The Sports League

2008-12-17T14:41:00.001+01:00

A constant topic of discussion among those with long distance running close to their hearts is the lack of real quality coming through.

Given that it always seems that the same two or three win every race, it is difficult to come up with a compelling argument to eliminate those worries.

Yet, there is hope and the third day of the Road Running League provided it.

Alister Bezzina (sixth), Keith Galea (15th) and Rodney Cassar (17th) all are in their early 20s while Doreen Vella and Francesca Arrigo, both of whom in their mid-20s, finished second and third respectively among the women.

It might not be exactly the dawn of a new golden era but at least it is a positive sign.

Even so, the day undoubtedly belonged to one of the usual suspects, in this case Jonathan Balzan.

Given that he had endured a gruelling Malta Challenge Marathon just a week earlier, he would have been forgiven had he chosen to regard this as a training spin. But instead Balzan blitzed the rest of the field with a fantastic run.

For long stretches during the race, however, it was former champion James Douglas who was in the lead of a trio of athletes that apart from Balzan, included Haithem Kisheim.

It was at around 7kms that Balzan made his move, when he overtook Douglas to see what the Briton's reaction would be. This failed to really materialise allowing Balzan the possibility to run in home in a personal best time of 32:07.

"Beating two athletes of the calibre of Douglas and Kisheim rounded off a successful week and league day," a delighted Balzan remarked.

"On this course Douglas had 32.26 so I beat his mark too."

Among so many positives, the only negative note was the close proximity of two major races.

"I've never had two such important races after each other," Balzan said.

"I didn't even have enough time to savour my Challenge victory as another big race approached."

Carmen Hili, who also excelled in the Challenge, took top honours in this leg of the League.

Hili finished second in the Challenge but on this occasion she won with almost a minute to spare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X8RMLsN61I&feature=channel

Book Review: Football Dynamo

2008-07-23T07:10:00.001+02:00

Hopes around Russia’s probabilities at the European Championships weren’t that high. True, they had Guus Hiddink, a master in getting teams to outperform expectations, but their limitations were deemed to be too much even for him to overcome. After all, they’d qualified for the championships largely because of England’s incompetence and their defeat to Croatia in the final group game.

Of course, that isn’t how it turned out to be. Russia were one of the tournament’s great entertainers – their demolition of Holland in the quarter finals was arguably the best match of the whole competition - and Andrei Arshavin emerged as the true star of the tournament.

This, coupled with Zenit St. Petersburg’s greatly undervalued UEFA Cup success – this is a side that trashed Bayern Munich to get to the final – and the continued emergence of players from the Russian league where Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel is the latest example has raised the profile of the Russian game.

Given this background, Marc Bennett’s book Football Dynamo could hardly have been better timed.

Attracted by the writing of Leo Tolstoy, Bennett decided to spend a year studying the language and culture in Moscow but has stayed there for over ten years.

Not that it was always easy. Understandably for someone in an alien culture, he was initially attracted by football, something that he could easily comprehend and feel an attachment for.

Yet rather than being simply a passing interest this has developed into a true passion for the local game and this book is the result of that.

The chapters are loosely dedicated to individual sides and, through a wide range of interviews – Oleg Romantsev is the only who he fails to talk to - coupled with his personal insight on Russian culture, Bennett manages to convey what each club is about. He accepts the negative perceptions that outsiders may have of the Russian game but, rather than trying to put up arguments about why these views are incorrect, he tries to explain them so that they no longer seem so strange.

It is a successful approach, none more so when it comes to dealing with the subject of match fixing. For all the progress that has been registered and for all the money available to the likes of Zenit St Petersburg and CSKA Moscow, it is impossible to get round the rumours of corruption. Bennett never tries to give an answer as to whether this exists nor does he ever try give the impression that he will be in a position to do so, even though he does ask the question an awful lot.

Ultimately, he himself is trying to convince himself either way. Everywhere he goes, he is met by official denials and unofficial resignation that corruption is part of the Russian game. Yet neither view is overwhelmingly convincing leaving the read with the overwhelming sensation is that, whilst corruption might be present, this isn’t as widespread as some make it out to be.

Football Dynamo does not have too much historical depth to it which is acceptable since Bennett has opted to focus on what has gone one since the break-up of the Soviet Union. Even so, certain mistakes – such the claim that Liverpool never faced a Soviet side: what about Dynamo Tbilisi? – should have been polished up.

Yet these are minor quibbles. Bennett’s passion and fascination for the Russian game are infectious and, coupled with his inquisitive thirst for deeper knowledge, are elements that help make this a hugely entertaining book.

He Should Do Well: Ben Alnwick (Tottenham Hotspur)

2006-12-01T12:20:00.000+01:00

It has been a torrid couple of years for Sunderland. Following their impressive promotion to the Premiership two seasons ago, they were expected to hold their own in the top flight. Instead they went down with one of the worst records in the Premiership’s history.

Back in the Championship things didn’t get any easier with new chairman Niall Quinn first placing himself as manager and then quitting a month latter following a disastrous start to the season. In his place he appointed Roy Keane and, whilst things have gotten better, matters are far from ideal.

One of the few positives to emerge from these past eighteen months was the emergence of young keeper Ben Alnwick. His first taste of first team football came during the final three games of the promotion season in 2004-05 where he helped ensure not only Sunderland’s place in the top flight but also that they would go up as champions.

When Kelvin Davis joined the following summer, Alnwick had to step back to the substitute’s bench. Not for long, however, as a string of bad performances by the former Ipswich keeper meant another chance for the young keeper. Despite impressing Davis’ greater experience eventually won out and, much to the fan’s frustration, Alnwick had to take a step backwards.

In hindsight, the most important game during that sequence was a 3-2 defeat at White Hart Lane where, despite the loss, he made a series of impressive stops including a penalty save from Robbie Keane.

Although it is safe to assume that they tracked his progress since, it is probably on that day that he first caught their attention and convinced Tottenham to part with £1 million, as well as Marton Fulop, to secure his transfer to London as from next January.

Having represented England at every junior level except for the U21 – he was expected to make his debut in the recent friendly against Holland before being ruled out through injury – he is seen as one of the most promising keepers around. Even Roy Keane seems impressed, even though he dropped Alnwick in favour of the more experienced Gavin Ward.

Alnwick will do well to remember one of Keane’s recent comments when he said that at his age, “he needs to learn off all the experienced players especially players who train hard.” Waiting to replace Paul Robinson might seem an impossible task at the moment, but he would be hard pressed to find a better keeper off whom to learn.

Already he has shown just how good a shot-stopper he is. Undoubtedly, however, he still needs to mature in his positioning whilst he lacks the experience to handle big games. He is still far away from being ready for regular Premiership football, yet he is definitely a good enough back-up for Robinson and has the talent to eventually press for Tottenham’s number one spot. The £1 million they’ve spent should turn out to be another good investment for them.

[Football] Club’s Survival On a Knife Edge

2006-06-19T15:14:00.000+02:00

Barnet’s return to the Football League didn’t go as smoothly as had been anticipated. Runaway winners of the Conference the previous year, they struggled to make much of an impact languishing towards the bottom of the division with threat of relegation always at the back of their minds.

It was only towards the end of the season that those fears were laid to rest with a five point gap eventually separating them from second bottom Oxford. But, as has often been the case at Barnet, there was little time for them to rejoice at this result.

In the middle of May, the Barnet council announce that a road - Priory Grove - was pedestrian access only, a decision that would have effectively rendered it impossible for the club to use their Underhill Stadium.

The matter was eventually resolved, but it was the last in a long list of differences with the local council that have threatened the club’s existence.

“Barnet’s ground is outdated and is way behind other League 2 grounds” Janet Matthewson, the chair of the Keep Barnet Alive campaign explains. “The spectator accommodation is poor especially for our disabled fans. We have no credible off-pitch revenue opportunities and more importantly we do not reach football league standard. We now have only two years to bring Barnet up to scratch or face relegation. Long-term we need a stadium that meets all the criteria for a modern stadium with a viable future.”

Finding a site for such a stadium is never easy but when the club is located in an area where most free sites are either in green belt or the strictly regulated metropolitan open land, this becomes more problematic.

For Barnet, however, there seemed to be a potential solution with a site at South Underhill capable of hosting a 9,212 capacity stadium and which had received clearance from the Mayor of London. Everything looked set for Barnet to start planning for a new stadium until the council’s administration changed.

Suddenly, the development plan was changed to remove the option of building on the site at South Underhill, the council took Barnet FC to court over the price paid to the previous council for the acquisition of land and also shackled the club by putting an injunction preventing minor development activity required for safety and disabled access reasons. The Priory Grove issue was simply the latest, and one of the more petty, differences to emerge and which led to the formation of Keep Barnet Alive.

“I feel that most Barnet fans will not give up on staying in Barnet until the final hour. Common sense dictates that we need a supportive council in order to survive, something, to date, we have not had under the present administration, but our hearts are in Barnet,” Janet explains.

That the Priory Grove issue has now been resolved is, at least, a start yet the fans remains sceptic. “I am glad to see that common sense prevailed over the Priory Grove issue but that has not gone away its simply on hold! They have given back something that the club has enjoyed for years for FREE, access down Priory Grove. Suddenly the council expected them to pay through the nose for it! If common sense does not prevail over the long-term use of Priory Grove, it may well result in another court case, why should the club pay for something that they have always had? And why should the council be looking for ways to put the squeeze on the club?”

“Unfortunately unlike other councils, I feel that Barnet council do not truly recognise what a wonderful asset they have in Barnet FC. They have not grasped the wealth of opportunities that exist for partnership working to enhance our community and deal with a wealth of issues including anti-social behaviour and obesity problems among our youth.”

This potential for Barnet to be a success – on and off the field - is underlined by the fact that the London Borough of Barnet is the second largest borough in London with a population of over 310,000 residents. Their huge following was evident when promotion from the Nationwide Conference was achieved and when they were drawn against Manchester United in the FA Cup last year, taking over 5,000 fans to Old Trafford.

Yet the hopes for a ground that would enable the club to tap further into that potential seem as far away as ever. “Unfortunately no,” Janet says of their hopes for this issue to be solved. “So many of us want to ensure the long-term future of Barnet FC in Barnet but without a supportive council we have little hope of that! Travelling to other League Two grounds highlights the growing gulf between us and them. Most other clubs are very lucky to have the support of their local politicians.”

At the latest round of council elections, Keep Barnet Alive campaigned to have the current Conservative administration removed, a bid at which they failed. Does this mean that the residents don’t rank the club highly in its list of priorities? Not at all, Janet retorts. “On the contrary, there was a big U-turn by the Conservatives during the election, they went from saying nothing about Barnet FC to ensuring residents that if they were re-elected that they would be fully supporting Barnet FC.”

“On the national trend Barnet conservatives should have swept the board, and although they made gains, they should have made many more and without our campaign they would have. There were one or two prospective councillors that were particularly anti-Barnet FC, we know that as their comments on the doorsteps were reported back to us, they did not get elected so that was a result in itself!”

“All in all I feel that the conservatives now know how important Barnet FC is to Barnet residents, it is now up to them whether they fulfil their election promises to residents and actively start supporting Barnet FC or continue in their old ways until the club is gone!”

Even so, it was “a big setback as both Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors are fully supportive of the club and believe in its value to our community. Unless we can convince the Conservative administration of the club's value to our community and the advantages of working with the club to benefit the community, the future is very bleak within the borough of Barnet especially given the latest developments.”

“Over the coming months we will turn our energies into showing the council the benefits of having a football club within our community, if that falls on deaf ears, we will have done all we can because without a supportive council, we have not hope of a long-term future.”

“The KBA has always said that our key objective was to secure a long-term future for Barnet FC, and ultimately that is still our objective, unfortunately time is not on our side to secure that future within Barnet without a supportive council. It is now in the hands of the council, they have to decide and decide quickly, do they want a football club or are they happy to watch us leave?”

At least, Barnet have had the recent good news that their famous slope to the pitch has been approved by the Football League, allowing them to continue at Underhill for the time being. But even that news does little to alleviate the mood with Janet delivering a stark warning.

“Barnet FC will only survive in the borough of Barnet with the support of our local politicians, the life or death of the club is in their hands. If they fail to support Barnet FC, then the club may have to look outside of Barnet to ensure its future and that is hard for me to admit, as I have spent years fighting to ensure its future here in Barnet! Being homeless could ultimately mean the death of our club. Recent developments have put Barnet's survival on a knife edge.”

This review was originally featured on squarefootball.net on the 16th June 2006.

[Football] Head Should Rule Over Heart As Newcastle Look Ahead

2006-02-06T08:07:00.000+01:00

If, in appointing Graeme Souness as their manager, the Newcastle board took everyone by surprise there was nothing unforeseen in their decision to part ways with him this week. In one of the most predictable sackings in football Newcastle were ultimately admitting that they went for the wrong choice when this vacancy last came up.

To anyone who had scanned his track record, it was clear from the start that Souness wasn’t up to the task of fulfilling the club’s ambition. Apart from his initial managerial spell at Rangers and a decent job done at Blackburn, he had been sacked by every other club he managed.

To their merit, Newcastle continued to back their man, funding a series of expensive but ultimately flawed signings. A scan through their squad reveals only a handful of quality players. Souness’ successor will basically have to rebuild the squad from scratch.

Right now, however, the big question is who that successor will be. And, with Alan Shearer being such an icon to the fans, it is unavoidable that his name will be mentioned.

Yet the instances where players made this immediate transition successfully are rare. The only recent example is that of Kenny Dalglish who won the double for Liverpool as player-manager. Dalglish, however, had an experienced backroom on whom to turn whilst Bob Paisley was always around to help out.

Had Shearer succeeded Sir Bobby Robson in a couple of years’ time, perhaps with the former England boss assisting from behind the scenes, it would have been the ideal scenario. But trying to make the step up now would be too soon for Shearer. He should only look at Stuart Pearce’s attempt to save Nottingham Forest from relegation in 1997 or John Barnes’ failure at Celtic.
For his, as well as Newcastle’s sake the job should go to someone with more experience.

