Good football quotes

Football is one of those games that attracts fantastic, oft repeated quotes, as exemplified by the late Bill Shankly and his take on football being more important than life itself. Well, seeing as we are all moaning about the shortcomings of English football I thought I'd mention one or two that encapsulate our thoughts about the English national side.

'Last night England faced their most frightening, most persistent and most dangerous opponents: the expectations of England football fans'

The Times, 31 March 2005 World Cup Qualifier v Azerbaijan

'England expects that every man will do his duty'

Admiral Lord Nelson, 21 October 1805

'Football is like the dilemma of a love affair. If you don't take it seriously, you get no pleasure from it. If you do take it seriously, and as a player you have to, somewhere along the line, it will break your heart'

Eddie Hapgood, England captain, 1939

Scholes spent less time on the left wing than Tony Blair.

 

        - F365 review of England's dire performance v Slovakia

Maybe the one from Eddie above expresses how the average England football fan feels, yet another broken heart!

A previous trip to Israel and the Dead Sea

We've had some memorable trips in different parts of the world when watching England (attempt to) play football. As a rule most news items and journalists always run stories about how dangerous it can be when we visit some of these locations. Just to demonstrate how dangerous it can be look at this clip of us in Israel.

Travel tip, the Dead Sea stinks! You can shower as much as you like but the smell isn't going anywhere fast.

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• The Dying Dead Sea (ecotourismleavingfootprints.blogspot.com)

The Capello Index

Does anybody know what all the fuss is about? In principal I quite like the idea, a rating system that can be applied across teams, competitions, leagues and different systems that actively rates each pass, cross, shot etc. I'll be honest, the intimate discussions about which system suits best, a 4-4-2, or a 4-5-1 leave me cold, but ranking players for their skill level does interest me.

So why all the fuss about this new system? Is it because Capello has put his name to it or is it because the England players have been judged as well? Whatever it is this fall-out from the World Cup continues and who knows what happens next. I've had a look, and so far it appears to have had all the England players removed which is a pity, but the bits that we do know seem odd too. The best central defenders (apparently) were Terry and Upson, excuse me! Did somebody not watch that pitiful performance in Bloemfontein? They were awful, so maybe the England team has been removed for re-evaluation, lets hope so. If you haven't seen it go here and have a look;

http://www.capelloindex.com/en/aboutCI.aspx

CAPELLO'S PLAYER RATINGS 

 

Top player overall: Uruguay's Diego Forlan

 

England players in the top 100 up to the last 16:

Steven Gerrard (71st), John Terry (87th), Matthew Upson (100) 

 

Sole England player in the top 100 of the group stages: Steven Gerrard (65th)

 

Highest average score for an England player: Jermain Defoe (62.47)

 

Lowest average score for an England player: Robert Green (51.67)

 

Highest score in the World Cup final: Spain's Andres Iniesta (75.17)

 

 

 

So its Spain then!

To be honest we could have saved ourselves a lot of time and money, left the England team at home, or at least they could have hit the beaches earlier and declared Spain the winners in early June. It was that one brief upset against the Swiss that caused some doubts but apart from that they had World Cup winners written across their Mediterranean foreheads two years ago when they won the Euro title. Maybe we should do that for the next World Cup? We can still go to Brazil but just declare who we think should be crowned champions before the tournament starts and then just meet back at the end to see them accept the trophy. That way we get to have a proper holiday, no need to worry about England, overpriced match tickets, rip off airlines, car hire, too much travel and the worry of it all. No this way we save ourselves the trouble and do all the bits we enjoy first, then declare a winner, go home and tell everybody what a great tournament it was without any upset at all.

To be honest I didn't enjoy watching the final, nor seeing the Spanish, (notice how they are one nation now), celebrate their first World title. For me I had agonised over travel arrangements for this week for many months, trying to work out how I could be back in South Africa to see England lift the cup. Do you do the early rounds and bank on an England failure, or do you save your holidays and go for the more prestigious games? For me I decided to do both and booked two sets of flights, in the end I only needed the first. To rub salt into the wounds South African Airways refuse to hand any money back for these flights claiming that they had a World Cup policy of no refunds, that's very nice of them! Maybe they should detail that on their website when people book flights, or maybe send those terms and conditions with their booking confirmation. No, not a bit of it, they just wait until you're at your lowest ebb after seeing your nation knocked out of the World Cup and then they tell you. Does it get any worse for England fans? I somehow doubt it.

