Whitecapsfanblog

None other than the great Zinedine Zidane showed up at a soccer clinic at Britannia today, where my nephew plays Micro footie!  Zidane was a flawed genius  of footie.  He won everything including the World Cup and the European Championships for France, the European Champions League for Real Madrid, and countless other honours.

He left a bad taste in our mouths when he disgraced himself in his last game in the World Cup final 2006. His head butt of Marco Matterazzi in the final minutes of the game may well have been the decisive turning point which tipped the psychological balance and lost the match for France.  Zidane always played on the brink of getting sent off, and suffered from the red mist.   He got himself sent off in the 1998 World Cup finals by stamping on a Saudi player.

Nevertheless, he was the key player for France for 10 years, and carried them on his shoulders.  This is the mark of the truly great players.  France is now mediocre as a team.  It just demonstrates the importance of the genius player in world football, players like Pele and Maradona, who carry their teams to victory almost single handedly.   Such players only come along once in a generation.  When they retire, as they must eventually, they leave a hole in our hearts which can only be helped when another such player comes along.  There is a big hole in my heart for Zizou, and  so far there has been no player to fill it.

I couldn’t be more delighted. Owen is a great player and the most clinical of all English finishers. I could not believe the reports that some fans in Manchester are bemoaning the move. Incredible how people do not know their football! Watch Owen prove them all wrong with many important goals for Man U. Strikers at Man U get lots of opportunities, and if there is one thing Owen does not do, it is waste opportunities in front of goal. This is another master stroke by Alex Ferguson. Owen’s timing and technique will see him through even though he may not be as quick as he used to be.
Sadly, one thing he does do is score lots of goals against Wet Ham. Oh, well, you can’t have it all…

It is better for English football to have Owen at a big club rather than struggling along with meagre chances at Stoke or Hull, where he would  undoubtedly command a larger sum than his performance-based contract at Man U.