Serial Moaner

Some people just love to complain. I know, i work with one. He is famed throughout the town for both his grumpiness and his incessant moaning. There are times i worry I'm turning into him.
He however moans about matters such as the weather or the customers daily, out of either duty or just plain habit, not because he's really passionate about the subject.

John Robinson moaned and whined because he really cared about the cause. I like to think that's the kind of grumpy old man I'm becoming, a passionate and proud man steadfast in history and tradition. Unfortunately I fear I'm just a moaning old git though.

I had a good old grumble about four weeks ago here regarding the very much devalued FA cup. Since then we've had a new England manager, a UEFA 'showpiece' battle of the champions, the excitement of the play offs, oh, and Kenny Dalglish.

King Kenny failed to deliver the riches the Liverpool owners demanded despite lifting the Carling cup and reaching the final of the FA's tin pot trophy against Chelsea.
The all important league position and the lure of the lucrative holy grail that is the 'the top four' league are all that count in the upper echelon of the domestic game and with some of the worlds richest businessmen.
This day and age success has to come during the first season, and lets face it, even Chris Powell needed six months first to get to grips with what he'd inherited.
It's been said many times before but could you imagine if the managerial merry go round had always been this bloodthirsty?
Manchester United's recent history would have been so different had Sir Alex not been given time. He rescued a relegation threatened team and turned them into a mid table side but they were still a long way off from being champions of Europe.
The Liverpool job is probably the hardest in the domestic game due to the expectation of both the club and the supporters and, if it didn't pay so handsomely, wouldn't be fancied by many.
There will i fear never be another Bob Paisley which in turn means the kop will never be content.

The trophy all these owners want is the Champions League. Nothing is going to put pound notes back into their investment quicker or more effectively than this money spinner. My problem is that it's not a league of champions at all is it, otherwise there would only be one side per nation in it. If you or i deviated from the title so openly trade descriptions would be having kittens.
I kept up my record of not seeing a single game in the competition by avoiding the final, give me grass roots football any day. I can't be sure, and have probably got it wrong, but Liverpool's defeat of Roma on penalties in 1984 could be the last one i actually watched.

I couldn't possibly have missed out on hearing of John Terry's antics last night though. After not playing due to suspension he changed into his kit to celebrate with the players on the pitch and lift the cup.
I've read many amusing things on twitter regarding the Chelsea defender including the possibility of him donning his whites to join in the celebrations if England beat the West Indies at Lords later today.
One thing is for sure, that man will never do anything to enhance his reputation in any positive way.
I wonder what stories we'll have of him from the European Championships?

Unlike Rio Ferdinand, Terry has been included in Roy Hodgson's first England squad. After The Sun (who's favourite candidate remains at a disappointed Spurs) finished their ridiculing of his speech impediment, everyone started on his selection.
The biggest issue for me was the lack of firepower up front. Four forwards, one of whom is suspended for the first two matches, one who couldn't produce enough for King Kenny to keep his job, one an over rated starlet from Sir Alex's latest crop of youngsters, and one who is just plain greedy.
I'd have taken Peter Crouch. He's still doing a job for Stoke and always scores goals for his country.
We all pick our own squads, we all differ on opinions, and i know we've got midfielders who get goals, i just think against stronger opposition should we get through the first stage we''ll leak a goal or two and get caught lacking up front.

I'm glad it's an Englishman at the helm however. Just as it should always be, someone who'll want HIS country to win. It really should be stipulated by FIFA that you can't manage another nation in the same way that you can't play for one. Unless of course your cousin's dog's mother was conceived while flying through their air space.
Imagine if Tesco took over the national side. We'd have a team of Poles wearing the three lions on their shirts.

So to the Championship play off final at Wembley then. Surely, having witnessed one of these matches first hand before, i can't find anything to moan about here. Blackpool fans certainly could with the amount of missed chances they wasted. West Ham should have been dead and buried long before Vaz Te's winner three minutes from time.
Travelling on the tube Saturday afternoon, unaware of the outcome, i saw plenty of travelling supporters decked out in tangerine, not a single smile amongst them. I guessed they had lost but didn't wish to ask in case they thought i was extracting the Michael.
In the Barrowboy and Banker at London Bridge later i saw plenty of West Ham supporters too, none of whom gave the appearance of fans that had seen their side win promotion at Wembley. To give them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps they were as emotionally drained as i was leaving the great stadium in 98. Or perhaps more likely they were far too interested in watching Chelsea on the telly. Sad but true.

On the plus side at least they collected the trophy (by a player who took part in the game) up the steps in a manner far more fitting than a B&Q easy erect podium on the pitch, thus giving fans a chance to drape their scarves around their hero's necks as they climb the steps.

I'd never noticed before how all the npower trophies look the same. West Ham now own an identical, albeit inscribed differently, piece of silverware to ourselves. I'm guessing with three divisions there must be six of these cups, and if they were on a buy one get one free deal npower only had to purchase three. Good business sense, crap creativity. No future tradition or heritage will ever stem from that then!

