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I was fascinated to hear what Liverpool’s Jamie Carragher has had to say about playing for England. Speaking during a documentary on BBC radio last night Carragher was the first English player I have heard admit that there might be a problem.

Fear

He talked about the fact that players have a fear of failure when they pull on the famous old white shirt of the three lions.

“One mistake and you could be absolutely slaughtered. At your club, you know you will not be criticised as much and perhaps three days later there will be another game. With England, it could be months before you have another fixture. There is a fear at times when playing for England.”

Media

The Liverpool defender went on to say that the intense media scrutiny that the players face has a serious effect on them.

“The intensity of the press does get to the players. Sometimes I think players would prefer the press guy to think they had played well, rather than the manager.”

Criticism

It also seemed that Carragher had some criticism of the regime employed and enforced by Fabio Capello at last year’s World Cup. The thirty-three year old Carragher was brought back into the squad by Capello and featured in a couple of the group games at the tournament before being left on the bench later on.

“You stay in a hotel all day but you are at a World Cup for a long time and should be able to experience different things. I wouldn’t want players holed up. Take away the boredom, embrace the country we are in more. You never see anything.”

Complaints

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp also spoke of the complaints of some of the players who were at the World Cup.

“I spoke to a few players who said they were sat in their rooms waiting for the day to pass. Some said they were bored out of their brains.”

Thought

The Spurs boss also said what many of us have thought for some time, but I hadn’t heard anyone from football circles say it before.

“The rewards, the money that is involved in club football and the desire to play in the Champions League, it seems the international game is almost taking second stage. Players are loved by their clubs but not always when they play for their country.”

Older

Following the World Cup, where Capello put a reliance on older players like Terry and Lampard, the manager kept his job. That may have been due to the astronomical cost of not keeping him rather than for any positive reasons, but he has shown some signs of following the lead of the Germans, who destroyed England at last season’s tournament, by introducing some younger players to the team.

Jack Wilshere, Andy Carroll and Adam Johnson are all beginning to forge a career at full international level.

Trust

Former German international and coach Franz Beckenbauer believes Capello should place much more trust in his younger players.

“I like Fabio but maybe he still holds on to older players. Maybe he should be brave and bring on more youngsters. England always has a lot of youngsters.”

That is what I truly hope the future holds. If England are going to fail in tournaments, which they have done for over forty years, wouldn’t it be better to do so with young players who might learn from the experience? You never know, they might even do better than the older ones.

Thank you

Thank you all for reading and I hope to write again for you at times in the future. Stay loyal to Soccernews and I’ll see you soon.

Graham

This will be my penultimate article for Soccernews as my commitments elsewhere mean that I no longer have the time to devote to my writing. I have written over 1300 articles on this site and have enjoyed doing the writing and reading your comments, both supportive and not quite so supportive, over the past three or four years.

Strength

The site will go on from strength to strength and other writers like David Nugent will continue to inform and give their opinions and spark, no doubt, heated debate. I shall certainly be keeping in touch with the site and will be using it as my first point of call for all the latest news and opinion.

Thank

I would particularly like to thank the readers of my articles. Football is a game of opinions and I have loved hearing yours even when they couldn’t have been more different to my own. In fact, when they have been different it has always been interesting and I have often looked at things from another angle as a result.

Anyway, enough about me!!

Ridiculous

In truth there isn’t much going on in the world of football at the moment. It is the usual Summer fare of ridiculous transfer rumour and occasionally ridiculous transfer (Jordan Henderson, you know who you are). The women’s World Cup is on, but try as I might, I just can’t get excited about the women’s game. I really want the game to succeed and
take off, but it just doesn’t quite do it for me.

There are some relatively interesting stories such as those going on at Hearts in the Scottish Premier League. Their owner has made a very strange statement about the game and players being influenced by thieves, criminals and the Mafia. At the same time, they have stuck by one of their players who has just become a convicted sex offender. You
couldn’t make it up could you?

Agreement

There is also the story about the potential Great Britain football team for the 2012 Olympics. An announcement was made saying that the team was definitely going to go ahead as agreement had been reached with all four of the home nations. Unfortunately, it seems that they had forgotten to tell the Irish and Scottish FAs, who don’t appear to have realised that they had agreed to anything. Once again, you couldn’t make it up.

