“So it is that the love affair between the British press and the Italian comes to an end. England’s friendly match against Hungary last week was what it was – a team in transition playing a mediocre team in a pre-season friendly match – but there was no way that Capello could ‘win’ this match, especially after his response to a leading question over the future of Sir David of Beckham. The press were looking for a reason to stick the knife into Capello and twist it and this question coupled with his answer to it gave them all the ammunition that they needed, although no-one has yet indicated the real reason why this may be.” (twohundredpercent)

“This week, it was with no small amount of delight that I took delivery of this season’s Sky Sports Football Yearbook (or ‘Rothmans’ as all football fans still refer to it). I haven’t had one for a long time – not since my teens – and had forgotten what a pleasure it is to leaf through its thin, cheap pages. Reassuringly still edited by father and daughter team Jack and Glenda Rollin, it does a brilliant job of reminding you all the stuff from previous seasons that you’d forgotten about – particularly the most recent season.” (Narrow The Angle)

“For a team that won three league titles in the 1950s, and has four FA Cup wins to it’s name, last season was as good as it’s been for a whole generation of Wolverhampton Wanderers fans, seeing as it will be 29 years since the club last embarked on consecutive seasons in the top flight. Mick McCarthy made some controversial decisions last year – his fielding of a virtual reserve side at Old Trafford by far the most standout one. Some of his other decisions now seem hypocritical, considering how defensive Wolves were last season, and how McCarthy spent the last few weeks of June criticising every World Cup minnow who dared to play for a draw in the group stages.” (twohundredpercent)

The Premier League Previews 2010/11, Part 19: Wigan Athletic – International Men Of Mystery
“One of the dangers of writing these predictionless previews, as our Premier League previews have been on twohundredpercent this year, is that it’s very easy to fall into the trap of saying nice things about everyone. When it comes to football, my nature is always to look on the positive side anyway – I’m at a loss to explain this because I can assure you I’m one miserable git in every other walk of life, but on Saturday afternoons I become the eternal optimist. So it is that, while I’m in no sense a Wigan supporter, when I come to look at Roberto Martinez’s squad and make my best assessment of how they’ll do, it’s easy for me to look on the bright side and think – yeah, they’ll be fine.” (twohundredpercent)

The Premier League Previews 2010/11, Part 18: West Ham United – Owner Over-Occupied?
“It’s been an interesting few years when you look at the financial side, and the stewardship of West Ham United. When the club were last relegated in 2003, chairman Terence Brown played a canny hand when dealing with players exiting the club. Unlike other relegated clubs in previous seasons, who proclaimed a firesale the moment their fates had been sealed, and followed it up with almost weekly media proclamations that they had to sell players, thus reducing the value of said players, Brown made it clear: West Ham did not need to sell. Brown even went as far as turning down a transfer request from Jermain Defoe, submitted less than 24 hours after the Hammers had been relegated.” (twohundredpercent)

“It feels like we’ve been here before. West Bromwich Albion are promoted back to the Premier League, and have played some beautiful football to get here. Having spent eight seasons in what is now called the Championship, West Bromwich Albion have become a bit of a yo-yo club, so to speak, having not spent more than two seasons in the same flight since. And while they can only continue that trend this season, they must certainly look to this season to lay the foundations to break the spell next season.” (twohundredpercent)

“Good evening everybody. Well, both of you. Sorry, us. It would be easy for me to begin tonight’s commentary by wondering about the pointlessness of it all: an international friendly being contested by two groups of players who almost certainly have no interest in playing it and chronicled on a minute-by-minutely basis by a reporter who has no interest in watching it for people who have no interest in reading about it.” (Guardian)

England 2-1 Hungary – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Friendly – 11 August 2010
“England played their first match since the disappointing exit from the 2010 FIFA World Cup with a friendly match against Hungary. The England side saw several changes from the World Cup with call-ups of new players and an emphasis on younger players.” (The 90th Minute)

“Following the 1-0 win against Manchester City that secured Champions League football for the club for the first time in their penultimate match of last season, Tottenham Hotspur players celebrated as if they had just won the Premier League itself. In some respects, this was understandable – consider, for example, what this must have been worth to them in bonuses alone – but in others, it was the end of one battle and the beginning of another. As Arsenal supporters have not tired of reminding them over the summer months, finishing in fourth place in the Premier League didn’t actually guarantee Spurs place in the Champions League proper. Rather, it granted them a place in the final qualifying round for a place in the Champions League.” (twohundredpercent)

“It is a reflection of the financial rewards on offer in modern football that teams have to do what they have to do on the pitch in order to survive and that sometimes what they have to do isn’t that pretty. Stoke City’s promotion into the Premier League just over two years ago was something of surprise in itself and they were, accordingly, widely tipped – the point of unanimity – to drop straight back into the Football League. Two full seasons on, however, they are still there and without having to spend too much of that time worrying that much about getting relegated back. They’re not often that pretty to watch and there are plenty of purists that would like to see them crash and burn, but Stoke City are still in the Premier League, and it is likely that they still will be come the end of this season, too.” (twohundredpercent)

The Premier League Previews 2010/11, Part 15: Sunderland – An Unknown Quantity
“They spent four years bouncing between the Premier League and the Championship, the rubber ball that is Sunderland finally seems to be coming to rest. The question now facing Steve Bruce is how to make the next leap forward and take his team into the top half of the table. The jury, currently, is out on whether he will be able to manage it this season and, for Bruce, this might not be particularly good news. Sunderland’s average attendance crept over the 40,000 barrier last season, and how long the club’s supporters or owners will tolerate lower mid-table finishes is open to question. They have had three since they returned to the Premier League in 2007, and the concern is that stagnation or worse – a return to pitched battles against relegation – may follow if they don’t improve this year.” (twohundredpercent)

“Yesterday, Laurence McKenna, Kartik Krishnaiyer and myself focus on some of the issues that have carried over from the summer into the beginning of this Premier League campaign. On today’s edition of the EPL Talk podcast, we move to the clubs, talking about which teams we feel are going to make-up the bottom half of the league and potentially battle relegation. We start the conversation by discussing the newly promoted clubs – Newcastle, West Brom, and Blackpool.” (EPL Talk)