Who I think should be the next England captain

Part of the criteria of being the England captain during Thatcher's regime was to kiss her! (interesting fact:the man standing far right in the picture is Mick Mills who was born in Godalming!)

With all the talk about being who will be the next England manager, I was wondering who would be the next England captain now that John Terry has lost the armband.

An England captain needs to have the respect of his team mates who will do whatever he says, have great leadership qualities and be the player that will take over from the manager on the pitch.  They need to be dependable, have a never-say-die attitude (sorry for the cliché!) and be proud of playing for England.

Most previous England captains have had all of these qualities.  I am going to highlight several England captains from the past who are perfect examples of what I think England are lacking at the moment.

My first example is from all the way back to the 1950’s and was a model professional.  Billy Wright was the captain of not only England but Wolverhampton Wanderers during their most successful time in their history.  While Wolves were playing their best ever football, Billy Wright was their captain.  Wright became the most capped England player with 105 caps (there are now 4 players who have made more appearances) between 1946 and 1959.  He was the captain of England for the disastrous 1950 World Cup campaign when England lost to the United States.

Wright was also captain of the England team who were destroyed 6-3 by Hungary at Wembley.  Many believe that if the Munich disaster didn’t occur then Billy Wright would have been the first England captain to lift the World Cup and not Bobby Moore in 1966 as the team of 1958 would have been so good.

Billy Wright was the real schoolboys hero of the 50’s and there were football books and annuals endorsed by Wright.  He was also in the limelight as he married a famous pop star of the time.

 Billy Wright leads England out on the occasion of his 100th cap

If Billy Wright was the idol of the 50’s, then it was definitely Bobby Moore who took over in the middle to late 60’s and early 70’s.  He became world famous when he lifted the World Cup for England in 1966.

Moore made defending look easily and was a defensive marshal and orchestrated everything from the back.  He was well known for his great passing and made defending look easy.  He also set up two of Geoff Hurst’s goals in the World Cup Final (the first and last.)

His tackling was great as well.  He famously took the ball from Pele who was running full pelt at him at Mexico ’70.  He then played a simple ball and made the whole move look so easy.  Making difficult things look easy is what great players can do and Moore was someone who did this in style.

Moore had a squeaky clean image and was thoughtful too.  When he went up to lift the World Cup at Wembley, he knew he would have to shake hands with the Queen.  He rubbed his muddy hands down on the velvet over the front of the counter where the World Cup trophy was sitting in front of the Queen!

His squeaky clean image was attempted to be tainted in Columbia in the build up to the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.  Some people set him up by claiming he stole a bracelet from a shop.  He was detained for a while but then the girl from the shop admitted Moore was innocent.

Moore won 108 caps for England between 1962 and 1973 and will always go down in history for being the captain who lifted the World Cup for England.

Bobby Moore meets the greatest player in the world at Mexico '70

Later on in the ‘70s Emlyn Hughes was the captain of England and was another player with a squeaky clean image.  His nickname was Crazy Horse and he was manager of England, the most successful team of the 70s (Liverpool) and a team on A Question of Sport.  He even flirted with Princess Anne when she was a guest on A Question of Sport!

Emlyn 'Crazy Horse' Hughes makes a new friend filming A Question of Sport!

I believe that England needs a captain like Hughes, Moore and Wright.  Someone who has not been involved in any controversy (this rules out quite a lot of the current England squad!) would be ideal as he would be a great role model for younger fans.

During most of the 1980’s, Bryan Robson was England’s captain but he would get injured far too frequently.  He threw himself into every challenge and would get injured as a result of this.

Robson was playing for an improving Manchester United team and was nicknamed ‘Captain Marvel’ and was the ultimate role model.  He won 90 caps between 1980 and 1991 and also held the record for quickest goal in a World Cup game (27 seconds v France 1982).

Bryan Robson dislocates his shoulder and rules himself out of the rest of the Mexico '86 World Cup.  He did the same in Italia '90

Other players who were great examples of leaders and had real pride wearing the Three Lions were Terry Butcher, Paul Ince and Stuart Pearce.

Butcher was famously pictured with a head wound bleeding profusely after a game against Sweden.  This game was a World Cup qualifier and England got the necessary result that took them to the Italia ’90 World Cup.  He had to have the injury stitched up but was adamant to carry on and get the result for England.

He ran back out again and when he headed the ball , he opened the wound again.  The ball was spattered with blood and there were puddles of blood on the pitch!

For some reason, no one would swap shirts with Butcher after the game!

