Tony Cascarino's Fiver

1: A lesson from Africa

The flowing, attacking football at Euro 2008 reminded me of the African Cup of Nations. It is more proof that England need to be more ambitious up front if they are to be successful in future.

2: Aggression is the key

Look at the final yesterday — contested by Germany and Spain, two of the most adventurous teams, while the most cautious (France and Italy) came unstuck. You have got to be aggressive and proactive.

3: Don’t break the bank

Warning to English clubs: do not buy players just because they have had a good tournament. So often clubs pay inflated prices after a brief showing of talent. I would think carefully before buying Andrei Arshavin.

4: A cracking display

My player of the tournament? Sergio Ramos, of Spain. He has been brilliant at the back. Yuri Zhirkov, the left-sided Russia player, has also been excellent. Honourable mentions to Michael Ballack and David Villa.

5: First learn your trade

Emmanuel Adebayor is not ready for a move. At 24 he is young and still learning at Arsenal. The time to move on is in a couple of years, after he has put together a string of impressive seasons, not just one.

Comments

[Spotty Dog]

Ramos player of the tournament? Just goes to show why you failed as a manager Tont.

[Cormac]

Ramos player of the tournament?Tony,that is mental-the guy has a reckless absence of positional sense and consistently gives the ball away.He fancies himself as a right winger/striker but in reality he's a right back who can't defend.

[Pádraig]

Sergio Ramos player of the tournament. That's absolutely laughable. Sure, he's been good going forward (against below average teams I might add ie. Russia) but defensively he's been pretty mediocre.

[juanvu]

Ballack absolutely overrated, I agree about the nasty tackles, one early in the game against Xavi that could have produced a severe injury on the player of the tournament. There is nothing worse than envy and he oozed all over yesterday.

[Moishei.]

Ramos and Zhirkov were outstanding. If I owned Sibneft or Gazprom, I'd buy them.

Has anyone ever seen Arshavin have a good match other than against Holland?

England first need to be more ambitious about controlling the ball when it comes to them, and try to pass to one of their own side where possible before they consider their attacking options, but if I interpret his limited statements in English correctly, their manager seems to understand this. There's £6 million a year not entirely wasted then.

Manager of the tournament was of course Gene Hackman lookalike Phil, who persuaded the best player of the most dangerous rivals of his future employer to go and play in another league. Glamour puss Ronaldo may be skilful, but he's none too bright. We've not had chutzpah like Phil's since Derby manager, Clough persuaded Forest's finest to play for other teams and then sign half of Derby's team when he was at Forest. He must be sitting in God's chair having a good chuckle.

I agree that Michael Ballack had an effective tournament. He was also the most influential player in the second half of the European (Club) Cup Final. But in the Nations' final against Spain, he was guilty of at least two late and vindictive tackles. Those tackles were made from a line of approach, where he knew he could not take the ball, and where he was liable to inflict painful damage on his opponents, likely to render them unfit to continue playing. He should have been sent off the field. Those tackles reminded me of Billy Bremner and Johnny Giles at their most evil, under Don Revie at Leeds. May the Don burn in eternal torment, or be made to watch an endless loop of the 1970 cup final replay.

Guiltily, I felt Schadenfreude when I saw the damage which Senna had inflicted on Ballack's temple by an accidental collision. The faces of the German losers were good to see. I have not enjoyed seeing German losers so much since a film history of the Battle of Stalingrad, even better than '1966 and all that'.

I think your wrong about Adebayor. He has not yet had a fully productive season, but I would rate him as having no greater ability than (Fred) Kanu(o) of Arsenal, Albion and Portsmouth.