WHO NEEDS REASONS?
Choose a life, readers. Choose a match. Choose a vital Euro 2016 qualifier. Choose a feckin’ big stadium full of famously fun-loving fans. Choose beer, songs, slapdash face-paint and giant flags with brazen daubings. But why would you want to do a thing like that when you could reduce tonight’s humdinger between Scotland and the Republic O’Ireland at Queen’s Cetlic Park to a dispute over nationality and player eligibility? Eh, stunning bores, eh?
OK, we’ll admit it, the bickering over Aiden McGeady’s acknowledgement that nationality is not something you buy in a corner shop does lend welcome needle to an already fascinating fixture, no doubt helping to create an atmosphere that will be remembered no matter how many Tins of Liquid Patriotism Enhancer have been consumed. And with nobody knowing quite how many Irish have managed to procure tickets amid Scottish fans, there’s no telling what accent most of the chanting and belching will have, though Gordon Strachan, fearing that his team’s home atmosphere could be hijacked, put on a brave face in yesterday’s build-up. “We will turn [Queen’s] Celtic Park into the home of Scottish football,” he hoped aloud. “You’ll know fine well you are in Scotland tomorrow night!” he bellowed, no doubt as Martin O’Neill gets ready to tell his team to just set abooooot their hosts.
Or will he? O’Neill has a tendency to play it safe away from home and may be operating on the belief that a draw would be a good result since O’Ireland will have the advantage of playing Scotland at home later in the group. But is that really much of an advantage? As we keep saying, reader, you don’t want to read too much into geography when it comes to this match, so O’Neill should go for victory tonight with as much vigour as he would if the game were in Dublin. And that way, you never know, he may not need to pursue victory with quite so much vigour in Dublin. You don’t want to be counting chickens, is what we’re saying, readers. Because there will be no place for chickens in Queen’s Celtic Park tonight.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE TONIGHT
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I actually think it’s going to be good for my children. They are going to ask me one day about it, because some kid is going to Google it and hammer them at school. So it’s a great lesson that you can put everything you can into something for all your life and it’s not always beautiful at the end of it” – QPR keeper Rob Green eloquently discusses that moment in Rustenburg, during this enjoyable chat with Stuart James.
PROJECT NEWS
10 November: “I’ve never given him an ultimatum, even if I sometimes read that I have. In fact, I think it’s now been six or seven times that I’ve had to say the same thing and I’m going to do it again now: I believe in the project we have launched with [him], and he can rest assured [of his future]” – Inter president Erick Thohir gives his backing to manager Walter Mazzarri.
14 November: Sacks him.
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BITS AND BOBS
South Yorkshire police are investigating rape threats sent to Jessica Ennis-Hill after she said she’d request the removal of her name from a stand at Sheffield United if they offered a new contract to Ched Evans.
Equatorial Guinea, disqualified from the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year, have been announced as the hosts of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations … and reinstated into the tournament. “Following fraternal and fruitful discussions, the Head of State of Equatorial Guinea has agreed to host the tournament,” cheered Caf.
Fifa judge Hans-Joachim Eckert claims he was “surprised” by public criticism from ethics committee colleague Michael Garcia over his report into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding processes. “Usually you would first speak to each other internally if you don’t like something,” honked Eckert with a straight face.
Lille’s on-loan Liverpool forward Divock Origi likes what he sees amid the shambles at Anfield and wants to hotfoot it there in January for some quick capital gains when things inevitably pick up a tad next year. “I am here at Lille, it is fine, they are a good club and they have helped me,” he cooed. “But it is also frustrating. It is French football.”
And Bristol Rovers boss Darrell Clarke has got the right funk on with negative supporters at the Conference club. “When a fan wants to get on a bus at the end of an away draw and wants to have a go at my players, and my assistant is having to calm the fan down, it’s a bit of a disgrace,” he told the Beeb. “In the first week of the season, there were 100 posters around the training pitch asking for the manager to be sacked. I had to clear the posters off the training pitch and try not to let if affect me.”
RECOMMENDED VIEWING
David Moyes meets the media at his Real Sociedad unveiling.
STILL WANT MORE?
Barney Ronay delivers the Ballad of Anderson: “His career resembles a kind of confidence trick, a Dapper Laughs Ronaldinho.” Yikes.
The latest addition to our Golden Goal series takes in Jack Charlton for England v Scotland in 1967, albeit in a circuitous route via Archie Gemmill and Jim Baxter.
Srecko Katenec falls out with his players like the Fiver falls out of watering holes: it’s never pretty. Anyway, here’s Jonathan Wilson on the Slovenia coach, who’s preparing to stick it to England.
Richard Williams on ‘meaningless’ international friendlies and why they’re an institution worth cherishing.
South Africa are preparing for an emotional Cup of Nations qualifier against Sudan on Saturday, reports Ed Aarons.
A working link, to the splendid first edition of David Squires’s cartoon.
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