Capello must beware midfield trap

Posted by Josh Williams on 31/05/2010

England's duo of warm-up matches before Fabio Capello names his squad have done much to dampen expectation. Although England recorded two wins - against Japan and Mexico - their performances were far from convincing. This was particularly true of the midfield area, where the central pairing were unable to dictate the game as they may have wished. That said, the most convincing duo in midfield was the much-derided partnership of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard. Richard Williams, writing in the Guardian, does not believe that they hold the answer to England's woes:

Fabio Capello must be awfully sure that Gareth Barry is on his way to a complete recovery, because nothing else could explain his lack of interest in addressing England's principal weakness in their final match before embarking for South Africa. Unless, that is, he really believes himself to be the one man in the entire world capable of devising a way in which Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard can function successfully together in central midfield.

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Ruling class: How important is the manager?

Posted by Rob Phillips-Knight on 30/05/2010

Jose Mourinho and Roy Hodgson’s recent achievements have raised an old question: How important are managers to the success of their teams? Everton boss David Moyes, writing in the The Times, looks at the managers who will be in South Africa and considers whether previous success could be a precursor to the outcome of this summer’s showpiece.

It’s fascinating, at this World Cup, to see how many nations have hired coaches with impressive CVs to try and make a difference to their teams. England see Fabio Capello as their Mourinho. Italy have brought back Marcello Lippi. Switzerland have recruited Ottmar Hitzfeld. The Spanish have Vicente del Bosque. The Special One will not be managing at the finals but special coaches will be. Capello, Lippi, Hitzfeld and Del Bosque have all won club football’s biggest prize, the European Cup, while Lippi and Carlos Alberto Parreira, who leads South Africa, are World Cup winners and Otto Rehhagel won Euro 2004 with Greece.

Ivory Coast have hired Sven- Göran Eriksson for the tournament, while Nigeria have brought in the experienced Lars Lagerback and Cameroon are managed by French league winner Paul Le Guen. It’s the most decorated array of coaches to compete at any tournament and I think there’s a trend towards top managers wanting to do what Sir Alex Ferguson did in 1986 and experience the challenge of taking a team to the World Cup finals.

Throughout the game, the stock of The Manager seems to be rising. Real Madrid will pay Inter £10m-plus to release Mourinho and in the Premier League we’ve seen Steve Bruce move clubs twice for £3m. The trend is towards managers commanding transfer fees almost equal to players.

World Cup finals present particular challenges. The first is timescale. At clubs you might have years to lay down your framework, philosophy, playing methods, work culture. At the World Cup you have a couple of games. Everything has to be right. The bosses going to the finals know that by the end perhaps half won’t have survived. That's pressure.

Every team, no matter how unfancied, have a country and a population behind them, demanding they do well. There’s not just media pressure but “nation pressure” to deal with at a World Cup. The players feel nervous as well. The manager has to show he is bulletproof, that he’s handling the situation. A dressing room knows quickly if a manager is not coping.

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Will more clubs enter administration? Bank on it

Posted by Rob Phillips-Knight on 29/05/2010

David Moores’ comments regarding his decision to sell Liverpool to Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr opened the lid on a debacle that is proving all too common in top flight football. Patrick Barclay, writing in the The Times, considers how the prospect of administration could become a more prominent worry for clubs like Liverpool if they do not resolve their ownership issues

The impotent hand-wringing of David Moores — a decent man who sold his beloved Liverpool to Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr because, after mature but sadly superficial reflection, he deemed it best for the club and himself — offers an all too accurate depiction of what the entity once known as “English football” has become.

The ideal sort of owners — prosperous local men such as Moores and Bill Kenwright, who still has neighbouring Everton because no American, Arab or Russian suitor has proved plausible to him — come under pressure to sell, usually to super-rich or wildly indebted foreigners only too anxious to take advantage of the Barclays Premier League’s mouthwatering combination of global exposure and inept governance.

The loot they provide for the locals — Moores got £88 million from the Americans — is only part of the pressure to move out. The game has also become ridiculously expensive to run because of inflation in players’ wages. An owner faces mountainous losses, such as Steve Gibson’s before Middlesbrough were carted off to the Coca-Cola Championship, or a sudden windfall. Tough choice, eh?

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Green set to seal No. 1 spot

Posted by Josh Williams on 28/05/2010

It wouldn't be an England World Cup campaign unless there were question marks hanging over key areas in the build-up. One such dilemma to ponder is who shall start the tournament between the posts for Fabio Capello's side - will it be the veteran David James or the man who started the last friendly, Robert Green? Kevin McCarra, writing in the Guardian, says that neither offers a compelling case to claim the gloves:

Robert Green's progress with England is praiseworthy but that advance also shows how goalkeeping resources have declined.

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Rotation policy is selling the spectator short

Posted by Rob Phillips-Knight on 27/05/2010

The effects of squad rotation in sport has long been a talking point in sport but Michael Atherton, writing in The Times, says it is the spectators who make the effort to buy a ticket who suffer.

If you were hoping to show your gratitude to Paul Collingwood, for his leadership of England’s Twenty20 team in the Caribbean recently, you will be disappointed, too. Collingwood could have played, but he has been withdrawn to treat a niggling shoulder injury — one that has been troubling him since and, note, during England’s tour to Bangladesh the previous time they played Test cricket.

Funny how the system works, isn’t it? England have only just played Bangladesh in Tests and now they are playing them again. It happened last summer, too, when West Indies came shortly after the two teams had played each other in the Caribbean.

It happened the summer before that as well — New Zealand and England were sick of the sight of each other by the time they had played home and away in the space of a few short months. The ICC’s Future Tours Programme clearly cannot cope with the overloaded schedule.

Now that you have your seat and you have been reading the paper for a while, it may be that your backside is starting to ache a little. Some of the seats in the ground are a bit archaic, I know, but maybe it’s because your wallet is a little lighter this morning than before and is not providing sufficient padding. How much lighter? Tickets for this match are cheap by the standards of Lord’s, but when you add travel and a few prawns and a glass of fizz at lunch, it is quite an outlay. And that’s just for one day. Are you getting value for money?

It’s a difficult question, I know. What if Andy Flower had chosen to rest Kevin Pietersen, too, and Graeme Swann, the other players who play in all three forms of the game? You might have felt a little short-changed then. Maybe, you would be regretting that moment of weakness in the winter, when you shelled out for the one day’s Test cricket that you will watch live this summer.

