Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2022-06-20T18:01:40.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Best lines of World Cup commentary of all time
items: Five reasons we could see Roy Keane lose it live on ITV tonight…
items: Edinburgh Fringe 48: one man, two days and as many shows as humanly possible
items: Fever Pitch: Judge Serena Williams by her performances on court, not her sex or race
items: Fever Pitch: England will never play football like Spain or Brazil - but there are other ways to win
items: Fever Pitch: Bayern Munich's Champions League win brings Man United's European challenge into focus
items: Fever Pitch: The Premier League finale was a bit of an anti-climax - are play-offs the answer?
items: Fever Pitch: FA Cup party poopers, Lampard by the numbers and Fergie calls time
items: A meagre build-up, late kick-off and lack of Champions League qualification has devalued The FA Cup
items: Sir Alex Ferguson loved to chat football just like any other fan
items: Formula 1 2013 driver profile: Max Chilton
items: Formula 1 2013 driver profile: Valtteri Bottas
items: As Michael Owen retires let's remember the good times
items: Champions League: Manchester United v Real Madrid preview - "Tonight will be special"
items: Gareth Bale's attitude, as well as his ability, sets him apart from players like David Bentley
items: Ailing Arsenal need a management transplant - Arsene Wenger for Jose Mourinho

Best lines of World Cup commentary of all time
type: item
date: 2014-06-19T10:05:00.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: Football
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: Shouting these lines at the top of your lungs for full effect is advised
encoded: Criticism of Phil Neville’s sleep-inducing co-commentary at this World Cup has obscured the fact that our current crop of announcers have, so far, failed to produce any real zingers that will stand the test of time. While they pull their socks up, we’ve delved into the archives to bring you some of the best lines of commentary – that aren’t They Think It’s All Over – of all time. “Oh, that’s brilliant! Oh, that’s wonderful!” Barry Davies, Holland v Argentina 1998 Coming as an accompaniment to what is, scientifically, the best World Cup goal ever scored (think about it: it involved controlling a 40-yard pass in the 89th-minute of a World Cup quarter-final against Argentina) Davies broke free from the sanctimonious schoolmaster routine that had become very much his thing, to lose himself in the sheer exuberant joy that only a World Cup goal can bring. Davies, at his best, could conjure a wonderful cadence to his commentary and, combined here with that guttural rasp of excitement, his words achieved a spine-tingling significance. View oEmbed on the source website “Oh my word, have you ever seen anything like that?” David Coleman, Portugal v Brazil 1966 You get the feeling David Coleman rather enjoyed himself at Goodison Park on the 19th July 1966. Coleman later became famous for his understated, staccato style – in football commentary at least – but in this, earlier, example of his work, the more youthful man allows himself to be carried away by the vim of an excellent Portugal side and, of course, the chief architect of this defeat of Brazil, Eusebio. Indeed, before the line in question, Coleman is already in raptures about “the way this man hits a ball” and when the little lion from Lisbon hits his second goal of the game, Coleman practically purrs: “Oh my word, have you ever seen anything like that?” The phrasing is given all the more resonance given that in those, more parochial, days his audience probably hadn’t. View oEmbed on the source website “England have don…

