Rupert Metcalf - View from the West

Argyle's future may be unclear but players should carry no burden of blame

2011-04-02T03:43:00.000-07:00

While the process of finding a new proprietor for Plymouth Argyle drags on – as it was always likely to do, given the severity of the Pilgrims’ plight – all sorts of people who care deeply about the beleaguered football club are in no position to be much more than concerned onlookers in the takeover saga.

Argyle’s supporters have been turning up in impressive numbers to watch the team in action. Despite the Pilgrims’ struggles on the pitch, the club’s average home attendance in npower League One this term is 8,259 – a figure which is bettered by only five clubs in the division.

The Pilgrims’ fans have also been going to great lengths, to their huge credit, to raise funds to help the club pay for essential supplies that it cannot afford at present – and to assist the club’s non-playing staff, who have gone without wages for a scandalous length of time.

The supporters and the staff, however, can do very little to influence the outcome of the administrators’ quest to secure new owners for the club. Nor can the people who ought to be real focus of attention at Argyle. The club’s professional players.

The playing staff, like the back-room employees, have rarely seen any wage packets come their way from the club in recent months, although they have had the benefit of loans from the Professional Footballers’ Association.

Nevertheless, these are deeply unsettling times for the playing staff. Some of the Pilgrims’ first-team squad have contracts which bind them to the club for next season, but most of them do not. Whether or not they have deals which expire in June, however, uncertainty is rife.

All of the players would face the prospect of having to seek employment elsewhere if the administrators’ quest for new proprietors draws a blank, and the business is liquidated.

Even if the club does survive as a going concern in the Football League beyond the end of this season, the players must know that possession of contract for next term is no guarantee that they will still be on the books at Home Park.

If Argyle do cling on to life, it is highly probable that they will need to repeat the exercise they undertook in January, and sell as many players as possible while the transfer window is open in order to raise funds – and then replenish their squad by way of free transfers and loan signings.

After all, if the Pilgrims can avoid being wound up, it does seem likely that they will spend next season in the Football League’s bottom division for the first time since the 2001-02 campaign.

Argyle do not have a fixture this weekend and, when they set off for the capital to tackle Leyton Orient next Tuesday, they will have eight League One games left to play.

If results around the country today conspire against the Pilgrims, they could be as many as 11 points adrift of a position of safety. Before this afternoon’s fixture card, they are eight points adrift of 20th place in the league table.

The situation is bleak, but there seems little likelihood of any member of Argyle’s playing or coaching staff abandoning their commitment to the cause. They are all professionals, and so far they have kept on fighting the battles that have been there to be won.

They have been striving to do their best for the club and for the fans and the staff – or, at least, to maintain their own reputations, with a view to seeking gainful employment elsewhere next season.

If, however, the efforts of the players and the team management are insufficient, and

Argyle are relegated, then they should not be vilified. If they do go down, they will still deserve applause on May 7, when the Pilgrims finish the season with a home game against Orient.

They should not take the blame for the wrong turns taken by the occupants of the club’s boardroom in recent times.

Pilgrims are in no position to turn away property developers

2011-03-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

A fortnight ago, when Plymouth Argyle's increasingly desperate search for new owners came under scrutiny, the Western Morning News' Argyle Viewpoint contained the following prophecy.

'Let's be realistic,' we wrote. 'The chances of unearthing new proprietors who are interested only in football, rather than in football plus some potentially profitable property development at Home Park, are very slim.'

It was hardly a surprise, then, when the club's lead administrator, Brendan Guilfoyle, told a public meeting at Plymouth's Guildhall a week ago that he was dealing with two potential 'preferred bidders' who fitted that bill.

"If I am frank," he said, "their motives seem to surround property development. I am not in the fortunate position where I have been able to find a group of high-wealth individuals who were also fans of the club."

Nor was he ever likely to. Over the years, the Pilgrims have always struggled to locate potential investors who tick both boxes. Fans of the team, with access to enough funds to turn the club from also-rans into serious contenders.

That is why the club has ended up, from time to time, with boardroom influence being wielded by people who are not Argyle supporters. Dan McCauley in the 1990s, and Yasuaki Kagami in recent years.

