England knocked for six - but unfairly treated?

In the week since my last update, much has happened in the world of English sport. The English national football team produced a strong performance to beat Wales 2-0 in Cardiff, Lewis Hamilton equally strong in the first F1 race of the season to finish second behind the superb Sebastian Vettel, and England's Cricket team were knocked out of the 2011 Cricket World Cup at the hands of Sri Lanka. A disappointing result, no England fan would disagree, for a team which at the start of the tournament must have been brimming with confidence. Yes, it is always disappointing to see any English national team doing poorly, but some of the recent criticism of our cricketers has been, in my opinion, very harsh indeed.

The Daily Telegraph reported how England had been humiliated during the course of their ten-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka, a loss which saw their burgeoning hopes of World Cup success shattered. Yes, England were not at their best. Jonathan Trott managed to score a resilient 86 to propel England to a not-entirely-humiliating score of 229-6, but the England side lacked the quickness of movement, sharpness of thought and, perhaps tellingly, the overwhelming support the Sri Lanka team possessed in equally high measure. In fact, one could argue that England's entire tournament has not reflected the confidence with which the team began the campaign, but personally I think it is important to remember that these men are human beings, not sport-playing robots.

Some of the England World Cup squad have been away from their homes since November and before, preparing for the Ashes series. Perennial fan-favourite Graeme Swann is one of this number, given a short break after the Ashes to return home and experience the birth of his first child, before jetting off to Asia to play in the World Cup. I am not questioning the commitment of any England player, least of all Swann, but one must question whether optimum performance is even possible given the massive upheaval and changes of emotion players like him have experienced over the last months.

The Ashes series was an incredibly fruitful one for English cricket, the team returning home not only with the Urn, but with a fair few Aussie scalps in their suitcases. The sheer joy and euphoria after securing such a historic win, such a humiliating win for the Australian team, must be immense. So, too, must be the come down after running on adrenaline towards the end of the tournament. I can't imagine the feeling of returning home to one's loved ones after perhaps the most impressive achievement of one's career (will James Anderson, for example, ever be more lethal than he was during the Ashes tour of 2010?), having been away over the entire Christmas holidays, some away for the a fifth of the year. Footballers, golfers, Olympians and many others often speak of the fortnight after a fantastic season's climax, a Champion's League trophy added to the trophy cabinet perhaps, or a gold medal won, and the need for a professional athlete to relax and recuperate after this period. Absorbing and reflecting upon your successes is sometimes as pleasurable as the moment of achieving them, and for the England cricket team this period was incredibly short. Now, that period may have disappeared along with the layer of gloss taken with only England's fifth ten-wicket loss in their ODI history. I personally feel sorry for the players for this fact.

Sure, they're only playing a game, and of course they must love it if they do it for a career. My argument is simply that it is very harsh to criticise the England team for their under-performance after such a period of physical and emotional excersion. I personally congratulate the England team for even managing to compete at this level, and hope that the British press will soon realise the stress that our sportsmen and women are put under on a regular basis.

Capello's reign quickly becoming a fiasco.

Let me just say one thing to start off with: I have never been anything but patient with England manager Fabio Capello. When he was first appointed in 2007 I, like most football fans in this country, felt very optimistic. He is a manager with a proven track record, winning league titles with every single club he has managed (Roma, A.C Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid) as well as a plethora of other awards. Not only this, but he has a very good record of managing big-name players. Ronaldo, Beckham, Raul, Del Piero, Maldini; the list is endless. The Italian seemed like the perfect antidote to the uninspiring, unimaginative reign of Steve McClaren, finally a man who would bring the tactical nouse, sense of discipline and will to win that England had so sorely missed in their qualification campaign for the European Championships in Austria/Switzerland.

I was delighted with the beginning of Capello's England reign. He instilled a belief in the players that had previously been severely lacking, showing them there was a reason for the culture back home of unrelenting expectation - they were actually a damn good team. Looking back to the heady days of 2008, it is easy to forget just how well England started under Capello. The team won 9 games in qualification for the 2010 World Cup out of 10, losing away to Ukraine in their second-to-last game. The campaign included a rousing 4-1 win in Croatia, 5-1 and 6-0 thumpings of Kazakhstan and Andorra respectively as well as a credible friendly draw in Holland and a friendly win against, wait for it...Germany?!? Really??

