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Many people have been impressed with the way Sunderland have been playing this season. Currently lying in 7th position, 3 points off the European positions, their defensive organisation and attacking creativity has been lauded from all quarters, with a rather embarrassing 5-1 defeat to local rivals Newcastle being one of the only blemishes in an otherwise impressive start to the campaign for the Wearsiders.

But has this season only served to highlight that Sunderland have, in fact, been underachieving given the level of investment in the club?

Since 1997, when Sunderland moved from Roker Park to the now 49,000 seater Stadium of Light, there have been serious levels of investment in the club, which up until 2007 yo-yo’d in and out of the top flight.

When the Niall Quinn lead Drumaville Consortium took over at the Stadium of Light in 2006 after the clubs 3rd relegation in a decade, they brought an element of stability to the club, overseeing Sunderland’s promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt in 2007. However, since returning to the top flight, the best Sunderland have managed is a 13th place finish with 44 points, and that was last season.

In May 2009 American businessman Ellis Short purchased a majority share in Sunderland and became sole owner, with Niall Quinn remaining as Chairman, and for now it seems this fresh investment, combined with the astute management of Steve Bruce and some scintillating football on the pitch, has done the trick for the Black Cats.

Having already accumulated 23 points, Sunderland are on course to record their highest Premier League finish since both the1999-2000 and 2000-2001 seasons, when they finished 7th, with 58 and 57 points respectively. But unlike those seasons, Sunderland need to make sure that their current form is not another false dawn.

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Through varying investments in their squad in recent years, Sunderland have risen through the football ladder to become an established Premier League side, and if this season’s crop of players can continue to play the way they have been, the Black Cats may well add to their sole European appearance in the 1973-74 European Cup Winners’ Cup.

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This week saw Roy Hodgson’s 23 man England squad for the upcoming European Championships announced. This has been a hot topic across the press over the last 24 hours, but is it possible that this selection just highlights a lack of talent on our shores?

Social networking website Twitter, just minutes after the squad announcement saw Stewart Downing trending across the country. It’s fair to say this wasn’t for the right reasons. The 27 year old Liverpool winger has played 36 games for The Reds this season, and with 0 goals and 0 assists, many were outraged as to how Hodgson had the audacity to call him up to represent the country in Poland and Ukraine this summer.

However, in the surprise selection of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, we see a young, exciting talent that many fans were happy to see included. In his press conference, Hodgson stated that he was particularly impressed by the 18 year old’s performance against AC Milan in the Champions League tie at The Emirates.

Let us go back to England’s 2010 World Cup exit. Fresh from an embarrassing 4-1 defeat by Germany, fans everywhere were calling for a complete overhaul of English football. Starting from grassroots and ending with the International team, there were cries for a turnover; out with the old and in with the new. People wanted to see young, exciting players who would give everything for their country; providing what it takes to make England into a force to be reckoned with. Alex Oxlade Chamberlain is surely an example of this. A talented, passionate individual who can strike fear into opponents. Arguably there are further examples of this in Danny Welbeck, Ashley Young or Phil Jones, all who have impressed with Manchester United this season.

But beyond that, there is very little cause for excitement forEngland fans ahead of Poland and Ukraine this summer. Stewart Downing is precisely the kind of player England fans were not in favour of post World Cup 2010. The spine of the team also remains the same. John Terry, Ashley Cole and Glen Johnson still remain in the first choice back four, and the fostering of English talent comes in one example of Phil Jones. Is 1 example in 4 enough to suggest that there is talent in this country? Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Gareth Barry remain in contention for midfield, and Wayne Rooney and Jermaine Defoe are two strikers still being called up.

Whilst there is obviously reason to suggest that these players are good enough, and they are more than capable, there has been cause for concern in the past. Hodgson has not been prepared to give youth players a chance, and whilst he isn’t relying on all of those previous England managers have called up, such as Emile Heskey, Stephen Warnock or Matthew Upson, the squad selection is something of a mish-mash of those old and new.

How is it that England are still relying on the same individuals when since the last major tournament, anger was shown towards the who team? Maybe there just isn’t enough talent in the country to threaten the current squad.

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Is this a rather pessimistic view of Hodgson’s squad selection? I would to love to hear what you make of it: @ultimate_dav

Kashiwa Reysol are top of the J.League after a last-gasp 1-0 victory over Vegalta Sendai on Saturday.At the Kashiwa Hitachi Stadium, two of the competition’s top four sides clashed in one of the most exciting matches of the round.

