Can We Watch You Every Week?

Three-goal Walcott: hitting headlines for the right reasons

It’s likely that Match of the Day pundit Alan Hansen, an infamous stickler for the defensive aspect of football, will have spectacularly combusted at the state of the defending on show during this week’s League Cup action.

Man-marking and tactics seemingly went out the window in one fell swoop in favour of a gung ho approach and a reckless abandon for any semblance of ‘structure’ – whatever that is.

It is what was needed after the toxic opening fortnight to October 2012. 

Just two weeks ago the tag of the beautiful game was nothing but ironic. 

A farcical and frustrating downpour in Poland, which saw England’s World Cup qualifying game delayed by 20 hours, interspersed a racist riot in south-east Serbia and a drunken act of thuggery from a Leeds United fan.

The fallout from the two serious offences listed on the charge sheet above still linger within touching distance, as does the wider issue of racism on these shores.

A “will they / won’t they?” debate surrounding whether certain black footballers – most prominent of whom were Reading striker Jason Roberts and the Ferdinand brothers, Manchester United’s Rio and Queens Park Rangers’ Anton – would wear t-shirts supporting the anti-racism group ‘Kick It Out’ also lurked on the horizon.

Kick It Out, rather like a bantamweight boxer, are hard working but under-powered and served, rightly or wrongly, as the recipient of a minor ‘non t-shirt wearing revolt’ from multi-millionaires who subsequently grabbed the several column inches that they desired.

But where was the football among this? 

Many supporters don’t care who wears what and who shakes whose hand as a gesture of over politicised protocol.  Fans up and down the country were lost, as were the majority of tabloid write-ups on matches which acted as a mere sideshow.

It says something about the demeanour of football at the moment that the last sixteen of the Capital One Cup can provide a touch of light relief to the nastiness which surrounds the sport. 

How naive would it be of us, however, to think that just because a few exciting ‘tennis-like’ scores have been recorded, we’re back on the bandwagon?

Football and politics mix and this is not a frugal and misguided attempt to gloss over the serious nature of what has gone of lately including the racial mudslinging which has taken place in the aftermath of two recent fixtures between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge.

It has been refreshing though, and a pleasure to indulge in the kamikaze nature of the games on show this week, but like the recovering alcoholic that football is, the next poison to trip us up could, unfortunately, be just around the corner.