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Football Has Lost Its Heroes, Apparently

Wigan boss Paul Jewell thinks the backlash against the England squad is just indicative of the way modern football has lost touch with the supporters,

“It’s gone past passion - it’s reached the point of hatred, and it’s sad, but that’s the way football is going,” Jewell said.

“When I was a kid you idolised the players that played for your team, but a lot of people now who support their team are jealous of the players.

“I know some players don’t help themselves because they are a little bit flash, but there is jealousy, with everyone’s wages dragged through the press.

“The link between the common man and the player has gone, and it’s almost become a them and us situation, and I think that’s sad.

“When I was a kid, and you look at what my father earned and the players who played for my team, they earned good money as well.

“But we still idolised and loved the players - I don’t think that is happening anymore.”

It’s hard to disagree, one of the first insults thrown at any player who puts in some bad performances is that they aren’t earning their wages. That they’re overpaid and unworthy of such a privileged job. And they’re right, to an extent. It’s the clubs and agents who are driving these wages, not the players. If someone offered you 100K a week to do your job, even if you were a bit crap at it, we doubt there’d be many rejections.

It does seem football is being rolled out for adult, paying supporters rather than kids or lower class citizens. Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard is probably the closest in the Premiership to the die-for-my-club of lore. The man or child on the street just can’t relate as well to the highly paid, glamorous, well-groomed superstars that appear on 60 foot billboards and at celebrity events with a WAG on their arm.

The modern footballer is more an entertainer than a hero, for better or worse.

Latest Transfer Rumours: Eto’o, Huntelaar, Bale, Cicinho, Baines, Muntari, Pablo Angel

The world of Premiership transfer gossip is full of nonsense, but some nonsense is more interesting that the other nonsense. Speculation is rife in the likes of the Mirror, Daily Mail, Times, Sun and… err… Tribal Football all do their best to predict and/or completely make up the future.

Here’s our opinion on the Premiership transfer rumours we’ve read in the papers and around the net… and if you have any thoughts, pop em in the comments.

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Getting Arsenal And Liverpool Back On Top Again Is Easy!

From The Terraces publishes UNEDITED submissions we receive from you, the readers. It’s your chance to show us how this football blogging is done right, or to embarrass yourself and your ancestors.

Simply write to: editor[at]caughtoffside[dot]com.

This time, super-prolific COS reader Peter tells a couple of world class managers how to do their job.

This weekend sees the meeting of Liverpool and Arsenal, not so long ago (well, 17 years is quite a long time actually) they were contesting the league title on the final day of the season. It appears the gauntlet has been passed to Manchester United and Chelsea for the time being as both Rafa and Arsene’s sides have been well off the pace in the Premiership title race lately.

Luckily, I’m here to pass on some advice to the two struggling managers that will return the sleeping giants back to their rightful places…

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Van Der Meyde Wants To Be Told He’s Crap

Everton winger Andy Van Der Meyde got off to a rather poor start in his Premiership career with Everton. Theft of his dogs, fatness, getting drunk and being bad at football just some of the problems afflicting him. He started to show glimpses of being half decent, but has recently been pushed back to the fringes of the squad again.

Manager David Moyes told the press the Dutchman was injured and unavailable for selection against Arsenal recently, but apparently it was a bold faced lie,

“The manager doesn’t have to be telling downright lies,” the former Internazionale man is quoted in the Daily Record.

“It was total nonsense that I was injured. I was completely fit.

“I had played a practice match two days before that and didn’t have any bother at all.

“The facts are simply that the trainer didn’t select me for the group.

“My situation here isn’t easy only playing in home matches.

“I think the trainer simply has to be honest and tell me why I’ve got to sit in the stand.”

Have to side with the Everton boss on this one, as we find it hard to believe that David Moyes felt he needed to lie in order to have a good reason for not playing Andy Van Der Meyde.

Smith Opens A Can On Rio Ferdinand

Ex-Liverpool player and current Liverpool Echo columnist Tommy Smith seems to disagree slightly with Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand’s claim that professional footballers these days have, and continue to make, sacrifices in order to earn their rather brilliant lifestyle,

“I can’t believe someone who is earning around £120,000 a week, has a big house, choice of cars and can go anywhere on holiday, can come out with something like that.

