View from Asia

China – Future football dynasty? Not in our lifetime

2012-08-21T10:38:00Z

Much like the broken record heard in the United States for the past four decades, big-name imports mean the Chinese league is being hotly tipped to be the next force in world football.

On a recent radio phone-in, one of the game’s most experienced journalists claimed that the best of the beautiful game and the mass of its passionate following are gravitating from Western and Central Europe towards the East.

On the face of it, it is hard to dismiss such a swiftly concluded remark. The arrivals of the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Didier Drogba, Yakubu and Frederic Kanoute have started to put Chinese football on the map.

But having qualified for just one World Cup finals in their history, and with football’s global potential ever increasing, the onus is on those in and around Chinese football to reach out. With the enormous wages funded by business hulks, the recent signings have confirmed that part one of raising Chinese football’s profile is complete.

However, empires are not built by ageing footballers, and no matter what international appeal they may conjure, the distinct lack of grassroots interest will take more to reverse than offering a retirement home to some of the world’s most well known players.

In fact, the bundles of cash thrown at the game can have the opposite effect. As noted in May’s edition of FourFourTwo, the north of China and areas surrounding the capital Beijing see the southern spending spree as a show of arrogance and impatience, with Shanghai Shenhua and Guangzhou Evergrande two of the main culprits.

With former Chelsea teammates Drogba and Anelka joining forces at Shenhua, and Paraguayan Lucas Barrios and Argentine Dario Conca both signed by Evergrande on big-money deals, getting football fans around the world to at least speak about the league has been a relatively straightforward task. And it’s not just the players who are being lured over. Former Fulham manager Jean Tigana was appointed Shenhua’s new coach in December, before being replaced by former Argentina caretaker manager Sergio Batista after a poor run of form, while World Cup winner Marcelo Lippi is currently boss at Evergrande.

Convincing respected managers and ageing players to ‘be bought’ into the system is one thing. Supporting this incline for a decade or more to build the Chinese Super League into one of the world’s most highly regarded is another. Investments into the league are empty ones, with commentators and analysts coming out to assure people are aware that these activities are ego-fuelled and unprofitable.

In fact, it is not far off crystal clear that the cash pumped into these players is for the purpose of everything but developing football. While the Drogba deal included making the Ivorian a spokesman for a Chinese online gaming empire owned by Shenhua chief investor Zhu Jan, Anelka has been endorsing the same company, The9. Not something you can imagine the withdrawn Frenchman was desperate to do without a monster pay cheque, is it?

But sustaining the cash flow is only half the problem, with the image of football in China deeply rooted as something of a mockery. Large-scale housecleaning has been forced upon the Chinese FA in recent years, with match-fixing bribery infecting referees, officials and players on several occasions.

The frighteningly low number of kids playing the game - there are just 10,000 registered under-12 players in China, compared to Japan’s 350,000 - goes hand-in-hand with the notion that the few young people that are interested in football are seen as abandoning meaningful and realistic career paths, not a trait that Europe subscribes to. None of this helps the already tainted Chinese depiction of the world’s most loved game, a crying shame for a country with the largest population on earth. The perception of ‘Fakeball’, as many have named it, has taken a beating in the past few years, and with this running parallel to the vast amount of money that has been ploughed into the game, something just doesn’t add up.

Compare this with the might of European football and you begin to understand how claims of a shift in power to the East are bordering on ludicrous.

The interest in football/Fuﬂball/calcio/voetbal/f˙tbol is relentless in Western and Central Europe, embedded in over a hundred years of passion and devotion (and it goes without saying that the continent has produced a few of the world’s best players along the way). This cannot merely be uprooted and shifted along like a mobile home.

European football is a multi-billion pound chain of estates, estates that have had their fair share of corruption and negative press yet survived on the mass scale of interest alone, something China needs to invest in to have any chance of coming close to becoming the next force.

More grassroots investment would be a good start for China. In particular, it is imperative to show youngsters that football can be used as an educational, moral and positively emotional tool, not just for the naughty boys and girls as it is currently seen.

Softening the tone of greed and impatience in the Chinese game also needs extra attention, a step forward that is fully ignored by gargantuan wages and irrational decision making on the part of owners.

As we have seen with soccer in the United States, big signings bring hope of raising the all-round profile of the game in countries where there has previously been little interest.

Ambitions and even promises to take over the footballing world have been farfetched and far from actualised, a trait currently being seen in the Chinese Super League and by those jumping to conclusions.

My view is that for once, fan-power prevails over hard cash; you cannot build a world-beating football league without football being the nation's first nature. The Chinese are shooting on sight.

Sun Kings push for title in an unexpected conclusion to the J-League

2011-11-18T11:40:00Z

The concluding three weeks of this year’s J-League season go a long way to help demonstrate just how peculiar a year it has been for Japan’s top flight.

A few surprises have arisen in the form of a potential new champion, and the relegation of one of the countries largest and oldest clubs.

Few would have even considered current league leaders, Kashiwa Reysol, worthy of a top half finish, never mind a stab at the crown. But the recently promoted club have built their success by becoming greater than the sum of their parts, with a dynamic midfield and rigid defence.

Jorge Wagner, who signed from Sao Paulo in the summer, has settled remarkably well and shares an intrinsic chemistry with Junya Tanaka fellow Brazilian, Leandro Domingues, with the midfield trio contributing 36 of the club’s 59 goals this season.

The club’s home form this season has been unrivalled, and that has been largely down to the close-knit spirit of the squad. With consistent defensive performances from players such as right back Hiroki Sakai and aforementioned free scoring midfielders; the club have taken that siege mentality and added a bit of class, leaving Gamba Osaka and Nagoya Grampus trailing in their wake.

But Reysol aren’t the only side that could end the season on a dramatic note.

With three games left, Urawa Red - the AFC Champions League winners of 2007 – sit two points above the drop zone, staring into the abyss of relegation they’ve been digging themselves in to for the past four seasons.

The team’s poor form this term has been characteristic of the attitude that’s plagued the club, from top to bottom, for the past five years.

A club that could be defined as victims of their own success; Urawa enjoyed a hugely successful four year spell under Guido Buchwald and then fellow German Holger Osieck where they won two Emporer’s Cups, a League title and most importantly of all, the AFC Champions League in 2007.

The season after, Osieck’s side’s title charge collapsed towards the end of the season and, after finishing seventh, he was sacked just two games in to the following season without a single point on the board.

