Harry Plotter & the Sour Grapes

It is reported that Harry Redknapp said this regarding the recent appointment of Fabio Capello as the new England manager.


I would suggest that of all the English Candidates for the post he was top of the list. What he has achieved in his managerial career in the Premiership has been nothing short of miraculous, He is a genuine soccer hero. On the basis of his belief that England manager is all about tactics and motivation I suggest he may have overlooked Capello's ability to win things in a variety of locations foreign and home based. He is a sure fire winner and will definitely win something with England.



Harry seems to think that motivation can only be delivered by English managers, that tactically english tactics beat foreign tactics. Wake up and watch the England teams I've been watching since 1966, falling at the semi-final hurdle or undone earlier by foreign tacticians. Hiddink openly laughed at the England tactics after the defeat in Moscow, a surprising post match tactic from one, normally so respectful in his colleagues. If foreigners don't do motivation and tactics why was John Terry so keen for Mourinho to pick up the chalice



Capello is out of the top drawer and Harry - our best candidate - isn't. But really he doesn't seem to understand international management either and sadly will never get that opportunity. I'd suggest the Ireland job but I would imagine the money wouldn't be enough.

A thankless task

After a few days reflection I am moved to spare a thought for those poor folk who last week saw the writing on the wall for the England national side. From George Cohen to Alan Green the general feeling was England had blown it. The wisdom of going public with their condemnation of the nation was loud and certain. Now the outlook seems very different

Now after a weekend of results that put qualification back at the feet of tonight's starting XI, the dissenters are quiet. Possibly tonight's scoreline might vindicate their farsighted proniouncements

What I guess is slightly disappointing is that for anyone with any or many years of experience of football the possible outcome of Saturday in Tel Aviv were not even considered. Football journalism tends to get a really bad name and the laziness of this particular episode it easy to understand why.

Under New Management - 1

In the last month there have been two football clubs who have changed ownership/direction and there is something in these changes that has caught my eye. One, QPR, a club so close to my heart it used to hurt, and the Other Ancona the Italian Serie C club.

There are striking similarities in the two clubs in that there is enough in both of their histories to believe that they are either 3rd raters who struck lucky and made it to the big time or they are genuine contenders for the elite leagues in their respective countries. The answer is somewhere in between I guess.

Either way they are both under new regimes setting out with exciting agendas to change their current plight. It struck me as an interesting exercise to plot their respective paths as they move along their chosen paths. Ancona have gone for the rather historic and mystical approach of God and Fair Play while QPR the more modern and worldly tack of money and marketing.

Over the next 12 months let's look at what happens and the consequence of this exciting experiment in sports club management.

You've either got or you haven't got.......

Okay, so it's official, Rob Styles is rubbish - he shamelessly conspired to destroy Liverpool's season, before it even began and that is a crime of the highest magnitude. Well possibly less magnitude than spoiling the season for Man U or Chelsea, but still a biggy, nonetheless.

As all football people will tell you, it is the issue of consistency with refereeing, that is paramount. So it seems timely to remind those callers for consistency, to remember another diabolical decision at the start of last season. Cast your minds back to a lunge by Chris Morgan - minimal contact, if any, on Stephen Gerrard at Bramhall Lane on August 16 2006. Penalty given and dispatched : 1 point each for Liverpool and The Blades instead of 3 to Neil Warnock's lads.

In the dying embers of the opening day fixture of 2006-2007 season, Liverpool "won" a penalty which could well have saved us all a summer of legal action and sour grapes. I am struggling now to find any comment from Rafa Benitez about the ludicrous decision. So I'm presuming he accepted it, with enough grace to suggest he should have done the same after the non penalty against Chelsea.

I suppose we demand consistency in our refs but not in our responses to good and misfortune. I guess that's football for you.

Oh and the ref at Bramhall Lane that day when Liverpool received the gift of 1 point .

Go on guess click here

A lesson for us all

Many may well have forgotten the the fact that Blackburn Rovers F.C. were the original "Rich Man's Play Thing" when wealthy businessman Jack Walker decided to sink a seemingly inviable amount of money into a extremely unfashionable club - delightfully, his club. Almost 15 years on, Blackburn are an established part of the Premier League order, playing in Europe regularly and have, in Mark Hughes, an exceptional manager.

As player, Mark Hughes was, to say the least, uncompromising -I once saw him physically assault Alan McDonald in front of 54,000 witnesses I tell a lie, I saw him do that on 3 separate occasions. He was a superb player in spite of his, all too often unnoticed, physical nature. When he took up the managerial sheepskin as an initially as an international manager there were many suspicious of whether he had what it takes. Too quiet? Not enough experience? Great players don't make great managers.

Now at Blackburn we are seeing the blossoming of a rare talent. He buys well, he is tactically astute, makes inspired substitutions, nurtures youth and protects his under fire players. And he's British.

His tactics haven't always been to the taste of the soccer purists - "Big 4" coaches who seem to want plucky losers rather than gritty and challenging opponents with fire in their bellies - but it is likely that this season we see a further notches on his managerial belt.

Exciting times ahead at Eastlands

Few could fail to have noticed the explosion of activity in the Manchester football world with the takeover of Manchester City by former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra. It has spawned a furious number of acquisitions most notably set off by the UK media fall guy Swen Goran Ericsson.

Having audaciously ruined English football - a fact universally held by baying tabloid hacks - he is now procuring almost a complete new squad, built around two or three of the exciting young players that City enjoy a rich history in producing, and sadly selling, before they fulfill their potential. It is dramatic and seemingly unprecedented, the number of players arriving and makes for a fascinating time ahead. I will take immense personal joy in Swen's success, since to my keen eye, he has done nothing wrong to deserve the shoddy treatment by the English media. We shall see.

Perhaps the most surprising thing in all of this is the liberal attitude shown to Thaksin Shinawatra's ownership approach. People who follow these things say he has a tawdry track record in Human Rights back in Thailand. click here for a brief outline of the issues they have unearthed. Having read this I was struck by how difficult it must be to run a country. He appears to have run a country unafraid of using difficult solutions to solve difficult problems. I'm sure he is the envy of many western leaders having the ability to use drastic measures to solve drug evil or unwanted opposition.

Is it true? The eternal question. The Premier League approach would appear to be ignore the whole thing and hope it goes away. City fans I suspect will take an equally liberal view. After Swales and Lee, I'm sure they sense a leader capable of matching their wildest dreams. In 1996 I worked for some time with the previous main shareholders in their penultimate venture JD Sports. I know from personal experience that they too will have seen little in Mr Thaksin's CV that would be incompatible with due fitness to take the reins at Man City.

Happy Days

Poor old Becks

I have to say what a shocking mess somebody did with David Beckham's media circus this week. What could have been a truly joyous piece of news for American Football turned into an own goal of the kind that sickened my stomach.

David Beckham, to my probing and critical eye, is a genuine and compassionate footballer, the fact that he is capable of commanding £128 million for his activities is just a fortunate coincidence for the guy. He has demonstrated consistently over the last 13 years that he is a man who puts football first, his family very close behind and that has helped him amass a king's ransom.

So who was the witless tool who put out the communication laden with dollars and then left the boy from Leyton to lamely say "the money wasn't important".

It will be interesting to see if he is successful in generating more profile and column inches in the USA when their established sports appear to have such a evil hold over their citizens. He has all the qualities to play to an emerging generation of sports fans looking for a new and genuine hero. It is to be hoped that the LA Galaxy recognise that what makes football bankable and sensational is football not celebrity money talk.

I'm off to email their VP corporate affairs now. Have a nice day