Three observations from the UEFA Champions League Final

Adidas finally backs a winner

After several years of having to watch teams in Nike kits dominate the showpiece of European club football over the last few years (Barcelona, Inter, Manchester United), I'm sure that Adidas will be pleased to finally have both teams kitted out with three stripes rather than a tick. Whether that will be the case again next year is another question altogether, but at least they can rely on the match ball still carrying the torch for their marketing team.

A good day for the referee

Let's face it, finals are often pretty torrid affairs, with nervous players fouling, diving and arguing with the referee markedly more than usual as they try and scrap for whatever advantage the can get - therefore credit should go to the referee, Pedro Proenca, and both teams for keeping the game relatively free flowing. The referee also completed the perfect evening for the marketing guys at Adidas, with his kit also supplied from their range.

Some great penalties

The misses will probably linger in the memory longer, but there were some great penalties taken - Frank Lampard's wallop down the centre and Manuel Neuer stepping up early to take a penalty were two moments to savour.

A refreshing approach from the F.A. Please note: This isn't a mis-print

The white smoke poured out of the chimneys atop the F.A.’s headquarters last week to signal the end of a remarkably opaque process to replace Fabio Capello as the Manager of the England national team. And the theme of general disbelief and bewilderment among observers of the process continued, as the selection panel chose not to hire the bookies and fans’ favourite for the job, Harry Rednapp, but instead opting for Roy Hodgson to take the reins.

Now before you turn away from this article, thinking that I'm about to launch into a vast critique of the F.A. (as would be my normal approach), I actually think it's a very positive and even brave decision to take; in an industry which often becomes a slave to accepted wisdom and public pressure (this can be said for many sports, not just football), this was a refreshingly single minded decision and one which will hopefully be a fruitful one for the next World Cup in Brazil.

Picking a manager with a track record in international football and an understanding of what the job will involve takes a lot of risk away from the appointment – there had been rumblings for a while that Harry Rednapp was worried that he would get bored away from the day-to-day contact he had with players and the weekly fix of competition which the Premier League provides.

Furthermore, Hodgson has suffered a perceived failed role during his time at Liverpool and has built his career and reputation back up from this set-back. This kind of fortitute will be critical in the media goldfish bowl that is the England manager role.

The big uncertainty will be the other major part of his role - that of ensuring the new, and much delayed, National Football Centre at St. George's Park is providing talent and continuity for future England squads. Both Hodgson and Rednapp have had experience of overseeing club acadamies, but Hodgson's experience of what skills makes for a successful national team would again surely give him the edge in this area. However, the sidelining of Stuart Pearce by Hodgson as one of his first moves in the role, might be considered as damaging continuity between the senior squad and youth players. Alternatively, it suggests that he has strong opinions on how he wants the youth system to be run and Stuart Pearce could be on his way out soon. In either case, it is certainly an area of critical importance - having the cream of English football used to regularly playing and training together will hopefully create greater team spirit and fluency, and so avoiding the difficulties of forging a team in a short time period from a disparate group of players and who are transitioning from involvement in fierce competition between each other in the Premier League.

But the greatest challenge for Roy Hodgson as he takes up his new role will be to hit the ground running, having been given a pitifully short amount of time to prepare the team for the Euro championships in Poland and Ukraine. At least he will probably be given some leniancy should performances not be up to scratch and allow him to focus on the long term needs of the team - at least there is one unintended benefit of the F.A.'s dithering over his appointment.

For now though, positivity is in the air and, gullible as always (speaking for myself, at least), we can hope for some silverware to come to these shores.

Quote of the week

Alec Stewart has recounted how Graham Gooch used to say: "You've never got enough [runs]." This is pure competitive spirit condensed into one sentence.

Lancaster stirs memories of the Woodward era

Once upon a time, the RFU appointed a brand new manager for the English national team. He came to the role with very little experience of management at international level and even had only a limited amount of success at club level. But what he was still able to do was rejuvenate the squad with new, previously overlooked players and injected a new level of energy with his different approach to management.

