Alan Swann: on the Champions League Final, Hull City and the Lord's Test
Clearly referee Tom Henning Ovrebo was useless at Stamford Bridge last week, but he has actually done football a massive favour.
Clearly referee Tom Henning Ovrebo was useless at Stamford Bridge last week, but he has actually done football a massive favour.The Champions League Final will be all the better for having the flair and style of Barcelona rather than the muscular might of Chelsea.
There was indisputable proof that John Terry has neither the class, composure nor intelligence to skipper England and he should be removed from the post immediately.
Didier Drogba might now just realise that his constant whinging, diving and cheating has now caught up with him.
As with Cristiano Ronaldo, I would only award Drogba a penalty if he was gunned down by a real sniper rather than an imaginary one. If Drogba played fair, maybe referees would play fair with him.
And Sky Sports bosses have surely realised what us mere viewers have known for 12 months, that Jamie Redknapp is more brain-dead than Andy Gray, and that's some achievement.
Redknapp's argument that Ovrebo shouldn't have been in charge at The Bridge because he only referees in the Norwegian League, spectacularly misses the point in two ways.
One it ignores what a fine job the Slovakian official Lubos Michels did in last year's final despite the lack of tempo in his national league, and two he must have slept through most of the Premier League and missed some appalling top-club favouring performances by our leading officials (this week's star effort came from Alan Wiley on behalf of Liverpool).
Ovrebo probably suspects he had a shocker, a bit like Terry did in the Champions League Final of 12 months ago, but at least the official didn't burst into tears like a big girl.
THE other Champions League semi-final was so one-sided I started to feel sorry for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.
He looked like Mr Bean on the Arsenal bench. A sad, solitary figure who should now realise that the game is up - his side have fallen so far behind Manchester United and Liverpool, it will take years and a new boss to catch up.
I've suspected for some time - about four years actually - that he's carried out an elaborate bluff on his club and its fans.
Wenger is no nearer producing a side capable of winning titles and cups than he was last year, the year before that and the year before that.
Wenger still trotted out the usual guff about his side being young and capable of improvement, but I'm not sure he even believes it any more.
IT was good of Andrew Flintoff to pop in and show his support for his England team-mates in the one-sided First Test at a deserted Lord's.
He managed to flaunt his personal sponsor's brand name (even though they are a major rival of one of the England team's sponsors) just days after having surgery on an injury predictably picked up while playing in the lucrative Indian Slogging League.
There are some who believe that Flintoff is motivated by money rather than glory these days and you have to admit the evidence is stacking up.
ALMOST as quickly as the evidence confirming the sheer hopelessness of those running Test cricket in England.
Starting a Lord's Test match against pathetic opposition on a Wednesday was a master-stroke. The stadium was half-empty for three days and then the match finished before the weekend when one assumes more people might have been able to attend.
At least the corporate boxes were full.
I HAVEN'T enjoyed much in one of the most boring Premier League seasons in history, but I am loving the implosion of Hull City.
Hull manager Phil Brown clearly revelled in the attention his side received for a glorious start to life in the top league. His tan was never less than perfect for the many TV interviews he conducted.
That public hammering of his players on the pitch at half-time at Manchester City was I suspect an act of personal showing off as much as it was designed to impress the club's fans.
Whatever it was it deserves a place alongside Kevin Keegan's 'I will love it' rant as the most disastrous act of mental disintegration in the history of football.
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Thursday 18 March 2010
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