ARCHIVED INTERVIEWS. No.26: NEWCASTLE
In the second interview of the season, the Kick Off news team were pleased to speak with last years successful Sheff Utd manager and now Newcastle manager Matt Birch, read on to find out what he had to say.

KO : "So Matt, it's been a long time since our last interview... A lot has happened since then"
MB : "Yes, I was still in charge at Sheffield United back then. I took them to the Division 1 championship before getting an offer I couldn't refuse from Newcastle"

KO : "Any regrets from leaving Sheffield?"
MB : "Not really, I think I had taken the team as far as it could go and the Toon provided me with a huge challenge. Poor management at the start of season 1 had left the team with a lot of hard work to do to take them to where they belong... challenging for trophies. We are getting on track right now although I think the Premiership title is still out of reach."

KO : "I see you have been very active in the transfer market recently. How long do you propose keeping on wheeling and dealing?"
MB : "Obviously I inherited a relatively poor squad but the board had given me a health balance to play with so I've spent the past few months putting right what went wrong before. I'm happy enough with my current squad but feel the need to bring in maybe one or two more quality players. Things will settle down pretty soon as there are only a couple of players who will be leaving the club shortly and only one or two coming in."

KO : "With that in mind, how do you see the club doing this season?"
MB : "Well obviously the opening game of the season was the toughest game we are going to face... away to the champions and I think we handled ourselves pretty well although I was really hoping for a point to get the season off to a flying start. I would have to say though that a top 5 finish is the main aim and I think with a little luck we may challenge for cup honours. We were unlucky to lose last seasons semi final on penalties and I am expecting at least the same success this season."

KO : "And how do you feel your old club will do?"
MB : "I honestly don't see much success for them this season. I sincerely hope they beat the drop but without their lucky ex-manager they'll need a big slice of luck to stay in the top flight. It would be a crying shame for them if they went down because division 1 is becoming a much much tougher league to get out of and there are some quality teams in there now. I just think that MB and Sheffield United has some magic together. That is something I'm working very hard on reproducing up in Newcastle."

KO : "And who will be the successful teams in your opinion?"
MB : "In the Premiership you can't look beyond Man Utd for the title and Liverpool for second place. I think the surprise package will be Arsenal with Chelsea an Newcastle hopefully close behind. In division 1 Sunderland and Man City look good but last seasons worst team Nottingham Forest should surprise a few people this year."

KO : "Well we've touched on everything so do you have any last words before I let you go?"
MB : "Only to say that I think this season will be more of a challenge than last year, with so much more work to do with my team. I am enjoying managing more and more each week and long may that continue. I'd also like to wish all the managers good luck in the forthcoming campaign."
ARCHIVED INTERVIEWS. No.27: FULHAM
Kick Off have made a mid week trek down to the posh end of London this week to have a chat with early high flyer and Fulham manager Alex Bullivant and find out his thoughts on this early stage of the season.

1. 7 points from 3 games at the start of the season for Fulham, how do you rate your side's start to the season?

I am very happy with the start of the season, we have done better than I could have expected. I felt that we needed at least 4 points from 1st 2 games of the season before we faced Arsenal and Man Utd back to back, but we got 2 very well deserved wins. I also thought the draw at Arsenal was an excellent performance, especially without John Collins in the middle of the park.

2. You changed your system for the game at Arsenal, what were the reasons for that?

Well, we had lost Collins through suspension, and I felt that we may need to play an extra defender to cope with the movement of Thierry Henry, and this worked quite well in 1st half, although we did not really threaten their goal too much, and we had gone 1-0 near half time. I brought Hitzlsperger on for Huckerby in the 2nd half, as we needed to get more of the ball in the 2nd half, and it worked well with Raul getting a goal.

3. Raul has now scored 5 goals in the 3 games, how important is he to Fulham?

Very, he is a world class striker and he is proving that at the moment. We have scored 6 goals this season, and Raul has 5 of them. I would like the other strikers to start contributing goals so that we are not relying on Raul too much. I would also like a few goals from midfield as well

4: Games don't come much harder than your game on Saturday do they!?

