Pots and kettles
Mourinho warns his players against Barcelona’s tricks which is a bit like a George Best warning you about your alcohol consumption.
At the very least you have to give him credit for having a neck like a jockey’s bollocks.
Money talks
Despite having Chelsea bang to rights over their tapping up of youth players Leeds United have decided that money is far more important than principle.
A report in today’s Sunday Times reveals that Leeds and Chelsea have struck a deal, believed to be worth around £5m, to withdraw their complaint. Leeds will use the money to fund January transfers.
Chelsea meanwhile get away with illegal behaviour and use their unlimited pot of cash to make all the trouble go away.
Is anyone even slightly surprised?
Anti-football. Pragmatic, practical, poxy, putrid
While I understand Everton’s tactics today it is horrible to watch. They took advantage of a mistake by Kolo Toure to go ahead early. The 6th minute to be precise.
Then they sat back with 10 and 11 men behind the ball and defended. And defended. And defended. It took a wonderful Robin van Persie free kick to get Arsenal the goal they deserved. At one stage they had over 90% of the possession.
This is an Everton side with some creativity, pace and goals in it yet they felt they had no choice but to sit back and defend a one goal lead.
Arsenal weren’t helped by Henry having an off day and Tim Howard having a very on day but to me it’s anti-football. I can’t imagine any Everton fan will have enjoyed anything about that performance bar the goal.
Still, they got a point and they’ll say that’s all that matters.
They shoot horses, don’t they?
Luckily for Kieron Dyer he’s not a horse. Imagine if he and Jonathan Woodgate had babies together though.
Nurse - “It’s a boy. Wait. It’s a boy that’s just ruptured its cruciate and snapped its achilles.”
Dyer and Woodgate - “Hurrah!”
How to foster team spirit…
…the Lithuanian way.
Hearts majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov has warned his players they are all for sale if they do not win this weekend, BBC Scotland has disclosed.
I suppose they should be lucky they’re not owned by a Russian who’d send them all to Siberia. Wouldn’t it be fun to see what happened if Roman Abramovich lost his temper?
Benni McCarthy and racism
Interesting story about Wisla Krakow defender Nikola Mijailovic being banned for 5 games for racially abusing Blackburn’s Benni McCarthy.
If he’s guilty of it then I’m happy that UEFA have acted quickly and firmly. There’s simply no place for this kind of thing in the game.
However, I’d be very interested to know on what evidence they convicted him. Mijailovic has denied the claims saying it was normal in-game banter. Did the referee hear something or was his report just based on what McCarthy told him?
I do hope they make this information available because without stone clad back-up from an official UEFA might have set a dangerous precedent here. Banning a player on the say so of an opponent could open a very serious can of worms in the future.
And there it is…
…the moment West Ham fans have been waiting for. Hammers chairman Terence Brown said:
Of course Alan was hurting, but I put my arm around him and told him that everything would be fine.
Not only the dreaded vote of confidence but an arm around the shoulders too. If I was Alan Pardew I’d check the mirror to make sure there wasn’t a sticker on his back saying ‘Kick me’.
My God!
FIFA last night revealed that more than half of the players treated on the pitch during this summer’s World Cup were not actually injured.
Professor Jiri Dvorak, FIFA’s chief medical officer, said this showed a cheating culture at the highest level of the game, with too many players feigning injury in the finals in Germany.
Frankly I am shocked. Next they’ll be trying to tell us the ball is round and night follows day.
West Ham’s run
Since an opening day win over Charlton this is West Ham’s sequence of results:
Watford League Drew 1-1
Liverpool League Lost 1- 2
Aston Villa League Drew 1-1
Palermo UEFA Cup Lost 0 - 1
Newcastle League Lost 0 - 2
Man City League Lost 0 - 2
Palermo UEFA Cup Lost 0 - 3
Reading League Lost 0 - 1
Portsmouth League Lost 0 - 2
Tottenham League Lost 0 - 1
Chesterfield Carling Cup Lost 2 - 1
Horrendeous by any standards. Time for Pardew to go, surely?
Ince and Gazza
Paul Ince would welcome the help of former England team-mate Paul Gascoigne after taking over as player-manager at Macclesfield.
There’s no question Gazza could be a big benefit to Ince. He could organise boozy nights out, make sure the Macclesfield players get the best kebabs money can buy and generally be a great example to young players of how not to behave throughout their careers.
Like the picture of the mother-in-law over the mantlepiece…