EPL Talk » Tottenham

Cesc Fabregas Claims the Armband

Richard Zervakos — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:11:30 +0000

Every summer sees rampant speculation that Barcelona will finally pull Cesc Fabregas away from Arsenal. In the lead up to Saturday’s North London Derby, even former Gunner Emmanuel Adebayor once again fueled rumors by saying that if Arsenal fail to qualify for the Champions League, then Fabregas will be on his way to Catalunya come summer.

Ade’s comments speak to his confidence that his own Manchester City have what it takes to break in to the oligarchy at the top. Robbie Keane’s midweek comments, in which he claimed that Tottenham’s bench was stronger than Arsenal’s, show that he believes Spurs can challenge as well. But as Aston Villa can attest from last season, and Tottenham can attest from 2006: breaking into the top four is no mean feat, and it requires practically perfect concentration for a season that spans 10 months. In the day’s early kickoff, Arsenal hosted their most bitter foes in a match where the visitors were looking to prove their credentials for Europe’s top club competition.

Instead, what was on display yet again was Cesc Fabregas’s commitment to the Arsenal cause. Earlier in the season, he celebrated a goal by kissing his badge and pointing to the stands, as if to say once more that he is indeed an Arsenal player for the long term. Today, Fabregas collected a loose ball at the halfway line, beat two players, nutmegged Ledley King, and then coolly drilled the ball into the low near corner–in a manner that was reminiscent of Thierry Henry’s famous Bernabeu solo effort (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuCL2wvjOtU) –before jubilantly sprinting toward the stands in celebration. While Robin van Persie’s breakthrough goal gave Arsenal a slightly fortunate lead, the captain’s strike was both a literal goal that put the game beyond Spurs, and a figurative statement to fans and foes alike: that this team will go as far as Cesc Fabregas will take them.

Earlier in the season, Pat Dolan of Setanta Sports criticized Fabregas for not celebrating enthusiastically enough when he scored a late goal. While Dolan’s commentary is often prescient, in that case it seemed to be a bit of a reach. Fabregas is in the unfortunate position of having to constantly deny that he has designs on returning to Spain. He has said whenever asked that he would like to go back someday, but not in the near future. This is the sort of game that clearly demonstrates that his heart is with the Gunners–and he showed his fans exactly that with a spectacular effort against their fiercest rivals.

On top of the performance of Fabregas, it should be noted that Arsenal finally managed to keep a clean sheet and by all rights should have had more goals. Eduardo, a first half substitute for the injured Nicklas Bendtner (whose groin pull will be one of the few low points of the match), spurned three legitimate chances to score. Two of those chances were efforts that he ordinarily would make short work of, and the third was a header that he could easily have put to either side of Heurelho Gomes. Abou Diaby made a great run late on a corner, only to have the ball hit his shoulder instead of his head, and Ramsey and Fabregas had a fantastic opportunity right at the death to pile more misery on Spurs, but one would suspect that the injury to Sebastien Bassong and the three goal lead led to their weak concession of the ball.

All of this came on the heels of the late collapses at West Ham and AZ Alkmaar (excepting Liverpool in the Carling Cup because of the vastly different sides). What Arsene Wenger must do is use this victory, and all its positives, to push Arsenal onward and upward. If they can learn to keep a clean sheet and keep scoring three goals even when spurning five other clear chances, then the title race will surely have to include a North London team–and no, Robbie Keane, not Tottenham.

EPL Talk Meets Patrick Barclay

Paul Bestall — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:34:46 +0000

Patrick Barclay is one of Britain’s best known and respected football journalists. With a career of over 30 years working for a variety of publications and numerous appearances on television talking about the game, Patrick is always worthy of attention.Currently writing for the Times, Patrick has a wide knowledge of the beautiful game and many insights to the nuances of football

I was lucky enough to have the chance to speak with him on behalf of EPLTalk and discuss a variety football issues with him. It was a thoroughly interesting conversation covering a wide range of topics, so much so we ended up chatting for a lot longer than either of us probably imagined. Throughout the conversation he was polite, friendly and it was a really warm discussion. I hope you enjoy it.

