The Madridistas are 100% wrong about Our Gareth

Gareth's trademark er, shape thing

As the bookies fall over each other to shorten the odds on Gareth Bale returning to the Premier League this summer, spare a thought for the man himself.

Pilloried everywhere he roams, on the pitch even in the car park, Gareth Bale is a man under pressure to perform at Real Madrid.

But the world’s most expensive player is at the Bernabeu for a reason.

Here is a young Welshman, who through sheer weight of personality and self-belief, forced his way from left-back to wing back to left-winger and finally centre-forward, scoring half of Tottenham’s goals the season before last.

All this via a loan spell at Nottingham Forest, where he was nearly offloaded.

From the Real Madrid museum at the Bernabeu

If his first season at Real was dreamy, his second has proved a rude awakening

Stooping to score a brilliant header befitting the Champions League Final, he also used every sinew of his admirable physique to score one of the goals of the season in the Copa Del Rey Final.

Two trophies, two great goals and a gaggle of ungrateful, spoilt Real fans with short memories.

How dare those fans kick his car while driving out of Madrid’s training ground after defeat in Barcelona. Had Ronaldo not been offside, he'd have scored.

And the 25-year-old should ignore everyone of them. He’s earned the right to play for the Galacticos.

Champions League night at the Bernabeu

And he is a Galactico.

Not only that, he's a man of character. Just look at the vigour and patriotism with which he dons the Welsh shirt. How his performances have put Wales in with a shout of qualifying for a major tournament for the first time in two generations.

The man towers above the Madrid booboys, literally and metaphorically. What have they done but pay a few quid for their tickets year-after-year? Sure they can boo (if it empowers them) – but they don't have the right to hooliganism.

Tough it out and rise above it, Gareth.  The Madridistas are absolutely wrong about you.

Time for an English Anthem or God Save The Queen across the Kingdom

No curveball from Becks. He'd have sung!

What did you think of the Welsh contingent not singing the National Anthem? There wasn't a squeak before kick-off. Craig Bellamy and Ryan Giggs remained purse-lipped as God Save The Queen came trumpeting from the PA system. It provided another headline to the one-all draw with Senegal at Old Trafford.  
Though irritating to the Unionists among us, it's easy to understand why they didn't join in. The over-aged big names were merely confirming the blur, nay fudge between what's English and British.

He's a miserable git anyway

While Flower of Scotland is Hampden's hymn and Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau's definitely Welsh, (Old Land of my Fathers to thee and me), God Save The Queen's the choice for both England and Northern Ireland games. But in reality, it's the UK's anthem.

The solution's simple: we either all sing God Save The Queen before each Home Nation game (distinctly unlikely in this age of devolution, other parliaments and all) - or England and Northern Ireland find regional solutions, so pokerfaced Bellamy would feel more compelled to have a Great British sing-song.

Goal! But no complaints over his commitment.

Jerusalem, Land of Hope and Glory, One Step Beyond: they've all been suggested for England while Londonderry Air would cause all sorts of new sectarian argument in Northern Ireland to make one think God Save The Queen was the best choice in the first place!

And there was nothing wrong with any of the player's commitment to the cause. Giggs, Bellamy and Joe Allen, the Welshman pictured above next to Bellamy, all played their part in a game that we should've really won. A couple of bars of our anthem wouldn't have hurt either of them, really.

But whatever the song, we've uncovered another fault-line in a football project that only a minority believes is meaningful. A Great Britain Olympic football team is at best a flash mob and at worst, a political pawn which FIFA can bully us with in the future.

God Save The Queen!

Speed Inquest: Statement from wife Louise

The League Manager's Association have just issued this statement from the Inquest into the tragic death of Gary Speed.

Gary’s death and the manner of it, made Sunday 27th November 2011 the worst day of our lives. Throughout the nine weeks since, there have been some very dark moments, which we have all had to find our own different ways to endure.

Now, we have to adapt to the future without a husband, a father, a brother and a son; but Gary’s memory shines brightly in our thoughts and we will forever remember the wonderful times we shared with him and the deep love and affection he offered so freely within our close knit family.

Thankfully, out of tragedy some good often emerges, and we feel blessed to have such true friends who are helping each of us come to terms with the circumstances of our bereavement. Gary’s funeral was an occasion of great sadness and grief for everyone concerned but it was also a day where we were able to say farewell to him in our own personal and private way.

At this time we wish to reiterate our deep appreciation for the very generous and clearly sincere accolades paid to Gary and his memory by the public and all forms of the media. We remain especially grateful for the sympathetic way that the media has respected the family’s privacy.

The help and encouragement we have received from so many special individuals and organisations leading up to today’s inquest has been truly breathtaking and we must recognise publicly some of those concerned. The thoughtful way we have been treated by the Cheshire constabulary, which has been represented here today by Detective Inspector Peter Lawless. The considerate way today’s hearing has been conducted by HM Coroner Mr Nicholas Rheinburg. The practical help given in abundance by Melissa Chappell, whose support and friendship has been so much more to us than simply Gary’s professional agent. The invaluable life-line provided by the League Managers Association which has been there for us throughout. We are immensely thankful to all of you and greatly appreciate what you have done for us.