Yet Newcastle couldn’t have picked a worse time to replace their manager. With England also looking for a manager it will seriously limit Newcastle’s options. All those on the list of English candidates – headed by Sam Allardyce – will be reluctant to change jobs in the hope of filling the national team’s managerial vacancy.

The same applies to the leading foreign candidates, particularly Guus Hiddink. The Dutchman’s success in the Champions League with PSV shows that he has the ability to fashion winning club sides despite not having vast sums at his disposal. Having spent so heavily with so little return, such abilities should surely be high on Newcastle’s list.

There are other difficulties regarding foreign managers. Rafael Benitez recently admitted that it took him a year to come to terms with what is required to do well in English football. Although Newcastle won’t expect immediate success by whoever is appointed, such a transitionary period could lead to disastrous results.

Ironically therefore, it could turn out that the best available candidate is Sven Goran Eriksson himself. His recent problems in the England job have overshadowed his past as an exceptional club manager who was a success wherever he went.

An added benefit, apart from his knowledge of both the English and international game, is that he could be the guiding figure that Shearer needs if he is to start his managerial career at Newcastle.

It is, after all, something that he has already done in the past. At Lazio, Eriksson named Roberto Mancini as his assistant immediately after the striker announced his retirement. Given Italian football’s conservative nature it was a bold move but one that was popular with players and fans alike. Mancini benefited greatly as well from this exposure as it enabled him to gain experience before eventually embarking on what has, so far, been a successful managerial career.

Shearer has got the potential to do just as well. Such potential, however, will hardly develop naturally if placed into the glare of such a high-pressured job straight away.

This article appeared on http://www.squarefootball.net/article/article.asp?aid=2756 on the 4th February 2006

[Football] Liverpool Transfer Window Analysis

2006-02-06T07:59:00.000+01:00

There’s renewed faith in Liverpool these days, and not simply because Rafael Benitez’s side have been doing quite well. God, who goes by the name of Robbie Fowler among mortals, is back in red in what most probably was the most surprising transfer this January.

It is undeniably a good move on all fronts. Fowler was visibly eager to move back to Anfield whereas Liverpool have got a good striker for free with the added benefit of having boosted morale and merchandise sales.

Benitez, however, would do well to have a little chat with his predecessor about such win-win transfers. When Gerard Houllier brought Nicholas Anelka on-loan for the final half of the 2001-02 season it was deemed a masterstroke: Liverpool were getting a world class striker for virtually nothing with the possibility of signing him for a reduced fee.

And indeed Anelka played decently enough in his six months on Merseyside so much that everyone expected his signing to be a mere formality. Houllier had other thoughts however and opted against tying up the deal thereby giving his army of critics another stick with which to beat him. That he chose to sign El Hadj Diouf instead didn’t help.

Come June, the pressure will be on Benitez to extend Fowler’s stay. Whatever he decides, there’s little doubt that he’ll bee looking to get in a striker with a better record than those available. Actually, make that a striker who can actually score goals seeing that the current collection of Crouch, Morientes and Cisse have managed just eleven goals between them.
The last minute bid to sign Jermaine Defoe – apparently in a straight swap with Djibril Cisse – confirms not only this desire but also his disaffection with the French striker. As with Baros last season, you get the feeling that the club’s record signing doesn’t fit in Benitez’s plans which probably is due to the fact that apart from pace he’s got very little to offer the team.

Another area which Benitez wanted to strengthen but failed to do so is the right of midfield. The pairing with Benfica in the Champions League, as well as Chelsea’s rumoured interest, killed off any hopes of getting Simao Sabrosa whilst a move for Deportivo’s Vicotr failed to go through. Which means that Steven Gerrard will have to spend most of the rest of the season playing out wide, a position that he is good at but where his effectiveness is limited.

For some time, it seemed that Benitez would also be frustrated in his other main objective, that of providing good cover for Sami Hyppia and Jamie Carragher. When the Croat Nemanja Vidic moved to Manchester United it looked as if Liverpool had lost out on their prime target. Days later, however, they brought in young Dane Daniel Agger.

£5.8 million is a lot to pay for a twenty year old, even one who is considered to be among the most gifted young defenders around so it will take time to confirm Benitez’s judgement.

There are less doubts about the arrival of Jan Krompkamp, even though he arrived on Merseyside as a relative unknown. The Dutch international right back is what Benitez would rightly term as a ‘clever’ signing as indeed it was quite a crafty move: Liverpool shipped out the inept Josemi and got a player who will surely provide better competition for Steve Finnan.

Otherwise, Benitez continued bringing in young players to strengthen his reserves. The transfer of 17 year old Paul Anderson from Hull was formalised whilst goalkeeper David Martin – son of former West Ham defender Alvin – came in from MK Dons.

Both are long term additions just as Florent Sinama Pongolle was when he signed from Le Havre three years ago. Liverpool’s decision to allow the young Frenchman to join Blackburn on loan was something of a surprise as he had been playing quite well whenever given the chance. Apparently, Benitez felt that Pongolle needs regular match practise something that he should get at Blackburn.

Match practise is also what Neil Mellor needs. The striker who came through the youth ranks is a natural born striker but his lack of pace – ironic as that might seem given Morientes’ recent showings – has also cast doubts over his ability at this level. Six months at Wigan should help clear those doubts.

Gaining experience could also be the motive behind the other two players sent out on loan – midfielder Darren Potter at Southampton and right-back David Raven at Tranmere – although in all probability both would have left permanently had concrete offers been received.

Stated Targets: a central defender and a right midfielder.
Actual Targets: a central defender, a right midfielder and a goalscrorer
Got: two defenders. And God.
Transfer Window Rating: a divine 7.

This article first appeared on http://www.squarefootball.net/article/article.asp?aid=2745 on the 3rd February 2006.

[Athletics] Coaching expertise is the key for Maltese Athletics

2006-01-12T08:39:00.000+01:00

Thanks in part to support from the European Athletic Association, athletes from Malta have been enjoying increased success. The key, according to Malta Amateur Athletic Association President Tony Chircop, has been a long-term project to improve the quality of coaching in the island nation.

“Over the last 15 years we have provided training to more than 70 coaches and we hosted the 2003 European Athletics Coaches Association Congress,” explains Chircop. “In 2004 we decided to make another step and, with the help of a grant from the EAA Development Support Programme, we began a process to reorganise and revitalise the association’s coaching structure”.

The MAAA project has led to the creation of new positions known as “Event Coaches”, splitting the role of the single national coaching co-ordinator that the association had in the past. The new structure is designed to ensure greater availability of specialist coaching.

“As a result of our work, our coaches are more competent and we have seen significant improvements in performance levels,” he says. We have had a number of new national records and our athletes brought home 18 medals from this year’s Games of the Small States of Europe in Andorra.”

The role of an Event Coach includes working with the county’s top athletes in a specific event or event group and advising local coaches and their athletes. Qualified Maltese coaches are being selected for the Event Coach positions and given a small monthly allowance to support their work. To date, two Event Coaches have been appointed: one for sprints and hurdles and one for endurance events.

“Since we began the programme our athletes, coaches and club administrators are all more professional about preparation than before,” says Chircop.

The Chair of the EAA Development Committee Janez Aljancic has been watching the project in Malta with interest. “Although still in its infancy, the scheme seems to be working well and we are monitoring it closely to see if there are lessons for other countries,” he said.

In addition to developing the national structure, the MAAA project includes visits by international coaching experts to mentor the Event Coaches and help them develop the leading Maltese athletes.

One such expert is Hungarian Gergely Kulcsar. After hosting the 2004 European Cup Winter Throwing, the MAAA found that the popularity of the throwing events had increased but there was no qualified local coach to support the athletes. So Kulcsar was drafted in and has since made a number of visits to Malta.

Kulcsar’s chief role has been to help develop Maltese throwers and so far, he’s pleased with what has been achieved. “Those athletes who are willing to work hard have improved,” he says, “they’re better now than they were a year ago and that is down to the hard training.”

The results show that Kulscar’s work is bearing fruit. Jean Paul Callus has raised the national record in the javelin to over 60m and he won a bronze medal in Andorra.

But Kulscar knows that a permanently available coach for the throwing events is critical and his longer term objective is to work with local coaches to improve their skills. “The current situation isn’t ideal,” he says. “To bring about significant improvements you have to be with the athletes every day to see how they are training. When I’m here, I try to focus on their technique as much as possible and do the best that I can.”

Another top coach to visit Malta recently is Briton Mike McFarlane. The brief of the former world class performer who now coaches a number of leading athletes was to build on the progress made by the country’s top sprinters under Event Coach Leandros Calleja by assisting with the preparation of the national relay teams.

Following McFarlane’s trip, the men’s and the women’s 4x100m relays have each lowered their national records twice and at Small States Games in Andorra the men beat the highly rated Cypriot team to take the gold medal.

Acknowledging that McFarlane’s input gave the men’s squad a crucial edge, national 100m record holder Darren Gilford said: “His visit helped everyone, you cannot but learn from someone like him.”

With a population of just 400,000, Malta’s success in athletics will always depend on good organisation and outside expertise but, as MAAA President, Chircop is also proud to credit the
local support he has received.

“The EAA’s grant and recognition of our coaching project enabled us to attract additional funding from the Malta Olympic Committee and a local sponsor (sports goods distributor Michel Peresso Ltd.),” he explains.

“With everyone’s help, we have been able to invest significant funds in our coaching,” Chircop says, “and therein, I am sure, lays the key to our recent success.”

This article was featured on the website of the European Athletics Association on the 21st of December 2005.

[Football] Transfer Speculation:Darren Potter to Hearts

2006-01-06T12:39:00.000+01:00

The rumoured transfer of Darren Potter (pictured right) from Liverpool to Hearts highlights the harsh realities of life at a top Premiership club where, despite the millions that are invested in the development of youth talent, only a few get to make it.

At least Potter was given a taste of first team action. He played in Rafael Benitez’s first game in charge against Graz in the Champions League and was frequently used in the minor cup competitions.

As you would expect from someone schooled at Liverpool, Potter is quite a technical player with good ball-playing skills. By preference a central midfielder, his talents are best suited for the offensive side of the game yet he is disciplined enough to track back when the situation dictates so.

Potter’s problem at Liverpool was that he was never going to get an extended run in the side to gain the experience that is necessary for a young player to develop. Realistically, with players like Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso, Momo Sissoko and Dietmar Hamann dominating the heart of Liverpool’s midfield, only an exceptional player is going to break through.

Tellingly, his brief opportunities often came on the right side of midfield. This made it doubly more difficult for him to make an impact. On the rare occasion in which he was allowed to play in his favoured central midfield role – such as last year’s League Cup clash with Milwall – he was able to better express his talent. Even so, there was too little to indicate that he could permanently hold down a place with the first eleven.

A move to Hearts actually suits all parties. For Potter, it is an excellent opportunity to prove himself in a league that may not be as though as the Premiership but in a side that can genuinely challenge for the honours. The rumoured £750,000 fee that the Scottish club are reportedly willing to pay for his services is actually a very good figure for Liverpool.

As for Hearts, they will be getting a decent prospect in the Irish U21 international, someone who with the right guidance could turn into quite a good player.

This article was originally featured on squarefootball.net on the 1st January 2006.

[Book Review] ROAR of the Crowd

2006-01-06T12:26:00.000+01:00

I have a confession to make: I’ve never been able to comprehend people’s obsession with football statistics. Ground hoppers I sort of understand. At least they get to visit new grounds and watch games. What’s the point, not to mention fun, in keeping statistics?

Once, an acquaintance proudly showed me folders full of results that he’d been religiously updating for over thirty years. Whilst I was fascinated by his dedication – typically I don’t manage to update my club’s fixtures calendar after the first couple of weeks of the season – I simply couldn’t see how anyone could consider this as a fun way to fill his spare time.
Given all that, I wasn’t exactly overjoyed when I was told to review David Ross’ ‘The ROAR of the crowd’, a book that promises an analysis of over 100 years of attendance statistics of Scottish football.

Yet, once I forced myself to get down and start reading it, I was actually very pleasantly surprised. Rather than a dreary trudge from one statistic to another that I had half expected this to be, this is quite an enjoyable and interesting read.

There are two elements which particularly stand out. The first is a number of black and white photos from various eras. These are intelligently linked with the text and help portray fans’ attitudes much better than words ever could. The grainy nature of most of these photos is rather endearing and amplify the romantic notions attached to the early days of the game. The shot on the front cover of the book is typical of all this.

Then there are the brief match reports from each Scottish club’s best attended game ever. Not only has Ross undertaken an enormous amount of research to compile these reports but he also writes them with the same passion that Simon Inglis reserves for football stadiums. I’ve absolutely fallen in love with the sub-category reserved to defunct clubs, often picking off a club at random and absolutely delighting in the lovingly written report.

Focusing on these two areas would, however, be doing a disservice to the rest of the book. Ross is an intelligent writer whose analysis is lucid and objective, blowing away many myths and offers genuine insight about Scottish football. There are occasional offhand comments, such as one instance where he asks readers who have more accurate statistics to contact him via his website – that should have been tidied up yet these are offset by the overall singular design of the book.

In a market saturated by boring player biographies, ‘The ROAR of the Crowd’ is a little gem that, sadly, won’t receive the recognition that it deserves. There certainly can’t be much better books about Scottish football around. David Ross, you’ve made stattos the world over proud.

Typical Quote: “Look at it another way, fifty years ago it took the worst supported club an entire season to match one average crowd of the best supported club. Today it would take the worst supported club twelve years.”

This review was originally featured on squarefootball.net on the 1st January 2006.

[Book Review] Flower of Scotland

2006-01-06T12:22:00.000+01:00

During the past ten years, football literature has been enriched by some truly great books about Dutch football (Ajax, the Dutch and the War; Brilliant Orange), Spanish football (Morbo; Barca; White Storm); Brazilian football (Futebol; God is Brazilian) and German football (Tor) yet, surprisingly, there hasn’t been a truly memorable book about the Scottish game.

It is this thought that struck me when I came across Flower of Scotland, a book that promises and analysis of the past forty years of the Scottish game.

