Players Backing McClown Regime - For Now
England face Estonia tonight knowing only a win – and a bloody impressive one – will ease the growing pressure on McClaren and his team. There have been numerous England stars, most notably John Terry and Steven Gerrard, publicly backing Frank Lampard this week, the fat waste of space having finally been recognised as what he is by the nation. This is not surprising, as Terry’s his best mate, and Gerrard knows that if the Lampard / Gerrard partnership is broken up, there’s a chance (bearing in mind the lunacy of McClaren) that he’d be the one dropped, at least in certain games. So the backing of Lampard means precisely nothing, coming as it does from the mouths of the two players with the biggest reasons to see him in white.
What is perhaps surprising though, is the strength of support from the dressing room for McClaren. Players are always going to come out in support of an under-pressure manager, but the extent to which they do this hints at the real picture. You’ll often see players say “yeah, we’re right behind the manager, obviously we’ve heard all the speculation, but he’s not done a bad job, and we’re hoping he doesn’t get the sack”. Notice in a statement like that the player actually mentions the sack (and so admitting it’s a possibility), and stops short of saying the manager is doing a good job, saying something like “not bad”, or “bearing in mind the injuries…” Glenn Roeder can tell you all about these sort of statements. They really mean “he’s crap, he’s going, and we’re glad”.
But Gerrard, Terry et al have this week given McClaren real words of support. John Terry is claiming he’ll take full responsibility if England fail to qualify for Euro 2008, inviting the kind of stick that Beckham, Lampard, Graham Taylor and Sven Goran Eriksson will tell you really isn’t what you’d want. He could easily be pinning this on the manager, saying something along the lines of “the team is good enough, and we just have to trust that Steve will get us there, we believe in him” which would show support for McClaren whilst still saying it’s his fault if we don’t qualify.
It’s easy to suggest that a new Captain and Vice-captain would naturally come out in favour of the man who gave them their roles in the squad, but trying to take blame for failure upon themselves and a reluctance to use language that would increase pressure on the manager seems to suggest that McClaren still has friends and supporters inside the England dressing room. Things haven’t been bad enough for long enough for him to have lost the players. Yet.
We’ll have to see whether another couple of poor performances would tip them over the edge. The Late Flag is eagerly awaiting the first quote from an England player that sounds like the sack for McClaren is inevitable - a poor performance tonight and we might not have to wait too long at all.
Barton In At Toon
In a move that has placed the RVI, the North-East Ambulance Service and Northumbria Police on red-alert, Sam Allardyce seems to have concluded a deal to bring Joey Barton to St James’. More unhinged than a combination of Lee Bowyer and an actual door with no hinges, Barton nevertheless comes with quality. This though, is clearly his last chance. He’ll bring passion and energy to the Newcastle midfield, and perhaps crucially, 10 goals a season.
The Geordies have missed a Gary Speed-like character in the last few years, someone to anchor the midfield whilst chipping in with vital goals. Parker has brought a cultured right foot and an impressive work-ethic, but has neither the bite nor the eye for goal that Barton brings to a side. Parker out, Barton in plus a small profit is, on the playing side of things, an excellent deal.
But questions have still to be answered. Whilst replacing a one-paced hard worker with an all-action player like Barton seems to make perfect sense, on the other hand replacing your club captain with a bloke on remand for destroying a team-mate’s face, seems psychotic. With the likes of Dyer, N’Zogbia, and Owen around, there are plenty of ego’s still at St James’, and the question is whether the Toon is big enough for all of them. “You’re not as good as you think you are” were apparently the words that cost Ousmane Dabo a good hiding, and there’ll certainly be more than one Newcastle player prepared to testify that Barton isn’t the best he’s ever seen. How Barton will react to not being the biggest fish in the pond will ultimately decide whether this move is a success.