Since the German coach left, the club has tried desperately to emulate the successful formula that led them to four trophies during those ‘glory years’, but to no great success. Their league performances spoke for themselves, with 2009’s sixth place finish followed by a final position of 10th in 2010.

The club made rash decisions in appointing Gert Engels and Volker Finke, seemingly just because they were both German, before Zeljko Petrovic – assistant to Avram Grant at West Ham – was brought in half way through last season.

The Montenegrin was relieved of his duties in October when he was replaced by youth couth Takafumi Hori, taking Urawa Red’s managerial tally to five in just four years

This has, of course, had its effect on the playing squad, with big players such as Tanaka and Robson Ponte leaving in search of clubs who can offer stability and ambition. Meanwhile, the top signings brought in to replace them are underperforming - specifically ex-Murcia striker Ranko Despotovic and Sao Paulo loanee Mazola, who have only managed to muster up two goals between them in 26 league games.

Perhaps most worrying for Urawa is the standard of teams they will have to overcome to keep themselves in the league. On Saturday they welcome Vegalta Sendai - the division’s current form side, before travelling to an already relegated Fukuoka side desperate to regain some last gasp of dignity, the following weekend.

At the same time, relegation rivals Kashiwa have an away tie with seventh placed Shimizu, before what should be a relatively comfortable home tie against cosy mid-table outfit Cerezo Osaka.

The final day of the season will see disheartened Urawa host the jubilant Sun Kings from Reysol in a showdown that could well decide the fate of both clubs.

The once proud champions of Japan and Asia will welcome the new challengers to the crown. For one club, a desperate assault on what many believed an unachievable fantasy. For the other, their one remaining chance to wake from this ghoulish nightmare.

One derby, two English managers, 120,000 fans

2011-08-09T15:48:00Z

One hundred years ago, Bengal played host to a football match between Mohun Bagan and the East Yorkshire Regiment. The game was for the IFA Shield – the world's fourth-oldest cup competition – and was the first time an Indian side had made it to the final.

Mohun Bagan won 2-1 to become the first Indian side to not only beat an English side, but win the IFA shield, in front of an elated crowd of 80,000 Bengalis. They would later be dubbed the Immortal XI and held as one of the greatest Indian football sides ever.

The victory meant much more than mere bragging rights. For a country that had borne witness to the brunt force of British imperialism, the very thought of beating the colonisers at something as English as football was unthinkable. That those 11 Bengalis, barefoot and untrained, could defeat one of the best sides England could offer sparked a newfound confidence in Indian culture that already possessed a strong, if suppressed, nationalistic mood.

Despite the country having to wait until 1947 for independence, the match is regarded as a vital chapter in the nationalist movement in Bengal, as the club became synonymous with India’s struggle for justice and equal rights during the partition of the region from 1905 onwards.

So it would seem only fitting then, in the centenary year of such an illustrious win for India, that Mohun Bagan should hire an Englishman, right? The Kolkata club have announced the appointment of Steve Darby as the club's new team manager for the upcoming I-League season, beginning in October.

The decision was taken after the joint efforts of Stanley Rozario and Subhas Bhowmick failed to reach expectations, the previous campaign ending trophyless in a dismal sixth-place finish. This was the first time since 1973 that the club had gone without winning a single competition.

To call Darby a journeyman would be an understatement. The Englishman began his career in Australia when he was appointed as national development manager for the sport down under in 1990. After spending half a decade there, he had his first taste of football management, taking over at Sydney Olympic where he spent three inconsistent years in Australian football's second tier. But Darby would have to travel to South East Asia before his career would really take off.

At Malaysian side Johor FA, he guided the side to their first ever FA Cup trophy in 1999 and their second Malaysia Premier League crown a year later. From there, Darby moved on to the Vietnamese national women’s side, orchestrating a South East Asian Games gold medal and a reputation as something of a miracle worker.

This success earned him a job at the Singapore side Home United in 2002. During his three years at the club, Darby racked up one league title, two runners-up places and two cup trophies in three consecutive finals. In addition, the club pushed the limits of Singapore football with an astonishing assault on the AFC Cup that ended with semi-final defeat to eventual champions Al Jaish. Darby’s reputation had gone continental.

After his Singapore fling, Darby returned to Malaysia and Perak FA, taking them to two cup finals and a league runner-up spot, besides once again pushing the limits of his surroundings by taking the club to the AFC Cup quarter-finals – the furthest a Malaysian club has ever progressed in continental football.

After doing all he could at Perak FA, he accepted an assistant role under Peter Reid and later Bryan Robson for the Thailand national team, where he worked for two years, helping the side reach the Asian Games quarter-finals.

Darby (seated) with Robson

But Steve Darby isn’t the only English manager in Indian football – in fact, he isn’t even the only English manager in Kolkata. A short walk away in the East Bengal Ground Club offices sits Trevor Morgan, coach of Kingfisher East Bengal and the biggest obstacle to Darby’s hopes of success in India.

Despite a relatively short managing career in Singapore and Australia plus a brief stint as U-23 coach at Hull City, the former Bolton and Bristol Rovers striker has been nothing short of a revelation at Kingfisher East Bengal.

Joining the club last season in the hope of lifting spirits after a disappointing ninth-place finish in the 2009/10 season, Morgan took the club within five points of only their fourth league title in 71 years, finishing second and amassing 21 more points than the contemptible team a season before.

With astute signings and a brand new two-year deal rumoured to have been signed, Morgan will look to build upon the success of last year's second-place finish and go one further.

Kolkata now finds itself hosting not only the most intense rivalry within the Indian game, but also a cerebral battle between the league's two most pioneering foreign coaches. With an average crowd expectancy of around 100,000 spectators at the Salt Lake Stadium – at 120,000 capacity the world's second largest ball-sports arena, shared by the two teams along with Mohammedan SC – the mind struggles to comprehend the expectation and pressure forced upon these two men.

Salt Lake Stadium: rather large

As neither club has managed to win the I-league trophy since its inauguration four seasons ago – each year the title has been won by a team from Goa, India's smallest state – Kolkata locals have taken league derby wins as bragging currency. The rivalry within that colossal stadium signifies Indian football at its finest.

With East Bengal’s continual rise to the peak of Indian football under Morgan, and Mohun Bagan’s acquisition of Asia’s most effective coach, it seems the I-league trophy is sure to find its way to Kolkata sooner rather than later. The real million-pound question is which Englishman will be holding it come the end of the season.

