ZZ still top of the pile

I may be a couple of days late, but I’d like to say a big happy birthday to one Edson Arantes do Nascimento - or Pele as most of us know him.


The great man celebrated his 70th birthday at the weekend, and presumably friends and family of the Brazilian superstar were forced to sit with him through footage of all 1,124 of his career goals.


Thought by many to be the world’s greatest ever player, Pele also remains the game’s most iconic figure; 52 years after he lit up the 1958 World Cup in Sweden as a precocious 17 year-old. His name is synonymous with football: he transcends generations; inspiring some of the game’s emerging stars even now - despite retiring well before they were born. Heck, even Americans have known who he is for over 30 years now.


Yet although there can be little doubt that both his name and face is the most well known in the football world, can he still be considered the game’s greatest ever player? In short, my opinion is no.


I’ll tell you for why: there is often much discussion about which players would form a world XI, and who would take the crown as the best player of all time. Often enough - and professional footballers are guilty of this even - people fill their hall of fame with stars they have never even seen play live; who retired before they can remember watching football; and who they only know from a few hazy clips on their Dad’s old VHS cassettes.


To really judge a footballer, you have to have seen them play on numerous occasions and facing various situations: leading their team to an emphatic victory against well-fancied opponents; inspiring their team-mates to a heroic win against the odds; dazzling fans with breathtaking skill in a do or die cup final. Simply viewing a montage of goals on Youtube does not mean you can compare a player from yesteryear to one from today.


For most of us, the greatest player of all time is in actual fact, the greatest player of our generation. At 28, I’m too young to have seen the likes of Cruyff, Platini and even Maradona in their pomp. Even Pele himself is someone I mainly know from either erectile dysfunction treatment advertisements, or as the crazy old fool who makes wild predictions about some also-ran winning the World Cup every four years.


No, I can only really judge players I have seen extensively in the years I have followed football, and for that reason I believe the world’s greatest player to be Zinedine Zidane. A Champions League and league title winner at club level, he translated his domestic success to the international stage to win both the World Cup and European Championships with France. He played at the highest level, and won all there was to win - even taking the 2006 World Cup player of the tournament accolade despite headbutting Marco Matterazzi in the final.


I had the pleasure of watching him in the flesh twice: first for France at Wembley in 1999, and second for Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in 2003. That night at Wembley over 10 years ago now, I was completely mesmerised. Less than a year after he had inspired Les Bleus to their first ever World Cup triumph, he effortlessly destroyed England with his passing, movement and quick thinking. He was a step, sometimes two, ahead of England that night and it was the only time I have ever enjoyed seeing my country get completely torn apart. We lost 2-0, but many of us in the crowd that night went home knowing we had witnessed a truly remarkable performance.


The second time I saw Zizou in action was on a trip to Madrid to watch Los Galacticos crush a very capable Athletic Bilbao side 3-0. Beckham; Carlos; Casillas; Figo; Raul; Ronaldo; all the headline acts were on stage, but it was the prematurely balding number five that stole the show once again. Whenever and wherever he got the ball, he somehow managed to create 10 yards of space; allowing himself to play any pass he liked, or as he chose to do at one point, run half the length of the field before crossing to Ronaldo. Once again he dictated play throughout, and none of the star names on the Real Madrid team sheet that night performed anywhere near as impressively as Zidane.


It’s hard to remember him giving the ball away in either of those two matches, and it’s even more difficult to think of a player currently playing who comes close to the level of genius that Zidane reached so regularly. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are wonderfully exciting players to watch, whilst Wesley Sneijder has an exquisite range of passing. But for me, there is still some distance for them to travel before they can be spoken of in the same breath as the greatest of them all: Zinedine Zidane.


What do you think? Is Zidane the greatest player of all time?

Where next for the Wayne Rooney roadshow?

And so now we have confirmation; Wayne Rooney officially wants to leave Manchester United.

After days of speculation, Sir Alex Ferguson today announced to the football world that Rooney had admitted he would not be signing another contract at United, and had expressed his desire to leave the club. It’s an amazing twist to a story that’s far from its conclusion. For the question now on everyone’s lips is: just where will Rooney go?