There is also a big story in Argentina where the great River Plate club have been relegated out of the top division for the first time ever. There were riots after the game and police fired water cannons into the crowd. The game was actually finished a minute early because of the trouble. The scenes were very unpleasant and gave football a bad name.

Stupid

Talking of giving football a bad name, what about the stupid racist yobs in Russia? Roberto Carlos, one of the greats, walked off the pitch when a piece of scum threw a banana at him. It is beyond belief that football is still tarnished by this type of indescribably disgusting behaviour. I hope they catch the piece of filth that threw it and deal with him
appropriately in the only way he would understand!

Those are two stories that are sad to report as I still think of football as the beautiful game. It is sometimes hard to maintain that belief when you see things like this happening.

That’s a whistle stop tour of what’s happening in the football world. I’ll be back for the final time on Wednesday.

I’m bored of Spain now! Is there any chance of them giving other countries a chance of winning something?

Worry

It is a bit of a worry really because their full international side is hardly ageing and now their under twenty-one side have swept all before them and won the European Championships as well. Unless the rest of us up our games considerably, Spain could dominate European and world football for a few years to come.

As we all know, Spain are the reigning World and European Champions. A look at their squad shows that there are not too many people who will need to be replaced any time soon.

Keepers

Goalkeeper Iker Casillas is thirty years old now, but we all know that keepers can go on well into their thirties. He shouldn’t need replacing soon but even if he did, Pepe Reina is a couple of years younger and then there is David de Gea, only twenty, who looks set to become the new Manchester United keeper.

Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique are twenty-five and twenty-four respectively. Busquets is twenty-two and Pedro is twenty-three. The great Andres Iniesta is only twenty-seven and at thirty-one, Xavi probably has a couple of years left in him at the very top of his game. When he steps aside, Cesc Fabregas, at just twenty-four is patiently waiting in the wings.

Slowing

David Villa is twenty-nine and shows no signs of slowing down. If Torres recovers some form, he is still only twenty-seven and could have many more international goals ahead of him.

So the full Spanish international team is likely to be as good as it is for some time to come and the younger players will continue to get better.

Better

Now, as well as that lot, we are faced with a new generation of Spanish players who appear to be better than their counterparts across Europe.

The twenty year old Thiago looks to be a player with a fantastic future ahead of him. He has played a few games for Barcelona and at any other club, he would have a team built around him. Juan Mata, at twenty-three, another player who continues to impress. I could go on, but to suffice to say, Spain has another group of players who could achieve big things.

Recreate

It is now up to the rest of Europe to look at the acadamies of the Spanish clubs and try to recreate the success they are achieving. The rest of us have to strive to reach the standards that they are setting. It won’t be easy, but if we don’t, it could soon become a matter of trying to work out which country are going to come second in the big tournaments.

There was talk of England boss Fabio Capello and the new man at Chelsea, Andre Villas-Boas, but Inter have now announced that the man entrusted to wrestle the Serie A title back from their San Siro joint tenants is former Genoa boss Gian Piero Gasperini. He has been unveiled as their new coach on a two-year contract.

Won

After Jose Mourinho won everything possible with the club in 2009-10 he moved on to Real Madrid and was replaced by former Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez. He didn’t last long and was replaced by former Milan boss Leonardo. He has now moved on to Paris St Germain and Gasperini will now step in as the fourth manager at the club in twelve months.

It is evident that Gasperini was not the first choice for the job. Capello’s ‘people’ have confirmed that there was contact with him and it is widely reported that it was only the £13 million price tag that stopped Inter trying to get Villas-Boas. It has also been reported that attempts were made to lure Chile boss Marcelo Bielsa and Fiorentina’s Sinisa Mihajlovic, but they both ended in failure.

Apologetic

In an almost apologetic sounding manner, Inter president Massimo Moratti said on the Inter’s official website,

“I am fully satisfied with the choice.”

Really?

