Not a vintage season but United’s goal power could surprise Europe

Posted on January 4, 2013 by FWA News Editor

As the Barclays Premier League reaches the halfway stage footballwriters.co.uk asked the Daily Mirror’s Chief Football Writer MARTIN LIPTON for his views on the season so far.

As the Barclays Premier League season reaches the halfway mark, how would you assess 2012/13 so far?
It’s been quite entertaining and enjoyable, but I also think the standard of the top teams is a long way behind what it was in 2008 and 2009 which for me was the high watermark in English football for the quality of players available. We still have some fantastic footballers, though, it’s been a pleasure to watch Juan Mata grow as a player at Chelsea this season, we’ve seen some terrific performances by Luis Suarez who’s as good as anyone in the world as an out-and-out striker and Robin van Persie’s been great for Manchester United. There’s some outstanding home-grown talent, too. Gareth Bale is brilliant on the ball, really exciting, but generally the overall standard has dropped.

Five years ago England was the dominant force in the Champions League…
Yes, the only teams who could beat the English teams were the English teams. Liverpool beat Arsenal, Chelsea beat Liverpool, United beat Chelsea…we don’t have that standard at the moment.

Do you see an English club winning the Champions League this season?
I didn’t see one winning it last season. You would never discount it because football can be a strange beast, but I think there are five or six teams better than Arsenal or United though United will always have a chance because they can score goals. In Rooney, particularly van Persie, Hernandez and Welkbeck they have lot of goals. I don’t think they are as good as Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich and maybe not as good as Juventus or Shakhtar Donetsk. But if Vidic returns properly fit, if Jones and Smalling can add something…plus if Carrick continues to play as he is at the moment then United will have a chance against anyone.

Chelsea won the Champions League last season playing in a way that would be alien to United…
United aren’t built that way, they play a different style of football. However, if they beat Real in the last 16, the confidence boost it would give them will be huge and then teams can develop a momentum of their own. At half-time during the tie against Napoli [last February when the score was 1-1 with Napoli winning the first leg of the last 16 tie 3-1] there is no way you would have predicted Chelsea would even be in the final. They were lucky not to lose by five or six in Naples.

At the start of the season most people would probably have said the title would be a three horse race involving the two Manchester clubs and Chelsea, but Chelsea’s defeat by Queens Park Rangers makes it very difficult for them now…
To be fair, I thought it was a two horse race, just a question of which Manchester club came out top. That’s still the case. Chelsea would have to win probably 16 of their remaining 18 games, lose one and draw the other [to get 87 points]. In those games they’d have to beat United and City away which is unlikely. United have a massive advantage because they can afford to lose three [more] matches and still win the title. The unusual thing about United is they have drawn only one game.

So it’s United to win the Barclays Premier League title then…
I still think City could win it. They don’t have the distraction of the Champions League, they have a very strong squad with the capacity to spend silly money if they choose to over the next few weeks.

Who’s been your surprise package?
West Bromwich Albion have been my team of the season so far. Steve Clarke has done exceptionally well. Claudio Yacob’s been an excellent signing, I like Youssouf Mulumbu, Romelu Lukaku, on loan from Chelsea, has flourished this season and looks like a mini-Drogba. Shane Long does an outstanding job, James Morrison and Chris Brunt are playing well and Jonas Olsson’s been terrific.

Ben Foster’s been as good as any goalkeeper…
I know Roy Hodgson is desperate to persuade him to come back into England contention because after Joe Hart, Foster is, without question, the best English goalkeeper. We really need him to be available to play for England again.

England’s start to the 2014 World Cup qualifiers has been solid – wins in Moldova and at home to San Marino, a draw in Poland and at home to Ukraine…
The theory that we have only about 20 players has been disproved because Roy has used 44 and that doesn’t include Chris Smalling who would certainly be among the top 30 players. I think Jack Wilshere, now he’s fully fit, will make a difference, the development of Theo Walcott has been a positive, Danny Welbeck scores more goals for England than he does for United and has looked really good in an England shirt…arguably England’s Player of the Year for 2012. We’re not a top four team and haven’t been for a long time. Realistically we’re a top eight side as we showed at Euro 2012 where we were unbeaten. Given the circumstances England did better than par for the course.

Can England qualify automatically? The nine group winners go through to Brazil with the eight best runners-up playing off for the remaining four places…
The game in Montenegro in March is key. If England win in Podgorica then they will be set up because three of the last four games are at Wembley where you’d expect them to win – then the other match in Ukraine (in September) wouldn’t matter. If we lose in Montenegro then it may mean going through the playoffs. I’d be surprised if England’s weren’t in the top two and I think they’ll probably win the group. They haven’t lost yet which is a positive.

Team England seems to have a spirit that was possibly been missing in one or two finals before Euro 2012…
It is clear we have a set of England players who want to play with each other, which has not always been the case, they want to play for the manager, which has not always been the case, and are keen to play for the shirt which has not always been the case. That gives you a decent starting position.

Can Robin van Persie be voted the Footballer of the Year for the second successive time?
There will be a huge lobby for van Persie and rightly so. There will be strong support for Luis Suarez despite what you might think of him occasionally. He’s behaved himself pretty well this season, more sinned against than a sinner as has another candidate, Gareth Bale. Both he and Suarez have been cautioned [for diving] on reputation which is unfortunate.

There has been much discussion about referees and the Respect programme…
I wish it actually meant something. I think a lot of referees across the country were let down by Mike Dean [with the Sir Alex Ferguson controversy]. Dean probably thought he handled it properly, he may have even convinced himself there was no rage from Ferguson but it sure didn’t look that way. The fact Ferguson then took it out on an assistant referee and the fourth official said it all. The bottom line was, to allow Jonny Evans’ own-goal was a correct decision.

Referees will inevitably be singled out for blame, usually by the losing manager…
It’s easy to criticise them, but there are a couple of referees who are no longer fit for purpose in the Barclays Premier League.

Who are?
Mark Halsey and Chris Foy. They should be given their pension books at the end of the season. Both are past their sell-by date. Referees will always make mistakes, but when they keep on making bad mistakes…

Do you think the forensic examination of match officials by television is unfair?
It’s ridiculous. We shouldn’t slaughter assistant referees for being two inches wrong and most of the times they are correct. But if a player is obviously offside, like Lukaku was when he scored [for West Bromwich] against Fulham it’s different. He was almost on his own inside the six-yard box.

Major hopes for 2013?
I’d love the title race to go to the wire again though we can’ t expect it to be decided by the last kick in the last game like last season. I’d like to go into the last month of the season with nothing settled at both ends of the table. Probably more than anything, I’d like to be writing about football rather than issues within the game that overshadowed the game so much in 2012.

FWA Q&A: Patrick Barclay

Posted on January 1, 2013 by FWA News Editor

PATRICK BARCLAY on the joys of staying at Broadmoor…Messi’s divine retribution…a free Star Trek poppadum in Carlisle…and a desperate own Cole…

Have you ever worked in a profession other than football?
As a teenager I used to heave boxes around a grocery warehouse during school holidays. Not only did you develop rippling muscles – you were allowed to take home the stuff that was past its sell-by date, which, in those less pernickety days, entailed the appearance of rust or mould or packaging that turned to dust upon being touched. Powdered doughnut mixture – just add water and sprinkle with sugar and bake until your patience expires. Yum!

Later I did a bit of journalism. I used to be a sub-editor on The Guardian and the best years were spent in charge of – okay, I was the only person working on – the Parliamentary pages. Debates were covered in some detail by this newspaper in the 1970s and the job was to edit them so they were fairly reflected as well as easily readable. I loved it and became acutely interested in politics. The most memorable occurrence was the Irish republican Bernadette Devlin’s maiden speech, which had even some Conservative hearts pounding with excitement. I enjoyed seeing stars rise. Brian Walden, later to be a superb television performer, was one. Others were to encounter falls, Jeffrey Archer among them.

Most memorable match?
It was always going to take something special to knock Milan 4 Barcelona 0 in 1994 off its f***ing perch and another Champions League final was to do the trick: Barcelona 3 Manchester United 1 at Wembley in 2011. Both of those matches were one-sided and yet majestic and to receive from Barcelona confirmation that the football played in their 5-0 win over Real Madrid earlier in the season had been no fluke…well, I make no apology for saying that it was like a dream come true.

The one moment in football you would put on a DVD?
Lionel Messi’s solo destruction of Jose Mourinho’s cynical Real Madrid in the Champions League semi at the Bernabeu. That’s what football should be about – divine retribution.

Best stadium?
Camp Nou.

…and the worst?
Any that lack an element of symmetry bring out the OCD in me. I find myself mentally completing them, rounding them off, instead of concentrating on the match. The old Leicester ground used to drive me mad. Even St James’ Park in Newcastle, a marvellous ground in every other way, is a hazardous place to visit for this reason.

Your personal new-tech disaster?
The first still makes me retch. I spent a week or thereabouts boiling down Bruce Grobbelaar’s autobiograpy – as told to Bob ”Bomber” Harris, the Boswell to many a footballing Johnson – into four sections of 2,000 words each for the purpose of serialisation during the first week of Today newspaper in 1986. I did what seemed a brilliant job. And then pressed the wrong button and lost the lot and had to do it all over again in one day.