Stuart Pearce was as patriotic as you could get.  He would belt out the national anthem before every game with pride and lived up to his nickname ‘Psycho’!  He was hard in the tackle and took one of the most powerful free kicks in the game.  He was an ideal captain for England but Tony Adams had the armband around that time.

Stuart Pearce celebrates scoring a penalty against Spain in Euro '96, getting rid of the memories of his miss in Italia '90 against West Germany 

Paul Ince, also known as ‘The Guv’nor’ was also a passionate midfielder, similar to Bryan Robson.  He would give his all in every game he played in whether it be for his club or country.

The same injury that happened to Butcher also happened to Ince in the final World Cup qualifier for the 1998 World Cup when England were playing Italy at the Stadio Olimpico.  He too cut his head open and carried on playing with a bandage wrapped around his head!

The guv'nor

Tony Adams was another player who would as the cliché goes “wear his heart on his sleeve” and these sort of players are really lacking in the current England squad.  John Terry is probably the player that had that ‘British Bulldog’ style spirit but he has been involved in more controversy than most in the last few years.

Now that's pride!

The one player I admire the most in the England set up who I think would be a great captain is Scott Parker.

He started his career at Charlton Athletic and looked very promising.  He made a big money move over to Celsea but never really got much first team action with all the multi million pound signings made as the Abramovich era took over.

Parker then moved across London to West Ham United and made a name for himself there.  He made his way back into the England set up and was linked to several highly ranked clubs.

In the end, he joined Tottenham and has looked like a fantastic bargain buy.  He has excelled under Harry Redknapp and with Redknapp looking the favourite to take over from Fabio Capello as England manager, Parker looks to be the man who will take the armband.

He is a model professional and hasn’t been involved in any controversy.  He too would be similar to Bryan Robson in that he is tenacious in the tackle, commands the midfield and really is a midfield general.

Future England captain?

The Greatest Teams to never win anything

In sport you only tend to remember the winners.  The runners up or those who finished in second place are rarely remembered.

The same could be said in football.  Read any book and everything is all about the winners.  You are told all about the England side who won the World Cup in 1966, Manchester United’s 1999 Treble Winning team, the Arsenal Invincibles, Liverpool’s sides of the 70’s and 80’s and Aldershot’s 2008 Conference winning side (maybe not so much about the last one!)

I thought this blog would celebrate those teams who were the greatest teams NOT to win anything and I have picked 6 teams I think should be recognised more for their ability and less about the fact that they never won anything.

Number 1            The Magical Magyars 1953-54

One of Hungary's six goals against England, November 25th 1953

This Hungary side were amazing.  Although they did actually win a competition (the Olympics in 1952), they still count in my list of great sides not to win anything as that doesn’t count as a major competition.

The Magical Magyars as they were called were the first team from outside of Britain to beat England at Wembley.  They did so with a 6-3 win on a cold November afternoon in 1953.

To rub salt in England’s wound, The Magyars won 7-1 in the return fixture a year later in Budapest when England probably went out there to ‘set the record straight ’!!

This Hungarian side had a genius in their ranks (as most great teams do!) in Ferenc Puskas.  To look at you wouldn’t think he had any footballing skill, he was short and tubby and probably wouldn’t have looked out of place in a barbers or as a chef!

But Puskas did have lightning quick feet and vision too.  He would pick out an opponent with ease, take on an opponent and make them look stupid and would think ahead of everyone else and hit a pass that no one would even think of.

The Hungarians baffled England from the start by putting different shirt numbers on players who would usually have another number when in that position.  It’s strange to think of that now but it worked as England weren’t expecting the shirt number methods used.

Kenneth Wolstenholme, commentating on the game mentioned early on in the commentary :

“You might be mystified by some of the Hungarian numbers.  The reason is they number the players rather logically, with the centre half as 3 and the backs 2 and 4.”

England numbered the left back 3, centre back 5 and right back (Alf Ramsay) 2.  They also numbered the left winger 11, centre forward 9 and right winger (Stanley Matthews) as 7.  This was still done until squad numbers came in from 1993.

Hungary went from right to left with their 5 forwards 7-11 and England had no idea who was supposed to mark who and where each of the opponents would be running!

Ference Puskas showed one moment of true skill, dragging the ball back before blasting the ball ast Gill Merrick in the England goal as seen below….

Hungary qualified for the World Cup in Switzerland a year later.  They reached the Final and faced West Germany in Berne.   After 8 minutes they were 2-0 up but this wasn’t to last.  On 10 minutes, Germany got one back before equalising on 18 minutes.  They then scored late in the second half and won 3-2.  The Germans refer to the game as ‘The miracle of Berne’ but was truly heart-breaking for the Hungarians.  They truly were part of a golden generation.

