Despite His White Boots

Football, football, football and, if the mood takes me, more football.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The Devil Is In The Detail

An interesting example of how selective quoting can misrepresent on the BBC website today. If I had just read this :

Peterborough Chairman Slams Team

I would have thought that the chairman had just gone off on one out of frustration. However, if you read the whole thing (which luckily I already had done), it paints a very different picture :

Statement From Darragh McAnthony

I have a lot of sympathy for the guy reading the whole thing, and I wish that more people in football were as honest with the fans, even if they did tread on a few toes inside the game. His comments about keeping the club out of debt were echoed by Barry Hearn (chairman at Leyton Orient) in an interview I saw earlier in the week. He said that his main priority was keeping the club out of debt ; that clubs who go into administration are basically cheating by paying players money they can't afford ; and that administration should be punished with immediate relegation by two divisions. I totally agree, and I'm fully aware that QPR of course went into administration a few years ago.

Nonetheless, "Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo", as HG Wells once said, according to this WSC article that I also quite enjoyed. All of these links came to me via the excellent QPR Report. As you can see on that site, Wayne Routledge has left the club for Newcastle United. Fair enough if we got a good price and he wanted to go, the club still has too many players who play in that kind of position. I think Rangers should be looking to reorganise from the bottom up, which won't happen with Briatore there I know, but there are signs that he might be looking to sell (the main one being he says he isn't). I'd be looking to build a team around young players like Connolly, Ephraim and Balanta, who are all already good enough to play and have lots more potential, and anyone who is fully committed to the club, which would probably include Rowlands, Cook and Leigertwood. Everyone else has their price, especially older players on long-term contracts. TBH I think they should look to unload Hall, Agyemang and Buzsaky (who I think was more than culpable in Magiltongate) even at less than market rate.

Here in La Manga I have Sky Sports and have been watching a bit of football in the evenings (there isn't really a lot more to do). Surprisingly (to me) I have really enjoyed a few games, notably the Manchester derby and Tottenham-Leeds. What's disappointing is how long it's been since a game of football excited me as much as those City and Leeds fans must have been. Oh well, it is what it is. If you've made it this far a couple of lolworthy snippets to end :

"Hicks and Gillette don't own the club ... well alright they do, but ..." - Liverpool fan on radio phone in

"Steve Bruce today slammed Liverpool for unsettling Kenwyne Jones, and also confirmed his interest in Portsmouth's Younis Kaboul" - Sky Sports News reporter, without the slightest trace of irony.

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