Experience

The fifty-three year old Italian is certainly not short of experience. He had a decent if unspectacular career as a player. He spent most of his time in Serie B and Serie C after failing to make the grade at Juventus. He did spend a couple of seasons in Serie A with Pescara after helping them to promotion.

After retiring as a player Gasperini returned to Juventus where he took up coaching duties with various of the club’s youth teams. He stayed in that role for nine years before leaving to take up his first role as a head coach. That position was at Serie C club Crotone.

Success

He quickly guided them to Serie B after success in the play-offs where they stayed for two years. Strangely, in the 2004-05 season he found himself being sacked and then reinstated soon afterwards.

In 2006 Gasperini moved to Genoa in Serie B and at the first attempt he took them into Serie A. In 2008-09 he led them to fifth place and earned plaudits from everyone, including Jose Mourinho, for the way he coached and for how his team played.

Sacked

However, last season Genoa picked up just eleven points from their first ten games and in November, Gasperini was sacked.

So that is what his experience amounts to. A half decent playing career and a couple of promotions from the lower leagues as a coach and one good season in Serie A. He might be a great coach, but we haven’t really seen too much evidence of that thus far.

This could be a master stroke by Inter. We will just have to wait and see.

West Brom keeper Scott Carson looks as though he is on his way to Turkey. Pictures of Carson undergoing a medical have appeared on the Bursaspor website and it therefore appears likely that he will make his move to the club soon.

Bursaspor, who play in front of 20,000 fanatical fans, finished third in the Turkish Super Lig last season after winning it the season before. They were knocked out of the group stages of the Champions League and will be playing in next season’s Europa League. The club, who were only founded in 1963, play in green and are known as the Green Crocodiles.

Purchase

So what will the ‘Legend Teksas’, Bursaspor’s main fan base, be getting if the purchase of the twenty-five year old English keeper goes ahead?

I have to say that my opinions about Scott Carson are seriously clouded by one horrible rainy night at Wembley back in 2008. Just as I can never take Steve McClaren seriously as a manager after that night when England lost 3-2 at home to Croatia and therefore failed to qualify for Euro 2008, I can likewise never take Mr Carson seriously as a top goalkeeper. I know that is terribly unfair, but that’s how it is!

Ability

Carson’s ability in goal was spotted by Leeds back in 2002 when he was just sixteen years old. After a short spell with their academy and reserve side, Carson made his first team debut in 2004. He played just three games for Leeds before in January 2005 Liverpool signed him for a fee of £750,000.

Once again, Carson, despite being regarded as a hugely promising keeper, could not get a regular first team place. In order to gain experience, Liverpool loaned him out to other teams. He played nine games at Sheffield Wednesday, keeping five clean sheets and playing a major part in helping them avoid relegation.

Impressed

For the 2006-07 season, Carson was loaned out to then Premier League side Charlton. He played thirty-six games for them and although they were relegated at the end of that season, he impressed all who saw him and was voted as player of the season by the club’s supporters.

The following season, having failed to earn a first team place at Liverpool, he was loaned out again, this time to Aston Villa. It was during that season that he was suprisingly selected by McClaren to play in that crucial England game. It was just his third cap and his first in a competitive game. He had a nightmare.

Criticised

Many people criticised McClaren for selecting him rather than blaming Carson himself, but his reputation was damaged and, I believe, his confidence was shattered. I’m not sure he has ever fully recovered from that horrible evening.

In the Summer of 2008 Carson’s spell at Liverpool finally came to an end when they sold him to West Brom for £3.25 million. He played regularly in that season and again found himself being relegated. The following season saw an immediate return to the Premmier League and during this past season, he was still the first choice keeper for a majority of it.

Seasons

After three seasons when he has played a total of one hundred and eighteen games for the club, he now looks as though he is moving on.

Scott Carson was a highly promising keeper as a youngster and at the age of twenty-five he still has plenty of time to fulfill that promise. I do truly wish him well because there is no doubt that he has the talent. It might just be that Bursaspor are getting themselves a very decent signing. I’m not convinced, but it is possible.

I have to be honest. Although I consider myself to be a huge football fan, I’m afraid my ‘little Englander’ syndrome has come to the fore. Until a few days ago I had never heard of Andre Villas-Boas.