EPLTalk: Firstly Patrick, thank you for taking the time to speak to us today, we really appreciate it.

Patrick Barclay: My pleasure, I’d much rather have a conversation than e-mail back and forth.

EPLTalk: You’re currently working at The Times, was it a wrench to leave to The Telegraph after 12 years?

Patrick Barclay: Yes, I think it was 13 years but I was very used to the Sunday newspaper rhythm, so I was kind of nervous moving away from that. It does suit me better though, having the opportunity to write daily. There’s such a quality of writers at the paper, I feel that I have to fight for a shirt so I understand how Carlos Tevez felt last season at Manchester United. I had had enough of the Telegraph, there was few things going on that I didn’t agree with, so it was nice to have the opportunity to go to the Times.

EPLTalk: Well I first became aware of your writing when you worked at the Observer.

Patrick Barclay: Yes, Oh gosh! That was a great break, that was the first time I’d worked on a Sunday newspaper and the Observer at that time had a great writing tradition. Many great writers were there, especially sports writers led by Hugh McIlvanney. If you can’t learn anything working alongside McIlvanney, then you haven’t got much chance. So that was a great experience, I loved it and we had a great sports editor there, Simon Kelner and it was great fun.

EPLTalk: The other work I know you best from is doing the Sunday Supplement show on Sky Sports on Sunday mornings. So do you get fed as well as given all the coffee and croissants?

Patrick Barclay: I love it, when you get the chance to talk football, for an hour and a half with people you enjoy talking with, it’s great. You get a fee and you also get the chance to eat as much as you want! The only complaint I’ve got is when I’m eating my oranges, whenever I finish one, someone comes over and takes the peel away! (laughs) Someone is always tidying up! It’s a great show though, I really enjoy doing it.

EPLTalk: So I’ve been reading that you’re a fan of Dundee, but I first saw it on Wikipedia, so I thought I’d better find a proper source!

Patrick Barclay: (laughs) Yes, I am very much a fan of Dundee Football Club. I started supporting the club in the 1950’s. My grandfather took me about 1955, when I was about 8 against Hibernian. I started going when I was old enough, about 11 or 12, to go on my own with friends. Within about 3 years we won the League, I went to the game that clinched it away at St. Johnstone in front of about 25-30,000 fans. I thought wow this is fantastic!! I doubt I’ll ever see them win the league again but I count myself very, very lucky to have seen that.

EPLTalk: Well I’m not holding my breath to see Tottenham win the league,the last time we managed it was 11 years before I was born!

Patrick Barclay: (laughs) Not another Yorkshire Spurs fan! Why do so many Yorkshire people support Spurs??

EPLTalk: I don’t know, my first game I really watched was the 81 Cup final and I was lucky enough to go to the F.A. Cup final the year after and it’s dogged me ever since.

Patrick Barclay: Spurs are a great club, there was a Dundee player who also played for Spurs who was a legend, but a little bit before your time, Alan Gilzean. Another one was John Duncan, the striker who went on to play for Derby.

EPLTalk: Ah, is that the John Duncan who managed Chesterfield?

Patrick Barclay: Yes, when they almost reached the cup final in 97, when they were denied by a strange refereeing decision.

EPLTalk: Ah yes, with the disallowed goal for a foul that no-one could work out what it was for.

Patrick Barclay: Exactly!I saw John the other day and he now works for the League Managers Association. He’s a lovely man. I still keep an eye out for Dundee’s results and I’m a member of a supporters club called the Dee’s Down South. In fact I’ve just renewed my membership but unfortunately I don’t get to see them much, the last time was probably about 3 years ago.

EPLtalk: I see you’ve a big game at the weekend against Annan Athletic in the cup?

Patrick Barclay: Yes, yes but they won on Saturday, 2-0 against Ross County with two goals from Leigh Griffiths and he scored the goal that also knocked Aberdeen out of the Co-op cup last week. So things are going well at the moment, though we’ve got Rangers in the next round. We’ve got a bit of money and the crowds are up to around 5,000 so it’s going well.

