Source: telegraph
Football's soap opera can have a happy ending as Harry 'Red Adair' Redknapp rides to QPR's rescue
So, welcome to another noisy week in the national sport. Football possesses
this arrogant ability to seize the agenda. In the run-up to the BBC’s
coveted Sports Personality of the Year, football really should be
keeping a low profile, a chastened stance after an embarrassing, eclipsed
year. Inspiring Olympians? Celebrated cyclists knocked off their bikes? All
major stories, all ignored by football, charging manically around
sports-town like hyperactive children overindulged on E-numbers.
Redknapp’s back, so on with the show and farewell Sparky. Many critics bemoan
the paucity of loyalty and morality in the modern game, the mad managerial
merry-go-round, frothing incandescently that football is going to hell in an
untaxed handcart.
Yet the game remains a modern broadcasting Klondike, finding gold in the
carnage. Football can be going up in flames, yet everyone gathers around the
bonfire, holding their hands to the warmth, enjoying the crackle and the
spectacle.
Events in west London must be viewed through a broader prism. The world looks
with fascination not alarm. Those closer to developments will react
differently. Di Matteo’s departure contrasts markedly with Hughes’. Roman
Abramovich’s callous sacking of Di Matteo rankles Chelsea fans so much that
some plot a minor protest at the Bridge on Sunday; the 16th minute will be
marked by applause for a past wearer of the No 16 shirt, a certain R Di
Matteo. Understandable. Di Matteo made Chelsea champions of Europe.
A couple of miles away, sympathy can be found for the feelings of Tony
Fernandes, the owner of Queens
Park Rangers. Hughes had not stockpiled the emotional capital of Di
Matteo, let alone the points, plaudits or trophies. QPR fans had clearly
turned against Hughes, responding furiously to their supine surrender to
Southampton at Loftus Road last weekend. Fernandes had to act, so little
anger was stirred by Hughes’ latest exit.