Remarkable

Obviously I now know that he has had a remarkable first full season in management after leading Porto to four trophies including the Europa League. I also know that he is just thirty-three years old and that he was given a scouting job at the age of sixteen by Sir Bobby Robson.and has worked with the great Sir Bobby and Jose Mourinho. The final thing I know is that he has no playing experience, just lots of coaching. That needn’t matter as someone once said, you don’t have to have been a horse to be a good jockey!

Chelsea, or Roman Abvramovich, have seen fit to pay over £13 million to Porto in order to secure the services of this young Portuguese manager who really is stepping in to the lions den.

Reputation

Villas-Boas has already forged a reputation off the field as someone who does not give media interviews very often. He believes that his teams do the talking for him on the pitch. In England, with the ferocious tabloid press and the twenty-four hour a day demands of Sky Sports, that simply won’t be an option.

The media will be one problem he faces but the major one will be the issue of addressing the need of his new boss to see Chelsea lift the Champions League trophy. He knows that anything less than that and he might be looking for another job come this time next year.

Great

Although Chelsea are a great club with some top class players, the task facing Villas-Boas is anything but straight forward. He inherits an ageing team with some very strong characters and egos. At the tender age of thirty-three, he will be dealing with players who are the same age as him. These players have been together a long time and the manager must make some tough decisions if he is to succeed in his task.

The manager must decide if he will attempt to take the likes of Terry, Lampard and Drogba to a level that they haven’t quite managed to attain in their long careers, or whether he will rip the heart out of the team and try to rebuild.

Problem

Another potential problem lies in the position of Fernando Torres. After spending £50 million on the striker, Abramovich is determined to see a return on his investment. The fact that Torres kept appearing in the side last season despite a dreadful run of form can only be attributed to the fact that the owner insisted on seeing him play. We can only assume that the new man will have the same instructions. If so, it will be a major test of Villa-Boas to see if he can return Torres back to his former self.

I am sure that Villas-Boas will talk of evolution rather than revolution, but unless he is to be given more time than those before him, he will need to have an instant impact. That might mean replacing some of his thirty-somethings with some twenty-somethings. He will certainly know that he needs to build a new side, it will just be a matter of drastically he wants to do it.

It is exciting to see a new young manager arriving at a top club and Villa-Boas hasn’t put a foot wrong in his career so far. This will be his toughest test so far but he has shown great maturity and a desire and ability to be a winner. I wish him all the best in his new role.

I watched all three of England’s group games in the European under twenty-one championships and was as disappointed as any Englishmen to see our team draw two matches and lose one and get on the early plane home. The fact that we were battered by Spain and sneaked a draw, looked clueless in our uninspiring goalless draw with Ukraine and played marginally better but ultimately lost to a pretty poor Czech Republic side, made the whole experience a totally dismal one.

Positives

After the third humiliation in a week manager Stuart Pearce was asked what positives had come out of the tournament. He replied that there were lots of positives. For example, his whole back four and goalkeeper had been exceptional and all the players now had experience of tournament football.

In fairness to Pearce, he didn’t try to insist on there being any other positives as even he could see that he would have been clutching at straws if he had. Luckily, he didn’t repeat the Capello mantra of his players being too tired. That would have been too much to take.

True

It is true that England would have had more creativity if Jack Wilshire had been there and had not been ‘too tired’ and they would have carried more of a goal threat if Andy Carroll had been there and had not been ‘too injured’, but the worry is that apart from those two, this was as good as it gets for the cream of England’s young talent.

The keeper, Frankie Fielding, did OK in fairness, but he will never be England’s best goalkeeper. At least if he is, things will have reached a worrying state. Right back Kyle Walker looked great in the first game against Spain but when the other teams saw his rampaging running and put players in his way to stop him, he failed to impress. Left back Ryan Bertrand did OK as well, but again, he will never be a full international.

Centre

The only real positives came in the centre of defence where Manchester United pair Phil Jones and Chris Smalling looked very good. They are definitely ones to watch and may well have a long international career ahead of them. Jones, especially, who was the second youngest member of the squad at nineteen and captained the side in third game, looks to be the real deal.

