Charlie Austin England Call Up

The announcement today of the England Squad to play against Slovenia and the Republic of Ireland in the Euro 2016 qualifier, and friendly international, in June has given vindication to my call for Charlie Austin to represent his country. I first called for his inclusion into the senior team in November 2012 when, at that time, he was the highest scoring striker in Europe (Sporting Life & Zlatan Ibrahimovic). Since then, when he was playing for Burnley FC having been first given the chance to ply his trade as a professional footballer by Swindon Town, he has proved his worth in the Premier League playing for Queens Park Rangers. Perhaps the almost three years that has passed since my call for him to receive his first cap has allowed him to mature both physically and mentally and he will be better equipped to seize the chance that he has been given? However, I believe that the debacle that was the England performance in the World Cup 2014 may have been avoided if a natural goalscorer like Austin had been included in the squad.

It is heartening to see that a player nurtured by Swindon Town has now been given the opportunity to achieve the honour of representing his country. Nonetheless, it is a shame that those responsible for choosing who is included in the squad rarely, if ever, look further than the Premier League for those they deem good enough to play for England. As a Swindon Town fan, I believe the club should take pride in being involved in the development of someone who may prove to be the prolific goalscorer the England team has been sorely missing. 

Two other new inclusions to the England squad have been selected from teams towards the bottom end of the Premier League. One is Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) and the other is Tom Heaton (Burnley FC). Their inclusion, along with that of Charlie Austin, is due to the fact that Roy Hodgson's first choices are unavailable as they are due to play in the England U21 team in the Euro U21 2015 Finals in the Czech Republic this summer. I hope that they also seize the opportunity to shine and, therefore, pave the way for other decent players from less fashionable clubs to represent their country.

Tom Heaton

As an end note, Swindon Town could tenuously claim to have helped in Tom Heaton's development as he played on loan for the club in the 2005/2006 season. His parent club was Manchester United and he played in a total of 19 games for the Robins. The other member of the full England squad who has links to Swindon Town is James Milner who played for the club 6 times in the 2003/2004 season, scoring 2 goals in his time at the County Ground. 

"Football Knowledge" Update

Football Knowledge - England Honours Page

Most people who have looked at my "Football Knowledge" website have liked what they've seen so far. The England pages are complete as are the Premier League pages for next season's teams. I'm working through the Championship teams and would like to finish the English Football League system up to and including the Conference Premier League by the start of the new season. In between, there is the World Cup to contend with, so it would be a good idea to include the national teams on the website for those countries taking part in Brazil 2014...not a lot of work, then!

QPR - Notable Players Page

If you've previously taken the time to look at "Football Knowledge", thank you. I have tinkered with the format to a point where I'm happy with the formulaic layout of the site, but, as always, constructive criticism is more than welcome. As mentioned in an earlier post (New "Football Knowledge" Website), the idea behind the website is to give all football fans an insight into the history of not only their club, but also the teams that their club may face. It is interesting, as I construct the site, to note how some of the so-called "bigger clubs" have not really had much success in their history, relative to their current position in the football league tier. Conversely, other "lower" clubs may have been seen as the team to beat early on in the life of the fledgling football leagues at the tail end of the nineteenth century.

Dropdown Menu

Club Buttons

Accessing the various team pages is an easy process. Finding your team in the dropdown menu is one way of getting access to the team's Home Page. The other way to access the same page is to click on the appropriate title in the navbar. So, for example, clicking on The Premier League will take you to the page for that league. At the bottom of the page are the team buttons which, when clicked, will take you to the team's Home Page.

Steve Bloomer
Derby County, Middlesbrough & England

Some of the "Notable Players" (Most Appearances Top 3 and Most Goals Top 3) have led fascinating lives inside and outside of the footballing world. One player who springs immediately to mind is Steve Bloomer who played for Derby County from 1892 - 1906 and 1910 - 1914. Number three in the Most Appearances Top 3 list with 525 appearances for the club, Steve Bloomer is also the club's all time top scorer with 332 Derby County goals to his credit. On retiring from playing the game in 1914, he left England to pursue a career in coaching/management in Germany for Britannia Berlin 92, a football club formed in 1892  and a founding member of the DFB (German Football Association) in 1900. Within three weeks of arriving, war was declared between Great Britain and Germany, and Steve Bloomer, along with thousands of

other British nationals, was interned in the Ruhleben civilian detention camp near Spandau in Germany. The camp was akin to a small town and the society adopted the British way of life with its own police force and postal service. Sport was an integral part of the camp life and the Ruhleben Football Association was one of the many social aspects of the internees. A league and cup competition was organised and many ex-professional players who also found themselves interned for the duration of the war helped with the organisation of the Ruhleben FA and also played for one of the member clubs. This is an interesting aspect of the First World War which has not been widely reported, at least not in my lifetime, and is a subject I intend to research...watch this space.

