The Warm-Up: The Nations League has saved football
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Updated 19/11/2018 at 16:16 GMT
Plus, Wayne Rooney has dropped some England-based truth bombs and Arsene Wenger addresses one of the most contentious issues of his Arsenal tenure.
Harry Kane et les Anglais fêtent leur but face à la Croatie en Ligue des nations
Image credit: Getty Images
MONDAY’S BIG STORIES
The Nations League is just utterly wonderful
Sliced bread? Got something better, mate. Yeah, it's called the Nations League. Who remembers those glum days when international breaks were nothing but club-versus-country tear fests? The Warm-Up does. So many tears. National team managers crying; club managers crying; fans crying. Just so many tears.
The lion’s share of international breaks were a complete and utter waste of time. Some sides – looking at you Switzerland – used them to massage their FIFA ranking by setting up friendlies against pub sides; while others – looking at you, everyone else – paid many of their fixtures little to no heed.
It was a pot of misery. However, then UEFA stepped up and conjured up the Nations League. And it is glorious. Now, the Warm-Up is rarely hyperbolic but, look, it is better than the Champions League, it is better than the Copa Libertadores and it is better than the World Cup. Well, at least England managed to beat Croatia this time, as a 2-1 win at Wembley sent Gareth Southgate's side into the semi-finals of the first ever Nations League finals.
Just kidding. However, it has brought a sense of intrigue back to international football. It sits somewhere nicely between the pressure cooker environment of tournament football and the lackadaisical Soccer Aid air that had started to infect many friendlies. And that has meant for better matches. Which makes for more enjoyable football. Well done everyone – even you Switzerland, who managed to come from two goals down to thrash Belgium 5-2 to qualify for the finals.
The Nations League has quite literally saved football*.
*It obviously hasn’t but it is pretty good
Wayne Rooney dropping truth bombs from far yonder
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Wayne Rooney applauds the crowd at Wembley
Image credit: Reuters
Wayne Rooney has said that some ex-England players are struggling to come to terms with the current success of the Three Lions. Here is what England’s record scorer had to say.
I know some ex-players I've spoken to can't come to terms with England doing well.
"I wouldn't say I regret never winning a trophy with England. I have given everything when playing for England and I've tried to make us successful. Sometimes everything just isn't enough.
"I've had my time and it didn't quite work out in terms of trophies."
Rooney has been a touch more laid back in his dealings with the British press since he has moved to America – perhaps as he is out of the country he feels he can be as he won’t have to deal with the blowback.
He has probably been a little glib here, but this is not that hard to believe. This England team are a fine outfit; they have a defined style with players picked on merit that fit that defined style. Are they England’s most talented squad of the last 20-30 years? Probably not.
Would it be frustrating to watch this side, as a former England international, and not feel a sense of frustration at the failings of previous England sides? Even a feeling of envy of the current side? Probably yes.
The man is just dropping truth bombs.
Arsene Wenger addresses zip gate
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Arsene Wenger waved goodbye to Arsenal in May
Image credit: PA Sport
List of Arsene Wenger’s greatest failings as Arsenal manager:
- Allowing key players to run down their contracts
- Allowing mediocrity to fester
- Allowing a zip to get the better of him
Former Arsenal manager Wenger is many things to many people but what he is to no one is a man who can do up a zip.
That is clear to anyone who has seen him try to attempt this basic task. An utter shambles. A bigger shambles than pre-Nations League international football.
Anyway, there was a reason for zip gate, as Wenger revealed this weekend:
"They are too long and sometimes the zip didn’t work. I struggled a lot with that. But, in the end, because people were showing it I was conscious that I was under scrutiny when doing it! I in fact improved in that."
IN OTHER NEWS
Arsenal thrashed Everton 4-0 on Sunday to maintain their perfect start to the Women's Super League record. Eight games, eight wins. Nice.
To be fair, it is little wonder they are beating all before them when they have a player of Daniëlle van de Donk's calibre within their ranks.
She got the first and here she is pulling off some double-megs absolute filth for your perusal.
HEROES AND ZEROS
HERO
Coming into Saturdays international with India, Jordan’s Amer Shafi had never scored for his country in his 138 caps.
That’s a lot of caps. However, there was a decent enough reason: Shafi is a keeper.
But on Saturday, he scored from inside his own box in a 2-1 win.
ZERO
There are yellow card challenges, there are red card challenges and then there are GBH challenges.
The below falls in the latter category.
RETRO CORNER
Ronaldinho doing Ronaldinho things, courtesy of the official Liga Twitter handle. Lovely.
COMING UP
More Nations League fixtures. Yay. Relegated (RELEGATED) Germany, who have been relegated, face off against Netherlands.
Tuesday’s Warm-Up is brought to you courtesy of Nick Miller - he is to this blog what the Nations League is to football: a saviour.
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