EPLtalk: Excellent, so I’ll be honest Patrick, I’ve only got one of your books, so please don’t think less of me! I’ve got the Mourinho one.

Patrick Barclay: Oh lovely, I’m glad you have. I’m currently writing one about Sir Alex Ferguson and that should be out this time next year. That’s what’s keeping me so busy at the moment.

EPLTalk: That’s great, I’ll look out for that one then. In the Mourinho book I just got a feeling of real admiration for him from yourself throughout it. Whenever I’ve read your articles or seen you on television when the conversation turns to Jose, you do seem to have a lot of time for him.

Patrick Barclay: Yes I do, but I hardly know him. I met him for only the second time recently the day before the Inter/Barcelona Champions league game. I rang him up because I wanted to talk to him about Ferguson for the book and he invited me over to spend a little time with him. That’s really kind of him, but when I was researching the book, I just kept getting anecdotes from people saying what a nice guy he was. I’d made a calculated decision to write the book, I was in a little bit of a hurry, I only had 5 months or so and I made a decision that I wouldn’t try and be clever about it and just write it based on other people’s experiences of the man and what I knew.

For example, I was Lisbon for a Sporting v Newcastle match a few years ago. I was checking out of the hotel and the guy at the counter must have seen something and said are you from England? So I answered yes, and he said Ah, the country of Mourinho. So we laughed and the man said I’m from Setubal, which is Mourinho’s home town. So I asked if he knew him and he said no, but that young lad does, pointing at chap working in the lobby.

So quick as a flash, I ran over to him and said “Do you know Mourinho” and he said yes, I was in his class when he was a teacher. He talked about him with such admiration and the way that he took such an interest in the boys lifestyles, encouraging them to concentrate on football and their studies and not spend all night partying. One particular boy had tremendous talent and Mourinho went out of his way to encourage the lad and kept on at him, but unfortunately, whilst he played for Portugal schoolboys, he didn’t quite make it.

Yet he continually put so much of his own time in to trying to help and develop everyone in his class, they all adored him. Then he said, Funnily enough I saw him last summer when I went home. The lad was in a chicken shop and you know how the Portuguese love their fried chicken. Imagine his surprise when Mourinho walked in. The lad walked over to him and said hello Mr Mourinho. Mourinho studied him and went I know you, you’re Andre and then spent the next 20 minutes asking about him, his family and how he was doing, wished him good luck shook hands at the end and off he went to get the chicken home for the family.

EPLTalk: That’s brilliant, that just shows what effect he has on people.

Patrick Barclay: When you hear stories like that about the guy, you can’t help but understand why players want to play for him. It was purely a chance encounter but it was very helpful. It did make me genuinely like him and I thought it was typical of him to give up his time to talk about Ferguson if I wanted to pop over and see him.The other side of him, and this is the thing I keep learning about football management is that it makes monsters out of you. It makes them do things you wouldn’t do to your family or friends, like all the hoohah in the Barcelona game with Franck Rijkaard and the referee. They can do and say some pretty nasty things that they probably regret, I’d say that about Mourinho and the same is probably true about Ferguson to some extent.

EPLTalk: Yes, just from my own perception as a fan looking in, when you hear those stories about his teaching career, it’s no wonder he seems to have an ability connect with people and get them to run through walls for him.

Patrick Barclay: Oh yes, very much so. He is a leader, no doubt.

EPLTalk: Now, this season’s Premiership. There seems to be goals flying in from everywhere at the moment, I was reading yesterday in either the Times or the Guardian that there have only been 4 games that have finished in a draw this season. Now I find that astounding.

Patrick Barclay: Yes, especially after, what are we, a sixth of the way through the season, it’s almost one every two rounds.

EPLTalk: What do you put it down to? It can’t surely just be bad defending?

Patrick Barclay: I knew you were going to ask me that, I knew you would. (laughs)I really don’t know. I think and it’s a guess, that progressively that the 3 points for a win has changed the psychology of football. It’s the simplest things make such a difference, I think it was the great Jimmy Hill that came up with the idea. I think ever since then, there has been less of a fear factor. I disagree with people who think teams are more fearful these days. The counter attack has become the main, teams try to defend against it but the counter attack is what everyone is trying to perfect.

