How hard must he have been staring at the telephone last night….
Goalkeepers: Paul Robinson (Blackburn), Robert Green (West Ham), David James (Portsmouth) Defenders: Ashley Cole (Chelsea), John Terry (Chelsea), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Wayne Bridge (Manchester City), Joleon Lescott (Manchester City), Wes Brown (Manchester United), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Matthew Upson (West Ham) Midfielders: James Milner (Aston Villa), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), David Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Gareth Barry (Manchester City), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Aaron Lennon (Tottenham); Strikers: Emil Heskey (Aston Villa), Peter Crouch (Tottenham), Carlton Cole (West Ham), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa)
1. No Ben Foster - sometimes people are better at a job when they haven’t had a chance to do it yet. See Brown; Gordon for further examples.
UPDATE - The FA website claims Foster is out injured, although it doesn’t specify what the injury entails, or why Manchester United didn’t mention it post-match on Saturday.
2. Look at those strikers. No, really. Look at those strikers.
3. With the exception of North Korea, will any squad at the World Cup have so few players earning their living outside their home country? This may not be a bad thing however. The victorious Italians in 2006 did not have a single player based outside Serie A.
4. Following the announcement of the squad, Darren Bent tweeted, “Well we move on to the next one people don’t we” implying he feels slightly wronged by his omission. Have we reached a point where five good Premier League games is considered enough to merit a call-up, and more importantly, to harbour a sense of injustice if that phone call never arrives. Steve Bruce captained a side that won the Premier League, but couldn’t get a start in an England XI that failed to reach USA 94. English players expect too much too soon these days, an injustice cultivated by Sven throwing caps about like confetti.
5. Despite the lack of depth at centre-back, the campaign to persuade Jamie Carragher to come back has gone a little quiet….
Liverpool star touts himself for reality TV cooking show
As a man with wife and child, Fernando Torres can’t use his fabulous wealth to indulge in some of the salacious extracurricular activities that his Premier League counterparts get up to. Hence, the Spaniard dedicates large portions of his time away from the pitch to the art of food preparation.
In February, he told us he was enjoying Japanese cooking lessons, and last month we learned of the cook-off that is taking place between Nando, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher at the latter’s restaurant. Today, the Liverpool striker has told The Sun that he wants his skills to be appraised by a reality television audience:
“I could do a celebrity Masterchef or a celebrity Come Dine With Me.
“I would only do it if my team-mates Jamie Carragher and Stevie Gerrard were to do it with me though.
“We have been doing some cooking for a competition going on at Jamie’s restaurant.
The boyhood teams of some the game’s biggest names
Generally speaking, Premier League footballers are well advised to be discreet about the team they truly support. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of David Bentley, a supposed lifelong Arsenal fan who suddenly professed to be a boyhood Spurs fan upon switching to the north London side. With this imprudent declaration in mind, Spoiler correspondent Ben Baker has rounded up ten footballers whose loyalties don’t necessarily lay with their employers…
Andrei Arshavin
Despite only recently joining the Gunners, fan favourite Arshavin has never hidden the fact that Barcelona are and always have been his team of choice. He has said he was devastated when a move to the Catalan giants never fully materialised when he was at Zenit and has even stated that he would love to play for Barca since he has been at Arsenal. Now if that isn’t a ploy to gain a bigger contract…
John Terry
Mr. Chelsea didn’t make it to Manchester City in the end this summer. Many Chelsea fans will like to think that it is because he is Blue through and through. However, Terry was actually a Manchester Utd fan growing up. Could this be why he couldn’t bring himself to join the Citizens?
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
The baby faced assassin made a name for himself at Manchester Utd,
Nando and co to enter the world of competitive food preparation
In order to prove that their talents extend beyond controversial autobiographies, self defence and having haircuts like Brüno, some of Liverpool FC’s stars will this year hold a Masterchef-style cook off.
Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres will hit the kitchens at Carragher’s Cafe Sports restauarant (”Where healthy eating is the name of the game“) and grumpy celebrity chef Marco Pierre White will preside over the final in October.
The Sun report with some of their trademark made-up quotes:
An Anfield insider said: “The lads have all been having a bit of banter.
“Stevie, Carra and Nando are good mates and they agreed to do it as a bit of a laugh.
“They’ve all been practising hard at home. Stevie keeps joking he’s going to whip up a pan of Scouse while Nando and Carra want to do something a little fancy.
“Nando fancies himself as the favourite, he is always cooking at home for his missus and reckons his Spanish dishes will win over Marco and the other diners.”
If any of the boys are in need of culinary tips, they should consult Patrice Evra, who put aside his hatred of groundsmen from South London to whip up a delightful lobster ravioli on Red Devils Kitchen earlier this year.
Didier Drogba received more flak for his strong commitment to cheating this weekend, but one of the best dives of the 2008/09 Premier League campaign happened at Upton Park on Saturday.
After a rookie defensive error from Jamie Carragher, West Ham’s David di Michele was clean through on goal. At the point where he should have unleashed a shot and made it 2-1, the Italian appeared to trip himself up. Rather than try to find his footing, he then jumped in the air in the style of a Hollywood movie star leaping away from a huge explosion.
Unsurprisingly, di Michele was booked for his laughable attempt at deception.
The chances are you’ll come up with something better than us
It wasn’t until The Spoiler tried to figure out how we would set Liverpool up tonight that we realised just how tough a task Rafael Benitez faces. They need to field as attacking a line-up as possible without leaving themselves so vulnerable at the back that they risk humiliation. After lots of umming and ahhing, here’s what we settled on:
Playing without full-backs is risky with Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou both likely to start for Chelsea so we’d need Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger to move wide a lot with Javier Mascherano operating as a virtual centre-back at times. The reason we chose Sami Hyypia over Martin Skrtel is that he has scored in three previous Champions League quarter-finals for Liverpool and could unsettle a Chelsea defence missing John Terry at set-pieces.
Our approach is fairly suicidal so if you have a better way of balancing all-out attack with a steady defence, let us know with a comment below.
Jamie Carragher occupies his time by throwing coins, making xenophobic comments and planning assaults on Lucas Neill, but he also makes room in his schedule for the arts.
While team mates after fighting with local DJs, Jamie likes to spend his evenings absorbing some culture at the theatre:
“A good night out doesn’t mean getting drunk any more.
“I enjoy a trip to the theatre with my missus. I went to the Everyman and my mate Dave Kirby, a local writer, has had a few shows on recently. Liverpool was European Capital Of Culture in 2008 and the Carraghers have embraced it.”
“The Carraghers” have embraced it? Have we become so sophisticated that we refer to ourselves in the third person now? The Spoiler would never do such a thing.
(The Sun suspect Mr Carragher attends the theatre thanks to feed love of Shakespeare. Unfortunately, the truth isn’t quite so refined - Dave Kirby is a football poet)
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