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February 8, 2010
Arsenal failed yet another of this season's big tests when they were beaten 2-0 at Chelsea on Sunday. Having lost to Manchester United the previous week, Tony Cascarino in the Times thinks it's question time for Le Professeur.
Arsène Wenger is a genius. He has few peers in either the modern or monochrome era. But I’m sorry, if Arsenal don’t go close to winning the Champions League this season, some serious questions must be asked about his future at the club. Really, it has become that bad.
This might sound like heresy, but where are Arsenal going? Out of both domestic cups, as good as out of the Premier League title race and perhaps, if they’re not careful, out of Europe soon, too. A fifth straight year without a trophy? For a club like Arsenal, that is heresy.
Watching their defeat by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge yesterday only reinforced a long-held feeling. Yes, Arsenal play the beautiful game, the five-yard passes, the intricate triangles. It’s great to watch. When they meet the lesser teams, they pass them to death.
When they meet the better teams, all that becomes so predictable. As is often the outcome: defeat. The word is out on Arsenal — press them, smother them, step on their dancing feet. And when you’ve done that, hit them on the break. Manchester United did it the previous weekend, Chelsea did it yesterday. It was like Groundhog Day.
The same is true of Wenger’s apparent obsession with small, nimble players, those who paint the pretty pictures yet have so little upper-body strength that, when challenged, they are brushed aside like annoying gnats.
Why, with no Robin van Persie, did Wenger not invest in a proper centre forward in the January transfer window? Eduardo da Silva is not right yet after injury, Nicklas Bendtner is just lazy. There are forwards out there — look at Harry Redknapp snapping up Eidur Gudjohnsen for Tottenham — and a quick fix, a short deal, would have been perfect for both parties.
No, Arsène kept his chequebook shut. He may regret that. The evidence is mounting against him, like never before in his 14 years in charge at Arsenal, and it is damning. He might run much of the show at the Emirates Stadium, quite understandably, but there must be someone in that boardroom who is getting twitchy.
Perhaps several people.
It's a similar story from Rob Kelly in the Daily Telegraph.
Following their 3-0 mauling at the hands of Chelsea in November, Arsene Wenger remarked that Didier Drogba “doesn’t do much”. This despite the Ivorian scoring twice, then his ninth and tenth goals in 11 matches against Wenger’s men. If Drogba really “doesn’t do much” in the eyes of the Frenchman, one shudders to think what his assessment of Gael Clichy, Manuel Almunia and Theo Walcott might be.
It is hard to fathom what Wenger felt he had to gain from his criticism of Drogba. All it was ever likely to do was spur the Ivorian on to greater deeds, and once again at Stamford Bridge on Sunday the Chelsea striker proved his credentials in emphatic manner. In the aftermath of Chelsea’s destruction of Arsenal in November, I argued that Drogba was the most complete striker in world football, and while Wayne Rooney has since kicked on to grab a share of the limelight, the Ivorian has arguably got a narrow edge on his rival.
How Wenger could do with a talismanic striker in the mould of Drogba or Rooney. In the absence of the injured Robin van Persie, Arsenal have looked desperately short up front, both figuratively and literally. While the muscular Drogba stands at 6ft 3in and acts as the focal point of the Chelsea attack, Arsenal had to make do with the impish Andrei Arshavin, all 5ft 7in of him.
Another trophyless season beckons for Arsenal, while Chelsea and Drogba look with relish towards a future laden with silverware. It is time for Wenger to act in the transfer market to plug the gaping holes in his talented squad.
February 7, 2010
It's fair to say that the UK media, and public, like a scandal, so with John Terry still plastered all over the newspapers it has been difficult to find another topic to feature in today's Paper Round; but we've done it.
Just as the nation was split over whether Terry should be sacked as England captain, so the nation is split over the decision to give the armband to Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand.
The Times' Jonathan Northcroft is backing the England centre-back as the right man to lead his country.
"A few months ago, in a spartan sports hall in one of the most violent inner-city areas of Britain, I watched a footballer hold an audience of street kids rapt as he spoke eloquently and from the heart of growing up in similar environs but steering away from a life of crime. Peers ended up in prison: he took another path, which, this summer, should lead him to South Africa as skipper of his country at a World Cup.
Rio Ferdinand later told me, sincerely: “I don't take it for granted, never. You've got to use your position to say something. I still believe to this day if I hadn't been a footballer, I'd have been a youth worker.” Just a thought: this is the new England captain; the previous one was the sort of bloke who (fined for doing so in 2008) left his Bentley in a disabled parking bay outside a Surrey restaurant.
Ferdinand will do fine if he remembers the group is what it's about; not breaking collective player agreements with the FA to try to make side-money by flogging tickets for your Wembley box; not sleeping with the mother of a fellow player's son."
Meanwhile, in The News of the World, Andy Dunn, is certain that Ferdinand is not the man for the job and England boss Fabio Capello has made a mistake.
"We don't know how Ferdinand will behave as England captain. At the moment, all we can ask is whether or not he is the right man - football-wise - for the job. I believe the answer is no.
Ferdinand in his pomp is a peerless defender. Truly world-class. A footballing centre-half to complement the indestructible will of Terry. But right now, he has issues he needs to deal with on the pitch - that require total focus.
Prior to his three-month lay-off with a back injury, Ferdinand was in a crisis. A poor display in the friendly against Holland and a catastrophic rick in the Ukraine were signs that his international place should not have been as automatic as it has been.
These were augmented by a howler against Manchester City and a scorching from Fernando Torres at Anfield. Maybe it was the back injury. Or maybe those old lapses in concentration were becoming more frequent. And when he finally returned, pent-up frustration manifested itself in the swipe at Craig Fagan, which earned him his current ban."
February 6, 2010
OK, I'm sorry. I'm looking at the past eight days worth of Paper Rounds and every one has been about John Terry. I would love to provide something different today, but after Fabio Capello lived up to his disciplinarian stereotype yesterday and stripped Terry of the England captaincy - there is only one thing on the lips, pens and keyboards of the English press.
Let's start with the Guardian, where Irish comedian Dara O'Briain takes a slightly more irreverent look than the usual at "Dad of the Year" John Terry, speculating about what tips he could offer a father of nine foster kids on a council estate in Middlesbrough.
"Dad of the year, you say? With the collapse of the John Terry super-injunction some small news story crept into one or two of the sports sections during the week regarding the then England captain. Perhaps you didn't spot it; and would like me to recap some of the more salacious details. Perhaps not. I'm happy to leave it if you are. There are only so many times you can return to a dead horse that has been whipped as vigorously as this one.
I couldn't even write about it if I wanted to. I am working under the constraints of my own super‑injunction. Last week I concocted a strained but well-meant piece comparing Man United to legendary cyclist Lance Armstrong, a piece that was taken by many, not least the sub‑editors here, to be a straightforward attack on Man United. Really, only the first bit of it was; and then only to set up the second bit. No matter. United offered a master class last Sunday, winning at a canter. For fear that I should draw such a whirlwind on them again, Arsenal FC have injuncted me from writing a thing about Chelsea.
Football aside then, maybe if we can ask for one good thing to come of this Terry affair, it is that celebrities realise that awards like "Dad of the Year" aren't actually a proper award, judged by some jury against some criteria, under which our celebrity came first. They're organised by a PR company on behalf of a sponsor who wants some free press and they're given to whoever will turn up and collect them. Kerry Katona has won "Mother of the Year". Twice.
They aren't a real prize, you fools. They're like "Spectacle Wearer of the Year". It's just an ad. You're doing an ad. For free. For brown sauce. The real Dad of the Year is sitting on a housing estate in Middlesbrough, looking after nine foster kids. I shudder to think of the conversation Terry had with the organisers at the photoshoot when they gave him his award. What parenting small-talk did they make?"
Elsewhere, Sky Sports pundit and former Liverpool midfielder takes a look at today's Merseyside derby...I wish. Nope, it's more Terry stuff, although Redknapp at least prefers to examine how well England's new captain Rio Ferdinand is suited to the job in his column in the Mail.
"My Grandad, Harry Snr, loved watching football games. He used to tell us he could spot a player and the first day he saw Rio Ferdinand, he rang my dad. ‘You’ve got to come and see this boy,’ he said. ‘It’s like watching a Rolls-Royce. He will play for England.’ Rio was 15. He was a late developer, out of South London who wasn’t selected for England at schoolboy level.
Tony Carr, the youth team coach who is now West Ham’s successful academy director, often used him in midfield in his early days because he was so comfortable on the ball. But Pop Harry watched him in defence that day and rang when he got home. ‘Son, you have got to look at this boy. He’s something special, nearest thing I have seen to Bobby Moore. Passes, moves, glides and can defend. He’s quick too. He’ll be world class.’
Word went around our family; I was a Liverpool player at the time. My dad called me and I got the chance to look at him for myself when West Ham played Liverpool in the FA Youth Cup final. There was this gangly kid at centre half, really skinny and with long legs and the natural running style of a middle-distance athlete. But he could shift, cover the ground quickly, read danger. His name caught the eye too, because of Les Ferdinand’s success at Queens Park Rangers"
February 5, 2010
No surprises for guessing who is making the headlines today. Yes, Mr Terry is the man and it's all about whether he keeps the armband or not.
Matt Lawton at the Daily Mail questions whether we can actually trust Terry now.
Now John Terry really has some explaining to do. When he meets Fabio Capello today, the conversation will not just concern an England team-mate’s estranged partner but the legally binding contract he agreed with the FA when he became a Wembley box holder.
As the Daily Mail’s investigation reveals, Terry’s 12-seat box is available to anyone who has £4,000 and wants to watch England or their favourite rock band. Selling it on is strictly prohibited, but this newspaper was offered the box in exchange for a cash payment to Terry’s management company.
This is so much more serious than the sordid revelations Terry and his representatives tried to keep out of the public domain because this concerns what looks like a breach of trust between the England captain and the organisation he represents. He is given a major discount on the box in recognition of his status. Not, as Capello will now fear, to make money.
Over at the Independent, they've commented on another big breaking story that is actually a breaking story: Chelsea's transfer ban being lifted. Nick Harris has this to say:
Yesterday's apparently amicable settlement between Chelsea and Lens over Gaël Kakuta is a win-win situation for all parties – apart from Fifa, perhaps – but leaves more questions that answers. The whole deal is shrouded in confidentiality agreements but it is obvious from the statement released by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and in comments by Chelsea's chairman, Bruce Buck, that the matter concluded after a process of arbitration, and some money changing hands.
We know Chelsea will pay Lens at least €910,000 (£793,000) because Buck said: "Chelsea has agreed to pay compensation costs for the training given to the player while at Lens, as mandated by Fifa in its original ruling.''
The figures in that original ruling were €780,000 liable from Kakuta to Lens (in joint liability with Chelsea), plus €130,000 directly from Chelsea to Lens. We don't know who is picking up the case costs, but we can assume it is one or both clubs.
We know Chelsea don't accept any legal liability for any wrongdoing, because Buck told us. What we don't know is three key things. Why did Chelsea buckle and effectively "settle" if they thought they could win? Why did Lens effectively accept a compromise? And what does Fifa think about its own original verdict over a poaching allegation being found, effectively, baseless?
February 4, 2010
Mike Atherton knows a thing or two about leading England... in cricket. Cricket's a sport where the captaincy is rather more important, so Atherton proposes in the Times that John Terry ought to be stripped of the armband and that Fabio Capello should forget about having a permanent captain in the future.
When the England cricket captaincy was offered to me in 1994, it came with certain terms of reference, the first being that the ECB wanted to “restore the authority” of the captain after a period in which it was perceived that the coach had too much influence. It was made clear that it was not a role to be accepted lightly. First thoughts were not of exploitation but of certain small sacrifices to be made: of time and of privacy, mainly.
So the early days, until those terms of reference were changed abruptly, involved being the main voice in selection, ringing those selected and — more angst-inducing this — those who had been dropped; having a say in schedules of tours on the distant horizon; dictating tactics; giving team-talks; helping to run practice and making decisions on the field. The last bit was the easy part. All this before you have even thought about your own performance. Since the advent of a tidal wave of support staff, the duties have become lighter of late, but the point stands.
Not being close to the football scene, and embarrassed about encroaching upon the patch of Patrick Barclay and Oliver Kay, soundings have been made this week to those who are in the know as to what exactly the England football captain does, apart from shake hands with the opposition at the toss and decide which way to kick off. One said he organises “things”. What, exactly? “Laser shoots, and the like. You know, team spirit things.” Another talked of understanding the game — although one hopes that is a minimum requirement of any international footballer. Another talked of leading by example and of his symbolic importance.
If symbolic is too strong a word, then it gets closer to the point than most. If not a symbol then he is a reflection, mainly upon Fabio Capello, and to a lesser degree on us. This is why “Il Capo” has to act.
As Bobby Moore was for Alf Ramsey, so Terry is Capello’s representative on the field and, in a welcome development, Capello has shown in his short time in charge that he will not put up with the kind of puerile nonsense tolerated by earlier managers; that the normal standards of decency, respect and discipline are as much a part of his regime as you would expect in any professional side.
The England captaincy can never be a popularity contest, and the manager cannot treat it as an audition on Strictly Come Dancing, with the public voting according to every passing whim. But when there is this level of revulsion aimed at a man so obviously lacking in class (of the human, not social, kind) and decency, and devoid, as he clearly is, of any sense of responsibility, then the man in charge must take note of the public mood. Not that it will make one iota of difference, one way or the other, to the team’s chances in South Africa.
Once the axe has swung, Capello can do himself and his team a favour before the tournament by refusing to appoint a permanent replacement, picking simply on a match-by-match basis. A fluid, flexible approach would confer immediate advantages: there would be no single figure for the media to focus on, no single figure trying and failing to live up to the kind of standards demanded by a society that is deluded enough to expect sportsmen to act as “role models”.
In the absence of a permanent captain there would be no one to exploit the honour, as Terry has tried so miserably to do. If the only meaning to the England football captaincy is, as Matt Dickinson beautifully reported on Tuesday, “half a million quid”, then it is time that particular junket was capsized. In the absence of one focal point, England’s footballers may learn that the best teams have not just one leader on the field but many.
If Capello takes this course of action, Terry’s final indiscretion, in the end, may be the best thing that has happened to the England football team.
Meanwhile, Marina Hyde is the Guardian manages to direct us to the most amusing part of the whole affair so far.
Isolating the single most witless comment on the John Terry saga thus far is a near-impossible task, but you have to think that Janet Street-Porter, 63, would be in with a shout. "Sick joke," began her Daily Mail column on the subject. "John Terry was chosen as 'Dad of the Year' by Daddies Sauce. That's a product I won't be buying any more."
In any sane universe, the correct response for anyone over the age of six would be to throw one's head back and cackle: "Oh do grow up, Janet!" Instead, alas, the fashion of the times suggests we should react by saying that it is obviously a massive disappointment that the Street-Porter condiment cupboard will now be deprived of the brown sauce which was once such an integral player among its lesser sundry ketchups, but that nothing is more important than the harmony of that cupboard being maintained, so it is commendable – if inevitable – that Janet has taken such a tough moral stand and shown what she's about as a larder manager.
February 3, 2010
It feels a little bit like a broken record, but the John Terry saga rolls on, with his finger-to-lips "shhh" salute to fans at the KC Stadium last night providing fuel for plenty of journalists in Wedensday's papers. Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti has said he can have some time off if he needs it, while the continuing murmurings of discontent seem to be heading to crescendo, with pressure from all angles on JT to be stripped of the England captaincy.
Martin Samuel in the Mail, looks at Fabio Capello's salary and decides that the Italian is worth the money that the FA fork out for his salary in comparison to politicians such as sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe. Sutcliffe spoke out against Terry, causing a media storm last week - while Capello has remained both calm and quiet in order to properly assess what is a delicate situation.
"So now you know why he gets the money. It is not for working out that Wayne Rooney is a better option than Michael Owen. It is not for finding a way of playing Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard in the same team, or mining the gold in Theo Walcott. It is because the manager of the England football team is under scrutiny like no man in Britain, not even the Prime Minister, and even when recovering from surgery.
Don’t believe me? Well, on Friday, January 29, Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister, appeared before an inquiry investigating the reasoning and legality of a war he declared, against the will and counsel of a great many, that may yet pan out as the worst foreign-policy decision since Neville Chamberlain appeased Hitler.
On the same day it was revealed the captain of the England football team was having it off with the ex-girlfriend of the reserve left back. No guesses for which story received the greater coverage; no guesses for which story continues to dominate the news agenda five days later.
Fabio Capello
A government minister was driven to make a statement at the weekend. Not on Blair, on John Terry. Gerry Sutcliffe, the Sports Minister, said Terry’s conduct, if substantiated, called into question his role as England captain and he would be speaking to the Football Association to establish their views.
Meanwhile, Fabio Capello, the England manager, is recuperating after a knee operation at his home in Lugano. He says almost nothing. That is why we pay him £6million a year: to not be an opportunist berk like Sutcliffe and make a bad situation worse."
Elsewhere, Matthew Syed at the Times is the latest writer to lend his opinion to the Terry debate, looking at the wider picture of disloyalty in football and society. Heavy stuff on a Wednesday morning in Betrayal: The cardinal sin of captaincy.
"I suspect all would be OK with John Terry’s captaincy of the England team had his latest affair been of the swinging variety. You know, had Wayne Bridge been in on it and, as they say, high on it. But, to judge from the anguished noises emanating from the Bridge camp, that was far from the case. The Manchester City defender was not merely unaware of Terry’s alleged shenanigans, but mortified by them. This, then, is a scandal not about sex, but about betrayal.
We are familiar with footballing types and, indeed, politicians, lawyers, doctors and journalists betraying their wives — and, for that matter, their husbands. Adultery is such a habitual feature of modern society (and, if anthropologists are to be believed, premodern society) that is has become common to regard it as by the by; a matter of personal conscience, to be resolved (or otherwise) with one’s partner if and when it is exposed. But betrayal of a team-mate — well, that seems to be a different thing altogether.
Team sport is a curious thing: the coming together of morally disparate individuals in pursuit of a common purpose. The interaction — as any who have spent more than five minutes playing in a team will tell you — is subtle and takes a fair bit of getting used to: the banter, the practical jokes, the establishment of hierarchy, the nuances of close proximity in the locker room and beyond."
February 2, 2010
Transfer deadline day may have been and gone but there is still only one story dominating the back pages of the newspapers and that is, of course, John Terry.
Following the revelations over his private life, his alleged affair and the possibly divisive impact it could have on the England squad it seems that Terry is ready to quit (The Independent) or not (Daily Mirror) depending on what newspaper you read.
There is a bit more meat on the bones of the story in the Daily Telegraph, which claims Terry has held talks with Fabio Capello's closest adviser, Franco Baldini, to discuss whether he should resign as England captain.
And while the FA has left the final decision up to Capello, the Daily Star reports that key members of English football's governing body hope Terry will fall on his sword and save the England coach from having to sack him.
Meanwhile, The Sun, apparently conducted a poll amongst the England players and the majority were in favour of Terry staying on as skipper.
If Terry does quit, or is stripped of the captaincy, then Capello best be careful who he selects as his new skipper, writes Richard Williams in The Guardian:
"Fabio Capello had better take the trouble to discover the identities of two more Premier League players who are said to be using the law to conceal their extra-curricular activities. One of them has reportedly succeeded in obtaining two injunctions preventing publication of the details of his "one-night stands with groupies", in the words of an outraged Daily Mail reporter, while the other has threatened to use the privacy laws against a newspaper preparing to publish a story about his "tawdry 'liaisons' with three women in one week".
I have no idea who the two players in question are, or if either of them is married, or English, or a member of Capello's squad. But the manager can't be too careful."
But Williams does have one candidate for the captain’s role, Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney:
"In the search for his successor, it will be almost impossible for Capello to isolate one player who satisfies the requirements of being an automatic choice for the starting line-up, possessing a leader's instincts and maintaining a personal life unlikely to attract the wrong sort of headlines. It comes as something of a shock to realise that, of the very small number of players answering those criteria, Wayne Rooney is the outstanding candidate."
Meanwhile, in The Times, Matt Dickinson asks: Do England need a permanent captain at all?
"Do we really need to regard it is a 365-days-a-year job when it matters for about 12 match days maximum? Is the England captain always on duty, a representative of the nation, of you and me, even when he is popping around to “comfort” his team-mate’s former girlfriend?
Terry impressed, as he always will do, on the pitch and in the dressing room. Capello was not to know the extent of his recklessness off it.
But he does now and when he moves on, as he surely must do by demoting Terry, one suspects that Capello would much prefer just to pass the role to the player who is most deserving on the day. It would certainly stop him being hostage to the latest kiss-and-tell saga."
February 1, 2010
What a lovely lad John Terry is. And the newspapers are continuing to discuss his future as England captain and whether he should wear the armband at the World Cup finals.
As you would expect, most are finding it hard to muster any sympathy and are ready to put the boot in.
In The Times, Patrick Barclay pulls no punches, as you would expect, and is quick to slam the play-away defender after his sordid affair with Wayne Bridge's other half.
If Fabio Capello and the FA are still thinking about what to do with John Terry, someone else should be doing the thinking.
Capello simply has to make the easiest and most popular decision of his career by taking the armband from Terry and giving it to Wayne Rooney, who can lead out England with his head held high on March 3, when they play Egypt in a friendly match, and on to the World Cup in South Africa.
Whether Terry should be one of the ten players following Rooney on to the Wembley turf is another, more complex (if less important) matter. But what a lift it would give the footballing nation if the England captaincy reverted to being an honour rather than a public-relations hand grenade.
Terry, for all his qualities as a leader and a footballing central defender — his hard-man image belies the Chelsea captain’s excellence as a distributor of the ball from the back — has been a near-disaster in the job, a recurrent source of embarrassment.
Enough is enough, and this is now too much. England cannot be led out again by someone who comes with more baggage than Louis Vuitton.
But, after scouring the papers, we have managed to find someone who thinks John Terry should lead England, and that is Oliver Holt in the Daily Mirror.
Question his behaviour off the pitch all you want but the critical issue remains his ability to keep playing as one of the best centre-halves in the world.
If he had buckled under the pressure of the furore surrounding his private life on Saturday, then maybe the questions about whether he can keep his job as England captain might have had some legitimacy.
But Terry didn't buckle. He didn't even look like buckling. Typically, in fact, he reacted by scoring a superb late winner that kept his team at the top of the Premier League.
He did not celebrate wildly. He did not perform cart-wheels. He turned and ran back to his own half, brushing off the congratulations of his team-mates.
If we are looking for an England squad of blameless innocents, we will have to search for a long, long time and settle on a squad of 23 six-year-olds.
If, however, it's footballers strong enough to stand up in adversity that we're looking for, then Terry will be leading his country out for the first match against the USA in June.
January 31, 2010
Inevitably the fall out from the whole John Terry scandal has carried over into the Sunday's, and the England captain fills both the front and back pages - after scoring the winner against burnley last night. Piers Morgan at the Mail on Sunday is one of a host of columnists and journalists to call for Terry's head, painting a particularly vivid picture of an uncomfortable World Cup scenario and putting Wayne Rooney's name forward as a replacement.
"John Terry is finished as England captain. You can fight, booze, womanise and be photographed standing naked on top of London’s Millennium Eye singing ‘Ave Maria’ and still keep the biggest job in football. But bed a team-mate’s partner and it all gets a little too tricky. You can’t dip your pen in company ink and retain authority.
Picture the scene: last five minutes of a World Cup semi-final against Brazil in June, it’s 1-1, a player goes down injured and Terry calls his boys together for one last great rallying cry.
‘Lads, we’ve got to stick together, dig deep, stay close, trust each other, stay loyal...’
To which Wayne Bridge snorts in disbelief, shouts ‘You hypocritical, lying, cheating *******’, and smacks him on the nose.
John Terry
No, if England coach Fabio Capello doesn’t sack him, then he’ll be forced to go soon enough anyway because Fleet Street’s most merciless hounds will rip the Chelsea star to pieces until he does. It’s the law of the media jungle. Just ask Tiger Woods.
Because I’ve always believed the best player in a football team should be the captain. Football isn’t like cricket, where you are required to make hundreds of tactical decisions over five days. The only thing an England football captain needs to do is lead out his team, inspire them for 90 minutes, terrify the opposition with his mere presence, and be a good role model and ambassador. And is there anyone else right now who ticks as many boxes as Wayne Rooney?"
The man deciding whether Terry continues to wear the armband for the Three Lions is England boss Fabio Capello, and Duncan White at the Sunday Telegraph says it is an unenviable decision.
"The England manager is respectful of players' private lives, within reason, but with Terry having broken the unspoken code of the dressing room, Capello has been left with the toughest dilemma of his time in charge.
After initial misgivings, Terry has grown on Capello. Bearing in mind this is a manager who has worked with great captains such as Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini, Capello has found Terry to be an impressive leader, a loyal and serious presence in the dressing room and an inspiration on the pitch. Can he really court martial his most reliable sergeant major?
Pragmatically, Capello must also consider his own future. He committed himself to England through to 2012 this week and knows that success or failure in South Africa will define the next two years in charge.
Terry's strength of character on the field, not to mention his strong and consistent performances this season, have made him absolutely central to Capello's plans this summer. Terry as captain is, in Capello's view, a unique asset of this England team, one he is loath to lose."
Elsewhere, and today's big match in the football world is of course the clash between Arsenal v Manchester United, with two of the English game's greatest ever managers going toe-to-toe again. Paul Hayward at the Guardian takes a look back on Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson's contrasting upbringings and historical rivalry.
"From the shipyards of Govan and a bar-restaurant in Alsace came the two romantics who have done most in modern times to imbue English football with artistry.
If the world's favourite game is pretty much one long episode of Wacky Races, Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger have been wheel to wheel since the last century, or September 1996, when Professor Pat Pending, as he would most likely be, entered Highbury's marble halls to declare war on the prosaic 1-0 win. For 14 years, hard Scot and visionary Frenchman have raced one another demonically, dropping out of the frame only briefly to allow Dick Dastardly (José Mourinho) to seize a pair of Premier League medals.
Ferguson served up Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, and Wenger has offered us Thierry Henry, Cesc Fábregas and Robert Pires. Each manager has bestowed gifts on the English game that far transcend the tribal loathing that will splash across this afternoon's confrontation in north London. Neither chieftain will kick a ball as the teams grapple for vital psychological points but the match will be an expression of the characters of the two managers just as it always was.
This eternal conflict is in a class apart. Almost without respite the pair have fought over the high ground of expressive winning football. Ferguson went off to deal with Chelski for a while and Wenger busied himself rebuilding the London Colney kindergarten after the Invincibles had been reacquainted with defeat (and the pizza had flown) at Old Trafford in October 2004."
January 30, 2010
No surprise what has been slammed all over the back pages of today's newspapers and I'll give you a clue...it isn't a preview of the Australian Open final between Andy Murray and Roger Federer.
England captain John Terry's affair with the former girlfriend of Wayne Bridge has been exposed and the newspapers are having a field day, with Ian McGarry at the Sun writing that he believes Terry's Chelsea future could be in jeopardy.
"Around lunchtime today, John Terry will find out if he has a future at Chelsea. That is when Carlo Ancelotti will name his team for this evening's game at Burnley. If Terry starts, then the smart money says he stays. The Chelsea hierarchy are fully aware of the circumstances which have dragged their club captain on to the front pages once again.
They knew about the legal injunction he took out last week and about the High Court appeal which overturned it yesterday. But they will not act until they see this morning's newspapers and media coverage of Terry's affair with Wayne Bridge's ex-partner, Vanessa Perroncel.Owner Roman Abramovich's right-hand man, Eugene Tenenbaum, will consult boss Ancelotti and Terry will be asked to make his case for playing in spite of the furore.
There is no doubt that Terry will want to start. As far as he is concerned, only serious injury is a reason for not turning out for the team. He has shown that in the past and is widely regarded at Chelsea and with England as one of the game's "real men". He is also no stranger to off-field controversy and how to handle it. In the past year alone, his mum was exposed in The Sun for shoplifting along with his mother-in-law."
Elsewhere, and even the broadsheets are taking up this one, with Henry Winter at the Telegraph claiming that Terry's only option now is to resign as England captain.
"If Terry is forced to resign, as seems likely, the armband would pass to either Wayne Rooney, the most popular player in the dressing room, or Rio Ferdinand, the present vice-captain. Steven Gerrard is too inhibited an individual to be England captain while Frank Lampard, though popular, could find it difficult to succeed his club-mate.
I like Terry, the one natural leader in the England dressing room, a player so passionately committed to the cause of St George that he willingly endures jabs just to get his stiff back through games, but this really is an embarrassment too far. It’s time for him to stand down.
Unless Terry somehow pulls off his greatest ever piece of defending, surviving the firestorm of headlines hurtling his way, then it would be little surprise if England were led out by Rooney for their first World Cup game against the United States in Rustenburg on June 12. Terry could even be gone by the March friendly with Egypt. This weekend will be a brutal one for Terry and the FA."
January 29, 2010
England and Chelsea captain John Terry may be having an uncomfortable weekend. And that's not meant as a slight to Burnley.
It seems that "JT" has been unable to make an injunction about a private matter stick and that the sordid details may yet be splashed across a Sunday newspaper. Watch this space.
Let's see the Guardian take the strain of the legal stuff while the Sun tells much of the story so you don't have to wait.
"Another controversial superinjunction was overturned today as the England captain John Terry emerged as the footballer who obtained a gagging order preventing the publication of allegations about his private life.
Lawyers for Terry succeeded in applying for a high court injunction on Friday last week, having learnt that a Sunday newspaper – believed to be the News of the World – planned to write about his private life."
Real Madrid saw their star man Cristiano Ronaldo lose his appeal against a suspension for, er, breaking an opponent's nose at the weekend. For Guillem Balague writing in the Daily Mirror, the whole sorry affair simply goes to show that Ronaldo's ego is spiralling beyond measure - but that is a blessing as well as a curse.
Spain is divided over whether Ronaldo intended to break a Malaga player’s nose last week or not. Whatever side you’re on, the new Galactico’s reaction - that he was the victim - is worrying. As a Malaga player said: “Clearly the nose was at fault!”
As his opponent lay bleeding, the sight of Ronaldo on his knees, arms raised to the heavens wailing in frustration at the injustice of it all, confirms for his critics what they’ve have been saying all along: that his ego is out of control.
Away from the carefully controlled environment of Old Trafford, Ronaldo’s belief that he is the best is in danger of making him a liability – yet at the same time his insatiable desire to prove he is the best is driving him on to ever greater heights.
Real Madrid are struggling to contain that fiery character and some of his team-mates have suggested that Ronaldo’s obsession with being number one is making him ‘overexcited out on the pitch'.
