The end game
“IWON everything, I played for the most important clubs in Europe and now it is a new challenge in Asia.”
So said Cristiano Ronaldo at his unveiling as a free agent signing at Saudi club Al Nassr. He went on to say he had “many opportunities” from other clubs before opting to join his new team and play in a very competitive league.
Hmm, obviously the decision to depart European and top class football had nothing to do with the £177 million a year deal he signed that runs through to 2025 when he’ll be 40 years young, not to mention the add-ons that will kick in after 2025 when he’ll be the face of Saudi Arabia’s bid to host the 2030 World Cup (Saudi deny this but. . .), which Fifa will no doubt bend over backwards to award them.
Still, as the man says, “this contract is unique because I am a unique player so, for me, it is normal”. What can you say?
C’MON THE BORO
I recently had the misfortune, thanks to the dipsy blond from Guisborough, of watching Birmingham host Middlesbrough.
The game was so eyebleedingly bad that I gave up around the hour mark only to find later that Boro had somehow contrived to win 3-1 to move into the play-off positions.
Fair do’s, I have to say that Michael Carrick is doing an excellent job in his first proper stint at club management, and obviously learning his trade at the feet of Harry Redknapp and Alex Ferguson hasn’t done him any harm, long may it continue to be the case.
Shout out too for another young manager who also learned his trade at Spurs and Manchester United: Kieran McKenna is doing an excellent job at Ipswich taking the fallen East Anglian club into the top three in League One and having a realistic chance of promotion to the Championship, where once again they can renew their Old Farm rivalry with Norwich who are looking very unlikely to continue with their up and down relationship with the Premier League.
FOOTBALL ITALIA
In 1992 James Richardson and Kenneth Wolstenholme fronted Channel Four’s foray into the exotic world of Serie A, showing us live Italian football every Sunday and the first game shown was Sampdoria vs Lazio.
I suspect that was the chosen fixture because it should have been the debut game for Paul Gascoigne but sadly he was injured, so I was left to instead admire the talents of the likes of Roberto Mancini and Beppe Signori while ruing the fact that Gianluca Vialli had recently departed Sampdoria for Juventus.
But before Vialli left, he, along with Mancini, had played a major part in the Genoa club’s first and still only title win as in 1991 they saw off the challenge of multitalented Inter, who featured the German triumvirate of Jürgen Klinsmann, Lothar Matthaus and Andreas Brehme.
The clinching game was between the two sides and Inter were all over Samp but Vialli did the business and ultimately the title was theirs.
A brilliant player and apparently a thoroughly decent human being, even if he did manage the other club in Fulham. RIP.
NOT TO BLOW MY OWN TRUMPET BUT. . .
Last week I put forward the games at Spurs, Coventry, Sheffield Wednesday, Oxford, and Aston Villa as the venues for possible FA Cup giant killings and all, barring the games at Spurs and
Oxford, duly obliged as Wrexham won at Coventry, Wednesday saw off Newcastle, and Stevenage put paid to Villa. Now for this week’s lottery numbers.
ALL OR NOTHING
Nine FA Cup ties were played with VAR active, 23 were not, there are only four VAR cameras at Anfield, six at more modern grounds.
This means that in the Cup not all games are equal, which is a total nonsense and should be rectified by mandating that VAR be scrapped in the Cup.
And Liverpool should pull their fingers out and sort the extra cameras given that nobody can work out why Wolves’ last minute “winner” was ruled out on the basis that no camera angle was available to correct the linesman’s obviously erroneous offside decision.
Gareth Bale’s decision to retire at the age of 33 has ignited a debate on his status within the game, with some anointing him as Britain’s greatest ever player based on his medal collection, while others insist that his lack of longevity knocks him down to just very good. On the latter point, the fact that in his 17-year career he played less than 400 league games (337 as a starter) does count against him, but the Welsh look on his 111 international appearances while leading his country to regular finals as proof of the former.
Me? I look back at the murmur of anticipation every time he was on the
ball out wide and think that in his time with Spurs he was utterly sensational, whether as a classic winger or as a goal-scoring machine down the centre.
That murmur was previously only really heard at the Lane when Gazza or Goddle were on the ball and as such he was in the best of modern Lilywhite company.
It also helped that he got a few goals against the noisy neighbours, a trait since carried on by Harry Kane. The best I’ve seen? Impossible to say, but as a wide player he wouldn’t have been out of place up against the likes of fellow flying wingers like Cliff Jones, George Best, Jimmy Johnstone and Davie Cooper, which to me is praise enough. Best moment?
Too many to count, but let’s just say that if one player has had a better entire season than Bale’s in 2012-13 then I’ve yet to see it.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Stevenage, two goals in the final two minutes to win at Villa, no-brainer.
GAMES TO WATCH
Premier League today 2:30; Manchester United vs Manchester City. 5pm; Brighton vs Liverpool, Everton vs Southampton, Forest vs Leicester, Wolves vs West Ham. 7:30; Brentford vs Bournemouth. Tomorrow 4pm; Chelsea vs Palace, Newcastle vs Fulham. 6:30; Spurs vs Arsenal. Wednesday 10pm; Palace vs Manchester United. Thursday 10pm; Manchester City vs Spurs.
Selected Championship today 5pm; Luton vs West Brom, Middlesbrough vs Millwall, Sunderland vs Swansea. Friday 10pm; Burnley vs West Brom.
Selected Scotland today League Cup semifinals 7:30; Celtic vs Kilmarnock. Tomorrow 5pm; Rangers vs Aberdeen. Premiership Wednesday 9:45; Celtic vs St Mirren. 10pm; Kilmarnock vs Rangers.
Big games; the Manchester derby, the North London derby, (Assuming Arsenal actually turn up this time) and Citeh vs Spurs.
Citeh need the points to keep up the pressure on Arsenal, United need them to stay on course for the top four.
Spurs need the points to keep within reach of the top four. Arsenal need them to stay ahead of
Citeh, additionally the NLD’s all-time top scorer Harry Kane needs one goal to equal Jimmy Greaves’ club record total, would you bet against him scoring it in this game?
Citeh have an unusually poor record against Spurs of late, could Spurs do the South London Nomads a massive favour on Thursday?
AND FINALLY
Last week’s question: in a qualifying game for the 1998 World Cup played in 1997 all 22 players who started were born in the same country, how was this possible and which countries were involved?
One of the answers put forward in jest was a game involving Jack Charlton’s Republic of Ireland, but the actual answer is the Czech Republic vs Slovakia, with all players being born in the former Czechoslovakia.
This week: Blackburn’s record in the Championship this season is played 26, won 14, drawn 0, lost 12, but which club holds the Premier League record for consecutive games without a draw?
GREAT OR JUST MERELY EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD?
NEAR East University (YDÜ) and Bahçeşehir University (BAÜ) ended the first half of the Metgin-sponsored UniLeague basketball campaign on nine points each after winning four of the first five games of the season.
BAÜ ensured they finished level on points with YDÜ and second in the six-team table after beating Girne American University (GAÜ) 69-51 at the Girne Ertuğrul Apakan Sports Hall last Friday evening.
BAÜ finished the first period three points ahead of GAÜ, a lead they maintained in the second quarter for a halftime score of 29-26.
However BAÜ began to open up their lead in the third quarter of the match and won the fourth quarter by 13 points to seal victory.
BAÜ’s Ayomukin Omah was the best player of the match, with 25 points and 11 rebounds. The top player for GAÜ, who have lost all but one of their five matches, was Turgay Mete Aksu on 13 points.