FIFA president criticises UEFA ‘disrespect’

Sepp Blatter has indicated he wants to seek a fifth term as FIFA president and called UEFA “disrespectful” following calls for his resignation.

He has been widely criticised over the damage corruption allegations have caused football's governing body.

But the 78-year-old Swiss said he was angered when a number of European football chiefs urged him to quit.

Some of Blatters antics in the last few days: calling the allegations levelled at Qatar racist, acting surprised that a lot of people have realised he’s useless and now throwing out this managers can challenge decisions during a game idea without thinking about it look like the actions of a man realising the end is nigh and is just melting down blurting out the first thing that comes to mind hoping he can somehow save himself.

I hope that’s the case because the World Cup starts later today and most of the talk is about an ageing Swiss crack pot and not the football, which is usually the beginning of the end and for footballs sake I hope this is true of Blatter.

Anyway enough of that feckin eejit it’s time to sit back and let the beautiful game take centre stage.  

Platini in Qatar re-vote call

UEFA president Michel Platini says he has no regrets about supporting Qatar’s bid for the 2022 World Cup - but says there should be a re-vote and sanctions if corruption is proved.

Platini’s name has been dragged into the furore surrounding payments authorised by former FIFA member Mohamed Bin Hammam to officials in Africa, allegedly to gain support for Qatar’s bid.

What more has to come out before the governing bodies of the game do the right thing and take the World Cup away from Qatar and re-run the vote and make sure whoever wins the re-vote has done it properly and fairly.

These allegations of corruption surrounding Qatar’s bid came out almost as soon as they won the right to host the tournament in 2010, and it has continued for the last three and half years and it will continue right up until the tournament.

The list of reasons why Qatar shouldn’t host the tournament is getting longer by the day, Blatter admitted it was a mistake, two FIFA members who were expelled for corruption were part of the voting process, the tournament will have to be played in the winter and all the European leagues will have to be disrupted because it’s 50c in summer and the workers building the stadiums are being treated like slaves.

Despite all that at this stage their still going to host the tournament!

Happily though there is still a long time for everybody at FIFA to come to their collective senses and award the World Cup to a proper footballing nation who can put on the tournament properly without all this excessive and unnecessary baggage.   

Conservatives see off UKIP to win Newark by-election

The Conservatives have won the Newark by-election, retaining the seat with a majority of more than 7,000.

Candidate Robert Jenrick polled 17,431 votes, beating UKIP's Roger Helmer, who finished second with 10,028 votes.

Well this result proves what I and many others suspected, the UKIP surge across in the recent Euro elections was one thing, in fact Nigel Farage himself described the Euro elections as a free hit, but winning seats in Westminster is a different animal entirely and UKIP have a very long way to go before they are, as Farage keeps saying, ‘serious players’.

It will be interesting to see what UKIP do in the next year as they have to announce a manifesto and will have to have their policies on issues other than Europe analysed, after that happens and we can see the public’s reaction to that then, and only then, can talk start about where UKIP are and what they can potentially do. 

World Cup 2014: Gerrard backs Rooney

England captain Steven Gerrard has made a passionate defence of Wayne Rooney after former Manchester United team-mate Paul Scholes suggested the striker may be past his peak.

Scholes also questioned whether England's management team would have the courage to ever drop Rooney.

But Gerrard, 33, said: “I think Paul Scholes was wrong.

“Wayne has been Manchester United’s best player throughout the season, both at home and in Europe.”

I get that Gerrard is trying to stick up for Rooney but saying he was United’s best players last season isn’t the way to go about it.

That’s not saying much is it, being the best player in a team having their worst season for 25 years.

While I’m not entirely in agreement with Scholes it must be said that the Rooney we see today is some way off the one we all thought he could be when he first burst onto the scene.

In his first few seasons he would take players on at will, smash volleys in from all angles and looked a world beater, now he doesn’t do any of that he drops far too deep, doesn’t run at players, rarely shoots from outside the area and seems obsessed with picking the ball up in midfield and hitting 40 yard diagonals out wide. 

