The Curious Case of John Terry

John Terry retired from England duty on Sunday, overall I feel this is a good thing and I'm going to try and explain why.

Firstly, Terry was a great defender for England. He was also a great leader for England. The keywords in these two sentences are "was". Throughout his 8 year international career he has performed honourably whilst wearing the "Three Lions", he has performed with a passion that very few have shown over the past few years. He has been a leader for a team that has lacked leadership both on the field and off it; although sometimes, like everything he done off the field, he crossed a line. Terry's defensive abilities also shone on the field, along with his willingness to put himself where others wouldn't, and his defensive leadership have helped out England to achieve more than they should have. Terry formed a great defensive partnership with Rio Ferdinand that continued on from Rio's pairing with Sol Campbell. The two's individual attributes complimented each other, and for the past 8 years it would hard to argue against selecting them as the first choice pairing for England. For all of Terry's positives, there were negatives. His biggest flaw (on the pitch) was his lack of pace, and now as he cruises past the age of 31 it's going to be shown up even more at international level.

Age is a key factor in why I believe him retiring is a good thing. England have a talent group of defenders coming through and I believe Terry (and Rio Ferdinand) are now surplus to requirement. After the disasters of previous World Cup and European Championship campaigns, it is time for England to slowly remove the old "golden generation" and allow the younger players to take over. With Joleon Lescott, England have an experienced defender with no past history who can steady the ship for the likes of Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Steven Caulker to take over. I also believe this process needs to happen across the rest of the team, with Ashley Cole, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard making way for their younger counterparts, however this is a story for another time.

Now, let's get on to the dirty off field shenanigans of Terry, the reasons why Terry shouldn't be part of the England set-up outside his declining ability.

Terry has been twice stripped of the England captaincy. That, to me, is enough to show that he shouldn't be part of the team any longer. The reasons behind him losing the captaincy are fair enough, and are something that the England captain should not be involved in. Sleeping with an ex-teammates ex-girlfriend and making racist comments towards another footballer on the pitch are not the behaviour of a role model. The fact he's trying to make himself look like the victim is also disgusting. The magistrates court and the FA are two different entities. It's only right that he is getting punished by the FA despite being found not guilty at court, in a trial that should have never been considered. A large fine and a several match ban, plus put on a "black list" for England selection where he wouldn't have been called up for 6 months or so, would have been enough for me. However, this won't happen... it's logical and the FA doesn't do logic.

In the end Terry has made himself look like a victim and people have bought it. It's a disgusting way to end his England career, but good riddance to you. The England team will be better for his loss, despite what people will try and claim.

Best XI - A Different Take

These "Best XI" teams pop up all the time, usually they contain the same players who are proclaimed to be the "best" players in the world. I thought I'd create one, and have challenged Herby to do the same, made entirely of our favourite English Premier League players from the past 10 years, so from the 2002/03 season onwards. This is going to be quite difficult.

The Team

I'm setting my team out in a simple 4-4-2 formation; I may be using some sort of loophole for some of my picks, but as I said, it's a team made of my favourite players. So it'll pass, right?


GK - Kelvin Davis
Sunderland (2005/06), Southampton (2012/13)

I haven't picked Davis on his merits playing for Sunderland and Southampton in the EPL, but for the 2 years he had in Ipswich. He was brilliant for us, easily our best keeper since a young Richard Wright picked up his ears and left for the bright lights of cup games for Arsenal.

He joined us in 2003 and won the 'Championship Goalkeeper of the Year' award while helping us achieve the play-offs where we would lose to West Ham. Things went downhill for us from there, and he left after one more season and has struggled to be replaced ever since. Thanks for the good times, Kelvin. Good luck in avoiding relegation this year with Southampton, you're a class keeper.


RB - Danny Mills
Leeds United (1999-2003), Middlesbrough (2003/04), Manchester City (2004-07)

This may be a strange selection to some, but "Sir" Danny Mills has a special place in my heart thanks to a certain videogame.

