Barcelana are at it again with their own unique brand of tapping up - getting the players to publicly talk about the targeted player inevitably arriving at the club in a clear bit to unsettle a player under contact at another club. Fabregas has been courted by his international teammates all summer in a way that is completely disrespectful to Arsenal and does nothing more than show their arrogance. They have also done this to Javier Mascherano to the extent that he wouldn't play in Liverpool's defeat to Manchester City last Monday, but the last line of the ridiculous procession of headlines and soundbites is the most outrageous by far.
Lionel messi, a fanstic footballer but clearly a bit of an idiot and a lot of a twatt, pleaded that Liverpool act "humanely" and release Javier Mascherano. Oh the humanitarian injustice of being stuck in a contract where you exchange playing your favourite game for more money than you can spend! In the real world, outside playing football and driving a Bentley, people don't have a problem with fulfilling their contractual obligations - that's why they signed them. I can't think why Javier Mascherano's agent would allow him to sign a contact at Liverpool if it was violating his human rights - oh hang on - maybe it was because before Liverpool rescued him he was festering in West Ham's reserve team and disappearing off the radar of many top clubs. Mascherano needs to be more grateful, and not see it as "inhumane" for his club to expect him to act according to his contract.
Saturday, 28 August 2010
Monday, 23 August 2010
Can Maradona make things better for Villa?
After Sunday's performance and the catastrophic scoreline to boot, Villa's fans are rightfully despairing, having gone from being a team sniffing round the top four with a progressive and highly rated manager and some of England's growing talent to being a managerless club deserted by their star player and suffering the humiliation of a drubbing by a newly promoted side. It is clear that to stop this downward slide Randy Lerner will have to act fast to replace Martin O'Neil with the right man. Why, you might ask, have I mentioned a comical flop of an international manger , Diego Maradona, in connection with the vacancy?
I would consider him because, while he may be a risk, he is the only option that does not symbolise targeting an accepting a mid-table, stable position instead of chasing after Spurs and Man City. The other names Steve Bruce, and Bob Bradley don't strike me as the sort to take the club forward, but can certainly slow their descent.
Maradona However has something special about him, hes a bit different, and will draw attention to Villa from around the world. He may be a madman, but he can attract more players and increase global support for what is not a glamourous club. When Maradona came to visit his Argentine at Melwood, the Liverpool players queued up to meet him. There are not many opposition managers who will have Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres clambering to shake their hand, as if they had taken the position of an ordinary football fan. Maradona is regarding as being as close to a god as a man can be the man on the street of Buenos Aires and by Argrentine footballers he is, god, Allah, Shiva, Zeus, Thor, Osiris and Poseidon combined - hes probably even Yoda too. While I don't see Lionel Messi Lining up in claret and blue next season, there would certainly be a draw for many Argentine players and also for other admirers of perhaps the finest ever player of the game. When they want to come it makes them cheaper. Mascherano? Aguero? If one comes the appeal grows.
The madness surrounding Diego Maradona comes with the genius, but thats the point, he is a footballing genuis, and once he gets in to his stride in the management game he may be able to prove it. Surely a player with such complete ability must have an impecable understanding of the game and will be able to spot things and change things. As a man manager he seems to have it easy, so many players have so much respect for the man that it helps him motivate them, and his passion is undeniable. While the cynics may find his touchline antics amusing there are some players who I'm sure would find this enthusiasm contagious - perhaps not those with a British mentality but some jibbering, emotional foreigners may join in in shedding tears with him and be surged to victory.
On the other hand the great player hasn't been a great manger so far, complete with his own 6-0 humiliation in Bolivia and if he can so effectively stifle Lionel Messi, what could he door to Ashley Young? It would be a sad sight to see Maradona as the villans' villan, jumping around as they struggle to retain npower league 2 status. The allure of Maradona comes from the fact that he is exotic, ellusive, never having played in England, and for many only cropped up every four years to excite and delight at the World cup. His goals had that added romanticis and his disgraces could be put at greater distance when he wasn't conducting his affairs at Old Trafford. Even his lows, scoring nothing but drug enduced highs for a time when we heard so little from him, other than the odd photo of a sad (and fat) case, far far away in a different world, made his seem more of a story and less of just "some guy". So my worry is that if he were to take up office at an familiar football club in a rainy West Midlands city, sipping pints with a fat, bald brummie, and appear every saturday desperatly clutching at anything that might inspire his mid table team to victory, then one of footballs greatest heroes and most iconic figures, would cease to be what he seemed to be and no longer represent footballing dreams.