In midfield there was a total lack of flair and creativity. Not one player seemed capable of keeping the ball. The long diagonal ball was seen time after time and the end result was, almost without fail, the ball going back to the opposition. Liverpool fans will not have been too thrilled by the contribution of Jordan Henderson, who worked really hard
but looked anything but twenty million pounds worth of player.

Good

Henri Lansbury looked quite good when he came on and Tom Cleverley did a couple of nice things, but neither player looked anywhere near ready for the next stage. Daniel Sturridge showed enough to see that he is worth persevering with and that someone, be it Chelsea or someone else, should give him a run in the Premier League, and Danny Welbeck at least scored two goals.

It was a disappointing performance from England’s youngsters but you can’t fault their effort and endeavor. It was the basic lack of ability that stopped them from going further and that is the problem with the English game, not the fault of the individual players.

Needed

What is needed, if England are to succeed at international level, is a total change in the way English football is played. That is not going to happen and the fans wouldn’t be happy in the transition period. Instead, what is actually needed is for English people to be happy that we have four excellent professional leagues who produce entertaining football for nine months of the year and to accept that the likelihood is that whilst we continue to do that, we probably won’t have a decent international team.

All we have to do then is stop the media telling the world that we have the best players and we are going to win everything!!

Michael Ballack is, apparently, a difficult character. He has been a very fine player, but by all accounts, he is not the easiest man to get along with.

End

At the age of thirty-four his international career has come to an end. We all saw at the World Cup that Germany have some exceptional young talent and it is clearly time to say thank you and goodbye to Ballack. He has been a great servant, but now it is time to move on.

Germany manager Joachim Low has made public the fact that he will not be playing Ballack and has suggested that August’s friendly against Brazil be used as something of a tribute game. Low said that he would play Ballack in that game and make him captain. That seemed like a sensible and appropriate tribute to a man who has served his country well.

Great

Everybody thought this was a great idea apart from just one man. Unfortunately that man was Ballack himself. He sees things very differently.

“To call a friendly match that was arranged long ago a farewell match is a farce. I know I owe my fans this match but I cannot accept the offer. I found out on Thursday, while on holiday, through an announcement that the national coach does not plan with me in the squad any more. The style and content of the statement by Low are unfortunately exactly like the way he treated me since my serious injury last summer. The style and content of this piece of news surprised and disappointed me because it does not in any way reflect what the coach told me. If now they say that I and my role were treated openly and with honesty then that is hypocritical.”

Differently

Unsurprisingly, the manager sees things somewhat differently to his former captain.

“I have discussed things openly with Michael Ballack, most recently in our meeting in March 2011 and in numerous phone calls.”

Agree

Clearly the two men are not going to agree about this. Ballack has always had a high opinion of himself and in a majority of cases, when it comes to the actual football, he has been absolutely right to do so. He was an exceptional player but all good things come to an end and he really should recognise that in terms of international football that time is now. He obviously feels that one of the following two things should happen;

1. He continues to play for the national team
2. An extra tribute game is arranged just for him

Dealt

It may be that Low has not dealt well with this situation, I have no idea. None of us can actually know what has been said in private chats between the two men. However, I don’t think Ballack is doing himself any favours at the moment. Being given a final game as captain, against Brazil, is a great honour and appropriate recognition for the service he has given his national team. He should be grateful and honoured.

Unfortunately he is in danger of making himself look like a man with a big ego who is frankly a little bit spoilt.

I have no particular interest in Aston Villa or Birmingham beyond my general interest in all things football. Over the past few days however, I have been fascinated with the goings on at the two clubs. There is no doubt that the fans of the two clubs in England’s second city really don’t like each other. I would imagine that the two boardrooms are not too keen on each other now either!

Resigned

When Alex McLeish resigned his position as manager of Birmingham by e-mail, the Birmingham board were understandably outraged. They were angry by the method of the resignation as well as the fact that they had supported their manager in the transfer market, watched some pretty dire and unimaginative football, seen him take what should have been a mid-table team to relegation and then told him that his job was safe. How he repaid them would be hard for anyone to take.