When fans such as Peter Bloom and Paul Stapleton held sway on the board, they and their fellow local directors found it hard to be competitive, financially, with far richer clubs in the second tier of English football.

Before and after Stapleton stood down as chairman, encouraged by apparent pledges of financial input which never arrived, the Pilgrims abandoned a policy of financial prudence and spent far more than they could afford to spend. Now, they are where they are, in need of urgent and total rescue.

That rescue act was never likely to be provided by somebody who was solely interested in resurrecting a failed football club. It was almost inevitable that the saviours would be interested, perhaps primarily, in the property development opportunities that exist at and around Home Park.

Somehow, Argyle have to make money out of more than just playing football. That has been the case for a long time, and that reality has never been more pertinent than it is now.

Chris Dawson, the entrepreneur from Plymouth with a nation-wide retail empire, is no mug when it comes to making money. This week, it has emerged that he is involved in a planned retail and stadium development at Huish Park which, if it comes off, will be good for Yeovil Town, as well as for him.

There was a chance that Dawson might have had a role to play nearer home. He held talks with Plymouth City Council and with Argyle late last year. He was invited to consider becoming involved in a retail project adjacent to Home Park, but the discussions came to nothing.

Dawson felt that the proposals were not viable, financially, and he walked away. He told the media that he was "into making money, not losing it".

Plymouth's loss might be Yeovil's gain, and Argyle are left to wait, with increasing urgency, for Guilfoyle to do a deal with one of the club's suitors. The coffers are empty at Home Park, and something has to be sorted out soon if the club is to survive.

If the Pilgrims' saviour turns out to be a property developer, so be it. There may be no other option.

Argyle's staff should not be expected to soldier on indefinitely

2011-03-19T04:58:00.000-07:00

Just when disillusioned supporters – and, more importantly, employees – of Plymouth Argyle hoped that some much-needed good news might be on its way to Home Park at last, Thursday’s dispiriting events had the effect of pouring weed-killer over fragile green shoots of optimism.

There were hopes, albeit faint ones, that steps might have been taken which would have led to a change of ownership at the beleaguered football club. There was a chance that the administrators who are running the Pilgrims might have been able to announce that a preferred bidder for the club had been found.

Instead, Thursday brought the deeply dispiriting news that there was no immediate sign of a deal being done with any of the potential purchasers who have taken an interest in Argyle. As a consequence, the club’s staff were confronted with a demand to waive their right to any wages for the next two months.

It was a step which had to be taken by the administrators. The only lawful alternative, it seems, would have been liquidation, but that does not make the turn of events any less painful. Staff who have hardly seen a proper pay packet since Christmas are being asked to bear a heavy burden, again.

The potential purchasers have been put off, it seems, by wrangles with some of Argyle’s creditors, who understandably do not want to see their loans to the club vanish.

While creditors such as the Mastpoint group and their lawyers and Argyle’s administrators lock horns, the club’s staff are left to worry about their bank managers’ degree of tolerance, and other such pressing concerns.

As Peter Ridsdale, Argyle’s acting chief executive and chairman, said on Thursday, the club is “currently being run on the good will of the staff and the players”.

The club’s hard-pressed employees deserve the eternal gratitude of the supporters for that demonstration of good will and commitment, but it would be wrong to expect the staff to take the same stance for an unlimited amount of time. Most of them surely cannot afford to do so, and nor should they be expected to, on an indefinite basis.

The factors that combine to turn Plymouth Argyle into something which matters to so many people include the history of the football club and its status within the local community, the shared experiences of the team’s supporters, and their dedication to the cause, and (in a wider sense) the importance of watching football as a leisure activity in English society.

It is Argyle, the team, which inspires great loyalty and devotion, not Plymouth Argyle Football Company Limited. Argyle, as a concept, will continue to mean a great deal to a large number of people, even if the worst comes to the worst and the current club collapses, and has to be reformed in the depths of non-League football.

In contrast, PAFC Ltd is, in the harsh light of day, merely a failed company, whose directors took too many wrong turns and came a cropper. If PAFC Ltd has come to the end of its life, then so be it.
Somehow, somewhere, there will always be an Argyle. The fans will see to that.

