Football Comment
James Lawton: Give Beckham a knighthood - for self-promotion
Published: 02 June 2007
Whatever the pyrotechnics produced by David Beckham in the friendly showpiece at Wembley last night, one certainty was always going to be hidden by days of acclaim that lacked only a full-scale ticker-tape parade. It was that there would be little or no reference to his last performance against Brazil, one that mattered in real football terms.
'I thought that this moment would never come again'
Published: 02 June 2007
There was condemnation from Steve McClaren for those who jeered Frank Lampard at Wembley last night but for David Beckham there was only universal acclaim as the England manager, Brazilian coach Dunga and the Real Madrid midfielder himself basked in the glow of his productive return to the international fold.
Beckham steps from the circus to provide England's sole threat
Published: 02 June 2007
Brazilians have never understood the English fascination with David Beckham. Blessed with a production line of genuine world class talent they have never had to, while their last competitive meeting with the most famous player on the planet provided all the proof they required that here was a star of style over substance.
Sport on TV: Life is far from fragrant in murky undergrowth of the garden of secrets
Published: 02 June 2007
It's always seemed odd that, although we freely acknowledge that society is riddled with corruption, greed and lust, we retain the capacity to be shocked when the moral murk envelopes the world of sport. Still, it's always a good telly standby, although in parading itself over two nights, Sport's Dirty Secrets (Channel 4, Monday and Tuesday) suggested it was intended to be the definitive account. It needed a damn sight more gravitas for that.
James Lawton: Beckham's rescue mission fails to hide rift between McClaren and Venables
Published: 29 May 2007
The Nick Townsend Column: The rights of passion
Published: 27 May 2007
James Lawton: Ronaldo again fails true test of greatness: making an impact when it matters most
Published: 21 May 2007
It was billed as a coronation for Manchester United and the most celebrated of their stars in the new Wembley fantasy park (sorry, that should be football stadium despite the dismaying quality of the pitch and most of the Cup final). Instead it was the big reality check for all those who forget some of the basic rules of measuring greatness.
Nick Townsend: Drogba's sting in a tedious tale
Published: 20 May 2007
The Nick Townsend Column: Give Pearce a chance...
Published: 20 May 2007
Guy Hodgson: Giggs slows under weight of history
Published: 20 May 2007
Stan Hey: Auntie demonstrates that breaking up is really not so very hard to do
Published: 20 May 2007
There were tears and recriminations even before the BBC went on air for the first FA Cup final at the new Wembley. The realisation had suddenly set in that we were saying goodbye to people who'd become our friends over the years, sharing joy, heartache and moments of unbelievable drama. But enough of the departing Neighbours, it was the imminent loss of live football on the BBC that rankled, the state broadcaster having underbid as badly for FA Cup and England rights as it did for the Aussie soap.
Jason Burt: Jose's saving grace may sway Roman
Published: 20 May 2007
'Psycho' is gone but not forgotten as reality bites for stagnating City
Published: 15 May 2007
Jonathan Taylor: Why the Gang of Four would be heading for defeat in court
Published: 15 May 2007
The English courts are very reluctant to interfere with decisions made by properly constituted sporting disciplinary tribunals exercising discretion that has been conferred on them by the rules.
James Lawton: Scudamore should not be doing his job if he does not understand nation's anger
Published: 15 May 2007
Sam Wallace: Fergie's brain, McClaren's bungle and Wenger talking ballistics...
Published: 14 May 2007
'It's a gut-wrenching, horrible feeling,' says Warnock
Published: 14 May 2007
Dave Whelan, the Wigan Athletic chairman, last night promised he would continue to stand by Sheffield United as the relegated club seek to preserve their Premiership status through legal action.
The Nick Townsend Column: Special One bows to The Boss - but we know the truce is only temporary
Published: 13 May 2007
James Lawton: Owen must show commitment to the club to complete his footballing virtues
Published: 12 May 2007
Sport on TV: Gods should deliver hammer blows to prima donnas as well as fans
Published: 12 May 2007
It's one of football's great truisms that proper hardcore fans are to be found in the away ends, condemned by the gods to traipse up and down Britain like Bill Bryson with a deathwish. Your average fan's notes from a small island would make depressing reading, and Football's Hardest Awaydays (Sky 3, Monday) paid tribute to the mad-dogs-and-Englishmen tendency (plus two barking Scotsmen and a couple of unhinged German Forest fans).
James Lawton: Ferguson is proof to Chelsea that the manager, not money, is key to victory
Published: 08 May 2007
Policy of youth that allowed Ferguson to prove age is no barrier to success
Published: 08 May 2007
James Lawton: Crowning glory for Peter Pan of football
Published: 07 May 2007
At that moment when every small phrase of Sir Alex Ferguson's body language said he knew in his defiantly unfragile old bones that he had completed one of the greatest personal statements in the history of football, when the title he had once believed was nothing so much as his right was won back from the rouble mountain of Stamford Bridge, you were reminded of what it is precisely that makes him utterly unique in the game of today and the past.
Sam Wallace: Rooney and Ronaldo United's dazzling double-act
Published: 07 May 2007
When Manchester United remember the boys of 2007, what will strike them most about their ninth Premiership title? That Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand turned out to be the best Mancunian double act since Morrissey and Marr? That Patrice Evra was actually better than Denis Irwin? Or that you could get rid of Roy Keane, give his No 16 shirt to Michael Carrick and still win the title?
Mourinho's soldiers march on despite the pain of 'defeat'
Published: 07 May 2007
One of the paradoxes about the gentrification of football is that supporters now display greater animosity towards opposing players than in the days when the dress code was denim and Dr Martens, accessorized with a Stanley knife. The casual racism that pervaded the Seventies and Eighties may, thankfully, be gone but no match goes by without a torrent of bile spilling down from the expensive seats (there are no longer any cheap ones).
