Ahead of the Game: Capello Beckham For 2010

News in 60 seconds

CAPELLO: BECKHAM COULD PLAY UNTIL 2010
The England manager has surveyed the dearth of top-quality England flank players and declared that David Beckham could be part of his plans at the next World Cup. “It's still open,” Capello says. “There are players who at 33 or 34 take good care of themselves.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/international/article3815024.ece

UNITED WILL RISE TO CHALLENGE, SAYS FERGIE
The Manchester United manager is confident his side will emerge successful from what could prove a huge week in their history. United will effectively win the Premier League if they beat Chelsea tomorrow and qualify for the Champions League final if they overcome Barcelona on Tuesday. “We have the players and the squad to do it,” he said. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article3816858.ece

GRANT: I CAN HANDLE PRESSURE
None too surprisingly, the Chelsea manager also reckons he has the players to triumph at Stamford Bridge tomorrow. “It’s difficult to beat us,” he said. “The pressure’s good. I hope I have weeks like this all my life.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/chelsea/article3816870.ece

GOVERNMENT TO PROBE ANFIELD TURMOIL
The ownership struggle that has engulfed Liverpool this season will be the focus for a new parliamentary enquiry. The study will examine the governance of English football and make the Anfield crisis one of its key areas.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article3816631.ece

PREMIER LEAGUE PREVIEWS: VIDIC FIT FOR STAMFORD BRIDGE
The United defender has recovered from the dicky stomach that forced him to miss their Nou Camp stalemate and is likely to play tomorrow. We’ve got all the other breaking news on the weekend’s games, too.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article3813477.ece

WEMBLEY MAKES £22m LOSS
The revamped national stadium may look pretty but it isn’t doing good business. The FA have lost £22 million on Wembley since it re-opened a year ago, forcing them to draft plans to refinance the debt on the project.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article3814564.ece

HUTCHINGS APPOINTED WIGAN NO 2
In a rather ambitious PR move, the Premier League club yesterday promised that their unidentified new assistant manager would be “top class”. Today they confirmed it’s Chris Hutchings. Discuss.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article3814470.ece

MCCARTHY COMMITS FUTURE TO BLACKBURN
The South African forward has signed a three-year deal with Mark Hughes’s side after completing several weeks of negotiations. “It’s good news,” the manager said.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article3814652.ece

KEEGAN DRAWS UP TRANSFER TARGETS
Kevin Keegan has given the Newcastle owners his shortlist of transfer targets, but the manager was coy on rumours linking him to Luka Modric and Thierry Henry. “It's fantastic, isn't it?” he said, sarcastically. “I have had fantastic lunches this week at the training ground. We have had Modric there,  Henry, Deco has been in ... that's fantasy football.” Yes, it is, but that’s never stopped you before, Kevin.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article3816434.ece

HENRY: ARSENAL MY NO 1
Unfortunately for Tyneside dreamers, the Barcelona forward has revealed that Arsenal “are the only club in my heart”. He should be even more determined to beat United, then.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article3814356.ece

WOODGATE: SPURS CAN BREAK BIG FOUR
The defender has donned his rose-tinted glasses and claimed Tottenham can challenge for a Champions League place next season. “There is a feeling here similar to the one I had at Leeds,” he said. We’re guessing he means on the pitch rather than in the accounts office.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/tottenham/article3816439.ece

-------------------------------------

If you’ve got another couple of minutes

KEANE LOSES PLOT, AGAIN
AOTG has always liked Roy Keane for the fearlessness with which he speaks his mind, regardless of whether that means rubbishing team-mates, managers or those fans with a discerning palate. But we were disappointed to hear that he does not quite respect others’ right to do the same. Clive Clarke, the Sunderland player who suffered – and survived - a heart attack while playing for Leicester on loan from Sunderland, recently gave an interview to Ireland’s Sunday Independent criticising Keane’s management techniques. Clarke claimed Keane went around “booting chairs and throwing things”, which hardly compares to some of the manager’s more inflammatory outbursts, but was still reason enough for Keane to telephone the journalist involved, Richard Sadlier, the former Ireland and Millwall forward. “To call it a conversation would be wrong,” Sadlier wrote in his column of a diatribe in which his countryman repeatedly called him a “spiteful c***” before abruptly hanging up. Goodness knows how Keane will respond to Sadlier’s decision to go public on the rant but we suggest that, for once, he keeps schtum.

-------------------------------------

7
European Cup/Champions League semi-finals that Liverpool have won in succession.

-------------------------------------

A quickie before you go, sir?

