Manchester United assistant manager Carlos Queiroz blamed the toll of 
international football for his side's defeat by Manchester City.
City beat their rivals 2-1 after both clubs impeccably observed a 
minute's silence to mark the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster.

"We believe the team was affected by international call-ups," said Queiroz.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7237856.stm

lol. :)

"scoopex"  wrote in message 
news:618ufaF1ufrflU3@mid.individual.net...
> Manchester United assistant manager Carlos Queiroz blamed the toll of 
> international football for his side's defeat by Manchester City.
> City beat their rivals 2-1 after both clubs impeccably observed a minute's 
> silence to mark the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster.
>
> "We believe the team was affected by international call-ups," said 
> Queiroz.
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7237856.stm
>
> lol. :)

Surprised the tramp isn't blaming the shirts again

Entertainment is watching overrated stars sulk
Mr Capello's Edwardian-style handling of pampered cretins strikes a happy 
chord in me
Rod Liddle
THRILLED as I was to watch England squeak home against a team of amiable 
goatherds in midweek - the Swiss second XI, more or less - it is not so much 
the quality of the football that has entertained me during Fabio Capello's 
brief tenure. It is the other stuff.

You would think that there is scarcely a more difficult job in the world 
than turning this distracted and effete England team into world-beaters - 
but Signore Capello has found it: turning the England players into sentient 
and respectful individuals. His rules for the training sessions last week 
were magnificently funny. Not only did the players have to turn up to the 
table to eat at the same time as everybody else, they were also forbidden to 
leave the table until everyone else had finished. No, Ferdinand, you can't 
get down to play Rainbow Six Vegas on your Xbox until Ger-rard has finished 
his pudding, just sit there and be patient. And stop dribbling into your 
napkin, it's not clever or funny.

These are the sort of rules parents impose upon children at preschool age, 
somewhere between that mind-numbing Thomas the Tank Engine stage and the 
terrible appearance of the first Roboreptile. The players were also 
addressed crisply by their surnames (no more of that bloody "Stevie G" and 
"Lamps") and forbidden to play with their mobile phones. In short, they were 
treated in the manner you might have encountered in an early Edwardian 
reformatory - and, better still, Capello let the press and the public know 
that this was how he intended to treat them and that he didn't really care 
if they liked it or not.

As a piece of public relations, this was stupendously good stuff; maybe I am 
wrong, but I suspect that there is not an enormous reservoir of goodwill out 
there towards England's international footballers. I have the suspicion that 
an awful lot of people consider them to be dissolute, pampered cretins 
possessed of a ludicrously high opinion of themselves, divested entirely of 
humility, a sense of responsibility, good taste, even a primitive command of 
the English language, a moral compass and indeed footballing ability.

And so Fabio's strictures will have found happy accord from Workington to 
Weymouth.

Even if England never win another game of football, it will at least give 
the viewing public a certain cruel pleasure to know that they are not being 
indulged behind the scenes. Capello is probably the first national manager 
since Ron Greenwood (and with the possible exception, oddly enough, of Glenn 
Hod-dle) not to consider himself either one of the lads or a kind and 
doddery uncle who does not quite understand the full meaning of in loco 
parentis. His attitude towards the players seemed to be one of patience 
bordering on mild distaste, which is exactly as it should be.

But it is not just good public relations; call me the eternal optimist, but 
it may just have one or two beneficial consequences on the field of play. 
Let us make a fairly large assumption - that the present crop of England 
players are at least one-fiftieth as good as they think they are, that there 
really is a degree of talent in the ranks, but a talent that rarely shows 
itself on the international stage. My suspicion has always been that England's 
problems are psychological; that they believe that they are good enough to 
beat the likes of Trinidad and Tobago - and indeed Croatia - simply by 
turning up; that passion and commitment are not really required at all 
because they are proven geniuses of the game and running around, sweating, 
doing the ugly stuff, is really quite beneath them.

It was certainly the case during the European Championship qualifying games 
that the players who shone were those who had not attained the exalted 
status of being an automatic choice for England, so that they still had 
something to prove - your Emile Heskeys, Gareth Barrys and so on. The 
tendency of the England regulars - perfectly epitomised by Paul Robinson 
and, during the last World Cup, Frank Lamp-ard, was to serially underperform 
and then, during the postmatch press conference, to blame outrageous 
misfortune for an adverse result. I reckon they won't be able to get away 
with that for much longer.

