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On Wednesday, Kris Boyd smashed Larsson’s SPL goal record, scoring 5 times and taking his career league tally to 160. His opponents on the wrong end of the thrashing? None other than Dundee United. But unfortunately for Celtic fans, Scottish football’s new striking sensation plays in royal blue. Kris Boyd signed for Glasgow Rangers in January 2006 and in the same season went on to win the European Golden Boot with 36 strikes in all; 17 scored for Kilmarnock before his mid-season transfer to Ibrox. Boyd notched an impressive 27 league goals last season and has never finished below the 14 mark in his three-and-a-half years in Scotland’s second city. With 19 strikes to his name already this campaign, Boyd is on course to break another of Larsson’s coveted records: 35 SPL goals in a single season – set back in 2000/01. So why is Boyd, the most prolific striker in SPL history, not the pin-up we’ve always hoped for?

Record-setting Kris Boyd can't shake off Larsson's legend

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As you can see from the graph above, each of the five teams has taken a different path to building its 24 man squad.

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Free Kick Taker of the Decade

Winner: Juninho Pernambucano. Behold the greatest free kick specialist of the decade – and maybe of all time. What separates him from his rivals is that Juninho Pernambucano is deadly from any range and any position, able to curl a ball around a wall, drive it with ferocious intensity, or launch it on a precarious flight that flits and flutters unpredictably through the air. The physics behind this latter trick is something that aficionados of the “knuckle ball pitch” in baseball will well understand: Dispatch a ball into the air without any spin, and it will be at the complete mercy of the surrounding turbulence. Heaven help you if you try to predict where it’s headed.

With this devastating bag of tricks the Brazilian scored an amazing 44 free kicks during his eight seasons at Lyon. Some of those will live in infamy, like his long range blasts against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the Champions League. And don’t forget the several times that Juninho scored from set-pieces beyond 40 yards, including an outrageous 52-yard screamer against AC Ajaccio a few years back.

Runners Up: David Beckham Naturally. The man had a film named after him, for crying out loud. He’s a magician; his boot the magic wand. Against Greece in 2001: grace under fire. But we’ll always remember witnessing his perfectly placed long-range set-piece in a do-or-die match against Colombia at World Cup 98. We were laughing all the way back to London. Ronaldinho. In this case, England was on the receiving end. Who will ever forget the embarrassed faces – not just on David Seaman, but on all England fans – when the Brazilian knocked in that 35-yarder to send the Three Lions home from World Cup 2002? The Brazilian’s a vestige of his former self now, but for the meatier part of the decade he was simply unstoppable.

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Footy Factor’s Best of the Decade: Manager

The Number 1 shirt is currently being contested by three men: veteran David James, who is playing for relegation-certainties, Portsmouth; Robert Green, who plays for West Ham United, currently languishing one place above Portsmouth in 19th; and Ben Foster, who will be demoted to the Manchester United bench as soon as Edwin Van der Sar regains fitness.

Not exactly a group that inspires confidence, eh?

Where have all the great English keepers gone?

Nine men have kept goal in England’s 12 World Cup appearances since 1950. Peter Shilton, who is the only English goalkeeper to play in three World Cups, went to Italy in 1990 having just finished in 16th place with Derby County. And in 1950 keeper Gilbert Merrick represented England having just finished the season with Birmingham City, who were in the then-First Division.

2006 Paul Robinson (Spurs, finished 5th place the season before)
2002 David Seaman (Arsenal, 1st)
1998 David Seaman (Arsenal, 1st)
1990 Peter Shilton (Derby, 16th)
1986 Peter Shilton (Southampton, 14th)
1982 Peter Shilton (Notts Forest, 12th)
1970 Gordon Banks (Stoke, 9th) & Peter Bonetti (Chelsea, 3rd)
1966 Gordon Banks (Leicester, 7th)
1962 Ronald Springett (Sheffield Wed, 6th)
1958 Colin McDonald (Burnley, 6th)
1954 Gilbert Merrick (Birmingham, 7th in First Division)
1950 Bert Williams (Wolves, 2nd)

Purple means the transfer was a step up for the player (based on his previous team’s league and league position.)

Grey means the transfer was a step down.