“All the top players do is get up, go training, play golf or relax, and play one or two games a week. I can’t visualise where the sacrifices are, apart from time with their accountants to ensure they don’t have to pay too much tax.

“When you see the sort of performance England gave against Israel, Ferdinand’s comments are laughable.”

We don’t think Rio’s comments were quite as bad as Tommy seems to have taken them. And we imagine if anyone did suggest some ways in which today’s footballers are worse off than we “normies” are, the answer “Would you do accept it for £120,000 a week?” will probably shut them up.

Arsenal Should Have Sacrificed The FA Cup

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger reflected on a season that has already seen the club eliminated from contention for silverware and admitted he should have prioritised differently,

“We should have sacrificed the FA Cup this season,” Wenger told the Arsenal magazine. “It is a competition we love but last year, when we went out early, we reached the final of the Champions League.

“So this year, once we knew we were in the final of the Carling Cup, we should have completely sacrificed it because in the end it caught up with us. We had two replays in the FA Cup, one just before the PSV tie and one right in between it.

“We had already given a lot, playing 17 games in December and January. Also, we had no possibility to rotate the side because we had many injuries and then all the suspensions.

“So I think it was a mistake on my part. When we drew Blackburn at home we didn’t think we would go to a replay.

“When you have 60,000 fans in you own stadium you can never say you will sacrifice the game. But the replay? Perhaps I should have sacrificed it.”

While this is hardly on the scale of Manchester United pulling out of the competition altogether in 2000 to participate in the FIFA World Championship, English fans have generally reserved a special place in their football hearts for the competition. We’d have been interested to see the reaction if Arsenal were knocked out of the FA cup because Wenger deliberately fielded a weakened team.

Although if it meant the club then went on to win silverware in other competitions, we’d guess hindsight would kick in at about 20/20.

This Is Exactly What YouTube Is For

The Premiership’s popularity means there are endless ways to be creative in following or commenting on the action. Some discuss it with mates in a pub, some write rants on message boards, and others produce some of the most enjoyably shocking “comedy” videos and post them on YouTube.

This is an example of the latter as a spritely young ginger fellow, later revealed as an Arsenal supporter, films himself conducting a mock interview with Tottenham’s Dimitar Berbatov for something called “Woah TV“. And just as entertaining (for the wrong reasons) as the video itself is the absolute caning the poor bloke gets in the comments on the actual YouTube page if you click through, especially as the lad responds to virtually every one of the dozens of insults he received, and is still receiving.

From the white noise in the background that amplifies the lack of laughter, to the inability to maintain a consistent accent for Berbatov’s voice - it’s an instant classic. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll wish you had those few minutes of your life back. And then you’ll watch it again.

Thanks to Justin for sending this in.

Latest Transfer Rumours: Metzelder, Billy Jones, Sharp, Etherington, Mariga and Arizmendi

The world of Premiership transfer gossip is full of nonsense, but some nonsense is more interesting that the other nonsense. Speculation is rife in the likes of the Mirror, Daily Mail, Times, Sun and… err… Tribal Football all do their best to predict and/or completely make up the future.

Here’s our opinion on the Premiership transfer rumours we’ve read in the papers and around the net… and if you have any thoughts, pop em in the comments.

Read more

Your Club’s Best And Worst Transfers of The Season?

Ryan takes a bit of time to reflect on how the new boys have done so far as we enter the final stretch of the Premiership season.

With most clubs in the Premier League facing only 8 more games of the 2006/07 season, it’s a fair time to look back over last summer’s major transfers, and make a judgement over their success, or lack thereof. For once, there doesn’t seem to have been any complete resounding big-money failures in the Luque, Diouf, Forlan, or Jeffers mould, well at least none that spring to my mind anyway. Tevezcherano is the closest but the fact that we still don’t know if any money changed hands and Tevez ended up looking quite good saves this one from being an abject failure.

