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FWA LIVE: LUMLEY CASTLE – PART 2

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Photography: Action Images

 

Bird: Because Adnan Januzaj has lived here for five years we should not turn him into an Englishman

Ball: The most important thing about young players is their attitude

Dunn: It will be hard for Manchester United not to brand Old Trafford

Cass: Everyone thought Joe Kinnear was the most idiotic appointment anybody could ever make, but Mike Ashley still did it

Harper: I think we’d win the World Cup if we had a team of taxi drivers

Young: Martin O’Neill said Ireland will look through the Guinness drinkers of the Barclays Premier League to see who is qualified

The latest FWA Live, sponsored by Barclays, was held at Lumley Castle in Chester-Le-Street, Durham.

The panel comprised Simon Bird (north-east football correspondent of the Daily Mirror), Kevin Ball (Sunderland’s senior development coach), Andy Dunn (chief sports writer for the Sunday Mirror and FWA chairman), Bob Cass (Mail On Sunday), Steve Harper (who joined Hull City last summer after 20 years with Newcastle United) and Colin Young (Daily Mail). The MC was FWA executive secretary Paul McCarthy.

The second half of the event saw the panel answer questions from a packed audience. As usual, no punches were pulled.

I am petrified by thought of Joe Kinnear – what is he there for?

Bird: [the main recipient of Joe Kinnear’s infamous foul-mouthed tirade at a press conference in October 2008 when he swore 52 times]: He’s Mike Ashley’s best mate, they meet in the pub. Mike wants some eyes and ears at the training ground to know what’s going on. These days, if you are going to do a transfer deal, it’s a very complicated thing because there is so much to negotiate and I don’t see how Joe Kinnear is the right man to do that. He’s there as a spy for Mike Ashley, to check on what’s happening, not as serious figure as director of football.

 

McCarthy: Does anyone take him [Joe Kinnear] seriously, Colin?

Young: Mike Ashley takes him seriously. I was not alone in fearing for Alan Pardew…it just seemed to be a natural progression if they had a poor start, you sensed Pardew was one bad result from the sack and Kinnear would be the next manager. Thankfully the barriers seem to have be drawn with lines in the sand for people’s roles fairly well established. That has given Pardew a little more security. I think that has been reflected by the quality on the pitch because players need that security, too.


Cass: The appointment of Joe Kinnear reflected what Mike Ashley thinks of the people who support Newcastle United. He was saying: “It’s my club, I’ll do what I want.” And he does what he wants. The local papers took him on and Ashley doesn’t give two monkeys for them so there was only one outcome [he banned them]. If he wants to appoint Joe Kinnear then he will. The rest of us, we all thought it was the most idiotic appointment anybody could ever make, but he still did it.  Any job at Newcastle is there at the whim of Mike Ashley. Alan Pardew, anybody. If he wants them out he’ll get them out. He can do what he wants, he can appoint Joe Kinnear, it’s the way he runs the club.

McCarthy: When you were at the News Of The World, Andy, you spent a day with Joe…

Dunn: There is no doubt Kinnear still thinks he still belongs in the game. He loves it and believes he has something to offer. The majority may think he’s deluded, but he believes it and he’s convinced Mike Ashley of it, too. What I will say is Ashley is not daft, you don’t build the business he has or do as well as him commercially to make decisions purely, as Bob suggests, to piss people off. There must be some method in what he’s doing. If he annoys the fans by doing this, maybe he wants to remind them he’s running the club, he’s doing it his way and he has to think it’s a successful way. He’s not a respecter of heritage or tradition, he’s a businessman, but I cannot believe he doesn’t think there is some benefit to be had in appointing Joe Kinnear. Maybe he does want someone who is his eyes and ears – businesses tend to think they want someone like that.

Harper: He was there briefly as manager when I was there. Yes, he is quite a likeable guy, but if he was going to be Newcastle United manager again he would have been be by now. If Alan Pardew does lose his job then Joe Kinnear might be interim, but he won’t be next manager. Ashley will appoint somebody.

A lot of Newcastle United fans would ask about the Hall and Shepherd families taking so much money out of club. Mike Ashley, for all his faults, took the club over when they were not doing very well, he came in at a time when Newcastle were on their knees…

Cass: There have been arguments between [Newcastle United] fans and board ad infinitum. Newcastle were never winning anything when John Hall took over [in the early Nineties] and his regime lifted them them to heights they had never experienced in their post-War history.

Bird: They paid themselves about £600,000 a year and with shareholdings it came to £1.2 million a year. One thing you can say about Mike Ashley is that he spent £133 million in buying the club, he cleared the debts and put £140 million into the club interest free.

Cass:  He would probably take the chance to make money if right offer came along, so let’s not think he’s doing it for the benefit of his health. He’s a philanthropist just like the Halls were. I, personally, persuaded John Hall to come into Newcastle United. Under the Hall regime, they brought Kevin Keegan into the club, they came second [in 1995/96 and 1996/97 in the Carling Premiership]. All the good things that have happened since…don’t run down what the Halls did for Newcastle United Football Club. OK, they took money out of it, but the Halls gave Newcastle a team they’d never had before [applause from audience].

Harper: When you are qualifying for the Champions League people will over look the accounts. When it’s not going too well, that’s when you come under more scrutiny.

What does Steve think about the Hull Tigers? Owner Assem Allam wants to change the name…

Harper: The fans can say they do not want name changed, but if you own a club you can do what you want.  My contract says I signed for Hull City FC. Whether he is a visionary and knows where football is going I don’t know. He’s trying to change the brand awareness to put Hull on the map and I would be surprised if it goes through.

Dunn: There was a major furore when Vincent Tan [Cardiff owner] changed the colours of Cardiff. There is nothing more fundamental than that and clearly people were unhappy, but they got promoted and they are seeing Cardiff play Manchester United and Manchester City. Protests only surface you are not doing well. When you move like Arsenal or Manchester City did, it is not rebrabnding a stadium because they were new grounds. Going forward, it will be hard for Manchester United not to brand Old Trafford.

McCarthy: Is there any loyalty in football?

Young: In this region football is an essential part of people’s life. There is something unique about the area…you sign up a contract for life with the club [you support]. The lack of respect from the current regime at Newcastle has caused so many problems. If they [players] move only for money then their loyalty is to their back pocket.

Harper: Newcastle’s structure is to find young, cheaper players, improve them and sell them for more money. Cheick Tiote, in first season, was brilliant, then he had a few people in his ear telling him how good he was and  in training he started to go walkabouts, trying things he can’t do. Once he was on the left wing, Coloccini stopped the game and said: “You play here,” pointing to central midfield. Now he is back to winning the ball and giving it. In July 2009 [after relegation to the Championship] we were battered [6-1] at Leyton Orient [pre-season]. The players had a meeting after the game and we said to everyone: “Tell us now, who does not want to play in this league? Just put your hand up and we’ll tell the manager.” A few put their hands up and we said to them: “Just give your all until you go,” but we knew rest were totally committed to Newcastle United.

Cass: I have reported north-east football for nearly 50 years. I’m fed up with failure. I’d like the teams to start winning. Kevin Keegan said he thought Newcastle United fans would rather see the team lose 4-3 than win 1-0. I was at that famous game [at Liverpool] when Newcastle lost 4-3 and I didn’t feel any great elation. Winning 1-0 wins you the title, losing 4-3 gets you relegated.

I’m a Sunderland fan, do you you think smaller clubs get the worst of refereeing decisions?

Ball:  No I don’t think so. It’s what people would like to think and at times and we tend to look at it this way to make us feel better.

Dunn: It seems that way often because bigger clubs have more of the game, they attack more so a referee would have to make, say, half a dozen decisions for Manchester United in the opposing penalty area and perhaps one for the team they are playing against. The law of averages suggests they are going to get the benefit of any decision because they put themselves in that position more often than their opponents.

Harper:  I think it’s more a home and away issue than big and small clubs. You think you might get a penalty at St James’ but maybe you would not get it away from home. Andy made a very good point when he said the better teams have the better players so create more chances in and around the penalty area, so they will get more penalties.

What more could be done for England at a younger level to help the senior side?

Harper:  I think we’d win the World Cup if we had a team of taxi drivers because every taxi driver I have had is a brilliant player, an unbelievable footballer tactically and technically.