Spending hours playing 'Pro Evolution Soccer' on the PS2 after school with my mate, we always had the problem of having Gary Neville being the first choice right back for England. One day we decided to risk it and go with Mills instead, what a brilliant decision that turned out to be. He was there making tackles, winning the ball, causing trouble for everyone. After such a Man of the Match performance he was first choice in every team I ever played with on PES. Only right that he's first choice in this team.

CB - Sol Campbell
Tottenham Hotspur (1992-2001), Arsenal (2001-06, 2009-10), Portsmouth (2006-09), Newcastle (2010-11)

He was a class defender for England for years, robbed of his first goal for his country on a couple of occasions. His reaction everytime he thought he had scored wreaked of passion, something that current England players seem to lack.

He was class for Tottenham and for Arsenal. He had the ability to back up his passion, determination and leadership. One of the best English centre-backs of all time, probably one of my favourite defenders of all-time.

CB - Hermann Hreidarsson
Ipswich Town (2000-02), Charlton Athletic (2003-07), Portsmouth (2007-10)

Your typical Scandinavian defender.

Large, stronger, awesome.

He was great for Ipswich, he was loved by everyone. It was a shame to see him move on after our relegation and subsequent failure to get back to the big league. Whenever he scores for my team he can jump in the crowd, I'll even cover the fine he'll get for it.



LB - John Arne Riise
Liverpool (2001-08), Fulham (2011-13)

Left back was a difficult position to fill, as there haven't been many ones that I've liked over the years.

Ashley Cole was an option to start, despite him being a censored, his performances for England over the years have been great.

Riise, though. Another Scandinavian being awesome. Amazing left foot, runs all day, amazing left foot, pretty competent defender, amazing left foot. That just about sums it up. He'll form a great partnership with Hermann, I shall call them the "Awesome left-footed Scandinavians", or something a bit more catchier.

RM - David Beckham
Manchester United (1994-2003)

This was one of the easier selections I had to make.

Whenever I played football with friends when I was growing up, we always pretended we were a player. Something I'm sure a lot of you done. Beckham was close to top of the list for me. Sure he messed up a lot and played for Manchester United, but I don't hold that against him. Easily one of the best players I've had the luck of seeing play, on TV and in real life. He had to be first choice to fill this right midfield role, no doubt about that.

CM - Xabi Alonso
Liverpool (2004-09)

He is so damn sexy.

Also, he's a great footballer.

But... look at him.




CM - Jimmy Bullard
Wigan Athletic (2004-06), Fulham (2006-09), Hull City (2009-10)

A quick YouTube search will give you the real reason I've put Bullard in this team. It's always a great sight to see a player out there on the pitch enjoying themselves and having a laugh.

A side reason for his addition would be the loan spell he had at Ipswich at the end of the 2011 season. He was so great that he won the Player of the Year award for us, his subsequent permanent move didn't work out so well, but those 6 months were great. Shame injury plighted such a good footballer's career.

LM - Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Arsenal (2011-13)

This might be a strange choice to many of you, given how little time "The Ox" has spent in the EPL. Let me explain myself.

When he broke into the Arsenal team in the middle of last season, I was more than impressed. He possess all the attributes a great footballer needs. He's strong, quick, has a great touch and great technique; he's also at probably the best place to be developed into a top quality footballer. I'm going to enjoy watching him progress for Arsenal and England, there's a lot more to come from him.

ST - Dennis Bergkamp
Arsenal (1995-2006)

He may have only scored 131 goals in his 11 years spent in England, but every single one of them was awesome.

I dreamed of being a player like he was, that touch, that technique, that being afraid of flying.

His goal against Newcastle would be my favourite goal of all-time if it wasn't for his goal against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup.

The best foreign player to grace the Premier League? For me, no doubt about it. Not even my final choice surpasses him.

ST - Thierry Henry
Arsenal (1999-2007, 2012)

I once found out that somebody had uploaded every single of Henry's Arsenal goals up to YouTube. Needless to say I spent 40 minutes watching them all. There were some special goals amongst them.

Thierry Henry only ever scored special goals.

