I’ll admit scoffing loudly when Adam Pearson described picking Nigel Clough as Derby manager as ‘definitely not a sentimental appointment.’ After all, Nigel’s father Brian was unambiguously Derby County’s greatest ever manager – winning their two top flight titles in 1971/72 and 1974/75.

So when Nigel Clough replaced Paul Jewell I presumed it was a weak sop to Derby fans, done for all the wrong reasons. But in the first game since the appointment – albeit with David Lowe managing from the dug out – they were fantastic.

They outran and outpassed a very strong Manchester United side – Vidić, Scholes, Anderson, Tévez and Nani all started, Ronaldo, Rooney and Carrick came on – and deserved at least their 1-0 win.

Derby are still back in eighteenth place, with just 29 points from 26 games. But if they keep on playing like this, and keep hold of Kris Commons and Giles Barnes, we could well see them back in the top flight before too long.

Every music website under the sun is stuffed with ‘Ones to Watch’ for the coming year. Some are great. You know about Florence and the Machine. Empire Of The Sun promise to fill your MGMT-shaped hole. The Big Pink are shoe-gaze-new-gaze goodness and Little Boots is that indie-girl pin up you’ve been sold for years, but better. Lots better.

On the other hand, some are tripe. And dripping. So, before we get back to the round of weekly singles (back in 0th week), I thought it best to warn you off a few potential mistakes.

The Virgins – NME, who really never learn, are drooling over this unintelligent and unprepossessing bunch who sing about cocaine brunches and rich girls in tortured teen drawls. Some cynical marketing exec. has clearly engineered this group by combining the very worst parts of The Kooks, RHCP and Jamiroquai…

White Lies – That bassline. That superhigh, singlenote synth. That voice. Those military stabs of guitar. Heard it before somewhere? Er, Grand National/Interpol/Killers/Editors/JoyfuckingDivision much?

The Soft Pack – the future voice of garage punk? Or just really, really mediocre and unoriginal?

The Chapman Family – OK, they may be the real thing, but the real thing takes itself laughably seriously for a band of such average talent. Hints of Kaiser Chiefs lurking too.

Red Light Company – Their myspace is beautiful, their songs are exultant, their production immense. Yet none of this can save the whining voice, the underlying lack of new ideas, or the uncomfortable closeness to the worst bombastic excesses of Brandon Flowers.

I predict success for all of them. Just don’t get embarrassed in twelve months’ time. Until next week…

Arsenal may have fronted the red (and white) carpet that rolled in 2008 yet they eventually proved that a five point lead and recent championship-winning experience does not equate to success come the season finale. That Liverpool posses a slimmer advantage and only distant recollection of a serious title fight suggests Manchester remains, for the time being at least, the destination for sensible money, contrasting the insensible kind elsewhere in the city.

United have a stronger squad and first team than last season and even assuming their current formation continues to underperform, a return to the tactics of 07-08 remains a feasible plan B. And those last two words have been noticeably lacking in the Chelsea set-up recently. Scolari has overseen a regression towards predictable offensive play with few additions save a couple from his Portugal days; a defender apparently more focused on accruing fantasy football points than defending and a playmaker ageing by the game. Expect the infamous oligarch to be seeking a fourth representative on West London earth by the close of ‘09.

Given the largely woeful and superb half-seasons of Arsenal and Villa respectively, the latter may come to regret their relatively meagre lead of three points. Whilst I’d love to see Villa hang on, if only for the feats of athleticism Martin O’Neill would produce if they did, a slight turnaround for either team will probably see them narrowly drop to fifth, especially with Wenger set to break his ethical code and actually sign someone. Moving down the table, West Brom will surely succumb to relegation, Stoke will follow them after becoming the first team to be crippled by a solitary shoulder injury and John ‘Pompy FC‘ Westwood may finally have to find a new way to get on TV, his love affair with MOTD cameramen cut short.

