How can selling Wembley be described as a betrayal? The idiots who massively overspent in building a stadium nobody outside of London really wanted cannot be accused of selling the soul of football, as some people have put it.
Wembley never was and never will be the “soul of football”. That title belongs to grounds such as Old Trafford, Anfield, Goodison Park and Stamford Bridge. In the past it would have included Highbury, Main Road, Roker Park and others too numerous to mention.
Wembley was famous once. It was where England won the World Cup in 1966. They did so by being allowed to play every game there, effectively giving them home advantage throughout the tournament.
It was famous when Hungary, complete with Ferenc Puskás, beat England 6-3 on the 25th November, 1953. This was dubbed the “Match of the Century” and no international game played there since has come close to matching it!
There was the famous draw with Poland in 1973 which prevented England from qualifying for the 1974 World Cup. Poland had a “clown with gloves” in goal that night according to Brian Clough but he still only conceded as many goals as Peter Shilton at the other end.
As a parting shot there was also Scotland becoming the first team to beat England after they had won the World Cup. They did so, at Wembely, in 1967 by a score of 3-2.
This was, of course, the “old Wembley” which, over the course of it’s history was much more famous for the failure of England teams than for their success.
The “new Wembley” is only famous for having cost far more than it should have done. There is nothing special about it, it is just a football ground in London used by the FA to pay off the huge debt they incurred when building it.
There are other grounds in London and around the country which are certainly as good as, if not better than, Wembley so the need for this monstrous waste of money has never been fully justified.
So if selling it means it becomes debt-free and clubs and fans from everywhere north of the capital can spend less time travelling to London to watch big games then we don’t really care what Shahid Khan does with it. He can turn it into the world’s biggest chip shop for all the sleep we would lose over it. Good riddance to it!
From cradle to grave…..
Gerrad and Lampard have both gone from talking about players to talking to them as their manager
It takes a certain kind of masochist to go from the pampered world of professional footballer at the top level to the cut-throat world of the manager at any level. Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, two of England’s greatest midfielders, have decided to take that plunge and only time will tell if their decisions were wise or not.
Who has the harder of the tasks? That’s difficult to say. Steven Gerrard, if he can get things right relatively early should only have to worry about his old boss, Brendan Rodgers.
Celtic have had things far too easy for a number of years and people tend to forget that all of these “phenomenal” seasons have been achieved without the presence of their main rival.
Rangers’ demotion to the bottom tier of Scottish professional football was akin to Barcelona or Real Madrid suffering the same fate in Spain. It basically just handed the title, and virtually everything else, to Celtic for years!
Having recovered their SPL status, Rangers have struggled and now hope that the appointment of Gerrard will see a change in their fortunes.
Gerrard, as a player, never won a title and has far more experience in winning cup competitions which, in fairness, Rangers fans would probably take at present.
He needs a good start to his managerial career and has given himself every opportunity by beginning with Rangers. If he can beat Celtic a few times he will very quickly achieve legendary status!
Frank Lampard, on the other hand, has chosen what, on paper anyway, looks the more difficult of the two jobs.
He is starting his managerial career in one of the most competitive leagues in world football and it won’t be easy. Derby may be among the early favourites for promotion next year but this will be alongside the likes of Aston Villa, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion and Middlesbrough, to name but a few.
If Lampard can get Derby County promoted, whether that be automatically or through the play-offs, then that will be a far greater achievement than Gerrard guiding Rangers to either first or second place in the SPL.
And finally…..
Zidane doing what he does best – winning the Champion’s League!
Zinedine Zidane has left Real Madrid. After three years of winning the Champion’s League he has decided to let somebody else have all the aggro, pressure, negativity from players and hassle of managing them. Who that will be is anybody’s guess at this stage.
He said all the right things, of course, letting us know that the team needs a different voice, a new way of thinking and, maybe, a new way of playing but there is no doubt as to why he has left.
So what now for him? Our guess, at this early stage, is that he will take a break and watch how Thomas Tuchel fares at PSG.
The Parisian club crave success in the Champion’s League and, to an extent, everything else is immaterial to them. Zinedine Zidane is a serial winner of the Champion’s League. Add two and two together a see what your calculator says!
Then again, there’s always Chelsea or even France!
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 
Are you people fxxxed in the head, Wembley is the home of English football the only thing that pisses me off about the place is the fact they didn’t incorporate the old twin towers from the famous old place in new build.
Football is about tradition not selling our souls to Kellogg’s or Google so they can have their name above the door.
LikeLike