More than just scorelines on sheets of paper, stories poured out of the England dressing room about the respect for "Mr. Capello". There were no late-night drinks at the bar with Sven, no banter with Steve. Every player turned up to the games in suit and tie. They travelled to and from games in suit and tie. England's brigade of twenty-something millionaires lived the lives of eighty-something nuns for the first months of Fabio Capello's England tenure. The sheer respect the players had for the manager, a man who seemed never to lose his cool, never to even break sweat on the touchline, was quite simply astounding. These Premier League players seemed to genuinely raise their level of performance in order to impress their charismatic new manager, a phenomenon that England fans aren't particularly used to. So where did it all go wrong? Well, given the events of the last week, it is ironic that the answer just might be at Chelsea Football Club.

It is important to remember the magnitude of the Wayne Bridge/ John Terry tabloid saga. First, the willingness of any footballer, never mind the England captain, to have an affair with the spouse of a team mate shocked the football community. Secondly, the eagerness for said footballer to hide this information, desperately clawing at a footballer's favourite Pokemon move, the super-injunction, added a tacky veneer of tabloid sleaze. Thirdly, and most importantly in this context, the fact that this whole affair unfolded after months of blissful marriage between Fabio Capello and his England players was a huge kick in the teeth for the Italian coach. Capello was quick to respond: John Terry was removed as England captain, just four months before the beginning of the 2010 World Cup. The England manager decided that such behaviour was just not acceptable, and arrived at perhaps the only decision available to him under the weight of such intense tabloid pressure. Nobody could legitimately question Capello's judgement in this case.

Where I do question Fabio Capello's judgement, and where my opinion of the England coach started to turn, were two moments before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Firstly, his decision to accept a contract that was, in my opinion, wrongly offered by the FA before England had even kicked a ball in the World Cup smacked of money grabbing. Yes, one can make the point that to decline the contract may have implied to the players that he planned to quit after the World Cup, but I believe the professional thing to do would have been to politely postpone contract negotiations with the FA until after the World Cup, while reassuring the players that he simply wanted to prove his worth as manager in South Africa, creating an atmosphere in the squad where the tournament mattered equally to everyone's future careers. Instead, the acceptance of a two-year contract extension before the World Cup implied complacency on Capello's behalf: "I'm going to be here after this whatever happens, so just do your best". Of course you do not win as many trophies as Capello has with such a lax attitude, but the Italian's lack of consideration for how ludicrous this decision seemed to many supporters and journalists was a worrying sign of things to come.

The second moment was when I first read England's final squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Quite frankly, some of the omissions from that squad are still unfathomable. Shaun Wright-Phillips preferred to Theo Walcott. Perennial under-achiever Emile Heskey preferred to Darren Bent. Scott Parker, Adam Johnson and Leighton Baines missing out, Michael Dawson only included after an injury to Rio Ferdinand forced him out of the tournament. Honestly, to this day how Fabio Capello can justify the inclusion of Joe Cole and Michael Carrick ahead of players like Johnson, Parker or Huddlestone is bewildering. With such a climate of confusion over the squad, arguably the most uninspiring England World Cup squad for over a decade, how were England ever expected to achieve anything at the World Cup?

Then comes Capello's management at the tournament itself. From the very start, fans, journalists and the players themselves were questioning Capello's approach to the World Cup campaign. Players complained of boredom at the team hotel, in games the tactics were unimaginative, the player selection debatable. Capello also apparently took the frustrating decision to only tell the players the starting line-up up to three hours before the game, allowing no time for mental preparation. As Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Milner, Barry, Cole and co. continually underachieved in South Africa, Fabio Capello prowled the touchline like a baboon at the zoo, beating his chest and wailing like a banshee as chance after chance went begging. This man was a Dr. Jekyll to the Mr. Hyde we were so used to, his calm demeanour remaining constant whether win, lose or draw. Now Capello seethed with visible furore, almost beating assistant manager Stuart Pearce to a pulp game after game. What did Capello expect to achieve with this public show of anger against his team? Inpsiration? There was none.

