A Football Good News Story? Yes Really!

In an age where football and footballers never get any good press it was gratifying to read a very pleasant story this week about a fine gesture from the players and management of Cambridge United.

A world away from the did-he-or-didn’t-he-dive of Ashley Young, the was-it-or-wasn’t-it a goal of the FA Cup semi final, Cambridge United were playing Barrow in a Blue Square Bet Premier game.

By any stretch of the imagination that is not a trip you undertake without thinking about it (a mate of mine once went to watch his team play Barrow and remarked that it wasn’t the sort of place you went “by mistake.”) but around 80 hardy souls made the 268 mile trip to watch a game between two mid-table teams with nothing to play for.

As a reward for this, Cambridge boss Jez George decided to buy their tickets at a cost, apparently out of his own pocket, of around £1120. On the way home the Cambridge players chipped in and got Pizza for the travellers too.
This has now become common knowledge, although George said: "It was a small thing we wanted to do quietly. We didn't really want any publicity. It was just a way of showing we really appreciate the support they give us.
"We work for them. We want to make them happy every weekend. It's a very, very small gesture from us, just as a big thank you.”
There is nothing we can really add here, except to applaud it. We have written on this blog before about Bolton players who didn’t even have to park their cars at The Reebok when we were at a game there in November and it is interesting to contrast the differences between football at the rarefied level of the Premier League and the top level of Non League.
I understand the myriad differences between the clubs at that level and at the top, but it is just good, on occasion, to remember that all footballers – and indeed all football – are not and is not the same.

One Rule For One....

Earlier this month somebody let a smoke grenade off at Chelsea’s training ground. The incident was widely reported in the press and the football club promised a “full and thorough” investigation into what had happened would take place.

Last week the results of that investigation was published and young midfielder Jacob Mellis was sacked after being identified as the man that committed the act. A fellow reserve, Billy Clifford, was fined for being the one that brought the grenade in.

I have absolutely no problem with either of these punishments. Quite frankly, if anyone let a smoke bomb off in their place of work they would be lucky to keep their jobs.

But then, you have to say that the same would apply if you shot a student with an air rifle too. So, you do have to wonder why Ashley Cole still plays for Chelsea if Mellis doesn’t and Clifford was disciplined.

The answer, of course, is that it’s far easier to sack a reserve teamer than it is an England International. Mellis, who is now on trial at Burnley, has previous experience of playing for Barnsley and Southampton has played for England at Under-16,17 and 19 levels, but he hasn’t played nearly 350 games in the Premier League and 93 times for his country like Cole has.

With all the off-field stuff that comes along with Cole, it is easy to forget that, whether you love him or hate him (and most people are in the latter group) Ashley Cole is a superb full back, perhaps one of England’s few genuine World Class players, but does this give him the right to behave in any way that he wants with no real consequences?

Maybe not, but if this particular turn of events is to be believed then it really does give that impression.

I mean, far be it from me to say that it is one rule for one and one for another, but it doesn’t half look like that. Perhaps its that culture that leads footballers like Cole, Mellis and Clifford to think they can behave in any way they choose, with no consequences.

I have no idea how much Mellis gets paid, but I will wager it’s a lot more than me, similarly Cifford signed a new four year deal last summer and although he remains in Chelsea’s reserve team you can bet he isn’t exactly poor either. As for Cole, this is the man who became public enemy number one in England (even in the days before he cheated on Cheryl Cole) for saying his £55,000 a week wages were an insult (if the bosses here would like to “insult” me with those types of pay packets they can feel free!)

The point I am making here is that we, the public, assume footballers are out of touch with reality. This is most probably grossly unfair, then something like this comes along and you think “no its not.”

Ashley Cole is probably thinking about letting a smoke bomb off right now, to see if he could get away with it – and I will bet you he would!

Fabrice Muamba and The Power Of Social Networking

There can be little doubt that the outpouring of support and emotion for Fabrice Muamba will be of great comfort to the player and his family in these difficult times, but it is also provided an interesting insight into the modern world.

Like many I was watching the game live on TV shocked at what I was seeing, but I had to go out later on in the evening, but was desperately keen to find the latest news on what was happening to the Bolton man.

So like millions and million of others I was logging on to Twitter to see what was going on. Fabrice Muamba was trending all around the world, people from all sorts of countries were passing on their good wishes, and desperately enquiring as to how he was.

This will, whether he likes it or not – and you suspect that he wont – this will make Fabrice some sort of celebrity as he completes his recovery, but it does show us the power of Social Networking.