A few points of note:

While Sheikh Mansour’s reign began with a big splash by his signing of Robinho, Roman’s purchase of Glen Johnson indicated a more methodical approach to team building. Although it must be said that Roman could afford that luxury as he already had the spine of his team in place – with Carlo Cudicini, John Terry, and Frank Lampard.

Sheikh Mansour has spent a staggering £174.9m on his Man City XI, a considerable increase on Roman’s £110m Chelsea XI.

When you’re a billionaire flush with lots of cash to spend on footballers, the tiny little voice in your head must say, “Wayne Bridge looks rather tasty.”

After six years since the Abramovich takeover, Joe Cole is the only initial purchase still with the club. Only three others ever became starters over an extended period of time – Wane Bridge, Damien Duff and Claude Makelele.

It would be fair to say that Roman’s strategy was a success because Chelsea won the league in his second season. But judging Sheikh Mansour by that measure is a little unfair considering his team has a much greater gap to make up in the table.

Man City’s list is top-heavy with attackers, while Chelsea’s is dominated by midfielders.

Chelsea lineup includes six from the Premier League, five of whom are from the British Isles; Man City on the other hand has bought nine from the Premier League, including five from the British Isles.

While Chelsea mainly cherry-picked from lower teams, Man City strategically snatched players from its direct rivals including Arsenal, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Chelsea itself.

Sheikh Mansour - Throwing cash at the cause

We're in for one hell of a ride this season

Champions: Liverpool

With both United and Arsenal losing key players and Chelsea failing to land a world-class talent, Liverpool remain the only team to have significantly bolstered over the summer. Glen Johnson will provide more balance to what was already the best starting XI in the Premier League. Once he recovers from injury Alberto Aquilani will also be a force. Of course, it all depends on the axis of Liverpool ’s attack – Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres – staying healthy.

Champions League Spots: Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal (in that order)

Chelsea have the strongest squad in the league and new manager Carlo Ancelotti will help get the best out of some of the team’s elder statesmen. But the Blues will just miss out on the title because of the African Nations Cup, which will deprive them for a month of the deadly services of Didier Drogba and Michael Essien. United won’t be far behind, but Sir Alex Ferguson will struggle to fill the absence left by Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. Arsenal won’t do nearly as badly as some expect with a fully-fit Andrey Arshavin lighting up the league and the return of Eduardo and Tomas Rosicky to look forward to.

Where will Manchester City finish? Fifth place.

City will stumble out of the starting blocks as the new signings struggle to gel. But the club’s attack – which on paper is the best in the league – should click come October and then the goals will start flying in. If Mark Hughes can manage the big egos he’s brought in… and if the side can maintain a decent position in the league over the Christmas period… then they might be able to attract even more reinforcements during the January transfer window which will help them push the Big Four to the wire.

Going Down: Hull, Wigan, and Portsmouth

In a first for many years, we are betting all three teams that were promoted from the Championship will survive another season in the Big Time. Taking their places on the chopping block will be Hull, who barely escaped relegation last season… Wigan, whose Spanish signings won’t fill the void left by Wilson Palacios, Antonio Valencia and Emile Heskey… and Portsmouth, a club in complete disarray who have offloaded far too much of their talent this summer.

Golden Boot: Emmanuel Adebayor

All eyes will be on Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba, but if Emmanuel Adebayor has his head in the game, then he can be the most lethal striker in the world. Big, strong, and quick on the ball, Adebayor was bred for the Premier League. He has had his share of motivational problems. But facing stiff competition for places in the Manchester City front line, we predict Adebayor will be back to his best, equaling the hefty goal haul he had for Arsenal a couple of seasons ago.

Player of the Season: Steven Gerrard

Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard will both produce their best seasons as each seeks to show Fabio Capello that he, and he alone, is the indispensable engine for England’s World Cup campaign in South Africa. But the plaudits will ultimately go to fan favourite and players’ favorite, Stevie G – especially if he delivers the title to Anfield.

First manager to go? Paul Hart.

Not that it will be entirely his fault.  Financial troubles have forced Portsmouth to offload some of its best players this summer, such as Peter Crouch and Glen Johnson, and the club have very little time to rebuild before the transfer window closes in a couple of weeks. If Hart still has his job after Christmas, then we’ll eat our hat.

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