Footblog

Tony Adams and The Commitments

Tony Adams speaking after today's defeat to Arsenal:

"We're in a scrap with 14 other clubs [against relegation] and if they don't want to play for Portsmouth then they're no good to me. It's not reading the riot act, it's fact. If your head has been turned, if you're not trying everything to win games for the club then I don't want you around."

Tony Adams, speaking to The Sunday Times before today's defeat to Arsenal:

"I'd love that job. Arsene is showing no signs of moving at the moment but it is my ambition to manage Arsenal Football Club."

He's presumably putting himself on the transfer list this evening.

Merry Christmas Everybody (everybody in football, that is)

This is why Radio 5 should lock the 606 broom cupboard and never let Danny Baker leave again:

Fat Sam - definitely not black

This is Sam Allardyce. He is many things. But he is categorically not black. We mention this only because it appears to be breaking news on The Guardian.

Having gone for the shock of the new, Blackburn Rovers embraced the comfort of the familiar yesterday in appointing Sam Allardyce on a three-year contract.

Allardyce is not black, not young and does not carry Paul Ince's easy glamour...

Glad we've cleared that up.

Tomorrow in The Guardian: Why Robbie Savage isn't Dutch.

You'll never beat Ian Walker... because he never plays

Is Ian Walker the least used footballer in history? The one-man "curtains are still fashionable, honest" crusade has torn up his contract with Bolton today. His record at the club? A stonking total of eight first-team appearance since he joined in July 2005. Not one of them in the Premier League.

Has ever a football been so underused for such a long spell at the club? He makes Winston Bogarde look like an ever-present.

He's not a Premier League benchwarmer, he's the messiah

Having spent the best part of the past two seasons on the benches of Fulham and Sunderland respectively, you might expect David Healy's confidence to have taken a bit of a knock.

Apparently not.

Nigel [Worthington] basically blamed the players [after the 2-0 defeat by Hungary] which was disappointing," Healy tells the BBC. "Is he going to do the unthinkable and leave the hero, the messiah, out?"

One word. Yes.