Sunday Wrap Up February 3, 2008

Heads up at St James’. I want to know first of all how does Michael Owen out jump anyone to score a header????? Well he did it in the 60th minute to give Newcastle a 1-0 lead after having two other goals disallowed. Late in the second half Robert Huth tied the score with a deflection from his noggin breaking Kevin Keegan’s chances for his first victory since returning Tyneside. Stuart Downing would have made things worse had he not been offsides in injury time. The stats were evenly split so it seems to reason that the final score be the same. Newcastle United 1-1 Middlesbrough.

A win for Fulham! No really! Roy Hodgson got his first victory courtesy of a gutty performance by his club. The Cottagers came out swinging and came close a few times, however it was Aaron Hughes’ own goal that put an attacking Aston Villa on top. Fulham fought back and Jimmy Bullard found Simon Davies for the equalizer four minutes later. Bullard, who has come back from career threatening knee surgery, became the hero of Craven Cottage when he curled in a beautiful free kick in the 86th minute. Look out, the Cottagers are on the rise! They scored three times today!

The bad news is that Gabriel Agbonlahor went out at the half with a hamstring injury. He’s very doubtful for Switzerland Wednesday. Fulham 2-1 Aston Villa.  

Foriegn Policy

I can’t believe that I’m defending the FA! Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood has hit out at the League governing body over their comments about the influx of foreign players in the Premiership. First, here is Hill-Wood’s comment to the Daily Mirror:

 ”It seems to me the people at the FA are out of touch with reality. I can’t think why anybody would make these comments when Arsenal and many Premier League clubs are spending a lot of money on their academies. It is not our fault if many English players are not good enough. It is the same for every one of the big clubs now. We find players worldwide. Football is now global. It is also the same in any other industry. You go along with the trends or you suffer badly.”

I have nothing against foriegn players at all. Some of the players that made the Premier League the top league in the world were foreign. Eric Cantona, Jurgen Klinsmann, Gianfranco Zola and Thierry Henry are just a few of the men who came to England and brought a new kind of excitement to the League. Our game used to be a grind it out type and they brought a free flowing style. I for one am grateful to them for it.

                     

But to say that English players are not good enough is one of the dumbest things that I have ever heard. Many Brazilian players got their start by kicking a stuffed sock around in an alley. You can’t tell me that a well run club academy can’t take a young player with raw talent and polish them up for the Premiership! When Manchester United won the treble in 1998-99 the core of that squad had come out of the Trafford Training Centre. Hill-Wood is trying to deflect the attention from his own woefully inadequate academy system and onto the FA “bigwigs”. Brian Barwick is still a world class idiot. We could end up with an English champion that has a foreign owner, manager and players. Half of the teams in the Premier League are foreign owned, of course they are going to bring in foreign players. The FA should have a mandate to develope young English players and turn them into world class footballers. The time of the English superstar is not over, but people like Barwick and Hill-Woods need to look beyond lining thier own pockets and take responsability to save our game.

Out of thirty-one first squad players for Arsenal, only six of them are from the home nations AND only Theo Walcott ever gets a shot at playing in the Premiership. That’s 19% of the team being British/Irish! Their closest rival Manchester United is 50% British/Irish. Yeah, I guess he’s right there are no good young English players to choose from.

Mark my words! I would not be surprised if one day the FA moves to bring in foriegn clubs to compete in the Premiership. I’m not talking about Scottish, Welsh or Irish clubs. I mean French, Dutch, Belgian, German, etc. They will talk about how it will benefit the domestic game and how the game is global and we must adapt to keep up.

When Steve McClaren was sent packing late last year some people called for Arsene Wenger to become the new England manager. How could he be the national team manager if he can’t go abroad to find players to wear the White and Blue?