Birmingham City Ladies win the FA Cup
26 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in BCFC, Football, Individuals worthy of contempt
Many congratulations are due to the Birmingham City Ladies team for triumphing in today’s FA cup final against Chelsea. The cockneys played pretty well and it took a penalty shootout to separate the two teams.
It’s the club’s first trophy in 44 years (sexual equality clearly exists when it comes to BCFC…….) and is richly deserved. The club faced meltdown less than a decade ago so it is quite some achievement .
It’s also a testament to all the hard work that chairman Steve Shipway has put in over the years in helping the club back from the brink. His unstinting efforts cannot be praised enough, and is quite a contrast to the shitbags that pollute the men’s game.
I mentioned this a few months ago but if we have one thing to be thankful for at Blues it is that Carson Yeung has actually backed the women’s team, unlike the parasitic mercenaries Brady, Gold and Sullivan, who weren’t interested as there was no money to be made from it. Cos that’s what football is about, obviously………..
Sadly the BBC didn’t show it on TV. I suppose the F1 qualifying was a far bigger priority and as Arsenal weren’t playing, in London, it wasn’t likely to get our media very interested.
The BBC’s scandalous indifference aside, it’s excellent news for BCLFC and for women’s football more generally. The grip that Arsenal have had over the women’s football in recent years has been suffocating the game and it’s good that someone else is capable of winning something (and challenging them).
It’s boring when the same team keeps winning all of the time.
Hopefully it’ll be the first trophy of many. But this is Birmingham City we’re talking about of course…….
In praise of Chris Hughton
13 May 2012 Leave a Comment
If there is a god, this is what he’d look like
As a child I was warned by my world-weary father that my life as a Birmingham City fan would be one of constant disappointment. So our recent history of promotions, top division football and cup wins has maybe led me to being a little complacent. I’d nearly forgotten that play-off game at home to Barnsley 12 years ago where we lost 4-0 and I spent the rest of the week swearing blind that my relationship with Birmingham City Football Club was at an end. Period. I soon snapped out of it though.
So, like all Blues fans I was disappointed and not a little shocked that our club was deservedly knocked out of the play-offs by Blackpool, a team that has its merits but has hardly set the Championship alight this year. It was a somewhat anti-climactic end to what has been by all accounts an extraordinary season. However I wish Blackpool all the best in the final and sincerely hope that they beat, nay, thrash West Ham.
Yes reader. I did say it. Extraordinary. We have achieved so much in such difficult circumstances. And that is down to Chris Hughton. A modern day miracle worker. Jesus without the long hair.
We were all feeling nervous before the start of the season. The cup-winning squad had been eviscerated and what remained was a motley crew of kids, journeymen, free transfers and second-stringers from the previous season. It looked fairly bleak to be honest. Off the pitch the finances looked a mess and owner Carson Yeung faced tax evasion charges back in China. No one saw any further than mid-table safety as a realistic aim, and that would have come as a blessed relief.
Everyone thought that Hughton was a good appointment considering his sterling efforts at Newcastle. But our squad was palpably weaker than the Geordies during their time in the Championship and a repeat of their ruthless promotion campaign was never on the cards.
But we came close.
Hughton worked with what he had, with no complaints. He has been the epitome of quietly determined dignity and appears to have always accepted that there will be severe financial constraints. He took what remained of last year’s squad, the players who McLeish had brought in before he legged it across town, added a few low-cost recruits of his own and rapidly moulded it into an imperfect but at times scintillating unit.
Take David Murphy. After rotting in the reserves under McLeish, he was restored to the first team largely by default (i.e. we didn’t have anyone else) by Hughton and stepped up.
It was also immediately apparent that Hughton had a very different football philosophy to Alex McLeish. Mcleish sought to avoid defeat at all costs. Hughton wanted to attack. The first real inkling of that change in approach came in the 3-0 victory over Nacional in the Europa League play-offs. Hughton’s approach was perfect. A clean sheet in the away leg followed by a crushing victory at home saw us qualify for the group stages.
Relegation had rendered Blues European campaign as a meaningless distraction to many, and maybe it was. Maybe it cost us a crack at automatic promotion this season. But it was a fantastic distraction, and Blues gave it real go. Swatting aside a dreadful Nacional side may not have been an event of world-historical significance. But going to Brugge and winning, something that no English club, let alone a penniless second-tier outfit, has ever managed in a competitive fixture certainly was.