Yet they also know that it is the very same desire to be the best, to score the winning goal and to win every game that makes him the unstoppable force he frequently is.
Let off the leash, Ronaldo could run out of control; yet he is also becoming a much more dangerous player at the same time.
It could go spectacularly wrong, but the reward is mesmerising – and probably worth the risk...
Meanwhile, Jeff Powell in the Daily Mail says Wayne Rooney may not be the white Pele but has all the potential he needs to write his name in the history books.
This is not what Manchester United fans had in mind the other night when they hoisted a banner proclaiming Wayne Rooney as the white Pele, but the most immediate comparison with the greatest footballer of all time is simply that of size.
The search for the new Pele has long been football’s equivalent of the quest for the Holy Grail, but more recent generations of lovers of the beautiful game are always amazed to be told that Edson Arantes do Nascimento stood only a smidgen above 5ft 7in.
Rooney is only about three inches taller but he, too, is a giant presence on the pitch. He is cast in the same squat, powerful and virtually unstoppable mould. But the new Pele? That really is a tall order.
A long way for Rooney to go? Hopefully, there are [legendary] moments awaiting Rooney, perhaps beginning in South Africa. But lest we forget, Pele won three World Cups.
And while Rooney is finding the net frequently, he will have to do so for many seasons to emulate Pele’s thousand goals.
True greatness is the product of consistent brilliance sustained down the years, the decades. It is not bestowed overnight.
If Rooney is a Pele in the making, it will be some time before we have the proof. That is the long and the short of it.
January 28, 2010
The Guardian's Richard Williams is just one of the national reporters dazzled by the brilliance of Wayne Rooney after his injury-time goal took Manchester United to the final of the Carling Cup at the expense of rivals Manchester City.
After Real Madrid director Jorge Valdano suggested the striker may struggle to acclimatise to life in Spain, not that United have any intention of selling him, Williams feels Rooney produced a stunning riposte on a night when opposition to the Glazer family continued. He writes:
Two hours before last night's kick-off a schoolboy was walking through the tunnel under the main stand and past the memorial to the victims of the Munich disaster, wearing a T-shirt evoking an earlier period of Manchester United's history. First revived almost 20 years ago by the club itself in order to flog a few more away strips, the green and gold colours of Newton Heath FC, United's forebears, formed in 1878 as the works team of a railway depot, have recently been restored to prominence as an emblem of resistance against the consequences of the leveraged takeover engineered by the Glazer family of Florida in the summer of 2005.
The boy was not alone. Thousands of other spectators were making their way into the ground with shirts and scarves in the colours first worn by the men of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. When the boy turned round, it could be seen that the back of his T-shirt, bought that afternoon for a fiver, carried a message intended to resonate across the Atlantic: "United's soul is never sold / So proudly wear the Green and Gold / We'll never wear our famous Red / Til Glazer's gone or even dead / So raise that ancient standard high / By Green and Gold we'll live or die / That day will come again for sure / When we can wear our Red once more."
If any red-shirted player on the pitch last night embodied that boy's defiance, if perhaps not precisely his objection to the effects of global capitalism, it was surely Wayne Rooney, combining finesse and defiance in a match-turning performance that reached its climax with a decisive strike in the 92nd minute. As the roar from the throats of 65,000 United fans split the sky, it was tempting to conclude that, when it comes to football clubs and their sticky moments with controversial owners, there is not much that a sequence of satisfying results and the promise of trophies cannot overcome.
The Mail's Martin Samuel, never one to miss the chance to comment on a big game, focuses on the figure of Carlos Tevez who scored again against his former club but was denied a trip to Wembley.
At the final whistle, Carlos Tevez was dazed, twisting in the middle. His team-mates were heading for the tunnel, crushed, the celebrating reds were oblivious to him.
He stumbled around, aimlessly, looking for a friendly face, a hand to shake. It seemed a painful age until his old colleagues spotted him and offered the standard commiserations.
Tevez scored three times in this tie, but it was not sufficient. He may not regret leaving United but he will know the calibre of the team he has left behind.
January 27, 2010
The big derby is going to get underway later and Martin Samuel at the Daily Mail wants to point the finger at Manchester City, claiming they are all that is wrong with football.
We hear so much about respect these days that football is in danger of turning into south central Los Angeles. Blue versus red; Crips against Bloods.
Manchester United play Manchester City again tonight at Old Trafford, so you can pretty much guarantee somebody will get dissed; probably Carlos Tevez, whose popularity at Old Trafford is right up there with Malcolm Glazer’s.
Lack of respect explains the feud between Tevez and Gary Neville, the Manchester United captain, apparently. According to Kia Joorabchian, adviser to Tevez, the angry gestures and description of Neville as an idiot and a creep were not even derogatory. ‘A professional footballer has to have respect for his companions and if you don’t have class, then you have to accept that they are entitled to say something back,’ Joorabchian said.
Leaving aside exactly who is in a position to lecture on class in football these days - although it hasn’t stopped the most debt-laden Prime Minister in history sermonising on governance and balancing the books - Joorabchian would appear to have rather missed the point. Modern Manchester City do not have class and they do not have respect; that is what is so appealing about them.
Ian McGarry in the Sun has his say on news of Crystal Palace's administration. And, of course, he saw it coming.
In Palace's case, a campaign which saw them just outside the play-offs suddenly became a relegation battle in the bleep of a mobile phone. It would be wrong to say they hadn't seen it coming. Twice this term the staff discovered their wages had not been paid on time. And they're not anywhere near the best-paid squad in the Championship - making this new development even more of a shock.
But football is an optimistic environment by nature. After all, there's always the next game to make up for disappointment in the last one. In terms of the club, Palace couldn't be further from the image of football as wasteful and bloated. Everything is run on a budget.
Chairman and owner Simon Jordan, abhors throwing money away and has banned paying agents. Even the players' canteen and laundry have been pared down to a minimum. In effect, everything that could have been cut had been. Therein lies the grave truth facing English football in 2010 - even big clubs with a large fan base, rich history and that are reasonably well run can still go under.
Meanwhile, Paddy Barclay in the Times has a look at Liverpool's woes after another dismal result - this time against Wolves - and says that Steven Gerrard failed to make an impact.
Reports that Juventus are pondering a move for Rafael Benítez had the Liverpool followers in two minds. Many remain loyal to the manager who has guided them to two Champions League finals, but some feel that his time has come and gone and that the summer would be an ideal time to thank him for the memories.
The pro-Benítez camp had been heartened by the performance that brought Liverpool a 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield six days earlier; it was indeed more like the team’s better form of last season, when they gave Manchester United a scare for much of the Barclays Premier League campaign, in that the spirit for combat and team sense were evident.
Coincidentally or not, this was in the absence through injury of the star players, Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard. The Englishman returned last night and yet, for all his industry, seldom threatened to break free of Michael Mancienne’s man-to-man marking. Team-wise, it was an unimpressive Liverpool display, one that left the club with only 11 wins in 23 league matches — they have 15 games left to save their season by finishing fourth.
It would be an exaggeration to say that the purchase of Alonso from Real Sociedad made Benítez’s Liverpool, or that his sale to Real Madrid last summer will prove a regime-breaker. But how they miss Alonso’s composure; neither Javier Mascherano nor Lucas Leiva can see the passes he used to make.
Gerrard, a damp squib in the first half, showed signs of his characteristic explosiveness on the resumption, but the service from deep midfield was seldom of the quality he would have wanted.
January 26, 2010
Ahead of tomorrow night's Carling Cup semi-final, Matt Dickinson at the Times launches a staunch defence of Gary Neville for the comments he made regarding Carlos Tevez. Dickinson reckons that the Manchester United captain was justified in making his point and that Tevez is just another greedy footballer.
"According to the Butterfly Effect, small, seemingly insignificant incidents can come to have a vast, unforeseen outcome; the flap of wings that ultimately causes a tornado. Football now has its own parochial example. Gary Neville makes some sensible comments in a Maltese newspaper, The Times, and, before you know it, Manchester police are on riot alert, braced for mayhem at Old Trafford tomorrow night.
Carlos Tévez is in for a Welcome to Hell in the Carling Cup semi-final, second leg. United fans may even suspend their anti-Glazer protests to concentrate on the Argentine defector. In Tévez’s world, he is the one with right on his side in this escalating feud: the man disrespected.
It suits him to paint a picture of a footballer who would have died for United but, cast out, had no choice than to pack up his shooting boots and, like one of Clint Eastwood’s wandering gunslingers, head to the next town. That is one side of the story, but an entirely self-serving one also peddled by Kia Joorabchian, his representative. Self-serving because it deflects from the fact that the move may have been inspired by other motives, such as the pot of gold on the other side of Manchester."
Staying in Manchester, United striker Wayne Rooney is one of the form players in the Premier League at the moment, so it's perfect for timing for former Arsenal defender Martin Keown to regale us with tales of his days marking the England striker back in the day. He even offers up a bit of advice for Rooney's opposing defenders in the Mail.
"Wayne Rooney is worse than an annoying wasp. He just won’t go away, buzzing all around the opposition’s defence and penalty box. You’d kill a wasp, but you just can’t get rid of Rooney. What makes him so difficult to play against is that he is a very determined player, very strong
Against someone like that, you have to mark them extremely tightly. You must be virtually in his boots when you are marking him. You have to force him away from the goal, stay as tight as you can and keep him going in the wrong direction. But it is very difficult to keep someone like that quiet for 90 minutes, especially when he has good options around him.
It’s always difficult dealing with that type of player. Dennis Bergkamp used to do it, Gianfranco Zola and Teddy Sheringham too. They just wander into that little area. There’s then the element of surprise and a communication problem between the midfield and defence. There are times when you are playing against a Zola or a Sheringham and you would love to go and pick him up but you have to let the midfielders do it.
My golden rule used to be that if I wasn’t sure whether to go or not, I would just stand still. Manchester United had particularly good movement of players and I remember Paul Scholes making those runs from deep or Ryan Giggs coming in from wide into the hole that you leave. "
Another former Arsenal player, former record goalscorer Ian Wright, has also chosen to focus his attention on Rooney, suggesting in the Sun that any potential sale of the striker would be "catastrophic" for Manchester United.
"It is not only Wayne Rooney's feet that are on fire at the moment - his ears must be burning too. His red-hot form for Manchester United has fuelled more talk he could soon be set for a multi-million pound reunion with Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid. With all the financial goings-on at Old Trafford, I could see Rooney running out at the Bernabeu in a white shirt next season - especially if he has a good World Cup.
Indeed, I would be very surprised if former Red Devils idol Ronaldo, who left United for Madrid for a world-record £80million last summer, is NOT badgering his new club's head coach Manuel Pellegrini and president Florentino Perez on a daily basis, telling them to splash the cash to nab his old pal.
But despite their confusing cash situation, from a football point of view United cannot afford to sell Rooney. Losing one superstar in a year is a big problem, but losing two would be catastrophic."
January 25, 2010
With a distinct lack of any notable transfer activity in the Premier League we turn our attention to the Bundesliga to get our fix, where Ruud van Nistelrooy has joined Hamburg in the final move of his career.
Ruud can count Real Madrid and Manchester United amongst his former clubs so what is the record-breaking striker doing heading to a Hamburg side that is struggling to hit form just as a the new galacticos era is starting in Spain?
Writing in the Independent, Sam Wallace claims that despite his unquestionable talents, Ruud has not achieved what he should in the game because he is always in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"As Ruud van Nistelrooy completes the last transfer of his career this week he will surely reflect that, as a striker who has scored so many goals in his career, he has not won as much as his talent deserved.
To complain about winning only three league titles in England and Spain might seem ungrateful but the big players measure out their success by the big prizes and Van Nistelrooy never got close to winning the Champions League. He is the competition's second-highest goalscorer of all time and has never been further than the semi-finals.
Last night at the Bernabeu he was due to be on the pitch before the game against Malaga so the Madrid fans could give their thanks for the 64 goals he has scored in 97 games for their club. He is leaving just as another galacticos era gets going, replaced by the same player, Cristiano Ronaldo, who edged him out of Old Trafford. For the second time, Van Nistelrooy is the man getting his coat just as the party kicks off."
Also writing in the Independent (who seem to be on fire today), James Lawton muses that Arsene Wenger's decision to field a weakened team in the FA Cup, as Arsenal crashed out to Stoke City, could derail the Gunners' entire season.
"Emboldened maybe by his retrieval of the third-round tie at West Ham with an easy flexing of his squad strength, Arsène Wenger sent too many untested kids – three to be precise – into a place which has proved itself capable of chilling the blood of gnarled old pros.
It was a self-inflicted wound at a pivotal point of a season of promise in which the FA Cup offered itself as probably Arsenal's best chance of ending the trophy drought of recent years.
There was another familiar victim. It was the old tournament itself and any sense that it might not necessarily be doomed to the status of a cup of convenience, somewhere you commit yourself wholeheartedly only when all else is lost."
January 24, 2010
The controversy surrounding the Glazer family's stewardship of Manchester United gathers apace amid scenes of insurrection at Old Trafford. This, of course, is far more than a business story and The Sunday Times lets loose a pair of its business hacks on to the £500 million bond issue which the club successfully completed this week.
Ben Marlow and Dominic Rushe say that:
"Manchester United’s controversial bond issue has cost the Premier League football club £54m, it emerged this weekend.
The sum is more than the club would expect to have to pay to sign one of Europe’s top players.
As part of the £500m funds raised by United last week, the club has been forced to pay £15m in fees and expenses to investment bankers and lawyers.
It has also taken a £39m hit from the unwinding of interest rate hedging arrangements on the debt that has been refinanced by the bond. Although the owners, the Glazer family, have managed to defer payment of some liability, the club is still paying £11m of it upfront."
The pair also expose some problems in the Glazers' other business interests:
"It would appear that Manchester United is not the only part of the Glazers’ business empire under pressure. An investigation by The Sunday Times has revealed that the family’s property business, First Allied, which mostly invests in shopping malls, is sitting on a 500,000 sq ft black hole."
January 23, 2010
West Ham United's takeover by former Birmingham City trio David Sullivan, David Gold and Karen Brady has received a mixed reception amongst the fans, especially as the new bosses plan to move the club away from Upton Park.
But the trio have rescued the Hammers from spiralling debt and Brady uses her column in The Sun to lay out their plans for the London club and explains her excitement at the prospect of being rebranded 'West Ham Olympic'.
"To West Ham fans I'll make a single pledge - while we are on the board, we will hang in the Tower of London before your club again goes through the financial turmoil which so nearly brought it down.
On my list of objectives first things first, we have to remain in the Premier League. That's why Gianfranco has been told he may add to his playing staff. In the league, there isn't a safer job than Gianfranco Zola's. There'll be a brush and broom at Upton Park but no bulldozer.
The target I find most bracing is to move the club away from the Boleyn which does no more than serve a purpose and take it to - where else? - the 2012 Olympic Stadium only a couple of miles away. I love the idea of calling the club West Ham Olympic."
In The Times Patrick Barclay argues that Hammers have struck gold with two good honest porn barons and that there are many more potentially worse owners out there, who would not be good for West Ham. the two Davids are the right people to take West Ham in the right direction.
"We have had enough of debt-loading Americans, absentee Arabs, hopelessly naive Icelanders and off-putting Englishmen - they come in many forms, these fat and improper persons - and so, when along comes a porn-mag baron with a duke of dildos at his side, it is like the dawn of a bright new day.
Sullivan and Gold are, to me, the very models of modern club ownership. For a start, they are where they should be. Although Sullivan was born in Cardiff, he took his economics degree in London as well as at the university of life, where he learnt that men would pay enough to receive pornographic photographs, discreetly sent through the post, to net him an income guaranteed to make a footballer gasp (and those muddied Seventies idols were not as badly paid as they now pretend, believe me). At some stage, he fell for the Hammers.
All through their stewardship of Birmingham, whom they finally sold to Carson Yeung last year, Sullivan and Gold yearned for West Ham. And now they have them."
January 22, 2010
In a transfer window devoid of any real excitement - bar Wolves’ capture of Geoffrey Mujangi Bia of course - the spat between Carlos Tevez and Gary Neville has been a real blessing for sportswriters in the national press.
But some observers have not enjoyed the very public row between the two former team-mates that has festered in recent days. Tevez struck the latest blow when accusing Neville, somewhat bizarrely, of being a “sock-sucker” - careful - in an interview in his native Argentina.
Neville had of course angered the Manchester City striker when claiming United were right not to buy him in the summer - an assessment that Tevez undermined when scoring twice against his former club in the Carling Cup in midweek, his celebrations, directed at Neville, drawing the finger from the United defender.
There is no real point denying that the whole episode is pretty hilarious, but the Independent’s James Lawton, always a prominent moral crusader with an axe to grind, is none too happy:
"Manchester United and Manchester City have to act against their reputations being so cheapened by the puerile behaviour of Gary Neville and Carlos Tevez. It is their problem and one that in the current climate in the city requires a swift response.
"If the Football Association decides to respond to the provocation which so inflamed the equally brainless fringes of the supporters of both clubs they should be representing a second wave of discipline aimed at enforcing general standards of behaviour among players operating in the world's best-paid football league."
Lawton continues with a particularly pointed appraisal of Neville, who has previous in this regard.
"In Neville's case the problem is plainly terminal. A brilliant career – one which persuaded Sir Bobby Charlton, for whom Wednesday's pettiness was particularly appalling, to select him as the right-back of United's post-war years – has long been sullied by mindless acts of provocation, especially against Liverpool supporters.
"Perhaps with the decline of his powers, Neville feels some kind of extra need to make his presence felt. He should know the desire has never been more counter-productive. Rabble-rousing is a poor substitute for leadership. Some may say he wears his Manchester United heart on his sleeve but in the case of someone who should by now have acquired some of the statesmanship of his club-mate Ryan Giggs, the result is a dishevelled substitute for genuine passion."
January 21, 2010
A surprisingly interesting evening of action on Wednesday saw Liverpool assert themselves back among the big boys with a 2-0 win over Spurs that put them within touching distance of fourth; Villa and Blackburn play out a ten-goal thriller as ten-man as Martin O'Neill's men booked their place at Wembley; and Arsenal come from 2-0 down to record a 4-2 over Bolton that moves them to top of the table on goal difference.
It's fresh vindication for Arsene Wenger as his continued reluctance to spend is proven right or wrong week by week, and Paul Hayward in the Guardian is wondering whether they can now deliver the sustained brilliance they need to end their long wait for silverware.
The neutral will feel that a winter run by Arsenal was what this title race needed. Too much of the attention has been on Liverpool's decline, Manchester United's debt and Manchester City's wealth. The campaign needed a pure footballing story: a revival for the claim that Arsenal would get there in the end, even if Arsène Wenger went geriatric trying.
Two-nil down, then 4-2 winners. Top in January for the first time in two years. Here in the house of eternal promise they saw the future pay an early visit as Chelsea were knocked off their plinth on goals scored. These Arsenal graduates sense the opportunity to exploit instability and vulnerability elsewhere in the league. They have no excuse to deviate from the simple task of trying to play the best football in England. In this year more than any, sustained brilliance will carry a team past the faltering and the insecure. The prize for Wenger's men is a first English championship since 2004.
The concession of two first-half goals to a Bolton Wanderers side they had beaten comfortably four days earlier on northern turf showed that the dynamic has changed in Highbury and Islington. To be "written off" had its advantages. It removed the burden of expectation that was apparent when Arsenal made such a fretful start to this game and allowed Owen Coyle to put early gloss on his managerial move from Burnley to Bolton.
After their 3-0 thumping at home to Carlo Ancelotti's team at the end of November, Arsenal had demanded time and space to continue on the long path to maturity. The Champions League seemed their only major target as another title challenge fell down the well of youth and inexperience. But like the two under-worked thespians in Withnail and I who went on holiday "by mistake", the Gunners have surged past Chelsea and United without really planning it, with a run of seven wins in nine games.
Just when Wenger had persuaded us that the league title is not a life-defining obsession (or that any time would do), tomorrow showed up with snow on its boots. Only 16 games left for their nerve to hold.
Meanwhile, Andy Cole is discussing the Tevez-Neville business in the Independent and he feels that United were most definitely wrong to allow the Argentina forward to leave.
Manchester United would have benefited from taking up their option on Carlos Tevez last summer instead of letting him go. I know it's a view that puts me at odds with Gary Neville (sorry, Nev) and even with Sir Alex Ferguson, who ultimately made the call, but that's my opinion. And it's not just because he went to City, or because he's just put two past United (which I still very much consider to be my club) – I've voiced the same opinion since last summer.
Let's assume Tevez and his advisers had already made up their minds he wanted out of United. And let's also assume that the club thought a fee of £25m (or more) to his owners, plus more for a big contract, was pricey – I still think there might have been some better solution. Why wouldn't Tevez want to stay at the biggest club in the world's most popular league, if given the chance?
So did United, by balking at the cost, make an error? I'd never, ever dream of telling Sir Alex, the greatest manager of all time, on what basis to make a decision. But I do wonder whether part of him is regretting that they could not have found a way to keep Tevez. Fair enough if United didn't want to pay this or that sum, but looking beyond the issues of money for a second and it's a no-brainer; he is good enough for United and therefore should have stayed.
Finances at United have been high on the agenda in the past week or so, and, to be honest, a lot of the talk about numbers, balance sheets and bonds just escapes me. But I do know about players. So will they be sitting around talking about bonds and debts? My guess is not at all.
January 20, 2010
Manchester City laid a marker down against their city rivals, with Carlos Tevez especially impressive with his two goals in the Carling Cup. The Times' Matt Dickinson has his say on the 2-1 win for City.
It is nights like this that give credence to the idea that Manchester United and Manchester City, light years apart not so long ago, are now on a trajectory in which their futures become entwined. You can draw that conclusion from City’s victory. You can see it in the name of their match-winner, Carlos Tévez, stolen away from Old Trafford.
But, most of all, it was there to be seen in the gesture that Gary Neville made to Tévez as the two exchanged insults after the latter’s first goal. Not so long ago United had dismissed their local rivals as “noisy neighbours”. Now they were being drawn into a bitter row over the garden fence.
Tevez, of course, took a lot of the headlines and Dickinson thinks United may rue their decision not to keep the Argentine.
In the search for pointers to the future, we alight on Tévez himself. United turned down the opportunity to sign the Argentinian last summer when the price rose to £47 million and the wages to £7 million a year. It was hard to quibble at the time.
But any decision based on controlling costs at Old Trafford is starting to be seen in a different light these days since the full, monstrous burden of the Glazer ownership was revealed. As Rooney chased around on his own, the best player on the pitch forced to flog himself once again in the lone-striker role, how could one not despair at how United’s attacking resources have been diminished?
On the other side of the world, Diego Maradona may not be everyone's cup of tea, but with the World Cup getting ever closer he's finding himself the subject of more column inches. The Independent's James Lawton has an interview with the big little-man and looks at his impact as he lands in Pretoria..
Something extraordinary is happening here 141 days before the opening of the World Cup. It is Diego Maradona. There may still be major problems, security questions, worries about ticket sales, but suddenly they seem less oppressive. Maradona is, more full-heartedly than anyone could have imagined in his circumstances, moving among the people.
He may be a walking time bomb but his meaning, here at least, goes beyond a lifetime of a glory so repeatedly threatened by self-destruction. At a vital moment in the progress towards another World Cup, Maradona is a potent reminder of what the great tournament means. It is the enduring glamour of the most magnetic of footballers and, astonishingly when you retrace the turmoil of his last few years, Maradona still carries it with every stride.
And the great man himself? Well, he's not fussed about England too much:
He doesn't rate the Capello- transformed England among the most serious of his threats. "They are a strong team, of course, but I place them in the second rank of favourites. The first rank is occupied by Brazil and Spain and Germany. They are the teams I most fear but I do not fear them too much."
January 19, 2010
With the Manchester derby looming large on Tuesday night, the papers focus on the figure of Carlos Tevez, who left United in the summer and joined City, where he has hit a rich seam of form in recent weeks.
After he failed to get on the scoresheet on his first return to Old Trafford, when United won 4-3 in September, Tevez returns to United in excellent shape and Paul Wilson, writing in the Guardian, wonders if the Argentina international is ready to prove Sir Alex Ferguson wrong after he deemed Tevez too expensive.
In 'Classy or costly? Carlos Tevez has a chance to settle the debate', Wilson writes:
"According to Mike Summerbee, a former favourite whose own workrate was more eye-catching than his finishing or technical ability, Tevez has already made himself popular at Eastlands and not just by preferring City to United. 'City fans will always take to players like him who give 100%,' Summerbee said. 'He is a hard-working player but he has top-flight ability as well.'
"That is the nub of the issue, for were it merely a question of workrate and application Tevez might still be in favour at Old Trafford. The player never let anyone down at United and Sir Alex Ferguson repeatedly praised his energetic contributions, yet the manager found it difficult to offer him a regular starting berth and eventually decided, or at least did not come to sufficiently decisive a conclusion to convince Tevez that he meant it, that £25m was a lot to ask for a striker whose misses were as notable as his goals.
"Particularly when United already had Wayne Rooney, who covers much of the same ground as Tevez, and, like the Argentinian, prefers to play just behind a more advanced striker. Ferguson decided to stake everything on a partnership developing between Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov and let City work out how best to utilize Tevez. Tonight's game could be regarded as something of a showdown to prove which side showed the better judgment, even though Tevez has had more attacking partners than City have had free flights to Abu Dhabi."
January 18, 2010
Controversial start to the week from Martin Samuel at the Mail who suggests that if the Glazers continue to plough Manchester United into debt, it would be bad for the club, but better for the wider football world.
"Bumped into Geoffrey Boycott, England legend and Manchester United fan, in Johannesburg this week. ‘So,’ he said, with the smug smile of one who is not used to hearing bad news about his club, ‘who are we buying, then?’
It would appear Geoffrey had fallen a little out of the loop while on tour, so he was brought up to speed on a few things. Ending on a positive note, I mentioned United were considering having a whip-round among famous fans and had heard he was good for a few quid. He didn’t seem too interested in that, and wandered off to resume butchering England’s batsmen.
And this is the contradiction at the heart of the Glazer saga. Empathy for Manchester United supporters, while quietly relishing what is happening to their club for the change it might bring to English football.
Not because anyone has it in for United specifically but because the balance of power in football must alter over time if the sport is not to become moribund. Evolution takes place when the alpha club mess up. Mistakes may occur on the field, or off, but the bottom line is, when somebody gets it wrong, a rival, better managed, better prepared,
becomes prominent."
It's been everywhere in the last few days, and the fervent speculation continues about Rafa Benitez on Monday, with Richard Williams at the Guardian suggesting that any potetnial takeover deal for Liverpool would spell the end of the Spanish boss.
"Rafael Benítez forced a smile afterwards but his customary touchline pantomime – the dissatisfied grimaces, the dismissive shrugs, the odd little shapes he makes with his hands – had carried an extra edge of exasperation and frustration during Saturday's match. A man accustomed to scrutiny during his five years on Merseyside is now seriously on trial.
If it is indeed true, as a few newspapers reported yesterday, that Tom Hicks Sr and George Gillett have finally managed to identify a Middle Eastern investor willing to fork out £100m in exchange for a 25% holding in Liverpool FC, then the US owners' undeserved stroke of luck would enable them to prioritise the removal of what is coming to appear the biggest obstruction to the club's progress."
January 17, 2010
It wouldn't be a normal day without a large chunk of column inches dedicated to good old Rafael Benitez and his troubles at Liverpool.
Today, we start with the Observer and Paul Hayward's assessment of the situation.
Paul, strangely, seems to have a little sympathy with Rafa, believing that there is always a manager who is in the line of fire. And this year it is Liverpool's Spanish boss.
Football's most sadistic sideshow is watching a big-name manager thrash on the hook of impending ignominy. "Sacked in the morning" becomes the opposition's default grandstand chant and the industry presses its nose to the screen to see whether the vortex will take the poor sod down.
Rafa Benítez is this season's dangling man. He is condemned by Liverpool's early Champions League, Carling Cup and FA Cup exits to be followed around by those who recite the last rites for managerial reigns. You will have noticed by now that Benítez's future, or lack of it, has eclipsed Liverpool's deep structural weaknesses as the primary source of interest. The cult of personality dictates that embattled managers provide the crisis-narrative.
He goes on...
The obsession with Benítez as the chief protagonist in the drama is sustained also by the sense that he sees football as a chance to make self-aggrandising decisions. Squad-rotation, odd tactical changes and the habit of marginalising good players such as Peter Crouch, Robbie Keane and Ryan Babel all fall into this category. His handling of Alberto Aquilani is already causing consternation on the Kop, though Benítez insisted here that he left his £20m acquisition on the bench only because extra-time against Reading had been gruelling for him on his gradual return from injury.
Liverpool left out Aquilani in favour of a full-back (Philipp Degen) they would gladly sell, and scored with an ugly goal from a stand-in centre-half bought from AEK Athens for £1.5m. Benítez has not had much luck with ponytails, so this contribution bucked a trend. Andriy Voronin, the long-maned Ukrainian striker, was an abject let-down and left last week for Dynamo Moscow. To Liverpool's supporters Kyrgiakos is emblematic of the club's failure to recruit enough players of title-winning calibre. Hired to replace Sami Hyypia.
And to sign off...
Mediocre players, mostly. By Liverpool's standards, anyway; by Premier League title-winning standards. Effort is no substitute for talent on the high ground where Liverpool belong.
Our other selection comes from the Sunday Mail who, like many, calls for Rafa to get the chop.
In Rafa We Trust, says the banner. Liverpool fans have waved it with conviction throughout this troubled season. Only it’s looking decidedly bedraggled now.
The enduring devotion to Rafa Benitez has become little more than an exercise in blind faith, the sort lemmings display as they charge headlong off a cliff.
If it really does come down to trust, then Liverpool fans have to ask themselves if they truly believe Benitez can rescue this season and claim the fourth place he has ‘guaranteed’.
January 16, 2010
There is no let up for Rafa Benitez in the morning's papers, even despite the Liverpool manager turning his hand to comedy yesterday when parodying his own "facts" rant last season.
With Liverpool's season imploding, and a tricky trip to Stoke coming on Saturday, the Independent's James Lawton argues that a change of manager is required at Anfield, with Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink top of his list.
"It is that what happens on the field, assuming that players are paid according to their contracts and that team-building finance has been provided, will always be in the remit of the manager. It is his ability to inspire players, to make them a coherent unit, most basically of all, give them the desire to play not only for themselves and their fans but also their boss, the man who ultimately will decide on their futures.
