Media Works in Our Favour. Just This Once.

Israel, contrary to popular belief (including cynical RTG previous postings), played out of their skins to rescue England on Saturday. But thank God for the cynicism of a nation and its media. No-one could see how an Israel team, that had nothing to play for, would be victorious over a Russian team that shared many footballing, cultural and, above all, financial links with them. However, the pressure exerted by the English media, forced the Israeli coach to call a press conference prior to the match to deny ‘undue pressure’ had been applied from ‘outside’.

In a complete reversal of circumstances, following the result, the head of the Russian FA, Vitaly Mutko, cried foul. He has all but accused the English media of influencing the result of the game by energising an Israeli performance which had removed his team’s destiny out of their own hands. Additionally, it appeared to cause the Russian team to, in the words of one of their players, “shit in their pants”.

Did the English media play their part? Only the players involved can really tell. The point is that it seems normal these days to have to play a PR offensive in various media channels prior to any important match. Over many years, Sir Alex Ferguson has used various pronouncements on potentially lenient or easily led referees or xenophobic stereotypes, to head off possible obstacles to his own interests. This now seems to be a widely acceptable practice exercised by the majority of managers and coaches.

As England supporters, for once, the media has undoubtedly helped us out. Its record over the years has been the complete reverse. It has been the hirer and firer of England management over the last 35 years. And look where it has got us! For that matter, where has it got the English Premiership? Have their been any great debates about the most significant event to occur in the last five years – i.e. the arrival of billions of pounds in the form of Roman Abramovich and the securing of two Premiership titles? No. The media chose to focus on the fact that it would make the Premiership competition better by adding Chelsea to the competitive mix (i.e. to challenge Arsenal and Manchester United’s dominance of the league). Astonishingly, no downside could be appreciated, or anticipated. In fact, they chose to be positively sycophantic toward Chelsea and Abramovich. There were even pundits and commentators who expounded that blatant cheating was, in their terms, ‘excellent professionalism’. Hang your head in shame Andy Gray.

Lost in the midst of the Italian scandals of undue influence being exercised by referees in favour of the top teams in Serie A, was the manipulation of viewers of Italy’s most popular football analysis programme to those big teams. That is, controversial decisions made against the top teams were highlighted as being ‘unfair’ while controversial decisions made for those teams were glossed over and presented in a favourable light. RTG finds it hard to believe that these same sorts of influences are not being perpetrated by the media in this country.

The media in England have complained steadfastly over the last few years over lack of access to players and their remoteness. Yet, the fact is that, in its efforts to look after its own interests and not ‘bite the hand that feeds it’, the media has actually become just as remote itself. Laudable and debatable initiatives are raised but quietly and conveniently swept aside and forgotten. The Observer published a series of articles under the banner of ‘The Game that Ate Itself’ and FourFourTwo magazine published a special feature on ‘100 Ways to Save Football’. All very interesting but what has actually been achieved as a result? Nothing! Above all, what has been heard of the Stevens Report recently? What action has been taken? Nothing.

That’s why we’re doing this. There needs to be a body of people who are prepared to act. For the few of you who are reading this, we ask you to pass on the url to your fellow supporters and ask you to register with us now.