In his prime there was not a better goal scorer on the planet. Despite being French, one of my favourite players ever.

Substitutes

GK - Brad Friedel 
Liverpool (1997-2000), Blackburn (2001-08), Aston Villa (2008-11), Tottenham Hotspur (2011-13)

There is a law that states to be an American goalkeeper you have to be bald. Brad Friedel does this very well. He also does the goalkeeping stuff very well too. He also does the not missing a league game thing very, very well too. If I was to create a team in 10 years time, I'm sure Friedel would still be playing every game and still be hopeful of selection.

D  - Thomas Vermaelen
Arsenal (2009-13)

He may not be the best defender in the world, but I enjoy watching him play. The way he bombs forward, he 's a useful force attacking as well. Hope to see him lead Arsenal for many more years.

D  - Ashley Cole
Arsenal (1999-2006), Chelsea (2006-13)

As I said, him being a censored ruled him out of starting, but he still makes the bench for his performances for both club and country. Shame about the personality.

M  - Jack Wilshere
Arsenal (2008-13)

Another young English player in amongst my favourites? Wilshere is going to be a class act though, you could see it in his first full season at Arsenal. High hopes for him.

M  - Juninho Paulista
Middlesbrough (1999-2000, 2002-05)

He just sneaks into the guidelines, but he's worthy of a place. The Teeside Twinkle Toes was a joy to watch in his brief spell in the North-East.

ST -  Gianfranco Zola
Chelsea (1996-2003)

Sticking with the short players who just make it past the guidelines, we have this man. Zola was such a pleasure to watch, and so was that goal against Norwich.

ST - Marcus Stewart
Ipswich Town (2000-02), Sunderland (2002-03)

This is another homer pick, and it's for the 2001-02 season, which falls outside our guidelines but he makes them because he played for a couple more years afterwards. In the 01-02 season, Stewart ended the year being the highest English goalscorer in the league. Ipswich finished 5th thanks to his efforts. He deserves this place based on that alone.



So there we have it. A team made up of my favourite players who have played in the Premier League in the past 10 years.

World's Worst Review - Gran Turismo 5

This is a new section and idea for the blog that will (hopefully) be a regular thing. It's called World's Worst Review, because frankly, it's going to be bad. The idea is simple, me and Herby will regularly review games, the twist is that they will be any game from the past 1000 years (probably not that far back, but still). So basically we're going to be reviewing games that have been out for a long time and that you've played a lot and either like or hate. A twist that M. Night Shyamalan would be proud of.

Gran Turismo 5

For anyone who doesn't know, Gran Turismo 5 is a PS3 exclusive driving game from Polyphony Digital. The previous 4 games in the series were good, both graphically and drivingly (that's now a word). The 5th instalment was awaited with much anticipation as it was the first Gran Turismo game to arrive on PS3, and due to the release date being put further and further back. I picked up the game on release day after a pre-order, and well... I was underwhelmed to put it kindly. Using a controller the game felt lifeless to me. The AI were more on rails than an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine, which is why I referred to it as a "driving game" and not a "racing game". After a couple of weeks of pointless "races" against the awful AI, the game was returned to the shop and traded in for something else. I had moved on and had no intention of returning to the series.

This changed a few weeks ago when my friend, Skuh, sent me his old Logitech steering wheel and a copy of GT5. I plugged it in, set it up and hit up a time trial on one of the tracks in a Ferrari 458. Wow. It was a completely different game using the wheel. The car felt alive, the game felt alive, I actually had fun playing Gran Turismo. I was actually interested in doing lap after lap after lap in various cars at different tracks, this was the ultimate driving experience.

So now I've played the game and actually gotten the real driving experience from it, I can safely say that Gran Turismo is a good game. The graphics are great, the car handling is great (when using a wheel), and there is a long lasting appeal to it the game now. Setting a time on a lap and knowing you can improve it on the next, you get the driving bug and don't want to stop, even after 30 sweaty minutes around Nordschleife. Although the AI is still poor, the online challenges are still fun and competitive. The staggered start means that there's some challenge in catching up the leader in five laps, plus the prize money award for winning a stage is worth it and means I can buy another Nissan.

