It is a bigger mystery that he got less than 10 caps for England. If he had gone the other way across the Channel (and he had an opportunity to), they would have built a team around him. It is a shame he never had an International manager who understood a gifted, talented footballer and the value that would bring to a team, maybe from having been one himself.... oh hang on a minute!!
Wasted some of my life watching that (though I dipped in and out, admittedly) shower of absolute ****e. Hart looks like he did himself no harm - good for his confidence too, but the defence need shooting, the midfield is out of ideas and who picks Sturridge who is SO greedy and never looks for another pass, just tries it all himself. We'll do the English thing, I reckon - qualify, then get thumped when we play a decent team. Did I hear we're playing Spain soon? Dear oh dear - hope they put some of the youngsters in - nothing to lose.
Perhaps this is why we can't hold on to players nowadays - some sort of karma for having a God play for us for his whole career
I think you misunderstand my point. I'm not saying its a mystery that he wanted to stay. I'm saying it's a mystery that other clubs didn't make more of an effort to lure him. Who actually made serious offers for him? Spurs are the only ones right? Maybe Man Utd. Because teams didn't have silly money to throw around back then. And the wages being offered weren't as dramatic. Plus the Champions League wasn't the bloody be-all-and-end-all competition that it is today. Things like the FA cup actually mattered.
He was only tempted by Spurs because he was originally a Spurs fan, due to his hero worship of Glenn Hoddle. They very nearly signed him, but his first wife didn't want to live in or near London, and persuaded Matt to stay. Other clubs were interested. Liverpool, for example. Chelsea definitely wanted him, and Matthew Harding worshipped the ground Matt walked on. But by then Matt had firmly decided he was staying, not just to appease his wife, but because he'd absolutely fallen in love with SFC. So why not ManU.? Ferguson said Matt wasn't a ManU type of player, ie. all-action and industry. But he loathed seeing the Le Tissier name on the Saints teamsheet because he knew Matt was a huge threat. He wasn't wrong there. It was a different era. If Matty was playing now there would be offers every day coming into SFC. And you're right, there wasn't the huge gulf in wages back then. But Matty has said many times that his playing for a club was never governed by money. When he was young, his father had advised to aim for happiness over chasing money. Which is why the best contract Matt had was £8K a week plus bonuses. He was happy. In fact, I don't think I've ever once seen him sad. I think being badly let down by Hoddle re, England, was the worst case he's ever publicly admitted to. Personally, I don't think Hoddle's over-inflated ego couldn't stand the fact that there was a more skilful player in recent times than himself, so he omitted Le Tissier. Hoddle was a great player. Le Tissier was a genius. That's not my opinion, that's Alan Ball's.
Agreed. I absolutely detest the white kit - definitely boring & also probably something to do with Leeds of the 70's !!
On the subject of interest or non-interest in international football, particularly England, pundits were discussing all things England team, last night on Radio 5, and one of them (David Pleat, I think) dared to suggest that the average fan was far more interested in the Premier League. That got some rebuttals, but he was right. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04bv2hs
I think you'd find the white strip less offensive if England played like Real Madrid on a good day. FWIW, I sometimes prefer the red, sometimes the white. These days I prefer the one England aren't wearing.
Current home and away have vile sock colour choices. They look like the cheap pairs of socks I used to have for PE at school, just put with England shirt and shorts.
So tickets for U21s only available in very limited places....not just one side. They may intend to shut the Kingsland, but presumably the others are going to the FA. Not a problem as it is an International after all....just curious.
