Its time for part 3 of our review of the season as we move onto the month of October where it was the Premier Leagues managers turn to make all the headlines. Joe Kinnear proved that ‘fiasco’ and ‘farce’ weren’t the only ‘F’ words they know at Newcastle whilst Harry Redknapp was branded a Judas on the south coast yet again, turning his back on Portsmouth for the second time in just 4 years.

So once again here is a recap of the Premier League season so far, with all of October’s most memorable moments from the PitchSlap point of view.

October

Bullard grabs Chimbonda’s ‘Bullards’

Kieran Richardson was having a run of bad luck taking free kicks against Fulham, after hitting both posts from dead balls in the first half he had a perfectly good second-half strike ruled out after the ref spotted Chimbonda backing into the Fulham wall. Unfortunately the ref failed to spot that Jimmy Bullard was having a fiddle with Chimbonda’s, erm, ’spuds’ at the time and perhaps the Sunderland full backs movements were rather involuntary. As he pointed out after the game:

“If you watch it, someone grabs hold of me. I’m very disappointed with the referee’s decision.”

Bullard is famously a keen fisherman so insert your own ‘tackle’ joke here.

Ramos out Redknapp in

After being approached to fill the boots of Geordie messiah Kevin Keegan in the Newcastle job Harry Redknapp gave this rousing speech pledging his future to Portsmouth:

“Portsmouth is my club – I feel an immense sense of loyalty and unfulfilled ambition. I could have left, but I would have felt a great sense of betrayal. So they’re stuck with me now. This will be my last job in football.”

But just days later and days before being honoured with the keys to the city Redknapp turned his back ‘his club’ for a big payday at Spurs, now that’s loyalty for you! The fans dubbed him ‘Judas’ whilst the media dubbed him ‘Harry Houdini’ after he fortuitously picked up a win and a draw against Liverpool and Arsenal in his first 2 games. However Redknapp’s greatest trick seems to have been convincing anyone that he is better than Juande Ramos who has since been handed the reigns at Real Madrid while Tottenham still sit in the bottom 3.

Adams promoted at Portsmouth

The one positive to come out of Redknapp’s departure was Tony Adams promotion to the top job at Portsmouth. Adams has a patchy record in English football so far but is undoubtedly a good young English manager who has a great opportunity to prove his ability in the top flight. Unfortunately Adams success will most likely hinge on how much funding he will receive and how many of his squad will be sold. With Lassana Diarra and Jermain Defoe already gone and the club currently up for sale, Adams may find his hands tied in the summer transfer window and consequently will be odds on to win the sack race next season.

Kinnears dirty words

Undoubtedly the highlight of the season, I guarantee you this will not be surpassed in the coming 5 months. The story behind the outburst is that Kinnear was upset by the Daily Mirror’s Simon Bird and a couple of other tabloid hacks, who were taking great delight in the aforementioned chaos at St James Park. Without a contract – and with possibly only a few weeks to write himself into Geordie folklore – Kinnear fired back with a stream of profanity, expletives or whatever posh words you wanna use to say he effin swore a lot.

Liverpool break Chelsea’s home run

86 matches, which had involved countless last minute goals, dodgy reffing decisions and easy home romps seemed eons ago as Liverpool marched into Stamford Bridge and strolled out 90 minutes later with 3 points. The Anfield outfit opened the scoring early in the first half due to a fortuitous deflected Xavi Alonso strike. The epic backs-to-the-wall Champions League semi-finals of recent years came to mind. Surprisingly Chelsea’s fightback never materialised and Liverpool comfortably usurped Chelsea at the top of the table, moving 3 points clear of Scolari’s men.