Hungary have never seen such a good national team since those days of the early 1950’s.  The last time they qualified for the World Cup Finals was in 1986 and have finished 3^rd and 4^th in the two European Championships in 1964 and 1968 having lost in both semi finals.

Number 2            Holland 1970s

The 1978 Dutch World Cup team

This was the team that brought the world Total Football.  Players such as Johan Cruyff, Arie Haan, Johan Neeskens, Arnold Muhren and Johnny Rep featured in the bright orange jersey and made football look simple.

In the early 70s, Ajax had dominated European football and one of the players who was standing out was a certain Johan Cruyff.  He later became the World Footballer of the Year and signed for Barcelona.

Cruyff pulled off an amazing piece of skill in a game in the 1974 World Cup that had the whole world sit up and take notice.  Holding a defender off the ball with his back to goal on the wing, he swiftly dragged the ball back, turned 180 degrees and ran to the byline.

This totally confused the defender and it took him a second or two to realise what had happened but Cruyff was long gone.

Now this move is commonplace in the game and is known the world over as the ‘Cruyff turn’ but when it happened for the first time it looked amazing!

This Holland side lost both the 1974 and 1978 World Cup Finals to the hosts on both occasions.  First West Germany beat them in Munich and Argentina beat them in Buenos Aires.  This side really did deserve much more and a World Cup Winners medal for all their hard working players would not have been disputed in any way.

Number 3      Arsenal 1998/99

The 1998/99 Arsenal squad proudly displaying the FA Cup and League trophie won in the previous season and the Charity Shield won at the start of the season against Manchester United

Ok, so I’m biased but I don’t care, this is my blog!

We had won the Double the previous season and a couple of our players had just won the World Cup with France.  This was a truly great time to support the Arsenal!

There was the Champions League to look forward to, something we had yet to compete in, in it’s new format.  We played our home games at Wembley but went out in the group stage so let’s not dwell on that!

The League campaign consisted of competing for top spot with Manchester United, who we had beaten 3-0 at Wembley in the Charity Shield the week before the start of the season!

Arsene Wenger had brought in a young Swede by the name of Freddie Ljungberg (you know, the bloke that advertised pants!) and this was the second full season he was in charge of the club.

The Frenchman was quickly changing things around at the club.  The diet changed (much protest of the removal of Mars bars according to some of the players) as well as players going.  Legends such as Ian Wright (who had scored 185 goals for us in a little over 7 years) and Paul Merson (who had scored 99 goals for us, tantalisingly close to the century!) had been shown the door by Wenger.

A new French teenager had come in as Wrighty’s replacement by the name of Nicolas Anelka.  He was lightning quick and had composure in front of goal.  If his team mates hit the ball over the defence he would run through and no defender could keep up with him.

Kanu, a lanky Nigerian striker was also brought in from Inter Milan.  A risky buy too as he had heart problems and was used as an impact sub most of the time by Wenger.  He scored some quite amazing goals in his first season and we were by far the best team in England at the time.

Here's a video of a goal by Kanu in the 3-1 win at Tottenham:

We reached the semi final of the FA Cup and of course we were still holders of the competition.  We drew Manchester United and played a decent game against them and drew 0-0 after extra time.

Then in the replay, it was 1-1 going into injury time after 90 minutes.  Ray Parlour got the ball and raced into the box.  Phil Neville strayed close waiting to tackle him, tried to reach across and kjnock the ball away from Parlour but instead, brought him down.  PENALTY!

Dennis Bergkamp stepped up to take the penalty.  The Iceman as we called him because of his calmness and composure stepped up to take the penalty.

Peter Schmeichel guessed the right way and pushed the penalty away.  Then in extra time Patrick Vieira hit a sloppy pass in the centre circle and Ryan Giggs got hold of the ball.  We all know what happened next so we don’t need to dwell on that!

In the League it was pretty much a two horse race, but Chelsea weren’t too far behind.  The penultimate games of the season saw us play at Leeds and a day later Manchester United went to Ewood Park to play Blackburn Rovers.

Kaba Diawara a young French striker hit the woodwork several times for us and then Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink headed in at the far post to win the game for Leeds right at the end of the game.

Manchester United won at Ewood Park to relegate Blackburn and this meant that we would have to rely on Spurs who were playing Manchester United at Old Trafford on the last day of the season.

