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JackMcMac

Listed below are comments made by JackMcMac between Wednesday, 26th August 2009 and Monday, 16th November 2009.

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Mixed fortunes for England duo 02:05am on 16 Nov 2009 Bent may still get another chance if he keeps his current form. He was invisible for a lot of the game, but anyone watching could see England weren't creating chances for anyone. I was impressed with Milner, and think he hasn't done any harm to his World Cup chances. Wes Brown almost played himself off the plane to South Africa though, I think that Capello is going to be looking at other options beside him now, which won't be too hard if a couple of players get over injury. Other players, like Jenas for example, did the job asked of them well but highlighted the fact that they aren't up to scratch. Keeping with Jenas to give an example of my point, when I watched him I was thinking that everything he's doing could be done better by either Gerrard, Lampard, Hargreaves, Beckham, Jole Cole and maybe even Huddlestone. That could be said of almost everyone playing in that midfield tonight, and for the back four too (with Terry, Rio etc). Apart from Milner, it does't seem like any of the fringe players were going to break through. In that sense watching England was a bit disapointing, but slightly uplifting as it is certain we'll improve. Capello used good tactics, and with his first team he might have had a better result. It'd be nice to beat a major team (I don't count a weakened Croatian team) before the World Cup though.
Anfield's day of destiny 11:19am on 25 Oct 2009 Liverpool don't owe Michael Owen a living, but if it was such a big deal for him to go to Man U, I don't know why they didn't try to bring him back. Ferguson still sees something in him, so it isn't just a question of him not being good enough anymore.
Football's trusts must keep the faith 10:48am on 22 Oct 2009 I think we're not far away from seeing a major club fail financially. Liverpool and Man U have both got a load of well publicised debt both at the club and with their respective owners. Arsenal, although shrewd in the transfer market, also walk a tight rope with their stadium debt. All three clubs have to measure precisley and carefully their debt and finances, and recieve a lot of loans based on future revenue from prize money, sponsorship and television money from being in the Champions League. If any of these teams fail to qualify for the Champions League, it would be a disaster for them. With Man City, Spurs and Villa, a top four spot isn't a guarantee this season, so I think we might see some shocking things at the end of the season.
England cannot replace Rooney 12:35pm on 14 Oct 2009 The last three World Cup finals were played with France, Brazil, Germany, and Italy. The last three Euro Championships were played with Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and France. While I can think of several world class strikers in Spain and Brazil, even France and Italy, the majority of these teams got to the finals because of their defences (in particular France, Italy and Germany). In fact, the winner almost always wins the final with a clean sheet.

Teams you think will win because of their attacking threat, like Netherlands, or Argentina in recent years, usually fall away over the space of a tournament because their defence lacks consistency.

The format of these tournaments always favour defences. There's no reason for either side to risk attacking, as there are no second legs with home goal advantages to consider, and it is possible to win a game by keeping a clean sheet and going to penalties.

For me I believe that a good defence is the key to a good tournament, and that while the loss of a player like Rooney would be lamentable, not only will we have players who can score goals to replace him, it is entirely possible to win the game at the World Cup without scoring a goal from open play at all. It is why I always fancy England at major tournaments, as they always seem to have a wealth of good defenders at their disposal. Usually this is looked over, with an insistence to always play 4-4-2, even if it means playing 'star' players when they're not fit, like Beckham or Rooney. It is because it is an English mentality to attack, which is why having Capello's Italian mentality to defend will help the team.

For me, I won't worry about Rooney as much as I would worry about Hargreaves coming back, as he is the best player England have at winning the ball from midfield. If he can sit in front of the back four, with a defence that is properly gelled together, and a keeper in form, then with or without Rooney England will do very well.
Adebayor madness mars Man City win 00:28am on 15 Sep 2009 Just read a few of the comments about the fans being to blame, rather than Adebayor, for the hostile reaction to his provocative celebration. The fans aren't blameless, sure, but they're not professionals either. These footballers aren't called professionals for just being talented footballers, they're professionals because they're trained to withstand constant flak, insults, and criticism from not only fans, but other players, managers, and journalists too.

