When I was younger, so much younger than today, I can remember when the powers that be came up with the brainwave that is the ‘Transfer Window’.
“What a great idea” I thought to myself, as I pictured the scene of blank sports pages on the daily rags. In those days, there was a new transfer ‘rumour’ every 48 hours.
So the transfer window has now been implemented, and what do I find… Its worse than what it was before! Instead of the 100 rumours spread of over the 9 months of the football calendar, its now 100 rumours spread over the final days before someone shuts the window. I should have expected that I suppose, perhaps I just didn’t want to believe it…
My club, Spurs, are as always, linked with every professional and unprofessional footballer, living or dead – and there are some great rumours about.
I think my favourite has to be a) “Spurs bid for Baptista” and b) “Spurs swap Defoe in Baptista deal”. This will be the Baptista who turned down Arsenal to sign for Real Madrid last season, and the same Defoe who cant get a regular start in the Spurs squad. I cant possibly see how Real Madrid and Baptista could possibly turn that down…
‘John’ Steed Malbranque is linked with Spurs… and every other club by the looks off things. Not that Fulham are desperate to get some cash for him as he wont play for them again and he has 9 months left on his contract. Oh no…
Pascal Chimp-Honda is next. We bid £4 million, Wigan say £6 million. So we go back with… £4 million and Wigan say, surprise-surprise, £6 million. We say £4 million, you say £6 million – “lets call the whole thing off”. So watch him sign for under £4m rising to nearer £6m depending on appearances.
Stewart Downing and Harry Kewell… don’t start me on those two.
Still, we have ‘re-signed’ Mido. Jol said “We have been tracking him since his loan spell at the club ended”. Didn’t you notice him in lily white during the previous 18 months then? You know, the tall guy you keep getting Paul Robinson to hoof the ball up to at every possible opportunity?
Im sure there have been plenty of rumours for other league clubs too, but excuse me not for listing them here. I leave that for you to do if you so wish, as I am too busy laughing at my own clubs ‘rumours’.
Thank god it all ends on tomorrow. (August 31st)
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
England In The 70's: Part 3
We’ve been here once before…
It was time for Don Revie to get his England squad together and regroup for the 1978 World Cup qualifiers. Having missed out on the previous Finals in West Germany, it was time for Revie to prove that he could succeed where his predecessor, Sir Alf Ramsey, had failed.
But before the competition started, England travelled across the Atlantic to take part in a special tournament organised to celebrate the United States’ bicentennial. The Americans put together a team made up of star players from the North American Soccer League, and they would face England, Italy (who had also failed to qualify for the 1976 European Championships) and Brazil.
England’s first match resulted in a 1-0 defeat to the South Americans who fielded the likes of Zico, Falcao and Rivelino. Somehow Trevor Cherry and Mick Doyle didn’t have the same sense of awesome reputation, but no matter. England’s second match against the Italians gave greater cause for hope despite Revie’s side going 2-0 down inside 20 minutes. Mick Channon came to England’s rescue again with two goals either side of a Phil Thompson effort to run out 3-2 winners.
The last game of the competition came against Team America who sported the likes of Pele and Bobby Moore in its ranks. The FA considered the fixture to be a ‘training match’ due to the multi-national aspect of the American side and to this day have never listed it as a full international, even though the Italians and Brazilians did. That aside, England strode out onto the pitch at the John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, resplendent in pale yellow strip, and beat Team America 3-1 to finish the competition in second place behind Brazil.
And so to the World Cup qualifiers. England were drawn in Group 2 where they would face Luxembourg, Finland and yet again, Italy. They began with comfortable wins against Finland home and away before the first meeting against the Italians in Rome in November 1976. Italy boasted the likes of Dino Zoff, Claudio Gentile, Marco Tardelli and Roberto Bettega while England lined up with Kevin Keegan and Stan Bowles up front with Trevor Brooking and Mick Channon playing just behind them.
