:: Round And White :: The Premiership, Europe And Beyond

The Things You Learn

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

According to my Benfica-loving Portuguese housemate who in turn stays well in touch with the Portuguese football media, the reason why Christiano Ronaldo stayed at Man U after this summer's escapades was not because he and Rooney made up, nor because the initial interest from Real Madrid disappeared, but because his mum told him to stay at Old Trafford.

Bless.

View From The Away End: A New(-ish) Dawn

Friday, August 18, 2006

So, a new season dawns for Newcastle and it seems as though the club have started exactly where they left off. While most clubs have been busy frittering their money away (this means you Man United and Chelsea), the most exciting thing to happen to the club this summer was Titus Bramble driving his Beemer into a garden wall in Norfolk. Ok, so they signed Damien Duff as well, but while he's definitely a top-class player, he won't be changing their fortunes a great deal.

The rest of this post is up at Black & White & Read All Over.

Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't

Saturday, August 12, 2006

The fickleness of the English press; you're the new England manager. You drop your old team captain from the squad because his performances of late have been lacklustre to say the least. You decide to give the youngsters a chance instead. Something you get criticised for because apparently shown a lack of respect for old stalwarts.

At the same time you appoint a new captain, one John Terry. You then get also criticised for choosing him over Steven Gerrard, someone who's barely reproduced his club form for his country, but some football "experts" think should be given the chance just on the ludicrous possibility that it "might work out for the best".

You can't win. Give it a few months and people will be complaining that the FA should've picked a foreign manager.

New Season, New Hope

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Now that the World Cup is over, Round And White has recovered and is feeling fresh for the new season (unlike Mickey Owen, but that's what kicking melons round supermarkets does to you).

Now that AC Milan have rather fortuitously been cleared to play in the Big Cup by UEFA we can all get over the scandals and move onto proper news like Jose's mind-games. Apparently UEFA "had no choice but to admit" Milan as the governing body was worried about a legal challenge. Strangely, they didn't have that problem with Juve, etc. but hey if your president's Silvio then there'll always be a happy end eh?