Our Discontent with Winter
We'd heard about Henry Winter and his attitude but it wasn't until we followed him on twitter (for academic purposes of course) that we realised how one-eyed he was. His tweets tell us that elite football is the only worthwhile football. If it's not the champions league, the premier league or England matches then Haughty Henry simply doesn't want to know darling. Even when he looks at the elite it's only the elite of the elite he's interested in, witness his tweet here.
When there's talk of a possible resumption for the Home Internationals (a move facilitated by Vauxhall's sponsorship) Haughty Henry steps in to the "row" with a dose of common sense;
"…….The demolition derby characteristics of the Home International collisions, which lasted until 1984 when everybody retired hurt, the ball pleading for mercy, the concept of the Beautiful Game left battered and bruised, may appeal to fans and viewers but it is simply no preparation for encountering Brazil or Argentina.
Home International combat is no dress rehearsal for the dramas of facing the more sophisticated, ball-playing Latin opposition who bar the way to the World Cup, let alone the cultured Spanish or dynamic Germans who stand in the way of England getting anywhere at Euro 2012."
………..Sadly, if the Home Internationals crept back like unwanted guests into the Home of Football, such enlightening friendlies (Ghana at home) would be threatened.
In Henry's world you imagine the following meeting in that there London.
Scene 1 –
We are in the ballroom of the FA's Bohemian Soho Square mansion and the peasant Gary Speed sheepishly approaches the manager of the English Associuation Football team, Lord Fortisque-Smythe. The Peasant Speed is clearly agitated in such exulted company.
"Begging your p-p-p-p-pardon kind sir but we were wondering if we may draw your attention…… Draw you attention t-t-to our p-p-p-p-passion for Association Football. If it's at all p-p-p-p-possible we were wondering if you would accept our proposal for challenge match………..We know it will require a few days off ………..oh you can't spare the time it's the Pheasant season, I see. You're correct, this kind of thing isn't for the likes of us. P-p-p-please have p-p-p-pity on me and forget my impertinence!"
We just have one detail to take issue with Haughty Henry, the Home Internationals have been over for 26 years yet your glorious England have missed out on the massive success they deserve.
Winter's attitude displays all the arrogance of the colonial governor, as our friends from Ffwtbol eloquently point out;
"The other reason that there should be no Team GB is the attitude of people like Henry Winter. Writing in The Telegraph today Winter's piece is dripping with colonial supremism, and haughty dismissal of the other UK nations. He is against the British Championship, somehow envisaging a kick-and-rush battle with the "less sophisticated" Celtic teams, but also worried about the rough-arsed invaders intent on destroying London. It needs to be pointed out to Winter, that the only international team hooliganism in the past twenty years has come from England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have an unblemished record.
The one player that Winter mentions from Wales is Gareth Bale. And you do wonder how much of this new English "goodwill" is down to the emergence of Welsh stars like Bale and Aaron Ramsey. The English have been moaning about Bale's birthplace all year. Team GB would just be a way of claiming him. I'm not sure England would be so intent on our involvement were it not for the recent prominence of our best players."
Well Henry it's probably better that you stick to your side of the tracks and we'll stick to ours.
They've mentioned it now so here are some Home International memories (The first two are for Leighton's autobiographical DVD).
Tags: Henry Winter's not prepared to slum it
Categories : Eric
Call Mulder and Scully!!!
We could have sworn that Bangor City were playing CS Maritimo tonight.
We have been living under this misapprehension since 9:22 last Thursday evening. At this time we thought that Bangor City had won their match 2-1 and that this score meant passage to the next round thanks to a 3-2 victory on aggregate. This is where it starts to get really weird, we could have sworn we were there to see it happen.
At the time we thought it was too good to be true, we knew there was a snag somewhere as we didn't believe our eyes at the time. Even so, the bizarre notion of Bangor playing a match tonight stuck. So we tried to find flights to Madeira for less than £500 return. It stayed with us as other Bangor fans pestered us to come with them. When we received texts from people telling us that Madeira was delightful and when we saw pictures of Bangor's players leaving Funchal's airport on facebook things like this just convinced us the game was going to happen.
It seems that for the last week we've been under the false impression that Bangor were about to play their biggest match for roughly 26 years, in fact we'd been duped by the biggest fabrication since the moon landings. The proof – We found ourselves in the Colwyn Bay branch of Morrisons so we thought we would flick through the newspapers in their extensive library. There was no mention of Bangor's mythical match in Madeira in any of them.
Mind you we shouldn't be surprised. They never make any fuss when a club like Blyth Spartans gets to the third round of the FA Cup, so why should make a fuss when Bangor's Postmen, librarians and particle physicists have a little bit of "success".
It's a sad state of affairs when you yearn to be patronised by Henry Winter.
Curiouser and curiouser.
There seems to be a game on, look at 19:40.
There's a bit of a preview too. (A rough translation is below.)
The defense of Maritimo, Robson acknowledges that Bangor is a strong team. The game between the two formations is the one . 's third -hand . qualifying round of the Europa League and plays in Funchal , from 19.45 .
The challenge will be setting the Stadium of Madeira. The formation of Madeira will be without the injured Djalma but , instead, will return midfielder Rafael Miranda.
"In an antenna , the defense Robson ranked team in Wales and a strong lineup very similar to the previous opponent Sporting Fingal , Ireland .
"I think the team deserves respect. There is a team that is delivered. It deserves our attention and respect. Let's get strong to get a good result here.
Don't you just hate lazy journalists?
Tags: Bryan Woolnough is a tosser, Greame Curry's the same, Henry Winter's not prepared to slum it