Guess the headline!

Chelsea played Burnley today k.o. 1730. Captain John Terry had been revealed earlier in the press, eg Daily Telegraph front page report, as trying by an injunction naming News of the World to hide an affair with a fellow player's girl-friend.  (The player is no longer at Chelsea)

As current England captain, he would have to step down, said Henry Winter. Presumably because you cannot have a public figure having it off with anyone but his wife. To whom he was married on a grand scale not long ago at Blenheim Palace (hired for the occasion).

Anyway, during the match at Burnley, the first time in 36 years since Chelsea had played at Turf Moor, with the score 1-1 my son, Nick, watching on television in his London pub, sent me a text
'What if Terry got the winning goal? Think of the headlines in tomorrow`s papers!'
I did.

'0h, yes!!!' I replied.

And 30 minutes later John Terry headed the winning goal for Chelsea, reported Nick by mobile on the way home from the pub.
And so here is the headline before the newspapers get there:

                                   "Terry scored!"   (in purple prose)

The Manchester Soap Opera (or not just Coronation Street)

"Fantastic! Tevez is ripping a hole right through Manchester United... as I predicted he would. Just blowing them seven ways from Sunday and Ferguson is looking at his shoes, chewing and looking most  glum. What an idiot; first for letting him go and more for not utilizing his extraordinary talent.
Go baby go!"

The above gem is from a friend watching (in Japan) last Tuesday's Carling Cup first-leg  semi-final between the Manchester teams, City and United. During the summer Ferguson, Man Utd manager, decided not to keep Tevez at  United. A substantial fee to keep the player was needed and there may have been other contractual factors involved. Fortunately for Tevez, City's new owners had plenty of money to splash on top players and they bought him. At the core of the hostility described in the links below is the fact that the United players were training together just months ago plus the fact that on parting Ferguson implied Tevez was not good enough for his squad. So Tevez scores twice in Tuesday's match and.............bring on the second leg at Old Trafford! Can't wait!
Photo of Tevez, CCA 2.0 Generic Licence with attribution to photographer Gordon Flood 

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• Manchester United have quality to overcome city rivals, says Ryan Giggs (telegraph.co.uk)

Note the Ryan Giggs quote above in the Telegraph piece. Why do newspapers and television reporters do this? Of course, Giggs would say that his team will win next time. He is the captain most of the time nowadays and a senior player. But even the ball-boys would say this. How can it be news?

The best in the world and other stories

On the BBC's 'Match of the Day' this weekend Alan Shearer, pundit, former England striker and Newcastle favourite, who won a Premier League championship medal with Blackburn Rovers in 1995 said, "Ashley Cole is the best left-back in the World."
He was commenting on video footage of Chelsea 7 Sunderland 2 played yesterday. Ashley Cole scored a fine goal by avoiding a challenge and touching the ball past the Sunderland 'keeper with the outside of his left foot in a very tight situation.  How would Alan actually know that Ashley Cole was the best left back in the world? Is he familiar with the left backs in the African Nations Cup currently being played in Angola, for instance? Left backs in South America? Even in the Bundesliga? It is the kind of remark you can hear in the pub from someone showing his appreciation of the player. But surely pundits are paid to give informed comment, not pubtalk. It's fun but we get pubtalk free anyway
It is not surprising that Ashley Cole is playing so well. Zirkov is, too, in the few outings he has had with the Chelsea team in recent weeks. And Zirkov is the obvious replacement for Cole.

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• Mancini admits Everton outplayed lacklustre City (soccernet.espn.go.com)

Everton 2 Manchester City 0 meant that yesterday was the first time relatively new manager, Mancini, had seen his new team beaten. In fact, nobody had seen City beaten since they lost to United on 20th September, 2009. They have had 8 draws: results not good enough to save the previous manager, Mark Hughes.

