Why Pardew went

I think I have mentioned this before but I have an old mate close to goings on at Southampton, close both financially and emotionally so after various snippets of information over the summer it was no surprise to me when I heard on the radio of Pardew's sacking early this morning.

Everyone's outright favourites, the Saints have had a sketchy, if hardly disastrous start to their Div 3 campaign but the timing of the dismissal of Pardew (his 3rd in 4 years) after their 4-0 stuffing of Bristol Rovers the weekend is odd to say the least.

There isn't much doubt that Pards' ego is as big as Hampshire but whilst his mind games and convincing turn of phrase got him his own way at The Valley Pardew came up against a fierce adversery in Saints' CEO Nicola Cortese.

Cortese came to St Mary's after new owner Markus Liebherr appointed Pardew as manager last summer and the two did not hit it off. Pardew liked the fact that Liebherr was going to be an absent benefactor but he didn't account for the fiercely ambitious and fiery Italian.

When Liebherr tragically died a couple of weeks ago, things changed for the worse for Pardew, who as one has come to expect had surrounded himself with a myriad of support staff (a couple of whom were fired last week). Since Liebherr's death Pards' has been on countdown and once the mourning was over the CEO's focus was on the manager, who insider's felt would get the boot at the end of last season.

I was told that Markus Liebherr was the restraining hand on the aggressive young Italian CEO who didn't bond with Pardew and disliked his self conceit.

Saints' fans appeared shocked and disappointed on Sky Sports News today. As we know Pardew was easy to love, easy to follow. We hung onto his rhetoric until we became mistrusting. Reading and Hammers' fans likewise.

Southampton sold their full 2,500 allocation out at Bristol Rovers on Saturday, my mate was one of them. This despite a poor start but the fans showed up because the general feeling amongst them was they looked good but had been unlucky and there was still plenty of confidence that under Pardew promotion was to be a certainty.

Before Saturday Cortese's mind was made up and Pardew was history. He walks away with his reputation further tarnished but with another big cheque burning a hole in his pocket and ironically most Addicks probably feel today's news has only enhanced one of our rival's promotion chances.

Photograph of the week

Craig Bellamy blocked by Man City to join any Premiership rivals, shocked the football world by joining home town club Cardiff City (who haven't got a pot to piss in) in the Championship and scored on his debut.

Odds

I popped down to my local Ladbrokes* and picked up the betting odds for the 2010/11 N&R FL. They were as follows:

N&R FL Div 1

Keith Read 5/2

Neil Reynolds 7/2

Greg Foulger 4/1

Kirsty Baillie 4/1

Barry Paull 5/1

Mark Simmons 5/1

John McGowan 11/2

Steve Black 6/1

Brett Davey 8/1

Barry Plummer 8/1

Ryan Saveall 9/1

10/1 the field

N&R FL Div 2

Feldbruegge/Malloy 3/1

Ben Guarino 4/1

Sarah Sheron 9/2

Brian Rutter 5/1

Glenn Francis 5/1

Hilary Flynn 6/1

Andrew Cassell 7/1

Danny Stock 7/1

Alan Waters 8/1

Steve Merchant 8/1

Chris Waterman 9/1

10/1 the field

Remember these are Ladbrokes* prices! If you fancy a flutter, then Keith may give you some of his own odds!

Hand of Godd

Week 1 - Manager of the Week

We wonder how many MoW Pete Godfrey has won over the years? But his 61 points from the opening week of the 15th N&R Fantasy Football season gave Godders another fiver to add to his retirement fund.

Two managers were second in the week's standings. Danny Stock and Sarah Sheron (considered by my local Ladbrokes as one of the favourites for promotion). They both scored 53, new boy Andrew Cassell scored 51 and Davor Duvancic and Steve Merchant hit 50.

Emma Sadler had an excellent first ever N&R week with 49, a point more than Feldbruegge & Malloy. Week 1's scores made a mockery of the divisional splits as it was only in 9th place that we got our next Div 1 manager and that was Ian Kennett.

