Friday Bits and Bobs

To be Frank...

My condolences to the Lampard family after this week's tragic news.

However, at the risk of sounding callous, why has this story dragged on over the last couple of days? Yes, it's a tragedy but why was it front page news and why am I still hearing about it on rolling SPORTS news channels?

Footballers (like all human beings) suffer berievements all the time but why has coverage of poor Pat Lampard been in the spotlight so much?

Methinks the PR machine is trying to drum up sympathy for one of the country's most disliked players.

Bad taste? Well, that's CSKA Fulham for you!



I Miss You Thierry-bly

So the grass isn't necessarily greener?

I'm not going to subcribe to the newfound assertion that the man that made the Premier League his own for so many years is now crap!

However, it's no secret that Monsieur Henry's Catalan dream is turning into something of a nightmare.

Not once has he talked about how good life is in the sun and he cant stop talking about the club he left behind.

Wenger, ever the diplomat, refused to shut the door on a return for the former Arsenal talisman.

Shame that in reality he rarely signs anyone over the age of 20


Mil-no-moor

Sad news today could see Rotherham go out of business.

The club has gone into administration twice in the last two seasons and have struggled to find a buyer.

When top flight clubs are whinging about their managers not buying so and so or which billionaire owner they would prefer, it takes a story like this to put that all in perspective.

Wes Brown was given a £50,000 a week contract last week (for what?). The Millers' are overdrawn by just(in football terms) a couple of million quid.

Football needs to take a good long hard look at itself when professional clubs are on the brink of extinction.


The Big One

CSKA Fulham host the Salford Bay Rowdies in a 'Showdown' for the premier league title tomorrow.

We're in for a cracker! What with CSKA's unrivalled ability to send the opposition to sleep at The Bridge and The Rowdies prioritising Tuesday's second leg against Barca, it should be one for the ages.

The current CSKA team would be the worst champions this country has seen. Even their own fans will tell you that (if you can find them. None will be at the game). In a bittersweet sort of way, winning the title would actually be quite amusing. The experts have had a field day telling us that expansive, exciting football is the holy grail. If CSKA bore their way over the finish line, Sky TV might actually implode on itself.

Ronaldo has been brilliant this season. A bag full of tricks, incredible pace and an eye for goal have made him seemingly untouchable. And just when you thoughts there was no end to how amazing he is, the boy added a touch of the supernatural to his game as he actually DISAPPEARED at the Nou Camp on wednesday. The boy's a genius. Expect him to pull the same trick in another big game tomorrow...

Boo-Boys Are Back In Town

Football is an emotional game. I have to say, more so than any other sport on the planet. What other game brings grown men to tears, causes women and children to become foul-mouthed louts and incites much-publicised voilence between rivals week in, week out. Not that I'm saying any of these things are good but they all emphasise how strongly people feel about the sport.

You only need to see the fall-out from the failure in mid-week to understand what I mean. Yesterday saw the resumption of Premier League matches following a dismal international week for this country. The disgraced England internationals were back representing their clubs and after the Croatia debacle, fans up and down the country were not quite ready to forgive and forget...

The first game of the day saw Liverpool take on Newcastle at St. James' Park. From the get go England captain on wednesday night Steven Gerrerd was bombarded with a chorus of boos from the home crowd. Later in the day Aston Villa's Garath Barry and keeper Scott Carson were on the recieving end of booing from the 'Boro faithful and in the evening, Chelsea's entire English contingent were not given a minutes rest from the Derby crowd. Even Paul Robinson is getting grief from West Ham fans as I write this.

Frank Lampard and David Bentley have faced abuse recently, David Beckham more so in 98. Fans venting thier frustrations at those deemed as letting their country down is nothing new.

There is a justified collective disappointment felt by the England fans who are entitled to be disappointed. The 'experts' have been quick to condemn the jeering but credit must be given to the players. Gerrard and Terry both said it was understandable and expected. Nice to see them taking responsibility. Shame that it's just a little too late.

The question remains as to whether it is right to jeer the players. Esspecially now that they are representing their clubs. Those who advocate the abuse cite the infamous Club v Country row which is again brought to the fore.

Yesterday, Shawn Wright-Philips scored, with Frank Lampard getting an assist. Garth Barry also got an assist with Scott Carson keeping a clean sheet in the same game - despite a few scares. Steven Gerrard played brilliantly scoring a screamer and being heavily involved in his side's other 2 goals.

Why is it that these players can all do a job for thier clubs but not for their country? The same players I mentioned performed so gutlessly on wednesday it's difficult to believe they were same ones who took to the field yesterday.

So what was the difference? It is a question of motivation? Say what you want about the quality of management, there should be no greater motivation than the fact you are playing for your country. It says a lot about the players as people when they are clearly more committed to playing for their clubs. It can be argued that seeing as the clubs pay their wages they owe more to their employers and hence play better. But is money really more important than national pride? Evidently it is. If you dont believe me, consider John Terry and Rio Ferdinand's 'injuries' that kept them out on Wednesday and how they were fit enough to play 90 minutes for Chelsea and Man Utd some 2 days later.


