Life after the Prem: Danny Higginbotham

It must be hard for footballers to believe sometimes.  But yes, there can be more to post-30s life than sinking, defeated, into a plush Sky sofa, muttering agreement with whatever Jamie Redknapp just said - or trying to get a word in edgeways on BBC's 606 programme, placating a deluded Toon fan while being shouted over by Robbie Savage.

The increasing influx of experienced foreign coaches in the Premier League has only further diminished the job prospects of any aspirational managers, while anybody who isn't a cockney or hasn't played for West Ham ('footballing academy', my arse) is up against the odds if they fancy trying to squeeze into the crowded Sky Sports studios.  Whether they might be better trying next door at BT Sport - whose cavernous new facility houses a four-man punditry-panel colossus - is by the by.

Because Danny Higginbotham is illuminating a slightly different route.  Since incurring a serious knee injury while at Stoke in 2011, the 34-year-old former Man United trainee has found fitness - and first-team football - hard to come by.  Not deterred, Higginbotham began dabbling in punditry with several broadcasters, distinguishing himself increasingly well to the point where he was a big feature in the BBC's coverage of this month's transfer deadline day.  He's even started writing a column for Stoke-on-Trent's Sentinel newspaper (oo-er).

All fairly standard so far, you might think.  But Higginbotham isn't embracing the comfortable life just yet, and unlike many of his peers has demonstrated that he is not too proud to drop down the divisions to wherever he can find first-team football and continue his playing career.  Through a battle for fitness he has meandered his way down to the Blue Square Premier (the Conference, if you're one of us old gits), where he now plays with Chester FC.

He is one of several players cutting this admirable path.  Rory Delap, 37, moved to Burton Albion this summer; James Beattie, 35, first played for and - as of the end of last season - now manages Accrington Stantley; Dele Adebola, 38, now plies his trade for Rushall Olympic in the Northern Premier League Premier Division; Barry Hayles, 41, is turning out for Southern Premier Division side Arlesey Town this season. City the season before last; Frank Sinclair, 41, is the player-manager at Conference North outfit Colwyn Bay.

But Higginbotham isn't just content with "getting my love of football back" at Chester - in the past few days he has declared himself available for selection for the national team of Gibraltar, who are the newest full-members of UEFA following a successful application in May of this year.

As Higginbotham explained to BBC Radio 5 Live: "The opportunity might be there to play against some very big European countries - what an experience that would be.  It was something I couldn't turn down."

However, there are serious issues beneath this feel-good factor that persist unresolved.  The restricted educational opportunities of people who had to prioritise their sport from such an early age represent an obstacle which the game has only begun to get a handle on in the past decade.  Not every player will enter their 30s able to reel off a newspaper column or articulate on live television the finer points of Chelsea's new formation.

This leads into the broader and undeniable problem of racial stratification - both within the game and in the society that feeds the game each new generation of players.  The number of black managers currently among England's 92 league clubs (three - can you name them?) is greatly disproportionate to the number of black players at the same level.  Thus the positive is tarnished somewhat - that such luminaries as Frank Sinclair are giving back to the grassroots game not because they want to but because it is the best they can achieve in the current environment.

Higginbotham's is a satisfying story, but its exceptional nature serves only to highlight the fundamental problems that football continues to ignore.


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Photo credit: Ronnie Macdonald; Ingy the Wingy

John Motson is losing it: Exhibit A

For the sake of poor old Motty, let's hope this post isn't the start of a series.  And let's not have any of you heartless cynics suggesting that the living legend already lost it, a long time ago.

Personal affections aside, It is increasingly worrisome how slack the media coverage can be even at the sharp end of the game.  In Motson's BBC match preview for Sunday's match between Arsenal and Stoke, the commentator writes:

'There's been some bad blood between the two clubs in recent years, but with Hughes replacing Pulis [as manager of Stoke] it could be a bit different now - the issue of whether Stoke play 'dirty' should be diluted.'

Erm... I might have to beg to differ with you there, Motty.  Surely anyone who's been paying even remote attention to football in the five or six years remembers several instances where Messers Hughes and Wenger didn't see eye to eye?

On a personal level, the two managers enjoyed a ridiculously petty handshake-snub 'saga' in 2009, following the 3-0 defeat of Wenger's Arsenal by Hughes' Manchester City side.

But prior to that, when Hughes was the manager of Blackburn Rovers in the mid-noughties, Wenger accused him of sending his players out with "a desire for violence," to deliberately injure the opposition.

That's quite severe isn't it.

