in•ten•tion [in-ten-shuhn]
– noun
1. an act or instance of determining mentally upon some action or result.
2. the end or object intended; purpose.
I’ve checked. You can see I have. I wanted to see if there was any ambiguity. There isn’t.
I wanted to see, for example, if in a court of law there would be any precedent for interpretation. I can’t imagine there is.
So why is football a different case? I watched the highlights of Saturday’s Fulham v Spurs match with incredulity. And not just because when the camera panned on to Harry Redknapp he didn’t twitch as if somebody had just poured a jug of ice down the back of his neck.
No, it was because the outcome of the game was determined not by the skills of the individuals involved but by the laws of the game and how the Football Association – those who butcher the laws – are allowed to interpret them.
In the first half, Spurs full-back Cordeiro Sandro was cautioned by referee Mike Dean after a challenge on Simon Davies. Davies had whipped over a cross as Sandro slid in. The Welshman avoided the challenge and no contact was made. But the intention was there, so Dean – correctly under the current laws – brandished a yellow card.
In the second half Tom Huddlestone fired in a shot from outside the box on which William Gallas, standing in an offside tried to get a touch. He failed. Because he failed the goal was allowed to stand. However, the INTENTION was there. He intended to get a touch and therefore was seeking to gain an advantage.
If intention is good enough to warrant a caution, surely that sets the precedent?
Spurs’ goal counted because Gallas wasn’t good enough to get the touch on the ball he intended. If a better player had been involved the touch would have happened and the goal would have been ruled out. Surely that’s not right? Since when has ability determined intention?
Where does it stop? A hypothetical scenario: Dimitar Berbatov gets hauled down by the last defender and the referee issues a red card. The same thing happens with Wayne Rooney yet the official issues only a yellow card.
The reason, he says, is “because Berbatov’s in form and Rooney isn’t, therefore it’s my view that only the former was a definite goalscoring opportunity…” Don’t mock – we’re not that far away from it.
The bunglers at the FA defend rule changes on the basis that they are looking to make the game more entertaining … presumably more entertaining for us, the fans. Yet all that happens is an increase in controversy and more fans’ frustrations.
Why don’t they stop meddling? If they insist on making the offside law easier to apply let’s take a lesson from rugby.
If a player is standing in an offside position but walking back against the direction of play, 'he is not considered offside if he acknowledges the fact by raising both arms in the air. He can not participate until the next phase of play'. That way he can be seen to be not seeing to gain an advantage and it’s not putting extra pressure on the match officials.
If the FA would like to discuss it further I’m free all next week. It’s about time they had somebody without a blazer at Soho Square…
Showing posts with label harry redknapp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label harry redknapp. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Why do we demand club success for our national boss?
So if not Fabio Capello, who?
Harry Redknapp? Don’t make me laugh. His wheeler-dealing is hardly appropriate to international football and any Pompey fan will tell you his tactical acumen could be engraved on a pin-head with a pneumatic drill.
Roy Hodgson? Maybe. But why would a sensible man in his 60s take on the England job in preference to rejuvenating the sleeping giant at Anfield.
Jose Mourinho? Probably the ideal choice, but the suits at the Football Association are no more likely to appoint him than they were Brian Clough in the mid-70s. And we all know he was the right man then.
But why does an international manager need to be proven at club level? It seems only UK teams are fixated on that ideal.
I’ve looked at the careers of World Cup-winning managers in my years watching football and club success does not appear to be a priority.
Franz Beckenbauer had no real managerial experience before taking over the German national side in 1984 and six years later won the World Cup.
In the six years after he left the job he managed Olympique Marseille and Bayern Munich, collecting domestic titles along the way. But that was it. He’s had more marriages than club management jobs.
Carlos Bilardo won the World Cup in 1986 – and although he had Maradona in the side, which isn’t a bad position to be in, his club experience was limited to two spells at Estudiantes and brief stints at Deportivo Cali and San Lorenzo. And he didn’t pull up any trees there.
