The death of Sir Bobby Robson, England's most successful manager after Sir Alf Ramsey, had been expected given his long battle with cancer, but his passing still jolts.
The son of a miner, Robson's career was characterised by dignity, loyalty and hard graft and no little success.
As a player he won 20 England caps, but it was as an innovative manager that he will be best remembered, notably his success in guiding England to a World Cup semi-final in 1990, when his side came agonisingly close to reaching the final.
Before his stint with the national team, Robson managed Ipswich for 13 years, guiding the Suffolk club to FA and UEFA Cup success and twice led the Portman Road side to the runners-up spot in the old First Division.
At Ipswich, Robson brought in two Dutch players -- Arnold Muhren and Franz Thijssen -- who helped forge Ipswich's reputation as a passing side playing attractive and enterprising football.
After stepping down as England manager in 1990, Robson then went to Holland, where he managed PSV Eindhoven, before going on to coach Sporting Lisbon and Porto in Portugal and then Barcelona in Spain.
While he was at Barca he helped to preside over the development of the Brazilian striker Ronaldo, before he returned to England to manage Newcastle in his native north-east.
Robson was famed for his malapropisms. Once when former England captain Bryan Robson emerged from a lift, his manager greeted him by saying "Hello, Bobby," to be met with the response: "No boss, me Bryan, you Bobby."
The football knight will be much missed. What are your memories of Sir Bobby and what is his importance to English football?
They have spent millions signing players like Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz, Gareth Barry, Kolo Toure. The list goes on and the spending does not stop.
In a clear sign that purse strings are still loose, Everton rejected an improved 18 million pounds offer from City for defender Joleon Lescott, having turned down a 15 million bid two weeks ago.
For now the only thing that can stop the spending is when the transfer window closes next month.
Then what? Can the flurry of signings yield immediate results or will manager Mark Hughes be looking over his shoulder again after a lacklustre season?
PHOTO: Manchester City’s new signing Carlos Tevez and Roque Santa Cruz (L) shakes hands after a news conference at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi July 16, 2009. REUTERS/Mosab Omar
The US national team beat European champions Spain in the Confederations Cup and give Brazil a scare in the final. In the NFL heartland of Baltimore, 71,000 turn out to watch Chelsea v AC Milan.
In Pasadena, Chelsea v Inter Milan pulls in 81,000.
David Beckham gets booed and jeered on his return for L.A Galaxy and the American sporting public laps it up – top sports talk shows, which usually ignore soccer other than to mock the game occasionally, lead their bulletins on the issue.
Giants Stadium in New York sells out with 79,000 for USA v Mexico in the Gold Cup final – even though both teams field reserve sides.
There is more to come — Real Madrid and Barcelona are about to start mini-tours of the U.S. that will bring in similar huge crowds.
In Major League Soccer, the Seattle Sounders average 30,000 for home games in their first season. Philadelphia and Vancouver sign up to became the next teams to join the league.
Television stations now battle for rights to Europe’s Champions League – which will be broadcast on the Fox Soccer Channel while ESPN is already running trailers for next year’s World Cup finals.
The numbers are impressive and are hard to ignore but it is worth noting, as U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati did this week, that the games that are attracting such huge crowds involve the absolute cream of the crop.
“Clearly we are not getting those attendances at MLS games, and it is an important question as to how we can tap into what is clearly an audience for high-level international games.
“It’s a little bit chasing stars if we think most teams around the world would draw those sorts of attendances. If we were to have a tournament next summer with Stuttgart, Aston Villa, Olympique Marseille and pick another team, I don’t think we’d have those same sorts of attendances.
“The teams that have come are two of the glory teams in Real Madrid and Barcelona, two or three of the top English and Italian teams, really the best teams in the world and biggest stars,” he said.
Nonetheless, the idea that soccer is alien or foreign to Americans or that the game somehow needs to be altered to appeal to those used to the NFL or NBA has been shown to be the nonsense that it is. (more…)
Soccer is in a tight spot in China -- literally. Huge crowds roar for Manchester United but the national team is a laughing stock at 108th in FIFA world rankings. Poor coaching, lack of grassroots development, even corruption and violence are variously cited as reasons for the sport's demise. But the real reason may be more basic: the fact of physical space, or the lack thereof, in China.