Every time you see him now you can’t help but think what the f**k happened? Where did all that drive and energy go? He’s gone backwards!

Rooney’s performances at the last two World Cups left a lot to be desired, no goals, no intensity, no moments of genuine quality, granted there were mitigating circumstances in both cases but he should have delivered much more than he did.  

But he does have one final chance in Brazil to prove himself and perform on the big stage; otherwise the analysis from Scholes will be spot on. 

Deal reached on ‘gist’ of Blair-Bush Iraq talks

Details of the “gist” of talks between Tony Blair and George Bush before the Iraq war are to be published, the UK’s Chilcot inquiry says.

But transcripts and full notes of conversations will remain secret, at the request of the Cabinet Office.

The agreement between the inquiry and Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood could clear the way for the report to be published this year.

This is such a cop-out, the whole point of the Chilcot inquiry as I understood it was to officially establish and present the reason(s) why we went to war in Iraq, so why will the public not be allowed to see the full transcript of the conversations that will give us the answers?

If the inquiry is just going to give the gist of things then they might as well not bother, because this news confirms that the inquiry has failed and has been a total waste of time because it’s agreed not to do the one thing it was supposed to do.

Also this deal suggests that there is some deeply embarrassing stuff in those conversations that Blair would rather no-one saw, so he’s done what all establishment figures do he’s struck a deal to ensure a cover up. 

Mauricio Pochettino named Tottenham boss

Tottenham Hotspur have appointed Mauricio Pochettino as their new manager on a five-year deal.

The Argentine resigned from Southampton after 18 months with the club.

“This is a club with tremendous history and prestige and I am honoured to have been given this opportunity to be its head coach,” Pochettino told the Spurs website.

Well as expected we’ve got the usual pr rubbish whenever a new manager joins a new team, but I still can’t work out why Pochettino took this job because if you look at the evidence, managing Tottenham under Levy equates to managerial suicide.

You don’t have a say in what players you bring in and if you don’t finish in the top four you’re sacked, in fact even if you do finish in the top four twice and take Spurs to a Champions League quarter-final it’s still not enough.

So I really don’t understand why so many managers covet the White Hart Lane job so much, are they all so arrogant they think despite what’s happened to my many predecessors it’ll be different for me?

Let’s go right back to the beginning of Levy’s tenure, George Graham was sacked in such bizarre circumstances he threatened to sue and hasn’t managed since.

Glenn Hoddle came next and he lasted a little over two years before he was sacked and ended up dropping down to the Championship to mange Wolves, and after 18 months there hasn’t managed since. 

Then it was Jacques Santini who resigned after just 13 games because he was fed up with the interfering of Levy’s sporting director, and apart from a brief stint managing Auxerre hasn’t managed since.

Then came the Martin Jol farce. He came close to getting Spurs in the top four but most of the players brought in during his regin didn’t have his approval, and two members of the Spurs board were pictured with Juande Ramos in Spain basically confirming his as the new Spurs manager while Jol was still in charge. Since he left Spurs Jol managed both Hamburg and Ajax with ok results and then ends up back in the Premier League with Fulham battling relegation.

Ramos won the league cup with Spurs but still lasted less than a year, he ended up being a stop gap coach at Real Madrid for six months and has spent the last four year coaching a club no one’s ever heard of in Ukraine.

As I’ve already mentioned Harry Redknapp actually finished in the top four twice and took Spurs to the quarter finals of the Champions Legaue and his reward for all that, he was sacked and ended up joining QPR and being relegated to the Championship.

Villas-Boas got Spurs their highest ever points tally and then had to stnad by and observe as Bale was sold and the money was spent on players he didn’t want and then was sacked despite having a higher win percentage than any Tottenham manager since 1946.  And he’s now coaching in the Russain league with Zenit St Petersburg.