This is why international football is becomng less and less important. The players dont care about and seemingly neither to they care about the jeers. And very soon, when the fans realise their boos are falling on deaf ears, they'll stop caring too.

England 2 Croatia 3

So there we have it. The dream is dead. The English football team has once again, in true English fashion, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Having been handed the mother of all life-lines last weekend, a shambolic night at Wembley means England will not be competing in next summer's European Championships.

English football now needs to take a good long, hard look at itself because what has transpired over the last 12 months has been nothing short of embarrassing.

The spiral of decline began the moment seventh-choice Steve was appointed. How could a man involved in the previous, unsuccessful, management set-up, with no independent International experience himself be appointed for the top job? It struck me as a desperate gamble at the time and so it has proven to be. You'd like to think the FA wont make the same mistake again but don't be too surprised if they do something daft like appoint Sammy Lee or Paul Jewell.

Meanwhile McClaren today walks away from the job with an extra 2.5million quid in his sky rocket. I'm all for compensation if contracts are broken and I'm rarely critical of the 'obscene' money in the game but there cannot be any justice in the world if seventh-choice Steve is being given that much money even though he failed to achieve the bare minimum (qualification for the Euros) of what his job required. That's like working in a call centre and never even picking up a phone but getting compensation when they rightfully sack you. Steve McClaren failed miserably and is getting paid for it? I just don't understand it at all.

5 goals were shared on a miserable night in Northwest London but I'd be shocked if anyone could honestly say it was a good game of football. It was dire from start to finish and the England looked like they would have been more at home at Hackney Marshes on a Sunday morning rather than in a 90,000 seater stadium with the hopes of a nation resting on their shoulders.

A word on the pitch. It seems quite perplexing that an arena than came close to costing a billion English pounds somehow cannot have a playing surface of at least reasonable quality. How is it that premiership grounds, played on week in, week out are in better condition than that mess? Croatia were right to complain beforehand but ironically, it was they who seemed to make best use of it last night. Last month we had no end of bitching about the fact Russia used a synthetic surface. At least they smart enough to actually sort out something playable rather than the bog at the 'state of the art' Wembley.

Incompetence is a word that is all too often branded about. The true meaning and impact of the word can be lost if flagrantly misused. It should be reserved for those moments in life when a person truly exposes himself as being incompetent...

One is left to wonder what seventh-choice Steve was thinking when he decided to drop David Beckham. I'm hardly Becks' biggest fan but it takes true incompetence not to realise that fresh off his assist for Peter Crouch against Austria and easily the best crosser of the ball in the team, Beckham would have been the best option to supply the lone Peter Crouch up top (and so it proved when Becks was introduced). Instead, McClaren selected Shawn Wright-Philips who is primarily a dribbler. It again takes a great deal of incompetence not to see that the rain-soaked Wembley pitch was never going to be conducive for dribblers like SWP.

Paul Robinson has come in for a lot of justified criticism this season. He has been nothing short of awful for the best part of a year and was correctly dropped from the England team. However, to replace him with a novice like Scott Carson is a real sign of incompetence considering the experienced, if not somewhat erratic option of David James was available. This was the most important game of McClaren's reign and he chose to gamble. I am sure that had Beckham and James started the match ahead of SWP and Scott Carson, this would be a very different blog post today.

England started with a 4-5-1 formation that played right into the hands of Croatia. The visitors were more assured, fluid and bold in their play. Despite packing the midfield, our 'heroes' somehow conspired to allow ALL THREE Croatia goals to come from simple lack of marking/closing down in that area of the pitch. Opting to play a 4-5-1 when in every other game, including a match just 5 days prior, 4-4-2 is clearly your preference suggests incompetence to me.

Yes, Owen and Rooney are injured but isn't that the whole reason Defoe and Bent were called up? It's no use throwing them on when it's too late. One of them should have started up top. Crouch was making flick-ons to nobody during that first half. What was the point of that???

Even with inept team selections and tactics, there is an argument that the 'quality' players we have should still be able to get a DRAW at home against Croatia. I can only partly agree with this. Yes, England despite everything SHOULD have performed better last night but unfortunately what happened was that we saw what too many for too long have been too afraid to admit: Our 'World Class' players are just not very good.

There's the obvious Gerrard/Lampard debate. These two are supposedly the best the country has to offer. But IF, for whatever reason, they cant play together then they clearly both have massive flaws to their game and should not be lauded as they constantly are. You'd be forgiven for thinking Lampard only just took to the field before he scored his penalty such was his anonymity last night. With Gerrard on the other hand, I myself was convinced must have been brainwashed into thinking he was Croatian. The amount of times he gave the ball away was a joke.

David Beckham's image got him where he is today. There is no denying that. His limitations as a player are clear to see for anyone that truly enjoys the game. He never has, nor ever will be 'World Class'. That said, yet again, in his 45 minute cameo, he was England's biggest threat. An aging star who currently plies his trade in one of the world's worst leagues is still England's most important and most committed player. Sad.

