England Self-Destruct Early Doors

Traditionally, it was the job of the Netherlands to self-destruct at major tournaments as egos, bickering and weak management got in the way of the actual football. Although, to be fair, Spain have been pretty good at this kind of thing too.

So, it's nice to see that the 'home of football' - England - are taking this one step further ahead of the 2010 World Cup Final. England have chosen to self-destruct even before the tournament has kicked off.

With Wayne Bridge declaring himself unavailable for selection, Rio Ferdinand's back injury, John Terry's inability to a) pay attention and b) keep it in his pants plus the lack of consistent form from Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard; not to mention injuries to Glen Johnson, Aaron Lennon and others, who else other than me is extremely tempted by the very generous odds of 8/1 at 888 Sport for England not to qualify from their World Cup Group.

Scottish Police In Sense Of Humour Failure

I'm English and unsurprisingly, want England to win the 2010 World Cup. I do, however, understand that there are other nationalities out there who may not share my view. I don't hate them for it - they're patriotic, I'm patriotic. We all want our national side to win.

Which is why I doubt anyone would be offended by the Slanj Kilt company selling t-shirts with the slogan 'ABE : Anyone But England' on them. However, it seems that the Aberdeen police force have different ideas and have warned the Slanj branch there that "the t-shirts might incite race riots".

Never have I heard such errant nonsense. So, for all you Scottish, Algerian, American and Slovenian soccer fans, you get these t-shirts right here.

Hiddink Turns Up At Turkey

Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a big fan of Guus Hiddink. Mainly, because I've always backed his teams with cold hard cash and until Russia's failure to qualify for World Cup 2010, he has never let me down.

Indeed, I decided against starting at Euro 2008 blog because I was so confident that England weren't going to qualify because they were in the same group as Hiddink's Russia and the - at the time - superior Croatia. That blog is here.

Anyway, it looks like the rumours suggesting Hiddink would be managing Nigeria at the World Cup Finals were wrong, as the Dutchman has taken over the role of national team coach of Turkey.

Turkey, like Russia, failed to qualify for the World Cup Finals, but were impressive at Euro 2008, so the raw materials are definitely there.

A few pundits have questioned why Hiddink would want to take over Turkey but to me, it's a good move. Their Euro 2012 qualifying group includes Germany, Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan (aren't some of those countries in Asia?) and you would back Hiddink to get a well organised Turkey to get through that Group. In fact, that's exactly what I'm going to do.