African Adventure

Uganda have long lived in the shadow of their more illustrious West African counterparts but the past 18 months have seen The Cranes begin to emerge from the football wilderness.

The man many hold responsible for their transformation is former Kilmarnock and Hibernian boss Bobby Williamson.

The Scot took charge in August 2008, replacing the Hearts bound Csaba Laszlo, and is slowly starting to change the mindset of players and fans alike in the East African country.

Having gained independence from Britain in 1962 Uganda have the unwanted distinction of having never qualified for a single World Cup finals while their last appearance at the African Nations Cup was way back in 1978.

Unsurprisingly Williamson was, at first, hesitant about taking the job, prior to the Scot’s arrival Uganda had failed to win away from home in seven years, but decided to take the plunge after exploring the country first hand.

“I had just left Chester City and prior to that I had been on gardening leave at Plymouth which kept me unemployed for seven months and at the end of the day people had forgotten about me,” he said.

“I knew this job was available and I got my agent on to it and I came over for an interview. Initially I turned the job down because I didn’t think I could settle here but after my flight home was delayed and I had to stay another night I decided to have a better look around. The weather was great, it was a nice climate, the people were friendly and once I thought about it I decided I would give it a go and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Despite losing his first game 3-1 to Niger - a result which saw Uganda miss out on a place at this year’s African Nations Cup to Angola on goal difference and also ending their hopes of making the World Cup in South Africa – Williamson soon began to build on the foundations laid by Laszlo by leading his youthful side to 13 wins in 14 matches with a 2-1 friendly reverse to Ghana 12 months ago their only other defeat.

“It was a big blow,” Williamson says of the Niger result. “I think these guys would have done well because I have seen other countries who have qualified who we had already beaten in friendly matches and beaten in CECAFA (Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations) matches and I think we could have graced it but it wasn’t to be and I am disappointed for the Ugandan players and the Ugandan people because I really believed we could do well in these tournaments.”

Williamson plays down his role in transforming the team’s fortunes on the pitch and insists that the players already possessed the ability and the will to learn needed in order to succeed.

High standard

“I have a big squad of local based players who are all doing well for each other and it is a joy to work with them,” he stated.

“I think they are of a very good standard. They play under difficult circumstances with the football pitches, the balls, and the equipment, everything is poor but they work hard, they don’t complain they are trying to improve which is very good.

“All they lacked was organisation on the park, where to pass to, where to run to. They all just played in their individual world but we are playing as a team now and we are organised and very hard to beat so it is all going well for the future.”

The 48-year-old Glaswegian has also captured the hearts of the locals, Williamson admits that he was “nearly carried off the park” following a recent 4-0 win over Burundi but at the same time he is all too aware that with success comes greater expectation.

“The fans have been fantastic, they are great people, they are always shouting encouragement and the players have responded to that,” he highlighted.

“You have to remember it has been 30 years since they have qualified for a major tournament, I have inspired them and the expectation is getting higher.

“We never won an away match for seven years until we went to Sudan last year and we beat them and then we beat Tanzania away and drew with Burundi. We won five out of the six games and drew the other one last year so the mentality is changing. We believe now that we can go away and win football matches. After the draw with Burundi people were actually complaining that we should have won the game but that’s just people’s nature.”

Frustratingly for Williamson despite the national team making giant strides forward on the field off it locals are still more interested in the English Premier League rather than their own domestic Ugandan Super League.

“My biggest bugbear is that the local people would rather watch the English Premier League than the local football over here and that disappoints me,” he pointed out.

“We get the English games on television over here on Saturday night. People in England don’t realise how passionate these guys are about the Premier League’s top sides. They run about the place when a team scores and they have never been to England let alone a live match in England. It is maniacal.

Entertained

“I enjoy the local league, there is talent there but it is not very well supported and not many people turn out to watch it. I do believe they could be entertained if they went along and they would enjoy it. It is difficult, even the press don’t write too much about the local football and it is difficult to find the scores or when a game is actually taking place. They would rather talk about the Manchester United’s, Arsenals and Chelsea’s as well.”

