January Sales: Queue Up for the Big Four!

Happy New Year to all football supporters.

By way of an introduction to 2008 we have a little January tale for you.

A couple of seasons ago a mid-table Premier League team (let’s call them Midtable City) sent their scouts out to Eastern Europe and uncovered a bit of a gem, Bac Netov. City needed a striker and Netov seemed to fit the bill and came at half the price of any of his English counterparts. He duly came over to England on a fairly lucrative deal and slotted in to the Premier League nicely. So nicely in fact that Midtable started to improve form and began to move up to the top half of the league; finishing the season in their highest ever position. Netov became a bit of a local hero.

The following season, initially, his form continued and Midtable consolidated their position in the top half of the league and began to even contemplate a UEFA Cup place. Netov, however, now well established in England, saw the promise of better things. His agent started to put out rumours that, if a big club came in for him, he would simply have to move to further his career and win trophies. Well, that’s how it was explained to the press at any rate. Suddenly his, and consequently Midtable's, performances declined along with their league position. Come December, with the rumour mill spinning out of control, Midtable supporters saw a sudden leap in his performance levels. Indeed he scored 80% of his season's total of goals in the run up to the transfer window.

Arsechester, one of the so-called Big Four, needed a striker. Chelpool, also one of the Big Four, needed a striker too despite spending hundreds of millions on their squad over the past couple of seasons. Midtable knew that Chelpool could afford a lot more than Arsechester so put a massive price tag on Netov in order to procure the highest possible price for him. Well, if he was going to leave anyway, they might as well get some decent cash for him. Arsechester, realising that they were out of the reckoning for Netov, started to look elsewhere and paid over the odds for Johnny Englander, a player who had recently become part of the England setup.

Netov moved to Chelpool for an astronomical fee – far more than he was actually worth but money was no object for Chelpool and they had their man. Arsechester paid over the odds for a different player. Consequently, Midtable, despite having uncovered a real find in Netov, were glad of the money and continued to plod on with no real prospect of improving their position. Arsechester and Chelpool never dropped out of a top four slot and consequently qualified for the lucrative Champions League spot yet again (for the eighth year running), ensuring a nice revenue earner for the following season - money that would allow them once again to ensure that the best players would be available for them and them only. Netov became an instant millionaire through his share of the transfer fee and merely a bit part player in a massive squad. Johnny Englander also became an instant millionaire, made some promising performances for Arsechester but never really made any impact on the international scene due to his irregular appearances and fairly comfortable lifestyle keeping the bench warm. Well, when we say the proverbial bench we actually mean a thermally heated Corbeau Carrera massage and orthopaedic seat.

Ok, the names are made up but you get the point. Whether a team spots a player and buys him, or even if they develop him themselves, the likelihood is that, if he wants to win anything and earn top brass, he will end up at one of the Big Four or in Europe. In effect, any club currently outside the Big Four is acting merely as a feeder club to them. And, when the Big Four sell good players, they invariably sell to Europe and leave their detritus for the remaining English clubs. The polarisation thus continues with little prospect of anyone outside of the Big Four breaking into the financial stratosphere of the Champions League. Little wonder that many of the grounds outside of the Big Four appeared a little sparsely attended on New years Day.

If we’re still not raising a certain degree of concern with you, for Netov read any of Berbatov (as seems likely), Saha, Tevez, Mascherano etc.. For Johnny Englander, read Shaun Wright-Phillips, Michael Carrick, Steve Sidwell, Scott Parker, Glenn Johnson….the list goes on.

If the English Premier League is ever to regain its true competitiveness, English clubs are going to have to find very wealthy owners or some restrictions have to be put in place Europe-wide. Fixed squad sizes is perhaps one option. Should Burton, or its equivalent, ever happen, perhaps the weakest teams, or the promoted teams, should have the first pick of the players coming through. RTG does not profess to have the answers but as usual, the issue of competitiveness is not being addressed at all. By anybody!

Hat's Off Take a Bow for 2007 (Or Not!)

Player of the year - Cristiano Ronaldo. Played a significant part in Manchester United's 2007 Premier League championship win and has continued to be a major player in their current bid to retain the title.

