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Is England's World Cup bid really lagging behind the rest?

Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent

On the day that England’s bid to reach the 2018 World Cup finals was lurching towards crisis point last week, the temptation arose to check out the competition, starting with the "extremely impressive" campaign that has the joint Spanish-Portuguese bid emerging as favourite.

Guess what. Its website is not up and running yet. "Pagina web en construcción" — or, to put it another way, "pagina web em construção". Spain and Portugal did not even launch their bid until last month, five months after the English bid, but they are in no rush, it seems, to make up for lost time. Mañana, presumably.

Clearly, a bid should not be judged on whether or not it has a website, but, given that this is a competition in which England has been criticised for some trivial mistakes (sending Mulberry handbags to the wives of the Fifa committee members, deliberating over whether to meet the huge cost of getting David Beckham to next month’s World Cup draw so that he could flash a few smiles), it does seem rather an oversight.

Beneath the façade, Brown must be quite some manager

Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent

There is a certain perception of Phil Brown: year-round tan, Britney Spears headpiece, natty dress sense. Likes: sound of own voice, talking people down from suicide spots, karaoke. Dislikes: spitting.

It is a caricature that Brown has been happy to live up to since he first led Hull City on to the Premier League stage 15 months ago. By his own admission, he enjoys the limelight, having concluded, just as Sam Allardyce did when they were together at Bolton Wanderers, that he should take every opportunity to publicise himself and, by extension, his club.

The irony is that, in an age in which image has assumed such importance, Brown should be regarded as someone whose authority has been weakened, rather than enhanced, by his self-projection. Brown is characterised as football’s answer to Icarus — and not merely because of the tan. Having flown so close to the Sun — and the Mirror, but also The Times and every other media outlet — he is in danger of being burnt. Having established himself as the focus of the Hull City story, he is the fall guy when things start to slip.

Owen inching closer to England recall

Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent

Some time over the next few days, Michael Owen will receive a text message that tells him that he is in the pre-selection squad for England’s match against Brazil on November 14. Nothing new in that, but, perhaps for the first time in almost 18 months, the Manchester United forward has cause to wonder if it will be followed on Sunday evening with another text telling him that he has made the final cut.

A convincing performance and a goal against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League tomorrow evening would add to the media clamour behind Owen, but for now Fabio Capello, having examined the case for recalling him, is entitled to conclude that a rethink is not required.

Capello made headlines last week by describing Owen as his “tormentor”, prompting some to wonder whether the England manager has been having sleepless nights about the forward’s irresistible form.

But those close to the England manager suggest that, while he brought up the United player in response to questions about Antonio Cassano, the bête noire of Marcello Lippi, the Italy coach, the two situations are not comparable because, whereas Cassano is playing wonderfully for Sampdoria, Owen has yet to make an entirely convincing case.

Ronaldo has the power and the glory to avoid temptation

 Oliver Kay's Final Word

In a rare moment of self-deprecation last May, perhaps brought on by a demob-happy state as his dream transfer to Spain drew nearer, Cristiano Ronaldo posed as what he called a “top journalist” and staged a television interview with himself, even demanding a straight answer on whether he planned to join Real Madrid.

It was disarming because it showed us something of the real Ronaldo.

Self-obsessed, yes, but with enough humour, enough youthful cheek and enough self-knowledge to make a virtue of it. It was not a window into his soul or even his mind, but, as he pleaded for a little more respect and common sense from his pen-wielding interrogator, it told us how he sees himself, or at least how he thinks others believe he sees himself.

Middle-class uprising threatens to break elite’s circle of trust

Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent

In the offices of certain financial houses across London, there are bulky files containing the business plans of the Barclays Premier League’s most indebted clubs. Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool — all of them have worked out almost to the pound how they will repay their debts and all of those plans revolve around the "virtuous circle" in which continuing success on the pitch perpetuates success off it.

Chelsea are a different case, grateful for the continuing largesse of Roman Abramovich, but for the other three that virtuous circle is mapped beautifully on page 9 of a document that recently found its way into the public domain. A presentation made to potential investors by Liverpool via Merrill Lynch and Rothschild, the banks entrusted by Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the American owners, with undertaking the kind of search that, mystifyingly, led to them when David Moores, the former chairman, was looking for a buyer three years ago.

The virtuous circle is defined thus: on-pitch performance (finishing position, competition qualification) leads to success and improved profile (match-day attendance, fanbase, international audience demand), which leads to increased revenue (match-day, media, commercial), which leads to higher spend on players (wages, transfer costs), which leads to improved on-pitch performance" — and on it goes, with the club getting richer, more powerful and stronger with every year that passes.

Oliver Kay picks his 23-man England squad for the World Cup

The Times Football Correspondent has selected the men he believes Fabio Capello should take to South Africa, injuries permitting.

There are a few surprise inclusions and a few players who will be disappointed to have missed out.

Do you agree with his selections? Leave your comments below.

