How did your lot do: Who was the best player? The worst? And who do you fancy
in the summer? A club-by-club guide to the 2007-08 Premier League season by
the people in the know: the fans
Chelsea may have lost the title to Manchester United but they may have pipped
their rivals to the signing of Portugal international Jose Bosingwa.
The big days tend to bring out the giddiness in Sir Alex Ferguson. Witness the jig he essayed down the touchline at the JJB Stadium in the style of a tipsy grandfather at a wedding; the hearty singalong with his club’s fans and, finally, the bold statement. Yesterday, as Ferguson savoured his 10th Premier League title, the Manchester United manager said that his team, and not Chelsea, had the momentum to win the Champions League.
It is a measure of what comes with managing a South East Asian billionaire’s
football team that the book on Sven Goran Eriksson’s bedside table in the
Valentino Suite of Manchester’s Radisson Edwardian hotel is a biography of
Mao Tse-tung. "It’s that thick," says Eriksson, signalling that
getting to grips with the oriental lands where Thaksin Shinawatra is setting
his commercial sights for Manchester City, has been hard work.
You read it here. The best player at Sven Goran Eriksson’s disposal over the
years was a Brazilian midfielder. Elano, perhaps? The man who, when Eriksson
was asked why he was achieving early this season at City what he hadn’t for
England, prompted the response: “Because I never had a player like Elano.”
No. The player Eriksson has most cherished down the years is Roberto Falcao.
“You won’t remember him,” he says.
Demotion to the Championship appears an inevitability for Bolton, who were
beaten 4-0 to Aston Villa on Saturday and are four points from safety with
just five league games remaining, three of which are away from home.
Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano has been banned for a further two matches
and fined £150,000 following his behaviour after being sent off in the game
against Manchester United on March 23, the Football Association have
confirmed.