Young Player of the Year - Cesc Fabregas. This guy is still only 20 but seems to get better and better and is now an integral part of Arsenal's bid for glory this season.

Hero of the Year - Leicester City. After Leicester City player Clive Clarke collapsed at half time the Carling Cup match between Nottingham Forest and Leicester City had to be abandoned with Forest 1-0 up. When the match was replayed, Leicester allowed Forest keeper Paul Smith to run unopposed from the kick off to ensure Forest began the game 1-0 up. A fine gesture indeed.

Villain of the Year - Sepp Blatter. Continues to support corrupt officials and put corporate money ahead of genuine supporters in a bid to further his own causes rather than those of the game.

Shock of the Year - Chelsea failing to win the Premier League last season and losing Mourinho. Few could really have predicted that the Blues would not win a third Premier League championship on the trot. It took all the experience of Sir Alex and Manchester United and a bit of in-fighting to see Chelsea knocked off top slot.

Cliche of the Year - "Nothing wrong with that. Very professional." The creeping acceptance (mostly on Sky) of blatant cheating as an acceptable part of the professional game.

Christmas Cheers and New Year Woes?

As Christmas beckons RTG takes a look back on 2007 with our reasons for Christmas cheer (hurray!) and potential for New Year woes (boooo!). Rest assured, RTG will be back in the New Year, on 3rd January 2008, to continue our campaign to keep the woes at bay. Don’t forget to join us. For those of you who read this, have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Hurray! The FA finally seem to have realised that the game needs a ‘root and branch’ review – all be it 30 years too late!
Boooo! Given the FA’s history and its incomprehensible administrative structure will it actually highlight the key issues? After all, it is very difficult to make constructive criticism and recommendations about the very organisation that is commissioning the review.

Hurray! Steve McClaren was finally put out of his (and our) inevitable misery and Fabio Capello was installed as the new England manager.
Boooo! It took us failing to qualify for Euro 2008 for the FA to finally realise what many supporters knew – he was the wrong man for the job from the start.

Hurray! The new Wembley finally opened its doors for business several years late and the first FA Cup final for six years was played there.
Boooo! It cost far too much to build, has diverted resources and objectives away from the development of the England team and still doesn’t offer genuine supporters any more opportunity getting hold of tickets for big matches.

Hurray! Graham Poll retired.
Boooo! Uriah Rennie didn’t.

Hurray! The first trial of goal line technology has begun in one of the lower leagues.
Boooo! Technology seems to have crept in undercover and untested anyway as some referees now appear to refer to the fourth official watching Sky before making important decisions.

Hurray! Premiership teams are now taking the Carling Cup more seriously.
Boooo! Looks like that it too, is now becoming the preserve of the Big Four also.

Hurray! The total domination of the Premiership by Chelsea over the previous two seasons was broken by Manchester United.
Boooo! Roman Abramovich’s petty cash will no doubt put Chelsea back into their own league – just like that nice Mr Kenyon said it would. But the likelihood of anyone outside of the Big Four winning anything remains even further away.

Hurray! The Stevens Inquiry finally produced some results with the recent high profile arrests. Most surprisingly they have gone for people who still have an influence in the game rather than those too old and pissed up to defend themselves.
Boooo! City of London Police is in charge of the investigation. Judging by the way they handled the Kieron Fallon and other fraud trials, don’t expect much of a result!

Hurray! The cynical manipulation by Leeds Chairman, Ken Bates, of the administration punishment (ie 10 point reduction applied when Leeds were already relegated) did not go unpunished as Leeds were deducted a further 15 points at the start of the current season.
Boooo! Wrexham did the same, apparently, but no sanctions were imposed for reasons unknown to RTG. Additionally worrying, there are still a number of clubs still on the verge of administration even in the richest football country in the world.

Hurray! Supporters were treated to more live games on TV than ever before.
Boooo! The ridiculous choice, timings and division of money sought to ensure that we, the supporters, were consequently fleeced once again.

