The past few days have reminded us that despite all our clamour for the likes of goalline technology, and video referees to help get every decision right, we all love to argue. Let’s face it – there’s nothing better than bemoaning a dodgy penalty given against you to paper over the cracks of a deserved beating.
Steve McClaren became the latest manager this weekend to admit defeat in his attempts to revive Nottingham Forest into a footballing force to be reckoned with. Nigel Doughty, who himself handed in his notice amid the chaos, described the decision to appoint the ex-England manager as “very poor”. We must ask ourselves why this is the case? Surely, being able to attract a manager of McClaren’s calibre deserves some credit, despite the poor results that followed?
A month is a long time in football. On August 26th, there was mass teeth-knashing on Tyneside, as a disappointing transfer window was creaking to a close for Newcastle and their much-maligned owner Mike Ashley.
Michael Owen fired us a reminder of his capabilities this week with an impressive brace of goals at Elland Road to see off an admittedly lacklustre Leeds. His record of 11 goals in 12 starts is typical of the man. What is probably airbrushed aside from these statistics is that most of those goals have come against less than solid defences – when Sir Alex Ferguson feels he can risk fielding a striker who can ressemble a passenger more often than not.
The first of this season’s Sky-branded Grand Slam Sundays gave us thrills and spills of the highest order – some top quality finishing, and some top quality grimacing.