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Five reasons we could see Roy Keane lose it live on ITV tonight…
type: item
date: 2013-10-22T15:32:00.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: Football
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: We can expect some decent football from Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund - but extracts from Sir Alex Ferguson's autobiography might not leave his former player so happy
encoded: There will be a ding-dong of serious proportions at the Emirates tonight, between two of world football’s biggest heavyweights… and, no, we’re not talking about Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund. Roy Keane will be in the studio for ITV’s coverage, where, unless he’s put the squeeze on Adrian Chiles in the green room, he’ll be asked for his reaction to some pretty uncomplimentary extracts about him in Sir Alex Ferguson’s autobiography, which was finally released this afternoon. Given that Keane is partial to a mad-eyed mauling of Gareth Southgate over an innocuous offside decision, Ferguson’s comments could really put him in a funk. Here are five quotes from the book that might tip him over the edge… “What I noticed about him that day when I was arguing with him was that his eyes started to narrow, almost to wee black beads. It was frightening to watch. And I'm from Glasgow." Ooh, go on Roy, give us the stare. “The hardest part of Roy’s body is his tongue. He has the most savage tongue you can imagine. He can debilitate the most confident person in the world in seconds with that tongue.” Actually, you’d imagine Roy would be pretty proud of that one. “He thought he was Peter Pan. Nobody is.’’ This, we assume, will come as a crushing blow. ‘‘I believe that Roy Keane’s behaviour pattern changed when he realised he was no longer the Roy Keane of old… I think he could see the truth of what we were saying to him, but to surrender to it was too damaging to his pride.’' Now might be a good time for Lee Dixon to move his seat a couple of yards to the right. "His two spells in management proved one thing: he needs money." Zing! Cancel the ad break, forget the second half, all cameras on Roy. Coverage of Arsenal's Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund starts at 7:30pm tonight on ITV Follow @RadioTimes

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Edinburgh Fringe 48: one man, two days and as many shows as humanly possible
type: item
date: 2013-08-14T09:25:00.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: Comedy
subject: News
subject: TV
description: With regular updates from the comedy festival, Ed Bearryman is, quite literally, putting the Ed in Edinburgh. Sadly, he has a quiff rather than a fringe (this could have been so perfect...)
encoded: Wednesday 14 August 11:30 Good morning, and welcome to a blog which I hope will have the effect of making you all feel that, yes, you really are here at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival with me, and together we're embarking on a magical, theatrical odyssey. Of course, in reality, I realise that this being the online world, you're all far more likely to feel the need to make threats against my life and troll my as yet unborn children, but let's give it a go shall we? So, in short: I'm spending 48 hours in Edinburgh with a simple brief to "see as many weird and wonderful things as is humanly possible". Assuming the inside of a National Express train from Kings Cross doesn't count, I'll start updating here when I've finally arrived (at around 2.15pm BST to be precise) in bonny Edinburgh itself. From then on I'll be keeping you up to date with all the peaks and pitfalls - inevitable given that this is my first time here - as well as attempting to review, at varying lengths, every single show I see. So, without further ado, let the journey begin... // 15:01 So, I've made it... And already it's become clear that Edinburgh is not a city built for quickly scooting from one side t'other, so expect increasingly irate updates about tailgating bearded theatre folk from here on in. Anyway, first show The Secret Agent at the Traverse is about to start so I'd better be off... Tweets by @edbearryman // 17:19 The Secret Agent, Traverse, Review "Welcome to the Cabinet of Despair," and so begins The Secret Agent, adapted from the Joseph Conrad book about 19th century anarchy and terror in London, which wholeheartedly delivers on that promise. The story of a cowardly double agent (Adolf Verdoc) whose ineptitude pervades his work and his home, where both disabled brother and wife are neglected with fatal consequences. Amongst the shadows we meet The Professor, a chemist and anarchist fond of grandiose, but muddled, rhetoric, a demented, tyrannical Russian spy (wonderfully played by Le…

