Posts Tagged ‘Gareth Bale’

No Team GB

Posted: July 26, 2012 by onefootinthegame in Uncategorized
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If you’re reading this it’s probably a given that you’re a football fan. If you like football there’s a good chance that you love sport generally and will be looking forward to the Olympics. I know I am, the cycling team looks set to improve on their Beijing medal with the men’s road team featuring from this year’s Tour de France winner and second place, 4 individual stage winners and the current World Champion. The athletics team looks good and the home support is bound to improve performances across the board. I’m looking forward to getting completely behind Team GB and all their efforts.

Well, except for one team. There is no way that I can support Team GB in the football.

Shockingly, the draw of watching Jack Cork and Aaron Ramsey together in the same international team hasn’t led to a huge demand for tickets
(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

For a start the Olympic football tournament itself is not very good and arguably shouldn’t be in the games at all. The Olympics should be at the pinnacle of achievement for that sport. A gold medal in the Olympics should mark you down as an all-time great in your discipline or part of a great team. That is resolutely not the case with football, which is a youth tournament sprinkled with some experienced names. The tournament ranks low in the global pecking order behind the World Cup, European Championships, Copa America and Africa Cup of Nations. Given the festival of top-level sport we are about to witness it’s hard to get excited about a third rate football tournament. Poor ticket sales for the matches so far show the general public isn’t exactly enthralled by the prospect either, with the top tiers of many stadiums closed. The sale of football tickets contrasts with the speed at which Olympic tickets have been snapped up for what would at any other time in the last 4 years be considered minority sports.

The fact that the football season is about to start is another reason that it’s a tournament that is hard to get behind. The global hype juggernaut that is the Premier League is about to hit full swing and all football thoughts will turn to this in the next week or so, with the Olympic football tournament relegated to a side-show. The imminent start of the Premier League also means that many star players are not available for the Olympics as they have not been released by their clubs. This has resulted in the team being an odds and sods assortment of England B team and under 21 players with a sprinkling of Welsh stars. Up and coming genuine English talent is absent, with the possible exception of Jack Butland. Sentiment has led to the inclusion of Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy, as well as the need for the team not to be an England B team in order to retain any sort of credibility. The return of Jack Wilshere for Arsenal and the need for some sort of star quality has allowed Aaron Ramsey to be included. The team does not even contain any token Scottish or Northern Irish players. For a team that is supposed to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland it’s not very representative.

But the biggest reason I cannot support Team GB is the hugely dangerous precedent the inclusion of Team GB in the Olympics sets for the future. The Home Nations pride themselves on individual representation and this distinctness is something that is closely guarded. Our football cultures have grown up around Scotland being different from Wales being different from England and so on. This is especially true for the Celtic fringe nations, whose sense of identity and nationality is always threatened with being swallowed up by a more dominant England. The difference in football loyalty, despite (maybe even because of) the lack of success of the nations, is important to those who actually support those nations all the time and attend games, rather than those who only pay attention when there’s a major tournament going on.

The threat posed by Team GB to the heritage and uniqueness of our situation cannot be overstated. FIFA would love nothing more than to give the English FA a black eye after it had tried to stand up to corruption within FIFA. What better way to do that than by disbanding it. Many nations within FIFA, especially the developing nations, regard the Home Nations position with resentment and hope to get rid of a European voting bloc by combining them. Sepp Blatter has gone on the record to say that the uniqueness of the Home Nations will be protected as these Olympics are a one-off due to being the hosts. However, statements from the Sports Minister Hugh Robertson that there should be a British football team at all future Olympics and that 2012 sets a marvellous precedent to carry this on do not help the situation. There’s also the matter of trusting the word of Sepp Blatter and FIFA.

The other Home Nations have opposed the creation of Team GB, realising the threat that it poses, with only the English FA backing it to the hilt. The Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales FAs have all publicly stated that they have not sanctioned their players to play for Team GB, with Wales manager Chris Coleman having some especially strong words to say about it. The presence of Welsh players in the Team GB squad belies the fact that Giggs has long been retired from international football while Bellamy is just about to retire. Aaron Ramsey is a player so important to the future of Welsh football that the Welsh FA would never forbid him from playing for Team GB, though they have not given him permission either. Gareth Bale pulled out of the squad with an ‘injury’ and subsequently played for Spurs in their pre-season tour. This has led to the absurd situation of the English FA threatening to complain to FIFA about the availability to them of another nation’s player. The pure ridiculousness of this should be enough to make any football fan who supports his or her home nation but still supports Team GB stop in their tracks.

Written by Andrew Hagger (@giraffefarmer)

Revenge of the disrespected

Posted: December 8, 2011 by onefootinthegame in England, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United F.C.

Image via Wikipedia

So, Manchester United are out of the Champions League, and in all likelihood Tottenham Hotspur
will not be joining them in the last 32 of Europe’s second tier competition, the much maligned
Europa League.

And it is difficult to arrive at any other conclusion other than, it bloody serves them both right.

Both United and Spurs paid the ultimate price for attempting to ‘sleepwalk’ through the group
stages of their respective competitions, massively underestimating- and one could argue outright
disrespecting- the opposition they had to face. That is certainly the case for United, and Sir Alex
Ferguson could justifiably be criticised for wildly overestimating the depth and quality of his squad to
get the job done.

It is impossible for a non-United fan not to gloat at their richly deserved failure, particularly given
the triumphant Cheshire cat smile on chief executive David Gill’s face upon hearing of the draw in
August 2011.

“I got a text from Sir Alex and he is happy, we have a new Romanian team, congratulations to them

and we look forward to going there. They are the new boys and we are happy to get that draw. We

are comfortable with the draw we’ve been given,” beamed Gill.

