Football Filtered #2
Here is the latest look at what has been passing through football filter this week:
Most of the headlines this week circled around England’s disappointing defeat in Spain coupled with David Beckham’s record equalling 108th cap.
All the papers, as expected, reported on boss Cappello’s disappointment at the result but THE SUN’S headline: ‘Players with brains will learn’ was the one that stood out for me. The question is: how many of the squad actually have brains?!?
Fresh from picking up that record equalling cap Beckham now hopes to tie up his permanent transfer to AC Milan. L.A. Galaxy set a Friday the 13th deadline (ominous maybe?) for the move to be completed and THE TELEGRAPH reports that the Italian club have bid around £10.5 million for the midfielder. Milan boss Carlo Ancelotti has urged his club to ‘make sacrifices’ to sign Beckham, suggesting they are prepared to pull out all the stops to conclude a deal soon.
Back in the Premier League and it was a turbulent week for Chelsea. Big Phil went, Guus arrived, and more losses were announced. This time a bill for £68 million will have arrived at owner Roman Abramovich’s door, as reported in THE MAIL. Much of the cost was for sacking two managers -Jose Mourinho and Avram Grant – as well as their respective coaching staff, in the space of a year. It doesn’t include though the cost of sacking Scolari six months into a four year deal, which will no doubt run into several million. This article in 4SPORTSAKE.com suggested these latest losses may put pressure on chief executive Peter Kenyon, who was charged with making sure Chelsea break even by 2010. Well that wont happen if they keep sacking managers that’s for sure!
While Chelsea are throwing money around it is encouraging to see some other football clubs and players who are prepared to put something back into their local communities, especially in these hard economic times. THE INDEPENDENT reported that Oldham Athletic are to wear a pink strip for their upcoming game against Leeds in order to raise money for a local breast cancer charity. Meanwhile Sheffield Wednesday will replace their commercial shirt sponsor with the name of a local children’s hospital, following Aston Villa’s lead who did a similar thing last summer. Refreshing stuff indeed. Football clubs have a huge ability to make a difference to their local communities so these sorts of projects can only be of benefit to them, long may it continue.
And finally…..
After ITV’S howler in the Merseyside derby last week, in which a Tic Tac advert interrupted coverage and caused viewers to miss Everton’s winner, Tic Tac have tried to make amends in a small way (and no doubt try and cash in on the publicity!) by re-creating the goal in a new advert. For those Evertonians who missed Dan Gosling’s magic moment the re-enactment can be seen at 101GreatGoals.com