Scored!

Diving into trouble

April 19, 2012 – 6:01 am
Be Sociable, Share!

By IAN YEE
alltherage@thestar.com.my

As a Manchester United fan, I would love to see Ashley Young get dropped from the Devils’ starting line-up. The way he went to the ground for that penalty in last weekend’s game against Aston Villa was an absolute disgrace.

He might think it was just an exaggerated tumble from a foul, something professional footballers are pretty much trained to do when they feel some kind of illegal contact in the penalty area, but at this stage of the season, the psychological implications of his actions could be far more wide-ranging.

This is a game where teams get a clear advantage from the psychological boost of having your fans cheering you on at home, where managers have resorted in the past to trading petty jibes to unsettle each other, where titles have been won and lost seemingly because of an uncontrolled outburst from a manager.

It’s a game where confidence is key. Every successful team must be able to survive the mental battlefield in their own heads. Just ask Arsene Wenger, who had one of his comprehensive motivational handouts (given to players before each match) leaked to the public a couple seasons back.

The confidential document – left behind at a hotel after a match which Arsenal won – had nothing to do with tactics. It was all about putting the players in the right frame of mind, and it wasn’t just the usual “go get ‘em, tiger” kind of stuff.

It had points on believing in their style of play, on staying united as a team, on learning to communicate with each other, and even on staying grounded and humble as a person off the pitch.

That’s important because these are players – young men, most of them – who train hard every day, living a life that’s completely privileged yet completely isolated at the same time. Not only do they have to discipline themselves to maintain peak physical condition, they also have to deal with the near-constant media pressure.

They go through a roller-coaster of emotions throughout a league season, so keeping them in the right frame of mind to perform is crucial.

What Young has done is put his team under even more mental pressure. People aren’t just talking about him diving. They’re calling United cheaters, calling them lucky. He is feeding the belief that this would be the worst United team to win the league if it does happen.

And to have done it once was inviting criticism. To do it in successive games is just plain irresponsible. His equally theatrical dive a week before to get QPR’s Shaun Derry sent off had already diluted the team’s achievement in moving eight-points clear of City. Now the incident against Aston Villa has managers calling for restrospective bans on players like him. United don’t need this kind of scrutiny, not from rival fans, not from the media, and especially not from referees.

Perhaps that’s the reason why Roberto Mancini has been so adamant in insisting Manchester City’s title charge is over. He can’t seriously believe that it’s over considering United will only lead by two points if they lose at the Etihad next week; but what Mancini’s doing is taking the pressure off his players.

His side is good enough to beat any team in the league, United included. Arguably the main reason why they’ve fallen behind United is because they don’t have the experience of dealing with the pressure of the title race. By ruling themselves out of the title race completely, Mancini has lifted that pressure.

Now it’s the United players that are showing signs of nerves. Wayne Rooney had a stinker against Villa, and was substituted. The whole team struggled against relegation battlers Wigan, and they struggled to break down 10-men QPR at home.

Of course, this diving thing could swing both ways. The United dressing room could be motivated to prove everyone else wrong, which is probably why Alex Ferguson has always fostered that us-against-the-world siege mentality at United – any criticism can be turned into motivation that way.

But either way, what Young did has given his manager extra work, somethine else to think about. He will have to consider whether to continue playing Young, or to take action. I personally feel he should be dropped to the bench, especially with Nani back in the fold.

Trying to keep spirits high in a team that has been fighting all season is tough enough. Having to go out and justify your player’s actions, while at the same time not compromising your integrity as a manager that detests diving, is just not the kind of headache a manager needs at this point of a season.

The controversy surrounding Young’s theatrics is also all the more worse because, well, he’s English.

Many people in English football blame foreign players for having brought in this play-acting culture, so for an Englishman like Young to have done it feels even more unforgiveable.

And there is some merit to that argument. Players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani often went down easily as well, but that was kind of understandable because they grew up playing in leagues where fouls would have been given for a lot of the tackles you see in the Premier League.

A player like Young, on the other hand, should know full well the kind of contact he will experience in the Premier League. It’s annoying to see him go sprawling every time he gets tackled in the box, even though he’s been tackled that way his entire life. The fact that he has won the most penalties of any player in the league over the last two seasons hasn’t been lost on the media and rival fans either.

Luckily for United, Ferguson has reached a point in his career where people often allow him the final say on things (for better or worse) – Young was fouled, he exaggerated the fall a bit, but it was still a penalty. End of story. United soldier on as usual, relatively undistracted.

With Manchester City breathing down their necks, however, it could be a different story this time around. Roberto Mancini and his men have proven worthy title contenders, and United will need everything to go their way if they’re going to finish above them.

Considering United will probably lose to City at the Etihad (Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero – what a partnership!), and City’s superior goal difference, United will have to win all their other fixtures to win the league.

With the referees probably on high alert in terms of awarding United penalties, and the media all too keen on highlighting United’s recent reliance on poor refereeing decisions to grind out results, perhaps it would be best to just drop Young for a few games to take the heat off.

Don’t get me wrong, he could still be a great player for United, and I do genuinely believe that he had a case for both penalties in spite of his theatrics, but the club really doesn’t need to be caught up in a diving controversy right now.

Be Sociable, Share!
Tags , , , , , , | Permalink | Comment (0)
Scored!

Sweet success

April 6, 2012 – 6:50 am
Be Sociable, Share!

Wayne Rooney says if Manchester United wins the current Premier League campaign, it would be one of the club’s greatest triumphs ever.

Even though United have won with “kids”, done the Treble, seen off Abramovich’s Roman empire, outlasted Arsene Wenger’s brilliance, and, before all that, conquered Europe in spite of the terrible tragedy of Munich 1958, Rooney still has a point – which, let’s face it, he rarely does.

For the wonderful footballer that he is, and for the excellent service he has granted Manchester United – bar that episode his agent cooked up about him leaving – Rooney is rarely one to go to if you’re looking for insightful sound bites.

On the surface, too, it seems pretty stupid to place this season up there among United’s collection of momentous achievements, especially with everyone going on and on about how we ain’t seeing a vintage United right now.

Knocked out in the group stages of the Champions League, completely outplayed in the Europa League round of 16, and not making the quarter-finals of any of the four cup competitions they took part in – that’s pretty tragic for a club of United’s stature.

Against a backdrop of such under-achievement, a Premier League trophy – which would be won with many a mediocre performance, and against equally under-performing rivals – would seem more like a consolation prize to some.

But I kinda-sorta have to agree with Rooney, taking into account what’s happened not just in this season, but the last few.

In the past, talk about United’s successes have always come with the caveat that they were big spenders. They bought success, and success bought more money; which as a United fan, I’d have to admit is rather true.

From Bryan Robson to Andy Cole to Juan Sebastian Veron (all three were British record signings), United have consistently been one of the biggest players in the transfer market over the last few decades.

Now, though, United are not just facing one club with seemingly unlimited resources, they are facing two, and possibly three if you consider Tottenham Hotspur.

They say staying on top is harder than getting there, but to get back up there having been pushed down is probably even harder.

First, Chelsea came along, and suddenly Manchester wasn’t the choice destination in England for the world’s best anymore. Michael Essien, Arjen Robben, Didier Drogba, Joe Cole, Damien Duff and John Obi Mikel were just some of the players who spurned United’s advances at the time.

When United managed to finally get back on top – thanks in no small part to Abramovich’s own tinkering – Ferguson said it was one of his greatest ever achievements.

