Showing posts with label Sport. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sport. Show all posts
Liverpool not prioritising
Monday, February 18, 2008
Respect to Barnsley for their football this last weekend, and their 2-1 FA Cup win over Liverpool, my team. Worryingly it seems that Liverpool no longer treat the FA Cup seriously. Benitez seems to be obsessed with Europe, and doesn’t seem to prioritise either the Premiership or the FA Cup.
Without Torres we don’t seem to be able score, yet he left Torres out (ready for Tuesday night’s European game against Inter Milan), surely a clear indication we might struggle. Yes, Kuyt and Crouch as international strikers should have been able to do the job, but consistently throughout the season they haven’t been able to do the job, Babbel is our next best threat.
Again he left Gerrard out, even after the issues of our match against Havant and Waterlooville, where without captain marvel we nearly lost to a team way further down the leagues than Barnsely.
If Benitez wants us to win silverware surely for these kind of matches he has to pick our best team – I am convinced if Torres and Gerrard had both played from the start of the match we would have been in the draw for the next round today.
We are now out of both domestic cups, already 19 points off the pace in the Premier League, so Benitez better hope that we progress on Tuesday night in the Champions League, certainly a big gamble, because by now his career is beginning to depend on it.
Without Torres we don’t seem to be able score, yet he left Torres out (ready for Tuesday night’s European game against Inter Milan), surely a clear indication we might struggle. Yes, Kuyt and Crouch as international strikers should have been able to do the job, but consistently throughout the season they haven’t been able to do the job, Babbel is our next best threat.
Again he left Gerrard out, even after the issues of our match against Havant and Waterlooville, where without captain marvel we nearly lost to a team way further down the leagues than Barnsely.
If Benitez wants us to win silverware surely for these kind of matches he has to pick our best team – I am convinced if Torres and Gerrard had both played from the start of the match we would have been in the draw for the next round today.
We are now out of both domestic cups, already 19 points off the pace in the Premier League, so Benitez better hope that we progress on Tuesday night in the Champions League, certainly a big gamble, because by now his career is beginning to depend on it.
What the bloggers say - England v Switzerland
Friday, February 08, 2008
Who ate all the pies has compiled some of the blogging community's verdict on England's 2-1 win over Switzerland at Wembley, in particular the role of new boss Fabio Capello:
'Capello has already given England something different. This team will play in a different way to its predecessors. Players will be encouraged to keep the ball, pass over shorter distances and attack from imaginative angles. That, at least, is something to be celebrated, however cautiously.' Guardian Unlimited
'As tempting as it would be to lay it into Fabio Capello (alternatively, we could all renounce international football like some club football fans - you know who you are), this was Capello’s first game, and just as England under McClaren could not afford to celebrate after beating Greece 4-0, England under Capello cannot afford to wallow in their own piss after a dominant-but-unconvincing 2-1 win over the Swiss.' Soccerlens
'England limped through this underwhelming friendly with a stale, patchy performance, as they struggled to adjust to the 4-1-4-1 formation that Capello had asked them to play.' Football Focus
'Obviously it’s good that Capello wasn’t satisfied. While there’s a team being fashioned here, instead of a collection of individuals, it’s clearly in its infancy. But there are positives to take forward, and I saw nothing that makes me think Capello isn’t the right man for the job.' Oh You Beauty
'Distinctly average. That’s how I would categorize England’s performance for the majority of their 2-1 friendly victory over Switzerland tonight. Distinctly average. If the England players wanted to come out and set a positive tone to impress new manager Fabio Capello, I’d have to say that as a group, they didn’t accomplish their goal.' EPL Talk
Gerrard temporary captain?
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
New England manager Fabio Capello has made Steven Gerrard his captain for Wednesday's friendly against Switzerland, his first match in charge. The Liverpool midfielder steps into the role until Capello has had more time to decide on a permanent skipper, with John Terry injured. In Terry’s absence, Gerrard is clearly the right man for the job. He’s one of only two club captains in the 23-man squad to face Switzerland on Wednesday - the other being Gareth Barry who wasn't a serious contender.
It will be interesting to see who is captain against Andorra in September. Personally I see Gerrard as a great club captain and a hugely inspiring player, but I am not convinced he should be the permament national captain. Terry has always impressed me in that role, though it could be said that he should take more responsibility for the team's failure to qualify for 2008.
Watching football increases heart attack risk
Saturday, February 02, 2008
'Heart in the mouth' moments during a big football match may literally put fans' lives at risk, research shows. Researchers studied the effects on German fans of watching their home team compete in the 2006 World Cup finals.
For men the risk of having a heart attack or another cardiovascular problem was three times higher on days when the German team was in action. Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians University found that female fans had an 82% increased risk.
Read more here.