"How long is it since Rafa Benitez was able to create any degree of confidence that such a dynamic was in place? Not consistently, you have to believe, since the waning of his undoubted knack of turning impressive survival instincts into stunning, if not easily analysed success at the highest level of the European game – and in no way of consequence at all since the failure of his most promising challenge in five attempts for the Premier League title and the rather brutal exclusion from Europe at the quarter-final stages last season at the hand of Hiddink's Chelsea.
"The rest has, of course, been an unmitigated disaster, a separation from any sense of meaningful progress, a process underlined most damagingly by the sale of Xabi Alonso and the purchase of Alberto Aquilani.
"In Rafa We Trust, proclaimed the Kop, but surely not on the evidence unfolding before its eyes."
Strong stuff indeed.
January 15, 2010
It's still the topic everyone's trying to unravel: why are Liverpool so bad this season? The owners? Xabi Alonso's sale? Injuries? Ian Herbert in the Independent is the latest to try to uncover the mysteries of Liverpool's woeful season.
"If football were a neat and tidy business, it would be tempting to say that the beginning of the end for Rafael Benitez occurred on this self-same Friday last year. It was 9 January; the afternoon before his side visited Stoke City – as they do once again tomorrow – when the Liverpool manager took a piece of A4 paper from his jacket pocket and began a calm character assassination of Sir Alex Ferguson. Liverpool managed only a 0-0 draw at the Britannia Stadium the next day, Manchester United beat Chelsea 3-0 that weekend, and the Stretford End suddenly had a memorable new chant on its hands.
Except Rafa was not cracking up, as Old Trafford so memorably claimed in the days to follow. Liverpool's league record in the 18 games which followed "Rafa's rant" was: played 18, won 12, drew 5, lost 1.
Not much has changed in terms of personnel since then. Consider the side Benitez fielded last March for the imperious 5-0 home win over Aston Villa – a team who so nearly beat Manchester United in their next league match – that made them appear to be champions-elect: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Mascherano, Alonso, Gerrard, Kuyt, Riera, Torres. Only Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso have since gone and Alonso, though lamented, was not as indispensable last season as some claim in hindsight.
But one of the bywords for success in sport is momentum. Liverpool, with one significant player fewer, have lost it and vanished from the place they occupied. The downfall has been shockingly abrupt and the seeds of it are actually to be found back at the stadium where Liverpool travel tomorrow. The goalless draw at the Britannia last January, when Steven Gerrard came a lick of paint's width from scoring a winner, belonged to the pattern of draws against the Premier League's poor relations which persuaded Benitez that things must change things if Liverpool were to take the final step and seize United's crown. It was his typical statistician's logic: had Gerrard scored at Stoke and Everton's Tim Cahill not netted three minutes from time at Anfield in the next game, Liverpool would have matched Manchester United's points tally and lifted the title on goal difference.
So out went the caution which had led Benitez's side to conquer the continent and in came two of the most promising attacking full-backs: £17m Glen Johnson, of whom there were great expectations, and Emiliano Insua, an academy player in whom there were fewer. Both can surge forward but neither can defend to great effect – to the extent that you now wonder whether both would be better off deployed as orthodox wingers. As Hull crumbled to a 6-1 defeat at Anfield in September, Liverpool attacked incessantly, scenting a kill and the new strategy seemed to be working. In Florence three days later, they looked ill-equipped to revert to their more patient, European style and lost 2-0. Fabio Aurelio said that night that he had never seen Benitez so angry. The manager's response was borne of an alien experience."
On an altogether different topic, David Anderson on the Mirror Football website now appears to be trying his hand at comedy. After suggesting last week that Roberto Mancini was appointed "because his name is spelt almost the same as Man City", he's now turning his satirical prose on the issue of fans.
"I believe I have the answer to Manchester United and Liverpool's huge debt problems.
Between them, United and Liverpool have millions of fans around the world so why not sell a few thousand off?
Clubs have sold their players, their grounds and even their training grounds, so why not their supporters?
Like the Antarctic, fans are the last great untapped resource yet to be exploited and they could be worth a fortune.
Look at the North West... Bolton, Blackburn, Wigan and even Manchester City could do with some more fans to fill their grounds.
United and Liverpool could flog them a few - or in Wigan's case more than just a few - and everyone would be a winner."
January 14, 2010
After a frankly disastrous FA Cup defeat at the hands of Reading on Wednesday night, the future of Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez is once again high on the agenda of the nation’s press.
Their season over in January - bar the Europa League, a competition they never wanted to be in - Liverpool must ask some tough questions of their manager and while financial problems, unlovable owners and abusive board members have all proved handy scapegoats at times this season, the papers call for some intense scrutiny of Rafa’s record.
Jason Burt, writing in the Telegraph, leads the criticism against the Spaniard and asks if the club are in the right hands in his article, ‘Rafael Benitez must accept responsibility for the turmoil Liverpool are in’.
"The facts are plain. Out of the Champions League, out of the Premier League title race and now out of the FA Cup, the Liverpool manager is staring at a season in ruins. A career on the line. A famous club in furious turmoil.
"The blame game will start. Benitez needs to shoulder much of the responsibility. It is his duty. Never walk alone? Time, Rafa, to stand tall. Take a lead. It is said he is almost unsackable because of the long, lucrative contract he signed last season and because of the tumult over the club's despised American owners. Benitez has become a rallying point for Liverpool supporters who remain the most loyal in the country.
"But that doesn't wash. It's rubbish. You can't blame Tom Hicks – senior or junior – for this one. Liverpool cannot afford, in sporting or economic sense, to slide into decline, especially if Benitez then slips into his default mode. And that is to accuse everyone else. But it's gone beyond that now. Now is the time for the Spaniard to show something removed from a capacity to apportion responsibility to others.
"There is something rotten, and rotten beyond the board room in a team that surrenders a goal advantage at home at Anfield in such circumstances. This was a new nadir, a new low point. Confidence is smashed, the team fractured, the manager appears to have, in that time-old phrase, lost the dressing room. Maybe, also, it's time for all at Liverpool just to step back and examine what Benitez has achieved. Take away that incredible first year, the unbelievable comeback in Istanbul and have they really, truly progressed?
"Benitez is very good at railing against his detractors, against the perceived injustices he has faced and very good at playing the sensitive victim. This morning he needs to look in the mirror and accept where the responsibility lies. Accept who it was who sold Xabi Alonso, having alienated him, and has overseen five years of frantic, inconsistent team-building which has delivered very little. Benitez needs to earn his money – rather than complain about a shortage of cash. Liverpool need new owners, for sure, but maybe, also, a new manager."
Writing in the Guardian, Kevin McCarra is more restrained but he still warns that Benitez is at a crucial juncture of his Liverpool career.
"There may be even more troubles ahead for Liverpool. Gerrard has found it tough to regain his former vivacity and this has not been a happy campaign, either, for a familiar mainstay such as Jamie Carragher. It is not impossible that there will be further deterioration rather than a fightback from Liverpool.
"Tom Hicks and George Gillett will surely be conscious that Liverpool's habitual Champions League qualification cannot be taken for granted now, in particular when Manchester City are going to such expense to reinvent themselves. The proprietors would not be human if they did not have reservations about Benítez's capacity to reinvent himself to meet that challenge.
"It would, of course, be terrifyingly difficult to name a successor who could galvanise the club and do so on modest means. On the other hand, no manager survives for long simply because it is awkward to appoint a replacement. Benítez will have to pull off an astonishing upsurge if he is to survive beyond the next few weeks and months at Anfield."
January 13, 2010
Ever wondered if the big managers get bored? Need a new challenge. Well, Ian McGarry at the Sun appears to have brought something rather interesting to light. They could well find one.
BIT of trouble with results down at Barnet? No problem, send for Fergie. Hassle between the chairman and coach at Hartlepool? Sounds a job for a diplomat like Arsene Wenger. This may seem fantasy football in trouble-shoot mode. But it will become a realistic prospect in the near future. For English football is about to become the first in the world to employ a mentoring system for its managers.
The revolutionary scheme will be officially launched in March as a joint initiative between the League Managers Association and the FA. It is the brainchild of the LMA and their chief executive Richard Bevan and has a very real objective at its core. There have been 54 sackings across the 92 league clubs in the last year alone, a figure which hits 140 when coaching staff are included. The aim of this new scheme is to stem the culture of firing bosses by offering support before the point where jobs are in jeopardy.
Ultimately, the phone could become mightier than the.. er... sword, or even the pen:
Top coaches like Venables, George Graham and Howard Wilkinson could be just a phone call away. The project could also save clubs a fortune. Chelsea alone have forked out around £30million to the last three managers sacked at Stamford Bridge - Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant and Luiz Felipe Scolari. In future, money may well be the reason a chairman picks up the phone rather than his manager's P45 when results are below-par.
Meanwhile, the fallout from the Glazer stories of yesterday continues apace. The Independent's Sam Wallace says that the American family have fallen into a trap set for Roman Abramovich.
Without the £80m sale of Cristiano Ronaldo in June, the club would have posted a loss of £30.8m in their last financial results because of the £41.9m profits re-directed to service the loans taken out by the Glazer family to buy the club. But United's debts, as outlined in the details of their bond prospectus, could yet have wider implications.
Among the "risk factors" that the club identified for the benefit of potential investors in their latest bond prospectus was the threat posed by Uefa's new rules on clubs with debt. Under the "financial fair play" initiative that will be introduced at the beginning of the 2013-14 season, clubs wishing to play in the Champions League will have to demonstrate to European football's governing body that they can balance their books.
In the bond prospectus United identify the risk that Uefa's financial fair play initiative could become a problem for any club that has become so heavily indebted. Yesterday, sources at Uefa confirmed that this would be the case. They pointed out that United would have another three and a half years to address the matter of their debt, although even in that timeframe there is no guarantee they could do so.
The Uefa president, Michel Platini, calls the initiative the end to "success on credit" and it was aimed at clubs such as Chelsea and latterly Manchester City who have spent far beyond the revenue they have generated. Back in the pre-Glazer plc days, it would have been hard to imagine that it might apply to United.
Ultimately, they may be forced to follow the examples of others, or sell on:
Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea, and Sheikh Mansour, Manchester City's owner, have both converted their extraordinary investment in their clubs into equity in order to fall into line with the new Uefa rules. Making the debt disappear at United will require much wealthier owners than the Glazers.
January 12, 2010
We'v picked out a couple of treats today. We start in the Guardian where David Conn has had plenty to say about the Glazers and the current financial situation at Manchester United.
Lurking in the full, heart-sinking detail of the Glazer family's proposal to borrow £500m, a partial replacement for the £700m debts their takeover has loaded on to Manchester United, is a page documenting the millions United have paid out to the family members themselves. None of the Glazers appear to have taken a salary out of the club since that May 2005 takeover, which United fans bitterly opposed and which has since cost the club more than £325m in interest.
In those three and half years, ticket prices have almost doubled at Old Trafford, where previously they were restrained to cater for the regulars at the Lou Macari Fish Bar, as well as the prawn sandwich consumers.
The MU Finance plc prospectus, launched in the City yesterday, sets out the fortune the Glazer family have reaped from the club they borrowed £540m to buy. From 1 July 2006, in five separate payments, a round total of £10m was paid in "management and administration fees" to companies affiliated to the Glazers. Under the new bond issue, the family is entitled to be paid up to £6m by United in management and administration fees.
On 30 June last year, United entered into a consultancy agreement with SLP Partners, "a company related to certain of our ultimate shareholders", to pay up to £2.9m. On top of that, on 19 December 2008, each of Malcolm Glazer's five sons and one daughter, all of whom are directors of Red Football Limited, each personally borrowed about £1.66m from the club, a total of £10m.
Added together, the management fees, consultancy agreement maximum and the £10m the six family members actually borrowed from United make a total of £22.9m paid to the family and their affiliated companies in three and a half years.
And it seems only right we hear from James Lawton over at the Indepedent about the problems down the road at arch-rivals Liverpool. We are talking, of course, about the foul-mouthed tirade from Tom Hicks Jnr which was aimed at a fan.
Young Hicks, sharp as a whip in his Brooks Brothers gear, went right to the core of the issue, which is, of course, the regard with which most of the football entrepreneurial class hold all those people at the bottom of the food chain who like to think they are still quite an important element in the national game.
He emailed a complaining fan, Stephen Horner, with all the derision and contempt a certain type of well-heeled person reserves for the bothersome attention of a street person.
Hicks, whatever you think of his choice of language – lewd and crude and worthy of the rougher kind of drug dealer – really said it how it is.
It is that the average football fan is utterly deluded if he thinks he is worth anything more than the price of a ticket or a TV subscription. He can join as many pressure groups as he likes. He can create passionate banners. But his proper function is to create profit or, in an increasing number of cases, the means by which large bank loans are serviced.
January 11, 2010
Unsurprisingly, the horrific events in Angola still dominate the newspapers on Monday morning.
Among the plethora of comment articles across both broadsheet and tabloid, we've picked out an article by James Lawton in the Independent.
James has full backing for Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger after he insisted the African Nations Cup must go on.
Arsenal's Arsène Wenger, in sharp contrast to other interested parties, including the Hull City manager, Phil Brown, and Bolton chairman, Phil Gartside, is emphatic in his belief that the tournament must go on.
For it not to do so, he says, would represent the kind of defeat which would make all of sport the hostage to a perilous and perhaps ultimately unplayable future. Wenger, who has his key midfielder Alex Song of Cameroon and Ivory Coast defender Emmanuel Eboué at the tournament, might have supplied the template of a standard reaction to every intrusion into sport by those who see in its vast exposure and popularity the rich pickings of attention and propaganda.
"I don't believe you can stop a competition because that will reward the people who have caused the trouble," said Wenger. "The international federation has to make sure there is good security and you have to leave a decision to some players if they feel insecure, but I feel the tournament has to go on."
Gartside, who has Danny Shittu with Nigeria, said, "We are concerned because one of our players is there and I'm sure other Premier League clubs feel the same way. I think anyone in that situation would want to get home as soon as possible." Brown, who has Seyi Olofinjana with Nigeria and Daniel Cousin with Gabon, declared simply, "I have two players on duty and I want them home."
But for whose good? It may well be that individual players will feel an overwhelming need to come home, as England cricketers did in the first aftermath of the terrorist outrage in Mumbai in 2008, but the cricketers thought again, after being reassured about levels of security, and the response in India was of overwhelming gratitude that the workers of terror had not scored a cheap victory through sport.
This is where the footballers of Africa are today, and will be over the next few weeks as the authorities crank up higher levels of security and hold their breath against the possibilities of fresh outrage.
Our second story comes from the ever-insightful Stan Collymore is his Daily Mirror column.
God old Stan is using the snow which ruined football at the weekend to call for the introduction of a winter break. The thing is, Stan, snow does not come at the same time every year. Last year it was the first day of February. Not to mention the fact that this current weather is a bit of a freak occurance. So how do you plan a winter break around that? We don't really get it.
Well, the farce that has been this last weekend has shown that the big European leagues are right again and us little Brits are so wrong.
The Premier League and Football League has been decimated with games hastily re-scheduled, therefore putting more pressure on injury-ravaged squads.
And also pressure on supporters to decide which of the five games in a month to go to due to financial limitations.
So it is time we had a break and looked at all the possibilities to avoid fixture congestion - finally bringing some sense to our winter schedule.
January 10, 2010
There has been plenty of confusion over the Togo attack, with conflicting reports about injuries, deaths and the squad's response, and it's still the main subject for England's sports writers. In the Sunday Telegraph, Duncan White feels it has left Africa's dream in tatters.
"This was supposed to show Africa, and specifically sub-Saharan Africa, at its best: African players on African soil. Angola, with the huge economic growth that has followed peace, was the perfect venue for an optimistic future.
It is hard to measure the damage that has been done by the attack on the Togo bus. It was telling that, amid his shocked recollections of the events, Emmanuel Adebayor said he felt "disgraced" by what had happened, that Africa had failed when it most needed to succeed.
Saturday was a blur of contradictory reports and misinformation as Caf, African football's governing body, fought desperately to save the tournament. Their initial reaction, in which they appeared to reproach the Togolese for not flying to Cabinda, was a strong indicator of their panic.
Their insistence everything was fine and the competition would go ahead as planned was rendered increasingly absurd as the day wore on, with Togo pulling out and Ghana threatening to follow if they were not moved from Cabinda to Luanda, the capital.
While the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (Flec), the group that claimed responsibility for the attack, claim they want an independence on ethnic grounds, they also want the oil money to be redistributed across the province.
Why, if a tenuous peace had only been agreed with rebel groups three years ago, did Angola and Caf take the risk of staging games in Cabinda?
The answer is money. Without Cabinda's oil money, there would be no tournament in Angola – the government claims to have spent $1 billion on getting the infrastructure up to scratch. So, it's important for Cabinda to be in on the action, to show that it is a safe place to invest. That is why they were fighting so hard yesterday to preserve the fixtures scheduled to take place there.
Flec are threatening further attacks and it looks unlikely that the safety of players and fans can be guaranteed. There is nothing to suggest they will be under threat in mainland Angola, though, and, while Caf must face serious interrogation about the viability of their organisation, strenuous effort must be made to ensure the tournament is completed, even if there are further withdrawals. If it collapsed, there would be serious economic consequences for Angola."
He concludes:
"Forgotten among all this is the football itself, which now resembles a ritual to be got through, rather than a source of celebration."
On a different note, Patrick Collins in the Mail on Sunday is asking whether it is now time for Sir Alex Ferguson to ride into the sunset.
"A couple of days ago, Sir Alex Ferguson was asked about rumours that his club captain Gary Neville would retire at the end of the season. His reply was predictably brusque: 'Why would we make a decision about his future when we don't need to? You don't make decisions like that in the middle of the season. It's a load of nonsense.'
When it comes to retirement, the Manchester United manager shares the view of the late Bill Shankly. 'A terrible, terrible word,' said Shankly.
'They should remove it from the dictionary.' And yet, it would be surprising if that terrible word had not crossed Ferguson's mind these past few weeks.
Ferguson must look at Dimitar Berbatov and wonder what it takes to persuade that vapid under-achiever to deliver his God-given talent. He must wince at the continuing irrelevance of Michael Owen, the ineffectiveness of Anderson, Nani and Luis Valencia and the lack of impact of the young ones: Rafael and Fabio, Danny Welbeck and Gabriel Obertan. Of course, it is far too early to judge, but few resemble authentic United players. And a manager who is a full half-century older than some of them may find it desperately difficult to communicate his own demands and expectations.
In different days, Ferguson would have spent a slice of the money which he and his footballers had generated; indeed, he insists transfer resources are still available. But you sense he is whistling in the wind; that the Glazer family, that confederation of geeks who have hobbled a prudently run club with £700million of debt, are both unwilling and unable to sanction the kind of stunning coup which might turn the tide. Instead, he lives with the sobering consequences of the loss of Ronaldo, unwillingly sold and savagely missed.
Ferguson has moved through the generations with style and flair. For all his flaws, he has left an enduring mark upon the game he loves. And if he were asked about his retirement plans, his answer would be a colourful version of 'It's a load of nonsense'.
But one day, he will go. The most gifted manager we have known will decide that his reputation is secure, his legacy is assured and that the time has come to pass the torch. Alex Ferguson has earned the right to name that day. I suspect it will arrive sooner than later."
January 9, 2010
While Manchester City have brought Patrick Vieira to the Premier League and the fixture list has been ravaged by the weather conditions, the big news on Friday was unquestionably the machine gun attack on the Togo team bus. It is the biggest year in the continent's history in football terms with the World Cup in South Africa just six months away, but the events near the Congolese border have cast a large shadow ahead of the African Nations Cup in Angola.
Amy Lawrence, writing in the Guardian, believes it will be hard for anyone involved to shake off the effects of the attack.
"For the multitude of footballers who have abandoned Europe's deep freeze to pull on their national colours in 30 degrees of sub-Saharan heat, Angola was supposed to represent the start of something special. But the shocking incident that saw the Togo team buses shot at yesterday, despite military protection, after travelling into Angola from neighbouring Congo has changed everything.
It will overshadow an Africa Cup of Nations which never before had assumed such significance. This edition, the prelude to the first World Cup to be hosted on the continent, pulls the curtain on the most important year in the history of African football.
Now that the driver of one of Togo's team buses has been killed and several other passengers, including players, have been wounded, it is impossible for the tournament to go ahead as normal. One of Togo's squad has said the team want to pull out of the event, in which they are due to play their opening game against Ghana on Monday. "It's true that no one wants to play," said Alaixys Romao. "We're not capable of it. We're thinking first of all about the health of our injured because there was a lot of blood on the ground."
Getting over the trauma will be a major challenge for all the participants. The continent's five World Cup finalists here in particular – the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Algeria – must somehow ensure they are not too badly derailed because a successful tournament was clearly part of their preparations for next summer in South Africa as well as their chance for continental triumph.
It will be of particular distress to the iconic figures of African football, who are so proud of this event. Michael Essien, Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto'o, performers of the highest calibre in world football, exemplify why the African game – on the pitch at least – has never had it so good.
The number of excellent individuals from Africa is not in doubt. The challenge now is to make the next leap. Can they create an excellent team – one capable not only of winning the Africa Cup of Nations but also eyeballing the establishment until the latter stages at the World Cup five months from now?
[But] everyone in Angola has far more pressing concerns. A tournament which was supposed to be solely about football and celebration of Africa is now the victim of an outrage and tragedy."
Patrick Barclay in the Times, meanwhile, says we must support the continent.
"How hollow they ring, all those military metaphors and hyperbolic allusions to violence in the description of football, when we hear of what happened in Angola yesterday.
The horrifying attack on the Togo bus as it carried the squad, Emmanuel Adebayor included, towards an African Cup of Nations match against Ghana on Monday that will now, surely, be abandoned, is a reminder that war and lawlessness rage across much of a continent proudly preparing to host its first World Cup.
But we must take care to react proportionately. The World Cup is to take place in South Africa, not a conflict zone separated from the rest of Angola by a strip of land belonging to the Demoratic Republic of Congo. There is no more reason to ratchet up the fear factor now than there would have been to abandon all European football after the terrible events at the Heysel Stadium in Belgium in 1985.
That Africa seems to suffer more than its fair share of the most profound misfortune — stadium crushes and the air crash that wiped out a Zambia squad in 1993 are but two examples — should merely double the game’s resolve to encourage its development as a sporting environment. The World Cup that kicks off in June in Johannesburg, when South Africa meet Mexico, is a key part of that.
Why was the risk taken of sending the tournament to Angola? This will be high in the list of questions that will be asked in the inquest. I have never been able to understand why the choice was made to go somewhere so short not only of security but of accommodation. It has never been less tempting to take the trouble to attend.
The decision was a serious and avoidable blunder because there are plenty of safer countries in Africa. In 2002, I went to Mali, which was the poorest country on the planet at the time, yet safe and friendly — there was less begging, even, than in London, and the people displayed better manners — and the tournament in Burkina Faso passed off relatively serenely as well four years earlier.
For anyone to be put off a trip to Africa, let alone South Africa for the World Cup, on the basis of yesterday’s incident would be ridiculous. The World Cup is no safer and no less safe for it. There was a risk before and there is a risk now.
It is the price of taking the world game to its most problematic continent and to reheat the old arguments would be futile."
January 8, 2010
There is no doubting the biggest transfer story of January so far with Patrick Vieira believed to be on the brink of joining Manchester City from Inter Milan.
That signing should be confirmed later on Friday but, writing in the Independent, Sam Wallace, reacts with bemusement to Vieira's imminent arrival at Eastlands. Claiming that Arsene Wenger only said he was interested in bringing the midfielder back to Arsenal in the summer for fear of embarrassing Vieira, Wallace paints a picture of a player well past his best.
In 'Vieira cannot step back to his glory days', Wallace details how the 33-year-old is a spent force who could suffer the ultimate insult and be outfoxed by none other than Blackburn midfielder Keith Andrews should he join City.
"Mancini had a strong relationship with Vieira when they were both at Inter. Perhaps he only wants Vieira to give the team the strong leader that it seems to lack for the six months he is contracted. But whether Vieira can cope with the tempo of Premier League games – a tempo he once thrived in – is quite another matter.
"Vieira was a giant of English football, but his number was up long ago. That was March 2006 when he came back to Highbury with Juventus and a 19-year-old Cesc Fabregas ran him ragged. Fabregas scored that night and Vieira was booed every time he touched the ball.
"In the first leg of the Champions League game against Manchester United last year, Vieira looked like a passenger and was substituted at half-time. This season, Vieira has started seven league games for Inter and made two substitutes appearances in the Champions League. This is a man winding down his career, not one of the world's leading players.
"Vieira may yet get in the France World Cup squad – the main motivation, he says, for moving to City – but that will probably be because neither Lassana Diarra nor Jérémy Toulalan have particularly impressed in central midfield. It would be a shame to see Vieira given the run-around by the likes of Keith Andrews on Monday, but that is the risk if he returns."
Meanwhile, at Vieira's former club the issue of transfer funds has been a hot topic in recent years, with Arsene Wenger adopting a notoriously frugal approach to the transfer market. However, the Guardian's Matt Scott, writing in his Digger column, explains why the Frenchman actually has substantial funds at his disposal due to a little-known 'special account' that the Gunners have established.
"Arsène Wenger is in a position of relative luxury, since the terms of his club's loans demand he spends the bulk of the money he raises in transfers. All transfer revenues are held in a special account created during negotiations with lenders over the refinancing of the club's £260m stadium loan and a minimum of 70% of this must either be retained or spent on transfers and contract renewals. Although the account's millions are at Wenger's disposal, the banks do hold a charge over it as security on the stadium.
"The Arsenal Supporters Trust, whose analysts uncovered the existence of the account, estimates that Wenger's judicious transfer-market operations have generated huge sums. 'The club itself confirms that "all proceeds from player sale transactions are made available to manager",' it says."
January 7, 2010
It is becoming such a frequent occurrence that the average football fan is in danger of becoming desensitised to the news that Portsmouth have once again failed to pay their player. The Premier League club seems to lurch from one crisis to another.
But Pompey's troubles are all of their own making and the only people we should feel sorry for are the fans, according to the Daily Mirror's John Cross.
It's always a fine line between apportioning the blame to chairmen who can't say no and managers who carry on spending. Which manager in the Premier League would turn down the chance to strengthen his squad if he thinks he can persuade the board to give him the money?
Since crossing the line, Portsmouth have gone into free fall. They are now a club with a winding-up petition against them from the tax man, the chief executive has been charged with tax evasion and they have found the only skint Arab owner. In fact, make that two skint Arabs. Because first came Sulaiman Al-Fahim, whose reign lasted 42 days, and now Ali al-Faraj doesn't seem to have much in the way of money either.
I was at Fratton Park for Arsenal's visit on December 30 and it's little wonder the fans have turned on the board, shouting for them all to be sacked and for the Arabs to disappear. Portsmouth has one of the best sets of fans in the Premier League - if not the best. They are loud, passionate and they get behind their team. What little team they have left, at any rate.
January 6, 2010
The snow may have caused havoc with the fixture, but the Independent's Tim Rich still wants to talk about the Carling Cup; and Manchester United's Sire Alex Ferguson in particular. He sets the scene:
It was long gone midnight at Lisbon Airport as the aircraft chartered by Manchester United trundled down the runway. Sir Alex Ferguson, as he usually did, sat in the front. In the back were the journalists and most believed this was the last flight they would take with him.
One ordered champagne, which provoked something of an inquiry at Old Trafford. But the man from The Sun always ordered a glass of champagne on the return flight whether United won, lost or drew and for the reasons most of us would when it is free. He would miss him, we would miss him. But it was the end.
It was December 2005. Several hours earlier, in the Stadium of Light, Benfica, a club that always seems to be linked with Manchester United, had eliminated them from the Champions League. For the first time since 1994 they had failed to reach the knock-out stages and had finished last in their group. They were a dozen points adrift of Chelsea and under a new ownership determined to squeeze every drop of revenue from the club. Roy Keane, Ferguson's great lieutenant, had departed amid clouds of acrimony. David Beckham was long gone. Ryan Giggs, temporarily as it turned out, was fading. Everyone at Old Trafford knew he should never have sold Jaap Stam.
In the Sunday Times, Hugh McIlvanney, the man who had co-written his autobiography – ghosted is not the word – suggested that Ferguson should engineer his own departure rather than be "fired by remote control from Florida". However, he had one card to play. Not a very good card, admittedly, but Manchester United were still in the Carling Cup and it was suddenly important.
You would be foolish to write off United this season, he adds, as we have been in this situation before:
When they won the Carling Cup, with a 4-0 demolition of Wigan Athletic at the Millennium Stadium, Ferguson paraded it as if it were the European Cup and that, after perhaps the most astonishing revival of his career, was precisely what, two years later, he was holding in Moscow.
Now, after the sting of defeat by Leeds United in the FA Cup, the Carling Cup is suddenly important again at Old Trafford and not just because the semi-final opponents are Manchester City... [Ferguson] is a man around whom footballers of the quality of Jonny Evans, Darren Fletcher and the Da Silva twins could gel and, if they do, who knows what piece of silverware the old fox might be holding in two years' time? It might be a carriage clock, it might just be a European Cup.
In the Times, Matt Hughes takes a look at Arsenal's William Gallas, a fallen star? Or the driving force behind their recent success? In fact, Hughes finds that Arsene Wenger is willing to break his own rules to keep him.
When William Gallas was stripped of the captaincy after an outspoken attack on his team-mates last season, his days at Arsenal looked numbered. But such has been his professionalism since that Arsène Wenger is ready to offer him a new contract. The Arsenal manager described Gallas’s performances this season as amazing and revealed yesterday that he intends to discuss an extended deal with the centre back’s representatives this month.
The France defender’s contract expires in the summer and he would like to stay, although negotiations could be complicated by Arsenal’s informal policy of offering only one-year deals to outfield players over 30. Wenger suggested that he could break his own rule to keep hold of a player who will be 33 in August, however, because Gallas would certainly attract a longer contract from several clubs in France, albeit on reduced wages.
January 5, 2010
It's less than a week since Manchester United smashed Wigan 5-0, and they sit a mere two points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea. Yet that has not stopped the vultures circling since the shock exit to Leeds United in the FA Cup.
Daily Mail columnist Ian Ladyman goes into United's problems looking to find out exactly why they have been stuttering. He doesn't really mention that every other big team is in the same boat, though.
He highlights:
UNITED ARE OFF CENTRE
As Sportsmail revealed in November, United have big problems at centre half, with Rio Ferdinand suffering from a chronic back problem and Nemanja Vidic looking abroad.
WHO TAKES CHARGE?
When the chips are down for United, who is there to pull them through? It used to be Roy Keane. The former Old Trafford skipper had an almost unique ability to keep his own level of performance high, even when all around him standards were on the slide.
CAN BERBATOV OR OWEN PLEASE STAND UP?
United have one sensational striker in Rooney. And then they have two others who never quite seem to get it right.
