My letter to Gareth Southgate

 Dear Gareth,

As I am sure many others are doing today, I am writing you this letter to express my sincerest gratitude for what you, the staff and the players have done for this country. For the past month you have united a nation at a time when it has been at its most divided. There has perhaps never been a better time to be an England fan and that is down to you. 

I have followed your journey as manager closely for the past three years and have the upmost admiration for you as a person way beyond any football result. Although in the interest of transparency and honesty I have a confession to make. For many years I felt a sense of disconnect and resentment towards the England team for what I felt was its lack of identity and affinity with the fans. I am someone who feeds off emotion, energy and experiences more than anything and throughout my life I have heard stories of Gazza’s tears, Stuart Pearce’s penalty celebration in 96, the boys of 66 and the impact they had on the country.

I wanted that for my generation, a team in which we could relate too and I became disheartened when I felt we were not getting that. That leads me to the main part of my confession, at the start of your tenure I wrongly called you a yes man which I wholeheartedly apologise for because that could not be further from the truth. 

In my frustration at the team, I also wrote a Facebook post as a 17-year-old saying ‘Come on Scotland’ when we drew with them at Hampden Park, but believe it or not, behind that post was a boy yearning for a team to be patriotic about. I love this country Gareth and everyone in it and our national sport has the power to bring us all together like it did in this tournament and in 2018. At the start of the World Cup, I had resigned myself to another summer of disappointment and my friends tried and failed to get me in the spirit until something changed. The moment that swung it for me was after the penalties win against Columbia when you screamed “Come on!!!”. 

I knew then that you and this group of players were different and the outpouring of emotion from you let me know that you were all with us and that you were all one of us. Some may call it glory hunting as my support came back when the team were doing well, but I can honestly say the result then and the subsequent ones are secondary to me. It is about having something to get behind and be a part of whilst knowing that we are all on the same page. That is why when people say to me why do you like Gareth Southgate so much? I say because he cares! 

If you lost the next six matches in a row, I would say the same thing. You and the players are also not afraid to speak out on issues outside of football such a racism and mental health which has influenced a generation including me more than you will ever know.

If I may I’d like to give you a brief background on myself. I am a 21-year-old wheelchair user from Padiham Lancashire with a condition called Cerebral Palsy, and I am also an avid Burnley FC season ticket holder! I have had my struggles with mental health over the years due to bereavements and finding it difficult to accept the way society is in regards to disabled access and equality, but in August 2018 I began to take control of my situation. Since then, I have become a Level 1 football coach on Burnley FC in the Community’s Disability Sports Project, started a Multimedia Sports Journalism Degree at UCFB Etihad and raised £8,097.64 for my local hospice doing a 100 round boxing challenge during the pandemic. On my way back to positive mental well-being and achieving these things I took inspiration from yourself Tyson Fury and David Goggins. 

I still have my off days, but I stay calm during those and do the right things like daily exercise and mental stimulation which help me to win more battles than I lose. There are too many words to write in one letter Gareth, but I hope I get to meet you one day to thank you for what you have done for me and so many others. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

 Yours Sincerely, Joe Skinner

Can the Three Lions roar at the Euro’s?

Gareth Southgate has come under scrutiny since his decision to call up the inexperienced Ben White who has just one cap to his name as a replacement for the injured Trent-Alexander-Arnold.

Many people felt that Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse was more deserving of a spot in the final 26-man squad for the European Championships especially after his performance at the Riverside Stadium against Romania on Sunday.

The central midfielder was one of the brighter sparks for England as they failed to score from open play against a side who sit 37th in the World Rankings.

Even with the injury to Alexander-Arnold Southgate still has three right-backs at his disposal which is why White’s inclusion led to some raised eyebrows but I agree with his choice.

With uncertainty surrounding the fitness of Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson, White offers Southgate the luxury of being able to play in both of their positions should neither player be fit enough to start the tournament.

White may only end up playing a bit-part role but what an experience for the 23-year-old to be part of a vibrant squad seeking to win a major competition for the first time in 55 years.

Patrick Elmont- Uefa /gettyimages

By picking the Brighton defender Southgate may be looking ahead to the World Cup in 17 months’ time and the Euros present a perfect opportunity to allow young players like him and Jude Bellingham to gain a feel of what tournament football is like.

Croatia is a tough opening assignment for the Three Lions who will have painful memories of their last meeting in a major tournament.

Mario Mandzukic broke English hearts with his extra-time winner in the World Cup Semi-final in 2018.

