The Best of Our National Game

The football season is only four weeks old and already football supporters are scratching their heads over the madness our national game has served up this week. Manchester United’s demolition of Arsenal started the insanity. For those Gooners that shied away from the media and work colleagues this week, your North London rivals didn’t fare much better.

Tuesday’s pictures gave us an extraordinary exchange at the County Ground between Swindon Town manager Paolo di Canio and his striker Leon Clarke. Perhaps unremarkable that Clarke’s days at the County Ground are numbered following the incident, if it wasn’t for the fact that di Canio signed him only 11 days earlier.

All this was played out to the backdrop of the final days of this summer’s transfer window. Look beyond the undisclosed transfer fees and something in the order of £485m was spent by the 20 Premier League clubs. The amount of money spent did not amaze me, the revenue to be gained from playing Premier League or indeed Champions League football is a financial trophy in itself. What did amaze me were the transfer requests being submitted by players just hours before the deadline closed.

And so a dose or reality was needed as I set off to the game this afternoon with my 5-year-old son. “What game?” I hear you ask, “isn’t there an international break?” On the contrary, today was Non League Day, a superb initiative to raise the profile of our national game at grass-roots level, with supporters of Premiership and Championship clubs urged to support their local non-league club.

So my son and I ventured to the Camrose to watch Basingstoke Town play Dartford FC in the Conference South. What a contrast between this Saturday and the trip we made as part of QPR’s 2000-strong away following at Wigan last weekend.

Firstly, the club official at Basingstoke let my 5-year-old in for free, Wigan charged him £15. We enjoyed a 3pm kick-off on a Saturday, whereas Wigan changed the kick-off time to 12:30 in fear of their fans opting to watch last week’s rugby league Challenge Cup Final instead. We enjoyed a conversation with the Dartford fans, who kindly provided the lowdown on their players and expectations for the season; a pleasant change from the necessary segregation of fans at league games. And to round it off we saw a thoroughly entertaining game with Basingstoke securing a 3-2 win. Not to mention the 5 minute journey home, as opposed to last week’s 400 mile round trip.

I sincerely hope Non League Day was well supported throughout the country. Non league clubs are the bedrock of the national football pyramid, the clubs are an integral part of their community and supported by fans with a unique passion for the game. Basingstoke recorded their highest attendance of the season today with 493 people passing through the turnstiles. The question that remains is what will we do the next time there is an international break or Sky Sports have us playing at 4pm on a Sunday?

The answer: getting a dose of real football, away from the far-fetched madness that is the Premier League.

Tags: Basingstoke Town, Dartford FC, football, Non League Day, QPR, Swindon Town, transfer window, Wigan Athletic

Golden Generation to the Lost Generation

With the England cricket team embarking on an Ashes series in Australia in around 24 hours time, I feel a sense of re-assurance that my latest blog turns attention to our nation’s football team. With Ian Bell scoring a century in the final warm-up game, it looks like he has secured the final batting spot at six; thereafter there is little to discuss as the team picks itself for Brisbane.

Six months ago we were saying similar things about the England football team; who will play up front with Rooney and will David James start in goal? Last week, of the 17 players used by Capello in the friendly defeat by France, only Steven Gerrard and James Milner started our World Cup campaign against the USA. When 28 year old Jay Bothroyd, a player with 55 league goals before this season makes the England team, something is badly wrong?

Capello is a factor in the England team’s demise as is the lack of coaches in England that hold the top UEFA coaching badges. However, more worrying is the increasing number of promising teenagers, whose career paths come to an abrupt halt at their Premiership clubs when they reach the age of 20.

Take Michael Mancienne of Chelsea, called into the England squad two years ago at the age of 20. He has spent the last FIVE seasons on loan at first QPR and then Wolves, without once playing for Chelsea during this time. A promising defender, he is currently playing in midfield for a struggling Wolves team.

I then look at some of Mancienne’s U-21 international colleagues and see many experiencing a similar fate. Daniel Sturridge, now in his 5th season, during which time he has made just SEVEN starts for Manchester City and Chelsea. 20 year old Henri Lansbury is another talented player, yet to start in the league for Arsenal and recently sent on loan to Norwich. Then you have the two Kyles (Naughton and Walker) at Spurs with two league starts between them, currently on loan at Leicester and QPR respectively.

A 3 month loan spell to a Championship club is a good footballing education for an 18 or 19 year old player, but ultimately then need to be playing top flight football in order to continue improving as players. Our so called golden generation of players; Beckham, Gerrard, Owen, Lampard, Ferdinand, Terry and Cole were all regulars at their clubs by the age of 20. And this is where the FA Premier League must step in given their stated roles and objectives.

A ruling that states that from the 2011/12 season, each Premier League side must name eight English players in their match day squads, of which at least four must start the game is what is needed. Such a ruling would allow our top flight clubs to field a team still containing overseas stars, whilst providing the stage for our most talented young players to continue to learn their trade. If that results in the highly talented Kyle Walker filling the right-back spot at Spurs instead of Alan Hutton, that cannot be a bad thing.

And with 80 English players starting matches in the Premier League each weekend, the England manager should never find himself in the desperate situation that Capello was faced with last week.

Who Are Ya?