There’s definitely less fear but that still doesn’t explain why there aren’t as many draws. After all, a lack of fear could mean a team battling for a draw away from home when they’re 2-1 down, there’s definitely a more go for it mentality. I also think that they ways teams are set up now, that may reflect why so many teams go for it now away from home and leave themselves open to late goals. The other thing and I think this is the more likely fact for it is that there is a general recognition of the arithmetic of the situation that a side can go a whole season unbeaten and still be relegated with 38 points.

There is now a recognition that teams now say what the hell and go for it. If you go and win 13 or 14 games in a season, even if they lose the rest, you’ll probably stay up. The majority of teams in the Premierships main target at the start of a season is to get 40,41, 42 points so they go for it knowing if they win 14 games they’ll be safe. So for me, that’s the most likely factor, gradually the mathematics of the situation is coming to the fore.

EPLTalk: Yes, I watched the Sunderland v Wolves on Sunday and that was never a 5-2 game. Yet the fact that Wolves kept going at them desperately and managed to pull it back to 2-2 rather fortunately I thought, but they hadn’t had much luck in the first half. Yet, because they kept going for it, they got picked off everytime they lost the ball.

Patrick Barclay: It was smashing game, what we can find this season, last weekend most games went the way we expected apart from the Wigan Chelsea game yet even the one sided games were really good. Watching Liverpool mince Hull was quite good fun, but Burnley played some decent football even though they lost heavily at Spurs and but for an unfortunate rub of the green with the offside decision when it was 1-0, they may have equalised and made a real go of it. The 5-2 game was an outstanding thriller but someone will still complain about the defending! No doubt these people would have complained if they’d been at Hampden Park for the Real Madrid 7 Eintracht Frankfurt 3 game. They’d have said Ah, terrible defending (laughs)

EPLTalk: Yes you saw that last season, with the Arsenal v Liverpool game at Anfield

Patrick Barclay: The one when Arshavin scored 4?

EPLTalk: Yes and people were complaining it wasn’t a classic, the defending was dreadful, it was woeful. I thought it was an astounding game of football.

Patrick Barclay: So did I, some of the play by Arshavin was unbelievable. One of his goals, when he bent the ball late. Reina thought the ball was about to lodge in his midriff and probably had half a mind on where he was going to throw the ball. Then it suddenly veered away from him and went in to the corner of the net, to beat a goalkeeper of that quality with sheer craft was something memorable. It was just a great, great game of football.

EPLTalk: There have certainly been some fantastic games this season already that I think will be up there at the end of the season in any list of the games of the season. The Manchester derby was a great match and even the Tottenham Liverpool match was a really great game.

Patrick Barclay: Yes, especially when you think how far we are in to the season, there have already been some great games.

EPLTalk: Now you’ve been very complementary about England under Fabio Capello. Originating from Scotland, you manage to avoid all the jingoism that seems to afflict all Englishmen during a World Cup (laughs), but surely they can have a good World Cup. I don’t mean to win it, but have a good tournament nonetheless.

Patrick Barclay: Well, I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t win it but I was talking to Gerard Houillier the other day and he said England wouldn’t win it unless they get a goalkeeper. I can understand that point of view, but my belief that they can win the World Cup is based on either James or Green or Ben Foster even who has had an impossibly patchy month will come good. You only need a goalie to have a good month. Brazil managed to win a World Cup with Tafferel who wasn’t brilliant or even Marcos who I’d never even heard of before 2002.

But they need avoid bad luck such as Robinson missing in Zagreb, or Carson letting one squirm under him at Wembley or even James messing up in that friendly in Denmark 4 years ago. It may go like that, but I still think England will win. They also have to find a right back, I’m not convinced about Glen Johnson, although he’s a wonderful attacking player, that he can defend and England will have to watch the space behind him.

So now you say, well if they need a right back and goalkeeper Patrick how on earth can England win the World Cup? The answer is that the other 9 positions pick themselves and you have really great back up players. Oh and one more thing, make sure that Rio Ferdinand’s injury problems are behind him, because I’m not convinced they are.