As cricket becomes increasingly a sport made for and packaged for television, it is always the paying spectator who misses out. In the Caribbean recently, matches started at 9.30am to placate the Indian television audience. Never mind the locals, who might have wanted to watch at a more sociable hour. You are the ones making the effort to buy tickets and travel to the game — don’t you deserve the best?

The policy of rotating players is here to stay, as Flower emphasised this week, but it is entirely regrettable; it short-changes those who pay to watch. A few hundred hardy souls travelled to Bangladesh. If they could make the effort to do so, Andrew Strauss, the England captain, should have done the same. Collingwood is untouchable at the moment, but it should not prevent him from copping criticism because, by agreeing to play for Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League when his shoulder was injured and in need of a rest, he paved the way for his present paid holiday.

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Let's all pray for Barry

Posted by Alex Livie on 26/05/2010

Gareth Barry’s scan proved inconclusive, leading Fabio Capello to hand him extra time to prove his fitness for the World Cup. And the Daily Mirror’s Oliver Holt feels it is astounding that the injury has not been given the importance as the Beckham and Rooney metatarsals of previous tournaments.

There is one question that needs to be asked above all others in the aftermath of England's game against Mexico on Monday night. Why aren't we praying for Gareth Barry's ankle?

Somehow we don't seem as devoted to it as we were to the Rooney metatarsal and, before that, the Beckham foot. There haven't been any life-size cut-outs of the Barry ankle in the newspapers yet. Uri Geller hasn't popped up on GMTV calling on the nation to unleash its healing powers on Barry's damaged ligaments. There wasn't a squadron of news helicopters flying above Barry's car on the way to the hospital where he had his tests yesterday. There weren't batteries of television cameras to film him coming out of the hospital, like there were when Rooney was passed fit before the 2006 World Cup. We didn't know the name of the hospital. We didn't have a detailed breakdown of the tests he was doing.

Because Barry's ankle is as important to England's World Cup hopes this summer as Rooney's metatarsal in 2006 and Beckham's foot in 2002.

Barry might not have the same charisma as Beckham or Rooney or appear in quite as many commercials. He might not be capable of producing a game-changing moment of brilliance like Rooney. Or of bending in a last-minute winner from a free-kick like Beckham. There's nothing spectacular about Barry.

But England's defensive vulnerability against Mexico on Monday night proved what we already knew: without Barry, Fabio Capello's England side is not the same.

The freewheeling must stop

Michel Platini’s vision to bring financial stability to the game takes a step forward on Thursday when Uefa's "financial fair play" rules are introduced. A host of Premier League clubs will need to cut their cloth to meet the criteria to enable them to play in European competition and David Conn warns in the Guardian that “freewheeling culture” will have to come to an end.

At Uefa's pine and glass headquarters on the banks of Lake Geneva tomorrow, European football's governing body will enshrine a rule designed to wrestle football's financial frenzy into some saner shape. The product of almost three years work since Uefa's president, Michel Platini, expressed alarm at the "danger to football" of debt, overspending and "rampant commercialism", Uefa's executive committee will approve the "financial fair play" regulations.

Its principle, after so many years of the football public here being told there is no alternative to the game being a toy of the free market, is heartbreakingly simple. From 2012-13, just two years' time, clubs who wish to play in European competitions must not spend more than they earn. That, in a nutshell, is it.

Ratification of the rule tomorrow will conclude a remarkable journey for an idea, developed from Platini's something-must-be-done cri de coeur to detailed regulations requiring most clubs to change completely their freewheeling behaviour. The Premier League fought for owners still to be allowed to subsidise players wages, but was overruled and will fall into line. Since the global financial crisis bit and Portsmouth's hideous £122.8m insolvency, several of the league's own clubs have recognised they must try to rein in overspending, and the league has introduced its own measures aimed at better financial regulation. Rather than rail against Uefa, the Premier League will seek to help its clubs try to break even.

That acceptance represents a journey, too, for Richard Scudamore, the Premier League's chief executive, who in September 2007 dismissed Platini's complaints about "rampant commercialism" as "not much above the view of people in the corner of the pub".

Platini laughed then, stressing how comfortable he is talking to fans in a pub. The Uefa president, a former playing great and France national coach, learned much about football's significance in a bar in Joeuf, the mining town of his birth, where his father organised the local club from which his son embarked on a meteoric career. For Platini, the heart of the game remains the one he absorbed in that smoky French bar.

Uefa's achievement is to have translated its president's gut instinct into a workable rule. The genesis of "financial fair play" followed a visit to the US in February 2008 by three Uefa executives, Andrea Traverso, now head of club licensing, Gianni Infantino, the current general secretary, and William Gaillard, Platini's special adviser. They examined the NFL, NBA, Major League Soccer and other US sports, to understand how rules including salary-capping have kept clubs roughly equal and financially healthy, and the competitions so commercially successful.

They concluded that salary caps would be difficult to introduce here due to European free market rules, but financial stability was a vital step towards a healthier game. Once clubs are living within their means, Uefa and the national competitions can look at how to share money more evenly, so that the richest clubs' dominance is not further entrenched.

Until then, although every Platini utterance has been painted by some as anti-Premier League rhetoric, the English top flight should have an advantage, because it makes the most money, from expensive Sky TV subscriptions and match tickets, and the newly minted £1.2bn three-year overseas TV deals.

Platini and his team have shown true leadership, cutting through the flannel that nothing can be done, achieving Europe-wide agreement for an actual rule to help restore football to balance. The rule's introduction will reinforce powerfully here the howling need for a strong, independent-minded Football Association to be a governing body, rather than, since the exits of Lord Triesman and Ian Watmore, the sad vacuum we currently have.

Game ripe for corruption

There are fresh revelations about match fixing in County cricket and former England captain Michael Vaughan tells the Telegraph that the situation leaves itself open to manipulation.

Match-fixing in county cricket is a real threat and this news could be just the tip of the iceberg. By speaking out I hope this player will shame others – and I am sure more players have been approached – into also going public.

In the past players have laughed off such approaches, but now they must reveal the danger the game is facing. Its credibility is at stake. Our game is ripe for corruption. That was always going to be the case as soon as county cricket was beamed abroad, which increased its exposure. From that moment on huge sums were being wagered on county matches. You cannot blame the ECB for cashing in on an overseas broadcast, but this is the unwanted side effect.