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• As predicted in this very blog, Scotland go back to being also-rans and having to support whoever is playing England as their brave attempt to qualify from a tough group fell just short of the mark once again. A lot of talk about 'passion' and 'Scottish fans being like a twelfth man' came to nothing against the World Champions on Saturday. Ultimately, if you concentrate on good results against France and forget that you have to beat teams like Georgia, no amount of 'passion' makes a blind bit of difference. Better luck next time lads. You'll probably need it.
• Hard-hitting Times journalist and Sports Writer of the Year,2005, Martin Samuels, seems to have hit upon something that the rest of the English football-watching public missed. Speaking on the Sunday Supplement this weekend, he attributed England's problems to (and we quote) "our juniors having to play on a full-sized pitch". With no apparent explanation further than that. And there was RTG thinking it was maybe down to poor coaching, an apathetic and self-centred FA, years of neglect and unintelligent English players. Give that man a job in the FA someone!
• Moves are afoot to follow Sheffield Wednesday's example and ban the band from England games. We give this our wholehearted support. Not only are they an irritating and distracting dirge in the background of England games, they also contribute nothing to the atmosphere or encouraging England fans to sing and shout. In fact, they probably have the opposite effect. Whoever thought this was a good idea, are probably the same people who think a good England manager is one who clenches his fists a lot, runs around his technical area whistling and who makes waving hand gestures at his players that they neither see nor understand.
• England have been thrown a lifeline. Two things we should remember about this. Firstly, this does not mean that performances against Russia, Croatia and Macedonia have gone away. They still happened and they were still bad. Secondly, Steve Mclaren is not suddenly a good manager. We're not there yet but, if we get there, (and in the absence of any likely appointment of Jose Mourinho) he's probably as good as anyone available for the job. Hopefully that hasn't depressed you too much.

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

Player of the Week - David Healy. Broke Davor Suker's record for number of goals scored in a European Championship qualifying campaign with a tally of 13 so far. Admittedly he has had 12 games in which to achieve it which Davor most likely did not. Interestingly, he can't get near goal-starved Fulham's starting eleven.

Villain of the Week - All those people (RTG included) who predicted Israel would lay down and roll over for Russia. Shame on us all! But thank God we answered our country's call when it mattered.

Hero of the Week - Omer Golan. Nice one old son. At least for the time being got us out of a tight spot.

Cliche of the Week - 'Golan Scales New Heights.' Or something similar.

Shock of the Week - The effort and sheer determination put in by Israel to prove that they were going to go for it.

Do We Not Like That?

In a throwback to the bad old Graham Taylor England days, we are left contemplating various permutations for qualification to Euro 2008. So if Macedonia beat Croatia, and then we beat Croatia by a three goal margin or Israel draw or win against Russia and then we beat Croatia - we're through! Never going to happen. RTG hopes you took our advice from our September 6th posting not to book your flights to Austria or Switzerland.

Of the scenarios above, according to the form book, we are most likely left relying on Israel to get points off Russia. Let's take a look at the likelihood of this for a moment. We've already discussed in this blog last week how influence and interests of wealthy football investors appear shrouded in confusion and potentially detrimental to competition in the sport. Roman Abramovich is a major contributor to the Russian national team and is believed to bankroll Gus Hiddink's salary. He also 'found' the funding for the new Russian national stadium. Strangely, he doesn't seem able to afford to put underfloor heating in the stadium but we'll gloss over that for now.

But his influence also extends to Israeli football. He attempted to purchase Hapoel Tel Aviv in 2005 but was advised, given he is owner of Chelsea, not to do so. Consequently he persuaded his wealthy, close friend, Lev Leviev, to get involved with Israeli football and buy them instead. He seems to be most comfortable when he surrounds himself with Jewish/Russian cronies anyway. Take Avram Grant and Pini Zahavi as clear examples of this. Whichever way you choose to look at it, he clearly has major connections with both Israeli and Russian football. Can we really expect an Israeli team who are already out of the competition to go all out for victory? We don't think so, nor do we expect Croatia to lose to Macedonia.

Let's make no excuses for England's failure last night. We've heard a lot about "lack of passion" and "wanting to wear the shirt" ad nauseam from the pundits but the bottom line is we have not been good enough in what should have been a comfortable group. We made a promising start last night against Russia where we attacked and defended comfortably, and managed to take a one goal lead into the half-time break. But Russia's tactical changes saw us retreat further and further back until we were left looking like a bunch of clueless hoofers.

This has been a worrying trend right back to the Euro 2000 tournament where we were brutally exposed in our inability to keep possession of the ball. In his defence Sven Goran Eriksson must have realised this from the onset of his tenure because he turned us into a long ball side, capable of qualifying out of a group but shown wanting against the better sides. Last night we could blame Robinson, Rooney, plastic pitches or the ref if we wanted but, the way we were playing last night, it seemed inevitable that Russia would score again once they had equalised. The talent is there no doubt but the tactics and the intelligence to win important matches are not. Gus Hiddink out thought Steve McClaren completely and in an interview last night said that he knew that if you put the English defence under sustained pressure they would struggle to cope. And struggle they did.