I’m not counting Tim Sherwood because he’s made it clear that he never had a chance of coaching beyond the end of last season.

Just look at the list look at all those managers and look at how managing Tottenham has messed up their careers, and yet everyone manager and pundit still sees Tottenham as this big prestige job, I just don’t get it, look at the evidence it’s a poisoned chalice.

I think the next time Tottenham look for a new manager they’re should be a big poster with Levy’s face on it and a slogan underneath that says: “BE AFRIAD. BE VERY AFRAID”. 

Leaders agree to review EU agenda at Brussels summit

EU leaders have agreed to re-evaluate the bloc’s agenda after voters “sent a strong message”, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has said.

Mr Van Rompuy said leaders of the 28 member states had asked him to launch consultations on future policies.

This is a very interesting change in tone, and in fact David Cameron went even further and called the EU “too big, too bossy and too interfering” which you can’t disagree with, but it’s interesting that he’s saying this now after we’ve had the European elections.

The EU was “too big, too bossy and too interfering” last week, last month, and last year! Why has he waited until now to say this?

What is it about politics that things have to reach the point of no return before anyone thinks about saying hang on a minute maybe what we’re doing isn’t working and we need to change.

Why have the EU only recognised the problem now they’re dangling over the edge of a cliff.

Why did they not say months or years ago, hey we acknowledge people don’t like us or what we’re doing and we’re making an effort to change, then maybe the EU wouldn’t be so bloody unpopular! 

Internet training would cut pensioner loneliness, says think tank

Loneliness among the over-65s could be tackled by training more older people to use the internet, a report by a centre-right think tank has suggested.

Policy Exchange has called for every person in the UK to be taught basic digital skills, including how to send emails and use social networking sites.

I don’t know why there is this philosophy that ‘if you get people online it will suddenly solve all their problems’ is coming from but it is majorly flawed and puts the emphasis in completely the wrong place.

I would love to hear someone from this think tank explain to me how teaching someone over the age of 65 how to send an email or getting them on Facebook does anything to lessen their isolation, because to me that wouldn’t solve anything as most elderly people don’t have email or Facebook for a reason, they don’t want it.

Forcing them on there would probably only add to the problem, instead why not focus on fact that in families where more senior relatives feel lonely put the onus on the rest of the family to do more to rectify the situation, don’t put the onus on the over-65s and tell them the reason you’re lonely is because you’re not on Facebook, so get an account even though you don’t want one and won’t use it.

Chelsea agree deal with PSG for David Luiz

Chelsea have agreed a deal with Paris St-Germain, worth in the region of £40m, for the sale of defender David Luiz to the French champions.

Luiz, 27, joined the Blues from Benfica for £21.3m in January 2011.

“The move is now subject to David Luiz agreeing personal terms with PSG and passing a medical,” a statement on Chelsea’s official website read. 

I bet Chelsea couldn’t believe their luck when PSG agreed to pay £40 million for David Luiz, I’ll say it again £40 million for David Luiz, this transfer shows money really does go to people heads as that’s the only explanation I can think of as to why PSG would do this.

Luiz was a bit part player for Chelsea last season and apart from scoring a couple of spectacular goals from long range he hasn’t done a lot or brought much to Chelsea since he arrived and yet he’s now worth £40 million and is the World’s most expensive defender, WTF!

How can he be worth more than Juan Mata who was Chelsea’s player of the season two years running, how can he be worth more than what Chelsea are going to pay for Diego Costa?

Given that PSG have recently been fined by UEFA and had their squad reduced for next seasons Champions League, their reaction to that is to spend £40 million on a player who’s worth about half that, nice to see the FFP rules are keeping big spending clubs in check. . . . .  

UKIP now serious players – Farage

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has said his party were “serious players” after it made gains in council polls across England.

Mr Farage said the “UKIP fox is in the Westminster hen house” after it gained more than 150 council seats.

While UKIP made some gains and built a little momentum you’d have to say they’re still some way short of being called serious players.