CANTONA: THE MOVIE
Popbitch reports that Ken Loach plans to make a film of Eric Cantona’s life entitled Finding Eric. True to his socialist principles, Loach has been spotted slumming it with Cantona on Manchester public transport, while contributors to United club forums have seen the two men sitting beside one another at Old Trafford. It may be that Loach is simply getting to know his subject better but online gossip hounds suggest he is lining up the footballer-turned-actor for a place in the film. AOTG has not seen Cantona on the big screen so cannot comment on whether that is a sensible idea, but we enjoyed this spirited little monologue he performed for a TV advert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD8FTzUkf5A&feature=related

-------------------------------------

>>>>> THE TABLOID TALE<<<<<
Argie’s called to say: I love U – The Sun
What you need to know: 1) Carlos Tevez has written a song about his love for Manchester United. 2) The Argentinian is going to record it with his band back home over the summer. 3) Somebody should play him Diamond Lights or Gazza’s interpretation of Fog On The Tyne before he thinks about releasing it. 4) And, for the record, AOTG disapproves of that abbreviation in the headline (though we quite like the pun)

-------------------------------------

In TheGame

Should Cardiff qualify for the Uefa Cup if they win the FA Cup? The FA says yes, but what you do think? Vote in our poll.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2008/04/should-cardiff.html
Bill Edgar has racked his stadium-sized brains and filed another Fiendish Football Quiz. He’s also revealed the answer to the question he posed yesterday.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2008/04/bill-edgars-f-3.html
More than 60 per cent of those who voted in yesterday’s poll say Fergie got his tactics wrong against Barcelona. Many explain their thinking in the comment forum. “Nil-nil is not a good result,” one reader writes. “Barca have been awful of late, and a score draw should have been the minimum aim.” Which pretty much sums up the majority opinion.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2008/04/did-fergie-make.html
Nominations continue to flood forth for our Holy XI. Noteworthy contenders include Swansea City’s Holy Trinity of Kristian O'Leary, Gary Monk and Angel Rangel, the Rev Michael McCurry, an SPL ref – always a man in black (if not actually a player) – and Bongo Christ, a former Congo international. But Mavis’s choice goes straight into the starting line-up: “Jesus in goal. Because Jesus Saves.”
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2008/04/hear-the-word-o.html
In Fanzine Fanzone, our Bristol City expert reflects on a campaign in which his beloved have exceeded all expectations and yet thrown away the priceless possibility of automatic promotion. “Even if we don’t go up, it’s been a fantastic season,” he writes. “But it’s difficult to look at it that way.”
http://timesonline.typepad.com/fanzine_fanzone/2008/04/so-near-yet-so.html

In Monday's in-paper supplement

- Martin Samuel and Matt Dickinson assess the aftermath of Chelsea v United
- Champions League preview

-------------------------------------

>>>>>THE RIVALS<<<<<
Toon want Thierry – The Sun
Ron will have final word – Daily Express
Fergie: We’ll win it at Chelsea – Daily Mirror
Ferdinand plays down the pain of penalty fluff – The Daily Telegraph
Wembley to reveal losses of over £20m for opening year – The Guardian
City ponder Brazilian blend as Thaksin jets in to meet Sven – The Independent
Mandaric: I should not have come here ... but I will rebuild Leicester – Daily Mail

-------------------------------------

Joe Bloggs’ Soapbox

Today’s soapbox is dedicated to an e-mail one-two AOTG enjoyed with a football-minded cleric this week.

“Hello Bishop Stockford,
Times Online Sport recently listed its Holy XI (it's tongue in cheek, but in good taste) and a reader identified you as a referee in Southwest London. Is this true? If so, would you mind offering some insight into how you officiate? For example, are players more respectful because of your occupation ? Any amusing anecdotes on your time in the middle would be greatly appreciated, too.
Thank you”

“Dear Times Online
My family thought it a good idea to contact you – so, they fingered me! And, yes, it's true. As to your queries, I'll offer what I can.
1. How I officiate.
I seek to be as fair as I can, much as any ref. But I am regarded as being more inclined to apply a card, especially when it comes to offensive, insulting or abusive language (too often ignored, in my opinion). I also always try to pray before I referee, in order that I may do the best for the teams - not for myself but to help them have a good game. I left one league (to remain nameless) because of their attitude towards referees, and have joined the Southern Amateur League, where the attitude towards referees is much more pleasant. There is more acceptance that we are human, which occasionally inspires interest in what I do.
2. However, I've only been a bishop since October and the news has spread slowly so reactions have been confined to jokey comments by players about 'needing to behave'. As a minister, however, the difference is sometimes noticeable. One young man came on as a sub and seemed entranced. I had to tell him to go off and play. Then, when I cautioned him, he had the same reaction and was unwilling to start playing again. Again, I had to tell him to do so. After the game, he came into the changing room, sat down and asked me to pray with him! Fantastic!
3. Funnies - only that, as bishop of a denomination that opposes Catholicism, I have taken great pleasure in getting players to take off rosaries worn as jewellery before going on the pitch! Makes me giggle!
May God's blessings be with you,
Dominic.
Bishop of the Evangelical Connexion of the Free Church of England”

-------------------------------------

Tomorrow’s news today

- Exclusive: Keegan gives his first national newspaper interview since Newcastle return
- Oliver Kay on the Manchester United-Chelsea culture clash
- England captaincy battle: Terry v Ferdinand

And expect…

Bishop Stockford to pray for a certain filthy-tongued Premier League manager.