Manchester City Manager Roberto Mancini has dismissed talk that he was set to become the Monaco boss at the end of last season, reacting angrily to questioning at his most recent press conference.
The Italian was keen to focus on the present rather than focusing on events that may have happened in the past.
Mancini had not previously denied reports linking him with the Ligue 2 club saying he was “close to seven or eight teams”.
That remark had been interpreted in a various amount of ways following the strange admission from the 47 year old.
He gave no indication as to whether the comment was serious, or made in jest, and he was asked to further clarify in Monday’s press conference.
However, the former Inter Milan boss did not welcome the questioning seeing it as highly unnecessary.
Mancini told Sky Sports “I don’t understand why you continue to ask me (about) last year, last month. This is finished.
“Why? Why, for which reason? Why do you continue to ask me, ‘Last year you had a chance to go’?
“I stay here because my work is here. I worked for two years. I built with the chairman and the owner, this team. We won three trophies in two years. For 50 years we didn’t win. Never.”
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City are looking to resurrect their Champions League campaign tomorrow, when they take on Ajax at the Etihad stadium, knowing that only 3 points will ensure that they survive in the competition for the next round of games.
Not even my special haircut could save Liverpool this week, as we lost to Everton (well, it felt like a defeat) before being beaten by Basel (I though the Swiss were neutral).I’ve been settling in nicely over the past few weeks, and big Martin Skrtel has been taking me out to meet the ladies of Liverpool. We haven’t had much luck yet, but with the nights getting darker our fortunes could be about to change!As ever, I’ve been a busy boy away from the pitch, so come in a catch up with what I’ve been up to…[ffc-gallery]
CLICK ON ME LOOKING CHEERY BEFORE THE BASEL BRUSH
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Thursday
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Haircut time! I love a new hairdo, and, unlike Samson, I thrive with less foliage on by head. I asked for a Liver bird-type do, but instead I ended up looking like a bloody Canary! Still, Norwich are winning week in week out now, so maybe January could be something to think about…
I went out with Mamadou in the evening and he was not happy with by new style! Seems that he’s annoyed that he no longer looks like my twin. Maybe it was him doing all of those mad things when I was last in England?
Friday
Mamadou will not let it go! I found him weeping in the corner in the changing room when I got in today. The poor bloke is a wreck, I almost felt sorry for him until I got a weird text from Fanny… It seems that by ‘double act’ has been hanging around outside of her hotel in a bid to get her back! But she rumbled him after seeing my Instagram account. I had a word, and he looked like he was about to break. Hope he takes it well when Brendan picks Toure over him tomorrow, he has to after the big man beat the boss in the cake eating competition on Monday!
Met up with Fabio this evening. He kept pestering me with calls in the middle of the night, so I finally relented. He showed up at my house with a canister of helium… odd bloke him.
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I also tried to order a Breaking Bad chicken t-shirt… Think I got the wrong web address though.
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Saturday
Derby day, and my worst fears were confirmed. Sakho finally fell over the edge… Toure’s skills with the cherry bakewells got him on the bench, so Mamadou was dropped. He broke down. It was very sad. He began stuffing the half time oranges into his mouth in a bid to convince Brendan, but it was too late. When we couldn’t find the Gaviscon he had to leave to nip to Morrisons. He didn’t come back.
Things didn’t get much better during the game either… That Amish bloke in goal for the blue team kept out my shots and then the clodder at the back who’d been kicking me around hit a Mario Balotelli shot into the top corner. Jose Mourinho text me a smiley face after the game. I hate that bloke.
Sunday
Day off today! Time for the big shop. I love going to Lidl to get things done, but I wasn’t expecting to bump into Rickie. Things are a ‘Lidl’ (see what I did there) awkward between us at the moment, so he hid when I saw him… He was tucked away in the fishing nets when I caught him… bizarre. “First time you’ve found the net this season,†I crowed as I passed him on the way to the wieldy colourer meat section. Mario 1-0 world.
I wanted to head out with Stevie tonight to catch a Phil Collins disco-themed party, but it was cancelled. I could see the rage burning away in him, but I calmed him with the promise of Downton Abbey… he loves that show.
