Les Ferdinand / Les Ferdinand / 21 April 2009 / Leave a comment

The former Newcastle striker talks about the downfalls and dangers of the Wembley pitch and how Michael Owen could well be the difference between Newcastle being a Premier League or Championship team next year.

FA Cup semi-final weekend is always an exciting time of year. Huge crowds, big TV audiences and a unique opportunity to secure your place for the big one at Wembley. But hang on - the semis themselves were also played there! And given all that's been said about the state of the pitch over the last few days, don't we all know it.

The problems with the building of the stadium, the delays and going massively over budget have been well-documented and I won't go into it again too much here but suffice to say the whole thing didn't get off to a particularly great start! That meant the FA were then under immediate pressure to start recouping some of that money, be it through football and other sporting events or entertainment such as rock concerts. All well and good but Metalicca fans are better known for head banging than cleaning up after themselves and those nice NFL gentlemen have been known to leave a few dents in the grass from time to time when crunching some speedster wide receiver. And that's where the problem lies. In a bid to make some cash and settle debts, it has been the football that has suffered.

When the first few matches were played and the players were sliding around everywhere the so-called pundits were all having a go at the players and the backroom staff for wearing the wrong footwear. But two years down the line and the players are still resembling amateur ice skaters so the issue is clearly the pitch rather than their choice of studs.

You only need to look at the actual grass and see chunks of the stuff flying everywhere to see it's just not right and never mind the quality of the football suffering, what about the potential injuries waiting to happen to some of the world's best footballers? As a manager it's frustrating when your players get injured in a clumsy challenge but you accept that's just part of the game and get on with it. But when your players are picking up groin injuries and ankle ligament damage because of a poor pitch, that's just unacceptable.

For me the semis could be played at the likes of Old Trafford and Villa Park like they used to without too many fans missing out. Or Anfield for that matter. Why couldn't they have played the Everton v Man Utd game there and saved all the North-based fans the huge extra cost of a trip down to London? Not to mention the fact that playing at Wembley should be a special treat that you earn, a bit like an England cap. The whole thing loses its magic when it becomes the norm - I was lucky to have played at the Old Wembley a handful of times and I can remember each game because they were all special occasions. Hmmm, I might just apply for a job at the FA when I'm done writing this and start applying some common sense to the way English football is run...

One man who got to play plenty at the Old Wembley was Alan Shearer. I wrote two weeks ago how I fancied Newcastle to avoid the drop at even money on Betfair but two matches and just the one point later that bet isn't looking great and I see they're now just [1.79] on Betfair to go down. People always talk about how the Geordies are the most passionate fans in the country and if that's the case, this is their real chance to prove it because the team needs their support now more than ever before.

Alan has said that they need to win their three remaining home games to be safe but none of Portsmouth, Middlesbrough and Fulham are "gimmes". First up are Portsmouth who may not be the most fashionable team in the division but that's exactly what they are: a team. Peter Crouch, Nico Kranjcar and Glen Johnson are probably the most valuable players if they were to be sold on but they're still not superstars nor do they act like such. As a former player my heart says [2.1] Newcastle will win that match on Monday night but if I'm using my head it's Portsmouth who are actually the value at [3.85] on Betfair.

Whether Newcastle do actually stay up or not may come down to the fitness and form of Mark Viduka and Michael Owen. The big Aussie is a real handful to anyone even at this late stage of his career, looked good on Sunday afternoon and has been a huge loss to Newcastle this season through injury.

Michael's situation is a little different. He was also injured but then came back and found that he wasn't in the starting eleven which can't have done his confidence much good, but you can be sure that with Shearer there he'll always be the first name on the team sheet. Then there's the contract situation to consider - he said he was postponing all contract talks till the end of the season which effectively meant he was waiting to see if Newcastle would be playing in The Championship next year.

It's fine saying he owes Newcastle a debt and everything but everyone knows he's too good a player not to be playing in the top flight. Apart from anything else, if he's not getting an England call-up now you can hardly expect Fabio Capello to be sending his scouts to watch him play a midweek match in The Championship. But right now it's Newcastle not England who need his goals and if he gets going a lay of Newcastle for relegation at [1.8] may look a good bet come late May.