[I don’t know why this subject makes journalists laugh. I bet Chris Davies only puts it in the FWA Q & A in the hope of a giggle. But what’s funny about having inadequate tools for the job? Say if a surgeon was given, instead of a scalpel, a stick of liquorice? Would that be funny?]

I was three years on The Times and should have spotted the danger signals when the laptop they gave me was not only a hand-me-down but still warm, with – and this is no syllable of a lie – sandwich crumbs stuck between the keys. A succession of machines in the late autumn of their years followed and it was only after parting company with News International and buying my own computer that I was reminded that manufacturers purveyed new ones that worked.

Biggest mistake?
Awarding a goal to Andy Cole when Brian McClair had scored it. Okay, they were physically similar but still…

And not just that. I built my whole piece around it, forecasting that the breaking of Cole’s eight-match drought (now nine matches, of course, and much remarked upon in other newspapers) would cause the dam to burst so woe betide Liverpool or whoever United were facing in their next match. The subs caught the error before it reached London and Manchester but I prefer not to picture the bewilderment of the good folk of Cornwall and Cumbria, to which the early editions had been despatched.

Have you ever been mistaken for anyone else?
Only Andy Cole. Just joking – Patrick Stewart, the actor. He’s even older than me but in damn good shape so I take it as a huge compliment. The benefits of occasionally neglecting to destroy the illusion have included large haddock for the price of small in my local chippy and free poppadum with a curry in Carlisle. But the best is experienced on visits to the West End theatre: the demurely respectful smiles of passing damsels, which it is only polite to return.

Most media friendly manager?
Add me to the list of Roberto Martinez’s admirers. He is a man of old-fashioned courtesy, extended to one and all. Personally, I used to find Alex Ferguson generous and like David Moyes.

Best ever player?
Diego Maradona. Without a split-second of hesitation. What he did in the face of wild tackling was suffer for his art. When I heard people call him a cheat, it used to make me so angry. Lionel Messi does even more than Maradona did to light up our lives, it’s true, but he doesn’t have to put up with the brutality of an earlier age. Not nearly as much, anyway. I know you are not supposed to give FIFA credit for anything, but Sepp Blatter in his earlier incarnation put in place the adjustments in refereeing that have helped Messi to flourish and become not just the greatest entertainer in the history of the game but the best example to youth.

Best ever teams (club and international)?
Barcelona under Rijkaard, Guardiola and Vilanova. And Brazil 1970 – the highlight of my journalistic career so far was sitting down one day in Rio de Janeiro with Carlos Alberto, the captain of that team, and being told that he had as much time to talk as I wanted. It may have been the lowest point of his life – you’d have to ask him – but his second-by-second description of the fourth goal in the final was magical. It was like being in the presence of history. By the time I’d let him go, he’d grown a long beard and become eligible for a state pension.

Best pre-match grub?
I’d love to be present at a play-off for that title between Arsenal and Manchester City. They are very different spreads – one looks as if it has been prepared under the supervision of Arsene Wenger, the other by Frannie Lee – yet equally impressive. I haven’t been to Leicester recently but their excellent offering used to be none the worse for a small charge that was given to charity.

Best meal had on your travels?
From an introduction to Italian food while visiting Liam Brady in his Juventus days to a tapas place near the Bernabeu now, treat has just kept piling on treat. The salads in Skopje may surprise you, but they are not mentioned for purely alliterative reasons. Nor is the ”cognac” in Kishinev – some of the best brandy I’ve ever tasted. But I suppose I’ll have to go for the eight-hour lunch laid on by the mayor of Tblisi and his burly henchmen in a candlelit barn in the middle of a field. Don’t ask me when it was. Don’t ask me what we ate. All I can remember was that the theme was ”culture”, which amounted to the offering of toast after toast to the respective merits of Georgia and England and each time promptly downing an entire glass of the local farmers’ wine. It was so good that no hangover ensued. Did some local busybodies thereafter argue that the council-tax revenue of the citizens of Tblisi might have been better spent? I often wonder, but I hope not.

…and the worst?
In Barcelona, funnily enough. My friends and I have found what may well be the only bad restaurant in Catalunya – and yet it’s irresistible, being so close to Camp Nou that your hands are still tingling from the applause when you pick up the laminated menu. It’s not that bad. I genuinely can’t remember having a bad meal anywhere. The only thing I don’t like is restaurants that fancy themselves and make a living out of the customers’ snobbery. Once in Dusseldorf everyone else had enjoyed the half-mouthfuls that constituted their first courses and I asked the waiter when mine – ”medallions of turbot” – would arrive. He pointed at my plate. I’d assumed those three little circles were part of the pattern.

Best hotel stayed in?
A place called Broadmoor near Colorado Springs. A vast, traditional place in magnificent countryside where we stayed with Bobby Robson’s England squad before the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. In those days it was not unusual to mingle with the players beside the pool. Peter Reid admired my music – a Velvet Underground tape was exercising the Walkman at that time – and not only borrowed it but (and this, bear in mind, was a footballer) later gave it back.

…and the worst?
In Liverpool. I can’t remember the name, but it was a conversion of a century-old commercial building. The worst example of a genre that blights Manchester and Glasgow as well. What makes them think we’ll not notice the principal drawback of high ceilings? You want to climb into the mini-bar to get warm – except that there’s not a mini-bar. Give me a Premier Inn any day of the week.

Favourite football writer?
Brian Glanville. Only David Lacey gets close in terms of erudition, but Glanville’s bravery sets him apart. It’s the quality that I wish more of the current galacticos would embrace. Straying from the herd doesn’t do Martin Samuel any harm, does it? Another must-read in my opinion is Ian Chadband when he covers football.

Favourite radio/TV commentator?
Alan Green and Mike Ingham. And, if you ask me to choose, I’ll throw in the bright young Darren Fletcher to complicate matters. He doesn’t mind telling you what he thinks either.

If you could introduce one change to improve PR between football clubs and football writers what would it be?
Media activities every day, as in Germany. That way the arguments can be settled earlier and information channelled more as the clubs would wish. I’m amazed that Manchester City, with a clean sheet of paper and an obvious weakness in the opposition’s armoury to exploit, haven’t done it already.

One sporting event outside football you would love to experience?
A Test in the West Indies when they were kings of cricket.

Last book read?
Martin Kelner’s Stand Up and Cheer – a very funny and educative history of sport on television.

Favourite current TV programme?
Question Time.

Your most prized football memorabilia?
The team sheet for the World Cup final of 1998 with Edmundo’s name on it. It was withdrawn and replaced after Ronaldo was persuaded to play at the 11th hour.

Advice to anyone coming into the football media world?
Only do it if you must. And, if you truly must, diversify. Football writing is now one of those things, like photography, which everyone thinks he or she can do. You have to give yourself an edge by being imaginative and innovative across the media. Oh, and cheap.

PATRICK BARCLAY is a columnist for the Sunday Independent and Evening Standard.

Quotes of 2012

Posted on December 29, 2012 by FWA News Editor

PHIL SHAW picks out some of the best Quotes of 2012…

‘A fresh of bread air’

“Things were so much easier when I earned 100pound a week on yts #stress.”
Jamie O’Hara, reputedly on £35,000 a week at Wolves.

“We’ve got a full-back called Dinh Dong. I immediately christened him “Doorbell”.”
Dylan Kerr, assistant manager of Vietnam and ex-Leeds reserve.

“It was nice to hear Ray Wilkins speaking so articulate.”
Micky Quinn

“I’ve just watched the replay and there is absolutely no doubt – it’s inconclusive.”
Garth Crooks

“On a different day, the referee might have been throwing yellow cards around like a man with no arms.”
George Andrews at Stoke v Everton for Signal Radio.

“By his own admission under-fire Spurs boss Harry Redknapp writes like a two-year-old. So who writed his weekly Sun column then?”
Letter to The Guardian when Redknapp was in court over alleged tax-evasion.

“Joe Royle texted saying keeping QPR up would be like turning water into wine or feeding the 5,000 or something. I’ve never read the Bible, but I think he meant it’d be a miracle.”
Harry Redknapp

“England’s a nation of warriors. At Liverpool, the fans applaud if Carragher hammers the ball out of play. In Camp Nou you’d never get that. It’s a different culture that values different things. Here, if they see you’re afraid in possession, you get whistled. It’s the world in reverse.”
Xavi

“McLean’s been like a fresh of bread air.”
Roy Keane

“You know who really gives kids a bad name? Posh and Becks.”
Stewart Francis, comedian.

“In the papers this morning: “Police closing in on Ian Holloway.” Sorry, it’s “Palace closing in on Ian Holloway.””
Alan Brazil

“Mario Balotelli is like Marmite – you either love him or hate him. Me? I’m in between.”
Joe Royle

“He wears the club shop, he wears the club shop, Tony Pulis, he wears the club shop.”
Song by Manchester City fans at Stoke.

“Hopefully Andy [Carroll] has only tweeted his hamstring.”
Sam Allardyce

“It is too little, too late. He’s a low-life. A clever low-life…but a low-life.”
Trevor Hicks, Hillsborough Family Support Group chairman, on ex-Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie’s apology.

“Reporter: Do you know how many managers have City have had in your 25 years with United? Alex Ferguson: Fourteen, but I wish it was 15.”
Exchange as Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City challenged United for the title.

