Someone a Little Special

First up today I'd like to apologise to all Spurs fans, well not all, just any who I like. Last week's blog was meant to be about Spurs, their wonderful striker Jermain Defoe and specifically their resounding victory over Wigan. As I began to write about their chances of getting into the top four Liverpool got knocked out of the Champions League and suddenly my attention was averted elsewhere. Since then Spurs have gone to Villa Park and got a very good point against Martin O'Neil's side and looked good doing so.

Enough of that! It's been a whole 12 days since I mentioned England, of course I blogged about international football after what is now one of the most famous footballing moments of the modern era, THAT handball.

Talk of international football is to be expected, we are only 7 months away from the World Cup and excitingly only 5 days away from the draw. Week after week we are shown images of Fabio Capello and Franco Baldini as they sit in the stands of yet another Premiership team, eyeing up the players already in the England squad and perhaps more importantly those not.

And with talk of which players will or won't get to join J.T, Wazza, Stevie and the boys (I've got to give it the Steve Mclaren it was quite fun to call them that), some names start to creep in that might just surprisingly force their way in. At the beginning of the season Jack Wilshere was amusingly mentioned. Keiran Gibbs is another Arsenal youngster with an outside chance and more recently David Dunn's shining performances for Blackburn have been praised at the highest level. Of course sometimes players aren't good enough for the press to consider them that the player themselves must mention it, enter Tyrone Mears.

For me the surprise name that Fabio may well want to pay close attention to is a midfielder whose surname begins with B. A talisman for whichever team he's played for. Who inspires with his football ability and his personality. A player who has had his fair share of injuries, with a special talent for dead ball situations.... NO NOT BECKHAM! It's good old smiley Jimmy Bullard!

Go back to January of this year and perhaps the the most surprising of that window's transfers was that of Bullard from Fulham to Hull. The £5 million Phil Brown handed over seemed to be an absolute bargain for a side who had started to sliip down the table after such a fantastic start to the season. Bullard's enthusiasm, skill and hard work makes him an all round fantastic central midfielder and one who had performed solidly for Fulham and had them dreaming of a place in Europe. Phil Brown though needed to reinvigorate his side who had gone backwards since the start of the season that could of had then dreaming of Europe.

Suddenly though disaster struck! On debut for Hull Bullard picked up an injury on the same knee he'd dislocated during his time at Fulham. It was cruciate ligament damage and would rule him out of the rest of the season. The Tigers went on to struggle for the rest of the season as the ex West Ham youth watched from the sideline. Relegation may have been the nightmare turned reality had the form of Newcastle and Middelsborough not been so poor.

This season though Jimmy is back, and with a bang! Again Hull have found themselves struggling, and Phil Brown has found himself in danger of being sacked/resigning/leaving by mutual consent (same thing different PR companies). But the ex Wigan player seems to be saving his manager's job almost on his own.

8 valuable points in the last 4 matches have come in some way or other via a piece of magic from Bullard. It is not always his goal or assist that has set up the points for his side but it is certainly his personality that has been stamped on every game, no more so than on Saturday. Playing against City, Hull were looking like the inferior side that they are. Mark Hughes though played straight into Phil Brown's hands. When Robinho was taken off, understandably considering his recent injury and hard work during the match, it left a bigger hole for Bullard to occupy. As the three points seemed to be heading for the home side Hull won a penalty. Up stepped Bullard and with the calm and collectiveness of the best around he dispatched it beyond Shay Given and the points were shared.

Of course that wasn't the end of it, Bullard then went and mimicked his manager's moment of madness from last season. That moment was of course when Brown gave his half time speech at the City of Manchester stadium on the pitch with his side 4-0 down last season. Bullard stood, circled by his team mates, and pretended to tell them off. Even Brown found it funny, and how could he not. All the pre game talk had been about that moment derailing Hull last season and here was the man of the moment taking the piss out of it, the line under that moment is thoroughly drawn.