Monday
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Back into training today. Everyone was trying to copy my free-kick (much better than Gerrard’s on Saturday), but the only person able to better it was Colin Pascoe. He rolled up his shorts like Alexis Sanchez does and stretched his turkey legs before rifling it in. Fair play to him, not many people are on my level…
I spent the afternoon on Facetime with my dog in Italy. I need a little pet over here, maybe I can give Fabio a call…
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Tuesday
Switzerland trip. I’ve got my orders to bring back all the Toblerone possible to cheer up Mamadou. He’s not taken things well, so hopefully some chocolate will get him back on track. If he eats too much Kolo can lend him some of those diet pills he keeps on about…
Rickie must have made the same Basel faulty joke about six times today…. Yawn.
Wednesday
I overslept so I did my training on FIFA 15. It’s realistic, right? By the time the game came around I was a little tired, so that’s why we lost. That and the fact Stevie forgot his cod liver oil! I could hear his knees creaking from 50 yards away!
Rickie made the Basel faulty joke yet again! Hope he leaves in January…
Tuesday
Brendan arranged for his ‘Group Bus’ to pick us all up from the airport today ahead of a little cheer up trip. We all went o McDonalds, then bowling and Orange Wednesdays. I had to sit next to Joe Allen all day though. God he’s dull. He was telling me all about his trip to trip to Snowdonia, he even got his photo album out (who has an album nowadays). Still Mamadou came along and seems to be looking well. I just hope he’s not getting together with Fanny. He won’t like me when I’m angry!
Gareth Bale has become the talking point of English football. Any bout of awkward silence in a social situation between two or more males that are both aware the other has a reasonable interest in the beautiful game is filled with the words “How about that Gareth Bale then?”
So how about that Gareth Bale then? He’s been ripping the Premier League apart, with 16 goals and 2 assists in 25 domestic appearances, and since December the Welshman has been turning draws and even potential defeats into victories single-handed for Tottenham.
Bale has found that much needed consistency which he’s lacked in previous years, and furthermore has not been found wanting or gone absent in the big games, including the North London Derbies in which he scored in both this season.
The 23 year old has adopted the responsibility that has come with his flurry of form, understanding the rest of the team are now dependent on him to produce results. Andre Villas-Boas now deploys him at the tip of the Spurs midfield, almost playing as a second striker – a position where you must make a considerable impact in every match or the rest of the team is likely to suffer.
It’s sparked the debate over whether the Welshman can be considered to be “world class”. Of course, the term is always up for interpretation. Some would view only Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as world class, whereas others would include the likes of Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Falcao and Bastien Schweinsteiger to name a few. I was unconvinced Bale yet belonged in either categorisation, until I witnessed his second goal against West Ham last month that may be looked back upon in the years to come as big a career defining moment as his hatrick against Inter Milan when he was just 18 years old.
And with the “World Class” debate has come the auxiliary discussion that Tottenham fans have no doubt feared for some time; where will Gareth Bale be playing his football next season? Although remaining at White Hart Lane is certainly not out of the question, especially if AVB’s men finish up the season having qualified for the Champions League, but the word on the street is indicating a move to Spain, most likely for Real Madrid.
As a football fan, I can only lick my lips at the prospect of witnessing Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale playing on opposite flanks – their sheer athleticism and technique would surely make them impossible to defend against. But as an Englishman, a Match of the Day viewer and a fan of the Premier League, a growing concern washes over me every time the potential Madrid deal is discussed in the papers, with prices varying from £40million to £70million and a bumper contract to boot.
Of course, comparisons can be made with the story of Cristiano Ronaldo, whom after growing into a true world-beater at Manchester United, left for Real Madrid at the age of 24. Ronaldo has gone on to turn a rather impressive goal ratio of one goal every two games for the Red Devils into an unbelievable feat at the Bernabeu of scoring more goals than appearances made. I have little doubt that Bale could go on to make similar achievements, but for the sake of the English game I hope he shows some loyalty to his roots in the summer, as I’m not sure the Premier League can handle losing another “world class” player.
In many ways, the decline started with the loss of the former United winger. Although there is still plenty of top draw talent in the Premier League, we’ve spent the last four years without a standout marquee individual. Similarly, in that time, Luka Modric has departed to none other than Real Madrid, and furthermore, the failed golden generation of English players has aged considerably, with the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, John Terry and Ashley Cole struggling to secure contract extensions, whilst Steven Gerrard has had to adapt his game to losing a vital yard of pace.
The rise of Manchester City has allowed for considerable talent to come in, namely Vincent Kompany, David Silva and Sergio Aguero, and Manchester United currently have one of the top strike partnerships in Europe in Wayne Rooney and Robin Van Persie, but do any of these come close to the same category as Messi and Ronaldo – that interpretation of “world class” that separates the elite players from those with something truly special?