The hard-pressed employees of the club have gone way beyond the call of duty, and then some, to ensure that the current incarnation of Argyle survives. At some stage, though, they may feel that enough is enough, and they would deserve no flak if or when they reach that point.

If the plug is pulled, it will not be their fault.

rmetcalf@westernmorningnews.co.uk

The painful reality of administration

2011-03-12T04:20:00.001-08:00

The painful reality of Plymouth Argyle Football Club being plunged into administration was evident at Home Park, in the aftermath of the Pilgrims' hard-earned victory over Swindon Town.

Rightly, after a third win in a row had hauled the club off the bottom and one rung up the League Two table, Argyle's players were feeling pleased with themselves. They found the time, however, to console people who, unlike them, will no longer be turning up for work at Home Park.
More than a dozen club staff were made redundant within a few days of the Pilgrims entering administration. There were tears being shed outside the players' lounge after the Swindon game, as some long-serving employees who have been cast adrift said their goodbyes.
For many people who have been on the payroll at Home Park, Argyle has been more than just a place of work. Many of the staff are supporters of the team. They care, and they have given a great deal to the club over the years, over and above their professional duty.

It is a very sad state of affairs.

The people who made the decisions which steered the Pilgrims down so many wrong turns and into their current predicament really should be ashamed of themselves. Some or all of them may have been doing what they did with the best intentions in mind, but so many livelihoods have now been put at risk.

The Argyle staff who have been made redundant are by no means the only people whose economic circumstances are being adversely affected by what has been happening at Home Park. All the folk who work for or own the various firms who have supplied goods and services to the Pilgrims are in the firing line, too.

Administration, and the Company Voluntary Arrangement which will have to follow if Argyle are going to abide by the rulebook, means that suppliers are almost certainly going to gain only a small percentage of what they are owed by the Pilgrims.

They will suffer and, as a result, the club's standing in the Westcountry business community will dwindle even further than it has done already – and rightly so.

There are right ways and wrong ways to treat people, and Argyle have found themselves, willfully or otherwise, being pushed down the latter path.

There are still plenty of people who care about the Pilgrims, though, and they are trying to help the folk who have been let down by the directors. Very commendably, Argyle fans have renewed their efforts to raise funds for staff still at the club whose wages have gone unpaid.

Other fans have contributed cash to the club to help it cope, for instance, with the financial burden of travelling to two away games in the far north within four days, at Hartlepool and Carlisle. The Pilgrims' fanbase is, to an extent, a family, and members are rallying round in this time of need.

By the time Argyle return from their expedition up country, the Pilgrims' administrators may have agreed a preliminary deal with potential new owners, or owner, of the club.

Let's be realistic. The chances of unearthing new proprietors who are interested only in football, rather than in football plus some potentially profitable property development at Home Park, are very slim.

Income will need to be generated somehow, to supplement what comes in from footballing activity.
Let's just hope, though, that Argyle have a future in which football comes first – along with the welfare of people who have dedicated their working lives to the club.

rmetcalf@westernmorningnews.co.uk

Administration would be no sort of victory

2011-02-22T10:15:00.001-08:00

It remains to be seen whether or not Plymouth Argyle FC end up in administration in the near future but, on the field of play, the damage has already been done.

Monday’s decision by the club to serve notice of intention to appoint an administrator has led to a mandatory loss of ten points, and has sent the Pilgrims plunging to the bottom of npower League One.

Relegation to the League’s bottom division looks almost inevitable.

Before Argyle’s fate on the pitch in this troubled season is decided, the club’s status as an ongoing and viable business will have to be settled, one way or another. All the Pilgrims have done this week is to buy themselves a bit of time. Ten days, or maybe double that, but no more.

Theoretically, it is still possible for the club to change hands, settle debts and start the long haul out of the abyss without the need to make use of the professional services of Brendan Guilfoyle, the experienced administrator who is standing by to sell off what remains of Argyle’s assets and to try to satisfy a long list of creditors.

Sheffield Wednesday pulled off such a trick this season. Their new owners persuaded the Owls’ outgoing board of directors to accept a nominal purchase price for the club and to walk away without due recompense, in return for the settlement of club debts – without the club having to go into administration.