“I am working towards trying to change that but it is very, very difficult.”

Despite suffering heartache in the World Cup qualifiers Williamson insists he is in it for the long haul and has already sat down with FUFA (Federation of Uganda Football Association) over extending his stay.

“We are talking with FUFA just now but it is a long process. I am enjoying working with these players they are very responsive and respectful and they want to be successful and they make my job easier,” he added.

“It has certainly been different. It has broadened my horizons, I have seen a lot of Africa now and it has been fantastic for me. I have no designs to go anywhere else, I would like to continue here but we will have to see.

“It would need to be a very good offer from a club to make me leave this climate and working conditions. I don’t even know if I want to go back into the day-to-day running of club football. I don’t miss much of it at all really I am too engrossed in what I am trying to achieve here.”

With his squad boasting a relatively young average age of 26 Williamson certainly has the time to mould a side that can one day compete with the giants of African football.

Glossop Away Days

What do you do when your local football team is playing an away match some 40 miles away? Well if you are one of a number of hard core Glossop North End supporters the answer is to go and support your team, as was the case when The Hillmen travelled to Bacup Borough for a VodKat Premier League match in late February.

On a bitterly cold Saturday afternoon with the strong wind getting stronger the players are out on the pitch warming up. So far the crowd is non-existent as both sets of players go through their pre-match rituals. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised as areas of the ground have already been cornered off to hint that maybe a large crowd isn’t expected.

As the players descend back into the small changing rooms for their final preparations and a fight for the tape the crowd slowly begins to grow. Surprisingly the majority of fans slipping through the turnstiles are wearing the Glossop colours of blue and red.

Glossop’s away following comes as an even bigger surprise after inspection of the club’s away form this season which can, at best, be described as patchy with just five wins from 13 games in the league. As the crowd await the two teams Glossop

Assistant Manager Terry Hinks is clearing away the bibs and cones from the warm-up and tries to put his finger on the problem. “At the start of the season we played quite a few away games which we lost and our confidence got lower. Funnily enough I think the away form improved when we started to play more home games which we won and from there the confidence grew and we took this into away games.”

Three wins from their last four league away games would appear to support Hink’s view.

Glossop Director Adrian Priestly was one of the people who made the trip and explains why he made the effort: “First and foremost I would say I am a supporter before a director. When the team play at home I have a lot of responsibility and chores. I have to watch when the balls fly out of the ground things like that so when I go away I can enjoy it a lot more and I love the away games.”


Adrian moved to Glossop in 1980 and his affiliation with the club began very soon after: “The day after we moved in I went to find Glossop North End Football Club. I watched on and off as at this point as I still had my season ticket with Man City but about 10 or 11 years ago I was asked to be a Director. I got involved with various fund raising committees and was asked by the then Chairman do I want to become a Director.”

Support

As the players line-up in the tunnel the managers take their respective places in the dug-outs. As assistant manager Hinks takes his seat he doesn’t seem surprised with the Glossop following. “We had a great turn-out a few weeks ago away at St Helens and the support through-out that game was fantastic. It boosts me and Steve (Young, Manager) when we see our away fans outnumber the home section so the effect it has on the players must be top drawer.”
As the game kicks off it seems the adverse weather conditions have caused many locals to stay away with the official attendance standing at 57. As Adrian explains, the blustery conditions nearly made him think twice about even getting out of his car.

“It’s definitely a bit bleak, not so much the football the fact that the weather was perishing.” He laughs. “We looked at the temperature and it read 12 degrees outside when we got out of the car but when we got into the stand it must have dropped considerably the wind was whipping down off the moors, we were absolutely freezing.”

If the conditions were causing havoc in the stands they were causing mayhem on the pitch. After a sloppy start from the visitors, as they struggled to keep their footing
on an incredibly soft pitch the home side took an early lead. The travelling fans were soon rewarded for their efforts and as the whistle went for half time North End had a
2-1 lead.