“How can you call me a c*nt? You shagged your team-mate’s missus. You’re the c*nt.”
Anton Ferdinand to John Terry, QPR v Chelsea.

“Improbable, implausible and contrived.”
FA verdict on Terry’s defence against allegations that he racially abused Ferdinand.

“Hahahahaa, well done #fa I lied did I, #BUNCHOFTWATS.”
Ashley Cole tweet on the FA finding Terry guilty.

“Spain have had an unbelievable amount of sex, er, success.”
Alan Shearer after the Euro 2012 final.

“Where were you when you were us?”
AFC Wimbledon fans at MK Dons.

PRESS BOXING

Reporter: What do you think of Tottenham?
Roger Johnson (Wolves captain): C’mon! Are these real questions? I couldn’t give a shit to be honest. Is that it, yeah? Cheers.

“Sir Alex was very convivial. So I chanced a joke to him that it was the longest he’d spent talking to the press in years. He laughed but five minutes later in the corridor outside he growled: “I’ll remember you.”
Barry Flatman, tennis writer, on Ferguson’s appearance at Andy Murray press conference in New York.

“You are all great managers. I read the newspapers every day and I can tell you that you are always great managers. How many games have you managed? I promise you if you manage one I will sit in the stands and chant: “You know what you are doing”.
Arsene Wenger when queried about his substitutions after an Arsenal game.

“I’ve given up this year. I’ve decided to bin it off. I’ve signed my three-year deal and I thought I’d leave it this year, sit back, have a few cans and a few cigarettes and chill with the kids.”
Grant Holt to a reporter who asked whether his new contract at Norwich meant he had “lost his hunger”.

“We’ve all talked the same nonsense over the years. Everything you tell the press is a lie.”
Jamie Carragher

FWA Q&A: Geoff Peters

Posted on December 24, 2012 by FWA News Editor

talkSPORT’s GEOFF PETERS on being given a mouthful by Serbs…going out with a manager’s girlfriend…and why Winter is best.

Have you ever worked in a profession other than football?
In my formative journalistic years as a teenager, working on a free weekly newspaper and then for a press agency, I had to cover stuff like inquests, magistrates courts etc and even got roped in to do some stuff for the entertainment pages. It once took me a whole day to write a review of a play. The editor never asked me again. I’ve been a DJ since the age of 14 – working in Ibiza and Egypt and other much less glamorous places – and currently have bar and club gigs on Friday and Saturday nights in the Midlands so, along with football, it means my weekends are rather hectic. I had a spell out of journalism and part of that time was spent working for Leicester City’s lottery department, servicing venues around the county who sold the club’s scratchcards. It was actually a lot more fun than it probably sounds.

Most memorable match?
May 30, 1994. It was the Division One Play-off Final between Leicester City and Derby County. Leicester – the team I support – came from behind to win and get promotion to the Premiership. It was their first win at Wembley in seven attempts. I was just 21 and commentating for BBC Radio Leicester and it remains a golden moment for me.

The one moment in football you would put on a DVD?
Leicester v Arsenal in 1997. Leicester came from 2-0 down to equalise in the last 10 minutes through Heskey and Elliott but Dennis Bergkamp went back up the field to score a stunning goal, complete his hat-trick and seemingly win it. The never say die spirit of Martin O’Neill came to the fore as Steve Walsh headed home to make it 3-3 deep into stoppage time. Pulsating, breathless stuff. Bergkamp was sublime that night.
From a more general perspective, the pure theatre from the Manchester City-QPR game in May 2012 will take some beating.

Best stadium?
I had a brief flirtation as a Liverpool fan in my very early years – Rush and Grobbelaar were my two favourite players – and the first time I went to Anfield really took my breath away.

…and the worst?
Visiting The Den as an away fan was a nightmare. The least safe I’ve ever felt in a press box was at the Gerhard Hanappi stadium in Vienna when Leicester played Red Star Belgrade there in a UEFA Cup tie in 2000. The Serbian fans were like caged animals and, among other things, they were spitting at the press guys.

Your personal new-tech disaster?
When I was writing a book in early 1998 about Martin O’Neill’s first two years as Leicester manager, I borrowed a Mac and managed to lose work several times through my technical ineptitude. I managed to get it finished and self published it, selling about 3,500 copies in the end. It was never going to win any literary awards – I was 24 and had no idea what I was doing to be honest – but it made it to print which seemed unlikely at various points. I now back up stuff regularly because while computers are amazing things, the idiot who uses them is a mere human.

Biggest mistake?
Too numerous to mention but becoming friends with the girlfriend of a football manager and then seeing a photograph of us together splashed over the front pages of several national newspapers, who suggested there was a lot more to our friendship, certainly caused a fair amount of aggravation. The main mistake was not listening to journalist pals who warned me about her. I took advice from these people a lot more after that particular episode.

Have you ever been mistaken for anyone else?
In my 20s people said I looked like Johnny Vaughan and Dale Winton and since shaving my head, I’ve had all the Right Said Fred and Crystal Maze jokes. Not that I’ve ever actually been mistaken for any of those guys. I suppose if I walked around Molineux in a Wolves jacket on matchday I might get confused with Stale Solbakken.

Most media friendly manager?
I like Brian McDermott at Reading. He’s always honest and doesn’t leap down your throat if you ask a daft question as can happen from time to time. Brian Little was brilliant when I was starting out in the BBC and Micky Adams would always look you in the eye when giving interviews. He lost the plot one day in a pre-recorded piece and it left me a little shell shocked if I’m honest. Somehow he got my number and rang me later to apologise which I don’t think many managers would do.

Least media friendly manager?
Gordon Strachan. Can’t understand why the media keep employing him when he’s treated journalists with such disrespect over the years. He’s been rude to me when I’ve asked simple, non-threatening questions and there’s really no need for it.

Best ever player?
Tough choice. In my lifetime it would be Maradona, Bergkamp, Zidane or Messi – I could make a case for all of them. My favourite player ever at my club is Steve Walsh. He cared about the shirt and gave everything he could for the best part of a decade and a half.

Best ever teams (club and international)?
Dull and predictable but it’s hard to look past Barcelona and Spain in recent years.

Best pre-match grub?
Aston Villa – top class catering.

Best hotel stayed in?
Non-football but I went on a press trip to northern Spain in December 1992 to record a feature for a holiday show. Can’t remember the name of the place but it was big, luxurious and, most importantly, we had a free bar. The hotel staff didn’t make one murmur of complaint after cleaning up the mess I left. I’ve never been that drunk or that ill from booze since.

Favourite football writer?
I love Henry Winter’s writing style. He’s also a very cool, calm person. I’m still a bit in awe of him whenever I speak to him. He’s everything that a journalist should be – fair, polite and hard working.

Favourite radio/TV commentator?
Barry Davies was the best one on TV although Martin Tyler runs him close these days. Voices you can trust and believe in and add sparkle to the pictures you can see. I remember as a young kid the distinct tones of Bryon Butler on a crackly medium wave radio.

I was fortunate to work with the likes of John Rawling, Jonathan Agnew and Iain Carter in my formative broadcasting years in the BBC and I learnt a lot from them.

If you could introduce one change to improve PR between football clubs and football writers what would it be?
The media are not the enemy – they’re a voice for the clubs to communicate to the fans. I think the clubs sometimes forget that. More openness and trust wouldn’t go amiss.

One sporting event outside football you would love to experience?
The Ashes in Australia with England stuffing them.

Last book read?
Fibber In The Heat by Miles Jupp. He somehow blagged his way onto an England cricket tour to India with the press pack a few years ago. A bizarre but very funny read.

Favourite current TV programme?
Have I Got News For You – especially when they get Jeremy Clarkson to host it.

Your most prized football memorabilia?
I have a few signed shirts and pictures – the best is probably a replica England 1966 shirt signed by Sir Geoff Hurst.

Advice to anyone coming into the football media world?
The line is blurred these days between newspapers, radio, TV and websites – don’t be afraid to embrace more than one. Listen and learn from older, wiser, more experienced colleagues. If you get paid to watch football – however cold and tired you might be sitting in a press box – don’t complain too much. It’s a great job.

Follow Geoff Peters on Twitter @talkSPORTgeoff

THE FAX BEHIND THE MOST SENSATIONAL TRANSFER IN BRITISH FOOTBALL

Posted on December 19, 2012 by FWA News Editor

Football writers are reluctant to reveal their sources, but here JACK IRVINE tells the details behind the exclusive story of the ground-breaking transfer of former Celtic striker Mo Johnston to Rangers.

By JACK IRVINE

The Sun has been a potent force in Scottish journalism since its launch in 1987.

However in the first couple of years under my editorship there was always a degree of resistance to this “English interloper” into the cosy world of Scottish newspapers then dominated by The Daily Record.

That all changed on July 10, 1989 with a Sun front page headline that read simply “MO JOINS GERS.” Since that day it’s the one story that I am repeatedly questioned about and the one surrounded by myth and misinformation. Did I pay Graeme Souness £100,000 for the story? Was it Rangers owner David Murray or Maurice Johnston’s agent Bill McMurdo who delivered the goods? Why did the Daily Record fail to pick it up when it hit their desks on the evening of July 9?