We were playing Aston Villa at home and needed to win and for Spurs to win.   Then the unthinkable happened  Spurs went 1-0 up at Old Trafford!  We celebrated a Spurs goal.  Then unfortunately United came back and won 2-1, making our 1-0 win against Aston Villa totally irrelevant.

So next time you hear a Manchester United fan boasting about their Treble winning success of 1999, you can tell them they came bloody close to not winning both the League and the FA Cup and should count themselves very lucky indeed!

Number 4      England Euro 96

The England 1996 squad line up before the Semi Final against Germany in the fetching grey kit and David Seaman wears his wonderful rainbow kit!

This was when football came home.  We knew this because Frank Skinner and David Baddiel told us so in their great anthem ‘Three Lions’!

Euro ’96 was and always will be my favourite tournament of all time.  We came so close to reaching the first final since the World Cup Final of 1966.  30 years of hurt and all that!

England hadn’t qualified for the previous major tournament USA ’94 World Cup (thanks to Graham Taylor!) and didn’t neeed to worry about qualifying for this tournament as we were hosts.

The preparation we had was playing meaningless friendlies and everyone else had to worry about qualifying.  Once all the teams had qualified the draw was made.  England were in a group along with Switzerland, Scotland and Holland.

The opening game was a dull 1-1 draw with Switzerland.  Alan Shearer broke the deadlock with his first goal for England in nearly two years before the Swiss scored a penalty.

In our second game we faced the Auld Enemy, Scotland.  Once again Alan Shearer scored first before Tony Adams gave away a penalty that was taken by Gary Mc Allister and saved by David Seaman.

Then a couple of minutes later, Gazza scored a marvellous goal lobbing Colin Hendry, his team mate at Glasgow Rangers but opponent in this game, and then powering an unstoppable shot past Andy Goram in the Scotland goal.  He then lay on the pitch and waited for his team mates to come over and re-enact the Dentist’s Chair drinking game the squad got caught doing in Hong Kong weeks before the tournament started.

In the final group game we needed to avoid defeat against a strong Dutch side to qualify for the knockout stages.  Holland had narrowly lost in the Quarter Finals of the World Cup two years previously, going out to Brazil who went on to win it.

This game was quite simply UNBELIEVEABLE!  England played so well and thoroughly deserved the 4-1 win we got.  Incidentally, if Patrick Kluivert hadn’t scored, Scotland would have qualified instead but just missed out having scored fewer goals than the Dutch in their 3 group games.

This is a brief video of the 4-1 win over Holland:

The Quarter Finals paired us up with Spain, who hadn’t lost a game in nearly two years.  The first 90 minutes were very dull and very little happened.  Then in extra time when Golden Goals could be scored, Spain had the ball in the net twice and both goals were perfectly legitimate.  Luckily for us, the officials saw differently and didn’t give the goals!

So penalties would decide the outcome of the game to decide who would progress through to the Semi Finals.  David Seaman and Stuart Pearce would be England’s heroes, Seaman saving a couple of penalties and Stuart Pearce scored a penalty to erase all the memories of his penalty in Italy against Germany 6 years before.

Incidentally the Semi Final saw us paired against Germany and yet again the game would go the distance.

Alan Shearer (who else!) opened the scoring with a close range header from a Gascoigne scorner that was flicked on by England captain Tony Adams.

Stefan Kuntz scored an equaliser following a Stuart Pearce mistake almost ten minutes later.  Before we knew it the game had gone to extra time and this was a really nerve racking half hour.  Darren Anderton hit the post for England, Germany had a goal disallowed for a foul and then Gazza couldn’t quite get on the end of a cross shot.  Three opportunites that if they had gone in or been allowed to stand, would have sent their respective team through on Golden Goals!

Penalties would decide the game.  Both sides scored their first five (including Stuart Pearce scoring for England!) until Gareth Southgate nervously stepped up to take his penalty.  He tamely hit the ball straight at the German goalkeeper and Andreas Moller smashed his penalty into the roof of the net and Germany were through to face Czech Republic in the Final.

Tony Adams later wrote in his autobiography ‘Addicted’ that he thought England would have thrashed Czech Republic had we got through to the Final.

Gareth Southgate’s mother’s first words when she saw him were “why didn’t you just blast it?!?” and he went on to do a Pizza Hut advert with Chris Waddle and Stuart Pearce later on in the year laughing at his penalty miss.

England haven’t reached a Semi Final since Euro ’96 but have reached several Quarter Finals of the European Championships and World Cups.

Number 5      Brazil 1982

The 1982 World Cup side

This Brazil side is widely known as the best team from Brazil not to win the World Cup.  At Spain ’82 they played the best football of the tournament with players such as Socrates, Zico, Eder and Falcao in their squad.