There is no doubt United were given the most favourable looking of Champions League draws, not
just for this year’s competition but in recent memory. I remember many decrying United being given
a ‘bye’ to the next round yet again, and merely just had to turn up to go through.

And that is exactly what they did. Just turned up. Expecting to breeze through what they saw as a
group of also-rans without breaking so much as a sweat. And that conviction/arrogance went all the
way from the chief executive down through the manager and to the United players.

Massively altered line ups, casually thrown away two-goal leads, a failure to beat anyone but the
hapless Otelul Galati, United’s campaign was an embarrassment from start to finish.

And it was surely fitting that United left the field in Switzerland humbled and humiliated by a team
that put everything they had into the six group games. All their collective effort and no little talent
into progressing to the next stage. And the story of FC Basel in the UEFA Champions League 2011/12
is a great victory for football in my eyes.

But despite their humiliation, there is no doubt that United wanted to progress out of Group C and
continue on to their “assumed right” of the competition’s latter stages. Tottenham however, and in
particular manager Harry Redknapp, could not seemingly decide whether they really wanted to be in
the Europa League at all. Was it worth the hassle, with them doing so well in the league and looking
good for a quick return to the top table next year? Couldn’t they just play a mix of youngsters and
squad players until the business end was in sight? Well, Spurs look to have got their answers to the
last two questions posed. And it is a euphoric No. And how satisfying that the talented Rubin Kazan
and PAOK Salonika sides that certainly do want to be in the competition have put them on the brink
of elimination.

Now, Spurs have been tremendous this season in the Premier League. I have enjoyed watching
them play as much as any team. The scintillating football of one of the best midfields in the league
has been something to behold. Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Rafael Van Der Vaart and Aaron Lennon-
pace to burn, no little skill, finesse or goalscoring ability. And Emmanuel Adebayor has been a
revelation (as I expected someone of his quality would be in an already enviable side). They appear
to have a decent enough shot at the title, and their emergence at the top end as a consistent force
is only good for English football (not least with the likes of Defoe, Scott Parker, Lennon and Tom
Huddlestone in their ranks).

But in Europe this season, Tottenham has carried the look of a slightly too cool and self-important
club, that is only slumming it with the guttersnipes of the Europa League on a temporary basis.
That the competition is a bit beneath them and their standards, but they’ll just about put up with
it for now, and try and squeak through to the bit where there’s a (slightly) fancy final in sight. And
thankfully, their umming and ahhing and general half-heartedness in the competition has- almost
certainly- gotten the result it has merited. Elimination.

And they almost got away with it too, with that preposterous red card and penalty lifeline against
Salonika, who had played them, and the rusty William Gallas and Vedran Corluka in particular- off
the park with some brilliant passing football before half time. But Salonika held firm, and rode a bit
of luck of their own in the Second Half. But it was no more than what they deserved. They wanted it,
and wanted it badly.

Though football is oftentimes a cruel game and a sense of injustice hangs high in the air for some
time, sometimes it provides sweet justice that seems like it has to have been ordained by a higher
power. When I think of this, I immediately think of poor Barry Ferguson and the cowardly and
disrespectful rubbing and pushing of a distraught Laurent Koscielny’s head after Birmingham’s shock
late Carling Cup Final winner against Arsenal. Not too long after though, his own tears would be
dribbling to the turf, as the most boring Premier League team in history took their rightful place back
in the Championship following last day defeat at White Hart Lane and results going against them.
Add to that delightful comeuppance the abovementioned Spurs and United European campaign
of 2011/12. Arrogance, complacency and self-entitlement personified. Kudos again to the football
gods.

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Gary Speed – our tribute from a Welsh perspective

Posted: November 28, 2011 by onefootinthegame in Awards, Cardiff, England, FIFA, International football
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Aaron Ramsey lines up for Wales U21's alongsid...

The future, thanks to Gary. Image via Wikipedia

There will be other more knowledgeable and much more touching things you will read about the tragic loss of Gary Speed over the weekend.

The outpouring of messages expressing people’s shock and grief have been almost overwhelming. Gary was clearly a man who was liked and respected throughout football. Here at One Foot In The Game, we’d like to express our sorrow at such a loss.

From a personal perspective as a Welsh fan, Gary played a large part in many of my most vivid memories of Wales. He was in the squad that nearly qualified for the 1994 World Cup and was instrumental in the side that nearly qualified for the 2004 European Championships. Then recently as Wales manager he was in the process of creating a gifted and fluid side blessed with talents like Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale. For me, Gary Speed was a footballing constant, one of those rare Welsh players who was consistently at the top of the game, playing in the top flight, in European competition and winning a record number of outfield caps for Wales.

Ever since I started watching football he was involved somewhere. As a Welshman I always looked out for him in matches. When he started managing I was excited that he could maybe be Wales manager one day. When he became manager it felt right, that someone who for me was so entwined in the Wales set-up throughout my life was now in charge of the national side.

Even so, I’ve been surprised at how hard the news of his death has hit me.

After all, I never had the privilege of meeting Gary Speed, let alone knowing him. But the news on Sunday morning left me genuinely reeling and upset. The messages of shock and sadness that I saw on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter showed me that I wasn’t alone in feeling like this. While talking to friends about it a number of conversations have consisted of long periods of stunned silence as we try to comprehend it all.

These messages and sentiments, and the effect that his passing has had on so many people who appreciated him, are a tribute to how well liked he was. So, on behalf of all of us at One Foot In The Game, thank you Gary Speed for everything you gave to us.

Diolch yn fawr. Our thoughts go out to Gary’s family and friends at this tragic and incredibly difficult time.

Rest in peace Gary.

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