Well, the truth is much simpler and at the same time an example of good old fashioned journalism and gut instinct tinged with the wee bit of luck that every reporter needs

At the end of June I had attended a Press Fund Charity lunch at the Marriot Hotel in Glasgow. To my delight I won the raffle which was a week for two in Majorca. That evening I showed the hotel details to my wife who said: “What a dump, I’m not going there. Take one of your golfing pals.” I arranged to do just that.

A couple of days later Graeme Souness called me. I had got to know him and Walter Smith because of the number of stories we had broken about Rangers and we had always got on well.

Souness indicated that he had heard about my win and he would be visiting his kids in Majorca following the breakdown of his marriage. His former wife was staying with her parents, who had been resident on the island for a number of years, but he would only be able to see the children for a couple of hours a day and would have a lot of time on his hands.

“How about we team up when I’m there? “said Souness. “And we can play golf and soak up some sun?”

Sneakily I then up upgraded our run of the mill hotel to the five star Sheraton Son Vida where Souness would be staying. Naturally I didn’t share that information with Mrs Irvine.

The pattern was the same every day for the next week. Lying by the pool (oddly the place was deserted), lunch, golf for me and my mate (Graeme didn’t play in these days) then out for dinner every night to the island’s finest restaurants where Graeme was instantly recognised from his days with Liverpool and Sampdoria.

Round about the third bottle of Rioja, Souness would always ask the same question, “Should Rangers sign a Catholic?”

Now remember Souness was married (or about to be unmarried) to a Roman Catholic and as an Edinburgh lad he had never really experienced sectarianism until he joined Rangers in 1986 as player/manager.

He knew only too well that things had to change at Ibrox if only to give them access to top continental players, but I must stress that the questions and the conversations were non-specific and extremely general.

However, I had observed that every day as we lay by the pool Souness was repeatedly approached by a waiter to be informed that a “Mr Rodger was on the phone from Scotland.”

Mr Rodger was the legendary sportswriter Jim Rodger of the Daily Mirror. I say “sportswriter” but to be perfectly honest the then 66-year-old was probably the worst writer in the business. However his contacts were legendary and he had access to every leading football manager in the world, not to forget The Pope and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who he insisted on calling “hen.”

Souness kept his cards close to his chest and I assumed that Jim was talking to him about some future transfer because the Daily Mirror man was notorious for acting as a go-between between managers and agents. Whether the Mirror ever benefitted from this inside information is a mute point. They were certainly going to miss out in a few days time.

I flew back to Glasgow on the Saturday July 8 to be informed by my wife that we were buying a new house. I think that was my punishment for the Son Vida. Souness was flying back to Edinburgh on the Sunday.

As I’d been skiving for a week I felt obliged to give my deputy the Sunday off and take the editor’s chair. Early in the afternoon our young gofer, a 16-year-old schoolboy called Keith Jackson [now a respected sports writer with the Daily Record] nervously popped his head round the editor’s door and asked if he could speak to me.

The conversation was surreal.

“Mr Irvine, I was round at my girlfriend’s house last night.”

“Mmm, interesting.”

“I saw a fax on her dad’s machine.”

“Yes.”

“It had Mo Johnston’s name on it…”

“Yeah, so?”

“Oh, I should have explained, her dad handles all the insurance for Rangers players.”

The world stopped on its axis. “Bloody hell,” I shouted or maybe something fruitier.

I dialled Souness’s mobile and as luck would have it he had just stepped off the plane at Edinburgh

“Graeme, remember you asked me if you should sign a Catholic? It’s Mo isn’t it?”

Souness, a man of few words simply said: “Call you back.”

About 20 minutes later he called: “Print it” was all he said.

The Sun went into meltdown on that Sunday afternoon. The sports desk, under the brilliant Steve Wolstencroft, teamed up with the news boys and it fell to Derek Stewart Brown to write the front page splash which was quite an achievement considering he had virtually no hard facts apart from the Souness confirmation, Keith’s sight of the fax and my endless conversations in Majorca.

If memory serves me correctly there were 14 news pages alone devoted to the story and sport must have done almost as many. My Daily Record spies told me the next day that when the early editions of The Sun landed on the Record sports desk at Anderston Quay they almost collapsed before phoning star sportswriter Alex Cameron who was in his bed.

When the late man on the Record sports desk explained that The Sun were claiming that Mo was about to join Rangers, Cameron grumpily said: “They’re just taking a flyer. Don’t wake me up again with crap like this.”

The Record boys promptly went back to sleep and have remained that way ever since.

The next morning, Monday, Rangers called a press conference. Sun sportswriter Jim Black told me later that day when the media pack all arrived they were heaping derision on The Sun and at the head of the detractors was one Alex Cameron. Suddenly David Murray and Graeme Souness were followed into the room by Maurice Johnston.

Jim told me: “Alex turned chalk white. It was as if his life was flashing in front of them.”

Apparently when I had called Souness he was on his way to David Murray’s home where Mo and Bill McMurdo were waiting for him. He told them that I had been on the phone and had guessed what was happening. I knew all of them and they agreed that Souness could confirm the story.

From that day on we knew we had broken the Record’s spirit and every big story dropped into my lap.

How much did it cost me? I gave young Keith £500 to go on holidays and that was the end of it. How he ended up on The Day-late Record after such a promising start I’ll never know.

So sorry to disappoint the conspiracy theorists. No bungs. No phone hacking. Just old fashioned journalism. Oh, and of course, an editorial genius at the helm.

This is a chapter from “Henrik, Hairdryers and the Hand of God” edited by Brian Marjoribanks (Back Page Press £8.99).

Scottish Daily Mail sports writer Brian Marjoribanks came up with the idea for the project as a tribute to his late baby son Andrew, who arrived stillborn at 39 weeks on September 12, 2011 – three days before his due date. Moved and inspired by the subsequent flood of letters and cards from across the sports writing fraternity, Brian decided to try to put together a book in honour of his son, with all proceeds going to Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity.

Brian said: “The idea I had was for a book telling terrific sports stories first and foremost, while simultaneously giving the reader a unique insight into a career that fascinates many and enrages even more. I was touched and honoured by the response from my fellow sports writers. Each and every journalist kindly donated an article for no charge and it shines through in the book that it is the work of gifted professionals and good people, who love their job, adore their sport and are passionate about what they do for a living.”

The book includes exclusive articles by leading sports writers and broadcasters including Football Writers’ Association national committee member Patrick Barclay, FWA life member Malcolm Brodie, Roddy Forsyth, Graham Hunter, Tom English, Graham Spiers, Kenny MacDonald, Gerry McNee, Davie Provan, Pat Nevin and Brian Marjoribanks.

Brian said: “The exceptional standard of writing in the book makes it a worthy tribute to my son and all monies raised will go to the Sands charity, which my wife Jennifer and I, sadly, know provide such invaluable support to parents who lose children.”

BT join the battle for Barclays Premier League TV supremacy

Posted on December 14, 2012 by FWA News Editor

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

In the basement of BT’s headquarters in London, a stone’s throw from St Paul’s, Michael Calvin looked at a camera and said: “Welcome to lifesapitch.co.uk.” Rory Smith (The Times), Jason Burt (Sunday Telegraph) and footballer turned journalist Adrian Clarke were about to record the latest podcast for the site, with Arsenal and Manchester City top of the agenda.

Next season BT will become big players on Planet Football, taking some of Sky’s Barclays Premier League games. Michael Jarvis, Head of Corporate Communications, BT Retail, said: “BT won a regulatory hearing which enabled them to sell Sky Sports 1 and 2. Ofcom [the independent regulator] said Sky had to wholesale those channels to us which was a new step for us.

“We’d gone from selling calls to also selling broadband and we believed our customers wanted a bundle including TV. A crucial part of that bundle for some customers was Sky Sports. We wanted to set up a web site to show a commitment to sports fans, to showcase something we thought they’d enjoy and prove BT had something to offer in this market.

“Lifesapitch.co.uk has been going since 2010 and we now have around 200,000 unique users.”

In a short time BT have gone from wholesaling Sky Sports 1 and 2 to owning the Barclays Premier League rights for 38 live games per season, 18 of which are the top pick “so we’ll have some absolutely fantastic matches, most of which will be 12:45 on a Saturday,” said Jarvis.

To retail these, BT have had to set up from scratch a football channel, which will be called BT Sport, and are currently talking to presenters, pundits and those working behind the scenes who will bring us the live broadcasts. BT have also signed up for Aviva Premiership rugby, Italy’s Serie A, France’s Ligue 1, the top tier of Brazilian football and Major League Soccer.

Jake Humphrey, 34, will be the face of BT Sport. A former match reporter with BBC Radio 5 Live, Humphrey began his television career by presenting the 2006 Commonwealth Games before moving on to Football Focus. In 2009 he became the anchor-man for the BBC’s Formula One coverage, while this year Humphrey played a major role in the channel’s coverage of Euro 2012 and the London 2012 Olympic games.

“We’re delighted to get Jake, he’s young, fresh, high profile and has done a lot of football. He suits the BT channel and will bring something new to the table.”

Live football is very much part of satellite television’s programming but 10 years ago a TV football podcast was unheard of. Since then, there has been live coverage of England’s 2010 World Cup qualifier in Ukraine broadcast exclusively on line three years ago and with newspaper circulations showing a general downward trend, the electronic media is a growing force.