That defeat often leads some fans to question whether England are actually a good side arguing that as soon as we come up against decent opponents we come unstuck.

I disagree with this given the fact that in the 3 years since that loss we have exacted revenge on Zlatko Dalic’s men in the Nation’s League group stage as well as claiming victories against Belgium and Spain.

What appeals to me about this England side though is its identity. Gareth has managed to unite the players, supporters, and media so that we are no longer as pessimistic about the national team as we once were.

For many years I was the most pessimistic England fan you could meet and harboured resentment towards them due to their lack of direction and affinity with the fans.

So much so I made an ill-advised Facebook post saying “Come on Scotland” when the two teams met at Hampden Park in 2017.

I got some stick for that but believe it or not, that post was my way of showing how much I yearned for a side to be patriotic about.

Throughout my life I have heard stories about Euro 96 and Stuart Pearce’s war cry, Italia 90 and Gazza’s tears, and not forgetting the boys of 66 the greatest England side of them all.

Mark Leech/gettyimages

I envied those who got to experience that and I wanted the same for the younger generation of England fans.

Those tournaments took place in times of prosperity and optimism in the form of ‘The Swinging Sixties, the Acid House era of the late ’80s and early '90’s and the Britpop scene from 1993-1997.

Daily Mail

That is not a coincidence. Football has the power to unite a nation and that is what Gareth and his squad did in Russia.

During a time when the country was at odds over Brexit, the likes of Kieran Trippier and Eric Dier allowed us to forget about how divided we all were as we dared to dream of World Cup glory once more.

The moment that swung it for me was when Southgate walked over to the England fans and screamed “Come on!” at the top of his lungs following the win against Columbia on penalties in the Quarter-final.

Robbie Jay Barratt-AMA/gettyimages

22 years of pent-up emotion poured out of him as he let go of the guilt he felt for missing a decisive penalty at Euro 96 versus the Germans.

The question is can England recreate scenes like that this summer by lifting the trophy at Wembley? Do you still believe?

What Chris Wood brings to Burnley

 

Chris Wood hit the headlines yesterday after he became the first player to score a first-half hat-trick since Michael Owen did it for Liverpool against Newcastle in 1998.  

That hat-trick also meant he has hit 10 or more league goals for the fourth successive campaign. This achievement holds more significance considering his slow start to the season where he had only scored four league goals before March.

Since then he has got on the scoresheet six times in the last six games. As well as providing a goal threat he also has other qualities that he brings to the team, let’s go deeper into these qualities:

 

Unselfish play

Strikers can often be selfish in the way they play and become hell-bent on scoring goals which is all well and good but a Sean Dyche side focuses on a collective effort rather than the performance of one individual. 

Wood fits into this dynamic well and that can be shown with the fact that he has registered two assists in his last three games. One of those assists came in yesterday’s game and was a perfect example of his unselfishness.

 Jay Rodriguez gave him the ball in the box and having already scored three times he would have been forgiven if he had tried to add to his tally. Instead, he laid the ball off to Ashley Westwood who rifled the ball into the top corner. 

His assist in the previous home game against Newcastle took more work. You don’t expect strikers to be putting crosses in but this is what Wood did as he picked out Matej Vydra with a low-driven cross and the number 27 finished off his teammate's good work.

Predatory instinct 

Like all great strikers Wood has the ability to be in the right place at the right time. This was evident in his second goal at Molineux when after seeing Dwight Mcneil dispossess Nélson Semedo in the penalty area he raced across the box to pounce on the ball and tap it home.

 

Marc Atkins /gettyimages

In the Arsenal game last month Wood scored a goal similar to the one he scored for Leicester against Watford in 2013 except this time it didn’t hit him square in the face. 

Along with his strike partner Vydra, Wood set out to press the Arsenal defence in the box and this forced Granit Xhaka to make a rash pass intended for David Luiz. Unfortunately for Xhaka it hit Wood and bounced off his thigh into the net. They all count.

 

Ball control

Burnley fans have been critical of Wood’s ability on the ball in the past but it looks to be an area he is developing in. 

His first goal against Wolves was a superb finish where he held the ball up, knocked it through the legs of Conor Coady and smashed it into the opposite corner. 

He is no stranger to this type of goal, in the final game of last season against Brighton he exquisitely controlled Erik Pieters ball over the top and slotted it past Robert Sanchez for his 14th league goal of that campaign. 

With five games to go that figure is well within reach this time around and if he keeps on firing at the rate that he is, that can only bode well for the Clarets. 

