Shut up and leave already!

(courtesy of BBC)



It seems that there is more than one cry baby at Stamford Bridge these days. Apart from Roman Abromavich, you now have Didier Drogba.

Drogba, who is currently on national team duty in the African Cup of Nations, has said consistently that he wants to leave the London club during the summer transfer window.

What makes him a cry baby about it though? He won't shut up about it! I understand that the posh lifestyle that he leads in London is too much on him and that the pressure he feels at the club is immense. Had he kept his mouth shut in the wake of Jose's departure, his name might not be in so much mud at present. But no, he did what most athelets do when faced with something that they don't like, they run straight to the press.

How many times does he have to see his name in the paper before he does something about it though? Good God man, you should have asked for an out during the winter break. A striker like Drogba though never would have done that because he would have been cup tied for the Champions League and how dare he not get to score goals for another team.

I don't think he will have a hard time leaving in the Summer. Chelsea's signing of Anelka will hopefully combine well with the existing squad. While I don't think the mighty Blues will finish first or second this year, I think a top four finish is in store with them and hopefully, they will return to the top of the table next year. So, Avram, the board of directors, let Drogba out of his contract when summer gets here, he's rubbish and there has been enough garbage around the Bridge in the last few years, time to start cleaning it up.

Becks and Brown

(photo courtesy of BBC news)


Ah, my two favorite topics in the world, footie and politics. These two things put together make me as giddy as my friend Josh would get if he was at the World Series of Poker final table, making the nuts on the river. These are my two specialties, so when they show up in the news together, I have to check my knickers.

So, I get up this morning and check my Google feeds and I see that Beckham was talking to Gordon Brown today. This caused me to raise an eyebrow and I clicked on the link and read the article. As I scanned over the BBC story I found myself damn near in a tickle fit. Before I finished reading it I zoomed over to Soccernet to see what the people that lick Beck's boots had to say about the meeting.

David Beckham, the man who was touted to bring life back to American soccer, met with Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of England, to discuss various things. Brown is interested in football according to Becks and apparently Beckham was the only person that 10 Downing could muster at this time of the year. That fits really, all the wonderful English players are in the middle of real games and are training for the Champs League and international friendlies right now. What is Becks doing? Training with Arsenal. And for those of you that are following the Prem at this point in time, you are saying to yourself, "holy shit, Becks training with Arsenal. Oh God, he's going to destroy people in the MLS this year." Yeah, what most people, BBC and Soccernet included, never report is that Becks is training with the second squad. He is not fit enough to play around with the big boys anymore.

Anyways, Becks and Brown talked about football for about an hour and apparently Brown will be visiting Beck's academy on Thursday to see how things are going and he has expressed interest in working Beckham's academy into the national scene with the schools. I think Brown is doing this as a favor to someone or he's doing it for the photo op. Maybe Becks thinks that if he comes home to talk to the gaffer of the country, that when Cappello starts naming squads, the PM will give the Italian a call to get ol' David back on the squad. There is also speculation that Beckham will be the World Cup ambassador for England. If he ends up doing this, then the Galaxy can expect Becks to be broken for the rest of his contract. Becks returns home and soccer dies in America again until Josey Altidore goes away for a few years and comes home and starts to score goals with his eyes closed. Happy footies all.

Blatter's Banter

England's new coach, the sixty-one year old Fabio Cappello, arrived for his first day at work today and he has already miffed the president of the world's governing body. Sepp Blatter went on record today and voiced concern that England had picked its second international gaffer in the last five years. Blatter compares England to the other great footballing nations of Germany and Brazil. These countries all have homegrown managers. Blatter blames the influx of foreign players to the English and the lack of training for England's up and comings on their current slump in the international game.

There are several things wrong with Blatter's argument. Not since 1962 when England hosted the World Cup, have they even come close to winning under an English manager. Two of the world cups, the team failed to qualify completely. When England failed to qualify for Euro 08, the FA had had too much from McClearan. You can not blame the FA for going outside of England to look for someone. There is no clear gaffer talent within the country. The only person that I can think of would be to bring Sir Alex on board but he won't double dip with Man U.

The other claim that English football focuses too much on international talent. I don't know if Blatter has looked at the number of clubs and teams on a global scale. According to the most recent information that I have on hand, from The Thinking Fans Guide To The World Cup, England has 42,000 clubs with more than 1.5 million registered players. With the size of England's population, roughly 49 M, that's more than 30 players per thousand.England has clubs and they have players. They have academies by the boat load. Second teams. Third teams. Hell, if Arsenal could expand their academy, you would have a first rate English team every year.

You can not argue that the teams are not being managed and cultivated the right way. They would not be capped for the national team if the players did not show some sense of talent. You could argue that with the proper coaching, that the younger players that will be populating the team as Becks and Terry finally move off to the retirement pitch, England regain their namesake as the country that started it all.

Cappello is the man to do this. He has coached mainly in Italy, with a brief stint at Real Madrid. Cappello has won the domestic title for most of the years that he has managed these big squads so, it's fair to say, that he knows what he is doing and will not possibly do any worse that McClearen did while he was at the helm. The earliest friendly and test for Fabio comes up soon against Switzerland and it will be interesting to see if he stays around for the World Cup qualifiers that begin in October of this year.