Thoughts On Weekend’s Football News – Managers,Young Players,Yids..

Alan’s 2013-14 Season Diary  No.11
 
Sat 5 October

I have just seen him make his latest responsibility-ducking statement on the Qatar fiasco/scandal. It gave me an idea for a Hotspur HQ competition of the day. No prizes, just play for fun. Here we go. Rearrange he following words into a recognisable phrase; “and tosser Blatt utter complete a Sepp is”.

Throwing it all away

It’s so sad to see it happening all over again with the youngest of the new crop of potential stars. Displays of thuggish, slovenly, unhealthy, pig ignorant, uncaring behaviour. No sooner does a young man seem to hold out a beacon of hope as an example to our children than he screws it up and it ends up in the full glare of publicity. To be fair some managers have had the moral courage  to speak up in the past week.

Well done to Arsene Wenger and Brendan Rodgers. (Insert: Oh dear. just after typing this paragraph I read the full page story on the inside pages of the Sun about Brendan’s alleged extra marital exploits. If there is a word of truth in it, he has just lost all rights to take the moral high ground over his young players or anybody else. We’ll have to remove the “d” from his surname and use it as a verb instead of a noun, if you get my gist. No wonder Liverpool have just rushed to welcome back King Kenny as a non-executive director). Back to the youngsters, there have been Court appearances over allegedly beating up partners, smoking outside night clubs. Snorting legal highs. What is wrong with these people and the families that have produced them? No matter what the cost in the short term of losing a future star, I think clubs should operate a 3 strikes and you are out policy. First two times, you get offered support. Strike 3 you are thrown out of the club, prevented from playing for another one for the unexpired period of your breached contract and not selectable for your national side.

Professional footballers have a special talent. That attracts a special wage and privileged lifestyle. It also carries a responsibility to behave in a professional and exemplary fashion. You have to make sacrifices if you want all that. If you don’t like the restriction, don’t sign the contract, don’t take the money – and understand that if you continue to behave like a dick, it will all be taken away from you. You can spend the rest of your youth getting lumps kicked out of you in your local pub side.

By all means get boozed up, take drugs, and even break the law if you are prepared to take the punishment. It’s a free world (well this part of it is for the time being) Just don’t be a professional footballer as well. Choose one path or the other.  I am no prude and partied plenty when I was a youngster but I did not have the eyes of a generation of starry-eyed kids hanging on my every move.

It might not seem cool now but there is nothing wrong with aspiring to be a Lineker, Beckham or Shearer. Carry on like you are now and you are likely at best to fritter away your fortune, leave a trial of broken relationships, lumbered with child support obligations as your money is running out and hawking yourself around trying to get a place on a media panel with millions laughing at your lack of education and inability to string a coherent sentence together under pressure. All before you are 40 years old. No names, no pack drill. You know who you are. You have a fantastic chance to really make something of yourself for the rest of your life – and make a positive difference to others – or blow it all for a few years of fun and f**king about. Think on.

Managers

Pleased to see Martin Jol still in place at Fulham and bravely talking up their longer term prospects.

Mourinho talked some sense in his latest press conference to say that the league table is currently shaped by some teams having had a more difficult run of games at the start of the season. He highlighted Man United’s early fixtures as the most difficult. He rightly said that a truer picture will appear by the end of November. He’s still doing a Nelson on the Torres clawing though.

Lookey-likey up-date pics of Captain Black and Mourinho

Captain Black

Jose Mourinho

Talking of a truer picture, I thought Dom Demetriou had made a good “spot” when he commented on my Torres solution blog that he thought Jose was looking more and more like “the Hood” from Thunderbirds. Ever since, something has been bugging me about that and sure enough the light bulb has just come on above my head. I think he looks even more like Captain Black from Captain Scarlet. All together now in a deep, menacing voice, “This is the voice of the Mysterons”. It would explain a lot. Come on, it could be worse. At least it’s not Lord Titan from Stingray.

Saturday Half times

Brendan’s team are following his example, as suggested in the Sun and are giving Crystal Palace a right Rogering 3-0. Moneybags Man City conceded early to a rampant Lukaku but came back with a slick passing game to beat Everton 3-1. Kompany went off injured though. I hope for their sake it’s not serious because just recently they have looked like the most expensive one man team ever. Fulham 0-0 with Stoke at home.

2nd Half Thoughts

Cardiff have just come back to 1-2 down at home to Newcastle. If Newcastle blow another 2 – goal lead, can anyone see Alain Depardieu keeping his job with Joe Kinnear sitting right there on his shoulder?

Final whistle

Fulham win 1-0 with a goal from sub Darren Bent. Newcastle hold on to beat Cardiff. Two managers who have probably saved their jobs, for now at least. In the late kick off Man. U go 1-0 down to the bottom club Sunderland and look all at sea as De Gea pulls of a world class save to keep them in it. In the second half a kid that most of us have never heard of but gambled on by Moyes from the outset scores two classy goals to give United the points and Moyes some breathing space. His name looks like someone dropped the counters from a box of scrabble; Adnan Januzaj.  I think we’d better get used to it quick because we’re going to be seeing a lot more of him.

A mention for my local team Bournemouth who came back from 0-2 down to beat Millwall 5-2 in the Championship.

Yids

I’ve said all I have to say on this issue. I wish the same could be said for the police. It’s no wonder they come in for so much criticism these days when relatively senior officers behave so badly. As I understand it, the Home Secretary is the boss of the police. The Prime Minister is the boss of the Home Secretary. Like it or not, he has been elected as the Head of the Country. So when he goes out of his way to make a public statement telling the police to leave Spurs fans alone over the Yids issue, you’d think that would be it. But oh no. In the run up to the West Ham game, some jumped up self-important Chief Superintendent has been on TV threatening arrests again, stirring up religious and racial tension. In my Grandfather’s day (he policed the White Horse Cup final and walked the beat on the Portobello Road) that would have been regarded as insubordination and disobeying orders. His feet wouldn’t touch and his career would be over.

In contrast Karen Brady put a praiseworthy plea in the Sun yesterday to West Ham fans to behave, especially on the issue of chants. I echo that. Let’s have plenty of atmosphere and singing, nothing nasty and a cracking game.