Midweek Memoirs of Mr Bodell

Welcome back to my midweek memoirs - it`s been a few weeks since I wrote thanks to being interviewed for the Chelsea post! Don`t worry devout readers - I turned them down!

So, things to have slipped past my radar lately:

1. What did we learn from those two England friendlies? Despite seeing a few new faces [at last], especially Joe Hart, what did we learn from having our strongest available eleven fielded twice against two inferior sides? Nothing other than a couple of negatives - Wayne Rooney is scarcely international class, David Beckham is too old and we don`t have a natural, international level goalscorer. If we learnt this against low-level sides, imagine what we`d actually learn against top draw sides - less obvious things, like a style of play and a system that suits the players as well as giving the likes of Hart, Young, Wheater, Jagielka and Agbonlahor against a side of a high equivalent than Derby County.

I suppose the one positive is that Gareth Barry should be alongside Steven Gerrard for England [and possibly soon Liverpool].

2. Watford`s Board have no financial or business acumens. Slightly worrying when they`re meant to board members of a football club, one heck of a demanding business, but frankly the decision to let Nathan Ellington go out on loan with view to a free transfer beggars belief. As GloryHorns noted, '£3.25m-£0 in 8 months`! Don`t be fooled, we shouldn`t have paid that much in the first place, but to let him go on loan is crazy - get rid of him properly and reap the benefits of a transfer fee as apposed to 'a substantial loan fee`.

3. Derby County are building a new side, bloody quickly, Nathan Ellington, Kris Commons, Paul Green, Jordan Stewart and Paul Connolly have all signed for the Rams, where are our signings? No cash, fair enough, free transfers? Come on Aidy, the players are out there, not one of Derby`s signings required an actual fee afterall.

4. I`m undecided on the '6+5 Rule`. It sounds good in principle because afterall, we all moan that Arsenal have too many foreigners which are ruining our game and to blame for England`s failure - true, true, we`ve heard it all before, however, would you have Dom Blizzard or Cesc Fabregas centre mid for your side? Hmmm…point proven. Hence I`m undecided, perhaps we should hand out some more inequality - the Premier League like that [?] and just punish the top 6 with this rule to even out the playing field….

5. Two crazy sackings in close succession. Second best aint what Roman is used to, but come on, some painstakingly bad luck away from a League and European double - do me a favour and keep the faith [?!]. As for Sven, I think it has to be said that the City job is a poisoned chalice now Shinawatra is there pulling the strings - it seems poor Mark Hughes will now ruin his reputation there with a squad which is completely transfer listed and a dictating owner with no football knowledge. Shame.

Keep the faith!

Tom Bodell