I'm not saying they can't get passionate, or that they won't act human and respond to things, but these professionals should know better and think twice before they react. A policeman wouldn't be excused for 'losing it' in the face of hostile members of the public. Policemen know the job they've chosen is going to bring them into contact with that kind of abuse, so they're trained to deal with it in a level headed manner. Just like policemen, footballers are fully aware of what abuse they'll be likely to face, and should be professional enough to ignore it.

Look at Heskey, and all the racist abuse he's suffered throughout the years, not to mention the constant criticism he gets for not scoring goals. He keeps his head down, trains, works, and never brings the game into disrepute. He just gets on with the job. Even if the fans were being racist, making personal insults or just being rude, Adebayor should have dealt with it by rising above it, being the bigger person and leaving whatever racist stuff was being said for higher authorities to deal with. Instead he went out of his way to provoke an already hostile mob of people for no other reason than to massage his own ego, and in doing so joined in the abusive fan's game of 'you insult me, I'll insult you'.

The fans were out of hand, and should be punished, but Adebayor was the catalyst for their behaviour and he has a joint responsibility for what they did to that Steward.
Adebayor madness mars Man City win 11:47pm on 14 Sep 2009 Don't know if this is the right place for it, as I just read the BBC article by Jonathan Pearce on "Dealing with football's 'impostors'", but the discussion link on that page led here so I might as well respond to it here I guess.

Firstly, Pearce mentions: "Sport is not the place for soapbox preaching. It is afflicted by hypocrisy. After all, how many people now revelling in the Adebayor witch-hunt would willingly turn a blind eye to rugby's physical excesses?"

I'm not on a witch hunt against Adebayor, I might not like the guy for his arrogance, and I haven't been a fan of any of the clubs he's played for, but my problem with the stamp wasn't to do with jumping on board the popular football debate of the week, it was to do with the actual consequences. Ok, Rugby is physical, and as football fans we can dramatise incidents which would otherwise go unnoticed in some other sports, but Adebayor's kick to Van Persie was dangerous. It could have easily blinded him, and I've read reports (whether true or not) that Van Persie's eyesight has been slightly damaged as a result. Despite Pearce, who says "Claims that he could have taken out Van Persie's eye may be hysterical", everyone knows that when someone treads studs up on someone else's face, you're very lucky if the studs haven't hit the eye, so I wouldn't dismiss it as hysterics.

Secondly Pearce says: "Witch-hunts serve no purpose. The referee dealt with the goal celebration offence with the appropriate yellow card at the time. That should suffice, along with a warning that any repeat will bring a lengthy suspension. For me, any celebration close to the stands should be banned anyway."

I don't think a yellow card is enough here, although I accept that is the usual FA punishment for this. He didn't simply turn to fans behind the goal mouth and gesture, he provocatively ran out of his way to gloat in front of fans a few months ago he swore loyalty to. Anyone with any sense knew what that'd achieve. I'm not going to split hairs with how Adebayor differs from other players who have done similar things and escaped with a yellow, I just would like it if the FA decided to change their yellow card policy to a red card served with a lengthy ban, and used this case as an example to set further precident for it. After all, thanks to Adebayor's celebration a steward was hospitalised, a hostile (and potentially dangerous) atmosphere was created amongst the fans, and the scenes which were broadcast globally didn't exactly help England's cause for hosting a World Cup either. I wouldn't slap him with the same punishment you'd get if you were to take your shirt off, or if you were to stand too close when someone's taking a free kick. Everyone knows what Adebayor did was much worse, and the FA need to show they acknowledge that.

As a side note, I think Pearce was also being a little dramatic with the strange references to Princess Grace of Monaco's death, and Hitler, and while I haven't agreed with some of what he's said, I appreciate that his article was trying to give a different point of view on a subject most people are being one-sided on.

