Chelsea have appointed their new manager and have gone down the tried and tested 'pick the young good looking guy from Porto who just won something in Europe' route. Andre Villas Boas is younger than some of Chelsea's key veteran players and is clearly going to face a challenge to impose himself and his views on a squad with seemingly over-inflated ego's and a somewhat entrenched mindset. It won't be easy, but I think it could well prove to be a sensible and shrewd appointment by Abramovich and co. The key factor for me is for Roman and his trigger happy cohorts to decide right from the get-go that AVB (yeh you know me) is his man for the next few years no matter what.
Chelsea have tasted significant success in recent years, but every permanent manager there has had to deal with interference from on high in some capacity. It's fair enough and understandable - it's his toy, he bought it, and he is well entitled to run it whichever way he bloody well likes. I believe that he has perhaps come to realise that hiring and firing is not the route to sustainable, dynasty building type success - for real and continual success to be delivered to a club I think continuity is a decisive factor. By picking a young promising manager and then stepping aside to leave it all up to him - even if he makes some big calls that you might not agree with - that could well be the missing piece that has kept Chelsea back from true domination.
Whether he turns out to be more Andre the Giant or Andre the Seal could depend on the quality of players that he brings in - as mentioned above, many of Chelsea's senior players are getting on now and will need to be replaced or at least supported by some new younger recruits over the next year or so. One superstar that is linked in the tabloids is latest Brazilian striking sensation, the mohican-sporting Neymar of Santos.
19 year old Neymar will be leading the line for Brazil in the Copa America which starts tomorrow - a competition which I've always tended to get quite into, partly as it doesn't usually have any weak teams in it. There is often a high technical standard of play, plus of course there tends to be a healthy helping of aggro as well which always livens up a game between two teams you are not too familiar with. Lack of familiarity won't be a problem when watching a lot of these games though, all of the biggest stars are turning out including Leo and Carlitos for the hosts. Argentina must surely go into the tournament as favourites at home - their striking options are phenomenal and, as a slight digression, make a mockery of FIFA's latest ranking which puts England in fourth. Fourth! Whatevs, that is like totes ridic. Anyway...if you get a chance to watch any of the Copa America then do it, tell 'em I sent you, you won't regret it. I'll be watching to see first hand what Neymar can do, and also hope to see Messi deliver for Argentina some of his Barca Brilliance to strengthen the ever growing legend.
The other big footballing event this Summer is the Women's World Cup in Germany. The hosts are also favourites in this one, having won the last two tournaments, and when you consider that their opening game was watched by over 70'000 fans you have to expect they will do well. Clearly this branch of the sport is growing rapidly in terms of stature and interest. I've watched a few games in the past, and I won't say I've enjoyed them all, but there have definitely been some times that you can easily get just as engrossed as in any match between two teams without the lovely lady lumps, (check it out). I think the sexism thing needs to be cast aside - it is not right to talk about whether a female player is fit since it is constantly used as a way to disparage girls that they know nothing about football 'cos they think David Beckham has nice legs (he does); so it would be hypocritical to judge female players on their looks. Like I say I've seen a few games and at times the technique, vision, ferocity is all genuinely impressive. This is a fact though...the goalkeepers are shite.
Speaking of D-Beck, and drawing this hodge podge mish mash of a meal to a close nicely, today marks the anniversary of arguably his lowest point - the sending off against Argentina. Beckham was goaded by Diego Simeone, who presumably to this day lives in a castle atop a spooky cliff, sits in a big chair stroking a cat, wears a cape and does all manner of typical bad guy things. He petulantly lashed out a leg, bringing Diego crashing to the ground and, with the potentially harsh red card that followed, bringing England's hopes of progression crashing out too. The backlash and vitriol that followed was clearly over the top, but perhaps helped to shape Beckham into the player he became. Think about it - the freekick against Greece was all the more impactful given the full circle style journey that England's then captain had been on in those three years - and the penalty in Sapporo that sunk Argentina, Simeone and all, would have had none of the redemptive electricity that made it such a stand-out moment in the Three Lions' recent history. Furthermore there is no way Beckham's sending off did any more than accelerate our exit from that tournament by one round - we would have been destroyed by Bergkamp's brilliant Oranje just a few days later. What a tournament that was, France 98, and it was going on 13 years ago today. I'm getting old.
Now, what do you want for pudding...there's half an apricot yoghurt, some angel delight or some broken biscuits?
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