No Way, Says Jose
‘THE Uefa Cup is now very much the European version of the Carling Cup, except of course that it is even harder to get knocked out of.
| ”I would like to pick the English – Cole from Arsenal, Gerrard from Liverpool, Defoe from Spurs..” |
For evidence of the decline of this once prestigious trophy, take a look at the back pages of the papers this morning.
Only the Guardian feels the need to report to its readers that last night Newcastle United beat Heerenveen 2-1 at the Abe Lenstra stadium and so put a tentative foot into the last 16.
Sadly, the Guardian doesnt feel the need to tell us where Heerenveen is and we have to go to the Anorak atlas to discover that it is in fact in the Netherlands.
The other papers barely seem to have known there was a game on last night, so busy are they with the real business of the Champions League.
The Indy hears Chelseas manager Jose Mourinho with typical modesty launch the first fusillade ahead of his teams match with Barcelona with an attack on the credentials of his opposing manager.
Frank Rijkaards history as a player cant be compared to my history his history is fantastic, mine is zero, he said.
But my history as a manager cant be compared to his, because he has zero titles and I have a lot of them. He just cant be compared with me.
Nor can Arsene Wenger be compared with Mourinho, it seems.
The Portugeezer insisted that he would never field a squad consisting entirely of foreigners as Arsenal did on Monday night.
Especially as a foreign manager, I feel a bit responsible for the national team, he said. And I would never forget my responsibility to the future of some kids.
Responsibility is not a word that sits easily with the West Indies cricket team at present.
The Telegraph has seen a leaked memo from Richard Nowell, sponsorship manager of Digicel, West Indies new £11m sponsors, which, it says, could set off one of the biggest crises in Caribbean cricket for years.
In it, he accuses the players of paying too much attention to women and not enough to cricket during the recent one-day tournament in Australia.
As a former professional cricketer and having toured with England on three occasions, wrote the former Surrey batsman, I know men need to have fun on tour.
However, not at the expense of performance.
Judging by the recent performances of the West Indies, we can only assume they must have had an awful lot of fun ’
Posted: 18th, February 2005 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