With Argyle being unable to afford a long stay in administration, that is the sort of scenario which Peter Ridsdale, the man who has been calling the shots at Home Park lately, has been trying to create, but no such deal has been done yet in Plymouth, it seems.

It seems that most, if not all, of the Pilgrims’ beleaguered directors are prepared to consider such a deal, and that Ridsdale has persuaded more than one potential purchaser to at least take an interest in the club.

However, the bleak reality of Argyle’s cash-flow predicament, and the dwindling value of the club’s remaining assets, have not helped the former Cardiff City and Leeds United chairman in his quest to find new owners for the Home Park outfit.

The reported reluctance of one member of Argyle’s board to relinquish his status also presents a potential stumbling block. It is hard to imagine how any current director can present a case for hanging around without backing it up with a firm promise of new financial input, but it seems that such a scenario could be more than just a rumour.

Such a stance will be hard to justify. Yes, some, if not all, of the club’s directors have put in substantial loans in an attempt to keep the business afloat. That financial input is now in jeopardy, but that’s business.

In boardrooms, as well as in football management, knowing when the time is right to walk away is surely a sign of wisdom.

Jeopardising the survival of a football club for selfish reasons is something which supporters of that team would find very hard to forgive. At Home Park, Argyle fans will be hoping that there is no such damaging hitch.

If a buy-out cannot be concluded swiftly and the Pilgrims do stumble unwillingly into administration, there is a chance that the club might still be able to rebuild and find prosperity on the field of play again, as Southampton have done under ‘new’ ownership.

If that comes to pass, there should be no triumphalism, however. Administration is no sort of victory. The club might survive, and the players and the back-room staff who remain might be paid on time at last, as they deserve to be, but there will be plenty of people who will still be suffering.

Administration would entail the club’s creditors receiving a small fraction of what they are owed. A lot of companies, large and small, national and local, would be out of pocket.

Argyle’s failure as a business, whether it entails administration or an even worse fate, would have far-reaching consequences, and will cause financial harm to a lot of people who have done nothing wrong. That is something to bear in mind, if the club does survive with the assistance of Mr Guilfoyle and his fellow insolvency practitioners.

rmetcalf@westernmorningnews.co.uk

A dilemma with no ideal solution

2011-01-20T04:28:00.000-08:00

Sadly, it will be in the best interests of Plymouth Argyle Football Club if Bradley Wright-Phillips leaves Home Park sooner rather than later. That is the stark reality of the situation facing the Pilgrims.

Argyle’s outstanding 3-1 win at Milton Keynes Dons in their most recent npower League One fixture has left the beleaguered Devon outfit only three points adrift of the promotion play-offs zone.

The possibility of a prompt return to the Championship does not seem so daft, after all. Unfortunately for the team and the fans, winning football matches is not what matters most for the business at present.

Argyle need cash in the bank, quickly.

They won’t be wound up in the High Court next month – they’ve raised enough funds to escape that fate – but they require more income to settle their most recent tax debts, to lift the transfer embargo which has been in place for weeks – and to pay their bills until the end of the season.

That is the priority. That is why they need to try to sell anybody they can sell – and their top scorer is probably their most marketable commodity.

Yes, Wright-Phillips will be missed. A tally of 13 goals in 17 League One games is some achievement.

It has been a while since the Pilgrims have had such a prolific marksman. But they managed to win at Milton Keynes without him and, before anybody gets carried away with notions of the striker being essential to the side, he was outside the first-team squad at the start of the season and Argyle were victorious at Southampton despite his absence.

Selling him has not been a straightforward piece of business, though. Argyle, thanks to Peter Ridsdale, did very well to persuade Reading to come up with a bid of £300,000 for a player who will be available as a free agent in the summer, but then the Royals backed off when they did not like the results of a knee examination made by a consultant they had hired.

I gather the Pilgrims feel that the consultant exceeded his brief somewhat, and took the diagnosis and suggested course of action into territory which should have been left to Argyle to deal with, considering Wright-Phillips remains their player. But what’s done is done.

It’s hard to criticise the player for being unwilling to make a prompt return to action for Plymouth, once the move to Reading fell through.