UKIP doesn’t have a single MP in Parliament and despite their gains in the council elections UKIP don’t control a single council.

Add to this that they have less than half the number of councillors than the Lib Dems, who are facing their worst result in an election of this kind for 30 years, and it makes you think that Farage and co clearly aren’t as ambitious as they come across, because at present they’re still very much on the fringes.

I also found it interesting that a spokesperson for UKIP went on BBC Radio 4 and said that UKIP had trouble appealing to “the educated, cultured and young,” and this is why they didn’t do so well in London. But on the plus side they did do extremely well among the elderly, illiterate philistines in the north.

Joking aside if a party has no MP’s in Westminster, has fewer councillors than the Lib Dems, doesn’t appeal to anyone in London and everyone is only familiar with one of their policies, talk of that party being a serious player is very premature.    

No to selfies at polling booths

Staff at polling stations have been advised to stop people taking “selfies” inside voting booths to prevent them being prosecuted.

The Electoral Commission believe the latest craze of taking photos of yourself on a smartphone could inadvertently reveal how someone has voted in this week’s local and European elections.

It is a criminal offence to reveal how someone has voted or will vote.

While they the staff at polling stations may have been advised to tell people don’t take a selfie, if I was one of them and I saw someone about to do so I wouldn’t say anything, in fact I’d not only let them get on with it I’d make they were prosecuted for being such complete morons.

How up your own arse do you have to be that you can’t go a few minutes without taking a photo of yourself, in fact if you were one of those amoebas who were planning to take a selfie in a voting booth a) you don’t deserve the right to vote and b) please don’t you clearly have so little respect for the system that you’d be doing everyone a favour if you stayed at home, you self obsessed narcissists.    

French face red faces over trains that are ‘too wide’

The French train operator SNCF has discovered that 2,000 new trains it ordered at a cost of 15bn euros ($20.5bn; £12.1bn) are too wide for many regional platforms.

The embarrassing blunder has so far cost the rail operator over 50m euros ($68.4m; £40.6m).

How can such an obvious blunder have been made, who was in charge of providing the specifications of the trains size, Mr Bean!

Surely if you’re spending £12bn on 2,000 trains making sure they are the right size for the tracks you plan to use them on should be one of, if not the highest priority.

I could understand if when the trains were delivered SNCF weren’t happy with the design or there was a technical issue that meant that they needed to go back to the manufacturer and be repaired, but not bungling the width so your shiny new trains don’t fit the track. 

Moya Dodd says quotas are needed for boardroom diversity

One of the most high profile women in global football, FIFA executive committee member Maya Dodd, says quotas are a necessary evil to increase the level of diversity in sport boardrooms.

I understand the point being made but I really don’t think quotas are the way to go because then you start getting into grey areas and some individuals may be overlooked for jobs they’re better equipped to do simply because it’ll mean the quota target won’t be reached. 

And while Blatter and his cronies run FIFA and continue to perpetually damage the game day by day, the lack of diversity in boardrooms will be the least of the games problems.

Which is why it is imperative that he doesn’t serve another term and isn’t in charge after 2015, and I do feel sorry for the person who succeeds him because they’ll have one hell of a mess to clear up. 

Louis van Gaal confirmed as new Man United manager

Louis van Gaal has been named as Manchester United manager, with Ryan Giggs as his assistant.

Van Gaal, 62, has signed a three-year contract to succeed David Moyes.

The Dutchman, who has won titles with Ajax, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and AZ Alkmaar, will take charge at Old Trafford after leading the Netherlands at this summer's World Cup in Brazil.

Even though everybody knew he was going to be appointed last week at least now we can say it’s official.

Although waiting for the announcement was a bit tedious, what I have found interesting is some of the stories about Van Gaal and his style, in particular the fact that he’s strict.

There have been several stories about how strict he is and how the players will react to that, because it’s not like United have ever been coached by a disciplinarian, some might say tyrant, at any point in the last 30 years! 

