Gareth’s Blog

As the Axe Starts to Fall

Currently the Sporting press are scrambling to name the 23 man England squad, which is being gradually leaked through Twitter and other sites.  The major story at the moment is the exclusion of Arsenal’s Theo Walcott.   Walcott has failed to deliver any sort of consistency to his game, recently descibed by Chris Waddle as lacking a “Football Brain”.  Therefore it appears that Fabio Capello has gone for style over speed if he does, as is now widely expected Joe Cole goes in place of him.   Ironically fate seems to have come full circle and denied Walcott this time, whereas he was the shock inclusion in 2006, when he’d made only a handful of non descript substitute appearances for Arsenal.   In addition Adam Johnson (Middlesbrough), Leighton Baines (Everton), Scott Parker (West Ham), Darren Bent (Sunderland), Michael Dawson (Tottenham), Tom Huddlestone (Tottenham), and possibly Ledley King (Tottenham) are the others omitted.  In truth there aren’t serious surprises there, the Spurs trio have enjoyed good domestic seasons but been unable to break into the forefront of Capello’s thinking, Parker hasn’t started an England match for nearly three years, Baines and Johnson will probably feel this tournament was a year too early for them whilst Darren Bent is this generations Andy Cole, a great league goalscorer but totally unable to adapt to international football.   

As ever risks are having to be taken in any World Cup squad.  Capello’s determination to take a possibly half fit Gareth Barry poses risks that might compromise his preferred formation should Barry break down early on in the tournament.   However one issue which many within in the English media seem to have missed is the record of the coach in knock out football over the past few years.  Capellos record is dreadful.  His early success in the 1990′s with A.C. Milan, including the famous 4 -0 drubbing of Johan Cryuffs Barcelona in 1994, have given way to serial underachievement with Roma, Juventus and Real Madrid twice.  His best return since 1995 is a quarter final appearance with Real in 1997 and the same stage with Juve in 2005.  Although he’s enjoyed considerable league success the worry should be for England is that in a tight match can he adapt quickly enough?

Britain’s Got Talent – But will it ever be top of the bill?

So it happens again.  Wealthy owners with limitless sums of money take over a club, the world’s finest players are bought at largely inflated prices and it’s hoped that a talented manager can gel this seemingly mercenary bunch of indiviuals into a team capable of challenging on four fronts.  But of course there are problems, and in the end the big loser in these cases is always the manager.  The sacking of Mark Hughes as Manchester City boss today was seemingly expected in media circles, and when you analysis the statement made by the Manchester City owners this evening there’s logic to it.  If the club has aspirations if breaking into the top four then a return of two wins in eleven league matches is, put mildly a disappointing return for a club whose summer investment topped £130 million.  Couple that with the teething troubles Hughes experienced last season and one could argue that the Abu Dubai group had no other option but to give Sparky the Bullet.  From a personal perspective I’ve always argued that the rules have changed for the modern day manager.  It’s apt that this story breaks during the month that celebrated the 50th anniversary of Bill Shankly becoming Liverpool boss.  There’s still a feeling amongst British football fans that the manager should, “Be given more time to things around”, if results are going against him.  However the days of one man been given 5 or 10 years to build a club are gone, although Rafael Benitez continues to buck that trend.  As everyone knows agents, player power, more powerful chairmen and most importantly the amount of money now pumped into modern sport demands results, and major ones at that to be delivered immediately.  As a player Hughes experienced this, his time at Barcelona was deemed an unhappy failure because he failed to hit the ground running and adapt to the step up in quality.  The same seems to have happened in his managerial career.

However the broader point has to be addressed.  In becoming Manchester City boss in the summer of 2008, Mark Hughes was a beacon of hope.  Here was a British manager who after almost 10 years experience at the sharp end, and in truth great success with Wales and Blackburn Rovers, was being given a chance with a team intent on cracking the top four.  Yes it’s true he wasn’t the current owners man, but the ambitions laid in 2007 with Thaksin Sinawatra and Sven Goran Eriksson proved that he would have an opportunity to spend money and take on the big guns.  Now his career has reached a cross roads, and so to has the future of British managers.  The big question has now got to be asked.  Will a British manger ever get his chance with the big spenders again? In replaceing Hughes with Roberto Mancini Manchester City have clearly shown they don’t trust the contenders that could come from the Premiership, surely a job of this size would in normal circumstances be tailor made for David Moyes?

Instead we have an Italian manager who has an impressive but over inflated C.V. (Largely down to Calcio gate scandals which rocked Italian football in 2006).  Who knows what Mancini can do but he comes from a culture of football which is far used to seeing managers being chopped and changed with ruthless regularity.  In my younger days I watched the fantastic Football Italia with James Richardson and used to be shocked at how little time mangers got in Italy.  It seemed the average number of coaches for one team a season was 3 or 4.  He will be well aware of what’ll happen if he can’t get things moving quickly.

Blues confirm status as Number 1. Region

Today’s Anglo – Welsh EDF Cup final at Twickenham was expected to be a tight affair.  Both teams, Gloucester and Cardiff Blues, have become serial under achievers in the rugby world over the past decade.  Both clubs have had their moments; the Cherry and Whites have been in countless Guinness Premiership finals over the past four years but have continually failed to deliver, whilst the Blues have been making steady progress over the past three years, the most significant prior to today was the 2007 EDF semi – final against the Ospreys.  Defeat that day confirmed that the men from the Neath and Swansea were top dogs in Welsh rugby, knocking the traditionally dominant areas of Llanelli and Cardiff off their perch.  Many commentators in the Welsh media began to question if David “Dai” Young was the right man to take the region forward.  Today both he and his players answered those critics in spectacular fashion.