Hicks Gets Reds Onside and Excited, Whilst Platini Takes it Back
A bizarre week for Liverpool fans. UEFA, from nowhere, accused the club of having the worst fans in Europe, following publication of a report into European games since 2003. According to the report there were more reported incidents involving Liverpool fans than any other club, leading UEFA spokesman William Gaillard to label the clubs fans “the worst in Europe”.
What this report seemingly failed to mention was that Liverpool have probably played more games in Europe than any other side since 2003. 2 finals and a hell of a lot of qualifying rounds – the likes of Milan and Barca have gotten as far in Europe as the Reds, but not had to play as many games to get there, thanks to their league positions. Liverpool also take twice as many travelling fans to games than any other side in Europe, except Celtic, who never get past the quarter finals anyway.
What is perhaps surprising though, is the strength of support from the dressing room for McClaren. Players are always going to come out in support of an under-pressure manager, but the extent to which they do this hints at the real picture. You’ll often see players say “yeah, we’re right behind the manager, obviously we’ve heard all the speculation, but he’s not done a bad job, and we’re hoping he doesn’t get the sack”. Notice in a statement like that the player actually mentions the sack (and so admitting it’s a possibility), and stops short of saying the manager is doing a good job, saying something like “not bad”, or “bearing in mind the injuries…” Glenn Roeder can tell you all about these sort of statements. They really mean “he’s crap, he’s going, and we’re glad”.
But Gerrard, Terry et al have this week given McClaren real words of support. John Terry is claiming he’ll take full responsibility if England fail to qualify for Euro 2008, inviting the kind of stick that Beckham, Lampard, Graham Taylor and Sven Goran Eriksson will tell you really isn’t what you’d want. He could easily be pinning this on the manager, saying something along the lines of “the team is good enough, and we just have to trust that Steve will get us there, we believe in him” which would show support for McClaren whilst still saying it’s his fault if we don’t qualify.
It’s easy to suggest that a new Captain and Vice-captain would naturally come out in favour of the man who gave them their roles in the squad, but trying to take blame for failure upon themselves and a reluctance to use language that would increase pressure on the manager seems to suggest that McClaren still has friends and supporters inside the England dressing room. Things haven’t been bad enough for long enough for him to have lost the players. Yet.
We’ll have to see whether another couple of poor performances would tip them over the edge. The Late Flag is eagerly awaiting the first quote from an England player that sounds like the sack for McClaren is inevitable - a poor performance tonight and we might not have to wait too long at all.
Barton In At Toon
In a move that has placed the RVI, the North-East Ambulance Service and Northumbria Police on red-alert, Sam Allardyce seems to have concluded a deal to bring Joey Barton to St James’. More unhinged than a combination of Lee Bowyer and an actual door with no hinges, Barton nevertheless comes with quality. This though, is clearly his last chance. He’ll bring passion and energy to the Newcastle midfield, and perhaps crucially, 10 goals a season.
The Geordies have missed a Gary Speed-like character in the last few years, someone to anchor the midfield whilst chipping in with vital goals. Parker has brought a cultured right foot and an impressive work-ethic, but has neither the bite nor the eye for goal that Barton brings to a side. Parker out, Barton in plus a small profit is, on the playing side of things, an excellent deal.
But questions have still to be answered. Whilst replacing a one-paced hard worker with an all-action player like Barton seems to make perfect sense, on the other hand replacing your club captain with a bloke on remand for destroying a team-mate’s face, seems psychotic. With the likes of Dyer, N’Zogbia, and Owen around, there are plenty of ego’s still at St James’, and the question is whether the Toon is big enough for all of them. “You’re not as good as you think you are” were apparently the words that cost Ousmane Dabo a good hiding, and there’ll certainly be more than one Newcastle player prepared to testify that Barton isn’t the best he’s ever seen. How Barton will react to not being the biggest fish in the pond will ultimately decide whether this move is a success.