Both England and Italy had made winning starts to their campaigns and it was vital for England that they didn’t lose in either of their matches against the Italians. Unfortunately for England, it wasn’t to be. Two goals, one from Giancarlo Antognoni, the other from Roberto Bettega, gave the Italians a vital 2-0 win.
As far as the rest of the qualifying campaign was concerned, England needed to win all of their remaining matches comprehensively and beat the Italians well in the return match at Wembley one year later in order to qualify for the Finals in Argentina.
Although all was not lost technically, the press felt that Don Revie was now living on borrowed time. They felt that the England manager would almost certainly lose his job after the Italy re-match in November 1977, and the pressure on Revie began to build up palpably with each passing week. Revie became convinced that the FA were also sharpening their knives, so he started making plans that would help him control his own fate, rather than let someone else do it.
Inevitable conclusion
Meantime, Revie turned his attention to the 1977 Home International Championships, but this also added to England’s frustration and despair. Despite a 2-1 win over Northern Ireland in the first game, England looked decidedly average as they lost 1-0 at home to Wales and 2-1 at home to Scotland. England finished third in the competition as the Scottish fans tore up the Wembley pitch and broke up its goalposts.
It was the start of a six-game run without a win that included a three-match tour of South America during June of 1977. England drew all three of their games - 0-0 against Brazil and Uruguay and 1-1 against Argentina, a bad-tempered match which saw Trevor Cherry become only the third English player ever to be sent off.
As the tour ended, Don Revie was putting together the finishing touches to a dramatic announcement that would rock the English football world. Unbeknownst to the FA, the fans and the public at large, Don Revie had negotiated a new highly-paid contract with the United Arab Emirates which would allow him to leave his post and work for a huge some of money, tax-free.
Not only that, but Revie had reaped a further financial reward by selling his story exclusively to the Daily Mail who were the first to break the news on July 11th 1977. The FA didn’t receive Don Revie’s resignation letter until later that same morning, and they were understandably furious.
As for the Fleet Street hacks, they were only too pleased to brand Revie a traitor for leaving the national team in the lurch even though it was they that probably caused him to do so in the first place. It was certainly true that another factor in his struggle to get the right results was the injury to key players like Gerry Francis and Roy McFarland but the manner in which Revie engineered his own departure to great monetary benefit was enough to ensure sympathy for him was hardly anywhere to be found.
The FA responded promptly by charging Revie with bringing the game into disrepute. He refused to attend the hearing that followed, and when he finally did meet to discuss the matter, his objections to the charge were ignored. He was consequently banned from English football for ten years, a decision which Revie managed to reverse in the High Court some time later.
During his time in charge of the national side, Revie had won just 14 of the 29 games England played, so it was perhaps right for England to start the search for a new manager, but there were still matches due to be played, so once again the FA put a caretaker manager in place. This time, they chose West Ham United’s Ron Greenwood.
It was time for Don Revie to get his England squad together and regroup for the 1978 World Cup qualifiers. Having missed out on the previous Finals in West Germany, it was time for Revie to prove that he could succeed where his predecessor, Sir Alf Ramsey, had failed.
But before the competition started, England travelled across the Atlantic to take part in a special tournament organised to celebrate the United States’ bicentennial. The Americans put together a team made up of star players from the North American Soccer League, and they would face England, Italy (who had also failed to qualify for the 1976 European Championships) and Brazil.
England’s first match resulted in a 1-0 defeat to the South Americans who fielded the likes of Zico, Falcao and Rivelino. Somehow Trevor Cherry and Mick Doyle didn’t have the same sense of awesome reputation, but no matter. England’s second match against the Italians gave greater cause for hope despite Revie’s side going 2-0 down inside 20 minutes. Mick Channon came to England’s rescue again with two goals either side of a Phil Thompson effort to run out 3-2 winners.
