Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Bertrand
Dhorasoo plays in a 'big' club, Paris-Saint-Germain, a club whose president gave the boot to the coach for no particular reason. There's always been a lot of pressure on this team since it's the only team of the capital.
Yes : there's only one team in Paris, when there are several in London (Tottenham, Wimbledon, Arsenal, Chelsea...), Liverpool (Everton), Manchester, etc...
The Paris-Saint-Germain season was disappointing this year, and Dhorasoo was more than once put the blame on. Some friends of mine, former colleagues, and more journalists insisted on the fact that there was another French midfield that had done much better : Johan Micoud, from Bremen. Alas alas.
|
I remember PAris Saint Germain looked like becoming a big team in Europe, too, maybe ten years ago? They used to have a very nice club crest, with the Eiffel Tower, but they changed it to a crap one, just the letters PSG. That's where it all started to go wrong (or maybe not)!
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Bertrand
The British team, well, you're probably right, I can't see who could have been left behind or who could replace Owen in a near future. The championship is stuffed with foreigners, it doesn't help.
|
I actually think that all of the foreigners are a good thing; they are nearly all very good players, which should mean that the English guys are getting great competitive experience every week. There are less English players playing in the league, but those who are there are the best and should be developing as aa result. Our clubs now do better in Europe too. Also, it's great for the fans - so many wonderful players, and now we will see Shenchenko (gosh), which is fantastic.
To be fair, We
have improved overall since the foreign players came to join us, but not as much as we should have.
Maybe the problem is partly that all of the teams we play against have so much experience of our style, and our players, and know how to combat us?
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Bertrand
Hargreaves is the only one to play abroad. I wonder how he is considered.
|
I like him a lot, I have to say, although he has had a poor reception - he even got booed when he came on at a friendly just before the World Cup! Ludicrous. He hadn't actually played well for England until very recently (in this tournament, in fact), so the criticism was to some extent understandable. He's doing well now.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Bertrand
(By the way, his name is a problem for our oldest TV football host Thierry Roland : he wouldn't pronounce his name properly, at times it's Heargreaves, a few minutes later it's Hargraves, and most of the time, he calls him Heargraves, which would be kind of poetic if he only knew English a little).
|
I remember when Cameroon came to Italia '90 and a player called Roger Miller came on. His name is just pronounced as it would be if it were an English name, but our commentator decided it should be much more exotic, and was calling him something like 'Rowshay Millay' (the best apporximation I can manage!).
'Heargraves' is nice, like the name of a quaint English village. Twelve houses and a pub.