Yawning, yawning - Cut and Paste - Yawning, Yawning

So to Europe.

I'm not going to call all football writers lazy but how come, before every European game, we have to put up with the same tired argument that Ronaldo isn't a big game player? I'll just cite this one, by Daniel Taylor from The Guardian today. I won't quote, we all know what it says, it says what it always says, probably cut and paste from the first game we played in Europe this season, and every game afterward.

So congratulations to Martin Samuel in The Times for what can only be described as an excellent article. It starts well:

It was a slip of the tongue, no more, but when Sir Alex Ferguson said that Cristiano Ronaldo is so talented that he is capable of winning the Palme d’Or, suddenly it all made sense. Here was a player in such spectacular form that he was going to bypass the mundane awards that are handed to football players and go straight for first prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

But it is in this passage, where the lazy claims of other journalists are actually put to rest, that the article rises above the usual fare:

The idea that Ronaldo has never performed when the pressure is at its most intense does not stack up anyway. In this Champions League season he has scored six goals in seven matches. He was one of the stars of the European Championship in 2004 and guided his country to the 2006 World Cup semi-finals in Germany.

Portugal have made it to Euro 2008, too, with Ronaldo scoring eight times in that campaign. Most significantly, he has refined the style of the modern Manchester United, becoming as important as Eric Cantona was. It is his performances in the past two seasons that have taken this United team to the brink of greatness.

I just want to add a couple of things - 1) the fact that Ronaldo hasn't scored many goals in away European fixtures is more of a reflection on the cagier game we play away from home in Europe than on his talents. The away game at AC last season, where I admit Ronaldo disappointed, was more of a reflection on an amazing AC display, they defended him brilliantly. Respect them for that, rather than slag Ronaldo off. 2) The other oft-repeated slur is his goalscoring against the other top 3 teams in the premiership, which ignores two things, a) the fact that he's not a striker, in previous seasons he hasn't been scoring so prolifically so why expect him to have scored a hatful in these games which are notoriously cagey, leading us to b) The generally low scoring affairs that these fixtures tend to be. My suggestion being that these people just want to search for an excuse to slag the boy off - why? because they hate us.

This article by Don Howe perhaps backs up my comments about the AC game - looking at how Italian defenders are better equipped to deal with his threat.

There's a nice summing up of Sir Alex's comments in The Telegraph:

"This is probably my best squad ever in terms of the completeness of it," reflected Ferguson yesterday. "It is difficult to say if the defence is the best in my time but they have been phenomenal. We could do with Louis Saha [properly fit] because he gives us a different option up front. He is a special type of player but I have the option of playing Ronaldo as a striker and that is a possibility if I want to change Rooney and [Carlos] Tevez.

"The one thing these young lads of ours have is the quality to play on the big occasion. Nani, Ronaldo and Anderson are very confident and it gives you hope that they can handle big occasions like this [although Nani is injured]. You want to see them express themselves and be fearless. I am not worried about their temperament."

The Telegraph also contains a ridiculous article on BBC commentators by Henry Winter. Never has a man worn a pair of glasses more tinted with rose, not only does he praise everyone who has ever worked on the BBC (even claiming that John Motson is good? Have I been transported back to an age when Motson could actually say things of interest? could actually keep up with a game of football?), which, given his article is bemoaning the BBC's loss of live rights to games, he needs to do to make his point worthwhile; he also claims that ITV commentators are good. Indeed he has no bad words to say about any commentator - even Alan Green comes in for praise. Does Henry Winter ever listen to or watch football on the radio/TV?

Finish up with Sir Alex's comments on Chelsea's fixture "problems" :

But Ferguson claimed that Chelsea benefited last season when Tottenham were ordered to play their London rivals 38 hours after a UEFA Cup tie at Sevilla.

Ferguson said: "They had Spurs at lunchtime last season. They did all right then, but that didn't stop us winning the League."