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RIP Uncle Bobby
Puts it all in perspective, doesn't it? What a great man - not only a fine manager, but a true gentleman. My girlfriend met him at a book signing only a few years ago, and told how he stayed on more than an hour after he was due to have finished, so that he could talk to everyone and make sure nobody was rushed through. We overuse words like 'inspiration', but here I really think it's fitting here. A sad day for football.
RPB, Sutton Utd
...Thanks for the memories. 1990 will always be with me.
Sam
...Sir Bobby Robson - What a man. Devastating news. Never has a man in football been loved by so many.
Tom Fitzgerald
...Very sad news. A true gentleman respected by every fan and figure associated with the game.
Chris, Manchester
...Just heard the news about Sir Bobby. Absolutely gutted. No other words for it.
RIP to the nicest man in football and thank you for 1990.
You will be so missed.
Jack Dudley :'o(
...Sad sad sad moment for football. To this day, England at Italia '90 remains my favourite football memory. The excitement, the hope, the dreams, the pain. Better to have loved and lost than never loved at all, and Uncle Bob gave us that. Thanks for the memories. RIP, a true gent.
Adam Tobias
...Quite simply the best man in football during my lifetime, I am a Liverpool fan and would have loved him to take over at Anfield, but unfortunately for us it was never gonna happen. A true gent and will be sorely missed.
Kev Kerr
...It's not been fun being a Newcastle fan this summer, or for the past few, and today makes it no easier. But the one thing it does do is remind us of better days. What we'd give for another Sir Bobby now. A great of the game, gone but never forgotten. He was a man who made me proud of my club after the Dalglish and Gullit debacles, but more than that he was a humble Geordie who cared just as much as we did. It seems he managed to hang in for Sunday and got to see his game at St James'. I hope his charity carries on his work and we all get a suitable opportunity to pay our respects.
RIP Sir Bobby. We'll miss you.
Pete Lockey
...Sorry to hear about the death of a Bobby. A gentleman, a football man, and a respected man.
Joe Donohoe
The Kids Are Alright
OK, so the under 21s got to the Euro finals (it doesn't matter that they got spanked in the final, anyone who watched it will know how it happened - fact is they were there), and now the under 19s have got to their final too ...
So where are all the doom and gloom merchants saying how there are no decent young English players now?
Martin, ManYoo, France
Chelsea For The Title?
It seems to be common knowledge now that the Friday morning mailbox is where you will find the tumble weed blowing around. With that in mind I thought I'd try to sneak this letter in while (or is that whilst) the more competent writers are actually working for once.
Now I am no Chelsea fan but they seem to have been overlooked this year. They have strengthened their defense, have not lost any influential players, have a fit-again Essien, Drogba seems as happy as Drogba can be, J Cole on the way back and one of the most successful and respected club managers in charge. Hell even Malouda started to look half decent towards the end of last year.
Their competition?
Man U - Surely have to be regarded as weaker. Having lost their goal-scoring show pony and replace him the best Wigan had to offer signing an ex-England forward with crystal hamstrings/shins/groin.
Liverpool - Weaker with the departure of Alonso with the result being more game time for Lucas and still light up top. Cattermole as a replacement????
Arsenal - At the moment obviously weaker, only two centre-backs you would, kind of, trust to play and one of them is new to the Premiership, and relying to much on youngsters. Seem to be four players away from being able to challenge at the top. Oh and Theo Walcott.
Man City - A team that could start as Given, Bridge, Toure, Dunne (Lescott?) Richards, Barry, Ireland, Robinho, Kompany, Tevez and Santa Cruz surely cannot be ruled for a top-four finish but I don't believe they will gel in time nor have the quality to challenge for the title.
In conclusion, I'm off to stick 50 notes on Chelsea to win it.
Paul White
Becks For Liverpool? No Thanks
Nick Clarke, you've clearly not thought the David Beckham thing through have you? Cameos against sub-standard opposition for England, and playing in one of the slowest top-flight leagues in the world is not a good barometer for how he'd cope in the ultra-fast, ultra-competitive premier leaugue.
He's just too slow, and don't think you'd get more than a season out of him, and then you'd still need to find a replacement for him in a year's time. Yes he might sell some extra shirts and drum up some additional interest in the club, but do we really want or need that?
Let's buy a proven creative midfielder (Silva) and stop all this nonsense about Cattermole, who, as it was pointed out yesterday, is little more than a thug on the football pitch. And no, Stevie G cannot play this role (of creative midfielder rather than thug), he can't maintain a central midfield position as he's had two seasons of doing what he wants, and believe that he's best utilised in support of the strikers.
