Michael Grant looks at the questions raised by the Stevens’ Inquiry. While some newspapers seem intent on writing off the latest findings I remain sure that someone is going to jail.
Gabriele Marcotti on Fabio Capello and what he suggests is his greatest triumph.
Graham Hunter on whether or not Frank Rijkaard will be back in charge of Barcelona next season.
And follows that story with this one about Chelsea’s youth development scheme. It seems to go something like this. They see a young player they like and a transfer develops.
Patrick Barclay says that a new UK government under Gordon Brown will look for tougher regulation of transfers. A 5-4 win by Dundee over Raith Rovers in 1961-62 is mentioned – I was at that game.
Congratulation to the FSR’s Carlos Machado who completed the Manitoba Marathon in a little over fours hours on Sunday.
Later in the week I plan to have a first FIFA Under-20 World Cup blog up.
Bobby-
Great season of blogging and thanks so much for that. I hope you get a holiday in soon.
So, La Liga ends with a lot of drama on the final day of the season.
Who or what team was the biggest surprise for you in La Liga this season?
Who do you think will win in the Gold Cup semis?
Can Capello survive to coach another season at Real?
Will FR be shown the door at Barca?
Again hope you get a holiday. We all should pitch in and buy you and the missus a weekend at a posh resort somewhere, Lake Louise perhaps?
Cheers
Over on atleti's blog Ringo has reminded me off England's 9-3 thrashing of Scotland in 1961. There is a great Denis Law story of how he was down in Australia in the 90's visiting with ex-pats etc. Along the way he bumped into Frank Haffey who was Scotland's goal keeper that day and because of his performance his name has become linked with bad Scottish goalies. Haffey was the Celtic keeper but was sold to an English club a couple of years before Jock Stein arrived. Shortly after that his move to England he packed up and moved to Australia. Both Law and Haffey were members of the 1961 Scottish side and they crossed paths in Australia. Frank apparently mentioned that he had never gone back to Scotland since his move down under and he was seriously thinking of making the trip. Denis's advice was "Nah Frank it's too soon I would leave it a little bit longer."
As a post script Frank did make a visit but not until 2005.
The other story from the 1961 game related to the fact that an orange ball was used. The 1961 Scottish team had a number of Rangers and Celtic players and someone claimed that the orange ball was the root of the problem. Given the significance of orange in Scotland it was said that Celtic players refused to touch it and Rangers players wouldn't kick it.
Last edited by BobbyMcMahon on June 19th at 5:12 PM.
Slightly off topic, but speaking of Scotland, the founder of Argentine football was a Scot, Alexander Watson Hutton! From Glasgow, if I remember correctly.
Bobby l have to say either you are a prophet or a fortune teller, l remember you saying that early in the season that capello's teams are designed to win and win the title and you were correct, and your villareal pick for top four was not far as if it was not riquelme drama, pires and other injuries as well as the intertoto there would have been up there because their win in seville was impressive
Q1 do you know what milan are upto, the other week belusconi claims he want sheva, and has $140m for ronaldhino , and then ancheloti was henry, then galliani wants eto , who do you see them signing
q2 what do you think will happen to cappelo as coach , because macca claimed 56% of the fans wanted capello back
q3 do you remain adamant henry is staying, even after dubious statements he has made which are so far from the one he said last summer and l qoute"this is my last contract, the fans in england appreciate me even if they are not arsenal fans something l can never get anywhere, l will never play in spain"
Bobby - That was hilarious!
And I have a theory to explain all the English defeats at Hampden down the years ,The English players where distracted by the square goalpost`s and crossbar!
And in a first(I think),Cricket reference on the blog.
Arise ,Sir Beefy!
English Cricket legend ,charity campaigner and scourge of the Aussies ,Ian "Beefy" Botham , knighted in the Queen`s birthday honours list.
Never was a knighthood more deserved ,unlike a certain premier league manager ,whose name escapes me right now!
Bobby: great call on Real taking the La Liga title! My question deals with Manchester United (as always). I think we both agree that they could use another striker for the upcoming season. Who do YOU believe would be the most useful striker that they can get- realistically? As always, thanks and I hope you enjoy your summer!