Two weaknesses led to this loss. The first was in the wall when somebody flinched (moved out of line)and let through a freekick from Pienaar for Everton's first goal. Pienaar is now a genius! Compare this to the solid, flinchless line when Bellamy from a similar position to the Everton success had his kick absorbed by the Everton wall. The other weakness was the 30 million Robinho who came on as a Man City substitute, played for about 50 minutes, and was then in turn substituted (for Wright-Philips) because he had done very little to justify remaining on the field. Will this humiliation get Robinho  going? If so, going where?

Snow football

 Image via Wikipedia

I listened to reports on television before the FA Cup 3rd Round matches today: whether or not York City were going to arrive in time to play Stoke, and the story that Man City fans on the way to Middlesbrough were advised to turn back because of the weather. Both matches involved the fans travelling across the Pennines. I haven't done the Pennine crossing for many years but it certainly could be difficult driving through fog and ice at this time of year.
These reports reminded me of an experience when I was a child still at primary school. Kirk Merrington Home Guards F C were due to play Mainsforth Colliery, away, on a particular snowy Saturday way back in the time of the Second World War. (I have mentioned elsewhere that the teams of the Ferryhill and District League at that time were mainly young miners whose work earned them exemption from military service). The players gathered four hours before the kick off in The Three Horse Shoes Inn together with members of the committee to decide what to do as the bus service to Ferryhill, the first half of the journey, was cancelled because of the snow.
(The photo of the river Wear at Durham with the castle in the foreground and the cathedral tower beyond is a wonderful view freely available to shoppers and visitors crossing the bridge. I cannot find the photographer's name to give him credit unfortunately. I hope he will get in touch so that I can fulfill the conditions of the GND Free Documentation Licence and the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike scheme, see Wikepedia)  

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The road involved was notorious locally for trapping the snow. It ran along an escarpment with open fields on either side and the ground dipped down to the south with a view to Aycliffe and beyond. To the north the cathedral of the city of Durham (see photo) seven miles away was visible. 
The club committee decided that the team and themselves would walk to Ferryhill at the other end of  the escarpment where it overlooked the A1 road, the main road between London and Edinburgh. From Ferryhill market- place the party would take another bus to Mainsforth. They set off with a few fans including myself. It was only a mile and a half to Ferryhill, maybe 2 miles, according to my Uncle Bill. He was on the committee and I was going with him all the way. My hero, our goalkeeper, George Howe, who was also captain of the Three Horse Shoes darts' team would be walking with us.

Yawn, yawn.............then one glorious goal by the Liverpool Towers

Image via Wikipedia GNU Free Documentation License"

Aston Villa v Liverpool in that yawning gap between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve, and in the evening, at that, ko 8.45, UK time. It was a keen contest in a snow storm for a good deal of the time. Speccy Martin O'Neill braving the chill in his tracksuit and gloves to show himself to his team and remind then never to falter. Bunty Benitez in his shelter looking twitchy. At 0-0 they go into added-on time and guess what? Who is going to score? Which player needs only a chance, a small space, and can hit the ball without a falter?

There was a tired players episode of table football, the ball bouncing off one player or another but close to the Aston Villa goal. A fair-haired striker without his Alice Band today is in a space on the edge of the box as the ball comes to him. One touch and across the advancing goalkeeper Friedel, the ball travels along the turf and crosses the line just inside the goalpost. 1-0 to Liverpool. The final whistle. O'Neill is on his knees. Benitez in his box does a few tries at confident twitches as if he knew what was going to happen all along.

The long yawn was stifled. Torres ('Towers' in Spanish) provided the moment that made it all worthwhile.

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Great Players make Great Games - in Double Quick Time

On Sunday 27th December, 2009, I slept through most of the Arsenal v Aston Villa match on television, the 3rd and 4th teams in the English Premier League. I woke up to a 0-0 score line with Fabregas just starting as a sub in the second half. What followed was the best 28 minutes I have seen this season and maybe ever. He scored from a devastating free kick, curling it over the line of opponents into the far side of the goal which they were defending. He followed this by masterminding continuous attacks on the Villa goal and ended by a dash into space to score his second. In doing this he aggravated the hamstring injury, the reason for his starting on the bench. He was then substituted but had already done enough to be the Man of the Match and the master of his trade in an appearance lasting less than half an hour.
The Sky Television pundit Jamie Redknapp whose garrulous comments often contain some gems - probably overheard from his Dad, Harry, the Tottenham manager - gave me the first part of the title of this piece.