On that note, the week's worse score came from the top echelon, Richard Nathan is an early candidate for the season's lowest weekly score with 13, four less than Aaron Barden.

Godders does his very best Ian Holloway impression

N&R FL Division 1 - Week 1

Old fantasy stalwart Godders is the early leader in Div 1 and our very own Ian Holloway after the first week's scores. 61 and a 13 point lead for Pete and whilst his team are yet to be titled, 2nd placed Ian Kennett wins the prize for the longest team name. Nortius Maximus and the Wody Webels lie in a nose-bleed inducing 2nd place with 48 points.

In joint 3rd are two of last season's title challengers Steve Black's Guinness & eggs and Johnny Mc's Loads of Roubles. Last season's runner up Kirsty Baillie's Glasgow kiss is 5th alongside Chris' Brox Branditos and a whole host of dodgy looking characters share 7th place.

They are Mark Simmons' AON United, Jimmy 5 Bellies, Rob's To Elland Back, Scott Morgan's Machines and Francey's Keep the faith.

Ex-champions Neil and Gooner win league and Soozie's Sizzlers are in close contact with Dewbs' Racing Hiccups, Ryan's Hip Hip Hooray, Greg's Boys on tour and reigning N&R FL winner Hannoi Utd all settling in well.

At the arse end of the table and in an early relegation battle is Razor's Red Roy's Rovers, Torres Rosso, Arsene Knows and the yet unnamed effort from Jason Syrett.

Double S - Sheron and Stock lead the way

N&R FL Division 2 - Week 1
Out of the gate first in week 1 was Sarah Sheron's Suffolk n good and Danny's Stocky's Starlets both scoring 53 points in the first seven days. Can they keep it up?

Andrew Cassell's Blunty 11 was two points short of the early leaders with Davor's Calculated Risk and Steve Merchant's FFC 4 ever in joint 4th. Our latest dame, Emma Sadler and her Superstars start well on 49 points with one of the division's favourite's the Windy City duo Feldbruegge and Malloy in 7th.

Wardy's Bingo FC, Chris' experienced Californication, Richard's Capello Index, Alastair's Chart This Int'l and Neville's Still not a chance all had sprightly starts.

Down at the bottom is Michael's No Hopers with 18 points. Just above are Muzza's Hammer Nation, Hill's Pure Irish and Richard's Mad Ricks XI. Don't worry, it's a marathon not a sprint.

Week 1 review

Chelsea kicked off week 1 where they left last season smashing six goals past yo-yo experts WBA. Drogba scored a hat-trick and Malouda got two.

Villa without the principled if slightly wacky Martin O'Neill still beat West Ham 3-0. The Hammers were toilet mind and Milner scored on his farewell. Kalinic scored for Blackburn in their win over Everton, Late goals from Dann and Ridgewell gave the Bluenoses a 2-2 draw at Sunderland.

Wolves beat Stoke 2-1, whilst Spurs and Citeh kicked the season off with a 0-0 draw, Joe Hart fully deserving his clean-sheet added points. Bolton and Fulham played out the most boring game of the week and the result that brought the biggest smile, was Blackpool's 4-0 stuffing of Wigan. the Tangerines went top for a few hours in the process and the sale of the Seasiders' Gazette hit record numbers.

On the Sunday 10-man Liverpool drew with Arsenal and on Monday Man U, proudly wearing Aon shirts beat Newcastle 3-0 with goals from Greg Case (2) and Steve McGill.

Movers and shakers

Mark Wenman after working for 16 Fac brokers after leaving Aon around about 5 years ago, has finally run out of employers and went back to the beginning of the yellow pages and recently rejoined Aon Benfield working with Rutts.

I for one am happy to have him back in the Aon family. Good luck Wenners.

Welcome

Welcome back those of you that are old N&R friends, and also a warm welcome the many of you that are newbies.