Bobby: great articles as usual. I would like to applaud David Bentley for his "self preservation tactics"! Hopefully it will open the door for more youngsters to do the same. Although I would like to see a full Brazilian squad at Copa America, I am happy that Kaka and Ronaldinho will get the rest they need. Of all the sports I have been involved with soccer is the only one that has such an ingrained belief of overtraining. Sadly, I see this in the youth systems/clubs as well. Most youth seasons run from fall-winter with a break in December-Feburary then again from March to May. Then try-outs in late may and camps begining in June-July. The break in December is usually filled with indoor tourny's or futsal or indoor soccer. This is the system as is right now. Why? I know of a U-9 team that practiced 3 days/week for two hours a day and had 2 games/week. That equates to 6 hours of training/40 min.game! This is all wrong...from the top down.
So I ESPN are reporting that Wenger met with some spanish officals of Barca for the sale of King Henry, if its true it will probably be a sad day for me coz I would have loved for Henry to finish his amazing career at the place that has made him the Legend he is that is Arsenal. But no player is bigger than the club.
dear arsenal fans l am proud to announce that wenger will get anelka back in a deal that has song, gilberts and $14m, that is around 22m .it is with great pride because although anelka sulks a lot he is a great forwad
Atletico are in the Inter-toto and can make it to UEFA. If that is any consolation considering they way they played at home this year.
The truth is we have no idea about what Wenger is or isn't doing, it is all speculation.
The same goes for Henry's comments. I've searched and searched and I have read nothing that shows that Henry desires a move anywhere. He has been misquoted so much it is disgusting.
It is as if the media will not be satisifed until he leaves, it is a joke.
I like Anelka, but to give up Gilberto is a huge, huge mistake. The case can be made that he was the best in the EPL last year. So we rebuild our weak midfield again, we will never win anything.
l said the right back gilberts, but l think henry is going it was on espn website and get this it is as if your emplyer asks you about your future and you say nothing has changed l am still a worker hear l will let you know when something changes, it isn't the this is my last contract and l will never play in spain
I did read somewhere unreliable that Anelka was a possibility for Liverpool, but as you said, just about every available forward has been linked with Liverpool. Personally, I don't think Anelka will go to either Liverpool or Arsenal because of his attitude. I can see Big Sam trying to get him if/when Owen leaves.
And I've gone from no way Henry leaves Arsenal to 50/50 at this point. It will be interesting to see if Bobby is still convinced Henry is staying.
Bobby, was reading the some of the articles today and the one about demands of Club and National teams caught my eye. Do you think they will impose a game limit? If so what would be the number and who gets to decided if they are all for club, all for national team or what breakdown? If you look – say the number is 52 games is the max – that is one a week – and it looks like the standard number of league games are 38, that leaves 14 for FA Cup, Champions/UEFA, National team duty, other tournaments. To me putting a limit on number of games makes sense for the human body/mind is concerned, but posses many many more problems between clubs and nations. Just kind of wondered your thoughts.
Juventus are working very hard towards their goal/dream of becoming the 20th newly promoted team in European football history to win the league.
Notable teams to accomplish the feat:
Monaco and Nottingham Forest in 1978.
Kaiserslautern (Germany), Obilic (Jugoslavia) and Litex Lovetch (Bulgaria) all in 1998 (amazing coincidence!!)
No team has done it since.
Personally its annoying to see all the hype about Becks playing his last game for Real and completley overshadowing the great lad called Roberto Carlos who is a bigger Real Legend than become and deserves more praise and respect for what he has done for Real Madrid. So in honor of Roberto Carlos I just wanted to say you made me realize how a great good left back can influence the game. We'll miss his great defending and bursting runs and amazing shot but also his bald head and Guiness book of records world breaking thighs or whatever you call them.May he have a great rest of a career.
With Guadeloupe reaching the semifinals of the Gold Cup I was wondering what would happen with the CONCACAF spot at the Confederations Cup if they were to somehow win it all? Would the spot go to the second place team since Guadeloupe is not a recognized member of FIFA?
I think Lalas is just matching wits with English sportswriters. I don't think he honestly believes that the MLS is better than the EPL. Remember he's trying to sell his club and league to non-soocer fans in the US. No knowledgeable soccer fan in the US really takes him seriously.
I love Roberto Carlos, he is legend, however he is at times out of position because he plays so forward, he generally does an incredible job of getting back, but several times a game he is caught out and he has been that way his whole career, it is a calculated risk, but it puts a lot of pressure on the centrals.
Mas - You just know the English press is going to be all over his latest words of wisdom.
It`s a shame that he seems to be the mouthpiece for the MLS ,as far as the English media is concerned.
If you know anything about the English sporting press and I know many posters here do, they are masterful at matching wits. They are also quite xenophobic when it comes to anyone outside of England (including the rest of the UK and Ireland) being able to talk coherently (Lalas notwithstanding) about football.
