Football in chaos: so no change there

• The Premier League’s two giant problems: bullying of youngsters and making huge losses
• How not to run a football club. How Tottenham and Arsenal have coped with failure.

By Tony Attwood

One of the things that can keep me going during these wretched international breaks is the fact that many newspapers use the time to have a bash at some of the people they have been holding back on of late.

And when given the chance, they really can have a go at the odd issue that they have been holding back on for a while, as the list below shows.  For all of these headlines quoted below appeared on the webpages of one newspaper (The Telegraph) on one morning (29 March).

Tottenham are, of course, one of the key generators of such headlines given that since the launch of their new stadium, they have been talking about being a top six, (or was it top four?) club.   

To be fair, they have won one of their last 10 games, but across those ten matches, but along way they seem to have let in 26 goals. which is a bit careless.  And in response, the Telegraph today is running on its website….

• Spurs’ 51 signings since Pochettino was sacked: Ranked from best to worst
• Spurs consider SOS call to Dyche
• Every disaster on the Spurs timeline of misery this season

And yes they really all have appeared on the website of the Telegraph newspaper today!

Of course, because England are playing, the media does like to have a spot of international news as well as club matters, such as “Defiant Senegal parade Afcon trophy in Paris, despite being stripped of title,” which continues the debate over who actually did win the Fifa-organised competition.  Trust Fifa not even to be clear about how the rules work – I wonder if it will happen at the World Cup.  Could we perhaps have three or four countries all claiming victory?

But still staying with the Telegraph, there is some anti-England, or at least anti-England-fans commentary under, White booed by England fans as second-string squad fails to impress. That might be an argument to explore, but then surely alongside, should we not also say that entry to England matches should be free for spectators because the game could be “experimental”?

Moving on, one of the things that always amuses me is the inability of club directors to understand what the majority of fans think.     As wth the invitation of Farage to an Ipswich game.   Now it doesn’t take too much of an awareness of the minds of football supporters who support clubs that employ players from a multiplicity of countries, to realise that Farage and co are not their favourite policy makers.  And indeed, if the chairman doesn’t get it, whatever happened to the concept of advisers with their gentle whispers of “Actually, sir, I really don’t think having that man in the ground is a good idea.”

Anyway, as a result, we have the headline Ipswich chairman apologises over how club handled Farage visit.

And there are still two more headlines from the Telegraph this morning worth mentioning, and I include these not just because I don’t think anyone should be forced to sing anything, but also because the paper thought it was such a good story that it ran it twice.