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Cool foot Frank

We already know the bazaar qualities of the English Premier League with flashy foreign imports which often don't work, eg Robinho. This weekend the EPL showed some bizarre qualities.

Bizarre item 1

On Saturday Manchester United had the chance to catch up on points with Chelsea by winning at Fulham. The three points would have brought them level with a faltering Chelsea - with only one win in the last three matches. With many defenders injured and unavailable, experienced manager Ferguson chose midfielders Carrick and Fletcher alongside regular full-back, Evra, and reserve team player De Laet as a back four. Man U lost 3-0. Why, with 9 reserve defenders, did the manager not choose two more of them? This is one of the sports where the young have no fear. They may be less-experienced in big matches but would be orientated to defending. Carrick's instinct is to pass the ball forward. He followed his instinct early on, a short pass forward to Scholes, who lost the ball to Murphy, the Fulham captain, who ran forward and scored. Carrick was too near his own goal to play a short pass but his instincts tricked him. Would a trained defender have done this?

Bizarre item 2

On Sunday, the day after Man U 's defeat, Chelsea had the opportunity  to go 6 points ahead at the top of the table. They were playing West Ham at the bottom of the table. What did they do? They drew, 1-1, and were lucky to do so. They were slow, unimaginative, dull and toothless. They should have lost - particularly as there could have been a penalty for the Hammers when Carvalho of Chelsea jumped on the back of a West Ham player as the ball arrived in the goal mouth from a corner. Chelsea drew level through a penalty when the referee, nearer the players, deferred to the linesman further away over a tackle by Upson. Video replays show it as a risky but successful tackle. Anyway, Cool Hand Frank (F. Lampard) took over and scored from the spot. Whistle, confusion, disallowed: Chelsea players in the box before the kick was taken. Frank takes it again, different part of the goal, scores. Whistle, confusion, disallowed: Chelsea players in the box again. Frank runs up again, and scores at the other side of the goal. Whistle, referee points to centre circle. Goal!

Image via Wikipedia

Three penalties for the price of one. Bazaar qualities as well as bizarre? But how cool was that from Frank?


In a live interview immediately after the match, asked about how he felt while going through the penalty ordeal, Lampard said, "I could have done without that!" A great understatement. So refreshing, after the boyish blokes who whip off their shirts and glory about the pitch just for doing their job. In contrast,  this was a real professional!


Thanks to Frank, Chelsea got a point they did not deserve and now stand 4 points ahead of Man U at the top of the table -  having bizzarely won only one of their last four games, and that was close, against bottom of the table  Portsmouth. (Permission for the continued use of the photo of Lampard has been requested by e-mail. The photographer was Aleksandr Mysyakin for Soccer.ru)


Bizarre item 3
Mark Hughes, manager of Manchester City, whose 4-3 win against Sunderland at home was televised by Sky, was sacked after the match. Roberto Mancini, whom the former Chelsea manager, Jose Maurinho, replaced at Inter Milan, took over. Hughes with the camera on him during the match claims he did not know he was being sacked until it was over. In post match punditry on television I heard the remark," Won't this treatment (of Hughes) deter young English players from going into management?"

Like hell it will! Wait until we hear the amount of the pay-off. Hughes will never need to work again, but of course he will. And the next time no doubt he will be chosen by those who run the club and put their money into it. Unlike the Manchester City job where he was the sitting manager when new owners came in with huge funds to spend. He had the wonderful experience of spending it for them. The forlorn experience on the pitch and under the cameras for his last game will soon be forgotten. But it was bizarre viewing as the television screen switched from yet another goal by Sunderland and then the figure of the man in the overcoat on the touchline. Mercifully, Hughes was saved from a final touch of humiliation when his team did actually win!

{{subst:OP}}

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