Well another year is over and we’ve welcomed 2010 in our own unique ways, and as the old saying goes ‘hasn’t it flown by?’

Well it certainly has flown by with some fantastic sports viewing to help along the way.

I thought I would take this opportunity to give you the pleasure of my sporting highs and sporting lows. Once you’ve had a read why not add yours to the comments section?

I shall begin with my 2009 sporting highs.

‘THE BARCA TREBLE’

It was the most amazing year for the Catalan club. The facts read, entered six tournaments, won six tournaments. They were a joy to watch and every aspect of their success was fully deserved.

The moments that stand out for me from their fantastic year are both unrelated to football.

Firstly, Lionel Messi celebrating being part of the first Spanish team to do the treble and getting slightly drunk.

Have a look at the video of it below.

The other of my favourite highlights, shows Barca coach, Pep Guardiola crying after the achievement of winning the sixth and final trophy had obviously finally hit home.

A moving moment and please take the time to see that the beautiful game still matter to many in the game as well as those outside the game.

‘THE TALENT DELIVERS’

It was a great year for British talent finally delivering at the highest level. The talents which I was extremely pleased to see deliver at the highest level, includes;

Tom Daley (World Diving Champion), Graeme Swann (2nd leading wicket taker in 2009), Jenson Button (Formula One World Champion) and Bradley Wiggins (4th in Tour de France)

But ultimately the greatest talent to have set the World alight has to be, Jessica Ennis (pictured below), who performed fantastically at the World Athletic Championships in Berlin back in August.

Winning the Hepthalon gold medal in the process was a fantastic achievement for the Sheffield born athlete.

Well done to all these talents, keep winning and keep entertaining in 2010.

‘MY CRICKETING DELIGHTS’

As many of you will already know, I am a huge cricket fan, I love the sport and I enjoyed 2009 more than any other year in cricket and that despite Yorkshire’s rivals, Durham winning the County Championship.

I had the fantastic opportunity to interview two cricketing greats, in Phil Tufnell and Jason Gillespie (both pictured below) at a Betfair challenge in Leeds. Just thought I would add that I have lost two stone in weight since this picture was taken!!

This was nicely sandwiched in between visits to two days play in the 2009 Ashes series.

The first was a wash-out at Edgbaston, but the second was a fantastic summers day at Headingley (pictured below), despite Australia out playing England on that day and in that test, it was a delight to watch The Ashes live.

Sadly with sport there always has to be lows and last year was no different to any other. Below are several of my sporting low points from 2009.

‘SIR BOBBY DIES’

It was always a going to be a case of when and not if with regard to the passing of a true footballing great and more importantly a true gentleman.

Sadly, Sir Bobby lost his long-suffering battle against Cancer in late July and he was a fantastic man who battled to the bitter end.

To have raised so much money for research and treatment into the horrific disease in his final months as well as his foundation raising sufficient funds to open a research centre at The Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, says more about the man than any footballing moments.

Thanks for the many memories, Sir Bobby, rest in peace.

‘BORO RELEGATED’

I couldn’t write this highs and lows blog without mentioning my teams demise.

Middlesbrough had a horrendous 2009, which had relegation thrown into the middle of the year. We sadly went down without putting up a fight and have ended the year as a mid-table Championship club whilst averaging under 20,000 in stadium attendances.

2010 has to be a better year for the club though as I write we are losing in the F.A. Cup to Manchester City, so may not!!

Fingers are firmly crossed.

‘GIANTS DENIED’

My final low has to be the Huddersfield Giants losing in the Rugby League Challenge Cup final to the Warrington Wolves (pictured below), at Wembley back in late August.

I had the pleasure of going to University in Huddersfield and think it is a lovely town with very nice people and a fantastic Rugby League club.

After over 50 years since the club last won a major trophy it would have been well deserved had they won the Challenge Cup.

Hopefully 2010 will be their year as they truly deserve it.

Well those are my sporting highs and lows of 2009, what were yours? Let me know.

Finally I want to end with some sporting wishes for the twelve months ahead in 2010.

1. England to win the  football World Cup in South Africa
2. Middlesbrough to be promoted to the Premier League
3. Barcelona to retain all six trophies
4. My bet to finally win the Grand National
5. Huddersfield Giants to win the Challenge Cup
6. Europe to regain the Ryder Cup in Wales in October
7. Bradley Wiggins to win the Tour de France
8. England to retain the ashes in Australia (also a 2011 wish)
9. Great Britain to be successful at the winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada
10. Andy Murray to win a tennis major, preferably Wimbledon

Do you have any sporting wishes for the year ahead?