Italy’s Enzo Bearzot spent six years as coach to his country’s under-23 side before moving up and ultimately winning the World Cup in 1982. Before that he’d been manager for one season at Prato – no me neither, Prato having last reached the heights of Serie B in 1964.
César Luis Menotti (Argentina 78)? One league title in four seasons with Newell’s Old Boys and Huracán before being given the job.
Helmut Schön (West Germany 74)? A brief spell as manager of unfancied Wiesbaden, before spending four years as manager of a then-independent Saarland side, before becoming assistant to Sepp Herberger for the West German national team and succeeding him in 1964.
Four largely uneventful years as manager of Botafogo was all Mario Zagalo had on his managerial CV before taking over the Brazilian national side and taking them to glory in 1970 despite the much discussed personality issues within the camp.
Carlos Alberto Parreira had won nothing as a club manager before leading Brazil to glory in 1990. Instead it was his achievement in getting Kuwait into the World Cup finals which raised his stock. Subsequently he has, in total, taken five nations to the World Cup finals. He didn’t even play the game at a particularly high level.
Big Phil Scolari’s club management experience was extensive but much of it was spent outside of the mainstream football nations, in Kuwait and Japan, for example; though he did win titles in Brazil. But we know how successful he was at Chelsea and it is Premiership success that we – and particularly our knee-jerk football media – demand.
Frenchman Aimé Jacquet (1998) had a successful club career and obviously Marcello Lippi (Italy 2006) had an exceptional club career, but they are the exceptions. And we only have to look back a few days to see where Lippi is now.
So the next time somebody calls for David Beckham, Alan Shearer or Stuart Pearce to be given the job don’t automatically dismiss the suggestion out of hand.
Harry Redknapp? Don’t make me laugh. His wheeler-dealing is hardly appropriate to international football and any Pompey fan will tell you his tactical acumen could be engraved on a pin-head with a pneumatic drill.
Roy Hodgson? Maybe. But why would a sensible man in his 60s take on the England job in preference to rejuvenating the sleeping giant at Anfield.
Jose Mourinho? Probably the ideal choice, but the suits at the Football Association are no more likely to appoint him than they were Brian Clough in the mid-70s. And we all know he was the right man then.
But why does an international manager need to be proven at club level? It seems only UK teams are fixated on that ideal.
I’ve looked at the careers of World Cup-winning managers in my years watching football and club success does not appear to be a priority.
Franz Beckenbauer had no real managerial experience before taking over the German national side in 1984 and six years later won the World Cup.
In the six years after he left the job he managed Olympique Marseille and Bayern Munich, collecting domestic titles along the way. But that was it. He’s had more marriages than club management jobs.
Carlos Bilardo won the World Cup in 1986 – and although he had Maradona in the side, which isn’t a bad position to be in, his club experience was limited to two spells at Estudiantes and brief stints at Deportivo Cali and San Lorenzo. And he didn’t pull up any trees there.
Italy’s Enzo Bearzot spent six years as coach to his country’s under-23 side before moving up and ultimately winning the World Cup in 1982. Before that he’d been manager for one season at Prato – no me neither, Prato having last reached the heights of Serie B in 1964.
César Luis Menotti (Argentina 78)? One league title in four seasons with Newell’s Old Boys and Huracán before being given the job.
Helmut Schön (West Germany 74)? A brief spell as manager of unfancied Wiesbaden, before spending four years as manager of a then-independent Saarland side, before becoming assistant to Sepp Herberger for the West German national team and succeeding him in 1964.
Four largely uneventful years as manager of Botafogo was all Mario Zagalo had on his managerial CV before taking over the Brazilian national side and taking them to glory in 1970 despite the much discussed personality issues within the camp.
Carlos Alberto Parreira had won nothing as a club manager before leading Brazil to glory in 1990. Instead it was his achievement in getting Kuwait into the World Cup finals which raised his stock. Subsequently he has, in total, taken five nations to the World Cup finals. He didn’t even play the game at a particularly high level.