It will be fascinating to see how this all works out. McLeish is in a difficult position. He has to succeed quickly or he will find himself in an untenable position. That is if he isn’t already in one.

Insult

To add insult to injury, out of the blue, Aston Villa suddenly appeared on the scene and wanted him to be their manager. ‘He has resigned, so he is a free agent,’ said Villa. That really does, to an outsider who doesn’t know all the facts, appear to be about as underhand as you can get. If McLeish is still employed, Villa have to pay Birmingham to take their manager. If he is a ‘free agent’ they don’t. I would take a fair amount of persuading to believe that McLeish knew nothing about Villa’s interest before he sent that e-mail. It leaves a particularly sour taste in the mouth.

Now McLeish is officially the new Aston Villa boss and Birmingham will pursue their claim for compensation. I hope they get every penny they are claiming.

Issue

The issue now is whether McLeish will be able to win over the Aston Villa fans who were quick to say that the last man on the planet they would want as their new manager would be the former Bluenose McLeish. Anti-McLeish graffitti appeared at the Villa training ground and reports were made of McLeish receiving death threats from both sides of the city. A facebook account refusing to accept McLeish as their new manager at Villa has already got 18,000 members.

In the end, things will carry on. The fans support the club, not the manager. The club will be there for many years to come, as will the fans. The manager and the players will move on but the fans will remain.

Problem

The big problem I can see is that McLeish’s record at Birmingham does not justify the need to take such a risk and upset the fans so much. It is difficult to understand why they were so keen to get him.

McLeish did well at Rangers, but so would I! He did OK with Scotland. At Birmingham he had two relegations, a promotion and a League Cup. In other words, his record is OK. He hasn’t shown anything that justifies causing all this upset.

Succeed

He is now in a position whereby he simply has to succeed. If he fails to record quick victories the fans will not accept him at all. As Roy Hodgson found out at Liverpool, if the fans do not quickly get behind you, you have no chance of staying the course.

A couple of defeats and McLeish’s position will become untenable. That is, if that isn’t already what it is.

You would have thought that at the age of forty-nine I would have grown up enough not to get all excited when the football fixtures for the next season come out. Not a bit of it!

First

The first team I look for is my team, Watford. In amongst the gloom and doom of losing our top scorer Danny Graham to Swansea, our exciting young winger Will Buckley to Brighton, our chief executive resigning and then today, disaster strikes and our excellent manager Malky Mackay leaves for Cardiff, it is really important to have something to get excited about! An opening day trip to Burnley is maybe not a game to get the juices flowing, but home games against relegated sides West Ham and Birmingham follow in the first month. The game we will need to win to go back to the premiership, the last game of the season, is at home to Middlesbrough! (I can dream! I’d settle for survival.)

Anyway, I don’t suppose too many of you are excited about Watford’s fixtures or indeed bothered by the worrying goings-on at the club, so I’ll move on.

Opening

Opening day in the Premier League always throws up some intruiging fixtures and this year is no different. Newly promoted Swansea are thrown right in at the deep end with a trip to Manchester City. The Swans will be looking to show they can cut it at the top level whilst City will be looking to send a message that they are going to be genuine title contenders.

Queens Park Rangers have a winnable fixture at home to Bolton whilst Norwich face a trip to Wigan. Last season, Wigan lost 4-0 at home to Blackpool on the opening day and we all know what happened to them!

Big

Apart from Manchester City playing Swansea, none of the other big guns have games that really stand out. Champions Manchester United travel to West Brom and Arsenal have a trip to Newcastle where they threw away a four goal lead last season. Chelsea have a tough trip to Stoke whilst Liverpool will host Sunderland. Tottenham and Everton, two teams looking to brealk into the top four, will face each other at White Hart Lane.

The big games start coming on the following Saturday when Arsenal are at home to Liverpool and Tottenham travel to Old Trafford.

Ended

I know that last season has only just ended but I can’t wait for the next one to start!

It is a mouth watering prospect and I defy anyone not to get excited about it. I mean it doesn’t get much bigger than Burnley v Watford!