Obviously there are a few negative points to the game. Firstly, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but the AI removes any fun had racing offline. Online is good from what I've experienced, but I still wish they would have spent some of the development time improving the AI rather than adding another type of Nissan. The choice of cars is strange, to say the least. Sure, the game may have 1000 cars but there needs to be more variety and more "premium" cars. The biggest negative point for me though is that the game only becomes fun when you splash out another £80+ on a steering wheel (plus any extra money need for a stand or solid set-up). Not everyone has that kind of money, or awesome friends who send you things for free; and although there is some fun in playing the game with a controller, it really becomes a different beast when you use a wheel.

If you're after a good driving simulation game on PlayStation 3 that will compliment your new wheel set-up, then you have to look no further than this brilliant offering from Sony's own Polyphony Digital. If, however, you don't have such a set-up, you may want to look elsewhere for that "ultimate driving experience".

Battlefield 3: Armoured Kill - My Take

My good friend and fellow bloggerist Herby wrote a very good initial take on the new Battlefield 3 DLC "Armoured Kill" which you should read. It's located here. I haven't played the new DLC as much as Herby has, so my views won't be as in-depth as his, nor would you want to read the same thing twice.

First impressions... it's decent. My main fear for this DLC would be the size of the maps ruining the console experience, and to some extent this is true. 24 players just doesn't work for Conquest on maps with this much scale to them. There's too much emptiness to the battles, as people focus on the flag that has access to the AC130 (which is what I expected), leaving the other four flags to be a battle between a couple of guys from each side. With a good team on your side you can easily dominate the game by capturing the remaining flags and ignoring the AC130 as it does little to affect the battle in Conquest. The way the flags are laid out leads me to think that there will be a smaller, 3-flag version of Conquest made available for 24 player servers in the near future, which will certainly make things different... hopefully in a good way.

As for the maps, I think they all have their pluses and minuses, but overall they're good. I've played a fair bit on all four of the maps and my favourite so far is definitely "Armoured Shield", which I seem to be in the minority in thinking. I had a very good Rush match on this map, although that mode is flawed which I will get more into later, and left the match feeling like I had just played "Oasis" on Bad Company 2. "Bandar Desert" is only okay in my opinion, the vastness between the flag areas leaves a lot to be desired on console, but with more game time on it I could perhaps come around to it more. I only played Rush briefly on this map, and it seemed like it had a nice flow to it and had potential for some good games... if it wasn't for that dastardly AC130. "Alborz Mountain" is a map I have hardly played, and I'm pretty sure I have touched in it Conquest. It looks great, but it has too many rocks for me to crash into. Rush seems like it could be the most balanced on this map, as the defenders get the high ground while the attackers get the air support. "Death Valley" is the map I have played the most in Conquest, and it's below average. The night time setting is good, although the moon is too bright, but the map layout just doesn't feel 'great' to me. Perhaps over time it will grow on me, but early signs aren't too promising.

As I've said above, Conquest feels too empty on 24 man console servers which would lead me to play Rush more, except there's one big problem. The AC130. The attacking team get access to the AC130 which leads to a huge balance issue. Not only do they have ground vehicles in the form of tanks, they also have air superiority in the form of a massive, take no prisoners, cannon. With the location and close proximity of the MCOMMs the AC130 cannot be ignored. It takes around 4-5 stingers to be shot down, more if flares are used well, and it does devastating damage to the ground troops who will be focused on shooting it down thus leaving them to be shot in the back and the MCOMM to be planted with ease. The AC130 needs a nerf of some sorts in Rush, perhaps limiting it to only 2 flights per base or significantly increasing the respawn time of it. A good team can hold it off, but a good gunner can outclass any defenders.

I haven't touched on Tank Superiority, but in my brief encounter with that mode it seems a fairly decent addition and will be good for a change of pace from the regular game modes. Perhaps the flag capture area needs to be larger, but other than that it's a good addition.

