I have been a football fan and been watching England for over 20 years and in that time I don’t think I have seen the national team play as poorly as they did against Algeria. That’s quite a big statement considering the unsuccessful reign of Steve McClaren and some of the, let’s face it, inept performances in failing to qualify for the 2008 European Championships in Austria & Switzerland.
All the talk of being potential World Cup winners and having some of the best players in the world couldn’t be further from the truth. Players like Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard were the 3 worst performing players on the field for me, but they seem to be untouchable and can play however they like and they will not be substituted or left out of the next game. I have never seen Rooney not be able to control the ball with his first touch or make a simple short pass, it certainly looks as if he is believing all his hype and thinks all he has to do is show up and that’s enough. He certainly didn’t look like one of the supposed world class players on show this summer or to be a team player on that performance, that’s what was disappointing.
I want to see free flowing, fast, attacking football and this England team just to have the ability to play that way. I much prefer watching Brazil, Argentina, Spain and even, dare I say it, Germany and that’s the sad thing, watching England is boring.
After a great, battling win over Arsenal in mid week, the mighty Spurs pulled out another top, top performance to beat top of the league Chelsea. As not just a Spurs fan, but a football fan in general, I didn’t think Chelsea looked that great, it looked to me as if it was Spurs that were the Champions to be. Playing with plenty of energy and pace, Spurs controlled most of the game and really should have scored more goals.
As with a lot of the top sides, losing and being outplayed doesn’t go down well with Chelsea and they start to play a little dirty! What is it with John Terry?! He always losses his head when playing at the Lane and this time was no different, rightly being sent off after receiving 2 booking in the space of about 3 minutes. Silly boy!
It’s been an awesome week and the Spurs go marching on towards the Champions League!
After a long 11 years, the mighty Spurs have beat those lot from down the road 2-1! It was a cracking match, if only the lilywhites could have played like that against Pompey in the cup 3 days before, they would of trashed them! OK, Arsenal had a hell of a lot of the ball but only started to create some chances with 10 minutes to go, but lucky for us, Gomes was absolutely top class and made 3 or 4 fantastic saves, he really is starting to show what a great keeper he is.
Spurs really had to win that game, with Chelsea home and then Man Utd away in the next 2 fixtures, that could of been the end of the dream of finishing 4th. But the lads played their hearts out and got the win they deserved, even though it was edge of your seats stuff with minutes to go!
When it come to loyalty in football, let’s face it, nobody has it accept the fans. Players will always want to go to a more successful club and for more money, that’s just how it is, players like Matt Le Tissier who stay at the one club for their whole careers just aren’t around anymore and a lot of that is down to the money in the Premier League.
So, if players want to move on to what they think is to further their careers, why can’t managers? Owen Coyle is the latest to be called a traitor and why, because he wants to go to a club he has played for and has an affection for? Moving from Burnley to Bolton isn’t the biggest step he could have taken but if he thinks he can achieve more with Bolton then that should be his choice. Burnley fans should thank him for what he has done for their football club, he has got them to the Premier League for the first time in 33 years when they were the un-fancied team and have played some great football along the way.
The Burnley fans, to be fair, are probably so annoyed about it because they know they could be in a lot of trouble now. They have a great home record in the league but away from home they have had some real beatings, Owen Coyle could have been the man that held it all together so they really need to appoint the right man there or the second half of the season could be very miserable.
The third round of the FA Cup didn’t bring many surprise results, other than one of the biggest in recent years, Leeds beating Man Utd 1-0 at Old Trafford. Not many Premier League teams go to Old Trafford and get anything let alone a League One team, so fair play to them. Jermaine Beckford scored the only goal and you got to wonder where Leeds would be without him as he seems to be the only one who ever scores for them, they best hope Newcastle don’t up their bid otherwise their promotion push could suffer.
Next up for Leeds is the mighty Spurs, who brushed aside bottom of the Championship Peterborough, 4-0, with another great performance and cracking goal from Niko Kranjcar. Well done Harry, you sure can pick them and only £2m, what a bargain! The only other suprise result of the weekend was Liverpool drawing 1-1 against Reading, the last thing Liverpool will want is a replay but, again, fair play to Reading.
It seems in the modern game with all the money involved in the Champions League that that is the goal, to finish in one of the qualifying spots and that is the mark of success. I like watching the Champions League, teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid taking on the best England and Italy have to offer, but is that everything in football now? What about all the other teams in the league that have no chance of getting to that sort of level, their chance of glory comes in the domestic cups, which some of the bigger teams don’t field full strength teams in anyway.
The domestic cup competitions seem to be devalued now, especially the League cup with only a hand full of teams really taking it seriously. No, it’s not the best cup competition in the world but it’s a trophy none the less and a medal for the players and surely that’s what playing professional sport is all about. When a player gets to the end of his career and looks back at what he has achieved, surely having some winners medals is better than just saying you played in a team that finished 4th best in the league.
It bugs me as a Spurs fan to hear all the talk of having a chance of finishing 4th and that is our goal. Really? Just to finish 4th is the goal, not aiming that bit higher and if that doesn’t go to plan then finishing in 4th spot is the backup. The way the league is shaping up, Spurs do have a good shout of claiming a top 4 spot if they keep up the form they have showed in the first half of the season, but there will be serious challenging from Liverpool, Man City and Aston Villa, so one of those teams will finish as low as 7th.
So now Spurs are out of the Carling Cup, I would like to see them really go out and try and win the FA Cup because that, after all, is the best cup competition in the world, offers a place in Europe and is a trip to Wembley, which it should all be about at the end of the day.
I have been a football fan and been watching England for over 20 years and in that time I don’t think I have seen the national team play as poorly as they did against Algeria. That’s quite a big statement considering the unsuccessful reign of Steve McClaren and some of the, let’s face it, inept performances in failing to qualify for the 2008 European Championships in Austria & Switzerland.
