Carlton Cole and Lee Bowyer celebrate a placid victory obver Macclesfield this week. The desease at the heart of English soccer probably has its most vivid symptoms at West Ham. The Hammers for those you who are not as yet old enough to recall fed the English World Cup winning team of 1966 with Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. West Ham used to be known as the academy of football. This was how the game was supposed to be played. They didn’t win much, true but the philosophy was entertainment.

Take a look at this, almost English team, team:

David James, Glen Johnston, Rio Ferdinand, Anton Ferdinand, Nigel Rio Coker, Frank Lampard, Xavier Mascherano, Joe Cole, Carlos Tevez, Jermaine Defoe and Frederic Kanoute. Subs: Benayoun and Michael Carrick…and quite a few others

In fact Fabio Capello could take a look at this team and swap the Argentianians for Wayne Rooney and Owen Hargreaves and you sort of think they could play like a good team at international level

All sold by West Ham. You might say that is a team capable of breaking into the top four instead of scrabbling around mid table. And they they even have an English manager to boot. And you could say ex managerHarry Redknapp has probably got the edge on Alan Curbishley too and might have masterminded just such a bid .

All were sold for less than perhaps they were fully worth in an open admission that this club is just a feeder facility for richer men. The poor men of the East End. Poor in terms of ambition, for sure.

Unlike Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, they have not really swapped like for like. Wenger’s belief in youth relies on a certain amount of churn. It is part of his philsophy. And he has tended to sell on players past their prime, or for outrageous sums of money, or both. West Ham have done neither. Joe Cole was £6million. Lampard looked expensive at £12million but with hindsight he was a snip. And so for the rest too as Manchester United sealed the deal on Carlos Tevez at £32million.

Of all the clubs in the Premiership, this is the one that deserves a new board of directors. For English football’s sake and for Fabio Capello’s sake.

Bet West Ham? There’s £10 for nothing, so you are not risking too much!

Carlos Tevez holds the Community Shield up for fans. The best we can say is that at least Tevez deserved something on the day on which 0-0 hardly lit up expectations for the new season and a decision that went down to some poor penalties from Portsmouth. Manchester United looked good and well oiled but lacked the cutting edge that the injured Cristiano Ronaldo and the sickly Wayne Rooney offer. They may be fortunate that they have a slow start to the season with only two games in August and three in September thanks to internationals and the Super Cup against Uefa Cup winners Zenit St Petersburg in Monaco, another piece of debatable show boating to fund the coffers of soccer’s overbloated bureaucracy.

Bet Manchester United

The goalless draw played out by way of a friendly by the teams of those wily old soccer assassins Alex Ferguson and Claudio Ranieri last night may give some pointers to events about to unfold. United have a problem scoring goals without Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. These two players above all represent Manchester United’s class, the more so on the pitch than off it where they seem to want to rival each other as spoilt brats of the Premier League. On Sunday, United go to Wembley to play the showpiece Community Shield against Portsmouth who have their own new strike force in Jermaine Defoe and Peter Crouch. They also meet Portsmouth as their second game of the season. Their first is Newcastle in what looks like a leisurely start to the campaign to retain the Premier League and another showpiece game in the European Super Cup against Uefa winners Zenit St Petersburg, probably now without a striking Arshavin. In September they have just three fixtures - Liverpool, Chelsea and Bolton. Ferguson will have needed to have greased the engine by then.

Liverpool are noteworthy slow out of the blocks. They travel to Sunderland for the first day of the season, entertain Middlesbrough who punch above their weight against the better teams, get distracted by the European Cup against Standard Liege and then visit Aston Villa who were scoring for fun at the end of last season. Rafa Benitez will need to find a rythmn quickly. The bad news is that in September they also face Everton.

Arsenal are looking the part again with just the question mark about who will actually tap the ball into the net. They are young, fast and play attractive football on the harder surfaces in the sunshine of early seasons. West Bromwich Albion, Fulham and Newcastle are first up and don’t look likely to be given any change. They also have what should be an easy September before meeting Tottenham and Everton in October. The tough stuff starts in November with both Chelsea and Manchester United.

Luis Felipe Scolari seems to have the charisma to further bond and fuse the Chelsea fighting spirit with impressive wins on their travels. 5-0 against an unfit AC Milan is still 5-0. But they have some testing games against teams that would hope to break into the top four starting with Portsmouth, then Spurs, then Manchester City, then  United, then Villa. These are games that are going to matter and if the Blues can get the points in the bag, they are probably worth more than ther equivalent games for their rivals. It will also be a test of their mettle. If they are top of the league by the end of September, everyone else will fear the worst.

One aspect of Alex Ferguson’s transfer dealings in recent years has been his buying of players that can take a year or two to integrate. And in some cases are still integrating. Most notable was his success with Cristian Ronaldo who has just got better and better. Posibly also this has coincided with the arrival and influence of Carlos Queiroz. So it may be his lesser purchases will be the ones of most significance as this team seems to grow. He has won the double, so how far is there room for immediate improvement. He admires the Lyon striker Karim Benzema but he has his own dog of war in Carlos Tevez who is a proven force in the Premiership. He still has work to do on players like Owen Hargreaves and Michael Carrick. And talking of Hargreaves was that not the same courting of a player at distance that United are complaining of from Real Madrid now?

All of which presumes that the two Portugese are still at Old Trafford come August. Queroz would be a big loss if he goes to Portugal. He papers over the cracks that age might otherwise expose in the great man. Like Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, they seem to have hit a stride of working together. If Ronaldo goes to Real Madrid, there is a replacement albeit the unfinished article in Nani. Forty two goals are pretty irreplaceable from any other player let alone winger. But Ronaldo seems to have upset the fans now too and if he is to stay it will have to be another round of redemption via the same kind of silent humble pie after the incident with Wayne Rooney two years ago ie: let your feet do the talking.

More than the goals, Ferguson would miss his mucker Queiroz and the combined effect could be fatal to their Premiership chances. Other cracks in the United armour are that faithful servants like Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs are not getting any younger in a game that is hungry for the exuberance of youth. They may still have roles to play as impact players or to settle things down but their days dominating the grass is passing.

If the Portugese stay, they will be the team to beat.

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