Fabio Capello
Let's start with a topic that's always close to my heart - our national team. Unless you've been in hibernation over the last few cold weeks, you'll be aware that John Terry is due to stand trial for a racially-aggravated public order offence. Namely something he said on the pitch to Anton Ferdinand. The evidence appears to be pretty damning, but until a trial takes place and there is a conviction either way then John Terry is an innocent man. The FA have stripped John Terry of the captaincy over the whole affair, which has led Fabio Capello to resign. Without wanting to go into how this trial might go and the possible implications, let's look at how it's been dealt with.
Our FA, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to act upon the matter over 3 months after the date of the incident. QPR played Chelsea at the end of October 2011, the FA have decided to strip John Terry of the captaincy at the start of February 2012. I think John Terry has a massive part to play in all this, please don't think this is me getting the little violin out for him, but how on earth did it take 3 months for the FA to come to that decision? And why now? Surely as soon as it becomes clear there's an allegation with some substance, you either act then or stand by the man until it's proven he's guilty? The timing for me is the worst part of the decision, it stinks of incompetence and a lack of any real leadership. The worst thing is, going by the quotes from Capello leading up to his resignation, he would of taken the same course of action if not harsher had Terry been found guilty. But he wasn't going to do it - like the FA shouldn't have done - while he was still innocent.
Another strange part of the decision is to only strip him of the captaincy. If this decision is based on the racism allegations, how can they expect the campaign against racism to be taken seriously? They're saying it's fine to play for your country as a racist, just not be the captain. Bernstein has got this whole thing completely wrong, a decision needed making as soon as it became apparent that there was a situation with the captain and it should of been a case of back him or get him out of the picture until the trial is concluded.
As for John Terry, I'm definitely not fighting his corner. He has to take a large portion of the blame for how things have ended for Capello. Terry should have offered the captaincy until the case was over, this would have taken the decision away from the FA or Capello and I'm confident in predicting we might still have Capello as our manager. Although if it turns out to be a verdict of not-guilty, how are the FA going to pick themselves up from that farce? Stripping the captaincy of an innocent man.
I've not mentioned Capello much yet, but the stat of best win percentage of ANY England manager aside, I think it's a massive loss. I say this in jest, because some people still outright refuse to believe he was a good manager. We've lost someone who I believe was on the verge of building us a squad and a team capable of competing at the major championships. We had many reasons I think to look forward to the future under Capello:
- The phasing out of some of our big names who have been out of form for some time.
- Those players being being replaced by exciting new young players.
- Finally finding a system we were playing that brought the best out of us.
- The RESULTS! The Capello win percentage and qualifying campaign an unquestionable success.
Our fans love a bit of drama, when the news came out I had various people on my social networking sites dancing in the streets that Capello had gone. I tried to explain to them that we've got to start again, this is a couple of years building work that needs to be started from scratch. You only have to look at Steve McClaren to see how wrong it can go. I'll never understand why Sven and Fabio have been repeatedly lambasted, our national media are mostly responsible but it would be nice if some of our fans had a brain of their own and came to their own conclusions about how our managers are doing. I know I have some rose tinted specs when it comes to our national team, but even the stats suggest Capello did a good job. Is it the foreigner thing some can't get past?
So once again, thank you to our FA for royally cocking up the preparation for a major championship. You stuck your oar in when it wasn't needed with a horribly timed decision, which has meant the resignation of our manager. Here's hoping they get man of the people Harry Redknapp or the apathy towards our national team could be at an all time high.
Liverpool and Luis Suarez
I've never felt strongly either way about Liverpool, I was pleased for them when they won the European Cup, I quite like that they seem to bring through some decent English players, but other than that they've never really been on my radar as a club I either like or dislike. Until recently...
Their handling of this whole Luis Suarez racism affair has been nothing short of farcical. It's been a batten down the hatches and protect their own at all costs mentality, for someone who has proved to be a racist. It would be admirable how they've come out to look after their own player until he was proven guilty, but they've kept up this victim act after the guilty verdict.
Luis Suarez apparently used the term "negrito" toward Patrice Evra. Regardless of your culture and what that word means in your country - there's absolutely no way that Suarez was using that term as an endearing one. He's not naive enough to think he can use a term such as that in England and it not be seen as anything other than racist, he's not a 16 year old kid who has only just left his home country. He's been in Holland for a number of years before here, he was found guilty and rightly punished. Furthermore, he was in his (very public) place of work. Even if he is that unbelievably naive to think he was referring to Evra as a "cuddly black guy", then the punishment should stand for how incredibly thick he's been to teach him a lesson.
The best way to draw a line under this will be to further educate our players, then ask our players to educate local communities and children. When a player from a foreign country signs, it should be the clubs responsibility to let them know what is and isn't acceptable. The other way to draw a line under it all would of been to shake the hand of Evra at the next opportunity, your manager not lose the plot with a Sky reporter over the incident and show some humility. An apology after that seems somewhat meaningless! Shame on you Liverpool.
Herve Renard
As they say on the BBC Gossip column, and finally... Cambridge United fans, rewind to 2004. Club legend John 'Shaggy' Taylor has just been sacked, enigmatic (for want of a better, more repulsive word) Chairman Gary Harwood pulls something out of the hat that I don't think anyone would have predicted. Claude Le Roy, a former adviser at Paris St Germain and AC Milan and manager of Senegal and Cameroon, enters the fold apparently as our new manager. After some initial confusion, it turns out our actual manager is his protege, Herve Renard. Who actually hadn't managed anyone. But none the less, it was considered quite a coup and with the much travelled Claude looking over him, what could go wrong? The U's were saved!
Herve lasted 25 games in charge of the U's, despite trying to push his philosophy of playing football the right way and bringing a certain French flair to League 2, it ultimately ended in failure. Despite (if what I'm led to believe is true) the largest playing budget in the history of the club, Herve was sacked 25 games into his tenure. He could walk away with his head held high, but his tactics, way of playing just didn't suit the club and division we were in. Sadly, I think had we appointed a stalwart lower league manager, that would bring some direct football and some players that knew the league (not Kingsley Mbome or Igor Latte Yedo) we may still be a Football League club today.
Two names that are before my time seem to make any U's fan shudder at the thought of their tenures - John Ryan and Ken Shellito. It is only these 2 names out of the list of full time Cambridge United managers that have a worse win percentage. So while the Herve philosophy may have been the right way, it certainly wasn't the winning way.
If I'd said to you after Herve left the Abbey that he'd go on to win a major international competition, you'd have laughed in my face! Herve Renard this week has been part of a fairytale story at the African Cup of Nations, winning the tournament with Zambia. To go from the basement division in England to winning one of the biggest tournaments in the game with an unfancied side is quite some feat. What he has achieved cannot be underestimated, but I can't help but think the world of football is more "who you know" not "what you know". Any other manager with that sort of track record at the start of their career would surely not go that far in the game, you only need to look at his predecessor as an example - John Taylor.
Nice one though Herve, you always looked like you were giving your all and you did try things the right way. Don't forget us!
