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Thu, Feb 23, 2012

Inside Write

Inside Write

What’s next Roman?

Posted on 20 February 2012 - 07:03pm
Last updated on 21 February 2012 - 02:50pm

Bob Holmes

YOU KNOW THINGS are getting desperate when they remind you of Ray Parlour and Eileen. But when David Luiz put his hands on the bowed, bottle-blond head of Fernando Torres before kickoff on Saturday, thoughts went back to a similar encounter between Parlour and Glen Hoddle 's spiritual guru.

From Va-Va-Vroom to doom and gloom

Posted on 16 February 2012 - 05:41pm
Last updated on 16 February 2012 - 08:34pm

Bob Holmes

AFTER VA-VA-VROOM, doom and gloom. After all-too-briefly sparking glimpses of yesteryear, the most magical player of his era was unable to conjure a fairytale farewell.

Sorry seemed the hardest word

Posted on 14 February 2012 - 04:35pm
Last updated on 14 February 2012 - 05:21pm

Bob Holmes

As Elton John put it, sorry proved the hardest word for both player and manager. Their apologies were grudging, incomplete and seemed as if they'd been extracted by a cattle prod. But at least they made them which didn't look likely on Saturday when Luis Suarez behaved like a feral child and Kenny Dalglish a recalcitrant hedgehog.

Relief for ‘Arry and England

Posted on 10 February 2012 - 04:35am

Bob Holmes

As exercises in futility, there was little to separate them. The prosecution of 'Arry Redknapp and the reign of Fabio Capello (pix) came to inglorious conclusions within hours of each other on Wednesday and it was hard to say which had been the more torturous.

A thriller with few answers

Posted on 6 February 2012 - 05:59pm
Last updated on 6 February 2012 - 08:20pm

Bob Holmes

IT WAS A GAME that raised as many questions as answers, a pulsating draw that for Chelsea must have felt like a defeat but for United seemed more like a victory.

After an hour it could have been Andre Villas-Boas's defining game, the one that vindicated Roman Abramovich's faith in him being the man to usher in an era of change; but by the end it showed that no matter how much Uni

Tevez could save City’s season – and his career

Posted on 3 February 2012 - 04:32am

Bob Holmes

He has burned his bridges, scuttled his boats and thrown away the anchors. He has razed the ferry terminal, rubbished the town and humiliated the harbour master. He's let down his fans and fellow crew members, and angered the owners. Even the weather has felt his scorn.

But his escape routes have been blocked and his plan has backfired.

Writing on the wall?

Posted on 1 February 2012 - 04:32am

Bob Holmes

AFTER FABIO CAPELLO's over-bearing but underwhelming Roman rule, it was understandable that England would want to revert to old-fashioned English – or at least British – virtues in their next manager. Pick "one of our own", someone who speaks the players' lingo, has the bulldog spirit and who can say "get stuck in" without the need for a translator.

The justice, Roberto, was poetic

Posted on 27 January 2012 - 04:32am

Bob Holmes

All too predictably, Roberto Mancini left Anfield yesterday morning grumbling about rough justice. He had a point about the penalty which Steven Gerrard converted but Liverpool still deserved to win. For the rest of us, a lively second leg Carling Cup semifinal was more about poetic justice.

The real Mackay

Posted on 20 January 2012 - 04:37am

Bob Holmes

“No players, no money, no experience.” That was how one newspaper headlined its welcome to Malky Mackay when he took the manager’s job at Cardiff City last summer. Harsh and negative it may have been but it wasn’t far from the truth.

Henry, Scholes cause youth to unRavel

Posted on 17 January 2012 - 04:33am

Bob Holmes

MUHAMMAD ALI DID IT, Winston Churchill did it, and so did General McArthur, Elvis, Michael Jordan and Steve Jobs to name a few. And now Thierry Henry and Paul Scholes have joined the illustrious names to have defied the old maxim of “never go back”.