ODF 31 Aug 07 Online

Hi All,

Our latest podcast is online.

We discuss:

Fixtures & Results - All the Premiership happenings & the CL draw. Hear JJ break the ODF 1 minute curse record
Pub Talk - Platini, Lee Hughes, Sunderland, Dyer & more....
Moment in Football - Andreas Escobar gets murdered for conceding an own goal at the '94 world Cup. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpW3WYJv89U

And to continue a recent tradition, because we can, here's Christian Karembeu's wife.

We hope you enjoy the show.
Download it: http://libsyn.com/media/okeydokefootball/odf30Aug07.mp3
Subscribe: http://feeds.feedburner.com/OkeyDokeFootball

Cheers,
Mark
http://www.okeydokefootball.com

Build 'Em Up, Knock 'Em Down

Howdy,



After the frenzied love fest of the summer, when everything Roy Keane & Sunderland was declared as great, the inevitable backlash has begun.



We were treated last year to a radical turnaround at Sunderpants, when Roy took over to lead them to a remarkable Championship victory, so that henceforth they would be known as "Roy Keane's Sunderland".



Over the summer, various pundits predicted top 8, mid-table, and close survival. Relegation? Only a few dissenting voices. But now, the knives are out. 'Keane needs a new assistant.' 'Why are there 8 ex-Man Utd, Ireland & Celtic players on the books'. 'His scouting must be bad'. 'Look at Sven, all foreigners bought and now a good team'.



So where does the truth lie? I bigged up Roy too, he did a great job last season, and I predicted survival for them, albeit in 16th place. The criticism largely stems from having a load of money (example: £9m spent yesterday) and buying mediocre players. I feel that yes, it is hard to attract players to a newly promoted team (and the city of Sunderland!), Keane or not, so I can see his predicament. And 2, it's probably a bit much to expect extensive contacts & scouting networks in European football from which to sign these 'great players' that Man City have signed, because Sunderland have had no money until recently and it's pretty hard to see the likes of Elano pitch up there.

Firstly, Man City have been in the Premiership for a few years. Secondly, their owner has a load of money. Thirdly, they hired a well-respected manager (outside England) in Erickson, who is well able to wheel and deal, and has ~20 years more experience.



So lets look at is his individual signings. (Every player has been overpriced, so we'll leave that analysis) Chopra - 2 goals so far, not bad. Richardson - poor so far. Paul McShane - good, solid defender. Andy Cole - signed for experience. Danny Higginbotham (decent backup), Kenwyne Jones (unknown) & Ian Harte (can't see him playing much), Craig Gordon - excellent.



His tactics have also been criticised, wrongly in my opinion. There is nothing wrong with the good 442 Keane has implemented, after all, apart from last year, it won Man Utd 8 Premiership titles. His quotes have stressed that he wants players with 'character' who don't worry too much about tactics and will fight to the end. Nothing wrong here, I think. How did tactics help Aidy Boothroyd & Watford last season?



So this season is crucial for Keane, that he is not seen to go the way of Bryan Robson. It is also important for the Drumaville consortium behind the club, £30m spent on transfers, they will want to stay in the Prem. I still think they will do this, 4 points from 4 games is decent, especially as they have played Liverpool & Spurs already. Man Utd at the weekend is tough but
games against Reading & Boro are definitely winnable.

However, it doesn't bother me too much, if they relegated, we won't see any more of those Irish idiots wearing half Sunderland, half Ireland jerseys. That would be a great day.

Mark,
http://www.okeydokefootball.com

Bunch of chants

Heya folks,
JJ here

On the back of Mark bringing attention to an absolutely quality Ole Solskjaer chant in yesterday’s blog I decided I’d go and dig for a few more from around the Premiership. And yes, this involves me being lazy and not writing a real blog today, but fuck it there’s a load of cursing and some fairly funny ones below. If ye stay on until the end there’s pure genius from Blackburn and Middlesbrough (yes Middlesbrough, evidently the fans have more style than the team… hoho… right I’ll move on)

To start here’s some poetry from West Ham…

‘You cant read you cant write,
you wear golden nikes,
you live in a caravan,
you dirty millwall pikeys’

The classic:
‘The Don, The Don,
He's better than Veron,
Hutchinson, Hutchinson
He’s better than Veron!’