As the clouds above grew greyer making the moors surrounding the ground even more daunting the game remained a tight affair. It wasn’t until the 74th minute that the travelling fans could rest easy as Glossop striker Kieran Lugsden put the visitors 3-1 up. That was the way it stayed and as the referee blew his final whistle the Glossop players applauded the travelling fans efforts as they trudged off a by now extremely heavy pitch.

Deserved drink

Before heading off to his local ‘The Friendship’ back in Glossop, where locals wait for updates on North End games Priestly adds his assessment of the game. “I thought it would be tough and it was but we hoped to win and we did although it was a bit harder than we thought. I thought the support was fantastic yet again as it has been all season.”

Hinks agrees: “As a player when you can hear your own supporters making more noise than the home fans when you score its fantastic and it makes it like a home game for us.” Adding, “This game shows how far we’ve come. We didn’t play that well but we got a result.”

Just as the floodlights go out on the Bacup ground Hinks makes one more point. “Around Glossop everyone has been coming up to the players and myself and Steve and wishing us look and saying they have not seen the club perform this well for the past 10 years.”

Praise indeed. With an even longer trip to Silsden still to come in March on today’s evidence you would be a fool to bet against the North End faithful from turning out in their droves.

Jesper Blomqvist

When Manchester United were drawn against AC Milan in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League all attention focused on David Beckham’s impending return to Old Trafford - but there was another ex-Red who had one foot in either camp.

Jesper Blomqvist only enjoyed one full season at both Milan and United but still has strong ties to both clubs.

Despite an all too brief spell at the Theatre of Dreams the now 36-year-old still managed to play an integral part as United won an astonishing treble in 1998/99 while his short, and often frustrating, spell at the San Siro still brings back fond memories.

The Swedish winger first came on the radar after almost single handedly putting Sir Alex Ferguson’s men to the sword as IFK Goteborg defeated the English champions 3-1 in the group stages of the Champions League in 1994.

Goteborg would continue to defy the odds that year and topped the group ahead of United and Barcelona and were only knocked out in the quarter-final on away goals to Bayern Munich.

“I was in the form of my life,” Blomqvist recalls.

“When you are in that kind of state you do not remember much of the games. Obviously I watched it after and I felt that I could almost dribble wherever I wanted and do whatever I wanted.

“It was a lovely feeling to finish top of the group ahead of teams such as Barcelona and Manchester United.”

Blomqvist was destined for bigger things and had his heart set on a move to Milan in 1996 despite initial interest from United.

“When I first moved to Milan I knew (Sir Alex) Ferguson had an interest but I preferred Italy because I thought AC Milan were the best team in Europe at that time so I really set my goals to get a move there,” he highlighted.

“I had a one year spell there and then they changed the coach and (Fabio) Capello came in and brought in a lot of new players and I moved to Parma.

“I played another year in Parma under (Carlo) Ancelotti and then he got fired and a new coach came in. He wanted to change the system and play another way which didn’t really suit me.

“That was when Ferguson came in the picture and in quite a short time I decided to move to Manchester.”

Blomqvist was initially wary of his decision to join United with many stating he was too light-weight for the Premier League but the left-sider was soon proving his critics wrong although he wasn’t entirely satisfied with his own performances.

“The truth was that I really wanted to stay in Italy because I liked it at Parma,” he explained.

“I was still a little wary about moving to England because I was injured when I signed. After a few weeks I still wasn’t fully aware of how good we were going to be that season, you didn’t feel it straight away where you thought ‘This is going to be the year’.

Famous faces

“We had signed Jaap Stam and Dwight Yorke as well and they were so famous before they moved to United but they both became really, really great signings and we had some other players who took some really big steps that year.

“I played a lot of games but I still wasn’t too happy because I had a lot of small injury problems every now and then, I never got the chance to play for three months in a row and pick up the form I had at Goteborg for example.

“I felt like I would play well for a few weeks and then get injured and then I would have to regain my form and my mental belief.