The author, Archie Macpherson, is actually a voice from my past. Living abroad, Eurosport was effectively my only conduit to live football and Macpherson always seemed to be the one doing the commentating.

At the time I wasn’t really aware of his vast experience, that this was something he had been doing for most of his life. So it is to be expected that he uses this book to catalogue the history of the game as he has seen it develop.

The problem, however, is that Macpherson writes in the same manner with which he would commentate a game. Impartiality and objectivity are of primary importance whilst passion or personal opinions are to be avoided.

This seems to stifle the book which, whilst interesting is never truly engaging. Those instances where he does allow his passion to guide him turn out to be the best parts of the book. Other passages are slightly more laboured particularly if they involve either Celtic or Rangers where he seems to pay attention to stick to facts rather than give his opinion which, in a book of this kind and with someone of his knowledge, would have offered the reader further insight.

The end result is a book that covers every major event of Scottish football since Celtic’s triumph in Lisbon very well, as you would expect from someone who has been so involved.

Yet, sadly, it can’t be classified as the first true classic on Scottish football: Flower of Scotland is a good read rather than a truly memorable one.

This review was originally featured on squarefootball.net on the 29th December 2005.

[Football] Rambling Thoughts and a Champions League Final

2005-12-30T09:06:00.000+01:00

So there I was, beer in hand and a stunned look on my face as the club’s biggest game for over twenty years had turned into an anti-climax after just three minutes.

When Liverpool had last won the European Cup in 1984, I was still eight years old and too spoilt on success to really appreciate what this meant. This time round, I had suffered through every minute of every game, never really believing we could go all the way and never really caring how we got there. This time, I felt that I was really entitled to celebrate.

When the final whistle of the emotional semi-final against Chelsea had been blown, I’d quickly resigned myself that a trip to Istanbul was out of the question. The impeding birth of a baby girl meant that finances wouldn’t stretch for such a ‘luxury’. And it didn’t really matter. I’d seen all the games in the same pub and we’d always got through: changing now would be tempting faith.

Milan, we knew, had imploded in the final weeks of the season. They had barely scraped through the semi-final against PSV and had lost to Juventus at home to virtually hand them the league title.

In other words, it was the sort of form you dread facing. You know that big teams like Milan don’t keep on losing. You try to build up your hopes but deep down you feel that they’re going to come out and literally hammer you.

And so it was proving to be. Maldini had scored first then Crespo and again Crespo. 3-0 and we’re dead and buried, to gratuitously put in a football cliché.

It is amazing what goes through your mind in such moments. Thoughts of gleeful workmates who must be enjoying this game more than any Milan fan, of how foolish we had been to get our hopes up and how we were going to keep the score down. My mate Chris told me that we’d go home after the sixth goal. It was a joke but probably we were both scared shitless that it would come true.

I’m wearing my ‘Justice for the 96’ t-Shirt and, in such moments, it is much more comforting than any replica shirt can ever be. ‘Come on lads, give us a hand’ goes through my mind. And suddenly I’m a lot calmer.

Then the second half starts and it’s back to watch the big screen. There’s a Milan fan in front of me and he’s enjoying this immensely. He’s been careful not to antagonise the 200 or so Liverpool fans watching the game with him, but there’s a smug look on his face that makes you want to kick it in.

When Dudek turns away the Shevchenko free-kick he shrugs. It doesn’t matter, he seems to say. Other chances will come our way.

But it does matter for suddenly Gerrard scores. He turns to the fans, urging them on. At least we’ve saved some face.

Then Vladimir Smicer scores. This is his last game for the club and, if we’re honest, no one will really miss him. Too lightweight and too often injured has been the verdict for a couple of years. Yet his final two hours as a Liverpool player overturn every perspective. This isn’t simply another foreigner running down his contract. He truly loves the club, is passionate like we are. So, before going any further, Vladimir Smicer we salute you.

Milan can’t believe this. We can’t believe this. But our players do. Baros back heels a pass to Gerrard who breaks into the box only to be felled by Gattuso. Now, Gattuso has this reputation of being something of a bastard but he’s actually a good player. Not tonight though. He’s having a shocking game and it will hit him harder than most. Like our own Jamie Carragher, he’s passionate about the team and can’t stand losing. In December, he admitted that after the final he didn’t feel like playing football ever again. It took two months for the Milan staff to get him back to full training.

Anyway, it’s a penalty and there’s something of a surprise in the man who steps up to take it. We’re not very good at penalties but even though Gerrard missed one a couple of weeks earlier against Tottenham we’re expecting him to step up. Instead it is up to Alonso, who follows up the rebound after Dida saves his shot. Cue jumping on the Milan fan and shouting in his face. Now this is what makes football special.

The rest of the game seems to pass by with increasingly anxious glances at the clock. Being ever the optimist, I’m thinking that there must be a sucker punch lurking, that Milan will score in the last minute to take the cup. This doesn’t happen in normal time but almost comes true in extra-time when Dudek somehow, miraculously saves twice from Shevchenko.

It’s on to penalties and, for the first time in the evening, I’m feeling quite confident even when Riise fails to score his kick. When Shevchenko steps up, it is clear that he’s both deflated and afraid. The thought of Dudek’s save is clearly playing on his mind as he kicks straight into the centre. Dudek, who’s being doing a very pathetic imitation of Brucie’s wobbly-legs routine throughout the penalties, is almost fooled but stretches out to save it.

Describing the rest of the night is terribly difficult. Words can’t quite describe the feeling: I don’t know if it is just me but I never really know how to react when I finally achieve something I’ve long been dreaming about. There a mixture of elation, joy and, if I’m being honest, also a little bit of relief that it’s all over.

There’s also some incredulity. Even till this day, I can’t help thinking “bloody hell, did we really do that?” And that’s what makes such moments stand out, that inner glow and warmth you feel when thinking of particular instances during the final. It is these highs that make all the lows worthwhile. This what we, as fans live for. And bloody hell is it worth it.

This article first appeared on squarefootball.net on the 29th December 2005

[Football] From Bergkamp to Zola: British Football’s Best Foreign Imports

2005-12-28T16:26:00.000+01:00

Who’s the greatest foreign player ever to have played for a British club? Fifteen years ago, such a question would have probably been laughed at, as foreign players were still view with distrust by most English clubs. Exceptions were occasionally made for Scandinavians, who were considered easily adaptable to the English game, but few bothered to experiment beyond that.

Nowadays, those inhibitions have been blown away. In the next transfer window, it is a safe bet that the majority of signings will be foreign. There’s no reason debating whether this is good or bad for the game: that is the current situation. Still there’s no doubting that many of the imports have passed through the game without making any reasonable contribution.

Some players, however, have become legends at the clubs and icons of the game. In reply to the opening question, here’s my (very) personal list of the best foreign players to have played in Britain in recent years.

10. Juninho (Middlesborough, Celtic)
When Middlesborough made a move for Juninho he was considered Brazil’s rising star – the Robinho of his time if you want – and had just put on a man of the match performance in a friendly against England.

Still however, there was plenty of scpepticism about his ability to adapt to the colder climate. But adapt he did. Surrounded by team-mates who either weren’t good enough or else couldn’t be bothered, his trickery and passion didn’t rub-off on those around him but wasn’t lost on the Boro faithful.

Quickly the bond between the two and the player many had claimed wouldn’t handle the English football combined sensational ability with an appetite for English football rarely matched by overseas players.

Flair, technique, passion and a huge heart were always on show when Juninho played for Middlesborough. Sadly, as a team they couldn’t deal with the expectations and were relegated in 1997, having also lost two cup finals. It was a heartbreaking moment for the club, and Juninho shared the fans’ pain as he openly wept when relegation was confirmed.

Eager to make it into the Brazil squad for the World Cup, Juninho moved on to Atletico Madrid where a broken leg ruined his chances of making an impact and he was never really the same player again.

Eventually, he enjoyed two further spells with Middlesborough and a stint at Celtic without ever really hitting the heights of his first experience in England.

9. Jurgen Klinsmann (Tottenham)
Few players have made such an impact in such a short space of time. Tottenham’s capture of Jurgen Klinsmann was major news in 1994 as the German was very much considered an established star and one of the world’s best strikers.

He also had a reputation of being something of a diver, an accusation he quickly replied to by performing ironic dives in celebration after a debut goal against Sheffield Wednesday.

That goal proved to be the first of many as he scored 20 Premiership goals in his first season.

Then, suddenly, he announced that he would be leaving to join Sampdoria. It was a shock decision, which prompted Alan Sugar to say that he wouldn’t wash his car with Klinsmann’s shirt.

Two years later, however, all was forgotten as Klinsmann returned to successfully help Tottenham avoid relegation.

8. Sami Hyppia (Liverpool)
If Gerard Houllier had been as astute in his other transfers as he was in signing Sami Hyppia, he would surely still be the manager at Anfield. The Finn was a complete unknown when he joined Liverpool in 1999 for £2 million from Dutch side Willem II and there was plenty of scepticism around his arrival. But he quickly formed an excellent partnership with Stephane Henchoz proving to be the bedrock of Houllier’s side.

Despite not being the fastest player around, he is rarely caught out of position or allows a striker to outrun him. Even rarer are those occasions in which he is beaten in the air.

In 2001, he played a leading role in the treble success of the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup where Liverpool’s defensive credentials were often tested to the limits. Hyppia’s performances remained as good as ever even as Houllier’s overly cautious tactics started to unravel.

With the arrival of Rafael Benitez, some anticipated that Hyppia would be sold on particularly when his former defensive partner Henchoz struggled to get a game before being freed. And at first, Hyppia truly seemed to struggle to get to terms with Benitez’s zonal marking system.

Eventually, however, he formed an excellent partnership with Jamie Carragher both of whom starred in the club’s Champions’ League success.

7. Peter Schmeichel (Manchester United, Aston Villa, Manchester City)
Over six years after Schmeichel left Old Trafford, Alex Ferguson is still searching for a suitable replacement. More than anything else that shows just how uniquely talented Schmeichel really was, probably the best keeper in the club’s history.

Signed from Brondby for a mere £500,000, he promptly solved one of United’s long-standing problem quickly ousting the erratic Jim Leighton and Les Sealey to make the number one spot his own.

The huge expectations at the club had played heavily on the confidence of his predecessors but rather than breaking Schemeicel, they seemed to motivate him. An excellent shot stopper, perhaps his biggest strength was the way with which he dominated his penalty area.

Innumerable honours were won at United, culminating with the European Cup triumph in 1999. He subsequently went to Sporting Lisbon to get away from the heavy demands of English football. In Portugal he won the league title before sensationally returning to England to play for Aston Villa. Even more astonishingly, he joined Manchester City a year later and, at 39, proved that he was still one of the best keepers around.

6. Dennis Bergkamp (Arsenal)
Alongside Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry, Bergkamp is the third player to find success at Highbury following a failed experience in Italy. It is over ten years that he arrived following an abortive spell at Inter Milan and the Dutchman has undoubtedly proven to be one of the best buys of the decade.

Extremely intelligent on the field of play, he has played alongside a succession of different strikers ensuring that each one had plenty of service whilst at the same time keeping a decent scoring rate himself.

Now in his last season with Arsenal, Highbury won’t be the same place without him.

5. Patrick Vieira (Arsenal)
When Arsenal signed this lanky French kid who had failed miserably at AC Milan, no one really expected him to develop into one of the best midfielders in world football. Yet develop he did, allaying tremendous ball winning qualities to impeccable passing which made him the fulcrum of Arsenal’s dominant midfield.

Initially overshadowed by Emanuel Petit, the fellow Frenchman’s departure to Barcelona allowed Vieira to mature even more as player, becoming the team’s heart-beat and eventually taking over as captain following the retirement of Tony Adams.

Rumours of transfers abroad persisted throughout the latter half of his nine years at Arsenal, yet when he eventually moved to Juventus this summer it was still something of a shock.

4. Henrik Larsson (Celtic)
Not only the only foreign based player in Scotland to make it into this list, but also the only ‘star’ of Scottish football who would have been good enough to play for a top English side.

A largely unknown player when he joined from Feyenoord for a paltry £650,000 who was labelled as another cheap foreign import, Larsson quickly started proving people wrong. Scoring goals in the Scottish Premiership is perhaps insolently considered an easy task South of the border and as such too hastily written off. Yet goals are goals and Larsson could score them no matter the opposition, as he regularly proved in Europe and for Sweden.

Larsson was also a very though competitor, with an unrelenting desire to win as he proved by coming back from a broken leg and a broken jaw, injuries that would have brought to a premature end the career of a less determined player.

3. Thierry Henry (Arsenal)
Henry didn’t have the best possible introduction to life at Highbury. Arsenal had just been forced to sell crowd favourite Nicholas Anelka and the man chosen to replace him was a winger who had failed to make it at Juventus.

Matters weren’t helped by profligacy in front of the net which raised further doubts over his talents.

Arsene Wenger, however, had complete faith in his compatriot and with good reason. Scary pace allied with breathtaking skill, Henry’s talents eventually started to emerge as he developed into one of the world’s best strikers.

Now elevated to club captain, the rumours linking him to a move to Barcelona must be unnerving for Arsenal fans for whom he is the undoubted star and one of the players underpinning their club’s recent successes. His ability to score apparently impossible goals from anywhere on the pitch mark him out as one of the best strikers in the game.

2. Eric Cantona (Leeds United, Manchester United)
There are two landmark moments in Cantona’s career in England. The first is when he joined Leeds, the second is when Howard Wilkinson decided to accept Manchester United’s offer to sign the French forward.

And to think that Cantona had originally been turned down by Sheffield Wednesday a sign, perhaps, of the reluctance at the time to go for foreign players. Wilkinson, on the other hand, decided to give the French rebel a chance and it proved to be an inspired choice as he helped the Yorkshire club to the league title.

At Leeds, however, Cantona was still largely a good rather than a great player. It was only when he joined United that his brilliance started to emerge.

