Scouse in the house: Brabin and Carden arrive-la
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We’re thirteen days in, and this is my first post on Euro 2008. Don't take that as an indication that I haven’t been watching or enjoying the tournament – in fact I’d go so far as to say it’s the most entertaining international competition for some time.
Now that France are out I’m not really fussed about who wins, nor do I feel I can offer a considered opinion on who’s going to be the next champions seeing as I tipped both Holland and Spain, two of the most impressive performers so far, to flop. Neither team seem able to defend particularly well, but this doesn’t appear to be holding them back, and their potential semi-final match up should be an intriguing contest.
England’s absence has of course made the Euros a more enjoyable business. No WAG’s, no white van men waving union jacks, and no having to pretend to like odorous individuals like Terry, Ferdinand, and Neville. Nevertheless, it hasn’t stopped our media indulging in the usual stereotypes and cliches – Czech’s have been bouncing, the Swiss have rolled, and if I hear Clive Tydersley utter “never write off the Germans” once more I might explode. Has anyone ever written off the Germans? Ever? Grrr.
Speaking of Tydersley, he and his colleagues were at their unbearable worst during last nights Portugal love in, sorry I mean Portugal - Germany match; “Portugal, surely one of the best attacking teams in the world, are out” averred the commentator, after Scolari’s side had, as usual, passed the ball across the pitch about a million times without doing anything constructive like, er, having an effort on goal. I’d have thought “one of the best attacking sides in the world” could muster more than two shots on target in 45 minutes of football.
I suspect that, if they haven’t done so already, our directors will have perfected the art of saying something without saying anything by Friday.
So far we’ve had Phil Law on potential new managers: “There's certainly not a clear favourite at the moment, although there have been one or two interesting ones,” and Brian Attmore on Jimmy Quinn: “We'll be forever grateful for what Jimmy has done. He has put a pride and belief back into the club on the pitch, and that's a tremendous achievement.” With another two CEN deadlines to go before Jimmy spills the beans on Friday, I suspect there is more inane waffle to come, watch this space.
Having said that, I imagine that the beans being spilled by our former manager will not be entirely truthful beans, if that’s not taking the whole bean scenario too far. In fact, I’ll stick my neck on the line and predict he’ll trot one or more of the following false excuses:
“I’d taken the team as far as I can.”
“My heart wasn’t in the job anymore.”
“We’ve lost a lot of players and I felt now was a good time to move on.”
“Since my son was born my priorities have changed and I want to spend more time with my family.”
Meanwhile the, ahem, race to replace the Quinnster is gathering pace. One hopes that, much like in a horse race, the early front runners will fall away and/or be shot*. If Carlton Palmer or Glenn Cockrill were given the managers job, it would be a dark day indeed for Cambridge United.
*This is a joke. I do not endorse the shooting of incompetent football managers, although I'd probably make an exception for Steve Thompson.
So Jimmy’s gone, which I guess shouldn’t really come as any great surprise. It seems unrealistic to expect this football club to have more than a year of stability, ho hum.
Like everybody else, I have no idea what’s going on really, we’ll just have to wait and see. But the ongoing rumours of improper conduct and stuff can’t be good news if true – one only has to look at the punishment meted out to Luton to see that the FA love making examples of little clubs like ours. Hopefully if anything dodgy has gone on, it will be the individuals involved punished, not the clubs.
What is certain is that we need a new manager in as quickly as possible, with pre-season training only a couple of weeks away. The absence of players coming in could work in our favour in this case, because the new manager should at least have some room to bring in his own men.
As for the identity of our new leader, I (like most U’s fans I guess) would welcome the return of Daish and Kimble, even though the style of football they play with Ebbsfleet is more effective than pretty. But I’m not getting my hopes up, I’m sure it’ll be the same old faces putting their names forward. I give it two days before Tommy Taylor declares his interest.
Hurrah, so Frodo Baggins ((c)Danny Brown) isn't joining Stevenage. Yet. I'm always a bit wary when clubs make their rejection of transfer offers public - it's usually a thinly veiled "bid a bit more and he's yours" message.
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