Let me know them and I hope they all come true, well, most of them.

Thanks for reading as usual.

Cheers.

Gaffers

When Nadir Belhadj sweetly struck a thunderous volley to open the scoring for Portsmouth against Liverpool at the start of the Christmas football programme it was the 500th in the Premier League this season.

This resulted in the 2009/10 season, beating the 1994/95 season for the record of the fewest games in the Premier League to achieve the feat of hitting this target in the fewest games.

For the statistic nerds amongst you, it was 17 games quicker than the previous record, or almost two weeks of fixtures.

This averages out to almost three goals per game, which begs the question; Where have all the good defenders gone?

Many say the Premier League is the best league in the world, I slightly disagree with this statement and feel it should be rephrased to; the most entertaining league in the world.

When you look through the defensive options available to all teams in the top flight of English football there aren’t many outstanding defenders, very few outstanding goalkeepers and a void of world-class defensive midfielders.

As it stands, Fulham and Birmingham City are currently amongst the tightest defences in the Premier League. The reasons for this, settled, uncompromising defences with players who are picked to simply defend.

Many teams tend to opt for defenders who can play football rather than select a Roger Johnson or a Brede Hangeland, who are selected to defend and defending properly is what they have prided themselves on.

Another concern in the ’defenders union’ will be the worrying form of so-called top performers of the past few years.

Rio Ferdinand with many an injury concern, has obviously lost his ‘mo-jo’ as has John Terry and this leads to worrying times ahead of the upcoming World Cup this summer, especially for England fans.

It is often said that the Premier League is blessed with the best in the business, but seriously do we have the best defenders, goalkeepers and defensive midfielders in the World?

I think not.

It is worrying that Manchester City were prepared to pay over £20 million for an average defender in Joleon Lescott. This to me shows a drastic void of top quality defenders in World football let alone the English game.

The game desperately needs to find some old-fashioned defenders in the mould of Franco Baresi, Tony Adams and Paolo Maldini or risk becoming a goal fest and not a balanced game of defence versus attack.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not wanting every fixture to be 0-0 but a more balanced, even contest, in which, it would be difficult to score against opposing teams isn’t too much to ask? Is it?

Cheers for listening to another of my rants.

All the best for 2010, I hope you have a successful and happy year.

Gaffers

Yesterday morning the news broke that Brian Laws (pictured below) had become the 20th managerial casualty the top four divisions of the English game, so far this season.

It’s only December, for crying out loud.

His now former employer, Sheffield Wednesday, released a statement siting the club needed ‘fresh energy’ and ‘motivation’ for a club, which, on Saturday lost 3-0 at Leicester City.

Taking a win less streak back almost two month and included 12 matches in the process. This coincided with, Plymouth Argyle changing manager last week when Paul Sturrock was relieved of his duties, after 100 games in charge in his second stint in charge.

This begs the question; Will the next managerial incumbent actually fair better at these clubs and the other 18 who have changed before them.

As the old saying goes only time will tell!

When looking at some of the clubs who have decided a change was needed, several are not really fairing much better.

Namely, Tranmere Rovers, who currently have club physio, Les Parry in charge, after the dismissal of England legend, John Barnes after a mere 14 games in charge. Another example is, Darlington, who sacked, Colin Todd after only 11 games in charge.

Idiotic to say the least, especially considering his replacement, former Irish international, Steve Staunton has driven the club to a new low, with 8 defeats in the past 9 fixtures.

As an avid follower of Middlesbrough football club, the club recently following masses of fan pressure removed Gareth Southgate from his role as manager and replaced him with the colourful character, Gordon Strachan.

The teams fortunes have gone from bad to worse to almost worrying woeful, is this Strachan’s fault, the players fault, Southgate’s fault. Who knows? But it proves that maybe the managerial change hasn’t been affective – yet!

I recently wrote a blog entitled When Is The Right Time To Change? in which I stated that there is not always a correct time to change and sometimes changes are negative.

Sadly, we live in a world were instant success is what the blood hungry fans, board members and newspapers demand from teams or all three quickly clamber against the manager and his players.

It’s scary and worrying for the current crop of managers trying to play their trade in football management. None more so than the English Premier League which, is an ever evolving product, built on money and the success it brings.

Portsmouth recently sacked Paul Hart (pictured below) afer in my opinion he was doing a fine job, his replacement, Avram Grant, had a couple of disastrous games to begin with and then a couple of very good results, namely a win and a draw is his last two matches.