Fever Pitch: Judge Serena Williams by her performances on court, not her sex or race
type: item
date: 2013-06-11T08:09:00.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: Tennis
subject: TV
subject: Wimbledon
description: Why must the tennis star's incredible achievements continually be marred by prejudice? asks Ed Bearryman
encoded: Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised that, as I watched Serena Williams power her way to yet another grand slam at the French Open on Saturday, the attention of the two women in my company immediately turned, not to this immense achievement, but to the shape and size of the victor’s body. After all it’s no news that we exist in a society whereby a high proportion of our female-focused media eggs on our women to gang up on each other, especially when it comes to physical appearance. The Ring of Truth and Sidebar of Shame have long-since pervaded our coffee table chit-chats. And of all sportspeople, Serena probably cops it just about as harshly as anyone. On some occasions male journalists have been known to come over all Mills and Boon when describing her on-court attire, just as Bill Mouland did on the Daily Mail website in 2003, when he excited readers by telling them her dress had “adhered to her like clingfilm, emphasising every astonishing body contour.” Phwoar, indeed, eh, Billy boy? It’s hard to decide whether to be more fed up with the sheer creepiness of that piece or just the sheer tedium that body image is the first prism through which we view our female icons. And it’s not just from outside the sport that Williams must face this relentless, regressive obsession with her ‘contours’. At an exhibition match in Sao Paolo, Brazil, late last year, world No 9 Caroline Wozniacki appeared on court having generously stuffed her vest and skirt in an apparent imitation of her rival. The stunt sparked an outraged response, in which Wozniacki was accused of being racist – the stuffing was interpreted in some quarters as having mocked something very specific about African American body types – but Williams responded: “I know Caro and would call her my friend.” With friends like that, who needs the Daily Mail? Another rival, 19-year-old American up-and-comer Sloane Stephens, recently tore into Williams for being aloof around the circuit and chastised her for the way s…

Fever Pitch: England will never play football like Spain or Brazil - but there are other ways to win
type: item
date: 2013-06-03T14:08:00.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: Football
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: Some fans and critics have developed an obsession with possession - but the team's natural game can be just as thrilling and effective, says Ed Bearryman
encoded: Turn to any of the newspaper backpages this morning and you’re sure to find accounts of how England’s ‘inability to keep the ball’ against Brazil in the Maracana on Sunday points to a wider malaise in English football. The idea being that to fail in mastering one of the game’s fundamentals – passing the ball to someone in the same coloured shirt – should be the source of great shame to the nation. But maybe it’s time to get real about our possession obsession. It’s unfortunate (especially now that those coloured shirts are supplied by Nike) but it appears England just can’t do it. Anyway, the fascination has only taken root recently thanks to the emergence of statistical science in the game (we can probably, if we want to, find out exactly how many times Wayne Rooney scratches his left nipple during 90 minutes these days) and the brilliance of both Barcelona and Spain’s tiki-taka regimes. Before this, nobody spent much time poring over possession statistics, especially when England were walloping the Germans 5-1 in their own backyard in 2001. If they had, they’d have seen that Sven Goran Eriksson’s men spent just 39% of that match controlling the ball, even less than Roy Hodgson’s group at the weekend. The point is that we’ve never truly embraced the idea of the ball as a vehicle of expression. In the English game, it’s still very much the means to an end of moving the entire team up the pitch as quickly as possible. How else does one explain the persistent production of Big Men Up Top (think Andy Carroll, Peter Crouch) and the ‘agricultural defenders’ (Phil Jagielka, Michael Dawson) who feed them. And if we haven’t learnt from our more cosmopolitan chums by now, perhaps we’re never going to. Our football team doesn’t travel the world to adapt to an evolving game, rather in an attempt to smother it with our own blueprint for how the sport should be played. Just like the way scores of British holidaymakers decamp en masse to southern Spain in order to eat fried break…

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Fever Pitch: Bayern Munich's Champions League win brings Man United's European challenge into focus
type: item
date: 2013-05-28T13:36:03.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: Football
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: The similarities between the clubs' recent European histories should give David Moyes some comfort - and also teach him some lessons, says Ed Bearryman
encoded: Perhaps the most annoying thing about German football teams, certainly from an English perspective, is that no matter how traumatic a beating you give them they will always, some way, some how, bounce back stronger. On that crazy night in Barcelona all those years ago in 1999, Man United doled out the most painful European Cup final defeat in history. Two years later, Bayern were European champions. This time, their redemption was doubly swift, as Saturday night’s victory crowned a brilliant comeback from that harrowing capitulation to Chelsea in their own back yard last May. It’s a remarkable German character trait, and sets them apart as the most indefatigable nation in world football. Bayern are now a plotting a move beyond that culture of bust and boom toward a period of sustainable domination. It’s a scary thought for English rivals playing catch-up but, then again, almost a year to the day since we celebrated the Queen’s jubilee, perhaps it’s apt that talk on the streets of London has turned to German dynasties once more. Nowhere will the fear of Bavarian omnipotence be felt more keenly than in the new manager’s office at Manchester United. Talk of six-year plans and stability has obscured David Moyes’ European inexperience for now, but if the club falls irredeemably behind the likes of Bayern in the Champions League one suspects it will be his undoing. Moyes can take some comfort in the similarities between United and Bayern’s recent European histories. For starters, both clubs have suffered from a certain flakiness on the continent in the last decade. Throughout the early 2000s the Bayern name itself still came loaded with a visceral threat, but it was based upon past glories. Their hotchpotch of a team couldn’t do justice to the reputation. A particularly jarring defeat to Chelsea in 2005, where they were torn apart by Joe Cole and Damien Duff, sticks in the memory. Are Man United entering that kind of phase now? Their last two Champions League campaigns ha…

