The Round Ball Game - II

[jayne lee wilson]

Good grief, the results today...?! MotD might, might just be worth watching tonight.....!

Some of the Christmas scorelines, I mean, seriously guys!.... and I thought Peter Rabbit was outrageous...

[teamsaint]

Good grief, the results today...?! MotD might, might just be worth watching tonight.....!

Some of the Christmas scorelines, I mean, seriously guys!.... and I thought Peter Rabbit was outrageous...

Ah well, no Boxing Day fun for us, but the eyes of the nation on SMS tomorrow night.

And the pressure building on us for Sunday.........

Well done Foxes and Owls, and bad luck Buddies. And there was a Bank Holiday Cheshire derby victory for Stockport

[Alison]

Shame for Buddies.

Two stirring results for the Foxes just as Claude looked set for the chop.

A deserved win Cloughie.

Looking forward to the big match tomorrow night. Going Sainty?

[teamsaint]

Shame for Buddies.

Two stirring results for the Foxes just as Claude looked set for the chop.

A deserved win Cloughie.

Looking forward to the big match tomorrow night. Going Sainty?

No, not my turn, Alison. I’m going Sunday to the City game.

Fantastic win for your lot. Puel gets a harder time from the fans than he deserves I suspect, but he is a solid manager.

[johncorrigan]

Shame for Buddies.

Two stirring results for the Foxes just as Claude looked set for the chop.

A deserved win Cloughie.

Looking forward to the big match tomorrow night. Going Sainty?

Late loser, Alison. Great result for the Foxes tonight. Great to see it.

[antongould]

Liverpool 4 Toon 0
Gateshead 2 Hangers 1

Ending the year in style ....

[cloughie]

Liverpool 4 Toon 0
Gateshead 2 Hangers 1

Ending the year in style ....

Who’s managing the Hangers now?

[antongould]

Who’s managing the Hangers now?

Craig Hairnet

[antongould]

Craig Hairnet

OMG Call myself a supporter ... we now have Richard Money ...

[cloughie]

OMG Call myself a supporter ... we now have Richard Money ...

Is he the guy that managed Cambridge Utd a season or two back?

[antongould]

Is he the guy that managed Cambridge Utd a season or two back?

Indeed cloughers you are always Right On The Money

[Lat-Literal]

Premier League - Mid Term Round Up

I

The Mejia

Around the time that Richard Baker was the broadcast news, football was in its golden age with minimal television and radio coverage. Nowadays we are luckier. It can be watched morning, afternoon and night or, when not, there is the scope 24/7 to hear people talking about it. The latter in particular shows how vacuums can naturally be filled, thereby "growing" the economy in a way that one never "grows" a garden. For any listener or viewer requiring substance, there is much to be learnt in this particular field about what makes for good or bad broadcasters. Certainly the former have more imagination and range. All, though, are having to make acres bloom starting from the position of having just a few daily seeds. Inevitably, this turns the people's game into a thing of hype which mostly resembles the genre of soap opera and more literal TV escapades taking place in an overviewed jungle.

Manchester United

We should start with the managers first, seeing that it is only civil to begin with the least influential. While we all revel in playing a different sort of game, everyone knows that power resides in the owners and the players. Mourinho, the Portuguese pantomime villain, was seemingly forever engaged in an "oh no he isn't" in terms of being red carded by Manchester United until that moment of less naivety or was it closer to nativity when we discovered "oh yes, he was". The bookies had predicted it. They are the epitome of how to "grow" a modern business. Denise Roberts of Bet365 took home £200 million last year. She would be a Premier League manager if it paid just a bit more and wasn't prejudiced towards women.

The problem with Jose is that he is a dinosaur of the old ways who was simply overtaken by the Klopps or just the forward thinking first of the new guard of Guardiolas. Take your pick. Or that he was a smashing guy once who had "turned" at some point unknown, perhaps in the time between being at Chelsea and being at Chelsea. That he was in the uneasy position of having the support of the sweetheart Sir Alex Ferguson and the opposition of the all fire and fury Bobby Charlton was only matched by the fact that he wanted to be United's manager more than anything in the world while simultaneously his heart wasn't in it. When it came to the moment when he left the stage unceremoniously, one should forget that he generally leaves clubs in the third season. More importantly, there was a record of him saying "adeus" at the time he did in mid December. But it was also no coincidence that he was throughout up against not one but three further significant psychological barriers. The comparative success of the other club in the city, for it turned out that there was one, the even greater recent success of arch rivals Liverpool, and crucially the retirement of Arsene Wenger whose very existence in football was the impetus for Jose's success. Where is Wenger now? Liberia?