They all have their drawbacks and disadvantages, and it is interesting that amid last week’s RooneyGate scandal, only PSG were linked with having shown any interest or intent to sign the Englishman. Furthermore, a number of our stars, such as Juan Mata, Yaya Toure, and David Silva, are players who failed to make it to the absolute top level in La Liga and have therefore decided to make a name for themselves abroad.
Of course, the sheer money in the English game will always bring some of the world’s best to our clubs and television screens. But the difference between the Premier League and La Liga is not the money; it’s the pride of playing for either Barcelona or Real Madrid. Only footballers of true quality can get through their doors, and to even be linked with a move to either Spanish giant is a feat which the majority of Europe’s elite players can only dream of.
The same cannot be said for the English clubs. Whereas the Madrid and Barca player rosters are filled with the best of the best, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal have all faced periods of highs and lows, with the quality of the latter three diminishing over the past few years, and none being strangers to bit-part players, the likes of Gareth Barry, Yossi Benayoun or Ashley Young, who perform a role in the side but are miles away from being considered Europe’s best.
Similarly, the Champions League performances of England’s top clubs have showed up the lack of top level quality in the Premier League, or at least their inability to perform consistently and when the pressure is on, as has this season’s one-team title race, and the inability to defend all round throughout the division.
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I do not wish to suggest Gareth Bale has the weight of the future of the Premier League upon his shoulders when making a decision that will severely affect the rest of his career. Of course, the English top flight will survive without him, and it is still a long way off of losing its reputation for being the most exciting league in the world, with a thick spread of talent from the top to the bottom of the table.
But the loss of another “World Class” winger, before reaching the pinacle of his abilities would be a huge loss to the English game, and a sign that La Liga has become the epicentre of European football.
Whereas Ronaldo’s move was understandable, I would find Bale’s departure somewhat more hurting. He’s only had one season of true brilliance, although he has been performing at a level beyond his years for some time. But unlike the Portuguese forward, Bale has been brought up through the English system; he’s one of our own, a Southampton academy product, who’s risen through the ranks and benefited from the English game. Of course, loyalty is nothing in football anymore; careerism comes first. But losing a star so young, before even becoming truly “world class”, can quite simply be no good for the Premier League. I just hope the Welshman takes into consideration just how he got to where he is today, before signing on the dotted line.
What does it take to make it to the very top of the beautiful game? A velcro first touch? Great awareness? An array of both pace and power? If you were to make a basic shopping list of attributes an aspiring young pro might need to enjoy a successful career in the Premier League, then you could do worse than pick from any of the above.
Yet while your work ethic and your persona aren’t likely to score a 30-yard missile anytime soon, one should never underestimate the effect what’s going on inside your noggin can have upon your career.
They say that potential counts for nothing if left unfulfilled. And be it through a lack of work ethic, lobster tanks, or the simulated celebration of taking Class A drugs, here are 10 men who are living evidence to that sentiment. Sit back, click through and rejoice in their failure if it makes you happy.
Click on Robbie Fowler to see the ten most unfulfilled talents in football
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Aston Villa are expected to confirm the signing of Chesterfield striker Jordan Bowery later today, with the fee expected to be in the region of around £500,000, according to BBC Radio Sheffield.
Bowery, 21, made his debut for the Spireites at the age of 17 and scored 12 goals for the club in all competitions last season, despite a disappointing campaign for Chesterfield who were relegated back to the bottom tier of the Football League.
It is thought that Paul Lambert will sign Bowery as primarily a signing for the future. However, the striker may have more of a chance of first-team action if a deal to bring Christian Benteke in from Belgian side Genk isn’t completed before the end of the transfer window.
Lambert’s signings certainly appear as if they are part of a long-term project at Villa Park. As well as trying to bring Bowery and Benteke, both 21, to the West Midlands Club, last night the Villa boss confirmed the signing of 22-year-old left back Joe Bennett from Championship side Middlesbrough.
The Villains claimed their first victory of the season on Tuesday night with a comfortable 3-0 victory over League One outfit Tranmere Rovers.
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Aston Villa striker Darren Bent has admitted he is frustrated with Paul Lambert’s rotation system but is working hard for his place in the team.
Bent has scored just two goals in 10 appearances this season and at an open training session at Villa Park today he confirmed that he’s unhappy with the situation.
