WHY SAY ANYTHING?

According to the headline of an article in The Guardian, Gareth Southgate wants “young, hungry England to dream of winning the World Cup”

Well, we have news for you Gareth, they do! The problem is that dreams, particularly that one, rarely come true!

In fairness, the reporter actually quotes Southgate as saying he has no problem with the players believing they can win the World Cup, which is slightly different and just goes to show that members of the press often submit articles which then have the headline added or edited by somebody else.

At least the ambition is to be applauded. Everybody knows that England won’t win the World Cup. Indeed, better teams than this one have failed in the early stages and much better teams than this one have lost in the semi-finals so the odds are stacked against them progressing further than the first or second knockout stage.

In fact, the last time England won a game in the knockout stage of ANY tournament was back in 2006 with the so-called “Golden Generation” who actually turned out to be more of a rusty tin generation!

But at least the players want to give it a go and are determined to show that they are not just there to make up the numbers. Lets hope they can have a decent run if only to keep us interested for longer than usual although with no alternative football to watch and Premier League players scattered throughout the teams in the tournament, almost every match has a modicum of interest attached to it.

China calling Brazil…..

Anderson Talisca, a reported target of José Mourinho at Manchester United, has cleared off to China! Not for him the challenge of trying to usurp Manchester City or testing his skills on a wet, windy Tuesday night in Stoke…..Wolverhampton.

He won’t be cleaning the mud off his boots after a particularly gruelling game against Chelsea or swapping shirts with Roberto Firmino after having just beaten Liverpool.

No, he’ll be trousering loads of dosh to swan around in a league with all the pulling power of a 200 year-old train with no engine, wheels or steam.

But our guess is that, were he to be interviewed, he would be extolling the virtues of that “great upcoming league” which is doing it’s best to attract some of the best players thereby proving it’s seriousness in wishing to become a globally recognised super league.

The fact is that yes, it is trying to achieve exactly that, but by attracting the greediest players on the planet, and by accepting an offer to go and play there Anderson Talisca has just added his name in big bold letters to that list of players!

And finally…..

Kenny Dalglish has been knighted, arise Sir Kenny! Whilst he has undoubtedly been a great servant to the game and a tireless worker for good causes, particularly those involving his beloved Liverpool and his wife’s own cancer charity, we can’t help but remember the Patrice Evra incident with Luis Suárez.

This was a racist slur on a Manchester United player which was, basically, condoned by the then Liverpool manager to such an extent that the club even had shirts printed backing Suárez.

He was found guilty and banned but, as far as we are aware, no apology was ever offered and no retraction of the message on the shirts was ever made.

Dalglish may have merited this award, or he may not, that is not for us to decide. One thing is for sure, there are more deserving people who don’t get the recognition they maybe should.

Take, for example, Harry Gregg who served as the Manchester United goalkeeper for many years in the fifties and sixties and who repeatedly went back into the burning plane at Munich in 1958 in an attempt to rescue team mates who may have been trapped in the wreckage.

Now 85, Gregg had a distinguished playing and managerial career without ever really winning anything of note and he was, like Dalglish, awarded the MBE in 1995.

The moral of the story? There isn’t one because if there was, then Gregg would have received the knighthood, not Dalglish. Or at least they both would have got one!