The other classic:
‘You put your right arm up,
the linesmans flag is down,
Paolo sticks it in & the scum are 1
nil down,
they're out the cup,
cos their goalie just fcuked up
and thats what its all about.
OOOOOHHHHH Fabien Barthez
OOOOOHHHHH Fabien Barthez’

From further down the coast there’s Portsmouth efforts like the magic simplicity of:
‘Lets all laugh at derby
lets all laugh at derby
la la la’… which ya can’t argue with really.

This one is popular all over a certain part of England anyway:
‘Down the pub, Friday night, absolutely
plastered, then go home and beat your
wife, dirty northern ba*****s.’

Fulham have some nice words for their neighbours with the genius of:

‘London Bridge is falling down, falling
down, falling down
London Bridge is falling down, fuck
you Chelsea’

And the universally popular (except in Liverpool):
‘You are a scousser, a fuckin scousser.
you re only happy on giro day.
your mums out theivin, your dads drug dealin,
please don't take my hub caps away!’

Speaking of whom, here’s one of the nicer ones to come from The Kop:

‘Rafas Got His Dirk Out,Rafas Got His Dirk Outla la la laaaaaaaaaaaaRafas Got His Dirk Out,Rafas Got His Dirk Outla la la laaaaaaaaaaaa’

Unsurprisingly Wigan have very few chants online but here’s one that is done with such bad English I’ll leave it in its original form for all to see.
‘I asked my mate, the ova dayhad e seen the new pele,so he asked hu cud it be,he goes by the name of Emile Heskey,Emile Heskey, Emile Heskey theunberlivable, Emile Heskey’

Up in Sunderland there’s the genius of:

‘Away in a manger,
No crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus,
Lay down and he said:
WE HATE GEORDIES
WE HATE GEORDIES
WE HATE GEORDES.’

And one of my favourites:
‘I would walk 500 miles,
and I would walk 500 more,
Just to see a team
with Kevin Kyle
and all the goals that it would score.’

From Man United I took one of the few non-scouse related chants:

‘Leeds are our feeder club
Leeds are our feeder club
Leeds are our feeder club
Leeds are our feeder club
Jordan, McQueen, Cantona, Smith and
Ferdinand’

If you’re not busy laughing at Derby then you’ll catch this gem from their supporters who evidently aren’t big Forest fans. Again, the original form has been kept… the original, graphic form.

‘In ur nottingham slums
u piss in the showa
and shitt in the bath
u finga ur gran and u think its a laff
in ur nottingham slums’

From Sven City there’s the blindingly obvious and pure class:

‘Hey Micah,
Your so fine,
Scores a goal in added time,
Hey Micah’

Everton fans prove they have a touching sensitivity to their keeper’s medical condition with:

‘Tim timiney Tim timiney Tim Tim teroo
Weve got Tim Howard and he says 'FUCK
YOU!'’

And they go with a tried and tested anthem which goes like this…

‘Rooney is a twat
He wears a magic hat
and when he saw an old slapper he said
I'm 'avin that’

And finally, we have two stormers. Firstly, to the tune of ‘Gold’ by Spandau Ballet the ‘so bad it’s good’ Boro anthem that is…

‘Always believe in your soul
You've got the power to know
Your indestructable
Always believe it
You are Boa-teng’

What genius, only topped by Blackburn fans and their homage to Stig Inge Bjornbye…

'Bjornbye in my gang, my gang, my gang
Bjornbye in my gang, Oh yea.
Bjornbye in my gang, my gang, my gang
Bjornbye in my gang, Oh yea.
He's Norweigan, He's Norweigan ...'

