Premiership Diary's Autumns
30 November -0001
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Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool are already through to the last 16 of the Champions League. Manchester United are still able to qualify and the English clubs are jostling for the right to challenge the traditional giants of the European game - the Madrids, Milans and this year in particular the glittering Barcelona.
It has been a while since clubs from English shores dominated the European competitions, but they did once, and perhaps last years Liverpool triumph was the dawning of a new era in Europe.
Portsmouth dumped Alan Perrin who is the first Premiership manager to go this season. He won 4 games out of 20 and the club and chairman seem determined to progress and are committed to rebuilding the stadium and maintaining the football heritage of the great naval port. Such dismissals must always reflect worse on the employer who are culpable for making the wrong appointment in the first place.
Chelsea visit Fratton Park on Saturday and their day will be no easier for Pompey's disarray. Arsenal "entertain" Blackburn and Manchester United visit West Ham while second place Wigan host the glamourous Tottenham Hotspur at the JJB Stadium. Throughout the professional football leagues crowds of supporters will want to see their club progress and to be promoted to higher leagues.
Wigan proves that the supporters of Torquay and Doncaster can indeed nurture expectation and hope; and dream of the Premiership - and why not.
In November the ground can be hard and the air thick with fog. Frost is crisp on the grass and the breath hangs in the air as footballers ply their trade in stadiums across the country, in every city and major town.
Jose Mourinho was asked about pressure and reminded his interviewer that pressure was not being able to feed your children and that in football there was no pressure. There is an undeniable truth in that but a lot of pressure comes from inside, from ambition and the will to win.
As Roy Keane walks away from Manchester United he may not have come to terms with the fact his body can no longer support his ambition, that the pressure he wants to heap upon the team is no longer relevant and his time has been and gone. The seasons turn and winter rolls over the country and another year is going by.
The great players have to stop playing and the time comes for everyone and when its time for the final curtain memories are what is left. George Best leaves great memories.
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