Fever Pitch: The Premier League finale was a bit of an anti-climax - are play-offs the answer?
type: item
date: 2013-05-20T10:50:00.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: Football
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: And as David Beckham takes a final bow, Ed Bearryman salutes the man behind the footballing icon
encoded: How long before Premier League gets its own Hollywood ending? So there was to be no repeat of last season’s final-day drama, which, with Sergio Aguero’s last-minute title-winner, served up a last act so thrilling it felt as if a Hollywood screenwriter had taken control of the storyboard. This time, thanks to the combined coronation and abdication at Old Trafford last week, the last round of fixtures felt a bit like the bonus material on a DVD. You watch on hoping for one last hit but, deep down, you know the main event has been and gone. Spurs failed to leapfrog north London rivals Arsenal at the last and Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United weren't quite able to secure their manager a win in his final match in charge (although no-one can claim that 10-goal game of two halves lacked excitement). All in all, the Premier League denouement was just a bit of an anti-climax. In truth, that was no great departure from the previous eight months. You couldn’t help but think that the TV companies, fresh from lavishing a total of close to £2 billion on a new rights deal, would be feeling a little short-changed by a season in which the title race and all three relegation spots had been sewn up with a game still to spare. Not much nail-biting tension to be had there, sorry old chaps. That’s what made the prospect of a third place playoff between Arsenal and Chelsea – within a whisker of finishing on the same points, goal difference, goals scored and conceded – so tantalising. A season shorn of the exhilaration of recent memory could be given one last shot at redemption. It was a game that, had it gone ahead, would almost certainly have sparked some conspiratorial chatter in the boardroom at Sky TV. After all, once sponsors and TV executives had got a taste for a winner-takes-all playoff for Champions League qualification, and all the extra revenues that game would bring, it would surely be only a short hop for them to start salivating over the prospect of a similar finale to d…

Fever Pitch: FA Cup party poopers, Lampard by the numbers and Fergie calls time
type: item
date: 2013-05-14T09:42:00.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: Football
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: In the first of a new regular sports column, Ed Bearryman talks good timing, bad timing and putting the time in...
encoded: FA poop Wigan's Cup party Wigan couldn’t have done more to save the FA Cup. Their impressive, and total, evisceration of Man City on Saturday was the most enthralling performance in a cup final since its return to the new Wembley in 2007. But in the end their glorious victory served only to underscore the ridiculous timing of the FA’s showpiece event. Just to remind you, the FA Cup final used to be the final game of the season. Under these circumstances, Wigan would have had the freedom to celebrate their victory in style, whether they’d retained Premier League status or not. As it is, Roberto Martinez was forced to pre-emptively ban alcohol consumption from any unlikely victory party, meaning Ben Watson had to toast the greatest moment of his career without so much as a pint of shandy. Given the league results of this weekend, it’s more than likely that the Wigan players will never get the opportunity to properly celebrate their triumph. Their season now looks certain to end on the bum note of relegation to the Championship, especially seeing as they travel to the Emirates Stadium tonight needing a win against an Arsenal team unbeaten in nine matches. Back to the cup final, though, and Saturday’s result was not just a victory for the underdog, but for the footballing philosophy of Roberto Martinez and his team’s progressive style. From the press benches at Wembley, the poise and composure of the Wigan players, as well as their willingness to take a risk with the ball, was thrilling. It says a lot about the problems in English football if more agricultural teams like Stoke and West Ham can continue to survive in the top flight, while the Wigans of this world are left to flounder. As a footnote to Wigan’s cup success, it was interesting to watch the chaos engulfing their final opponents in the aftermath of defeat. Roberto Mancini’s sacking as manager of Man City has now been confirmed, but the Italian held a bizarre full-time press conference at Wembley. In it he rai…