He told Sky Sports: “Obviously any player who values themselves wants to play week in week out and when you start playing rotation systems it is difficult to find a rhythm, especially when you’re a front man.
“But that’s the manager’s decision and we live by that. We have to keep working hard in training and show him that we want to play.”
Villa have suffered a poor start to the current season having won only one of their opening eight Premier League matches and find themselves just a point above the bottom three following their 1-0 defeat away to Fulham at the weekend.
But Bent is confident that Paul Lambert’s side can improve and begin climbing the table sooner rather than later.
“Sometimes you will run right and the ball will go left, but that is just one of those things. I’m sure that once we blend as a team and start creating chances I’ll start finishing them,” he added.
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Aston Villa’s next top-flight game is at home to fellow early season strugglers Norwich City on Saturday before a difficult November sees them travel to Manchester City in between home ties against Manchester United and Arsenal.
Barcelona have sensationally accused Premier League duo, Arsenal and Manchester City, of unsettling players at the Catalan club.
The Camp Nou president made the outrageous claim when answering a question about Etihad Stadium manager Roberto Mancini’s reported interest in Sergio Busquets and Cesc Fabregas, then he decided to mention to Gunners: “Manchester City want to remove our players and want to destabilise us,” he is quoted as saying in Mundo Deportivo. “It also happens with Arsenal, who talk to youth players and offer them a lot of money.”
Rosell’s comments may sting Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger particularly, as the Catalan club have regularly poached the best talent out of Emirates Stadium and Highbury since the Frenchman took over at the Gunners. Manchester City’s only business with Barcelona to date was the £24m for Yaya Toure, though the Ivorian was not a regular starter at the time.
Most recently though, was Barça’s pursuit of then Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas over the 2009-10 and 2010-11 season before the transfer was completed, where there were numerous public comments coming out of Barcelona suggesting Fabregas belonged there – the now infamous “Barcelona DNA” comments particularly rile Gunners fans. Alex Song made the same journey this summer, and the comments coming out of Camp Nou, while not quite so open as with Fabregas, were familiar in their tone.
However, there can be no denial that Arsenal are no strangers to taking youth players from the famed La Masia academy, with Fabregas being the most successful outcome and recent acquisitions Jon Toral Harper and Hector Bellerin both tipped for bright futures.
Last summer’s pursuit of £40m men Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas is not exactly new. Barcelona DNA notwithstanding, both players are examples of raw talent nurtured into world-beaters elsewhere, before being bought with no expense spared.
Without the moral worthiness that’s come with their success – the eulogies to youth teams and the finger pointing towards Madrid and anyone else buying success – there wouldn’t be much of a fuss to be made about either move. Manchester United paid £20m for a 20-year-old goalkeeper last summer and few eyebrows were raised.
But with the moral brand they’ve scrawled all over themselves – too good to buy in talent – even winking at Sanchez, Fabregas and more recently, Alex Song, makes Barcelona rampant hypocrites. And the hypocrisy is all the more blatant this time. Because at 22 and 24, last summer’s targets are marked as ones for the future. They’re being bought primarily as cover for Villa and Xavi, and then as medium-to-long-term replacements for them.
That’s a smear on La Liga’s pin-ups in two ways. First, their sporting domination, alongside a commitment to astonishing salary packets, means they can now afford to buy world-class players without even the intention to play them – which manages extravagance greater than even the Galactico collecting at Real Madrid, where the stars are at least bought to play.
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Then, deeper than that, the pursuit of Fabregas and Sanchez reveals an uncertainty around the club’s structure, on which so much emphasis is placed. Back in March 2011, before his team’s Champions League appointment with Arsenal, Guardiola noted that Barcelona had many reserve team players like Jack Wilshere. Fair enough, Thiago Alacantra proved the point with his displays for Spain’s Under-21s this summer. And yet Wilshere is playing regularly for Arsenal, while Thiago, 20, is set to have 24-year-old Fabregas placed in between him and 30-year-old Xavi’s place in the team.
For all the trust placed in reserve team graduates and the noise made about it, last summer’s targets reveal convenience, not ideology, as the explanation. Like every other club, Barcelona trust their reserves when they’re outstanding talents like Pedro and Sergi Busquets, otherwise they buy in replacements of better quality. The morality brand is a money-spinning lie – and Fabregas, Song and Sanchez grinning and bearing it on their bench will expose it.