Domestically Hughton and the players achieved some superb results and led us to a highly creditable fourth place. A 4-1 victory over Leeds at Elland Road and a 6-0 win at Millwall are particular highlights. Hughton always got us to get the ball down and attack, and we were always highly entertaining. We conceded a fair few but normally our offensive play was enough to offset that weakness.
Hughton transformed a team of mediocrities into one of the most fluent and feared in the Championship, and that was some achievement. The players always looked like they were enjoying themselves and there were times where we completely out-played opposition that were on paper vastly superior. The first game of the Chelsea cup tie springs to mind.
It’s a shame that we fell just short but probably not that surprising. The number of games, the thinness of the squad and various bits of bad luck probably did for us in the end.
I’ve no idea if Chris Hughton will still be Birmingham manager next season. I’m sure there will be offers for him considering his seeming ability to transform sows ears into silk purses. If he goes, I can’t begrudge him the opportunity to test himself at a club in a higher league or with greater resources. I’m sure I speak for all Birmingham fans when I say that I hope he remains but he has my best wishes wherever he goes next.
And what next for Blues? Well the finances remain as murky as ever and clearly there won’t be scope for serious transfer activity in the summer. Nikola Zigic will be on £50k a week for another two years. Most of our high-value assets have already been sold and allowing players like Curtis Davies, Chris Burke, Nathan Redmond and Jordon Mutch to leave now would appear to be insanity, but I don’t think anyone knows what the summer holds.
We need new owners. I don’t think Yeung et al are trying to bleed us dry (he needs something of value to sell on) but the perpetual uncertainty and mystery is unsustainable.
It wouldn’t be Blues if it was simple though. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is what we do.
Ched Evans and internet misogyny
28 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in BCFC, Current Affairs, Football, Individuals worthy of contempt
It’s come as a relief to read that the absolutely unbelievable plan to give a minute’s applause to convicted rapist Ched Evans in the 9th and 35th minutes of Sheffield United’s game with Stevenage came to nothing. It seemed almost too surreal to be an actual possibility, and it does appear that the Twittersphere got all in a lather about something that was probably never going to happen. It’s good to see that Blades fans didn’t behave so abominably. I should never have doubted you, comrades. Apologies.
So unlike the Daily Mail, I’m not going to use this article to tar football and all footballers with the same brush. They aren’t all feral, misogynist, inadequate (and always, pointedly, working class) thugs who have more money than they know what to do with and roam the cities of Britain looking for women they can spit-roast.
Anyway, quite why his sister thought it appropriate to try and organise this mindless, crass stunt, despite the fact he has been found guilty and there seems little doubt that he is, we will never know. She was taking the old cliché that blood is thicker than water to an extreme that bordered on the delusional. I will never understand people who defend family members and partners guilty of the most deplorable acts. It’s as if their brains switch off and they stop thinking rationally. Do they think that the world is actually like an episode of Eastenders?
Evans’ partner is also sticking by him…….
It’s clear that Evans deserves no sympathy. He is a thoroughly nasty little shit (who apparently was earning £20K a week! In League One?!) who has got exactly what he deserved.
The thoroughly obnoxious specimens who revealed the name of the victim on Twitter deserve everything they get as well. The laws regarding anonymity exist to predict the victim and they need to be enforced (although jail sentences for those guilty of naming her may be a bit excessive). She has had to endure an awful few days because she had the temerity to go to the police hold Evans accountable for his actions. She should be commended for her bravery, especially considering the onslaught she has had to endure subsequently.
Many people have come out of this with their reputations diminished significantly. We have had a glimpse into the psyches of many men and what we have seen hasn’t been very edifying. Immediately after the conviction there was a chorus of (mostly) male voices who leapt to Evans defence, branding his victim a “slut”, a “whore” and blamed her for being drunk. So having intercourse with a woman who is too drunk to consent wasn’t the issue, according to these Neanderthals. Oh no. She asked it for it, for being 19, intoxicated and (presumably) attractive. I mean how dare she go out and get paralytic.
I’m not a big fan of the booze myself but the idea that people who get pissed deserved to be violated is so awful it it’s hardly even worth bothering to refute.
