PFA Awards
Ryan Giggs is a sensational player and has been an incredible servant to Manchester United for nearly 20 years as a 1st team player. He lets his feet do the talking on the pitch and he rarely puts a foot wrong in his life away from the game. However, he should not be the PFA Player of the Year. This is nothing against Giggs but rather the antiquated voting system used by the PFA. Surely in this electronic age, a new arrangement could be employed where members vote on a near season long campaign as opposed to just a few months of performance as they do now. How were they to know, for instance, that even in late April, Giggs would have only started a dozen or so Premier League games. That’s just not enough to win this particular accolade. Perhaps Gordon Taylor, the UK’s highest paid union official, should drag his organisation out of the dark ages and insist upon a more contemporary voting scheme. Perhaps he could use that fancy, new fangled, computer thingy called…..email. Or is the only electronic message he cares about the one that tells him that his enormous monthly pay-check has been deposited in the Taylor bank account?
Floored Dani
Like Giggs, Dani Alves, on his day, is magnificent. A Nike poster-boy, he was sensational in the second half for Barcelona versus Chelsea in the Champions League. Flying up and down the flank, creating the extra man, whipping in crosses and free kicks. A shame then that in the first half, he spent most of the time writhing around on the floor in pretend agony. Alves twice went down after being touched with the force which wouldn’t have troubled an asthmatic butterfly and when Chelsea had the temerity to take the ball of him, he hit the deck as if he’d been gang-tackled by a herd of charging elephants. But my favourite moment came late in to stoppage time at the end of the game when, having been legitimately tackled he buckled as if having been shot by a sniper in the upper tier, only to bounce back up again 5 seconds later when Barca regained the ball. As one of my mates girlfriends said last night: “Do you know, Dani can be a girls name too.” Exactly.
FA maths
For their FA Cup semi final against Manchester United, Everton sold over 32,000 tickets. For the final, the FA has allocated the club 25,000 tickets. With Chelsea receiving a similar number, it means around 40,000 tickets will go to what the FA likes to call the ‘football family’. How on earth can the FA justify giving out less tickets for a final than a semi final? Oh sure, they’ve got VIP’s, friends, politicians and other football officials to invite but 40,000. Come on. In reality, it means the ‘true’ Everton and Chelsea fans will be forced to pay over the odds from some dodgy kerb side character while other people, who never watch a game from one year to the next, get in free via the FA’s back door. Scandalous.
Pitch battle
Let’s hope that whoever turns up to watch the FA Cup final gets a spectacle to remember on a pitch that doesn’t resemble, as it was famously described as last week, a pudding. After the Wenger / Ferguson pincer movement following the FA Cup semi finals, the FA has decided to lay a new pitch. Amazingly, this will be number 7. Or it might be 8. I’ve lost count to be honest. Only in the UK could you build an £800 million stadium for sporting events and forget that the most important things in it are not the VIP seats, the toilets or the free U2 concert tickets, but those pesky blades of grass. So now the groundsman, who came late to the project, has been sacked while the company that has overseen the installation of the previous 7 failed pitches remains. With thinking like that, do you get the feeling that the problem isn’t going to go away?
Dani Alves was real actor last night I have to say but that is what we learn in South America, 🙂
But the guy doesn’t stop running the commentators in Spain call him MotoGP.
Alves? have you watch Chelsea play lately? Drogba. Watching him play is histerically funny, he clutches any part of his body as soon as a challenge is made on him. I think this would become frustrating to those players around him wanting to get on with the game. I understand that late in the game this can be used as “tactics” but he does it way to often to be considered that. He is a fine, skillful player who can score brilliant goals but he would do so much better for himself and his team if he kept the ball moving along and stayed up.
Would agree that Drogba did his fair share last night but at least he has a roll around after a challenge.
The first two times Alves fell in a heap the nearest Chelsea player was in Madrid!!
To be honest, i didn’t think Drogba has been as bad simulation wise as of late. But he does have his moments…
Agreeing with you there Aussie Lad, when I see him take tumble now it’s a real ‘hand-on-the-forehead’ moment; like ‘Come on Didier! You were doing so well! I almost respected you!’
I had no idea that was the case for tickets for the final, how in Gods name do the expect to break even on the construction costs for Wembley if they’re comp’ing almost half the seats! Joke!
They’re not exactly comp’ed Kyle but I get your point.
For many clubs and fans, the FA Cup is the biggest game of the year and the allocation should reflect this.
Whilst many of the 40,000 other tickets will be paid for, they will be so by people who don’t really care that much or by real fans who will have been fleeced by the touts who get their tickets from the ‘football family’ year in, year out.
Guess what? Regardless of your problems with the voting system, Giggs still won. And also, you have nothing to do with this award so get over it. “OH KAY”?
The real problem with the Chelsea Barcelona game wasn’t so much the diving for me as it was the tactics of Chelsea. It is the reason I am an Arsenal fan through and through. Ever since Wenger came in to the club, Arsenal have played football the way it should be, with passing and movement that could arguably be the best in the world, even when it doesn’t provide them with wins or silverware, as it hasn’t the past four years. Chelsea went into the game against Barcelona and just sat 10 men in deep and hoped they could keep Barcelona from scoring. Yes, this may give them the upperhand in the tie, and they only must produce a one goal win at home, but they buy arguably the best players in the world each transfer window and don’t have the courage to play like they would against any team in the Prem. Playing for a draw is okay in some instances, but when your payroll to your players is as high as Chelsea’s is, there should never be such a lack of ambition to try to keep the ball and win a game rather than simply not losing it.