Overall I think the new DLC is decent enough and adds some more depth to an already deep game. I would find it difficult to recommend it to a friend or foe; but to a dedicated BF3 gamer who has already splashed out on the Premium upgrade for the game, I'm sure they will gain many more hours of pleasure from the new additions.

The best addition to BF3 though? The new patch that was released on the same day.

The Ipswich Saga - Follow Up

On Thursday I produced a blog that contained some of my feelings towards the current state of Ipswich Town Football Club. I was hoping some of the questions that I felt needed to be answered with the current state of the team would be answered by the end of the transfer window on Friday evening.

They weren't.

On Friday lunchtime I visited the best Ipswich Town news site on the internet, TWTD, only to find the headline "Jewell Doesn't Expect Any Deadline Deals." Well, that certainly threw a spanner in the works.

For several years Ipswich have had a weakness in defence. I'm sure Jewell is well aware of this, and in the summer he strengthened this area of the team by signing a goalkeeper in the form of Scott Loach from Watford, a centre back by the name of Luke Chambers and a young right back known as Elliot Hewitt. These 3 signings would give us some depth in defence but, in my opinion, they would not bring our defence up to the level to challenge for the top half of the table. We needed another good centre back to play alongside Chambers, as our only other current centre back is Tommy Smith who I would class as "okay". He's young, still learning but lacks pace and is prone to mistakes. He's no more than a slightly below-average Championship level centre back. We also needed a centre back as we have 2 senior centre backs at the club, along with young defender Jack Ainsley who isn't very good at all. So, to me it was obvious, press forward for another defender by the end of the transfer window to improve our defensive issues and it would have been a good window.

No-one was signed.

Jewell has since stated he is looking at bringing in one on loan with a view to a permanent move in January. This is not good enough. Loan signings can only be brought to the club for 93 days, which would mean we would be back down to 2 centre backs and Jack Ainsley when the busy Christmas schedule began. I'm sure that the manager and board are aware of this, or there has been a huge oversight on their behalf, but the fact they haven't signed another defender on a permanent deal is worrying.

The club is intent on balancing the books and preparing itself for when the Financial Fair Play rules kick in. This is a good strategy to have, much better than the one first employed by Marcus Evans when he took over the club. The strategy would work much better if the manager set up the club to locate young and hungry players from the lower leagues and abroad. The amount of clubs that have employed this policy and succeeded proves that it is something that needs to be done. It can also be backed up from within the club with the success of Aaron Cresswell, who was signed from Tranmere last summer and went on to be Player of the Year in his first season here. It also lead him to be linked with a move to the Premier League which may have effected his mindset at the beginning of the season, something I'm positive he can recover from and get back to his form last season. Elliot Hewitt is another signing from the lower leagues, he's currently injured and I have no knowledge of his abilities, but he is rated by coaches at both club and international level so is looking like another positive signing from the lower leagues.

My honest feelings are that come the summer we won't be looking for just players from the lower leagues, but also a manager. Jewell doesn't give me confidence, although the transfer failings are not entirely his fault, and bringing a young manager with better knowledge of the lower leagues would bring this club forward and kick start the long-term rebuilding process. The season has a long time left to run, and as long as we're not in a relegation fight I will be satisfied with the outcome. Let's hope it's a fairly decent season.

After today's draw at home to Huddersfield there were some positives to take away. Paul Taylor appears to be a good signing. Luke Chambers scored and Scott Loach played brilliantly. Having a goal of building the club for promotion in the long run is the best policy for the club. I mean, it certainly worked out well for George Burley, didn't it?

The Ipswich Saga

The 2012/13 season has begun, and while it may only be three games in I've already lost the hope I had on opening day. There are several factors to these feelings of disappointment and frustration, and perhaps come deadline day on Friday I'll be left with egg on my face and nice slice of pie to eat; but as of right now, the feelings are there in force.