No, Man Ure at Mold Trafford is the hardest game all season, so if we get a point, I would be delighted with that. We have a fully fit squad to choose from so hopefully, we'll have a top performance from the team, and we'll need to be on top form to get anything from them.

5. Finally, what were the reasons behind Saha's move to Wimbledon?

We felt that we were getting a great deal, with Huckerby coming in, who has a lot to offer, as well as £12.5m which we can use to strengthen team. We are working hard to try and make improvements to the squad, which we know we have to do to compete in this league.
ARCHIVED INTERVIEWS. No.28: NOTTS FOREST
This weekends interview is with early surprise package Notts Forest manager Adam Pyke, read on to find out his feelings on the season so far for his club.

KO Mr Pyke, You’ve had a superb start to the season, what do you think it is down to?

AP - Well, it’s a number of factors really, I think the signings of Julio Arca and Carl Cort have added extra strength to the squad and performed brilliantly in the first few games, something I wish them to carry on with throughout the season. Another factor was that the lads were totally gutted when we finished bottom last season and they wanted a more positive start this term, so far, so good.

KO - Your currently second in the table, do you think you can stay up there?

AP - Well, as I always say to the lads, ‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint’ don’t get me wrong, it’s great to be in second place but the lads mustn't become complacent because you will be beaten by any team in this league.

KO - You’ve just signed L_Harper from Wolves for £5 million, How does he figure in your plans?

AP - Harps is a quality shot stopper and I think he can progress more as a player at Forest, I have been after another keeper for some time and that's not meant as disrespect towards Barry Roche, I think Barry still has a bit to learn and Wardy and Harps have given him valuable advice already. I contacted Ian at wolves on the Monday after the Sheff Wed game and made my interest known as Wardy’s was going to be out for a while with his injury and the deal was completed the next day which gave me a lot of time to introduce the lad to the rest of the side.

KO - Where does this leave D_Ward?

AP - Wardy is not going anywhere and I have no plans to sell him - they are both as good as each other and I think they will push each other very hard for a place in the first 11.

KO - Rotherham have been reported to have made an approach for M_Silvestre, is there any truth in this?

AP - Yes there is but he is simply not for sale, Nottingham Forest is not a selling club. Jim Ford came to me with an offer that I thought was totally unacceptable, Mikael is the club captain and a superb role model to the youth lads, he’s settled in the area and wants to stay at this club for the rest of his career.

KO - What is your main aim for the season ?

AP - Obviously promotion but I think that may be a little out of our reach, I think Sunderland and Ipswich are in the best positions in terms of strength in depth to make the top 2 places although I believe it will go right down to the wire. We would also like to improve our form in the cup this season as I think we can surprise a lot of teams and make real progress, but we’ll see what happens.

KO - Thank you Mr. Pyke, good luck for the rest of the season and beyond.

AP - Cheers fella.
ARCHIVED INTERVIEWS. No.29: SUNDERLAND
The news crew this way have made their way up North to speak with favourites to take the Division One top spot Sunderland, and speak to boss Rohan St. Clair on his good start to the season.

After a disappointing defeat to Bradford this weekend, Sunderland Boss, Rohan St. Clair had this to say outside his playboy penthouse in Melbourne; "I was absolutely shocked at the boys dismal effort this weekend. Not taking anything away from Bradford, but I thought this should have been our easiest game so far. Obviously the boys and I underestimated our opponents this time but let me assure you that this will not happen again. That will be our only loss this season and as promotion at the end of the season is all but guaranteed, I want to issue a warning not only to the Division one sides but also to the premier sides. This season will be a practice for us. With the two signings completed this past week in Rosicky and Marquez, Sunderland can only go forward from here. And yes the rumours are true, After these two signings, I will have to make some sort of sacrifice to keep Sunderland out of the red. There are one or two unhappy boys at the Stadium of Light and it looks like they may be walking away very soon. Lets just say that when you bring in new blood to your club and put them straight into your starting line-up, not everyone is gonna be happy about that."