If geography is a determinant of economic development, then it is fair to extrapolate that urban geography underpins the development of sports. And here's the rub for soccer, not to mention American football and baseball. With few parks, small concrete schoolyards and a dearth of quiet streets, urban China offers little of the space needed for the sprawling play that defines those sports. Soccer has deep roots in China, but playing space has been squeezed as cities sprawl and swallow land in big gulps.
The NBA's hugepopularity in China has left other sports leagues salivating. They, too, dream of their own Yao Ming bringing forth TV audiences in the tens of millions and merchandising opportunities galore. But basketball can thank China's spatial constraints more than its own marketing wizardry for such success. Dozens of nets crammed into schoolyards make the sport accessible to a huge number of young enthusiasts. The ease with which basketball has been woven into China's urban fabric has a precedent in the explosion of Chinese table tennis in the 1950s. Both are simple enough games that can be played in tight spaces.
Curiously, the physical limitations of the crowded country augur well for one sport that uses more space than almost any other: golf. Unlike baseball, football and soccer, golf does not need a critical mass of ardent supporters to take off. Golf, in fact, can thrive in conditions of scarcity, when a small number of high-priced courses consolidate its position as an elite pastime. The lack of space in China makes it an expensive sport, out of reach for the great unwashed and just the ticket for the country's nouveau riche.
Photo Credit: Local fans of Manchester United hold signs and posters as they look into the hotel where the players stayed in on July 25, 2009 ahead of a friendly match against Hangzhou Greentown. REUTERS/Nir Elias
You would think ex-Inter Milan striker Julio Cruz and former AS Roma defender Christian Panucci might be panicking about not having a club just a few weeks before the start of the season.
At 34 and 36, there surely is no time to lose.
In reality, they seem quite happy to bide their time and wait for the right offer like other top players released by their clubs.
Waiting until the season starts to find a club means their ageing limbs don’t have to be put through the torture of full pre-season training after years of running up hills and playing meaningless friendlies in bizarre places.
By leaving a decision until the last moment, a bidding war could ensue between interested clubs and wage offers could sky rocket. Argentine Cruz, a saviour for Inter so many times with late goals, has been linked with Roma, Lazio, Napoli and now Bologna.
The end of the transfer window on Aug 31 also does not apply to out-of-contract players, meaning there is no artificial rush.
In one sense it pays too for clubs to wait until just before the season rather than snapping players up in June. They don’t have to shell out two months of wages…
PHOTO: Inter Milan’s Julio Cruz celebrates after scoring against Lazio during their Italian Cup semi-final, second leg in Rome May 7, 2008. REUTERS/Giampiero Sposito
Has John Terry got a bit big for his boots by questioning whether Chelsea’s ambition matches his own?
The defender and club captain said that was the reason for the delay in him nailing his colours to the Chelsea mast in the wake of Manchester City’s reported 200,000 pounds per week offer to take him away from Stamford Bridge.
Nothing to do with money. Nothing to do either with the fact that he has peaked as a player and with injuries niggling away at his joints, the England skipper is likely to find it more and more difficult to excel at the highest levels of the game.
Fans of the club will take some convincing that Terry still has his heart fully at the club despite his words to the contrary.
They might also argue that losing Mr Chelsea for an enormous fee to a club not even in the Champions League would have been a good piece of business and not the disaster some predicted.
Terry is still a world class defender but is certainly replaceable. He is no Cristiano Ronaldo after all. He will be one of the first names on Carlo Ancelotti’s team sheet as the new season kicks off but City are unlikely to have been totally put off the scent.
Terry said he hoped to have a good season and then sit down and talk to the club about a new deal….any loss of form, however, and club owner Roman Abramovich might just decide that Mr Chelsea is expendable after all.