They were drawn in Group 6 alongside the Soviet Union Scotland and New Zealand.  Their first game was against the Soviet Union, who scored just before half time.  It took until the 75^th minute for Brazil to equalise.  Captain Socrates scored the equaliser and it was a fantastic goal.  He got the ball over 30 yards out and he knock the ball past two opponents before blasting an unstoppable shot into the back of the net.  Eder scored the winner for Brazil with three minutes to go.

In the next game against Scotland Brazil went 1-0 down yet again.  Zico equalised before half time with a marvellous free kick. Oscar headed a second, Eder lobbed a great third and Falcao added the fourth following a great counter attacking move.

Brazil won 4-0 in the next game against New Zealand, Zico grabbing two goals, Falcao and Serginho scoring the others and Brazil topped the group with three wins.

The second round was another group set up of three teams (the last time this method was used before straight knockout competitions after the first group stage).  Brazil were in the same group as Argentina the holders of the World Cup and Italy the reigning European Champions.

Italy beat Argentina in the first game 2-1 and Brazil beat Argentina 3-1 with Zico, Serginho and Junior scoring.  The next game would be regarded as the best of the tournament as well as one of the best in World Cup history.

Paulo Rossi opened the scoring for Italy on 5 minutes.  Socrates equalised on 12 minutes with a great goal but Rossi gave Italy the lead one again on 25 minutes.

Falcao equalised for Brazil and this would have sent the Brazilians through to the Semi Finals.  However there was one final twist of the story and Paulo Rossi went on and completed his hat trick.  Italy held on for a 3-2 victory and Brazil were out of the tournament.  If the World Cup was to be won by performances, this Brazilian team would have won Spain ’82 with ease.

These are all the goals scored by Brazil in the 1982 Finals:

Since this Brazil teams failure to win the World Cup, they have won the trophy twice in 1994 and 2002 and reached the final in 1998.

Number 6            Newcastle United 95/96

This goal by Eric Cantona was the winner of the top of the table clash between Manchester United and Newcastle United

This Newcastle side were playing some amazing attacking football.  Les Ferdinand had joined from QPR in the summer and scored 5 goals in his first 6 games.  David Ginola had also joined Kevin Keegan’s side from Paris Saint Germain.

Newcastle were top of the Premiership for most of the season, going down to 2^nd place for the first time of the season on 23^rd March.  On the 4^th March Manchester United won 1-0 at St James Park in a massive top of the table clash.  Having led the league at one point by a massive 12 points, Newcastle’s lead gradually slipped away.

Alex Ferguson tried to use mind games to put Keegan off and it worked as Newcastle eventually lost their lead at the top of the table.  Keegan lost the plot live on TV on an interview live on Sky Sports after Ferguson made a comment about Newcastle to the press.  Andy Gray and Richard Keys were interviewing him after Newcastle played Leeds and Keegan went mad live on TV.

Here is a video of the interview.

One of the all time great games in the Premiership occurred between Liverpool and Newcastle United.  It ended 4-3 and Liverpool won in the last few seconds of the game.  It really put a dent in Newcastle’s title hopes.

This Newcastle side finished the season in second place and after the 1996 European Championships Newcastle signed local hero Alan Shearer from Blackburn Rovers for a British record of £15 million.

Newcastle still haven’t won a major trophy since 1969 but reached consecutive FA Cup Finals in 1998 and 1999.

THE WORST THING JUST HAPPENED.....

Had I have been sensible and typed out my latest blog onto Word and then copy and pasted it all on here instead of typing straight onto this blog, you would now be reading my latest blog entry.
However, my computer decided to be annoying and told me Internet Explorer is 'Not Responding' and I lost the whole lot.
It took me the whole evening (5 hours) to write and had been my best blog of the lot so far (in my opinion!).  I will try and write it out tomorrow from new and hope it is as good as the one before.

Has TV coverage gone too far?

TV cameras are now as commonplace in football grounds as corner flags or red and yellow cards!

The FA Cup Final played at 3pm last season as had been the case for over the last 80 years if not longer.  However there was something different about this year’s Cup Final and it caused uproar with FA Cup traditionalists.

An hour before that though Manchester United secured another league title with a win at Blackburn Rovers.  The tradition of the FA Cup Final being one of the biggest games of the season gone out of the window.

Third Round day becomes Third Round Long Weekend.  Last 20 years bigger matches have been moved to Sunday afternoons to be shown on TV and now the Third Round was spread from Friday evening to Monday night.  The FA Cup has well and truly been sold to the broadcasters.