The flag gets delivered!!

The flag from Masiphumelele school in Cape Town is safely delivered to Leeds! After visiting Cape Town and enjoying the hospitality of the schoolchildren the YES team promised to safely deliver all the artwork that the children had made and make sure it arrived in Leeds. Well earlier this week, ahead of the Cup Final this Sunday, a presentation of the flag was made to Jo Speak on behalf of the schoolchildren at Cookridge Primary School. A further presentation will be held when other members of YES, the schoolchildren themselves and the British Council will be present to view and appreciate all the different art pieces that were collected in Cape Town.

Englands new sponsors

Interesting! I sometimes wonder if the FA really do have a plan or whether they make stuff up as they go along. I realise that in football things change and reactions are always needed to what's in front of you, but heavens above do the FA have even a basic plan? In business there was always a tactic known as 'The American Plan' and that was very simply to keep throwing money at a problem until it was fixed. The building of Wembley reminded me of that, construction was out of control and yet the solution was to keep emptying the till and get the gates open as quickly as possible. More hold ups meant more money, an expensive treadmill if there ever was one.


So here we are, approaching a World Cup, the Manager is rumoured to be thinking of joining AC Milan after the competition, of which we are guaranteed to win, so what do the FA do? I know, lets throw some more money after that little problem. Result? Of course its the right thing to do, after all we have the Nationwide as our main sponsor, a very typically loyal English (British) company waiting to part with another £20m to continue their devoted support of the national team. Surely if we win the World Cup they'll part with another £20m, won't they? Well actually they won't and who can blame them; after such a dismal performance shouldn't the FA be handing out refunds to sponsors and fans alike?

Throw out a net and see what other large fish we can find, oh dear this looks interesting, what can suit our image better than the Nationwide Building Society but that so very typical American company known as Facebook! Oh my giddy Aunt! Answer this question, who is going to be the first person in the queue to buy an England shirt with Facebook plastered all over it? Form a very short line here if you will. Prestige, suitability, admiration, all great words but lost on this current bunch of FA mandarins, lets try greed, ignorance, short-sighted, words they feel much more at home with. Can this summer get any worse?

This blog

I was talking to  my son earlier tonight and I asked him if he'd enjoyed reading the  blog and what he thought, he said it reminded him of a drunken Bill Bryson! I'm not sure if I should be pleased to be bracketed with Bill Bryson or annoyed to be classed as a drunk! Hmmm!

Some very valid points are made here

No quick fix for England malaise

30th June 2010

In the aftermath of England’s 4-1 World Cup knockout by Germany, the FSF's chair Malcolm Clarke, the first ever fan representative on the FA’s ruling council, shares a few thoughts about what ails the game on our isle and argues that there are no quick fix solutions.
Since the final whistle blew against Germany in Bloemfontain, and the sun set on a South African winter’s day in the high veld, the usual quick fixes have been suggested. Some run like a re-make of the Sam Peckenpah 1974 classic Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. The 21st century tabloid equivalent being Bring Me the Head of Fabio Capello.



I have posted the full transcript of this article on the FSF page. Select the tab above to read the rest.

Our trip to Robben Island

On the day we went to Robben Island a Sky News team captured quite a few of our YES team wandering around the exercise yard and the holding cell of Nelson Mandela and his comrades. The flag also makes an appearance. See how many you recognise;

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/World-Cup-England-Football-Fans-Visit-Robben-Island-Where-Nelson-Mandela-Was-Held/Article/201006315651073?lpos=World_News_Article_Related_Content_Region_2&lid=ARTICLE_15651073_World_Cup%3A_England_Football_Fans_Visit_Robben_Island_Where_Nelson_Mandela_Was_Held

The fall out

Well I suppose it had to happen sooner or later, the rumours and tittle tattle has started over the internal wrangling in the squad. Now, I don't know any more than you do, but this story has been doing the rounds for the last few days so maybe there is some element of truth in it. If so, then John Terry deserves all the public criticism he gets, lets face facts here, the man has behaved appallingly prior to the World Cup, he tried to lead a revolt of players during the World up and now this. His performance against Germany was no better than League 1 level, its time he went.

http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/833707-steven-gerrard-and-john-terry-feud-ruined-englands-world-cup-b