Wembley Pitch To Be Replaced For 10th Time
Wembley’s controversial pitch is to be replaced for the 10th time since the new stadium was opened three years ago due to the combined effects of a harsh winter and freak weather conditions.
The decision to change the surface once more was taken on Wednesday night after the England match against Egypt, and the Football Association insist it is not a knee-jerk reaction to negative comments from Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and his Aston Villa counterpart Martin O’Neill after the Carling Cup final last Sunday.
Ferguson claimed the pitch played a part in ending Michael Owen’s season after he suffered a hamstring injury in the final, as well as leaving Wayne Rooney vulnerable to injury following two tiring games in four days on the energy-sapping surface.
The Wembley ground staff battled hard against the elements to get the pitch in good condition ahead of the final and Wednesday’s England international, with 80 millimetres of rain in the week leading up to the Carling Cup final and a further 40mm the night before the game.
A Wembley spokesman said: “The ground staff did very well to stage the Carling Cup despite conditions in the build-up and employed the use of a canopy to shield the pitch from the rain on Saturday night and Sunday before kick-off.
“They worked round the clock and could not have done more. Conditions were better ahead of the England match but the pitch was still not good enough for our liking.
“A decision was made on Wednesday night to replace the pitch and this will take place this weekend ahead of Johnstone’s Paint Trophy (JPT) on March 28.
“Ultimately, this pitch has not fared well through what has been an extremely harsh winter and it needs to be replaced.
“This will be the 10th pitch since opening but the stadium caters for football and non-football events so replacing the pitch more than once during the course of a year is a reality of a multi-purpose venue.”
The use of Wembley as a multi-purpose arena rules out a seeded pitch, which football clubs use.
The spokesman added: “We used a different type of pitch, sand-based soil, following the complaints after last year’s FA Cup semi-finals and this fared much better in 2009 as per the various comments from managers around the FA Cup final and England matches.
“But, over the course of this winter and the freak weather last week, it now needs to be replaced. It will take a few days to take up the old turf and prepare the surface, a few more days to put the new turf down and up to a week to bed in. This can be done ahead of the JPT.”
With thanks to the telegraph.co.uk
Vaughan Questions Kieswetter And Co
Craig Kieswetter celebrates after reaching his maiden one day century between Bangladesh and England on March 5, 2010.
The South African-born wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter scored a match-winning century in his third match for England today but his decision to switch allegiance has not impressed everyone.
Kieswetter, in just his third one-day international, hit 107 during England’s 45-run victory over Bangladesh in Chittagong. But the former England captain Michael Vaughan would like to see 11 Englishmen representing the national side.
Vaughan told the London launch of the Jaguar Academy of Sport, in comments reported in The Independent: “I would like to see, in an ideal world, 11 complete Englishmen in the team.”
Vaughan said he could see how the likes of Kevin Pietersen, who had never played for South Africa, could make the move but was unhappy about Kieswetter and the batsman Jonathan Trott, who both played at some level for their native country.
“Someone like Kevin Pietersen made the decision very early to come over to England and he learnt a lot of his cricket here,” said Vaughan.
“I do have a problem when the likes of Jonathan Trott play for England and Kieswetter, who’s played for the South African Under-19s. I think in Trott’s case he even played for the South Africa A team.
“Now that is where I have a problem, that we have almost got a ’ship-in’ system of looking at talent, and a lot of them come over for the money. It’s very, very difficult to stop them. I would like to see, in an ideal world, 11 complete Englishmen in the team but I don’t think that’s ever going to be the case.”
With thanks to the guardian.co.uk
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Michael Owen Left Out?
Michael Owen
Michael Owen has admitted he finds it difficult to express his true feelings about England.
Fabio Capello has not played Owen since the friendly with France almost two years ago but the striker’s international future remains a major discussion point.
He has a fine goalscoring record for England, while last summer’s switch to Manchester United was expected to boost his chances of going to the World Cup.
Owen has previously stated that he is not thinking too much about the subject, although he concedes that he has had to choose his words carefully.