Stoke's propensity to roll over away to the big clubs, as well as the cavernous, theatre-like Emirates Stadium, should be factors that defuse much of the tension for this match.  But odds on the 'bad blood' having disappeared by the return fixture at the Britannia Stadium will be pretty long.

Sorry Motson, these managers hate each other and these clubs hate each other.  Shield your innocent eyes on Sunday, it isn't going to be pretty.

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Photo credit: Ben Sutherland

Overreaction of the week: David Moyes (& Apologists)

Good grief.  One game at home to a middling German side and Wayne Rooney is back 'on [the] road to legendary status' at Old Trafford, as the BBC's Phil McNulty writes.

That kind of hyperbole is somewhat understandable from manager Moyes, who is still trying to tie up the loose ends of that tedious but skilfully managed summer transfer saga, where Rooney once again appeared to be headed for the Old Trafford exit door.  However, McNulty & Co.'s brazen endorsement of this train of thought reeks of a sycophancy that is usually more discreetly delivered.

At 27 years old and in your tenth season with a club, you are either already on the road to greatness or you are not - Moyes' recent loud recommendation should be superfluous.  Now, Manchester United fans can feel free to tell me differently but, having lived in Manchester through both of his 'transfer sagas' of the past few years, I felt that the prevailing feeling towards Rooney among Reds fans was one of pragmatism.

These affairs have a tendency to shatter any cult of personality and leave a bitter taste in the mouth.  Those final few points that might put Rooney on a par with real club legends could well have been irretrievably lost.  By comparison, Steven Gerrard at Liverpool gives the impression of having just stayed on the right side of the line that Rooney has crossed several times now.

In the same way - to take an example from another sport - Michael Schumacher will never be embraced as a legend by many followers of Formula 1 because, despite his undeniable statistical achievements, he exhausted the fans' goodwill with multiple transgressions over several years.

Sure, you can't quibble with Rooney's goals return, and while there is a debate to be had about how good - and how consistently good - he actually is, goals win games and titles - end of.

Nevertheless, you can't re-embark on the path to greatness at this late stage in the game.  This isn't Snakes & Ladders (copyrighted, I'm sure) where you all plough on regardless of any falls from grace.  This is one game that Rooney, Moyes, and all the Red media apologists should admit they have lost; go and pick another English twenty-something - who promises to screw up less often - and start again.

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Photo credit: nasmac

Rangers centre-half McCulloch's 'surprise' hat-tricks

Rangers manager Ally McCoist has clearly had a brainwave.  Following centre-half Lee McCulloch’s two successive League One hat-tricks in recent weeks, the Glasgow club have gone hunting for former Hearts captain Marius Zaliukas on a free transfer; the more centre-halves, the merrier.

To be sure, Zaliukas’ record of 14 goals in 200-odd appearances for the Jambos doesn’t scream “free-scoring”,  but I’m sure McCoist will have some brusque, reckless attacking tactic up his sleeve to turn that stat around – the sort of tactic that only a outrageously underpunished, out-of-place ‘big’ club could make while taking a few years’ holiday in the lower leagues.

Of course, the fact that McCulloch spent a great chunk of his career as an attacking player might give him an edge over Zaliukas in the goalscoring stakes.  These hat-tricks against Arbroath and East Fife are hardly on the same level of absurdity as, say, Paul McShane or Mamady Sidibe hitting three in one game – despite being the first of his professional career.  It isn’t that long since he last donned his shooting boots.  Just look and listen at this video:

 

Mind you, centre-back or not, if McCulloch is going to insist on galloping off up the field bagging hat-tricks then you can’t blame McCoist for wanting some cover.  Never mind all the defenders already on their books, the new signing Milel Bohsni, as well as Boris Pandža – a Bosnian international defender in talks with the club.

Rangers’ year-long transfer embargo was recently lifted, you know.  Really itching for their fix aren’t they.

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Photo Credit: Alasdair Middleton

Top Bloke of the Season, Nominee A: Martin Atkinson

Thank you, Martin Atkinson, for refusing to believe that Paolo Di Canio could possibly have any grasp of sarcasm, and for fully exploiting the opportunity to send him to the stands.

Di Canio so often thinks himself the smartest person in the room - or stadium - but this was happily exposed as a fantasy through Mr Atkinson's beautiful refusal to indulge the Italian's childishness.

Given the ceaseless torrent of abuse we all send the way of  match officials, it's only right to not to overlook an opportunity to take your hat off to them in congratulation of a job well done.  I take back everything - mostly everything - I must have bellowed at you from the terraces over the years.  Until next time, of course.