A meagre build-up, late kick-off and lack of Champions League qualification has devalued The FA Cup
type: item
date: 2013-05-11T07:09:00.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: Football
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: As Wigan face Manchester City in the final on Saturday, a giant-killing could help re-ignite the passion - but big changes are what's really needed
encoded: No entertainment industry in the world does eager anticipation quite like top-level football. Ever since Sky Sports introduced the practise of advertising forthcoming fixtures during live matches, or giving their programme of weekend games alliterative nicknames, football fans have been experts at whipping themselves into a state of untrammelled frenzy. It’s a big part – perhaps the biggest – of what makes being a football fan so exciting. So, with that in mind, the build-up, or lack thereof, to this weekend’s FA Cup final has felt eerily empty and depressing. Wags have suggested the FA would be happy to hide their ‘bad news cup’ beneath the rubble of all those stories created by the tremor of Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement. That in itself is an incredible indictment of how poorly the organisation – celebrating its 150th anniversary this year – has looked after its prestigious cup competition in recent seasons. Their relentless tampering – with replays, kick-off times and semi-final locations – has served only to devalue the supposed Greatest Cup Competition in the World. Which begs the question: if the competition was so great in the first place, why did it need all the modifications? The answer, of course, is that it didn’t. Mostly they were made to appease sponsors or to accede to the demands of broadcasters, paying vast sums for the rights to show the games, at times which pull in the biggest audiences. The primacy of the Premier League – and its gateway to the game’s most reliable golden goose, the Champions League –- further contributes to this vacuum of excitement surrounding this weekend’s final. So what, if anything, can be done to avert the FA Cup’s stagnation? In the short term, we need a cracker of a final on Saturday to reignite the passion surrounding cup final day. Something akin to the melodrama staged by Liverpool and West Ham in 2006 – when Steven Gerrard produced one of his Roy of the Rovers performances to help Liverpool snatch victory from the j…

Sir Alex Ferguson loved to chat football just like any other fan
type: item
date: 2013-05-09T11:05:00.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: Football
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: Ferguson was intensely focused when it came to Manchester United but hugely passionate about the wider game too, recalls Ed Bearryman
encoded: For all the tributes, the respect and the admiration, those who are not Man United supporters can be forgiven for having walked to work with a little spring in their step this morning. The headline news of Sir Alex Ferguson’s impending retirement is tinged with sadness, of course, but there is a hint of relief that the competitive field in English football has been levelled a little. The man who accumulated trophies like a schoolboy collecting stickers has departed, and thus the veneer of invincibility at Old Trafford may just be starting to crack. That ought to bring at least a smile to all those non-United fans who grew up in the long shadow of Ferguson’s 90s, when at times the repetition of the club’s success could feel like a never-ending slap in the face. In that decade alone, Ferguson won half of the championships on offer, finishing outside the top two only once. That regularity became synonymous with the United manager and helped cast him as a robotic, inhuman, figure. It was as if, in order to understand his heightened single-mindedness, we ascribed to him the qualities of some sort of Iron Man. A humble human being, we thought, wasn’t capable of such achievements. This explains the fascination with the man behind the myth in recent years. An interview with, of all people, DJ Spoony, was remarkable for its portrayal of Fergie as the ordinary bloke, the playful grandfather, the raconteur, the Spotify enthusiast. And it reveals why the stream of eulogies written this week have featured many a yarn of the compassionate side, which lurked behind the iron will. Since it seems a week for sharing personal encounters with Ferguson, this writer might as well dive in. A couple of years ago, covering a youth football tournament at United’s Carrington training complex, I was granted access, along with a New Zealand sports writer I’d been travelling with, to the manager’s weekly press conference. While I quietly observed, partially paralysed by the enormity of the occas…