“It was a little bit up and down but I firmly felt the year after that was going to be my best year because I had already been there one season and I started to know the club and felt much more at ease and at home.”

Having already captured the Premier League title and the FA Cup United’s season was about to culminate in the most dramatic fashion on a sunny May evening at the Nou Camp against Bayern Munich in the final of the UEFA Champions League.

With midfielders Roy Keane and Paul Scholes unavailable through suspension Blomqvist was in the unusual position of knowing he would start against the Germans. Understandably nervous the night before the clash the former Sweden international began writing positive notes about the game ahead in his hotel room.

“It was mental exercise to calm down and to get the confidence you need to play. I really felt it was a huge game,” he remembered.

“I hadn’t played for three or four weeks so I hadn’t played in the FA Cup final and I didn’t play in the last league game against Tottenham so I wasn’t sure about my own form and that created a bit of insecurity in my own game.”

Stoppage-time goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer earned United an unforgettable 2-1 win in Barcelona but the jubilation was short lived for Blomqvist with the final proving to be his last competitive game in a United shirt.

Having picked up a knee injury during pre-season Blomqvist missed the entirety of the following 1999/00 campaign and was transferred to Everton in November 2001. Blomqvist managed 18 appearances for the Toffees before moving to Charlton a year later where his injury problems showed no signs of abating.

A short stint back home with Djurgarden materialised but the winger called time on his career in 2005 and began working as a pundit on Swedish television. However he still felt unsatisfied.

While some of his former team-mates such as Roy Keane and Roberto Donadoni seemed destined to become managers from the beginning the quiet and unassuming Blomqvist has surprised many with his chosen career path.

Despite his shy persona, Blomqvist played his entire career with his shirt sleeves nervously covering his hands, the Swede has decided to move into the cut-throat business of football management. But having played under some of the finest managers of the modern era, notably Capello, Ancelotti and Ferguson, perhaps the decision to manage should have been more expected than first thought.

“I had been working in TV in Sweden for two years before I started coaching,” Blomqvist, who is currently learning his trade in the Swedish second tier as assistant manager at Hammarby, pointed out.

“The idea of coaching began growing inside me over the last year or so. I was injured a lot and I began thinking what to do next. It woke up quite late in me, it wasn’t something I planned but it came more and more and of course you feel you have a lot of knowledge you have built up during the years in your career that you want to try and pass on.

Learn from mistakes

“You try and take little bits (from each manager) but you still have to try it out in practice and learn for yourself.

“You learn from your mistakes and it takes time too, that’s my biggest experience so far. It is hard work and it is going to take time to become a good coach.

“At the moment I am really enjoying it. Hammarby are a big club in Sweden even if it is the First Division. You soon realise that when you get into coaching and management that it is really difficult.

“There are a lot of things to work on and think about, there are so many different aspects of it and you have to be good at them all but of course it is good to gain experience.”

Having reached the highest level during his playing career Blomqvist is keen to rise to the top in management but for now he is more than happy to cut his teeth in Sweden.

“When you look at all the big coaches in the UEFA Champions League today they all started at the bottom. It is hard work. Maybe you can only find a few in the top leagues in Europe that started at the top, all the others work hard for 10 years and then you start to find the keys to solve certain situations, how you want to shape and create your team, what your philosophy about leadership and management is,” he stated.

“So it is really about experience and again that is about hard work and really taking a lot of time to gain that experience.

“I will keep trying to improve where I am now and for me it is a great challenge to work here and that is enough for me at the moment. But someday you have the dreams to be at the highest level.”

Jerez Industrial

Jerez Industrial CF are hardly a house hold name in Spain let alone England but the Segunda Division B side have recently hit the headlines thanks to an agreement with the Glenn Hoddle Academy.

Struggling financially and propping up Spain’s third tier Jerez approached Hoddle in January in the hope of loaning a number of the Academy’s players until the end of the season.

