WELCOME
Welcome to my website – this is the bit where I’m going to voice my views on different subjects every week. I love talking about football, so this is where it will happen. . .
STILL LIFE IN THE OLD DROG (AND TERRY AND LAMPARD!)
What a great night it was for Chelsea when they overturned Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday. It was compelling watching them fight back once and then doing it all again when Napoli scored the away goal.
It was a flashback to the old Chelsea we all knew, tough, committed and full of energy and passion. That came from the team selection, and was a symbol of what the players are still capable of.
It doesn’t answer the questions about how the club can move on as the likes of John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba get older but I don’t think they will worry or that they should do. They were there to win a game and they did exactly that.
Between them those players have given 34 years and more than 1,400 games to Chelsea and they have done that by always fighting to be the best in every game and training session. If you don’t do that you don’t stay at any club, let alone one as massive as them. So they are not going to just move on because other people are judging it is time for the club to change. I don’t see that they should do anything other than continue to fight both for their place in the team and to win football matches.
They still have ambitions, they still want to win the Champions League or to lift the Premier League trophy again, and from the player’s point of view, all they want to concentrate on is carrying on and winning football matches. It’s for the manager and chairman to make other decisions.
It’s not even about how they are treated. If you look at Manchester United then Sir Alex Ferguson has moved players on through all sorts of different scenarios. Some are happy when they go, some unhappy. He has moved on top, top players in all sorts of different ways. The same sort of thing happened during Liverpool’s great era in the days of the Anfield Boot Room.
The problem at Chelsea is that because of the constant changes of manager, there has never been a manager who is bigger than the collective group of players. The players are the one constant. I don’t think they should be criticised for caring about the club and wanting to win.
KENNY’S BEEN A CUP KING
On the subject of senior players, trust Steven Gerrard to step up for Liverpool just when Everton fans were wondering if they might overtake them in the Merseyside derby.
Now they are chasing more silverware against Stoke and will fancy their chances. I’ve been impressed with how Kenny Dalglish has picked his strongest team for cup games all season. When you are winning things what a great feeling it is for the club, and it’s building a platform to get where they really want to be, back in the Champions League.
Winning the Carling Cup has already been great for new young players who haven’t won much. It meant they could learn what it is like to win things at a big club – and this season, even if they haven’t finished in the top four which everyone said they had to, if they come out winning two cups that would be fantastic.
SOMETIMES IT IS BEST TO THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK
If you ask any striker we’ve all been told about how “my grandmother could have scored that” when we’ve missed a chance. It rather goes with the territory.
But I do think Wolves owner Steve Morgan made a mistake when he tried to pacify some angry fans by telling them he could have taken some of the opportunities that were missed against Blackburn.
It’s tough for everybody at Wolves at the moment and they all need to look at themselves. I didn’t agree with sacking Mick McCarthy, especially when it turned out that there wasn’t a plan in place for what happened next.
They still have a tough task, and what they need is the guy at the top being positive. I’ve been involved in clubs where there are negative vibes and it never helps.
I know that people put money in and have the right to say what they want, but they also have to think about the impact it has. You are all trying to get to the same place, and these sort of comments, whether it is from manager, owner or fans, don’t help you to play better.
I’m really enjoying Reading at the minute where we are all pulling the same way. Football is so much about confidence, and definitely scoring goals is about confidence. Building it up does far more good than knocking it down.
LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD DOESN’T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT ME
Finally I’ve Tweeted a few times about a record called The Big Bad Wolf by Duck Sauce which has become a bit of a theme song among the lads at Reading at the moment. I’m not sure who brought it in to play first of all, but the lads have taken to it as our tune - we listen to it before we go out, and if it is playing again an hour or so after the game it means we’ve won.
To be honest it’s a pretty average song, and as for the video – well take my advice and don’t look it up on YouTube at work because it is very disturbing. I tweeted that “The Big Bad Wolf is playing again” and some people seem to have got the idea that I’m giving myself that name, so let me make it clear the big bad wolf is definitely not me. Off the field I’m much more like Puss in Boots!
