Posts Tagged ‘england’
A swearing ban on England footballers: oh, piss off…
It’s Croatia versus England in the Nations League. No fans will be in the ground, save for the BBC’s Ian Wright, perhaps, and the talk is of microphones picking up players swearing in the all-but silent stadium. With little else to talk abut, the media want to talk about protecting viewers at home and at the pub – the ones screaming “Why are England so f***ing s***? at the telly. The BBC reports, “England manager Gareth Southgate says he will have no problem with his players swearing”. But the Mail says Southgate is fearful:
Which is it? What Southgate said was: “We’ve spent two years encouraging them to speak, so to stop them speaking now would be slightly against what we’ve been trying to work on. It’s for the television companies to decide where they put their microphones.”
Or broadcast the game after the watershed. Of course, if you can’t say “twat” during a football match, when can you say it?
Posted: 12th, October 2018 | In: Back pages, Sports | Comment
Manchester United’s loss, Leicester City’s again and why newspapers are cheaper by the dozen
Harry Maguire, aka ‘Slabhead’ to his Leicester City teammates was great for England at the World Cup, Manchester United wanted him. But he stayed loyal to Leicester City and signed a new £80,000-a-week-deal, not too shabby but still less than a desperate Man United would have paid him. Last night in England’s 1-0 win over a limited Switzerland at Leicester City’s home ground, the Mail rated Maguire the third best England player on the pitch, awarding him 6.5 out of 10. He was “England’s most assured defender”.
Buy one newspaper and get two free
Over at the cost-saving Daily Mirror, which now owns the Daily Express, and Daily Star the verdict was unanimous: “HARRY MAGUIRE – 5: Big gaps between him and Tarkowski meant England’s defence looked vulnerable at times.” Which newspaper survives this copy and paste approach to journalism remains to be seen (maybe they’ll be sold in bundles; buy one get the other two free?) – but the least the Mirror and Express attributed the comment to John Cross, whereas the Star omitted to name any writer.
Over in the Sun, Maguire scores a 6. He was “saluted by Leicester fans when he walked out on his home turf, inexplicably rolled the ball out of play off his studs to the left. It was an elementary error, schoolboy stuff from a player England’s head coach genuinely believes is one of the best central defenders in the world.” And as the paper’s Neil Ashton snarks: “Put it this way, you don’t see Sergio Ramos doing that.”
Nah. Ramos never puts a foot wrong:
He’s no Harry Maguire:
Posted: 12th, September 2018 | In: Back pages, manchester united, Sports | Comment
Why Harry Kane is underperforming for Spurs and England
Harry Kane, the Spurs and England striker, kicked the ball 20 times in England’s 1-2 defeat to Spain. Of those touches, accumulated over 90 minutes, just three were in the Spaniard’s penalty area. Drop him? No chance. Kane is by far and away the best English striker. Behind him are Marcus Rashford and Danny Welbeck. So Kane it is. Analysis is thin on the ground, as pundits demand more from players who are tying their best. Take this from the Sun’s Neil Ashton: “Even if Southgate does stay beyond 2020, committing his future to a World Cup in Qatar, it is obvious that he does not have the resources to challenge the top nations.” Or as he put it waaaay back in July, when England made it to the semi-final of the World Cup: “This is England, our England for goodness sake, and this football-crazy country demands a group of players who can compete with Brazil, with France, or Uruguay. That’s just the way it is.” England have now lost three in a row. This, says the Mirror’s John Cross, “gives him an idea of how far his side are behind the world elite.” Don’t you think he knows that? And the appraisal of Kane is that he “looks absolutely knackered”.