Young: Are England really expected to win the World Cup in Brazil? It will be drummed up by media that England should be competing, even coming back with the World Cup. The reality is no European team has won it in South America and given the quality of some of the opposition we’ve already seen at Wembley, if England get to the quarter-finals I’d say it would be a good campaign. On a wider basis, in the German and Spanish leagues 80 per cent of the players are German and Spanish, in the Barclays Premier League 80 per cent of the players are foreigners. This is something we must look at.

Cass: Roy Hodgson has done what he was appointed for, getting England qualified for the World Cup. As far as winning it, we have no chance. We are not developing young players, the kind of young players who will enable us to win the World Cup.

Ball: A problem is giving them their chance. There are special ones who come through like Jordan Henderson at Liverpool. I’m blowing my own trumpet here because when he was 17 I said Jordan [who was with Sunderland between 2008 and 2011] would play for England [he has seven caps]. Generally, I don’t think we have a good enough pathway to the first team for young players. Results these days make it difficult to give younger players their chance. We allow them to drop down to lower leagues too quickly and the technically good find it difficult to survive whereas the more physical players can. The most important thing, though, is their attitude. If they have a poor attitude they aren’t going to make it. They must have the attitude to make themselves better. I remember Michael Bridges when he was a young player at Sunderland, what I liked about him was that he was cock-sure with a fantastic talent. People would say to him: “You’re a great player.” I would say: “No, he’s not yet. He has the potential to be a great player.” Sometimes we put that label on young players too early.

Dunn:  At the Liverpool FWA Live event, [Everton coach] Alan Stubbs said one of their problems is they have a lot of good young players yet agents come in and want them to have a contract for two grand a week at 17. They’ve not played in first team, but still want two grand a week. If you give them that contract, what will their mentality be?

Ball: Do they need agents at that age? I don’t think so. If you give a player too much too soon it can dull his appetite for the game.

Should Adnan Januzaj play for England?

Bird: I’m not sure if we should go down that road. If you’ve come here as a youngster, fine. But because he’s lived here for five years should we turn him into an Englishman? No.

Young:  [New Republic if Ireland manager] Martin O’Neill said they will look through the Guinness drinkers of the Barclays Premier League to see who is qualified. It’s what Ireland did to great effect in the Jack Charlton era. In other sports fewer questions are asked, why football seems to be above that I don’t understand.

Dunn: Januzaj [born in Belgium of a Kosovan father and an Albanian mother] has no single national identity. If in five years he wants citizenship why shouldn’t he play for England?

Cass:  If he scores the winning goal in the World Cup final I won’t care where he comes from.

You should only be able to represent the country you were born in.

McCarthy: Mo Farrah [who came to England from Somalia when he was eight]? That is different to adopting someone because they could make the England team better.

He [Farrah] is not English. It demeans world sport if you can bring people in from other countries.

Harper: If a dog’s born in a stable it does not mean it’s a horse. If someone with, say, Scottish or Irish parents was born in England, they would be no less Scottish or Irish.

How worried should we be by the recent match fixing allegations?

Bird: It is worrying,  but I do not see it happening at the top level where the rewards are so great. I think we are talking more spot fixing like sendings-off rather than the match. It’s easier for player on £300 a week to be bribed by 10 grand.

Dunn: They are more likely to target Conference games where 10 grand is a lot of money. But it could creep up the pyramid and there are players in financial difficulty who could be targeted. The person who can influence most is the referee.

Cass: If you are going to fix a game there is only one player who can do it – the goalkeeper.

Gus Poyet wants total control over transfers at Sunderland. What’s going on?

Ball: That’s above my remit, I do not have any idea how the first team take things forward.

Bird: Poyet told us he has three targets for January and if he rejects a player and they [Sunderland have a director of football, Roberto de Fanti] sign one, he won’t be Sunderland manager.

What is the panel’s view on [Sunderland chairman] Ellis Short?

Young:  He is trying to do things that are right for the football club. He felt Martin O’Neill could not get the points [to survive relegation last season] and made a fairly unusual appointment [Paolo di Canio]. The gamble paid off by virtue of staying up, but it subsequently backfired. I don’t know who is advising him, who is putting these names forward. Behind the scenes, the loss of Niall Quinn was massive, to lose that influence on a daily basis was always going to be big for a club like Sunderland. There are criticisms to be made of Sunderland just like Newcastle.

END

 

FWA Q&A: PAUL McCARTHY

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FWA Q&A: PAUL McCARTHY


Have you ever worked in a profession other than football?
I worked in several bars during a spell living in California, but jacked the last one in when about the 20th customer that night asked me what part of Australia I was from.

Most memorable match?
Hard one to call, but Germany 1 England 5 takes some beating – as do the hours after when basically too many of us ended up drinking through the night and onto the plane home from Munich. (Just noticed those first two answers have bars/pubs in common. Bit worrying, really.)

The one moment in football you would put on a DVD?
Thierry Henry back-heeling the ball through Mark Fish’s legs for the most audacious and ridiculous goal I can recall. Or Dennis Bergkamp’s hat-trick v Leicester at Filbert Street.

Best stadium?
Most of the grounds in Japan in 2002 were astonishing, but I’m not sure you can beat either Anfield or St James’ Park for atmosphere on a night game.

…and the worst?
Vale Park. Not sure if it’s the same now, but in 1989 you had to basically sit in a shed on the roof of one of the stands. On this particular night, they had lost the key so somebody had to smash a window to get in. It then proceeded to blow a gale and lash down rain that came horizontally in through said window. To add insult to frost-bite, it was a League Cup game that went to extra time.

Your personal new-tech disaster?
Once sent an e-mail to a colleague absolutely caning my editor at the time. However, it might have been an idea not to type the editor’s e-mail address into the recipient’s box. This answer may possibly have something in common with answers 1 and 2. Thankfully the editor had a sense of humour.

Biggest mistake?
See above.
And also agreeing to ghost a very public Vinnie Jones apology for biting a reporter’s nose in Dublin the night England fans rioted only for Piers Morgan to turn it into a front page ‘We Sack Vinnie’ splash. Should have seen that one coming and got somebody else to do the spiteful and dirty on a mate. Thankfully I have made up with both Vinnie and Piers subsequently.

Have you ever been mistaken for anyone else?
Mark Alford at Mail Online reckons I am never likely to be seen in the same room as Malky Mackay.

Most media friendly manager?
Terry Venables, Sam Allardyce, Harry Redknapp, Gerard Houllier – take your pick.

Best ever player?
I would love to say Pele, but I never saw him play live. Was fortunate enough to be at Hampden when Maradona destroyed Scotland so difficult to look past him although Ronaldo, Messi and Zidane give him a run.

Best ever teams (club and international)?
The Barcelona vintage that beat Manchester United at Wembley was incredible. At international level, Brazil 82 were immense and I still can’t quite believe they lost to Italy.

Best pre-match grub?
I am told Arsenal and Chelsea currently lead the pack in terms of nosebag, but I was always partial to the bacon and sausage baps at Old Trafford for an early kick-off.

Best meal had on your travels?
Myself and Lee Clayton once stumbled into a restaurant in Warsaw’s Old Town. It had rugs instead of doors and didn’t really look much, but it was the greatest meal I have had. It was called ‘Fukier’ which, after about three or four vodkas, sounded even funnier.

And worst?
The Georgia FA threw a banquet for the English media during Glenn Hoddle’s era and the food was indescribably bad. But the hospitality was incredible. I guess hospitality is a euphemism…

Best hotel stayed in?
The W in Doha was impressive, as was Delano in Miami, but I will still take the Brenner’s Park in Baden Baden for the sheer comedy value of a bar packed with WAGS and the families of England players confronting the media on a nightly basis.
Some great stories – and sights – all played out under the noses of incredulous German dowagers there to take the waters.

…and the worst?
Can’t remember the name of the Albanian hovel we discovered in Tirana. Probably because I have wiped it from the memory banks it was so bad.

Do you have a hobby?
Cooking. Especially filleting seabass – as Steve Howard never tires of reminding me.

Favourite football writer?
Martin Samuel’s columns, Andy Dunn’s match reports and John Cross’ Arsenal ratings

Favourite radio/TV commentator?
On the radio, I think Mike Ingham is superb. Just wish he didn’t have share commentary with the sneering, bumptious oaf who so often sits alongside him.
On TV, I think Alan Parry’s emotion brings games alive.

If you could introduce one change to improve PR between football clubs and football writers what would it be?
If neither sides told lies and tried to be tricky, it would be a start.

