Angry Fans
This week the Munich commemoration; Richard Dunne’s great performance; United fans walk out 10 minutes early; Premiership goes abroad; Chelsea v Liverpool coma-inducing; Mike Riley disruptive; Rio Ferdinand a lick; Stephen Kelly’s criticism of Everton; Rash of red cards; African Nations Cup a joke.
goes to Patrick Gleeson for his comment on the ‘big four.’ Send on you postal address and a prize will be sent out to you as soon as possible.
Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning's hush I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there, I did not die. Busby Babes, Feb 61958 RIP
YOU can't fault the way the Manchester supporters marked the anniversary of Munich. Contrast that with the scene at Wembley a few days earlier when the planned minute's silence had to be called off after 28 seconds.
THAT Scottish piper who led the two teams onto the pitch at Old Trafford on Sunday. Was he playing a lament for the loss of Manchester United's Premier League title?
WAS that Richard Dunne's best-ever performance at the weekend. Massive, secure, immense. Well done City. Long overdue.
MANCHESTER United fans walking out ten minutes from the end. That was really respecting the Busby Babes. Still, more important to beat the traffic around Trafford Park I expect,
I reckon the moment's silence at Old Trafford involved a lot of people holding their breath. And how rewarding for everyone concerned that it went so well. As for Man City tearing up the script well, that's football. As Tony McGlinchy says, big Dunney was immense but I thought young Mr Ireland was pretty good too. Now let's see him return to do it in the green shirt.
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IF Premier League matches are going to be staged by the highest bidder . . . how about Manchester United against Liverpool at Croker? It would be a sell-out for sure.
IF THE Premier League are going to export their football then I vote for Liverpool against Chelsea matches . . . and the further away the better. Siberia or Tierra Del Fuego would do.
PLATINI had it just about right last week . . . England has a declining number of players in their Premier League; their game is full of foreign owners; most of the coaches are foreign . . . and within 15 years they won't even be playing there. Steve Barker, Cavan, by email IF THE English don't want their clubs staging an "international round" then all the English FA have to do is refuse permission. It's quite simple really.
SUPPORTERS of English football should get real. Obviously the major clubs let's call them United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Villa, Everton, and Tottenham are going to be interested in increasing their earning capacity and profile. The Premier League can either accommodate that, or watch them do it themselves, just as Manchester United did a fortnight ago in visiting the Middle East, and haven't played well since. These developments are all quite logical, and they will happen whether fans want them to or not. No one is going to stump up money to host the likes of Reading and Wigan anyway.
The bidding war for the first 'Super Sunday' on Mars starts here. Oh well, at least it will give new meaning to the phrase 'over the moon.’
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IF Chelsea v Liverpool is the best that the Premier League has to offer then God help it. More holding midfielders on the pitch than strikers. No wonder Crouch and Anelka looked so isolated. One short on target during 90 minutes. Both sides set up not to lose. Dull, boring, and coma-inducing.
WHAT was it that Real Madrid official said about matches and Liverpool matches? S**t on a stick as I recall. He's not wrong.
CAN someone tell me the last time there was a decent match between one of the "Big Four" clubs. Because I have been racking my brains all evening and I am struggling to recall it. Perhaps Arsenal against Manchester United in 2004 at Highbury . . . the Roy Keane/Vieira night. Nearly four years ago.
Suddenly, that Reading v Wigan gamein Sydney is looking pretty tasty,
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IS there any more disruptive referee in the Premier League than Mike Riley? Every small indiscretion stops play while he misses most of the big decisions. He's an official who has been dogged by controversy throughout his career. The sooner he moves to writing newspaper columns and media punditry like Graham Poll and Jeff Winter, the better.
Always nice to hear from Alex, Arsene, Avram and the rest of the managerial alphabet. And our Letter Of The Week prize goes to Patrick Gleeson for the kind of reality check you don't get to hear on Sky.
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RIO Ferdinand's comments about Capello being great and that he's going to make England a better team, I wonder if he comes out in the press and say those things in a few months' time if he doesn't make captain and gets dropped off the team. We have a saying for that . . .What a lick. I'm glad they made Stevie G captain.
Hmm, perhaps I missed all those England players lining up to say how crap their new manager is. Not that it matters: our Italian manager is better than their Italian manager, so there.
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NOW that the race for the fourth Champions League spot is gathering momentum, one has to wonder what influence Liverpool-supporting officials like Mark Clattenburg and the linesman for the Everton-Blackburn match will have on the final destination of this particular prize? While were on the subject, why can we not have unbiased reporting from our Irish media when reporting on The Merseyside teams? Is it because the media in Ireland is populated with lapsed Liverpool fans who cannot believe how far they've fallen and what a mess they are in both on and off the pitch?? And then your newspaper gives an open platform to Stephen Kelly to criticise Everton however and whenever he likes! Maybe he should stick to editing his Liverpool fan mag or whatever it is that he normally does??
Sorry Ken. I got as far as the end of your opening line about the "race for the fourth Champions League spot gathering momentum" and, frankly, I was so overcome with the emotional intensity of it all that I lost the will to live, never mind read on.
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SO, after a rash of red cards in the Premiership as part of the campaign to make football a non-contact sport we can expect more on the same when Europe resumes in a fortnight now that the referees have been briefed by UEFA to take strong action against "dangerous" tackles. Twenty five years ago goalkeepers became a protected species. In another 25 defenders will find that they're not allowed to tackle.
In the continuing and, may I say, highly mysterious absence of our old friend Cork Blue, I would like to award Peter Hennessey this week's red card on an absolute whim. Which I suppose goes to prove his point really.
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