Streetlife Radio | The sound of waltham forest

Amidst growing unemployment and economic upheaval the highest paid job in International Football is once again open for applications at FA Headquarters. Fabio Capello’s abrupt departure from the hot seat (and it bloody well ought to be hot for £6m per year!) 4 months before the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine has caused the appropriate reverberations around the world yet for many England fans only candidates born within England’s borders need apply. Is this classic Little Englander mentality or a reasonable stance to take from a nation who claims to have invented the game yet has appeared in less world cup semi-finals than Turkey, Uruguary, Sweden and South Korea in the past 22 years?

Capello’s successor will become the 7^th permanent appointment since 1996 when under Terry Venables, the quintessential English football manager, England had its fans genuinely with a taste of glory. Since Venables, the FA has followed a consistently inconsistent approach to appointing a successor:

Hooray, but is going to be Horrid for Henry second time around?

Only the greatest players of all time have statues of themselves erected outside the stadium they graced; even fewer will go on to play a competitive game at the same ground; hence the hyperbole surrounding Thierry Henry’s goalscoring return to Arsenal last week. Having scored more goals (226 in total) than any player in the club’s history and having been part of a team that won the Double in 2002 and then went 49 games without defeat between May 2003 – October 2004 Henry is one of the greatest players Arsenal has ever seen and in an era when they were quite possibly the best team of a generation, undoubtedly the best team Arsenal have fielded in their 125 year history.

Arsenal:

Back on target after a terrible start to the campaign. Van Persie’s fitness remains of optimum importance should Arsenal remain in the top 4. Henry’s return may provide a psychological boost and Champions League progression may be their best chance of success in 2012 to end their barren period without a trophy.

MOST LIKLEY OUTCOME: 4^th; Champions League SF; Possible FA Cup.

Aston Villa:

McLeish is still struggling to win around the fans who were against his appointment in the Summer; is taking a while to replace Downing and Young but impressive win at Chelsea may be a turning point. Keeping Darren Bent interested and N’Zogbia replicating his Wigan form could spark a second half revival.

There’s no doubt that Football demonstrates the most tangible breed of tribalism visible outside of full-on war. It is therefore difficult for any of us associated with a particular team to view actions on and off the pitch objectively. Never has this been more so than with Liverpool Football Club’s defiant approach towards their star Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez.

Cricket has always played second fiddle to Football in England. Traditionally the national summer game, it has over time fallen further into the shadows of Football with World Cups, European Championships, pre-season tournaments and latterly transfer windows monopolising the back pages.