One sporting event outside football you would love to experience?
Been very lucky to have been at many big events, but I think the final day at Augusta with a Brit leading the Masters field would be fairly memorable.

Favourite non-football sportsman/sports woman?
John McEnroe, Michael Jordan, Sugar Ray Leonard, Usain Bolt.

Last book read?
Morrissey’s autobiography.

Favourite current TV programme?
Veep, True Blood, Homeland – and my wife bought me the box-set of Breaking Bad which I am besotted with at the moment.

TV show you always switch off?
I would love to be able to turn Downton Abbey off in every room in the house, but divorces are expensive these days so I simply retreat to a far flung corner where I am safe from such hideously inane dialogue.

If you could bring one TV series back, which would it be?
The Wire, although I think five series was just about perfect.

Favourite comedian?
Steven Wright or Bob Mortimer. On Twitter, David Schneider is magnificently funny.

What really, really annoys you?
People who are too lazy or stupid to use the English language properly. And about 99 per cent of Twitter. I also annoy myself by not following Martin Samuel’s lead and ducking out of Twitter altogether. I am too insecure that I might be missing something.

Your most prized football memorabilia?
I am going to get Billy Big Time here and say my England Schools Under-19 caps – and the memory of when I could run further than the diameter of the centre circle without breathing out of my backside. Sadly, it is almost too long ago to recall.

Advice to anyone coming into the football media world?
Contacts are the be-all and end-all of a good journalistic career. You can write like a dream, but if you don’t know what’s going on or can’t speak to the people who matter, you are knackered. Without good contacts, you are just a pointless keyboard warrior filling space.

:: Paul McCarthy now heads up media consultancy firm Macca Media following roles as Sports Editor of the News of the World and Chief Football Writer at The Express, having started his career on the South London Press covering Wimbledon. Paul also served as Chairman of the Football Writers’ Association, before recently taking on the post of Executive Secretary.

FWA Live: Lumley Castle

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Photography: Action Images

BIRD: Moyes didn’t inherit the greatest United team and needs another transfer window to get some deals done

BALL: Referees have a horrendous job that is getting harder and harder

DUNN: In the Merseyside derby both managers lost their tactical marbles

CASS: The doubts around AVB are driven by the media

HARPER: You need fire in your belly and ice in your head for a local derby

YOUNG: If Mike Riley apologises for every refereeing mistake he’ll be on the phone all the time

THE LATEST FWA Live, sponsored by Barclays, was held at Lumley Castle in Chester-Le-Street.

The panel comprised Simon Bird (north-east football correspondent of the Daily Mirror), Kevin Ball (Sunderland’s senior development coach), Andy Dunn (chief sports writer for the Sunday Mirror and FWA chairman), Bob Cass (Mail On Sunday), Steve Harper (who joined Hull City last summer after 20 years with Newcastle United) and Colin Young (Daily Mail). The MC was FWA executive secretary Paul McCarthy.

A variety of subjects was on the agenda, kicking-off with the good and bad of English football.

McCarthy: We’ve seen allegations of match fixing this week, we’ve had diving, apologies for referees’ decisions…surely there is something we can cherish from the Barclays Premier League and English football?

Cass:  The test is when you have an international week and there is no Barclays Premier League on the Saturday. There’s a hole in everybody’s life. What do we do? I have to go shopping. We want our football on Saturday because it is such a terrific competition and the standard is so much better than it was 20 years ago.

Dunn: I was at a game last weekend, Everton v Liverpool, and I don’t think any other league in the world could give us a match like that. If the Kevin Mirallas challenge [on Luis Suarez] dominated phone-ins, then there is something wrong. It was a game that had everything. Both managers lost their tactical marbles to a certain extent, it was like Sunday morning football on steroids…you attack, we attack. Sometimes it’s a sweeping generalisation to say the Barclays Premier League is the best in the world, but I struggle to think where else you would get that intensity and excitement. We create this sort of passion and the players, no matter where they are from…there were probably only four of five local players, but everyone took it on board, what the derby meant. Yes, the ref should have sent-off Mirallas, but why don’t we just say what a fabulous game of football it was?

McCarthy: Do players get caught up in that type of atmosphere, Steve? You’ve played in north-east derbies…

Harper: You need fire in your belly and ice in your head. For Newcastle v Sunderland games, I thought the away derbies were easier because there is less pressure. To say the home fans wanted you to win is an understatement. At the Stadium of Light there’d be 48,000 and if you’ve got anything about you, you say: “I’m going to spoil your day.” You cannot help but get caught up in it though the best players keep their cool.

McCarthy: Do we in the media look for negatives too much? Andy spoke about the Mirallas challenge dominating a great Merseyside derby…

Young: It is inevitable in our industry because the way the game is covered means that every incident is picked up. We would not be doing our jobs properly if we did not question whether decisions are right.

Bird: As journalists we get caught in the soap opera surrounding football – the controversies and feuds between managers. What we miss as football writers is sitting back and marvelling at the pace, the athleticism and skill of the players, how tactics are evolving. We are privileged to watch such quality in the game.

Ball: I think you are right to report on these things, but because everything is so over-analysed, before long we could have a whiter than white game, a non-contact sport.

Dunn: The Wes Brown tackle on Charlie Adam is interesting. His red card was rescinded and we all knew it was a bad decision. From a referee’s point of view, I think they can be overloaded with guidelines and what they must do. The idea that if you use excessive force to win the ball and follow through it’s a red card…Wes had a bad first touch, but did he use excessive force? Well yes, apart from the fact he didn’t touch Adam.

Ball: I feel sorry for referees, genuinely. I think they have a horrendous job. In a high intensity sport they must make a snap decision in a split second and if they get it wrong they are criticised. Their job is getting harder and harder.

Cass: We are covering a match and as well as reporting on who scored the goals and things like that, we are now looking at how many mistakes the ref makes. Has he made a bad one? If he does, then he gets pilloried. We shouldn’t be looking at them all the time.

McCarthy: Mike Riley apologised to West Bromwich Albion manager Steve Clarke for Chelsea’s penalty the other week. Should he have done this? Has he made a rod for his own back?

Young: Gus Poyet spoke to Mike Riley about the Wes Brown sending-off. I don’t know whether he was opening some lines of communication to managers or whether he feels every time a bad decision is made he should apologise. If that’s the case he’s never going to be off the phone.

[Mike Riley, head of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, has had regular communication with Barclays Premier League managers over the past four years to discuss refereeing matters. West Bromwich decided to put details of his conversation with their manager on their web site].

Dunn:  Mike was quite within his right to think Steve Clarke was not going to make it public. He wouldn’t expect managers to tell people what was said in a phone call. Do managers ring referees and say “I’m sorry my player tried to con you?”

McCarthy: Andre Villas-Boas is apparently a man on the brink 12 games into the season. There always has to be a crisis somewhere…

Bird: Speaking as someone who’s had 27 managers in 11 years in the north-east, we know the perils of instability and impatience. Tottenham need to give him more than 12 games. He’s got seven new players who need to settle in and it takes time to become used to the Barclays Premier League.

Cass: Who’s driven the doubt with AVB? It’s us, it’s driven by the media. He’s 11/8 to be the next manager to be sacked which is absolutely ridiculous.

McCarthy: But no one writes stories like this off their own back…

Cass:  I don’t think he will get the sack. Martin Jol might because Fulham are near the bottom, but not AVB. Someone said they have three points more than at this stage last season.

Dunn: Statistically this is their third best start in a decade so there should be no major crisis. It’s not so much where they are [in the table], it was the last defeat [6-0 at Manchester City] that started it. You can buy all these players, but Spurs lost Gareth Bale, someone who won so many matches for them, who changed so many games individually. You sell him and replace him even with seven good players, you are still going to feel the effect.

McCarthy:  Manchester United stood firm over Wayne Rooney and Liverpool did over Luis Suarez, could Tottenham have stood firm over Gareth Bale?

Bird: Would Bale have wanted that? The chance to join  Real Madrid? Can you stand in the way of an £80m transfer? It’s a tough one to turn down for a chairman.

McCarthy:  Have they spent the Bale money wisely?

Young: They broke their transfer record three times and the concern is that apart from Christian Eriksen, none has really set world on fire, but it is very early to make a judgment and say the fellow who has been told to to bring these players in  should be sacked.

McCarthy: If AVB goes, shouldn’t the job of the one who did the deals, Franco Baldini [Spurs’ technical director], be on the line, too?

