Hall on the Ball!
Elsewhere in this month’s edition of taxi talk you will see an advert for a charity football match which I hope as many as possible of you will attend to witness some scintillating football by many ex-semi professional footballers all in the name of raising money for this year’s charity, Bone Cancer Research Trust. I had a meeting with the very kind people at West Ham United and they are also allowing the Legends Bar to open until 1:30am! Plus if you want to stay in the hotel, you can book a double room for £75 and this will include a breakfast so there’s no excuse if you live anywhere up near Liverpool!
Wayne ‘The Special One’ Taylor!
One of the cab drivers that will be strutting his stuff at Upton Park will be London taxi driver Wayne Taylor. Wayne is one of those likeable chaps who has played for Fairway Vets over the last few years and always plays with his heart on his sleeve. Wayne contacted Stephen Powell, the Fairway Vets supremo, and asked if he could loan Fairway’s kit for a football tournament that his son was taking part in. Stephen’s only stipulation was that the kit comes back all washed and no socks missing!
To be honest, the Fairway Vets squad is starting to grow old gracefully and it’s nice that the name ‘Fairway’ will live on in the form of a youth team. So with a freshly cleaned kit, an untried youth team going under the name of Fairway Colts, a bucket and sponge and a coaching manual I gave him, Wayne ‘The Special One’ Taylor headed off to the Camber Sands Football Tournament that was taking place there over the Easter Weekend.
Twelve teams entered this under 16’s tournament and they were split into two groups of six and would play each other over the weekend. As fortune had it, Fairway Colts were in a different group to the Tournament favourites, Eaton Manor, and ‘The Special One’ saw this as a fantastic chance to take home some silverware instead of the usual cutlery that goes missing on these sorts of trips! Fairway won all their group matches after conceding only 2 goals and now faced their
of swagger that Liverpool had in that FA Cup
‘The Special One’ had a plan.
Sands Under 16’s Tournament and the bleary eyed Taylor had his team up nice and early, fully prepared and looking the part in their matching rain jackets that were kindly sponsored by Nick Rolls of E1 Car Colours. Wayne knew that this was going to be his toughest managerial task as his opponents, Eaton Manor, had not been beaten in an unbelievable 45 games! ‘The
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Special One’ paced the touchline and thumbed his coaching manual through tired eyes then the incredible happened...GOOOOOOOOAAAAAL! Fairway score and Wayne went sprinting down the touchline and slid for 20 yards on his knees to celebrate the opening goal in front of other happy and jubilant mums and dads. Wayne was now keeping a ‘Fergie style’ eye on the time that was left to play but he needn’t have worried because Fairway went 2-0 up which clinched
the huge trophy was presented by Steve Claridge the former Leicester City, Portsmouth, Millwall, Birmingham City and Wolverhampton Wanderers player.This will be an Easter weekend that the Fairway Colts team and their family and friends will always remember as they celebrated into the night and this will probably give Wayne the appetite to further his career in management. Congratulations Wayne and well done!
Will Glenn Hoddle save our future
Rooneys?
You’ve often read me banging on about the lack of home-grown players turning out for Arsenal, Liverpool and countless other football teams that use foreign players instead of the ‘home-grown’ variety but what does happen to the youth academy boys who are just ‘let go’ to join the ranks of the unemployed? Maybe they
or work at a local health centre helping 50 something’s like me to lose a few pounds! Or the other option is jump on an airplane with a pair of football boots and head for Spain!
If you ever wondered what happened to that protégé you had in your clubs youth academy then maybe you should look to the Spanish league and check on the progress of Jerez Industrial. Ok, it’s not Real Madrid, but this third division side has six British players and two Irishmen in its squad which has earned them the title of ‘Los Ingleses’ and they have been instrumental to Jerez Industrials fortunes this season where home crowds can reach over 8,000. ‘How and why’ as to these Brits ended up here is down to Glenn Hoddle, the former
the Jerez players have all come through Glenn’s football academy based in southern Spain which assists players that have been given the big ‘E’ by clubs in England and he helps them resurrect their careers. Hoddle makes it very clear from the start that they have to work extremely hard and to grasp the opportunity that he will give them. One such player to come through Hoddle’s system is Chris Fagan, a striker who spent 2 years at Manchester United and has even played for the Republic of Ireland’s under-21’s. Chris is on loan from Lincoln City and who enjoyed his time under Glenn’s eye and mentioned he learned a lot
from Sir Alex Ferguson but is honest when he declares that he has made a lot of progress under Glenn Hoddle. Personally I rate Hoddle extremely highly when it comes to coaching football and he needs to be fetched home from his holiday home in Spain and put to work to try and resurrect the careers of British players in this country of ours before it’s too late. As we are only weeks away from the 2010 world Cup in South Africa I’ll leave you with the words of
“We must consider the damage being done to our national side, or England will be lost to World football”. Wise words from a wise man.
Hoddle at his academy in Spain
Where have all the ‘Hoddles’ gone?
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