Kingsley Bates, Tipster at Sports Betting Day - Best Bookmakers and Betting Sites

Is There Value To The Europa League?

Kingsley Bates — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 08:52:46 +0000

I am proud of our English representatives in the Europa league this season. Given the flops of Chelsea and Manchester City in the Champions League group stage this season, and the eliminations of Arsenal and Manchester United in the last-16, there only remained one outlet for British pride in international club competition.
A competition many clubs consider to be beneath their full attention; managers use it to give playing time to their younger players and reserve team in order to keep their best players fit for Premier League action, often with the intent to push for a top four place and Champions League spot next season. This is all well known, a point made over and over again when assessing the value of the competition, measuring it against the Champions League in terms of prestige, financial benefits and appeal to the bigger named players.
However, teams from England come along once in a while and aim to put everything behind the Europa League/ UEFA Cup campaign, opposing the clubs, like Liverpool of recent years, and Tottenham under Harry Redknapp who see it as a distraction in their path to Champions League qualification. We saw Fulham make it to the final in May 2010, defeating Juventus in a thrilling 5-4 tie with a totally committed fight back against a terrific team. Middlesbrough also made it to the final in 2006, putting all effort into their assault on the title, only to be undone by a great Sevilla team.
It is no coincidence that both of these teams have never contested the Champions League, who entered due to either a cup win (Middlesbrough – League Cup) or an exceptionally high league finish (Fulham – 7th). They had little to no experience of European football, and took the opportunity to test themselves against the continent, because such an opportunity would not come along very often.
Clubs like Liverpool, who had won the Champions League in 2005, and had qualified every year until 2009-10 when their decline began and they found themselves in a lesser competition playing against smaller clubs, with less of a financial incentive. They sent out younger players who ground out 1-0 wins over two legs in almost every round. The matches were unbearably boring, lacking in passion, quality or dedication from the players, although not the fans, who still considered it a European night at Anfield. It was so boring to keep track of Liverpool in the competition that I did not know they were out until I saw the Quarter-final draw.
The same happened with Tottenham under Harry. They had their eye on a greater prize, and in all fairness, they did well when they did qualify for the Champs League. But in the Europa League, fan attendances were lower because the best players were not on display. Redknapp would leave out up to 8 or 9 players at a time, and the result was a boring match.
This season has seen a change in the attitudes of the English clubs in this competition, even Chelsea, who had as mentioned been eliminated from the bigger tournament earlier on. Being a man of European competition, Benitez wanted to go for the Europa League; it is one of the only trophies he could go for after the Premier League slipped from his grasp, and because he will not be staying on at the end of the season as manager, he wanted to leave with a couple of trophies to his name and boost his chances of securing a good job after. This is why we saw a spirited display against Staeua Bucharest, and a Chelsea side taking the competition seriously.
Similarly with Tottenham, Andre Villas-Boas has instilled a sense that his side should go for every trophy available, and also with an aptitude for the Europa League having won it with Porto in 2011, he was a good manager to lead his team of European pedigree into the competition. Villas-Boas has displayed his intent to win the Europa League by fielding strong sides in the knock-out phase, brushing aside Inter Milan in the home leg of that tie (unfortunately got pounded in the return leg 4-1, but it was good enough) and the ties involving Tottenham have been interesting for the neutral viewer.
Newcastle have, like Fulham and Middlesbrough, approached the competition from a position of obscurity. Their presence in Europe has not been felt in years and, having only recently been relegated to the championship before beginning a climb back to Premier League level, their run in Europe has been impressive. This season in the Premier League has not been inspiring, with the club sitting only just above the bottom three, and their performances have not been particularly exciting. But in Europe, with England behind them, they have managed to fight their way to the final 8 and earn a tie with Benfica, which will test them, but if ewcastle find themselves some points in the Premier League and pull away from the drop zone, they can focus on this tie and with the quality of their players and no distractions, they can make the semis.
As it stands at the moment, I can see all three Premier League teams progressing to the semi finals. Newcastle have it tough against Benfica, but they can do it. Tottenham vs Basel will be fascinating, with Basel having bested Manchester United recently in the Champions League, but again the quality of Spurs’ squad and the determination Villas-Boas has given his players, I can only see Spurs progressing.
As for Chelsea, Rubin Kazan will be a tough tie, having done well in Europe’s second tier competition for years now, and you never know with Chelsea, whether they will turn it on or not. Squad to squad, Chelsea come out on top, but Rubin Kazan represent Russia solely this season, they will be up for the tie. Being English, my biased opinion is that we will see three sides in the semi finals.
I just hope I have not jinxed it now
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Is Demba Ba Right to move to Chelsea?