Anyway, that was that as they say. It was "no way, Jose" after which we all learnt the new blueprint for success as a club in football's future. First, it is to have someone managing temporarily for a couple of days before a temporary manager is introduced. Readers with long memories and nostalgia for long term appointments will remember Brian Clough's 44 days at Leeds with contrasting fondness. Additionally, that manager should be someone who was respected as a past footballer at the club while having a managerial history of abject failure and only in Wales. Then, to add to the spice, there should be talk of whether there should be a Director of Football as well as a manager or even two or three of them, all in division of labour roles, alongside malevolent if opaque side references to "The Glazers". Finally the season should be described as a game of two halves. But surely all of this is surface stuff, yes?.

Yes. What we have been told and hence know is that a fortunately healthier Sir Alex has effectively barged back in and taken over the reins. He was never going to put up with his club going to the wall by being horrendously relegated to sixth or, as in last year's horror show, a mere second place. This is important because it brings him and Charlton into line with each other as well as the two lengthy eras which they symbolise. And given that Benjamin Mendy had recently sustained yet another injury, it couldn't have happened at a more apposite time. It enabled Paul Pogba to feel not only that he had performed to the best of his ability in all of the key fixtures on Instagram but had won that genuine Manchester grudge match or something against fellow Frenchman Ben. It still wasn't entirely out of the question that he could recognise a ball if required - and, key this, also willing - ever to leave his tablets.

But that's another problem and quite a widespread one. The modern players. They are addicted to writing and thinking, believing that the money they get now gives them that skill. Here one could criticise Wenger and even less successful people like Roy Hodgson for having had a malevolent impact globally. People who were never brilliant when having to run around a pitch. Those who "grew" their own personal economies by being in libraries. Those who are in favour of vegetarianism and against beer fuelled bouts in baths with babes. It transpires that King Jong-Un is a huge supporter of United but is reported to be only willing to tie his colours to the mast of long term success. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in his temporary role may not have the time to fully rescue them but if we hear that the North Korean leader remains on side, he will have done as much as could reasonably have been asked of him.

[Lat-Literal]

II

Player Ratings

It is probably worth saying here that there are no brilliant football players in the Premier League. Not one, for brilliance requires the utmost consistency and none of them is consistent. Consequently, I don't intend to dwell on them. The most successful midfielder is Salah about whom the experts agree is having a poorer and less consistent year than last. The second most successful is Hazard who is either happy or unhappy with being played as a "false number nine". He has to maintain that "is he or isn't he" aura to justify his periodic bouts of innate non-conformity. The third best? Sterling, I presume. The one who was so reviled by so many by putting in more than a half decent performance for England at the World Cup. Unfortunate, that, when he is having to battle at the forefront of the unedifying spectacle of a resurgence of racism in the game, albeit overstated by the media when it is not of the hugest magnitude. Accuracy of reflection in reporting is nigh on impossible when there are parallel objectives to inflame and inflate. I did do my own straw poll in this respect. In the four matches I have attended this season, I sat next to one elderly woman, one middle aged man, one ten year old boy and one eight year old girl. None of them were obviously members of dangerous far right groups. In every case, the last dodgy corner allowed in the grounds was quite nearby, with the most evil thing in their possession being a drum.

Officially, the most successful forward in the first 19 games is who? Harry Kane? No. Aguero? No. Lukaku? Hell, no. It is, yes, Pierre-Emerick Emiliano François Aubameyang of the Arsenal. Am I unhappy with him as an Arsenal supporter? No. Am I ecstatic about his performances overall? Again, no. There is, I admit, something to be said for the Liverpool defence which including goalkeepers occupies the top spaces, Alonso and Ederson aside. Here the ability to go forward is being taken into account alongside that to defend. They have conceded eight fewer goals than Manchester City and the difference with other teams is greater. That these players are quite heavily on rotation counts for and against them. Arguably it is easier to perform at a higher level when you are required to be only in the office on three days a week. Good luck to them, especially now it is a club which isn't wholly Southampton repatriated. Indeed, I'd have thought they could allow at least Clyne and even Lovren to return to St Mary's. Lallana could join them in a buy one and get two free. If not, find Lambert.