Van Gaal has won a league title at every club he’s managed and has reached three Champions League finals and all people seem to be focused on is oh he’s a bit strict, he maybe but look at his CV his approach clearly works and he is exactly what United need.

I also find this appointment sad in a way because I was rather enjoying the sitcom Moyes had managed to turn United into this season, unfortunately it’s been cancelled and not been renewed for another year but it was fun while it lasted. 

Exam stress tackled by bubble wrap and puppies

University students have ordered hundreds of metres of bubble wrap to burst as a way of relieving exam stress.

The University of Leicester students' union is planning "bubble wrap stations" where students can relax by popping the packaging material.

Puppies will also be brought in to soothe stressed-out students.

I get that exams can be stressful but bubble wrap and puppies surely they’ll end up being more of a distraction than a relaxant.

Bubble wrap is fun to pop the first four or five times, then it just becomes irritating and it would only be made worse if you had a room full of people doing it, and puppies urinating everywhere and yapping incessantly how would that help in anyway?

If students at the University of Leicester want to relieve stress maybe they should actually take a medical relaxant because puppies and bubble wrap sound like good ideas until you think about it and then you realise they aren’t. 

Tottenham chairman not a football man – Clive Allen

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is “not a football man”, according to former Spurs player and coach Clive Allen.

Nine managers have left Spurs since Levy took over in 2001, the most recent being Tim Sherwood, who was sacked on Tuesday after five months in charge.

Allen, 52, described Levy as an “incredible” businessman but criticised his football-related decisions.

I think Allen has been kind, time and time again Levy has shown himself to be utterly clueless when you look at the way Tottenham is run, and if he is this ‘incredible businessman’ then surely after 13 years he’d have learned from his mistakes but clearly not.

Since Levy took over Tottenham have finished in the top four twice which is pitiful considering the money they’ve spent, and yet the reason why is so obvious.

Levy doesn’t let the manager sign the players they want instead he insists on letting a director of football sign players and then expects the manager to coach a bunch of players he didn’t even want.

Now that Sherwood has been sacked and there’s talk of all the potential candidates that could come in, if you were one of them why would you want the job? Where’s the incentive? You come in invariably your best player gets sold and you have no say over what to do with the money and are expected to finish in the top four straight away otherwise your sacked.

That sounds like a set-up put in place by an ‘incredible businessman’, not!

Sadly Levy is like a lot of chairman in football he has more money than sense.   

Calling teachers Sir and Miss ‘depressing and sexist’

Calling teachers “Sir” or “Miss” is depressing, sexist and gives women in schools a lower status than their male counterparts, an academic has said.

Prof Jennifer Coates told the Times Educational Supplement “Sir is a knight... but Miss is ridiculous - it doesn’t match Sir at all”.

She said she had been struck by the disparity while volunteering in a secondary school.

When idiots like Prof Coates come out with nonsense like this why are they given the time of day? Why can’t they just be ignored?  

Despite calling teachers Sir and Miss being a practice that has been widely used and accepted for many years now all of a sudden Prof Coates has an issue with it.

It’s sad and pathetic. 

Roy Hodgson names World Cup squad

Roy Hodgson has announced his 23-man squad for this summer's World Cup in Brazil, plus seven players on standby.

It was refreshing to see Hodgson pick a number of young players, but there were still a few questions marks.

For instance why on earth are Smalling and Jones going? They’ve both been average at best this season and neither of them has, since they moved to United, held down a regular first team place or had a run of games in their preferred position. In fact in Jones’ case what is his best position? From the outside looking in he seems to be jack of all trades master of fuck all, and yet he’s going to the World Cup!

Also why has Hodgson gone with nine midfielders and only one right back? Surely it would have made more sense to drop Lampard and take back up for Johnson. 

It’s so depressing to me that Johnson is the best right back we can muster he’s awful, every time I see Liverpool he’s always out of position and charging around like a headless chicken trying to make up for being too far up the pitch when he should be defending!

