This is funny:
Argentina legend Diego Maradona has informed Aston Villa he would be willing to take over the Villa Park hotseat.
Ignoring the fact that he isn’t exactly beloved in England, Maradona coaching in the English Premier League? The heads of the English Football Association are probably praying for deliverance from him as I write this while Murdoch’s Sky Television would probably love to explore the possibilities of turning his tenure into a reality series.
It won’t happen.
DougJ
Very interesting….great catch and glad to see you again.
Randinho
Thanks, Doug. I will probably be commenting periodically on the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Champions League from time to time.
Mark S.
And I just informed Manchester United that I will be available to play on the left wing this upcoming season.
Mental Lint
Well, maybe it’s more likely than Maradona coaching in Brazil. Is Bob Bradley still considered a possibility for Aston Villa?
Randinho
@Mental Lint: Well, neither is likely to happen, but UEFA has a coaching licensing requirement and I doubt if he has the patience to qualify. This gives some more detail.
As for Bradley, it’s still rumored and the fact that the owner is American probably helps.
stuckinred
Hey! We were sort of just talking about you! Someone commented that the ruling in the PGA tournament was so complex they never wanted to hear anyone complain about how hard it is to understand offsides!
Randinho
@stuckinred: My ears were burning. Sadly, I’m in the good walk spoiled department regarding golf.
JenJen
Randiiiiiiinho! I had to blink there for a minute.
amorphous
@Randinho: I’m glad you’ll keep posting. I find it noteworthy that BJ is a 12 person blog (if you count old front pagers who no longer front page, Tom in Texas and Michael D I’m looking at you).
cmorenc
It might not happen for the reasons cited…
But what GREAT FUN it would be to watch for anyone not still too caught up in the emotions of 1986 to bear him on being English soil, coaching in the sacred English Professional League.
Amir_Khalid
@Randinho: I can’t imagine Maradona coaching in England. His club coaching experience is limited — two clubs in Argentina over a couple of years, with little success. He has a history of drug abuse (both recreational and performance-enhancing) and related health problems. He’s no shining example of sportsmanship. He’s flaky. If he took on an EPL club at the start of the season I’d expect him to get fired before Christmas.
Bill Murray
@cmorenc: I think that depends on how much you hate the team Maradona were to coach.
MikeJ
@cmorenc: This was my thought. It would be like the Yankees hiring a turban wearing Muslim to coach for head exploding fun.
I hope both of these things happen.
Randinho
@Bill Murray: He’d better stay away from Arsenal; at least the one in England . . .
Polish the Guillotines
Woah…. Futbol lives after the World Cup.
Randinho:
1) I’m no futbol fan, but your WC posts were way cool.
2) The weirdest outcome of the WC for me was, via ESPN3.com, I discovered cricket.
Cricket blogging, anyone? I can actually explain what a leg-before-wicket is, and I’m plus-fucking-one (+3 ESF) ‘Murikan.
BTD
Only thing less likely is that they hire Bob Bradley, which someone was floating last week.
MikeJ
@Polish the Guillotines: The Ashes are in November. Real multiday cricket, the way god intended it.
LBW is keeping the ball from hitting the wicket by sticking your leg in front of it. A no-no. You bat it, or it hits the wicket. It’s like jumping in front of a pitch in baseball and then claiming a base because you got hit. No dice.
Polish the Guillotines
@MikeJ:
But doesn’t the umpire have to declare that the ball would’ve hit the wicket had the batsman not deflected it? Otherwise it’s just a wide?
I took it as being kind of slightly like a called strike in baseball.
morzer
@MikeJ:
Actually, it depends partly on where the ball pitched to begin with, as well as whether it was a no-ball.
And real cricket is very much with us – England play Pakistan again from Wednesday in the 3rd Test of that series. You can keep up with all the action on:
http://www.cricinfo.com
There’s also Test Match Special (radio commentary for international games in England) on the web, if you go to the BBC website and dig around in the cricket section:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/
morzer
@Polish the Guillotines:
A wide is a ball that is too far from the stumps in terms of width, and so impossible for the batsman to hit, or else a ball that bounces too far over the batsman’s head. The batting team is credited one run, and the bowler has to rebowl the delivery.
Polish the Guillotines
@morzer:
Cool. Links bookmarked.
I watched the India-Pakistan and India-Sri Lanka matches on ESPN3.com. I totally dig the commentary.
morzer
@Polish the Guillotines:
Test Match Special is a British institution, and can sound a little crazy. They also have a mild obsession with the cakes and other foodstuffs presented to them by their numerous admirers. Occasionally there are feuds between the commentators, which adds to the fun. Overall, they are knowledgeable, fair-minded and fun, and many of their summarizers are former international players.