Is this due to Grant? Probably not. It is the same players, the same system and the same tactics as used under Hart. It was wrong to sack Hart, in my opinion but that is the demands put on the chairman and chief executives of football clubs.

Actions speak louder than words!!!

Instant success is never long-lasting and Manchester United are proof that sticking with a manager four years in to his reign after a run of poor results. This manager has since built an empire, a global brand and several of the worlds best players since.

For those who don’t know who I am talking about, it is, of course, Sir Alex Ferguson.

Stress is obviously the greatest issue that a modern football manager has to deal with but the current heads set for the chopping board have to deal with this, it is part of the jobs demands.

The questions remains; How many more will lose their jobs before the season ends? The answer is probably several of them; Phil Brown (Hull City), Gary Megson (Bolton Wanderers) and Roy Keane (Ipswich Town), to name but three under immense pressure as I write.

This is a difficult time of year for all, especially with the modern climate we live in and football in some respects is an uglier version of ‘dog eat dog’, but the games are coming thick and fast.

Time is definitely running out for some of the managers in the game today, but I will leave you with a couple of thoughts; would you seriously want someone to lose their job, no matter what the occupation is? It seems this is allowed in football.

The other thought is; in the Italian top division (Serie A), there have been 15 managerial changes since the end of last season and now (December 14th), in a league which contains only 20 teams. Astonishing!!

Whose your money on to be sacked next? I think it maybe Gary Megson as the Bolton faithful have never taken to him and their current plight is precarious.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers.

Gaffers

P.s. A huge well done to Ryan Giggs on winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year last night at the awards ceremony in Sheffield.

Check out my recent blog on Giggs entitled, Is Giggs The Greatest? a must read, even if I do say so myself.

With Manchester City winning at home to Chelsea, two points now separate the main contenders for fourth position in the English Premier League.

With this in mind, from those four, who do you think will take the lucrative final position for an English team in next season’s Champions League:

As the anticipation began to take over and the continued coverage on Sky Sports News with the yellow ticker working over time to advertise the up-coming draw I had only one thought.

GET IT OVER WITH.

Not for any other reason than the hype had begun to become annoying and this needed to be replaced by the excitement of the actual tournament beginning next June (though 188 days still remain until the tournament begins).

The seedings had been decided appropriately (October’s rankings instead of November due to the play-offs) and without offering any more major controversy for FIFA in the build-up to this tournament.

Speaking of controversy, FIFA had rightly denied the Irish FA a chance to become the 33rd team in the tournament, this allowed FIFA to remove itself from any possible appeals from other nations, namely Costa Rica.

Finally the thought of Sepp Blatter declaring the World Cup coming to Africa as a ‘love story’ was more than I could take and left me feeling queasy!

Now I hear you say, who drew who!

Below are the group draws for your perusal, what do you think of the draw? 

GROUP A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France

GROUP B: Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece

GROUP C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia

GROUP D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana

GROUP E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon

GROUP F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia

GROUP G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal

GROUP H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile

My thoughts are as follows;

After the usual pomp of a draw or presentation for all the world to see, the draw in my opinion brought together a reasonable draw for England.

It isn’t easy against any side at this stage of a major tournament but avoiding nations like France, Portugal, Ivory Coast, South Korea and Cameroon will be pleasing to Fabio Capello and his team.

The draw itself threw up some interesting groups with Group G and Group D taking the tag of so-called ‘group of death’ with England if successful enough to progress facing the winner or runner-up from Group D.

Now that the draw is clarified we can now all look forward to the tournament commencing next June with the opening game between South Africa and Mexico taking centre stage.

England begin the following day against arguably their toughest opponents, USA, win this and qualification should be an easy achievement.

Stand out games from the group stages will include;

• Brazil v Portugal
• Germany v Australia
• Spain v Chile
• Netherlands v Denmark

But with it being the World Cup all games will be a pleasure to watch and if you are as big a football fan as I am then you will be watching as many of the matches as possible,

Also for your perusal, why not familiarise yourself with the country of South Africa, the geographic placing of the cities in use for the tournament and the stadia within those said cities from the map below.

Thanks very much for reading and I hope you are looking forward to the tournament as much as I am.

Cheers.

Gaffers

When the BBC announced the nominations for 2009 SPOTY (Sports Personality Of The Year) Award, I felt there was one stand out candidate who would easily be getting my vote.

