The draw with Spurs was played at the height of summer. One week later and it is all over! Did you enjoy it? Get a tan? I think some fans in the ground must have got sunburnt on Saturday. How weird is that? As weird as a player being tracked from space? It comes to something when George Bush knows exactly what Jermaine Pennant is doing but hasn’t got a clue where Bin Laden is!
The inclusion of Jail Bird Pennant was a big shock. I think we all expected him to make the squad but nobody seriously thought he would start after spending thirty days making mail bags. The injury to Clemence was convenient although I think to be brutally honest Jermaine should have been left on the bench and progressively brought back into the fold. Mind you what do I know about football? I would have liked to have seen Nafti start a match, that way we could assess him properly as opposed to the fleeting substitute glimpses of what looks a decent player.
Steve Bruce made a noble point when he said at least the opportunity to play Pennant has removed a lot of the media hype now. Little did he know that an outrage to football was occurring in Geordie Land and suddenly Pennant was old news. Isn’t it strange how grateful we are to the morons at Newcastle? More of them later.
I was absolutely disgusted to get back to my car on Saturday and listen to the drivel and abuse hurled in the direction of Blues fans by Radio 5 Live. Their match commentator slaughtered us for clapping and cheering Pennant and said it bordered on the ‘nauseous’! Not one single person at the Blues has ever criticised the sentence awarded to Pennant, the only grumblings heard were the incredulous moans when his sentence was compared to other more serious cases heard the same day.
As has been said ad nauseam, the guy made a mistake, he has been sentenced and he has served the time as dictated by the law of the land. What was he supposed to do when they said he could go free? Demand to stay for a few more days? ‘You know something; I’m growing to like it here. Would it trouble you awfully if I served the full sentence?’ Of course not, duh!
Our applause for Pennant was a welcome back to society, ‘we disapprove of your previous behaviour but play well for us and you can become the footballer that you have always threatened to be’. We didn’t applaud him because we were laughing at the sentence or the crime and the moronic media should be ashamed for suggesting as much.
Now for those of you who watch the Blues via the clearly unbiased BBC Match of the Day, hosted by the ex Spurs striker Lineker, I have some news for you. Blues were actually there for the first half. Seven goal mouth incidents shown, six Spurs efforts and our goal. Oh and the Morrison miss at the end which kind of sums Clinton up. Perhaps he should wear the green Irish strip under his Blues shirt. Clinton’s work rate is excellent but his goal scoring record for us has been poor. I wonder if he would be more suited to a role behind the front two where the pressure to score is not so great and he can relax a little.
Pandiani could certainly do with some assistance. El Rifle is at the moment the diet coke of a weapon, he is quasi dangerous, his hair trigger is a tad too sensitive. Shooting from anywhere on the pitch doesn’t make him a world class striker it just means, well, he’s a striker who can shoot from anywhere. Before everyone jumps on the critical bandwagon though don’t forget that he set up the all important Heskey goal against the Villa and threaded the ball through for Carter’s equaliser against Spurs.
Spurs deservedly took the lead but a draw was a fair result with neither side dominating. Maik Taylor made two world class saves towards the end of the match and is returning to form strangely enough as we are linked with numerous goalkeepers! Don’t bother applying Tommy or Peter!
The television scenes from St James Park were astonishing. I watched the incidents unfold with open mouth and hopefully nothing like that will happen in football again. I mean, who wants to see Villa win away? Put me off my chicken tikka balti. Almost.
Last weekend Albion won (cum on me babbies!) and Fulham won and for the first time in months the name of Birmingham City was mentioned in relegation debates. The gap looks too big for the bottom teams to breach if they want the Blues dragged into the dogfight but the table is not a pretty picture. I know it’s only two and a half years and I know we have had injuries blah blah blah but we have some tough games to come and a top half finish looks unlikely.
The Blue Boys of West London have all but wrapped up the Premiership and I would like to congratulate them on a fabulous season. Early on they were not all that convincing, eking out single goal victories, but slowly the pieces came together and the Barcelona match was one of the finest I have ever seen. Mourinho has assembled an expensive squad of quality players and surely they will go on to dominate domestic and European football for as long as the Russian benefactor continues to bankroll his plaything.
I like Mourinho, he’s a little bit mad but he is a passionate guy who wants to win and football needs characters that bring joy rather than the plethora of bad press football has endured over the past few seasons. That old Barcelona/ Frisk incident was pure gamesmanship and such goings on have been occurring for years in all sports. Often the difference between victory and defeat is a mind game. Chelsea need three wins to secure the title and only the most ambitious of Birmingham fans would consider writing the figure ‘two’ on their betting slips.
As for the Chelsea fans well most of them boarded the Russian bandwagon as it swept majestically along the Kings Road savannah. Chelsea replica kits used to be rare and the wearer treated like a medical curiosity whereas now pictures of Mourinho’s galacticos adorn the bedroom walls of adolescent enuresis sufferers everywhere.
The return of Mikael Forssell will bring a smile to the face of every Birmingham fan. A gem of a striker, beautifully poetic in motion and the kind of footballer we all wanted to be when we were young. Watching him warm up before a match alone was one of the finest moments of the game. The effortless way he stroked the ball past the keeper with either foot, the enthusiasm for our cause, the will to get amongst the bullying centre halves and the finesse with which he finished the few opportunities that came his way endeared him to our hearts. May the Forsse be with him.
Keep Right On and remember Dyer v Bowyer is like the Iraq/ Iran War, you want them both to lose!