EPLTalk: Yes I agree, I think that’s one of the problems that Ben Foster has had. With both Vidic and Ferdinand struggling this season with injuries, that can’t have helped him. In fact, in the Manchester derby, that was one of the worst games I’ve ever seen Rio Ferdinand have.

Patrick Barclay: Yes, yes, in the two years before that he’d been virtually flawless

EPLTalk: Indeed, he was even scoring last season. (laughs) Ok, well last question for you Patrick.

Patrick Barclay: No problems, fire away

EPLTalk: Bobby Robson passed away last month, it’s something that has surprisingly affected me deeply. He was my England manager and I’ve grown up with him all my football watching life. I wasn’t surprised about the outpouring of emotion from the football community towards him, but I was absolutely astonished by the emotional response the public showed outside of Newcastle and Ipswich. Were you surprised?

Patrick Barclay: I was actually, but I can tell even from talking to you for the first time, I’ve never spoken to you before today, that you are what I call a proper football fan.

EPLTalk: Well, thank you very much. (laughs)

Patrick Barclay: You obviously love the game and are curious about all the facets of it but so many football fans these days indulge in such childish and baby like behavior. They seem much more interested in hating rivals, such as Arsenal fans hate Tottenham and vice versa. You see people who bring their child up to indulge in offensive hand signals and swearing. There is a vindictiveness and a lack of dignity in the game so that said, I was very, very surprised that Bobby Robson seemed to bring out a latent unity in people. That they do actually like football and they respect humanity, I mean Bobby Robson was no angel but he was enormously charismatic and a lovable man.

I think so many memories were stirred by his passing, I kept thinking back to when he was treated as a punchbag when he was England manager. It wouldn’t surprise me if Steve Mclaren used the same pragmatism to rise above it as Bobby did. I’m not saying Steve Mclaren is comparable to Bobby Robson, in a managerial sense but maybe Bobby showed him how to rise above it, you know? I think he just proved to be an inspiration to everybody, a unifying force in the game which is mind-blowing. Not only in Barcelona and everywhere in Portugal, but I even think that if you had a service for him in Scotland or a minutes silence in Scotland, you’d have the same reaction.

To the footballer lover, these people are immortal really. It wasn’t his ability as a player either, though he won 20 caps for England, but he wasn’t as good as Haynes and the like or his abilities as a manager as he probably wouldn’t rank above Ferguson or Clough but just his sheer admirable qualities and presence. He made everyone smile and that’s always a good thing.

EPLTalk:Well that’s it. Thank you for your time Patrick, it’s been great. I was terrified you’d be bored to tears!

Patrick Barclay: No I’ve really enjoyed it, we’ll do it again sometime, thank you.

You can read Patrick’s column with the Times online and I personally can’t recommend him highly enough.

Darren Bent’s Rant Goes A-Twitter

Ethan Armstrong — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:57:00 +0000

When I first heard of Twitter, I thought it was a dirty verb, like: “Get Twittered!” or “Go Twitter yourself!” (And maybe there’s still potential for that.) Turns out it’s a social networking website. And it has undeniably become the Next Big Net Thing.

In addition to allowing friends to keep up with each other’s day-to-day goings-on, all kinds of organizations from restaurants to sporting clubs to Ashton Kutcher are learning to use its free marketing potential to promote themselves. EPL Talk’s own The Gaffer uses it to keep folks current with our site’s updates.

But alongside the benefits, there’s plenty of room for error as well. Controversy arose this week when Tottenham Hotspur’s Darren Bent used Twitter to vent his frustration over stalled transfer talks. He reportedly posted the following items on his Twitter account:

“Why can’t anything be simple? It’s so frustrating hanging around doing jack s**t. Seriously getting p***ed off now.”

“Do I want to go to Hull City, no. Do I want to go to Stoke, no.”

“Do I want to go to Sunderland, yes. So stop f*****g around, Levy.”