As this excellent article points out, ‘Rape Culture’ is alive and kicking in Britain in 2012. The victim is still routinely blamed, and it is still frequently argued, even in the mainstream press, that women often bring it on themselves (Daily Mail, take a bow…..)
The grunting misogyny on show on the web of late seems to be disturbingly widespread, and in a depressing inversion of the truth, Evans is turned into the victim.
A good example has come from a Lib Dem council election candidate, Liam Elvish, whose comments have probably slightly dented his chances of being elected:
“Yet another shameful example of our disproportionate legal system. Most girls I speak to say they wouldn’t say no to Ched Evans, anyway…”
I’m guessing Elvish hasn’t really got a lot of female friends. And the Lib Dems really will put up anyone now won’t they……..
And at the time of writing Evans still hasn’t been dropped from the League One team of the year. I appreciate that the judgment is based on footballing merit rather than moral probity, one would have hoped that as soon as Evans was found guilty of such a serious offence the PFA (a trade union, lest we forget) would have felt morally obliged to immediately remove him from their selection.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens when Evans is released. He will still only be in his mid-twenties and presumably could still play the highest level (his 35 goal haul this season had reportedly piqued the interest of a number Premier League clubs) and there is always someone desperate enough to take a chance on someone like him.
In other thoroughly depressing football-related news, Anton Ferdinand has told reporters that he isn’t worried about the abuse that he may receive from Chelsea fans during their game this weekend. Good on him, but he shouldn’t be in a position where he has to worry about it anyway. I won’t cover old ground as I’ve given my views on the frequently sub-primate individuals (and the sub-sub-primate Terry for that matter) who support Chelsea previously so you can read that.
In slightly better football news, Birmingham secured 4th spot in the Championship today and now face Blackpool in the play-offs. Considering what Chris Hughton has had to work with he has performed a simply magnificent job this season. Merely making the play-offs is a stupendous achievement.
The key issue in the play-offs though is that West Ham must fail. The world needs them, and more specifically Sam Allardyce, to fail. Come on Cardiff!
The travails of Roger Johnson
05 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
I’ve blogged previously on the subject of poor old Roger Johnson, the Wolves and ex-Blues defender who is having an absolutely nightmarish season.
I know many Blues fans will be enjoying his latest travails but I might offer a slightly different take on the matter. I think it’s all rather sad. I still fondly recall his heroic performance in the cup final last year and he was a wonderful club servant.
Johnson seems to have lost his way badly. Since he left relegated Birmingham (which I honestly can’t blame him for, by the way), a player that his new employers clearly had high hopes for has watched his career fall apart. Performances have been frequently abysmal and he has made endless basic errors, which has led to him being dropped from the team several times.
There is clearly something going on as he was forced to apologise after turning up pissed to training one Monday morning in March. This was a guy who was model professional during his time at Blues. His confidence looks shot to pieces.
His stated reason for leaving us was that he wished to play Premier League football. Considering that Wolves are cut adrift at the bottom he looks like he will almost inevitably be playing Championship football next year.
Johnson has again been in the headlines after he and ‘keeper Wayne Hennessy squared up during their latest defeat, at home to Bolton Wanderers (the Wolves fans pointedly chanted Hennessy’s name afterwards).
On the one hand it is good to see that they are both sufficiently committed to an increasingly desperate looking cause to get angry but on the other it speaks volumes about the levels of dressing room unrest that exist at the Molineux.
Reports suggest that Johnson isn’t exactly Mr popularity right now and he hasn’t been from the moment he was signed. He was immediately made club captain, dislodging the rather thuggish Karl Henry, a supremely bleak footballer but one popular with his fans. Whether that upset the camp is unclear, but Johnson has struggled from day one and the fans are on his back.
I’m sure many Birmingham fans are loving all of this, especially as one of our chief rivals looks doomed and one of our former players appears to be instrumental to that failure. I disagree. I wanted Johnson to succeed and his new club to stay up. There are plenty of other clubs I would be far happier to see go down. Johnson didn’t deserve the abuse from our fans and Wolves fans need to get off his back. He clearly has made mistakes professionally and personally but he needs people to support him now, especially as there is still a mathematical chance that Wolves can stay up.
Whither the Villa?