“Because the Academy is based in Jerez and the fact that Industrial were in a bit of disarray financially with players not getting paid and some leaving in January as a result someone from the club and a member of the local council got in touch with Glenn,” explained Academy coach and former Chelsea and Liverpool midfielder Nigel Spackman.

“Glenn agreed to negotiate with them about which players they wanted because the coach had actually seen some of the players train over the past year or so.

“The players are all on loan because we are not a club so they are not attached to anybody but they are there until the end of the season to try and help the club out.”

Nick Beasant, Pierre Hall, Michael Noone, Matthew Richards, Nathan Woolfe and Curtley Williams were the lucky six selected with former Academy stars Chris Fagan and David Cowley joining them on loan from Lincoln and Recreativo Huelva respectively.

The eight Brits have certainly had an impact with Jerez, now affectionately dubbed ‘Los Ingleses’, with the club having moved off the bottom of the table and currently sitting just seven points from safety.

“I got told when I came on loan that the club was struggling, they were rock bottom of the league and they weren’t winning games,” highlights 21-year-old Cowley who, following a year training at the Academy signed a two-year deal with Recreativo last summer.

“I was actually close to making my debut with Recreativo and then the manager got the sack. Obviously I have got to show the new manager what I am about and I decided to go on loan to play games in front of big crowds and gain experience of playing competitive games in Spain.

“We have been here for six games and we have won three and lost three. The games which we have lost we were unlucky. We could have been right up there but now we are right amongst it but we still have a fighting chance to make safety.”

Banter

Striker Woolfe, 21, signed for the Academy in October after his release from Bolton last summer and admits that his new Spanish team-mates and the fans have helped all the loanees feel at home.

“I think all the lads are of a good standard and the other players realise that and they have been fine with us. The banter is good, the camaraderie is good, we even have BBQs after training and we have been for meals together so they are all good lads and they have made us feel welcome,” he said.

“As for the fans they actually love us to be fair. They are all good with us and they bring down flags like an English one, a Scottish one and at the last game they brought an Irish one for Fagan so he’s not left out. Overall I think everyone is pleased with all the British lads that are here.”

Despite his club still occupying a perilous position in the drop zone Jerez Chairman Juan Manuel Delgado is delighted with the impact the eight young Brits have had at the Estadio de la Juventud – aptly translated to ‘Stadium of Youth’.

“They are all very good players,” he stated. “We are very grateful to the Glenn Hoddle Academy for the loan of these players as we need good players.

“Now when we play we get more people coming to watch our matches because our supporters like the English players and at all the matches the Union Jack is in our stands.

“Football is a universal language they all play together the Spanish players can’t speak English but they understand each other on the pitch.”

Experience

Even if Jerez do succumb to the drop this term Spackman insists the lessons learned will be invaluable if the Academy stars are to permanently get themselves back into the game.

“They played Granada last week, one of the top sides, which is a 35,000 capacity stadium, they lost 4-1 but they have the experience of playing in front of a big crowd against a team who are second in the league. It can only whet their appetite and make them work harder to want this sort of thing week in week out,” he pointed out.

“I think the lads have all coped well together. It is a growing up process as well. It’s a learning process for the lads at the Academy. Rather than training with us everyday and playing friendly games they are training everyday and competing for a place in the team at the weekend.

“If they stay up then that’s fantastic and you never know the club might want to sign some of the players or they can put themselves in the shop window because all the Spanish clubs will be sending scouts to the games as Sevilla B play in the same league along with Betis B. It can only enhance their reputation and enhance their chances of getting back into the game at an even higher level.”

Cup Magic

England manager Steve Mclaren will tonight be sweating over whether six of his first teamers come through their respective F.A cup replays unscathed ahead of England's crucial European Championship qualifier away to Israel this Saturday.

After drawing the original games Manchester United, Middlesborough, Chelsea and Tottenham will all do battle for a second time tonight with Boro travelling to Old Trafford and Chelsea to make the short trip to White Hart Lane.

Six of Mclaren's first choice 11 look set for action tonight as captain John Terry and Frank Lampard line up against Goalkeeper Paul Robinson and winger Aaron Lennon while Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney could figure against Boro.