After England's dismal exit at the hands of Germany, the memories of a friendly win not even a year before seemed like pure imagination, yet more scandal began to unfold from the England camp. First Wayne Rooney was accused of cheating on his wife Coleen with two prostitutes, then Peter Crouch was found paying a woman for sex while in Spain. The whole circus seemed to be falling in around Capello's ears. It is now that, for me at least, patience is finally running out with England's Italian coach. Some of Capello's recent England call-ups have bordered on insanity. Yes, one must give players from all clubs a chance and be open to experimentation in friendly games, but I hope the likes of Jay Bothroyd will not be returning to the International fray any time soon. Rumours of a call-up for former Scunthorpe United striker Gary Hooper have, until now, thankfully remained untrue. There is a line between experimentation and downright stupidity. Where does it end? An England return for Michael Owen? Jonathan Walters leading the line?

Finally, Capello has made a move that I find perhaps the most frustrating of all by reinstating John Terry as England captain. While still merely captain of a football team, the position of England captain has greater significance than just that - there is community work to be considered, as well as acting like a figurehead for the English game. By reinstating Terry, Capello is recognising removing the captaincy in the first place as being some kind of strange punishment, rather than about who was best for the role. He has devalued the position, as well as now isolating former captain Rio Ferdinand. Well done, Mr Capello, well done.

As England prepare to face Wales in their next European Championships qualifier this coming weekend, I do not think Fabio Capello will be thinking of the game as a pivotal one in his England reign. For many fans growing tired of the mediocrity of Capello's England side, however, it just might be.

Resilient England: Grand Slam success at last?

What a week it has been in the world of sport. Amongst other events, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been hit with a five-match touchline ban for his comments regarding Premier League referee Martin Atkinson, Japan have unsurprisingly taken the decision to postpone the Japan Moto GP until their country emerge from the terrible devastation that continues to unfold across the nation after an incredibly powerful earthquake and, thrillingly for English sport fans, the international Rugby Union team continued their pursuit of a first Grand Slam in the Six Nations since 2003 with a battling win over Scotland at Twickenham.

As his team prepares for a stern test against Ireland in Dublin, coach Martin Johnson has been discussing the match last Saturday in numerous interviews: on one hand criticising his team's performance and recognising they must improve in order to complete the historic Grand Slam, but often expressing his pride in the victory despite a stumbling performance, England ultimately winning 22-16. The game began with England as firm favourites with both recent history and form on their side, but a battling Scotland were able to limit the penetration of the England team with the ball in their hand and finish the first half 9-9. England's unconvincing first half performances in recent matches, the win against France coming after a second-half improvement, will no doubt have Johnson concerned for their ability to start strongly in Ireland, however. Can England improve this facet of their game ahead of one of the toughest games in the tournament, and will the Calcutta Cup victory over Scotland produce the final boost to their spirits?

England have played some fantastic rugby during the course of this Six Nations tournament, perhaps at their best while thrashing Italy 59-13 at Twickenham. In this game, winger Chris Ashton incredibly became the first England player to score four tries in a Six Nations match since 1914, mirroring the great form he has shown throughout the rest of the tournament, also scoring two tries at the Millenium Stadium against Wales. Martin Johnson will hope for a big impact from him in Dublin, as well as several other key players. Perhaps a vital absence, however, will be captain Mike Tindall who is ruled out of the game against Ireland with ankle ligament damaged sustained in the win over Scotland. Matt Banahan replaced Tindall against Scotland, and is likely to take his place in Dublin, and similarly a big performance from him is vital in securing a Grand Slam finish for an England side which has battled its way through disappointment and success in equal measure since their World Cup win in 2003.

Ireland, however, are not unbeatable - suffering losses to France and most recently, and controversially,Wales during this year's tournament, the latter winning in no small part down to the incorrect awarding of a try after an illegitimate quick line-out was taken by the Welsh team. In actual fact replays show that a different ball was used, the original ending in the crowd and a young ball-boy bringing a new one along, an illegal move if a quick line-out is to be taken.

Irish captain Brian O'Driscoll revealed a frustration that was mirrored by the other Irish players, most pointing out that unlike football there is the ability of the referee to consult the video-referee before making the decision. As it was, referee Jonathan Kaplan simply asked the line judge who himself had obviously not seen the switch occur and was told that the correct ball was used. The decision understandably frustrating for the Irish team, considering the profound impact the incident had on the momentum of the match.

