June 6th 2008

Went to see one of my favourite bands the other night, Van Tramp, who were playing at the Gibson Guitar Studio in London. It was a kind of fan club / invite-only thing so it was quite intimate but it was a great gig – they boys were on fire. Check them out at www.myspace.com/vantramp - new single is out at the start of July...

And it also gave me the chance to catch up with my old mate Claus Jensen who was there too. So good to see him and delighted that life in Copenhagen is working out so well for him.

So, the bags are packed and we’re off to the sun for a bit now. I won’t tell you where, except to say that it’s somewhere in the Pacific Ocean a long way away from football – which means I’ll miss a lot of the Euro 2008 action.

But if you want to hear my thoughts on it all ahead of the competition, just click the links below. The first is to my Times column from last Monday where I state my case for why you should all support Germany this summer, and the other is to a new football e-magazine where I run through my thoughts on each country…my bit is on pages 16 & 17...enjoy!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/international/euro_2008/article4045250.ece

http://ezine.footballpoolsmag.com/juneissue/

 

June 2nd 2008

So, with the season all over, what have I been up to? Well, hanging out Number Ten Downing Street for starters! No, I haven’t become buddies with Gordon Brown – it was for a Kick Racism Out Of Football event, which is a great cause I’m always keen to support.

 

Although I’d never been to Downing Street before, I’ve been to the German Embassy a few times – and am usually the only guy there under the age of 50, finding a corner to stand in unnoticed for an hour before sneaking out and going home. And to be honest I expected this to be similar, but when I got there, the sun was out and everything was set up in the back garden which actually made it very pleasant. 

It’s a decent sized garden too but I might has well have been at a Premier League convention as it was full of players, ex-players and managers. In fact, with everyone that was there, we could have got a great kick about going on. I had a good nose around to see what garden toys old Gordon has but apparently they’d put the Prime Ministerial swing ball away before we got there. Gordon had a few words to say as the canapés went around but I can’t remember what he said as I was more interested in what was on the plates!  

 

Inside Number Ten was very similar to what it was like in the German Embassy – lots of old oil paintings and pictures of former leaders. It doesn’t look much like a place you’d live in – not the bit we saw anyway. Although I resisted the temptation to sneak upstairs and check out the bedrooms to see what kind of pyjamas the PM wears.

 

Oh, and I won an award the week before by the way, totally out of the blue. It was from an organisation that recognises community work in sport and I ended up winning it after the PFA put me forward. Got a nice little fruit bowl for my troubles – the only thing that’s gone in my trophy cabinet for a while. But it was only when I was at Downing Street and talking to the PFA’s community officer that I realised that it had been between me and Ricky Hatton. So I can now claim to be one of the very few people to have beaten old Hitman himself!

12 May 2008

So we did it. We survived the drop and live to fight another season in the top flight. But what a day. I didn’t fancy watching it on my own so I went to Craven Cottage with my good friend and Fulham’s club Chaplain, Gary Piper, to watch the game. They had screens at the stadium and there were lots of fans around so I stood out in the sun for the first half.

Without any major chances it was a bit of a dull game but everyone was on a knife edge because the results from the other games were coming in all the time. Even though both Reading and Birmingham scored early, everyone stayed upbeat and I certainly felt that there was more to comefrom us. For the second half I decided to head up to one of the lounges to watch with some of the staff. As you can imagine, there was a fair bit of tension in the air because some of these people’s jobs were on the line. Relegation breeds so much uncertainty, and in addition to that, nobody wants to be associated with a team going down because which ever way you look at it, it’s perceived as a failure for everyone involved.

A girl from the club asked me if it was harder to play in a game like that or to watch it, and it really made me think. I know watching it involves less running but it really wasn’t easy for me. As you can imagine, Danny’s goal triggered a huge celebration. And as with the Birmingham game, going one up made me even more anxious because we had even more to lose then. The old heartbeat was going through the roof and that last quarter of an hour seemed to take an eternity. Every time Portsmouth got even near our box my heart was in my mouth – and by this point I was definitely of the opinion that watching this kind of game was much harder than actually playing in it! When the final whistle blew, everyone went mad – a huge outburst of relief and joy. Although for me it was a weird feeling. It was only at that point that it dawned on me how much stress I’d been under for the last six months. Don’t get me wrong – I was immensely happy. But I suddenly felt absolutely drained by it all. And I won’t lie, I felt a bit left out too, because I’d have loved to have been celebrating with my team mates on that pitch at Fratton Park.

 

 

You always want to tell yourself that football is just a game, but games like this show you just how much it matters, and walking home afterwards I had a little bit of time to reflect on it all away from the excitement. Overall, I’m delighted that we survived but I’m also glad this season’s finally over. I’ve never tried to hide away from the situation we’ve been in and I’ve always been realistic enough to know it was going to be an uphill struggle .But looking at the games we had left a few weeks ago, I always felt we still had a chance, provided the teams around us kept us in it.

