Andre Villas Boas

Everyone seems to think this guy is a genius. And he might be. He did, after all, win the Portuguese league for Porto and a Europa Cup in his first season. But I can't help but be reminded of The Emperor's New Clothes.

Porto qualified for the Europa League from their league position the season before, when AVB was at his previous club, the little known Academica de Coimbra. He spent just one season as coach there and has no background as a player. At all. His record there is praised for taking the team off the bottom of the league to a respectable mid table position. In reality that was a rise of just five places. Apparently he did it with a change of style. Maybe. But struggling teams often get a boost from a new manager taking over and the improvement may have been nothing more than that.

It's quite astonishing that Porto gave him the opportunity to take over. As I say, no record as a player and he had just part of one season at a lowly club. He seems to have been taken on based on his association with Jose Mourinho.

Prior to him being taken on Porto won their league Four years in a row to the end of the 08/09 season and also two out of the three previous seasons. So that’s six out of seven years they were champions; the exception being a second place. They also won their domestic cup three times and won the UEFA cup and a Champions League.

The season just before he took over, they finished 3^rd, Still 20 points more than the fourth team. And they still won a cup that season so it’s not like they were on a slide.

It’s pretty obvious that Porto were a damn good team when he took over. Probably the equivalent of taking over Liverpool in 1982 or ManU any time in the last few years.Perhaps anyone of average coaching/managerial ability might have continued success for at least one season.

Maybe he just got lucky and took over at the right time?

There are stories of player power at Chelsea. If there’s any truth in that how will they respond to this bloke? Okay, he had a spell there a couple of years ago and some players may know him from that time. But we all know that being the big cheese is different to being assistant and he wasn't even the assistant. What happens if the new season is underway and they are not immediately cemented in the CL places? Will everyone see the Emperor is really naked?

It’s a very interesting situation. But it does make me think some sort of experiment is taking place like that in Trading Places; A guy with no experience as a professional player who only coached/managed a small team to a minor improvement in their situation and then only for part of a season; given a position at a big club.

Nobody else seems to be questioning this.

What a waste of time

When I first started working for the social security department there was a system in place that restricted people's benefits to no more than they had when working. It was actually just being done away with.

I don't really know how it worked but I always felt there was nothing wrong with it if (big if) it could be shown that the person/family had been managing on that wage.

Some people can manage on less. We do here, for example.

But managing on that wage should have to take everything into account, not just the wage. Maybe someone had managed because of other income or savings and that had gone now.

Anyway, it seems the present UK government were to bring something similar back; to prevent benefits being more than average working income.

The most likely reasons for benefits being more than typical income were large families and high mortgage. Over the last few years several restrictions have been instigated to reduce mortgage related benefits, so over the last few years the main reason for high benefits could be blamed on big families.

Now I read that the new rules are to be relaxed. People exempted from restricted benefit levels will mainly be those with large families.

So large families will have benefits restricetd except where they have large families.

Below expectations

I came across a list of English footballers who fell below expectations according to the writer. It's an odd selection.
Dean Ashton, Seth Johnson, Michael Owen, Alan Shearer, Richard Wright, Kieron Dyer, Lee Sharpe, Matt Le Tissier, Stan Collymore, Robbie Fowler.

Odd because I don't recall too many people expecting a lot from Ashton, Johnson, Wright and Collymore.

Odd because Owen and Shearer played for England, played in the latter stages of World Cups and Euros. While Shearer might be disappointed he wasn't at a consistently top club, he did win a league title. Owen was at a top club and maybe he's disappointed to only win one league medal (in terms of barely qualifying for it) but he did get others and, of course, played for Real Madrid, Liverpool and ManU.

Dyer, Sharpe, Le Tissier and Fowler could certainly be included.

Although I say Owen and Shearer shouldn't be there, I would include Paul Gascoigne. You could say his England appearances were on a par with the former pair and Gazza's big money move to Italy was more successful than Owen's time in Spain.

But so much more was expected of Gazza and he fell that much shorter of what might have been.

A similar player was Micky Hazard. I have no idea why he didn't make it and including him would come as a surprise to some. But he was coveted by Osvaldo Ardiles as well as Glenn Hoddle, who is also on my list. Hoddle was quite successful but criminally under used by England.

How to make up ten? Nigel Martyn should have been installed as Keeper toward's the end of Seaman's time. I'm sure he'd have made the position his own.

There's no doubt Wayne Rooney is a candidate. He still has time but he should already have achieved more.

The last one? I'd have to say John Barnes; a constant disappointment in an England shirt especially when one remembers the response to his goal against Brazil.