Brilliantly influential, his desire to win – and do so with style – rubbed off on his team-mates as he helped transform a collection of good players into a great unit. If Alex Ferguson was the mastermind behind United’s success, Cantona was undeniably the charismatic leader who ensured that no one strayed from reaching the high standards set by the club.

1. Gianfranco Zola (Chelsea)
Irrespective of what he achieved throughout his career, Zola was quite simply a player who could illuminate games with flashes of brilliance: someone you would gladly pay to watch playing football. Humble and extremely likeable off the pitch, on it he could win games single handedly with an amazing array of tricks.

In many ways, Zola is the antithesis to the public imagery of Italian players. Hard working, passionate and never one to put up any airs on the pitch, the man who started out as Diego Maradona’s understudy at Napoli eventually became a legend at Chelsea where he was voted as the club’s greatest players.

The six honours that he won during his seven seasons in England – 2 FA Cups, a League Cup, a European Cup Winners Cup, a European Super Cup and the Charity Shield – do not include the league title and some consider this to be a major failing. Yet Zola made football deserve to be described as the ‘beautiful game’ and so my title goes to him.

This article originally appeared on squarefootball.net on the 28th December 2005.

[Athletics] Cilia Ends Year On A High

2005-12-22T14:51:00.000+01:00

It has been a fantastic end of year for Maltese athletics and long distance running.

First, Jonathan Balzan won two international events in the form of the Palermo Half Marathon and the International Malta Challenge Marathon. Now Charles Cilia has done likewise by winning the 22nd Calvia International Marathon in Mallorca, Spain.

Cilia, a half-marathon specialist, first tested himself in the longer distance last year at the Rome Marat-hon. He did exceptionally well to finish 17th in a field that included some world class runners.

He achieved an equally impressive result later on during the same year when he finished 26th in the ING Amsterdam Marathon but this win in Calvia is by far his most remarkable success.

Initially, however, Cilia harboured no hopes of such a finish and was merely aiming to improve on his personal best of 2.27:47. And he was well on course to achieve that before fate intervened.

"The marathon was made up of two loops over the same route and after the first lap I felt very good even if I was in fifth place," Cilia said.

"In fact, when I showed my timings to coach Ivan Rozhnov he agreed that they were good enough for a course record.

"But it wasn't simply the timings that were good, physically I felt in top condition and I had a lot in reserve to push even harder for the second half of the race."

And push harder he did, for suddenly the wind picked up making progress more difficult.

"As a route, that of Calvia is relatively flat. Yet there are two steep climbs towards the end and this is where the wind made it particularly difficult," he said.

"Not only because of the sheer force of the wind but also because it was rather cold. We're not used to such temperatures and I was practically covered from head to toe to keep warm. If you're not comfortable you can't expect to do well."

Cilia, however, wasn't simply doing well only... suddenly he found himself in first place.

"Without really planning it, I started to overtake those in front of me until I found myself on my own in first place. It was quite a surprise, so much that I asked the driver of the lead car to confirm that I was really first," Cilia said.

"I have to admit that at that moment pressure started to creep in.

"Battling with the wind had taken a lot of energy out of me and I was afraid that had I continued to push harder to get the time I wanted I would end up losing everything. So, I settled to try and control the race and win it."

Quite a consolation prize, as Cilia finished in 2:32.56 well ahead of Spain's Rodrigues who finished second and pre-race favourite, Czech Jan Blaha, who ended up in third in 2.40:46.

Indeed, Blaha is ranked as the top long distance athlete in his country and a couple of weeks earlier he had registered a 2.17 finish at the Prague Marathon making him quite a scalp for Cilia.

"It was an incredible feeling. You simply can't describe the emotions at such moments," Cilia reminisced.

"I put a lot of hard training but this more than makes up for all the sacrifice. I also have to thank my sponsors and coach Rozhnov for his dedication. His presence in Spain was a key factor in my success."

For Cilia, who is sponsored by Teamsport and Squeezy, there is little time to sit back.

He's doing well in the MAAA Road Running League but is also planning to defend his title in the BMW Malta International Half Marathon, which would be the fifth success in a row. Another full marathon - that of Rotterdam - is already pencilled in for next year.

And the Calvia Marathon?

"I'll probably be asked to go back next year as their guest athlete," Cilia said.
This article was published on The Times of Malta on the 21st December 2005.

[Football] No Hasty Decisions Needed at Sunderland

2005-12-22T14:47:00.000+01:00

These are difficult times for Sunderland. Admittedly neither the most original nor insightful observation you are likely to read about the team that is rock bottom in the Premiership and has lost its last ten games. Yet it is true nevertheless.

For Sunderland fans, it must feel as if they’re re-living their worst nightmare. In 2003 they were relegated from the Premiership with just nineteen points, the worst ever total since this came into being. Now there’s a genuine fear that the current team won’t even make it to that figure.

These are also delicate times for Sunderland. For, whilst there’s no doubting that there is a problem, finding a solution is much less clear-cut.

Unavoidably, the most obvious target is manager Mick McCarthy. The Irishman performed a minor miracle last season in getting the club promoted given their relative lack of funds. A result that was largely based on the manager’s ability to spot good players either playing reserve team football at a higher level or else performing well in lesser teams.

Six months on, however, and the memory of that success is all but a distant shadow. McCarthy is under increasing pressure and, lately, criticism.

The latter has focused on Sunderland’s preparations for the Premiership. Hindsight can be a terrible thing as it is rarely wielded with perspective. At the end of the summer, McCarthy had every reason to be satisfied with his work. He had brought in Ipswich’s highly rated goalkeeper Kelvin Davis to fill the gap left open by Mart Poom’s persistent injuries and Thomas Mhyre’s refusal to sign a new contract.

The arrival of midfielder Tommy Miller, also from Ipswich, also looked like quite a coup. Not only were Sunderland getting one of the best players outside the top-flight but they were also getting a self-confessed Mackem on a Bosman free.

Marcus Stewart’s decision to join Bristol City left a gap Sunderland’s forward line-up so in came John Stead from Blackburn. This was always going to be a tough choice to justify, given the player’s lack of goals following his initial burst for Blackburn.

Yet, with the limited amount of money at his disposal, McCarthy was never going to be in a position to buy an established striker. The same reasoning probably explains his decision to get Andy Gray from Sheffield United, a striker who was doing well in the Championship whom he thought could transfer his form to a higher level.

The problem is that, so far neither Gray nor the majority of the other summer signings have proved capable of making the step up. To compound the situation, the one player with serious Premiership experience – Alan Stubbs – has missed most of the season with injury.

As the man who brought in those players, McCarthy is ultimately the one to be held responsible. With fellow promoted sides Wigan and West Ham doing much better on a relatively similar budget, his situation is not an easily defendable one.

Except that it would not be fair on the Sunderland manager to view those signings in isolation. True, they haven’t been good enough so far – even if, on past evidence, it is debateable whether they are bad players as some are implying – yet McCarthy’s abilities shouldn’t be discarded so quickly.

He is, after all, the man who engendered a fantastic team spirit last season, who nurtured Julio Arca into one of the best players in the Championship, the one who spotted the likes of Liam Lawrence and Steve Elliot, the man who practically re-built the squad from scratch. Nor should the injuries to key-players like Julio Arca, Stephen Wright, Stubbs and Elliot be overlooked.
His critics will point out to McCarthy’s awful record in the Premiership, which is hard to argue against. Yet Paul Jewell, the current flavour of the month, endured a traumatic spell with Bradford when they were in the Premiership. Not to mention that finding a suitable replacement isn’t as easy as some seem to think as Portsmouth’s recent travails illustrate.

Defending Bob Murray, the man who ultimately will have to make the decision on whether to retain McCarthy, is slightly more challenging. There have been very visible protests against the Sunderland chairman, although there has been an equally public outcry following a vicious personal attack on Murray and his wife when they were dining out.

Murray’s main fault is that he hasn’t made enough money available to strengthen the squad. Many claim that he is afraid of over-spending and ending up in a similar situation as Leeds, a useless fear given that only gross mis-management would lead to that position.

Yet Murray’s worries stem for his recent experiences at Sunderland, particularly in their last season in the Premiership when they made desperate signings and shelled out money in a bid to save their status, something they still failed to do.

It is undeniable that Murray has made mistakes in the past. He was too loyal to Peter Reid, sticking with him for too long and he made a bad choice in getting Howard Wilkinson in. But he has also been very good for Sunderland. He is the man who oversaw the building of the brilliant Stadium of Light, surely something that should earn the fans’ eternal gratitude.

So what are the alternatives for Sunderland?

Trying to get some points over the Christmas period is a must, even if they don’t have the easiest fixtures possible. They have to regroup, organise themselves defensively, give as little away as possible and make it difficult for other teams. If they get even one point, confidence will start to return and results would pick up.

It is also crucial that they get in a couple of experienced players in January, people who know what it takes to get out of situation and lead the rest of the team. That will be McCarthy’s real test.

At the end of the day, however, Sunderland have to get used to the possibility that relegation may not be avoidable. And even that it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. This doesn’t mean that they should accept going down without a fight, which is a completely different matter, but considering the idea that another season in the Championship would help build a stronger base for the future.

This article was published on squarefootball.net on the 13th October 2005.

[Football] Benitez Planning Ahead

2005-12-22T14:36:00.000+01:00

When Liverpool lost to Burnley in last season’s FA Cup, Rafael Benitez was heavily criticised for fielding a team largely made up of young players. Benitez, probably surprised by the accusations, replied by indicating that this was virtually the same team that had beaten Milwall, Middlesborough and Tottenham en-route to the League Cup semi-final.

For him, it was only natural to use the cup competitions to test the younger players within the squad.

Which was something that his predecessor had always been reluctant to do and not only out of respect for the trophies at stake.

Gerard Houllier’s antipathy towards academy chief Steve Heighway was well know. The two had clashed over the running of Liverpool’s academy and the prevalent view was that as a result he refused to use any players who had come through the ranks.

Benitez had no such inhibitions. Twelve months down the line, however, only one of the players used in the League Cup has made any real progress.

Stephen Warnock has emerged as the most reliable alternative to John Arne Riise at left back so much that early season form won him an international call-up for England, although that might have to do more with the lack of alternatives in his position.

Under Houllier, Warnock had been politely discarded via a season-long loan spell at Coventry during which the club’s management team barely paid any attention to his progress despite Warnock being voted as the club’s player of the year. But for the change in management he would have been let go.

For others, that fate was inevitable. John Welsh, once thought to be as promising a prospect as Steven Gerrard, has just been included in the deal that took 17 year-old Paul Anderson to Anfield from Hull whilst injury prone Irish winger Ritchie Partridge was freed at the end of last season as were Mark Smyth and Paul Harrison.

Liverpool’s early exit from this year’s League Cup has also limited the opportunities available to the remaining players with both Zak Withbread and Darren Potter being told that they could be sent out on loan in order to gain experience.

All of which is fairly normal for a top club where only a limited number of players make it.

What’s abnormal with Liverpool’s situation is that Benitez has been busy recruiting young players of his own. So far eight have been signed and added to the reserve squad. Could it be that Houllier was right?

Perhaps. Last season’s reserve team was one of the worst in Liverpool’s recent history, one that struggled to win any matches. This alarmed Benitez not because the reserve team’s results are of particular importance but as they highlighted his squad’s lack of depth.

Which is what he’s been trying to solve. But isn’t spending money on players just out of other club’s academies an indication that your own isn’t delivering?

Not necessarily. Working with young players is a tricky task and you can’t always produce winners. Having gone through years of plenty during which Liverpool fans witnessed the emergence of home grown heroes like Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler, Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen and Steven Gerard, a quite period was perhaps inevitable.

Only that their earlier success heightened both the expectations and the pressure on the academy to continue in a similar vein.

Houllier may have been too pig-headed in his attitude yet none of the players he let go have gone on to better things. Similarly, Benitez’s recent additions are a by-product of the decision taken two years ago by the Football Association to eliminate the Under 17 and Under 19 leagues in favour of one championship for Under 18s.

This meant that virtually a whole squad of players were let go and those that were left are too young to make the step up to reserve team football.

Tellingly, Liverpool’s current Under 18 side is doing particularly well. The core is made up of a group of players labelled as the ‘dream team’ and of whom Heighway is reportedly extremely proud.

But most of them are still very young and it would have been extremely foolhardy for Benitez to simply wait for them to grow up.

Benitez’s Young Signings
Scott Carson
A relative bargain at just £750,000, Carson was thrown in the deep end last season and, despite an error against Juventus in the Champions League quarter final, didn’t disappoint. Seems more reliable than Chris Kirkland but could still find it difficult to displace Pepe Reina.

Antonio Barragan (right)
Perhaps the pick of the bunch, Barragan has been a class act in his reserve appearances so far. Snapped from Seville where he was being groomed as the replacement for Real Madrid bound Sergio Ramos, he has already one first team appearance and could become a more regular squad member as the season progresses.

Miquel Loque
Teenage central defender brought from Secunda Liga side Lleida, so far he has shown plenty of talent and looks quite a prospect especially once he adjusts better to the English game.

Godwin Antwi
Another central defender, the Ghanaian has largely been used as a striker where, unsurprisingly he hasn’t looked the part. Came on a free from Real Zaragoza, it already looks difficult for him to succeed.

Jack Hobbs
A towering teenage central defender signed from Lincoln, Hobbs is being utilised in the centre of midfield to gain more awareness of the game and has still looked quite a prospect. Could cost Liverpool up to £750,000.

Ramon Calliste (left)
An intriguing choice, Calliste was offered a contract at Liverpool after being released by Manchester United. Has sporadically shown glimpses of pure talent for the reserves but consistency has so far eluded him. Wales U21 manager Brian Flynn has publicly stated that Calliste has the talent to succeed but the player needs to confirm that on the pitch.

Bezjan Idrizaj
Austria’s Young Player of the Year claimed that he would have swum across the English Channel to join Liverpool. Still very young, he seems quite talented but has a lot to learn.

Paul Andersen
The 17 year-old winger had a trial spell at Anfield earlier on during the season and must have made quite an impression considering how doggedly Liverpool insisted for his signature, so much that they sacrificed England U21 international John Welsh in the deal to get him. Will now have to justify the coaching staff’s confidence in his ability.