But in this last run of games the lads really stepped up and full credit to them. We hadn’t won away in a year and a halfand then we win three in a row on the road. As I said, I was disappointed to not be part of it and have felt left out at  times. But I care a lot about that club and while it was disappointing not to be in the team as much as I’d have liked, that as all irrelevant compared to the job at hand which was staying up. I’ve just had to put any individual agendas to one side over the past few weeks. Whatever it was going to take for us to stay up, we had to do. Yes I was disappointed not be playing, but as long as the boys that were getting picked were doing a job, that’s all that mattered. And that’s what they did. Now I’m looking forward to a nice summer break to get fresh for it all to start again. I’m already looking forward to pre-season and another season in the Premier League. And I hope we never, ever have to go through a season like this again…

 
8th May 2008

To say that Saturday’s game against Birmingham was tense would be a huge understatement. I watched it from the Cottage balcony and although we were in control for most of the game and were playing the better football the whole place was on a knife edge which made for a great atmosphere. But the weird thing for me was that once we went 1-0 up I felt even more tense because I knew we then had something to lose. One-nil can be weird score line because you invite the other team on, which means they get more chances to score - and if they do score they’re really in the ascendancy. And we were at 1-0 for a long time - every time Birmingham got near the box my heart rate was going through the roof! It was probably pounding at the same rate as if I’d have been playing! Once the second goal went in and we buried the game I was so delighted – and absolutely drained too. I went down to the dressing room afterwards to see the boys, and

then I went out on the pitch to do the end of season lap of honour – which, I’ve got to say, felt a bit weird bearing in mind I was  in my suit and hadn’t taken part in the game. I almost made me feel like I didn’t belong. It was an awkward one for me but I still felt it was really important to say thanks to the fans for their support this year, for sticking with us patiently and for travelling to all those away games when we hadn’t won on the road in over a year and a half.

It was great to send everyone away happy from our last home game of the season and what a time to get out of the bottom three for the first time this year. Three weeks ago that looked almost impossible. But there were points still to play for, we won three out of the last four and that’s earned us the right to go into this last game at Fratton Park with our destiny in our own hands, because if we win, no one below can overtake us.

But it’s still incredibly tight at the bottom, and although everyone was buzzing after beating Birmingham, the two teams below us are still in touching distance. Everyone was right to be celebrating on Saturday because it was a great moment in an otherwise not so great season. But we have to remember that it’s not over yet.

Saturday is a tough one to call. One school of thought says that Harry Redknapp has nothing to play for and will be resting players ahead of the Cup Final. But the other view is that they’re going into the game on the back of a couple of defeats and they’ll want a win under their belts before Wembley.

Interestingly we played Portsmouth in the reserves on Tuesday night – the rescheduled game after last week’s was called off - and there weren’t too many first team players involved at all. My view is that those who played wouldn’t even be considered for their last league game or the FA Cup Final. So maybe he is going to be using some of his first team squad players on Saturday.

But we can read between the lines as much as we want. Which ever team Harry puts out, we’ve got to beat them, simple as that, and we’re more than capable of it. And even if he rests a few of the regulars, those who do come in will be getting their chance to really shine.

Fratton Park is never an easy place to go. Pompey have had a great season and they’re very dangerous going forward. But having just won three from four we can go there with a lot of confidence too. We’ve done all we can in the last couple of weeks and we’ve got it all to play for on Saturday. Time to make that last step and get everyone over the finishing line…

More soon…

 

30th April 2008

We had an absolute stinker with the Reserve game away at Portsmouth on Tuesday. And that was without even kicking a ball. The A3 was shut of because of accident so we spent  over two hours on the bus trying to get through the jams to get to Havant and Waterlooville where Pompey play their reserve matches. But about ten minutes from the ground when we were all finally looking forward getting off the bus we got a call saying the game had been called off because the pitch was water-logged!

The fact that the inspection hadn’t taken place until 5pm certainly didn’t help us at all, but with that bit of news, the bus promptly turned around and we were on our way back home! Over four hours on a coach for nothing – by the time I got home I think I was as knackered from all that driving as if I’d have actually played the game! In fact the only positive that came from the whole experience is that it allowed me to watch Man United – Barca!


Last Saturday, what a perfect day – and I’m not just talking about the weather. The boys got a truly great result up at Man City with that incredible comeback. Those three goals in 20 minutes gave us a huge opportunity to keep our Premier League survival hopes alive, and now we’ve got what is basically the equivalent of a huge final at home to Birmingham on Saturday.  We have to win. And if we do, we’re in a really good position going into our last game against Portsmouth.

The Man City result gave everyone a real lift and the mood in the camp has been really good. But given what’s at stake on Saturday, it’s all about focus and concentration this week. We know what we’ve got to do and that’s all we’re thinking about.

More soon….