Now we have Manchester City, whose pockets seem even more bottomless than Chelsea’s, if that even makes sense.

And this is why I’d have to agree with Rooney. League triumphs are rarely just about great goals, pretty football, star players in form or an impressive post-season highlight reel. On that end, United’s season has been an abject failure.

City, almost down to each player in the starting eleven, have been superior. Apart from Rooney and Antonio Valencia (let’s leave Paul Scholes out of this, cos City fans will just call it “desperate”), it’s hard to make a case for any United player to get in the City first XI.

But in terms of managing a club over several seasons, establishing the right culture, instilling a winning mentality, and maintaining a united dressing room, this season has been a resounding success, a culmination of the efforts of the last few years – regardless of whether United win the title or not.

In that sense, I’d have to agree with another individual who hasn’t been making much sense of late – Kenny Dalglish, who said there are things more important in a club than winning points (though a kit deal is certainly not one of them).

Since Sheikh Mansour took over City in August 2008, United have patiently and painstakingly rebuilt their squad knowing they’re not even the destination of choice in Manchester anymore.

Apart from the failed Dimitar Berbatov experiment, the rebuilding process has gone magnificently.

While City plumped for Robinho, Chelsea for Fernando Torres, and Liverpool for Andy Carroll, United sneaked bargain-buy Javier Hernández in, who has now scored more goals this season than both Torres and Carroll combined.

While City were busy trying to soothe Carlos Tévez and Edin Džeko’s egos after their respective strops, and Chelsea tried so desperately to accommodate Torres, United simply promoted Danny Welbeck from the academy, and he has fit in like a glove.

And instead of splurging on Inter Milan’s Wesley Sneijder – the Dutch pseudo-celebrity who though isn’t as much a trouble-maker as his former teammate Mario Balotelli, does have the makings of a prima donna – United gave the earnest Tom Cleverley a chance, and he was influential during United’s early season charge before he was struck with injuries.

Since Sheikh Mansour’s takeover, the average age of United’s signings has been 22, and that’s including Berbatov (27) and Michael Owen (29). The most expensive buy apart from Berbatov has been David de Gea, £18mil (though with all the “undisclosed” fees these days, it’s hard to know for sure).

Of course, there were some (inexpensive) misses along the way. Think Gabriel Obertan, Mame Biram Diouf, and… wait for it… Bébé.

It hasn’t been easy for the fans who’ve been crying out for a big name signing, and even the relatively “old” and established Ashley Young hasn’t exactly set Old Trafford alight; but looking ahead, it’s the right way to go, and if United do go on and win the league now, Alex Ferguson would be vindicated.

So City might win in the style stakes this season, with their devastating displays rightly earning players like David Silva, Yaya Toure, Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero and Joe Hart plenty of personal acclaim; Rooney is still right – the success of United’s planning over the past few years makes this season potentially one of their sweetest victories yet.

Be Sociable, Share!
Tags , , , | Permalink | Comment (0)
Scored!

Terry for president

March 9, 2012 – 2:22 am
Be Sociable, Share!

By IAN YEE

alltherage@thestar.com.my

He’s been stripped of the England captaincy twice, tried to engineer an ego-fuelled one-man mutiny against his own national team manager (he failed), is currently charged with racially abusing a fellow professional, and is, of course, an all-round jerk. Meet Chelsea’s new manager, John Terry.

Flanked by his assistant Frank Lampard, his captain of equally good standing Ashley Cole, and his first big-money signing Joe Cole – an England veteran in self-exile in France (not sure if you’ve heard of him) – Terry will take to a press conference this summer having finally taken over the job that he believes he is “born to do”, to quote his infamous rant from the Cape Town Coup of 2010.

Deny it all you want, Chelsea fans, but that’s the dream come true, isn’t it? For them, ironically, Terry can do no wrong. But I wouldn’t blame the fans either.

If you had told me that David Beckham would take over as Manchester United manager a few years from now I’d break down in tears, attempt my first backflip, and probably die a happy man from the injuries sustained, never mind that he would totally suck as a manager. In any case, we all know who’s really in charge at the Chelsea dressing room. Andre Villas-Boas might have that slick trenchcoat, but it’s Terry who wears the pants. It’s all working out perfectly for Terry, too.

The boring, technocratic AVB, for all the wonders he performed with Porto, has now been rightly dismissed. In fact, it was almost too convenient that the team were performing so poorly that Roman Abramovich had to fire him. Terry, too, is reaching the end of his playing career. No longer the force he used to be, increasingly vulnerable to injury, and not quite the kind of player who you’d imagine would be able to do a Ryan Giggs.

Where Giggs floats around the pitch, Terry shakes the ground around the attackers he subdues. He is the ultimate antidote to AVB. While the Portuguese manager spent way too much time crouching and thinking, Terry is the type that would be bouncing around the touchline urging the team on. I still remember when AVB was in Malaysia for Chelsea’s pre-season tour, and the press were hounding him.

The impression I got was of a man too eager to stamp his mark, to position himself as the intellectual, forward-thinking young man who was wise beyond his years and therefore deserved respect even in a profession where he was a relative toddler. He even got himself an Abramovich-style beard to look the part. He looked like the sixth member of One Direction before that.

In the end, he could only fool himself. For all his technical talk and training ground jargon during those press conferences in Kuala Lumpur, he betrayed a sense of naivete and insecurity as he shunned questions related to anything beyond his technical expertise. That expertise might have brought him success at Porto, but Chelsea, the Premier League and the Champions League are a totally different game altogether.

Andre Villas-Boas

At the start of the season, I predicted that Chelsea would struggle to stay in the top three because of AVB’s dry, clinical approach, and so it has been. His approach put off players from Alex to Anelka, and it proved equally sterile on the pitch. You see, this is a bunch of players that don’t need to be schooled on the finer details of tactics. They are legends, like Didier Drogba, Lampard, Cole and even Anelka.

You just need someone who can keep them motivated enough beyond their paychecks to play together. In that sense, Terry is the ultimate answer – barely bothered with footballing finesse, completely consumed with the idea of being a leader of men. And rather unsurprisingly, Terry has in the past indicated his desire to manage Chelsea once his days on the pitch are over.

But why wait? Liverpool did great with Kenny Dalglish as player-manager. So, as much as we all love to hate him, Terry could actually be good for the club that, at the moment, it doesn’t seem to be good for anyone. His appointment would at the very least be good for the neutrals, if only to watch him get a taste of his own medicine when he’s in the managerial hotseat. The way things stand now, it’s either him or Rafa Benitez, the only manager with an ego big enough to think he can placate Abramovich. #NoBrainer.

Be Sociable, Share!
Permalink | Comment (0)
Scored!

Friendly rivals

February 15, 2012 – 4:19 am
Be Sociable, Share!

They’re an odd couple, Jason McAteer and David May.

One’s skinny, the other’s chubby (don’t tell him that, though). One’s gregarious, the other’s awkward. One’s Irish, the other’s English.

And, of course, one used to play for Liverpool, the other for Manchester United.

“I don’t even like him!” said Treble-winning former United defender May.

“And I can’t stand him!” replied McAteer, the former Liverpool and Republic of Ireland midfielder.

And yet there they both were, joking around and finishing each other’s sentences (ain’t that the sweetest thing?) at Astro’s launch of their Euro 2012 Special Pass like only a couple of former Premier League rival players can.

IT'S GUY LOVE: David May and Jason McAteer seem pretty chummy these days.

