Monday, May 01, 2006
Black May Day Weekend For England
It's been an awful weekend for England supporters. Saturday lunchtime's game at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Man Utd was the clash of the day which would see Chelsea crowned champions if they avoided defeat. In the end, the game will be remembered as the day the Curse of the Metatarsal struck England yet again. Near the end of the game, Chelsea defender Paulo Ferreira put it an inoculous challenge on Rooney who collapsed in pain and was stretchered off. It turns out that Rooney has broken his 4th metatarsal and the expected recovery time is 6 weeks. England open their world cup campaign against Paraguay in 6 weeks. The big problem is that Eriksson has to name the England squad in just 2 weeks so a big decision has to be made.
If the Rooney injury wasn't bad enough, John Terry also left the ground on crutches after having 11 stitches in a foot injury when Rooney tackled him, although it's not thought to be serious. That wasn't the end of it, as Michael Owen, making his comeback for Newcastle against Birmingham came off saying he felt some discomfort. Thankfully, reports today say Owen is fine and should be OK.
All the news was a follow on to the news that Big Phil Scolari had withdrawn from race to become England manager. He cited the fact that there had been 20 reporters camped outside his house since news broke that he was the FA's first choice and there were also reports one of his children had been threatened. This is a real embarrassment for the FA and Brian Barwick. You may remember a couple of years ago, the debacle with ITV Digital going bust owing millions to lower league clubs. Take a guess who was in charge of ITV Digital at the time.......thats right, Brian Barwick.
The whole managerial merry-go-round is in full swing. Now or in the near future, there are likely to be manager vacancies for England, Newcastle, Charlton, Villa, Portsmouth, Middlesborough and possibly Birmingham. Favourite for the England job appears to be Middlesboro boss, Steve McClaren. He has just lead Boro to the UEFA Cup final against Seville and is already part of the current England setup. For me, that is where the problem lies. I'm no fan of the way things are done. 19 a side friendlies played with no pride or passion are a joke. Eriksson has shown that a number of players are all but undroppable and I'm not convinced things won't change if McClaren gets the job. The sad fact is, there is no obvious candidate for the job and whoever we get is definitely going to have short falling in one or more areas. The important thing is to get stability asap as once the World Cup is over, it's only a few weeks until the home friendly on 16th August and the start of the Euro 2008 qualifiers.
// posted by Big Blue Marble @ 6:41 pm 
