During half time in last night's live Sky game between West Ham and Liverpool, Richard Keys and David Platt spent the majority of their first half summing up banging on about Stuart Pearce and the England U21 manager's post.
As we posted on Monday, Sky want one of the managers on their proprietary roster in charge for the European Championships this summer (see: http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/2007/01/big-up-for-stuart-pearce.html).
I don't remember any of these fallacious arguments being aired when Steve MacLaren was combining managing Boro and assisting Sven Goran Eriksson. Boro even reached the final of last year's UEFA Cup which directly undermines the main thrust of the Sky stance - namely that Man City will suffer from the duality of Pearce's roles.
There were many aspects of Eriksson that were unseemly from his narcissism to his devotion to the dollar but he was not controlled by the manipulators of English football. In addition to exerting influence over some England players and referees, the British bookmakers strengthen their control by having close ties to management. Once Eriksson was forced out for unwittingly undermining Redknapp in the taping of the fake sheikh interview, MacLaren was always the choice for the bookmakers. Our Trading Team thoroughly analysed the market for the England manager's position and we were backing MacLaren at 14/1 and 20/1 as all the other contenders were disqualified for a range of reasons - unavailability, nationality, incorruptibility, pending criminality situations etc.
Sky already has far too much control of our football. Sky has close links with many individuals within the game and, as we pointed out in the post above, represents these individuals when they are out of employment. You can guarantee that whenever Curbishley, Redknapp, Gregory etc are out of a job that they will keep popping up on Sky telling us how ready they are for a new challenge. Monitoring Sky forms a significant part of our contrary trading as the degree of disinformation on a range of levels is extremely revealing. The combination of SkyBet and Sky television is an enclosed informational monopoly of the type that Murdoch's people exploit throughout their business empire.
Sky and the other British bookmakers are determined to turn English football into the equivalent of British horseracing. The appointment of Pearce is a direct obstacle to this inexorable slide and all true football fans should stand up for Stuart.
I remember as a child getting home after some meaningless shopping trip to watch England win the 1966 World Cup - it really meant something (despite my Irish grandfather cheering on Germany!) and further ignited my interest in football. Today's kids will never have an equivalent thrill as the bookmakers would never allow England to win again. But there is a chance that the U21's could win the European Championships and Pearce has the enthusiasm and the honesty to make that thing happen.
The only downside will be the explosion of xenophobic flag of St George nonsense but, if it winds up the bookmakers, it might just be worth it!