Lifesapitch.co.uk, which is updated several times daily, will continue “but develop” said Jarvis. “We’ll be looking at magazine content and it will grow into the television aspect. We are approaching a really pivotal decade for sports broadcasting. BT’s network should cover as much as 90 per cent of UK homes in the next five years so a really fast broadband connection will be widely available.

“The broadcast of the England game was an interesting experiment and the more the fibre network grows the more screening games over broadband will be viable, but in the coming years games will also still be delivered over satellite.

“What’s driven BT’s entry into the sports market is that customers don’t want to buy products separately; they are given a better deal if they buy their phone-line and broadband together.” While the financial details have yet to be finalised, Jarvis said: “There will be a fantastic offer for BT customers, they will get the best deal for Barclays Premier League football on the new channel. Sky Sports customers will still be able to get the channel easily.”

BT’s “home” will be the state of the art international broadcast centre at Olympic Park in Stratford. In the meantime, Calvin and the studio guests recorded the latest podcast with Burt adamant: “If City don’t finish fourth Roberto Mancini will have to go. He also seems to attack the wrong targets in the dressing-room. The players are disillusioned by the manager.” Clarke’s view went one step further: “He’s a dead man walking, even if they win the Barclays Premier League he’ll still go.”

Calvin wound up proceedings by looking ahead to the January transfer market which gave Smith the platform for his dry wit. “Xabi Alonso to return to Anfield?” asked Calvin. “Oh yes, I’m sure he’d want to leave Real Madrid where he’s winning honours every year to resume his career with Martin Skrtel…”

And so ended the latest lifesapitch.co.uk, but in August 2013 BT will be in our homes, not just on the electronic media.

WHY THE PRESS HAVE TO PLAY POLITICS WITH SIR ALEX FERGUSON

Posted on December 11, 2012 by FWA News Editor

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

SIR ALEX FERGUSON has broken just about every record in English football during his 26 years as manager of Manchester United. The most ignominious, however, is that the Scot has banned more journalists from the club than any other, a matter which greatly concerns the Football Writers’ Association.

Clubs can ban any journalist, or any person, from their property as they wish and United, sadly, are not the only club to ban reporters for what, in many cases, is being guilty of no more than printing a story that is 100 per cent accurate. Football writers are not cheerleaders or public relations executives for clubs; they are there to write independent, honest, accurate views and news yet ironically what every club should demand from a football writer can still lead to a ban.

Covering Manchester for a national daily newspaper is enjoyable, challenging and competitive with City and United rarely leaving writers without a decent story. Yet the difference between Roberto Mancini and Ferguson could hardly be more different and while the Italian is an occasional no-show at press conferences, the Scot dodges the written media after domestic games, MUTV the source of managerial quotes for those covering the Reds.

The obvious conclusion is that football writers should take a firmer stand with Ferguson, but as leading Manchester-based correspondents told a packed audience at the Barclays-sponsored FWA Live evening, it is not quite as easy as that.

“You have to handle Fergie in a certain way,” said Ian Ladyman of the Daily Mail. “Believe you me, we have all tried to stand up to him in, let’s say, an aggressive or confrontational way, and it won’t work. He’ll either refuse to answer you or ban you. So you have to be pragmatic.”

Neil Custis of The Sun said: “In the old days at Carrington, there used to be a small media room with about half a dozen press guys, the TV cameras weren’t there, but now there are seven or eight cameras present. We used to have rows which he seemed to enjoy, he was able to call me any name and it wouldn’t bother me. The cameras are there now and I remember two years ago I had a row with him in the middle of a press conference and he banned me for 18 months for standing up to him.

“As Ian said, you have to handle him in a different way. Ferguson does not like being challenged. After I was banned my boss sat me down and told me I had to play politics to work things out with Fergie.”

Mancini always seems to be in the middle of a crisis, despite leading City to success in the FA Cup and winning the title last season. Custis said: “I think Roberto Mancini has become too easy a target for some people because he doesn’t have the longevity [of Ferguson] and they don’t think he has the staying power. Sometimes they are too disrespectful to him.”

Custis stressed that despite the perception of some fans, the media cover clubs in a balanced, neutral manner. He said: “It all depends on how the club’s doing. They think we pick on people, we go for certain people…if Manchester United are doing badly we have to ask Sir Alex Ferguson why this is happening…we’ll ask him the same questions as anyone.”

Mancini was unhappy at the projection given to his disclosure that he had talks with other clubs last season before signing a new five-year deal with City in July. Ladyman believes Mancini has been too honest for his own good. He said: “We don’t go to a press conference thinking ‘what question can we ask to get the right answer?’ If Roberto Mancini thinks he’s being taken advantage of then maybe he should consider not being too open with his answers.”

The two Manchester managers share one common bond: both clubs are in the hands of long distance owners – City by the UAE-based Sheikh Mansour and United by the publicity shy Malcolm Glazer, who also owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League.

Steve Bates of the Sunday People said “From day one, Malcolm Glazer, like Roman Abramovich, has never engaged the fans so there has been a disrespect towards him. I don’t think he’s ever been to a United match and nobody is pleased with the way they’ve loaded United up with the debt.”

Former United full-back Gary Neville made the point the American is not the first unpopular owner/chairman at Old Trafford. He said: “There has been absolutely no interference from the Glazer family at all. [Former chairman] Martin Edwards wasn’t that popular.”

Ladyman added: “When they unveiled the statue of Sir Alex at Old Trafford last month people came from all over the world to be there, but there was no member of the owner’s family present. When we put that to Manchester United we were told it was because it was Thanksgiving Day.”

“If Sir Alex Ferguson had not been at Manchester United they would seriously struggle. He has kept the club together in the face of so much debt…for so much of United’s profits to go to paying a debt is an absolute disgrace.”

FWA Live – Manchester

Posted on December 7, 2012 by FWA News Editor

Gary Neville: There’s an inevitability that one day either Guardiola or Mourinho will be at City

Steve Bates: United fans say the team hasn’t been right for two or three seasons

Andy Dunn: Chelsea are a club without soul

Neil Custis: Chelsea live on the edge…it was like Tiger Woods, when he was a naughty boy he was winning every Major going, now he’s calmed down he can’t hit a golf ball

Ian Ladyman: City have not won a big game against big opposition since April

Peter Reid: The Manchester United players aren’t as good as 10 years ago

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

MANCHESTER is used to staging football events that combine craft and controversy and the second FWA L’ive event, sponsored by Barclays, maintained this tradition.

A packed audience at the Ministry for Science and Industry joined in as the good and the great from the Football Writers’ Association and two of Manchester’s legends locked horns about the major issues in the not always beautiful game.

Paul McCarthy, executive general secretary of the FWA, was the question master as Andy Dunn (Sunday Mirror and FWA chairman), Steve Bates (Sunday People), Neil Custis (The Sun), Ian Ladyman (Daily Mail) plus former Manchester United full-back Gary Neville, now a respected Sky Sports analyser and co-commentator, and Peter Reid, who played for and managed Manchester City, got stuck into the Manchester derby, Chelsea, Arsenal and much more.

Paul McCarthy: Manchester United and Manchester City lead the Barclays Premier League but there are still question marks about both teams…

Andy Dunn: What makes it more important for City is that the game [at the Etihad] comes on the back of the Champions League. We all know now Roberto Mancini has to win the Barclays Premier League to stay in his job. Psychologically for them …they have an appalling record in the Champions League and they have to win this game which has become all the more important.

Neil Custis: I find this criticism of Mancini absolutely ridiculous. People are suggesting his job is in danger…this bloke is the best thing to happen to Manchester City since Sheikh Mansour [took over]. You have to remember what this guy’s done. People say ‘because he’s had all that money I could do that job.’ I don’t believe they could. He’s had to manage huge expectations, huge egos, he has given them their first trophy in 35 years, their first title in 50 years, they’re unbeaten in 21 games, unbeaten at home in two years, they’re the only unbeaten club in Britain…I don’t think that’s bad.

Peter Reid: If he’d managed City under Peter Swales he’d have been under more pressure.

Neil Custis: He’s under pressure because of the expectation and he’s handled that pressure brilliantly. Every time he loses…well, he hasn’t lost a game in the Barclays Premier League for so long…every time there’s a slight slip up…Gary will tell you to get it right in the Champions League takes time. You play a different kind of football from the Barclays Premier League. I think you have to learn to play in it to be successful. This year obviously hasn’t been great but United didn’t qualify from a much weaker group last season. The criticism of Mancini is unfair.

Peter Reid: To be fair, United would have struggled in City’s group [Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax]. When you talk about pressure and looking after players it’s highlighted at City because of who they have. When you have a player who’s messing around on the bench and says he’s never going to play for the club again the pressure builds up on you and you have to be careful how you handle that.

Neil Custis: Do you think that Roberto Mancini should lose his job if City finish second in the Barclays Premier League?

Ian Ladyman: In football you set your own standards. Whatever level you play at, you have to be seen to improve and evolve. City haven’t improved because in the summer he didn’t seem to have the same control over players or the same direction. They are still unbeaten but they aren’t as good as last season. The Champions League was a bit of a disaster, it was a difficult group but to make such a mess of it… I think if City find themselves adrift by February or March then rightly or wrongly he might then find himself in a bit of bother.