01 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in BCFC, Football, Individuals worthy of contempt
As Birmingham weren’t playing yesterday I wasn’t paying as much attention as I normally do to the scores on a Saturday afternoon, but the results at the bottom of the Premier League made depressing reading for Aston Villa fans I’m sure. Bolton, Wigan and QPR all won, which must have been pretty much the worst possible scenario for Villa.
They are now just 5 points above the drop zone and in a wretched run of form (1 win in their last eight games, and that was at home against Fulham)
On that basis, and the fact that the teams below them are starting to pick up points, they could certainly get sucked in.
Which would be 3 relegations in 4 and a half seasons for Alex McLeish.
Unsurprisingly many of the fans have already turned on him. A season that didn’t exactly promise a huge amount could end in utter disaster. Gates are down and the football is frequently insipid.
A good example came during yesterday’s 4-2 defeat at home against Chelsea. They had fought back from 2-0 down to level and then Alex McLeish brought on…….Emile Heskey.
A substitution that sums up McLeish’s reign, and whole philosophy. Safety-first. Caution.
Which is fine when you are actually avoiding defeat and winning some games, like he was during Birmingham’s epic undefeated run a couple of years ago. But that hasn’t been the case for some time now, and one can hardly call it a safety first philosophy when more often than not it results in defeat.
To my mind McLeish’s appointment marked a new low in the recent history of easily the West Midlands biggest club. To poach a manager from your arch-rivals, when he had just got them relegated, betrayed a paucity of ambition that simply wasn’t present when Randy Lerner bought the club in 2006. So what went wrong?
Of course some of our writers have their own theories on that. The blame lies squarely with Martin O’Neill, specifically his approach to team selection and colossal profligacy.
I have to be honest the man’s time at the helm of the Villa did change my perception of him. As less of an aesthete than our own DC, I used to think that the sun shone out of his arse, but now I’m really not so sure.
His league placings are something that the club would kill for now, but when one considers the scale of his spending, his ‘legacy’ of exorbitantly remunerated journeymen (even now) warming the Villa bench and the circumstances of his departure, it is difficult to describe his time as an unqualified success. Lerner has clearly had his fingers burnt and McLeish’s appointment and the sales of their most valuable players (Milner, Young, Downing etc.) are symptoms of that.
The difficulty is of course that settling for mere mid-table mediocrity, as Lerner appears to have done, can, with a few bad results and injuries to key players, suddenly become a relegation dogfight. Which is precisely what has happened this year.
And that is unacceptable for a club of Villa’s size and history, particularly when contrasted with the clubs they find themselves battling for Premier League survival alongside. Their years of glorious success may be long gone (and DC will tell you that their European Cup win was achieved in the most fortuitous of circumstances) but they remain a huge club and their fans rightly expect rather more than the dross they have had to endure this year.
As time as gone by I am less and less convinced that vast resources are a prerequisite for success in football. The relative success of Swansea and Newcastle in the Premier League, the travails of West Ham in the Championship and more exotic examples such as Athletic Bilbao playing Man United off the park in both legs of their Europa League tie illustrate that it isn’t that straightforward. Clearly having lots of money helps, but Villa should still be more competitive than they have been this year. They have many gifted players on their books and their famed youth system continues to generate players capable of walking into Premier League starting XI’s.
And the blame for that lies with Alex McLeish. His insipid, gutless, joyless brand of ‘percentages’ football could end up making this an even grimmer year for Midlands football than it already looks like being.
He isn’t hated by Villa fans because he managed Blues. He is hated because he is shit.
Fabrice Muamba
19 Mar 2012 1 Comment
in BCFC, Current Affairs, Football
I’d decided to keep my powder dry on the issue of Fabrice Muamba for a couple of days as I was genuinely worried that if I started writing anything by the time I finished it could end up having to be his obituary. Such was the seriousness of his condition following his collapse at White Hart Lane during the FA Cup tie on Saturday. Indeed he remains in intensive care at the time of writing, despite small and encouraging signs of improvement.
The response of the staff at WHL was exemplary and if Fabrice’s condition does improve then they have to take a great deal of the credit.