Opening day arrived with hope, it ended with a well-earned point against freshly relegated Blackburn. The performance was good, perhaps we could have gotten more with some improvements. That was okay though, it's the first game of the season, the team is still gelling together but most importantly we played well. Could we keep up the level of performance, perhaps grab another point away to Watford. Every team has an opposition it struggles against, for Ipswich this team was Watford. 15 games in all competitions, home or away, since Ipswich had beaten Watford. It took another 90 minutes before Michael Chopra scored the winner, but not only had we gotten a good draw against Blackburn, we'd also gone to Watford and beaten them whilst keeping a clean sheet. Things were looking up, although it was only two games old, this season could be a success. Things were about to change.

Blackpool are a good side. I'd even go as far to say that Blackpool are the best team in the Championship this season. If they don't get an automatic promotion spot then I will be very surprised. Travelling to Bloomfield Road all I wanted was a good performance, I didn't think we stood a chance at a win, a draw would be a huge surprised. 2-0, 3-1, a scoreline like that would be fine if combined with a fighting performance, something that could continued to be built on. 6-0. Blackpool 6, Ipswich Town 0. There are no words that can describe what happened that Saturday afternoon in Blackpool. All I knew was that the team needed strengthening, especially in defence. There was a week left in the transfer window, this is something that surely would be addressed by the board and the management staff over those few days. They couldn't ignore it again, surely?

The final week of the transfer window was interrupted by a trip to Carlisle in the Capital One Cup. A perfect arena for us to get over our drumming to Blackpool, score a couple of goals, keep a clean sheet and continue on a cup run. It start well enough, we scored within 20 minutes and we had started well. We were on top and if we could score a second goal before half time, the game was ours as Carlisle had nothing. We didn't score before half time, infact we didn't do much else before half time... or after it. What we did was switch off, give up and concede in the 90th minute... again. Then we conceded in extra-time and got knocked out of the League Cup by a lower league team... again.

As with Ipswich Town for so many seasons, there was no fight or determination. No grit. No guts when it mattered. No travelling to a far away stadium and grinding out a win. It's not like we lost to Carlisle while playing our reserves, firstly because we don't have any and secondly because they've changed the rules of the League Cup so Football League teams (Championship, League One and League Two) have to play full strength sides in every game. Premier League teams don't. Such a fair rule.

The team lacked depth and the manager was aware of it. Players needed to be added, the board needed to work quick. They did work quick, a double bid for the Peterborough attacking pair of George Boyd (left midfielder) and Paul Taylor (striker) was accepted. They arrived in Ipswich and passed a medical before leaving on Wednesday night after failing to agree terms. Not a promising start. In the past few hours it's been reported that Paul Taylor has since agreed terms with Ipswich, some depth to the front line and perhaps someone who can score more regularly than Chopra. Alongside this piece of news, Daryl Murphy has rejoined on loan from Celtic... again. If you were to put all the players that Ipswich could sign in a barrel, Murphy would be close to the bottom of it, perhaps only reachable if you scraped said barrel. But anyway, that's two attackers added to strengthen the side, which alongside midfielder Guirane N'Daw who is also joining on loan, has made the team look a bit deeper and stronger. There is still a glaring weakness with the squad though.

On Monday morning, Ipswich Town had four centre backs contracted. Luke Chambers, signed during the summer for free after his contract with Nottingham Forest, where he was captain, expired; much needed signing for a team who has had defensive problems for several seasons. Tommy Smith, a youth product who played for New Zealand at the World Cup, he's decent enough for the league and is still young but prone to mistakes; good enough for the team for now, but not if we're serious about promotion. Jack Ainsley, a recent youth graduate who isn't highly rated by anyone, no more than depth. Damien Delaney, old, Irish defender, good for depth. Well, he was good for depth until he was released today. The termination of Delaney's contract means that there are 3 natural centre backs at Ipswich. Three. This is a huge issue if not addressed. There is a fresh rumour going around that we are after Sean St. Ledger from Leicester. That would be an important signing if we can make it, but given our negotiating history and the tightness of the clubs finances, it's a big if.

There are lots of questions to be answered by 11pm Friday night. I am again being hopeful that I won't be left with new questions come the passing of the deadline, but being an Ipswich fan that is probably wishful thinking.