After such balls, let’s look at a terrific report by James Gheerbrant in the Times, who reasons that Kane is not the same player since succumbing to injury on March 11 when playing for Spurs. Kane next started for Spurs on April 7. Kane is taking less shots and competing less in the box:
In 19 matches for club and country since his return, he has only averaged 2.57 shots per 90 minutes – by far the lowest level of his career. To put it even more starkly: Kane played 42 matches prior to his injury last season and hit five or more shots in 29 of those games. He was regularly shooting eight or ten times a match. But in the 19 matches since his injury, he has only hit five shots once: against West Bromwich Albion in May…
Last season, before he got injured, he was getting off 2.46 shots on target per 90 minutes. But since he came back after his injury, the frequency with which Kane works the keeper has dwindled – he is averaging 0.99 shots on target per 90 minutes since his return. His expected goals – a measure of the chance quality of the shots Kane takes – have also been cut in half, from 0.85 per 90 minutes prior to his injury last season, to 0.43 since his return…
Last season prior to his injury, he was taking an average of 7.20 touches in the opposition box per match. Since his return, the figure has dropped to 4.35. Unlike strikers blessed with extreme pace, Kane doesn’t often get clear in behind – he scores a lot of his goals in the crowded spaces of the penalty box, with defenders in close attendance. It may be that the lingering effects of his injury, either physical or psychological, are making him more reluctant to prowl in those heavily policed areas where strikers risk getting crunched.
Read it all…
Posted: 10th, September 2018 | In: Back pages, Sports, Spurs | Comment
Gareth Southgate is a living god
Gareth Southgate is a living god. The England manager is rightly venerated. There will be statues and churches. And then they will be smashed. He will be ordered to get three hence. We will see him again on a World Cup magazine show, in which he will provide a great anecdote about how waistcoats gave him purpose. The Times sums up:
Elsewhere in the Times, Southgate is called “awkward and ordinary”, “the most timid of Englishmen”, “an International Man of Non-Mystery” and and his side a “secret order of style-conscious executive pillocks with flat caps and art chat”.
Amen.
Posted: 26th, June 2018 | In: Back pages, Sports | Comment
Malta equal Spurs striker Harry Kane’s haul of Cup Finals
“Any time we play a team like Malta,” says Spurs and England striker Harry Kane, “it’s their Cup Final. They’re going to want to win, going to want to surprise the world.”
Number of Cup Finals Kane has been in: one – the League Cup final. And in that his Tottenham Hotspur side lost to Chelsea.
And this is the same Harry Kane who played the full 90 minutes when plucky England lost 2-1 to mighty Iceland at the European Championships in June 2016.
England losing to Malta would not surprise the world. It would surprise only Harry Kane – who given his record in Cup Finals, suggests that the Spurs star is a man as lacking in humility as he is in winner’s medals.
In case Harry Kane is still grandstanding, these are highlights from the Guardian’s live blog from when England treated Iceland – the smallest nation ever to grace a major tournament – to a Cup Final:
66 mins: “England win a free-kick from about 30 yards and Harry Kane’s effort is appalling.”
83 mins: “Now it’s Harry Kane’s turn to miscontrol a simple pass and gift possession to Iceland.”
87 mins: “Harry Kane takes it and sends the ball soaring over the penalty area and straight out of play. That is absolutely pathetic.”
Good luck in all those Cup Finals, Harry!
Posted: 3rd, September 2017 | In: News, Sports, Spurs | Comments (3)
Arsenal Wenger ‘sets the date’ for Arsenal departure but keeps everyone guessing
How do you follow Sam Allardyce? With a broom, perhaps. The Football Association has a better idea: wait for caretaker boss Gareth Southgate to fail and then appoint Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. The BBC says that’s the plan. The London Evening Standard agrees. It’s Wenger for England.
Wenger’s current Arsenal contract expires at the end of this season. Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke and the club’s chief executive Ivan Gazidis want him to sign a new deal.
The FA has chased Wenger for some time. The Telegraph says Wenger was the FA’s first choice to succeed Roy Hodgson after the European Championship. But they failed to get him.
The Daily Star says Wenger will say ‘yes’ if the FA ask him again: “EXCLUSIVE: Arsene Wenger open to becoming England boss.” The exclusive is anything but. While “Starsport understands the Arsenal boss is interested in taking charge in the build-up to the 2018 World Cup in Russia”, Wenger tells Sky Sports: “My priority is always Arsenal and I have to assess how well I do until the end of the season.”