There was speculation it wasn’t really Bent’s account (I was hoping it would prove to be Steve Bruce’s), but today Bent owned up to his posts when he apologized on Tottenham’s official site:

“I appreciate that transfers are seldom straightforward and are often complex. However, after a long period of waiting following my withdrawal from the plane to China, I had become incredibly frustrated by the time these things take and I posted inappropriate comments on my Twitter site.

“I allowed my emotions to get in the way of my better judgement. I regret my actions and did not intend to offend Daniel Levy or anyone with the nature or the content of my posting.”

Bent’s retraction aside, does this mean Twitter will play a bigger role in our football media terrain? Will we see players and managers using Twitter to wind each other up? Complain about refereeing decisions? Flush out transfer speculation? Will we be reading articles every week about professional football Tweets?

The possibilities are endless…

A_Zaki: I was completely onside. Linesman was drunk. Time to sulk.

RafaBeni: Getting nervous. Bought Xabi case of Rioja in case he’s on fence.

Fergie99: TiVo’ed Rafa’s latest press conference. Hoping for rant pt 2.

BexInLA: Took Landon bowling to ease tension. Kicked his arse. Oops.

City_Hughes: Players in place. Time to shop for chemistry.

J_Barton: Anybody know a good lawyer?

In 1998, when I started going to the University of New Hampshire, AOL Instant Messenger was the big rage. We were bent over our computers all hours of the day, keeping up with old friends from home and getting to know new ones at school. I remember many the awkward moments and endless misunderstandings that come too easily with such brief, faceless, voiceless interaction. We learned some big lessons. Like: sarcasm is hard to convey over the internet. And: always talk about the big issues in person. Eventually, we succumbed to communicating using the away message function (the message one left when away from Instant Messanger: at the library… at the dining hall… surfing for porn…) in an attempt to avoid the real-time electronic faux pas. These “status updates” became the template for today’s Tweets.

Later, this desire for online social networking gave birth to sites like Friendster, MySpace and Facebook. Each one seemed to catch on for a while before getting knocked off the perch by the next. But Twitter seems to reach all the way back to Instant Messenger and amplify that concept to a mass scale.

Bent’s comments might have once been some quiet griping to personal friends. No story there. But today it gets broadcast the world over. Anyone who’s paying attention gets wind of his complaints. And it ends up on all the media sites as the controversy du jour.

As we demand more and more information in shorter and shorter bursts, it’s easy to get caught in the stream. The lesson those in the public arena need to learn—similar to what we students learned at University long ago—is despite the ease of transmission, you need to watch your words. Now more than ever. The world is potentially listening.

Oh, by the way… keep an eye my upcoming can’t-live-without-it social networking site: TweetMySpaceBookster.com™. It’s going to be huge. Coming soon to a laptop near you.

Can Manchester City Win The UEFA CUP?

Paul Bestall — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:13:00 +0000

Could Manchester City finally put their 33 year major trophy drought to bed this season by winning the UEFA Cup this season? Why not, what with Ajax crashing out last night at the hands of Marseille and Zenit St Petersburg and CSKA Moscow losing today, the competition for the trophy is getting into the nitty gritty stage and it seems to be opening up for City. Mark Hughes side has been wildly inconsistent, putting 6 past Portsmouth and 5 past Hull City, but dumped out of the League Cup by Brighton on penalties and were humiliated at home 3-0 by Nottingham Forest in the F.A. Cup but they’ve been impressive in the UEFA Cup both at home and abroad this season. With only one away win in the league, it’s been a strange season for the City faithful.

Tonight they travel to Northern Jutland to face Aalborg with a 2-0 lead and a chance to move into the Quarter Finals for a real crack at the trophy. Yet, Manchester City have a history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory which is unparalled in English Football that has seen their fans develop a very healthy ability to laugh at themselves. Surely this could be their season to finally put a proper smile on faces of the City faithful? It’s certainly a weaker UEFA Cup than it could have been with AC Milan, Aston Villa, Tottenham, Fiorentina, Bordeaux and Valencia all being removed from the competition before we even reached the last 16.I don’t think Mark Hughes will be upset to see any of those sides out at all. Their first 11 is certainly as good as some of the remaining teams in the competition, maybe one of the best, so it’s not impossible to imagine City lifting the trophy in Turkey on May 20th.