Hurray! Posh and Becks flew out to LA with RTG's anticipation that their unhealthy influence on English football was finally over.
Boooo! They seem to be on our TVs, and in our press, more than bloody ever! The most anticipated media event following Capello’s appointment does not seem to be the prospect of the rebuilding of a flagging England side but more about whether Beckham gets his 100th cap or not. God help us! For the record also, Channel Five and ESPN, we are not the least bit bloody interested in Major League Soccer!

Grand Slam Sunday Just Reinforcing the Status of England's Elite

‘Grand Slam Sunday’, or was it, ‘Super Sabbath’, came and went. In the end, not so much Grand or Super anything really, more Damp Squib. Not because both games weren’t interesting. They were quite compelling, in fact, if you were a supporter of any of the teams involved, or, if you were a ‘cognoscenti’ of football tactics. Nothing much has been decided from the match results, although it has probably confirmed the outcome of the premiership – a three way fight between Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United, with Liverpool bringing up the coat tails of the so called Big Four. The hype though for the matches was, to put it into the modern football vernacular, “massive”. Sky, as is their wont, started the build up weeks ago. No doubt Richard Keys, Sky’s Grand-Super Slam presenter, had his stock of long winded rhetorical questions prepared even before that. Even the BBC was mesmerised enough to switch the Match of the Day (Two!) highlights programme from ‘dead air’ BBC2 Sunday post 10pm slot, onto mainstream BBC1 to accommodate Super-Grand Sabbath.

As usual, the hype over-awed the events. Disturbingly, though, the mainstream Premiership and Football League programmes were almost completely overlooked. Is this what English football has amounted too? Ever more predictable in form and shape, are we to go the route of Scottish and other European national leagues, where nobody but the predictable two or three forever win the major honours? Like Scotland, the lack of competitiveness for major honours is being echoed throughout European Leagues. It is well over two decades since the either of the Glaswegian Big Two relinquished their title. After all, we have the predictable regular members of the European Champions League from Spanish, German, Italian and French leagues, supported by the usual crowd from Norway, Ukraine, Russia and the Balkans.

Supporters surely want a competitive league and the lack of this competition is being reflected in crowd attendances at matches outside of the Big Four. Five to ten years ago, it was practically impossible to buy a ticket on match day for a Premiership game. Now, apart from the Big Four, you can get a ticket on the day for most games. Indeed, gone are the days when Manchester United or Arsenal would draw a full stadium to Middlesbrough or Bolton, for instance. Current economic conditions will only serve to exacerbate the problems as people question more strongly the priorities of their spending: save for a rainy day or spend a couple of ton on taking my kids to a game when I know we won’t win, or, will be rolled over by a Big Four team?

But, what of the world wide support and viewing public? The world wide market is increasingly making its mark. TV, from outside of the UK, is changing football dynamics. Whether it's in the form of a Vietnamese beer commercial (unavailable in the UK) being put out on the Emirates advertising boards or the rumoured changing of kick off times to suit Asian markets. Payments for televising football on overseas rights are paltry compared to what are paid by Sky, Setanta and the BBC for their various television packages in the UK. Big matches have viewing figures of 5-8 million in the UK, maybe double digit millions for the FA cup final. Overseas the viewing figures run into hundred’s of millions if not billions. Logically, it must follow that as there are hundreds of millions of viewers ex-UK, that these are far more profitable for the broadcasters and advertisers than UK viewers – especially given the low amount that the Premiership receives for overseas rights. It must therefore also follow that, as those ex-UK markets get economically stronger, - and they will - broadcasters will want to maintain or increase those audience figures. How do they do that? Well, they just keep showing the so called popular Big Four and thus keep perpetuating and maintaining the elite in English football.

RTG believes that we need to open the market completely to television – given that RTG cannot see a way that we can move away from football commercialisation – but controlled and suitably shared by all in the Premiership and in English football – yes, including Burton! All matches available for viewing by all. The revenues would be so great, that inevitably, there will be huge arguments over the spoils. But they would dwarf anything that is available now. Yes, it might well be a recipe for disaster, but that is what we are heading for anyway. At least this gives a huge benefit for the UK balance of payments, rather than the faceless multinational corporations who are gorging themselves on football money. It might just save the soul of football. It might just bring about a more equitable environment. If billions can be made from one match – and just one billion dwarfs the total annual revenue of all Premiership clubs – then that money could just build a generation of sportsmen and women to match England’s potential.