Mentions of England by Wenger: nil.
Put that through the headline generator and the Mail delivers: “Arsene Wenger keeps door open for England job.”
The apogee of no-news is in the Independent, which declares, “Arsenal could be poised to extend Arsene Wenger’s contract with the club after the Frenchman was linked to the new England job.”
The media has no idea what Wenger will do next. Well, all apart from the Mirror:
Such are the facts.
Posted: 29th, September 2016 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports | Comment
Football Association chairman Greg Clarke rejects Greg Dyke’s plan to win the 2022 World Cup
Compare and contrast:
Football Association chairman Greg Clarke, September 2016:
“I’m not going to put pressure on and say we are going to win this tournament or that tournament.”
Football Association chairman Greg Dyke, September 2013:
“The two targets I have for the England team are – one, to at least reach the semi-finals of Euro 2020 and two, win the World Cup in 2022.”
As you were, England fans.
Posted: 8th, September 2016 | In: Back pages, Sports | Comment
Allardyce copies Manchester United and lets Wayne Rooney play wherever he wants
The England football team laboured to a 0-1 win over the mighty Slovakia, who made the challenge simpler by reducing to ten numbers after their thuggish captain was red carded. England’s new broom, Sam Allardyce, had a few words to say about match and his own side’s captain, the tiring Wayne Rooney, nominally a striker but now playing so far back he could well challenge panicky Joe Hart for the goalkeeping slot.
Said Allardyce:
“It’s not for me to me to say where he’s going to play. He can play wherever he wants to be, because he was brilliant. I can’t stop Wayne if he thinks that’s the right place to be. We aren’t going to make a big deal about it are we?”
How’s that for management, eh?
Of course, before brilliant Wayne picked his own slot between the centre backs, Sam Allardyce said on August 30:
“Should we say attacking midfield player or should we say striker? Wayne’s position’s changed at Manchester United and that’s the sort of position I’d be looking to play him.”
The rest of world football is quacking in its boots.
Posted: 5th, September 2016 | In: Back pages, manchester united, Sports | Comment
England fans in Ibiza shorts-haul holiday hell
Outrage in the Daily Star over the England players on holiday in Ibiza. Wayne Rooney and Deli Ali are holidaying on the Spanish island. The Star has a thing about Ibiza. It was upset last week when England player Kyle Walker told glamour mo-del and habitual tabloid tittle-tattler Carla Howe, via a tweet from the England camp, that he wished he was in Ibiza.
As the Star pitches for the Ibiza tourist board schilling, we read that “holidaymaker Emma Hussein of Bognor Regis “couldn’t believe it when Wayne and Colleen strolled in “to the Blue Marlin Beach Club.”
But the best line is with the Star’s reporter who tells readers: “Three-Lions teammate Alli was close by, frolicking in the water in knee-length trunks with bikini clad beauties who were drinking champaign.”
Knee-Length shorts! The dirty, bastar… “He relaxed and joked with pals before going for a dip in the sea – despite still wearing his sunglasses.”
As one voice states: “It sums of everything that’s wrong with English footballers these days.”
Back in the good olds days, English footballer worse proper over-the-knee shorts.
England Kevin Keegan in trusty British over-the-knee shorts
Posted: 4th, July 2016 | In: Reviews, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
England want Arsenal’s Wenger as Hoddle and Steve McClaren wait
Who will replace Roy Hodgson as the next manager of England and with it the right to hand a top athlete a stuffed lion mascot and order him to take good care of it? Will England take a risk? Will England finally get a real lion, or three of them, as the job surely demands?
The Daily Star says the FA want Arsenal manger Arsene Wenger to lead them forward. Wenger has all the right attributes: he’s foreign, old, grey and from an era more au fait with buttons than trendy zips. The man who turned Arsenal into an attractive force in European football will surely jump at the chance to earn half the money and have his work picked apart by three ex-payers sat around a televised novelty table.
