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Summary of non-mainstream articles: 06/10/2017 23:13:24
| | No new deal for Walcott, Southampton interestedDAILYCANNON |
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|| Team News: O’Neill names Long in Ireland XISPORTSMOLE |
|| Saints leapfrog West Ham in pursuit of want-away Arsenal starFOREVERWESTHAM |
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Disappointment for Gabbiadini and Italy
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Italy went into the match with hopes of overhauling Group G leaders all but extinguished already and second place nearly secured.
While the 1-1 draw was a disappointing result in Turin, it did seal second spot in the group and effectively guarantee that they will now advance to the play-offs to reach the 2018 finals, in Russia.
Italy led through Giorgio Chiellini’s goal five minutes before half-time, and, while that looked for a long spell as if it would be enough, Aleksandar Trajkovski struck with 13 minutes left to earn the visitors a point.
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Lambert lifts lid on retirement: I tried to play golf but my back went
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The end came over the summer after a game of golf rather than a game of football, and Rickie Lambert recalls with some amusement what happened.
Wigan Athletic were interested in extending his career for a further 12 months, and invited the former England striker for a round with the chairman and manager.
But a lower-back problem that had already been forcing Lambert to have an epidural every three months was not playing ball.
‘It went when we were on the course,’ he says. ‘I was f_*_ed and I’m just thinking, “How can I sign for them when I’m like this?”’
He had to be honest with Paul Cook, the Wigan manager, and concede that at 35 he was done. No more football. No more injections. No more having to lie flat on the floor after getting back from training in a bid to stop himself seizing up.
On Monday, Lambert announced his retirement and on Friday, at the stylish home he shares with his young family in Formby, he reflected on what has been quite some journey.
It was a journey that saw him rise through the top four tiers of the domestic game to play for England at a World Cup, but one that so nearly ended when a year without earning anything other than travelling expenses forced him to take a job with his father in a beetroot factory.
Regrets? Lambert is candid enough to admit to a few. Not until he was 27 did he even begin to act like a professional. ‘I was a disgrace,’ he says, accepting that was the principal reason why he did not play in the Premier League until he was 30.
But sitting on a stool in his kitchen was a man pretty content with his lot, and rightly proud of what he did achieve after overcoming so many setbacks.
‘The main reason I quit was my lower back,’ he says. 'I’ve had problems for a few years. It was affecting my movement and power. I had to have various injections and procedures. And while I maybe could have gone on for another year, you don’t know how much damage you’ve already done.
'The problem with the injections is the fact that you can’t feel anything, and having to have one every three months just to play can’t be good.
'It’s just degeneration in the lower discs. I’ve played football every day since I was five, and I’m just knackered.
‘I have to go through a series of exercises just to tie my shoelaces in the morning. But it already feels better now I’ve stopped playing.’
The decision was right for another reason, as too much time spent injured or on the bench was tempering his enjoyment.
‘If I’m honest it was like that for the last three years, after I left Southampton,’ he says. 'I didn’t play much at Liverpool and it was the same at West Brom and then Cardiff.
'I was getting well paid but I never started playing football for the money. And when I decided to go to Liverpool I sacrificed a regular first-team place and that was when I started to fall out of love with it. I never should have accepted being on the bench, even though Brendan Rodgers had made it clear to me I would be back-up for Suarez and Sturridge.
'I was never as quick or as technically good as the best players, but in my own head, when it came to actually playing, I could convince myself I was the best.
‘But when I joined up with England I felt lucky to be there, and it was the same at Liverpool. And when I look back now I realise I lost something mentally as a player, by allowing that to happen.’
He should not be too hard on himself when Liverpool was an offer he simply could not refuse. He was from Merseyside, after all, and they were his team, the club he had spent five years at as a kid.
‘I was 10 when I joined Liverpool,’ he says. 'One of the best days of my life. Kenny Dalglish was my hero. I loved Rush and Fowler too. And I remember hearing about these two kids who were three years ahead of us. Owen and Gerrard.
‘I loved the first two or three years there, but the next two were tougher and at 15 I was out. (Academy director) Steve Heighway pulled me in and told me I wasn’t going to make it there. It wasn’t a surprise. I wasn’t even playing in my position by then. But I was devastated.’
His dyslexia meant school was a struggle too and he left at 16 with ‘a C in design and technology and a B in PE’. But by then he was playing at Blackpool and by 17 he had broken into the first team. He was also earning £120 a week, albeit playing at either right back or in central midfield.
With the arrival of Steve McMahon as manager, however, came his departure from Bloomfield Road. His next stop would be Macclesfield Town.
‘I was at Macclesfield for over a year without a contract, just getting 50 quid a week in expenses,’ he says. 'That was when I went to work with the old fella on the farms near Ormskirk. I needed to get money in, £20 a day, cutting cabbages, on the production line in the beetroot factory, or cleaning out the containers with the jet sprays.