Big Phil Scolari’s club management experience was extensive but much of it was spent outside of the mainstream football nations, in Kuwait and Japan, for example; though he did win titles in Brazil. But we know how successful he was at Chelsea and it is Premiership success that we – and particularly our knee-jerk football media – demand.
Frenchman Aimé Jacquet (1998) had a successful club career and obviously Marcello Lippi (Italy 2006) had an exceptional club career, but they are the exceptions. And we only have to look back a few days to see where Lippi is now.
So the next time somebody calls for David Beckham, Alan Shearer or Stuart Pearce to be given the job don’t automatically dismiss the suggestion out of hand.
Monday, March 08, 2010
Av' it!
Sorry to go on about football again – but if, like me, you’re a Pompey fan, there hasn’t been a great deal to shout about this season.
Reaching the FA Cup semi-final is a hell of an achievement for a club in our situation. But what may mean more to the club in the long-term is the attitude and mentality of the players and manager.
Harry Redknapp may have won us promotion and an FA Cup, but he never truly ‘got’ what it is to be Pompey. In his few months at the club, Avram Grant certainly has.
In last week’s Observer, one Pompey fan, Mick Dunford, said Grant was already more popular than Redknapp had been even in his pomp.
Several people of my acquaintance scoffed at that statement – but they may have to eat their words now. Grant is achieving Alan Ball-like status among the supporters – and that’s saying something.
Ballie was a God. He knew about the lifeblood of the club – he understood what it meant to have an island mentality (remember Pompey are the only professional football club in England based on an island).
That ‘siege mentality’ – call it what you will – is back – and Avram Grant, gets it, believes in it and has bought into it. And it seems he has instilled it in his players.
Even if we go out of the FA Cup at the next stage and get relegated, it is that inherent spirit which will keep the club alive in the Championship and beyond – wherever that might be.
And for that reason alone Avram Grant can hold his head higher than Redknapp ever could…
Reaching the FA Cup semi-final is a hell of an achievement for a club in our situation. But what may mean more to the club in the long-term is the attitude and mentality of the players and manager.
Harry Redknapp may have won us promotion and an FA Cup, but he never truly ‘got’ what it is to be Pompey. In his few months at the club, Avram Grant certainly has.
In last week’s Observer, one Pompey fan, Mick Dunford, said Grant was already more popular than Redknapp had been even in his pomp.
Several people of my acquaintance scoffed at that statement – but they may have to eat their words now. Grant is achieving Alan Ball-like status among the supporters – and that’s saying something.
Ballie was a God. He knew about the lifeblood of the club – he understood what it meant to have an island mentality (remember Pompey are the only professional football club in England based on an island).
That ‘siege mentality’ – call it what you will – is back – and Avram Grant, gets it, believes in it and has bought into it. And it seems he has instilled it in his players.
Even if we go out of the FA Cup at the next stage and get relegated, it is that inherent spirit which will keep the club alive in the Championship and beyond – wherever that might be.
And for that reason alone Avram Grant can hold his head higher than Redknapp ever could…
Friday, October 16, 2009
I just wouldn't let it lie...
Football fans have today been reeling in shock after Spurs manager Harry Redknapp displayed some humility during a press conference.
The inappropriately named ‘Appy ‘Arry, who has previously attempted to rewrite history by claiming to have discovered penicillin and been the first man on the moon, this week claimed to have been the best manager in the history of Portsmouth Football Club.
Though neither his wife Sandra nor son Jamie have publicly derided the family’s patriarch for his dubious claim, privately they are believed to be ‘ROTFL’ according to a text message sent to one of Redknapp’s tame Fleet Street sycophants.
A family source confirmed: “Everybody is starting to believe Harry may be down to the bare bones mentally. Some of the stuff he’s coming out with is ridiculous. Bob Jackson, of course, took Pompey to two back-to-back league titles without the aid of a sugar daddy pumping millions into the club.