Sport's answer to the komodo dragon

Posted by Jo Carter on 25/05/2010

If Andy Murray were a cricketer, he would never be picked for the Twenty20 team, writes Simon Briggs in The Telegraph - The innings would be over before he'd got his eye in. But if Murray is to become a genuine Grand Slam contender, he can't afford to take the scenic route every time.

So many of Murray's matches end up as energy-sapping epics. One has to admire his mental resilience, and his fitness – two qualities that make him almost unbeatable in five-set matches.

And then there is the entertainment factor: like his friend Tim Henman, Murray serves up some terrific storylines. But it is hard to see him winning a grand slam title when he makes such heavy weather of the early rounds.

If ever you wanted a match to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of Murray's game, this was it. Playing Richard Gasquet, who has traditionally struggled in front of the demanding Roland Garros faithful, he needed to impose himself from the coin toss.

Instead he barely landed a first serve for the first half-hour, and let Gasquet settle into a crowd-pleasing rhythm of booming backhands and cheeky drop-shots.

It may be true that Gasquet was a horrible first-round draw. It may be true that nobody wanted to play him. But he is also a man with a frail psychology and a faulty left knee, which forced him to stop twice in the final of the Nice Open on Saturday.

If he had come up against some full-force tennis in that opening set, he would probably have lain down quietly, and Murray would have been through in two hours rather than four.

Everything turned around in the third set, when Gasquet began feeling his injury. Now Murray could go into stalker mode, which is where he is most comfortable.

Moving his victim around the court, wearing him down, waiting for an opening. He is sport's answer to the komodo dragon – a giant lizard that will nip a water buffalo gently on the leg and then hang around for three weeks, humming a tune, until the resulting infection leaves the poor creature too weak to stand.

It's not a bad hunting strategy, as these things go. But there are some big beasts out there in the world of men's tennis, super-predators who like to rend their opponents limb from limb.

Continue reading "Sport's answer to the komodo dragon"

Jose shows his humble side

Posted by Alex Livie on 24/05/2010

Jose Mourinho added yet more glitter to his CV this season with a Treble at Inter Milan – capped with victory in the Champions League final. He is likely to head for pastures new and will do so, says Richard Williams in the Guardian, proving that he can show humility when the need arises.

He did not take off his medal and stuff it in his pocket. He wore it proudly. He did not walk away to hide himself, as ostentatiously as a man hiding himself could possibly contrive to do, in the shadows of the dugout. Instead he went straightaway to applaud the fans dancing in ecstasy on the northern face of the mighty Bernabéu, then hugged his players and shook hands with their opponents. He hoisted his son, José Jr, wearing a black and blue No10 shirt, on to his shoulders, before setting him down, picking up the match ball and a Portuguese flag, and making his way to embrace his president.

This time José Mourinho was on his very best behaviour, as he had been all week. Once again he was starring in his own movie. But he was showing the world – and his employers, present and future – that he could also win one of football's biggest prizes with dignity.

There could have been no better setting for this display of his talents than the home of an organisation whose nine victories in the European Cup give them a special identification with the greatest of club tournaments. The near-certainty that it will become Mourinho's own next home only added to the evening's resonance. He will, he said, be meeting Florentino Pérez, the president of Real Madrid, today. He may or may not have been winding us up. Probably not. The contract is said to extend over four years, at ¤10m (£8.7m) a year, and the pre-season gathering is scheduled for a country-house hotel in County Kildare in the first week of August.

The call comes for Cole

There are still a couple of play-off games left, but focus really is turning to the World Cup. England take on Mexico in a friendly on Monday with a number of players eager to impress and force their way into the final 23. Joe Cole is one such player and the Daily Telegraph's Kevin Garside feels Fabio Capello must give the midfielder his chance.

Allow me to join the chorus of approval for Joe Cole. There must be a place for Cole when Fabio Capello names his World Cup 23 next week. Capello has two genuine No. 10s in his squad. One is Wayne Rooney, the other is Cole. Ten is football’s magic number, the shirt managers throw to men who can make a difference, to players not bound by convention, who see the pass that others do not, in whose imaginations a difference game plays out.

Now for Jose's Real story

Posted by Josh Williams on 23/05/2010

On Saturday evening, Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho became only the third man to win the Champions League with two different clubs. After delivering the Italian side's first European Cup for 45 years he confirmed that the game would probably be his last as Inter manager, with Real Madrid likely to be his next club. Paul Hayward, writing in the Observer, pays tribute to the self-anointed 'Special One' and his achievements:

José Mourinho's only problem is that he will run out of targets. A first league title for Chelsea in 50 years, Inter's first European Cup crown since 1965 and now the chance to manage Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká at Real Madrid.

Continue reading "Now for Jose's Real story"

No medals but Cesc's still a success

Posted by Alex Livie on 22/05/2010

Arsenal may be fighting a losing battle to hold on the Cesc Fabregas, with Barcelona working hard to lure him back to Spain. Barca star Xavi has said it is a scandal that a player of Fabregas’ talent has not won any trophies at club level, but the Guardian’s Dara O’Brien says that is not the way to judge a player.

I get it, Fábregas is going. Even if Arsenal hardball him into another season like I think they should, he was always going at some stage. But do we have show him the door quite as eagerly? I'm talking about all the think pieces this week telling us about the inevitability of his return, his quest for the biggest prizes, his apparent exasperation with Arsenal's mediocrity. So let's get him to Barça sharpish and start drooling over this great team.

My Fábregas pain is one shared by Aston Villa fans watching the Milner situation, or Liverpool fans nervously awaiting word on Torres. Each of these fans has the right to ask about the unseemly rush to herd all the great players into as small a collection of teams as possible.

Why is it presumed that players should move, just to collect trophies? Why not stay at the club and build something for once? Why are we so quick to applaud, even insist on, the glory-seeking move? Doesn't it just serve to concentrate all the playing resources in the same couple of clubs? Doesn't it just make the leagues more and more dull? The Spanish league is a series of exhibition matches with two clásicos to sort out the top places. We all drop the difficulty setting on Fifa now and again just to get a run of enjoyable victories together; it usually gets a little boring after a while.

Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail wrote during the week: "When Cesc Fábregas [leaves Arsenal] ... in the brutal reckoning of elite football, he will do so as a failure." This is nonsense. Footballers should not be discouraged from remembering that they have it pretty sweet. They get paid a bucket of money to do a job they've dreamed of since childhood. They are ahead. A long way ahead of their peers, who didn't make the grade. An unimaginably, stellar distance ahead of the rest of us schmoes who will never, ever know the joy of running out on to the pitch, let alone scoring a winning goal. There is no conceivable way their lives can be regarded as anything but success.

Would you seriously tell Alan Shearer, say, that his career was a failure for going to Newcastle that time, rather than Man United? Or Steven Gerrard for staying at Liverpool, instead of moving to Chelsea? Of course not. That would be infantile. The measure of a man is not just in the baubles he collects.

A chance for Balotelli to shine

The Champions League final hands Jose Mourinho the chance to cap a stunning season at Inter Mila with an amazing Treble. Bayern Munich stand in his way, but Ian Chadband in the Daily Telegraph suggests that a player who has baffled Mourinho, a certain Mario Balotelli, could be the man to take the spotlight and silence his detractors.

Inter Milan may not just be losing the best coach in the world after the Champions League final; they could also be bidding farewell to perhaps the most important footballer in Europe.

The kid who has divided the sport in Italy at the same time as looking eminently capable of changing the face of the game there.

Even Jose Mourinho, who has never quite yet been able to answer 'how do you solve a problem like Mario?’ would not put it past Mario Balotelli writing an outlandish denouement to his fantastically turbulent and dramatic season.

What a story, what a cause for celebration in the new, more ethnically diverse Italy if the 19-year-old striker, the nation’s first born-and-bred black footballing superstar, could deliver the perfect final riposte to the racists who have routinely assailed him from the stands in a country still struggling to come to grips with multiculturalism.

Armstrong could just be better than anybody else

Posted by Alex Livie on 21/05/2010

Lance Armstrong is in the news once again following the latest claims from Floyd Landis. The doping accusations once again raise questions about his seven Tour de France wins, but Brendan Gallagher suggests in the Telegraph that it could just be that he is better than everyone else.

You would never know but probably the most exciting Giro in history is nearing the end of its second week. You could write a book about it, but there is only one story in cycling that counts: Drugs. And above all else is the $64,000 question: can we believe Lance Armstrong’s seven consecutive wins in the Tour de France after recovering from a diagnosis of terminal cancer?

It is a fiendishly difficult and legally fraught scenario. Despite the steady drop of public allegations, nobody has come close to producing evidence to discredit that magnificent seven. Armstrong has never tested positive and clumsy efforts by French sports paper L’Equipe to retest samples that are nearly 10 years old and possibly ill preserved have backfired.

You also have to consider last year’s Tour, when aged nearly 38, Armstrong – tested from dawn to dusk and having not ridden competitively for three years – finished third despite missing six weeks of training with a broken collarbone.

It could just be that he is better than anybody else.

Lord Sebastian Coe has been parachuted in to aid the bid for the 2018 World Cup and he has told the Telegraph that despite the damaging situation that forced the resignation of Lord Triesman, there is a big chance of success.

To win the big prizes, sacrifices have to be made and obstacles overcome. I am fortunate to have been involved with a number of excellent teams who have worthwhile goals. One of these is London 2012 who will put on an Olympic and Paralympic Games to remember. Another is 2018 World Cup bid, which I strongly believe in.

Major sporting events change lives and millions of people in this country know they will play a full role when we put on spectacular games.

England is still in a position to win the 2018 World Cup bid – it is a marathon not a sprint. The technical bid handed to Fifa president Sepp Blatter by David Beckham remains as excellent now as it was on that day in Zurich.

This is Wenger's last chance

Posted by Josh Williams on 20/05/2010

After Cesc Fabregas reportedly made his desire clear to Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger that he wanted to leave the club, many are forecasting another trophyless season next term. If the Gunners do go another year without claiming a major trophy, they would have endured six seasons since their last. Another barren campaign would have disastrous repercussions for Wenger's reputation, says Steven Howard in the Sun:

ARSENE WENGER has one final season in which to get it right at Arsenal.

Irrespective of whether he fights off Barcelona's bid for Cesc Fabregas.

Continue reading "This is Wenger's last chance"

Slow it down, Cesc

Posted by Josh Williams on 19/05/2010

With Cesc Fabregas reportedly nearing a move to Barcelona, speculation is mounting as to where he will fit into the Spanish champions' star-stutted team. With two of the planet's finest midfielders - Xavi and Andres Iniesta - currently in his favoured central midfield berth, Gabriele Marcotti opines in the Times that Fabregas may find it difficult to break into Barca's starting XI:

Even before Barcelona announced that Cesc Fàbregas, the Arsenal midfield player, wanted to move to the Nou Camp — an intention he discussed with Arsène Wenger yesterday — many assumed it was a given.

Continue reading "Slow it down, Cesc"

A brilliant win, now for the toughest test Down Under

Posted by Rob Phillips-Knight on 18/05/2010

Shane Warne, making his writing debut for the Daily Telegraph, considers how England’s World Twenty20 final win over Australia could have implications for the Ashes.

Congrats England, well played, big tick in the box, round one to England – but when it comes to the first day of the Ashes in Brisbane, winning the World Twenty20 will count for nothing, unless MBEs are being handed out!

Every time Australia play England there is talk about the Ashes. We ask, has anyone gained an advantage?

What we can say is that England’s mindset has changed. In the past they thought that if they played at their best they might nick a win. Now they think, “We can beat this lot”. That feeling of being scared of playing Australia has disappeared.

England will have taken a small psychological advantage from Sunday’s final. Australia were just starting to build a bit of momentum and find some consistency in the aftermath of losing last year’s Ashes. But the first time they came up against England in a final they lost.

That will send a message to Australia that they have to play very well to beat England now in any form of the game.

But the Ashes in Australia is very different. It is the hardest series to win and England were embarrassed last time around. England’s planning must be to go out there and beat them every time to keep the momentum going.

Khan still lacking authority

Posted by Jo Carter on 17/05/2010

Amir Khan may have made his American debut in style, dominating Paulie Malignaggi to defend his WBA light-welterweight title, but question marks still remain, writes Matthew Syed in The Times

Amir Khan’s victory over Paulie Malignaggi, a savvy and talented New Yorker, at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden was impressive, as far as it went, but whether it heralds his arrival as a great of the sport, as many were proclaiming after the bout, remains to be seen.