Keith and I are very happy to have back in our man bosoms old N&R FL mates Alan 'Muddy' Waters, Tony Murray and past champion Brett Davey.

Also new to all of this fun and frolicking are Ken Cobbett, Neil Addington, Neil Bixby, Mark Gregory, Neil Wallis, Alastair Bigg, Emma Sadler, Andrew Cassell, Danny Stock, Richard Stirland, Ricky Wood and in case we don't have enough Richards, Richard Richards! Welcome all.

As a recap, over there on the left of this page we have various links for you to peruse, and use in helping you become the newest N&R FL champion. This blog is the go-to place for all N&R FL news and opinion and general piss taking. If your employer blocks it for whatever reason, then let us know.

I will email you the latest weekly tables around and about Thursday of each week, with a link to all of the latest news and screws on the blog. Don't be alarmed if you don't get the table by Thursday as occasionally I have to do some work. As well as the league(s), we will have prediction competitions, cups, company team trophies and allsorts of wasteful activities. The prize monies will be announced later in the season.

That reminds us, if you have not yet paid your 25 notes or 40 greenbacks, then please get them to me or Keith as soon as possible. I would rather you paid me online either into my UK, US or offshore bank account.... details on request but Keith is more than capable (sometimes) of collecting hard cash and not forgetting!

The transfer deadline is 6pm BST and 1pm CST each Tuesday. You are only allowed 12 transfers over the course of the season.

And finally, we like the N&R FL to be as interactive as possible, email us with any suggestions, funnies, announcements, gossip, photos, articles, links.. whatever and we will publish or use if suitable or funny.

The very best of luck to you all.

Nobby 441 504 0215
Ready 07921 700549

N&R FL Divisions 1 & 2

Ask me to find a policy wording and I might look at you a bit funny like, but ask me for the Nobby & Ready Fantasy League table from the 1998/9 season, then I will have that not too far from hand.

I spent a couple of plane journeys last week going through 14 years of final N&R FL league tables to decifer which managers will contest the two divisions for this season. Using average placings I managed to split the 60 managers into two divisions of 30 in the fairest way, with any new managers having to start on the bottom rung.

In previous years, most of you will know that Keith and I have split the managers into all sorts of formats at different times in the season, mainly to keep the interest up and also further spread the prize money around. It wasn't always the fairest way but if you were 30th of 60 managers in March, then at least you had a crack at winning a few quid and in the end the best manager always won the most money.

This season will be different. There will be no mid-season split as we have split the managers already. But there will be competitive promotion and relegation battles which will result in where you play next season as well as title and other prize money challenges. We expect also, to run some sort of play-off's towards the end of the season.

We hope you accept what we have done, tough titties if you don't and the first week's scores will instantly tell you which league you qualified for.

The very best of luck for the season.

Road to Wembley - The Poachers scramble Teversal

After holding Teveral to a goalless draw away last Saturday, Bottesford Town dispatched the team from Nottinghamshire on Wednesday night 3-1 at Birch Park in front of a huge crowd of 85 people and 3 dogs (13 more than watched the first game) and were rewarded with a home tie against Barrow Town of the East Midlands Counties League.

The Preliminary Round game will be played at Birch Road on Saturday 28th, August.

N&R Road to Wembley - Bottesford Town

Usually the first blog post of the new N&R FL season is our pick for the Road to Wembley. For newcomers basically we pick a team and then follow them or their conquerors all the way to the final in May at Wembley

This year's luck entrant is Bottesford Town, who play their football in Div 1 of the Northern Counties East League. They are based in Scunthorpe and nicknamed the Poachers.

They take on Teversal, which is an old miners sports and social club from Mansfield away in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round on Saturday at 3pm.

It goes without saying if you are in the Mansfield area on Saturday afternoon, then please pop along to cheer on the Poachers and especially watch out for Mark Anderson, whom I have it on good authority will score on Saturday!