Martin Atkinson.  Top bloke.

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Photo credit: Кондратенко Наталия

One signing doesn't make a summer

Yes, Arsenal pulled off quite the really really expensive coup on transfer deadline day.

But even such a spectacular deal doesn't erase the discontent of several static summer months for the Gunners.  We might rest easy that manager Arsene Wenger has faith in the squad who closed last season in such commanding form, but for the mounting evidence that Arsenal Football Club has money to burn.

“It is going to be the players that Arsene believes in,” said the club’s chief executive, Ivan Gazidis, in June, as he revealed Arsenal’s whopping budget.  Now, standing still in football is a no-no for everybody and few would agree with Wenger’s apparent conclusion that Özil was the only addition needed to put the team on track - so the Frenchman’s continued frugality remains a mystery.

 

Presently, at least, the signs are promising that Özil will flourish.  He has dismissed whispers of unprofessionalism – emanating from Madrid – by citing an impressive record of games played in recent years.  At 24, he is still young and yet has top-level club experience in multiple countries and an international record for Germany that belies his youth. 

His long-passing and crossing ability, however, might be wasted on the current Arsenal side, while opportunities to deliver that killer ball will be fewer and further between against the stubborn, bomb-shelter-esque defences that populate the middle half of the Premier League.

 

Nevertheless, Özil’s ability should see him establish himself as one of the league’s top operators.  Indeed, it is against those deep, impenetrable mid-table defences where he may well make the greatest repayments of his transfer fee; the German’s instinct for creating space where there previously was none, with deft control and one-touch passing, cannot be undervalued.

 

 

Wenger now has a pillar of quality around which he can rally others – something he has been missing since Van Persie’s departure a year ago.  Wenger couldn’t – or at least didn’t – satisfy the ambitions of such charismatic figures as Van Persie and Fabregas; now he has another chance.  However, in the manner of Van Persie and Fabregas, Özil could well be the proverbial overworked wage-slave in the patisserie – surrounded by puddings.  Arsenal haven’t won a trophy since 2005 and one wonders at their persistence with a strategy of overreliance on individuals.

If the money was there to spend all summer, it is incomprehensible that no foundations should be laid, no supporting cast members roped in, as Arsenal waited for other transfer dominoes to fall and shove Özil in their direction.

Although it is widely agreed that Özil’s midfield role was not what required the most urgent attention at Arsenal this transfer window, this should by no means be considered an endorsement of the current crop of creative, forward-thinking midfielders.  Let’s remove the scales from our eyes here – nobody currently occupying the Arsenal midfield has turned their potential into a full season of consistent performances, driving for the title – and anybody throwing the name ‘Wilshere’ in at this point (“he’s playing for England, so he must be good”) can come back when he has steered the Gunners to a trophy.  Doubtless he will yet improve, but he is far from there at this moment.

Ah – and let us not forget the free-transfer return of Mathieu Flamini.  Sky Sports News tried to get all its viewers excited about this one by recalling how well Flamini had performed in his final season with Arsenal, 2007-08, before departing for Milan.  Hilariously, the ‘With/Without Flamini’ statistical ‘proof’ displayed on-screen showed an infinitesimally small drop-off in form when Arsenal were without the French midfielder.  We can all look forward to his impact then.

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Photo Credit: Sama093

So glad to see Eto'o

Over the years, Samuel Eto'o really has made quite the impression on me.  It is therefore a pleasure not only to finally welcome him to the Premier League, but to see him reunited with a manager who brought out his best quality to the full.

Here's to seeing more of this every weekend this year.

Still, at least the Eto'o and Co. Amateur Dramatics Society will provide some relief from other nauseating focal points of the highlights reels - they just won't be able to squeeze it all in.

We should be grateful, in fact.  With Alan Hansen's sage wisdom finally fading away and the likes of Adebayor and Bale no longer there to grace our screens, smiling in disbelief at their failure to con their way to a free-kick, it was looking like it might just be the Paolo Di Canio Paranoia Extravaganza this year.

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Photo Credit: Tommy Klumker

Beginning

This is the beginning of a blog that has the grand aspiration of talking sensibly about football.  There is so much guff shrouding our game in the current age that we can hardly get near it.  Empty news stories, false idols and manufactured values have riddled football for too long; the market has reached saturation point.

This blog will scythe through the rubbish and, with any luck, glean a few insights that some within football would have us ignore.

Let's take a shot at reclaiming the sport.  Avante.