There seems to be more international football matches nowadays than ever before. To me it is an irritant rather than something to look forward to. Here is what I thought about it a just over a year ago.
The football season just starts and we need a break for internationals. We get a month or so further down the line and we need another break for internationals. Some of them are qualifiers, meaningless or otherwise, some of them are just friendlies, meaningless friendlies. (more…)
What next for the Special One?
Jose Mourinho has proved before that he isn’t untouchable at Chelsea. After a while in the job, the brand new suit of armour he always brings with him begins to show signs of rust, before completely crumbling to dust, (or should that be iron filings?)
After short spells at clubs, where he has invariably been successful, he has tended to move on to a different challenge. Having won the Champions League in two different countries his main ambition now is to win a third. He would prefer that to be with Chelsea but, should that not be possible, don’t be surprised to see him at another English club.
He seems to crave longevity now, probably as he gets older the wanderlust isn’t as strong as it once was. Also he has achieved lot of what he set out to achieve, so the idea of actually settling down somewhere for a while must be quite appealing. (more…)
As anybody who has read the mini-bio on the “About the Author” page will know I am from Manchester and have been a supporter of Manchester United for more than 50 years. During my formative years, in the sixties, I was taken to Old Trafford one week then Maine Road the next for many years. In fact, I was chaperoned until I was deemed old enough to go unaccompanied by an adult. At this stage I stopped going to Maine Road because I was actually a United fan and wanted to watch Law, Best and Charlton all the time. It didn’t help that City were in the old second division in those days, so that also influenced my decision somewhat.
Given this upbringing, I like to think that I am entitled to an opinion, borne of experience, on the importance of the derby game nowadays. (more…)
As Christmas approaches there will be the inevitable cries from some of the Premier League managers, (for it is only them, the lower league managers just get on with it), for a Winter break from the gruelling schedule that can see a top player sometimes having to don his playing boots twice in three days.
You have to feel for the poor souls. Having to survive on a mere pittance of a salary, play on pitches resembling the finest Persian carpets, stay in five star hotels the night before a game, (which now seems to be the norm even for a home game) and then , to add insult to injury, go and kick a ball around for 180 minutes over a period of three days.
As you will no doubt be aware, this scenario is only available at Christmas and the New Year. Thankfully, the poor, vulnerable little waifs and strays will only be asked to run around in circles twice per week at other times of the year, so they don’t feel quite as shattered. (more…)
Are they really necessary? Assuming that blind people don’t watch television, what is the point of a commentator?
I can go back as far as Kenneth Wolstenholme commentating on the 1966 World Cup final and his now immortal lines, “some people are on the pitch, they think it’s all over……………it is now!” All said to the accompaniment of Geoff Hurst booting the ball past a startled Hans Tilkowski for England’s fourth goal. The thing was, Wolstenholme didn’t actually tell us anything we didn’t already know. We were sat watching the game on TV.
Ever since the inception of televised football, the TV companies have thought it necessary to treat their audience as bumbling, infantile idiots. Where else do we accept the notion that, while we are actually watching something we know inside out, we need somebody to tell us what is happening (more…)
After all these years trying, the Americans seem to have finally got the hang of that there Soccer game.
Alright, so they had to rename it in order to not get confused with the armoured Rugby they call Football, which consists of, in the main, carrying or throwing the ball with their hands.
They also have a very popular sport called Baseball. In the UK it is called Rounders and is played, almost exclusively, by very strong schoolgirls.
So it was about time that a real sport was introduced that will eventually become more popular than either of the aforementioned, as it has in virtually every other country in the world. (more…)
Manchester City, thanks to international games being played during a football season, lost out considerably before they took on Bournemouth at the Etihad.
It is fair to say that Bournemouth also lost out to injuries to key players but that is a different situation. At least the Bournemouth players were injured playing for Bournemouth and, as they are unlikely to be challenging the top of the Premier League, they need to buy in January and survive until next season, when they should have a reasonable team.
City can thank Argentina, Spain, Serbia and Belgium for their absentees in this game. All City now have to do is get them fit, pay their wages and try and win games without Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Aleksandr Kolarov and Vincent Kompany. (more…)
At the risk of appearing as though this is becoming my pet project I want to write, for the last time, about the attraction, (or otherwise), of capital cities to football players.
In England, at the moment, there is a feeling that players coming into our game from abroad would rather play for a London team because they would rather live in London.
I don’t think it is the feeling of the majority, but there are certainly some who think this way. I have covered the reasons as to why this isn’t true, specifically about London, in another post, which you can access here.
What I would like to look at now is whether the capital cities in other countries hold any more attraction than the other large cities when a player is making a move. (more…)
(Brendan at the station waving goodbye to Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Raheem Sterling along with any chance he had of keeping his job)
Brendan has decided that tomorrow is another day. Not an original quote, but one that Margaret Mitchell would have been pleased to hear. On his sacking by Liverpool he should have said that frankly, my dear, he didn’t give a damn, but he probably didn’t so an opportunity went begging.
The only surprising factor in Rodgers’ dismissal is that it took Liverpool so long to commit the act. Many thought he might go after he sent the money received from Barcelona for Luis Suarez to Southampton and asked them to send him some players in return. The ones that chose to join have hardly pulled up any trees. In fact, Ricky Lambert has already moved on, Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren have struggled to make an impact, although both have improved recently, and Nathaniel Clyne is the only one who can be considered a regular. (more…)
Jack Grealish has decided to represent England at international level.
This assumes that, at some stage in the future, he is actually selected. He should be though, as England do not have a plethora of gifted players from which to make their selection.
He has already played for the Republic on nearly twenty occasions from under-17 to under-21 levels and qualified under the grandparent rule. Now, by choosing England, he stands to make a lot more money but little else.
Small fish, large pond or large fish small pond. Basically that was the choice facing Jack Grealish, who has always maintained that his heart is Irish, unlike his wallet which is English. (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 