The last game of the competition came against Team America who sported the likes of Pele and Bobby Moore in its ranks. The FA considered the fixture to be a ‘training match’ due to the multi-national aspect of the American side and to this day have never listed it as a full international, even though the Italians and Brazilians did. That aside, England strode out onto the pitch at the John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, resplendent in pale yellow strip, and beat Team America 3-1 to finish the competition in second place behind Brazil.
And so to the World Cup qualifiers. England were drawn in Group 2 where they would face Luxembourg, Finland and yet again, Italy. They began with comfortable wins against Finland home and away before the first meeting against the Italians in Rome in November 1976. Italy boasted the likes of Dino Zoff, Claudio Gentile, Marco Tardelli and Roberto Bettega while England lined up with Kevin Keegan and Stan Bowles up front with Trevor Brooking and Mick Channon playing just behind them.
Both England and Italy had made winning starts to their campaigns and it was vital for England that they didn’t lose in either of their matches against the Italians. Unfortunately for England, it wasn’t to be. Two goals, one from Giancarlo Antognoni, the other from Roberto Bettega, gave the Italians a vital 2-0 win.
As far as the rest of the qualifying campaign was concerned, England needed to win all of their remaining matches comprehensively and beat the Italians well in the return match at Wembley one year later in order to qualify for the Finals in Argentina.
Although all was not lost technically, the press felt that Don Revie was now living on borrowed time. They felt that the England manager would almost certainly lose his job after the Italy re-match in November 1977, and the pressure on Revie began to build up palpably with each passing week. Revie became convinced that the FA were also sharpening their knives, so he started making plans that would help him control his own fate, rather than let someone else do it.
Inevitable conclusion
Meantime, Revie turned his attention to the 1977 Home International Championships, but this also added to England’s frustration and despair. Despite a 2-1 win over Northern Ireland in the first game, England looked decidedly average as they lost 1-0 at home to Wales and 2-1 at home to Scotland. England finished third in the competition as the Scottish fans tore up the Wembley pitch and broke up its goalposts.
It was the start of a six-game run without a win that included a three-match tour of South America during June of 1977. England drew all three of their games - 0-0 against Brazil and Uruguay and 1-1 against Argentina, a bad-tempered match which saw Trevor Cherry become only the third English player ever to be sent off.
As the tour ended, Don Revie was putting together the finishing touches to a dramatic announcement that would rock the English football world. Unbeknownst to the FA, the fans and the public at large, Don Revie had negotiated a new highly-paid contract with the United Arab Emirates which would allow him to leave his post and work for a huge some of money, tax-free.
Not only that, but Revie had reaped a further financial reward by selling his story exclusively to the Daily Mail who were the first to break the news on July 11th 1977. The FA didn’t receive Don Revie’s resignation letter until later that same morning, and they were understandably furious.
As for the Fleet Street hacks, they were only too pleased to brand Revie a traitor for leaving the national team in the lurch even though it was they that probably caused him to do so in the first place. It was certainly true that another factor in his struggle to get the right results was the injury to key players like Gerry Francis and Roy McFarland but the manner in which Revie engineered his own departure to great monetary benefit was enough to ensure sympathy for him was hardly anywhere to be found.
The FA responded promptly by charging Revie with bringing the game into disrepute. He refused to attend the hearing that followed, and when he finally did meet to discuss the matter, his objections to the charge were ignored. He was consequently banned from English football for ten years, a decision which Revie managed to reverse in the High Court some time later.
During his time in charge of the national side, Revie had won just 14 of the 29 games England played, so it was perhaps right for England to start the search for a new manager, but there were still matches due to be played, so once again the FA put a caretaker manager in place. This time, they chose West Ham United’s Ron Greenwood.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Football - the game for intelligent human beings
If you run a blog site, it's only natural that every now and then you end up writing one or two negative articles for it. You know the sort of thing - 'Don't you find Neil Warnock irritating' or 'Why doesn't Robbie Savage get a proper man's haircut?' for instance.