Astro Supersport’s Adam C. rather graciously referred to them as Liverpool and Manchester United “legends”, even though the only thing May was famous for was hogging the Champions League trophy during the celebrations in 1999 even though he hadn’t played a single minute of that European campaign, and McAteer for being part of the infamous Spice Boys (the mention of which still irks him) and having hit Roy Keane’s elbow with his face.

(The two had a falling out after Keane’s infamous walk-out on the Republic of Ireland team at the 2002 World Cup, and Keane, as usual, took the law into his own hands during a match against McAteer’s Sunderland.)

Legends they might not be, but well-loved by their fans? Definitely.

McAteer’s “write it in your book” gesture at Keane alone would’ve made him a cult hero in many parts of England (totally worth the rearranged nose, I’m sure), and he wasn’t too bad as Stifler in American Pie either.

And May? He was part of the squad that helped win the Treble, but has more importantly been used by United fans to taunt his former Blackburn teammate Alan Shearer, who rejected the chance to join United twice.

May won more major titles in the Treble-winning season than Alan Shearer's entire career.

His song among the fans goes David May, superstar, got more medals than Shear-er. Clever, eh? The fans probably love him just for that chance to stick it to Shearer.

Anyway, R.AGE got the chance to have a little chat with the two, and here’s what they had to say about Euro 2012, racism in football, and having a good punch-up in the tunnel:

——————————————————-

R.AGE: So, you guys applying for the England job?
Jason McAteer: Considering I’m from Ireland, no! But then again, England do hire anybody, don’t they?

R.AGE: Well if management isn’t for you, any chance you’ll pull a Paul Scholes/Thierry Henry?
JM: I don’t think that’s in my hands. No-one has asked me back to play… That’s telling me something!
David May: You’ve seen him play recently? *shakes head*

R.AGE: This one’s for Jason – Do you and Roy Keane still have your weekly Scrabble nights?
JM: [Laughs] I’m going to let Maysie answer this one…
DM: I’ve not spoken to Roy in years.
JM: I don’t think anyone speaks to Roy…
DM: I don’t think his wife speaks to him.

R.AGE: Ooooh… David, you were known as a real prankster in the United dressing room. Does Alex Ferguson appreciate that kind of stuff?
DM: Yeah! But it wasn’t just me. There was Giggsy, Nicky Butt, Eric (Cantona, duh) – everybody had jokes. Everyone would pull pranks against each other. It was just a thing to get the team to bond. When it comes to that final crunch of a game, when the buck’s against you, you know you can rely on your mates.
JM: It’s an important part of the ingredients for a successful team. You need people like Maysie, to bring laughter to the dressing room, to bring people out of their shells.
DM: A happy dressing room…
Together: … is a good dressing room.

R.AGE: Is the game getting too serious, maybe?
JM: There’re no characters in football anymore.
DM: You stuck the nail on the head there. You don’t hear about people joking or having a laugh now cos it’s too serious.

R.AGE: Is that where this whole racism thing is coming from, people taking some light-hearted banter too seriously?
JM: It’s a terrible thing, racism, but maybe it got a bit out of hand because of the way the media portrayed it, the way it was hyped up. It just escalated.
Suarez said something in his native tongue that was misinterpreted by a player from a rival team, and the media plays on it, and Suarez gets an eight-match ban. Evra then gets abused. It’s something that could have been dealt in the two dressing rooms, between the two managers and the two players coming together and shaking hands on it.
DM: Things like this, years ago, would have been resolved in the tunnel [said with those “if-you-know-what-I-mean” eyes].

R.AGE: By “resolved”, you mean a punch-up?
DM: Yeah, maybe…
JM: It would be. [Turns to Maysie] Seems like everything’s so delicate now, isn’t it?
DM: Yup, delicate. Got to be politically correct, can’t say this, can’t say that.
JM: But where does it end? If I get called a pikey, or someone gets called “big nose”, “ginger head”… We’re all adults. (What Suarez said) wasn’t said in an aggressive, disgusting way. It was to get a reaction from another player. It just got blown out of proportion.

R.AGE: Your life must be so boring now compared to your Spice Boys years?
JM: We didn’t live a glamourous, going out all the time life. It was more of a derogotary term. We don’t find it quite as affectionate as some people think.
We were very professional. Unfortunately we were up against a very similar Man United team – similar in age, in aspirations. Unfortunately, we fell short of the task and Man United won everything, and we got the tag of Spice Boys and it was hard to shake off.
But we trained hard, prepared in the right manner, and we went out at the right time and enjoyed ourselves, but unfortunately Man United got the results and we never.

R.AGE: Did you ever envy Spice Boys?
DM: No. When we played them in 96, in the FA Cup (final), just to see them in their suits for that occasion, we didn’t need any motivating.

R.AGE: Players on social media now – “Like” or “Dislike”?
DM: I don’t understand it, why you’d want to share your day-to-day living with anyone else? It’s a nonsense. I don’t tweet, I don’t have an account or anything.
JM: We get enough abuse actually playing in football matches, from opposing fans or walking down the street. You can easily get abused. So to be active on Twitter is opening your personal life to a world of abuse. I don’t understand why any footballer would want to do that. Twitter, people have the power to write about your family, your wife, your children…

R.AGE: But doesn’t it also help bring the fans closer to the players?
JM: They get close enough every Saturday! And the problem is it brings other players into it, other clubs into it. Actually, football behind the scenes is a very private and confidential place. There’s a lot of things we talk about that we wouldn’t discuss with the outside world. We have a mutual respect for each other. Things like that shouldn’t be shared.
Twitter enables some footballers to abuse it, like Joey Barton. It’s poor, what he does on Twitter. It should be wiped out. Footballers shouldn’t be allowed on Twitter.

R.AGE: Do you still get stick from rival fans?
DM: Yes.

R.AGE: Really? Like when you’re walking down the street?
DM: Yup.
JM: I never understand that! I still don’t understand how people can walk down the street and shout at someone else when they don’t even know them!
DM: That’s the stupid thing. If you’d actually walked over to him, sat down and had a conversation with him, you would probably turn around and say – “I never thought you were like that!”
I’ve heard that so many times: “You’re alright, actually.” How on earth did you think I was? Just because I played for Manchester United, doesn’t mean I’m a horrible person. People perceive you as a totally different thing, and it’s totally wrong.

R.AGE: Who’s the player you hated the most?
JM: [Without batting an eyelid] Robbie Savage.
DM: Dennis Wise.
JM: If it wasn’t for Robbie Savage, it would’ve been Dennis Wise for me too.

R.AGE: Wow. Didn’t have to think long about that one… What’s up with those guys?
DM: (Dennis Wise) was just a horrible little nasty player that would always cause trouble.

R.AGE: Maybe he was misunderstood, you know, like he’s different when he’s off the pitch?
DM: Maybe. I’ve never met him off the pitch, so I can’t say.
JM: Pfft. I have. He’s like that as well.

R.AGE: And Savage?
JM: He’s just a d***.

R.AGE: Who’s your best friend in football?
DM: [Shrugs his shoulders] Don’t have any.
JM: [Thinks for a while] It would have to be Macca. Steve McManaman.

R.AGE: Who do you think is going to win Euro 2012?
JM: The Spanish are going to be very hard to beat. They have the momentum, the confidence, they’re World Champions. They know how to win a tournament.
DM: I think Germany. But then you also have the Dutch. It depends a lot on the draw in the second round. You get these guys picked against each other, one of them has to go out, so it’s difficult to pin-point. But Spain, Germany, Holland… You could probably pick a winner out of the three.