Funny Tweets from the world of sport

 Although Twitter can be a toxic place at times it can also provide us with moments of great humour especially in the sporting world. I have picked out four tweets which I found amusing below:

Dulux and Totteneham Hotspur

When a football club forms a new partnership with a company it is customary to expect them to start singing each other’s praises on social media with cliche tweets like “We can’t wait to start working with you”.

What you don’t expect is for them to start laying into their new partners within minutes.

This is exactly what happened moments after Spurs announced that Dulux had become their official paint supplier.

In reply to one user’s tweet about the London club’s lack of trophies the Dulux Twitter admin posted a picture of an empty trophy cabinet that had the club crest on with the caption” For sale unused trophy cabinet: Telephone 03444995000”. 

They would later go on to suggest that the Dulux dog could do a better job at the back than the current crop of defenders at the club in response to another tweet. 

You do have to wonder whether the person behind the tweets was an Arsenal or West Ham fan, fair play to them for having the bottle to do it but I expect they will be receiving their P45 in the post.

Amir Khan Anthony Joshua

Khan may be six weight classes below the World Heavyweight Champion but that didn’t stop him from calling out Joshua on Twitter, just not in the way you might think.

Whilst out in Dubai Khan announced that he had split from his wife Faryal Makhdoom accusing her and Joshua of having an affair.

The funny part about this Twitter spat is that AJ cheekily responded with a video clip of the song It Wasn’t Me by American artist Shaggy. 1-0 to the Champ.

MRWGifs

Jarrod Bowen

As a teenager out shopping with his dad Bowen probably thought nothing of his tweet which let the internet know he was “Milf Hunting”.

But as we have come to find out with social media, once you click the post button it is out there forever and these kinds of tweets have a tendency to come back and bite footballers years later.

One thing I will say is that I admire his ambition for thinking he could get a bit of action in the middle of B&Q.

Gary Lineakar’s pants

When the Match of the Day host told the web that he would present the first show of the following season in his pants if his beloved Leicester City won the league he probably didn’t think it would come true.

That’s exactly what happened though as the Foxes pulled off the unthinkable to lift the 2015/16 Premier League trophy as a 5000/1 outsider.

Linekar’s Leicester shorts were on show to the nation as he analysed the reigning champion's performance against newly promoted Hull City. Let’s just hope he wasn’t too cold...

Do you have any particular tweets from the sporting world that have amused you over the years? Let me know in the comments!

When Athletes change sports

Jeff Kravitz gettyimages

After MMA fighter Ben Askren’s humiliating defeat to Youtuber Jake Paul in the boxing ring on Sunday I’ve decided to take a look at athletes who have tried their hand at more than one sport during their careers. 

Rafael Van De Vaart

Van De Vaart is a product of Ajax’s illustrious youth academy and has played for the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid.

Arguably the greatest achievement of his career was helping the Netherlands reach the World Cup final in 2010. Since hanging up his boots in 2018 VDV has swapped his studs for the arrows and become a professional darts player.

The 38-year-old took to the oche under the jurisdiction of the British Darts Organisation at the Denmark open in 2019. Things got off to a flyer for him as he defeated Thomas Anderson 4-2 in the first round of the tournament but he bowed out against Mogens Christensen in the second round.

It is unlikely that he will be able to perform at the same level as his Dutch compatriots Michael Van Gerwen and Raymond Van Barneveld but it would be some story if he did!

Curtis Woodhouse

Growing up Woodhouse had two loves football and boxing. He would go on to have a career in both sports firstly as a footballer captaining Sheffield United at the age of 19, before eventually becoming a pro boxer in 2006. 

The defining moment in his career came when he won the prestigious British Title at Light-Welterweight in a split decision victory over Darren Hamilton in 2014. In an interview with IFLTV after the bout “The Troll Hunter'' described it as his “destiny” to win the Lonsdale belt.

Petr Cech

Cech stands at 6”5 and holds the record for the most clean sheets in the Premier League with 202. After retiring from football in 2019 he returned to Chelsea to assume the role of technical and performance advisor.

Alongside his new role, he ventured onto the ice rink to play for semi-professional hockey team Guildford Phoenix on a part-time basis.

The small-sized goals proved to be a perfect fit for him and he put in a man-of-the-match display on his debut which included two penalty saves in a penalty shoot-out win.

Usain Bolt

Central Coast Mariners must have thought they’d hit the commercial jackpot when they took the Olympic sprinter on trial, especially after he scored two goals vs Macarthur South West United in a pre-season friendly.