The last time something like this happened in the UK was 2007 when Irish International Clive Clarke suffered a Cardiac Arrest while playing for Leicester against Forest in the Carling Cup. The fact that Clarke’s plight is nowhere near as well known as Muamba’s tells us two things. 1) it tells us that he wasn’t a Premier League player and (arguably more important) 2) it tells us how the world has changed in five years, and just how important Social Networks like Twitter and Facebook have become as a way to find out news and share information.

The Hashtag , a word that wouldn’t have even been known when Clarke suffered his illness (from which, thankfully, he recovered) “Pray For Muamba” which was used on Twitter seeped into our National conscience, and appeared on t-shirts of footballers around the world. It is still being used on the site to encourage people of all faiths, or indeed no faith at all, to send positivity.

But we saw the other side of Social Networking too a little later in the evening, as Liam Stacey achieved his fifteen minutes of infamy. Acts of stupidity that could now see him end up with a prison sentence. Everyone who was looking for info on Muamba would have seen the condemnation of his extremely offensive Tweets, and within minutes he was the internets most wanted man. Many people, including the broadcaster and former footballer Stan Collymore contacted the police, and on Sunday morning Sweeney was arrested. After initially trying to claim his account was hacked he admitted his offence in Court on Monday and could now end up behind bars.

It is only right that people pay for what they say in “Cyberspace” so we at Cheap5aside.com applaud the police for taking the action they have. However we also applaud the vast majority of people, whether they are football fans or not and regardless of they support, for their genuine caring attitude.
Football is occasionally a force for good and we cannot let idiots being offensive let us cloud that fact.

Everyone at Cheap5aside.com sends our good wishes for a full recovery to Fabrice Muamba and hope that his family have drawn strength from all the well wishes.

Gold Medal Standard

There was news last week that the only Olympic Sport with tickets available was football. Some people were surprised at this, saying that Football was the Nation’s sport and they thought the tickets would be snapped up.

In actual fact the figures of the thing are quite interesting. The tickets start at £20 but rise to a quite astonishing £125, and there are around 800,000 that have been sold. This makes football the most popular Olympic sport, a fact the organisers have been keen to trumpet.

However, that only tells half of the story. The 800,000 sold still means there approximately 1.5m left and tickets are apparently available for nearly every men’s group game as well as the Quarter Finals and one of the semi’s. For the women’s game the situation is even worse, with no game – including the final – sold out yet.

On one hand this is a shame, as football really is the only truly UK wide event in London’s Olympics. Matches are taking place at places as geographically diverse as Coventry, Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Cardiff as well as at Wembley.

So the inquest has now begun as to why this should be. It seems to me that there are all sorts of reasons for the 1.5 million tickets being left. At cheap5aside.com, to be totally honest we are not gripped with Olympic fever anyway, but that is especially true of the football tournament.

People are right, we do love football in this country. But we don’t have any affinity with the football tournament in the Olympics. Team GB has never been represented before, and of course there is an on-Then there is the rather more important matter of Euro 2012. The battle in Poland and the Ukraine ends an on-going battle surrounding the availability of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish players for the tournament. matter of weeks before the Olympics begin and herein lies perhaps the biggest issue that five ringed football faces: Simply it is not the pinnacle of their career for any of the players involved. Winning the World Cup, The Premier League, Euro 2012, the FA Cup, whatever it is, they are all more important, surely than the Olympic tournament is.

The four year sporting extravaganza is about athletics, mainly, then to a lesser extent swimming and cycling. For these people the medal is what they have worked for all their lives. Is that really true if, say, David Beckham?

The organisers are anticipating a surge in interest when the draw for the competition is made, but I cant help feeling that this pie in the sky and the football in the Olympics whether it is the men’s or women’s tournament will be shown in little highlights packages to a disinterested TV audience who are eager to watch Chris Hoy, Mo Farrah, Jessica Ennis or Usian Bolt.

And if you think I am being harsh let me pose you a question: Without Googling it, who won the 2008 football championships in Beijing?

No, I don’t know either.

Value For Money - Only Matters When You Win

So Fabio kissed goodbye to a £6m a year contract last night, and apparently did so on a point of principle.

Good luck to him, but as someone remarked this morning it’s a damn sight easier to have principles when you are on £6m a year than when you are on £6 an hour.

The fact of the matter is, though, that no one would actually give a monkeys what Fabio Capello had earned during his tenure as England boss if he had actually done a good job.

People talk about value for money (and god knows this website wouldn’t exist if people didn’t demand it) but what people value more than anything – and this is especially true of sport – is that the person we are paying these exorbitant sums actually wins something and in turn makes us feel good.