On the continent, Inter will comfortably retain the scudetto despite underwhelming performances and an inevitable crash out of Europe, infuriated by the triumph of their city rivals in a series of global friendly tournaments designed to cash in on ‘brand-Becks’. This will leave the door open for Barcelona to claim the Domestic/European double this year, a likely feat should they manage to win their way through the lottery of English teams that the latter stages has become. Looking further ahead, October will see the Republic’s qualification hopes entirely dependent on their playoff opponents, whilst England will achieve comfortable qualification, allowing Capello a 2010 of media adulation before eventual World Cup failure. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Jermaine Defoe will be hoping his second spell at Tottenham is more fruitful than his first.

The England striker has always been popular with the North Londoners and his £15m (after add-ons of course – nothing is paid up front anymore, is it?) move from Portsmouth has been greeted with widespread approval from the White Hart Lane faithful.

But Spurs loyal followers of ‘Arry’s Army should remind themselves exactly why Defoe is returning to their ranks.

A year ago, Portsmouth were a football club enjoying heights they’d never reached before. Acquisitions such as Distin, Kranjcar, Muntari and Diarra helped them to their first FA Cup since 1939. On that occasion, they kept Wolves at bay in a 4-1 win.

Behind the scenes of their latest cup win however, the Wolves knocking at the door did not play in gold and black: the only colour representing them was green.

Portsmouth’s success had come at a price – they possessed one of the highest wage bills in the league. Diarra was reportedly signed on a £100,000-a-week contract, for starters. But surely it was worth it given the success Portsmouth had? You can’t put a price on AC Milan visiting Fratton Park on a blustery Thursday night, can you?

But for every Diarra, there was a David Nugent. The wages that Muntari earnt were merely collected by Milan Baros. This, coupled with some extortionate transfer fees (£7m for John Utaka, anyone?), has left Portsmouth in financial trouble. Harry Redknapp jumped ship as the Titanic sank, ironically a ship which set off from Southampton.

See a pattern emerging? West Ham fans do, as they currently find themselves suffering Pompey’s fate. Of course, this time around it isn’t Redknapp’s fault, but the name Marco Boogers still gets up the nose of many Hammers fans. After selling Rio Ferdinand for £18m to balance the books, Redknapp left six months later. It only took two seasons for West Ham to be relegated – they have never regained financial security since.

As far as I’m concerned, Redknapp is not a good manager. A manager is someone who manages the club; someone who creates an infrastructure within the club that only an earth-shattering earthquake of financial ruin and future incompetence can destroy. Redknapp is a good coach and a very good motivator; but a good manager never leaves a club with debris to be hoovered up by nice guys desperate for a job (Roeder) or a young, untested manager (his very own Rodney, Tony Adams).

But stability doesn’t exist in Del Boy’s world. ‘Arry goes for a machine-gun approach with his transfers as his treble swoop for Defoe, Crouch and Johnson shows. Defoe is fair enough, but Crouch and Johnson would certainly be questionable buys. For me, Hutton – albeit injured at the moment – and Corluka are two of the best defenders in the division whilst Crouch would be an unnecessary luxury.

Jack’s thoughts on his transfer policy correlates with mine. While his new signings propel Spurs to mid-table safety, the Bents and Bales of the squad will eventually rot on the bench by day and a Soho barstool by night, simultaneously eating away at the club’s finances.

Maybe being at a more wealthy club will give him extra license to spend. Perhaps Levy’s millions will give him a bigger margin of error than Lowe’s did. But don’t be surprised if Jermaine Defoe and Michael Dawson move to St. James’ Park in 18 months time.

They’re great players, ‘Arry would love to have them there.

You know what I mean. When a manager barges down the tunnel after a poor performance from his own team, eyes bulging, nostrils flaring, and precedes to point the finger of blame at just about anybody to the nearest man with a microphone. The ref, violent opposition, the pitch; in fact anyone but them or their own team.

