Tommorows fixture with Germany should prove more interesting than the average friendly, partly due to the interesting choices in the squads personnel with an assortment of unfamiliar faces sprinkled into the squad and partly due to the fact that we are facing our old teutonic foes. Personally, I would love at some stage, perhaps in the second half when German legs are tiring, to see Walcott (EDIT : this was written before he managed to bloody injure himself, ok replace him with SWP), Agbonlahor, Defoe & Young on the pitch at the same time. Imagine that quartet surging foward on the counter attack. A lot has been made of the selection of Michael Mancienne. All I will say on the subject is that most people that are writing him off have never seen him play and that I have faith in the managerial abilities of Capello, so if he thinks he is good enough, then I'm sure he's good enough.
Enough talk. When the handshakes are being dished out at Hampden Park, Terry Butcher should clasp Diego Maradona's mitt, pull him foward and crack him with a swift headbutt. Naturally, I wouldn't normally condone football violence (or any violence I guess) but given the yap all week about grudges and snubbings, I just hope that there is some end product to all the media hype about the encounter. It would certainly make for a contoversial start to Maradona's reign !
Dario Gradi must be pissed off. He had what is still the longest reign in charge of a football club in English History (soon to be overtaken by Ferguson though) between 1983-2007. Finally, he enters semi-retirement, moving upstairs into the cushy "technical director" role that presumably allows him to not do much but still get paid. Lo and behold though, his replacement Steve Holland only goes and takes a year to bugger up a generations worth of work, leaving Crewe bottom of League 1, winless in 10 games, 6 points shy of safety - and all this having spent almost half a million pounds in the summer. Now, poor old Dario has to remove the pipe and take off the slippers and try and rescue his beloved Alecs from a very tough predicament.
Arsenal have been linked in the days papers with Koke Resurreccion, who is apparently a defensive midfielder with Atletico Madrid. Now, I suggested in my column yesterday that Wenger should look to buy a "name" player in the midfield general mould. Looks like he's taken my advice literally, you don't get much better
names than that !
Celtic Under-14 youngster Adam Brown discovered Argentina international Fernando Gago's medallion on the pitch at Parkhead where Maradona's squad had been training and promptly returned it, earning the Latin Legends hat and gloves as a reward. Gago got pretty lucky. Most other youths in Glasgow would've been off down the pawn shop faster than you can say crack money.
The Daily Telegraph reported today that Cristiano Ronaldo said the following when asked about the World Player of the Year Title - "I am the first, second and third best player in the world". Wanker.
Finally, some strange occurences in the south of Italy. Not content with their Sicilian rivals Palermo playing in a garish pink, this weekend Catania employed a rather fruity distraction of their own in their fixture with Torino. With the game poised at 1-1, Catania had a free kick and three of their players moved themselves behind the Torino wall, forming their own makeshift wall, before pulling down their shorts and exposing themselves in front of former Ipswich & Lazio keeper Matteo Sereni. This distraction allowed Giuseppe Mascara to slot home the set piece and put his team in the lead. Sicilian born playmaker Mascara went on to secure his hat-trick in a 3-2 victory. Its apparently not ungentlemanly conduct, so perhaps compatriot Capello could pilfer the tactic for the national team. The sight of Rooney, Heskey & Lampards ample buttocks would surely be enough to put off even the most focused of keepers.
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