This article was published squarefootball.net on the 22nd October 2005 and on the December 2005 issue of Anfield Island.

[Book Review] Once Upon a Time in Naples

2005-12-22T14:30:00.000+01:00

In the minds of the English public, Diego Armando Maradona is simply a cheat. The Hand of God image is the one that stuck in the nation’s collective memory putting all the rest of his achievements in a shadow.

Whish is unfortunate because Maradona is very much the kind of hero that the English love. He was the key player as Napoli – hailing from Italy’s poor South – won the only two titles of their history emerging from a history of consistent failure to beat their richer and more powerful neighbours.

In between, he scored some magnificent goals and regularly put on show his fantastic skills, all the time juggling football with a more shadowy private life full of excesses. In other words, his story is one worth telling.

John Ludden agrees, which is why he’s written Once Upon A Time in Naples, a book that focuses on Maradona’s time in the Southern Italian city. And he does a good job starting from an analysis of the reasons that led Barcelona to sell such a talent and going into his increasingly troubled stay with the occasional glance at his Argentina career.

He has also gone into a lot of detail, relaying innumerable games where Maradona starred. On the whole, perhaps there is too much detail as most games don’t really matter in the bigger picture.

Yet you can hardly blame Ludden for doing his research, something that he has done very well. There is nothing truly revealing here as everything is public knowledge in Italy – and in this sense the book would have achieved greater insight had he actually spoken to some of those who surrounded Maradona - but for the British audience most of what is written here will come as news.

The problem with Once Upon A Time In Naples is that Ludden likes to use big words. A lot. A typical excerpt is “high above in the Presidential box, Silvio Berlusconi, dressed divinely by Italy’s finest tailors, took the acclaim of the adoring crowd” . Once in a while wouldn’t be a problem but he seems to write this way constantly and continuously.

If this sort of writing style doesn’t bother you then you’ll probably love this book. Otherwise, however, I’d steer well clear.

This article was published on squarefootball.net on the 13th October 2005.

[Rugby League] Knights’ Visit Signals First Rugby League Steps In Malta

2005-12-22T14:16:00.000+01:00

It might come across like an exaggeration, but rugby has truly changed the mentality of Maltese sport. For an island with a population of less than half a million, success at the world stage, no matter how relative, was unheard of until Malta started progressing through the qualifying round for the Rugby World Cup.

As you might have guessed, however, the tacit implication there is that we’re talking of rugby union rather than league. Although rugby was introduced in Malta by the British forces and one would presume that both codes were played, it is union that stuck with the Maltese.

When the Malta Rugby Football Union became a full member of the International Rugby Board five years ago, they embarked on an ambitious project to build the national team around experience players of Maltese origin playing rugby across the globe.

The move paid off. Now, the national team plays in front of crowds of 4,000 which might not seem much but is in fact a lot, particularly when considered that the football struggles to attract a quarter of that total.

Despite this success, or perhaps because of it, not many Maltese realise that there are two codes of the game. For most rugby is rugby, seeing no reason to qualify whether union or league.

One Maltese visitor to the Malta Knights website posted a message on their forum stating “I live and play rugby in Malta for a club and for the National side. It's really good that the Maltese spirit and love of the game has created the Malta Knights” only for another poster to point out that the Knight’s rugby was different from the game played in Malta.

It was this mentality that the Knights had to address during their historic visit.

With a decent enough turnout of 500 people for the game against the England Lionhearts, the first indications are encouraging. A win always helps win people over, as did the fast and open game that the two teams played out. There certainly wasn’t any antagonism between supporters of the two codes.

“I guess it was a relief,” said Malta Knights’ coach Joe Grima, perhaps betraying the pre-match worry that the game would be played in front of empty stands. “With the success of the small crowd and the people cheering us on, I think that it went very well. I’ve had a lot of people coming to congratulate us and encourage us.”

The decision to draft in Robert Bonavia, a local player who had never played a game of rugby league in his life, was a courageous but ultimately very wise move as it ensured the support of the local rugby fraternity.

It is in that direction that rugby league must look if it is to develop in Malta. The Malta Knights provide a focal point and good results at their end will ensure a fair share of publicity. Being based in Australia, however, won’t help the game in Malta.

Yet Grima is confident that the game has a future on the island. “People are very excited and there are a lot of players willing to play the game. What we need to do is structure a programme that complements rugby union. We don’t intend to compete with union but there isn’t any reason why there can’t be a competition for rugby league outside the union season.”

Setting up such a league is also crucial for the Knights’ ultimate aim, that of qualifying Malta for the Rugby League World Cup.

“We want to take Malta to the Rugby League World Cup but to do that we need local players to be playing in the national side. Given the talent that there is, however, we feel that we have a genuine chance of qualifying.”

Up till five years ago, not many Maltese knew what a try was and, frankly, many people thought of rugby as a brutish sport. Five years of positive results have changed that attitude and you now get people discussing the national team’s rugby results with the same confidence with which they would analyse a game of football.

If the Knights succeed in their aim of taking Malta to the World Cup, the lack of knowledge on rugby league could change just as quickly.

This article was published in the November issue of Rugby League World.

[Rugby League] Not One But Two World Cups for Maltese Rugby

2005-12-22T14:06:00.000+01:00

It promises to be quite a week for Maltese rugby. Next Saturday, the national team takes on Germany looking to edge ever closer to the Rugby Union World Cup to be held in France in two years’ time. The hope is that they keep on building on the positive results registered over the past two years.

They could do worse then emulate the Malta Knights team that last week beat England Lionhearts 36-6 in the first international rugby league game to be played in Malta.

Few people outside the rugby fraternity realise that there are two codes of the game with each one being distinctly different from the other. With rugby union being favoured by the British forces, its’ popularity rapidly spread round the world whilst rugby league’s core remained England and the southern hemisphere countries.

It was here, specifically Australia, that the Malta Knights team was born. Built around players of Maltese origin, a series of games were held in Sydney before last week’s debut in Malta.

The man chosen to guide Malta for this historic game was Joe Grima. “It was quite a success,” he enthused after the game. “We were very happy with the crowd that turned up and it was quite an honour to be involved.”

The decision to field Maltese player Robert Bonavia was equally successful even if it was quite a risk as he had never played a game of rugby league in his life. Yet, as Grima explained, he had no doubt that the player would come through.

“Robert came for one of our training camps and it was immediately clear that he had both the skill and the know how to play for us. We asked his club to see if they would grant us permission to use him and once they accepted we opted to field him. And I have to say that eh played very well.” It was a move that also paid dividends off the pitch as it helped galvanise the crowd behind the Knights.

A crowd that was largely made up of local rugby union players which would indicate that there is plenty of interest in rugby league. Grima certainly seems to think so. “People are excited by the game and a lot of players showed an interest. What we need to do is structure a programme of rugby league games in Malta. We don’t want to compete with rugby union so perhaps there could be a competition outside the union season.”

Setting up such a competition would also help the Malta Knights in reaching one f the main goals: getting Malta to the 2008 World Cup to be played in Sydney.

“We want to get Malta to the World Cup. However to do we want to get a mix of local players along with Maltese players who live abroad.”

“Naturally, a lot depends on the qualifying groups and we’re not going to compete with the likes of England or Australia. Yet we believe that we stand a genuine chance of qualifying.”Should rugby union fulfil their own expectations and unless Grima’s faith in rugby league’s chances is misplaced, 2007 and 2008 could see Malta take part in two Rugby World Cups within twelve months of each other. Not that would be quite a year.

This article was publised in The Times of Malta in October 2005.

[Motor Sport] Bright Start for A1 Grand Prix as Motor-Sport World Cup Captures Imagination

2005-12-22T13:55:00.000+01:00

Just as Fernando Alonso was making motor-sport history in Brazil by becoming the youngest driver ever to win the Formula 1 title, a young Brazilian was making motor-sport history back in Europe.

Nelson Piquet Junior’s victory in the inaugural A1 Grand Prix at Brands Hatch may have attracted less publicity than Alonso’s third place finish in Interlagos but it wasn’t any less spectacular.

Not that Sheikh Maktoum – the brains behind A1 Grand Prix not to mention the man who has reportedly stumped £250 million to bring his dream to life – will appreciate comparisons between the two series.

Indeed, he stresses that his vision is for the two series to progress in parallel. “I see A1 as complementing Formula 1,” he said during an interview with Paul Grech. “We are aiming at a new and different market. A1 Grand Prix is a winter series; our schedule does not conflict with Formula 1’s. We would like to provide current motor-sport fans (from Formula Ford, F1 and Champ Car too) with good racing during what has traditionally been the motor-sport off season.”

The A1 concept is intriguing and innovative in equal measures. Contrary to other racing series, all drivers use the same Lola cars on V8 Zytek engines with the only distinguishing features being skill and nationality. Bereft of driver aids, skill is crucial to do well whilst nationality is equally important seeing that A1 is effectively a series where different countries compete against each other, hence the reason why A1 Grand Prix is being branded as the World Cup of motor-sport.

“There has never been a global series like this before,” Sheikh Maktoum enthused. “Other premier motor-sport series started regionally and then tried to export themselves internationally. This is the first one created with the intention of involving and representing up to 80% of the world population. This is the first World Cup of Motor-sport that has started internationally and established itself globally by being exclusively inclusive.”

Judging by the number of Brazilian, Dutch, Pakistan and – naturally – British flags on display among the staggering 80,000 crowd at Brands Hatch for A1’s first race, the concept is quickly catching on.

Such a reaction is hardly surprising, seeing that consideration for fans has been central to the whole plan, as evidenced by the £29 price set on tickets: a third of the cheapest ticket for Silverstone.

“From the very beginning I have paid attention to what fans want and what the sport needs to make it interesting for them. I do research by devoting a lot of my personal time to finding out what they have to say. I visit forums that are discussing A1. If a fan makes a valid point I will act on it.” His words are backed up by facts: when a website asked its readers for their views on the A1 project, they were contacted by Sheikh Maktoum himself who asked for contact details of all those who replied in order to send them free merchandise.

“The fans are the absolute end customer, and the customer is always right. I have to say that the response from the fans has been overwhelming and quite positive, and I hope that I manage to give them their money’s worth when they watch a race and that they feel it is time well spent when they watch it on TV.”

Yet the real test for A1 will come in the coming races where attention will be on whether interest levels will remain as high once the novelty value starts to wear off. After all, there remains some scepticism as to whether a one car make series can be fun. Again, the signs are positive. Formula 1 veteran Jos Verstappen found the going hard at Brands Hatch indicating that this series isn’t won’t be a walk in the park.

“One of the things we count on to make the A1 series interesting is not only the overall race and who wins but the races within races that will inevitably be there – for example Pakistan vs. India,” adds Sheikh Maktoum. His theory was borne out immediately as the duel between Great Britain and Australia was one of the highlight at Brands Hatch.

“Also, due to a close points system, the final outcome/winner of the race will not be evident until at least 60% of the race has completed.”

Inevitably however “there will be a disparity of skills and talent as there is in any global sporting event such as the Olympics especially at the beginning.” An avoidable crash by Lebanon’s Khalil Beschir provided ample proof of this in the opening race.

Yet the simple fact that Lebanon is competing is an exceptional innovation for motor-sport. As Sheikh Maktoum is eager to point out A1 will be opening up motor-sport to 80% of the world’s population. And that can only be a good thing regardless of which racing series you prefer.

This article was published on www.maltasport.com in October 2005.

[Book Review] Matchday by Chris Green

2005-12-22T13:45:00.000+01:00

"Younger people simply aren’t watching football matches…the Sky generation are content to watch the game at home in their armchairs and are rarely interested in darkening the doors of football grounds. Their parents are happy to dole out £40 or so a month to watch footy on Sky, or are just priced out of the loop altogether. A worrying implication, because as with so many other activities, if you don’t get ‘em when they’re young you don’t get them at all. Top clubs may be smug at the moment, but the longer term implications are dire."

In the light of the recent decline in Premiership attendances, Chris Green’s words sound eerily prophetic. Indeed, if those who run the game really want to find out the reason for this decline, they could do much worse than reading Green’s book ‘Matchday’.

Not that he purposefully sets out to catalogue the major sins of football in our era. Instead, the book is intended to examine the role of the matchday – the fact that this doesn’t implicitly refer to Saturday is one of the major changes that has come about in the past decade – for people involved in the game at various levels.

He does so by meshing together a typical matchday of an array of characters. Each one of those selected to feature in this book has different motivation for his passion and actions yet it is possible to thread similarities between all of them. Sadly, the fact that it cost the marriage for a lot of them is one such connection. It is something that makes the author ask whether it is worth it, perhaps making him reflect on his own experiences. If I’m being honest, it is something that I’ve occasionally found myself wondering as well.

And there are plenty of instances where the reader can empathise with those whose story is being told here, their feelings if not their actions. Intelligently, Green keeps a narrative thread throughout, often interjecting with his own thoughts (and experiences) that add perspective to the story he is telling.

This makes it all the more enjoyable to be drawn in, although it is easier to get attached to certain characters then others with Bob Marley – the chairman at Worcester City – being the main one. Others are less so: James Alexander Gordon and Stuart Hall add very little (perhaps because they are less inclined to open up to the author than others) whilst even Green struggles to get to grips with the anally retentive nature of groundhoppers, ultimately concluding that one particular hoppers he comes across “just needs company.”

In his introduction, Green acknowledges the input of David Conn, the author of a couple of (excellent) books detailing the recent failings of football. Indirectly, ‘Matchday’ tackles the same issues as Green get to talk, somewhat nostalgically, about how much the game has changed, often for the worst and how little is being done to connect with the community.
Yet there is one critical difference between the two writers. Conn’s literature can be, well, depressing. Green’s book is an uplifting read which looks into the soul of football (yes, it is still there) and leaves you eagerly looking forward for more.
This review was published on squarefootball.net on the 3rd of October 2005.