You could be forgiven for thinking that this was referring to the recent appointment of Stuart Lancaster permanently to the role of England manager. But it is actually referring to the start of the Woodward era, when new players were brought in to freshen things up, with Neil Back and Will Greenwood being two good examples of forward thinking selections - both of them later forming key components of the world cup and grand slam winning sides many years down the line. Woodward also brought a new philosophy to the management of the team, pulling English rugby into the professional era with his attention to detail and drive.

Lancaster appears to have brought many of the same attributes to the role, with a number of fresh additions to the squad adding massively to the side's performance. Only time will tell if Owen Farrell and Ben Morgan will have the same monumental impact upon rugby as their predecessors under the Woodward regime, but at this stage their futures look bright. Lancaster has also brought with him a new approach to management based around building a tightly-knit team environment and also showing the same attention to detail and work ethic that Woodward espoused. So this blogger applauds the appointment of Stuart Lancaster into his new role and can't wait for the summer tour to South Africa...the hard work has only just begun!

FA and RFU get in a muddle over Management appointements

You could almost feel sorry for the RFU and FA being on the receiving end of criticism for their approaches to hiring the next managers for their respective senior national sides. One, the RFU is on the receiving end of complaints that it is unnecessarily rushing the process, while the FA is receiving exactly the opposite - criticism for taking too slow an approach to their hiring process. A case of being screwed if they do and screwed if they don't? But in reality the answer is not so positive for the governing bodies. The fact of the matter is that they are both guilty of letting the recruitment process damage the chances of the two national teams in two of the most important tournaments that either team play in. Granted, these tournaments don't have the same power to inspire as the World Cup, but winning both tournaments would still represent a massive achievement and cause for celebration for both sides (and the football team in particular should be desperate to win any tournament given the length of time since their last success).

The RFU have contrived to make an already difficult prospect even harder for their team to compete in the Six Nations. A team which has a temporary management team in place, trying to rebuild from the failures of the world cup can add to their challenges the prospect of a governing organisation with a new CEO starting mid-tournament and the baffling decision that they would decide on a permanent new coach by the end of the tournament. Subsequently, the team has been subjected to further distractions as rumour and counter-rumour spreads around who is most likely to be the next full time manager. Who has put their name forward and who hasn't? Most perplexing is that they have approached Jake White, who had previously ruled himself out for the role. This isn't to suggest that he wouldn't be a good candidate for the role, but it certainly gives the impression that the existing shortlist doesn't meet the requirements of the RFU. Now that he has once again ruled himself out the running, the RFU is left with no choice but to hire one of the two remaining candidates. And why was it so vital to make this appointment before the end of the Six Nations? There is plenty of time to make the appointment following the Six Nations and leave time for the new manager to make plans for the summer tour to South Africa. This would also allow a complete appraisal of the Six Nations campaign as part of the appraisal of Stuart Lancaster's suitability for the role and an analysis of what weaknesses the new manager would need to address and make sure that their skills were appropriately suited to this task. The end result is that the new CEO has a rather muddled approach to when the new appointment would be confirmed and has already been required to clarify exactly what is happening in the process. The end result of all this is uncertainty which has been acknowledged by the players and can't help in the slightest with their preparations.

The FA meanwhile, is so in thrall to the Premiership, that they are waiting with the appointment of the next England manager until the eve of the European Championships, leaving the new manager to inherit plans concocted by two previous managers (both Capello and Pearce have worked on the preparation plans) and an impressively short time in which to build a team. When everyone knows that Harry Redknapp is the favourite to be the new England manager, the FA is presumably holding off with the appointment to avoid disrupting the remainder of Spurs' season - when surely their priority should be to look after the welfare of the national team? The fact that pretty much everyone already knows what will happen with the new manager makes it all more perplexing, as Tottenham's season is surely already disrupted and added to by the uncertainty of what will happen at the end of the season. And what will happen if Harry decides that he is not ready to give up the day-to-day management of league football? Then the FA will have to settle for an interim manager for the tournament or try to force through a hire in an embarrassingly short period of time.

