Thoughts on This and That

So, the first team exits Euro 2008 via a penalty shoot-out and, like night follows day, the first reaction of “penalty shoot-outs are a lottery” came from Croatia’s manager Slaven Bilic, following Turkey’s victory.

If lotteries were won by skill, technique and holding your nerve, I’d agree with him - but they’re not, I don’t think it’s much of a coincidence that your unlikely to hear a German describe a shoot-out in this way, do you?

Not just me, with my blog yesterday, but Bradford (Park Avenue) chief executive Bob Blackburn, and the Telegraph and Argus for publishing the Nicky Law to Avenue story.

As I said previously, I felt Law was out of his depth when managing Bradford City, it seems contract’s are a subject he struggles with too, he won’t now be joining Avenue - he had assured them he didn’t have a contract at Alfreton Town, but it turns out he did - he wasn’t aware that a “piece of paper” he signed was actually a 3 year contract.

Oh dear!

Bradford (Park Avenue) have announced ex Bradford City manager Nicky Law is to take the reigns at the Horsfall Stadium, after they recently parted company with ex boss Benny Phillips.

Although I never rated Law in his time at VP, I wish him well at Avenue, he took over at City when we were in meltdown after the Premiership experience and, to me, he always seemed to be way out of his depth - him being a cheap appointment by Geoffrey Richmond because he had done well with financially troubled Chesterfield in the 4th division.

Avenue have lofty ambitions these days, being bankrolled by a sugar-daddy the Unibond League 1 club (average attendance about 300) recently announced plans to buid a 20,000 capacity stadium - maybe one day it will play host to a Bradford derby in the Football League - but I won’t hold my breath!

Anyone with the slightest interest in football (and plenty without) will have no doubt seen, heard or read about the shocking injury suffered by Arsenal’s Croation striker Eduardo yesterday.

Plenty have had their say on the incident too some, from both sides of the argument, have been ridiculous, talk of a life ban is almost as stupid as those saying things like “Taylor was only sent off because of the injury”, or “the tackle wasn’t that bad” - but it is about time that the authorities started to clamp down, before more serious injuries occur, and handing out the standard three match ban, the same as you might get for a shove on your opponent or “raising your hands”, isn’t going to deter offenders in the future.

It’s not about taking the physical side of the game away, no-one wants to see that happen less than me, but no true football fan wants to see studs-up challenges over the top of the ball, the reason they are often called “leg-breakers” is because of what we saw yesterday. I’m not for a moment suggesting Martin Taylor set out to cause an injury, but the fact that his challenge was reckless, rather than deliberate, isn’t of much consolation to the poor bloke who had the bone in his leg sticking out of his sock simply for trying to play football.

Today’s FA Cup 5th round ties evoked a few memories of how it used to be (or, maybe how we perceive it used to be), and how it is nowadays - with “giant-killing” acts from, most notably, Barnsley at Anfield and Bristol Rovers beating Southampton, reminding me of an almost bygone age where teams from lower divisions had a go and every now and then nicked a famous win.

How it often is now was best summed up by Arsenal’s piss-poor display in their 4-0 defeat to Man United, an understrength, half-arsed team more focused on the Champions League next week than the game in front of them, and seemingly beaten before the first whistle.

Barnsley did today what the likes of Oldham, Huddersfield and Havant and Waterlooville have done before them this season - generally it’s been quite a good season for shocks, and there are going to be a few non-Premiership teams in the Quarter Finals, not to mention only 2 of the “big four”, obviously Man United or Chelsea will win it in the end, but hopefully there will be a couple more shocks before it’s over for another season.

Echoing the sentiment from this blog post of mine back in the day, I will once again express no surprise that Bryan Robson has yet again failed as a manager, and been given the boot by Sheffield United.

So, which stupid club chairman will ignore all the evidence and employ him next?

On the day Premiership clubs announced they were considering the possibility of taking fixtures abroad, there was a more localised story emphasising the greed, and the money obsessed world of Premiership football.

Bradford City’s 18 year old goalkeeper Sam Filler has been snapped up by Middlesbrough, despite barely featuring in the reserve side at Valley Parade, not to mention never getting anywhere near the first team in a recently struggling League Two side. The news follows hot on the heels of Liverpool signing a 14 year old from our academy a few weeks ago, to add to a 13 year old Chelsea took off our hands last year.

It’s hard to begrudge these kids (well, the ones going to Liverpool and Chelsea) the chance to make it at one of the worlds biggest clubs, but for me it is slightly disturbing to see such youth talent being hoovered up by a select few clubs, simply because they can afford to do it, and don’t want to take the risk of these kids being snapped up by their rivals, at 13 or 14 how on earth do you know that a kid will go on to make the grade?

In years gone by kids would come through at their local team after reaching 17 or 18, play there for a couple of years making a name for themselves then move on, all too often nowadays kids get snapped up while they are still children and, those that don’t kick on as they are expected, get cast aside. The number of kids who get discarded by the bigger clubs and are lost to football forever is way too high, and something I feel the FA should be addressing, especially given the concerns over the lack of English players around nowadays.