The Mirror says the man for the job is Gareth Southgate. As coach of the England Under 21s, Southgate could slip into the role virtually unnoticed. Southgate is the man who determined the FA’s “England DNA” philosophy. For you non-scientists, DNA stands for Do Not Attack.
Jamie Carragher says the right man is US coach Jurgen Klinsmann. He tells Daily Mail readers Klinsmann “has been to a World Cup semi-final with Germany, a Copa America semi-final with the United States and knows our game.” Although what England’s game is should not take long to explain to anyone.
The Standards helpfully reduces the FA list by claiming England players “fear” Roberto Martinez will be offered the job. Why they fear the former Everton manger, we’re not told. They just do.
The smart move would be to go back to the future and hire the Glenn Hoddle / Steve McClaren dream team. Hoddle used his nous to point out that Slovakia’s Marek Hamsik is “two-footed — left and right”. With his insight and McLaren’s passion, England cannot fail. Looks like we’ve found those other two lions.
Posted: 29th, June 2016 | In: Arsenal, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
Euro 2016: England are well located for trips to dogging site
It’s Euro 2016 and the newspapers are full of fear. Today’s Fear Story is in the Sun, where we learn that the England’s team hotel is next to a dogging site. The Sun says people have had sex in the grounds near the five-star Auberge du Jeu de Paume in Chantilly.
The Sun has seen racy photos posted on a French dogging site. One shows a woman sat by a wall at the Chateau de Chantilly. She is topless. “Art-loving England manager Roy Hodgson is expected to encourage his squad to visit the chateau which houses masterpieces by Raphael, Delacroix and Poussin.” Some are nudes, maybe.
Roy might care to rouse the troops on Wednesday and Fridays, when, as the Sun says, the doggers convene. The paper even produces a map of the area and adds a picture of former England player and now TalkSport commentator Stan Collymore asking, “What time is kick off?” In 2004, Collymore, reportedly, “confessed to having sex with strangers in car parks – an underground practice known as dogging.”
But dogging can occur in both underground and overground car parks. Dogs go free.
Posted: 6th, June 2016 | In: Reviews, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
Spurs balls: Harry Kane takes corners because he’s England’s best finisher
Why does Tottenham’s Harry Kane, the Premier League’s top goalscorer, take corners for England? Is the plan to have him bend one into the far corner? It seems utterly bizarre to have the side’s best finisher at the start of the move, marooned near the corner flag as the balls sails into the danger area.
Barney Ronay tells Guardian readers Kane taking corners makes “no sense”. Which of England’s opponents won’t be delighted to see Kane stuck out wide, preferring, surely, to battle in the box Wayne Rooney’s waning talents.
Kane has yet to score direct from a corner. Moreover, against Portugal this week he managed to pass directly to an opposition player. David Beckham he ain’t. Yet England manager Roy Hodgson says Kane is the “best man for delivery”. What does that say about the rest of the team’s aptitude with the dead ball? Says Roy: “I don’t need to apologise for Kane taking a corner, especially if you’ve got a player with his quality striking a ball and no one else in the team who comes up to that level of striking a ball.” It’s the same skill that makes Kane’s England’s best finisher.
What of the alternatives? James Milner took 116 corners for Liverpool last season. A big number. Most of them were functional or, as against Borussia Dortmund, weak. Everton’s Ross Barkley took 70 corners. Southampton’s Ryan Bertrand took 52. Kane took 7 for Spurs – and you can only envy Spurs for having Christian Eriksen, who hits the ball so sweetly. Rooney took five for Man United, the same number Raheem Sterling took for Man City.
Surely dropping Rooney for Sterling and honing the winger’s deadball abilities is one sensible move? But Hodgson sticks with his captain, which means Kane really is the best England man for the job – more’s the pity.
