BLACK

Firstly thanks to all of the football bloggers that gave their opinion on whether a English-Scottish 'British Cup' would be an entertaining replacement for the dour Carling Cup.

63% of respondents would replace the Carling Cup with the British Cup....I guess 37% either object to losing the League Cup which began in 1960 OR they just do not care!

On Tuesday night, I attended Harrogate Town vs Southport for my first non-league football experience. These 2 teams are at opposite ends of the spectrum currently, with Southport having time in the league and the conference. Harrogate Town however have never been better than they are right now.

282 real football fans turned up to see Southport win 3-0 convincingly (a slightly flattering scoreline I thought) with the home team struggling to keep with the ex-Conference side particularly in midfield.

MORE TO FOLLOW

For more information visit www.harrogatetown.com

As Gary McAllister joins the list of other young managers to be sacked (arguably premature), he exits at a time when chairmen like Ken Bates are looking for instant results and will not wait for any manager to pull through a bad patch and create continuity in the long term.

It has to be said that Sunderland's chairman Niall Quinn has proven to be an exception with the recent issues at The Stadium Of Light. It appears that Quinn most definitely did not want ex Man United captain Roy Keane to leave the managerial post after 2 years in charge and wanted to support him in the long term. In the premiership it is fair to say that this is a rarity. Since 2001, Daniel Levy is now on his 6th manager. Now, in the case of Martin Jol and more recently Juande Ramos Levy would argue that he had no choice but to sack both coaches, as would many Spurs fans. It could even be said that Ramos was a success in his brief time at White Hart Lane as he did win a competition and bring in some decent players.

Historically, 'impact managers' were used in relegation battles to not only give the club a fresh start but simply do whatever it takes to survive. Managers such as Big Ron Atkinson and more recently Steve Bruce at Wigan Athletic were incentivised heavily to keep their club in the top flight. The transfer window now acts as a mid-point to give a manager the opportunity to improve his chances of better footballing performance. Chairmen will review the teams performance consistently and will only give the manager funds to buy new players if they trust them and believe long term that it is them that they want to employ as coach.

After being swiftly terminated by Newcastle United, Sam Allardyce is back where he belongs in a Premiership managerial position. His impact? Similar to Harry Redknapp he is a superb motivator of players and led his new club Blackburn Rovers to an important 3-0 victory against Stoke City. Paul Ince's loss is Allardyce's gain. Whether he will be given more time to succeed at Ewood Park remains to be seen.

What is the risk of this short termism? That you don't create a long term strategy from the club's Academy upwards to the first 11. Liverpool fans - take note. Benitez is a superb manager who got incredible levels of criticism last season for tinkering too much with his team. Is it possible that the Reds just weren't good enough in terms of ability last season? If the Liverpool board had made a hasty decision then they probably wouldn't be top of the Premiership this Christmas.

It is interesting to hear Alex Ferguson's views on this topic because he is the shining example of continuity paying off even when the team's performance at times is not what you'd want it to be. He blames 'hangers on' - non-director shareholders that want a say and try to influence senior decisions at board meetings. He refers to it as the 'second board' - corpoarate hospitality types that add pressure, demanding instant results that have a direct correlation on the financial health of the football club.

Bit of a trip out to Eastlands - an hour journey and I will be in front of my beloved Tottenham Hotspur. This will be an intriguing contest between two teams that are both well funded and in recent years have both had dramatic developments both on and off the pitch.

Manchester City with their huge budget fueled by the pre-season takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group have a fantastic talent in Robinho, as well as the return of Wright-Phillips. No doubt in the transfer window they will continue to add some very expensive signings to this squad, with a rumoured £190m to spend in January 2009.

Tottenham Hotspur contrastingly have had yet another managerial catastrophe with Juande Ramos struggling to get any wins in the Premiership and the set up between him and Damien Cammoli (also sacked) has given new manager Harry Redknapp an unbalanced squad with 4 left backs and 3 strikers. However, out of the last 3 games Redknapp has motivated the team to generate 7 out of 9 points, notably a win against high flying Liverpool and 1 point against North London rivals Arsenal. However other team in and around the drop zone have also had good results and Tottenham still remain bottom. Today will be a big test against the fashionable Man City - if King can keep Robinho in check then Spurs could win.