Tottenham Hotspur duo Gylfi Sigurdsson and Clint Dempsey both moved to White Hart Lane in the summer when it looked all but assured at various points in the transfer window that switches to Anfield under new boss Brendan Rodgers were a mere formality – but given their respective struggles of late, have Liverpool FC dodged a bullet?
Make no bones about it, the summer transfer window was a disastrous one for the Merseyside club, with Rodgers repeatedly bemoaning his ‘thin’ squad and talking of ‘operational issues’ getting in the way of him completing deals. Having let the likes of Maxi Rodriguez, Craig Bellamy and Dirk Kuyt leave, it was the move which allowed Andy Carroll to move on deadline day without a guaranteed replacement lined up which exposed the truly fragility and worrying lack of depth in the team’s forward ranks, with Luis Suarez carrying them at the moment.
However, the two situations were themselves very different involving the players concerned here – Sigurdsson chose Tottenham in a straight fight between the two clubs, while the money men at Liverpool refused to pay more than the pitiful amount of £3.5m for Dempsey due to concerns over his age, paving the way for an 11th hour move from Villas-Boas, even if you suspect the American would have preferred the move to Anfield given the choice.
It has to be said that Rodgers appears to have gone back in a serious way on his ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with Swansea on more than one occasion. Not only did he go back in for Joe Allen later on in the summer, but admitting his interest while simultaneously stating that the Welsh club had first dibs on Sigurdsson was tantamount to torpedoing the move on purpose, and that the Icelandic international eventually turned him down must have pleased chairman Huw Jenkins no end.
Rodgers spoke to the press in the wake of the Sigurdsson snub, hinting that money may have been a motivating factor.
“We agreed a deal for him to go to Swansea and that was wrapped up. I then became the Liverpool manager and that then wasn’t something that was going to happen at Swansea so he then had a choice of where he wanted to go,” Rodgers said.
“I knew what the market was and I wasn’t prepared to pay anything over what I had known was agreed before. Liverpool would have provided Gylfi with a wonderful opportunity to perform with a manager that he knows and at a club which is a real footballing institution.
“But he’s decided to go to Tottenham, for whatever reason.”
It became clear that in his preferred 4-3-3 system, Rodgers had doubts about Gerrard’s role at the tip of the triumvirate, which has since been temporarily solved by Lucas’ injury absence. But the club’s pursuit of both Dempsey and Sigurdsson hints that he had reservations about the England captain having the legs that the position requires – to both join in with the midfield on the back foot and help link up with the lone striker when the side does have the ball.
I argued at the time that the move was a questionable one on Sigurdsson’s part, simply because with a new manager, and it being somewhat unclear whether he was bought by Daniel Levy or Villas-Boas, probably the former, that he had a long-term future at White Hart Lane. The need for reinvesting in that area was made even more of a top priority in the aftermath of the departures of both Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart.
My main worry was that given that they’ve already brought in Moussa Dembele to great success and tried to sign Joao Moutinho as well, does Sigurdsson really fit into the team’s starting XI? Factor in the fact that Sandro is almost undroppable at the moment and you simply can’t imagine the attacking midfielder commanding a regular spot by the end of the season, let alone in two or three years time, which you certainly could at Liverpool. On the player’s part, it was an astoundingly short-sighted decision.
There’s a feeling that unless he’s scoring goals, Sigurdsson doesn’t really contribute all that much to the team’s overall standard of play; he’s not especially involved in build-up play, nor does he possess a wide range of passing and there are signs already that he’s regarded as little more than a squad player to be rotated in Europe – even though he’s been involved in all 10 of the team’s league games so far this season, he’s started just five of them.
Moving on to Dempsey and Fenway Sports Group’s reluctance to part ways with more than £3.5m for him only helps to highlight the financial constraints placed on Rodgers, particularly when you consider the free-spending days of Kenny Dalglish just a year before and the fact that they had already sold Charlie Adam to Stoke earlier in the day for £4m. It has been estimated that Rodgers removed approximately £8m from Liverpool’s wage bill in the final 24 hours of the transfer window, which when you factor in that the club must have received a healthy loan fee for Andy Carroll too and it makes the value placed on Dempsey even more stark.