“And Jack Tinn managed Pompey to a cup final victory in 1939 against the best team in England – not the second-best team in Wales.”
Redknapp has also this week claimed to have tried to save crisis club Portsmouth by introducing rich friends – believed to be stationery magnates; suggested he went to Spurs merely so Portsmouth could claim compensation from the White Hart Lane club; blamed the south-coast club’s demise on its former owner Sacha Gaydamak; and that he expects a warm reception from Pompey fans.
However, in a remarkable turnaround apparently inspired by watching an old episode of the Lone Ranger, in which a native American claimed that “white man speak with forked tongue” Redknapp* chose to come clean in this morning’s press conference.
“Actually I deserve all the abuse they will heap on me,” said an unusually coy Redknapp.
“I promised them I wouldn’t go to Southampton – then I did. I then said I was ‘Pompey till I died’ – then a week later went to Tottenham. And then I said I wouldn’t go back to Fratton Park for any of their players because that would be ungracious – and then I signed Defoe, Crouch and Krancjar.
“Basically I’m the most duplicitous man in English football and that’s quite an achievement ferrshure. After all I once claimed Yoshi Kawaguchi had the best distribution I’d ever seen when he signed for Portsmouth and then, after he was a huge flop, denied ever having seen him play and claimed no knowledge of him before his signing.
“I even tried to blame poor old Sacha Gaydamak for Pompey’s financial plight when it was me what spent all the money including giving £50k-a-week contracts to players what didn’t even play more than a dozen times for the club.
“But that’s me all over…”
Redknapp, whose face appeared more paper cut-out mask than normal, was then bundled off the stage by large minders to be replaced by a twitching lookalike.
Responding to a question about one of his back-room staff, the new Redknapp said: “Kevin who? Kevin Bond? Never ‘eard of ‘im mate. You must be confusing me wiv somebody else. Anyway, did I ever tell you how I mediated in the Cuban Missile Crisis…”
*A man wearing a paper Harry Redknapp mask has been arrested by police and will be charged with flagrant honesty. Around 50,000 Portsmouth residents are believed to be prepared to stand bail
The inappropriately named ‘Appy ‘Arry, who has previously attempted to rewrite history by claiming to have discovered penicillin and been the first man on the moon, this week claimed to have been the best manager in the history of Portsmouth Football Club.
Though neither his wife Sandra nor son Jamie have publicly derided the family’s patriarch for his dubious claim, privately they are believed to be ‘ROTFL’ according to a text message sent to one of Redknapp’s tame Fleet Street sycophants.
A family source confirmed: “Everybody is starting to believe Harry may be down to the bare bones mentally. Some of the stuff he’s coming out with is ridiculous. Bob Jackson, of course, took Pompey to two back-to-back league titles without the aid of a sugar daddy pumping millions into the club.
“And Jack Tinn managed Pompey to a cup final victory in 1939 against the best team in England – not the second-best team in Wales.”
Redknapp has also this week claimed to have tried to save crisis club Portsmouth by introducing rich friends – believed to be stationery magnates; suggested he went to Spurs merely so Portsmouth could claim compensation from the White Hart Lane club; blamed the south-coast club’s demise on its former owner Sacha Gaydamak; and that he expects a warm reception from Pompey fans.
However, in a remarkable turnaround apparently inspired by watching an old episode of the Lone Ranger, in which a native American claimed that “white man speak with forked tongue” Redknapp* chose to come clean in this morning’s press conference.
“Actually I deserve all the abuse they will heap on me,” said an unusually coy Redknapp.
“I promised them I wouldn’t go to Southampton – then I did. I then said I was ‘Pompey till I died’ – then a week later went to Tottenham. And then I said I wouldn’t go back to Fratton Park for any of their players because that would be ungracious – and then I signed Defoe, Crouch and Krancjar.
