No-one is interested in the Carling Cup anymore - if they ever were.
Managers don't like it and the top bosses see it as an irritation in an already overcrowded fixture list.
Their priorities are Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and trailing in a distant fourth - the Carling Cup.
They play their stiffs and shrug their shoulders when they lose, which sums up how bothered they are about it. ...
The bosses of the Premier League's lesser lights don't even take it seriously and they also field weakened sides because their priority is staying up. ...
It doesn't even generate any excitement, and who cares if Wolves reserves beat Manchester United reserves?
Unlike the FA Cup, can anyone actually remember a 'shock' from recent years?
Something else I find odd today is the way that Gary Neville and Craig Bellamy are lumped together, as if their crimes were equal - one hits a supporter, the other celebrates a goal - very similar. This is taken to its logical conclusion when Matt Hughes says:
How is it possible for the FA to take no action against Neville six days after charging Emmanuel Adebayor with improper conduct for his similarly provocative taunting of Arsenal fans? City will be asking the same question of the FA in their appeal against Adebayor’s charge next week. Neville is particularly fortunate because three years ago he was fined £5,000 and warned over his future conduct for celebrating in front of Liverpool fans in a manner even more akin to Adebayor’s antics at the City of Manchester Stadium.Running up the touchline and celebrating a goal is not the same as running the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of opposing fans. He's right though, Adebayor's crime was similar to Gary Neville's previous offence and I would expect the FA to use that as a precedent and punish Adebayor accordingly. To quote Mark Hughes:
“You can’t take emotion out of football — that passion from the players’ point of view is fundamental to how they grow as a player and develop as a top player. You have to have it.”Admittedly that is Mark Hughes being a hypocrite - after calling Gary Neville a "lunatic" on Sunday he defends Craig Bellamy in these terms. Harry Redknapp is better, using Gary Neville as an example for his own players:
“You look at Gary Neville,” said Redknapp ahead of Tottenham’s trip to Preston in the Carling Cup, “a man who has won everything there is to win – championship after championship after championship. The excitement he showed at his team winning and he was only a sub.“He wasn’t sitting on the bench with his arms folded. He was jumping higher than Fergie when they scored and that’s why they are where they are. That is why they succeed.
“I thought it was amazing to see Neville’s feelings show and the joy he had winning. Can you imagine the dressing room afterwards, even the subs and those who weren’t all come in – brilliant lads!”
Gary Neville behaved like a fool after Manchester United's winner on Sunday, in taking his celebrations towards the Manchester City fans, who were largely too emotionally spent even to notice him. He is a senior figure, a club captain, and has already been punished once for incitement at Anfield. He was not playing on Sunday and had no reason to provoke, except history and plenty of it. Can you imagine how much he has put up with from City over the years? Graham Poll, the former referee, said he would imagine washing the abuse off in the shower after a game, but not everybody is capable of the philosophical approach.
After what he has heard during his career, as the song goes, Neville probably does hate Scousers and City, in the same way Frank Lampard will hate West Ham and Sol Campbell will loathe Spurs. Given that relationship, anyone would. This does not make Neville's behaviour right (he was lucky not be punished), but there is context.
Some quotes from Sir Alex on Macheda and Welbeck, possibly a bit of a warning:
“I just think that they are away that much with the youth squads they have forgotten where their real place is.
“Welbeck has been called away so much with every single England squad, I don’t know if he is our player or their player!
“He is in every squad that is picked. The only squad he has not been in is the full squad. Macheda has been away with Italy youth teams all the time. He has hardly been with us.” ...
“I have made them aware that you have to work to be successful.”
Peter Schmeichel on goalkeepers:
"He's getting a good run of games now but I'm sure Edwin will be back in when he's fit because the manager knows he's the right guy for the team at the moment," said the Dane. "Ben will have to make the most of his chances but what he has done so far has been promising."
Some of the papers make too much of Sir Alex's criticism of Ben Foster's performance against Arsenal ("I thought Ben Foster could have done better, With the way a ball swerves these days it was difficult, but saving it was not beyond Ben's capabilities.") in Sunday's programme, suggesting his place is in jeopardy from Kuszczak, who'll start tonight, which ignores the fact that if he felt that way he could have just dropped him against Man City.
"It was frustrating not to be able to build on where I was at the end of 2008," he said. "Getting injured for most of last season was not very pleasant but I am used to it I suppose. There is no point thinking, 'Why me?' I just get on with it and try to be confident. I am fit at the moment. That is the main thing." ...
"That is football," Brown said. "I have been out and the lads who came in did tremendously well. The squad is very big now and everyone is fighting for positions. That is the way the gaffer likes it. It is healthy and good for the club. I just have to try and play well again."
Paul Pogba's agent has backed Manchester United's claims they did not offer the French teenager and his parents a financial inducement to move to Old Trafford, claiming they merely sent his mother flowers and his father a book about the club’s history. ...Gael Mahe said: ‘The flowers cost just £20, and the mother felt trust. Paul got a shirt with his name on. It is a symbol, but they felt United respected them.
‘Of course, it is a nice contract but not only money makes a young player and his parents change their country.’
And I like this from his mother:
Pogba’s mother, Yeo, also rubbished claims they were given a house.
She said: ‘That story made people laugh in the hotel. Why would we be in a hotel, if we had been given a house? I can assure you Manchester United didn’t give us anything.’
Finally, Bryan Robson is close to getting the Thailand job:
Asked if he had agreed to take the job, Robson said: "No, but it's looking pretty good.
"What we will discuss is the commitment that is involved for the national team and the timescale for that because of the commitments that I have with Manchester United."
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