Do it in your pants then...

Words that would have struck fear into a schoolkid in my day when trying to get out of PE by using the "I forgot my kit" excuse. It was that or having to use the spare gym kit from the mysterious box that the teacher had - neither was a good option. How the hell we got here today will become clear, and it all started with Carlos Tevez in a football match on Tuesday evening.

Man City playing in the Champions League, the supposed pinnacle of football currently, and for whatever reason he was not starting the game but on the subs bench. When the manager decided it was time for him to come on, he pretty much refused to get up, and looked like he was having a right little strop. Immediately after the game he said he meant it, and then, I assume after his lawyer phoned him, he made a statement that it was all a big misunderstanding and that all he ever wanted to do was play for Man City all the time, for the rest of his life etc. Mancini the manager has said he will never play for Man City again, but obviously the final decision will rest with the owners of the club, and in many ways will be based on finances above any practical level.

If it was me in charge, I would put him in the reserves, fine him a weeks wages every time he did anything wrong, ban him from speaking to the media and let his career disappear. That is unlikely to happen, and I would assume that another club will be paying his wages shortly while he continues to act like he cares nothing for football or his or the clubs fans.

Sad thing is he is not the first player to behave like this, and more than likely won't be the last. It was only last year that in order to "negotiate" a wage rise for himself that hair transplant salesman Wayne Rooney told anyone who would listen he wanted to leave Man Utd, the massive wage rise changed his statement to one of being misunderstood and that he never actually wanted to leave. Luka Modric at Spurs, although never saying he wanted to go (or stay) at Tottenham during the summer has been rewarded with a rumoured weekly wage of £100,000 a week. I don't doubt any of these players ability, and as in any profession the vast majority of people will try for a pay rise where they can, but surely there has to be a better way to do this for players without pissing off the people who actually pay their wages, the fans.

Yes the mega money comes from the incoming billionaires, but for the vast majority the semi-mega-money is from TV and fans, but that is not the issue. At some stage the owners, directors and boards of football clubs have to put a stop to this practice, and the only way to do it is to show the players that they are not bigger than the clubs or the game. It is only the mega rich who can do this, so let's hope Man City make an example of Tevez, a slim hope it may be, but I have only seen or heard one person with any sympathy towards him today, so I think the vast majority want to see something happen.

If he is allowed to leave, and sign for another club, it is yet more proof that contracts in football are meaningless, which lead me down a thought process that what could be a good idea, and would make for even more coverage on Sky, would be for the managers to pick a different team each week. So every player registered at a Premier League club would make their way to Wembley on each Monday morning, and all the club managers would be there as well. Based on a random order of allocation, like Deal or No Deal, each week a different manager would pick first, and all take it in turns until they had their squad for the week.

So Steve Bruce would pick Rooney, Modric would be playing for Bolton and Lampard would be on Wigans bench one week, the next would see Redknapp being left with Darren Bent, Torres playing at Villa and Lampard on Wigans bench. Someone else can work out who actually pays who each week and where the medals go at the end of the season, but think of the opportunities. Fans would be able to buy new shirts every week with that weeks star players name on the back, players would never get the chance to be bored, all games would be sell outs as a different team would be there every week. It is coming together as the Golden Game isn't it.

This then lead to the vision of some of the players, more than likely Beckham, not having their kit and so having to play against Arsenal on Saturday in their pants and vest, thus completing the cycle of how my mind works on the train to work.

Monkey Tennis is so last year.

What's It All About Then?

Now the football season is a few weeks in, the club I follow are on the usual course, played well and lost, played well and won and played average and won and lost... But there are some odd things in the world of football and what we are actually supporting and aiming for now. Despite the best efforts of Sky Sports most fans still count their clubs achievements over the past 120 odd years rather than just the 20 since Sky invented football, but there has been a bigger change in the last few years that is making me, and many of my age and upwards, question what we are actually after these days, and what an classes as success.

Like many "top flight" clubs do, Spurs started this season with 4 possible trophies to add to what is an impressive collection, but some of the messages and statements from the manager and the clubs aims seem to be at odds with what I think is important for the fans, so here is a quick summary of where we are already, 6 weeks into the season.

Premier League - Starting with the big one, winning the league, or as some Spurs fans refer to it "our 50 year plan". Not going too well in recent years, it is the 80s since I actually felt we had a genuine chance of winning the league, and the strange thing is we don't seem to want to win it. Most of the talk is being in the Top4, which means 4th in most peoples view, with a few having aspirations of 3rd. Very strange concept, can you think of any other sport where the stated aim is to be 4th? Without worrying about the other clubs and their success and finances, why are we in a competition that we seemingly announce we can't win but will be very happy to be 4th, as many were 18 months ago?