China the great underachiever looks to punch at its weight

2011-07-13T10:14:00Z

Roving writer Stefan Bienkowski peeks behind the bamboo curtain to see if a potential sleeping giant is waking up...

Has there been a more contrasting story than that of modern China and its struggling football team? When admiring the increasingly dominant economic power and its athletic achievements at the last Olympics, you would be forgiven for assuming such athletic poise reached all regions of its sporting landscape, including football.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the case, and as with many countries in this part of the world, China’s anxious attempts to get the domestic game up and running have been set back by people looking to take advantage of a naive institution in a desperate situation.

For a country with a population of 1.3 billion – as many as there are in the entirety of Africa and South America – China redefines ‘underperforming’ and has found itself in quite a mess.

The root of the problems began within the Chinese FA itself. The arrest of seven officials on suspicion of match-fixing has snowballed into a nationwide investigation, arresting a grand total of 22 individuals ranging from club presidents to referees to former top players. The scandal eventually led to the relegation of two top-flight clubs.

Although betting in any form is illegal in China, foreign-based online betting companies make billions each year from gambling cartels fixing matches.

Despite the attempts to clean up Chinese football, many think match-fixing and bribery will always exist. Left to their own accord under the great shadow of European football, markets like Asian football are often ideal breeding grounds for betting rings and money-laundering. The locals have a term, ‘Black Whistles’, to describe their corrupt referees and rigged games.

Chinese FA chief Wei Di pledges to end the corruption

As concerning a situation as it is, one would be forgiven for misinterpreting the Chinese approach to the problem as little more than a bemused reluctance to confront the deep-lying crisis throughout their game, a preference for the quick fix rather than addressing the long-term concerns of youth programs and league structure.

Yet the troubles don’t stop there. Earlier this year, the official league sponsor Pirelli decided to drop their investment after persistent legal troubles surrounding the association. Crucially, China Central Television chose to stop showing Super League games, leaving the league to begin the domestic calendar with no sponsor and no televised games.

It's a sorry state of affairs, but the Chinese already know how to make a success of sport – witness the Olympic Games. However, for the domestic league and national team to succeed, Chinese football must start from the grassroots up.

There is a belief within the country that football is counter-productive – and certainly since the league's professional introduction in 1994, the football association and government have done little to encourage parents of the cultural significance of the sport, in contrast to their promotions of Olympic sports.

Small initiatives have began sprouting up throughout the country – particularly in the Shandong region, where local schools have started integrating football within the kung-fu curriculum. Similarly a number of Beijing schools have begun setting area aside for local football pitches.

It remains to be seen whether the rest of the country catches on, but if so, the world had better watch out. FIFA figures from last year stating that a mere 2% of the population participate in the sport at any level – one of the lowest in the world. Imagine if China matched Costa Rica's planet-leading 23% participation rate…

Is Mongolia football’s next superpower?

2011-03-15T11:21:00Z

Like Martin Luther King, Tsakhia Elbegdori has a dream. The Mongolian president's dream is both more prosaic than King's and as outlandish. He would like his country - the 19th largest in the world but only, FIFA reckons, the 183rd best football nation - to host the 2050 World Cup: "You have to have dreams and maybe I will even have the chance to see my great-great-grandchildren play in a World Cup in Mongolia."

Elbedgori is used to defying the odds - he's the first non-Communist president of Mongolia - but even he recognises this is a tall order. Some facts of life are so intractable even heads of state can't change them.

The most intractable obstacle facing Elbegdori is the weather. Summers in Mongolia are hot and short, the winters long and bone-chilling. The average annual temperature in Ulan Bator is -2.4ºC, colder than any other capital on earth. The Mongolian football season lasts just five months. The only way to change that - short of some grandiose, sinister scheme to interfere with the climate - is to invest in artificial pitches and indoor arenas that can host games in football's younger sibling, five-a-side futsal.

Wrestling, sumo and gardening

Wrestling and archery are the traditional Mongolian sports - football feels, in comparison, like a foreign import. Mongolia only joined FIFA in 1999 and, out of a population of 2.7 million, only just over 5,000 are registered footballers. The two largest cities - the capital and Erdent - have all but monopolised the league title since the democratic revolution in 1990.

While Mongolians have won Olympic medals in judo and pistol shooting, and the best wrestlers have flourished in the lucrative world of Japanese sumo, no native footballer has yet emerged as a paradigm-shifting role model. The national side's top scorers of all-time are probably striker Ganbaataryn Togsbayar and free-scoring defender and skipper Lumbengarav Donorov who have six goals apiece.

Mongolian sumo-star Hakuho celebrates victory in style

That, in case you were wondering, is how this blog started. I decided to while away a Saturday morning trying to see which country's all-time top goalscorer has found the back of the net least often. So far Gavin Clinton, with four goals for the Turks and Caicos Islands, is the least prolific all-time topscorer for any FIFA nation. Look, I know it sounds sad but it's better than gardening - especially if you're as bad at gardening as I am.

Togsbayar and Donorov play in Mongolia's small, imperfectly formed Premier League although, bizarrely, there have been claims Blackburn are scouting Togsbayar. He is still only 25 and has been the league's top scorer in the last two years (scoring 14 goals in 2009 and another 14 in 2010) so anything's possible.

The Mongolians take one hell of a beating

Mongolia has never looked remotely like qualifying for a major tournament and has the tragicomic distinction of being the only FIFA member to have ever lost to Guam, a tiny overseas US territory in the Western Pacific.

That ignominious 1-0 defeat last March makes Elbedegori's dream sound even further away. Still, the national side's comeback could start this week when the Blue Wolves, as they are known, take on the Philippines in an AFC Challenge Cup tie in Ulan Bator - the visitors have been supplied with special two-layered winter football kits to make sure they don‚t freeze in a climatic, rather than sporting, sense.

The one advantage Mongolia (which is five times as big as Poland) should have is land. But Elbedgori is fighting to stop developers bulldozing playing fields and football pitches. In 2006, according to rsssf.com, the Mongolian League didn‚t complete a proper season because: "The 2006 championship was not held as a normal league but in two stages of four groups due to reconstruction of the only football pitch in Mongolia."

The league runs properly today, albeit with a complex three-stage structure that doesn't make it any easier to market. The clubs are so obscure they don't even have entries on Wikipedia although one enterprising Lonely Planet reader ranked watching a match at the Naadam stadium as the 93rd best thing to do in Ulan Bator!

