Gazza!

When he played he was one of the best that England has ever produced. I was lucky to see him play numerous times throughout his career (mostly for England) and he was phenomenal when he had the ball at his feet. Gazza has always been the “Clown Prince” of football, famous for pranks he pulled on friend and foe alike, but that never detracted from his great talent. His flick over Colin Hendry in the EURO 96 match against Scotland was just one of many great moments in his career. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzPjlnQEkps

The news broke Thursday that Paul Gascoigne was sectioned under the Mental Health Act for behavior detrimental to himself and others. This is another sad step for the great man. Ian Wright said it best on his radio show – it is time for the FA to step forward and help this man. I agree and this is why: Gascoigne came up at the time when everything changed in football. Salaries skyrocketed and pressure mounted on players on and off the pitch. Media exposure became rabid. No one knew how to handle all of these new difficulties. Paul was a young lad without someone to guide him. So he handled the spotlight the way he had always handled things, by going out and having a good time. And the world of English football shunned him as a buffoon. All players of that era faced the same problems and not everyone went down the same path, but some did and all of them deserve to get help.

Give something back to a man that has given so much to England. He lives and breaths football. This isn’t a cliche, it’s fact. I’ve heard many accounts of his love for the game and how he lives in the world of football 24/7. He is a good man who needs to be brought back into the fold. He needs to pass along his knowledge of the sport to those young lads who need to know.

GET WELL SOON GAZZA!

        

EPL going global?

 

The Premier League has announced that they are looking to expand the season by one extra match that will be played in cities like Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Sydney, Johannesburg, Dubai and Beijing. Not surprisingly the blow-back has been enormous. Supporters, managers and club officials have been in an uproar since Thursday’s announcement. One of the comments that I read on a discussion thread said that they shouldn’t have to pay for twenty home games if one of them is going to be played in another country. Actually the report I read (and they may have reported it wrong) was that it would be an extra game, so all of the home and away fixtures would be available.

            

Sir Alex Ferguson has come out and said that if you are going to add an extra fixture to an already filled schedule, the managers should be consulted before making it a public issue. A crowded fixture schedule didn’t seem to curtail a trip to Saudi Arabia. The managers should have been consulted, but to say that the crowded schedule is a problem is asinine. Premiership teams travel quite a bit in the pre-season to global destinations (not every team does, but more do it every year) and trot out their B team while charging the international fans quite a bit.

                                      

This isn’t about making the English game available to the world. If the Premier League really cared about reaching around the globe it would be easier to watch the League matches we want to see. And how are they going to make the travel worth it for all of the teams? I would walk to Los Angeles to see Manchester United play Arsenal if all of the stars are going to play. But, why would I pay to see West Brom play Reading? Nothing against either team, they just don’t have enough of a fan base in the US to make it worth their coming over. The Premiership should put together a promotional tour of globally followed clubs versus smaller clubs. People will turn up for Middlesbrough if they are playing Chelsea, not if they’re playing Wigan.

Another con would be Sepp Blatter getting involved as the plan progresses. THAT’S the kiss of death to any plan. If you want to watch an idea swirl it’s way down the bog get FIFA involved.

                                      

Three Lions Victorious at Wembley

Yes it was only a friendly. Yes it was Switzerland. And yes at times it was a bit spastic. But, this goes in the win column and that’s a start. There were fits and starts throughout the match. With players struggling to fit into Capello’s team concept while trying to impress the new boss, there were some boneheaded plays happening on the pitch.

But, I was happy to see that they played like a team. They didn’t play like eleven individuals and that is what we needed in our national team. Interestingly when the lads held the ball and probed for an opening, the England supporters started to jeer. Then Jermaine Jenas gave them a healthy “Shut your hole” when he directed a great Joe Cole pass past Swiss goalkeeper Diego Benaglio for the opening goal. The pressure swept up and out of Wembley with that one quick touch.

The defense played well for the most part, but they did face a couple of close calls. Then Eren Derdiyok made it look to easy as he snapped a shot into the corner of the net and tied up the game early in the second half. The goal brought out the best in the England attack and Peter Crouch flicked the ball to Steven Gerrard who found Shaun Wright-Phillips for the winning goal and The Lions roared.

Rooney takes some stick from some punters for not being a prolific scorer for England. When he plays for club or country Rooney is a dynamo on the pitch. He had some great shots against the Swiss and could have a couple of goals for himself.

I wish we would see these guys again soon in some actual competition. Oh well.

    

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?