What with everything that has been going on behind the scenes at Carrow Road in the last seven days dear readers, you would be forgiven for thinking that these here UEFA European 23-24 Championships qualifying rounds are not being played this week and next for all the attention that MFW has afforded them.
A quick look at the MFW home page right now sees the following articles trailing behind this one:
- Gary G writing about the Waiver and Debt Repayment, with “and the era of the Attanosios edging ever closer” thrown in for good measure;
- Guest blogger Andy Delf explaining why he will be voting for the Waiver;
- Will Grant doing what Will does best, this time presenting his Academy team of the month for August;
- Martin P [that’s me!] and the Posse rating the Summer Transfer Window to explore the skills of Stuart Webber during this recent environment.
In fact, but for a slice of banter from Villa and Scotland’s John McGinn, I might have been inclined to ignore the international scene as well because these qualifying rounds do nothing for me whatsoever.
Scotland look certain to qualify after five straight wins and should Norway draw with Georgia tomorrow night they will have achieved their goal at the earliest possible opportunity. They retain an *insurance* of a further match with Georgia on November 16, also playing Spain [twice] and Norway.
McGinn said afterwards:
“Only our wee country could mess it up from here, so we need to stay calm.
“We’ll just let the fans get carried away!”
Priceless when seen to camera!
My MFW Man in the Stands, Don Harold, is a true Scot and I knew I’d have no trouble in getting his thoughts concerning tomorrow at Hampden, where we celebrate what was once the annual playing of the Sir Stanley Rous Cup, which is kind of like the Calcutta Cup without the history.
“I’ve just sat through England’s turgid, unambitious draw with Ukraine. As a Scotland fan, I hope England perform like that on Tuesday rather than the swashbuckling side they could be with the talent available to them.
“Scotland are riding the crest of a wave at the moment and it feels strange to be confident that they won’t mess up qualifying from here (despite what John McGinn fears). Angus Gunn has an amazing record in this campaign, Billy Gilmour is starting to be the player we hoped he’d be in his time at NR1, and the Mayoral Kenny does a competent job whenever he’s needed.
I guess the lineups will change a lot on Tuesday so a score prediction is difficult. However, roared in by a hostile home crowd, I’ll go for a 1-0 win for Scotland.”
I think we’ll win 2-1 Don. I can just about utter the word “we” and mean it. 🙂
Ireland manager Stephen Kenny has the same problems with Adam Idah that David Wagner has in Norwich
The Republic are a little like Norwich City right now in that they are a bit short when it comes to their striking department. Apart from Idah, there is only Aaron Connolly {Hull City] or Will Keane of Preston, with Brighton wunderkind Evan Ferguson currently out injured. To put it bluntly, manager Kenny rates Idah the best of what he has, and certainly the only one of the three able to lead the line on his own.
The last time I spoke with an old BASF workmate, Callum, we shared our disappointment that Idah was in the last chance saloon with both club and country and little has changed since then. But you never know***…
Just like the morning Callum conned his way into my room, chucked a brand new, cellophaned official Corcaigh shirt on the bed (below), and yelled “You’ve got half an hour – you’re off to the hurling”.
My trip to the exotically-named Parc Ui Choimh turned out to be truly memorable for lots of reasons – not the least of which being that I continue to watch a bit of televised GAA when I can.
The shirt has featured on MFW before of course and was in good company: one of Bryan Gunn’s Dress Shirts. Well, it’s mine now 🙂
And Shane Duffy got the nod for his first start in quite a while. He was replaced, but seemed in good shape as he was subbed off in the second half against France and moved on to skipper the side against the Netherlands last night.
*** I said you never know and you don’t ever know. Idah’s just scored a fourth-minute penalty to put the Irish 1-0 up!
Not so many of our lads were away on international duty this time around for various reasons
The first half of September has seen the fewest number of Norwich City players away with their international squads in a long, long time. We’ve sold five or six of these thus qualifed for a start.
One who did make it only to receive what could conceivably be yet another serious ankle injury [against Uruguay] is Marcelino Nunez, who is likely to learn his recovery schedule later on today. Another significant blow? Yes, there’s no hiding it, although we do at least have reasonable player levels in wide areas and he is yet to start a game this season, although head coach David Wagner did say last week he was on the very edge of inclusion.
Fellow ankle victim Josh Sergeant was never going to make this or the next international break either as we are talking of a return at Christmas/the New Year here.