England will need more than a lucky decision to beat Ireland this weekend, one suspects. If they can overcome the inevitable jitters that a potential Grand Slam brings, and key players produce the form that English fans know they are capable of, then I believe there is no reason why Saturday won't be a day for England to celebrate as heartily as many will St. Patrick's day.

Grassroots: Can English football "catch up"?

As the utterly devastating news of the earthquake in Japan filtered through to news networks across the globe this morning, a story that was understandably low on the news agenda was the long overdue commencement of construction at "St. George's Park", a National Football Centre in Burton-upon-Trent. The hope from most involved with the game in this country, and chiefly the Football Association, is that the site can provide a top-quality training centre for the England national team, as well as finally providing a more structured and professional organisation to the so called "grass-roots" level of the sport in England.

The problems with grass-roots football in England are well documented and widely debated, as indeed are the potential solutions to the problem. The FA are keenly hoping that St. George's Park, so called to reflect a sense of national pride and optimism, can become a key piece of the puzzle. Critics of the English FA point to other English national teams in other sports, such as the in-form Rugby Union side, Ashes-winning Cricket team and various other British sporting individuals such as Lee Westwood, Chris Hoy and Graeme McDowell to name but three as key examples that make English football's perennial under achievement Internationally completely unacceptable. It is not a case that we are completely incapable of producing as many talented sports people as other countries, but rather, and perhaps more disappointingly, for years the set up of English football has been all wrong.

One key argument against the current way in which young people are introduced to football in England is the mentality of coaches, be they professional or amateur "Sunday Mini-soccer" managers. From a very young age, football in England is all about winning. The way young players, even as young as 6 and 7, are told to compete with each other is not conducive to them learning the technical skills of similar players in other countries, such as Italy or Spain, where competition is not as important as playing the game in the right way. Several high profile managers have noticed the difference in the mentality of players at the age of 10 and 11 in England to that of players from the rest of Europe.

 This institutionalised competitiveness has other negative effects on grass roots football, for example meaning that games are played at a very high tempo and often resort to nothing more than being able to run fast, or kick the ball harder and further than everybody else. I know from my own personal experience of playing youth football that quick players are disproportionately valuable at this level of the game, scoring 30+ goals a season and quickly becoming noticed by other teams and the occasional scout. This attitude has not and will never serve English football well, as unfortunately players like Jack Wilshere, whose superb technique and skill on the ball have been an invaluable factor behind his meteoric rise to the England national team, are the exception to the rule and leave one wondering just how they are able to develop such skills in an environment of intense competition and blinkered focus on physicality.

David Beckham is a case in point of this phenomenon. Beckham, when first breaking through to Manchester United's first team, was criticised from certain corners for his lack of physical prowess, for the fact that he was not strong in the tackle, the fact that he was slow. Beckham subsequently went on to become England's most-capped outfield player, their captain for 6 years and is widely regarded as a hugely popular figure in British sport as a whole. If Beckham's coaches at the time had listened to the outside pressure, which thankfully they didn't, and had ignored the bigger picture then Beckham may have never had the chance to go on to the illustrious career he did.



There is a long list of players in England who are criticised (complaining about the "public enemy no.1 of the month" being one of the great joys of football, it seems), but so rarely are these players berated for their lack of a quality first touch, their lack of vision. Normally, football fans will complain that a player "doesn't want it" enough, or that they are not putting a shift in to the extent they would like. It is this attitude which allows hard-working, but ultimately average, players like Shefki Kuqi to forge lengthy careers in England while young players struggle to break through. It is no coincidence that Spain were able to win two consecutive major International tournaments, The European Championship and the World Cup, with a team who almost entirely were produced in environments of expression, beautiful football and a joy for the game, many coming through the ranks at F.C Barcelona's incredible La Masia. For St. George's Park to work, I believe that it will require a massive shift in the attitude of coaches, an altering of fan expectations of the qualities that a modern top footballer needs, and ultimately for the expansive and costly resources available to the young players that visit the centre to be used in the right way.

We cannot ignore the fact that many more young people want to play football than do tennis, cricket, rugby or golf, and that perhaps the players who choose these sports have greater access to better coaching, and consequently greater chance of success. It must also be acknowledged that physicality is an important factor in the sport, and at grass-roots level is a way in which potential can be gauged by coaches. What I would simply like to see is for technical ability, enjoyment for the game and mental attributes to become more important in grass-roots football in this country, rather than sheer physical ability being order of the day.