‘I never thought football had gone. I always thought I could make it as a Football League player. The Premier League never even entered my head. But it got to a point at Macclesfield where I had to say, ‘I can’t afford this any more’. I knew I was close to the first team but I was going to have to stop. It was only then that Gil Prescott gave me a contract.’
It wasn’t much but 10 first-team goals and he was soon earning £300 a week. And then, in April 2002, came an offer to join Second Division Stockport County, for what remains a Macclesfield transfer record of £300,000.
‘I got a 10 per cent signing-on fee and £1,000 a week,’ he says. ‘I bought a house and a new car, a red Renault Clio. I was made up.’
If he endured further problems at Stockport, still playing in midfield, things would improve at Rochdale with the realisation that here, in fact, was a very good striker.
‘It was Steve Parkin who put me there,’ says Lambert. ‘I think I’d scored six goals in 10 games at the end of the previous season from midfield when he told me he was moving me up front.’
The following season he scored 22 league goals and, when he then moved to Bristol Rovers, 29 goals in a single League One season caught the attention of Alan Pardew and Southampton.
By his own admission, Lambert got that far without taking the best care of himself. ‘I was pretty bad,’ he says. 'I would go out with my mates two or three times a week. Nutrition-wise I had no idea, although I had an inkling that alcohol wasn’t good for you.
‘I wasn’t professional. It’s the reason it took as long as it did to make it to the top level. I was still good enough to score goals in the lower leagues, and I was happy with that. I didn’t care enough.’
At Southampton he was ‘scoring goals for fun’: 30 in 45 league games in his first season. But one day Pardew called him into his office and asked him to lift his shirt.
Initially Lambert refused. Pardew insisted. ‘I didn’t exactly have a six pack,’ Lambert admits.
'He said, ‘You’re an absolute f_*_ing disgrace’. I was shocked. I was his top scorer. I thought he wanted to talk about our plans for the next game. But I knew he was right. I loved chocolate, chips, burgers.
'I owe a lot to Alan Pardew. He affected my career more than any other manager I worked with. For the first time I was in the gym before training, fat burning, sorting out my diet.
'Southampton were great for that. Even as a League One club they had a great set-up. They were so professional. And it clicked inside my head. I started to enjoy it. I was always a step ahead of most players on the pitch in terms of my football brain but I’d be a step behind in terms of fitness.
‘When I got fit, though, I was suddenly two steps ahead and it felt so much easier. Feeling that good became like a drug, and I started to train even harder. My career rocketed as a result.’
His progress continued under Nigel Adkins and then, once Premier League football had been secured, Mauricio Pochettino added the finishing touches.
‘When you see Harry Kane, I can understand why he’s that good now,’ says Lambert. ‘Mauricio would have seen Harry, worked out his weaknesses and improved him as a player. He goes into so much detail. The year I played under Mauricio was the best football I ever played. Up front with Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez, we were brilliant as a team going forward.’
That rise in standards led to a most unexpected international call-up. ‘It was the day my daughter, Bella, was born,’ he says. 'I didn’t even realise England were playing, never mind announcing a squad.
'I’d got back from the hospital and gone for a sleep when I woke up to about 57 messages.
‘One was telling me I needed to ring the manager, and Mauricio then told me the news.’
It was an opportunity he did not waste, scoring for England in a friendly against Scotland with what was his first touch in international football. It is a moment he remembers now with the signed England shirt he was handed that night.
‘It was the best header of my career, the best moment of my career,’ he says. 'I came on for Rooney. Gary Neville just said, ‘Get us a goal’. But I already knew what was going to happen. I just wanted to get on.
'We get a corner and I’m just thinking, ‘If that ball comes anywhere near me I’m going to score’. Leighton Baines puts it right on my head. It was surreal after that.
'I was sitting in the dressing room afterwards, and these players I’d always looked up to were coming up to me. Wayne, Stevie, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole. I was just sitting there . . . as a kid you imagine the ultimate moment as a footballer, scoring for England.
'I was struggling to take it all in, these great players all being made up for me, hugging me. I feel emotional just talking about it. I struggled to contain my emotions at the time. I was smiling so much, I could just feel my face twitching.
‘I went to a World Cup but nothing ever topped that.’
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Another round of crunch #WCQ games are on the agenda for #SaintsFC’s players today. Find out who’s in action: http://sfcne.ws/Intls071017
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Wait goes on for Tadić and Serbia
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Tadić played the full game for Serbia, who would have sealed top spot in Group D of the European qualification section with a win, but they now head into their final match with only a one-point cushion over second-placed Wales, while they are two ahead of Republic of Ireland in third.
However, with a home game on Monday against a struggling Georgia side who have yet to win a game in this campaign, Tadić and his teammates will be confident of finishing the job.