By chipping away at their exalted status and treating the players in the 
manner we would treat them, given the chance, Capello has identified the 
root cause of England's chronic and dispiriting history of failure. And 
dropping David Beckham and making Michael Owen sulk on the bench for 90 
minutes reinforced the philosophy. Reasons to be very cheerful then. Hell, 
carry on like this and we might even nick a point off Andorra.

"Peter"  wrote in message 
news:K4Jrj.5529$N53.3012@newsfe1-win.ntli.net...
> Entertainment is watching overrated stars sulk
> Mr Capello's Edwardian-style handling of pampered cretins strikes a happy 
> chord in me
> Rod Liddle
> THRILLED as I was to watch England squeak home against a team of amiable 
> goatherds in midweek - the Swiss second XI, more or less - it is not so 
> much the quality of the football that has entertained me during Fabio 
> Capello's brief tenure. It is the other stuff.
>
> You would think that there is scarcely a more difficult job in the world 
> than turning this distracted and effete England team into world-beaters - 
> but Signore Capello has found it: turning the England players into 
> sentient and respectful individuals. His rules for the training sessions 
> last week were magnificently funny. Not only did the players have to turn 
> up to the table to eat at the same time as everybody else, they were also 
> forbidden to leave the table until everyone else had finished. No, 
> Ferdinand, you can't get down to play Rainbow Six Vegas on your Xbox until 
> Ger-rard has finished his pudding, just sit there and be patient. And stop 
> dribbling into your napkin, it's not clever or funny.
>
> These are the sort of rules parents impose upon children at preschool age, 
> somewhere between that mind-numbing Thomas the Tank Engine stage and the 
> terrible appearance of the first Roboreptile. The players were also 
> addressed crisply by their surnames (no more of that bloody "Stevie G" and 
> "Lamps") and forbidden to play with their mobile phones. In short, they 
> were treated in the manner you might have encountered in an early 
> Edwardian reformatory - and, better still, Capello let the press and the 
> public know that this was how he intended to treat them and that he didn't 
> really care if they liked it or not.
>
> As a piece of public relations, this was stupendously good stuff; maybe I 
> am wrong, but I suspect that there is not an enormous reservoir of 
> goodwill out there towards England's international footballers. I have the 
> suspicion that an awful lot of people consider them to be dissolute, 
> pampered cretins possessed of a ludicrously high opinion of themselves, 
> divested entirely of humility, a sense of responsibility, good taste, even 
> a primitive command of the English language, a moral compass and indeed 
> footballing ability.
>
> And so Fabio's strictures will have found happy accord from Workington to 
> Weymouth.
>
> Even if England never win another game of football, it will at least give 
> the viewing public a certain cruel pleasure to know that they are not 
> being indulged behind the scenes. Capello is probably the first national 
> manager since Ron Greenwood (and with the possible exception, oddly 
> enough, of Glenn Hod-dle) not to consider himself either one of the lads 
> or a kind and doddery uncle who does not quite understand the full meaning 
> of in loco parentis. His attitude towards the players seemed to be one of 
> patience bordering on mild distaste, which is exactly as it should be.
>
> But it is not just good public relations; call me the eternal optimist, 
> but it may just have one or two beneficial consequences on the field of 
> play. Let us make a fairly large assumption - that the present crop of 
> England players are at least one-fiftieth as good as they think they are, 
> that there really is a degree of talent in the ranks, but a talent that 
> rarely shows itself on the international stage. My suspicion has always 
> been that England's problems are psychological; that they believe that 
> they are good enough to beat the likes of Trinidad and Tobago - and indeed 
> Croatia - simply by turning up; that passion and commitment are not really 
> required at all because they are proven geniuses of the game and running 
> around, sweating, doing the ugly stuff, is really quite beneath them.
>
> It was certainly the case during the European Championship qualifying 
> games that the players who shone were those who had not attained the 
> exalted status of being an automatic choice for England, so that they 
> still had something to prove - your Emile Heskeys, Gareth Barrys and so 
> on. The tendency of the England regulars - perfectly epitomised by Paul 
> Robinson and, during the last World Cup, Frank Lamp-ard, was to serially 
> underperform and then, during the postmatch press conference, to blame 
> outrageous misfortune for an adverse result. I reckon they won't be able 
> to get away with that for much longer.
>
> By chipping away at their exalted status and treating the players in the 
> manner we would treat them, given the chance, Capello has identified the 
> root cause of England's chronic and dispiriting history of failure. And 
> dropping David Beckham and making Michael Owen sulk on the bench for 90 
> minutes reinforced the philosophy. Reasons to be very cheerful then. Hell, 
> carry on like this and we might even nick a point off Andorra.
>


Quality!