For men the risk of having a heart attack or another cardiovascular problem was three times higher on days when the German team was in action. Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians University found that female fans had an 82% increased risk.
Read more here.
£30m to keep parks and sports facilities open later
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls recently announced a £30m investment over the next three years so sports facilities can be used all year and round the clock.
He urged more councils to end the ‘no balls game’ culture and help give children and young people out-of-school sports provision by opening up local facilities such as parks, playgrounds, basketball and tennis courts for longer hours.
Some of the comments Ed Balls made include:
He urged more councils to end the ‘no balls game’ culture and help give children and young people out-of-school sports provision by opening up local facilities such as parks, playgrounds, basketball and tennis courts for longer hours.
Some of the comments Ed Balls made include:
“We have some great sports facilities in schools. But at this time of year some young people find their local pitches are unlit and waterlogged. And even if they do function the gates are locked at sundown."
“And I’d ask all local authorities to look at the public sports facilities they already provide and make sure they are usable for as long as possible. If young people want to play sport after school we should encourage it - not lock the gates or turn off the lights."
“Of course local authorities have to make sure places are safe and secure - but floodlights can make areas safe for use and experience shows us that area which have provided out of hours sporting opportunities have seen a fall in anti-social behaviour.”
Check out his statement here.
Capello makes the right call in overlooking Beckham
Capello has been bold and not allowed sentiment to get in the way of who he picked for his first squad. Although he has trained at Arsenal, David Beckham has not played a competitive game since November and if that had been the case for any other player, they too would have been left out of Capello's first England squad.
The Italian has realised that a failing England have pandered to the wishes of their top players for too long. One guy getting 100 caps is nothing compared to the future health of the team. Fellow wingers David Bentley, Shaun Wright Phillips and Ashley Young need international matches under their belt and Capello has wisely picked them for next week’s friendly with Switzerland.
The Italian has realised that a failing England have pandered to the wishes of their top players for too long. One guy getting 100 caps is nothing compared to the future health of the team. Fellow wingers David Bentley, Shaun Wright Phillips and Ashley Young need international matches under their belt and Capello has wisely picked them for next week’s friendly with Switzerland.
This is totally different to Steve McClaren’s attempt at stamping false authority on the team by dropping Beckham when he took over. This is not a gimmick by Capello, this is a sensible footballing decision. Beckham may, and hopefully will get 100 caps, but at least he knows he’ll need to be match fit and have worked hard for it.
£5,000 a share in Liverpool FC
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Great post at Reuters football blog about on Would you pay 5,000 pounds for a share in Liverpool? For me as a Liverpool fan I would love to buy a share in the club I support and help to direct it, but there is no way I would ever have that type of money let alone be able to risk it in that kind of business. Would you buy a share in the club you support?
News from the world of football
Monday, January 28, 2008
Opportunistic thieves broke into the away dressing room at Sheffield United and stole £2,000 from the wallets and clothes of Manchester City's players. Go to the Guardian for more information.
Fabio Capello is having serious doubts over whether David Beckham is fit enough to be included in his first England squad, due to be named on Thursday. The England manager is also considering naming his first squad in two different stages over the next five days. Check out more at the Independent.
Comments on Kevin Keegan's return to Newcastle United
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Who ate all the pies has compiled some comments from across the web on Kevin Keegan's return to Newcastle United. Check them out:'No lover of English football will begrudge him [Keegan] the opportunity… to write a new chapter in the history of an extraordinary club. The cavalier has entered the gates and the roundheads are in flight. It may all end in tears. But the noise when he makes his return on Saturday evening will be worth hearing.' Guardian Sport Blog
'Keegan is different: he wants more and the fans will back him in the way that they would never have backed Didier Deschamps or Gerard Houllier. The chances are, of course, that for all his force of will, Newcastle’s title drought will roll into a ninth decade and, by measurement of the honours board, Keegan will fail. But for the revitalised Geordie fans who will go to work with an extra skip in their step today, they know they will have fun trying.' Reuters Soccer Blog
'I, for one, am mildly shocked, but shocked nonetheless. What’s that line? “You glorify the past when the future dries up?”' Argie-Bargie
'A decade ago Keegan's appointment as Newcastle boss brought entertainment but not a single trophy, unless I missed something. Why will it change ten years on? The task is even harder now with a wider gulf between Newcastle and the Big Four. I can't imagine Kev's a better manager now than then. Especially since he's been playing golf for the last two years.' Touchline Dad
'The appointment of Keegan may not bring titles to Newcastle. He may not have the tactical sophistication to achieve that. But he will revitalise a demoralised team with long-suffering fans, and will instantly make the Premier League a lot more exciting to watch. From 1992 to 1997 Keegan’s Newcastle set the template for the attacking football the Toon Army have come to demand from their team. His shock departure - he basically felt he couldn’t take the team any further in 1997 - left fans and neutrals alike with a sense of what might have been. Eleven years later we’re about to find out.' The Offside
'The expectations will be ridiculously high and that’s a shame because KK, and Newcastle United, deserve better. Here’s a club that needed massive rebuilding from the ground up, a club where the most recent rebuilding process was uprooted and thrown away because Mike Ashley wanted his own man in (Kev is probably better than Sam anyway, but only time and future Newcastle United performances will tell us for sure), and now the rest of the season will be spent rebuilding again.' Soccerlens
The use of football youth academies
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Great article by Henry Winter, chief football correspondent of The Telegraph on youth football, and on how Manchester United have put skill, rather than matches at the centre of their under-11 training, and that is why they are developing some phenomenal players. If you care about football this is an important read.