I never understood how a player of his limited stature, ability and professional tact could be catapulted to the top in US Soccer.
It does not say much for the USSF and MLS.
Perhaps he'll retract these statements or claim he was misquoted.
He has the right to say whatever he wants in the pursuit of his goals but I rarely agree with anything he has to say about the game. In fact I find him to be an embarassment to the game in lieu of what he should be, an eloquent ambassador.
It will likely start a battle, with the English press winning by deterring some players who might have come here on loan or come to play out their careers.
One thing for sure it won't entice players from the EPL to come here. Not that more won't come, its just a stupid thing to say, you can't win with the English Press these guys are heartless bulldogs.
I wouldn't worry about players comming here based on what the English press has to say. They will go where the money and playing time are offered. I believe Beckham can be, hopefully will be, a better ambassador for the MLS than Lalas.
I agree with you gongatore. How did Lalas become the mouth piece for the MLS?
lalas is the dummest man on the face of the earth, l have tosay the crowd are usually great but quality is vey inferior to the epl or any minoe europen leauge.
yesterday , something came to my mind and l feel if wenger keeps henry it will have to go down as one of the worst decisions he has ever made.look at the other big four they are all settledwith their players and no other player has to speculate on the other player's future
and then we have our lime light addict henry who is messing both wenger's plans and stability at the club.l would rather have a spent freedy whose heart is at arsenal than an henry who sulks every time things go wrong and says a lot of ####.wenger can not keep asking the same player if he wants to stay or not , he just has look to go somewhere so that the team grows and becomes better
H14- I may agree with you that it might be time for Henry to move on for his own good as Arsenal likely have many barren years ahead unless they change some things, but he has said and done nothing.
-Look at Mourinho, he says he nearly quit due to the incessant speculation about him leaving. This is down to the garbage English Press who will stop at nothing to chase a story. How many times does Henry have to say, "nothing has changed I am an Arsenal player", to say that he is flattered that Milan were interested in him is an honest and condid remark.
-H14 you have yet to show one comment made by Henry that depicts him as chasing the limelight on this story, nor has he said anything wrong. At one point does he start to think Arsenal are shopping him around?
-You are not very loyal my friend!
Lalas hasn't done much. He didn't bring Beckham in, AEG did. His team is in shambles right now. He did nothing in New York as well. He won with San Jose, but that was inherited.
It seems to me that he is a puppet. Just a very outspoken puppet. At least he is trying to defend MLS.
The bottom line is Arsenal needs Henry and Henry doesn't need Arsenal as much. If Henry leaves it will leave a big big hole in Arsenal, coz of the simple fact that Henry is our superstar. When healthy he is a garanteed 20 goals player and finacially he helps the club with his marketable image. So Arsenal shouldn't beg him to stay coz like i said before he is not bigger than the club, but Arsenal should hope that he stays, coz with him on our side our chances of winning something rise.
mas l am loyal but we really need commited players who will concentrate on football, not board room politics if we are to win something and henry is not in those shoes. no player is bigger than the club, last season he was out of sort allbeit injured but did we really llok out place, wenger can get a good deal from and get a good replacement.ruud left and man u did well.th14 has now become a distraction, for the good of the team and others let him go
Once again we are hoggin the blog, but I don't care.
I believe Wenger and Henry are a package deal for the next 2-3 years. They both stay next year and then if Arsenal don't bring back Dein and partner up Kroenke they both go to either Barca or Madrid.
And Arsenal are on the outside of the top four looking in.
What Arsenal should focus on is building a team, which would include a replacement for Henry. Even if he stays and got injured at least someone would be able to score goals. Arsenal never were able to replace the voids caused by the departures of Pires and Bergkamp. I think Wenger should try to get Saviola to pair up with RVP and Henry. Maybe even bring Anelka back to the club too. Then they obviously could use some midfielders and possibly a left full back -that would allow Wenger to move Clichy to mid...
It seems that Arsenal is in about the same place as Liverpool were after Houllier left. Owen kept saying he was re-signing with Liverpool, only to leave for pennies on the dollar to Madrid. And then the whole Gerrard is he leaving/is he staying fiasco. I think Arsenal are a 4th place team AT BEST next season, and can see them being eclipsed by Tottenham as North London's team du jour, not to mentioned possibly being beaten out by teams like Newcastle and Everton, too.
l think last year we did overlook the fact thst viera left us because fabregas is growing physically and player are more aware of the idea to get stuck in, but with the chances arsenal creat any goalscore can replace henry
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