During Saturday’s encounter with Andorra, England fans managed to temporarily divert their attention from the incredibly exciting football action to let out a tremendous chorus of “We Hate Setanta! We Hate Setanta!”
The lack of terrestrial coverage of England games is hugely frustrating for those looking for a fix of mild disappointment and boredom, meaning the Irish broadcaster - who are perfectly within their rights to exclusively show England’s away games - have come under heavy fire.
So what do you think? Is it our divine right to see a highlights package at the very least? Are Setanta acting unfairly or should we blame the BBC for blowing their budget on securing the Formula One instead?
The one per cent of the UK’s population who managed to tune in the Satsuma Sports channel at the weekend needn’t watch the clip above, but the rest of us may not have been gifted the opportunity to see yet another lukewarm England performance until now.
It was a trademark lacklustre performance from the Three Lions, and while most fans ask why players tend not to play as well as they do in an England shirt as they do for their club, Chelsea fans were left asking the exact reverse of Joe Cole following his embarrassment-saving brace.
Newcastle and Manchester City have tried to monopolise the news this week - but they forgot about Ian Wright’s love for his country.
Back in April, Ian Wright decided his style of punditry was no longer suitable for Match of the Day. Their “jacket, shirt and tie” format just didn’t sit well with his own preferred newsboy cap approach to opinion-sharing, and neither did he relish ever again playing the “court jester” to whoever was yawning on the sofa. So he quit.
MOTD has continued to sink into its mire of blandness quite happily without Wright, but what of his valuable insight? Fortunately it can still be enjoyed on the pages of The Sun, where this week Wright lent his peerless analytical talents to tomorrow’s England game, which given all that has happened this week, feels as relevant and anticipated as the League One programme. Below is a summary of his thesis, which in contrast to the Premier League hysteria, reads like poetry from a more innocent age.
I am shocked that Michael Owen is not in the England squad.
He’s scored lots of goals and defenders fear speed and experience.
WC Qualifier, Sat, 7pm, Setanta Sports 1, Free £30 bet
Forget “five reasons England will win” - it’s unthinkable that they’ll do anything but. Instead, the best way to make money is on the correct score market. Odds of 11/2 are available on England winning 3-0 and here are five reasons why that is a good bet, courtesy of our friends at chickendinner:
1. Andorra won’t score. They have gone ten home tournament qualifiers without scoring a goal.
2. Six of England’s last nine victories have come by a 3-0 scoreline.
Little and large have been vital in England’s modest success
As you probably know by now, Fabio Capello has boldly decided that Theo Walcott and Emile Heskey are more likely to score England goals than Michael Owen and Peter Crouch. It’s unlikely that this brave decision will prove costly against Andorra, it could prove disastrous not having two proven international goalscorers in the squad when England visit Croatia next Wednesday.
Here are some stats that illustrate why Owen and Crouch will be sorely missed, courtesy of our friends at chickendinner:
INTERNATIONAL GOAL PER GAME RATIO
Peter Crouch - 0.5
Michael Owen - 0.45
Wayne Rooney - 0.32
Jermain Defoe - 0.17
