Summer greetings all. Wowser, what a tough time the summer is. Cold, rainy and footy-less. Despite Sky Sports' greatest efforts to glam the U-21 Euro's up with nods to 'having the 3 Lions on their chest' and 'the next generation', it took the best part of 20 minutes to realise this was not to provide the footy fix we all hoped for. Watching Phil 'the next Beckenbauer' Jones hoof it up field at any given opportunity and Jordan 'the next James Milner' Henderson either relinquish possession or pass the ball backwards frustrated those who decided to take it seriously. Spain impressed, naturally. And then the Women's World Cup arrived like a shining beacon.......ahem. And guess what happened. A summer tournament. England fancied. They reach the knockouts. They lose on penalties.
A typical off-season has been witnessed with 0.6% of transfer rumours actually coming to fruition. Oh I remember a time when the biggest transfers of the summer were genuinely exciting, the stand-out one for me being Alan Shearer's switch to his beloved Newcastle United for a then mind-blowing sum of £15 million. This was the best striker in the league moving for a figure that blew all others out of the water. What is £35 million nowadays? There is no frame of reference in today's market with the emergence and consequent dominance of foreign ownership and what is tedious is the lengthy process of acquiring the player; absolute saga's. Nasri, Fabregas (again), Modric, Sanchez, Sneijder etc.
Sky Sports News loves transfer banter and are filling the off-season holes with some absolute tripe. One particular feature is their correspondents reporting live on site (well just outside the gates) from the rather unglamorous looking 'Spurs Lodge' training complex, hoping that they will get their daily interview from 'Arry. This is usually performed with 'Arry hanging out of his car window using the same selection of words as the previous day. Examples include 'terrific', 'player', 'Luka', 'staying', 'lad', 'top' and a new word he has recently discovered and bloody loves, 'farcical'. In other news from Spurs Ledley King has had his 108th knee operation. Good luck with that one.
Manchester United have strengthened considerably which is worrying for their rivals. Not content with his Premier League winning squad, Fergie has decided to smash balls-deep into the transfer market (so much for all that debt). Within weeks of the season ending he had acquired a new centre-back/DM in the previously mentioned Phil Jones from Blackburn, a wide man in Ashley Young and more recently the young Spanish goalkeeper David de Gea to replace the irreplaceable Edwin van der Sar. In what was a disciplined (in terms of executing their specific role within the team) and well-drilled squad last season, it remains to be seen whether these new signings upset the balance or further strengthen a determined squad who has kept the majority of their key players. It is hard to imagine they will be weaker, however the loss of van der Sar is not to be understated and will encourage their rivals, especially when you think back to how many points he was worth in his final season.
The Copa America is in full swing not that many of you would know it. Unfortunately due to the nocturnal, albeit laddy timings of the games (kick-offs ranging from 8pm to 2am) and the sole coverage of the event in the hands of ESPN (which about 28 people have subscriptions for) the competition has been difficult to follow. Taking place in Argentina it has been unpredictable, that is if you were expecting a goal-fest and Argentina and Brazil to dick all over their rivals. Only 5 out of the 18 games so far have witnessed more than 3 goals. Argentina began the tournament as favourites (going off at evens) and drew their first two games, in which they were unceremoniously booed off following the drab 0-0 with eventual group winners Colombia. Needing to win their final game they duly sprung to life against Costa Rica with Sergio 'Kun' Aguero bagging a brace to take his tournament tally to 3 and that lad Messi running the show.
Stat: Lionel Messi has taken a total of 36 shots in the 2011 Copa America and the 2010 World Cup. He has a grand total of 0 goals. Unbelievable Jeff.
A lacklustre Brazil finally got it together with a 4-2 victory over Ecuador after also beginning with two draws. They managed to win their group, with in my opinion the weakest collection of Brazilian players for as long as I can remember. They lack a traditional goal machine and the central midfield duo of Chelsea's Ramires and Liverpool's Lucas Leiva, whilst industrious, is not the most creative and fearsome on the world stage. The mightily impressive Chile go from strength to strength and have secured wins against Mexico and Peru and were unfortunate to only draw with Uruguay (playing with a frightening top 3 of Suarez, Forlan and Napoli's prolific Edinson Cavani), and they topped Group C. The quarter-final line-up is as follows:
Colombia vs Peru
Argentina vs Uruguay (feisty)
Brazil vs Paraguay (upset?)
Chile vs Venezuela
The first two of these quarter final matches take place on Saturday night. With the business end of this tournament, dripping with passion, flair, aggression and tension, I can finally get my soccer-sapped claws into something. I'm off to give ESPN a bell. Cheerio.
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