Riff-raffle shows up Con-Spireites
IF the Russian athletics doping scandal was like something out of a spy movie, the goings on at Chesterfield FC reads more like a storyline from Phoenix Nights.
Apparently the club ran a raffle for one lucky supporter and a pal to join the club on their pre- season training camp in Hungary.
The winner was announced as a Surrey- based fan but when suspicions were raised amongst some of the few fans that had forked out for a ticket, the club announced that, due to illness, the fan was unable to make the trip and anyone who had bought a ticket could have a refund.
Further suspicions led to the club finally coughing that the whole thing had been made up after only four £ 20 tickets had been purchased leading to the perpetrator of the whole sorry episode getting the boot.
They were probably just beginning to think that they’d managed the controversial signing of Ched Evans without too much adverse publicity! Ironically the club are nicknamed The Spireites after the town’s famous church spire. Famous for it being bent. IS Big Sam the man for England? The appointment has split the country almost as much as Brexit – there’s certainly a fear campaign being waged by some who think it’s a step backwards. The FA will tell you they agonised and analysed before coming to their decision.
Closer to the truth is there wasn’t really a viable option. The tabloids will have been disappointed in having to bin a whole load of clever headline puns when it turned out Klinsmann wasn’t getting the job, and some experts may have felt Steve Bruce had an equally mediocre shout for the position as Big Sam.
Meanwhile, Sky Sports have been damning him with faint praise, throwing stats at us about how many clean sheets Allardyce’s teams keep, how hard they are to beat etc.
It’s what we want to see as England fans of course, and the fact that his first competitive match will be a World Cup qualifier away to Slovakia – who Roy failed so miserably tactically against in Euro 2016 – will be a fascinating start.
In reality, very few successful international managers have had lots of success at club level, it’s a completely different way of coaching.
Sam will surely thrive on not being hamstrung by his board’s transfer finances, but hopefully not equally so by the FA’s interference.
It’s high time we gave the England manager a chance to do his job, there will be none more keen than Big Sam so let’s hope the fans, media and most of all the FA get behind him from the off.
Just let him do the job — you never know...