Dunn: A few weeks ago most of us were saying Baldini was a great appointment and was the person Arsene Wenger should’ve had to do the deals [at Arsenal]. We were lauding him for the deals he had done and saying how good his contacts were to make these deals happen.  AVB will always have a problem in that a lot of people like Harry Redknapp.

McCarthy: Talking about the intensity on managers, it was not that long ago David Moyes was under scrutiny, but the 5-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen eased that situation.

Bird: United were right back to form in Leverkusen. Succeeding the greatest manager in the history of the Premier League means any trophy would be a success this season. He didn’t inherit the greatest Manchester United team of all time and needs another transfer window to get some deals done. I don’t think they’ll win the title [this season], but either Cup would ease the pressure and get him started.

Cass: We are too quick to praise and too quick to criticise. Moyes knows what Fergie’s left him and [winning] anything this season will be a bonus, though no there is no question he’ll win title in the next few years.

Dunn: I think it will be two or three seasons before comparison [with Ferguson] stops and for it to be David Moyes’ team

McCarthy:  Is it the same in the north-east?

Bird: Bobby [Robson]did great job, but that was 10 years ago. There have been some good and bad managers at St James’ Park, some strange and egotistical.

Young: Some did not accept the ethos and history of the club. Ruud Gullit was extremely dismissive of the derby the day before the game. For two weekends of the season the north-east is the centre of national attention, the games live on Sky Sports. His attitude was reflected in his team selections

McCarthy: He has played in Milan derbies…

Young: That’s why he was dismissive of our derbies. He’d spend 10 minutes talking about the Milan derbies before ours.

Harper:  He was dismissive of everything. Sam Allardyce came to Newcastle and tried to change too much too quickly. He plays percentage football. I couldn’t take a free-kick until everyone was in a ring around where the ball would go and ready to win the knock-down. His way was alien to the playing staff and the fans. Bobby and [Kevin] Keegan bought in to what the public wanted.

McCarthy: Will Jose Mourinho, who the FWA are honouring at our Gala Tribute Evening at the Savoy in January, recapture the magic of his first spell at Chelsea?

Cass: No.

McCarthy: Thanks, Bob.

Cass: I don’t think he’s as hungry because he’s been so successful elsewhere. He came back because the fans wanted him and Roman Abramovich, who never listens to fans, did this time. I don’t think he’s the same type of manager he was first time round.  He has just as good a team, but not the same motivation.

Dunn: I disagree. I see nothing less in his appetite and he has a point to prove. He was a failure at Real Madrid and was forced out of arguably the greatest club job in world football. He would have been hurt by that and has a point to prove.

Ball:  I like him. He brings something special and if he thinks people don’t believe he’ll be a success that will drive him on.

NEXT TIME: What the panel think of Mike Ashley, Joe Kinnear, Ellis Short plus the inside track on match-fixing.

BARCELONA VS REAL MADRID -THE BIGGEST RIVALRY IN WORLD FOOTBALL

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No one can accuse Sid Lowe of cutting any corners as he wrote Fear And Loathing In La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid. His first draft was 199,000 words, of which 70,000 – almost a book in itself – ended on the editing floor.

Barcelona claim to be “mes que un club” – more than a club. Lowe’s fascinating account of the good, the bad and the ugly of what he claims is the sport’s biggest rivalry is more than a football book. He is well placed to write about both the occasionally beautiful game plus the politics and cultural differences that are inseparable from the two clubs that dominate Spanish football. Lowe went to Spain 12 years ago as a 25-year-old to write a PHD on right wing politics and fascism in the 1930’s Spain. He was already covering Spanish football, though little did he know what was to come. The Barclays Premier League may dominate in England, but such is the popularity of La Liga that Saturday’s clásico is almost as eagerly awaited as anything the domestic game has to offer.

“In 2001 when I came to Spain it was the summer Real Madrid bought Zinedine Zidane,” said Lowe as the era of the galáctico moved into top gear. “The interest from David Beckham made a big difference while the importance of the Champions League obliges English fans to take an interest in other countries. The success of Real and Barcelona plus the Spain national team and the crossover of Spanish players into England…a lot of ingredients have come together which, from my point of view, have been ideal.”

Writing a book on any rivalry inevitably leads to accusations of bias, but Lowe’s allegiances are with Real Oviedo of the Spanish second division B. Oviedo was where he was based during the third year of his university degree in 1996/97. As Spanish football gained a growing cult following on Sky Sports, Lowe became a regular contributor to, among others, the Guardian, World Soccer and talkSPORT.

The idea of writing a book on one of the most intriguing and bitter rivalries in world football did not initially appeal to Lowe. He said: “I’ve always tried to champion the other teams in Spain and undermine the dominance of Real and Barcelona. The deciding factor was the run of four clásicos in 18 days [in the spring of 2011] when the impression was these teams had eclipsed everyone else in the world. There was a feeling there could never be anything as big as this again, though since then neither have won the Champions League.

“I grew into the idea of the book, but if I was going to do it, I was going to do it right. By that I meant trawling through the archives and interviewing as many people involved with the clubs as possible. I wanted it to have a value for Spaniards as well, not just an English market.”

No one who has read the book, which will be published in Spanish early next year, could doubt Lowe’s research has been anything than thorough, his knowledge of Spanish politics a helpful tool as he explains the restrictions – from a Barça perspective – of the days of the Franco regime to the era of Pep Guardiona and José Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

There are many rivalries in world football based on more than football, Celtic v Rangers the closest to home example, but el clásico is, according to Lowe “everything the other rivalries are and more.” He continued: “Boca Juniors v River Plate may, like el clásico, be the game that dominates Argentina, but they aren’t as big internationally as Real and Barça. Celtic v Rangers has the sectarian, political and social element which el clásico has, but personally I think the feeling between Real and Barça is even greater.

“On top of everything else, Real and Barça are two of the best teams in the world with the two best players, there is the social-political element with a sense of national identification where one is seen as a representative of Spain and the other sees itself and is seen as a representative of Catalonia. No other rivalry has the symbolic charge or the sheer weight of representativeness of Real and Barça.”

It is impossible to understate the importance of el clásico. In the book Lowe writes: “They are two footballing behemoths, eponymous representatives of the two biggest cities in Spain – different cities with different identities, seemingly locked in permanent confrontation, cities whose political and cultural contexts are different. More than just football clubs, these are powerful and democratic institutions. Four national newspapers a day are essentially dedicated to them – two in Madrid, two in Barcelona – and the pressure can be as brutal as the power is seductive.”

The late Sir Bobby Robson, who coached Barcelona, once claimed: “Catalonia is a country and Barcelona is its army.”

The games when Guardiola and Mourinho went head-to-head were classic clásicos. Mourinho’s debut clásico took place back in November 2010 and Madrid were demolished 5-0 at the Camp Nou. Under Guardiola, Barça triumphed in five of the 11 matches, Mourinho’s Real winning twice, one of those in extra-time.

It was a very special mini-era and Lowe said: “I don’t think you could get four games as big as the four clásicos in 18 days which were perfectly set up. There was a La Liga game, then a Copa del Rey final followed by two Champions League semi-finals, at that stage only the third time in history they had met at that stage.

“Guardiola against Mourinho, Messi against Ronaldo…two sets of men who appear to represent their clubs perfectly. As a narrative it was sensational.”

The coaches have gone to Bayern Munich and Chelsea respectively, but Ronaldo and Messi remain, the latter to the former’s frustration – putting it mildly – invariably pipping the Portugal captain in individual honours and awards.

Ronaldo has been joined by Gareth Bale who should make his clásico debut at Camp Nou on Saturday where the former Tottenham forward will experience a whole new world of rivalry.

Lowe said: “The scrutiny is immense, he will have to become used to every little thing he does being poured over. He will have to be clear in his mind who the media are. By that I mean he will be slaughtered, come what may, by Mundo Deportivo and Sport, the Catalan sports dailies. They will only criticise him in Madrid if he makes mistakes. MARCA and AS are Madrid-supporting papers and if he was to have a good clásico that would give him six months free from pressure.”

Bale has more than football to deal with as his career with Real, which has been interrupted by injury, reaches an early peak on Saturday. Lowe said: “There are things beyond the price tag, the significance of the clubs and the media pressure. He has to settle in Madrid, learn the language, become friends with team-mates and learn the style of football which will be different, not as up-and-down as he’s used to, though Real can be quite a direct side.

