who'll stay up, so why not use the chart below? It'll give you many of the outcome permutations just by cross-referencing who's doing what in each game involving Bolton, Fulham, Reading and Birmingham.
And before you check it out, we've left out all the permutations involving Bolton winning for the reasons mentioned above and yes, we know the writing's a bit small, but that's easily alleviated. Just click on the image to see a bigger, clearer version.
The best of British luck, then, to all the teams involved. Oh and by the way - who do you think will go down today? Leave us a comment and let us know!
Friday, June 08, 2007
Shirts for 2007/08: Birmingham City (home)
OK, I know what you're going to say: "Not ANOTHER Umbro shirt...?!?" Well, yes, but if you're of the same opinion as me, it might actually be one you'll like quite a lot. With a warm welcome back to the Premier League to Birmingham City, witness their new home shirt for the coming season:
Now you'll excuse the picture but there aren't that many that capture all of the shirt's features in a satisfactory way, so let me guide you through them all.
First of all let me consult my Umbro checklist here... Diamonds on the shoulders - check, manufacturers logo on the sleeves - check, strange fragment of patterned fabric running down the sides - check... Ooh look! It's the old 'penguin' design again!
Yes, Birmingham City (for those of you that aren't aware) generally sport plain blue shirts under normal circumstances, but back in 1971 a new design was born which incorporated a wide strip of white down the middle 'Ajax-style'. It became known as 'The Penguin' for obvious reasons and forever became synonymous with an era when some of the Birmingham City's legends wore it, such as Bob Latchford and Trevor Francis.
The Penguin was resurrected in the 1997/98 season by Pony but this is the first time we've seen it since, and if I do say so myself it looks rather fetching. If you want to buy it, visit the Birmingham City website where it's available to pre-order, but let's face it, where's the fun in that? What you really want to do is either praise it to high heaven or damn it all the way to oblivion...
Want to know the most effective way? Leave us a comment or cast your vote below! We know a lot of you in the Birmingham area visit our site, so tell us what you think and make yourselves known!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
VOTING HAS NOW CLOSED FOR THIS SHIRT
The final results were as follows:
Excellent: 37 (37%)
Good: 23 (23%)
OK: 14 (14%)
Poor: 5 (5%)
Terrible: 20 (20%)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now you'll excuse the picture but there aren't that many that capture all of the shirt's features in a satisfactory way, so let me guide you through them all.
First of all let me consult my Umbro checklist here... Diamonds on the shoulders - check, manufacturers logo on the sleeves - check, strange fragment of patterned fabric running down the sides - check... Ooh look! It's the old 'penguin' design again!
Yes, Birmingham City (for those of you that aren't aware) generally sport plain blue shirts under normal circumstances, but back in 1971 a new design was born which incorporated a wide strip of white down the middle 'Ajax-style'. It became known as 'The Penguin' for obvious reasons and forever became synonymous with an era when some of the Birmingham City's legends wore it, such as Bob Latchford and Trevor Francis.
The Penguin was resurrected in the 1997/98 season by Pony but this is the first time we've seen it since, and if I do say so myself it looks rather fetching. If you want to buy it, visit the Birmingham City website where it's available to pre-order, but let's face it, where's the fun in that? What you really want to do is either praise it to high heaven or damn it all the way to oblivion...
Want to know the most effective way? Leave us a comment or cast your vote below! We know a lot of you in the Birmingham area visit our site, so tell us what you think and make yourselves known!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
VOTING HAS NOW CLOSED FOR THIS SHIRT
The final results were as follows:
Excellent: 37 (37%)
Good: 23 (23%)
OK: 14 (14%)
Poor: 5 (5%)
Terrible: 20 (20%)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Obscure Kits From British Football History #2
Today's 'Obscure Kit' is an absolute belter. Very little is known about it, other than the fact that it was worn as a third strip by Birmingham City in 1974.
I could say that it was a commemorative strip to mark the 30th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, but that would be a lie. I think. That said, it does have a distinctly German feel about it, given the fact that it features the Bundesflagge running at 90 degrees down the full length of the shirt.
It's quite a daring design, one would have to say, but not to everyone's taste. Me personally, I quite like it. You could only seriously get away with wearing something so colourful as a third strip these days, but let's face it, if you're going to have one, you might as well rip up the rule book and do something daring.
Birmingham City are no strangers to quirky kit designs. A few years ago they had an away kit of red and white stripes which looked, from a distance, like a Tesco carrier bag, plus there was the blue home shirt with white flecks that gave the impression that their players were part-time pigeon feeders in Trafallgar Square.
This one from 1974, though, tops the lot. The fact that it has gone unnoticed for so long is a testament to its acceptance in football history and it's use of strong colours makes a great case for designers everywhere to be bold and unshackled in their creations.
And not only that, but it also keeps alive the hope that one day all kits will be based on national flags of countries around the world.
(Our thanks go to John Devlin at True Colours Football Kits for giving us kind permission to use the above kit design image.)
I could say that it was a commemorative strip to mark the 30th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, but that would be a lie. I think. That said, it does have a distinctly German feel about it, given the fact that it features the Bundesflagge running at 90 degrees down the full length of the shirt.It's quite a daring design, one would have to say, but not to everyone's taste. Me personally, I quite like it. You could only seriously get away with wearing something so colourful as a third strip these days, but let's face it, if you're going to have one, you might as well rip up the rule book and do something daring.
Birmingham City are no strangers to quirky kit designs. A few years ago they had an away kit of red and white stripes which looked, from a distance, like a Tesco carrier bag, plus there was the blue home shirt with white flecks that gave the impression that their players were part-time pigeon feeders in Trafallgar Square.
This one from 1974, though, tops the lot. The fact that it has gone unnoticed for so long is a testament to its acceptance in football history and it's use of strong colours makes a great case for designers everywhere to be bold and unshackled in their creations.
And not only that, but it also keeps alive the hope that one day all kits will be based on national flags of countries around the world.
(Our thanks go to John Devlin at True Colours Football Kits for giving us kind permission to use the above kit design image.)
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