Sports World OCTOBER
A month is a short time in sport! Who would have believed that Jose Mourinho would be out of work by the end of September, the first Premiership manager to be axed for poor results this season? It seems he made at least two mistakes.
Firstly, he did not get on with his boss, and secondly he did not get on with the players his boss signed. Alright, so maybe thirdly he also had a rather inflated ego. English football will miss the self appointed “special one” as he brought a certain star quality to football management, but I am not sure how many of the other Premiership managers will miss his confrontational style and controversial rants.
It does seem a little pedantic on Manchester United’s part to complain to the FA that Jose Mourinho’s replacement, Avram Grant, does not have the right coaching qualifications to manage Chelsea. They should perhaps spend more time and effort developing their first team squad, following their shock defeat to Coventry City in the Carling Cup.
The Rugby World Cup is turning out to be a fantastic tournament for the game, and a little worrying for the home nations. It seems that since England won the Webb Ellis trophy four years ago their game and that of the other Northern hemisphere sides has not improved significantly (perhaps with the exception of France). England for sure can be accused of basking in the glory too long before setting about the task of retaining their title. At the same time some of the minnows in the game like Japan, Fiji and Romania have improved tremendously producing some shock results and exhilarating matches. Ominously, the Southern hemisphere tri-nation teams have raised their standards once again and look set to dominate the tournament.
From the pool stages it is very likely that England will meet Australia in the quarter finals. There is a certain inevitability about the insults that fly between these two teams before they meet, but John O’Neil (Chief Executive of Australian Rugby Union) has got in early this time around. England still have to beat Tonga to qualify but O’Neil has said that “it doesn’t matter whether it’s cricket, rugby union or rugby league, we all hate England”. Notice that he did not mention football, curling or tiddly-winks, sports in which he knows England would thrash Australia.
The Cricket 20-20 World Cup also took place in September and the England team was a huge disappointment. Only Kevin Pietersen showed any class and determination to make a mark. But once again the tournament has been a huge success (this is becoming an unfortunate trend: great tournament, shame about England’s contribution). Even Geoffry Boycott, not known for rapid scoring has become a fan of the shortened version of the game. The beauty of it, unlike the 5 day or even 50 over varieties is that if the game is rubbish it’s over very quickly!
Tim Henman has finally bowed out of tennis in style by helping the Great Britain team beat Croatia in the Davis Cup at Wimbledon. The victory means that team GB are back in the elite World Group for the first time since 2003. However, they have now been drawn to play third seeds Argentina next February, and without Tim and Greg Rusedski you have to wonder whether the Murray brothers can keep Great Britain flying high with the elite for very long. It’s funny how you only appreciate people when they have gone. Tim has been widely criticised for never winning a Grand Slam title but to be in the World’s Top Ten for as long as was takes some beating. Well done Tim – you flew the flag well!