Pope wants football to teach honesty, solidarity and fraternity
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Pope Benedict XVI says football has a crucial role to play in teaching young people the important lessons of life - honesty, solidarity and fraternity.
It is the second time this season that the Vatican has turned its attention to football. In October, the Vatican sporting club announced it was joining forces with AC Ancona, a team in the second division, Serie B.
Since then, they have introduced a new code of ethics. There are now cheaper seats for families and club players who were booked for unsporting behaviour are subject to tough new sanctions. The Pope says he hopes the change of direction at Ancona will serve as an example to others.
Luton’s plea for financial help from Liverpool is turned down
Monday, January 07, 2008
Was saddened to see this article on The Times website about how Liverpool refused a request from Luton Town to donate their share of the gate money from the FA Cup game to their opponents, despite the Coca-Cola League One club being in such dire financial straits that they are in danger of folding and cannot afford to pay their players.
As the article highlights it is possible to be generous:
Luton are losing about £400,000 a month and went into administration in November. Their players have been paid only 2½ weeks’ wages in the past nine weeks. The club’s joint-administrator, Brendan Guilfoyle, asked the Barclays Premier League club if they were willing to forgo a share of the revenue from the tie, but was rebuffed.
“They probably said, ‘We have to pay players £100,000 a week. You must be joking, otherwise we will be like you,’ ” Kevin Blackwell, the Luton manager, said. “You just have to accept it. There are people in life who have got a Rolls-Royce while some people have a Mini. We are Mini drivers.”
The match will be televised live, earning each club £150,000, and Kenilworth Road will be full to its 10,000 capacity. Of the gate money, 45 per cent goes to each club and 10 per cent to a Football Association pool, so Luton and Liverpool stand to receive about £100,000 each from ticket sales. The winning club earns £40,000 in prize-money.
As the article highlights it is possible to be generous:
An FA spokesman confirmed that there is no rule to prevent a club donating their share of the gate money to an opponent. Chelsea gave £25,000 to Scarborough for youth development when the clubs met in the FA Cup in 2004, though Roman Abramovich, the owner, can easily afford such largesse.
David Beckham has one of the biggest carbon footprints in the world
David Beckham is likely to be the least green person on the planet. It has been reported that he not only owns a fleet of 15 gas-guzzling supercars [including a Porsche, Hummer and Lincoln Navigator], he has clocked up more than 250,000 miles in the air in the last year – more than the distance to the far side of the Moon. His travel schedule has notched up a staggering 163 tons of CO2, compared with the 9.4 tons of the average British person.
'The amount of flying David does means he holds the dubious crown of having the largest carbon footprint in human history…He has more freedom of choice when it comes to methods of travelling. He could also choose greener cars.'
Red card bonanza
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Yesterday there were 19 red cards shown in England’s four top divisions - the worst number on a single day since 19 were handed out on December 13, 2003. The main reason for this large number of red cards in one day centres on the recent increase of two-footed lunges which have appeared from nowhere in the last month.Chelsea’s Portuguese defender Ricardo Carvalho was the worst offender on Wednesday for a wild two-footed assault on Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor. He said this after the game:
“It was never my intention to hurt Agbonlahor with the tackle. I was going for the ball and I don’t want people to think I tried to hurt another player. I didn’t see him after the game to apologise but I asked for a message to be passed on to him.”
The two-footed lunge is one of the most stupid and dangerous as it can easily result in the victim suffering a broken leg or ankle. Thankfully no one has ended up in hospital yet but it will happen soon. These kind of tackles can, and have ended careers and need to be stopped. The punishment for this kind of tackle shouldn’t just be a ban for a couple of matches but a long-term ban, more equal to the level of injury that can be sustained on the victim of one of these tackles.
