Football greats

So I haven’t posted in a while and this is overdue. It’s about two greats of the football world who have died recently, Pele and John Motson. I started to get really interested in footie around the age of 9/10. As well as playing I started to watch Blackpool FC and did all the boys’ soccer-mad stuff like collecting cards and accumulating, my proud and joy, numerous books on football. Of course there was no internet back then in the Middle Ages and little tv coverage of the game. So books were where I learned about the international game. And I became fasciated by Brazil and in particular by Pele. It was not just because he was a footballing genius; he was known by his nickname but how many knew then that his real name was the exotic Edson Arantes do Nascimento? I did thanks to my books.  And he was proud to be named after the genius inventor Edison.

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It’s how you say it…

Well I mentioned in the last post that I thought Matt Hancock was the crappest person in the UK because of his atrocious performance in the role of Health Secretary. And within days Dominic Cummings had delivered evidence of private text messages with Boris J confirming that he (Boris) also agreed that Hancock was totally fucki*g useless. Not my words; the Prime Minister’s. It’s nice to know that people in high office agree with you but also damn scary that Hancock’s still in control of policies around the NHS response to the pandemic whilst his boss, the Head of the UK Government, thinks he’s a complete fuckwit. Thank god we don’t have rapidly rising cases of a new variant affecting us. Oh we do? FFS how many waves and restrictions do we have to endure because this fuckwit of a Minister cannot get a firm final grip on the problem? I suspect it’s because Johnson only wants to retain him as the sacrificial scapegoat when the inevitable enquiry makes its findings and appoints blame. Keep your real feelings discreet eh Bojo?

Lorimer!

Well after the news of Murray’s death, it was very sad to learn about the passing of Leeds United great Peter Lorimer. Not that I was a Leeds fan; anything but. They were the original team to hate but boy did they have some players and Lasher Lorimer was one of their greatest – the youngest ever player at 15 years +,  he went on to make 703 appearances no less and scored 238 goals, many of them absolute rockets.

Little kindnesses

So I received a parcel today from my old mate Shay containing this…

It’s the match programme from the England v Sweden game played at Wembley in May 1968. Shay knows that I’m a fan of Sir Bobby Charlton who played a big part in this game, scoring one of his trademark screamer goals. It’s from his own collection of course and a really nice gesture. He’d like me to pass it on to my grandsons here as they are big footie fans. They may be surprised to learn that one of England’s greatest ever players had a comb-over to rival the lead guy in George and Mildred. It’s not very Pogbaesque but can Pogba score goals like this…

Many thanks mate

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Funny that…

Well I see that the Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden is having talks today with football administrators and medical experts over the possibility of allowing top class English football to return next month behind closed doors and at neutral venues. Now nobody would be happier than me to see football’s return – so long as it is safe for all concerned. Indeed yesterday the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, was gushing  about how the Premier League’s return could ‘lift the spirits of the nation’. Wow it only seems a few days since Matt Hancock publicly pilloried top flight footballers for their wealthy lifestyles and shaming them into making a bigger contribution towards the cost of the NHS (that is in addition to the heavy tax they pay on their massive earnings) which many were already doing privately. It makes you laugh doesn’t it. The Government targets easy scapegoats but with 30,000 covid-19 deaths already on their watch (the largest in any country bar the USA which does have 4 times our population) they are suddenly in need of those overpaid footballers to take the attention and the pressure off them. And people accuse me of being cynical. Pah

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Talktwaddle

Well I thought it might be time for a change in subject matter and whilst I don’t want to alienate my many (ahem) female readers, I thought it was about time to talk sport.

Confession time

Well I have a confession. Up until very recently I’ve never really enjoyed watching women’s football. It just lacks the intensity of the men’s game to my liking – be it the physicality, skill level, pace, passion etc. However I’ve been watching the current World Cup matches on tv and I’ve really, really enjoyed it. Particularly the England matches of course. Last night the Lionesses reached the semi-finals by beating a very good Norway side 3-0 and it was a super game to watch. Maybe I’m missing the men’s game a bit but there’s no denying it was for a a compelling match. In fact all the England matches have been and I’m clearly not alone in thinking that. The last two games have seen tv audiences of 6.1m for the win against Scotland and then 6.9m for the Cameroon match – both record numbers. I haven’t seen the figures for last night’s match yet but I’m sure they’ll have smashed those figures again.

Rumours

I read an interesting article today in the i newspaper sports section. It posed the question, what have these names got in common…

Coniah Boyce-Clarke, Ruben Dias, Bruno Fernandes, Gelson Fernandes, Kalidou Kalibahy, Nicolas Pepe, Adrien Rabot, Saul Niguez, Christian Eriksen, Kieran Trippier, Jan Obiak, Matthijs de Ligt, Paulo Dybala, Daniel James, Idrissa Gueye, Philippe Coutinho, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Wilfried Zaha, Thomas Meunier, Mauro Icardi, Moussa Dembele, Ben Godfrey, Nikola Milenkovic, Harry Maguire, Aaron Was-Bissaka, Patrick van Aanholt, Jadon Sancho, Gareth Bale, Toby Alderweireld, Joao Felix, Declan Rice, David Neres Campos, Kostas Manolas, Hakim Ziyech, Joao Cancelo, Marcos Llorente, Toni Kroos, Raphael Varane, Youro Tielemans, Robert Lewandowski, James Rodriguez, Keylor Navas, Lika Jovic, Jordan Pickford, Juande Ramos, Jack Grealish, Giovani lo Celso, Gianluigi Donnarumma and no doubt several others?