The Sporting Hack

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 is...

Congratulations today must go to Didier Drogba who will be leaving Chelsea this summer after an illustrious spell at Stamford Bridge spanning eight years. Some may view his decision to leave the Blues and potentially head east to Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua in search of a healthy pension as greedy. Perhaps financially so, however, not only is it the least he deserves for a glittering club career, but would staying in the Premier League chasing trophies not be equally avaricious? Let’s be honest, Chelsea are hardly in the best of places at the moment; they still have an ageing squad, uncertainty surrounds the manager’s position and they were, to all intents and purposes, a tad lucky to win the Champions League on Saturday night. Therefore congratulations are in order to the Ivorian who has decided to leave on a high. As highs go, there are few better ways to go out than to strike the decisive penalty in the Champions League final. Mention the name Zidane for ex...

A Manchester United fan from Macclesfield rang a radio phone-in on Saturday night to express his desire to see the club he supported field a ‘B’ side in the English leagues. It is an idea that has been mooted by foreign managers from Arsene Wenger to Andre Villas-Boas but has been declared ‘fanciful’ by traditionalists and many ‘morally correct’ former professional footballers. The presenter of the radio show, rightly, quizzed his caller as to a) why he didn’t support Macclesfield and b) what would happen if Manchester United reserves took the 16 th position of League 2 which the Moss Rose side currently occupy? His answer that he was desperate to travel to Torquay on a Tuesday night to see a mixture of kids and crocks play took some believing. At this point, and after a bit of internet research, I’d like to highlight the case of a German-born Spaniard called Joselu (above). A ‘promising player, one for the future’ – but then again, who at the Santiago Bernabeu isn’t? The only ...