Who could tell me J.B (yeah I'm at it again) isn't worth a place on Capello's plane to South Africa in the summer? Put it this way; in a match where Lampard is injured would you rather Michael Carrick of Jimmy Bullard replace him? Exactly what I thought.

His exuberance alone is something that is not only rarely seen in football it is certainly seen no where else in the England squad. Along with that he has excellent dead ball taking skills, highlighted by his ability to step up at the most pressure filled moments and score a penalty.

If there is to be any major surprised in the England squad for next summer's World Cup then we should forget all about Arsenal youngsters or even Blackburn veterans and go for the shaggy haired blonde....no not Beckham... Jimmy of course!

Earning their Spurs?

It was brought to my attention that I was the only blogger out here in the world of wide webs that hadn't yet posted about something that happened at the weekend. No, it wasn't Lee Bowyer's goal or Liverpool's first goal scorer sounding more like a Pokemon than a defender. Of course it was Wigan's woeful defending. What? I'm not missing the point am I? Wigan lost 9-1! There's no need to mention their opponents. OK! Fine I'll swallow my pride. Spurs won 9-1 and weren't they fantastic.

The moment Harry's boys beat Liverpool on the first weekend of the season I knew something was going to happen with the boys from the lane this season. At one point Spurs were riding very high in the table, and they went into the game against Manchester United on September 12th unbeaten. It led me to tell a friend, a Tottenham fan, that I'd blog about his side's excellence if they managed to beat my own beloved Manchester United. It didn't happen, despite Jermaine Defoe's extremely early goal.

And so Harry's men went on to lose to Chelsea before dropping points to Stoke and Bolton. There was wins against Preston, Burnley and Pompey in between but they were now hardly setting the world alight.

Fortunately for them the other contenders for forth place, as long as something seriously wrong doesn't happen to Chelsea, Manchester United or Arsenal, have been dropping points.

Aston Villa for example, lying in 5th place after their closest rivals, Manchester City and Liverpool, could only draw at the weekend, have themselves dropped too many points recently. Draws against Burnley, Everton, Sunderland and Wolves have come since their win over Chelsea. They are always a force to be reckoned with in any game but simply they do not have the consistency or depth to challenge for 4th spot and once again 5th will be the best they can do.

Meanwhile, down at the City of Manchester Stadium, the great pretenders are doing just that, pretending! After beating Arsenal and coming within a whisker of an away draw to hated rivals United, City have done nothing, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Actually that is unfair, City have set about trying to set a new Premiership record of games drawn in a row. Nothing wrong with drawing with Villa and Liverpool away but in drawing with Fulham and Burnley at home, especially when they were ahead, they have shown huge defensive frailty despite spending 24 million on Joleon Lescott and Nigel de Jong being one of the most impressive players in the Premiership currently.

Outside those two and Spurs and Liverpool are the dark horses. Sunderland are riding on the crest of a wave. Darren Bent is on supreme form and has scored against all the 'Big Four' in the last 3 months but neither him nor his manager will have any real design on a top four finish and that's because it's just short of impossible. Everton have always been the side we most expected to break the top 4, and most recent to do so, but now find themselves way down the table. Of course if anyone will get them back up the ladder it is David Moyes but top 4 is just too far away.

Back to the weekend though. Spurs destroyed Wigan 9-1, and being honest Wigan were lucky to get 1, Thierry Henry's handball was so obvious, sorry it's just the first name that comes to mind when I mention handball. Jermain Defoe was outstanding, any regular readers will already know my love for the ex West Ham striker and how much I want him to be an England starter. Aaron Lennon continues to prove why he should be THE right winger in the England squad, whilst his rival Shaun Wright-Phillips seems hell bent on getting himself out of the squad. It is Tottenham's attacking verve that is so eye catching at the moment and as any Arsenal fan will tell you, attack is often the best form of defence. And yet Spurs defence is still in question. A fit Ledley King is almost unbeatable, but a fit Ledley King is almost as rare as a rich student. Spurs though are richer in squad depth than some of their 4th place rivals and with a player as talented as Luka Modric yet to come back, Harry may not need to spend too much of Daniel Levy's money to keep his assault on the 'Big Four' going.