Where do we go now? We've already discussed the problem lies deeper than just the manager but Steve McClaren clearly has to go. Who to replace him? Is there somebody out there with the tactical know-how, winning attitude, skin of a rhino and ability to get the best out of English players? Ole Jose!

Reclaim the Game - The Week's Events

• The BBC have been preparing, over the last week, for announcing redundancies to recover a £2 Billion deficit. Here's some suggestions to recover part of the debt: 1. Concentrate on acquiring the sport in the first place and don't pay the useless, ex-footballers, but with no brain pundits - e.g. Alan (I'm so Mary Popiins, my wife makes me do this) Shearer, Ian (the louder I shout, the more people believe my credibility) Wright and several others who don't add anything to our coverage to make it worth the expense; 2. Keep your serious football reporters and get rid of Chris Hollins who seemed to spend the whole of Germany 2006, at our expense, reporting on anything but football. What on earth do WAG massages and making Black Forest Gateaux have to do with World Cup football? 3. Gaby Logan - why? 4. Stop sending Five Live's Nicky Campbell to every major sporting occasion just for us to have to listen to him recounting his previous evening's corporate (also at our expense) entertainment over breakfast. Do the BBC, or any TV company for that matter, not understand the basic supply and demand laws of economics. There are millions of people willing to do presenting jobs out there. The desire to do the job should pay for itself.
• The collective intellectual footballing brain that is the Sky Sports pundit team, suggested one solution to England's qualification woes is to 'bring back David Beckham'. Well, when he gets his place back in the LA Galaxy team perhaps it might be a 'solution' (?@!*@??&*) worth thinking about. Solution? It's too late to help us now thanks chaps but you keep spouting out the first thing that comes into your brain rather than giving any serious thought to something that might be worth hearing.
• Sammy Lee, despite being the early favourite, was not the first Premiership manager to get the boot this season. Just goes to show that promoting second in command to overall General doesn't seem to work. FA take note...........hmmmmm.

Israel Victory Still Hides a Multitude of Sins

RTG begins this week with a plea for our resolution. We sit before you today firmly ensconced in the confessional box with a mortal sin to get off our chest. What could two clean living, law abiding chaps like us possibly have to confess we hear you ask? Well I'm afraid it is this. We watched an England team win a game comfortably, convert three chances and create several more. Forget that it was "only Israel" as our wise-after-the-event friends at the media are now saying. Given our poor performances previously against minnows such as Estonia, Trinidad and Tobago and Ecuador, let's face it we were not overly confident of receiving the easy ride that we did on Saturday. But Holy Father please forgive us. Because, as we reservedly rejoiced in finally witnessing a comfortable and controlled England performance, we experienced a niggling feeling of underlying disappointment in this victory. Once again, the real problems would be temporarily hidden in the euphoria of it all and conveniently swept under the carpet.

For there lies the ultimate dilemma. If Euro 2008 kicks off without England, it will be a major blow to us all to have to sit through games with nothing to look forward to other than Germany losing. Remember 1994? Exactly! If England do manage to squeeze past Gus Hiddink's Russia and qualify for Austria and Switzerland, we will once again be forced to pretend that there is no problem with the management, the team or the administration. And so the pain goes on.

Credit where credit is due, Steve McClaren was widely derided by a baying media for recalling Emile Heskey - the same media that seems now to have supported the decision all along. But if our Steve really did pull a master stroke, why was Heskey nowhere near the squad for the Germany friendly. And why was Saun Wright-Phillips nowhere near the right hand side of midfield for the same game simply because the recalled Beckham had flown 6,000 miles to be there?

The simple truth is that we have a media that is no better equipped to pick an England team than we are, influencing an England manager who pays far too much attention to them. They both bat each other around from one opinion to another whichever seems to fit the bill at any particular time. McClaren does not instil any confidence that he really knows the system he wants to play, who is the best player in each position or how to adapt to different situations. He carries the air of a man that is so scared of making the wrong decision in the eyes of the media, he invariably does not know what direction he is meant to be moving in.