Instead they will have to be judged on the relative merits of their success or mediocrity versus the expectations laid before them.

My major nominations are below. They are by no means a definitive list, just a starting group that popped into my head - which is where you come in. So we’d like to know:

1) Club you support
2) Your club’s best transfer move(s), and why.
3) Your club’s worst transfer move(s), and why.

Of course, feel free to comment on any other transfers from other clubs as well.

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Glenn Roeder Casually Shifts The Blame

Glenn Roeder is a shifty looking bloke - beady little eyes, wiry mouth, hooked nose - but the Newcastle boss is proving he’s not afraid to get right to the point when it comes to diverting blame away from himself for the club’s poor recent results,

“In our last two games in Alkmaar and at The Valley, I was disappointed with the attitude of two or three of our players - not all of them - when we went a goal behind,” said Roeder.

“That is something I will not accept. I know who these players are and it will not matter to me whether they have contracts or not, they will not feature in my long-term plans.

“I have been in football all my life and one thing I have learned is that as far as motivation is concerned, 99 percent of the time, it comes from within.

“It is something you are born with, so in some cases, it does not matter who the manager is.”

He’s does make a good point, of course, there are players - Laurent Robert - who seemed impervious to coaching or management, preferring to doddle about at their own pace when they felt like it. But while Roeder may prove to be a massive success once he’s working with a squad he put together, we’d like to see more managers stand by their abilities as, well, managers rather than join the likes of Manchester City boss Stuart Pearce in the “If You Buy Me All The Players I Want Then I Can Win” club.

Manchester United Treble Is Unlikely

United “gaffer” Sir Alex Ferguson has tried to ease the pressure and expectations on his squad to match the the squad that won the Premiership, FA cup and Champions League in 1999,

“We have done well and the players are playing with a great deal of confidence,” Ferguson told Sky Sports News.

“They are showing a lot of maturity they are growing up together which you always hope to get when a new team comes along.

“No-one talks about that,” added Ferguson. “It is a possibility but more of an impossibility given the number of games we have, the speed of games and the competition.

“In 1999 we had no injuries to contend with so that was the lucky break we got in that particular year.

“This year we are dealing with a few injuries at this moment in time but we do cope very well with them and we will have a go at everything.”

Half realism, half mind games to help his side focus on the tasks at hand. But if there’s one thing a team like Manchester United shouldn’t be, it’s uncomfortable with pressure. The consensus around those we’ve spoken to (ourselves), is that Chelsea or Liverpool are much more likely to get to the final - clubs whose commitment to rigid, organized football is more conducive to getting the results needed over two legs.

But just like in 1999, putting anything beyond United is generally quite silly.

Latest Transfer Rumours: Nani, Wayne Routledge, Eric Abidal, Wes Brown, Harry Kewell, Zat Knight and Florent Malouda

The world of Premiership transfer gossip is full of nonsense, but some nonsense is more interesting that the other nonsense. Speculation is rife in the likes of the Mirror, Daily Mail, Times, Sun and… err… Tribal Football all do their best to predict and/or completely make up the future.

Here’s our opinion on the Premiership transfer rumours we’ve read in the papers and around the net… and if you have any thoughts, pop em in the comments.

Read more

Remember Italia 90? Because Ireland and England Need To.

Ryan hopes he’s not the only one to see the way forward for England and Ireland is, well, behind them.

Watching England and Ireland stumble over the weekend against obdurate yet ultimately pedestrian opposition in the latest bout of Qualifying games, it was hard to think that but 17 years ago both sides were a few kicks away from being on top of the World. Italia 90 saw the renaissance in English football and the inception of Ireland on the global stage. Sky TV was being ushered in, Gazza’s tears were on loop, and Jack Charlton was endowed with the freedom of the Guinness factory for life. Fast-forward several major championships and one’s getting pummelled 5-2 by Cyprus, whilst the other’s taking 2 points from a possible 9 against Macedonia, Croatia, and Israel.