Chris (does anyone know tonights Euro Millions winning numbers please?) Wilton
...Though there would be beautifully symmetrical to see David Beckham go to Liverpool and Michael Owen to Man Utd (both via Real Madrid and grossly underperforming clubs), to say that David Beckham would be perfect in the Xabi Alonso role is a bit of a stretch. I think you'll all recall that England game against Northern Ireland. I know that David Beckham played well by almost all accounts. But you also have to acknowledge that while the 'quarterback' role made him look very good, this tactic bypassed Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard and rendered two of England's best players effectively useless. Oh, and England lost their only qualifier with Sven as manager. It's not going to happen, but it's still fun to discuss theoretical tactics.
Enloe
Sad To See End Off Bent
While he is a bit of a useless clown at times, in his time at Spurs Darren Bent has on occasion shown glimpses of what a £16m looks like, and I for one am sad to see the back of him. He's got pace to burn, a not-too-horrible first touch, power, spring...an all-round good athlete. While his ratio of chances to goals still needs improvement, with a longer run in a creative side like Spurs, that he would surely have brought that down somewhat.
For costing what he did and for not being the type of smooth technician that the Lane grows to love, he was always unlikely to win over the Spurs faithful, yet he still showed a decent work rate and hunger for goals, and that he finished with 17 goals last season despite being between 2-4 in the pecking order for most of the season is testament to a talented trier. A fox in the box he is not, a decent bet to get on the end of something, he is. He banged them in for Charlton as a lone striker, front to goal, chasing balls through the middle and over the top on the counter, and I fancy him to do quite well in an organised Steve Bruce side, if indeed that's where he ends up.
Who knows, with 30+ league games this season I wouldn't be surprised to see him netting 20 times and playing his way into Fabio's plans for next summer, perhaps at the expense of EGMO (England's Glass Michael Owen) for the 'something different' option so many people seem to have him earmarked for.
Not quite right for us but thanks anyway Darren and good luck.
The OC, THFC
Is This Not Your Year?
I think there is a mystery unfolding this summer, right under all of our noses but we are all seemingly unaware. Where have the now customary summer quotes from those affiliated to Liverpool claiming that this season is their season gone? The summer somehow feels incomplete without it. It's almost the ritual that signifies the transition from one season to the next. What has happened? Do they not believe this is the year? Has everyone associated to Liverpool as a collective secretly decided not to say it, to avoid the ensuing ridicule? Or are they quietly confident that they can snatch it and don't what Sir Alex to wise up to the fact?
Many questions, we need answers. This sounds like a case for Columbo. Or Tosh Lines from The Bill in the 90's. Or any other TV detective that has nothing better to do with his time.
Parmjeet Dayal
Wenger Right On Money, Money, Money
Regarding LTB (citey fan etc. etc.)'s comments about Wenger 'the Professor' missing the point by stating: "in England people think that all the problems can be sorted out by buying players", I think he/she is actually missing the point in what Wenger is saying.
Wenger uses the word 'ALL' when referring to the problems. This, to me, means ALL the problems, many of which do not occur on the field of play; in Wenger's case I feel he is emphasising the position his own club is in, for example financially, which is why he goes on to say words to the effect: he will make signings if they are worth it!
Regarding the examples LTB gives of managers being given money to spend and hence solving certain clubs' on-field problems by buying 'quality' players, fair enough. However, again I don't think Mr Wenger is having a dig at City; he is addressing the situation at Arsenal where he has developing/developed quality in abundance but has a squad that might still need tweaking here and there. He will not splash cash he doesn't have on big names just to add to his squad, he will see what quality is available and what he can afford.
As for the 'threat' of City and obviously still on the topic of buying quality, I couldn't agree more with Austin Maguire. Just take a look at what City have bought...oh dear, as a Gooner, I'm shuddering !
Chris Wrightson, Croydon
P.S Eboue is far more valuable then people who have never played the game understand (utility is very important).
Supporting A Fat Quota
Recently a couple of friends and myself were discussing players from the eighties and early nineties, and we remarked how there are far fewer fat players playing these days than there were then. This made us sad, as I am sure that anyone who remembers those days would testify that it was always brilliant to have players with outrageous talent but the fitness of Jim Royal playing the game.