Even the Champions League Final, once a midweek final has over the last two seasons been moved to a Saturday.  The reason why?  The great amount of money made out of showing matches on TV.

Games are now shown Saturday lunchtime and evening and Sunday lunchtime and 4pm.  They are being shown every day during the week as well.  Domestic League and Cup matches on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Cup games even on Fridays, Champions League games on Tuesday and Wednesdays and Europa League games being played on Thursdays.  And of course, if your team play on the Thursday in the Europa League, there's no chance of the poor players being paid obscene amounts of money to play 90 minutes again on the Saturday.  Oh no, move the game to the Sunday where it can feature on the box!The fans who go to the matches are not thought of at all.

Arsenal v Newcastle United for example has been moved from  Saturday 10^th March afternoon at 3pm to Monday 12^th  at 7.45pm.  Those thousands of Geordies who originally planned to come down for this game who would have been able to leave Newcastle at a reasonable time on the Saturday will now have to either book the day off work on the Monday or just not go to the game at all.

Another case is Saturday 3^rd March Arsenal were due to play Liverpool at 3pm.  Now the game has been brought forward to 12.45pm for Sky to broadcast the game!  This now means that the players will have to stay overnight and some of the fans will have to cancel travel arrangements too if they booked train tickets for example and go even earlier.

One thing that has changed in the last few years is streaming live coverage of matches on the Internet.  Whether you get Greek or Arabic commentary, it doesn’t matter, you can still watch your team from your desktop.  A landlady of a pub in Portsmouth recently won the right to screen live coverage of Premier League matches live from the Internet directly to her pub at 3pm on Saturdays will no doubt change the game for the worse.

Pub landlady Karen Murphy celebrating the right to broadcast football matches from the Internet in her pub in Portsmouth

With an incredible choice of matches available on the TV alone, it is any wonder how some fans ever leave their armchairs!  Sky show Spanish football on Saturday and Sunday evenings so if you time it just right over a weekend you can watch about 7 live matches!  Almost immediately after the full time whistle has blown at the 3pm kick offs on a Saturday, a team of editors are furiously working away preparing an edited version of all the different matches that you can choose from by pressing the red button on your control.



Fixtures when the big teams in the Premiership play against each other are played back to back glorified coverage referred to as Grand Slam Sunday and Super Sunday and adverts make this sound like the most exciting thing to ever happen in the history of football and are simply over the top!!

If you subscribe to ESPN then you can watch Dutch, German and Scottish football.  There’s probably more but these are the three leagues at the top of my head that I can remember!

ITV showed back to back 3^rd Round ties on the Sunday of the FA Cup weekend extravaganza and will do so this weekend as well.

BBC show Football League matches on Saturdays and occasionally Sundays too so there really is no end to the vast amount of matches to watch.

Finally, Sky show EVERY Champions League match in its entirety and you can choose between 8 games during the group stages!

Europa League football takes centre stage from early evenings on a Thursday.  You can have the joy of watching European also-rans pitting their wits against Champions League rejects and domestic Cup winners as well as the perennial fifth or sixth placed teams in the League.  You don’t even need to win a competition to enter the Europa League as Stoke City have proved.

They lost to Manchester City in the FA Cup Final last season but because their opponents claimed a Champions League spot by finishing fourth, Stoke were given a Europa League place!  Farcical in my eyes but back to the topic in hand!

TV coverage in the past used to be limited to showing the FA Cup Final every year and the occasional International match.  Then in 1964, along came Match of the Day, showing highlights of a match played on the Saturday afternoon.

The Big Match came along on ITV and showed a match on the Sunday afternoon from the day before.  It wasn’t until the late 80’s that all matches from the Saturday were covered on Match of the Day.

In the 1985/86 season, no matches were shown on TV for the first half of the season as there was a dispute with broadcasters and the FA!  What would armchair fans across the country have done if this happened now?

Arsenal manager George Graham banned all TV cameras from Highbury in 1988 after they caught Arsenal midfielder Paul Davis elbowing Glenn Cockerill of Southampton in the face!  Davis got a lengthy ban and cameras did finally return to Highbury soon after!

Andy Gray and Richard Keys in their heyday where Andy Gray would move magnetic pieces across a board showing players movement before his wonderful Video machine came in and he could draw on our screen as he analysed the game!

When Sky beat rivals ITV for the new Premier League coverage in the Summer of 1992, Super Sunday and Monday Night Football came to our screens.  These games had fireworks and Sky cheerleaders before every game and were laughed at by the real fans who thought the game was becoming Americanised!