The Business End.

This time of year is always referred to in the footballing community as "the business end of the season". In today's modern sporting environment, how true that statement is. The run-in to the end of the season that teams throughout England, Europe and all over the world are currently gearing up for has arguably never been more important due to the huge monetary rewards involved in finishing the season in a good position. Last year the Daily Mail reported that Premier League teams, for example, are offered £800k per place from the bottom they finish, scaling up from lowest to highest. This, they report, means that the prize for finishing 1st in the Premier League is roughly £16m, a total which is widely agreed to be not too far from the truth. Incredible, I know, and the incentive to get in to the Premier League in the first place is even greater.


For the 8, 9, 10 (even 11 depending on just how mad the end of the season is) Championship teams that are vying for promotion to the Premier League this season, the memories of Blackpool's promotion to the "Promised Land" last season will serve as no small reminder of the great rewards that come with stepping up just one tier in the English game. Conservative estimates state that Ian Holloway's team received/are receiving a total of £60m revenue from promotion, while others, such as the Daily Telegraph, put the figure as high as £90m. For some of the clubs involved, the long-suffering Leeds United for example, these amounts are quite simply unbelievable.

It is no wonder, then, that considering the vast importance of every game at this time in the season, players and managers alike are increasingly berating decisions made by match officials in important games. Sir Alex Ferguson accused referee Martin Atkinson of not being up to the task during Manchester United's crucial league defeat away at Chelsea, claiming Atkinson got several key decisions wrong. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger then complained about rookie official Anthony Taylor's wrongful disallowing of Andrei Arshavin's goal against Sunderland on Saturday, a goal that subsequently would have seen Arsenal close the gap on Manchester United, and £16m, to just a single point. Couple this with Wenger, and Arsenal key-man Samir Nasri's, comments about the frankly bizarre sending-off of Robin Van Persie in Arsenal's crucial Champion's League Knockout game against F.C Barcelona, and the 61-year-old coach is now facing a charge of improper conduct from governing body UEFA.

Arsenal striker Van Persie was sent off for shooting at goal after the flag has been raised for offside, an action which in usual circumstances would seem like an attempt at time-wasting. In this instance, however, Van Persie claimed that he was simply not able to hear the referee's whistle over the furore of 90,000 fans. After Van Persie's sending off, which occurred with the game fairly evenly poised at 1-1, Arsenal went on to concede two goals in a five-minute period which ended their Champion's League dream for another year, and Arsene Wenger and his players were understandably frustrated.

I am not saying that managers and players are right to criticise referees and other officials whenever they feel aggrieved in any match or specific in-game incident, certainly it is hard to argue that Arsenal were knocked out of the Champion's League because of one poor refereeing decision, but what I would say is that football's governing bodies need to show more consistency with the way such criticisms are responded to. To charge Wenger and Nasri with improper conduct, and in all likelihood find them both guilty, while other players such as Wilshere and Van Persie himself have been labelling the decision "pathetic", "a joke" and "disgusting" in interviews and on their Twitter accounts shows a damning lack of consistency from UEFA. The referee of the game Massimo Busacca, as I understand it, lodged the complaint against the two men for the way in which they spoke to him and the language they used. Now this aggressive behavior is not excusable, but I would simply make the point that in the incredible tension and disappointment of the moment it should be taken in to account that both Wenger and Nasri were not in their right state of mind. Similarly, UEFA should recognise that Busacca filed the complaint immediately after the game, where he too would have still been high on adrenaline, fresh from a blasting from the Arsenal manager.

Shouldn't UEFA, as a "responsible" organisation for the running of the sport in Europe, have given both parties a little more time to reflect on the situation before charging anyone with any wrongdoing? Would the "responsible" thing to do have not been to slap Wenger and Nasri with charges that would be hard enough to swallow even if they hadn't just been eliminated from an important tournament, worth millions to those who make it to the final stages, in what they consider unfair circumstances? All UEFA have achieved with their frankly irresponsible action is to lose yet more credibility in England with many football fans, at a time when football's governing bodies are unpopular to say the least, as well as isolating one of the most respected managers in the game.

The business end can wreak havoc on anybody's thought process, apparently even UEFA's.