Have ye got any more? Send them on…

Farewell to Solskjaer

The news of Solksjaer retiring today has been met with an outpouring of genuine emotion from Man Utd fans, and many neutrals.

It is not hard to see why. Not only was he a great goalscorer, he was happy in his role as supersub, not least in the 8-1 demolition of Nottingham Forest, when he came from the bench

to score 4. He was willing to sacrifice himself for United, as shown in this foul on Rob Lee!

He had many chances to leave United, most notably to Spurs in '98, but decided to stay at the club that he had grown to love (despite being a Liverpool fan growing up)

A compilation of his career can be seen here - Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3

Of course, no tribute to Ole can be complete without mentioning that night in Barcelona when his goal won the Champions League.

He finished his United career with 126 goals in 235 games and inspired a great terrace chant:

You are my Solskjaer my Ole Solskjaer,

You make me happy when skies are grey,

Oh Alan Shearer was F***ing dearer,

So Please don't take my Solskjaer away

****************************************

The transfer gossip has been growing a bit more intense in recent days. Villa are rumoured to be buying Zat Knight for £4m, a player who will surely help them recapture the European Cup, what with he being a reserve central defender and all....
Liverpool are in for The Beast Baptista, which sounds completely made up, and Chelsea will sign Ronaldinho for £50m, which is so untrue it hurts. I can imagine tubby Ron joining in the rigourous training sessions, and being prepared to track back in every match. Knowing Mourinho, he'd back at left back before long.

Mark,
http://www.okeydokefootball.com

Older, wiser… bitter

JJ here,

Arsenal and their problems have featured heavily in Okeydokefootball since we came into existence about ten months ago. Their thirst for perfect football and their penchant for missing open goals proved hilarious to anyone who had allegiances that lay outside the Emirates Stadium last season. Their lack of backbone was shown in defeats at Bolton, Blackburn and even, who can believe it now, a Stuart-Pearce led Manchester City.

This season they were to sort out all their problems in this regard and play a ‘harder’ game; with such sentiments coming from Cesc Fabregas; Arsene Wenger and even the almighty tit that is William Gallas (“this year we know we have to fight”… that must have been some lightbulb moment there Billy). Three weeks into the new season though and it seems that instead of actually dealing with their frailties, Arsenal’s leading lights simply have the same complaints again.

Robin van Persie – a player thought by some to be gifted enough to be the ultimate cross between Henry and Bergkamp – was interviewed by Jonathan Northcroft in yesterday’s Sunday Times and the headline for the piece read as follows: ‘If you play hard, no problem. Rovers did not play hard they just kicked’.

The whine is made all the more silly by the paragraph that leads into the story: ‘All grown up, Arsenal’s new talisman insists the Gunners won’t be strong-armed and can be surprise title contenders’. But then, according to the headline, they can be strong armed. Just kick them!

Van Persie rolled out the usual stuff about how they have improved, how they can handle hard play but ‘simply kicking’ is something he doesn’t stand for. Anyone who likes to see football played well will appreciate his attitude but really Arsenal saying they will be harder this year reeks of an almost Houllier-esque level of self-delusion. The ex-Liverpool manager started several seasons of his tenure with the message that his team would play more expansive, more attacking football. And what did the Anfield crowd get? A whole lot of Salif Diou and a dabble of Anthony la Tallec.

Arsene Wenger claimed that Blackburn had a “desire for violence”, something which Van Persie backs up. He also says that just kicking seven shades of shit out of them is not the way to get a good result against Arsenal when clearly, for less talented sides, it is. Blackburn got a point and could have had more; while several other sides will take a few victories at home to Arsenal because they know they’ll just moan about a few kicks and get frustrated.

Throughout the article Van Persie displays none of the wit which Northcroft promises at the beginning and instead takes up three quarters of a broadsheet page pleading to be left alone by opposition defenders.

Van Persie – who has played over 100 times for Arsenal – had a few days to digest things before the interview and was still “angry” about their treatment. While some might suggest it’s an anger that has built since the 2005 royal rumble of an FA Cup semi final between the sides; surely this is sign that what gets under his, and Arsenal’s, skin stays there for some time.