The reaction of all of us who follow the game has been one of profound shock because it is such a terrifying tale. This all-action, quick and immensely athletic midfielder seemed to be literally at his physical peak and has not yet even turned 24. To be there in the stadium, watching him struck down mid-game, must have been horrifying for those present. The looks in the eyes of players and supporters in the photos told their own story. I was only semi-attentively keeping tabs on the game on the Guardian’s text-based minute-by-minute but even I felt a lump in my throat after news spread of what was happening.
People up and down the country, whether fans, players or celebrities, have been deeply upset by what has happened, largely because Fabrice is such a popular and genuinely nice guy. And he is that most rare of professional athletes, someone with a hinterland beyond his sport.
Fabrice is the son of a political refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo. His father and later Fabrice and his family fled here and sought political asylum as they were in genuine fear of their lives if they had stayed in the DRC.
One can normally imagine the right-wing press having a field day with such a tale of an ‘immigrant scrounger’…….if Fabrice hadn’t turned out to be a millionaire footballer. Instead he is a hero and a man that the tabloids will now dare not criticise in even the mildest of terms. At every turn he has rejected call-ups from the DRC national team as he considers himself British, and has instead represented England and u-16, u-17, u18, u-19 and u-21 levels.
His case is a timely reminder of the stupidity of the right-wing press and their racist, vitriolic campaigns against ‘foreigners’ that are designed to divide us amongst ourselves. Here we have an ‘asylum seeker’ who has worked damn hard, contributed a huge amount to his new home and conducted himself like an utter gentleman throughout. Like most people who come to Britain seeking a new life in fact. The only difference is that he is famous and has the good fortune to be blessed with a talent that can earn him a massive wage. One would hope that Muamba’s case will make the likes of the Express and the Daily Star reflect on the poison they spread daily. I won’t hold my breath though.
Fabrice first came to my attention nearly 6 years ago when he signed for Birmingham City on loan for the season from Arsenal, along with Nicklas Bendtner and Sebastian Larsson. Although not the most prodigiously talented of players (he has a habit of occasionally giving the ball away and the label of ‘the new Vieira’ was only ever liable to be a millstone around his neck), his workrate, tenacity, honesty and total commitment to the cause made him a fan favourite in Blues’ successful promotion season of 2006-07, and along with Larsson was signed permanently as Blues tried to stay in the Premier League the following year.
I vividly recall reading an interview with him during his stay at Blues where he explained how he devoted much of his week free time to studying, and how he intended to gain a master’s degree. Fabrice met his future wife, Shauna, in Birmingham while she was studying for her master’s. He was something of a child prodigy at school, which is even more impressive when you consider that he arrived in England aged 11 not being able to speak a word of English. Not your average athlete then.
As per usual it was not to be for Birmingham and we were relegated from the Premier League after one season in 2008. Muamba though had done enough to impress Premier League clubs and he was snapped up by Gary Megson’s Bolton Wanderers, where he has been ever since (unlike the hapless Megson). He left with all of the Birmingham fans best wishes. He had given everything to the cause in the previous two years, had conducted himself with complete professionalism throughout and he deserved the chance to keep playing at the highest level.
He has proved to be equally popular at Bolton, winning their player of the year award in 2010 and making 130 first team appearances so far. The reaction of his teammates and fellow professionals (many of whom will have been on the end of his robust challenges over the years) following what happened tells its own story. He is dearly loved and I have trawled through the web trying to find one bad word against him. Aside from a handful of cretins on Twitter in the last couple of days, I have found nothing. He is genuinely one of the nice guys and throughout his career everyone has spoken of him in the highest possible terms. His humility, devotion to his family and consideration for others has always shone through and it was frequently commented upon well before the awful events of last Saturday.
Here’s hoping he makes it 131 appearances one day. I’m sure I speak for everyone who reads this when I say that our thoughts are with him and his family.
Poor Chris Huhne
05 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in BCFC, Current Affairs, Politics
My immediate response to hearing of the resignation of Chris Huhne was originally one of complete horror. I thought the newsreader had said Chris Hughton. I nearly choked on my sausage sandwich. My heart sank. My life flashed before my eyes. The future of my beloved Blues seemed to one of pain and disappointment (i.e. the usual bill of fayre). The exhilarating, frankly bewildering attacking football he has got us playing would be coming to an end.
I’m not joking by the way. I was listening to a local radio station and I thought maybe he had had enough working with no money and a felonious chairman.
So it was some relief when I found out that it was the Energy Secretary that had fallen on his sword. A far less significant matter.