In most cases they’re so wrong it’s cringe worthy. Take Southampton manger Jan Poortvliet’s embarrassing ‘performance’ this Sunday. Basically the man failed the acknowledge blatant fact. After the game he said to BBC Sport, “the first goal was offside and the red was just a normal tackle”.

Actually Jan, the first goal was perfectly legitimate and the red card couldn’t be much more deserved for a frankly disgusting tackle by Matt Paterson on Nemanja Vidic. His rant wasn’t just reserved for full time either; referee Mike Reilly received the full brunt of his fury in the tunnel in addition to sarcastic applause as the man in black left the field.

At such times managers are often just angry and Poortvliet is hardly alone (Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear referring to Sun hack Shaun Custis as a ‘c***’ in his comeback press conference is just one memorable example). Yet are these rants just public explosions of anger or do they serve some other purpose?

Take Arsene Wenger, famous for his inexplicable post match bollocks. Just last week he managed to blame a conversation between match officials and opposition staff at half time, rather than the fact that his team were just rubbish, to explain their failure to beat Aston Villa. Naturally there was a scathing reaction in forums and press around the land but one contradictory theory was rather interesting.

The argument is that the most media-savvy managers deliberately push blame away from their side and even onto themselves especially to protect younger players. So in Wenger’s case all the talk was of his rant and not on pressuring his team.

This theory is obviously flimsy, especially given the amount that all of the top managers are clearly just furious, but the benefits of their labours are evident when laid against a counter example. Roy Keane as Sunderland manager very rarely blamed anyone but himself. The buck stopped firmly with him. Of defeat by Bolton towards the end of his reign he said, “whatever the punters thought last weekend when we lost, multiply that by a thousand for what was going through my head.”

This is why Keane and his side couldn’t succeed. The intensity which made him such a great player caused him to implode as a manager and his side with him. Conversely all of the other top managers, deliberately or not, relieve the pressure all the time in the media and so can be happy in the job and so can their players.

Keane may share a barbed tongue with men like Ferguson and Mourinho, but he thoroughly failed to deal with the pressure as well. Managerial rants can be embarrassing, even amusing, but most importantly they are necessary.

In his YouTube address this week, President-Elect Obama kicked off his economic programme. The announcement spoke to his determination to enter the Oval Office on January 20th with his first major piece of legislation ready (almost) to be signed: a large stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. It will be the principal business for the first week of the 111th Congress: a large package, probably worth around $800bn, designed to make any forthcoming recession less harsh and less lengthy.

It forms the latest step in the US government’s response to the current economic climate, and the Obama administration’s first major initiative. The President-Elect had remained pretty quiet on the economy (with the exception of a very general discussion of FDR-style public works initiatives), perhaps (understandably) preferring to allow a clear division to be formed in the minds of the public between President Bush’s economic legacy and his own.

Obama’s team should be careful to draw lessons from the current administration’s handling of the Wall Street bailout process back in October. Happily, it seems they have.

What went wrong back then? The major criticism of the Bush administration was that, whilst they were ultimately successful in passing a bailout bill, it took too long. The mainstream American press contrasted Gordon Brown’s approach with Bush’s, concluding the former had responded far better, chiefly because his response was faster. That’s perhaps unfair, and a little too simple — of course Bush wanted to act fast, but Congress, in an election year, prevented him from doing so. A consequence, perhaps, of the difference between the British and American systems of government.

That said, the Bush administration made Congress’ mischief more probable. The White House sold the bill as a “bailout”, emphasising its size, “$700bn”, and that the recipients would be “Wall Street”. A Congressman in a tight re-election race can’t sell a “$700bn Wall Street bailout” to his or her constituents. That led to opposition, and votes against.

It’s all semantics, of course, but it’s massively important stuff. There was a poll the other day asking respondents whether or not they’d support two policies. The two policies were precisely the same, but the first was described as a bailout, the second as a stimulus. The second was supported by twice as many respondents.