Formula 1 2013 driver profile: Max Chilton
type: item
date: 2013-03-26T08:30:00.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: Formula-1
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: The youngest driver in the field has to keep his mind on the track and avoid any distractions in his debut season.
encoded: Team: Marussia Nationality: British Birth date: 21/04/1991 First F1 race: Australian Grand Prix, 2013 2012 points: N/A 2012 best finish: N/A 2012 championship position: N/A He looks like he could easily be the sixth member of One Direction and perhaps that’s apt as his career trajectory so far has gone singularly upwards, and at breakneck speed. In fact, if there was an official fast-track Formula One scheme it would have trouble keeping up with the 21-year-old from Reigate. Karting as a 10-year-old, Max graduated to T Car racing by the age of 14, moved onto Formula 3 at 16, made his Formula 2 debut at 18, was test driving F1 cars by 20 and now takes his place as the youngest Formula 1 driver this season. If that’s a breathless sentence to read, just imagine having lived it. Chilton’s progress has been well and truly whirlwind but, for the moment at least, his feet seem firmly on the ground. His youthful enthusiasm for motor-racing shines through whenever he talks about his debut season; from recalling those Sunday afternoons planted in front of the BBC F1 coverage as a boy to imagining the chance to race alongside some of his heroes. It will be a battle for him to stay true to that innocence though. He’s already been a victim of the Daily Mail paps, on a beach holiday with girlfriend Chloe Roberts this year, and you can bet the interest in him will be on an exponential upward curve throughout the season. The key thing for Chilton is to make sure his finishing positions do the same thing and that his head isn’t turned by all the publicity. 2013 predictions: “I’m obviously still learning plenty of things, but it’s going really well and I’m happy. I’ve had to up my fitness, these are a lot longer races than what I’m used to in GP2, so that’s the hardest bit.” Did you know? Max's Dad is vice-chairman of insurance firm Aon and helps to fund his brother Tom's World Touring Car Championship team.

Formula 1 2013 driver profile: Valtteri Bottas
type: item
date: 2013-03-26T08:30:00.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: Formula-1
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: The ice-cool Finn is hoping to follow in the footsteps of his boyhood hero Mika Hakkinen in his debut season
encoded: Team: Williams Nationality: Finnish Birth date: 28/08/1989 First F1 race: Australian Grand Prix, 2013 2012 points: NA 2012 best finish: NA 2012 championship position: NA It might be a cliché to describe a Scandinavian as coolheaded, but all stereotypes are grounded in a certain truth and Bottas exudes a calmness that, one suspects, will serve him well in his debut season. Having taken part in 15 Friday practise sessions with Williams last season, the 23-year-old from Nostosia, in southern Finland, should know his way around a Formula 1 car by now. That familiarity, coupled with an extraordinary single-mindedness, might just give him the edge over his fellow rookies in the paddock. That’s probably why he feels confident enough to assert that 2013 will be a season not just for development, but one in which he will also rack up “a lot of points for the team.” That will be a tall order for Bottas but for a man who’s been racing in some form or another since he was six years old, you wouldn’t bet against him. Since those early karting days, Bottas has matured into a skilled driver who, in 2010, became the first man ever to win two Formula 3 Masters titles. His boyhood hero is compatriot and two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen, and it’s safe to assume the legendary Finn would be impressed with his countrymen’s poise and determination. It’s unlikely that 2013 will be the year that Finland delivers a fifth world champion in Formula One, but rule out the ice-cool Bottas for future glory at your peril. 2013 predictions: “Frank (Williams) has told me to feel my way in and not feel pressure. But I want to deliver the points immediately. There are so many drivers who want to get into F1. So, if you don’t do well, they will find someone who does.” Did you know? Bottas is going out with Finnish swimmer Emilia Pikkarainen who competed at the London Olympics but sadly failed to make it out of any of her heats. Follow @ValtteriBottas