[Rugby Union] Un Sogno Mondiale Per Il Rugby Maltese

2005-12-22T13:36:00.000+01:00

Fino al 1990, il rugby a Malta era uno sport per pochissimi appasionati. Poi c’e stata una radicale rivoluzione amministrativa e il rugby e’ presto diventato uno degli sport piu popolari.

Ieri
Come si puo aspettare da un isola che per oltre duecento anni a’ fatto parte dell’impero Brittanico, i primi a giocare a rugby a Malta sono stati i sudditi di sua maesta con frequenti partite fra i soldati basati a Malta.

Nel 1946 fu fondato l’Overseas Rugby Club, la prima squadra che conteneva anche dei Maltesi. Non c’erano campionati e gli unici confronti erano quelli con le squadre della Royal Navy, Royal Air Force o dell’armata Inglese.

Negl’anni 70 il rugby comincio a essere giocato in due scuole – il St. Edwards College e il Tal-Handaq College – dove c’erano molti figli dei soldati stazionati a Malta. Ma quando le forze Inglesi lasciarono l’isola nel 1979, sembro propio che il gioco del rugby aveva i giorni contati.

Pero’ un gruppo di appasionati continuo a giocare quando e dove’ possible tanto che nel 1983 fu fondata la squadra dei Phoenicians con l’intenzione specifica di mantenere vivo il rugby.

Ma la vera svolta arrivo negli inizzi degl’anni 90. Nell’Universita di Malta s’incontrarono dei fanatici del rugby e la loro passione presto influenzo molti altri. Entro pochi mesi fu formato l’University Rugby Football Club mentre l’Overseas Rugby Club fu rifonadato. Presto nacquero altri due club: Kavallieri e Stompers e finalmente si comincio a giocare sul serio.

L’interesse continuo’ a crescere e nel 2000 la federazione locale - il Malta Rugby Football Union – si iscrisse con la FIRA e per la prima volta nella storia prese parte alla Coppa Del Mondo.

Oggi
Uno dei piu attivi in quegli anni formattivi era Kevin Buttigieg, il presidente della MRFU. Nato a Malta, Buttigieg aveva vissuto in America per i primi 23 anni della sua vita ed era completament ignoro del’rugby. Poi un incontro casuale durante una vacanza a Malta con degli amici che stavano andando a giocare una partita accese in lui un passione per il gioco della palla ovale.

Trasferitosi a Malta, fu lui il motore carismatico che dava vita alle aspirazioni e la visione del rugby Maltese, anche se con l’aiuto di molti altri. Sotto la sua supervisione, la squadra nazzionale comincio ad attirare giocatori di discendenza Maltese che vivevano al l’estero. Questi portarono ai primi successi in gare internazionali che accese nei Maltesi un interese in questo sport dove – a contrario di molti altri – la loro squadra poteva aspirare a qual’cosa altro che sconfitte.

La vittoria sulla Danimarca lo scorso Maggio che apri le porte al terzo turno di qualificazione per la’ Coppa Del Mondo fu seguita da’ oltre 3000 spettatori, non solamente un presenza record per il rugby Maltese ma piu’ di cinque volte il numero di persone che regolarmente vanno a vedere la nazzionale di calcio.

Questo interesse popolare a portato alla formazione di un altra squadra – gli Sharks – mentre ci sono anche’ tre formazioni femminile.

Anche la’ MRFU sembra intenzionata a cavalcare l’onda di questo successo. “Abbiamo un bel numero di scuole che pratica il tag rugby,” dice Buttigieg, di nuovo presidente dopo un intervallo di due anni. “Il rugby ora viene pratticato in almeno 30 scuole. Stiamo preparando dei corsi per isegnanti di educazione fisica che vogliono sapere di pui sul nostro gioco.”

“Poco a poco stiamo costruendo un infrastruttura per sviluppare il rugby giovanile. Il nostro obiettivo e quello di avere circa 3000 ragazzi e ragazze giocando a rugby entro il 2007.”

Intanto il campionato locale continua a fiorire. Fra di loro, Kavallieri RFC e Overseas hanno dominato gli ultimi cinque stagioni (Kavallieri hanno vinto tre scudetti mentre l’Overseas due) ma la competizione si sta facendo sempre piu aguerrita.

Per i giocatori che militano nell’MRFU Cisk Lager League si e’ anche formata una nazzionale specifica: la Malta ‘A’. Allenati da’ Damien Neill – che e anche il direttore tecnico e l’allenatore della squadra nazzionale – venticinque giocatori quest’anno parteciperanno ha degli amichevoli con squadre Siciliane.

Domani
“Se dovessi scommettere, direi che Malta vincera il gruppo.” Cosi Kevin Buttigieg giudica le possibilita’ della sua nazionale di superare il terzo turno delle qualificazione per la Coppa Del Mondo che che gli mettera a’ confronto con Germania, Croazia, Serbia & Montenegro e Belgio. “Quello e’ il nostro sogno. Non sara facile ma se riusciamo a farcela e superare questo girone avremo delle buonissime probabilta. E io penso che c’e la possiamo fare.”

Fondamentale saranno i giocatori recrutati da altre nazzioni, anche se tutti sono strettamente di origine Maltesi. “Stiamo preparando un’eccellente squadra. Abbiamo una lista di giocatori che possono giocare per Malta, perche ci sono giocatori di discendenza Maltesi che giocano ad altissimi livelli in tutta Europa.”

Se si considera’ che il rugby a Malta si gioca a certi livelli soltanto da cinque anni, questo e l’unico modo per ottenere dei buoni risultati a livello internazzionale. Il futuro, pero’, sara tutta un altra storia.

“I giocatori locali non hanno ancora l’esperienza di giocare a questi livelli pero’ i giovani che stiamo allenando avranno molte piu possibilita. Il nostro obiettivo e quello di avere quattro o cinque giocatori fra i profesionisti in Italia. Se ce la mettiamo tutta, credo che certi giocatori potranno sfondare fra i profesionisti entro il 2007. Di sicuro potranno farcela entro il 2009.”

Scheda:
Malta Rugby Football Union
Presidente: Kevin Buttigieg
Presidente Onorario: Louis Farrugia
Direttore Tecnico e Allenatore Squadre Nazzionali: Damien Neill
Allenatore Giovanili: Mike Beerman
Sito Internet: http://www.maltarugby.com/
Indirizzo: Malta Rugby Football Union, PO Box 18, Gzira, GZR 01, Malta
Telefono: 00356 99427999 o 00356 212484375

Albo D’Oro Campionato MRFU Cisk Lager
2004 – 05: Kavallieri RFC
2003 – 04: Overseas RFC
2002 – 03: Kavallieri RFC
2001 – 02: Kavallieri RFC
2000 – 01: Overseas RFC

Albo D’Oro Coppa di Malta
2004 – 05: Kavallieri RFC
2003 – 04: Stompers RFC
2002 – 03: Kavallieri RFC
2001 – 02: Kavallieri RFC
2000 – 01: Kavallieri RFC
1999 – 00: Overseas RFC

This article appeared in the October 2005 issue of the Italian magazine La Meta Del Rugby

[Book Review] ‘Golden Past, Red Future’

2005-12-22T12:46:00.000+01:00

Over the coming weeks, Liverpool fans can expect a flood of books analysing every aspect of their club’s amazing Champions League triumph in Istanbul last May. Most will be a rush job, commissioned soon after Jerzy Dudek saved Andri Shevcenko’s penalty in a bid to capitalise on the supporters’ inevitable desire to devour anything linked with that glorious night. In other words, many publishers will have sensed the opportunity to make some easy money and will be doing their best to do so.

Such an accusation certainly can’t be levelled towards Paul Tomkins. The self-published author of ‘Golden Past, Red Future’ and a contributor to a vast number of Liverpool sites had long announced his intention to publish a book looking at Rafael Benitez’s first season in charge. For him it was simply a stroke of very good luck that Liverpool won the Champions League as it certainly boosted sales.

Yet Tomkins deserves all the positive fortune that comes his way. His was a risky decision: everything pointed towards a season of transition where, no matter how good the quality of his writing, sales would have suffered.

But back to the book. Although ‘Golden Past, Red Future’ is a look back at the 2004-05 season, Tomkins avoids to common pitfall of such books where authors feel compelled to write about every minute of every match. One would assume that the average reader will remember the games they’d just endured and would be looking to read about the essence of the season.

This is what Tomkins provides. He has examined every aspect of last year giving an overview of a number of topics ranging from the sale of Michael Owen, the early criticism of Benitez’s zonal marking and the lack of young players coming through at the club.

Each one is discussed in detail. A lot of detail. Tomkins does not have the gift of charismatic persuasion so instead he opts to convince the reader by the sheer volume of his arguments. It is an effective method, thanks to the vast amount of research that has obviously gone into this book.

‘Golden Past, Red Future’, however, does have its faults. Tomkins constant and often unnecessary use of brackets becomes irritating if, like me, you start paying attention to them. And the closely packed print can be tiring.

Yet these are insignificant criticisms. As with Liverpool’s triumph last May, ‘Golden Past, Red Future’ doesn’t have too many frills but in the end it’ll prove to be much better than the classier titles that will be published in the coming weeks.

This article was originally written in September 2005. PDF versions of this book are now available for sale at £2.95 here.

[Football] Eboli Ultra Successful But Will It Change Italian Mentality?

2005-12-22T12:17:00.000+01:00

The typical Italian response to a crisis is to demand that the state does something about it. This includes every aspect of public life including, inevitably in a country mad about the sport, football.

When Fiorentina were found to be bankrupt three seasons back, the fans took to the streets first demanding that liquidation be reversed and, when the impossibility of that proposal sunk in, that the city’s mayor use his influence to find someone to save the club. The same happened in Naples twenty-four months later and, to a lesser extent, at other clubs like Como, Pisa and Venezia.

The idea of the fans themselves actually taking over the club is completely alien to Italian culture.

Yet the local approach doesn’t always work. Whereas Napoli were lucky in that they found a new owner and were only demoted to the Serie C1 – the third tier in the Italian league structure – others, most notably Fiorentina, have had to start from scratch.

Which makes the recent developments at Pro Ebolitana all the more interesting.

The 14th of July 2004 marked the start of a unique story in Italian football. Having struggled to fulfil the expectations of a club currently playing in the Campionato Eccellenza – non-league – but with a proud history of league football the Maiorano family that owned the club announced that they wanted out. If anyone wanted to take over the club they were free to do so, otherwise it would be wound up.

Since in Italy local councils are seen as having the moral responsibility for ensuring the survival of the local football team, not to mention often owning the club’s ground, the instinctive reaction to this announcement was for the Eboli council to approach local businessmen in a bid to get them to take over Pro Ebolitana.

It was only when their attempts failed that the fans, and in particular the members of the Nucleo Sconvolto Ultras group, stepped forward going round the town to collect the 7,800 Euros needed to renew the club’s membership in the Eccellenza. Days later they were given the go ahead to run the club.

For anyone not familiar with Italian football this might not mean much but in reality it was a significant leap of faith. Ultras are often the most extreme of supporters with violence and radical political ideologies high on their agenda.

Armando Cicalese, seen as the leader of the Eboli ultras and the man chosen to be the club’s new president, had a track record of run-ins with the law as had most of those asked to form part of Ebolitana’s administrative board. The potential for trouble was both considerable and real.

Instead, it has been a case of poachers turning into game keepers. “In our first board meeting, we decided to revise the club’s statute,” Cicalese explains. “The first rule was that the players would have to salute the supporters at the end of every game. It is written in their contracts and they have to do it.”

“Once they forgot to do it so I went down to the dressing room, kicked the doors in and forced them back on the pitch,” he says, signs that the old ultra mentality hasn’t petered out completely.

“The second decision was to ban politics from the stadium. We’re all reds but it doesn’t matter.”

Those two key decisions have led to impressive results both on and off the field.

At the end of their first season in charge, Pro Ebolitana won not only promotion to the Serie D (effectively the fifth division) but also the trophy awarded to the club with the best supporters. It is difficult to determine which is the most significant of those two results. Throughout the season they were fined just 100 Euros for minor offences, a historical low and a rarity in a country which is grappling with a serious problem of violence among different supporter groups.

Despite claiming that promotion to the Serie C2 is the next target, life remains a struggle. Everyone helps in the best way that they can. Marco Forlenza, the club’s technical director and an owner of a printing press, prints all the tickets and posters free of charge. His brother Massimo handles the ticketing operations and has even reached an agreement with the factory where he works so that the cost of a season ticket is deducted directly from the employees’ wages.

Somehow they’ve managed to survive and find the monthly 10,000 Euros need to cover expenses. They’ve also managed to sign Brazilian striker Teodoro who was recommended to the club by Careca, the former Napoli striker.

Promotion bonuses were paid out in the form of mozzarella and boxes of kiwi. With the club having no administrative offices, post-match reunions are held in the president’s blue Opel Vectra often lasting till late into the night until manager Egidio Pirozzi’s explanations fully satisfy his bosses.

At least Pirozzi, a local man who ironically never played for Eboli but always managed to score important goals against them, can find comfort in the knowledge that his relationship with Cicalese and co is much better than it used to be. “Once,” Marco Forlenza recalls “we sent him a coffin with his name on it to warn him against doing well against us!”

And so Pro Ebolitana moves onwards. Cicalese, however, admits that he would gladly go back to be a supporter showing none of the populist instincts that drove his hero Che Guevara.

“We feel that ours is only a temporary situation. We’re willing to step aside if a serious investor steps forward and is willing to guarantee a squad capable of challenging immediately for promotion to the Serie C.” There’s a certain reluctance in his concluding remark that “otherwise we’ll continue in this manner.”

Clearly, the British spirit to return football clubs back to the fans has yet to take root in Italy. Yet with the national newspapers media focusing on the Ebolitana story and hailing it as the model to be followed by others, a precedent has been set and the seeds for a change in mentality have undoubtedly been sown.

This article appeared on the September 2005 issue of the Supporters Direct magazine.

[Triathlon] Triathlon Championships of the Small States of Europe Continue to Evolve

2005-12-22T12:13:00.000+01:00

This weekend, one of the least known triathlon ranking tournaments takes place in Luxembourg. Its lack of notoriety, however, isn’t down to bad marketing but rather to the very nature of the event: only athletes hailing from European countries with a population of less than one million can compete in the Triathlon Championships for Small States of Europe.

