English Premier League
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Harry Redknapp has spoken out about the FA’s plans to charge him for his comments about Referee Mark Clattenburg’s call to let the Nani goal last weekend stand, by saying that if they do, he’ll stop doing TV Interviews altogether.
Spurs lost the game 2-0. but the talking point was Nani’s weird goal, United’s second. After the game Redknapp spoke out about the call, calling it farcical. But today he has stroppily hit back at the idea he should be charged for saying what he did.
“I would be sick if they charged me,” he said. “I wouldn’t take that lying down, no chance. I haven’t done anything. I didn’t go up to the referee, I didn’t run onto the pitch…I got put in front of the cameras within five minutes, I gave my honest opinion and that’s what I saw. I saw a complete mess-up, where no one knew what had happened and no one still knows really. There’s no way I’d do any more TV interviews. Don’t bother asking me speak to TV after a game again. I don’t care if it’s in the rules.”
Which is a bit dummy throwing on one hand, but on the other, he’s got a point really.
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The big game of the day was at Old Trafford, where Man United hosted Spurs. It started explosively, with Park and Van der Vart hitting the post for their respective clubs, but it was Man United breaking the deadlock in the first half, with a header from a free-kick. Modric had a fine effort denied by van der Sar, and Bale nearly dragged Spurs back into the game, but the freakiness was coming.
Nani burst through the Spurs defence and flopped down, the ref didn’t give a penalty. Nani put his hands on the ball to convince the ref to make a call, Spurs assumed it was a Free-Kick and Nani got back up and dropped it in. What did you make of it?
Man United won 2-0.
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So the annual Ballon d’Or shortlist is out – it features no English players whatsoever, and only three from the Premier League. I know its a World Cup year, which always skews these results a little, but the complete lack of Premier League players in the mix is a bit surprising.
Especially as two of the players – Cesc Fabregas and Asamoah Gyan earned their place on the list in South Africa in all likelyhood. Didier Drogba is the third Prem based player to make the shortlist.
Spain naturally dominates – especially in a year where it won the World Cup as well as having two teams intent on buying absolutely everyone – while Italy, spurred on by Inter’s treble last season can boast more players than the Premier League. I’m quite a fan of Italian football, but on paper that comes as a mild surprise.
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So, as you may have heard elsewhere, Wayne Rooney is staying at Man United afterall, after making a dramatic U-Turn (A Roo turn if you like) and deciding that actually he wants to stay at Man United for the next five years. That’s just two days after being “Adamant” he wanted out of the club.
Here’s the kicker – he’s just become United’s highest ever earner, with a contract reportedly in the region of £180,000 a week. It is pretty tough to think anything other than he wanted to stay all along he just wanted a megabucks deal, and if Man United said no, he could have gone off to City with no real big loss. Its strikingly similar to the Will John Terry Join Man City saga of a couple of seasons ago, but at least Terry drew the process out to make it halfway convincing.
The striking thing is that Sir Alex went along with the whole thing. There’s no way that if he thought he was being taken for a ride he wouldn’t just say so, but then maybe he thinks he can use the affair to get money for new players from the Glazers.
Anyway, for any footballers out there, who haven’t figured it out, here is a step by step guide to using Manchester City in order to get yourself an absurdly big paycheck.
Step 1) You need to be quite good at football. You need to be valuable to a club for any of it to work, so if you’re not, then well, sorry. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t in form (cf Rooney) but you need to have value to the club you are effectively holding to ransom.
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So…third Wayne Rooney article in a row, huh. No doubt though that its still the big big story. The latest is that the soon-to-be Ex-Man United star has released a statement proclaiming that the reason he wants out is because its all about winning trophies, and Man United couldn’t give him the assurances that he wanted that they would strengthen the squad.
Now, I don’t think this is the only reason for his wanting out the door – loss of form, a seeming fall out with Sir Alex Ferguson, issues at home etc are obviously playing a part – but on this point, well, he’s sort of right isn’t he?