“Lightning Bolt” looked to be fulfilling a childhood dream and Mariners wanted to extend his stay but both parties were unable to agree on a deal.

Perhaps this was for the best as fellow A-League player Andy Keogh didn’t speak very highly of his footballing ability stating that “He had a touch like a trampoline,” not exactly a glowing report is it. 

The future's bright for Benn

History tells us that when former world champion’s offspring step through the ropes they struggle to escape their fathers shadow. 

 

You only have to look at Chris Eubank Jr and Julio Caesar Chaves Jr as prime examples of fighters that have carried the burden of living up to the family name.

 

I mean Chavez Jr’s nickname is “El Hijo de la Leyenda” ("The Son of the Legend'') which is exactly what he is and that must be a huge amount of pressure to cope with. 

 

But in Conor Benn, we have a man that is taking to that pressure like he does to fighting, with ease.

 

His father Nigel is regarded by the WBC as the best Super Middleweight of all time alongside Joe Calzaghe.  

 

The “Dark Destroyer'' enjoyed a coveted career which saw him win the WBC world title as well as the WBO and Commonwealth belts but he is most synonymous for his bitter rivalry with Chris Eubank Snr. 

 

Eubank Snr who is a divisive character in the sport has taken a hands-on role throughout his son’s career which has been to his detriment on certain occasions.

 

He may be known as “Simply the Best” but he is also known to be notoriously difficult when negotiating fights and has perhaps been guilty of letting his ego get in the way of what actually matters, his boy’s success. 

 

Granted Jr has won a version of the world title in the IBO belt but you almost feel that if Eubank let him get on with it then he may have achieved more by now.

 

Benn Snr on the other hand has opted to take a back seat lending an ear when Conor needs him and that decision looks to be paying off.

 

At just 24, the welterweight contender is well on his way to becoming the UK’s next pay per view star after his emphatic victory over Samuel Vargas on Saturday night. 

 

Vargas is no mug; he is a seasoned pro who has been in with the likes of Errol Spence Jr, Danny Garcia, Vergil Ortiz Jr and Amir Khan. We will come back to him later.

 

Benn got rid of Vargas quicker than any of those men could, teeing off on his opponent at will  before referee Michael Alexander stepped in and waved off the contest within 82 seconds of the opening bell. 

 

Everlast

The Colombian bemoaned the timing of the stoppage in his post-fight interview with Sky Sports but in stopping the fight Alexander actually prevented him from getting badly hurt. 

 

Talk quickly turned to his next bout and in a  division littered with talent, there are a host of names “The Destroyer” to choose from. 

 

It was however “King Khan” that the Essex fighter demanded his promoter Eddie Hearn put him in with next. 

 

Khan hasn’t fought since his win over Billy Dib in July 2019 and has recently expressed a desire to revisit his long standing feud with fellow Brit Kell Brook.

 

The pair have gone back and forth for over a decade without ever meeting in the ring and the British fight fans have grown tired of the talk that has yielded little action.

 

A fight with Benn is much more appealing but would the Bolton man be willing to risk his legacy without a major title on the line? It appears not. 

 

The former WBA and IBF Light-Welterweight champion took to Twitter yesterday to congratulate Benn on his win. However, he played down any hopes of a future fight between them stating that “Maybe if he had some belts that fight would make sense but he’s got a long way to go yet.” 

 

If Benn isn’t able to land the Khan fight, challenging David Avanesyan for the European title is a viable option.

 

Avanesyan, who is managed by Neil Marsh retained his European belt by dropping Olympic Bronze medalist Josh Kelly twice in the 6th round of their fight in February at which point trainer Adam Booth threw in the towel.

 

Kelly and Benn had looked destined to collide at some point in the near future until Avanesyan squashed those plans. A further statement of intent could be made by Benn if he was able to do what Kelly couldn’t and take the Russian’s belt from him.

 

Outside of the ring, Benn has an endearing nature about him just like his dad. When addressing the camera it is clear that he has an unwavering desire to create his own legacy in boxing.

 

This may be down to the fact that he is no longer just fighting for himself having become a dad to son Eli in January whose name is emblazoned on his shorts.               

 

Once he had finished calling out Khan he also told reporter Andy Clarke “I want to be retired by the time I’m 30 with a few M’s in my bank account”, and who could blame him.

 

Boxing is an unforgiving sport but if you get it right it is one hell of a rollercoaster and I for one will be enjoying the ride that Benn takes us on.