Gary Neville: After winning the FA Cup and then the league, you can’t think a manager would be under pressure. However, there was a manager at Chelsea who won the FA Cup and Champions League six months ago… In fairness to Sheikh Mansour he has been quite relaxed about Mancini and has given him time. I think he deserves this but there is a suggestion that because of the appointment of Txiki Begiristain [as sporting director] from Barcelona it’s not ridiculous to think that if he doesn’t win the league that he wouldn’t come under pressure but I’m not saying that would be the right thing.

Steve Bates: Part of the problem Mancini has is, he no longer seems to have the ultimate backing of the people above him. You can see that by the transfer business they did in the summer, there were two lists, the one Mancini wanted and the list that he got.

Neil Custis: The people who blocked him from doing that have now been moved aside [Brian Marwood was moved from his role as football administrator to managing director of the academy]. Mancini will now work with Begiristain and chief executive Ferran Soriano. I think if City had moved quicker they’d have had a better chance of getting Robin van Persie.

Gary Neville: There a lot I like about City. They aren’t playing as they did last season but there is an ability within the squad to dig out results. If I was in the United dressing room, what would concern me is that City aren’t at their best but they’re still only three points behind.

Ian Ladyman: What would concern me if I were a City fan is that they have not won a big game against big opposition since April when they beat United at home and went on to win the league. United still manage to do that, they’ve defeated Chelsea, Arsenal…

Steve Bates: I’m not sure if Mancini has the same faith in his players this season. He’s chopped and changed the team, systems have changed, he’s played three at the back, five at the back…

Neil Custis: He changed to three at the back a number of times last season, it’s not like he’s invented it. He’s also perceived as being negative. City played Newcastle in a key game towards the end of last season, he brought off Nasri, put on de Jong and people said he was being negative. He did that to put YaYa Toure nearer the front and he scored the goal. I think he knows what he’s doing tactically. I’d like to ask Gary, no matter how good the team is [domestically] does it take time to get used to Champions League football?

Gary Neville: United had two group defeats in the Nineties. I’ve watched every City game in the Champions League and you can’t deny they’ve under-performed. Ajax was a strange game, I thought they were comfortable and suddenly there’s a mad half an hour. I think if United had been in this season’s [City] group they would have struggled. United were knocked out [at the group stage] last season and no one suggested the manager was in trouble.

Neil Custis: I don’t think City want to be perceived as another Chelsea. I think they fear that. They had a lot of stick when they got rid of Mark Hughes who was on course for what they were trying to achieve but it turned out the change was right. If they start chopping and changing they will be seen as another Chelsea but they have long-term plans on and off the park which are very good…if you start chopping the man and the top, they next guy is under immediate pressure because players think ‘he won a title and he’s gone, what has this bloke got to do?’

Steve Bates: How do you equate the fact that last season Mancini was talking to other clubs?

Peter Reid: On the continent it’s a matter of fact that it’s more of a merry-go-round. The British mentality is different.

Ian Ladyman: When people say you ought to go, you’re on a sticky wicket. He probably thought ‘I may be out of work.’ You can say it’s immoral but I don’t see anything wrong with it.

Andy Dunn: Mancini wouldn’t see it as a big deal but it’d be a big deal if players did it.

Paul McCarthy: Robin van Persie spoke to City, why wouldn’t he not want to go to the champions of England?

Neil Custis: He chose United for football reasons, the history of the club. United are a bigger club.

Gary Neville: I think he wanted to play for Manchester United. Samir Nasri chose City not United, whether that was for football reasons I don’t know. Gareth Barry chose City over Liverpool.

Ian Ladyman: The way it was described to me was that City didn’t show van Persie enough love.

Andy Dunn: This isn’t being disrespectful to City but maybe they had to offer him more than United…

Neil Custis: United are always going to have the bigger pull because they are the biggest club in the world. The new signings don’t realise this until they experience it. For that reason United will always have the edge.

Paul McCarthy: United are far from firing on all cylinders…

Steve Bates: United fans would agree and this is not the United side people have been used to. They are leaking goals, not playing with any real conviction especially at the start of matches…they can do it because they have such a massive armoury of players who can dig them out of trouble. I think if they start as they have been on Sunday they’ll be in a tricky situation…you can do this against some of the lesser teams but certainly not against Manchester City. Gary will know more than anyone how highly Sir Alex Ferguson rates a strong defence. This season they are so flaky at the back but they are still top of the league. I speak to United fans and they say the team hasn’t been right for two or three seasons.

Neil Custis: Yet they have as many points as last year. I think there is something in their DNA…no matter what team they put out there, they have a determination and drive to win football matches that other clubs don’t. City are getting there…

Peter Reid: By the way, we’re talking about the problems of United and City but they are first and second in the Barclays Premier League. And the league is massive now. Previoulys Manchester United v Liverpool were bigger games, no disrespect to City…

Gary Neville [smiling]: Basically what you’re saying is City were crap for 15 or 20 years…

Neil Custis: I’ve worked in Manchester for 14 years and the intensity…everything is bigger than ever. I think both sets of fans should grasp this and really drink it in. It’s wonderful time to be here with these two football clubs where they are.

Ian Ladyman: Over the last two years the derby games have been absolutely incredible. Every match is the biggest derby ever.

Andy Dunn: You have a club with virtually unlimited finance and a club that is the biggest commercial powerhouse in world football. That is why, and given the gap between Manchester and the rest of the Barclays Premier League it is more than a derby, it’s a defining game in the league.

Paul McCarthy: Let’s put you all on the spot: who will win and who will be the player of the day:

Ian Ladyman: A draw and Joe Hart.

Gary Neville: I’ll go with United [sounds of mock surprise from audience] and Robin van Persie.

Andy Dunn: For me it’s United and Rooney. Fergie has been needling him a bit to gee him up, he played him him against Cluj when everyone else was rested…Fergie has been nudging him along and I think Sunday is the type of game for him.

Steve Bates: I have serious concerns about the way United are defending, I don’t think you can just turn it off and turn it on. City are a big powerful team physically and they have overpowered United at times recently. If they get a goal ahead United will find it very difficult, I’ll go 2-1 City and Vincent Kompany.

Peter Reid: I think City will win, especially if he plays Tevez and Aguero. I don’t understand rotation, are players better these days? Why rest them?

Neil Custis: I agree, Dzeko has to be left out, playing him from the start just doesn’t work for City. I think City will win 2-0 and the key player will be Vincent Kompany who is currently the best centre-back in the league. How he handles van Persie will be key, not only that, Kompany’s so good from set-pieces, where United are vulnerable, he is so dangerous.

That wrapped up the first-half but plenty more was to come, starting with Chelsea…a topic that brought plenty of reaction from the panel and the audience.

Paul McCarthy: Andy, when you were at the News Of The World you wrote ‘you can buy everything but class…’

Andy Dunn: It’s knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. I think it’s come to the point where [Chelsea] fans need more than 10 trophies in nine years. At United the fans believe in Ferguson and his philosophy. Chelsea had someone in Roberto di Matteo who they idolised as a player…he then won the Champions League as a manager…he had something that was more than just winning trophies. He connected players, manager and fans together. Without being too romantic about it, Chelsea supporters want a club that has soul…they had that with di Matteo because he loved Chelsea and everyone loved him…now, Roman Abramovich has appointed a guy [Rafa Benitez] who the fans don’t like.

Paul McCarthy: Peter, would you like to be the Chelsea manager, other than the fact you get a massive pay-off?

Peter Reid: I think the ethos and soul of the club has been lost. Mr Abramovich owns the club, he does things his way but there has to be class, there has to be tradition and a human element. When you have people in professional positions, let them get on with it. When Jose Mourinho was in charge he [Abramovich] brought in the Ukrainian [Andrey Shevchenko] which is undermining the manager.

Ian Ladyman: I think Chelsea have underperformed by winning only three titles [under Abramovich] given the money they’ve spent.

Neil Custis: People say the fans will be there when Abramovich has gone…I’m not sure when Abramovich goes and the glory goes Stamford Bridge will be full. People have jumped on the bandwagon at Chelsea. They are a club who live on the edge though getting rid of di Matteo was a step too far. It was like Tiger Woods, when he was a naughty boy he was winning every Major going…now he’s calmed down he can’t hit a golf ball. No disrespect to marriage…

Paul McCarthy: So you think he needs a cocktail waitress…?

Neil Custis: Some individuals, some clubs just live on the edge…

Steve Bates: Chelsea are a laughing stock. Clubs generally care about how they are perceived. They have a duty of care to run the club in the right way. Abramovich just doesn’t care. If you have that kind of attitude at the top it’s little wonder there’s no soul at the club.

Paul McCarthy: Gary, is the soul of a club set by the man at the top?

Gary Neville: Chelsea are a departure from what i know and what I’ve been used to. Are we glad that they are there? Do we want the Chelsea of 15 years ago back? In some ways they raise the level of interest but do they make the Barclays Premier League better? Have the players they’ve brought in made the league more competitive? Do we want a more competitive league? I think we do but I still can’t get my head around a club spending £100 million a year on players.