“When players leave Spain, how they look back on it can be less to do with how well they have played, but how they enjoyed their time here. Michael Owen was reasonably successful [with Real] but considers it a failure because he never settled. Jonathan Woodgate was very popular and despite all his injuries would tell you he enjoyed his time in Spain. Steve McManaman would say the same, so would Gary Lineker, but Mark Hughes probably wouldn’t.

“Success is important, of course, but there are things less tangible that make you look back with satisfaction.”

*Fear And Loathing In La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid by Sid Lowe (Yellow Jersey Press, £18.99).

‘WIGAN ARE PROOF THAT FOOTBALL DREAMS CAN STILL COME TRUE,’ said Roberto Martinez

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Photography: Action Images

David Moyes was given a standing ovation, Roberto Martinez reminded everyone that you do not need a billionaire owner to be successful and Phil Parkinson was granted a return visit to the Capital One Cup final later this season even though Bradford City were knocked out by Huddersfield Town in the first round last month.

“Three things are guaranteed at this dinner,” said Paul Hetherington as the chairman introduced the Football Writers’ Association Northern Branch’s 2013 Managers’ Awards Dinner, sponsored by Barclays, at the Radisson Edwardian hotel in Manchester. The first concerned the bar takings which needs no explanation. Hetherington added: “Another is that Sir Alex Ferguson will win an award and a third is that a manager from the north-east will be honoured.”

First up was Jason Ainsley, manager of Spennymoor Town who maintained what is becoming a north-east tradition as Moors beat Tunbridge Wells in the FA Carlsberg Vase. Gateshead-based Dunston UTS in 2012 had followed a hat-trick of wins by Whitley Bay. “I am extremely proud to receive this award in front of so many top-class managers,” said Ainsley. “We’re a small club in the north-east, but this means a lot to everyone here.”

Wembley held bitter-sweet memories for Wrexham player-manager Andy Morrell last season. The Welsh club won the FA Carlsberg Trophy, but were then beaten in the Blue Square Bet Premier playoff final by Newport County. Steve Davis, who led Crewe Alexandra to Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final triumph over Southend United, was honoured as was Parkinson, whose Bradford stunned the big guns of the Barclays Premier League by reaching the Capital One Cup final against Swansea City.

The Bantams lost to Michael Laudrup’s team, but Parkinson had happier Wembley memories after Bradford won promotion to League One via the playoffs. Parkinson said: “We had 64 games last season and you don’t get through those without having good people working with you and [assistant manager] Steve Parkin deserves a special round of applause. To be at Wembley…to win at Wembley…is something I’ll never forget.”

In the charity raffle, which has raised around £100,000 for various good causes over the years – the Friends of Muscular Dystrophy were Sunday’s recipients – Parkinson won two tickets for this season’s Capital One Cup final, which the Bradford manager returned so the prize could go to another guest.

Micky Adams’ recent hip replacement operation prevented the Port Vale manager, whose club secured automatic promotion from League Two, from attending. There were no such problems for Steve Evans of Rotherham United who made it a third promotion from League Two for northern clubs.

The most dramatic promotion in any league last season was surely that of Doncaster Rovers from League One. In the fourth minute of stoppage time in the final game of the season at Brentford – “it was our 46th game of the season and it was winner takes all,” said Rovers’ manager at the time Bryan Flynn – referee Michael Oliver pointed to the spot after Dean Furman had fouled Toumani Diagouraga.

Bees substitute Marcello Trotta took the responsibility from designated penalty taker Kevin O’Connor, but the Italian’s effort crashed against the underside of the crossbar. As Brentford cursed their luck the ball was cleared upfield to Billy Paynter who ran half the length of the pitch unchallenged before passing to James Coppinger to score the only goal of the match.

For Doncaster, the title; for Brentford, the playoffs and Flynn said: “Eighteen seconds and six inches but more importantly, the desire of a 32-year-old who ran 70 yards to tap in the winner decided our season. I kept signalling to Billy to stay just inside their half [to remain onside]. The ball came to him and Coppinger ran 70 yards to receive the ball and score…I was thinking ‘oh well, here comes the playoffs’ and then within a minute we were champions.”

Family commitments prevented Steve Bruce, who guided Hull City back to the Barclays Premier League on a thrilling last day of the Championship, from attending. Sir Alex Ferguson, whose last act as Manchester United manager was to secure the Reds’ 20th title by a remarkable 11 points, was similarly absent. “Arrangements have been made to give them their awards over a damn good lunch,” said Hetherington.

Moyes, Ferguson’s chosen successor, was among a star-studded audience and received a standing ovation when introduced by host Vince Miller.

The man who took over from Moyes at Everton, Martinez, was presented with his award for leading Wigan Athletic to their 1-0 FA Cup final victory over Manchester City, the first time the Latics had won domestic football’s most prestigious cup competition.

Martinez paid special tribute to Wigan chairman Dave Whelan and said: “Most people think that only the teams with huge investments are allowed to win the big trophies…the major trophies. I’d like to take this opportunity to tell everyone that that what happened at Wigan Athletic is proof that football dreams can still happen.

*The FA Cup runners-up will not qualify for a place in the Europa League from 2015/16. At the moment, if the FA Cup winners have qualified for the Champions League then the runners-up go into the Europa League. UEFA have changed the regulation after most national associations indicated they would rather have an extra place from their domestic league qualifying for the Europa League rather than a losing cup finalist. The concern was that a side struggling in the top division or a team from the country’s second tier could be handed a European place by losing the final.

FWA Q&A: Tony Stenson

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Have you ever worked in a profession other than football?
Sold fish and chips while still at school (some say I should have stayed there – I did a decent battered haddock) and was a messenger boy at the London office of The Sydney Daily Telegraph, often delivering front pages to owner Frank Packer when he stayed at the Savoy.

Most memorable match?
In the time honoured reverse order: Third place: Rome’s Olympic Stadium on a balmy, velvet night in 1990 watching the Republic of Ireland sadly lose 1-0 to host nation Italy in a World Cup quarter-final. Second: my club Wimbledon – the love affair starting when I reported on them for my local paper when they were in the Isthmian League – beating Liverpool 1-0 to win the 1988 FA Cup Final at Wembley, less than a decade after they were stealing towels from hotels because they were so poor. Third: England winning the World Cup in 1966. No explanation needed.

The one moment in football you would put on a DVD?
The total look of horror on my red-veined face, hewn by a visit to a pub or billion, when England World Cup hero Jack Charlton offered me a Guinness in a sewing thimble when he was Republic of Ireland manager. Several of us were in his hotel room during the 1994 World Cup in America and he ran out of glasses.

Best stadium?
Purely for the memories, Wembley and Rome’s Olympic Stadium

…and the worst?
Albania’s Tirana Stadium in the early 90’s when the toilets were so poor I used a vodka bottle to relieve myself. I watched in horror later as a spectactor picked it up and drunk it.

Your personal new-tech disaster?
Too many to mention. Bring back Remington Rands and copy-takers.

Biggest mistake?
Rowing with a fellow scribe only to see him turn up later as my sports editor.

Have you ever been mistaken for anyone else?
I once turned up at Wimbledon’s old training ground, a truckers cafe on A3 delivering Dave Bassett’s programme notes – I wrote them unpaid for years – wearing a brown overall because I had been painting. Alan “the white Pele” Cork said I looked like Compo from Last Of The Summer Wine.

Most media friendly manager?
By far…….Dave Bassett, Jim Smith, Harry Redknapp, the late Bobby Robson and Ray Harford. Those men always returned calls.

Best ever player?
If I could, I would like my heart rule my head and say Wimbledon scoring legend Alan Cork. In reality it has to be Pele (met him several times and he was a gent also) from yesterday.This year it’s Ronaldo just ahead of Messi. Pele made things happen; things happen around Ronaldo. He’s a great player in a good football team. Messi is a great player in a great team.

Best ever teams (club and international)?
Liverpool in the Shankly and Paisley eras and United during the Charlton, Law and Best period. Brazil when Pele led the orchestra.

Best pre-match grub?
I never eat on an empty stomach. So rarely eat at grounds. It’s cooked on Wednesday and re-heated. That’s my excuse. Prefer a trip to the local on route to work on my research.

Chums tell me Chelsea and Arsenal are top hole.

Best meal had on your travels?
A restaurant in Izmir, Turkey. Not for the food, but seeing John Bean, then of the Daily Express, using salt to do a sand dance on a table, much to the shock of the locals.