On the BBC News last night the journalist Mihir Bose was trying to make the comparison between Capello’s (it must be said exorbitant) salary and the bonus which Banker Stephen Hester refused last week under public pressure. But that rather misses the point.

As much as the callers to phone-ins like to say words to the effect that “if I did my job that badly I would be sacked” in relation to a player who has a bad game, or more likely a referee, the same employment rules do not apply.

With sports (and most importantly football seeing as that’s what we are about at cheap5aside.com) we live vicariously. Think of the language you use: “We played well.” “We were crap”. When things get really bad there will be some variant of “you’re not fit to wear the shirt.” Will be sung, you can bet on it. The teams we support are part of us, in a way that wear you bank isn’t and never will be

The big difference between any footballer and Stephen Hester is that we love football, but we have to go to the bank.

That doesn’t mean though, that we are here to be ripped off. Which is why footballers get abuse when they don’t perform, its why Managers are under pressure, its why Capello was never widely loved. If they don’t provide us “value for money” then we will come down on them like a tonne of bricks – and all of a sudden we will care what wages they get.

Of course, this loyalty only refers to the 11 aside game, when it coes to 5 a side, we only want a good product. Here we genuinely want value for money and here, we will all happily leave on a point of principle.

Rip us off at your peril.

Value For Money In The January Window

The news that spending was down 70% in this transfer window will have come as a surprise to no-one who follows these things.

According to accountants Delloite spending in January 2012 was estimated to be around £60m amongst the Premier League clubs, which of course is considerably less than the money spent on taking Torres to Chelsea and Carroll to Liverpool last year.

In the last couple of days there has been much discussion as to why, with Delliote’s own Director of Sports Business, Alan Switzer, blaming the onset of the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations for the dramatic decrease.

"The 2011-12 season does now count towards the Uefa rules and that will be part of the consideration which clubs will be giving to any transfer,” he was quoted as saying on the BBC website.

Those financial fair play laws state that any club that loses more than €45m (around about £37m) in the two seasons between 2011-13 could be barred from European Competitions such as the Champions League and it does appear that this has played a part, with Arsene Wenger saying: “It looks like economically the whole of Europe is becoming a bit more cautious."

But if that is – no doubt – a part of the story then perhaps it is not as big a part as is being claimed.

Whether it is Real Madrid selling their training ground to the Spanish government, or Manchester City having their ground sponsored for astronomical sums, the big clubs can find a way round around these losses, and I am yet to be convinced that UEFA, for all its good intentions is going to kick a really big club out its competitions. Can you imagine Sky, for example, being happy if there was no Barca, Real or Man City in the Champions League? So in actuality surely UEFA are just talking a good game?

So perhaps it is not just a new-found desire of the massive European behemoth’s to get their financial house in order, and the lack of transfers is for more altogether pragmatic reasons.

Namely, is there any value in making transfers at this time of the season?

If you take a look at the big four transfers last time – those aforementioned two that saw Torres leave Anfield and Carroll and Suarez replace him – and the one that saw David Luiz bring his rather eccentric brand of defending to West London, with the notable exception of the controversial Uruguayan has any of these men delivered the goods?

Surely by their very nature transfers at this time of year mostly fall into the “take a punt” bracket. Teams that are struggling at the bottom of the league needing to strengthen their squads – such as QPR, who you have to say probably did the best out of all the teams, but the teams challenging for honours (and therefore the same teams that the fair play law is going to affect) largely feel its best to stay out of it. Unless, like Chelsea, you can get someone who’s contract is running out at a knockdown price before the inevitable scrum in the summer – but interestingly Gary Cahill is yet to start a game in the league for Chelsea, so maybe it was more with 2012-13 in mind anyway?

Getting someone at a knockdown price in 2012 is a lot different to spending £50m on a player that hasn’t performed yet since his transfer in 2011, and there can be no doubt that buying players in the summer, with all the opportunities that gives for pre-season training, team integration and so on, must be infinitely more preferable to managers than an unseemly squabble in January.

And viewed in that light, perhaps this £60m spend is much less about financial fair play than good, old fashioned, football sense?

Value For Money - Only Matters When You Win?

So Fabio kissed goodbye to a £6m a year contract last night, and apparently did so on a point of principle.

Good luck to him, but as someone remarked this morning it’s a damn sight easier to have principles when you are on £6m a year than when you are on £6 an hour.

The fact of the matter is, though, that no one would actually give a monkeys what Fabio Capello had earned during his tenure as England boss if he had actually done a good job.

