1. You should wait until the dust has settled before passing judgement.
Man Utd’s exit from Europe this week sparked a flurry of spectacularly baseless articles from journalist up and down the country. The focus wasn’t Nani though, or Ferguson, or even Utd themselves. It was Wayne Rooney only being on the bench. More of him later, but the point here is people jumping to conclusions and judgements long, long in advance of any possible events. Man Utd have already been the subject of many articles this season – praising them one minute, slating them the next – but surely the time to write such pieces is in May once silverware has been won or lost? Chelsea have been slammed this season but could still end up 3rd and winning two trophies. Likewise Utd, considered by many to be genuine treble contenders at half time against Real this week, could well end up with nothing. This week also sees the votes for player of the season collected, despite a quarter of the fixtures still to be played. As it is, Van Persie may well win despite being pretty terrible in the past month. Indeed, he could well get injured or not score in his next ten league games and still be crowned player of the year based on his first 20 matches. Which is stupid. In a world where journalists are on more pressure than ever to get stories out as fast as possible, is it too much to ask for theories and hypothesis rather than “facts” that aren’t facts? Granted, I may have gone overboard against Arsenal this season, but that has been because of a gradual build-up of failure over a 7 year period rather than one season long failing. I don’t believe Arsenal will finish 4th, but even if they do I think Wenger should leave. I’ve meandered off the point, but to conclude - the time to judge whether a season has been successful or not is in May and not before. Especially when the margins of success and failure are often just one inaccurate decision against the run of play away. And no Roy Keane, it wasn’t a red card. You eminently watchable prick.
2. Can Wayne Rooney
really be considered a failure?
Back to those articles again… whether or not Rooney leaves Utd this summer (he won’t) an awful lot has been written about whether or not he has ever truly fulfilled his potential. Rooney is 27 and 4 months (despite many articles reporting him as already 28) and should be in the prime of his footballing career. In many ways he is, given at his best he maintains the ability to dictate a game in such a way that very few players possess. Rooney is the 6th highest English scorer of all time and the 4th highest Manchester Utd one. If he stays at Utd, he is on course to break the all-time club record before he is 30. In his 8 seasons with the club he has won four titles, two league cups, three charity shields, a world club cup and the champion’s league. In his last five seasons he has scored 110 goals in 195 games and created numerous, numerous more. What exactly should Wayne Rooney have achieved by now? The answer lies in two things… and this is where it gets interesting, because the problem isn’t Rooney himself… it’s England and Cristiano Ronaldo. Let’s deal with England first, for which there is no doubt Rooney has been a complete failure when it’s truly mattered. Since he stormed onto the scene at Euro 2004 as a teenager, Rooney has been useless at three tournaments. There are mitigating circumstances though. Firstly, Rooney has been injured coming into all three of those tournaments and has proven time and time again to be a player who is at his best when he has a run of games under his belt. Secondly, well… England have been useless at three tournaments. It’s not like Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham,Terry and Ferdinand, all supremely talented at club level, have lit it up whilst Wazza has stumbled. Lampard was so bad at one point he was booed for two entire years despite being the best box to box midfielder in a virtually unbeatable Chelsea. So yes, Rooney has failed at International level, but so have his peers and to blame all of England’s failings on him would be harsh in the extreme. The second point is that because he played in the same team and is the same age, Rooney’s career trajectory is forever being compared to Ronaldo’s. Who, since leaving Utd, has left his friend trailing in the distance as he goes after Lionel Messi’s title as the greatest current player on the planet. But is it really fair to compare Rooney to such a freakish player as Ronaldo? Did anyone see Ronaldo’s rise coming seven years ago? He looked good sure, great even, but 188 goals in 186 good? No chance. Take Ronaldo out of the picture and statistically, Wayne Rooney is as good as any player in the world over the past 8 years bar Messi. We love to build stars up in this country and looking back it’s hard to see what heights the likes of Joe Cole and Rooney should have hit. Wazza may not be Pele, Maradona or Cristiano Ronaldo, but for people to continue to label him a failure is grossly unfair. Just let the boy play.