It had initially looked as though they would wrap things up this evening, as Crystal Palace’s Luka Milivojević gave them an 11th-minute lead.
It was a short-lived advantage, though, as Guido Burgstaller equalised on 25 minutes, before Marko Arnautović made it 2-1 with 14 minutes left.
Manchester United’s Nemanja Matić looked to have rescued a point with an 83rd-minute effort, but Arnautović struck again with two minutes left on the clock to give the hosts victory in Vienna.
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Summary of non-mainstream articles: 07/10/2017 11:16:51
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...strongly shaped by Optimus trousers...beta v1.9 - now with EXTRA pictures!| Martin O’Neill Must Face An Awkward Truth - Shane Long Is Not Justifying His PlaceBALLSIE |
|| WATCH: ‘He told me he can’t buy a goal’ - Martin O’Neill on Shane Long’s goal droughtIRISHINDEP |
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The result means that Ireland have now set up a huge clash with Wales in their final Group D game on Monday, as both nations look to seal a second-place finish and a play-off spot.
Victory in Dublin came courtesy of a pair of Daryl Murphy goals, with the Nottingham Forest striker sweeping home from inside the six-yard box after less than two minutes, before heading in a second in the 19th minute.
Long had chances to further extend the lead, but the Irish were more than happy to settle for the 2-0 success, with the Saints striker being substituted after 83 minutes.
It means they remain third in the group, just one point behind second-placed Wales, who beat Georgia 1-0 away from home earlier in the day.
The sides will go head-to-head in Cardiff on Monday night, while both still have a chance of overhauling leaders Serbia and qualifying automatically, although that would require Dušan Tadić and his international teammates to slip up at home to Georgia.
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Pellegrino’s target for change
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MAURCIO Pellegrino could finally change Saints’ system after the international break.
The St Mary’s chief has previously been on the verge of swapping to a formation which includes three centre-backs.
But, despite working on it in training, has yet to go for it in a Premier League match - although used it unsuccessfully in the League Cup defeat to Wolves in August.
However, the 46-year-old boss has hinted that he will give this a go in a game at some point and with Saints yet to fully click under his stewardship, that time could come soon.
As has been well-documented, Saints have often struggled to score, which has led to calls for Pellegrino to start with two strikers rather than one.
With Saints having Maya Yoshida, Virgil van Dijk, Wesley Hoedt and Jack Stephens all battling for two central defence positions, there is certainly a logic to deploying three of them, considering the strength in this area.
Jan Bednarek and Florin Gardos are also reserve options at the back, so the club have the numbers - and quality - to use this popular system, which Chelsea used in last term’s title-winning campaign and has been widely used in the Premier League recently.
Those increased numbers at centre-back would, in theory, release attacking full-backs Ryan Bertrand and Cedric Soares to commit more time to supporting the strikers on the flanks.
There would also be scope within this change to then play two strikers together with an attacking midfielder behind in the number ten position, perhaps in a 3-4-2-1 formation.
That would, potentially, aid Saints in their mission to get the ball in the net a bit more than they are now.
Given Saints’ quality at the back and defensive midfield areas and Bertrand and Cedric’s willingness to attack, this could strengthen Saints’ attack but at the same time not weaken their defence.
Currently, Pellegrino has been swapping his frontline centre-backs - Yoshida, Van Dijk, Hoedt and Stephens - around as to give them all a chance next to different partners.
Stephens will likely be most of all worried about his future game-time, considering he has not appeared in the matchday squad in the last three games.
The 23-year-old has been highly impressive during 2017, taking his chance after Jose Fonte’s exit and Van Dijk’s injury and transfer stand-off.
He and Yoshida formed a top partnership at the back, but that pairing has now been split up after Hoedt’s £15m arrival from Lazio and Van Dijk’s return to the fold.
That has resulted in Stephens, who has been with the club since he was 16, being pushed down the pecking, and despite his impressive displays finding himself fourth choice in recent weeks.
Japan international Yoshida knows he is under pressure to keep his place too, but a change to a three-at-the-back system would offer a solution to this dilemma and perhaps solve other issues Pellegrino has encountered with his team so far.
Because of this queue of worthy centre-backs it has left rookie Bednarek, the 21-year-old who was signed for £5m from Lech Poznan, very much on the periphery, only playing in the disappointing 2-0 defeat to Wolves in the Carabao Cup at St Mary’s.
The same can be said for Gardos, who has played just 19 games in all competitions since his £6m switch from Steaua Bucharest in 2014 partly due to injuries.
The Romanian could well find himself offloaded in January, with his contract set to expire next summer and foreign clubs able to sign him on a pre-contract agreement from December.
The 28-year-old, who made one first-team appearance last season, signed a four year deal back in August 2014 but is unlikely to be handed a new deal unless there’s a dramatic change in his fortunes.