Well this is all grist to the mill as far as I'm concerned. One of the things that a blog site allows you to do is to get things off your chest, and what better a way to do it? The danger comes when you allow negativity to consume your blog site, your opinions - even your day-to-day life.
That's why I like to maintain a healthy balance here on SPAOTP. Some people, however, aren't so fortunate, and we're not just talking about people that run blog sites either. We're talking about a considerable proportion of regular football fans.
These fans or 'bigots' as I prefer to call them, all share a particularly infantile brand of prejudice and can crop up in any number of different situations. The thing to note, however, is that some bigots are more bigoted than others, so let's assess how the big bigots begin being bigots in the beginning.
First of all, there's the Casual Bigot. He's the average sort of bloke you might find down the pub on a Friday night talking to his mates about tomorrow's big game, amongst other things. He's the one propping up the bar in his Fred Perry polo shirt, jeans and white trainers, knocking back a pint of Fosters.
Now the thing with Casual Bigot is that he isn't the most ardent of football fans, but he's happy to promote the supposed rivalry between the team he supports and its adversaries. To that end, he'll make the occasional derogatory remark about his team's rivals to show that he's a 'true fan' and a shining wit to boot. Neither of these facts is actually true.
If you're listening out for a Casual Bigot, his call goes something along the lines of "I couldn't stop laughing when City got knocked out of the Cup" or "I can't wait to see United get relegated". It's his way of showing a mild sense of hatred towards his club's natural enemies which is totally unnecessary and rather pathetic.
Casual Bigot is annoying, but essentially harmless. Far worse is Mob Bigot. He takes the job of hating anyone that doesn't support his team rather more seriously. Altogether louder and less mentally stable, Mob Bigot doesn't just follow football by reading three-line football stories in 'The Sun' every day - he visits web forums where like-minded individuals can generate a deep-felt loathing about their team's rivals, for no apparent reason whatsoever.
Mob Bigot is identifiable by the replica club shirt which regularly adorns his back and the determined but slightly aggressive expression on his face, as if he's ready for a punch-up at any minute. Mob Bigot also suffers from severe blinkeredness - that is to say an inability to see any wrong in the team he supports until things get really bad, in which case he whinges like an old woman who's just missed the bus that takes her to Bingo every Wednesday.
If you want to really irritate Mob Bigot, simply visit one of the many fan sites on the web for his team, and go to the 'Forum' section. Once there, post a message saying "Hi, I support [insert other Premiership team of your choice]". Within minutes, you can guarantee a reply to your message - not actually aimed at you, but ignoring you - saying "Who's this ****ing [Premiership team of your choice] scum?" That'll be Mob Bigot or one of his mates.
Finally there's Utter Bigot. What differentiates him from the other two Bigots is the fact that he actually goes to watch his team play. Not that this is something to be admired because Utter Bigot spends most of the time standing up out of his seat shouting a constant stream of obscenities at the opposing team's players. Even if they happen to be on the pitch some 150 yards away from where he's standing, well out of earshot.
Utter Bigot borrows characteristics from Casual Bigot and Mob Bigot - the replica shirt, aggressive expression, the prejudicial comments and so on - but extra embellishments give him away as being at the top level of bigotry. Some sport a tattoo on their arm (often featuring the name of the team they support). Others have a close-cropped hairstyle or may even be bald altogether. Many wear just a short-sleeved replica shirt during those sub-zero evening matches in deepest winter to show everyone how 'hard' they are.
However they look, you'll always see the Utter Bigot foaming at the mouth as if the slightest mention of the opposing team's name could send them into a frenzied bodily contortion. Their entire raison d'etre is to deny the existence of the opposition, and their extreme way of showing this can best be seen on any live Sky match behind the goals at either end of the pitch. He'll be the one waving his arms around and mouthing f-words to the bloke who's about to take a corner.
So there you have it - the three levels of Bigotness. Now the point I'm making is this: the modern game is full of Bigots who like nothing better than bad-mouthing other teams, their fans or their players, and they are there to be treated with contempt. That's because Bigots of this type have an unhealthy love of their team to the point where their whole life seems to revolve around it. This is about as misguided as it's possible to be.