Amongst the nominations were ten fantastic sports men and women compiling arguably the greatest list since the competition began in 1954 (Chris Chataway, first recipient of the award).

The 2009 nominations includes; Jenson Button, Winner of the Formula One World Championship, Tom Daley, World 10m platform Diving Champion and Jessica Ennis, World Hepthalon Champion, to name but three.

The competition is fierce.

My vote will be going to Andrew Strauss (pictured below), and this blog will present my case to defend my vote.

The year for English cricket began with uncertainty following the fall-out between then captain, Kevin Pietersen and then coach, Peter Moores, both men resigned and Strauss stepped into the breach.

In the following period of uncertainty, Strauss remained strong and with the temporary appointment (later to be confirmed) of coach, Andy Flower then settled the side down, played the media well and focused on the tour of the West Indies.

The tour understandable wasn’t victorious though Strauss performed exceptionally well with the bat in a 2-0 series defeat, a series England really should have won.

Strauss returned with an improved reputation and the confirmed appointment of Flower allowed this newly formed team to focus on the coming home series versus West Indies and Australia.

The series against the West Indies proved an easy test and allowed confidence in Strauss’ captaincy to be developed and for the coaching team to work with a settled and united England squad.

The fruits of this were fully shown in the Ashes series last summer when Strauss (pictured above) grew into his captaincy role with considerable ease. The team performed well and won the key moments in the series.

Strauss was arguably the only Englishman not to be outplayed by their Australian counterparts. He ended the series as leading run scorer (474 runs), man of the series and most importantly he became only the second English cricket captain to win the ashes in twenty years.

Strauss and Flower did not allow this to unsettle the England team and despite a poor display in the one-day series against the Australians (6-1 defeat), they led England to the Champions Trophy in South Africa with renewed confidence.

Strauss (pictured below) captained the England team to the semi-finals of the tournament, despite many critics and pundits expecting an early exit.

The tournament included victories over Sri Lanka and South Africa. It also showed belief in the selection policy of the two; Eoin Morgan the prime example of this.

A semi-final defeat again at the hands of Australia showed the team was far from the finished article, but a team definitely on the up in world cricket.

The team are currently embarking on the eagerly anticipated tour of South Africa, check out my blog called Dawn of a New Era (click on link) for more information and the tour itinerary.

The final one-day international commences this friday and as I write, England lead the series 2-1 with the fixture on friday being the final one-day international before the four test match series begins.

Strauss is a true gentleman and has proven to be a leader of men in the cricketing world, hence his nicknames including ‘Lord Brocket’ and ‘The General’.

He is an intelligent, well-read man who should be seen as an ideal role-model to any budding young sportsman or woman.

But this shouldn’t be seen as him been a push over, just ask Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith when they have faced him lately. He is a gritty and determined individual and I fully believe he, along with Flower will bring success to the England cricket team.

Thanks for a vastly improved year Andrew and keep up the fantastic start you have made in your new role.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers.

Gaffers

P.s. Good luck to all the other candidates and this truly goes to show that all is well in British sport at this moment in time!

Sunday saw the biggest European club match take place at the Camp Nou, Barcelona and as I had done a preview of the game, I felt it only right to do a review of the game.

This season it had been billed as Madrid’s millions versus Barcelona’s cantera (youth academy), with no fewer than seven of Barcelona’s starting XI coming through the ranks.

It was an extremely tight game with only 6 shots in the whole of the game recorded to have hit the target. The first half offered limited opportunities though Madrid feel they could have scored in the first half a fact acknowledged by coach Manuel Pellegrini, who stated

“We at least deserved a draw because, if I am not mistaken, we had a lot of shots on their goal in the first half.”

This was proving to be a game in which you had to take one of your chances with a tight score-line the probable outcome. It was proving to be a game full of passion, aggression and had a very stop-start feel to it.

After the break, Barcelona took the impetus to Madrid and the introduction of Zlatan Ibrahimovic (pictured above) from the substitutes bench, replacing Thierry Henry after 50 minutes, proved pivotal.

Within five minutes a delightful ball from the Brazilian, Dani Alves, found Ibrahimovic unmarked at the back post and he finished with a beautiful left-foot volley passed a stranded Iker Cassillas in the Madrid goal.

The game turned in Madrid’s favour just after the hour mark when Sergio Busquets was sent off for a second book-able offense and Madrid took the game to Barcelona, whilst striving for an elusive equalizer.