Hicks Gets Reds Onside and Excited, Whilst Platini Takes it Back
A bizarre week for Liverpool fans. UEFA, from nowhere, accused the club of having the worst fans in Europe, following publication of a report into European games since 2003. According to the report there were more reported incidents involving Liverpool fans than any other club, leading UEFA spokesman William Gaillard to label the clubs fans “the worst in Europe”.
What this report seemingly failed to mention was that Liverpool have probably played more games in Europe than any other side since 2003. 2 finals and a hell of a lot of qualifying rounds – the likes of Milan and Barca have gotten as far in Europe as the Reds, but not had to play as many games to get there, thanks to their league positions. Liverpool also take twice as many travelling fans to games than any other side in Europe, except Celtic, who never get past the quarter finals anyway.
So more fans, at more games, you’re probably going to get more incidents of trouble. But that doesn’t mean that a higher percentage of Liverpool fans are troublemakers at all. Every club has a hooligan or troublesome element in their support, and Liverpool's have had more chances to kick off than any other club. Even then, trouble has been on a remarkably small scale. We've not seen Man Utd or Spurs-like incidents, with riot police battling with chair-throwing fans. In fact, when you consider Spurs have played only about 8 European games since 2003, and have had trouble during at least one game, surely a 15% trouble ratio would make THEM the worst fans? Or Feyenoord, who were thrown out of Europe due to serious crowd incidents. Just because there have been more incidents of Liverpool fans causing trouble proves nothing when you consider that the percentage of Liverpool games in Europe involving crowd trouble (including games away to Galatasary, for f**ks sake!) has been tiny.
What is even more bizarre is that Gaillard himself, on the eve of the Champions League final hailed the Liverpool and Milan crowds as “two great sets of supporters, and we anticipate no trouble tomorrow”. Cue one great UEFA cock-up with the ticketing, and all of a sudden Liverpool fans are all a bunch of boozed-up Joey Bartons. Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks put it best: “The guy from UEFA is a clown, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about”. This prompted gratitude from genuine Liverpool fans, agreement from Sports Minister Richard Caborn, and an apology from Michel Platini. “Liverpool fans are not the worst, that is official”, he said.
AC Milan players testify that at the end of the Champions League final, when about to leave the pitch, they became aware of the applause coming from the Liverpool end of the ground. They then spent longer applauding the Liverpool fans than they did their own, which tells its own story about the quality of football fan that was in Athens.
Hicks has also excited Liverpool fans by assuring them that a lot is going on in the background at Anfield. Re-design of the new stadium is complete, and about to be unveiled amidst much fanfare. Hicks also half-promised a new signing next week, and has indicated that the players coming in this summer will be of impressive calibre, going above and beyond the bracket of player Liverpool can normally afford to target. The message from Anfield this week is that the future is bright, despite what the clowns at UEFA might have to say.
What is even more bizarre is that Gaillard himself, on the eve of the Champions League final hailed the Liverpool and Milan crowds as “two great sets of supporters, and we anticipate no trouble tomorrow”. Cue one great UEFA cock-up with the ticketing, and all of a sudden Liverpool fans are all a bunch of boozed-up Joey Bartons. Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks put it best: “The guy from UEFA is a clown, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about”. This prompted gratitude from genuine Liverpool fans, agreement from Sports Minister Richard Caborn, and an apology from Michel Platini. “Liverpool fans are not the worst, that is official”, he said.
AC Milan players testify that at the end of the Champions League final, when about to leave the pitch, they became aware of the applause coming from the Liverpool end of the ground. They then spent longer applauding the Liverpool fans than they did their own, which tells its own story about the quality of football fan that was in Athens.
Hicks has also excited Liverpool fans by assuring them that a lot is going on in the background at Anfield. Re-design of the new stadium is complete, and about to be unveiled amidst much fanfare. Hicks also half-promised a new signing next week, and has indicated that the players coming in this summer will be of impressive calibre, going above and beyond the bracket of player Liverpool can normally afford to target. The message from Anfield this week is that the future is bright, despite what the clowns at UEFA might have to say.
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