He has been confused, it seems, by medical advice which, rightly or wrongly, differs from what he had been told by Argyle.

For him, his long-term career prospects have to be considered, as well as the Pilgrims’ short-term needs on the pitch.

What he could do with is a third opinion from a totally independent consultant, and I hope that’s what Argyle have been trying to arrange this week, whether he stays or leaves.

At the time of writing, with Blackpool apparently showing no inclination to make a bid which is anything other than insulting, Rangers and Charlton Athletic seem to be leading the chase for Wright-Phillips, with Barnsley and maybe other clubs trailing in their wake.

It appears that the best current bid has come from Glasgow, but it would not be a total surprise if the player prefers to move to south-east London, where he is from.

Nor would it be a complete shock if the Pilgrims prefer to accept a lower bid from Charlton – or maybe another club – and seal a quick sale, rather than wait for Rangers to raise money via a sale of their own.

If the Scottish champions get a move on, though, they may get their man. Wherever he ends up, he does not deserve any stick from fans the next time he takes to the field in an Argyle match, whoever he is playing for.

He has served the Pilgrims very well this term, and the club’s predicament (which has put him at the front of the shop window) is not his fault.

Thanks for all the goals, Bradley – especially for that winner at Swindon.

rmetcalf@westernmorningnews.co.uk

Time to work together

2011-01-07T07:58:00.000-08:00

Plymouth Argyle’s memorable win over Bristol Rovers at the Memorial Stadium this week gave the ‘Green Army’ a welcome distraction from debating the off-the-field battles which are shaping the club’s future.

Supporters of the Pilgrims will surely be relieved when contests on the field of play become the pre-eminent topic of conversation again.

That is unlikely to happen for at least five weeks, however, as Argyle strive to stave off winding-up petitions served against them by HM Revenue and Customs.

The past fortnight has seen the biggest shift of power within the Home Park boardroom in a year and half, with Sir Roy Gardner stepping down as chairman and, more significantly, Keith Todd having the authority that went with the status of executive director taken away from him.

Furthermore, having been lurking in the background for at least a couple of months, former Leeds United and Cardiff City chairman Peter Ridsdale has been officially given a senior role in the club’s hierarchy, albeit on a short-term basis initially and with the rather vague title of football ’consultant’.

Predictably, some Argyle fans fear the worst, as a consequence of Ridsdale’s arrival. They have been keen to point out what went wrong at Leeds and Cardiff, and have been drawing less attention to what went right at those clubs.

Yes, the history of Ridsdale’s involvement in football is not a tale of unbroken success, but the blunt truth is that the Pilgrims - and their supporters - cannot afford to obsess over what happened in the past at other clubs.

They need help in their quest to plot a course out of their current predicament, they need that help now, and there does not seem to be a long queue of potential saviours.Ridsdale has relevant experience when it comes to running a football club, and he has said that he is going to be based at Home Park on a full-time basis for the foreseeable future. He will be filling a gap that has badly needed to be filled for a year and a half.

On repeated occasions, this season and last, club staff have told the media privately that the departure former chief executive Michael Dunford, who left Argyle in July 2009, was a big blow to the club.

Since then, there has been nobody with anything like the same level of experience of football administration at the helm at Home Park on a full-time basis, and that has been a serious hindrance to the club.

Some reservations about his track record are understandable, but at least Ridsdale will be around for a while to take on that sort of senior role. What else he will be able to bring to the table remains to be seen.

There have been reports that he may become Argyle chairman at some stage this year, if things go to plan.

When he first became interested in the Pilgrims earlier this season, he was acting as the front man for a group of American investors.

If he does stick around, will he still have access to any cash from across the pond? Interviews he has given this week do not rule out that prospect.

Right now, Argyle fans may be more interested in whether or not the club will be propped up by funding from the far east in the first half of this year.

According to current and past occupants of the Home Park boardroom, the club’s Japan-based director Yasuaki Kagami has not come up with the financial assistance that they were expecting from him.