Prediction: 1-1

Well, as a loyal Spurs fan I must admit that I am completely speechless afer this weekend's developments. The madness started with Daniel Levy sacking Juande Ramos, Gus Powet and Damien Comolli being sacked late last night (26th October 2008) after a series of tragic results underpinned from some tragic player acquisition at the Lane. I awoke to a text message at 8.15am from an old friend who is a Bradford City fan telling me that Harry Redknapp was our new manager. With a mixture of shear disbelief and excitement I scrambled for the trusty Sky Digital remote control to go on to SSN. Then the news unfolded. After taking 2 points from a potential 24, this premiership campaign had gone terribly. The disharmony from Ramos and Camolli was so blatant; here was a Spanish coach who wanted to demand his player choices stuck but then had more than a thorn in his side with Levy having a bias towards the Sporting Director's views.

After a decade of trying to force a square peg into a round hole with the Director of football two-tiered management structure, Daniel Levy has hit rock bottom and ate Humble pie at the lowest ebb of Tottenham Hotspur's Premiership history. Ramos was the man that Levy and Camolli both gambled on with great confidence, prizing him away from Spanish side Seville after Martin Jol's results took a downwards turn. With relegation staring Gus Poyet and Jaunde Ramos right between the eyes, something had to give.

"The results are what counts in football and we all know how this world works," Ramos said. "Now we just have to see if this decision is the best one for the team to recover and have a good season."

Harry Redknapp joins Tottenham Hotspur from a very successful second spell in management at Portsmouth. After winning the FA Cup and getting Pompey into Europe, Redknapp hinted that the £5 millon that Levy offered was too tempting a payment for Portsmouth to take. However, emotionally this move to Spurs had been on his mind in previous years and his willingness to succeed came from connections with the club on many levels.

"I could have come here maybe 18 months ago, in all honesty," said Redknapp. "I nearly came here, it was a long story but things happened.

"I nearly went to Newcastle and people said I didn't want to take on the challenge of a big club. I felt that once this happened (with Spurs again), I would have regretted it for the rest of my life.

Whatever will happen at the Lane next? A great start today with a 2-0 victory against Bolton with Pavlichenko and Bent scoring, but relegation is still a huge threat to Tottenham Hotspur - the table does not lie. Either way, today was a huge step forward for the Spurs. Harry Redknapp is the best English manager that we have and shows the strength and resilience that Tottenham need to either get out of the bottom three or to bounce right back into the big time.

San Siro - 'The place where dreams come true' - well, this ground did have a lasting impression on me. The Meazza lies in a beautiful suburban area in South Milan and has a carnival like atmosphere with memorabilia stalls everywhere and lovely little bars and restaurants. On Sunday 19th October it was a sunny day and on entering the ground I was in awe of this fortress of football. we were in the upper tier of the North Stand which seemed very very high - the views were amazing as on a clear day you can see the famous Duomo Catherdral from this seat position.

And the football? Sampdoria I thought had the better of the first half and put 2 men on Ronaldinho. In the second half both teams started brightly but it was AC that broke the deadlock with a penalty. The defender who was judged to have handled a drive from Clarence Seedorf was sent off which from a neutral's perspective is always a shame. Ronaldinho drove the pen home into the roof of the net.

After this the home team dominated the game completely with Ronaldinho and Seedorf running the show. It was not long until Ronaldinho netted a second with a flowing football move leaving the Brazillian in a great position and he clinically finished.

Inzaghe finished off a hard afternoon for Sampdoria to make it 3-0.

A memorable day for me - superb stadium and seeing Milan's hero in great form made it all a fantastic experience. Thanks Lucy!!!

As I am a very fortunate man, my partner has arranged for a weekend away in Milan for my birthday. I was delighted to find out on my birthday that we will be going to the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, or better known as the San Siro. AC Milan take on the mighty Sampdoria (lying in 17th after the first six games) and I cannot wait to go to one of the great football grounds in the world. Boasting an 82,000 capacity, the San Siro has a carnival atmosphere with history going back over 80 years. I feel fortunate that on this trip our timing co-insides with a game; when I was in Madrid a few years ago there was no game at the Bernabeu but I went on the tour anyway. This was a fantastic experience in it own right and you can do the same with the san siro stadium and these tours are hourly on match days with regular coaches to take advantage of.

If its good enough for Ronaldinho its good enough for me...