It had already been reported that Dempsey had turned down a move to Aston Villa earlier in the day and he seemed extremely keen to move to Liverpool. Nevertheless, with Emmanuel Adebayor lacking any sort of pre-season and with predecessor Harry Redknapp having left the balance of the squad in quite frankly appalling state with only one senior forward to select in Jermain Defoe, a move for a utility forward was essential for Tottenham’s strength in depth.
After an anonymous performance against Premier League champions Manchester City at the weekend, though, and a somewhat steady but hardly spectacular start to life in north London, Dempsey has come in for some criticism of late. When you factor in his own lack of pre-season, the slow start is understandable and he’s certainly got a role to play in the coming months, but I have to say that I’m not too sure he’d have been any better off at Liverpool, even though they could certainly do with the extra body up top.
At Fulham, Dempsey lacked a clearly defined role and in a 4-3-3, he lacks the pace or guile to play either wide on the left or right and behind the lone front-man is about 10-15 yards deeper than the position he occupied at Craven Cottage last season when he struck 17 league goals.
The demands of playing for a club like Fulham and one like Tottenham or Liverpool are completely different – teams set up to play with men behind the ball, away from home at least, against the aforementioned two teams, but are more likely to go toe-to-toe with Martin Jol’s side, meaning there’s more space in behind the opposition’s midfield for Dempsey to exploit and there’s a distinct lack of expectation playing for the west London outfit.
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This all points towards an influential role for the forward in one environment and a reduced one in another, but with the side competing in Europe still, and with Adebayor still finding his feet, he’s likely to be a key role in the coming months, much more so than Sigurdsson.
It may be considered churlish to state that Liverpool enjoyed a lucky escape on both transfers for I feel that Sigurdsson could have made a real impact at Anfield in a side short on goals, while Dempsey, considering Rodgers’ system, always looked to be a square peg in a round hole.
The American certainly has more to contribute at White Hart Lane in the short, medium and long term in my eyes and the supporters should be patient, but should Sigurdsson continue to be marginalised, which will only continue with the increased investment in that area of the pitch, he has only himself to blame for a questionable decision which could harm his career.
Nottingham Forest’s trip to Huddersfield Town this past weekend left the Reds going back home with their tails between their legs as they were outclassed with a 3-0 scoreline fair reflection. Forest conceded from a header from former player Joel Lynch inside the first minute of the game. The defence went into meltdown mode, making a comeback impossible as they conceded another two soft goals, with the third scored by another former Red, Grant Holt.
Forest manager Stuart Pearce reflected on this defeat, and he believes the reason behind this result and Forest’s recent run of form is down to the defence and the lack of confidence from his players. He said: “We created plenty of chances but I think the starting point is making sure we’re hard to score against.
“With the line-up we have we will create chances in matches, we have done all season. But at the start of the season we were keeping clean sheets and were very tight to play against. At this moment in time we’re not, so we have to solve that.”
Pearce also believes it’s down to him to help the players with their confidence issues and help them find their first win in eight Championship games. “We’re the only ones who can turn results around for Nottingham Forest, nobody else,” he stated.
“It’s down to me to install confidence in the players and make us hard to beat. The good thing is we have a home game in front of our own fans on Wednesday evening.”
It will be good for Forest to rekindle their form at the City Ground against Brentford on Wednesday evening, as they have only played three home games in their last eight league outings.
However, they haven’t been lacking fan support, as the fans at the Huddersfield game last weekend were in strong vocal form right up until the final whistle despite the team losing the game.
The absence of strong Forest leaders such as Chris Cohen and Andy Reid doesn’t help the confidence issue either, as Cohen isn’t expected to return till June 2015, and Reid isn’t expected to be back till January at the earliest.
The good form of Michail Antonio, Britt Assombalonga, and Michael Mancienne is a distant memory, as neither Antonio nor Mancienne have put a string of good performances together since Forest drew with Watford in mid-October.
Assombalonga on the other hand, has only scored once during Forest’s eight game winless streak, and needs to start finding the back of the net soon to revitalise his side’s promotion push. Forest would be over the moon if he could find the form that helped him score eight goals in the first seven league games of the season.
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A good start for Forest to find their confidence would be in their next game at home against Brentford. If they don’t win, the fans and Forest owner Fawaz Al Hasawi need to back Pearce in his decisions, otherwise the club will not move forward.
Al Hasawi has a history of having a trigger finger with managers, not quite to the same level as Massimo Cellino at Elland Road, but not dissimilar. He has stated he would like his club to be in the Premier League within the next two seasons or so but we all know he wants it now. Hopefully he has time and patience with Pearce during this bad run of form.
