Henry Peacock

He’s sitting on the bench in the Premier League today.

The appeal has failed.

Paddy McGuinness…does he amuse anyone?

He manages to make Vernon Kay look sophisticated.

Bolton does seem to have more than its fair share of broadcasters, including half of Radcliffe and Maconie.

Egg rolling

On Good Friday, it is traditional to climb Holcombe Hill and roll eggs back down the hill from the top.

You can do it again on Easter Monday in Avenham Park in Preston.

Times are changing and such simple comparisons are difficult to make. Moyes achieved one top four finish in ten years, but competition is increasing as more and more clubs acquire wealthy owners.

Manchester City were not a power when Moyes took over as Everton manager in 2003.
Abramovich arrived at Chelsea in June 2003. A club like Southampton now has enormous spending power.

I don’t know how much the owners of Hull and Cardiff are willing to pour into their clubs. In the Championship, chairman of Leicester City Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha has swapped debt of £103 million for shares in the club.

Everton have finished above Liverpool in the last two seasons. You could attribute that to bad management at Liverpool as much as good management at Everton. But Liverpool are now emerging as a strong force once again.

Perhaps Manchester United will suffer a similar dip following their change of manager. And Arsenal will have to change their manager at some point in the future.

So it’s a pointless exercise to compare the performance of Everton this season game by game with last season. But it is reasonable to compare their position in the league with their position in the table of annual wages. Everton should come around ninth in that.

However, Moyes failed to gain a single victory at Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United in 46 attempts. Martinez has already exceeded that.

If you have two good goal scorers, it is probably a good idea to play them together.

We have a large squad of midfield players, several of whom have experience of the Premier League. I did hope that our strength in midfield would allow us to play two forwards in the Championship this season. Unfortunately, we’ve lost McCarthy (permanently) and Maloney (for most of the season) and haven’t had two forwards who can score regularly. (We haven’t even had one!)

Teams reach the top of their league for many reasons. One good goal scorer is usually necessary, two may well be better. But the top teams may have bigger and better squads too. They may have better players in midfield and defence, allowing them to play two men up front.

I enjoyed the match last night immensely. Mourinho produced a disciplined performance from a team probably less gifted than their opponents. Chelsea played a flexible 3-3-3-1, with Eto’o as the single conventional forward. Manchester City played 4-4-2, with Negredo and Dzeko as the two forwards. Chelsea emerged the clear winners.

I think I would agree with Michael Owen when he said,

“Manchester City should be unbeatable. They are the best team in the league by a mile but I am afraid you can’t play at the top level playing 4-4-2.

“You can swat away 95% of teams playing it as most teams are average but what happens when Chelsea or Munich come to town?”

Thames has been very high in Marlow.

Paul Daniel’s house has been flooded.

Not a lot.

William Lever made the quote about advertising, “I know half my advertising isn’t working, I just don’t know which half.”

I guess that football managers have a similar problem with signings.