Still, the struggle to protect pitches illustrates why the president's dream may be less absurd than it sounds. Mongolia has rich mineral resources and foreign investment in industry and infrastructure could provide the economic momentum to help Mongolian football develop. If FIFA sticks to its strategy of boldly taking the World Cup to countries where the tournament has never been before, Elbedgori's great-great-grandchildren could yet kick off the 2050 World Cup.

Mind you, you'd probably get shorter odds on the resurrection of Genghis Khan.

Damn, I had set out to write a blog about Mongolian football without mentioning the conqueror who became synonymous with the phrase "the Mongol hordes" but some clichés are, I guess, simply inescapable.

And the host nation for 2022 is… Qatar?!

2010-11-11T17:41:00Z

It might seem unrealistic but the fuel-rich emirate has reasons to be optimistic, says Matthias Krug

A team combining the creative impulses of Zinedine Zidane, the tactical nous of Pep Guardiola, the attacking vision of Ronald de Boer and the deadly finishes of Gabriel Batistuta would seem to be quite an unbeatable combination in their prime playing days.

Now those finest footballers of their generation have been united for an altogether different cause. But for once they aren’t favorites to walk away winners. They want to bring the World Cup to the Middle East for the first time ever.

Of all the nine bidders hoping to be named a World Cup host in just a few weeks time in Zurich, Qatar is perhaps the most underestimated. This is surely an unfair assessment.

The other four nations in the bidding for the 2022 tournament – Australia, Japan, South Korea and the USA – are all more renowned in the Western world view of things. But apart from Australia and Qatar, the other bidders have each hosted the tournament rather recently, which would give these two bidders an advantage if FIFA continues with its policy of attempting to spread the appeal of the game around the world.

In the wake of South Africa’s successful summer experience, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has already come out with comments encouraging the prospect of a first ever World Cup in the Arab world. Ronald de Boer struck the same chord when I talked to him in one of Qatar’s stadiums shortly after he was announced as one of the bid ambassadors for Qatar 2022.

“I believe this will be a great opportunity to foster understanding between the Middle East and the Western world," said the former Barcelona and Rangers midfielder. "I think there have been a lot of misunderstandings and I believe football always brings the best out of people.”

So the key bid-winning message is already firmly in place, just as it was for the World Cup editions in South Africa or in South Korea and Japan, the first Asian World Cup. This is to be the tournament of the Middle East. But in for many sceptical Western observers, the gas-rich Gulf nation is also the most unknown prospect of all the bidders.

To me at least, Qatar’s bid is the most familiar of the nine on offer. Having been born and raised in the Qatari capital Doha, I witnessed from close quarters the astonishing sports development undergone in the past two decades on the small peninsula by the balmy Arabian Sea.

From hosting the FIFA Youth World Cup some 15 years ago to being named the host nation for this January’s 2011 Asian Cup, the World Cup dream has always floated like a tempting mirage across the desert sands.

In between, football in Qatar has taken on a new depth and breadth; from the creation of a superlative youth academy in the heart of Doha to the world’s largest scouting project – Aspire Academy’s “Football Dreams”, headed by the man who discovered Lionel Messi.

And it's not all pipe-dreams, as proven by the home team’s gold-medal performance at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. That day, the Al Sadd stadium seemed to hold the entire cosmopolitan nation with its many expatriate residents as the home side defeated Iraq 1-0 to the noisy backdrop of traditional drumming and chanting.

But a more spectacular piece of news was already on the horizon.

As the Doha-based journalist who first broke the news of Qatar’s intentions, I've witnessed the development of the World Cup bid. “Qatar has a very good chance of hosting the World Cup," Qatar Football Association (QFA) General Secretary Saud Abdulaziz Al Mohannadi told me. "Of course it is going to be very tough, but we have a very good chance. We will work hard on the bid and prepare very well and then we will be well placed when the official bidding begins.”

The Qataris have worked hard indeed, bringing on board their glitzy crop of bid ambassadors, all of whom have played in the Qatari league except Zidane – on board partly for his Arab origins, partly for his World Cup-winning superstar status.

They have also developed an ambitious mosaic of stadiums which would use solar power energy to cool the stadiums, with designs which incorporate the most traditional elements of Arabian heritage and seem indeed something out of a thousand and one nights.

But following the bidding build-up closely over the past year or so, I’ve often come across variations of the same sceptical Western complaints: but Qatar is too small, but they don’t allow alcohol, and what kind of a World Cup would that be without being able to celebrate adequately?

The Qataris have already said that they are willing to allow alcohol at the finals, and promise to make their small size and hot summers an advantage by providing the most compact tournament ever – in regulated temperatures.

This may be insufficient to answer some of the doubters of the Qatari bid, which has spared no expenses in its publicity project and currently runs an advertising spree in Spain’s much viewed La Liga championship, not to mention Sky Sports in the UK.

Perhaps the best way to answer the sceptics is by turning the question on its head: but is the Western World Cup the only way to celebrate the world’s favorite game? The World Cup in South Africa proved that this is not the case.

Now all of Qatar is once again preparing their maroon and white flags for the decision day on December 2. The vote-swapping allegations certainly need clearing up beforehand, but they also show that the Arabian and Iberian bids are being taken very seriously by their rivals.

The Middle East is fast becoming a highly influential region in world football, a fact underlined by the vast amounts of money which the region is prepared to invest in the game and has already done in big-money takeovers of clubs in Europe. That’s all fine and well.

But now the focus must be on development at home. Turn back the clock some 12 years. Zidane's wonderful headers give France a first-ever World Cup triumph. Ecstatic celebrations ensue with Zidane’s picture being beamed across the centre of Paris.

Can you imagine the same scenario being repeated in a country in North Africa – Zidane’s ancestral Algeria, perhaps – or the Middle East? No? Maybe the question about Qatar’s highly ambitious 2022 bid should not be why, but rather: why not?

Matthias Krug is a football writer with international experience writing for the likes of ESPN Soccernet and Al Jazeera International

Iran go for Ghotbi aiming for third time lucky

2009-04-26T11:00:00Z

He is an interesting character. Not long ago he was described thusly: An Iranian leaving America, flying to Hong Kong on British Airways working for the Korean National team under a Dutch coach.