Moments later; our reporter took a brutal hit from Mr. St. Clair when it is believed that the Sunderland boss began hallucinating (due to extreme alcohol consumption) and thought the reporter was Alex Ferguson. The reporter will be ok but is currently in the Royal Melbourne hospital with severe neck and back injuries. Doctors say these type of comas from the one punch only last around 3 to 6 months. Mr. St. Clair is to appear in court later this month.
ARCHIVED INTERVIEWS. No.30: CHELSEA
Chelsea manager Paul Rice has renewed his good relationship with the press, by inviting them to the Stamford Bridge board room for this exclusive interview, in the wake of the massive transfer that took place this week, seeing Michael Carrick, and Cameroon World Cup star Ferdinand Coly arrive at the Bridge, and Roberto Di Matteo head off to East Anglia, in addition to a large sum off cash, which was much more important to the Portman Rd. boardroom, with the debtors circulating like vultures.

Judging by the smile on his face, he feels he has got value for money. He told this journalist “during the negotiations I was at all times aware that Ipswich needed the sale, of course they could have auctioned one of their players, but for me one player wasn’t going to cover the debt. I think Sean McKeown knew that, and was as such resigned to losing his best two players anyway”.

But what of Di Matteo, the Italian star was surely a big loss?

Well, he is a quality player, but I have the likes of Zola and Zenden competing for him with places, for me Carrick has a much better chance of offering the 4 established midfielders some competition for places. And to be honest I think he has benefited from playing with those players already. He knows Frank Lampard well from heir West Ham days, and has settled in well. I gave him a debut in our last game, and he did well. I can see an improvement in him already.

And Coly?

Similarly, the lad did well on Saturday. I am delighted to have a defender of his quality aboard, defence if anywhere is where we were a bit short last season, and it perhaps cost us a bit towards the end of the season. I think we might have been able to challenge the big two for longer had we had him last season. I was forced to play Dennis Wise in defence for a few games, which isn’t ideal.

Speaking of Wise, he has gone out on loan, and Cudicini has returned this week. Is there a story there.

Not in Cudicini’s case, he went out on loan, basically as no more than a favour for a pal. Dubzi was in a bit of a spot with regards to keepers, and I loaned him Cudicini while he got someone a bit more permanent. He benefited from the games though. I think it is fair to say he got a lot of practice in the forest goal. (Rice has a big grin on his face right now)

So if there isn’t a story with regards to Cudicini, is there one with Wise?

Well, with Carrick coming in he will struggle to get a game in midfield. And Coly adds competition in defence where he played more games than in the middle last season. At this stage of his career, I understand he needs to be playing, so he has gone out on loan for a while. I might consider a bid for him, so if an interested manager is reading this, you know where I am.

OK, so apart from that, will there be any more movement in or out of the bridge in the coming weeks??

Perhaps, I am always looking to improve what I have got, and I want Chelsea to win the title eventually, so we have to be looking to improve at every opportunity to compete with Man U and Liverpool. But I am not going to say anything more on the dealings I will or won’t be doing.

Also, the draw for the Kick-Off Cup was made this week, what have you got to say about that.

Cup football is always predictable; you can predict it will be completely unpredictable. I looked at the cup as a possibility last season, and in the end struggled to get through the group, with some embarrassing results along the way, notably a bloody nose at the hands of Ipswich. We have learned from our complacency last season, I hope, and there is no reason for us not to hope to win it again, in a cup competition, all teams enter it with a view to winning it, the greatest shocks come in football, and as South Korea demonstrated in the summer, any team that gets in a winning run can go far. Of course Brazil also showed that usually one of the top teams comes out on top. Hopefully Ronaldo can carry his world cup form into the Kick-Off Cup. His hat trick at the weekend has proved to me that he is now the best footballer in the world. You can keep your Shevchenko’s, and Van Nistlerooys, we are privileged to have him at the bridge

What about your group, were you happy with that?

Well, as happy as I could be. It won’t be easy, it never is, but I think looking at the groups, we could be lot worse off. But we will still have to go to some difficult places, and get results; otherwise our cup campaign will be a short one.

Well, smashing to talk to you again Paul, hope we can do it again soon.

It is always a pleasure.