Both games on Saturday were a disgrace. Footballers with genuine ability; Duff, Gerrard, Rooney, Keane, Lampard et al not doing a lot to disprove the claims of hacks and cynical fans alike, that merely being a big name in the Premiership should be ample enough cover to see them through on the International stage. Had Israel a modicum of talent to add to their evident determination, England could be looking at Scotland sitting atop their group with envious eyes. John Toshack must know too that Staunton’s bunch of Championship makeweights were there for the taking in an opprobrious second half of football in Dublin. A scrambling of results and points now could possibly take either side to next summer’s Alpine festivities; nevertheless it’s going to take a shift of mountainous proportions for one of them to be around for the latter stages of it.

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England’s Players Don’t Care So Why Should We?

Daniel raises his hands in the air like he just don’t care. Because he doesn’t, so it works out well.

Watching England isn’t fun any more, is it. There is no excited anticipation in the build-up to the game. No arranging days in advance where you will be watching the game, getting there three hours before kick-off to get a seat in the pub, not going to the gents for fear of losing your spot, and still somehow end up watching the game coiled around a pillar with one side of the TV blocked by someone’s enormous head.

I can still clearly remember England matches from the 1990s (including qualifiers and friendlies), where I watched them, and how the whole pub would be straining towards the TV. That doesn’t happen any more. England games in this decade have passed by in a blur of stalemates and substitutions. During Saturday’s game against Israel you could have walked into my local after kick-off and still got a prime viewing seat. People were chatting and occasionally glancing up at the screen and tutting. It might as well have been golf on the box, not a vital qualifier for the England football team.

Things need to change. I’m all in favour of sacking McClaren and dropping Lampard for the reasons many of you have already given on CaughtOffside. But I think the malaise goes deeper than that and consequently more fundamental changes are needed.

Fans won’t care about England again until the players and management do. To begin with, the manager must ensure that all England matches are taken seriously. Eriksson transformed friendlies into testimonials: slow, passionless, and a second half made farcical by wholesale substitutions. And they were optional. Eriksson would politely ask Premiership club managers if he could borrow their players for a few days and would promise to only play them for 45-60 minutes. Hang on, club managers are not doing national teams a favour in releasing players for internationals, they have to according to FIFA rules. I don’t want an England manager to plead with Ferguson, I want a manager who will tell him to “f*ck off” and spam him. If England does not take practice matches seriously the players will continue to play like 11 individuals instead of a team.

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Three Things To Improve England?

England are playing like crap, that much is certain. But what is just as certain is that they shouldn’t be. The players are extremely talented but simply seem incapable of adapting nicely to a team and system outside of what they’re used to playing at their clubs, be they Premiership or foreign.

Frank Lampard doesn’t play like he does for Chelsea, Steven Gerrard doesn’t play he does for Liverpool, Wayne Rooney doesn’t play like he does for Manchester United. In fact, only Aaron Lennon played like he does for Tottenham - get down the byline on the left, cross, and then no one is there to finish.

And since both Sven and Steve McClaren seem completely incapable of sorting out what needs to be done to address the problem, we thought it about time to turn the decision making over the those who really know - you.

So if you had three changes to make to the England side to get them ticking against Andorra, what would they be?

After a quick review here at the offices, here are three of our suggestions:

1) Drop Lampard (shock), let Gerrard control the middle of the park (no shock), leave Lennon on the left and put Newcastle’s Kieron Dyer on the right. Let them swap wings. Andorra are going to sit back and England will need as many players who can beat a man or three as possible, not someone who will knock in crosses from 40 yards out.
2) Drop Everton’s Andy Johnson for Tottenham’s Jermaine Defoe, Johnson’s all round game is better but a team like England shouldn’t need an aimless runner up front getting lost amongst 10 defenders sitting back. At least Defoe can make space for a decent 25 yard shot every now and then.
3) Drop Carragher and Neville, there’s no reason to play those two as fullbacks unless you’re planning for another 0-0. Barry and Luke Young will get forward and give you plenty of width and options. It’s bloody Andorra and Terry/Ferdinand/Hargreaves should be enough to stop any counter attack.

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