Whether most people realise it or not I’m unsure, but in the last week Roy Hodgson has taken a giant leap towards choosing his squad for the World Cup this summer. 30 players were selected for this week’s friendly at home to Denmark, and with that being the last before Hodgson names his provisional 30-man squad for the tournament itself it seems that time is short for anyone new to force their way into the picture.
It seems that it’s never too early for our World Cup disappointment. Another loss on penalties for England and the overwhelming thoughts of ‘what might have been’. But of course we haven’t got out of the group stage yet. In fact, as of this writing, the World Cup is still 105 days away. But we know where this is going, don’t we?
If football history has taught us just one thing it’s that constantly changing your manager is the only sure fire way of achieving success. That, of course, is sarcasm. Consistency seems to be the key ingredient from many sides on the verge of success.
In recent seasons Spanish football has been regularly lavished with praise. The vast majority of this understandably rests upon the dominant national team and the dazzling displays of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively. In fact, these superlatives have effectively drowned out a lot of simultaneous concerns in Spain, those to do with finance.
Now that all the transfer window fun has died down and the furore from a sensational set of weekend fixtures has subsided, we are left with what could well be called a slow news day. Luckily for the Premier League José Mourinho has returned from sunny Spain, meaning that there is no such thing as a slow news day anymore. This week, José takes aim at Manuel Pellegrini and the FA.