Kingsley Bates — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 07:46:51 +0000

Firstly, is Demba Ba good enough to play for a title chasing side such as Chelsea? Can he prove himself in the Champions League and provide Chelsea with another trophy in Europe, leading the line with one of the Premier League’s best midfield’s behind him? And finally, will he be played as regularly as he is at Newcastle if Chelsea strengthen their forward options like it is suggested they do in summer?
Demba Ba has proven he is a Premier League goalscorer, as 36 goals in 66 games (as of 02/01/13) shows. It is a strike rate of better than a goal in every two games. He is also the fourth highest Premier League goalscorer over the last two seasons behind Van Persie, Rooney and Aguero, strikers at the very top teams and of the highest quality.
So judging by statistics alone, Ba is certainly amongst the best strikers in the Premier League. He avoided the dreaded second season syndrome which has taken the likes of Papiss Cisse, Peter Odenwingie and Andy Carroll after they had excellent debut seasons, proving he has consistency as well as quality and that he is not merely a one season wonder.
But what about his effect on the team he plays for currently, Newcastle? Well, out of the 26 goals Newcastle have scored so far this season, Ba has 13. Ba was their top scorer last season with 16, making it 29 in the one and a half seasons. That is a significant chunck of Newcastle’s goal tally, and certainly early on last season, was the reason they were in such a fantastic position to launch an assault on the top 4 by Christmas which is when the Senegalise partnership with Ba and Cisse kept the momentum going.
He had the likes of Cabaye and Ben Arfa assisting him and creating many chances for him, but it was Ba who was in the right place to put them away. He scored from inside the box, outside, from tight angles and by beating the keeper in one on one situations. He was the full ‘goalpoacher’ package. He did not have the technical ability to beat defences on his own, but he knew where to be to put the ball in the net, which is invaluable to a top half team, and even more so for a title chasing team.

What of his effectiveness in European competition? It is hard to judge because this season has been the only one to assess him in Europe, and it is the Europa league, not exactly the level of Europe players are judged on if they aspire to be the very best. Plus Alan Pardew has seen it necessary to rest him during European matches to keep him fit for Premier league action, thus Ba only has two appearances in Europe this season, scoring zero goals. However, he has shown he can score against the top Premier League sides such as Tottenham and Manchester United, both teams in Europe, so he can match up against the best defences in European football.
It is whether he can adapt to more pacy defenders and different footballing environments, different stadiums in other countries, and more hostile home supporters. His time in Germany will help, giving him an understanding of different ways of playing football, and different kinds of support, so his introduction to European football should be straightforward, especially if he moves in January and competes for Chelsea ahead of Torres in the Europa League. That will ease him into European competition.
Finally, it has to be questioned whether Ba is seen as a short term option for Chelsea, to boost their strikeforce until Abramovich can splash the cash to bring in somebody better, more expensive and with the pedigree Chelsea are looking for, like Falcao of Cavani. They have shown they are willing to bring in temporary reinforcements, as they have shown with Rafael Benitez and Roberto Di Matteo. Both are good managers, and both Champions League winners, with top level managerial pedigree, and Di Matteo was cast aside in order to bring in a temporary manager until they can get someone more exciting, young and successful i.e. Guardiola. They brought in Deco to do a job in center midfield, then replaced him one season later with Ramires.
If Ba has to face off competition from the likes of Torres, Lukaku and Falcao/Cavani, I cannot see him getting the game time he wants, or needs to satisfy him. Unless he does not mind being a benchwarmer, he may find it difficult to accept being the plan B, watching better players on the pitch ahead of him because he moved to a club which is able to purchase the best possible options.

It seems to me that Ba, with a £7.5 million release clause in his contracts, having a decent goal scoring record and being a proven Premier League player is the cheap, short term option for Chelsea who are lacking in strikers this season. In the summer, they will pursue the big money signings that have been mentioned many times in the press, leaving Ba in the reserves of one of the biggest teams in the world, rather than on the pitch for a good side like Newcastle.
Chelsea have the financial power to get almost any striker they want, and the willingness to pay over the odds to get said striker. Ba will do the job in this half of the season should the move go through that Chelsea have brought him to do, which is to cover Torres, or play alongside him, which is difficult to see considering that Benitez will have to drop one of Hazard, Oscar, Mata, or Lampard to accommodate Ba. So it will be either Ba, or the £50 million, Abramovich favourite Torres who will start. I can see who will get the nod.
Is this the right move for Ba. In the short term, yes. He will be played from January until march, he will poach the goals Chelsea needed Torres to get for them and he will have a successful end of this season. But as soon as Chelsea go in for Falcao or Cavani, Ba will find himself either looking for a move elsewhere, or sitting glumly on the bench wondering why a player of his talent is not on the pitch, banging in the goals like he did during the good old days at Newcastle.
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