Look at this way, over the last few years United have sold undoubted quality (the most obvious example, of course is Ronaldo but there is also Tevez and others) and bought in players, perhaps of a lesser quality. Ok Berba is (finally) starting to come good for United, but Valencia, Owen, Bebe etc have hardly been bring-the-house-down signings.
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Sir Alex Ferguson showed both his greatest strengths and weaknesses today while talking to the press about the news that Wayne Rooney wants out of the club. On the one hand he pointed out that United had helped him in public, and in private, that he was a great player, and that the door was open. He carefully alluded to the fact that Rooney might actually just be in it for the money, pointing out Man United’s long success.
On the other hand, his bafflement at the fact that Rooney is leaving, betrayed the fact that he’s losing the modern game. In a world where Manchester City and Chelsea can just chuck Rooney wads of cash, Fergie is lost, still expecting players to have a hungar to play for Man United, because of the history of the club and so on.
In the main though, Fergie demonstrated what we knew all along, that he absolutely knows what he’s doing, and that if Rooney doesn’t want to be apart of that, he’s going to head out the door.
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Bit of a shocker coming out of Manchester, as under fire striker Wayne Rooney wants out of the door after a serious falling out with United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Rooney is currently in a dreadful run of form (coming immediately after the best run of form of his life, lets not forget) and revelations about his life off the field seem to have taken their toll.
Seems surprising, as despite his recent woes (he’s recently been dropped, which Fergie put down to injury, but which Rooney contradicted) as I had considered Rooney would get his form back (with Fergie’s support) and be at Man United basically forever.
I suppose the question is, if Rooney is heading out the door (and not playing high-risk contract games) where does he go? He’s never seemed the type to go abroad (although he might appreciate the lack of tabloid intrusion in other countries) but the main interested clubs would presumably come from Spain. Man City might want to nab him, but that does seem a little unlikely, and the days of Chelsea spending that kind of money appear to be a dimming memory.
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The big news of the day is that Liverpool, may finally be rid of Hicks and Gillett, the owners that have saddled the club with debt and in general impeeded any progress of the club. The new owners are to be the owners of the Boston Red Sox (Americans again! At least Liverpool fans can keep their Hate The Yanks banners, just in case) For up to the minute news its worth checking the continually updating Liverpool Offside, but from me a summery.
The deal is confimed, but Hicks and Gillett are causing enough trouble behind the scenes that it isn’t done and dusted, and of course the new owners need to be vetted by the Premier League (although, I’m not sure how bad you have to be to actually be turned down by the PL)
H&G stand to lose £144m, which is presumably why they have been fighting this move every step of the way. I’m not a Liverpool fan or anything, but it really has to be hoped that they get shot of them, and that the PL obviously should be more picky about who is running the clubs.
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So Carlos Tevez has somewhat spectacularly hit out at Manchester City’s negative tactics this season, having a massive row with City manager Roberto Mancini. The pair have never exactly seen eye to eye, but Mancini made Tevez captain at the start of the season, and has been using him as the lone striker protected by three defensive minded midfielders so far this season.
City have been undenyably negative this season, considering the talent on show, its surprising (perhaps not for those who watched Mancini’s Inter) considering the money spent, and the players signed.
Its also difficult to argue with the fact that they are currently sat second in the table, having beaten Chelsea already this season. So, the big question – are City being too negative to win the title? Or are they doing the smart thing in being so cautious?
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Last week, I had a go at our obsession with ex-pros being pundits, as they almost uniformly know nothing. Well, one current pro puts them all to shame, if this video is anything to go by.
["Chico, well done on the goal, that were ---king brilliant" - spotted at 101GG]
The best thing is that it comes during ITV show, just after we’ve been told we’re going to hear from Andy Townsend and Gareth Southgate. I don’t think either will have said it better than Fletcher though. A job in TV surely awaits him.
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