I fly to Cyprus on Wednesday for a week, we're going on one of these budget airlines. I doubt i'll find anything to moan about there!

If i tell you i'm too hot though...........

The 'magic' of the cup

It's fair to say that over recent years, many of the bigger sides in England have treated the FA cup as an also ran competition, one in which they can bleed new youngsters into the first team in front of half full stadiums. After all, it's not got the money in it that the Premier League has, or more importantly, the potential lucrative windfall that is Champions League football.

I can understand that, especially from a business point of view for club chairmen, and i can understand the lure and the possible furthering of careers for managers and players alike. In fact, everybody is quids in if you should be fortunate enough for a run in Europe's premier competition.

For the Football Association to belittle their own challenge cup competition however is another matter. A competition dripping with so much heritage and tradition, it is close to becoming a mockery. If I owned and ran the oldest knockout football competition in the world I'd keep to an age old formula and not bow down to peer pressure from Sky, ESPN, FOX 'soccer' channel, UEFA, FIFA or anybody else who fancies sticking their oar in. OK, so in real life it's probably a lot more complicated than that, but the FA once again appear to have no backbone let alone sense of dignity. Just look at the situation with our national teams managerial position. That job has been one of controversy since the Don Revie fiasco, and Cloughie proved they won't listen to anyone who knows, and speaks, his own mind.

I am of course a little put out by the late kick off of the final this season, but more of that in a bit. The semi finals beforehand produced their fair share of debate.
To have one at half twelve on the Saturday and the other, Sunday at six is bizarre enough. Add to this that the two sets of fans who have to travel miles get the early one is just crazy. Yes, i fully understand why Liverpool didn't want to play on the Hillsborough anniversary, but surely they could have kicked off at three on Saturday? Also, why so late for the two London sides on Sunday? That wasn't really an afternoon or evening kick off. There must be occasions, but I'm struggling to think of another game that's started at six. A little respect though for those who did come down from Liverpool, that game had a larger attendance than that of the local sides.

Apart from the awful scenes during the minutes 'silence' before Sunday's clash from some sections of supporters as ITV linked in the candlelit service from Anfield, every other travesty is surely the doing of the FA. This includes the fact that the semis were held at Wembley in the first place. Remember the bit about tradition?
Villa Park, Old Trafford, there are loads of grounds which are suitable for staging the seventh round of the cup. And plenty big enough they are too. If the Merseyside derby had been held in Manchester I'm sure every season ticket holding supporter, and other frequent visitors,  would have got in. Let's face it, these occasions are for the real paying fans who live and breathe their clubs, not the glory hunting arm chair supporters who come creeping out of the woodwork when they smell success.
I guess that it's all money spent elsewhere though and not going towards paying for our national stadium.
Get a big American stadium rock band to play a couple more gigs instead i say, and keep the things we love about this great old competition unadulterated.

May 5th does then see the grand final, the showcase of all that English club football stands for. Around the world millions of excited viewers will tune in, from luxury homes in Beverly Hills to villages gathered around one old television set in distant parts of Africa, all eager to watch the latest chapter in the history of football's most respected competition. Everyone that is except real football fans. The bread and butter fans that keep the FA's wonderful league structure of 92 professional clubs intact.
Yes, fans of League One and Two clubs will be watching their sides play their final game of the season. When Liverpool and Chelsea kick off on Wembley's hallowed turf, we will be boarding trains to make our journeys home.
Not to worry, at least i can watch Chelsea play Barcelona on the box tonight though, thank you all you rich large corporations that made this possible.

Except i don't really want to watch Chelsea play Barcelona. I want to watch an FA cup special of 'Question of Sport'. What i really want is to be able to know that the curtain is coming down on England's domestic season with the final game, the big one, the cup final. And i want this at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and when the final whistle went on every other game days beforehand.

As a kid i watched the television cup final morning from the minute the coverage started to the the moment it finished. Not only did i see the winners parading the trophy around the pitch in scarves and stupid hats, i saw them eating breakfast at their hotel hours earlier. Well not quite, but you know what i mean. I'd sit there with my Panini sticker albums spread out in front of me alongside the cup final special edition of Shoot! magazine. My Grandad would arrive later and sit in the armchair behind me grumbling about both the stupidly short shorts the modern footballers wore and their phobia of good old fashioned barber shops. It was an event that not only brought families together, but communities as well.
I could be wrong, but it would seem to me that Britain today could do with a bit more of that.

Hopefully I'll be celebrating Charlton's title win on that day, so will no doubt catch some of the match on the big screen of a local public house. It's very unlikely I'm going to watch much of it though. I can't watch it with my Grandad as he passed on many years ago and my Panini albums could be anywhere, they are now unfortunately just a distant memory, but me trying to turn the clock back misses the point. The FA turning the clock back doesn't.
This is the only FA cup game that should be played at Wembley, a prize reserved for the finalists, it should be at 3 o'clock, because that's when football kicks off, and all football fans should, if they choose, be at home to watch it.

Cloughie would agree.