There is no doubting Khan’s speed or versatility. The left jab was sharp as a scalpel and his counter-punching was crisp and, for the most part, accurate.

He also seemed to be undaunted by boxing in front of a largely hostile crowd, his youthful face a picture of concentration and intent. But it was clear early on that Malignaggi lacked discernible fire power — an observation bolstered by his record of only five knockouts in 27 wins — and the most urgent question mark hanging over Khan is whether he has the chin to go with his hand speed and precision. His knockout defeat in 54 seconds by Breidis Prescott continues to loom large in the minds of many British fans who witnessed it.

What is certain is that, however much he continues to improve his technical repertoire, sooner or later Khan is going to get tagged by one of the decent young boxers who populate the light-welterweight division. He will be drawn into a battle of will and stamina of the kind that all fighters have to endure at some stage of their career, and it is only then we are going to see whether he has the durability to go with his undoubted class.

Until that moment, and until that question has been answered, Khan remains a boxer with oodles of talent but without absolute authority.

Continue reading "Khan still lacking authority"

May 16, 2010

The odd couple are making it work

Posted by Alex Livie on 16/05/2010

Paul Collingwood and Andy Flower are an unlikely heroic double act, but they have driven the England team forward beyond all recognition, says Steve James Sunday Telegraph.

Petals and the Weed, a strange combination to be sure. Not ideal really, as any good gardener will testify. But today Andy Flower (with not the most imaginative nickname, granted) and Paul Collingwood (whose team-mates, especially the muscular Kevin Pietersen, playfully reckon him not to be the strongest hitter in the game) stand on the brink of leading England to their first-ever global one-day trophy.

Less than two years ago the odds on that would not so much have been long as to be of the sort offered to the deluded father who thinks his three-year-old can play football for England.

''Don't be silly, but 10,000-1 anyway''. It was that far-fetched. Collingwood had recognised he was no Mike Brearley, resigning the one-day captaincy, apparently in rather a huff with coach Peter Moores. And Flower, as Moores' assistant in an increasingly joyless regime, was already being tarred with the brush that eventually did for Moores.

But, somehow, this is how the wheel has turned. Flower has become an astute and authoritative leader.
Persuasive, too, in coaxing a most reluctant Collingwood to retake the reins. And Collingwood has improved. He is clearly still no tactical genius and in this tournament he has had a stinker with the bat (an average of precisely 8.16). Win today and history will not record such technicalities.

In any case, do not be surprised if Collingwood produces a match-winning innings later this afternoon. He quite likes visiting his personal pit of despair before leaping out spectacularly. Just think of his place-saving Edgbaston Test century in 2008.

Chelsea keep FA Cup tradition alive

Chelsea’s atttitude to the FA Cup makes them worthy double winners, says Gary Lineker in The Mail on Sunday.

Most people were rooting for the underdogs of Portsmouth at Wembley yesterday, but I was delighted that Chelsea won the FA Cup again.

For all the foreign influence at Stamford Bridge over recent years, they are the one big club who have always respected the tradition and history of the competition and for that reason fully deserve the Double.

Even in the early rounds of the FA Cup, the big names from Chelsea are always on the teamsheet - and you can't always say that about their biggest rivals.

Chelsea's third-round tie at Preston in January could have provided an excuse for some to take the day off. But not Frank Lampard, John Terry, Michael Ballack and Nicolas Anelka.

How ironic that a club managed by Claudio Ranieri, Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant, Felipe Scolari, Guus Hiddink and now Carlo Ancelotti should remind us all of what a great competition the FA Cup is!

Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United use it as an opportunity to rest their better, more experienced players. Chelsea don't and it was worked for them because winning is a habit.
Chelsea were worthy winners yesterday, although Portsmouth deserve a great deal of credit in what could be their last big match for a long time.

May 15, 2010

The team of the season

Posted by Ben Blackmore on 15/05/2010

As the rugby union season enters the Guinness Premiership semi-final weekend, it is time to start picking the 15 men who have made the most telling impact over the course of the year. As a World Cup winner with England, the Daily Telegraph's Will Greenwood should know better than most, so here is his team of the year...

1. Soane Tonga’uiha Northampton
“What’s that coming over the hill, is it a Tongan?” The Saints fans chant The Automatics with glee knowing they have one of the new breed of rugby men in their front row. The props from the last century would be appalled at his total lack of agoraphobia. Men such as Jason Leonard spent their life avoiding the ball. This guy loves the open spaces. His handling ability is exceptional, offloading in crowds is his speciality. Control among the chaos when he passes, and just chaos when he runs.

2. Schalk Brits Saracens
No question, the signing of the Premiership. Is there anything this man cannot do on a rugby field? I half expect him to take the conversions. His acceleration is devastating, his step wing-like. He beat five men to score against Newcastle. He hangs around in the back field like a specialist kick returner. Endless energy, beaming smile, does his graft up front and then plays like one of the great free spirits at a time when there is supposed to be no space. Brilliant.

3. Dan Cole Leicester
Burst on to the scene and into an England jersey. Tackles well, gets his head dirty like all great Leicester props, and is mobile. But for all that, it’s his scrummaging that gets him the slot. He is a tighthead after all. His demolition of England, Lion and Heineken Cup winner Tim Payne, of Wasps, in January was epic. His tackles in the same game on Payne and Simon Shaw made me shudder. Love the way he has been developed. Dual registration at Nottingham, got his games, then moved into the first team at Leicester. It’s the blueprint for how to nurture talent.

Continue reading "The team of the season"

May 14, 2010

Lager and crisps did the job at Italia ‘90

Posted by Rob Phillips-Knight on 14/05/2010

As Fabio Capello’s England team prepare for next month’s World Cup, the Daily Telegraph’s Jim White takes a nostalgic look back at England’s efforts at Italia ’90 and discusses the differences between the plans of Capello and then boss Bobby Robson.

It was revealed this week that Fabio Capello's nutritionist had ordered in the following essentials for the England lads during their forthcoming stay at their Royal Bafokeng hideaway: 30 packs of seaweed sheets, 24 bottles of peri-peri sauce and 12 tubes of wasabi paste.

And you thought they were heading to South Africa to compete in the World Cup, not the initial stages of Masterchef.

