Is Messi The Greatest Ever

The Stellar performance against Leverkuesen the other night has lead to more discussion over who is the greatest footballer ever and has  Lionel Messi attained that title or is he close to getting there,I have listened to many discussions about this over the years and have always dismissed any pretenders to that title because of my love for the great Pele especially as part of the great Brazilian side of 1970.
However I am beginning to reconsider based on the stunning performances of the little man who lights up football grounds wherever he plays and does so in such an unassuming manner and with a smile on his face,maybe he needs to turn it on in a World Cup but even if Argentina fail to win a World Cup with him if he continues to perform at club level as he has over the past few years then shere consistant brilliance will I think elevate him to greatness,lets face it Pele never played n a cauldron of European League football so we dont know how he would have faired.

Re other contenders
Maradonna,well  will never consider him amongst the greats not because of the Hand Of God but because of regular cheating and the drugs

Best European Johan Cruyff by a mile not only for the 1974 World Cup but also the seasons of dominance at Ajax

Best briton well George Best never forget how he used to tear my beloved Wolves to shreds every year in the 60's

Best Englishman Bobby Moore probably the greatest defender I have ever seen and maybe of all time although my dad always said that had he lived Duncan Edwards would have eclipsed them all

What Shall We Teach In School Today

Two articles in today's Observer caught my eye and rather made me weep for the British education system and the future of our youngsters

Firstly on the front page we have the Amy Winehouse Foundation and parents of other kids who died in a haze of illegal substances calling for Drug and Alcohol awareness classes to be made compulsory i8n schools

Secondly the fact that Maths is now so radically different to what it was little more than 20 years ago that even well educated parents are having to get hold of Maths Dictionaries to be able to help there kids even with Primary School maths.

With regard to the first point I have great sympathy for those who have lost loved ones to the evils of drugs but sorry the school is not the place to educate kids about the dangers of such substances that’s still the responsibility of the parents like mine did with me and I have done with mine,whatever you do some kids will always go off the rails.

And may I also ask where the time will be found to teach such things,its only a few weeks ago that we were talking about Driving Lessons in school,add to that the fact that the school day is a good 20-% shorter than “When I Were a Lad” and where will the time be found to teach kids important subjects like Maths.

Ah yes maths now may I say that I was rubbish at maths at school but was still able by knuckling down to be able to help my kids with maths at least when they were at Primary School,so what is this latest version of maths that is so complex,are we teaching Euclidean Geometry to 6 year olds or Integral calculus in nursery?

My heart bleeds for kids today so called experts change the curriculum on a whim so that the kids from one generation to the next see no continuity in their education and parents arrive at a situation like this where helping their children prosper at school is a virtual impossibility.

I know I'm a dinosaur but how about a return to the basics otherwise the generations of dysfunctional jobless kids turning to illegal substances because they have nothing else to do will blight this country for a very long time.

Footballs Finances Ignored

A few days ago in my ramblings about the Wolves manager saga I alludeed to the finances within football and how I hoped Wolves would not be stupid enough to follow the same road as Portsmouth and end up in serious mire,well at the time I was just alluding to Portsmouth and Rangers but the past 24 hours have seen the spectre of administration plus transfer embargo's and possible points deductions hanging over Birmingham,Coventry and Port Vale,and those are the ones we know about.

What stupefies me as more and more clubs head down the slippery soap proving that unless you have a mega rich owner speculating to accumulate in today's climate is a seriously dangerous game and yet club after club are heading down that route seemingly hell bent on destruction.
Both Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday sitting in top 6 positions in League 1 have sacked their managers in the hope of attaining the immediate Grail of the Championship by a knee jerk reaction to a few defeats, but at what cost,paying off the contracts of Messrs Clarke and Megson would not have been cheap and no doubt the new contracts of Simon Grayson (What was his payoff from Leeds) and Dave Jones will be substantial.

So what if it goes wrong ,I mean there are only 2 spots available unless Charlton have the mother of all collapses and there are other clubs in and around these 2 and no guarantee of promotion and the increased riches that await,I dont see both going up and would not be at all surprised to see the failure in financial difficulty by this time next year along with a good many others.


Of course all this carries on to a backdrop of the top players earning in a year what would be the full budget of many clubs in the lower reaches,hey ho funny game football

Hey Lets Slag Off Parker & Pearce

So the new era of England has started and for once I was really looking forward to watching an England match, none of the serial failures of the Golden Generation with the exception of Gerard

and my apologies for being a Little Englander but a manager who can actually speak English.

At the end we lost but I liked what I saw an number of players who looked comfortable at international level and in Scott Parker a captain who lead by example ,i know the Dutch were way ahead in technical ability but this is a side with real world class players who have played together for many years so you would expect that.

So what do we get today,a hatchet job not by the papers as we might expect but by Talk Sport radio (Stan Collymore a notable exception, ,yes the same station that come major tournaments are demanding we get behind the national team doing a complete hatchet job on Stuart Pearce and the Scott Parker. Shat did they do wrong well they are not Steven Gerard or Harry Redknapp,yes that's the same Steven Gerard who has not done it for England for years despite doing it on a regular basis for his club and the Redknapp that is the media darling who will help us take over the world.

Now I am in favour of Harry Redknapp getting the job but for a supposed patriotic Englishman I am nor happy with the comments coming from him and from around him that he has to think about the Spurs fans and club,well sorry I am a patriotic Englishman and would walk over hot coals even if I were on the verge of taking Wolves to a European Cup final,at least Stuart Pearce whatever his limitations as a manger has made himself available for his country if needed.