So Freddie is pondering doing a Scholes/Shearer/Zidane/Bergkamp by quitting international football.
Have you noticed how players are not only doing this more and more often, but younger too? Freddie is not 28 years old until the 16th April.
Clearly, the clubs are the paymasters, and if he wants to get a nice new deal, he thinks he has a better chance if he’s not jetting off hither and thither with Sweden. I wonder if the conversation has cropped up during negotiations?
I’ve ranted on about player burnout before (most notably after our weary exit from Euro 2004), so I don’t blame the players for doing this, and nor do I think dropping the Premier League to 20 teams is the answer (unlike Sepp ‘Mixed’ Blatter).
Cutting out the pointless summer tours not dreaming up moneyspinning nonsense competitions (World Club Championship, anyone?) would be a start.
And finally, the much vaunted Lyon player Michael Essien is now, so it says here, involved in a tug of love between Arsenal, Manchester United, Juventus and Bayern Munich. You can bet your aunt’s tea cosy that Chelski would also be able to empty their piggy bank should they so desire too.
Getting involved in auctions isn’t Arsene’s thing, I suspect. Especially as we would probably not win it.
Welcome back East Lower! Christ, I thought you’d done à HST. What with Chelsea about to win the league and the Champions thingie, that might make sense to some.
As for players quitting international football, it has always struck me as somewhat murky … lack of ambition, end of the road, not likely to be picked any more etc. Dennis retired becaude he didn’t want to fly to Japan. The rest of the big retirees are past masters, with little left to give on the big stage. Is Freddie really about to join this group? Shouldn’t Paddy be the one?
Cheers!
Boz
Welcome back RotorG! I’d begun to give up hope on you. I’d heard a rumour that you were spotted in a Central London hotel with Mourinho and Pini whatshisface and Peter Kenyon.
I was. They offered me £100k a week (backdated two years) to do a Chelsea blog called Matthew Harding Lower, but I turned it down.
Did I make the right decision?
Well, thats if you wanted to sit on the bench for 12 months, get injured and then get shipped off to italy!
And then theres the hate mail!
Of course you did! (By the way, did you get a contact number for them? I might give them a call to discuss … the weather).