GIVE US A HAND PLEASE
Even at the top of the Premier League, goalkeepers are required to put in inspirational performances to secure three points. When is the last time you can recall a United keeper doing this?
Meanwhile, over at The Times, Matt Dickinson is sure Nemanja Vidic is now headed for the sunnier climbs of continental Europe, and Real Madrid, after his late pull-out from the Leeds debacle. He states:
Nemanja Vidic was never a loss to the diplomatic corps, to judge from his suggestion once that Manchester’s “main attraction is considered to be the timetable at the railway station, where trains leave for less rainy cities”.
He tried to retract the quote, but no one bought his disclaimer then and they certainly would not buy it now, not even if he came into training with an “I heart Manchester” tattoo or one proclaiming “United for life”.
Vidic’s mysterious withdrawal from the team to face Leeds United in the FA Cup has brought bubbling to the surface what those at Old Trafford have feared for a while: that, despite denials from his agent, the defender wants his own train ride to sunnier climes. A place like Real Madrid, for example.
January 4, 2010
With Leeds rolling back the years to beat Manchester United in the FA Cup on Sunday, the general feeling is that cup magic is firmly back on the agenda. Not if you're Stan Collymore in the Daily Mirror. Stan reckons the War of the Roses was the exception rather than the rule and thinks it's all over for the world-famous domestic cup.
"Sadly, I fear we witnessed the death knell of the FA Cup at the weekend.
I grew up idolising the competition and fulfilled a lifetime’s ambition when I first played in it for non-League Stafford Rangers.
But the FA Cup’s decline, which started in 1999-2000 when Manchester United dropped out of the Cup to play in the World Club Championship, appears to have reached the point of no return.
At the weekend we had precious few shocks - with the obvious exception of Leeds' epic win at Old Trafford - and so many emphatic wins which made you wonder if the underdogs had actually bothered trying that hard.
Nowadays you even have lower division clubs putting out weakened teams as their League programme is more important to them.
It is a disgrace that something akin to bribery should be necessary to revive the competition.
But sadly people seem to think they can disrespect the FA Cup all too easily."
That can't be right, though, can it? Surely James Lawton in the Independent thinks Leeds' win put the shine back on the old trophy?
"However you want to debate the enduring appeal of the FA Cup – 10 years after it was sold out when the holders, Manchester United, were urged by the FA and Fifa to compete instead in some wretched, money-grabbing World Club tournament fiasco in South America – we have to accept that some time ago it became a matter of convenience.
It is something to be used when deemed necessary.
However, it is important to take the stupendous performance of Leeds United at Old Trafford yesterday out of the equation.
You should do this because, strictly speaking, it wasn't so much about the magic of the oldest and most romantic club competition in football, the one that could hardly draw flies in places like Wigan and Middlesbrough and Milton Keynes.
It was mostly to do with the unbreakable allure of football, the one which will always carry the hope that the next match will be the one when everything changes.
The appeal, this was, of a game which sooner or later has a tendency to return to classic values.
Whether Leeds continue to perform heroics in the competition that has been betrayed so many times by the sheer weight of pressure to chase the rising financial rewards that can be so precisely measured league by league, TV contract by TV contract, was certainly something left in the margins of a brilliant victory.
What Leeds were exemplifying was not any inordinate love of competing for the old silver – indeed, the star of the show, Jermaine Beckford, may well be dressing himself in new colours long before the end of this month's transfer window – but the ability of players, with the right handling and proper leadership, to respond to the greatest challenge of their lives."
January 3, 2010
Liverpool's performance against Reading in the FA Cup on Saturday will have impressed few observers, with the 1-1 draw just the latest disappointment in a troubling season for Rafa Benitez and the Merseysiders.
That frustrating result is the cue for a fairly inflammatory piece, if you are a Liverpool fan at least, from Paul Wilson in the Observer. In 'The hunger that could drive Steven Gerrard away from Liverpool', Wilson speculates that having rejected Chelsea twice, Gerrard's head could be turned by an ambitious Manchester City side as he contemplates the possibility of never winning a league title at Anfield.
Perhaps reading too much into what is essentially another of football's possible big-money moves, Wilson compares Gerrard to a tragic Shakespearean figure. To City, or not to City, perhaps?
"Another year, another transfer window. Time to wonder, do I dare? Roberto Mancini was probably only joking when he suggested Liverpool might like to make Manchester City a belated Christmas present of Steven Gerrard, Javier Mascherano and Fernando Torres, though for one member of that talented trio his humour must have touched a nerve.
"Torres and Mascherano are both young enough and sufficiently coveted in Spain to make new careers elsewhere should Liverpool prove to be a stumbling block rather than a springboard to their trophy ambitions. Neither player has actually won anything at Anfield yet and both are too good to be sustained indefinitely by empty promises and collective underachievement.
"In abstract at least (his contractual position is settled) Gerrard has a dilemma of Shakespearean complexity. He longs to win a title, but would a title with another club do, or does it have to be with Liverpool? The latter might never happen, the former might not feel the same (and still might never happen). What is a loyal, one-club player to do when titles are two-horse races? Would it be letting the side down to seek a move from Merseyside, or are Liverpool letting Gerrard down by failing to mount a proper challenge?
"These are difficult questions when Liverpool performed so well in the league last season and in Torres have arguably the sharpest striker in the business. Liverpool are tantalisingly close to success - even in their present state - yet for all Gerrard knows that situation could pertain for the next five years or even longer.
"He is tied to Liverpool for the rest of his career, or at least until what he imagines will be close to the end of his career in 2013. His chance of a move to Chelsea may have gone and he has probably never spent more than five seconds of his life imagining he would play for Manchester City, yet, even so, Mancini may be on to something. Liverpool cannot carry on as they have been doing. Clubs who do not win trophies sell players. And nothing in football is unthinkable."
January 2, 2010
The most eagerly awaited tie of the FA Cup Third Round is Leeds United's trip to Manchester United, a renewal of what was once the hottest rivalry in English football. Memories, memories and for Leeds, who suffered a horrible decade following the promise of the early 2000s, it is a chance to dine at the top table.
The Guardian's Richard Williams finds Leeds supporters defiant and ambitious for the future:
"Ten years ago this weekend the fans could revel in their identity as Leeds United stood proudly at the top of the Premier League, looking down on Manchester United and facing the future with absolute confidence. But tomorrow, when Leeds travel to Old Trafford to meet their old rivals in the third round of the FA Cup, the two clubs will be separated by 42 places. While Manchester United once again hover just below the Premier League leaders, Leeds are to be found in League One, continuing their struggle to arrest 10 years of vertiginous decline.
Their fans, however, refuse to give up the fight. "We'll be taking 9,000 to Old Trafford," Simon Grayson, the club's seventh manager in a decade, said this week, "and it could have been 30,000. Leeds fans would say that the club is as big as Manchester United – and, in terms of the following we've got, I wouldn't disagree."
Even in League One – "Let's call it what it is, the third division," says David Gaertner, a spokesman for the official supporters' club, with proper Yorkshire realism – they attract crowds of top-tier dimensions to Elland Road, where 30,191 turned up for their last home match, against Hartlepool. The fans may mock themselves with a chant of "We're not famous any more" but they refuse to accept the change in status as anything other than temporary."
Hope is offered - in a qualified fashion.
"With an eight-point lead at the top of League One, they appear certainties for a promotion that would be an important stage on the journey back to the land in which they feel they belong. But, as Phillips says, no Leeds fan who sat through the defeat of Revie's glittering team by Second Division Sunderland in the 1973 FA Cup final or the savage play-off disappointments of more recent seasons would dream of using the word "certainty"."
January 1, 2010
It's the start of a New Year, so where better to start than the problems at Portsmouth? They look like dominating the headlines for a bit, so Matt Dickinson at the Times has his thoughts, and they are not positive.
Leeds United reappear on our radar this weekend when they travel to Old Trafford in the FA Cup third round — just in time to remind Portsmouth how far a club can fall when “living the dream” turns into a nightmare.
At least Portsmouth got to enjoy the FA Cup triumph of 2008 — Leeds’s disastrous overreaching under Peter Ridsdale’s chairmanship did not bring a single piece of silverware — but Portsmouth fans might willingly trade in those Wembley memories this morning for a little reassurance that their club are not on an unstoppable slide.
Portsmouth are not yet Leeds Mk II, but they appear to have the potential given their debts, which are estimated at £60 million, and the failure of the present ownership, who have revealed their names but little else, to prove their wealth and their willingness to use it to stop the club’s descent.
A bit of transparency from the owners may not soothe fan concerns, quite the opposite, but it would be infinitely preferable to the daily bad-news bulletins that have become such a drain on the morale of fans, players and Avram Grant, the manager, and his staff.
Also on the 2010 bandwagon, Sam Wallace has highlighted five of the best young players to watch throughout the year. We'll give you one and you can read the rest at the Independent.
Connor Wickham; Ipswich Town. Only when he turns 17 in March will Wickham be able to sign his first professional deal and you can be assured that Ipswich will move heaven and earth to make sure their latest great academy product signs on the dotted line.
Players like Wickham only come along once in a generation and once he has signed his first professional deal it will surely only be a matter of time before Ipswich cash in. All the big clubs have been watching this 6ft 3in centre-forward who already looks like a man, and plays like a man, even if legally he is only a kid.
December 31, 2009
The post mortem into Gary Megson's ill-fated spell at Bolton begins in earnest in Thursday's papers following the news that he has been sacked by the Trotters.
Megson has never been popular with Bolton fans but Dave Hadfield, writing in the Times, believes the straw that broke the camel's back was Megson's decision to take off Ivan Klasnic before Hull came back to draw 2-2 in what would prove his final game in charge.
In 'Unforgiving supporters glad to see the back of Megson', Hadfield paints a picture of a support galvanised by the departure of a deeply unpopular manager.
"They were dancing in the streets of Bolton yesterday. The icy pavments were suddenly covered with gold, bluebirds swooped over Doffcocker Lodge and lambs gambolled on the moors. Welcome to a town in mourning for its football manager.
"Gary Megson might not be the least successful manager Bolton Wanderers have ever had. He did, after all, keep them in the Premier League two seasons ago and guide them to the last 16 in Europe.
"But he must surely be the least popular one the club has ever employed. In his last press conference, after Tuesday night's 2-2 home draw with Hull, he admitted that he did not expect ever to get 'a fair crack' from the supporters. It was tantamount to declaring himself doomed.
His problems go back to his appointment 26 months ago. Megson was not the manager any follower of the club seemed to want, registering only a couple of percentage points when fans were polled for their preferences. Indeed, one caller from Horwich on Radio Five Live yesterday captured the popular mood. He cancelled his season ticket the day Megson was appointed - something that simply bears out the sacked manager's growing conviction that he could not win with the fans.
"The factors held against him are many and various, ranging from his Mancunian background to his red hair. The main charge, however, has always hinged on his perceived negativity and air of misery. Bolton fans do not mind utilitarian football, but they like it dressed up, as it was under Sam Allardyce, with a bit of gung-ho and us-against-the-world bravado. As Gudni Bergsson, one of Bolton's most popular players of the last couple of decades, told Sky: 'They are down-to-earth people, who want to go to a game and enjoy the football they're watching.'
"An increasing proportion of Bolton fans have been making it clear that this is no longer the case. The 'Megson Out' banners have started to appear; the barracking has become more vitriolic. Some of the most rock-solid Wanderers supporters have been reduced to actually hoping that they lose games - because that would hasten their bete noir's departure.
"In the end, Megson did not even need to lose a game to get the sack. He might be the first manager, though, to lose his job for a wilfully depressing use of his substitutes' bench. Bolton were 2-0 up against their fellow strugglers from Humberside and would have gone up to a respectable 14th place if they had held that lead. But Megson's knee-jerk reaction to Hull's first goal was to replace his own first goal-scorer, the Croatian crowd favourite, Ivan Klasnic, with a defensive midfielder unbeloved by Bolton fans, Gavin McCann."
December 29, 2009
Most of the hacks seem to have overdosed on mince pies, and as such are unable to waddle to the computer. But we've still found a couple of articles for you.
John Dillon at the Daily Express puts his focus on Fabio Capello's decision to grant David Beckham a place at next year's World Cup finals.
What happened to the idea that there are no guarantees for anyone involved in the England squad?
Beckham returned to Italy yesterday to rejoin AC Milan and was greeted by the familiar sight of paparazzi at the airport and a most unfamiliar headline in Gazzetta dello Sport, with England manager Capello pledging that he is on his way to South Africa as long as he “plays well and stays fit”.
There has not, for example, been any such declaration of purpose about Aaron Lennon of Tottenham, even though he proved against West Ham yesterday that he is by far the form player among those hopeful of filling the right-side berth.
Milan’s medical set-up has kept a whole platoon of ageing players chugging on through their mid-thirties. And Beckham is heading back to the San Siro for what will be a far more competitive campaign than it was in his spell there last season. This means we can be hopeful that his fitness levels will be brought up to scratch.
But even Capello cannot be certain yet that the project will work. There is a good argument for taking Beckham to South Africa. But, frankly, it does not have to be settled for months yet.
Meanwhile, over at the Guardian, Daniel Taylor looks at the impending exit of Robinho, and how Roberto Mancini will have no hestitation in offloading the club's marquee signing.
The former Internazionale head coach may have been stretching the boundaries when he said that City could catch and overhaul Chelsea at the top of the league but he has clearly picked a good time to take control of this team, even if it also means inheriting the £32.5m problem that his predecessor, Mark Hughes, never got to the bottom of.
Robinho was not in the team tonight, relegated to the bench and sat huddled against the cold before coming on as a substitute for the last five minutes. Within a minute the most expensive player in English football had supplied the pass for Carlos Tevez to score the third goal but, even so, there was the overwhelming sense that Mancini was being benevolent when he said he had left out the Brazilian simply to spare him from the threat of fatigue as City played their second game in three days. It had felt more like a demonstration of strength from the new manager.
Mancini had talked of Robinho "making the history of this club" when he held his introductory press conference just before Christmas but the Brazilian was disappointing, to say the least, when the new era got underway with a 2-0 defeat of Stoke City last weekend. Robinho's desire is to leave and Craig Bellamy, his replacement for this match, flourished even if he did miss two great chances.
December 28, 2009
In the spirit of goodwill to all men and suchlike, Simon Barnes at the Times has come up with an article about cheating in sport and the effect of the Henry-handball.
When does a cheat become a gate? It’s the most important question of the sporting year. There’ve been an awful lot of cheats in the course of the past 12 months, but only three gates. All the same, it is three more gates than sport needs. Liegate was followed by Bloodgate which was followed by Crashgate. When taken together, they ask a series of devastating questions about sport.
Cheats are much less important. The affair of Thierry Henry’s handball didn’t become Handgate or Henrygate, because it didn’t have the stuff a gate needs. It was a flagrant piece of cheating, but it’s the sort of thing that happens all the time.
No one within the sport condemned Henry for his lack of morals. Everyone took that for granted. No, the problem was felt to be one of officiating. We can’t expect players to be honest, so we must do something about catching them at it. But then Fifa decided that football was a better game when cheats are given a fair run, and so we move on.
With the New Year upon us, it's now time to remember the best of the year's action. The Independent's Sam Wallace rounds up a number of his favourites in his column.
Sepp Blatter: a tactical masterclass. The Fifa president was in Manchester in March and held a press conference at the Lowry hotel. It was very dull until he was asked about the latest Fifa corruption allegations surrounding Nicolas Leoz, the Paraguayan Fifa executive. Flustered, Blatter adopted radical evasion tactics. He started speaking Spanish ("Oh, por favor, no, no, no") before handing over to an underling to answer.
Most irritating pre-match build-up, Part I. Don't like this lame American sporting tradition that has become fashionable at a few clubs. When the home team is announced, the players are introduced on the digital stadium screens with a short video clip rather than a simple picture. They either turn to face the camera (Arsenal), walk menacingly towards it (Chelsea) or stare balefully into the mid-distance as if wishing they were at another club (West Ham).
Best post-match outburst. "For Arsenal's club captain, Cesc Fabregas, to spit at my assistant Brian Horton shows you what this club is all about" ... "I was there, I witnessed it. Fabregas spat at our assistant manager. That's their club captain. Hopefully, he's proud of himself. He spat at his feet" ... "Arsène never shakes my hand" ... "Arsène got my goalkeeper booked for time-wasting". Phil Brown. First-class entertainment.
And a few more besides.
December 27, 2009
Despite Chelsea and Manchester City benefiting from the millions of their owners, this season has seen the Premier League's poorer clubs showing they can match it with the best on their day. For Paul Hayward in the Observer, hard times are forcing a new equality of football's economic miracle.
"England's highest football tier has been one of this country's few authentic economic miracles, even if it is the perfect expression of a debt-fuelled and unequal society. It's Upstairs Downstairs with naming rights. One missing virtue in the 21st century is competitive balance, until the credit boom went pop and recession looked like the best thing to happen to the game since the Taylor Report.
At the halfway point this has been the most captivating Premier League season in memory. The aristocracy are losing games like never before, the middle-classes (Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur) are on the march and the proletariat (Burnley) are restoring the lost virtues of thrift and self-reliance. This week I nearly banged my television set to restore the reception when the Burnley chief executive said how much his club hated the thought of going overdrawn.
In a year when the British economy was shown to be a con trick perpetrated by the banks and their gimps in government, the big clubs stopped spending on the scale they had when leveraged loans could be had like Smarties.
Best of all, in August, the Uefa president, Michel Platini, received a visit from a Russian man dismayed by Manchester City's trend-defying largesse. "Roman Abramovich is a football person and passionate about the game. He loves football," Platini reported. "He has come to me and said we must do something about this."
Abramovich's new religion was that clubs should spend only what they earn. Coincidentally, this Damascene conversion came after City offered John Terry the chance to show people round Carrington rather than Cobham in his new second job as a training ground tour guide. The tom-toms say Chelsea may return to the old extravagance to buy a striker in January, but only to head off the transfer ban their lawyers managed to get suspended.
Kleptomania survives in the banking sector, but in the Premier League, recklessness is being punished. Those crazy-wage payers, Portsmouth and West Ham, confront the consequences of their folly. But elsewhere the crash has bred new life out of the dead ground of inequality."
December 26, 2009
Despite winning three Serie A titles with Inter, there's been a general feeling in England that Roberto Mancini was an underwhelming appointment at Manchester City. And Mark Lawrenson in the Daily Mirror feels the Italian needs to finish in the top four to prove that he can step up to the elite class of bosses.
"Roberto Mancini was a world class player but is still on the B list in management terms.
That is why Manchester City have been rightly criticised for getting rid of Mark Hughes to replace him with Mancini.
Maybe it would be slightly easier to understand if City had got rid of Hughes to bring in Jose Mourinho.
But while Mancini did well at Inter Milan and has a wonderful reputation as a glorious attacking player, question marks remain about his ability as a manager.
Mancini is on the second tier of managers, well behind Mourinho or Guus Hiddink and they are the sort of coaches that City really need.
Instead, this whole messy merry-go-round has left a nasty taste in the mouth and also put the spotlight on Mancini.
Maybe Mancini will be the shot in the arm that City need to reach the top four. It’s pretty clear that City don’t have patience and won’t hang around so it’s surely top four or bust for Mancini."
But while Garry Cook has been getting an all-round kicking for his part in the sacking of Mark Hughes and appointment of Mancini, Patrick Barclay in the Times is offering something of a defence.
"For a manager such as Mark Hughes, being sacked must be a bit like dying and yet staying alive, in the sense that you get to read the glowing tributes about your managerial abilities.
This is not to make light of what Manchester City’s owners did to Hughes last Saturday — to be deprived of a job, even a hellish one, must hurt — but to question a tone of bewilderment that suggested everyone had felt that he was bound to do well at the club in the fullness of time.
Was his sacking really a disgrace, a travesty, the bottom of a moral pit? It wasn’t even the least reasonable sacking conducted by City. Peter Reid could claim to have suffered that four matches into the 1993-94 season.
Sackings are never pleasant and what I liked about the reports of Hughes’s was that, instead of shooting the messenger, they settled for beating him up. Garry Cook, the chief executive, deserved a bit, too, but the bullets were rightly directed at the Abu Dhabi ruler who owns City, Sheikh Mansour, and his henchman-in-chief, Khaldoon al-Mubarak. As James Ducker, our reporter, observed in our account of Roberto Mancini’s introductory press conference, at least Cook had the decency to turn up."
December 24, 2009
Garry Cook may have other things on his mind over his Christmas dinner, not least the further collapse of his public image after that disastrous Roberto Mancini press conference. The Manchester City executive chairman has made great pains, not least in an interview with ESPN Soccernet, filched by almost everyone else, to state his case but has struggled to make it any clearer or palatable to the press pack, whose newspapers are now banned from City's Carrington training complex.
The Times' estimable Italian Gabriel Marcotti can be expected to give a different opinion on matters to the Fleet Street set who hunt in packs so what does he have to say about a man who staged both an early and late charge for man of the year? Yet again, Garry may be choking on his yuletide chipolata when he reads this.
"Funny how, when the weather gets cold, Garry gets cooking. Last winter it was the Kaka extravaganza when the Manchester City chief executive turned a transfer coup (even just getting to the point where Milan agreed a sale was a huge achievement and one for which he and his advisors should have received more credit than they did) into a public relations fiasco with his absurd accusations of "bottling it" and the low blow directed at Kaka's father, Bosco, whom Cook deemed not "sophisticated" enough to represent his son. (Never mind the fact that Bosco is a civil engineer, whereas Cook spent most of his adult life flogging shoes and sports apparel).
Manchester City's handling of the sacking of Mark Hughes was, simply put, terrible. The idea, peddled by Cook on Monday, that Hughes wasn't told he was being sacked until after the Sunderland game because the chairman, Khaldoon Al-Mubarak wanted to tell him in person and was so busy that he couldn't physically be in Manchester until 10am on Saturday, is not an acceptable explanation for such uncivil behaviour."
Some levity is awarded to Cook before being swiftly withdrawn.
"I do feel a teeny, tiny speck of sympathy for Cook on one point though. Manchester City and Cook feel the furore and the accusations of him "lying" over when Roberto Mancini was approached is unfair.
You probably know the story by now: Cook's statement claims Mancini was only offered the job last Thursday (December 17), but Mancini, when asked directly, said he had met Al-Mubarak two weeks before that. Technically, Cook is correct: his statement is not inconsistent. (Watch video of the man here, it's at 5:45). Cook says that "the decision to seriously look at other options" was made "three weeks earlier", presumably around the time that Al-Mubarak met Mancini.
That's fine and I'm sure it would stand up in a court of law. But, from a PR perspective, it was far from clever and pretty much characteristic of how Cook communicates. Had he been straight - rather than pulling out the usual "carefully worded" legalese sludge - everything would have been fine."
And to add some brandy on to this already steaming Christmas pudding, The Sun has a rumour about City refusenik Craig Bellamy.
"HARRY REDKNAPP will move for Craig Bellamy if new Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini ditches the striker.
The Spurs chief tried to sign Bellamy from West Ham last year, matching the £14million asking price. But the player chose to join his former Wales boss Mark Hughes at City.
Yet Sparky's ruthless sacking has angered the hot-headed forward and Redknapp is ready to end his Eastlands misery."
The transfer window opens in 8 days. Be afraid, be very afraid.
December 23, 2009
Italian Roberto Mancini was the slightly underwhelming choice to replace Mark Hughes at Manchester City and, over at the Sun, Harry Redknapp has been talking about the difficult of making it at the top clubs without a foreign passport.
"If anyone out there is surprised mega-rich Manchester City looked abroad for the man at the top, well they shouldn't be because it will happen again and again and again.
In fact when Scot Alex Ferguson retires as boss of Manchester United I can see the greatest manager of all time being replaced by another foreigner.
And I wouldn't be surprised if Sir Alex recommends a former non-British player who has already built his reputation in management.
If any manager lower down the football pyramid believes they will get a big club - they won't! They simply won't get a look in. No chances will be taken.
Young Brit managers will have to be content with turning around clubs in trouble and getting their chance to manage in the Premier League by taking those teams up.
Sometimes I think the only way a British manager can possibly build the kind of reputation that will tempt someone, somewhere to eventually take a small chance on him is to get to the Prem in the first place - on their own merit with their own teams.
Tony Pulis has done exactly that at Stoke, Mick McCarthy at Wolves (after getting sacked at Sunderland), Phil Brown at Hull and Owen Coyle at Burnley.
Would an established Premier club have come in for them? Probably not."
Meanwhile, the criticism of City chief executive Garry Cook continues, with Oliver Holt in the Daily Mirror the latest to question the handling of Mark Hughes' sacking for failing to remain on course for the 70-point target trajectory.
"Trajectory? What's that about? This is football, Garry, not some graph on a board in a Nike office telling you how many trainers you've managed to flog in the run-up to Christmas.
That section of Cook's preposterously self-important statement is the hell that happens when you put a shoe salesman and his sidekick, Brian Marwood, in a position of power over a man like Hughes.
You might be able to get away with that kind of rubbish when you're peddling sportswear. People might even like you for it. But in football, sacking someone because they've fallen below a line on a graph just makes you a laughing stock.
Don't get indignant with us, Garry. Please. Don't even try. Because even you must remember what you said to a group of us in Abu Dhabi six weeks ago.
It was the week before England played Qatar in Doha, remember?
Remember talking to me and my colleague from The Independent outside the lobby of the Emirates Palace Hotel and pouring scorn on other journalists who were saying Rafa Benitez should be sacked?
Remember saying how stupid they were? Remember saying how counter-productive that knee-jerk culture in English football was? Remember implying you were above all that and ridiculing the idea Hughes' job was in danger?
And remember finally agreeing to sit down with some other journalists and praising Hughes to the skies, comparing him even to Michael Jordan in terms of his stature?
Remember all that? I'm only asking because three weeks after those chats in Abu Dhabi - not three months or three years - the ever-so-honourable Khaldoon was meeting up with Mancini and the decision had been taken that Hughes was toast."
December 22, 2009
After a chaotic press conference to announce Roberto Mancini as Manchester City's new manager on Monday, it is no surprise to see chief executive Garry Cook in the firing line this morning.
Having already denied claims of a "conspiracy" against deposed manager Mark Hughes, Cook was forced to revise his original version of events after Mancini revealed he met with chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak two weeks ago, considerably earlier than Cook had first claimed.
Cook is something of a figure of ridicule after accusing AC Milan of "bottling it" in City's pursuit of Kaka 12 months ago and is not regarded as a football man by the nation's press. Chief amongst his critics on Tuesday morning is Henry Winter, writing in the Telegraph.
"Despite the frantic efforts of Garry Cook, the club's harassed and hapless chief executive officer, to claim there had been 'no conspiracy' towards Mark Hughes, the scale of the plotting against the ousted manager became brutally apparent.
"Sitting next to Cook at a press conference that bordered on Bedlam was Hughes's successor, Roberto Mancini. As calm as Cook was rattled, the elegant Italian confirmed that he had discussed the situation with Manchester City as long ago as Dec 2. So that was City's cover blown."
Winter continues...
"As the feeling of farce intensified, Mancini admitted he had talked to his old Lazio coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson, who hardly boasts an unblemished record as a judge of sheikhs. And to round off the sorry sensation that City have taken up residence in the Theatre of the Absurd, Mancini promised to improve his English by watching Coronation Street and EastEnders. He should also view the film Caligula to get a feel for the boardroom characters at Eastlands.
"In truth, this was a tale of two Cities, the ludicrous land inhabited by Cook and the sang-froid kingdom of Mancini, unlike Cook a proper football man. Mancini was up for the challenge. 'If you manage in Italy, living with pressure is the norm,' he added. 'So that won't be a problem for me here. I stayed at Inter for four years which was a record.'
"Mancini, elegantly attired, was calmness personified as Cook stumbled through an opening address with all the dexterity of David Brent at the Christmas party. Cook pleaded with his audience to focus on Mancini, not on the departure of the popular Hughes. No chance.
"An eight year-old could have picked holes in Cook's anti-conspiracy theory. Observing that the Premier League target for this season had been changed to '70 points', Cook rather ignored that the table showed City were on course for that under Hughes. If they win their next two games, Stoke City and Wolves away, City will have 35 points from 19 games, halfway to Cook's target at the midway point of the season."
James Ducker, north-west correspondent for the Times also has the hapless Cook in his sights by reflecting on his past gaffes and questioning whether his job is at risk after his embarrassing climb down regarding the timeline of events that led to Mancini’s appointment.
"An extraordinary press conference at the City of Manchester Stadium yesterday, where Roberto Mancini was presented as the club’s new manager, told us three things: one, Mancini is cool and composed under pressure, which he will need to be working for this bunch; two, Cook is not; and three, these owners are not as honourable as they would like us all to believe.
"This was the most humiliating experience of Cook’s 18-month tenure at City, which is saying something. This, after all, is the man who infamously declared that Thaksin Shinawatra, the disgraced former Thai Prime Minister and City owner, was a 'great guy to play golf with', who accused AC Milan of 'bottling it' over the collapse of City’s world record £103 million bid to sign Kaká and who mistakenly inducted Uwe Rösler into the Manchester United hall of fame on the night he was being lauded as a City legend.
"More recently, he said 'comedy has always been at the heart of what City is all about'. At least he got that right, although now we can add economy with the truth, too."
December 21, 2009
It's the first, and most certain not the last, day of attacks and sniping from the press at Manchester City's antics in sacking Mark Hughes.
Step forward Garry Cook and Brian Marwood, two people who are set to go down in City folklore as shadowy figures dressed as the grim reaper, skulking around in the dark plotting the assassination of a man thought to be in their circle of trust.
Yes, that's Cook - who used to make sports kit and not buy people to wear it - and Brian Marwood - former television co-commentator who left few disappointed when he put the mic down to head to Eastlands.
And so it's over to Matt Lawton over at the Daily Mail to join us in our condemnaton of those who subjected Hughes to a very public hanging on Saturday.
Vultures. That was the nickname certain members of Manchester City's coaching staff gave to Garry Cook and Brian Marwood when they sensed something was up. When they sensed, a few weeks ago, that the two men behind the sacking of Mark Hughes, and the pursuit of Roberto Mancini, were planning something drastic.
For City's chief executive and his 'football administrator' sidekick, it was a case of kill or be killed. A case of terminating Hughes before the club's Abu Dhabi owners turned their sights on them.
But Cook lost his nerve and proved, yet again, just how ill-suited he is to the role he believes he is performing - not just turning City into one of the most successful clubs in Europe but one that commands respect.
To do that, you need a bit of class, a bit of style. But the manner in which Hughes was dismissed, indeed the manner in which Cook has conducted himself since moving from Nike to the City of Manchester Stadium 19 months ago, would suggest he is seriously lacking in such qualities.
