Die Zukunft Ist Deutsch

Everyone knows predicting the future is a fools game, but I am prepared to make a fool of myself for you, long range prediction fans (They exist right?). Plus I have this hunch I might be on to something.

So we all know Michael Platini is on a mission to make UEFA a fairer, more worthwhile, and in my opinion better place. Sorry big four fans, but it is true. A maximum of three teams would be better for everybody, but that is a story for another time. Back to the point in hand; what will become of Michael's presenting-the-trophys-in-the-stands-for-the-fans Europe?

Well this dealio with only financially sound teams being allowed into the Champions League thing makes a lot of sense to me. I mean, what is the point of supporting a team that can just be bought out and made good? Really, what would be more satisfying all you Chelsea/City fans, the current paid for by Russian privatisation/middle eastern investment sucess you have at the minute, which lets be honest, the fans didn't have much to do with, or proper, achieved on the back of fan power sucess? Surely the second. When I see fans disucusing about how they need an investor for the team I die a little inside. That is not the banter of football fans, that is the banter of banking fans.

Seems there is growing feeling, especially amongst the throngs of the Kop and Stretford End, that maybee clubs should be in the hands of the fans. Their is a revolution brewing I tells you, a beautiful footballing revolution. Clubs owned by those that give their time and rubels, not by those with an interest in bizarre economics.

Whats more, here in England we need this revolution soon. If Platini really can bring this rule through, then as far as I can tell, England's Champions League representatives would be Arsenal, Villa, Spurs and Christ knows who else. One of those super well run Isthmian league clubs perhaps? God knows who Scotland would send. We need this revolution, or we are out of Europe guys.

Thing is, as per usuall, Germany is allready there. There are many, many wonderful things about the Bundesliga; Cheapness, entertainingness, beeringlassesinthestandsness, standingterassesthatactuallyworkness, Miroslav Klosseness, but most importantly of all clubsownedbythefansness. I accept, this it not entirely true, but their seems to be a lot of negative feeling towards the way Hoffenheim, Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen are run. Every other club is owned by the fans, for the fans, for the good of the fans and the comunity. CLubs are not investments, they are football clubs, sports clubs, social institutions. Glorious

Okay, German clubs may be off the Sky Sports Barca-and-Real-and-the-English European radar, and to be fair, they have struggled in the CL of late, but things will change. Germany is going to be all over the Champions League pretty soon, seriously. Some of the best attended and most well run (Schalke aside) clubs, operating on a morally superior model to le prem. This is the future, and in Germany, the future is now.

Spain is similar, but most clubs outside the top few get attendances that would be normal in the Championship, whereas Eintracht Frankfurt, a club so mid table, the prospect of any other finishing position that the warm embrace of 10th through 12th strikes fear into all concerned, average 40,000 every week. So while Real and Barca are also fan run, the rest of the Spanish league are to small or incompetent (cough, Valencia and Deportivo) to hold a candle to what the German teams will become.

But to be honest, a few years of Germany showing us the way would be great news. Hell, we may get real glasses and standing terasses back. Perhaps ticket prices will fall, attendaces will rise, and our penalty taking skills will Improve. Either way, if I have a choice of spending my £15 on watching Chester City climb their way out of the negative numbers whilst their winding up order is put on hold, or going to see Bayern vs. Dortmund, with a Weissbier or two on the way, the decision dosen't require to much.

It may not be obvious at the moment, but Germany has got football right, and soon they are going to be rubbing it in our noses.

And Then There Were Sixteen

So it has been said the Champions League groupstage is a money making irrelevance. But then, what is football but an irrelevant distraction on the unavoidable trudge towards death. And yet I know a good few people who could not revere Shankly's famous 'more important than that' words more if they had come from the Christ himself. Even my year nine Religous Education teacher agreed that football was a religoin to many. So by that reckoning, the Champions League groupstage must be fucking important right?

Either way, it was a glorious feast of trans-continental football, that brought light in to my dark, cold midweek evenings, and no man brought more light than Laurent Blanc. This man is a footballing genius. The anti-Allardyce walks among us. Chamakh and Gourcuff are undoubtedly brilliant players, but Blanc has got a team whose third most recognisable player, to me at least, is Diego Placente, one of those classic 'what club does he actually play for?' players that crops up in defense for Argentina. Turns out it is Bourdeaux, but he dosen't get many games. Laurent has brought, an admitedly French title winning, but largely unknown squad through a group containing big spending Juve, and a trying-to get-their-act-togethor Bayern, with style. Good job. Bordeaux are the darkest of all dark horses.

Talking of Bayern, if they can get Robben and Ribery fit for febuary... by God that could be special.

