Weekly Round-up (19/03/12)

This week, one headline rocked the sporting world: the sad news that Bolton's Fabrice Muamba suffered a heart attack during the FA Cup quarter-final with Tottenham Hotspur. As the time of writing, Muamba is still in a fight for his life and is still being treated in intensive care. Like everyone involved with football, I wish him a full recovery and hope that one day, we may see him playing again. It's fair to say Muamba has talent, having represented England at every youth level and is the joint second most capped under-21 player for England of all time. Whilst it would have been unlikely that the midfielder would have made it to Euro 2012, it would not have been beyond the realms of possibility for him to have been pulling on a Great Britain shirt during the Olympics. However, in times like this, football becomes irrelevant and we can only pray that Muamba pulls through.

Elsewhere in sport, the Six Nations came to its conclusion. Congratulations to Wales for securing their third Grand Slam in seven years, a truly wonderful achievement. Of course, this only leads to people shouting even louder for Warren Gatland to be named Lions coach next year. I for one, however, am completely against this motion for the simple reason that Gatland has a strong dislike for the Irish. I may be slightly biased being of Irish heritage, but how can you let someone manage a side likely to be made up of some of the people he despises? It will not generate good team spirit, which could lead to poor performances and an embarrassment of a tour. In my opinion, I believe the task of leading the Lions should once again fall to Ian McGeechan. He just somehow seems to make the Lions click and perform at their best. Just look at 2009, even though there was a series defeat, faith was restored in the touring side after the debacle that was 2005.
At the other end of the Six Nations, Scotland finished with the wooden spoon after failing to win a single game. This is a huge worry to the Scots, and I would be all for sacking Andy Robinson. What has he done that Frank Hadden had not? I believe that, if anything, Scotland have gone backwards under Robinson. They have talent in Richie Gray, Dave Denton and Stuart Hogg, so it is not a lack of quality. If England stick with Lancaster, which they should given how well he has got England to perform, then Scotland should quickly swoop for Nick Mallet or John Kirwan. Both have previous in getting a team full of potential to where they need to be, and that is exactly the type of manager Scotland currently needs.

Furthermore, both France and Ireland suffered worrying campaigns. In the five matches, they both only beat the bottom two teams. For both nations, this is simply not good enough. We are talking about teams here who both believe they were going for the title this year. Ireland came into the tournament off the back of a World Cup where they beat Australia, and France from a World Cup final that they perhaps could have won. And yet for both sides to struggle as they did means there are lots of questions to be answered.

And finally, this weekend saw the return of Formula 1 - oh how I've missed it. I was absolutely delighted for Jenson Button to win the first race and I hope he carries his form into the rest of the season. Credit to Sebastian Vettel, who steered his Red Bull to second place despite starting sixth on the grid. However, my driver of the race would have to be Kimi Raikkonen. Having started in 17th, the Finn eventually finished seventh on his return to Formula 1. It just proves that for world champions, Formula 1 is like riding a bike - you never forget how to race well. I bet all the way through the race, there was a beaming smile underneath Raikkonen's helmet, reminding him why he loves the sport after two years of rallying.

Special Report: Port Vale

This week, rather than discuss the Premiership, I thought I'd delve into the plight of a lower league club in dire straits. Port Vale are based in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, where I also go to university. The Valiants are currently in administration for the second time in nine years. They have been unable to pay player wages recently, as well as the wages of the non-playing staff. Some may say they are on the brink of extinction after being hit with a winding-up petition by HM Revenue & Customs. However, the end of the 136-year-old club may be some way off yet if the generosity of the fans is anything to go by.

There have been stories all across the Potteries of fans donating their own money. These range from old ladies handing cheques worth hundreds of pounds to the manager, Mickey Adams, to young fans who have emptied their savings to give it to the club. Even the owner of the local Domino's franchise has got involved, donating 16 large pizzas to the club after learning the in-house caterers were no longer feeding them. And despite the rivalry between the clubs, fans of Vale's rivals Stoke City have also helped. Before a recent game between Vale and Burton Albion, two Stoke fans turned up to buy tickets, then walked off. They had never intended to watch the game, they were only looking to help a club in deep amounts of trouble in any way they could.

During the week, the university gave students the opportunity to speak with current Port Vale player Gareth Owen, and it was intriguing to learn how administration has affected the players. Owen believes that it has not affected the team's performances on the pitch, and rightly so despite their recent eight game unbeaten run ending at home to Barnet on Saturday. He also went into great depth about how it is affecting the players financially. Some have recently struggled to put petrol in their cars. It's a harsh reminder that not all footballers live the glitzy lifestyle. However, what was even more interesting was that Owen and the other Port Vale players did not know they were not going to be paid until the day before wages were due. And even worse is that it was left to manager Micky Adams to tell his players the bad news, not a member of the board. Not one of the players had any inkling beforehand that the club was in a poor financial state.

With Port Vale, we have a prime example of what is good and bad in football. The board of Port Vale were clearly trying to cover up constantly in the hope no one would ever find out how hard up they were. It's a shame they forgot that football is often an industry were secrets do not stay quiet for long. On the positive side, though, you can see the passion some of the fans have for their club, pumping in their hard earned cash during a recession to keep them afloat. This is what makes me proud to say I am a football fan when I hear stories like this. It also makes me proud to be spending my university years in what is clearly a very friendly and generous community. If only chairmen and owners were more like the fans of the clubs they run, rather than being the businessmen that they are. Maybe then will the problems of administration, which have reared their heads far too much since the turn of the year, begin to evaporate.

Weekly Round-up (05/03/2012)

The world of the football was dominated this weekend by one story involving Chelsea and their former manager, Andre Villas-Boas. Following their shock defeat to West Brom at the weekend, the Blues moved fast to remove AVB from his post. The result left Chelsea in fifth place, 3 points behind Arsenal in the race for fourth. In a way, I can see reasons both for and against the departure of the Portuguese manager. One obvious reason for his sacking is that Chelsea have been under-performing this season, finding themselves in a battle for Champions League qualification rather than in a title race, as they would expect. However, AVB was in charge at a time when Chelsea need to go through a transition. The old guard of Mourinho's era are reaching the end of their careers and need to soon be replaced by youthful equivalents. In ways, Villas-Boas tried to achieve this with the signings of Romelu Lukaku and Oriol Romeu. Given time, the 34-year-old may have created a new team of star players. But we will now never know what he was capable of.

In rugby, there was the rearranged France-Ireland fixture from the Six Nations, which ended in a 17-all draw. It was an especially frustrating draw for the Irish, as their counter-attacking performance in the first-half was brilliant, and their defence in the last 15 minutes of the second-half was exceptional. A few moments of indecision prevented Ireland from gaining a very credible victory in Paris. The draw also means that only Wales can now win the Grand Slam. However, there is still the tantalising prospect of a title showdown with the French in Cardiff on the final day of this year's Six Nations.

To end with this week, some sad news regarding West Indian cricketer Runako Morton, who has died aged 33. Morton died after his car collided with a utility pole in central Trinidad. Morton never made much of an impact in the Test arena, top scoring with 70* despite being a specialist batsman. But it was a different story in one-day cricket, where he had a top score of 110 and an average of 33.75. Throughout his career, Morton flirted with controversy. He was banned from the West Indian cricketing academy in 2001 for bad behaviour and was arrested in January 2004 following an altercation which left his cousin with stab wounds. And just under a year ago, Morton was arrested under the suspicion of marijuana possession. However, he will always be remembered for his brilliance at the crease, and, in the words of former team-mate Chris Gayle, "We lost a true warrior".