Sol Campbell calls for abuse of players to stop
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Sol Campbell says verbal abuse towards footballers and managers has spiralled out of control and it is time for the authorities to start taking action. Following recent complaints from Sir Alex Ferguson, Harry Redknapp and Avram Grant over crowd behaviour, he rang BBC Radio 4 off his own back saying "It's out of hand now, we can all take the booing or light banter, but when it gets to the realms of verbal abuse it's a bridge too far."
I am really impressed with his guts to get on and say something. I think the use of language in some of the stadiums has been poor. There should be more to stop it, there seems to be a very fine line between banter and abuse, but in football stadiums we spend too much time over the line. I hope that the FA follow up on his comments, and don't just sit there trying to defend themselves. Here are some more of Sol's comments:
"I may be immune to this but I'm playing football and should not be subjected to that type of abuse … I am an international player who has given his whole career to club and country. I think I deserve more than this … I know some people may be a little bit disgruntled at how I left certain clubs. I totally understand that … But when you get to the level of personal abuse that I and other players are subjected to, it's got to stop now.”
And Campbell thinks verbal abuse is as bad as racist chanting.
"There is no difference for me," said the 33-year-old centre-half. "It's harmful. They are trying to belittle you and it is downright out of order … This is a human rights situation where professional sportsmen - managers as well - want to do their job professionally and people are abusing them verbally … If this happened on the street you'd be arrested. The FA, the PFA (Professional Footballers' Association) and even the government should get involved."
Is Capello the right man for England?
Thursday, December 13, 2007
After Mourinho pulled out of the running all the focus seems to be on Capello for the England job, so is he the right man for the job, or is Brian Barwick and the FA going to get it wrong?
He has managed some of the biggest clubs in Europe: Real Madrid, Juventus, Roma and AC Milan and led each to their domestic league title, as well as also winning a European Cup. He is also backed by an impressive line of people linked to football, most importantly he has brought Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger together - no mean feat.
The big disadvantage, apart from the idealisitc issue of him not being English; is that he doesn't seem to be great with the English language, but that is something that can be picked up - the problem with that isn't communicating with the players, he can speak the international language of football; the issue of language is more important when dealing with the media.
What do you think - is it great that someone with his CV and references wants to manage England; or do you hate that idea and desperately want someone else. Comment away.
Stop being an armchair fan
Saturday, December 01, 2007
This advert has been around a while, but i saw it again this week. It has a good message, although it would be interesting to see if it actually had any impact - do they have a way to measure it?
Harry Redknapp no longer in the running for England job
Thursday, November 29, 2007
What a bizarre day. Harry Redknapp was arrested police investigating corruption in football. The Pompey manager has spent the last week being heavily touted as the best Englishman to coach the national team – but that looks like a lost dream now, how can someone who has just been arrested be employed as the England manager.
He was one of five men arrested along with Portsmouth chairman Peter Storrie. I know that Harry comes across as one of the lads, but I wouldn't have ever predicted that - will be interesting to see where the police investigation goes.
Mourinho interested in England manager role
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The BBC are reporting that Jose Mourinho has reportedly expressed an interest in becoming the new England manager. Mourinho, who left Chelsea in September, said he would be happy to talk to the Football Association:
"You will have to speak to the FA to see if they are interested in offering me the job, I cannot say what I think until they say they are interested. Tell the FA to come and get me. We will have to wait and see, but I rule nothing out."
It certainly would be interesting to have "the special one" as our manager but I'm not sure anyone can rescue the way England play unless they do two things: one have the tactical knowledge and people skills to manage the actual team; and secondly to get the FA to get an improved programme for bring through young English players.
England always blame the manager
Saturday, November 24, 2007
As I hinted at, England managed to lose against Croatia and so we failed to qualify for Euro 2008. McClaren was blamed for our failure to qualify, and whilst I agree that the manager, the man at the top has to take some responsibility but I have to say, I would be tempted to agree with Roy Keane who criticised some of the England players.
I think he does overstate his case, and that many of the players are passionaite but they certainly don't seem able to gel and play together, and they should take responsibility for their performance. The manager can only do so much, at the end of the day the team, especially the captain are responsible for what happens on the pitch.
“I don’t think international football is that important to a lot of these players these days and club football has taken over, especially for a lot of top players involved in the Champions League. From the outside looking in, I tend to think there are too many egos in there, too many big heads ... Unfortunately, the manager takes the brunt of it but I do believe players have to take more responsibility, especially at that level ... When you look at the talent that the England lads have got it is really unbelievable they haven't qualified ... When you talk about talent and technique, England have that in abundance at the moment. To say the likes of Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and David Beckham are not technically as good as other players is wrong because they are."
I think he does overstate his case, and that many of the players are passionaite but they certainly don't seem able to gel and play together, and they should take responsibility for their performance. The manager can only do so much, at the end of the day the team, especially the captain are responsible for what happens on the pitch.
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