Sports and culture writing from overenthusiastic man-child Nicol Hay.
Why not get in touch via Twitter or by Email? That'd be lovely.
It’s become a truism to point out, but national team coaches can’t just buy a player if luck and genetics have decided that their country doesn’t have anyone of the required standard in that position at that time. While club managers have a certain leeway to bring in players to fit their preferred system, international managers have to spin gold out of whatever straw the random whims of gene-pools – and, in certain cases, the ramifications of monumental but seemingly-undroppable pricks acting like monumental pricks to family members of decent but apparently eminently-droppable players – deliver into their laps.
What’s interesting is how the coaches deal with that – and Euro 2012 is showing us a range of ways of coping with Harry Redknapp’s worst nightmare. Portugal have suffered from a lack of a truly international-class striker since Pauleta made one of his trademark darting runs into the sunset, and manager Paulo Bento initially decided to deal with this problem in the same way that his predecessors over the last six years have – by ignoring it…
You can read this article in full at The Football Ramble, an excellent website for an even excellenter podcast.