Or, it could just go into a few players/managers/agents and the pockets of other hangers on. If we, the supporters who care about the game, do not get a say in how it is run, that's exactly where all the money will end up. RTG thinks we can have the voice. Join us.

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• Fabio Capello confirmed the worst kept secret in football and took the England job. He had ac tually stated he really wanted the job. Which makes you wonder why the FA were so keen to sign him up and at such expense. There was no particular rush so perhaps Brian Barwick might have bided his time. Or was it the case that he just couldn't bear to look a fool again if he'd lost Capello. The Italy national manager earns £1.5M per year. Spain £350K per year and Billic at Croatia earns £47K per year. At £6M per year for Capello could RTG suggest that Brian Barwick is not the best negotiator in the world?
• Tom Hicks' son proposed to his girlfriend in the centre spot 24 hours before Liverpool's game with Manchester United as he gave her a tour of the stadium. Given the current state of Hicks and Gillet's financial plans for the new stadium, it is likely he'll be able to take her back for their 10th anniversary.
• David Beckham's recent modelling gig for Georgio Armani underwear raised a few eyebrows and indeed a few questions in Posh's direction as to whether he'd fortified himself down below with a pair of Galaxy football socks. Posh was quick to defend Davids saying the meat and two veg was all genuine. However, a fashion commentator was heard to remark, "he looks to me like he's all veg and no meat."

Hats off Take a Bow (or not)!

Player of the Week - Marcus Bent. For his impressive hatrick in Wigan's 5-3 demolition of Blackburn. Special mention to Roque Santa Cruz for his hatrick in the same game. Sadly he finished on the losing side.

Villain of the Week - Asylum and Immigration Tribunal for deporting Watford's Al Bangura who fled Sierra Leone aged 15 and made it to Watford where Adie Boothroyd had high hopes for him. Talk about going for the low hanging fruit!

Hero of the Week - Fabio Capello. Well here's hoping!

Shock of the Week - Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3 Celtic 2. Given that ICT are now in the top flight it is not quite as big a shock as the 'super caly go balistic, Celtic are atrocious!' days of old, but a shock nonetheless. Even more so as they were two nil down.

Cliche of the Week - Anything with the word 'Fab', 'Fab-ulous', 'Fabio'. Think you get the drift!

Resources and Backing Now Needed for Capello to Succeed

The wait to find the next England manager, it seems, is over. For England supporters it was not a particularly long wait. For the journos freezing their nuts off outside Soho Square, it probably can’t end soon enough.

Yes, Fabio Capello is expected to be named as successor to Steve McClaren today. It is probably true to say that he was not the nation’s preferred choice but, in truth, that probably has more to do with the fact that people in England know more about Jose Mourinho, through the success he brought to Chelsea, than they do about Capello.

Being England Manager is much like being a politician. Wanting to do the job should, by definition, preclude you from getting it in the first place. Let’s face it, what person of sound mind and body would willingly choose to do it? But, Capello did in fact make his enthusiasm for the job known from the outset and those, like RTG, who demanded a man with a winning mentality, and a proven record of success, cannot claim he does not fit the bill. At RTG we were indeed very pro-Mourinho for the England job. But, after a period of quiet consideration of the two candidates (if indeed Mourinho ever really was a serious candidate), the more Capello looks like a better choice for the job. His record speaks for itself and he appears to pay little heed to reputation as could be seen in his treatment of the Galacticos when he took over at Real Madrid. One Galactico, in particular, came in for short shrift at first but, to be fair to Capello, he later conceeded that David Beckham's work rate and contribution merited his place in the team. And guess what? He coached them to their first title in four years.

It is important also not to forget that, successful though he is, Mourinho has shown a more unpleasant side to his nature in his mean-spirited, and sometimes disrespectful, treatment of other figures in the game. His accusations, concerning Frank Rijkaard’s supposed meetings with the referee at half time in the Barcelona game, were never proven to be true; and his comments regarding referee Anders Frisk whipped Chelsea fans into such a fury that he was forced to give up the game after he received death threats. England does not need a manager that considers manipulation of the media, to his and his side's ultimate gain, as important as coaching and developing the team. Dare we say it also that, perhaps (and this hurts), Brian Barwick deserves a certain degree of praise for not going after Mourinho hell for leather just because he was the people’s choice.