My feelings are that football is a game to be watched and enjoyed. Naturally you have a team of your own that you follow, and that's fine, but the fact is we can all sit back and admire a fantastic goal, a wonderful bit of passing, a great tackle or an unbelievable save no matter which team does it. So why the need to behave in an unfriendly and hostile way towards other supporters and their teams? Most of the time it isn't even justified by constructive reasoning, as in "United are a bunch of ******s... because they just are."
I shall therefore be leading a one-man campaign to promote positive football supporting by example, and anyone that wants to join me is more than welcome. As for negative football supporting, it's not Bigot and it's not clever.
Well this is all grist to the mill as far as I'm concerned. One of the things that a blog site allows you to do is to get things off your chest, and what better a way to do it? The danger comes when you allow negativity to consume your blog site, your opinions - even your day-to-day life.
That's why I like to maintain a healthy balance here on SPAOTP. Some people, however, aren't so fortunate, and we're not just talking about people that run blog sites either. We're talking about a considerable proportion of regular football fans.
These fans or 'bigots' as I prefer to call them, all share a particularly infantile brand of prejudice and can crop up in any number of different situations. The thing to note, however, is that some bigots are more bigoted than others, so let's assess how the big bigots begin being bigots in the beginning.
First of all, there's the Casual Bigot. He's the average sort of bloke you might find down the pub on a Friday night talking to his mates about tomorrow's big game, amongst other things. He's the one propping up the bar in his Fred Perry polo shirt, jeans and white trainers, knocking back a pint of Fosters.
Now the thing with Casual Bigot is that he isn't the most ardent of football fans, but he's happy to promote the supposed rivalry between the team he supports and its adversaries. To that end, he'll make the occasional derogatory remark about his team's rivals to show that he's a 'true fan' and a shining wit to boot. Neither of these facts is actually true.
If you're listening out for a Casual Bigot, his call goes something along the lines of "I couldn't stop laughing when City got knocked out of the Cup" or "I can't wait to see United get relegated". It's his way of showing a mild sense of hatred towards his club's natural enemies which is totally unnecessary and rather pathetic.
Casual Bigot is annoying, but essentially harmless. Far worse is Mob Bigot. He takes the job of hating anyone that doesn't support his team rather more seriously. Altogether louder and less mentally stable, Mob Bigot doesn't just follow football by reading three-line football stories in 'The Sun' every day - he visits web forums where like-minded individuals can generate a deep-felt loathing about their team's rivals, for no apparent reason whatsoever.
Mob Bigot is identifiable by the replica club shirt which regularly adorns his back and the determined but slightly aggressive expression on his face, as if he's ready for a punch-up at any minute. Mob Bigot also suffers from severe blinkeredness - that is to say an inability to see any wrong in the team he supports until things get really bad, in which case he whinges like an old woman who's just missed the bus that takes her to Bingo every Wednesday.
If you want to really irritate Mob Bigot, simply visit one of the many fan sites on the web for his team, and go to the 'Forum' section. Once there, post a message saying "Hi, I support [insert other Premiership team of your choice]". Within minutes, you can guarantee a reply to your message - not actually aimed at you, but ignoring you - saying "Who's this ****ing [Premiership team of your choice] scum?" That'll be Mob Bigot or one of his mates.
Finally there's Utter Bigot. What differentiates him from the other two Bigots is the fact that he actually goes to watch his team play. Not that this is something to be admired because Utter Bigot spends most of the time standing up out of his seat shouting a constant stream of obscenities at the opposing team's players. Even if they happen to be on the pitch some 150 yards away from where he's standing, well out of earshot.
