Well, that’s the first week out of the way. Only another five days to go before the return of Premier League football.
This is good news for lovers of the game, avid supporters and masochists as every form of satisfaction will be delivered or denied over the coming weekend.
Why is it that, when the Premier League has been absent since May, we get four games into the new season and have to have an international injury window?
Is this just because the powers-that-be are a bunch of sadists? We are not thinking necessarily of just the effect on the fans here. They will tune in to the meaningless rubbish served up as top quality international football because they have nothing else to watch, that’s just the way it is and is why England, for example, will always attract a decent sized crowd at Wembley despite being rubbish.
No, we are also thinking of the players. They have only just left their international team mates after the World Cup and now they have to see them again after only four games. Their consistency in the Premier League could be affected adversely by this break, they could suffer injury, (ask Luke Shaw), and their confidence could be reduced by either not being selected or having a bad game.
Other than commitments made by people who don’t know what they are doing, we can think of no good reason whatsoever for these international breaks and we get the very strong impression that the majority of football supporters would also quite happily live without them.
Get well soon…..
Another recovery needed from this man but, hopefully, a lot quicker this time
Luke Shaw deserves a bit of luck, preferably the good kind. After fighting his way back from a double fracture of the leg suffered against PSV in the Champion’s League back in September 2015, an injury caused by a terrible tackle by Hector Moreno who was later awarded “man-of-the-match” when he should have been sent off, Shaw has now been sidelined with a head injury which, hopefully, looked a lot worse than it was.
He has not been sent home from the England squad, which is a good sign, although he is unlikely to play the second meaningless game on Tuesday against Switzerland. The general concensus is that he was probably never going to play in that game anyway so the early indications on the injury are positive.
Apparently, shortly after being stretchered off, he was walking and talking to staff so Manchester United manager José Mourinho, who was playing with his phone throughout the game, maybe needn’t be too worried.
As supporters who thought we had finally seen the back of Ashley Young, we can only hope that Shaw is fit in time for the next game against Watford. If he was replaced by the ageing, right-footed winger in the team at left-back then that would certainly be a sight to make your eyes sore.
And finally…..
Following their “successful” World Cup campaign which resulted in them winning absolutely nothing and only playing reasonably well once, England returned to Wembley to face Spain in the first match of the Nations League
For the most of it they were outplayed by the visitors who had a pretty torrid time at the World Cup but didn’t try to convince a gullible public of anything other than the facts of the matter.
Spain players celebrate Rodrigo’s goal against England
Goals from Saúl Ñíguez and Rodrigo cancelled out an excellent opener from Marcus Rashford and, as all the action took place in the first half, the second was a bit of a non-event. That was until Luke Shaw went off injured with a head injury and Danny Welbeck scored a perfectly good equaliser in the 97th minute which was ruled out for something or other, we’re still not sure what.
By losing this game Gareth Southgate’s men became the first England team to “successfully” lose three games in a row for more than 30 years. Is there no end to what this team can achieve?
Just think about it, if they can nearly win the World Cup without even reaching the final and, (probably), get relegated in the first season of the Nation’s League because they won’t beat Spain or Croatia away from home and will struggle against Croatia at Wembley, then these could be really exciting times to be an English supporter.
Mind you, the players are still in cloud-cuckoo land. Harry Kane said after the game that the players could “hold their heads up high”. That’s after losing a game, at home! Imagine the fervour which would be sweeping the country if this team were actually any good? It beggars belief!
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 