The International fixture break has seen the focus switch from the Premier League to Euro 2012 Qualifiers and friendly games. One noticeable quote to come out of Brazil’s 2-0 victory over Scotland at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday was the quote from Brazil coach, Mano Menezes, on striker Neymar moving to England in the summer….
“Moving to England would only be good for Neymar and make him a more complete player. He’d become physically stronger to escape the close marking he is going to get and he certainly wouldn’t disappear if he came to England. It would not be a problem for him but it would be a problem for Brazilian football because the fans of our clubs would be denied the opportunity of watching him. But for financial reasons and in terms of ambitions for his career, I would understand the reasons behind such a move.”
The Santos forward impressed in the game against the Scots and is linked to a move to Stamford Bridge. Unfortunately, performances were marred by an incident involving racism from the crowd during the game where a banana was thrown onto the pitch and has been likened to the incident involving John Barnes in the Eighties. Neymar commented on the incident after the match:
“They were jeering me a lot. It was a racist atmosphere…..I was running down the wing when it happened. I don’t know where it came from, but it’s a sad thing for this to happen here.”
But he told Sky Sports that the incident will be forgotten once returning to Brazil and he will focus on his good performance in the game (and that possible move to Chelsea).
In fairness to Scotland an SFA Spokesman said: “There has been no such incident (the banana throwing) reported to the police or the stadium safety officer. In fact, the tens of thousands of Scotland supporters who travelled to the Emirates were commended for their behaviour.”
Whatever the case, Neymar will not be seeking any further action over the incident.*
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Whilst on the topic of throwing objects, Manchester City’s troublesome or entertaining (however you want to look at it) striker, Mario Balotelli has made headlines again over reportedly throwing darts at the City youth team.
It’s caused the president of the Italian Football Federation, Giancarlo Abete to say : “Balotelli still has some problems and lacks continuity…..He needs to mature and that has to be a personal choice. We hope he grows and that the focus is placed on his technical ability. He is a great champion of Italian football and will return to be a part of the national team.” The first line of this quote is a big understatement but it sounds like Italy are turning their back on the player rather than trying to help him.
Whilst Rio Ferdinand has been receiving continual support over the England captaincy issue on Twitter, users of the site might have missed an incident involving Liverpool’s young star, Jonjo Shelvey, closing his Twitter account after a prank by his mates saw them post a picture of the player’s ‘private area’ onto the social network site.
Shelvey was quick to apologise with ‘Apologies for the picture one of my mates messing around with my phone! Sorry!’ and the player deleted his account to save further embarrassment.
Whilst the England captaincy issue took centre stage over what should’ve been a build up to a qualifying game against neighbours Wales, Fabio Capello’s men came out 2-0 winners and surprised the media’s 4-4-2 predicted formation by playing a 4-5-1-come-4-3-3 system.
It allowed the likes of Scott Parker to prove his worth in the national side and for Jack Wilshere to have more freedom in the middle of the park. Also, Darren Bent was on the score sheet for England yet again.
However, as Capello hands the captain’s armband over to Gareth Barry for what potentially looks like a England B team friendly with Ghana tonight. He will not have been happy with the comments made by Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho…
“I was hours away from signing with the England team. But at the last moment, I started thinking: I am going to coach a national team, there will be one game a month, the rest of the time I will be at my desk or overseeing matches and I will have to wait until the summer to play a Euro or a World Cup? No, it was not for me. So, at the last moment, I pulled back, preferring to wait for the right job, the right club, the challenge that could motivate me. It was Inter…”
However, the Madrid manager would not have been happy with his own performance on the pitch yesterday in a game involving the Spanish media versus a Madrid personnel XI where Jose himself played in goal.
The weekend Euro 2012 qualifiers produced no shocks but last night saw the England Under-21s lose 2-1 at home to Iceland Under-21s. Whilst coach Stuart Pearce tinkered with the team that beat Denmark 4-0 last week, it does not look good for their build up to the European Championships in June but at least Pearce now knows some of the fringe players may not be up for it.
*Please note: since writing this, it has been confirmed that it wasn’t a racist incident as a German teenager has admitted throwing the banana onto the pitch.
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