Carling Cup - Not too long ago this pic was taken of me at Wembley when Spurs won the Carling Cup, beating Chelsea. February 2008 and it was a great day for the players and fans of the club, the prices that the tickets were being touted at and the sheer numbers of Spurs fans in the Chelsea end showed what this meant to us. Not now though. We are already out of the competition this year. I don't know about all you lot, but if I failed 25% of my annual targets within the the first month of the year I would be worried. There is also the theory that winning breeds winning. I honestly believe that had Arsenal won this final last year they would not be in the total disarry that they appear to have been in since.

Europa League - Now the second rate European competition that most clubs seem to actively want to avoid. Far too many games, and the set up of the competition just doesn't work for fans or most clubs. The fact that this trophy when it was the UEFA Cup was the biggest celebration I have ever been at when Spurs won it in 84 has now passed into history, and even our manager bemoans being in the competition and played a team in our first game that had even the keenest Spurs fan checking on websites to establish who some of the players were. Another competition that the message being given is that the cup is not important and to be knocked out would be no bad thing. A side point here, can anyone explain how Wednesday to Saturday is a different time span to Thursday to Sunday?

FA Cup - I have written previously about what in my view is one of the finest cup competitions in the world, you can read that here. For Spurs we don't get involved until after Christmas, but like the other cups I fear this will be cast aside by our manager in the chase for 4th. 

So, out of four competitions we appear to be only really interested in finishing third or fourth in one of them, and not really caring about the others. This is not just down to the manager, he will have had his direction set by the board, and they have set their agenda based on the lure of Champions League money and nothing else. In 25 years time will people look at the history of Spurs and see that we finished 4th in 2010 or that we won a trophy in 2008, based on the past 125 years it will show the trophies.

I understand that football has changed, and changed a lot, but do you really want to just be in the Champions League at the expense of actually winning some silverware, I know I don't. Arsenal are seen as a successful club despite not winning anything for over 6 years, Spurs are seen as not as successful despite having a cup win in the same time period.

Funny old game.

Update on Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 5:42PM by Simon Jones

As so often happens, a news article on the BBC just been published here all about the money, nothing about actually winning anything...

Sweet FA Interest

It was about Friday lunchtime when browsing the news that I realised that there was an England game scheduled for that night, and it was a competitive one, a qualifier for next summers European Championships. It seems to be happening a lot now, an international that appears and seems to take people by surprise. We all knew there was no premiership football as it was an international break but the fact that no one I knew was going to the pub to watch it, or actually even discussing it at work or on line surprised me.

Author and all round good chap Adam Powley wrote about it on Friday, which you can read here and he pretty much summed up what a lot of people currently think about the national team, which set my mind working as well.

Like the view of empty seats at Wembley in the "Club Wembley" corporate area, what is happening that there is so little interest in the England team, I don't think it is all down to the team and the performance. At the old Wembley I went to pretty much every England game for about 10 years, it was a big day out for us in the 80s, one of the few times we got to see the star players from around the world, and it was always a great day out. 

To me it is quite clear where the issue for England dropping off the radar of the nation comes from, and that is the time and channel of the games. Football does not fit on a Friday night for a start, that is when people have other plans after the week, and it was also on Sky.

The issue of pay TV for sports will always raise strong views on either side of the fence, and football as a whole sold its soul to Sky a long time ago and that is where a lot of the money in the Premiership comes from, and the F1 fans are the latest to experience a sudden loss of visibility of their sport. It is that though that I feel damages the coverage and engagement with many fans, and they are armchair fans, with the National Team.

Sky covering a game will get in the region of a million viewers, for a major game they may hit two million, ITV4 get more than that for late night football highlights. BBC when covering England games still hit well over 10 million viewers, and far more in the actual tournaments. This to me is the issue, if people can't see the game, they simply ignore the fact that it is happening and wait for the games to be on "normal" TV later. The England v Wales game is on ITV on Tuesday and will have a far higher viewing figure than Sky, even though ITV covering football is appalling.

So how to raise the profile and coverage of the England team, create the excitement that there used to be and engage a new generation of fans with following them? There are many ideas that I am not going to try and cover today about team and player selection but I think there is an easier answer for the FA. Quite simply give the games coverage to the BBC. And by give I do mean give, just let them have it for free. This will give the team the exposure needed, and build the following back, enabling all to watch and see the national team in friendly and qualifying games as well as in the World Cup and Euro competitions. 