Fuck it, what do I care? What my teams in 17th position and losing three-nil to Man City I'd gladly have the comic relief of a little man running around in suit or a gem of a press conference. Come -on Diego the premier league wants you!
I would consider him because, while he may be a risk, he is the only option that does not symbolise targeting an accepting a mid-table, stable position instead of chasing after Spurs and Man City. The other names Steve Bruce, and Bob Bradley don't strike me as the sort to take the club forward, but can certainly slow their descent.
Maradona However has something special about him, hes a bit different, and will draw attention to Villa from around the world. He may be a madman, but he can attract more players and increase global support for what is not a glamourous club. When Maradona came to visit his Argentine at Melwood, the Liverpool players queued up to meet him. There are not many opposition managers who will have Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres clambering to shake their hand, as if they had taken the position of an ordinary football fan. Maradona is regarding as being as close to a god as a man can be the man on the street of Buenos Aires and by Argrentine footballers he is, god, Allah, Shiva, Zeus, Thor, Osiris and Poseidon combined - hes probably even Yoda too. While I don't see Lionel Messi Lining up in claret and blue next season, there would certainly be a draw for many Argentine players and also for other admirers of perhaps the finest ever player of the game. When they want to come it makes them cheaper. Mascherano? Aguero? If one comes the appeal grows.
The madness surrounding Diego Maradona comes with the genius, but thats the point, he is a footballing genuis, and once he gets in to his stride in the management game he may be able to prove it. Surely a player with such complete ability must have an impecable understanding of the game and will be able to spot things and change things. As a man manager he seems to have it easy, so many players have so much respect for the man that it helps him motivate them, and his passion is undeniable. While the cynics may find his touchline antics amusing there are some players who I'm sure would find this enthusiasm contagious - perhaps not those with a British mentality but some jibbering, emotional foreigners may join in in shedding tears with him and be surged to victory.
On the other hand the great player hasn't been a great manger so far, complete with his own 6-0 humiliation in Bolivia and if he can so effectively stifle Lionel Messi, what could he door to Ashley Young? It would be a sad sight to see Maradona as the villans' villan, jumping around as they struggle to retain npower league 2 status. The allure of Maradona comes from the fact that he is exotic, ellusive, never having played in England, and for many only cropped up every four years to excite and delight at the World cup. His goals had that added romanticis and his disgraces could be put at greater distance when he wasn't conducting his affairs at Old Trafford. Even his lows, scoring nothing but drug enduced highs for a time when we heard so little from him, other than the odd photo of a sad (and fat) case, far far away in a different world, made his seem more of a story and less of just "some guy". So my worry is that if he were to take up office at an familiar football club in a rainy West Midlands city, sipping pints with a fat, bald brummie, and appear every saturday desperatly clutching at anything that might inspire his mid table team to victory, then one of footballs greatest heroes and most iconic figures, would cease to be what he seemed to be and no longer represent footballing dreams.
Fuck it, what do I care? What my teams in 17th position and losing three-nil to Man City I'd gladly have the comic relief of a little man running around in suit or a gem of a press conference. Come -on Diego the premier league wants you!
Monday, 16 August 2010
Relapse
We have seen fairly tale upsets such as Blackpool's first Premier League game ending in not only a victory for the new boys in town, but an emphatic trampsing of a Wigan side that did not look like seasoned premier league opposition. This adds the the less surprising one sided goals fests like that enjoyed at Stamford Bridge as the top flight hit West Brom like an icy shower.
The anticipation surrounding Manchester City's new look side came to and anticlimax as the most exiting team Mancini could imagine consisted of three holding players and no imagination, but City fans will be delighted with the form of their 'keeper Joe Hart who demonstrated just how poor a decision it was to let a West Ham player defend England's goal with an enchanting display against and dangerous looking Spurs. At the other end of spectrum there was an array of goal keeping errors to feast on, from the standard failure to hold on the the ball (Carson) to the inability to protect the near post (Almunia) to comically bundling the ball into your own net (Reina, to be fair he was being fouled by that dirty Frenchman).
We've already seen players give a Fine display to (probably) round off their time at a club (Milner) and others walk out from training in a less dignified (probable) end to their contract (N'Zogbia).
We've seen spectacular goals such as David Jones's volleyed free-kick against Stoke and had the pleasure of seeing Aberdeen top the SPL courtesy of a hatrick of Paul Hartley penalties on his debut and Sheffield Wednesday struggle in the 3rd flight of English football.
But what does all this mean? What can we take from this? I'll tell you one thing: MY FANTASY LEAGUE TEAM IS FUCKED!
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