Obama’s new stimulus bill is about “job creation”, “strategic investment”, “economic recovery”, “bipartisan solutions”, and will involve “vigorous oversight”. The big figure is never in the headlines, because they’ve been vague about how much it’ll be — which was smart, because the public will have been warmed to the idea of a stimulus (and its necessity) before they hear how much it’ll cost. Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster, yesterday told Politico.com that “Obama’s team are the best linguists I’ve ever seen. Republicans aren’t in his league right now.” If politics is about perception, the Obama team’s adeptness at shaping the wider narrative will pay dividends.

I tend to think a government stimulus package is a strong case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t — if government does nothing, the economy craters, and people hate the government; if government intervenes, opposition parties yell about debt, and the squandering of tax money. And it’s one of those issues, I think, where picking a position in the middle is not really an option: a small stimulus package will do very little, but still give opposition parties an opportunity to scream. Not wishing to oversimplify, but governments have to make a choice something like “all or nothing”.

Obama has picked the former, so the stimulus should be large, done fast, and, crucially, sold well. The American people have to think it’s the right thing to do; that it’ll make them and their economy better off. Only then will they start to spend again.

—

A final note, if only for the sake of humour. President George H. W. Bush conducted a rare interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday. His message: Jeb for President.

After its brief winter break, La Liga recommenced this weekend, with important wins for what is now the top three: Barcelona, Valencia and Real Madrid.

FC Barcelona 3 – 1 Real Mallorca

Barcelona started the weekend on Saturday evening, at home to Real Mallorca.  Lionel Messi was rested, so Alexsandr Hleb started on the right.  Another player familiar to English fans, Eidur Gudjohnsen, made only his sixth league start of the season.  While it was not Barca’s strongest starting eleven, the Camp Nou was shocked as Mallorca took an early lead through Aritz Aduriz. 

Even a side as good as Barcelona miss a player of Messi’s quality, and their play lacked the spark Messi provides.  When they did equalise, it was from exploiting the second ball from a corner, Thierry Henry smashing it home from a tight angle. 

A relatively pedestrian second half improved with the introduction of Dani Alves and Andrés Iniesta, the latter for the lacklustre Hleb.  And it was Iniesta, returning from months out injured, who put Barca ahead with fifteen minutes left.  He started a move from the left, which went through Xavi and Eto’o before he got on the end of Gudjohnsen’s cross to slot home.  Yaya Touré scored the third in stoppage time, with a nice run and shot.

Valencia 3 – 1 Atlético Madrid

One of the ties of the weekend, between two sides separated only by goal difference.  With thirty points from the first sixteen games, they were both strong contenders for the 2009/10 Champions League places.

As good as the pairing of Diego Forlan and Sergio Agüero has been this year, they were outshone and outdone by Valencia’s front two, Davids Silva and Villa.  It was Villa who put Valencia ahead with a penalty on 34 minutes, won by Baraja’s exaggerated fall.  It was Villa’s thirteenth league goal of the season.  Valencia went two ahead five minutes later, as Miguel burst down the right and found David Silva, who finished with the outside of his left boot.

Atlético pulled one back in first half stoppage time, Diego Forlan converting a penalty.  Baraja received the booking he should have got for his earlier dive after pushing over Kun Agüero in the box.  There was no serious second half fightback thought from Atlético, pinned back as they were by Joaquin and Mata on the wings.  David Silva scored Valencia’s third on 68 minutes with a great strike from twenty five yards out.

Real Madrid 1 – 0 Villareal

The big story was the debuts of Real’s two £20m Christmas presents, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Lassana Diarra.  Diarra partnered Gago in central midfield, in the absence of Guti.  Huntelaar replaced the flu-struck Gonzalo Higuaín up front with Raúl.

But the star performance was from Arjen Robben.  The former Chelsea winger is having his best season yet at the Bernabeu, and started this game from the right wing, rather than his usual outside-left role.  While Raul and Huntelaar were kept quiet, Robben gave left back Joan Capdevila a torrid time, racing past him both inside and out.