What is required now is a period of consolidation for England. Capello, if he is to be given the job, has until September 2008 before he has a competitive match. That means the FA should put at his disposal whatever resources are required to begin the building process. They have the time now to put a proper plan together in order that we can use his experience to build a genuine legacy for English football. He should also be allowed to choose his preferred backroom staff. Already rumours are rife that he will be forced into accepting a Stuart Pearce, Tony Adams or Alan Shearer as his right hand man in order that they can be groomed for the job. That’s what happened with McClaren and look where it got us.

Sporting just a slight tinge of optimism for the future (likely misplaced), RTG closes making a request to the media. We’re probably pissing in the wind here but can they back off this time and leave this guy to do his job. They effectively picked the England manager last time and it turned out to be a disaster. Their relentless calls to bring back David Beckham just caused Steve McClaren to focus on all the wrong issues and they were the first to crucify him when all he did was try and fulfil their every wish. Capello has enough experience and know-how to pick an England team so leave him alone and let him make the decisions he is paid to do.

Reclaim the Game - The Week's Events

• Eggert Magnusson took his pristine claret and blue scarf back to the club shop, sold his shares, stepped down as Chairman of West Ham and went back to pursuing his other business interests today. At this stage it is too early to tell exactly why (and we reserve our judgement) but perhaps he was not as big a 'hammers' fan as he first made out when he helped take over the club.
• A good week for British interests in the Champions League as five out of six clubs made it to the last 16. The odds were always against Rangers who had the dubious honour of being the sixth and last club left to try and qualify from the hardest group of any of the Brits. Mixed feelings must abound for Liverpool players as successful qualification leaves them with a high-profile away trip in Europe. Once again their homes will be left at the mercy of the gang that has now robbed six of the squad in the last 18 months. Still, better to have your gaff turned over while away to AC Milan or Barcelona in the Champions League than some Swiss or Belgian team you've never heard of in the UEFA Cup.
• Those of you out there complaining about inconvenient changes to kick off times, spare a thought for supporters of FC United. Having to watch the Unibond League team play after the heady heights of Old Trafford must be hard enough. But now supporters of the Manchester United spin off, FC, are finding themselves having to take action again even at these lowly levels. The board of FC United are staying true to their constitution by urging supporters to boycott their fixture against Curzon Ashton on December 29th due to the game being moved to 12:45pm to accommodate an internet broadcast deal. Both clubs have asked the league to reconsider since Curzon are expected to make £10,000 in gate receipts from the 1200 travelling FC supporters and the internet deal itself is only worth £400. The relentless march of the corporate takeover goes on!

Debatable PFA Demands too Narrow in View

The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) celebrated its 100th anniversary recently and some of the more intelligent press took the opportunity to provide some interesting historical analysis. Most pointed out that the original union formed with very limited aims. No, no talk in 1907 of freedom of contracts, image rights and intellectual copyright: instead the initial goal was simply to increase the maximum wage from five to seven pounds a week. Its subsequent success can best be measured by the fact that 50 years later, the maximum wage stood at just twelve pounds a week. Fifty years on from that, well, there is no maximum wage. Talk now is of how the “freedom of contract” has shifted the balance of power within the game to individual players and is expressed in six-figure weekly wages, and multi-million pound image rights, sponsorships and endorsements. This has given modern players the riches that, as a free market dictates, they deserve in comparison to other sports performers.

During the week though, there were reports of “demands” made by the PFA Chief Executive, Gordon Taylor, calling for a quota system on English players. At first glance, and at face value, these demands would appear to be a retro-step in the quality and entertainment value of English football. It is also unlikely in itself, as has been argued on RTG’s pages before, to produce the quality players to make the national team successful.