Not many players leave United at the peak of their powers, so exits out of Old Trafford are usually the beginning of a downward spiral into mediocrity - often via Newcastle. Those leaving the club when still thought to be at the top of their game usually do so with a verbal volley from Ferguson still ringing in their ears, and the tip of his boot recently planted on their backside: Sir Alex decides when it’s time for a player to move, and no-one else.

But Ronaldo’s relentless pursuit of a move to Real Madrid has perhaps changed all that. He became the first player to depart from Old Trafford on his terms, and whilst still considered one of the best players on the planet. To replace him, United signed Antonio Valencia; who despite looking increasingly at home on the right side of United’s midfield before his injury, does not possess the outrageous match-winning talent of Ronaldo.

Some reports suggest that United’s relative inactivity in the transfer market - particularly their reluctance to replace Ronaldo with a marquee player of the likes of Mesut Ozil or David Villa - is perceived by Rooney as a lack of ambition on the club’s part, and is a major factor in his decision to want out of Old Trafford. Yet a club that starts every season with a genuine aim of winning its own domestic league, the Champions League and anything else in between can hardly be described as unambitious.

Until we hear directly from the man himself, we won’t know the reasons behind Rooney’s eagerness to leave the country’s biggest club. Some will say that at least it explains his woeful form over a period that now dates back to the end of last season, through the World Cup and now to the start of the new Premier League season.

Hopefully this explanation will help to prevent the now weekly inquest carried out by the press as to why Rooney hasn’t performed to the standard we all expect of him. Everybody, and everything else in the world seems to be responsible for Wayne Rooney’s God-awful form other than Wayne Rooney.

Take this weekend for example; where Sir Alex Ferguson was heavily criticised for only playing him in the last 20 minutes of their 2-2 draw with West Bromwich Albion. How could United hope to win the league with their star striker so regularly warming the bench? How could Rooney find his touch again without a run of consecutive games? These were the kind of questions being asked by the press on Sunday morning, yet Ferguson’s responsibility lies solely at delivering the best possible results for Manchester United. With the way Rooney has been playing recently, he was lucky to be on the bench in the first place on Saturday, let alone get off it for more than 20 minutes.

Yet it wasn’t too long ago that we were hailing Rooney has the saviour of English football; the man who plundered goals at home and abroad throughout last season, and would lead England to certain World Cup glory in South Africa; a rare English star talented enough to rival our continental cousins not only for pace and passion, but skill and technique too. He remains a fantastically talented footballer, who can win games almost on his own. And it’s because of this, that there will be no shortage of clubs queuing up to secure his signature at the next transfer window.

Barcelona and Real Madrid will naturally lead the way from abroad, whilst Chelsea and Manchester City will be the front-runners at home. In truth, only those four clubs in the whole of Europe could afford to buy Rooney, and even two of those - Barcelona and Chelsea - have been forced to be far more watchful of their expenditure than they have been in recent years, and may not stretch to either United’s asking price, or Rooney’s wage demands.

A move to Real Madrid would mean a reunion with his old sparring partner Ronaldo, whilst also offering him the chance to work with Jose Mourinho. That said, Real already have Ronaldo, Higuain, Benzema, Kaka and Ozil to play in advanced positions, and it remains to be seen whether they would pay the reported £50m fee for someone to provide competition to that impressive forward line. That said, logic is something that’s rarely been applied to Real’s spending in the past. Whether Rooney would be willing to adapt to life in the Spanish capital is perhaps a more pressing question to consider. You get the impression he would struggle to adapt to life outside of the North West of England, so a move to another country may not actually be to his liking.

So does that leave Manchester City as his most likely destination? It seems almost unthinkable for Wayne Rooney to be a Manchester City player within the next 12 months. But with almost unlimited funds to spend and offering Rooney an option that would see him depart United but not the North West, is it completely out of the question that Rooney would follow the cash and head to Eastlands? Only time will tell, but wherever Wayne Rooney ends up, it’s likely to be considered the most talked about transfer in English football for a generation.