Posted: 4th, June 2016 | In: Sports, Spurs | Comments (2)
Liverpool balls: Nathaniel Clyne didn’t say England’s defence is a ‘major weakness’
DID Liverpool’s Nathaniel Clyne “admit” that England’s defence, in which he plays, is a “weakness”? The Mirror says he did, thundering: “Clyne admits ‘defence is a weakness”.
John Cross begins his story by telling readers more about the Liverpool player: “Clyne has admitted England’s defence is a major ‘weakness’.”
This is what Clyne actually said: “We analyse the games and we see where we can do better. We can definitely do better defensively . It shows us our weaknesses.”
He didn’t say the England defence “is a weakness”. He said the players can be better and are working hard to reduce errors.
More of what Clyne said appears on Sky Sports:
“There are players fighting for positions all over the pitch when they get an opportunity to show what they can do and that is healthy. I think it is good as it keeps everyone on their toes and keeps everyone fighting for positions – everyone wants to be hungry and has a determination to get themselves into the squad… England have a strong team and hopefully they can do well at the tournament.”
Clyne and Spurs’ Kyle Walker are battling to be England’s first-choice right-back.
Posted: 30th, May 2016 | In: Back pages, Liverpool, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
No, Manchester United’s David Beckham is not like Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere
What need of facts, Alan Shearer? No much. Alan writes of Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere in the Sun:
“The debate might well be whether Marcus Rashford can force his way into the final 23 and go with England to Euro 2016. For me, the bigger argument is what Jack Wilshere is doing in the squad in the first place. Nobody seems to be questioning whether he will now go if he remains fit through these last three friendlies ahead of the finals.
“Have we not learnt any lessons from the past when it comes to the issue of racing players back? It was David Beckham back in 2002 when he suffered a metatarsal injury towards the end of the season and still went to the World Cup.”
What we learn, Alan, is that Wilshere is fit. He’s not been rushed back to the Arsenal side. He’s fully fit and playing in the first XI. We also learn that Beckham’s injury went like this:
20 April 2002: 51 days before the World Cup, Beckham is injured by Pedro Duscher in Manchester United’s Champions League quarter final clash with Deportivo La Coruna. His second metatarsal bone is broken. Beckham makes a hard bid to get fit.
9 May 2002: two days before the World Cup, Beckham declares himself fit for the Sweden game. He says: “I’ve had a lot of treatment over the past two months and a lot of people from Sven-Goran Eriksson to the Queen have wished me good luck. The way I felt when I led training is the highest I have felt in weeks.”
2 June 2002: England v Sweden. Beckham plays 63 minutes of the game before being substituted. It is his first competitive action since the injury.
7 June 2002: England v Argentina. Beckham’s 45th minute penalty gives England victory. He lasts the full 90 minutes. In the quarter-finals, Beckham plays as England lose to Brazil.
And how did the Sun talk of Beckham’s injury way back then? Were they circumspect?
A HUGE team of Sun readers today prayed for the hand of God to revive England’s World Cup hopes by mending David Beckham’s broken foot.
We urged our army of 10 million readers to boost David’s fitness fight at the stroke of midday by placing their hands on our picture of David’s left peg and praying for a speedy recovery.
And so many of you did.
Even bishops joined in. One said: Were rooting for him.
And Canon David Meara, the vicar of St Bride’s in London’s Fleet Street, even came into the Sun’s Wapping HQ to say a special “get well” prayer as the entire office touched David’s foot on the dot of noon.
The 54-year-old Spurs fan said: There is no doubt that prayer can assist in the healing process.
Wilshere is no Beckham – he’s fitter.
Posted: 17th, May 2016 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, manchester united, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
Football balls: former Chelsea manager Mourinho wants to manage England
The Sunday People says Jose Moutinho – twice sacked by Chelsea and now between jobs – wants to be the next England manager. The paper says: “Mourinho told close confidant and agent Jorge Mendes he would manage England if the opportunity arises next summer.”
Poor Jose. If he can’t trust a confidant to keep his thoughts and dreams of glory private who can he trust not to blab to the media – his agent? This PR-briefing gets fuller when we read that “Mourinho has been linked with taking over at Manchester United and returning to Real Madrid” since being sacked by Chelsea.
