Angry Fans
SO Sam Allardyce says that Shay Given’s injury last season may have left him "psychologically scarred". What rubbish. If there’s any scarring involved it will probably be because of several years standing behind one of the leakiest defences in the Premiership.
IF Sam Allardyce would prefer to have Carlo Cudicini in goal at St James’s Park because he prefers taller goalkeepers then I suggest he gets a new tape measure. There’s very little difference in height between the Italian and the Irishman.
LOOKS like Newcastle’s management are falling out of love with our Shay. If that’s so then send the man from Donegal down to the Emirates. If he had been in goal we would have beaten Barcelona.
All being well on the injury front, you can be sure that, whatever happens, Shay won’t be idle for long. I think that’s what they call a given.
READ your column on Saturday Liam about the delights of a trip to Bratislava. It’s a tough job eh, but somebody has to do it! Where next for you after Wednesday - the rugby World Cup? Flushing Meadow? The Grand Prix? Sure, you must be the top air miles collector in the Republic.
Three words: deep vein thrombosis. Frankly, I’m thinking about asking for danger money.
IRELAND look not to be having the rub of the green for the match against the Czech Republic with Stephen Ireland out and the injury worries over Kevin Doyle, Dunne and Steve Finnan. The Czechs are half the team they were in the days of Nedved. A draw is my call.
IRELAND haven’t won a qualifying game away from home for 20 years. Sorry, but I can’t see that changing on Wednesday. A point is the best we can expect.
LIAM,has John O’Shea learned anything from his years at Manchester United? When you are defending a single goal lead with a few minutes to go, it’s all hands to the pumps. You do not turn your arse to a goalbound shot from the opposition,a shot which results in the equalising goal. Anyway, he proved the theory, "no pain, no gain".
The recurring problem with Ireland is that it’s too much pain, too little gain. That said, I have a not entirely mad hunch that we’re going to beat the Czechs who, as Limerick Red suggests, are not invulnerable. But, obviously, don’t tell anyone I said that ...
FORGET the Premier League; forget Euro 2008 qualifiers. Even forget the Rugby World Cup. What people want to know Liam is your verdict on the eircom League; why the mighty Drogs are ahead of Shamrock Rovers and why Cork City have been so poor this season. Let’s have it Liam.
Too many changes in Cork and not enough consistency. The Drogs have certainly had that but seem to be slowing up the nearer they get to the line. It may be too late for the mighty Hoops to catch up¡ª the loss to Longford was a hammer blow ¡ª but, considering how far they’ve come in so short a space of time, they are still definite candidates for team of the season.
SO Andriy Shevchenko, playing in a charity game in the Ukraine, can’t understand why he isn’t being picked for Chelsea. I will give him three suggestions: too slow, too old and half-fit. Oh, and if Michael Ballack is wondering why he hasn’t been included in the Champions League squad it couldn’t, could it, be anything to do with the fact that he took himself off to Germany before the Champions League semi-final last season for an unauthorised operation which hasn’t worked and which he hasn’t recovered from. What an over-priced pair of misfits and disappointments.
Always nice to hear from you, Jose.
I SEE that some commentators at the weekend have been dusting down that most famous of quotes from Danny Blanchflower: "Football is about glory. It’s about doing things in style with a flourish; about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom." As someone who watched Blanchflower play as a perceptive and intelligent wing-half (remember them) I can confirm that was indeed his philosophy (although I always thought that the stand-out player of the Tottenham Double team was the Scotsman John White). However, as a manager of Chelsea he was an unmitigated disaster. His most memorable "achievement" was to sell the team captain Ray Wilkins to Manchester United (another example of Old Trafford’s famous youth policy). Finally, can I congratulate Arsene Wenger on signing his contract extension at the Emirates. The man has been an adornment and an example. And, since, he has failed to beat A Mourinho team on any single occasion in the past three years it is also a win-win situation for Stamford Bridge.
It’s a toss-up between this being letter of the week and a red card offence. Guess which one comes up heads?
ENGLAND fans really like their booing don’t they? Booing the girl who provided the Israeli national anthem. Booing David Bentley when he came on for his first full international. It’s only a pity that Lampard wasn’t playing. Then they could have had a hat-trick.
THE problem with David Bentley was not that he withdrew from the England Under-21 squad this summer, but that he withdrew from the squad too late, meaning that the team had to go into a tournament with one player missing. As they got to the final, played extra time, and only lost on penalties which several injured players had to take, then it’s fair enough of supporters to take a dim view of that. And Scotland fans booed the Lithuanian anthem at the weekend as well. Is it time to give up playing national anthems at soccer games or make their supporters watch a re-run of the England match at Croke Park.
Just for the record, Mick, it’s worth noting the impeccable moment’s silence before kick off for a former Czechoslovakian player and the respect accorded the Slovak anthem at the game in Bratislava. It’s not all bad news but have our Letter of the Week prize for your concern.
I WAS reading at the weekend that Bobe Balde is prepared to sit out his contract (€50,000 per week) in the reserves at Celtic, drawing comparisons with Winston Bogarde who earned more than € 5m at Chelsea while never kicking a ball for them. Celtic offered Balde his contract extension only some 18 months ago. They entered into the contract. They would now like to break it. Tough.
And some of our correspondents think I have the plum job?
THE United Supporters Trust says their club is overloaded with dangerous levels of debt (not that this has stopped them being the highest spenders in the Premiership this summer with a swathe of signings - particularly Anderson - which look overpriced). Yet the Glazers insist that all is well. Meanwhile Arsenal are about to release results which are going to show the outstanding impact of the move to the Emirates Stadium. I know which business model I prefer.
Frankly I prefer the old football myself.
