ALL IN THE GAME:A soccer miscellany
This week’s award for the ‘Most Unfortunate Typo in a Headline’ goes to the Sunday People website. Exceptionally harsh, young Wayne has moved on, his focus now on goals not gals.
Undercover United fan: City's Sam tweets for Red Devils
BLACKBURN, you'd imagine, had a whole new army of followers when they took on Manchester United last week in the league, the Manchester City faithful particularly supportive of Rovers' efforts to take a point or three.
Twitter, of course, becomes a bit lively during tense encounters of this nature, but one young chap, Sam Jones, stood his ground and made his loyalties rather clear as the game kicked off: "Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh united united united."
And when Antonio Valencia scored? "Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh what a goal!!!!!"
And the second United goal? "Game over! Ashley Young, you king!"
He was a happy bunny then.
Well, until his employers had a word about his tweets.
Next day: "To all City fans I am really sorry for causing offence with my tweets. I realise I shouldn't have said those things. The club have reminded me about my responsibilities as a City player."
Yep, Sam's a Manchester City youth team player.
If he ever gets to play in a first-team derby, hopefully he'll get a grip and not join in on United goal celebrations.
Marked man: De Rossi's latest tattoo a real leg-acy
ROMA'S Daniele De Rossi is the proud winner of our "Tattoo of the Week" gong. The Italian international, who has a fair chunk of his body already plastered in the things, was recently spotted with a shiny new one that appears to pay homage to his ability to ever so occasionally mis-time a tackle.
Unless, of course, it's all an April Fool giggle, but if it's not, then if he clobbers one of Giovanni Trapattoni's men come summer and pleads his innocence as the ref reaches for his pocket, the official can point to the creation on his leg and say: "It's hardly the first time, Daniele."
A punch in the head a day . . . Mancini's Mario prescription
"I told him if you played with me, 10 years ago, I give to you every day one punch in your head."
– Mario Balotelli is lucky Roberto Mancini is his boss and not his team-mate.
"I don't speak with him every day, otherwise I would need a psychologist."
– Mancini again, shrinking under the weight of managing Mario.
"Scott Parker, Brad Friedel, Ryan Nelsen, they're all fantastic professionals. You aren't looking around thinking: 'Billy Big Head – what's he doing today? Where's he been? What's he up to?'"
– Harry Redknapp's take on Mario.
"I can't score a free kick if there isn't one around the box and I played bloody wingback today I've never ever been a fullback in my life."
– Stoke's Jermaine Pennant all a-Twitter over his manager's misue of his skills.
"Social networks are a minefield. When I was growing up we had enough people to talk to without talking to a bunch of Herberts you don't even know."
– Pennant's manager, Tony Pulis, responds. With his mouth
He's not worth it: Ginola draws no comfort from lawsuit
One of football's wackier lawsuits ended in failure last week for David Ginola who was seeking damages from Gerard Houllier for his assessment of the player's contribution to France failing to qualify for the 1994 World Cup.
The French, then managed by Houllier, needed just a draw at home to Bulgaria in their final group game, but with just seconds left, and the score at 1-1, Ginola attempted an over-ambitious cross-field pass that was intercepted, and led to Emil Kostadinov's winner. And there ended France's qualifying hopes.
"With only 30 seconds remaining we were there, but we got stabbed in the back and at the worst possible time," Houllier said of Ginola's intervention, the feud going up a notch or two when he referred to the player as a "b*****d" in a book and, according to Ginola, accused him of "murdering" the team's efforts to get to the World Cup.
So, 18 years on the case was heard in a court in Toulon, the judge concluding that "the word used by Houllier could not be assessed in isolation from its context and also that it could not qualify for both slander and defamation at the same time," according to Reuters. (It could, though, be that the judge just had a look at the moment on YouTube and decided Houllier had been way too kind in his assessment).
"They took me to the gallows," said Ginola after the hearing.
"My life boils down to 10 seconds of play and 18 years later, I'm treated as a pariah.
"Gerard Houllier says that I'm an idiot, a b*****d, and that I committed a crime against the France team."
Jean-Claude Guidicelli, Ginola's lawyer, said his client was "surprised" by the decision but would not take the matter any further.
"For him, this decision is a judgment of Solomon – a drawn match with the ball in the middle," he said.
"If Ginola had kept the ball in the middle and it had been a drawn match against Bulgaria none of this would have bloody happened," Houllier might have been tempted to reply, but he resisted.
Messi business: Modest McGrath's expert advice
PAUL McGRATH made a rare enough appearance on television yesterday, turning up as guest of honour on Sky Sports' Goals on Sunday.
It was a typically cocky performance from the big-head – on being reminded, for example, of his jaw-dropping display against Italy at the 1994 World Cup, when "you marked world player of the year Roberto Baggio out of the game," as Ben Shephard put it, he replied: "It wasn't only me actually – Phil Babb did a great job, and Denis Irwin."
The arrogance.
There was a flood of emails in to the programme thanking McGrath for his services to Ireland and his former clubs. An-ex groundsman from Aston Villa was one of those to get in touch.
"I first met Paul when I started working at Villa, I was just a kid fresh out of school. The rest of the players were mainly big heads, but not Paul – he always had a word, he was always approachable."
"Well, I like to treat people the way I like to be treated," said McGrath. "It's an easy thing to do . . ."
Mind you, he conceded if he was still playing today and faced the prospect of marking Lionel Messi he might not be so amiable.
"How would you deal with him?" asked Shephard.
“I’d go in to the dressingroom beforehand and knock him out,” he said.
Giggs ready to clean up: Title run-in akin to having a bath
"He's been 20 years at Old Trafford, probably 18 of those he's been involved in Championship races. It's almost like having a bath for him, it's a relaxing experience."
– Gary Neville on Ryan Giggs's long soak in the Premier League.
"Neymar makes a lot of money here, he has even purchased a yacht already. What else will he want? Two cars? A plane? It is better to stay in Brazil than to go to Europe to deal with violent players and snow."
– Santos president Luis Alvaro Ribiero tries to frighten his megastar off a move to icey, savage Europe.
"If I'm in the right position and I'm not getting the ball, there's not a lot I can do about it."
– Sunderland's Nicklas Bendtner sends a warm "yoo hoo – I'm over here" to his colleagues.
"We're becoming a laughing stock."
– John Aldridge sees the funny side of Liverpool's struggles.
"Andy Weimann is champing at the door."
– Alex McLeish on how his Austrian international is, well, knocking on the bit to get in the team.