In short, with these international tournaments fiendishly difficult to win at the best of times, why are England's governing bodies contriving to make them even harder?

It started with Cotton...

When did rugby players start becoming obliged to get involved in the fashion industry? Sure, Fran Cotton was very successful with Cotton Traders but does that really justify every prop and his dog getting involved? Goodness me, even the Wall Street Journal has been reporting on this phenomenon! And just look at the following spattering of recent examples (in ascending order of unlikeliness):

Jonny Wilkinson
Jason Robinson
Phil Vickery
Brian Moore - ok, it's not exactly fashion, but I think it deserves a mention anyway

I guess we'll really know the world has turned on it's head once Adam Jones launches a line of underpants, a la Beckham...

A tale of two managers

Much has been reported about the friendship between the two new interim England managers - Stuart Pearce in charge of the English football team in tonight’s friendly against Holland, and Stuart Lancaster in charge of the English Rugby team in this year’s RBS Six Nations tournament. And as the days unfold the similarities between these two men and their approach to international management are becoming even clearer.

First up, the similarities between their situations are striking – both started their careers with less than successful stints at club level, before rebuilding their careers within the national set-up. Both also inherited sides which have frittered away public support in recent times through a series of player misdemeanors and a management team which failed to develop good press relations. Furthermore, they are both effectively auditioning for a longer-term role with the national team, whilst only having a short interim period in which to stake their claims. Admittedly, Stuart Lancaster has the longer period in which to stake his claim – already in charge of the country during a major tournament – while Stuart Pearce has only one, admittedly tough, friendly match in which to impress. However, if the powers that be decide to extend his interim period to include the Euro Championships this summer, he’ll have as good an opportunity as he could have hoped for to take the job full time.

In relation to the style of management, there are also similarities. For example, both managers have shown a willingness to clean out the old wood from previous squads, with a focus on youth and potential. They have also shown a willingness to introduce previously overlooked players such as Micah Richards and Phil Dowson. This has now extended to include brand new captains who, while certainly not fresh faced players straight out of academies, are relatively inexperienced in the international field. The captain appointed by Stuart Lancaster, Chris Robshaw, was selected for his proven ability as a leader of an in-form club side and is renowned as a tough player who leads by example. Ditto Stuart Pearce, who has today announced the selection of Scott Parker as captain of the England squad – a player who has captained (although not regularly) the in-form Tottenham team this season and is likewise renowned as a tough player who leads by example. Certainly the reviews of Chris Robshaw’s tenure as captain have been promising thus far – good enough to be handed the captaincy for the duration of the RBS Six Nations. Perhaps most importantly, both captains have the luxury of being separated from previous failures – appointing a captain from the previous groups of senior players could have been seen as a tacit approval of the previous regimes and their associated weaknesses. Ultimately, only results will be the true judgment of these new captains, but the installation of a new figurehead, separated from the disappointments of the past and with a no-frills approach to the games appear to be the perfect tonic for the national teams at this time.

Further to the introduction of new captains, the wider injection of new players has been a successful experiment for the rugby team, unearthing talent such as Owen Farrell, Brad Barrett and Geoff Parling, to name but a few. Both Lancaster and Pearce were promoted from within the national set-up and worked with many promising young players during their times as managers of the second string and Under-21 national sides, so one hopes that Pearce has an understanding of which of the young players have the metal It has also allowed Stuart Lancaster the opportunity to build a team spirit as he wanted it – where pride in the jersey comes first. Stuart Pearce will no doubt seek to instill the same mentality in his new pack of players, injecting more passion in the squad following the cold technical style of Capello.

Again, only time and results will tell if these early days can convert promise into success, and it will only be successful if the FA’s youth development plans are more than the mirage they’ve been in the past, but it appears that Stuart Pearce has started his time as England manager by making all the right moves and tonight will be a good test to see if he can produce the same positive results that his rugby counterpart has experienced.