Tags: Daniel Sturridge, England, England U21s, Henri Lansbury, Jay Bothroyd, Kyle Walker, Michael Mancienne

Cricket’s Alcohol Problem

I watched with great sadness on Thursday as The Queen Vic burnt to the ground in Eastenders. Just one of the estimated 2,000 pubs that will close this year, many of them pubs that have served a local community for generations.

It strikes me that the pub, the landlord and the drinker is under attack and the cricketing authorities are joining in on the onslaught. The ICC and ECB would do well to brush up on their history and remember the significance of the Bat & Ball pub  in Hambledon during the 1750s. This wonderful English tradition of enjoying a drink with our cricketing opponents continues today; following my team’s game against the hospitable Jordans Taverners, we had all 22 players indulging in the bonhomie of a post match tale.

So why is the drinker persona non grata at our test match grounds? With the exception of Lords, spectators are not allowed to bring alcohol into the ground at test matches. The reason stated on The Oval website is “that bottles or cans currently imported can be used as dangerous missiles or projectiles.” Funny that, especially as a friend of mine entered the ground (quite innocently) with a set of darts on him!

So what about the choice of beer when you enter The Oval? Well if a pint of Fosters is your favourite tipple you’re in for a treat, albeit a fairly pricey one at £3.70. If you’re after real ale or a quality wine, forget it.

Then there is the bar opening times, or rather closing times, when the bars at The Oval shut after the lunch interval for an hour. My only guess is that the authorities want to curb any excessive drinking. Given I heard numerous conversations along the lines of “let’s get two in” I’d suggest this strategy actually has the opposite effect. In fact I would go as far to say that this is a deliberate ploy and acts as a nice little revenue earner at £3.70 a pint.

However, I do recognise that some spectators don’t like people drinking around them at the cricket and I would like to see a section of the ground used as an alcohol free zone. But for those cricket enthusiasts that want to enjoy a beer or a glass of wine during the cricket, treat us with some respect. International cricket needs to appeal to its supporter base more than ever. As it stands this particular supporter will be following the county game in 2011, where I will bring my own drink into the ground and purchase a real ale or two from the bar. Cheers!

Tags: alcohol, beer, cricket, Jordans Taverners, The Oval

When is a draw better than a win?

In the football world there are only two obvious answers to the above question:-

1. When the point your opponents have gained means that your local rivals are relegated
2. If you have secured a lucrative replay against a big club in the Cup

However, according to my fellow QPR supporters at Pride Park on Saturday, you can add to the above list scoring 2 goals in added time to draw the game. It was one of those afternoons where the 300 mile round trip and £35 spent on tickets for me and my 4 year old son was worth every penny. And the icing on the cake was the vast array of opinions that were voiced from the fans in the seats around us.

It was somewhat ironic that a statue of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, the greatest managerial team in British football was unveiled before kick-off, the former never afraid to voice his opinion. A man of his astute judgement would also have known that the Derby County fans chants of “you’ll never beat Shaun Barker” were slightly tenuous claims.

Patrick Agyemang was clearly up for this challenge, as minutes later he left Barker for dead and stabbed the ball past Stephen Bywater in the Derby goal. According to one vocal away supporter, Agyemang is playing for his career. Interesting. He earns more than 10 grand a week, has a year to run on his 4 year contract, turns 30 in September and has scored 5 goals in the last two seasons. I would suggest to Patrick that he put a bit of money aside from his current contract.

But the strangest event of the afternoon for me was the gradual exiting of supporters from Pride Park before the final whistle. I’ve never understood why fans leave early, there is as much chance of seeing a piece of individual brilliance in the last minute, as there is in the first minute. And on Saturday, Jamie Mackie conjured up that piece of brilliance with a 95th minute equaliser, leaving my son bemused at his dad’s excitement and the fans proclaiming that this was “better than a win”.

Tags: Brian Clough, Derby County, football, Jamie Mackie, Patrick Agyemang, Peter Taylor, Pride Park, QPR

Test Match Cricket – No Going Back

On Friday I spent the day at The Oval watching a keenly fought contest between England and Pakistan with my three best mates. The talk before play began was whether Alistair Cook would come good with the bat and what sort of future test match cricket has. Cook answered the first question in the most emphatic way, scoring a fine century, but the ECB and ICC need to seriously improve their treatment of supporters of the game for test match cricket to survive.

Despite strong ticket sales for last year’s Ashes series, attendances at test matches this summer had been poor with tickets available for the first two days of the Oval test. Test match cricket needed to sell itself to the general public.

So imagine the reaction at 5:15pm when the players left the field of play due to poor light, despite the floodlights being on. How ludicrous that it is still too dark to play even with the lights on? I recall a test match at Lords two years ago between South Africa and England, when England had to open the bowling with two spinners (Panesar and Pietersen) due to poor light. Why were Pakistan not given a similar option?

This ridiculous ruling deprived us of 17 overs of play and with tickets costing £46 each we felt short-changed. A feeble tannoy announcement followed just before 6pm that there would be no further play and within minutes we were surrounded by stewards who couldn’t get us out the ground quick enough.

Having shelled out £184 on tickets, the four of us agreed that we would not be going back to The Oval and would instead be watching county matches next season. And with it; reasonable admission prices, a sensible alcohol policy (more on this next week), no floodlights and a chance for a knock about on the outfield at lunch.

Tags: bad light, cricket, The Oval, ticket prices