* You can watch all 31 Euro 2012 matches live on Astro this June even if you aren’t a Sports Pack subscriber. Just get Astro’s Euro 2012 “Special Pass” for RM50!

Be Sociable, Share!
Tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink | Comment (0)
Scored!

Rise of the Belgians

February 7, 2012 – 6:46 am
Be Sociable, Share!

Ah, the Belgians. What do we make of them?

According to Nigel Powers, father of Austin Powers, they were the people who were so evil (you know, because they share a border with the Dutch), that they created Dr Evil.

Of course, many would find that a little harsh since the Belgians have also given us awesome chocolates, waffles, mussels and pomme frites; but they’re also responsible for Jean-Claude Van Damme. I mean, are we supposed to just forgive them for that? There are some things, like the Street Fighter movie, you just can’t “unsee”.

But thankfully for Belgium, Van Damme’s title as the country’s most famous export after Stella Artois could very well be taken from him by far, far better ambassadors – Belgian football’s Golden Generation.

Led by Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany, the finest defender in the Premier League this season and last by a good mile and a mighty fine captain, Belgium’s youthful national side are now starting to come of age – just in time for World Cup 2014.

Manchester City's Vincent Kompany has the ability to lead Belgium football's golden generation to success.

Not only have they shown great character to win over the fans of their respective clubs and displayed a lot of more talent than Van Damme ever has in a movie career that has somehow survived 27 years, they also don’t end every single movie with a helicopter kick.

Unfortunately, the 2012 European Championships came a little too soon for them and they lost their qualification group to Germany and Turkey. However, in two years, you might find some of the best players in the world lining up for them in Brazil.

New Chelsea signing Kevin De Bruyne, 20, could very well be one of the stars of the Premier League by then. The winger has it all – a great physique, incredible pace, a thunderous shot and fantastic ability with the ball at his feet.

Future Chelsea star Kevin De Bruyne - tall, strong, quick and able to run all day.

Then there’s Lille’s Eden Hazard, 21, Belgium’s Lionel Messi, who will most definitely be a top player at a top club. The race for his signature is already on after he admitted that he’d like to further his career away from Ligue 1 after this season and everybody, and I mean everybody, seems to want him.

Joining the pair to form a dangerous front three could be Moussa Dembélé, 24, the Fulham attacker who is constantly rumoured to be on the radar of the big boys. He’s shown glimpses of his potential at Craven Cottage, but a move to one of the big boys could really see him take his game to the next level.

Genk striker Jelle Vossen could provide a more traditional alternative to attacking midfielder Dembélé. The classy 22-year-old finisher is already beginning to establish himself as Belgium’s first-choice No.9, and could soon be challenged by Chelsea’s 18-year-old man-child Romelu Lukaku.

Two for the future - Chelsea's Romelu Lukaku and Lille's Eden Hazard, both considered among world football's brightest young talents.

In midfield, Belgium also have some very talented players, such as Everton star Maroune Fellaini, 24, who did such a great job stopping David Silva and company during the Toffees’ 1-0 victory over City last week.

Just like Kompany at City and Thomas Vermaelen at Arsenal, Fellaini has become a fan favourite, and not because of his hair (though it certainly helps, like Edgar Davids’ sunglasses), but because like many other Belgian players we’ve seen, he has no airs about him.

Fellaini first caught the eye of Europe’s elite during the 2007/08 season, when he and another two Belgian prospects, teenagers Steven Defour and Axel Witsel, were instrumental in Standard Liege winning their first league title in 25 years.

Defour, who became Standard captain at 19, even famously got a personal message of encouragement from Alex Ferguson after he suffered a broken leg, prompting rumours that Manchester United were poised to sign him (Fergie did eventually sign a Belgian, 15-year-old midfielder Andreas Pereira). You must be a pretty special kid to have a pen pal like Fergie.

The expected high-profile moves didn’t materialise for either player, and they both moved to the Portuguese Primeira Liga at the start of the season – Defour to Porto and Witsel to Benfica. But at 23, these guys still have time to convince the real big boys that they have what it takes.

The area of the pitch where Belgium have the most of talent, however, is at the back.
Apart from Kompany, Belgium also boasts defenders like Vermaelen, Bayern Munich’s Daniel Van Buyten, Ajax captain Jan Vertonghen and his teammate Toby Alderweireld; not to mention Chelsea’s highly-rated 19-year-old goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

What sets this group of fine defenders apart is that they’re not just strong, tough defenders, but also fantastic on ball.

Manchester City fans will be well familiar with Kompany’s ability to take the ball out of defense by now, while Arsenal fans have seen Vermaelen score some real thuderbolts having galloped forward with the ball.

Ajax's Toby Alderweireld, a tough defender famous for scoring spectacular long range goals.

But in Belgium, it is Alderweireld, 22, who has the reputation for blockbuster goals, while teammate Vertonghen, 24, is very much like Vermaelen, capable of bringing the ball forward which also allows him to play on the left-side of defense.

With such a talented collection of ball-playing defenders, Belgium will be able to construct moves from the back and play their way out of trouble, something which could give them a unique advantage.

It’s difficult to pin-point exactly where or how this golden generation of players came about, but there is one factor that could have been instrumental, one which brings to mind another classic Nigel Powers line: “There’s only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures, and the Dutch.”

Belgian football seems to have successfully intergrated Belgians of “other cultures”, so to speak.

Romelu Lukaku’s father, for example, played international football for Zaire. Dembele’s father is from Mali. Pereira is from Brazil. Witsel’s father was a footballer from Martinique. Fellaini’s parents are from Morocco.

Everton's Marouane Fellaini is one of several players in the Belgian team that are of foreign descent. His parents are from Morroco.

Even their captain, Kompany, is a two-time winner of the Belgian league’s annual Ebony Shoe award, for the best player of African descent.

The Ebony Shoe has been around since 1992, but before Kompany first won in 2004, it went mainly to players who were actually African, with Emile Mpenza the only Belgian recipient before him.

The fact that Belgium’s golden generation is emerging right at the same time as these players of foreign descent could be a coincidence, but we’ve seen the same happen with Germany and their many players of Turkish and Polish descent.

This is, of course, very different from the countries that naturalise foreign football players who have absolutely nothing to do with their adopted nation, just so they can play better football.

Kompany, for instance, visited his father’s homeland for the first time just recently, as an ambassador for a charity project. He’s Belgian through and through.

So this Belgian national team, they’re not exactly like what we know about Belgium. They’re not evil, and they’re certainly not cheesy martial arts knuckleheads who can’t act to save their lives. They’re the real deal, and they’re showing the rest of the world how you can find strength in diversity through football.

Be Sociable, Share!
Tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink | Comment (0)
Ian-ything Goes

Tradition in Fashion

January 25, 2012 – 2:49 am
Be Sociable, Share!

Alex Ferguson once said everyone’s so stylish in Milan, all the women look like Miss World contestants.

Coming from an old dude from Scotland, that’s really not saying much.

But last week, I had the chance to find out for myself, to see if Fergie’s taste in style and women is as good as his eye for players.

I was sent to cover the Canali fashion show in Milan, which on any other weekend would already be an awesome enough experience.

But last weekend was different. One of the first things I had to do when I arrived was ask our taxi driver if there was any chance I could get tickets for what would be an even greater showcase – the Derby Della Madonnina.

Taking its name from the statue of the Virgin Mary on top of the Duomo di Milano (the Milan Cathedral), the Milan derby between Associazione Calcio Milan and Football Club Internazionale Milano (you could, of course, just call them AC and Inter Milan) is a spectable every bit as grand as the marbled walls of the Duomo.

