Sheriff Kimbo's Thursday Thoughts #1

Ladies and gentleman, I'm delighted to welcome Phil Kimberley to the growing stable of twofootedtackle writers. Phil is a fantastic and experienced writer and blogger and I couldn't be more pleased to have him on board for his new weekly column.

Hi. Let me introduce myself. Some of you will know me as Phil Kimberley, some of you will know me as Sheriff Kimbo, most of you won't know or care who I am...that's ok, I'm used to it by now!

First up, the 'Sheriff Kimbo' moniker is not because I'm some arrogant eejit who views myself as some sort of lawman on life; it simply come out of a joke with a labelling machine and a name badge, and it snowballed! Secondly, I've been writing in various places and am delighted to be involved with twofootedtackle. Oh, and I'm a mostly English but also part-North-part-South Irish Brummie; I'm a Villa fan; I enjoy a good booze-up; I'm, um, 'on the large side'; I'm a bit of a Britpop head; and finally I'm a little in love with Lily Allen. There, now it's like we're old friends.

So now the niceties are out of the way, let us discuss football. Well, my first column finds me in a deflated mood, as I have been about football recently. Joleon Lescott is one reason; not just because I am sick of hearing about him, but because at £24m it sums up the madness of football that is going around. Don't get me wrong, Lescott is a decent defender, and I wouldn't mind him at my club (the Villa) but £24m? I suppose if Ronaldo is worth £80m...but honestly, £24m for just a decent defender? It is madness.

You know, I was watching Sky Sports News and after Lescott went off, they were interviewing Gareth Southgate. I tell you what, if Lescott is worth £24m then I reckon Southgate at his best would have been worth at least £50m. Southgate going to Boro after he left the Villa was a shame really; he'll never get the recognition he deserved for just how good he was. I for one felt Villa have never replaced him properly.

On the subject of Sky and old players, I watched about five minutes of Soccer AM recently - does anyone still watch it? - I saw Tubes ask his question. It was to Ossie Ardiles, and the question was, "Who is the best foreign player to have played in England?" The answer Ossie gave was Eric Cantona. I'm sorry, but that is absolute tosh! Don't get me wrong, Cantona was a very good player who sparked something in the already very good side that Fergie had assembled. But for me, he is the most over-rated player in the history of football. Looking at some of the players in his position that have played in the Prem, give me Zola, Bergkamp, Yorke, Rooney, Gerrard over him. The worst part was how people used to moan about him not being in the French team. You want to know why he wasn't in the French team? Because Zinedine Zidane was in his position for crying out loud! It's not rocket science is it!

People are making a lot of Arsenal's start but I am not convinced, largely because they have beaten an Everton side in obvious disarray and with a bit of a freak result, a Portsmouth side on its way out, and twice a Celtic team that, with all due respect to the Scots, they should be beating. The thing is, I have mixed feelings on Arsenal. Part of me really wants them to make a good fist of the title this season just to prove a point to the arrogant Phil Thompson and his 'big three' comment - as well as Sky for their advert including Man City’s Gareth Barry - but at the same time, they seem to be the one side you feel you can get at if top four is your aspiration. Plus I don't like Wenger, albeit I really do like watching Arsenal play.

On the subject of Arsenal and Celtic, the Eduardo thing seemed a bit over the top in terms of reaction. Maybe it was the proverbial straw and all that? I've seen a lot worse and can understand why it was given in all honesty. Not that I condone diving - that includes you, Ashley Young!

Recently I have heard discussions about various teams saying they are too lightweight here and there. But does anyone really suffer from that anymore? I’m not saying all our defenders could get away with being five foot but let us be honest, tackling is barely allowed anymore and look at the Champions League final: both teams played 4-3-3 and the two central strikers were Messi and Ronaldo. It's not the game it used to be, is it?

I’m sorry I'm moaning a lot but the point is I love football and I hate the fact that it hurts me so much! It's a bit like a family member that I'm fed up of but I can't turn my back on!

For instance - I'm a Villa fan. Fans of Villa, Everton, Spurs...is there anything more frustrating? It's MASSIVELY difficult to break into the top four, yet anything less than 'best of the rest' is pretty much deemed as failure. Throw Man Citeh's money into the mix and then the potential for someone to have a season like Fulham did last season and all of a sudden finishing 8th/9th is very realistic yet would be viewed as a disaster by their fans.

I know, I know, you're reading this as a Bolton fan or whatever and telling me to stop whinging, but I just think that the trio of Villa, Everton and Spurs really are in an incredibly frustrating position that leads to unrealistic expectation levels from fans and a whole lot of moaning.

But then that is understandable - Spurs finish 5th twice on the trot, where do they go from there? Now Everton have done the same, where do they go from here? Villa were in pole position for 4th and lost that battle more than Arsenal won it - what next? Maybe the European super league will form and these 3 can slug it out for the Prem? No, I wouldn’t really want that either...

Well, I think that’ll do for this week. I’ll speak to you next week - hopefully in a better mood!