Monday, April 24, 2006
Player of the Year Awards
Last weekend saw the PFA Awards Evening. These awards are the main awards for players as they are voted for by their fellow professionals. For those who don't know, there are 2 main awards; The PFA Footballer of the Year and the Young PFA Footballer of the Year.For me, the outstanding player this season in England has been Thierry Henry.....if only he was English. What a partnership him and Rooney would make. The biggest shock was that Henry only came 3rd. He was beaten by Frank Lampard (2nd) and Steve Gerrard (1st). Wayne Rooney won the Young Player award.
These awards really go to show the high esteem that main England players are held in by their fellow professionals. In addition to the top 3 for the main award, the other 3 players are all England regulars; Wayne Rooney, John Terry and Joe Cole.
In a couple of weeks, the Football Writers (ie, clueless journalists) have their awards evening. However, I'm with Eric Cantona when it comes to my opinion of journalists. Their criticism is often ill founded and based on emotion or more likely, the need to make a big story. If you discount their opinion when they write bad things, you must also discount their opinions when they write good things. Cantona once said that one word of praise from a respected manager meant more than 20 years of praise from a journalist......and he is right.
The latest gossip on the England managers would suggest it's a 2 horse race between Phil Scolari and Steve McClaren. If that's the case it's a no brainer. It's like being offered a naughty night with either Dannii Minogue or Bella Emberg. McClaren is not the man for the job !!!
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Injuries and the new manager
I haven't posted a report for a while as I've been catching up on other things as well as enjoying a week in the sunny Red Sea but naturally, football can't be out of my life for very long. I'm all prepared for the World Cup and looking forward to a good night weekend in Manchester the week before the tournament starts at the Jamaica friendly. 8th May is the date that has been announced when Eriksson will name a provisional 23 man squad. The final squad has to be handed to FIFA a week later.
Personally, I'm all set to go. Tickets, flights and hotels are all arranged and the only tricky situation that may arise is if England get to the final, it happens to be the same weekend as my girlfriend's birthday - I'm sure she'd love to see Berlin.
The biggest concern now is that none of the players get injured. We are told Michael Owen will be fit despite not having played this year. In truth, he could use the 2 friendlies and group matches to gain match fitness. We'll need him fit for the knock-out stages. Other casualities at the moment are Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole, Wayne Bridge, Luke Young and more recently, the versatile Ledley King. Players like King are important in a squad as they can cover a number of positions. He broke his metatarsal but Spurs believe he could be fit in time. Experience from 2002 suggests otherwise.
Thankfully, the teams containing most of the key players have little left to play for this season so the players will hopefully stay clear of mishaps. I strongly believe that the England starting XI if all fit are as good as any team on the planet, including Brazil. The difference with Brazil is that they have a wealth of world class talent sitting on the bench. England does not have the same strength in depth. That's not to say the players are bad, of course they aren't but players like Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard are irreplaceable.
The race for the England job looks almost certain to go to an Englishman or should I say a Brit. The leading foreigners have either taken jobs (Hiddink to Russia) or have ruled themselves out (Scolari). The 4 main contenders seem to be Alan Curbishley, Sam Allardyce, Steve MacClaren and Martin O'Neill. The perfect candidate does not exist, all 4 have their faults so it'll be interesting to see who adapts to the job best of all. Some people are cut out to manage at the highest level and some aren't. Rijkard and Van Basten are doing wonderful jobs for Barcelona and Holland but Klinnsman isn't having the easiest time with the German national team. Hopefully an annoucement will be made in the next 10 days or so.
The next job for Eriksson also seems to be a point of interest for a number of people.........but not for me. Bye bye Sven, mind the door doesn't hit you on the arse on the way out. Hopefully the next manager will treat ALL England matches with the respect they deserve.
Personally, I'm all set to go. Tickets, flights and hotels are all arranged and the only tricky situation that may arise is if England get to the final, it happens to be the same weekend as my girlfriend's birthday - I'm sure she'd love to see Berlin.
The biggest concern now is that none of the players get injured. We are told Michael Owen will be fit despite not having played this year. In truth, he could use the 2 friendlies and group matches to gain match fitness. We'll need him fit for the knock-out stages. Other casualities at the moment are Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole, Wayne Bridge, Luke Young and more recently, the versatile Ledley King. Players like King are important in a squad as they can cover a number of positions. He broke his metatarsal but Spurs believe he could be fit in time. Experience from 2002 suggests otherwise.
Thankfully, the teams containing most of the key players have little left to play for this season so the players will hopefully stay clear of mishaps. I strongly believe that the England starting XI if all fit are as good as any team on the planet, including Brazil. The difference with Brazil is that they have a wealth of world class talent sitting on the bench. England does not have the same strength in depth. That's not to say the players are bad, of course they aren't but players like Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard are irreplaceable.
The race for the England job looks almost certain to go to an Englishman or should I say a Brit. The leading foreigners have either taken jobs (Hiddink to Russia) or have ruled themselves out (Scolari). The 4 main contenders seem to be Alan Curbishley, Sam Allardyce, Steve MacClaren and Martin O'Neill. The perfect candidate does not exist, all 4 have their faults so it'll be interesting to see who adapts to the job best of all. Some people are cut out to manage at the highest level and some aren't. Rijkard and Van Basten are doing wonderful jobs for Barcelona and Holland but Klinnsman isn't having the easiest time with the German national team. Hopefully an annoucement will be made in the next 10 days or so.
The next job for Eriksson also seems to be a point of interest for a number of people.........but not for me. Bye bye Sven, mind the door doesn't hit you on the arse on the way out. Hopefully the next manager will treat ALL England matches with the respect they deserve.