The man in question is Afshin Ghotbi, as international a man who you could ever hope to meet, and he has just become the head coach of the Iranian national team.

With Iran struggling in their group, the team needs at least seven points from their last three games to qualify for the 2010 World Cup. It will not be easy but Ghotbi is not one to shirk a challenge.

Born in Tehran in 1964, he moved to Los Angeles when he was 13. LA doesnt match the Iranian capital for football passion - few cities do - but Ghotbi played and studied the game intently and before long he was developing a reputation in California for his forward-thinking and analytical approach to the game.

So much so in fact that at the age of 34, he went to the 1998 World Cup in France as part of the United States' coaching staff and watched from the sidelines as his homeland famously defeated his adopted nation.

Four years later, he was back on the global stage with Guus Hiddink as part of the South Korean set-up that reached the last four in 2002. Ghotbi then spent time working in Korea, Japan and the Netherlands, before being recalled to Korea by Dick Advocaat in November 2005.

Ghotbi keeps his cool while Dick acts the fool

After his third World Cup and Advocaat's departure to Russia, Ghotbi stayed on to assist another Dutchman, Pim Verbeek, for the 2007 Asian Cup. After a third-place finish in Indonesia, Ghotbi decided to seek his own challenge and, for Iranians, there is no challenge bigger than Persepolis, at club level at least.

Persepolis are an Asian institution. Average attendances are around the 70,000 mark when they are doing well, but that had not been the case since 2003.

The likes of Ali Parvin, Arie Haan and Mustafa Denizli had all tried and failed, and were soon out.

So few gave Ghotbi, with little head coaching experience, a chance as he returned home for the first time in 30 years. Not all wrote him off though - he was met by around 2,000 fans at the airport and carried out on their shoulders. Part of that crowd was a mother he had not seen for three decades.

It was not just fans of Persepolis for which Ghotbi was a breath of fresh air in the musty world of Iranian football. His professional manner, his suit-wearing habits and his refusal to blame players when results went wrong impressed and excited football-lovers. The conservative establishment was suspicious of this man who had left the country prior to the revolution only to return in a wave of publicity.

Derided by detractors as a man with a laptop, he needed a good start and got one. The Reds stormed to the top of the table and looked odds on for the title. He was lauded as Afshin the Emperor everywhere he went, not something appreciated by authorities in a nation that mixes football and politics more than perhaps anywhere else.

But it was FIFA that almost did for the Reds. The world governing body imposed a six-point deduction on the club for the late payment of transfer fees; a penalty that turned the team's mid-season blip into a serious dip.

And to make matters worse, players such as Alireza Nikbakht publicly criticised tactics. In the space of a few weeks, the wheels had almost come off and leaders Sepahan were receding into the distance.

But results started to improve in the title run-in and the Isfahan club were slowly reeled in. As fate would have it, Sepahan arrived at the Azadi Stadium - home of Persepolis - on the last day of the season. They held the upper hand, only needing to avoid defeat to take the title.

And with 95 minutes played they were doing exactly that. The score was 1-1, but in one last desperate attack the impossible happened and Persepolis got the goal to send 100,000 home fans at the Azadi and millions of Reds followers around the world wild with delight.

Persepolis fans go wild in the aisles

It was always going to be a hard act to follow for the well-travelled Ghotbi, and the second season syndrome kicked-in. Results were not bad but not as impressive as the first season, and behind-the-scenes wrangles caused Ghotbi to resign in September with less than a third of the season gone.

It was widely assumed that it would all be sorted and he would return to the club, but it never happened.

Now he is the third Iran national coach in the space of a month. The last guy resigned after just two weeks.

Only six weeks remain before the first of three qualification games that will decide Ghotbi's and Iran's fate. It is going to be some ride and another interesting chapter in the man's life.

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Hammam and Salman sparring for AFC seat

2009-04-19T09:00:00Z

You know it's serious when Sepp Blatter gets involved to protect the interests of fair play and the integrity of football.

Who would have imagined that there would be so much fuss over a seat on FIFA's Executive Committee? But the battle for West Asia's seat which will be settled by a vote at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Congress on May 8 is becoming increasingly bitter.

In one corner, you have the current occupant and the president of the AFC, Mohammad Bin Hammam. Challenging the Qatari is Sheikh Salman, the head of Bahrain's FA.

And it's not just the seat that is at stake. Bin Hammam has said he will treat the vote by the AFC's 46 member nations as a vote of confidence in his reign. If he loses to Salman, he has vowed to step down from the AFC too.

In the Qatari corner... Mohamed bin Hammam

That's not all. Bin Hammam has accused fellow Executive Committee member and FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-joon as being the man pulling Salman's strings as the South Korean maneuvers towards his ultimate goal: the FIFA presidency.

"Chung and myself have never enjoyed a good relationship in the 20 years or so since I came to the AFC," Bin Hammam told me by telephone earlier this month.

"The second thing is that Chung is trying to contest for FIFA presidency and he knows that I am not going to support him and that is absolutely right. There is no way I am going to support him. This man knows nothing about football.

"One thing you know is that if Chung is your opponent then a fair campaign is not going to be there. We witnessed this in the campaign for 2002 for the FIFA presidency when Chung led the group against Blatter. This is his nature: arguments, issues, the man can't do fair play."

Strong words and perhaps a symptom of Bin Hammam's concern.

Many of the continents big boys, South Korea (Chung recently stepped down as Korean FA president) Japan and Saudi Arabia are supporting Salman, tired of - in their opinion - the Qatari's dictatorial rule of Asian football since he took the post six years ago.

Bin Hammam believes his record will win the day.

"In my opinion, I have turned the organisation into an organisation of international repute that serves all of Asia. The AFC had no voice in the international arena before. We never had representatives at international level to fight for our causes... but Asia is now taken seriously," he said.

The AFC chief seems stronger in South-East and Central Asia with West Asia divided between the two. Most of the Far East belongs to Salman. Both candidates are sure they have the votes in the bag.

"I wont talk about how many votes I have," Salman told me. "I have heard him say a couple of times that he has 30 votes, 35 votes. God knows how many, I dont think his numbers are accurate. You can't fool people, people have their contacts. People know who is supporting Bin Hammam and people know who is supporting me."

The campaign started with a bang in February when Bin Hammam did an interview with Qatari television.

"Sheikh Salman is not doing this alone," he said. "He is doing it on the instruction of others, especially people in the Korean federation."