Goalkeepers: David James, Robert Green, Manuel Almunia
 
Defenders: Glen Johnson, Wes Brown, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Matthew Upson, Jonathan Woodgate, Ashley Cole, Wayne Bridge

Midfielders: Owen Hargreaves, Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Aaron Lennon, Theo Walcott, Joe Cole

Forwards: Wayne Rooney, Emile Heskey, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe.

Results, not race, the reason for John Barnes losing his job

Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent
 
As he was led away by a police officer at the end of one of his more memorable satirical skits, Ali G, the preposterous (and, crucially, white) gangsta wannabe from the middle-class commuter town of Staines, famously asked: “Is it because I is black?” It was not, of course — it was because he was behaving absurdly — but, nonetheless, Sacha Baron Cohen’s comic creation had somehow succeeded in planting a seed of uncertainty in the mind of the police and indeed his audience.
 
Over the past decade, most notably in the nine years that he spent waiting for a league management job between an unsuccessful spell with Celtic and his appointment at Tranmere Rovers in June, John Barnes frequently suggested that he and some of his peers were victims of institutional racism in the boardrooms of British football clubs. On Friday, after only 11 league games in charge of Tranmere, he was sacked.
 
Is it because he is black? We would like to think not. Football club chairmen are far more likely to be star-struck and while Barnes, like Paul Ince, was forced to drop down into Coca-Cola League One after losing a high-profile job, at least those two have had recent employment — unlike countless less-celebrated former professionals who dip a toe into the water, get sacked and are never heard of again.

Who would be in your combined Manchester United-Arsenal team?

 
 
Frank Praverman

Oliver Kay has picked a side consisting of Manchester United and Arsenal players. He admits that on current form it may be slightly different.

Kay would go with:

Van der Sar – Sagna, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra – Fletcher, Carrick, Fabregas – Rooney, Van Persie, Arshavin.

So, you are now Arsene Ferguson - who would you pick in your Manchester United-Arsenal XI?

Oliver Kay responds to your comments on Sir Alex Ferguson

It's typical Fergie. He says what he wants and no one dares to challenge his authority. His comments are bang out of order. Maybe the FA should bring in a policy to state that when managers hit 65 they should retire due to lack of fitness. Simon Smith
 
This was a personal insult to Wiley. Ferguson clearly doesn't care about bringing the game into disrepute as he sees himself as above the FA. What can the FA do though? I think we are all just looking forward to when he retires. Is this what we should want from a knight of the realm? Shaun
 
Oliver Kay: On the whole, Ferguson’s opinions on the game are spot-on. On the whole, he exudes class. But there are occasions when he shows a complete lack of class and dignity and this is one of them. As Jeff Winter said this morning, Alan Wiley now has to deal with a huge slur on his reputation. If it’s not slander, it’s pretty close to it. Ferguson should apologise publicly. The worst thing is that, like the absurd attack on Rafa Benitez last season, it was premeditated. It came in response to a question about Ben Foster, for goodness’ sake.
 
It's easy to talk about complacency and underestimating Sunderland, but Ferguson always plays the long game. Yes he could "take no risks" now and have a weary worn out first 11 by Christmas, which is also a risk. It is no coincidence that successful United teams tend to break away from the pack between Christmas and March. Nick
 
OK: No coincidence at all. I’m not saying he should field his strongest XI in every game. I’m saying that picking a team that was so far short of the strongest team was a mistake against a Sunderland team who are, as I’ve said before, the ninth best team in the league. It wasn’t the fact that he left out Ferdinand and Giggs. I can understand that. It’s more the selection of Nani and Welbeck on the wings. The game was made for Valencia, who needs to build up his confidence. Ditto Carrick, who, having finally got his season up and running against Wolfsburg, could have done with another start. I’m not saying I know better than Ferguson – obviously I don’t – but, with his refusal to attend press conferences and his ridiculous attack on Wiley, he doesn’t give himself a cha nce to enlighten us with his thinking. It’s a shame.

Wiley blast a smokescreen for Manchester United's failings

Oliver Kay

They were taking bets in the Old Trafford press room on Saturday. Huddled around a television screen, which is as close as you get to an audience with Sir Alex Ferguson after a Barclays Premier League match these days, the journalists speculated on who, or what, the Manchester United manager would blame for a 2-2 draw at home to Sunderland.
 
The pitch? The fixture list? The colour of United’s shirts? No, of course it would be the referee, Alan Wiley, whom Ferguson, unprompted and gratuitously, decided to call to task for a supposed lack of fitness.
 
Given that the previous time Wiley had spoken to Ferguson was in the final moments of the Manchester derby a fortnight ago — when, as the fourth official, he had a grinning United manager’s arm around his shoulder — the official may have been shocked.
 
But he should not have been. It was a classic case of the Ferguson diversionary tactic: far better, it seems, to slaughter the referee, even at the risk of an FA disciplinary charge, than to allow a serious critique of his team.