Farewell Robin, You Were Wonderful
One Mailer looks back fondly at Robin van Persie's time at Old Trafford as he nears the exit. Plus Turkish delights, being inspired, David Ospina, handballs & decisions.
Farewell Van Persie
If the reports are to be believed, van Persie is about to follow the footsteps of Wesley Sneijder and Dirk Kuyt to Turkey. For me, he was worth every penny of the 24 million pounds that United paid for him.
If it wasn't for his goals every week and for Alex Ferguson's ability to make teams seem stronger than they actually are, there would be no Title No 20. However, 2011-12 has to be his best season. It felt like he scored with every touch!
He's been my favourite player for over 10 years now and while selling him is logically a normal decision, with him being 31 and clearly on the decline, it feels like the end of an era to me. I still remember how ecstatic I was when the news broke that he signed for United and then when he scored that first goal against Fulham.
From the days when he joined Arsenal and scored incredible goals to the day he missed the chance to score a winner against them in the last Old Trafford game, it's been a pleasure watching him.
I'll miss those unbelievable left foot volleys that only he could hit, the sense of inevitability as he lined up to shoot and the lazy swagger with which he scored his goals.
Stay and fight for your place, Robin! Or I'll have to find a place to watch the Turkish league.
Sasank, MUFC
WWC > CA
OK, maybe I'm biased because the USA won the tournament, but given the choice between the hard, clean, insane football in Vancouver, and that deeply cynical mess in Santiago, I know which I'd choose every time.
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA (Congrats to the Lionesses!)
Turkish Delights
Is anyone else surprised at the low, low prices paid for Nani (by Fenerbahce) and Podolski (by Galatasaray)?
The media are reporting 3.5 million and 1.8 (!) million respectively. Do these prices not strike anyone else as absurdly low?
Yes, both have disappointed, but such disappointment has been rooted in the failure to fully utilise great talent; talent which has, still, appeared in flurries.
I mean Podolski (the third highest ever German international goal scorer) put away 19 in 60 for Arsenal; and Galatasaray got him for 1.8 million. 1.8 million! No YOU calm down.
Hugh
Inspired, And That's The Point
This is the first time I have felt compelled to write in to The Mailbox and it's in regards to the coverage of the Women's World Cup.
Yes. By all means have a go at the standard of football and whether it does or does not deserve the media exposure but please do not say that this World Cup will not or has not inspired a nation.
You seem to be missing the point of what it has inspired people to do - I'm not talking about watching it, talking about it or listening to the Talksport brigade involve it in some legendary bantz.
When I was younger, I wanted to be a footballer but by the time I was 12 or 13 I knew this was not a dream a young girl could aspire to.
There are now young girls out there who know that if they have the talent and skill and put a hell of a lot of hard work into it, they can become PROFESSIONAL footballers.
I never had a Kelly Smith or Steph Houghton to look to and think, I could do that. They do. And it's inspiring, don't you think?
LSW (Steph bought that penalty, like)
Chelsea: Not Just Roman's Plaything
With the news that Chelsea are planning to invest £500m in stadium renovations to improve (and more importantly stay at) Stamford Bridge, I think it's time we address this once-common notion that Roman Abramovich sees Chelsea as simply a plaything.
In fact, at this point, if you are against the modern football-is-a-business nonsense, then Roman should be your hero! Consider:
He owns the club alone, not as part of some sprawling corporate entity like FSG.
He's invested his own cash at every turn, rather than leveraging clubs assets for loans (and skimming off the top) like the Glazers.
He attends almost every match, unlike Mansour, who made the news when he actually saw a friendly this year.
So if you're looking for an old-school owner who loves his club and sees it as a team, not an asset, then surely you should be embracing the Pensioners, no?
Derby NYBlues
Fanmail For Matt Stead
This http://www.football365.com/faves/9903433/F365-Says might just be the dumbest thing I have ever read on this sight. (MC - sic)
The only argument Stead puts forward is that he wont be a 'yes man' because he hasn't worked with Rodgers before. Newsflash Matt, an overwhelming number of people in football have not worked with Rodgers.