Madrid peppered the Barcelona goal from this point forward and were simply denied on several occasions, namely an outstanding performance from the Barcelona captain, Carlos Puyol (pictured above left). He was simply immense throughout and personified the passion of ‘El Clasico’.

This was much to the delight of a packed Camp Nou (98,000 to be precise) who also took this opportunity to jeer Cristiano Ronaldo with his every touch.

He must have felt like he was back in England!!

In the final minutes Lassana Diarra was sent off for Madrid for a second book-able offense and this took the pressure off Barcelona. Watching the final twenty-five minutes or so, I honestly felt Madrid would equalise and it would have only been what they deserved from the game.

At the final whistle, Barcelona had recorded their third straight win in ‘El Clasico’ and with this returned to the top of La Liga (Spanish first division) and continued to have the bragging rights over their bitter rivals.

If you have time, and maybe missed the game check out the highlights from the game, through the video footage below.

I want to leave you with two of my opinions;

• Firstly, the people in the footballing world who think Ibrahimovic is over-rated, you really need to watch him play more, he is a fantastically gifted and hard-working footballer and as Barcelona boss, Pep Guardiola said:

“Ibrahimovic changed the game. This was a very good test for us. It’s always difficult against Madrid.”

• Secondly this match was only available through Sky Sports interactive button for the first half, which I find an absolute disgrace and disrespectful to such a fixture. How is Andy Gray’s final word more important than the biggest game in European club football. It sums Sky Sports up for me.

Thanks for reading and I’ll be in touch soon.

Cheers.

Gaffers

P.s. Roll on Sunday 11th April for the return fixture at the Santiago Bernabeu. This could be the fixture that decides the La Liga title race.

This sunday see’s the 155th meeting between Barcelona and Real Madrid in the fixture simply known in Spanish as El Clasico (The Classic).

This is seen as arguably the biggest game in European club football as two of the games power houses do battle.

At 6pm GMT this Sunday at the Camp Nou, Barcelona, the two teams will take the field to continue a grudge match which began in 1929, incidentally the game was won by Real Madrid, 2-1.

This is more than a clash of two footballing giants, it is a clash of cities, cultures and almost two differing countries. Madrid is the Spanish capital city and houses the Spanish Royal family whereas Barcelona is deemed the more cultural and fashionable city of the two.

Barcelona also has its own identity as the capital city of Catalonia (one of 17 communities in Spain) and is also governed partly by its own law, politics and security alongside Spanish constitution.

Hence it can be perfectly described as:

 “Two languages, two peoples… two countries?”

As written by Andy Mitten, the author of  Mad For It: From Blackpool to Barcelona, Football’s Greatest Rivalries. This sums up the differing cultures perfectly.

This rivalry has developed over the years but back in the era of gentleman playing the beautiful game the clubs rivalry was set in stone for eternity.

The great Alfredo Di Stefano in 1953 was at the centre of a tug of war between the two clubs with both alleged to have signed the then Argentine. This dispute took the intervention of one Francisco Franco (then Spanish Head of State) to solve the dispute.

Franco’s authoritarian dictatorship sided with Real Madrid and Di Stefan went on to become one of the all-time greats of the game. Many believe this alleged intervention from Franco simply added fuel to the burning fire between the two clubs and the rest they say is history.

Over recent times both clubs have attracted many star name players and with this many trophy successes have been enjoyed by the two clubs.

But last season saw the two clubs drift into differing circles, Madrid changed their manager twice and struggled to challenge in any of the competitions they entered. Compared to Barcelona who simply brushed aside all that came before them. 

Barcelona became the first Spanish club to win the treble (League title, Spanish Cup and Champions League) as well as winning the Spanish Super Cup and the European Super Cup.

Under the stewardship of Josep ‘Pep’ Guardiola they are a club transformed and the mid-week victory over Inter Milan puts Champions League qualification in their own hands. Real Madrid are top of the La Liga table as I write, leading Barcelona by one point.

But all is not well at the club, excessive spending in the summer coupled with inconsistent performances and an over reliance already on the form and goals from Cristiano Ronaldo have led to the Bernabeu faithful becoming restless.

How will they fare this weekend?

The betting shows Barcelona having the home advantage will pay at 10/11 whilst both the draw and a Real Madrid away win come in at approximately 3/1. Having a soft spot for Barcelona, i’m tipping a 2-1 home win, which is priced at 13/2.

Many aspects of the game will be fascinating to watch but the possible match-up between Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will be a fantastic encounter, should they both be fit enough to play the game due to recent injuries.