And now to the paragraph I've most looked forward to. If only some of the world's professional football pundits read my column- because right now I'd like to point out to them all who they tipped for Premiership glory this season, especially Alan Hansen and Phil McNulty. Yes ladies and gents it was of course Liverpool. Yes back in August everyone tipped Liverpool to win the league, how could they not, getting better every season under Rafa Benitez and United without Ronaldo, no one could see past Liverpool. Now, at five to eleven on November 24th, Liverpool find themselves in seventh place, 5 points behind 4th place Spurs. Liverpool have been good on so few occasions this season I can only really think of wins at home against Stoke and United. With Gerrard and Torres in and out of the side, due to several injuries, Liverpool have often been without their main men to dig them out of a hole, as in Lyon a few weeks ago. Injuries have also hit several other squad players and the most talked about man not to start a Premierleague match this season, Albert Aquilani, will have to be world class as soon as he does start a game if they are to improve. The match against City on Saturday only put the Red's frailties into a greater light, they still can't defend set pieces- when Craig Bellamy eventually got one past the first man Adebayour scored. And they still don't have enough match winners, with Gerrard marked out the game by de Jong there was no one to step up.

And yet tonight something that most of us would not have predicted happened, Liverpool went out of the Champions League in the group stages. Throughout Rafa's years in charge when Liverpool have struggled domestically moments of European magic have saved them. This time it will not be the case. Jamie Carragher today said "The Europa League is still a piece of silverware" but it is not the one Liverpool should be playing for, nor is it a foregone conclusion that they will be anywhere near winning it. This should demoralise and humiliate a club who's history is all about winning the Champions League and it should lead to Benitez being sacked, but it won't. Liverpool cannot afford to sack Benitez and have to pay his wages along with whichever expensive European would come in to replace him. This makes Liverpool dangerous, they are now a squad who have disappointed very passionate fans, a club who know only a top four finish can give them a way into the Champions League, and a manager who knows that failure to get the top 4 position will cost him his job!

Of course what your all really interested in is how did Sporting JLGB do this week. Well after weeks of games cancelled and all players being out of match fitness, facing a side in form in the league, with two of our best players still out injured there was only ever going to be one result..... we won, 1-0, a score that is so rarely seen in our league it took me about 2 days to believe it happened. So through to the next round of the cup we go. Next week another cup game and the week after yet another.... well it's all silverware ey Jamie!

Hey Bobbi what is the French for "Handball"

After a night as exciting as last night I thought I'd fall straight asleep, of course I didn't. It had nothing to do with thinking about Slovenia's win against Russia, Portugal's inevitable victory over Bosnia, nor Greece making it to the World Cup for the first time in a while, nor Algeria's historic play-off win over Egypt, I wasn't even thinking about Uruguay being the last team to qualify for said tournament. Now you're all expecting me to claim my sleep deprivation had something to do with France's draw, and subsequent win over two legs, against Ireland, well it didn't, I just don't sleep too well generally.

There is though some people I could well imagine having varying sleep patterns last night who could blame the game. I say the game, one incident that changed everything. If the match last night had finished France 1-1 Republic of Ireland there's a good chance that I wouldn't have anything particular to write about, I would be writing about all the teams who qualified, not just last night but all the teams going to South Africa. Instead it finished Platini 1-1 Republic of Ireland, oh how I hope that French bastard is happy (excuse the French).

