Blog Archives
Twitter, 9/11, Footballers, Ferdinand, Rooney and Barton – a good mix?
Twitter and Football: Good match?
By Tom Gaunt
Twitter has recently become the hot topic for the sporting media to discuss, or more accurately certain Footballer’s use of Twitter. With this in mind I thought I would offer my thoughts on the subject.
The main gripe people seem to have is that Footballers are representing their club and therefore must censor what they say. Surely they should simply write the well-worn phrase “These views are my own and not those of my company” or in Footballer’s case “my Club”. This is, of course, what got Nathan Eccleston in a spot of bother last week. Liverpool felt the need to publicly denounce a tweet of his so as not to be associated with his views. They were probably right to do so, but it does raise the question of when a Club should get involved.
I read an article a while back, mocking Rio Ferdinand for commenting on the Rooney swearing saga, saying (or rather tweeting) that there were bigger problems in the world, like civil wars in Libya and the Ivory Coast or the tsunami in Japan. Whilst Rio may not be an academic or possess a PhD in politics, I am not sure intellectual snobbery is necessary. Surely we should be happy that he has an idea of some of the issues the World, outside football, is facing. Most people, including those of you reading this article, will comment daily on subjects well outside their areas of expertise, forcing ill-informed opinions on anyone who will listen. The difference is that Rio has over a million people listening, but raising awareness of issues in even a small way should be praised not mocked. The journalist continues, pulling Rio up for using the word ‘lynched’ and suggesting unless he is talking of the public execution of a person without trial he should not be so liberal with the word. This is a bit rich coming from a journalist; a group of professionals who intentionally and freely mislead their readers with their lexicon on a regular basis. Read the rest of this entry
Wengeritis – A debilitating disease
Wenger: The truth hurts
By Tom Gaunt
Early Monday morning Sir Alex Ferguson was rushed to hospital, he was thought to have contracted a debilitating disease. The name of the disease? Wengeritis. Doctors believe he first contracted the disease directly from the source, Arsene Wenger, when some spittle flew from his mouth as he exclaimed “Putain!” at Robin van Persie’s penalty miss. However it was not until hours after the 8-2 mauling that the symptoms started to show. Fergie is believed to have sent a text to David Gill saying “We should sell Rooney, Vidic and Evra. Think of all the money we would save!” Gill immediately put this down to a rare joke from the fiery Scotsman and simply replied “Rofl”. It was only when Fergie started contacting members of the United under 14′s squad asking if they were fit and ready for some first team action that people started to worry. The final straw was when he asked Wayne Rooney about Kai’s “availability” claiming he saw great potential in the youngster, at this point the United medical staff rushed him to hospital for further tests.
Their greatest fears were confirmed – when asked whether he thought if the Arsenal penalty was fair he simply shrugged and said “I did not see”. Luckily for United the antidotes for Wengeritis are easily accessible to them. Trophies are the major cure for the disease and after a tour of the trophy room Fergie was said to be feeling much better. This was followed up with a look at this summers expenditure on new players as well as a 30 minute chat with Ryan Giggs and Rio Ferdinand who reminded him of the wealth of experience they bring to the squad and that the club was in safe hands. Read the rest of this entry
Because I’m Worth It! – An Analysis of the British Transfer Market
Comolli: Building for the future
Following last weeks news that Liverpool had finally agreed a fee with Sunderland for the transfer of Jordan Henderson for the value of £20million (including David N’gog) – I felt compelled to try to understand how we as fans decide whether a player is actually “worth it” or not. With so many transfers of all shapes and sizes due to be taking place in the coming 12 weeks before the 2011/12 Premiership season kicks off, there will no doubt be plenty of heated debate amongst fans about who got ripped off, who got a steal and who just bought a dud… All before a ball is even kicked.
