English football returns as 2011-12 season opens
The new English football season opens this weekend with the first games of the 2011-12 Football League, followed by the Community Shield at Wembley between Manchester City and Manchester United.
Barely two months have passed since the end of the last campaign, yet this weekend sees the start of the 2011-12 Football League season.
On Sunday, meanwhile, the Community Shield – traditional curtain-raiser to the Premier League football season – also takes place. The game pits Manchester United, who won the Premier League, against fierce local rivals Manchester City, holders of the FA Cup.
Championship favourites
Commentators are predicting that this season’s Championship will be the most competitive ever. It kicked off on Friday night when Hull City, relegated from the top flight at the end of the 2009-10 season, hosted newly demoted Blackpool. A goal by Gary Taylor-Fletcher secured victory for the away side.
Bookmakers William Hill are offering 5-1 odds on Leicester City, managed by former England coach Sven Goran-Eriksson, gaining promotion alongside West Ham, who were relegated last year and who are now managed by Sam Allardyce.
The consensus is that Allardyce, who was a surprise sacking at Blackburn in December, has the best squad in the Championship. It includes Robert Green, Kevin Nolan, Scott Parker and Abdoulaye Faye.
Behind the front-runners, at 16-1, are Nottingham Forest, led by Steve McClaren. He has not managed in this country since he was sacked as England manager for failing to guide the national team to Euro 2008.
Having subsequently enjoyed mixed fortunes as a coach in Holland and Germany, McClaren will feel he has something to prove to his English detractors.
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Two England bosses
The presence of McClaren and Eriksson in the Championship means there will be two former England bosses plying their trade outside the top flight of English football. Confirmation, perhaps, of the high standards in England’s second tier – or of the inadequacies of the selection process for the national side’s coach.
There will also be interest in the fate of teams managed by Chris Hughton and Guy Poyet. Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley found Hughton’s consensual managerial style surplus to requirements in 2010, and he was sacked as Magpies boss exactly one week before Allardyce left Blackburn.
Hughton moved into the Birmingham City hot seat during the close season, replacing Alex McLeish after he was head-hunted by Aston Villa.
Uruguayan Gus Poyet has been a fixture in the English game since he joined the pre-Roman Abramovich Chelsea set-up in 1997. Brighton & Hove Albion unveiled him as their manager in November 2009. In his first full season, he guided the Seagulls out of Division One. Brighton also move into the new AMEX Stadium at the start of the new season.
Manchester rivalry
On Sunday the rivalry between Manchester United and Manchester City resumes as they meet in the Community Shield at Wembley. Until recently, City had long dwelt in the shadow of their Old Trafford rivals, who have dominated British football for the last two decades.
But since City’s acquisition by the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008, the Blues have become the highest-spending club in the world’s wealthiest league. In 2009 they memorably acquired the Argentinian Carlos Tevez, who had played for United over the two preceding seasons.
What is more, City’s progress to the 2011 FA Cup included a 1-0 semifinal defeat of United. Whichever team wins on Sunday will achieve nothing in practical terms – other than bragging rights until the sides next meet, in the Premier League on 22 October.
At the other end of the English league, Division Two welcomes AFC Wimbledon, newly promoted from the Conference league. Founded by disgruntled Wimbledon Football Club fans when their team decamped to Milton Keynes in 2002, the Dons have existed for less than a decade.
Trivia fans will know that AFC’s first-ever goal, against Bromley, was scored by one Glenn “Trigger” Mulcaire (see YouTube footage below). Mulcaire went on to serve a jail term for hacking the phones of members of the royal family. 11,000 pages of confiscated notes by the footballer turned private investigator are believed to contain information suggesting he hacked the phones of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and the mother of Sarah Payne.
