Mighty Martin’s trademark season

Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neil admitted yesterday that the chance of his side claiming the fourth Champions League spot and playing in Europe’s premier competition is now slipping.

 

Commenting after Villa’s drew 3-3 draw with Everton he said: ‘It is going to be very difficult now with Arsenal having won.’ Whereas most sides seem to hit a rich vain of form coming up to the end of the season, Villa have been somewhat the reverse. They started the season in stunning form and looked to be breaking the ‘Big Four’ strangle hold on English football however in recent weeks this has slipped. O’Neil has won the Manager of the Month award more times than anyone else with the exception of Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson and has built a team with a thoroughly English spine, something that his rivals can only dream of and hopes had been high after an emphatic start to the season.

 

The biggest mistake that he has made this year was probably the decision to focus on pursuing the Champions League spot, which cost Villa their place in this season’s UEFA Cup. After fielding what was almost a reserve side to play CSKA Moscow the midland club lost 2 nil and O’Neil had to put his hand in his pocket and fork out for a slap up meal for all those fans that had bought tickets to watch what they thought, would be a strong Villa team. The Northern Irishman blamed the small size of his squad for the poor team however it was clear to see that the fourth spot was his aim.

 

Aston Villa have done well this season, after being destroyed by an impressive Liverpool who smashed five past them a couple of weeks ago many would have expected them to crumble when Everton went 3 -1 up yesterday. However they fought back and stunning penalty from Gareth Barry grabbed a point. This resurgent attitude is often attributed only to the top few teams, the infamous champions trademark that we have so often seen Man Utd deliver, so perhaps this is the greatest achievement of Martin O’Neil’s season, not that they will finish in the top six but that he has built a team that can look confidently to the future.

Hughes’ needs to go back to school

Mark Hughes has today defended his decision to rest Robinho for the home game against Fulham yesterday. Sparky claims that the Brazilian star needed a break as he is one of those players who ‘carry the vast majority of the workload.’ Is this really the case however and considering the astronomical amount of money that the Man City millionaires are getting paid should we as fans expect more?

 

Robinho has so far appeared in 22 of City’s 32 league matches bagging 11 goals, not a bad ratio of goals per game by any means nearly as good as Drogba’s 10 goals in 19 and Torres’s 11 in 19. However could you really argue that the former Madrid star has the same impact as either the Chelsea or Liverpool hit men? Does he strike the same fear into defenders? I think not.

 

The idea of resting the fatigued Robinho makes me even more sceptical when he only played 70 minutes of Brazils recent 3 nil victory over Peru. Was it more a case of the City boss thinking his side were good enough to beat Fulham without their talisman? Man City boast an impressive record at home having won 10 of the games hosted by their illustrious stadium so far and Fulham only winning two on their travels at this stage in the campaign. If this is the case then Sparky failed to remember one thing, this is a Fulham side that not long ago stunned Manchester United and very nearly nicked appoint off of Liverpool, furthermore Roy Hodgson’s boys are pushing for a place in Europe. They cut a fine figure at the City of Manchester Stadium yesterday and look set to grab a place in next season’s EUROPA League.

 

With City trailing 3-1 to Hamburg in the UEFA Cup lets hope Hughes does his homework before the return leg.

Battling bears and the President’s pooch

Well it has been a wild couple of days in world news . . . literally. In Germany a woman decided that it was a good idea to clime over a metal fence  force her way through a hedge and then manage to ‘fall’ into a polar bear enclosure at Berlin Zoo. Even when she realised where she was she still smiled happily swimming in the pool that surrounds the enclosure. One of the four bears took an interest and walked to the bank and to the surprise of onlookers the woman turned and approached it. Then to no ones surprise she was attacked and it took several minutes for keepers’ to free her. The woman is now recovering in hospital from severe bite wounds and has still given no explanation for her actions.

Possibly the coolest man on the planet at the moment, President Obama has recently got his children a new puppy. As a reward for the harrowing presidential campaign his girls, Malia, 10 and Sasha, 7 have chosen a black and white Portuguese Water dog. Lets just hope Mr President can find time to walk the pooch as he has an intense few months ahead attempting to control the ever worsening economic crisis.

The religion of football

Today is Easter Sunday the day which which we are told Jesus Christ was resurrected and walked among his disciples once more telling them how to proceed without him. However how many people look to Easter now as a celebration of the Christian faith or merely as a long weekend, those precious extra few days off work. Today an estimated 6.3 million people will have attended church however this is number is in decline and when you compare this to the number of people watching or attending football matches it is quite staggering. For many their private lives are now more important to them than any measure of spiritual understanding and well being. The thought of spending some of their sacred free time listening to someone recite scripture, to some, is almost laughable. Football has always been joked about as a religion but to many it really is. A Sunday morning won’t find them perched precariously on a pue, they will be sat on their sofa watching Match of the Day having probably already attended the game they are now watching the previous day. Is this wrong? Why is it this same fan will be still look to the sky and pray when their team are in desperate need of a goal or penalty save? Is this wrong? Why is it that on occasions such as the murder of Rhys Jones football clubs are turned into mourning grounds. It isn’t due to a sense of religious understanding it’s due to the feeling of community of belonging and of being one, but perhaps that is truly what religion is after all.