This is the man who referred to Thaksin Shinawatra as 'a nice guy to play golf with'. The man who responded to Kaka's decision not to join City from AC Milan by accusing one of the greatest clubs in Europe of 'bottling it'.
Cook had to send a written apology to fans when he welcomed Uwe Rosler to the 'Manchester United hall of fame', and sounded just as ridiculous when he declared that 'Richard Dunne doesn't roll off the tongue in Beijing'.
Recognising how little experience he had in football, Cook brought in Marwood earlier this year. Hughes didn't want the former Arsenal winger around, fearing he would become the type of director of football figure modern managers so loathe. But Cook ignored those concerns and went ahead with appointing his former Nike colleague.
Cracks began to appear in the relationship between Cook and Hughes from the moment Marwood arrived, and at no point was Marwood ever embraced by Hughes and his staff.
Hughes did not deserve to be sacked when the 4-3 win over Sunderland left his side within touching distance of the Champions League places, and he did not deserve to be treated the way he was on Saturday, either.
He was humiliated, and that does not reflect well on the two men who were the architects of his dismissal, just as it does not reflect well on the club's owners. They stripped a great servant of the English game of his dignity, and in so doing did themselves untold damage.
And for what? Roberto Mancini, an Italian coach who won titles with Inter Milan at a time when Serie A was in the midst of a scandal that saw Juventus relegated and Inter's other big rivals given points deductions.
Just time to touch on the rumblings in the background about Chelsea and England skipper John Terry, and the accusation that he took cash to arrange a training ground tour. Some are now suggesting that he could lose the England armband, as Dominic Fifield discusses in the Guardian.
Revelations in a Sunday newspaper, even after the carefully worded statement released in response by Chelsea which denied any wrongdoing, suggest the centre-half is at best guilty of remarkable naivety. The club have publicly accepted their player's explanation that at no stage had he asked for or accepted any money from the three undercover reporters posing as wealthy businessmen during a meeting at Chelsea's Cobham base last Thursday in return for a tour of the facilities and a viewing of training.
Tony Bruce, the middleman filmed by the News of the World accepting a black folder supposedly containing £10,000 in £50 notes, is a long-standing friend who has known Terry since his days in the Chelsea youth team. Yet he is also a notorious ticket tout, jokingly referred to as "Tony Ticket". Is he the kind of figure with whom Terry should be seen associating, even within the confines of his club? The scenario, played out in the Cobham canteen with an unsuspecting Carlo Ancelotti apparently eating at an adjoining table, would surely set alarm bells ringing. Judging by the laughing and joking, and the footage of Bruce tucking the wallet under his arm, it did not.
December 20, 2009
Defeats for both Liverpool and Manchester United would normally be all over the papers and they are but these days there is another club seeking the limelight.
Mark Hughes' departure from Manchester City - rather in the style of Martin Jol's leaving of Spurs - is the big story. We knew it would happen on Saturday morning but developments continue.
In comes Roberto Mancini and it seems not everyone is happy. Look who's reported to be the refusenik in chief. Why it's none other than Craig Bellamy.
The News of the World leads with the Bellamy revolt. Neil Ashton reports.
OUTRAGED Manchester City stars confronted chief executive Gary Cook over the sacking of Mark Hughes and the £10million appointment of Roberto Mancini.
Craig Bellamy and Shay Given led a six-man delegation after axed Hughes made an emotional dressing speech telling them he was being replaced by the former Inter Milan boss.
Gary Cook and mystery addition to the staff Brian Marwood are the men targeted by City's players ire.
A dressing room source said: "Mark thanked all the lads at the end of the game and told them this would be his last game because Mancini was taking over. There is a huge amount of loyalty towards Mark, the players respect him as a manager and as a person and they can't believe he's being treated as shabbily as this.
"This has been done without any class whatsoever. The players were getting messages on their mobiles telling them what was going on and they decided they had to do something.
"They know who is behind this - Gary Cook and Brian Marwood. Six of them decided they had to say and do something so they went looking for them after the game
Joe Bernstein in the Mail On Sunday also pinpoints Marwood and Cook.
Former Arsenal player Brian Marwood arrived at City as football administrator to be the board's football eyes and ears. A close friend and Nike colleague of Cook, Marwood initially took every opportunity he could to back Hughes, even if he had doubts over some of his signings.
As City failed to qualify for Europe last season, Cook took more flak than Hughes, his comment that AC Milan had 'bottled' the move to release Kaka earning him huge derision.
But the civil war that has exploded in recent weeks following draws against the likes of Hull, Burnley and Fulham and the 3-0 defeat at Spurs means Sheik Mansour had to choose between Cook and Marwood on one side and Hughes and his all-Welsh team of assistants Mark Bowen, Eddie Niedzwiecki and Glyn Hodges on the other.
The Times examine the reasons behind Hughes' removal.
Jonathan Northcroft reports:
When Hughes spent £130m on new players last summer, on top of £120m lavished on signings over the previous two transfer windows, the denizens of Eastlands dreamed of qualifying for the Champions League. More to the point, so did Sheikh Mansour, the Abu Dhabi prince with almost limitless wealth who bankrolls the club, and Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Garry Cook and Brian Marwood, his chief lieutenants at City.
In the end, it was inevitable Hughes would stand or fall on the basis of his recruitment drive and, one of the most thoughtful managers in football, he would have realised it. His last selection decisions involved dropping Robinho, Nigel de Jong and Emmanuel Adebayor, three players he signed for more than £70m, and keeping that trio on the bench as he sent on less glamorous performers as substitutes in yesterday’s 4-3 win over Sunderland. It was a statement: you players have let me down. Managers, though, cannot receive surfeits of sympathy for transfers that go wrong. Transfers are a key part of their job — and a fundamental reason behind 90% of sackings.
Over at the Observer, Paul Wilson develops a similar argument.
Shay Given and Craig Bellamy (a player he did sign for Blackburn) have been excellent, with pinching Gareth Barry from under Liverpool's nose one of the manager's best bits of business. Less successful have been the statement signings, where Hughes has appeared to spend big just because he could. Chasing John Terry seemed a daft idea at the time and was ultimately shown to be so, though even dafter was the idea that Joleon Lescott would do instead. The former Everton defender is simply not a £22m player, as any Goodison regular could have told Hughes, and the City manager moved out a far more reliable and capable organiser of a defence in Richard Dunne, who has been outstanding all season for Aston Villa.
December 19, 2009
Unsurprisingly, it's reaction to the Champions League draw that is top of the agenda for the press today, with some mouthwatering ties to look forward too in the last-16 of Europe's premier club competition.
Chelsea v Inter and Manchester United v AC Milan appear to be the two standout ties because of the respective returns of messrs Mourinho and Beckham, and James Ducker at the Times chooses to examine the latter, with Beckham in line to make his first competitive playing return to Old Trafford since leaving the club in 2003.
"David Beckham always said that he never wanted to leave Manchester United and yesterday the Champions League draw gave him the chance to make an emotional return to Old Trafford for the first time since he was effectively booted out by Sir Alex Ferguson more than six years ago.
The England midfield player will join AC Milan on loan for a second time from the Los Angeles Galaxy in nine days’ time, but while the move was intended primarily to maintain his form and fitness before the World Cup finals in South Africa, it will hold an extra significance after the Serie A club were paired with his former team in the first knockout round.
Yesterday’s draw may not have been what either team wanted — or Ferguson, whose dim view of the fanfare that surrounds Beckham is well known and arguably the main reason he sold him to Real Madrid in July 2003 — but it is a dream pairing as far as the player is concerned."
And Derek Mcgovern, the Mirror's chief betting expert, takes a slightly more irreverent look at the Becks return.
"David Beckham was told to beware of flying boots when yesterday's Champions League draw handed him a return to Old Trafford - but dispelled fears when he said Posh wouldn't be travelling.
United v Milan is the draw everyone wanted, particularly Milan. It takes Beckham back to the club which gave him his most successful moments. It's a real Cinderella story for Becks (below) but such a shame that, with Phil Neville having joined Everton, he won't team up again with the ugly sisters.
Milan were pushed out from 16-1 to 25-1 after the draw - the only one in the last six months that hasn't involved Manchester City - and at those odds are crying out to be backed. Jose Mourinho's Porto were similarly dismissed when drawing United at the same stage five years ago and went on to win the trophy."
Elsewhere, Amy Lawrence at the Guardian interviews Fulham striker Bobby Zamora about life at Craven Cottage, Eric Cantona, comparisons to Emile Heskey and his recent request for Fulham fans to "shut your f****** mouths" after scoring a recent winner against Sunderland.
"It is the morning after Fulham Football Club took an impressive leap into the knockout phase of the Europa Cup. Bobby Zamora is carrying slight bags under his eyes after a late return from Switzerland. It had been a positive night for him personally as well as for the club, as he scored twice and helped to create the third with a decoy run, but discussing the finer details was something he only fancied doing on autopilot.
The conversation shifts, and there is one word which compels his manner to change completely: Cantona. Zamora sparks up, as if suddenly bathed in light. He breaks into an enormous smile. "Brilliant," he says. Now you're talking.
There are abundant aspects of the former Manchester United maverick to appreciate, but Zamora feels particular admiration for the most famous of them all, when Cantona responded to the vitriol spewed down from the stands with that notorious kung-fu kick at Selhurst Park."
Staying in the Premier League, and while the debate continues to rage about which team has the best chance of breaking into the top four this season, Barney Ronay at the Guardian ignores obvious contenders Aston Villa, Spurs and Manchester City, choosing instead to focus on an outside contender - Everton.
"Who do we back to crack the Big Four? This week it has been even harder than usual to avoid talking, or hearing other people talk, about the Premier League "Big Four". The reason for the excitement has been the ongoing fascination that a club from outside Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal might finally "crack the Big Four". So entrenched has this obsession become that the pack of chasing big-four-crackers has already taken on an exclusive, clubby feel of its own, and is, in turn, being pursued by a further select pack of clubs desperate to "crack" the select pack of clubs trying to crack the Big Four.
This is a strange period in the Premier League's fevered, but oddly stagnant history. It's also no doubt all for the best, even if no matter how much you might loathe, or simply be crushingly bored by, the idea of an overclass gorged on a self-perpetuating generational supremacy, it is by now quite hard to feel consistently hostile towards the Big Four, who have been there long enough to seem sinister, but also secretly reassuring, like America, or Sky Sports, or bickering quietly with your wife in the car."
December 18, 2009
The future of Manchester City manager Mark Hughes is on the agenda on Friday morning. particularly with reports linking Guus Hiddink with the Eastlands job.
A 3-0 defeat to Tottenham has called into question City's top-four ambitions and Ian Herbert, writing in the Independent, sifts through the wreckage of a very damaging defeat at White Hart Lane.
In 'Tantrums show trouble ahead as Hughes fights for survival'. Herbert considers the petulant reaction by Robinho and what defeat means for City.
"You know it's been a bad night when Gareth Barry, hardly the most demonstrative of Manchester City's midfielders, talks about the players being "at each other's throats" in the dressing room. But that's how it was, deep inside White Hart Lane late on Wednesday night, after the feeble and anaemic display which asked more questions about the value of Mark Hughes' investments than any other game in his 18 months at Manchester City.
"The players were not the only ones pointing a finger. Hughes kept the door shut for a very long time after a 3-0 defeat which was characterised by the parlous non-performances of Emmanuel Adebayor and Robinho, who headed straight down the tunnel after his substitution, and the length of the post-mortem meant that he did not join Harry Redknapp for the customary post-match drink. Redknapp did not take that as a slight. Everyone in the Tottenham camp could see what the defeat meant to City, a club aspiring to go toe-to-toe with Spurs for a top-four spot, and falling so far short.
"Though rumours that Robinho did not join the City players on the coach home and instead headed straight out into London are wide of the mark, Hughes is left to ponder where the fighters in his ranks really are. The thought of Barry taking anyone by the throat seems far-fetched, based on the role he is assuming in the City midfield. The elegance and tackling which have made him an England regular have been on less consistent display than at Aston Villa and he has not looked the leader that made him a pre-season candidate for the captaincy. The honesty Barry displayed when emerging from the dressing room would have served City well on the pitch. "It's not just the defeat it's the way we've lost – we've lost a lot of pride," he admitted."
December 17, 2009
The decision of Wolves manager Mick McCarthy to rest ten of his starting eleven for Tuesday's 3-0 defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford has split opinion and is still creating waves.
The Premier League have asked McCarthy to explain his actions, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger attacked his colleague for fielding a weakened side and former Wolves and England manager Graham Taylor believes the Yorkshireman has opened a can of worms.
Writing in his column in the Daily Express, Taylor, who feels some sympathy for McCarthy, explained:
"I heard McCarthy in a radio interview saying why he had done it. I have always found him an honest man, and when he talked about the risks of hamstring injuries and the tiredness of the players after the effort they put in to beat Tottenham, I thought: 'No Mick, you've no need to say all that. Just say, 'I'm the manager. I pick the team. I take responsibility'.
For me the result of the Premier League season so far has been Tottenham 0 Wolves 1. I just could not believe it. But if you are the manager of Tottenham then you see the side Wolves put out against one of your rivals, Manchester United, you are not happy."
In The Times, Patrick Barclay writes that in accepting defeat before kick-off McCarthy simply highlighted the problem of competitive balance within the Premier League and may even have done the league a favour.
"...any notion that the defeatist attitude towards matches against the top clubs is a new phenomenon should be resisted. McCarthy has just made it more obvious than most.
He will have done the game a favour if people continue talking about competitive balance, which, according to independent studies, has been steadily declining since the formation of the Premier League in 1992. The problem has been most blatant in the existence of a top four that seemed almost self-perpetuating until Manchester City became super-rich and others including their hosts at White Hart Lane last night, decided to join them in having a go.
By and large, though, the league has become a thing of subdivisions without its popularity being affected because in each layer there are six-pointers, an example being the forthcoming affair between Wolves and Burnley, which McCarthy is entitled to regard as pertinent to his team's chances of staying up."
December 16, 2009
It's not the first time, and we're sure it won't be the last, but Wolves boss Mick McCarthy committed the cardinal sin on Wednesday night of waving the white flag and quite literally tossing three points into the bin.
After back-to-back wins, you could be forgiven for thinking Wolves would be brimming with confidence for their trip to Old Trafford. But no, Mick decided to make 10 - yes TEN - changes and rested his first choice team. I bet that cheered up the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal.
The first serving of ire comes from Tony Evans over at The Times, who is quick to suggest that Thierry Henry is more saintly after his handball against Ireland.
Did you hear that noise, about 7pm last night? It was the sound of a nation groaning. When Mick McCarthy’s team-sheet to play Manchester United at Old Trafford showed ten changes from his Wolverhampton Wanderers team that beat Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, the disappointment of football fans across the country was palpable.
It was the most dispiriting moment in many a season.
But not an isolated incident. Bryan Robson has taken his reserves to Chelsea before with West Brom. And is it really any different to United playing their reserves at Hull on the last day of last term?
Football is a resilient game. It has survived scandals, cheating — most recently Thierry Henry’s handball for France against Ireland — and an obsession with money. Yet it remains compulsive because of its unpredictability. It is uplifting because it retains the capacity to surprise.
A will to win courses through even the worst sides and the fan can relate to that. The journeys up and down the motorway filled with expectation and the long hauls home after defeat are made bearable by the knowledge that manager and team are sharing the belief and agony. The only thing that shakes a fan’s faith is the suspicion that no one gives a toss.
So the Wolves supporters at a freezing Old Trafford last night must have felt like fools. It was a night when old gold shirts on the players’ backs could easily be mistaken for yellow. McCarthy, it appears, did not believe his team could win and rested them for the match against Burnley on Sunday.
McCarthy is the villain of the football year. At least Henry was trying to win.
So, finally, let's get another point of view, this time coming from Sam Wallace at the Independent.
Mick McCarthy's decision to rest all but one of his first team for last night's game at Old Trafford is a dangerous new development in the Premier League that could undermine the nature of the competition itself.
If the managers of clubs at the bottom of the division are effectively to throw games against those at the top whom they feel they have no chance of beating, the league will become even more dull and predictable than some people already believe it to be. This was a new low for a league that is dominated by the same old teams.
Thing is, Sam, it's not a first. Do your homework.
December 15, 2009
It's 50 years to te day that Bill Shankly began his tenure at Anfield, and if anyone takes a minute to compare Liverpool's legendary manager to their current boss, it makes for a depressing assessment. One such damning comparison comes from Rory Smith in the Telegraph who splits up his article concisely into Rafaelites and Anti-Rafaelites - examining the Spaniards lovers and haters in the boadroom, dressing room and on the terraces.
"Their faith tested, their belief exposed and their dogma unravelled, Liverpool’s owners, directors, staff, players and fans find themselves for the first time in more than two years united as one, driven on to their knees in prayer.
“It is going to be a grind between now and May,” said Jamie Carragher, epitome of the concrete certainty imbued in the club over five years by manager Rafael Benítez and shattered in less than five weeks, “but we have got to stick together, get through it and, as I’m doing, pray to God that at the end of the season there will be something worthwhile for what we’ve gone through.”
Even the almighty, though, might shy away from trying to unify the fractured, battered and bruised morass at Anfield. From boardroom to stands, from dressing room to directors’ box, few managers in football divide opinion as completely as Benítez.
There are those who would back the mastermind behind the miracle of Istanbul to the hilt, the Rafaelites, and those who see the studious, perfectionist, wilful enigma as myth, a man who has never truly adapted his style to the peculiar demands of the English game in pursuit of the holiest of grails which has eluded Liverpool for 20 long years."
Elsewhere, Aston Villa's victory at Old Trafford on Saturday was another example of how unpredictable the Premier League has been this year and cemented their place as number one contenders to replace Liverpool in the top four. Unpredictability will never deter the press from making predictions and Kevin McCarra in the Guardian has stuck his neck on the line (or just chosen the form team really) and picked Martin O'Neill's side as the top contenders for the fourth place spot and elusive Champions League place.
"A vacancy has been advertised. It is to be found in every newspaper and website that carries the Premier League table. Applications are invited for the fourth of the Champions League berths. Liverpool are seeking simply an extension to their involvement, but Rafael Benítez's case has to be treated sceptically. His voice is faint, too, because it has to carry from seventh place in the table, where his team currently resides. The Spaniard's argument is not all that persuasive.
The real rising force is Aston Villa. That ascent owes much to the fact that Martin O'Neill has been at work there since 2006. Over that period, he has been constantly attempting to upgrade the squad with the significant sums provided by the owner Randy Lerner. The defence has been largely recast of late and the centre-back Richard Dunne, bought from an unappreciative Manchester City for £5m, was at the core of Villa's 1-0 victory at Old Trafford on Saturday."
December 14, 2009
It's not like Patrick Barclay to make news where there is none, so Monday's column in the Times begins slightly oddly. An attack on Scouseland? Surely not.
''Of all the contributions made by Scouse players to our game, the least attractive is cheating. We saw it nine days ago when Steven Gerrard was booed by Blackburn Rovers supporters for apparently trying to earn Liverpool a penalty with a simulation technique well known to web-surfers and we saw it again on Saturday, when Wayne Rooney was shown the yellow card for diving over a nonexistent tackle during Manchester United’s match against Aston Villa.''
Incredible right? But wait, it all becomes clear when he explains himself and gives credit to our own Jon Champion for his reading of the situation.
''By now you will have smelt a rat. Substitute “foreign” for “Scouse” and you have the kind of rubbish we hear every time a non-English player falls. Substitute the names of Eduardo da Silva or, until a few months ago, Cristiano Ronaldo, for those of Gerrard and Rooney and you have the careless xenophobia always liable to embarrass those seeking to do something for England, such as bring it the World Cup in 2018.
''To the credit of Jon Champion, commentating for ESPN on the Old Trafford match, he immediately linked Rooney’s attempt to cheat Villa with the furore over the penalty recently awarded at Anfield to David Ngog when the French striker fell after hurdling a tackle by Lee Carsley, of Birmingham City. But Match of the Day did not even discuss the Rooney incident — although it did mention a rumour that a French player, Benoît Assou-Ekotto, had become involved in an altercation with a Tottenham Hotspur fan.
''Without meaning to be hypocritical, the British do have a complex attitude towards cheating.''
At the risk of raising this debate higher than it probably should go, the Daily Mail have former referee Graham Poll's take on the situation as well.
''Craig Bellamy will not be getting much sympathy from match officials after his incorrect red card on Saturday — he’s hurled too much abuse at them over the years for that. However, his dismissal for a second caution was clearly wrong as he was fouled by Bolton’s Paul Robinson and referee Mark Clattenburg will cringe when he looks at replays of the incident. However, if you are to win a war then there will be innocent casualties — as the Welshman was on Saturday.
''It is high time referees focused on a real blight of the modern game but should use all information both on the field and in preparing for games if they are to get the big decisions right. Whilst you should never prejudge, I would be surprised if Bellamy has ever been cautioned for diving before — yes, he is a serial abuser but a diver?''
Poll also points the finger at Mr Rooney for his antics at the weekend:
''Of course, prejudice can be dangerous: it’s a myth that foreigners are the divers. Of the 10 cautions for simulation in the Premier League this season, seven have gone to British players, five of them English. Among the English miscreants is our main striker, Wayne Rooney, whose artistic dive at Old Trafford on Saturday was as clear an attempt to deceive a referee as you could see.''
December 13, 2009
Michael Owen won't be a happy man this morning. Having been tipped to finally force Fabio Capello to consider him a viable option for South Africa after scoring a hat-trick against Wolfsburg, he was benched for Manchester United's home match against Aston Villa. Worst still, another England hopeful, Gabriel Agbonlahor, scored an early goal and, after Owen's introduction, he was unable to prevent the champions slipping to a 1-0 defeat. For Joe Lovejoy in the Guardian, it all made for a very unhappy evening for little Micky.
Michael Owen turns 30 tomorrow – a worrying landmark for any footballer, despite the example of the Peter Pan they call Ryan Giggs. It is certainly not an age when a World Cup hopeful wants to be on the bench for his club while younger, ambitious rivals press their claims for international selection.
Conventional wisdom holds that it is Wayne Rooney and Jermain Defoe who will keep Owen out of Fabio Capello's squad to travel to South Africa next summer, but last night, while he kicked nothing more rewarding than his feet for 45 minutes as a Manchester United substitute, Owen saw another compelling challenger join the list.
The goal Gabriel Agbonlahor buried for Aston Villa after 20 minutes was his eighth in 16 Premier League appearances this season, and those who still doubt whether he can be effective against top-quality opposition should bear in mind that he has now scored against United in each of the past four seasons. The Villans' hero could well be timing his World Cup run to perfection.
It never looked like being United's night, nor this time was it Michael Owen's. Young Gabriel, on the other hand, left with a huge smile on that angelic face.
Meanwhile, there's something about a game between Liverpool and Arsenal taking place at 4pm. And former Arsenal forward Alan Smith has written in the Daily Telegraph about his belief that fit-again Fernando Torres is the man to make things happen at Anfield.
Think back to October when Liverpool deservedly beat Manchester United. Think back to the circumstances leading up to that game.
Rafael Benítez's side had just lost four on the trot, including the beach ball game at Sunderland and a home defeat to Lyon, that left their Champions League chances hanging by a thread.
But buoyed by the return of Fernando Torres, Liverpool reacted like a wounded beast, tearing into United with unstinting energy and aggression. The champions that day couldn't handle the pace, so determined were the home side to get a result.
Thinking about it, the situation isn't too dissimilar now going into Sunday's showdown with Arsenal. Torres returns to a team who, once again, have their backs firmly pressed against the wall. The football world awaits Liverpool's response.
It doesn't take a genius, therefore, to work out Benítez's likely game plan. Because if the Spaniard's players go about their work in similar fashion to the United duel, if they set the same kind of frantic tempo and pile into tackles with equal force, it will be interesting to see how Arsenal cope.
December 12, 2009
While Rafa has rounded on Jurgen Klinsmann and Graeme Souness after their attacks on the TV this week, the Liverpool boss is getting support of a kind in the papers. First up is David Conn in the Guardian, who points out that Liverpool's debt problems are fairly clear and it's the owners we need to blame.
Rafael Benítez says Liverpool are in debt: shock, astonishment, clear the back page. The manager says Liverpool must reduce this debt and so do not have millions of pounds to spend buying players: astonishing and extraordinary.
Benítez has shocked us, in truth, with a statement of the bleedin' obvious but it is noteworthy somebody in his position has finally come out and said it. Being taken over by two businessmen, who loaded on to the club the £174m they borrowed for their takeover, was not, after all, the most glorious event in the history of a great club.
Benítez now acknowledges this debt is a problem, and the need to reduce it has eaten into his transfer budget. The revelation simply states what has been horribly plain all along.
Brian Reade in the Daily Mirror, meanwhile, says the owners cannot afford not to give Rafa some cash to spend in January.
Graeme Souness has been rightly derided for some of his TV couch criticism of Liverpool.
When you brought Torben Piechnick, Istvan Kozma, Julian Dicks, Nicky Tanner, Paul Stewart, Mark Walters and Stig Inge Bjornebye to Anfield, attacking Rafa Benitez for making bad signings, is a bit like Jordan calling the Queen an old slapper.
But I hope the men pretending to run Liverpool take note of his view that if their team don't finish in the top four this season they could face meltdown.
Mainly because if Manchester City do, Champions League status allied to limitless wealth means they will attract the best players in the world and become very hard to budge.
Failure to let Benitez spend the £12 million he brought in for Keane on a replacement could mean the difference, come May, between big-club status and meltdown.
December 11, 2009
The Telegraph takes a break from the usual fuss over Premier League and World Cup affairs to examine the coaching career of a certain Dutch defender by the name of Jaap Stam. Oliver Brown discovers the former Manchester United and AC Milan defender enjoying life in the dugout.
"The flustered Telstar press man mutters: “Please, don’t try to talk to him.” Stam may have lost the vein-bulging intimidation of his Manchester United days, and that a photographer captured famously in an image of him marmalising referee Andy D’Urso, but at 37 he retains the capacity for striking mortal fear into anyone within 100 yards.
Conversely, he has also learnt how not to be too conspicuous. Smouldering in the Zwolle dugout, he leaves all the direct orders to Claus Boekweg, the first-team coach, restricting his contribution to bear-hugs and backslaps after a 3-2 away win. Zwolle have won more by virtue of the crunching brutality that was Stam’s trademark as a centre-back than of any subtle skills, but he is exultant.
“I’m proud of these guys,” he shouts. “You play after an incredible penalty and red card, and still win? Lovely, right? Of course there was some contact, but there is always a penalty area. It’s not futsal!” "
Back to the usual Premier League discussions and Simon Cass at the Mail was impressed by the performance of Arsenal's Welsh teenage sensation Aaron Ramsey on Wednesday night. Cass assesses the youngster's chances of making the grade and breaking into the Gunners' first-team, rating them as pretty high.
"The pace is starting to quicken for teenage sensation Aaron Ramsey as he continues along Arsenal's tried and tested youth development path. From Carling Cup action, through Champions League cameos to occasional Barclays Premier League appearances, Ramsey's progression has thus far been slow and steady.
The spotlight is on Ramsey, given his already enormous potential, the battle for his signature and the £4.8million Arsenal paid Cardiff for his services. That Wenger, during the European Championship, flew Ramsey and family out to Switzerland on a private jet to perform the final stage of the hard sell is a tangible sign of just how determined the Arsenal manager was to keep the then 17-year-old out of the clutches of Manchester United.
Such determination may explain why many felt Ramsey would simply explode upon the scene at the Emirates rather than, as he has, gradually ease his way into Wenger's thinking. But the time is fast approaching for Ramsey when his prodigious talent will become difficult for Arsene Wenger to ignore, just as was the case with a certain Cesc Fabregas."
December 10, 2009
With last night's Champions League ties involving English sides basically irrelevant, there is a lack of analysis from the defeats suffered by Arsenal and Liverpool. Instead it is to the Premier League we inevitably turn and a pointed piece by Daily Mirror journalist John Cross.
Cross by name, cross by nature it seems as Manchester City, and manager Mark Hughes, are in his sights on Thursday morning. In 'Manchester City are the new club everyone loves to hate, but Chelsea under Ancelotti are winning back friends', Cross identifies a trend in which loveable City are attracting criticism thanks to their brash approach and reserves of cash.
"Credit to Manchester City. It's taken them just 18 months but they have already achieved a major shift in power in the Premier League. City have overtaken Chelsea as the most disliked team in the top flight, the club everyone loves to hate.
"They have gone from being the lovable perennial losers to being a club which now has a flashy, arrogant, rude, nasty, snarling, moneybags attitude. Even Mark Hughes, a clever, young and ambitious manager, appears to have been caught up in the whole new City regime.
"Last week it was an ugly spat with Arsene Wenger (even though Wenger still should have shaken hands). On Saturday, it was claiming that he knew Frank Lampard was going to miss the penalty when he saw him walk up to take it. Hughes effectively accused Lampard of bottling it. The same Frank Lampard who had not missed a penalty for three years and the same Frank Lampard who held his nerve for England against Croatia when everyone else had lost the plot.
"We all laughed at that "Welcome to Manchester" sign which so got up United's noses. But it wasn't just a bit of fun. It was a statement of intent. And they have achieved it. A few years ago, it was Chelsea. Jose Mourinho's arrogance, outrageous remarks and disrespecting the great and the good in the Premier League.
"I used to think it was all about money and jealousy. Certainly, Chelsea, with Roman Abramovich, and City's wealthy owners fit into that category. There's an element of that, of course. City are now a team who everyone loves to beat to shut up and show the big spenders a thing or two. But it's not just about that. And the proof is Carlo Ancelotti. Ancelotti is a likable, humorous and engaging character. Ancelotti is a throwback to Claudio Ranieri."
All well and good, but surely Manchester United are still the team everyone loves to hate, aren't they?
December 9, 2009
The James-Beattie-Tony Pulis saga is unlikely to go away quickly, not when we are learning little gems like the naked truth of the manager's towel faux pas during the Stoke duo's heated head-to-head debate at the Emirates.
And so we turn to the Daily Mirror and Oliver Holt - who was a guest on ESPN UK earlier this week - for a full lowdown on the "Christmas Party Shame before the Christmas Party".
Some may not be aware of the full, sordid history of the Footballers' Christmas Party in England, but let Oliver fill you in. The shocking thing here is that it was a fight about the Christmas party and not actually during the booze-fuelled celebrations!
Beattie wasn’t upset because the players weren’t allowed a day off to recover.
He was upset because they weren’t allowed two days off to recover.
What was the guy planning? A long weekend in Sodom and Gomorrah?
Quite.