This got me thinking, and I have had what I consider to be a great idea to improve the game and stop the big clubs winning everything. Forget all the rubbish about six homegrown, five foreign players, all teams should have a slim player to fat player ratio of 6/5. This would mean all teams would have to field at least five overweight players. To determine what constitutes a player being overweight, each player could be judged individual taking things like the weight, height, BMI and Body fat Percentage into account.
There would be numerous advantages to the sport, including the fact the teams would not be able to buy all the top players unless they were going to accept that some would have to pile on the pounds in order to get in the team. Also it would require managers to develop another level of tactical awareness, as they would need to decide which of their squad they wanted to fatten up, taking into account their position (would you want fat centre backs, or strikers or even a keeper), and also how much the extra weight would effect that particular player. Would, for example, Gerrard be more effected by putting a few stone on than Torres if Benitez had to chose one of them to be one of his fatties.
Also the designated Chubsters could play longer as their age would effect their game less if they already weighed 20 stone, meaning that the players themselves would have to take many things into account when deciding what they would prefer to be.
It would also mean that managers would have to work harder to keep their players happy, as he tries to convince a slim player that he has to put on weight to get in the team, or vice versa. Indeed it could eventually lead to the brilliant scenario where a player states that he chose to leave Club A to go to Club B not for trophies or cash, but just because his new contract states he could be a porker and still play.
I have struggled to come up with any downsides to this idea, it would even mean the overweight fans of the game (and yes, as I am sure you guessed, that most certainly includes me) would have porky role models to look up too.
It is just an idea, but one I think could change the game for the better, because their are plenty of players out there of real first class ability and stupendous skill who never make it just because they like a pie or two at half time.
Gaz (can't believe I almost managed to write a whole mail about fat footballers without mentioning Frank Lampard), Devon
Pick Dortmund
In response to George (looking forward to seeing Lorik Cana make the Premiership cry) Gabriel, I think you should look now further than Borussia Dortmund for six reasons:
1) The shiny yellow jerseys (I always wanted one).
2) The Westfalenstadion
3) The financial situation of the club (they are broke so you could never be accused of glory-hunting)
4) Their league positions over the last few seasons, (for a team with no money they are surprisingly good)
5) They have a bit of history, (i.e. experience of winning trophies).
And probably the most important one:
6) Sven Bender (how funny would that be every time the commentator said his name?)
Siberski, Cork
Pick Hoffenheim
If I was to pick a German team to support, it would be Hoffenheim. Great attacking, young team. Last year's half term champions, no silverware given for that, but it is a recognised talking point in Germany.
They are a mix of Arsenal and Man City/Chelsea, owned by the SAP billionaire, who bought his hometown Amateur side and implemented an Arsenal like youth development policy to bring them from the equivalent of the Football Conference to the Bundesliga. It has been done through steady investment and development rather than by flinging money at any whore who'll take it. The town is tiny so he's building a new 30,000 seater stadium in Sinsheim, of which Hoffenheim is a suburb.
If you want an interesting update on German footballs goings-on Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger, on ESPN's Soccernet, writes an interesting peridoical every two to four weeks, similar to Adam Frasers French Letter on this website. It takes a more broad view though, rather than focusing on the weeks action it can deal with any topic, person or incident in German football.
Personally though I like Stuttgart, it's where I go to games when I'm in Germany as it's my wife's hometown.
On a separate point, and acknolwedging I've answered your question, but do you not think it's strange to ask people on a football website who you should support? Would you not be better served actually starting to watch the games and then decide on the team you find play most attractive football, have nicest jerseys, loudest fans etc.
Brian L (This won't be printed by the BSkyB as it recommends another website, actually it probably won't be printed because you a**h^l*s never print my letters.), Singapore
Pick Schalke
Dear George (Looking forward to seeing Lorik Cana make the Premiership cry) Gabriel,
I think this season you could do a lot worse than look out for Schalke 04 as your German team. The title-winning coach of Wolfsburg VFL, Felix Magath has recently taken the helm and has a pretty good tradition of winning stuff. Schalke are in some ways the Everton/Spurs/Villa of the Bundesliga, rich in tradition and history but not much to show recently. They have a core group fo exciting young German players, most notably Manuel Neuer the most excellent U21 winning goalkeeper, some Brazilian flair in right back Rafinha (you know you have seen him on Football Manager, he really is good) and the always fun to watch but wildly unpredictable striker Kevin Kuranyi.
You could also look out for my local team, FC Ingolstadt 04, but since they were recently relegated to the German equivalent of League 1 I dont suppose they will be getting much air time!!
Mark (C'mon you Ingostadt is the chant of the locals now!!) Germany