Everybody in town seemed buzzed about the game. It just seemed to take hold of the entire city. Everybody is a fan one of the clubs, or at least the daugther or wife of a fan.

People were walking around in their club scarves, and the sports channels were already showing previews of the game – featuring some mighty good-looking female presenters – several hours before kick-off.

It was just hours and hours of interviews with experts, coaches, former players and a whole bunch of other people I don’t know and definitely did not understand. I didn’t mind, of course, because it meant I’d have more time to ogle the presenters.

I had an interview of my wn in Milan too, because my assignment included some time to speak with Paolo and Elisabetta Canali, grandchildren of the founders of Canali and the people currently running it. They too, have their football allegiances.

After a long interview about trends in formalwear, the hallmarks of traditional Milanese style and them being the current torch-bearers of a generations-old fashion company, we hit them with the big question: AC or Inter?

“There is a bit of a family divide!” said Elisabetta after having a bit of a laugh. “It has caused quite a lot of problems.”

Apparently, while their fine tradition in suit-making survives through the generations, football loyalties don’t last quite that long in the Canali family.

“It always skips a generation,” said Paolo with a wry smile. “My father is an Inter fan, I am a Milan fan, and now my son supports Inter.”

Not surprisingly, our taxi driver, an AC Milan fan, told me to forget about getting tickets at the San Siro for this game. It would be completely packed.

I then asked if he would be going, and he said: “No. I have two children,” with a sucks-to-be-me look on his face.

Just as well for me, because a stab wound from some of Italy’s infamous ultras fans probably wouldn’t have made a good accessory for the fashion show the next day. And I’d probably get intimidated by another huge African guy into paying him five euros for a piece of string “for African football” that was forcibly tied onto my wrist, which is exactly what happened when I visited the Sforza Castle. Travellers to Milan, beware. Do not make eye contact with them.

Zanetti(left) and van Bommel were two of the 12 payers oer the age of 30 who played in the Milan derby

In any case, the atmosphere was pretty good around town on the day of the match.

At the pizzeria where we eventually settled down to watch the game with a feast of seafood pasta, pizza and wine, everyone was engrossed in the game – even the waiters.

Of course, Fergie was right. Everyone in Milan – young and old, male or female – is just ridiculously and effortlessly stylish.

Unfortunately, I can’t quite say the same about their football. The game was, in purely footballing terms, a labourious affair.

Inter were content to sit-back and contain their cross-town rivals, who were too blunt in attack to break them down.

It was simply a case of who could be worse, and in the end the game was decided by a defensive error. AC Milan’s Ignacio Abate misjudged the flight of a long pass, which landed at Diego Milito’s feet, and his expert finish was one of very few moments of style and quality in the game. Final score, 1-0 to Inter, and bragging rights for the next couple of months to their fans.

And it’s no surprise either how laboured the pace of the game was. There were 12 players 30 years or older on the pitch, five for Milan, seven for Inter.

While Manchester United and Arsenal have recently reached into the past to help them through a difficult patch, it seems the Milan clubs have never truly emerged from it.

Players like Alessandro Nesta, 35, Mark van Bommel, 34, and Gianluca Zambrotta, 34, all started the match for Milan while Clarence Seedorf, who will be 36 this year, came off the bench.

And that’s not including players like Filippo Inzaghi, 38, and Gennaro Gattuso, 34, who are both still on the club’s books.

Inter do not have legends of the same age group as that generation of Milan players, but don’t be surprised if they held on to their heroes from the 2009/10 Treble-winning season for several more years, even though they all seem to be past it even in their early 30s.

But to be fair to them, keeping Javier Zanetti around, Serie A’s answer to Ryan Giggs and the oldest player on the pitch, has worked out pretty well.

The 38-year-old was exceptional as usual in his midfield role, but still didn’t have the vigour and invention needed to bring Inter out of thier defensive shell.

The mediocrity of the derby seemed to me a reflection of the rest of the Italian league, where the table shows a significantly higher number of draws compared to the Premier League.

In the notoriously tactical and slow-paced Serie A, the top five have already played out 25 stalemates in 18 rounds of games. In the Premier League the top five have just 17 draws, having played three more rounds of games.

If you just take the top two, Juventus and Milan have drawn eight and four times respectively. United and City only have three each.

Also, United and City have scored over 100 goals between them. Juventus and Milan? They have less than 70. That’s less than England’s current fourth and fifth best teams, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Of course these statistics could also mean that the rest of the league in Italy is stronger, that the other teams pose more of a threat to the top five.

Based on what I saw during Derby Della Madonnina, however, I find it unlikely.

Milan were the highest scorers in the league with 37 goals, but there was nothing in the performance of their attackers, the predictably unpredictable Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the struggling Alexandre Pato, or ex-Portsmouth player Kevin-Prince Boateng, to prove they could achieve the same status in the Premier League.

Still, in a city where it can be fashionable to be traditional, perhaps there is more to football than just a deluge of goals, or adrenaline-boosting, fast-paced football featuring expensive foreign imports who know little of the traditions of the club or the cities in which they have been adopted as idols.

As it is in life, there are some finer things in football as well, such as the charm of a club steeped in tradition, or the joy of supporting a club based solely on that tradition and not on whether they are playing well.

The football at the Derby Della Madonnina might have been a little slow and cautious for my liking, but the experience of watching an entire city divided and united at the same time over one game, gave me a new appreciation for an entirely different aspect of the beautiful game.

Be Sociable, Share!
Permalink | Comment (0)
PRINTED! in R.AGE

Lucky Devils

January 10, 2012 – 10:39 am
Be Sociable, Share!

We’ve seen it many times before: Alex Ferguson beaming from ear to ear while walking on to the football pitch after the final whistle of a momentous victory, applauding his players and giving them encouraging pats on the back.

Yet, after one of the most unlikely victories he will achieve in his career, Ferguson seemed determined not to smile after their 3-2 FA Cup victory over bitter rivals Manchester City.

Instead of congratulating his players, he immediately barked at them to go applaud the away end of the Etihad stadium where their fans were in absolute delirium.

Alex Ferguson looked to be in a better mood as he received the Presidential Award at the FIFA Ballon d'Or awards ceremony, but he didn't look thrilled after beating City.

It was almost as if he was trying to make a point – the fans deserve more props than you lot for almost throwing that game away.

Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I’ve seen Ferguson celebrate results like that countless times. I’ve even seen him applauding players after drawing at home! This was clearly not one of those occasions, and his post-match comments indicated as much.

He lamented United’s “carelessness” in the second half, but secretly, he must be alarmed by the level of commitment and endeavour City’s 10 men showed compared to his 11.

United were disappointing, and lucky. This was no occasion for over-the-top celebrations any more than the 3-0 defeat to Newcastle was cause for panic.

Vincent Kompany’s sending-off was a lucky break. His two-footed lunge was reckless, but he won the ball, and there was minimal contact with Nani. Of course you could also argue that a red card was necessary to prevent tackles like that in the future where someone could actually end up getting hurt. It was a decision that really could have gone either way.

City struggled to regroup themselves in the first half after that setback. However, after the break, they responded with the kind of calm, patient and disciplined approach that Ferguson would have been proud of.

Mancini’s tactical switch to a 5-2-1-1 formation with two flying wingbacks worked brilliantly, while Ferguson was left to call on Paul Scholes and Anderson to help keep the ball and pack the midfield.