However, on closer inspection, what Gordon Taylor was really asking for was a quota on including a certain number of “home grown” academy players not only in first team squads, as suggested by UEFA, but the first team itself – irrespective of the nationality of those academy players. The hope would be that, as around 85% of academy players are currently English, this would translate into a technically more accomplished and larger pool of players available to the national squad. But, would it? What is the reality behind the quota idea? Certainly in the short term, it would be a constraint imposed on English teams throughout the league – perhaps affecting European aspirations most of all. Longer term, would it not simply shift the competition amongst clubs for recruiting players to ever younger targets? The prospect of multi millionaire 10 year olds looms larger!

These points are all worthy of debate, but the main driving force of this week’s issues raised by the PFA was a report, commissioned by them, which detailed the tremendous increase of non English players in the premiership. Since the advent of the club academy system, around 10 years ago, 120 young English men have graduated to first team football. In the same period, 617 foreign players have arrived in the premiership. A sobering statistic indeed. The report’s most surprising fact of all was that since the premiership started the number of English players involved has actually increased from 128 to 246 last season. A fact presumably explained by the modern need for much larger squads. Sadly, RTG doesn’t know how many of those 246 are considered first teamers. We suspect far less as a percentage, and in actual numbers, than in the premiership’s inaugural season.

The quota system, whilst worthy of debate, offers a too simplistic and narrow solution to England’s present woes. There are enormous cultural and educational issues that are greater even than football, which have a hugely significant impact on the development of players in this country. Why are there many thousands, yes thousands, of Brazilians playing professionally throughout the world outside of Brazil? The answer is that for the vast majority of those thousands, football is a way out of the violence and despair of the poverty stricken favellas. As Harry Redknapp mused on the answer to a question posed by a reporter, asking why he appeared to favour managing foreigners as opposed to English talent, he explained, the relative expense of signing English players was a problem, but that the most important point was the perceived lack of commitment from English kids. “Kids would rather be stuck indoors in front of their computer screens, playing games and surfing the ‘net. You just don’t see kids kicking the ball about in a park these days”.

Reclaim the Game – The Weekend’s Events

• Congratulations to Ryan Giggs for joining the exclusive group of players who have scored 100 league goals at the top level. He joins another 10 of the all time Manchester United greats which includes Best, Law and Charlton. Perhaps his most unwitting success was to be popular outside of Man United’s supporter base. No mean feat in itself.
• With all this talk of recession and credit squeezes, and with the transfer window opening in 3 weeks, the newspapers seem unsure of their scope for bullshit transfer stories. Still let’s hope for their sake that the FA doesn’t come up with an appointment to the England manager’s job. What on earth would they be able to speculate about?

Hat's Off, Take a Bow (or not)!

Player of the Week: Aiyegbeni Yakuba scoring his first hat-trick for Everton. Suddenly, people are beginning to wake up to the fact that he has been the most prolific striker in the premiership since his arrival on these shores. This excludes those that have departed the premiership (eg Henry van Nistelrooy), but still...

Hero of the Week: Ryan Giggs. As mentionned above.

Villain of the Week: Cristiano Ronaldo. Having elicited all the sympathy vote for his unjust booking and not winning a penalty last Monday night against Fulham, he spoils it all by doing the classic "there's a defender's leg, trip over it" to win one unjustly against Derby on Saturday. Curiously, he was defended by Andy Gray, who thought it was very "professional" and that he was "entitled" to go down. Nowadays, when Andy Gray says "professional", RTG hears "cheating".

Shock of the Week: Reading gaining their first win over a big four side (Liverpool). In this case, whilst the defeat of a much in-form Liverpool side was a surprise in itself, perhaps the biggest shock was that it was only their first win of this type. Reading's performances in their first two ever seasons in the top flight have been laudable as well as eye-catching.

Cliche of the Week: any simple, one sided argument that promises to right all that is wrong with English football. It just "aint" that simple.

Roll up. Roll up for the 100 Caps Wembley Showbiz Spectacular!

According to England skipper John (do you know how much I earn in a week?) Terry, Jose Mourinho is the ‘stand out’ candidate for the next England manager. For once, RTG finds it hard to disagree with JT on that. Sadly, however, this is in the same breath as stating he would be willing to sit out the Switzerland friendly in order for David Beckham to win his (in JT’s own words) “very well-deserved 100th cap”.