But the contest failed to deliver goals, until the very last moment as Masakatsu Sawa hit a 94th minute winner for the leaders.

Yokohama F. Marinos remain a point behind Kashiwa in second after a 2-1 win at Jubilo Iwata.

Daisuke Nasu scored a 17th minute opener for the hosts, but they could not maintain that lead for long as Kazuma Watanabe struck with 10 minutes of the first half remaining to level proceedings.

Shunsuke Nakamura scored the winner six minutes into the second half from the penalty spot as Yokohama F. Marinos recorded their fourth win in a row.

In other matches, Kawasaki Frontale avoided a scare in their 3-2 home win over bottom-side Avispa Fukuoka.

Goals to Junichi Inamoto, Kengo Nakamura and Juninho looked to have given Kawasaki an easy victory but two goals in six minutes from Hideya Okamoto set up a nervous finale.

Genki Omae’s first-half injury time strike proved to be the winner in Shimizu S-Pulse’s 2-1 away win at Ventforet Kofu while Naoshi Nakamura scored with six minutes remaining to give Nagoya Grampus a 1-0 victory at Vissel Kobe.

In his response to questions put forward by Liverpool fans site Red and White Kop, John W Henry once again highlighted the importance of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play which will come into effect next year:

“We don’t know English football, but we do know the sports business and what it takes to be successful. You must first of all have the right people in place and you must be able to give them the resources they need to be successful. With the new Financial Fair Play Rules coming into effect next year, we know that we need to emphasize revenue growth. That is an area we feel we are very strong. And LFC already has a strong commercial team.”

As Henry says, NESV have been experts in increasing revenue growth at the Boston Red Sox to the point they are now second only to the New York Yankees in Baseball in regards to turnover. Despite having a small Ballpark at Fenway, they have managed through corporate sponsorship, improved marketing and increased ticket prices to make the Red Sox into a profitable, sustainable business model, crucially helped by the team’s success on the Baseball field. Success on the field has led to increasing profits off the field, making the Red Sox a franchise to compete with the best without NESV pumping money into the team.

The ability to replicate this success with Liverpool was crucial to NESV’s decision to buy Liverpool. Currently, as for things stand, this could prove to be difficult with “Sugar Daddy” owners such as Sheikh Mansour and Roman Abramovich ploughing money into their clubs without a care for profit, making it difficult for others to compete. What will be changing in the not too distant future though, is the introduction of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play laws.

It will require clubs to break even over a continuous three-year period within the next ten years if they want to play in European competitions. The UEFA rules state that clubs will only be allowed losses of 45m between 2012-2015 (meaning owners can pump in 15m per season in exchange for shares), and this will be reduced to 30m between 2015-2018 (10m per season) . The figures will be reduced even further still by 2019 until a point when European clubs will have to break even if they want to play in Europe. It is an initiative put forward by UEFA president Michel Platini to encourage clubs to spend wisely, and to prevent clubs spending their way to success despite accruing mountains of debt. It is designed to increase competition in Europe and prevent what UEFA sees as not playing by the rules of “fair competition.”

It effectively means that wage bills exceeding revenues will be a thing of the past, and this was crucial in attracting the interest of NESV to Liverpool. Former Reds Chairman Martin Broughton commented before the takeover by NESV was completed:

“We weren’t looking for an Abramovich or Sheikh Mansour, because we understand a rational commercial approach is the way forward in football now. . . A hugely important aspect for Liverpool is [Uefa’s] financial fair play rules. They come into effect pretty damn soon, and will have a massive effect on many, many clubs. I couldn’t help notice that Manchester City’s wage bill for last year was exceeding its revenue. That is going to be very difficult under financial fair play.”

You could certainly describe Henry’s business model at Boston Red Sox as a “rational commercial approach.” The Financial Fair Play rules are also why Henry & Co have been looking so closely at Arsenal’s business model and footballing philosophy. It is a sustainable profitable enterprise but also develops young players that are capable of competing at the top level in the Premier League. Henry’s three visits to the Kirkby Academy and his appointment of Damien Comolli are strong indications that he is already focused on preparing Liverpool for these new Financial Fair Play rules. It also tallies with his philosophy of developing youngsters with the values of the team; something they are developing at the Boston Red Sox.