Peter Reid: The fit and proper person comes to mind…

Gary Neville: You look at Stoke or West Bromwich who are really well run and you think ‘that’s how it should be done.’ For me, I just don’t know where it’s going. A lot of Italian clubs spent huge but almost fell over the edge of the cliff…I just hope there isn’t a cliff moment for us.

Neil Custis: But why shouldn’t City fans dream that a Sheikh Mansour can come in and, even if it takes two or three years, they’ve caught up and joined the party? United fans are bitter but if you listen to them you’d think every player came through the academy. For about 10 years United out-bought every club in the league…they broke the British transfer record three years running. They have bought to stay at the top, it isn’t a new thing. Blackburn did it.

Paul McCarthy: Rafa Benitez is being abused at the moment but are fans booing the wrong person?

Ian Ladyman: They are to a degree. Sacking di Matteo was a ridiculous decision but Rafa is a convenient fall guy. They are booing the wrong guy but unless they’d replaced di Matteo with Mourinho, Pep Guardiola or Guus Hiddink it was always going to be hard.

Steve Bates: Any manager knows his cv isn’t going to be severely damaged by managing Chelsea.

Peter Reid: Do you think Guardiola will go there?

Steve Bates: I’m not sure he will. Maybe there are some managers who have a higher moral gauge than others…maybe Guardiola would see that working for Abramovich is not the way he likes.

Gary Neville: It’d take a pretty strong character to turn the job down. There’s an open cheque book to sign the players you want…Guardiola may not take it but he’d be one of very few people who wouldn’t. You could argue United might be better for him or at City there’s a more patient structure…

Neil Custis: He packed it in at Barcelona in the fourth season because the pressure was too much for him. I would look, if I were the chairman of Manchester United, and ask: ‘Do I want someone like that?’ I think there’s a bit of a myth status.

Paul McCarthy: You have Mourinho who seems to be on his way out of Real Madrid and Guardiola in his penthouse in New York…where do you see them ending up?

Gary Neville: There’s an inevitability that one day, either in the near future or in two of three years, one will end up at City. Begiristain has been given a high level role, he has the ear of the owner…at some point he’ll want to stamp his mark on the club. I would suggest one of those managers would be pretty high on the list to go to City at some point.

Bob Cass [Mail on Sunday]: Every major decision at Chelsea is either instigated or ratified by Abramovich, I’d like to ask the panel their thoughts about the timing to award John Obi Mikel a new five-year contract on the eve of the announcement from the FA that he would be banned for three games for the near assault on Mark Clattenburg? And by the way, the FA treated Mikel with cotton wool. [applause]

Peter Reid: I’ve had so many rucks with referees over the years but they are the guardians of the game…to make accusations under those circumstances and then leak it to the press is an outrage. To give him a contract at this time…I’d have let everything die down.

Neil Custis: You have to be bang on if someone is accused of racism. Once again Chelsea’s behaviour and PR has been appalling. I feel sorry for referees with the heightened television analysis and scrutiny of their decisions…you won’t find a commentator who, with a penalty decision, says ‘that’s a penalty’ straight away. They’ll see the replay and make a decision. The referee does not have that chance. [applause]

Gary Neville: Players have an incredible amount of power [at Chelsea]. You are just not given a voice in that way in the dressing room I was part of. I can’t comprehend that from the structure I experienced. A player certainly couldn’t knock on the chief executive’s door to discuss tactics or selection. If the owner has given players that power, why wouldn’t they take it? You can’t blame the players, it’s the way the club is run.

Peter Reid: I’m from a different generation and if the chairman invited me on his yacht, no chance. The team, yes, a player, no. I respected my managers. And by the way, I don’t think they’re bad principles. [applause]

Gary Neville: They are a truly unique football club and the owner doesn’t mind that sort of thing. In Italy they have some owners who are dictators and they are quite used to it but in this country we can’t comprehend.

Peter Reid: I still think it’s immoral doing that.

Paul McCarthy: A question from the floor…who will be the two clubs to join City and United in the Champions League [top four]?

Ian Ladyman: It will probably be Chelsea and Arsenal. I’m not sure if Tottenham have kicked on under Andre Villas-Boas, Everton are doing well but may run out of gas.

Neil Custis: I would put my house on Tottenham being in the top four. We’re now seeing a coach who was under pressure from the start at Chelsea, who was undermined by the players, who was told to change things but was up against a dressing-room that didn’t want change and it didn’t work for him. We are now seeing a young coach who is thriving. If the players allow him to continue, and he needs the backing of [chairman] Daniel Levy, I can see Tottenham finishing in the top four.

Steve Bates: Everton would be thinking this is their best chance for a few seasons to get fourth spot because of turmoil surrounding clubs you’d expect to be in there. If they can keep that group of 14 players fit they have a great chance.

Paul McCarthy: A question from the floor about Arsene Wenger…

Neil Custis: People talk about playing the right way…I would argue that football the right way is getting results.

Peter Reid: Mr Wenger has not won trophies for a long time but he’s built a new stadium and the club are in a great situation. I wouldn’t be surprised if he buys a lot of players in January.

Andy Dunn: Is Gervinho good enough? Is Podolski good enough? Is Giroud good enough?

Peter Reid: The Manchester United players aren’t as good as 10 years ago.

Paul McCarthy: The question is, how much longer can Arsenal go on not winning anything?

Neil Custis: It’s not a great business model for a club of their size to not win anything for seven years, whether they’ve built a new stadium or not. The yardstick for any club is being successful and Arsenal aren’t.

Simon Mullock (Sunday Mirror): Do you think with Guardiola on the market, Fergie would step aside and not let United miss the opportunity?

Gary Neville: When he decides he doesn’t want to do it any longer he may assist in the transition of a new manager. I think he believes in his own ability to continue to run the football club. It’s the question I am asked most and I don’t have a clue. I don’t think he [Ferguson] knows, I don’t think [chief executive] David Gill knows…unless it’s the best kept secret in the world but it would get out. Going back to Arsene Wenger, it’s not acceptable to not win a trophy for seven years. It wasn’t acceptable for United to win a Championship for 26 years. It’s not acceptable now for Liverpool not to have won the title for 22 years…

United fan in audience: Can you say that again!

Gary Neville: Big football clubs have always gone through periods where they are only successful to a degree. In cycles Arsenal will be OK, they will come back and start winning leagues again.

Neil Custis: I remember having a conversation with Frank Clark when he was at Nottingham Forest. I said the game the previous night was rubbish…it’s an entertainment industry. He said: ‘It isn’t, it’s something fans go to in order to see their team win. If that happens, they are happy.’

Paul McCarthy: Right, to finish…what will the top four be at the end of the season?

Ian Ladyman: Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal.

Gary Neville: The same.

Andy Dunn: United, City, Chelsea, Spurs.

Peter Reid: Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham, Chelsea.

Neil Custis: City, United, Tottenham, Everton.

Steve Bates: I agree with Neil.

NEXT WEEK: The FWA panel reveal what it is like working with Sir Alex Ferguson and Roberto Mancini.

FWA Q&A: IAN HAWKEY

Posted on December 3, 2012 by FWA News Editor

IAN HAWKEY on covering Ba#celona…the singing nuns of Ougadougou…and don’t mention the Waugh

Have you ever worked in a profession other than football?

Some temporary shop jobs with unsightly uniforms and a stint as a painter-and-decorator, but otherwise worked only as a journalist, in various capacities, but mainly sports reporting.

Most memorable match?

Professionally, probably Juventus v Man United, 1999, the semi-final in Turin, the United comeback. Emotionally, the Europa League final in 2010. Every Fulham supporter – I am one – who had watched that club scrabbling around at the foot of the Football League in the 1990s felt something dreamy going to Hamburg to see Fulham, yes Fulham, in a European final.

The one moment in football you would put on a DVD?

Zinedine Zidane’s volleyed goal in the 2002 Champions League final.

Best stadium?

San Mames, Bilbao. Not for the facility, which is aged, but the atmosphere.

…and the worst?

I’ve been to same very basic grounds covering football in Africa, but also spent too many nights despairing about why the great football city of Rome cannot do something about a Stadio Olimpico that is decrepit, that neither of the tenant clubs like.

Your personal new-tech disaster?

I had several faulty keys on my laptop six or seven years ago. One was the letter R. I covered a lot of Barcelona and Real Madrid at the time or, as the poor subs on my newspaper wearily learned as they dealt with tight deadlines and late kick-offs, I covered teams known as Ba#celona and #eal Mad#id, and their inconveniently influential players #onaldinho, #onaldo, #aul and #obe#to Ca#los. My typing is still #ecove#ing.

Biggest mistake?

Loads, but I remember with embarrassment an evening chatting, while waiting for a cab, with someone who had been at the game I had just covered. I talked at length, with increasing conviction, about the shocking performance of one the defenders – player X – from the home team. He, the very polite fellow to whom I was speaking, talked wisely about the match. And after about 25 minutes, once his cab arrived, he told me he was player X’s brother.

Have you ever been mistaken for anyone else?

Mark Waugh, the Australian cricketer, in a hotel lift Down Under. Also in the lift were the Aussie cricketers David Boon and Ian Healy, so I guess context had something to do with it. I was much younger then.

Most media friendly manager?