His article is here if anyone else reading this is wondering what I'm going on about. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_city/8254614.stm
Adebayor madness mars Man City win 4:01pm on 13 Sep 2009 I feel sorry for the steward who had to go to hospital purely because of Adebayor's stupidity. On a side not, I think those stewards should be praised for the good job they did to calm things down as things could have easily turned much nastier. Back to topic though, I hope they throw the book at Adebayor. If he wanted to make headlines and turn the profile of an otherwise great match onto himself and his stupid actions, then he should relish the chance to be made into a high profile public example of what you get for causing all this grief. If the FA want to stamp out this sort of behaviour, they should use this chance while everyone is watching and really make sure other players won't do this again in the future.
Chelsea will suffer if transfer ban stands 9:25pm on 04 Sep 2009 This has more ramifications than some banned transfer windows. It means that FIFA can somehow bypass domestic laws which are designed to protect children. I know they must like their football over at FIFA, but that doesn't mean they can validate illegal signings of contracts binding clubs to players/children. Now they've created this strange precedent, although it seems to harm Chelsea in the short-term, in the long-term you are now going to see prolific 'pre-contract/real contract' agreements amongst minors everywhere. It makes me sick to think that clubs can and will now coerce, manipulate, intimidate and influence children into making huge professional decisions which boggle most young adults entering into the football world, which will then bind them legally. Sure, Kakuta was 15 when Chelsea approached him, so it doesn't seem as bad as he was one year from being able to sign a real contract, but now FIFA have made this ruling you'll see waves of scummy, greedy football agents swarm over promising young children when they're no older than 8 or 10, maybe younger, who knows? This game is sick, and I've almost had enough of it now, it just seems to get worse by the month. What was last month? Violence, cheating, or both?
Chelsea will suffer if transfer ban stands 11:50pm on 03 Sep 2009 As I understand it, Chelsea approached Kakuta when he was under 16 years old. Lens feel aggrieved because Kakuta was part of their youth development, and had been at their club since he was 8 years old. As nice as that might be for Lens, that a young player happened to play junior football with them, if Kakuta was under-16 then he is a minor and cannot enter into any kind of legal binding contract. So when Lens say that Chelsea poached him, and made him break a contract he had already agreed to with them, then I don't see how Kakuta can be held to that Lens contract if it wasn't even legal. If Lens are somehow getting minors to sign professional contracts, then they are the ones that should be under scrutiny here. Not only is it illegal, it is also immoral. Children shouldn't have to be burdened with the avarice of greedy football agents climbing over each other to 'own' them. They should be allowed to enjoy the game, grow up and become mature enough to make an adult decision that will affect their professional lives. After all, the result of all this, besides the minor fine and transfer ban, is that a young football player who should be putting his head down and training hard, suddenly has a media circus to contend with, and a lengthy ban at a vital developmental stage in his career.
Will Upton Park violence scupper 2018 bid? 10:42pm on 26 Aug 2009 I think what happened at Upton Park was terrible, but it is an isolated event that has been unheard of for years now. Even so, in the terms of world football, what happpened at West Ham is tame compared to many scenes in Eastern European games, Italian games, Turkish games, Spanish games, Scottish games, and even African games (where the next World Cup is going to be held). Many people have been stabbed in Italian, Spanish, Scottish, Turkish, and African derby's, but most people accept that the people dragging the name of this sport down are not true fans and shouldn't be associated with the game, which is the same viewpoint people should take with the scenes at West Ham.

In a way this hooliganism is quite well behaved, seeing as it is the product of pure idiocy, as opposed to the political, religious or racial roots that lie at the heart of many other hooligan riots in world football. Like I said, it's an isolated incident that anyone who's watched English football in the last ten years could see is an anonomly of the typical fan behaviour in this country, and it shouldn't affect our World Cup bid.

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