Much has been said recently regarding the England football team and its current woes. JT’s ‘sincere’ offer undermines his position as captain of a failing football team as he is trivialising the whole wretched situation that we as supporters have had to endure. What exactly is he stating? Beckham is going to play centre half? If so then we definitely haven’t even begun to learn anything from our recent debacle. Why is a captain talking up a player who won’t have played a competitive match for over three months, and only a handful in the last six or seven? The truth is that this situation is not going to happen. So why bother saying it?

Could it be that in an effort to fill Wembley for what is now a meaningless friendly on February 6th, next year, the FA have decided to turn the event into some sort of football celebrity love-in rather than focusing on rebuilding a flagging side? Let’s face it, the economics of filling Wembley with thousands of toilet-licking teenyboppers make much more sense than trying to half-fill it with miserable, disgruntled England supporters, still smarting from the lack of competitive matches to look forward to.

There have been four previous winners of 100 or more caps for England – Billy Wright, Peter Shilton, Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton. As RTG has stated before, David Beckham was once a very fine player. Unfortunately, you can count only a handful of world class performances he has made for his country; most notably, in his total command of the world cup qualifier against Greece, where his last minute effort secured automatic qualification to Japan 2002. It is hard to imagine him, however, in the company of these four greats and perhaps it would be better for the game if he stayed on 99 caps.

Reclaim the Game – The Week’s Events

• Call RTG cynical (and we are), but we believe that John Terry wetting himself and urinating on the floor on the eve of the important Croatia match was not caused by excess drink and exuberance. No, this was a carefully calculated publicity stunt for his rumoured new sponsorship deal with Pampers. OK….not strictly true…..it was Huggies. OK enough!
• Is it RTG’s imagination or has Richard Keys got even more vacuous in his summation of matches on Sky? He appears to take no account of the full 90 minutes and seems to refer constantly to his stock of clichéd points gleaned from the media, no matter what happened out on the field. As hard as Peter Beardsley tried to talk about the game last night (and as hard as we tried to understand the mumbling Geordie), Keys just kept bringing him back to, “Oh Arsenal, they play lovely football don’t they?”…..”Allardyce is under a lot of pressure isn’t he, Peter?”….”Pressure off Allardyce now Peter?”. Thanks Mr Keys but we learnt nothing about football from one of the game's greats thanks to your inane, stage-managed presentation.
• Gretna have made a brave decision this week to agree to postpone their SPL match with Rangers at the weekend to help Rangers’ preparations for their upcoming qualification decider against Lyons. Admirable though it is to see a nation getting behind its club teams in Europe, this adds a distinctly unfair advantage and sets a worrying precedent should the habit be adopted more widely.

A Week to Wonder: What's Happening?

Football endured a tempestuous time this week including arrests on suspicion of corruption in the game, more bribery rumours/allegations and controversial issues which have been discussed and illustrated in previous posts by RTG. However you look at events this week, it is hard not to feel like the game is moving further away than ever from what supporters would call ‘reality’.

The England manager’s job appears to be turning into a PR fest, not helped by the FA’s appalling handling of the process last time around. As usual, the FA appear not to be doing anything. However, perhaps we are being unfair as RTG has no idea on the workings of the committees of the sub-committees and various points of order (Mr Chairman).

Candidates and their agents are professing not to be interested, then very interested, all within the space of 24 hours. Today’s papers have Jose Mourinho still saying, "come and get me" and "here’s my plan", while others claim he is waiting for a big club job and is using the England job as leverage in other discussions. However, due to the ponderous processes that the FA appears to operate under, it may be that, as the most ‘popular’ choice, Mourinho may well be bagged by someone else. After all, with the transfer window coming up, it would seem logical that a man of his ability would be snapped up by a leading European team. AC Milan for one!

One of the names being touted to succeed McClaren, Harry Redknapp was one of those arrested and released on bail this week. Presumably this is as an initial result of the recent Stevens inquiry and it is rumoured that more arrests will follow. This at least answers the question RTG posted some weeks ago as to what had actually happened here. How long will we wait for the next events to unfold regarding this matter? Possibly too long for Redknapp to ever be considered for the job (if indeed he ever was a serious candidate). The threat of more arrests may be impacting the selection process already.