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McMenemy: What ever happened to the Dutch?
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Football people will all remember the days of the Dutch, when the national team in Holland were admired by one and all.
They had the likes of Johan Cruyff and many other star players in the team. And not only were the national team to be admired, but the youth football was often held up as an example to other countries.
I well remember my time with England and Northern Ireland taking the opportunity to visit training grounds of the big Dutch clubs.
I had a good friendship with Dick Advocaat, who is back again now in charge of national team.
They had a system where the number of youngsters to clubs was unbelievable and they had coaching sessions by top players and coaches. There was no numbers limit on their talent.
Every youngster, no matter how young, had a ball at his feet.
But as I look at their situation now, I’m not sure if they are still producing the same amount of young players, while the big names aren’t doing so well either.
The national team at the moment are at risk of not making the World Cup finals in Russia.
And, in fact, some great Dutch names are not exactly having a good time of it.
Frank De Boer has already been and gone after his short and unsuccessful spell at Crystal Palace.
Reading boss Jaap Stam, who incidentally you wouldn’t want to argue with on the field and was once voted as among the toughest ten players ever, is currently having to protect himself after his team failed to win any of their last six games. He maintains that he is still the best man for the job at Reading, despite the poor form.
Then, probably of more interest here, is Ronald Koeman. He admittedly did very well at Saints and presumed he had gone on to a bigger club at Everton, but is currently not doing well after spending big in the summer.
After losing at home to Burnley last week, his team were booed off. He would not have liked that at all.
All of these names I have mentioned were exceptionally good players, but this is sometimes what makes it more difficult when they are coaching. Because the majority of their players will never be as good as they were, and they find it difficult to understand why their players can’t do what they were able to do so easily.
There’s also an in-built confidence in these people, which sometimes can be mistaken as arrogance and which gives the impression they are blaming the players without looking at themselves.
However, it is still early in the season and they will hope that their directors and owners bear with them for the months ahead.
Nigel Pearson, for example, has just come back in to the game after leaving Leicester under awkward circumstances after falling out with the owners.
The team carried on against all odds to win the Premier League. It has to be remembered that he built most of that team, but didn’t get any credit for it.
It was surprising then to see him - after he also had a spell at Derby County - come back and take on a team in Belgium, OH Aeuven.
The club there is run by the same people he fell out with at Leicester, so it’s good to see they’ve made up and good to see he got a win in his first game.
But with all due respect, the second level in Belgium won’t be that strong a league, and if he needs a goalscorer I can suggest he picks up the phone to another ex-Saint.
Rickie Lambert, who was popular on and off the field and was a natural goalscorer at Saints, announced his retirement this week.
But I’m sure Nigel can perhaps twist his arm and get him to put in a couple of months abroad and do what comes naturally to him and score some goals.
I mentioned recently that coaches and managers of an older age were being brought back in when clubs really needed them.
Harry Redknapp was one at Birmingham, but after saving them from relegation to League One he had a bad start this season and was shown the door.
His first comment was “well, at 70 this is probably my last job”. But within a few days he has been contacted by Yeovil Town, who is managed by 37-year-old Darren Way.
He has agreed to spend a couple of days a week mentoring and helping this young manager for free. So well done Harry, and good luck at Yeovil. It could be a sign of more things to happen in the future.
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Summary of non-mainstream articles: 07/10/2017 12:17:05
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Summary of non-mainstream articles: 07/10/2017 13:17:19
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Saints foursome in action during international deciders
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With the last round of international group games now in full-swing, four more Saints stars are set to do battle, as the World Cup qualifying campaign nears its conclusion.
Defender Cédric will be hoping to help his side to victory over Andorra today (7.45pm BST), with Portugal’s fate still hanging in the balance, before a head-to-head with Group B leaders Switzerland, in Lisbon, on Tuesday.
Portugal have won seven of their eight games in the group phase, their only defeat coming against the Swiss in the opener, who are three points above them but with the Portuguese holding a vastly-superior goal difference.
National compatriots Wesley Hoedt and Virgil van Dijk face an uphill battle in their bid for qualification, needing to beat Belarus tonight (7.45pm BST) and then likely score an emphatic win over Sweden on Tuesday to be in with a chance of a play-off spot.
In African qualification, Ivory Coast lead the way in Group C after four games, Morocco are second, one point behind, and Mario Lemina’s Gabon are a point further back.
Gabon take on Morocco at the Stade Mohamed V, in Casablanca, tonight (8pm BST), and a positive result could keep them in with a chance of winning the group and securing a spot in the finals, ahead of their final game, at home to Mali, next month.
Several Saints Academy products are also on duty today, with Jonathan Afolabi, Michael Obafemi and Thomas O’Connor all involved in Ireland U19s’ Euro qualifying tie with Cyprus.
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