17 it’s the magic number

Many a teen sensation have tread the grass at the Theatre of Dreams, Nobby Stiles realised his dream at the age of 17, George Best pulled on his first United shirt at 17, Cristiano Ronaldo singed for the Red Devils also at 17 and now it appears they have a new teen hero. Federico Macheda made his debut yesterday at the age of 17 and it seems that he too may be destined for greatness.

With Liverpool’s late winner against Fulham on Saturday the title race was wide open and with United missing many big names it seemed this was the game that really could have left it hanging in the balance. Macheda came on after 61 minutes with Manchester United chasing the game after Aston Villa had stunned the champions. It may have seemed an odd choice, the Italian born striker was somewhat unknown and had it not been for the fact that he had bagged a hat trick in the reserves against Newcastle on Monday night it is unlikely he would have figured. However within a few minutes it was clear to see that he was something special. Causing havoc in the Villa defence he was brought down in the box by Curtis Davis only to see Mike Riley wave away his appeals. The youngster who had been playing at the Lazio youth system had moved to the UK to further his career and he signed for United in August 2008. The boy they call ‘Kiko’ was not to be put off however and linked up nicely with fans favourite Ronaldo who drilled into level the scores after 80 minutes, but a point wasn’t enough and would have left rivals Liverpool still atop of the table. With only seconds to go Macheda received the ball turned majestically passed his man and curled the ball round Brad Friedel to clinch the match and the three points.

This has put the title firmly back in the hands of the now grinning Scotsman Alex Ferguson whose side are now massive favourites with a two point lead and a game in hand over Rafael Benitez’s Liverpool outfit. However with both sides still to play fourth place Arsenal and Chelsea still picking up points who knows where the trophy will end up at the end of what has been one of the closest seasons in years.

Is this really the BBC’s best?

Whilst watching BBC Breakfast this morning I found myself questioning the significance of what I was watching. After the brief rush through of the headlines I had an author (no explanation of what type of author or relevance) and a ‘cold expert’ these ground breaking guests were trying to tell me and the millions of other viewers that if they are attacked by the common cold the best cure is warm fruit squash. Not paracetamol or any branded cold medicine not even the favourite hot toddy but ribena microwaved to 70 degrees. Now I am currently suffering from a severe case of man flu and sounds like a cross between Rod Stewart and the bloke that voiced Mufassa out of the Lion King. However I still feel that this is bordering on theft of my licence fee money, how is it news? The face that this piece was followed up by a plug for BBC show Little Dorit with Sian Williams doing her level best to fake interest. Later on the show went on to interview Diana the recent evictee of the X Factor. Now I appreciate that the editors of this show know far more about scheduling and programme selection than I do but It does seems somewhat odd that in a little under an hour stretch, the headlines had been repeated four times with no particular in depth reporting, 2 weather forecasts, predicting the current sub arctic temperatures that brought about the need for the cold expert unrelated author and the two tv ’stars.’ Perhaps it is just the constant reminder from my lecturers about proper news and the dangers of churnalism but I found myself switching off as opposed to appreciating the cutting edge of world journalism.

Breaking news ticker ticking me off

Whilst watching BBC News24 recently I found myself getting more and more frustrated by the bizarre use of the breaking news bar at the bottom of the screen. Certain events obviously merit highlighting but it is nearly always the case that the subject matter of the bar is what the news readers are discussing and what is on the actual screen.

I appreciate the fact that many people only dip in to 24 hour news channels and that instant bite size news is there function however everything being declared ‘breaking’ is ludicrous. Just this morning it was declared ‘breaking news’ that David Cameron was about to give a press conference, despite the fact that this had been planned for weeks, therefore how is it breaking news? Is it just breaking news when an event is about to happen? I am not sure but what I am sure of is that if I am intelligent enough to put on a 24 hour news channel I am intelligent enough to actually watch it and find out what is happening as opposed to an americanised slogan.

Lawrence Dellaglio Footballing Genius?

 

Today’s papers are full of the argument between clubs and national football sides. The debate of which the player owes allegiance to has raged for years and there are arguments for both taking priority. The idea of pride playing for your country only now seems to count when the games are important, qualification games to tournaments and other such high profile games that will enhance their reputation and consequently their wage demands.