So here's my run down of how some of the main player's in last night's play would have slept;

Richard Dunne; A wall at the back for the Irish last night. That was until his foundations were rumbled and down came the wall. As the final whistle blew Dunne, a man in supreme form at the moment who would have been instrumental in the World Cup, sat on the edge of the box. He looked desolate, like a broken man, how he didn't cry was beyond me. When they eventually got back to the team hotel I imagine Dunne, talking to barely any one, pacing around asking himself the usual questions "why!", "what if", "what now". Maybe the Villa man got an hour or two sleep at the end of the night, when every question had been asked, but unanswered. Unfortunately for Dunne they will remain unanswered, he has to go back to his club side and concentrate on the Premier league, as hard as it may be. Next time the World Cup roles around, in 2014, Dunne will be nearly 35, so for him last night may have been it.

Giovanni Trapattoni; A legend in Italian, world and now Irish football. Watching the 70 year old in today's press conference one thing is for sure- he's pissed off. All the questions that Dunne may have asked himself last night Trapattoni has asked them all and more to himself, to the FAI, to Liam Brady, to the press. The Italian doesn't take the view of many, most of us would blame the player involved in the incident, the Italian blames the officials. But perhaps more importantly he has questioned FIFA, and he is right to. He has questioned the choice of officials but more importantly the ranking system suddenly imposed by FIFA for the play-offs, and why his team were the only non-ranked side to play away in the 2nd leg. My assumption on Ireland's manager is that he did sleep, not too well though, he was probably constantly woken up by his own thoughts, all those questions would have not set well on his mind. At 70 the ex-Juventus man would be forgiven for thinking about retirement, I hope he stays on and leads the Irish to the Euros in 2012, and if the universe likes maybe they could knock out France somewhere along the line.

Thierry Henry; This is a tricky one. Henry is an awesome footballer. He is one of, if not the best player I have ever seen. I have never seen Pele or Maradona, often mentioned as the two greatest players, play football and so I cannot wade in on the argument, but certainly in terms of the last decade he is the player of our time! The Frenchman made a name for himself playing for Arsenal, a team, perhaps unfairly, known for cheating. And yet you could never really tar Thierry with the cheating brush, Henry was too busy cutting in from the left, destroying a defender or two on the way, and curling the ball majestically past the keeper and into the top corner of the goal. Last night however I feel Henry has damaged his reputation forever. As the ball came over he could have made a choice, attempt to keep the ball on legally, difficult but legal, or knowingly handle the ball to keep it on the pitch. He did the latter, he cheated, it's that simple. Henry will now be synonymous with that handball, no matter your opinion on him, it has happened before with other world class players. Diego Maradona may be the world's best player ever and yet most can't think about him without discussing his handball moment, 'Hand of God part one' if you will. And another Frenchman, another who could argue to be one of the best players ever, Zinedine Zidane can not now be thought of without the headbutt which ended his career. Back to the point though, sat next to Dunne in the penalty area after the match was Henry. He sat, pensive looking, and consoled Dunne. Later on he laughed off suggestions he should have told the ref he handled the ball, for me it was an act. Henry is generally a fair man, one who slept last night, but the voices in his head probably kept waking him up.

Our final players can be mentioned together, neither would of had problems sleeping, they would not have needed sleep tablets, hot milk or a bedtime story. Quite frankly these two may as well have slept together last night, snuggling up to each other in the warmth of their own disgusting bodies, safe in the knowledge that, apart from Russia, it was job done. The two morons are of course Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter. Moron A, that's how I'll refer to Platini from now on, is the Frenchman in charge of UEFA. It is him who does not want video refs. I admit that the ref may not have asked for video evidence but with all those Irish complaints I can't help but feel he would have done. Of course Moron A would argue that his idea to have extra linesman behind the goal would have worked last night, unless of course the linesman was tying his shoelaces at the time. But it is Moron A's absolute refusal to have video software help out referees which has caused us to look elsewhere, test out his extra linesman and thus slow the process of getting more correct decisions. Moron B, for Blatter, is the head of FIFA. A man concerned with only two things in life, money and wrecking the English game. It is his love of money which led to this debacle. Never before have qualifying play-offs been seeded, but suddenly with France and Portugal, packed with big money making names such as Henry and Ronaldo, due to be in the play-offs Moron B changed the system. He couldn't possibly sit idly by as one money maker knocked out another. In came the seedings and through went both Portugal and France. One of his officials may have been wrong and the use of video refs called into question again but Moron B won't care, he just made some more money.

