Ah - an Arse-nal fan

No, Oink's a Spurs fan.

gutted, owen is a donkey, he should have scored last game, and he certainly should have this game, have not commented so far as i really was not sure whether it was a good gamble or bad one, on the evidence so far, bad, can't even trust him with a penalty, unbelievable. all credit to burnley, played us off the park.

I will give this the "kiss of death" but should the Mighty Spurs win at West Ham on Sunday it will be our best start to a season since winning the double in 1961.

Yid Army!

Nice one Cyril.

Kiss of Death: Spurs fans on Sky Sports News talking about finishing "Top Four"

You Spuds crack me up. So deluded.

Rational heads prevail here. But I do think we can do the double this season.

Isnt two games in just a wee bit premature for this kind of speculation. As a liverpool fan, with at least living memories of winning trophies, even I waited until christmas before getting wildly overexcited at our propects last year.


Still, I suppose I shouldnt begrudge a Spurs fan the chance to get over optimisitc, it only happens a couple of times a generation for them...

Errr, no. Every season is "their turn". They are as delusional as Magpie fans and both sets have a very strange sense of entitlement "this is our year"

Things like this only serve to make the near misses (Lasagne-gate anyone ) more hilarious to the rest of us.

BTW- Here's a great little articel lifted from Auntie:

Aston Villa are top of the Premiership, Manchester United 13th and West Ham languishing in last place.

It doesn't quite ring true does it, even this early in the season?
But the league table in question is based not on footballing performance on the playing field but the performance of the owners and boards of the 20 Premier League clubs.

So how were these rankings arrived at and what exactly are they telling us about the Premier League?

'Next generation'

Mark Goyder, of the business think tank Tomorrow's Company is the man who decided Stoke City, for example, should come above Liverpool. He claims it's about something called "stewardship".

"Stewardship means handing something on to the next generation in better shape than you inherited it, and not just the next quarter's results," says the Arsenal fan.

THE 'STEWARDSHIP' LEAGUE 1. Aston Villa2. Arsenal3. Wigan Athletic4. Everton5. Blackburn Rovers6. Stoke City7. Birmingham City8. Hull City9. Burnley10. Bolton Wanderers10. Sunderland10. Wolverhampton Wanderers13. Manchester United14. Manchester City15. Chelsea16. Fulham17. Portsmouth18. Tottenham Hotspur19. Liverpool20. West Ham United

Source: Tomorrow's Company

This, of course, strikes at a huge worry for many football fans; that their clubs are simply viewed as assets by owners without regard to their long term viability.

Tomorrow's Company describes itself as a not-for-profit research organisation which seeks a future for business "which makes equal sense to staff, shareholders, and society".

Using this template Mr Goyder says we should not be looking only at league position and which players are bought and sold.

Equally important, he says, is looking at whether boards "focus on management continuity, youth development, improved facilities, and the club giving something back to the community."

In compiling the rankings, five criteria were used to judge club boards.
These include whether the board is putting the club first - is it using the club to make money or does it act to ensure the club continues to prosper in the future?

'Clarity of purpose'

Also important is the issue of "long termism" - for example, is there a strong youth policy, has the stadium been improved, and is the debt level manageable?

Another measure is about issues of clarity of purpose - who makes the decisions, can the board be trusted not to meddle in team affairs?
Boards must be as passionate as fans

And, something which often taxes the patience of supporters, does the club listen to and respect its fans and local community?

The final criteria is about passion and whether the board is obsessive about doing the right thing for the club and football more generally.

These rankings may well provoke some rather heated debate and doubtless some of the clubs towards the bottom of the league will protest they have been unfairly treated but the point is not simply about football, it's about UK plc.

Not just tactics

Following the collapse of the banking system there has been a lot of thinking and debate about why boards of companies allowed risks to be taken that ultimately threatened the survival of such big names as RBS and HBOS.

In February of this year the Treasury asked Sir David Walker, a former financial regulator, to look at corporate governance in the financial services sector, his final report is due out in the Autumn but in his preliminary report released in July Sir David uses the phrase "stewardship" often.

And this is because it's a phrase which describes not the tactical decisions made on the trading floor but the long term strategic decisions that the board must take in order to safeguard the future of the company.

Mark Goyder hopes one day all companies will be given a stewardship ranking alongside their share price, but such an index seems a long way off and so, like all football fans, he'll just have to carry on dreaming.

Is it April 1st already?

Well it's a true statistic

Unlike this rediculous "Stewardship League" tosh. Just something dreamt up by an Arsenal fan to feel good about a board who saddled themselves with debt to build an overpriced stadium and have to sell their best players every season as a result. Apparently this means the next generation of Arsenal fans will be better off? Didn't Arsenal win trophies before the new stadium was built?

I also think Fulham are in much better shape than they have ever been so why are they so low when their next generation can continue to build onward and upward?

Chelsea had won nothing before Abromovich who in a short space of time has made them one of the major clubs globally interms of branding so how is their next generation worse off?

As an expert on Football Finance this Stewardship League is just far too random. A nice refreshing talking point though and I am of 110% belief that ENIC (who hold the controlling stake at Spurs) definately put the balance sheet before the fans and team.

Poor Liverpool, could they be the new Newcastle or Leeds?

As many will say 3 games doesn't make a season- but having played none of the other "Big 4" teams I think it's safe to say Liverpool won't win the league this season. Infact I'll happily take cash bets with people.

If their performances don't improve and with their complex ownership structure not making the Champions League would be disastrous- although given their fame I'm sure there is an Oligarch or Shikh out there who would love to get their hands on Liverpool and inject some funds whilst their impoverished country men suffer.

At least they're not Everton!

Any bets on who the first manager to quit or be fired will be this season?