However this does seem to be a somewhat purely English problem, with the withdrawal of Gerrard, Lampard, Terry and many other first team regulars it seems that the drive and desire is not there any more and the pride once found in putting on a national shirt has gone. The half hearted attempt to sing the national anthem, stumbling over the few words they can remember and trying to work out which grunt is which from Wayne Rooney leaves a lot to be desired. I will never forget Lawrence Dallaglio actually physically crying when roaring the national anthem before captaining England to the Rugby World Cup. Perhaps this is what the footballers need, not history lessons or lectures from supposed pundits, but put them in a room with a 20 stone rich boy screaming the national anthem at them over and over again.

Germany captain Michael Ballack today told the Mail that he was amazed how rubbish the England team have performed recently and with the players they have they should be making the finals of every major tournament. However perhaps this issue of nation versus club arises here also, the supposed golden generation that went to the World Cup in 2006 were built up as the best chance we had had since Italia 90 and yet again we flopped. Is it that the players are too scared of burning themselves out in the run up to the new season or is it the absence of the drive to see their country at the top of the game as well as their club.

However is this even really a question of national pride, when you look around perhaps it is a question of respect. Drogba’s throwing a coin at the Burnley crowd, Carragher throwing a phone at the Everton fans and, going back a bit, Cantana attacking a Crystal Palace fan. Perhaps it is more that the players think that they can do what they like when they like and they don’t like the idea that they have to report for international duty if they do not think it’s worth their time.

 

At the dawn of Capello’s era everyone rejoiced in finding a gaffa that wasn’t going to take the regular withdrawals that come around every time there is a friendly, lo and behold what has he done about it. ‘Demanding’ that Steven Gerrard reports to training just to be told as soon as the England doctor sees him, that he is unfit to play. Wow Mr Capello well done I assume this is the sort of managerial genius won you the Serie A title with a very average Roma side. Furthermore why just Gerrard, I think a police style line up is the best way, make them all jog on the spot, jump in the air (but make sure Terry keeps his’ elbows down for once) and then dive on the floor as Gerrard, Lampard and Terry are all very apt at doing.

Admittedly the clubs pay the wages, they provide the livelihoods and they are the ones that will suffer when players get injured however, you can not be a professional footballer and just pick the games you play in, they will all be desperate to play come the World Cup qualifiers and be clambering on to the plane to Kazakhstan however against the old enemy Germany none of them seem bothered, depressing to see how times change. Still I reckon Dallaglio would make a pretty tasty centre back, a 6 foot 4 20 stone lump of muscle screaming god save the queen and blubbing down his brocken nose would certainly put me off lets just hope Mr Ballack thinks the same.

Radio News Day – Crouch Calls For Saintly Behaviour

Southampton Football Club is continuing to focus on their football amid further upheaval in the boardroom.

It is believed that former Chairmen Rupert Lowe and Michael Wild will offer to call off the planned emergency meeting if the PLC board step down on May 6th. The EGM was originaly called to challenge the current board amid speculation of a power seizure by the former charimen.

However the club are reluctant to comment on any board room changes at a key moment in the season that could easily see the drop into League One.

Saints, who face Burnley on Saturday are currently two points from the relegation zone and have three games left to play.

Shannon’s Mum in Court

The mother of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews will appear in court today to face charges relating to the disappearance of her nine year old daughter.

Karen Matthews, 32, was arrested at her home in Dewsbury on Sunday evening and will appear in Dewsbury Magistrates’ Court today accused of perverting the course of justice and child neglect.

Shannon went missing on 19th February and was last seen leaving school, her disappearance sparked a massive search which involved over 200 Police Officers and an additional 200 volunteers from the local community. On 13th March Shannon was found alive in the storage compartment of a divan bed, in a house belonging to a relative of her stepfather, just a mile from her home.

Since then Shannon has remained in the care of social services only seeing her Mother and stepfather briefly in the company of police. Last week stepfather Craig Meehan 22, was charged with pocessing indecent images of children and is awaiting trial although it is believed that these images do not relate to Shannon.

Peter Mann, spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: “We have carefully considered all of the evidence in the file and decided there is sufficient evidence to charge Karen Matthews with perverting the course of justice and child neglect.

It is understood that Police are investigating similarities between the Shannon disapperance and a storyline in Channel 4 drama Shameless, which was screened a month before the schoolgirls disappearance. This related to claims made in several newspapers that people claiming to be representatives of the Matthews family approached Gerry and Kate McCann, parents of the missing Madeline McCann, for funding the search process.

A spokesman for her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, said they had received “a number of approaches” for aid from the Find Madeleine Fund from purported representatives of the Matthews family.