What a terribly modern football scandal the Stoke Christmas Party row is turning out to be.
Nobody had had the chance to get anywhere near the strippers or the whipped cream (Liverpool 1998).
Nobody had been accused of rape (Manchester United 2007).
Nobody had tossed a dwarf (Chelsea 1994).
Nobody had presented anybody with a sheep’s heart as a way of suggesting the player in question had no heart (Newcastle 1998).
No one had got up on a bar and urinated in a pint pot (West Ham 2001).
And no one had produced a lighted cigar and stubbed it out on the eyelids of a youth team player (Manchester City 2004).
Aren't footballers lovely people. Not that we want to tar with the same brush.
We couldn't leave without mentioning James Ducker's decision to pander to the "Owen for England" debate. So he finally scored a few goals which now has Mr Ducker saying he could make himself a certainty for the World Cup, Move on! Step away from the story!
You can never write off Manchester United, or, it seems, Michael Owen. This was supposed to be the night when Edin Dzeko, one of the most promising young strikers in Europe, tore a makeshift United defence to pieces, but in the end the Wolfsburg forward was upstaged by an old fox in the box.
Owen has become accustomed to hearing people dismiss his chances of going to the World Cup finals with England next summer, but much more of this and Fabio Capello, the manager, may find it impossible not to name the striker in his squad for South Africa.
Boring!
December 8, 2009
Monday's media outlets were full of reports that Stoke City manager Tony Pulis and striker James Beattie were involved in a physical confrontation following defeat to Arsenal and Tuesday's papers add some juicy detail to the confrontation.
Apparently, Pulis overheard his striker complaining about plans to cancel the club's two-night Christmas party in favour of an extra training session and was so incensed he emerged stark naked form the shower to headbutt Beattie.
Matt Lawton takes up the story in the Daily Mail:
"Beattie highlighted what he considered to be a breach of their agreement and a harsh reaction to the defeat at the Emirates, Pulis exploded in a fit of rage. As he was emerging from the showers in the dressing room he lunged towards Beattie, with the players astonished both by the violence and the fact that the towel he was wearing had fallen to the floor.
Privately the Stoke manager blames Beattie for the controversy, feeling that he gave the players no such permission to miss training on Monday and that Beattie, among a number of senior players, had been made to look foolish in front of their more junior colleagues having promised that they would ‘sort it’ and get the whole weekend off.
Pulis, it is understood, believes that is what prompted Beattie to criticise him, with Beattie failing to realise that, from the showers, Pulis could hear him. Beattie has a slightly different version of events, however, and now feels that the damage it has done to his relationship with Pulis is irreparable."
In light of Frank Lampard and Jermain Defoe missing crucial penalties in the Premier League this weekend Matt Dickinson uses his column in The Times to suggest Fabio Capello must cure England's spot-kick disease to stand any chance of winning the World Cup.
"So there we all were at the weekend plotting England’s route to World Cup glory. A favourable group, winnable matches in the first couple of knockout rounds and then the semi-finals. And anything can happen at that stage, even against Brazil.
If a cold shower was needed to stop expectations running wilder than a bushfire, it came courtesy of Frank Lampard and Jermain Defoe failing to score important spot-kicks at the weekend; the sort they might just face next summer in infinitely more pressurised circumstances. Ah yes, England footballers and penalties. That’s when things get tricky."
December 7, 2009
Monday brings with it a chance for the country's big-name columnists to get their teeth stuck into events in Cape Town on Friday. But while the World Cup draw grabbed the attentions of millions worldwide, it appears that one man in particular bewitched the English media. No prizes for guessing that it is David Beckham.
Writing in the Daily Mail, Martin Samuel extols the virtues of the LA Galaxy midfielder who has reinvigorated England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup. In 'David Beckham must rule England's World Cup 2018 bid', Samuel urges the FA to give the former Manchester United midfielder a prominent role.
"Forget Prince William. Forget Lord PleasedMan. There is only one person who should be leading England’s World Cup bid from here: David Beckham. He does not have to explore the logistics of hosting the tournament, he does not have to sit on committees or take meetings. He does not even have to be there, most of the time. He just has to be the figurehead, the public face of England 2018, so that when people think of the World Cup coming to this country, they think of Beckham, not grasping careerist politicians, or over-promoted men in suits
"Beckham was magnificent in South Africa. He put in the hours, worked the room like a pro. He changed outfits three times on Friday, so he always looked sharp. He even turned up with a haircut like a Piccadilly postcard punk and pulled it off. Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago has to take a cold shower at the mention of his name, Milan loves him, so too Madrid, not to mention his fans in the Far East. Even his move to America was a penalty shoot-out away from glory.
"Whether Beckham deserves to be in South Africa as a player next summer is an entirely different matter, but as an ambassador for English football he has no equal. That the 2018 bid team were squabbling over who paid his air fare shows how clueless they are. Beckham gives English football star quality, a wow factor that it has not previously possessed. Single-handedly in Cape Town, he transformed the World Cup bid from a running joke to a campaign that is now reinvigorated in the eyes of its rivals and the public.
"And he did it just by turning up. In a matter of days, the bid lost Sir Dave Richards and gained a genuine superstar. No bad swap."
The Independent's Sam Wallace has sounded a note of caution though, pointing out that while Beckham is a fine ambassador, it does not mean he should be guaranteed a place in Fabio Capello's squad for the 2010 finals.
"No matter what Beckham does for the 2018 World Cup bid there is one thing he is not owed unconditionally and that is a place in England's 2010 World Cup squad. Beckham said himself that "nothing is guaranteed" and "I don't take anything for granted" when it comes to the World Cup squad. He might not take it for granted but over those heady days in Cape Town you could see Beckham reasserting that benign grip over a grateful FA that he once enjoyed under Sven Goran Eriksson as captain and de facto team ruler.
"It would be desperately inconvenient to England's 2018 committee if Beckham, the iconic face of their bid, was to be absent in South Africa next summer. It would also make things more than a little awkward when they come to rely on him for the crucial lobbying right up to the decision by Fifa on 2 December next year.
"Fabio Capello does not appear the type to bow to any kind of pressure, explicit or not, to pick a player. But then the Beckham effect can do strange things to a man. In Cape Town, Capello was upstaged more than once by Beckham, when the two of them were brought out together for the cameras. I have seen footage of the England manager's wife Laura posing with Beckham for a photograph – with Capello himself taking the picture. Beckham will be 35 come May and there are still unanswered questions about whether he is worth including in a squad in which every place must be earned. A choice of 23 players may seem like a lot but when a manager gets the balance minutely wrong it can come back to haunt him in the tournament, as Eriksson found when he picked Theo Walcott in 2006 and left himself short of experienced strikers."
December 6, 2009
Despite the return to domestic football action, the press are still firmly set in World Cup mode, discussing all possible ramifications and permutations of friday's draw in South Africa.
The fall-out from the World Cup draw continues, with Paul Wilson at the Observer the latest journalist to assess England's chances of glory in South Africa.
"It has started, then. David Beckham, who ended the 2006 World Cup in tears because he thought it would be his last, is now saying England fear no one. Fabio Capello, who ended the last World Cup delighted with Italy's win but packing his bags for Spain with Juventus embroiled in the country's match-fixing scandal, has described what lies ahead in South Africa as the hardest test of his life.
You have to aim for something upbeat and can-do when speaking into a microphone at an event as global as a World Cup draw, and while Beckham and Capello both give good soundbites, it should be noted that the erstwhile captain's boast will come winging its way back to him should England struggle against either Algeria or Slovenia, whereas the manager has wisely remained positive without actually promising anything."
And Jonathan Northcroft at the Times, also offers his opinion on Capello's lofty ambitions.
"Table Mountain, the massive sentinel of sandstone rock that presides over Cape Town, has a microclimate. A thick band of vapour that locals call the “table cloth” can descend suddenly upon its top. Clouds can just as quickly come down over any leading nation’s World Cup campaign, such is the tournament’s capacity for surprises, but their draw gives England, now ranked ninth in the world, about the most favourable possible forecast by which to plot success at South Africa 2010. Yes, USA are the best team they could have been drawn against from Pot Two. Yes, any side from Group D will provide a testing second round and yes, France might have to be negotiated in the last eight.
But imagine what could have been. Spain are favourites, while the most likely teams to eliminate England from not just this but any World Cup are Brazil, Portugal, Italy, Germany and Argentina. If the Germans and Argentinians win their groups, England would not have to meet any of these opponents until a probable showdown with Brazil at the semi-final stage.
Fabio Capello must feel he has pulled off that trick of whipping a table cloth from a table while leaving the cups and saucers still standing. A World Cup draw is a game of risk. England have engaged in it and their aspirations remain untoppled."
December 5, 2009
The weekend of football ahead finds itself relegated to the substitute's bench in many of today's papers, with an unsurprising focus on yesterday's World Cup draw. England's chances are being talked up left, right and centre after a seemingly favourable draw, whilst the traditional "Group of Death" tag has been assigned to the tantalising collection of Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast and Portugal.
One of those salivating at the prospect of England advancing is Oliver Kay in the Times, though his predictions are tinged with more than a hint of realism.
"As evening drew in over Cape Town, the sun still shone brightly on the England delegation. It might be different come June, when winter descends, but Fabio Capello and his players will return to South Africa next summer with a spring in their step after a draw last night that could hardly have been more favourable.
A semi-final against Brazil in Cape Town on July 6. How does that sound? Arrogant, for one thing, dangerous for another, but that will suddenly be the least that England expects. Such will be the optimism generated by the gift last night of a group that contains the United States, Algeria and Slovenia — and the promise of an onward journey, if that group is won, that might involve nothing more terrifying than Serbia or Ghana in the last 16 and an eminently beatable France in the quarter-finals.
Stop it, stop it. If there is one thing that England have struggled with in recent World Cups, it is the burden of expectation. Injuries are another reason why optimism should be tempered with caution — let us not forget how the curse of the metatarsal struck David Beckham on the eve of the tournament in 2002 and Wayne Rooney in 2006 — but the point is that England’s chances could have been unaffected, damaged or improved by last night’s draw and, as each ball was drawn, the feeling took hold that they had been the most fortunate of the eight seeded teams."
Former England boss Terry Venables in his column for the Sun is kindly on hand to offer current gaffer Fabio Capello some advice (as if he needed it).
"With our first game at the World Cup finals a little over six months away, I would not expect Fabio Capello to know his best England team. I would expect him to know his THREE best England teams.
As the dust begins to settle after yesterday's draw in Cape Town, all English eyes will be on the Three Lions coach. Having led us to qualification in record-quick time - an achievement that should not be underestimated - he must now turn his attention to assembling a squad the whole nation prays will be capable of doing us proud in South Africa next summer.
I can assure you this is no easy task. There is no right or wrong way of putting together a squad for a major tournament. When you become a manager of an international team, or any team for that matter, you do not get an instruction manual. There is no magic solution - although there is a tried and tested method.
I used it when I was England manager at Euro 96 and I would not be surprised if Capello is following a similar formula now. You decide on your first XI and pick two players for cover in every position. That gives you three teams of players."
Choosing to turn away from the England camp is Richard Williams at the Guardian, who chooses instead to concentrate on Brazil's chances of lifting a sixth title.
"Is this an omen of sorts? Brazil, the five-times winners of the World Cup, will start their 2010 finals campaign at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, where the historic climax of the Rugby World Cup took place in 1995. Back then, it was South Africa's most imposing stadium. Next summer it will probably be overshadowed by a new generation of spectacular purpose-built or reconditioned arenas, but it seems an appropriate location for the heirs of Pelé, Jairzinho, Romario, Ronaldo and the rest to begin their challenge.
Brazil may need all the omens they can get, since they occupy the closest thing in the 2010 draw to a group of death, but they may count themselves fortunate to be kicking off with a match against North Korea, whose only previous appearance in the finals came in 1966, when they achieved a stunning elimination of Italy in their final group game before making a quarter-final exit after losing 5-3 to Eusébio's Portugal."
December 4, 2009
England had a group of death in 2002 as they were drawn alongside Argentina, Sweden and Nigeria, but they came through it and Fabio Capello and co all seem to think they can do so again. According to Kevin McCarra in the Guardian, though, the important thing is going to be avoiding Ivory Coast.
Fabio Capello wants to avoid meeting an African team at the World Cup. There is a dread that at least one of those countries will be inspired next summer. The arrival of the tournament on that continent is far more than a matter of scheduling. It is a moment of recognition and the effects of that were felt even in the less dramatic circumstances when South Korea were co-hosts in 2002.
It is Ivory Coast who could spread panic. They have power, score freely, are well-served by proven performers and should yearn to atone for elimination in the group phase in 2006. Rivals could be reduced to praying that the Premier League drains someone like Didier Drogba between now and the summer. It would be a relief to them if Chelsea had the debilitating experience of going far in the domestic and European campaigns.
Ivory Coast, even so, will not be counting purely on the striker. It is the know-how and expertise in several areas that could set them apart. Yaya Touré may have grown unsettled at Barcelona, but he still supplied a balance in defensive midfield that helped endow the side with the poise that brought them the Champions League trophy with that win over Manchester United.
Lovable midfielder Robbie Savage argues along the same lines in his column in the Daily Mirror, putting the emphasis firmly on Drogba's threat.
England will fear France, Portugal, Cameroon and Paraguay in today's World Cup but the team I'd hate to get drawn against is Didier Drogba's Ivory Coast.
I've played against Drogba numerous times and two memories stand out. One was when he'd just come to England and we came face-to-face as I came to close him down. I won the ball, flicked it over his head and ran on to it. I looked back and Didier just smiled. I like a player who is respectful of what opponents can do, especially when that player is far more talented than you.
I wasn't so pleased when, on another occasion, I slid in to a tackle and nailed him and Drogba let out the loudest scream I've ever heard before rolling around. But that is something he has worked hard to remove from his game and more often than not these days he simply gets up and gets on with it.
With his pace, power, ability to hold the ball up and deadly instinct in front of goal, Drogba is probably the best striker in the world right now – maybe even the best player in the world, full stop.
December 3, 2009
Paul Hayward at the Guardian has hopes for the World Cup, believing that the competition will provided a much needed lift for the continent.
''As the Fifa World Cup trophy arrived in Cape Town on Tuesday night, Danny Jordaan, the architect of next summer's tournament, declared "the death of doubt". The waterfront location was symbolic. Football's greatest prize had landed on the southern tip of the continent, and its magic would flow north, turning all Africans into players in a show they may think of as the playground of the old colonial powers.
''Here in the host country everyone is looking for the moment that turns the first African World Cup into reality. For many it will arrive tomorrow when South Africa find themselves at the head of one of eight groups for the tournament that kicks off on 11 June, and fixtures and locations assume vivid new life.''
Hayward also has hopes for the African nations eventually lifting the trophy. Although not just yet.
''Africa's first World Cup representatives were Egypt, who lost 4-2 to Hungary in 1934, but it was 1970 before the continent gained its first point, from the 1-1 draw between Bulgaria and Morocco. No African team has advanced beyond the quarter-finals, a point first reached by Cameroon in 1990. With the depth of talent in this vast realm – Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Samuel Eto'o et al – the coronation of a first African world champion seems predestined, yet still no single nation possesses the resources or organisational strength to cross that Rubicon.''
Over at The Times, Alyson Rudd has focused on referee Mark Halsey's fight against cancer and his possible return to referee at the FA Cup final.
In a detailed interview, she asserts:
''He has, surprisingly, never refereed an FA Cup Final before. People talk about the magic of the Cup, but for Halsey to be awarded the game would be a real-life fairytale. Halsey has kept training because he believes a high level of fitness will help him to beat the cancer and he reckons he is operating at 50 per cent of his usual fitness level. This was supposed to be his final season, although the referees in best condition are now given contract extensions beyond 49.''
Halsey himself accepts he should not be awarded the Cup Final, this year or next, on sentimental grounds.
“You’ve got to show you are worthy, which I think I am,” he said. “Hopefully I’ll get an extension, but they might say because of my cancer, sorry, we’re not giving you one. It’s a tough world, refereeing.”
December 2, 2009
Let's be honest, we all miss Jose Mourinho here in England. After three years of dominance from Manchester United it could just be that his old side, Chelsea, may prevent an unprecendented fourth title in a row for the Red Devils. But no other team seems capable of challenging.
Jose may well be getting a bit bored at Inter Milan, where the scudetto is a given but European success an albatross. Inter are seven points clear of their city rivals already, meaning former Chelsea boss Mourinho can put his feet up by the fire.
Martin Samuel, writing in the Daily Mail, think Jose would take any of the top jobs available in England, and that includes Manchester City.
He is up for anything in England, it seems, providing the position involves a reasonable budget and a shot at the biggest prizes. He is up for trying to collect the first title of the Premier League era at Anfield, or attempting to maintain a period of unprecedented dominance at Old Trafford.
He is up for adding the cutting edge to the work of Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, or bringing Sheik Mansour's lavish project to fruition at Manchester City. He is Jack Burton in John Carpenter's cult classic Big Trouble In Little China. 'You ready Jack?' asks his friend Wang Chi. 'I was born ready,' Jack says.
Not that Jack is a conventional hero. He is something of a blowhard, actually. In his mind he is Indiana Jones, in reality he is a truck driver inadvertently embroiled in a mythical Chinese underworld, who messes up as often as he succeeds. Some think this of Mourinho, too. That he is all talk, a lot of hot air. They never get past the superficialities. They see only personality clashes, boasts and bravado. They are wrong.
The consensus is that Mourinho is increasingly tired of Italian football. When an English newspaper suggested this, quoting Mourinho lovingly on the subject of the English game, he issued a lengthy statement claiming misrepresentation. There was a little more to it, however.
So what is it about Italy that Mourinho does not like? The football, to begin with, which he is said to find much less compelling than the Premier League. He also believes the Italian media favours native managers and is harsher in its dealings with Inter Milan because he is an outsider.
There are three main options: Manchester United, when Ferguson decides to retire; Manchester City, if Mark Hughes fails to deliver Champions League football this season; and Liverpool, if domestic performances continue to mirror the failure in Europe.
Some argue Arsenal should be included on this list were Wenger to go a fifth season without a trophy, but to appoint Mourinho now would require a 180-degree turn in club policy. (Although if Wenger did leave, the chances of finding a manager who would run Arsenal in his style would be as good as impossible, and a change of direction under the charismatic Mourinho would be an inspired decision.)
Another pick of the day comes from the Daily Mirror, courtesy of Steve Stammers.
Following the injury to Robin van Persie, which could even be as bad as a season KO, Steve thinks he knows where Arsene Wenger should look to plug the huge gap left in the forward line.
Mathematically, Arsenal can still win the Premier League. Realistically, the emphatic fashion in which they were beaten by Chelsea at The Emirates on Sunday means that their hopes rest on a collapse at Stamford Bridge and a similar catastrophe at Old Trafford. And basically that is not going to happen.
The face of Arsene Wenger over the last two weeks has said it all. There was a genuine belief at the club this season that this could be their year in the competition that Wenger makes his priority every season - the Premier League. What he needed was for his share of luck with injuries when the dice was rolled. He lost.
In Robin van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner he had the perfect foil for the nimble skills of Eduardo, Samir Nasri, Carlos Vela and Andrei Arshavin. To lose them both at the same time was a blow from which Arsenal are struggling to recover.
Players are out there - not as many as in the summer but they are available.
Ruud van Nistelrooy, for instance. He has a hate figure to the Arsenal crowd during his time at Manchester United and his wages would be sky-high. But he has the size and the experience to make a difference to the Arsenal front line and he is a peripheral figure at Real Madrid.
Yes, his injury record does not stand up to greatest scrutiny but surely a pay-as-you-play deal is not out of the question.
December 1, 2009
The papers continue to name Chelsea as the champions elect on Tuesday morning with the Guardian's Dominic Fifield leading the charge. In 'Didier Drogba is right – this Chelsea side will take some stopping now' Fifield predicts a season of dominance for Carlo Ancelotti's side.
"The Emirates had all but emptied, numbed Arsenal players still drifting away utterly deflated in defeat, when Didier Drogba surveyed what remained of the chasing pack. 'We have the team to stay ahead of all the others,' said the Ivorian. 'The gap isn't enough yet, but it's still a good gap. When you're top of the league you only have to concentrate on yourselves. The others have to chase you. They have to produce more and have to put more effort in to win games. We have just sent a big message to the teams in England.'
"This Chelsea side will take some clawing back now. Victories over the other members of the established elite four, together with a spanking of Tottenham Hotspur's pretenders, have earned Carlo Ancelotti's team their breathing space with a visit to an apparently nervous and vulnerable Manchester City on Saturday doing little to suggest momentum is about to be checked. Only Aston Villa, currently sixth, and Wigan have gleaned any reward from a collision with the London club this term, both bizarrely managing to outmuscle the leaders en route to home victories. In the period since, strength has been restored as Chelsea's buzzword.
"The sight of Armand Traoré bouncing miserably off an unflinching Drogba late on in Sunday's battering was a reminder of the physical power that sustains this team. That brawn imposes itself on opponents all over the pitch: from the muscular running of the hugely improved Branislav Ivanovic at full-back to John Terry's forcefulness at centre-half; from the energy of Michael Essien to the authority commanded by Frank Lampard and, on occasion, Michael Ballack. Chelsea, defensively, have conceded only once at home all season, on the opening day, and have not been breached in eight of their last nine games. Only Arsenal can match their tally of 36 goals at the other end.
"Ancelotti has long since acknowledged that the physical power this team possess can propel them through awkward occasions, although Chelsea are just as strong in other aspects of their play. Technically their squad is world-class and there is strength in depth to make the likes of Arsenal – denied Robin van Persie, Nicklas Bendtner, Gaël Clichy and Kieran Gibbs – and even, perhaps, Manchester United post-Cristiano Ronaldo and Carles Tevez wince. The London side fielded Deco, Ballack and Florent Malouda in beating Porto in midweek, replacing that trio with Joe Cole, Essien and Lampard at the Emirates. Alex, another player who has excelled, was not involved in either fixture. "The players on our bench could play in any team," said Ancelotti at the weekend. His options would be staggering should he manage to prise Sergio Agüero or even Franck Ribéry from Atlético Madrid or Bayern Munich in January."
Tony Cascarino in the Times, meanwhile, was unimpressed with the way the Arsenal manager responded to the defeat.
"There’s plenty that Arsène Wenger has not seen down the years, but surely even the Arsenal manager couldn’t have missed Didier Drogba on Sunday. Drogba. You know, Arsène, the striker who scored twice and battered your defence senseless, sending Arsenal’s lightweights tumbling around the pitch like crisp packets in the wind?
Wenger is an awful loser, we’ve known that for a long time, but his comments about Drogba after Chelsea’s 3-0 win plumbed new depths. 'He is a good player but it is funny because he does not do a lot,' Wenger said after the game. 'He is efficient in what he does. You would be surprised by the number of balls he touched today.
'Drogba is a great player, no one can deny that, but he is in a period when he kicks the ball it goes in.'
I don’t remember Wenger saying something similar about Thierry Henry in his Arsenal prime: 'Yes, he’s having a purple patch but you’d be surprised by how little he actually does.' What a shame that Wenger sounded bitter instead of humble."
November 30, 2009
Chelsea's surprisingly comfortable 3-0 win over Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium over the weekend left Monday morning's media heaping praise on Carlo Ancelotti's victorious side and pouring scorn on Arsene Wenger's young pretenders.
Two-goal hero Didier Drogba takes most of the plaudits for the Blues and The Times' Matt Hughes claims that the peerless Ivory Coast international is such a threat that Arsenal's defence took leave of their senses.
"The impact of Drogba's professionalism on Arsenal has been devastating. His thirteenth and fourteenth goals of the season effectively ended their title challenge because they trail Chelsea by 11 points, and in previous meetings between the clubs he has terminated careers.
Philippe Senderos has never really recovered from the hounding he received from Drogba in the Community Shield four years ago, which he repeated in the 2007 League Cup final, and rarely makes the Arsenal bench these days. The ordeal experienced by William Gallas and Thomas Vermaelen yesterday will have been familiar to the Switzerland defender."
In The Sun Steven Howard uses his column to say 'I told you so' as he explains why he thinks Wenger's flops are all out of excuses.
"It does not get much worse than this for Arsenal...
I said on Friday morning this was the same old Arsenal - flakey, inconsistent, lightweight up front without Robin van Persie and, as ever, an accident waiting to happen at the back against Didier Drogba. And so it proved.
Yes, the Gunners had vast amounts of possession and were typically neat in their build-up. But once they got anywhere near the Chelsea area, their confidence evaporated. The ball was either lost in possession or lumped aimlessly into the box."
November 29, 2009
We head over to the Sunday Mirror for the day's pick of the sports reads.
We've selected a column by Michael Calvin ahead of the Merseyside derby. And he's none too impressed with Everton and Liverpool.
Today’s 212th Liverpool derby is bottom of the bill, behind Chelsea’s visit to the Emirates and El Gran Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
It won’t feel like it, of course. Defiance is a local speciality and Goodison, like Anfield, is a wonderfully evocative arena.
The anthems will soar, the tackles will fly and a city will be united across a fabled sporting divide.
But then reality will take hold.
Everton, like Spandau Ballet, are an Eighties tribute act. Like Liverpool, they are potential victims of the Woolworths effect. The clubs have enviable customer bases but are trapped by tradition. Lack of foresight means they’ve failed to move with the times
Loyalty has its limitations, and they cannot continue to rely on prisoners of conscience.
No one could deny David Moyes the right to stop banging his head against the glass ceiling of Everton’s financial limitations.
He needs to move soon to the big job which will define his managerial career. Otherwise he will be tainted as the nearly man of his trade.
Similarly, Steve Gerrard must fear he is slowly morphing into a modern version of Matthew Le Tissier.
Gerrard is the ultimate local hero, who defines his home city and the club to which he has given his professional life.
Lesser characters would have cashed in, walked away after that legendary Champions League Final in Istanbul.
They would have trotted out the usual excuses about the need for new challenges.
It’s difficult to envisage Gerrard joining another English club, but I can see him resuming his partnership with Xabi Alonso in the virgin white of Real Madrid.
November 28, 2009
Rarely does a weekend boast so many standout games of football, On Sunday alone, the Merseyside derby precedes Arsenal v Chelsea and el clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona.
One man in particularly exciteable mood is the Independent's James Lawton, who is rooting for Arsenal and Barcelona. For what reason? Purely artisitic, as he explains in 'Why I'll be cheering for Wenger and Guardiola this weekend'.
“In a perfect world this would be the weekend we celebrate a stunning win double - a twin triumph for the forces of light and beauty that from time to time rise up and make us feel good about the game that nowadays is so frequently obliged to fight its way out of the gutter.
“Arsenal would turn back the Chelsea juggernaut with an explosion of creativity and finishing artistry from Cesc Fabregas and Andrei Arshavin and Arsène Wenger would immediately end his rather disconcerting flirtation with the F word, thus reassuring us that the world is not about to fall off its axis.
“Hugely relieved and exhilarated, we would then watch his fierce admirer Pep Guardiola guide Barcelona, so thrillingly restored in the obliteration of Jose Mourinho's Internazionale in mid-week, back to the top of La Liga with a clinical destruction of the team only Real Madrid's money could buy. Such triumphs would hardly be definitive at this early stage of the season but they would surely make the blood run a little stronger.
“Wenger and Guardiola are certainly the pick of the managerial bunch these days when we come to assess the quality of a club's football and the purity of its ambition. Nor is it surprising to learn that when Guardiola's days as a midfield defensive bulwark of Barcelona were drawing to a close he expressed a desire to finish his playing days under the tutelage of Wenger. At Highbury, he reckoned he could refine his ambition to be a manager who could both win and shape the values of the game to which he had so fiercely devoted his life.
“Wenger admired Guardiola but decided he was a little too old for his purposes. It meant that the player had to rely more heavily on some of the philosophy of his first great mentor, Johan Cruyff, and his own instincts.”
The Guardian's Richard Williams is less captivated by Arsene Wenger's side though and warns that a fraility in defence is likely to prevent them from challenging for the title. In 'Thrills have a price for Arsène Wenger' Williams sounds a note of caution.
"Arsène Wenger was in a cheerful mood yesterday, seemingly recovered from the irritable outburst of last Saturday night, in the aftermath of a damaging defeat at Sunderland, and the four-letter explosion of Monday morning, when someone asked him about Theo Walcott's World Cup prospects. In the preparation for tomorrow's home match against Chelsea the restoration of his equilibrium was probably vital.
"But if William Gallas cannot manage to squeeze a contact lens into his painfully swollen right eye, Wenger's Arsenal will have only half of their first-choice back four available for the contest with Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka and their colleagues. That will hardly put them in the best position to improve a defensive record that, in terms of statistics and recent history, appears to disqualify them from winning the Premier League this season.
"The manager disagrees. It is possible, he claimed yesterday, for his team to go on and recapture the title they last won six seasons ago while continuing to leak goals at their present rate. That would make them the first club since Manchester United in 1999-2000 to take the title while conceding at the rate of a goal a match, and would represent a remarkable victory for an evolving philosophy in which Wenger seems far more interested in scoring goals than preventing them.
"Arsenal have given away 15 goals in 12 league matches this season, their most profligate start since José Mourinho's Chelsea established new standards of parsimony five years ago, when the west London team let in only 15 goals in an entire campaign. Under Carlo Ancelotti, Chelsea travel to the Emirates Stadium tomorrow leading the league by five points, having conceded only eight goals in 13 matches."
November 27, 2009
Professional Manchester United fan and rather good writer Jim White is always keen to cast a wry eye on the goings-on at Old Trafford and consider their implications.
Jim writes for the Daily Telegraph and says Fergie's best-laid plans have taken a jolt this week.
Sir Alex Ferguson is a planner. He likes it when things go according to schedule.
Sir Alex Ferguson's scheming reckoned without super-agent Pini Zahavi
This week, then, will not have been one he relished. First Nemanja Vidic, the player around whom he proposed to structure Manchester United’s defence for the next five years, made public an itch to move to warmer climes. Then Ferguson’s young second string lost to Besiktas, thus imperilling United’s seeding for the last 16 of the Champions League. And to cap it all, Darren Ferguson was overlooked for the Portsmouth job.
It has long been a theory of this column that Ferguson’s preferred candidate as his successor at Old Trafford is his son. What better way to seal his legacy than to install a dynasty. Plus, with his own boy in charge, he could move away from the dugout but still maintain involvement. The arrangement seemed to be running perfectly to time. Darren had got a couple of years of experience under his belt at Peterborough. The time was now right for a move to a Premier League club to complete his apprenticeship before heading to Manchester when the old man retires. The timeline will now have to be extended after Fergie jnr was pipped to the Pompey job following the intervention of someone who, as a backroom schemer, makes Fergie snr look less Lord Mandelson and more Lord Triesman.