As Michael Owen retires let's remember the good times
type: item
date: 2013-03-19T17:26:58.000Z
subject: Football
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: Rather than dwelling on the former England player’s injury-hit twilight years, we owe it to Owen to remember those exhilarating international nights
encoded: There’s a joke doing the rounds regarding today’s announcement that Michael Owen will retire from football at the end of the season. As the line goes: “I thought he’d retired three years ago. Those engaged in this kind of schadenfreude clearly have short memories. Certainly Owen was a player who became marginalised in his twilight years at Manchester United and, now, Stoke City. In the end he became a victim of his own style, which cruelly went out of fashion. As defences moved ever deeper - thanks to continued tweaking of the offside rule - and the two-man strikeforce became all but obsolete, Owen’s off-the-shoulder approach to goalscoring grew more or less redundant. His greatest strength was always finding that elusive yard of space in which to tuck away a trademark finish. Eventually, the space closed in on him and the goals, inevitably, dried up. But to dwell on this coda of Owen’s career would be to do a disservice to one of England’s greatest ever goalscorers. Far better to remember him for those exhilarating moments when he had a nation – and it was for England that he reached his most thrilling heights – not so much on the edge of its seat as collectively jumping up and down in their own living rooms. That incredible, impish sashay through the heart of an experienced Argentina defence in 1998 was the first genuinely world-class goal England supporters had witnessed in a generation. The country seemed to take a collective sigh of anxiety, as Owen nipped the ball away from Paul Scholes’ toe to clip a shot back across goal. We needn’t have worried. The finish nestled beautifully in the top corner and the 18-year-old with the schoolboy smile and the coolest of heads had arrived on the world stage. Elsewhere, there was the exquisite, quick-as-a-flash flick and finish against Brazil at Wembley in 2000. In two touches, and what felt like one seamless movement, Owen flummoxed Roberto Carlos, no less, with a world-class drag-back, before arrowing a smart finish into…

Champions League: Manchester United v Real Madrid preview - "Tonight will be special"
type: item
date: 2013-03-05T12:58:00.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: Football
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: The second-leg last-16 clash between the two European giants is one to savour, says Ed Bearryman
encoded: Forget the diving, the feigned injuries, the imaginary cards waved at beleaguered officials. Forget failed takeovers and ruinous management. Forget administration and agent fees and financial doping. Forget the eye-gouging, the ref-hounding, the tribal myopia. Forget the corruption, the largesse, the detachment from reality. Forget it all. Tonight is a night for football. Just football. Please drop off your pessimism at the front gate, leave your suspicion on the doorstep. Tonight, as Jose Mourinho observed in his press conference at Old Trafford yesterday, the world stands still for the denoument to a Champions League last-16 tie rich in romance and pedigree. Manchester United and Real Madrid share 51 league titles and 12 Champions League trophies between them, but the gravitas of this fixture is about much more than the acquisition of mere silverware. Both clubs have an identity, a legend, which can light up the whole of Europe with a charge of delicious electricity. They both play the game according to those romantic ideals of daring to entertain. And, tonight, there is a sense that we are guaranteed entertainment and the highest of drama. We've been here before, of course. In 2003 when United were insouciantly swept aside by three strikes of another Ronaldo's boot, in front of a disbelieving and appreciative Old Trafford crowd. And before that in 2000, when Fernando Redondo and all-time Champions League leading scorer Raul authored another devastating ambush on their travels. There were flickers of brilliance in red across those two ties, too. David Beckham’s dash-and-swerve run and finish in 2003, for instance, stands out as one of the few occasions he ever managed, or needed, to beat a man to score. But tonight the pair meet again on a more equal footing. United are unbeaten in 18 matches, Real have one defeat in 17. United lead the championship by 12 points, while Real are fresh from inflicting a double-blow – in cup and league, respectively – against their s…