Back to those articles again… whether or not Rooney leaves Utd this summer (he won’t) an awful lot has been written about whether or not he has ever truly fulfilled his potential. Rooney is 27 and 4 months (despite many articles reporting him as already 28) and should be in the prime of his footballing career. In many ways he is, given at his best he maintains the ability to dictate a game in such a way that very few players possess. Rooney is the 6th highest English scorer of all time and the 4th highest Manchester Utd one. If he stays at Utd, he is on course to break the all-time club record before he is 30. In his 8 seasons with the club he has won four titles, two league cups, three charity shields, a world club cup and the champion’s league. In his last five seasons he has scored 110 goals in 195 games and created numerous, numerous more. What exactly should Wayne Rooney have achieved by now? The answer lies in two things… and this is where it gets interesting, because the problem isn’t Rooney himself… it’s England and Cristiano Ronaldo. Let’s deal with England first, for which there is no doubt Rooney has been a complete failure when it’s truly mattered. Since he stormed onto the scene at Euro 2004 as a teenager, Rooney has been useless at three tournaments. There are mitigating circumstances though. Firstly, Rooney has been injured coming into all three of those tournaments and has proven time and time again to be a player who is at his best when he has a run of games under his belt. Secondly, well… England have been useless at three tournaments. It’s not like Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham,Terry and Ferdinand, all supremely talented at club level, have lit it up whilst Wazza has stumbled. Lampard was so bad at one point he was booed for two entire years despite being the best box to box midfielder in a virtually unbeatable Chelsea. So yes, Rooney has failed at International level, but so have his peers and to blame all of England’s failings on him would be harsh in the extreme. The second point is that because he played in the same team and is the same age, Rooney’s career trajectory is forever being compared to Ronaldo’s. Who, since leaving Utd, has left his friend trailing in the distance as he goes after Lionel Messi’s title as the greatest current player on the planet. But is it really fair to compare Rooney to such a freakish player as Ronaldo? Did anyone see Ronaldo’s rise coming seven years ago? He looked good sure, great even, but 188 goals in 186 good? No chance. Take Ronaldo out of the picture and statistically, Wayne Rooney is as good as any player in the world over the past 8 years bar Messi. We love to build stars up in this country and looking back it’s hard to see what heights the likes of Joe Cole and Rooney should have hit. Wazza may not be Pele, Maradona or Cristiano Ronaldo, but for people to continue to label him a failure is grossly unfair. Just let the boy play.
3. Where did Harry
Redknapp’s reputation come from?
As QPR completed back to back victory’s for the first time in what feels like forever, the twitter boards, phone ins and forums were alive with the talk of “another act of escapism from Harry Houdini.” This is all quite amusing for a while, but Redknapp’s reputation for being some sort of relegation expert is based on a single, cash rich season at Portsmouth. Redknapp has been involved in two genuine relegation struggles since moving to West Ham in 1994 and has only succeeded with one of them. He took Southampton down with a woeful win ratio of 26% (which includes 4 months in the Championship) and only got Portsmouth up thanks to a series of inspired transfer window deals in January. Those transfer dealings also earned Harry as reputation as some sort of wheeler dealer, a reputation he never had prior to that moment and one that he himself has stoked to perfection since for the media’s (and his own) benefit. Harry kept Pompey up, won them the FA Cup through a series of lucky 1-0 wins and then jumped ship to Spurs whilst his “spiritual home” went bankrupt. Way to go Harry. Now, with QPR still bottom and 4 points from safety he is again being heralded as some sort of messiah (see point 1). This despite the fact that QPR have spent around a billion quid in the past two seasons and have a squad who should be collectively embarrassed by their performances so far this year. I like Redknapp, he is relentlessly entertaining and has become almost a parody of his own parody. But seriously folks, can we stop with the “Harry’s working his magic yet again” bullshit. It’s like America claiming they won the war for fucks sake.
As QPR completed back to back victory’s for the first time in what feels like forever, the twitter boards, phone ins and forums were alive with the talk of “another act of escapism from Harry Houdini.” This is all quite amusing for a while, but Redknapp’s reputation for being some sort of relegation expert is based on a single, cash rich season at Portsmouth. Redknapp has been involved in two genuine relegation struggles since moving to West Ham in 1994 and has only succeeded with one of them. He took Southampton down with a woeful win ratio of 26% (which includes 4 months in the Championship) and only got Portsmouth up thanks to a series of inspired transfer window deals in January. Those transfer dealings also earned Harry as reputation as some sort of wheeler dealer, a reputation he never had prior to that moment and one that he himself has stoked to perfection since for the media’s (and his own) benefit. Harry kept Pompey up, won them the FA Cup through a series of lucky 1-0 wins and then jumped ship to Spurs whilst his “spiritual home” went bankrupt. Way to go Harry. Now, with QPR still bottom and 4 points from safety he is again being heralded as some sort of messiah (see point 1). This despite the fact that QPR have spent around a billion quid in the past two seasons and have a squad who should be collectively embarrassed by their performances so far this year. I like Redknapp, he is relentlessly entertaining and has become almost a parody of his own parody. But seriously folks, can we stop with the “Harry’s working his magic yet again” bullshit. It’s like America claiming they won the war for fucks sake.
4. It’s just not
working at Sunderland.
