Where’s Carlos?
You have to wonder how Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United are feeling after the departure of Carlos Queiroz who’s taken over as the new coach of Portugal. Slightly let down you would have thought. Mind you, it can’t have come as too much of a surprise as the guy has a bit of previous when it comes to leaving United in the lurch. Five years ago, the lure of Real Madrid proved too much to turn down and Queiroz went to the Spanish giants, lasting only one hugely disappointing season before returning to Manchester in his old ‘number 2’ role. Four years on, and he’s off again. In fact, the Portuguese job is the 11th he’s had since his professional coaching career started in 1990. 11 jobs in 18 years? That either makes him not overly loyal or not overly good. You decide.
Fowler Trial
New Blackburn Rovers boss Paul Ince is apparently offering his former Liverpool colleague Robbie Fowler a trial at Ewood Park. Not sure about you but the word trial when used in conjunction with a 33 year old just doesn’t see right somehow. A trial is what you give a 15 year old kid or an unknown foreigner who rocks up at your club with a letter from his agent informing you that he’s the best thing since Pele. I think we can safely assume that a man who is the fourth highest scorer in Premier League history knows where the goal is. The only thing Fowler has to prove is that he retains the level of fitness required to play at the very top level. So why not call it exactly that – a fitness test and get on with it.
Slave? Idiots!
Being a slave equates to being forcibly removed from your friends and loved ones, being transported around the world in the cruellest of conditions, being treated with unspeakable barbarism and often being killed for little or no reason. It does not equate to being paid huge sums of money, swanning around in a £100,000 motor car, living in a big house and having millions of devoted fans. Sepp Blatter and Cristiano Ronaldo have both shown their total ignorance of history with their fatuous remarks of the past few days. They should both be ashamed.
Growing Michel
From the emails and comments I’ve received, it’s clear that many of you have clocked that I’m not a great fan of Uefa boss Michel Platini. Great footballer, yes. Great administrator, no. Annoyingly, for me anyway, despite scouring the sports pages and numerous web sites, I’ve been unable to find anything that he’s said or done this week to complain about. So instead, I’ll leave you with this question. Do you think that Michel eats at the same burger bar as Ronaldinho these days?