The original idea behind the setting up of these championships was that of having triathlon included in the Games for the Small States of Europe which a mini-version of the Olympics. That aim has yet to be achieved, but the decision taken by the ITU and ETU in 2003 to allocate ranking points to this competition decidedly gave it a new impetus.

Cyprus’ Bambos Spanoudis spells out what this meant, and how much it meant, for triathlon in his country. “The Triathlon Championships of the Small States of Europe is virtually the only chance for the Cypriot athletes to get any ranking points.”

“All other events are either too competitive for our standards or too expensive for our budget to participate in. The whole of our funding is coming from the government and we feel that we should not improvise but enter events with a good chance of producing some results.”

Although Luxembourg has a good number of well established athletes – including Liz May who finished 17th at last year’s Olympics - Jean-Pierre Ernzen, sports director at the Luxembourg Triathlon Federation, feels the same way. “It was a good idea to attribute ITU Points as athletes can promote themselves. As you know to be in the top 120 in the world, you have to participate all over the word, and be competitive enough! So yes it’s true that it is a small help for athletes of small nations”

The impact of this decision has been far reaching as Manuel Azzopardi, President of the Malta Triathlon Association explains. “ITU and ETU recognition has meant that the TCSSE forms part of an elite group of International Races and consequently it is not only athletes who vie to be chosen by their respective Federations to participate in it, but 'states' like Gibraltar, the Faroe Islands, Guernsey have written to us to seek inclusion for their athletes.”

Inevitably, the championships have helped raise the overall level of triathlon in all the countries taking part. “The TCSSE has helped to improve the general level of triathlon in Malta, particularly in the women's category,” confirms Azzopardi. “In Cyprus last year, Maria Mifsud Bonnici showed that she has the potential to win it when she finished just fifteen seconds behind the winner Jackie Komes of Luxembourg.”

The impact on Cypriot tri-athletes was even more significant. “The increased possibility of a good performance in the Championships and a place on the podium in comparison with the other international events made more athletes change their attitude towards the sport and switch from recreational participation to serious and systematic training and participation with aim to qualify for this specific event.”

There are however, divergent views on whether these championships have made triathlon more popular with the general public. Spanoudis is adamant that they have played a key role.

“The popularity of the sport is gradually increasing in Cyprus and in my opinion a vital role plays the fact that these championships are organized every year,” he says.

“In the early years of the Cyprus Triathlon Federation we have attracted athletes from the swimming discipline that wanted to try an alternative sport. In the last couple of years and after the successful Championships of the Small States of Europe and the clear chance to compete abroad with fair chances, more athletes from the running and cycling discipline are attracted and even young athletes with triathlon as their first sport.”

Yet in Malta, it would seem that triathlon has yet to capture the general imagination. “Sad to say this but nonetheless true: despite the generous media coverage, despite its Olympic status, triathlon remains a minor sport practised by the few here in Malta.”

“The TCSSE does attract elite athletes from other sports, like David Galea who can switch from cycling to triathlon with relative ease, but popularity remains elusive. If triathlon were to be included on the GSSE programme it would receive more media coverage, which will in turn enhance its popularity.”

From Azzopardi’s words it would seem that a real breakthrough would be made if triathlon were to be included in the GSSE. Triathlon was once again missing from the list of sports to be held in Monaco where the games will be taking place in two years’ time, so are they still hopeful of ever making it?

Yes says Azzopardi. “I believe so. Certainly not in 2007, when the GSSE will be held in Monaco but I believe that in 2009, when the GSSE will be held in Cyprus, we stand a good chance of seeing Triathlon at last on the programme. Cyprus have a young and promising team and they have the backing of their National Olympic Committee.”

Ernzen is similarly confident. “We have to fight for it. In all the small Nations we have to introduce a letter emphasizing the history and the development of triathlon.”

“We already include five countries - Luxembourg, Monaco, Cyprus, Malta, and Liechtenstein in our championships. In Iceland triathlon is now better known, they held their championships and will take part in 2006 edition of the TCSSE.” So I think we do have to choose a responsible of the different countries that will defend our interest more definitely on Olympic committees.

“I’ve heard that the Luxembourg National Olympic Committee has already taken note of the triathlon federation’s work and results so I’m sure that our request will be analyzed seriously.”

Spanoudis continues in a similar vein. “These Championships started as a test of the ability of the triathlon Federations of the Small States, with their limited budgets, to stage big events and lead the respective federations to come together and work collectively for the inclusion of triathlon in GSSE.
“During the years followed we have proven that with a lot of effort and volunteer work, this dream is not untouchable. Last year, when the race was held in Cyprus, it was put under the auspices of our National Olympic Committee and they have followed closely all the organization aspects and the success of the race.”

“They are convinced that triathlon is a sport that deserves to be in the program of GSSE and they have agreed to campaign for this goal among the other National Federations. In my opinion this is a good step for achieving our aim since the program of the GSSE is decided by the National Olympic Committees.”

“Also during the race in Cyprus, the participating countries agreed to form a confederation with main objective to work towards the inclusion of triathlon in the GSSE. The statute of the new body was formulated and agreed in general lines.”

History of the Triathlon Championship of the Small States of Europe
Lobbying for the inclusion of triathlon in the Games of the Small States of Europe has been ongoing since 1991. Yet it was only when it was announced that the 2003 games were to be held in Malta that a concentrated effort was made to reach this goal.

The holding of a competition for all countries taking part in the GSSE was the main feature of the plan. This was held in Malta on the 21st of May 2000 and at the time was called the Coca Cola May Olympic Challenge. Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta took part in that first edition.

Monaco joined those three nations for the second edition that was again held in Malta the following year. However, by the time those championships came about the Malta Olympic Committee had the informed the Malta Triathlon Association that, despite being short listed, triathlon hadn’t made the selection.

Even so, in 2002 the championships were held once again in Malta as they were in 2003. It was in this year that the Triathlon Championships of the Small States of Europe received the boost of being officially recognised by the ITU and the ETU with ranking points counting for World Championships and Olympics being granted to the winners.

In 2004, the championships left Malta for the first time with Cyprus taking over the responsibility of organising them. This year’s edition will be held on the 2nd of July in Luxembourg.

This article was written in June 2005 and published in varius Triathlon publications.

[Athletics] Anything Possible, If Everyone Pulls In The Same Direction

2005-12-22T12:06:00.000+01:00

Mike McFarlane shouldn’t really need any introductions. A former European indoor champion in the 60m dash and an Olympic silver medallist at the Los Angeles games, he was one of the British sprinters of his generation.

Nor should anyone really require an incentive to listen to McFarlane talk about athletics. His competitive career has been followed by an equally accomplished coaching one, so much that last year he was chosen by UK Athletics to take charge of the British relay team.

Yet, it would seem that not everyone sees it that way. Recently invited by the MAAA to oversee the final preparations of the local relay teams in their bid to qualify for Andorra, the number of coaches who took an interest was dishearteningly low.

“There are some coaches who think that they can’t learn anything new or feel that I can’t teach them anything as I come from a different background which has nothing in common with Malta,” he said, trying to explain this behaviour perhaps to himself as much as to anyone else. “That’s not the case. I haven’t come here to preach and I don’t have all the answers. What I do have is a theory and methods which I believe work.”

McFarlane is refreshingly honest, setting aside the diplomatic rhetoric that seems standard on such visits. He is also a keen observer who takes little time to analyse a situation. Typical, one might add, to someone who made his name as a sprinter.

Best of all, he doesn’t limit himself to identifying a problem but helpfully also put forward a possible solution. “Malta is a small country, so the set up that you have is adequate.” Which, in other words, means good but could be better.

“What you have to look at is finding ways of getting young people interested in track and field. It is very difficult – we have the same problem in the UK – because you’re up against other sports like football and basketball.”

“But, from what I’ve seen, you’re doing the right thing in starting small and working your way up. If you try to have great things at the beginning there’s going to be a problem.”

Lately, Malta has been blessed with good sprinters. Athletes like Darren Gilford and young Jeandre Mallia have done well in re-defining the boundaries of local athletics. Yet they have yet to make a breakthrough in the international arena. Does Malta have what it takes to produce athletes capable of doing so?

“All things are possible and that’s the honest truth. You have good weather and they say that the best sprinters come from the South in America because of the weather.”

Weather alone, however, isn’t going to fashion an athlete. “I think that the coaches have to sit down together and maybe model a sprinter based on what is available. They have to think outside the books, try to pick other people’s ideas and look at what’s right for the individual in that event.” The moral of which is that, for Maltese athletics to move forward, everyone has to pull in the same direction.

This also happens to reflect, McFarlane mentality best of all. The OBE that he was awarded in 2001 wasn’t really for his sporting achievements but rather for the work that he carries out in the community.

A community that is currently bidding for the 2012 Olympic Games. Coming from East London he is more than aware of what this would mean to the area. “Huge,” he says of the possible impact of the Olympic Games being held in London. “It would change the inner city and bring so many opportunities to people. Secondly, the majority of the British athletics squad is from London and that tells you that the talent pool is from London.”

“So it would bring a lot of good things to East London, it would bring a lot of good things to London and it would bring good things to the whole of UK.”

This article was originally published on The Times of Malta in May 2005.

[Athletics] Following National Record, Chouhal is Looking for Eight Metre Jump

2005-12-22T11:59:00.000+01:00

Maltese sport has been strangely quite these past few weeks. So much that you’d be hard pressed to believe that most athletes are entering what should be the most intense stage of their preparation for the Small Nations Games.

Last weekend, however, everything changed. A plethora of new national records were set in the National Pool underlying the improvement of swimmers like Kyle Scerri. And, as if not to let his sport be outdone by its aquatic rival, Rashid Chouhal achieved the most notable result of the current athletics’ season when he set a new national mark of 7.71 metres in the long jump.

It would be easy to rationalize this record as being the by-product of the desire to make into the squad for Andorra. But such judgement would be too hasty, not least because Chouhal achieved the Minimum Qualification Standard way back in January. Meaning that there must be other motivations.

Talking to Chouhal it emerges that there are two.

First of all, there was the intensity of the competition. “Last Saturday’s meet included a number of good quality foreign athletes. That makes a huge difference. Mentally you focus much more. Often in local meets, I am the only senior and have to compete against juniors. No disrespect to them, but there are times when I end up out-jumping them by two metres.”

Given such a result, one would assume that Chouhal must be eagerly trying to compete abroad. A wry smile, however, indicates that a sore point has been touched upon. “Naturally, I’d like to compete abroad. I have lined up something in Switzerland and perhaps Hungary or Italy. But I don’t have any sponsors and have to fork everything out of my own pocket.”

Wherever you go in Maltese sport, that seems to be a common theme and often it is only the athletes’ inbuilt determination that allows them to progress.

Rashid is just one of the many local athletes who train hard every day. Talk about training brings us to the second reason for his improvement. As a good all round athlete, he competed in various events without every really imposing himself in any one of them. Which perhaps explains why it was way back in 2002 that he had set the previous long jump national record.

This year, he decided to narrow down his focus to just the long jump. “I may occasionally take part in the sprints but my main objective is definitely the long jump. That is what I’m training for and that is why the jump meant so much for me. It shows that I’m on the right track.”

So, how far does he think he can jump? “Last Saturday I had a couple of no-jumps where I just over-stepped the mark. On both occasions I asked them to measure the jump regardless and on both occasions they were well over eight metres. Therefore I know that I have it in me to jump that distance.”

Few doubt his potential, yet he has to start nailing such big jumps on a regular basis. “That’s true. However, it is often also down to luck. But, as I said I know that I can do it. That is my ambition, to achieve the qualifying standards for the big events and not have to rely on wild cards.”

In hindsight, there are two other reasons why Chouhal is doing better this year. After a number of years with Pembroke Athleta, this year he’s switched allegiance to Zurrieq Wolves who he say have been “very supportive from day one.”

Then there’s his wife Antonella, herself a leading athlete in the shot put. “If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t manage. She’s very understanding and her support allows me to get into the right frame of month.”

With gold and a potential games record within his sight for Andorra – “if I compete,” he adds – the future is looking bright for Chouhal. Yet, the feeling is that only that elusive eight-metre jump will satisfy this ambitious athlete.

This article was originally published in the Times of Malta in April 2005.

[Athletics] Sprint King Gilford Eager for More

2005-12-22T11:44:00.000+01:00

As Darren Gilford boards the plane to Andorra for the upcoming Games of the Small States of Europe, he’ll draw confidence from the knowledge that it has been a tremendously successful month, even by his own high standards.

In recent years Gilford has been the undisputed leading athlete in the 100m. Further confirmation of that status – if any was necessary – came at this year’s edition of thee Eurosport Adidas National Championships when he set a new national record of 10.54 seconds.

“I knew that I was capable of getting the record and, since the weather conditions were ideal, I told myself that I could do it.”

“However, I think that I can do better. Given the right conditions I believe that 10.4 is within my capabilities.”

Gilford’s record in the 100m was just one of a number of highlights of the national championships which saw a host of new national bests.

Spurred by the incentive of making it into the squad for Andorra - as well as the knowledge that this would be the last available opportunity for them to do so - the men’s 4 x 100m team finally got it right after a series of disappointing showings.

Inevitably Gilford was also involved in this success. “Breaking a national record always feels great. We’ve been training very hard with Leandros Calleja, so much that I’ve had to cut back on my normal training to keep up. I don’t think that we’ve ever trained as regularly in the relay as we have this year.”

The recent visit by top British coach Mike McFarlane also helped. “I think that everyone learnt from his visit. Unfortunately he didn’t stay for very long. I’m certain that if he could come back and stay for a little longer every athlete would benefit.”

Yet, although the record was enough to guarantee the team’s participation at the GSSE, Gilford isn’t entirely satisfied. “At the championships the changeovers went very well especially the one between me and Mario Bonello. Still I feel that we can do better. In fact, I think that we can do much better.”