So who decides how much a player is worth? And how do we judge whether the price is “fair” or not? Read the rest of this entry
Barcelona brilliance papers over the cracks at United
Rooney and Giggs: Gutted
By Tom Gaunt
On Saturday night we all witnessed a truly great performance by one of the great teams of the past decade, maybe even this century.
Whilst I don’t imagine that any current team, however well they played, could of beaten Barcelona in the kind of form they displayed on Saturday I also believe that they exposed the true ability of the Alex Ferguson’s current Manchester United squad.
Rather than recap in detail on why United lost on Saturday evening I will just touch on a few key points which highlight some areas which were not just tested but horribly exposed by the best team in the world. The first thing I noticed was the supreme confidence that most United teams have was not there. They looked nervous in possession and panicked whenever they were under pressure. I accept that Barcelona are a brilliant pressing side but it seemed that it was only the youth of Fabio da Silva and the class of Wayne Rooney that overcame this, the rest of the team looked like they were treading water. What it also showed was the lack of world class players in the starting line up. Read the rest of this entry
Berbatov and Nani miss out in PFA player of the year nominations – Fair or Farce?
Nani: Top performer
By Tom Gaunt
So this Sunday will see the PFA player of the year announced. I am sure that I am not the only person who thinks it is ridiculous to announce the Player of the season before any player has completed the season in question. Evidence of this is the fact that 2 of the nominees have done very little in the past 2 months (Bale and Nasri), whilst Nani and Berbatov are still proving instrumental in United’s charge for the title. Should Berbatov exceed 25 goals this season which is highly possible (he has 21) or Nani exceed 20 assists (he has 18), then I think both can consider it harsh that their contributions have seemingly been overlooked for more “interesting” candidates. I respect the fact Gareth Bale is in the running as he had a fantastic early season until teams started to figure out how to play him, but has he really made as much of an impact as Nani has? Fantasy football stats tell a different story.
The main gripe I have is that the decision if taken too early – for example Javier Hernandez has scored 11 goals in 22 games and I think we would agree that as the ultimate goal poacher it is mainly his fantastic goal return that has him rightly contesting the “Young Player of the Year” award. But surely Andy Carroll’s return of 13 goals from 23 games is better, and I think his overall contribution is arguably greater. The reason he is not nominated is ‘timing’ – he was injured when the nominations were made and everyone forgot about him – which I am sure would not have happened if they had waited for him to destroy Man City last Monday! I am sure if he bangs in another 3 or 4 goals he will feel even more hard done by.
Defenders rarely get the award although nominee Nemanja Vidic has already deservedly picked up the award once again, but this year United defence has been shaky with Manchester City and Chelsea conceding less goals (5 less) and claiming more clean sheets. Now whilst no one in a Chelsea shirt can claim to be a contender I would think Vincent Kompany , who has been simply exceptional this year might wonder why he has been overlooked.
The full list is – Tottenham’s Gareth Bale, and Rafael Van Der Vaart, West Ham’s Scott Parker, Arsenal midfielder Samir Nasri, Carlos Tevez of Man City, and Manchester United defender Nemanja Vidic. All worthy but I would argue that none stand head and shoulders above the rest of the league the way Ronaldo did in his pomp.
Unlucky losers – Dimitar Barbatov, Vincent Kompany, Edwin Van Der Saar, Nani. However, in what has been one of the most exciting Premier League seasons to date we have not seen any individuals set the league alight. There could be many reasons less world class stars being imported by the big boys, squad rotation, lesser teams becoming harder to beat and impress against and possibly just an off season for some of the usual suspects (Gerrard, Rooney, Terry, Fabregas, Drogba etc…) – whatever the reason it would be nice to see a worthy winner, unfortunately the cheating Portuguese winger (no not Ronaldo) is conspicuous by his absence.
Witch hunt on for Rooney or just a brainless thug breaking the rules?
Rooney: Thug?