Then their was those teams kicking off to the east. A European competition should have games kicking off in the frozen east of the continent. Not only did Rubin have the best name and kit (was that a winged lion?), they outplayed some of the best teams in the competition. CSKA made it through, with Unirea being Cluj-esque in their performance. Even Debrecen and Maccabi Haifa did kind of alright. These guys brought a bit of mystery and excitement, I mean c'mon, who dosen't want to follow their team to Tartarstan? But they also brought some genuinely chalenging fixtures aswell. For once that Platini fella was right.

Real and Barca? Those dicks that will ruin world football by signing all the worlds best player right? Well...nah. They both looked pretty good on occasion, but they could have both gone out in the final round of games if things had been a bit different. If this was the champmarketing league, they would win by miles, but happily enough, marketability (That is a word yeah?) has nothing to do with football. Sevilla looked the best team in the whole thing for quite a long time, churning out some top notch performances until they got through, and they ain't exactly pretty boys. Turns out the ability to kick a ball still counts for something in this modern age.

Then there was the Milanese. AC's glorious reneaisance under Leonardo was amazing to behold. The amount of aged joy the pitch during the win over Real was obvious even from ITV's highlights packages. Sure did put a smile on Marcotti's face. Seeing Becks help these guys heroically in the knockouts, preferably aganst Chelsea, would bring a tear to my eye. And then there is Inter. Somehow they just seem like an angry team at the minute, with Balotelli and Mourinho fighting throughout, but they pulled it out and got through.

And finally, there was the heoic efforts of ACF Fiorentina. First they beat Liverpool, then Lyon, and this from a team that could have easily all gone a bit Leeds not so long ago. It is nice to know that a bit of comitment, belief, inteligence and the ability to sell shoes can still get you somewhere in this sport. Angelo Di Livio must be smiling now.

Team Of The Time #4

Team of The Time is back folks. Oh Yes. Just when you thought it was gone, lost in the wilderness, boom, back it comes, just like Adriano scoring 19 in 29 for Flamengo.

1 - Sebastian Frey. Yeah, putting Liverpool, or any English team out of the Champions League gives you some Radetto creds. Saying that, Seb has allways been one of my favourite goalkeepers since he replaced Buffon at Parma. Pink short sleeved jerseys, alice bands and awesome saves being one of my favourite combinations since childhood. But Mr Frey was super safe in goal against Lyon, keeping out Lyon's late pressure. Sweeet

2 - Juan Vargas - So you are stepping up for a penalty that could take your side into the last 16 of Europe's biggest fotball tournament. Only 7 seasons ago that team were in Serie C, and missed out at this stage, against the same opposition, the same time last year. Tense right? Not for 'the best Juan since Veron' Vargas. This pen was steely

3 - Klaas Jan Huntelaar. So AC Meeelan are 2nd in Serie A. Turns out Leonardo was a genius afterall. Not only that, but even Klaas Jan (I am so sure that is the name of a tractor company) got a few at the weekend. Furthermore, the 2nd was one of those 'oh you didn't' chips. Nice

4 - The FA Cup. Don't deny it, you would give the FA Cup a run out for your five a side team. Put it in the opposition's box, and it will head in those crosses. But seriously, it is not even the third round yet and I am allready convinced the FA Cup is one of the greatest tournaments on earth. 6,000 people turned up to see Oxford United take on AFC Barrow. That is two conference sides. And the atmosphere was electric. Seeing Newcastle take out a premiership side, preferably a top four one, would be the most glorious thing to have happened to the club in a long while. Big Four fans (often known as deluded fools) may disagree, but the FA Cup rules

5 - Laurent Blanc. The 2nd managerial genius to come out of France's golden generation. First off the man beats Lyon to the league title, then he goes and takes Bordeaux through a group containing Juventus and Bayern. He is clearly a genius. Girondins have one of those super exciting youthful talent teams and I really think they could go far. This could be the greatest gallic Champions League campain since Didier Deschamps' Monagasques went nuts a few seasons ago.

Team of The Time #3

NB. (Can these go at the front?) Kids, 4 & 5 are Iain J. Christ's first meaningful contributions. It is a brave new dawn for Radetto

Isn't the Champions League group stage the best thing ever. Er...Hells yes. There is no other way that Tuesday nights in November could be quite so uber rad. And that means Team of the Time time is upon us. Check out these picks kids. They are way bad ass.

1. Sergio Aguero - The man is going out with Maradonna's daughter. Often that would be rad enough for the slack standards of a TOTT call up. But this week he went and put two past Chelsea. And did you see the second? Did you see? It was Jan Koller powerful, way more impressive when you consider Ageuro is a tiny man with a bit of a faux mullet. Faux mullets rule kids. It is like a mullet, but you can keep your job, although I think Atletico would be cool with whatever barnet the little fella chose.