Bin Hammam then caused a storm, both in Korea and out, with his comments that he would cut the head off his opponents. He said his remarks were taken out of context.

"It means to halt somebody's plans, nip them in the bud," Bin Hammam insisted. "It is like the English saying 'heads will roll'. It isn't meant literally."

Even so, the Korean FA officially complained to FIFA's ethics committee and Salman was less than happy with the claims that he was being bankrolled by Chung.

"Does he have the evidence?" Salman, who says he is not interested in becoming AFC chief if Bin Hammam steps down, asked me. "I already asked my attorney to file a complaint against those allegations. I dont think I need the financial support of Dr Chung or anybody else.

"To say that he is financing my campaign or whatever, I think these are false accusations and dangerous ones to be made by an AFC president. I am taking legal action against those allegations unless he has the proof to say that.

"I think that the personal remarks that we hear from him are not justifiable. If you want to concentrate on the campaign, focus on doing what is best for Asia. Let's not make it personal. There are people supporting Bin Hammam but you don't hear us mentioning their names. If a certain person or association wants to support a candidate, they have the right to do so."

And in the Bahraini corner... Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa

There is still a lot of talking to be done, but for now I'll leave the last word to Sepp Blatter and his statement made last week to the two camps.

"Football is a universal sport based on the fundamental principles of discipline and respect for opponents and the laws of the game as well as on the spirit of competitiveness and rivalry, underpinned by the values of fair play and ethics.

"These principles and values must be applied not only on the field of play, but also in the administration and governance of football, particularly in the area of sports politics. And, of course, this includes elections to the governing bodies of football.

"As president of FIFA, it is my duty to remind all members of the Asian football community of the importance of these values in the run-up to the election scheduled for May 8 for the vacant Asian seat on the FIFA executive committee.

NEWS: Bin Hammam facing AFC competition
NEWS: AFC boss confident of power struggle success
NEWS: Bahrain boss blasts AFC chief Hammam
NEWS: Asia chief to quit if he loses FIFA seat
NEWS: Bahraini bidding to unseat Bin Hammam

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Honours even after China vs Korea quadruple

2009-04-12T09:00:00Z

It was, so the Chinese media were saying, the Asian equivalent of the recent Italy vs England Champions League last 16 series.

In the space of roughly 24 hours, four Chinese teams did battle with four South Korean sides in the group stages of the Asian Champions League.

It's not only China and Korea who have an entire quartet of representatives in the expanded continental competition along with Japan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and UAE. It is not democratic or balanced, but it doesn't pretend to be. It is all about raising standards.

As far as China is concerned, Korea sets the standards in Asian football, so much so that there is even a syndrome among Chinese footballers which is roughly translated as 'Koreaphobia' - and the Koreans absolutely love it.

This stems from the fact that in 27 games at national team and Olympic level, China has never defeated its much smaller neighbour to the east.

The latest loss was in February 2008 in the East Asian Cup in Chongqing. China were leading 2-1 with little time remaining, but ended up losing 3-2.

"Koreaphobia lives on" read the headlines in Seoul, while the Chinese had to lick their wounds and bide their time again.

South Korea topple China again

The fear is less apparent at club level, but there is still an inferiority complex.

Chinese Super League clubs have occasionally tasted victory against their K-league equivalents but not often, and not enough for Korean fans to stop looking down at the Middle Kingdoms version of the beautiful game.

One Korean who wants a stop to this is Beijing Guoan head coach Lee Jang-soo. Lee is Korean and ahead of his team's encounter in the Korean industrial city of Ulsan, he told his players that there was nothing to be scared of.

"I have been in China for a long time," he said. "I know something about Chinese and Korean football. Because of their poor history, Chinese players might think too much of the opposition when they met a Korean team but is there so much distance between them and us?

"As long as we realise that Korean players don't have three legs and have two like us, we will be OK."

Such inside information didnt help as a poor Beijing lost 1-0 at Ulsan, a team that has been struggling. Beijing vice-president Luo Ning was angry.

"I can say nothing about this match," he said. "I saw just defending again and again. Both the coach and his players did something wrong. We have invested a lot of money." Luo ensured a frosty flight home by demanding a meeting with the coach back in the Chinese capital.

Luo would not have been too comforted to learn that bitter rivals Shanghai Shenhua pulled China back on level terms. The game with Suwon Bluewings was eagerly awaited as Li Weifeng, the former Shanghai star and Chinese captain, returned to his homeland with the Korean team.

As he had promised, Li scored but to no avail as Shanghai won 2-1.

"Li Weifeng is Chinese, and Shanghai is his former club. So we can say he headed an own goal tonight. Haha" joked Shanghai owner Zhu Jun.

"It is a very important match and I told them we must win tonight. They did it and we now have confidence to pass the group stage."

Shanghai Shenhua celebrate

Shandong Luneng defeated FC Seoul 2-0, while Tianjin Teda lost 1-0 at Pohang Steelers in the remaining China vs Korea clashes.

So 2-2 at half-time between the Chinese Super League and the K-League. C-League teams had fought hard to win at home but had been disappointing away. "Why do Chinese teams never try to win when they play in Korea?" an unhappy Titan Sports Reporter asked me.

While it was a rhetorical question, I was reluctant to say anything.

Much to my surprise, my casual and brief chat with him 24 hours earlier had appeared on a half-page spread of one of China's biggest-selling newspapers the next morning in the form of a lengthy interview.

At least I was in good company. The paper did the same with Luis Figo a few years ago when he came to Beijing with Real Madrid.

Figo could only smile when he found out, and thats good enough for me.

VIDEO: Watch Asian Champions League highlights on the VPlayer now

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Korea vs Korea: dicky tummies & spat dummies

2009-04-02T11:00:00Z

In South Korea on the afternoon of April 1, there were a few April Fool’s jokes making the rounds. Among the "Hiddink to return" reports was the story that because of the recent tensions between the two Koreas, their 2010 World Cup qualifier scheduled for that evening would be called off.

This continued for a few hours: many Asian nations have April Fool’s Day but don’t have the noon cut-off point, which can make for a long day. Little did the pranksters know just how close they came to being right.

Just hours before the evening kick-off at Seoul World Cup Stadium, North Korea were demanding that the match be postponed and rescheduled and relocated to a third nation.