Gradually over the 90s, more and more Football crept onto our screens with games including the Victory Shield, the Home Internationals Under 16s tournament featuring on Sky on Friday nights from the late 90s.

Coverage of Scottish football came to Sky around this time as well along with more and more European football such as the Champions League, UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup (until it’s demise in 1999).

Match of The Day 2 has come in to accomodate for the Sunday matches as so many people couldn't watch the games on Sunday and were missing out as they could only see Match of the Day on the Saturday evening.  This weekend my girlfriend sounded surprised when I mentioned that I wanted to watch Match of the Day on Saturday and she asked me if it was shown on Saturdays.  She had always thought it was shown on Sundays because that's the only time I can watch all the matches from the weekend.  Even then I miss out on the match on Monday night as I don't have Sky!

Unfortunately, this has now gone wildly out of control and with the Internet taking over there seems to be the inevitable conclusion that soon, matches will be spread about on a weekly schedule and inevitably the fans who follow their teams home and away will suffer most.  The crazy few who would travel 300 miles for a 12.45pm kick off to watch their side lose 5-0 on a cold February Saturday lunchtime.

It’s enough to leave you physically exhausted!!

GOAL LINE TECHNOLOGY - good or bad?



In the modest surroundings of Spotland, Rochdale's small ground, a set of experiments that could change the game of football forever were taking place.
A group of scientists and technicians were huddled around looking at various different computers and fiddling around with the Goalminder System.  This system could start the whole way football is shaped and end arguments about whether the ball crossed the line or not.  http://www.rochdaleafc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10441~2526053,00.html

Frank Skinner and David Baddiel's take on the famous 'goal' by Geoff Hurst on the excellent Fantasy Football League show in the mid 1990's is definitely how the Goalminder System doesn't work.  Click on the video link below as it is well worth a watch...



This moment is the most well known disputed 'goal' that has happened in the game of football.  It happened in the World Cup Final, the biggest match and event in the world of football and still cannot be proven today that the ball did or didn't cross the line.  Being English I know that it obviously did cross the line!  Interestingly, I was watching a documentary about the '66 World Cup Final a few weeks ago and found out that some of the German players wanted a replay of the game.  This was because of this disputed third goal and also because of the fans who ran on the pitch ("There's people on the pitch" Kenneth Wolstenholme moment) as the fourth goal went in.

Back to the point, the whole issue could have been avoided if there was a simple piece of technology that could be checked by the officials to see if the ball had gone in.  Most stadiums in the top divisions have video screens and could show the answer.  This happens in Rugby, American Football and Cricket when there is a disputed decision and the referee asks the video referee for a decision.

Last year in the World Cup in South Africa, the Germans finally got their revenge.  Frank Lampard struck a shot from outside the box that hit the underside of the bar, clearly crossed the line and bounced back out onto the field of play.  Both the Uruguayan referee and his assistant didn't see this and it wasn't given.  In this instance, England were beaten resoundingly 4-1 but it was at this moment that could have changed the match.

The picture below, taken from the BBC website clearly shows the ball crossed the line by some way and it still wasn't noticed by the officials.

copyright bbc.co.uk



Another infamous occasion that the officials missed a goal and it wasn't given was at Old Trafford in 2005 when Pedro Mendes hit a long distance shot at goal and Roy Carroll, the Manchester United goalkeeper dropped the ball over the line.  He dragged it back and because the referee and his assistant were so far behind play, they never saw the ball cross the line.  As you will be able to see in the photo below, it would have been easy for goal line technology to show it was a goal.

There have also been moments where the ball has entered the goal and then come back out again, be it cleared by a defeneder once it has crossed the line or even hit something and come back out and the officials didn't see this because it happened to quickly, their view was obstructed or for whatever reason. 
A fine example of this was in a game between Bristol City and Crystal Palace in 2009.  Freddie Sears, who was playing for Crystal Palace scored a goal but the ball hit the stanchion at the back of the goal and came back out so quickly that the referee didn't award the goal.  This happened in the 30th minute of the game and Bristol City scored in the 90th minute of the game to win the match 1-0.

copyright bbc.co.uk

The picture above shows the 'goal' that was not given by Freddie Sears in 2009.  Apologies about the picture quality but it proves my point!

However, there are negative views about goal line technology.  There is the school of thought that it would take away the integrity of the referee's assistant's decision and would belittle them.  It would suggest that they are not doing a good enough job and need replacing by a computer.
As well as this, there is also the question of how far down the football pyramid the system would be put into place.  Would it go down to League Two (the Fourth division of English football) and be only used in professional matches?  I think this is the only practicable answer as it would cost a vast amount of money to implement it.  Then clubs in the non league would be at a disadvantage some might say.  This is true but the key decisions around the game are made around money.