Utter Bigot borrows characteristics from Casual Bigot and Mob Bigot - the replica shirt, aggressive expression, the prejudicial comments and so on - but extra embellishments give him away as being at the top level of bigotry. Some sport a tattoo on their arm (often featuring the name of the team they support). Others have a close-cropped hairstyle or may even be bald altogether. Many wear just a short-sleeved replica shirt during those sub-zero evening matches in deepest winter to show everyone how 'hard' they are.
However they look, you'll always see the Utter Bigot foaming at the mouth as if the slightest mention of the opposing team's name could send them into a frenzied bodily contortion. Their entire raison d'etre is to deny the existence of the opposition, and their extreme way of showing this can best be seen on any live Sky match behind the goals at either end of the pitch. He'll be the one waving his arms around and mouthing f-words to the bloke who's about to take a corner.
So there you have it - the three levels of Bigotness. Now the point I'm making is this: the modern game is full of Bigots who like nothing better than bad-mouthing other teams, their fans or their players, and they are there to be treated with contempt. That's because Bigots of this type have an unhealthy love of their team to the point where their whole life seems to revolve around it. This is about as misguided as it's possible to be.
My feelings are that football is a game to be watched and enjoyed. Naturally you have a team of your own that you follow, and that's fine, but the fact is we can all sit back and admire a fantastic goal, a wonderful bit of passing, a great tackle or an unbelievable save no matter which team does it. So why the need to behave in an unfriendly and hostile way towards other supporters and their teams? Most of the time it isn't even justified by constructive reasoning, as in "United are a bunch of ******s... because they just are."
I shall therefore be leading a one-man campaign to promote positive football supporting by example, and anyone that wants to join me is more than welcome. As for negative football supporting, it's not Bigot and it's not clever.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
"There is nothing like a Game..."
[“...Nothing in the world...”]
Tottenham Hotspur 2 – 0 Sheffield United
Written by Smart
So the first home game of the season has been and gone – and there is simply nothing like it.
But before the match, some tough decisions had to be made – Chips or a Donkey Burger? The queue out of the chip shop door meant only one thing – Burger. Besides, what man can resist the aroma of fried onions that seems to hang in the air?
Near the ground, a coach carrying the travelling away supporters has taken a wrong turn and beached itself across one of the low kerb like barriers across the road. In an attempt to raise the coach a bit, the coach is emptied of its passengers. No luck.
After the burger, its into the pub to see some old faces that I haven’t seen since the end of last season – so that’s two months. Spirits are high, optimism is low. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this game...” was the over used phrase of the evening. I myself predicted a 1-1 draw.
Then the magnetic pull of the referees whistle empties the pub in a matter of moments – its time to take your seats, ladies and gentleman.
The anticipation is growing, the tension is mounting. Walking up the steps from the confines of the under stadium food area, then its out into the daylight. The muffled audio tape sound in an instant flicks into Dolby surround 5.1. Through the clouds of smoke – “Tonight Matthew, I’m going to be…” Hopefully not ‘Disappointed’.
However, that cannot beat seeing rest of the stadium, the thousands of expectant fans, and the players coming out onto the billiard table of a surface. Its a sensory overload - Im buzzing with excitement already.
The opening games of the season are also usually complimented with fine summer-like weather. Not tonight however. Dark clouds gather overhead, fuelling the pessimism around.
After losing your opening game of the Premiership campaign, the best thing to do is get an early goal. Step up, Dimitar Berbatov. After some magical ball skills by the young apprentice Aaron Lennon (I swear the ball was up his sleeve at one point), he pulls a low cross out of the hat, putting the goal on a plate for Berbatov. One-nil after 7 minutes – you could sense the relief around the ground.
Robbie Keane is in a class of his own, Lennon assisting him admirably, Tainio and Berbatov are enjoying themselves – the second goal is coming. Berbatov heads a ball down into the path of the on-running Jenas, who lifts the ball over Kenny’s hand to make it 2 goals with only 17 minutes on the clock. Game over already.
