Angry Fans
JUST what has gone wrong with the Spurs this season? Another toothless surrender at Anfield with a terrible miss by Jenas. Is there something to all the rumours that Martin Jol is restless after all?
: Well, if he wasn’t to be begin he should be now.
NOW that the Premiership hype machine is at full throttle it’s worth remembering how England with all their Premiership superstars got on in the World Cup. For such a big football nation they really do play the game very badly and have done so for a long time, and yet after every major tournament all they can talk about is missed penalties, freak goals, and star players being sent off. Just like the Premiership, the drama hides the mediocrity.
: Spotter’s Badge to Mike for noting the distinction, which many miss, between “the most exciting league in the world” and “the best league in the world.”
SO Chelsea are down to their last centre-half? Look at my face. Do I look bothered?
: Nice to hear from you, Sir Alex.
NOW then Liam, congratulations on your Ryder Cup coverage. Plangent is a wonderful word; one gets to use it so rarely in a sentence these days. On matters football I can’t help looking at the Premier League table with a smile; and an even bigger smile when I see that the “out-of-form” misfiring Lampard is standing on four goals already.
: Good man Cork Blue. “Red” is a word one gets to use so rarely in a sentence nowadays. So you know what you can have for your trouble.
THE Ryder Cup supporters must have read your column about getting some better chants going than “Go USA” and “Geddin the Hole.” Kildare sounded more like Lansdowne Road on Sunday. What was your favourite, Liam?
: Too many to mention, he lied. Still, I think we may have seen the birth of what we can only call the Greens Army. Be very afraid.
TAKE a look around the European football leagues . Spain: Barcelona top; Italy: Inter Milan top; England: Chelsea top; France: Lyon top; Germany: Bayern top. Only in the Eredivisie can you find a non-traditional leader — AZ Alkmaar. Is it me, or will such domination mark the end of football?
: It’s just you Padraig.
I NOTICED the story which said that attendance at live GAA matches has peaked and is expected to decline from now on. How much can we blame the wall-to-wall coverage of overseas sports and the prominence that papers such as yours give to them?
SO Sebastian Coe is to be head of Fifa’s ethics commission. Olympic gold medalist, the man who beat Paris for 2012. Just as well. Sounds like his new job is one for Superman anyway.
: What the hell is happening to this week column? First golf, now GAA and the Olympics. Be off and be angry in your own column.
SO England manager Steve McLaren is going to discourage his star players from publishing autobiographies while their career is still taking place, and is also booting out the Wags. Can anyone hear the sound of the stable door shutting?
And since when were football biographies any cop anyhow? The only one worth reading was Len Shackleton’s in which he had a chapter headed: What the average club director knows about football. Then there was a blank page. A few more blank pages from the likes of Ashley Cole would be welcome.
Meanwhile I am going to turn to the new Alan Brazil biography: “There’s an awful lot of bubbly in Brazil.”
: Congratulations Joe. You’ve won this week’s prize of Theo Walcott’s ‘My Life Story’. (“A snappy read” — Hello)
SO LIAM — should players’ salaries be capped; should clubs’ transfer spending be linked to their turnover or their profit; should clubs have to field a certain number of home-grown players. Or shall we just sort out the offside rule and get on with the game?
: Pity your name isn’t Molly and then I could go, yes, I said yes, I said yes, I said absolutely, yes, obviously. (If only Joycey had been a football manager).
LIAM, I don’t know what you were expecting from the Panorama documentary but I thought the whole thing was a lot of fuss about nothing. Surely there are more interesting stories in the dark areas of football than this. Or was it just that the lawyers cut it to pieces?
DID you read the suggestion that last night’s Portsmouth v Bolton match should have been broadcast on Panorama rather than Sky . . . because that’s the only way that BBC viewers are going to get to see Harry Redknapp and Sam Allardyce again. Football being corrupted by money? As Danny Baker says in his column this week: “Big deal. Next week Earth revolves around sun shock.”
: Perhaps ‘Panorama’ was one smoking gun short of a conviction maybe but I still think that Mike Newell is the hero of the week.
NO sooner did Keano start talking about Sunderland taking a “reality check” than Ipswich gave them one. Is there no limit to the man’s magic?
It’s official: the honeymoon is over.
BARRY Sygmuta. Crazy decision on Sunday by the lino with the crazy name. Ameobi was miles offside. That’s two points gone south on the Tyne. Incidentally, Tim Cahill — 24 goals in 84 appearances at Everton. That’s top class scoring from midfield.
: Ah, the lino — no wonder people walk all over them.
DENNIS Wise as manager at Elland Road with Ken Bates as chairman? Are they trying to turn us into the Chelsea of the North? They’re doing OK with the debts and the ticket prices so far.
: Don’t tell me you’ve started tapping up people as well.
BAD time for Stuart Pearce? Didn’t look like it at the weekend and at least he’s got some great prospects in his side — Richards, Miller, Samaras.
What has happened to Mascherano? And Tevez is doing a passable impersonation of the Invisible Man. Signing them could be the biggest managerial mistake of the season.
LOVED the explanation by Stuart Pearce as to why he was carrying a toy horse into the dugout at the City of Manchester Stadium: “My daughter gave it to me for luck. It’s difficult to explain to a seven-year-old that this is the Premiership and that I’m known as Psycho.”
: Nice to conclude with some peace, love and good vibes all around. Have our Letter Of The Week prize City Blue. Think of it as a chairman’s vote of confidence in the gaffer.
