Watching a game simply isn't enough anymore

The Internet streaming of the England game was an important breakthrough in the way we watch live sport, and it won’t be too much longer before we can view a game on our mobile phones whilst relaxing on the beach or sitting on a bus, not that squinting into a tiny screen holds much attraction.
Far better to wait for the next wave of technology, when a special headset will beam the game right into your brain, and you can choose where in the ground to sit and at what angle to watch.
Better still will be the day when, like playing on a Wii, you can plug yourself into a live match, take part and fulfil all those boyhood dreams by nicking the winner in injury time.

Fab Fabio shows English isn't necessary for the English

England’s impressive march towards the World Cup finals in South Africa next year has almost been taken for granted in the latter games of the qualifying campaign.
Think back to November 2007. The Wally with The Brolly. The shambles on the pitch. England down and out, failing to qualify for the European Championships.
Steve McClaren wasn’t solely to blame, but he was appointed to the job amid the hysterical furore for it to be given to an Englishman in the wake of Sven Goran Eriksson’s unexciting reign.
It was a foolish mistake, as history has proven, and one which thankfully the FA had no intention of repeating when they appointed Fabio Capello.
Around world football, like in no other sport, there remains a nationalistic hankering for the international manager’s job to be given to a son of the nation, regardless of whether he is the right man for the job.
It is further proof that although football is a multi-billion pound business, it is rarely run like a business.
In other industries, the man who gets the top job does so because he is the best man for the job, not because his most important reference is his birth certificate.
Argentina boss Diego Maradona was a populist but bizarre choice for a country that wants to win the World Cup. Legend he may be, but he is also troubled and lacks the coaching experience to take on one of the world’s most high profile teams.
Few were surprised when Argentina were so comprehensively outplayed by Brazil in their recent World Cup qualifier, and Argentina’s presence in Africa is now, unthinkably, severely in doubt.
In 2008, when Scotland appointed George Burley, he was on a shortlist of five, all of whom were Scots. After the disastrous Berti Vogts experiment, continuing failure appears to sit easier and criticism less ferocious when a Scots messes it up.
When the FA looked to replace McClaren, they found themselves in a similar situation to Scotland.
There was the usual amount of nationalistic jingoism underlined by the uneasy knowledge that there wasn’t an national really up to the job of winning the game’s greatest prize.
They took a brave decision and have never looked back. England haven’t won the World Cup yet, but look better placed to give it a go than they have for a long time.
For others more concerned about patriotism than football, it is a lesson they should take on board.

Clough v Ferguson: Generation 2

As the new football season swings into action this weekend, the most interesting clash on Saturday afternoon may well come off the pitch.
Derby County entertain Peterborough United in the Championship. It’s not a match to have the television executives slavering but then the occasion is not just about the football.



The pre-match handshake will bring together the younger generation of two football legends. In the black and white corner is Nigel Clough, the Derby manager and son of Brian; wearing blue is Darren Ferguson, son of Sir Alex, the Manchester United boss and most successful English league manager ever.
Both are young, modest, gifted and have benefitted from some handy genes.
Yet both have reached the moment their paths will cross in very different ways.
Clough junior had 10 years as a non-league manager at Burton Albion before leaving in January with the Brewers poised for promotion to take over at Derby, the club his father took from nowhere to a league title and European Cup semi-final in the early 1970s.
He enjoyed a football career playing at the highest level with England (winning 14 caps), Nottingham Forest, Manchester City and Liverpool. His successful grounding as a manager saw him rebut several approaches before the lure of Derby, his home town club and the one which remained strongest in the heart of his father, proved too strong in the end.



Ferguson, who is six years Clough’s junior, failed to hit the heights his potential promised, despite him being able to boast a Premier League winners’ medal with Manchester United.
It might not have been so; at United he was a regular until injury forced him out for two months. When he returned, he found his spot in the side had been filled by a certain Frenchman called Cantona.
He spent the rest of his career in the lower leagues at Wolves and Wrexham before, like Clough, turning to management at an early age.
Unlike the Rams’ boss, however, who has placed great emphasis on building slowly, Ferguson’s career in the hot seat has been short and explosive.
Taking his first job at Peterborough two and a half years ago, he has led them to immediate and back to back promotions playing the kind of football steeped in the Manchester United way.
Less than three years after wallowing in the lower reaches of League 2, he has got the Posh one season away from playing in the Premiership.
On the face of it, the clubs are worlds apart. Peterborough’s average gate last season was 7,000, as opposed to Derby, who regularly sold out at over 30,000.
London Road holds none of the playing allure of Pride Park.
While Peterborough are entering unchartered territory at Championship level, they are on a role and will enter the new season brimming with confidence; whereas Derby, after that catastrophic Premiership season, battled the spectre of relegation last year and are still desperately seeking a way forward.
What both managers share is their fathers’ ethos of, to paraphrase Brian Clough, playing the game the way it should be – namely passing it around on the ground, so it ought to be pleasing on the eye.
In front of 33,000 spectators there should be little to separate the teams on Saturday afternoon and the battle of wits between two of the game’s brightest young minds will be crucial.
Ferguson v Clough: Generation 2 should prove a fascinating encounter.