Yesterday's game was awful. The last 10 minutes involved England hoofing the ball up field in the faint hope that Crouch could win it in the air. This is the kind of anti-football that fans HATE to see. You wouldn't see Rochdale or Shrewsbury Town play as badly as England did last night. Credit to Croatia who at times looked a league above England but the fact remains that England aren't as good as people like to think but naturally, people will not acknowledge this and blame game will soon start. The 'too many foreigners' debate will of course arise once more.

But it's not just England. I spent last weekend watching the qualifying games and was left unfulfilled. I also remembered how many of the major tournaments inevitably prove to be a massive anti-climax. Then it dawned on me. International football as a whole just isn't that good or exiting. The quality you see week in, week out, in La Liga, The Premier League or Serie A is far greater than what you see when the so-called World's best meet up every few years. The only reason we get so exited about these tournaments is because of our vested interest in wanting to see England do well. On the whole, International football is very dull and we'll all see that next Summer when we watch the tournament as neutrals.

European Championship Qualifier: England v Estonia, 13th October 2007

Yesterday afternoon saw the England team take on Estonia. Wembley stadium was packed out even though nobody in their right mind would have considered this anything more than a glorified training session.

And so it proved, the team was as expected with Gareth Barry rightfully retaining his place alongside Steven Gerrard in midfield and the Owen/Rooney partnership was back together for the first time in what has seemed like years.

England started brightly and took just 11 minutes to open the scoring. Big Micah Richards played a through ball to Little Shaun Wright-Phillips who eased his way into the box and drilled his shot between the legs of Watford goalkeeper Mart Poom. 1-0. A goal straight out of the Man City academy.

Wayne Rooney then tried an audacious chip from outside the box which just went over the bar. It would have been a spectacular way to end his goal drought but accuracy was lacking in the finish.

The foul-mouthed Scouser didn’t have to wait too long though. Just after the half hour, Joe Cole played a weak cross from the left travelling about 2mph. Michael Owen, whose drop in pace has vastly improved his link up play, dummied the ball for Rooney to strike. The shot took a deflection that wrong-footed Poom and crepped oh so slowly into the back of the net. The Estonia ‘defence’ were motionless during this entire passage of play.

Within a minute, another poor cross, this time from Ashley Cole, should have been dealt with but Estonia, whose players it seemed had the collective footballing nous of a chic pea, seemed to somehow contrive to give England a third goal. Taavi Rahn somehow managed to plant a header from a good 20 yards out, past the luckless Poom. As good an own goal as you are ever likely to see. 3-0 long before half time. Game over.

In the second half, with the game already over as a contest, it was expected that England would run riot against the blatantly inferior opposition. Not so, England became almost complacent and lacked any sort of cutting edge. Chances were wasted to put the game out of sight most notably a two-on-one with Gerrard and Joe Cole where the two somehow managed to fluff their lines completely.

Nasty little Ashley Cole picked up a nasty looking ankle injury that rules him out of the Russia game on Wednesday. If his recovery time is anything like that during his last season at Arsenal we might not actually see him on the pitch for a long time (One can only hope).

Fans in attendance decided to amuse themselves by booing Frank Lampard when he was brought on. Aside from his goal against Germany, and this is putting it as nicely as I can, it’s difficult to see what exactly Frank Lampard brings to the current side. His obvious limitations as a player mean that he is unable to adapt to any system that isn’t identical to that of his club side where he often excels. There was phrase about square pegs in round holes that was often banded about when Svennis was in charge and I think it’s become clear that Fun-time Frankie cannot fit into any England shaped holes presently. Especially after another solid if unspectacular performance by Gareth Barry.

A couple of other observations. If Paul Robinson insists on hoofing the ball every time he gets it then it’s essential there needs to be someone who can win the ball in the air up top. What’s the use of long ball to a pair of short-arses in Owen and Rooney? This is where Peter Crouch becomes remotely useful (I cant stress ‘remotely’ enough). Failing that, we could just try and keep things low.

I know with Russia around the corner the players felt they didn’t need to exert themselves – particularly when Estonia posed about as much threat as a wet panty-liner – but I cant help but feel that this is exactly why England will never be footballing superpower. The mentality for years, regardless of manager, is to be to sit on your lead. We very rarely have the opportunity to celebrate thrashings even against sides like Andorra and Estonia. It’s been the same for years and it’s exactly why in tournaments the top sides more often than not, beat us. While yesterday’s result wasn’t exactly ‘ground out’, the second half was a complete non-event and a poor spectacle for anyone who had to suffer it.

But why am I complaining? A win is a win and the team should be on a high going into Moscow and its artificial pitch on Wednesday. Another 3-0 scoreline need not be frowned upon. However, considering the number of games won by the same scoreline recently, it’s a real shame that none of them have actually been memorable. Job done. No fanfare. The English way.

Oh, apparently there was some kind of rugby match going on later in the evening.