Eurotrash: Boruc gets sold on fake Koeman quote

Poland’s Artur Boruc was already in a grumpy enough mood having to sit on the bench on Sunday watching Wojciech Szczesny in goal against Northern Ireland, the former Celtic “Holy Goalie” at a loss to understand why he’s not first choice.

And then his mood darkened some more when word came through of Ronald Koeman’s appointment as Everton manager, Boruc having played under him at Southampton before joining Bournemouth.

At which point Boruc tweeted a quote from Koeman from earlier this year: “One thing that I notice about modern-day football is the lack of loyalty nowadays. Players and managers alike are switching clubs much more easily, mainly just for more money.

“I’d hate to ever become that kind of manager, only focused on short-term gains.”

All Boruc could say was: “No words for this one... #money #loyalty”

Slight problem? It’s another fake quote doing the rounds.

Morto.

France-bound fan gets sinking feeling

Irish flags and their sundry captions are continuing to get quite a bit of attention this weather, but one featured by Joe.ie, sent to them by Euro 2016-bound Roscommon native Cathal Keaveney, will remain very, very, very hard to beat. We’ve all had that sinking feeling after leaving home. At least there’ll be plenty of hot water for a bath when Cathal gets home.

Quotes of the Day

“They put the bus in the net so it’s difficult when one team don’t try to play football and try to win the game . . . they celebrated like they had won the tournament, or something. That’s a small mentality. That’s why they’ll do nothing in the competition.” - Cristiano Ronaldo taking the draw with Iceland (not too) well.

“It makes it even sweeter when he’s a sore loser like that. What can I say? Tough shit. What does he expect - for us to play like Barcelona against him? He fannies about and dives around. He’s a fantastic footballer, but he’s not a gracious human being.” - Iceland’s Kari Arnason with a (spectacular) word or two for Ronaldo.

Madridista draws the line over Pique

One of the loveliest things about international football tournaments , particularly when it comes to major tournament time, is how supporters usually divided by club loyalties come together as one, setting aside their often bitter differences for love of country. Hold it . . .

Remember when Gerard Pique got that late winner against the Czech Republic on Monday and Spain went ballistic with joy? Not all of Spain, as it proved, a video subsequently doing the rounds of one Spanish fan staying in his seat and refusing to celebrate.

Why? Because said fan, Alvaro Ojeda, is a Real Madrid diehard (and a reporter with okdiario.com) and his loathing of Barcelona’s Pique evidently overrides his love of Spain.

Pique, of course, has long been enemy number one for many a Real devotee, his ability to wind them up knowing no bounds. His finest moment, apart from his rather hilarious and unflattering impressions of Ronaldo, probably came last December when news came through that Real had been chucked out of the Copa del Rey because they had fielded an ineligible player. Pique responded by simply tweeting a string of ROFL smilies. That went down well with the Barca faithful, not so much with the other bunch.

“I want Madrid to lose, always, I’m not going to ask for forgiveness,” he once said, which didn’t help calm matters.

So there wasn’t a hope in hell that Ojeda was going to cheer that goal. When told he was being a bit silly, he replied:

“I didn’t celebrate. I won’t sell myself. What about you?” It’s deep, this one.

Poor relations

It’s that time again when we get to read an endless supply of columns on how that section of misbehaving England supporters have an unpleasantly nasty and disrespectful attitude to countries not called England. And sometimes alongside these opinion pieces stuff like this appears - from Derek McGovern’s betting column in the Daily Mirror: “Albania is a country invented only so we’d think better of Romania. About 20 per cent of Albania is unemployed. The other 80 per cent is in Britain. It’s the second poorest country in Europe, after Moldova. In fact, it’s so poor that the capital of Albania is about six euros.”

Lord.