The thought of Wazza, JT and Big Frank indulging in an after-match snack of antioxidant-rich peppers to help reduce the levels of lactic acid in their blood stream, somehow kept popping into my head when I watched One Night In Turin, the new movie adaptation of Pete Davies's wonderful book about Italia 90, All Played Out.

As Davies himself reckons, remembering that long-lost summer of Des Lynam, Gary Lineker and Nessun Dorma, "everything has changed".

Not least in the stuff England players consume. Back then, Davies recalls one evening happening across three of the squad members on a beach a few days before the quarter-final against Cameroon, innocently refuelling on lager and crisps. This summer, they are much more likely to be spending their down time rolling their own sushi.

Back then, the fans following their national team were fresh faced, youthful and, as they went about their business terrifying the locals and battling with the riot squad, draped in the Union Flag.

In South Africa, England will mostly be followed by the over-forties, who discarded the symbol of unionism around 1996 in favour of the cross of St George and, far from provoking them, will be treading warily at every stage for fear of advertising themselves to some of the less hospitable locals.

More to the point, compared to Capello's all-embracing professionalism, in 1990 it all seemed so amateurish. There was an insistent romanticism about Bobby Robson's wing-and-prayer Italian campaign.

May 13, 2010

The secret's out

Posted by Jo Carter on 13/05/2010

Fulham's European fairytale was cruelly shattered by Diego Forlan in Hamburg last night, but despite the defeat Roy Hodgson is hot property now, writes Oliver Holt in The Mirror.

They told Roy Hodgson after it was all over that he must be very proud. They suggested even that he must be delighted. They patronised him and they patronised his team, too. Plucky little Fulham. How well they did.

Hodgson said they would have to forgive him if he was not dancing a jig of joy. Once, he bristled. That was when someone suggested losing to Atletico Madrid in extra-time last night would be a confidence-booster for next season.

Hodgson deserved better than that. So did Fulham. If England's Manager of the Year has achieved anything in his time in charge at Craven Cottage, he has earned respect for his side.

Fulham matched Atletico last night. They were not overawed by them. They did not cower in front of them. They did not freeze in the limelight.

They may have fallen to a 116th minute winner from Diego Forlan in an enthralling Europa League final but the superb football they played in a defeat they did not deserve will only have enhanced Hodgson's reputation.

His achievement in getting Fulham to this football showpiece in the first place has alerted Europe's top clubs to the fact that there is an old maestro working in our midst.

The Fulham boss will surely be in the reckoning if any of the top jobs in the Premier League are up for grabs during the summer.

If Rafa Benitez leaves Liverpool, for instance, Hodgson would be on a short-list with Martin O'Neill and probably Bayern Munich's Louis Van Gaal.

If Manchester City were to tire of Roberto Mancini, then what better option could they pick than a man with Hodgson's cosmopolitan urbanity?

Hodgson has been a well-kept secret for the last 30 years and finally the secret is out.

Fulham fans will not want to hear this but Hodgson is a hot property now and it is going to be hard for the Cottagers to hang on to him.

Continue reading "The secret's out"

May 12, 2010

Capello showing familiar flaws

Posted by Josh Williams on 12/05/2010

An eventful 24 hours for England manager Fabio Capello on Tuesday. In the morning, his 'Capello Index' - which would have given England players ratings two hours after each World Cup game - was lambasted in the media. Hours later, following an embarrassing climb down that will see the ratings system not come into place until after the World Cup, Capello named his 30-man preliminary World Cup squad. Paul Hayward, writing in the Guardian, sees unhappy parallels with some of Sven-Goran Eriksson's worst traits:

Two out of 10 would be a generous mark for Fabio Capello's index of player ratings, which he launched at the London Stock Exchange on Monday and then aborted less than 24 hours later as England's provisional 30-man World Cup squad was being typed up. John Terry, condemned for exploiting the office of England captain for personal gain, would have been among those scampering to a laptop to see how the manager's software had ranked them two hours after the final whistle.

Continue reading "Capello showing familiar flaws"

May 11, 2010

Beware the odd-job man

Posted by Josh Williams on 11/05/2010

Fabio Capello names his 30-man England squad today, a party which will be whittled down to 23 by the tournament begins. One man set for a surprise inclusion is Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, who retired from international football in 2007 under Steve McClaren's regime. Matt Dickinson, writing in the Times, is delighted that the Liverpool player has returned to the England fray - but he cautions against any observers describing him as anything other than a centre back:

So and so “can do a job”. The airwaves and columns are full of this dangerous phrase. James Milner can fill in at left back (even though no one has ever seen him try it). Ledley King could plug the holding role (he did it once against Argentina and came off dizzy from marking Juan Román Riquelme). Jamie Carragher’s return is great news because he is not only a centre half but a right back too.

It all sounds great in theory but there is a reason why a squad consists of 20 outfield players — two for every position — and another reason why every international manager should beware the surface temptations of the utility player.

Continue reading "Beware the odd-job man"

May 10, 2010

A pain in the neck

Posted by Jo Carter on 10/05/2010

"The last time that Tiger Woods walked off during a round was as an amateur at the 1995 US Open," writes Mark Reason in The Daily Telegraph. "We all felt sorry for him then, but no longer. Woods has become golf's biggest pain in the neck."

Woods just left town after withdrawing from the Players' Championship with a stiff neck. Woods had once again tasered the PGA Tour and his fellow golfers.

Head down and hiding behind a pair of dark glasses Woods didn't utter one word to the waiting media. He preferred to turn the biggest tournament on the Tour into another circus. The bloke whom Ernie Els called selfish ahead of February's Matchplay, just did it
again.

Is this the same man who won the 2008 US Open with a fractured leg and ruined knee? Is this the same man who won at Bay Hill in 2003 with severe food poisoning in the final round? After hitting a drive off the seventh tee Woods asked the official to call for a cart. When transport arrived by the green, Woods made his wretched departure from the golf course.

What will Tour commissioner Tim Fichem have to say about Woods's latest stunt? Finchem opened up the clubhouse doors here at Ponte Vedra so that Woods could make his public apology in February. Finchem was much criticised at the time for bending over to Woods and this is how he repays him. The Players is Finchem's pet tournament and Woods just reduced it to a sideshow.