The undue haste with which the FA despatched Steve McClaren’s P45 would seem to suggest that they had a ‘plan’ in place, wouldn’t it? It does not look like it, at the moment. What makes RTG worried is that, once again, we will end up with nothing more than a compromise candidate chosen by a combination of media pundits, ill-informed xenophobes and an FA under financial pressure. Don’t book your flights for South Africa 2010 just yet either.

Reclaim the Game – The Weekend’s Events

• More controversy involving referees at the weekend saw Phil Dowd (again) apparently refer to the fourth official – Uriah Rennie (well it would be wouldn’t it) – and presumably the TV feed, in sending off Robbie Keane. Aside from the hilarity of listening to Andy Gray trying to lip read what Mr Dowd was saying, it has, once again, clouded the issue of video evidence. Let’s hope the FA don’t punish an irate manager as he berates a fourth official into looking at the evidence of a dubious decision. The use of video evidence seems to have come in through the back door (remember Zidane’s sending off in the World Cup final). The only real reason this was especially highlighted yesterday was because the video evidence appeared to prove the officials got the decision wrong, or at least was still inconclusive. Which all just shows what RTG has long thought: the controversial decisions won’t go away just because technology is at hand; it will just shift into a more technical arena. But, the referees will not be in charge of the game.

• UEFA are investigating certain European matches (as yet undisclosed), thought to be Champions League and UEFA Cup qualifiers, for match fixing involving an Asian betting syndicate. Michel Platini is taking a hands-on approach and RTG awaits the outcome in his first major test as UEFA’s president. RTG was somewhat amused when parts of the media implied that some of Croatia’s Euro 2008 qualifiers were involved and that this might give a back door entry for England. This desperate wishful thinking might have more to do with pundit contracts being lost and drink-fuelled jollies to Austria and Switzerland having to be put on hold. No doubt the BBC will still find the budget to send Chris Hollins and Nicky Campbell to bake cakes, wear lederhosen and interview drunk fans in the street.

• Speaking of all things Euro 2008, the draw was held yesterday for the group stages of the tournament. It seems like it is of a better standard, and harder to win than the World Cup, so why spoil the potential of the tournament by allowing the draw to put three of the best teams in the same group. No disrespect to Romania intended. The draw was made a farce by the need to accommodate the two hosts as number one seeds. Clearly a stupid situation and why we should only have a single host for tournaments. It might be argued that this is the only way some countries will get to host such an event but, with only two venues above 32,000 capacity, these two should not have been awarded it in the first place. Look, if Mexico, a third world country, can successfully host a world cup with large venues, then rich nations like these should be able to make more of an investment in what is the second largest international tournament in the world.

• Aaaahh, the romance of the third round of the Famous FA Eon Cup™. The draw was held yesterday amid the usual anticipation of ‘David v Goliath’ and ‘a money-spinning tie’ for the minnows. Amazingly, Manchester Utd drew Aston Villa in the third round for the fourth time in seven years. What seems to have been missed is that, had United not pulled out of the 2000 competition, it would have been five in eight as the so-called ‘lucky losers’, Darlington (who replaced United in the draw) drew guess who? Statistically this seems highly improbable as well as a real bummer for Villa fans.
  
  Hats Off, Take a Bow! (or not).

Player of the week: Fernando Torres - playing sublimely and so surreal like, that you might just believe that Liverpool will break their 18 year taboo of winning the English league.

Villain of the week: all those that believe in video evidence - No! It's not going to work. It won't until we get 'feel around' - or is it 'sense around'?

Heroes of the week: FC Stuttgart Team and Supporters. Everybody in the UK paid scorn on their lap of honour when they picked up their only points in the Champions League. They gave it as a thankyou to their fans who had supported them (a full stadium, when they were already out of the competition). Treated cynically by the British press, yet a heart felt gesture.

Shock of the week: the Arrests! Without judging already, RTG really didn't believe any action would be taken from the Stevens Inquiry. Let's hope, however, that guilty parties are taken down and for those not found out, that this is a warning.

Cliche of the week: "I am interested, I am not interested" - in the England job, of course.