SOCCER ANGLES:There's never a dull moment in the Premier League, especially when money is involved, writes Michael Walker
WHAT A week. What a fortnight. What a season. What a time to recall, even if that recollection will be undermined by the inability to comprehend fully the present, never mind the past once we get to the future.
These are whirlpool weeks in the Premier League and beyond. We are sucked in, washed about, dragged down and spun up again. We are half-baffled by it, half-thrilled, half-desperate to go again. It doesn't add up but here we are half-certain that at the end of the day, Brian, we'll be bewildered by the avalanche of minutiae and drama.
It never seems to stop. The Premier League season is only seven games old yet already it feels as if Liverpool became Newcastle became Tottenham became West Ham became Manchester City and it might be Everton or Arsenal next.
Breaking news, it's always breaking news.
Lots of this is about footballers, managers and form. But lots of it is also about money. A sample poll of your friends will reveal at least as many are familiar with the Icelandic bank, Lansbanki, as they are with the name of the centre forward of a club on the scale of Leeds United*. What's going on at (insert club) has become the question of the season.
Having been the Enron of football financial scandals - huge, appalling, cynical and yet unheeded - Leeds could be seen sloshing around in the second round, North, of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy on Wednesday night.
Leeds were at Rotherham United, though not at Rotherham. Sheffield is where Rotherham play now. They train in Doncaster.
People say this can't be but then accept it as it is. There is no choice, it's all part of the avalanche.
Rotherham United was no Enron. This was more like one of Abrakebabra's shops closing down and moving to a cheaper part of town. Only the locals noticed. It was the same at Bournemouth and Luton. Only the locals noticed.
And Hull. But that was six years ago, before they won X Factor and started starring on television on Saturday nights. Hull City encapsulate a lot of the swirling rhythm of the times.
If you can remember as far back as the last day of August, Hull faced Wigan at home and lost 5-0. Five-nil. There was plenty of 'Welcome to the Premier League' condescension after that.
After all, the accepted wisdom was that staying up last year was so vital to Sunderland because they would be insulated from relegation for another season at least due to the woefulness of the three promoted teams, West Brom, Stoke and Hull. We all agreed. We're not so smart.
Hull followed the 5-0 by winning at Newcastle. Cockney Mafia Out. Then Hull drew with Everton. Stabilized, Hull went to Arsenal and won and buoyed by that went to Tottenham and did the same. From 5-0 to third in the table in just over a month. Where will they be come November?
How are we meant to understand this, digest it and still find time for The Wire box set? Hull are just one of 20 Premier League clubs and their season is teeming with happenings already. Over on Wall Street they have a V market, that's V for volatility. Hull would be top of it for September.
They probably need this international break to catch some breath. Then they start again next weekend against West Ham. A reasonable guess is that West Ham are enjoying the break less. The breaking news from Upton Park is increasingly of broken parts.
"West Ham fear a financial black hole of more than €127 million after the club's owner, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, was forced to resign from Landsbanki by the Icelandic government yesterday." That was one report on Wednesday morning.
Some might say that at West Ham, fortune's always hiding. But this is less than funny to supporters who expect to see more players depart in January. Losing a shirt sponsor - XL - is hardly the world's end but the detail that Gudmundsson had used a massive Landsbanki loan to help try to fund a buy-out of the XL leisure group reveals new layers of economic intrigue.
West Ham's debt in May of last year was €76 million. Hull's debt is €254,000.
Manchester United's debt is €970 million. You might need to read that again. Is there any intention at Old Trafford to do more than pay off the monthly interest? If not, what does that mean for the rest? "There is one certain fact about debt," said Lord Triesman, the new chairman of the Football Association, on Tuesday. "It has to be repaid or refinanced." There's us thinking the global meltdown was about people not abiding by that one certain fact.
Triesman estimated English football's debt at €3.8 billion with the top four in the Premier League accounting for more than a third of that. A day later Uefa said it was considering introducing sanctions against clubs who carry too much debt. Not so long ago Michel Platini described debt as a form of cheating. Would Uefa dare to ban United or Chelsea from the Champions League? That's the hint.
Imagine if Uefa made good on their threat. What are the consequences? Dramatic, one thinks. But appropriately so, because if the Premier League is one thing, it is a massive drama. One of the lessons for future league administrators would be that the more incident, the more name-calling, the more volatility, the better. If the story slows, throw in a foreign dictator, or Joe Kinnear. Summertime? Get the leading player in the land to call himself a slave.
But whatever you do, keep stirring.
Faster! Faster!
*Told you.
Setanta Cup worth the fight
AS LONG as it is Glentoran, it doesn't matter a jot who wins the Setanta Cup.
As a long-lapsed Glenman, that would be the ideal outcome but what matters much, much, more is that the Cup is worth winning and is seen and felt to be worth winning.
A fortnight or so ago, it was dismaying to hear Linfield's David Jeffrey speculate that no Irish League presence in this season's last four could virtually quash the Setanta enterprise. So in getting to the semi-finals by overcoming St Pat's on Monday night at The Oval, Glentoran did their bit to keep the competition breathing in Ireland's first football city.
Now the Glens could do with a big performance against Drogheda and not just for the Glens. We have reached a delicate stage in the debate about an all-Ireland league but then when is it not delicate? What needs to be shown is that the competition is there and that it can attract people through the gate. Of course that is far from easy given the sporting opposition internally and externally, and the economy, as Drogheda know.
But the Setanta Cup is worth holding onto just as the idea of an all-island league is of its time, necessary and worth fighting for.
Keep eye on Mehmet
PERHAPS IT was a good day to see Billy Mehmet play for the first time. After all it was St Mirren's opening fixture of the season and it was at Celtic, who unfurled the flag of SPL champions. Who could not raise their game on such an occasion?
But Billy Mehmet impressed as St Mirren's lone front man. He was mobile, showed a good touch and seemed worth following. Minimal research revealed that Mehmet, London-born, had been a contemporary of Bobby Zamora and the like at West Ham. Then reading the Irish in Britain column in this paper, Mehmet appeared as eligible due to an Irish grandmother and fours years ago appeared for the under-21s.
He is beyond that level now but he may not be beyond Trap's radar if he continues to score in the SPL. It is a judgement based on limited viewing in the flesh, but Mehmet looked as difficult an opponent for Celtic to deal with as Noel Hunt did when he faced them for Dundee United in May. And Hunt must be getting closer.
