Serbian risks wrath of “joyless” fans with controversial comments
A few months ago, Ukrainian fashionista Andriy Voronin thought it appropriate to criticise his charmed life in the north of England, and now Nemanja Vidic has jumped on the anti-UK bandwagon via comments in Russian magazine Football Weekly.
The Manchester Utd centre-back, who comes from a landlocked country with a tumultuous political past and an average wage three times lower then that in Britain, has criticised the weather and “joyless” people over here:
‘I will never stay to live in England, that’s for sure.’
‘The climate here is something special! You get only a brief glimpse of sunlight before it’s all cloudy again. The winters are mild but in summer the temperatures seldom go higher than 20 degrees Celsius. And it rains, rains, rains!
Wenger hints at high-jacking Villa captain’s Kop move
In a commendable effort to find a scapegoat for England’s dismal performance earlier this week, Fabio Capello has inferred that the Gareth Barry transfer saga affected the national side’s performance:
“At the moment, the Liverpool situation means Barry is not at his best. That is my opinion.”
Indeed, it seems the chap who earned solid 8/10 scores from most of the media for his performance against Manchester City last weekend was far too distracted to pull it out of the bag for an England friendly.
Despite this supposed dip in form, Mr Benitez is still very keen on bringing the player to Anfield, but the club who are happy to give away their shirt sponsorship deal to a charity are still not willing to lower their £18m asking price.
It has also emerged this morning that Arsene Wenger may pull off a Silvestre-style swoop for the Villa captain, yet he is concerned that Barry isn’t a continental teenager:
“The only problem is that when you pay big money for a 27-year-old you don’t get it back”
The transfer window is due to slam shut next Monday, and no one knows whether Barry will be playing at the club who made him the player he is for the rest of the season, or if he’ll jump ship to one of the big boys. When we asked Spoiler readers this question five weeks ago, most believed he should head to the Emirates. But is this still the case? Let us know where you think he will go with a vote and comment below…
FA chief executive Brian Barwick will be leaving his post at the end of the year, amid speculation of a rift between him and independent FA chairman Lord Triesman. It is also thought that since Alex Horne’s appointment as chief operating officer in May, Barwick has had his responsibilities diminished. But don’t feel sad: on another miserable night for English football, this was the one positive. Here are five reasons why we’re not sad to see the back of Mister B:
England missed out on Big Phil because of him
Luiz Felipe Scolari recently revealed that he would have taken charge of England in 2006, but the FA told him they wanted to announce his appointment before the World Cup, something he felt would have unsettled his Portugal squad. (Note how the Brazilian had no problem unsettling his squad during Euro 2008.)
He appointed Schteve McClaren
The human resources-based mistakes didn’t stop at missing out on Scolari. After settling for second best (or third in many people’s minds behind Martin O’Neill), Barwick tried to convince everyone that Middlesbrough’s Steve McClaren was his “first choice and the FA board’s unanimous choice.” Despite offering such vocal support to the FC Twente boss at first, he didn’t waste any time firing him the second England failed to qualify.
He’s the reason hardly anyone gets to watch England
Okay, maybe it doesn’t seem like such a bad thing after last night, but last April Barwick negotiated a £425 million
Old Italian gent has failed to live up to his fanfare thus far
Last December, we all thought that England had hired a winner. The mood across the nation stood in stark contrast to the underwhelmed vibe that followed the appointment of a man who guided Middlesbrough to 14th in his final Premier League season. In Fabio Capello, England were getting a manager who had won titles in his last three seasons - two of which have since been revoked - and who had been a champion at every club he had managed. Not only that but he was a disciplinarian too. Someone who would do what was best for the team rather than catering for his stars.
Everything was going to plan at first. Capello was taking the job so seriously that he left David Beckham out of the squad for a friendly against Switzerland, a nothing game where Goldenballs was supposed to win his 100th cap, because he wasn’t fit enough. He dropped Michael Owen from the starting line-up and played previous outcast Matthew Upson in defence.
But gradually warning signs became apparent. Despite having already given David James
That old Italian man with the trendy specs may have made an unpopular choice in his permanent captain, but that doesn’t matter: England will send the Czechs back to that tiny landlocked republic they call home empty handed tomorrow night. Here’s why…
1. England are unbeaten in their last five meetings with the Czech Republic, winning four and drawing the other.
2. Czech Republic have never managed to beat England at Wembley, losing five and drawing one of their six previous contests on English soil.
England friendlies are nearly always dreadful, but that doesn’t stop the preemptive wave of excitement - even when they are inconveniently scheduled during the opening week of the season.
Capello’s squad selection for his final friendly before World Cup Qualifying was hardly inspiring: the Italian leant towards the same players again, with Ashley Young inexplicably absent and hints about Darren Bent’s inclusion coming to nothing. But of the players named in the squad, who deserves to start?
Here’s what we think:
Joe Hart
We know what David James can do so there’s no need for him to play and of Joe Hart and Paul Robinson, the former is more worthy of being given the chance. The Manchester City player made a quiet debut in the second half against Trinidad and Tobago in June, but a better judgement could be made if he plays a full match against stronger opposition.
Matthew Upson The Spoiler would prefer to see Upson or Woodgate start in central defence alongside the new England captain to test some new partnerships but Capello is almost certain to go with Ferdinand and Terry together. So as we’ve all seen plenty of Cashley, why not try Upson on the left over Chelsea reserve Wayne Bridge to give England another option?
Rio Ferdinand
Hopefully the Man United defender will be leading
Prem player reveals food query, future plans and favourite hobby
Yesterday, The Spoilerfervently defended David Bentley against The Sun’s claims he was a little ‘intelligently-impaired’, because it’s easy to forget that footballers are sheltered beasts. They have about one month off a year, and when they’re not having great sex with amazing-looking women, they’re training.
Hence, when a talented midfielder/striker naively approached a foxy friend of The Spoiler two weeks ago asking, “Do they eat roast dinners in London?” we didn’t guffaw so hard that champagne went everywhere, we understood.
And when the Newcastle man let slip that he wanted to leave for Everton, but Kevin Keegan was “charging too much”, no one so much as raised an eyebrow to his candid nature.
In fact, it was only when he said enjoys football “as a job”, and he’d much rather be out playing with his beloved quadbikes, that everyone finally started laughing and told him to stop.
Oh, how the nation moans when a foreign manager comes in and can’t get to grips with the language within a week. But this, people, is the alternative. Five minutes in Holland and Steve McClaren has taken to speaking like a smug Dutch gentleman who’s just enjoyed some fantastic afternoon sex. Is he mocking them?
For those who care about Big Brother, Mikey the blind man who likes smearing food on his face is now the one to beat. And for those for whom that last sentence made absolutely no sense, here’s some football news from the future…
Capello tells England striker to stop being so fat
while Dean Ashton might look lean and mean by English standards, were he to travel to sunny Italy, he’d be considered a blob. “I spoke with him (Ashton) in Trinidad and I told him he had to lose weight and be better physically because technically he is good but he is not quick,” honked Fabio Capello. But to ensure that he didn’t completely crush the ugly, balding and overweight striker’s confidence, he added: “We followed Dean in a lot of games last season and he was very good.”
Man United rejected by Silva
Sir Alex Ferguson’s hunt for potent attackers to link up with his squad, already brimming with potent attackers, led him to Spain’s David Silva. The Spaniard took one look at the prospect of a gorgeous Manchester winter and insited that it’s Spain or nothing for him. Fair enough really.
