Hodgson – The Smart Choice

Finally, the FA has appointed the next England manager; Roy Hodgson. Vastly experienced and erudite, by English football standards, he was chosen ahead of Harry Redknapp, the football media’s choice, and by extension, the ‘people’s choice’. Whilst the selection process appears to be a bit of a mystery, it seems that Redknapp didn’t even appear to be in the running. Of course, rumours abound about the enmity between him and Sir Trevor Brooking costing him any chance of a successful appointment to the post.

However, it is clear that the prime qualifier for the job was to be English. With that in mind, Roy Hodgson is the right choice. It may be true that Hodgson’s main trophy winning feats occurred on the continent but he has a successful track record, at least, winning many championship titles and cup competitions throughout Europe. He also turned an international ‘minnow’, Switzerland, into the number three FIFA-ranked international side. Redknapp, on the other hand, has just one FA Cup credit to his name with what turned out to be a ‘financially-doped’ Portsmouth. Arguably, Hodgson taking Fulham to the Europa Cup Final was a more impressive feat than Redknapp reaching the last eight of the Champions League with Tottenham.

Many people, especially in the media, have voiced their extreme disappointment that the ‘people’s choice’ didn’t get the job. Given the experience when the last ‘people’s choice’, Kevin Keegan, was appointed, thank god this time we didn’t.

Great Football Pub Bore Myths of Our Time – Part 2

A welcome return to the Champions League saw RTG spend two nights of football viewing followed by the subsequent attempts by Sky Sports, and ITV to a lesser extent, to fill the void in the satellite TV schedule. Consequently, after much inane punditry, RTG learned the following:

* Arsenal have it all to do in Milan but they are a good team and will be going all out to get the result (following a 0-0 home result);

* Laser pens are dangerous, could affect important results and should be banned but it is difficult for UEFA to do anything about them;

* Had Adebayor’s header not hit the bar but gone in instead, it would have given the tie a completely different result (because it was 0-0 at home);

* United’s late equaliser makes their job a lot easier at Old Trafford (because it was 1-1);

* Gordon Strachan stated that he wouldn’t bet his house on Celtic progressing further against Barcelona.

Apart from the last point there was little else interesting or amusing to report. So, as per last week RTG delves once more into the Great Football Pub Bore Myths of Our Time which the media are so fond of propagating.

Great Football Pub Bore Myths of Our Time – Part 2

Great player = Great manager. “Shearer undoubtedly will manage Newcastle one day”. Well, he’s a great player therefore he must inevitably turn out to be a great manager. Given the millions of pounds that are now at stake in the football ‘industry’ how can this God given right continue to be bestowed on Alan Shearer. For that matter, Brian Robson was the latest managerial casualty this week. He was a great player. He certainly isn’t a great manager. Lest we be tempted to mention a certain Bobby Charlton and his brief foray into the world of football club management, RTG thinks you’ll get our point.

Speaking of managers, Messrs Wenger, Ferguson, Grant and Benitez, of big four fame, never take the FA Cup seriously because they always pick second string teams. Well, actually, they can afford to pick second string players because their squads usually have more strength in depth. Hence, why one of them seems always destined to win it. The truth is, in fact, that just about every team, including those in the Championship chasing Premier League spoils, and even lower league teams seeking promotion, play second string sides in the FA Cup. And the simple fact is that those teams really can’t afford to if they really want to take the FA Cup seriously.

Whilst we are on the subject of the riches of the Premier League, Peter Kenyon is one of the shrewdest businessmen you’ll find when it comes to wheeling and dealing in the transfer market. Well, actually, he consistently failed to make the most of Manchester United’s huge bargaining power by paying way over the odds for players, even when other clubs apparently weren’t even interested. Stand up the three million pound David Bellion from Sunderland who United could actually have got for nothing. Even Peter Ridsdale, he of Leeds United infamy, was shocked at Kenyon’s naivety when he paid £30 million for Rio Ferdinand. Not to be made a laughing stock by his critics over this, he then saw the chance to make amends by refusing to pay £16 milllion to PSG for the future world number one, Ronaldhino, and subsequently waved the Brazilian maestro goodbye as he departed for Barcelona. Nice one Peter. Now he’s at Chelsea, of course, he’s in the best place possible. He can afford to waste loads of money and nobody will bother to question why.

