BIG SAM DIVES WRONG WAY
No one wants English coaches to succeed more than me. However, a nod must be given in the direction of David Wagner and Jaap Stam who will contest the Championship play-off final with Huddersfield Town and Reading. Not only have they succeeded, but they h
Yes, the arch-achiever himself, Arsene Wenger. Or, as Jose Mourinho, once put it: ‘The specialist in failure’.
Obviously, those barbs were of a different time. But to be fair to Mourinho, he’s a serial winner.
Just study his comments about the Premier League once he realised he had no chance of impacting on the title race. They equate to ‘the competition doesn’t matter’. It’s petty and a touch childish if you ask me.
But there’s far more honesty in that than with Wenger, who started all of this. “The first trophy is the top four,” he said five years ago on the back of a seven-year trophyless spell with the Gunners.
And pretty much every month since then we have been reminded of it.
Only it isn’t. It never can be. It might have been for Arsenal’s board with a stadium to pay for.
If lifting a pot doesn’t matter, why was there such an emotional release three years ago when Hull City were defeated in the FA Cup final?
A trophy is for winners of whatever competition has been entered. Not for the also-rans.
And that’s what will be going on at Anfield, the Emirates or Vicarage Road – a celebration of mediocrity because reaching the top four in itself is not something to truly crow about. It merely masks the fact that, yet again, a certain group of clubs haven’t won anything.
This exercise has provided an escape route. A get-out for the likes of Wenger, Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola this season.
Unless Arsenal upset the form book – and yes, stranger things have happened – then none of these managers or clubs will have anything to plonk in the trophy cabinet for their season’s efforts.
Their bank balances will swell, naturally. And you can bet your bottom dollar, pound or Euro that the players will benefit too.
There will be clauses in contracts or the player’s pool – or both – saying that if they make the Champions League they’ll earn another million or two. No wonder the players will look happy.
Of course, the punters will be satisfied too. They have the Champions League to look forward to. But does it replace an FA Cup final triumph? Or a day out at the EFL final?
Creditable
Coming from someone who never once thought he would see his own team win a major pot, there isn’t anything like it.
Just for that one day, English football is yours. It might not be the same for supporters of those bigger clubs who have built up a tolerance. For whom a trip to Wembley is a regular date on the calendar rather than a once-in-alifetime opportunity.
Coming fourth guarantees entry into a fantastic competition – and the Champions League is that, let’s be fair – it’s creditable.
But it doesn’t take the place of actually winning anything.
And if you don’t believe me, ask yourselves this.
How much wilder would those festivities tonight be if Arsenal, Manchester City or Liverpool were fighting it out for the Premier League title?
Case closed. SAM ALLARDYCE called retrospective action on divers ‘utter rubbish’ on the basis that players will still be booked for simulation when they’re not guilty. He’s missed the point. For a start the number of players falling over will drop if they know they can be punished afterwards. Therefore, the instances of players being wrongly booked has to decrease too. Secondly, as a football observer, I’m struggling to think of too many instances of referees booking players for simulation who have actually been fouled. Thirdly,y divingg is cheating. It is, in itself, an offence. It’s a blight on our game. So if the price of curbing it is one oor two individuals wrongly ccensured, it’s a price worth paying for the greater gogood. Strange one, tthis. Sam (left) is uusually a sane vovoice. It’s almost as iif he has an axe to gringrind with the FA.