As we have stated in previous posts, England have failed to qualify for tournaments over 30 years ago and we failed to learn from it. We still haven't become any more successful. For that reason alone, wishing poor results on our national team in order to see a change of management is a waste of time so of course we want to be in Austria and Switzerland. But expect nothing more than flags on cars, over coverage of events off the field, lots of pointless punditry and the usual disappointing exit on penalties.

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• We consider ourselves to be a little disloyal for holding the views we do concerning England (see above). But we would never entertain the idea of booing David Bentley for withdrawing from the under 21s during the summer. His actions at the time are difficult to defend given that, due to his timing, he left the squad a man light. But this mindless behaviour of so-called England fans actually serves to reinforce the idea that England are over analysed and given too much importance in the relative scheme of things. Grow up you idiots or just don't bother taking up a seat if that's the best you have to offer.


• Everybody suddenly loves Emile Heskey! Cast your mind back to 2003 when the cries for the 17 year old Wayne Rooney to be included in the England team were echoing around the TV studios and press rooms of the country. Despite probably not scoring enough goals, Heskey had been a loyal servant to England since his debut in 1999. Yet as the media hailed in the boy wonder at Emile's expense, they effectively danced on his grave as they ushered him out the door. Now all of a sudden everybody loves him again. The truth of the matter is that, for whatever reason, England look more comfortable on the ball and more in control when Michael Owen and him are there. Perhaps, we should all take a step back and consider the effect it has on players when they are roundly condemned and written off more prematurely than they should be. Perhaps we'll learn from this experience. Yeah right!


• Fortress Wembley? Or more like fortified Wembley by the time that the corporates had staggered back to their seats for the second half on Saturday (those that made the effort). Sorry Steve, but so long as Wembley continues to be a corporate money-making machine in order to pay its way, you'll have to make do with a load of booing fans and empty seats in your fortress.


• Arsene Wenger signed a new contract with Arsenal to keep him in the Premiership for another four years this week. Wenger is quite rightly praised for his contribution to diet and fitness in this country and for bringing a style of football hitherto rarely seen in England let alone at Arsenal. He is, however, fairly widely criticised for his reluctance to bring on English players (Ashley Cole, David Bentley, Jerome Thomas, Jermaine Pennant and Justin Hoyte may disagree). Clearly Wenger believes that his duty to the success of Arsenal is his major priority and if that involves using foreign players rather than English ones then so be it. But isn't it the truth that Wenger should have more English players available to pick from, with the necessary skill levels, than he, or any other manager in England, does. Those that do make the grade cost far more and demand more wages than their foreign equivalents simply because they are English. Its back to the old problem that we are not producing enough quality English players and relying on clubs and managers like Arsene Wenger to produce them is not going to work. Over to you again Brian Barwick.
• Where is Rob Macaffrey?

Hats Off, Take a Bow (or Not)!

Player of the week - Adrian Mutu. Appears to have put his troubles behind him in scoring two goals in Romania's 3-1 victory over Belarus. Apparently he led the line brilliantly. Almost as well as the lines led him when he was at Chelsea.

Villain of the week - The England Fan's brass band. Need we say more?

Hero of the Week - David Bentley. Now we fully admit this won't be the most popular decision and all that we discussed before still applies. But to come on for your country and be booed by your own fans requires a degree of dignity that we would not have expected David to exhibit. But he did and so far continues to do so.

Cliche of the week - "England Euro 2008 qualification is well and truly back on track": "A real boost to England's Euro 2008 qualification hopes". An OK performance against a lacklustre Israel team. Let's not get too carried away yet chaps!

Shock of the Week - Solving the Alan Hansen facial blemishes mystery. The beard has gone and all is back to normal. Apparently our Alan got scolded blowing a candle out. Good to see you're "back on track" Alan. "A real boost" to your Euro 2008 punditry hopes!