World Cup Warm Up and the Transfer Request Mystery

It's a Merseyside Wankfest

I was reading all the blogs I wrote for the 2010 World Cup and there were lots of them.  I wondered how I found the time before I remembered that I was unemployed at the time.  So, I’m going to struggle to keep this up but here goes….

As a Saints fan, the build-up to the World Cup has been a painful one.  Rickie Lambert has of course been sold to Liverpool and the bad news (or bad rumours) has just kept on coming as allegedly, Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw and Dejan Lovren have all indicated that they want to leave.  I say allegedly because the news has been drip fed to the world at convenient times and always by the same two journalists – Ben Smith of the British Bollocks Corporation and Neil Ashton of the Daily Bastard.  Who really knows if it’s true or not?  All 3 have allegedly made it known that they want to leave but haven't handed in transfer requests as that means that any 'loyalty' (don't laugh!!!) payments would be withheld.  Forget being a footballer for a minute - I as a human being would not be capable of signing a 5 year contract like Lallana has done and one year later, asking to leave and keep my loyalty payments.  I thought a verbal agreement was binding so why isn't a verbal indication that you want to leave.  In my opinion, if you have verbally indicated that you want to leave then you have in fact handed in a transfer request.  No doubt though, it's all weighted in favour of the players. For now, I'm just sticking my head in the sand on this one and hoping it isn't true.

We are ripe for speculation though as we have no manager at the moment though according to Les Reed, this is a situation that will change shortly.  The main name in the frame is Ronald Koeman who seems to tick every box that you could possibly want to tick – most importantly the ones which concern playing progressive attacking football and working with young players from the academy.  So – it’s not all doom and gloom but for me anyway, it has taken the edge off of the World Cup a bit.  So, we had 3 in the England squad and now we have 2 who both may or may not have played their last games for us. 

Around the other countries we have Dejan with Croatia who is the same and Gaston Raimrez with Uruguay who at least has not been making any noises about leaving as he leaves all that to his agent.  That leaves us with Morgan Schneiderlin who has made the French squad but is of course, on the radar of Arsene bloody Wenger.  Morgan got the call because of an injury to Franck Ribery which means there is one less theatrical diving bastard to wind me up this summer.  Also of course, Maya Yoshida is there with Japan and he’ll definitely be a Saints player next season so maybe we should all follow Japan.

Enough of Southampton for now and we’ve had the England friendlies to keep us entertained – and I use the word 'entertain' lightly.  First up was Peru at home which saw a comfortable 3-0 win with a great goal from Sturridge and two set piece goals from Cahill and Jagielka.  Adam Lallana again played well in this one and Wayne Rooney was garbage.  The side reflected what was thought to be Uncle Roy’s first choice with Henderson in midfield and Welbeck in the side on the left.  Rooney aside, the main nightmare was Glen Johnson who was appalling at right back. 

A flight to Miami later and England were playing Ecuador and the reserves were in the side.  The two defensive midfielders were Lampard and Wilshere and with Jones and Smalling at centre backs and James fuking Milner at right back – is there any wonder that Luke Shaw looked our best defender.  Even he got caught out though as Milner failed to close down, Smalling missed the cross and Luke got caught ball watching as the striker got in front of him and buried the header.  Back came England with Liverpool’s Lambert hotting the post and then Rooney nicked the goal off him from 2 yards out.  2-1 up just after half time as the excellent and exciting Barkley set off on a run, played in Liverpool’s Lambert who smashed it home.  England couldn’t hold on though and a chronic lack of closing down by Lampard and Wilshere resulted in an Ecuadorian sub smashing one in from miles out.  Media darling Raheem Sterling came on as a sub and got himself sent off for a stupid tackle as the game petered out and finished 2-2. 

It served to highlight how shite some of Uncle Roy’s squad picks are.  Milner was fucking horrendous at right back, constantly out of position which you can kind of forgive him for.  However, I can’t forgive him passing the ball five yards straight to the opposition which he did at regular intervals.  That has nothing to do with his position on the field but everything to do with the fact he just isn't very good.  Meanwhile, Nathaniel Clyne sits at home watching on TV.  Chris Smalling gave an object lesson how not the play centre half, continually screwing things up, missing punts downfield from the keeper and being 5 yards behind the other 3 defenders.  Alex Chamberlain played well until he got injured and Ross Barkley was superb.  Hodgson dug him out for giving the ball away but it wasn’t him who perfectly dissected his own defence to set up a chance for Ecuador – no, that was golden child Rooney who is still seen as undroppable and irreplaceable, when he does nothing in an England shirt to warrant it.  Then there was Liverpool’s Lambert – no matter how many times you say it or hear the ITV twat commentators say it – it doesn’t make it any easier.  Saints are never mentioned in connection with him now.  It's like we have been airbrushed from history - it's now Liverpool - rejected - beetroot - lower leagues - England - Liverpool.

The first team were back for the Honduras friendly and the less said about that the better as they tried to kick us off the park.  As a game it was shite and a 0-0 draw but the worrying thing was that Sturridge missed 3 very good chances, one of which was through him deciding to try and Hollywood chip over the keeper, rather than square it for a tap-in.

So – the warm up matches have been played, the stadiums have nearly been completed, the brown envelopes have been stuffed, the corrupt Qatar 2022 vote is being swept under the carpet and Sepp Blatter is still in charge.  It’s time for the World Cup to start.