It was when he came inside onto his left foot that he produced the game’s one moment of exceptional quality, dropping his shoulder and beating three defenders before finding the top corner from twenty yards out.  It was a ludicrously good goal, and a hint that when form and fitness are on his side, Arjen Robben is not very far away from the Ronaldo/Messi bracket.

The rest of the game was less good.  Iker Casillas had to make a few very good saves, as the Heinze-Pepe-Cannavaro-Ramos back four again looked less good on the pitch than it does on paper.  Royston Drenthe came on for Huntelaar with forty minutes left and proved that, if he does make his unlikely move, Jermaine Pennant will not be the worst ever player to play for Real Madrid.

Picture the scene – its the 24th of March, 2009, and at Anfield, with minutes remaining, Spurs are holding Liverpool to a 2-2 draw. A Jermaine Defoe double for Spurs had given Tottenham an early lead, stunning a packed and expecting Anfield. Torres got one back before half time, and Gomes returned to beginning-of-the-season form to gift Robbie Keane an open goal after attempting to nutmeg him in his own box. With the Man United players nervously waiting on the final result from Liverpool, Steven Gerrard steps up and pings (surely the only word to describe his immaculate technique) a 30 yard volley into the top corner, past a spralling Gomes, to bring the League title back to Liverpool. Kristian, another 12:45 blogger, begins his week long bender, and the whole of Liverpool (the red half at least) erupts in ectasy, but also relief. It has been too long. Now, finally, Liverpool can relax.

Certaintly, this could happen. Over christmas, Liverpool seem to have stepped up their performances, a sure sign of a title winning side – slowly going up the gears, scoring more goals, playing with more confidence, and this is with Torres to come back. Even the Gerrard fiasco might create a siege mentality that will help the club. Yet, I still feel there is a time bomb of emotion at Liverpool. You can see a ‘St. Andrews’ moment occurring, just like Arsenal last season, when in one moment, the Clichy mistake, they capitulated. For Arsenal there was too much emotion in the dressing room, too many fiery characters, which were inflamed by Clichy and the terrible injury to Eduardo. For Liverpool, you sense that the fans, who are, it pains me to admit, the best in the country, want the league title so much, that their emotion and passion could explode on the pitch. Maybe Liverpool lack the calm ruthlessness of Manchester United and Chelsea, who are used to winning league, and know how to pick up those 1-0 wins, who will not feel the heat as much as at Anfield if they go one nil down at home. This is just a gut instinct, maybe just because I have never seen a Liverpool captain lift the title. But the club, built on such strong emotional attachment with their players, might succumb to the inevitable pressure of the more sanitised franchise of Manchester United.

Meanwhile, in the midlands, Aston Villa are celebrating champions league football next season, to the despair of Arsenal fans, although they have known their fate for some time. Villa fans, however, will be brought back down to earth by Gareth Barry who still hands in a transfer request, and ends up signing for Liverpool, mainly to play with his mate Gerrard. Arsenal lose Adebayor to A.C. Milan for 23 million, but, just, hold on to Cesc Fabregas with a long term, and expensive contract. Wenger turns down the chance to jump ship to Real Madrid and pledges to rebuild a quality, title winning team at the Emirates.

There are tears in the Midlands aswell, as West Brom are once again relegated. Fans blame the board rather than the promosing Tony Mobwray. Stoke head back to the championship aswell, after realising that long throws will only take you so far. Hull also finish in the bottom three. Phil Brown cuts a ridiculous figure, after claiming ‘no Phil Brown side will go down’. This pompous, self-important, over-rated, orange coach never manages in the Premiership again.  

As for Spurs, we’ll probably win the Carling cup, and dream of a top four finish. This season, this season…

League Champions: Manchester United

F.A Cup: Manchester United

Carling Cup: Tottenham Hotspur

Champions League: Barcelona