- 12 Jun 08, 08:20 PM
Neuchatel - 678 miles travelled
Some you win, some you lose.
I rushed to Neuchatel, the home of the Portuguese team, on Thursday to get further reaction to the news that Luiz Felipe Scolari would take over as Chelsea coach after the tournament.
I met BBC Radio 5 Live reporter Mike Sewell outside the media centre and prepared to head into the hustle and bustle of a feeding frenzy as journalists gorged on the biggest news story to come out of the tournament to date.
Only there was nobody in there at all apart from a sound engineer preparing for a scheduled press conference that had already been cancelled.
"I am the last to know anything," he lamented.
The only action taking place involved a group of kids having a kickabout in the car park and some locals getting stuck into a round of crazy golf on the shore of Lake Neuchatel.
Eventually, a Brazilian journalist turned up and told us there was some activity outside Hotel Beau-Rivage, where the Portuguese team are staying.
The term media blackout has been taken to new levels at the aforementioned hotel, with a huge black fence surrounding the entirety of the hotel's perimeter.
Camera crews had been positioned by the exit hoping to film any comings and goings and had so far accrued two nuggets of information to share with their viewers.
One - Luiz Felipe Scolari went for a walk this morning without speaking to anyone.
Two - Cristiano Ronaldo had gone out in a car with blacked out windows.
The nearby square was also home to a liberal sprinkling of camera crews desperate for any sort of reaction. The Portuguese and English contingents were taking it in turns asking each other for their thoughts. In fact, so acute was the need for any sort of way of filling airtime that I was even asked if I would do an interview for Portuguese television station SIC.
Of course, when I turned up at the arranged time to do the interview, the presenter had obviously seen sense and was nowhere to be seen.
On one occasion, the Portuguese team coach stopped close by and supporters ran towards it with the desperation of someone craving the toilet after a red hot vindaloo. It turned out there were no players on it and I suspect the driver had probably been to the petrol station.
I, myself, was no exception to this thirst for knowledge and had spoken to several Portugal fans to canvas their opinions on developments. One group I saw at the train station in Geneva this morning took a lot of persuading that Chelsea had actually got their man. Another supporter insisted that he really did not speak enough English but, when pressed, came out with the line: "Scolari, he is less polemic than Jose Mourinho."
I also had a word with SIC's Luis Marcal before his crew did their disappearing act and he had some pretty interesting things to say about Scolari.
For Marcal, the legacy of the Brazilian is that he transformed the Portuguese into a people who love their national team. Before his appointment, said Marcal, they tended to be fans of their clubs first and foremost.
Several supporters echoed this sentiment and argued that Scolari had built his team his way, certainly without kowtowing to the media. Say what you like about Scolari, his time at Chelsea should definitely make for compulsive viewing.
I get the feeling that quite a lot of the Portuguese media knew something was going to happen but were taken aback by the timing of the announcement. Scolari had previously said that he would say nothing about his future until the end of the tournament - and that the same would apply to star man Ronaldo.
"He lied about that," concluded Marcal, who thinks the news about Scolari could affect the environment in the team hotel.
What price the agents of Ronaldo, Deco and Ricardo Carvalho suddenly moving into view?
Talking of Carvalho, he ran into a spot of bother today when he went for a walk without his ID. When he tried to get back into the team hotel, he spent several minutes persuading the security guard to believe who he said he was.
Scolari or no Scolari, Marcal was in a very good mood, having persuaded Ronaldo to wind down his car window as he was driven out of the hotel.
"Is everything alright?" he asked.
"Yes, everything is alright," replied Ronaldo, who sought to illustrate his point by giving a thumbs-up.
Sometimes, when you're feeding on scraps, the man with the thumbs-up is king.
p.s - My moment in the sun did come later on Thursday when I was interviewed by Portuguese Radio Clube. Desperation for opinion had hit new lows.
p.p.s - Hotel Beau-Rivage is not the exclusive retreat of the Portugal team during Euro 2008. An old lady, who lives there permanently, remains on site. It would have taken a particularly callous hotel manager to boot her out for four weeks.
p.p.p.s - Miguel Monterio and Ricardo Quaresma clearly weren't too affected by the Scolari saga. They spent the afternoon shopping in Geneva.
