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Posted Mar 26th 2007, 12:27pm
England - What a load of Muppets – the fans I mean!
England’s nil nil draw away to Israel proved another reminder of something that is consistent at England internationals – that England fans know nothing about football.
How galling it must have been for the England players to look up at their travelling support of overweight, beer swilling fans who have probably never kicked a ball in a competitive match telling them they were a load of rubbish, after they had totally dominated play in a difficult away tie and were genuinely unlucky to only draw. England fans are muppets, but then so are the majority of armchair pundits whose biased views are published in the press.
“We can’t score a goal, put him on the dole”, says the Sun “Give Mac the Knife”, said the News of the World, well hang draw and quarter McClaren because a newly formed strike partnership failed to score. OK AJ and Rooney, two of the most promising strikers in the country failed to produce a goal, but no strike partnership ever produces instantaneous results. The Israelis to their credit defended in numbers and defended well and their ‘keeper rode his luck.
Before we blame McClaren for fielding this new pairing, ask yourselves this - who else would have started up front? Indeed the manager’s first 11 would be the first picked by most armchair pundits, even the surprise of Lennon on the left proved vindicated with the wingers man of the match performance.
The press and the public have long thought that England have a God given right to win all their games, especially against the so-called minnows. This huge weight of expectation simply doesn’t add up to the facts that England have a collection of supremely talented players but that doesn’t mean they have a supremely talented team – and this is something that no manager can equate in the current win win win climate.
Lets be sensible and rational about this. England haven’t had a solid strike partnership since Shearer and Sheringham, they have no-one who they can rely on to play on the left side of midfield and they have two of the best midfielders in Europe who go together like oil and water and whichever the manager drops he will receive a tsunami of flak.
Sack McClaren and the new manager, whether its Scolari, Allardyce or Venables will face the same problem – greed. As well as the public’s greed for constant wins and entertainment,(because we pay good money etc etc), the England manager has to deal with a system that sees more teams in the top flight than most other countries, meaning more club fixtures and no time for international training. Will that change – no.
The manager also has to deal with a perpetually hostile press because of greed. Rational comment and placating headlines don’t sell newspapers, calls for the sack do – will that change, will we see ‘positive signs despite results’, ‘England’s poor luck produces draw’? No.
So what we have going into the Andorra game is the increased pressure of the press and the fans getting on the players’ backs instead of getting behind the team. You may say they only have themselves to blame and yes they do, but they know that – the so-called fans should think likewise.
England are still in the running, but should they fail to qualify its more than the team that should take a look at themselves – then again in England its always preferable to scapegoat the manager.
Posted Feb 19th 2007, 5:28pm
Team Bonding with Craig Bellamy
Karaoke, Golf Clubs & Craig Bellamy – a dangerous and volatile mix, especially if you’re a shy ginger Norwegian. The latest incident in the fractious history of the self- maligned Welshman is one too many.
Bellamy is certainly not the first player to be noted for his explosive temperament and most certainly won’t be the last. But while it is often said ‘take the devil out of the player, you take it out of his game’, the same can’t be said of Bellamy for whom the devil only appears off the pitch.
The Welshman’s catalogue of kick offs include physically abusing women during drinking binges, haranguing former team-mates and now attacking a team mate by hacking at his legs with a golf club.
The outcome of the latest events aren’t yet clear, and Liverpool will no doubt want to let sleeping dogs lie until they return from their vital game against Barcelona, but will Benitez keep hold of a player who surely has the dressing room if not the whole of the FA against him after maliciously trying to ruin a fellow players career?
Pragmatism may force him to keep hold of his £7m player but Bellamy has a history of biting the hand that feeds him – the only question is who would have Bellamy now?
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