Newcastle, Arsenal

But to return to the "all important" though powerless managers, it is clear in my own mind that in many instances they have been the footballing story. At Newcastle, for example, there is only one story. It is about how Benitez is struggling wonderfully well not with his players as such but Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley though worryingly forever teetering on the brink. By all accounts, he doesn't have to request when he can eat crisps at his desk but he is usually turned down when he asks if he can spend a penny. It is probably just as well that the Dubravka deal was somehow achieved. Only in this way have goals not been flying in from every opponent. As for the money, it could conceivably be useful if Mr Ashley takes a trip out to little and, as it happens, local Blyth Spartans. Whatever the nature of Jong-Un's fandom, they have just got themselves a sponsorship deal with a company specialising in holidays to North Korea. A similar money-making initiative for Newcastle, preferably involving a change of ownership, just before he himself embarks on a well deserved vacation to Pyongyang could well be just the ticket. The Toon Army could then give up on the cockney go home song, which must be extremely wearying by now, and revert to the splendid Blaydon Races.

Arsenal's Unai Emery, meanwhile, has been having life altogether easier at the Emirates. The official accepted line is that he is providing all-sweeping dramatic changes at the Emirates and a long unbeaten run gave the appearance of providing good evidence. However, the truth of it is that he has added Torreira and one or two others - teenagers and the pensionable - to a squad which is to this day Wenger's. The early record there of the aforementioned Aubameyang and Lacazette was no worse under the previous manager and that of the perennial Ozil was no better. Arsenal played in the first ever televised football match in 1937. They made sure that they would win by only agreeing to play against their reserve team. Just over 50 years earlier, they were founded by the Dial Square brigade not simply to play football, but to celebrate the 1886th victim of their Satanic cult. These things are worth bearing in mind more than any manager when it comes to their past and any future prospects of success. Equally significant is the sad death today of Etonian Peter Hill-Wood who followed in the footsteps of his father in guiding the club to the highest of principles based on and in a strong sense of tradition. While not entirely beyond critique, we shall not see his like again.

Tottenham, Fulham

Spurs are already no longer Spurs or even whatever it was that once made them Tottenham. North London presumably which as any self-respecting Gooner - previously Gunner - will tell you has never been the Woolwich Arsenal way. No. What Spurs have become is the Tales of Pocchettino. That book about how the third greatest manager on earth next to Guardiola and Klopp has been all David to the Goliath that is Daniel Levy. Yes, we've heard it. How he uses alchemy to get results out of a team which is hampered by having to play in the national stadium. How he meekly, even gamely, accepted common wisdom that no players could be added to the squad and, without any shadow of a doubt, it could finish no higher than in fourth place. How currently they are placed second. How after summer he will be at Manchester United as the guarantee that they will never again lose another match.

How he will not be commenting on this cast iron fact, given his knowledge of Mourinho and Van Gaal and Moyes. How he has to say so in every press conference. How Tottenham fans will complain even about summers of wall to wall sunshine. And how in all of these shenanigans Mr Levy never has to say a single word. Kane, being ex Arsenal, is not a bad player. He has also proven against the odds that it is possible for a man in this age to have the aura of one born in the 1920s. Eriksen, Son, Alli, Lloris, Trippier, Vertonghen, young Walker-Peters and Winks. The team has many strengths even if it lacks depth in its squad and enjoys limitless excuses ahead of disappointment. At least the golden cockerel has now made it to the new stadium which may or may not ever open. It is looking very pleased with itself but without wishing to be unkind it would probably be too strong to say that a nation awaits.

The main story at Fulham was not a managerial change where Ranieri now has more players than he has ever done in order to revive his reputation as a tinker man. It was how his predecessor's efforts were entirely undermined by an emphasis on whether the club owners would be buying up Wembley and turning it into a stadium for American Football. That fell through. For now, London is not to be the latest of the United States. But there is little celebration or indeed sense in the way that the likes of Mitrovic and Seri and Schurrle haven't so much fallen apart as not getting themselves together in the first place. I would hope that this could change as I do quite like Ranieri and I wouldn't want the team to be relegated. But equally, I am completely opposed to them being hugely successful as that would mean unacceptable changes being made to the glorious phenomenon that is Craven Cottage.