If he is guilty of perverting the course of justice then he has only himself to blame. Getting your wife to take the rap for speeding and then leaving said wife for another woman is pretty daft. The heart what the heart wants I suppose………..
And I don’t blame his now ex-wife, Vicky Pryce, for shafting her former beloved. A perfectly human response to a pretty horrible betrayal.
The politics of this is worthy of comment too. Apparently the Energy Secretary was one of the few non-wankers in the cabinet. And a rather better man than Nick Clegg, according to Matthew Norman. And he might have a point. But then again there are a lot of men rather better than Nick Clegg. Fred West for example. Obviously I’m only joking.
Apparently Huhne is on the ‘left’ of the Liberal Democrats, and rather less Thatcherite than Nick Clegg. And he actually won the leadership campaign, if all the votes had been counted. He was seen as someone that kept the potentially grassroots Lib Dem membership on board. He was their ‘man on the inside.’
And of course he has a great track record of dragging Coalition policy to the left. Obviously my mind is playing tricks on me when I note that he has voted for all of the Coalition’s cuts during his time in the Cabinet. Although he complained vociferously about the Tories behaviour in the run-up to the AV referendum (and he was right, they conducted themselves disgracefully) he didn’t make it a resigning issue. In fact, for Huhne, none of his leader’s betrayals, u-turns or sellouts in the last couple of years has prompted him to question his position. A leftwinger? Come off it. Indeed, Huhne was pivotal to the Coalition negotiations back in 2010 and and has proved an enthusiastic supporterof austerity.
Of course Clegg and Cameron will be happy to see the back of him. The PM would have found Huhne’s not very subtle off the record briefing and public criticism of certain gvernment decisions (though this never stretched so far to actually doing anything about it) very wearing and Huhne was beginning to become a hate figure amongst Tory MPs. Clegg will be happy to see his chief party rival’s political career in ruins.
That said, Huhne performed an important function for his leader. He kept the Lib Dem grassroots happy (and yes, they are happy with politicians who change nothing for the better but talk the talk. That’s Lib Dems for you……..) and certainly his reassuring presence may have helped stave off potential revolts from within the party. I am nauseated by the way that the Lib Dems have conducted themselves in recent years, although frankly not particularly surprised, but even now there must be some of the members who aren’t happy with what they have been signed up to. From Clegg’s point of view Huhne may have been a useful safety valve for grassroots discontent, and if he does clear his name, he could be a threat from the backbenches, freed from the shackles of collective responsibility.
He did win a few small victories on environmental issues, and his loss will give George Osborne more freedom to trample over the green agenda. But thinking that Huhne would have been a significant obstacle to the Tories in the future would be wishful thinking. The dangeous Lib Dem cabinet members, like him and Vince Cable, were and are nothing but paper tigers.
Amy Fearn and Michelle Obama
12 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in BCFC, Current Affairs, Football, Politics
It’s probably only here at Representing the Mambo that one will find articles drawing analogies between football matches and the wives of US presidents. But we are well capable of pulling off such intellectual flights of fancy with embarrassing ease so do bear with us.
A couple of stories today draw attention to a problem that still plagues modern society; women in positions of authority and the way that they are perceived and reacted to in largely male-dominated environments.
The first one is close to home. Well, my home anyway. Birmingham City won last night in deeply controversial circumstances against Ipswich Town. Ipswich had a clear penalty tuned down following a typically reckless challenge by the clumsy oaf Steven Caldwell. It was a penalty, no argument about that, and probably should have won Ipswich the game.
Ipswich boss Paul Jewell was perfectly within his rights to feel aggrieved. It was a bad call.
The reason that this has become a national story, if you weren’t aware of it already, is that Jewell turned his ire on the referee’s assistant, who happened to be a woman, Amy Fearn. Here’s what he said:
”Unfortunately to every man, but not a woman. Although the referee didn’t have a good view, I thought the lineswoman, or whatever she’s called, had a great view….It’s a stonewall penalty and it’s a sending-off, but he [Lewis] didn’t give it. You better ask him why he didn’t give it, or her why she [Fearn] didn’t give it. I asked them at the end but it’s a wall of silence. It’s happened but I don’t know why it’s happened. I don’t even think it’s a debatable penalty.”