A surge of confidence will bring back to life Nottingham Forest’s promotion push in a very competitive Championship, but this would have to start with a win against Brentford, and a strong run of form will be needed for promotion to happen. Results will turn around, but as Brian Clough famously once said, “tactics don’t lose you games, players do.” It is down to the players to heave themselves out of this situation they have got themselves into.
Anyone who has been to a live football match will no doubt have heard another individual – 0r a group of individuals – chanting abuse, racist or not, towards a player or opposing fans.
If you haven’t, then you are one of the lucky ones because we all know it has become a regular occurrence within the game and something that has been highlighted recently in the Premier League.
The news that a small minority of West Ham fans were singing songs about Hitler and making reference to the appalling violent experience Tottenham fans had in Rome last week in their London derby on Sunday have been met with disgust throughout the world of English football, and rightly so.
But we all know that it is not the first time such abuse has taken place and I think we can all agree that it won’t be the last. But why?
In an age where we are regularly preached to about respect, equality and how lucky we are to lead such lives when others were not so fortunate in the past, there still seems to be some morons who think it is right and funny to continue making light of what is a serious issue which is still yet to be properly addressed in football and, more importantly, in life.
We all know about the huge racism issue in the Premier League recently and the soft punishment the FA handed John Terry after he racially abused QPR defender Anton Ferdinand. A four-match ban was simply not enough, especially when you consider Luis Suarez’s eight-match ban for his racially abusive comments towards Manchester United’s Patrice Evra.
The FA’s lack of consistency of dealing with such issues has not done them any favours in attempting to make an example of those guilty and show the world of football, both fans and players, that they will not tolerate any kind of behaviour that discriminates others.
One question that may be raised is whether the FA’s leniency on the punishment of John Terry has led to some simple minded fans believing that if it’s alright for the footballers to be getting away lightly with it, they can too. I wouldn’t put it past the fans who have already been punished for racist behaviour in the stands to have had that mind set when acting irresponsibly. Besides, they could argue that it’s a case of one rule for those on the pitch and one for those off it.
But we all know that it isn’t just at football grounds that this kind of abuse occurs. Twitter is regularly used as another platform for people to vent their anger and ignorant views towards high profile names within the sport, even before the Suarez and Terry cases.
The FA are powerless to stop what happens on the social networking site, which leaves the police with the unenviable task of punishing the keyboard warriors who think it is right to racially abuse or send death threats to the likes of TalkSport pundit Stan Collymore or West Ham’s Carlton Cole.
We have seen several Twitter users fined and even jailed for discriminatory tweets, and the police should be praised for taking a stand against these perpetrators. But it still happens and, sadly, it always will because the world will always have people who are either ill-educated and/or ignorant.
West Ham’s decision to ban a season ticket holder for life following the events at White Hart Lane on Sunday has been met with praise because, not only have they eliminated one ignorant football fan from attending any more of their games, they have also given out a strong message that the club will not tolerate its supporters behaving in such a disgusting way. However, many people have questioned why John Terry and Luis Suarez were not also handed life bans from the sport – which is the crux of the problem.
But what the FA need to do now is ban that particular fan from every football ground in the country, thus giving him no chance of ever polluting a single stadium again – something the sport desperately needs. It is a hard punishment to put in place, but one that they must try their hardest to implement. Face recognition cameras at every Premier League ground would be an effective deterrent, stopping banned supporters buying tickets under false names, which we all know happens already.
With football playing such an important role in the lives of thousands of people across the country, there will be many that refrain from acting irresponsibly in the fear of being caught and banned from football for life not just by their own club, but by the FA. Just the thought of that ever happening to me is difficult to take, but so is being racially abusive and anti-Semitic.
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The fact of the matter is that the FA, the police and football clubs must continue to work together and impose the hardest, most severe, punishments possible to rid the beautiful game of such abuse so that the majority can enjoy the sport for what it is, rather than have to regularly discuss how we are witnessing it being dragged through the gutter time and time again.
If every club in England acted as quickly and as strongly as West Ham have done then we would be heading in the right direction, but it is also up to the FA to follow suit and get themselves involved before it’s too late.
We will never rid the world of morons, but we can do our best to rid the sport of them.
What do you think? Is the FA failing to make a good enough example of the perpetrators, or should the police and clubs be the ones who do the punishing? Have they sent out the wrong message with lenient punishments for players?