Southampton, Everton

At Southampton, there was also change as Hughes went and was replaced by an unknown. He hugely impressed in his initial press conference and the Saints might just have obtained a gem there. Ings even recovered from injury for the occasion and subsequently put in two performances that went beyond his reputation on paper. But the only thing that the media seemed to be interested in once they had spoken to their translators was that the man's name was the German for rabbit hutch. Well, kloppen is to break stones or to beat a carpet.

At Goodison, Marco Silva went from the beginning of the season being "not an Everton manager" to midway through the season "the epitome of an Everton manager". Without huge changes of - how do they say it now, "personnel" - he has it is said completely turned the club around. One looks at the strike force in the squad which is largely unused and it is still the "mighty" Calvert-Lewin, Tosun and Niasse. They are currently in eight place as they always are. This is in spite of the acquisition of Richarlison who was and then wasn't too expensive and only fully justified by the understanding that he and Silva are permanently joined at the hip. Apparently Walcott is there too but predictably scoring less than defender Digne.

[Lat-Literal]

III

Crystal Palace, Cardiff, Brighton

Hodgson was the story at Palace just as Warnock was the story at Cardiff. They were the story for (a) just doing what they do and quite successfully without wowing anyone and (b) being better known to most of the public including people who watch football regularly than any of their players. It isn't as if, for example, Zaha has even been available for a lot of the season and it is a blatant falsehood that Palace only ever win when he is on the pitch. As for Chris Hughton, he has achieved at Brighton purely on footballing terms and he is wholeheartedly to be applauded but, whether he would wish for it or not, the story there tends to be about achievement in one who, still rarely for a football manager, is of mixed race.

This is not to suggest that there weren't certain players at the beginning of the season who the rare researcher might have considered as possibly being a revelation in the months to come while just knowing that they wouldn't become anything at all, let alone any sort of story. Palace's Benteke, obviously. That has been the case almost since time began. Alireza Jahanbakhsh. It was as clear as day that he wouldn't be wowing Brighton fans as they hoped just as, say, Watford's Ken Sema wasn't ever likely to cause a stir among the Hornets. As for the grounds, Selhurst Park is being prepared for redevelopment which is clearly not a good thing given that will be yet a further attack by the football establishment on Archibald Leitch. I hear that when being in the Falmer Stadium there are no views so that one could be anywhere at all and not necessarily on the green belt that was destroyed in order to build it. However, the sounds of actual seagulls can generally be heard and on occasion even seen hovering in the sky above to serve as a reminder that one isn't very far from the sea.

Bournemouth

So to some greyer areas. Ones in which the main story has effectively changed. Before Gareth Southgate, the main story at Bournemouth was whether manager Eddie Howe would and should become England manager. Since the World Cup - a period in which Southgate's position became secure and ironically Bournemouth got better and better - there has been no story at Bournemouth other than a much older one about how odd it is that they should be in the top flight at all, now extended to "and not having to fight against relegation". It remains to be seen how long Howe will stay. His predicament may become that top flight England clubs rarely want English mangers. Ultimately, though, Spurs might be calling.

The Nations League

Southgate reappeared briefly to give his comments on Brexit but otherwise those football fans who do not subscribe to Sky Sports might have wondered if he was more or less now permanently in his North Yorkshire mansion. Such a far cry from, say, Crawley. But, no, it turns out that there is something called the UEFA Nations League. It has the full support of people who hate twelve friendlies a year when you can reduce those to nine. England under Southgate are apparently doing well in it. To follow its organisational intricacies terrestrially will require at the very least having a PhD in statistics or hours of personal home study. Obviously I've mastered it. Scotland are happy while Croatia, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Cyprus are not. The extent of ecstasy and distress do inevitably accord to the character of the money making algorithms. That is everything else that anyone needs to know.

