Feb 10
11
Back again! And finally it looks like the season is starting to take off
rio ferdinand - the new squeaky clean england captain
It’s been a while since my last missive, but I have an excuse: I was busy getting married!
While I was otherwise engaged (geddit!) the football season has slowly sputtered to life after many weeks of snowbound frustration.
Chelsea have wrestled some kind of lead at the top of the Premier League, while (as I predicted) both Newcastle and Leeds have managed to let slip seemingly unassailable leads at the top of the Championship and League One.
Meanwhile, in Europe, it is a case of how the mighty have fallen as AC Milan, Juventus, and Lyon have all suffered humiliating slips down their prospective tables.
Lyon’s is probably the most dramatic. The French club dominated the Ligue 1 Orange for most of the Millennium until Bordeaux’s pipped them to the title last year. But the sudden influx of money into the French game has caught the Lyonnais by surprise and they may find themselves struggling to get into Europe this season, which would be disastrous.
Juventus is no surprise. The Old Lady of Italian football has yet to have its hangover from the match-fixing scandal that relegated them a couple of seasons ago. In the great order of things, a couple of seasons in Serie A midtable will be good for the soul.
AC Milan’s form is probably temporary, although if they are not careful it could cost them a place in Europe is they don’t get their house in order before the resumption of the UEFA Champions League next week. At least there is a two-week gap between legs, which will work in their favour.
Red herring
And so to the England captaincy issue, the modern definition of a storm in a teacup.
John Terry lost the armband, and that is probably the right decision considering he is a man of very low moral values with a tendency to do things that can affect his game. The philandering aside, any Regular Joe would have been sacked for gross misconduct for taking a bung to show a few businessmen behind the scenes at Stamford Bridge.
The problem for Fabio Capello is that once he has stripped a captain of the armband because of a morality issue, he has very few ‘good’ men to choose from to replace him.
Steve Gerrard has been up before the beak for a pub brawl related incident, while the new incumbent has passed form for missing drug tests. Which is the worse discretion?
Ashley Cole has tendency to throw up on girls in bed who aren’t his beautiful wife Cheryl Cole; while Wayne Rooney likes women of a certain age who aren’t his goold lady wife _____ Rooney. Who to pick?
But, when it comes down to it, it shouldn’t really matter. The captaincy is a red herring – it means virtually nothing oan the pitch. Once the captains have shaken heands with each other, exchanged pendants and called heads and tails, that’s it. It’s not like they are making real decisions like cricket captains.
Still, it sells papers doesn’t it.
Becoming a member of footbet costs just £7 a week and gives you access to some of the best tips and advice on the web today for the English Premier League, the English leagues (Championship, League One, League Two), the major European leagues (German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga, French Ligue 1 Orange, Italian Serie A), the UEFA Champions League, the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championships. Sign up today!