He then spends the rest of the article saying how they say the exact same thing but in different words. The only difference being that he does not like to hear his voice on the television like Rodgers does. All this after cruising passt the only quantifiable evidence of all, in Stead's words O'Driscoll's "Relatively unremarkable spells as manger of Bournemouth, Doncaster and Nottingham Forest."
Eiforr
Ospina Must Be Jealous Of Falcao
David Ospina must be absolutely livid with the Falcao Chelsea deal. Falcao was nothing but a disaster at Manchester United and he gets rewarded with another chance with the reigning champions. The pressure is slightly off too knowing that Diego Costa will always be first choice and the one expected to score 25 goals in a season.
Ospina on the other hand took a while to get used to London. Performed admirably well when called to the first team and held it until the end. He went to Chile for Copa America assuming he'd be given at least a fair chance to cement the No1 position at Emirates but while he was focusing on pulling off superhuman saves against Messi, Arsenal went ahead and signed Petr Cech.
And now there are talks of him being sold to Turkey. As an Arsenal fan, I loved Ospina and truly feel bad for him. But it was just bad timing that it didn't work out with him. He was 10 times better than Almunia. And his Colombian teammate Falcao getting rewarded for a crappy season must be like adding salt on his wounds.
Shreyas (OOOOOOOOOOOOOSPINA) Krishna
If The Ball Hits Your Hand...
Explain handball? Go on take two minutes, I'll wait. If it is something along the lines of 'when the ball hits your hand' well you're wrong, now give me 50 laps of the training field whilst I chase you in my car wearing a crude and, if I'm honest, p**s poor papier mache mask of Roy Keane.
Handball is only handball when the bloke refereeing the match decides that you meant to do it, that you deliberately moved your hand to the direction of the ball to gain an advantage.
That decision is made in the blink of an eye setting them up for the abuse they quite frankly deserve. But even I feel a pang of sympathy when they make the wrong decision. The whole world can see seconds later if the fat blokes a w*nker even though he is the only person in the world not allowed a second look.
But why is so much entrusted in the referee? He's the only bloke on the pitch who doesn't kick the ball yet he decides the fate of all humanity, or at the very least wherever it's a penalty or not.
Well let's give them a hand, lets change the rules and make all handball handball. Whether its deliberate or not it's a penalty/free kick if the ball touches your hand and you're not a goalkeeper. I know, I know, it will mean all defenders adopt the Liam Gallagher school of defending when in the box but it's all for the greater good.
Beardo
Time To Accept Decisions
Watching the big GAA match of the day here in Ireland I am struck by how many times the commentators have countered dubious decisions by the referee by stating that "he's the man in charge", ie and his decision is final (don't worry there was plenty of red bashing in the post match analysis in case you think this is more 'look how great we are over here stuff') But what a wonderful attitude it would be to have.
We have complained about referees for so long in the premier league. Every contentious decision is lambasted on the field by players (here's looking at you wayne!) by irate managers in the post match discussion and by post match analysts in the boxes afterwards.
This constant wave of criticism and disrespect would unnerve any man making him doubt and question his choices. How refs make clear decisions in this environment baffles me.
If I could make one change for the upcoming season it would be a 'respect the man' campaign for refs. Starting from the commentary boxes (yes you would actually have to analyse matches now rather than just look at contentious decisions) down to the managers and their post match rants and to players only be allowed to talk to the ref through their captains and then in a respectful manner. How beautiful it would be.
Whenever a ref makes a decision it would be accepted. Official questions could be raised on the pitch through captains in the appropriate manner or through clubs via official channels but otherwise it'd be a case of: he's the man in charge, respect the decision.
It'll never happen of course but I can't think of any other change that would enhance our game more; if only to eliminate whiny ass players and managers trying to distract from their teams inadequacies and lazy ass commentators hiding any real insight.
Amen.
Dave lfc
Gonzal-NO
I am quite sure a large chunk of Gonzalo Higuain's touted transfer fee is because of his looks.
Rezwan, Bangladesh