But forgetting all the “for the good of the game” sentiment, what really sticks in the throat is City releasing press releases as if this is a brilliant thing for us, yes we might rake in a few grand now (undisclosed fees rarely match up to what supporters of the selling club like to think), but if we can’t produce and keep talent, how do we realistically hope to be able to compete in the higher echelons of English football again? (if, indeed, that’s what we’d want to do).

When City got relegated last season after a pathetic capitulation at Chesterfield I pledged that no longer would I waste my weekends trailing up and down the country following them, I’m amazed it lasted as long as it did, but my resolve finally cracked yesterday, and I made my way to Macclesfield.

I’ve been enjoying my football again recently, for a number of reasons, and the combination of that, a new ground and a reasonable admission price (£10, the sort of price fourth division football should be) tempted me into making the journey, and I’m happy I did.

Town’s Moss Rose ground is a small stadium, ideal for a small club playing in a small town, it’s the type of traditional football ground that I like, and it’s been thoughtfully updated on two sides, while remaining some unique features…

The view from the open terrace designated to the away supporters was good, and luckily the rain stayed away, which helped us enjoy the 1-0 victory. It wasn’t the best of games, typical fourth division stuff really, but it means we are now undefeated in six games, have only lost three times in the league since October and still have an outside chance of reaching the play-offs, but I wouldn’t put any money on it just yet.

When I knew I was going to be in Malaga over the weekend of the Atlético/Real derby, I posted a question on an international Atlético supporters forum I use asking if anyone could recommend somewhere in the city to watch the game, I never expected it to lead me to a seat at the game itself, but I’m not complaining!

Jaime, a season-ticket holding Atlético fan, now working in Malaga, got in touch to tell me he’d be going to the game, but asking if I’d like to meet for a drink over the weekend when I was there, I said that sounded like a good idea, and we kept in touch, then it turned out his cousin (who he goes to the games with) would be working away and therefore unable to attend the game, and I was offered the ticket - it didn’t take me long to accept!

I was picked up from the train station in Malaga just after noon for the 5 hour car journey, after a bit of initial unease (we were strangers after all) the journey ended up being fine, with me taking the opportunity to learn some Spanish football terminology, it practically flew by, and we were parked up outside his uncles home, near the stadium, a good two hours or so before kick-off, which is where the fun started. We heard a big roar and, as we parked up, saw a few hundred people, who turned out to be Real “ultras” charging down the road at the bottom of the street we were on, Jaime had warned me that something like this was very likely but, as we went to inspect what was happening from a safe distance, we saw that there were hundreds of riot police blocking their path, and it just seemed to be a stand-off with the “ultras” throwing things at the police, with a few of them getting deserved beatings.

After meeting Jaime’s uncle in a bar near the stadium for a couple of pre-match drinks, we headed into the stadium in good time for kick-off, the atmosphere was electric, I’ve been to 11 games previously at the Vicente Calderón, but never against really big opposition, and the difference was amazing. I’m obviously not from Madrid, so I can’t buy into the local rivalry, but it was impossible not to feed off the atmosphere generated and the adrenalin was definitely flowing, cranking up even more when the teams came out onto the pitch.

Unfortunately Real scored after 32 seconds, so it all went a little flat, but as Atlético came back into the game so the support came back to life. I’m not going to write a match report, the eventual 2-0 defeat was disappointing and the game petered out a little in the second half, but the atmosphere and sense of occasion was still well worth savouring, and the support was great even when the game was long gone.

One of my pet hates at football nowadays are the fans who sit there taking pictures throughout the game, but I was hoping to get some pictures of the supporters and the stadium on the day, to try and capture the atmosphere a bit, unfortunately I’d left my camera in Jaime’s glovebox when we were distracted by the “ultras” charge, so that was a minor disappointment.

After waiting for the traffic to disperse before setting off (some things are the same the world over) we finally set out for the trip back, the mood in the car was a little tired and despondent, but it perked up after a coffee stop, which I think was down to me inviting Jaime to come over here if there is ever another Bradford derby, I won’t hold my breath on that one though!

After three wins in a row there was disappointment at Valley Parade yesterday, as City could only manage a 1-1 draw with Stockport, who had been through a gruelling cup tie less than 48 hours previously, which had resulted in extra time and penalties.

Of course it wasn’t our fault Stockport equalised in the last minute to deny us a win, even though at no point did we ever really take the game to them, and we decided to bring off threatening attacking players in the last few minutes and attempt to hold onto what we had.

Nope, it was the ref who sent one of our players off (at 0-0) and was, according to City fans, totally biased against us. That is, of course, no surprise - as the guy who sits in front of me said at full time “the refs are looking to even things out for the opposition because we’re a big club in this league, and that’s what they do”.

Football has obviously changed dramatically in the last few years if this is the case as, a few years ago when we were in the Premiership one of the oft heard complaints was “the smaller clubs never get anything from refs, all the decisions go to the big boys”.

Or maybe it’s just that refs aren’t biased in either way after all? Just a thought.