Polish the Guillotines
@morzer: Ah. I didn’t get that the batsman’s side is awarded a run for a wide. That’s just a “ball” to me.
morzer
@Polish the Guillotines:
Nay, lad, nay! There’s a whole special set of ways of getting runs called “extras” No-balls, wides, byes, leg-byes, overthrows, five runs for hitting the helmet…. on some occasions, sides have batted so badly that “extras” ended up as the top scorer!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extra_(cricket)
Polish the Guillotines
@morzer: Insanity.
This was my son’s first year of little league, and my wife volunteered to be the team scorekeeper. I thought explaining baseball was hard….
I get the “normal” run-scoring in cricket, as well as boundary scoring (for the most part). But you just sent me back to school with the “extras”.
burnspbesq
@morzer:
willow.tv is likely to be streaming England – Pakistan. The last time the Ashes were in Oz, I watched parts of every test online. The fee is pretty reasonable.
burnspbesq
I don’t care who Villa hires, as long as they keep their filthy mitts off Billy Davies.
morzer
@burnspbesq:
Willow is pretty good in my experience, especially if your tech-savvy significant other *cough cough* can figure out how to connect the laptop to the TV and get the stream all big and easy to view.
I must admit, England v Pakistan has been so tediously one-sided, I didn’t feel like paying willow.tv for the privilege. Watching the Australians get crushed, on the other hand.. well, I’d walk a mile in tight shoes!
morzer
@Polish the Guillotines:
Well, the rules of cricket are a bit like the Schleswig-Holstein question at first. As Palmerston supposedly said:
“The Schleswig-Holstein question is so complicated, only three men in Europe have ever understood it. One was Prince Albert, who is dead. The second was a German professor who became mad. I am the third and I have forgotten all about it.”
Stillwater
RANDINHOOOOOOOO!!!!
Is FIFA gonna get goal reviews/coaches challenges/more refs in place and turn this entertaining activity into an actual sport?!?
valdivia
Fuck Maradona.
That is all.
(except to say the obvious: still hate the guy)
Capn America
Hi Randinho,
Great catch! Just wanted to say thanks for sticking around here, it’s nice having someone whose threads aren’t about politics (most of us are here for that, but having a change is nice). Plus, we all need to learn a little bit more about soccer…
Also, this made me laugh the other day:
http://www.theonion.com/video/soccer-officially-announces-it-is-gay,17603/
Violet
Randinho! Good to see you around. I miss the WC. Fun times. Maradona to the EPL? Ha! Hell really would have frozen over. Pigs all over the sky, that kind of thing.
@valdivia:
Ah, valdivvia…fond memories of discussing with you the various…merits, shall we say, of WC players.
@morzer:
Test match cricket is awesome to listen to. It’s just as much fun to listen to during a rain delay as when it’s actually being played. All the chatter about cakes is good fun.
scav
The existential je sais quoi of having Reasons to Drink Heavily, Mad Men and Crossing the Rubicon all in close proximity to Maradona apparently losing his grip on something resembling sanity while grasping even harder on his ego . . .
ok, I’m willing to be amused by small things.
There was once a position in cricket called silly man off, wasn’t there? That was, for a long time, one of those silly small things. That and imagining all the things a sticky wicket could possibly mean or be made to mean.
wengler
I think Brad Friedel is too old to put up with Maradona for long. Randy Lerner might not be the most loved person at Villa Park, but I don’t think he wants to be the most hated owner in England(though competition is stiff).
Martin O’Neill might’ve gotten screwed over the Milner transfer(and other promises for more transfer money) but his exit from Aston Villa isn’t going to help him get the ManUnited job he was supposedly being groomed for.
SRW1
Being a world-famous footballer obviously comes with intense media exposure that for some people stunts their personality development and prevents them from ever reaching full adulthood. Diego Maradona, George Best and Lothar Matthaeus come to mind, though the list is certainly much longer. And the phenomenon isn’t limited to football either.
Thlayli
@scav:
Silly mid-on and silly mid-off. (“On” is the side of the wicket that the batter is standing on, “off” is he other side.) Picture a third baseman anticipating a bunt and moving way in, to where the batter could take his head off if he swings away. That’s the “silly” part.
morzer
@Thlayli:
There’s also short fine leg….
Bill Murray
@BTD: Bradley is currently third (and last week was first) in betting odds for the Villa job. Kevin MacDonald and Sven Goran Eriksson are the other main contenders
cmorenc
Why would any sane, well-balanced, sensible person even WANT the job of managing a (soccer) football team. I once coached a U-11 through U12 girls competitive-level soccer team, and that was plenty for me to learn how little love the position earns and how much resentment and criticism it generates. You might get resented and harshly criticized as a referee, but at least once you’re done with a particular game, it’s over and you need worry no further about the players, coaches, and spectators involved (except to write your game report for the league).
Big Al
Oh, please, please, please let this happen. I will be in the UK for the Spurs-Villa match in early October. It would be absolutely perfect to watch the “hand of god” prowling and scowling and sulking at the edge of the pitch! I only hope the announcement comes after I get my tickets!