Source: Team_Talk
TT Soccers - Villain of Season
Rob McCarthy steps up to the plate in a well-contested category as he dishes out the TEAMtalk Soccers award for Villain of the Season.[LNB] This was certainly a category that gave me plenty to get my teeth into, in what has been arguably the most-incident packed campaign I can remember. [LNB]From riot-inciting goal celebrations to blatant acts of cheating and damaging journalism, the run down is as follows...[LNB]5 - Emmanuel Adebayor:The majority of Arsenal fans were pleased to see the back of the Togo star last summer, but was there any real need for his overindulgent goal celebration against his former club when the Gunners lost at Manchester City back in September.[LNB]Adebayor almost sparked a riot when he raced the full length of the pitch, the most he probably ran all season, and slid on his knees in front of the visiting support after scoring City's third goal in a 4-2 victory. Referee Mark Clattenburg showed him a yellow card to match his yellow act and he should be thankful to the City stewards that the irate Arsenal fans did not get their hands on him.[LNB]4 - Portsmouth boardoom: FA Cup winners to relegation fodder in the space of two years and it was all down to shocking mismanagement behind the scenes at Fratton Park.[LNB]Pompey became the first ever Premier League club to go into administration after a string of disastrous takeovers. First, Sulaiman Al Fahim bought the club from Sacha Gaydamak, but that lasted until October when Ali al-Faraj stepped in. Four months later Balram Chainrai took over as part of a clause in a loan deal he made with the previous owners - are you keeping up! - but debts were not repaid and administration led to a nine-point deduction and inevitable relegation.[LNB]Administrator Andrew Andronikou is now responsible for cleaning up the mess but will we ever see Pompey in the top flight again? I really hope so for their terrific fans, but it looks increasingly unlikely.[LNB]3 - John Terry: The Chelsea skipper's alleged affair with Wayne Bridge's former partner Vanessa Perroncel led to the Man City star ruling himself out of contention for a World Cup squad place and saw his former Stamford Bridge colleague stripped of the England captaincy as a result.[LNB]The nation was then glued to its TV sets on Saturday 27 February when Terry approached Bridge for the customary shaking of hands before the match between the Blues and City at Stamford Bridge. Would he or wouldn't he? - well it was the latter as Bridge left his hand there but then pulled it away at the last second to completely snub his former friend - 'Team Bridge' seemingly having the last laugh.[LNB]2 - Thierry Henry: How do you go from being one of the most respected Premier League players of all time to a figure of hate? Just ask Mr Va Va Voom himself.[LNB]Sometimes when players are desperate they do desperate things and Henry proved that at the Stade de France back in September as France took on the Republic of Ireland in the second leg of their play-off for a place at this summer's World Cup.[LNB]With the tie in extra-time, locked at 1-1 on aggregate and seemingly heading for penalties Henry, clearly auditioning for a place in the France volleyball team at London 2012, handled the ball twice to set up William Gallas' winning goal and break Irish hearts. A blatant act of cheating that avoided any retrospective punishment from FIFA - I wonder if a certain Michel Platini had a word with Sepp Blatter on that one![LNB]1 - Mail on Sunday: As a nation it was hugely important that everyone got behind the bid to host the 2018 World Cup. Everything was in place, momentum was beginning to build, the 1752-page document had gone to FIFA (is anyone really going to read every page) and Sepp Blatter had already indicated that England were the outstanding candidates to host the tournament for only the second time in our history. So what could go wrong? A piece of ill-judged journalism, that's what.[LNB]Lord Triesman, who has now resigned as chairman of the FA and as 2018 bid chief, was secretly recorded having a private conversation with his former private secretary Melissa Jacobs about possible bribery of referees involving the Spanish and Russian football federations at this year's World Cup.[LNB]The proverbial soon hit the fan as the story broke and although Triesman now surely regrets what he said, it was a private chat with a former colleague at the end of the day and he felt that he was the victim of entrapment.[LNB]By publishing the story the Mail on Sunday immediately undermined our chances of hosting football's greatest showpiece, so much so that regular writer and official bid ambassador bid Gary Lineker ditched his column with the paper, and that's why they are my Villain of the Season.
