By Myles Palmer
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TUESDAY’S 1-1 with Japan showed us a bland Swede who does not seem to be worth his £4 million a year salary.
Wednesday offered a clever Portuguese who might be.
A cool, cocky technocrat, Jose Mourinho sat there and told us he is God’s gift to coaching.
I like him.
I’ve spent my life liking clever people: J.D. Salinger, Dick Cavett, Oscar Wilde, Joe Heller, John Sessions, Joan Didion, loads of people, can’t think of their names right now.
SVEN thinks the choice is between Butt and Lampard.
But 20 million Englishmen know it’s between Scholes and Lampard.
Sven wants a midfield which can’t tackle !
For months and months Sven has been terrified of losing 4-0 to France.
And he prepares by picking a midfield that can’t tackle !
DAVID BECKHAM now has a disgusting tattoo on his neck.
After the England game on Tuesday night, my daughter came home.
Myles : “Beckham’s got a new tattoo.”
Caroline : “What does it say? I cheated on my wife?”
I gather that Mourinho made it clear to Sunday journalists that he will be reporting to Abramovich, not Kenyon.
That makes sense.
The oligarch is bright and 35. Porto’s George Graham is bright and 41.
Abramovich and Mourinho are two astute young men in a hurry.They need each other. At this moment, they should be working together.
It’s quite exciting. It will be fun.It will spice up the Premiership circus next season.
Give us plenty to talk about.
AND BENITEZ could be good at Liverpool.
Valencia play football a bit like Bill Shankly used to play football, when he had Keegan, Smith, Thompson, Emlyn Hughes, Toshack.
Valencia play football that is functional and efficient, with a bit of flair up front, from Aimar.
If Mourinho and Benitez are good, we could see a 4-horse race next season.
That would make English football interesting again.
LAST NIGHT I flicked on Eurosport and Portugal were playing in Toulon.
Normally, I fancy a team of 18 or 19-year old Portuguese footballers to beat anybody. I have a very, very high regard for their skills.
But in this game they were playing Brazil, who were like gazelles in gold shirts, so fast and light on their feet that the boys in green shorts were having to work their shinguards off to keep it to 0-0.
Portugal were making colossal efforts, just to maintain parity. It was only a matter of time before Brazil scored.
The moustache in charge was Rui Cacador and he looked worried as his goalkeeper Ribero kept them in the game.
It’s 40 minutes each half and in first half injury time Portugal launch an attack that doesn’t look dangerous, Felipe Oliveira picks up the ball near the halfway line and cruises down the right side and he has five defenders between him and the keeper and only one maroon shirt in support and there’s no way it can be a goal, but he wriggles infield and turns three defenders inside out and hits a shot and Edson stabs it in.
Edson is borderline offside, level with the left back, and the flag does not go up.
And that is the only goal of the game.
Edson plays for PSV Eindhoven.
Felipe Oliveira plays for CHELSEA.
The commentator wondered whether Mourinho was watching in London.
June 3rd 2004.
PS
As you probably know, Sam Cooke began as a gospel singer and was a close friend of Cassius Clay.
He was 33 when he was shot dead by a motel manageress on December 11, 1964.
Sam’s online ABKO biography includes these lines, describing his funeral service : “At the Mount Sinai Baptist Church in Los Angeles, a crowd of 5,000 persons, some of whom arrived five hours before the scheduled last rites, over-ran facilities designed to accommodate 1,500.
“In an emotion packed atmosphere, super charged by the singing of Lou Rawls, Bobby Blue Bland and Arthur Lee Simpkins, women fainted, tears ran down men’s cheeks and onlookers shouted. Gospel singer Bessy Griffin, who was to appear on the funeral program, became so grief stricken she had to be carried off. Ray Charles stepped in from the audience to sing and play ‘Angels Keep Watching Over Me’.”