If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Following on from Eden Hazard's ridiculous red card on Wednesday evening for kicking a ball-'boy' in the League Cup semi-final second leg against Swansea, here are another few weird red cards that came to mind.
Some of the fans - not all, but some - now feel that there is now no way back for Leeds - not to anywhere approaching the pre-eminence they once enjoyed in the game. If that's the case, then the question arises: what is a reasonable aim now? To gain promotion to the Premier League, and strive to survive?
Whilst Charlie Morgan was only doing as would any other 17-year-old in front of a stadium full of home fans, his behavior is symptomatic of a growing lack of respect in modern football.
Alex Ferguson routinely pours scorn over the idea of recruitment at this time of year, but he should know more than most that for every Jean-Alain Boumsong or Ricardo Rocha there's a Nemanja Vidić or a Patrice Evra out there waiting to be snaffled up.
As the global elite don snow boots for Davos, those of us tramping through the slush at home will wonder 'what's Davos got to do with me?' I say two things: 1) the UK has always been a great trading nation and, 2) the UK is a modern day cultural superpower. We're up to our boot-tops in the global economy and our language, education system and creativity are in massive demand to drive global growth and prosperity. And we all have a stake in that. Because what our politicians and business leaders are discussing on our behalf is a near universal need to tighten our belts.
It would be difficult to imagine that any other club should have such a long, unbroken run of live TV coverage in their FA Cup ties. On Saturday, they will figure in their 38th consecutive such event. This will be a home tie against Fulham - hardly a game bursting with giant-killing potential.
Are football fans hypocritical to celebrate one drugs cheat and criticise another?
In a season that has seen successful and well regarded managers such as Roberto Di Matteo (Chelsea) and Nigel Adkins (Southampton) cruelly handed their p45's, Murray has now become the first presenter of the year to meet his demise (handed his p45, he's not dead ... dead annoyed maybe!).
Another striker is imperative. With Adebayor away, Defoe is effectively the only senior forward at the club and an injury to him would be nothing short of disastrous. Furthermore, over the last few weeks Defoe and Adebayor have shown that they struggle to score when playing together, so even when they are both available options are sparse.
Whatever your opinion of Liverpool, the Premiership is less entertaining when one of its most famous clubs is floundering in mid-table. However, it remains hard to determine which direction the Reds are headed, they are an amalgam of 'ifs, buts, and maybes', with a worrying lack of definitive answers.
Kompany's a great leader and example to others, and I'm sure is professional enough to look at the footage again and realise he can do better next time.
Football is tribal, football is cathartic, football is where you get to let off some steam after gritting your teeth all week. And, for all of that, you need someone to hate.
The FA's decline and fall is what has characterised at least the last twenty years of its existence, the game compared to 1963, its centenary year, is almost unrecognisable. Not entirely for the worse of course, but not as much for the better as the FA would like to claim either.
Would the frequently toxic nature of that crowd/team relationship not be improved if the players were really playing for the shirt and the cap, and nothing else?
So ridiculous was Gray's hypothetical nonsense that the phrase began to take on a meaning of its own. Combining a healthy dose of xenophobia with a misguided faith in the homegrown underdog, "could they do it on a wet, Tuesday night in Stoke", came to signify a partisan view - predominantly used ironically - in which good old fashioned British traits like 'brute force', 'bravery' and 'blokishness' put pains to pesky foreignisms like 'ability', or 'talent'.
While the bookies strongly favour Bayern, Arsenal have every chance of surprising the Germans - especially in Europe where the form book is thrown out of the window and against a notably similar side.