My South Africa 2010 thoughts

I will admit it was hardly matadors versus total football, but I found the World Cup Final quite riveting. Blood, thunder, sweat and tears.... it was all there and I was glad it was won within the 120 minutes and not have to go to the lottery of a penalty shoot-out.

Of course I was saddened by the Dutch defeat but less bothered by the way the Dutch played than almost everyone else. 'It was dancers versus thugs' screamed Italy's La Repubblica.... Kettle. Black. The Dutch were the inferior side but they set out to win the game, in fact Robben's pace nearly brought them the title. Some of the tackling was X rated, but the constant diving by the Spanish in my mind destroyed any moral high ground the Spanish may have deserved.

It was a terrifically hard game to referee but I thought Howard Webb did pretty well in the circumstances, although how it took until the 109th minute for a red card is a mystery. I felt that Webb tried hard not to be centre-stage but it was difficult when he was (mostly correctly) blowing for a free-kick every 3 minutes.

In many ways the Final summed up the whole tournament. It often took us to the periphery of something special but the competition never took off. South Africa will be remembered as magnificent hosts, but despite home advantage the nation's teams made no impression, although South Africa's victory over France was one to cherish and Ghana are young enough to come again.

France were rubbish, Italy and England just abysmal, but that wasn't entirely unexpected in Italy. We just got a reality check, but don't worry 'the best league in the world' starts in a few weeks and the FA can go back to finding that hole in the sand their head was buried in before June.

South Africa 2010 will be remembered as the stage the big stars flopped with the world watching. Rooney, Torres, Kaka, Ronaldo, Drogba, Eto'o even Messi each saw their stock fall.

Mexico, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand all left good impressions. The young Germans were scary good and must be a shoe-in for the Euro's in 2012. Spain were worthy winners although they passed the ball impeccibly for such long periods that when the ball was finally moved into a goalscoring position, their forward men were half asleep. Impressive that David Villa was, he still missed plenty of good chances. Anyway wasn't it Catalonia that won the cup?

For people like me that think Brazil and Holland should throw tactics out of the window and just play expansive kamikaze attacking football, then we were disappointed, especially with the Brazilans and Dunga paid the price. Perhaps we are seeing a seismic shift in South American football following the admirable displays from Paraguay, Chile and especially tiny Uruguay.

Of course Diego Maradona did not let us down. Passion, desire, humour, he's a complete wacko and obviously has never taken a coaching course in his life. Too busy having 'fun' I suppose?

So lasting memories for me was the god-awful television coverage we had to suffer in Bermuda, although the commentator who did every game, I suspect from his front room, did a first-rate job.

The 'round' jabulani ball ruined almost every long distance shot and pass, unless you were Diego Forlan. Even in yesterday's game, the 64th of the tournament Casillas mis-judged a long distance free-kick when the Dutch turned the ball back after a stoppage. Now that would have been funny and one in the tentacles for Paul the octopus.

Despite some horror stories of wet concrete, empty seats, terrorist attacks and crowd trouble we were given a wonderful spectacle from some magnificent stadiums and settings. I just hope the poxy vuvuzela doesn't travel so well.

Sepp Blatter may have brought the World Cup to South Africa but the way he held off President Jacob Zuma to present the trophy to Spain last night reminded us all of what an egotisical chauvanist suit he and others at FIFA are. The FA aren't much better.

Anyway to finish, I have picked my World Cup XI based on the games that I saw. What do you think?

GK: Maarten Stekelenburg (Netherlands)
DEF: Sergio Ramos (Spa) - Carles Puyol (Spain) - Ryan Nelson (New Zealand) - Philipp Lahm (Germany)
MID: Xavi (Spain) - Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany) - Arjen Robben (Netherlands)
ATTACK MID: Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands)
FOR: Diego Forlan (Uruguay) - Thomas Müller (Germany)
MANAGER: Joachim Low (Germany)