Sheffield United pleasantly surprised me. We were expecting a bruising encounter with fouls galore. To their credit, that wasn’t the game plan at all. Some nice touches, moments of pressure and some good moves were also nice to watch, and only added to the entertainment of the match. It takes two to Tango. Apparently.
It would be nice however, with all the replica shirts about, if Sheffield United could give the latest kit to Keith Gillespie, who for some reason was playing in last seasons strip. Perhaps he isn’t one of those people who ‘must have’ the latest fashions? Perhaps he picked it up cheap in the club sale?
On leaving the ground, comments such as “Business as usual” and “That’s more like it” fill the air. The dark clouds above have dispersed. It didn’t rain. The pessimism has gone.
For now.
Going home, I go past the travelling away coach. It isn’t stuck on the kerb barrier anymore. Its now jacked up onto a huge recovery vehicle, with people looking rather concerned at the underside.
I hope they had AA Relay Plus.
Tottenham Hotspur 2 – 0 Sheffield United
Written by Smart
So the first home game of the season has been and gone – and there is simply nothing like it.
But before the match, some tough decisions had to be made – Chips or a Donkey Burger? The queue out of the chip shop door meant only one thing – Burger. Besides, what man can resist the aroma of fried onions that seems to hang in the air?
Near the ground, a coach carrying the travelling away supporters has taken a wrong turn and beached itself across one of the low kerb like barriers across the road. In an attempt to raise the coach a bit, the coach is emptied of its passengers. No luck.
After the burger, its into the pub to see some old faces that I haven’t seen since the end of last season – so that’s two months. Spirits are high, optimism is low. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this game...” was the over used phrase of the evening. I myself predicted a 1-1 draw.
Then the magnetic pull of the referees whistle empties the pub in a matter of moments – its time to take your seats, ladies and gentleman.
The anticipation is growing, the tension is mounting. Walking up the steps from the confines of the under stadium food area, then its out into the daylight. The muffled audio tape sound in an instant flicks into Dolby surround 5.1. Through the clouds of smoke – “Tonight Matthew, I’m going to be…” Hopefully not ‘Disappointed’.
However, that cannot beat seeing rest of the stadium, the thousands of expectant fans, and the players coming out onto the billiard table of a surface. Its a sensory overload - Im buzzing with excitement already.
The opening games of the season are also usually complimented with fine summer-like weather. Not tonight however. Dark clouds gather overhead, fuelling the pessimism around.
After losing your opening game of the Premiership campaign, the best thing to do is get an early goal. Step up, Dimitar Berbatov. After some magical ball skills by the young apprentice Aaron Lennon (I swear the ball was up his sleeve at one point), he pulls a low cross out of the hat, putting the goal on a plate for Berbatov. One-nil after 7 minutes – you could sense the relief around the ground.
Robbie Keane is in a class of his own, Lennon assisting him admirably, Tainio and Berbatov are enjoying themselves – the second goal is coming. Berbatov heads a ball down into the path of the on-running Jenas, who lifts the ball over Kenny’s hand to make it 2 goals with only 17 minutes on the clock. Game over already.
Sheffield United pleasantly surprised me. We were expecting a bruising encounter with fouls galore. To their credit, that wasn’t the game plan at all. Some nice touches, moments of pressure and some good moves were also nice to watch, and only added to the entertainment of the match. It takes two to Tango. Apparently.
It would be nice however, with all the replica shirts about, if Sheffield United could give the latest kit to Keith Gillespie, who for some reason was playing in last seasons strip. Perhaps he isn’t one of those people who ‘must have’ the latest fashions? Perhaps he picked it up cheap in the club sale?
On leaving the ground, comments such as “Business as usual” and “That’s more like it” fill the air. The dark clouds above have dispersed. It didn’t rain. The pessimism has gone.
For now.
Going home, I go past the travelling away coach. It isn’t stuck on the kerb barrier anymore. Its now jacked up onto a huge recovery vehicle, with people looking rather concerned at the underside.
I hope they had AA Relay Plus.
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