Ryder and the storm
Having only recently taken up the sport myself, I was engrossed all weekend in the superb golf on show from both teams.
Having dominated the first two days, the USA were in control going into the singles matches on Sunday but the fight and determination the European team showed was truly inspirational, especially when you take into account the fact that Rory McIlroy turned up in a police car with ten minutes to spare!
Obviously golf is very much an individual sport, so I found it intriguing to see how certain players clearly relished being involved in a team environment. I thought the team spirit and camaraderie of the European team was clear to see, and nobody epitomised it more than Ian Poulter.
He has obviously been a fine golfer for some years but, for some reason, always seems to play his best golf in the Ryder Cup. I know he is a big Arsenal fan and you just wonder if there is a frustrated footballer inside him that craves being part of a team, as he clearly over-performs every time the Ryder Cup comes along.
Golf seems to be the most favoured of pastimes for footballers and, clearly, a lot of golfers enjoy their football, whether it’s playing or supporting their teams. Jimmy Bullard is a player I’ve known a long time and played with last season at Ipswich. Sadly, this week Jimmy announced his retirement from football due to persistent knee trouble. It’s been well documented down through the years the crazy antics Jimmy gets up to in and around the training ground, and I can confirm they’re all true. But I’ve also seen at first hand how good Jimmy is at golf, playing off scratch, and have heard that he plans to try and become a golf pro. I have no idea how good you need to be or if he will make it, but I wish him all the best in his new adventure.
I suppose what you could call the inevitable news broke last week that Steve Kean had finally left his post at Blackburn Rovers. The only thing I found strange about this was the timing of it. By all accounts, he did his normal press conference on the morning before travelling to London to face Charlton the following day. But then, as the players arrived down for dinner, they were informed there was a meeting, in which Kean told them he was resigning. When you think of all the abuse he has endured from the fans during his tenure, the last couple of weeks have been relatively quiet by comparison, so you have to wonder what it was that tipped him over the edge.
I covered their game at Nottingham Forest this week at the City Ground for BBC Radio 5 Live and bumped into some familiar faces both on the playing side and among the staff at Blackburn. Regardless of the way it ended for me at Ewood Park I still think it’s a great pity the way the club slipped into a downward spiral. Under the ownership of Jack Walker and with the guidance of John Williams, the chairman, this was a club which over-achieved for many years, sustaining respectable league positions under a tight budget, in the toughest league in the world. I know that John Williams felt it was the right decision to sell the club to the Venkys after numerous parties showed interest, but in hindsight, I’m sure a very different decision would have been made.
You have to question the intentions of the Venky family and the way they have gone about things since they took over at Ewood Park. I can understand the genuine fans’ frustration and hope the right man is appointed to take them forward as there are still a lot of good people involved at the club.
Roy Keane has featured prominently in speculation about the job but, given how much he values his independence as a manager, in contrast to the way the Venky’s have operated to date – like summoning Steve Kean to India for regular updates – I find it hard to see how a working relationship between the two parties could survive, never mind prosper.
Meanwhile, we meet up tomorrow evening in Portmarnock for our preparations for the crucial double-header with Germany and the Faroe Islands. It will be good to see all the lads and staff as it’s been a long time since that night in Poznan. I have no doubts we will have a good week’s training in anticipation of facing one of the strongest sides in world football.
And hopefully we can give everybody a typically Irish performance and cause an upset to finally christen the new home of Irish football properly.
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