Finally, our thanks go to the FA of Wales which has arranged the Gary Speed Memorial Match against Costa Rica at the Cardiff City Stadium on Wednesday 29th February. This will give everyone whose lives were touched and enriched by Gary’s achievements the opportunity to attend, celebrate his life and pay their final respects. We look forward to seeing you there


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The skipper circus goes on!

Barry is a yawn, so is the saga over the captaincy

After the farcical second coronation of John Terry as England captain, we're now presented with the seventh recipient of the Fabio Capello armband - the utterly uninspirational, Gareth Barry.

The rotund elder statesman will lead out a team expected to show eight changes from the Euro 2012 qualifier in Wales, for the Wembley friendly with Ghana.

The Manchester City millionaire has the most caps of the player's left, ergo he's the skipper despite not being considered good enough for the eighteen-man squad for Cardiff just two days before.

All this announced amid the organised media glare of an England news conference as Fabio admitted he hadn't yet had that private discussion with Rio Ferdinand as to why he wasn't going to lead the team out for Ghana.

He won't need to now. The message has reached Alderley Edge loud and clear!

The hullabaloo over who's England skipper is unnecessary theatre and a total distraction from the real affairs of the team. It also makes Fabio look like a dithering lame duck, just lucky to be presiding over a bunch of meaningless friendlies and a schedule of complete mismatches to qualify for Euro 2012.



Still, it's reported that 20,000 fans at Wembley will be from Ghana, so at least there'll be carnival and colour brought to a game which Gareth Barry's leadership rather confirms as stale.

But perhaps the booing won't just be consigned to our eleven players. To add insult to lethargy, the FA have invited Sepp Blatter as their special guest, just months after he snubbed England's bid to host the World Cup.

Good Players Don't Always Make Good Managers

By MARCUS STEAD

Some years ago, Brian Clough gave an interview to the BBC’s Garry Richardson, in which he said, “You’re a good interviewer... you might even be the best. But if I put you behind that camera, you probably wouldn’t know where to start.”

Cloughie made an important point, and it’s one for which every Premier League chairman should take heed (and a few broadcasting executives, but Jonny’s already written about that!)

A person’s ability as a player proves absolutely nothing about their suitability to manage a big club. Sir Bobby Charlton wasn’t cut out for management, and there are plenty of other world-class players who haven’t made the grade once they’ve hung up their boots.

When Mark Hughes was appointed Wales’s manager, I was among those who felt putting someone with no managerial experience in such a big position was like taking a gamble that would put even Mike Ashley to shame.

We knew absolutely nothing about whether he was cut out for management, and to this day, I think my fears were justified. No Wales fan will ever forget that day in late 2002 when we beat Italy at the Millennium Stadium. But before and after that famous victory, there was some absolute dross from the team, and his win ratio was less than 30%.

In club management, he got Blackburn playing some decent football, and Manchester City have looked reasonable on occasions since he took over, but the fact remains he hasn’t got a single significant achievement to his name nearly a decade after he started at Wales.

There have been a number of ex-players who were given their first crack at management at the highest level, only for it to end in disaster, but so many Premier League chairmen don’t seem to be getting the message.

On the other side of the coin, some pretty unremarkable players turn out to be world-class managers. Okay, so Sir Alex played at a high level in Scotland, but can anyone tell me anything (without cheating) about the playing records of Arsene Wenger, Rafael Benitez or Jose Mourinho? All three retired very early from playing, served their apprenticeships and took low-level jobs in management.

To give an English example, Roy Hodgson played very little first-team football, yet he commands an enormous amount of respect as a manager, and will no doubt build on his success at Fulham.

This is exactly my point. Aside from being an ex-sportsman who fancies a career in the media, can anybody think of any other walk of life where you can take your first job at the very top of your chosen profession?

In normal life, you are either expected to gain some sort of qualification, or start at the bottom of the ladder and work your way up. Why should football management be any different? Premier League chairmen should realise there are plenty of promising young managers in the lower leagues who deserve the opportunity to prove themselves at a higher level. Most weren’t big names as players, but have made the best of the limited resources they’ve been given to work with. These people deserve a chance of working with limited resources in the big league.

Giving a managerial novice a job in the Premier League isn’t fair on him either, no matter how good he was as a player. Gareth Southgate has learnt his trade in the full glare of the national media, with his every mistake scrutinised in front of the whole country. He may yet prove to be a good manager, but surely it would have been better for him to learn the ropes at a smaller club, where only a few thousand diehard supporters would be on his back.

So things didn’t work out for Paul Ince at Blackburn, but that doesn’t make him a bad manager. Maybe he needed more time. Another person who has followed the “proper route” and has genuinely earned the right to manage a relatively big club is Nigel Clough. Don’t get me wrong, I very much doubt the thought of appointing the current manager of Burton Albion would’ve occurred to anyone on the board at Derby had it not been for his father’s legacy.

That’s not to say Clough Jnr doesn’t fully deserve a crack at the (fairly) big-time. He has already led Burton to one promotion and would probably have got them into the Football League if he’d stayed put.

There’s a chance his father’s remarkable achievements at Derby all those years ago may hang like a noose around his neck, and the weight of expectation could prove too high. But a far more likely scenario is that he’ll adopt similar principles to those he applied successfully at Burton and lead Derby back into the Premier League within a few seasons.

It’s a pity many others with managerial CV’s similar to his aren’t given a chance.

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