Steve Bates continues to advertise Jose for Hire: “Ideally the 52-year-old Portuguese coach would like to stay in club management and with Louis van Gaal under pressure at Old Trafford that would be his preferred destination if United ditch the Duthcman [sic]. But Mourinho has already declared he intends to stay living in England with wife Matilde and two children at their London home. And as recently as September he claimed that when he left Chelsea managing England would be high on his wish list of dream managerial jobs.”
It’s all more than a tad unedifying, no, this Jose Mourinho for [enter top job here] news? For Jose to get what Jose wants, another manager must perish.
And surely Brand Jose is a little tarnished after his second spell at Chelsea. Who wants him? The Times says Real are in a “desperate dash to get Jose”. Well, not Real, just the club’s President Florentino Perez. Duncan Castles says Real presents a complicated hierarchy that could deter Jose. He says at Manchester United, Jose would hold sway in all things football. United would be a “fresh start”.
But one other Times headlines states: “José Mourinho left Chelsea only after he set club on fire.” Beneath that, Matt Dickinson writes:
The Portuguese’s need for confrontation will never change, and will put off many potential employers… He had tried everything to keep the Cult of José going through these months of deepening malaise but key players had tired of him, his voice, his methods, his demands…
Senior figures at Manchester United did not want Mourinho to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013 because they believed he was more trouble than he was worth. Even with the traumas under David Moyes, the lethargy under Louis van Gaal, and Chelsea’s title in May, they tell themselves that the combined evidence of the last two years backs up that judgment.
With Old Trafford under new leadership, will they now change their mind? Highly doubtful. Ed Woodward, the executive vice-chairman, may hear a chorus of fans arguing for Mourinho over Van Gaal but the Portuguese does now come with a health warning — “may explode after two years” — as well as his guarantee of instant gratification.
And Jose for England?
He has been sounded out for the England job before and it may be vacant next summer. International football has the advantage that the players will only see Mourinho every few months. Too much of him is more than anyone can bear after a while.
Jose for England it is, then, picking fights with the FA and every Premier League team with an England player in its ranks. He’d be great, wouldn’t he.
Posted: 27th, December 2015 | In: Back pages, Sports | Comment
England balls: Arsenal striker out for six months as Hodgson considers options
The Sun says England manager Roy Hodgson has issued a “warning” to injured strikers Danny Wellbeck and Daniel Sturridge.
HODGSON has warned Danny Welbeck and Daniel Sturridge that time is running out.
Arsenal’s Welbeck is injured; Liverpool’s Sturridge is returning from a long injury-enforced layoff. Was Hodgson so crass as to “warn” the players of anything? Wouldn’t he better served encouraging them?
Hodgson says Welbeck will not return to action for another six months, as opposed to Arsenal’s view that it will be a three-month absence.
What Hodgson also said was:
“I can only hope that Danny recovers a bit quicker and then hits the ground running as soon as he does return. Daniel Sturridge is a bit the same. It’s a year since he played for me. The two of them are always in my thoughts because I think they are very good players and they did extremely well for the national team when I was coaching.”
Not a warning of any sort, then.
In the Indy, the talk is of “a Plan B for if they are without Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck”. Says Hodgson:
“I’ve got to make certain that there are a few Vardys and Kanes and Walcotts and that because we can’t keep going around talking about the ones who aren’t there.”
Adding:
“We’ve got to be quite sanguine about it and we mustn’t start thinking ‘When this one comes back, we’ll be better still.’ We can’t do that. We’ve got to make sure we’re good with the ones who are playing.”
Hodgson makes entirely sensible comment. Read all about it.
Posted: 7th, September 2015 | In: Arsenal, Liverpool, Reviews, Sports | Comment
Brass Banned: Let’s Pray The Dire England Band Get The Chop After Scotland Game
NO-ONE really likes the England Brass Band that blight England’s international matches. The droning, metronomic thud takes all the spontaneity out of crowd singing and acts as an active drain on the will to live.