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Overall then, it looks as if John W Henry has a pretty coherent long term strategy for the club but it is predicated on UEFA’s Financial Fair Play laws being a success. Whether UEFA’s guidelines work, could be crucial to how successful Liverpool are in the next ten years.

Read more excellent Liverpool blogs at the ‘Live4Liverpool’ website

So after another week of twists and turns in the Championship, the last remaining automatic promotion place comes down to the final weekend after all. Yet let’s get one thing clear, West Ham cannot beat us to second place, we can only lose it.

After being in the top two positions for the entirety of this season, the thought of finishing third after the final round of matches is a horrible one, and I do not share other fans opinions, who say that finishing in the play-off places will be ok, because we would have taken that at the start of the season.

But let’s not dwell on that too much, I have every confidence that the job will be completed on Saturday, and in style, and at approximately half past two we will once again be a Premier League club.

Although sides that have nothing to play for can be dangerous, I think we will have too much for them, and with two wins against them already this season (both at the Ricoh) we should have nothing to worry about.

There have been some classic home games against Coventry over the years, and in the eighties the two clubs were involved in two 10 goal thrillers. In 1982 the match ended in a 5-5 draw, yet two years later Saints would run out 8-2 winners, something like that would be fantastic on Saturday, just not the 5-5 draw, I do not think my heart could take it.

Obviously, being realistic we are extremely unlikely to score 8 goals on Saturday, but so long as we are more than 1 goal ahead going in to the final minute I will be happy. The amount of late goals we have been conceding lately is a worry, and it will not do Saints fans pulse rates any favours knowing that West Ham are winning handsomely at home to Hull, and that a late Coventry equaliser would swat us down to third place.

On Saturday morning I will take comfort from knowing that when it usually comes to a big final day game where we need to get a result, we usually do (2005 excepted). But going into the final game of the season, knowing that a win will see us promoted is a new experience for a lot of fans who still have fresh memories of all those final day relegation scraps at The Dell.

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To me, this forthcoming match does seem to feel almost like a playoff final in itself, and whatever happens, one way or another, the Saints players know that they will be making headlines on Saturday.

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Ian Wright thinks it is time for England to make a stand against FIFA in order to save football. Ian Wright refers to the issues facing FIFA right now, which includes corruption, bribery, backhanders and now a presidential election where Sepp Blatter is the only choice. Wright goes on to compare the situation at FIFA at the moment to the Mafia.

Ian Wright’s suggestion is the FA leading national associations with a boycott of FIFA until this mess is sorted out a drastic step indeed – but a move the former Arsenal and England striker feels is necessary to force FIFA into change. Wright has concerns about the possibility of England pulling out of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup – but feels there are bigger issues at play here and safeguarding the way football is run being the most important thing.

The recent suspensions of Jack Warner and Mohamed Bin Hammam support the theory of corruption at FIFA. Wright feels that even if Blatter wasn’t involved in the corruption himself that doesn’t mean that he is innocent; surely Blatter must be questioned for failing to realise what was going on. As well as all of this is the continued questions on the Qatar World Cup bid and exactly what went on there. Of immediate concern is the fact that Blatter is the lone running for re-election.

We know that the FA had wanted the election to be postponed until someone to challenge Blatter can be found – but despite these calls it appears the election will still go ahead on Wednesday as planned. Wright suggested that Blatter has too much power for one man and treats world football like his own personal play thing. National associations must pull out of FIFA events and take the power of football back from one man and given back to the world.

It appears that Wright may have a point and pulling out of the FA may be the only way for FIFA to sit up and take notice. But surely it is only going to work if other Nations follow from the example in England. However, FIFA will want England at the World Cup and if other top Nations such as Spain, France, Germany…also pulled out then surely FIFA would have to act, wouldn’t they?

FIFA may also have other problems with the news that major sponsors Coca-Cola and Adidas are growing concerns – if either or both were to pull out it would be interesting to see what sort of impact that would have. But I think Ian Wright is right in order to reform FIFA someone needs to take drastic action, I have my doubts if that someone will be the English FA. But I would be reasonably confident that if someone else was to pull out – the FA would also do so.

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Should the FA pull out of FIFA? Follow me on Twitter and debate this issue.

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Aston Villa captain Stiliyan Petrov does not require surgery on his knee injury, but is still expected to be out of action for as much as three months.