And worst?
Anything in Albania.

Best hotel stayed in?
Swiss Hotel, Turkey, where my state room over-looked the Golden Horn of  the Bosphorous, where East meets West. Looking from my window sipping a glass of chilled white wine. Wonderful. To this day, I still don’t know how I got the room on the usually miserly Daily Mirror.

…and the worst?
Albania again. I was in the next room to Tony Incenzo (he wrote about it on these pages last year) when he had hot and cold running rats and policeman asking to share his bed. My secret’s safe, Tone.

Do you have a hobby?
Golf, particularly the 19th hole. The way I play I need to go to the range more. Instead, I go to the bar.

Favourite football writer?
Brian Glanville of yesteryear. Patrick Collins of today; I  enjoy reading  the columns of Dave Kidd and Steven Howard.

Favourite radio/TV commentator?
I thought Kenneth Wolstenholme was excellent. Listen again to his 1966 World Cup commentaries and they do stand the test of time. Today, I like Martin Tyler.

If you could introduce one change to improve PR between football clubs and football writers what would it be?
All press officers be sacked and we go back to being allowed to talk to anyone we want.

One sporting event outside football you would love to experience?
Been lucky enough to cover many Masters tournaments, Test Matches, Tour de Frances and football finals. But would love to cover an Ashes Series Down Under.

Favourite non-football sportsman/sports woman?
Abraham Lincoln.

Last book read?
Never Go Back by Lee Child.

Favourite current TV programme?
Mastermind. To confirm how dumb I am.

TV show you always switch off?
Reality shows, cooking programmes, those about moving house and anything with Jonathan Ross and Ricky Gervais. How do people find them funny?

If you could bring one TV series back, which would it be?
Without doubt: Only Fools and Horses.

Favourite comedian?
Tommy Cooper.

What really, really annoys you?
Unhelpful clubs, press officers, warm white wine and the current Labour party.

Your most prized football memorabilia?
Given most of it away for charity, including the shirt Ray Houghton wore after scoring for Ireland against England during the 1988 European Championship. But still have a yellow snooker ball on a plinth presented to me by Steve Davis when I left the Mirror after 30 years in 2003.

I had never played snooker and was suddenly asked in 1985 to cover the World Championships at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. As I turned off the M1 and drove into Sheffield I saw posters on lamposts saying ‘Read Tony Stenson the No 1 for Snooker’ and ‘Tony Stenson the Man the Snooker Stars know’.

I thought I’d better watch the first game and settled into my seat as Davis, the defending champion, teed off at 10.30am on the first Saturday.

I whispered to my colleague: ‘What’s a yellow worth?’

Such are the sound effects of the Crucible, Davis heard me, turned said: ‘Two’ and immediately potted his first red.

When I retired he presented me with my trophy which had engraved on: ‘It’s still worth two,Tony’.

Advice to anyone coming into the football media world?
Look, learn and listen.

You can read Tony Stenson in the Daily Star Sunday.

“DON’T BREAK GRANNY’S WINDOWS,” SAID PRINCE WILLIAM

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IT IS fair to say that until last week there was a glaring omission in my CV despite 42 years of writing about football since I first cut my teeth reporting on  Finchley at Summers Lane in the Athenian League.

I must admit I had never covered a match in which the half-time refreshments were served on silver platters by tail-coated footmen – and it’s also a pretty fair assumption to say I will never do so again.

Last week’s match between Civil Service and Polytechnic FC on the lawns of Buckingham Palace, normally used for royal garden parties and diplomatic receptions, was a complete and unique one-off, the brainchild of Prince William, the Football Association’s president who persuaded, as Greg Dyke memorably said on the day “his granny to let us use her back lawn for a football match – though woe betide anyone who broke a window.”

Why was I there? Well, I had a call from the FA a few days earlier asking me if I would be interested in being the sole match reporter, doing a pool report for the world and assigned to one of two Royal Rotas covering the game. None of the other reporters there would be covering the match, they would be writing about presentations by the Prince to the 150 volunteers chosen by the FA to celebrate grassroots football.

The Palace wanted a lot of security details and advised me a suit and tie was the standard attire. That was another first. I don’t think I have ever covered a match in a suit and tie before. There would be no wifi at the Palace, and no internet because the press work room was being refurbished, but could I file 800 words as soon as possible after the game?

The match was to celebrate the grassroots of English soccer in this, the year of the FA’s 150th anniversary. Civil Service were chosen as the “home” side as they are also 150 years old this year and are the lone surviving founder member of the 11 clubs that formed the FA on October 26, 1863 at the Freemasons Tavern in Covent Garden.

Civil Service selected Polytechnic as the opposition because they are their local Chiswick rivals, were formed in 1875 and the two clubs have been playing each other since 1893. But this was no kickabout on the lawn .. it was a highly competitive Southern Amateur League First Division match, refereed by Barclays Premier League official  Howard Webb and the outcome mattered. Polytechnic won 2-1 and went second in the table. Civil Service were left floundering one off the bottom.

But how to report a match in which, through no fault of one’s own, you know none of the players, have little background , no press box, no seat, no electricity and no connections ? Easy, you just think to yourself, this is where I came in covering pretty much grassroots  matches, not much above this level and you talk to people. I found the respective chairmen of the two clubs – ian Hunter of Civil Service in his tartan trousers, and Barry Madigan of Polytechnic in the crowd and was given some good reliable background. I also acquired one of only 25 special edition programmes printed for the occasion.

I filed a first, quick story of 250 words off my blackberry …. letter by letter … and then returned to something approaching normality with a round of post-match interviews. Then it was more business as usual as I left Buckingham Palace, found an internet connection and filed 800 words for the FA plus another story for Reuters’ global subscribers.

As Howard Webb told me after it finished:  “When I got the call to referee a match at the Palace, I thought I was going to Selhurst Park.”

Me too, mate, but look at this way … we can all say we added a new ground to the list … one that doesn’t even exist any more.

*Mike Collett started his career at the Hendon and Finchley Times in 1972 and has been Reuters soccer editor since 1996. He is a member of the FWA’s national committee. Among other things, he has covered  nine World Cups, 30 European Cup finals – and one match at Buckingham Palace.

******

Members of the FWA usually report the news. Watch how @robshepherd5 MADE the news 20 years ago…

http://dailym.ai/18Uh12I

NOT THE FULL MONTE, SO ENGLAND SHOULD QUALIFY FOR BRAZIL 2014

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WHILE members of the Football Writers’ Association are confident that England will qualify for the 2014 World Cup finals, Dejan Saviević, president of the Montenegrin Football Association, is worried that his country’s hopes of success have been hit by injuries to four key first-teamers for the first of the two matches that will decide England’s World Cup fate.

What is certain is that if England beat Montenegro and Poland at Wembley they will be in Brazil next summer. However, England are becoming the draw specialists and at the sharp end of the qualification programme one point in either game is likely to see them finish second to Ukraine.

As Ukraine have Poland at home and then a trip to San Marino next Tuesday, the current Group H second-place team are a good bet for six points. England must match that total to avoid the playoffs or perhaps the nightmare scenario of being spectators when the World Cup kicks-off next summer.

England and Montenegro have played each other three times, each game ending in a draw. While England have not lost a competitive home tie since 2007, under Roy Hodgson they have won six and drawn six of their 12 Euro or World Cup matches. The stats may offer little comfort, but Saviević is concerned by Montenegro’s injury list: Juventus striker Mirko  Vučinić, goalkeeper Mladen Bozović, centre-back Marko Basa and midfielder Miodrag Peković have all been ruled out of the Wembley showdown.

“You don’t expect to lose four key players,” said Saviević. “We are in a bad situation, but we can promise that we will give you 100 percent of our opportunities. It is going to be difficult, but all the players are still giving maximum and we are happy with that. We’ll see what happens. We have achieved our first target at the start of qualifying, to be in with a chance of qualifying until the end.”

Goalkeeper Vukasin Poleksić, set to play his first competitive game in four years, added: “This is the most important game in the history of Montenegro, the most important in my career.

“It is going to be difficult, both for me and for my team-mates, but I am physically and mentally completely ready. We’re going to London to give a 100 per cent dedication and courage, and see what happens in the end. I am certain that all who play from the first minute will give the maximum, despite the handicaps, and a lot of times before we have proved to have a strong collective. We’re a real family,

“It is important that we do not concede a quick goal. The pressure is on England because they want to triumph in front of their home crowd. We have nothing to lose, we’re going to Wembley as outsiders, decimated numerous injuries. Maybe it is fate that this is our opportunity.”