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Love the blog Fletchmeister.
Here's an task for you...
Can you get yourself invited into an average Swiss person's home?
Is it true that all Swiss citizens have an automatic rifle in their household?
Good luck!
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Maybe not quite on topic, but why is M Lawerson allowed on TV. His job is to give some insight on the game, but his is terrible, nothing of any note on any subject
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RobertoPendle
All swiss citizens between 17 and 21 (i think) have to do national service. As the swiss army is used for defense purposes only all this entails is doing a weeks training and then taking youre rifle home in the cupboard. Thus any swiss household with a yout of national service age should have a rifle in the house yes.
hope this answers youre question
and back on topic
gutted for the swiss a truly great race
and a good tournament so far
also great blog keep up the good work!
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You'r doing a great job out there my man. Thanks for the excellent articles and I look forward to your tales. Have just flung my dirty clothes from our trip on to my wall. They've stuck to it, so I reckon they need washing!
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I look across to Austria and Switzerland with envy. I would so love to be there. The atmosphere looks amazing, it isn't just a European Football tournament, it is one big carnival on and off the pitch. The even better thing is I can watch it without heartbreak, and watch instead as a neutral this year, seeming as England aren't there.
I do wonder though.. what do people on the continent think the Euros are like without England in them?.. Do they miss England competing? Hmm.
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"waterloo42 wrote:
Maybe not quite on topic, but why is M Lawerson allowed on TV. His job is to give some insight on the game, but his is terrible, nothing of any note on any subject"
Dude - have you tried listening to ITV? Compared to them, Lawrenson is a cross between Einstein and Jack Dee.
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Are Portugese fans so artful that they put their thoughts on canvas now? No wonder they call it the beautiful game! And no wonder Scolari doesn;t want to learn English, it gives him the perfect excuse not to respond to journalists desperate for scraps to feed on - that's really how you earn your bread? - when they try to CANVASS him. p.p.p.p.s. what did Monterio and Quaresma buy??? quick, don't keep us in suspense another moment! we've just got to know!!
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RobertoPendle - leave it with me and I'll see what I can do.
Trickiano_Ricaldo - Everytime you speak to fans from other nations, they always ask about England and what went wrong. I think fans of other nations would like it if England were here. Not so sure about the authorities.
quickquip - After such a big story breaks I thnk it is only fair of the media to try to find out some more details, gauge reaction etc. And remember, most of the media feeding on scraps were Portuguese and not English so I don't think your anti-English media points stands up this time around. The line about Quaresma shopping came from a Portuguese journalist who had just spent the afternoon following them around.
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Why don't the media just respect chelsea's and portugal's wishes and leave scolari alone?
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Another journalist that invaded Neuchatel. And now our team can't prepare in peace for the next matches. Surely someone in Chelsea is conspiring against our team just as someone in Real Madrid and Marca is (as seen with their constant harrassment of Ronaldo). And without peace and calm atmosphere our team can't prepare properly. Me thinks it's time for the Portuguese FA to take a radical action and move the team's HQs to a secret location in another Swiss town. A small mountain town with very difficult access would be ideal as then journalists wouln't try to flood such town as they have done in Neuchatel...
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I like the journey quote at the start.
"Some you win, some you lose..."
But what about continuing it?
"some are born to sing the blues..."
It fits so nicely with the whole ruddy Chelsea theme..
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"I think fans of other nations would like it if England were here. "
They only want someone to beat :p
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"I think fans of other nations would like it if England were here. "
Living here I have asked the question of a few guys - yep the authorities are pleased Eng are not here. The Swiss are an odd lot bless em - stories of people not leaving their apartments cos there are strangers in town - it is a larger version of League of Gentlemen.
The people really missing out are the bar owners (surprise!) most of them had 2008 down as a bumper year for them - then we go and spoil the party by having a manager with the organisation and man management skills of a wet fish.
Yep I keep getting the "at least we dont have hooligans here" jibe from my media led international colleagues but they always follow it with "but would have been good to have Eng here".......................alas
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