Compiled by MARY HANNIGAN
Ferdinand fighting the good fight
POOR old Harry Redknapp, nothing’s going right for the fella this weather, on or off the pitch. According to the Sunday People he attempted to pay tribute to Rio Ferdinand, who he brought through the ranks at West Ham, during a speech at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel, where he was being honoured by the Football Writers’ Association.
“The Tottenham boss talked with real affection about Ferdinand,” they reported, but Harry’s audience was left a little puzzled by his claim that the player is “heavily involved in London knife-crime”. The giggling alerted him to the fact that he omitted a not unimportant word from the line: “fighting”.
Redknapp's target a busy man
SPEAKING of Harry Redknapp – one of the players he is said to be interested in signing, Croatian defender Dino Drpic, is now available for transfer after his club, Dinamo Zagreb, told him he could leave. His gambling problem appears to be the chief reason Zagreb have decided to let him go – they had lent him money to pay off some of his substantial debts, but were unhappy with his efforts to quit the habit. But the final straw, it seems, was a revelation by the player's girlfriend on a Serbian chat show that the pair had, well, you know, on Zagreb's pitch. Not during a game, we should make clear, but at midnight after staff at the stadium agreed to Drpic's request that they turn on the floodlights so they could see what they were doing. It was, said the girlfriend, Drpic's dream to, well, you know, in the middle of a football pitch. Harry? Get your bid in.
'Deceased' sees the funny side
HATS off to English amateur club Bishop Auckland for paying a nice tribute to former player Tommy Farrer, the 86-year-old who reached the FA Amateur Cup final on three occasions with the team.
They held a minute’s silence before a game, included a tribute to him in the match day programme and arranged for an obituary to appear in the local newspaper.
Then a club official phoned his “widow” Gladys to offer his condolences, to be told Tommy had indeed gone, but only to the shops to get the newspaper. “I think it’s hilarious,” he said when he heard of his demise. There weren’t too many chuckles from Blushing Bishop Auckland, mind.
Quotes of the week
“If we don’t get Kaka it is not the end of the world. We got Craig Bellamy.”
- Manchester City executive chairman Gary Cook. He said it with a straight face too.
“Milan is my home and I didn’t even think about joining Manchester City for 30 seconds.”
– Kaka on how close he came to joining City. Not very, as it proved.
“If you’d put Schumacher in a Minardi it would have gone nowhere. If you put Kaka in this club it would go nowhere. It is completely mad.”
– Flavio Briatore, QPR co-owner and managing director of the Renault Formula One team, compares City to a Minardi.
“If someone offered £107 million for one of my players, would I accept it? I’d carry them to the other club myself.”
- Catania coach Walter Zenga.
“I know that teams are also clubs but I would have left if such a fantasy offer came my way – I am a football man and I know how to calculate things.”
– Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon on Kaka’s decision to turn down Manchester City.
Money talks in different ways
July 2007: David Beckham joins Los Angeles Galaxy on a €193 million (over five years) contract.
January 2009: David Beckham on talk of Kaka joining Manchester City: “I don’t think anybody in the dressingroom is thinking about how much money they can earn. It’s about playing with the best team with the best players in the world and winning trophies and it’s not always about money.”
More quotes of the week
“He’s got 10 already – and I still expect him to get into double figures.”
– Andy Ritchie, with maths as sharp as our own, on Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal tally this season.
“It’s a hard job I have on here, believe you me . . . it’s a mish-mash of players with people playing where they want to play. It’s scary. I have to go to Old Trafford with that group of players.”
– Harry Redknapp, buoyant ahead of the FA Cup game against Manchester United.
“I am looking forward to Tony Adams speaking English. I don’t know if it is the English mentality he (Rafa Benitez) dislikes but there are not a lot of English players at Liverpool.”
– Jermaine Pennant blaming Benitez and his aversion to English players for his departure from Anfield. (Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher: “Eh, hello?”).