Now, the Football Association is going to be asked some tough questions about them after their appearance at the England-Scotland friendly, which saw the English winning 3-1.
While there was mercifully little trouble surrounding the game, the England supporters band will be finding themselves in hot water after they played along with fans singing off-colour songs in the stands.
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Talking Balls: Arsenal’s Oxlade-Chamblerlain Pretends To Be Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney
LAST season Arsenal footballers Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain looked like Kieran Gibbs.
Gibbs was sent off for The Ox’s handball (which wasn’t even a sending-off offence).
Last night, Oxlade-Chamberlain was pretending to be Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney. ITV’s Clive Tyldesley commentates:
Liverpool Balls: Raheem Sterling Has Only 18 Hours Off A Week To Sleep, Eat And Call His Agent
IAN Wright adds his view to the Raheem Sterling story – the one about his being too ‘tired’ to start for England in Estonia.
IMAGINE walking into work one Monday morning ready for a 40 or 50-hour week.
Yeah, imagine how good that would be to no longer be on a zero hours contract. But Wright is not talking of living the dream. He talking of the nightmare:
Then think how you would feel if the boss suddenly decided that from now on he expected you to spend treble that time in the office.
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Posted: 14th, October 2014 | In: Sports | Comments (2)
Liverpool Balls: ‘Tired’ Bighead Raheem Sterling Is No Diehard ‘Rested’ Leighton Baines
AN update on the Balls written about Raheem Sterling, the Liverpool tyro who admitted to England manager Roy Hodgson that he was not feeling on top form.
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Posted: 13th, October 2014 | In: Liverpool, Sports | Comments (2)
Kevin Pietersen Shoots His Mouth Off At Everyone
CRICKET, to the uninitiated, has always seemed perfectly quaint and polite. Of course, cricket fans know that within the sport is some of the most brutal trash-talking, ego maniacs and a lot of heavy drinking.
Even the ever-so-English David Gower, who played the grinning straight man on panel show They Think It’s All Over, was a lunatic. In 1991, he went for a joy-ride in a Tiger Moth biplane after they’d been dismissed in a match, before posing with his plane in the papers the next day. Even though his captain, Graham Gooch was apoplectic with rage, it didn’t stop Gower, during the fourth Test at Adelaide, walking out to the crease to the tune of Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines.
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Harry Redknapp Says England Should Play Leyton Orient
LAST night England defeated the mighty Norway 1-0 at a half-empty Wembley. It was dire. But such is often the way of so-called friendly matches, which are just pre-seaon warm-ups for the more comptitive fixtures. Writing in the Sun, Harry Redknapp, the media’s pick to be England manger before Roy Hodgson got the job, asks rhetorically:
What possible value is there in a total non-event against the worst Norway team we have seen for years”
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England V Norway: Paper Call Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney A Fat Chancer
MANCHESTER United and England captain Wayne Rooney is a “FATSO”.
The Star leads with “CAPTAIN FATSO”.
News is that the Norway captain has called Rooney fat.
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Posted: 3rd, September 2014 | In: manchester united, Sports | Comment
World Cup Balls: Paul Merson Forgets England 1984 And Thinks Mexico And Brazil Are Rubbish
WORLD Cup Balls presents the wit of Paul Merson – billed in the Daily Star as “Our top columnist”,. He “shoots from the lip”.
Daily Star columnist Merson said: “This is the lowest of the low for England. It doesn’t get any worse”
England scored one point from three matches at the World Cup Finals. In 1994, England scored no points at the World Cup Finals. Merson was part of the team that failed to make it that far.
“People said we had a tough group because there were three former World Cup winners in it – rubbish.”
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England Laughs: Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney And Liverpool’s Stephen Gerrard Practice For Penalties
SO. England, noble England, were the gallant losers to a decent and better organised Italian side.
Memories from the game are not many. But two stand out.
1. Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard never did get into the Italian penalty box enough:
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Posted: 15th, June 2014 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