“I’ve said many times that it’s difficult for me to talk about it,” he said.
“I can’t find the right words because, one slip of the tongue and I’m on the back page.
“If I said what I think or how I feel or everything else, I’d only be lying to you.”
Capello has always made it clear that he will only pick players who are performing regularly at club level and Owen has failed to establish himself as a permanent fixture for United, while he suffered a hamstring injury in the Carling Cupfinal.
But Owen has reiterated this week that he is happy at Old Trafford and would rather be a substitute for United than in the first team of a struggling club.
“I’d like to play a lot more, obviously, but you try getting into the team with Wayne Rooney playing like this!” he said.
“If Wayne hadn’t been scoring two or three goals in games, the manager might have rotated more.
“If there had been one or two more injuries, he might have rotated more.
“But there’s no way that I’m unhappy about how things have gone or my decision to come here. I’m absolutely delighted with the way things have gone.”
Owen, who scored in the Carling Cup final, said, “I played for teams that haven’t been doing well in the league and I’d prefer to be playing a lesser role.
“Now I’m training every day with real top-quality players.
“I want to improve my game and, when I do play, be involved in games.”
Courtesy of Sky Sports
Capello: My Players Are Paid Too Much
Fabio Capello
England manager Fabio Capello has blamed his stars’ embarrassing off-field sex scandals on their immaturity in handling their massive pay cheques.
England defender Wayne Bridge has ruled himself out of World Cup contention, saying that his presence in the England changeroom will be divisive and disruptive, after the furore that erupted when it emerged that ex-England captain John Terry had slept with Bridge’s ex-chick.
Bridge and Terry refused to shake hands when Man City played Chelsea last weekend.
More worryingly for Capello, Terry’s form has taken a dive after all the media pressure.
England left-back Ashley Cole is also in the process of being divorced by his wife after the revelation of his serial infidelities.
Top Premiership players are paid anywhere from 50 000 – 125 000 pounds a week. You do the maths – that’s lank buck, ie, many millions of rands a month.
“They are young boys, who are rich boys. This is the problem,” Capello said ahead of England’s clash with African champions Egypt tonight. “It is not only here. In Italy, in Germany, in Spain, in every country where football is so important it is the same problem.”
“The private life is a big problem for some players, but also brings big problems for the clubs and for me. Players have to be an example to the children, for all the fans. For that reason, they have to stay careful at all times.”
Is There A Conspiracy Against Arsenal?
Arsenal
Arséne Wenger says he doesn’t believe in coincidence.
Three horrifically broken legs in the space of four years would be enough to make most managers suspect something might be a little off.
Wenger is right: there is a conspiracy against his team.
But it’s not overt nor clearly articulated; it comes from a cultural enmity rather than a personal one.
Ever since a nationwide TV audience witnessed Wolves beat Honved on a pitch watered into a swamp by Stan Cullis in 1954 – through Charles Hughes (”we have nothing to learn from Brazil”), Terry Butcher with blood on his shirt and England’s Brave John Terry – there has been a powerful lobby in English football following the premise that aggression and physical power can overcome superior technique.
Wenger’s Arsenal play in a way that is unusual even at the top level: no other Premier League team keeps the ball so jealously in midfield areas.
All three catastrophic injuries have happened at away grounds – Sunderland, Birmingham and now Stoke – against teams with no recent history of playing in Europe, against, say, the ball-hogs of the Portuguese league.
Arsenal are the only team they meet who keep the ball like this. Everyone who visits Premier League grounds will know the biggest cheer of the day is often for a heavy, disruptive tackle after a period of patient possession by the away team.
The tackle by Ryan Shawcross wasn’t high or carried out with studs showing, but it was excessively forceful, a statement-tackle, intended to assert his own – legitimate – physical power and his team’s style of play.
This kind of challenge happens to Arsenal far more often than other teams. They suffer more injuries as a result. It’s a culture clash. Shawcross is also, in a far more minor way, a victim here, as is Tony Pulis as a coach from the same culture that teaches that the best way to combat superior ball retention is a traditional test of mettle.
Courtesy of The Guardian
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