A bit crass. Not Mike Newell crass, but still poor form. Whether she is a woman or not shouldn’t come into it. Whether Jewell intended it or not, the implication is that he thinks she is incapable of getting it right because she’s a woman. Because male refs never make mistakes.
Leaving aside the usual ranting about the officials, one would hope we would have moved on a bit. She is a fully qualified referee and is as good if not better than most male officials. She must have been to get where she has. She made an error. It happens all the time at football matches. Her gender doesn’t come into it and once again that has distracted from the real issue of substance. That Paul Jewell is shit manager and his team have lost 11 of their last 14 matches.
The other story (sort of) hitting the headlines is the ‘shocking revelations’ about First Lady Michelle Obama and her relations with her husband’s political entourage. It’s fair to say that she didn’t get on with some of them. Especially former chief of staff and ultimate machine politician Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel is one of many veterans from the Clinton administration that Obama has either appointed or sought the advice of. Emanuel is on the hard right of the Democratic Party, violently pro-Israel and a supporter of the Iraq War and his arch-cynicism and desire to push Barack Obama along a more cautious path than maybe some of us had hoped for caused numerous fallings-out with Michelle Obama.
Mrs Obama is an extremely impressive and formidable political operator in her own right and has impeccable liberal credentials. She demanded that her husband stay true to the vision he put forward during his 2008 election campaign and this caused friction with Emanuel who attempted to freeze her out of the decision-making process.
It must have been incredibly frustrating for her. Most First Ladies, especially Republican ones, are supposed to and have usually sought to play the role of dutiful wife and homemaker. Michelle had ambitions beyond that and also wanted to try and preserve a semblance of normality for her young kids, whilst all the time she was being stymied by a Clintonite hack who clearly did not have the President’s best interests at heart. She was also wary of appearing to be the ‘angry black woman’ that her husband’s political opponents knew would play badly with the American electorate and would try and use to destroy him. That even now she feels hamstrung by such reactionary ideas is a testament to the sexism and latent racism that still exists in America.
On some of the fundamental political questions she has been the administration’s conscience and the great tragedy has been that her advice has not been taken more often by her husband. The world would have been better served had Michelle been allowed and had allowed herself to be more ‘angry.’
We’ve still got a long way to go in so many different ways.
In defence of Roger Johnson
11 Jan 2012 1 Comment
Probably the only significant moment in the torpid FA cup tie between Birmingham and Wolves on Saturday was the reaction to former Blues’ centre half Roger Johnson’s injury in the first half. He was jeered by sections of the home support as he was taken off. Personally I found this rather churlish and very disappointing. He deserves better to be honest.
To regard him as some sort of traitor for moving to Wolves over the summer misses the point of what has happened at St Andrews and the fact that the problems we have are not down to him. We need to be fair-minded about this.
The guy is in his late twenties and wanted to play in the Premier League. He didn’t specifically ask to leave Birmingham, but the board told him he was being sold and that was that. Wolves came in with the right bid, we got good money for him so he went there. No one else came in for him, despite all the rumours. He isn’t from Birmingham, and he was a good servant of the club. He put his body on the line on many occasions for us and was absolutely, heroically immense in the cup final nearly a year ago.
He is entitled to a crack at playing at the highest level and should have left with the fans best wishes, not myopic hostility as has been the case. Nothing he has said since has lessened my opinion of him and he should not have been treated that way at the weekend. Blues fans are better than that. I appreciate that people are angry about the previous regime but Johnson is not to blame for us getting relegated. McLeish, and his truly grim brand of football, cost us our place in the Premier League last year.
In defence of cup football
08 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
Roger Johnson and friends celebrating Birmingham's Carling Cup TRIUMPH over Arsenal in 2011
Yesterday DC posted an interesting take on that venerable footballing institution, the FA Cup, and makes a number of valuable points. The Cup doesn’t have the resonance with many fans that it used to.
I don’t share his low opinion of the competition though. Clearly it isn’t as important as it used to be, but that isn’t a good thing. Maybe it’s because I’m a Birmingham City fan, maybe it’s because I have an instinctive love of the underdog when it comes to football, but I think the Cup is something to be treasured and it is one of the few redeeming features of English football in the contemporary era of unfettered money worship.