If both replays are anything like the first games then we are in for two cracking games of football. Boro manager Gareth Southgate has shown that he means business after resting Jonathon Woodgate and Mark Viduka at the weekend.

Meanwhile Sir Alex has today said he will use the fringe players in tonight's encounter and show confidence in his whole squad. Sir Alex has stated that the cup is high on his agenda as a second treble remains on the cards.

Spurs will be looking to make it second time lucky against Chelsea after leading 3-1 for long periods at the Bridge. Spurs seemed in control and only looked vulnerable when Martin Jol took off instrumental striker Berbatov and live wire winger Aaron Lennon.

It seems hard to look beyond United and Chelsea getting through but if the games are anything like the first ties then football is surely the winner although Steve Mclaren may not agree.

Wembley

The home of football is finally ready, so the powers that be tell us. Multiplex the firm who have, putting it bluntly messed-up over the whole stadium fiasco have finally handed the keys for the stadium over to Mr Barwick and his fellow chums at the F.A.

The stadium has taken an astonishing SIX years to complete plunging the F.A into billions of pounds worth of debt, compare this to Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium, finished and ready to play in within a year and you get the drift.

With England underperforming in ALL THREE major tournaments during the six years the fans patience has been pushed to the brink culminating in one big public consensus of, "This better be one hell of a stadium."

Both the F.A and Multiplex seem to be making all the right noises for now, the new Wembley seems set to host the 2007 F.A Cup Final giving this years competition an extra edge. Its seems that everyone is expecting a flash finale at the new home of football.

But maybe the the bigwigs of the F.A are not telling us something, for one, the F.A have pre-booked The Millennium Stadium in case by some un-beknown reason the new Wembley is not ready yet again.

Secondly I have a little insight into what is going on behind the scenes at this present moment. The F.A have led us to believe that the finishing touches are in place, the final lick of paint getting applied as we speak. This couldn't be further from the truth.

My brother was fortunate enough to win a competition which enabled him and four of his mates to be the first people to grace the hallowed turf when he asked a man with "Supervisor" on his jacket he asked, "So mate, will the stadium be finished in time for this year." his reply...... a raucous laugh.

Read into it what you will, but better book the hotel in Cardiff, just in case.

Formation's

If players at the top of the game are really that good then it begs the question do formations matter? If a player is so technically skilled then surely they should be able to play in a number of positions and any type of system. An argument against this theory would be Manchester United.

The Red's are considered alongside Arsenal as the most entertaining team to watch in the Barclays Premiership having scored more goals than any other team.

Fans are left spell bound at the sides slick passing and fast counter attacking football. Domestically United line up in the traditional 4-4-2 formation but in the Champions League it is a different story.

A few years ago Sir Alex Ferguson came out with the statement that United were too easy to figure out in Europe so he decided to change the way the team play.

Ferguson experimented with 4-5-1 or how he described 4-3-3. The system failed to make an impact and the striker at the time Ruud Van Nistelrooy cut a lonesome figure upfront on his own as the teams fluidity disappeared in an instant.

Even though the system has failed in terms of results (this being the clubs first quarter final appearance since 2003 in the Champions League) Ferguson persists on this more conservative 4-5-1 formation on the continent.

With only one position available upfront Wayne Rooney has found himself stuck out on the left or right wing tracking back whenever the opposition has the ball. Surely Sir Alex is doing his opponents a favour as one of the sides most creative players has to spend as much time in the his own half as he does in the oppositions.

Rooney clearly does not relish this role but he does it for the team. It is even more frustrating when people criticise his goal record in the competition, surely a little common sense should prevail. Rooney has only played in his favoured strikers position a handful of times in the competition.

Maybe its time for Sir Alex to listen to the fans and play with the attacking 4-4-2 style that has seen us destroy teams in the Premiership after all how can one of the most entertaining teams domestically come over all Jekyll and Hyde and become so boring in Europe.