City though have perhaps received a little too much stick this season for me. Sure they’ve become the richest club in the world but it’s still a transitional season for them. Thankfully for us, Chief Executive Gary Cook seems to have kept a very low profile after his rather childish comments about AC Milan and Kaka in January, which is a blessing for us all. His rather acidic nature and bombastic attitude doesn’t sit well people and attracts as much criticism as it deserves, but Hughes has also had a fair amount of flak, unfairly I feel. It’s a learning curve for everyone at Manchester City, ever since the Robinho signing, they’ve suddenly moved onto a different level but they’ve got their best chance of some serious silverware for a long time in the UEFA Cup.

If they can negotiate tonight’s away leg, which knowing City, is no forgone conclusion, then the key teams to avoid are Werder Bremen and whoever wins in the tie of the round, Galatasaray v SV Hamburg. Martin Jol’s team have a lot to do and need to score in Turkey tonight to have any chance to get through but if they do, then they’ll become the favourite for the cup. If City can avoid those teams, then reaching the final becomes a realistic proposition for Mark Hughes. I hope they do get there, he’s dealt with rumour and counter rumour all season with supreme patience, fending questions about his future, transfers, ongoing issues with certain big name players and the change in expectations once Manchester City were ought by the Abu Dhabi United Group, with courtesy.He deserves a bit of luck after everything that’s been thrown at him throughout the season.

I wish them all the best in Europe and hope we get a Hamburg and Manchester City final for the last ever UEFA Cup final before we welcome the Europa League next season.

Stewart Downing: The Enigma

Michael Timbury — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:21:39 +0000

I’ve wondered for a long time what it is that managers see in Stewart Downing, particularly England managers. Since his first call up in February 2005, Downing has been pretty much been a regular in the England squad, but why? I don’t understand how one player can have gained 22 caps without ever making an impact in any of those games. People criticise the manner in which David Beckham has accrued caps in recent years to tie him level with Bobby Moore but at least he has made an impact for his country at some stage of his career. In his ten minute cameo appearances, David Beckham provides more goal scoring opportunities than Stewart Downing could ever dream of.

For his club, Downing is undeniably a good player but as soon as he puts on an England shirt he seems to lose the ability to take on full backs and get crosses into the box. There is a reason though why Tottenham wanted to buy him. At Premiership level, he scores and creates goals on a regular basis and has one of the best deliveries in the league. Although his form in front of goal hasn’t been as good this season, he is still a class operator down the flanks and can give the best full backs in the world a torrid ninety minutes. He must be exceptional in training as well, why else would Fabio Capello openly say that he has been most impressed by the winger?

Downing has all the natural attributes to be a top player but let’s face it, he only gets into the England squad because he is left footed. It is well publicised that England have always struggled in that position and a naturally left footed winger is hard to come by. But that doesn’t justify continuously playing someone in that position who has had numerous opportunities and never really impressed. Not when Ashley Young is looking on from the bench, or worse, watching at home on his television having been overlooked yet again. From Young’s point of view he must be wondering what more he has to do to get a game for his country.

Granted, Downing had a decent game against Germany last November but one performance in twenty two is just not acceptable. Not when Andorran and Macedonian full backs are marking him out of a game. If Downing was right footed, he wouldn’t get a sniff. He would find himself in the wilderness with the likes of David Bentley. If Downing replicated his ‘Boro form for England then by all means he should be considered but after four years now, each time he has played for England it has become increasingly clear that he just isn’t up to the job. This has been shown up by the manager’s choice to not play him in crucial competitive matches as he is too inconsistent compared to someone like Joe Cole who can be relied upon. But surely his consistent inclusion in the squad is only giving him the false perception that he is producing the standard of performance that is required.

Capello has stated that he only picks players who are playing regularly and more importantly playing well so this would explain why Downing is constantly selected but I for one think it’s time to leave him out for a while. There are other options that haven’t been explored and the only thing that Downing has proved in my opinion is that he is not the answer.