People talk about value for money (and god knows this website wouldn’t exist if people didn’t demand it) but what people value more than anything – and this is especially true of sport – is that the person we are paying these exorbitant sums actually wins something and in turn makes us feel good.

On the BBC News last night the journalist Mihir Bose was trying to make the comparison between Capello’s (it must be said exorbitant) salary and the bonus which Banker Stephen Hester refused last week under public pressure. But that rather misses the point.

As much as the callers to phone-ins like to say words to the effect that “if I did my job that badly I would be sacked” in relation to a player who has a bad game, or more likely a referee, the same employment rules do not apply.

With sports (and most importantly football seeing as that’s what we are about at cheap5aside.com) we live vicariously. Think of the language you use: “We played well.” “We were crap”. When things get really bad there will be some variant of “you’re not fit to wear the shirt.” Will be sung, you can bet on it. The teams we support are part of us, in a way that wear you bank isn’t and never will be

The big difference between any footballer and Stephen Hester is that we love football, but we have to go to the bank.

That doesn’t mean though, that we are here to be ripped off. Which is why footballers get abuse when they don’t perform, its why Managers are under pressure, its why Capello was never widely loved. If they don’t provide us “value for money” then we will come down on them like a tonne of bricks – and all of a sudden we will care what wages they get.

Of course, this loyalty only refers to the 11 aside game, when it coes to 5 a side, we only want a good product. Here we genuinely want value for money and here, we will all happily leave on a point of principle.

Rip us off at your peril.

A Weekend In London

It is hardly news to say football is too expensive.

If it was then Cheap 5 a side wouldn’t need to exist, but a couple of things happened last week that really brought it home.

First I got a ticket to watch Stoke play Fulham at Craven Cottage. Lets be honest, this is not a fixture that sets the pulse racing. But that doesn’t seem to bother the powers that be. The price they are charging for the game is £35, that’s £35 to see two teams that no one cares about really battle it out in a game that is fairly inconsequential in terms of…..well …anything really.

The weekend of the Fulham game is shaping up to be an expensive one. On the Friday night, I am going to a gig at Wembley Arena, when Prog Metal Legends Dream Theater play. The ticket for that was the same price as the football, which seems wrong doesn’t it? The concert will be an event in a way that we are told football is, but it really isn’t – not a game like Stoke v Fulham anyway.

As soon as the Fulham game finishes we will hotfoot it to another gig, this time in Brixton, where another metal band, Mastodon play. This was considerably cheaper than both, at £18.

The point I am making here is that, as much as I like these two bands, if these gigs weren’t priced in the way they are, we wouldn’t be going. That isn’t the case for the football. If sacrifices need to be made for football then they get made. Because we are Stoke fans we turn up. And it’s this loyalty that clubs play upon.

It is often said people pay what they think something is worth, but when it comes to football that just isn’t true. I KNOW that this game isn’t worth £35 but I still fork it out. Football fans aren’t your normal “consumer” – largely we don’t shop around.

Other sports are more, shall we say, customer friendly. On the night of the Fulham game the next instalment of the Prizefighter boxing series takes place in Wolverhampton. I would like to have gone to this and did look into the possibility of going. A good seat for this is £30. For this you are guaranteed seven fights and plenty of excitement, which does seem not a bad deal at all.

And a good deal is what we are interested in after all. It just doesn’t to apply when blind loyalty and 11 a side football mix. The same isnt true of 6 a side don't worry

Youth Gone Wild

Aside from Chris Samba, perhaps the most talked about player in the transfer window has been Ravel Morrison.

Newcastle have had a bid turned down, he has been linked with Barcelona and now Manchester City are said to be trying to tempt him across town.

Quite astonishing really for a player who has made just three substitute appearances in the Manchester United first team (all of which in the Carling Cup) and who rarely appears in the newspaper articles without words like “wayward” or “troubled” being attached to his name.

Morrison, who is 19 two days after the window closes, has long been earmarked as a likely prospect to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Beckham, the Nevilles, Butt and Giggs – he was the star of the FA Youth Cup winning side of last season (along with Paul Pogba – who is also set to leave the club according to speculation).

If it were that simple, though, he’d already be in the squad, but with Morrison it isn’t like that.

The young midfielder has had a troubled past, and is currently subject to a police supervision order, which is due to expire. He has been convicted of offences such as witness intimidation and assault. Indeed it is often said that the only reason he is still there is because he is so good.

It is, though, about a little bit more than football ability, and it is, you suspect about something altogether less wholesome, it is about money, pure and simple.

As we have talked about previously on these blogs Youngsters are now big money (Liverpool have already signed a 15-year-old from Wycombe this window) and increasingly clubs want to protect their assets.

