THE former international footballer Gianluca Vialli, working as a pundit for BBC TV, described Spain as “awesome” and nobody can really argue with that expert assessment, especially coming from an Italian.
Spain's success at Euro 2012 and their 4-0 thrashing of Italy in Sunday's final was the icing on the cake for a tournament which produced plenty of great football and few examples of ill-discipline either on or off the field. A great way to finally end the 2011-12 season.
The 2012-13 term may not produce such pleasures. Financial disaster is never far away and at the moment of writing this last football column, there is still the possibility that long established football institutes such as Rangers and Portsmouth could become extinct.
The Spain and Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas may have introduced a sensational new tactic to the world of football.
Fabregas revealed that he spoke to the ball and told it to “make history” before hitting the winning penalty in Spain's Euro 2012 semi-final win over Portugal.
And apparently it was not the first time that the Spaniard had chosen to 'chat' with the football, cosying up to ball when he scored the winning penalty in a quarter-final shoot-out against Italy in Euro 2008.
“I had a funny feeling about the penalties and I was thinking about them this afternoon. They told me initially to take the second one but I said 'no, give me the fifth' as I had this premonition.
“When I stepped up to take the penalty I said to the ball that we had to make history and it shouldn't let me down. I talked to the ball four years ago and it didn't let me down.”
Is it just me or is Cesc bonkers?
Words of wisdom from the former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez in his Euro 2012 column for The Independent newspaper.
Talking about the fact that Italy had several older players in their line-up, Benitez wrote: “What Italy have taught us is that experience has a very big value – and that goes for every profession, Look at the economic crisis. The banks used to have people with experience. Then they started having younger people because they were cheaper. And now look where we are.”
The former England defender Gareth Southgate reckons a sports psychologist must be appointed to cure players of their fear of the penalty kick.
England have lost seven of their eight shoot-outs, including their quarter-final defeat against Italy, and according to a report in the Daily Telegraph, Southgate, who missed a penalty against Germany at Euro 96, said: “I’m sure it would have benefited me, definitely. It’s not about luck. It is about performing a skill under pressure. I wasn’t able to do that. I was going into the darkness. We need strategies for dealing with stress.
“Now there is a long history of disappointment and it’s in everybody’s head. Our penalty history has an impact on the whole nation. The energy is being sucked out of the whole stadium.’’
He added: “I’m a big believer in sports psychology. Every major tennis player would work with somebody, every major golfer too, then everybody tells me ‘football’s different’ but I can’t see why.”
Kids hey?
According to the Birmingham Mail newspaper, Birmingham City's decision to appoint the former Huddersfield boss Lee Clark as their new manager was leaked on the Internet – by his own children!
Before the club could officially announced the appointment, Clark’s son Jack tweeted: “Buzzing about my dad getting the #BCFC job.”
Minutes later he followed up the tweet by saying: “Had a nice night with @gcpowellx and then to top it off my dad gets Birmingham job 🙂 brilliant... Xxx”
His sister Claudia helped spread the message by retweeting her brother's posts.