Anyway, all in all this is an exciting squad and hopefully the young players will:

a) get a chance 

b) replicate their club form at the tournament.

As Hodgson has promised to take risks, I hope he follows through on this and doesn’t play with Lampard and Gerrard in the middle and Welbeck out on the left; hopefully he’ll go for a starting XI more like this:

Hart

Johnson

Cahill

Jagielka

Baines

Gerrard

Henderson

Wilshere

Sterling

Rooney

Sturridge

I’ve gone for an XI set-up in the diamond Liverpool play but it can always be changed to a 4-3-3 and then Lallana or Oxlade-Chamberlain could replace Wilshere. 

If England did play this way and played at the pace Liverpool do then whatever happened we’d be a joy to watch, and Hodgson wouldn’t be as cavalier as Rodgers so if we were 2-0 up he’d go more defensive and see the result out.

I still think it will be a struggle to get out of the group but playing this way would give us a better chance than if we did the usual. 

UN to debate ‘killer robots’

Killer robots will be debated during an informal meeting of experts at the United Nations in Geneva.

Two robotics experts, Prof Ronald Arkin and Prof Noel Sharkey, will debate the efficacy and necessity of killer robots.

The meeting will be held during the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW).

And the award for the most pointless meeting and biggest waste of time ever goes to the UN for holding a meeting about killer robots.

I could just about understand the UN discussing the advancements in robot technology and its potential implications, but talking about the necessity, the necessity of killer robots. WTF!

Has anyone taking part in this meeting ever seen any Sci-Fi movie ever made? It never ends well for the humans when the killer robots show up and if that were to happen in the real world and not the fantasy of Hollywood, we wouldn't be able to have a one last stand battle and take back control of the planet again despite being slaughtered in massive numbers up to that point. We would all die.  

As I said earlier this is a ridiculous and pointless thing for the UN to be doing, which judging by their record is precisely why they’re doing it.

By having this meeting the norm of pointlessness in maintained. 

MPs raise concerns over new tax powers in budget

Plans to allow the tax authority to settle unpaid demands by taking money from people's bank accounts have been criticised by a group of MPs.

The Treasury Committee says it is very concerned because tax officials have a history of making mistakes.

Chancellor George Osborne unveiled the plan at this year's Budget.

I would like to know why this hasn’t been reported until now when Osborne unveiled his budget two months ago, didn’t anybody in the media think hmm this seems like an issue most people would quite like to hear about.

Allowing HMRC to simply reach into your account and taking what you owe, or what they think you owe, will no doubt lead to problems down the road.

I also wonder whether the same rules apply to companies that take full advantage of every loophole available to ensure they pay next to no tax, can HMRC reach in and take the billions owed in those cases? I highly doubt it!

FA Commission plans met with criticism

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke has found his plans for a new 'League Three' involving Premier League clubs' B teams to be the object of derision.

Dyke unveiled a raft of England Commission proposals at Wembley, aimed at boosting the number of English players at the top of club football.

Also included were plans for special loan relationships between clubs, overhauling the work permit system and increasing the number of home-grown players in squads.

It’s right that the commissions’ plans have been criticised because they’re stupid and majorly flawed, and it seems that outside of the members of the commission no one in the game has a good word to say about them.

The aim of trying to improve the national team and get more English players playing is admirable but messing up and undermining the whole football league structure isn’t the way to do it.

I don’t see how young emerging players playing in a B-team against the likes of Hartlepool or Mansfield is any more beneficial for them than the current system where they play each other in a youth league or any better than if they’re sent out on loan to a lower league team.

If this commission really wanted to improve the number of England players playing then the home-grown rule should exclude non-British players because now when a foreign player joins a club under a certain age and is there for five years they’re considered home-grown, like Bendtner with Arsenal, that rule should be tweaked to stop that.