It was reported in one of the newspapers this week that it is not uncommon for some youngsters in Premier League youth teams to be on £200k a year, a frankly staggering amount for 17-year olds to be getting.

But it is a fraction of what the likes of Morrison can expect to earn if they fulfil that potential – and it that potential that the clubs are spending to try and keep, and that is exactly why Barcelona, Man City and the rest are being linked with Morrison, because getting him now for whatever compensation they end up having to pay is a darn sight cheaper than buying him if he is worth £30 million at some point in his career – and reports seem to indicate that he is that good.

Crucially, this desire to make sure that the best youngsters are in their control was the reason for the changes to Youth signings the other week – see blog here - , which means the situation will only get worse for the smaller clubs. Youngsters are now big business and football clubs want to cash in

Only time will tell what happens to Ravel Morrison – Alex Ferguson has said his wage demands are “unrealistic ” So his Old Trafford future remains in doubt – but you can bet that if he is as good as we are led to believe then he won’t be leaving Manchester without a fight, because pounds and pence dictate it.

Cheap 5 a side Hopes For 2012

It’s that time of year again when people start making predictions, discussing what might happen throughout the year ahead. Sport is particularly useful for this as you will doubtless have seen if you have bought a paper in the last few days.

And 2012 has many, many sporting events with which to exercise the pundits, in addition to the Olympics, there is Euro 2012, there’s the Ryder Cup and there is the Premier League, of course.

The latter can be dealt with quickly – Manchester City will win that championship with Manchester United second. Simple. Spurs will be third and Chelsea will be fourth.

So instead of a boring list of predictions, I thought it might be interesting to discuss the Cheap 5 a side hopes for 2012.

Number one in that list is something that’s been bugging me for years.

Manager’s to stop talking about referees in Press Conferences:

If you have read these blogs since July you are bound to have read me moaning about this. It is the most annoying aspect of modern football. It happens without fail, every weekend, some manager or other says that the referee has cost his team the points. There is another variance of this, the Manager says “I never criticise referees, but….” Harry Redknapp is always saying this, and for a bloke who “never criticises” the officials he doesn’t half do it a lot.

There is a close cousin of the “never criticising” Manager, and it’s the manager who says “we never get any decisions go our way, so if we got one today, then good.” Mick McCarthy is particularly good at this and it too is extremely annoying.

People to Stop Buying Seating Tickets and then Standing Up For The Whole Game

This is a plea from someone who follows their team to away games in the Premier League.

Please, please sit down.

At nearly every game this season I have had to stand because the followers of my team have decided that they aren’t sitting down. It is annoying, and thoughtless. There are people out there who can’t stand very well for long periods but who don’t want to sit in the disabled section – I know because I am one of them and our viewing experience would be greatly improved if those in front would stick their bum on the seat that they have paid an extortionate amount for.

On the back of the ticket it always says “persistent standing is not allowed,” and yet it seems that if loads of people choose to stand this rule is not enforced (conversely if its just a couple of blokes the stewards can’t wait to wade in.)

The End To Roadwork’s On the M6

This a motorway I spend a lot of time on and there is very little that fills me with dread more than the overhead matrix sings telling you that whichever junction you want is closed and there are “long delays.” Then you sit behind lorries for hours in the middle of the night – for it is usually late when this happens getting upset.

What can they be doing on there? Why does it need to be done constantly? Please stop!

An End to Pointless Football Clichés

We have all seen them. “The lads worked hard,” “it’s a great bunch of lads,” “the fans are fantastic,” or my personal bête noir “110%” It is impossible to give 110%, so stop saying it. It must end in 2012. Oh and every player is not a legend, every game is not “amazing” and not every defeat is a “crisis.”

The Constant Misuse of the Word “Literally” To Be Outlawed

Jamie Redknapp, I am looking at you. Mr Redknapp famously said that “Paul Scholes is an unbelievable player. He has a picture of the match and he literally paints it in front of you.” No, Jamie he doesn’t.

Using “literally” in literally the wrong context is awful. Just yesterday someone said to me that “it was literally coming down cats and dogs,” errr no it wasn’t. Please either use this word correctly or don’t use it all.

And finally, just because I watched him commentate on the Norwich v Spurs game over Christmas….

Ray Wilkins to go Back to Management and leave Sky Forthwith

He spoilt that game with his “my word,” and “what a great player” “tremendous effort from the guys” and so on. It was extremely annoying and, if he commentates on the Newcastle v Man Utd game tonight Cheap 5 a side will be extremely displeased.