30 points from 29 games is not a great return for a team with the money, supporters and manager that Sunderland have. Martin O’Neil was brilliant for his first ten games in charge of the Black Cats but has been getting progressively worse ever since. The odd big win has masked their failings at times and just when they look like they’re turning a corner, they’ve started to lose games again. Sunderland aren’t just losing games though, they’re barely competing in them. They have scored just 32 goals so far and Steven Fletcher has a third of them. Sessegnon has flattered to deceive for much of the year and Adam Johnson’s transfer can only be considered a success if you compare it directly to the impact Scott Sinclair has made. Sunderland play turgid football and are reliant on long balls and quick wing play which hasn’t really got going. They’re not quite Stoke City, but right now they have a lot more in common with the Potters then simply wearing the same shirts. Sunderland need to arrest their form sharpish and go again next year. O’Neill’s total refusal to rotate continues to cost his teams over a full season and it remains baffling that a manager of his obvious ability refuses to at least experiment with some of his squad to see what they can do. He has played Sebastian Larsson in central midfield for an entire season. He cannot run, he has scored once in over 2200 minutes and David Vaughn is on the bench. Colback & Gardner are both playing at fullback and all are palpably better options to play centrally than a guy with a good delivery who has played wide his entire career. Sunderland probably won’t go down, but lord hopes they get interesting again sometime soon.
5. Managers in the Wilderness – Case Three: Les Reed
On 14th November 2006, Iain Dowie was sacked as manager of Charlton Athletic and Les Reed was promoted up to replace him. One of the more baffling decisions in Premier League history (Reed had never managed a club and had worked largely as a technical director over the past decade) soon became six weeks that would live in infamy. Reed managed Charlton for just 7 games. Winning one, drawing one and losing five, famously going out of the Carling Cup to League 2 Wycombe Wanderers. A poor record for sure, but many managers can boast similar opening statistics and go on to greater things… or at least be given more of a chance. Reed, in an unofficial poll, was voted the worst manager of “all time.” You have to look beyond the results though to see the true magic of Reed. I’ve watched football for 30 years and I’ve never to this day seen a manager who looked less like they knew what they were doing than Les Miserables. His interviews were desperate, his tactics non-existent and he seemed to give off an all assuming aura that he was the most ill-suited person for football management in history. It was one of those true, “you had to be there” moments. It is little surprise that considering all this, Reed has never managed again. He actually now sits on the board of Southampton and overseas their scouting and recruitment alongside, more bizarrely, their sports medicine and kit requests. Reed, a former director of the FA, clearly knows something about the ins and outs of the beautiful game… but no manager ever proved in so short a space of time… that that wasn’t how to manage a football club.
https://twitter.com/HinduMonkey
30 points from 29 games is not a great return for a team with the money, supporters and manager that Sunderland have. Martin O’Neil was brilliant for his first ten games in charge of the Black Cats but has been getting progressively worse ever since. The odd big win has masked their failings at times and just when they look like they’re turning a corner, they’ve started to lose games again. Sunderland aren’t just losing games though, they’re barely competing in them. They have scored just 32 goals so far and Steven Fletcher has a third of them. Sessegnon has flattered to deceive for much of the year and Adam Johnson’s transfer can only be considered a success if you compare it directly to the impact Scott Sinclair has made. Sunderland play turgid football and are reliant on long balls and quick wing play which hasn’t really got going. They’re not quite Stoke City, but right now they have a lot more in common with the Potters then simply wearing the same shirts. Sunderland need to arrest their form sharpish and go again next year. O’Neill’s total refusal to rotate continues to cost his teams over a full season and it remains baffling that a manager of his obvious ability refuses to at least experiment with some of his squad to see what they can do. He has played Sebastian Larsson in central midfield for an entire season. He cannot run, he has scored once in over 2200 minutes and David Vaughn is on the bench. Colback & Gardner are both playing at fullback and all are palpably better options to play centrally than a guy with a good delivery who has played wide his entire career. Sunderland probably won’t go down, but lord hopes they get interesting again sometime soon.
5. Managers in the Wilderness – Case Three: Les Reed
On 14th November 2006, Iain Dowie was sacked as manager of Charlton Athletic and Les Reed was promoted up to replace him. One of the more baffling decisions in Premier League history (Reed had never managed a club and had worked largely as a technical director over the past decade) soon became six weeks that would live in infamy. Reed managed Charlton for just 7 games. Winning one, drawing one and losing five, famously going out of the Carling Cup to League 2 Wycombe Wanderers. A poor record for sure, but many managers can boast similar opening statistics and go on to greater things… or at least be given more of a chance. Reed, in an unofficial poll, was voted the worst manager of “all time.” You have to look beyond the results though to see the true magic of Reed. I’ve watched football for 30 years and I’ve never to this day seen a manager who looked less like they knew what they were doing than Les Miserables. His interviews were desperate, his tactics non-existent and he seemed to give off an all assuming aura that he was the most ill-suited person for football management in history. It was one of those true, “you had to be there” moments. It is little surprise that considering all this, Reed has never managed again. He actually now sits on the board of Southampton and overseas their scouting and recruitment alongside, more bizarrely, their sports medicine and kit requests. Reed, a former director of the FA, clearly knows something about the ins and outs of the beautiful game… but no manager ever proved in so short a space of time… that that wasn’t how to manage a football club.
https://twitter.com/HinduMonkey
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