By Tom Gaunt
Following his 2 match ban for swearing in United’s recent 4-2 victory over West Ham many people have come to the defense of the “innocent” Wayne Rooney from players like Rio Ferdinand who tweeted in defense of Wayne who was apparently caught up in the moment, and also from more esteemed characters such as Gordon Taylor who argues that players should be made aware if there is a change in the rules regarding use of foul and abusive language. It was even debated on Radio 5 asking the question “Whats the big deal about swearing?” although that is a bigger question for another day. So is Wayne being made an example of unfairly or is this the type of punishment which will start to clean up the beautiful game.
Although I for one think that Rooney is a mindless uneducated thug I do agree with Rio’s sentiments. When on the pitch and caught up in the passion of scoring a goal you will see players shouting and screaming and probably not thinking about what they are saying. I am also going to assume that in most footballers vocabulary expletives feature regularly. I also agree with Gordon Taylor that if the FA are suddenly going to start banning players for using bad language on the pitch then maybe they ought to forewarn the players who, let’s be honest, have been swearing freely for many years without ever getting banned.
There are however problems with both these opinions. Firstly Rooney does not just swear in the way you might if you stub your toe screaming at the moment of frustration, pain or in Rooney’s case ecstasy – it is a good 30 seconds after the goal is scored and furthermore he actually seeks the camera out making a statement to the camera, much like he did famously after England’s 0-0 draw with Algeria. By seeking out the camera he is committing what was the biggest sin of all and what makes this such an inexcusable act, he was specifically communicating with the millions of viewers many of whom would be children with his vulgar and unacceptable language.
Now it is not that far-fetched to suggest that he could not make the connection between the TV camera and that picture and sound being broadcast across the world to millions of viewers – but sheer stupidity can no longer be an excuse for these ridiculously high paid sportsman, responsibility needs to be taken at some point. Whether they like it or not footballers are role models and it really is only the minimum levels of behavior that are being asked e.g. don’t get drunk and punch people, don’t go to brothels and don’t swear into TV cameras.
Now to Gordon Taylor’s point. Surely we should not have to inform footballers that they are not allowed to swear directly into TV cameras. When Eric Cantona kung-fu kicked a fan, I am not sure anyone suggested that this was acceptable because players had not specifically been told they were not allowed to do it. The next point I will raise is that the FA is not the first to ban a player for use of foul and abusive language to TV camera’s – I think we will all remember Didier Drogba throwing his toys out of the pram in the most spectacular fashion after Chelsea got knocked out of Europe by Barcelona, in this case the ban was 3 matches – maybe Rooney can consider himself lucky.
Mr. Taylor also raises the issue of swearing at referees which it seems he considers more of an issue than swearing at fans – but for this there is something that the recipient can do about it to instantly stop it, they can produce a red card. Fans do not have that luxury. Rooney has had his fair share of disciplinary issues and has for the most part got away with a fine or just giving an apology – so if “previous” is taken into account then the ban seems fair.
It would be interesting to know whether a player has ever been caught doing something similar and if it is Rooney’s status that has afforded him such punishment.
I for one would like football cleaned up and think that players should be cited for cheating and other undesirable behaviour. For example if Rooney is banned for 2 matches for his actions then surely when a player is caught swearing at an official on TV, which you probably see about 10 times every live match, then surely that should warrant a 1 match ban. Actually it is the referees job to cut this out which some reason they 90% of the time chose not to, preferring to book players for kicking the ball away or god forbid celebrating with their adoring fans when scoring a goal (probably the most ludicrous rule ever).
I hope that the FA’s actions will simply act as a reminder to players that they need to behave in a certain manner when on the pitch and not turn into a trend with every player seen swearing anywhere a TV camera is suddenly facing a ban.
The other solution would be to take off the mics which are picking the players voices when they are celebrating – so we are just left with the standard mics picking up the stadium atmosphere – but that may be a bit to simple.
Anyway, with important games coming up and the usual end of season fixture congestion I think the ban may have a silver lining and give Rooney an enforced rest, and needless to say i do not think him or anyone will be swearing into camera’s for quite some time.