Dimi Giannoulis [Greece], Ui-jo Hwang [South Korea] and Angus Gunn [Scotland] complete the list of City tourists this time around.
In order to say thanks to The Posse, particularly Bernie Owen for their hard work with our recent article, this is what the players have been doing, documented by one of life’s eternal rockers, that fine Canadian citizen they call Neil Young. He plays a mean guitar – Neil Young, not Bernie Owen].
Can’t disagree there my strangled attempts at wringing a tune make a certain Dave Davies sound like a virtuoso .
Yes, having watched some of Idah and Ireland no matter who the coach is , it’s the same old song for Idah , the effort far outweighs the end product.
It’s all in the game to get ankle injuries, but do the lightweight boots of today offer enough protection.?. We do get more than our fair share though.
This international break has been covered up for me by the rugby world cup and I’ve noted any number of players wearing ankle and knee strappings and would pro footballers wear the same . One sprained ankle less maybe.
Hi
Not many people know this but your Daddio was a well-known Canadian sports journalist back in the day.
Wiki reckons he mainly covered ice hockey, which is a useful lead on to this question of boots cos if there was ever a sport where ankes ought to be at their most vulnerable it ust surely be anything to do with skates!
All the strappings known to man have always bee a part o rugby for me. I grew up with that fantastic Welsh side of the 1970s and the entire pack looked like extras from a horror flick, what with the red shirts and all.
Boots sponsorship is one of the most lucrative slices of the pie out there – whe Jack Grealish was forced to change from either Adidas or Nike to Puma it seemed half of Manchester jumped ship with him and the swing in units sold must have been phenomenal.
The manufacturers would’t rail at introducing extra ankle support but think of it as another week’s work for the design tea and the chance to introduce a new model.
For once the buyers of the civilian alternatives woud have benefitted as Puma is considerably cheaper than the other when it comes to retail sales.
The suits can make money out of anything connected to football.
Think Margaret Thatcher bog roll if you will.
Cheers
Not sure that boots that cover the ankle would prevent the sort of injury that Sargent and possible Nunez have. My memories of my old style boots were that the ankle pieces didn’t do much to stop you twisting your ankle, that just offered (very) slight protection from a kick on the ankle bone from the very solid toecaps those boots had. The lacing tended to stop at the instep, so the high ankle pieces weren’t very snugly fitting. Loved my first pair of “continental boots “ as they were known in those long distant days of the 1950s!
Hi Jim
The first boots I rememberowning were Stylo Matchmakers with side lacing and *autographed by George Best* no less. They were white with purple and quite a few of my buddies had them.
Must have been around 67 – I don’t remember if there was an adult equivalent tbh.
Finland suffered a heartbreaking last minute loss to Denmark yesterday evening. More heartbreaking was to watch how Finland parked a bus in a home game and created nothing. Mr Kanerva has spoken how he feels that there has happened development and that Finland is now more than ready to challenge anyone. Hradecky like always was brilliant. Pukki was abysmal, MLS has destroyed all he had, he is now a jogger which cant compete. I must warn you about Glen Kamara, he played about 30 min against Kazakstan and now a full game against Denmark. After a huge and long period fight with Rangers, he finally got his transfer away. It is very difficult to see anything other than Kamara being too good for the Championship. He should make a massive impact for Leeds.
If you look at how UEFA made Finlands match schedule, its obvious that uefa does not want to see Finland in the final tournament. Thursday away game in Kazakstan, which now is an extremely long flight because you cant fly in Russia anymore. 12 hours there and 12 hours back during the night. Then the vital home game against Denmark on Sunday, Denmark had a home game against San Marino on Thursday. Kazakstan home pitch is artificial and very hard one. Manager Kanerva does not seem to understand travelling, there was no point in selecting any players from Mls especially to this window.
The regular season of the league is played here and the leader after that is HJK by 1 point after Kups. Martin the Posse knew that. I didnt expect Kups to challenge anymore so hard HJK. Now the top 6 clubs are playing against each other once and after that the surprise champion is crowned again. HJK also got to the Conference league group stage with Frankfurt, PAOK and Aberdeen in the same group. Group stage prize money is about 3 million + of course the qualifications in all 3 european cup games before. Massive financial impact once again.
Congratulations to Idah, let’s hope that boosts his confidence. Everyone that has worked closely with him rates his ability highly. Also congratulations to Elliot Myles who scored for England U17.
Hi Gil
People were saying exactly the same in Ireland as well.