It all bodes well for Andorra although Gilford doesn’t let on regarding his hopes. “If I get a new personal best I’ll be happy. But I’m not really thinking about that at the moment. I want to stay calm as much as possible and try not to let the pressure get to me.” So much that he admits that as yet he doesn’t know the level of athletes he’ll be facing. “I’ll think about that when I get there.”

Nor will he be too bothered by the local mentality that dictates that medals are the true measure of success. “I’d much rather finish last and set a time of 10.20 than win with a much slower time.”

Few, if anyone, with more than a cursory interest in athletics would disagree. Whether the same can be said for those who follow the progress of Maltese athletes simply when such events come along is much more doubtful.

Hopefully, Gilford will be able to keep both camps happy with a new national record that results in a podium finish.

This article was originally published in the http://www.timesofmalta.com in March 2005.

[Interview] ‘As Much a Fan as Any One of Us’

2005-12-22T11:21:00.000+01:00

In an era where anyone (should be read as any idiot) can post his opinions on the Internet, it is hard to identify what is truly worth reading. How many times have you clicked on a promising title only to find either rehashed ‘news’ items or else some piece of complete drivel?

Fortunately, there are still some writers you can rely on. Derek Dohren is one of them. Author of a series of excellent articles on his various Boot Room related websites (http://www.lfcbootroom.net/), he has just written his first book that, appropriately, is the autobiography of the last boot-room boy Roy Evans. ‘Ghosts On The Wall’ does offer some revelations (Evans wanted to sign Teddy Sheringham, for instance) but over all it sheds light on the life of a man who was a loyal Liverpool servant for over thirty years.

How did you first meet Roy Evans?
I wrote to Roy via the club to see if he would let me interview him for the Boot Room web site. He contacted me and agreed to do it and invited me down to meet him.

What made you decide of doing his autobiography? How did it come about?
After I did the interview with Roy I just chanced my arm and asked him if he had ever thought about doing a biog. I had always been keen to write something more substantial than what I’d been doing with the web sites and writing Roy’s story gave me the opportunity to pull together strands from all the other bits of Boot Room history I’d learnt over the years. Roy wasn’t keen at first but he left the door open and I pestered him for a few months before he finally agreed to give it a go.

Who came up with the title ‘Ghosts on the Wall’? And what does it refer to?
I’d entitled the interview I did with Roy (now viewable at http://www.royevans.net/) ‘Born And Red’ and thought that would make a good title but I didn’t want to use that again. Ghost On The Wall came out of a comment Roy himself made when he left the club in 1998, referring to the option he’d been given by the board to stay on at the club in some sort of boardroom capacity. He decided to break totally with the club saying he didn’t wish to remain as a ‘ghost on the wall’ haunting Gerard Houllier who would now be in sole charge.

I thought the title also worked well as a reference to all the ghosts of past Boot Room managers Roy was constantly being compared to.

What were your views of Evans before you met him? Be honest now!
I always thought he was a down to earth Scouser who loved LFC and was as much a fan as any one of us. That view was reinforced during the writing of the book. He is a very easygoing bloke and is seen as a pushover because of it though I think this is unfair. Nothing really changed after I met him.

In what way did your opinion of him change, if it did change, when you were doing the autobiography?
I think the reputation Roy gained as a lax disciplinarian was revealed to me as being a bit of a lazy cliché. I met plenty of ex-players who dismissed this idea saying that Roy’s trouble with controlling players was part of a bigger problem that was endemic within the game during the early-mid 1990s. New money was pouring in and the players were in the first flush of the player-power that has since taken control of the game.

Attitudes changed as players became more powerful and Roy was largely powerless to deal with this. The old school methods that had worked in earlier times whereby the older pros would help police the younger players went by the board simply because players didn’t see their future careers were tied in to any particular club. They had the money and the freedom to do as they wanted. It was never in Roy’s armoury to be a ranter and raver but Liverpool managers had never had to be in the past.

What was the most astounding thing that you learnt from Evans whilst writing the book?
The way the club treated him when he left was shocking to me. No pay off for seven months and no formal acknowledgement of the 35 years he had spent there. Staggering, particularly in the wake of how badly the club is perceived to have treated Shanks when he left.

Despite being such a likeable figure, most people think that he was a failure at Liverpool. Considering his league placings and the style of football he played, do you think that with time people will look back and judge his time as Liverpool manager differently?
The ‘revelations’ in the Collymore book have done Roy’s image a lot of harm. He is now seen as a kind of buffoon who gave the players free license to behave as they wished, yet ask anyone in the game who they have more time and respect for, Collymore or Roy, and you will get your answer. This false image fits in with the pre-conceptions fans already had about Roy and I fear he will always be remembered as a guy who was too nice to be a manager. The whole point of the book though was to say to people – look this man was here for 35 years and was an integral part of the club’s golden era. He was manager for a mere 4 years yet his whole stay at the club is judged on those 4 years, a period when player power first began to get out of control. That seems a little harsh and short sighted to me. As far as the future goes I really don’t know how perception will change but I would like to think that if people read Ghost On The Wall they would come away with a different perspective.

Although you were the editor of the hugely popular shankly.com and paisley.com, this was your first effort at writing a book. How did it feel? Was it more or less difficult than what you anticipated?
It felt natural to do a book. I was obviously already familiar with the subject matter and although at times I got a little bogged down it came together ok. I was a little disappointed that Roy didn’t open up more. He told me plenty of off the record stuff but he was adamant about the type of book he wanted it to be – purely football with no kiss and tell stuff and very little personal revelation. That frustrated me at times but the longer it went on the more I appreciated that this was what Roy wanted. It was important to write the book he wanted not necessarily the book I wanted. In that respect I think the book is quite refreshing for a modern day football biog – it just sticks to football.

What do you have in stock next? Any further books planned?
I have one or two ideas but to be honest I’d like to get back into the swing of writing for my web sites as they have been neglected for a year or so. I like the feeling of autonomy the web gives you and as an editor you can publish pretty much whatever you like. Nevertheless, I don’t rule anything out and I don’t rule anything in!

Who would be your dream subject?
Kevin Keegan.

About ‘Ghosts on the Wall’
An England schoolboy starlet Roy signed apprentice forms for Liverpool in 1964, plucked from under the noses of Everton, Bolton, Wolves and Chelsea. Under the tutelage of Joe Fagan Roy began to learn what the game was really all about. Although he failed to grab a regular first team slot the Boot Room spotted his latent talents and when Shanks retired in 1974 Roy was offered a coaching position on the staff.

The rest, as they say, is history.

'Ghost' tells the untold story with revealing insights into :
Roy - the schoolboy starlet.
The Boot Room personnel.
America and the NASL in 1973.
The reserve team years, 7 titles in 9 seasons and of course Howie Gayle.
Kenny, Souness and behind the scenes at the Heysel and Hillsborough disasters.
Becoming manager.
Robbie Fowler, Stan Collymore and The Spice Boys.
Those transfers. Sean Dundee anyone?
Houllier - why it was doomed from the beginning.
The bitterness of departure.

ISBN - 1840188324
Published by Mainstream (25.10.04).
Available at all good book shops
(and some rubbish ones too) - £15.99

This article was originally written in November 2004.

[Football] Roy Evans: “I Always Remained a Fan”

2005-12-22T11:14:00.000+01:00

When newly appointed Wales boss John Toshack announced the names of his assistants, most people were surprised to see that of Roy Evans included in the list. Apart from a brief stint helping out at Fulham and as Director of Football at Swindon, he had been out of the game ever since resigning from his post as joint-manager to Gerard Houllier at Liverpool.

Evans, once the holder of one of the more prestigious jobs in the game, had become something of a forgotten man.

“I wasn’t expecting a call as such, but John did call me before he got the job,” Evans explains, indicating that perhaps he was equally as taken aback about getting the job. “Part of his application for the post was to show that he had a team put together. He asked if I would be interested in working as an assistant and I said I would be. I’m working alongside the lad from Spain and we don’t have any fancy titles as such - we are both there to assist John in his role as manager.”

This lack of ‘fancy titles’ is hardly going to bother one of the most down-to-earth men in the game although, in hindsight, such an attitude might have worked against him in the past.

“No, there were no qualms about it at all. As I said I’m not the assistant boss as such but just an assistant. I don’t have any great ego about fancy job titles.”

“Maybe that’s what cost me the job at Liverpool!”

Still, it is evident that Evans is happy just to be back in football. “I’m there to help John in whatever capacity is necessary. I don’t have great experience of international football but it’s great that you can always learn new things in this game and I’m looking forward to it very much.”

Such statements are typical of Evans’ characteristic to play down his abilities. For over thirty years he was a member of the legendary Anfield bootroom, working behind the scenes to ensure the club’s continued success, which included four European Cup triumphs.

By the time the Liverpool board decided to appoint Evans as manager, however, they had been surpassed by Manchester United. Evans was expected to guide the club back to the top of English football.

Despite going mightily close on a couple of occasions and never finishing out of the top four during his reign as manager, the League Cup won in 1995 was the only trophy success for Evans.

When Gerard Houllier was brought in to be his co-manager, it was the beginning of the end. A couple of months into the new season, a tearful Evans bid farewell to the club that had been part of him most of his adult life.
Surprisingly, there’s no bitterness as Evans looks back ‘with great enjoyment’ at his time at Anfield. “I had a great 35 years with lots of success and I worked with some of the greatest people who have ever been in football.”

“As far as the managerial spell goes I was disappointed we didn’t have more success but we did our best and I still feel my league record was a good one.”

In his recently released autobiography ‘Ghosts on the Wall’, Evans admits that he tried to sign Teddy Sheringham before the striker moved from Tottenham to Manchester United, a player who would have certainly given them the experience that Evans feels they lacked “at the crucial time and that would have made a difference to us.”

“You can only do your best and I felt that’s what I did. Some things go for you and some things don’t but overall I was in charge of a great bunch of lads which was contrary to the press opinion at the time by the way.”

Such a defence of his players is perplexing seeing that many feel that their indiscipline and lack of determination led to Evans’ downfall.

“I don’t agree with that,” he re-iterates. “We all pulled in the same direction and it was a case of just trying to get the right mix and balance. Perhaps one or two players may look back and say they let themselves down but overall I feel we all worked well together.”

“It was very difficult trying to pull Manchester United down from the top of the tree because they were so strong but we were only just short and failed in a great way - if you can have such a thing.”

The fact that Liverpool haven’t managed to win the league since Evans left further strengthens his arguments, although he’d much rather see the club being successful. To paraphrase what his successor Gerard Houllier had to say on his final press conference, he may have left Liverpool but Liverpool never left him.

“I always remained a fan. There was a little bitterness for a short while after I left but basically you have to get on with your life and snap out of those things. I feel just as much a fan as anyone else and I go along to Anfield whenever I can nowadays.”

And, like most fans, he’s enjoying the football that they’ve played this season. “I follow the club very closely and Rafa’s doing a great job. We’re a lot easier on the eye this season and I’m pleased to see us playing in a more attacking style.”

“We’ve lacked a bit of steel away from home but you have to remember Rafa’s only been in the job a short while - it takes time to find your feet, and he’s had to deal with a fair amount of misfortune with injuries and so on.”

For the man who doesn’t like titles, being called a true Liverpool fan is perhaps the biggest compliment of all.

In his recently released biography ‘Ghosts on the Wall’ Evans admits that he had tried to

The saying of his mentor Bill Shankly – ‘first is first, second is nothing’ – came back to haunt him. How could someone with such a track record fail to attract attention earlier?

“Basically, I think I failed to make it clear when I left Liverpool that I would be available to work elsewhere,” he admits with his customary frankness. “People assumed I was out of the game for good and maybe I could have been a bit more pro-active in looking for work.”

This article was originally written in November 2004.

[Football] ‘Local Players have to Provide the Heart Beat of the Club’

2005-12-22T10:47:00.000+01:00

It has now been 14 years since Liverpool last won the league title. The club that used to dominate both English and European football now struggles to reclaim its past glories. And, despite a number of cup triumphs, recent achievements suffer in comparison to earlier successes.

Yet there is one area where Liverpool have undoubtedly been successful and that is in the development of young players. The past decade has seen the emergence of Steve MacManaman, Dominic Matteo, Robbie Fowler, Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard, all players who have gone on to represent their country.

Frank Skelly has overseen the development of all those player and indeed of any other player to come through the ranks at Liverpool during the past thirty years. When Liverpool set up their academy – which includes facilities built at a cost of £12 million – he was the natural choice for the role of Operations Manager.

A good level of coaches is one of the cornerstones of the academy system introduced in England in recent years with the aim of raising the overall standard. “One of the aspects of academy football is to improve the skill factor and the technique factor of English players compared with the likes of the Portuguese, Spanish and Brazilians.”

“I’m not saying that we’ve bridged all the gaps but we’re certainly better than we used to be. I think that in the coming European championships most of the players will have been through academies or centre of excellence systems. That is good for our game and hopefully it will continue to be that way.”

“I think that the England team will do extremely well because I think they’ve got the strongest and the best quality players that we’ve had for a very long time.”

Yet, at the same time, more than ever young English players face an uphill struggle to break through with an increasingly larger number of places being taken up by foreign players. “It is a personal view but I feel that our country needs to have the best of foreign players because that lifts the standard of the game.”

“However, it has gone too far because there are foreign players coming in who are no better than the academy players and the boys feel this as well. It is not just our club, it is right through the country.”

Although Skelly’s standpoint clearly makes sense, it is improbable that clubs will ever manage to regulate themselves. Meaning that only exceptional players will emerge.

Skelly has certainly seen plenty of those, with the two most recent additions to the list being Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen. “They were always extremely good. Steven came when he was nine and Michael when he was ten. But no one could ever say that they would be as successful as they have been.”

Yet, particularly for the fans, it will always be important that such players come through. “We have a very supportive chief executive, chairman and board who still see the value of producing home-grown product. As a local guy and having worked at the club for thirty years, I believe that the local players have to provide the heart beat of the club so that when the time gets tough their desire will rub off on the other players.”

This article originally appeared on www.walkonlfc.com in May 2004