Everyone who is living on planet football in England will know that in the next 14 days there are four huge semi-finals in European competition, and that two games in the Premier League on Sunday are likely to decide the title.
But where else in England and Europe should the discerning football fan be looking for the drama, excitement, elation and sheer gut-wrenching fear and desolation that makes this the greatest game on planet Earth…
After the scourge of a brutal winter comes the gamblers scourge of unpredictable pitches. It looked like the usual rant of a madman when Sir Alex Ferguson suggested that the turgid pitch had “killed Wayne Rooney”, but he may have a point. The problems with the Wembley pitch are well documented, but elsewhere in England – as the permafrost threatened to lift across the country – an unprecedented number of managers claimed the pitch as a factor in iffy results. There were grumblings at Peterborough in The Championship as the poor surface did nothing to help a home side that prefers to play it on the deck, but the worst pitching – inevitably – further down the leagues.
So, Wayne Bridge has decided that he cannot play alongside a man who stole his girlfriend away from him, forced him out of the club he was happy at, and still managed to maintain his relationship with his wife, and his place in the national team. Despite Fabio Capello insisting otherwise, it is not a surprise to me. Throughout this whole, tawdry, and, rather predictably for overpaid superstar Premier League players these days, entirely predictable, Bridge has been an absolute gentleman.
How rich are the benefactors buying into football at the moment? It is a question worth asking now that the supposed mega-wealth of Manchester City is threatening to turn the football world upside down. Could it be possible that a club prepared to spend £108m on bringing Kaku, arguably the world’s most talented player, to [...]