Messi won the battle in last seasons Champions League final and in my opinion is the best player in the world at the moment. Hopefully he will show this on Sunday.

Finally for the statto’s amongst you the head to head between the two teams reads as; Real Madrid 68 wins, Barcelona 60 wins and 30 draws so far.

If you have a moment, why not have a look at the highlights video (below) of the last meeting between the two sides back in May of this year. In this fixture Barcelona thumped Real Madrid 6-2. That should whet your appetite for this coming fixture.

Thanks for taking the time to read my latest blog.

Hope you enjoy El Clasico.

Cheers, Gaffers

P.s. Congratulations to the Scottish National Rugby Union team who beat the wallabies (Australia) National Rugby Union team last Saturday with a close winning score of 9-8.

Nice to see the northern hemisphere get one over on the southern hemisphere teams.

Football offers the opportunity for a youngster to dream of becoming a professional footballer and when youngsters see talent like those described below playing then the dream edges closer.

I wanted to tell the world about some of the talents making their way in the game and who in my opinion are destined for the top-level in the game.

Hope I’m right and remember who may have told you about them first. Me.

I have chosen five young stars in the game who I have watched recently and have the qualities to make the grade. Have a read about them and then watch them play and you will see for yourself.

Name: Alex Smithies (pictured above)

Age: 19

Club: Huddersfield Town

Position: Goalkeeper

Country: England Under 19 Cap

6 foot 3 inches  custodian who has already played 46 games for Huddersfield. Has a very commanding presence and shouts in a similar way to Peter Schmeichel. Has already attracted the attentions from the scouts of several Premier League clubs and last week he was linked with a £3 million move to Stoke City and Everton.

Has played at every level for England up to and including the current under 19 team. Alex has the potential to be England number one and with quality goalkeepers at a premium it will be difficult for Huddersfield manager Lee Clark to hold onto him should the offers come in.

Name: Nathan Porritt (pictured above)

Age: 19

Club: Middlesbrough

Position: Winger/Attacking Midfielder

Country: England Under 17 level

Famously known as one of the cases of poaching young players in the BBC Panorama’s documentary ‘Football’s Dirty Secrets’ when Chelsea were alleged to have tried to poach him from Middlesbrough.

An attacking midfielder with plenty of potential hasn’t made the Middlesbrough team yet but had a brief spell at League Two Darlington earlier this season. Now Middlesbrough are under new management in Gordon Strachan, this maybe the time for Nathan to kick on and prove his potential.

Name: Bradley Johnson (pictured above)

Age: 22

Club: Leeds United

Position: Winger

Country: England, no international experience

The oldest of my recommendations but every time I have seen Bradley play he has been impressive. Can operate on either wing or at full-back and weighs in with his fair share of goals.

Had several clubs prior to joining Leeds back in January 2008 but has settled well at the Yorkshire club. Whilst many of Leeds promising players are being scouted by several clubs, Bradley will definitely take the eye of one of them. His commitment, work ethic and hunger are qualities he offers in abundance.

Name: Adam Matthews (pictured above)

Age: 17

Club: Cardiff City

Position: Right Back

Country: Wales Senior Squad Member

Has burst onto the scene this season with several composed performances at right back for Cardiff this season. This has also seen Adam gain full international recognition though he was an unused substitute against Scotland recently.

Has made the right back position his own in a Cardiff team challenging for promotion to the Premier League and comes from a well-known academy which has recently produced Aaron Ramsey and Joe Ledley. Shame he isn’t English as this is another position we are running low on talent in. 

Name: Henri Lansbury (pictured above)

Age: 19

Club: Arsenal (on loan at Watford)

Position: Centre Midfield

Country: England Under 21 Cap

The most well-known of the five, Henri is currently excelling at Watford in the Championship. He has been instrumental in the middle of the park as Watford march up the table towards the play-off positions. He really is a joy to watch with excellent footballing skills and ability.

One of many products of the Arsenal academy system he may need to move on to make his name in the Premier League. Has all the assets needed to make it at the highest level and has gained England under 21 recognition in recent months.

Hopefully all five will make it at the highest level in the professional game and prove that I actually know what I am talking about.

Thanks for reading as usual.

Cheers.

Gaffers

P.s. Well done (again) to Sachin Tendulkar on scoring his 88th International hundred against Sri Lanka on Friday.

Remarkably it was his 43rd Test ton to go against his 45 in the one-day version of the game.

What odds on him playing on until he reaches 100 hundreds??