2. Zvjezdan Misimovic - Yet more Bosnian success in Europe. I am starting to genuinely believe they might actually be able to do one on Portugal the week after next. Dzeko scored as well. Might have to put my money where my mouth is. I genuinely think Bosnia could make the last 16 with their team playing like it is at the minute. But anyway, Misimovic bossed it from the midfield, but way way more importantly, scored a beauty. Check it out kids. VID

3. Carlos Puyol - Puyol has allways been the raddest captain of any team and one of those classic hard bastard center backs to boot. Then he wore short sleeves in Tartarstan. It was minus 7. Solid

4. Caster Semenya - Total powerhouse, great speed, will run 800 meters without blinking, if any member club of soon-to-be-formed Chicks Football League is listening, watching or reading I'd advise them to snap her up ASAP... and for them to do my washing and learn to drive! I jest! South Africa will claim the next World Chicks Cup, mark my words. Come to think of it... Is he the perfect partner for Torres? Let's be honest we all think they need a bit more muscle up front. In fact I would pay good money to watch her fight to the death with Jamie Carragher. IJC

5. Berbs - To round off the most tactically unbalanced 5-aside team of all time, the man off whom Michael Owen steals 20 minutes of football every week. It's of no small consequence that Manchester United's sexiest football and coolest victories happen when Berbs is keeping it pro ice in and around the area and it's only the goalkeeping heroics of Jääskeläinen that keep people on his case. Nevermind the potential of a deft, brain boiling flick from Berbs and an aggressive, pounding take from Rooney, Lil' Mickey can completely skin a Barnsley defence. IJC

Tito Would Have Loved This

So it is Champions League time again, and for the third time an Anglish team is hopefully going to get beaten around by Eastern Europes finest kids. Messrs Jovetic and Dzeko were on the case last time out. Hopefully everyone is versed up about Jovetic's mad skills after what he, and the rest of Florence's finest did to Liverpool, and Dzeko had a bit of an impact at Old Trafford the other week no?

So turning to tonight, I am hoping for yet more 'Liverpool get beaten about by super talented Eastern Europeans' action, this time courtesy of Miralem Pjanic. Lyon vs. Liverpool is one of those games that I love. I was ready to spend an evening watching the build up and game only for Sky to spoil everything for me once again. Is there anything they can't ruin about football? I was prepared to devote the entire evening to it and I work full time. Evenings are precious. But anyway, I am hoping beyond all hope that Pranjic gets good game on tonight firstly because an English team might go out in the groups (Oh the horror!), and secondly it will reaffirm my hopes that Bosnia get to South Africa next month.

So this brings me on to my main, and massivly ridiculous point. If Yugoslavia had not broken up (told you it was ridiculous) it would surely have the most exciting team on the planet, Seriously. Samir Handanovic is one of the most promising keepers in Europe right now, and it is not like there are many other world class keepers kicking around at the minute anyways. Vidic is one of the best defenders in the world right now, and I would bet my own head that him and Chelsea's Ivanovic would keep it tight at the back. Dejan Stankovic still scores the odd goal. Eduardo, Modric and Klasnic could get involved. Then there are the kids I mentioned before; Dezko, Jovetic, Pranjic. Rene Khrin and co might just fire Slovenia to the World Cup. I was going to mention Mirko Vucinic, but with Roma's form at the minute, he might not get a chance.

But there is more. If we are assuming Yugoslavia had never broke up, it dosen't seem to far fetched to assume that the people at the Croatian federation, they who convinced Eduardo to abandon Brazil, may have worked in the Yugoslav FA. You would think that if they can convince Eduardo to come to Croatia, they could probably persuade a certain Mr Ibrahimovic to play for the country of his parents no? Bohan Krkic is from that part of the world aswell?

See what I mean. This is a damn exciting team. A hundered and eighteen year old Josep Broz (In the context of this post, not to far fetched) could have watched his boys take South Africa by storm.

Jonathan Wilson, you are my hero.

Edit; I would just like to point out I have just found out Mr Wilson wrote about exactly this subject, although obviously way better. I would like it be known that I did not know this article existed when I wrote le above, honest. Anyhoom check it out. There is talk of tactical balance and everything.

Glorientina

FIORENTINA ARE WINNING. Freaking glorious this is, unless it goes all Standard Liege. Without sounding too facetious, I love it when English teams loose in the Champions League. Even more so when it is Italian teams with big haired Eastern European strikers bagging the goals. To quote some journo dude ''Is the Champions League the new League Cup?'' Er... No. Fool.

Seriously though, i think it would be super rad to see Fiorentina have a good run in this years competition. It is pretty hard not to love them. Most of those guys are on pretty small salaries, Gilardino took a 75% pay cut when he signed from AC. The new Mutu is hard not to admire. Frey is surely the most underated keeper in football history. Short sleeved pink jerseys for life. And all this from a club who where in Serie C not so long ago, and have been pretty clever in the transfer market. Prandelli is working miracles in Florence. This is exactly how a football team should be.

And last time they got past the groups, it was pretty sweet