FA cup third round day is one of the few days a year when the minnows and lower league clubs can dare to dream. Of knocking out one of the giants of the game. It is a chance for the smaller clubs, the lifeblood of the game and the producer of so many of the ‘elite’ league’s future stars to remind the world that they still exist. For players you have never heard of to have their moment in the sun and 15 minutes of fame, and maybe a chance to show a Premier League club what they can do.
Up and down the country hundreds of thousands of people support and help out with their local clubs because of their love of football. Not for financial gain. Not for celebrity. But because they know instinctively that there is something joyful about 22 men kicking a leather ball around for an hour and a half. That is not something to be dismissed lightly. The Cup is about them.
Many Premier League managers consider the League and FA Cup a distraction (well until they reach the quarter finals, then it suddenly takes on great importance.….) The weekly grind of the Premier League is more important. And from a financial point of view, maybe it is. But for the likes of Blackburn, Bolton and Wigan, it is a point of view I can’t fathom. When the fans come to reminisce on the successes and failures of their club in years to come, will year after year of tedious mid-table obscurity punctuated by the occasional relegation dogfight, with the only certainty being that at some stage they will go down, really register strongly in the memory? Or will it be the chance of winning or the winning a trophy? I think you know the answer. One might think staying in the Premier League is more important right now. I think posterity will judge things rather differently.
Was Gerard Houllier really doing the right thing for Aston Villa when he effectively handed Man City victory on a plate in the 5th round last year? Was finishing in 9th place in the league really worth surrendering the chance of a historic club winning something for the first time in years? Would finishing 10th, 11th or twelfth really have been such a disaster? No it fucking wasn’t.
Surely the point of being in the top flight is that it gives you access to the resources to win something. My beloved Birmingham City are a case in point. Last year, after decades of waiting, we finally won a cup competition. We also got relegated. You know what, if you’d offered me that at the start of that season I would have taken it. As trophies mean something in the final analysis. And we got an exciting and unique European experience in the bargain. The victory in Brugge is one that will stay with all Blues fans. Whether you finish 16th, 17th or 18th really won’t.
Why is the Premier League now so ascendant? It’s simple. Money. That’s why the FA cup is no longer the spectacle it was. The top clubs think it’s beneath them. They don’t want to go to Scunthorpe on a cold wet January afternoon. As they might lose. And the gloss might fade a little bit. The egos might take a battering. They are shaken out of their comfort zone. Something that the English players are just as likely to be guilty of as the foreign, ‘namby pamby’ counterparts.
This isn’t an argument for kicking the opposition. DC points to the talent argument. And true enough, most of the clubs in the football pyramid are in their position because of talent. But money plays a part too, especially now. Provincial and smaller clubs can’t hope to challenge the bigger clubs who will steal their best players and outspend them to achieve their objectives. So sometimes, one has to resort to less than pretty tactics to get a result. If the money was equally shared out, then fine, there would be no excuse for playing negatively. It isn’t, and certain clubs thus have to cut their cloth accordingly.
Many giantkillings have indeed depended on cynicism, brute physicality and dirty football to an enormous degree. Wimbledon’s victory over Liverpool in 1988 is a case in point. But it isn’t always a case of an upset requiring a diminishing of quality or a resorting to cheating. Yesterday Swindon beat Wigan by comprehensively out-playing them. Swindon’s players may have been inferior in theory, but for those 90 minutes they were the better side. And can anyone really begrudge Sutton United their victory in 1989? It wasn’t achieved by cheating. It was a victory of honest working class kids who played football in their spare time, simply because they loved playing, having the game of their lives.
An interesting case study is the cup run of Calais in France in 2000. A team of part-timers from the French fourth division made it all the way to the final, knocking out a string of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs. And they did it by playing attractive, adventurous football. The fans and players will remember those heady days for the rest of their lives.
So in summary I personally think the FA Cup, and cup football in general, is something to be treasured. It is a living breathing reminder that football is the game of ordinary people. It allows people to dream just for a day or two. It is a great leveller. And the best of the elite clubs will navigate tricky ties if they are good enough. But it offers the opportunity, or at least the glimmer of one, for something amazing to happen. For someone to do something extraordinary.
And if the Premier League’s middle ranking clubs with their turgid football and ‘survival first’ mentality dislike it so much then it’s got to be worth defending.
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