Mancini’s actions on the touchline spoke volumes too. He was urging his players to not get over-excited as City started to attack. “Don’t make a mistake at the back, and you’ll get your chances against this United side” was probably the idea.

And he was right. Add another 10 minutes to that game and City would probably have won it.

Crazy city

Mancini was moaning a couple of weeks ago about how he doesn’t have enough players, and how the club needs to spend more.

His excuses included Yaya Toure’s departure for the African Nations Cup and injuries to Samir Nasri, Mario Balotelli and – who would have thought? – Owen Hargreaves.

Yet his starting midfield (an area he’s complained constantly about) against United boasted David Silva, £25mil (RM125mil); James Milner, £26mil (RM130mil); Samir Nasri, £22mil (RM110mil); and Nigel de Jong, £18mil (RM90mil).

The most expensive United midfielder on show that day? Michael Carrick, £18mil, though his transfer fee was really £14mil (RM70mil) plus bonuses.

Roberto Mancini has been complaining about injuries and not having enough players yet again.

For a manager of a club that has spent an estimated £500mil (RM2.5bil) on players in under four years to complain like that is just disgusting.

He’s been dropping not-so-subtle hints to his club owners through the press: “This month we are losing two players. If we lose another then we will need more players.”

He could lose three players? Oh the horror!

“I think it’s better that we sell first. Maybe then we can take in other players. This is the problem,” he was quoted as saying.

Problem? That’s life, at least in the real world. There are plenty of managers who would loveto have players like Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz and even Carlos Tevez sitting on the shelves waiting to either be played or sold.

“We are not United. United and Chelsea have won trophies for many years, they understand that they can play without pressure. For us, it’s different. This could be the first championship for many years and we need to do everything we can to win it.”

Everybody does everything they can to win. United and Chelsea are no different. The only difference is Mancini seems to think he is entitled to ask for more money just because he wants to win.

Old is gold

Back in the real world, managers like Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have preferred to turn to some trusted old players instead of spending a fortune in a market single-handedly inflated by Manchester City.

With Mancini seemingly intent on setting up another spending spree, who’s going to sell you a player for anything less than too much?

Wenger, too, will lose two players to the African Nations Cup, including summer signing Gervinho. But instead of shamelessly asking for more money like a spoilt brat, he’s engineered a clever loan-deal for Thierry Henry.

Thierry Henry celebrating his clinically taken goal that settled Arsenal's FA Cup third round match against Leeds United.

The French genius can definitely still play at the highest level. I recently saw him play for the New York Red Bulls during a pre-season friendly, and he was absolute class.

He wasn’t sprinting away from the last defender at will like he used to do, but he was still very effective in a deeper role, using his exceptional touch and skill to set up play for others much like his old strike partner Dennis Bergkamp used to.

Ferguson has done almost the exact same thing for United’s midfield. While Mancini hopes to pay his way out of his injury “crisis”, Ferguson has sensationally brought Scholes back to plug the gap left by Darren Fletcher’s indefinite absence, and injuries to early-season first choice midfield pairing Tom Cleverley and Anderson.

The problem with Mancini’s approach is that it leads to player unrest. So he buys someone in January to play in Toure’s position. Toure will be back after four games – what happens then?
The new player sits and sulks on the bench, has a falling out with the manager, refuses to come on as a substitute, goes AWOL in his home country and plays golf on Saturdays, before finally sealing a cut-price deal away from City, leaving Mancini to curse his luck as if he’d been done a grave injustice by a spoilt brat of a player. Sound familiar?

Racism rumbles on

A Liverpool fan was arrested for using derogatory and racist terms on Oldham player Tom Adeyemi.

This was right after the club said they wanted to hold peace talks with United to diffuse the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra race row, after which their former player Alan Hansen wrote in his newspaper column that Ferguson and Kenny Dalglish need to issue a joint statement to draw a line under the incident. Coincidence?

If you asked me, Liverpool and Kenny Dalglish have made enough daft statements over this whole affair. Now this noble appeal for peace, of extending an olive branch to United, just reeks of a desperate attempt to gain some positive publicity.

“It is nice of them to do it through the press,” noted Ferguson. “You would have thought they would come to Manchester United first.

“I do not see why there is any need for it. But I have nothing to say about it.”

After all, this unholy mess is all Liverpool’s own doing, from Suarez’s “misunderstanding” of the cultural significance of calling a black person “negro”, to that scumbag fan who reduced Adeyemi to tears with his senseless taunts.

United’s dignified silence, on the other hand, has served them well so far, so they really have no need to make any statements.

It was Dalglish who first insisted there was no racism in English football, labelling Evra an “accuser”, and refusing to contemplate even for a second that a player whom he had only known for not more than a year could actually have made a misstep in the heat of the moment.

And then there was that whole T-shirt business, which was made all the worse with Suarez grinning like an idiot while his buddies took part in that garish show of “support”.

Dalglish is a footballing great, and Liverpool FC is a fantastic institution with a wonderful tradition. However, the blind faith they’ve shown towards Suarez will remain a huge blot on their legacy.

Be Sociable, Share!
Tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink | Comment (0)
Ian-ything Goes

The year that was

December 28, 2011 – 3:16 am
Be Sociable, Share!

Many of you young ‘uns reading this column will probably not remember the simpler times in football.

When I first started watching football, “diving” was the apocalyptic force threatening to destroy the beautiful game, and David Beckham wearing a sarong was the most sordid story of the decade.

But now, we live in a rather darker age of evil agents, petulant millionaire players, indiscriminate billionaire club owners, court injunctions, vice girls, racism claims, and idiotic fans who make vile chants and even worse postings on social media.

It would’ve been nice to end the year on a positive note, but with Manchester City on top of the Premier League, there really isn’t much to celebrate in football, is there? It’s like Santa didn’t know which Manchester club I was referring to (if you’re reading this, Mr Claus, Manchester United are the nice ones and Manchester City are the naughty ones… Please refer to your individuals list and look up “Mario Balotelli”).

So instead, this festive season, now that all hope for the game is gone with Sepp Blatter still reigning over football like Kris Jenner over the Kardashians, let’s take a look back at how truly depressing 2011 has been for football.

And what better place to start counting down the problems in football this year than the latest biggie – racism.

Now before you Liverpool fans start following the wonderful example of your players and set up a stall around the city selling replica Luis “Not-A-Racist” Suarez warm-up kits, do consider the “facts”, as one of your beloved former managers would have you do.

Suarez has more or less admitted to calling Patrice Evra “negrito”, and pleading ignorance shouldn’t be enough to let him off the hook.

Thanks to Suarez, the word "negrito" will now forever be part of football vocab.

He and his new BFF Gus Poyet say that negrito isn’t a racially insulting term back home in Uruguay. Suarez has played for five years in Europe. Don’t tell me he doesn’t know that black people don’t appreciate being referred to as a “little black man”, in whatever language or socio-geographic context.

Also, Wayne Rooney was given a two-match ban for his spontaneous swearing at a TV camera in the heat of excitement of a goal celebration. Why shouldn’t Suarez be punished for surreptitiously using an obviously incendiary term towards a fellow professional in a quiet aside?

I’ve heard fans decry the charges against Suarez and John Terry on the basis that they are not racists. Liverpool’s extraordinarily strong-worded defense of Suarez included a quote from Evra saying he did not believe Suarez was racist.

But that’s beside the point. You don’t have to be inherently racist in order to say something racist, in very much the same way you don’t have to be a serial killer to be red-carded for violent conduct; and when you say something racist against a fellow professional on the football pitch, you should get a ban. Eight games is a bit heavy-handed, but the principle behind it is sound.