Reds walk alone to date with destiny

Liverpool FC - one of English football’s most historic clubs - will contest possibly its most important fixture in its entire history tomorrow.

But there will be no Steven Gerrard to drive them on; no Fernando Torres to spearhead their attack; and no Pepe Reina to keep them safe from opposition advances. For tomorrow’s big clash will not be taking place on the hallowed turf of Anfield, but will instead be played in the High Court in London.

The reason for this date with destiny is now well known: Liverpool will be attempting to push through the sale of the club to John W Henry’s New England Sports Ventures (NESV) consortium. Posing as opposition on the day will be the club’s incumbent owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks; who will be attempting to block the deal in order to avoid making a huge loss on their original investment.

A victory in court will see the medium term future of the club secured, and give the fans cause for optimism that the elusive Premier League title they so badly covet may once again be a realistic target some day soon. Defeat is likely to see the Royal Bank of Scotland place the club into administration, and the Premier League to impose its mandatory nine point deduction for any club calling in the administrators. In other words: a disaster.

That a club as successful as Liverpool can be faced with such a desperate situation is preposterous. Despite not being crowned English champions since 1990, recent seasons have still seen the club deliver regular Champions League football, attract sell-out crowds of 40,000 plus and build a world-wide fan base ready to snap up as much merchandise as you can manufacture. And yet still the club faces the very real prospect of being placed into administration, and finding itself entangled in a season-long fight against relegation. Should they lose that particular battle, the consequences are unthinkable.

But let’s not get carried away just yet: Liverpool can still emerge from court tomorrow victorious, and should that be the case, it’s likely that the future will be looking bright for the reds. It’s said that NSEV will provide the necessary finance to restructure the debt to a more manageable level, whilst also offering Roy Hodgson the funds he so desperately needs to rebuild the club’s mediocre squad. Huge improvements to Anfield are also rumoured to be in the pipeline, although so far these are only based on the fact that Henry’s other sports team, the Boston Red Sox, had their stadium redeveloped whilst Henry was at the helm: hardly any kind of assurance.

By Tuesday afternoon, we should know whether the Kop will have its collective head in its hands, or jubilantly cheering the end of the disastrous Hicks/Gillett ownership. Whatever the result, the rest of the Premier League, and indeed world football, should be taking note. If a club the size of Liverpool can be taken to the brink of meltdown by financial incompetence, so too can any other major club in the game. And yet Liverpool’s predicament is not the only warning the game’s top clubs have been served with.

Liverpool’s deadly rivals, Manchester United, are also hampered by crippling debts - brought on by their owners borrowing money to purchase the club. The mighty Barcelona were forced to take out a £130m loan in July to pay their players wages, whilst Chelsea’s financial figures continue to prove that seven years on from his arrival, they still only exist at the upper reaches of the European game because of Roman Abramovich’s millions.

UEFA’s financial fair play rules - which state that all clubs competing in European competition must not spend more than they earn - will come into force for the start of the 2013/2014 season. Clubs across the continent will be busy getting their houses in order as that date looms ever closer, and one can only hope that this particular regulation forces a step change in the financial management of the game.

Boy does it need it: too many clubs have lived too far beyond their means, for too long. Despite the increased commercialisation of the past 10 years, football clubs surely still have a responsibility to their fans that goes beyond selling them a seat to view the game from and an over-priced hot dog? A responsibility that goes beyond the need to extend the club’s market reach and increase profits.

Running a football club in a business-like manner - as modern football supposedly demands - shouldn’t distract owners from their responsibility to run their club in an efficient way that gives the players on the pitch the best chance of success, and the club’s real supporters a fair opportunity to witness it from the stand. The way many of our clubs are being managed at the moment, it seems that Hicks and Gillett are far from alone in forgetting that responsibility.

Although I’m far from a Liverpool fan, I very much hope they are successful in their tricky away fixture tomorrow, and that the future of the club is secured. Whilst a club like Liverpool moving in to administration may be the wake up call that perhaps many of Europe’s clubs still need, their fans deserve better and losing Liverpool to the banks and potentially the Championship, is surely far too big a price to pay.