Leicester, Burnley, Wolves

The original story at Leicester was unusually about a football player. It was all about whether Harry Maguire would go to Manchester United. But once that had switched, it went generally to manager Claude Puel and whether he was good enough to be there. That is a long running saga in which he generally finds a way of answering his critics at timely moments. More specifically, there was the horrendous helicopter crash in which Leicester's owner and three other people died. Sadly, whatever else happens in Leicester's season, it is that crash which will define it. All of the players there behaved with dignity at a time which was clearly very difficult emotionally. They were a credit to their club and to the sport. But what stands out in my mind was the professional and genuine way in which Kasper Schmeichel handled the events in the media. He looks and sounds to me like future manager material. Ever since Leicester unexpectedly won the Premier League, the media have been keen to find a story which is effectively "the club that is the new Leicester". Last year it was Burnley on account of the way they were more often than not motoring and this year the season began with it being Wolves on the basis of how they appeared to be on paper.

Unusually neither has transmogrified into obsessions about the manager but this is not to say that the story has become one about the players in either case. In Burnley's case, where there are at least the beginnings of questions about Dyche, his not wholly unfairly perceived spectacular success last year has to date been sufficient cover for him. The blame for a dramatic falling away of fortunes has largely been apportioned to the comparatively nebulous area of them having had the early pressures of being in Europe with a limited squad. The problems of becoming successful as it were. In the case of Wolves, the story is a bit of a non "neither here nor there and which way will it go?" yarn so far. In promotion, they were saddled by somewhat exaggerated claims of being the first promoted club in many years that was likely to take the Premier League by storm. In Neves, Jiminez, the young discovery Gibbs-White and more they have some very fine players but I sense just a hint of under-performance there, especially when it comes to producing it through to match results. In Nuno Espirito Santos, sage like beard and all, they have one of the quietly charismatic people in football of our age at the helm. However, his impact hasn't yet been quite like that of the equally notable but eccentric Bielsa at Leeds United, albeit that the latter is finding his way in this country in the next league down and even then it hasn't exactly been plain sailing.

Chelsea, Watford, Huddersfield

Chelsea began with a change of manager. Stop me if you have heard that one before. Similarly, Watford were starting comparatively fresh yet again. For the record, the first has had a change of manager eleven times in the last decade and the second also eleven times. These figures might diverge in future years if the main story at Stamford Bridge becomes the loss of Roman Abramovich. For the time being, it is generally about Sarri and whether his tactical style is preferred to that of Conte, perhaps especially in regard to the role of Kante and the use or not of Barkley and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. At Watford, it will be much as it has often been. Can they continue to grind out the results? Javier Gracia has been in post since January which is not at all bad going but I can recall when "Quique" Sánchez Flores was greeted as their best hope for many decades and it didn't happen for either him or them. Huddersfield's story is, by definition, one about whether relegation can be avoided. The answer, sadly, is almost certainly "no". I still think that David Wagner is a performer of minor miracles.

[Lat-Literal]

IV

So then properly to Liverpool and to Manchester City twice.

West Ham

I say twice. There is the Manchester City of Manchester and the Manchester City of West Ham. One of these has one of the outstanding managers of our era. It just isn't always obvious, especially in circumstances where money isn't always "grown" on trees. I do accept that in whatever terrible hell hole they may be in now for it sure ain't dear old Upton Park it hasn't so far been a consistent case of happy Hammers blowing bubbles. Even now, it is all a bit predictably up and down even though they managed recently a decent run of four. But Pellegrini who was treated so shockingly when at Manchester City is a class act. Understandably, there was such anticipation on his arrival that it even threatened to overshadow all the moaning about the stadium and most importantly whether the colour of the pitch surround should be changed to claret. And while there is little in the squad to suggest that the turnaround in fortunes will be dramatic, Declan Rice of either England or the Republic of England once he has decided is a real prospect who has just signed up for an extended period with West Ham. Additionally, Arnautovic, the wise purchase of the likes of Felipe Anderson and the steer of a quiet footballing colossus should enable them to build on the ninth position they are in.

Manchester City

In contrast, there is Pep Guardiola. Not for one moment have I ever believed the hype. I am absolutely on written record in saying so long before he got his feet under or on that particular table. I studied the previous achievements. Mostly, money was arguably flowing as if pouring from a tap and everything in the main was going right. That of itself does not mean excellence beyond all else. Yes, there has been tactical and strategic innovation. But the temperament is not especially steady, nor is any media charm especially natural, and there have been mistakes along the way which have not necessarily been brought to the fore because of all the media adulation. Team selection at times for purely footballing reasons.