Why? Because fans out there these days are that stupid. Which brings me to my next point – idiotic fans.

Let’s not even go into the Chelsea fans chanting “you know exactly what you are” at Anton Ferdinand (the player Terry allegedly called a ****ing black ****), or the death threats he’s received over the whole issue.

All you need to prove just how senselessly tribal the support in football has become in 2011, is read a message former Liverpool player Stan Collymore received on Twitter last week.

The tweet, from a certain @JonJuwanson, read: “@StanCollymore do us a favour Stan and go hang yourself like Gary Speed did please. Ok Negrito”

(Ironically, Collymore had been trying to highlight the level of racist abuse Evra was receiving after the FA’s verdict on Suarez.)

For starters, this pea-brained imbecile’s mention of the word “negrito” alone justifies the Football Association’s action against Suarez. Football has really taken to social media in 2011, with fans and players alike getting more engaged, especially on Twitter where everything has the potential to be amplified by a gazillion times.

But with great power comes great stupidity. The FA were right to make an example of Suarez to send out a message to fans that using such language, with malicious intent or otherwise, is wholly unacceptable.

Even the British police have said that such hateful language on Twitter should be reported and dealt with as a “hate crime”, so why shouldn’t the FA take action too when it happens on the football pitch?

But what made me truly sick to the stomach is how football fans are willing to stoop that low, to become that blinded by hatred to even dare mention Speed’s death in such a manner, all in support of a football club. Hooliganism is back in football – it’s just not manifested in stadiums any more.

The tragic death of Wales Manager and former Newcastle & Bolton player Gary Speed this year - probably the darkest moment in the history of the Premier League.

What makes it even more sad is that Collymore had been documenting his own battle against depression on Twitter.

For the younger football fans who read this space, footballers back in Collymore’s time weren’t all rich enough to buy flash cars and then fill them up with raw fish for a laugh (like City’s players did to Balotelli earlier this year), or tweet pictures of their expensive hair transplants and then ask “Why not?” (Rooney, also this year).

Many of them had to actually worry about life after football. I remember watching a short feature on a player from the early days of the Premier League who now operates heavy machinery in a construction firm. Can you imagine Fernando Torres with a hard-hat on top of his perfect blond highlights after he retires? He’ll probably spend the rest of his days sipping fancy cocktails on a beach made out of cosmic sand imported from the moon.

Inadvertently, Torres has become associated with that other evil rearing its head in football this year – money. The fact that he’s only scored three league goals for Chelsea for the whole of 2011 has only served to exacerbate the problem.

Torres is the poster boy for the current Chelsea regime’s excesses, as much as Carlos Tevez is for Manchester City’s.

Here are players who deserted clubs and fans who adored them, for teams who just so happened to offer them more money.

Both have since then decided to take pot-shots at their former clubs, trying to justify their greed and treachery with talk of unfulfilled promises, feeling unappreciated, etc. Gimme a break. At least Ashley Cole had the balls to say he was leaving for the money.

And at least Torres looks like he’s trying, and it looks like it actually bothers him that he’s not scoring. Tevez on the other hand, in one of the most enduring images of the year, will be remembered for sulking on the bench and refusing to go on as a substitute in the Champions League. He’s now AWOL in Argentina, playing golf and singing karaoke while pocketing £250,000 (RM1.25mil) a week.

While Tevez and Torres represent coddled millionaire footballers of their respective oil-funded clubs, there is one player, previously untouchable, that summed up the excesses of an entire generation of British footballers this year.

Throughout 2010, we heard tales of indiscretion featuring England players from bad boy Wayne Rooney to Dad-of-the-Year John Terry. But it was nothing compared to the shocking revelations surrounding Ryan Giggs’ private life that came to light at the end of last season.

We thought we had seen it all with the Terry-Wayne Bridge non-handshake, but football had other ideas.

The woman who broke Manchester United fans' hearts around the world.

An attempted court “super injunction” to cover up his affair with former Miss Wales Imogen Thomas, and another long-term affair with his own sister-in-law helped Giggsy top all the wanton antics of his fellow British players in 2011.

So who knows what the end of this season in English football will bring? We’ve already had an eventful end to 2011, to say the least. Personally, I’m hoping for simpler times again.

Be Sociable, Share!
Tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink | Comment (0)
PRINTED! in R.AGE Scored!

Stamping it out

November 2, 2011 – 1:52 am
Be Sociable, Share!

Apart from signing Stewart Downing at £20mil (RM98.3mil) – nothing wrong with the player, just the price tag – Kenny Dalglish has done very little wrong in his current spell as Liverpool manager. At least up until last weekend.

His comments asking for the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra racism row to be settled quickly, to be “done and dusted” must be one of the stupidest things he’s ever said.

Dalglish has done very little wrong as Liverpool manager, but his comments criticising the FA for "dragging their feet" on the Suarez-Evra case doesn't help the battle to stamp out racism.

Evra accused Suarez of repeatedly making racist remarks towards him throughout the Liverpool vs Manchester United match just over two weeks ago, but unlike the John Terry-Anton Ferdinand case, YouTube hasn’t stepped forward with any evidence.

The Football Association have obviously been very careful moving forward with the investigation after Evra insisted on pursuing his complaint despite Suarez denying the allegations.

Dalglish, however, says the case is about “as clear cut an accusation” as it gets, so there shouldn’t be any problem sorting out who’s right and who’s wrong.

During an interview previewing the West Brom game, a reporter asked Dalglish if racism would ever be stamped out of the game, in the context of the allegations of the past fortnight.

“You have to prove it before you accuse it of not being stamped out,” snapped Dalglish.

The interviewer replied: “That’s why I said ‘allegations’.”

“You said ‘stamped out’,” was Dalglish’s terse reply. “I don’t think it’s prevalent in the game here and certainly not at this club. We’ve got a case going on ourselves which seems to be dragging its feet. We’d rather have it done and dusted.”

As he was elaborating, he suggested that Evra should face sanctions if he fails to provide evidence to prove his complaint.

“Whoever the guilty party is; the person who said it or the accuser, should get their due punishment,” he said.

“So we’ll look forward to our case coming to a conclusion. For me, I don’t see racism, as far as this club is concerned anyway, apparent in any way, shape or form.”

So just because Dalglish doesn’t believe that racism exists in football, we should get this investigation done and dusted as soon as possible, and apply pressure on the alleged victims to provide evidence or face sanctions, just so Liverpool can get back to their football?

You can’t rush these things because obviously they have the potential to ruin careers and reputations (yes, even John Terry’s rep would hit a new low).

It’s not like the FA are having fun “dragging their feet” over it. It’s a sensitive issue with serious ramifications and they want to get it just right. For Liverpool, the case could be a minor distraction for their star player and possibly other members of the playing staff. But for the FA, it could potentially taint the image of the entire Premier League.

Even Wayne Rooney’s England red card appeal has taken longer than the Suarez-Evra case. So what’s Dalglish on about?

And the case will in all likelihood be dismissed as there doesn’t seem to be any evidence supporting Evra’s claims. So why can’t Dalglish just go with it, instead of making these public comments that call into question the necessity of the thoroughness of such investigations?

Managers have a responsibility to speak up for their players, but it shouldn’t be done to the detriment of the global fight against racism, and they most certainly do not have to antagonise the alleged victim while they’re at it.