And defeated head coach Kim Jong Hun gave surprised reporters at the post-match press conference a reason with which Tottenham fans may sympathise. (Fitting, really: for some reason, Kim reminds me of ex-Spurs boss Keith Burkinshaw. I half-expected him to point a finger and say "There used to be a football club over there.")

“This game shouldn’t have been played,” he said. “Jong Tae Se [star striker, aka 'The People’s Rooney’] and goalkeepers Ri Myung Guk and Kim Myong Gil were not in a condition to play.

“After training yesterday, and after eating at the hotel provided by Korea Republic authorities, they contracted diarrhoea,” he added, neglecting to say if it was lasagne-related or not.

He may not have mentioned it at all had North Korea not lost 1-0 to a late free-kick. The defeat sent the 1966 World Cup quarter-finalists slipping into second place in their group – still good enough to qualify automatically, but only just.

In it pops, the game's only goal

They will probably need four points from their last two games, at home to Iran and away at Saudi Arabia to make a second appearance on the global stage. South Korea are now top and looking good for a seventh in a row.

Kim’s mood wasn’t helped by the fact that Jong, who was well enough to play, seemingly scored with a powerful header just after the break. The ball perhaps crossed the line before it was clawed away by Lee Woon-jae in the southern goal.

A member of the away coaching staff was given his marching orders by the referee for his protests. Kim saved his complaints for after the match.

“Shouldn’t the referee be fair? He ignored the fact that the ball clearly crossed the line. It's the first time I've seen this,” he said, reading from a statement. He then refused to answer any questions and left, much to the surprise of the assembled press pack.

"April Fool's, right?"

South Korea FA and FIFA staff weren't about to comment on the goal that was or wasn’t, but they were quick to answer northern claims about food poisoning, which they said were "Not convincing".

Kim Joo-Sung, the chief of the Korean Football Association’s international department, was happy to give a different version of events to reporters.

"After the North raised the issue, we took the matter to the Asian Football Confederation and the FIFA," he said. "FIFA rejected the North's request and ordered the game be staged as scheduled."

The official said that a professional sports doctor examined the affected players and found little wrong. More detailed examinations, including blood tests, were refused by North Korea.

"The food and beverages are provided by sponsors of the AFC," Kim added. "The KFA is not responsible for them. Also, the North Korean officials had inspected food beforehand. If it really had been food poisoning, there would have been more players with similar symptoms."

It was all quite sad. For 90 minutes the focus had been on a normal game of football, but – this being North and South Korea – things never stay normal for long.

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Giants face off on long road to South Africa

2009-03-26T15:00:00Z

They love to beat each other, do Iran and Saudi Arabia. It is a bitter rivalry and will reach new heights when they meet in a crucial 2010 World Cup qualifier in Tehran on Saturday.

The two are genuine continental powerhouses; Persian and Arabian giants in close proximity in West Asia.

Europeans may remember a certain 8-0 defeat in Sapparo at the 2002 World Cup. That result is hardly forgotten in Asia either, it will loom large over Saudi Arabian history for decades to come.

But on this continent the Saudis are better known for four consecutive World Cup appearances since 1994, a second round place in the USA and three Asian Cups.

Saudis and Iranians battle for the ball - and qualification

Iran are no slouches either, having appeared on the global stage three times, and match their bitter rivals when it comes to continental titles.

Whichever one loses on Saturday is going to be in serious danger of missing out on South Africa, especially if it's Saudi Arabia.

At the halfway stage of Group Two, the Sons of the Desert are in fourth with four points, Iran being one place and two points better off.

Only the top two (spots currently held by South and North Korea) automatically qualify, with third having to negotiate two play-off opponents – the first of which will be Asian, the second New Zealand.

The Saudis started well enough with a draw at home to Iran and then a come-from-behind 2-1 win at a struggling UAE. But since then it's all gone wrong.

South Korea won 2-0 at the King Fahd International Stadium in November in a game that could have gone either way. The following visit to North Korea brought a well-deserved 1-0 defeat.

That caused the resignation of Nasser Al Johar, who had also presided over that game with Germany in a previous spell. As it was the 20th coaching change since 1994, he jumped before he was pushed. There are few seats hotter than the one in Riyadh.

The new man is Jose Peseiro. The Portuguese boss has experience in the region with giants Al-Hilal. Ahead of his first competitive match, he has not had much luck.

Star player and 2007 Asian Player of the Year Yasser Al Qahtani was already suspended for the Iran match but was ready and willing for the UAE clash four days later. However, he has now been thrown off the team.

The official reason was that Al Qahtani failed to report for training on Tuesday. The nub of the matter is why he was absent, with some spinning fantastic tales of wild parties. Whatever, he's out of the picture.

"The coach has decided against including Yasser Al Qahtani after he missed the training and didn't reply to repeated phone calls," Saudi team manager Fahed Al Musebeih was quoted saying in a report posted Wednesday on the Asian Football Confederation's website.

It sparked debates regarding the discipline of Arabian players, a problem that many feel is the one thing holding the region back.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with a member of the Saudi coaching staff at the 2007 Asian Cup. He was dismissive of many of the players, saying that they simply lacked the hunger to succeed.

He was proven wrong in the short term as the team made it to the Asian Cup final, playing some good stuff before losing to Iraq.

"I'll sit this one out, shall I?"

But overall? Perhaps Saudi stars don't usually venture outside the Kingdom's borders – hardly surprising when they are paid well, tax-free. But this lack of overseas experience doesnt help the national team.

According to reports in the English press, Al Qahtani did little to dispel images of spoiled Saudi stars when he visited Manchester City for a trial in 2008.

The Sniper was said to have arrived at Eastlands like some Arabian prince with his hangers-on and then took exception to a rough tackle from Richard Dunne (some, perhaps more imaginative, reports claimed that he burst into tears).

Whatever happened, he was soon on his way home.

But maybe this latest episode will be the straw that breaks the camel's back and The Sniper will finally bite the bullet and choose an overseas target. By the time he does however, Saudi Arabia's World Cup dreams could be over.

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Shanghai looking to deliver at last

2009-03-19T15:00:00Z

As journeys go, it’s faster and smoother than the Piccadilly line from Heathrow to central London but not quite as convenient.

The celebrated Maglev train may take you from Shanghai’s Pudong airport at 270 miles per hour, a speed that makes cars driving alongside on the motorway look to be going backwards, but it terminates on the edge of downtown at Longyang Park, Shanghai’s answer to Acton.

Still, it guarantees an exciting start to any Shanghai sojourn.

