Jun 16
Like him or loathe him, Ronaldo was sensational yesterday as the 2018 World Cup burst into life in Sochi after two underwhelming earlier games. It was all there. The petulance, the berating, the dedication, the brilliance. That was Ronaldo’s 51st career hatrick, which I find unfathomable. Ronaldo is one of the best ever, possibly the best. Let’s see how Messi, in a much better team, responds next.
The first proper day of the World Cup. The do not disturb sign is hanging around my neck.
As suspected the Bermuda TV coverage is worst than terrible. Not sure where they stole the pictures from, but sounds as if the commentator is doing it from his sofa, and there is no pre or post game punditry and the half-time show consists of crowd scenes interrupted by adverts from local companies who have each thrown in about a hundred bucks to ‘sponsor’ it. Please don’t let me hear you moan about Martin Keown and Glenn Hoddle..
Also, during the game the screen has no score or time on it, which is a very disconcerting and a nightmare if I need a wee. Who knows what the score is and how long is left, doubt if the commentator knows either.
One of the discussions Roland Duchatelet had at The Valley this week was with Lee Bowyer, and the club have confirmed that Bowyer will continue in his role as caretaker manager until for the foreseeable future.
This news spread widely yesterday and has now appeared in the national press of two current Charlton players arrested and subsequently appearing in court in Ibiza over an alleged rape attack on a teenage British holidaymaker at a hotel earlier this week. A third older man
There were some not pleasant stories coming out of SE7 today. Roland Duchatelet has been at the The Valley this week and Rich Cawley has just confirmed that the Belgium is making plans for the new season as if he is still the owner. His first decision was to offload Ezri Konsa to Brentford yesterday with other cost saving plans to come shortly involving player sales and staff cuts.
Well, that was my initial reaction, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me if I was Ezri Konsa. I suspect there was no real Premier League interest, at least those willing to meet an asking price or a timing. So Ezri, unlike many young ambitious footballers, decides that the next step on the ladder is a move up to somewhere he can be a regular, stay in London and be in a more populous shop window.
Hold tight because football’s coming home on Thursday. Well, not unless your home is a non-ethical racist cesspit. It was seven and a half years ago when those nefarious egomaniacs at FIFA had us all shaking our collective heads over breakfast when they awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia, and then used their top trump to select human rights dinosaurs Qatar for 2022. We’ve been shaking our heads ever since.
We could all boycott it of course, you know a football fan’s every Christmas and birthday rolled into a month, 64 matches to be glued to, but that’s plain silly. Yet it is hard to see the month will pass without any incident.
