Who’s Hot/Who’s Not

By: chris | February 12th, 2008

I think this is rather self-explanatory.

Hot.:.

Carlo Ancelotti.:

I’ll be frank regarding Carletto: his substitutions often suck ass. At least whenever I’ve watched, especially this season. And boy does he love to use ‘em early. He ushered in two new subs during halftime this weekend (Bonera for Nesta and Seedorf for Ronron) against Siena in an attempt to invigorate a listless performance, before busting out the game changer with third and final sub in 9 year old Alberto Paloschi in minute 63. Clarence dropped a sublime ball over the top for Paloschi to strike into the back of the net. That’s how you use your subs. 5 W’s in a row for the boys and finally looking European bound in 08-09.

Djibril Cisse.:

No one can ever accuse the man of not being able to score goals in France. Outside of France? Sure. Bad hairstyling? Absolutely. But the guy knows how to beat French D’s. 9 goals in his last 8 games. Not shabby, now let’s see how long it takes for a Prem team to overpay for him again…..

Egypt.:

Considering nearly the entire team plays back in the homeland, they have every reason to feel especially prideful after defending their trophy. Three in a row will be tough, but they’ve got the advantage of chemistry, and that can’t be overstated enough.

Benjani.:

One can’t do much better than….

a) Scoring a goal in their debut.
b) Scoring the eventual winning goal in their debut.
c) Scoring against eternal rivals Manchester United.
d) Scoring in a game which was never just any other game.

Especially when the transfer process was as convoluted as his.

Not.:.

Joey Barton.:

The guy is out on bail, has been under the watchful eye of psychiatric professionals, his team sucks, and he decides to get into a little scuffle during the Aston Villa game this weekend. How stupid can one person be? We hereby crown Joey B The King of Stupid Decision Making.

Premiership Overlords.:

Not just for that utterly asinine 39th game proposition, but also because we only saw those Citeh/United classic kits for a special occasion over the weekend. We should be seeing those once a month at the least. (I know Daryl agrees.)

Afonso Alves.:

Made his debut for Boro this weekend, but what’s more important than his Premiership exploits is what’s going on up in north Holland with Heerenveen right now. Since he was sent-a-packin’, Heerenveen has laid a whoopin’ on Vitesse Arnhem 7-0 and taken a fairly unexpected point away to PSV. Proving that one, they can still score goals like it’s futsal, and two, that they can still hang with the big fellas without him. Suck a toad, Afonso.

Luca Toni.: Tonigol missed a PK against Werder Bremen which could’ve gone a long way in deciding the Bundesliga title this weekend, dropping a woulda coulda shoulda been three points down to one. On top of missing it, he was the guy who was fouled, which is poo-pooed at Bayern (among many other places), and has thus incurred the wrath of one Franz Beckenbauer. Million bucks says next time Luca gets fouled in the box he runs down the other end of the pitch and hides behind Ollie Kahn.