Footballwriters.co.uk asked Evening Standard columnist Patrick Barclay; Andy Dunn, sports columnist of the Sunday Mirror and chairman of the FWA; Oliver Kay, chief football correspondent of The Times; Martin Lipton, chief football writer of the Daily Mirror; James Olley, chief football correspondent of the Evening Standard and David Woods, chief football writer of the Daily Star, about England’s World Cup fate…

DO YOU THINK ENGLAND WILL FINISH TOP?

Barclay: Yes, England to finish top.

Dunn: Yes.

Kay: With some misgivings, yes I do.

Lipton: Yes. I hope. But maybe not!
Olley: Yes. England have struggled of late, but two wins at Wembley to reach Brazil should not be an equation beyond their capabilities.
Woods: Yes.


IF NOT, WHO WILL?

Lipton: Only Ukraine. But all depends on Friday night v Montenegro.

HOW DO YOU SEE THE 1-2-3 OF THE GROUP?

Barclay: England first, Ukraine second, Montenegro third.

Dunn: England, Ukraine, Montenegro.

Kay: England, Ukraine, Montenegro.

Lipton: Hopefully, England, Ukraine, Montenegro.
Olley: England, Ukraine, Montenegro.

Woods: England, Ukraine, Montenegro.

WHICH WOULD BE ENGLAND’S BEST AND WORST PLAYOFF OPTIONS?

Barclay: Best – Hungary. Worst – Portugal.

Dunn: Best – Hungary. Worst – France. (Are we sure we can really get these teams?!) – If England are in the playoffs they should be seeded – at the moment the top four playoff seeds (see below) are Croatia, Portugal, Greece and Russia – Portugal and Russia are in the same group – with England next. England could play either Hungary or France – though until all qualifiers are completed nothing is definite.

Kay: Several of them would worry me, particularly France, Portugal, perhaps Sweden and Greece too. I’ve not got huge faith in this England team, but I do believe they’ll win the group.
Lipton: The draw will be seeded, so England probably won’t get Croatia, Greece or Portugal. In order (best to worst): Iceland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Sweden, France.
Olley: I wouldn’t fancy England over two legs against France. By contrast, Iceland have already lost three times in a poor group, conceding 14 goals in the process.
Woods: Well, the worst would be Portugal (because of a certain Mr Ronaldo).


SHOULD HODGSON STICK BY HART?

Barclay: Yes.

Dunn: Yes.

Kay: Yes. He should also have looked beyond Hart and taken a look at Hart and/or Ruddy in some of the friendly matches; since Hart’s form began to dip 12 months ago, he has played all but 45 minutes out of five friendly matches, which seemed questionable at the time and looks even more so now. You need to know what your back-up options are in case your first choice is injured or loses form. Hart has lost form – that’s undeniable – but I would still go with him on Friday.
Lipton: Yes. In the words of Margaret Thatcher (not somebody I would habitually choose to quote) There Is No Alternative.
Olley: Yes. Now is not the time to change goalkeepers. England should have experimented before now to ensure they could call on a viable alternative. Once qualification is assured (hopefully), that process can belatedly begin before the finals.
Woods: Yes, but only because he [Hodgson] foolishly has not given anyone else a real chance in friendlies or easy games.

IS THERE A WILD CARD PLAYER YOUY WOULD LIKE TO SEE PLAY? BARKLEY? TOWNSEND?

Barclay: Maybe Townsend, but it’s a time for experience and Milner’s defensive work is important. Baines is best attacking from left-back and should play regardless of Cole’s fitness.

Dunn: Andros Townsend.

Kay: I’m concerned by the lack of options on the wings. I don’t really like Welbeck in that position and Townsend strikes me as a substitute rather than a starter. I like the idea of Baines on the left wing, though that kind of option  often seems to work in better theory than in practice and won’t happen now because of Ashley Cole’s injury.
Lipton: No. Although he might go for Townsend rather than Milner on the right.
Olley: Townsend could get the nod due to injuries elsewhere and he is in good form, but remains very raw. Sooner or later, Phil Jones needs to start playing regularly at centre-back to realise his full potential.
Woods: Townsend, who is playing with “no fear” as he himself said after Chelsea game.

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE TO WIN BRAZIL 2014?

Barclay: Brazil.

Dunn: Brazil.

Kay: Spain.

Lipton: Argentina.
Olley: Germany. Spain’s dominance surely cannot continue for a fourth successive tournament although they will no doubt contest the latter stages, as will Brazil and Argentina.

Woods: Boringly, it has to be Brazil.

WHO QUALIFIES FROM THE EUROPEAN SECTION?

There are nine European qualifying groups and the eight best runners-up will go into the playoffs, two legs played on a home-and-away basis, to determine the four remaining European slots for the final tournament. As one of the qualifying groups has only five teams and the others all have six, the results against teams ranked sixth will not be taken into account when determining who are the best runners-up. It will be decided by points, then goal difference, goals scored, goals scored away from home and, if necessary, on disciplinary ranking.

HOW WILL THE PLAYOFF SEEDINGS WORK?

The eight teams will be seeded in two pots with the four highest-ranked teams placed in one pot. The ranking will be based on the FIFA world ranking published on October

FWA Q&A: Norman Giller

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Have you ever worked in a profession other than football?
(my profession was never football … it was journalism).
I tunnelled my way out of the Daily Express while chief football reporter in December 1973 to follow a career as a TV scriptwriter and author (pretentious, moi?), but always kept my hand in as a freelance journalist. My first month as a freelance coincided with the three-day working week and no electricity for much of each day. I was 33, had a wife, two kids and a mortgage. No redundancy, just jumped ship. Clever or what? When I joined the Express from the Daily Herald in 1964 it was selling 4.2m copies a day. By the time I left it was down to 2.2m, and the slide has continued ever since. Perhaps I am responsible. Moral of the story: never quit without a redundancy package.

Most memorable match?
Sorry, but it has to be the cliché 1966 World Cup final. I was the only football reporter to get into the England dressing-room afterwards. I tied myself to Wembley PR Len Went, who talked me past all the Jobsworths. I managed to hug my mate Bobby Moore and touch the Jules Rimet trophy before being x-rayed out by Alf Ramsey’s famous stare. Even in that moment of Everest-high euphoria, he insisted on the dressing-room being hallowed ground for players only.

The one moment in football you would put on a DVD?
Jimmy Greaves going past six defenders on his way to an eighth minute goal against Leicester City at White Hart Lane in 1968. There were no TV cameras to record what most eyewitnesses described as the greatest goal they had ever seen. Because of a minor car accident I arrived literally seconds after the ball went into the net. My Monday morning report was headlined: “The Greatest Goal I Never Saw.”

Best stadium?
It has to be Aztec Stadium in Mexico City where I reported the 1970 World Cup finals opening match [Mexico 0, Soviet Union 0] to the greatest football tournament ever. All the spectators were asked to wear clothes that matched the colour of their ticket, and there was a spectacular splash of red white and green in perfect symmetry. People who say this was where the Mexican Wave started are wrong. They started it two years earlier during the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

…and the worst?
Kennilworth Road, Luton, back in the days when we used to have to go through the urinal to get to the press box. The directors thought it was funny.

Your personal new-tech disaster?
Circa 1984, I wiped clean my Apple ‘floppy’ (pre-discs) containing half a book I had written. From then on I have been paranoid about back-ups. In those days you had only enough memory on an Apple Plus to run one program at a time. It would drive you mad today, but it was new and revolutionary.

Biggest mistake?
Tunnelling my way out of the Express without a pay-off. It would have given me a cushion for the bad times that hit every freelance. Stupid boy.

Have you ever been mistaken for anyone else?
I was like the spitting image twin of a Chelsea winger called Bert Murray, to the point where then manager Tommy Docherty shouted across the Stamford Bridge forecourt to me, “Bert, why aren’t you training?”  When he realised his mistake, the Doc said: “The only way to tell you two apart is that Bert writes better than you do …”

Most media friendly manager?
Toss up between Tommy Doc and Brian Clough, both of whom knew you needed a headline and went out of their way to provide one. Trouble with Cloughie was sometimes he was too friendly and would try to get you as boozed as he was. The old school (Ramsey, Busby and Bill Nicholson) were much more cautious. Big Mal Allison was the most flamboyant but was mostly interested in projecting himself.

