Your reading a pre 2010-11 archived article

This is Clarkeonenil’s regular comment column, cutting through the various passing issues of football and getting to the core principle in the shortest time.

Jermaine Beckford.

Well not so much the footballer than the goal-scorer. The problem with the tedious, never ending debate around how good or average Jermaine Beckford is lies with how it polarises people into extreme positions, with his supporters equating him with world class status and his distracters with the pub footballer tag. Neither is true or helpful, personally I have him as L1/lower CCC standard, having a average touch, selfish mentality at the expense of the team and the club (re contract issue and impending transfer/bosman), needs and wastes far too many chances, tendency to drift out of games (sometimes a few games at a time), doesn’t like or cope with decent defending, has a bad attitude, bites the hand that feeds him and is incapable of recognising the role others have played in raising his profile of the last 3 years. But even after listing that myriad of faults there is still a case for praise.

First those stats, 82 goals in 150 first team games (including 9 goals in 23 games out on loan) is very impressive, even if all of the goals are for L1 clubs. 81 of those goals have happened in the last 3 calendar years. Beckford has an instinctive (rather than coached or thought-out) positioning radar which allows him to get into positions primed to score, his decent pace helps with that. His other praise worthy quality is he doesn’t seem to let misses bother him, he still wants to shoot after chances have gone astray all game, a sign of inner confidence, Finally (and not as back-handed as it reads first time) he doesn’t try and be something he isn’t in his media relations, no soft soaping PR exercise with “brov”, just the manifestation of a London lad finding his one talent and utilising it.

Ultimately this debate is destined to be a retrospective, no self-respecting Leeds fan has missed the distinctive change of tone in the clubs mood music towards Beckford. If after he leaves people want to praise his contribution to our L1 years, fine with me, but if you want to extrapolate that to mean good footballer, alas I won’t be joining you.

Arsene Wenger.

Well not so much Mr Wenger, who is already a managerial legend, as the team he has been building for the last 3 years, against the ridiculous torrent of media abuse and idiocy. Sometimes our press will praise an English long ball failure till the cows come home but not the European architect of the best passing football ever. Arsenal play the most delightful stuff and it is effective, it scores shed loads of goals, can turn defence into attack with 3 ground level passes and does it without the need for the cynical stuff that the two other PL clubs capable of winning the PL employ. Factor in that the average age of the 11 Wenger is picking never really rises above 22-24 and you can only marvel at the brain and man-management of the man.

As we speak Arsenal are 7 points behind with 2 games in hand (Portsmouth and Bolton so 4-6 points guaranteed) at the half way point of the season. All this with Fabregas injured on and off, Van Persie out for months and injuries to Bendtner, Rosicky Walcott, Nasri, Djourou, Eduardo, Clichy and with youngsters called upon like Wilshire, Vela, Merida, Ramsey. To me a sign of a world class manager is when your 6th choice midfield player would walk into any PL team he wanted to and also the ability, shown a million times by the Arsenal manager, to successfully blood the younger talent. Factor in a visionary ability to know who to move on and you are left with the conclusion if he ever got bored with the English game it would be a tragic loss.

Despite some life memorable performances and a wide open league the pundits fail to see past Chelsea and Manchester United. For the benefit of the game in this country and decency I hope Wenger proves that as short-sighted.

Garry Cook.

Well not so much the Chief Executive of Manchester City more what he represents in terms of the recent decision to offload Mark Hughes and replace with Roberto Mancini. Again the English press decide to denigrate a decision which has already paid off, within 2 games City are more solid at the back, have brought tactical change into the Eastlands equation, are winning away from home for the first time since August and now have a genuine outside shop at the PL title. It takes a certain ability to notice the gap between what a limited manager like Hughes can do with £200m and what a manager, like Mancini and his track record, can get out of the same group. Whilst for me the decision was a no-brainer, when you spend like Chelsea you expect Chelsea league positions, Cook and the club should get credit for making the decision.

The other criticism thrown around by the likes of the BBC’s Phil McNulty is around timing, well where I am standing the timing was perfect. City’s next 6 league games are Blackburn Rovers, Everton, Stoke City, Portsmouth, Hull City and Bolton Wanderers, if the first two games of the Mancini era are anything to go by, that’s another 18 points in the bag. Manchester City won’t just be breaking into the exclusive top 4; they will be making it a 4 way scrap for the title. Cook and co have made a decision that is not only brave but incisive, City have left the nearly club by seeing the potential beyond Blackburn Rovers second best ever manager and by giving Mancini the chance to show how to really add quality to a squad they have shoved one up the one-eyed pundits who can’t see beyond their occasional drinking buddies in managerial respect. I for one believe they have made a rational and decisive decision that will place Manchester City as not just a Top 4 club and not just the biggest club (in terms of finance and future success) in Manchester but also a CL contender for years to come.

If City fans can treat the League Cup semi-final as a no lose situation (win a Wembley final, lose and concentrate on the league whilst the other 3 clubs have CL to weary them) and the FA Cup equally it could be the next 4 months are about as good as they have ever imagined.