Confidence is indeed just what he needs and that must have given him some of it in spades.
It’s probably fanciful to think the Dutch management might have kept any of Tim Krul’s old water bottles I suppose?
Cheers
A little story about being a ‘true Scot’ with an entirely English accent. My brother and I went to Albania to see Scotland win 4-0, a rare away win in 2018. Wales were playing in Tirana a few days later. We were having a beer, wearing Scotland shirts, and a Welsh supporter came over to say hello. When I replied he said something like ‘flippin heck, what part of Scotland has an accent like that!’ It turned out that he was a Swansea fan-we beat them 4-1 at the Liberty a week later.
Ha!
You haven’t got a Black Country accent either.
My mix of London and Norfolk with the very occasional tinge of Irish confuses many people as to my origins of birth but I reckon you’d be impossible to ID in that way!
Hi Martin
Not sure that this international break has really shown the best of football. Herr Flick of Ello Ello fame got sacked after a 4-1 lose to Japan. With both Ireland teams struggling there could soon bea couple more vacancies coming up.
I asked the question many years ago, why didn’t the North and South combine their respective leagues to become a stronger one and then combine the national team – again it would make it stronger in international competitions. There are a number of the Northern players opted to play from the South but never the other way round.
Graham Souness, a long time, ago blasted the Anglos that played for Scotland – Angus Gunn being one of the latest. Now we hear that Harvey Barnes – a Leicester Lad playing for Saudi Newcastle – is considering changing his preferred country for his grandmother country.
Country of birth should be the qualification for international call ups, not that of your mother or some other relative, but then if you check someone’s DNA, I suppose all players could play for any country. One explainer said his ancestry was of Scottish, English, Irish and German, so will FIFA start to use that and say take your pick?
150th anniversary game tomorrow could be a good watch – at least both FAs got it right with replica shirts from that first game.
And not a word about the upcoming events.
Hi Alex
By the grandparents’ rule I could hae played for England, Ireland or Germany,
The reasons there will always be seperate teams from the Six and the 26 will be forever connected with history – beieve me, that will never change.
I guess they can mae it it as simple or as complicated as they wish. It wil largely depend on what te Saudis want, really.
Cheers
Back in the early days of the American league when Moore, Beckenbauer and Pele all played for Cosmos they fielded an American Team that played international friendlies with mostly European and South American players in it and I think Bobby Moore captained it against an England team.
That League you talk about sure had some faces in it – Carlos Alberto, Johann Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, Gert Muller [der Bomber], Eusebio and… Bestie -)
Cricket and rugby both have all Ireland national sides. See rugby and cricket world cups. DUP must be soccer fans.
I really don’t see the situation changing Bernie, for reasons pretty much akin to the one that you mention [above].
In the height of the early 70s Thin Lizzy got a LOT of stick north of the border because they recuited a Dubliner for a writer and bassist, ffs.
RIP Phil Lynott.
Hi 1×2
Yeah, I take on board your warning about Glen Kamara.
Leeds were always going to be a very strong side anyway and he seems to be a very good player at this level – maybe even higher, I guess we’ll never know that now!
While it’s a shame to hear about the demise of Pukki, we cannot afford to be senimental. You said this was likely to happen, that playing MLS would take his edge away, and it seems like it has.
Aberdeen seems like nothing now, a no-name if you like, but Sir Alex Ferguson did wonders with them ll those years ago and for two years they punched above their weight in Europe to a quite ridiculous level.
It couldn’t happen today 🙂
Kiitos
John McGinn is absolutely correct to be cautious in his appraisal of Scotland’s qualification prospects as they have a long and noble history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory! 😉
Hi ScotCan
😉
Mind you I’ll never forget that Archie Gemmill goal against The Netherlands – that was real soul-stirring stuff if you’ve ever seen it!
Cheers
I remember it all too well before I moved up here but nonetheless.
The defeat from the jaws of victory line is one that I have used regularly with local colleagues etc but I may have to revise it given how well they are going just now.
It’s the best I can remember in ages too.
Should be a good watch tonight as long as Southgate isn’t too conservative.
Martin;
Do you or any of the commenters know if Jon Rowe joined up with the England U-21’s?
I see that they beat the mighty Luxembourg 3 – 0 but there was no Rowe either in the team or on the bench……
O T B C
Hi John
No I’ve heard nothing..
You’ve got me. worried about an injury now!
Cheers