Mangotsfield United FC - Pitchero

AND ANOTHER THING!! -1FIRST BATCH OF QUICKIES: So who’ll be the first Premier League manager to get the sackthis season?? For me, it’s got to be Paulo di Canio, who’s a fruitcake at the best of times. I justdon’t see him lasting too long. Now when he took over at Sunderland last season, they were 16 th& he claimed Martin O’Neill was taking them down. So what happened? Di Canio kept them upadmittedly, thanks to big wins v Newcastle & Villa, but he actually took them DOWN to 17 th in theend!...... Now I did like the 2-page poster in the Currant Bun last May which advertised the all-German Champions League Final at Wembley & which showed a Borussia Dortmund player with thewords “Wir Kommen” across the pages……well, the Germans certainly did “kommen” to Wembleythat weekend, but if any of you out there know your history, then you’ll know that just before theBattle of Britain began in June 1940, Hitler uttered those same words at one of his rallies…… Andyou always know when “TalkSport” have nothing to talk about when they start asking the listenersfor their 5 favourites to be relegated from the Premier League this season – and this began lessthan TWO HOURS after Crystal Palace beat Watford in the Play-Off Final at Wembley!NOW IT ALWA YS MAKES ME SMILE when some of our top footballers “complain” about having hada long season & they’re in need of a rest, etc. Happens every summer & this past one was nodifferent. Sometimes you need to read between the lines in some of their comments, but there’salways someone who moans about being “tired”. Yeah, right. Now look at Manchester City &Chelsea players at the end of last season.They had a busy season, both clubs, & then at the end ofthe season, they jetted off to the USA to face each other in 2 meaningless friendlies. OK, that’s notthe players’ doing, that’s all about sponsors & corporate stuff & all the rest of it. So the players nipoff to the States for a week or two, some of them come back to a couple of internationals each & afterthat, they go on holiday themselves – probably back to the USA in many cases, or somewhere hot& exotic. Then, before they know it, they are back in pre-season training & 5 minutes later,they’re off to the Far East or somewhere else just as far away on a pre-season tour, which is allabout raising their clubs’ profile, sell a few shirts, fill the local grounds & so on.Yes, it sure is a “hardlife” being a top footballer, but you don’t half get around the globe – and someone else pays for it too!AND TALKING OF PRE-SEASON TRIPS, that was indeed an unusual one that Bristol City had linedup in going to Botswana – except that it was eventually cancelled in late May as the stadium outthere “wasn’t ready”. More like they had second thoughts in my view! I think if you asked mostpeople to “name 10 countries in Africa”, there’s a good chance that Botswana wouldn’t be one of them.Now City say they might go out there next summer instead. We shall see……NOW PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS HAVE DIFFERING OPINIONS on how any football match goes – wasit a good game, was it a bad game, or whatever. Take England’s 1-1 draw v the Republic ofIreland in late May. England’s performance was (generally) lambasted by the press. Even GaryLineker said that our showing that night was, tactically, a “step back to the Dark Ages” & I’m suremost of us can recall one or two England shockers in years gone by. I know I could – I’ve criticisedthem enough in this column down the years for all kinds of reasons! But back to the Ireland game.Was it REALLY that bad??!! I’ve seen us play far worse than that! To be honest, it wasn’t brilliant vIreland, no argument, & we are never going to win the World Cup again in a month of Sundays (justqualifying is hard enough!) but I thought, generally, we did OK & looked like the only team that actuallywanted to win the game. Ireland showed little interest in trying to win the match, after Lampard’s equaliser,& they seemed more than happy to keep it to 1-1 all the time.The pace ofWalcott & Oxlade-Chamberlain was always a threat to the Irish & their Championship keeper musthave made maybe 5 or 6 good saves in the 2 nd half alone to keep us out. Some people tend toforget the chances that we created, but was it really as bad the critics made out afterwards?SECOND BATCH OF QUICKIES: So when did the 2012-13 season finally end? Internationals, theU-21 tournament & the Confederations Cup in Brazil took TV football right to 30 June (!!) & thenwe had the women’s Euro 2013.... but I think as soon as all the Premier League & Football Leaguefixtures came out on 19 June, the new season began then, as everyone began planning ahead….. Andwhy does it take the Bristol (Evening) Post so long to publish team photos? The Rovers teampic first appeared on 13 August – THREE games into the new season. Shoddy!PTOFIELD REVIEW -23