The FA do not need whatever money it is Sky pay them for the limited amount of games that they have, so why annoy and alienate almost all of your target audience when you could be advertising and promoting to so many more people? Surely the sponsors of the England team would rather be getting free to air coverage to ten million people than just to a million? 

Trust me on this one....

As Sky prepare to announce the real fixture list this morning, not the one drawn up by the leagues and FA but the one that suits their TV schedules, the second most annoying part of football in the close season is in full swing. Players being spotted at other clubs, people who know people who work somewhere, liars, attention seekers and the media are all involved in whipping up stories out of nothing to keep the flames alive and give fans something to be angry or pleased about.

For those who don't remember the times when there wasn't a transfer window, the summer and January windows almost seem as exciting as the games it appears at times. Who will go where, for how much, and when are constant conversations, threads on message boards and all the usual social networking sites. And it is the on line community who are the most annoying part of all this, but there are more than a few different interested parties in the whole transfer business, so here is a breakdown of who and why people are so concerned with all of this.

The Players

In the good old days player loyalty meant something, the likes of Steve Perryman, Matt LeTissier, Steve Bull all stayed and played at clubs that at times they "could have done better than" but they didn't for many reasons. Now the monies available to players for doing the same job in a different coloured shirt are so insane that I find it hard to criticise any player for moving. The usual analogy, and it is correct, is would you go and work in the office down the the road doing the same job for three times as much money? Pretty much a yes all round isn't it. Why should a player show loyalty in todays game, there is no loyalty left. Rooney claiming once a blue always a blue, Rio has as his avatar an x-ray type image with his heart replaced by the Man U crest, Lampard kisses the Chelsea badge. All have and will instantly change their actions when their employer changes.

The Agents

Almost the lowest of the low. Existing only to increase their own earnings. For no other reason and yet almost all players, and managers, now use agents to the extent that some are now referred to as 'Super Agents'. When I change job, I discuss the terms and conditions with my new employer and that is that. I don't give 10% to someone else for making a phone call. These people make estate agents look like they earn their money, and as with almost every part of modern football, that money leaves the game. It is not their for any club to invest in a new player, or ground improvements, it is just spent on appalling cars and buying friends. Quite how clubs allowed this to happen is a mystery to me - aside from the fact that almost every person involved in top flight football couldn't care less about 5 years from now, as long as the money is in their (off shore) account.

All the agent has to do is place some stories in a few papers or on the never ending and idiotically named 'Breaking News' ticker on Sky Sports News and then the conversations are set for the day. Modric off to Chelsea, no he isn't, yes he is. They put their players in the window, it is nothing more than saying - he is here, come and talk to me and we can do business.

The Clubs

As guilty and implicated in all transfers, and all clubs are the same. Tapping up players, making statements in the press about who they like and which of their own squad is 'looking'. The clubs need to do this to drive up the price of their players they are selling with the statements of 'not for sale at any price' and also feign disinterest in those they want to buy to try and get a bargain buy. And what happens when clubs break the rules, it is papered over with some more money. Sorry we broke all the rules, here is another £2million for you. No points deduction, no block on the moves, just some more of the fans money poured from one bucket to another. 

The Media

Can we link any more clubs to Mido?This sort of activity is what 24 hour news, internet, radio was invented for. Instead of actually having to do any work, just sit there with two lists on the wall and some darts. One dart thrown at the list of players and one dart thrown at the list of clubs, and there is your exclusive. Jenas off to Villa, Rooney off to Real Madrid, Beckham off to whoever wants a lot of shirt sales and press at training sessions. The only reason all media come up with the outlandish stories is to get you to buy, click, watch and listen - and then you are worth something to them as they can sell more advertising. How many of you would look at the Metro on line unless you heard there was a story about your club selling or buying someone, very few I would guess. That is the sole purpose of them, all they exist for. Trailing exclusives that generally turn out to start with the words allegedly or maybe... pointless.

The ITK Community

I know something you don't....Is there a bigger bunch of self serving, publicity seeking, attention whores than the ITK community. (ITK is football talk for In The Know, or I Talk Krap - I forget which). Hiding behind code names and vague statements all summer long and linking all clubs with all players in and out, so come the end of the window by the law of averages they will have got some right, and for the others there is the fantastic get out of "something else happened". There are hundreds of these people on all message boards and forums, and there are a couple of scenarios where they fit:

• They are actually ITK and put information out to get it in the media, a sort of unofficial leak. But with the amount of actual interviews with managers and players every day is there even a need to have an unofficial channel?
• They are ITK, and leaking information that they are privy to, and have to be anonymous to save their identity being uncovered. This is what they want you to believe. This is the proof that they are all full of crap. If these were real leaks the clubs would make up a rumour to people in turn and see when it appeared on line, and that person would be the leak. Think about it.
• They have some vague link, family friend, neighbour or such like and to make themselves look really important repeat information that is in the papers as "fact"
• They are idiots.

