March 2007 Archives

Roy Keane has spoken a lot of sense since he became a manager. He has been articulate when expressing his views and often humorous in his observations, but I wonder whether the Irishman regrets what he said about Shay Given this week?

Sorry, Keane doesn’t do regret, just as he doesn’t do friends, but for the first time since he arrived at Sunderland I feel he has said something he shouldn’t have when it comes to his former international teammate.

There are those of you out there in internet land who can't look beyond the footballing highs and lows of your football club and I sympathise I do, when Newcastle are struggling and Sunderland have a promotion to worry about, it's understandable.

But, regardless of what is happening at the Stadium of Light and St James’s Park this week - very little is the correct answer - I’ve spent the last few days getting hot and bothered about England.

It’s partly to do with results and performances and it has plenty to do with Steve “worst comb over since Sven Goran Eriksson) McClaren, but, believe it or not, he is not the main target for my bile.

England are good aren't they? Top side, big name players with international reputations, a manager who won the Carling Cup, wow, everything would appear to be in place for World domination!

Except, like the bad guys, girls, hamsters, mice, cats and radioactive jelly in a children's cartoon, England's bid for global domination is always doomed to fail as a result of incompetence, arrogance and the inability to follow a simple plan.

Sorry about the wait, but here are the answers to some of the questions you asked me to put to Glenn Roeder on Friday. There were more than 4,000 words from Newcastle's manager so look out for the rest of it in The Journal in the coming days.

Once again, thanks for the magnificent response to my request for questions and they make fascinating reading, even without answers.

Believe it or not, I’ve always been under the impression that it is the views of the fans that really matter. All we journalists can do is prompt debate and offer our own opinions.

I’m just sorry I couldn’t ask any more of them, although it’s something I’m hoping to repeat in the future. I'm just as interested to know what you think about Roeder’s responses.

I'm going to Newcastle's training ground on Friday morning to interview Glenn Roeder and thought it would be good to give you the opportunity to ask your own questions given everything that has happened in the last week.

If you have something you would like to put to the United boss please leave a comment on this site before 9am on Friday morning and I'll select a couple and ask them for you.

Hopefully Glenn will answer them as honestly as he can and I'll put the replies, along with the names of the people whose questions were selected, up on the site on Friday.

Get your thinking caps on and please tell as many people as you can because the more questions I get the better.

It is probably best none of us mention it to Roy Keane as he doesn't like people talking about ifs, buts and what might bes, but some of us have been talking excitedly about Sunderland getting promoted this season.

Roy probably wouldn’t mind a general discussion about the Black Cats’ chances of returning to the Premiership. He has, after all, mentioned it himself a few times recently. The problem is, we’ve been going into rather more specific detail and I’m not sure he would like the tone of our talk.

When Shay Given finally emerged from the away dressing room at Charlton Athletic on Sunday he quickly blurted out he had nothing to say to the Press. Disappointing, because I have newspaper pages to fill, but understandable, given the fact Newcastle’s goalkeeper would have struggled to say anything remotely complimentary about his team-mates after the 2-0 defeat at The Valley.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I admire Given’s stance. Newcastle’s vice-captain is normally one of the best, honest and most plain-speaking commentators on affairs at St James’s Park but, having already apologised to the fans for the defeat in Alkmaar a few days earlier, he simply couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to repeat more empty words about putting things right or mutter the same tired old phrases about letting the club down.

England cricketer gets drunk after defeat, goes for early-hours jaunt on pedalo and falls into the sea and is rescued. Andrew Flintoff says sorry and admits he is ashamed about his behaviour.

Newcastle United lose against AZ Alkmaar and Charlton. Supporters wish players and manager would get pissed, go for an early-hours jaunt in the North Sea - but really aren't that bothered if they are rescued!

So that is that then. The end of Newcastle's Uefa Cup campaign and the end of yet another trophy dream. The end of the illusion, the end of the false hope, the end of the foolish belief that a squad which has been desperately short in numbers and quality could succeed where so many before them had failed.

Football is full of dreamers and romantics, those who believe in the impossible and unlikely, but football is ultimately a game won by the realists and the pragmatics and, to put it short and to put it bluntly, Newcastle simply aren't good enough to win anything.

Given the Dutch's liberal attitude towards sex and drugs it is tempting to suggest that AZ Alkmaar's defenders and their shaky goalkeeper Boy Waterman have spent a little too much time on the wacky backy as they appear to have suffered a case of severe short-term memory loss and forgotten the importance of defending.

That, of course, is just a cheap gag at the expense of a nation who, as far as I'm concerned, could show the rest of the world, particularly the United States, a thing or two about how to fight a drug war. Sadly, that would be straying into the world of politics and the next thing you know I'll be describing the Iraq War as a fight over a huge petrol station, with America aiming to become the pump attendants!

But anyway, back to football and Newcastle United's vitally important Uefa Cup game against AZ Alkmaar a team who, dare I suggest it, play with the same sort of defensive abandonment as one of Ossie Ardiles' ambitious sides and with the same onus on exciting, entertaining football as a certain Kevin Keegan.