In conclusion, I believe goal line technology must be implemented into the professional game as soon as possible.  This will be crucial for the game and in time will benefit the game as a whole.



NO BLOG TONIGHT FOLKS!

There will be no blog tonight I'm afraid as Arsenal were playing Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League and I decided that I would go and watch the game at the pub!  A satisfactory 2-0 win with two goals from in-form striker Robin van Persie has seen us progress from the group stages (as group winners!) with a game to spare.  Another bonus from tonight was seeing Chelsea lose in injury time at Leverkusen so they need to beat Valencia at Stamford Bridge to progress to the last 16.  That could be a struggle and with Valencia winning 7-0 tonight, it won't be an easy game for Chelsea.



Aldershot won 2-0 yesterday against Maidenhead in their FA Cup First Round replay, so we now face a trip to Sheffield Wednesday in Round Two a week on Saturday.  This will be a fantastic game for the club and considering we have already beaten three teams from higher divisions in the League Cup already this season, we will certainly have no fears about playing at Hillsborough!

Football Manager

picture is copyright Sports Interactive Ltd


Football Manager is evil.  If you are weak-willed then you may want to steer clear of this game!  It takes all up your free time if you let it and you will then fall into it's trap!  I am embarrassed to admit that I have spent 9 hours straight on the game in one day!
I turned up at a Shots game at the beginning of this season and took up my place on the East Bank.  I turned to the back of the programme expecting to see my players from my Football Manager game on there!  I stood there for a second or two wondering where the players were and then it suddenly dawned on me.  I felt so stupid and ashamed that I played the game so much!

Lured in at the prospect of emulating Sir Alex Ferguson, Bill Shankly or any other managerial great, Football Manager gives you the chance to manage a team and take over virtually every aspect of the club.  You can organise what the players are taught in training and arrange team talks and press conferences!  Each player is rated (very accurately!) on anything from pace, aggression, acceleration, team work, tackling and shooting among many others.  Then you can watch a virtual version of the game your team is playing and change instructions during the game.
On the first football managerial game I bought (Championship Manager 93/94), the user only chose the players, the formation and that was it!  The graphics were very basic and had a very boring template.

picture is copyright to Domark Ltd

On the 2012 version of the game I was told that a player can complain about which type of studs he wears in his boots!  The level of detail is becoming absurd on the game and will continue to grow each season no doubt.

One of the main reasons that attracted me to the game in the first place was the fact that you can take over your own club and manage the team.  If you don't like your striker in real life, sell him on the game!  Then after a while you might see your team promoted on the game and your team in real life are awful!  You can lead your team through the divisions or go on ridiculously long winning streaks, picking up every trophy under the sun!  If you don't like a player from your team in real life, you can sell him in the game!  One of the main reasons I was so happy Aldershot got promoted to the Conference in 2004 was that they would be available to play as on Football Manager 2005!

Another method to managerial greatness on the game is taking over at a small club and turn them into a top Premiership club.  When the game became available to play on the iPhone, I thought I would take over at Gateshead at the start of the 2010/11 season.  They were relegation candidates from the Conference.  I won the league on the last day of the first season and won the FA Trophy.  When it got up to 2031 I had got them up to a consistent top six side in the Premiership and won the Europa League on penalties against Valencia!
My best friend played an earlier version of Championship Manager and took Aldershot to the Premiership and won 37 out of 38 games in one season.  This was in his first year at university! (in case you're wondering, the 38th game was a draw against Everton!)

I think that every box that the game is sold on should have health warnings on.  'YOU WILL BECOME ADDICTED TO THIS GAME' AND 'YOU'RE FREE TIME WILL DISAPPEAR WHEN YOU PURCHASE THIS GAME'.

There are positive aspects of playing the game.  You get a real sense of satisfaction when your team wins promotion, a trophy or you bring a youth team player into your first team and does well.  If you manage a lower league team and you sign a player for a pittance and sell him on for millions is always a good feeling.  However on the other side of the coin, if your team loses a key game or the Final of a Cup competition then you feel really angry!

As you can tell it can consume your whole life!  I hate the fact that when talking about a game you're playing, you end up saying "in real life" about the usual football everyone else is watching!  Every time I find myself standing in the shop looking at the next version of the game I tell myself that I will only become addicted to this game and I shouldn't buy it.  Then I end up buying the bloody thing and spending hours and hours playing it!