Pick your own choice, but make sure you make your response cryptic enough to be yes, no and maybe.

The Fans

All we want to know is what is actually happening. We want the teams we support to be settled, to sell the players we no longer need and buy replacements, and we want all this completed before the season starts so we know who is in our teams. But we don't matter do we. It may be easier to let Sky decide which transfers go ahead, then they can have even more control over Super Sunday.

"That" Tweet

No, not the hundreds I made naming certain footballers and other entities that have Super Injunctions, or do they, as it is impossible to know, so did I break the law or not? Not any of those tweets, but this one, which I sent at about 6.15 from the area of N17 after Spurs had just beaten Birmingham 2-1 on the last day of the season.

Not sure I have ever left a ground so depressed after a win. I think me and 'top flight' football may have parted company.

In the minutes following me posting, what I thought was a fairly innocuous tweet and one that would just be lost in the midst of the end of season comments I was, for the first time ever, "flamed" by many people, most of who I had never tweeted or heard of. Most seemed to think I was either slating Spurs or our leader 'Arry, but only a couple who actually asked what I meant and a few who empathised with what was a pretty vague comment.

So, what prompted me to type such a thing, based on the time from fairly close to the ground after we had just won with the last kick of the game? Was it a dig at the manager, oddly no. A dig at the team or some of the players, not really either.

It was a comment on the modern game, and what it appears to mean and stand for. We all know that money at clubs like Chelsea and now Manchester City has changed the game in the last few years, and since Sky invented football in the early 90s it has changed beyond recognition from my early days. What was it then that prompted me to tweet such a thing, what happened that day?

As anyone who knows me, and has read previous posts on the FA Cup especially, I am an old git, I revel in it, everything was better in my day etc etc. But there are many reasons why this was true. Only a few years ago many Spurs fans saw our club lift a trophy, the 'measly' Carling Cup, but that meant we had seen a cup be won again - we had silverware, we had a use for a trophy room, we had beaten the best teams to win something.

But now that is meaningless.

4th Place is what counts.

What a bag of crap.

Our manager said this was our best season in 20 years. Considering in other seasons during that time, indeed, the one before he took the reins, we had won trophies, I find it very hard to understand how this was a better season. Out of both domestic cups in early, and not great, circumstances, and never really performed in the league - is everything now about those European nights? I went to Werder Bremen away, but refused to go to home Champions League games on some odd principle that I am sure made sense to me at the time, but did our adventures there mask everything else? That actually isn't my issue. The Spurs blogs listed to the left give far more detail and insight into any aspect of individual games than I ever could hope to, and that is not my issue, it is what we are looking towards that is where I lose the understanding on what we as football fans are supposed to expect now. 

One of the main areas I struggle to understand are the amount of fans in the last few weeks of the season as 4th place slipped away who seemed intent on then making sure that we finished 6th so as not to have the inconvenience of the Europa League, even the manager hinting that we would be some how better off not being in it. The management team have said that we will be playing youth and second string players in this cup next season, and I guess in the other cups as well.

At the game on Sunday the guy I was stood next to said to me that he hoped we got knocked out of all the cups early so we could concentrate on getting 4th. Now surely I can not be alone in thinking that this type of thinking is totally destructive to everything that the game is about? Isn't the point of sport to try and win?

In the Chairmans message the following appears "We shall miss and all be disappointed at not qualifying for the Champions League for a subsequent year, but I know that the players will be fully focussed next season on returning us to this elite competition." So that is it, the sole target for next year is to be the 4th best in the league, with no mention at all of the domestic cup competitions. To my mind as we didn't win any of the competitions we entered last season the message should surely be that our aim is to improve in all competitions we are in, not admit that we are only interested in the money and glamour that the Champions League brings. That is what I want as a fan of my club. This is what I don't understand about the modern game, how can 4th place be more important than winning a cup?

For all the games that we are going to play a weakened team next year I sincerely hope that the ticket prices reflect that, whoever the opposition is. If the manager and the club are not going to take it seriously, how can full price admission still be charged, or as usual are the fans not actually considered when making these sort of decisions.

Saying that, will I be back next season? Yes. Because that is what the clubs rely on, the loyalty of the fans, but maybe, just maybe, there is a tipping point being reached and we can get back to actually wanting to and trying to win things.