Best ever player?
On the world stage, Pelé just ahead of Maradona, with Di Stefano the most elegant, a Nureyev on grass. European: Cruyff and Beckenbauer, with George Best as the best of British. My all-time favourite, Jimmy Greaves. We are seeing an action replay of Greavsie with Messi. Could he have done it with Bites-Yer-Legs Hunter assaulting him from behind?

Best ever teams (club and international)?
Pele’s 1970 Brazilians, just ahead of the 1950s Puskas-propelled Hungarians. Tottenham’s 1960-61 Double team, made even better by the arrival of Greavsie the following season. Man Utd of the Best-Charlton-Law days.

Best pre-match grub?
Cheese and tomato rolls and a cuppa at the Cassateri café by the West Ham ground where I served my football writing apprenticeship in the 1950s. All the West Ham players, past and present, used to congregate there.

Best meal had on your travels?
Pie and Mash at Cooks in Stratford after West Ham matches. Reported sport in 33 countries, but nothing in all the hotels and restaurants could touch that taste. I’ve gone and got hungry thinking of it.

…and the worst?
Still waiting for it to be served at a restaurant in Budapest. We waited two hours on a 1960s England Under-23 trip and finally gave up. Ken Montgomery, Sunday Mirror, craftily wrote his order on the back of a cigarette pack and handed it to a waiter, then sat back smugly waiting to beat the log jam. Twenty minutes later his waiter returned with a new pack of cigarettes.

Best hotel stayed in?
The Camino Real in Mexico City. I was there for a month during the 1970 World Cup. It had 1000 rooms, all on the ground floor, with a small garden at the back of every room. Used to have to get a buggy to and from reception. The ‘fire brigade’ reporters, chasing follow-ups to the trumped-up  Bobby Moore jewel theft story, invited themselves into my room and all charged their meals to me. That took some explaining to the powers that be back home.

…and the worst?
A hotel in Sofia during the 1967 England Under-23 tour. Because of overbooking five of us had to share a two-bed room. There was quite a commotion when one of our brigade decide to wash his feet in the one hand basin.

Do you have a hobby?
Apart from trying (and failing) to play jazz piano, regular theatre visits, going to the House for PM Questions (political junkie), listening to the classics and reading, my only hobby is writing.

Favourite football writer?
It has to be McIlvanney, who always makes me feel as if I am writing by numbers.

Favourite radio/TV commentator?
Sadly both gone, Peter Jones and Brian Moore (who was my best mate in the media world and for whom I had the privilege of sharing obituary duties with Bob Wilson).

If you could introduce one change to improve PR between football clubs and football writers what would it be?
I am off the circuit now, but looking in from the outside I feel too much of what I read is spoon fed from conferences and agents. Whatever happened to the good old head to head interviews? I wonder how many of you have the home telephone numbers of all the major managers and players? I’ve got a feeling those days have gone.

One sporting event outside football you would love to experience?
The Masters at the beautiful Augusta course.

Favourite non-football sportsman/sports woman?
Andy Murray, the best British tennis player of my life time (Fred Perry had taken out US citizenship by the time I arrived on this mortal coil). Muhammad Ali, with whom I spent a memorable three weeks in Munich in my boxing PR days when I was Richard Dunn’s mouthpiece. I was heavily outpointed by Ali.

Last book read?
I revisited What Makes Sammy Run by Budd Schulberg. Highly recommended for those who, like me, had copyboy experience.

Favourite current TV programme?
Sunday Supplement. I like to see what today’s football writers are thinking and saying. Neil Ashton is admirably filling those big shoes left behind by the much-mourned Brian Woolnough.

TV show you always switch off?
Any Soap or Big Brother-style reality show. I have better things to do with my life.

If you could bring one TV series back which would it be?
Saint and Greavsie. Football is so much up its own exhaust pipe that it has forgotten how to laugh at itself.

Favourite comedian?
Woody Allen in his 60s stand-up mode. Comedy delivered with the bite and accuracy of a Di Stefano pass. And I must mention Eric Morecambe, with whom I wrote newspaper and magazine columns for several years. He was a comic genius. Namedropping: Eric and I went to the Nou Camp to report the 1975 Barcelona-Leeds European Cup semi-final. Eric asked me to get a ticket for his good mate who was living in Barcelona, a chap called James Hunt. He turned up in bare feet! What a character. The following year he won the F1 world title.

What really, really annoys you?
Cheating footballers … cheats in any sport.

Your most prized football memorabilia?
My 1966 World Cup press pass.

Advice to anyone coming into the football media world?
Don’t! Seriously, look beyond the print world. I am convinced my youngest grandson (6) will never ever buy a printed newspaper. Hurt your brain to conquer the internet. Don’t just take what’s there. Add to it.

NORMAN GILLER, born in the East End 1940. London Evening News copyboy (“best possible education”), staff journalist with the Stratford Express,  Boxing News, London Evening Standard, Daily Herald, Daily Express, freelance columnist The Sun, Sunday Express, London Evening News, Sunday Telegraph … 14 years a scriptwriting member of the This Is Your Life team, co-producer more than 50 sports videos/DVDs… just writing his 95th book, Bill Nicholson Revisited. Twenty books in harness with Jimmy Greaves.

‘INTERVIEWING SIR ALEX FERGUSON MAKES ME PROUDER THAN ANYTHING I HAVE DONE’ said Charlie Rose of PBS

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AS HE PREPARED for his hour-long interview with Charlie Rose of the American network Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Sir Alex Ferguson was aware that Rose had recently flown to Damascus for a broadcast with Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria.

Tongue-in-cheek, Ferguson asked Rose: “So you’re interviewing dictators these days, are you?”

As manager of Manchester United, Ferguson could be a football writer’s best friend or worst enemy, giving more back-page lead stories than anyone else, but occasionally banning reporters for “crimes” such as headlines they didn’t write. Yet Ferguson was – and still is – journalistic gold, a manager with charisma to spare who gave PBS a global coverage other interviewees including al-Assad, President Barack Obama, Warren Buffet, Quentin Tarantino and Leonardo di Caprio could  not manage.

None can beat the Scottish pensioner for world-wide popularity and news appeal. The Emmy award-winning Rose said: “It’s amazing. I did not fully appreciate Ferguson in terms of how much he means to all the fans of football…how legendary he was. The Harvard people, for example [Ferguson spoke to students at the Harvard Business School last month]…I am told the response to what he did , how he outlined his own view of leadership, was one of the best things to ever come out of the school.

“He quickly became one of my favourite interviews. Speaking to someone [al-Assad] whose country perhaps stands a chance of being attacked by the United States has more consequence for the moment, but this was an interview that will reverberate and have a resonance for a long time. It certainly made me want to be more of a fan of your football than ever before.

“In preparing for him I had to learn as much as I could. It will be at the top of things that I am proud that I did. It was new territory for me and the more we talked, the more forthcoming he was about his relationship with the players…what they meant to him and how he tried to motivate them. This is a guy who can spend the rest of his life talking about what it means to be a manager in any environment…in business, universities…a whole range of environments.”

There was little opportunity for Rose, off camera, to expand on some of the more newsworthy parts of the interview such as the possibility of Ferguson joining Chelsea after Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought the club 10 years ago.

Rose said: “He didn’t say a great deal, but I know Roman Abramovich and I am due to see him at a conference I am attending this weekend. I wanted to find out [from Ferguson] if Abramovich made it so very, very attractive in a way that would be irresistible to most people and that would make him interested. He said he had thought about it and the answer was no.”

Ferguson and Abramovich – in fact, just about any manager and Abramovich – has a light-blue-touchpaper-and-retire look about it and Rose said: “Would they have been a good match? It’s hard to say, but a hell of a question. Clearly Ferguson is his own man, you all know that.

“He could never go anywhere else. His heart is too big and it would be too much for him ever to compete against United with another club.”

Ferguson will be back in the headlines soon when he starts a tour to publicise “Alex Ferguson – My Autobiography” which is on sale from October 24 (Hodder & Stoughton). The book was written in collaboration with FWA member Paul Hayward, the Daily Telegraph’s chief sports writer, who said: “His career is the story of English football over the past three decades. It’s a privilege for me to help him describe how he managed such huge change at Manchester United and to lay out his countless insights and anecdotes stretching back to his roots in Glasgow.”