I feel for the Irish I really do, I also feel for the referee. It may have been an awful decision but it was not one he made on purpose, he will now always be the referee who allowed that goal and I hope for his and his family's sake he continues to be an international ref and doesn't get any death threats that have come the way of other controversial refs. For Blatter and Platini the means does not matter, it is all about the result. The same could be said of Henry, I hope it plays on his and the French's conscience and they perform the way they should in the World Cup. Most of all I hope that all this doesn't take a shine off the World Cup. For now it will cloud all our excitement, hopefully come 4th December it will all be forgotten!

Who's making the right noises?

They say a week is a long time in football, and yet it seems I haven't been able to write about it in three. This despite Sir Alex's ranting, United losses to Chelsea and Liverpool, the 2018 bid being restructured, Liverpool being on the verge of Champions League exit, David Beckham leading L.A Galaxy to the MLS Cup final and Robin van Persie using horse placenta to cure his ankle. All in all there's been a lot to write about. Perhaps my lack of activity stems from the Sunday leagues, down at the bottom rung of football life has been stagnant, the weather has caused havoc with our fixtures with the last 3 cancelled.

But I return to you now to blog about the topic you have come to realise I am most passionate about- international football. The weekend just gone was in fact one of those few occasions when the sporting gods threw all international sport at us at once. And England came up short, everywhere!

The rugby union side, destroyed by injuries, were dreadful to say the very least- they won but they may as well have lost. The cricket team, with some injuries, were well beaten in the 2nd Twenty20 international (the one run win on Friday hardly saves them). The rugby league side, not with injuries, had Australia on the ropes, leading with 20 minutes to go and then lost, 46-16.

Then there was the football team, led by new father and stand in captain Wayne Rooney, interrupted by injuries to all but two of their regular starters. The 2nd (or possibly 3rd) choice side took to the field against the most successful side in World Cup history, Brazil, of course. I mention their history because that's what the next few months are all about, the World Cup that is. The fact that England lost is unimportant, that they played averagely as a unit is also redundant, this match was all about those 'fringe players' and if they could cement their place in the squad to South Africa.

In goal Ben Foster, who has been dodgy for England in the past, had a good game. He made a couple of decent saves and his only dodgy moments, giving away the penalty and a kick from the ground going straight to Kaka, were the faults of Wes Brown and Matthew Upson respectively, and importantly didn't get punished. Wes Brown managed to almost certainly write his name off the squad list, the right back position is one of England's problem areas behind Glen Johnson and yet Brown was so awful it just will not do in the World Cup, it is a shame for a player who has been so solid at club level. The rest of the defence was more solid, I'm still not convinced by Lescott and Bridge but who there is to replace them is a question I can't answer and I'm afraid nor could Mr Capello. In midfield obviously Gareth Barry is a World Cup starter, his main competition would be a fit and in form Owen Hargreaves but that is still yet to be seen. Jermaine Jenas did little wrong, but unlike Capello's first match in charge, when Jenas got the winning goal, he did nothing right and will never get passed the first choice England midfield and would also struggle against the 2nd choice. On the flanks James Milner continues to impress with a mix of industry and skill and will definately be on the plane. On the opposite flank though, with Mr Beckham helping his side to the MLS Cup final, Shaun Wright-Phillips did himself no favours with a mule like first touch, of course things may have been different for him had captain Wayne got on the end of his early cross. Up front Kai's dad ran his heart out as always, and the captain's armband suited him well, he IS a future United and England captain and record breaker and if anyone was going to break Brazil it was going to be him. Finally was Darren Bent, a player I have often said I would have in my England squad- perhaps no more. The former Spurs player played, well, like he was back at Spurs and not at his Sunderland best. Playing like that will not help his chances, which after Saturday I believe are all but gone.