Kagami’s firm, K&K Shonan Management Corporation, still retains the largest single stake in the
Pilgrims’ parent company and, in order for Todd and Gardner to be pushed aside in the boardroom, it can be assumed that Kagami and fellow Japan-based director George Synan ‘changed sides’ and backed deputy chairman Paul Stapleton and the other Plymouth-based directors.

Last season, it is believed that Todd held Kagami’s proxy vote in the boardroom, which gave him power.

That state of affairs seems to be history now, although Todd is understandably sticking around as a director to protect the investments in the club made by Mastpoint, the firm he set up along with Gardner.

All in all, it’s a sorry tale. Kagami’s involvement in Argyle has always been a curious matter, and it has provided little evident benefit for the club to date. Todd’s stewardship of the club as executive director will hardly be regarded as a success in years to come. Far from it.

The previous regime, when Stapleton was chairman, does not deserve to escape criticism, either.

Those directors approved the players’
contracts which have caused such financial pain, before and after Argyle were relegated from the Championship.

What matters most now, though, is the future, rather than the past.

The directors who remain owe it to the club to work together - and with Ridsdale - to do all they can to bring in funding to supplement the income from player sales.

Save the club, please, and then return to your power struggles, if you must. That is not too much to ask. Is it?

rmetcalf@westernmorningnews.co.uk

An enforced retirement which is far from premature

2010-08-15T06:25:00.000-07:00

When television viewers switched on their sets last Thursday morning, what was the lead news item?
Something of global political or economic significance, perhaps?

No, it was the revelation that David Beckham was not going to feature in any competitive team picked by the manager of the England football team, Fabio Capello, in the future – and that Beckham had not apparently received advance warning of the decision.

This episode was portrayed by some television news bulletins as a scandal. An insult to a national hero. Further compelling evidence that Capello is nothing more than an aloof but bumbling foreigner who is not fit to lead our brave boys into battle. What rot.

Excuse me, but, the last time I looked at the Football Association website, the Italian still held the position of England team manager. That means he gets to pick the team, he does not have to justify his decisions, and he is not obliged to give any of his players any advance warning when they are no longer going to be selected. Not even Beckham.

There was a furore because of the suspicion that Beckham had not been pre-warned that Capello was going to announce the end of the Los Angeles Galaxy’s player international career during the course of a television interview. That notion turned out to be wide of the mark, too.

Franco Baldini, England’s general manager, had contacted Beckham to give the player a tip-off about what was coming in the ITV Sport interview with Capello, which was recorded two days before it was screened.
That distraction – whether or not he had been told – was surely a side-issue, though.

What really matters is whether or not there was any point in retaining Beckham in Capello’s squad. From a cold-eyed footballing point of view, it is hard to justify his continued presence.

He’s 35 years old. Whatever pace he had has almost gone. He’s playing in Major League Soccer, a league which is not strong enough to prepare players properly for the rigours of top-level European international combat.

There are also some much younger English players who do his job – wide-right midfield – who have done enough to demonstrate that they have international quality. Then there are others who still have a point to prove, and who might be denied chances to state their case if Beckham is still collecting caps.

To be honest, Beckham should never have been restored to the squad by the hapless Steve McClaren. If the former England manager had stuck to his guns, we might have been spared the saga of his prolonged international farewell.

Thanks for the good memories, David, but it’s time to go, it really is.

http://twitter.com/rupertmetcalf

The Germans didn't even need penalties

2010-07-06T07:35:00.000-07:00

After watching Germany smash Argentina to smithereens at the World Cup finals, England’s sorry exit suddenly does not look so bad.

Maybe it was just England’s bad luck to meet the team who might go on to prove themselves to be the best in the tournament at the first knock-out stage, rather than later in the competition.

There was no shame in losing to a side as good as Germany. The problem was, for the expectant spectators back home, that England were dumped out of the World Cup as early as the last-16 stage.

Then again, Fabio Capello’s team clearly didn’t deserve to stick around until the final week of the tournament. They simply weren’t good enough.

They did not warrant the status of being among the favourites for the ultimate prize, which is the burden that was placed upon them by the more excitable elements of the national media back home.

England’s demise is old news now, but let’s just state the obvious and say that key players did not do themselves justice, the whole squad seemed to be in a sulky mood because they apparently did not like the conditions and the restrictions at Capello’s regimented training camp, and – finally – they were tactically outplayed by the Germans.