You’d suggest – even if not many Premier League opponents read The Sunday Times – that the message is loud and clear to clubs like Derby, Birmingham, Sunderland and about five or six others. Give them a kick and they won’t like it, you might just get a point. So the same Arsenal as last year then.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, it’s never been all bad at Arsenal over the years so for absolutely no reason other than his name was mentioned earlier here’s a Dennis Bergkamp compilation to ease you through the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jirzCkR-jSY&mode=related&search

ODF 23 Aug 07 Online

Hi All,

Our latest podcast is online now.

We discuss:

Fixtures & Results - Internationals and Premiership

Pub Talk - Jol, Terry, Henize, Rafa, Strachan & the fashion at Chelsea

The Legend of Dejan Savicevic. Watch him emit some bizarre insults during an interview, his great goal in the awesome 94 CL final, and some more of his great moments.

We hope you enjoy the show.

Download it: http://libsyn.com/media/okeydokefootball/odf23Aug07.mp3

Subscribe: http://feeds.feedburner.com/OkeyDokeFootball

Oh, and here's Claude Makelele wife, a French supermodel

Cheers,

Mark

http://www.okeydokefootball.com/

Flaptastic

Hi folks, JJ here,

The morning’s papers are pretty much dominated by two stories from international football…. Well one if you live in England. Over here we have Ireland’s excellent four-nil win over a very uninterested Denmark to celebrate but there were still a lot of eyes glancing over at Wembley last night. There it was Paul Robinson that was making all the headlines after truly awful display of ‘safe’ handling.

His attempted catch/clearance/bomb disposal unit throw for Germany’s first goal from Kevin Kuranyi was atrocious but let’s face it, who among the supposed goalkeeping elite represents a safe bet these days? At the other end, Jens Lehmann hardly covered himself in glory with his attempts at keeping out Frank Lampard’s whack at goal early in the first half (come on Jens, what else was he going to do?).

Last season Robinson had a few major questions to answer after being beaten from long distance on several occasions. One such time, a John Arne Riise belter from 30 yards, looked like a great goal on first glance. Look again though (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-90SCNEjUw) and Robinson really could have done better. Dirk Kuyt’s goal from the same game didn’t exactly make Robinson look like he was on top of his game either (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I_C1uZc_qI).

In the recent past guys like Edwin Van Der Sar, Pepe Reina and even Petr Cech of late have flapped at cost to their teams. Reina and Cech both have time on their side at least while you’d have to suspect that Van der Sar may be found wanting in a big game at some stage again this season.

Both Scott Carson and the injured Ben Foster have been talked of in glowing terms but the media backing for David James these days is enormous. Maybe reporters see him as one of their own after his stint of deep thinking in the Observer (gay footballers, bullying, school curriculum, it was all covered). James’ heyday of cock ups cost Liverpool the title in 1996 and he wasn’t the safest from a cross for a good five or six years after; during which time he flapped for Aston Villa and West Ham as well.

Now looking solid at Portsmouth there is a good argument that he could handle a return to the international fold quite well. Although the last time there was a clamour to get him in the side he made an absolute tool of himself against Austria in 2004.

Looking at it objectively, every keeper makes a few mistakes but it’s on what stage they make them that determines their reputation. James, you’d suspect, is great for Pompey where he can get away with letting Nicholas Anelka slip the ball through his legs, though should he do the same at international level he could be crucified.

Have England any better options and who is the best keeper out there at the minute? Being Irish, the easy choice is Shay Given though if you look outside the Premiership the heroic job that Iker Casillias (yo check the music muthafucka: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRzjikoHMJ4) has performed at Real Madrid over the years cause a mixture of admiration and sympathy as he plays in front a team who can’t defend to save their lives.

Brian Clough always said that having a good goalkeeper meant that the other players step out on to the field as if they were one-nil up already. With Robinson, England seem to walk out thinking they better score two at least.