You could also introduce a rule that states at least 10 players in the 18 man match day squad should be home-grown and one step further could be at least five have to be in the starting XI every week, that would make more of an impact than giving clubs the option of dumping all their young players in a B-team and allowing them to play against Morecambe and Newport.   

That's not going to prepare them for life in the Premier League or help England win the World Cup by 2022.

Man City facing UEFA sanctions over finances

Manchester City and Paris St-Germain are facing fines in the region of £50m, restrictions on their Champions League squad size and a wage limit for failing UEFA financial fair play rules.

BBC Sport has learned the two - among nine clubs under examination by UEFA for failing the governing body's "break even" test - face similar penalties.

It is believed a Champions League squad reduction could see the clubs restricted to using anywhere between 18 and 21 players in UEFA's premier competition. A normal squad size is 25.

While the idea of penalising Man City with a fine isn’t really a punishment to them, although £50M is the biggest fine I’ve ever seen handed out by either UEFA or FIFA usually its a few hundred thousand at best, it is nice to see that there will be consequences.

Also I think the restriction of the size of City’s Champions League squad and the wage limit for those players are effective punishments, because it means City can’t just have their usual best 18 man squad and seven others that never play but are in because they count as home grown and help City comply with the rules. 

Add that with the fact that effectively a wage cap for those players forms part of the punishment and you’ve got something that might put a stop to owners buying clubs and writing blank cheques.   

Roy Hodgson has known World Cup squad ‘for a while’

England boss Roy Hodgson says he has known for some time who he will pick in his squad for this summer's World Cup in Brazil.

Hodgson, 66, insists that, barring injury, his mind is made up and he will not be swayed by recent peaks and troughs in form.

Hodgson, who names his 23-man squad on Monday, told the Football Associations website: “I've known for a while.”

So it sounds like Hodgson has pretty much had a squad in mind since the Denmark game two months ago, and is doing what England managers always seem to do in this situation, play it safe and pick the usual suspects regardless of how they’re playing.

This is why our record in tournaments is so poor we take no risks and just play it safe despite the abundance of evidence that it simply doesn’t work, yet no England manager is prepared to break the cycle and try something different.

What England does at tournaments is Einstein’s definition of insanity trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The most successful national side of recent times is Spain and yes they have been blessed with a golden generation of players, but one main reasons for their success was because after the 2006 World Cup they made changes they tried something different, they broke the cycle. 

Before Euro 2008 Spain were like England they were a team who flattered to deceive they went into tournaments and people expected them to do well and they always went out early, but instead of just saying oh well and trying the exact same thing next time round, they took risks and made changes and look what it’s brought them. 

Liverpool’s title bid over

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers says his side’s chance of winning the Premier League has gone after the 3-3 draw at Crystal Palace.

The Reds blew a 3-0 lead at Selhurst Park and now top the table by a point from Manchester City, who have a game in hand and a superior goal difference.

“There is no doubt Manchester City will go on and win it,” said Rodgers.

Everything and I mean everything lined up for Liverpool this season, they went out of the cups early they didn’t have any European commitments and City and Chelsea were slipping up and dropping points you’d never expect them to, and yet despite all this Liverpool have somehow managed to blow it.

Last night they were 3-0 up with 12 minutes to go and instead of thinking job done we’ve put the pressure back on City they decided to go and try and score more and make up the goal difference, and I was going to say completely forgot how to defend but I won’t because it looked like they didn’t how to defend in the first place.

Out of the top eight only Tottenham have conceded more goals and look at all the issues they’ve had.

The word naive is a perfect fit for Liverpool because they thought that they could score their way out of situations and not need to defend, despite the fact that every other team that’s tried that have failed.

Also as Liverpool will have European commitments next season this season represents the best chance they’ll have in a long time.

And for all those praising the job Rodgers has done he’s managed to mess it up at the critical moment despite having every possible advantage, all because he became too fixated on trying to blow teams away and thought, despite the evidence, he could get his team to win the title despite not being able to defend.