Gareth Bale's attitude, as well as his ability, sets him apart from players like David Bentley
type: item
date: 2013-02-27T16:37:00.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: Football
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: The Spurs midfielder's former team-mate used to make fun of him - now Bentley's anonymous and Bale is setting the Premier League alight, says Ed Bearryman
encoded: As little as three years ago, Gareth Bale’s career was the subject of ridicule in the Spurs dressing room. His standing was such that then team-mate David Bentley felt at ease lampooning him for a freak run, which saw Bale go through his first 24 games as a Spurs player without a single victory. “There were one or two laughing about it,” Bale told Match of the Day magazine at the time. “David Bentley was probably one of them. He likes chirping up quite a lot.” They’re not laughing now, and nobody’s heard a chirp out of Bentley for quite some time. Bale’s recent form has, quite rightly, earned him the status of the Premier League’s foremost player. Bentley’s journey in the opposite direction serves to highlight the magnitude of that achievement. Since that interview in August 2010, Bentley has lurched through loan spells with Birmingham, West Ham and Blackburn without so much as a single league goal to show for them. On the other hand, Bale’s goals are now so regular, and so spectacular, it’s as if the narrative of this Premier League season has been taken over by his very own cartoon scriptwriters. It is Bale’s attitude that sets him apart from Bentley, as much as his ability. Bentley was a talented and coveted youngster, he even drew comparisons with Dennis Bergkamp in his formative years. But in the end his was a depressing deterioration based on an inability to take the game seriously. Bentley’s two most high-profile moments in English football in the last five years – tipping a bucket of water over Harry Redknapp’s head and gyrating behind a Sky Sports News presenter during a live broadcast – bear that out. Bale will not be sidetracked so easily. There’s a ferocious single-mindedness about him which has been evident in each of his last eight goals, scored in just six games. It’s as if a switch flicks inside his head and he decides: ‘OK, enough is enough. It’s time for me to win this game.’ To think it, however, is one thing, to do it quite another. And Bale just…

Ailing Arsenal need a management transplant - Arsene Wenger for Jose Mourinho
type: item
date: 2013-02-20T15:09:00.000Z
creator: Ed Bearryman
subject: Football
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: The Frenchman has lost his ability to turn promising youngsters into winners, says Ed Bearryman - the "abrasive, direct and dirty" Portuguese is the answer
encoded: Arsenal are in terminal decline. Their moribund performance against Bayern Munich this week wasn't a minor health scare. It was the symptom of an illness that reaches back eight years into a traumatic and desolate past. It's time for a surgical solution: Arsene Wenger must be removed. It's absolutely true that the Frenchman has chalked up an incredible list of achievements as Arsenal manager and, as Gordon Strachan asserted on ITV last night, the English game has benefited hugely since his arrival 16 years ago. But those facts are historical and completely irrelevant to Arsenal's current plight. Wenger has patently lost the ability to turn promising youngsters into a collection of winners, and without the resources of his peers this makes him a liability, not an asset, in the modern game. Wenger is very fond of referencing his team's 'mentality' as a way out of yet another crisis. He's the only man in the world who can't see that 'mentality' as part of the problem. Asked in a recent Football Focus interview what would happen if he went three seasons without a trophy, Sir Alex Ferguson could barely hide his disgust. It simply wouldn't happen, he insisted. Players see this authority from Ferguson every day on the training ground. It nurtures a ferocious determination which can take an unremarkable team to three Champions League finals in four years. By the same token it's fair to assume the tetchiness, insecurity and lack of control Wenger displayed in his press conference meltdown on Monday has infected proceedings at London Colney. When that happens, the lost confidence of a dressing room is more often than not irretrievable. Of course the manner of his departure will have to be managed carefully. In a game short on sentiment and decency, Wenger's achievements still deserve a dignified exit strategy. Perhaps an ambassadorial role similar to the one Bobby Charlton holds at United, or indeed Franz Beckenbauer at Bayern. But a warring board must unite and make the deci…