Some people have nothing better to do during the international break than to voice their opinions on everything from money to morality, everyone from Rio to Keano has something to say. Sometimes you can get pearls of wisdoms but more often than not it’s just a bunch of shite.

So much talk, so little sense

First up our favourite football administrator UEFA chief Michel Platini. As ever Platini has  a lot to say especially when it comes to English football. I know that there’s supposed to be some Anglo-French animosity, but with Platini it seems to run a little deeper.

On foreign owners,

“I think it is not good. I think the Qataris should invest in Qatar. <>

“They should develop the football in each country. Can we do something against it? I will try to.”

There is some merit in this, you tend to wonder would he be saying the same if this was happening in France?

On club Identity,

“Do you want in Liverpool an Arab sheikh as president with one Brazilian coach and nine or 11 African players?” he asked.

“Where is Liverpool in that? We have to make some rules.

“What is football? Football is a game and this game has become popular because of the identity.

“You have to have identity, that is where football’s popularity lies.”

Again Platini seems to have it in for English football, we don’t hear much complaining foreign players in La liga, Serie A or Liga Sagres. How many African players ply their trade in the French league? I forget they gain citizenship.

Let’s not talk about the National team policy bringing on players for 5 minutes thus preventing them from ever representing their country of birth. Where’s the Identity in that? Platini should really look closer to home.

“When you buy Ronaldo or Pele or Maradona or Robinho, I have no problem. But when you buy players at 13, 14 or 15 years, I don’t like that,” he said.

“One player aged 11 is coming from Marseille to Chelsea. For the mother you think that is good?”

Again how many players move from Senegal, Zaire, cameroon etc. to France? Maybe he should ask the mother of Patrick Viera, or Patrice Evra if that’s good?

Roy Keane decided to join in the fun and have a go at Arsenal’s youth policy. Claiming that the much Heralded Arsenal Academy is not all it’s cracked up to be.

The word on the street is they have a group of kids coming through that will be absolutely outstanding.

“But you go on about the kids coming through but a lot of them have been bought from other clubs, not through the academy at Arsenal. It’s the same with Chelsea.

Keane didn’t seem to have a problem justifying his import of talent from his home country,

We have tough battles up here in terms of signing young players and are restricted in terms of our location.

“You can only bring in kids from a certain radius and a lot of our radius is in the water. Any good fish out there?

This “radius” also applies to Arsenal who has to compete with no less than 4 premier league teams from the same talent pool not to mention another Charlton, QPR, Crystal Palace, Reading and Watford. That’s 10 teams in more or less the same 90 mile radius.

Keane is just carrying on the Man U tradition of slagging of Arsenal, I’ll just leave it at that.

Another Man U player to grace us with his musings is Rio Ferdinand. No doubt Rio is a hero for many, and I fully support his views on FIFA’s token fines for racism in the terraces. He then goes on to lose my support by engaging his mouth before his brain.

On the issue of Almunia representing England.

That’s for The FA to decide but I’m sure if he was picked for Spain he would play for Spain in front of England . So if that happens I don’t think it’s really working right.

So if Spain had picked him now and he had a choice of playing for Spain or England who is he going to pick?

I’m sure he’d pick Spain so that means he is not English.

Doesn’t Ferdinand realise that there is already precedence or did he just forget that his club and country team mate Hargreaves is in fact Canadian. I wonder if Hargreaves would have chosen to play for England if he had the opportunity to represent Germany? I’m sure he would pick Germany so that means he is not English

And don’t even dare bring up his parentage, as far as I know Almunia has lived in England and payed taxes in this country for far longer than Hargreaves. Rio should have simply left this issue alone.

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