PHOTO: Chelsea’s John Terry keeps his eyes on the ball as he falls on the pitch during the second half of their 2009 World Football Challenge soccer match against AC Milan in Baltimore, Maryland, July 24, 2009. Chelsea won 2-1. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang
To land Ibrahimovic, who is due to be presented this evening at the Nou Camp, Barcelona will not only hand over the Cameroon international striker but will also give Inter Milan a reported 45 million euros and the loan, for one season, of Aleksandr Hleb.
According to Marca, who are not exactly fans of Barcelona it must be said, that makes the total cost of the Swedish striker at least 87.5 million euros (with Eto’o valued at 35 million, and Hleb for a season at 7.5).
So how on earth is Ibrahimovic worth close to 90 million euros? How on earth is he valued at double Eto’o, one of the world’s top strikers?
Ibrahimovic is the sort of striker coaches love. Tall and strong, he is happy playing with his back to goal and therefore gives the team a target man. He scores goals too, of course, and he has contributed to six league title-winning campaigns with Ajax and Inter.
But Eto’o is no mean player himself. The Cameroon international is also strong but relies more on his skill and explosive pace to get past defences. After signing for Barcelona in 2004 he proved to be the missing piece in the puzzle, joining forces with Ronaldinho to get the team back to title-winning ways.
I think it goes without saying that Ibrahimovic is not really worth 40-45 million euros more than Eto’o, so it looks like yet another case of Barcelona letting a player go at far less than their market value, and for reasons other than simply their value to the team.
It happened with Schuster, Stoichkov, Romario, Kluivert, Rivaldo and Riquelme and now coach Pep Guardiola says he’s happy for Eto’o to go for no reason other than a “feeling”, even thought they’re getting next to nothing for him.
Why is it so many big names seem to leave Barcelona in such circumstances? Why have they never mastered the art of selling?
And looking to the future, can you see Ibrahimovic living up to the inflated price tag the Spanish press have put on him?
PHOTO: Barcelona’s new signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Sweden poses in front of a FC Barcelona sign at the team headquarters in Barcelona, July 26, 2009. REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino
Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has described his next challenge as director of football at English League Two (fourth division) club Notts County as his toughest test yet.
Some would say that’s an understatement.
“It’s the biggest football challenge in my life,” the 61-year-old Swede told a news conference in the Midlands city of Nottingham on Wednesday.
“I always said I wanted to come back to the (English) Premier League, because it’s the best league in the world. I’ve chosen a difficult way to do it, it will take some years but I’m sure we will do it.”
Has there ever been a more eyebrow-raising appointment in world football?
Of course a lot of money from the new Middle Eastern owners of the oldest club in the world has tempted Eriksson but there will be many soccer fans who still won’t quite be able to believe it.
A German official wanting to make the pronunciation of the African vuvuzela instrument clear to German reporters said last week: “Vuvuzela: it sounds like Uwe Seeler“.
This seems to be the only thing Seeler, the Hamburg striker who reigned supreme from the mid-50s to the early 70s, has in common with the African instrument that caused considerable controversy during the Confederations Cup in South Africa last month.
Seeler is a quiet, soft-spoken and reserved man while the vuvuzela makes a loud, monotonous drone that drove players and broadcasters crazy in South Africa. Many have asked FIFA to consider banning them during next year’s World Cup in the country.
Now a German firm has won the rights to market the instrument across Europe — “the original sound of South Africa” — and has ordered thousands of the little trumpets to be used by fans in the Bundesliga saying the vuvuzela craze will take off ahead of next year’s showpiece.
They have even ordered vuvuzelas that come in three pieces so they can not be used as missiles in stadiums as they fall apart upon impact.
The German soccer league said it would carefully examine the impact they have on matches before considering any action against them even though German national coach Joachim Loew has said he hates the sound.
“I would get rid of them if there was any way. The sound gets on your nerves after a while,” Loew said.
Several players who heard the sound in the stadiums during the Confed Cup share that view.
FIFA in turn ruled out banning them from the World Cup saying they were a crucial aspect of South African flair that was necessary for the success of the competition.
“(Banning them) would mean one would have to take away the cow bells from Swiss fans and ban English fans from singing,” FIFA’s Hans Klaus said last week.
