As reported in today’s Independent, Cesc Fabregas fulfilled every boy’s childhood dream of making an announcement on a plane. In fact, thinking about it, the universal desire to sit in a cockpit is a rather odd one - after all, are these pilots not just upmarket cabbies?
Nitpicking aside, following his team’s rather muddled display against Porto, Fabregas took it upon himself to grab the mic and issue an apology to the travelling fans, most of them sitting unhappily in the less snazzy seats.
Some wonderful players occasionally come along at exactly the wrong time, finding their stratospheric rise somewhat eclipsed by other major talents. So, while Cesc Fabregas will forever be Wenger’s number one and would probably stroll into any other country’s starting XI, might this year’s World Cup find him repeating his Euro 2008 role as bench-warmer extraordinaire?
Assuming that Xavi and Iniesta are shoo-ins as attack-minded midfielders, and that Villa and Torres will start up front, then you have David Silva to provide width and speed, and surely Xabi Alonso would make more sense as a deeper lying midfielder?
Can Spain fit all of their fine players into one team? That’s the question. Let us know with a vote and a comment.
Well, John Terry can breathe a small sigh of relief, as his front page star begins to fade with news that the fashion designer Alexander McQueen decided to call time on it all, and will surely now dominate the red tops and broadsheets well into the weekend.
Terry, at best, can expect a double page spread in the early teen pages. Saved by fashion. Anyway, The Spoiler shan’t be shifting focus from important football news to entertain such morbid pieces, and here’s what the papers are saying today:
Of course, the big news today is that Jordan has married another man - this time, the one with the botched up ears that look like big discarded tea bags. You know, the fighty bloke who suffered daily humiliation at the hands of Vinnie Jones on the TV show with the house? Him.
Yet, whilst the rest of the nation coos and gasps at revelations about post-wedding strip club tomfoolery, hardened football hacks haven’t even shifted a single eyeball from important football news. Here’s what we know today, thanks to the likes of The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Times etc…
To prove that it’s still today and not tomorrow yet, at time of writing none of us knew that Mohamed would finally crack on Big Brother and windmill in to the housemates in hell, destroying them with a series of rabbit punches and kung-fu kicks. Neither did we know it was going to be raining all day on Tuesday. What we do know about tomorrow, however, is this:
Arshavin heading to Spurs
After weeks of mulling over transfer speculation insisting that their stars are headed for bigger and better things, Spurs fans will finally be handed some much needed cheer with the news that the Russian striker Andrei Arshavin may well be heading to North London in a deal worth £17 million. Their joy will of course be tempered by Robbie Keane’s move to Liverpool, whose £18 million pound sale will fund Juande Ramos’ latest dip into the transfer market.
Nolberto Solano to stay in England
Just as Americans were getting all excited - shooting guns, going “yeeehah!” - about another aging footballer making their way to join their MLS, Nolberto Solano has revealed that he isn’t quite ready to turn his back on English football just yet. A free agent, having been released by West Ham, there are no shortage of suitors for the Peruvian international - he could be heading to the gorgeous kingdom of Sunderland, or Portsmouth.
Cesc Fabregas trying to backtrack
Having allegedly admitted that he would be happy to join Real Madrid next summer, Fabregas is now claiming that he has, like many others in recent weeks, been totally misquoted. Not wanting to join Gareth Barry in the unenviable position of being loathed by his own supporters, the Spaniard is now spouting a series of fan friendly quotes, such as: “I am happy at Arsenal” and “my future is here”. Yeah, right.
North London proves a little bit too edgy for troubled footballers…
People who survive North London are cut from a different cloth to the average gent. That’s probably why Hleb can’t take it, but the likes of Lehmann, Bergkamp and Amy Winehouse can. They’re just a little bit edgier, and don’t seem to mind that one minute the pavements will be littered with drugs paraphernalia, and the next you’ll be diving out of the way of a speeding Range Rover on a gorgeous cobbled street. It is, in short, testing.
Hence, you’d be hard pushed to find an area in the world that football players seem so eager to escape from - and that includes Wigan.
In this world, some people just don’t understand each other. Go into any shoe shop on a sweltering Saturday, and you’ll see men - grown men - in the midst of a finger pointing whirlwind, starring blankly at their disgruntled wives/girlfriends, totally unaware of what they might have just done wrong. They’re bewildered. Much in the same way that The Spoiler is feeling bewildered right now. Because of the Spanish.
Just five short days ago, we wrote a kind-hearted, innocent piece about how the Spanish football team was still celebrating Euro 2008 almost a week after it had finished. We chuckled to ourselves, hugged, and went home happily singing Spanish folk songs to show our inner appreciation of Spain. And then something disturbing happened. Actual Spanish people read the piece, and it seems our gentle musings have been met with a roaring fury. From nowhere.
As excellent evening programmes like Location, Location, Location prove beyond any reasonable doubt, moving house is an almighty bummer, and if you didn’t have people working for you - preferably a smug man in a suit, and a horsey woman who you probably ‘would’ - it would be even worse. So much red tape. And what the hell is stamp duty anyway?
Which leads usefully to Jermaine Jenas, he who has been so richly gifted with football skills, and yet is currently in the throws of a massive house move
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