But who's behind the failure of the last of these? How did Avram Grant get the job meant for Fergie's annointed son? It's the chap behind many a megadeal of recent years.
But then Grant does have one big advantage. His best friend is Pini Zahavi, the so-called super agent, the man behind many of modern football’s more intriguing mysteries, such as the career of Sven-Goran Eriksson. Zahavi. In fact, if Zahavi can manoeuvre his chum Avram into a manager’s job in the league that likes to pride itself as the world’s most competitive, Lord Triesman really should get in touch pronto. Never mind Gary Lineker, his lordship should put Zahavi in charge of England’s World Cup 2018 bid tomorrow. Clearly, this is a man who could sell anything to anyone.
November 26, 2009
Poor old Rafa Benitez. Having escaped scrutiny in most of Wednesday's papers following Liverpool's Champions League exit, he's now getting the painful benefit of the analysis of some of England's best-known writers.
Henry Winter in the Daily Telegraph, for one, has been putting Rafa under the microscope and thinks the Liverpool boss has been enjoying too much 'me' time.
Back in Rafael Benítez’s native Spain they have a proverb that goes: “The man who does not mix with the crowds knows nothing’’. Good advice.
The best leaders have the courage of their convictions but they also listen to those around them, a quality that Liverpool’s stubborn manager needs to learn quickly.
If he had been at Budapest airport on Wednesday morning, mixing with the crowds of Liverpool faithful, Benítez would have been made aware of the myriad concerns held by some of the sport’s most knowledgeable and passionate supporters.
Benítez cannot hide from the fact that he has a growing amount of questions to answer.
One of the questions Winter thinks he should answer concerns the strange lack of playing time for Alberto Aquilani, who has still to play a significant part in a match for the club. And Tony Barrett in the Times suggests that the club's big-money summer signing could make or break Benitez.
Only a fool would argue that Aquilani’s prolonged absence is the only reason for Liverpool’s struggles. There are, of course, plenty more contributory factors to be taken into account before the acquisition of a player who knows more about the meaning of the word “limp” than Pele without his Viagra can be cited as the biggest cause of their ongoing problems.
But it is Aquilani whose absence has come to symbolise Liverpool’s travails simply because of the sheer scale of the gamble that Benitez took by bringing him to the club. The usually cautious Spaniard speculated like never before and as yet there is precious little sign of him accumulating.
What he has done by signing Aquilani, having to do without him for such a long time and seeing his team’s form desert them almost totally, is to stake his own future on a player whose initials appear totally befitting given the considerable number of breakdowns he has already suffered in his career.
Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail, meanwhile, doesn't think all that much to Fiorentina and pretty much sticks the boot in after Liverpool's unexpected failure.
The celebrations at the end told the story. Fiorentina could not believe they had made it out of Liverpool’s group.
And, in those moments, we saw the simple passage Liverpool had surrendered in Europe this season. For Fiorentina were terrified at the thought of going to Anfield next month. Hell, they were scared rigid by the sight of Lyon with their tails up.
Fiorentina are fragile, edgy, given to self doubt. Yet they did something Liverpool could not in the Champions League this year. They held on: and that is why they are in the last 16, and why they deserve to be there.
November 25, 2009
The two massive stories from yesterday were Liverpool's exit from the Champions League and Portsmouth sacking boss Paul Hart - so it's surprising that plenty of the writers out there have decided to tackle other issues this morning. Martin Samuel in the Mail has chosen to examine the issue of video technology in football and seems to come up with the answer that it's in principle a good idea, but might not work. Conclusive, I hear you cry.
"The Greeks had a word for it: panakeia, meaning cure all. By 1548, the name for a healing herb was panacea, which has survived with a wider meaning to this day. In modern life, we think of many things as panaceas: a new government, a congestion charge scheme, chicken noodle soup, fish-oil tablets, Joanna Lumley. ‘Ah, beer,’ says Homer Simpson. ‘The cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.’
For football, the panacea is video technology. Everything would be made right if only we could play it again. Players would not cheat, officials would be all-knowing, fairness would abound and the Republic of Ireland would go to the World Cup. It seems so simple; or so simplistic.
As the video official must deal only in truth this is a relatively lengthy process. He stops the video, hits rewind, gets to the right spot, watches it again, thinks it looks like a penalty. After that he probably plays it again just to be completely sure, and then alerts the referee. In all this time - which could amount to as much as 30 seconds or one minute - the game continues.
There could be other incidents, equally controversial, that the video referee has now missed: a goal might have been scored at the other end. Now, he must find a way of informing the match official that the game is to be stopped for something that happened previously. Does he sound a siren, does he scream through the earpiece and hope he is heard, does he run to the centre circle waving a big flag?"
Elsewhere, Patrick Barclay at the Times heaps praise on Arsenal youngster Kieran Gibbs, who broke his dreaded metatarsal after being scythed down by Standard Liege's Eliaquim Mangala late in their Champions league clash. Gibbs has all the qualities of a future England star according to this particular journalist.
"Given the four-letter scorn heaped on a reporter for asking about Theo Walcott’s World Cup prospects on Monday, it is to be hoped that Eliaquim Mangala did not cross Arsène Wenger’s path late last night.
The match had entered stoppage time when the Standard Liège player, challenging Kieran Gibbs a cynical-looking split-second after he had shot, caused the foot injury that rules Gibbs out of not only Sunday’s match at home to Chelsea but the next two to three months of the Barclays Premier League campaign.
The tall left back (he can also play left or central midfield) is one of the most potent players to come through the England Under-21 ranks in recent years. Quick and alert, with a long, smooth stride and an instinct for attack so powerful that Wenger has done well to keep it within reasonable bounds, he was the ideal replacement for Clichy. Another youngster, Armand Traoré, may be called upon for Sunday.
Although Traoré once burst spectacularly on the scene, Gibbs had overtaken him, a factor appearing to be that he is as well equipped mentally as physically. He seemed unaffected, for instance, by the slip that gave Manchester United an early lead in the second leg of last season’s Champions League semi-final."
November 24, 2009
The papers are still salivating at the performance of Spurs in their 9-1 thrashing of Wigan with discussions aplenty about the title credentials of Harry Redknapp's side. But as per usual, there's always one eye on South Africa 2010, with Henry Winter at the Telegraph choosing to talk up the World Cup chances of fleet-footed winger Aaron Lennon ahead of his team-mate and five-goal hero Jermain Defoe.
"If Erik Edman ever appears on Mastermind, his specialist subject will be "Aaron Lennon's heels''. The Spurs winger's high-speed obliteration of Wigan's defence was fabulously well timed in a World Cup season.
He knows all about them. He kept seeing them at White Hart Lane on Sunday, briefly close up but then disappearing towards the touchline. The Wigan Athletic left-back is a decent defender, talented enough to compete internationally 51 times, but the fleeting image of Lennon's flying heels will stalk the Swede's sleep.
Goals pay the rent, as David Coleman famously exclaimed about Kevin Keegan, and Jermain Defoe could lease the Lane for a year such was the rich quality of his spree against Wigan.
Defoe's five-goal haul was undoubtedly special, guaranteeing his place on the England bench in South Africa, but of more significance in this World Cup 2010 season was Lennon's contribution. Sorry, Jermain. The bigger story revolves around your rather quick mate 'Azza'."
Elsewhere, Matt Dickinson at the Times, chooses to tackle a different World Cup issue, namely the possibility that we may have an extra two assistants behind the goals in South Africa. FIFA's announcement of an extraordinary general meeting apparently indicates Michel Platini's extra official's plan could soon become more than just a Europa League reality.
On the pinboard in my office I still have the grotty piece of paper on which Platini sketched out his plan for extra officials behind each goal. That was 2001 and it was the first anyone had heard of such a plan.
Related Links
Fully eight years later, it grew to become a Europa League experiment — and now the Uefa president will hope to make it a daily reality. Platini’s plan to roll out extra officials may prove the big winner of last week.
You can hear the argument already. Had those extra eyes been there in the Stade de France when Henry handled, they could hardly have failed to spot it.
As an influential member of Fifa’s executive committee Platini will now believe that his scheme can be rolled out, perhaps even in time for the World Cup finals, although it would still have to be approved by the International Football Association Board, which meets in March in Zurich.
November 23, 2009
While the Thierry Henry row continues to rumble on - with a number of columnists now coming out in support Ireland's nemesis - we turn our attentions away from the most talked about incident in football this year to focus on a story from the Premier League this weekend.
Like a shark sensing a drop of blood a kilometre away, the tabloids are always alert to the possibility of a 'crisis' at one club or another and now the country's pre-eminent red tops have trained their sights on Mark Hughes after Manchester City recorded a sixth consecutive league draw at Liverpool on Saturday.
In 'Sparky has to stop the rot now', the Sun's chief sports writer, Steven Howard, makes an unflattering comparison with Sven Goran Eriksson as he explains how pressure is mounting on Hughes.
"Almost £200 million spent in the transfer market and just six points from a possible 18. Not quite the 'outstanding' job the Mark Hughes media fan club had been claiming only a fortnight or so ago. More the sort of throw-it-all-away form that earns managers the sack. Especially one who chose to spend almost £40m on central defenders with built-in flaws like Joleon Lescott and Kolo Toure.
"Incredibly, Manchester City are four points worse off from their opening 12 games than they were under Sven Goran Eriksson two seasons ago. And look what happened to him. Indeed, their record over the last 22 Premier League matches reads an exceedingly mediocre W10, D6, L6.
"The old adage in life is you should never get what you dream for. And Hughes has all the money any manager could want. Six successive draws, though, have left City loitering on the Champions League doorstep rather than inside the house with their feet up. And a dozen points behind leaders Chelsea. Not exactly what the men back in Abu Dhabi bank-rolling the whole operation had planned."
In a swift one-two, former pro Stan Collymore also weights in with a jab at Hughes. In 'Why Rafa Benitez and Mark Hughes should beware the shadow of Guus Hiddink', Collymore suggests that with Russia failing to qualify for the World Cup finals, Hiddink could well be tempted to move to Eastlands.
"Guus Hiddink is set to cast a long shadow over the Premier League in the next few weeks - and if I was Rafa Benitez or Mark Hughes I would be looking over my shoulder for him. Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Manchester City on Saturday showed both Benitez and Hughes are still a long way off Hiddink in terms of their tactical ability.
"Benitez’s tactics have often baffled me and his decision to sub Yossi Benayoun for Fabio Aurelio when Liverpool needed a winner was astonishing. And all the while Alberto Aquilani, the club’s £20million summer signing from Roma, was left on the bench.
"But while the doubters grow at Anfield, Hughes’ position at Eastlands must also be coming under scrutiny after six successive draws in the Premier League. Lots of people say Man City are in a transitional period but I think that is baloney. If a team spends £200million on new players of international quality, then City’s owners from Abu Dhabi must be expecting results.
But perhaps rival teams have figured them out after City’s blistering start to the season. And I think now you have to fundamentally ask questions - with Hiddink an ideal successor to Hughes."
November 22, 2009
Piers Morgan may be best known to those in the USA as a host of "America's Got Talent". He fulfils a similar role in Britain despite never quite convincing many that he possesses any talent himself. Lampooned in Private Eye as "Piers Moron", the former Fleet Street editor is now a shock jock of the journalistic world, a wind-up merchant of the highest order.
Piers is a fan of Arsenal FC, even changing the London edition of the Daily Mirror's lead story to "Arsenal win the World Cup" when France lifted the title in 1998. He does not like Manchester United or anyone associated with them. Writing on the week's hot topic - Simon Cowell does not require his services on X-Factor - he seeks to defend Thierry Henry and destroy Roy Keane for his outspoken Friday comments on the matter. Prepare for some invective from the Mail on Sunday.
I was going to write a fairly critical column about Thierry Henry. As an Arsenal fan, I was stunned that one of my all-time heroes could commit that double handball horror and, more importantly, allow the crucial ensuing goal to stand.
And as an Irishman, I simply wanted his devious little Gallic torso dismembered over the Champs-Elysees at first light.
But then, just as my pencil was being sharpened to commit heresy, Roy Keane entered the debate, like the snarling, vile, putrid pitdog that he is.
And as I watched this gruesome excuse for a human being spewing his bile about the supposed failures of the valiant Irish team and contemptuously dismissing cheating as just part of the game, something inside me snapped.
Having said he was going to attack Henry this "Irishman" then defends the Frenchman to the hilt.
Was I really going to lambast someone like Henry for the first really dodgy thing he’s ever done while Keane’s still alive and, literally, kicking?
One is a polite, modest, teetotal, disciplined, generous-hearted, loyal, thoroughly decent man who has been not just a fantastic player but also a fantastic role model and ambassador for his sport.
The other is a humourless, nasty, violent, foul-mouthed, selfish, disloyal thug who injures opponents, walks away from his country in the middle of a World Cup, abuses all and sundry, and resides on a Citizen Kane-style pedestal of egotistical, lonely, unjustified self-adoration.
Cue name-dropping:
A born thespian, Henry would seek out opportunities to show what a good guy he was,
shaking hands with opponents who’d scythed him down, and beseeching referees to show mercy on them.
He didn’t dive, curse or trip people up. He campaigned against racism, did loads of unsung work for charity and spoke often about his love for the spirit, history and ethos of football.
He was so image-conscious that when the Daily Mirror, under my editorship, ran a
story about him partying in Spain, he subjected me to a half-hour emotional rant
about how he was ‘not, and never ’ave been a boozer’ and how damaging such incorrect stories were to the opinion of young people who looked up to him as a role model.
November 21, 2009
When a matter dominates the news agenda, then often the man to provide some levity and sense of a furore is Guardian veteran David Lacey.
Even he shares little sympathy for Henry and is happy to compare him unfavourably to Diego Maradona:
Few if any could ever have expected the words "Henry" and "cheat" to appear in the same sentence but after Wednesday night they became inseparable. The French have a better word for a cheat – un tricheur – which has a satisfying Machiavellian ring about it. For England fans Maradona will always be a cheating Argie. For the Irish the hand of Henry will forever remain the ultimate tool in the plot hatched by Fifa to frustrate Giovanni Trapattoni's players through its late decision to seed the play-offs.
At least Maradona had the decency to score one of the World Cup's greatest goals once he had fisted Argentina into the lead against Bobby Robson's England in the 1986 quarter-finals, dribbling half the length of the pitch, past player after player, to find the net then repeating the feat in miniature against Belgium in the semi-finals. Paradoxically the worst and best of Maradona roused England to produce what almost became one of their greatest recoveries, for at 2-0 down Robson brought on John Barnes to create one and very nearly two goals for Gary Lineker.
However, Lacey feels Henry chose to try and get away with what he could when he could but will not match Maradona's foibles:
It is to be hoped that for Henry this is a one-off. Maradona was a compulsive handler, as he demonstrated against the Soviet Union in the 1990 tournament when he stuck up a paw to block a corner from Oleg Kuznetsov, an offence oddly unseen by the referee. Maradona left the 1994 World Cup after failing a drug test and now, as Argentina's coach, has been banned for two months by Fifa for obscene language in the aftermath of his side's qualification for South Africa.
Somehow it is hard to see Henry's career keeping Maradona company for long. Not that this will be of much consolation to the Irish who on Wednesday were cheated of a penalty shoot-out at the very least. But that, unfortunately, is the game. As one old pro, Ronnie Whelan, said of Henry's legerdemain: "If you're a professional footballer and you're in the same position you'd do the same thing and hope to get away with it." Henry did and Ireland were left demanding a replay. In their dreams.
November 20, 2009
There are no prizes for guessing what continues to occupy the columnists on Friday morning as the fall-out from Thierry Henry's handball continues. Those of you who have already seen said incident replayed over 100 times on Sky Sports News will have to bear with us...
The Football Association of Ireland have demanded that FIFA order a replay but Martin Samuel, writing in the Mail, presents the practical opposition to such a scenario. In 'It's so simple, let's force some honesty back into the game', Samuel argues that ceding to Ireland's request would open a real can of worms, not least for the poor journalists who will cruelly be sent to South Africa to cover the greatest competition on earth.
"Replay the game every year for the next century and each time it will need special circumstances for Ireland to win. In 15 matches, they have beaten France twice and the last occasion was 28 years ago. So there can be no consolation for Ireland this time.
"The demand that the match should be replayed is forlorn, too. How would that work anyway? Do we stick to the same teams to perfectly recreate the game of that night. If so, how long do we wait for Julien Escude, the French centre half injured in a collision with Patrice Evra? Without the same starting 22 it is not the same game. Yes, FIFA could grant dispensation, make this a special circumstance, but then on what grounds would they reject Russia’s request for a similar revisiting of the match in Slovenia, because the dismissal of striker Alexander Kerzhakov, just 21 minutes after coming on as a substitute, looked harsh?
"Indeed, on what grounds would they ignore the two dozen demands for replays in every round of World Cup matches? Some of us would like to get home from South Africa next summer. No, the solution is not to rewrite the rulebook midway through the competition, but to work to minimise the chance of this happening again.A predictable call for the use of video technology has resulted, but that is not the answer, either. The conundrum with video interruptions is how to restart fairly from open play."
The spotlight continues to shine on the villain of the piece, Henry, and James Lawton, writing in the Independent, presents a savage indictment of the three-time Footballer of the Year. In 'Henry has never been an angel. Now he is beyond redemption', Lawton examines how Henry's actions were not exactly a one-off.
"Irish football is entitled to believe it has never seen anything so cynical, so far removed from the spirit of sport, as the devilish hand played by Thierry Henry to deny Giovanni Trapattoni's team a place in the World Cup finals that would have been so thoroughly deserved. But then how do you draw up a ranking table of deceit when you know how far, how sickeningly, the list of precedents for Henry's action stretches back – and how feeble has been the reaction of the authorities?
"England will never forget Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" in Mexico in 1986 and Spain, who would be crowned as brilliant European Champions two years later, also have reason to reflect on a level of deceit that even now, three years after it happened in the last World Cup, makes the blood run cold and the senses revolt.
"This was also authored by the supremely elegant Henry, the player who for so many and for so long had been among the football angels for his exquisite talent and his philosophical panache.
Remember how it led to France's all-important second goal in the second-round match against Spain in Hanover, when Henry fell to the ground faking a head injury after a brush with defender Carlos Puyol? Henry won a decisive free-kick – and the less enviable reward of announcing himself a specialist cheat."
November 19, 2009
Well there is only one hot topic in Thursday morning's newspapers. 'Hand Gaul!', 'The Hand of Frog', 'Le Hand of God' and other such puns scream out from the back pages after Thierry Henry used his hand to set up the goal that sent France to the World Cup finals at Ireland's expense.
In a country where Diego Maradona's similar antics in the 1986 World Cup has left a deep mental scar, the English media have shown no mercy to "cheating" Les Bleus hero Henry. Writing in The Telegraph Henry Winter does a great job of demolishing the former Arsenal star's reputation.
"Jour de gloire? Day of infamy more like. France cheated their way on to the last flight to South Africa. Thierry Henry handled not once, but twice in setting up William Gallas's goal that broke Irish hearts and all rules of sporting justice at the Stade de Fraud on Wednesday night.
Henry is one of the game's most graceful performers and characters, an elegant attacker who has enchanted audiences across Europe but his name will now be associated with conning opponents and officials.
This was Diego Maradona territory, subterfuge writ large, a defence beaten by the dark arts. Unlike England's Argentine nemesis in 1986, Henry has a conscience. How easily he will sleep after this remains to be seen."
Meanwhile, former Premier League and international referee Graham Poll uses his 'Official Line' column in the Daily Mail to absolve the match referee from any blame in the handball debacle.
"I felt for the Irish, who gave their all, and I also felt for Swedish referee Martin Hansson.
So often the 'big' team seem to get decisions but up until the French goal Hansson had been superb. When Anelka went down late in the game a penalty looked possible but Hansson was not fooled by the Chelsea striker's dive.
No blame could be apportioned to the referee, who had no chance of seeing Thierry Henry's disgraceful handball which set up his former team-mate William Gallas for the goal which takes France to the World Cup finals.
Ironically, UEFA president Michel Platini's brainchild of two extra assistants would surely have detected the handball and may have prevented the French progressing - but they, along with video technology, were missing."
November 18, 2009
With a couple of the papers suggesting Mark Hughes is lining up yet another solid midfielder with a January bid for Milan star Rino Gattuso, you might think a team on a run of five draws would be looking forward to the return of Robinho to spice things up again.
But, with Barcelona still persistently linked with a move, the Daily Mirror's Oliver Holt says Manchester City are too good for restless Robinho. And, at the risk of becoming overly philosophical for his audience, he takes a stab at deconstructing the problem.
"He lets things drift. He exists in a vortex of uncertainty and rumour, of claim and counter-claim and senseless distortion. He’s a study in the Kafkaesque intrigue that surrounds so many modern footballers, a world of petty and impenetrable complexities.
No one being able to pin anything down. No one knowing what’s happening. Everyone assuming he wants to leave but not knowing for sure [...] This is a man who is wasting his talent, who is letting it dissolve in this web of lies and double-speak.
The irony is, I’m not even sure he’ll get back into the City team when he’s fit again. He’s getting awfully close to being surplus to requirements. He’s got to the stage at City already where he’d be a good player to have coming off the bench when you’re chasing a game."
Martin Samuel at the Daily Mail, meanwhile, heads across to the red side of Manchester to continue the debate over Sir Alex Ferguson's touchline ban, which you can read about here. Samuel neglects to go down the Kafka route and instead quotes another great thinker, Arsene Wenger, in arguing that banning Ferguson and Diego Maradona is pointless as they have, in effect, punished themselves with their rants.
"There is almost no need for sentence at all when a manager switches to rant mode because the loss of temper and dignity is penalty enough. ‘The politician who loses the debate is the one who gets nervous,’ said Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, earlier this season. ‘As soon as you become aggressive on television you have lost. It is a basic rule.’
He is right. Had Maradona been calm and considered after the victory over Uruguay, his critics would have had little choice but to report that he had conjured a very useful away win to take his country to the World Cup. Instead, he was again depicted as a human train wreck and a liability to Argentina’s hopes of success. Maradona was the biggest loser here, in line with Wenger’s observation.
So, too, Ferguson who, having attacked Wiley’s condition, was quickly discredited when it transpired the official had run a greater distance than all but four Manchester United players during the match with Sunderland. The more a manager rails at referees, the less he is heard."
November 17, 2009
With internationals still sitting firmly at the front of the football agenda, most papers are (perhaps a tad prematurely) beginning to predict how next year's World Cup finals will unfold.
Kevin McCarra at the Guardian focuses on the fact that among the so-called World Cup"contenders", only England will not play a midweek friendly, despite having only one more match scheduled before the end of the Premier League season. Could this be restricting Capello's ability to assemble his side for the finals?
"The kindest comment to be made about England's loss to Brazil on Saturday was that the squad could use some practice. They will not be getting it. A friendly in March is the only preparation the players will have before the close of the Premier League programme. The expected couple of games prior to the start of the World Cup will simply bring such occasions into even deeper disrepute.
Other nations have constructed more extensive programmes that will be to their advantage. Nearly all the sides above England in the Fifa rankings have a match arranged for this week as well. Germany are the exception and play only one friendly in this window, as they cancelled last Saturday's game with Chile following the death of the goalkeeper Robert Enke, but the team will return to the field against Ivory Coast tomorrow.
Were the players still together, they would now be busy trying to correct their work in the areas where they faltered. It is unimaginable that Fabio Capello would not be emphasising once more the absolute necessity of keeping possession. His exasperation was vivid when Wayne Rooney, with the match scarcely under way, attempted difficult passes that presented the ball to the planet's best side."
Elsewhere, one nation that won't be at the finals in South Africa is shambolic Scotland. George Burley was given his marching orders yesterday and Graham Spiers at the Times wasted little time in pointing out a list of problems with the Scottish game.
"George Burley has gone - done in by the Scottish Football Association after one setback too many. If, like me, you have a perverse love of Scottish football, then you'll know this Burley palaver is just the latest in a long line of afflictions. The name of Scottish football should be Job.
Below, set out in no particular order, is my top ten of things that are wrong with Scottish football. If anyone actually knows of a cure, simply drop me a line at The Times and I'll kindly pass it on to Gordon "Smudger" Smith at the SFA.
1. Rangers and Celtic - culpable!
Sometime around 2001 Sir David Murray, the Rangers chairman, said to me: "Barry Ferguson, our one real player of quality produced by this club in ten years - not good enough." Rangers and Celtic have not done their bit for the Scottish game by requiring "ready-made imports" to come in and appease their fans, rather than take the time and patience to rear their own. Good on Hibernian, a club with an excellent record of nurturing Scottish talent, but the Old Firm? Guilty."
November 16, 2009
The fallout from the reserves' defeat to Brazil continues and it's the Times' Patrick Barclay who claims that Fabio Capello's job has just been made a whole lot easier as he looks to bring down his squad to the magic 23.
To the margins, on the stark evidence of his reserves’ merciful defeat by a Brazil near full strength, had been consigned Darren Bent, Joleon Lescott, Jermaine Jenas and Shaun Wright-Phillips; they ought to make contingency plans for holidays next June. As for the families and close friends of Matthew Upson and James Milner, the best advice would be to book something in South Africa, but avoid game-drives on match days.
So does Fabio know his squad already? Barclay thinks that he does.
The manager knows his team and the nine who did not appear alongside Wayne Rooney and Gareth Barry against Brazil were David James, Glen Johnson, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, David Beckham or Theo Walcott, Steven Gerrard and Emile Heskey.
The shadow team now appear to be along these lines: Robert Green or Ben Foster, with the loser also to travel as third goalkeeper; Owen Hargreaves (if fully restored after tendinitis), Wes Brown, Upson and Wayne Bridge; Michael Carrick, Beckham or Walcott, Joe Cole and Milner in midfield; and, up front, Peter Crouch. Finished counting yet? Yes, the single place this leaves would be for Jermain Defoe, back to his least impressive in Doha, to defend against such a challenge as Michael Owen might muster or the prospect of Aaron Lennon’s pace being used with, rather than as an alternative to, that of Walcott.
Meanwhile, over at The Independent, Sam Wallace is conducting his own public information campaign to keep young stars on the straight and narrow.
The new young must-have English footballer is Jack Rodwell at Everton. He is 18, an England Under-21 midfielder for whom Chelsea have offered £14m already. But don't worry: Manchester United and Manchester City are making their own discreet enquiries and before long the price and the add-ons and the wages will rise. So, will it be a big house in Surrey or a big house in Cheshire? Will it be nights out with Lampsy and JT or nights out with Wazza and Rio? Here's a radical suggestion for young Master Rodwell: stay at Everton.
Wallace wants young Jack to ignore the usual trend of the big-money move before he is ready and hopes that the fact he is playing regularly for Everton will be enough to keep his feet on the ground.
Rodwell is already at Everton. He has time and he does not need his career to be shaped by the psychotic impulse in clubs such as Chelsea to harvest the best young players and stockpile them on the off chance that they might turn into superstars. If his career continues on its present trajectory he has to trust that the financial rewards will come.
As Wenger famously said to Nicolas Anelka before he left Arsenal in 1999, for all the riches available to young footballers they can only sleep in one bed at a time and drive one car at a time. In a sport awash with money for the talented few, the really important thing is knowing what is truly valuable. Rodwell should be playing at Old Trafford on Saturday. No price can be put on that.
November 15, 2009
So it was another night of drama and high jinx as three more teams qualified for the World Cup, the play-offs gave us a look at who might join them and some of those already qualified battled it out against each other.
The pick of the friendlies was England v Brazil (only just edging out Spain v Argentina of course) and Kevin McCarra of the Guardian watched the contest in Doha, choosing to focus on the efforts of captain-for-the-day Wayne Rooney.
"Wayne Rooney seldom suffers from apathy on a football pitch. The opportunity to be captain in Doha seemed to make him particularly animated, although frustration then gripped him even more quickly than usual. He had a craving to leave his mark on a game where the play was sometimes perfunctory, but this was one of his weaker outings for England.
The responsibilities that accompany the armband looked excessive for someone who expects so much of himself even when he is not an office-bearer. It was, after all, frustration that caused a sending-off at the 2006 World Cup when, as a lone forward, Rooney stamped on Ricardo Carvalho while the Portuguese was marking him claustrophobically."
Elsewhere, former England striker and 1986 World Cup golden boot winner Gary Lineker examined the missed chances of Capello's second string for the Mail.
"The real winners for England were the players who didn't face Brazil last night. Men like David Beckham and Joe Cole must surely have increased their chances of being on the plane to South Africa.
James Milner was the best of the wannabes, reasonable but not much more than that. Ben Foster, Joleon Lescott and Matthew Upson did okay but they made mistakes. Poor Darren Bent didn't have the service but sometimes a striker has to make things happen. Things didn't happen for the Sunderland man and as he walked off when substituted by Jermain Defoe, I fear his one big chance to grasp the nettle had gone.
Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch didn't do much more than Bent when they came on in the second half but the pressure wasn't on them in the same way.They have already scored goals for this season and their places in the squad are virtually assured. They will not have minded Bent failing to score. It is a terrible human trait to want rival players to fail when they are chasing your place in the team – I know, I have been there."
November 14, 2009
It is crunch time in the European section of World Cup qualifying as the play-offs get underway on Saturday, with Ireland's attempt to overturn the odds against France taking pride of place.
In the build-up to the tie, Richard Dunne took the risky decision of publicly pointing the finger at Raymond Domenech, accusing the manager of being France's weak link and highlighting an incident when Domenech was booed by the crowd at the Paris Masters tennis event.
Writing in the Guardian, Irish comic Dara O'Briain revels in his compatriot's brave, if perhaps foolhardy, attempt at mind games. In 'It's in the stars: Raymond Domenech is Ireland's best chance', O'Briain picks up on the French coach's fondness for astrology and also finds sustained comic potential in Dunne's attack.
"That's right, Richard, divide and conquer. Let the French team, indeed the French nation, know that this man is what's dragging them back.
"And what's the best way to get him sacked? That's right, mes amis, by not qualifying for the next World Cup. Wow, when did Dunne become Machiavelli? When did the Aston Villa stopper start scheming like Iago? Or to put it in terms the French would understand best, at what point did the rock at the centre of our defence begin to resemble the Marquise de Merteuil, the conniving villainess Glenn Close played in Dangerous Liaisons, who once said: 'Never open your mouth without first calculating how much damage you can do.'
"Dunne, you may take your place at the court of the Dauphin. You may flutter your fan at the French nobles and sow doubt and discord. Previously I would have mainly trumpeted Dunne for his tackling and heading; now I see him in a powdered wig, dropping arch bon mots and undermining the aristocrats."