That hasty rush in the final game of last season to allow Brahim Diaz and Phil Foden to come off the bench to make their fifth appearances of the season so they could collect a league-winners' medal. It looked like having to address at the last minute what would have been a public relations bungle. And then there are the other aspects of the club. It is a place from which at least one player had to be shipped out to Barcelona for medical treatment. I was surprised that questions about fairness and the ties between the two clubs weren't asked. It is one which somehow got itself embroiled in financial fair play allegations. And in what was an admittedly sublime season which just about led to an achievement of a hundred points, it was extraordinarily having to advertise its seats on commercial radio in order to try to fill its ground. Perhaps the strongest foundations do require more history than City enjoy.

At this point in this season, the Manchester City story is not about the injury to Mendy or his Twitter feed. It is not about the minimal use of Foden. It is not about the unwarranted hype around Gabriel Jesus, nor about the variable attitudes of Sane or about how Aguero isn't the player he used to be and there is no obvious replacement. It is not about whether the purchasing of Mahrez was really the main priority or whether it was wise for Gundogan to have been pictured alongside Ozil with Erdogan or how Ederson, Walker, Laporte et al have let in 15 goals while the Liverpool defence has been vulnerable to just seven. It is not about just how great a loss was the injury to De Bruyne when we are consistently being told that there is a squad which can provide two teams of 11 players of equal merit. And it is not about how the much maligned Sterling has had to carry them on their less convincing days.

It is not at this moment about Guardiola himself. Those who proclaim to have seen saints will only slowly backtrack, if they ever backtrack at all. But what it is, among other things, is about a dose of reality. As stories go, it is one of pure football in the sense that it is never wholly predictable and that is a key part of its joy, however much multi-millionaires might try to alter it. To a limited extent, it is the reverse side of Leicester. And yet it's also about predictability when it comes to the circumstantial potential for flakiness. It is not of any coincidence that when Liverpool are performing well, both Manchester clubs become troubled and that when this combines with a very short term drop in the apparent fortunes of one Manchester club or the other, the second of the Manchester clubs visibly quakes. It is a sea-saw in which what was flying and what was in reverse oddly tips the other way. This happens in a week.

Liverpool

Liverpool, yes. Like most people who support clubs which are unlikely to win the Premier League this year, I would prefer it if Liverpool won it rather than anyone else. Being of a certain age, this does require putting out of my mind that era when they were winning most things. It could already have been Salah's story. It isn't. As indicated in the first post, he is not as good as he was last year. It could have been Mane's story but he has underperformed. Ditto Keita. Early in this season, every expert was totally convinced that while Manchester City would be the main story, the Liverpool story would be Keita but it is not. It could even have been Sturridge's story but the biggest part he gets is some future claim to becoming a super-sub. But there are several stories here and unusually several do involve players. Milner's story, if it continues through to the end of the season, will be about the culmination of a career. The Shaqiri story may well be of a gamble which has paid dividends. Robertson's story, is bluntly to have proven Klopp wrong. Memories may fade here. His beginnings in a role that had very obviously needed to be adequately filled for several years were not taken up with eagerness by the manager. In contrast, Van Dijk. Well, yes, universally acclaimed while Alexander-Arnold's angle is being in a sound home for his England career. Obviously the right goalkeeper was needed too and in Allison purchased professionally with minimal fuss.

But mainly this is the Klopp story. The story of how he was at the helm of a team that managed to get beyond Christmas and be six points ahead. It was meant to be this way from the moment he walked in. Tigger. In glasses. Brains. With passion. Charismatic. Enthusiastic. Energetic. Likeable. Incorrigible. Often blameworthy but always in a way that can be easily forgiven. Probably not as physically well as he presents so the time is now. The question is whether he can help the team to grow on that lead or at least maintain it so that they are ultimately victorious. The extent to which he has influence over injuries, other team's performances and fate is probably little greater than that of any other manager in the League. Critically, though, what is happening in Manchester does not appear to be affecting Liverpool anywhere as near as much as what is happening in Liverpool is affecting Manchester. As for the longer term, it may or may not be worth noting that while some say the biggest football stadium in the world is in would you believe North Korea - this would be the Rungrado capable of housing 150,000 on Rungra Island, Liverpool in 2017 chose to "grow" its international training base by building a significant Academy not in the North of Korea but the South.