The 31-year-old Bulgarian suffered ligament damage in the 1-0 defeat at Sunderland last weekend, with manager Gerard Houllier having feared that Petrov would need to go under the knife.

However, he told reporters on Friday afternoon:“We thought Stiliyan would need an operation, but he won’t need an operation.

“But the time for recovery will still be the same – between eight and 12 weeks.”

The Frenchman had earlier stated:“The worse case is that Stiliyan will be out for a minimum of two months.

“I think we should know by the end of the week whether he needs an operation or not.

“Let’s keep our fingers crossed he doesn’t require one, as it could then be treated conservatively, which will be the best scenario. The worst scenario, of course, is needing the operation.

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“But Stiliyan is a strong lad who has had to go through injuries before and he has always come back.”

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Manchester City defender Micah Richards has backed Carlos Tevez to return to first-team action, and help the club in the race for the Premier League title.

The controversial Argentine forward has been on the sidelines this season at the Etihad Stadium, with his refusal to come off the bench against Bayern Munich compounded by his decision to go AWOL.

However, with Tevez returning to fitness and City struggling to find the net of late, Richards wants the South American back in contention.

“I’m a big fan of Tevez. I’ve always said that I love him,” the England international told reporters, published by The Daily Mail.

“There were games last season when he carried us on his own; games like this where he would get a 1-0 win for us.

“Ultimately, it’s up to the manager but I’d love to see him back.

“We need to go back and see where we’re going wrong, and why we’re not scoring as many goals as we used to.

“Teams seem to be defending better against us. We were scoring four, fives and sixes and now we’ve gone through a spell where we’ve been struggling to score,” the full back admitted.

Despite slipping down to second in the standings at the weekend, Richards is still confident over City’s silverware charge, and knows that the race will go down to the wire.

“It’s not over but with United it’s always going to be hard to pip them. That’s the most disappointing thing. Having been first for so long, we’ve now slipped down to second.

“The result against Swansea has made that game even more massive now. But Chelsea is the next one and that will be tough – it’s a game we have to win now.

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“We won’t give up until the end of the season. Everyone was saying last year when we got to the FA Cup Final that we wouldn’t win and it would be 20 years before we won a trophy, yet we did it. I still think we can do it again,” he concluded.

By Gareth McKnight

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Ian Holloway was proud but deflated after Blackpool went down fighting, losing 4-2 at Manchester United to drop out of the Premier League.Blackpool led 2-1 in the match at Old Trafford after goals from Charlie Adam and Gary Taylor-Fletcher cancelled out Park Ji-Sung’s opener.

But champions United equalised through Anderson, before an Ian Evatt own goal and Michael Owen’s strike secured victory for the home side.

Defeat means Blackpool will return to the Championship after one rollercoaster season in the top flight, with Holloway unable to hide his disappointment after coming close to an unlikely escape act.

“This is a special group down here and we’re very disappointed right now,” Holloway told Sky Sports.

“After taking the lead, we had started to believe we can do this. You saw the way we played, the chances we created; we’ve got to take those.”

“But United brought on Wayne Rooney, they’re used to winning and we lost out.”

“That aside, we’ve been absolutely outstanding and it’s hard to take.”

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson praised the efforts of Holloway and his valiant players.

“I think Blackpool have played their part,” Ferguson said.

“They play attractive and attacking football. They are a loss to the Premier League.”

United were presented with the Premier League trophy after the match, and Ferguson allowed his players the opportunity to celebrate before they begin preparations for the Champions League final against Barcelona next Saturday.

“This is a wonderful day,” Ferguson said.

“It’s when your season of hard work comes to fruition.”

“I think we deserved it, the team have worked so hard as a team. I think that’s what clinched it for us.”

“The team has had a great work ethic, they have worked their socks off.”

After all the speculation this week that Wayne Rooney was going to leave Manchester United, he’s only gone and put that to bed by signing a new 5 year contract. There were pages and pages of football news and hundreds of articles and blogs dedicated to the story and Manchester City were already being lined up as a potential destination for the England international, but the Red Devils fans can breathe a sigh of relief. Whatever Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has said to him and the terms presented to him by David Gill seem to have made up Rooney’s mind and he’ll be a United player for many years to come.

Manchester United fans, what do you think about Wayne Rooney staying at Old Trafford and can this news help to you to seriously challenge Chelsea this season and win yet another Premier League title?

HAVE YOUR SAY!