Continue reading "A pain in the neck"

May 9, 2010

Morgan can add spice to England Test team

Posted by Ben Blackmore on 09/05/2010

Kevin Pietersen has been in thunderous form for England during the World Twenty20, but he has been matched by the brilliant Eoin Morgan. Not so long ago Pietersen used his one-day form to prove himself worthy of a Test place, and the Telegraph's Steve James believes Morgan can do the same...

The question put to me last week was simple: name your England team for the first Ashes Test this winter. And the answer was simple: Strauss, Cook, Bell, Pietersen, Collingwood, Morgan, Prior, Broad, Swann, Anderson and Onions.

Yes, six batsmen (for some considerable time England will remain spooked by calamitously playing five at Headingley last year) and as the sixth I had no hesitation in nominating the young Irish magician Eoin Morgan.

His spell truly is all-bewitching. Only a couple of months ago the gnarled old pro in your columnist would have been guffawing heartily at such a suggestion. Test cricket? Earn your stripes first, young man! Indeed, I did mention in these pages that an average of 24 in the "thoroughly moderate second division of the county championship last season" precluded such notions.

But opinion can change; evidence can mount persuasively, so as to become irresistible. Time after time this winter Morgan has revealed a rare talent, mixing wondrous invention and breathtaking sweeps with an appreciation of angles so sharp as to have pleased Euclid.

So well has he recently combined power with an ability to manoeuvre the ball into the gaps that he has mounted a perfectly plausible argument that he might be England's most complete one-day batsman. Ever.

Continue reading "Morgan can add spice to England Test team"

May 7, 2010

Green shoots of recovery for Tiger

Posted by Alex Livie on 07/05/2010

Tiger Woods made a shaky start to the Players Championship, crashing his first tee shot into the trees, but he recovered to put himself in contention and Derek Lawrenson in the Mail feels there were signs of a revival for the world No. 1.

Not quite normal service from Tiger Woods at the Players Championship, but normal enough to suggest it won't be too long before those hysterics predicting his best days are behind him look rather silly.

Amazing what some people will read into one bad performance. Seven days on from the worst tournament of his career, Woods showed once again his powers of recovery with an opening round of 70 at Sawgrass.

Harry is Mr Motivator

Harry Redknapp is still basking in the glory of taking Tottenham into the Champions League and the media are still gushing about his efforts. The Daily Telegraph’s Henry Winter believes Redknapp’s man-management skills played a huge part in Spurs’ surge.

In pride of place on the wall of Harry Redknapp's old office at West Ham United was a wonderful picture of Bobby Moore in all his elegant, ball-playing pomp. Redknapp was a soulmate and club-mate and also a great admirer because of Moore's central role in England's 1966 World Cup triumph.

Redknapp has always waved the flag of St George, whether in releasing players for national service during his time at West Ham, Portsmouth, Southampton and now Tottenham or in nurturing lion cubs like Frank Lampard, Joe Cole
and Rio Ferdinand at Upton Park.

Even now, aged 63, Redknapp is still playing patriot games by making good English players better. England's plane to South Africa could resemble Noah's Ark, with Spurs players going in two by two, a pair from each department: defenders Michael Dawson and Ledley King, midfielders Tom Huddlestone and Aaron Lennon, strikers Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe.

Redknapp does the fundamentals of his job so well, encouraging players to sharpen technique, filling them with belief and creating a stage for them to express themselves.

Dawson, Lennon and Defoe have particularly improved under Redknapp, the engaging alchemist of White Hart Lane.

People feel good after even a minute in Redknapp's company. His popularity was highlighted after Wednesday's seismic win over Manchester City, when another Englishman, David Bentley, poured an ice-water bucket over him, doubtless chilling Redknapp to the bare bones.

Not only are Spurs players well managed, they are also well coached. Redknapp has gathered a notable brain trust, including four Englishmen in Kevin Bond, Clive Allen, Les Ferdinand and Tim Sherwood, plus the Scot Joe Jordan, adding to Tottenham's home-grown feel.

Some managers are cautious about talking up their players for England. Not Redknapp. He shouts their qualities from the rooftops.

May 6, 2010

Mancini may pay for defeat

Posted by Josh Williams on 06/05/2010

Manchester City's defeat on Wednesday night against Tottenham Hotspur, in what effectively amounted to a Champions League play-off, has prompted speculation over the future of their manager Roberto Mancini. Matt Hughes, writing in the Times, says that the Italian will most likely still be City boss at the start of next season - but that his long-term future remains unclear.

The match that Roberto Mancini described on Tuesday as an opportunity to make history could consign him to its dustbin. The Manchester City manager will face a nervous few days after failing to meet his employer’s minimum requirement of bringing Champions League football to the world’s richest club.

Continue reading "Mancini may pay for defeat"

May 5, 2010

Football, money and an uncomfortable truth

Posted by Rob Phillips-Knight on 05/05/2010

Can a sports star speak honestly about money? Tottenham and Cameroon left-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto tried it and received a backlash for his candid comments but Matthew Syed, writing in The Times, feels the sporting purists among us should try a spoonful of common sense before considering their argument.

At last, a footballer who tells it straight. A footballer who gives an interview devoid of spin. A footballer whose opinion you may not like very much, but who cannot be faulted for authenticity.

At the weekend Benoît Assou-Ekotto, the Tottenham full back, was asked his reasons for leaving the French league to ply his trade over here. This is what he had this to say: “If I play football with my friends back in France, I can love football.

“But if I come to England, where I knew nobody and I didn’t speak English . . . why did I come here? For a job. I don’t understand why everybody lies. The president of my former club Lens, Gervais Martel, said I left because I got more money in England, that I didn’t care about the shirt. I said: ‘Is there one player in the world who signs for a club and says, ‘Oh, I love your shirt?’ Your shirt is red. I love it.’ He doesn’t care. The first thing that you speak about is the money.”

Those who like to think of themselves as sporting purists will doubtless be appalled by this. They will discern in the defender’s candour the long-anticipated apocalypse. If the arrival of money into sport triggered its long demise, this is the reading of the last rites. If sportsmen cannot even pay lip service to the idea that sport is about more than Mammon, where does that leave us?

But those of us living on Planet Earth will surely applaud a footballer refusing to indulge in the customary hypocrisy. The protestations of loyalty to a club’s badge have increased in recent years in direct proportion to the diminution of the sanctity of the clubs. Is it not welcome that a player is prepared to move beyond the usual self-serving homilies?

