Dave’s Football Blog

Remember the good old days when it seemed like anyone could come back and knock off Burnley FC — including a ragtag bunch of college kids in Cary, North Carolina? It seems like ancient history now, the summer of 2008.

My, how things have changed. After a rude introduction to Premier League football at Stoke, Burnley has turned Turf Moor into a mighty fortress, notching 1-0 victories against Manchester United and Everton. Suddenly, these newly promoted Clarets are only 34 points from safety with 35 games left.

The big question, though, is this — do these results say more about Burnley than they do about Man United and Everton?

After all, United is just a big red sea monster adjusting to life without its most useful tentacle. It probably looked at the small fish with the misshapen fin and figured it wouldn’t be a problem. Ah, but Nemo had a little fight in him, didn’t he? Cue the old “That’s why they play the games” cliché. Sometimes, these things happen, and after the big red beast blasted 5 past Wigan, most people are assuming it was just a blip on the radar.

Everton, on the other hand, seems to have made itself a victim of unnecessary transfer drama. Do these things ever go well? Remember last season, when Daniel Levy was waving a fist into air and prattling on about how Dimitar Berbatov would “rot in the reserves?” Remember how Tottenham got off to such a slow start? Big difference now, isn’t it? With no transfer drama to speak of, Spurs have taken their first three and sit top of the table. (And you enjoy that while it lasts, Spurs supporters.)

The Joleon Lescott saga is taking the same toll on the Toffees right now, and while it looks like it’s finally coming to a close, the damage has been done. A home thrashing against Arsenal and this loss to Burnley has left egg on David Moyes’ face. He’ll recover, no doubt, but he’s got some work to do. Maybe thrashing Sigma Olomouc again will help with that.

As for Burnley, it’s early days, yes, but we should start considering that they might stick around a while. Owen Coyle built a side that suddenly has a short history of giant-killing in cup ties, and now it’s doing the same in league play. Maybe, just maybe, these guys won’t be instant relegation fodder after all.

Perhaps we can thank those plucky Cary Railhawks U-23s for giving Coyle the teaching moment he needed to get Burnley to this point. Burnley thanked that PDL side already — by buying into it.

So for the last three months or so, I’ve been getting all these emails from people looking to advertise on this blog. This made no sense to me. I clearly announced here back in February that I was moving on to other things. Dave’s Football Blog was done. Why are you looking to advertise on a shuttered blog?

So when one of those advertisers approached me last week, I decided not to ignore him this time, but to mention that I had just opened another blog that week — the UFL-centric The Star and Clam — and it’s actually active. Want to advertise there?

This was his response:

Thank you for the offer, your old site has a page rank 4 in google, that is why we were interested… Your new page is not ranked in Google.

O RLY? My shuttered blog has a high Google ranking? Well, now, let’s just go look up “football blog” in Google and see what…

Whoa. I wasn’t expecting that.

Well, Google’s not the only game in town. Surely, anyone using Yahoo or Bing would…

Oh. Well. There I am again. And all these people seem to want to give me money for this.

It would seem awfully rude to turn these people away, wouldn’t it? I mean, if someone else wants to pay for my DirectTV and my switch back to Road Runner from Verizon DSL — not to mention the subsequent purchase of AussieSport.tv for the AFL Finals Series September, since I’ll be losing ESPN360 right as it finally adds Aussie Rules — who am I to tell them no?

So yeah, I think it’s time to pull that saddle out of moth balls, throw it on the horse and start riding again. No better time than now, after all. The NFL season is approaching, the European soccer season is under way, and the AFL Finals Series is just around the corner. I’m sure there’s some rugby out there, too. There’s plenty to cover, and at least one fewer place where it can be covered. So let’s get stuck in.

Oh, and if you want to join the DFB Supporters Club, here’s how.

Break’s over, folks. I’m back. Let’s talk about some football.