Germany worked out how to drag John Terry out of position, and the rest of England’s back four was not solid enough to plug the gaps. Job done.

Since England went home in a mournful state, there have been plenty of post-mortems. There was the predictable knee-jerk reaction to replace Capello with a new manager, preferably an English one.

That won’t happen, maybe because the Football Association still has faith in the Italian. Or maybe because the FA can’t afford to pay him off.

Yes, Capello showed a fallibility in South Africa that had not been evident during the qualifying campaign, but – short of tempting Guus Hiddink away from Turkey – it’s hard to see where the FA could have gone in a quest to find a candidate who would probably do better than the Italian, had the FA wished to start such a search.

Capello it is, for the 2012 European Championship qualifying campaign, at least. If, however, the Italian had been dumped straight after his side were sent home, then a suitable English candidate might have been keen on the job.

Not a man with the pedigree of Hiddink, perhaps, but a very good manager, nonetheless.
Roy Hodgson’s experience with Switzerland and Finland, plus his vast body of work in the club game, would have been at or near the top of the list of suitable English candidates, if there had been a vacancy. But there wasn’t.

When Hodgson left Fulham, his destination was Liverpool, not the England post. Personally, I would have given him the England job back in 2006, when Steve McClaren was promoted into the top job after Luiz Felipe Scolari had decided against taking it on.

What was perhaps England’s loss back then became Fulham’s gain. Hodgson has now earned the right to have a crack at one of the top club jobs in English football, while Capello is licking his wounds and starting to think about rebuilding his side.

He is now a spectator from afar, as the World Cup enters its final week. At the time of writing, the semi-finals are about to start.

A final between the Netherlands and Germany does seem like the most likely outcome, but it might be unwise to under-estimate the rugged durability of Uruguay – or Spain’s determination to produce the sort of dazzling display which saw them take the European crown two years ago but which they have struggled to deliver in South Africa.

Admittedly, though, it could be unrealistic to expect the Spanish to play with freedom when so much is at stake. Even so, Germany should face a far sterner test than they did against Argentina – or England.

The perils of excessive expectation

2010-06-17T04:39:00.001-07:00

When doubts about the England football team’s pretensions to world-class status were mentioned in this blog last week, the position of goalkeeper was overlooked.

The centre-backs, the wide players, and whoever plays alongside Wayne Rooney up front all got a mention as potential weak links, but I forgot to discuss Fabio Capello‘s goalkeeper dilemma. Oops.

Whatever happens from now on in Robert Green’s career, he will always be remembered for his gaffe which gave the United States their goal in the 1-1 draw which launched the World Cup finals campaign for England and the Americans. Now, we’re waiting to find out if Capello will pick another goalie - David James or Joe Hart - against Algeria on Friday.

If Green is discarded by the England manager, it probably won’t be because of the mistake alone. The decision will almost certainly be influenced by what the player has done - or not done - in training this week, and by an assessment of his state of mind.

Even if Green has looked the part on the training ground, though, it will be impossible to be certain about his form and his confidence. If there are lingering doubts, they will only be dispelled once the action is underway against the Algerians. Battle conditions are the only real test.

Even if Green had not made his blunder and a clean-sheet had been kept, England’s overall performance would not have pleased everybody. At least Capello’s men now know that they are not the only side to make a sloppy start to the tournament. From what I’ve seen, of the big-hitters, only Germany have lived up to expectations.

It was never realistic, though, to expect every team to operate at full throttle from the first whistle. It’s a long event, and teams who expect to stick around tend to pace themselves.

Remember Italia ‘90? Bobby Robson’s England side were awful in the first stage, but they reached the semi-finals. There’s plenty of time for Capello’s team to get things right, assuming they do make it out of what is an undemanding group.

England probably are not one of the favourites to win the World Cup, as some excitable media commentators are still suggesting, but neither do they deserve to be written off just because they weren’t that great against the States.

Unlike England, New Zealand are not expected to stick around in South Africa beyond the group stage.

Unlike England, they did rise to the occasion this week.

