Owen’s brochure
Oh how they laughed, cackled and joked. The 32 page promotional brochure put together by Michael Owen’s advisers was ridiculed by ‘those in the know’ with comments ranging from “comic” to “desperate.” And where is Owen now? On the books at Old Trafford that’s where. So it wasn’t quite the joke everyone perceived it to be was it?
Oh, and though I hate people who say I told you so, I told you so. This appeared in Oh Kay 3 weeks ago: Given the number of big-money failures that have blown through the Premier League over the past few years, surely Owen must be worth a punt to someone? Anyone got the number of Owen’s agent.I might just ask for 10%!
Racism and Uefa
This column has long argued that Uefa hasn’t done enough to stamp out racist behaviour on the terraces. Some of the punishments they’ve handed out to try and combat this appalling trait have been nothing short of laughable. So one has to applaud Europe’s governing body for their latest strategy which will empower referee’s to suspend or even abandon matches if there is racist chanting by fans.
Under the new rules, the first step will be to halt the match and issue a demand over the public address system for the racist behaviour to stop. If this measure proves ineffective the second step will be applied and the teams will be taken off the pitch for five to ten minutes. If racist chanting continues after the second step has been applied, then the Uefa delegate and referee will have the authority to abandon the match. Now here’s a sentence you don’t see too often..well done Mr Platini.
Overblown Madrid
You have just got to love the attitude of the employees at Real Madrid. After Cristiano Ronaldo had touched down in the Spanish capital ahead of his medical and public unveiling, the Madrid web site wrote this classic sentence: “Ronaldo prepares for the most exciting day of his life.” Really? Notwithstanding he’s played in World Cups, European Championships, won the Champions League, Premier League, Carling Cup, FA Cup etc, being paraded in front of his new fans for a club that’s won pretty much b****r all recently rates higher than that lot does it? OK, 80,000 people turned up but you get the feeling that 10,000 Madrid fans would turn out to the opening of an envelope.
Let’s not forget that the current big-spending Madrid president oversaw one of the most barren spells in the club’s history when he last went about signing up every big name player he could think of.
Ronaldo will be lucky to win half as much as he has with United in about twice as long. Exciting? Perhaps for his bank manager!
Is it really Real?
Still with Madrid, there’s an old girl down at my local amateur club who makes the tea, cuts up the half time oranges and cleans up the dressing rooms after the players have done for the day. The general consensus is that she’s not particularly good at any of these three tasks.
But astonishingly, even though she’s in her 63rd year, she’s been approached by Real Madrid to take on a similar role at the Bernabeu. Well, actually, that’s not really true. I made it up. But given the way that Madrid is buying up virtually everyone involved in the game, it’s surely only a matter of time. Good on you Mrs Doggett.
I agree that Real are basically hijacking everything good in football at the moment, seems as though the Prem is just picking at the scraps…
Ronaldo’s unveiling was live on TV as well.
For an hour before he appeared, these 5 talking heads said how good he was, before they showed some video if him scoring, then the same goals from a different angle, then the same goals in slow motion and finally the same goals with some opera music.
God it was dull.
And then they went on for another hour after his presentation.
Talk about overkill.
Not sure if Owen’s brochure will have swayed SAF but it might have just ignited his interest??
Having paid Ă‚£80 million, I’m not surprised Real Madrid made the most of his intro to the club.
Who’s going to be the next Owen?