With the 2009 Chinese Super League season about to kick off, local club Shanghai Shenhua don’t really care about excitement.

They just want to become champions for the first time since 2003. It should have happened last season – and would have if former Middlesbrough striker Hamilton Ricard hasn’t missed a penalty in the final game of the season.

It’s harsh to put too much blame on the Colombian - although the club have since released him. Shanghai only won one of their last five games and were, as the Chinese say, a dragon at home and a worm away.

To make matters worse, a Kylie Minogue concert meant the vital last game against local rivals Zhejiang Lvcheng was moved from their spiritual home Hongkou Stadium to the much-disliked Yuanshen Athletics Stadium.

Kylie live, you say? Certainly, sir

So Shandong Luneng took a second championship in three years and Zhu Jun had to wait a little longer to bring the title to Shanghai.

The flamboyant businessman made his fortune through online gaming. In 2006, he was the owner of Shanghai United.

He wasn’t afraid to spend big and wild rumours emerged of bags of cash being handed out to players in the dressing room before and after matches. Then, in 2007, he bought a majority stake in the city’s top team Shenhua and merged the two clubs.

Shenhua’s fans, the Blue Devils, were already upset at the fact that local rivals Shanghai Inter had relocated to Xi’an and deprived them of their derbies. (This was no 60-mile Wimbledon-to-Milton-Keynes move – at almost 1,000 miles apart it would even take the Maglev nearly four hours.)

Now the Blue Devils were really hopping mad. They either boycotted the stadium or stayed to boo the United players now wearing the blue shirts of Shenhua.

With a playing staff approaching 60, chaos reigned – not helped by the hiring and subsequent firing of coach Wu Jingui, a real gentleman and scholar of the game.

"Shirt seller! Over here!"

Good results always help fans forget, and in 2008 Shanghai were challenging from the first week. Now, after a busy winter of transfer activity, hopes are high that they will more than challenge this season.

Despite the economic downturn, Zhu has invested around £4m in the team as he aims to fight off the expected challenge from rivals Beijing Guoan, as well as big-spending Tianjin Teda and defending champions Shandong.

Among the signings are Vyacheslav Hleb (the brother of a certain Barcelona star), Bulgarian defender Yanko Valkanov, Argentine striker Hernan Barcos and Australia’s Olympic skipper Mark Milligan.

While the coach is now Jia Xiuguan –Wu was “released due to health grounds” halfway through last season - these are very much Zhu’s signings.

After Barcos was blasted by the fans for his performance against Singapore Armed Forces in the Asian Champions League (harshly, considering he scored twice in a 4-1 win), an indignant Zhu was quick to support his striker.

Barcos bewails another miss

"I am angry with these comments,” Zhu told local media. “Barcos scored twice so how could we ask for more on his debut? Drogba at Chelsea wastes much more but he scores when you really need a goal. That is enough. We should treat all our players with forgiveness and patience."

Like many rich owners, Zhu’s personal fortune is shrinking: in 2008, he was listed by Forbes as China’s 328th richest man, down from 112th in 2004, and he is reported to have suffered like most others in the recent economic downturn.

It remains to be seen how much patience he has. This could be Shanghai’s year – and perhaps it needs to be.

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Last week's view: Why India is football's new frontier
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Why India is football's new frontier

2009-03-12T14:00:00Z

Every Premier League executive worth his salt knows that India is the new China.

Opinions differ as to exactly when football will explode on the sub-continent, but most expect the clock to stop ticking fairly soon and the blast to be felt around the world.

Football is taking hold among the middle classes and everyone wants a slice of the pie for future sponsorship, television and/or investment deals.

In recent months, Manchester United, Spurs, Everton, Arsenal, Chelsea and Bolton have all sent representatives to Mumbai and Delhi. Indian billionaires have been linked with bids for West Ham and Newcastle and there is talk of Indian firm Sahara becoming United’s next shirt sponsors.

The English and European champions are the club of choice for most in the cafes of Mumbai, Delhi and the real football hotbeds of Kolkata and Goa. But for a few days in January they were challenged by the Sky Blues. No, not their City rivals – we're talking about Coventry City.

Why? One surefire way to increase your profile in Asia is to invite a player for a trial and, last month, India’s star striker Sunil Chettri jetted in from East Bengal to the West Midlands to do just that.

Coventry City trialist Chettri (left)

Everywhere you look in India, agents – not quite as bad as the ones in The Matrix but hardly Morpheus either – are trying to find ‘The One’.

He will be an Indian player that is actually good enough to play at the highest level – as well as ideally having family in England to help with work permit problems.

Such a star would not only generate huge interest among hundreds of millions of Indians and dozens of Indian companies but he could attract Brits of South Asian descent – a win-win for club owners, especially with attendances on the wane.

Bury tried it with Bhaichung Bhutia in the nineties but despite talk of a move to Aston Villa, his English sojourn didn’t last long. Sunil Chettri could be different as he is part of a new breed of footballers in India – confident, articulate and ambitious. I chatted to him in October when he revealed that his feet were as itchy as they are skilled.

Bhutia lifts the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup for India

“Of course I would love to play in Europe,” he told me. ”England would certainly be fine. The problem in India is that when you reach a certain level at an Indian club it is easy to become stagnated. I want to go to a club where I can learn a lot and achieve more.”

As it turned out, Coventry will not be that club and the Championship will not be that league – for now. The man who had led India to the AFC Challenge Cup in August and has played in front of 100,000 fans in the Kolkata Derby returned home with a ‘thanks but no thanks’ ringing in his ears and feeling returning in his frostbitten toes.

The biggest challenge for Sunil and his compatriots is improving the lowly image that South Asian football has overseas. The scene in the sub-continent has a long way to go but is slowly improving.

The professional I-League is into its second season, the national team will play in the 2011 Asian Cup and club teams have a chance at the Asian Champions League in 2009 for the very first time.

It won’t be Sunil's last visit to Europe, and he won’t be the last Indian as his compatriots are now catching well-trained eyes. Earlier this month, Bayern Munich under-23 coach Gerd Muller was particularly impressed by Nirmal Chettri (no relation).

“East Bengal’s No.3 was brilliant on Saturday,” said Muller. “He struggled a bit today when he was playing in midfield but once he was dropped back in defence he looked sharp and impressed me a lot.”

When Der Bomber sounds a warning, the explosion can’t be far away.

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