“Basically I’m the most duplicitous man in English football and that’s quite an achievement ferrshure. After all I once claimed Yoshi Kawaguchi had the best distribution I’d ever seen when he signed for Portsmouth and then, after he was a huge flop, denied ever having seen him play and claimed no knowledge of him before his signing.
“I even tried to blame poor old Sacha Gaydamak for Pompey’s financial plight when it was me what spent all the money including giving £50k-a-week contracts to players what didn’t even play more than a dozen times for the club.
“But that’s me all over…”
Redknapp, whose face appeared more paper cut-out mask than normal, was then bundled off the stage by large minders to be replaced by a twitching lookalike.
Responding to a question about one of his back-room staff, the new Redknapp said: “Kevin who? Kevin Bond? Never ‘eard of ‘im mate. You must be confusing me wiv somebody else. Anyway, did I ever tell you how I mediated in the Cuban Missile Crisis…”
*A man wearing a paper Harry Redknapp mask has been arrested by police and will be charged with flagrant honesty. Around 50,000 Portsmouth residents are believed to be prepared to stand bail
Monday, October 12, 2009
Credit where credit's due
Pompey chief executive Peter Storrie has come under increasing pressure recently as details of the club’s debt were made public.
The former West Ham and Notts County supremo – who, it is alleged by the Mail’s Charlie Sale began his career in football by selling bibs and cones to Harry Redknapp – earns a seven-figure salary, the largest for a chief exec in the Premiership.
And some Pompey fans are, justifiably in my view, questioning how he can be held up as a white knight over his ‘introduction’ of the new owners, when, in his role, he clearly presided over the mounting debt.
If Marks & Spencer was on the verge of administration and its chief executive Stuart Rose came out and said “Well it was what the board wanted so I went along with it – but it’s not my fault” do we really think he would be held blameless? Bloody right he wouldn’t. He’d be out on his ear before you could say “This is not just any old sacking this is a Marks & Spencer sacking”.
Surely as chief executive Storrie is culpable? After all he – we have to assume – could see the problems mounting. If he didn’t realise the problem he should be sacked. If he did see and did not approve of the policy of over-spending why did he not simply resign and blow the whistle on it? Protecting that seven-figure salary we must assume.
I would have given him far more credit if he’d quit a long time ago and at least alerted everybody to what was happening. Instead he sat back raking in the greenbacks and told us for months on end there wasn’t a problem, until one day he changed his mind and said, actually it is quite bad here…
He has to be given huge credit for one thing, however: not many chief executives in football get their club’s owners on an eight-week sale-or-return basis.
Let’s hope the same agreement is in place for the current incumbent in case he proves faulty as well.
The former West Ham and Notts County supremo – who, it is alleged by the Mail’s Charlie Sale began his career in football by selling bibs and cones to Harry Redknapp – earns a seven-figure salary, the largest for a chief exec in the Premiership.
And some Pompey fans are, justifiably in my view, questioning how he can be held up as a white knight over his ‘introduction’ of the new owners, when, in his role, he clearly presided over the mounting debt.
If Marks & Spencer was on the verge of administration and its chief executive Stuart Rose came out and said “Well it was what the board wanted so I went along with it – but it’s not my fault” do we really think he would be held blameless? Bloody right he wouldn’t. He’d be out on his ear before you could say “This is not just any old sacking this is a Marks & Spencer sacking”.
Surely as chief executive Storrie is culpable? After all he – we have to assume – could see the problems mounting. If he didn’t realise the problem he should be sacked. If he did see and did not approve of the policy of over-spending why did he not simply resign and blow the whistle on it? Protecting that seven-figure salary we must assume.
I would have given him far more credit if he’d quit a long time ago and at least alerted everybody to what was happening. Instead he sat back raking in the greenbacks and told us for months on end there wasn’t a problem, until one day he changed his mind and said, actually it is quite bad here…
He has to be given huge credit for one thing, however: not many chief executives in football get their club’s owners on an eight-week sale-or-return basis.
Let’s hope the same agreement is in place for the current incumbent in case he proves faulty as well.
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