3. So, Tony Adams is the new Portsmouth manager. Good. He deserves a shot. And it has nothing to do with his career as a player, but, rather, the fact that after his first failed experience in management (at Wycombe) he didn't sit on his rear end or collect a pay-cheque from the media but rather went and studied - first in Holland, then at Portsmouth. That shows professionalism and ambition.
I hope it will also lead him to focus primarily on working with the players on the pitch. Not to reopen the endless director of football debate, but I don't see how Adams can have the contacts and knowledge to bring in the right players at the right price - not off the bat anyway. He'd be wise to find a few people he can trust to help him on that front. That will allow him to concentrate on what a manager's bread-and-butter ought to be: making his players play as close to their potential as possible.
2. Like many, I read the interview with Sir Alex in The Times with interest.
I was struck by the fact that he describes Paolo Di Canio as one of the ones who got away. (He tried to sign him on two occasions). Full disclosure: Di Canio is a friend and I ghosted his autobiography. Sir Alex had no reason to praise Di Canio eight years after the fact and he obviously has no reason to be nice to him. If he talked about him the way he did, it's because he truly admires him as a footballer. I thought that was a classy move from Sir Alex.
Di Canio has received a lot of bad press in recent years (some of it his own doing, some of it crap spewed on him by people who should know better). Linking your name to him isn't a way to win popularity contests. That said, Sir Alex is one guy who couldn't care less about being popular. 1. You may have heard by now thatDiego Maradona will take charge of Argentina. Actually, as I understand, he'll head up a sort of "selection committee" for the national team. Putting Maradona in charge of the national team is so fraught with uncertainties you just don't know what to think. But I like the idea of a selection committee. That's how things worked back in the early days of football. And given the extent of the Argentine footballing diaspora it, frankly, makes sense. How else to keep track of all the players littered around the world? ------------------- Feel free to comment away either below or here: http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2008/10/star-gazing-ada.html