Rafa v SAF

Anyone else finding the spat between Rafael Benitez and Sir Alex Ferguson outrageously funny? I know I am. They are like two 6 year old’s squabbling over a lollipop. Last week, Fergie is quoted as saying “The interesting thing as far as Rafa Benitez is concerned is that he’s got a European tie (against Chelsea) and he’s talking about Alex Ferguson. Fantastic - I didn’t know I was that important.” Fair point you might think. But what does SAF doe a couple of days before his side’s FA Cup semi final with Everton? Well, obviously thinking that irony is something they make floodlight pillars out of, he has a go at Benitez after his alleged show of contempt to Sam Allardyce. Shouldn’t some one at the EPL or FA, like the LMA have tried to do, tell these two to start behaving like adults?

Pitch battle

Neither boss is blaming the pitch it seems, but it’s worth pointing out that the only 2 managers taking a pop at the playing surface at Wembley had just seen their sides lose an FA Cup semi final. To be fair to Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson, the pitch was poor and the FA have now agreed that something needs to be done. In the meantime, perhaps they could implement the following rules:

a) FA Cup semi finals to be held at Premier League grounds just like in the good old days

b) Ban American Football (not completely, just keep it off the pitch)

c) Oasis concert in July (YES), Coldplay and Girls Aloud in September (NO)

d) All Wembley bound teams to receive instruction from Scunthorpe and Luton who played out a brilliant Johnstone’s Paint Final on the pitch in question.

Superfly or Vapor V?

There’s been some confusion of late, on this website and others too, as to what Theo Walcott has been wearing recently. Even the official Nike website was unclear on the issue. The Superfly, Vapor V with the lace cover removed or a standard Vapor V? Which got me thinking. Have Nike missed a trick here by designing two pairs of boots that, from a quick glimpse or from distance, could be mistaken for each other? Obviously, hardened boot aficionados will spot the differences but the world wide football boot market isn’t exclusively made up of experts. If you design two boots that you hope will become iconic in their field, wouldn’t it have been more sensible to given them both a degree of individuality and exclusive styling?

Change the EPL – you’re Arshavin a laugh

I do hope that all the bigwigs at Uefa and Fifa took the time to tune in to Tuesday’s Liverpool v Arsenal game at Anfield. You know the one. The 8 goal thriller which took Liverpool back to the top of the Premier League. The game that Liverpool, lost, won, lost and then drew. The game where Andrey Arshavin had 4 chances and scored from all of them. The game that provided breathless entertainment for both the crowd and the live television audience. They don’t like the Premier League you see. They don’t like the foreign owners, the TV money, the wages etc. In fact, I don’t think Michel Platini likes the EPL because it isn’t, well…..French. Find me a game from across Europe over the past few weeks that matched what we saw on Wednesday and I might give them more of my time. Until then, if Blatter, Platini and their mates would rather watch predictable, sterile and poorly attended games in Italy and France then so be it. I don’t think they’ll be missed to be honest.

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