It’s easy to get nostalgic about the days when fewer media demands on them meant managers didn’t feel obliged to speak only in bland sound-bites, or not speak at all. In my experience, Roy Hodgson has always been patient and helpful. In most of the countries he has worked in, journalists would say that of him.

Best ever player?

Lionel Messi. I have been lucky to see him live, a lot, and initially thought he might be too physically frail to continue playing as brilliantly as he did as a teenager. There will be a ceiling for his brilliance at some stage, but he’s been great for football.

Best ever teams (club and international)?

The AC Milan of Baresi, Maldini, Gullit, Rijkaard and Van Basten and so on. And the Spain of 2008-2012.

Best pre-match grub?

Saint Etienne. Excellent cheese.

Best meal had on your travels?

One that sticks in the mind is a Boeuf Bourginon at L’Eau Vive in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso during the African Cup of Nations in 1998, a culinary highlight of a trip to place where … well, there’s not an overabundance of fine restaurants in Ougadougou, but the food here was genuinely very good. The rituals were unique. The restaurant was run by nuns, and at a certain point in the evening, whether you had a full plate in front of you or not, you had to stand up while the nuns sang. Everybody obeyed.

..and the worst?

Some bad sardines in Lisbon. Made me very ill, spectacularly. Used to love sardines, now can’t touch the poisonous beasts.

Best hotel stayed in?

Maybe the Villa Bregana, well located for the rather remote Milanello, AC Milan’s training centre. It’s very quiet and rural, restaurant’s good. We now know that somewhere in the vicinity, some lively bunga-bunga was going on. Alas, I never saw any there.

…and the worst?

In the late 1990s, I used to get booked into an awful place in Manchester. They had cardboard murals of skylines instead of windows in the bedrooms. I forget the name of it, and don’t wish to be reminded.

Favourite football writer?

I grew up reading Brian Glanville and Hugh McIlvanney, like a lot of people. Brian once came to give a talk at my school when I was about 12 or 13. I was very lucky later that both Hugh and Brian became very generous colleagues at The Sunday Times.

Favourite radio/TV commentator?

Barry Davies.

If you could introduce one change to improve PR between football clubs and football writers what would it be?

A standard daily press conference at all Barclays Premier League clubs, at least on days when they train, in which a player is designated to make himself available to the media, except on pre-match days, when the coach/manager normally speaks. It’s a system that works, still, at several clubs in parts of Europe and some of the most popular clubs in the world know from their research it is a very effective device in maintaining their global popularity. It encourages players to learn they can interact confidently with the media, reminds players they have duties representing their employers, and, for clubs, it eases the bottleneck of media demands they complain about ahead of weekends.

One sporting event outside football you would love to experience?

A Test match in Jamaica, with a full crowd, a bit in the wicket for bat and ball, featuring a competitive West Indies against a strong opponent.

Last book read?

‘I Do Not Come To You By Chance’, by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani. A very funny novel.

Favourite current TV programme?

Almost anything on mainstream British TV, which is so much better than television in southern Europe, with a notable exception: football review shows. Match of the Day could learn a lot about being more dynamic from seeing how they do highlights-and-analysis in Germany or Spain.

Your most prized football memorabilia?

I have a vault of stuff connected with African football, of very limited interest outside Africa, but some rarities. But I’d be most reluctant to give away the letter Malcolm Macdonald wrote to me when he was Fulham manager in 1983.

Advice to anyone coming into the football media world?

Diversify: If you’re good and know your stuff in one medium, you’ll have something to offer in others, so learn and appreciate the needs and demands of TV/radio/print/web. And keep loving the game, even when aspects of it seem unappealing.

Ian Hawkey spent 11 years as The Sunday Times’s European Football Correspondent based in Barcelona before becoming a freelance.

‘Think of the worst hangover you’ve ever had then add a whole new level on top…I’d had better days’

Posted on November 28, 2012 by FWA News Editor

CHRIS BRERETON on the amazing story of Fabrice Muamba’s autobiography which was written in 38 days

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

CHRIS BRERETON was watching Tottenham Hotspur versus Bolton Wanderers in a bar in Bangkok when Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the White Hart Lane surface on March 17, 2012 in an FA Cup quarter-finals tie.

As the chief sports sub editor for the English language Bangkok Post, Brereton felt both personal and professional emotions; sadness for the player but aware that it was a huge story. Little did Brereton know that as Muamba began his recovery he would be ghost-writing his autobiography I’m Still Standing.

Brereton, who previously worked for Wardles sports agency before the chance to work in the Far East came about, said: “I was as gobsmacked as the rest of the world when the incident happened. I went into work the next day and it was front and back page lead.

“Six months later I was helping Muamba write his autobiography.”

As the country was gearing up for London 2012, Brereton was offered the opportunity to return to England by Trinity Mirror Sport Media. “I got back on August 11th, I started work on the 13th and a few days later we began talks with Muamba’s representatives about the book. On my third day with the company Steve Hanrahan, my senior editor, walked over to me and asked me a ridiculous question – had I ever written an autobiography in six weeks? No, I hadn’t was the obvious and accurate response. Writing a book from start to finish in six weeks? That’s impossible.”

No it isn’t. Brereton completed the near 100,000 words in a remarkable 38 days. To write a book in three months would be an exercise to test any journalist, but 38 days is mission almost impossible.

Brereton said: I had covered Bolton games for Wardles, but had never met Fabrice before we got together at his agent’s office in London on September 7. It was like ‘hi…we have to get to know each other very quickly.’

“What helped me with the tight schedule was having worked for Wardles and before that, for Hayters, you become used to turning copy round very quickly.”

For just over six weeks Muamba dominated Brereton’s life as his Groundhog Day existence kicked in. While there was far less time than usual for research, Brereton said: “In fact, I never stopped researching his life to the extent I was dreaming about him.”

From September 11 Brereton would interview Muamba for two hours daily, transcribe the tape and then write it into Muamba’s words.

Brereton said: “It can be very intense talking about every detail of your life…where Fabrice were brought up, what the house was like, his first pair of football boots, what food he loved, what growing up in DR Congo was like…you can only go so far each day. We spoke in the morning from about half past nine, we’d chat for a couple of hours with breaks, I’d leave lunch-time, go home and start working on it. To say I lived and breathed the book is no exaggeration. We’re talking 20-hour days at times.”

What helped Brereton was the help and co-operation of the medical staff involved with saving Muamba’s life, plus his parents and Bolton manager at the time Owen Coyle…“it was old-fashioned journalism, just hammering the phones,” said Brereton. “I’d pull into a service station on the M6, chat to someone on speakerphone as my dictaphone was recording it while also taking it down in shorthand.”

Muamba’s story was rather more challenging than reporting about zonal marking or the benefits of two holding midfielders. The B-grade in biology Brereton achieved in 1998 was of little help when it came to writing about a ventricular tachycardia is [it’s a rapid heartbeat to save you Googling].

Brereton said: “The high regard in which Fabrice is held was clearly shown by the willingness of everyone to help. Everybody. If I had to leave a message for a doctor or specialist, they returned the call the same day and gave me as much time as I needed, explaining the medical details and procedures.

“Mark Alderton, the Bolton press officer, and Owen Coyle couldn’t have been more co-operative while Phil Mason, the club chaplain who prayed with Fabrice in his room, was also brilliant. Despite his heavy schedule, Owen invited me into his office and gave me three hours uninterrupted, offering me an enormous amount of information and colour.”

Brereton’s early days as a news reporter on the Salford Advertiser helped as he complied the book, not least the 78 minutes after Muamba collapsed following his cardiac arrest – the player calls it “78 minutes of nothing”.

The proofs were read and approved by Muamba plus the doctors, paramedics and consultant cardiologists while Brereton paid tribute to Ken Rogers, executive editor of Trinity Mirror Sport Media and the rest of the editorial team who worked round to clock to meet the October 19 deadline.

The result is a fascinating if harrowing insight into the ultimate recovery. Muamba recalls the moment he came back from the dead: “When I opened my eyes I’ve never EVER felt worse. Think of the worst hangover you’ve ever had then add a whole new level on top. Groggy, exhausted, useless.

“It felt like I was dying. I looked down and saw this hospital gown covering me up. Two big pillows and a hospital gown? Is this a wind up? I couldn’t even begin to understand the situation.

“What is going on here? Where am I? Just total confusion. I had a head full of fluff but I looked again to my right to see [wife] Shauna.

“My skin felt like it wasn’t part of my body. At that moment in time somebody had stolen my arms and legs and my brain felt brainless. I’d had better days.

“You’ve got to remember that if you fall off a ladder or you are in a bus crash or whatever, when you wake up you can probably remember a little of the build up to what happened. You can slowly piece together the past so you can work out why you’re in a hospital bed. But I had none of that luck. I’d gone from kicking a football around to being surrounded by people crying just because when they asked me how I was, I told them I was ‘OK.’ It doesn’t get much weirder than that and it really freaked me out.”

Muamba has a rather more trivial problem at the moment. His legs are sore as he prepares for a stint on Strictly Come Dancing. After everything else he’s beaten, he should waltz through his next challenge.

*Fabrice Muamba – I’m Still Standing (published by Sport Media, £12.99). You can follow Chris Brereton on Twitter: @chrisbrereton1.

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