Of course, it would also be naive to think that there aren’t any bad apples out there who would misuse the race card, but Dalglish should have left it to the FA to decide on whether that has happened in this particular case. Labelling alleged victims of racist abuse as “accusers”, and putting pressure on them to back up their claims doesn’t help the bigger battle against racism.

Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas didn’t call for punishment for Terry’s accusers, even though his captain and the entire club have probably been even more negatively affected by their own racism row.

Villas-Boas hasn’t tried to rush the investigation either, merely providing a character witness for Terry before saying: “We have full backing for our player. The rest, we have to wait and see.”

AVB has backed Terry, but unlike Dalglish, he is willing to "wait and see" what happens with the FA investigation into Terry's alleged racist abuse of Anton Ferdinand.

There are more important things than football, and the fight against racism is one of them. The investigation has obviously had an impact on Chelsea Football Club, but Villas-Boas understood that it was necessary to let it run its course, whether it eventually absolves or condemns.

What Dalglish said was a mistake, and if the Liverpool fans around the world who so adore him start to believe that racism should be handled in this manner, then the efforts to stamp it out from the sport would have been given a huge setback. It’s something people can’t afford to sweep under the rug.

Just the other week, Lord Ousely, chairman of the Kick-It-Out anti-racism campaign, was trying to encourage the exact opposite, telling players like Ferdinand to speak out if they felt they had been racially abused.

“We want to give people the confidence to come forward, knowing that they won’t be victimised or penalised, and knowing they are doing the game the utmost good, because it is helping to deal with all sorts of unacceptable behaviour. We have to root racism out.

“Players like Howard Gayle and Ian Wright made stands against racism. Many players have had their lives ruined as a result of challenging unacceptable racist behaviour; players in the 1970s and 1980s just got kicked out of their clubs.

“The sacrifices they made will be wasted if people are not prepared to push forward with any grievances so that these can be heard and dealt with in a fair manner,” he said.

Dalglish was probably right in saying that racism isn’t prevalent in English football these days, but that doesn’t mean we should just power through the odd allegation that surfaces every now and then.

Liverpool legend John Barnes, who played under Dalglish, had bananas thrown at him from the terraces.

Sure, there aren’t any fans throwing bananas from the stands any more like they did at John Barnes, who played for Dalglish over 20 years ago.

But that’s why that reporter used the words “stamp out” when he asked Dalglish about it.

There should be absolutely no room for racism in the sport – or anywhere in the world for that matter – be it in the form of mass chanting and banana-throwing, or the whispered insult that doesn’t make it to YouTube. Asking for the authorities to speed through such allegations definitely won’t help achieve that.

Be Sociable, Share!
Tags , , , , , , , , , | Permalink | Comment (0)
PRINTED! in R.AGE

The pain of injuries

October 19, 2011 – 8:25 am
Be Sociable, Share!

During Tottenham Hotspur’s pulsating 2-2 draw at Newcastle United last weekend, Spurs fans witnessed a sadly familiar sight.

It wasn’t that of Rafael van der Vaart getting substituted in the 64th minute looking like he’d just played the full 90-plus extra time, or that of another exciting, talent-filled Harry Redknapp side failing to seek out a victory.

It was the sight of Ledley King, the often absent Spurs captain, leaving the pitch early after yet another injury.

At his peak, Ledley King could rival the best in the world. Here is putting the shackles on Portuguese legend Luis Figo in 2004.

A friend watching the game with me immediately scoffed at his misfortune. Being an England fan, he still remembers the whole fuss about bringing King to the last World Cup, where he lasted all of 45 minutes before being ruled out injured for the rest of the tournament.

But there’s a good reason all the Spurs managers King has worked with since he made his debut in 1999 (and there have been quite a few), and Fabio Capello, have persisted with him despite his constant injuries – he is one helluva player.

He is a freak of nature, sadly both in the sense of his playing ability and his troublesome knees.

When he first emerged as a young central midfielder for Spurs, he seemed to have the world at his feet. Blessed with the skill and composure of Rio Ferdinand, the dominating physical stature of John Terry, and phenomenal pace and balance unlike any other top central defender in the world, he was hailed as the future of Spurs and England.

Even when played out of position in central midfield during his early years, he displayed a fantastic ability to read the game, and was able to dribble his way out of trouble and distribute the ball in an effortless manner that brought comparisons with the great Patrick Vieira. He was truly the complete footballer.

But then the nightmare began.

A chronic knee problem started to rear its ugly head, initially forcing him to miss games, and eventually training altogether.

His condition means that he can only play one game a week, and has to take all the time in between to allow his knees to rest and the swelling in them to subside.

So while other players get to spend the week training and conditioning themselves, King isn’t even allowed to run, meaning he can only do some gym work to keep up with the rest of the increasingly demanding Premier League.

“He plays on Saturday and he comes out the following Friday and has a little jog around for five minutes then plays on a Saturday, so really his body is nowhere near fit,” Redknapp was quoted as saying.

Nowhere near fit. You wouldn’t be able to tell from his performances. Imagine what a force he’d be if he was fully fit.

King himself is philosophical about his injury woes, saying that they might be a huge handicap for him, but they have also helped him become stronger.

“Of course the injury holds me back in one sense. But in another, through having to deal with the adversity of not being able to play every week, and not being able to train, I’ve had to invest heavily in the mental side of things. I believe that, in itself, has made me a more complete player,” he said in an interview.

King could also take encouragement from how many other similarly injury-prone players in the Premier League are now able to manage their bodies enough to make extended comebacks.

Jonathan Woodgate, like King a highly-promising center-back during his early years, played just four games over the last two seasons, also with Spurs.

Back in 2004 when he was signed by none other than Real Madrid, he didn’t even get a single game during his first season, and only managed 14 in his second before Madrid lost patience (as they usually do) and sold him to Middlesborough.

Jonathan Woodgate - good enough to be signed by Real Madrid, injured enough to be voted worst signing of the 21st century.

His many injuries led to Spanish fans voting him as the worst signing of the 21st century.
But now, he’s already managed seven appearances this term with Stoke City, who signed him last summer on a pay-as-you-play deal.

Manager Tony Pulis left him out of Stoke’s Europa League squad to avoid him burning out and getting injured again, but domestically, he’s been instrumental in helping Stoke to seventh place in the league.

Others like Michael Owen, as vehemently as he might deny that he falls into the category of “injury-prone”, have found clubs where they can play different roles.

Being used mainly as an impact substitute, Owen no longer has to worry about the incredible physical demands of playing in the starting XI week-in, week-out.

He no longer plays at 100 miles an hour like he used to either, having adjusted his game to suit his new role at Manchester United as the master goal-poacher.

Owen Hargreaves has also found himself a new role at Manchester City as a squad player. He obviously harbours hope of eventually becoming a first team regular, but considering his hellish experiences with injuries, he’ll be thankful that he’s even playing at all.

But the thing with great players like these who are injury-prone is that they always leave you wondering – what might have been?

Could Owen have retired as England’s greatest striker of all time? Could King have captained England to the World Cup last year? Could Saha have become a Manchester United legend to rival compatriot Eric Cantona? And could a fully-fit Michael Essien have fired Chelsea to the title last season? They all certainly have the attributes to have done so.

But as it stands, we’ll never find out.

The way King sees it, however, goes a long way in soothing that pain of never knowing: “I could spend hours wondering how my career would have been different if the injury hadn’t come along. I’d have played more often, I hope, but maybe I wouldn’t have had the mental reserves that now form such an important part of my game.”

Be Sociable, Share!
Tags , , , , , , , , , | Permalink | Comment (1)

Next Page »

Next Page »