But Germany’s southern neighbour, Austria, has already put a lid on them. Vuvuzelas will not be allowed in Austrian stadiums for fear they could be used as projectiles and could trigger aggression among fans, state authorities said.
At the end of the day, football is neither tennis, nor golf. It has always been a loud game. You already have drums, rattles, real trumpets, whole brass bands, cow bells, firecrackers and even didgeridoos.
He was supposed to be the man who would take soccer in the United States to the next level yet David Beckham is in danger of becoming an embarrassing liability to the game in the country.
On a weekend when 65,000 people turned out for a friendly match in Seattle, 82,000 watched a Gold Cup game in Dallas and the U.S. national team continued their impressive form with another victory, the soccer news was all about Beckham being booed by his own fans.
The fans wrote their own headlines — “Go Home Fraud” read one bluntly worded banner draped over a section of the Galaxy stadium while another made the point in a more eloquent manner: “Hey Becks, here before you, here after you, here despite you”.
American soccer fans were not supposed to be following L.A Galaxy despite Beckham — the plan was they would fall in love with the team because of the celebrity midfielder.
A significant section of the L.A. fans have turned against Beckham for one simple reason — he turned his back on them.
Beckham’s decision to spend the Major League Soccer (MLS) off-season, from January to March, playing on loan for AC Milan in Italy, was grudgingly accepted at the time it was announced. When he decided to stay until the end of the Serie A season and so miss the first half of the MLS campaign it was a different matter.
Sports pundit Jay Mariotti, a regular on radio and television sports talk shows, wrote on Monday: “Beckham came here two years ago intending to lift Major League Soccer to unprecedented heights, but when he abruptly abandoned his stated mission in January for more prestigious duty in his native Europe, his purported goal became phony and rather pathetic.”
Perhaps, the 34-year-old could have patched up things with his fans, and other supporters of the game in the U.S, if he had returned and apologised for letting them down.
Instead Beckham, whose professionalism and commitment had been questioned by his team mate Landon Donovan, in a new book, thought that making up with Donovan would be enough of a gesture. It clearly was not.
LOAN DEAL
On his return, Beckham could have told the L.A fans: “I am sorry for letting you and the team down but I really felt I needed to finish the season in Italy. Now though I am back with you and 100 percent committed to this club”.
He could not say that, however, as he is already eyeing another six-month loan deal to Europe, perhaps to Milan, perhaps to an English team.
“At the moment all I’m concentrating on is being part of this team (L.A) and being successful with this team. Once the season is over, then I will decide and decide what I do from then on,” he said last week.
It is hardly the kind of talk to convince fans he really cares about the long-term future of their team.
What is occupying Beckham’s mind is the need to keep himself in the good books of England manager Fabio Capello, who the midfielder says wants to see him playing in Europe before next year’s World Cup in South Africa.
“Leading up to the World Cup, the England manager has made it very clear to me that I need to be playing at a European level,” he told reporters last week. “So I will do everything possible… I’ll always regret it if I didn’t do everything and to give myself a chance to be involved in that.”
Perhaps it was the appointment of Capello that changed things — in which case, why has Beckham not sought a permanent transfer away from Galaxy to a club in Europe?
Major League Soccer faces a tough task in establishing its credibility among sports fans in the United States as a serious professional league and Beckham, rather than showing this is a league that attracts quality foreign players, is merely adding to the belief of some that MLS is not something to be taken too seriously.
There was one positive for MLS that came out of Sunday’s anti-Beckham protests: the Galaxy fans showed the world that they are not star-struck kids in awe of the celebrity Beckham but are as passionate, loyal — and as rude — as fans anywhere else in the world.
Fans of Manchester United or Real Madrid would not put up with one of their top players spending half the season with another team in another league and Galaxy supporters showed they do not accept such an arrangement either.
Boos and protests, while headline grabbing, are not good for any team or any league. The question now is how long Beckham, Galaxy and the MLS are prepared to let the situation continue.
The death of Sir Bobby Robson, England's most successful manager after Sir Alf Ramsey, had been expected given his long battle with cancer, but his passing still jolts.
