Left back - a football blog

Now Owen Hargreaves is set to join United, the tabloids can concentrate on the real business of the day, i.e. when Henry’s leaving Arsenal or whatever fictional bollocks they can construct.

I saw Hargreaves play for Bayern last month in a home game versus Bayer Leverkusen and while he was hard-working and industrious he really was nothing special. Granted, Bayern’s game is pretty one-dimensional and doesn’t leave much to flair players, but even through that you could see that Owen was…. well…. OK. Certainly not worth £17m or whatever figure has been bandied about. I just don’t really see how he will fit in the United midfield; he’s not like Scholes or Giggs, perhaps more of a Carrick-type but doesn’t have the passing range. He’s not a goal-getter, and not that tenacious in the tackle either (definitely not like Scholes!). United have been looking for Keane’s replacement since he left, and those they’ve tried out, namely Liam Miller and Darren Fletcher, haven’t really done it for them. Alan Smith was never going to replace Roy, let’s face it. Is he to be the next Phil Neville?!

While I was in Munich, I heard that the club were meeting to discuss the sale of Hargreaves, and using the money to buy Miroslav Klose. Werder finished one place above Bayern in the Bundesliga, but the lure of playing for (arguably) Germany’s biggest club will be tempting. The ground is fantastic (as are the beer and sausages) and home crowds are 69,000 every time. A highly recommended visit if you get the chance.

Incidentally, the Leverkusen goal was scored by Voronin who is joining Liverpool; it was all he did during the game, unless you count the times he strayed offside, or moaned at his colleagues. He’ll fit right in.

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Regular readers will know Left Back is no fan of Graham Poll but he makes sense here.

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According to this article he wants the G14, who represent 18 (I know) of Europe’s top club, to disband and use a new body called the Professional Football Strategy Council.

He’s being very nice about it, saying:

Presidents and heads of the major clubs - let us profit from your great experience and your ideas. Tell us about your convictions. Uefa’s door is wide open - join us, and I promise you that you will not be disappointed.

Personally I wouldn’t trust Platini as far as I could throw him. I think some of the ideas he has are dangerous and not good for football and he is aligned far too closely with FIFA and Blatter for my liking.

What the G14 provides is at least some kind of opposition to UEFA trampling all over club football in Europe. I would never be in favour of a breakaway European super-league at the expense of domestic competition but without the G14 UEFA would have free reign to do what they wanted.

There are issues to be resolved, particularly that of compensation for players who are injured while on national duty and with the persistent background threat of quotas of ‘homegrown’ or native players per team then for the G14 to disband would be close to a disaster, in my opinion. Without them new rules could be brought in unopposed and ultimately what FIFA and UEFA want to do is to promote the international tournaments.

Recent disappointing World Cups and European Championships, in terms of the quality of football played when compared with the top club football, have made them determined to level the playing field. The only way they can do that is to lower the standard of club football, not to increase the standard of national teams.

For example, if English clubs had to play 6 players who were English (not ‘homegrown’, actually English) then there’s no question the quality of Premiership football would suffer. By comparison the English national team would look better. It’s a false fix but one they will try and enforce.

So, G14, you need to tell Platini where to go and where to put his untrustworthy call to arms, for the sake of football.

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Valencia are out of the title race after getting beaten 3-1 at home to local rivals Villarreal. How it must have hurt to see them go ahead less than 60 seconds after Angulo missed an open goal from less than 6 yards.

Barcelona will probably have to cope with Ronaldinho after he was red carded against Getafe. He can’t really complain about the sending off but it must be so frustrating to see the bloke who kicked his ankles three times get away without so much as a word from the referee. They dug in to hang on to the 1-0 lead they had gained through the Brazilian and afterwards there were harsh words from Rijkaard about Getafe coach Bernd Schuster who he accused of ‘having something against Barcelona’. Perhaps the fact he’s signed a contract to take over at Real Madrid if Capello goes might have something to do with it. He sends his team out to kick Barcelona off the park and he’s going to win friends in the capital.

Real Madrid are still on course after beating Deportivo 3-1. Beckham had a great game, despite his mad looking hair, and van Nistelrooy continues to have a remarkable season with 31 goals. Newspapers in Spain this morning are comparing his impact to that of Ronaldo at his best.

Sevilla remain two points behind the top 2. It would have been very cruel had Dani Alves’ own goal cost them the title but Kerzhakov made it 2-1 and Freddie Kanoute sealed the points late on to show you can never write off the Andalucians.

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Liverpool’s new owner George Gillet:

If Rafa said he wanted to buy ‘Snoogy Doogy’ we would back him.

Will Snoogy Doogy be the player to push this Liverpool side on to their first title in nearly 600 years? In this reporter’s opinion, yes, and I for one welcome our new Snoogy overlords…

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Annoying editing aside they do love their overhead kicks, don’t they?

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Some random thoughts on what was essentially a shit game.

• Jermaine Pennant is way out of his depth at this level. Cost Liverpool the second goal.
• You cannot expect to win the Champions League with Zenden on the pitch for that length of time
• Mascherano is awesome
• Why was Jamie Carragher so knackered? Was it due to the movement of Inzaghi? Whatever it was he looked exhausted midway through the second half.
• Why did Benitez bring on a defender in the last couple of minutes when he needed a goal? I know he’s not a big fan of Craig Bellamy but surely he’s more likely to get you a goal than Arbeloa.
• Questions about Milan’s involvement in the tournament are academic at this stage but not without merit.

So, all in all a dull, dreary final with both teams making mistakes and playing poorly. The FA Cup final was poo as well. At least the UEFA Cup final was exciting.

Here’s to next year.

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A story many have missed is how Michael Ballack and Oliver Kahn were recently awarded damages from a German sex toy company Beate Uhse for using their names to promote a couple of their “products” during the World Cup.

Now, aside from the immediate things that spring to mind, what female (or male, for that matter)would want anything to do with Oliver Kahn near their nether regions?

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I’m going out on a limb here but I’m guessing both teams will start with 11 players, including a keeper, some defenders, some midfielders and a striker or two.

They will wear football boots and shinpads. They will kick a round, spherical object about a grass covered surface for at least 90 minutes, possibly more.

After that it becomes much, much too difficult.

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Have Sheffield United made the right choice in appointing Brian Robson manager to replace Neil Warnock (who is apparently moving back to Wimbledon Common to make good use of the things that he finds)?

Robson, son of ex-England manager Bobby and pop star Brian Ferry, has lots of experience. At Middlesbrough he spent lots of money and got relegated. He did get them promoted again then signed Gazza who cost the club millions in wages and canteen pies. At West Brom he avoided getting relegated then got relegated.

He always strikes me as kind of slow witted and not the sort of bloke who would be particularly inspiring to listen to. Certainly he was a great player, when he wasn’t broken up in bits, but his leadership came from the way he played rather than well chosen and eloquent words.

He’s got Brian Kidd, whose career must surely be at the bottom of the slump Alex Ferguson got a witch to inflict upon him when he left United for Blackburn, alongside him though.

All in all, who cares?

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