Peter Ridsdale sunk Leeds United because he had an expensive goldfish aquarium in his office that cost £20 per month. Well OK, perhaps a luxury he didn’t need but Mr Ridsdale was guilty of far worse financial mismanagement during his tenure at Leeds. Take, for instance, his negotiation with Seth Johnson’s agent. The agent discussed with Johnson, prior to the meeting, that they wouldn’t accept a penny less than £18K per week. Ridsdale, however, opened negotiations by saying he wouldn’t pay more than £26K and that was his final offer. The agent, by the way beat him up to £30K. Add to that hiring private jets for lavish trips to Monaco, just to watch the Champions League draw, and a few goldfish seem quite reasonable.

Part 3 to follow – watch this space

Reclaim the Game – The Week’s Events

• The Premier League puts its proposals for the 39th game before the FA this morning. A proposal that, sadly, more and more people seem to be coming out and saying we should explore in principle. Arsene Wenger, the Chelsea board, Peter Gold of Birmingham City and a few ex-player pundits have all added their view that we should look into this as a viable way of moving the Premier League forward. The FA has specific criteria which the proposal must not contravene:

  1) There must be no risk to England’s 2018 World Cup bid
  2) There is no impact on fixture congestion
  3) There is no impact on the England team itself
  4) The format of the Premier League competition must be kept fair
  

  Frankly, none of those conditions could possibly be met.

• Reports from Newcastle suggest Paul Gascoigne has been sectioned under the mental health act. Gazza was a good player but is paying the price for being one of the first over-hyped media football stars. His record never lived up to the billing the media gave him and he is now suffering the consequences. RTG wishes him well.
• Chelsea boss, Avram Grant, received death threats via a package in the mail this week. Aside from the sinister racist undertones and the ‘mysterious powder’ that it contained, this is another sad example of how, in modern times, extreme views seem to be prevailing.
• For once, a big ‘up’ to Richard Keys who pointed out the hypocrisy of his panel when chastising Eboue for his obvious dive last night. Keys, quite rightly, reminded certain members of the panel that they had previously praised players who gained penalties as being ‘perfectly entitled to go down’. Intriguingly, he failed to point out that those that were praised tended to be the English players who, as we know, never dive. Well, except when they’re ‘perfectly entitled’, obviously.

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!

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.

FA's Incompetence Makes England Supporters World Cup Weary

“We want to basically make sure we get the right person. We want to be patient, if that’s the right way to go about it. It’s a big job ahead of us. We have a real genuine responsibility to deliver on it this time…”

The words of FA Chief Executive, Brian Barwick, before adding that finding the new England manager was, “a hare and tortoise thing”. (What?).

Apart from being fairly incomprehensible as a statement, RTG just doesn’t believe that the FA has the right people or structure to select the right person. And in case he doesn’t realise it, it was his duty to deliver it last time as well. And look what we got: a manager who was effectively a ‘dead man walking’ from the day of his appointment.

He was never anybody’s first choice but he did satisfy one criterion for the xenophobic media in being English. Once it started to go wrong, they turned on him also which made him focus too much attention on managing his media persona rather than the team. His spin-engineered press conferences were, at best, dreary and told us very little. He sought to compound that error by appointing Terry Venables as his number two as a defensive cloak – an appointment, by the way, that served to create more confusion, more strife and more disruption. When is English football going to realise that El Tel, whatever successes he has enjoyed in his past, is not a good person to have around? God help the Irish if they appoint him as their manager.

But, and a very important but it is too: is there really any point in appointing any new manager if the FA is not to be first restructured and reorganised to reflect some defined objectives for the running of English football? In recent times, the lack of objectives has seen us can the Burton FA’s School of Excellence in favour of financing the New Wembley stadium. What else has this got us? Having to play American Football on the pitch less than a month before the most important game to be played there yet.

If there is no serious rethink and action on changing the way that football is run in England, then there really was no point in sacking Steve Mclaren and it would have been a darn sight cheaper for the bean counters at the FA. Yes, a new manager may instil a short-term boost of enthusiasm, especially for those players who’ve come to expect their England place is guaranteed. We will also have the usual media honeymoon period and perhaps even a few good results. But this will just be papering over the cracks yet again.