The 50 – 12 victory is without question one of the most spectacular cup victories any Welsh teams has had.  In the first two finals, 2006 and 2007, the regions were simply unable to cope with the physicality of their English counterparts.  Many rugby purists argue that the Guinness Premiership is a pretty turgid and unattractive affair, but boy is it brutal.  The Ospreys were able to turn the tide in 2008 with victory over the Leicester Tigers but the Blues have in the past fortnight proven they can live with any side.  Last week’s titanic struggle with Toulose, which ended with a narrow win, may well prove a significant moment in the regions history.  At last they can stand tall with the rest of Europe once again.  Since reaching the inaugral Heneiken Cup final in 1996, which conveniently was staged at the old Cardiif Arms Park, Cardiff Rugby Club and now the Blues have lacked direction. The majority of players signed have been headline grabbers, which have only worked for brief periods.  The prime example has to be the 2001 capture of Iestyn Harris, perhaps unfair to hold such a talent as a scapegoat but his record signing is the oft remembered one. 

Nowadays the region is built on solid, experienced pros.  The likes of Gareth Thomas, Martyn Williams and Xavier Rush have been around the block and collected a fair number of bruises over the years and have shown the way forward for many of the younger players.  Add to this the exciting potential of youngsters Tom James and Leigh Halfpenny and the forward power of Gethin Jenkins and you have a battle hardened team.

But the biggest winner today was the coach.  Since being appointed in 2002, the year before regionalisation emerged, Dai Young has endured a fair amount of flack.  Many felt he was the wrong choice as head coach, as his own playing career had only just ended and his coaching career was in its infancy.  How he must have enjoyed today.  If ever there was an example of the positives of regionalisation it has to rest with him.  He has been allowed to pull a region which was this time four years ago rudderless and vulnerable out of the gutter and made them into a Europeam force again.  This is great news for Welsh rugby as a whole.  One of the main aims of the regional set up was to build a coaching structure which will enable regional coaches to step up to the international arena.  Although I’m certainly not saying I wanr to get rid of Warren Gatland the long term game plan has to be to groom a successor.  Dai Young has put a big marker down for the future.  Here’s hoping he can maintain the Blues fortunes.  Life will get tougher next season and there are still big tests to come in Europe.  But for now the Blues satnd as the outstanding Welsh region.  How the rest respond will be interesting

The Producers – A Whole lotta fun!

The Producers

Now normally I would never use a blog to speak about me personally.  Just from a purely personal perspective I find it a bit self obsessed and dull, although I appreciate it works for other people and that’s fair enough.  However occasionallly in life you do something which is a little unexpected and unpredicted and, without sounding too self centred, you just have to talk about it.

Last Monday, the 16th February, I was fortunate enough to produce our live in house News Show, Live@Five.  Throughout the course of this term we do the show every Monday, guess what time!, and the roles are divided into three categories; reporting, presenting and producing.  Now of course there are various different roles, such as being the main studio presenter, interviewer, cameraman, autocue, etc..etc…But producer! The person who has to organise people, lead people and just generally live and breathe the show and everything that comes with the territory! I though no….no way is that for me.

Then a funny thing happened.  I found myself writing a fairly comprehensive review on the Monday evening of the previous show, which had by and large been a huge success despite technical difficulties.  As I typed things down an idea began forming in my head, “I’m putting this much thought into it now why the hell shouldn’t I produce!” And so after consultation with other people in my group, who as always were great in giving me advice, I decided to put myself forward.  Now I should be fairly blunt, having done the course for some 15 weeks I had some reservations as to whether I was the right man for the job. 

Iwould happily concede that I’m not the most talented in the year, either from a technical or creative aspect.  This I feared would be a cause of concern for those I was leading.  So I looked at other ways in which I felt I could contribute.  One way was to, and this certainly isn’t meant as a criticism of previous producers as they all did exceptional jobs, improve organisation and communication.  Without going into too much detail I was able to keep up a constant dialogue with the team and make sure I was able to facilitate their needs and have a clear idea of what they were working on. 

There’s no question though that I felt under pressure, so much so that on the Friday morning before the show I awoke at seven in the morning in a cold sweat fearing that I was hopelessly under qualified to take on such a massive role.  Everything was swimming madly in my head, “Bongs have to be collected at a certain time! But when? Whose good on Avid, who will need help? What time should people have a break? Will I ever be able to get a good night’s sleep again?”

Luckily for me this is where family becomes crucial.  After a chat on the phone with my Mum and Dad they made me realise that I was good enoug hand could do it.  After that everything became so much clearer and I felt much more confident in what I was doing.  The running order and everything else made sense to me, and perhaps even more crucially, made sense to the rest of the team.

Our course leader, and Live@Five director, had told me in our production meeting to enjoy being producer.  At first I thought he was mad, surely there was too much to think about to possibly enjoy the experience.  However come Monday I can honestly say that the entire day was fantastic! Not since my A-Level drama days have I had such a charge and buzz about doing something.  It was naturally a long and tiring day but my God when you’re doing something that you quite possibly love who cares.

OK there were msitakes, most mine, but I got a feeling of immense pride in managing to get all the content together and working within a team.  I have to say a huge thank you to all the group who as always worked their socks off.  You’re only as good as the people you work with, and luckily for me the guys and girls on my course are bloody good!