The Independent's Paul Newman also casts his eye over the problems affecting the France squad under Domenech. In 'Domenech fears player revolution', he highlights how the squad have underachieved in recent years.
"While today's Irish squad includes players from Scunthorpe, Preston, Reading and Bohemians (and none from Continental Europe), every one of Domenech's party plays in the top division of one of the big leagues. Twenty of them have been playing in the Champions League this season and the loss through injury of Franck Ribéry and Gaël Clichy has not significantly weakened the squad.
"There is a feeling among the French public that such a group should not be in this position and that the players, through a lack of respect for Domenech, are not living up to their potential. Karim Benzema, one of the most gifted of the younger players, admitted recently that he did not always try his hardest when playing for France.
"In public at least, the squad are standing behind Domenech. On a day when the main headline in L'Equipe, the sports daily, said that the Irish saw the French coach as their best chance of victory, Sidney Govou, the experienced Lyons striker, rejected any such idea.
'He won't be on the pitch,' Govou said during a break from training at Clairefontaine. 'The Irish are trying to turn on the pressure, but there's no debate. We're united as a group and in attacking him they are attacking us. It's not a question of supporting him. The only support we can give him is by performing on the pitch.'"
November 13, 2009
The World Cup play-offs take centre stage this weekend and with number of former greats on the brink of failure thoughts have naturally turned to what has gone wrong for some of international football's established countries.
France won the World Cup in 1998, and the European Championships in 2000, but now find themselves with a tough Ireland side standing between them and a place at South Africa 2010. Just what has gone wrong for Les Blues?
The Guardian's Amy Lawrence claims their current plight stems from a lack of young stars coming off their once famed conveyor belt of talent.
"Aimé Jacquet, the coach who guided France to World Cup triumph in 1998 and later went on to oversee the national technical department, which was for a while the envy of football, had a nice turn of phrase about player development. "Tomorrow's football" he called it.
A decade on and the conveyor belt of talent looks a little rusty. Who was the last outstanding graduate from the French system? Probably Franck Ribéry. But he is 26 years old. Below him the system is not functioning quite as effortlessly as it once did. In the aftermath of the 1998-2000 generation, France were highly successful in junior football. In 2001 they won the Under-17 World Cup and scouts from the world's top clubs scrambled for the signatures of la crème de la crème. Florent Sinama-Pongolle was player of the tournament. Anthony Le Tallec was runner-up for the award.
Liverpool – through the French connections of Gérard Houllier – won the race and bought two teenagers who looked certainties to become established players at Anfield. Today both are 25. Sinama-Pongolle is a peripheral player at struggling Atlético Madrid, Le Tallec is at Le Mans."
November 12, 2009
With news of Robert Enke's death coming late on Tuesday night, Thusday morning is the first chance that the national papers have had the chance to delve deeper into the tragedy that has struck German football.
The decision of the international goalkeeper to take his own life is examined sensitively by German football writer, Rafhael Honigstein, in the Guardian. In 'Robert Enke's death has cast a long shadow over German football', Honigstein examines the impact the sad event may have on Enke's team-mates.
"Enke apologised to his wife for taking his own life in a farewell note. Perhaps she can take a modicum of comfort from the fact that his suffering is finally at an end. For the unsuspecting team-mates and the coaching staff, however, the numbness must be tinged with incredibly dark thoughts of regret. Football encourages a sense of responsibility for your colleagues; some players might feel that Enke's desperate plunge in front of a train on Tuesday amounts to a failure in this regard. There is no easy way to negotiate these awful questions, no right or wrong, only shades of black.
"This is why suicide must be so much harder to take than accidental or natural death: it has loved ones, work-mates and friends wracking their brains, wondering whether they could have somehow prevented the tragedy. I know that one prominent German player always suspected that Enke, a highly intelligent, sensitive man, wasn't quite up to the national job, not ready for the enormous pressure that comes with it. Will he feel guilty for harbouring those innocent thoughts now? Should he?
"'Sometimes, it is just not possible to go back to business as usual,' said [DFB president, Theo] Zwanziger at the Kameha Grand press conference in Bonn. 'Sometimes you need to stop in your tracks and take stock.' The players and coaching staff, he added, had unanimously decided that they couldn't play football on Saturday. 'The friendly against Chile has been cancelled. We all need time to grieve and there's no fixed time-line for such a thing.'
"'Nach dem Spiel ist vor dem Spiel' – after the game is before the game. Sepp Herberger's famous quip epitomises post-war Germany's determination to get on with it, its reluctance to dwell on the past. But for once, the show cannot go on."
As a former sportsman himself, Matthew Syed of the Times always offers an interesting perspective on major talking points in sport and, in light of Enke's death, he addresses depression on Thursday morning.
In 'Success and despair often walk hand in hand', Syed explains how a life of sporting excellence does not guard against the mental tribulations that effect a great many people outside of the athletic sphere.
"Why? That is the question that arises whenever we are confronted with the reality of a human being encompassing their own annihilation. From what impulse, what state of despair, could any healthy person wish to extinguish the flame of his own existence?
"It is a question that, for many, is imbued with added urgency when the deceased seemed to have it all: wealth, a loving family, success, the acclaim of his peers and the public. How could any professional sportsman, living a life straight from the pages of Boy’s Own, wish to end it all in a moment of chilling and fearful pain? But this sentiment, while seemingly reasonable, is derived from one of the more pernicious, as well as the more stubborn, contemporary myths.
"It is the idea that sporting success (or any other type) leads inexorably to emotional nirvana. It is the notion that we can avoid the more perilous neuroses of the mind with comic-book prescriptions about what makes us happy or, indeed, sad.
"The reality is that depression is as prevalent among top sportsmen as it is among any other diverse group of people, as is a sense of worthlessness, fear, anxiety and low self-esteem. Professional sport, in many ways, demands neurosis. It makes a virtue of the obsessional pursuit of perfection: just ask Jonny Wilkinson who, even now, after months as a Buddhist, finds it difficult to free his mind from the tiny errors he made in his last practice session."
November 11, 2009
Tony Cascarino, The Times' one-time Irishman, is a former professional who likes to give the players' perspective. He can be hit and miss but this time, perhaps as a result of a lack of his usual self-indulgence, he scores with a decent take on the diving debate that has followed the David Ngog debate.
Players cheat because they can get away with it, pure and simple. It’s a tactic that works and can be decisive in finely balanced matches that may turn on the decision of a referee who must make split-second judgments and is ready to give fouls for minimal physical contact.
he authorities must change this culture of cheating by making it in players’ interests to stay honest. The time to act is now because the next generation of footballers has grown up in the climate of dishonesty that has developed in recent seasons.
They are going to be fabulous divers, even better than the present lot. I watch kids’ football sometimes and I’m amazed by their antics.
Here's Cas's solution to this sickness in football.
The only way to eradicate cheating is to punish it. The odd yellow card for simulation is not enough of a deterrent. The FA should treat diving like violent conduct and hand out three-match bans for offenders. If a referee misses a dive during a game, a video panel should review contentious incidents.
Then managers may tell their players: “Don’t go over, I can’t afford to lose you for three games.” And the players may cut out this cheating that’s poisoning the game.
That 2010 World Cup may be just around the corner, but it's the bid for 2018 that is taking a lot of the attention at the moment. The Times' Oliver Kay wants the bid team to ''get real'' and win over the people that matter.
''On the day that England officially opened its bid to host the 2018 World Cup finals last May, in the appropriate surroundings of the Bobby Moore Suite at Wembley Stadium, it was hard to resist the heady feeling that football was finally coming home, even if, in a nod to the acute sensitivities of the vote-winning campaign ahead, that particular phrase had been declared off-limits.
''The preferred slogan - less imperial, more inclusive - was “England United, The World Invited”, but, as the months have passed, the prospect has arisen, not for the first time, of a party falling flat.''
Time to get serious about winning over the votes that England needs, says Kay. Although the signs are not good.
''It comes back to that word: Realpolitik, politics based on self-interest or power rather than moral or idealistic concerns. When the executive committee members go to ballot in December next year, many will do so thinking less about what is best for the World Cup than about what is best for them and for their national interests. Trade-offs and flattery will get you everywhere.
''There is a duty to get behind the bid, to show the world how much England, as a nation, wants to host the World Cup. But right now there is a worrying feeling, emanating from inside the bid team, that football is not coming home, that a great opportunity is slipping away. Early days these may be, but it is time to step up the bid - before it is too late.''
The Independent's Ian Herbet, meanwhile, has his views of Man City - from a nice Abu Dhabi hotel no doubt. But has his reservations about the size of the project facing them.
''City have failed to capture the imagination of the locals - most people here don’t know who they are - but their manager is fully aware of the ambitions of the club’s Emirati owners,'' he begins.
''The place is still so barely populated that its many wide walkways are empty but when they decide they want Formula One racing, they build the most extraordinary piece of architecture in the sport at Yas Marina, inside two years. They believe they will have created the footballing equivalent one day, too.''
November 10, 2009
It's a slow day today, what with the international break on, so why not have a bit more Benitez baiting?
We head off to the Times, where Oliver Kay uses his match report of the 2-2 draw at home to Birmingham City to underline a few problems for Rafa.
A sequence of one victory in the past nine matches in all competitions is simply not good enough for a club of Liverpool’s size and ambition and, no matter how much sympathy Benítez and his players might attract during an unforgiving crisis of confidence and personnel, they were grateful beneficiaries, as the manager admirably admitted afterwards, of a highly contentious penalty award midway through the second half when David Ngog went to ground without being touched by Lee Carsley.
A half-fit Steven Gerrard, who had come off the bench as a substitute for the hamstrung Albert Riera, converted the penalty, but, no matter what he and the enterprising Glen Johnson tried as they went in search of the winning goal in the final quarter of the game, Birmingham stood firm.
It was a strange game, with Liverpool starting like a house on fire, taking an early lead through Ngog’s acrobatic volley and yet somehow they were 2-1 down by half-time. Rafael Benítez was right to take some comfort from the way his team had performed, but, even when their football was at their most incisive when they led, there was a haphazard, reckless feel to their play that was contrary to everything that their manager has spent the past five years trying to instil in them.
It is nothing that an upturn in confidence should not be able to rectify, but what will come first: the confidence that yields a result or the result that yields the upturn? The momentum gained from one supposed turning point, the victory over Manchester United last month, soon dissipated and their first game after the international break, at home to Manchester City on November 21, has now assumed huge importance for both clubs.
And a quick visit to the Daily Telegraph before we depart. Rory Smith reckons most people have not yet realised just how much trouble Liverpool are in. And the fact he had to rely on an unfit Steven Gerrard to rescue them against Birmingham shows this.
Gerrard is seen, with good reason, as a panacea to all of Liverpool’s ills.
His class, his quality, his endless power and boundless reserves of quality see to that. When he is absent, as he was for 44 minutes here, Liverpool lack urgency, that cutting edge of quality.
November 9, 2009
Looking around the papers today, most journalists are (somewhat prematurely you feel) writing-off Manchester United's Premier League title chances and preparing for Chelsea to regain the championship crown despite it only being November.
It's much of the same post-match analysis from most quarters, discussing United's bad luck and Sir Alex's criticism of the ref, but Mark Ogden at the Daily Telegraph chooses to examine the United boss' reluctance to hand Michael Owen a regular starting berth.
"United’s defeat at Chelsea was undoubtedly a blow to their title hopes, but their performance was impressive and only wasteful finishing, and the absence of a strike-partner for Wayne Rooney, denied them a point or even three.
So what about Owen? Has the time now come for him to be given the Premier League opportunity that his patience and track record arguably deserve? One certainty is that he won’t score goals while sat on the bench. He has shown glimpses of his predatory instinct, so perhaps he should now be unleashed from the start of games.
After all, isn’t that what Manchester United are supposed to be about? Beating teams on the front foot and making opponents worry about their firepower? True, they do not, and cannot, carry the same threat without the unique talents of Cristiano Ronaldo.
But those pointing to the loss of Carlos Tevez as another factor behind United’s blunted edge miss the point that Owen’s record this season is better than the Argentine’s. Tevez has scored four goals in 13 appearances for Manchester City, but while Owen has started six games for United, Tevez has been a substitute just once."
Elsewhere, Martin Samuel at the Daily Mail is full of praise for Chelsea captain and yesterday's matchwinner John Terry, citing him as the key that could unlock the door to a third Premier League title come May.
"Every fibre in Terry’s body must have ached for the revenge of a winning goal against Manchester United, particularly this day, when he would have known the ground was alive with mockery and whispers, yet he let the moment pass.
This is captaincy of the highest order, Terry putting his mind on the line, as much as his body. He sacrifices, the way Tony Adams once did for Arsenal and Roy Keane for Manchester United, and that level of commitment takes its toll in the end.
John Terry celebrates after beating Manchester United
All things considered, it is a wonder Terry remains relatively untroubled by demons. His record is not entirely unblemished but the majority of indiscretions took place early in his career and there seems to be evidence of maturity arriving with age.
...Ancelotti increasingly resembles the last coach to fashion a great Chelsea team, Jose Mourinho. He created a title-winning Chelsea side on a home fortress — he never lost here, and neither has Ancelotti so far — and on a team built from the back on the reliability of his captain, Terry. "
November 8, 2009
We've heard from Rafael Benitez recently that football is about the project and not about winning trophies (surely the comment of a loser?), and now Paul Hayward in The Observer says Arsene Wenger must win trophies at Arsenal to rubber stamp his project. See the difference?
Arsenal force us to confront a philosophical tangle. Do a club need to win things to bring meaning to their endeavours or is the pursuit of creativity sufficient to justify the effort? This is where Wenger's problem starts, because he cannot cultivate artistic football without promising something at the end of it. Hence the constant depiction of this new Arsenal as a train you can hear coming in the night but not quite see.
This was vintage Wenger, in midweek, after the 4-1 Champions League win over AZ Alkmaar: "We grow from game to game. We get stronger from game to game and it's important to keep that attitude to progress and improve, play for each other and improve even more. We have to believe in our future."
There is a whiff of the hustings about this. If Barack Obama is accused of governing America by speeches, Wenger might be charged with chasing trophies by eloquence. Except that he has held plenty of English metal: three Premier League titles, with two League and FA Cup Doubles. The question is not whether he can convert romanticism into silver but whether he can do so now on the furthest borders of his own aesthetic principles.
November 7, 2009
Not a day goes by without one of Fleet Street's finest passing comment on things down at Liverpool, and this time it's Des Kelly in the Daily Mail.
It's got to be said that he has a point, after Rafa - manager of Liverpool let's not forget - claimed that winning trophies isn't everything. Isn't that exactly what Liverpool are about?
Liverpool supporters keep saying it, Rafa Benitez can’t help but plead for it, and practically everyone seems to agree that this football lark shouldn’t be judged in the simple black and white of winning and losing.
But here are the statistics that matter: one win in eight games, currently placed sixth in the table and with distant hopes of avoiding Champions League ignominy reliant on the results of others.
It could explain why Benitez says: ‘I don’t agree with people when they say you have to win trophies.’
How things have changed. There was a time when success at Liverpool was about nothing else but winning trophies; it was ingrained in their culture.
November 6, 2009
Would you like your club to change the name of your stadium? Well, certainly not if Mike Ashley is involved in the process but, now that Chelsea have got involved too, everyone is suddenly thinking about cashing in. The Times' Matt Hughes has his views and thinks that the financial reality of football is driving the decision of the Blues.
''Imagining a world in which Chelsea are no longer brash and flash takes a considerable leap, like picturing estate agents without shiny suits or MPs deprived of their expense accounts. Yet that is the vision of Ron Gourlay.
''The new chief executive is determined to make his mark by smoothing the club’s rough edges and re-engaging with supporters, although many of them will not be too enamoured with the first decision taken on his watch, to sell the naming rights to Stamford Bridge.
''Many fans will be up in arms, particularly given the wealth of Roman Abramovich, the owner, but they cannot have it both ways. Chelsea can aspire to develop into a mature, self-sufficient club or remain as a wealthy Russian’s plaything, and if it is to be the former, tough decisions will have to be made.''
The Independent, meanwhile, have a brief comment on the naming rights situation. David Fleming reckons it makes sense, despite some opposition:
''Ron Gourlay's idea of selling the name of their Stamford Bridge ground to the highest bidder is a brave plan. It risks alienating supporters who fear it will provide ammunition to rival fans, who say Chelsea have no history. However, it is a proposal that does make commercial sense.
''Given that the club have given up plans either to redevelop the Bridge or move to another site, it is pretty much the only option open to Gourlay to raise the revenues generated by the stadium. If he can attract £15m a year for naming rights, Chelsea will take a substantial step towards their ultimate goal of breaking even.''
It's been a while since we discussed the idea of a two-tier Premier League, but you'll be glad to know that the subject is back on the agenda this week and the Guardian's David Conn has had his say on the matter.
''The proposal by Bolton Wanderers' chairman, Phil Gartside, for an expanded two-division Premier League which would include Celtic and Rangers has been revived,'' he begins. ''His idea is prompted by what Gartside has described as a "fear factor" among the smaller clubs, who are desperately worried about the financial cost of relegation to the Championship and are overspending to avoid it.
''The idea was dismissed by many last time because Gartside appeared to be proposing a self-interested "closed circle", with no relegation out of the Premier League's second division. This time, Gartside is understood to be more flexible, arguing that relegation could be retained but that clubs should meet standards of size and finance, similar to Uefa's licensing system, if they are to be promoted into the Premier League.
''Both Celtic and Rangers, who have long looked to escape from the Scottish Premier League in which they are by far the biggest clubs, would welcome an invitation from the elite English league. However, any Premier League rule change requires 14 clubs to vote in favour. Gartside has a great deal of lobbying to do before his plan has any chance of succeeding.''
November 5, 2009
Yes, if you are still playing the BBC's crazy Sportdaq game based upon sports stars' column inches then you'd be a fool not to have Rafael Benitez.
There's not a great deal of opinion out there on Thursday, but what there is centres on the beleaguered Liverpool manager following that draw with Lyon.
Richard Williams sticks the boot in, writing in The Guardian, believing that the last-gasp rescue acts which have been a trademark of Benitez's tenure at Anfield are now a thing of the past.
The boot was on the other foot against Lyon as Lisandro's late, late leveller has put the 2005 Champions League winners on the brink of a costly exit before Santa has been down the chimney. Apparently, he's heading towards oblivion.
The disaster that Liverpool find themselves facing this morning is not the fault of Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Four matches, four points and a negative goal difference – those figures are the responsibility of Benítez and no one else. The manager may moan about his lack of resources compared to those of his rivals, but when you have been able to bring so many players into a club, among them the world's best centre forward, you cannot expect your complaints to be taken seriously.
We agree here at Soccernet Towers. In Rafa we do not trust.
Fernando Torres again came off before the end, and anyone who has suffered an inguinal hernia, or even the full set of two, like some of us, will have been dismayed by Benítez's decision to allow his young compatriot to play on once the injury had been diagnosed. A hernia is not necessarily painful but it causes discomfort and restricts the range of movement. It also gets worse. Whatever the player's own view, the manager should have sent him straight off for the requisite minor surgery, accepting his short-term absence and demonstrating confidence in his back-up players.
Babel, for instance – a player "whose pace and ability can change a game", according to Benítez last night. Then he added a half-veiled criticism: "We want to see the best of him in some more games". But getting the best out of players is Benítez's job. Babel's muted celebration of his marvellous goal may have been the expression of a naturally reticent temperament, or it may have been a comment on his manager's lack of faith.
Liverpool are not yet quite out of it. But with six defeats, one draw and a single victory in their last eight matches, even the most ardent of Benítez's admirers on the Kop must now be wondering what can be salvaged from a season barely three months old but already marked by failure on all sides.
Over at the Independent, Tony Barrett too is counting the cost of Rafa's Champions League failure.
It is not as if Liverpool could expect to make up the shortfall domestically. Not when their annual income — last year £159 million, £100 million below Manchester United’s — makes them the poor relations of the “big four”, largely because of a stadium that does not produce as much revenue as those of their rivals.
Other clubs, those who are not as financially fragile as Liverpool, would be able to absorb the monetary setback of failing to reach the Champions League first knockout round comfortably.
But this is the Liverpool of Hicks and Gillett, a club so brittle they fracture at regular intervals, and the only certainty is that their immediate future will continue to be plagued by yet more uncertainty.
Failure may not have been an option for Liverpool, but it has become a very real and stark possibility.
November 4, 2009
So, another night of Champions League fun and frolics saw Bordeaux, Manchester United, Chelsea and Porto book their places in the last-16 with two games to spare. The two English sides go head-to-head on Sunday in a mouthwatering Premier League clash and Patrick Barclay at the Times reckons the Stamford Bridge encounter could signal the passing of the torch from Sir Alex's side to Carlo Ancelotti's charges.
"Back last night came Darren Fletcher and the Scot does make a difference with his power, mobility and variety of passes. But who else from United would get in Chelsea’s team this season? After Edwin van der Sar and Wayne Rooney, you begin to struggle.
Certainly Chelsea have several players — Frank Lampard, Michael Essien, Deco, Michael Ballack — who would walk into United’s midfield, while John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho would edge out Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic in central defence. Ferguson would surely take Didier Drogba to partner Rooney up front.
It may require an organisational masterpiece from the United manager to avert a result more wounding than the 2-0 defeat by Liverpool."
Speaking of defenders, Matt Lawton at the Daily Mail has been urging Liverpool fans not to get too excited by well-coiffed striker Fernando Torres' inclusion in the squad to face Lyon, insisting that Koppites should be more concerned with their shaky defence
"The wealthy punters who pay to travel with Liverpool rejoiced at the sight of their superb Spanish striker boarding their plane at Liverpool’s John Lennon airport yesterday morning. Imminent hernia operation or not, Torres was there and determined, seemingly, to play through the pain for his beleaguered manager.
But then came the head count. Then came the realisation that Glen Johnson had not made it and, that although Daniel Agger had, he appeared to be in no fit state to play a game of such vast importance. Agger sat down only for take-off and landing, his sore back forcing him to stay on his feet for the rest of the 80-minute flight. The Danish defender almost came a cropper between the plane and passport control, slipping on a wet surface and only just remaining upright.
Benitez really is in an awful mess. A fifth Barclays Premier League defeat of the season at Fulham, Liverpool’s sixth in seven games in all competitions, owed as much to an injury list now running into double figures as it did the two red cards. But the back four that the Spaniard deployed at Craven Cottage were acquired for just £2.5million and will not look much better this evening."
November 3, 2009
Well-spoken and privately educated Daily Telegraph reporter Henry Winter has managed to bag an exclusive interview with UEFA president Michel Platini. Henners' Twitter page has been trailing this since Monday when he said
Just returned from Geneva, interviewing Platini in Nyon. As he was as a player, Uefa pres full of ideas and venture. Surprisingly pro-English.
Now for the article proper, it's an epic.
He sets out his stall on the English game:
Often painted as an anti-English ogre by Fleet Street, Platini is no admirer of the Fourth Estate but he wants to transmit a message to the English. He wants to protect English football from debt and destruction.
"Football belongs to the fans and you have great fans in England. They love football. They respect the decisions.
"England is the only country where they get angry about diving. They are great football people. They don't disturb the life of the players. It's wonderful. But I am not so open to the business side.
"I am not popular in England because of the journalists. But I see many fans on the plane and they seem to like me, we speak about my passion for English clubs.''
The hot topic of debt in the English game is addressed.
Worried about the huge debt, a Uefa committee begins meeting from next Monday to formulate new rules. "We have three years to regulate the situation," he said. "The idea is not to kill the clubs but to help them have better balance. As David Gill says: 'the devil is in the details'.''
Yet United's highly-respected chief executive oversees a club dragged into debt by the Glazers. "Gill is a very good guy and perhaps United will resolve the debts in the future. If you put the same [strict] regulations for all the clubs in Europe, they will accept.'' Clubs risk expulsion from Europe otherwise.
"The philosophy to participate in our competitions is you must not spend more money than you receive. If United have €300 million and they spend €400 million – no! If Liverpool pay €60 million (interest) every year to the banks, it's a lot of money.
"Every owner has asked me for a better philosophy, for better transparency. In Germany, debts are not accepted. In England they are.
"Some of the chief executives are not OK with the chance of new regulations [on debt] because they don't want to change their business. The owners are OK with it. Abramovich hardly bought one player this year.
"By putting in new rules we will protect the business of Abramovich, Massimo Moratti [at Inter Milan] or Glazer. I am sure they want to sell but who will buy clubs with so many debts? Who would be that stupid?
"If you regulate the system, many people will be interested in buying. I am not a big economist but I am logical.''
Plenty else discussed, including Arsenal's youth policy, foreign ownership, Capello coaching England, the World Cup, use of TV replays, the Heysel Stadium disaster.
It ends on an odd note, considering talk of debts among English clubs.
We quickly move on to Cristiano Ronaldo's £80 million transfer to Real Madrid. "I said to Mr Perez: 'Florentino, I don't understand it, but if you have the money, I have no problem'.
"It's not Ronaldo's responsibility, but for me it is amazing, it's a lot of money and there is an inflationary effect for other clubs. It takes away the popularity of the football; 99 per cent of people don't understand €94 million for a player – and my job is to protect football.''
Good answer.
We thought that Real went into debt to buy Ronaldo. They don't have the money.
November 2, 2009
There were no shortage of talking points after a weekend of football that witnessed nine red cards in the Premier League, but it is to Craven Cottage we turn on Monday morning and yet another defeat for Liverpool.
The focus on Rafa Benitez has intensified following a fifth defeat in 11 league games which means Liverpool's hopes of winning the title are hanging by a thread. Writing in the Independent, Sam Wallace has identified a stubborn streak in the Spaniard in the wake of his decision to substitute Fernando Torres against Fulham. In 'Benitez the forward-thinker must stop overlooking clear and present dangers', Wallace accuses Liverpool's manager of lacking flexibility and failing to respond to developing situations.
Outside Anfield on match days they sell T-shirts adorned with Rafael Benitez's face and the catchphrase "Rafa is boss. This is a fact, no?" It is a take on his unique brand of English but also it references Rafa's peculiar brand of logic, especially the forward-planning to which he so stubbornly adheres.
Benitez is the man who prides himself on being one step ahead: while his players are celebrating a goal; he is using the break in play to reorganise his defence. While everyone else is thinking about Saturday's game; he is thinking about next Wednesday's match. If the world was to witness the Second Coming, Rafa would shrug and clear a space in his diary for the Third.
The trouble with Benitez's forward-planning is that sometimes he is too clever for his own good. Never more so than when, with the score at 1-1 and 27 minutes remaining, he substituted Fernando Torres against Fulham on Saturday afternoon. He did so with a team already missing Steven Gerrard and Glen Johnson. Not to mention a squad that was without Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel, Fabio Aurelio, Albert Riera and Alberto Aquilani.
If ever there was a time to gamble on Torres, then this was that moment. But Benitez is wedded to his system, to his unshakeable belief in the plan he has already decided. And so, regardless of the game, Benitez thinks thus: Torres is not completely fit, we must protect him, therefore he must come off. This is a fact, no?
November 1, 2009
Wigan striker Marlon King's jailing for an attack on a woman in a nightclub continues to hit the headlines on this damp Sunday morning.
The girl subjected to a sexual assault and actual bodily harm by King has managed to sell her story to the News of the World, who have little compunction in leading off with the whole story. It doesn't make pretty reading.
Rod Liddle, outspoken commentator that he is, gives his view in the Sunday Times. He points out that many a club has retained the services of players with criminal records so it is likely that King will be re-employed as a footballer.
WONDER who Marlon King will be playing for, a year or so from now, when he gets out of prison for having groped and then twatted that young woman in a nightclub? The obvious answer is Oldham Athletic, who were waiting by the cell doors with a lucrative contract in their paws when Lee Hughes was released from jail for having killed someone in his expensive Mercedes car and then running away afterwards. But there’s always Newcastle Utd, I suppose, who were perfectly happy to take on Joey Barton. I assume that even people as divorced from reality as the Newcastle board were aware Barton was a violent thug with a string of previous when they took him on. The lure was he was comparatively cheap and might do a job in midfield — morality did not come into it. Their only worry was the possibility that Barton’s future behaviour may cost them money. It was to Alan Shearer’s enormous credit that he took one look at Barton and told him to get lost. But it was Shearer who left, in the end.
He points out that Wigan chairman Dave Whelan's righteous indignation at his erstwhile striker's action seem somewhat disingenuous. King had form that was seemingly ignored.
Why does this latest crime differ from the previous ones, Dave? There were, after all, 13 of them.
Not every club behaved quite so shamelessly. Fulham very nearly signed Marlon King a while back, but the deal was scuppered when the club’s chairman, Mohammed al-Fayed caught sight of King’s string of convictions and decided he was not the right man. The last-minute hitch was passed off as a problem with the player’s medical, which was kind, if deceitful, of them. And you have to say, when Mohammed al-Fayed is worrying about a person’s moral state then you know you ain’t dealing with Mother Teresa, no offence, Mo.
October 31, 2009
Sir Alex Ferguson's recent sideswipe at international friendlies, especially those staged in the Middle East, has met with a wealth of different reactions. Some have pointed out that the Scot took his own team to Saudi Arabia at the beginning of 2008 but Paddy Barclay, himself from north of the border points out further points of well, hypocrisy.
Barclay, writing in The Times, does qualify that position:
Just suppose that Manchester United, in the midst of a losing battle to remain champions, faced an April programme of six matches in 22 days, including an FA Cup semi-final. Would Sir Alex Ferguson be happy with such congestion?
Suppose that, in addition, England crammed two friendly matches into that month, both away from home, and insisted that United players take part, in each case for the full 90 minutes. Would Ferguson think it “a coach’s nightmare” — to borrow the phrase the United manager used this week about international friendlies — or utter stronger language? He would certainly consider the additional burden unacceptable.
Yet substitute “Aberdeen” for “Manchester United”, “Scottish FA” for “FA” and “Scotland” for “England” — and delete the “Sir” — and you have exactly the position in April 1986. Ferguson was Scotland manager, preparing, like Fabio Capello now, for a World Cup. He was also in charge of Aberdeen and yet that did not deter him from using Alex McLeish and Willie Miller against England at Wembley and Holland in Eindhoven, plus Jim Bett in the latter “intrusion of a friendly game”.
But Barclay shares the distaste for the idea of "friendly" matches:
For what it is worth, I heartily agree with him that international friendlies should be all but abolished. I have long felt that they should be replaced by competitive matches in a new kind of calendar that caters for a World Cup or continental tournament every summer. In other words, the competitions should be every two years instead of four.
This would give Fifa, Uefa and the national associations enough money to be able to pay players in their own right and thus have at least equal clout with the clubs when it comes to playing and training time.
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