Where has Swindon's Monkey Gone?

The 1993/94 Premier League season evokes mixed emotions in the hearts of Swindon Town fans. Following the outrageous demotion from the then Division 1 in 1990 after beating Sunderland fairly and squarely at Wembley, the club and supporters finally got the reward of being allowed to be part of the top division of English football by beating Leicester City 4 -3 in the play-off final for 1992-93 (Division 1 = the Premier League when all was equal in the world of football and before Murdoch had ruined the chances of the national team ever winning anything by diluting the top division with foreign imports...ask your Dad). The excitement was palpable, until Glenn Hoddle left to manage Chelsea and Colin Calderwood, the talismanic captain, signed for Spurs. Suddenly, the forthcoming season seemed a little more daunting as the club's leadership was decimated and John Gorman was asked to pick up the reins and manage the team. Although fair reward for the dour Scot for his help in getting STFC to the promised land, his relative inexperience at such a high level was to be part of the club's downfall during the 1993/94 football season. It was 15 games into the season when Swindon Town finally registered their first win at the top level. That match was at home to Queens Park Rangers on Wednesday 24th November 1993 and the Town did the double over them by beating the West London club 1 - 3 on Saturday 30th April 1994 at Loftus Road. That record, 15 games without a win from the start of the Premier League season, has been an ignominious blight in the club's copybook for over 19 years...until yesterday!

The monkey on Swindon's back packed his bags and was seen heading off down the M4 in the direction of The Smoke, a copy of the London A to Z clutched securely in his hands. He has now taken up residence in London W12 and will be seen clinging to Harry Redknapp as, ironically, it is Queens Park Rangers who now have the dubious honour of being the team with the worst starting record in the history of the Premier League. Yesterday saw QPR draw with Wigan Athletic and achieve the dizzy heights (or should that be nauseating depths?) of playing 16 games from the start of the season without a win.  

As a supporter of Swindon Town, I would like to say thank you to QPR for taking this record off us. Derby County have the lowest points tally for any Premier League season, but we just need to lose the goals against record (100 for 42 games) and the therapy will be finished...any takers?

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Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones, Harry Redknapp and Other Wrinklies

The Rolling Stones

The first thing to say is, I wish I'd been there. What am I talking about? The Rolling Stones concert at the O2 Arena. The music of Mick Jagger and his beat combo has been a subliminal backdrop to people of my generation since our birth in the sixties. As we've grown up through each decade, the one constant has been the music of The Rolling Stones; always there, frequently changing to meet the tastes of a new generation, but somehow remaining the same. The only contemporary band that may emulate their longevity is U2, but Bono and the boys have a way to go before they reach the dizzy heights of 50 years in show business.

Reality check, though. If your septuagenarian grandfather was to ask you if you'd like to come to a concert put on by him and his elderly friends, you'd think he was nuts. But, when you think of Keith Richards on stage strumming to Undercover of the Night, Charlie Watts beating out a rhythm on the drums and Ronnie Wood looking like his face has been carved out of a gnarled tree trunk, age has no meaning and you appreciate the music for what it is.

Harry Redknapp

Harry Redknapp has the look of someone who is in a constant state of  somnambulism, his hooded eyes giving him the appearance of a person who is ready to drop off to sleep at the slightest invitation. Rather than hold down a managerial position as have the likes of Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, Harry seems to be a journeyman, taking his coaching skills and knowledge to whichever football club offers the right terms and conditions, and try and get them some form of glory, whether that be keeping the club up or vying for some form of silverware. He will have his work cut out with Queens Park Rangers, though and it will be interesting to see how he can succeed where Mark Hughes failed.

Other Wrinklies

The above two stories serve to illustrate that some things can be better the more they mature. The Rolling Stones may be aged, but their music endures and the quality of their live act is appreciated by their fans 50 years after they took their first step along the road to stardom. Love them or hate them, Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp must have what it takes to allow them to ply their trade in the top level of English Football for decades. Perhaps we all need to take a look around us and appreciate the "Wrinklies" in our midst rather than dismiss them as the elderly. If we're lucky, we all hope to live to be active wrinklies ourselves one day.

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