After all, in any other walk of life, the inclination to work for the highest bidder is considered perfectly normal. It reflects a natural impulse to do as well as possible for oneself and one’s family, oiling the wheels of capitalism and making the world turn. So, why is the mercenary tendency considered so treasonous in football?

May 4, 2010

McIlroy signals start of post-Woods era

Posted by Ben Blackmore on 04/05/2010

Great players sense the big occasion. They put every ounce of effort into creating it, but when the moment arrives, they make sure they leave a mark so memorable that it has mere mortals discussing it down the local pub. Rory McIlroy provided one such moment at Quail Hollow, and the Daily Mail's Derek Lawrenson believes it signalled the start of a new era in golf...

Golf historians, pick up your pens and start a most thrilling debate. Following a seismic series of events, have we just witnessed the most epochal 24 hours in the history of the game? It all began on Sunday morning, UK time, with 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa shooting 58 - yes, 58 - to win his fourth event on the Japan Tour; continued on Sunday night with Rory McIlroy shooting 62 - yes, 62 - to beat Masters champion Phil Mickelson and win for the first time in America; before ending Monday morning with Italian Matteo Manassero signing on the dotted line to join the professional ranks at the age of only 17.

At Augusta last month many good judges were predicting that Manassero, the youngest player ever to compete in the Masters and who made the halfway cut, would prove a more prolific winner than the other two. But where does that verdict stand now after Ishikawa's dismantling of a tricky layout in Japan that had McIlroy, who has played the course, shaking his head in admiration? Or after the Ulsterman's stunning demolition of a class field in North Carolina?

Who knows who will win the most? But one thing's for sure: at this, the dawning of a new era, the man in front is McIlroy.

Continue reading "McIlroy signals start of post-Woods era"

May 3, 2010

Higgins has left his sport snookered

Posted by Ben Blackmore on 03/05/2010

Predictably, Monday’s media casts its finger of shame directly at John Higgins after allegations of match-fixing were brought against snooker’s world No. 1. Kevin Garside says most accurately what we are all wondering in his article for the Daily Telegraph...

Another hero on the make, allegedly. The story engulfing former world snooker champion John Higgins is sport's greatest curse; he is the boxer who took a dive, the batsman who played all around a straight one, the jockey who did not try.

No sportsman can survive the moment the face in the crowd no longer trusts what he sees. On a scale of rotten deeds, the active fixing of an outcome by a participant ranks highest.

The drug cheat pumps shame as well as chemicals into his system and spreads the cancer of doubt throughout his sport. That is bad enough. But somehow not as pernicious as throwing a game.

At least the sprinter, the cyclist, the weight-lifter is trying to enhance performance to win. That we kind of understand, if not tolerate. But not to try, to chuck it in, kills the essence of sport.

Tiger Woods betrayed many an ideal with his carnal gymnastics but the damage was limited to himself. The integrity of golf survived. If the allegations against him are true, Higgins appears terminally snookered; a chicken in Kiev.

How many look back on the Crucible story of the fortnight: the recycling of Steve Davis as a contender once more, and recast the result in the light of the allegations Higgins faces? Was the hairy hand of greed informing Higgins' cue action? Did he miss the pink on purpose?

Davis and snooker deserve better than that question.

May 2, 2010

Winner-takes-all in the Championship

Posted by Josh Williams on 02/05/2010

A hugely significant day in the Championship on Sunday, with a winner-takes-all relegation scrap between Crystal Palace and Sheffield Wednesday taking place. Both sides have enjoyed spells in the Premier League since its inception in 1992, and yet one will sink into the third tier of English football today. David Conn, writing in the Observer, hints that the effects of relegation could be ruinous for cash-strapped Palace – but that Wednesday are well-placed to cope:

All 36,000 tickets are sold for today's final match of the season at Hillsborough between Sheffield Wednesday and Crystal Palace but this meeting of two fallen names promises no glory. In the purest, meanest of shoot-outs Palace will go down to League One if Wednesday win; if they draw or Palace win, Wednesday are relegated themselves. Relief or heartbreak are the only emotions on offer.

Continue reading "Winner-takes-all in the Championship"

May 1, 2010

Liverpool need to clear the decks

Posted by Alex Livie on 01/05/2010

Rafael Benitez is reported to be on the brink of leaving Liverpool and Patrick Barclay, writing in the Times, feels the club’s star men Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres should head for pastures new as well.

"The party’s over. It’s time to call it a day.

No critic of a certain age writes off an era in the history of Liverpool Football Club without being haunted by the Frank Sinatra song.

ITV played it over scenes of Bob Paisley’s players disconsolately heading for the Anfield tunnel after a first-round knockout by Nottingham Forest in the European Cup of 1978-79. They had been champions in each of the previous two seasons and the feeling was that time, tide and Brian Clough were impatient.

Forest did indeed win the European Cup that season, and the season after, but Liverpool were to lift the trophy a third and fourth time — and take eight domestic titles in 12 years — before the tradition of plucking managers from boot room or dressing room was abandoned. Those years featured quite a bit of partying in which the name of the ITV commentator associated with the ill-fated sequence was toasted.

But the party to celebrate Rafael Benítez’s achievements ended years ago. It was fun and two of the finals — of the Champions League against AC Milan in Istanbul in 2005 and the FA Cup against West Ham United in Cardiff a year later — were classics. But revelry has given way to a cross between a wake and a revival meeting. And Liverpool are not going to be revived by Benítez.

A break from Anfield’s daily charade is the least he deserves. Football people understand that Liverpool are prisoners of their proud past as well as the chaotic present and Benítez will have no trouble finding his next post. Juventus are pressing him for a decision and even Real Madrid are interested.

If only Liverpool’s future were as simple. The club need new ownership. If that cannot be arranged — and at present it looks about as likely as the much-promised new stadium — they need greatly scaled-down expectations. When Benítez goes, he should be swiftly followed by Torres, Gerrard while he can still command a large fee, Javier Mascherano and the rest.

Then the new manager will have some money to work with. As David Moyes has shown with Everton, and Roy Hodgson most startlingly with Fulham, it need not be a king’s ransom. Neither, of course, has been quite so cursed as Benítez by those expectations. But Liverpool do have one thing: potential. It should sustain them through the long haul. But the party? Collect the empties."