All this means that Foster, Upson, Bridge, and Milner are all edging closer to that plane with only injury likely to stop Upson and Milner. It also means that players such as Joe Cole, Owen Hargreves, Phil Jagielka and maybe even Michael Owen still have a change. Finally it means David James, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Wes Brown and Darren Bent will still be hoping till the last.

Of course England weren't the only ones playing on Saturday and the only one's who gave us some clues to the future. For one there was the opposition, Brazil, World Cup favourites and rightly so. Many 'purists' have complained that Brazil don't play with the flare and beauty of the 1970 winning and 1982 losing sides but in this day and age of greater physical players it is almost impossible. Then again any side with Kaka, Robinho, Maicon, Elano, Nilmar and Dani Alves amongst their ranks can hardly be thought to have a lack of flair and class. The debate though is pretty pointless, the real talking point is how good they look as a team and with the odd adjustment to the side, including Robinho coming back into the side, few would doubt their World Cup credentials.

Elsewhere Spain, the World Cup's joint favourites, took on the team who on talent alone should be one of the favourites but add in their hopeless manager and you have a team who barely qualified for the World Cup. Of course Argentina won't be so bad at the tournament but don't expext them to be good enough to retire Carlos Tevez- clearly life for the blue side of Manchester must either be so stressful or boring that it makes you consider retirement so young. Spain look healthy, and that's an understatement, a side that boast Fabregas, Iniesta and Xavi in the centre of midfield and Torres and Villa upfront are dangerous (they have loads of other talent but why bother naming many or any others).

Two of Europe's super powers taught us very little as Italy and Holland drew 0-0. The Dutch will always flatter to decieve before inevitably losing in the quarter finals, noooo it doesn't sound familiar at all! The Italians at times seem to be clueless, Marcello Lippi seemingly thinks he's back in 2006, choosing as close to the World Cup winning squad as possible whilst trying to push through a passport for Brazillian born Juventus striker Amauri and ignoring Italian born attacking midfield genius Antonio Cassano.

Of course one of the other favourite's for the World Cup, and seemingly every World Cup, Germany, did not play this weekend, and all our thoughts should be with Robert Enke's family and the German and Hannover squads, football is sometimes the least important thing in life.

In Cardiff the boys of Wales took on the men of Scotland in a match that mattered not to getting ready for the World Cup and was just further proof as to why Scotland never needed to worry about a Great Britain squad at the 2012 olympics, none of thier players would have been in it! The Scots have a bleak future, in the short term at least, with George Burley finally sacked, how he'd survived so long is beyond me, and with players barely good enough for the Sunday leagues there is a lot of rebuilding to do. Lots of names are being thrown about for the post and perhaps the Scots should go back to the tried and tested, and soon to be out of a contract, Walter Smith. I'd go for youth and inexperience in Darren Ferguson, it's out there I know but I'd like to see the SFA be a bit daring. The Welsh though have something to smile about, despite a qualifying campaign that ended as soon as a good performance in Russia didn't end in a win they do at least have extremely talented youngsters such as Aaron Ramsey, Simon Church, Gareth Bale, and Joe Ledley- all young and all collecting many caps already.

The hosts meanwhile were playing Japan to continue their on pitch preperations. Bafana Bafana will be so determined to play well in the World Cup and not find themselves as the first hosts failing to advance passed the group stages. To kick start their warm up matches they drew 0-0 with the Japan in Port Elizabeth. It doesn't sound exciting does it, but after the match Motoaki Inukai, President of the Japanese FA, complained about the famous vuvuzela trumpet, an African instrument known for being loud. It is according to Mr Inukai too loud, You can't hear yourself speak. I will be bringing it up (with Fifa president Sepp Blatter),". As far as noise is concerned it's South Africa making the loudest ones... or maybe it's Japan!