Given the apparent fiscal objectives of the FA, RTG expects that the ideal solution for 2010 World Cup qualification would be to finish second in the group thus necessitating the need for another ‘earner’ in a play-off at Wembley. Was it only us, though, who felt decidedly ambivalent toward the World Cup draw yesterday, as it sought only to reinforce our disappointment at not having a competitive match to play until September 2008. Yes. 10 months!

But, the World Cup draw did bring home a particular issue that RTG has felt strongly about for some time – namely getting rid of the geographic element and having world cup qualification groups drawn based solely on rankings. England must travel nine hours and three and a half thousand miles to play Kazakhstan. If we can go there then we could travel to most of Africa, the Caribbean, North America, parts of Central America and as far East as Bangladesh. It would also remove the situation where some regions are playing disproportionate numbers of games e.g. CONMEBOL who play 18 matches to remove five of ten teams and for Brazil and Argentina to always qualify. CONCACAF is similar in that USA and Mexico always qualify. Of the top 32 teams in the Fifa World Rankings, Europe occupies 23 places yet receives just 13 of the 32 slots for the World Cup finals.

World Groups are a win win situation for all involved. Players play less matches, clubs lose fewer players for international duty and we get the best 32 teams in the world competing in a competition whose quality has been declining in recent times. Plus, the world can coordinate its diary in order to plan suitable times when matches can be played as conveniently as possible for clubs, players and countries.

Sounds a bit too sensible that doesn’t it!

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• The big smiles and happy faces of the Croatian players at the singing of their national anthem was taken by several pundits as an example of their burning pride and ambition as a contrast to England's limp approach. Apparently not. The cause of the hilarity was that singer, Tony Henry had actually mispronounced the opening line of the anthem. Instead of "You know my dear how we love your mountains”, he appears to have sung, "My dear, my penis is a mountain”. However, at least England may have some representation in Austria/Switzerland because Croatia want Mr Henry to be their official mascot at the tournament.
• Media Madness for potential England Manager observed over the weekend: Alan Shearer. Tony Adams. Steve Coppell. Terry Venables. Slaven Bilic. Gerrard Houllier. Harry Redknapp. Stuart Pearce. There are bound to be others but we'd like to throw the hats of Brian Clough and the kid that won the Fifa 2006 computer game tournament in to the ring.
• A prime example of why England suffers at international level could be seen on Match of the Day on Saturday night. Mark Lawrenson and Alan Shearer rightly criticised the current FA structure and development of players (now). But then proceeded to illustrate the short-sightedness of the whole football industry by extolling the virtues of Bolton's over physical approach by describing it as "work rate, desire and honesty". These are always seen as the overriding virtues of English players and until we move away from this narrow view of the world, we will achieve nothing.
• SOS! Talksport's (and others') campaign to reinstate the Home Internationals to, "Save our Summer" should be given the short shrift that it deserves. There are enough pointless tournaments and matches in the close season already. Its unfortunate that none of us will be there but players (and spectators) could use a break so let's take the opportunity to give them one.
  

Hats Off, Take a Bow! (or not).

Player of the Week – Tim Cahill. Bossed the game in a 7-1 drubbing of Sunderland and a wonderful performance that was always waiting to happen.

Heroes of the Week – Staines Town. A big up for the Staines Massive in their defeat of Stockport County in the FA Cup. We just wanted to say the word massive but honourable mentions to Forest Green for thrashing Rotherham 3-0 at Millmoor and Hereford United for beating 'higher flying' Leeds United at Elland Road.

Villain of the Week – Idiot pundits who keep making stupid and ill considered suggestions as to the next England manager's identity. The most frustrating thing about England is those people who claim to have an expert knowledge, and indeed you would think they should, but suffer from the whole England football problem of lack of education - in its formal sense.

Cliche of the Week – Up to the Ladies to show the men how to do it. Having beaten Spain, 1-0, the England Women's team now top their Euro qualification group. Great effort and hats off to them but RTG couldn't really give a damn given current circumstances. Sorry but that's the way we feel.

Shock of the Week - We knew the media were stupid but Alan Shearer? Come on!

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.