The Western Morning News is following New Zealand’s World Cup campaign with particular interest because of the presence of Plymouth Argyle striker Rory Fallon in the All Whites’ squad.

Fallon is not the first Plymouth player to go to a World Cup, but he is the first Pilgrim to play in the tournament proper (as opposed to qualifying). When Argyle’s George Baker went to Sweden with Wales for the 1958 World Cup, he didn’t get a game.

Fallon got 90 minutes in New Zealand’s 1-1 draw with Slovakia this week, and he did not look out of place.

He got stuck in against Liverpool’s rugged central defender Martin Skrtel, and his ability to win the ball in the air played a part in the build-up to the All Whites’ late equaliser.

Fallon might have had more joy if he had received more of the right sort of service, but New Zealand weren’t quite good enough to deliver a steady supply of high-quality crosses from the wings.

During the past two seasons, Argyle have not excelled in that aspect of the game, either, which is one reason why Fallon has not scored more goals than he has for the Home Park club. Give him the right ammunition, though, he can thrive.

Italy, who take on New Zealand on Sunday, didn’t look too clever in the air when Paraguay took the lead in their 1-1 draw with the world champions this week. There have been hints in the Italian media that the holders are nervous about the All Whites’ big men.

Every World Cup has its heroes and its villains. Fallon has had a taste of the tournament now. This weekend, he might just have a chance of making headlines outside Plymouth, Auckland and Wellington.

Lock up your wives, it’s the World Cup!

2010-06-10T09:14:00.001-07:00

It’s that time again. It’s the World Cup!

All of a sudden, mates, colleagues and family members who usually profess total ignorance of, if not utter distaste for, football, suddenly start to take a keen interest in the state of Wayne Rooney’s groin, David James’ hair and Gareth Barry’s whatever.

White Van Man has replaced his radio aerial with an array of St George flags, advertising men are trying to convince you that you can’t possibly watch the footy without the benefit of HD telly, and you can stop buying cat litter because you know you’re going to have a batch of discarded World Cup supplements to rip up and shred in a month’s time.

Slightly more seriously, for folk who spend their time watching football regularly, and not just every four years, the World Cup just gives us the chance to discover new heroes. An opportunity to watch exciting players from across the globe who aren’t over-exposed on our televisions and in our national media every week.

The World Cup creates dramatic sporting moments that linger in the memory. Roger Milla wiggling his hips after scoring a crucial goal for Cameroon. Bet that doesn’t seem like 20 years ago, does it? Or a balding Bulgarian called Yordan Lechkov sending Germany on their way home with a diving header. That was ‘only’ 16 years ago.

A dozen years ago, Michael Owen introduced himself to the world with a dazzling goal against Argentina.

That is one of too few moments of English glory at the World Cup in the past 40 years.

The triumph of Sir Alf Ramsey’s team in 1966 is ancient history now, in sporting terms. Some of the players who made it happen are no longer with us, and are remembered as if they were veterans of World Wars.

That day of victory at Wembley is something that some great and many not-so-great English managers and players have tried to reproduce - in vain.

Now, though, at long last, the England football team has a manager who something of Ramsey’s aura. Fabio Capello is a stern man, and he looks and sounds like a winner. Does he have the ammunition, though, to win the battles he has to fight in South Africa?

Maybe not. With two or three exceptions, it’s hard to argue that the current England team has the quality of the class of 1990, when Lineker, Gascoigne, Platt, Beardsley and Waddle and the rest took Bobby Robson’s side to the last four.

The 1998 team which featured Shearer and Beckham as well as Owen does not compare badly to the current lot, either - and they only got to the second round.

When everything falls into place for Capello’s side, as it did when his team put nine goals past Croatia in two qualifiers, England do look very good. But there are still doubts about the Italian’s resources.

Can Capello call upon two world-class centre-backs? Are the wide players up to it? Where is Steven Gerrard going to play when Barry is fit? Who is the best partner for Wayne Rooney?

These questions will be answered on the field of play in Rustenberg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth and - England fans will be hoping - elsewhere in South Africa from then on.

Capello’s men should be good enough to progress from their group with some comfort, but far tougher contests will lie in wait. Don’t just obsess about England, though. Enjoy the whole show.